What is there in the world to do?

Back to bummer land. Alone in Cebu, with nothing to do and no one to terrorize.
Internship ended today (for me at least), tomorrow's a weekend, and I'm almost broke. What's worse is that I need to move out of my hole next week, and I have yet to find somewhere to go. Ack.

Woe is me. I don't want to spend the weekend in front of a PC either, and there's very little to do in the room, and I left my DVDs at Faith's place. Zyra, nganong ug manghagit naman ko'g inom, wala na nuon mo? I miss Boracay (the drink, not the place)... *nudge nudge* Em2 nganong kung kanus-a na ko manghagit ug duwa, kinahanglan makalimot ug ginhawa imong auntie? I could've started working on your Paladin...

I refuse to do nothing (well nothing fun of course). I don't see myself logging in tomorrow, but this should serve as future reference.

What is there to do when you're low on cash and alone (apart of course from what it is healthy young adults do to tissue)?

1.) Read a book (unapplicable to yours trully since I no longer have unread reading material)
2.) Draw (not feeling very inspired atm)
3.) Take a walk (this is only fun when you've got someone to walk with, pwamis. Unfortunately, my walking buddy and silly conversation friend is out of town, curse him)
4.) Go to church (if all else fails and you're really bored, you can rant to the manager)
5.) Count your hair by the strand. (in-ana na gud ko ka walay lingaw)
6.) Sleep; snore; travel to dreamland; pee on your bed ... whatever it is sleeping people do (inapplicable to insomniacs)

You may add to this list by posting a comment.

Post debt paying

This is for Jared and Gani, who both tagged me with one of those "random facts about yourself" tag. I owed Gani 6, and Jared 10. Here goes...

1.) I'm subconsciously health conscious. If I were to pick between a bag of chips and a bowl of fruit, I'd go for the fruit (because I don't like how salty chips are anyway, and artifical sweeteners leave weird aftertastes)

2.) I don't think I'm weird. I'm just terribly self conscious, and a little too comfortable with taboos than usual.

3.) If I was born with a different configuartion, I could've become a biologist.

4.) My favorite number is the number 4. The chinese think it's unlucky, but I've always thought it looked like a nice rounded number.

5.) I have a tendency to skip numbers when I read. Which is prolly why I suck at math.

6.) I prefer walls of text over numbers. I am also aware that a lot of people aren't into walls of text, and tend to skip over them, which works well for me and my blogging habits.

7.) I prefer asking questions over answering them. I don't like answering autograph books

8.) One recurring dream theme is water and the sea.

9.) One pet peeve is when people make mountains out of your mole hills and give you grief over them.

10.) I love the smell of fresh ink on paper, but I'd still get the pdf version if I can pirate it. Arrr

I don't think I complied with the tagger's requirements. Oh well.

I tag no one.

Philippine Education...

Q: Why did Lapu Lapu kill Magellan?
A: Magellan made his nose bleed. Lapu Lapu doesn't understand a word in Spanish or Portuguese.

The moral of the story is: It's scary when the ignorant are in power.*


I attended the 888 news forum this morning at the Waterfront hotel. The topic? the status of Philippine Education in the Philippines.

I was wondering the other day about what would happen to our workers if all their children wanted to become lawyers. First of all, it'd be impossible, since most farmers and fishermen cannot even send their kids to college, much more to law school... but I was just wondering...

One of the main themes of the discussion was about how most college bound students expect to get into white collar jobs right after graduation. Several of the panelists claimed Philippine graduates had the proper skills and training to sate the human resource demand. Unfortunately they did not have the attitude. A lot of people graduated with honors only to enter the ranks of the unemployed just because everyone wanted to get jobs with title heads and 5-figure salaries right away.

In my opinion, ambition is good. But ambition and ignorance is not a very nice combination.

We are taught in public school that salary is everything, and that only doctors, lawyers, and engineers have great salaries. We are taught that to be the best, you must do anything and everything, which is why our teachers hand us answers for the National Schools Assessment Exam, and why the honor roll is usually lined with the biggest cheats in class. Most children want to become teachers once they start school, but after seeing how much my teachers hated their work, missing class more than I did and all, that dream died quick. That's values formation for the masses for you.

