OK, not really. But NASA has this thing where you can sign up to join the Insight mission to Mars, and they’ll generate a flight pass for you and everything. Your name will be on a list that will travel on that mission, even if your physical existence will not.

Still pretty cool.

The post I’m going to Mars, b*tchez first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

“I can make better eggs than that at home!” she said.

“Maybe the cook was just having an off day,” I said, trying to be helpful.

“Try it and tell me I’m wrong,” she said.

It turns out the place was just a couple of blocks away from where my friends and I would be staying — a nice, tiny apartment overlooking the Temple Street Night Market. Sidebar about the apartment: the AirBnB reviews were positive, and three pages down, a helpful reviewer mentioned there was “prostitution” down on the street but it was generally safe.

Yay.

(I wasn’t worried. Prostitution in Hong Kong is legal so long as the, uh, professional is working freelance, and not with a pimp or organization.)

So anyway, on the first morning of our trip, we went in search of ADC. I was warned there would be a long queue for breakfast, and indeed there was.

However, after a minute in line, a staff came out asking if there are any parties of two. There weren’t any, but we said there were three of us, so they let us go in next.

The place was packed! And I mean there was hardly any place to move around. This was definitely not the place for a leisurely brunch. Look at the “table” they gave us.

We ordered a breakfast set each, which consisted of scrambled eggs, toast, noodle soup and coffee.

First, the coffee. It was good. A word of warning, though: it comes with milk and sugar already in it. This is how I usually take my coffee (unless it’s really good pour-over coffee and it’s after 2pm, in which case I take it black). But if you prefer yours black, I guess you could try and ask them not to put milk and sugar.

Next, the scrambled eggs. It was good, too, don’t get me wrong. But as Bergman said, it’s not really deserving of all the praises that’s been heaped all over it. And yes, I can do better eggs at home with no other ingredients but butter and some salt. (Tip: Mix the eggs gently, don’t beat them. Use real butter, not the thing that looks like butter but that says “margarine” on the label. Remove eggs from pan while still soft and a little undercooked.)

The noodle soup was meh. But hot soup is just good in the morning, especially with toast and eggs. I would have preferred a lomi or congee. (They may have had congee on the menu, I didn’t check.)

The toast, however, was wonderful. I mean, it’s not worth queueing for at eight in the morning, but it was damn good toast. The bread was toasted just right, and served to you already generously buttered. And it was good butter, too.

However, I’m the kind of person who likes to enjoy my breakfast in a relaxing environment (and not-cramped space), where patrons and staff don’t bump into my chair every two minutes. If I was getting really amazing eggs, I could maybe — on occasion — tolerate the queueing and the tiny space and tiny tables. But these were not the eggs I was looking for. As for ADC’s popularity — was there no other place in Hong Kong that served decent eggs and toast for breakfast at such cheap prices? I dunno. It still doesn’t explain why so many tourists rave about the eggs so much.

ADC was not a complete waste of time. You ought to give it a try, if you’re in the area and are craving decent eggs and toast. And if you don’t mind queueing for a bit and eating in a really cramped space.

We did, though. So for the next few mornings, we had breakfast at the Toast Box a block away. The coffee and toast was good, and we didn’t have to queue or rush through our meal.

And if you’re wondering, yes, we did run into some sex professionals on the street below. They seemed nice.

The post Underwhelmed by eggs at the Australia Dairy Co. first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

I’m posting this here because the RH Law, which took 13 years to finally be established, seems to be even more important now than ever. — Tania

Keynote Speech delivered by Former Rep. Edcel C. Lagman in Baguio City during the First Year Anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision on the Reproductive Health Law

The RH advocacy is a continuing crusade – from the epic 13-year struggle for the enactment of an RH Law to the one-year confrontation to surmount the constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court, and now the mission of achieving the full and expeditious implementation of the celebrated RH Law.

We must never rest on our laurels. One victory deserves another. The triumphant march must go on.

Today, we celebrate one signal victory: the first year anniversary of the adjudication by the Supreme Court that the Reproductive Health Law is on the whole constitutional.

But victory, like life itself, is most of the time, not a consummate success. There are inevitable setbacks which do not in any way detract, deter, dilute or diminish an outstanding triumph.

While the Supreme Court in its 08 April 2014 landmark decision found eight provisions of Republic Act No. 10354 not constitutional together with their counterpart provisions in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (RH-IRR) and two RH-IRR provisions as ultra vires and unconstitutional, the struck-down provisions are peripheral to the core and essence of the RH Law.

Any declaration of unconstitutionality of certain statutory provisions is strictly construed because the presumption is that a law is constitutional. Consequently, only those provisions specifically referred to by the Supreme Court in the dispositive portion of its decision are considered unconstitutional. The overwhelming majority of the provisions are constitutional.

Spared from the judicial scalpel are the following all-important provisions, among others:

1. The government is mandated to give the marginalized sectors free access to family planning information, services and supplies (Sec. 3[c]).
2. The Philippine National Drug Formulary shall include hormonal contraceptives, IUDs, injectables and other safe, legal, non-abortifacient and effective family planning devices and supplies, as determined by the Food and Drug Administration [Sec. 9].
3. The Department of Health is authorized to procure family planning supplies for distribution to Local Government Units (LGUs) [Sec. 10].
4. The Local Government Units (LGUs) are mandated to assist in the implementation of the RH Law [Sections 5, 6, 8, 16 and 20].
5. There shall be reproductive health education for adolescents in all schools [Sec. 14]. Importantly, RH education is mandated for all schools, both public and private. The only difference is that the DepEd shall formulate the curriculum for public schools, which may be adopted by private schools. Otherwise, private schools shall make their own curriculum, subject to the supervisory authority of DepEd.

