Brutality of the Goddess

Let’s get straight to the point.  Here’s a little excerpt from a book I’ve started writing over the holidays.  A title is still in progress and so is a cover and a synopsis.  This is just one of those things that make life worth living.  The setting is heavily inspired from the Achaemenid period of the Persian Empire BUT is not exactly such.  Many of the elements are based from the above-mentioned era, as wel as the names.  however, a lot of elements still, were created straight from this writer’s mind.

The glint of the sword caught her eye, and she stared at it for a moment.  Its curved blade was smooth and perfect like still moonlight.  The hilt was a tarnished gold but still beautiful.  It melded with the pommel wrapped in a strip of waxed, brown leather.  The sword was fastened horizontally against the wall with a couple of steel brackets right beside several other blades.

          Yala Maryam’s eyes twinkled.  She has always been fascinated with swords more than she was with fragrant cloths and lavish jewelry.  However, the women in the seraglio were not permitted to wield swords save for the times they were asked to polish them in the armory—a chance that Maryam grabbed greedily and cherished like a lifelong dream.

          The armory was dimly lit, but the light was enough to make the elements in the room visible.  Swords, scimitars, and scythes were fastened against the wall according to their kind and size; spears were neatly arranged inside tall, wooden cylinders kept in a corner of the room.  Round shields and boeotians were stacked on cedar crates while full-length shields leaned against the wall.  Quivers of arrows were kept in a box near the cedar crates.

          “ What are you doing?” came a voice that made Maryam clutch the rug she was holding, tighter.

* hehe…just wait till the book’s finished.  i hope you will have fun reading it as much as i had and still am having fun writing it. 

P.S the book won’t be published so only a few people will be able to read through it

This Christmas Break has been quite a drag–to me, at least.  the christmas decorations (or the lack thereof), heck, everything.  However, the infinite boredom was to be completely challenged when life just pulled a fast one on me.  Honestly, it was something i really had to deal with, and it was something that definitely made me feel what it was life to experience a series of unfortunate events.  No Olafs here or Mr. Stephanos.  Just plain, ill fate, bad luck, malas, or whatever you plan to call it–in rapid succession.

The first one happened on the eve of December 23 during one of our regular practices for the Christmas play, The Tale of the Three Trees.  We were through doing our first run-through, and our directress decided to give us a five-minute break.  Now, how should i know what those five, little minutes held for me?  I sat there on one of the pews, chatting with my friend when all of a sudden, a ten-year old girl approached me and told me that someone sent for me.  thinking that it was Achi Ruth Mae (however, still having that dreaded feeling of impending doom), i followed her.  she pointed to me a coffee-skinned, bespectacled guy who did his best to look away although his companions flashed him knowing smiles.  i went back tot he pews only to be tailed by the girl who then told me that the guy wanted to have my number. 

did i babble on the digits of my cellphone number?  absolutely not.  after my little ordeal with those kinds of arrangements, i decided never to give my number ever again to (this might sound mean but what the hey?) unidentified flying objects.

The second event happend just this morning when i was surfing the net, hanging out in friendster, and eventually reading my mails in yahoo.  previously, i sent a letter to a certain environmental reasearch center asking if they could give me the names of the projects so at least i could divide it among the staff.  however, the git-slash-freakshow-slash-idiot replied rudely.  allow me to quote in verbatim "masscom students like you should know better than to ask for such information using the internet." like duh!  so what was the use of that little link they had int he website that said "question? queries? email us!"

i could not let that moment pass by without retaliating.  so i emailed the freak and confronted him/her on his utter rudeness.

the third unfortunate event?  Well, it’s the most unfortunate one of all that can be summed up in one little sentence: a virus erased all my files, including that story i was just starting to write.

those are my year-enders and not very pleasant ones at that.  grr… no matter, there is still hope, i hope.

PS console me.  i need it so much.  i’m bordering towards freaking out already.

