Friday, February 24, 2006

End of Days

Okay, so maybe the title is a little bit too dramatic, but it certainly feels like that when you read or watch the news. Here in the Philippines, the calamaties, riots, crimes, and political mayhem seems to be neverending. Today in particular, is a sad day for democracy, as the midget and her horde of pigs has just declared a State of Emergency throughout the country. Kinda' ironic that we're a couple of steps from martial law again just as we are celebrating EDSA 1. Maggots!

A few days ago, calamity stuck Leyte as thousands of people we're buried under 30 meters of mud due to landslide. It's great to see how a bit of international news exposure can lead to foreign help. Anyway, I don't think they'll be saving anyone alive anymore. One chicken was saved though (groan). To make matters worse, two of our finest volcanoes, the Mayon and Taal, are said to be making it's presence felt again. More opportunities for the politicians to pose in front of the cameras.

It's strange how the death of a single celebrity could be viewed as a tragedy, while the death of thousands of ordinary people relegated as a statistic. Excuse me for being cynical today, but I really don't see any reason to be otherwise.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Wrestling With The Muse

I remember things being a lot more simple when cooking up a story for RPG game sessions in my younger days. I don't get to play RPGs anymore except on the PS2, but I still like exercising my creative writing once in a while. I can't help it, I dream up something, or get inspired by books, movies, and other things, and boom! My mind goes on overdrive formulating a story that would incorporate my ideas. Sometimes the ideas would just overflow, to the point that I don't think about anything else except how to tie up all the disparate ideas into one single cohessive plot. Then there are days where my mind would just shut down, and everything just grinds to a halt. The harder I try to think about a way out of a writing rut, the deeper I sink. I guess you really can't expect the muse to hang around every single day, but when they do go on vacation I ussually just do something else, and when you least expect it, the lights go back on.

I'm not a proffesional writer, and the stuff I've done have remained largely unread. But thats okay, cause I'm really just doing it for myself. I'd probably go crazy if I don't put my ideas down on paper (or computer). Even if most of my work are really just for personal reasons, I still do work hard to make it just right. I'm my own critic, and I'm tougher than Simon when judging my own work. I guess I've never been confident of my own writing, but I'd like to think that I could do something out of all the ideas in my head. I do read up on articles about writing (especially comic book writing, my favorite), but in the end its my own personal style I should depend on, because its more natural, and perhaps more effective. Maybe someday I could put out some of my stories for the public to see (and hopefully enjoy), but for the meantime I'll just go wrestle with my muse until I get a decent story to dish out.