catching up on monday = very long post

i got bitten by the writing bug last week. I actually just opened a Word document and started to type words that were floating in my head. Well not exactly floating.. more like my mind's blank then BAM stuff come out.

I also finally figured out the plot to my ornithanthropus ( winged humans) story and it also came to me this weekend but i chose sleeping over writing (yes that was bad :( and i'm sorry for it) and i got a really nasty dream because of it.

dawn sent me a nice link on how to write successfully written by no other than stephen king.

i've been meaning to post this link i found in tin's blog, On Meeting My 100 Percent Woman One Fine April Morning. It's a nice short story for Valentine's Day.
I think i love her classes too. There are times i wished i had taken some literary course instead of my engineering course... usually when i'm stressed out from work or when in college, i'll be reading some techincal book and my friends get to read wonderful books and short stories for class!

i took the weirdness quiz

the results:

Of all the weird test takers:
61% are more weird,11% are just as weird,
and 27% are more normal than you!

only 27%?!!! i must be doing something wrong. i'm turning normal! i know a lot of people out there won't agree to that so hmmm. lets take that test again...

ok nevermind. i got the same result.

and yet another mindless quiz :



i've also started wearing my glasses. really wearing them and not wearing them for a few minutes, taking them off and thinking "i can see better without them". mostly because my head hurt when i didn't wear them and they really do work. my eyes don't seem strained in front of the computer and yes, it is easier to read.

i also got a yellow stress ball from my office mate. im looking forward to hours of fun playing with tammy and pretending to throw the ball around.
while we're at it, i forgive my friend for the lateness of my lotr because of this :


neil gaiman at sundance... and yes that's borroms getting his autograph

yes i really wish i could meet him too.
sorry neal, i know you're kinda getting jealous over all the attention on the other neil.

I got this from dawn's blog.
Have you ever
(x) snuck out of the house
(x) gotten lost in your city
(x) seen a shooting star
(x) been to any other countries
( ) had a serious surgery
(x) gone out in public in your pajamas
() kissed a stranger
(x) hugged a stranger
(x) been in a fist fight
( ) been arrested
(x) done drugs
(x) Had alcohol
(x) laughed and had milk/coke come out of your nose
(x) pushed all the buttons on an elevator
( ) swore at your parents
(x) been in love
(x) been close to love
(x) been to a casino
( ) been skydiving
( ) broken a bone
(x) been high
( ) skinny-dipped
(x) skipped school
( ) flashed someone
( ) saw a therapist
(x) played spin the bottle
(x) gotten stitches
(x) drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour-- or water
(x) bitten someone
(x) been to Disneyland
(x) gotten the chicken pox
(x) kissed a member of the opposite sex
(x) kissed a member of the same sex
( ) crashed into a friend's car
( ) been to Japan
(x) ridden in a taxi
( ) been dumped
( ) shoplifted
( ) been fired
(x) had a crush on someone of the same sex
(x) had feelings for someone who didnt have them back
( ) stolen something from your job
( ) gone on a blind date
(x) lied to a friend
(x) had a crush on a teacher
( ) celebrated mardi-gras in new orleans
( ) been to Europe
( ) slept with a co-worker-clasm8!
( ) been married
( ) gotten divorced
( ) had children
(x) seen someone die
(x) had a close friend die
( ) been to Africa
( ) Driven over 400 miles in one day
( ) Been to Canada...
( ) Been to Mexico
(x) Been on a plane
( ) Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
( ) Thrown up in a bar
( ) Purposely set a part of myself on fire
(x) Eaten Sushi
( ) Been snowboarding
( ) Met someone in person from the internet
( ) lost a child
(x) gone to college
(x) graduated college
( ) done hard drugs
( ) tried killing yourself
(x) fired a gun
(x) purposely hurt yourself
(x) taken painkillers
(x) LOVE someone or miss someone right now

i suppose this will now take up the entire blog page :) so i'll end it. i'll try... not promising anything here, to post something useful or insigtful next time or maybe a nice piece of fiction.

when drug tests weren't so popular

invasion



when drug tests weren't so popular

Just a few of the windows error messages you can make here! It's great and fun.
the output is a bmp though i wish i can convert it to jpeg better.
hehe wish i can use it in my computer.

the up fair is going to be held on feb 14-20. my sister teased me that we missed the fair because they were packing up booths and the stage yesterday morning :) but fortunately enough we haven't. i hope i can get there at least for friday or saturday night. i'm still trying to get details on which bands are playing for the week.

