Prex J.D.V. Ybasco's Blog, page 39

Signed Sealed Delivered, Tax Included

Signed Sealed Delivered, Tax Included

by Jahzeel Dionne V Ybasco

Dear Actors in Business Suits and Polished Shoes,

I saw your advertisement. You have a new commercial again. And no, I did not say it is a political advertisement. How could I? Wasn’t it last year when I started seeing your face on television and posters, it was not even the election period then? You even claimed those ads had been paid for by your friends. Come on. How much did you pay for that? I wonder if the money you spent could have been used for a better purpose. I for one thought you could have started putting up the school you promised in the beginning of your term—but I guess you can’t remember that.

You were too caught up buying your car, and was that a new house you bought for your daughter? That’s fancy but the shanties you call ‘houses’ you donated for the poor have been destroyed by the last typhoon, haven’t they? Providing the best things money can buy and security is probably every parent’s dream and goal yet you shame my parents’ hard work by sitting comfortably in your office, siphoning their decades of taxes. A couple of terms cannot improve the country, I know, but it is enough for you to travel wherever you want to go, eat a feast any time you want and sleep peacefully with banknotes under your bed.

But back to your cringe-worthy-not-a-political-campaign commercial, a farcical mash up of hypocrisy and broken promises, I have some tips for improvement I am pretty sure you will only shrug off.

Don’t call your people poor because we are not. Don’t further insult us buy buying our dignity with few bucks. We pay our taxes. The budget you use for your projects come from our pockets. Do not expect me to thank you because I don’t have the habit of thanking myself. Do not expect me to give respect to the banners you put for yourself. Their glaring letters do not entice me. If the tarpaulins posted in your name equate to your service to the country, then I have to say you are cheap. And I don’t need a cheap leader.

Alas! Don’t mock our hearts with projects initiated a year before the elections. The comfort you are enjoying right now should have been ours. The cars, the houses, they have your name on it but that is our money you bought it with. Thank us instead. Repay us with the execution of the oath you ‘solemnly’ swore before God and men.

Your people deserve more.

Yours, tax included,

Fan

Falling Out of Love

by Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

It starts as a seed. Then it grows roots. When it is watered and taken care of properly, it develops into a bud, then a plant. Who knows whatever it may grow into – a beautiful and fragrant flower or a sturdy fruitful tree or a graceful and dainty vine. What it becomes we will never know when disrespectful and indifferent people carelessly trample upon it. That is how some of the most poetic of us describe love and falling out of it. I have felt this before and ever encounter has been painful. What I used to look forward to, now I have learned to detest. What I eagerly looked for, now I desperately try to evade. It is an experience that is not entirely foreign but it saddens me just the same.

This is not just an ordinary love. It is my love for Work specifically Teaching.

I feel I work too hard to be indispensable and it is sad to notice that the dedication I had for it has been replaced by the need to buy things that will help me be more motivated. I have to support a lifestyle that has become more expensive so I can force myself to push the doors open, spend eight hours of my day in a suffocating cubicle, teaching a language a student may not love as much as I do.

I wish acknowledgment of hardwork does not come late. It had been recognition I wanted from the very beginning, and it is the very thing I was deprived of. Frustration has already taken its toll on me and I have already stopped asking myself why I wanted to excel in a field I did not choose in the first place. Maybe I just needed a closure. A ceremony for me to finally move on and concentrate where my heart really belongs. However, haven’t I already received an answer? Teaching has just dumped, coldly.

I cannot take this route forever. I have already given my best and although it is a cliché, yes, my best hasn’t been enough. I need to gather the same amount of energy and focus on the field I should have pursued in the first place.

It has been a one-sided love affair and like any lover, I have gone tired. Kobe Bryant has already said goodbye to the game he loves and that has loved him back. I’m saying goodbye to the industry that has given me the chance to grow, but has been stingy to give me any recognition. I’m finally stepping out and let the curtains fall behind me.

I will stop watering the seed.

Putting a Label on Artistry

by Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

When can a person tell himself he is good at a particular art?

