wanted: a purpose in life
The subject of this post sounds awfully tragic, but I'm not really into melodrama. I've been feeling extra-unproductive lately however, and it's bugging me. I think part of it is that I'm graduating from college at the end of this month, and a part of me believes that I'm not ready to be let loose. Or that I'm ready to let go. (I'll save the pondering over the voice of the statement some other day.) Anyway, I've been trying out some small tasks that I've neglected for the past couple of months, and in some cases, for the past couple of years, to occupy me. So far, this is what I see myself doing in the next few weeks:
1. Reading
2. Traveling
3. PBwiki-ing
1. Reading
I finally have time to read again. I don't have to feel guilty anymore for succumbing to this pleasure instead of doing my homework. (I'm finally free, woohoo!) Then again, the stuff I want to read aren't out yet, and so I'm looking for new stuff to get hooked on. I Googled up my favorite authors, and though it's terrible that their new stuff are still, well, in the works, I'm just glad that some of them at least have announced dates for the release of their books:
Naomi Novik - Temeraire Book V: Victory of Eagles (July '08)
I dropped by
naominovik the other day and found this: Organization for Transformative Works
This is pretty cool and an awesome hardcore support of fandom.
Terry Pratchett - I Shall Wear Midnight (forthcoming--which usually means 'this year or early next')
I haven't read any of the Tiffany Aching novels, but I'm eager to start. I admit it's partly because I am enchanted by the title "I Shall Wear Midnight"--I mean, who wouldn't be? It's made me curious, and I am definitely adding the T.A. novels to my reading list.
Apart from this, I hear Pterry's working on Nation, a non-Discworld novel, as well as "Razing Taxes", a Discworld novel centered on Moist von Lipwig, a new character that has recently gained popularity through "Going Postal" and "Making Money". Frankly, I'm more of a Rincewind fan, and even a Vimes fan, but that didn't stop me from writing a fanfic about him.
Some news about him:
On Pterry's health... here and here.
George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire Book V: A Dance with Dragons (accdg. to Martin, it seems that it's going to be 2008 or bust)
I really love Martin's brand of story-telling. It is consistent, and it delivers the goods. It's not namby-pamby, unlike what some other fantasy writers end up doing (what with staggering amounts of exposition being the unhappy by-product of world-making). However that I'm disappointed that Martin himself is not good with deadlines, as he himself has admitted, I still believe in him, and his latest sneak-peek chapter on Jon Snow proves that his books are still worth the long, loooong wait.
Other books I'm looking into...
I discovered The Four-Hour Work Week through PBwiki. The same day I read about it online, I dropped by the local bookstore across the street from school and actually saw it on display! Now THAT's hardcore. I so want to ask my dad to buy this for me. It will be the first self-help book I will allow myself to read. I do believe this is feasible, under the right circumstances, in the right age, with the right environment as your starting point and base of operations, with the best kind of family and friends to support you, and with an enormous amount of luck to supplement your own strong mix of cunning, daring, optimism and prudence. I actually think I am a viable candidate for this. (Haha, until I'm proven wrong, of course.)
I also tried Googling for recs of new (or not-so-new) novels, and I found an interesting but not-so-new list: New York Books: Book Hunt 2007 Some titles I found really interesting, and I owe it all to the class I took just this semester: Trans-Atlantic Modern Novel. It's heavy on the readings, but a totally cool class. I learned that I have a knack for literature, and since that class was MA-level, it actually boosted my confidence in getting an MA in English Lit and even teaching. I regret though that it's the only Lit class I ever took. Our teacher got his training in Berkeley, and so his syllabus and method was quite radical for me, and even the MA students found his coursework to be challenging. The reading list was standard, according to him, but I found it eclectic and surprisingly interesting. We had Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner--the classics, and even dabbled in Toni Morrison, Henry Miller, Robert Crumb and Anne Carson.
