This will be a very loooong post. Because I still feel like writing.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2015 word count: 26,067

I've spent the past two days exploring the personality of my villain. You know, I waited two years just to be able to capture the very essence of the protagonist on text, but this month made me realize that I forgot the villain.

I knew the villain in "From the Human Chain" well. That was why I finished that one quickly.

Even though my characters are completely my own creation, there are still parts of them that are based on a combination of people. Background story, mannerisms, etc. Whenever I start a new book project, I'm like, Wait, I'll look for my protagnist first. Then I go outdoors and observe people, looking for the kind that matches my imagination. I usually observe them for some time before I proceed with my writing.

Writing the parts of the villain some nights ago made me clueless. Never met anyone like him before. And I've been frantically searching around for people like him. I finally found him a few hours ago.

I see that my posts from 2012 are getting views, especially the last post for that year. It was a note that I left on this blog with a link to a new Philippine law. That law was the Anti Cyber Crime Law.

It was the law that caused much outrage here in the Philippines when it was first put into effect. Human Rights activists took to the streets, and those in the Internet uploaded profile pictures in all black to express their disagreement with that law. Filipinos were so angry because, even though the law was so long and addressed only a bit of each aspect of cyber activities, overall, it forbid all people in the Philippines from going online. I used it as an excuse to leave writing and get back to school. Like, While everyone is looking somewhere else, I'll sneak away and blame it on somebody. lol

I was already in HarvardX by the time the law got fixed, and we now have an anti cyber crime law that Filipinos are fine with.

I had no plans of going back to writing 'cause I was enjoying myself in Hellenic Studies. What brought me back was "The Ghost Writer," which made me nostalgic of the life of a writer. Also, I was training what I learned from HarvardX under a pseudonym and my readers just kept insisiting "more, please, I love to read everything you write" and "you should be writer, you have it in you."

I came back in September 2013, and "10th Commandment" was my first project.

On Bubblews tonight, I reviewed "Phantom of the Opera."

For NaPoWriMo 2015 Day Eleventh, we are to write Sapphics. I'm most delighted with this challenge, because we studied Sappho in HarvardX. The example in the NaPoWriMo blog is one of the poems that we were made to analyze.

On a side note, there is this famous rumor that Sappho is homosexual. She is actually the reason why female homosexuals are called "lesbians." She has been famous in history as the female counterpart of Homer, but her poems tended to express affections for fellow females. They caused people to consider her to be gay, and used her nationality to name other women like her. She was from Lesbos and people there were called Lesbians.

The modern Lesbians had made so many complaints on why their women were all getting stereotyped, but the term had been used by everyone already and cannot be forgotten.

I actually wrote an article back in HarvardX 2013 regarding this topic (using the forum nickname "Napoleones"), saying that Sappho might not be lesbian. It was supposed to follow my published article on my analysis of the horses in the "Illiad." Too bad, I got busy reviewing for the final exam and didn't get the chance to publish the one about Sappho.

My article just noted that Sappho had a child. Also, from the point-of-view of a poet, there are lots of times when you write something as somebody else. I may not be as good and as historic as Sappho, but when I write poems, I let go of my inhibitions and sometimes even go against my own values. It's one of my mottos, "Just poetry. Zero reservations." Maybe that's what Sappho did when she wrote those poems.

Comp-sci students might be thinking, "So what? What does it matter if Sappho is lesbian or not?" Oookay. Don't mind it. That's just the thing with us Classicists: We love to argue on all things literature and poetry.

Now, let's go on with the poetry. Even though I studied Sappho, I never tried to write in her verses. So this could be wrong. (Photo credit: me. It was the night sky.)

Dracula
Eyes. They grip my core in place, "Stay here for me,"
They say. For he does wish days that fade. Shadows.
Hand for smile, feel creases there. Let us be free.
Kiss of the death. Wind blows.

Taken away by this man. The mists cover.
Chilling down my spine, o fear ... Power pulls me.
Touch is power, greater than my will over,
Surrender my plea.

And here, stay for darkness in his head, his thoughts.
Cruel to men, Dracula creates terror.
His flag waving, scaring. For desire he fought,
But I see nothing.

Only his pain, weakness that pulls me closer.
Human skin that perish in sun, shadows aid him.
Caress love for death, give in to darkness closer,
Forever with him.