Well, what do you know? This entry is being written on the 25th of December, right smack in the late afternoon at that -- Merry Christmas to all!
This year's celebration of the holidays is made more special with the birth of our second daughter, Rissa Kristelle, last December 13. My wife's OB had estimated an expected delivery date of December 26 (which would have made little Issa share her birthdate with her Lola Myrna, my biyenan) but she came much, much earlier, determined no less to spend her first Christmas with us.
The birth of my daughter also meant we are celebrating the holidays in our little apartment, on our own -- a break from the yearly tradition of trekking to San Pedro, Laguna to spend Christmas eve and Christmas Day with my folks at the old place in Pacita. So, this year for first time we did our groceries for the noche buena, wrapped some gifts and put them under the Christmas tree (which for the first time was more meaningful as well), and cooked the noche buena feast :)
When the clock struck 12 midnight last night, only Elvie, Ikai and myself were awake with actually only me and my wife partaking of the noche buena (Ikai was already cranky but trying to fend off sleep with her usual Playhouse Disney fare on the tube) while our other house-mates zzz'ed the coming of December 25.
New Year's celebration will again be held for the first time in our apartment in Makati :)
* * * *
My Christmas break began much, much early this December as the birth of Baby Issa meant the automatic availment of the government-mandated paternity leave. However, after the paternity leave break, I had to report for work last week as I still had many loose ends to tie up (they remained loose unfortunately). I won't be reporting for work again for the last two work days of 2009 as I will then be availing two days of my mandatory four-days leave (in the process most likely forfeiting the two VLs unless I be allowed to avail them next year by the powers that be) so that meant I had just fulfilled five months of work at the new desk.
There is still much to be learned at the new Desk and even five months of stay isn't enough to learn them all. And even though there has been a lot of things being done and work being worked on, there are however more work waiting to be fulfilled. My year-end appraisal actually doesn't look good and I am not expecting any additional rewards for that.
But I've accepted that fact already (the hazards of being the new guy in a new place -- you're an idiot basically until you learn the playbook and the politics) and hope to do better in the next grading period (otherwise I won't be earning my full keep!).
* * * *
In between the Christmas rush and making sure the needs of Baby Issa (and Mama Elvie, of course) are met, I am managing to do some spec-fic reading.
I've finally managed to install an ebook reader, a free Mobi Reader, on my Nokia 6680 (the E71 Pro is just waiting around the wings though) and with two full novels in it (advance reading copies from Angry Robots -- Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon and The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar -- both of which I hope to do a review (amateurish no doubt but still countable as a review from a common reader of spec-fic) and the Usok Anthology, this will be good for passing time where holding a physical book would be difficult -- like when you're SRO on the MRT with one hand holding the rail or if you're in a boring meeting with twenty other creatures where you holding your mobile phone won't be dismissed us rudeness.
I am also in the midst of digesting the first issue of Expanded Horizons which I've printed out and ring-binded for personal consumption (and not meant for commercial exploitation I assure you). I still prefer to read the old-school way -- that is, holding something tangible in your hand -- so printing out the PDF was a no-brainer when I finished downloading it from the EH site.
So, why install a Mobi reader on my cellphone? Well, for those instances where I find myself with no book to read (like when I'm dressed to the nines and holding a book is detrimental to the overall fashion), at least I have something on hand to read, spec-fic wise. Otherwise, I'm way, way happier with a good old-fashioned book in hand.
Barring any legal complications for doing so, I plan to print out all issues gradually and assemble them into ring-binded "thin books" for inclusion in shelfing in my forthcoming bookshelves.
Bookshelves will be contracted around June.
* * * *
The problem with the CGI-driven film, 9, is that it's a bit lacking in depth and substance. You do achieve the "ooohhs" and "aaahhs" with the design and film aesthetics but at the end of the film, you find yourself asking "Is that it?".
I'm not much of a film critic but I guess I had higher expectations with 9 with its post-apocalyptic premise of a world dominated by animated dolls terrorized by mechanicals. The basic idea is a step beyond the more familiar man versus machine theme -- we don't see man in the movie's present day but instead see man (or more appropriately the last man -- the Scientist) in flashbacks, telling us of how mankind fell -- we see humanoid dolls instead (stitchpunks as they've fondly become known online) versus machine.
The Scientist brings to life this doll-like creatures who are then tasked with the responsibility of ushering in world after man. The Scientist hopes that his creations would be more worthy of the world than Man ever was and that they explore the world and make it better.
Doll Number 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood) however awoke the old evil -- a spider-like Master Machine responsible for bringing about the end of mankind and still driven to create world dominated by machines (traces of Terminator and Dune here) -- and the stitchpunks had to grow up fast, work together, and learn human values and do some actual decision-making to remedy the situation.
The whole story was no different from the millions done before -- that of good versus evil, freedom versus oppression -- but the use of pseudo-humans made 9 appealing ... at least before you got to actually watching the film and finding out that despite the opportunity to expound and deliver a fresh rehash to the age-old theme the makers decided to go the safe route by doing away with levels and nuances that would've enriched the story.
But kudos to director/writer Shane Acker for developing the idea of 9. The film is beautifully eerie in its depiction of a post-mankind world. There is no doubt to the visual prowess of the film. However, the story could've done a bit more work.
Here's to hoping James Cameron's Avatar doesn't fall under the same malaise.
* * * *
Rocket Kapre's contribution to helping the victims of recent typhoons that have wrecked the Philippines comes in the form of a digital anthology entitled "Ruin and Resolve". With 19 stories and five poems from the pens of today's well-known Filipino spec-fic writers, editor Paolo Chikiamco states that all the works contained in the anthology "deal with the two faces of every disaster, and the paradox inherent in the fact that, sometimes, it is only the midst of the most crushing adversity that our brightest human qualities arise."
Some of the names in the anthology include Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Nikki Alfar, Kenneth Yu, Vin Simbulan, Crystal Koo, among others. Ruin and Resolve will be available for digital purchase on December 28 over at Smashwords.
