A recounting of things already past up to the age of seven years

June 23, 2009

Ugh. My internet’s being stupid. It seems I can’t upload large amounts of text right now. That makes it difficult for me to post on Roleplayerguild. Argh. Anyway, I’m still taking that risk right now by at least trying to get a start on my writing assignment for tomorrow, an autobiography with a little graph-thingy about the highs and lows of your life so far.

I wish I still had time for the dramatics and stuff, but being pressed for time, I’m just going to have to brainfart this thing.

–

The following will contain a wall of text created between 11:30 pm and 2:30 am. It will be full of typos, bad sentence structure, possible grammar errors, intimate details, and general nonsense. You have been warned.

(more…)

Writing Classes, Jeepneys, and some useless blather

June 18, 2009

We were supposed to ride a jeepney in our Writing Workshop class. It was supposed to be an exercise in observation– a very important tool in a writer’s arsenal. The jeepney would be a wonderful place to practice since, as my prof said, “It’s a microcosm of Philippine Society.” The Jeepney, unlike the Bus or the FX vans, has its passengers facing each other. One can see everything and everyone in the jeep, and one is always in earshot of whatever word is said. In this kind of situation, we would have to keep our eyes and ears open, peering into the lives of our co-passengers, discreetly listening in on conversations, and mentally jotting down notes to be used in whatever creative exploit we might try.

The riding a jeepney part? Easy, I ride a jeep almost everyday.  The observing part? … We’re going to have a problem with that.

As I’ve said, I ride a jeepney almost everyday. It’s not my favorite mode of transport, but it’s the only public utility vehicle that has a route that passes by my neighborhood. When using a jeep, I’d have to brave thick clouds of vehicle exhaust, stifling temperatures, hellish traffic jams, and great amounts of boredom. My sanity survives the commute through my trusty mp3 player and my book-of-the-moment (though I wouldn’t really put much trust in the book. You know, reading in moving vehicles and everything.). Basically I survive commutes by blocking my Audio-Visual senses. I’d go mad if I don’t get my anti-social fix. But for the sake of observation, I am asked to abandon it.

So did I?

Nope.

But I still tried observing and everything, and what I saw didn’t really give me material to write the next Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel. What I observed in my commutes were people, just like me, who were in the jeep, bored out of their minds, looking out the window to at least entertain their eyes with scenes they’ve scene a bajillion time before. They were people, just like me, who wanted to be where they were going, wishing that there was a cheaper and better way of travel, one that didn’t involve smog, traffic jams, and uncomfortably hot temperatures.

I don’t know, but maybe I should have done a little more observing. But I’ll just use the “Baby Steps” excuse. Let me take this bit by little bit, I’ll eventually get the hang of it. What’s important right now is how I’m going to bullshit this in class.

Pajama, Pajamaa!

June 10, 2009

Today was a YouTube day.

 

Due to some difficulties with the house keys, I got stuck at home, all dressed up with nowhere to go. Physically at least. There was Phillip K. Dick’s world of paranoid humans and androids (just got me a copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep aka Blade Runner), the world of Persona 4 (I’m at the part where we take down Mitsuo Kubo), and of course the Internet. Ah, the wonders of the Information Superhighway.

 

Anyway,  there was nothing new on Roleplayerguild. None of the threads I’m in had updates. If I didn’t get on YouTube, I’d have spent the whole day spamming in the Off-topic forums, refereshing endlessly to catch any updates. And if you’re not really getting what I’m saying, I’d have to put up a new blog entry about what I did the whole summer.

 

So there. Bored. Frustrated. Bored. I was halfway through Blade Runner, reading through the part where the main character gets all paranoid and starts questioning his sanity, when I decide to put the book down and check the Internets. I eventually land on YouTube and decide to do something I’ve been putting off for the last couple of weeks: Watching “Little Nemo, Adventures in Slumberland.”

(more…)