My Brother Turned 22 Today

Yesterday, we (I, my family and partner) went to SeaScape Beach Resort (Pasacao, Camarines Sur) to celebrate my brother's birthday, but mostly to swim and sleep.

     I swam for less than 30 minutes, solely because I get dizzy whenever I do not wear my glasses for a long time. I had a long conversation with Kuya Ken, Am, Jian, and Leir, about practicality, infidelity, and funny TV commercials. I also slept for a few hours in the beach, particularly on a hammock shaped like a horizontal cocoon. I was expecting I would turn into a butterfly, or a prettier human being at least, but I did not. Nature tells me that I'm pretty enough already. It cannot afford any too-much for me, I believe. And that's it.

     I need to rest. I evidently need one.

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I started layouting Flyleaf, the official publication of the Ateneo Literary Association (ALA), two days ago. Leir checked it yesterday. He said it's cool, but he didn't like my layout for his article, which is... okay. I will edit the spreads anyway. The launching of the paper will be on 6 April 2013. After that, Leir will go back to Cavite, and I'll just have to cry in one corner everyday.

Kony's Boring Photographs

As I try to get over from things I missed, I find out that there's no better way to do this than to read (Mark Twain, specifically his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) and to review the past photos I took with Kony¹. Being an 18-year-old with serious identity problems, I cannot seem to commit myself with something serious, such as professional photography or anything that has the word "professional" in it. The pictures I took reflects this attitude, for they're grounded on the mundane. Take for instance, the following photos:

     And I'm happy with these. Perhaps someday I would try learning other photography techniques, but it is very clear to me, that that someday, at least now, can hardly qualify as "soon."

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1 Kony, a Nikon D3000 and a racist camera (--apparently his "subject is too dark" comments are not always taken lightly by its other users--),  is one of my prized possessions (whose name I got from a leader of a guerilla group) along with Soul, my laptop, and Jeanne, my phone. I have this odd (i.e. awesome) habit of naming things with the names of nonfiction villains and/or conquerors. Soul is actually just short for Mussolini, you know.

On Lemony Snicket's All the Wrong Questions 1: Who Could That Be at This Hour?

"There's an easy method for finding someone when you hear them scream. First get a clean sheet of paper and a sharp pencil. Then sketch out nine rows of fourteen squares each. Then throw the piece of paper away and find whoever is screaming so you can help them. It is no time to fiddle with paper." CHAPTER 9

Allow me to quote a single thing Stephanie Meyer has said about all the books she reviewed plus Edward Cullen: "Beautiful!" Well, this book is, unless: (1) you are not a fan of Snicket's witty writing style; (2) you haven't read or you didn't like reading A Series of Unfortunate Events (ASoUE); or (3) you are either too young or too old. You see, books like this have a definite target, and that is Snicket fans. That's a good thing for a fan, actually. You can save-up money for the book, not worrying if the local bookstore would run out of it. Interestingly, however, the last time I went to National Bookstore, they only have one copy left.
     Going back, I can say that I'm a fan of Lemony (and how I usually simulate in my mind Jude Law's voice while reading Snicket's books). Leir is a big-fan of him, and I'm the mini-fan--the one on the last row of viewers on Daniel Handler's (that is Lemony Snicket's "handler"--check the internet, dummy) book signing. That is mostly because I didn't grew up with the Baudelaires (ASoUE's protagonists). I was already 18 when I was influenced by my partner to read the series. But being an eternal child inside this maturing body, I received the books and its humor and tragedy quite well. The books confirmed my theory that I'll be forever 11.

     As you may probably know, this book is an account of the young Snicket, before he spent years unveiling the Baudelaire sibling's mystery adventure. It is still innocent to the graver danger the Snicket we have come to know earlier had faced. The same writing style is, of course, applied--defined relatively difficult words, foreshadowings, comedic tragedies, unresolved issues, and hints regarding the next book. I can imagine a non-fan screaming "That's it?" upon discovering that there's no chapter left, and a fan smiling that Lemony has maintained his character. As a mini-fan, I await for the succeeding installments to reunite with characters I have loved and hated since ASoUE, and engage with Lemony's stories (and how he treats them).

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We lost internet connection for a week, I learned how to swear.

They Could Not Play

I finished illustrating Leir's story for the children's storybook competition hosted by our school's guidance center last Wednesday. It wasn't that easy (thanks to the inavailability of a scanner) for I have to do all the illustrations directly on Soul (my laptop) using Adobe Photoshop's pen tool, ruler, and guide lines. I wasn't able to copy exactly my original character designs for the story's protagonists, Jack and Jill, but I think I did a good job coming up with a cute version of the characters still. Kuya Ken told me that they look like me when I was younger. That is proof enough that they're adorable (at least physically).

Sample page

     The competition's theme is gender equality, that Leir and I decided that the character be twins, who are, as innocent as they are, have no concept of their difference in terms of gender. Leir's first draft of the story was amusing enough to inspire me to work on it harder than I ever did with my previous artworks. It's just tragic that he has to trim the story to fit the requirements of the competition, which limits the writers to use only 250 words. I think this is a good practice, however, for the word-count was able to set boundaries, else we might end up writing a lengthy piece without much quality content. (Leir is a different story though--the longer the piece, the meatier it is.)

Title page

   
     Leir suggested the title They Could Not Play for the story after recommending the titles A Feasibility Study on Children's Perspective on Gender Equality and The Children Could Not Play. We even got into a fight finalizing the title, because he said that I seem not too impressed with the title, but I am. I really am. What the hell is wrong with my facial expressions?
     Gab also submitted his story, Forest Friends, to the competition. I took the trouble of looking for someone not that busy to finish 5 or more illustrations in just one day. Luckily Van, Monique, and Tina were bored enough to take the job. Sir Jay told me that only Leir's and Gab's stories were submitted to the competition, which, in many levels, sucks. It sucks. I hope that's not true, not because I wanted to win, if ever we will win, against a larger number of participants, but because... yes, it's mostly because of that.

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Ateneo Literary Association (ALA) won 4 awards during the 2nd Student Organizations' Awards and Recognition (SOAR) Night held in the Arrupe Convention Hall, Ateneo de Naga University, last Monday. As the organization's chairperson this school year, I couldn't be any more proud of them. Keep it up, ALA.