WW: Photography + Fashion + Music + Bliss and Beyond » Writing and Reading

#Bookblockade

liz — Sun, 10 May 2009 12:59:47 +0000

In 1952, Philippines signed the Florence Agreement, a U.N. treaty guaranteeing the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” between countries and declaring that imported books should be duty-free.

In 2008, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books was a success which apparently attracted the attention of customs officials.

Now, the said agreement is now an argument.

Taxing everything. Taxing gadgets. Taxing text messages/sms ? Taxing books? What a retard corrupt country.

This is the reason why there’s no new book titles in the Philippine bookstores lately. Some booksellers and book importers are still trying to negotiate just so they can bring their books inside.

The government’s say on this is that: For lack of a comma after the word “books,” they argued that only books “used in book publishing” were tax-exempt.

“What kind of book is that?” one publisher asked me afterward. “A book used in book publishing.” Dispatches from Manila – Timothy McSweeney | The great book blockade of 2009.

Author: Liz

The content that you are reading right now must be from my actual website, Wellwhatever only. If you are reading this from another website or other site resources it means this content has been scraped. Visit my website more info. You can also go to my wedding planning blog.

Il bel far niente

liz — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:50:41 +0000

Elizabeth Gilbert mentioned something about Il bel far niente, an Italian phrase which means “the beauty of doing nothing” from one of her non-fiction books…that’s when I realized that – hey, I love doing that!

Doing nothing. I think I usually spent an hour or two on this.

You simply sit or stay on your bed. No laptops. No TV. No music. No guitar. No books. Just stay there thinking nothing and doing nothing.

I believe it’s also an art of Yoga. A Zen Habit.

Call it unproductive, a waste of time and opportunity but in the end – doing nothing will give you something in return. It will melt away all the stress you have, more than just having an Argentina travel. It will make yourself more productive and more creative when you go back to your work.

I think it’s also one of the reason why I am one of the 15% calm people in this world :p

Author: Liz

Saturated summer

liz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:08:41 +0000

Inspired by Bonks recent article again, I made this using my favorite summer stockphoto. Hello month of April, it’s official summer yay! I’m looking forward to long weekends and holy week holidays.

The world is so lomo, underexposed positives and photoshopped reality when I want a full color, life-size and all the possible 10 million colors of you. I have had enough of pseudo representations of you, please satisfy the saturation points of my eyes again. | Bonks – Read the article here.

Author: Liz

Use Coelho’s title in one sentence

liz — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:03:39 +0000

A Paulo Coelho fan here :p Below are fave lines from some of his books.

Yesterday, I finally finished another book by him entitled Brida, a tale of a young Irish girl and her quest for her soul mate and other life’s mystery.

This one below is a new year’s gift from the boyfriend, now hubby – oh, wait…he gave this book to me few years back, when we we’re just friends pa lang pala (he saw it from the bulletin board company’s xmas party wishlist, kahit hindi siya ang monito ko)

He hesitated at first to buy it for me because of the morbid title. :p

Below, Eleven Minutes is my fave.

I love the titles ( The Alchemist, By the river Piedra I Sat down and Wept, Brida, Eleven Minutes, Veronica Decides to Die, )

I tried using it one sentence. Here’s the result:

By the river Piedra, I sat down and wept for eleven minutes because Brida's friend, Veronica decides to die, the Alchemist said.

Creepy. Free to make your own version :p

Author: Liz

You autocomplete me

liz — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:42:59 +0000

There are some odd times I google your name, usually during early early mornings, and I make a silent secret request that a single correct hit would come up and hyperlink me a little electronic story about you, one that I haven’t heard before and one that would make missing you a bit more reasonable; something that I can explain by myself; why I pushed the back button again in my mind, instead of just a repetitive F5. Just a little something to make me get over this pining away, until the next time your memories come phishing my current memory banks; that I flicker to safe mode in order not to crash again. Then I make the request again and get the usual 404 code and I try all the search engines for just a ghost of a whisper of your name, any electronic trace of you with a recent timestamp, anything, anything but the residual images and data crashes of years ago.

The 404 codes defragments me just by reading it, because the lines make you hope when you’d rather not, when you’d rather want a dead link and not continue believing the line that it is just “temporary unavailable”. Then a 410 loads up sometimes and I depress the power button for the longest time until everything blanks out and the LEDs turn from green to orange then fade out entirely, and I start to envy the instant purging of its memory banks. To turn myself off without saving, just blank out, out of the grid.

But eventually I turn it on and myself; and I am again looking at my static user interface, knowing that if I go deeper in the interface, all user rights and all the defaults are in your name, even if I am the administrator. And I go to google your name again, ready for the results and the letdown.

Then suddenly a 302, you, streaming and live.

