Spending Christmas with...Jessica Zafra

People before had a hard time guessing what their manito or manita wants. Hence, they invented the Christmas Wish List. I don't normally write there what I really want lest I be accused of avarice. Plus I've had a bad experience before. Once I wrote in the wish list T-shirt, but ended up receiving a photo album.

Last Christmas party, however, was different. I said to myself, it can't hurt if I wrote in the wish list what I've been wanting to be had. So I wrote there: Any Twisted book by Jessica Zafra. My friend was surprised that I was actually wishing for a book. I was surprised that she was surprised. In fact, I should be surprised because she wrote there...I can't remember it, but I know it's something trivial. People wish for trivial things every Christmas anyway!

Perhaps she didn't want to banish from the face of the earth or she just had more money to boot, the one who picked my name gave me...Twisted 6 by the venerable Jessica Zafra.

After the inquiry, what?

When the CHR started looking into the extrajudcial killings in Davao City, I was one of those who cheered. At long last, I thought then, we started talking about it publicly.

Today, however, I begin to wonder what the CHR is really up to. The CHR inquiry, it seemed to me, produced only more heat and and less light. It said it's going to release its report after it's done with the inquiry. But until now, the report is still to be released.

And yet...where's the CHR now? Off it goes to Maguindanao, investigating another incident. Tsk...tsk...tsk...

Thanks, Mr. Zinsser

Last year, I won. Won where? In the Best Humorous Essay Writing Contest sponsored by Crossroads, the official student publication of our school, HCDC.

Of course, I must---nobody else joined the contest. Nobody, nobody but me. Therefore my winning essay, I told the folks at Crossroads, is not the best choice. It's the only choice.

I suspect the reason no one dared to join the contest, besides me, is not that I can write; the rest cannot. It's more basic than that: Nobody knows just what humor is.

I, for one, grappled with its meaning, so that I have to ask Rowell, the editorial consultant of Crossroads, what do they mean by humor. He isn't of much help either. Did you get me?

Then I remembered I have a copy of William Zinsser's On Writing Well, which has a chapter devoted entirely to humor.

And so, the prize went to me, although until now, I haven't received it yet.

A start of something new

It has become an S.O.P. for everyone to make a New Year's resolution---that list of "to do" that one must (highlight must) do for the entire year. And since we are a people afraid not to do what everyone else does, we do it with much gusto, though the truth is no one really takes it seriously.

Because, I'm told, I'm unique, I will not make a New Year's resolution. I will not list what things I resolutely want to accomplish this year:

• Read Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe; Read at least one novel per week
  


• Pass the Law School Qualifying Test


• Write at least one article every month for the Mindanao Times


• I'm about to put "Do the household chores" here, but decided against it; I always do household chores anyway, New Year or not.

But if you've already made a New Year's resolution, please don't be obliged to throw it away just because it's a tradition gone awry.

Happy New Year everyone!

P.S. Lucky color of the year: Yellow and Blue. The astrologers who guested in Mel & Joey came close to admitting that Noynoy and Mar would win in the May elections. This could be the start of something new.

Overly ambitious

"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success." ---James Cameron