So. I'm going to Singapore.

I don't really feel prepared, and I'm a little nervous, but more excited than anything else. Household's felt stifling these days - I don't know if it's always been like that and I just didn't notice recently because I was running through the wringer at school or if it's because there's been a lot going on for my family as of late. Either way, I think toughing it out on my own for two months will be good for me.

Been spending most of my time making sweet love to my PS3, as he has been FOREVER ALONE for quite some time now. I was supposed to get some writing and file fixing and marathoning done, but Dragon Age was just too shiny for me. ;; As it is, though, the game was totally worth it. I'm kind of glad I didn't have to spend a cent for it too.

Am resisting the urge (and failing) to write Dragon Age fic. Alistair, he is a puppy. And Zevran is my sexy bitch.

Yesterday was actually some kind of crazy... in the rush of stuff that I had to two for the past two weeks, I forgot to mention here that two of my closest friends had elected to get married on the same day. That pretty much left me scrambling all over the place to prepare, and then zipping from one place to the next on the day itself.

Fun times, though, if not a tad awkward, on occasion. As to why, I don't really want to say here. But I saw old faces, got to smoke in good company, ate nice food and generally enjoyed myself, even if I officially hate wearing long gowns. XD

Now before I go back to my downloads and my tagging and my gaming, an open meme for all you RPers out there looking to do some kinky stuff:

[open RP Post] Marry/Fuck/Hatesex Rough It Out/Tie Me Up/7 Minutes in Heaven @ sexhibitionists!


Aaaaand fic pimps.


► PERSONA 3. Minato & Minako // In a silent language
► PERSONA 4. Kanji & Naoto // The need to hold still
► SENGOKU BASARA. Koujurou // Too much love will kill you in the end
► GINTAMA. Takasugi // Will you get your wish?
► SOUL CAMPAIGN. Dojima & Roy // Memoirs of an amnesiac
► SOUL CAMPAIGN. Seimei & Sasuke // Your sweet symmetry, all shattered

This is so overdue, it ain't funny.

IN CASE YOU DON'T WANNA CHASE TEAL DEERS:
+ I managed to submit my paper as planned! I also finished my teacherly work, although it took a lot longer than it should have. Lol, vacation mode. Good job, brain.
+ I may have discovered something that could land me a research scholarship thing in Japan.
+ This semester ended with a bang and lovely family things.
+ SENGOKU BASARA 3, CAN HAS.
+ Slept over at the Cheng Chua pad since Khursten is house sitting.
+ RP is starting to lose its flavor.
+ Fandom never gives me pretty things. :|
+ NaNoWriMo is coming up. I need to get my ass in gear and start warming up with ficcage. Undecided on what project to do, though.


( And the long versions! )


The cat has greatly missed me, it seems, and it is also time for dinner.

Our PLDT DSL line appears to have completely killed itself - it just died overnight a few days back, and hasn't come on again. I tried calling them up, and they said they'd get back to me and file a report.

They haven't gotten back to me, and I doubt that they ever filed anything.

Philippine Internet: Made of Fail.

Currently running on smartBRO - I've been meaning to get a prepaid dongle thing for myself for quite some time now, so I guess this is all right.

If there is one good thing, though, about not having a fast and stable connection that I can keep on for ages, it's that I can let my brain idle more. For one, I usually hit the PC right after I roll out of bed and check things/tag around THEN end up rushing to get ready to go. Now I wake up, roll around, eat a proper brunch and prepare my things at my leisure, since I get lazy at the thought of setting up my laptop just to connect.

Speaking of brain idling: I'm not sure if it's a sign of age or exhaustion. I was totally internetless on Friday night, which left me with so many options on what to do. I ended up doing nothing but flop around in bed. It was oddly nice. o_o

Maybe I should take that as a sign and start shaving away at the the things I think I need to do or think about but actually don't.

---

Last full month of the semester has arrived, and not too much has changed. Students are a little less annoying, although I'm still having some trouble with the usuals. I'll write a longer entry on them sometime soonish, or maybe tell whoever wants to hear about it.

I was supposed to review the entire set of Philippine Speculative Fiction novels for the POC Review, but the project ended up falling through.

...sob, all of my effort. I suppose I can use it for something else...

Grad studies class is picking up again, since we haven't been able to meet each other nearly as much as we're supposed to. Got a report on Paradise Lost, which isn't really coincidental - my professor knows that I used the epic poem for my undergrad thesis. I've brought home the book I used as my primary source, and will be rifling through my notecards before I read through the whole thing to see if there's anything that I can use.

