Keeping in Touch

It's been a strange year for me in terms of my fandoms. This 2010 has been the year in which I've finally winnowed my fandoms down to pretty much a bare handful:

> the Takarazuka Kagekidan
> the film Inception
> the modern Doctor Who [to be specific, this would be from Nine till Eleven]
> the 2010 BBC miniseries Sherlock

And it's been so inspiring, particularly the whole Inception thing. I got in on that one on pretty much the ground floor and it's been a wild ride ever since. December will see the release of the DVD, so that will probably mean an explosion of fannishness. And of course there's also the fact that the fic exchanges are all going to start posting around the Christmas and New Year holidays. So you can bet I'm pretty excited about that.

I've had a lot of firsts with this fandom, and so I guess it's only fitting that I do something else for the first time this year. The thing about my fandoms is that the fans are scattered widely, all over the world. It's fun to meet them in cyberspace, but it's just as amazing to try and contact them for real.

So I'm going to try and kick off another first for me this year: send holiday postcards all over the world.

One of the Google April Fools' Day jokes: a Google search, run by postcard.

The nice thing is that when I asked around my fandoms lists for people who'd like to receive a postcard from me, a few of them "demanded" my own address, so that they could also send me something in return.

I'm looking forward to writing out my messages and mailing the postcards out. I really am. Not to mention I can't wait to deploy my beloved pens! THIS is why I collect pens - this is the very occasion I've been saving them up for. *grin*

"Harry Potter is the best hope we have. Trust him."

Since this post will contain some hits and some misses in the first part of the final film installment of the Harry Potter series, PLEASE EXPECT SPOILERS FOR BOTH. Fair warning, okay?

Together with my parents, my sister, and my partner, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 last night. It was almost like a midnight screening, as the show started at about 10:30pm and ended just before 1:00am.

The first impressive thing I learned: the show was sold out. And this was a midnight screening, on a weekend, two whole days after the movie had opened. In hindsight, this was probably only to be expected. As the trailers advertise, it IS the beginning of the end, not only in-story but also for those who read the books. [At this point I'm not discriminating between the kids for whom the books were originally meant, and all the others - adults, families, parents, and readers - who fell in love with the books.]

The second impressive thing shows up as soon as the movie starts: the logos roll up in complete silence, and they are dark and grim, setting the tone for the whole film. Characters fall like flies, or reveal their hidden facets, and every single person in the film is pushed to their very limits. Voldemort plumbs the depths of evil, and of stupidity; the Malfoys and Bellatrix Lestrange find out what desperation is like; the Ministry of Magic falls to pieces.

Many commentators have already said their piece about the MoM sequences, and I can only add, "Damn right." There are SERIOUS World War II overtones in the story, from the puppet politician in charge to the security force with red armbands.

As for the good characters, well, just look at that film poster to begin with. Harry, Hermione, and Ron go on the run, abandoning families and friends and school and everyone who cares except for each other. This is not an idyll by any means. Things go horribly wrong before they start going right - and what little hope we have at the ending is squashed, hard, by the knowledge that the entirety of the Hogwarts sequences - including the climactic battle - is yet to come.

So many deaths. So many sacrifices. And we have to begin with the trio in flight.



Hits and misses after the jump:

Turning "japonais": kimono dreams

Because these days I've been writing out this entire universe of stories that are set in a fantastical swords-and-sorcery Japanese setting - you know, people in hakama casting magical spells or wielding traditional weaponry in epic duels - I've had kimono on the brain lately.

I have actually had the pleasure of wearing one of these very stately garments, but admittedly it was more like a yukata-type. It's been something like 11 years. I really would like to repeat the experience some time.

Anyway, here are some reference photos I've dug up from around the web. This first kimono has a gorgeous flower-and-tree motif. Aren't the colors just magnificent?



And this next one seems to be a compilation image of modern-day furisode kimono. If any one of the girls in the photo held out her arms to the sides, the sleeves would hang nearly all the way to the ground.

Granted, I'm a bit too old to wear furisode. These kimono are only suited for young women, and anyone over the age of 20, except a bride, is probably supposed to switch over to the tomesode type [of which the previous kimono is an example].

