this is a writer's workshop wet dream. this is a well-studied, well-executed narrative paradigm of what good writing does.

the exposition is kept to a minimum. the reality of this world is established quickly, but Krasinski does so efficiently and affectively. the physical and life-threatening stakes are marked from the get-go, as are the emotional stakes, which ultimately end up being even more terrifying and tension-inducing than the former.

there's any number of "plant and pay-offs," which are all satisfying,…

Our father, who art in Heaven,
hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Of course I only remember the Lord's prayer from my bygone Catholic days. Bygone, as in: of the past, used to be, I once was but now no longer am. My mother's side of the family is very, very Christian. My father's side is Filipino, and thus/therefore/of course, very Catholic.

I was raised Catholic, kind of.…

"When I said 'No problem', what I meant was 'no...problem.'"

i haven't been sleeping well (or for long) recently. naps are absolutely off the table, but this week exhausted me to my goddamn core, and i just wanted to turn my brain off for ~two hours. some deep, unspeakable part of me needed the coolness and darkness of a theater on a friday evening. i greedily and readily took my place on the bus and then in the best aisle-end…

dear you,

as of tonight, there are 500 of you.

back in middle school, i used to write letters to an online friend named ellie. her real name was laura, but she went by ellie. sometimes i called her larry, as a joke, and she called me tyler, as a joke.

she had so many names that when we started writing letters to each other, like bonafide pen pals, i'd address them "dear you" -- because sometimes, even when i…

in every man’s heart, there is a summer

the first time i saw CMBYN, there were witnesses to bear my catatonia. then i cried until i fell asleep, in that warm & wet way you do when there’s nothing left for your body to do after being emotionally and physically exhausted. 

the next morning, i woke up at 6, and i just had to go, go, go. so i ran. the wind was biting, almost blistering. i ran through the city,…