My cousin told me in passing that the students in their school took drug tests. He is enrolled in an Interational school so I was mildly surprised to find out they are now testing high school students and in private scools as well.
Lately, the government has been more active in stopping drug use and I can't say I'm sad. It's hard enough driving with all of the bus drivers, jeepney drivers, truck drivers and taxi drivers but at least I can hope they're not stoned. (we're still not sure if the drivers who choose to steal all the lanes aren't stoned or drunk)
Plus, they can actually stop drug abuse in teens before it gets worse.

a few more things to be happy about

my slippers at work (yes... we can wear them at work! i mean be kind to the engineers who actually spend their nights here) had to be replaced coz i broke the strap.
we went to market market last sunday and at watson's i bought a new pair. arlene always said they were really soft and she's right.
the best thing about it is that they have this simple character on the flap and they come in mint green (which i suprisingly realized, is my favorite shade of green). i got the mouse/bunny. i initially thought it was a mouse because it was initially paired off with a cat. unfortunately, i couldn't buy a pair with different designs.
they're sooo soft and yes now the characters in the slippers look like bunnies because my slippers flop.
i don't walk i flop :)
you might wonder why i just keep posting and posting.
yeah, work is kinda light.
kinda stands for days when the project "ended" and we're just fixing the bugs and i can go home early after 0-2 hours overtime.
and sometimes i just have too many things to say.
i'm still waiting for my lotr box set to arrive.
unfortunately before it arrives it has to be SENT!
sorry, i appreciate the gift and i will appreciate it even more when it actually gets here hehehe.
to the person involved... you promised!

blogs and the people behind them

yup. a lot of people have them.
i think its a great internet invention.
for me, as a writer it helps because people do write meaningful things in them and you get a chance to read them. yeah enough drama... here's a few of my favorites/only blogs i actually know and read.

http://neilgaiman.com (Neil Gaiman)

--- umm... need i say more?

http://somethingpositive.net (Something Positive)

--- cool comics and a blog

http://ihatemyflatmate.blogspot.com/ (Things I hate about my flatmate)

--- this is hilarious. it's new, barely a month and yet the author updates it everyday without fail. every new day is a new source of misery. sometimes i wonder why she doesn't just kill her or if the author is a girl or a guy. though since she does know tampons, she must be a girl.

http://dustmotes.blogspot.com (The Litterbox Letters)

--- johann's blog. johann's usually the storyteller/game master at our rpg games. the oldest thing i remember about him was when he said "i hate elves" and at that game... i was one.

http://breakfastatmcdo.blogspot.com (The Adventures of Stinky and Tin)

--- tin's and johann's wedding blog (nice idea to have a blog by the way and in a couple of months, it'll turn to a marriage blog). all i can say is the gown is very beautiful and satin kicks the rest of the competition away. who needs lace and beadwork?

http://kiteflying.blogspot.com/ (Serpent Beneath the Flower)

--- tin's own blog. i just met her around 2 months ago but i like her and no, the fact that she gave me cookies when we first met has nothing to do with it :)

http://clair.pinoyweb.net/ (Blah)
http://eclair.bizhat.com/blog/ (Blah)
http://pedxing_04.blogspot.com/ (Crossroads)

--- i think clair posts on these three blogs. the first blog is her main blog and the second is her tech blog. she has got the cutest dog.. almost as cute as mine :) and yes i am biased.

http://sunshinysarcasm.blurty.com/ (Blood and Snow)

--- rej's blog. she gave me an idea for a good romantic place but tagaytay is far. then again i drive to alabang everyday so that's like just another hour or so...

http://www.tabulas.com/~seasprite (ending with a whimper)

--- my best friend dawn's blog. the same dawn mentioned before and possibly one of the few people who actually read my blog. hi!

http://thedragonwhodid.blogspot.com ( The Dragon Who Did)

--- of course, neal's blog which is still new and the title is related to mine.

i'm gonna place all of them in my links side anyway but i felt they needed introductions because i'm not a random clicker and thus, don't go to other people's links as well. try to visit them. tin's blog has literature stuff (links to short stories) and dawn's blog has lyrics to The Cure's songs among other things...

a few short (and late) introductions

Why did I start this?
well ... the 53rd Palanca award winners were just announced. I didn't win.
:D
Unless there's any way you can win even if you haven't submitted a single thing... and I realized that I should have joined back then. Why? Because I've finished my studies, I've taken and passed my board, I already had a job and no matter how busy I was, I should have joined.
Plus, I 'm way past the age where I'd be the youngest Palanca winner (though I'm not sure how old the youngest winner is plus there's the Kabataan awardees...).
So I should force myself to write and this is it.

Where did I get the title?
"Dragons don't land here" is something that just popped in my brain one day. I was driving home one day and I saw this huge billboard of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" and it asked me ( as it asks everyone who reads it) "Where will you be?"
Good question.
My answer: here in the Philippines, the land where dragons never land and aliens too. Everything bad happens to well known countries. Too bad for them. :)