But I love the colors and patterns in these kimono and were I able to commission a tomesode kimono for myself, I would probably go for the pattern shown in the first / upper "furisode de invierno" [winter furisode].



Kirei na~, as the Japanese would say....

This year, I am carrying two swords

Previous Halloween entry: Trick/Treat/Trip



The first picture taken of me tonight, as the office braces for its Halloween party. I am carrying two types of swords and I intend to run around and pose some more with the damn things, as I am quite happy with them and I have never had a chance to do something like this. XD

There should be more later, or I will try to get someone to take other photos, I don't know.....

Scenes from my university

I recently found cause to write about UP-Diliman, the university that I attended for a few years, in rather elegiac terms in a story.

As that story is supposed to be part of a project where both words and images come together, I took it upon myself to add some references for the artist who will draw my story, and to this end I went out last Sunday to photograph my uni.

Turns out it was perfect weather to take pictures: a blue sky overhead, a sun that was not overwhelming in its light and in fact was a bit moody and muted. There were also not a lot of people on the grounds, which my SO and I attributed to that weekend being the first of the semester break, meaning, everyone might have gone home for a couple of weeks.

He and I took turns with the camera. I'm pretty sure that the third photo is his.

The facade of Ang Bahay ng Alumni features a striking stained-glass half-circle window, which unfortunately is not that obvious in this light. [Hint: it's that massive window with the iron traceries.] The name of the building roughly translates to "The Home of the Alumni".

A look up, up, up the UP Carillon. When we were at uni together we used to spend afternoons listening to the distant songs of the bells as they were rung in this tower. Recently the whole thing has undergone a facelift and it now looks much better than it did ten years ago.

The facade of Palma Hall, also known as AS [Arts and Sciences] and LA [Liberal Arts], depending on your generation, as seen through some of the acacia trees planted along the Academic Oval. Photo by my partner.

A photo of one side of the Academic Oval, taken by me while sitting on the sidewalk opposite Palma Hall. I really like the atmosphere in this photo: it makes us look as though we were the only people in the area. In fact there were a few bicyclists making the rounds - I just got lucky; I took the photo while they were still far away.

For all its flaws and strange idiosyncrasies I still think my uni is gorgeous and a joy to be in. I hope these pictures help convey that.

Martin Freeman's Life Just Could Not Get Any Better

Because he's been cast as BILBO BAGGINS!

His already impressive resume of beloved roles gets EVEN LONGER: from Tim Canterbury in The Office (UK), to Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and most recently Dr. John Watson in Sherlock.


Martin Freeman on the right, as Arthur Dent in his bathrobe, pyjamas, and towel. [Still from, of course, H2G2.]

All shall love him and SQUEE!

Home Improvement! We finally get a proper closet

The joke of this Sunday morning was, "I want a sonic screwdriver and I want it now."

We WERE watching a couple of guys assemble the closet we'd purchased last week, after all.

Hard to believe that we've been living in our apartment for close to three years and only now managed to have enough money for a closet. That might have had something to do with the fact that moving in had been expensive all on its own, and I was directing most of my money to just getting by.

Now I have some money stored safely away, so I was able to get something we badly needed.


The nice thing about this closet: lots and lots of space for organizing clothes. There's a mirror in one of the doors, too, so it's now possible for us to do a complete check on our outfits before heading out the door.


The main storage space in the closet.

[Yes, those are our chocobos. I took them back home after a brief stint in the office with me.]

Now I have to spend most of tonight organizing a ton of things. Hope that the Internet holds out and that the storm doesn't hit us very badly.

There go my NaNoWriMo plans

Inspired by a comment in a recent entry, I guess this is the part where I say that yeah, I'm sorry, I have to skip NaNoWriMo 2010.

It's the busy season coming up at work, and as the work will occupy me eight hours out of a solid nine on shift, I predict more days in which I stagger zombie-like for home and pass out from sheer tired.

I HAVE already written something like 30k words in the past two months, though, so all is not woe and despair.

And I WILL be haunting the NaNo forums to encourage my friends - sheesh, self, noveling vicariously much?

Scenes from a Vacation

I was on hiatus for a couple of weeks. As you might have noticed, the last blog entry had been on my birthday - and then radio silence here and on the Facebook fan page.

