Anja turned three yesterday. For her past two birthdays, I’ve given her dresses. This time around,  I gave her a box of Play-Doh, because, as I told Dada, what kind of gift do you give to a three year old deaf-mute?

Anyway, E. was at the birthday party as always. We found out that he’s already 70 and therefore in possession of a senior citizens’ ( Read more... )

This is pretty late, but I have to write about this. Ira and I were depressed over the French Open’s Men’s Tournament results. We don’t hate Rafael Nadal, but it’s Roger Federer for us. (And I was in solidarity with Tomas would agree - he’s Swiss.) The first few parts of the second set was pretty amazing for Federer, but he lost steam afterwards. ( Read more... )

So I got a pleasant surprise yesterday from a colleague. Turns out, a three-part story we did last year was one of the finalists for explanatory writing in a journ award here. Since three of us wrote the story, we would have to share the nomination, with P. taking a bit more credit because he wrote two parts, while me and I. wrote the last part. ( ( Read more... )

Man. What a horrible day. First, I didn't get enough sleep because I watched The Breakfast Club until 1 am. I did this even though I knew I would have to wake up early for a court hearing. (I don't really regret this because I enjoyed the movie, it's like Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit crossed with Hollywood. And teenage Ally Sheedy is adorable. I want ( Read more... )

I bought and read a collection of Daphne Du Maurier's stories last week, which made me want to write what I like about her.  And after a bit of researching, I found out that last May 10 was her 100th birthday, had she lived to celebrate it.

Du Maurier basically re-invented the gothic romance in the first half of the 20th century, taking cues from ( Read more... )

Tomorrow's a big day. It's the mid-term elections here and I'm both excited and terrified of what's coming in the next few days. Elections here are really messy affairs, with murders, cheatings, and slow counts. Remind self to bring an extra shirt to work tomorrow and energy bars ( Read more... )

Wow, did it rain today! After days and days of relentless heat, it finally rained. Buckets. Raindrops the size of coins. It stopped by mid-afternoon and the breeze was cool. There are still heavy rain clouds in the sky so maybe it will rain again tomorrow. But I can’t celebrate as much as I want to because I have the beginnings of a cold - right ( Read more... )

I was a mess the other night, sniffles and red eyes and heartbreak. The culprit: The Amber Spyglass, the last book in Philip Pullman’s lovely and amazing His Dark Materials trilogy. (Finally!) That's one of the most elegant and satisfying book I've read in a long time. But heart wrenching, too. Man. Just writing about makes me upset.(You know what ( Read more... )

Saw a bunch of photojournalist friends last night at the World Press Photo Exhibit. Lots of high fives and fist bumps! J, a former colleague from my past paper, said I looked better than the last time he saw me. Must be the effects of working for a less-stressful desk. Heh. Raffy, who looked like a ninja in civvies, and I talked shop and his recent ( Read more... )

I made a strange call today. A woman named Gina called the office looking for me and asking about a crime story I wrote Tuesday (“Two suspected drug pushers die in shootout”). Boy, I thought I was in trouble. As it turned out, she only wanted to know the whereabouts of one of the bodies. She said one of the men might be her brother. (The police ( Read more... )