Fire From Heaven is my first (and, at the moment, sole) Hunter X Hunter fanfiction.

It was conceptualized and initially penned in November 2002 but has been rewritten and revamped fairly recently. The fanfic is of a semi-epic scale and attempts to introduce Alluka Zaoldyeck, the mysterious child of the assassin family who is yet to play a role in Yoshihiro Togashi’s anime and manga series.

The devastatingly sexy and rather androgynous Illumi Zaoldyeck also figures prominently in the first chapter, where he drinks jasmine tea and clear wine and dresses in semi-formal dinner wear, contodos slacks.

Allow me to share with minna-san the lyrics to a song that is so very apropos for Fire From Heaven. Too apropos, in fact, it is creepy!

Lonely is the Hunter
by KISS

My eggs in one basket, but she threw me a bone
She was dealt a full deck, but she likes to live alone
Ain’t just talkin’ to myself, need a reason to stop
With a flower in her teeth, she drained the last drop
I said girls love money like bees the honey

But lonely is the hunter
You’re my one and only
And lonely is the hunter

Asked her for a refill, sweat flew off my face
She’s a legendary figure, kept me in a cage
She’s a torture chamber, when I seduced her in my bed
She gave a cold reading, success went to her head

In the heat of the battle
The heart cannot rule
I’m such a fool

But lonely is the hunter
You’re my one and only
And lonely is the hunter
Lonely is the hunter
You’re my one and only
And lonely is the hunter

More of my mostly animanga-related fanfiction pieces are available for your reading pleasure at Fuhen, my fic site.

This site is the repository of yours truly’s sundry fics written over the years. So far, I have works on Fushigi Yuugi, Hunter X Hunter and Virtua Fighter.

I posted my WinAmp playlist for writing T3 throughout February and May this year. This time, I would like to share my musical choices while I was writing throughout the summer.

T3 Playlist (June to October 2011)

· Heart, Alone (This my writing theme song. It conveys the fundamental mood of the entire series. Possibly a remake for the movie?)
· Three Doors Down, Here Without You
· Katy Perry, E.T.
· Paramore, My Heart
· Ricky Martin featuring Meja, Private Emotion
· Solid HarmoniE, Walk Away
· Sally Dworsky, Turning Circles
· Linkin Park, Iridiscent
· Neocolours, Hold On

The list I am sharing below is for everyone out there who, at one time or the other, suffered from ze silent killer: Stress.

Goodness knows we need all the help we can get.

Thirty-Six Ways to Reduce Stress

1. Pray.

2. Go to bed on time.

3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.

4. Say No to projects that won’t fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.

5. Delegate tasks to capable others.

6. Simplify and unclutter your life.

7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)

8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.

9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don’t lump the hard things all together.

10. Take one day at a time.

11. Separate worries from concerns. If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety. If you can’t do anything about a situation, forget it.

12. Live within your budget; don’t use credit cards for ordinary purchases.

13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.

14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.

15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.

16. Carry an inspirational book with you to read while waiting in line.

17. Get enough rest.

18. Eat right.

19. Get organized so everything has its place.

20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.

21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.

22. Every day, find time to be alone.

23. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don’t wait until it’s time to go to bed to try and pray.

24. Make friends with Godly people.

25. Keep a folder of favorite scriptures and inspiring quotes on hand.

26. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good “Thank you, Lord.”

27. Laugh.

28. Laugh some more!

29. Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all.

30. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).

31. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).

32. Sit on your ego.

33. Talk less; listen more.

34. Slow down.

35. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.

36. Every night before bed, think of one thing you are grateful for that you have never been grateful for before.

Finally: “Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn’t happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.”

Amen to that, and everything.

Here is another inspirational, coffee-themed piece that I found on ye olde hard drive. It was originally shared with yours truly around six or so years back and now seems the perfect time to actually post the same online.

Get yourself a hot (or cold) cuppa, and enjoy!

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old University of Notre Dame lecturer.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.”

“What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each others’ cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change.”

“Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

Apparently, according to NationalCoffeeDay.net: “There are 111 million of coffee drinkers around the world consuming more than 440 billion cups of joe every year. And the numbers keep rising.”

