Turn of Events

All this entering the workforce thing being a big change. It's real. At least for me.

I'm doing a lot of writing for Resorts World Manila, and I find that I'm enjoying it. Aside from learning guerrilla HTML (as in trial and error hehe), I get to check out the casino, and can I just say, I've been waiting for a chance to walk up and down these smoky (cigarette smoky) aisles for a long time, but it's only recently that I've reached the age where I can actually enter the place. It's not much different from an arcade, only I get to imagine under-the-table scenes like in the movies. I don't see mafia-worthy faces, though. Everyone just seems to be having fun. It's too bad we're not allowed to play, would like to try out the real thing and not those online games. However, I've found that I have to stop my ADHD tendency to press every button I see (i.e. Slot Machines). I bet that if I just get one chance, I'll get lucky. I have pretty good luck at these things, (and bad luck for everything else?).

In any case, the point I was making before I was distracted by my own thoughts is that, although I get to do a lot of writing, I pretty much have zero time for fiction. Here I am, blogging, which takes away another 10% from the time I could have spent writing the next page of a story I've already started but have now hidden away in some mental drawer and compartment of my PC.

What's funny is that I seem to thrive in such conditions--When I'm actually NOT free to write. It's like my mind has a panic button screaming "you must write!" and then it starts formulating all these story lines. I remember this is what happened back in school, when we were doing our thesis, and I at the same time, was finishing my first novel.

It remains to be seen whether I can finish my next story collection and novel in such conditions.

Pressure might be good after all.

Published in Philippines Graphic Magazine

Kinda forgot to post about this. Was published in the October 4, 2010 issue of the Philippines Graphic Magazine. "Topheth No More" appears in the fiction category, under a rather plain-sounding name: Anne Abad. I've been so busy at work I don't have much energy left to update my online life.

Peanuts

It took me a while to write this. I might have blocked it from my mind. Might have needed time to process what I saw. I didn't know what to do or what I could do about it.

Let me tell you about an old man along the East Avenue-Edsa Intersection.

I see him everyday, while on my way to the MRT station. He's there early, laying out his goods on a dilapidated wooden box. I've noticed that he sells random stuff, tweezers, hard candies, cigarettes, and those little hair ties that look like telephone cords. He's usually not the one I notice, since there's this lady vendor who's always surrounded by these cute, chubby cats that sleep by her side. Day after day.

But last Saturday. I saw the old man. Really saw the old man. He had just bought a packet of fried peanuts from a fellow street vendor. He was walking back to his spot, to his box, when his packet of nuts fell from his shaky hands. The salt, the bits of garlic, and the brown nuts scattered on the ground, ground that had been treaded on by the busy bees of the Filipino work force.

The old man bent down, hurriedly picking up every last piece that fell from his brown paper bag of peanuts. He hastened to put every salvageable bit into his mouth.

And wow, look at me, I had no idea what to do. Was I to help him pick up the sullied food and go my way? Was I to give him money? But what if he got insulted, since, technically, he wasn't a beggar, but a vendor? I thought of looking for the place where he bought those peanuts and getting him a new packet, but I was too caught up in thinking "What should I do?" until it came to the point that I chickened out.

I was scared of helping the old man. And now it's haunting me. Because I remember what happened, but I've forgotten what the old man looks like. And I'm scared that if I remember, I wouldn't know what to do again, because helping just one man doesn't change the fact that there are all those other vendors on that sidewalk. And I will see them every morning. I will see them when I go home.

And there is nothing I can do for them.

I will probably keep living this make-believe life, thinking things will turn out for the better. But it won't.

Not when it's just my life getting better.

10TH ATENEO NATIONAL WRITERS WORKSHOP FELLOWS NAMED

From panitikan.com.ph:

The 10th Ateneo National Writers Workshop, organized by the Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices (AILAP) with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Office of the President, Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU) will be held on October 24-28, 2010 at the AdNU Campus, Naga City.

Twelve fellows have been awarded fellowships. Six slots were exclusively given to writers from the Bicol Region and writing in the Bikol languages. Covered by the fellowship are the fellows' board and lodging, a modest stipend, and the opportunity to learn from an esteemed panel of Atenean writers and critics. The fellows for this year's workshop are:

For poetry in English: Alyza May Timbol Taguilaso (Quezon City); For poetry in Filipino: Noel T. Fortun (Las Piñas City), Maureen Gaddi dela Cruz (San Pedro, Laguna); For fiction in English: Glenn Diaz (Manila City), Michelle Abigail Tiu Tan (Quezon City); For fiction in Filipino: Arnold Matencio Valledor (Panganiban, Catanduanes); For poetry in Bikol: Gerry Rubio (Virac, Catanduanes), Adrian Remodo (Naga City, Camarines Sur), Eduardo Uy (Gubat, Sorsogon), Richard Madrilejos (Tabaco, Albay), Rodel Añosa (Ticao, Masbate); For fiction in Bikol: Jimple Borlagdan (Tabaco, Albay).

Panelists for this years workshop would include prize-winning writers like Benilda S. Santos, Alvin B. Yapan, Marco AV. Lopez, Michael M. Coroza, Frank Peñones and Carlo Arejola to name a few. This year's workshop is co-directed by Kristian Cordero and Yolando Jamendang, Jr.

Congrats to everyone!