Mga higala, kung wala mo masayod, ako gikapoy na gayud ko ug sulat gamit and pulong nga iningles.  kini nga pulong, banyaga intawon ni.  mao ni ginagamit namo kung magtabi sa mga kalat-unan.  mao ni nga pulong among ginagamit sa pakipagtigi sa usa’t usa.  pastilan!  pagkakapoy na ug batikos aning pinulong nga ingles.

hilasan sad kos mga tawo nga gikaulaw nila ang binisaya.  mao baya ni ang atoang pulong na ginatubuan ug nakat-unang gamiton sukad pa ta mga bata.  ato-a ning kultura.  ginagamit ni sa lain-laing dapig diri sa atong kinahimtangan.  dapat taas atong panan-aw ani kay dili sad ni baduy.  ato baya ni bai!

hinaot unta sa, nga naa kita’y usa ka asignatura sa atong mga kalat-unan nga ang ginatudlo kay binisaya.  mao kini atoang tawagon nga Bisaya 11: Pagsugod-sugod ug Pagkat-on sa Pulong na Binisaya.  naa sad unta ta’y Bisaya 12: Pagsulat gamit ang Binisaya; Bisaya 21: Pakipag-tigi ug pakipagtalumpati sa Binisaya; ug Bisaya 72: Mga Ginasulat sa mga Bisdak.

Kinahanglan na natong ipasumbalik ang kulturang Binisaya sugod sa pulong kay mao lang kini ang dalan sa atong pagkat-on ug dawat sa atong pagkaBisdak.  daghan kong nailhan nga dili gayud ganahan nga gamiton ang binisaya–masdaghan kong nailhan nga gikaulaw ang ilang pagkapilipino.

ako ray maluoy nila kay sa tinud-anay jud, ang dugo sa pagkapilipino naglatay sa ilang mga ugat.  ang pagkabisaya mao ni atoang pagkatawo. 

wala ko naga-tu-o nga kitang mga bisaya masmaba ra ug maabtan kaysa mga banyaga.  taas sad ta ug maabtan kaso, wala pa gani ta kasugod ug buhat sa atong mga buluhaton, nag-una-una na ta ug huna-huna nga dili nato kaya.

bisdak ko.  wala ko naulaw ana.  oo, kinahanglan gayud na makakat-on ta sa pulong nga iningles, kinastila, ug uban pa.  pero, dapat dili ta maulaw ug dili nato itago ang atoang kultura–ang atoang pagkabisaya.

One day when i went to fetch my brother in the Silliman University Elementary School campus, a little girl–a second grader–to be specific, came runnign towards me, pigtails bouncing as she did so, and her once pristine shirt jack stained with chocolate.  She smiled coyly at me and batted her eyelashes, then, she said she wanted to be me.

Flattering, honestly.  Embarrassing, well, a bit.  I would have wanted to be frank with the little darling but i didn’t want to break her heart.  Really, any person who knows me well would NEVER want to be me.  and i’ll tell you why.

1. You wouldn’t want to be me because I’m very workaholic.  Honestly, i would court and marry my work if i could but hey, that’s pretty impossible.  work is like relaxation to me, honey, and believe me, it’s very therapeutic.  after studying hard and wracking my brains off in debates, i always miss that stressed feeling.

2. You wouldn’t want to be me because I’m an impulsive shopper.  Give the money, i’ll show you a thousand and one shopping bags in less than a day.  it’s quite easy dahling, you just have to drop by Freeway, Bayo, Folded and Hung, Plaids and Prints, Guess, and etc…i buy stuff that well, i end up regret buying.  but hey, i do try to make use of that horrible pair of jeans every now and then.  good grief, whatever made me buy that?!

3. You wouldn’t want to be me because I’m a scaredy cat.  Yup, i scream at the mere sight of those eight-legged freakazoids.  sheesh!  you know the way that spider called the daddy long legs walks just freaks me out?  I’m scared of the dark and i usually ask someone else to turn off the lights for me.  The sight of roaches with twinging attenae scares me to death, not to mention their little roachlings.