   Section 14 does not distinguish whether an adolescent is enrolled in a public or private school. It would be a violation of the equal protection clause if adolescents in private schools are deprived of the benefits of RH education.

6. Government shall pursue public awareness programs and massive nationwide multi-media campaigns on promotion and protection of reproductive health.

With the constitutionality of the foregoing salient provisions sustained, the voiding of a few provisions will not lessen the efficacy of the law and negate its full implementation.

The few voided provisions can be classified into the following categories:

1. Protection of the right of conscientious objectors.

(a) The Supreme Court voided the affected portion of Section 7 and the corresponding provision in the RH-IRR “insofar as they require private health facilities and non-maternity specialty hospitals and hospitals owned and operated by a religious group to refer patients, not in an emergency or life-threatening case, as defined under Republic Act No. 8344, to another health facility which is conveniently accessible”.

What was specifically struck down was the referral requirement imposed on private health facilities, non-maternity specialty hospitals and hospitals owned and operated by a religious group for refusal to extend reproductive health care services to patients on the ground of “conscientious objection”.

The rest of the provisions in Section 7 on “Access to Family Planning” are not constitutionally infirm as they were not declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The constitutional provisions read: “All accredited public health facilities shall provide a full range of family planning methods which shall also include medical consultation, supplies and necessary and reasonable procedures for poor and marginalized couples having infertility issues who desire to have children: Provided, That family planning services shall likewise be extended by private health facilities to paying clients with the option to grant free care and services to indigents.”

Consequently, all accredited public health facilities are mandated, without exception, to render reproductive health services to patients. Moreover, private health facilities are likewise mandated to extend such services to paying clients.

(b) Also nullified is “Section 23 (a)(3) and the corresponding provision in the RH-IRR, particularly Section 5.24 thereof insofar as they punish any healthcare service provider who fails and/or refuses to refer a patient not in an emergency or life-threatening case as defined under Republic Act No. 8344, to another healthcare service provider within the same facility or one which is conveniently accessible regardless of his or her religious beliefs.”

In this case, the exemption from the referral requirement covers any healthcare service provider regardless of his or her religious beliefs. In other words, an objecting healthcare service provider in an accredited public health facility is exempt from the referral requirement, even as the public health facility is not exempt, and the protected objection is “regardless of his or her religious beliefs”. The Supreme Court has unduly liberalized the rule on conscientious objector, which is supposed to be limited to religious or ethical objections. By extending to all healthcare service providers the privilege of conscientious objection outside of religious or ethical grounds would allow one to make contrived objections.

(c) A private RH care provider who is a conscientious objector is not required to render 40-hour a year pro bono service to indigent women as a condition precedent to PhilHealth accreditation because this requirement for accreditation was voided by the Supreme Court. But the policy of encouraging private practitioners to extend a minimum of 40 hours annually of free RH services to indigent women is maintained.

2. Requirement of spousal and parental consent.

(a) Spousal consent is needed for a married person to undergo ligation or vasectomy because the Supreme Court voided the provision in the RH Law which states that in case of disagreement between the spouses, the spouse undergoing the procedure shall prevail.

(b) Written parental consent is required for all minors to access modern contraceptives because the Supreme Court struck down the provision where parental consent is not needed when a minor is already a parent or has had a miscarriage.

(c) Parental consent is required for minors who shall undergo non-elective surgical procedures like terminating an ectopic pregnancy or undergoing D and C after an abortion or miscarriage because the Supreme Court voided the provision which required parental consent for minors who are undergoing only elective surgical procedures, and extended the requirement of parental consent to non-elective or medically mandatory surgical procedures.

3. Any public official who refuses to support or hinders the implementation of the RH Law is not culpable.

The Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the latter portion of “Section 23 (b) and the corresponding provision in the RH-IRR, particularly Section 5.24 thereof, insofar as they punish any public officer who refuses to support reproductive health programs or shall do any act that hinders the full implementation of a reproductive health program regardless of his or her religious beliefs”.

The Supreme Court did not declare the nullity of the rest of the provisions in Section 23 (b), which read:

(b) Any public officer, elected or appointed, specifically charged with the duty to implement the provisions hereof, who, personally or through a subordinate, prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning; or forces, coerces or induces any person to use such services; or refuses to allocate, approve or release any budget for reproductive health care services, x x x. (Emphasis supplied).

What the Supreme Court selectively declared as unconstitutional is the last portion of Section 23 (b) which punishes any public officer who commits or fails “to support reproductive health programs; or shall do any act that hinders the full implementation of a reproductive health program as mandated by this Act”.

Consequently, a public officer, elected or appointed, specifically charged with the duty to implement the provisions of the RH Law, is not exempt from liability if he (a) “personally or through a subordinate, prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning”; (b) forces, coerces or induces any person to use such services”; and (c) refuses to allocate, approve or release any budget for reproductive health care services”. The foregoing specific acts are not subsumed under the acts which the Supreme Court declared public officers can do without incurring liability.

