Shards Of Armor

my big balls of arrogance

2009-04-15T00:33:00.002+08:00

I've heard a lot of people use somewhat harsh adjectives to describe me. The latest one was "arrogant". Yeah, and it was said in english - as if it would make any difference.

Anyway, the funny thing about hearing someone telling me that I am arrogant is that I became a million times more arrogant than I ever was before. It's like someone juiced up my ego with nitro boosters.

So, if you find me arrogant and you want me stop being arrogant, the first thing you should do is to simply shut up. :)

hurrah!

2009-03-25T23:06:00.003+08:00

When I was ~~young~~ younger, I used to tell myself that I'll buy my folks a house before I turn thirty. At that time, I was oozing with optimism. Yeah, my level of optimism was so high it was probably at par with the rate of an average Filipino's weekly mall visits. Being able to live in our own house was was something that everyone (me, the Little Sis and my folks) have been aiming for since like, the 80's (remember Miami Vice?).

Well, I was wrong with the "I" part. As it turns out, the "I" is a "We". WE, poured all our meager resources and managed to buy ourselves a house. The construction took around five months and we spent our first night at the newly built house last Saturday (insert a very huge smiley here).

It's actually quite a humbling experience for me. Back then, I was so caught up with doing it all by myself. I forgot all about them folks and the Little Sis. It's good that I snapped out of it. Knowing that it wasn't an individual effort is much more uplifting. I guess "We did it!" is way better than "I did it!".

And you what? It's still two years before I turn thirty. So... mission accomplished and Hurrah! for me, the Little Sis and them folks.

my take on "Outliers"

2009-02-21T21:53:00.008+08:00

Having heard such positive comments about Outliers, I figured I should get a copy.

I initially heard about it here and here. A month later (last December to be exact), while hanging out at Mangjose's front lawn sipping vodka with two other friends, the said book became a basis for most of the topics during that night's "drinking session" (Not surprisingly, the drinking session ended early in the morning).

So, I got a copy early this year and having read it once, my immediate impression is:

The book, in general, opens up a deterministic perspective of an individual's success or would-be success. It backs up this claim by using significant statistical facts of all sorts, pointing out the subtle conditions that allowed seemingly ordinary people become successful.

However, I'm planing to read it again because I feel that some of the claims are somewhat flawed - no such thing as perfect. But that remains to be seen.

I don't want to go over the gory details because that is what the book is for. I do recommend the book. It's very interesting (I recall a couple of instances where I ended up pausing for about five minutes staring at the ceiling... fortunately my saliva didn't start dripping down on the side of my mouth) and you don't have to read it in one sitting.

That's it for now... I have to go. *beer bottle caps don't just pop open on their own*

I am completely incapable of making sensible titles

2009-02-15T23:11:00.006+08:00

A demon came to me and said,

You surround yourself with people that you call friends and engage in what you consider as intelligent conversations. But really, none of you idiots have any idea of what you're talking about.

You purchase "works of art" because that's what all cool people do - read poetry, listen to music, marvel at exquisite paintings, etcetera, etcetera... You hide behind this facade because deep down you know that you eat, defecate and eventually die just like all of the uncool people of this world.

You work forty hours a week. And, on weekends, you go out to get drunk and wasted, only to wake up on a Monday morning getting ready to go to work again.

You compensate every unfortunate situation that you have experienced with biased and therefore false rationalizations. But, think about it... if it happens it happens. You can't un-sad a sad situation. All you can do, puny hooman, is to just... Suck. It. Up.

See you around...

After a while, an angel appeared and said,

Yes, the world can put you down sometimes. But then there's this thing called hope. This may sound naive but basically it's the only thing that has kept the whole world turning all this time. Well, THAT and angular momentum.

Do you remember what it was like being a kid? You didn't care about "things that really matter". Everything you were experiencing no matter how minute was - to you - already a big discovery. When you felt sad you cried. When you were happy you laughed your heart out. And when you felt like pooping you pooped and didn't care where you were at that particular instant. In short, you were free and you ARE free... er, except for the pooping part.

So, you can either drown yourself with senseless pessimism -OR- you can unleash that inner child in you and well... do something. Anything. Do anyone - if that's your sort thing. Yeah... who says Angels can't rhyme? We geddin' it down here dawg!

Please, don't listen what that "emo kid" said a while ago. I suggest you listen to reggae instead. Just don't over do the whole rastafari thing because dreads are overrated as well as weed - It's not even a drug anymore.

Take care...

confused and unable to understand what the hell just happened, I sighed and said,

meh

i can't think of a title for this

2009-02-01T20:13:00.006+08:00

I've been rearranging the tiny little bookshelf in the corner my room and stumbled upon this. That book had a certain kick in it because: First, the story revolved around Death who is - IMHO - THE most interesting sibling among all of the Endless, next to Morpheus of course. Second, among all of gaiman's work, this - for me - had the most yummy introduction (written by Tori Amos). You can read the said yummy introduction here.

Well, that's it for now. I just thought I should share that tiny little tidbit for all the prying eyes hovering over this insignificant blog.

quickie post of a book that I've just finished reading

2009-01-25T23:53:00.003+08:00

I've just finished reading this book. Basically, it tells the story of certain events that happened in Jesus' life before he was thirty (before he started his so-called "Ministry") told in the point of view of his best friend named Biff, who is a self proclaimed originator of one of the most brutal rhetorical weapons of all time - sarcasm. That alone tells you that this book is funny as hell (dear Lord... no offense).

Normally, Christians might have preconceived notions about the book. They might feel as though the theme is offensive and that it undermines their Christian belief. However, the author did not change anything that was already in the Gospels nor did he try to tarnish or destroy the "Christian teachings" in any way - I should know, my father's side of the family are hard-core Roman Catholics and my mother's side of the family are kick-ass Methodist Protestants (THAT fact makes me the biggest irony in the history of Christianity).

Anyway, don't just take my word for it. I suggest you read it and for sure you'll have a good laugh while discovering something about yourself, about your beliefs and the beliefs of other people in different cultures as well.

my first post this year

2009-01-11T22:32:00.002+08:00

If you have nothing to write about then write about not having anything to write about. Yeah... I seem to have lost my wits for bloging. "Seem" being the operative word there since I may eventually find my bloging-mojo back. So, could this be the end of Shards of Armor? Am I going to stop posting lame blog posts and do something else that is, well, equally non-sensical... like eating a can of sardines through a straw? What a way to start the year... eh?

wow! this is quite long as compared to most of my posts and may very well be boring for most people who are in their right minds... so be WARNED!

2008-12-12T23:02:00.014+08:00

I was toying with the idea of posting a sort of year-end-blog-post. However, writing a year-end-blog-post a few weeks before the year ends doesn't really count as a year-end-blog-post, specially to people with minds as narrow as... I don't know, Chuck Norris? Anyhoo, since it's that time of year where people are expected to act NICE as pretentiously as possible, I will not call this a year-end-blog-post to make the narrow-minded population on Earth a wee bit happy-IER. Instead, I will call this the Shards-Of-Armor's the-almost-year-end-blog-post. *I think this is the part where all you sheeple marvel at my unparalleled sorry excuse to post something in this blog and do an earth-shattering applause to what might be my best blog post under the influence of alcohol EVER*

So let's begin, shall we?

First of all, this year started out like any other year... broke and really horny. And I guess it's common knowledge what single, broke and horny guys do. Yeah... so let's not dwell on that subject and move on to more interesting ones. *mumble* *mumble* *mumble*

My day job started off busy. And, as expected, it was busy-busy-busy the whole year round which, I think is OKAY - considering that I see my day job more of as a sideshow rather than the main event. AAAAAAnd, I'm also a liar so keep that in mind.

What else? Oh, I started Aikido practice around May. Contrary to what I was expecting, I find it really safe fun amidst the "violent" connotation that most people have on it. Basically, it's not about brute and muscle. As a matter of fact, using brute force is a disadvantage in Aikido. Most of all, the principles of Aikido is about harmony. It teaches inner peace and all that mister-miyagi-slash-I-am-at-one-with-the-universe stuff... so yeah, saying Aikido is fun is a clear understatement. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to fix my bum left knee even if it meant undergoing a surgery just so I can practice all out. Which, brings us to the next big thing this year, my ACL reconstruction.

I've posted about my ACL reconstruction before so I don't need to elaborate on the whole thing. To cut the story short, I tore my ACL way back in college while playing basketball. I didn't bother to have it fixed at that time (I'm not a PRO ball player... I had no moolah to pay for the surgery... a LOT of excuses) and it prompted to me to stop playing basketball. But this year, the Aikido thing came up and my slave-driver's insurance company - surprisingly - had the operation covered and the rest is... well, an autograft threaded through holes drilled in the tibia and femur and finally screwed into place. In short, OUCH! I'm on my phase 2 of rehab and thankfully, all is going well.

What else...

The house. Yes... this is *THE* S-H-I-T-E this year. Did I ever mention that I never grew up living in a house. I grew up constantly moving in and out on either a shitty apartment, a really small pad - as big as the rooms of some of the well off people I know - OR, a store. Yep, I spent a couple of years living in my grandfather's store (loooooooong story)... but enough of that. Because this year, my sister and I and my parents pulled our shite together and got ourselves a house. It's currently under construction and I'm really excited about the whole thing.

And... damn it! I just ran out of beer so I have to go. I wonder what it would be like reading this in the morning (I should put a meh right here)... Meh. Putting all those oh-my-god-what-have-I-posted-this-time aside, all this is something that I really want to share to anybody who would come across this post. And to whoever that poor individual might be... please pardon my outstanding literary piece because right now it's just the booze talking.

thought I'd drop by and poop a little blog post for entire Internet sheeple to marvel at

2008-12-01T22:17:00.007+08:00

I happen to view the view-my-complete-profile link a couple of seconds ago because, apart from the fact that I pretty much have nothing interesting to do, my narcissistic tendencies started to kick in again, so... I just had to click the damn link and satisfy the urge and get on with my life. Surprisingly, the profile views caught my attention because it's currently six-hundred and sixty-six. Yeah, exactly... 6-6-6. The surprising part is not the number itself (obviously it's the mark of the beast, so yeah... this is a "sign" and let us all shudder in fear and run for our lives for the end of age has come... *blah* *blah* *blah*) but it's the fact that the view-my-complete-profile link was clicked six-hundred and sixty-six times already - the last view was my doing so that technically doesn't count - and what surprised me even more *ack* is the fact that I don't receive a lot of comments from my posts amidst the ample amount of profile views. So, I was thinking... maybe this just goes to prove my long standing theory that every sorry ass human being on this planet is judgmental by default (of course, since I don't want to be singled-out, THAT includes me). Could it be that people are more inclined to read profiles rather than blog posts? This is probably the reason why friendster, multiply, facebook, etc... are so popular.

Okay, after re-reading what I've just written, I've just realized that I wrote three "blah"'s and one "ack". What can I say, I am a LITERARY GENIUS! and I'm not even drunk.

I got me some beard

2008-11-24T23:22:00.003+08:00

I have had a couple of recent encounters with friends who haven't seen me in a while where I get this really funny holy-shit-dude-what's-up-with-the-beard reaction. Which, unfortunately, translates to "When did you decide to copy and paste your pubes from your hidden folder to your shared folder?" I could go on and on about the beard jokes if I want to but I guess you get the picture - I've grown a beard and people who haven't seen me in a while are having the time of their lives.

Let me just say, for the record, that I never intended to "grow a beard", per se. The exponential growth of my facial hair is, for the most part, one of the byproducts of my innate and unparalleled procrastination skills (one unshaven week led to another and now... walah!). And, even if the pubes on my face look terribly ugly and dirty - to say the least. I'm quite enamored of the fact that it is compensating quite well for my ever increasing receding hairline which, I think, is extremely awesome in ways that only a guy with an ever increasing receding hairline can truly understand (Meh).

