questions – Morrighan's Muse

Share Your World 2015: Week #5

Published on February 2, 2015February 2, 2015 by MorrighansMuse5 Comments

I’m always behind when it comes to the new year. Despite my grand intentions, the year doesn’t really start till February when I finally wake up and realize I’ve just missed the first four weeks of the year with nothing done on my blog. Lazy is as lazy does! (Honestly, I was finishing up my novel…)

So I’m starting Cee’s Share Your World in February, with Week #5.

Do you prefer shopping or going to a park?

I love shopping, though I hate crowds. So I love shopping on the internet, and on my phone where shopping apps are plentiful, I’ve got everything I want – whether I need it or not is a whole different issue. But then I also love going to the park, and as long as I have my phone, I can shop if I wanted to.

If you were a shoe, what kind would you be and why?

I remember in high school when Keds were the rage. And because my mother thought they were horrendously priced, she never bought me one. She’d buy me the girly shoes, just not Keds. So I bought myself the local version without the label. And I wore that till it wore out and with the extra money, bought another pair. I even painted it different colors using markers. Funny thing is that people usually thought they were Keds anyway from the front, since the label sits in the back of the shoe.

For the last three years, I’ve been into Toms shoes. They’re pricey as heck (I can get three pairs of cheap ones for the price of one) but I love that for every shoe I purchase, Tom gives one away. It may be all hype, but I love the overall premise, and their designs rock! There’s nothing better than to slip on my Toms whenever I go out in just about anything. I even included it 2 years ago in one of my story challenges here, with my character taking along an extra pair of Toms shoes to go with her high heels when she got tired of standing in them.

What’s the story behind a time when you got locked out?

I’ve gotten locked out of my house a few times and because of that, we have an extra key hidden somewhere. But before I knew where the extra key was hidden, I got really good at slipping through our window and realizing how useless those sliding window locks are and how nothing can beat a simple stick that costs nothing. Of course, with the stick there now, I just have to use the spare key and save myself the trouble of breaking a leg in the process of breaking into my own house.

Do you prefer eating foods with nuts or no nuts?

I’ve been described as a nut and when it comes to peanut butter, I love it nutty. So, yes, I prefer eating foods with nuts.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

One of my stories was selected for a campaign that starts today, and last week, it was a wonderful feeling to finally let the manuscript go and leave it with Swoonreads for judging whether it’s worth publishing or not.

For the week coming up, I’m looking forward to writing 10k words for my upcoming novel. And sticking to writing on this blog regularly again.

Share Your World

Share Your World – Week 21

Published on June 9, 2014 by MorrighansMuse4 Comments

A week late sharing my world with you all, but here it is! Once again, thanks to Cee for the wonderful questions! It’s been a crazy week for me, with my teaching schedule in summer swing again and the little one with only four more days of preschool before he’s unleashed to the world for the summer (one is never prepared for that!). I’m also at 95K words of a modern-day novel that I need to finally wind down – so my mind as always is elsewhere but where it’s supposed to be.

Anyway, for now, it’s here, sharing my mundane world to you and hope that you join in, too!

If you could make a 15 second speech to the entire world, what would you say?

Life is what you make of it. Don’t wait to say what you want to say till it’s too late – do it now and love often, if not always.

If you could take a photograph, paint a picture or write a story of any place in the world, what and where would it be?

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always been enamored of the British and Irish isles, whether it’s the bustling cities, high cliffs along the chilly coast, or the rolling hills and valleys where one stumbles upon standing stones of the past. I love listening to the accents rolling off people’s tongues, immerse myself in the stories of the Celtic gods and goddesses who walked the earth, and wonder just how such a world smells like.

Image from National Geographic Expeditions

If you had to spend one weekend alone in a single store but could remove nothing, which store would you pick?

Ikea. They have beds and everything I need to keep myself comfortable and even a cafeteria where I can gorge on Swedish meatballs all weekend. And when the weekend is over, I can get up and leave. Unfortunately they don’t have any books – other than those fake ones – which would probably make my weekend stay a living hell.

If you were given a boat or yacht today, what would you name it? (You an always sell the yacht later)

I’m not a boat person at all, yacht or whatever you can throw my way. But should I receive a boat – though a yacht is more my thing – then it’s got to have only one name. Mischief Managed.

Share Your World

Share Your World Week 18

Published on May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 by MorrighansMuse2 Comments

Here we go – sharing my world with you, week 18. Thank you, Cee, for the wonderful questions every week! As usual, I’m late in posting this although I had answered it a week ago – and promptly forgot to post.

