Who's Your Idol?

When I was thirteen years old, my friend Randall came up to me and asked, “Charles, who’s your idol?” I hesitated, although I already knew deep inside what my answer would be. Seeing my hesitation, Randall blurted out his own idol, as if his admission would make it easier to mention my own. It was tempting to lie, especially since my answer was unconventional, and would probably alienate me from others. But Randall was my friend, after all, so I told him the truth. “I don’t idolize anyone,” I said. I saw in his expression the unasked questions: not even your parents? Or a celebrity? Or even a superhero? Seeing that I had nothing further to say, he turned his back on me and said “Ang yabang mo naman!” (You’re so arrogant!)

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Bibliomania

I usually frequent the website of my favorite gaming company but it was a surprise for me to find that they had a section on book publishing. While this isn't the first time that I visited that section, this is the first time I've seen it with a comprehensive list of useful links (aside from the usual self-promoting articles that is). Take, for example, the following:

Time to Get Published: The Art of Being Edited. The subtitle is quite important, since that's where this article focuses on. And honestly, if you're serious about writing (or politics, in my opinion), you really should be ready for criticism (whether actually warranted or not).

Write Now: Trageyd Strikes, or How to Blow a Deadline (Gracefully). Obviously, my first statement would be never to blow deadlines (and in a similar fashion which many Filipinos fail to uphold, is to keep your appointments or arrive on time!).

There's also a series of articles relating the evolution of Japanese warfare (like arms and armor) in The Art of War.

The site also has a history of fantasy books, each article (entitled Classics of Fantasy) focusing on one particular author (and annoated appropriately). And since this is Wizards of the Coast, after all, some of them end relating how the themes of the author's books can be incorporated into your RPG game. It starts with The Well at the World's End by William Morris, and with Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, Le Guin, and Tolkien somewhere in between.

And before I end, here's a list of books on writing.

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Pilgrimage

The two shopping malls that are out of the way for me (and for other people as well) are Rockwell and Eastwood. Because they're "in-between" areas which public transportation can't bring you directly, and barring a taxi ride, you have to walk quite a distance to get there once you're dropped off at the bus/jeepney stop.

So to me, going to Rockwell and/or Eastwood is like a pilgrimage; you don't go there often, but you must visit it at least once in your life (or in my case, once a month). And it is quite difficult to go there, and more importantly, to get back home (but there's a shuttle service at Eastwood so getting home isn't so much of a problem... except it's currently our of service). Why today, I had to walk all the way from Rockwell to Glorietta...

Space Management and Shelf Arrangement

I think these are two things every shop can benefit from. The former so that the place not only gives you your money's worth for the rent that you're paying, but to make the entire place accessible to your customers as well. The latter, of course, is helpful so that your customers find it easier to look for the stuff that they want to purchase. I mean if they don't find it on the shelves, they just might leave without purchasing anything.

So today, I went out to look for McSweeney's #13 since Dean wanted one. Suffice to say, while Fully Booked has space management, they definitely do not have shelf arrangement.

I mean for one thing, the place has three shelves, on different parts of the store (left, the middle, and corner right) for comics. And then there's another shelf as well for "humor", which also has comic strips like Dilbert. And there's the artbooks section which feature comic-related material like Comics Journal or X-Men Encyclopedia.

Of course there's also me the SF&F buff. While I currently have to contend it the SF&F stuff being shelved in the SF&F section and under the children's/young adult section, it's also commonly under the fiction section. And looking through the four, extremely long shelves of the fiction section in Fully Booked can be quite a chore. On a side note, I found some notables such as Jasper Fforde, Jeffrey Ford, Laurell K. Hamilton, Diana Gabaldon, and Stephen King (his Darktower novels) under the fiction section.

For The Collectors

On a side note, Fully Booked has some "signed" items, such as litographs by Alan Moore, and a number of graphic novels by renowned writers/artists such as Kurt Busiek, Neil Gaiman, and Dave McKean.

And Just to Clarify

I'm still currently unemployed, although I did pass the Client Logic exam and interview. I was supposed to sign the contract that day, but the guy who does the contracts wasn't there so they said he'll just call me within the week or next week to set up my contract. Of course here's me hoping that he actually calls and not get diverted somewhere...

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Whoa!

It seems today is full of surprises. For one thing, I suddenly find myself employed, and work starts on July (assuming I get to sign that contract). I was at Client Logic today and while the procedure is long (two sets of interviews, four exams), they do give you a job offer at the end of the day (assuming you pass). Of course having said that, I guess I'm officially working in a call center.

And it seems that Yahoo upgraded their email accounts to 100 MB!

Oh, and while I always knew I typed fast, it's only today that I figured out my words per minute. It's 62, and I was being cautious. I guess piano lessons and video games helped develop my hand-to-eye coordination.

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Surprise!

It really caught me off-guard when I switched to Cartoon Network and saw that Gundam Seed was airing. Anyway, it seems Gundam Seed is on from Mon. - Fri. at 7:30 pm, replacing Medabots. Just in time too since I was recovering from watching the one-shot, yaoi OAV Yakumo Tatsu the other night...

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