About Love And Discovering Yun Kouga-sensei

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.” - Yun Kouga, "Loveless"

[I used to think this way...and I would like to believe that I have changed a bit. Still, this is one very articulate statement on love...]

What a discovery I have made recently, in time for Valentines Day, a day dedicated to people who romanticize the concept of love. I am glad to have stumbled upon a very insightful mangaka (manga writer, that is) named Yun Kouga. How I found out about her, it was quite the result of countless meanderings in the world of manga. I have practically read most in each of the genre that has possibly existed (including yaoi, bora and hentai), and why I found out about her only now (Yun Kouga started writing Earthian as early as 1987!), charge it to my being selectively oblivious at times. (!!!)

But I am glad, just the same. Just minutes ago I have finished reading her epic work titled "Earthian", a story about an angel whose appearance is strikingly different from his fellow angels, owing to his black hair and wings. It is a composite love story, so to speak: it deals not only with heterosexual and homosexual love, but also the possibility of love among the so-called artificial intelligences ("biohumanoids"), as well as love towards Earth. I swear I am getting hold of a hard copy of Earthian, and most lilkely I will order online. From where I am, it is quite difficult to find places where I could buy manga. Fully Booked in Makati City probably carries the most titles, but then again their manga selection occupies only three measly shelves. It sucks, really.

I can't wait to read her other works as well. Earthian actually figured in one of the lists of the best yaoi (dealing with boy X boy love) manga of all time. For me, however, it is not as yaoi as most yaoi manga out there. Frankly, it gets tiresome reading those recurrent themes in many yaoi manga, such as rape, which I do not really enjoy at all. I want more refreshing plots, not only in yaoi but the rest of love-themed manga as well.

After all, who wants to receive the same brand of chocolates and the same types of flowers every Valentines Day. Variety is good. Looking forward to more Yun Kouga goodness soon. :)

(Hospital) Room With A View, New Year 2012

Spending the holidays in the hospital is, apparently, not an unusual occurrence for me, a person belonging to the health sector. Nor do I find myself moping if ever I had to stay in the hospital during Christmas, or New Year. Not always, anyway. As long as the reason is work, I do not mind. 

This year past - 2011 that is - as in the past year (2010), I spent my holidays in the hospital. Not because of work. The room where we stayed in, fortunately, had big windows. Through these windows we saw the year that was 2011  pass us by to make way for 2012. No, to be spending the new year's eve in the hospital is not new to me at all...and I would not mind if it were because of work...

Happy 2012 to you all.


(Photos taken from a room at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, San Juan City, NCR, Philippines)

...and a Happy New Year, hopefully 2012 will be a lot kinder to all of us

[For VS]

I was looking out this window as you were preparing our lunch, roughly 2 years ago. You told me, sit down, I can manage. Then you brought out a pot filled with sinigang na bangus. You cooked this? I asked in surprise, and you said of course I did. But I never thought that you could cook. You answered, in your usual unassuming demeanour, there was little need for me to cook when your Ima was still alive. It never crossed my mind that you could cook, and that you could make sinigang that tasted as good as home....

[To VS, who passed on last December 28. Take care forever.]

Merry Christmas, It's The Time Of Hope

Roughly 5 hours from now and it will be Christmas.

It is very busy out in the streets. I chose to stay indoors. Sadly, I am not with my family (or whoever remains of my family, as some members have already passed on), and my aunt is very sick. I spent my Christmas last year with her.

I gave the security guard some brownies and drinks, both of which I bought at a nearby bakeshop.

There are some things I feel a bit sentimental about (considering that I am not a very sentimental person :) ) but overall I have been blessed with a good year and as such I should celebrate Christmas with joy and hope.

I hope that you have a blessed Christmas as well.


Adrian Eröd: "Adeste Fideles"

A Star Named Joe

[If Paul Simonon would have been my lover, then Joe Strummer will always be a star in my musical firmament.]

JOHN GRAHAM MELLOR

aka JOE STRUMMER

21 August 1952 - 22 December 2002

Rest in peace, my dear star. Your music lives on. [Played on video: Coma Girl]

The Wrath of Sendong

No such thing as ceasefire, Christmas, or any form of holiday as far as the wrath of nature is concerned.

Rescue operations at CDO. Photo from this site. Read more at the Mindanao News website.

Typhoon Sendong struck Southern Philippines specifically Cagayan De Oro and Iligan and is said to have left at least 327 people dead and many families homeless, no thanks to landslides and floods.

If you wish to help the victims, please make sure that your donations won't fall in the hands of the crooks. Sadly, people who take advantage even of situations such as this do exist. Please just send your donations to reputable charitable institutions such as The Red Cross.

I would be more than happy if I am able to course at least a few visitors (even just one) a day to the links. After all, as a Filipino, I have a social responsibility, and using this blog is one of my means of fulfilling this responsibility.

Shopping For Christmas Gifts

(Well, well, who do we have here? )

Shopping during the Christmas season is one of my least favorite activities. I love giving gifts, but I hate having to brave the crowd. During the holidays, the malls, bazaars, bars, and probably every public place in the city are filled with people. Pickpockets seem to be in every corner as well.

Fortunately, I completed my shopping a week ago. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun shopping this year. (Maybe because I did a lot of shopping in Manila, and there is not a lot of places to shop here where I am stationed right now. *sob*) 

I bought a lot of beauty products for the ladies and the men (yes, them too ^^) in the workplace. There are many new great products out in the market that I have only come to know recently. My favorite thing at the moment is this.

(Yes, it's quite embarrassing that I am talking about a beauty product - of all things! - in my blog. But now I know why women are going ga-ga over BB cream. I now have Etude House's Precious Mineral and I, too, am crazy about it. So sue me. :D)

I also had a great time shopping for wines and toys. It has become a habit of late to look into labels of toys, just so to avoid buying products that can be potentially toxic. Christmas, after all, belongs to children, and it would be best to give them gifts that are both enjoyable and safe.

So now, I am almost done with wrapping the gifts, and am getting ready to go to bed ...

*****

By the way.

The blog's template has already been modified. For 3 years, my blog has had the same look. This new template is a little more updated but is structurally similar to the past design. I like the blog to maintain its simple, uncluttered look that I cannot achieve with multiple-column templates.

One week to go and it's Christmas day. Time goes so fast, indeed ....