The Chain Game

I’ve always talked about the benefits we’ve been getting with the continuous improvement of how we communicate with one another through the Internet and computers. Everything from the basic things we’ve done before has its own evolution nowadays.Each though has its own pros and cons. And with the split second rate of how we get in contact with each other, the exchange of information gets quickly across the globe and more often than not it gets immediate reactions. To the gullible it is a life changing moment.

Today I’m talking about the pesky chain letters. Just like an everlasting terrorist threat, this one affects everyone. No one is free from it. It is on how you deal with it that makes the difference.

I really don’t know the exact reason behind these mails - why it was created by the originator in the first place. It could have been sent in good faith and purpose. That is to inspire, motivate or spread good news. Or it could have been created just as plain pranks. The latter might be more true with the advent of prank reality shows such as Punk’d and Jackass.

Anyway, this hasn’t stopped. Until now I still get it regularly in my inbox and most of it was neither from susiexxx@horny.com nor from pass2survive@faithinme.net but majority are from my friends whom I knew very well. And it always surprises me every time when one who has been sending me pornographic pictures would later on send me an email requesting me to pass on to every contacts a slide show with the Immaculate Concepcion’s picture on it just because some celebrity died after ignoring it. Ti abi. I believe in change and conversion, but believe me this one is not about it.

The reasons behind this instantaneous forwarding – pass this to 5 people in 30 seconds and you’ll see your life change – in my opinion may be the following:
• Very shallow faith. Ever wondered if some one from the heavens did actually track if you send the religious email to everyone?
• Lack of logic. Who in his right mind from Microsoft or Intel will give you $10000 cash or the latest computer just by forwarding an email.
• Getting even. “Damn, I got scared with that. Might as well send it to others”.
• 10GPBS office internet connection. Kung sabagay, why not. Very naughty.

I’m not a quick “deleter”. I normally read emails especially if it does come from the persons I know. I’m not even saying that all chain letters are bad. Most of it actually makes sense. So what I always do is to read the mail and if I think it is good enough, I “share” it to my friends but without the part that I know might get someone anxious (or worse, scared) knowing that he’s been asked by someone from the high heavens to pass it to others or get ran over by a truck on his next trip to work. OR that perhaps a CEO from Nokia is shaking his head for a recipient’s stupidity of passing off a good deal by ignoring the request to forward the enticing free N90 email to friends.

Wait. I got an email from Paris Hilton…Hey, that’s an indecent proposal but it just needs me to forward to 3 friends in 10 seconds.

“Dear Mo, Mojo and Andi, please forward this to picture and you’ll get the time of your life…..”

Jim’s Country

“Easy come, easy go” - Anonymous

The benefits of the world wide web always fascinates me. Gone are the days when one has to travel far, endure a long queue and rub sweaty faces and armpits just to get near a celebrity to brush elbows with them or if he gets lucky enough, exchange ideas with them. Trust me though it won’t even last a couple of minutes, then. Nowadays, what one has to do to get close to anyone whom he adores or likes is just a couple of type away in any search engine available. Or getting it from your on-line networks.

I got Jim’s site from my wife’s links. She’s his fan. From then on I return to it every now and then to check on his blogs as I discover more about him than reading from the Song Hits mags (do this mag still exist?) or any other newspapers. On his site, I slowly uncover his talents, ideas, spirituality,fantasies (surprisingly, a man of his stature still have fanstasies) and even, his temperament, that is if you read between the lines. Sometimes though it is just too obvious.

Last night right after posting my blog I tried to check his again and there it was, he’s angry at something now. Something that I was also angry at for several days already. As I read about it I find that his frustrations (and evil wishes) are just like any other Filipino. And the thing about it is that he could have cared less, let the issue pass off his mind in his Australian residence. But he did not.

I know Jim is one of those who participated in the Edsa 1 revolution. He even composed the song “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo” as a theme for the post-Edsa 1 Filipino. And If were in his shoes I’d be so frustrated as well with the succession of events that have been going on lately. The Filipinos have forgotten again. I don’t know if it’s just me, but with the current situation, I can imagine again people calling for reforms, calling for the president to step down, calling for a snap election…maybe sooner they (or we) would be calling the Gods to cast fire unto the Philippines. If we don’t get our acts together, we’ll get it sooner than we think. Now I’m frustrated.

Anyway, what I learned today is that even a man like Jim, who may have stuffed his walk-in closet with awards and accomplishments (or even cash) is still likely to give damn (pardon the word) about what is happening to our country. I wish (or is it proper to say hope) that sooner, not later, someone from the millions of Filipinos will step in to take leadership (but please let the current term finish. To hell with those who are now planning a new “EDSA”) with unquestionable integrity and bravery to face and eradicate the TRAPOs that have been multiplying every election.

