Recent Comments

Eric said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "The swastika-like graffiti is probably by members of a local fraternity called \'Tau Gamma Phi\'."

Someone said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "You have to let your stomach get used to rice. Ha!"

Janet Storms said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "Mark, I am am envious of your ability to trot off around the world and gain the life experience you are getting. I am not sure that I understand exactly what the Peace Crp is, but it does seem to be an excellant opportunity. I am still at FC and planning to transfer in the fall to CSULB. I received Honorable Mention in the Creative Writing contest last spring, and have become a grandmother. I am happy that you are doing something you seem to like and look forward to keeping in touch with you. Interesting blog, life is so different outside the orange curtain."

Eric Reeder said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "Good luck in Baras Mark! That is where I did my training so it has a special place in my heart. I am looking forward to your future blog postings!"

Mark said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "Some Japanese people would be surprised to hear Filipinos not only consume rice, but consider themselves unusual in that regard."

J said of Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog, "Mark, The pictures are great. I\'m glad your getting along well with your host family."

Dad said of Philippines Education 101: A Peace Corps Blog, "Hey! That hat you are wearing in the picture looks just like the one I offered you but you declined to pack."

Jen said of Philippines Education 101: A Peace Corps Blog, "There is no such thing as just teaching English! :)"

J said of The Trip to Staging, "Godspeed. =)"

Someone said of Hanggang (Tagalog Song), "Sorry for spamming, but found the English version of "hanggang" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok1etEUw4r8"

J said of Why I Am Doing It: A Peace Corps Blog, "I sense a Hemingway influence."

Someone said of The Salinger Emails: 15 New Manuscripts, "Hilarious. I liked Salinger's unreleased Romance novel best. Lol."

Andy Chiang said of Packing for 2 Years: A Peace Corps Blog, "Great article! Have a wonderful time in the philippines!"

April said of Packing for 2 Years: A Peace Corps Blog, "Love the article. I just went to the Jamie Cullum concert and Clint was there to watch Jamie perform this very song as his brillant encore. Just the man and his voice and the piano. Your article reminded me of the class and the concert. (o: "

Maysam said of Social Networking: A Peace Corps Blog, "Hello Mr. Fullmer, I'm glad to see you're eagerly awaiting your departure for a new country while I'm awaiting my departure for UC Davis. I do hope you never stop writing. I thoroughly enjoy your works. They are always a joy to read and I can envision the great detail you go into. I hope to read more from you soon. Take care."

Aug 29

Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog

"Be careful! Be careful for your head!" my nanay Rowena warned as I stepped into my kwartol, nevermind that the doorway was seven feet tall and I didn't reach six.

The room that would be my bedroom for the next 3 months was, by New York standards, spacious--a bed and a half in length & width. I had no clue what Filipino standards were but I had a sneaky feeling I'd been given the largest room in the bal ... more


Aug 26

Philippines Education 101: A Peace Corps Blog

The two things I liked most about the first days of orientation were, number one, walking around our extremely posh compound/jail (we were virtual prisoners at a resort in Cavite City) seeing so many new but familiar faces, most of which I could attach names to, sharing sna ... more


Aug 23

Lifting Off: A Peace Corps Blog

* names were changed for confidentiality *

This is a story about waiting in a very large airplane before said airplane lifts off for a 20-hour flight from JFK International Airport to Aquino International Airport. And though it has nothing to do with the point of the story, you might be interested to note that both airports were named after assassinated political figures. The point of the story is being present.

We we ... more


Aug 19

The Trip to Staging

I spent the five hour flight to Peace Corps staging reading an account of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber turned Karakoram-humanitarian-school-builder. Which is a mouthful. But so is his work: from 1993 to 2003, Mortenson raised funds for, then built, 55 schools for girls. The book, Three Cups of Tea, stylistically speaking, wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I blanched at some of the purplish prose passages that obtrusively fetishize the man, such a ... more


Aug 12

Hanggang (Tagalog Song)

A week before leaving for the Philippines, when I should have been ... more


Aug 5

The Salinger Emails: 15 New Manuscripts

These emails were written between February and April 2010, immediately following the death of J.D. Salinger:

Read the Salinger publication emails

... more
Aug 4

Packing for 2 Years: A Peace Corps Blog

Prior to joining the Peace Corps I taught college writing in California, and one of the sections I loved to teach was film analysis, and one of the films I loved using was Gran Torino, a 2008 Clint Eastwood flick. In it, the venerable actor plays a grumpity old crotchety old man trying to live out his life in a rough Detroit neighborhood which is getting rougher by the day.

I would tell my students that the film, though set in cont ... more


Jul 23

Let Go: A Brooklyn Short

Originally written for and performed at Penny's Open Mic, June 2010. Story, voicing, and animation by Mark Fullmer. ... more
Jul 22

Social Networking: A Peace Corps Blog

At the end of July, I spent one morning in a Hasidic-neighborhood Brooklyn doctor's office getting my H1N1 vaccination (as required for Peace Corps service). In the waiting room I watched two women recite their morning prayers, their fingers gliding over the Hebrew prayer books in their laps. Every few minutes one of them would rise from her seat, arms raised in supplication. Their devotion was a little mezmerizing. I realized that, for these women, their entire lives had been lived in the ... more


Jul 16

MAIDS: An Open Mic Reading

Written for and performed at Penny's Open Mic, July 14, 2010. ... more
Jul 15

A Comedy about Suicide / the Silly Side of the Sex Industry

Imagine a black stage, bleak light, a blacker and bleaker litter of empty Jim Beams and Bellows. Imagine lugubrious neo-gypsy dixieland in the background. Center stage, imagine a washtub. Inside said washtub, a razor, pills, a .357 magnum--even a rooftop perfect for swan dive--and a wiry body full of strife and vulnerability but also oddly full life, a body on the cusp of ending that life.

Penny Pollak's "No Traveler: a comedy about suicide" ... more


Jul 14

1337: A Game Novel is now a custom paperback

picture

Last week, I published the final chapter of my new novel, 1337: A Game Novel.

That day, as I sat finalizing the FBML programming, I paused for a moment to look back through the mess of files contained in my "1337" computer folder, a grand total of 622 files in 21 subfolders totaling 519 megabytes.

... more
Jul 10

A Guide to the Garden District

Recently a friend asked for a New Orleans to-do list. I'd spent the month of April there, living in the Lower Garden District, spending my days writing a novel in coffeeshops on Magazine Street, my nights doing NOLA nightlife my own way. Every weekend was given to one of the many music fests the city hosts during April--French Quarter Fest, Crawfest, Riverfest, and of course JazzFest (the only non-free one).

It was a near perfect-ten month. A lot of people think the French Quar ... more


Jul 5

Jacques Derrida in 1 Minute

Introduces the post-structuralist philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) in one minute flat. Bonus 15-second deconstructive literary analysis of Lord of the Rings ... more
Jul 2

Chapter 27 Released! 1337: A Game Novel

Chapter 27 of my new novel is now online! You can play it, free, at apps.facebook.com/leetnovel. Below, a teasy teaser:

clicking noises coming from the back of the room in the room there were rows and rows of machines, millions of them and huge and metallic, sharp knife things coming out of them at all angles. Teeth. Forcep knife blade things twitching ... more