my next challenge

I tend to think of myself as being rather good at writing. Now I would like to challenge myself.

The Drucker Challenge, named for Peter Drucker, a writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist”, has a writing challenge where the grand prize is a trip to Vienna and an invitation to participate at the Global Peter Drucker Forum in November.
The overarching theme of the contest is ‘Management: What is it Good For?’, a fitting theme given the fact that plenty of managers have no idea what their role is, and a special group of managers is responsible for some of the worst crises that the world has had to go through.
Financial scandals are in part due to irresponsible management. And the only way for corporations to lead the way towards economic recovery is through sound management practices.
There are so many opportunities to learn from this, and it is so far out of my comfort zone…
But isn’t that what challenges are for?

why i write

After attending the [first ever] Poets and Writers Online Meetup at the iHub, and reading (and re-reading) George Orwell’s ‘Why I Write‘, I have been looking back at my reasons for starting a blog in the first place, why I write and where I want this to go.
It’s physically exhausting, sitting and channeling the thoughts in my brain into words on the scree, but it is immensely satisfying as well, having a conversation with the world, being open to ideas and suggestions and having a jolly good time. I believe in the power of the written word, that the things we put down are magic, a representation of what we have hidden in the recesses of our minds. Being a writer of any class, from a two-bit nobody such as myself to a veritable internet phenomenon means that there is something I am doing, something they are doing, sharing the written word in all its complexities and sculpting beauty from what they do. Reaching within themselves and weaving their thoughts on the loom of syntax and semantics to produce a cloth so fine and so beautiful that the most we can do is admire it, cut it to size and wear it proudly.
Then there are those who take the cloth woven from the artist and fashion a gag from it, use it to stifle the artist, to fashion a crude noose from which the artist will hang, taking his word with him. The ultimate sacrifice, after all, is to give your life for your art.
That is why I write.
I write because I have something to say. Because I have opinions. Because I want to share my viewpoint with the rest of the world.
I write especially because I know there will be a time when I will be so jaded, so lost to the world that I will not have anything to say. I write because I know my hopes will be crushed, my faith will be tested. I write because I will want to look back and remind myself who I really am.
I write to remember.
I write, because the words in my head form a portal to my heart, to what I really feel but I am afraid to say.
I write, therefore I am.

date a girl who writes

This is not an original post, it is a composite of various posts I found on the internet, titled ‘Date a Girl Who Writes’.

Date a girl who writes. She’ll grab her pen from time to time and write about her man. She’ll work on prose and poetry that will and won’t rhyme. She’ll feed you similes for breakfast and perhaps, metaphors for lunch. Your meals shall be filled with figures of speech-others will not care about.

She’s the one with a journal in her hand, a notebook in her purse, scrap paper in her car, and pencils in her back pocket. She’s always scribbling something, praying it won’t evaporate before she gets it down onto paper. Because she’s always scribbling, she’s always looking down, and that’s why you never noticed her before.

The girl who writes will speak to you and make fuss about details- even the minute ones, the slightest, the tiniest blink of your eye. She’ll make vivid descriptions about many things and you’ll wince at.

Date a girl who writes. She will turn you into an anthology. You’ll open her notebook and there will be anatomy, physiology -every bit, every fiber, every word dedicated to you or everybody.

Date a girl who writes, for she will not only be your external hard drive, she will be the memory holder of the things you will lose and love. She will be a reminder of the times – the moments you will unconsciously leave behind.

Talk to her like any normal person would do. Ask her about her interests. See if she’s interested to respond to whatever comes out of your mouth. She’d be busy thinking at times though, about her next story, a topic, a blog post. A lot of things just pop out inside her mind like popcorn, but just go talk to her. Sooner or later, she’d realized that somebody is willing to listen to her chatter.

Ask her out on a date, because she knows what it means to fall in love, take risks, and get hurt. She knows how it feels, or at least how to fake it. She had been used to twists and turns –they’re already part and parcel of her system. The girl who writes has already been tested by time for she’d been slaying dragons and fighting in wars in her stories, together with the main character and everyone of the cast in the story. Date her for she had been the captain of a ship, the queen of her own castle, the pianist of her own concerto. She knows for it is through writing that she could express what she truly feels. She knows, because it is through writing that she breathes and lives. Just take her anywhere. She’d see the good and bad side of things; she’s already used to them.

Try to understand her actions a few months later. She’s only concerned with how to change the story’s flow, how to surprise you as the story goes, and how to make magic out of mere words. The pen is her wand; it is through which that she gains access through her mind’s eye. Emotions are her vocabulary. Words, sentences, and paragraphs are her helpers. The girl who writes knows how to command them to do things, the way a hunter catches his prey. Stories and essays are her spells. She is literature’s fairy godmother. You, the man who reads, are her secret prince. Try to understand her as she lives on her ordinary life. Try to fathom all her words because she means it, but never get tired of reading her mind. Appreciate her passion. She knows how to please you through her words.

Give her time to pause, for she knows it’s the best for the both of you. The girl who writes knows where to insert the climax and where to put transitions. She knows how to iron things out. She knows when it doesn’t sound right, or if it would, how to make it better. Her sentences might “run on and on”, but never get tired of chasing her. She loves it when you brood over what she has written. She might not be an expert when it comes to syntax, but she knows how she’d deal her thoughts. Let her write, let her move.

She’s just the girl who reads and the girl who doesn’t rolled into one person, and that somebody in between. She’s just a girl.

