Flint, fire, flies. Hypocrisy.
May 17th, 2008
It’s one thing to call out arrogance when one’s convictions are not shared by many, and another to call out and exhibit arrogance.
To exhibit arrogance is to go about the community and do an unnecessary and uncalled for encore that extends beyond the sickening, simulated, one-man echo chamber.
I have yet to come across one who strikes the flint without the intending to start a fire. Light from the fire attracts the flies, but that’s an expected consequence. The wise man never starts fire when he can’t deal with the flies.
To strike multiple flints, to call fire upon fire, to exhibit arrogance and have the stomach to claim intentions of searching for common ground with those who do not share one’s convictions is easily summarized in one word: hypocrisy.
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Finally: iPhone reaches the Philippines
May 12th, 2008
Well look at that. Completely contrary to my predictions and arguments that the iPhone will never reach this part of the world, Steve J one-ups this wannabe tech pundit and extends its capitalizing arms to the third world. I had to read it twice; thrice before it finally sank in:
(image taken from REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
GLobe Telecom (SingTel’s Philippine leg) announced today that it has secured a deal with Apple “to bring iPhone to Asia this year”, also from a Reuters report dated Mon May 12, 2008 1:21am EDT. Other countries include Singapore (why SingTel, of course), India (under Bharti Airtel), and Australia (under Optus)
I think Globe will see the return of this customer, and several others who have been wanting the iPhone but without troublesome unlocking and more than likely chances of ending up with a bricked unit.
Imma go check my bank account now. My life’s savings has met its maztah.
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This schmuck’s beef with advertising
May 5th, 2008
moar funny pictures
Let me just say it1: I have major beef2 with the current state of advertising in blogs, in general. For one, the enterprising companies present what at first would seem like a win-win situation for the blogger whose naivete exceeds that of a twelve year-old’s: we’ll give you a list of advertisers, whip up a paragraph or two and make them look good and thou shalt be blessed with the riches of heaven.
That in itself is not the issue, however; we have, for the longest time, lived in the age where everything your senses can grasp is driven by advertising in one form or another; from the moment you wake up and smell the coffee, hit the showers and the very commute to school or work. We have probably become so used to, and grown blind to advertising that the bombardment of billboards of all sizes no longer seem to be of any bother (not until the next major storm hits and the billboards start wreaking havoc in the highways, that is). Naturally, advertisers would look for the new avenue, and blogs, unfortunately, are a convenient target.
I say target because largely, the issue lies within bloggers themselves. Two things: (1) bloggers jumping on the advertising bandwagon for grounds that are arguably acceptable, or otherwise, depending on who you ask; (2) advertising “bloggers” jumping on the blogging bandwagon.
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To twitt or not to twitt
April 30th, 2008
Try as I might (to wean myself off Twitter, that is) so I can actually get more important things done, it’s proving more and more difficult when people are posting interesting/funny/useful links left and right. The problem (my problem is more like it) with most Twitter apps is aesthetics - both Snitter and Twhirl cram too many buttons into too little space (i.e. the bane of wanting to do a lot at once). The spartan Tweetr looks just like Twitter’s Flash badge, but only blends in well under Mac OS’s look-and-feel (alas, I live and breathe Windows). If you’re on Vista, there’s Witty, one that’s built to take advantage of Windows Vista’s jazzy Aero transparencies and genie effects. That’s the idea anyway, but just looking at the screenshots, I get none of the warm and fuzzy Aero-gasm fix I get elsewhere.
I crossed roads with Spaz in my pursuit for the fairest Twitter app of them all:
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When bloggers hit the wrong stride
April 21st, 2008
I was going to hit the sack when I came across this PEX post about a frustrated Globelines customer who goes by the name ““. He recently put up a new “blog”, and I quote:
Last week, I already issued a warning. That was Monday, telling them that in 1 week, if they do not do something about this problem, I will resort to the following:1. Permanent disconnection of our Globe internet2. We will not pay a single cent. If we have to battle it out in court, we will! Fuck these Philippine companies! You are already the customer, and yet, you are the one hassled out! 3. I will create a blog and spread this incident all over the internet (which is what I am doing now).