So, how long am I going to keep this dreadful facial hair? Right now, I really don't have an answer. We'll see what happens in the coming months.

all this time and this is what I have to say

2008-11-14T22:25:00.002+08:00

Right now, I'm in my room, crouched in front of my computer, writing a yet another insignificant blog post after a tiring week at work and having just finished a blog post (the post is in another blog, use your google-fu to find it) about how I managed to single handedly configure my old desktop to route packets into another device that surprisingly also does the exact same thing, which consequently, enabled me to connect to the internet and post this inexplicably long, unnecessary and grammatically incorrect sentence as an intro this post.

So, I'm thinking... beer?

here are four things about me lately

2008-10-19T20:32:00.002+08:00

Okay. This is yet another attempt to post something for the sake of posting something. So, on to the meaty stuff...

First, my recent trip to my doctor was fun. He asked to me to do a frog-like jump using both my legs, which I did perfectly - on my second try. Then, he asked me to do the same sort of jump with one leg, again, I was VICTORIOUS!!!. AND, he told me that I can run - OH YEAH - as long as I don't do any pivoting movements(fair enough). So, yesterday afternoon, I went jogging and for the first time in approximately seventy days after my surgery, I was running.... and it was hellishly awkward.

Second, I'm broke. Yeah. I am as broke as the world's economy and I wish the American government will bail me out with 700 billion dollars. Well, seriously though, I'm kinda having problems coping up with my finances lately. But it's not that bad, I'll be back on my feet this December (eyes closed and fingers crossed).

Third, I'm having an awesome time geeking out at home. I've already setup my local network (wireless and wired) and I have been doing lots of fun and exciting things that I couldn't do at work because of certain so-so-so reasons.

And ughhh.... Lastly, I had Fundador for breakfast today. Luckily, I'm certain that my liver is still intact.

Well, that's it. Four things about me lately.

a title that is totally irrelevant to the post

2008-10-11T13:33:00.002+08:00

I've been thinking of going on a vacation because as far as I can remember, I've never gone on one since I started working. Which, to me is quite surprising now that I've actually thought about it (Yes, getting surprised at the things that pop up in my head is something that happens to me very often). I've been working here in Cebu for about seven years now and I'VE NEVER GONE ON VACATION.

You see, neither do I consider going out to the beach with the-sheeple-from-work nor going home to CDO as vacation. I've been routinely doing both every year. Don't get me wrong, going out with the-sheeple-from-work is fun and CDO is a very laid back place where you can relax. It's just that I'm talking about a different vacation.

I guess the vacation that I'm talking about is sort of like going somewhere nice and spend a couple of days doing nothing but eat, drink, meet new people, discover tiny little wow-thats-awesome facts about the place I'm in AAAAND... if I'm lucky, probably do a little - in Borat's terms - "Sexy Time". At least for a moment I get to get away from the "family issues" that's been hovering around back at home and the pressures of work and all the other shitty little inconveniencies that life has been offering me ever since I started wiping my own ass.

Yeah... I think going on a vacation would be really nice.

birthday - another excuse to post something in this blog

2008-09-23T21:13:00.003+08:00

In a few hours, I'll be twenty-eight. And, according to this Wikipedia article, twenty-eight is the natural number following twenty-seven and preceding twenty-nine. Yeah... it's such a deep and profound fact, it has just made my age so much more interesting that I wish I could stay twenty-eight for the rest of my life. But honestly, if were to choose which age I'd like to be stuck in, I'd choose to be seventeen. Man... those were the angriest days of my life.

Normally, most people write reflective blog posts during birthdays. You know... enumerating "significant" events of the past year and then, topping them of with pretentious realizations hoping that people reading them would give out affirmative sighs in unison and go "awwwwww". But that's just boring and... icky. Yeah, "icky". Removing nasal hair would be more fun than doing just that.

SO... here's to the first day of being twenty-eight years old, the age following twenty-seven and the age preceding twenty-nine. Because, really... that's just what it is.

Lo and Behold! No more knee braces...

2008-09-18T19:31:00.006+08:00

I just came from my doctor's clinic (Yes, the one that poked my knee with drills). He finally took my knee braces off but, he prohibited me from running and jumping - yeah, as if I'm crazy enough to do something like that barely two months after the surgery. Anyway, I've been on those braces for past six weeks. It was real nuisance at first - like a booger that keeps on sticking on your fingers no matter how many times you've tried to flick it aside - but after a while I sort got the hang of it. Right now, I feel a knee-brace lighter and a grin that's ten inches wider. Getting closer and closer to being able to walk and jump normally feels exciting... NO, it's feels really good, SO good that I finally had the motivation to edit the video I've been talking about ever since. The links to the videos of some of the "significant" parts of the surgery are found below (BE WARNED: even if I ripped out the really gory parts - specially the part when they placed the screws on - these may still be a bit gross for the squeamish types).

video 1, video2, video 3 and video 4.

here is my vote

2008-09-18T19:31:00.003+08:00

I'm voting for Filipino Voices for two main reasons,

First, it is by far THE most active Fililpino grassroots journalism blog - and to think that it started just a couple of months ago.

Second, we live in a shitty country. But at the same time, we happen to love this shitty country in ways that only a genuine rice eating Filipino can understand. To me, Filipino Voices represents THAT idea and as far as I can see, no other nominated blog has that character.

So, please please please... on September 21, let the Filipino Voices roar!

taxi drivers say the darnest things (yet another lame attempt to post something on this blog for the sake of posting)

2008-09-14T18:23:00.004+08:00

I've been riding taxi cabs everyday since last month. I usually ride jeepneys but they're not the type of things you would want to get on when you're "disabled". So, even if a taxi ride costs approximately seven times the price of a jeepney ride (from my apartment to the office), I think it's worth every penny - jeepney drivers are known for dropping their passengers off to their destinations... literally. But this post is not about the jeepney drivers, this is about the taxi drivers and the things that they say.

Before I go on, I have to digress a bit. I just have to say that I'll be posting what the drivers say in Visayan simply because it puts the word "darnest" in "taxi drivers say the darnest things". Also, I won't be posting any translations. If you can't understand the language then, sorry.

So, without further ado, here they are (limited to five because they're basically all I can remember):

"trapika uy... lami kaayo mo patay ug tao, kung dili pa lang ko ma priso, mo patay gyud ko ug tao kada-adlaw"
"`matay... nindota anang iPhone bosing sah? kun mo gamit ka ana mura ka'g naa sa laing kalibutan"
"kaning mga koreana lami kaayo... puti man gud, pero pwerte lang baho-a, kanang lain kaayo nga baho... kanang anghit... dili man siguro ni sila ga ligo"
"basketball diay naka disgrasya anang imong tuhod? abi nako na dasmagan ka ug truck"
"hala! bossing wala ko'y sinsiyo ani... gikan pa man gud ko sa grahe"

We'll that's it. They say the darnest things.

I bought my self a new toy

2008-09-06T19:52:00.001+08:00

I (read: FINALLY) purchased a shinny new PC the other day. I 've been thinking of buy one since early this year but I was holding off on it because of the scheduled knee-poking-activity that pushed through a month ago.

This is what I got:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Micro ATX
AMD64 LE 1640
Kingston 2GB DDR2 800
160 GB Seagate Hard Disk
Foxxonn Casing

Obviously it's not the perfect rig but it went within my budget and it's definitely faster than what I'm using now.

what's up with little 'ol ME

2008-08-31T17:36:00.002+08:00

First up, my knee. I think it's getting better for two reasons. First, I'm no longer on crutches. Second, Zee-Zoctor adjusted my knee brace so now I can bend it up to 90 degrees. This means that I can walk normally and sit on public transportation and restaurants without people having to stare at me. So... one big Hurrah! On another note, I still haven't finished editing and uploading my suregry's video because I was really "busy" this week. But I will do that as soon as I can. For now, here are some photos of me before and after the surgery.

Second, for some strange reason, my company gave out gifts to some employees and for some yet another strange reason, I got to be one of those employees (it was really awkward receiving something which you think you don't deserve). Well, I got this which probably requires another hurrah, so... Hurrah!

Lastly, I just have to mention that I've been plurking for quite a while now and I've really been hooked (frankly, admitting to that fact is humiliating... but wot-da-heck, it's fun). Anyway, here's my profile. If you happen to have an account, add me.

This is all for now, see you guys when I see you.

quickie post-surgery post

2008-08-17T15:21:00.005+08:00

Well, the fact that I am able to write this post means that the surgery went well and that for some reason, I'm still alive. So, "hurray" for me. I got out of the hospital last week. It took me a while to post something because I usually write my blog posts on an Internet Cafe a couple of blocks away from home and since it's hard for me to move around (I have a knee brace that is locked in such a way that I couldn't bend my knees AND I have to use crutches), it's not something that I can do as often as before. For sure, I'll post some video snippets of the surgery and a couple of photos, probably in a couple of weeks - I'm still preoccupied with a lot of things like catching up with my work and of course, therapy.

On another note, still related to my being unable-walk-like-a-normal-human-being, every taxi ride to and from work is exhausting. Why? Well, taxi drivers are nosy pricks who like to talk and pry on other people's shit, right? So in my case, they ask me about my leg. And since I don't want to be the-asshole-disabled-passenger, I have to tell them the whole story and pretend that I'm enjoying the whole experience. I've been coming to work for the past five days know, so that means I've recounted my story for around ten times already. And quite frankly, I'm sick of it.

So I've been thinking. For the first taxi driver who wouldn't ask me about my leg, I will give him a tip - 50 percent of what my fare costs. That is a promise. I'll let you guys know if that ever happens.

So...

2008-07-26T18:12:00.001+08:00

It seems that the knee surgery that I was talking about a couple of posts back will push through next Saturday. I'm particularly worried about the therapy that I'm supposed to undergo after the surgery rather than the surgery itself because I'm an impatient prick -AND- therapy takes long time.

Interestingly though, "They" call it an arthroscopic surgery and I was told that I'll be given a DVD copy of the entire surgery. Since I basically have no idea of what I should do with a video of my knee being poked and drilled by complete strangers, I was thinking of uploading the video on youtube. At this time, I still haven't made up my mind yet but there's a pretty good chance that I will share this experience to the entire Internet. Of course, I'll be doing it for the sake of science.

I never thought that I still had it in me

2008-07-06T19:39:00.003+08:00

NO you moron, I'm not talking about STD.

I went home at around 7AM last Friday. BECAUSE, I had to fix "bugs" found on the latest release. The fixing went super great, mainly because... well, things that ought to be fixed got fixed. You see, the worst thing that can happen when you work until morning non-stop, is being unable to finish what you started out to do.

I used to regularly stay late in the office. I sort of stopped being a nocturnal creature sometime last year, when I realized that I get less productive when I stay late in the office. But, you know what, I think I can still do it.

the patient with a defective spine from hell

2008-06-29T21:13:00.002+08:00

While I was sitting on the lobby, waiting for my turn to see the doctor, this middle aged guy sitting beside me struck up a conversation. He asked why I wanted to see the doctor, so I replied. I explained to him how I injured my knee and that I was here for a consultation. After that, I felt obliged to ask why he wanted to see the doctor - I guess that's how conversations in these situations go. So he replied and told me that he had an operation done on his spine and that this was a post-op visit.

Frankly, I was expecting that that was it - end of friendly patient-to-patient conversation. But, as it turns out, that guy was a total freak. I was really caught off guard. He suddenly started talking about THE-THREE-THINGS-WEIRDOS-LIKE-TO-TALK-ABOUT, i.e., religion, philosophy and government. What's worse, he kept asking me personal questions - the type of personal questions that neither your close friends nor your parents will dare ask while you're in a clinic lobby with many people who can easily hear what your saying. At that time, all I wanted to do was run out of the clinic and get away as far as possible.

