Hangover (and nope, it ain’t of the alcoholic variety)

Getting by with just as much enthusiasm as a deflated balloon.

I did something I’ve always wanted to try for the first time today. My hands were shaky as I dragged my cursor to the e-mail bearing tidings of my fate.

The outcome wasn’t what I was hoping-wishing-praying-offering-eggs-to-Santa-Clara for. But ah, well — you win some, you lose some. And it sure shan’t-can’t-won’t stop me from loving what pushed me to try in the first place, or stop me from trying again at all.

To more opportunities that drive us nuts, drive us out of our comfort zone, and ultimately drive us to realize what’s most important to us.

Manila Scoop: Rounding Up the Best 2013 Planners (Part I)

1. Design Your Life Photo Planner

Best for: The Girly-Girl Who Wants A Little Bit of Everything

Add color – splashes and splashes of it! – to your life this new year with the Design Your Life Photo Planner. This weekly tracker features a unique design each month, with eye-popping combinations of neon and metallic colors.

The creators of the DYL Planner have been at it since 2008, adapting not only the planner’s content but also its form. Its 2013 version comes with rounded edges, hidden wire-O binding to keep your pages nice and snug, and even a secret compartment for sticky notes and doodling.

Freebies: One black and one white bookmark that double as paper clips, stickers

Price: P530 each, P520 each for 2 pieces and P500 each for 3 pieces

How and where to buy: Course orders through the Design Your Life Planner Facebook page.

 

2. Eskwelahan

Best for: The student with an A+ sense of humor

Heading back to school this January? Add a skip to your step and a smile on your face everyday with the return of the handy EsKWELAhan planner. When the daily grind bogs you down, turn to each of the planner’s  bright, zany pages to remind you of the best things about being a student.

Who ever said learning ends in the classroom? Your daily Ka-(Es)Kwela is chock-full of trivia on the sciences, history, nutrition, economics and any other subject you can think of.

Keep an eye out for the jokes and pick-up lines to share with your classmates, blockmates and significant other, within school hours or otherwise.

Price: P350

How and where to buy: Course orders through a private message on the EsKWELAhan Planner 2013 Facebook page.

 

3. Clone Stamp

Best for: The animal lover

The sky’s the limit with Clone Stamp’s quirky 2013 offering. From the duo that brought you the 2011 Monthster Planner and the 2012 Lomo Planner comes a book of days that’s sure to keep your heart a-flutter.

The quirky owl cover opens to reveal an understated Aztec-themed design in shades of blue. Each spread includes vertical space for daily reminders, a monthly calendar and writing space for other notes. Keep your life priorities in check with each month’s panels for goals, expenses and things to do. The Clone Stamp 2013 planner also comes with a directory, a mini-pocket and a fuchsia feather bookmark.

Price: P410

How and where to buy: Course orders through the Clone Stamp Facebook page.

 

4. Writhink

Best for: The Palanca Aspirant (or Awardee)

Daily life makes for a dynamic, not-so-hidden spring of inspiration and information for the crafting of your literary oeuvres. Writhink – the planner for writers by writers – is perfect for all your precious lightbulb moments, or for bemoaning your fate in the absence thereof.

The no-frills, one-week-per-spread layout keeps your reminders and deadlines in check. Extra note pages are also at hand for your writing and doodling needs. Pages marking the turns of months are livened up with psychological trivia, puzzles and fragments of a story designed to be finished at the year’s end. Let the Writhink Planner be the liaison between you and The Muse as you write out the best story of 2013 – your own.

Price: P450, with a special mark-down to P420 if you buy 3 pieces

How and where to buy: Fill out the order form at the Writhink Planner 2013 Facebook page.

 

5. Planet Slate

Best for: The Renaissance Man/Woman, The Artist (starving, misunderstood or otherwise)

If the new year were a canvas, what would your masterpiece look like in 365 days? Riddle yourself this as well as other questions on life, art and everything else in between. Rid yourself of boredom and rev up your creative motor this 2013 with the Slate Planner, which comes in two designs: Classic Black and Limited Edition Teal.

Get your imagination on overdrive with Sloot Alert doodles, designs and games. Within this planner lies a library of works by local literary luminaries and a handy-dandy gallery of artworks by artists here and abroad. Keep your inner dilettante in c’est magnifique shape throughout the year with reviews of films, restaurants, books and activities. Map out your days in minimally designed weekly spreads that will have your paints, pens, pencils and what-have-you dancing across the pages in no time.

Price: P599 for Limited Edition, P499 for Classic

How and where to buy:  Fill out the order form here.

 

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WANT TO WIN ANY OF THESE PLANNERS? 

Join Manila Scoop‘s 2013 PLANNER GIVE-AWAY! Click here for details. ❤

Click the photo for details!

 

A New Year’s resolution in action

Yes, I know January 1 isn’t for ten more days, but the only way I can stick to this New Year’s resolution is if I start early. Have you ever perused your bookshelf and saw a book you no longer recall anything about? Or has a friend ever mentioned this title that you do remember reading, only to end up in the dusty recesses of memory? I have, and it’s something I set out to change this 2011.

Gone be the days of head-scratching upon mention of forgotten reads. And so I’ll scribble my musings in a book journal as I bite, gnaw and digest each literary goodie I sink my eyes into.

"Love, fate, and the number 6 train."

Today, I’m off to a great start with Maynard and Jennica by Rudolph Delson. The price tag on the book cover (this is my one complaint against Booksale. They defile their own merchandise by sometimes writing tally marks on the text blocks, and always sticking the price tag to the front panel. But I digress) reads 05-10-10, which means I must have bought it sometime last May. Lo and behold, I only started reading it on Monday night. It is now Wednesday afternoon and I find myself on page 164 of 300, finished with 3 of its 5 chapters.

Thus far, reading the book has been a blast! It’s not your run-of-the-mill narrative, but a smorgasbord of vignettes that spin together the lives and hearts of Maynard Gogarty and Jennica Green. There are at least 35 different narrators in the book, ranging from the couple to their friends and family, strangers, animals and “one EMERGENCY BRAKE on a certain no. 6 train.”

The titular characters are among the most eccentric I’ve encountered in fiction. But I love them not only because they’re outrageous, but especially because  I see slivers of them in the people I know, and vice versa. That, and the fact that that the story is set in New York (a place that’s quite a character in itself, I have come to understand), where I hope to find myself in the near future, if only for graduate studies.

Maynard is a multi-hyphenated, highfalutin nit-picker,  learned and cultured but socially awkward. Jennica is a California girl with big-city dreams and a penchant for drama, forever hesitant but easily excitable. When these two cross paths in the New York subway, one of them is turned off and they don’t fall in love, naturally. But because a) last time I checked, this is a love story and b) their names are joined in the title (and what could be a more obvious clue than that), they meet again under better circumstances, and fall in love. Naturally.

More than being a fluffy boy-meets-girl with cheese oozing from the edges (which, I must stress, it is not), the plot weaves the stories of two peculiar people through the watchful eyes, nosy ears and wagging tongues of those who watched them grow. More than halfway through the book, I know enough about Maynard and Jennica’s pasts to understand their present, and have informed guesses of where they’re headed in the future. But like any patchwork left unfinished, I won’t rest till this is left unread. And as the threads of Maynard and Jennica get more and more intertwined, the sucker for romance in me wishes that all does not unravel in the end.