Stamps for Nina

This is what I got you, hon. Hope you like it!

Packaged Memories

Every trip, Nina makes sure I don’t get lonely by giving me a piece of her beautiful creations. I’m going to start a trend now. Everywhere I’m going, I’ll take a picture of her creations, her gifts. Here’s a ‘baseline’. These are all the cards, pictures, and all other things that Nina gave me to be close to home:

Love you, Hon! Thank you for all these gifts. I always look at them and remind myself that I need to get finish the work cleanly so that I can go home quickly.

Miss you and Matt. I’m coming home soon…

SFO to OAK to SEA to Lynnwood, WA

This blog entry will make up for all the wordy entries I made in the last two posts. The images may not be as clear; I took it all from my Motorola V3X 1.3 Megapixel camera (not your average digital cam). But I’ve tried my best to adjust it through Paint.net (it’s a very useful digital editing tool – check out the link).

The Journey to Oakland

going down the bridge from San Mateo to Oakland

almost on the waterline

Seattle to Lynnwood

dowtotwn Seattle…its always raining

passing through a the city’s stadium

a famous landmark – Pike’s Market Place

Back on the Road (and in the air) Again

It’s my first trip for the year in the US. Thank goodness that the birthplace of the Internet offers it for free in most hotels. Unlike in my previous post in Amsterdam, accessing the WorldWideWeb comes at a price.

I’m writing this entry at five minutes to eleven at night. Arrived here via Philippine Airlines PR104, 30 minutes early! To think that we left Manila also 30 minutes after the published departure time.

I’ve arrived at San Francisco. But I’ve never been in San Francisco. To me, SFO is just a transit station, one of the three-letter airport designations I have come to know intimately. My ultimate destination: Everett, near Seattle, in Washington – a good 2-hour flight away. I don’t know the city, don’t know all the nice places to see. I wish I had the chance, though. My wife had been here and have seen the city. Maybe someday, we’ll have a chance – me, Nina, and Matt (and whoever will come after). 

I should rest up for another day spent traveling. I just gained back a day. It’s still Saturday, the day I left. And to my body, it’s just 2 or 3 in the afternoon… But traveling takes its toll. I’m left drained and exhausted, with enough energy to jot down my thoughts and to wait for Nina to be on-line before I hit the sack.

First Post for August…

I’ve been drained lately. That’s why there are no updates on this blog till now. Lotsa things happening. Work’s just getting more and more hectic.

It didn’t help that me and Matt were under the weather last month. I got colds and unfortunately passed it on to Matt. Poor kid. And Nina’s blessed to have avoided catching it. She held through to take care of us.

And not to mention the dry spell and sudden shift to torrential rains yesterday. I had to commute using alternate routes… and bring extra socks and a shirt to work. I used them all up when I got to the office. What normally was a 45-minute trip lasted about an hour-and-a-half. But it was a good thing I made it since I had a meeting that day (at another location; fortunately, we have a service). Coming home was also a wet adventure. But I’m glad my constitution is holding; haven’t sneezed since the morning.

And now for some interesting things…

Nina and I were back at the LitCritters meet last Saturday. Dean delivered a wonderful explanation and exhortation of sorts – revealing the art of creating works of fiction and all things to be mindful about. Exhortation, because he said that we are writers who read and readers who write. Yep. Just got my first assignment. Everyone of us need to come up with a story for submission to him. This is aside from whatever work we want to submit for his thrid collection of Filipino speculative fiction.

Nina and I will try to come up with stories to satisfy both requirements. Whether it be collaborative, I still don’t know.  The 3rd Philippine SpecFic is due on the 15th of September – oh, about a month from now.

I’m flirting with a sci-fi idea right now.

It’s interesting how Dean put it that he still doesn’t know what Philippine Sci-Fi is. That challenged me. But, as with anything in life, any adventure you begin, Doubt and Fear are the first things you encounter. And in this encounter, one must survive with his/her integrity and pride intact so that he/she will be able to fulfill the next step of the journey…

The actual writing process…

So, to exercise my writing skills, I’m doing this blog entry. I still have to remove all the dirt and cobwebs (and some dust bunnies!) from the treasure chest of knowledge gained from grade school.

Jeez, there goes a hell of a lot of cliche’s.

The other day at work, I researched about writing in wikipedia…