Life is short, make it sweet.

Kahapon muntik na akong masagasaan ng jeep. Patawid ako sa may Kamuning, huminto na yung isang jeep para padaanin ako, nung paungos na ako at palagpas sa jeep, may nagovertake naman, ika nga nila, na face to face ako with a possible ending to my life.
Mabilis ang jeep na nagovertake, ilang saglit lang kaharap ko na siya. Ako naman huminto sa pagkilos at nanlambot. Malambot, naramdaman ko kung papano ako kayang ligisin ng jeep na yon, kayang kaya ikalat ang katawan ko sa kalsada.
Buti nalang. Gumalaw ako, umiwas at nakaligtas.
Pagdating ng hapon, alas sais na, pauwi na kami dapat. Hindi pa siya nagtetext. Nakailang text na ako. Tumawag, cannot be reached. Kasabay ng kaba ng dibdib ko ang pagharurot at pagalingawngaw ng ilang truck ng bumbero na dumaan mismo sa tapat ng opisina. Ang mga kasama ko, nagsitawag na sa kanilang pamilya, inaalam kung ayos lang ba sila. Ako, ang taong mahalaga sa akin, cannot be reached.
Pag-uwi ko, matapos ang dalawang oras na biyahe, bukas na ang ilaw, nandon na rin ang mga damit niyang suot suot kaninang umaga, hay salamat po at okay siya, pero walang sumasagot sa mga katok ko, taning ang aso lang na hindi naman ako mapagbuksan. Sinubukan kong tumawag ulit, may sumagot na, nanginginig ang boses ko, umiiyak na ako.
Bago ang araw na ito galit ako sa kanya, dahil sa mga ka-text niyang babae. Ganon siguro pag mahal mo ang isang tao, nung sinagot na niya ang tawag ko at nalaman kong nasa tindahan lang pala siya bumili ng load matapos makapagcharge sa bahay, ang saya ko, ang saya ko ding niyakap siya nung magkita na kami.
Kung nagkataon, nasagasaan ako nung umagang yon, kung nagkataon, building nila yung nasabugan. Sa isang iglap, maaaring mawala ang lahat. Naisip ko noon, dapat pigilan ko ang aking sarili sa pagmahal sa kaniya, dahil sinabi naman na niyang paulit ulit na hindi pa niya kayang magmahal uli, pero papano, papano kung isang araw maligis ako ng sasakyan, papano kung isang araw tuluyang hindi ko na siya ma-reach. Kaya mamahalin ko siya ng buong kakayanan ko, simula ngayon at sa bawat segundong magkasama kami.

Holidays from the crypt

I'm a sullen Zafra mode right now. This is the worst Christmas party since Grade 1. And I'm a whiny bitch.

Printing Operations Manager Needed

An offset printing business based in Antipolo is looking for a Manager.

Please send your resume to marketing@adrienmultimedia.com or msrelayson@gmail.com

Thanks guys.

www.placemad.com

Confound it! Nah, compound it.

Okay, so I wake up today with a hideous credit rating. I've emailed my card company and told them I'm canceling and will be making arrangements to pay off my balance.

And then I thought, this is crazy, I can't do this for the rest of my tax-paying life. If I can afford, so the gov't says, to give 20% of my yearly hard-earned pay to the gov't as taxes, then I hope to Midas that I can pay myself 10% annually. Ok, so there's that. I realize I was writing my resolutions in advance.

Anyway, 10% annually is not that bad. Hmmm. Well, from zero, no from negative, to 18,000 savings a year is definitely not bad. But I'm a dreamer and a slacker, so I want to retire by age 50, as in not lift a finger by age 50 type of retirement. That's 18,000 * (50-24) = 468,000. If I plan to live another 30 years after 50, then that's a mendicant living of 1,300 a month. Not very much worth living for.

So I get all boiled up and crazy, searching the web for solutions. Tah dah! Mutual funds! For a very can do away with amount of 5,000 initial investment and succeeding 1,000 deposit every now and then, you can earn an annual average of something a little over the inflation rate, let's say 11.8%. That's important because inflation rate means your peso today is worth dust in ~12 years, if the rate is 8%. 

Ok, so on the first year that's 5,000+(1,000*12)=17,000*(1+11.8%)=19,006!!! On the first year you've earned 2,006, which you can withdraw minus the rate (around 3%) that the bank or the processing company charges for withdrawals. Anyway, let’s cut the math, I’m not even sure if it’s precise, although it was fun figuring it out. On the 22^nd anniversary of your investment, you would’ve become a millionaire, it would have grown into 1,075,224.66, and over the course of those 22 years, your total withdrawals would be 824,273.66. If I’m 24 by January, plus 22 years, I can retire by age 46 ^_^

But let’s say I get a raise and I can afford NOT to withdraw the monthly earnings. I just keep depositing 1,000 every month and forget about it. Well, that makes me a millionaire by the 21^st anniversary of my investment, a whopping 1,121,427.46

Ok, maybe I did the math a bit wrong but the whole point of it is, 5,000 initial investment and 1,000 every month… Come on, that’s less than what we pay for taxes! I say if we can give the gov’t 20% of our pay, we can give ourselves 10% back each month. It’s not as instant as winning our first million on a game show, but neither is it as embarrassing nor as having such a statistically low probability and it’s definitely worth it. And if a writer can figure this much out, so can you. 

Green-Collar Jobs, I want one, but where do I sign up?

from http://www.greenforall.org/green-collar-jobs

What Are Green-Collar Jobs?

Background

What’s the best way to give Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds a tangible stake in fighting for issues like global warming?

Easy: Make it their livelihood. Every day, about 135 million people go to work in the U.S. Imagine what would happen if millions of those jobs—plus new ones created for people who are currently unemployed—were in fields like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building.

Our two crucial concerns about survival—the environment and making a living—would be combined. A person’s commitment to their job would also be their commitment to the planet. Right now, there’s a great opportunity not only to make America’s economy stronger by making it greener, but to make Americans living in poverty part of a revitalized middle class. The first thing we have to do is provide the training that will turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into secure 21st-century green-collar jobs. Did You Know... There’s already a huge green economy developing. In 2006 renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies generated 8.5 million new jobs, nearly $970 billion in revenue, and more than $100 billion in industry profits. According to the National Renewable Energy Lab, the major barriers to a more rapid adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency in America are insufficient skills and training. In December 2007, President Bush signed the Green Jobs Act to train workers for green collar jobs. It authorizes $125 million for workforce training programs targeted to veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth, and families in extreme poverty. It will train people for jobs like installing solar panels and weatherization. Green-Collar Jobs…  Rebuild a Strong Middle Class Provide Pathways Out of Poverty Require Some New Skills (and some new thinking about old skills)  Tend to be Local Jobs  Strengthen Urban and Rural Communities Protect Our Health and the Health of the Planet  Learn More... We're developing a clearinghouse full of resources, case studies, and tools from people all around the country who are working to implement green-collar jobs.  Explore it: www.greenforall.org/resources For a more detailed overview of green-collar jobs, read: www.greenforall.org/resources/green-collar-jobs-overview

Ok, I'm relenting. I'll retire by 50.

