Destination Unknown

I’m going to invent a new word, iPoditis. It’s a noun, and it is defined as the disease with which when one is contracted, s/he will continue to collect too many audio CD’s and/or MP3’s just to load up that Gigs of spaces in his/her iPod (or similar Mp3 players).

Damn, I think I caught an ipoditis. This disease is so contaminating, especially when propagated around the air of someone who is bent on jazz! Worse, there seem to be no cure!

Grr!!!

Please sedate me, because my blood is boiling from my anger at certain sickos.

I am going to make a confession: chatting is not among my hobbies. I don’t go to mIRC or ICQ to communicate with random people. I do join network communities, but the people I befriend over the internet are, much like in real life, very carefully selected.

The very annoying occurrences in YM is that every so often some turds will strike a random conversation that leads to cybersex-foreplay. Then of course they’ll lead you on to an adult webpage (at great odds, spyware-infested) where you can see her "live on webcam". Sometimes I play along with the short chat just to laugh at all the dirty talks, but those conversations never last for more than 2 minutes.

But today is different. Today somebody by the name bpacamara suddenly pops me up an IM, asking me to teach him how to use YM and how to chat. As an act of courtesy I asked about his identity, but he refused to disclose it and even had the propensity and audacity to ask me to introduce him to some girls, and insisting that he’s a guy in which I shouldn’t be bothering lest he calls me gay. I’m pissed at his lack of respect, and told him off by giving him a lesson on chat ethics.

This is the paraphrase of what I told him:

"First of all, it’s rude to ask a random stranger to teach you how to use an IM software. Second, it’s even more rude to be secretive when the random stranger you bothered asks for your identity. Third, don’t go around asking that random stranger to introduce you to his friends as though he’s an owner of brothels.

His response? I never bothered to find out, because I already placed him on the ignore list. And if this bpacamara also bothers you, you know where you read about him. The ignore button isn’t very hard to find.

The protagonist in Neil Gaiman’s "The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish" mentioned that there are people who have a great idea once in a lifetime. These are the people who make the world’s great inventions. And then there are people who never have a great idea at all.

However naive the point of view is, I’m glad that I’m a little like the protagonist in which, like him, I can claim to have a good idea at least once a week. But before you accuse me of being conceited, let me tell you this: we all are capable of having great ideas. Some people are just more capable of making the idea sound.

But I digress. That’s enough of those profound pep talk. I myself am feeling a little squirmish in saying those words. Just a few days ago, people were asking me advices on how to deal with life’s problems. I warned them on two things: 1. I’m crazy, and 2. I don’t give good advices. Because I’m very adverse to platitudes, instead of borrowing overused quotes used in response to how to solve life’s issues, I told her:

"I’ve failed, sinned,  stumbled, and been scorned. And yet I’m still standing. You know why? Because  crawling isn’t a very nice way to move forward."

See, I told you I’m crazy and I don’t give good advices! I don’t even know where that idea come from!

It was nearly 2 years ago when I first met Jewel, a friend of mine.

Jewel writes well. I think people who write well are interesting. So
whenever our communication lines are open, I would engage her in a conversation
that usually results to endless exchange of ideas.

Then one day, she asked, “Why are you not blogging?”

-

I used to hold a negative notion about blogs in general. On various
occasions I’ve been referred to some blogs, but I couldn’t ever get into them.
I didn’t like their writing style; and the “txt spk” and “cHaT sPeAk” gave me
headaches. Moreover, I didn’t care about the prevailing overly self-indulgent
prose within a given blog.

Part of that can be attributed to my personality too. I don’t feel very
comfortable about dissecting my personal accounts for the world to see. The
idea of writing a public diary didn’t struck me as appealing in any way.

So what happened? Why are you reading this now - in my blog, no less?

After Jewel raised the question, it got me into thinking. I’ve always
wanted to write, so I thought managing a blog wouldn’t be such a bad idea for
flexing my writing skills. Thus, I started my first blog with my hi5 account.

Alas, it was horrible. All my entries there were exactly like the blogs
I overtly despise.