4. You wouldn’t want to be me because I’m addicted to the violin.  yes, i love my violin to bits and i practice in the morning when i wake up, at noontime after lunch, and at night before i go to bed.  it’s a very intimate instrument despite the pain it inflicts upon my fingertips.

5. You wouldn’t want to be me because I’m really shy.  okay, so maybe you have a hard time believing that bit but hey, it’s true.  i still get the jitterbugs and the butterflies–monarch butterflies, mind you–in my tummy. 

6. You wouldn’t want to be me because i set really high standards on guys.  I’m sorry, I’m not the typical girl next door, boring type and i don’t settle for anyone less than the best.

7. YOu wouldn’t want to be me because i can be quite horripilante when i’m angry. 

8. YOu wouldn’t want to be me because i am very ambitious and i dream the impossible dream, as what Alonzo Quijana would say.  someday, i dream that all my countless dreams wil come true.  hehe…

9. You wouldn’t want to be me because i day dream and think too much.  i can’t sleep immediately at night because i spend more than an hour trying to shut my mind up.  there are just so many thoughts running around, it’s making me insane.

10. You wouldn’t want to be me because i don’t stick to one thing for long.  i might have loved ballet then but i pursued something else later.  i might have wanted to be a nurse in kindergarted, then i wanted to be a cpa in prep, then i took up masscom.  i change crushes every semester/grading period/school year, whichever.

Now then, you just wouldn’t want to be, right?

it’s christmas and i could hardly feel the christmas spirit lingering in the atmosphere.  by now, there ought to have been several firecracker stands just a stone’s throw away from where i live.  by now, shabbily dressed kids would have been bringing along makeshift musical instruments and singing christmas carols in voices that could very well shatter the ear drums.  by now, there would have been several plans for christmas parties and christmas breaks, and there ought to be a lot of christmas trees sprouting from every corner of the city.

but this december is very drab and i can clearly see that the christmas spirit has just been exorcised from the body of dumaguete city.  december 2005 is just like every other month: boring, plain, nothing.  there is the occassional pelting of the rain though, as if that’s to make any of us a bit happier, but beyond that there is absolutely nothing.

i don’t know what’s wrong.  perhaps people are just so caught up with their problems that they find christmas impractical.  maybe our philippine peso has been sapped of its buying power so people just find those P26.00 greeting cards too expensive.

i’m hoping this december will briskly pass.  for the remainder of the time, i do what i always do during christmas breaks: i take a stroll around the deserted silliman campus and just contemplate on things underneath the canopy of acacia trees.  it’s very relaxing and it’s very peaceful.  it’s not as boring as a lot of students picture it out to be.  and while i’m at it, i might as well try to find out if the christmas spirit has been hanging out with the silliman spirit in some dingy corner.

When I told my father i watned to join the arnis team, he nearly choked.  he couldn’t believe that his 5 foot daughter watned to whirl a couple of wooden sticks against an opponent.  it probably made him think that i’m still a frustrated minorrette.  after all, i did oh so want to become a minorette back in my elementary days.  it’s just that whenever the try-outs were held, i wasn’t able to bring my short shorts; but whenever i did wear them, there were no try-outs.  talk about fate.

i think you’d also have a hard time believing that i truly want that.  but really, it’s something new, it’s challenging, and whoa, there’s a scholarship to boot!  did i mention it was also my dream to take part in the SEA games?  i also began thinking that if ever i do go into a ceratin sport, it might as well be something all Filipino (not including piko and patintero, please). 

i’m aware of the fact that at the end of every practice, i’d be a walking dalmatian but hey, those arnis skills could come in useful.  i was never given the chance to study that sport when i was in the junior year in high school.  i never tried being clobbered and i oh so want to emulate the moves i see in versus video games.

besides, it would be an all new way to change my image, don’t you think?  and it would be something worth writing about. 

arnis…kailan pa kaya?