Well, that was due to a vacation. Took some time off, which culminated in me and my partner celebrating yesterday [Binary Day, otherwise known as 10-10-10] in a Chinese food marathon with friends and family.

Pics or it didn't happen, so here's some of the food from the past weekend:

Elbert's Cheesesteak - provolone cheesesteak hoagie, fries, iced tea and orange juice, 8-10-10.

Toast Box for breakfast with chocobos, 10-10-10

Conti's cakes for dessert, 10-10-10

I should try to go back to more regular posting from here on out. As it's almost time for the busy season to start at work, not to mention I've a 20k-plus story to write, I'll do my best.

It's National Coming Out Day. All my love to friends and readers and especially to a wonderful queer friend of mine in the US. And here is a possibly relevant video.


Chris Colfer [Glee's Kurt Hummel] for the Trevor Project: "It gets better."

And I'm 28 and a geek.

Well, THIS cake ain't a lie at all.


My frabjous birthday cake, courtesy of my wonderful partner. If you're wondering about the inscription, it's because we've been very amused by the Panda Cheese commercials.

Subtitled versions here:



And now I go to work. [Vacation next week!]

Team Chocobo shenanigans

In the previous post I had to use stock photos of my newly-acquired chocobos because I hadn't yet gotten around to pinning them down for a proper photoshoot.

So today I have a bunch of lovely chocobo pics for you to look at. Chocobo picspam attack!

My nuker Chocobo. "Kweh?" *casts Thundaga* "Kweh!"

My healer Chocobo. "Kweh!" *casts Cure* "Kweh?"

Team Chocobo Mages, ready to rock.

Healer: Kweh? Wanna fight?

Nuker: Kweh! This means war!

PJ: Okay, guys, take three steps away from each other and turn around and cast - on my signal....

And now I've got these two cuties guarding my workstation at the office, which reminds me that I will probably want to take my camera to a shift one of these days in order to get a proper picture and give you an idea of where I work. [I happen to be pretty happy with my desktop wallpaper at the office, too.]

Yay for loot!

It's been a long time since I've done anything that could be considered as absolutely nerdy/geeky/otaku-ish.

So let me tell you, it is with no small amount of pride that I report my Saturday acquisitions.

My partner and I went to a shopping location called Greenhills to meet my family for dinner and drinks yesterday. We got to the area a bit early, though, and decided to kill some time by loitering around a series of boutiques in Shoppesville.

Now, one of the corridors in Shoppesville is devoted to toy and hobby shops. Star Wars memorabilia, die-cast cars, all sorts of collectibles.

As I was about to leave the last shop, I happened to look down at a box full of plushes near a display of table tennis gear.

And what should I find in the box but THESE:

Chocobo Black Mage, from the game Chocobo's Dungeon.

Chocobo White Mage, from the game Chocobo's Dungeon.

Chocobos are the iconic mascots of the Final Fantasy franchise. I had wanted a plush forever. And now, I'd found TWO.

I asked the salespeople for the prices - they quoted me a figure which they claimed was already a discount - I sighed, and smiled, and said, "I'll take them."

I think I'll buy these two adorable birdies some protective armor and then proudly display them at the office!

Dream Team!

Related posts:
Inception: Rapid Review, No Spoilers
Inception, in on the ground floor
Fandoms at Random: Inception Dreams

Went out to watch Despicable Me with my partner yesterday. Great film, but I wish I'd also had the chance to watch Inception again - only this time in an IMAX theater, at a very cheap price. As a consolation prize, I asked my partner to take photos of me next to one of the movie poster banners.


Me and some of the Dream Team. It looks like I'm literally butting heads with Ariadne!


A failed attempt at heart-hands and the only decent shot that included both Arthur and Eames. [It took me this long to figure out that Eames is wearing HORRIBLE pants? The plaid he's wearing in this poster doesn't even look good on him!]

Aah, Inception fandom, how can you be so amazing? Just in the last month or so I've gone and done so many fandom-related and fanfiction-related experiences.

