LiL Article: My Live in Limbo Success Story

Check out my latest article for Live in Limbo titled, “My Live in Limbo Success Story“.

The article tracks my journey as a writer for LiL, how I landed the gig and where it led.

All that remains to be said in addition to the above article is my thanks: Though it cannot be said enough, I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to Sean Chin, the founder of LiveInLimbo.com. You have been a pleasure to work with and a great friend. Without you, who knows where my path may have led. You are an inspiration to all aspiring young adults, and if ever you need a hand, you know who to call!

52 Books 2009

Somewhere out there on the World Wide Web a challenge was created: read 52 books in 52 weeks. I decided 2009 would be the year I tracked my reading in weeks and pages. Below is a list of the books I read. Although I don’t have a review for each, I do have a few words to share on my year of reading.

# Title Author Pages
1 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne 720
2 Watchmen Alan Moore 416
3 Epileptic David B 368
4 The Monk Matthew Lewis 496
5 Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Cormac McCarthy 352
6 What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Politics Noam Chomsky 240
7 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett 375
8 Kindred Octavia Butler 287
9 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 192
10 Fun Home: A Family Tagicomic Alison Bechdel 232
11 The Fate of the Artist Eddie Campbell 96
12 Black Hole Charles Burns 368
13 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 352
14 Aporias Jacques Derrida 87
15 A Grief Observed C.S. Lewis 60
16 Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 380
17 Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, the Watsons and Sandition Jane Austen 432
18 Time: A Traveler’s Guide Clifford A. Pickover 304
19 The End of Faith Sam Harris 256
20 Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 336
21 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 256
22 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 180
23 Girlosophy: The Breakup Survival Kit Anthea Paul 224
24 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 485
25 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 514
26 Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life Bryan Lee O’Malley 168
27 Get Known Before the Book Deal Christina Katz 272
28 Scott Pilgrim Volume 2: Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World Bryan Lee O’Malley 200
29 Scott Pilgrim Volume 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness Bryan Lee O’Malley 192
30 Scott Pilgrim Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together Bryan Lee O’Malley 216
31 Penguin Great Loves Cures For Love Stendhal 128
32 The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists Andrew McAleer 240
33 Valmiki’s Daughter Shani Mootoo 398
34 Dear Diary Lesley Arfin 231
35 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 256
36 The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 536
37 The History of Forgetting Lawrence Raab 112
38 Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication Paul attallah; Leslie Shade 406
39 Bodily Harm Margaret Atwood 304
40 Wilderness Tips Margaret Atwood 242
41 Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Donald Miller 256
42 Lucid Dreaming and the Art of Dreaming Creatively Pamela Ball 390
43 Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit Mercedes Lackey 400
44 The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions Scott Adams 336
45 The Five People You Meet in Heaven Mitch Albom 198
46 Oryx and Crake: A Novel Margaret Atwood 464
47 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 512
48 Persuasion Jane Austen 224
49 Hobby Games: The 100 Best James Lowder 400
50 The Spirit Sets Us Free: Catechist’s Guide Linda L. Gaupin 64
51 The Spirit Sets Us Free: Confirmation Preparation for Youth Linda Gaupin et al 96
52 The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church   200
53 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 272
54 Manuscript: 1st Draft Friend 180
55 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 384
56 A Novel in a Year Louise Doughty 320
      16,605

While typing out the above list, I began recalling specific moments throughout the year. I remember reading C.S. Lewis after a friend passed away. I remember working as an extra on the Scott Pilgrim set and, shortly after, purchasing the series to read during my month-long traveling journey. I remember reading the 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists while waiting for my plane back to Toronto with Shani Mootoo after my first ever writer’s retreat, and then reading Shani’s book shortly after coming home. I remember reading Bodily Harm on the way to my cousin’s wedding in New Jersey, and Oryx and Crake during my first week of full-time work with Ganz. And so on and so forth.

After this challenge, I had a stronger understanding that it never really was about the numbers of books you read, but about what those books meant to you after you read them. It’s easy to forget a book (I can’t, for the life of me, remember what happened in Tess of the d’Urbervilles), but when you keep track of the books you’ve read, you more easily remember, not just the titles and stories consumed within the span of a year, but those stories within the context of your life.

