[busy signaL]
[Saturday, December 31, 2005]
i. foresight
my father has this habit of bundling up the family and taking us all the way to fairview every once in a while to have lunch and|or dinner with his co-workers at radio veritas asia, where he does charity newscasting once a week. since veritas is a catholic radio station, the aforementioned colleagues consist of foreign priests and missionaries from the south asian region.
this year, we went the week after christmas in order to have new year's lunch with them. my father noticed a large mound of gifts gathering dust in a far corner and asked what that was about, probably thinking they were being reserved for charity. father john, who served as the hindi news team leader, quietly told us that they were gifts from the team to 'friends' of the radio station, who had promised to visit them before the year ended.
where does one go from there?
ii. shortsight
i needed to go to the hp service center in makati to find a replacement adaptor for our printer. having passed by the shop only once before, the only clue i had to its exact whereabouts was that it was located somewhere in the vicinity of the insular life building on ayala avenue. i therefore took a washington jeep along ayala, keeping an eye out for some sign of the insular life building, but decided to bail out at a starbucks on the street across from the stock exchange, in case i'd gone too far.
while about to enter the underpass that would enable me to retrace my route, i noticed a sign that denoted the locations of two delifrance outlets, one of which was in the "insular building, 1 min away". so the insular building was a minute away. not too far, except that the accompanying arrow was pointing left, and the underpass had no tunnel in that direction.
that meant that the insular building was either a) on the corner street from where i was, or b) on the corner street from where i was, but on the opposite side. since the sign was located within the underpass, i assumed that option b was correct, and walked in that direction, until i caught sight of the mandarin hotel and knew that something was amiss. i then crossed paseo de roxas at the makati avenue intersection and walked back to the starbucks, this time on the opposite side of the road. in another five minutes i was back at the starbucks, with neither insular life building nor delifrance successfully located.
i decided to walk along ayala avenue towards edsa, thinking that perhaps the signs were misprinted. i gave up and turned back at the manila penn - i didn't recall that the hp center was that close to greenbelt. casting my eyes to heaven, i began to question what manner of supernatural trickery could exist in modern-day makati, when lo and behold! i saw the letters "lar life" on the side of a familiar-looking granite building. i ran back, in the direction of the letters, until the roof of the underpass cut them off. upon exiting said underpass, i found myself back at starbucks.
what the fuck.
turns out, the letters were on the second or third floor of the building, impossible to sight from street-level unless you look straight up. the delifrance was one minute's walk into the building, not from the corner. oh, and the hp center was closed for the holidays.
iii. hindsight
my father works for the kkc group of companies, which is a conglomeration of different businesses. this means that he occasionally has lunch with executives from one of the other kkc branches. yesterday, he had lunch with someone from the industrial-strength vacuum cleaner department, who was entertaining one of their best salesmen from the states: a certan ramon, who claims to be formerly of the disco music group hagibis.
to prove his authenticity, he regaled the dining customers with a one-man rendition of katawan, the impeccability of which my father could not verify, aside from his being unusually spirited. as for myself, i can find no listing of hagibis members online, as all links redirect me to pages concerning the typhoons of 2003.
but then again, what is there to gain for a vacuum cleaner salesman to gain by falsely claiming such? past or present, his job still sucks.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 3:48 PM
comments (2)
my father has this habit of bundling up the family and taking us all the way to fairview every once in a while to have lunch and|or dinner with his co-workers at radio veritas asia, where he does charity newscasting once a week. since veritas is a catholic radio station, the aforementioned colleagues consist of foreign priests and missionaries from the south asian region.
this year, we went the week after christmas in order to have new year's lunch with them. my father noticed a large mound of gifts gathering dust in a far corner and asked what that was about, probably thinking they were being reserved for charity. father john, who served as the hindi news team leader, quietly told us that they were gifts from the team to 'friends' of the radio station, who had promised to visit them before the year ended.
where does one go from there?
ii. shortsight
i needed to go to the hp service center in makati to find a replacement adaptor for our printer. having passed by the shop only once before, the only clue i had to its exact whereabouts was that it was located somewhere in the vicinity of the insular life building on ayala avenue. i therefore took a washington jeep along ayala, keeping an eye out for some sign of the insular life building, but decided to bail out at a starbucks on the street across from the stock exchange, in case i'd gone too far.
