the anniversary

I was about to post something on my blog, when I thought of checking out my archives. Lo and behold, I just discovered last August 26 was the 10th year anniversary of this personal blog. I mean, who would’ve thought that a simple challenge and hobby among college friends back in 2006—which became an online repository of early attempts at literature, rants and opinions, humor and melodrama, and all things sundry—will last this long? 10 years. Imagine that. In this little corner on the internet, I see how my writing has evolved, and it gives me goosebumps stumbling upon old entries. Yucks. Because of this realization, I began checking out the blogs of my college friends too. Unfortunately, all of them have tended other distractions and priorities, and most of their last posts have been published in the mid-2000s. I don’t know what to whip up for this milestone. Perhaps Top 10 of this and that? Maybe. For now, I will have to settle with sprucing it up a bit, give the banner picture a new look.

the biggest circle of friends, a history

In the early days of college, somewhere in the middle of 2006’s second quarter, we seemed to gravitate to people who were a year ahead of us (some way older). It could be the humor beyond our age that they had, the no-nonsense quality they possessed, the campus tricks-of-the-trade they knew as if these were the back of their hands. So when time came they had to go, finally graduating (some after five, six or so years), we felt a massive chunk of our social lives chipping off. Even those in the university paper (where we spent/wasted a couple of our hours) who we thought would linger longer, if not forever, had packed up. Cue Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

And there we were, left to each other. Still in the university paper, juniors this time in 2008, it was our turn to let in new applicants for the recently vacated staff slots. We met odd, giddy, idealistic, gullible, and especially younger girls and boys. It seemed the world they lived in was leagues away from ours. They were fine, but something felt stilted. Out of gratuitous infantilism, the three of us then decided there were no better companions than ourselves.

There may only be three of us but our tandem was larger than life, indestructible, powerful. We stuck together like evil stepsisters. We were the Biggest Circle of Friends. BCF. (Yes, we were naive and self-absorbed that way. Bwa-ha-ha).

But in irony’s twisted hands, we co-wrote this feature article for the first issue of the paper that made us think back to our former selves. Odd, giddy, idealistic, gullible, and most especially younger. “The Five Enemies You Meet in College.” It was a guide of college archetypes for freshies to be wary of. Then it dawned on us we three could be Enemy #5. We were turning into people who we would loathe when we were wide-eyed, free birds a few years back. We simply laughed it off, all for satirical ha-ha, but we knew it struck a chord. Cue Beethoven’s “Allegro Con Brio.”

So we changed, in the purest deus ex machina kind of way. Everything was fine. We realized the newbies we met, especially those in the publication staff, night after postmortem night (the evening meeting we call for reviewing the just-released paper) were as neurotic as us. And in today’s parlance, it deserved a  “Like.”

The three of us kept the circle.  We were still the Biggest Circle of Friends, and today’s our fourth year anniversary. Why? Well, it was just the day we wrote the aforementioned article, with “Biggest Circle of Friends” turning up as the feature’s byline in hundreds of papers circulated all over the university (and perhaps all over Negros Oriental) four days later. We just deemed it was worth remembering.

These days, we don’t get to see each other as much as before, but to hell with drama. There’s Facebook and there’s Twitter. One’s now reviewing for her bar examination, one’s a manager of an events agency, and me, well, oh look, a kitten! Grab that cute, little kitten!

golden for days on end

The fiftieth edition of the Silliman National Writers workshop may have ended two weeks ago but the barrage of photos in many people’s social-networking sites, sprouting numerous threads of banter and nostalgia, proves that it doesn’t close that easily. Memory lingers.

And adding to the spring-like recollections of the mother of all Philippine creative writing workshops’ anniversary, here are articles in today’s national broadsheets putting into ink once again how beautiful this writing family is.

Gaudeamus: Golden Writers
Alfred A. Yuson
The Philippines Star, 30 May 2011

A Golden Age of Writing
Ian Rosales Casocot
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 20 May 2011

nuts until 60

When it comes to comic strips, nothing translates melancholic human nuances into child humor like “Peanuts” by Charles Schulz. Now that the cartoon is in its 60th anniversary, I will purchase all those lovely coffee table books commemorating its staying power if my wallet permits me to. That’s how I love the gang of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, etc. Good grief!

Way before I poured most of my time in literature, I drew and sketched regularly in the hopes of becoming a Schulz someday. Peanuts and the world-famous beagle were my objects of fascination then, the comic strip’s wit my holy grail of all speech and thought balloons (until I discovered Marvel). I may not be as passionate to paneled storytelling as before but my adoration for it, especially Schulz’s masterpiece, remains until now.

Sample comic strip taken from this link.

an attempt to avoid dormancy

Just look at that. Since when have I posted a decent post here? I can’t even remember. It would even be more confusing if I define what “decent” is in the context of the blogosphere. Due to the reality that I am finally one of the million of employees working like machines, it is hard to find some time to write. I can ever consider myself lucky right now I am able to come up this. Here are some posts for lost writing time of events.

Anniversary. My mother and father have just celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary last August 1, Saturday in the afternoon, at Villa Alzhun, Dauis, Bohol (even if the actual anniversary date is on the third). This Ruby anniversary is just one of the seldom seen testaments that there are things lovely and touching—and hopefully, things that would last. To the Higher Being, bless this family.

Work. As what I have said earlier, I am a working citizen now, paying taxes that even the genius Albert Einstein could not comprehend in his lifetime. The first week of the job is pretty unhurried, nicely slow an understatement, but I know my bosses’ smiles and words of encouragement would not last. I know that being absent on the first day of the job is not a plus factor to my records. I know that someday I will pull every strand of my hair and shout, “Heck! I can juggle but I am no magician!”

Absurdity. I still have a bit of time to write something else so I have included here mundane undertakings a fool would puke if he would know. Because I work in a company that’s slightly above call-center and advertising corporate-look standards, I cut my hair. But because I know I will not be comfortable with how everything looks the same (and smiles the same) with each other, I add another ear piercing. Maybe next time I will wear my faux diamonds. Oh, by the way, my upper set of teeth is in retainers already. Absurd, enough? Tell me.