First of five

Hey Oscars/Ailee fans! My first piece for the BBC Oscars panel has been posted on the website already. I'll be putting the link to each piece in my blog's sidebar and my Multiply's Links section so my faithful readers can access them easily (I don't intend on blogging about each individual piece-- I'm an egomaniac, but not that big of an egomaniac).

At the risk of sounding like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I was proud to see that I was the only Asian chosen to participate in the panel (last year it was all Caucasians), and I'm happy that I can represent this side of the globe, never mind if it's only in a trivial discussion about Hollywood movies. I was pretty pleased that the BBC didn't even edit my work except for changing "England" to "United Kingdom" (they left in "bitchiness", hurray!), and chopping the piece into shorter, more reader-friendly paragraphs. Even my slightly blurry profile photo came out ok. However, my favorite verbal sparring partner Angelo pointed out that my photo may give ignorant readers the impression that Filipinos look very... Oriental, if not vaguely Hawaiian ("very Disney ohana" he called it). I had actually thought of indicating "ethnic Chinese" under "Nationality", but I nixed that idea quickly, since I would much rather be thought of as an oddly Oriental-looking Filipino than a possibly-illegal Chinese alien residing in the Philippines. :p

In the meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting today's announcement of the Oscar nominations (9:30PM Manila time) so that I can get started on my second piece, which is due Friday. These deadlines are kinda stressful, but at least I'm enjoying what I'm writing, and admittedly, I'm reveling in my 15 minutes of fame. =D