They blame it on the budget. We do have budgets in the education sector. But the question is where does it go? To the painting of new walls, the building of classrooms, the salaries of teachers, to new books. Nothing in research and development, in the updating of old curriculum, in field trips, in quality of education, etc etc.

As for the labor force, there are demands for welders, airport traffic controllers, animators, and whatnot in our country alone. But who would have known about these jobs anyway? Airport Traffic Controllers... wow, that's an interesting title, how come I never heard about it?

There are lots of niches unexplored because people are too afraid or lazy to look at options. People aren't aware of the possibilities and how far their talents can take them because we aren't taught to explore individuality. Does this all go back to the copycat culture discussion? I dare not start that again.

There's no wonder so many students shift from one course to another. They eventually spend more money that way, or worse, never finish at all. It doesn't really matter how long you take in college, as long as you come out fully equipped to help your country by adding to the labor force. God knows we need all the help we can get.

P.S.*I did not mean to defame Lapu lapu in any way, I'm not sure why he killed, or had Magellan killed. Please don't kill me so that I can ask him. Lol

More internship madness

Excited little me toddled off to work yesterday only to get assigned to gather blotter stories from the homicide department.

Disappointed little me's eyes widened the moment I saw the name of the dead dude on the blotter report

Excited little me flew to the newsroom to get more instructions about the story.

Disappointed little me was sent to gather jeepney driver commentaries on a fare hike.

You get the drift.

I was expecting the suicide story would get front paged. Ironically, it was the jeepney story that did. The suicide story was kept somewhere in the depths of the paper to give the family more privacy.

Ironically, I was sent to cover a stockholder meeting for the same family's business. I was seated beside business editors and columnists who had come by the ton from several other media institutions. I was a lone intern from CDN til some other guy with a CDN ID came in.

Before everything began, one lady was yapping about how CDN treated the suicide story. I felt like she was deliberately letting me hear her comments. But how could she have known I was the reporter who got the blotter report? I was just an intern, and I had just co-authored the story along with two other people. Oh well.

After the meeting (which was basically a reading of the hand outs given to us), we were served lunch while we interviewed the big wigs of the company.

It was fine dining, and last I heard, it was illegal to talk about dead relatives on the finner table, so I kept mum. I was hoping though that someone would suddenly ask about the suicide. No luck. Apparently food etiquette is still significant to Cebuano Media, ignoring the fact that the lady next to me stole my salad fork. Lol.

When I got out, one of the personnel handed me a gift box. Lol. I also asked the other CDN dude if he wanted to write the story (since I obviously did not know how to go about it). He said he had another sched and bid me goodbye. The jerk had only come for the food!

I didn't want to look stupid with my article, so I approached the day desk editor and admitted that I was near nosebleed mode with all the technical business terms. She told me to ask for help from Evert. Ulp.

Surprisingly, she was a lot friendlier than I remembered. She said she'd asked sir Marx if it were possible to include business news writing in our curriculum. I wish they had. No matter how big a head ache learning how to translate biz lingo would be, it should be nothing compared to the embarassment fresh mass comm graduates would get when their editors assign them to do business articles.

She gave me a crash course on power economics and told me to just write an article based on the company's projects and sth. After a few pages, my headache was clearing up and I finally understood most of what my notes meant.

Then my notebook went missing.

I phone interviewed Uncle Mulong regarding the fare increases, submitted both articles, and went home.

I'm pooped.

Internship Madness

If the brief stint in Manila was hohumm boring, I can't believe how busy I've suddenly become with print internship!

I remember mentioning a few entries past that I was wary of print internship, especially at CDN because it was rumoured to be the least intern-friendly environment in Cebu?

The HR told me to report at 6:30 pm last Thursday to be given a beat. The editor, Miss Connie, was surprisingly congenial (despite rumors that she was some sort of Dragon Lady). She told me to go to Mandaue the next morning, to send a text message on the gist of my story before 2, and to submit the story before 6.