while about to enter the underpass that would enable me to retrace my route, i noticed a sign that denoted the locations of two delifrance outlets, one of which was in the "insular building, 1 min away". so the insular building was a minute away. not too far, except that the accompanying arrow was pointing left, and the underpass had no tunnel in that direction.
that meant that the insular building was either a) on the corner street from where i was, or b) on the corner street from where i was, but on the opposite side. since the sign was located within the underpass, i assumed that option b was correct, and walked in that direction, until i caught sight of the mandarin hotel and knew that something was amiss. i then crossed paseo de roxas at the makati avenue intersection and walked back to the starbucks, this time on the opposite side of the road. in another five minutes i was back at the starbucks, with neither insular life building nor delifrance successfully located.
i decided to walk along ayala avenue towards edsa, thinking that perhaps the signs were misprinted. i gave up and turned back at the manila penn - i didn't recall that the hp center was that close to greenbelt. casting my eyes to heaven, i began to question what manner of supernatural trickery could exist in modern-day makati, when lo and behold! i saw the letters "lar life" on the side of a familiar-looking granite building. i ran back, in the direction of the letters, until the roof of the underpass cut them off. upon exiting said underpass, i found myself back at starbucks.
what the fuck.
turns out, the letters were on the second or third floor of the building, impossible to sight from street-level unless you look straight up. the delifrance was one minute's walk into the building, not from the corner. oh, and the hp center was closed for the holidays.
iii. hindsight
my father works for the kkc group of companies, which is a conglomeration of different businesses. this means that he occasionally has lunch with executives from one of the other kkc branches. yesterday, he had lunch with someone from the industrial-strength vacuum cleaner department, who was entertaining one of their best salesmen from the states: a certan ramon, who claims to be formerly of the disco music group hagibis.
to prove his authenticity, he regaled the dining customers with a one-man rendition of katawan, the impeccability of which my father could not verify, aside from his being unusually spirited. as for myself, i can find no listing of hagibis members online, as all links redirect me to pages concerning the typhoons of 2003.
but then again, what is there to gain for a vacuum cleaner salesman to gain by falsely claiming such? past or present, his job still sucks.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 3:48 PM
comments (2)
the quality of food is, in fact, measured through quantity; i.e.: the better a certain dish tastes, the more of it will be gone by the end of the meal. a truly great chef will even sway the minds of those who insist that they've already eaten, or are on a diet. therefore, the supreme complement to such a cook would be the sight of guests full to the point of bursting, teetering on their chairs like volatile sacks of wet cement, unable to move.
so why isn't "nakakasuka po ang pagkain n'yo" a compliment?
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 9:26 AM
comments (0)
so why isn't "nakakasuka po ang pagkain n'yo" a compliment?
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 9:26 AM
comments (0)
[Monday, December 26, 2005]
always look on the bright side of life
nil, null, nix, nada, zero, zip, zilch.
the challenge here is to think of a supposed bright side that i can draw out for dramatic irony. let's see... how about "at least i didn't have to wait until we left to find out what crap-ass gift i got this year"?
yeah, that'll do.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 12:22 AM
comments (3)
[Sunday, December 25, 2005]
while snooping through jen's blog, i came across her discusson of the christmas song "i saw mommy kissing santa claus". if it displeases you to read my interpretation of the poetic situation [it's written in the vernacular*], i will reiterate the facts:
1. the child, not knowing the marital repercussions of his mother kissing another man, will assume that his father will also find the situation funny.
2. santa claus, in his field of magnitudes, is not a threat to his parents' relationship, any more than the easter bunny, or his own grandfather, is.
3. the second verse, involving the unseemly ticking between mommy and santa claus, implies that things aren't what they seem; it reveals [or, it should reveal] that the mother is sharing a private chuckle with the father, who is in disguise.
4. therefore, the situation is actually of the child wishing for the father to share in the discovery, not realizing that the father *is* the discovery.
