Third World Writer

 - our trainor’s name is E With A Cut On His Forehead

Sometimes you just have to throw yourself into some ambitious tasks and see which of them you manage to accomplish in the end. It also helps to try and schedule your activities, so at the end of a day you don’t realize that you did little more than read manga and watch anime and sitcoms.

So, my schedule effective tomorrow until maybe June:

Weekdays:
- Office Hours – study for Java Sun Certification for Web Component Developer
- At night – study Ruby on Rails and/or Ruby Shoes
- except maybe Tuesday and/or Friday nights, for games

Saturday:
- Morning – Read Manga, recover from game night
- Afternoon – Learn Sign Language, Basic (until April. After April I can decide whether to proceed with Intermediate)

Sunday:
- Write a story for submission to a publisher*
- Blog, maybe
- Rest

Saw an ad on my street for Sign Language lessons for 1,800 pesos, and I’ve always wanted to learn a new language, might as well learn ASL.

*Wondering what genre of story I should write. After researching available publishers, I’m contemplating between fantasy (1000-4000 words), chick-lit (25,000), fantasy chick-lit (50,000) or children’s books. I’m guessing this might be a good time to try writing chick-lit, but I’m dreading having to read existing chick-lit books out there for reference. Hmm. Whatcha think?

Well, I’ve decided to revive my Twitter account today. Will probably post short tweets here, like how I’m so excited about 9, or how our world might actually be a hologram, or how I really need to go out for dinner now.

Hrm. I’m hungry.

First there’s a dozen or so pictures with me in ‘em from the holiday season (very atypical I assure you, I hate having my picture taken), and now this. I’m on YouTube.

I’m the idiot on the right, and if it’s not obvious what I’m doing, I’m shooting my teammates ‘coz I don’t know how to operate the friggin shotgun.

The retard on the left is Red. Friday night is game night at his place, and last week I became one of the first people in the entire world to play Left4Dead with a Wiimote, because Left4Dead is available only on XBox and PC (not for Wii). Red just hacked the game to map the Wiimote actions to the game controls, and was so proud of his work he decided to put us up on YouTube. -__- And since he just managed to make it work with a four-way splitscreen, I’m guessing this Friday I’m gonna be in another video. ^^

Continued.

So it’s 2009 and once again the year has changed, and every time this happens I feel a little confused. January 1 is such an arbitrary day, no different from any other, but celebrated as the beginning of the year just because Julius Caesar declared it a couple of thousand years ago. But nothing much happens on midnight on the first of January. The earth turns a little, moves around the sun a little, and fireworks go off. Big deal. I don’t get it. Every day should be a new year.

Still, because everyone else seems to treat each new set of 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds as a neatly delimited chapter in our lives, as though our lives come in segments with clear beginnings and ends, I’ve spent a little time this morning wondering about the things that happened in the last year.

I lost my job, which was sucky enough even without the conjunctivitis and having my phone die on me at the same time.

I moved back to Manila for work, effectively beginning a long-distance relationship with zee. Sucks.

I turned a quarter of a century old. My zee turned a year older.

My phone got stolen. A wonderful day.

My friends, Red and Tin, got “married”. The most fun wedding I’ve attended, and the only one with Wii, PS3 and ping pong on pre-wedding game night. Didn’t get to play Taboo officially (because our team won before my turn), but picked up a knack for it after the wedding. ^_^

Zee and I celebrated our four years together, apart.

I joined, and failed, NaNoWriMo, but gained a confidence that no attempt is ever made in vain. Made a mental list of things I want to try for a month, including putting up a website, learning the guitar, learning Rails, getting published, writing songs, etc.

I set up my website. Well, technically not yet, just relocated my blog to thirdworldwriter.com, but I’ll fix it soon enough.

My tau cross’s string broke.

And I met up with Girlie and April. Funny thing.

Here are two people I met in high school, was never really friends with either of them, and I think I might have hated April at one point (I hated all CAT officers, as a group, sorry ^^). I have almost no memory of them from those days, but met the older versions of themselves online via blogs. I find it pretty cool that we are able to do these sort of things now, forget people of no importance to us and discover them later in a new light. It makes the world just that much larger.