So, his self-righteous and condescending ramblings went on for about thirty minutes, while I sat there without uttering a word, wishing I had a remote control where I can just press mute. Fortunately, he finally gave up after realizing that I wasn't buying any of his bullshit. So he opened his backpack, took out a Bible (I'm definitely sure that it was a bible because the letters H, O, L, Y, B, I, B, L, E were visible on the front cover) and he started reading it.

Up until now, I still could not make out what he was trying to do. I don't know if he was just plain old crazy or if, as the title of this post goes, a patient with a defective spine from hell.

there's hope for my 70 year old left knee

2008-06-26T20:11:00.006+08:00

Ten years ago, I had accident while playing basketball. I ended up with a swollen knee and eventually, the inability to play basketball without having to move like a retard. Not just that, for ten years I could not play any sport on this planet that is capable of traumatizing a knee to the point where your face turns into an exact replica of that famous Edvard Munch painting. Unfortunately, at that time, I didn't have a job - I couldn't even afford to buy a PC with a 3GB hard drive (note that this happened ten years ago and at that time a 3GB hard drive was more than enough to download all the pr0n on the Internet) , much more paying for an ACL reconstruction.

Anyway, I'm part of the system now - I work, pay taxes, social security, health care, etc. SOooo, I was thinking of having the surgery. I've been talking to an orthopedic jedi and he says that he'll put balance to my knees so that I won't be walking towards the dark side, so to speak.

You know what, I miss making a simple lay-up without having to think if my leg will still be attached to my body when my feet touches the ground. Hopefully, I can pull this off.

it's not easy being subtle

2008-06-06T23:11:00.005+08:00

The-Company gave me a set of documents tucked inside a blue folder. I was smirking at the time it was handed off to me and read the huge warning in front of it - the words "STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL!" was plastered in front. Yes, it has an exclamation point at the end (well, as far as I can recall). My guess is that putting that warning is used to fend off prying eyes, because really, it makes those documents look so inconspicuous.

here's quick one from CDO

2008-05-31T21:13:00.005+08:00

First, I miraculously managed to pull myself together and travel to CDO without binging my laptop - which was basically the main plan. Second, I've just finished reading a book which was also part of the plan. And for that, I guess I deserve a hooray-for-me. However, the part where I planned to be completely detached from the Internet apparently did not push through. I tried to occupy myself with other things like stuffing my stomach with junk by eating bags of potato chips, running around with our dog and see who'd pass out first (it was a tie because we both ended up panting profusely but still managed to remain conscious), watch cheezy TV sitcoms, etc... but unfortunately, I just can't get the itch off. So, here I am writing this post using my sister's laptop. I just have to open the browser and say "Hi" to the Internet. What can I say? Junkies need their fix and I just have to say "Hi" to the Internet.

Hi.

probably not a good idea

2008-05-22T20:42:00.002+08:00

I'm planning to go to CDO next week to iron out some paper work with my sister (it's about this loan that we're getting for The-mum and The-dad). So, I was thinking of not bringing my laptop with me. I've got a couple of books that I've been wanting to finish and I'm planning to finish one (at least) during the trip. Bringing the laptop with me will definitely get in the way and since I've been sitting in front of the computer everyday for that passed couple of months, I thought that it would be a good idea to have a break and be completely detached from my laptop and to the rest of the folks on the Internet for an entire weekend... *GASP*. Well, the title of this post says it all. But what-duh-heck, it's fun to break out of daily routine once in a while.

just a link to a comic

2008-05-17T19:02:00.003+08:00

I'm just dropping by to post a link to this online comic. I've been reading it for quite some time now. Surprisingly, I never had the chance to post a link to the site. I really enjoy reading the strips because for one, they're straight to the point, it uses nice photographs instead of doodles and - most of the time - I get the feeling that I'm reading someone else's thoughts written in utmost honesty and in the most brutal way possible. We'll that's just me, just try skimming through some of the strips and maybe you'd get hooked just like me. Enjoy.

free nicotine is still nicotine

2008-05-15T21:06:00.003+08:00

My cousin works for probably the biggest tobacco company in the world. You know, the one that owns other tobacco companies and has been pounded by numerous legal battles (so I've read), but still remains unscathed probably because they have all the world's smokers behind their back - puffing their lungs into oblivion. The thing is, my cousin has a lot of freebies(cigarettes, ashtrays, shirts, etc...) and gives hem out Oprah-Winfrey-style to everybody he knows. Since I had a short visit to CDO a couple of weeks back, I was ~~fortunate~~ unfortunate enough to be given two rims of "reds" - roughly 400 sticks.

Frankly, The idea of having to smoke every stick by myself is really overwhelming. You see, being a smoker (who had repeatedly failed at quitting) with 400 sticks of smokes at his disposal, lying around the room, each stick crying out in a child-like voice, saying "smoke smoke smoke smoke...", will drive anybody to total madness. The good thing is, a couple of people at work are smokers and some people staying at home(yes, we're currently living in a "full-house" right now, I'll probably make a separate post for thiat are smokers too. So, I shared the maddening little goodies. I brought one rim to the office and the other one, I left it in the living room. Right now and probably for the next few weeks, every smoker in the office and at home is puffing free smokes.

last week

2008-05-08T22:01:00.003+08:00

I spent my previous weekend in CDO. The interesting part about that weekend was my ferry boat ride going there. I booked a ticket from a shipping company who's entire fleet is as old as my grandmother's dead mother (God bless her soul). I didn't really have much of a choice. Their boat was the only one leaving for CDO that night. Well, here are some of the highlights:

First, the cafeteria's menu served "battered chicken" - lilteraly. Second, for every passenger's viewing pleasure, they played recorded concert performances from The Corrs, The Eagles, Barry Manilow... need I continue? Third, they served a pack of biscuits and a cup of coffee for breakfast because that is what five star hotels serve and these guys just wanted to pamper us as if we were guests at a five star hotel. Fourth, since the boat was really slow, it took an extra three hours to get to the pier plus an extra hour for docking.

The only nice thing about that trip was that I had a chance to talk to this old guy, probably in his fifties, who worked as a crane operator in Qatar. He said that he quit his job because he realized that Qatar is not really a country located in the "Middle East". Instead, according to him, Qatar is a country located in the "Middle of Nowhere". He added that he'd been to other Middle Eastern countries before, but according to him, Qatar blows like no other. So, he decided to come home and do what Filipinos do best - eat, drink and make merry.

quick bleep about my weekend

2008-04-27T17:13:00.002+08:00

I spent my entire weekend watching The Office (I finished the 2nd and 3rd seasons and right now I'm a couple of episodes from the 4th season - thanks to Captain Jack Sparrow). I was swamped with work for the past two weeks (this includes weekends which means... it means a lot) and I thought that it would be nice/refreshing to spend my weekend away from anything that would remind me of work. So I decided to watch The Office. Obviously, my plan didn't work the way it was supposed to because the TV show's title and theme reminded me of work all the time. But surprisingly, I had fun. The show's utterly funny and the characters are so not fake and so not real either. you know what? I can probably name a couple of people at work that is an exact replica of a Dwight (as much as I hate to say this, but I too have my Dwight Schrute moments - SOMETIMES) or an Angela, a Kelly, a Kevin and perhaps an Oscar(this one I'm not really sure). And of course, Toby definitely embodies the true blunt spirit of HR. Unfortunately, I don't think that there's a Michael Scott at the place where I work. And, having seen the show, I can honestly say that it blows to not have a Michael Scott at work. Only Dunder Mifflin's got a Michael Scott - those lucky bastards...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, Dwight has a blog and you can read it here.

email fu

2008-04-14T22:13:00.002+08:00

I think I have a thing for writing. I call it "a thing" because most certainly, I ain't the Mr. Miyagi of writing but I believe that my wax-in-wax-out-writing skills are not that bad either. This is not about me having literary writing skills of epic proportions, NO. It's just that somehow I have a feeling that people take the things I write more seriously than the things that I say.

Like recently, I sent an email to this computer shop (let's just call the computer shop Thinking Tools, Inc. because that's the real name of the shop and getting them into trouble is that last thing on my mind right now... seriously) and the response was surprisingly overwhelming. You see, I bought an mp3 player from that shop. Unfortunately for me, the mp3 player decided to stop acting like one after using it for just two months (my hunch is that it wanted to be an iPod - nothing wrong with being gay). So I brought it back to have it repaired. The thing is, I've been a frequent visitor at that shop for the passed four months and every time I pay these guys a visit, they always have a ridiculous excuse that would - for them - justify why my mp3 player is not yet fixed. I tried asking them for details, and they just repeat what they've said earlier and then, look at me with those go-away-we-just-work-here look.

So last Friday, I sent them a tasty wax-in-wax-out email and wallah! My mp3 had been miraculously fixed, my warranty had also been miraculously extended AND according to their email, they'll also give me some sort of complementary gift.

I guess that's why I call it "a thing". It's not that extraordinary, but it certainly got my mp3 player fixed along with other nice perks. I was almost tempted to post the email on this blog but... err, maybe some other time.

another opportunity to pollute the so-called "blogsphere"

2008-04-09T21:53:00.002+08:00

Could there be anything else in this world worth loathing more, other than people?

The funny thing about that question is that you can replace the word "loathing" with any other word. Perhaps it would sound better as long as it ends with i-n-g. You can use "loving", "hating", "poking", "hugging", "screwing", etc... Regardless of the word's underlying connotation, the question would still make sense, most especially to mentally challenged retards like myself.

Seriously, though. This all started out with me pretending to type something on the computer because I feel like an idiot waiting for my downloads to finish and not doing anything worthwhile. I mean, writing a blog post(no matter how nonsensical) is far better than sticking my right index finger to my left nostril searching for soft and sticky foreign objects and what not. So, yeah. I guess that right there puts an undeniably huge question mark on my seriously-though phrase earlier.

Oops, I think my downloads are done. I have to go now... it sure was nice chatting with an imaginary audience. Seriously.

a short blurb about a not-so-old movie

2008-03-31T21:12:00.003+08:00

I saw "Stranger Than Fiction" last Saturday (thank God for the yummy torrents scattered all over the Internet).

Like all interesting movies, it had something to do about being miserable, about being happy (happy as in getting laid kind of happy) and about death. It's one of those movies that is - uniquely - both tragedy and comedy.

On the downside, it's a movie about life told in utmost pretense (well, okay... just a little bit) and some of the characters were, somewhat, unnecessary.

Interestingly though, if I were to condense the movie into a short statement, it would have to be, "Life is a comedy, death is the punchline and tragedy just pops up randomly somewhere in between so that you can have a smoke break" (That right there is just too long to be printed on a bumper sticker, so I guess it'll stay on this post).

Anyway, don't mind what I've said. If you haven't seen it, watch it.

it has been ten days since my last post and I have this to say...

2008-03-26T20:31:00.004+08:00

My holy~~week~~work went quite well. Aside form the fact that I didn't finish the work that intended to finish that weekend, the fact that my waistline increased at about half an inch from over-eating (I have a pair of shorts that wouldn't fit anymore and I'm pretty sure that I had worn it last week - so it's either my waistline increased or my pair of shorts decided to go on a diet and shrunk a couple of inches), the fact that I never left the house for about three days, the fact that I never had the chance to check my email and say "hello word!" to the friggin' Internet, the fact that "Stranger Than Fiction" was on HBO one night and I missed it because I was too busy tinkering my buggy program AND the the fact the I had diarrhea on the way back here... everything went quite well. Things could have gone much better but it only went quite well.

this holy week

2008-03-16T18:52:00.003+08:00

Normally, Holy Week is an excuse for people in this country to go home to their hometowns OR go to popular beach resorts to celebrate in debauchery and drunkeness. I belong to the go-home-to-their-hometowns demographic, but with a twist. You see, I'm planning to bring my work with me when I get to CDO this Thursday. Instead of doing whatever it is that people do now a days during Holy Week, I plan to crucify myself on my laptop.

