FN Blog - Seven heads are better than one!

I have been many things and have done many more, but there is one thing I never thought I’d ever be.

Forty.

There, I said it, and JR will have a heart attack when he reads this.

(more…)

Hello! My name is Genie, short for Genevieve and pronounced as “Jenny”. Who I am right now and what I do starts with this little story: A little over a year ago, I was in the office sitting in front of my computer, when I realized that I never got to see any green growing things anymore. You know, what they call nature, the great outdoors: birds singing in the trees and fresh air. The exact opposite of my basement office right beside the seething mass of pollution called EDSA.

My longing for those green growing things soon materialized into an actual need. So I joined a mountaineering group, and spent four months training to be a good climber. And the rest was history—I left my job to go freelance, and now spend almost every weekend either up in the mountains, swimming in the sea, or crawling through caves in this gorgeous country.
(more…)

This is my official first blog entry for the FN Blog and I was assigned to write about the question “Who are you?” To many of you, this is easy to answer since you have encountered this question many times, especially in filling out the membership form for an online social network.

Now faced with this question, I am challenged about how to begin this entry. First of all, it is uncomfortable for me to instinctively begin an entry similar to an online social network/registry website since this will be the beginning of “boxing” this virtual relationship between you and me. It would be wise to start with nothing.

Starting with nothing gives us the space to define and to redefine, wherever and however we allow this blog to take us. It is the simple law of relativity, which allows us to evolve. However the tricky part is where and how do I begin this without being “boxed”.

But I need to start at some point…

(more…)

It’s always the simple things that kick me in the ass.

Waiting for the first “assigned” topic for this blog, I was polishing my artillery of unsolicited advice and madcap opinions. Ask me what I think about the Harry Potter craze and I could wax hysterical on how literacy has to be borne on the wings of hyped consumerism and yet opine gratefully that at least today’s generation has summoned the thirst for reading again…all while musing what would happen if Hermione ended up snoggin’ with Harry instead of Ron, or how Ralph Fiennes is still hopelessly English Patient delectable underneath all that reptilian prosthetic.

Or, on the more socially relevant side of the fence, toss me a conundrum on free trade, a concept I’m intimate with only in as much as I can bookmark it on CNN.com and BBC.com… You will find that even my ambivalence can be highly opinionated.

But “Who are you?” Where do I even begin?

(more…)

In journalism class, one of the hardest exercises I had to do was to write a feature article about myself. I had to pretend to be someone else, and pen a story about me, as others see me. Not an easy thing to do, considering I was so close to the subject that it was hard to be objective.

I’ve had a few more years’ worth of writing experience, but this whole describe-yourself business still hasn’t gotten any easier. My 30-something friends tell me that you don’t really know who you are until you’re 30, so I guess I’m still on the road to self-discovery.

(more…)

I always like to say that I am the product of a semi-puritanical upbringing and a very liberal education.

This means that though I know a great deal of cuss words, I still cannot bring myself to utter them when my mother is within hearing distance. This also means that while I dream of having a series of one-night stands with strangers whom I’d bring home simply because they look good, I am still conflicted about French kissing on the first date. And while I may not go to church regularly, I still believe that I have to do good deeds or else God would take away my G-spot. (The fact that I still haven’t come across the exact location of my G-spot is immaterial.)

I like to think that I am both naughty and nice. But, really, I am more of the latter than the former. And, for some reason, that kills me. What I would give to be as careless and brazen as Paris Hilton. Then again, my mother would kill me.

(more…)

I went to a clairvoyant early this year and was told that I’m an old soul. So old that I was already here even before there were humans on the planet! She said I was a water nymph, then a gypsy for a lot of my lives, a berdugo (yes, I used to chop-off people’s heads for a living) and now, I am this.

I’ve played several roles in my life with much passion because I believed that that was who I was supposed to be at that time: ate to my siblings, teacher to my students, editor to my readers, and now, a wife and mommy. At a time when being a slashee (model/artist/DJ/chef, etc) is uso, the most comfortable titles I like playing out are those of mommy/wife/stylist and speaker. I feel quite uncomfortable being labeled a fashionista only because I really never aspired to be that. Yes, I wanted to be a fashion editor, but having the fashionista title written along with my name makes me nervous. I’m sure that some people find me baduy and I don’t take fashion that seriously to merit having it beside my name.

(more…)