Among all the days in my life that I still remember, among the most significant is the Fifteenth of August, 2008. This is the day that my phone got stolen, and unlike most memorable days where only one or two significant events occur, this day had a whole bunch of important events that taught me something. And every once in a while, when the state of the world leaves me feeling really down, I look back to this day as a reminder that there is still hope.

I’m not gonna bore you with the details, but it involved losing a cellphone, not knowing the time, listening to the rain, following a foreigner and offering an umbrella without a word.

As you might guess, because I don’t believe in the concept of a “New Year”, I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. I believe people should contemplate how they’ve been living their lives more frequently than once a year, and resolve to improve themselves more often. It’s okay to set long-term goals for Earth’s next trip around the Sun, but it’s important to assess one’s self regularly. Improvement should not need to coincide with fireworks.

To be continued.

Well a lot of things have happened here and there and all of a sudden I haven’t been writing very much, which is quite frustrating because writing is one of the most enjoyable things in the world. And the more things happen the more I want to write, but I can’t because (a) things are happening, and (b) because I don’t have a laptop and my hand writing speed has no hope of keeping up with my thoughts. And because I haven’t been writing I have been keeping a mental list of all the things I’ve been intending to write (or write about), and now I have a huge backlog of things unwritten, which I will try to chisel down now. (And this is all the more difficult because things tend to keep happening even as you write.)

First of all, I must introduce Mr. Rootbeer. I met Mr. Rootbeer at KFC one day when he decided to complain to their customer service about a very little thing involving the use of styrofoam containers when he didn’t order take-out. It was a very silly thing, Mr. Rootbeer said, when plates were readily available, easily reusable and did not fill landfills. He did not like the unnecessary waste.

Mr. Rootbeer is what people like to call a “complainer”. He complains about everything, big and small, from shoddy government projects to traffic non-compliance to how a lot of people don’t seem to bother complaining about a lot of things they hate. They rant to their friends about being insulted by taxi drivers, and they blog their asses off about rude waitresses, but they never raise their complaints to the people who can change things. Mr. Rootbeer wants to change things.

Once in a while I will allow Mr. Rootbeer to write things on my site, but I’ll try to tuck him away in his own corner so that he doesn’t go shouting in your face. He means well, I’m sure, but he can be distressingly loud at times.

Mr. Rootbeer says “Hello.” But enough about him.

One of the few things I like about the holidays is that it’s the time of year when a lot of people don’t have classes or work and are able to meet each other for the first time since high school, allowing me the opportunity to check up on how my mice are doing. You see, Christmas is a time of high school reunions, when classmates meet for dinner after years apart, exchange pleasantries and recollections and greetings all while pretending they didn’t still hate each other’s guts or something. And even though the people who go to these things have never been my crowd, I attended one such Christmas reunion to observe. I watched for signs of progress and growth, from this group of people who used to go to the city’s premier Science High School. I wanted to see if education really gets anyone anywhere, in a good school or a good job at home or abroad. This group of people was my “Public Science High School” sample group. My mice.

From my little corner of the table I determined that I was stuck with the middle mice, the ones who were doing quite well, not bad, but not exceptional either. I hope to someday gather more information from the edges of the bell curve, because that’s where the more interesting stories are. And stories are one of the few things I enjoy as much as writing.

Some reunions I attend for fun. Away from expensive plates of unspecial dinners and DSLR cameras and dresses made for showing off, we gathered in a living room, talked geek, played Taboo, and ate pizza and ice cream and a wonderfully made cake. No pretense here, no one trying to one-up each other, no exchanging gifts. Here we’re just friends.

One other thing I haven’t done in a long while is dispense romantic advice like I was some expert on it, which is what I tend to do when I’m surrounded by a bunch of girls talking about their relationships or lack thereof. Zee calls this my Dr. Phil mode, but I’m no psychologist and really all I do is take the information revealed to me and translate it to simple, logical terms, unspoiled by anger or jealousy or pain, because I have the advantage of being a third party. And once in a while I explain a few of my “operating principles”, like how relationships are logical and not the senseless helpless heap of emotions a lot of people believe them to be.

Here’s a little piece of my “operating principles” I’d like to share right about now:

Don’t Take Advice.