4. Failure or refusal to disseminate information is not culpable.

The Supreme Court nullified “Section 23 (a)(1) and the corresponding provision in the RH-IRR, particularly Section 5.24 thereof, insofar as they punish any healthcare service provider who fails or refuses to disseminate information regarding programs and services on reproductive health regardless of his or her religious beliefs.”

The partially affected provision reads in full:

(1) “Knowingly withhold information or restrict the dissemination thereof, and/or intentionally provide incorrect information regarding programs and services on reproductive health including the right to informed choice and access to a full range of legal, medically-safe, non-abortifacient and effective family planning methods.” (Emphasis supplied).

Accordingly, the failure or refusal to disseminate RH information is not culpable but knowingly or intentionally giving false information is punishable. On this score, the Supreme Court in its decision held that:

“From its plain meaning, the word ‘incorrect’ here denotes failing to agree with a copy or model or with established rules; inaccurate, faulty; failing to agree with the requirements of duty, morality or propriety; and failing to coincide with the truth. On the other hand, the word ‘knowingly’ means with awareness or deliberateness that is intentional. Used together in relation to Section 23(a)(l), they connote a sense of malice and ill motive to mislead or misrepresent the public as to the nature and effect of programs and services on reproductive health. Public health and safety demand that health care service providers give their honest and correct medical information in accordance with what is acceptable in medical practice. While health care service providers are not barred from expressing their own personal opinions regarding the programs and services on reproductive health, their right must be tempered with the need to provide public health and safety. The public deserves no less. (Emphasis supplied).

The Supreme Court likewise voided “Section 3.01(a) and Section 3.01(j) of the RH-IRR, which added the qualifier ‘primarily’ in defining abortifacients and contraceptives, as they are ultra vires and, therefore, null and void for contravening Section 4(a) of the RH Law and violating Section 12 Article II of the Constitution.”

The proponents of the RH Bill in the House of Representatives agreed to the re-definition of “abortifacients” to include “the prevention of the fertilized ovum to reach and be implanted in the mother’s womb upon determination by the FDA” because there is no medical and scientific validation that some contraceptives have the secondary action of preventing the fertilized ovum from implanting in the uterus. Consequently, the adoption of the re-definition was merely to accommodate the oppositors because the said secondary action is a mere commercial claim of manufacturers of contraceptives and re-echoed by the opponents of the RH Bill without scientific anchorage.

The struck-down provisions are peripheral to the core of the RH Law because:

1. They pertain to exceptions like:

(a) Conscientious objection, whether genuine or contrived, is an exception to general compliance by healthcare service providers, the vast majority of whom avidly support the RH Law;

(b) Public officials who would not support or hinder the implementation of the RH Law constitute a small minority because the majority of public functionaries will abide by their oath of office of observing and complying with the law;

(c) Ordinarily spouses agree to one of them underdoing ligation or vasectomy particularly when they already have many children or the procedure is required for health reasons. Consequently, disagreement between spouses is the exception; and

(d) Non-elective surgical procedures requiring parental consent are exceptional.

2. There is no sanction or penalty for non-observance of the Supreme Court’s nullification of some prohibited acts because the very penalty imposed by the law has been removed by the voiding of the affected prohibited acts. For example:

(a) A woman who undergoes ligation against the wishes of her husband does not commit any criminal offense and likewise the healthcare service provider who performs the procedure is not culpable in the absence of a penal sanction;

(b) A minor who, without parental consent, undergoes a non-elective surgery is not punishable and the healthcare service provider who performs the surgery is also not liable because there is no penalty prescribed for said acts; and

(c) A minor who accesses without parental consent modern contraceptives for protection is not culpable, just like the doctor or pharmacist who provides the contraceptive in the absence of a penal provision.

Only the Congress can prescribe penalties and the Supreme Court cannot, as it did not, prescribe any penalties for the commission of the acts found in the voided provisions. Otherwise, the Supreme Court will meander into prohibited judicial legislation. Settled is the rule that without a corresponding penalty, there is no crime (Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege).

I submit that the struck-down provisions will not create “gray areas” in the implementation of the RH Law if the voided provisions are strictly construed or interpreted and the declaration of unconstitutionality is limited to the precise sections or provisions specifically pointed out by the Supreme Court in the dispositive portion of its decision.

In order not to delay further the implementation of the RH Law, like the Solicitor General, I did not file a motion for the Supreme Court to reconsider its declaration of nullity of the aforecited provisions. I am not saying that the Supreme Court was correct in declaring unconstitutional some provisions of the RH Law and the RH-IRR. I have strong reservations on the validity of the Supreme Court’s pronouncements on limited nullity.

However, since the Supreme Court has spoken, the recourse is to enact the necessary remedial legislation to temper or reverse the effects of the voiding of some of provisions. The requisite bills must be filed in Congress at the appropriate time, which is not yet now. We must not be rash to avoid reigniting the flames of conflict too soon.

The post Rep. Edcel C. Lagman: Resolving the “gray areas” consequent to the Supreme Court Decision on the Reproductive Health Law first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

On my way to the grocery store, I went to pick up my copy of the March 2015 issue of the Korean Harper’s Bazaar today. They took out what looked to me like a 1 1/2 inch-thick bundle of magazines. I though, oh, a bunch of people ordered the same thing. But no. It turns out that was just one copy of the magazine (the main magazine plus a companion mag called Harper’s Bazaar Man — I didn’t know this was a thing).