Definitely more than enough reason to celebrate! (Especially for StarBucks, Costa, Second Cup and other such establishments that have artfully reshaped the practice of drinking coffee into a complete lifestyle – and a thriving industry.)

The article below is from a collection of inspirational stories called The Passage, published in 2004. This particular write-up is credited to Regina Rosarii. I originally got a photocopy of this piece way back in 2005 from one of my former bosses in the Philippines.

The Mayonnaise Jar and the Coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember – the mayonnaise jar and the coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things like your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions, things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else, like the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

I am sharing this because of sheer angst overload for editing and plotting my novel. In addition, I have taken Panadol and ivy-leaf cough syrup for my little ongoing cough-and-cold problem, hence my brain is woozy.

Be very, very afraid, peons!

What is the sound of a heart breaking?

It is the sound of someone curled up in a tiny ball crying softly in the night, the sound of the first unwanted teardrop touching your skin, it’s the sound of a telephone that doesn’t ring, the sound of regret pounding inside your brain with every heartbeat, it’s the whispers of the toy animals he gave you.

It’s the shuffling of feet walking away from you, the sound of your soul shattering into a million pieces, at recognizing the word goodbye, it’s the soundtrack of memories torturing you, it’s the sound of your own feeble hands desperately trying to push back the hands of time, it’s the sound of all those years disappearing into the vortex of Cupid’s kitchen sink, it’s the unrelenting, plaintive baby meows of an abandoned kitten outside your door.

It’s the sound of the rain that has never ever stopped, of all the doors of the world shutting at the same time, of raging, howling storms in the night when there’s no one there to hold you, the sound of your voice as it screams back at you, the echo of I love yous burning holes in you, the sound your heart makes as it tells you to lie still because nothing you will ever do will matter without love.

The sound of the waves at the polluted beach you went to as it moves from the shore and crashes inside your mind, of the sniffles that make up your pathetic S.O.S. to the world, the cracking of the brittle black-red petals from the sidewalk vendor roses he gave, the sound of music he made going straight to your gut.

The sound of the things in your room being thrown around and landing on the floor, the caress of kitchen knives on skin, the sound your throat makes as it swallows your saltiest tear.

It’s the sound of your own voice calling out to someone who isn’t there, of dying birds getting splattered on a city pavement, of terms of endearment used a hundred times a day struggling to crawl into a vacuum of forgetfulness, it’s the sound of your own sobs keeping you company, it’s the cold, uncaring stillness of the air you share your space with.

Destruction isn’t always as noisy as bombs exploding. Sometimes the ultimate catastrophe can be as quiet as a feather falling on the floor of a Zen monastery.

No one else can really hear your heart breaking except you.

The above basically summarizes my feelings on all the events that have transpired this year in my life.

I have not been such an active blogger for a while, and I’m sure most readers have next to no idea on what happened. Allow me to capsulize it all.

1. I had my hair cut short
This was done last 13th July. The photo to the right was taken the day after. I have been planning to change my hairstyle for months and months, and finally decided to take action this time. This is the shortest my hair has been for nearly ten years. I really, really love it.

2. I am writing my first novel series
I started the project in December 2010, but began putting my back into it, so to speak, February 2011 after doing some travel. The book is generally Young Adult fiction, with lots of action, romance, intrigue and, oh yes, martial arts. The heroes and heroines are mostly Asians because I think it’s high fucking time we all stopped being just sidekicks. The outline spans seven parts. I have already set up an official website, Twitter account, Tumblr account and FaceBook fan page for the series. Hopefully, I will finish the first installment this year!

3. I have conceptualized my second novel series
Aside from the first book, I have also come up with lots of ideas for my second. This time, I am going back to my anime roots and my love for Fushigi Yuugi, Hunter X Hunter, Virtua Fighter, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Soryuden, Recca no Honou and many others. This five-part series is YA supernatural, but with lots of action-packed twists and unforgettable, painfully human characters.