Your XX000.00 current monthly income will be Php 34380.00 after 17.00 years at inflation of 5% a year. The 34380.00 a  month is Php 412560.00 in a year. You should have a net retirement fund (after 17.00 years) amounting to Php 4125600.00 that earn not less than20.00% per annun to give you Php 34380.00 a month or Php 412560.00 in a year to sustain your current lifestyle without working.In order to have that retirement of Php 4125600.00, you need to start saving Php 38946.25 a year or Php 3245.52 per month for the next 17.00 years at a rate of 20.00% per annum.

If I want to retire by 40, according to Colayco

Your XX000.00 current monthly income will be Php 34,380.00 after 17.00 years at inflation of 5% a year. The 34,380.00 a month is Php 412,560.00 in a year. You should have a net retirement fund (after 17.00 years) amounting to Php 4,125,600.00 that earn not less than 20.00% per annum to give you Php 34,380.00 a month or Php 412560.00 in a year to sustain your current lifestyle without working. In order to have that retirement of Php 4,125,600.00, you need to start saving Php 38,946.25 a year or Php 3,245.52 per month for the next 17.00 years at a rate of 20.00% per annum.

I'm not buying fire.

The first I heard of a fire sale was in a movie, an action movie, a franchise action movie.  

The first time I've read a comicbook (ok, ok graphic novel) that centered on a market crash is Wood and Donaldson's Supermarket. 

Then I got my hands on an American Civil War book called Banished Children of Eve which also revolved around a market crash, gold versus greenbacks, and yes, you guessed right, greenbacks won. 

Anyway, earlier today I read about a Black Sunday on Wall Street. Not knowing what a Black Sunday is, I went on and clicked the link. And this was what I read:

Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), the 158-year-old firm that managed to survive the Civil War, the Wall Street panic of 1907, the crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and a handful of bond-trading scandals, hedge-fund collapses, and market panics, has filed for bankruptcy -- the largest bankruptcy in history. Attempts to line up a last-minute sale over the weekend crumbled as front-runners Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Barclays(NYSE: BCS) decided a Lehman takeover deal wasn't feasible without government backing.

And all I've read and heard about market crashes and what not, came rushing into my mind. Came crashing into my mind, actually. I'm broke, bankrupt, beyond saving and it's eerily comforting, a fire sale, I mean. Or a crash. 

It feels like a storm coming, a cleansing, a baptism, Of fire. 

Or maybe this is just a plot running rampant in my mind. I better write it down. 

Ecological Footprint Quiz by Redefining Progress: Reduce your footprint

Link

http://mavicity.wordpress.com/

I have moved. 

Looking for a new blog site.

And a new notebook. Yes, this is a case of the medium affecting the message. And no, that is not just adspeak. 

First of, for a writer, or at least someone who claims to be, my output is pretty slim. My technique hasn't blossomed but has in fact withered to crumbs. My entries are either rants or ripped from other sites. And my notebook is on its last pages but unfortunately what fills it is not worthy of any sort of publication. 

So I am prepping myself for a more prolific month ahead, I want to say year but I'll be strict with the deadline and say that next month I would have at least one output a day or write at least 500 words to finally get some more pages into that novel that's been in the bin at the back of my mind. 

With that goal, I'm looking for a cleaner, much less chubby-on-the-edges type of blog site. A format that stimulates sharper thinking and longer output. If I'm honest, I'll tell you I'm growing out of the cuteness of Multiply. 

I've moved a lot. I hope this next move means my muse will move in again with me. 

  

Old, yes, but fascinating.

I am fond of second hands. Books, clothes, houses, stories, people. Pre-owned, pre-loved, hand-me-downs, used. 

I week ago, with money not enough to last for the week, I found a second hand bookstore and couldn't resist adopting a few books. Just two actually, drawing the line on an Adrian Mole book, it was big but so was the price and I had to consider whether or not I wanted to walk all the way to the office for the rest of the work week. But I got Joan Didion's White Album and Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Happy and giddy and 70 pesos poorer, I went back to the dorm for at least four nights quiet and curled up in my lower bunk bed. 

Today I'm wearing a little black bubble dress bought from a second hand clothes shop. I paired it with black stockings and my old and worn at the edges white wedge shoes. 

I'm an expert mover. I've lived in dorms, boarding houses, friend's houses, boyfriends' apartments, parents' houses, rented rooms, studio-types. All with traces and sometimes scars of its previous occupant. Whispers of stories reverberating and untold within its walls.

I've written nothing much and yet I claim to be a writer. But I can tell you borrowed stories, stories that other people and other beings in my dreams have lent me. I do not know if I wish to create, perhaps it's such a chore if not at all becoming less possible as centuries grow old and tales tell themselves over and over, spilling from people's minds, coated with thin newness. 

I look years beyond my real age. Old, yes, but I strive to be as fascinating as my second hands. A lived life, a story told, pre-loved, pre-owned.   

Modern Chinese Proverbs

Virginity like bubble, one prick, all gone.

Man who run in front of car get tired.

Man who run behind car get exhausted.

Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.

Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give wife upright organ.

Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.

Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.

Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.

Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk.

Panties not best thing on earth! But next to best thing on earth.

War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.

Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

It take many nails to build crib, but one screw to fill it.

Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.

Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

Man who fart in church sit in own pew.

Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

My latest pin-up boy: Oscar Pistorius

My boy made it to Time 100: Most Influential People in the World. 

Oscar Pistorius

By Erik Weihenmayer

When I was learning how to climb mountains as a blind person, I had a lot of encouragement from experts. But after I summited Mount Everest, these people weren't ready to accept what I had done at face value. Some said I must have cheated; one even claimed I had an unfair advantage: "I'd climb Mount Everest too if I couldn't see how far I had to fall."

Similarly, when Oscar Pistorius' lower legs were amputated at age 1, few would have banked on this South African challenging world-class sprinters. At 20, when he began to close in on an Olympic-qualifying time for the 400 m, experts posited that his times were so good, he must have been getting an un-fair advantage from his bladelike prosthetics. When he set his sights on the Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruled he couldn't compete against able-bodied athletes. An IAAF-initiated study found that more energy is returned to Pistorius' upper legs from his blades than from ankles and calf muscles and that he uses less oxygen.