On that note, I've been meaning to go over my undergrad thesis and see if I can revise it and make it conference-paper or journal-worthy. Might as well: it'd actually be a waste to let all of that research gather dust.

---

I occasionally get worried that I might be going too slow with my scholarly shenanigans.

Then I remember that I intend to do this my whole life anyway, along with whatever else I can manage to get done. Should stop belittling my own achievements too - that's always good for one's self-esteem.

Why society is so obsessed with people hitting "success" at a young age is beyond me. Sure, some of us don't have a choice, but let's admit it - most of us do, and just pretend that we don't. Seriously, guys: if you end up killing yourself in pursuit of your goals, there doesn't seem to be a point to it.

---

This weekend was pretty nice, since I got to watch some sophomore Asian History sections duke it out in Bel Field via Kibasen, and I got to roll around with khursten even if she turned me into her slave labor at her office. Sunday was fun, too - went to the Esteban household for my cousin Jonat's birthday, and it's been a while since I've spoken to him and his siblings.

I now kind of want to invest in an iTouch or something like it, though. MUST RESIST AND SAVE UP FOR SPEAKERS/MONITOR/EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE/WINDOWS 7. ;A;

---

RP eats up a crap load of my time, yes, and is sometimes more stressful than it is worth. I've met a lot of people through it, though, and nothing beats being able to log with and plot with people who truly matter to me. Plus, I've got to admit it: I RP for the game, not for the company. Anything can be done if it means pushing the game forward.

Still, I should strike a balance between the roleplay and my writing. I haven't been writing all that much these days.

...Which might actually be less of a problem created by RP, and more because of RL. This year was even crazier than last year, now that I think about it. I'm often too tired or washed out to do anything with myself at the end of each day.

Interestingly enough, though, I have started on several short stories. I didn't used to do short stories, as some of you know. Let's just see how things turn out. o3o

---

Livejournal staff people have to stop breaking things that work just fine.

---

Note to self: check your flist more often.

BECAUSE THINGS HAVE BEEN BATSHIT HERE ;lskdah;ghadg--


BIRTHDAY; ate dinner with ze family - introduced them to Nihonbashitei, where much money was spent but great food was eaten!

On the weekend, I invited khursten, yukitsu and kye_kestrel over to my house for some quiet times! We rolled around a bit, and then I made the glorious mistake of introducing them to Heavy Rain.

Suffice to say, we did not really sleep.

OH YEAH I got lovely presents from like, everyone. Plurk was awesome that day too. ♥


SC LUNCH; ate with Yukeh, Lynffles, Nami and FM. Stalker pictures were taken for Celi (as requested, I believe), and good crepes were had!

No, I did not have motor oil stop calling me a machine, guys. >_>


DRIVING; Manila roads are, indeed, batshit.

Someday, I will get used to it.



SMOKING; I quit. 8D


SCHOOL; orientations, orientations, orientations, meeting new faculty people, grabbing my schedule. I've registered to a single class for my grad studies as well, although I was hoping to put in more units. We're terribly short on able professors, though, so lol, tutorial for me again.

Tried a different approach with my syllabus this time, namely doing a day-by-day breakdown, changing my reading list around and constructing modules that I've felt are necessary if I want to mint out the kind of students my university claims to have. Here's hoping everything goes well.


CONFERENCE; THIS IS CRAZY dg;lhsdghahdg BUT THINGS ARE BEING ARRANGED. I am not making much headway in hacking down my huge-ass paper to something short, beautiful and publication-worthy though.

Conference is on the 29th, so I'll be flying out by the 27th and in Los Angeles from then until July 3. Relatives are all raring to see me, and I am aiming to see some friends there as well.



RANDOM THINGS; I CLEANED MY ROOM. Sort of. I'm... still not done, actually.

I also keep telling myself that I have to finish my fic archive and never get around to doing it. Wrote some new things too, but I can't post them until I finish my archive because I am OCD that way.

I also kind of really want to fix my files and my icons because I sorta said I'd do those as well before summer ended...

Anyway uh, that's it.

MORE PICTURES COMING SOON. ISH.

Been meaning to update for a while, but it's become a real effort to check any of the usual internet haunts these days. My shitty connection is one of the main reasons, followed by a few other things that happened this month. Thankfully, the personal storms have died down (thank god for friends who choose to stick by you in spite of everything), so I'm slowly crawling back to being around on the virtual sphere.

The connection hasn't really improved at all, though.