-

Even in the advent of friendster blogs, I couldn’t be very enthused.
Sure, I did create a blog earlier last year, but most of the entries contain
far too many angst and emotion that were delightful to type, but banefully
embarrassing to read. The contretemps keep piling up that I couldn’t delete the
entire account soon enough.

I decided to quit blogging altogether. It’s clear to me that I wasn’t
really very interested in imitating the style of the overly self-indulgent
“live journal” format of writing. Besides, I thought any event of my life worth
telling will be told to my good friends anyway.

Then one day, as if by chance, I found this blog from one of my
classmates. After reading it, I was amazed, and had a shift of ideals.

How?

That blog wasn’t quite different in theme when compared to other blog.
This blogger would write in 2-3 short paragraphs the events that transpired,
and his observations. Doesn’t sound very exciting when read here, but visit
that link and you’ll see what I mean. In a nutshell, where this blogger differed
is that he knows how to tell people what happened, without being overly
self-indulgent and sappy, or by slinging platitudes as if having the mysteries
of life already figured out (when nobody ever does). He knows how to keep
readers from being bored. I, for one, never tires of his blog.

That blog gave me a new belief that, scarce as they may be, blogs that
are well written will give a result that’s truly magical. Blogs like that are
capable of opening a new world of insights to the viewer. And because they
mostly rely on author using his/her own personality in speaking with rapport
and intimacy, suddenly, the readers empathize and feel as one with him/her. I
wanted to write like that, and thus, came my blog that has since been around
for quite a while, because now I have a motivation and a good reference.

-

Good blogs are scarce, and frankly, even a good one may not suit
everyone’s taste. Thankfully, I got a spectacularly good taste. Here are the
blogs that are among my favorites:

Mikebot – Mikebot blogs VERY often. In fact, I sometimes wonder how he
could manage to spontaneously come up with so many ideas. Not only that, but he
manages two blogs simultaneously – one about his personal exploits; the other
about gaming PC. What does a personal trainer and I have in common? Well, maybe
only in our interests in videogames, and even in that we don’t share the same
taste. So how come I keep reading Mikebot’s blog? Answer: Because it’s damn fun
to read!

Sam Oh – If I may be so bold, I am very quick to despise TV
personalities, especially the obnoxious ones (Hello, Kris Aquino?) Sam Oh,
however, is simply amazing.

Before earning a spot on ETC, she used to belong to the same school as I. We don’t really hang out
with each other, so I’m not sure what her character is and all. After reading
her blogs, however, I am now overflowing with regret: she’s a lot of fun! It’s
already reasonably difficult for a TV personality to manage a blog, so in that
Sam deserves kudos. I love the way she perceives the world.
I love how she vents anger on the silly things that happen. If there’s a
realization, it’s that it would’ve been spectacular to hang out with her. But
as it stands, reading her blog is the next best thing.

Gene Park – Gene’s blog border on inspirational, and that’s fine,
because it’s eloquent no matter what the tone. I’m yearning for another update
on his blog. Why is it taking such a long time? He’s a journalist for crying
out loud!

Ok, so maybe that makes sense. There’s just so much writing you can do
in a day before you feel exhausted. But damn, I still want to read Gene’s blog!
His blogs are sometimes poetic, sometimes funny, and always entertaining.

Patrick Ty – English is our country’s secondary language, and a
mandatory learning too. So how come it’s so rare to find someone in this
country that writes English so well? Oh Pat, just when will you next update your blog?
I so miss it! His is the blog I was referring to; the one that inspired me to
make one. Honestly, isn’t that more than enough praises? I’m afraid that he might have already developed a giant ego due to reading my fluff.

Ika – Ika and I actually have some rather peculiar, dubious history. No,
it has got nothing to do with romance. I’d rather keep that to myself and
besides, I’ve already put it behind me. The point is that, I like Ika’s
writing. She doesn’t keep her blog updated too often, but her most recent entry
was able to immediately earn her a spot among my favorites. And I like her
“riot grrl” tones.

I don’t even want to give praises anymore: just read her most recent
entry. It has left me speechless.

I don’t want people to think
I’m twisted, but I make some very crazy dreams. Example? Yesterday night’s.

