Barefoot in Manila

Fishing for compliments. Complimenting for fish. It's a life.

Friday, January 31, 2003

I just hope that I never get to see a pair of briefs hanging out there.

.: posted by cecille 10:16 AM

Filipino ingenuity. You really have to hand it to Filipinos. We have a singular ability to maximize the resources at our disposal. And I've seen this trait at work several times.
In Ortigas, for instance, friend and I had such a laugh when we saw a loaf of bread in a plastic bag hanging from a tree. This wouldn't have been so funny if not for the fact that the tree was situated at one of the sidewalks of a bustling business district. It was weird the bag of bread hanging from a tree amidst the bustle of people in power suits hurrying to their destinations. We concluded that the bread might have been owned by the traffic guy who was right then standing in the middle of the street, directing traffic. The traffic guy has his motorcycle parked under the tree and he stays under the tree sometimes when the rain is really pouring.
I witness another example of this peculiar creativeness here in the office everyday. I might have mentioned before that there's a ledge at the back of our room. This is what the office window looks out to. I always keep the windows and the blinds closed, however, because of the harsh sunlight that would filter into the office if I left them open. I've been noticing some movements at the ledge every morning so I decided to check what was happening there. Apparently, a wise guy (or girl for that matter) decided to take advantage of the sunlight. So now they've constructed a makeshift clothesline and they've been using this for the past week to dry their clothes. I wonder who might be doing this. The building is being leased to offices and, as far as I know, there isn't anywhere here that people can actually live. So it's either a total stranger is drying his clothes here or someone working here is bringing in his laundry to hang them out to dry. Either way, there's just too much weirdness. So far, I've seen T-shirts, towels, and shorts. Just now I checked and, surprise (!), there's a pink panties and a flesh-colored bra hanging out to dry. Wonders will never cease.

.: posted by cecille 10:09 AM

Thursday, January 30, 2003

A message to the loser who cut up my bag If you happen to have seen me this past week, you'll perhaps notice how I haven't been using my gray and black backpack for sometime. Well, it's because it got slashed.
Yes, I almost became a victim of a crime last week. Come to think of it, since my backpack was actually damaged, doesn't that make me a victim already? On a Wednesday night two weeks ago, while on board a jeep, I felt someone tugging at my bag. I looked beside me and I saw this guy about 20-25 years old. He had on his lap a big bag that looked like it didn't have anything inside it. I checked my bag and I saw that it was unzipped and almost halfway open. I should have been alerted by then but, instead, I just thought that maybe I forgot to zip it up (What an idiot huh? How could I think that?). A while later, I felt another tug so I moved away and flashed the guy beside me some pretty nasty looks. It was only the Thursday evening after that I found out that he had actually slashed my bag. What's even worse, the pocket where I kept my mobile phone was also slashed. I figure that if I hadn't away, it would have taken him just half a minute more to get my phone. I confirmed this when I checked my phone and saw tiny scratches at one end.
Although it unlikely that he'll ever read this post, I just want to say to him (and to all similarly-inclined individuals) "You fuck! I didn't work hard to could save up for this phone just to have a loser like you try to take it away. I hope you die a horrible, violent death because you deserve it. I hope the next guy you try this stunt on will turn out to be a policeman so he'll haul your sorry ass to jail, where you'll rot hopefully for the rest of your life."

.: posted by cecille 8:18 AM

Hello again. It's been ages since I posted anything here. It's weird how I have less time for blogging now that I'm not so busy at work. When I quit my previous job, I promised myself that I would be posting more religiously since I'll have more time to write and think about things. Well, I haven't been able to do that, obviously. I'm still not busy but mostly I spend my time either studying, surfing the net, or just hanging out and listening to the radio. What a waste eh?
I think my current preoccupation with staring off into space has to do with the novelty of it. It's been some time since I've not needed to act or look busy in front of other people to justify my existence. Now that I'm alone in the office, there's not much pressure about getting the job done right then and there. Now it's more of 'as long as I get the job done, it doesn't matter when or how I do it.' Which suits me just fine, thank you very much.