---

At the moment of my writing this, I've finished checking all of the student works that have accumulated over... well, the past month. Maybe more. I'll be heading on campus for the last time this school year tomorrow, to give my final exam for the Lit 14 kids under me, and to get the last batch of student submissions that I'll need in order to compute for their grades.

This year has been pretty instructive, on the teacher front. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and work on a complete overhaul of my curriculi - like, schedule everything in an orderly fashion, and add extra modules that'll hopefully improve the cailber of the students who end up getting me as their teacher next year.

Got to look for schools, too. I've decided to finish my MA degree in ADMU rather than abort it mid-sem to go elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't prepare all the same.

Speaking of school: the paper I mentioned in the last post? I managed to get my topic of choice - that is, proving the theatricality of tabletop and play-by-post RPGs - approved. I also managed to submit it in time, although my professor will be out of town until the 26th. Grades are due on the 30th... I do hope she'll be able to check it in time.

---

There is something grim yet beautiful about measuring your life through the pills you pop at night.

Conversely, there is something amusing but perfect about having a cat who's ridiculously attached to you. Gouto has a MOM MOM MOM meow. She uses it often, especially when I leave her behind in the room.

---

As the plurk list knows, I've been tripping out on Final Fantasy 13 and the Ace Attorney series. At Chapter 11 for FF13 - taking my sweet time because I want to complete a lot of the quests.

(Which reminds me: does ANYONE know how to do Mission 27? I have no clue how to reach the mark when it's at the center of a circle that I can't walk to.)

Finished the Wright and Justice games, and I've just started Edgeypoo's game. It's good stuff, although I do think they could've afforded to expand on a few things a little more.

I don't think I've gamed this much in a while. It's one of the many things that I've yearned to go back to for a while, I realize. Writing, archiving, marathoning series I follow, fixing my music, mixing and doing my icons are a few of the others too.

---

Completed my usual Lenten ritual, which involves me somehow getting struck with the odd urge to read through one of my older works. This time, it was Gravity Attack.

I'll probably flail about this in another entry, when I'm more in a mood to spazz at length.

---

And I still owe everyone photos.

Had an absolutely lovely weekend. Friday was devoted to our first play test of a homebrew Persona system for World of Darkness. Mahar was the ST, and I got to play with khursten, gzep, psychoshoujo, Mia's lovely little sister and a guy named Meyer.

Suffice to say, it made me totally miss tabletop and even wonder why I bothered with so much wank and shit from sticking with LJ RPs the way I did. I return from the experience enlightened, I think, and more than ready to run my own campaigns again. Or play in others.

Don't get me wrong; it's actually impossible to compare LJ RP with table top since the dynamics are very different. Still: nothing beats gaming with friends whom you know and love, and wielding an original character whom you have full authority over. Someone who you can mold. Someone who is still ultimately separate from you, and will grow in ways that are bound to surprise you.

[/ramble]

Anyway, Saturday was the usual date with yukitsu, khursten and kye_kestrel - we watched Sherlock Holmes AND OMG JUDE LAW = WATSON IS THE BEST THING SINCE INSTANT NOODLES.

Felt sick by yesterday though, although it cleared up some by evening...

...Only to come back today, which leaves me cooped up at home, sniffling like the shit. The good thing is, I won't miss TOO much since my English 12 classes are on track. Now I just need to worry about my Literature 14 class, since their midterms are coming.

But first: tags, archive and icons. Oh, and naps.

Naps are good. orz

It's Christmas Eve for some of you and Christmas Day for the folks down here, so:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! ♪