Next morning, I realized I had absolutely no idea how to go about it. I treated the experience like a game. I approached one of the information desk people (footmen of the castle.lol) and asked if I could speak to the Public Information Officer (The Earl's minstrel). After being sent to 3 different people, I found Ms Louella, who I asked for the mayor's itinerary (charisma check...). You get the drift.

After a trip to the City Engineer's office, I got my story (and a few bits of chismis about CDN), so I went back to the office to type the story.

As soon as I got there though, I was sent to cover a Qur'an recital event at Jones. The event was at 3, around 15 minutes away. The only way to make it on time was to get a taxi. I was almost broke.

I had the taxi stop at an ATM machine and got to the program, albeit a little late. I noticed that Muslims were far more courteous than most, and it was harder to spot who were the interviewees compared to the rest. I approached a lady with an ID holder who lead me to the Regional Director himself. He entertained me for the remainder of the program; gave me a copy of their souvenir program and ordered some food for me. Very gentlemanly. He looked like William Dafoe (Green Goblin of the 2002 Spider man movie).

When I got back to the office, I was finally able to type the story and the story after that. The office's computers were running on Linux and were having problems. I couldn't save my articles without the help of the IT personnel. Talk about defeating the purpose. Did I mention ate Evert snubbed me when I greeted her? I didn't know people actually did that these days. I refuse to believe it was actual conceit that pushed her to snub us interns, despite us being from the same school. That would be too shallow. And I don't know her that well to automatically assume she is shallow. Lol.

Sometime in the evening, one of the people went around with a box full of rolled up sheets of paper. Whoever got the paper with a star gets to cover a concert. I got a blank paper.