On second thought, I'm the type of person who never really gets work done at home no matter what - my flesh is willing by my soul is a stubborn and lazy S.O.A.B.

But we'll see. I'll post something sometime next week about this.

my first post about a dead person

2008-03-12T21:26:00.004+08:00

Somebody I know died yesterday. I don't know why, but I just have this urge to write something about it.

A couple of days ago, the doctors said he was sick with some sort of infection. The next day, his legs started to swell and later fell on a coma. The day after that, he died. If it were a Dr. House episode, House would have cured the infection with his uncanny wit coupled with large doses of brutal sarcasm. However, we all know that real life is more sadistic and brutal than good 'ol Dr. House. Down here, people actually die and nobody gets to look cool afterwards.

And so, we(the ones left behind) wonder about this "place" where people "go" when they die. Since mortality is such a tough thing for any modern human being to accept, we can't help but hope that we'd somehow "go somewhere nice" when we die - just to make whatever time we have left a little bit more comforting. Because like it or not, we're all next.

Rest in Peace TA.

obviously, this has something to do with elevators

2008-03-08T20:43:00.002+08:00

I have been standing on the elevator lobby for about thirty seconds before I realized that elevator doors don't open by themselves - they're dependable machines that require human intervention AND that dependability is directly proportional to the intervening-human's intellect. So, I pushed the down button while mentally laughing at myself for having accomplished such a remarkably idiotic feat.

I've been on several elevator bloopers before: pushing the wrong floor number; wondering why the elevator isn't moving and then realizing that I hadn't pushed any button at all; getting off on the wrong floor. This recent incident is the fourth. I wonder if there's going to be a fifth and if whether or not it would involve gravity. Heh.

a quickie post for a squeaky link

2008-02-28T21:46:00.002+08:00

A while ago, I was having second thoughts if whether or not I should post this particular link. After typing "ls" fifty times on the console and then having spent the next couple of minutes switching desktops (Crtl-F1, Ctrl-F2, ... Ctrl-F4 then back again), I realized that I should post it. I felt that it's my "moral obligation" to share this wealth of information to the world. THAT, and my moderately obsessive drive (Yeah, moderately) to regularly post something on this blog.

Well, here's that link I was talking about.

You see, we encounter a lot of unusual things every day. Like, Angelina Jolie adopting kids from third world countries, Bill Gates having put up a foundation (probably to compensate for the people his company had screwed over for the last decade), software working without glitches, news reports that are unbiased or are actually true, a day in Manila witout a "prayer rally", a "prayer rally" in Manila without any media coverage, Sarah Silverman fudging Matt Damon while Jimmy Kimmel brokebacks Ben Affleck, etc, etc, etc... The world is full of surprises.

But nothing beats knowing that there is a World Toilet Organization that, er... focuses on keeping every toilet in every corner of the universe squeaky clean - Thank God, we are SAVED!

Oh, and try checking out the "Toilet Art" link - very inspiring.

nothing beats wathing mind nubming TV

2008-02-20T21:56:00.005+08:00

A friend of mine told me about this TV series called The flight of the Conchords . I recently found out that the first season came out early last year. Yeah, I know, this post is one year late. Anyway, since it came out last year, it only means one thing: I can get a pirated copy for less than half the price of an original and still get the same quality. So, I went to greatest pirate ever known to man - Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl - and got a copy.

After having watched about half of the entire Season, I just have to say that the characters are complete idiots (nothing beats listening/watching idiots, makes you feel like you're Einstein) and that's why I find the TV series really really funny. To give you an example, here's a verse from Bret's song Boom (or is it Boom Boom?):

"... I have to tell her how hot she is, but if I tell her how hot she is... she'll think I'm sexist...She's so hot she's making me sexist... BITCH!"

That right there just makes me want to type the letter "L", "O" and then "L" again.

"...gun-toting hip gangster wannabes"

2008-02-19T20:58:00.005+08:00

There are people who own several guns. And they are quite proud of it. Proud enough to take a picture of each gun that they own then upload them on some photo sharing website. There are people who own several cars, some people own pets and some people own several computers, etc... I totally get it. As they say, "Whatever gets you off."

But, looking at it closely, owning a gun is quite disturbing. I honestly could not understand why there are people who want to own something whose main feature is to kill human beings with convenience. If clicking the mouse button can cause a window to pop-up, pulling a trigger can pop somebody's head up into oblivion. Now, what if that popping head happen to belong to a five year old child or to somebody you know - a definitely disturbing sight.

Of course, it is everybody's right to own a gun. Are you kidding me? There's no freedom without guns, right?

a post that doesn't/won't make any sense, at all

2008-02-13T22:39:00.004+08:00

Swamping myself with work gives me this peculiar high. Sort of like being hit by a gush of endorphines but without the sweating and heavy breathing and all those things that you experience while working out. Not only do I feel really really good, but I tend to sleep better at night.

Some people would conveniently consider me a "workaholic". But that - to me - is a bit misleading. By now, I'm pretty sure you're eyebrows are raised so high, it has already reached the back of your head. So before it touches your spine, let me explain.

Workaholics swamp themselves with work because thay have to, like an OCD type of thing. Who knows? There are plenty of crazy people in this world and they somehow have to live up to people's expectations. OR, maybe they're not really workaholics, per se, but they're just unfortunate enough to have boses that breathe down their necks as a regular pastime.

I, on the other hand, do it on a semi-regular basis for sheer enjoyment. And don't get me wrong, when I say work, I don't mean work-in-the-office. What I mean about work is doing the things that I like that are related to work-in-the-office and would like to do in the office but - due to forces uncontrollable by any mere mortal - can't. Okay. Now I'm confused.

I think I better stop before my mouth starts foaming.

there's always enough time to do nothing and waste time

2008-02-10T18:01:00.000+08:00

I do my laundry on Saturdays at a laundry shop approximately two blocks away from the house. Since most folks do their laundry on Sundays - just like what the ten commandments says - I do mine on Saturdays where it's just me and the washing machines and the dryers... er, and yes, the shopkeeper. What strikes me about the shopkeeper is that she doesn't say more than five words for every sentence that she utters, which is somewhat creepy because I'm beggining to think that she might be an andriod programmed to watch over the machines (But I'm creepier, because I tend to notice these things).

Anyway, the whole thing takes about two hours, so after a while it gets pretty boring. I usually bring a book with me but yesterday I forgot to bring one. I could have dashed back home, but I felt lazy so I decided to just while my time staring outside, watching the cars passing by and hope that my saliva won't drip down the side of my mouth because somebody might come in and think that I'm some sort of retard. Luckily, that didn't happen.

While I was there, looking outside the window doing my best to look normal, I thought about a lot of things. I'm enumerating them here because I found them quite interesting(I'm not sure if I remembered all of them correctly). Of course, what's interesting to me might not be of any interest to some -OR- probably anyone.

...
People say that change is constant. I guess that's the reason why people hate it so much - it just doesn't stop. What puzzles me is that most people who agree that change is constant also believe that there is this someone from somewhere who has complete control over everything.
...
Migrating from a centralized source code repository into a de-centralized source code repositroy is like eating your own puke - definitely not doable while your sober.
...
In a perfect world, it is certainly possible to not judge a book by its cover. However, in the real world, that is just not possible. Right? We all carry our biases wherever we go. And - I honestly hope that I'm wrong - that's why we are all judgemental.
...
About three years ago, I was in Japan for this training. In one of the boring lectures, the speaker said that there is no market for Karaoke machines in India because Indians are reluctant to sing in public - or something to that effect. Anyway, one of the trainees was Indian and he got furious. I honestly don't see exactly why he reacted that way. He probably felt that the example was racist. Yes, and he also probably thought that the current year is 1930.
...
Each of us have our own way of coping/adapting to the world around us. Even if we feel like a three-foot wrench had been hauled up our ":"s, we're still hopeful that thing will somehow get better.
...
I enjoy listening to Filipinos arguing in english - they sound as if it would make their arguments more convincing or more correct. Come to think of it, in the Philippines, anything said in english would automatically be considered 90% true no matter how absurd or idiotic (In here, grammar is certainly more important than content, it's sad but true). Of course, I just made up the 90%-true part. But what the hell, I'm writing this in english, aren't I?
...
There are so many webframeworks these days. Choosing the right one for your particular web application is so confusing, to say the least. I'll probably write a post about it on my other blog. Right now, I wonder which among the three - django, rails and spring - is more fun to work on.
...
People have their own mental picture of heaven. For me, heaven would be like lying on a hammock beside the beach listening to your favorite tunes with an {insert favorite mp3 player here}. I wonder what other people's mental picture of heaven is like?
...
I think the most interesting people are those who are capable of making jokes about themselves. I know only a handful of these freaks of nature and it's always fun being with them.
...

Well, this is it for this post. Surprisingly, it's the longet one I've had in a while.

guilty pleasures

2008-01-29T21:40:00.000+08:00

I've just spent an ample amount of moolah purchasing books that I've been drooling over since last year. I'm consciously aware that I'm short on my budget but this is one of those rare what-the-heck moments that could happen in one's life. For sure, I'll be eating crackers for dinner in the coming weeks. Or perhaps I could do with peanuts. And, If worse comes to worst, I'm just gonna have eat my neighbors cat - yummy.

Well, these are the pesky little buggers:

pesky-little-bugger-number-1

pesky-little-bugger-number-2

pesky-little-bugger-number-3

pesky-little-bugger-number-4

Now I'll have to spend the next couple of days waiting in breathless anticipation for the pesky little buggers to arrive. Damn pesky little buggers.

This is one of the things that makes me sit in front of my computer and mope around like an idiot

2008-01-27T18:50:00.000+08:00

I'm not good at remembering things. More specifically, special occasions. It's my dad's birthday today and I almost forgot. "Almost" being the operative word because - by some freak of nature - I didn't. I guess sending him a happy-birthday-SMS-message approximately six hours before the day ends is better than actually forgetting his birthday and having to greet him the day after. But still, I feel a bit guilty.

I've done THAT(forgetting somebody else's birthday) to my sister two years ago. Well of course, she was all "No, it's okay! Really." to me - even though I forgot her birthday and greeted her two days after. I'm pretty sure she felt bad. However, she didn't want me to feel bad just because she felt bad. That's why she said what she said. Which in turn, made me feel really guilty about the whole thing.

It's a good thing that THAT didn't happen again this time.

Nostalgia?

2008-01-16T19:53:00.000+08:00

I just got off from a cab where the cab driver was playing the Nirvana Unplugged album. So basically, it was a Nirvana marathon all way here (I'm in an Internet cafe right now). I didn't mind because - overplayed as it was back in the days - it reminded me that I was once a teenager who was angry at the world for no apparent reason.

Come to think of it, I still feel that way sometimes.

my first this year

2008-01-07T20:24:00.000+08:00

I have a feeling that this year is going to be different and it starts with having a mentally challenged blog post that starts with I-have-a-feeling-that-this-year-is-going-to-be-different.

I'm tired so I'll just blurt things out as I go. It's been seven days since January 1. I feel that I must have one of those happy-new-year post or something similar.