I'm now in the thick of preparations for two fanfic exchanges - basically, you write a fanfic or create fanart for someone and someone else does the same for you. One of the exchanges is Inception-only, for slash pairings, and my entry is already in beta. And then I signed up for one that was for crossovers, so that means Inception crossed with a lot of other things. You can imagine how pleased I was when I found out that this exchange also includes Doctor Who [specifically Nine, Ten, and Eleven], and Sherlock!

I joined a fandom auction to help the victims of the Pakistan floods, and actually got bids! That was amazing.

Kink memes! Haha! Granted I write fills for oddball prompts, but it's amazingly fun and incredibly addictive. Gah.

And it's in this fandom where I've actually become an active beta reader; that is, I help other authors out with their work by looking their stories over for grammar and other possible trouble areas. I've been a beta for at least three or four people now and I also have multiple betas for my own work. I'm unreasonably happy about all this collaboration and general community spirit.

*dives into the deep end*

Tai'shar Cairhien! WARNING: SPOILERS!

First-ever official book trailer for the fantasy series The Wheel of Time - and it's for the penultimate book in the series, Towers of Midnight.

Again, SPOILERS. /riversong


Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - official book trailer.

[Although, if you really want to get technical about it, the voice-over is another version of the letter that a character reads near the end of the last book that Jordan completed before he died, which was Knife of Dreams.

"Burn me for a fool," was Mat Cauthon's response to the character's request, "I'll go."

And the dice tumbling in his head stopped with a crash.]

I realize this is the first time I've introduced the subject of WoT in this blog and some people may be surprised that I'm a fan of the books, to the extent that I went around for a long time associated with a name from the series:

NineMoons.

[Yeah, not a lot of people made that connection. Oh, well.]

Really looking forward to November of this year for Towers, and then December/January of 2011 when we celebrate the release of the final novel, A Memory of Light.

A Hitch and a Holmes: The Return of Reading in my Sleep

After a beautiful Sunday out, I tweeted the following:

New books! New books! Hitchens's Hitch-22 and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Fangirling. Love to my partner. :3

And I told myself that I needed to blog the books, so here they are:


My copy of the hardbound edition of Christopher Hitchens's Hitch-22: A Memoir. It really does look as battered as it seems because for some reason I was able to obtain the last copy in stock at the Fully Booked branch in Bonifacio High Street.

[There were that many people interested in Hitchens in the Philippines? Shock!]

This is an advanced birthday present to me from my partner, hence the last part of the tweet quoted above.

I've already burned through three chapters and I'm looking forward to working through the rest.


This is a lovely little hardbound edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published under the "Collector's Library" imprint.

I found this while snooping through the classics collection at the same bookstore mentioned above; after I'd finished drooling at a lavishly annotated edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula, I found an entire cabinet of these little beauties. It's a fair selection of some of the titles in the English literary canon: from Shakespeare to Alcott to Tolstoy to Woolf.


Here's the Holmes, opened to part of "A Case of Identity". My hands are small, but they're tellingly enough to provide scale for this book. If you're looking for an honest-to-goodness pocketbook, then yeah, you could do worse than to pick up some of these Collector's Library editions.

I wonder if I should get A Study in Scarlet next.

Post Number 200: Pierrot Yarn Party!

Two hundred posts! Thank you for reading and supporting the blog! THANK YOU~~~!

[Warning: Post is image-heavy.]

Around the beginning of August, my good friend and fellow crafter Clair@Crafty Cat pinged me and another friend to ask if we would be interested in a rather special promotion she'd found online.

Pierrot Yarns, a Japanese brand of yarn, was holding a Lucky Bag Sale.

If you go in for Japanese merch or actually live and shop there, then this sort of promotion might be familiar to you as fukubukuro. Which is, basically, offering a random assortment of goodies and bonus items in a sealed, opaque bag for a very low price. We're talking deep discounts on all of the items in the bag. Sometimes the bags contain extreme finds like plane tickets for a holiday, fur coats [!!!], and gorgeous bags. The idea is to encourage the shopper to patronize the store that offers the lucky bags in the hope of getting some really cool swag, and eventually become a regular.

So Pierrot Yarns was offering its 2010 Spring/Summer inventory of yarns as a special fukubukuro promotion and buyers could choose whether they would get "Girl Colors" or "Boy Colors". The whole bag of 41 skeins of yarn was priced at a flat 9000 yen, AND the shipping was free! So you can bet that I pounced on the offer.

