Saturday, May 30, 2009

magic act

there is this nagging feeling to gloat over the Orlando Magic's victory against the heavily-favored, media-hyped, and overpraised greatness of LeBron James (well, he is that great, and yeah, sometimes it becomes increasingly unnerving to hear the incessant remarks at ESPN saying we all are witnesses---heck, we know and it doesn't help a bit if it is kept on shoving up our frenzied heads) and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

for one thing, because, it meant that the underdog Magic will advance to the NBA Finals against the heavily-favored, media-hyped and overpraised greatness of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

and it sent the other half of that constantly-running-that-it-became-constantly-annoying Nike TV Ad for a long and uncertain summer. LeBron might be packing his bags and head off to New York for greener pasteurs and, ultimately, to the highly-coveted NBA championship that slipped off his hands for the third consecutive time.

and secondly, to my friend over at The Indifference Engine... pre, tapos na. bawi na lang next year. hehe.

(photo courtesy of Orlando Sentinel)

Bring in the Lakers!

latest musing of Etchie at 23:57 1 comments

Monday, May 11, 2009

potpourri v.1

alright, so i finished a vignette on an idea that came up a week ago.

it was one of those rare occurrences that i managed to end a story i started---most merely simmer in the hard drive on an endless wait for the right kind of muse to drop by and remove the leash to its culmination.

to work on a vignette for more than a couple of days in excruciating, let alone the sci-fi short that i've been working on for a week now, still stuck on the fourth page with nowhere to go except to relegate it on a temporary hibernation. although i have the best way on how to end it, but the flow of thought had escaped me as i was on the process of writing. hence, it inadvertently stalled.

* * * * *

the recent days found in the online forum i frequent was this disturbing reality of Bradbury-esque proportions.

the levying of duties on the importation of books in the Philippines in violation of a United Nations agreeement signed in Florence in the 19050s. the sad fact is, one of the signatory countries is the Philippines. moreover, the Customs bureau--with direct coercion and perhaps, nudging by the Department of Finance (whose Undersecretary stupidly iterated that novels and such are not publications of any educational nor cultural nor scientific importance---apparently she never touched a book ever in her life?) vehemently implemented the so-called appropriate taxes on the shipment of imported books on a basis of a misinterpreted Republic Act that contradicted the ratified 1950 agreement.

as a bibliophile myself, and one of those who believe that the free-flowing of ideas are mostly achieved by one's appetite for anything of the written word, this turn of control by the Philippine government probably has some both ulterior and blatant motive behind. whether to curtail the stream of knowledge or merely to attain a certain quota, such discriminate conduct does warrant public outcry.

* * * * *

speaking of books, i'm currently treading through Haruki Murakami's wonderful collection of short fiction: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.

and a line on this particular short really caught me on my weakest:

"The real you has been eaten by the cats. While you've been standing here those hungry cats have devoured you--eaten you all up. All that's left are bones."

latest musing of Etchie at 21:24 0 comments