Oh, by the way, I changed my theme temporarily because something wasn’t working with the other one – as much as I loved it. The left sidebar when viewing the main page wouldn’t show up, which made it seem weird. But it did show up when one clicked on the individual posts. Go figure…anyway, thought I’d have this on for now, and see how it goes.

What object do you always have with you when traveling and why?

That would be my iPhone, I guess. Although in lieu of anything electronic, it would be my Alunsina leather journal, and a pen, of course.

What subject would you like to study in depth, if given the time to do so?

The mind. I think the body is just amazing. We all originated from one cell that became two and so on. Our body’s cells are always doing what it does best to keep us working in tip top shape – and then there’s the mind, which can adapt to certain circumstances (to a point), has been found to regrow its cells, and so much more.

Neuroplasticity – that’s where it’s at.

Or maybe I just wish I could bend metal with just my mind, or read other people’s minds, controlling their actions and their thoughts, who knows? After all, X-Men does open this coming weekend!

Which would you prefer: a wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure–intoxicating successes and stunning setbacks; or a contented bordering on happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family without such wide swings of fortune and mood?

My life has been anything but contented bordering on happy, secure, and predictable although these days, it sure looks like it – which makes this question a tough one for me to answer because I want a balance of both. I’ve been through the turbulent life with their extreme ups and downs and there’s something that can be said about that – never a boring moment. So, can I have a balance of both?

What are your favorite spices?

Chinese five-spice powder is not exactly a favorite but it’s one of my favorites, and the only one I can remember off the top of my head that is a spice – or a collection of five spices. It’s a blend of star anise, cinammon, cloves, Szichuan pepper, and fennel seeds and when brushed with sesame oil on chicken wing drumsticks (without the wing tip part), wrapped in foil packets and deep fried or broiled, is just amazing!

Grilled Chicken Wings with Chinese Rose Wine and Five Spice Powder-4 — The Hungry Escavator does Chinese Five Spice chicken drumsticks right!

Share Your World – Week 15

Published on April 20, 2014April 24, 2014 by MorrighansMuse7 Comments

It’s that time of the week again, when I share my world, thanks to Cee’s lovely questions that seek to pry the answers from my perennially distracted brain. Here are the answers that I’ve managed to lasso so far this week.

For your blog do you basically use Windows or Mac, laptop, desktop, pad, or phone?

Except for Mr. M’s kindle, we have an Apple orchard in the house. I usually write on my Macbook Pro, and when that is turned off, I continue on my iPad. When I am on the go, I often continue the craziness on my iPhone. I used to be a Dell girl for the longest time, till my brother convinced me to buy a Macbook in 2005. It took me a year to warm up to it, but the moment I did, there was no turning back.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to own a business like my father. I loved hanging out in his office as a little girl, and I loved playing with the check imprinter and all the other cool things on his desk. I loved how everyone looked up to him for everything they needed.

But when my parents divorced, and we lived next to my maternal grandparents, I decided that I wanted to be an archaeologist or a geologist. I had a favorite book on geodes that I read every night, and I was also obsessed with mummies, especially Tutankhamun.

Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?

I grew up in a big city – at least for the Philippines, it was a big city. Cebu City was the first Spanish settlement and the oldest city in the country. But it was also very crowded. We lived in a nice house, but because we lived close to a medical university, we were surrounded by boarding houses, and anyone who was smart rented out their rooms to the students needing room and board. There were no sidewalks on the narrow streets and so you basically had to watch yourself as you walked to the convenience store (which we called sari-sari store) though there was one that was just across the street from the compound where we lived next to my maternal grandparents and my aunts and uncles.

I guess I liked it. It was the only world I knew, and while we did go on vacation to less crowded places, I learned early on it’s not the place that matters, it’s the people around you.

(From top, left to right) : Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, Magellan's Cross, Ayala Center Cebu, Globe Innove IT Plaza, Cebu Taoist Temple, Cebu City at night — (From top, left to right) : Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, Magellan’s Cross, Ayala Center Cebu, Globe Innove IT Plaza, Cebu Taoist Temple, Cebu City at night

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

Probably 30. Old enough to know better, but young enough to still get away with crap I wouldn’t be able to get away with now. 30 was also the time that I had the best time of my life being single – playing beach volleyball, hanging out with friends and discovering myself.

So there you have it – my world for the week!

Share Your World