A day in the life…

One of the first Christmas carol a kid learns to sing is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I mean, I’ve known this song ever since how-long-has-it-been. But you know, it’s actually when I’m grown up that I get to see how this is a bad song.

It promotes discrimination and the human mentality of "you’re sikat na so I’m gonna make kapit to you."

See, when Rudolph was small, he was cast out of the tribe (mala-Survivor ito) since he’s the only reindeer who’s got that red nose. Similar to the Bakekang state. Different and ugly according to their standards. As sung in the lines:

"All of the other reindeers used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games."

And then, when Santa Claus appoints Rudolph as his guide during his trip, what did the other reindeers do?

"Then all the reindeers loved him…"

See? Now that he’s famous, everyone does a 180-degree turn. Tsk, tsk.

So I say, this is a bad song that promotes prejudice and sucking up to famous people. This should be banned and never be sung ever again!!!

Haay, obvious bang nababangag ako ngayon?

Yesterday’s lunch was the usual lunch our family has… with the occasional lectures from parents who "want to give their kids only the best." Translate it the way you want.

As a background, my youngest brother was back on his habit… of going home in the wee hours of the morning when his Saturday class dismissal was at 6PM.

He had dinner with his friends and spent time at the arcade.

My parents, who are very traditional (and that is no means said in a negative tone), explained to him that as long as he’s still studying, he must come home immediately after class. No more "lakwatsas," so to speak, until he graduates.

He then retorts with, "Pag nagkatrabaho na ako, hindi ko na magagawa yun."

Which made the insides of my head spin. I had to control my laughter, else my dad puts his focus on me (but I’ve already graduated five years ago… di na ako counted dyan).

Wow, I’ve always thought my youngest brother had a more mature thinking. Duh.

What he doesn’t know is that when you graduate and start working, going out until what time it is already is legal. Slowly but surely, the parents won’t mind about you going home at 4AM the following day. Why do I know it’s true? Because it happened to me, Now, when I go home late, all they ask is "hinatid ka ba ni Gio?"

Goodness, my bro has a lot to learn…

——–

When he was still with us, our friend Almanz brought a CD at the office which contained themes from different anime, tokusatsu and sentai shows. I loved that CD because the first track was the full version of the Fushigi Song of the series Shaider. For the uninitiated, it’s the song that goes "Fushigi-shigi makafushigi ruwa (shigi-shigi!)…"

That particular CD was lost, I believe. I dunno if he found it.

I’ve looked for the song everywhere in the internet, but I couldn’t download it.

Until now.

I found the Fushigi Song, the (incomplete) opening theme and the complete ending theme in Limewire. I just downloaded it today. Listening to it brought back a lot of memories… from watching Shaider when I was in grade school to happy bastard times with Almanz.

I want to believe you had something to do with this. Thanks, dude. Both for the song and for cheering me up. Miss ya from down here.

 No wonder I like writing blog entries… not to mention being too cynical, too.

From a horoscope thingy:

Nobody carries a grudge better than this sign. Unfortunately, hanging on to resentments has a way of crowding out love, happiness and trust. In order for a Scorpio to let go of anger, they must first practice self-care. Getting a massage every month or writing in a journal each day will soften this sign’s heart and enable forgiveness.

Hmm… now maybe I should try going to a spa some time…

Kung hindi baka maging Ju-on ako nyan… nyah!!!

Manny Pacquiao beats Erik Morales with a knockout in Round 3.

If I were one of those people in Las Vegas, I would’ve felt shortchanged.

Imagine buying US$10,000 worth of tickets for a bout that lasted for about 10 minutes.

Tsk, tsk. Okay lang siguro kung hindi pera ng bayan ang pinambili...

——–

SM North’s new wing called The Block was filled with geeks from all over Metro Manila.

They were competing for the Bandai Asia Kit Universal Cup. BAKUC for short.

When I arrived at the Activity Area, all the dorks were in front of the stage, watching intently at the very first Gundam series being played onscreen.

The said series was released in 1979. And these geeks are so into it. Still.

My SO, who joined the competition, didn’t win. As expected. I mean, the results were dubious… but what the hey, at least my SO has a life…

——–

When I was young, I wanted to grow up already because you can do a lot of things when you’re an adult.

Now that I’m all grown up, I wanna be a kid again so I could not do the things I don’t want to do.

What a life.

In this light, I would like to say thanks a bunch to the people who have stuck, who have passed by and gone, and who would still come my way.

To my family and relatives, who have been with me literally and figuratively;

to high school friends whom I rarely see but always remember;

to college friends whom I also don’t get to see much but whose faces are in my mind and heart;

to colleagues, past and present, ‘ika nga ni Kerpal, "you bastard guy(s)";

and to my significant other, who’s made me happy…

Thanks a million gazillion bunch.

If it’s not a jeep or an FX, it’s usually a bus that I ride to get home.

This one’s for the books.

It’s not uncommon for drivers to get irate especially when it’s the rush hour. And most especially when one vehicle gets cut off by another vehicle.

It just so happened that the vehicles involved in the recent gitgitan were a Marikina-bound jeepney and the SRO G-Liner bus I was on.

