No words either, except: rest in peace, Mr. Salinger.

Interesting.

1. Bold the names of guys you'd definitely sex it up with.
2. Italicize the names of guys you might do after a little persuasion.
3. Leave the guys who don't do anything for you alone.
4. Put a question mark after the guys you've never heard of.
5. Strike the guys you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
6. Add three more guys to the list.

( Now, let's see. )

The first road trip of the year happened because of a sad reason: my grandmother's sister had died, so we had to go to Lucena, Quezon to pay our last respects.

Still, I was excited to go because it was my first Lucena visit. My grandmother has always considered Atimonan her hometown, our favorite summer destination, where all the Escritors were based even before World War II. Her sister chose to settle with her husband's family in the province's capital instead.

Lucena was the average capital--complete with interesting stores, old houses and buildings, and new establishments. I wasn't very impressed because Antipolo felt the same way. But the road trip wasn't a complete letdown because I ended up falling in love with a completely different town--Lucban.

In contrast to Lucena, Lucban is a sleepy mountain town wrapped in mist. Sounds like Baguio, only nicer because it's not as crowded. We were there for maybe a couple of hours just to eat and buy pasalubong for the family, but that was enough for me to absorb the place's old-town charm.

Because it sits at the northeastern slope of Mt. Banahaw, it always seems to be raining in Lucban. We actually had a hard time driving toward Tayabas because it was so foggy up there. On the drive back, it rained only in Lucban, too. I took it as a very good omen.

( I'd love to live here someday. )

I know these pictures hardly do the town justice because I wasn't able to take photos of the more interesting places in Lucban. Oh well, next time. I'd love to visit it again for the Pahiyas festival this summer. And then maybe I'll get to stay for much longer than a couple of hours.

BY THE NUMBERS
New friends: A LOT.
Family time: Improved by about 100% hehe no kidding.
New jobs: 0
Jobs on the side: I lost count.
Cigarettes: 0 (YESSSSSSS)
( Drunken nights, culinary attempts, fake boyfriends, etc )

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bonne année et bonne santé à tous! :)

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is The Beatles: Rock Band set. I've been good. I'm not lying! (Well okay, I had my naughty moments.)

Thank you.

So many things to do--always the perfect reason to give for not being able to blog. Well finally, months' worth of work is up, and I'm making the most of the lunch hour by saying hello! And yes, please check out Cosmo.ph, it'll mean so much to our team.

Also, I want to share this beautiful letter by the late film critic Alexis Tioseco. I know, it's been linked by so many other blogs after he and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc were shot in their home last week, but I think it's one of those things you need to read so many times over.

Here's an excerpt:

The first impulse is always one of love.

The more films I saw, specifically local independent films, the more I wanted to see. The deeper I got, the more responsibility I felt, the stronger the need to do something, to share that which I found beautiful.

Writing in English, I never felt much of a need to write about foreign (non-Filipino) movies--though I'm often asked to, and mostly of Hollywood fare. While I love cinema in general, a passion that has grown exponentially over the years, I feel no need to put myself in service of that which doesn't need it. The feeling has always been: why write about Juno when I've hardly read anything incisive put to print about the great animation of Roxlee? Why write about No Country For Old Men when there's the brilliantly charming films of Antoinette Jadaone waiting to be discovered by readers?

It's been a week since, but it's still hard to accept we've lost such a great critic in Alexis. I'm sure cinephiles in Slovenia feel the same way about losing Nika. For the longest time, people have been saying there's no hope for Philippine cinema. Alexis could have done so much more for it.

The thing is, I've never even heard of them before--although I have a feeling I've seen them in one of the film fests I've been to.

If there's one thing I hate, it's missing something I've never had--or in this case, people I've never even met.

(Let's skip the "oh hi guys look I'm here" part. Okay)

Today is Ninoy Aquino day! I have no memories of the man (was born two years after he was shot), so I'm watching this movie on Sunday.