Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Being Preoccupied

For the past few years, I didn't want to be idle during summer, mainly because boredom results in a lot of spending.

The solution to this was usually getting a summer job. Sure, it was low paying, but time spent working was time not spent buying stuff.

Of course lately, I've been too busy.

Had to wake up early yesterday in order to make my tuition payments. I did manage to finish early and board a jeepney by 8:45. By the time I was at the MRT station, I got a call from my employers. I was supposed to drop off a CD but they wanted to have a meeting with me instead.

Despite the fact that my legs were in pain because of the other day's waiting in line, I got off at Guadalupe and started walking towards Rockwell.

It has occured to me that I've been to Rockwell in the past three weeks more than I've been there for the past two years.

What was supposed to be a quick meeting turned into a 3-hour long session, since by the time I left their offices, people were already having their lunch.

Contradictions

Communication plays a vital role in any organization, whether it's business or not. Since my employers have a screwed up communication system (e.g. the executives are asking for one thing but their head honcho is asking for another), I get the short end of the stick. It goes something like this:

We want you to submit the project by 5 pm on Wednesday, but we'll only be able to give you the materials on the day itself.

We want you to submit the final product by 5 pm but we haven't given you the materials yet by 5 pm.

We trust your judgement in layouting so we're sure you'll do fine. By the way, we want you to place this pic here, this text there, etc.

We want this pic on the front page. You done with it? We changed our minds. We want another picture.

What's Free Time?

By the time I got home, found out my mom didn't have the phone line fixed even though it was grounded and I told her to call PLDT before I went to school.

Stayed a total of 30 minutes at home before I had to leave again and fetch Elbert from the MRT to escort to Dean's office.

You Learn Something New Every Day

I knew ArtFarm was in the same building as Pipineline but it was only then that I realized their offices were right next to each other. And as usual, it's the time of the year where ArtFarm actually earns money because they're giving out tutorials to students.

Surrounded by Celebrities

That's how I felt when I was in Dean's office. For one thing, there's Dean! Then there was Carlo Vergara (mental note: chide Tin and MM to buy Zsa Zsa Zaturnah which is coming out this Saturday). And I'm sure Elbert will join their ranks in a few years, if he hasn't reached that point already.

I mainly listened to Dean and Elbert's discussion, since I know zilch about comics. Some interesting points were mentioned, but I'm not at liberty to mention them (I think).

"My Time"

5 pm - 8 pm is off limits. That's the time I actually watch TV, and most of them involves anime. At least that'll be the case until this season ends.

Summer School

You'd be surprised at how busy summer can be. Heck, even the photocopiers at the library have their hands full.

A Dozen of the Century (Books of the Century)

It's the class of Mr. Pulan I'm attending. Guess how many books we're supposed to read in the span of four weeks? (Apparently, summer is only until the 23rd of May.)

And unlike Phil. Lit. where the books we were reading were mostly published here in the Philippines (hence having a cheaper price tag), the books we're reading are all imports.

Aside from the problem of price, there's also the dilemma of availability. After trying to search around Metro Manila for his own reading list, Mr. Pulan came to the conclusion not to take into consideration the availability of books when making his syllabus. "We're a third world country with third world bookstores."

Beleive me, I'm not in the mood to photocopy a dozen books.

30 minutes of Rest

Like yesterday, that's how much sleep I got once I got home. And then, it was off to work. My annoying employers sent me three emails, each containing an image that was 1 MB. Aaaaggh. It nearly clogged up my inbox.

Then, I had two and a half hours to cram work.

The Great Book Scavenging

Since I was going to pass by Rockwell to submit my work, I dropped by Fully Booked (a.k.a. Page One) to get the books on the syllabus.

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway was barely available, and Franz Kafka's The Castle was out of stock. Off to my next stop, Powerbooks PB Arnaiz.

There was only one book that I managed to obtain there, which was The Stranger by Albert Camus. Surprisingly, the main branch of Powerbooks didn't have a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But the branch in Glorietta did.

Then it was off to my favorite bookstore, A Different Bookstore. Managed to get the last copies of Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) and Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie). On a side note, ADB has Raymond Feist's new book on hardcover, Talons of a Silver Hawk.

Things I Observed About Our Bookstores

As I said before, there's a monopoly on our bookstores. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all. I didn't bother going to National Bookstore because I only had a discount card to Powerbooks. Never mind the fact that they have the same owner, the same prices, and the same selection of books.

Bibliarch = Fully Booked = Sketchpad. Expensive prices but a distinctly different selection (mainly because a lot of their books are European versions).

Oh yeah, saw this ad at Fully Booked. "Get a discount card with P10,000 worth of purchases on ONE receipt." Hahaha. I don't even shop there often enough to cover the P700 cost of the discount card. That P10,000 on one receipt is almost as ridiculous as ADB's offer to give you a 15% discount card with an accumulated purchase worth P300,000 (at least not in the three years I've been shopping there).

ADB is the only bookstore that has a bookshelf which isn't alphabetized (at least their fiction section isn't). Then again, it's a small shelf, so I don't mind. And their fiction bookshelf has sub-categories, such as Asian authors, Latin authors, etc.

I would have dropped by Goodwill Bookstore, but I feel there's just something wrong entering there carrying plastic bags from Fully Booked, Powerbooks, and ADB.

If I had the time, I would also have dropped by Books for Less, but...

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