I think the whole set weighed about two kilos — I’m not kidding. All I wanted was the Lee Soo Hyuk fashion spread, now I’m stuck with this ginormous and heavy pile of tree death. I do read fashion magazines sometimes, but I don’t read Korean. Which is kinda sad, as I would really like to know Bobbi Brown’s make-up tips.

Maybe I could donate the main magazine to a Korean salon? This issue is only a month old, after all. Or should I keep it? I’m pretty sure it could make a handy weapon during the impending zombie apocalypse. If the zombies don’t read Korean, they’ll be both hurt AND confused.

The post Lee Soo Hyuk and a whole pile of tree death first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

Jane is best for period romance novels or novellas. Which is why I named it after the venerable novelist Jane Austen. Jane v.2 no longer has those pesky textboxes (which totally work for me when I do book design, but I realized they must be annoying to some people, especially if you are an indie author and don’t really do book layout as a hobby or job), and I’ve changed up some fonts to the fabulous and roundish sans serif font Tex Gyre Adventor. Oh, and it’s now formatted for a 5″x8″ paperback.

The Hannah is a template meant for contemporary novels. As with Jane v.2, The Hannah 3.0 has no textboxes and has been resized to fit a 5″x8″ paperback. There are no changes in the fonts from The Hannah v.2, but the font sizes have been redone.

If you’ve never indie-published a book for print before, and you currently have a finished (possibly edited) manuscript of a novel or novella, you may want to check out this workshop on Print Book Formatting and Affordable Printing I’ll be facilitating together with indie author and pie enthusiast Mina V. Esguerra on Saturday, February 28, 2015. It will be held at O2 Space Solutions, Milelong Bldg, Amorsolo St. in Makati City, from 8:30 to 11:30 am. We’ll let you in on affordable (practically free actually) print-on-demand options that will help you get local and global distribution for your books. I will teach you the basics of book design — book covers, laying out the inside pages — so you can do these things yourself, or efficiently supervise an hired designer as she does your bidding and creates designs for your books. At the end of the session, your book will be up on CreateSpace and after a day or so, ready for worldwide distribution as a print paperback. Slots are extremely limited, so sign up and get started on your path to becoming the indie author you’ve always wanted to be.

The post Free stuff for indie authors, and a workshop first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

As a Levi fangirl, I had to restrain myself from bouncing up and down my bed at five in the morning when I got wind of this from io9: there’s an upcoming 2-part OVA series titled Attack on Titan: No Regrets (Shingeki no Kyojin Gaiden: Kuinaki Sentaku) that will be basically a Levi origin story.

(In case you’re not familiar with anime terms, OVA is short for Original Video Animation. They’re anime released straight to DVD, without airing first in the theater or television.)

Levi is a character from the manga Shingeki no Kyojin (lit. “advancing titans”) (English title: “Attack on Titan”), quite possibly our current favorite Japanese post-apocalyptic YA-slash-coming-of-age-slash-zombie story. Nicknamed “Humanity’s Strongest Soldier”, he’s probably the most popular character in that series (sorry, Eren!). Which seems odd at first — he’s short, he’s rude to everyone, and he beats up Eren in their first meeting. And he’s a notorious clean freak. I can only assume he just appeals to our weird tsundere fetish. (The fact that in the anime he has a ridiculously hot voice may also something to do with it.)

Apparently season 2 of the anime has been delayed a year or so to allow the original manga series to advance a bit so the anime doesn’t run out of story, so this OVA will keep us happy till season 2 OR the upcoming already-cast live-action film adaptation is released. (My bb Miura Haruma is reportedly taking up the role of Eren.)

The first part will be released December 9, 2014, and the second in April 2015.

The post The Levi origin story we always knew we wanted first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

1. “How’s Taka? Is he thinking of … y’know, coming to visit too?”
2. “Can I see your abs?”
3. “When are you and Hongki doing a drama together?”
4. “Would you like some cookies?”
5. “Seriously, your abs. We would like to see them.”
6. “Will you sign my Rurouni Kenshin DVD?”
7. “The first movie was awesome! I saw it in the theater nine times!”
8. “Kekkon shite kudasai!” (via L)
9. “Take-dahlin, yatto kitekuretano!” (via K.)
10. “Mattemashita!” (via K.)
11. “Takeru-san, please sing a few lines of ‘Mighty Long Fall’.”
12. “Takeru-san, may I smell you?”

Now if only the weather holds long enough for Satoh Takeru, Takei Emi, Munetaka Aoki and director Keishi Ohtomo to fly into Manila safely for the Asian Red Carpet Premiere (OMG when did Manila get so fancy?), I can stop worrying and actually get my mind back on work and stuff. Stupid monsoon rains are making fangirling so hard.

Don’t worry, I promise not to embarrass anyone. I will sit at my designated spot and marvel at how pretty Take-chan looks from the back.

Thanks to my old college friend and drinking buddy John. Lemme know if you need a kidney or something.

The post Fangirl chronicles: She’s dating the samurai first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

IAN: “Globe sucks so bad I can’t even make calls to Globe numbers using my Globe mobile phone. What should we do about this?”

ME: “Revolution!!”

IAN: “I was thinking more along the lines of a signal booster.”

The post Office Spaced, part 1 first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

So some of the staff of Buzzfeed agreed to try the offerings of Jollibee in the U.S. Some of the feedback was hilarious:

Little Big Bite (Spam sandwich): “It tastes like a sandwich made by a divorced dad.”
Spicy Chicken: “It’s like a new type of spice.”
Burger Steak: “It look beautiful. I love it.” “I think that looks disgusting.”
Halo Halo: “How stoned [were} the Jollibee people when making this stuff up?” “It looks like if Christmas was a food.”