Tomorrow is barangay election day. Keep your fingers crossed.

Masskara: New Things…Part II

“So many beers, So little time.” – Alcoholics Anonymous

“Kari sa Bacolod, dala maskara.” Masskara Festival quote

I never thought that coming back to Bacolod during the Masskara festival would bring such a new experience even for me. Regardless of our 3-day stay being a bit short and was full of odds (as I’ve mentioned before), the vacation was not only fun but educational as well. Sounds like something from Knowledge TV? Well, sort of.

Some of the new things I learned are:

Upon returning to work after the time-warped vacation, this year’s street parade music kept playing in my mind. LSS (Last song syndrome) or was it forced deeper in my ear canals with the giant speakers (actually, I’ve seen bigger ones before) that surrounded the whole plaza? What’s weird is, this year’s music is in Ilonggo (I got used to hearing foreign festive/pop songs, but then it’s more appropriate) but in modern version. I don’t know the origin of that song but I knew we used to sing that one way back in my Elementary days -“may ga-labaylabay na aso, utot ni Celso (A smoke passed by, it was Celso’s gas)”. Don’t worry, that’s our wrecked lyrics. The original one is decent. By the way, Celso was our classmate.

Masskara is pronounced as MASSkara rather than massKARA. I must have been too focused with getting drunk when I was in college that I failed to learn about this. I never even knew that it was only 28 years ago when the first festival was celebrated. And so it dawned on me that I may have indeed attended the 1st street parade. I still can recall which street I was watching it and what mask my parents bought for me. I was a smiling devil then. Ti abi, a Christian in a Devil’s mask. What could be more ironic than that?

The Club category street parade had several participants with its members on scooters. Gone are the days when BMX and Mountain bikes can be seen parading and performing – or did we miss it? I like what it used to be as the sight of motorized vehicles dominating the parade is not only noisy but polluting as well. Anyway, it’s one of the signs of the times.

Bacolod at last has its own SM mall. Just barely a year old and built in the reclamation area, it is now home not only to mall goers but of course a job source for almost 6000 employees. This is only one of several new companies (another famous one is Teletech, a BPO company) that started doing business there. Hopefully other Manufacturing corporation gets enticed as well. I might consider working there if that happens.

Lastly, I learned that I can now enjoy a shower at home without having to fetch water - which before won’t even get me to use the shower head. Kabo lang (water scoop only). Since we transferred there (1980s), on good days I’ll be pumping water from our well, on bad days though I would have to fetch a couple of blocks from home (from our neighbor’s). And that is done daily. No Ifs or Buts. That went on even until my last year – i.e., before I left to look for work. So before we left home for our trip back to Cavite, I enjoyed my shower just like those in soap commercials. Sorry Greenpeace, I really have to enjoy it.

So now, although I’m back working, back to reality, I’m now looking forward to being in Bacolod again for the Christmas season. I’m just really hoping that next time my on-line reservations will be better, weather will be great, more polite taxi drivers, fewer litterbugs and that Cebu Pacific’s baggage receiving area will at least have a conveyor belt – automated or not, it would be a big improvement from their current system. Ti abi.

Masskara: Against All Odds…Part I

After 13 years of hiatus from celebrating my home city’s festival, I was back at last. This time I’m married. So just this Wednesday, my wife and I finally made our planned celebration trip come true against all odds. Well those odds aren’t what would compete with Phil Collin’s song but odds nonetheless.

This year I, or shall I include my wife, made a couple of on-line transaction blunders. The first one was when we bought the ticket for our F1 Sepang trip. I was so eager then to save on the tickets’ shipping charges that I smartly chose getting the said tickets at the race circuit only to find out that the distribution is a month prior to the race. If only that’s a bus away would have made sense but then it’s not. I should have learned my lessons then.

But the combination of excitement, carelessness and laziness of doing the buying on-line seems to have got the best of me twice in a row. It happened when my wife saw a very good deal from Cebu Pacific in February. I really can’t imagine anyone passing the opportunity of paying P1 ($45, tax not included) for a one-way plane ticket. So off we go again with the power of the mighty mouse (and keyboard, of course) – with several scrolls & double clicks, we grabbed a very good deal. Or so we thought.

So a month and a half before the October event, I filed for a scheduled vacation leave and was proudly telling my colleagues about the cheap trip we’re about to have.

I was excitedly reading my e-ticket print-outs when I noticed the place of departure:

Oct 18 2007 Bacolod
Oct 21 2007 Manila

I can’t seem to have grasped the reality (and severity) of the situation so I re-opened the email notice from the airline and there it was, sad but true, I (or we) made a mistake with the transaction again: Right departure date, wrong place. Even Houdini couldn’t have corrected that.