Pistorius, 21, is appealing, on the basis of studies with differing results. It was only recently that living with prosthetic legs was seen as a huge impediment, but he has turned this perception upside down. He's on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes ability, disadvantage becomes advantage. Yet we mustn't lose sight of what makes an athlete great. It's too easy to credit Pistorius' success to technology. Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it's what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion.

Weihenmayer is the only blind person to conquer Mount Everest

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733756_1735285,00.html

Investing In Your 20s

Get Started--Now 
OK, you've graduated with a pile of debt from student loans, and you're making real money at a real job for the first time in your life. Retirement seems as distant as the Himalayas, but now's the time to get started. (No kidding.) 

Get The Facts 
Some of your friends may attempt to extend adolescence by going to graduate school to study arcane subjects. But if you're out of school, you've learned life's basic lesson: You're on your own, and everything is up to you. Devote your studies to the beauty of the 401(k). Read up on taxes. You can't plan without information. 

Make A Plan 
Your stylish friends will hoot, but develop a written retirement plan. Set goals and determine what you need to achieve them. The plan will change over time, but without a goal and a blueprint, it's easy to do nothing--and nothing will get done. 

Start Saving 
Consider setting aside 10% of your gross pay each month. Stupid-proof contributions to your 401(k) by making them automatic. This means you won't have to run to the bank each month, and you can't spend the money foolishly. You'll soon discover that it's easy to adjust your expenses to meet available cash. 

Stick With It 
Once you've set up a 401(k), don't tinker with the automatic contributions and don't borrow against it for a glorious trip to Europe with your sweetie. Keep an eye on your investments and broaden your study of investing. It's positive feedback: The more you know, the easier it is to learn more--and you'll make better investment decisions. 

Burgeoning Gut 
Shocking but true: The 28-inch-waist jeans you wore as an undergraduate may be tight in your late 20s. So, work on keeping your gut under control and that other peril of youth, debt. Many young people run up huge credit-card debts. This is stupid--check the interest rate. It also delays putting money aside for retirement. 

Don't Count On Uncle Sam 
The world has changed since the 1930s when Social Security was created. People live longer and will spend more time in retirement. The Baby Boomers will break Social Security, or force it to be changed beyond recognition. That means you can't depend on government programs in retirement. It's up to you. 

excerpt form: http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/28/cx_sr_0928retirement_2.html

When you want the most of your money

When you get your first "real" job:

 

Start a savings account to build a cash reserve.

Start a retirement fund and make regular monthly contributions, no matter how small.

When you get a raise:

 

Increase your contribution to your company-sponsored retirement plan.

Invest after-tax dollars in municipal bonds that offer tax-exempt interest.

Increase your cash reserves.

When you get married:

 

Determine your new investment contributions and allocations, taking into account your combined income and expenses.

When you want to buy your first house:

 

Invest some of your non-retirement savings in a short-term investment specifically for funding your down payment, closing, and moving costs.

When you have a baby:

 

Increase your cash reserves.

Increase your life insurance.

Start a college fund.

When you change jobs:

 

Review your investment strategy and asset allocation to accommodate a new salary and a different benefits package.

Consider your distribution options for your company's retirement savings or pension plan. You may want to roll over money into a new plan or IRA.

When all your children have moved out of the house:

 

Boost your retirement savings contributions.

When you reach 55:

 

Review your retirement fund asset allocation to accommodate the shorter time frame for your investments.

Continue saving for retirement.

When you retire:

 

Carefully study the options you may have for taking money from your company retirement plan. Discuss your alternatives with your financial advisor.

Review your combined potential income after retirement and reallocate your investments to provide the income you need while still providing for some growth in capital to help beat inflation and fund your later years.

excerpt from: http://www.wachovia.com/misc/0,,143,00.html

ALCOHOL BAN

I am putting myself under lifetime alcohol ban after totally conking out at Cathy's birthday party last Saturday. Suffice it to say that the party lasted until 3am but I only remember the events until about 11.30. Beyond that, I was probably in some alcoholic's limbo, swishing in my own puke.

So please, if you don't want me to sock you in the head, don't ever put an alcoholic beverage near me. EVER. I'll go rabid and bit off your knickerboxers, I swear. 

Blocked

The day does not begin, does not peak, nor does it end between these white walls. It just remains to be. A stale entity, an overbearing presence, a necessary white demon perched on your shoulder describing a path you'd rather not travel today, or probably ever. 

But I do not see the walls, not white walls at least, but grey, steel, colder, closer walls. Pricking my skin, tattooing colors inhuman, injecting previously rejected memories, preventing movement, confining stories.

Within these steel rectangles pressed upon my back, my face, my appendages, my mind wanders, alone, within itself, testing every step from one grey crumbling lobe to another. Skeletons of past thoughts, devoid of meat and meaning, tumbleweeds like quips and wisps of ideas, flee my mind, and is left, and leaves without any story, not even a string of words, in tow. 

Hoy dia luna dia pena

hoy dia luna dia pena
hoy me levanto sin razon
hoy me levanto y no quiero
hoy dia luna dia pena

the moon owns today, mourns today

wake up today without reason

get up today without desire

the moon today is owned, mourned

 

hoy dia luna dia pena
hoy me levanto sin razon
hoy me levanto y no veo
por ahi cualquiera solucion

arriba la luna ohea...

today, moonday, sad day

today i get up without reason

today i get up and don't see

no other solution

the moon rises

hoy dia luna dia pena
hoy me levanto sin razon
hoy me levanto y no quiero
hoy dia luna dia muero

arriba la luna ohea...

today, moonday, sad day

today i get up without reason

today i get up but don't want to

today, moonday, deathday

rise, o moon

Song by Manu Chao, poor translation by me.

This is exactly how I feel right now. A heavy sick evil weighs me down. 

Mi ultimo semana.

I really have nothing much to say about this.