Basically, some of them hated some of the food and enjoyed some of the others. I’m Filipino myself, and I’m not a big fan of halo halo, and will not eat Jollibee spaghetti if you paid me to. But I’ll eat the chicken, and maybe even the burger steak if I was REALLY hungry.

All in all it was an interesting cultural study, I think. I just wish there was at least one African American doing the taste test.

Thanks to Budjette for the link!

The post Americans try out Jollibee first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

The forums were moderated by Paolo Chikiamco of Rocket Kapre and Studio Salimbal and comics artist/writer Elbert Or. Panelists eagerly answered questions from audience members that ranged from protecting copyright to how artists and writers collaborate in one project.

The writers panel

The artists panel

I managed to get a couple of videos of the artists talk. Here’s part one, which is up on the MangoJuiced YouTube channel.

Studio Salimbal is a group of comics creators, artists, writers who aim to produce comics creatively, coherently, consistently, and to create a community. Salimbal’s comics will be available online, in conventions and in stores — everywhere people find good comics. Paolo Chikiamco is confident that by 2015 they will be aple to publish a new a new page every weekday for the entire year. The website will be launching later this month, but you may get updates by following their Facebook and Twitter.

The post Talking Philippine comics with Studio Salimbal (Now with parts 1 & 2 of the Artists Panel!) first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

The bihod fried rice alone is enough to send you into raptures.

We had pochero as well, but I forgot to take a photo. It was good I guess — pochero is really something I only eat if it’s there, but not something I look for, and I’m not sure how good pochero tastes like. But no complaints here!

For dessert I had “Sikreto ni Maria” (“Maria’s Secret). It’s suman (a kind of sticky rice cake) and mangoes topped with ice-cream and coconut strips. It was the best dessert I’ve had in a long time.

The ice-cream got melty because I had stepped out for a bit and they served it while I was gone. However, the fact that the ice-cream had melted did not make it any less awesome. seriously go to Abe and order it. A friend says they told her she had to order it before the entrée and although I got to order it after I’d had my entrée, so better check first.

Abe had a rather good-sized selection of hot and cold coffees, which I admit surprised us. It was more of a “let’s go get food with the family and all the aunts and uncles and their kids” kind of place, not somewhere you’d go spend a long afternoon talking with your girl friend over iced coffee (it was a Friday night, and the place was rather boisterously loud, as a matter of fact).

I think we’re going back to Abe next week!

The post Abe! first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

“Hot Piano Girl” Haley and rock star Oliver officially meet on a plane ride back to Houston, where they’re both serving as mentors at a music festival for young artists. Unofficially? Haley has been a fan of Oliver’s since she was ten (and he was twelve), when she saw him on a TV talent show. And Oliver’s had her in his head since he saw her performing covers of his songs online. His career has hit rock bottom, and hers has stalled before even starting. Will an autumn weekend in their hometown give them exactly what they need?

My friend Mina has a new book out — a new adult, romance novella called Playing Autumn. It’s now available as a paperback, and you can order it from her website. I did the cover design. I hope y’all like it.

While doing the cover, I did realize that this may be the first book cover I’d done that actually has a kilig feel to it. I suppose it’s because the photo I used has a couple in it — they seem happy and the girl is smiling. It’s not that none of the previous books I’ve made covers for have romance in them — a lot of them do — but for the Playing Autumn cover, the romance is more emphasized. However, like most of Mina’s books, while they are technically romance stories, they also involve issues such as careers and friendships.

What do you think? Should my book covers play up the romance aspect of the stories more?

(I do freelance book cover design for print and e-books. So if you’re an indie/self-pub author who needs book covers/book designs for your publications, drop me a note.)

The post New cover project completed: Playing Autumn by Mina V. Esguerra first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

It’s hosted by me and my friend Mina, and we’ll talk about pop culture, tech, writing, the zombie apocalypse — basically geek stuff. Oh, and we’d have guests too. Several years ago, I used to have a podcast, under a pseudonym. My friends, including Mina, would come over to guest on the show and we’d talk about whatever tv shows or movies we’ve been watching. I had no idea if anyone actually listened to it, but we had a lot of fun. I gave it up when I no longer had time to maintain it, and I didn’t bother to keep the files online, so I’m guessing they’re lost forever (I may have copies somewhere among my piles of backup CDs but it’s so hard to go through them all).

Unlike the previous podcast, Five By Five will be broadcast live on YouTube. When the live airing of each episode is over, you’ll find it up on our YouTube channel and on iTunes, so use whatever service works for you.

We’d like you –yes, you! — to join in the fun. Just tweet your comments and questions using the hashtag #5x5podcast (no need to tag me or Mina), and we’ll read them and answer the questions on air. For episode one, our guest Kate Evangelista, a young adult novelist, is giving away a signed copy of her book Taste to the listener who tweets the best question for her. The premiere episode of the podcast will air in a couple of days, but you may start tweeting your questions and comments now. Don’t forget the hashtag!

The post Two geeks. No waiting. first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

I long to live in a world where people never ever offer me iced tea. Ever. Stop trying to force that disgusting flavored sugar water on me. I prefer soda (or, as Pinoys like to call it — softdrinks, because apparently in this country, “drinks” is both singular and plural), which is MY flavored sugar water of choice. And friend, if you’re too much of a cheapskate to serve me a real drink, let me have water and let me drink it and eat my lunch in peace.