5. then of course the parents will more likely have kinky christmas sex, and the kid will more likely develop christmas trauma.
sige ingat.ü
---
vernacular: sad as it is to admit it, taglish has replaced filipino as the lingua franca. it pains me each time i say something in filipino, rephrase it in english, and still have it misconstrued. hay naku, so tanga.
posted by stani at 9:42 AM
comments (0)
1. the child, not knowing the marital repercussions of his mother kissing another man, will assume that his father will also find the situation funny.
2. santa claus, in his field of magnitudes, is not a threat to his parents' relationship, any more than the easter bunny, or his own grandfather, is.
3. the second verse, involving the unseemly ticking between mommy and santa claus, implies that things aren't what they seem; it reveals [or, it should reveal] that the mother is sharing a private chuckle with the father, who is in disguise.
4. therefore, the situation is actually of the child wishing for the father to share in the discovery, not realizing that the father *is* the discovery.
5. then of course the parents will more likely have kinky christmas sex, and the kid will more likely develop christmas trauma.
sige ingat.ü
---
vernacular: sad as it is to admit it, taglish has replaced filipino as the lingua franca. it pains me each time i say something in filipino, rephrase it in english, and still have it misconstrued. hay naku, so tanga.
posted by stani at 9:42 AM
comments (0)
[Thursday, December 22, 2005]
[Wednesday, December 21, 2005]
i. advanse: 1.0
strange grade, this one. my pre-final grade was [reportedly] a 1.5, and as far as i know, that can only get higher, not lower. but when the actual cards were given out, the other non-leaders in the tsm group all got 2.0s and i got this.
methinks he was just waiting to get back at me for the time he caught me solving the inquirer crossword in his class. owel.
ii. anmath2: 1.5
actually i was off to a good start, considering that this is my second take. my first three quiz scores were a 70, a 79, and a 78. then of course i got a 42 in the fourth quiz, and well...
i suppose that passing in itself is already more than enough, since the final exam was harder than i had expected [and had prepared for].
iii. filipi2: 4.0
actually, my pre-final grade already guaranteed me this score, on the condition that i participate in a public speaking competition along with two of my classmates. out of nine participants, we scored first, second, and fourth overall.
for some reason, i was chosen as best speaker [read: "most efficient at wasting time via convincing yet circuitous bullshit"]. the sole judge commentary on my grading sheet was "maayos".
'sus, nag-comment ka pa.
iv. intrnlp: 2.5
three impromptu presentations and an mp completely sourced from the internet - i had it coming.
v. lasaret: p
was a complete waste of time though.
vi. stthes1: 0.0
ah, the coup de grace. the full story is that my thesis group had prepared the documents for second defense thinking that the deadline was two days later than it actually was; the bottom line is that we failed.
the night we found out that we had missed the deadline, i accidentally left my wallet in the taxi on the way to work. i had already turned the corner by the time i realized that it wasn't in my right-hand pocket. sprinting back, i watched the taxi speed away, and all but gave my wallet up for lost. then i saw the taxi rolling to a stop at the next intersection, waiting for the lights to turn.
needless to say, i recovered my wallet - some opportunities are given, others you have to take.
bearing this in mind, and since i had my scholarship to consider, jin his student visa, and kaine his latin honors, we wrote letters to the thesis coordinator asking for reconsideration, but the outcome was unfortunately unchanged.
so what now?
well, i have to stay one extra term in gox. one more term with my friends; one more term of dota, videoke, and malate. it means that i can play in next year's pasicatchan, and gives me three more months to think about what i really want to do in life.
the downside? hmm... that's a tough one.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 12:35 PM
comments (2)
strange grade, this one. my pre-final grade was [reportedly] a 1.5, and as far as i know, that can only get higher, not lower. but when the actual cards were given out, the other non-leaders in the tsm group all got 2.0s and i got this.
methinks he was just waiting to get back at me for the time he caught me solving the inquirer crossword in his class. owel.
ii. anmath2: 1.5
actually i was off to a good start, considering that this is my second take. my first three quiz scores were a 70, a 79, and a 78. then of course i got a 42 in the fourth quiz, and well...
i suppose that passing in itself is already more than enough, since the final exam was harder than i had expected [and had prepared for].
iii. filipi2: 4.0
actually, my pre-final grade already guaranteed me this score, on the condition that i participate in a public speaking competition along with two of my classmates. out of nine participants, we scored first, second, and fourth overall.
for some reason, i was chosen as best speaker [read: "most efficient at wasting time via convincing yet circuitous bullshit"]. the sole judge commentary on my grading sheet was "maayos".
