First post for the year;
on the verge of
- changing from a tumultuous Rat Year
to a hopeful ushering of the Year of the Ox -
the journey began a year or so ago will bear fruit…
… it is time to pack bags and settle into a new frontier -
as the adventures of the Final Frontier…
…undergoes reimagining -
and the world’s hopes pinned on change...
… and hope that, for all things we have to overcome this year and the next, Yes, we can!
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
And they say I’m a geek… JUST a geek!!!
[Thanks, Pat, for the link I found in your blog]
Seriously, if you’re a big Star Trek Fan (and still one despite what has happened to the franchise lately), you automatically ARE a geek. The answers to the test seem to just add to my geekiness and I scored a little over 25%.
I’m on a retreat right now… A retreat of my own making… There are many things I would want to blog about since a LOT of things have transpired in the past few weeks – Taiwan, and now, Germany.
But I am in a period of inward consolidation.
Maybe after my ‘exile’ here, I will have the proper perspective to write about the harrowing harassing enriching experience.
I have to thank my wife and son for keeping me sane all throughout the ordeal.
—
In Military Strategy and Tactics, a retreat is not always a signal for defeat. It has been employed as a ploy to lure an enemy into a trap. But generally, it is a time to gather up one’s forces, assess the situation, and think over a new, more effective plan to subdue the enemy.
—
Sorry about the military strategy thing, but I’ve been buried in Romance of the Three Kingdoms – both the novel and the game (the 11th one is a souvenir from Taiwan; a PC game in Chinese where I found an English translation patch on-line).
“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD…”
About half a year ago, Nina and I saw this flyer about a 5-storey condominium complex in Pasig. It was right smack where we were planning to live – halfway between my work and the Ateneo, where we plan Matt to go to school in the future. It had nice floor plans. I particularly liked it that every unit had a balcony.
A balcony! I always wanted us to have a condo unit with a balcony. I typically imagine lazy afternoons just putting up your feet on a chair, the calm winds blowing through, me having a book to read or just plain lounging around with Nina and Matt by my side, themselves enjoying the afternoon at the balcony. And of course, the view! (Well, the unit has to be well-situated for that.)
But early on, we though that that place was inaccessible – where you need to have a car since it would be far off from public transportation. And back then, I didn’t think I’d be able to afford the down payment.
So, whenever we would see the same flyer, I’d just kid about it and be excited and just dream that we find a similar property when finances would be manageable.
“…plans for your welfare…”
December 2007 entered so unexpectedly. Everything was in a rush! But, there was good news to be had for the Christmas season. My mom in Australia decided to give me a little financial boost. This paved the way for me and Nina to think whether to buy a car or to look for our own little place.
We were so sold into getting a new car for our little family to move around the city more freely when…
“…not for woe…”
It’s funny how God chooses to speak to you through other people. We were at a business lunch meeting at a restaurant near the Domestic Airport when I got to discuss plans with a young father (who happened to be a schoolmate, but belonged to a much younger batch).I asked him if he was also thinking of getting his own car. He said no, and that his priorities are to get his family their own place (they live with parents like me and my family.
Nina was right all along. She had also been expressing her frustration in living in her mom’s house for long and that we needed our own place so that we have control over everything in the house. Besides, a car’s value would only diminish through time, and it will be a source of regular expenses due to maintenance and gasoline.
But where do we go from here?…
“…Plans to give you a future…”
God also chose to guide us in a chance encounter between Nina and our would-be agent, Jhen. Nina and Matt were about to go home from a trip to SM Sucat when they saw the small selling space of DMCI Homes. Jhen was also about to leave, but decided to stay, or for some reason, was kept from leaving about an hour earlier. There, Nina saw Riverfront Residences, the condo community we were drooling over for months and almost gave up on!
The clincher? Remember we thought it to be inaccessible? Nina asked about it from Jhen and Jhen said that right outside the gate, a jeepney passes by! Turns out this jeep will lead you towards the main road where you can ride up to Quiapo! I can take it to ride the MRT at Shaw station or take a cab at C-5.
That chance encounter turned into a tripping on a Saturday, just after our wedding anniversary.
“…full of hope. – Jer 29:11″
Needless to say, we liked what we saw:
We reserved a 2-bedroom unit on the third floor of the Rhine* Building, with a balcony looking out into the narrow space between 2 buildings and glimpses the clubhouse and amenities area.
*all the buildings are named after rivers, funny how our unit turned out to be in the building of a German river!
And we trust DMCI Homes in the way that they’ve packaged and presented this community. In this development, they expect families to live in all the units, not merely rented out for investment. So we knew then and there that this will be a family-friendly place.