The post The Tyranny of Iced Tea first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

ACCOUNT NAME: Likhaan Center for Women’s Health
1) BDO Savings Account No. 3930114156 (Scout Albano Branch)*
2) BPI Savings Account No. 003053 4873 77 (West Triangle Branch)

* Deposits made today in BDO may be included in the first batch of relief goods headed to Zamboanga on Monday, as as help is urgently needed, it would be great if you could try to send your donation by end of banking hours today. There are BDO branches open on weekends.

If you have donations in kind, they may be included in the succeeding batches of relief goods. What is urgently needed now is water, used clothes, blankets, mats, slippers, medicines and medical supplies. Send your donations to

Likhaan Office (Mondays-Fridays, 9am -6 pm)
88 Times Street, West Triangle Homes
Quezon City.

Contact persons:
Yamie Victoria — 0939 250 9531
Jomari Oliva — 0919 476 54 75

Likhaan Office: 411 3151, office@likhaan.org

Donations will be sent to Zamboanga via military cargo plane.

Thank you all for your concern.

The post Zamboanga City crisis: How to help first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

POLICE STATIONS

ZCPS 1 (Vitali)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Vitali, Zamboanga City
PSINSP JOEL CALES TUTTUH
(+63-62) 926-0133
Mobile Hotline: +63-926-178-8277
e-mail: ps1vitalizc@yahoo.com

ZCPS 2 (Curuan)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Curuan, Zamboanga City
PCINSP RICARDO M GARCIA
(+63-62) 926-0131

ZCPS 3 (Sangali)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Sangali, Zamboanga City
PSINSP NOEL G LOZANO
(+63-62) 955-0156

ZCPS 4 (Culianan)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Culianan, Zamboanga City
PCINSP DANILO E TENDERO
(+63-62) 926-0130
Mobile Hotline: +63-926-823-9004

ZCPS 5 (Divisoria)
Zone 1, Brgy Divisoria, Zamboanga City
PSUPT HAYWIEN BALUAN SALVADO
(+63-62) 984-0956

ZCPS 6 (Tetuan)
Natividad St, Brgy Tetuan, Zamboanga City
PCINSP ELMER R ACUÑA
(+63-62) 991-0678/990-1869

ZCPS 7 (Sta Maria)
Gov. Ramos St, Brgy Sta Maria, Zamboanga City
PCINSP LARRY I DOMINGO
(+63-62) 991-2835/985-1001
E-mail: zcps_7@yahoo.com

ZCPS 8 (Sinunuc)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Sinunuc, Zamboanga City
PSINSP ARTURO N ALEJANDRO
(+63-62) 983-0119
Mobile Hotline: +63-906-853-9806
E-mail: zcpo_sinunucps8@yahoo.com

ZCPS 9 (Ayala)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Ayala, Zamboanga City
PSINSP EDILBERTO M ALVAREZ
(+63-62) 982-0001

ZCPS 10 (Labuan)
Natl Hiway, Brgy Labuan, Zamboanga City
PSINSP CHESTER N NATIVIDAD
(+63-62) 926-0137

Info from Councilor VP Elarde. Please let me know if there are any errors.

The post Emergency numbers in Zamboanga City first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

Furthermore, why make fun of people who say “Der are plenty op pish in da sea” when you’re probably pronouncing a bunch of common English words wrong anyway:

1. Organization/Documentary/Hippopotamus/etc. That’s ORganization, docuMENtary and hippoPOtamus. We say orGANIzation, documenTARY, and hippopoTAmus. I think that when we encounter words longer than four syllables, we just put the accent wherever it feels natural.
2. Scarcity. That’s SCARE city, not SCAR city. Also, scarce is pronounced “skeyrs”. I have never met an economics teacher who could say this word right. Or even the word mortgage, for that matter.
3. Mortgage. It’s MOR-gij, not MORT-gaje. The “t” is silent. And not silent the way idiots tell you (wrongly) to drop the “t” when saying words like “pretty” and “forty-one” so you’ll sound Emereyken. I mean it’s completely silent. It’s taken from French — you know, the language with a lot of silent “t”s?
4. Gross. No, it’s not “gros”. It’s pronounced “grow s”, the way you say, “Ough, gross!” Even when you’re using it in the context of business/accounting/finance, such as “gross income” and “gross profit”.

There, see. We’re almost all of us guilty of mispronouncing common English words. (I myself do not give a flying bleep; I just posted the list above to make a point.) So try to be a little kinder when you’re unable to connect your iPad to the café wifi because you have difficulty understanding the waiter who tried to dictate the password to you. Just ask him to write it down, keeping in mind that you’ve been saying resumé wrong for years (it’s rezoomay, not reshoomay).

The post 6 English Words Almost Always Mispronounced by Pinoys first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

I got there late, so I missed the actual demo, but got to see the Q&A. And when I say Q&A, I meant the audience asks how to defend yourself from this or that, and on stage, one guy will pretend to attack the other, who will in turn pretend to beat the first guy up. Then they’ll do it slowly, and explain each move to you in detail. This is how to defend yourself from a knife-wielding mugger in a jeepney:

And this is how to to defend yourself from a gun-wielding carjacker:

Over lunch, I listened to V and her classmate S rave about how awesome the Krav Maga classes were. I should sign up, they said.