I went home at 7:00, after dinner with Mara at the office cafeteria. Their fish had too much vinegar. Before going home, Miss Mars, the day desk editor, gave me instructions for my assignment the next day. I was going to Dalaguete.

~~~

I came 30 minutes too early, and was silent on the way to Dalaguete. The seminar thingy was interesting (it was about restoration and sth), and guess what? The parish of Dalaguete has wii! One of the members of the heritage commission, Fr. Bryan, asked me if I wanted to play. Lol. Breakfast and Lunch were served, and on the way home, the people in the car got into a very animated (not to mention outdated) discussion on the environment. I kept poised and proper the entire time, as if it was that hard to act perky, staying in a car with people who reminded you of your mother's friends was enough to put a dapper on any enthusiasm whatsoever.

I arrived at the office later than expected because of traffic, and sat down to write my article. I found the article I had written the day before in a little corner inside the paper (it was short after all). Though the paragraphs were arranged more meaningfully than I had in my draft, a few details made me flinch. I have to learn how to satisfy the editor...

I went home at 7:30pm.

I'm actually looking forward to going to work. But this time, I'm bringing my own laptop.

The end of bayotness

I won 1st runner up. Lol. For more details, visit:
http://www.biliranisland.com/blogs/?p=116

I did the night elf dance for the fun wear competition; Although the gowns sucked, I was able to get a pretty color compared to the others (turquoise); Jay-R spent most of his serenading time beside me; Rico Lucena gave me his thumbs up for ABS CBN (TV Internship Myats... lol); I can afford to give my laptop an upgrade; I made friends; and the figurine/trophies for the special awards are cute :D

In fact, I went shopping this morning. I bought myself accesories for my laptop; a RAM upgrade; a laptop bag; shoes, a jacket, and an umbrella. :) nuahahahaha XD

I'd be ever so grateful if you...

...registered at http://www.biliranisland.com/forum/register.php, verified, and voted at http://www.biliranisland.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1720

I'm Miss Maripipi in case you get confused...

Yes ladies and gents, I've joined another pageant. I'm determined to redeem my uglehness from the last time (i looked like some sort of silver fish...in a human beauty pageant) First prize's 20k plus a trip to Hong Kong.

The pageant's on May 9 featuring Janno Gibbs, tickets cost from 100php to 1000php me thinks. For more info, visit http://missbilirantourism.biliranisland.com/2008/

20 things to do before 20

1.)Learn how to drive a car
2.)Earn $1000
3.)Cook a full course meal
4.)Learn how to sew
5.)Write a book
6.)climb a mountain
7.)Film an indie flick
8.)Sell a print on DA
9.)Go to Bohol
10.)Pose nude (srsly, before I grow fat or old and wrinkly)
11.)Organize a surprise party
12.)Contribute to Reader's Digest
13.)Make the Dean's list (ala lang)
14.)LARP
15.)Learn how to speak another language
16.)Visit another country
17.)See someone die
18.)Watch a birthing
19.)Perform onstage for theatre
20.)Have an album launched (Dama de Noche)

Ambitious? I'm currently working on #1 :D

School days are here again

The beginning of a new school year/sem always gets me high. I wonder if it'll last long though.

I still haven't finished enrolling. It's not so much on me sucking, it's just that the CRS or Computerized Registration System sucks.

Oh well. The most I've accomplished in two days is to gather the requirements for enrolling and getting a number for Monday.

My classes all begin at 10:30 and end at 4. No in between breaks, all classes in the mass comm wing. I will become a consistent ghost this time. But I doubt I'd be wandering around school a lot. Unless I had to wait for meetings which usually take place at 5:30.

I can roll around bed as long as I want and still make it to school on time. I'll have more time to go places without being interrupted with a class to get to.

I have to publish this month to complete my Journ grade. I have to publish at least 2 articles, and I still have no idea when my Comm 140 removals will take place. Then I'm adding another subject. Possibly an elective. Or maybe a GE. I dunno.

As for projects, Rachelle wants to push through with staging a play. I was excited about it at first, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe we could stage something other than Pregenesis. Maybe we could do something that's already out there.

Then there's the prom. And I'm unfortunately the Program directress. Fack. I don't want it to turn out the same predictable way.

Then there's Otaku Day. I suggested a fund raiser for the prom. It would be called "Otaku Day". It would have contests for artists, a cosplay competition, and would be culminated by a concert. We're still in the planning/letter drafting process. Excited about it actually.

This sem doesn't sound too bad to me....

well, so far.

Manic Depression

I found an 80's book entitled "How to Cope With Depression" in the house. It started with the definition of Clinical Depression, including symptoms and signs. 'Sounds family...' I thought, and read on. Then I found Manic Depression. Bingo. I had all the symptoms. There were times when I felt like I was on top of the world, totally in control of myself, etc etc etc (Mania). Then there were times I felt like shit (Depression). Symptoms of Mania included excessive energy, lessening of sleep, giddiness for no reason, irritability, stubborness, vanity & conceit. Depression on the other hand included constant self depreciation, lack of energy, irregular sleeping habits (including waking up at odd hours), etc. Yep. Could be it.