April falls on Boracay

Just got back from a 3-day company planning in Boracay. How cool is that. No really. It was fantastic. Although, admittedly, it would have been better sans 30 pounds, but still.
Day 1.
Classroom day!
We left our bags in our hotel's front desk (Two Seasons) and then proceeded to the conference room of Pearl of the Pacific. We were broken up into 3 teams, played Pinoy Henyo, and then brainstormed for new projects. Everyone was surprisingly productive, probably because the beach was but a few meters away and we all wanted out of that classroom fast. But the excitement of Bora didn't prevent us from extending time to accommodate the ideas that we had. Uh-huh, we went overtime brothers and sisters! Imagine that. That's dedication and passion for y'all.
Day 3. Team-building
We started early, as in 8am early, and that's for people who usually get to sleep at 8am, if we're lucky. But who's going to complain? The earlier we open our eyes, the more we get out of Bora. We rented out a boat for island hopping, personally, swimming with all those fishies was the best part. I ditched the floaters early on because it only helped to choke me. And I became a happy little Ursula swimming with the little fishies. What fun! Then we went on to an -un-fun place, Pukka Beach. I can't, for the life of me, think why that would be the end part of the tour, we got ripped off even, their prices were 25% more than d'mall, and all there was to see was a small patch of rugged beach and sticks and grass structures. Really now.
Then we went back to the hotel and regrouped. We were out on a hunt with 1k per team. The treasures were: 1 photo of a super sexy bikini-clad girl, the jologest Boracay shirt, pinakabastos na souvenir, best shake, cheapest sarong. Our team hooked up with a half-Scottish, half-Filipina bodaciuos babe, albeit a little bit drunk but still very kind and even hitched up her tiny cover-up for us. We got a shirt with a kid and dolphin, hello are you in Subic? From 150 I haggled the price of the sarong down to 120. We bought one watermelon shake, not from Jonah's. And got a dick-shaped pair of slippers, in crimson red. Perfect! And the winner is! Beauty and the Best! That's us. We won all the things the other teams presented, though we were apprehensive about the shirts, and the money they saved! Hooray!
Oh, and I scraped my nose off the very grainy wall of the hotel pool. Nuff said. Pictures later.
Day 3. Free day!
Beach day! We were in the water for half the day. Taught some of my officemates to swim. Saw this man crossing the length of the beach, breaststroke and thought I'd try it too. Happy! I did it! Next time I'm in Bora, I'm gonna try to breaststroke the length of station 1. Whee!
Then we had to leave. And the sucky part was the heat in the Caticlan airport.
But all in all, it was the best company planning I've had!
Three cheers for Y&R!

Big is a celebration of small

Dream big, shoot for the moon, look up to the giant.
But do not lose faith in your smallness, in your beginning, in what you can do with the speck that you are occupying not even a dot in the universe's timeline.

I know I have a reason for writing this. An insight supernova'ed in my mind. But later, I'll tell you later.

Save Bear, Please?

Too Gauche for Gucci

I remember a fuming thesis adviser storming into his faculty room and successfully popping several arteries and veins from his already nervous-as-hell students. He read, or heard, or watched from somewhere, I couldn't really recall how he got about this message, this was two years ago, but here: Celine Lopez and Tim Yap was declared literary icons because of their much-talked-about, and apparently much-read, columns in the Philippine Star. He said if that was the standard, why do we even bother with literary theories and endless nights of working out plots, character histories, etc etc?
We were certainly too gauche for Gucci and thankfully so. With rumors of ghost writers, cocacabana parties, and unpaid debts, you just can't charge too much to artistic license.

Finding your place in the sun

is not as easy as getting a tan. Did I just say that? Haha. I thought it sounded good. Anyway I just thought of letting my thoughts out of my crowded mind. I think they're bcoming a little bit crowded up there, not very insightful thoughts even, perhaps there were at first but you know the story of rotten tomatoes and perfectly plump and healthy ones stuck in the same basket right? So I'm just gonna write, anything and everything that I can snatch out of my thoughts, no editing, just a long blab. My right shoulder blade hurts like hell. Does hell hurt? Does it inflict pain or does it receive pain?
Well, that wasn't so bad, now I'm reminded of hell closing and again of Lucifer in a beach and his scars running parallel on his back, and him appreciating the sunset.
But my back intrudes on my thoughts again. It hurts! Like hell!

Poseur Extraordinaire Exposed!

The great pretender has run out of smokes and mirrors and has finally been caught in her own commoners skin. A failed expected polymath prodigy. A thousand and one much-a-do out of an empty barrel.
Now she just wants to go home, far back into her mother's belly.
Self-discovery is not recommended for sheep in mink fur.

More than one cause for sniffling

I woke up with teary eyes and watery mucus freely flowing from my nostrils. Possibly from downing too much granma and c2 the night before.
I am ending my day donning a huge dunce cap. I am beginning to question my mortality in the advertising industry. Earlier I found myself browsing through the classifieds again, it felt rather like half-heartedly choosing a building plan for an ark; an anticipation for the worst, for literally the end of days. At least in advertising.
I've swallowed about 50 tablets of 500mg ascorbic acid, in quite reasonable intervals, with hopes of shortening the time of sickness. I can't afford to be absent, seeing that I might need to pay for that stolen iBook, plus the rent and utilities.
I've had a triple dose of ad blogs the whole day, hoping to hone my judgment skills on which ad would win and which ad would be downright humiliating.
All I want to do is go home and have someone take care of me.
Well, I can always get a dog.

Wanted: Magnanakaw ng Laptop

Caught in the act of thinking how to lift the laptop just in front of where he was sitting. The office's laptop. An iBook G4.

We were volunteers in an event, you see, and lot's of guys were sewing dolls with kids and kids at heart, sitting on beanie bags. So this guy came in, sat on one of the beanie bags for some time, not once touched a thread, and just waited for the people to stop noticing him. Good thing we have a witness. Someone actually saw him take the bag with the laptop inside and leave with it. Too bad she didn't know he wasn't part of the volunteers. The damned guy just did a good job blending in.

I wasn't there when the laptop was stolen. I entrusted it in the care of someone else. Note to self: never ever leave anything valuable in another's hands.

Attached is the police report. Not that you'll understand the events, what with the kind of english the policeman had, but you'll know that this is real and not just stupid spam material.

Another thing you should know, The Podium doesn't have a security camera, at least they had none when the laptop was stolen on Feb 20, 2008. I hope they install some soon. Police dogs, no matter how well trained, just can't sniff out criminal intent.

Akalain mo, si Mavic gumugulong!