'sus, nag-comment ka pa.
iv. intrnlp: 2.5
three impromptu presentations and an mp completely sourced from the internet - i had it coming.
v. lasaret: p
was a complete waste of time though.
vi. stthes1: 0.0
ah, the coup de grace. the full story is that my thesis group had prepared the documents for second defense thinking that the deadline was two days later than it actually was; the bottom line is that we failed.
the night we found out that we had missed the deadline, i accidentally left my wallet in the taxi on the way to work. i had already turned the corner by the time i realized that it wasn't in my right-hand pocket. sprinting back, i watched the taxi speed away, and all but gave my wallet up for lost. then i saw the taxi rolling to a stop at the next intersection, waiting for the lights to turn.
needless to say, i recovered my wallet - some opportunities are given, others you have to take.
bearing this in mind, and since i had my scholarship to consider, jin his student visa, and kaine his latin honors, we wrote letters to the thesis coordinator asking for reconsideration, but the outcome was unfortunately unchanged.
so what now?
well, i have to stay one extra term in gox. one more term with my friends; one more term of dota, videoke, and malate. it means that i can play in next year's pasicatchan, and gives me three more months to think about what i really want to do in life.
the downside? hmm... that's a tough one.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 12:35 PM
comments (2)
pahamak is usually translated as 'troublemaker' so it's easy to assume that hamak denotes a form of risk or danger. actually, the direct translation of hamak is closer to 'poor'. this came to my attention upon reading one of the placards with short rhymes present in jeeps, usually hanging somewhere behind the driver's seat:
hamak man akong driver
ang paninilbihan
ay gawaing marangal
or something to that effect. anyway, the point is that pahamak literally means a person or situation that leads to difficult times, while 'di hamak is a piece of information sure not to.
another puzzler before i end: the phrase 'malay ko' is a shortened form of the question 'ano'ng malay ko?'; does this imply that that the phrase 'ewan ko' evolved similarly? and if not, what exactly is an 'ewan' and how does one come to possess it?
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 2:17 AM
comments (0)
hamak man akong driver
ang paninilbihan
ay gawaing marangal
or something to that effect. anyway, the point is that pahamak literally means a person or situation that leads to difficult times, while 'di hamak is a piece of information sure not to.
another puzzler before i end: the phrase 'malay ko' is a shortened form of the question 'ano'ng malay ko?'; does this imply that that the phrase 'ewan ko' evolved similarly? and if not, what exactly is an 'ewan' and how does one come to possess it?
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 2:17 AM
comments (0)
[Monday, December 12, 2005]
something you should never hear when you've just woken up
asha: ano?
self: *waiting for eliza page to load*
asha: ano? ano?
self: uh... my dick. *papow!*
asha: o talaga? sige, i'll show you mine. *popow!*
self: *suddenly wide awake*
omgwtfbbq!
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 5:40 PM
comments (2)
it's interesting how opposing the connotations people place on the starboard and port directions are. you may or may not know that the latin word for the right hand is dexter [from which we've evolved "dexterity" and "dexterous"] while that for the left is sinister.
lefties were said to be anti-social and prone to madness; the majority of men continue to masturbate with their "off" [read: evil] hand. biologically, too, there is a bias towards the right - 80%, to be exact.
it has come to the point of one direction denoting inclusion ["right behind"] and the other, exclusion ["left behind"].
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 1:46 AM
comments (0)
lefties were said to be anti-social and prone to madness; the majority of men continue to masturbate with their "off" [read: evil] hand. biologically, too, there is a bias towards the right - 80%, to be exact.
it has come to the point of one direction denoting inclusion ["right behind"] and the other, exclusion ["left behind"].