I've been busy "doing stuff" lately. It's nice because I get to break out from my usual routine, namely: take a bath, brush teeth, eat, excrete wastes, go to work, stare at my monitor for 8 hours, go home and then sleep (Put that in a loop that goes on for about six years and you get a breif history of my life here in Cebu). Basically, "doing stuff" tranlates to anything that doesn't fit into the "usual routine", which, sooner or later would be just another "usual routine". Wow.

I live in an apartment. There are five of us - that includes me. I have to say that I live among very interesting human beings. I used the word "interesting" because it is non-offensive but at the same time it rings out a sinister undertone that they're okay but I'm not that fond of them either. The thing is, there'll be two additions this month. So, this means things are going to be more interesting. Yeah... interestingly-chaotic.

Another thing I've noticed is that people like to hand in their Resignation Letters in January. There seems to be no scientific explanation for this phenomenon but you're inner-cubicle-peon-self tells you that it makes sense. Somehow, handing out a Resignation Letter in January gives you some sort of immunity from your boss' wrath.

Well, that's it so far - the first seven days of 2008.

homecoming of some sort

2007-12-17T19:03:00.000+08:00

I'll be coming home this friday. I always spend the holidays in CDO. But this time, it will be more than just spending the holidays with family and friends. This time, I have to attend the homecoming thingy.

Homecoming. Yep. It's been ten years since I graduated from high school and this probably explains why I feel old and grumpy at certain times.

Unfortunately, these things make me anxious. I'm even planning to make a list of things that I've done for the passed 10 years(it'll most probably be short). Then, I'll make copies and hand them out to everyone during the party. In that way, I don't have to repeat myself everytime I talk to one of them.

On the other hand, meeting friends from high school would only mean one thing - Booze. Now that's something worth looking forward to. I bet everyone would be passed out by 2AM. If not everyone, then probably half of the people who'd be there.

I just hope it'll be fun.

three minutes of random retarded goodness

2007-10-15T23:10:00.000+08:00

PRESSURE TRUE VALIANT TIME WINDING FREE RANDOM THINK MUSIC BEATS REPEAT NOUN VERB CAUSE EFFECT FLOW RHYTHM FUNNY FUTURE CREATE NEW BIRD RAIN RUN OVER SHOE BLACK RING SOUND FLEET SLOW STEADY NEW CRASH UNKNOWN LATE PAUSE BREATHE THINK WHY STUPID STAMMER GREAT TIRED CROSSED FINGERS MOVE PUSH POINT SHOULDERS PARTS BODY ACHE GAME MOOD STOP BUTT CRASH HOT WIND SCRATCH

blogger's spell checker is suh-weet

2007-10-14T22:13:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, I initially spelled "shit hole" as "shithole". Blogger's spell checker showed me how it should be spelled.

Thank you Blogger's spell checker. For sure, nobody on Earth will pester me and tell me that my shit hole is spelled wrong. Ha!

Yawn...

2007-10-14T22:01:00.000+08:00

I love my shit hole country. And one more reason for me to love it is this. My very competent government along with a handful of "educated" and pretentious Filipino-Americans are putting up a petition to boycott Desperate Housewives.

It's funny how a simple remark in a T.V. show can irk *some* Pinoys to the point of absurdity. So, I just want to say...

Way to go guys! You're definitely making every retard in this country VERY proud.

No one can handle the truth.

2007-10-03T21:08:00.000+08:00

The truth makes people angry. To a certain extent, at least. The only truth that doesn't is this: "The truth makes people angry". So, if you're tired of people getting angry at you, LIE. Believe me, it works.

Is this a paradox or what?

2007-09-17T23:34:00.000+08:00

I want to post something, but I just can't seem to find anything to write about. It's actually quite irritating. Like an itch that doesn't go away no matter how much you scratch it.

Having a blog sort of gives you this implicit responsibility (Or whatever) to post something no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical or even if no one ever reads them. So you try to recall recent events, things you've read, things you ought to rant about, people that you feel ought to be brutally backstabbed, you know, anything. Anything you can get your hands into. But instead, you end up sitting blankly in front of your computer like a total retard who's about to eat his own boogers.

This is the part where I say to myself, "I need to find my mojo." Whatever that means...

I can't think of a title for this post.

2007-09-07T08:26:00.000+08:00

I went to a hospital last evening. I had my ECG taken as well as an X-Ray of my lungs because I was having chest pains for three consecutive days. I had to be at work that day. So, I didn't have a choice but to have my check-up at night. To my surprise, they don't offer outpatient services at night but they said that I can have consultations in the E.R. but it will be more expensive. I said to myself "what-da-hell", this is the very reason why my employer pays medical insurance for its employees.

Well, there I was, the healthiest person in the emergency room, waiting for my doctor.

The patient on my left was a guy, probably in his 40s. He was really noisy. He kept asking the nurses to call his wife. He had a respirator on him, and they kept telling him to relax. At some point, he wanted to go to the toilet to take a piss. So they gave him something to piss into, but he declined. He insisted on going to the toilet because, according to him, there is "something wrong" with his dick. At that point, I said to myself, "Oh God, please tell the nurses to let this guy suffer in private." A couple of minutes later, he gave in and agreed to what the nurses wanted. I guess everyone in the room heard him taking a piss, only that it wasn't the sound of gushing water that we were hearing. Instead, we were hearing moaning and cuss words being spoken in alternate patterns. And then. finally, a sigh of relief as the guy told the nurse that he was finished. I think God didn't answer my prayer that time. It just goes to prove how he enjoys people being put in very awkward situations.

The one on my right was a teenager with a dextrose attached to his arm. He looked sick but he was calm and quiet. He was sitting on his bed with his dad and his brother. His father has the word "POLICE" in huge yellow colored text written at the back of his jacket. It was quite picturesque - a cop and his sick son on the Emergency Room - but in a gloomy sort of way.

There were more patients to my right but they were to far for me to notice.

Anyway, my doctor came and we talked. I had my ECG taken, then my X-Ray. I waited for a couple of minutes and then my doctor came back and we talked again. He said that I was "fine". Well, hearing your doctor say that you're fine sort of gives you a certain amount of relief. I was even tempted to joke around and say "for now".

On my way home, while I was on the taxi. I got to think about the things that go on in hospitals. Seeing doctors, nurses or any hospital staff member at work is always a humbling experience. I mean, I work for a software company. I do nothing all day but stare at my monitor. If my program crashes, I can always fix it then run it again. In short, unlike hospital folks, I work with machines and not with people. On the other hand, if a doctor makes a mistake in his diagnosis, if he made a conclusion that his patient is "fine" even if it's otherwise, then I wouldn't be able to crash my program again.

A quickie blurb about links

2007-08-27T22:02:00.000+08:00

A couple of years back, when people subscribed to mailing lists or Internet groups/forums argue with each other to prove a point, they used emote icons, super-sized caps or rainbow-filled fonts to make their discussions a little bit lively. But I guess we've had enough of that, so we started to send links, instead. I mean, why spend a lot of time crunching the keyboard, when you can opt to send a simple html tag that points to any web page that can do the argument for you - "Here boy... fetch!".

Come to think of it, our forefathers didn't have the luxury of communicating via the Internet. Can you imagine what it was like? They must have shouted a LOT - and emit ample amounts of saliva in the process - just to prove their point.

For me, links are just a notch lower from the copy-and-paste maneuver(according to my infinite and ineffable wisdom, this feature has decreased cheating incidents in classrooms to about, uh... 90%). I wonder what people are going to think of next.

Here I go again... loaded with bitter alkaloid.

2007-08-23T00:53:00.000+08:00

This country had been infiltrated by corporate coffee shops that sell ideas and not coffee. And one of those ideas is, "I'm sipping coffee from a hip coffee shop because I'm such a [insert obnoxious adjective here]". I'm a judgemental prick and this is how I see it. If you don't agree with me then there's not much I can about it.

I'd be a hypocrite if I say that I don't go to these coffee shops to buy overpriced coffee. I say it's overpriced because one coffee costs more than three meals - at least to my standards. What's funny is that I only buy coffee amidst all the other drinks that they sell. Aside from the fact that the names of these drinks are not that descriptive to a novice, "coffee" is the only thing that I can pronounce. I have to put a lot of effort just to read the other drinks that they're selling. Having to properly pronounce the names of these drinks is a truly excruciating experience - it causes my mouth to foam and my eyeballs to twitch to opposite directions.

But the thing that bothers me is: WHY? I mean, I know that it's insanely expensive and way over my budget. And what's more, I can't really distinguish good coffee from bad coffee. For me, coffee is coffee. Whether it's from one of those hip coffee shops or it's from a sachet bought from a department store that has "instant coffee" plastered all over the front and costs around five pesos.

So why do I purchase something that I know is a total rip-off? I guess it all goes back to what I wrote in the first part of this post. I have to say that I'm buying the idea. Hands down, they win.

My I.Q. is at par with that of a cockroach. And, this is what I have to say.

2007-08-11T15:20:00.000+08:00

The process of adapting to a culture does not only invlove rituals or aesthetics. What I'm trying to say is, putting on dreadlocks does not make you a Rastafari. The process of adapting must be rooted deeper - it has to come about to satisfy an urgent need. If not, then you can never really say that you've adapted. You'd be reduced to what most people would call a "poser".

Some people say that Starups thrive on culture. If that is true, then I guess I'm merely a "poser". But then again, aren't we all?

This is the ASK-YOURSLEF post.

2007-07-27T00:16:00.000+08:00

I live in a room that's probably less than one fourth the size Paris Hilton's closet. That's just an assumption. I have never before seen her closet on TV nor on any magazine. But, judging from the amount of luggage that she carries around with her, she probably has a really really HUGE closet.

The thing is, ordinary people(like myself) tend to compare what they have with what famous people have. I don't really know if there's a word for it. It's not "envy" because nobody on earth would ever want to be Paris Hilton. I guess it's more of having a wrong perspective. It's thinking so much about what you should have instead of being satisfied and thankful of what you already have.

So ask yourself. What am I proud of? Who are the persons in my life that I'm really thankful to have met? What are the things that I've accomplished? Who was your best fudge? What was the craziest party I've ever been to? Etc...

This is what Tech writers ought to write about.

2007-07-19T22:07:00.000+08:00

What would your reaction be when you get in the office and realize that you forgot to charge your cellphone? Exactly. It's like going to the toilet and just when your first poop splashes underneath you, you realize that the toilet paper is nowhere to be found.

I know that my analogy is totally gross. But, I have to say, it's more than enough to get my point accross. Technology is part of our lives. It's like wiping your ass(there I go again with my gross analogies) after taking a dump or brushing your teeth before making sloppy make-outs(I guess that one's better). It makes us do more and it makes us do things faster. Which is obviously good.

On the other hand, it complicates our lives in a personal level. Take the unable-to-charge-the-cellphone example I gave. Twenty years ago, people didn't even have cellphones. That's practically one reason less from getting all cranky early in the morning. And if you're still not convinced, just imagine people in the old days. (Old as in living-inside-caves kind of old). Do you think they wipe their asses after taking a big one? Scientists may say otherwise, but my caveman instict tells me that wiping-ass-with-toilet-paper is unheard of during those days.

Man is a slave of his own creation.

I'm sure I've heard that statement before. And, as much as I hate to admit it, it's true.

I am a slave. I'm an internet slave. That's why I'm writing this post.

It's another one of those cryptic posts that - hopefully - no one will ever get.

2007-07-19T20:12:00.000+08:00

CONFRONTATION:
A desperate attempt to force something that's completely unnatural. It is a weapon of choice for pretentious pricks who constantly justify their acts because deep down, they feel that they are always doing the wrong things.

MISINTERPRETATION:
People are generally judgemental by default. And if you try to hide yourself from them, if you try to steer away from confrontaions and from saying what you really want to say, you tend to be an easy target for misinterpretation. However, the people-are-generally-judgmental-by-default statement is quite a judgemental thing to say, isn't it?

