Happy 2012!

Happy New Year, everyone!

For quick updates, I am still unemployed after my work in Convergys. Well, I didn’t really look for a job since December, following my wife’s advice. Gracia said that January is the hiring month.

I am starting to get pressured about it but everyone here in the house is very understanding and supportive. My job-hunting will begin next week. So far, no specific destinations on my job-hunting map.

I am still doing The Dreamwalker’s. I am getting more excited about it after getting new ideas from my wife Gracia. I am enjoying Hannah Kharis and Isagani more, the lead characters in The Dreamwalker’s. There were so many revisions even before I posted a request-for-review in filipinowriter.com but I decided not to post the revised version since I am still writing the other half of the story.

There was a funny one who did a review on the original chapter one, The Ghost Teller, and all he said was that the story was boring, saying something like it was just another ghost stories. I am not sure if he really read the whole chapter one or, maybe he did not understand.

First of all, The Dreamwalker’s is not a ghost story. He did not give any supporting details why he said it was boring. There were more than ten people who read the very original six chapters and they did sincerely enjoy the story. Some of these people I did not know, and had not met them in person.

But just like the critique from filipinowriter.com, he said he could be wrong for he had only read the first chapter.

There was also one thing he mentioned about a paragraph which he could not relate to the plot which I found very amusing and helpful. For that one I wanted to thank him.

Still, I did not want to give up that certain paragraph because that was from the aborted Hundred Days and it serves as a sort of legacy for it. When I talked about it with my wife Gracia, she advised me to transfer that instead to another chapter. I followed her advice and it turned out good.

I am still finishing the other half of the story and I’m praying to get it finished before I start working again. I am very conscious in writing it because I don’t want to offend some people. Especially that it somehow talks about faith.

I just read the first two books of Trese by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo and I’m an instant fan. I even joined their Fan Page on facebook and had their website added to my Daily Reads in Reporting Fernand Yim. I also enjoyed Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan. I am telling you, Elmer, the story of adding chickens to human race was really awesome!

Aside from writing, I am enjoying playing with my naïve hobby in photography. I discovered that our pink Samsung PL101 had great feats! My first project was to get pictures of anything that shows the greatness of God in His creation. I called it God in Details. What amazing about it was that most of my new pictures were taken right from our backyard!

This backyard of ours is like a small space where wood debris and other fragments are kept. You will see there growing weeds, dried leaves, and stones covered with moss. But the beauty of it lies in every detail of it. By capturing each element in our backyard, I re-discovered that God is surely indescribable.

About Christmas, you might have seen the pictures here already but we were all busy eating and playing games that we did not capture many funny moments. It was great to celebrate Christmas here in San Pablo City with my in-laws. However, I also felt sad being far from Mama and Papa and my siblings. So on the morning of Christmas, Gracia and I went to San Pedro.

We planned to celebrate New Year in San Pedro but we’re not able to pursue that. Still, the New Year celebration here was twice the fun. We started the program with the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine. It was Gracia’s family’s tradition. That easily put the memory of the last night of 2010 back in my head. There was a pinch of pain in my heart but it was overwhelmed by gratefulness to the kindness of God in our lives. After that, we started the games around eight in the evening until a little after eleven.

It was so funny that every one would push their own game for the prize of like twenty bucks! I know the prize was not that much but the feeling of winning was awesome. We were even noisier than firecrackers.

There was one game where Tatay (my father in law), Edwin (husband of Mariz, siter of Gracia), and I joined the game by Kuya Dennis (husband of Ate Dian, also a sister of Gracia). Each one of us had to finish drinking a bottle of Red horse Beer, that the first one to finish would be declared as winner.

I got so excited especially while hearing Kuya Dennis raising the bid up to eighty pesos! I rushed to drinking the last drop of the beer and I thought we supposed to put it on the floor upside down. The moment I did that, I threw up right there in front of everyone! It was so embarrassing that I had to run real quick to the bathroom, to wash and to hide at the same time, laughs! But you know what? I won the game, laughs.

So many things happened. Too bad we missed taking pictures of them.

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The year 2012 started with flu viruses, I guess. Gracia and I were both not feeling well. She was absent since Tuesday. I can’t still stop worrying about next week but that one I leave to God. I’ll do my best to finish The Dreamwalker’s and then submit it to the publisher and God will take care of the rest.

I also want to thank all the people who have been part of our 2011. I know in my heart that 2012 is our year and is the start of the land of milk and honey.

Glory to God.