Blame it on masculinity or the lack of desire to spend on anything except books or music.

And in the odd chance that I do, I am reminded of the reason why I just abhor shopping.

Especially in department stores.

When I go through the maze of racks and store shelves, I see covetous eyes looking at me.

These covetous eyes belong to salesladies either hungry for attention or for a commission.

Recently in one of the department stores of SM, I was wasting my time looking at leather bags and mostly things leather because I was waiting for my friend who’d gone to the restroom.

Like moths to the flame, the salesladies began approaching me.

“Sir, belt?”

“Uh.. no, I’m just looking.”

“Sir, pouch?”

“Uh.. no, I’m just looking.”

“Sir, we have new arrivals.”

“Uh.. uh…way… from….me… please…”

That last line of course was just playing in my head and never made its way out of my mouth.

I appreciate the initiative but sometimes I wish they’d bring it somewhere else.

For some reason, based on personal observation, if it were a sales guy, they don’t approach you nor congregate around you.

Is it a gender thing?

It was my first time to attend it so I had high hopes with regards the topics that would be discussed. I won’t dwell on whether I was overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or near stoic.

What I would like to dwell on is a particular embarrassing and very awkward moment during the entire proceeding. I felt bad for the person because I knew the person meant well.

Exactly what is it?

Well, a cabinet secretary arrived late. When the secretary was called to walk up the podium, one person stood up to give a standing ovation to welcome the former. Unfortunately, no one followed. What’s worse was that only a few people took the person’s cue of applauding the VIP guest. Talk about an embarrassing moment.

As you may have already noticed, I am purposely leaving out the title of the symposium I attended to save the person the embarrassment. It’s also bad to relive the entire event in your head.

Oftentimes, we do things we mean well only to be misinterpreted or for it to ill-timed.

What’s important is that we don’t get disheartened nor lose confidence.

I really didn’t care what the hell they were talking about but it’s just one of those things in life that you want to ignore, but can’t.

Both were probably about 18 or 19 years old. It was a guy and a girl and they were in their school pajamas. I didn’t think that they were a couple since they didn’t look like one. Not that I wanted to know.

It seems that the girl had a problem in school and the guy, his friend, was trying to tell her that he was right here and that she shouldn’t care about what other people were saying about her. Not that I wanted to know that either.

Of course, I find that charming that friends help each other out. But that’s personal business that I don’t want to know… nor hear.

It’s like that one time when I was in the LRT cabin and a middle aged lady pulled out her cellphone and screamed “Hello” like it was her house. Everybody inside could hear her conversation about visiting the dead and what time she would drop by. I know it’s not her fault and it may have been a force of habit but these public displays of personal conversations just creeps me out.

The guy’s voice was so loud that I was wondering if he meant for others to hear their – or more specifically – his conversation.

If you play DOTA, then you’ve probably heard a booming voice screaming “DOMINATING!” when a player is killing off everybody else on the screen. This guy was practically DOMINATING (insert voice over) the conversation and it was trespassing my private (sound) space.

Now this would have been perfectly normal but what irritated my ears (and therefore me) was that he kept on speaking in English even though the girl was speaking to him in Tagalog. I personally find that off. Are they congregating in some sort of Tower of Babel ritual?

The only saving grace was that the guy had quite a good diction. Somehow though, there was something wrong with his choice of words. He even had a lot of motherhood statements that were probably plagiarized from self-help books. I just wish I had jot down some of his statements.

I have an odd quirk of writing down the mangled words, tortured phrases, cleverly stupid statements, and misquotes that people say.

After torturing my ears for a couple of minutes, I realized that good diction can cover up for bad choice of words. Unfortunately, if you are the speaker in front of an intelligent audience, idiocy can’t be masked. They’ll see through you like a glass ceiling.

This isn’t the first time I had my personal space violated. Coincidentally, that particular instance happened to me in a fast food joint also. Life can be a bore, but riding the public transport, observing people in restaurants, and current events do make for good copy every so often.