RESOLVE:
Go home and watch bad TV.

We all know that our universe has LOTS of stars. Adding one more to the list doesn't make a difference.

2007-07-14T16:43:00.000+08:00

Have you noticed that almost every month, scientists publish new discoveries of a planet or a star "in a galaxy far away"? I'm subscribed to a couple of science news groups like National Geogrphic, Cosmic Variance, Science Daily Headlines, Scientific American, etc... so I get browse these articles in a ragular basis. It was fun reading at first. But now, these types of so-called discoveries are beginning to reveal a pattern.

You see, at the end of every article, they try to explain how "this is just a start" and that this "discovery" might lead us to determining how our universes came about. Well, they don't really say it explicitly but that's what I get from my very limited reading comprehension.

I'm not against discovering new things. However, until they can find something that I can really sink my teeth in to, I suggest that they should just lay it off and point all their huge, million-dollar telescopes up their asses.

I really need to get some sleep.

2007-07-10T21:30:00.000+08:00

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we didn't have to go to sleep?

If that were the case, then...

There wouldn't have to be any beds in our rooms.
Women wouldn't be complaining about men dozing off right after having sex.
Life wouldn't be routinary. We can spend all day doing what we want to do without any regard for time.
You can play very loud music in the middle of the night and you're neighbor wouldn't freak out.
You're neighbor can play very loud music in the middle of the night and you wouldn't be freaking out.
You and your neighbors can play very loud music in the middle of the night, all at the same time, and the police wouldn't give a damn.
You wouldn't have to experience waking up with toothpaste slobbered all over your face because your idiotic room-mate had nothing else better to do.
No bed marks in the morning.
You can get really drunk and totally shitfaced without passing out.
You can start doing your homework at 4 AM in the morning.
Etc, etc...

Come to think of it, if we are incapable of sleeping then we would also be incapable of dreaming.

THAT to me is quite scary. It's like living in a world without night. A world where you can never see the stars. A world where you cannot have the chance to be someone else -OR- to be somewhere that's not of this world. It is in dreams where we get to see friends or family that we've lost. And Perhaps, even people that we are still about to meet. Without dreams, you'd be living a life that's totally devoid of imagination. Without it, there wouldn't be any distinction between you and the plant that's placed beside the sofa in your office lobby. You'd be a something instead of being a someone. We're nothing without dreams. (sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Sometimes, I tend to consider sleeping as a drag. Specially when I'm swamped at work. I guess I shouldn't be like that. Sleeping is one of the best things in life - along with eating and of course, that F word that ends with ING - and it's something that I should be thankful for. So tonight, I shall loose myself in slumber for tomorrow... I get to be someone again.

You see... I really need to get some sleep before I start writing about talking hamsters and dragon breathing fires. Or is it fire breathing dragons? Oh well...

ZZZzzzz......

I say the darnest things.

2007-07-07T00:06:00.000+08:00

Everyone has this make-my-own-version mentality. Once in a while, you encounter something nice, like a piece of software. But instead of tinkering and marvelling at it for a while and move on to things that normal people do in life, you sort of get this insatiable "itch". You obsess about it. And then you say to yourself, "I should make myself one of those."

Make. Not Buy, but Make.

What's fascinating about this is you might end up making something that is way better than the one that you tried to copy. Perhaps, it may not even be the same thing anymore. You might just have created something new.

All of this can happen if you have the skills. And of course, if you're practically a delusional freak with an ego the size of Texas who has nothing else better to do - just like [insert the name of favorite computer geek here].

It's a crazy cycle. What you've just made will be copied by other "like-minded" people and so on and so forth.

Basically, there no such thing as an original idea. Everthing we make/create are just bi-products of the ones that came before. It's weird thinking about it. Because if that's the case, then we can say that we are just excrements of the ancient world.

I guess this is the part where I need to stop.

this is what I think of when I'm still up in the middle of the night

2007-07-03T00:14:00.000+08:00

I'm pretty sure that it was in that Chuck Palahniuk novel "Fight Club" where I read something like, "It's only when you've lost everything that you're free to do anything." I'm not entirely sure if I got the whole sentence right. But, I guess that right there is close enough.

I like that line a lot even if it has no relevance whatsoever to reality. Why? Because it would make a perfect bumper sticker - only if it had fewer words in it.

If it were up to me... if I were to shorten that line so that I can print them on a sticker... I'd write it in C. Like this:

You = (Life==NULL) ? FREE : NOT_FREE;

What about you? How would you shorten the It's-only-when-you've-lost-everthing-that-you're-free-to-do-anything sentence, so that it would fit on a bumper sticker?

blessed are those who have no internet connection for they shall inherit the kingdom of wireless technology

2007-06-25T23:34:00.000+08:00

I consider wireless technology as the best thing that had happened ever since people in my corner of the world decided to start cooking rice - wrapped in coconut leaves.

Here's why...

When I turned on my laptop lastweek, I decided to enable my wifi just for the heck of it. Suprisingly, I got a signal from some wireless router. I got really really curious so I enabled DHCP hoping that the router would be kind enough to give me an IP. Luckily, it did.

At this point my heart was already about to explode. I was having all sorts of "what-if" scenarios and I didn't know where to start. I guess, instinct took over and I decided to fire up my browser hoping for the first thing anyone with a newly acquired IP address from an unknown wireless router would obviously hope for - right, an internet connection. With a sly grin plastered all over my face, I typed in h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-gmail-dot-google-dot-com.

Lo and behold!

Gmail's login page loaded. At that very instant, my jaw dropped so low I could feel the floor under my chin. At the same time, I was quite convinced that I was high on something because the words "free" and "internet" were spinning all over my head in a hippie-psychadelic-fashion sort of way. What-A-Trip.

So here I am, four days later, writing this post using my F-R-E-E internet connection. Perhaps, wireless technology is a blessing from the gods. It is paid for and installed by clueless "techies" so that rice-eating peons like myself can enjoy the juicy-mouth-watering fruits of wireless technology.

Share unto others what has been shared unto you.

2007-05-31T19:47:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine made me listen to this band.

If you visit their site, they have this little music player where you can... guess what? Right. I hope you (whoever you may be) find time to check it out.

shoutout

2007-05-20T14:38:00.000+08:00

I've been receiving a handful of comments(about my blog) from people(whom I know personally) these passed few weeks. Some send me email while a certain few chose to blurt it all out in public. All these started because of this guy.

Hearing other people's comments about what I write is weird - it's embarrassing but at the same time flattering. However, my innate cynical point of view is telling me that people are either telling the truth or just stroking my ego. Honestly, I think the latter bares more truth. But, that's just me. I can't tell other people how to react on what I write. Even if I could, I won't.

Anyway, I'd still post entries as if nobody is reading. This was how I started this blog and it's going to remain that way. I'm sure anybody with a reading comprehension of a five-year old retard would have a great time reading my posts.

the swine squeaks

2007-04-06T23:21:00.000+08:00

Spending the holy week here - my hometown - is helping me gain extra pounds. I've only been eating and sleeping since I got here. I don't really mind because it's fun and I've always wanted to experience what it's like to live the life of a filthy swine.

Having realized this a couple of minutes ago, I decided to break the ice and do something that would require body movements without having to open the refrigerator. So I got up from bed - forcibly - and sat in front of my computer and started crunching on the keyboards.

And this is what I came up with.

I guess, I should have just taken a crap.

constipated

2007-03-24T17:06:00.000+08:00

We all need stories to make our lives less insignificant. Have you ever noticed how our lives depend so much on stories?

Think about it for a while... We prefer to say that we are in love only if we have this overly cheesy story to tell about how we met this someone. We write biased obituaries. We try to patch-up the wrongs that we have done just before we die so people would say nice things about how we lived, about how we went through all odds to make things better. We write songs, poems, sonnets, etc., to capture a tiny bit of our lives. When we are bored, and we feel really brain-dead, we make up stories just to pass the time. What else? We put on photo exhibits and marvel not at the photographs, but on the stories behind them. We have this thing called religion, all of which are based on stories that were told long ago. I can go on and on and on...

Stories.

They are how we remember. They are how we cope, and eventually, make things a little more bearable. They are an all-in-one ice breaker thingie for people who are bored. They are the drug that seeps through the veins of those who had been hurt and broken a million times over. They are the things that can satisfy each person's seemingly unending quest for immortality.

They are our hopes.

Wow. I think I'm totally intoxicated. No, CONSTIPATED. I'm constipated. So all you people out there who come across this post, do not judge a story if it's constipated.

words may evolve

2007-03-14T07:52:00.000+08:00

I've been hearing a lot of people claiming to be "geeks". I don't think that each of them have exactly the same idea of word "geek". But one thing is for sure, the word "geek" has changed from something that is supposed to be derogatory into something somewhat uplifting to one's self-esteem. Today, if you say "that guy is a geek", then it would attribute a certain amount coolness to that person. Although, I still think that it sort of comes with a slight hint of pity, as in, "I'll just call you a geek instead of a looser because I feel kinda peachy today."

It's remarkable how words evolve to mean something else, specially when its meaning becomes quite the opposite of what it used to mean. I just hope it won't happen too often because that would be a total disaster.

oooops! wrong lyrics

2007-03-09T08:05:00.000+08:00

I've been listening to Pearl Jam since I was thirteen. Their songs have been etched in the deepest corners of my eardrums, so to speak. I was listening to one of their live album releases last night and when "Black" started playing, I remembered how I used to sing the song with the wrong lyrics.

When I was in high school up until I was in college, I used to sing a part of the song as:

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be, son.
If somebody else is God, then why, why, can't it be...
why can't I be black

When in fact, the real lyrics to this part is:

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why,
Why, why, can't it be, why can't it be mine

So you see, there's a really really huge difference from my version with the one that Vedder actually sings. I feel so pathetic looking back at the days when I used to sing the wrong lyrics because back then, I sing this part with closed eyes(heart-felt-almost-in-tears type of shit), and then suddenly, after hearing a live rendition of the song three years ago, I was utterly floored by a simple thought: I was wrong when I thought that I was right. Yeah, yeah... We all know this already, so I'm not going to spend the rest of this post elaborating on the obvious. This is just an experience that I wanted to share. So, go on now, you can make your own simile out of this. Or a metaphor. Or whaterver...

I'm bitter and envious

2007-02-24T16:47:00.000+08:00

I recently had the chance to talk to one of my friends from high school. Let's just say that in our group, he's the one who decided to be a "musician". That means he has no "REAL JOB" in a yuppie sense of the word. He told me that his band had just finished recording but they couldn't release copies at this time because they still owe the studio some money - typical "struggling musician" story that we've all heard before. Anyway, he left for Palawan this morning to do landscaping jobs for a certain beach resort (I don't know the name and even if I did I still wouldn't mention it because it's better to write something more unnecessary like this sentence).

I don't get it.

He'll be working in Palawan - paradise personified - for the coming weeks, so that he can save money to pay the recording studio and eventually, be able to release copies of his band's album (I've hear five tracks and they're really good). How cool is THAT?

I, on the other hand, will spend my coming weeks in a cubicle, writing code for delusional ingrates. Depressing. Isn't it?

MAY the VOTE be with you?

2007-02-14T07:20:00.000+08:00

I have never voted for anyone and I never will. My reason for not voting is quite simple and may sound naive.

I don't vote because I don't think that I am capable of making the right choice. I have no interest in politics. I don't read current events that talk about politics. So, I sure as hell don't know what my this shithole country needs.

I don't want to do something just because it's my right. Sure, our forefathers made a great deal of effort just to ensure this so-called right, but that was a long time ago. A time where information was scarce, unlike now where we have all forms of media pumping all sorts of "information", we don't even know what's true anymore.

