Elena is a prize-winning illustrator who believes that "life (like french toast) is made up of simple ingredients that combine to make up a marvelous concoction we often take for granted. It's time to take the time to relish all the wonderful flavors in your life."
Her site, chock-full of pretty pictures, love, and inspiration is like a virtual embrace -- a comforting refuge for these trying times. (French Toast Girl.)
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"We look forward to the time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessing of peace."
- William Ewart Gladstone
(off Chalking for Peace) Okay, I thought it was a firsthand account by a survivor. Reading on... "I will not break down just because the man I have loved since forever will marry someone else." Eep, so it was the writer's own sad story. The love of her life is marrying her sister, whom he got pregnant. Sad indeed, but not while bigger events and indescribably sadder stories are happening elsewhere. Her so-called 'execution' just does not compare to the fate thousands of people faced three days ago. (In fairness, I'm sure the author cringed upon finding out that her article was published in this light).
12:42 PM
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September 14, 2001
This is a bit late, but I just noticed the Youngblood article being terribly out of place in the Opinion section of yesterday's Inquirer. Everything was about the Tuesday morning U.S. tragedy. The said article begins with the words "Today, I will attend an execution: my own. I will watch it with both eyes open and I will not cry."
REAL firsthand accounts are here: "In the City of God there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb. The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" - Nostradamus 1654 Funny how everytime there's a disaster, people would begin sifting thru Nostradamus quatrains and popping in 'The Man who Saw Tomorrow' on their vcrs. *** Since we've been watching the news non-stop ourselves, we felt like 'escaping' for awhile and proceeded to enjoy being in the relatively empty mall, a rare treat.
• World New York
• Eyewitness
10:36 AM
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September 13, 2001
Arnold got this text message at least 5x on his cell today:
So life should go on hereabouts...it was no surprise though that Megamall was uncannily crowd-less yesterday. I suppose everyone chose to stay glued to their TV sets, still in disbelief that something like this could happen to America, home of the brave and land of the free.
Then Arnold suddenly pulls and faces me towards the Sabrett hotdog cart in which hangs a huge picture of the World Trade Center... We hugged and I felt like crying -- for the thousands of people who lost their lives and for the big, gaping wound left in the heart of Manhattan. Meg, my friend in New York, said that Manhattan has been evacuated and people have walked out of the city covered in debris all calm and quiet but that anger is starting to seep in. Of course. It was an attack on humankind. The sight of the implosion being replayed over and over gives me the creeps. It wasn't CGI, it was real. Those were real people jumping out the windows. How many disaster movies have we seen were set in New York? This time life imitated fiction, and it's a whole lot scarier this way around. Those of us who live across the ocean can only do so much as pray, stay close to our loved ones and keep safe.
11:41 AM
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September 12, 2001
Was glued to CNN all night since 9pm (9am, EST). The World Trade Center is nothing but a cloud of dust now, and half the Pentagon has burned down. My gosh, how many lives exactly were lost in that catastrophe? Reporters say that there were about 50,000 people who worked at the WTC, and that doesn't include the passersby downstairs, and the hundreds of innocent victims on the hi-jacked planes. They've already crippled the U.S., and they're apparently not done yet.
• Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. %1, $50, any donation is fine and everything will go to the Red Cross to help victims of this and other tragedies. Last year, Arnold became the first Filipino comic book writer to receive the National Book Award for the landmark series 'The Mythology Class'. Last Saturday, the Manila Critics Circle again gave him recognition for his depiction of "a not - so - distant and not - too - unfamiliar Philippines" in the one-shot 'Trip to Tagaytay'. "By imbuing the visuals with his trademark humor, obsessive detail, atmosphere, and resonant profundity, Arre gives us yet another thoughtful, tantalizing tale, both progressive and distinctly Pinoy..." "Like the mythical images encountered by the narrator, Trip to Tagaytay is a dream image that Filipino comic books are truly coming into their own." *sigh* I'm so so so proud of my baby!!! (Trip to Tagaytay is available at all Comic Quest branches. If you don't live in the Philippines and you're interested in getting a copy, please click on the light blue dot on the white bar below, or you can simply drop me a note.)
10:47 AM
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September 10, 2001
My! Honey! Won! Again!!! 
Ortigas in the year 2065? (lifted from Arnold's graphic novel Trip to Tagaytay)
Related links:
Arnold-Arre.com
Trip to Tagaytay
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Arnold-baby and I were also rooting for 'Happy Endings', Luis
Katigbak's collection of "stories about reinvented identities, lost
loves and Wednesday afternoons" which we enjoyed immensely, to win in
the Fiction category. Do check it out too, if you still haven't.
2:07
PM
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