I skimmed through the two posts up at his “blog” and I am not about to argue the disservice that Globelines (the company) has done him/her. What actually struck me is the extent at which the blogger culture has taken stride. Thank Brian Gorrell for that, and the mainstream media coverage his blog has been receiving, and the Korina Sanchez special titled “Beware of the blog”. Can you say starting at the wrong foot?
Of course, it can’t always be helped. I’ll step back a bit to an event from last year’s TriNoMa blogger food tour: the one post borne out of the sleazy treatment from the one restaurant sent waves not just across the blogging community, because I swear I saw it being passed around at work via email for weeks after that event. Then there’s the Atrocities of Friendster series, which up to this day some dork at work will forward to me and ask “do you know the guy who wrote this? Are all blogger really like that?”, to which I will refuse to argue and be trapped in the black hole with no hope of taking the stigma out of the “blogger” label.
Some people just do not get it (the legitimacy of the complaint against Cabalen, the satire in the Atrocities of Friendster series), and I can’t get myself to blame them for not getting it. The Globelines Broadband Sucks blog is the start of a hundred more blogs about customer complaints - this will be the sorry affair of things, if not yet at this time. Now that I think about it, I am afraid that iBlog 4 will be litterred with participants like “
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“Windows” and “sexy” don’t sound right together
April 20th, 2008
…but Firefox 3 on Vista + a little bit of geek hackery, it’s downright orgasmic.
Those following me on Twitter are probably sick of my fanboy-ing over Windows Vista, but the screen grab above should explain quite a bit of that. On a related note, Firefox 3 beta 5 has been working like a dream by not eating up all of the available memory on this machine, the thing that Firefox 2.5.x likes to do so much. It also feels more at home than FF 2.5.x was, but Mozilla should’ve thought about Aero-ing up the interface more than just the Vista-centric buttons and icons. (This is a test post for WordPress 2.5 - and from the looks of things, everything works just fine and dandy. The thing is, I still can’t find the friggin Edit Comment button. HALPZ?)
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Overthinking “Altar Boyz”
April 14th, 2008
“Ok, let’s get down to bidness!” (image sniped from Gibbs)
I will have to forego writing a proper “review” since we’re a good way through the run and tons have been written here (links at the end of this post). I will not even give you reasons to watch; I will just assume you are done holding back and decided you’re watching since the tickets are [relatively] inexpensive anyway. Instead, I’ll run you down a list of the things you need to watch out for (not an exhaustive list):
- the strong entrance, replete with well-timed smoke effects, a Power Ranger-esque opening theme, and “introductions”
- “Rhythm in Me” starts out with a prayer, a cheeky snipe at the Backstreet Boys’ penchant for inviting the press in the backstage to cover their prayers to “make [them] a channel of [God's] peace”
- introduction of the chorus-activated “Sony Soul Sensor DX-12″ with a big, red LED display that show the number of sinners in the crow
- “Church Rulez” (stand up/kneel/sit down/genuflect today!) where Mark takes center stage again, at which point it becomes obvious he’s becoming the crowd favorite
- The Genesis of the Altar Boyz -watch out for a sneaky play on the Christian premise of “divine inspiration”, and segues to ” The Calling”/Jesus called me on my cellphone - the first ballad, lyrics notwithstanding
- Also watch out for “The Miracle Song”, proving how the local cast is more than able to pull off a hip-hop/funk piece, being the (primarily) Broadway singers that they are (per Gibbs Cadiz - you dare argue?)
- Mark’s show-stopper “Epihany” when the DX-12 display goes down to 10
and at this point I completely stopped taking notes as I got lost in the energy of the show Read the rest of this entry »
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Pt. 2: Bulldogs
March 26th, 2008
(continued from here)
The families have recovered since that incident, but this proud family extended help to rebuild not one house and resumed business after six months. The neighborhood loathed them, without a doubt. Although no other family sustained any casualties like they did, the non-shutdown and non-abandonment of the house and the business echoed corruption and red tape present in the subdivision’s management.
Naturally, I was intrigued by what we needed to find out. The other neighboring families have become our friends, and it’s in times of calamity where people are brought together in one mindset. As a kid I have always wondered how a paltry junk shop business that doesn’t even get that many clients sustained their family of eight, two cars in their lot, and international vacations (so we heard).
