Adventures of Isabel

“Like many people, I started blogging out of an urgent need to procrastinate” –Alex Ross, in the New Yorker, Oct. 22

While I’ve been distracted by other things:
The Glorietta blast has been ruled, officially now, an accident. I’m still not sure what to think. And I also can’t quite help being suspicious about the [...]

Angel Island. {Clearly} not by me

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I listen to classical music so rarely that I sometimes forget how much I love it. But an afternoon spent trying to drown out background library chatter has reminded me that certain pieces, like Satie’s Gymnopedies, can transport me in a way that almost nothing else can.
When I got home this afternoon I was [...]

The eucalyptus grove — my favorite place on the UC Berkeley campus.I wish these photos could capture the smell of sunlight hitting the leaves drying on the forest floor.

Prisoners in an overcrowded cell, La Trinindad Prison, Benguet
I’m usually pretty well insulated from the latest internet sensations, but given my interest in prisons and prisoners in the Philippines, friends have seen fit to alert me to the youtube phenomenon of the dancing inmates of Cebu jail.[For those even more clueless than I am: a [...]

My desk, upon completion of my article on BasilanNow I just need a place to live…[Because as nice as this desk is when it's not totally overrun with books and tapes and papers, it's in the wrong city]

Writer’s block. A fancy word for procrastination?I just know that I’m having to rip every single word of the article I’m working on out of me like I’m pulling a tooth.I often wonder if everybody sometimes hates doing the things they love quite as much as I do.I spent some time this afternoon biking around, [...]

“My street” in Quezon City
Apparently, I am now a real Californian, having slept through my first earthquake last night. I’ve been horribly jetlagged, wasn’t able to fall asleep until around 4 am, and the quake came through around 4:45, so I must have been completely passed out.I’ve generally been feeling a bit disoriented since I [...]