art imitating life

i just finished the second draft of that blasted paper on public procurement. yes, yes, my nose bled trying to explain why despite the GPRA, procurement philippine style, remains dysfunctional aside from being supply driven.



i've got one more paper to check, then i'm off to computing the grades, accomplishing the gazillion blank forms (i never thought i'd do admin work as faculty in charge) and finally-- updating my public policy knowledge.



shocks, my life is boring me out of wits.



i went through my desk drawer at lunch time and found my latest murakami purchase. not louis vuitton murakami-- please! i'm talking of haruki murakami.



i've only gotten as far as the 1st chapter after i bought it at the national bookstore sale last month. i've got five more books from that sale. all remain unread. geez...




the book is south of the border, west of the sun.

i bought this book right away when i read the back cover:

growing up in the suburbs in post war japan, it seemed to hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. his sole companion was shimamoto, also an only child. together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. but when his family moved away, the two lost touch. now hajime is in his 30s. after a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. then shimamoto reappears. she is beautiful, intense and enveloped in mytery. hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

it sounded good. now that i read the back over again, i am reminded of love in a time of cholera also by my one of my favorite authors, gabriel garcia marquez.

a synopsis i found summarized the book as follows:

In the late 1800s, in a Caribbean port city, a young telegraph operator named Florentino Ariza falls deliriously in love with Fermina Daza, a beautiful student. She is so sheltered that they carry on their romance secretly, through letters and telegrams. When Fermina Daza's father finds out about her suitor, he sends her on a trip intended to make her forget the affair. Lorenza Daza has much higher ambitions for his daughter than the humble Florentino. Her grief at being torn away from her lover is profound, but when she returns she breaks off the relationship, calling everything that has happened between them an illusion.

Instead, she marries the elegant, cultured, and successful Dr. Juvenal Urbino. As his wife, she will think of herself as "the happiest woman in the world." Though devastated by her rejection, Florentino Ariza is not one to be deterred. He has declared his eternal love for Fermina, and determines to gain the fame and fortune he needs to win her back. When Fermina's husband at last dies, 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days later, Florentino Ariza approaches Fermina again at her husband's funeral. There have been hundreds of other affairs, but none of these women have captured his heart as Fermina did. "He is ugly and sad," says one of his lovers, "but he is all love."

In this magnificent story of a romance, Garcia Marquez beautifully and unflinchingly explores the nature of love in all its guises, small and large, passionate and serene. Love can emerge like a disease in these characters, but it can also outlast bleak
decades of war and cholera, and the effects of time itself.

ah, the fiction, the story plots that i choose. just what do they say about me?

now if only i'll finish reading them.

off the top of my head

considering that i was on the verge of running amuck since the start of the month, err year, i should've blogged my guts out over the easter holiday. you see, writing, like shopping is very therapeutic.

instead, i went on penitensya and got down and dirty checking my students' final papers. some papers were very good-- but sadly, there were some which seemed like the kind of paper janina san miguel would submit.

i've got seven more papers of my students to check, and then i'm off to vacation holiday.

err... not quite. i have to update what i know about public policy. read, read, read. revise my course guide. my reading list. think of new ways to make teaching and learning public policy via distance mode "fun."

now if only being an academic would come easy for me. the way spinning is. or shopping is. or being a pain in the a** is.

i can't believe i'm coming up with a whine post after easter.

the news in the past few days are disturbing me big time. number one on the list of what's bothering me is the rice shortage. (it worries me because i love eating rice and i get groucy if i don't eat rice in a day.)

as usual, GMA and her men are quick to deny that there is actually a rice shortage, saying that the price will increase slightly, but there will be enough supply.

long story short, the shortage is confined only to those who won't be able to afford the high cost. sad naman. i was reading police reports the other day and was a bit bothered (again) by an incident wherein a 47 year old man was mauled to death by his fellow scavenger after the latter got irked when the victim tried to get his leftover rice.

next to losing, i think hunger is the worst human experience.

second thing, former president cory aquino's colon cancer. my lolo died of colon cancer. it's sad, it's scary and it leaves me wondering why the brightest minds have not discovered something-- like a vaccine that can be administered to kids so they'll be cancer proof when they grow up.

here's the inquirer today.

let's pray for some good news.

client 9--- OUT!

scandals seem to be in vogue these days. gaad-- life has become so boring-- we resort to politics and scandals for enterntainment.

"Over the course of my public life I have insisted people take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason I am resigning as governor," said nueva york governor Eliot Spitzer who will step down on Monday to "atone for his private failings."

client 9-- eliot spitzer

the 1st term democrat governor who gained national prominence relentlessly pursuing Wall Street anomalies resigned amid allegations that he used an exclusive prostitution ring at least eight times in eight months.


now i wonder-- how come it's easier for politicians in other countries to resign--even before they were proven guilty? no need for rallies, no picketing in front of their houses, no all out media war that leaves spectators sick.


i also wonder how wives of shamed politicians can actually stand behind them amidst all the scandal. i hate to be in mrs. spitzer's shoes (yes, even if it's a pair of prada).

gov. and mrs. spitzer

ooops! she did it again! malu fernandez redux

uh-oh. who let the (fill in the blank) _______________ out again?

so after her major faux pas last year, the pierce and phavulous (as janina san miguel would say it) malu fernandez is sooo back on the blogging radar. (well actually, with her size and "acerbic wit," [harhar] she's hard to miss.)

this time, she disses the blogging business.

malu, malu, malu.

just when we (the blogging and OFW community) thought we've put you out of business-- you managed to crawl back from the muddy pen and into the papers with your-- what should we call that-- pathetic excuse for a column(?) writing(?) preaching (?) acerbic wit (?).

do yourself a favor.

write na lang about the night life in afghanistan. the fashion week in darfur. wining and dining in somalia. weekend shopping in mogadishu.

we just MIGHT start to like you if you do.

(ps: i blog because writing is therapeutic. and no, i am not hiding under anonimity.)

speechless-- wasabi har.har.

my life is boring myself to tears.





my ADHD is in full throttle.





and i've been stuffing myself silly with





coffee...





coke zero...





and wasabi flavored potato chips.

i'm addicted to wasabi. argh.

need to focus.

go pinay american idol!

after what happened to marc and rovilson at the 2nd season of the amazing race asia, i'm not sure if i should still do this.

baka ma jinx.

but then, whatever.

so please, tune in to american idol and vote for ramielle malubay.

she's pinay and she's fab.

really.

landslide

how do you spell vindicated?

easy.

c-l-e-a-n. s-w-e-e-p




good job convenors, members and slate.

swerte ng NCPAG, may PALS.

go NCPAG SC 2008-2009! make us proud.

summer

it's getting hot in here.....


so i went shopping over the weekend.

after seven weeks of shopping moratorium, i finally, finally went to the mall and spent hard earned moolah.

i got a coupla books from national bookstore, some undies, sandals and a coupla blouses.

the books-- to entertain me while waiting for my flight to my chosen summer destination. (bali, bali, bali, baby)

the undies-- hello? do i have to rationalize this?

the sandals-- i have yet to have a light colored pair

the blouses-- because i'm not wearing my dark shirts and blouses in the next coupla weeks.

gaaad... it is summer. my favorite season, next to christmas.

and i'm gonna get a lot of sunshine...

sunshine can you bright and shiny.

happy summer everyone.