Notebook… check.

Pen… check.

List of questions… check.

Voice recorder… check.

Digicam… Oops.

Somehow, I forgot to bring the camera.

Earlier in the day, I told myself I needed to bring a camera to document my subject and for posterity purposes. (I never know if one day I’ll need photos to complete my portfolio. And maybe, I’ll compile all my articles into a book? What a lovely thought that is.)

Unfortunately, I did not store that thought as a reminder in my mobile phone. I’ve grown accustomed to storing whatever comes to my mind as a calendar reminder. In fact, a lot of my old phones (Nokias mostly) gave up on me when I (probably) maxed out the phone memory purely on calendar notes. When I say give up, the phone hangs and constantly restarts itself to my consternation.

So while I had forgotten my camera, it was a good thing that I had a mobile phone with a fairly decent camera.

It’s times like these that I’m happy I didn’t buy a “basic phone”. Money saving pundits would always say, just settle for the cheapest phone since it’s just meant for calling and texting. Well, maybe that was true a few years ago.

Ever wonder why even some “basic phones” have a camera? I suppose there’s good reason behind that, yes?

I’m not happy with the quality of the picture but it’s better than nothing. I imagine if this happened to me and it was still the 80s, I’d just have to draw my subject’s face.. heh.

Technology can indeed be a dear friend.

The irony of it all though, was that upon uploading the digital recoder’s file to my computer, the file doesn’t @#%$ play.

And as I stare at my computer, I wish I had with me a tape recorder earlier instead. Or, I should have doubled up my recording earlier and used my mobile phone as a backup. The mobile phone is – at least to me – a techie swiss knife of sorts.

Technology is always one step ahead of itself. Unfortunately, not all users of technology can keep pace.

Now I’ll have to figure this one out.

Splendid.

The Kim Hwa Music Ensemble plays wonderful traditional Chinese music. Their music is quite soothing to the spirit. You’ve got to hear it to know what I’m talking about.

I watched the inauguration in the comfort of my home today and listened intently to his speech.

During the musical intermissions, I must admit I was flipping and switching between local and foreign channels because I was more interested to hear his speech than the music. I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed with the speech. I’m also impressed by the way he delivered his speech. He’s also lucky he doesn’t have a distinctive voice as the previous President.

Whoever wrote that speech knew how to make the President empathize with every Filipino by interspersing his first few lines with, “Ako rin.”

I don’t know about other people but some of the things that piqued my interest was not the promise to fight corruption and poverty but his comments on the (continued) proliferation of wangwangs and the constant counterflow of unscrupulous drivers.

To me, corruption is definitely the scourge of society, but the rampant disrespect of law is seen in the small things, and is commonly perpetrated even by those not in public office. Jaywalking, beating the red light, bribing traffic cops, etc. We still lack discipline. I guess that’s why the wangwang and the counterflow was put there in his speech.

I wonder if jeepney drivers were stung by the President’s words?

Too many Filipinos levy Philippine Presidents with unnecessary pressure by pinning all their hopes on him/her – and then forgetting that each Filipino must also do his part in nation building.

The President’s slogan of “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” should transcend not only the government but also the ordinary citizen.

I hope that today’s excitement and radiant hopes will not be quashed. Good luck to P. Noy in his first 100 days in office!

Thinking can be as hard as lifting weights. Everybody and every body has a cross to bear.

And bear is a great segue to the topic of the day — Teddy Bear… er Boy Locsin…

Philippine politics is quite colorful, or better yet, “eclectic”.

In fact, I read somewhere (forgot the source, sorry) that “the Philippines is a country where crooks, charlatans, film stars, sportsmen and nut jobs routinely stand for, and get voted into office.” Sheesh. The truth hurts right?

Where else can you get a heterogeneous mix of lawmakers? Yes? Onli in da Filipins!

Our star studded and star struck senators are such fine examples.

