Sunday, May 8, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Tangled
Just got back from the movies. I had to forcefully untangle myself from Tangled. The movie is that awesome! It really was worth the wait. :D
Sometimes, I get the strangest story ideas when I'm on a bus...
Yesterday, I was thinking how I missed writing short stories. I wanted to continue writing Strings, this short story about a group of friends who tries to solve a murder in school by summoning the victim's ghost.
Pretty simple story actually. I already had the plot outlined, beginning to end; only thing that's missing is me rolling up my imaginary long sleeves, nudging my lazy ass to get a move on and start typing.
I think I lost that outline somewhere, though.
So I was on the bus at 5am, on my way to work and thought speculative fiction's looking pretty good, genre-wise. I can let my imagination run wild, naked and wielding a knife, ready to cut down the grounded, practical side that's holding me back.
I thought about superheroes. What if there's a story about a girl, this really pretty girl who turns into a superhero (superheroine, whatever) when she has her monthly period. She gets her powers from her magical sanitary napkin, which only works its magic when it absorbs the girl's blood. (At this point, I started to wonder how my mind got to menstruation; that's a REALLY LONG WAY from superheroes).
Anyway, the girl puts on her very-used magic napkin (with wings, so she could have the power to fly) and saves the world from the baddies. But there's a slight problem: she loses her powers when she stopped menstruating. The powers return only after she started having 'that time of the month' again.
And there's my story idea. I probably won't write it though.
Now I'm looking forward for tomorrow's bus ride. Maybe I'll get another one of these ideas. They pop up when you least expect it. :D
02/04/11 A lot happened last month...
- Inilipat-lipat ako ng project sa office. Wala na kasing masyadong ginagawa kasi next next month pa ulit (siguro) magsisimula ang cycle. Anyway, ang saya gumawa ng bagong entries about Psychiatrists tsaka Filipino writers. At dahil sa Writers Research (pinaghanap kami ng mga profiles ng Filipino writers thru ‘net for the project) nadiscover ko yung Trese comics ni Budjette Tan(writer) and Kajo Baldisimo (artist). I loved it instantly.
- After a lot of scrimping and saving (and borrowing from my Ate) I finally got my Nintendo DS Lite (I’ve been drooling over this ‘get since college (I don’t care if they say it’s already outdated, with the N3DS and the PSP taking over the portable gaming universe)). I bought Pokemon HeartGold along with it. It’s a happy time. I bought one mostly so I can play Pokemon Black or White when it’s finally released worldwide this March.
- Nagkaroon ng bus explosion sa may Buendia MRT. Nasa Ayala ako nung time na yun, naghihintay ng bus malapit sa Ayala MRT. I noticed that there was a lot more traffic going on than usual. I mean, it almost looked like the vehicles weren’t moving. I heard the sirens and saw two ambulances pass, parting the traffic like knife on butter. I didn’t think there was anything out of the ordinary, except for the traffic. Then this guy (probably a bus conductor) was talking to this woman on my right; I didn’t actually listen in (with music blasting through my earphones and all) but I could see that it was serious news. The woman’s face said it all. Something happened somewhere and it wasn’t good. I checked my phone and saw 2 missed calls and 2 text messages from one of my Ates asking me where I was. I didn’t reply; I’m load-broke. Then my other Ate called me (by this time, I was already in a bus headed to Fairview) and told me a bus exploded in Buendia. They were worried coz I always take the bus home and with my sched, I get off work at 2pm. I looked out the window and sure enough, that section of the highway was closed, with police officers and MMDA guys (I always think the MMDA are in the streets only for decorative purposes though) crowding around what’s left of the Newman Gold Liner bus. The next couple of days and I was a bit paranoid. I mentally say, “Oh crap” when I had to sit on the bus’s sixth row and I almost always check under the seats for any suspicious bags or luggage. I didn’t actually get down on my hands and knees to check but my eyes took it all in. We were all being extra careful.
- Now I got my sights set on Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands for the NDS. :D So…back to scrimping and saving, I guess.
- I guess that’s January. There are more interesting things that happened that month though, but i forgot most of it. These days, I easily forget. I live through the day in the most comfortable way I can and then move on. That’s either a good or bad thing. Today, it’s just good.