Or is the better question, “When can a person call himself an artist?”

Lastly, when can a person assume that he can instruct others how to produce art?

These questions have bugged me since last weekend when I read a former classmate’s tweet regarding her love for writing. It is such a petty thing, I know, but something in the message fired up a cold coal in the crevices of my heart, reminding me of old rivalry. How can she easily tell people what to do?

Some people have made it their responsibility to teach everyone who cares to listen or read how to create art, or what to love about it. However, isn’t it a waste of time and energy getting tips from someone who has not even produced any masterpiece? This is a faulty argument though, as I have learned. One of my students kindly explained it to me: Basketball coaches aren’t exactly the best basketball players out there. Even renowned basketball players prove to be unable to guide inept ones. However, wouldn’t it be nicer to get actual tips from real writers though? Or if they are willing to share their strategies to people like us? Or if they have the guts to finally call themselves writers.

I have gone past writing about Writing. I have already said enough. Although, I still have a love and hate relationship with it, I can no longer talk about when I started to love it. Why tell people how you have come to adore it? Is it really necessary? Don’t they say that actions speak louder than words? If so, what better way to express my ardor than using writing and actually produce art?

Despite being able to publish my own work, I still hesitate calling myself a full-pledged writer. I do blogs. I have published a novel. I write articles. However, I cannot put a label on what I do. Isn’t it enough to just love Writing and do it? After all, celebrated writers out there have spent their time laboring on their masterpieces. They spent their time writing, not learning nor instructing others how.

Endless Shelves

By Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

I have always wanted a library. I remember dreaming of my own libraries when I was a kid. That is right. Libraries. I wanted to have a private one—a place where I could always get lost in to read, to think, and to write—and a public one where I could invite people to come in, donate a couple of coins for the maintenance of the place, and read to their hearts’ content. Somehow, I thought what a wonderful place this world could be if more people read books.

Given my major, I was able to accumulate a humble number of books in a span of four years to my father’s amusement. Since our shelf space was limited back then, I had to put the books anywhere they could fit. My father tolerated the books in the beginning but when I got a job and could buy books faster than I could read them, he put his foot down and eventually stored them in boxes. He then stacked the boxes on top of each other—they were literally and literarily buried.

For some years now, I heavily depended on eBooks and I even thanked Samsung for the Note series, and Steve Jobs for the iPad. At least, I could still keep up with my reading without making my father angry. I often thought twice in buying books, usually considering whether they were worthy to be bought or only to be downloaded. Alas, I thought my dream of putting up my own libraries was far from happening.

A miracle happened after several years of waiting. I got home from a long vacation this weekend and found a huge bookshelf greeting me with its empty shelves waiting to be filled. My parents finally bought me a new bookshelf and how beautiful it is! It was a great feeling unboxing my “hidden treasure” and having my family help me clean the books and arrange them. About five boxes of hardbound and softbound goodies were sorted, my family and I were surprised about how many I got. My brother was annoyed at first because he was the one who brought the boxes downstairs but as my mother and I wiped the books, I could feel his growing admiration and my parents’ pride. I have a huge collection, the books almost filled the shelves and I still have a number of books in the office. For the meantime, my books are arranged according to classics and contemporary but I am still thinking of how to organize them better. That can wait though.

I still have a long way to go before I can have a public library however I am building my private one slowly but surely. Thank God for my mom who taught me how to read and for my family for making one of my dreams happen.

Review: Eragon

THE VOICE OF ERAGON

An Analysis of Christopher Paolini’s novel, Eragon

by Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

_____________________________________________________________

That some books are inspired by other classic and more renowned books is nothing new to me. It is to be expected. As million books are published every day, it is not surprising that some have the same content, almost the same story, and even with the same characters garbed in a different attire and name. When I read professional and non-professional reviews on Eragon saying it is but a fanfiction of Lord of the Rings, it did not affect my desire to read the novel. After all, fanfictions are there for fans to enjoy. There are some readers who don’t get satisfied with how stories end and they resolve it by making up stories. A story about dragons and a fanfiction of a trilogy I really love made a perfect formula. I was excited to see what Paolini had cooked up. Or so I thought.

