Self-awareness syndrome | new news

If there is one thing that is both boon and bane of my existence, it is that I am incredibly, stupendously self-aware but also incredibly, stupendously impotent to fix it, and not for lack of trying mind you.

And honestly, real talk: everyone who says "all it takes to fix it is discipline" can go fuck themselves over. If it were that easy to create and maintain that discipline, I would have already fixed it. If life didn't always like screwing even the most disciplined of people, then I would have already fixed it.


~~~~~~~~

In other news, my new steady job as a writer/editor for an online travel magazine -- completely at the other side of the communications fence -- is the most fun I have had working in a long time.

I just wish I could work from home instead of going to an office, but hey, at least someone is doing my accounting and computing my tax returns because I still don't get how this godforsaken Philippine government does it (they make sure you as the payer gets screwed over).

If you're looking for me, I'm Jocelyn on www.traveldailymedia.com. Please watch out for uncut/uncensored/alternate versions of my Travel Daily articles on this blog. ^.~v

An unpopular opinion regarding the Gamer Totoy discussion of sexual favours granted by cosplayers

I don't think I should link to it anymore, and I tried to stay away from this issue, but as I've gone in and out of the cosplay scene I have also grown sick and tired of the crazy double standard -- let's face it, most humans of the XY chromosome in cosplay fandom WILL post photos of scantily clad girls who haven't even met these fappers. And then there really is no way I can keep my opinion to myself, considering that I have a (younger) sister who is both internet-famous and FHM famous, even more than the cosplayer said to be peddling sexual favours has become (though definitely not to Alodia, Tuxedo Team, Kipi -- my age is showing, Dani, or Yaya levels).

Allow me to share my opinion, unpopular though it may be: for me, if the cosplayer is selling sexual favours because she has legitimate issues with money, if she needs to support herself through more than just the next costume (or 3, or 5), then I won't get in her case. Doubly so if she doesn't say or do anything to contradict herself and her actions, because in that case I still would have more respect for her than, say, Jerry Polence, who said she would be a nun but didn't follow through with that AND had terribly unholy behaviour in so many ways to boot. (Irony of ironies, said sister is a friend of Polence. It's a surprise to some people that I'm civil around this particular fellow ex-cosplayer.)

Plus to all the men here who are reading this, and even the women too, I'm going to quote what my BFF in the Philippine cosplay scene has said: if you condemn the girl for what she does, but then post pictures on your own Facebook of scantily naked female cosplayers / Korean actresses we all know would never give you the time of day anyway, then that makes you a hypocrite. (We know who most of you are. We see your Facebook feeds, Tumblr accounts, Twitter handles, your blogs, your social media networks and even your private posts. Even you Gamer Totoy. :D) You have no right to objectify females yourself and then complain / mock a girl who at least uses her OWN body for it, and not someone else's. So honestly, to all the male posters here, stop being dickwads with your holier-than-thou attitudes since you're all going to kiss and tell whether or not she or any girl bangs you, anyway. (I suspect this double standard actually persists because many of you were rejected by her, or others like her, and if not that you simply weren't able to afford her services.)

Finally, if it is proven that indeed she IS doing it just to get herself a shiny coming-of-age party, well, she is indeed sadly horribly misled by her priorities in life. Not to say that her need isn't valid, but in the greater scheme of things, having a fun, grand debutante party can still be done for a cheaper budget through better planning. I mean, come on, just take a look at Jeane Napoles' Blogger account and debut post-party video -- she had SO MUCH MONEY to burn (all taken from decent hardworking taxpayers like myself, by the way) and still came up with a party that's nowhere as cool given the materials, equipment and personnel she had at her disposal. She tried to have a party like Tony Stark from IRON MAN 2 but the video alone shows it's not quite as happening as her spin doctors and video editors try to make it look. .

Oh, in case you're looking for me, this is crossposted on my:

• Tumblr (I caved)
• Livejournal

Fina-fricking-ly, yes, I acknowledge I am turning into the queen of unpopular opinion, but that also means flames will be doused with water after being used to cook delicious spam and eggs.

That's all, thanks. ^.~v

Better safe than sorry!

You just KNOW I'm going to repost things like this.

♥ Self Defense ♥ by Mewkeirin

Addendum to my previous entry, or the gal who tries to reclaim her life

Days after I was able to post this, we caught one of the four men who held me up.

His name is Pablito Manatad. He was supposed to be driving TYL 409 on 22 Dec but he was Badong/Man #1. He's from the Visayas but lives in Quezon City.

He is muscular and heavy-set but has a big gut. He also has a rose tattoo on his left shoulder/arm, and is apparently part of the mostly-Visayan Scorpion Gang that has connections all the way to Cavite.

He was caught because the taxi cab was caught for a traffic violation. The impounding police called us when they realised that the cab was the hold-up cab that they had had an alert released for. The drivers were asked to be there while the owner had to verify if it was a double plate since it was caught when the original was at the garage.

