To all Lauren Kate Fans — here’s your chance to meet the author of Fallen and Torment.
Lauren Kate will be live in Manila on Nov. 27 at the Atrium of The Podium. Registration starts at 4 pm, and the event starts at 5 pm.
Category: Miscellany
Counting down to Christmas
I first read about advent calendars in Jostein Gaarder’s book The Christmas Mystery. In that novel, a boy named Joachim finds an advent calendar, and a bit of the story unfolds every day he opens a new window.
I remember I had to google what an advent calendar actually was, because they aren’t as popular here as they are in Europe. An advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas, usually a cardboard calendar with windows. As each day inches closer to Christmas (beginning December 1), each window opens to reveal a little surprise, such as a picture, a part of a story, a small gift, or a piece of chocolate.
I write about this because I found out my friend Iya (you may recognize her as she frequently comments here!) has some advent calendars at her store, Tie Me Up Buttercup! at Greenbelt 5 (and they have a Christmas kiosk at Greenbelt 3, too). I think they’re the only store here in the Philippines that sells advent calendars!
Constant Vigilance!
In the spirit of Harry Potter and my ongoing giveaway, I’d like to get this story off my chest, because I’ve been bothered by this for a couple of days now.
I hit major panic mode the other day when I was tagged in a Facebook photo (yup, the one at the top of this post) to bid on a signed copy of a deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I must confess that all rationality fled and fangirl mode kicked in — the starting bid was only P700 and the highest bid so far was P850. I plunked down a P900 bid without a clue of the bid mechanics or the details of the item I was bidding for.
The guy (not a friend, but I was tagged by a common friend) was apparently moving out of his apartment and getting rid of some books. I thought, great, a guy who doesn’t know how much a signed Harry Potter book goes for.
Insert coin: it’s Pac-Man!
I’ve really been enjoying my 18-month Moleskine planner. I used to run through planners sporadically, but in the past months I’ve been using my planner to map out my blogging schedule (more than anything else, but there’s also work, and my reading list, and book club activities), and it’s really been a big help in reaching my blogging targets.
I’ve been sprucing it up to make my work week more interesting so it’s quite an explosion of color these days. I even have special pens for the planner — Dong-A playon color pens, with a pen tip and marker tip at either end, because the ink is the perfect consistency for Moleskine paper (no blots!).
The doodles have been overtaking my planner, and I thought it was about time I had another Moleskine just for doodling!
Squee — new toys!
I have a growing collection of bookish toys — I love toys based on books and book characters! I always tell myself I’m hypothetically saving it for future kids I may (or may not) have, but (not so) deep down, I know I’m really collecting them all for myself!!
I’m glad I took advantage of the holiday and went bargain hunting today — because I got two new toys for my collection: a classic Winnie the Pooh bear by Gund (which from the previous post you can probably tell I’m a big fan of), and a Madeline doll — both for ridiculously low prices!