Tama, tama ang basa mo kaibigan. Kagabi lang pagulong-gulong ako sa Macea at sa kung saan mang park yon na malapit sa condo ni Bennet. Salcedo park pala yun.
Napakasaya pala magLONGBOARD! Sa kung sino man sa inyo ang nakabasa sa isa sa mga una kong blog entry dito kung saan nagdadrama ako dahil sa hindi nga ako mapagkakatiwalaan sa kahit anong may gulong, pwes ngayon nadiscubre ko na may pagasa pala ako sa paglolongboard! Arrrrrh!
Salamat kay Fabo at Joey sa pagpapahiram ng boards nila. At kay Dante, Kat, Lao, at sa pinsan ni Fabo. Sila ang mga ka-jam namin sa skate.
Alas diez na ata noon, katatapos lang ng isang araw ng paghahanda para sa pitch, at maglolongboard na sina Joey at Fabo. Sa hindi ko malamang kadahilanan, niyaya nila ako. Eh dahil mga Diyossing ko sila, at medyo naintriga naman ako sa longboard nga na yan, jumoin ako. Siguro mga 5 mins akong tinuruan ni Fabo magpush-off, tapos medyo bumabalanse na ako, aba by my second hour, nakakaliko na ako! Fantabulous talaga. Pero nung nasa Salcedo Park na kami, medyo steeper yung slope kaya nung paliko na ako, hindi ko natantsa yung speed at distance, kaya ayun, sumemplang. Pero ang una kong hinabol, ang board! Haha. Walang pagpagpag sa katawan o check kung bakit mahapdi ang paa ko.
Napakasaya talaga niya. Winner.
Puro Ladera ang boards nila, Bomber, Purple Heart, Respect, at yung iba hindi ko na alam. Magseskate kami ulit later. :D Wala lang. And saya.

Look at me I'm 23, beautiful, a sight to see tonight

A little dress to draw the press
And I'll be leaving
All the rest behind

Well be pleased girl
If this is what you wanted
The whole world is watching you take the stage
What will you say

Aren't I lovely
And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real

I close my eyes imagine time
Will not forget
My sacrifice

I numb the ache and decorate
My emptiness
Stand naked in the light

Well be pleased world
If this is what you wanted
This young girl is everything that you made
What will she say

Aren't I lovely
And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real

The world goes home
The lights go down
My lipstick fades
Away

And do you want me cause
I am hungry for something that will make me real
Can you see me and
Do you love me cause
I am desperately searching for something
Real



--------

I've a snug feeling under all my soft belly fat. Now I can finally sing this song and mean it. Yes, including the beautiful part. But perhaps not much of the desperate. But maybe I am searching. And yes, for someone real. Happy snug feeling in mavsies tumtums. :)

Retaso Mo, Manikako!

I-raid na ang mga cabinet at ilabas na ang mga inaamag at di na usong t-shirt, puruntong at bacon briefs! Yang skinny jeans at slinky top na yan, never na yan magkakasya sa yo! At ang frilly top ay mawawala na sa uso! Ipamigay nalang sa Retaso Mo, Manikako! boxes sa Faculty Center ng UP Diliman or sa UP IS. Pwede ding sa Podium o sa RCBC Tower.

Sa ido-donate mong gamit, makakagawa ng maraming Manikako para ibenta para may moolah for free art workshops sa mga kids na kapus-palad. Matututo din silang gumawa ng Manikako!

Visit www.manikako.com for photos. At kung naexcite kang gumawa ng Manikako super cute, mag-volunteer na din sa website! Panoorin mo rin si Medyas, ang patapong medyas na nagbigay ngiti sa isang bata dahil sa pagiging Manikako niya!

Kaya, dali, baliktarin na yang cabinet na yan!

Retaso Mo, Manikako!

I-raid na ang mga cabinet at ilabas na ang mga inaamag at di na usong t-shirt, puruntong at bacon briefs! Yang skinny jeans at slinky top na yan, never na yan magkakasya sa yo! At ang frilly top ay mawawala na sa uso! Ipamigay nalang sa Retaso Mo, Manikako! boxes sa Faculty Center ng UP Diliman or sa UP IS. Pwede ding sa Podium o sa RCBC Tower.

Sa ido-donate mong gamit, makakagawa ng maraming Manikako para ibenta para may moolah for free art workshops sa mga kids na kapus-palad. Matututo din silang gumawa ng Manikako!

Visit www.manikako.com for photos. At kung naexcite kang gumawa ng Manikako super cute, mag-volunteer na din sa website! Panoorin mo rin si Medyas, ang patapong medyas na nagbigay ngiti sa isang bata dahil sa pagiging Manikako niya!

Kaya, dali, baliktarin na yang cabinet na yan!

Manikako

When I'm all excited about something, I can't quite start writing about it. Like now, I should just plunge in with my story but here I am rambling and not knowing where to start. So I'll just pull the first thought that comes in my mind and hope that you people can make some sense of it.
When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, our school, St. James College of QC, held donation drives. Hallways were lined with one-peso coins and nuns, or at least my memery telss me they were, would collect the coins in little sacks each afternoon.
In high school I transferred to Cotabato, where war refugees were a part of the demography, you had to wait for army tanks to pass by before you could cross, and your rich Chinese cousin gets kidnapped. It does sound bad but hey, my family and friends are there. I became head of a group called RYA for Religious Youth in Action and basically what we did was put up donation drives upon donation drives to help the deposed families of whatever calamity, and in that time there were quite a lot, that came by.
In college, I joined CYA, quite a coincidence really and a big part of the reason why I joined. It stood for Christ's Youth in Action and again I was out helping build a home with Habitat for Humanity, and teaching street kids basic lessons.
I am working now in a rather big advertising, I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping I'd do well enough to be regularized, but that's not the story here. The story is Manikako, a project my immediate higher-up is very much into. Manikako is the fund-raising arm of ArtHOC or House of Comfort Art Network. Check their very cool website at www.manikako.com. The goal is to raise enough money and materials to continue the free art workshops that ArtHOC hosts. The art workshops are for underpriviledged children, it aims to empower them through art. You might have heard about this or watched it on tv.
So, all this time I am wondering why I didn't take up social work. But maybe that's because you can always help no matter what you are. Can you imagine? Here I am, loving social work, loving art, loving dolls, loving children. And Manikako came along. Hah!
If you're interested, visit the website and sign-up as a volunteer. We sew dolls, talk to adorable children, ask for old clothes and sewing materials, have fun, laugh, and make other people and children laugh with us. So let's all make a brighter future, one doll at a time, one smile at a time.

100 Kwentong Peyups

As part of UP's 100th year celebration, we are putting together '100 KwentongPeyups', a series of columns which will appear in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star throughout the year.
We invite all past students of any of the University of the Philippines' units to submit their stories.

Submissions should:

1. Be a maximum of 1,000 words
2. Be a personal experience and written in the 1st person
3. Emotionally engaging---funny, sad, scary, etc.
4. Make the connection between the story and a life lesson that serves you well today.
5. If possible, please include an old photo/scanned memento

Please include your name, College or Unit and Course, and year you entered UP as well as your email address. If you remember your Student Number, even better
Send your submissions to100kwentongpeyups@ campaignsandgrey.net. You will be notified via email if your story has been selected for publication or for use in other Centennial celebrations.