However, the others are still out there even if he has spilled their whereabouts. Please pray and share information about this unceasingly so that more people can defend themselves and even turn these crooks in. And please pray for myself and those of us who have chosen to fight back -- I am learning as early as now that it's a hard, long, lonely, tiring, uphill and costly battle, but if we want to change the system and empower others like ourselves, we will have to do what must be done.

Thank you very much.

Hold-up incident report (or, the gal who lived) [UPDATED WITH PHOTOS!]

I wish this were untrue, and I wish I could undo this, but it needs to be shared. 

At around 7:00 pm I withdrew money from Security Bank Annapolis GH branch, near my office. At 7:30-ish pm, I was hailing a cab. I only remember the cab being a beat-up white four-door sedan car with plate number TYL 409.

I can't recall who the driver was at the time and the name of the cab as written on the cab body outside sadly. I do now recall the locks were faulty, that the front windshield had the "cleanfuel" sticker (signifying it's using LPG gas power instead of gasoline), and black rubber at the back windows. The seats were all black leather and had the taxi information, which should be printed legibly, all blurry/erased. 

We made the turn from Annapolis, to EDSA, and then the U-turn under Ortigas flyover. We entered corner to White Plains, at Temple Drive, past People Power Monument. At a vacant lot nearby (before Meralco), and ironically while I was in the middle of texting my family my whereabouts, four men came in and they kicked him out of the cab.

A short description of the four (images here):

• Man 1 (guy by my right, "Badong"): Crew cut, chiseled face, somewhat pointy chin, small eyes, muscular build but slightly big stomach, with stubble, dark-skinned
• Man 2 (guy by my left): Dark-skinned, round face, chubby cheeks, bulging eyes, no beard/moustache, short hair parted at the middle, wearing blue long-sleeved Adidas sweater with white stripes at shoulders and sleeves, had a baseball cap that looked a lot like the red Air Asia cap with white text, pudgy arms and legs
• Man 3/”Boss”: Square face, flat cheeks, moustached stereotypical bad guy minus the big beard, dark-skinned, far-set bulging eyes, light moustache, beard, wearing blue long-sleeved Adidas sweater with white stripes at shoulders and sleeves, parang may white shirt sa loob, with grey beanie hat, had tubo, gravelly voice, muscular arms, pudgy legs 
• Man 4/Driver ("Bobot"): White cap, white shirt, circular glasses, features remind me of Brod Pete (a local comedian), thin, dark-skinned

I heard someone say “pasensya na (I’m sorry)” but I don’t recall who it is. I do recall the perpetrators drove me around EDSA from Ortigas Avenue to Quezon City, as far as the U-turn right before SM North. They kept threatening to bring me to Bulacan and rape me especially when I initially refused to give them my belongings. They took my ATM cards (Security Bank, BPI Express Teller), my Metrobank credit card, my black BlackBerry Torch 9800 with black Otter protective case, my personal Nokia phones (one is a pink 6020, the other is a black 2700 Classic), my Sony Cyber-shot silver T-100 digital camera, and my black Sony Vaio laptop. After “Boss” made some calls via mobile (they were very clever at keeping the numbers hidden), the gang dropped “Boss” off at Cubao walkway underpass, EDSA southbound at around 9:00 pm so he could withdraw money. He came back and tried to strangle, punch, slap, throw shoes/slippers at me when he couldn't get my credit card PIN out of me (it's fairly new and I don't memorize the PIN at all). They took turns trying to beat me up at some point, except for Driver because he was driving. I fought back, and they told me they would rape me because I wouldn't give them enough money (they needed PhP20,000 and even used Typhoon Sendong as a reason to hold me up). At around 10:00 pm they turned into NIA Road near BIR/PDEA in QC, and threw me out the cab. When Boss tried to hit me with a pipe/tubo, I vaguely remember clawing and kicking back, taking whatever was left of my things, and ran. I found myself at the QC Post Office security guard house (at the gate), and made phone calls to the QC PD, my mother's office, and my best friend's house as those were the only numbers I could contact. 

With my family finally arriving around 11:30 pm to almost midnight, I went to the QC Police Department at Kamuning/EDSA. We waited for a graying-haired 40-ish cop in a white undershirt and police uniform pants named SPO4 Patricio Sanoza (Sanyosa)  to whom I gave my statement, which is attached. I told him about what I recall about the cab, but he did not ask at all  about identifying the criminals.

My SIMs have all been blocked/disabled, as have my ATM and credit cards. Unfortunately they have switched off all phones so I am not sure if they can be traced at this point.  They are able to trace the ATM withdrawal transactions at Metrobank Valencia Hills though. I am cooperating with QCPD in catching the perpetrators.

