Into the deep end

Creatures from the Black Lagoon? Hmmm… these could be cousins. Meet our fascinating deep sea denizens in The Deep: Illuminating the Mysteries of the Deep Sea

(above) One of over 40 specimens displayed, this is a Flapjack devilfish, a finned octopus that lives near the bottom of the sea floor. When they are caught, the muscles of the octopus retract, giving them their characteristic flat pancake shape

We had the chance to catch this fascinating exhibit at the ArtScience Museum last June. The whole exhibit is like a sci-fi movie come to life, if the sci-fi movie in question involves strange life forms. The creatures here are what are known as abyssal (from abyss)  because, well, they live deep below the sea, deeper than most divers venture. Looking at them brought home to me the realization that we still know so little about life in our seas, despite the fact that we’ve sent many manned expeditions to the moon, have gone exploring farther into our solar system that we’re now saying hello to Pluto, and have made inroads into technology that we can communicate with anyone in the world at the push of a few buttons. As these pictures show, our seas are still uncharted territory for the most part. They’re our version of terra incognita. Enjoy the images!

Somebody asked …

Somebody asked Somerset Maugham about his place in the pantheon of writers, and he said, “I’m in the very front row of the second rate.” I’m sort of haunted by that. You do the best you can. The idea of posterity for a writer is poison, don’t you think so?”

— Stephen King, quoting Somerset Maugham, in an interview with Ken Tucker. Full article here. Can’t wait for his new book, Joyland!

[photo borrowed from the article]

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100 Funniest Supernatural Quotes

For no reason. Because the link’s funny and it’s time I put them in the blog. Supernatural is a hit TV series, but I think it’s a critically underrated. The story is brilliant — the show’s mythology is one of the best on TV, I think — the acting is superb and it’s fun. Watch it! (via KV)

100 Funniest Supernatural Quotes

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”

I am getting my full helping of geek so early in the day. King’s Dark Tower series is going to be in the movies and TV!! Woohoo! Eggziting! I fell into Roland Deschain’s world from the moment I read the first sentence of The Gunslinger, the first book: “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed,” which I still think is one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read. I was a freshman in college, intimidated by my more self-assured batchmates and slowly realizing that I was nothing special, just one more over-achiever in an ocean full of them. Roland and his gunslingers kept this tall, nerdy, gangly girl (back when I was gangly, haha!) from being too alone even in the craziness of my college life.

The quote above is what Jake, about to plunge to his death, tells Roland, letting him off the hook for letting him die. Heartbreaking — and kind of freeing as well. Now, I want to read the books again!

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”

Pilipinas represent!

Been spending a lot of time in io9.com lately. I used to read this site all the time then kind of forgotten about it until Karen reminded me of it (Methos!). Anyways, I’m really proud of these writers — proof that our lit landscape is vastly underrated and undiscovered. So here’s doing my bit to push Pinoy talent out there.

Pilipinas represent!

Words to live by

Randomness. Sunny day. Stuck in cube. Slow day (thank god!). I want coffee. Two magazines still in limbo (approve them already!). Trawling the Net for stuff to watch/read. This article is why I love these guys. Oh, and the stories are great, of course. I have to get back to reading again. And writing my own stuff. Thinking of starting a new blog, but kinda lazy to.

Words to live by