Well, this morning Clair and I met up for what we eventually called a crack deal [yes, as in drugs, hello SABLE]: time to split up the yarns. My share of the money came up to about 3000 PHP, which paid for both my half of the yarns and the customs duties. [&%*^$%&%$(^()**_)!]

Here's my share of the loot.


As you can tell from the colors in the photo, we chose the Boy Colors yarn.

Breakdown after the jump ^^

Fandoms at Random: The Starry Night

Related posts:

Fandoms at Random: Doctor Who Ramblings
Fandoms at Random: The Eleventh Doctor

Our heroes in the Doctor Who Eleventh Doctor episode "Vincent and the Doctor": Amy Pond, the Doctor, and Vincent van Gogh.

One of my most favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time has to be "Vincent and the Doctor", where everyone's favorite Time Lord crosses paths with one of the greatest artists ever.

Admittedly, this is not an episode for people who are looking for out-and-out happy endings. Time traveling or not, there are certain things that the Doctor cannot change, and the tragedy of van Gogh's early demise is definitely one of those unhappy intersections.

Which means that a frame like THIS is gorgeous and tear-jerking at the same time:

Amy plays the muse to Vincent - with sunflowers.

And there's a very beautiful moment near the end where the Doctor delivers the following line. Note that Dr. Black is an expert on van Gogh, and that through the wonders of time travel is unwittingly standing next to his idol:

The Eleventh Doctor, to Dr. Black: I just wondered, between you and me, in a hundred words: Where do you think van Gogh rates in the history of art?

The answer, of course, is Dr. Black going into fanboy mode.

Sigh. If ONLY.

I know the reception of this particular episode has been pretty mixed, but count me firmly in the supporters' camp. There are just so many reasons why the art of van Gogh has retained its meaning and its beauty through the years, and the people behind this episode manage to describe many of these reasons so beautifully, in such heartbreaking fashion.

Vincent and the TARDIS, done in the painter's distinct post-Impressionist style.

Big props to the writer Richard Curtis [yes, THAT Curtis, the man responsible for the movies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, and Love Actually], to the amazing Bill Nighy, and to the wonderful Tony Curran. And, of course, to our intrepid Doctor and to the spitfire companion Amy Pond.

Ideas for New Worlds 6?

This post comes as a response to [Conventions] Do You Want A New Worlds 6?


A wonderful wallpaper of all eleven versions of the Doctor, found at fanpop.com.

I think the paragraph that caught my attention was this:

While we gather enough people to make such an event possible, we should get the awareness ball rolling. Don't you want to have a convention for your geeky interests? Don't you want to be able to meet other people who enjoyed the original Star Trek series like you or perhaps who love the works of H.P. Lovecraft or Anne Rice? Don't you want to discuss how Lost ended with other Losties? Don't you want to be able to share a bottle of rum with a fellow Pirates of the Carribean lover? Don't you want to practice your spells with other Harry Potter fans?

[Um, please ignore the typo there or perhaps Captain Jack Sparrow will not mind that it is actually spelled "Caribbean".]

I have to admit that I have a fairly jaded view of some of the conventions held here in the Philippines because of two diametrically opposite reasons/problems/what-have-you:

1. Too exclusive.
2. Not exclusive enough.

Why are local cons too exclusive? Well, probably because of the accidents of sponsorship and the desires of the organizers: they might want to hold a comics convention that is open to everyone, but the sponsors might insist on exclusivity for their brand. And since the cons live and die on the sponsorships, the cons have some complying to do.

Why are local cons not exclusive enough? How would you feel if you said you were organizing a con for Western comics - and then a majority of the people in costume showed up as characters from everywhere else *except* Western comics? Note that there is no fault in this sort of set-up - but it does take away from the intentions of the con.

I think the problem is a lack of acknowledgment of fandom for what it really is: more than a marketing gimmick, more than an excuse to dress up, more than a motley assortment of people sharing interests that range from mildly exotic to I-have-no-idea-what-that-is strange.

