[Blog Entry] May You Live in Interesting Times

May You Live in Interesting Times

Which is one of the things I love about this country. Although it seems everyone else is talking about our president's declaration of State of Emergency.

Of course last Thursday, before the proclamation was declared, I took a leave of absence. Everyone seems to ask me why, but I simply answered I felt like it. Apparently, me leaving work heralded something bigger.

To those who don't know where I geographically live, I'm right across the EDSA shrine. I live in the same village as Richard Gomez and La Salle high school (not to be confused with the village of former president Joseph Estrada). Unfortunately, that also means I can hear the rallies from the comfort of my room. (And my work place is in Ortigas so...)

Of course in the middle of the afternoon, I got a text message from one of my superiors, asking that I look for the contact number of a certain store. Said store not being listed in the directory or the Internet, I had to walk all the way to the branch and ask for their contact number. The store was located in Podium, near Mega Mall. That meant having to cross EDSA. While EDSA is normally peaceful, there were hordes of armed men at the choke point of Robinsons Galleria, and perhaps Ayala Ave. Unfortunately, in order to get to Mega Mall, I had to pass through Robinsons Galleria...

In better news, life was temporarily held in suspense as I found out that one of my friends had chronic hepatitis. Fortunately, it's not yet cancer. But that kind of news is like saying instead of getting an F for your finals, you got a D.

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[Blog Entry] Stupidity is Contagious

Stupidity is Contagious

Iranian bakeries rename Danish pastries. It's about as smart, as, say, Freedom Fries and Freedom bread. To be honest, I'd prefer this than violence, really. But no offense to Americans, it's everyone's right to protest in whatever peaceful way they deem possible. It's just that changing food names is simply... uh... unintimidating.

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[Blog Entry] Guerilla Post

Guerilla Post

This is one of those entries where you laugh at your own antics. Yesterday marked the end of the first week of PangYa's Hole in One Challenge. PangYa is a casual golf game with RPG elements. The mechanics of the contest is that if make a hole-in-one, you'll win P100,000, divided equally among the winners. The good news is that I won. The bad news is that so did 80+ other people. But extra money is still extra money.

It was a decade ago that I started playing Magic: The Gathering. The stand-alone expansion back then was Ice Age, and would be followed by Alliances and Homelands. Now Homelands was a moderate success at best (better than Fallen Empires); when story was talked about, people always referred to the fact that it had a 100+ storyline that it couldn't printed. Ten years later, they're doing what we call in comics a retcon. A new expansion is taking its place as the sequel to Ice Age, and it's Cold Snap.

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[Blog Entry] Out of Synch

Out of Synch

There are days (in this case, a month) when I'm simply out of synch. Not much reading or writing, and my mentality is in a totally different mode.

Been busy over the weekend, having to work overtime to finish some transcripts. And then had an unexpected trip to EuroStar last Saturday evening (thank God it was just pay day recently). Normally, I'd describe myself as a daring person. I've been going to amusement parks abroad since I was a kid (when you're traveling with your parents, it's perhaps the only thing you look forward to) and wild rides is something I'm familiar with. Of course the first ride me and my friends decide to try was perhaps the most painful one. And yes, I meant painful. We left our mobile phones, wallets, and glasses (can't see!) at the counter and when the ride began, I knew that I wouldn't be able to ride anything else that evening. While I did get dizzy (I inherited my mom's motion sickness; to illustrate how bad it is, I get dizzy playing first-person games such as Counterstrike on the PC or Mario at the N64), a bigger issue for me was my small frame. I was getting thrown around the seat (plus the seat had a nasty protrusion in the crotch area) very hard. Once the ride was over, had to pass on the other rides that I would have otherwise normally tried, mainly due to the dizziness (and the fact that I probably shouldn't have eaten an hour ago... I didn't throw up but if I had ridden another g-force ride, I probably would have). To illustrate how painful that ride was for me, two days later, awkard portions (at odd angles) of my body is aching and has minor bruises. So if you find me in a grumpy mood, now you know.

Sunday was interesting as I arrived home at the wee hours of the morning. It was also the day when boxing promoters were trying to cash in on Manny Pacquiao's popularity, and Robinsons Galleria had this huge poster of Brian Villoria as they televised his title defense that day. I doubt if the enthusiasm was as big as that of Manny Pacquiao (and indeed, when I went to Robinsons Galleria, there were significantly less people compared to the day when Pacquiao fought Erik Morales for a second time). Even Pacquiao acted as commentator for Villoria's fight and all I can say is that right now, he's not really that great a public speaker. So yes, even while Villoria deserves credit for his success in defending his title, it seems that he's eclipsed (at least here in the Philippines) by the man we associate Filipino boxing with.

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