“Are you sure they’re just classes?” I asked. “I mean, what if you’d unwittingly signed up to serve in the Israeli army?” I heart the Jewish people and everything, but the Israeli army was a different class of awesome (when you’re surrounded by people who are forever trying to attack you, you had better be seriously badass) so I’m not sure they would want me. I get sore arms after rearranging my shoe boxes.

“You’ll be a soldier of Zion, but there will be no bacon,” I added.

“The food in Israel is really good,” S said. “Honestly, you won’t miss the bacon.”

“What about crispy pata?”

S told us about how she once bought, on a whim, a large loaf of bread from a vendor on the beach. “It was amazing. Better than anything at BreadSpeak*. And it had this cheese in it that was also amazing. They have really good food in Israel. Did I mention cheese? And there’s baklava.”

V was not sure she wanted baklava.

“You should tell your future commanding officer you don’t want Baklava,” I said. “I’m sure the Israeli army can feed you something else. Or you can send your baklava to me.”

“Or you can just go there. There are nicely priced tourist packages, it includes hotels and visits to historical sights,” S said.

And apparently we can go there as tourists visa-free.

“Hang on. So you’re telling me I can buy a plane ticket and just waltz into Israel?” OMG, Jewish boys are super cute. Also, baklava. Which, I have to point out, I’ve never had, but from what I’ve read and what people have been telling me, is even better than heroin. Which, I also need to point out, I’ve never tried either.

“Well, you can buy a plane ticket and fly there, but they won’t let you waltz through. The security screening is extremely exhausting. They’ll go through every nook and cranny of your suitcases, and pick through every item of clothing you have. And then they’ll ask you a bazillion questions about why you’re there.”

I immediately started rehearsing my responses, deciding that I couldn’t possibly go wrong with (loosely) sticking to the Geneva convention guidelines for interrogation: Name, Twitter handle, and the line “I am here for the cheese.”

“Sign up for Krav Maga already,” V said. “They have special classes, like how to defend yourself while wearing heels.”

“Also, they once had gave family/group rates for the home invasion classes,” S said. Apparently, to be safe, the first thing the instructor told the class was it was a course on how to defend yourself from home invasion, not how to do a home invasion.

“Will these techniques work for a zombie home invasion?” I said. I tried to picture close-contact fighting with smelly rotting undead corpses. Ewwww.

“Uh, you can ask the instructor.”

(Coming soon to the AGGTTA blog: “How to Get Kicked Out of Krav Maga Class by Asking a Series of Stupid Zombie-Related Questions”)

*Obviously, not the shop’s real name. /snicker/

The post The Accidental Soldiers of Zion vs The Zombie Home Invasion first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

However, apparently if I’m really into a TV show, I can be made to try anything related to it. So I gave it a shot. It took six hours to finish the one game. My friend who was game master said it usually takes even longer with experienced players. Ow. Anyway, I played House Stark. It’s not something I would recommend to anyone — your territory is so far away from the other kingdoms, and your supply line is the crappiest. But I chose it anyway because of loyalty to Sean B– Ned Stark and his family. Three seasons into the HBO series, and I’m still rooting for House Stark. Even if they’re clearly not the smartest bunch in the Seven Kingdoms.

Seriously, they’re kind of lovably dumb. Ned seriously underestimated Cersei when he gave her and her kids the chance to escape with their lives after he discovered her betrayal, and he paid for it with his life and the safety of his own family. John Snow had one prisoner and he ended up getting lost in the wilderness and getting captured by wildlings. Robb Stark thought nothing of slighting a known depraved pedophile for luuuuv and gleefully put himself and his family in a vulnerable position, and they ended up getting slaughtered. Sansa acts like an idiot for the entirety of season one, but she was a kid, so we can forgive her.

Then there’s House Lannister. They’ve taken over the Seven Kingdoms through treachery, but somehow I can’t get myself to hate them. Because you gotta admire how smart they’ve been so far. Tyrion is clearly a brilliant man, and so is his father (a murderous, rape-ordering kinda guy). Cersei is too, only she tends to get stupid when her children are involved. But let’s not forget, she still managed to get her son Joffrey the crown. Jaime has a bad rep — he did try to kill poor little Bran Stark twice. But he’s charming and funny, and anything bad he’s ever done was to protect his family. OK, there’s his incestuous relationship with his sister, but no one’s perfect.

So yeah, I’m still rooting for the Starks — particularly Arya, who’s plucky and smart — but it’s kinda great that the enemy she has to overcome is a worthy opponent in this game of power. The Lannisters are a lot of fun, and I ship Braime and Tyrion is adorable. Please, George, don’t kill them.*

*I understand there’s more of the story in the books, and it may be too late for my plea, but whatever.

The post How I learned to love the Lannisters *SPOILERS AHEAD* first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.

Once you’ve written a couple of stories, you begin to think, “Maybe I can be a published author one day.” You start picturing your name on the covers of books on the shelves of National Bookstore, right next to, say, Nick Joaquin or Stephen King. You imagine couples naming their babies after characters you’ve created. You daydream of getting mobbed by journalists at the premiere of the movie based on your bestselling trilogy (right after they finish interviewing the star, maybe Angelina Jolie or Judy Ann Santos). You practice your speech for your first Hugo award (“Thank you, World Science Fiction Society. This means more to me than even my Academy Award for best original screenplay.”)

You find yourself a lot of the time, after reading a book, thinking, I can totally write better than this.