Fandom is really just the same thing whether you're a Vilmanian/Sharonian/Noranian [this shows my age rather badly, doesn't it?], or an ardent follower of LOST/Harry Potter/Batman/Star Trek/Star Wars/Doctor Who, or a big fan of Take That/U2/Amanda Palmer, or even a massive mecha-head building Gundams and Gundam costumes.

Fandom is one: the collective energy of different types and groups of people who come together for the love of whatever it is they're fans of.

It's so simple and yet it's so complicated. And I really can't blame anyone who tried to organize a con to cater to all of these interests.

Being a member of at least one "obscure" fandom myself [read: I have only met a bare handful of fellow Filipinos in the Takarazuka Kagekidan fandom, and only one or two in the flesh!], I can appreciate how some fandoms will always be too small to be represented.

And being a member of a rapidly-growing fandom [hello, Inception!], I can also appreciate how some fandoms can quickly build to critical mass and hold there against all odds.

I love being a fan but analyzing it really takes the energy out of me. Gawd, where to even begin?

What do you mean we only get three 90-minute eps?!

...Or, yeah, I guess that's all we have for now since Moffat and Gatiss are, I don't know, getting ready for the next series of Doctor Who or something.

So, Sherlock! Thanks to some friends I was able to watch this mini-series over the course of one weekend.

Sherlock: [You've seen a] bit of trouble too, I bet.
John: Of course, yes. Enough for a lifetime, far too much.
Sherlock: Want to see some more?
John: Oh God, yes.



If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes and the tales written by Conan Doyle [and all the others], you might want to check out this re-imagining of the classic cases, set in the 21st century. Dr. John Watson is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who moves into a flat with the world's one and only "consulting detective", Sherlock Holmes - and the rest, as they say, is literary history.

There is a ton of details, in-jokes, references, and shout-outs in this all-too-brief show - thankfully we'll be seeing more episodes. Sometime in the future. We just don't quite know when yet.

And we will really be needing the next series of episodes because COME ON CLIFFHANGER ENDING what the heck?!

I'm really pleased with this whole idea of Sherlock Holmes enhancing his essential brilliance with modern technology. At some point I actually asked out loud, "How many mobile phones does he have?"

Benedict Cumberbatch nearly tried out to become the Eleventh Doctor, but he had a bit of a chat with David Tennant and decided not to do so - instead he's now Holmes himself. On the other hand, Matt Smith actually was turned down for the role of John Watson here, and Moffat promptly turned around and cast him as the Eleventh. Brilliant.

And how lovely to see Martin Freeman! The opening scene of the first episode is both something to make people wince and something to make people smile: he's PTSD-ing - in his pyjamas and a robe. Hello, Arthur Dent.

I really laughed out loud at the whole idea of Holmes wearing nicotine patches. He's still an addict, but he has to be much more discreet about it now there are *rules* to follow on the telly.

Anyway, this is incoherent but the message is: go, watch, and have fun. And afterwards come sit with us poor souls waiting on the continuation. Hopefully THAT comes soon.

Talking about fan fiction

Photo comes from this entry.

Funny how I talk so infrequently about fan fiction on this blog and yet I participate in fandoms by writing fan fiction.

All blog entries mentioning fan fiction. Yeah, there's not much.

Wikipedia sez:

Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF, or fic) is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator. ... Fan fiction, therefore, is defined by being both related to its subject's canonical fictional universe and simultaneously existing outside the canon of that universe.

I have been reading and writing fan fiction for more than ten years and I ... don't much write about it. Prior to this blog post, I didn't even make a habit out of telling people that I consume this stuff.

And then I find out that people like Neil Gaiman and Matt Smith [yes, THAT ONE] write fan fiction. And that Gneil, at least, has no problems with people writing the stuff for his work; the same goes for, hmm, the last time I looked J. K. Rowling didn't mind so much, either....

I know that there are serious legal issues with this stuff; I know there are fandoms in which fan fiction is actually Not A Good Thing; there are authors who actively ban it; and yet the fans keep going, producing reams of stuff in the process.

Wish I knew why.

Informal straw poll time.

Fan fiction: yea or nay?

Do you write or read fan fiction?

If the answer to the above question is yes, what fandoms?

That's all. Thanks for your time, dears.