Sometimes I have random thoughts that seem to have no connection whatsoever. Thinking back, there was a time during the restaging of Pregenesis where my private blog posts seemed like collages. My friends also confronted me for being "others". These were actually exhibitions of Mania. Then there are times when it's hard for me to string a coherent thought. It would be hard for me to understand abstract concepts, and I'd be very absent minded. This was actually a manifestation of depression.

Then I read the testimonials, and thought I was reading my personal blog. Lulz. A Nicole was exhibiting the same signs of depression as I was early in her life, and as the years went on, her actions became more drastic and more self-damaging. Another woman whose name I forgot was increasingly paranoid in the work place. I remember screaming at someone at school because I thought she was talking behind my back. Shit. If I'm going to get worse, I need help.

My mom came and found me with the book and told me she had manic-depression in college. That explains a lot. She then told me it was through strong faith in Jesus that she got over it. Ack. In retrospect, I'm starting to think my YFC days were exhibitions of Mania (thinking that there was a voice talking to me when I closed my eyes, the calming sensation that washed over me when I was imagined I was in God's embrace..etc etc)

I googled up manic depression and found out it was now called the Bipolar disorder. That explains it. There were several cures for it, all tablets except for Lithium.

Woot. The green fairy. I wonder what it'll do to me.

Christmas in Halloween

I slept all afternoon and woke up to thunder and lightning. Auntie Mama had just arrived from Manila, and was telling everyone about her visit to Eat Bulaga. She had been chatting with Allan K in bisaya, asked Tito Sen and Wally to pose with her in a picture, among other things. Due to the black out, we had to eat by candlelight. Everyone was huddled over the kitchen table for dinner (barbecue) and after a very long time, we seemed like a proper family, talking and laughing over food. Even Raushan was there.

Then the lights came back on. A plug started smoking, so we shut off the electricity while Raushan took the plug off. We went back to dinner in the dark. Food always tastes better in the dark.

We had the electricity back to fix the christmas tree Auntie brought back from Manila. I was put in charge of trimming the tree, with the kids as my (slaves) assistants.

When we were through, the lights and music were turned on, and we started recalling Christmas memories.

Karl talked about how they'd lie on the animal skin rug under the tree and watch the lights back when they still lived in Yakal. I recalled watching the lights while I swung from a playground set we had in our house back in Paranaque while the Midi Christmas carols played.

The younger children listened eagerly and I realized one thing: I'm old -_-;;

Lolo and Lola's picture hung on the wall behind the Christmas Tree. I don't think they minded that we decided to spend time cherishing the living on the day of the dead.

Fangirling

I understand why there are so many brainless fangirls out there... this is mind numbing:


Gackt is hot. Though the Vanilla video had too much fanservice for some, it was what lead me to Gackt in the first place. And he probably looks better with his clothes on. But he fits well in fantasy land.

In fact, many thing fit well in fantasy land. I don't agree with the song "Get out of my Dreams and into my car". Sadly fantasy files aren't prosaic ready. They get damaged in the process of transmutation. Perfection is never possible in the real world. So I stay the quiet fangirl, never letting my fantasies be realized. Because there will always be something wrong with it.

So Dumbledore's Gay

So what?

Rowlings tells the world Dumbledore was gay. For what? The story's over, and it won't change anything. It doesn't really explain anything and it seems more like a marketing strategy to renew interest in the story.

Maybe she was accused of being a homophobe because of the lack of any open homosexual relationships in the series. Maybe she noticed nobody cared so much for Dumbledore in the aftermath. Maybe she's just letting the fanfiction get to her. Publicity stunts this blatant are annoying.

Earthquakes

I woke up to an earthquake this morning. It was particularly rough, and a crucifix fell on my head. It actually broke in two.

We have mild earthquakes frequently in Biliran, so it wasn't anything new. Everytime we had earthquakes, I'd be thinking it'd be stronger than the last. Everytime we had earthquakes, I'd be thinking I was going to die. And I wouldn't think of anything else.

I had a conversation with Jay, my high school bestfriend, the other day about Joshua's death. She asked me if I was prepared to die.

I don't like studying for exams because I think if I listened to class, the knowledge I gathered would be enough to pull me through. Same as death. Whether I am going anywhere after this, I don't have to study for it. All I have to do for now is pay attention in class. All I have to do now is live life to the fullest and stop wondering about what'll happen when I die. Because after death, I won't care how many people go to my funeral. Because I won't be there.