On our way back from the tripping to the site (looking for an ATM to pay the reservation fee because it IS selling like hotcakes!), we saw the verse on top of the gate of Rizal High School:
“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. – Jeremiah 29:11″
We knew God is calling us out of our Egypt and into a Promised Land!
(that’s why we can never get a unit in the Nile building… wink wink)
It is a weird day today, dominated by two notable, yet incongruous events.
Fire…
My wife has been published in an on-line scrapbooking magazine! Please check out her beautiful blog, particularly this post. You can clearly see why I admire her works. The family picture was taken at a studio at Mall of Asia.
This layout also reveals what our family’s future plans are. Check out a few posts before and you’ll get the entire picture (will blog about it soon).
Ice…
Heath Ledger, an actor who I thought could be the next Tom Hanks, has just died this afternoon in an apartment in New York. Another great thespian yanked out from existence for unknown circumstances.
28 years young, it came as a shock. He seemed like a nice, professional actor (Geez, I’m even older than him!).
Here’s a picture of how cold it is way up north in Washington state:
Fire and Ice…
They’re not glass sculptures (as what I first thought they were when we came out of the restaurant last night). It’s morning, about 8:45am. This is the Hearthfire Restaurant near Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Washington (2-hour ride from Seattle).
Ice have formed due to the splashing water from the fountain underneath the cauldron of fire.
Another trip back to a familiar transit point.
SFO. Cold windy winter night, staring out into the blackness of the night, wondering how my wife and son are doing back home. Checking my watch, its 7pm, 50 minutes after we touched down from an uneventful flight, and waiting for the shuttle to come pick us up. I’m stuffed, and I’m very appreciative of the food on the plane. (I still remember how Nina still finds it strange that I like plane food, but ours is really yummy.)
It’s Sunday, 11am back home. Wonder if Matt is playing with his cousin Kiana right now and Nina’s up and about…
Then, looking up, I saw this sight:
The moon peeking through the metal lattice of San Francisco International. Just had to capture it, even through my mobile phone (my digital camera was in my luggage). Wish I had better equipment on occasions like this.
Small comfort.
Once again, I’m alone.
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.
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…
No, it’s not about Dumbledore’s Army…
I’ll have to work on the explanation to this backwards… D.A. stands for Dean Alfar – the speculative fiction guru of the Philippine literary scene. He has won numerous Palanca awards and have been instrumental in promoting the genre of speculative fiction here in the Philippines. What is this term called “Speculative Fiction”, you say? Speculative fiction encompasses anything from science fiction, magic realism, fantasy, horror, and the in-betweens. For a better definition, here’s the wiki entry for that genre.
Dean Alfar has compiled works of Filipino authors in speculative fiction in two volumes, entitled Philippine Speculative Fiction. He also has done graphic novels along with other notable writers in Siglo: Freedom and Siglo:Passion. For a comprehensive listing of his works, check out this link and his blog.
How did I find out about Dean Alfar? Through my lovely and wonderful wife, of course! She’s a writer herself and she discovered Dean and the Philippine Speculative Fiction world that he has come to represent. My last blog entry would be a give-away as to what type of genre I love, not to mention my not-yet-blogged-about fanaticism with Star Trek. I am of the speculative fiction kind. And discovering Dean Alfar has been a breakthrough for me. I have yearned for Filipino authors to be in the Sci-fi or Fantasy shelves of bookstores. And with Dean, this will become a reality in the not-so-distant future.
To further advance his intention of spawning new, quality writers of the genre (and fiction in general), he has formed LitCritters, a Google group, where members can read story selections and critique the works, all with goal of learning and having a bit of fun in the process. The LitCritters opened their doors to the public last June 23, 2007, at A Different Kind of Bookstore, in Serendra, Fort Boni. My wife has learned about it a couple of weeks before the dat, downloaded the readings, and convinced me to join her. Believe me, it took A LOT of convincing on her part. For one thing, I was afraid of readings. It was like me going back to school! (try checking out this blog entry and you’ll get the drift). And recitations! Aghkh! The horrors of recitation!… In the end, I had no other choice but to be dragged along (OK, so I went willingly…).
It was a good thing I finished the four readings for the event. Everybody joined in and pitched their thoughts on the stories. We had great laughs and the most important thing of all, I learned A LOT. A lot about the elements of a story, the various tools for its dissection, and what makes a story great, not so great, and, um, barely passable. I learned about plot and discourse, which I didn’t know about until then. The whole event just made me excited for more, more readings. And more writings – yup, Dean said it will lead to that too.
To end this blog entry, here’s an interview of Dean in PinoyCentric – a worthwhile read if you want to know what makes him tick and how you’ll be inspired to write.
Lacuna jumping? Well, it’s a patented term from LitCritters – join in so that you’ll know what it’s all about!