2. Traveling
Lately, I've been zipping from home to Manila a lot. I find that I can't stand being in Manila for more than a day, so I go home to the province come sundown. I've been limiting my trips to Manila, and I guess I'm just lucky that I still get my work done in less than a day so that I'm not forced to spend the night in the boarding house. The 50+ miles from home to Manila seems to get shorter and shorter the more that I'm on the road. It's almost as if I'm just taking the LRT to old Manila. I miss the days when the road stretched long and far, flanked by fields of rice in varying hues of green and gold. Going to Manila was still an adventure back then, and even if I didn't care much for the destination, I still enjoyed the trip. (Even when I'm SRO -standing room only- in the bus, it's actually fun.)
Lately, I have this desire to do some mountain trekking. There's a Senior's Climb coming up next week, and my friend's invited me to tag along. It's been a long, long while since I've gotten 'in touch with nature'. (It's a corny way to phrase it, but I don't subscribe to the idea of romanticizing nature when I can help it.) I hope though that it's not going to overlap with a trip my classmates are planning to our teacher's retreat/ family home in Zambales. I want to go to the beach (and try to even out the accidental tan I got last year that is just really annoying). I also want to go visit friends in far-away places. (I'll definitely be going to Batangas to visit my best friend. Nueva Ecija is in the horizon, but I'm really not sure I'm up to it. Bicol is also in the horizon, but the trip is expensive enough that it's got to have a purpose, or why push through at all. The Big Momma is Mindanao in April--oh, to spend a week in the deep south! But, that one's still iffy. I'm lobbying for it 100%...it's just that I have to convince the financiers that it's as good a graduation present as a trip to Puerto Galera. I'd choose being deep six in a jungle in Basilan over Boracay any day. (Well, not really...that's just bravado talking. But I really, really want to go to Mindanao!)
3. PBwiki-ing
Oh god, I finally have time for PBwiki! Woohoo!
I still use my wikis, if only to update my ever-growing reading list, but I've practically dropped off the radar of the PBwiki community, which is something I regret, but I still felt had to be done (mainly because I really had to focus on school because I got it into my head to aim for a GPA that'll secure the option of post-grad studies for me). Now that school's done, I'm hoping to be active again in PBwiki. And boy, do I have a lot of catching-up to do!
I'm so proud of PBwiki and how it's grown in the last couple of years. The PBwiki people are the best kind of people, and I loved working with them. On the level of a consumer of their product, I totally love PBwiki, too. Currently, I'm testing their beta V2 which is really exciting since I am using so many things that were on that wish list in the old PBwiki forum two years ago.
1. Reading
2. Traveling
3. PBwiki-ing
1. Reading
I finally have time to read again. I don't have to feel guilty anymore for succumbing to this pleasure instead of doing my homework. (I'm finally free, woohoo!) Then again, the stuff I want to read aren't out yet, and so I'm looking for new stuff to get hooked on. I Googled up my favorite authors, and though it's terrible that their new stuff are still, well, in the works, I'm just glad that some of them at least have announced dates for the release of their books:
Naomi Novik - Temeraire Book V: Victory of Eagles (July '08)
I dropped by
naominovik the other day and found this: Organization for Transformative Works
This is pretty cool and an awesome hardcore support of fandom.
Terry Pratchett - I Shall Wear Midnight (forthcoming--which usually means 'this year or early next')
I haven't read any of the Tiffany Aching novels, but I'm eager to start. I admit it's partly because I am enchanted by the title "I Shall Wear Midnight"--I mean, who wouldn't be? It's made me curious, and I am definitely adding the T.A. novels to my reading list.
Apart from this, I hear Pterry's working on Nation, a non-Discworld novel, as well as "Razing Taxes", a Discworld novel centered on Moist von Lipwig, a new character that has recently gained popularity through "Going Postal" and "Making Money". Frankly, I'm more of a Rincewind fan, and even a Vimes fan, but that didn't stop me from writing a fanfic about him.
Some news about him:
On Pterry's health... here and here.
George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire Book V: A Dance with Dragons (accdg. to Martin, it seems that it's going to be 2008 or bust)
I really love Martin's brand of story-telling. It is consistent, and it delivers the goods. It's not namby-pamby, unlike what some other fantasy writers end up doing (what with staggering amounts of exposition being the unhappy by-product of world-making). However that I'm disappointed that Martin himself is not good with deadlines, as he himself has admitted, I still believe in him, and his latest sneak-peek chapter on Jon Snow proves that his books are still worth the long, loooong wait.