And then that’s it.

For most people, that’s where it stops.

How do you think authors — published, famous authors — got to where they are today? They wrote novels. They wrote stories. Most of them wrote pretty awful stories, but they wrote more stories and they got better. Then they submitted these stories and novels to magazines and publishing houses. They got rejections. They rewrote their stories and novels, maybe attended some writing workshops. Then they submitted some more stories, and got more rejections. (J.K. Rowling reportedly received 12 rejections for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.) They persevered. They got published. They achieved what most of us dream of having — a writing career. Some of them are famous, some of them are rich. Some of them are enjoying fulfilling writing careers doing what they love and making money.

Now between casting actors for the film adaptation of your as yet unwritten masterpiece of a novel and getting annoyed that some author who can’t seem to be able to put together a coherent paragraph has now sold millions of copies of her books, have you ever asked yourself: “Am I doing what it takes to become a published author?”

No, you say. But no one in the Philippines makes a good enough living just being a writer. Most of them have day jobs and businesses.

You will be right. Maybe no one does. Not yet.

You know what the secret is? Getting a bigger audience for your books. If the Philippine market isn’t big enough to sustain a lucrative career, why not the world? How about writing books and selling them to people in the United States? France? Japan?

The truth is, the publishing industry is changing faster than the POV of a badly-written vampire fanfic. Which, if you’re not familiar with that, means it’s changing a lot. So much, in fact, that writers, editors and publishers are furiously trying to catch up. The emergence of ebooks and social media has upset the status quo. Independent authors who have never signed a book contract find themselves raking in thousands of dollars a month from their e-book sales. Established authors are suddenly snubbing traditional publishers to publish their books themselves. Writers are doing their own book marketing on Twitter.

What do you need to do? How do you go from wannabe writer to published author?

You can start by not listening to me. I’m not a published author. I don’t really know much. I do book marketing but I don’t know what it’s like to be a working author. Which is why I’m not giving you any writing career advice here.

What you can do is learn from people who are in the business. Those who have writing careers of their own, and who are riding — not fighting — the wave of new technology that we have today that is changing people’s reading habits and shaking up the book market.

Take Mina V. Esguerra, for example. She started her career by getting her first book published by one of the biggest publishing houses in the country — Summit Books. She’s then published five more books with Summit, and independently published five books on her own. In fact, three of her Summit books were originally independently published titles. Her independently published books have been selling so well on as ebooks on Amazon and Smashwords that Summit asked to publish them as paperbacks, and you can see them in local bookstores now. Between her books being sold by a traditional publisher and her success on Amazon, she has become an internationally published author. Meaning people from all over the world buy and read her books.

That’s what you want.

What’s more important is that it’s what Mina wants for you. That’s what our company (yes, we have a little company) wants for all you aspiring authors out there. That’s why we’ve been holding workshops on writing and independent publishing for the past year, teaching writers how to become published authors. We call it the “Author at Once” series of workshops. We make sure that everyone who participates learns everything they need to get started on their writing careers.

What we found was that although some of the participants did go on to become authors, others required some help post-workshop. They need help learning the basics of copyright. Writers don’t know if they should use Blogger or WordPress for their website, and how to set up their mailing lists. Writers want to know if their novels will sell, and how to market them to get them to the right audience. It’s not surprising. After all, there are just some aspects of writing and publishing that can’t be covered in one four-hour session.

So when iAcademy asked us if we’d like to teach a six-week course on writing/publishing at their campus, we said yes.

Mina will be teaching participants what she knows about writing and publishing, including (but not limited to) writing techniques, going through the process of getting your book on Amazon, and what kind of books traditional publishers are interested in (and how to get them interested in your book). She will be joined by award-winning SF writer and graphic novel author Michael A.R. Co who, at the end of your first session, may or may not convince you that you need to write that space prison break novel (or just stick to time travel). I will talk about book marketing stuff, like why you should or should not be on Twitter and how to not have a horrible cover for your book.

We’re going to have a lot of fun. You will meet other writers like yourself: smart, creative people who like to make up stories, most of whom probably buy more books than they can read, and who dream the same dreams of getting their books read by millions.

Classes will be every Saturday beginning on June 22 June 29 and will run for six weeks. The registration fee isn’t cheap, but it’s an investment you can afford. Right off, we will tell you how many books you need to sell to recoup your investment, and you will then have your first goal. We will teach you how to achieve that goal. We like money. We would like you to make money — lots of it. We want you to make money as much as we want you to write good books.

If you have a completed draft for a novel, we’ll help you get that novel published by the end of six weeks.

If you have an idea for a book, we’ll help you work out an outline and get you started writing your first chapters.

If you’ve published only fan fiction so far, we’ll help you figure out what kind of original stories you should be writing, and how to leverage your existing fan base.

There’s no age limit for participants of this course. In fact, the theme for this course may just well be “no limits, period”. No limits, no excuses. If you want to be a published author, we’ll show you how it’s done.

Mina V. Esguerra – Intro – Author At Once at iAcademy

To register for the Author at Once: Creative Writing Course, contact iAcademy at their campus at the 3rd Level, 6764 Ayala Ave., Makati City. Or call Ms. Marife Lagatic at (+63 2) 889-7777 loc. 382 or (+63 2) 891 3865 or email her at marife.lagatic@iacademy.edu.ph.

The post Writing is hard, publishing is (a bit) easier first appeared on A Girl's Guide to the Apocalypse.