(by: Bonks / schoolmate and a former officemate)

(The most romantic and cool electronic love letter I’ve ever read) [but it's kinda sad and unrequited, tama ba bonks? haha]

Author: Liz

Wed Spell

liz — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:54:31 +0000

101 to some, a refresher.

Motif is single F. Not double F, not motiff.
Fiance is the guy / groom-to-be, single E. Fiancee is the girl / bride-to-be, double E.

And as for me – grrr, I need to enhance my proofreading skills. We’re done printing the final 100+pcs of the wedding invites detail page with a typo (symbols written as sumbols) Argh. Sabi ni Patrick, sabihin mo na lang Latin word yan.

Author: Liz

Left over

liz — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:10:20 +0000

Don’t show off every day
or you’ll stop
surprising people.

There must always be
some novelty left over.

The person who displays
a little more of it each day
keeps up expectations
and no one ever discovers
the limits of his talent

- Baltasar Gracian / Spanish Philosopher

Author: Liz

Certainty

liz — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:35:46 +0000

Question.

How does a girl who falls…
no, actually she jumps
eyes wide open, down a rabbit hole
plummeting into chaos
come out unchanged?

She doesn’t.

- Little Black Book

Author: Liz

Valentine Entry: The Sweetest Thing

liz — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:12:43 +0000

Confession of A Hands-On Groom
(Posted with permission; an entry from W@W groups)

Three days to go.

You’d think that by now, I’d start to get cold feet. On the contrary, I’m actually excited about our wedding.

Although Janice and I started preparing for our wedding day a little over 11 months ago, my own personal preparations have begun much earlier than that Sunday morning in Tagaytay. Around two months before I popped the question, I have studied the ins and outs of buying an engagement ring. Add to this the “buwelo” I had to gather before I started to make my move, I’d say I have been preparing myself for almost 2 years now.

I will never be able to recall a defining moment in our relationship when I was finally sure that Janice would be the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It was not a divine sign, nor a dramatic moment, nor a magical night underneath the stars, that led me to this conviction. In between the fears, the tears, the uncontrollable laughter we’ve shared, it just grew, and I knew, that our happy beginning is not a question of “if” but merely a question of when.

As we nurtured our relationship, I was starting to pack my bags, preparing to take the train to marital bliss.

Preparing for a wedding is an adventure. Primarily because it is always your first time, and you will never be ready for it. You simply jump into the darkness, and learn along the way.

Weddings have traditionally been the bride’s kind of thing. But having known a couple of male friends who themselves got their hands dirty with the bridal DIY glue, I was somehow encouraged that there is nothing wrong with me for being excited with all of these. I am proud to say that I am a hands-on groom. I was the one who found my bride’s make-up artist, discussed the design of our unity candles with our online vendor, surfed the net for the perfect venue for our prenuptial pictorials, and a lot more, to the point that Janice claims I have done 90% of the work.

Sure, wedding preparations are fun. But the truth is, your wedding can only be as good as the effort you put into it. The truth is, there are elements you have to let go of, ideas that will never work out the way they were conjured in your head. The truth is, two people in love will disappoint and frustrate each other, either through miscommunication or negligence. The truth is, things will never work out perfectly the way they were planned. Preparing for a wedding is a roller coaster ride. It goes ups, comes down, it goes too fast then stalls; it takes a lot of fortitude and faith to keep the wheels rolling towards that envisioned destination.

It is during the homestretch that we discovered the value of Faith in our relationship. Barely 2 weeks into the wedding day, I found myself consoling my bride who was crying over her less than perfect wedding gown. I found myself trying to reassure her that things will be okay, as long as we have faith in Him and firmly believe that He is watching over us. A week into the wedding day, I found myself, with my faith dangerously wavering, trying to convince myself that all these things are trials from God, and that we should, as the Bible puts it, be joyful for them. Last Sunday, God once again manifested his Love for us, and turned things around. Janice now can’t wait to march down the aisle with a wedding gown she loves.

Preparing for our wedding has been a long and exciting adventure for both of us. In our desire to make our dream wedding turn into reality, reality joined the fray and helped us grow together. Fate interfered and multiplied our faith a thousand fold. In preparing for our wedding together, we have now prepared ourselves for our marriage.

Woman vs. Man

liz — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:04:27 +0000

.woman

An angel of truth and a dream of fiction,
A woman is a bundle of contradiction.
She’s afraid of a wasp, will scream at a mouse,
But will tackle a stranger alone in the house.
Sour as vinegar, sweet as a rose,
She’ll kiss you one minute, then turn up her nose,
She’ll win you in rage, enchant you in silk,
She’ll be stronger than brandy, milder than milk.
At times she’ll be vengeful, merry and sad,
She’ll hate you like poison, and love you like mad.

.man

Hungry.
Horny.
Sleepy.