MASTER LIST OF CHRISTMAS GIFT FICS

+ AIR GEAR. Feral child raised by puppets. (for lyra_star)
+ BLACK LAGOON. (for annotate)
+ BLEACH. Questions that never breathe. (for mlina)
+ COWBOY BEBOP. Love me little, love me long. (for icecream_parade)
+ DARKER THAN BLACK. Dreams of the impossible. (for _sabriel)
+ DEVIL MAY CRY. Wine not found. (for salavin)
+ FULL METAL ALCHEMIST. I’ve squandered all these years. (for questofdreams and tasogareika)
+ GINTAMA. Stop whispering; start shouting. (for nonartisan)
+ HOUSE M.D. I know it well, the nakedness of truth. (for braidedstars)
+ HUNTER X HUNTER. The proof of living that you gave me. (for kye_kestrel)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! And may tomorrow be wonderful too. (for umarekawareru)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! Lay me down in a field of flame and heather. (for kasugai_gummie)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! Snow falling on cedars. (for audiopain and tyreling)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! The rope to the ivory tower. (for starkissed)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! The sun of life's morning. (for signifies)
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! We are but weaklings pretending to be tough. (for rodickparker)
+ KINGDOM HEARTS. Something pure and out of my hands. (for g3ssh0ku)
+ METAL GEAR SOLID. Morning glories make a roof. (for mushroom18)
+ OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE. No dust upon the furniture of love. (for istrill)
+ OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE. Ownership of such fragile devices. (for tsunekipanda, special flag to factorielle)
+ RPG FANFICTION: KHR - PUBLISHING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. All the little things. (for redmoonmurder)
+ RPG FANFICTION: KHR - PUBLISHING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. Lost in a dream from which I can’t awaken. (for desumethis and akaru_hana)
+ RPG FANFICTION: THE SKYTIDES. And he chants the hate of a million years. (for schmot_gurl)
+ RPG FANFICTION: THE SKYTIDES. Under the shade of flowers. (for fae_of_the_rose)
+ SOUL EATER. Xanadu. (for foxarashi)
+ SUIKODEN II. I thought I'd stop and say hello. (for jusrecht)
+ SUIKODEN II. Instruction through interpretative dance. (for osmalic)
+ SUIKODEN TIERKREIS. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. (for factorielle)
+ THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU. I believe in peace, b*tch. (for mienaihoshi, special flag to factorielle)
+ XENOGEARS. In praise of surfaces. (for ukefied)


Everything is up on stitchedophelia, as always!

Still working on my gifts for psychoshoujo and yukitsu. Sob, those ones take a lot more time and thought. ;^;

---

I also want to pimp out the wonderful things that people posted for me!

SenBasa: Kojuurou Masamune x Date Masamune from kasugai_gummie!
KHR: 1896 from desumethis!
TST: 691896 and the Vongola from signifies!
KHR: D6918 from lyra_star!

Kudos as well to audiopain, who gave me an FST for Return on Investment and scanned a lovely 1880 doujin for me. And then to mushroom18, who drew me giftart for Flik & Viktor! *A*



Much love to all of you, your friends and your families. ♥♥♥

Before all else: FIC PIMPS!

Fanfics for kye_kestrel, in celebration of her birthday!
+ SUPERNATURAL MEETS soul_campaign. Feel the freedom like no tomorrow.
+ HUNTER X HUNTER MEETS soul_campaign. When burning bridges won't come down.
+ KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! In the custody of trolls.

Other fics:
+ OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE. No dust upon the furniture of love (Christmas gift for istrill!)
+ METAL GEAR SOLID 4. Burn the length and breadth of the sky (iWHORE request from gaijin_ikei!)

sob, I'm going to have to prepare to write a crapload very, VERY soon.

---

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY CRAZY WEEKEND, FLIST. ...Although the crazy didn't actually start over the weekend itself, but last Wednesday.

Little brother's organization was scheduled to sing Christmas carols at our house on Friday night. Everything was pretty much set - both my parents and my grandparents were going to stay in to watch, and my mom was even going to bring in Anika, my niece, to be cute and listen to the performance. They received word, though, that the mother of one of our family company's most loyal co-workers passed away in Baguio, and that meant that both of them had to go right over and be with her for a bit. That meant that the kids HAD no audience, especially since they planned on bringing our grandmother with them and my older brother Paolo was likely going to choose his latest computer game over watching the kids sing now that my parents weren't going to be around to keep him in place.

That is where I came in, because mom promptly left me in charge of finding them a new audience. Which I did, by posting a shoutout to Plurk (thanks to everyone who replied or tried to make a way to make it, btw!) and poking my buddies at the Faura smoket. At the end of it all, khursten, psychoshoujo and yue_dermond joined me for the evening, in exchange for free food, nice beds and good company. :3

The kids were really, really good for something totally amateur, and the best part about it was my lovely younger brother sang a full song in Filipino! I've never heard him sing in Filipino before. o_o It was also nice hanging out with the girls and kicking around, and I'm especially happy that Yue was able to come because I know how far my place is for hers~

The day after that was the start of my Epic Weekend, which involved Khursten and I zipping over to Trinoma in order to meet up with yukitsu, kye_kestrel, 77ws and the mythical synatri in order to celebrate the purchase of Yukeh's First Dress Ever, and Lynffles' birthday! Traffic was a bitch, which meant that I didn't get to stay all that long since I had somewhere else to be right after lunch, but I got to eat with them and chill for a bit! My only real regrets are that I didn't get to be with Lynffles all that long for her birthday blowout aaaaand I didn't get to watch my other half get dolled up. OTL

Bore through more terrible traffic in order to go to Pasig and come to mlina's lovely house and celebrate Christmas with her and her group! Managed to spot dreamlessness, nonartisan (WHO GAVE ME ANOTHER MINI GACHAPON CREEPER TO HANG FROM SOMEWHERE) and mochalic before they had to zip off, and chillaxed with Noey, redmoonmurder, Kang and the rest of Noey's friends before I had to leave YET AGAIN for the party I was going to host back at my place.

