Bookish Relationships.

Bookish Relationships.

Reading a Misreading.

Reading a Misreading.

A Literary Bible.

A Literary Bible.

LISTS!

2009 Play list (aka soundtrack of my 2009. Suggestions for a less cheesy, more dorky title?)

1. I get ideas – Louis Armstrong

2. I’m on Fire – Sara Bareilles cover

3. Three Rounds and A Sound – Blind Pilot

4. You Don’t Know Me – Michael Buble cover

5. Omaha – Counting Crows (“In the middle of the day there’s a young man rolling around in the earth and rain. Hey, mister if you want to walk on water, you know you’re only gonna walk all over me.”)

6. Satellite – Dave Matthews Band (“Satellite strung from the moon and the world your balloon / Peeping tom for the mother station … Everything good needs replacing. Look up, look down all around, hey satellite.”)

7. Spoon – Dave Matthews Band

8. Mr. Blue Sky – ELO

9. I feel it all – Feist (“I'll be the one who'll break my heart. I'll be the one to hold the gun.”)

10. King of Wishful Thinking – William Fitzsimmons cover

11. The Christmas Song – Aldrine Guerrero arrangement on ukulele.

12. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – Lauryn Hill cover

13. Creature Fear – Bon Iver (“So many foreign roads so relatively fucked. So many forests of creature fear.”)

14. Flume – Bon Iver (“Only love is all maroon / lapping lakes like leery loons / Leaving rope burns reddish ruse.”)

15. For Emma – Bon Iver

16. Skinny Love – Bon Iver (“I’ll be holding all the tickets, you’ll be owning all the fines.”)

17. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park – Tom Lehrer

18. Heart to Heart – Kenny Loggins

19. Locked Up – Ingrid Michaelson

20. Maybe – Ingrid Michaelson

21. Nightswimming – Ingrid Michaelson cover (“Nighswimming deserves a quiet time.”)

22. Collapsible Plans –Jason Mraz

23. My Patch – Jim Noir (‘If you ever step on my patch, I’ll bring you down!”)

24. Love and Memories – OAR (“Didn’t you love me???”) Experiment: Listen to the song after watching Eternal Sunshine Of a Spotless Mind J

25. Geek Love – Nerina Pallot

26. Tonight You Belong To Me – Patience and Prudence

27. Desperado – Nato Ryuzaki arrangement on ukulele

28. Something – Jake Shimabukuro arrangement on ukulele

29. Santeria – Sublime

30. Hidden in the Sand – Tally Hall

31. Drop baby drop – The Mana’o Company

32. Australia – The Shins (“Keep your wick in the air and your feet in the fetters.”)

33. Jesus Etc. – Wilco (“You were right about the stars, each one is a setting sun.”)

Significant Things that Happened in my 2009

1. Went to Hong Kong and reconnected with my Chinese half.

2. Almost got quarantined for the AH1N1. (I had flu hours before a flight).

3. My first casino loss. Just a little over a thousand pesos but still! I hate losing.

4. A fiction story was shortlisted for the Ampersand (anthology of DECL)

5. Got my first ukulele

6. Finished my first sheet music

7. First something I am trying to repress here.

8. Got Yvonne Chua to tell me that I write nicely. Haha. Yes, significant siya. Cmon it is The Yvonne Chua. Maybe I could actually have a shot at this writing thing.

9. I survived Avecilla. Even managed for a tiebreak on his Jeopardy game!

10. I survived Lambino. Oh, but not without the torturous scrutiny. Lambino-style.

11. Started to rid my body of Prozac and my affinity of super sanitary hospital clinics.

12. I’m alcohol-free since August 2, 2009!

13. I, not the most avid hiker/proverbial indoor girl, hiked Mount Taal (the world’s smallest volcano.) In my defense, we trekked it using the harder route and that was really, really hard.

14. Got rid of my eyeglasses. It almost etched out my stereotypical dork but then…

15. I acquired my braces early December.

16. I discovered Bon Iver and Kelly Link.

17. Pact with geography buddies to tour all of Manila.

18. Pact with literary buddy to attend all University-wide writing events.

19. 154 Movies watched.

What I'm thankful for in 2009

Are my eyes.

My eyes are nearsighted — even with contact lenses on they could see only as clearly as a 40/50 ratio (on whatever scale measures them) AND with constant lurking floaters at that. They are demanding — they consume two bottles of Systane monthly. That keeps them moisturized and fresh. I don’t even use lotion on my skin. My skin is jealous of my eyes. Which is why I try to stay away from the beach and what they call summer heat as much as possible. AND they are wandering eyes. Both them. Like they have ADD or something. Sometimes they could not focus on one object for a long time and sometimes the opposite happens — they just stare for non-voyeuristic purposes. Good observers these eyes are but picky ones if you know what I mean.

If you know what I mean you’d realize by now they are not perfect, my eyes, BUT they are primarily the reason I quit Prozac and Zyprexa and sleeping pills all at the same time.

First months of this year, I was experiencing muscle pains, neck pains, extreme head aches, lightheadedness, and lacked focus. This is not the state you want to be in when you are in university especially when you just enrolled yourself to another field of study entirely different from your first course. I was legally prescribed the earlier mentioned pharmaceuticals way before my initial complaints were cleared up. Something was wrong.

I undergone laboratory tests and therapies to know what this wrong was. The coolest of which were the EEG where my skull and brain was examined by reflected ultrasonic waves (Oxford Dictionary, 2006) and an ink for my eyes that made them tear up yellow fluid. I consulted a neurologist, dermatologist (!), psychiatrist, pain management doctor, dentist, cardiologist, metabolism doctor, ENT doctor and finally, an opthalmologist.

The results of exams conducted by my opthalmologist revealed that I had very high astigmatism that did not match the grade of my current eyeglasses. I had to shed my librarian facade to make way for toric lenses.

So this meant that I am not diabetic or schizophrenic and I don’t have a tumor, multiple sclerosis, hypo/hyperthyroid, Bell’s palsy or cancer or aliens living in my ears. I’m just a hypochondriac paranoid (paranoiac?) human/person with genetic visual impairment heightened by a lifestyle of American television shows and non-required readings.

To Theme or Not to Theme

To Theme or Not to Theme

Why Good Writers Can Be Bad Conversationalists

Why Good Writers Can Be Bad Conversationalists.