Sunday, October 23, 2005
On the Road
I finally finished Jack Kerouac's On the Road, after some three weeks since I first started it. I liked it well enough, although reading the book wasn't quite the religious experience for me that it was for a lot of other people who've read the book (including rock stars such as Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison).The narrative was certainly exhilirating. In fact, while reading the book, all these crazy ideas about going on the road kept popping into my head. I should go on one of these crazy trips, like that time I went to Baguio on a whim, or when I went to Bicol alone to go to that workshop with only verbal directions on me. Come to think of it, I've never been to Mindanao. I'd like to see Mindanao. Cagayan de Oro? Or Davao? Hell, why not both. I'd RO-RO to Iloilo, spend a couple of nights getting drunk with my relatives, take a ferry to Cebu, hang out for a couple of days with Tito Junjun, then ferry to CDO. I could even make my way to Iligan, then Marawi, Gen-San, and then finally Davao. Then I'll take a ship back to Manila. January sounds good... hmm, resign kaya ako? Or better yet, AWOL?
But then, as exhilirating as the narrative was, I can't help but shake the feeling that I was just reading about a couple of jack-asses doing whatever they pleased. The constant gushing of Kerouac (as narrator Sal Paradise) over his man-crush on his crazy buddy Neal Cassady (the book's hero Dean Moriarty) didn't help either.
TGIS Forever
Just a few moments ago, I received this text message from Karl:"Astig pre katabi ko kanina d2 sa mobile1 sa podium si joaquin torres d 3rd!"
And then a few moments later, this:
"Hehe d nga c cookie ang kasama, mukhang c biscuit lang"
Poor guy. Even at the office while watching Encantadia, exchanges would go like:
"O, sino yung sumaksak kay Pirena, si Wacks?"
"Hinde, si Amihan, kasi akala niya si Hagorn si Pirena eh. Pero si Wacks yung pumatay kay Pirena pagkatapos."
Friday, October 21, 2005
Larry Legend
Larry Bird Inspires Man's Longer Jail TermOctober 20,2005 | OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man got a prison term longer than prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed to -- all because of Celtics great Larry Bird.
The lawyers reached a plea agreement Tuesday for a 30-year term for a man accused of shooting with an intent to kill and robbery. But Eric James Torpy wanted his prison term to match Bird's jersey number 33.
"He said if he was going to go down, he was going to go down in Larry Bird's jersey," Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott said Wednesday. "We accommodated his request and he was just as happy as he could be.
"I've never seen anything like this in 26 years in the courthouse. But, I know the DA is happy about it."
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Two-bottle limit lang tayo. After two bottles, wala na tayong limit
Nung Friday, kasama ko yung mga tao galing from sa dati kong office. Masaya yung reunion namin, at matagal nang overdue, dahil hindi na kami nagkakasama-sama mula nung umalis kami sa office.
Si Edong, na recently lang umalis sa office, at yung guy na kasama niya (hindi ko maalala yung pangalan), last month lang ata pumasok. Kaya hindi ko kilala.
Si Augie, nakabola na naman, kasama yung date niya, si Kitchie.
Si Lovely, na matagal na raw nililigawan ni Arbie... kaya lang hindi gumagana yung da-moves niya, hehehe.
Si Augie, Kitchie, Aly, at Frank.
Si Reggie at si Sam.
Si Selwyn, si Roel, at ang wife niya na si Eden. Si Roel yung presidente ng kumpanya nung pumasok kami ni Frank. Nung unang linggo namin dun, niyaya niya agad kami ng inuman. Naalala ko pa yung sinabi niya sa amin nun eh:
"Boys, two-bottle limit lang tayo. After two bottles, wala na tayong limit."
At tinuruan pa niya kami ng three lessons of life:
Rule No. 1 Wag na wag kang pahuhuli
Rule No. 2 Kung mahuli ka, wag na wag kang aamin
Rule No. 3 Kung umamin ka, wag na wag mo kaming idadamay
Si Rhea at si Jhermie. Si Rhea, kaklase rin namin galing sa LB, Computer Science din. Siya yung crush ko sa LB nung freshman ako. Pinapanood ko siya sa gym tuwing hapon, nagpa-practice siya sa streetdance ng "Cruel Summer" habang galing ako sa Tai Chi class namin nila Frank at Celsus sa PE.
Tapos, niyaya ko pa nga siyang pumunta sa open house namin noon sa dorm, at tuwang-tuwa ako nung pumayag siya. Pinakain ko siya ng barbecue at chicharon.
