Fascinated

Disclaimer: This is not a review of Beautiful Creatures.

Watch the movie! What to expect: charming jock Ethan Wate's (gamely played by Alden Ehrenreich) sexy mind because he's one guy who adheres to the power of literature -- people, a dude in Jenna Lyons-ish reading glasses who freakin' reads! -- as he has read classics that present unconventionality like OnThe Road and Catcher In The Rye; Emmy Rossum's Ridley's campy moments

and what the teen-in-me would always like: supernatural and magic.

With the literary references and the dichotomy of traditional versus modern presented in the film adaptation, I have made a mental note to read a book by the less-familiar to me Kurt Vonnegut (i.e. Slaughterhouse-Five), or maybe the more-familiar Ayn Rand, whose The Romantic Manifesto I browsed a couple of times inside a bookstore while killing time.

Masthead

Reading a Fashionista feature on former ELLE editor Kate Davidson Hudson -- who's one-half of the commanders of e-commerce meets "modern fashion magazine" platform Editorialist, I was reminded of Kate Lanphear -- punk rock-edgy phenom, and one of my downtown style pegs. She, who left her post as Style Director ELLE last year -- after six mighty years (!) -- and was reportedly turned down for the WSJ EIC job, has since moved on to work for New York Times' T Magazine, as -- what else? -- its Style Director.

I wonder how ELLE's trends pages look now without plantinum-bobbed Kate's (I want to go first-name basis on girl friend) sense and direction. I read the informative American ELLE, and TRENDS is definitely one of the things I look forward to when I buy back issues from heavenly BookSale. 

Have you got a glimpse or watched today's KRIS TV?

Daytime show KRIS TV -- no introduction necessary -- has come come up with back-to-back episodes (today and tomorrow) of gifts and giveaways. Dubbed as the "most ambitious" in Philippine TV history, "Love, Love, Love ni Kris" is the country's Queen of Talk's  venture in the same vein as Ellen DeGeneres's 12 Days of Giveaway in The ELLEN Show and, yes, the original, Oprah's Favorite Things.

On top of the items and packages, mostly brands endorsed by Kris herself,  the biggest prize given today is an LV Neverfull, furnished by Celebrity Beauty Doctor Vicky Belo.

I wish I joined. We'll see about that next year. That is, if ever there'd be another.

I love promos, contests and giveaways. Of course I do. Of course you would too. Who would say no to free stuff that comes with just the right effort?

Dystopia

Noun. According to Wiki:  "A dystopia is a community or society, usually fictional, that is in some important way undesirable or frightening." Just think of your idea of Utopia, then imagine its opposite and there you might have it.

In the glitz and glamour utopia that is Hollywood, Young Adult (YA) dystopian novels are having a moment of being booked (get it?) to become either film or television franchises, with Hunger Games -- and "the girl on fire" Jennifer Lawrence (um, not you Alicia Keys but I love you) -- leading the pack.

Here's two more:

Delirium // Lauren Oliver, who visited Manila last year.

Fox's small screen drama adaptation will have Emma Roberts playing the lead character Lena.

Divergent // Veronica Roth. **Quick trivia: The trilogy's author is only 24 years old.**

The film version's protagonist of Hunger Games-ish teen tale Breatrice "Tris" Prior is set to be played by Shalaine Woodley (The Descendants).

Three's a trend.

Daily Mail's stuff about some people

I love the Daily Mail UK's TV & Showbiz index. Like I check first the entertainment section in a newspaper, because like you, we like to be, well, entertained, don't we?

It also nurtures my Anglophilia.

Today's discoveries are:

1.) Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Borat, a.k.a. Bruno, a.k.a. The Dictator, has become the highest-paid Brit in Hollywood.

2.) Lily Allen is now Lily Cooper.

3.) Mumford and Sons' lead guy and Carey Mulligan are husband and wife. Wow, how many days was I under that igneous rock!

