Notes From a Blackout

July 14: I type this at 35 mins past one in the morning in a powerless house, using up precious netbook battery power. Just got home a good half-hour before that after driving through intense windy storms. Before that I brought home The Contessa and Lola after we caught the last screening of Toy Story 3(D) at Gateway Mall.

The 3D part was more trouble than it’s worth. Halfway thru the second act the screen goes blank. When the picture came back the 3D wasn’t working properly. Characters in close-up looked fine w/o using the glasses, in plain 2D (w/c wasn’t what I paid for), but foreground characters had ghost images. They “rewound” the film a second time but it also took awhile before the 3D “synched” again. Lola found herself teary-eyed over the ending.

Had the film gone w/o a hitch we would’ve left a good half-hour earlier and not have driven through dark streets and seeing tree branches scattered all over the road. I was taking The Contessa home when we witnessed the street and traffic lights go the same timeas the simulcast radio-tv news on DZBB.

I can now say I’ve driven through a storm in the middle of the night amidst a citywide blackout. Cue Dean Devlin and our disaster-movie of the year.

Spent the afternoon reading. Finished Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, Mighty Avengers: Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 9 collections. (Yes: For the most part my new books only see the light of day when the power's out.)

Escaped the blackout in my neighborhood by going to my 6pm kettlebell exercise class (power in their building returned before lunch), and afterwards hung out at my cousin's house for dinner, a hot shower and a screening of I Love You, Philip Morris. Good times had to end, though, as I went home to a powerless house.

I was about to get into some midnight reading (charged my cellphone and netbook at my cousin's) when The Contessa texted me, saying she was w/ M1, and that the latter said that if I wanted to a "sincere reconciliation" I'd should join them in Greenbelt ASAP. Not bloody likely.

July 15: The power came back around 1:30AM, only to go out again 8 hours later but come back after 4 hours in a "scheduled" brownout rotation. Whee... not.

The Internet Said It, So It MUST BE TRUE

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Frankly I like this badge better than the last one I was given when it analyzed the previous blog entry and said I wrote like DAN BROWN. Just shoot me.

Bicol Bacation Bideo Brouhaha

Long story short: I made a video of my recent trip to Bicol, and it made some of my fellow travelers upset, either by its content or the way it was edited (the way some pictures were juxtaposed, not from a technical standpoint). Some of them are no longer speaking to me.

Short story long (Names have been "Singularized" out of my possibly misplaced sense of courtesy):

The video took 3 weeks to produce and uploaded to Facebook at an ungodly hour. Minutes later one of the girls in the video, M1, said she didn't like me putting in certain pix in the final product. In my "defense" those pix in question were my harmless way of getting back at her for putting in certain pix in her version of the Bicol vacation video that I didn't like. Requests for edit=1.

Later that morning I received a text from C --asking me to remove certain swimsuit pictures-- and from M2, in a frantic text saying C left me the above message. (Panicky much?) Requests for edit=2. The harried nature of their messages was probably because I uploaded the video for viewing for Friends instead of limiting it to just my fellow travelers, and they hoped they could get me to take it down fix it before it receives any more viewings.

I was more disappointed than mad at their reactions, especially w/ C and M2. C, embarrassed by the video, called it ugly and wanted her pictures taken out of it because she said it was her pictures. I took that to mean she was claiming ownership, w/c I had doubts about, and after checking confirmed those pics in question were shot with my camera. M2 (after calling me an idiot) clarified that C was talking about her being in those pictures, and that she had a right to ask them to be taken down if she didn't want them made public (as least in video form, 'coz she sure as heck didn't object when those same pictures were previously posted on Facebook.) True, she had the right to ask, just as I had to refuse if I thought the request was unreasonable.

And then there's R, who was in the same "objectionable" pictures as M1, on a warpath. R was mad at me (M1 just disappointed, but at least ok w/ it all now) because there was a tacit agreement between us that those pictures would not go online in any form.

Ok, they got me there. My bad. At first I privatized the video, but to avoid any further conflict (and realizing logic will never win over emotion in these kinds of arguments) I just apologized to C, R and M1 and took down the video. (Hell w/ M2, fighting C's fight when C's perfectly capable of doing it.) But nooo, it wasn't enough for R, who wanted all pictures I posted on Facebook w/ them on it taken down.