Eragon‘s likeness to Lord of the Rings is quite evident. Brom looks like Gandalf, a very inconsistent Gandalf. Sometimes he speaks like an old man, another, a rude old man. Eragon is a combination of a less sophisticated Legolas, an indecisive Aragon and a braver Frodo Baggins. Urgals have a resemblance to Uruk-hai. However, story-wise, the novel has a great potential. Every page of the novel has made me wonder if there is something more to being a Rider. Alas! I have to read the sequels to learn more.

What only bothers me is the consistency of the voices of the narrator and even the characters—it is irritating. In the first few pages, Eragon has made himself appear as a hero, in the next, a reluctant hero, and in the last pages, a love-sick hero. There are times when he and his dragon, Saphira, act like mother and son as presented in Saphira’s endearment “little one.” They act like lovers, too, as exemplified in the following lines:

“I love you too.”

“Then, I’ll bind you all the tighter.”

If it isn’t a combination of bestiality and S&M, I don’t know what to call it.

I have expected the blue dragon to speak in a language of the old, a dragon that has experienced a lot of things. There are some pages that give me the satisfaction to see this side of Saphira. It is disappointing to see her switching back to a bickering dragon. Perhaps comparing Saphira to other dragon-stereotypes is unfair but she does sound like a weakling to me. I have to consistently remind myself the novel has been entitled Eragon and not Saphira.

I also am waiting for the time when I can distinguish the language of the elves from the dwarves and from the human beings. Establishing their nuances is challenging particularly when there have been so many books that have already done-or attempted doing-that. However, LOTR‘s elf language is still different compared to the others. As a writer, Paolini can still improve that aspect of the novel.

It has been quite remarkable for a person that young to have published novels. I commend Paolini for that. However, with age comes maturity and experience. This brings another question to my mind. When should a writer stop editing his /her work? I have felt Paolini’s genius and inexperience in Eragon. Still, with the number of people he has been able to reach through his novel, and the growing number of those who want to read his novel, having people judge his work compared to other classic fantasy novels out there is inevitable. He cannot alter the story anymore. It is out there waiting to be devoured. What he can do is improve its language.

Will he?

日本語の練習：CROSS GENE の Love & Peace

Refrain:

たいせつなものなくし

ねむれるよるみつたく

すべってがかはあてゆくよ

1st Chorus:

It’s time to fly

ゆめみたみないの

そのさきの世界yeah

ぼくらたみだとを

まだたれもしらない

ばしょめたしてとべ

ここからさLove and Peace

Cross Gene’s Love and Peace  http://t.co/rhybij6FXK

——-

日本語の練習をします。CROSS GENE のLove & Peace のlyricsがありませんですから。私の日本語は下手です！ごめんあさい！

I am practicing Nihonggo. CROSS GENE’S Love and Peace doesn’t have lyrics available on the web yet so I did it. My Japanese is poor, I’m sorry.

Please don’t hesitate to put your corrections and suggestions in the comment box.

KDP FREE DAYS: Sept 19-21

Guys, To Be Continued is free in Kindle from Sept 29-21. Grab your copies.

http://www.amazon.com/Be-Continued-TBC-Book-ebook/dp/B010ICWX36/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437112128&sr=1-1&keywords=to+be+continued+j+d+ybasco&pebp=1437112130937&perid=0JCTJM6JPCKN92V42MKX

Review: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Not once have I been astounded by fantasy classic authors for their ability to create different worlds and make them seem real. I was blown away by Pullman’s story, I can’t help but feel for Lyra, Pantalaimon, and the characters they have met on their journey. I enjoyed the excitement of looking for the lost kids, traveling with the gyptians and fighting with Iorek.