Date a girl who writes for she knows how to begin and end your love story. She had it all outlined in one of her sacred notepads, tucked within the deepest recesses of her bag each day. She still doesn’t know what the ending would be, however, for like a pen she’s just an instrument, guided by the power of a story left untold. It’s up to you both on how the story would go: you, the man who reads and her, the girl who writes. But most certainly, it would be another happily-ever-after.

You’ll be annoyed at her musings and get fed up of her rants. She’ll speak of other writers – the language of Shakespeare, the imagination of Tolkien and how she wishes to rewrite Nabokov. You’ll meet Huxley, Tennyson, Hugo, but only through her stories. She will talk of her fictional crushes and you’ll shrink and shrink. She’ll be your grammar police and you will not like it. She’ll charge you with the violation of rules you didn’t know that exists.

But still, date a girl who writes for you’ll find consolation in her words. You’ll find comfort in her cradle of thoughts and you’ll find understanding in her grief. Date a girl who writes for she’ll write to you while waiting.

She’ll start with “I am writing this letter to you while you’re off buying drinks. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever written a letter to somebody sitting next to me on a bench, but I feel it’s the only way I can get through to you”, like Midori from Norwegian Wood.

Love a girl who writes. Despite the flaws of her own handwriting or her manipulation over words, she knows where to begin and when to end. She understands that there is neither good nor bad timing; we actually create our own chances. Adore her story and inspire her to write more.

Date a girl who reads and writes. You must know that she’ll appreciate more if you read too or an expert in making a classic brewed. She knows that taking time is like reading a 10-chapter book. Every chapter is another mystery. Don’t rush her on things. Like a story, it needs time and way a heck lot of effort to make it ripe. She doesn’t want half-baked plots neither rushed proposals. Listen to her when she talks about a bad ending. It’s her way of saying that she could do better than that. Randomly give her flowers or her favorite author at any given day. Small surprises make her experience that fairy tale can actually happen in real life. It’s easy to love this girl. Drop her small notes, spoil her with poetry and love letters. Her deepest joys come from someone who knows how to make her feel magical, fragile, vulnerable and romantically insane within. Find someone who writes. Check the back of her notebook for some simple passages during one of those slow days. She’s the writer. She knows that writing is her way of drawing strength from her inner self. Someone who knows what she wants. This girl will write the story of your lives and make you feel that the world is more than what you thought it was. She’ll take you to an adventure of a lifetime with your kids inspired by Dr Seuss or The Adventures of Alice.

If you find this girl, never let her go.

Better yet, marry her.

Date A Girl Who Reads; or what an odd thing to find when you’re on a break…

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Rosemary Urquico

cursive, or children with pens

I am currently rediscovering my love of the fountain pen, using it to jot down stuff and to make entries in the diary that has kept me organized for the most part this year. It’s a Parker, actually, branded with Myongji University, a Korean university I almost went to when I was still undecided about College…
The fountain pen is elegant, it is classy and it is high-maintenance, it is the result of human advancement and centuries of innovation from the quill dipped in ink. It is pretty much an indication of how much we love to write as a species… It comes in all sorts of whimsical manes, Youth, Hero, Parker, Waterman, Montblanc… All the application of science: capillarity to get the ink into the pen, cohesion to get the ink on the paper. And it can get messy. Smudges and blots and scratched pages can ensue if the pen isn’t handled the way it should…

I haven’t had the best of histories with fountain pens. I couldn’t use one for the first couple of years at Primary School because they were only for children with good handwriting. I went to an academy for one, where things like handwriting and the colour of your shoes was an indicator of how far you would go in life, as far as we were told. And the handwriting teacher was none other than the school director who must have really needed something to do,being as the school Academy practically ran itself. I had a handwriting that looked like every word I wrote was accompanied by a mini-seizure. So I had to write everything in pencil, notes and math and everything else. Biros weren’t allowed, being as they’re ‘bad for the handwriting’…
So the pencil was supposed to improve my handwriting, both from the sheer stigma of writing in pencil in a class full of people that were writing with a fountain pen, and from the magical handwriting-healing properties of graphite… Yes, makes no sense at all.
So in the end my handwriting did get better, and I graduated to fountain pens a year later. Not that I didn’t have hijinks with that fountain pen (or should I say those fountain pens… they were quite a number). The most memorable was Home Science, where I ran out of blue thread, being as one of the great missions of home science is to teach people how to sew manually in the age of sewing machines… The assignment was to make a pair of shorts from a pattern, and I had lost my thread. Being the genius that I am, I got white thread and dyed it blue with fountain pen ink. The Home Science teacher wasn’t particularly jazzed by what I was doing (taking a shortcut, essentially… 8-4-4 is about doing things the proper way), so I got a swift slap to the face.
Fine, so I was making my own thread and denying some thread-maker somewhere a source of income… My mistake. Don’t consider the fact that I was applying something I could not have possibly learned from any of that primary school slop they were peddling.
Fountain pens are high-maintenance, I have said. Like they have a limited tolerance for rough usage. And if there is anything a primary school child has, it is the uncanny affinity for wear and tear. Dropping pens to split their nibs and trying to get them to work with biro ink… Another indication is how much of the ink went to places it wasn’t supposed to, like clothes and hands and mouths…
The hand-written word is a beautiful thing. It is an art form of and unto itself. The fountain pen is permanent, it is not disposable, it is in fact the epitome of recycling where all you have to do is fill it with ink and you’re good to go…
Writing is a beautiful thing. Even with a handwriting like mine…