The worst the quake did was muddle up the water. I have no idea what the water has, but it's turned white. I was only able to bathe this morning because there was enough water from last night. We've been drinking softdrinks all day.

Goodbye Joshua

I’ll be doing my biggest fan a belated favor by letting him share the vanity of seeing their name online: Joshua D. Bueno (Feb7,1989-Oct18,2007). I wonder if the dead browse the web though.

He was battling with Leukemia while I was having imaginary nose bleeding from all my finals work. The bodily fluid I shed the day I received the news included no tears.

I simply wasn’t in the mood to mourn. I thought I had already mourned his loss 3 years ago when we had graduated from high school. I developed the habit of crying over people during separations and forgetting all about them afterwards. He was one of the last to wish me well then. He said I’d get far. But then again, I did say he was my biggest fan. He always went out of his way to give me encouragement and praise. I never really took him seriously. I always regarded him as a delusional bumpkin (whom I suspected was too shy to go out of the closet) just because he thought I was worth anything. As far as I was concerned, it was the last time I’d see the boy. I was right.

As soon as I started college, I tried forgetting everything. I changed my number, my friendster account, my name. I tried fitting into a new life without the supposed dead. I couldn’t prevent meeting old classmates, and hearing about how others were doing. I heard Bueno was a constant Dean’s Lister, besides being active in the student council of St Paul’s Business School in Tacloban. I also heard he had developed a fashion sense and had found himself a beauty queen of a girlfriend (there goes my closet queen theory).

On October 16, I received a message from my mother that Bueno was in the hospital. They were apparently discussing me. My mom told me about the pride in his voice when he talked about what he had been hearing about me. It was as if he was seeing me on the road of success as he predicted. He didn’t know how off course I was. My mom suggested I call him. But I was running low on load, and I had a hundred other excuses.

It wasn’t real to me until I actually saw his corpse and talked to his mom. Our eyes brimmed with tears as she recounted how optimistic he was despite the odds. He’d accept any amount his parents would give him. He had no vices, and even to the very end, he told his mother to keep on fighting, because like chess, even if you lose a piece, you can still win.

I realized he never became a different person. He would always be my bumpkin friend, and the least I could have done was to call him up while he was still alive. We never really know what we have until it is lost. And I never knew how much I really cared until it dawned upon me that I’d never hear his cheesy lines anymore, and know that he meant every word.

Goodbye Joshua. Though I never told you, you could’ve been larger than life.

The weekend that was (an excuse to update)

I realize it's been a while since I last posted. Well, I had an eventful weekend

Last friday, Faith came to visit; It was ate Mina's 21st bday; and we were filming for a docu on Cebuano Nightlife... any drunks willing to be interviewed?

Faith visited against her father's wishes. Admirable for a young lady to have spunk, and though I should be worried that her father threatened me for being a bad influence, I'm jealous that she was able to do something as exhilerating as running away (I beg to differ, she didn't need any influencing).

I would have gone back to interview my friends instead, but they warned me not to come. They claimed there was something I did not want to see. So I stayed in Paseo, wondering if I was missing a great video opportunity.

Saturday night was weird. I went "bar-hopping" with Rachelle and Chloe. Before the bar-hopping, I had dinner at Jollibee and got tricked into singing an MYMP song >.<...

The night that followed has made me come to the conclusion that all barhopping males are stupid and just looking for an easy lay, while the girls are so desperate for companionship, they'd actually settle for the easy lay. maybe I'm just saying this cause all our interviewees were incoherent males who asked for our numbers.

The things I do for class...

Stating the obvious

The internet has spawned a new kind of vanity and self possession. As I mentioned a few entries back, publication is a heady experience. Blogs and the like are blatant forms of self advertisement. So we dweebs who have no RL (real lives) spend most of our time on the internet trying to convince other people (or ourselves) that we're cool. We write about our lives as if everyday was a thrilling episode

And here come the other spawn of the internet. The critics who laugh at "petty attempts" at self expression. Those who aren't afraid to express their opinion. And like the dweebs who tend to be overkill on what they're about, these smart alecks find a playground to unleash their inner bullies.

And once we've defined something about ourselves and are aware of the definition, we try to go above the definition.

So there you have it. I'm tired of being a dweeb and a smart ass. I'm tired of being a push-over and tired of being mean.

The Perfect Reason for Headache

