Hero

I've been feeling a bit underappreciated the past few days. This morning was no exception. But something wonderful just happened. I got a text message from my elder sister. It read: "Did you know that you were Nikong's 'hero' (Filipinos who have brought pride and honor to the country) for their 'Balitaan' subject in school? That's the reason he borrowed your Blue List book. Di na daw kasi pwede si Pacquiao."

Nikong is my 11-year old nephew studying in Ateneo. And Blue List, for the uninitiated, is the Lonely Planet travel book where my photo is featured as one of only 10 selections dubbed as "Best Of Travel" from submissions from around the world.

Napaluha talaga ako. Tapos natawa with that Pacquiao bit. O diba, lume-level!

What a way to end the week.

All. Now.

Is that too much to ask for?

Robot

Another movie, another date with myself at the cinema.

Buti pa si Wall-E. Kahit robot at mag-isa lang sa earth, nagkaroon pa rin ng partner.

Di bale nang tamad

Di naman pagod.

Sweet

I'm a sweet tooth. I particularly love chocolate, ice cream, and fruit-flavored soft candy. So when there's free candy lying around for everyone to enjoy I don't hesitate helping myself enthusiastically to a handful. Or even two handfuls. Issue ba?! So sue me!

Two successive 3-day weekends this August!

Aug 16-18, Sat-Mon (Ninoy Aquino celeb)

Aug 23-25, Sat-Mon (Nat'l Heroes celeb)

Refund

Ang galing galing ni Alicia Keys at super nag-enjoy ako sa concert niya! Pero uminit muna ang ulo ko bago mag-start ang show.

My friends and I had P900 tickets. When we got to the venue we were ushered to the backmost area of the SMX Hall. We wondered where the P450 section was. I asked the ushers and was told that it was the same as the P900 section. I said that wasn't right. They directed me to the ticketing booth. 

The ticketers at the booth confirmed the new setup. I asked why the public was not advised about it. They were clueless as well and simply offered to give me a full refund for my ticket. The caveat was if I got the refund I could not watch the show anymore. I said that was not acceptable. I demanded to talk to a supervisor. 

A good 10 minutes later a female representative from MTV, the concert producer, appeared. She wondered what the fuss was about. I asked how come the P450 and the P900 ticketholders shared the same free-standing area. She said that they decided to collapse the two areas for financial reasons, as only 50 people bought P450 tickets. And that they had the right as concert producer to do such a thing.

"That's not fair!", I shot back, "and it's bad business practice!" Arrogantly, the rep asked me what I wanted to happen. Get a refund for P450, i told her. She said okay and promptly do the transaction when I presented our tickets.

But wait, there's more! After giving me the refund, the rep had the gall to tell me "This is the last refund we're giving. We can't go on refunding everybody." Nagpanting ang tenga ko at gusto ko sabihing hindi ko na problema yun. At ipagkakalat ko talaga sa loob ng venue about the refund. But all I decided to say was, "I want you to know that, even if you gave me refund, I will go to the press with this matter."

Oh, and the rep was apparently lying through her teeth. According to another concertgoer who was with me the whole time asking for a refund, he was forced to buy P900 tickets because he was told that the P450 tickets were already sold out. So MTV only printed out 50 P450 tickets?!?!?!

"Birthday" passages

Here are some favorite passages from the book I'm currently reading, "Birthday Stories", a collection of short stories selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami.

"Driving home, it's all I can do to keep from crying. Time's come, time's gone, time's never returning, I say to myself. What's here in front of me is all I've got, I decide, and as I drive my car through the blowing snow it doesn't seem like much, except for the kindness that I've just exchanged with an old lady, so I concentrate on that." -- from "The Moor" by Russell Banks, about a chance encounter between an 80-year old widow and a 50-year old divorcee, who shared a tryst 30 years earlier

"""McInnes isn't feeling too good today. I just shot him."" -- from "Dundun" by Denis Johnson, about a young man's violent impulses

"It was dark outside, and in the hills around the city the lights in the windows of hundreds of houses glowed like the tiny white bulbs in the branches of a Christmas tree. She thought of her children; they were up in those hills, eating dinner with their own children...She looked at the door, wishing, as she did each time, that there might be a knock, or that it just might swing open, and one of them, just one of them, might be there." -- from "The Birthday Cake" by Daniel Lyons, about an old lady living by her lonesome

 

Ang kapal ng mukha niya!

Siya being the lowlife that found my lost cellphone. Kaya pala hindi niya binalik yung SIM when i asked for it. Plano pala niyang hingian ng load ang mga magkakamaling mag-text sa akin sa old number na yun. Like this former officemate of mine. Buti na lang close kami nung officemate ko na yun. Naamoy niyang something was not right when that scumbag kept asking her to send him load. Ako, manghihingi ng load?!?!?! Excuse me! I don't ask for load from anyone. Nangungutang ako ng cash, but I don't ever ask for load, okay!