Geekerie Shirts!

Aids and I launched our new project just in time for the holidays:

Geekerie is a line of shirts that revels in those things you passionately dig and are unapologetic about it. Are you a sci-fi and fantasy geek? A film connoisseur? A music enthusiast? A hardcore gamer? Then Geekerie is for you.

And we won’t drive LOLcats away, as ubiquitous as they are.

We currently have 6 designs available:

Guitar Hero - P340

blue screen of death - P240

Anti-Life - P290

rock paper scissors lizard Spock - P240 (also available in blue)

Retcon - P290

Guitar Player - P340

Interested? Then email us at geekerie.shirts(at)gmail(dot)com or head on over here.

Lookie at what just arrived :p

This baby just came in a few days ago:

Reef Fish Identification - Tropical Pacific

Reef Fish Identification - Tropical Pacific

Whoohoo! This book isn’t available here in the Philippines so I had to order it from Amazon, have it sent to my aunt, who then packed it in a balikbayan box with all of the other stuff she’s sending home. It took about a month to get here but at least I saved a bunch on shipping. Haha. It’s really depressing that we don’t have books like this available here, considering that the Philippines has amazing marine biodiversity. Sigh. Then there’s also the matter of “A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines” by Kennedy et. al, (IMHO) the most comprehensive book out there on birds found in the Philippines, being out of stock here. Here, the country whose birds are featured! Arggghhh.

I love you Neil!!!

I’ve spent the past few years trying (and failing) to get my younger brother (now in 1st year HS) and sister (grade 7) to read. “Harry Potter”? They didn’t get through the first book. Same thing with “Artemis Fowl”. “The Thief Lord” put them to sleep. My sister finished “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” but didn’t show any inclination to pick up “The Great Glass Elevator” or the other books. The only printed material of mine that they willingly read were “Rurouni Kenshin” and “Skip Beat!”. Of course manga counts but I was hoping that they’d be interested in other things too. Then, a ray of light: Neil Gaiman!

I lent them “M is for Magic” last month, figuring that short stories would be easier to digest. Wonder of wonders: they actually liked it! As in really liked it.Then a few days ago, my brother borrowed “Stardust” to read for his book report. The clincher was a note he left me today:

Got “The Graveyard Book”. Very interesting. — Jay

Hallelujah! I love you Neil!!!
Maybe I should get them “Coraline” for Christmas

Books, books, and more books!

I’m not usually one for bloggers events, but when one of my favorite stores in the world announced one, the only proper thoughts were “When is this?” and “Where do I sign up?”

The event was held last November 28, 2008 in Fully Booked-Bonifacio High Street. I ended up getting there at 5:30 instead of the 4PM calltime because of Aids but we were still able to catch up. The amazing afternoon snacks were catered by Hizon’s. Waw. The program started once everyone was fed. The program was hosted by Ms. Rhea Llamas (Marketing Manager) and Ms. Regina Cruz (Customer Relations Manager) and consisted of a short Q&A about Fully Booked and general book trivia (Aids won a prize for correctly answering which mint-condition comic book among the given choices would be worth the most) and the formal launch of the Fully Booked Bloggers Book Club (BBC).

How the Bloggers Book Club (BBC) works:
- for now, the members of the BBC will be the bloggers who attended the event
- members of the BBC can expect to receive invites to special events like book launches and author meet and greets
- for the months of December and January, BBC members will be the exclusive contributors to “Spotlight Review”, the new book review section of Fully Booked’s official website. Once a week, a book review will be featured in “Spotlight Review”, with the chosen blogger receiving P1,000 worth of Fully Booked gift certificates.

Afterwards, I was pleasantly surprised to know that yes, there would be goodies AKA free books Since we were among the last to arrive, we were the last group to choose our books from those spread out on the tables. I experienced more pushing and shoving here than I did when Aids and I went to Divisoria last Tuesday. I was hoping that the girl I saw holding Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down” would put it back but no such luck. Sigh. Ended up with a cookbook with sugar-free recipies (hello, Mom’s Christmas gift!) and Peter Mayle’s “Provence A-Z”. We closed off the event with a VIP tour of the store led by Adrian and Ms. Kaye (you’re actually supposed to get the tour first but again, we were late), which included being introduced to Ms. Vivian Chua, the book buyer for fiction. I want her job! Hahaha

When all was said and done, Aids and I wandered around the store some more and I ended up buying one of the books on my Christmas wishlist:

Many, many thanks to Fully Booked and Yehey for the great experience

Fully Booked-High Street (flagship store)
Store hours:
M-Th: 11 am-11 pm
Fri: 11 am-12 mn
Sat: 10 am-12 mn
Sun: 10 am-11 pm