Submissions will be accepted starting January 1, 2008. Btw, pls. feel free to pass this on to other UP alumni. Thank you very much and we look forward to your "Kwentong Peyups".

Le Mort de Poissons

Last night I arrived at about 12mn, changed into house clothes and proceeded to toss and turn in bed. I woke up feeling like I slept for 10 hours and indeed it was already 8am, to late to be on time for work. Before leaving the house, I looked up to check on the aquariums on the second floor of the house. From the position of one of them, I concluded that it was dead. No fish swims upside down, at least not giant gouramies.
Months ago they almost died. Their veins were all shot and their eyes were protruding. I panicked, bought super expensive meds and they got better. A week ago they got sick again. And I got sick of them. They required changing of water once a week, feeding everyday and spending of my hard earned money on their meds and vitamins. And for what? A blip of a bubble? Do they greet me when I get home bone-tired? Are they even mine? No. They were my dad's. He left them in the house. That's his hobby, leaving his load in someone else's yoke. Well, next time he comes home all the aquariums will be clean.
Last night before I went to sleep I checked rooms and condos for rent around makati area. I'm planning to move out of the house, it was only the fishes that hindered me from moving out.
Next time he comes home the house will be empty.

Ode to Dog

This here is Buddles. Also known as Alpine to my mother who, when he was but a pup, fed him cooked rice soaked in Alpine evap. And as Jackie to her adoptive family of seven years.
Buddles is Sir Ed's graduation gift, I'm guessing she is because she was given right before we went off to college, to me. She has a sister, or a brother, never knew which, that was given to Erika. Little Buddles came in a dingy plastic bag, it was raining then and her fur clung to her body.
The little fluffball stole everyone's heart. I was allowed to have her sleep in my room, and I in turn, after her many yelps, allowed her to sleep in my bed. She had a favorite pillow, a Hetti Spaghetti head beany.
When it was time for me to leave for Manila, my mother, in an inexplicable surge of unusual goodwill, packed her up and managed her papers so she could travel with me. At the airport, it broke my heart when I saw her dizzy form emerge from the conveyor belt. Poor little Buddles didn't have enough oxygen back in the baggage compartment.
I couldn't take her to the dorm with me so my uncle, who lived right inside the campus, adopted her. There she was renamed Jackie.
Having a close friend named Jacqueline, I couldn't make myself call my dog, no matter how close we were, Jackie. So whenever I come over for a visit, I call her Buddles. And she never forgets.
She is now 7 and I am readying myself in case she decides to go to doggy heaven early. My little girl has grown up so fast and I am afraid I'd cry when at last she goes. Here's to you baby Buddles.

Evil Stepsisters, Witches and Letting Go of a Fantasy

Fairy tales happen but once upon a time and in a land far far away. When it comes knocking at your door, in this time and place, well, it's disorienting. The perfect prince in your doorstep. And there you are, a maid, in emotional or physical tatters. Hardly the beautiful princess-in-waiting, where with a flick of a twig, a change of costume and you're suddenly the fairest of them all.
When it happened to me, I had no fairy godmother nor could I talk to rats and birds and so I faced the prince in my scullery maid costume. I looked more like an evil step sister and now I'm not so sure if I read the casting right. But there we were, him and I.
I thought it was a fairy tale. We had our moments.
...
I thought I could talk about it now. But as it turns out, my metaphors are mixed up and I can't really go on.
Suffice it to say for now that for the longest time I thought we had something going but then I realized that it was all in my mind, my imagination, my dreams and at times, my nightmares.
So I'm finally letting go of the balloon's string. And I'm watching it fly away from me. Into the heavens, the stars, the celestials, where I thought I resided.
Fly away from me little wing. Fly towards the heights of your dreams.
Never come back. Because when you do, I might not be able to let you go. I might lock you up in a tower. Or maybe the scullery maid and the prince, maybe they could really have a happy ending.
But for now, go. I hope to never think of you again.

Independently Sick

I'm trying to get the contact info of Banderas' version of Puss in Boots. I realize I have to learn to make that face that makes people go 'aww..'
To cut short. I'm sick today. Feverish, ear inflammation. Not a very hip feeling at all. Rather like having a pig's ass stuck on my ear and the pig just keeps pushing more of itself in. Hurts a lot. I'm hoping the aggressive little pig doesn't have to fart or need to do something far worse anytime soon.
A Puss in Boots aww face would perhaps make someone send me flowers and offer me a ride home. Tough luck as I live in the boondocks and the last time I got flowers, it was from my dad on a Valentine's day eons ago.
Independence doesn't sound so lovely times like this. But I can always buy myself flowers and flag a cab home. Yeah. Such fun.

At Last, It's a pen!

I'm brain dead today. Christmas lethargy is settling in.
:D Bliss.
But. Leigh gave me a Limited Edition Rotring ArtPen 1.1mm!!!
Best Christmas gift to date!
It has definitely pulled my fingers off of the keyboard.
It's blue. I'm naming it Bluebeard. Beware nosy female pens!
I need to buy ink! I want sepia ink.
And parchment paper. Really I'd go for some good scribbling paper.
Anybody want to give me a moleskin for Christmas?
:D Bliss.
Going out in a bit to shop for holiday clothes.
:D Gee whiz bliss.
I did a happy dance in the hallway earlier.
Pictures of Bluebeard and his work will be posted later.
Happy Christmas everyone.

Es la dia!

For the past week the office has been a big bag of suffocating butterflies. Well today, after our staff meeting, the big ugly bag was opened to a day of good weather.
The news about the expansion and consequent reorganization of the existing order (very much in fulfilment of the latest Ad Congress prophecy for a new order of things) had been spawning insecurity of position especially to a greenhorn like me.
But today! Today Salome had dropped her final veil and the face of a stern but promising future was revealed. We've reached the goal for this year, surpassed the expectations, and now have a higher wall to scale for the next.
14th month pay and GC's instead of a backbreaking Christmas basket were announced and handed out. And the staff meeting ended with general cheer.
Es la dia para comenzamos a celebrar! Finalmente! Feliz Navidad a mis amigos y mis amigas, tambien a mi familia y mis parientes!