Not from anyone, not even from me. Listen to advice, learn from it, take the things you agree with and discard the things you don’t. If unsure, keep that advice for later until you’re more able to dissect it. Any advice is offered with a limited understanding of your situation, because no matter how hard you try you will never be able to describe your problem in such a way that you get absolutely everything across. I will never be in your position because I am not you, and any advice I give is given with the knowledge that I will not be there to suffer any consequences that advice might bring. So please, think for yourself and don’t take anyone’s advice, especially not mine. I have a limited understanding of this world and how it works; don’t lean on me. Lean on yourself, and on your own understanding.

To be continued.

The year is about to end, so I thought I’d catch up on the things I’ve been meaning to review.

The Terraces – Ayala Center Cebu

I don’t usually review malls, but I was so impressed by the Terraces that I just needed to mention it. It’s nice Ayala-class landscaping that I’ve never before seen in Cebu, adding that long-awaited art to consumerism that this little city has long needed. Before this came along the higher-priced dining places have been scattered around the city, in places easily confused with one another (The Gallery, The Crossroads, The Whatchamacallit), because “the mall” fell out of style after high school, but with this new infusion of design and dining places, Ayala has managed to re-market the mall to those who imagine themselves to be Cebu’s high class.
9/10 VERY GOOD

Bigby’s – The Terraces

The first time I tried Bigby’s, I loved it. I ordered the carbonara and raved about how it was one of the best I’ve tasted, and I made sure to eat there again.
Last week me and my zee tried Bigby’s again, my first meal after landing in Cebu, and again I ordered the carbonara. It sucked ass. Everything was burnt, from the meat to the garlic to whatever the fuck they put in it, and I couldn’t taste anything remotely like carbonara. Zee and I left our plates half eaten, and I must remember to never set foot in that pretentious piece of crap restaurant again.
3/10 VERY BAD

That place by Krua Thai – The Terraces

I forgot the name. Twas okay, not really spectacular, but they had curry, which I love to death. I found their calamare a bit oily and tasteless, but they crispy beef thingies were excellent. (I really need to write these reviews earlier so I remember the names of the things I ordered, or at least of the restaurant.)
6/10 FINE

Pizza Hut Bistro – The North Wing, SM City Cebu

Dammit, I really don’t remember the name of that thing I ordered, the pasta thing with cheese inside. Anyways, it sucked. Zee ordered the Chicken Cordon Bleu, and while we agreed that the chicken and the bacon and the rice were nicely done, we also agreed that the cheese used added nothing but a strange texture to the taste. It’s not the kind of restaurant I’d recommend.
5/10 AVERAGE

Jose Maria’s – The Gallery, Mabolo, Cebu

Mozzerella Pollo was okay, the lemonade was worthless, and while I didn’t really see much of a problem with it, my classmates seemed to hate the service. Taking that into consideration, plus the fact that The Gallery is a bit out of the way, I don’t think it’s worth visiting again.
5/10 AVERAGE

Chocolate Truffle Cake (?) – Starbucks, IT Park

Didn’t like the consistency. Tested less like a truffle and more like a thick chocolate jelly or sorts. I expect more for “truffles” than the smooth consistency; they need to melt in your mouth and dissolve into dark chocolatey goodness, and not have to need chewing. All in all, I didn’t like it much.
5/10 AVERAGE

Play 2 Learn – Ayala Center Cebu

The place to get smart toys and games in Cebu, which gives it instant plus points, but only because there’s no Landes and Hobbes here yet. Here you can be sure the Monopoly board (800php) hasn’t been changed to use Philippine landmarks, and you have the chance to buy some games not found in other stores in Cebu (like Taboo, 1400php).
I must mention, however, that this woman who seemed to own the place was a total bitch. I only asked them to hold Taboo for me for a few minutes while I got some cash from the ATM, and she asked me a bunch of questions insinuating that I had no real intention of buying it, as though I hadn’t just bought Monopoly from them a while ago, and like customers weren’t at all important to them because they were the only ones in town who sold Taboo. That’s no way to treat customers, what the fuck?!
4/10 BAD