.: posted by cecille 8:17 AM

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

The job.Three weeks after I started on this new job and I'm finally settling in to my new schedule. Work is as flexible as I want it to be. With no one breathing down my neck and telling me what to do, I can work my schedule around my needs in school. On days when I have only one class, I tru to finish all the work I have to do. This gives me the chance ton concentrate on studying on days when I have two classes.
I'm really happy here. It got a bit during the first few days because I had to get used to staying here all day alone. On my first week here, I must have spent all the free time I had (after work and studies were done) calling people up. I even called people whome I haven't talked to for almost two years. Last week, I watched a Michael Douglas movie (the one where a supposed mental patient goes "I'm not gonna tell, I'm not gonna tell.") and this Monday, I watched AI.
For the first time too, I could listen to any station I wanted and I could play any cd I fancied listening to. There's nothing else but my taste to consider. This is such a blessing for me because I don't really dig the Celine Dion stuff that my former officemates loved to listen to.
The only drawback so far to the job is finding out for myself (and on my own) what things I'm supposed to do and how. The person I replaced wasn't able to give me a detailed briefing because we couldn't schedule a day when we could meet. I was still working full time then and I still had classes every night and all day Saturday. She, on the other hand, already started on her new job and she couldn't just leave the office anytime because she was still doing her training.
I guess this means that for the next few months, I'll be making things up and, hopefully, learning the right way to do things. A mere three weeks since starting, I can now boast of the fact that I know how to renew a business permit and what documents need to be prepared before you can pay business taxes. In the next month or two, I'll have to prep myself on how to compute the income taxes due and how to file the income tax returns for a company. I've been doing this for years but I've seen the forms and it's really different when it's a company that's supposed to do the filing. I just hope I don't mess up too much because this tax thing can really get the company in a lot of trouble if it's not done right.
Next time I talk about the movies I've seen recently.

.: posted by cecille 9:28 AM

Monday, January 13, 2003

Must-see TV. I know that most of what is called "must-see TV" is abominable but I think you should really try watching The West Wing. Spending an hour of your life before the tv soaking up The West Wing will be worth your while. Terrific writing. Good actors. What more can you ask for?

.: posted by cecille 12:33 PM

Friday, January 10, 2003

Something in the way. "It's okay to eat fish cause they don't have any feelings." I have Kurt Cobain on my cd player.

.: posted by cecille 12:50 PM

Thursday, January 09, 2003

Cecilia. Your name of Cecilia gives you a clever mind, good business judgment, a sense of responsibility, and an appreciation of the finer things of life. Sounds good huh? Read up on the rest of it.

.: posted by cecille 8:45 AM

Work in progress. (Edited to add: This was supposed to be posted two days ago but my web connection conked out.)
This time I�ll tell you about my new job and how I�m faring so far.
I�ve gone to work for three days now and, so far, everything �s cool. It takes a bit of adjusting to be alone for the whole afternoon (and while am writing this, Phantom Planet�s on the radio singing about how it�s gonna be a lonely day, Heh!) but �alone� is not such a big problem for me. I get along well with myself. Me and myself, we understand each other.
What�s awfully nice about being alone is that you can do anything you want. Nobody�s going to bother you with cheesy music. There�ll be no passive-aggressiveness calculated to ruin the positive perspective that you stayed up all night to psych yourself into. I also have absolute power over the air-conditioning. So if my body tells me it�s too cold, I don�t have to get into an argument with someone about turning up the heat a bit.
Sometimes, however, boredom can be a challenge. Take this morning for instance. I was doing my reading for school and I got so sleepy. There was no getting around it. I played some CDs, listened to the radio (and sang along too!), and bothered other people who were seriously at work but sleep stubbornly clutched on to my brain cells (Oh! Another shout-out from the cosmos, while am writing this bit, there�s Slapshock on the radio playing �Wake Up�.). This afternoon, I watched two episodes of a really gory version of Samurai X on the pc.
It�s late in the afternoon and I�ve got no class tonight so I�m intently watching the clock right now, willing the hands to go fast forward so I can leave.

.: posted by cecille 8:33 AM

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

Glamorama? One big "Huh? What exactly was the novel about?" is how I reacted when I got to the last page of Brett Ellis Easton's Glamorama. I've had the book in my shelf for more than a year and during the break, I finally decided to read it.
It was confusing, to say the least. The protagonist, Victor Ward, was going through all these crazy stuff and while at it, he kept on seeing film crews following him around. Since I forgot to chuck my incredulity, I was thinking all along that maybe there really isn't a film crew following him all over the place (how crazy is that?), and the book will take a curious Fight Club/Beautiful Mind turn somewhere in the middle. But I got to the end of the story and the damn film crews were still there.
And all along, there was actually this other person supposedly impersonating Victor Ward/Johnson and, eventually, taking his place in the 'real world'. The hell!
So what's real and what's not? I hate it when a book plays mind games with me. I'll probably read it again next year. Maybe I'll totally get it then.
Uggh.

.: posted by cecille 10:10 AM

2003, finally. This is me greeting everyone in the world a Happy New 2003. I hope this year will be great.