-30-

Smashing Pumpkins once wailed “The End is the Beginning is the End”.  I’m supposed to develop my last piece around that, and then….

… Writer’s block.

Or simply, I don’t know how to end this.

So a brief backgrounder then.

Why 30?

Some say the mark began during a time when stories were submitted via telegraph, with “-30-” denoting “the end” in Morse code. Another theory suggests that the first telegraphed news story had 30 words. Others claim the “-30-” comes from a time when stories were written in longhand — X marked the end of a sentence, XX the end of a paragraph and XXX meant the end of a story. The Roman numerals XXX translate to 30.  (got this one from yahoo answers. Yey!)

That settles question 1.

Question 2: Why end The Zen of Zero Expectations?

First of, it’s gramatically incorrect. For 2 years, I’ve been living with this whole gramatical error. It should be The Zen in Zero Expectations.

Second of, I have my reasons. I think it’s high time to end the era of my writing.

I’ve been writing essays since gradeschool. Three highlights of my writing came a decade later, when my essay won Intramuros Administration’s Contest. The piece, “Intramuros as a child” never got published. I don’t know why. I believe it’s a good piece. It’s not historically correct, but then, so is Inglorious Basterds. Anyway, that piece was typewritten, so I didn’t get to save a copy. Sayang.  The other one was in 2001, when my short story “Dump Truck” was included in UP’s Aklat Likhaan ng Tula at Maikling Kwento.  The last one was when I had a shot at infamy – abscbnnewsonline mentioned my blog when I wrote about Manny Pangilinan’s plagiarised speeches.

I know I wrote better and funnier stories online, and in the early part of the decade 2000 I actually got paid for writing. But those were the ones I consider highlights. Maybe because those were the virgin years. At least the first two were. Haha.

So you see, I’ve been writing for over 2 decades. If I were employed, I could retire.

I could retire! Good idea.

It’s a good thing the last piece I wrote was about honesty.

Good way to go.

I really don’t know how to end this.

So I guess, I’ll use what my journalism professor (Thanks Mrs. Yolly Jakosalem!) taught me.

-30-

 

Music: Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten

 

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