Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 81

9th anniversary, 9 stories

The Cat’s Eye Nebula, from the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive. On Thursday we mark the 9th anniversary of Jessica Rules the Universe. We started blogging quite late, after having declared that we would never blog. At the time, we did not anticipate that we would join the ranks of the unemployed, and […]

Why you should care about travel insurance

Train station, Budapest Dear Ms. Zafra: Based on your Affidavit of Loss your MacBook Air and cash was stolen when you fell asleep inside the train. Premises considered, we regret to advise that we cannot act favorably on your claim as the policy covers loss of personal money due to robbery and loss of baggage/personal […]

TV Therapy: Watch your way to better mental health

Are you anxious, stressed-out, neurotic? Are you haunted by the past, overwhelmed by the present, and worried about the future? Do you fear that you are losing your grip, your hair, or your mind? In short, are you a normal person? The solution I prescribe is not only simple and accessible, but it’s entertaining and […]

From the Workshop: Tales of the Horrible Bunny

In our ongoing Writing Boot Camp that ends on Thursday, we give the participants a writing exercise and they have five or ten minutes to complete the assignment. Last week, we read a macabre fairy tale by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, then showed them this freaky wooden rabbit and asked them to write a story about it. […]

Our cats have doppelgangers

We had promised to take Drogon to lunch with friends at the Henry Hotel, but there wasn’t enough space in the car for his big new carrier so we decided not to take him. While walking around the compound in Pasay, we spotted a cat that looked like Drogon, and a cat that looked like […]

Travel insurance: What is it for?

Reuters photo of the jobless in Europe. Whenever Filipinos apply for a Schengen visa, we are required to buy travel insurance. This way if we require medical care in a foreign land, we do not become a drain upon the state. However, the typical travel insurance policy also covers lost property and travel hassles. Most […]

Ricki and the Flash: Meryl Streep’s second worst performance

Ricki and the Flash, an Oscars reunion, is maudlin, belabored, hollow, and features the second worst Meryl Streep performance in our memory (“Worsted” only by her Witch in the altogether horrible bowdlerized film adaptation of Into the Woods; her title role in Mamma Mia is third). We didn’t believe a moment of this Jonathan Demme-helmed, […]

Dino Ignacio leaves Dead Space for Oculus

Dino Ignacio, creator of the proto-meme Bert Is Evil (and designer of our first website twisted.com.ph), has left Electronic Arts, where he was User Interface Director at Visceral Games (developer of the survival horror game Dead Space). Photo from vrfocus.com. He has joined Oculus VR, maker of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Facebook bought […]

Mr Robot: The show that hacked the news

The revolution is being televised, in the form of a cyber-thriller on the previously unheralded USA Network. Written and produced by Sam Esmail, Mr Robot is so plugged into the zeitgeist that you could watch it instead of the nightly news. In the series premiere, an anarchist group called fsociety hacks into a conglomerate’s systems […]

Artificial intelligence for writing interactive stories

Uh-oh. First the monkeys and now this. Thanks to Juan for the alert.