In this dream, I was a
bounty hunter. Not just some ordinary bounty hunter, but a bounty hunter for monsters
and mysterious creatures. Seems to be that the world was suddenly infested with
monsters, demons, and ghosts seeking revenge on whoever/whatever that caused
their downfall. I was a ghostbuster, without of course the trap gadget but
with, of course, the wit as a weapon. I felt like John Constantine, even though I’ve never watched the movie.

My assignment turned out to be that I’m required to pose as a student of a presitigious university. It so happened that this school had recent occurrences of woman
disappearing, and rumor was that there’s a woman-eating demon lurking nearby. I
was to investigate the incident. Of course like most suspense movies, the rumor
was as true as the laws of gravity.

A huge span of time of my
dream was about finding the means to defeat the monster once I encountered it.
I did various things like create a scarecrow that resembles a woman, to bait
the monster which was in no way stupid enough to fall for such chicanery. Then
of course in some desperate attempt I dressed like a woman. That was a little
more useful, but the monster wasn’t too knocked out of its senses. Finally, I
had no choice but to face it head on.

The rest of the dream was a
confusing mess, but I recall such things as shooting holy water installed
bullets, and pasting some papers that had various runic symbols, etc. Eventually
I had slain the monster. So when this beautiful girl whose life I had saved was about to hug and kiss me…

… somebody woke me up.

Damn!

Last Friday (This is not a starbucks entry. I promise!), after I bought a sizable amount of DVD’s with the picture quality of the original, I had to dash to the nearest restroom to clean up some mess that magically found its way into my palms. After following the directions given by a signpost, I was struck dumb by what I saw: a person at the door collecting money for all restroom "customers".

Wow. Talk about depriving free use of public, basic necessities facilities. Will someone please tell me why I have to pay just to pee? To wash hands? To defecate? Are human wastematter now worth something more than shit?

Anyway, this isn’t the article I’ve been brooding over. This entry is actually just some random occurence that I wanted to share. Truth to be told, I don’t give a cat’s poo about writing an article about pooing for 5 pesos. Blech!

Guess what day it is today? Why, it’s
Friday, of course. Do you still remember what I do during Fridays?

For those who have followed the
previous entries of the blog, I would like to say that the entry
about Starbucks created quite a buzz. In fact, that’s my entry with
the greatest amount of comments, both from people who actually posts
them, and from people who discuss with me privately.

So to everyone fitting that category, I
thank them. I thank them for taking the time to read my stuff. I
thank them for being honest with me. And because I value other
people’s opinion too, I’m now going to update that particular entry
with their observation, as well as a few new ones from myself. To
those who still haven’t read that entry, go there instead, as I will
merge my updates there. To those who have read that already, you can
just read the updates right here. Savvy?

Anyway, time to get the updates off the
chest. Let’s welcome the new casts of characters.

Note: I will put acknowledgments as to
who contributed to the idea.

Coffeetariats (thanks to Dan Dizon)
Coffeetariats are a collective group of people who probably don’t
work in a high-paying job. They probably work in call centers. Now
that’s fine. I have no problem with that. All of us needs money.

I wouldn’t immediately compare coffeetariats to the proletariats.
Karl Marx explicitly stated that proletariats are those among the
society who must sell their labor to survive. That probably applies
to coffeetariats as well.

But the difference is this: coffeetariats need to also spend 1/3 of
their daily wages on a cup of Starbucks coffee, which they probably
attend to daily, as though abiding to some sort of ritual. Gosh, of
course, how could I not notice?! It’s very important to already look
posh even before becoming a nouveau-riche!

Isn’t it fantastic how they spend lower on their lunch than on a cup
of coffee, or how they buy the prepaid card of the lowest
denominator, yet they nonchalantly spend hundreds on just a coffee?

Don Juan de Mocha
He is probably an FHM writer, but whatever the case may be, Don Juan
belongs to the FHM generation living by a principle consisting of fun
acronyms: FHM POV. Don Juan goes to Starbucks to find girls,
preferably those in dishabille. He is not interested in wits and
intellectual conversations, although he can try to pretend otherwise
by slinging some drivels with bend-over-backwards-ala-Matrix faculty
of reasoning. In reality he’s only interested in a girl’s breast size
and whether or not they would end up doing kinky stuff when the night
is no longer young. Then of course he’ll write about the encounter in
a “sex exploits” column.