4. I trimmed down my online real estate
Last year, I had more than a hundred domains and more than a dozen hosting accounts. I have realigned my priorities and my needs and have cut down to save up. In fact, I am still selling some domains I no longer plan on keeping.

5. I re-evaluated my personal and professional life
While on holiday in the Philippines last January, I took a close look at my family, friends and relationships. I decided what are the things that mean the most to me. When I finally came to terms with what I really valued in life, all my decisions are much easier to think through and make.

6. I changed my lifestyle
With a fresh perspective on what I have and what I still want, I decided to make changes on my day-to-day living. This meant eating breakfast, always, no matter how busy I am. This also meant giving up carbonated and sweetened drinks, consuming smaller portions, eschewing junk food, and minimizing coffee and tea intake. I now subsist mostly on kid-friendly chocolate milk, an excellent source of energy and protein. I found out that caffeine just gives a temporary up, but eventually causes headaches, lethargy and acid build-up.

7. I lost loads of weight. And I mean LOADS.
As of my last weigh-in earlier this month, I lost 22 kilos since I started my fitness regimen in February 2011. I am 13 kilos away from my goal weight. I hope I will reach it before the year ends, or maybe by the time I turn another year older (24 September).

That is, I am in an infinitely better mindset to bang out the words when I am listening to certain musical tracks. This being said, I must confess I also listen to these songs while I work out at the gym. Physical exercise actually makes my mind plot better and gives me the best ideas at the most unexpected times!

The songs are listed below in no particular order. Enjoy!

T3 Playlist (February to May 2011)

· Sara Bareilles, Gravity (If given the chance, I will choose this as the series love theme!)
· Sara Bareilles, Hold My Heart
· Ashley Tisdale, We’ll Be Together
· Sum 41, With Me
· Cheap Trick, The Flame
· Bellefire, Stay
· Evanescence, Lithium
· Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart
· Trading Yesterday, Shattered
· Rihanna featuring Eminem, Love the Way You Lie Part 2
· A Fine Frenzy, Almost Lover
· Patty Smyth, Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough

I am dedicating the following to all my fellow martial artists, especially those who have retired from competition but still practice their craft as part of their lifelong commitment to being modern-day warriors.

Focus the mind,
cleanse the soul,
keep sight of my target,
concentrate,
be prepared for the unexpected,
concentrate mind and body as one,
achieve tranquility through movement,
integrate spirit and flesh,
channel the powers,
separate darkness and light,
give birth to yourself,
define your existence,
create your divinations,
from strength learn gentleness,
through gentleness strength will prevail,
tell me what you see beyond your fist?
AWAKEN…

This is from Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie. I cut out some repetitive parts so the ideas will flow more smoothly and beautifully.

So much of my existence would seem meaningless, only a bewildering blur of random events, without you, my dearest enemy. You bring “moral clarity” where there once was only the murk of self doubt. This new-found sense of certainty soothes the anxiety created by the falling away of so many of the verities of the past.

My finite existence, which before you came into my life seemed so confused and devoid of meaning, is now imbrued with mythic purpose. Because of you, meaningful narrative has been bestowed upon the vast, incomprehensible and impersonal cosmos. The wayward prince has become a warrior king.

~Phil Rockstroh, A Love Letter To My Enemy

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) in the 16 November 2005 premier of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In honor of the final installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2), I would like to share the above quote and image.

What can I say, every time I look at the picture, I can’t help but think of numerous written and illustrated Harry/Voldie slash throughout the Web. Keep bringing them on, I say, while supplies last.

It was inspired by a Harry Potter version I saw on LiveJournal.

Twelve Districts ’round
Eleven frosted cakes
Ten snares from Gale
Nine tracker jackers
Eight arrows and a bow
Seven mockingjays
Six cornucopias
Five grooslings
Four dandelions
Three Quarter Quells
Two flaming capes
And the boy with the loaves of bread

I have moved to a nice, big, spanking-new cubicle, after the long wait. Brushy even visited my office to have a look at my new workstation.

Brushy on the wheel of a Hyundai 4WD. Taken 20 September 2010, Shell Select, Al Khuwair Service Road, Muscat, Oman.

