I have a new theme, if that isn’t obvious yet. This is primarily because of mellow_bunny’s efforts: he designed my new theme from scratch based on what I wanted. Since I wanted a theme based on the color violet or permutations of it, he dutifully created my theme based on that sole desire, which is what I have currently. I love this theme a lot more than the vanilla Chocolate Candy theme I had for two years. It truly gives some sort of personality to this blog of mine, and I’m happy about that: thank you very much, Michael.

It’s actually been a long while since I’ve gone to TT. School work, as can be expected, has become a heavier burden. I don’t even know the new anime that will come out, and I still haven’t watched Kurenai. If any of you guys can recommend me anime from the previous season (aside from Kurenai, of course) to watch, I’d appreciate it a lot. At least that would give me some titles I may like from people whose insights I trust.

I’ll get back to anime, though. I’m just waiting for the weekend to arrive. I mean, I did finish Gundam 00 after all, right?

That’s that regarding my anime updates.

I actually have a more pressing issue at hand: I will have a new dormmate, and I have no more space as to where I can place my books. In the interest of space, I am selling some books of mine that I don’t need.

I’ll be direct and honest with the prices, but I welcome haggling, and of course, I can only meet in Metro Manila, preferably near Quezon City or the LRT/MRT stations.

1) Ten Thousand Seeds by Linda Ty-Casper – 150 pesos

An American couple arrives in the Philippines at the onset of the Philippine-American war. The novel chronicles the effects to their lives during and after the war. Linda Ty-Casper is a recognized (but lesser) Filipino author. The book is pretty rare.

2) The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov – 150 pesos

Mikhail Bulgakov was known more for his satiric masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. This novella is also another satire of the government during Stalin’s period: a professor discovers a ray of life that he wanted to study thoroughly. He is prevented, however, by government agents so consumed with the idea of resolving the hunger crises in Russia that the results are devastating.

3) Arctic Summer by E. M. Forster – 150 pesos

This is a character study primarily between two men of opposing ideals. One belongs to the idea of pragmatism, and one belongs to the idea of chivalry. Both are disillusioned as the novel fragment proceeds its course, and the ending is quite a surprise.

4) The Church and Its Social Involvement by Father Wilfredo Fabros – 600 pesos

This was what I quoted in my previous post through a skim. This is expensive, but with good reason. It was the last copy I was able to purchase directly from the press, and the book is out-of-print, with little to no chance of being reprinted again. It is extremely rare: even Amazon and eBay do not have copies of it. Finally, it is also highly informative, chronicling what the Philippine Church has done through critical periods of our history before the Martial Law. It absolutely illuminated my beliefs regarding the Philippine Church. While it ended in a hopeful note, the truth that the dissertation expounds upon is quite unpleasant.

Once again, thanks for reading. I’ll cook up a new post within the week.

Just post if you have questions. I’ll be happy to reply to those queries.

I thought that I had already resolved this issue with my writing in the past, but a close friend of mine had asked me why I wrote about literature so much. I also believe I have alienated some people with regard to my writing style, use of rhetoric, or some idiosyncrasy of mine, so I will try to set things straight (although I doubt I can change how I write at all). It still helps to clear things up. I believe that in this post a quasi-Wittgenstein approach is apt, so without further ado, I will begin. (more…)

While I still disdain saturnine’s actions on IRC, I applaud the collaborative efforts of the ABC in their performance of a very elaborate joke on those who were ignorant. I must say, however, that while its mechanism and its execution were flawless, it wasn’t funny. But since the essence of April Fools’ is primarily practical jokes, they have done well in fooling quite a few of us. Kudos to the ABC. (more…)

In NovaJinx’s post regarding True Tears and its perception by many, he stated that quite a number of people have failed to appreciate the subtlety of True Tears. He continues that people dislike ‘nothing happening’ throughout the episodes. I cannot corroborate True Tears’s subtlety just as I will not condemn those people who dislike the series because nothing happens: for one, I have not seen True Tears yet, and I have no plans to in the near future (of course, whims can change that in an instant). However, I have recently watched something only tangentially related to True Tears (in the fact that both are panned). This something, however, deserves more discussion. (more…)

There is not very much to write about anime, and although Kimikiss has already updated, I have not procured the episode yet. I observed that Moyashimon has updated also; I am unsure, however, if the last three episodes done by kiki_delivers are merely raws (the overly detailed description alongside the series’s title and episode number forces one to surmise that the releases are raws). I have started watching Karin; with regard to IKnight’s exquisite bifurcation of the categories ‘it is good’ and ‘I like it,’ I am certain that it belongs to the latter. I do not know how it piqued my interest, but it did, and that is that. (more…)

First and foremost, I wish everyone a happy new year. Although I do know the greetings are delayed, I have not exactly been indolent these past few days. Since school is once more imminent, I decided to finally finish Mansfield Park; with this goal, I had to refrain from the Internet to progress with Austen’s longest novel. I could have finished sooner but I misplaced the book. I did not totally avoid the Internet, however: as a common reader of this blog would observe, I am very fond of concision, of the aim to obtain mot juste, the perfect expression so as not to mince words. I was thus gladdened when Impz introduced FreeRice to me, a site that (supposedly) donates to the UN’s rice programs every time one gets the meaning of words that progress in difficulty correctly. In the interest of promoting my knowledge of words, I visited the site; needless to say, I have got addicted with it. Reaching level 50 felt great. With these, even my promise to finish ef remains unfulfilled because of these priorities of mine. (more…)

School has started and it is among the reasons why I have not written a post for the past few days, but the real reason as to why I have not yet written anything is because I am still in the middle of reading Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters. I have a lot of things to say about this novel while juxtaposing my post with anime, but I am trying to avoid writing prematurely, as I am still at the middle of it. Within two or three days, however, I will finish the novel (I think), and by then I will have constructed a post that most of you have come to expect from me.

With regard to anime, I have added Gasaraki to my list. The series is not exactly exciting, but the intrigue that lies beneath the robots themselves make the series tolerable to watch. Until then.

Because I do not want to be a pessimist, I will simply say that class started off a bit challenging. With that said, it is to be expected that the posts I will have written will be a lot slower than my output these past few weeks. Still, because I have a desire not to alienate those who read this blog, I have decided to borrow an idea from Karura. Instead of a Tuesday rumble, however, my Smorgasbord will just be a compendium of my thoughts regarding different things; it may be considered a rant. As I no longer have the free time to think about different aspects of anime that I want to write about, I will just share my general thoughts regarding different things.

Two of the reasons why I watch and read DearS