about the talking fish

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Writer. Wheelman. Occasional DIY mechanic. Walking collection of hang-ups. Hopeless romantic. Old-school. Analog soul in a digital world. I am all of these things and more.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

We finally have a company to take us in for OJT. PETA approved our request this afternoon, so I drove Tantan and Rachel back to their office to get our needed documents for approval. The work seemed interesting. We were basically continuing our work for the Pops Orchestra but in a slightly different field. Also, our final output was to be a marketing research paper to judge the audience for Philippine plays. One pivotal factor that drew Tantan and Rachel to PETA was the promise of doing mostly fieldwork, as they seem to hate the prospect of stagnating in an office.

My parents don't seem to agree with the idea however. My mom was especially incensed when I told her PETA didn't guarantee any allowance, especially since going to and from Quezon City was bound to be expensive. She says she didn't understand the logic behind our line of thinking---after all the legwork we did, we ended up with some second-rate company with nothing in compensation for our efforts. What's the point of going to DLSU for schooling?

My dad told me the exact opposite at the dinner table. Why were we being so choosy with OJT? It's hard enough to get real work nowadays; we should be taking the first company to approve us, especially since this is just "training." Funny, I thought this was EXACTLY what the four of us did.

To hell with them and their logic, it's my life I'm living. I'm disappointed none of them were happy with the fact that we finally found a company to take us in. It'll just be 200 hours anyway---just a month of 8-hour working days.

Sigh. Knowing how my parents think, I never bothered replying or talking back. They never listen anyway.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

I spent the morning with my thesismate Leia in the co-pilot's seat. We had Ms. Zamora sign our OJT letter for BPI in school (a big thank you to you ma'am!), then set off to Quezon City, where we navigated our way through the maze of streets that is New Manila to find one of our potential OJT locations, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). It took a few tries to get to the right side of Lanuza St., especially in the exasperating heat.

We tried going to Gateway Mall for lunch, but the traffic in Aurora Blvd. was unbearable and the heat from my malfunctioning aircon was getting to my dehydrated brain. We steered to Glorietta instead where we ate at the Evergreen Vegetarian Gourmet. I couldn't believe my eyes: it looked like a typical turo-turo with dishes a meat-loving Filipino would love, but none of it was meat. It tasted the part too, the difference almost indistinguishable. It was priced like your friendly neighborhood turo-turo too: 2 viands and rice with soup for a mere PhP65, unlike most of the stalls in the food court that will set you back at least PhP100.

It dawned on the two of us that we had been classmates for 10 years. Funny, it doesn't seem like it's been that long---probably due to us not hanging out with each other all the time. Even up to our final hurrah in DLSU we're still thesismates. It's only now that I realized we shared a lot of traits too. We're both fast walkers who understand the value of time wasted in transport. Lei is also a really capable navigator---unlike most girls I know, she can quickly make sense of a street atlas and put it to good use.

I wonder why we never really hit it off back in grade school and high school. We were always relegated to being coworkers on projects, but we didn't really get to talk a lot outside of that. I suppose we were busy with our own concerns and thought that we didn't have anything in common. Oh well, what's past is past.

I'd welcome having her as one of my co-workers.
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Quezon City is confusing.

I understand now why my parents were never so keen on me going to places like QC or San Juan. It's not the inherent danger in those places (although that counts, a spate of carnappings happening in shady areas of QC), but rather it's the huge headache of navigating their streets.
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The more I post in GOUF, the more I find that it's not the forum for me. The administrators and moderators are so damn restrictive it's not funny, and 90% of the members aren't too bright either. It's also very obvious that most things that go counter to a set of manipulative rules promoting Bandai's interest, euphemistically called "Forum Policy," have no place in the forum.

Sheesh.

Richie of MechaPinoy.net was right: If the MP moderators were anywhere that strict, we would have killed them a long time ago.