As much as I wanted to rush things and get it over with I had a bigger issue with me - Dave was the brash, careless type, and he still is. It’s the stereotypical movie - a team of two: one aggressive, the other slow to decide. The following day, Dave decided he’ll start gathering information.
9:00 a.m. Tuesday, Manila Time.
From the outside, the house did not look suspicious at all. The low grill gates were painted in green and ochre, and from here all one can see is a paved driveway and garden variety trees. From the distance there is what appeared to be a typical bungalow with no window sills, although I’ve never come up closer than this. The gate has always been kept unbolted from what I remember, but back in the day as a kid, we were warned that three roaming, unleashed bulldogs would jump at any intruder who sets foot.
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Short story: Pt. 1: Blasted
March 24th, 2008
9:55 a.m. Manila Time.
Four years back, it was only out of boredom that I decided to enter military school. At 21 I was carefree and without responsibility, with nothing better to do but spend the days playing whatever Tom Clancy franchise was out at that time.
Today I’m getting our first assignment as an intelligence agent.
In fifty-second street in middle-class Manila my agency received reports of high activity at night, with cars coming in, dropping equipment and flying off - all in 5 minutes. In the morning, the area is no more than a quiet backyard. This was going to be a reconnaissance mission, and the objective is to infiltrate the base enough only to understand the nature of their nightly activity.
It happens that the house described is on the other side of the block right where mine is. As if it were a really bad joke, the owners of that house also own the neighboring house right across where I am writing this now. A striking contrast to the one on the other side of the block however, this house across is a busy and noisy four-story commercial center by day. While the subdivision prevents operating businesses that may be disrupting to the other neighboring houses, this arrogant family has operated their metal-glass junk shop for as long as I remember living around here.
One night six years ago a delivery came at their doorstep of what appeared to be hollow hunk of metal of what looked to me like a huge fire extinguisher, or an obscenely-sized capsule all covered in rust, but with none of recognizable parts - no knobs, no levers, not even a nozzle; no nothing. But the thing was heavy, so I’d guess they paid the teens kids who brought the thing in more their usual tight rate. Last month I brought down my dad’s beat photocopy machine that was beyond repair and only got a paltry P200 pesos for the whole thing. Which I didn’t really mind; it was one less clutter in my study room.
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Dorktastic much?
March 12th, 2008
For those biased against “R&B” (quotes on that, Wikipedia said so) and pop music in the first place, or if you’re an R&B purist, this is not for you. Go take your opinion somewhere else.
When technology and pop culture intersect, I cannot help but bring it into the forefront of news. Such is my life’s noble crusade. Imagine my ecstasy upon seeing Mariah Carey’s latest - “Touch My Body”, with references to:
- CompuNerd, a parody of the Geek Squad, a computer/electronics sub of US retailer BestBuy who broke into tech headlines for such controversies as peeping squad reps and data theft
- YouTube. duh.
- Guitar Hero Les Paul controller
- Laser Tag Infusion
- 802.11n - easily the hands-down “save the best for last” entrée and the death blow to Mariah’s geek cred; take a good look at her face as she mutters “802.11n” in the end of the video and it’s immediately obvious she had no idea what it’s about
Do not just take my word for it, however:
Exhibition #1: “It’s so goofy and over-the-top, even by Mariah standards”
This pundit’s response: What standards?
Exhibition #2: “until I saw this, I always said eight-oh-two-point-one-one-en. I never thought I’d live to see the day where Mariah Carey corrected my geek speak.”
This pundit’s response: Sir, you are an idiot. Mariah is hardcore.
Exhibitions #3-6: “she makes my floppy disk turn into a hard drive”, “I’d RAM her motherboard.”, “Ageing female music stars getting their kit off is scaring me. Please stop.” and “I didn’t recognise Mariah Carey with so many clothes on.”
This pundit’s response: Skanks.
Much to my chagrin, I have to succumb to the genius that is Touch My Body, and while I’d like to think the song’s mindless lyrics would fit Janina San Miguel very well, I don’t think she can cope up with the song’s uvular acrobatics. God please no. Somebody out there might pick up on the idea and make another remix.
Video after the jump:
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