I saw Battle Royale earlier in the day, c/o of RJ's computer. I mourn for my poor brain cells. There were so many unnecessary scenes and inconsistencies. It was a poor excuse for violence in cute uniforms.

We watched Witches of Oz, expecting to see something close to the Broadway musical, Wicked. We were disappointed. I wasted three-days worth of allowance for it. The redeeming factors of it were Ate Chai's performance and the Tin Man's lines. It was Battle Royale all over again. But this time, there was no excuse. I'm going to go hungry for three days for nothing.

The girl who played Dorothy was bigger than most of the cast. SO much for being a "little girl". Her voice was not strong enough for stage. Her attempt at an accent made most of what she was saying incomprehensible, and she kept flipping her bangs over the side. She was wearing lip gloss and blue eyeshadow. Emo Lolita was too composed to be a little child.

As for the rest of the cast, The Hip Hopper Scarecrow who kept going "Yo" didn't rap AT ALL. The Punk Tin Man was, well, heartless (yay). The Rasta Lion was cute at least (made me think of Pooh) and the minor rollers were so obviously choreographed.

It's amazing how they got so many sponsors and shit for them to play at SM City. The sound system wasn't good and all the publicity I was ever aware of was that from the rumor mill. At one point, one of my friends mentioned I should have had Pregenesis produced. That's how bad Witches of Oz was. I'm sorry ate Chai. You were good. But a sprinkling of talents does not save an entire production. I believe your talents (Te Chai and the few other talented people in the production) were wasted on that play.

I have a few questions though:

What the hell did the production committee do to the money?

What half wit wrote the script?

Why did they attempt to impersonate Elvis Presley?

Why didn't he sing an Elvis song?

And what's with the trinket?

Why did Dorothy sing "Home"? It's too mature and musically out of place for the story.

Why'd they even make a yellow brick road when it made them look as if they were walking up and down a platform?

And why'd they get something that looked as if it came from a Taxidermist's shop to play Toto when he didn't even have any significant participation in the story?!?

I'm not even dissing the Glinda that sounded like Glinda from Wicked minus the funniness that made her interesting anymore or the fact that we weren't warned that it was going to be for a younger audience (more like from 3-9 y.o). But then the children would probably go to sleep.

Gimme Something That Rhymes With Eeks

I am an escapist. But I do not drown myself in mind numbing spoon feeding from the boob tube. I roleplay.



But not that way.

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.3

From Dean Alfar:

I am now accepting submissions of short fiction pieces for consideration for the anthology "Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.3".

Speculative fiction is the literature of wonder that spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror and magic realism or falls into the cracks in-between.

1. Only works of speculative fiction will be considered for publication. As works of the imagination, the theme is open and free.

2. Stories must cater to an adult sensibility. However, if you have a Young Adult story that is particularly well-written, send it in.

3. Stories must be written in English.

4. Stories must be authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry.

5. Preference will be given to original unpublished stories, but previously published stories will also be considered. In the case of previously published material, kindly include the title of the publishing entity and the publication date. Kindly state also in your cover letter that you have the permission, if necessary, from the original publishing entity to republish your work.

6. First time authors are welcome to submit. In the first two volumes, there was a good mix of established and new authors. Good stories trump literary credentials anytime.

7. No multiple submissions. Each author may submit only one story for consideration.

8. Each story’s word count must be no fewer than 2,500 words and no more than 5,000 words.

9. All submissions must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf – save the document as .rft on your word processor) and attached to an email to this address: dean@kestrelimc.com. Submissions received in any other format will be deleted, unread.

10. The subject of your email must read: PSF3 Submission: (title) (word count); where (title) is replaced by the title of your short story, without the parentheses, and (word count) is the word count of your story, without the parentheses. For example - PSF 3 Submission: How My Uncle Brought Home A Diwata 4500.

11. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes your name, brief bio, contact information, previous publications (if any).

12. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2007. After that date, final choices will be made and letters of acceptance or regret sent out via email.

13. Target publishing date is December 2007/January 2008.

14. Compensation for selected stories will be 2 contributor’s copies of the published anthology as well as a share in aggregrate royalties.

Kindly help spread the word. Feel free to cut and paste or link to this on your blogs or e-groups.

Thanks,

Dean Francis Alfar
Online Source: http://www.filipinowriter.com/philippine-speculative-fiction-vol-3

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It sounds interesting enough...