Ricky’s painting brings up two science-fiction themes: space travel (He cites Jack Kirby as an influence. Silver Surfer!) and subatomic universes. We remember one particular classic SF story in which the protagonist gets smaller and smaller, and every time he shrinks he drops into a different scary universe. No, it’s not The Incredible Shrinking Man.
In this case, “she” is this country.
According to the Commission on Audit special report on pork barrel funds:
– Dozens of lawmakers received PDAF beyond their respective allocations (each senator should get P200million and each lawmaker, whether for congressional district or party list, P70 million). One lawmaker, whom she declined to name, received P3 billion of PDAF in all.
– Some funds were released for projects outside of a congressman’s legislative district or sector.
– One non-lawmaker, a certain “Luis Abalos,” received P20 million PDAF and no agency could explain how this happened…
Our friend at Tigerair says they will operate additional flights tomorrow, Sunday, August 18 and Monday, August 19 from Manila to Cebu and back. Their flights depart Manila 1815, arrive in Cebu 1930. Flights from Cebu to Manila depart at 2045 and arrive at 2200. Get tickets at www.tigerair.com or at their ticketing offices at NAIA Terminal 4 and Mactan Cebu International Airport.
Happy Birthday, Matthias Eomer Octavian Federer-Urban!
Mat is our sweetest, most polite and considerate cat. He sometimes attempts to speak human, producing the words “nyork” and “nyatch”. Today he will answer your questions about your career, your future, your romantic relationships, and stuff you probably shouldn’t consult a cat about. Post them in Comments and wait for The Oracle to answer.
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Being a very nice boy, Mat will answer your questions all weekend.
Photographs of our friends in Hello Kitty eyeglasses.
Sheryll is a shoe entrepreneur, Francine is the lifestyle editor of InterAksyon. Sheryll’s label Shoes by Kai produces handmade shoes using indigenous weaves—abel from the north (Ilocos) and soon, yakan from the south (Zamboanga). Francine welcomes contributions to the Lifestyle section. Pitch your ideas at…(hold on, we forgot to ask).
Jaemark is the managing editor of InterAKTV, which makes him the Lord of the Rings.
Editor-in-chief Roby hosted the second InterAksyon Cafe event with talks by Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez (20 Months of ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’) and coffee nerd Bobby Timonera (who depressed us with his assessment of local coffees but recommends Craft in New Manila and Curator in Makati.)
In the audience were Roby’s real bosses, Joy and Kia. (Roby: O. Us: Buti lang nagmana sa mommy.)
Incidentally, we gave a talk about movies at the first InterAksyon Cafe event. It went well, but we asked the team not to upload the video on YouTube because we had three chins. Two chins is normal, three is an invitation to trolls. (Never get shot from below.) We will post the audio as a podcast next week.
Afterwards we had dinner with Rene, who had to be home by 9:30pm to watch you know what. We caught an episode recently. The exes meet in the street. The music rises. A gust of wind disturbs the leaves on the ground and ruffles Eric’s hair. They have a strained conversation and a brief handshake. Then they spend the next five minutes in their respective apartments staring at their hands, unable to bring themselves to wash them. (Text at 10:27: Ayan na! Vincent is OUT!)
Chloe Grace Moretz who plays Hit Girl in Kick-Ass 2 shows off her balisong-flipping skills. She’s been training with balisong since she was 11. Train, train, train. Write, write, write. Same thing, almost.
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We are organizing a writing workshop. A practical writing workshop, which means that by the end of the workshop participants should be well on their way to finishing their books.
If you are sure you want to write, you already know what you’re going to write (or have started working on it), and you are prepared to do the work, this could be for you. It helps if you are open to criticism (You will have to read your work to the class), are good with deadlines, and rarely or never make excuses.
If you think you want to write, have been kicking around some ideas, and will get started as soon as you find the time, think about it some more. Think very hard, and try writing something before you make your decision. We require certainty. When you’re sure, you can join the next workshop—assuming we all survive the first one.
If you’re looking for something creative to do in your spare time and are looking to unleash your inner artist, this is probably not for you. There are many creativity seminars that would better suit your purposes. We’re assuming that the people who join this workshop are already unleashing whatever monsters they’ve got.
The workshop is open to writers and translators (from English to Tagalog) of literary classics. It will be held in Makati sometime within the next two months. Each workshop will consist of four classroom-style Saturday afternoon sessions. Sessions will be held every other Saturday to give participants enough time to meet written requirements. The workshop will span 7 weeks. After the workshop we will continue to check on your progress, and we may even offer to publish your book.
We’re accepting a small number of participants. A small fee will be charged, just to make sure participants don’t blow off the workshop (Though we can waive it in cases of extreme need). To apply, send us (1) one-page resume, (2) a writing sample (or translation sample) of 1,000 words, and (3) a cover letter about the book you’re writing. Email these to koosama@gmail.com, subject “Writing Workshop”, by 30 August 2013.
Do not send us your entire manuscript; we will not read anything more than 1,000 words long. And don’t follow up on your emails, we hate that.
Past winners and participants in our LitWit Challenges will be given priority, some of you have already been sent emails.
See you at boot camp.
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