  

The following day, a friend gave this information about the cab that held me up: 

Plate Number: TYL 409 / E#: 2E-3254892 / C#: EE110-8009918 / MV#: 138000000225318 / Col: Freedom White / Sticker#: 2011122773755 / MVType: Car / TradeName: / Make: Toyota/ Series: COROLLA XL M/T / YRModel: 2001 / MVClass: FOR - HIRE / Org: MARVIN SANTOS.. / OR#: 000201111852482 / CR#: 000000005541645 / BType:sEDAN - 4-DOOR / FRegDate: 09-25-2001 / LRegDate: 09-30-2011 / Fuel: GAS / Route: MARIKINA ANY PT TO LUZON / Franchise#: 96-945 / FEDate: 12-31-2007 / Total Apps: 0 /Total Alarms: 0 / Customer ID CO1378000031312 / Add: 10 MAYSAN ST. VALENZUELA 

  

Separately, I dropped by the QCPD Kamuning once more to get the official, correct copy of the police report I originally filed. There I met a woman named Donna Araujo who was held up on Christmas Day from Main Avenue in Cubao and dropped off at Balete Drive which is very similar to what happened to me. I am trying to get her assistance as she saw the name of the car, which is made purely of consonant letters.

Please stay safe everyone. Hope your Christmas is better than mine. I've seen posts where people blame me for not being vigilant -- excuse me, but I was held up right in the middle of sending my parents an SMS where I was riding, the point here is not whether or not I should've been vigilant but that they still ambushed me anyway even after acting towards my own self-preservation! 


And to these motherfuckers who hurt me and others like me, I hope and pray you lose everything you hold dear -- every body part, every item, every person, every business, every bit of cash, and every generation of your beloved families and clans -- as befits the punishment you have long tried to avoid. 

Links:

• My original Facebook post on this subject = https://www.facebook.com/ligayaharuka/posts/10150479183713815
• The ABS-CBN/Bandila news clip (December 23; easily viewed outside the Philippines via The Filipino Channel) = http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/12/23/11/cops-warn-modus-during-holidays
• The ABS-CBN text version of the same news (December 23) = http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/12/23/11/woman-attacked-robbed-inside-taxi
• NEW: I finally managed to scan the cartographic sketches I had asked a key contact (who must remain anonymous until this case is solved, I owe this man and the people who got me to him greatly as I cannot achieve this drawing style myself) make. Here they are: man 1, man 2, man 3 (minus the beanie, which I tried to describe and even draw but somehow didn't make it to the sketch), and man 4.

Because I'm a little desperate to finish a long-delayed set of reports...

From http://stjudenovena.org/:

O most holy apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, people honor and invoke you universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of. Pray for me, for I am so helpless and alone. Please help to bring me visible and speedy assistance. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (the request being prayed for) and that I may praise God with you always.

I promise, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you by publishing this request. Amen.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be Adored, Glorified, Loved & Preserved throughout the world, now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, please pray for me. Saint Jude, Worker of Miracles, please pray for me. Saint Jude, Helper of the Hopeless, please pray for me. Amen.

...PLEASE let the disk check finish up in less than an hour. I really need the time to finish my reports. T~T

Helping hands, getting ready, and best birthday wishes

Hi all! I'm so terribly sorry I've been gone a long, long WHILE. AGAIN. DX Life has been kind to me and my appetite and wallet but unfortunately for our folk in the Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria, New Zealand, Japan and Myanmar, it's not been the same. The political situations in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria have kept me riveted, but the effect is that of a terrible plane wreck - you don't like it but you can't keep your eyes away. I was worried sick when I'd heard about the Christchurch earthquake because many friends, like my collage blockmate Kenken, are there. Then I heard about the double whammy that hit Japan, the font of kawaii, kitsch and quirkiness, while I was away in Singapore for a mixed business/pleasure trip almost 2 weeks ago (has it really been that long?). And now, it's Myanmar - not a land quickly taken to earthquakes since it's not so close to the Ring Of Fire territory that Japan, NZ and the Philippines are smack in the middle of, but its government is so rough and many of the people there seem to be worse off than they are here in my country. It's distressing how natural calamities keep piling up, one after another; it's no wonder that when two quakes hit the Romblon-Mindoro area in the past seven days, people here in the Luzon group of islands were justifiably rattled.

Right now I am very happy that my loved ones and I are all safe and sound, though of course everyone here has the thought "But for how long?" lingering at the back of our minds. In between the Philippine government's incompetence over repatriating Filipinos working and studying in both the calamity-stricken and politically-tense parts of the world, we have also taken it upon ourselves to help out, mostly through the aid of international organisations. The response to help has been awesome, though part of me thinks that it's the Filipino nature to help even when he/she has little else left to give anyhow; in any case, I am pleased as punch because many of my friends in local cosplay and fandom front have set aside grudges for a common, worthy cause. The Philippine Red Cross in particular has opened up a page urging for relief aid and volunteers to help their Japanese counterparts; though I've not had the time to help, I've given them a good amount of my salary - my intended birthday spend - this month in the hopes that someone would smile a bit on my special day (Cosplay.Ph and Tamashii Con helped them out quite a bit too). I am still trying to find ways and means to help out.

