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Weekend Gratefulness List (January 31 to February 5, 2010)
Posted By joni on February 7, 2010
– hitting 20+ pages on the essay
– finding a (photo)copy of Mario Vargas Llosa’s “A Writer’s Reality”
– getting the chance to volunteer for KaEskwela’s writing workshops
– great (mostly cyber) conversations
KaEskwela Writing Workshops (Wawa National High School)
Posted By joni on February 4, 2010
KaEskwela, a group of friends committed to reaching out to public high schools and providing whatever help they could extend, organized writing workshops for the students of Wawa National High School in Montalban, Rizal on January 30. I volunteered to facilitate the fiction writing workshop. Find out how you too can help here.
Here are some of the pictures (complete set of pictures here):
Because they were greatly affected by Ondoy, they had to rebuild the classrooms.
me attempting to write something on the board
News and Feature Writing
Fiction Writing (notice the new board)
behind the school
Poetry Writing
the surrounding area
on-the-spot fiction writing
all filled up board
while I make pa-cute
Graduation of sorts
Fiction Writing class picture
the bridge outside the school
very white stones. and huge too.
not sure what it is but it's a pretty picture
Weekly Gratefulness List (January 24 to 30, 2010)
Posted By joni on January 30, 2010
– the 10 pages (of the 50 I need to write) of THE essay I finished writing on Sunday
– finally being officially enrolled
– ha! no refresher classes!
– finishing two (of the eight) books on the present reading list (there are so many lists now I can hardly keep track)
– Kaeskwela’s fiction writing workshop going well (more on that soon)
Enrolled!
Posted By joni on January 27, 2010
Finally.
I am officially a student this term. Again. And I have eight library books to prove it.
Right after I had finished the enrollment process, I headed straight to the library. Ooh, exhilaration.
JC: How many books can a grad student borrow? And for how long?
Librarian: Thirty. Two weeks.
JC: (eyes wide) Thirty?
L: Yes, thirty.
JC: (eyes wider) Thirty?
L: Thirty. 3-0.
JC: (eyes almost popping out of sockets) Ooh.
I wish I had known. I could have arranged for transpo.
From Now Until April
Posted By joni on January 25, 2010
There will be a marked decrease in my blogging activities. As all you two avid readers of my blog know, I have been preparing for my thesis defense. Never mind that I have yet to officially enroll. (The registrar is still retrieving my records. Apparently, they have been buried so deep that they are having a hard time figuring out where exactly they placed them.)
I have a lot to do. Write the 50-paged theoretical essay and revise the novel, being two of the major tasks. Thankfully, I was quite productive over the weekend, churning out 10 pages of the essay within two days. I imagine the next writing sessions will not be as easy, since I had already gotten out the initial spurt. But who knows? I like writing essays. Especially if it’s about me.
So this is just fair warning that save for my Weekly Gratefulness Lists, I might not have time to write anything on here at all! It will be worth it, I promise.
Weekly Gratefulness List (January 17 to 23, 2010)
Posted By joni on January 24, 2010
– finally started writing THE essay
– ironed out office stuff, for now
– saw funny, funny “Daybreakers”
not so sure if it was meant to be funny though…
THE Essay
Posted By joni on January 19, 2010
…is scary. But it has to be written. And soon.
As I might have mentioned before, the thesis does not end with just THE novel. I also have to write an accompanying essay explaining my creative process in writing the novel. The idea itself is quite exciting. I am one of those writers who enjoy writing about writing. Except because it is required of me, I am also quite nervous. Ok, not quite nervous but really nervous.
So. There is a part of me that cannot wait for the weekend, one whole day of just sitting in front of the computer and typing-typing-typing away. And then there’s another part of me that dreads the weekend, when the possibility of staring at a blank screen looms.
But just as with THE novel, it will be written.
Weekly Gratefulness List (January 10 to 16, 2010)
Posted By joni on January 17, 2010
It’s been a crazy week and not really in a good way. But it’s not possible that I don’t have anything to be thankful for in the past week. I just have to think harder.
*thinks
*thinks hard
*thinks harder
Oh there!
– David’s word that I will not be required to take refresher classes
But until I get to enroll, I think I will hold the major celebrations.
– body scrub + body massage + tip = P750. San ka pa?
– post-birthday presents
Gearing up for Draft #3
Posted By joni on January 11, 2010
So my meeting with Doc Bau went better than I expected, mainly because to prepare myself, I always expect the worst. Next step is to know what the department would decide my next step would be…
Best case scenario: They would allow me to defend and graduate this term. The other scenario is that I need to take refresher classes, seeing how much time had already lapsed since I started my MFA. In that case, I will be delayed by at least a term.
At some point during merienda with Doc Bau, he mused, “Your work will take people some time to like.” I thought he meant it was avant garde or something. And then he said, “It grows on you. I had to read it twice.”
Hmm, I didn’t think it was meant as a compliment… But then he compared it with Amy Tan. He said he didn’t like Amy Tan on the first reading but his wife loves her. And then he said, “Maybe it’s a woman thing.” I said, “Maybe you should let your wife read my novel.”
After a couple of days of mulling that over, I think I am fairly happy that he liked his second reading more than his first, instead of the other way around. Of course it would be really good if he liked it the first time he read it and just keep liking it every time he reads it. But still, there are worse things.
And while the department and I sort out the technicalities, I need to revise one more time. And also write my theoretical essay. Overwhelming. Wish me luck.
Weekly Gratefulness List (January 3 to 9, 2010)
Posted By joni on January 10, 2010
- boundless energy at work
Must have been because of the long holiday break, I had boundless energy at work the past week. I love it!
- meeting with Doc Bau
Which went better than I expected. More on this some other time.
- birthday dinner c/o Boss Pete
Went back to Brasserie Boheme. This time, I was with work friends. Boheme had better service now compared to the other time I was there but could still improve. Food was good, as usual.
– birthday presents
- 30 years of life!