The Proper War Room

I woke up today with an uncharacteristically yellow brightness because it was a Monday but I didn’t have to work. I have plans of attack in place, write in the morning, gym in the afternoon, read in the pockets of time remaining outside of keeping myself alive. But there was a vaguely familiar pain in my right side. I struggled out of bed, attempt some sense of routine by going to the bathroom…

As of last month, I’m a free agent, and it does mean whatever you think it means, although it probably doesn’t mean what you think it means for me. Look, upon my return from a very short trip to the relatively warmer London, the Dublin chill and rain blasted into me the moment I got off the airport bus but instead of annoyance I caught myself thinking, ah, Leopardstown, your girl is home. Day…

I streamed tonight because I didn’t want to but I needed to finish the last lap of the novella. Last scene and as expected I’m procrastinating like hell. This is so expected of me! But now at least I got the pipes laid down today, though I still need to see whether I’m seeing a fire in the final scene or whether I’m too much of a wuss to do it. Or am I really thinking of a different kind of fire?…

Things are being shaken up, in ways I can’t talk about yet, and it’s terrifying the shit out of me. The greatest thing recently is that it is summer in Dublin and if you only ever see Dublin in this light, there’s really no leaving this place. I’ve been in the tropics, so greenery shouldn’t dazzle me so much. But there’s a silent, hopeful desperation in the way the flora here just seem to go…

Let me tell you all about how I installed Instagram to promote my novel during the Philippine Book Festival 2025 and how I quickly descended back into scrolling hell like it was yesterday. Sneaky motherfucker! Well, that was the long and short of it. I still need to schedule maybe 10 posts for the month on IG and FB just to keep things fresh and on people’s minds but otherwise it had been fun…

We’ll just write about it. Mondays are historically stressful, and I feel like my body has some hardwired resistance at having to be on for work, or for anything outside its own desires. Today’s big R resistance was so large, both for writing and working, that I let my period migraine (a fact of life at this point) take over. I took a half-day leave to stare into nothingness and marinate in my…

I woke up later than desired today, but I’m still reeling from the monthly blood bath so I say it doesn’t count. I made myself a sandwich I’ve been timing to make in the shortest amount of time. I’ve been fixated on it for two weeks now. [Skip to the next bracket pair if you don’t want to read me talk about how I make a sandwich] First I turn on the air fryer at 200 degrees for 5 minutes,…

My scrolling addiction has made reading for pleasure like getting a puppy to sit still for a photo. I’ve been calling it a scrolling addiction now, because even if I have tools to lock myself out of Instagram or YouTube now I still mesmerize myself doing the mindless scroll in discussion boards (no, not Reddit) and search results. But I can’t buy a new fiction book if I don’t finish at least five…

I got all the achievements in Baldur’s Gate 3, some not so honourably (thanks, No Party Limit mod), but I needed to push it to the max to get a semblance of completion so I can say I’m more or less done with it. I’ll write about the experience at some point, these are busy times. Christmas is coming, which is a notorious time for people left behind by dead relatives or according to societal…

Hello, fellow readers! My first speculative fiction short story Metro Tarak Organ Scouts is out now at Washington Square Review. This story is very hustlers be hustling in a future Philippines where selling organs is where it’s at. You’ll meet Kap, who will do anything to achieve “the good life” and Bok, who speaks organ, and who may or not be key to said “good life.” This was a story that first…

Story-wise, at least. It’s so gratifying to have that moment where I randomly backread the previous session’s output to reorient myself because I was stuck at one point in the current session only to find out I had already thought about the answer that time except I didn’t remember anything from the previous session! I think this current project has to be in English because I’m going to throw…

One hour of writing, by the end of it, feels insufficient, but I swear the first ten to fifteen minutes feel like early morning Mass. I do have to make better plans so I can do 2-hour sprints again (or more). I just haven’t been able to wake up wake up these days. I mean, I feel a little clarity today and I know it has something to do with being forced to walk at least 5 thousand steps back from…

Went to the doctor today and immediately felt my symptoms settle down a bit, effectively gaslighting myself so it felt like I was exaggerating everything I was feeling. Doctor was able to chalk some of it to post-Covid gland swelling, so we’re just going to wait for a bit for the symptoms to either disappear or worsen with the week. Strangely, I found myself compelled to stream because I felt…

Still wonky on the lighting pero madaming narating writing-wise in fairness kapag hindi mo “focus” ang writing (kasi focus ko na makapag-focus dahil nagsi-stream) mas playful ang approach ko sa pagsusulat. Ang weird! Parang that quote about that sideways pursuit of happiness. Baka magstream sa YouTube at Twitch nang sabay kapag sanay na. Hindi ko rin alam kung bakit, hindi na’ko nagtatanong…