Why Starbucks then, you say? Well, isn’t that kind of obvious-
Starbucks is the place to be seen! Sexy girls know that! Geez, shame
on you for asking!

Vasco de Gaga (thanks to Joy)
Vasco de Gaga is onward to an expedition. Actually, she is a student
who is a part time explorer. It is VERY important that she reaches
Starbucks on time, and whenever she can, because she needs to
encounter like-minded individuals as well! Heck, she probably
is more interested in colonizing Starbucks as opposed to colonizing
China.

So during a 1-hour lunch break, Vasco de Gaga has to dash out of St.
Paul all the way to Tomas Morato just to visit Starbucks! By riding
taxi of course! I mean if you want to go to a posh place don’t you
have to look the part as well? This is such as important matter to
her. It could mean the difference between success and failure. And
where did she get the money, you ask? Of course she always has a
reliable parent who gives her far too much allowance.

James Bean (thanks to Stephen Jou)
Great Scott, this is the man wearing what’s tagged as “Jacket
without a cause”!

This is James Bean’s instincts of what constitutes a “cool”:
jacket + sunglasses + bonnet + hiphop DJ hand gestures. Viola! Cool!
Oh my, DJ hand gestures are a must! It’s the way to establish the
“street cred”, ‘yo! Like, only a half of earth’s population are
DJ’s!

He would say “Dude, look at my jacket! And my OAKLEY! And my
accent! Ain’t I cool, y’all?”

First of all, “dude” is so Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-ish.
Second, so what if you have OAKLEY? But fine, at least I’ll
compliment your getup. Your jacket is definitely flashy. Now if only
you’d use it to actually protect your skin from raindrops, or use it
to actually keep you warm from a cold weather.

But James, you’re so not cool, because:
- You keep insisting that you’re cool
- Anyone who has to resort to wearing jackets in a tropical country,
especially during hot days, seriously misses the point.
- You’re not cool because someone can write about how you’re not
cool.
- Have you ever heard of Stan Getz? That’s what cool is all about.

Douchebag!

Lattetia
Casta (thanks to Dan Dizon)
It is said that Lattetia wears the poshest of her posh gown, while
accompanied by her fiance who, incidentally, is wearing the poshest
of his posh tux. They came from a prom, but that to them was such an
ennui. So to make their night alive and complete, they chose not to
make love; instead, they went to Starbucks after which sex is
probably negotiable.

Really, what an opportunity to waste! They’re all dressed up like
this, so a session of STARBUCKS definitely MUST follow suit – pun
intended. And what better ways to end a spectacular night than to
take pictures of the couple sipping fraps amidst all the envious
Starbucks patrons! These couple will stick around like flies
to a flypaper, since Starbucks is the be-seen place of the century!

Meanwhile I hope they don’t notice that a lot of people want nothing
more than to drop a stain to their suits. It seems they’re oblivious
to the world around them, clinging to the crotchet that coffee tastes
significantly better when you drink it while being all dressed up.

And once again, Starbucks amaze me with its multi-functionality! It
seems to cover people of different walks of life! Where else can you
find a place that’s an outlet for all of these: writers,
businesswomen, technology gurus, DJ’s, playboys, explorer, antique
collectors and fashionistas?

I dunno. I just felt like I need to tell everyone this:

Stan Getz is the cat’s pajamas! If you never listened to his song you don’t know what the hell you’re smokin’. :laughs menacingly: Sitti’s "A Girl From Ipanema" doesn’t even come close to Getz/Gilberto’s version.

Anyway, I want to make this announcement. Out of nowhere I found out that I don’t write so well when I just type my thoughts in using the Word Processor programs. I decided that from now on I would write on paper first then when I feel it’s worth bee’s knees, I’ll post them here. This means my updates will not only be less frequent, they’d be a lot angst-inducing too! :grins: But that’s okay. You don’t know where I live, and I’m totally fine with that.