Mad and disappointed? No. Annoyed? Hell, YES. Sino siya, si Katrina Halili? I can swear on my own grave that the video is cool and unobjectionable to anyone (else) that has or might see it.

The fact that C, R and M2 are taking the same kettle-bell class as me would've made further contact awkward, but fortunately I attend the class scheduled an hour earlier. Other fellow travelers who've seen the video don't see what the fuss and bile is all about.

Long story short: I was slightly in the wrong, but made peace w/ some, while others are still in the Petty Zone. Hope they enjoy their stay there.

(Taking) Forever

I’m currently seated on a 2-foot tall circular pedestal that's supporting myself, 6 mannequins and fellow customers (or companions, friends, relatives, lovers w/ no cash/credit/inclination to shop with/for) at the Forever21 Shop in SM Megamall. I’m guessing on normal shopping days we’d be asked not to sit on the pedestal and block the view of the shoes that are also on display. But this was only their 3rd day of being Officially Open, so I guess there’s some leeway.

Lola talked into coming here, and obviously I didn’t know what I was getting myself talked into. The current amount of activity in here reminded me of the Las Vegas Comicon, only the comics are replaced by clothes, and geeks in costume by costumed fiberglass statues.

The shopping women outnumber the clueless men (self included) maybe 6:1. Guys would either dutifully follow their ladyfriends one step behind, looking bored or offering rhetorical shopping advice; otherwise they’re like me, opting to wait at one spot inside the store, write then wait to be approached by said ladyfriend for solicited shopping advice. Or perhaps just wait, cellphones or Nintendo DS at hand.

This “event” has been shaped to look like a Big Deal. Our first faux pas upon arriving to the store was following the “LINE FOR FOREVER21 STARTS HERE” sign in the wrong direction. When we got to the end of the non-existent queue we were greeted by a closed entrance and window-view of inside the store, which showed lots of shoppers (natch’) and, to my surprise, big security guys. Not the rent-a-cop kind, but the kind you see in “hot” nightclubs: big bodied w/ SECURITY printed in all-caps yellow in from of their black t-shirts, and sporting either sunglasses or a headset.

Jeez, was the size of the crowd, or the threat of shoplifting expected to be that rampant? It couldn't be the former, as the number of people inside wasn’t enough to merit elbow-rubbing capacity. Can’t be the latter; these are just rtw clothes, for crying out loud. Perhaps they were limiting the numbers of shoppers to X number of people at a time for crowd control? While on the surface it makes the experience sound exclusive, it would probably be illegal.

When we got inside seeing Jane Kingsu (formerly of Chalk magazine) seated by a makeshift booth preparing P100 gift vouchers, it started to make sense. I asked her if she was responsible for the presence of the security guys. She said yes, as she was in charge of marketing and those guys were mostly for show.

The store is ridiculously huge for a boutique shop, almost like the entire floor of the regular SM Department Store clothing section. Getting lost inside is easy, like in a casino (no wall clocks or easily discernable exit. I have to admit I’ve never seen/been to a clothing sale made to appear like a society event. At least they didn’t stamp our wrists and ask for ID. Worse, you can’t pick up chicks here. No booze. Maybe if you offered to buy them a blouse that’d get the ball rolling.

OMG, I Have CP (CatchPhrases)

I think that if I were ever a long-term participant in reality shows like Big Brother or The Amazing Race I'd be easy to parody. This is due to my tendency to use catchphrases, and unoriginal ones, at that.

After some self-examination (mentally, not physically, mind you) I found that I've been using the following a lot lately:

• "Those people are idiots."
• "Ah, no, you don't/you're not ."
• "That may have been a mistake."
• "Omigod, please stop talking!"
• "Apparently."
• "Seriously."
• "Well, this can't be good."
• "Well, that went well."
• "Well, DUH on a stick."

I'm like Reagan in that I say "Well" more often than Dumb Blondes say "like," in every other sentence. Hopefully that'll change in time.