Bank System Down = One Lousy Weekend

Yes, I know, I am not one who goes out on weekends but well what if someone invites me, like my all-time major-league crush, or my hottie neighbor who keeps smoking in front of my glassed gallery, or my friends whom I haven't seen for more than a month now!, or me just feeling like doing some serious weekend shopping?
Development Bank of the Philippines or DBP stopped developing since December 5th. They've been stagnant ever since. All you can do is deposit to your account.
Argh! I'm too upset to tell the whole deal. Grr...

Tense

I get tense with tenses.
I have a different view of time.
It could also be that I am a reckless writer.
Recklessly coursing through time
Piercing the diaphanous limits
Of past, present, future
Progressive, perfect
Time.
Tense.

Quits of Wisdom

When I have no idea of what to write my fingers kindly begin with 'there' as if pointing me to something right in front of my face, dangling like a snake from an apple tree, a quip of wisdom, which at the moment is seductively hiding in the weaves of ether and is beyond my mind's grasp.
There, there. My fingers strike the keys with familiarity, muscle memory, and an eager dog's tail wag. There the ther t there are. On and on, typing and deleting. I play a game of charades with my fingers, they must have their own consciousness, my brain must have delegated quite ingeniously. I am not good at charades, the last time I played it I answered 'The Longest Lilo and Stitch' instead of 'The Longest Yard' and I had to go through ChikkaStop, ChikkaLord, ChikkaGo before I reached Chicago. The tail wag has now lost intensity.
There, there. It has now become a pat in the back. The ether has thickened and the snake has slithered into its depths; the sinister whiteness of the virtual page is the evil twin to the pallor of my brain.
A cup of coffee. There, there.
There's always tomorrow to start writing.

This is me! Oh dear, I wonder what happened to that adorable look I used to have.

Running to the Heavens

It was the night after my friends have left from a night of drunken revelry. Yes that sentence did have too many nights and it suits me fine. For now I pray for more nights. More stars. More of the airy feeling when I look up and find myself to be a part of something big.
On that night I didn't want to stay home, my friends' voices haunted the halls and their footsteps trod in the shadows. I pulled into lose pants, shirt and rubbershoes and pumped the ground away from the house that had suddenly become so silent, desolate, wanting poetry.
I did not care much for poetry that night. I hit the road repeatedly, in time with the trance music thumping in my ears. Past houses, perturbed dogs, and old man's thoughts. It was 9 o'clock on a Saturday and the village streets were lulled to sleep by the cool wind of December.
I entered streets, weaved in and out of passages and then I was on a hill, and then I found out I was lost, and then... that I found Happy in the oscurra. The village grew, was growing. I was on a hill with but one house braving the darkness, beyond that are trees of deceiving numbers, hoping to instill fear in the hearts of the moneyed homeless. These trees took darkness in their arms and sang to it. I looked out from the hill, down to the trees, further down to the lighted city, twirling dots of color, gleam and gloom. I looked up beyond that solitary house's roof and found the celestials shine kindly on me.
I'd like to think that for a moment the stars took notice of me, an infinitely small and blunt dot staring adoringly at them.
After rounding the hill twice I am once again lost. I ran having no other options and knowing that I couldn't possibly be lost inside my own village.
At home I promised to run the same route the following day and noted that I should bring a camera. I have yet to come back to that hill. But I still have the stars in my memory, and Happy still hovers near.

Happy

I am brimmingly happy.
Brimmingly, overwhelmingly happy.
I do not care to find out why.
Whatever it was that happened
With the stars, the stares, the starts,
I do not wish to know.
I am just, for the first time,
In a very long once upon a time,
Simply, purely happy.

Silent Night

It's almost Christmas and my birthday.
My mother hasn't talked to me for 2 months now. I don't know exactly what I've done. I'm beyond my wits when she clams up like this because it has always been a sign that I have done something she didn't approve of, or I haven't done what she expected me to.
On the other hand, I haven't communicated with my father for a little over three months now. Not after confronting his 25-year-old girlfriend. With my sister's mother.
Silences mean more than words where my family, or what remains of it, is concerned.
I don't know if I prefer the loudness of shouting and cursing or the loudness of silence. I'm guessing they're equally evil.
There is another silence my family imbibes: the silence of emotion. For hugs, I turn to my pillows and my trusty teddy of 15 years. For warmth, I dive under layers of sheets.
This is the stuff telenovelas are made of. I'd kill for a regular life. But I've a feeling that's just as evil.
Sometimes it's hard to find goodness in this world, when your own heart has run out of it.

Dark Green and Grayed Out

My big boss has an extensive and expensive fountain pen collection. My other bosses have dolls, think Mistula, and long boards.
I'm thinking why I don't have any collection, no interesting quirk, no same-feather community. Obviously I can't afford even to think of buying a hand-crafted fountain pen. And although I do have stuffed toys at home, they're more of for sentiment, like the one that's just 5 years younger than me, than for dressing up and going to goth doll conventions. As for longboarding, well, suffice it to say that I should not be entrusted with anything with wheels.
Back in my saner days, I had a short-lived stamp collection. But that was as far as collections went for me.

I want to collect something. I want to belong to some quirky club. But right now I'm dark green and grayed out.

