Discovery

I agree with the adage that a picture can paint a thousand words, so I have always held an understated fascination for photographs. They can capture that spectacular, magical split second that will never happen again, and render it immortal -- a baby’s first tentative smile, a look of pleased surprise on someone’s face, a scarf billowing in the wind, dandelions flying towards the horizon, a balloon escaping into the sky, colors of the sunset, the look shared between two people deeply in love, forever frozen in time, immortal.

I don’t have the penchant for capturing images that way, through a lens. The most I can do is write about them, in my own unique way, and give them my own brand of immortality. But thanks to the iPhone and its handy camera with the super-clear lens, I can indulge my inner photographer. And though I will never be as good a photographer as the best ones, I have Instagram to help make my photographs look much better than the ones I originally took.

So from now on, all my posts will use more of my photos, and less of the borrowed images. Here are a few of the first ones I filtered with Instagram.

These are two of my favorite things in life, my Mac and a pencil. Hi-tech and analog.





My checkbook holder, from Fino.



That's me at my parents' house for Christmas, wearing my Dad's bedroom slippers, while reading a book beside the Christmas tree.



My bed in Makati, which I absolutely love.



I have too many gadgets in the office that this plug hub is not even enough for me anymore.



These are just some of the details that make up my life, rendered as images. Somewhere among my journals and drafts and manuscripts, I have written about them, rendering them perpetual, eternal, in my usual writerly way. But I have discovered that there is more than one way to embed things more deeply into my memory. I shall always write, and I shall always write about things and feelings and life in an increasingly heartfelt way as I grow as a writer, but taking pictures with a good and handy camera isn't so bad, either.

[Please feel free to share my photos online, but be sure to link them back to my blog, as I am covered by the Creative Commons.]

I'm on Pakinggan Pilipinas again

But this time, I am reading someone else's story.


Last Saturday, Elyss Punsalan's monthly podcast site which features short fiction by Filipino authors showcased Marianne Villanueva's "Coconut," which I read. After the recording, Elyss and I chatted for a while, about Marianne's story, about writing, about UP, about a few fears and doubts I have been having lately about my career, how I'm coping with them, and a few other things.

We recorded the podcast last September 2011, and my life was different then. Some of the doubts and fears are the same, still soaking in the damp darkness of my past, but some of them have already begun dissipating into the light of the new morning.

You can listen to the whole thing here.

Last December 2010, too, Dulce Amor Fortunato read my short story, "God is the space between." The podcast is here. The story eventually made it to the special crime issue of Philippine Genre Stories.

I hope you enjoy our podcasts, and please do follow Pakinggan Pilipinas.