All good. :D
01/04/11 In Which I ‘De-Produce’ and Bought Waffles to Cheer Myself
(At my other blog, I call myself The Leaf Guy)
Today. 01/04/11.
Because I’m on the first shift (I say it over and over again) I woke up at 4am today. I didn’t get much sleep; i kept waking every other hour and checking the time on my phone, which was pretty stupid coz I set the alarm before I turned in last night.
It’d ring this annoying tone and vibrate to tell me to get my ass of bed and hop in the shower.
Which I promptly did. The water was freezing! So I looked down at my *ehem* and muttered, “Honey, I think I shrunk my ‘kids’.”
Today. 01/04/11.
The universe must’ve been on my side because it was barely 5:30 in the morning but I was already in Ayala. T’was fun. I have a little more time ‘fore work starts so I stopped by a Mini-Stop to buy my favorite flavored coffee.
We started with the DSL new entries today. Ate Lulu did the orienting. i kept yawning the entire time; not because she was as boring as watching Charice Pempengco grow (which can happen in Never), but because I was just generally sleepy.
The DSL new entries were a bitch. Seriously. I had a hard time searching the web for libraries with special collections and stuff. Checking and cross-checking our database for existing ones (so I won’t end up making duplicates of the entries) wasn’t cake too. I had to do it over and over.
Finally, ang nagawa kong new entry ngayong araw ay tumatiginting na…. (drumroll) ISANG ENTRY. Eight hours of work and I only made one. Bagsak sa production ako ngayong araw.
Shitballs.
It’s a good thing I bounce back easily. I wasn’t THAT bothered, as opposed to my officemate, Melo (who’s pretty nice but I don’t like much, I wonder why) who told me he almost cried because he was having a hard time too.
I snorted. Whatever.
Ang saya-saya nang pauwi na kasi dumating na yung mga magse-second shift. Karamihan sa kanila ay yung mga taong mas gusto ko talagang makasama—sina Ate Adel, Ate Marj tsaka Kuya Vince.
Ate Adel showed me her new haircut (with the “Dora The Explorer bangs”, as she calls it) and we all had a good laugh about it.
Finally, it was time to go.
I made the usual long trudge to Edsa. I stopped by various bookstores along the way. Books that I can’t buy yet kasi hindi pa ako nakakapag-regalo kina Ate nung Christmas pa, although they tell me it was okay. Hahaha.
I bought a bunch of waffles (I’m a glutton and it makes me happy) before I rode the bus back to QC. When I arrived at the house, I went out again to buy some chicken nuggets to fry later. Probably I’ll be eating charcoal for dinner pero okay lang.
-- The Leaf Guy
01/02/11 Haircuts and Near-Strangers
(At my other blog, I call myself The Leaf Guy)
My sisters and my aunt are all coming back tomorrow. So today, I cleaned house.
Nah, just kidding. Will I ever do that?
Well, probably. Sometimes I get this impulse which involves brooms and sweeping the place up. But that rarely happens. :D
Work starts tomorrow too, I got the 10am-6pm shift but starting Tuesday, it’s back to 6am-2pm. We had the reshuffling last week. It’s okay. I’m used to waking up at 4am now.
Today. 01/02/11.
I woke up at about half past seven in the morning. Since it was a Sunday, people had license to go old-school and play the oldies.
Bummer.
I checked my clothes and found I was running out of wearable underpants. Cool, it’s laundry time. It’s weird that even though I wasn’t actually looking forward to it, I like washing my dirty underwear.
I don’t know why. I guess I was one of those people who find housework calming. That’s why some of them clean and wipe and polish and sweep everything every day, just coz it feels good. I imagined me doing exactly that one day.
And I shook my head, “Not gonna happen”. I listen to my Shuffle while I work, so I guess that makes it bearable.
Whatever.
I found out that Ma loaded our SmartBro with enough to register to UnliSurf. I sent her a thank-you text. Then, I spent most of the morning on Tumblr fiddling with my page, downloading ET by Katy Perry andChillin’ by Wale and Lady GaGa. When it was almost 11, I took a deep breath.
Time for my haircut.
I hate haircuts. I always don’t look good after; in fact, I look downright foolish. Once, when I was in high school, I got home in tears because the haircutter didn’t do it right. I got over it but I spent two long months praying and waiting for it to grow back.