The 52 book challenge transcribed, in excel format, the importance of reading in my life and the adventures reading offers. Just for fun, I included some tidbits about 2009’s reading below:

Hardest book: Tristram Shandy, for its sheer size and the knowledge/backstory required to understand it OR Pamela Ball’s Lucid Dreaming, because it was just so boring.
Most read author of 2009: Jane Austen. The older I get, the more tragic her stories seem to become.
<strongMost fun book: The Scott Pilgrim series offers a fun, light, and exciting read, especially if you live in the GTA! Check out my review for it here.
Perception-altering reads: Anything by Derrida. He’s difficult to understand at first, but wickedly fun once you start.
Notable reading: Blue Like Jazz was the first “religious” book I read in 2009. It offered a contemporary approach to Christianity and religious passion that I thought would appeal to me. Instead, I was seriously disappointed by its lack of substance (for lack of a better word). It pushed me to find the real meat of my faith, and led me to read various versions of the Catechism, which was highly rewarding and which I recommend to anyone interested in Catholicism.

Now, onto 52 more books in 2010. I’m looking forward to it and invite you to join me, too!

Christmas Treats

In the past week, I’ve started receiving a few early Christmas goodies. Of course, receiving gifts is not the point of Christmas, but they are awesome tokens to make a person feel remembered.

A big Thank You to the Canadian Cancer Society‘s Markham division for their continued attention to Relay Team Members and Captains alike throughout this holiday season. And a similar shout out of thanks to Penguin Canada‘s publicity department (and my contact point, @B_Kienapple, in particular) for the Penguin book, keychain and Moleskine. Your remembrances are greatly appreciated. Please accept my online shout out/referral as a token of holiday love as well : )

                                     

Toronto’s One of a Kind Show

Today I visited the One of a Kind Show on its last day in Toronto.

Though  I’m not the biggest fan of shopping, and the show spanned the Ex’s entire Direct Energy floor, it was an awesome experience. The Show presented the work of artists for sale to the public. Each artist offered unique, handmade products of their own.

Among the many, two of my favorite vendors were Petit Flaneur with its modern printed doll house, and Margi Laurin with her array of altered books.

Though the Show has ended for the year, I strongly recommend everyone to go when they have the opportunity in 2010. I have the highest regard for independent artists, most who work tirelessly to produce the products of their art and passion. Furthermore, I have even greater respect for those who actively pursue their dream, sharing their products with the world like those present at the One of a Kind Show. The Show will certainly return in 2010, while also touring around Vancouver, Chicago and New York. Check it out when you can!

 

Petit Flaneur's modern printed doll house

Mia Herrera: Board Game Collector

My blog undeniably began as a writing blog. At the time of its inception writing was my sole focus and therefore naturally became my blog’s sole focus. As previously mentioned, however, after my break up with writing I had to look for other, less scornful past times to occupy me in my off hours. That’s when I picked up games.

When I started working at Ganz I in no way labeled myself as a gamer. Yes, I enjoyed the occasional button-crushing Soul Caliber or Street Fighter match with a friend or relative, played Fable 1 from beginning to end, couldn’t stomach the disaster that was Fable 2, and enjoyed all the Sims products with God-like creationist glee, but these instances marked the extent of my gaming experience: Reasonable, but not boast-worthy. It was at Ganz, however, that I began hearing about this or that board or card game – and no, I’m not talking about Monopoly or Uno, but about foreign, yet unheard of (to me at least) concoctions. I was politely interested, but I was an impatient person who enjoyed the instant gratification and speedy conclusions of 3 min YouTube videos and momentary riddles. Games as prolonged as Scrabble or Monopoly, each lasting painstaking hours at a time, hardly attracted me.

It just so happened, however, that within one week my brother picked up Settlers of Catan and my co-worker brought Gloom to work. To those who have played either game, they will know these two games are completely different. They aren’t even presented in the same form (one is a card game; the other is a board game). That week, however, and with both games, I experienced an interesting sensation not unlike the warm excitement I get with new books. Here were novel items. Here were items worthy of collection.

My first bout with Gloom was quick and dirty. My co-worker busted out his pack in the lunchroom and we finished a mini-game within the half hour. Catan was a more prolonged affair, attended by the ceremony of clearing our dining room table for play space and fishing out snacks from the kitchen cabinet. Both experiences were radically different, but from that week on I was captivated by the thought of “game time” – an elusive, not-often-experienced period in which electronic entertainment became secondary to the human interaction occurring over mere cardboard, wood or paper. How romantic! I’d thought nights like that had become extinct in the 20th century!

I purchased Gloom the next week and soon after borrowed Hobby Games: The 100 Best from a co-worker. My intention is to nab all 100 listed books, and the 100 after that listed in the book’s sequel (in the meantime nabbing both books to add to my still-growing book collection). I’ve started at A with Acquire and intend to go all the way to Z. What can I say? I’ve fallen in love – hard – and want a room full of games to mirror my much adored room full of books.