Voting for me is a pitiful and brain dead task. Most people in this country blindly take part in it because the ones that they are voting for says that it's "their right" and "their duty" to "their country". I don't think so.

making a point that nobody on Earth would get to notice

2007-02-13T07:19:00.000+08:00

I'm tired of listening to these so called open source advocates who whine all day about how "Windows sucks" and how "Proprietary software is evil". Before you start raising your eyebrows, let me say that I'm not a Windows fanboy. I agree that Windows is not that good. In fact, I consider it inferior to other Operating Systems. But the thing is, I know that already. And so does every single person in the whole world. Hearing people re-iterate something that's been said over and over again is really annoying.

The reason why I came to write about this is that I'm subscribed to a Linux-Users mailing list where some of the inhabitants are, shall we say, still living in the 80's. Every week, someone would make pointless posts or remarks about Windows and in turn, discussions would somehow lead to the excommunication of proprietary software in the software industry - OMG! It's a Linux mailing list and they spend an ample amount of time ranting about topics that are nowhere near Linux.

Anyway, here are some points that I want to make.

First, if you think that Windows is a piece of trash, then, why bother talking about it.

Second, if you really think that open source is "the way to go", then wouldn't it be better if you start contributing rather than just using open source software. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the whole idea of open source, to be able to improve the software by having the source code available to everyone, so that it can be modified/improved? Merely using open source doesn't really help, at all.

Third, proprietary software and open source software are just the same. I've browsed through proprietary code as well as open source and believe me, open source is no better. They contain bugs, some are written poorly and some never even reached a "one-point-oh" release. The only redeeming factor, aside form the obvious fact that you can easily modify the code, is its name and the "coolness" that the internet had branded it with.

Jobs on DRM

2007-02-08T08:40:00.000+08:00

Seems like Mr. Jobs is putting the heat on Music labels. Read.

we'll good morning to you too

2007-02-06T07:47:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, me and the-company-that-I'm-working-for's CEO passed by each other somewhere near the lobby. He said, "Good Morning", in a weird but jolly tune where the O's in the word "good" are prolonged and the "ning" part of the word "morning" sounds as if it were the telephone ringing. Like, "Gooooooood Morninggggggggg!".

I didn't react even the tiniest bit and just went on my way as if there was nobody there. I didn't even looked at him when he greeted and I didn't even looked back to see his reaction. Although, seeing his reaction might have been a priceless "Kodak" moment.

I hope that was clear enough to make him realize that I wasn't in a "Gooooooood Morninggggggggg!" kind of mood.

Now, I'm feeling quite better and I just want to say, "Gooooooood Morninggggggggg!" to Mr. CEO. I hope you understand that whenever cubicle peons are exposed to an enormous amount of stress, they would be more than willing to butcher anybody who feels the urge to greet them with a shotgun loaded with passive aggressive bullets.

my problem, my pay-rents

2007-02-01T08:11:00.000+08:00

My parents are always the last people on Earth to know about things that are going on in my life. The Internet is more updated, believe me. I guess they tend to blow things out of proportion in ways where blowing-out-of-proportion in a normal sense would look like an exploding star in a galaxy so far away that it is known only to hardcore star trek geeks. That's why I always make it a point to keep everything from them, specially when I have problems.

You see, I'm currently renting a room and I'm moving out by Friday or Saturday because I had problems with the rent. It's not that I wasn't able to pay because frankly, I'm responsible enough to pay my own rent - ON TIME. I never missed a rent ever since I started living on my own. I don't want to make false accusations, so instead, I'll just point out clues as to what went wrong. The thing is: my two months worth of rent never reached the owner's hands - Well, that's what she claims. And since my memory is quite intact and it's certainly way above that of a goldfish. I'm pretty sure that I gave my rent to Elizabeth (I'll just call her Elizabeth because THAT'S HER REAL NAME). She's the one who's suppose to give my rent to the owner. This routine had been going on for quite some time and there had been no problems whatsoever up to now. Now you connect the dots.

So as far as where the money went after that is the reason why I'm ranting, the reason why I'm sleeping at a freinds house because I feel really terrible and the reason why I have to move out as soon as possible because I don't trust those people anymore.

You see, if I told my parents about this, they'd be sending in troops and invade my soon-to-be former dorm house and annihilate every visible living organism.

I guess it's better to keep this to myself for now. I'll tell them after I sort this out. And once again, they'll be the last ones to know.

origa-ME

2007-01-25T08:05:00.000+08:00

Lately, I've noticed that I have a somewhat peculiar habbit. I don't exactly know how long I've been doing it. Anyway, it's like this: I fold my receipts into random shapes while waiting for my food. This usually happens when I eat fastfood, where, I pay first and wait for a few minutes - ALONE - for my food to come.

Could this something that I do to sort of fill the gap of not having anyone to talk to? But of all the things I can poke around, why am I folding receipts?

How random are the shapes? Well, let's just say that if those shapes were words, they would have been what people would refer to as gibberish.

Man, I think I'm going crazy. Or perhaps, crazier.

ego the size of memory required to run windows

2007-01-02T20:16:00.000+08:00

I work in a place called "I.T. Park". By the sound of it, you can immediately say that the person -OR- people who named this place definitely had no idea what they were doing. This is supposed to be the Information Technology center of the city. And, contrary to everything that they have hoped for, a huge percentage of the companies in this place aren't I.T. related. A huge chunk of the population of this area is composed of Call Centers - YES! "Mabuhay Philippines! How may I help you?"

The thing is, porgrammers, are a minority in this part of town. Because of that, they are commonly mistaken as call-center agents by outsiders. For them(outsiders), if you're working in I.T. Park, then you must be one of those mabuhay-philippines-how-may-I-help-you peons, who work at graveyard shifts, spending most of their hours talking to old foggies who can't distinguish a cdrom drive from a cup holder. Anyway, most programmers have huge egos. I have been working with these people for the passed five years, so, I know. Most of them consider themselves an elite. You know, they're supposed to be those quiet, mysterious, soft-spoken but deeply clever people (total B.S., that's for sure). So, whenever they are accidentaly mistaken as call-centers agents, their eyes will always turn red and their nostrils... fuming with embers from hell. It's hilarious. (I'm an exception since I'm the one writing this post)

To all of you out there, if you happen to be around "I.T. Park" and you happen to meet one of these snob, condescending programmers... put on your best smile and ask them, "What call center do you work for?" Then, you'll see what I mean.

two-double-oh-seven

2007-01-01T15:37:00.000+08:00

I always feel the need to write about something during the first day of the year. It's my one big "Happy New Year!!!" shoutout to the whole internet.

There's a part of me that wants to post something dramatic that happened in the passed year, and then, put some sort of cliched realization at the end (I happen to know some people doing this every New Year's day). But to me, posting something like that is next to Mr. Useless and sits just before Mrs. Lame. First of all, nothing significant ever happens to me, so the whole posting-something-dramatic thing would only leave me at a blank. Second, even if I had something to post, like a tragic love story -OR- overcoming prostate cancer -OR- my experiences while I adopted a starving infant in Africa, people wouldn't care. So why bother?

Another part of me wants to post something that I'm supposed to look forward to this year. But that wouldn't work eiher. It's just like those pesky New Year's resolutions that you make, which, are just that - resolutions. Because at the end of the year, you just end up not doing them at all.

Basically, there's really nothing new for me this year.

`tis the season to be grumpy

2006-12-22T08:14:00.000+08:00

I'll be going home tonight. "going home" as in going home to CDO. I'll only be there until the 26th though because I have to be back here in Cebu for some first class ass whipping. For sure, New Year's eve is going to be different - first New Year's eve alone (I don't want to spend another 900 petots(sic) just so I can go home and watch third-world fireworks display. NO) . I wonder what I would be doing at that time. Oh well, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, whatever.

matisyahu

2006-12-16T17:02:00.000+08:00

Ma-tis-ya.....what?
Matisyahu.

If you like listening to rock, hip-hop or reggae, then you'd most probably nod your heads while listening to Matisyahu.

Here's a live video with a short interview afterwards. And here's another one (an official music video of the song "Jerusalem").

You can find tidbits about Matisyahu here.

Enjoy.

My Internet

2006-12-13T21:21:00.000+08:00

I want to eat the Internet.
After awhile, I'd go to the toilet...
and take a gigantic dump.

Ahhhhh... that's more like it.

empathy

2006-12-10T16:11:00.000+08:00

An interesting video. There is nothing new in this, except that it, suppossedly, came from an 8 year old kid.

diamonds

2006-12-09T12:31:00.000+08:00

This photoessay is quite interesting, IMO.
One of the most expensive things on Earth are found in the poorest countries in the world.

my very short weekend

2006-11-27T07:13:00.000+08:00

I'm in the office and it's really really early. I'm early because I just came back from CDO. It was my sister's birthday and so, I decided to spend my weekend there. The ferry arrived at around five-thirty, and I went straight here - in the office. Yep - straight. That means no shower and teeth not brushed. What can I say? I am a caveman.

You know what, the trip gave me an epiphany. A ferry boat is a vehicle made in hell. When the world will end, the four horsemen of the apocalypse won't be riding on horses. No! They'd each be on a ferry. All four of them will be docking here in Cebu, on pier 4, near SM city.

old and grumpy

2006-11-21T21:13:00.000+08:00

I'm twenty-six years old. That's a two and a six. I beleive two means that I'm old and six means that I'm grumpy. This is true. Lately, I've had a couple of experiences that would prove my twenty-six-ness. One of those just happened earlier this evening. I was in the elevator with two of my co-workers and three others who were probably working at the another office space on the same floor as ours. Anyway, as I got into the elevator, this guy - one of the "three others" - blatantly asked why our company was named as it is named. (Okay, before I go on, I'd have to say that our company's name is quite, shall we say, Mtv-ish. It's basically an easy target for jokes, even for mentally challenged people). If this incident happened before I became old-and-grumpy, I'd probably say something witty back at him. However, since I'm 2[old]6[grumpy], I simply gave him a solid-baldy-old-guy stare and said nothing. It's a good thing one of my co-workers jokingly said that we made/sold soap. Everyone in the elevator laughed except for... guess who? Yeah, that's right. Everyone except grumpy-old-me.

early morning WTF?

2006-11-16T07:53:00.000+08:00

Anyone who had had the experience of writing software for a company would be quite familiar with the word DEADLINE. And anyone who wants to write good software would probably cringe everytime that word is uttered. Unfortunately, the industry is all about making money - by selling stuff that don't necessarily work. Hell, I've even seen stuff that were sold that weren't even made yet. Moreover, even if these things don't work, there are still idiots who are more than willing to buy them.

So, programmers have deadlines. Products are soold. Idiots buy them. And, this cycle will continue for all eternity...

What-The-Fuck?

risen from the muddy banks of my cubicle

2006-11-13T20:23:00.000+08:00

How long has it been? Three? Four months? I don't know. I haven't really kept track of things lately.

I've been spending most of my time at work. I kind of feel like I'm actually living there already. I guess it's safe to say that, "Home is where all the caffiene is stashed". Ha-Ha-and-Ha. You know what? I think that my "over-staying" at the office can be attributed to the following:

My computer at home borked.
The office has free coffee.
The office has an uber fast internet connection.
The office has air-conditioning.
I'm broke - I have no idea where all my moolah went these passed few months.
I'm working on really interesting stuff (Yes, this sounds overly pretentious... I know).
I get to watch movies during my freetime. They're all pirated, of course.
My room is disgusting and I hate staying there.
My toilet stinks. The office toilet smells so much better.
I have no life.