Faura Smoket Crew (guest starring psychoshoujo again, because I wanted to take her out for a weekend!) trickled in car by car sometime after I managed to get home (through significantly less terrible traffic), and it was absolutely lovely to have nearly everyone under my roof! THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD slakdhgakshd household prepared stuff and everyone brought something to either eat and drink! And I introduced the lot of them to my parents (who all found them "respectful" and nice, ahaha!), took them on a tour of the whole first floor of my house (two batches with commentary, lol), and smoked a lot of interesting things from Jakarta, which Faith brought back with her from her vacation there! It was beautiful and fun and amazing, and the people who weren't able to make it were really, really missed BUT NO MATTER WE SHALL HAVE ANOTHER PARTY SOON.

khursten and I slept sometime after 4 AM - she and Mia woke up a little before I did hours later, and I was totally incoherent until we had lunch with my family. Saw them off sometime after that (BUT NOT BEFORE WATCHING THE SEASON FINALE OF GLEE), then kicked around until Mass. Dinner with family was nice as always, and I ended up accomplishing about 70% of all my backlogged student things before bed~

THIS COMING WEEKEND IS LOOKING CRAZY AS WELL, AHAHAHA. Hello, holiday season!

---

With the general paperwork out of the way and my students on track before the break, this week looks like it's going to pan out rather nicely. Kicked it off, in fact, with dinner with Anjo and khursten at Kamimori + dessert at this amazing DIY yogurt place called Fruity Froyo - I treated my little brother out to both once he managed to join us, since I figured I ought to do something nice for him for Christmas.

...Speaking of Christmas gifts. I've been weirdly inspired to give lots of people stuff - like, people beyond the usual suspects anyway. I guess it's because this is my second year of gainful employment at ADMU, and I've got money to spare. Time to give something back, y'know?

I am also going to spoil myself by buying a PS3, and I'll likely have a unit in my home sometime before the end of the year.

Yep.

It is time.

IF YOU HAVEN'T POSTED A REQUEST HERE, DO SO. Or I won't be able to give you anything for Christmas. /sadfaces at

A-also, for those of you who keep asking: I honestly have no idea what I want. G-get back to me some other time. ;;

---

27513 / 50000 words. 55% done!

One of the funny things I have discovered is that when I'm working on a long project like this one, I have to occasionally break away between scenes in order to watch or read porn.

I've never needed to do that before. o_o

---

Finally getting my RP groove back, and it is absolutely wonderful. I've also been archiving old entries in between all of this RL madness

ILU, guys. You know who you are. ♥

---

I could rant about the weird shizzle going on in hitman_reborn, and TL;DR on the art of fanmixing, but I'll save your flists the pain.

---

Was supposed to have my first MA class today, only to discover that it was dissolved.

I've talked about how hard it was to get that class in the first place, right?

FML.

ON OTHER NEWS MY KIDS SEEM VERY HAPPY TO SEE ME AGAIN. Idk whether it's because they like me or because they think I'm an easy professor to pass or both. Will have a proper report on that at the end of the week, yep.

10366 / 50000 words. 21% done!

Oooh look, a shiny word meter!

Have a bit of a dilemma now, though, because khursten and I were talking on a scene I managed to freewrite and omg I think I just derailed my own story. @_@

I hate it when I do that to myself.

---

Lagging on the tags over at the open log and the RP that I'm still in, and I do apologize for that. Sudden business before the beginning of the new semester, see!

Also: yesterday was FML, Ateneo Edition. khursten knows this well.

I'll explain in detail once everything is fixed.

BUT THE EVENING WAS NICE because I got to eat dinner out with simply_kim, nonartisan, dreamlessness and mochaholic.

---

Have another meme, guys.

♫♫ Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500
words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment
to this post with that selection. I will then
give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I
was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in
the first place, what's going on in the character's
heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment
means in the context of the rest of the fic, and
anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD
commentary track. ♫♫

For this, I blame desumethis.

...Oh hey, I rhymed.

ANYWAY UH I have no master list to speak of (sob, Imma sorry), but all my stuff, original or otherwise, is at stitchedophelia.