rowan - short vid

From my sister, Jo!

And if all that is gibberish code, just head on over here.

here's rowan

Born July 23, 2008.

I am now the delighted father of two!

birthdays

Happy, happy birthday to LitCritters Andrew and Alex, born a day apart (with many years in between)! Here's to more stories and endless talk.

vignette: dazzling

MAIA:

Ok, then. My turn, right? I have to confess. There is this blog I visit once in a while that makes me smile.

RAM:

There you go. You're a secret stalker, laughing at other people's lives.

MAIA:

No, no. The author isn't trying to be funny, but the sheer mega-ego of the blogger is breathtaking - even putting my own ego to shame, I think, but my loving detractors would probably take umbrage.

RAM:

On behalf of half the blogging community, I take umbrage.

MAIA:

Right. But you know what I mean, right? Don't get me wrong: a certain level of ego is needed to keep writing blogs - it's the equivalent of "character" in terms of discourse, without which the blog is a dull read.

RAM:

Stop, stop with the erudition. You're losing me. Nobody I know talks like you.

MAIA (smiling):

Review-style, then. "In a nutshell, this one delightfully takes the baton, rushes through the course once, twice, thrice, and runs all the way to ends of the earth."

RAM:

To the ends of the earth?

MAIA:

And back. Ten more times.

RAM:

Oh boy.

MAIA:

Dazzling, so dazzling.

RAM (laughing):

So judgmental. I'm shocked.

MAIA:

The blog has such character, such delicious and unabashed narcissism, that I immediately forgive the intellectual arrogance -being an afficionado of such myself-

(RAM laughs.)

RAM:

Wicked, wicked woman!

MAIA:

- and, and simply revel in the me-me-me nature of the author's immense -though lonely-ponderings, sometime poignantly self-aware, but more often blithely oblivious.

RAM:

You sound like you've thought this through, like you knew I'd ask you something like this.

MAIA:

Do I?

RAM:

You do.

MAIA:

Maybe I have. I love the site.

RAM:

But?

MAIA:

But I've never commented, never engaged. But I return and return.

RAM:

You're horrible.

MAIA:

I know.

RAM:

Wait. It isn't my blog, is it?

(They laugh.)

where are you, pinoy crime fiction?

An ice cream-free Ichi Batacan (author of "Smaller and Smaller Circles", Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel) considers the question and offers her first answer (with the promise of more pondering to come).

This would be of interest to Kenneth Yu of Philippine Genre Stories, since the scope of his publication includes crime, romance, and other genres, in addition to fantastic genres of fantas, scifi and horror.

Yes, one day Kenneth Yu and I will simply have to mudwrestle over terminology (genre vs. spec fic).

Anyway, this is a wonderful post and has successfully made me guilty enough to return to my ruminations on Philippine spec fic - next week.

The Zombie Mommy

an original story by Sage Alfar

Once upon a time, there was a mommy who got shot!

She died and became a zombie, which made the daddy and the little girl very scared. "Aah!" they would shout, whenever the zombie mommy came near.

But they were also very sad, because they missed their mommy very much. "I know!" said the daddy. "Let's be zombies, too, then Mommy won't want to eat us and we can all be together again."

"Okay!" said the little girl. So the daddy and the little girl became zombies and they joined the mommy; and they all lived happily ever after, the end.

little girl get bigger, step four

Sage's fourth birthday is rolling around on February 14th, and we are having the usual party for her on the 18th (because we are not delusional enough to expect people to actually show up on a Tuesday which also happens to be Valentine's day!) That'll be a day before my birthday as well, so it will sort of be a joint celebration.

I say "sort of" because, you know, a Disney Princess costume party is not usually my idea of a rockin' time; but I'm actually considering wearing my entourage gown from Kate and Alex's wedding, just to go along with my Cinderella-clad daughter. We'll see how whimsical I feel on the day itself.

If you would like to get the little girl a present--you don't have to, but of course she and we would appreciate it!--here are some of the things she wants:

a wind-up music box, preferably the old-fashioned kind with a ballerina or some such twirling inside when you open it

a jack-in-the-box--yes, she has a thing about boxes lately

a game cartridge for the VSmile educational video game system, suitable for age four or five--but not the Barney, which she already has; or the Little Mermaid one, which Dean and I are getting her

the Disney Princess collapsible play tent

the Polly Pocket House of Style, City Pretty, or Sporty Style Quick Clik playset--Please don't get the Zen playset, because her Uncle Vin already has dibs on that one.

something from the Ello creation system--it's kind of like Lego, but a little more freeform. She hasn't got any of this yet, so any set is safe to get.

books, books, and more books--author preferences include Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, Richard Scarry, Dr. Seuss, and Maurice Sendak. Her mother would be particularly thrilled for Sage to get Where the Wild Things Are or Guess How Much I Love You.

any Disney Princess playset, the kind with a tiny princess, prince, and sundry accessories

the Sylvanian families otter family set, because the bunny family that lives in her dollhouse now is all dirty and unwashable!

just about anything Justice League Unlimited or Dora the Explorer. She is a huge Supergirl fan. She also likes Barbie and Disney Princesses (You may have figured that one out already), but she has a lot of these things, so it may be chancy to just pick something at random.

No more Barbies, please! Even Sage agrees that she has quite enough for now.

Thanks tons, everybody!

The title, by the way, is a little joke alluding to an early Ranma 1/2 episode.

school cool

We are so inordinately proud of our little girl that it’s just short of unholy.

Last month, she participated in her school’s Reading Recital, in which she was one of just three pre-kindergartners selected, and yet was probably the most confident and articulate reader of the lot (with the possible exception of the little boy who read “Little Calf Finds his Mommy” with rather apocalyptic solemnity).

This month, we received her report card, in which, out of possible accomplishment ratings of “Not Yet”, “Somewhat”, and “Regularly”, she scored 69 “Regularlys”, 5 “Sometimeses”, and 0 “Not Yets”. This is in contrast to her score last trimester, which had 1 “Not Yet” and 10 “Sometimeses”, and even then was considered rather extraordinary in comparison to the expected result for her age group, which would be about 25 of each rating. Her teachers are telling us that she may be gifted.

What’s both startling and gratifying is that her giftedness does not appear to be a simple result of mere genetics, as she is doing quite well with mathematic skills, despite being the product of a father who cannot multiply by nine without working it out on his fingers, and a mother who cannot multiply by nine, period.

It seems she’s aptly named.