I suppose the career path is to start out as an actor or an athlete, make it big, and say you want to help your fellow Filipinos. Yay!

A lot of us complain that our country has never progressed (unlike our Asian neighbors, look at Thailand and South Korea).

Why are we wondering? If we reelect the same people into office, of course we’ll get more of the same!

But the problem isn’t just about reelecting the same people.

It’s a voter issue, in my opinion. We have a critical base of people who lack access to quality education, thus, they make not-so-good-quality decisions on their choices for President, Vice President, Senator, Congressman, etc. etc.

So as the population grows, more so those who live in the bottom rung of the economy. Thus there are more and more of the voters who opt for politicians who score high marks in populist promises. “Free education!” “Eradicate corruption!” “Taxes won’t be raised”

Blah Blah Blah. Somewhere out there is a handbook and field guide entitled “Promises to Make During Election Period”.

Of course, I say that about Philippine politics naively because I don’t know much about the local politics of other countries.

Suffice it to say, once in a while, a politician makes headlines by either making a fool of himself or in the case of Makati City Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin, curse someone an SOB.

I wouldn’t want to go into the details of what irked him so but I wonder if the cursing is needed to stress a point. Then again, getting “carried away” can always be cited as a reason. The words that come out of your mouth can never be “unsaid”, much like the saliva that’s spit out of one’s mouth.

“We never said that fraud could not be committed, but you said that we could trace it, and now you tell me, that at ten in the evening you could do it and we would never know,” Locsin said to resounding claps.

Such drama and lines worthy of a blockbuster movie! Pass the popcorn please.

Some of our solons have a way with words it just makes me cry. Then there are those who make my ears bleed.

Anger seems to be in vogue. Teddy Boy Locsin is not alone.

Recently, a US Senator also blew his top while grilling a representative of financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs.

Oh, oh, and perhaps the hot hot summer in the country is just boiling everybody’s blood veins.

Per former Comelec lawyer Melchor Magdamo’s account to reporters, Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer and Arwin Serrano of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting engaged in a shouting match, with Ferrer going to the extent of kicking chairs in an excessive show of bad temper.

Anger… in vogue! What’s the next of the 7 deadly sins that will be at the forefront of news???

I woke up late in the morning (at least relatively) that Monday. I remember watching the news of both major channels and they were saying that lines were long at the election precincts. I thought that the news would be ominous. I was wrong.

Upon arrival at the Jose Abad Santos School, the lines were anything but long. There were classrooms that were filled to the brim but ours wasn’t. We (me and family incorporated) were in and out of the place in 30 minutes or so. We actually took longer finding our names because we went to the wrong school, initially.

I never was a boy scout so along with my family we just went to the old school, Raja Soliman (it had relocated), where we used to vote (or thought to be). I had my doubts on the school. We were looking through the list for our names and like bar examinees, we were in a frantic search for our golden names. Alas, it was not there. I told my mom that perhaps she got our barangay number mixed up. (I.e. instead of 143, she said 134 or some such). She in fact, did.

The sun was high up in the sky and so was the temperature. Hot hot hot! It was a good thing I brought some liquid nourishment with us. Otherwise we’d have died of dehydration. I can just imagine what the students have to endure when they are in here during school days!

So dear Mr. President, you have a lot to do. I hope you don’t put blinkers and doggedly pursue a case against the former President. The former President has a lot to answer to the public, and so do a hundred other politicians. But the priority should be the three Es – education, economy, and equitable living. If we are just going to have a run of the mill government, then we’ll just have more of the same coming out of the mill. The vicious cycle will just continue.

Anyway, going back to my dissertation on my voting experience….

So there we were, at the precinct, waiting for our turn to test the new, modern way of voting. Finally, it was our turn, I was led to a seat and happily looked at the form. I voted for a president, a vice president, twelve senators, and then picked a party list. I looked and checked if I got everything correctly.Yup, I got everything right.