Here are my birthday wishes, because it's that time of the year again when I hope and pray these things come true. ♥♥♥

• For the weather and the earth to simply not give everyone a bad day on my birthday week. That earthquake-tsunami combo that hit Japan did not leave me amused. --> This worked, yay!
• To have dinner with Anna F, Eia, other friends in high school, all my friends in ICTUS and all of Broad Comm 2002 again (preferably not all at the same time though). XD
• For Banco Filipino to reopen because a good portion of my savings are in it (yes I'm looking at you, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amado Tetangco and everyone in both BSP and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Company because the lot of you are money-grubbing motherfuckers).
• See my boyfriend this year in the USA, unchallenged.
• To cosplay again with friends!
• To have fun with Cosplay.ph friends again, not necessarily in cosplay-related schemes.
• To go out of town - beyond Tagaytay but preferably within the country please.
• To see my older sister again. 

I forgot to add this last one durrhurrhurr: To earn more monies at work (because taking jobs on the side is going to kill me, I am so exhausted from work these days with events happening weekly and almost daily in the weeks past).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Conflicted/Word Vomit 3/? [To be transliterated in Tagalog]

There have been many days that I just wish we could write history differently. Or, like in the Choose Your Own Adventure paperbacks that Bantam Publishing put out for mid-teens in the 1980s and 1990s, you could make a more informed choice and arrive at a more definite conclusion. What if we could have known that the Americans of 1898 would betray us by buying our country from Spain for US$2 million (according to the currency exchange rate at the time)? What if we could have just fought the Spanish on our own and persevered in a war of more than a decade, instead of relying on the superior military strength and firepower of the Americans to have cut the war by 2 years? What if the British, instead of staying only four years, won the war versus Spain and took over Las Islas Filipinas - would our have been named differently, like St. George's Islands* or something? How I wonder.



I was in historic Corregidor two weeks ago, touring the tadpole-shaped island. Corregidor (formerly under the province of Bataan, now under the province of Cavite) is one of five in an island group. The Spanish called it "Corregidor" because it was the first entry point by boat into the Manila Bay area, thus being the island where papers were checked and corrected (Corregidor's name comes from the Spanish verb "corregir," or "to correct"). Meanwhile the other islands - or, in reality, islets - were La Monja (the only island that was not fortified), El Fraile, Caballo and Carabao. The Americans, once they bought the Philippines from Spain, changed it into "Fort Mills." Three of the smaller islets were fortified; El Fraile was renamed "Fort Drum," Caballo became "Fort Hughes" and Carabao was "Fort Frank." Even now, veterans from the USA and Japan are said to quickly recognise the American-era names, but not the older Spanish ones.

The island was pivotal in its role during World War II, because it was where the Allied forces - namely the USAFFE and the Philippine Commonwealth - took their last stand against the Japanese forces from late 1941 till 6th May 1942. A monument on Corregidor island, the Pacific War Memorial, was built to honor the Filipino and American servicemen who participated in the Pacific War. The structure is large rotunda in which a circular altar falls directly under the dome's open center through which light falls on the altar during daylight hours; on 6th May of every year, at exactly 12:00 noon, the sunlight falls right at the center to illuminate the entire dome.

If you discuss the Pacific theatre of World War II, you'd be hardpressed not to find my country, the Philippines, front and center in this historical era. However, it took around 55 to 60 years for the Philippine veterans, already long dwindled in number, to receive just compensation. They fought for love of the Philippines and for her freedom, as well as for fealty to the United States of America which was expected to grant the Philippines its freedom. But a quick Google search shows that after too long, Filipinos who fought in the Pacific theatre of World War II receive no more than US$15,000.00 - and that's if they are alive and breathing as US citizens. Filipinos who have retained citizenship get around US$10,000.00 if I am not mistaken, but they are still lucky, because families of deceased veterans on both sides of the Pacific Ocean don't get a single cent. This is, to me, a Pyhrric victory, not unlike the rape of Manila in 1945 towards the end of World War II; Filipinos have won, yes, but at an exceedingly painful cost.

I've seen these veterans, many of them on wheelchairs, feeble with lines drawn taut on their skins due to age. Their minds may be sharp - their eyes flash at the slightest sound to prove this keenness still inside - but their bodies, fatigued by war and years of waiting, no longer follow. They are pretty much the same age as my grandparents, and even now it is my greatest regret that they did not live to gather this pittance. My mother's father in particular would have benefited greatly from this - it would have made his diabetes treatment much easier on everyone's pockets, for starters; but then again it may have been for the best as well, because there was no psychiatric treatment available at the time of his death to veterans like him, who were never the same after having been in the battlefield. But that's another story for another day.

And as for the Spanish government and private firms? Well, except for scant philanthropic projects and cultural affairs, they keep an excessively low profile and just continue to market their wares. It makes me sad because Mango and Zara - both world-renowned Spanish fashion brands - have great collections, and are said to be made here in the country with super-cheap labour. As far as I can tell (and you are more than free to correct me on this one), neither funding nor curatorial connections helped the Corregidor Foundation in restoring the island.

