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Required Reading

A couple of weeks ago, Patch Buenaventura left a message on my comments board. He wanted to interview me about "And All Things Nice", a story I wrote that got included in the FAST FOOD FICTION anthology.

So, I emailed him and answers his questions. I then asked what made him decide to do a report on my story. Turns out "And All Things Nice" is part of their English class reading list.

I was able to track down and the email of his teacher to confirm it.

Here's Mrs. Cheekee's reply:

Dear Budjette,

Well, you are right -- and not-so-right at the same time. And yes, I heard how Patch Buenaventura emailed you and asked you all sorts of questions about the story for his literary critique. Actually, you are right: your story was read in the fourth year batch -- but forgive me if I say that the only reason we included it in the list was its length (or is that non-length?)
We wanted to have the students a feel of different short stories -- short, long, Filipino, non-Filipino, sentimental, romantic, weird, twisted-ending, etc.

Thanks for being kind to Patch and his interview. It's writers like you who give Filipino authors a good image.

Regards,
chingjchee kee

Well, at least I wasn't included in the "how-not-to-write" list.

I later got an email from Patch saying he got an A+ on his report. (Congratulations, Patch!)

It just feels weird that Ateneo high school students are now reading my story and writing reports about it. I remember how, back in high school, we were required to read short stories and novels and write reports about them. I loved some of them and loathed a lot of them.
There were those stories that just blew me away and somehow, I'm sure, nutured this love for reading and writing.

Makes me wonder how many students read my story and said, "Wow! This is so cool" (Or these days, kids would probably say, "Ooohh! That's hot!") And how many of them read it and said, "That's it? And then what happens? I have to write a report about this?"

Feels weird.

Feels nice.

.

"Our work requires inspiration, but leaves little time to find it."

Wow.

It's already Wednesday.

12:43am to be exact.

I spent most of the day revising the copy on a project.

I wasn't exactly feeling fantastic when I woke up this morning, but I went to work only to find out that the meeting I was supposed to attend got cancelled.

So, I accompanied the team to a meeting with the Big Bosses to present some pro bono work. The BB's liked the team's work, so that's getting produced. That little victory was probably the only sliver of sunlight to this very grey day.

Then I went back to my desk to deal with more revisions.

Did you ever get to watch "Apollo 13"?

Remember how... “The astronauts had moved to the lunar module from the command module to conserve power for the emergency return to Earth. They had lithium hydroxide canisters to cleanse their spacecraft of carbon dioxide, but some of the backup square canisters were not compatible with the round openings in the lunar module. [The engineers] soon had a proposed solution to retrofit the canisters, but it took a day or two tobuild a mock-up and get instructions to the crew.” (Quote from: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/04/19/apollo13.engineers.ap/)

In the movie, the NASA engineers gathered around a table. Several technicians dumped boxes containing equipment and tools on the table. The head technician held up a square canister and says, “We've got to find a way to make this…fit into the hole for this…;” and he held up a round canister, “... using nothing but that.” Referring to all the stuff on the table, which were materials found in the lunar module of Apollo 13.

Talk about having to MacGyver-up a solution.

Most times, work feels like we're on Apollo 13. We have had to make a square client requirement fit into a round creative campaign, given a limited amount of time and resources.
But we're not really on Apollo 13. We're not really on a mission to reach the moon. We're not really trying to reach for the stars. It would be nice if that was the case.

1am

Time for me to go home.

I've got a meeting at 10am.

"We spend so much time putting out fires that we've become better firemen, and lesser architects."

QUOTES FROM: "Slaughter the Sacred Cows" by Sally Hogshead, http://www.commarts.com/ca/colad/salH_274.html

Last Man Standing

It's 12:55am.

I am the only left in the office.

What the heck happened to Monday?

I got here around 9am and it was just one meeting after another.

Felt like I did so much, yet accomplished so little.

Ever had one of those days?

And I was wasn't able to work on the comic book script. Bummer.

Must make time for the script tomorrow.

Tuesday.

It's already Tuesday.

What the heck happened to Monday?

Hello sir/ma'am who ended up at my blog because you Googled "Makaaasa Ka lyrics Rivermaya". I blog in your service. Below are the lyrics to the song you seek. I guess you ended up because I mentioned it as one of the songs I played at Dylan's Tapsirock show.

MAKAAASA KA
Music by Rivermaya
Words by Russell Molina

Di mapapatid ng layo
Ang tibay ng pangako
Na kahit magkalayo
Darating ako
Di malulunod ng dagat
At sa haba man nito
Ang bulong na nagsasabing
Nandito lang ako

CHORUS I

Darating ako
Sing bilis pa ng hangin
Sa oras na kailangan mo
Makaaasa ka sa akin
Di mabubura sa limot
Taon man ang bilangin
Ang tamis ng alaala
T’wing ika’y kapiling

CHORUS II

Darating ako
Sa kisapmata’y kapiling
Narito ang sandalan mo
Makaaasa ka sa akin
Makaaasa ka sa akin…
Makaaasa ka sa akin…

KID ZEUS and ATE CAROL (page 4)


Story by Budjette Tan. Art and letters by Jonas Diego.