some boosters
last friday, as i was going about my work trying to find justification for my decision to reverse the findings of a regional office to dismiss an employee, i received a piece of paper from one of our docket personnel. it was a special order, and under normal circumstances, an SO is one feared by many, because it either uprooted them from their place of office or meant that they had some falling out with the present powers-that-be. turned out that i was being given additional responsibilities, and i didn’t give it much importance. i had my secretary give me a folder so it could be filed. then, when i arrived from mariveles last sunday, my dad said my name was announced over the radio. i thought, oh no, not again. i had already previously received a letter from a radio station alleging that i was “in cahoots” with certain DENR personnel in region II to delay the processing of a certain FPA and subdivision plan. i got so pissed when i received that letter that i deliberately did not work on the case. but this latest radio announcement had to do with the SO i received before the weekend. apparently, the appointment was one of importance. i don’t have the documents with me right now but as far as i can remember, the office of the president issued a malacañang administrative order creating a body to investigate NIPA inc. (NGOs for integrated protected areas, inc.), and DENR appointed me as its permanent legal counsel. i hope this means more traveling!
in other news, my work in citiguide is getting noticed. after submitting my 2nd article on batad, the US-based editor said i was doing a “good job” and that he enjoyed reading my work. well, the articles i do for this magazine are relatively shorter and oddly detached from me -- the first person is missing. and they’re also written in a shorter period of time. whereas my last article on batanes took around a week to finish, these get finished in only several hours. the jason moss article in fact took just less than 2 hours (well, it was just a page and a half). i need to develop a more clinical, distant, and less attached approach to writing, if i want to be a bit more prolific in getting myself published. it isn’t so lucrative to begin with. i’m constantly surprised how some writers can churn out text and material like rabbits in heat. but then again, these guys aren’t all that good anyway, and i remember telling someone that getting one’s byline on print doesn’t so much rely on one’s talent, but rather on one’s connections. now how to make those connections, that’s the question.
in other news, my work in citiguide is getting noticed. after submitting my 2nd article on batad, the US-based editor said i was doing a “good job” and that he enjoyed reading my work. well, the articles i do for this magazine are relatively shorter and oddly detached from me -- the first person is missing. and they’re also written in a shorter period of time. whereas my last article on batanes took around a week to finish, these get finished in only several hours. the jason moss article in fact took just less than 2 hours (well, it was just a page and a half). i need to develop a more clinical, distant, and less attached approach to writing, if i want to be a bit more prolific in getting myself published. it isn’t so lucrative to begin with. i’m constantly surprised how some writers can churn out text and material like rabbits in heat. but then again, these guys aren’t all that good anyway, and i remember telling someone that getting one’s byline on print doesn’t so much rely on one’s talent, but rather on one’s connections. now how to make those connections, that’s the question.