friendshipper

Since I've gone on a massive subscribing spree, courtesy of a certain friending meme, I figured now would be a good time to write up that proper introductory post I never did in all the nearly-a-year I've had this journal.

I. I was born in Toboso, Negros, a provincial fishing village in the Philippines. It was a very dramatic birth: I was two months early, my mother's water had broken but she was having no contractions, the doctor was not around (see: two months premature), some random guy had to be recruited to cut my mom open, he slashed my face (I still a faint scar on my left cheekbone), my mother nearly bled out and died, my father and my uncle had to give her an emergency blood transfusion...

Like I said. Dramatic.

II. My family immigrated to the US when I was toddler. I was about a year and a half old, I think. I've lived here ever since. I regularly visit the provinces every few years. Long time readers might recall some of my stories from such vacations: the time I was ejected from a pedicab and tore my leg open, the time I trekked through the jungle to visit the manghilot so he could fixed the right arm I'd wrecked when I slipped and fell on it, the time I had to flee from the beach at Boracay because there was an exchange of gunfire, the time a political assassination took place down the street while my relatives and I were sitting on my aunt's lanai, drinking kalamansi juice and mistakenly thought the gunshots I heard were firecrackers until my father came rushing in from the street and dragged us all inside. The Toboso of my childhood is very different from the Toboso of today. Last summer, militants bombed the local cell phone tower. It's hard to say when I'll go back. Maybe in a couple years.

III. When I was a little girl, maybe 3 or 4, I smashed the middle finger of my left hand when I fell from a chair and ended up splitting it open when that heavy wooden chair landed right on it. The stitches left scars that I still have to this day and in fact, have somewhat deformed the fingerpad of my top joint. In elementary school, I used to draw smiley faces in the unmarred section of that fingertip because the way the scars curve, they kind of resemble the outline of a face with center-parted bangs. My sense of touch in that finger is very coarse -- just pressure and large temperature changes. Texture is pretty much lost to me there, and sometimes I don't feel pain depending on how extreme the source is.

IV. I graduated from college with a degree in biology. I currently work as a lab technologist in applied research. I don't really talk about my day job and given where I live, some of you can probably guess why.

V. As some of you might have surmised, I bought a townhouse towards the end of last year. It was a short sale. Yes, that's right. I was one of those people who benefited from other people's pain and sorrow during the housing meltdown. On the other hand, yay for not buying into the housing boom mindset of "Buy now or forever be priced out!" and instead funneling all those funds away doggedly and determinedly for years and years, such that I was able to make a 20% down payment when my time finally came and still have money to fix up my townhouse the way I like it with a good savings cushion left over.

VI. In terms of updating, upgrading and renovating, since I gained possession of the townhouse, there's been: painting, a new refrigerator (with an ice maker!), a complete master bathroom renovation from top to bottom, a sump pump installed, hardwood installed in the living/dining room combo, and carpet replaced throughout the rest of the house. The current, and final, planned project for the next couple years is the kitchen install. As you've no doubt noticed since that's all I'm talking about. orz

VII. I was first introduced to anime when I watched Vampire Hunter D on TNT when I was 12 or 13. I don't count stuff like Robotech or Voltron since those were multiple shows edited and spliced together for a US audience. With Vampire Hunter D, thus began my lifelong affair with Hideyuki Kikuchi's works which may have their problematic moments but have a sensibility, enthusiasm and style I love and adore.

VIII. I read my very first manga at the age of 14 when someone gave me the first volume of Battle Angel for my birthday. This was back in the day when manga was still being mirror imaged so North American audiences could read from left to right. With Alita, thus began my lifelong affair with dangerous ladies.

IX. My very first fandom was Rurouni Kenshin. In my formative years as a anime/manga fan, I was pretty monofannish. I read fics in other fandoms (Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon) but RuroKen was like home. Then I graduated from college and kind of drifted away from fandom for a few years. I briefly flirted with Harry Potter fandom for, like, 2 weeks before fleeing in terror upon realizing my ship (Harry/Hermione) was a bit... overzealous. A couple years later, I read a manhwa named Island which I still love to this day and decided to venture back into fandom to see if I could find other people who'd read this title about a spoiled rich girl hunted by sex demons who want to violate her, who asks an undead serial killer to protect her... a cliché story that becomes a meditation on the strained relationship between Korea and Japan. And thus began my current incarnation in fandom: that of the multifannish fen who pretty much only runs around in obscure, little-known, and micro-fandoms. Except for Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I actively avoid due to its rabid hate for my pet pairing, and One Piece, which is one of Weekly Shounen Jump's Big 3 but no one really talks about the way they do Naruto or Bleach? I dunno!

X. I do write fic, but I'm not very prolific. At all. My early fic was very id-driven. My current fic tends to be very reactionary, in the sense that I'm reacting to something in the canon I did not like, or responding to a general trend in fandom I despise.

XI. Once upon a time, I used to write fantasy novels of the darker persuasion. It was during that time I took a break from fandom, actually. In fact, I used to pursue publication back then, even had a nice chat with an editor or two. I'm not particularly that interested in pursuing publication anymore but I'd like to write a novel or two again. Because everyone could always use more dangerous ladies engaging in epic sword fights in their lives.

XII. Other than that? I'm left-handed. I'm short. I'm thin. I have black hair I sometimes grow long, I sometimes cut short, I sometimes highlight with mahogany and caramel streaks. I have brown eyes. My skin is neither as pale as that of my half-Chinese mother nor as dark as that of my mestizo father. My most favorite foods include kare-kare, lumpia shanghai, hot and sour soup, spicy maguro rolls, seafood pad krapow, mangoes, balut, noodles, and rainbow sherbert. I'm most comfortable in flip flops, low-riding boot-cut jeans, and a tank top but I can be convinced to wear other outfits. Usually.

XIII. Oh yeah, I also like horror, ghosts, and all things supernatural. I like collecting folklore and urban legends pertaining to the supernatural and storing them in my head. It's true.

And that's me.