Well, that's about it. I really really hope I could post more often. And wait, I've just checked the dates on my blog, it's been roughly six months since my last post. Tsk tsk tsk.

My not-so-briliant-idea

2006-05-30T21:01:00.000+08:00

I've been thinking about how blogs can be used in schools. The most viable idea I can think of is, students can simply post their written assignments, papers and other projects on their blogs instead of submitting hard copies. Of course, these "student blogs" must be accessible anywhere.

(For example sake, I'll use a name, uhhmmmmm... okay, I'll use Berting because it's all I can think of at the moment.)

Berting has three papers that he needs to submit. One paper for his English-101, another one for his Chemistry-202 and his favorite, CS-69. Berting can customize his blog and "categorize" his posts according to the subjects he is currently taking. So, he has a link for English-101 where all his English-101 papers are going to be posted, another for his Chemistry-202, so on and so forth...

PROS

Berting can make a much better paper (graphics? links? what else can you ask for?) as compared to the usual A4 bond papers fastend in a brown folder.
Berting's professor can simply read his post through a computer. No more stacked papers on desks.
There are already web applications that can do this. All it takes is to extend these existing applications to fit Berting's needs.

CONS

Since the blog is accessible anywhere, security is a huge issue.
There are still people in this world that don't like using computers.
There's got to be more, I'm sure...

I'm not sure if there are already Schools or Universities that are using blogs this way. Anyway, I'd appreciate comments from you guys. I'll be digging in to this and I'll probably post more about this not-so-brilliant-idea.

the most adorable creatures in the universe

2006-05-29T19:57:00.000+08:00

I was very busy last week - before, during and after work. Come to think of it, I was a heck busier before and after as compared to during. Why? My family came here for on a vacation - Yep, all four of them. My mum, dad and of course, my not-little-anymore sister. To tell you the truth, they are the most adorable creatrues in the universe - No sarcasm attached. We had a lot of catching up to do so we agreed to have breakfast and dinner together, which was fun and exhausting at the same time.

Fun because I get to tease my not-little-anymore sister about her weight(she's been bloating up ever since she started working) -AND- I get to hear my dad and my not-little-anymore sister argue all the time over the most non-trivial things in the F******-universe, very very entertaining. Makes me wish I had had a video camera and capture everything on video - "priceless".

Exhausting because I need to get up really early every morning, that was from Monday to Friday, just so I can have breakfast with the-most-adorable-creatrues-in-the-universe. Breakfast is really not part of my daily routine. Well, if you count caffeine and nicotine as a valid breakfast then, okay, I do have breakfast. Anyway, they were staying somewhere else because they can't stay at my place - I live in a tiny room, among other reasons. And, on evenings, I usually come home really late, around 11 or 12'oclock. All because I can't resist the urge to witness my dad and my not-little-aymore sister verbally suffocate each other. My mum and I would just look at each other with a here-they-go-again look and laugh.

They're back in CDO now... I kinda miss them already.

my ruby woes - issue #1

2006-05-15T21:39:00.000+08:00

I was trying out ruby's socket library last night and something weird happened. Have you ever read those ruby books that say you only need to do a

require 'socket'

and after that, you can fire away with all your socket programming fetishes? Well, in my case, it wasn't that straightforward. The problem was that my script wouldn't run... ruby says that it couldn't recognise the 'socket' in `require 'socket''. So, my initial reaction was that I may have messed up my ruby library paths, but that wasn't the case. After a few hours of tinkering, I finally found out what went wrong and honestly, it's really embarassing, I'm quite surprised why I'm even bothering to blog about it. I'm not sure how I can explain this cleary, so I'll be blurting out crap from the top of my head and hopefully you'd all get it.

my box -> Slackware 10
ruby source -> ruby-1.8.4.tgz
problem source-> me

Fact #1 - Slackware doesn't come with ruby
Fact #2 - the ruby configure script doesn't install everything (on some systems)

I'll do away with Fact#1 because it's pretty self explanatory. As for Fact#2, well, uhmmm... okay, let me explain something first. I'm a very impatient person. So when I installed ruby, I never read the README file. Instead, I went straight to doing a 1) `./configure' 2) `make' 3) `make install', then I sat back and smiled, thinking that I'm such l33t hax0r. This, my little ones, brings us to lesson number one: README FILES ARE MEANT TO BE READ.

Here's what I missed:

...
4. Remove comment mark(#) before the module names from ext/Setup (or
add module names if not present), if you want to link modules
statically.

If you don't want to compile non static extension modules
(probably on architectures which does not allow dynamic loading),
remove comment mark from the line "#option nodynamic" in
ext/Setup.
...

(taken from the README file found in the ruby source tree)

I skimmed through the ext/Setup file and sure enough, 'socket' had a comment mark(#). Now that I have finally figured out the problem of what was supposed to be something very obvious - if only I read the README file in the first place - I went straight to uncomemnting the line, compiled the source and ran my program. While I was doing all that, I couldn't help but constantly repeat to myself, "What an idiot! What an idiot! What an idiot! ...".

Well, that's that. I know some of you (people who I know personally and are constantly lurking around my blog) are also studying ruby. I'm hoping you'd also share the things that you'd come accross - no matter how small.

A long way down

2006-05-13T22:33:00.000+08:00

I had fun reading this book. That there is an understatement.

It's all about four completely different people who, cioncidentally, met on top of a building because all four of them wanted to kill themselves. But things didn't go as they've planned - maybe suicide is like taking a piss... it's hard to go when there's someone watching. So instead, they decided to "postpone" their plans and along the way, they ended up helping each other out.

The thing that I like about the book is that even if it's about suicide(totally serious shit), the author - Nick Hornby - successfully squeezed in just the right amount of humor. "Right amount" as in every page kind of right amount. Also, it's written in the first person. So you get to read each of the character's first hand impressions and thoughts, which I think is cool because I've never read anything that was written this way before. As for me, I was sort of under the impression that I was reading blog posts of four suicidals.

I know that talking about how a particular book made you feel is just so boring. And corny. And cheesy. And typical. And... so I'm going to do just that. Here it goes: You see, every person had at one point thought about suicide (We somehow have this impression that wanting to kill yourself is crazy. I tend to think otherwise. People who haven't contemplated on commiting suicide are the ones who are crazy. Either that or they're just hypocritical wussies). You know, one of those what-if moments (like what if I was rich or what if I hooked-up with Britney Spears or what if I was the ONE) that you have while your, ummm... taking a shower or when your sulking in your room, etc... But anyway, my point is, everyone can easily relate to the story (I need to stop using cliches). To me, it's basically a life affirming story. Go ahead and read it to see what I mean.

why

2006-05-02T21:25:00.000+08:00

I'm constantly wondering how far I should go with what I post. There's practically a lot of things going on with my used-to-be-boring life that I want to yell out to the entire Internet. I don't think it's only me. I guess, practically all ~~bloggers~~ wanna-be writers have, on one occasion, had this dilemma. It's quite fascinating how I can write about anything, about anyone and nobody will ever care. But even if that's the case, there's this little voice inside my very spacious head telling me that even if I have all the freedom to fire away and write whatever I want, I still have an ounce of responsibility towards what I write. And most specially, who I write about (Do I have the knack for complicating things or what?).

People write for different reasons. They're not writers in the usual sense of the word, but they write because it's fun. It's something that they want to do to sort of fill the gaps of reality by stepping back, putting time to a halt and transform the moment into words. And that's exactly the reason why I write.

In no particular order, I'm proud of...

2006-04-30T16:54:00.000+08:00

+ my MP3 collection

+ my crap-infested country, Philippines

+ my parents

+ my sister

+ my CS batchmates and their wicked-sick blogs

+ my PC (a used and old Dell box - P3 750Mghz; 128MB; dual boot: Slackware/FreeBSD)

+ my cousins (they're so many it would take forever to mention all of their names)

+ my "ukay-ukay" shirts

+ my very old Nokia cellphone (it's so old I can't even remember the model) - I'm so proud of this baby and I doubt if any sane person will even want to snatch this phone

+ this crappy blog

it's all coming back again

2006-04-27T21:15:00.000+08:00

Two things common with my current job (where I've just started a couple of weeks ago) and with my old suffocating one (also just about the same time when I started there) are:

1) We'll transfering to a new place in a couple of months.
2) Management is hiring more FEMALES.

I'm really excited with number one because we'll be transfering to a new, huge and spacious office space and it's just right at the back of my old office. And as for number two, well, uhmmm... let's just say that it's an added benefit - equivalent to an "insurance plan". Heh.

Frankly speaking, I'm making an effort to sound as if I'm not freaking out about the whole scenario. I find it weird - twilight zone kinda weird. I was in the same situation exectly four years ago and the only difference is that - this is embarasing - I'm oldER.

The two things I mentioned above are the good parts. I hope the bad ones won't come sneaking-up on me again.

another post with a very inappropriate title

2006-04-22T21:39:00.000+08:00

A while ago, I was listening to radioio. It's an online radio station playing really good music. As for me, really-good-music means music that I don't normally hear because they get little or no airtime at all but sounds really familiar. I live in shite_hole_Pilipinas. If you've lived here long enough, you'd most probably agree with me when I say that radio stations around this part of the world play all sorts of crap (Note: Even if I called my country a shite_hole, I would like everyone to know that I still love this shite_hole and as a citizen of the Philippines who had been contributing a decent amount time, effort and money to help the economy, I have every right to call this country a shite_hole). Anyway, one particular song caught my attention. It's a song entitled "Cause=Time" by Broken social Scene. Evidently, the band's history is quite interesting and most of all, they sound really good. What bugs me is that they've been around for quite sometime - Why oh why am I always the last person in the world to hear about the good stuff. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

Yet Another Online Test (YAOT)

2006-04-16T16:29:00.000+08:00

This one is called the "Personal DNA Test". I got the link from this blog.

The test labeled me as a "generous creator". It sounds really funny - I have the impression that I'm being compared to some higher being or something. "All hail the Generous Creator! We are not worthy. We could have been roaches but instead, his majesty made us spacemonkeys."

Anyway, if you want to take the test, click here.

"what now?" minus the "now" (only an idiot can come up with such a title)

2006-04-11T21:48:00.000+08:00

It's been two days, TWO! I must be on some kind of funky designer drug because I feel really really suh-weeeeeeet. So sweet that I'm having this constant urge to lick myself dry.

No, seriously, I'm just having so much fun with my new job. However, this will be the last time that I'd post someting about it. Last Monday, I signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with them. I know that NDA's aren't absolute. But, at the same time, I know myself well enough - when I start typing, I always go all the way. So, to make things a lot easier, it's best for me to just zip it.

This brings us to my previous post - "What now?". Certainly, the blogging-about-my-new-job is out of the picture (fucking NDA). Oh well, there are tons of things that I could still write about. I guess, right now, I'll simply just "go with the flow".

BTW, to those of you who made comments on my previous post, I just want to say that I really appreciate them. I mean it. All BS aside, I wish I could write things that you, my-readers-who-are-out-numbered-by-my-fingers, would want to read -OR- simply make fun at. So keep 'em coming! It's nice to hear from you guys.

what now?

2006-04-09T16:58:00.000+08:00

I started this blog so that I could rant about my job, no wait, PREVIOUS job. Technically, today is my last day and since it's a Sunday, well, you know what I mean...right?

Anyway, tomorrow's my fist day on my new job. I'm realy really excited about the whole thing but at the same time, I'm bothered by the fact that I may not be ranting about work anymore. Uhm, maybe it'll just be temporary - you never know what type of creatures are lurking down at my new workplace.

The thing is, now that I'm totally free from all types of ass wrecking known to mankind, I'm just at a blank as to what I would blog about in the coming months. So, if you happen to read this post and you have something in mind, just go ahead and tell me about it.