And so I wonder - what could have been done differently? In the dim hope that history could be rewritten, would we as a people choose to take it? But more importantly, even with the chance of a rewrite or a choice, can we guarantee that the currently-known outcome will still not be the same experience of today? Real life truly is stranger than fiction.

*Hypothetical name only. I do know how important St. George is to the English, though.

An important message.

After an emotionally draining Sunday and an energy-sapping two weeks, I found these among the email messages I've subscribed to. The fact that they were received in my inbox on the very same emotionally-draining Sunday is a bit chilling and disturbing, because I had hoped for something that did not lead me to where angels fear to tread. Emphasis mine.

This is your mission. To become what you were born to be. You were born to bless and heal and love in a very specific, fantastic way. I don't know about you, but it's really incredibly exciting just making it all come to pass.

Here we have one of the smartest people who ever lived, accepting the fact that he couldn't do anything alone. He understood that he could not know what he knew or do what he did without the help of others. Greatness happens when people get together and pool their strengths for each other's benefit. It happens when lessons are passed down and taken even further. Who do you know in your life that you could learn from? Do you have a hero? How can you build on the opportunities that are given to you? How will you pass your knowledge down to the coming generation? Learn your strengths and the strengths of the people around you. Find out how you can help each other achieve what you never could alone. Right now, you can be the one "seeing farther." Be the "giant with shoulders" for someone else. Either way, you'll be part of something big.

I love the gift of healing, but right now, with the way things are looking I can't even manage to heal myself. I'm so terribly drained that I just want to curl up in a corner and cry myself to sleep, but I can't get the rest and release I need. (For starters, I am wide awake.) I really, badly need a recharge. X_x Pwede po bang time-out muna, please? =_=

Random costume-related post (Tangkilikin ang sariling atin)

A member from one of the Philippine arts-and-culture mailing lists I'm in emailed this:


Subject: (ThePhilippineCinema) LVN costumes...
From: Joseph Borneo Olfindo

Any body interested to archive Costume designs from LVN movies?

pls call me... 09209207512. ..

The costumes are already brittle with age...soon to go...photos may be the only way, but for a select few...I know you can do something better in preserving the costume designs...

joborn2x


I'm suspecting it's from the 1950s-era Filipiniana collection, in which case I waaaaaaaaant. T0T

Ah, to be young and broke.

These past 2 weeks have been crazy.

1) Hongkong began as a disaster but at least the weekend evened out. We arrived early at Chek Lap Kok Airport but we couldn't take a ride into the city in time for our meeting. Some of us went ahead to present while the rest, myself included, just caught up with them just in time for lunch (courtesy of our contacts at HK) after arranging for check-in at our hotel. Then the weather was too cool and too rainy for comfort (stupid CNN said it would be clear skies through the weekend! XP), but Disneyland was all sorts of fun (considering how small it is) and clubbing at Lan Kwai Fong was ... well, unforgettable. XD; (Sa mga nakakaalam walang manlalaglag. X3) Did not get to shop as much as I'd wanted though, and I kept getting the group lost and late and stuff, bleh. XP

2) My godmother (Dad's sister; also the proud new grandmother whose picture I posted here 2 years ago) died of cancer two days before I was supposed to fly out. I was numb for the next few days, even with the clubbing and Disneyland craziness. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come out.

3) Made a couple of stupid decisions especially on Wednesday. Backlogged to the max pa. Did not even get to buy tickets to the final set concert of the Eraserheads. Need to rectify everything ASAP. Shet. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDX

4) Shopped for stuff for my birthday yesterday (Saturday). I honestly wasn't sure I should celebrate it the way I wanted to considering the death in my family lately, but I decided I was turning 25 only once and I wasn't going to celebrate any more birthdays after that so I may as well celebrate life. Besides, it's one of the few times I'm going to see my all my closest friends (hoping to make 25 for 25, lol) from all walks of life. I was in such a bad mood earlier since I was supposed to do some leftover work before I left and then again when I got home but Anthy died so I asked markpoa's younger brother to fix it. He's cool. (Thanks for fixing my PC!) Very glad I had Neko and Sherry, who even went the extra mile by patiently waiting for me while I de-stressed by watching the Charice Pempengco concert, with me or I would've gone nuts. thank you girls! ♥

Also: Francis Magalona died due to complications brought about by leukemia on Friday, 6th March. An acquaintance/semi-friend of mine (who's also a co-worker's sister) is a nurse at Medical City, where he breathed his last. While I am still somewhat embarrassed to remember dancing to his song at age 7 (which has gone on to show that I can't dance but I still do it anyway), I admit I enjoyed his songs as a guilty pleasure. Francis M was 44 and is survived by his wife and eight (8!) children.

Local trapos (traditionally corrupt politicians), we're watching you!

READ THIS (http://vicissitude-decidido.blogspot.com/2008/12/world-is-fucked-up.html) AND PASS.