I'm just grateful MP and HCP are still there, with some of the friendliest moderators and officers around.
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Just saw "Wicker Park" on Star Movies after an eternity of not having seen any movie. I thought it was a predictable film about Josh Hartnett stalking Diane Kruger. Boy, was I flat out wrong: it's a very clever tale of lies, manipulation and deception. I am glad I got to finish the whole movie, and I have nothing but praise for actress Rose Byrne portraying Alex. The soundtrack kicked mighty ass, too.

I'm glad that when I finally got around to watching a film, it had to be this one.

Monday, September 26, 2005

It's 90 days till Christmas. The news programs have begun counting, and you all know what that means.

Still without OJT, I spent the afternoon at SM Bicutan. I had recently gotten back to being physically active, lifting weights on Sunday and getting aerobic exercise from 5 games of Dance Maniax this afternoon. It's better than melting away at home.

I almost gave in to the urge of buying that MG Zaku II F2 kit the toy section was selling for just PhP1500 (PhP500 off only till the end of the month). However the thought of my debt with AVON and the coming holidays led me to step off the queue at the register and bring the box back to its shelf. I decided to buy a Christmas present for my dear goddaughter Mikaela instead.

That kid's a lovable baby girl. She's outgoing and happy and very charismatic---not to mention very chubby and cute. I made sure my gift fits her.
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Now I've never been keen on cleaning computers, but I had nothing better to do so I decided to give my keyboard a little TLC. The keys are dirty and I'm pretty sure some dirt literally fell through the cracks.

I never knew cleaning a keyboard would be so hard.

I initially resorted to prying off the keys one by one and wiping them with wet tissue. That took too much time and paper, so I pried them all at once and put them in a small tub of water and detergent. Meanwhile the main keyboard body was quite filthy, with all the hidden dirt. I tried putting a small amount of water to run along the grooves to help clean it. Needless to say I ended up disassembling the keyboard, trying to make sure nothing in the internals got wet.

Now I'm using it again, and apart from a remedied problem with the Shift keys it's now okay. Not something I'd like to do again in the near future, though.

Friday, September 23, 2005

It's been a while. Hisashiburi ne...

Honestly there hasn't much writing about since term break because it seems I've gotten a really extended one. I've been to school only twice since the term started, and it's only because I had to attend an orientation to get me up to speed with OJT. The rest of the time I've been decaying at home, trying to forget the worse things that happened like having my car towed away and me losing a hard-earned PhP1500.

The sole highlight of the four inactive weeks was my constant participation in the MechaPinoy.net YM conferences.

We have until Wednesday to get a company to accept us four for OJT. I really hope it goes well since it seems we started really late compared to the other groups, which already have definite places they'll be spending their 200 hours on.
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There are rumors spreading around my friends' ears regarding an affair being carried out by one of my friends' co-workers. True to Filipino gossipy tradition, dirt has been dug up and it seems the woman is a known swinger and participant in E parties...or so I've heard. The woman sales exec returned to work as if nothing happened, yet is now being asked to resign.

I have no idea of who she is, despite having seen pictures of her. It's also unfair to lay down any judgment on her character.

Well that's beside the point. The point is I'm going to have to prepare for dirt being dug up like this when I've graduated and have begun on a career. Despite not having known the purported lady sales exec, I'm rather proud of her for keeping focused on her job, neither defending against nor denying the scandal. She seems to have kept her resolve.

I can only hope I can be anywhere as strong-willed as she is.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

The boredom's beginning to set in.

Now that my PlayStation's CD lens has finally bitten the dust I'm left with very few things to do at home apart from going online and playing old games for the nth time. As usual I have little in terms of cash to play around with. Sigh. I really must take care of my Avon transfer application, as much as I hate thinking about having to pay debts again. I need to make money because I'm not sure if I'm going to be getting any allowances from OJT.

I'll need to get my car fixed as well. I realize I can't delay the repairs to February. Sigh.
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I just found out from Arvin Lim that Toy Kingdom has a 30% sale on its Gunpla kits, and it's only till October 31. CRAP!

Imagine owning a "Perfect Grade" RX-178 Gundam Mk-II at just PhP7,000...oh my goodness. Not that I have the money...but shit, it's the stuff of my dreams.

Must concentrate on suspension repairs, dammit...
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