Anne Carson's Short Talks

Because there are tons and tons to read on the Internet, I usually find it hard to pry myself off its clutches whenever access is free. And although it is completely acceptable in this age to get most if not all of one’s reading materials online, there is also a part of me that feels guilty for the volumes and volumes of books that I have promised myself I would find the time to read, but keep putting off. So I do it one little step at a time.

This weekend, I intentionally left my laptop in the Makati apartment when I went home to Valenzuela so I wouldn’t be tempted to go online. I admit to allowing myself to check my mails a couple of times though through my phone but that was it.

So my reading list for the weekend included a compilation of old American essays (actually titled The Best American Essays 1992), wherein the first was by Anne Carson (who is actually Canadian but well, they probably meant “American” in the broadest sense. In fact when you think about it, who gave the US citizens monopoly of that word?).

Here are some quotes from her Short Talks (my O friends would love this one):

Short Talk on Walking Backwards

My mother  forbade us to walk backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a bad translation. The dead after all, do not walk backwards but they do walk behind us. They have no lungs and cannot call out but would love for us to turn around. They are victims of love, many of them.

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soyoufound.me

http://www.soyoufound.me
My new cyberhome! Go and look! Go, go, go! I suggest you bookmark it now. And subscribe to those...um.... RSS feeds! Visit at least once a week. And don't forget to leave comments. Lalalalala!

The Tragedy in Tiananmen

Much has already been said in the 20 years since the Chinese government’s heavy crackdown on a series of student-led demonstrations in and around the area of the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. A good part of my past month or so had been spent digging up those materials, reading and watching everything I could find about the events leading to June 4, 1989, the day when tanks rolled in crushing bodies underneath them, and the military fired at the protesters made up mostly of unarmed students and workers. Until now, 20 years after, the death toll remains a mystery. The Chinese Red Cross initially reported that 2,600 died, but retracted allegedly under pressure from the government. Some journalists estimated that the number could be as high as 7,000. The official tally, however, concluded that less than 300 died and 7,000 were injured.

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Weekend Getaway (The Planning Stage)

I’m spending the day trying to figure out where to go on an overnight weekend trip. Limited time, so it has to be somewhere close enough. But not too close that it defeats the purpose of going on a vacation. Also, it preferably has to have a nice beach.

Two options I’m considering are:

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Joni's New World

Finally. Regular visitors of Joni’s World must have noticed the apparent lack of activity on the site for a long time. While not exactly unusual since I started full-time (and by that I mean the full meaning of the word “full”) work more than a year ago, there is another reason for it. This.

So yes. Finally. This is an unveiling of sorts. My *drumrolls* very own *more drumrolls* dotcom!! *somersaults* Oh wait, I meant my very own dotme!! Whee!

Migration is tough, I must say. It took quite a while for the entire process to finally reach this stage. For weeks, I mulled over whether or not I should indeed move. I am not the most techie of persons, you see. HTML codes have the ability to send me to panic mode. (Well, those and many other things actually, now that I think about it. I am, by nature, prone to panic attacks). Besides, I would like to think I have by now already developed a nice friendly community of readers over at Multiply where I had painstakingly built my cyberhome for the past three years or so. Will moving make me lose them? *crosses fingers and hopes not.

(To read more, click here.)

Twitter

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Other

I have given in to peer pressure. Admittedly, about a year or two too late. Nevertheless, I am now one of those Twitter-ers. Or Tweeple (Tweeps?).

Twitter was all the rage in my online community more than a year ago. Not to say that I was never tempted. But I was lazy. In a moment of weakness, I did try signing up but for some reason, possibly due to very heavy traffic, I couldn't. And my laziness could only be challenged so much so I left it at that.

Fast forward to about a month ago when I finally had a chance to hang out with the Man-bloggers again. Everyone had apparently already migrated to Plurk. And I was still not micro-blogging. Because really, what can you possibly write in only 140 characters? Sure, in an era when ADHD is the norm, it does make sense to let self-expression out in little spurts. Maybe somehow, your 140-character splash of brilliance would not get drowned in everyone else's pools of 140-character splashes of brilliance. And maybe Ade would stop saying that I'm stuck in 2006. ("She's on Multiply. How 2006!")

But those weren't really what sent me a-twittering. I was curious, for one. And perhaps also because I am work-obsessed (there, I finally admitted it). One day I came across @DavidFeng's article on who to follow when it comes to #china twitter posts. If you still don't know (then perhaps you are also stuck in 2006), Twitter-ers break news faster than traditional media. The Mandarin Oriental fire in Beijing, for one, made the rounds of tweets and retweets before news agencies finally reported on it. See, I take all these China stuff very seriously. I have to know everything. Otherwise I'm not happy. So this is really all about my happiness when you think about it.

As with anything short and sweet, it is harder to work at the sweetness should it only be this short. I must admit I am one selfish Twitter-er. I tend to take more than I give. I suppose for many that would be a relief. Nothing witty to say? Then shut up. So in a way my tweeting life is more or less guided by that philosophy. I have very few followers, in fact. I am under no illusion that anyone would want to read live updates on what I'm doing every hour. And I admittedly find it hard to keep track of the 40 or so Twitter-ers I follow. I suppose it's all part of the new media: streams and streams of information flowing onto you, some are useful while most aren't, some will be interesting and sometimes you'll get lucky to get information you need at just the right time, just as you will miss many others without even knowing it. Very much like tuning out mindless chatter in a bus once you've deemed it worthless. So yeah, like life really, if you know what I mean.

And I just made my 100th update with my "is blogging about micro-blogging" post half an hour ago.

Boracay Feb 2009