Related reading:
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/141418/DAR-chiefs-son-5-bodyguards-face-charges-for-alleged-mauling-of-2-golfers
http://digg.com/people/Politician_mauls_56_year_old_and_14_year_old_on_golf_course
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20081227-180232/DAR-chiefs-son-tagged-in-golf-attack
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/12/27/08/dars-pangandaman-complained-mauling-antipolo-city-golfers
http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/dec2708/news_story1.htm
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=427438&publicationSubCategoryId=68

Those politicians are going down.

Moments like these

I was going to post about my Christmas wishlist or the insanity of last weekend with Sentigram, but apparently the near-loss of my sister (context in previous post) was enough to shake me off this. Even now that I'm catching up on cosplay-related posts and other "light" news, I've become convinced that everything I have now is completely meaningless. I just want Ate back, and to see Mahal again. And now more than ever, I need to be financially stable if anything happens to myself or my family. So I'll just keep all my commitments, and afterwards I might not be around as often, if at all.

For a moment there...

I thought we lost you.

Please to not be letting us panic like that next time, okay?

Nalalapit pa naman ang kaarawan mo.

Love you. ♥

THERE IS SOMETHING WE CAN DO FOR TARA SANTELICES.

Found this being posted around. While I don't know this musician personally, I'm angry about the circumstances behind her current status, and hoping and praying she pulls through.


================================

THERE IS SOMETHING WE CAN DO FOR TARA SANTELICES. PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

Word spreads around fast and almost everyone has already heard about what happened to our dear friend, Tara Santelices (Assumption Antipolo’s Batch 2003 and Ateneo de Manila University’s Class of 2007, AB Political Science).

On the eve of her 23rd birthday, Tara was shot in the head during a hold-up while riding a jeepney along Imelda Avenue, Cainta, Rizal. Joee Mejias, who was with her at that time, rushed her to Amang Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Marikina City. The parents of Tara and Joee arrived at the hospital shortly thereafter. When morning came, Tara’s parents finally decided to transfer her to the Medical City, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. Since 8:00am of August 6, Tara has been in the ICU fighting for her dear life. Her parents have decided not to push through with the operation.

Although it might seem that there is nothing else that we can do but wait for Tara to wake up from this horrific nightmare, we, the friends of Tara, have decided to raise funds for Tara’s hospital bills. This is the least we can do to ease the unbearable pain her family is going through. We have been given the go-signal from Tara’s dad, Tito Larry, and here are the details:

The temporary bank account is under Anne Marie F. Santelices, Banco de Oro, SA 2140-062201. For direct cash donations, please proceed to the ICU Waiting Room of the Medical City (Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City). Please look for Joee Mejias or Lila Santelices.

Any amount will be gratefully accepted. Anonymous donations are also welcome. Please spread the word. Forward this to your family, friends and even to everyone else you know. Please post this on Friendster, Multiply, Facebook and wherever else you can think of. Please send group messages on Yahoo Messenger. This will mean so much to us, her friends.

Please continue praying for Tara, for Joee and for both of their families. If you want to come see Tara, visiting hours at the ICU are at 9:00 am to 11:00 am and 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Thank you so much for your time and kind consideration.

For inquiries, please contact Joee Mejias (09228154987) for calls and Jac Ledonio (09167243071) or Myka Francisco (09163695148) for text messages.

Quoted for Truth: The AE as a Masochist

I received this as a fowarded message from a co-worker, a fellow masochist. XD Translated some lines to the best of my ability, for the sake of my friends and contacts who aren't able to read Filipino.

Yay to all Account Executives (or Account Managers, as in our case here in the office) everywhere!!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

PS I have no cleavage to speak of, so leg exposure na lang, lol. X3

THE AE: THE MASOCHIST

I truly believe that people who enter the esoteric (read: misunderstood, misconstrued, or in layman's terms, because most people don't really know what it is exactly) world of advertising are the truly insane. Those who leave the industry have VERY good common sense and a sound sense of self- worth; those who leave and come back are certified nuts; and those who stay forever (and do not even entertain the thought of shifting into another field) -- or for a long, long time, at least -- are the ones who love to suffer.

But the inherent, unarguably 100% purebred masochists are the ones advertising people call the AEs. They are the Account Executives, the so-called unsung heroes of product launches and successful market performances since time immemorial, or, to quote a recent essay on a similar subject, the quintessential advertising person.

The AE has a thousand definitions to her name, but allow me to narrow them down into five:

1. Your parents do not understand your job description.

Excerpt from a real-life dialogue between an AE and her mother:

AE: Hey, that's my TVC!

Mom: Really? You mean ikaw ang nag-isip ng idea for that commercial?

AE: Uh, not exactly.

Mom: But you did write the script, didn't you, anak? Idea mo lahat 'yon diba?

AE: Erm...well, it was more like I orchestrated the entire production, Ma.