It was the costliest mistake I did this year, so far. The Sepang transaction was discovered a couple of minutes after confirmation so at least I just spent a couple of long distance calls and a good ticket agent was able to change the ticket details. This last one cost us P5000, almost just like paying the regular fare.

Odds number two is not having a car on the day of our departure. No big deal really but just a bit uncomfortable as we’ve gotten used to driving it until Park and Fly, to and fro. This one just required some change in mind set and some packing techniques – traveling light in short. But it could have caused my lower back to ache though while on the bus.

We finally arrived in Bacolod by lunch time after a smooth flight, but me having an awful aching lower back. So part of the itinerary that afternoon was to look for a manughilot or masseuse - this word reminds me of high school. Pls. don’t ask why. And so we did. It’s funny but the last thing on my mind on this vacation was being massaged on a side walk but it did the job anyway, somehow.

To be continued…

 

Pride No More

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” – Anonymous

“The power to surprise” - Kia

Today we have to let go of our pride, literally. Well at least just our 1998 (GTX)Kia Pride anyway. After having it for 3 years, 10 months and 27 days we decided to let go of it. For whatever reason, hopefully I can blog (and brag?) about it soon. Fingers crossed here.

And just like any old car owner, we had our own share of ups and downs with it. It was like a driving guinea pig for both my wife and I.

Here are some of the things we both experienced and learned from our blue jalopy:

1. We’ve had a couple of encounters with the “third” kind in it. Tricycles, at least. The second one was the bloodiest and needless to say costliest. We’ve learned a couple of lessons from that experience. Lesson 1: check, check, & check before making a turn. Lesson 2: Power steering makes sense. Lesson 3: Student drivers should be accompanied by professional drivers. (If it weren’t for this mistake, we could have claimed insurance then.) Lesson 4: Tricycles doesn’t have shatter proof windshields or seatbelts (duh!). Lesson 5: Have a decent clothing even on short trips (At least you look good while in the Emergency Room).

2. I realized I need not have a Subaru, Citroen or a Ford Focus and neither should I be somewhere in a dirt nor a snow track to experience rally driving. I got that adrenaline rush with my wife on the wheel and just somewhere in Alabang. That one scared the sh*t out of me so to speak.

3. My wife learned that Kia Prides are 4X4’s in disguise when she made the front wheels climb up a parking gutter while parking. And if it weren’t for the tree in front of it, the rear wheels could have made it as well. At this point I’m starting to think she might do well not only in Rally driving but 4X4 jungle challenges as well. Hmm.

4. Who would have thought that a house door panel will end up on top of a car? Not even us. But it did. A wooden door being sold just at the road side unfortunately got loose from the workers’ grip and slammed right in front of the passenger’s “A” pillar. Now, every time I hear the F1 racing’s host says “…and Hamilton, shuts the door on Alonso…”, at least I know exactly how it feels.

5. Cheap MP3 players damages engine. Please email me for details (cpn05@yahoo.com) as this is a long story. I should have thrown it out the first time it skipped.

6. And related to number 5, electrical smoke smells nasty and so it really pays to have a fire extinguisher inside your car.

7. Once we worked in tandem while in it. It was when we witnessed an accident involving a scooter rider who went under a dump truck. Upon seeing that there’s no way I can revive the victim, I decided to chase the erring driver. During the high-speed (as I’d like to believe. It makes a good blog) chase I was the one driving while my wife was on the phone calling the police. Despite the seriousness of the problem at that time, I actually imagined putting up a blinking police light (too much TV?) while initiating the chase. In the end the escaping driver was apprehended. Lesson learned: It does pay to have the police’s contact numbers in your cellphone. You never know when you need one.

Even with those adventures (or misadventures) the comfort we had with that car still obviously outnumbered the discomfort – with regular maintenance. We’ve been to places with it, at our own pace, and in our own time. It was even with us during most of our domestic and international travels (of course, just until Park and Fly).

So just this morning, I gave Wilddog (as we call it) its one last car wash with us, cleaned the interiors and readied every thing for the next owner. And a couple of car honks later signaled its departure from our home.

We both will miss her.

Leader’s Dilemma

I was in a Leadership Enhancement Program yesterday and from start until the end of the whole session, this notice was projected along with the MS Powerpoint presentations. “The lamp has reached the end of its usable life. Please replace the lamp.”

Ti abi. Has our company ventured into subliminal messages to condition our mind? Is there a deeper meaning in that message? Well, it’s for us to find out I guess.

Anyway, I find the parts of the session disturbing, alarming and often times interesting.

