The Fat Man Today

Work's become so much of a part of my daily routine that I don't even have the time to blog or to write that story for the upcoming speculative fiction collection the third, and it's getting the best of me by making me grouchy. Fortunately, Thelonious Monk is always great company for the pressurized heart. Speaking of Dean Alfar. I regularly read Dean Alfar's blog just to keep in touch with what's what and hot and not in the mainland of the Pinoy writing universe. His site's no survey of Philippine literature, but he delivers news of the kind that don't dwell on the overomnipotence of the singular well-placed word, so it's the kind of lit news that I'd actually like to read. Not that I lose myself in his posts much; I read his blog, not his fiction. Take this entry, for example. It illustrates a discipline in writing that should become something like a force of habit for anybody dead set in making anything out of any art form, since inspiration is ...

I love Final Fantasy Six. In the same manner as most FF fanatics love Final Fantasy Four. Nobue Uematsu hit the heights of midi entertainment with six, and this was the last good FF game that wasn't at all touched by Berserk. That's a side note right there. Berserk features main character good-guy Guts who's out to fight against Godhand Femto, formerly Griffith of the Band of the Hawk. Guts weilds the Dragon Slayer, while Griffith is a nancy boy with a katana. This was an idea spawned during the 1980s. Way beyond the idea of Cloud and Sephiroth were brought to conception. Coincidence? There aren't that many consipracy theories that attempt to link Berserk to FF VII, but hell, I'm sure Guts and Griffith influenced the characters of Cloud and Sephiroth. One-winged angel? I mean. c'mon. Seven was good, but FF IX went beyond VII in terms of story and originality, and that's reality. So no, VII was only groundbreaking because of the 3D, and the RPG Arc the Lad wa...

New story up in the old Zeppelin. You can read the, er, murder here . Short stories are fun when you don't think about them, and it relaxes a really tired mind sometimes. If you're lucky, you might even come up with something good. A couple of weeks ago, I was told that a story of mine will be coming out in the newest issue of Story Philippines. That was a couple of weeks ago, a few days before the holy week celebrations in the Philippines ground almost all big businesses into a standstill. I hear the issue's been released though. My family actually bought five copies. One of my sisters called "Japanese Green Tea" (my story) short but sweet. But don't take her word for it. Take mine, and believe me when I say that the story goes really well with an ice-cold San Miguel pale pilsen and a few grilled eggplants. Many thanks to Mr. Bernas for letting my constant nagging slide. The newest issue of Dapitan was also recently published, and yes, I sent in stories (yes!...

I'm taking a break from this fluke of a flu to post something I chanced upon while searching for back issues of the Reader's Digest section "All In a Day's Work." (I read that laughter boosted the immune system, and what with the deadline I'm facing, I'll need all the help I can muster. Forth, Martiningas!) Here's the text in (somewhat) full: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And He said: Let there be Chemistry. And he looked upon the Chemistry and He saw that it was good. And then He said: Wait, we need more carbon. Also more water. Tap is fine. Soon there was something new upon the waters of the Earth, this thing called Life. It oozed, multiplied, diversified. It learned to swim, crawl, even fly. Eventually a new form of life appeared, a creature large of brain, compulsively inquisitive, with an obsession for asking the really big, hairy, gnarly questions, such as: Where did I come from? That's when things got really ...