I’m having a little problem taking in what the novel says about religion, daemons, other worlds, and sin though. There are so many sectarian or anti-sectarian concepts crammed into the last three chapters of the novel that upon reaching those parts I couldn’t help but wonder why Lyra had to go through a perilous journey only to listen to a sermon. It doesn’t also help that my readings on the Northern Lights hinder my understanding of how plausible it is to have a different world beyond the aurora. That and the fact that I am 27 years old…

All in all, I was captivated by how the novel was pieced together, how I could easily relate to the young Lyra and her knack of expressing how she sees the world. Then again, I would have loved the book had it subtly presented religious concepts.

A Story of Archetypes

A Review of S.K Michels’ debut novel, The Shadow and The Light

By Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

An archetypal story with seven leading characters, among them a muse, an old man, and three hero archetypes, this novel has a certain appeal, not different from George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire. What makes this novel interesting is the author’s ability to tell a grim story in a fairytale-like manner that although the reader is immersed in The Shadow, he/she can’t help but be optimistic that in one of the four hundred pages of the book, a hero—or two—will come and save him/her.

It was like seeing an animation in my head. The setting has been described so well, it feels like you enter a completely different world. For a fantasy novel, that is saying something as only few authors, new authors in particular, can achieve that—create a world and make people feel it is real.

S.K. Michels is a genius in storytelling. However, I think the dialogues between and among characters can use an improvement since reading the novel has made me so concerned about those individuals. There are moments when I can’t distinguish Murdoch’s language from that of Arienne’s but maybe because they come from nobility. I have to say though that the dialogue does not get in the way of the intense scenes and actions provided in the story.

However, as the story progresses, I can’t help but think that it is another take on Frodo Baggins as he embarks on his journey toward Mt. Doom. It was the same darkness trying to take over and the protagonist trying to keep it at bay. Even Sapineald reminds me of Lothlorien, and eorin the Elves. Even the sceolians helping to retrieve Caliphurn from the Ghenna reminds me of the Eagles from Lord of the Rings. I don’t really mind though because for a Lord of the Rings fan, this is a treat.

Still, with her knack of using words to create an imaginary world full of intricate details and amazing and lovable characters, S.K. Michels is undeniably a talented author to watch out for.

————

Dear S.K.,

Thank you for the opportunity of reading your awesome book. Please do write another story. I CAN’T sit not knowing what may happen to Greenwyth after the war. Also, you owe Baldarich his existence since I really want to know the importance of his inclusion in the story. Lastly, please do give me another opportunity to read your sequels.

From one of your first fans,

Prex

Review: My Rebellion Checklist by Susan Soares

I received a Free Copy of this novel in exchange for a review.

The checklist is realistic, something that teenagers will definitely appreciate. In the beginning, I expected it to be fast-paced, that the protagonist would somehow tick off some elements of her checklist every chapter and it would include activities like go skydiving, have a relationship with a drug-addict or get drunk everyday. Tori, however is quite different as she tries to follow her checklist in the order that she has made them. The activities aren’t as dangerous as I thought they would be but are safe and not at all surprising for a girl at Tori’s age.

My Rebellion Checklist has interesting characters, more interesting than the protagonist actually which has made the book more fun to read. I am torn between loving Zack and hating him because he’s cool and stupid at the same time. I totally adore the way he supports Tori but excessively quoting those lines from famous sports athletes makes me cringe. It is quite weird that Annie who gives Tori the best advice regarding pregnancy is the one who kept pushing her to do something extreme which isn’t even a part of her list to begin with.

One social issue tackled in the novel is divorce. The fact that Tori’s family’s relationship is always tested has kept me hanging. Being an Asian, I am a big supporter of family oriented TV shows and novels and divorce doesn’t sit well with me. I guess Tori is still happy no matter what the result is.

I do have some minor concerns though. I am not sure though whether the accident in the beginning of the novel is necessary. Tori’s problem with her family catapults her to having the Rebellion Checklist and somehow the first three chapters don’t give it justice.

Despite not having reached certain expectations set by the title—I mean, come on, titles can always be misleading—, it is a good read.

Rating: 4 stars