During the first half we had a segment with an American and I was quite surprised when he frankly butted in while someone was trying to highlight a point by saying “…I think this is a cultural thing with us Filipinos…”

The expat answered, “Actually, it’s not just you Filipinos who have this problem…” That one rescued me from my developing daydream. (Started to feel proud? Still no.)

What was being discussed then was about taking full responsibility when problems arise. I guess he hit the nail on the head with that answer. I learned from him that even other people from other culture (among our multinational network) would instinctively point their fingers to others to save face. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m always awed when Japanese (mostly feudal period) would commit hara-kiri when they know that they are a dishonor to their family or organization. Bloody, yet graceful exit. Come to think of it, isn’t it time we include a tantō inside our factory? Most likely it will stay pristine.

Another part of the program that amazes me most was when all of us were grouped into seven. Each team was to gather from each members their idea of a strong leader and then for each group to create a hypothetical person bearing those ideal characters.

After several minutes of brainstorming and discussion, the result was stunning. The common thing that most members (i.e., in each group) want is a leader who is a firm and tough individual. I almost blurted, “…but we have that one here in our organization!…”

I find that result both interesting and sad. It’s like a reflection of what most of us currently do inside and outside of our offices.

We want a leader who is firm and tough, yet we get offended when he takes over.

We want great roads and infrastructures, yet we don’t pay our taxes completely.

We want a clean surrounding, yet we spit and throw our trashes anywhere.

We want road courtesy, yet we drive just like how the other damn drivers drive.

We want health, yet we fail to do something about it.

We want jobs, yet we don’t do it properly.

Every thing we do on a daily basis, basic or complex, entails responsibility. Most of the times we need to make a conscious effort to do it well so that at the end of the day we get to go home, kiss our wife (and kids), have a beer, go to bed and say to the lord, “Today, I was honest and good.”

Contractual Employees Needed

Out of boredom last week I convinced myself, though “car-less”, to try watching a movie alone (haven’t done this for a long time). And so after a hearty lunch of Wendy’s Bacon Cheeseburger - with its bacon getting shorter & shorter every time - I picked Resident Evil Apocalypse out of the other three movies in SM Dasma’s homey cinema. It’s my day off.

In the movie, Alice is portrayed as just among several “Alices” bioengineered by the infamous Umbrella Corp whose employees are now living several hundred feet under a vast deserted dried land. At the surface are hundreds of undead characters aimlessly walking and waiting any human they can infect (or get even with).

After appreciating the fact that the movie started with Alice (Milla Jovovich) laying butt naked & wet in the shower, I unfortunately got bored with it. I always knew that I’m getting bored with the movie when I find myself thinking deeply while watching it. Yes this is a sign. Most people would consider it good but not me. I’ve watched The Bourne Ultimatum and I was just plainly immersed in it (I just shut off my mind, no thinking needed) that despite the Hollywood boo-boos, it entertained me nevertheless. That one was just better.

What caught my attention in that RE movie was the hi-tech underground headquarters. In there are blinking red, green & white consoles, most likely computers that would humble even today’s Quad Cores and a totally clean meeting rooms and lab.

So what’s wrong with it then? Nothing, actually.

But did anyone think where the technicians, janitors, laundry personnel & chefs are in that setting? Do bad guys in that corporation still need these employees to keep their covert operations running on a day to day basis? And do these bad guys require evil-minded employees as well?

Just imagine finding these classified ads:

“Umbrella Corporation wants you:
Engineers. Qualification: Must possess a degree in BS Computer Engineering or equivalent. Experience with an evil empire preferred.Chefs. Qualification: Must have cooked for Bin Laden. He/She should expect finding mutant mice running around the kitchen (if the evil lab technicians had a snafu).I’m just wondering if Payroll and HR is appropriate. Hmm, an aggrieved evil employee? Not applicable I guess.

Janitors. Qualification: Had experienced cleaning lots of blood. May perform some jobs with morgue personnel. And other than general trash, he may have to deal with disposing dead bodies. May be assigned to dispose non-performing Alices (I’d like this job).

Laundry Personnel. Qualification: Experienced washing blood-stained tuxedos. Must be able to press it properly in preparation for a spic and span evil officer’s meeting.

Barbers. Qualification: Must have good control of scissors and blades. Possible promotion to hit squad personnel if cutting is found precise.”

 

So there goes, whatever empire or corporation we are all in, they still need the blue-collar employees. Every one is still essential to an organization – from the managers to the grass root level. These suave, clean-shaved evil guys who attend meetings in suit and tie won’t even exist without the low-level employees.

Now I’m inspired. There are still lots of jobs around. Only if I can find that newspaper with Umbrella Corporation’s classified ads. Probably an evil newspaper boy is out with it…