BookSale Moment

After dropping by at Mr Kengkoy HQ, I went to BookSale in Naga Centro. I love BookSale. Of course I do. There I killed a few time as I wait for BFC to arrive.

While doing my usual checking the merch of books and magazines out, my eyes landed on a book entitled The Which Guide to Changing Careers. Then a little to its left, before my eyes flashed another book, Career Match. Whatever, universe, w/e!

Maybe it's telling me something. And that something is something I've already known, that I have fear of the unknown, which I guess something I share partly with anybody. I was scared of what will -- or might not -- happen.

After my resignation recently, little by little it has become more and more validated that what I have is a deeper need. One that is beyond money. Though I have yet to leave my good-for-me supportive financial host.

For now what is important is what I've become: good enough now to discern things more and to realize even more the cliche that life is what one makes of it.

Long day

I was having a good Monday night out with my best former colleague (BFC) at a watering hole (after having a casual celebratory dinner for a former co-worker's birthday, when I got a call from my aunt. I'm not comfortable with calls, it's either good news or bad news. She relayed to me that Mutsi (that's one among pet names we call  my mother's eldest brother) died at around 10. He was 73 years old.

When I told my former colleague that I had to go home in awhile (we had planned to night-out longer) because my uncle has died and I know that I will be the one to assist my mother as I know she'd be the one to carry out my old uncle's requests, BFC gave me consoling look and told me, "It's God's will, I think, to have him rest now." I gave BFC an assured smile.

In my previous work (in insurance), I encountered a few people who proudly told me that at their age now (usually above 50), they think they've already met their quotas. Colloquially, when things are already all good, people say, "Quota na!" I think, Mutsi, who was a bachelor, may be already quotang-quota. 

Today, I woke up early to run errands for my mother. My uncle is to be cremated.

Happy Thursday!

I'm kidding! Happy Valentine's/Hearts/Singles' Awareness/Singles' Independence/**Anupaba??(What-else??) Day!

Or, to borrow from Perks, Happy-and-Sad-I'm-still-figuring-out-how-that-could-be Valentine's Day!

This week started roughly as I, this is how my letter began: 'in consideration of all factors and with much discernment,' have decided, after more than 12 months, to resign from my work in life insurance services. When I left, what I have brought with me, beyond the professional growth, the meeting and knowing people from different walks of life (some with touching lives) and the re-learned important (now very important) value of saving-saving-saving for our future (people know it's important but it's often neglected or set aside sadly), is the collection of moments of friendship -- laughter, love for food, even some badtrip moments. For people and things that went before, I know I'll often stop and think about them... Here's how leaving is certainly bittersweet.

It's official: I am office-based day-jobless. Basically, I am prioritizing. I need to cover personal matters (read: family/home obligations needing immediate attention) in an indefinite time. Also, what's almost certain to me on a more personal level is I need a break which the ever-indulging KitKat can't satiate. I need to stop commuting more or less 15 kilometers, to stop going to my full-time day job basically so I will have the time in order for me to reassess my life and get answers to personal questions.

Am I thrown in unknown waters?

In the near future (probably on the second half of this year of the snake) I know that I still have to land a desk job, or to simply be employed for sustainability's and stability's sake -- earn moolah, a portion of which will get me back on my saving track.

Or maybe yet I should do an On The Road. Ask for my parents' permission, pack my muted-colored basics, go backpacking and find more about life, but where? Here in the Philippines? In India? But I haven't saved enough to go Beats. It's a lifestyle.


Clearly though, this is not a severe sabbatical. With God's grace, I have my less-taxing (to work is to toil, they'd say; work should be challenging) endeavor in Product Development for Mr. Kengkoy Backpacks to flourish my love of one's neighbors -- our nanays in Albay -- and at least keep my thinking tank and working experience up and running, and I also have a production project to carry on in the coming weeks. Yes, carry on!

My So-Called Life.. to be continued.

With this change, however, I may talk and cover more things via this blog.