Other books I'm looking into...
I discovered The Four-Hour Work Week through PBwiki. The same day I read about it online, I dropped by the local bookstore across the street from school and actually saw it on display! Now THAT's hardcore. I so want to ask my dad to buy this for me. It will be the first self-help book I will allow myself to read. I do believe this is feasible, under the right circumstances, in the right age, with the right environment as your starting point and base of operations, with the best kind of family and friends to support you, and with an enormous amount of luck to supplement your own strong mix of cunning, daring, optimism and prudence. I actually think I am a viable candidate for this. (Haha, until I'm proven wrong, of course.)
I also tried Googling for recs of new (or not-so-new) novels, and I found an interesting but not-so-new list: New York Books: Book Hunt 2007 Some titles I found really interesting, and I owe it all to the class I took just this semester: Trans-Atlantic Modern Novel. It's heavy on the readings, but a totally cool class. I learned that I have a knack for literature, and since that class was MA-level, it actually boosted my confidence in getting an MA in English Lit and even teaching. I regret though that it's the only Lit class I ever took. Our teacher got his training in Berkeley, and so his syllabus and method was quite radical for me, and even the MA students found his coursework to be challenging. The reading list was standard, according to him, but I found it eclectic and surprisingly interesting. We had Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner--the classics, and even dabbled in Toni Morrison, Henry Miller, Robert Crumb and Anne Carson.
2. Traveling
Lately, I've been zipping from home to Manila a lot. I find that I can't stand being in Manila for more than a day, so I go home to the province come sundown. I've been limiting my trips to Manila, and I guess I'm just lucky that I still get my work done in less than a day so that I'm not forced to spend the night in the boarding house. The 50+ miles from home to Manila seems to get shorter and shorter the more that I'm on the road. It's almost as if I'm just taking the LRT to old Manila. I miss the days when the road stretched long and far, flanked by fields of rice in varying hues of green and gold. Going to Manila was still an adventure back then, and even if I didn't care much for the destination, I still enjoyed the trip. (Even when I'm SRO -standing room only- in the bus, it's actually fun.)
Lately, I have this desire to do some mountain trekking. There's a Senior's Climb coming up next week, and my friend's invited me to tag along. It's been a long, long while since I've gotten 'in touch with nature'. (It's a corny way to phrase it, but I don't subscribe to the idea of romanticizing nature when I can help it.) I hope though that it's not going to overlap with a trip my classmates are planning to our teacher's retreat/ family home in Zambales. I want to go to the beach (and try to even out the accidental tan I got last year that is just really annoying). I also want to go visit friends in far-away places. (I'll definitely be going to Batangas to visit my best friend. Nueva Ecija is in the horizon, but I'm really not sure I'm up to it. Bicol is also in the horizon, but the trip is expensive enough that it's got to have a purpose, or why push through at all. The Big Momma is Mindanao in April--oh, to spend a week in the deep south! But, that one's still iffy. I'm lobbying for it 100%...it's just that I have to convince the financiers that it's as good a graduation present as a trip to Puerto Galera. I'd choose being deep six in a jungle in Basilan over Boracay any day. (Well, not really...that's just bravado talking. But I really, really want to go to Mindanao!)
3. PBwiki-ing
Oh god, I finally have time for PBwiki! Woohoo!
I still use my wikis, if only to update my ever-growing reading list, but I've practically dropped off the radar of the PBwiki community, which is something I regret, but I still felt had to be done (mainly because I really had to focus on school because I got it into my head to aim for a GPA that'll secure the option of post-grad studies for me). Now that school's done, I'm hoping to be active again in PBwiki. And boy, do I have a lot of catching-up to do!
I'm so proud of PBwiki and how it's grown in the last couple of years. The PBwiki people are the best kind of people, and I loved working with them. On the level of a consumer of their product, I totally love PBwiki, too. Currently, I'm testing their beta V2 which is really exciting since I am using so many things that were on that wish list in the old PBwiki forum two years ago.