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Following the show’s arc, Drogon and I have agreed on our house allegiances.

It’s been eight days since the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones, and every day somebody sends me a show-related meme (many cats dressed as Lady Olenna Tyrell), joke (usually about incest), video, or mathematical meditation on Jon Snow’s ass (Fibonacci). Nearly everyone in my sphere is experiencing withdrawal symptoms that can only be alleviated by (increasingly bizarre) speculation on how the series will end. Someone should make a series about how people deal with the long wait.

In the meantime, you can read A Song of Ice and Fire, the sixth volume (The Winds of Winter) of which readers have been waiting for almost as long as the HBO series has been around. Then you can study the beautifully rendered maps in The Lands of Ice and Fire, and delve into the history of Westeros from the Children of the Forest to the First Men to the Doom of Valyria in The World of Ice and Fire. The anthology Dangerous Women includes the story The Princess and The Queen, or, The Blacks and The Greens, a thrilling account of the brutal war between rival branches of House Targaryen known as The Dance of the Dragons. And A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (the Dunk and Egg stories) follows the adventures of the future Ser Duncan, commander of the Kingsguard, and a boy called “Egg”, an ancestor and namesake of the not-bastard formerly known as Jon Snow.

At the very least, you will be better equipped to speculate on the ending (and scream, “That’s not canonical!”).

I am the star of Game of Thrones. Drogon, fool, not a White Walker.

Much as we love Game of Thrones, with an affection that cannot be shaken by its abandonment of logic, we aspire to a life in which a new episode of the series is not the high point of our week, or the topic of all conversation.

P.S. Could not resist.

JRR Tolkien = George RR Martin
Aragorn the reluctant heir = Aegon (Jon)
Frodo the hobbit = Tyrion the dwarf
Samwise Gamgee= Samwell Tarly
Boromir = Theon Greyjoy
Eowyn the lady who wants to fight = Arya, who might kill
The Witch-King of Angmar, lord of the Nazgul = the Night King

TV: Legion – A. From the showrunner of TV’s excellent Fargo, an X-Men origin story with shades of Wes Anderson. I’ll review it when I’ve finished the first season.

Movie: Get Out – A

Book: Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift – A.

On Mothering Sunday (the religious precursor of the commercial Mother’s Day) in the English countryside in 1924, 22-year-old housemaid Jane has an assignation with Paul, the son of the owners of the neighboring estate. They’ve been having an affair for seven years. He is getting married in two weeks to the daughter of the owners of another estate. This is the last time they will ever see each other again.

It sounds heart-rending, and it is heart-rending, but that’s just the beginning. Graham Swift’s short, exquisite novel is about the English class system, sex, and loss (Jane never knew her parents; her employer’s sons died in WWI and so did Paul’s two brothers). It’s about the stories we invent about ourselves, the stories we find ourselves in, and how stories can be true even when the pieces are made up. It’s about becoming a writer.

(I especially recommend this novel to readers who love Atonement.)

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via BoingBoing

It’s heartwarming, discovering that clever people whose work we admire can be just as stupid about money as we are.

Richard Linklater, the director of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight and many other movies we love, explains why he’s glad he got downsized.

Anthony Bourdain seems to have all the answers, but when he was 44 he had never had a savings account, hadn’t filed taxes in 10 years, and was AWOL on his AmEx bill.

Watch TRIPPIES online at PhilStar TV. (Thanks, jaypee, for sending the revised link.)

Answers to questions you might ask:

1. Yes, it is completely unscripted and spontaneous.
2. Yes, Pepe and I were acquainted but we never hung out until we started filming Trippies.
3. Yes, we have no make-up or styling because we have enough to do without worrying about how we look. Yes, we could do with make-up and styling. (After I viewed the first two episodes I realized I should go back to wearing black because I look even weirder in color.)
4. No, I have the easiest job on the show because I just stand there and yak while everyone has to plan and execute shots, etc.
5. No, the age difference is an advantage to me because I can use it as an excuse. Example: Naah, I won’t go down the loooong stairs to the underground tunnel, I might re-injure my knee.

TRIPPIES airs on Sundays at 730pm on CNN Philippines, with replays Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at lunchtime. Pepe and I guest on Real Talk with Christine Jacob Sandejas and Rachel Alejandro this week.