The above photo was taken during Brushy’s first trip to my office, when we rode the large Hyundai 4WD of a friend. We made a quick stop for lunch stuff at the Shell Select station on the Al Khuwair Service Road.

Of course, Brushy did not let the opportunity pass for a quick photo op. Perched in a precarious manner on the steering wheel, Brushy looks like he is navigating the huge vehicle!

This is my third consecutive birthday that I am celebrating in Oman.

Two years ago to date, I spent an exorbitant amount of money to buy imported pork and cook and eat dishes of this all day long (more like all week long, to be honest).

As for last year’s birthday, Peter and I had dinner at Chilli’s in Muscat City Centre and went on to Markaz Al Bahja to catch the midnight screening of Inglorious Basterds.

This year, we did lots more of things together because we both had a day off work, thankfully, on the day before my birthday!

Taken during the eve of my birthday, 23 September 2010, on our way to Markaz Al Bahja for a late afternoon snack.

Again, we went to Markaz Al Bahja in Seeb to browse through the shops, spending quite some time in Muscat Sports having a look through their winter collection. Nothing of note, especially for ladies, since I was actually looking for some leggings and tops that could double up as casual and gym wear.

We then had a late afternoon snack, with sumptuous, affordable Chinese food from the Chinese Palace booth at the food court. I love, love, love Chinese Palace – it is my favorite restaurant in Oman, in fact. Not only are the prices wallet-friendly, the selection and dishes are fabulous as well. The Chinese people running the place are also very friendly and accommodating.

Corn soup from Chinese Palace, with carrot and chicken bits. Really smooth and hearty.

Chicken and vegetable combo from Chinese Palace, which has deep-fried chicken fillet strips, veggie balls in savory-hot sauce and oodles and oodles of stir-fried noodles!

After eating, we went downstairs to check out the movies running at Al Bahja Cinema. Sadly, all the tickets for Tekken and The Expendables were sold out for that evening. We decided to catch a show at City Cinema in Shatti Al Qurum on the following day.

We decided to make the trip across town to Rock Bottom Cafe, Ramee Guestline Hotel, Qurum. It was long drive, with the streets full of Thursday night weekend-revelry traffic.

At Rock Bottom, we didn’t pay any entrance fees, reward for arriving before midnight. The host led us to spacious booth at the dining area, which had huge LCD screens displaying UFC fights. We both ordered the steak-and-wine combo, just in time to have our dinner with the band’s first set.

After eating, we danced the night away until the end of the band’s third and final set, which was around 2:30 AM. We had a really great time, needless to say.

Thanks to social networking sites and the like, I was able to reconnect with friends and acquaintances from as far back as elementary school!

I was tagged by the above-mentioned people in their own albums as well, much to my geeky delight. Hence, I would like to share these photos which I did not have in my own collection before, but am very pleased to have found online after all these years.

The Blue Quill Editorial Staff, with our adviser Miss Girlie Libutaque. This was our publication during high school and the photo was from my junior year days.

High School Senior Year Acquaintance Party, where I am posing with my perennial partner Ramon. We always end up together in photos, somehow. He hails from Ajuy, where I have tons of relatives – he’s the brother I never had!

During freshman year at University of the Philippines, Iloilo City campus. These are my blockmates, which includes a lot of close friends.

University junior year, when I won landslide as the College of Management’s representative to the University Student Council. During my term, our departmental sports teams Scions (Accountancy majors) and Tycoons (Marketing and Management majors) won first and second places, respectively, overall in the annual sports festival. Oh, yeah!

I really enjoyed cleaning up these photos and subsequently uploading them to share with my readers. It feels so good to revisit my school days – they feel like a lifetime ago.

Tomorrow is my birthday! Gosh, how quickly time flies. Tonight, I am celebrating with Peter by going out to the clubs for a high-protein dinner with drinks and music, of course. Perhaps we could also catch a movie, we shall see.

Less than three minutes long, this anime-style short piece was shared by a friend a while back but I never did get the chance to see it in full until today.

Full credit goes to the brilliant Mike Inel, who is a Philippine-based digital colorist by trade. Visit his DeviantArt page for more samples of his brilliant work.