Who am I? (or a brief history)
Well, find me someone who can answer this question completely without saying their name and I'll probably ask him/her to answer the same question.
I'm a design engineer/frustrated writer who as i mentioned above, lacks any good reason to be a frustrated writer.
I've written a couple of stories and i've noticed that the best plays and short stories i have written involve at least one person dying, which by the way may be good or bad...
i still don't know.
i have lots of ideas most of the time but i don't get a chance to write them down or i don't know how to make it work yet. i found out i'm great under pressure so if i find myself hanging from a cliff i can probably finish a novel or two.
i was a weird kid. i loved reading even back then. my first book was nancy drew detective stories (hardcover novel of short stories on how to be a detective). i also had the original grimms fairy tales(also in hardcover) so in my early years i didn't know cinderella though i did notice the resemblance to Aschenputtel. my favorite fairy tale was from hans christian andersen -- the little mermaid (i also read the real version about the mermaids turning to foam and how she got a soul...) who died in the end.
yes, now i see the pattern.
i have lots of friends but i also have friends that i don't usually have contact with but are still close to me.
i used to write... a lot.
that was ages ago. before high school. probably because i lived in another world back then. heck, i even wrote on the back of my nancy drew book a story which i will never be able to read because i was still learning how to write(literally) back then.
then i got into high school and science and math kept getting in the way.
then college came and i found myself in the company of people who inspired me to write again and taught me other things as well.

Where did I get the icon?

The icon was just edited from a baby dragon picture. The baby dragon was found in a jar in Brittain. It's a hoax of course, but a really good one. I found the picture here but you'd have to settle for Neil Gaiman's version of it here because I couldn't find the article.

i'm sorry

yup, another neil gaiman post... hopefully the last one till we actually get news whether he will go here or not.
i got news from johann yesterday that neil gaiman's visit to the Philippines is not supported by any major company. A bunch of his fans invited him and he agreed but before he can really go here, the money has to be raised and stuff like that.
Johann's girlfriend tin knows the guys involved ( she's in the business so she knows ) and johann told me the estimated amount needed. it's 150% of what I expected so that means neil gaiman might stay here for a while or I grossly miscalculated the hotel expenses.
Anyway, i'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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If I get more free time from work I'll try to change the look or at least update the links... I'm getting the blog addresses of my friends so I can add them too but it takes time.
I finished reading Sin City.
Well the comics cos gave me anyway. I have to hand it to Frank Miller. He's one of the directors and they managed to make the film exactly like the comics. I don't think he's going to change the plot or anything. The scenes even come from the comic book pages themselves.
The lines are exactly alike and Rosario Dawson is perfect for Gail and Clive Owen does look a bit like the new face of Dwight so I'm really excited about that.
Of course Constantine comes first and well, I haven't read the entire Constantine series but I like him. I know the movie plot might not be from the comics but I hope Keanu does John Constantine justice.
The new Batman movie will also have Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) as Ra's Al-Ghul and Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow as the villains. I just hope Katie Holmes actually fits in the movie coz I love Christian Bale as Batman, I've liked him in Swing Kids though I admit I liked Robert Sean Leonard (Neil Perry in Dead Poets Society) better.
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I don't know why i get attached to some songs sometimes. Around a month ago I kept listening to "Comfortable" by John Mayer, a week ago to "Warrior is a Child" by Gary Valenciano and now "Name" by Goo Goo Dolls.

Hob's Leviathan

All this talk about neil gaiman made me want to write about the first time I actually read his work.
Yup, I really do remember, like the fact that Nancy Drew was my very first book ( I learned to read with that book) and that I probably don't like Sydney Sheldon that much coz I read her when I was eight and got confused (possibly traumatized) by the love scenes.
I picked up a copy of Sandman: The World's End completely by chance.
Back in those days I'd go with my mom to Powerbooks (she was the manager back then) and I'd stay there from 9am to 11pm and just read books. I can finish a 300 page book in about half a day that time.
It was 9pm and the store was closing. I had just finished a book and it was too late to start on a new one so I sauntered off to the graphic novels planning to get the Frank Miller Batman novel. There was this table filled with Sandman graphic novels and I got curious and looked at it. Most of them had Introductions written by other famous authors and I was intrigued by the reviews so I chose one. I picked World's End because Stephen King wrote the Introduction for that one and I said to myself that if Stephen King bothered to write an Introduction for a comic book... then it must be good.
I have never read anything like it. The basic plot of people telling stories was familiar but everything else was different.
I was enjoying myself till I got to the third story: Hob's Leviathan.
I swear when I opened the two page spread with the monster I felt tiny. I was so caught up I didnt want to look up in the store because I might see it looking down at me.
Of course now I read the same story but it never has the same effect anymore.
Anyway I was hooked.
I got even more hooked when I read the story about neil gaiman's version of Snow White.
I was also very lonely because during those times my friends didn't know him.
I've spent the next few years dilligently looking for his books. Even got Good Omens from Amazon.com.
For 6 months now I've been reading his blog regularly and the guy's bloody brilliant even in his
blog. Lately other Filipinos have been asking him questions and I'm happy I'm not the only one looking forward to something that's 6 months away with too much excitement.
If you haven't heard of him you can choose any media you want : comics, novels, short stories, poems, children's books, television shows(Neverwhere though that may not be available here), movies (he translated Princess Mononoke and there's Mirrormask plus a bunch of movie adaptations for his other works). You can also read his online journal.
Off to work...