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 1:46 AM
comments (0)
[Tuesday, December 06, 2005]
self: TANGINA MO
jonat: TANGINA MO
chudor: putang ina
renz: tangina ka
vanessa: shet ka
renz_eullo: amp!
ak: pucha ka
rizza: arun!!! i dont like you!!!
gina: BWISET!!!
izzy: i hate you
nads: tae ka
hips: bastard
pam: bastard. yes. merry xmas
marian: PAPATAYIN KITA!!!
theduh: OMG!
tactac: lintik
stan: *dies of heart attack*
bong: TANGINA MO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dandi: arun i will feed your balls to the agno chickens!
tin2: gago ka!!!!!!!!
asha: you fucker!
jin: hm.. it is kind of shock..
spread the love.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 8:36 PM
comments (5)
jonat: TANGINA MO
chudor: putang ina
renz: tangina ka
vanessa: shet ka
renz_eullo: amp!
ak: pucha ka
rizza: arun!!! i dont like you!!!
gina: BWISET!!!
izzy: i hate you
nads: tae ka
hips: bastard
pam: bastard. yes. merry xmas
marian: PAPATAYIN KITA!!!
theduh: OMG!
tactac: lintik
stan: *dies of heart attack*
bong: TANGINA MO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dandi: arun i will feed your balls to the agno chickens!
tin2: gago ka!!!!!!!!
asha: you fucker!
jin: hm.. it is kind of shock..
spread the love.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 8:36 PM
comments (5)
i don't consider myself particularly lucky. unlike most people, lady luck only drops by when someone else needs a favor from her. take today, for instance: for our pre-final grade in filipi2, we were asked to formulate arguments for both sides of a motion, one of which we would defend in front of another section. the idea was that if the stage fright didn't kill you, the impartiality of the audience's impressions would.
i chose to discuss whether or not the need for a writer to experience first-hand the events he or she writes about is of any importance. to introduce government, i planned to state that men shouldn't write about pregnancy any more than women about circumcision, and to introduce opposition, i planned to take the class on a short tour of tolkien's middle earth. the tragedy was that i drew government, but suddenly realized 30 seconds into my speech that i was defending opposition. i quickly shafted, but it was obvious that the damage had already been done.
i exited the classroom fully expecting a grade under 2.0; instead, i ended up as one of the two or three speakers who garnered a four.
still in shock, i was shakily making my way down the stairs of velasco, when i ran into mitch [of "mitch-agon" fame] who, it turned out, only had time to prepare for opposition. it was at that moment that it all made sense, and in faith i handed her my yet-unused outline for government.
sure enough, she drew government.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 7:49 PM
comments (0)
i chose to discuss whether or not the need for a writer to experience first-hand the events he or she writes about is of any importance. to introduce government, i planned to state that men shouldn't write about pregnancy any more than women about circumcision, and to introduce opposition, i planned to take the class on a short tour of tolkien's middle earth. the tragedy was that i drew government, but suddenly realized 30 seconds into my speech that i was defending opposition. i quickly shafted, but it was obvious that the damage had already been done.
i exited the classroom fully expecting a grade under 2.0; instead, i ended up as one of the two or three speakers who garnered a four.
still in shock, i was shakily making my way down the stairs of velasco, when i ran into mitch [of "mitch-agon" fame] who, it turned out, only had time to prepare for opposition. it was at that moment that it all made sense, and in faith i handed her my yet-unused outline for government.
sure enough, she drew government.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 7:49 PM
comments (0)
[Sunday, December 04, 2005]
that's at least four months more. april 2006.
wonderful indeed.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 2:29 PM
comments (1)
[Saturday, December 03, 2005]
yesterday i consented to jonat spiriting me away to xaymaca for brownman revival's friday set.
i learned two things last night: that a live set is infinitely more impressive than a recorded one, and that it doesn't take urbandub-level talent to impress an audience.
this is perhaps another beginning.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 9:03 PM
comments (0)
i learned two things last night: that a live set is infinitely more impressive than a recorded one, and that it doesn't take urbandub-level talent to impress an audience.
this is perhaps another beginning.
sige ingat.ü
posted by stani at 9:03 PM
comments (0)