Mom: Honey, I don't understand. Ano ba talaga ang ginagawa mo? (What do you really do?)

In a nutshell, parents don't understand that advertising is more than just being a creative.

2. You are the sounding board of everyone. (Euphemism: Everyone yells at you.)

Your client yells at you. Your creative yells at you. Your boss yells at you. Hell, kulang na lang that even the company driver yells at you for making him drive all the way to Bicutan and then to Marikina, AND THEN back to Makati.

In actuality, they all yell at you because you are their connecting vein. You are the DNA of the system. You are the air trafficker who decides which plane goes in which direction to avoid an airborne accident. Take heart: Without you, all of them can't function properly. Shempre kailangan ng (of course, they all need your) JO/JOB ORDER!

3. You are supposed to exercise your (I quote) considerable powers of PR (Read: kaplastikan).

No matter how much you hate your support groups, you'll always have to be nice to them even if your insides are producing enough acid to burn your digestive system. This is because you need them and they, in turn, need you -- though they refuse to acknowledge such. After all, without you, where else would they get their salaries -- through sidelines?

4. You are a VERY high-paid maid of Clients.

The common perception of other advertising people is that the AE is a Client's yes-man. "The customer is always right," goes the saying after all. This is because creatives see AEs as the Clients' sidekicks when in the agency. I've actually heard one co-AE say despairingly, "Prostitutes are better off. They can say no if they're tired and want to call it a night." Not the AE. Even though you're having a bad hair day, experiencing extremely painful menstrual cramps, not to mention having to deal with spoiled creatives, you have to make sure your Client gets his deliverables, which were needed "yesterday." (Sound familiar?)

But, in defense of the AE, they do not say yes to Client all the time: it just seems that way. The AE, in relation to her kaplastikan prowess as discussed in point #3, has to do a lot of verbal ballroom dancing in order to make the Client see his or her view. In fact, the general rule among AEs is (paraphrased though): You cannot just say no just because. In line with the advertising motto that all campaigns must have a strategy, so do the AEs when it comes to dealing with Clients. As most Clients are sensitive about being brutally rebuffed, AEs have to massage their egos if they disagree with them.

And on that note, notice how, in advertising, the word "client" is spelled as "Client?" With a capital C? Isn't that equating "Client" with "God?"

God forbid.

5. You are ... McGyver.

Resourcefulness is your middle name. Advertising urban legends claim that AEs have gone through hell to make sure both Clients and creatives (and to a lesser degree, your other support groups) are appeased: sitting in the broom closet until the creatives finish the compre for a print ad, hiring a kalesa's horse to ride through traffic in order to present a storyboard to Client, even bribing a DTI representative to give you a DTI number for a promo poster.

These are not myths. They have actually happened.

In the same vein, AEs learn how to be jacks-of-all-trades and masters of disguise and deception, because they know that at the end of the day, managing to deliver (and deliver right) is what matters.

The AE is a celebrated case study for borderline personality or schizophrenia because all sorts of persuasion and coercion methods have been exercised by him or her: the use of charm, tears, and cleavage exposure are patented trademarks of an AE who knows how to get what she wants.

It may sound as if the AE is a person to be pitied, but no. Because while AEs love to whine about their dismal existence, they know, in the deepest recesses of their beings, that they feel like comic superheroes at the immense agony they have gone through and will be going through. If you listen carefully enough, you'll hear the pride between the angst, the complaints, the sighs. They know they are strong people and while not a lot may be able to understand and appreciate that, they have each other to turn to for a metaphysical sense of empathy.

And, even if, an advertisement will merit awards for the creatives and the brand manager gets a raise for a product's market performance, the AE knows that she (or he) was the one who did it all.

And that unspoken truth is the reason why the AE is deemed a masochist.

A short rant

I need to get away. Not a lot of good things are happening lately offline, and sadly being online isn't much help either.

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO. (If you're hit by my comments, PISS OFF.)

Mike Abundo has put up a little missive, "inviting" people to the Blog Parteeh for the sole purposes of dukeing it out.

... IF, OF COURSE, HE ACTUALLY HAS THE PHYSICAL CAPACITY AND THE KNOW-HOW TO BEAT PEOPLE UP. X3

I'd like to go, but really. I can't. I have something coming up for work (FL, you know what this is), so no matter how this is highly tempting for me to ditch work (and really, beating him up would be good exercise!), I've got my priorities.

Besides, really. In line with my current drive to improve myself, I will prefer to take the high road for now. Meaning, I will let karma bite his ass instead. {wide catlike grin}

Oh, and I refuse to drive traffic to his site by linking to the "invitation". I'm not that low. XD

I feel so sorry for the Philippine mainstream blogging community (as opposed to the niche bloggers like us cosplayers) though. Or maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't, since a significant number of them (take note, I DID NOT SAY "ALL" or "OVERWHELMING MAJORITY"!) really just think with their dicks but don't have the heart or the balls to admit it to themselves. Seriously. I mean, Dickweed Fucktard's the best thing since sliced bread to those people, so much so that they want to be associated with him all the time. =_=0

If you're one of those people who think he is the best thing since sliced bread, EITHER YOU COMMENT WITHOUT THE SECURITY OF ANONYMITY OR JUST PISS OFF - nothing you say or do will ever change how I think of him and of everyone who associates with him. v^_^v

Ang Buhay Nga Naman.