Sabi ko nga sa kanya, siya yung Mikee Cojuangco ng buhay ko. Sayang nga lang, hindi ako ang Dudut Jaworski ng buhay niya.
(My gulay, 7 years na, circa 1998, pa yung joke na yun ah.)
Nerd
Had a weird day. Came in to work just after 1, and was in meetings until 7:30, only stealing away for a quick ten-minute break for a sandwich that served as my lunch (this was around 4). At least, the meetings weren't as full of antagonism, and I fortunately came out of them reasonably happy (which means I wasn't reciting the rules of Fight Club afterwards).I was reasonably productive after the meetings as well, spending most of the evening catching up on some coding work. Then I spent this last couple of hours re-compiling and configuring one of our live web servers. It took a bit of tweaking, and there was a bit of a scare when the website went down after I copied over a back-up over a binary, but I finally got it to work.
And everything was right in the world, and I was happy.
And yes, I derive more pleasure out of this sort of thing than is healthy for a 23-year-old guy.
Friday, October 14, 2005
I'm so in love with you, I'll be forever blue
I try to discoverA little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I’m so in love with you
I’ll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you’re making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please...
give a little respect...
to...
me
This has been playing in my head for the last week or so, after Fay played a Wheatus cover of the song during poker. Wanggo lent me the original Erasure CD earlier, so I've been listening to it, instead of just singing the song like an idiot all the time :p
Labels: music
Thursday, October 13, 2005
She was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you."
Guettel and Goldman to Team on Princess Bride MusicalComposer Adam Guettel and screenwriter William Goldman will collaborate on a musical version or the hit fairy tale film "The Princess Bride," the New York Post reported.
The 1987 Rob Reiner-directed, Goldman-penned movie fits the teasing description Guettel gave for his next project, while speaking backstage at the 2005 Tony Awards. While hesitant to specifically name his next musical due to "legal reasons," he did say it would have a "fairy tale" nature and would involve "a lot of swordfighting."
The fucking rake
I've been playing poker with my work mates a lot lately, and it takes me back to college, when I first got interested in the game after watching Rounders on video. I remember that Celsus and I even logged on to Yahoo's poker room at the same time just to play.Here are my favorite quotes from the movie. Of course, there's this classic from Mike McD:
Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
And there's this:
You can't lose what you don't put in the middle... But you can't win much either.
And this, from Worm:
In the poker game of life, women are the rake man. They are the fuckin' rake.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
The ex
Last week, my boss asked some of us to make a recommendation for a software company for outsourcing some of our requirements. I used to work for a consulting firm, about two, three years ago, so I recommended the old firm to my boss.Apparently my boss took my recommendation, because last night people from the old firm came over for a meeting. It was rather awkward sitting there and listening to their presentation, because even though it had been quite a while, I was still familiar with most of the items in their portfolio, having been personally responsible for some of them. There was even this weird exchange:
My big boss: "So, did you develop your [piece of software] from scratch?"
Me, in my head: "No, actually, *I* developed their [piece of software] from scratch..."
Man from old firm: "Actually, we have an existing library which we just modify to suit the needs of our clients."
Since I'm still (sadly) not over all the work-relationship analogies, I could say that last night felt oddly like when an ex-girlfriend meets the girl you're seeing.
Son of a bitch
Stoudemire has knee surgery, out for four monthsThe Phoenix Suns will be without all-star forward Amare Stoudemire for about four months after he underwent surgery to repair damage to his injured left knee Tuesday.
The injury turned out to be far worse than the Suns expected when they announced Monday that team doctor Thomas Carter would perform what was termed "diagnostic" surgery.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
"Warmth"
Last Saturday, we were needling a friend about this girl that he was kinda seeing. When we asked him what the matter was, he admitted that the reason it would probably not go anywhere was because the girl wasn't "warm", and "warmth" was one of the main things that he looked for in a girl.It was only last night, when I started to really think about it, that I realized that "warmth" is very important to me as well. It really is kind of a big deal.
It reminds me of this girl I know. She's smart, she's lovely, and she's friendly. I even have a little innocent crush on her. The thing is though, she doesn't exude that kind of "warmth" (or at least not toward me, heh). We're friends, but I never feel comfortable with or close enough to her to, say, ask her to read a draft of a story I'm writing, or share with her anecdotes about my sister, that sort of thing.
I know that it's unfair and totally subjective, but it's how I feel, and I'm sure it's the sort of matter that's at work with a million other guys intimidated with a million other girls, no matter how smart, lovely, or friendly they may be. Sad, but true.
