It's better to cross the line.

“It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life.” (Rule in patintero.) 

Old journal entries.

Found some of my old electronic-journal doodling whilst cleaning my laptop. It’s always nice to look back to the way things were.

Are we brave?

Which is braver living or dying?

“We’re brave because everyone wakes up in the morning and sets off into life without blowing their brains out.” – Skinny Felix, Crazy by Benjamin Lebert.

6/25/02

Powersale

PowerBooks had a sale last week. I think it ended yesterday. My sister and I went there Tuesday, June 11, and we didn’t do so badly. The prices for the bargain books were outrageously low. As in f*cking, get-out-of-here-you’re-going-to-give-me-a-heart-attack kind of low. There were four tables that said P25-, P50-, P95- and P195-. My sister and I eyed each other. I saw her lips curl, as I felt my left eye twitch. We nodded at each other and like two surgeons out to perform the most complicated and dangerous of organ transplants, we each cornered a table and proceeded to methodically pore over every title for the best buys. Not bad . . . not bad at all, I said to myself with a quiver. Most of the books were hardcovers and some were still in shrink wraps. I walked away with Marketing Strategies for Writers by Michael Sedge (softbound, before P659, now P99.00); Crazy by Benjamin Lebert (hardbound, before P825.00, now P99.00); Destiny by Tim Parks (HB, before P999.00, now P99.00); and The Monica Lewinski Story by Andrew Morton for P99.00, SB, which I bought for my LolsiePolsie (read: grandmamma). Moe got three books: one was a guide to tarot reading, another a book of incantations, and the third one she told me was a book of rituals for every season. My sister, the Blair witch, ladies and gentlemen. I wanted to get more, but I didn’t want to be that crazy. The cashier rung up my purchases and the register showed the total price sans discount. It amounted to P2K+, but I actually paid only P400+. What else can I say, except that I’m very happy? =)

6/17/02

More on books.

Saturday, June 15, I dragged my husband to Megamall and then to Makati. After reading Marketing Strategies for Writers (which is my new writer’s bible at the moment) and finishing Crazy (which was great as all coming-of-age books are bound to be great), I am convinced that more finds could be had at PowerBooks. The Megamall branch gave stingy discounts to bargain books, but Penguin Classics were on sale for P69-/copy. I asked my husband if we could go to the Makati branch instead and he said, okay. Yay. But, first we had to look for a store that sold rain sticks. We found one at the fourth floor of Bldg. A. The Museum Shop is one of my favorite stores. It sells a nice collection of curio items—from handmade paper to masks to antiques to artworks to rain sticks. I first saw a rain stick being used as an indigenous musical instrument during Aba Dalena’s band’s performance at the launching of Beauty for Ashes, a book tribute for the late Maningning C. Miclat in UP Diliman last year. It’s a yard-long bamboo stick, about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, hollow, and filled with minute seashells. Titling the stick produces a sound that uncannily mimics rain =). I wanted to have one ever since. My husband asked me what for. I said, “Because, I hardly hear the rain anymore.” Our apartment is an inner unit and since we’re at the xth floor, the rain hardly ever goes noticed, except when it’s a deluge. I wanted to be able to recreate the sound of rain in my own bedroom. The rain stick at the Museum Shop was a bit overpriced at P900+. I remember seeing a less maporma one at a kiosk in Glorietta 4 for P400-. Oh, well. I have to think it over and besides, my husband dampened my spirit by saying that it sounded like shells inside a hollow bamboo stick and not like rain at all. Pooey.

At the PowerBooks branch in Makati, the books on the four bargain tables had been greatly reduced. I saw a couple that were interesting, but I didn’t buy them. They were not that interesting. I went and bought Kilometro Zero by Eugene Y. Evasco at P300-, instead. It’s a compilation of his poetry. I like his works very much. His poems are breathtaking in their simplicity and he writes in Filipino—a great combination as far as I am concerned. I saw “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy among the Penguin Classics on sale, but didn’t get it. I still have a lot of books to read at home and I want to prove to my husband that I’m not the book druggie he claims me to be.

6/17/02

The cleaning sponge at home is starting to grow black, dotty things. I snip at them with scissors. I'm actually growing some really vile stuff here.

5/22/02

There's no peace in this world. The main idea is to move and to move relentlessly, pursuing dreams, ambitions, and agendas. Very few people value stillness or silence.

1/21/01