I stood up full of glee and was now in front of the PCOS machine. I fed the machine my form and my vote was counted. (There’s a joke that Erap thought he won the election because the PCOS machine said, CONGRATULATIONS. Even in this election, people never tire of Erap jokes).

I waited for the rest family, inc. before we left the school. As we went out of the school, they were discussing about who they voted for, and also mentioned the councilor, mayor, and congressman they voted for. Whoa, waitaminit kapeng mainit! I did not vote for any one of these positions! It was then that it dawned on me that while I was meticulous in looking for our names, I wasn’t meticulous in double-checking the form I was filling up.

High tech method, old school stupidity. So I suppose I can join Erap’s ignominy, whether the story is true or not. Haha.

Witever.

Sometime a short time ago, I gave one of my mind blowing advices (or so I believe) to a friend who was undergoing a relationship problem. Often the discussion now is over YM because I find it more convenient to “talk” using my fingers than using my mouth – especially when I’m in front of my computer writing (happens to be always). This is the case even though Sun Cellular can be equally convenient.

From the deepest recesses of my mind, I said that whenever there is a problem in any relationship it is brought about usually by miscommunication (actually more like missed communication) or just plain incompatibility. Since lovers are blind (I think) these “incompatibilities” are often not discussed. Perhaps that’s why in divorces, “irreconcilable differences” is often cited.

So what can be done when there is this “incompatibility”?

You can do one of three things. And cursing your bitter half is not one of them.

At that time, I told my friend that you can either avoid (discussing it),  adjust (to the person), or accept (the other person). It’s not a progression but each is an act that is individual from the rest.

If you choose to avoid, then you risk facing the problem everytime you see your bitter half. If you seek to adjust, you make your bitter half feel better but you feel bitter. If you choose to accept, then both of you agree to meet halfway and perhaps everybody can be happy.

On hindsight, the three a’s can also apply to problems you encounter in life. When faced with a problem, you can either avoid, adjust, or accept. It’s not a general rule, but perhaps, it can be food for thought.

Until my next post.

Seems like yesterday I was just a toddler… now I’m a cobbler.

Thirty years don’t seem to be a long time until I realize thirty years is equivalent to three decades. Perhaps it’s just pure semantics but using the word decades does have a different tune to it. So maybe if somebody asks me, how old are you, I should answer, three decades.

If I were a bison or a lion, I’d probably be dead since these animals only live up to 30.

So, Happy Birthday to myself and I hope I can find things to moose about after this personal milestone.

Perhaps, this blog can serve as my personal repository of moosings and memories.

Perhaps, 30 more decades from now, I can look back and say, what the hell was I writing about then??? Hehehe ^_^

What about sports? It’s been so long since I picked up a basketball or do anything more than finger calisthenics on my computer keyboard. Perhaps I should take up a sport soon. I’ve thought about doing light exercises but maybe I have to find time first. You’d think that with 24 hours in a day, you’d have so much time to do certain things. I mean, I still have to allot time for sleeping right?

What about life experiences? Unlike other people, I don’t have that many life-altering events. I’m also *just* about to turn 30 so there’s really nothing much to say yet. I’m not saying I’d like to have that may events happening in my life either. Sometimes living a boring life isn’t so bad.

I think about the other things I’ve written about in the past. They were posts about what I saw on TV, in the movies, read in the papers, or things I observed when I go out. All of these things I’ve not been able to do since last week.

However, what is in my mind though is the recent spate of earthquakes. First Haiti, now Chile. We also had an earthquake up North. The earthquake actually interrupted PGMA’s speech.

Just in 2004, a tsunami hit Thailand and other neighboring countries. Then there was the Sichuan 8 magnitude earthquake in China in 2008. This year two strong quakes hit two countries and we’re barely out of the 3rd quarter of this year.Haiti with magnitude 7 and Chile with magnitude 8.8.

Is 2012 going to come true?

I hope nothing of this magnitude hits the country. I doubt we’re prepared for something like this. Enjoy life while everything is still as it is.