Popping My Ebay Cherry

It's not actually my first time to buy something online. My then-boyfriend helped me find my first pda on Bidshot.com but since he was the one who did most of the online interaction, I don't count it.
Anyway, one day I received a forwarded message from one of my friends, my co-class clown in one of our Spanish classes, and it offered free Php 30.00 load if I signed up and became a member of their website. Since I have broadband I went ahead and followed the instructions and sure enough I got my load after a day. I didn't mind the lag time because no other website offered as much free load.
The website was auction.ph. It's similar to other online shops but it has more features like their escrow system where the buyer pays auction.com and the seller only gets the money after the buyer has confirmed receipt of the item. That among other things like their Php 1.00 auction where you can get a cool phone for less than a thousand.
At that time I was looking for a digital camera. Craving was the better word. Yes, same as anyone craving for food, I crave for gadgets (and for food too, no denying that). The last gadget that I craved for was an mp3 player. This carving started with the arrival of summer and with it the plans of my friends to go out and get ourselves sunburnt in Puerto Galera. The last time we went there I didn't have a camera so I wasn't able to take most of the experience home.
I went to Cyberzone first, the big one in Megamall, and checked my favorite store, Compex. This was also where I bought my Neo laptop a year back, they have the cheapest price in all Cyberzone, and even to those in Cubao and Greenhills. The cheapest digital camera that they had was Php 3,000.00. No brand but comes with a year warranty and has decent specs. I counted my money and figured out that I'd have to fast for 2 weeks to afford it. Not gonna happen.
Then this auction.ph came and I found an Aiptek Pencam, actually a webcam that also functions as a digicam sans the monitor, selling for Php 1,450.00. Whoopee! I bid on it immediately. There were others but I chose the Pencam because Aiptek is a good camera brand. After a week I've memorized what was on sale in auction.ph and I started checking other online shops. I checked ebay.ph and I flipped and flopped and made such a noise I'm sure the rat scratching the ceiling got a start. There was this crazy person selling a full-fledged (with a monitor at the back, thank you) branded digital camera for Php 1,500.00! Ok, so it was used, but so was my pda. The first thing I did was to check it online, so I keyed-in Hitachi HDC-303x and out came a gazillion question marks on my browser screen in place of japanese characters. Gee. So that's why the buyer said it was bought from Singapore. This Hitachi model was only released in Japan and probably in Sinagpore. But I found a picture in yahoo.jp and sample shots in a japanese amateur photographer's webpage. Not bad. I asked the seller the most important question, was the menu in english? Yes! Yey! I immediately said I'm buying it, I'm buying it and can we meet tomorrow please? The seller said no because she was in Dagupan of all places (I'm in Antipolo) and won't be home until Friday night. I guess she sensed my excitement so she agreed in shipping the
camera and even paying for the shipping fee! Wheee! Happy dance!
So the following day I went downtown to check on where I can convert my cash to G-cash, our agreed mode of payment. I passed four Smart Padala and Smart Money accredited stalls right in front of the palengke but not one for G-cash. I checked on their website and it said that 7-eleven is an accredited cash to G-cash station, I checked all four 7-elevens, guess which of them has even remotely heard of G-cash? Fortunately, gays exist in the world, and may I say if you know how to treat them well they're the kindest, most accommodating people around and I think all gays should be hired in the customer service field. So there was this one gay who informed me that I had to go to Robinson's Metro East because that was where a Globe Servicenter was. Now, I'm not a fan of Smart even if I've worked in ePDLT and I have Smart bro but gee, kailangan ko pang lumuwas? Give me a break. Anyway, as if I have a choice.
So clad in my just-until-town clothes I rode a jeep all the way to Robinsons Metro East fueled by the thought of getting a step nearer in getting a digital camera. When I got to the Globe Servicenter I was all smiles because thank God, the service was fast. I gleefully sent the G-cash to the seller and she confirmed receipt. I thought she was already in the shipping company right then and there and all I had to do was sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow to a new gadget. Not happening. She sent the camera 2 days after I've sent the payment, which I thought lacked in respect for the buyer. Maybe it's just me but my mom raised me to value other's time and my stint as a customer service rep taught me to manage other people's expectations. Besides she didn't specify in her ebay.ph post that I had to wait 2 days after payment.
Finally I received a text message that she has sent it via LBC and she gave me a tracking number. I eagerly went to LBC's website to track it. I tried a lot of times. Always got an error message. I thought I must be doing something wrong or maybe I got scammed and the seller gave me a fake tracking number. I said goodbye to my Php 1,500.00 while I was typing an inquiry to LBC's customer service department. I got a prompt reply stating that I can only track a day after the package has been sent. Uh, duh. They do advertise 24-hr delivery. It must mean only one thing, a lot of packages are delivered late! I replied with a suggestion but no one ever acknowledged receipt of it. So the following day I tracked it, firefox kept on saying that LBC's server was down. I spent the next day waiting for their tracking to be up and running but it never did. I sent another email to their customer service department asking when their server would be up but I guess their email system is running with the same server because I got no response. I emailed all branches within my vicinity and the ones in the sellers, just in case. Can you feel that I was getting paranoid? And then, the day after that I checked on LBC's website and it displayed a huge message that their browser was down and it would be up not later than 9am eastern time. They should've put up that message 3 days ago. I wanted to shoot them in the head.
I had to do things myself, so I wen to town, did my groceries in Shopwise and went to check on an LBC outlet, we had two in town and I was lucky to find that they were operated by the same person. After much ado, the lady behind the counter found my package and when I asked her what happened to the 24-hr delivery promise, she said that someone had come to deliver it but the notation said 'house closed.' Well, yeah, duh, no one leaves their houses open for everyone to nose their way in and out. I'm not managing a museum. Ok, that was sarcastic and I didn't say that out loud. I told her I was at home all day and I didn't even take a nap and the house sure is not big enough for a louder-than-a-mouse's-squeak to not be heard from the front door. Ok, that was a double negative, but who cares I was upset, inwardly. I smiled at the lady. She was nice. I hoped the delivery man bumped his coccyx on an edge.
So I went home happily, my heart singing arias.
I got a digital camera! Yey!
But there was no manual, it only came with the camera, a usb connector, and a case. I'm not complaining though, I still thought it was a steal. The next day I learned how to use all of its features thanks to the illustrated japanese manual I got online and today I took overexposed pictures of my father's paintings and set up an online gallery for him. I'm ready for my own online shop.
After my first buy, I bought a few ebooks, elder and eragon, god of small things, and a series of unfortunate events 1-13! All for Php 25.00. Hah! Those were paid by share-a-load, relatively effortless and was received by email, definitely convenient.
Ah. There's no good ending for this. Not very creative right now. Today is not a very stimulating day. I'll talk about it next.

Lilyad

another of my dabblings, oil in canvas, 13 x 10 in, overexposed shot hahaha

Gato Durmiendo

one of my own, oil in canvas, 13 x 13 in

Je T'adore

Filipinos are suckers for imported stuff. Well that's the general tone anyway. Balikbayans or people coming home from a foreign country are suddenly flocked by a plethora of long-lost relatives asking for pasalubong or gifts that are made in whatever country the poor hapless guy spent a fraction of his life in.
I have a lot of relatives in the States, one of them, an aunt, sends us Christmas packages every year. I opened mine and among the stuff inside, a sheer pink top caught my eye. The brand was Je t'adore. Cool, I thought, must be from France, but I got the laugh of my life when, while I was checking on the washing instructions I saw a smaller print that said Made in the Philippines. Yup. The pink top went places and now it found it's way back home. I congratulated it and let it rest in my closet.
It's about world trade, globalization, whatever you want to call it. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the status of the global economy but lately what's so obvious is that small-scale local manufacturers are being overshadowed by big companies who can afford to out-source cheaper labor, produce at break-neck speed, and export, export, export. There are so many things Made in China nowadays, even Nokia cellphones, because of their cheap labor. But imagine, a Chinese factory worker who assembles Nokia parts all day, walks by a store and ogles at a cellphone he has always wanted to buy to contact his daughter in the city but can't.
Something to think about.