Nakakatuwa.
Sa bihira kong paspasang pag-e-emo nang todo-todo sa LJ, 'yung mga hindi ko pa inaasahang sasagot ang una't una pang sumaklolo sa akin.
Ngayon alam ko na kung sino ang mga tunay kong kaibigan. ~_~

Kilala ninyo kung sino kayo. Maraming salamat sa inyo.
Ang hinihiling ko na lang ay kung sakaling magkita tayo muli, hangga't maaari, magpanggap na lang muna tayo. Magpanggap kayong hindi ninyo alam na namomroblema ako, at magpapanggap ako na masaya ako. Masaya na rin naman ako dahil narito kayo at kapiling ko, sapat na 'yun.

Muli, maraming salamat sa inyo.

Focus

While riding with Daddy today my eyes began to tear up. I was glad when Daddy told me "I believe you completely" but I wasn't sure if he believed my fib that the bright lights made me cry. We were talking about LASIK, or "Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis." Essentially, this is refractive laser surgery for the eyes, meaning it permanently re-sculpts your cornea in such a way that you regain perfect 20/20 vision. This had been here in the Philippines ever since I was eighteen - the minimum age for such corrective eye surgery. But I could not avail of it back then because the degree of impairment of my vision then had not stabilized. More importantly, it was a new technology and one had to be wary of new technology, especially one as life-changing as making a "seeing" patient see even better without implements like eyeglasses or contact lenses.

So there I was, riding with Daddy in the late summer rain, telling him that it was never my fault I was such a klutz. My recent Vietnam trip with my family proved to me what I already knew all along - when one's eyesight is bad, corrective implements can only work so hard to help improve it. There I was falling over myself, over things, over my poor "assistants" (my hapless, patient and loving family) even. In fact what convinced me to have LASIK done was getting a rather deep wound on my knee after falling on gravel on my FIRST day in Ho Chi Minh City (and we were there for only FOUR days). On one hand, I was too busy trying to achieve the perfect angle for pictures using our digital camera (which was stolen exactly three days later in the country). It is also true that frequent bouts of near-fatal illnesses in my early childhood years have ruined my locomotive skills and sense of balance; the most I could do while I fell was to make sure my head didn't hit the gravel first. But I could've sworn that the little raised piece of cement separating the asphalt road from the gravel soil of the war tanks on permanent exhibit called the bar blended so well into the road under the glare of the sun.

For those who know me and follow this weblog, I'm sure you're all thinking, "Why?" I know I'm young, and my eyesight remained at 350(right eye)/600(left eye). But I AM YOUNG, and already everything to me is literally a mass of depthless, shapeless blurs. I can't count how many times I've nearly gotten run over by speeding vehicles just because I can't estimate how far they are from me. My "souvenir" from Ho Chi Minh City wasn't the first of many imprints on my skin; a good number of which came from my old home. My professor in creative writing class last summer forced us to read Diane Ackerman's "The Natural History of the Senses" (excellent book, by the way), and was THRILLED to find out that I was the most severely visually impaired seeing person in class, and used me as a perfect example to illustrate the book's point that visually impaired seeing people literally see things differently. I had to describe to her that I couldn't see the trees, the grills, the lawn and the sky outside my window, but just the rearranged vomit of green, brown-black, black, and blue cut piecemeal. (Of course, the book said that visually impaired seeing people also make the best painters, and cited an entire painting movement - expressionism, with all its dots and strokes - to prove the point. This makes me wonder why I never bothered to shift into, much less fight for, my original college course of choice, fine arts, instead.)

Yes, I've decided to end fifteen years of clumsiness brought about by severely impaired vision. I waited nearly my entire current life to find a cure for my near-sightedness, and I won't wait a second more. Of course I know it isn't easy, but I am optimistic that it would be much better than falling all over myself, or becoming a victim of a hit-and-run incident just because I can't tell how far or near a car is from me. As much as I have loved using my glasses, and would never, EVER consider replacing them with contact lenses, my dependence on them and on other people to watch over me when these glasses fail me have made me unable to be a bit more carefree, a bit more relaxed, and a lot more able to enjoy my young life with few worries.

Author's Warning: I cannot stress enough that this process can lead to complications if it is not done by a VERY experienced eye surgeon. Therefore, those who decide to subject themselves to it MUST be no younger than 21 years of age, and MUST know what they are going to get themselves into. The LASIK Eye Surgery website is an excellent primer on this, but search engines like Google can also help provide links to more information. If you are ultimately convinced, like myself, that LASIK is the only cure to your problem, Godspeed.