I pulled on a black T-shirt, got my wallet and ambled to the salon. I look like this before I left:
I sat on the chair in front of the big-ass mirror, waiting for it to begin. “Bawasan lang po ng konti sa gilid,” I told the haircutter.
“Ahh, so trim?” he asked and I nodded. He sprayed some water on my hair, got the sharp scissors.
Snip, snip. I looked down; I don’t like watching him work. I stared at everything but the mirror. Clumps of hair settled on the cloth they used to cover me and I winced.
In a brave moment, I snuck a peek. My heart sank. It’s so short.
I inhaled in resignation. Whatever.
Hair grows back, anyway.
Snip, snip and snip, the scissors go. I relaxed. It was actually kind of pleasant to have someone playing with my hair, I found out. I felt like a cat being scratched behind the ears. I almost purred.
The haircutter sang along to the radio while he worked. But there was something funny with the way he does it. He kept putting ‘s’ to the lyrics where it shouldn’t be.
“Alls through your life, I’ll be by your side, Till deaths do us part…”
The song ended, another one started and he just kept doing it. I tried hard not to laugh. I mean, he’s the guy with the sharp scissors. One angry snip and I’d leave the salon, bald.
So I bit my lip and focused on the floor.
Now, I look like this.
Sigh. It’s like night and day. Like yin and yang. Like Zekrom and Reshiram.
Love you in about a month, Hair.
Late in the afternoon, my cousin— who’s an engineer— stopped by. He was with his girlfriend.
Kuya JR was my Tito Rey’s son. Tito Rey was the oldest of the siblings in my father’s side of the family but he’s been gone for a long time now. In fact, I don’t remember him at all. He died when I was very young.
My aunt from next door came up to our room while I was Tumblr-ing and told me Kuya JR was here. I looked at her blankly. Who? And then I remembered. I went down the stairs and shook his hand, mumbled something, nodded and then I came up to our room again with the excuse that I’ll text my Ma about his visit.
He’s a stranger to me. It’ll be awkward to talk to him. This was probably the third time I saw him in person.
Shrug. I texted my Ma and my sister and told him who’s at the house.
Ate Jing: Bahala na si Tita Bibi saiya.
Mama: Itext mo si Tita Bing mo.
I felt kind of guilty not entertaining the guy, though. Probably I should’ve gone the extra mile and ask how he is, ask where he works, what he’s been up to.
Shrug. Again.
I went down the stairs a while later and found out he already left.
K.
Now, I’m just hungry.
- The Leaf Guy
A Typical Conversation with The Leaf Guy (Dirty Harry Potter Version)
(At my other blog, I call myself The Leaf Guy)
Leaf Guy: (texting Coffee Stick about her Tumblr...then..)
Coffee Stick: By the way, ikaw naaalala ko pag nakikita ko si Neville sa HP 1. Ka-cute!!
Leaf Guy: What?! Nooo!
Coffee Stick: Haha. Cute kaya si Neville nung bata pa. Tapos hot na siya ngayon sa HP 7!
Leaf Guy: Hahaha.
Coffee Stick: Gusto kong pumasok sa Hogwarts.
Leaf Guy: Lahat naman gustong mag-enroll sa Hogwarts
Coffee Stick: Haha, oo. Sana tunay ang Hogwarts.
Leaf Guy: Kaya lang parang hindi ka makakapag-masturbate dun. Parang walang secrecy or privacy. Hahaha.
Coffee Stick: Whatda! Haha. favorite pasttime mo!
Leaf Guy: Oo nga. Parang ang lungkot ng buhay dun kapag hindi ka nakakapag-ehem. Hahaha.
Coffee Stick: Eh bakit sina Harry masaya naman?
Leaf Guy: Ewan. Baka may ibang way sila kung paano 'mag-play ng wands' nila.
Coffee Stick: Hahaha. Malay mo may spell about dun!
Leaf Guy: The Orgasmo spell siguro. Hahaha. Hindi siguro marunong nun si Malfoy kaya lagi siyang badtrip. Hahaha.
Coffee Stick: Haha. Kaya pala parang hindi siya nakakapaglabas ng sama ng loob.
Leaf Guy: Hahaha. (Pardon me, HP fans. XD)
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