Good News, Bad News

Monday found me opening an email from the people at Serendipity saying that my story is part of the Best of Serendipity. While on one hand, I'm ecstatic (to be part of only 12 stories of the virtual anthology is wonderful), I was a little put off by the fact that they had forgotten to inform me and had just remembered to tell me yesterday evening (Manila time). But I forgive them because I was a late in my submission even then, so I guess we're just even (it doesn't hurt that I also owe them my citation in the Year's Best as well :).)

But while a late email wasn't enough to keep me from jumping up and down with joy, knowing that Serendipity has already issued its final issue was. It seems like a lot of the markets are closing down this year and it makes me feel sad. It seems like I'm seeing the death of an era. An era that I had just discovered so recently.

Oh well.

Anyway, I would appreciate anybody and everybody if they could visit Serendipity and see the other wonderful stories that they had the honor of publishing over the years (and, if you have time, visit mine as well :P).

Hopefully, Serendipity and others like it, will find another life, another form, in the not so distant future.

How Japan Can Save The World (What, no cheerleader?)

Some interesting bit of news from Newsweek.

On other news, my last quarter storm has passed. On to more maudlin (if not exactly routine) projects.

Goodness, its February already...

Editor's Choice and New Year Epiphanies

Yay! Just found out today that my story, Ghost Between Moments published in Bewildering Stories was considered to be part of the review editors' favorites for the fourth quarter! That's so cool!

Now, if only I could write more. 2009 looms in the not so distant horizon and its going to be quite a challenge to equal my 2008 writerly accomplishments, but, we'll see. If I do fail, at least it will not be because I did not try, right?

*

This year has proven to be a year of growing up for me. Now, more than ever, I'm forced to accept that I'm not quite the end product, but instead, I'm simply a work in progress. Perhaps I'll always be a work in progress. In the past, I had believed that you could have one perfect state - just like characters in a book, who eventually reach a point where, flawed or not, they no longer feel the urge to change - but of course, the one perfect state is impossible unless you're like Buddha or something.

And that's fine.

It doesn't bother me as much now that I make mistakes; nor does it behoove me to admit and acknowledge them. Instead, I strive to not repeat the errors in my past and move on. I don't dwell; neither do I whine (too) much. I've even learned how to talk (with less sarcasm) about what bothers me, even when the pain is raw. But most importantly, I know, with irrevocable certainty that someone is more important than me in the bigger schema of things. My son, though not the center of my universe, definitely occupies several galaxies that before his existence, I had not known were voids of emptiness.

On to 2009!

Because Love Doesn't Have To Make Sense

When we first met, I was young (and not just younger) and you, were already you. In a crowded coffee shop, filled with good juju and over several frappes, we talked, and laughed, and fell in love. For me, it was our seeming difference – where I was aggressive, you were calm, where I was loud and insecure, you were even tempered and confident – that made you irresistible me. And for you, as you would tell me later on, it was my seeming crazy self-importance – the fact that I seemed to know that the world owed me (and I owed the world) something far greater than what I already had.

It wasn’t easy, after we got married.

I wanted excitement, and romance, and adventure, while you desired the quietness and Babylon 5 and sleepy Sunday afternoons. It had been a long road since then, but it was good road. Through protocultures, Bango Bubbles, cold noses in the middle of the night, stolen blankets, and unexpected snuggling in the early morning, we learned how to love each other despite and because of our own eccentricities. You learned to value physical touch (and Gossip Girl, and cut-throat Acquire); I learned how to value time (and Band of Brothers, and vat-less Science Fiction). And somewhere in between, we were blessed with a son who taught us that yes, we could still love each other (and laugh, hysterically, about our own foolishness), despite being deprived of sleep, and rest, while being overcome with worry for every little thing that he does.

Perhaps we are not the best of pairings still. We still fight, and argue; we still don’t completely understand the “kampi system” (though we have come a long way since we began). Sometimes I get impatient with you; and you, sometimes, find me unreasonable. But at the end of the day, even if things don’t make sense anymore, we still love each other.

We are the best of friends. We are the best of lovers.

Happy Anniversary (Week), my Beloved.

A Rough Week

It's been a week of painful endings, virtual email fights, tenuous beginnings, unreconciled reports, shallow sleep, a little writing and inevitable goodbyes. Somewhere in between, we found time to put up a humble-sized christmas tree, take pictures, cry, go to the doctor, eat chocolate, and simply enjoy the time we had.

I love my son, Hector. But I think I speak for my entire (small) family when I say I'll miss yaya Janice.

String Addiction: For A Musical Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, Dean introduced the string version of I Dare You To Move by Switchfoot. I was enthralled. Now, some weeks later, I have probably listened and relistened to every (modern) song redone by a string quartet. My favorites include some classics I had already loved prior to being "string-ed", but also include one or two I've only heard in string version (ergo, I don't really know if it sounds better in strings or not).

For those wanting some music without the lyrics, I recommend the following (all can be found in You Tube):

1. String Quartet Tribute to Seether and Amy Lee - Broken

2. String Quartet Tribute to The Killers - Mr. Brightside

3. String Quartet Tribute to Evanescence - My Immortal

4. String Quartet Tribute to Oasis - Wonderwall

5. String Quartet Tribute to Full Metal Alchemist (I only have a vague idea about this anime, but I love the string soundtrack)

6. String Quartet - Helena

7. String Quartet - Through the Fire and the Flames

Breed of Auditor

Strange as it may seem, auditor though I may be, I find some auditor species to be just as strange as I probably am to other people (oh, and yes, there are types of auditors, just like there are types of doughnuts and chocolates, lol). In particular, I find IT auditors kind of odd.

It's not that I don't understand them, exactly. I'd like to think that being the general auditor (with a burgeoning specialization in Treasury, which is a choice of logistics rather than of actual preference) that I am, I know enough to talk the talk with the almost best of them, if not walk it (the talk, I mean). But they do weird things, say weird things, that even I find cutely pecuilar.

For one thing, they rarely keep physical working papers. They tend to keep everything in databases (gasp!) and they actually know how to manipulate the Lotus application to its fullest (double gasp!). For another, they have weird terms, which I understand (sort of), but laced with a certain humor I could almost grasp. For example:

IT Auditor 1: Just ping me when you're done with your documentation

IT Auditor 2: Wow, parang server.

IT Audiot 1 & 2: (laugh)

General Auditor Known As Kate: ....

These kinds of situations gets me thinking that perhaps, one day, people will even find me stranger (causing other auditors to write a post similar to mine) once I actually become proficient with Treasury Products. Currently, it's quite difficult since there aren't really other Treasury Auditors with whom I could create slang with. Maybe when there are more of us, I could joke about derivatives and swaps, and repos, and, mark to market rates.

Right now though, I can't even think of a lame joke about these things that routinely give me headaches nowadays. And the potential stranger version of me seems so distant, so foreign. So all I can do is watch IT auditors laugh and chat and feel, with an epiphany that I don't want to accept yet, that perhaps, after all, by sheer number, I'm the really strange one.