While my book reviews are reserved for Live in Limbo, my game reviews are much less formal concoctions that will be posted as they come here on MiaHerrera.com. I know that skews the focus of my site a bit, but I suppose my blog grows as I grow. It’s kind of neat to know there’s this little space on the web that is filled with everything I find interesting!

(And don’t worry, folks. If you’re still coming here for writing matters, feel free to screen game reviews by clicking the Writing tab on the left. Game reviews will (naturally) be stored under Games and won’t appear under that category!)

Website Re-Categorized

Whereas posts on MiaHerrera.com used to appear in a lumped “Uncategorized” Category, I have now taken the time to divide each post into a relative Category (either “Film,” “Life,” “Reading,” “Writing,” or “Games”). The divisions are not very necessary, except for those who absolutely do not want to see any posts of one specific nature when browsing my website. I warn you, however, that the lines were often blurred when the divisions were made (Is my Writing not relative to my Life? And aren’t my articles written about books relative to both Reading and Writing? And what on earth would this post be categorized under? It will be found under “Life” for now, considering it is taking up some portion of my life to orchestrate this change, I suppose.).

Anyways, happy reading!

Getting a Job

On Tuesday, September 8th, I started working as a Creative Writer for Ganz, Inc. As a Creative Writer, I work with a team of other writers to write creative briefs for online entertainment projects, write website content, work with the Creative Director to develop plans for an overall (top secret, upcoming, and super cool) project, and review and analyze competition to aid in the development of creative projects (Note: Most of this description is copied, pasted and re-worded from the job description available on Workopolis.com). Currently at work I’m reading up on old research and conducting some of my own – tasks that allow me to re-visit some of my favorite games with a new and critical eye.

I applied for the job mid-August, went for an interview a week later, and was hired a week after that. The job is a full-time, permanent position. I hadn’t mentioned it earlier because I was afraid of jinxing it. Retrospectively evaluating the steps I’ve taken towards this point, I had (and still have) a strong feeling  that I’ve been fatalistically led to this position; even the most chance encounters and decisions have added up to form the requirements needed to land this job – a belief that both unnerves and soothes me in turns.

To be honest, I’m still getting adjusted to the schedule. I’m still not used to the 9-5 workday, and the apprehension and excitement of getting a job has put a stopper to my current creative endeavors. I hope to start again soon. Writing is, after all, my number one love.

At the moment, as I’m settling in, I’m going with the flow. Life seems to be directing me somewhere. I guess it’s up to me to find out exactly where I have to go.

P.S. In regards to my work situation, I’d like to thank Johnson, my manager at MGA Entertainment, for being constantly supportive throughout my job search, Sean Chin for being such an awesome person to work with as I write for him on Live in Limbo, and my friends and family who admirably tolerate my dramatics as I stress over school and work.

Join Me Online on TorontoInColour.ca!

Check out Toronto in Colour, a virtual community dedicated to Toronto’s diverse population. Created by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto in Colour offers an online ethno-cultural community for members to network and interact with thousands of others from similar communities and backgrounds. Members can share profiles, photos, groups, events, and classifieds, and interact with a fast-growing network of friends right in the GTA. Furthermore, members also have the opportunity to see their culturally or diversely themed fiction, non-fiction, or poetry published online by registering and submitting work.

Feel free to check out the site, sign up, and add me as a friend. I’m part of the Filipino network at the moment. And for any other Filipinos out there, come join me online as well as one of the site’s inaugural members to represent our background! We currently have a very small online Filipino community – a community that we can certainly grow to mirror the vibrant one we currently share everyday in Toronto.

An Excursion to Pages Bookstore

As my previous post on Live In Limbo indicated, Pages bookstore will be closing their doors on Aug. 30. As a result of the sad news, however, they are holding a sale on everything in the store before its final day. Previously, everything was 25% off, but with the closing date looming, everything is now 30% off the indicated price — even sale items!

For any fellow biliomaniacs out there, check out Pages for some great deals. I visited the store last Friday, and even though some shelves are looking a bit lonely, there are still plenty of great books to be adopted. I uncharacteristically splurged and left the store with a paperback book about interior design, Judas: A Biography by Susan Gubar, The History of Forgetting by Lawrence Raab (absolutely breathtaking read), and The Sound of the Kiss or the Story That Must Never Be Told by Pingali Suranna.

Although part of me feels guilty for spending so much, another part of me feels guilty for leaving all those books behind. There were still plenty of good quality reads in Religious and Cultural Studies (particularly investigations on Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism), and a lot of stuff about Film and Art.

Pick up a book today and hold a bit of Pages history in your hands (I got a Pages bookmark to top it off : )!