Monday, October 10, 2005
For the love of life
I hate conflict in the workplace, I seriously do. In fact, one time, my immediate supervisor and I were having an argument about the feature list of some minor project, and in the middle, I just threw my hands up in the air and said, "I'm tired of talking about this; I'll just implement everything you want." It's just not worth the energy to keep arguing.Fact is, I spent a lot less effort doing the extra features than I would have if I had continued arguing. There's two things that go into that: I'm pretty good at what I do; and, I'm a wimp.
But my point is, I try to keep the level of tension between me and my work mates at a minimum (unlike, say, Frank, who's evil), and I do try to avoid any sort of conflict. I'm a pretty agreeable work mate, or at least I'd like to think.
I guess it's just a testament to the toxic levels at the office that I've been blowing my top and being really pissed off at a couple of meetings last week. I knew it was pretty unusual because a couple of people pointed it out to me, but I only realized how deeply it affected me when I actually had a dream the other night where I challenged this other person from the office to a fight in the middle of a meeting.
It's terrible, I know; at least, I haven't started spitting out nihilistic lines just yet.
How much can you know about yourself, you've never been in a fight? I don't want to die without any scars.
Slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.
Well, at least not yet aloud. That, and the fact that I actually won the fight in my dream.
But seriously, I wish I were above all of it, that I could just not let it affect me, because I just think it's all so... useless. And I try, I certainly do, and I succeed, most of the time.
At least, on my better days.
I guess I just haven't been having too many good days lately.
On Friday night, a bunch of work mates and I went to a bar nearby, to drown our sorrows and whine some more.
It was probably because of the beer, but I related to them how I kind of looked at my job as the fun girl with no long-term potential. You're having a great time, lots of fun, but you know it wouldn't last because you'd be eventually leave for something (or someone) with more stability.
The funny thing is, they were all able to relate to what I was telling them (perhaps it was the alcohol for them, too). And then we spent a significant amount of the evening coming up with similar analogies between work and relationships. I don't remember most of them, but I seem to recall weird stuff coming up in the discussion, like dirty old man, pero kuripot and cheating on your gay lover with a rich sugar daddy. Perhaps Fay and Darwin could fill you in on the rest of the details.
Thinking about it, this is the sort of thing you get when you gather people who are not only intensely passionate about what they do, but are also creative and crazy enough to come up with all that crazy shit. I love it. Kahit walang long-term potential :p
Ah, at lahat pala kami, sa table na yun, single. Kaya siguro nai-relate na yung trabaho sa mga relationship.
Tsk, tsk, ang hirap talaga pag walang lovelife. Hehehehe.
Book update
I haven't finished any books since the last update. I usually read a chapter every night (or more likely in my case, every morning) before going to bed, but work's been tight lately, and I just doze off as soon as I get home.
But I'm really enjoying On the Road by Kerouac so far, and I hope to finish it soon.
So instead of an update on the books I've read lately, I'm posting a photo of my workspace (click on it for a larger image).
I keep a lot of books around at the office. Some of it's been recently returned, others I'll be lending to friends, while most are stuff I'd acquired recently and haven't read yet. I like keeping them around because the sight of books, lots of books, around me make me happy, no matter how hard work gets.
I'm weird like that.
The photo was taken last Saturday, just before I met up with friends. I lent JAm the High Fidelity and Leks a couple of Frank Miller Batman graphic novels, Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns. I also gave Jonas a book about campaign politics, which I got a few years back during my internship where the author was also one of my bosses.
Earlier that day, I picked up several books from avalon.ph: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, a fantasy book which I heard was really, really good (and really, really long too, more than 800 pages!); Kurt Vonnegut's classic breakthrough novel Slaughterhouse-Five; and, Werewolves in their Youth, a short story collection by Michael Chabon.
Tsk, tsk. Kaya wala akong girlfriend eh.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
No surprises here
| You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (21% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test |
Monday, October 03, 2005
Punchline
1. "Eh ate, kinakain na nung manok ng mama yung popcorn ko!"2. "O, eto'ng limang piso, bumili ka ng blade!"
3. "Bung Mitra!"
4. "Ewan ko kung bakit niya ginawa yun, eh siya naman ang gumagawa ng sarili niyang sandwich."
5. "Ayoko nga, ang lakas ng sampal mo sa aso eh!"
6. "Ano naman ang tingin mo sa ano ko, alkansya?"
7. "Hehe, hindi nila alam, may suot akong condom."
8. "Nung isang linggo nga, manok eh."
9. "Anak, puwet ko na yan!"
10. "Hindi, nami-miss ko lang, meron kasi ako dati nito eh!"