This was how it went:

Bus cuts jeepney off to let passengers alight. Bus moves, jeepney cuts bus off and stops in the middle of the road, blocking bus’ path. Jeepney driver gets off and approaches bus driver, who opens his window. Altercation followed (which I didn’t get to understand because I was not near the driver and they sounded like big dogs barking). Jeepney driver throws something small but heavy to bus driver. Bus driver loses his cool and gets off the bus (with his trusty kundoktor). Next thing we see is the bus driver holding what seems to be a small knife. Jeepney driver seeks sanctuary in his vehicle. More yells. Bus driver kicks the side of the jeepney. Jeepney leaves. Bus driver (with just his undershirt on, he took off his polo while yelling and screaming at jeepney driver) gets back and drives.

But no, the story does not end there.

Three stops away (and a couple hundred meters before my stop), someone throws some sort of rock or a piece of adobe at the side of the bus. Bus driver and kundoktor (and some passengers) recognize the culprits as the jeepney driver and some companions (bilis umikot a). Someone from the jeepney driver’s troupe carried a knife longer than that of the bus driver’s. Bus driver (atapang atao) alights once more to face the adversaries. Eventually a chase around the jeepney ensued. Imagine Trip to Jerusalem on a faster scale. Went on for more than five minutes. Invectives and curses were exchanged, and the ruckus ended when there were no more things to throw at each other (and probably because they’ve noticed the irritated passengers… at least they got concerned). Bus drove to the next stop and I went home.

Interestingly, I knew I saw a traffic enforcer drive by during Part II of the altercation. Only I think he just looked and moved on (natakot?).

As for me, I stayed the whole time it happened, for the following reasons:

One, I wanted to see what happened next.

Two, I paid for my fare already. Sayang naman.

And three, well, the bus had a TV… which was showing Bakekang… it’s the only time that my SO and I become jologs. Because there was no other choice. And now, it’s becoming a nightly habit.

You just have to be jologs sometimes…

You know a person, or you think you know that person. You hear things about the person, and you give the benefit of the doubt. This person does something, and all of a sudden, you don’t know that person anymore.

The circle is cracked. Trust is broken. Everything goes to waste. And into the trash bin of the forgotten.

What a life.

——–

I like making no sense at all.

I’ve been working for about four years in advertising and I still fall for it.

Last Saturday, my sibs and I decided to have our lunch delivered from Jollibee. Thanks to their 30-minute guarantee TV ad, we were kinda convinced that our food will arrive in no more than 30 minutes after the order was received by the 8-7000 hotline. Because that was the promise.

Our order arrived 15 minutes late of Jollibee’s self-imposed limit. In jest, as I was getting the plastic bag filled with warm food and as my sister was giving the payment, I asked, "More than 30 minutes na siya bago dumating diba?"

In which the driver gave the retort, "Ma’am kasi 45 minutes travel time mula Jollibee Cainta hanggang dito sa inyo."

In short, we didn’t get a refund or even a gift certificate from the Jollibee delivery dude. They didn’t live up to their guarantee.

My sister, who was pretty much incensed with the delivery man’s answer, immediately called the 8-7000 hotline (again) and aired her grievances. In fairness to her, she tried to remain calm. But of course, what happened that day affected our perception of the 30-minute delivery guarantee.

If there is ever someone from Jollibee who’s reading this, or if you know someone from Jollibee and you feel like telling them our story, sorry but we believed in what you said in the TV ad because we hoped with your extensive experience in the food industry (Jollibee’s as old as my sister, hehe!), you would have kept in mind giving your customers "quality service," and a glitch in the service would mean minus pogi points for you.

Unless of course your ad had some kind of fine print on it with regards to delivery time dependent on location propinquity.

Or maybe, you should advise your men to bring lots of GC with them every time they make a delivery.

A now-familiar scenario when you get to eat dinner at a fast food resto or in a mall’s food court:

a) some teenaged guy/girl approaches, gives you a card, asking if you could buy his/her supply of dried mangoes so that he could support his studies; or
b) some teenaged guy/girl approaches, gives you a card, asking you for money so that he could buy himself and his family something to eat (which most of the time isn’t true, because the next minute, you’ll see him/her in the nearest arcade).

Now, here’s a not-so-likely-to-happen-to-us scenario, which my SO and I actually experienced last night while eating dinner:

SO and I enjoy our hot plate meal. In the middle of eating while conversing (and vice versa), a geeky dude (complete with eyeglasses and a textbook at hand) approaches us. Of course, yours truly will think of those oh-so-familiar scenarios mentioned above.

To my surprise (and to my SO’s too), he asked my SO if he was the guy he saw in a certain episode of the Probe Team where they featured some Pinoy artists.

"Kayo ba yung nagdo-drawing, yung taga-Fine Arts…?" he goes.

Well, he got two out of three right. My SO draws (and oh so well, mind you), he graduated from Fine Arts, but he never appeared in an episode of the Probe Team.

After about three seconds of staring at each other my SO looked at the dude, just laughed it off and told the guy he wasn’t whom he thought he was. The guy then apologized and went off. We continued to eat dinner.

It was one of the oddest things that could happen… someone mistaking you for someone more famous than you. Ibig bang sabihin, mukhang artistahin ang SO ko? Now I’m curious about the Probe Team episode the dude was talking about.

Hmm, here’s something that doesn’t happen everyday.