Taboo – a game

Love it. As soon as I got my hands on it at Red and Tin’s wedding and found I had a knack for it, I knew I had to buy one for the sibs at home. It’s like charades, only using words and no gestures, where you try to get your teammates to guess a word (or phrase or name, etc) by saying anything you want (in English) without mentioning any of the taboo words on the card. The rules are easy to pick up, and it’s easily playable in small groups, big groups, or as a free-for-all in a taxi cab.
I’m not so sure about replayability though, and I hope there are expansion decks available out there.
9.5/10 MASTERPIECE

Monopoly – a boardgame

Haven’t played monopoly since I was a kid, so I decided to get one for Christmas (from Santa). Much of the game is controlled by the roll of the dice and the flip of cards, but I found that, on occassion, I had really exceptional luck. I could invoke the powers of the universe so that my token wouldn’t land where I had to pay rent, much to my brothers’ protests. On such occassions, I could even try to lose, but the universe just wouldn’t let me. ^^
And then there are occassions when I’d try my darndest to win, but my littlest sister would kick my ass. So yeah, randomness is fun.
I like that the new Monopoly included an optional speed die, as monopoly games tend to last longer. The speed die is hell, and my luck with it has always sucked, but that’s just another element of fun.
9/10 GREAT

Zack and Miri Make a Porno – Movie

Best friends since high school are strapped for cash and decide to make a porno for money. Crazy fun, okay story, not safe for work. But in a good way, not slutty or anything. The cameo by Clark Kent was hilarious. ^^
7/10 GOOD

Forrest Gump – Movie

Watched it again since I had nothing to do at home, and loved it. ^^ Just thought I’d mention it.
10/10 MASTERPIECE

Yeah, I hate Christmas.
But I guess you enjoy it.
So, Merry Christmas.

In the spirit of the season, I figured I’d make a list of everyday people I hate. Just for kicks.

1.) Smokers, obviously.

2.) People who fart in the MRT.

3.) People who cough or sneeze without covering their mouths, especially in enclosed spaces.

4.) Drivers who stop in the middle of the road, or on a pedestrian lane.

5.) People who park on sidewalks.

6.) The cashiers at Rustan’s who never fail to shortchange me every single time, without so much as an apology, and even though they obviously have enough change.

7.) Idiots who push their way into the MRT at rush hour, as if doing so makes things any faster. Especially when people are still trying to exit the train.

8.) People who stand on the exact center of escalators, blocking the way and refusing to move to one side for people who want to walk through. Similarly, slow people who walk in groups and block the way, and people in groups who block a sidewalk.

9.) People who tell spoilers.

10.) And smokers, obviously.

And if you’re none of these people,.. try checking with Santa. He has a much longer naughty list.

I don’t normally like to comment on American politics, but I must say Obama is making some very smart appointments in his administration. Specifically, I’m referring to his appointment of professors Stephen Chu and John P. Holdren.

Chu is a 1997 Nobel laureate in Physics. He is the Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cellular Biology of University of California, Berkeley and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is working with businesses to develop technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He is also a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, and is a vocal advocate of added research into biofuels, solar power and other forms of alternative energy. Stephen Chu was appointed Secretary of Energy last December 15.

Holdren is a physicist with degrees from MIT and Standford University. He is the Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University, and the director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has focused his work on global environmental change, energy technologies and policies, nuclear proliferation, and science and technology policy. If The Boston Globe and The Washington Post are to believed, John Holdren will be the next Scientific Adviser to the President.

It’s nice to see that actual experts are being assigned to the posts that require them, and that science will not be ignored as it is in the current US administration. While Bush does have a Scientific Adviser (John Marburger, who has a pretty flimsy Wikipedia page), I find it funny that the only thing I’ve read about him is his response to a report, Scientific Integrity in Policymaking, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists that criticized the Bush administration for the “manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science” and for choosing members of scientific advisory panels based on their business interests rather than scientific experience. Marburger dismissed the report as “biased”, “false” and “a distortion”. The UCS rebutted by saying Marburger’s claims were “unjustified”. Marburger has since kept quiet.

I must say, I am a little excited about what policies will be put in place by the Obama administration. I’m tired of seeing movies like The Day The Earth Stood Still, where the government blatantly ignores key scientists’ advice until after the attack-first policy has failed. And hopefully, with these guys in charge of Energy and Environmental concerns, Klaatu won’t be visiting anytime soon.