Reading.

Most of the reading I do is centered on my magazine collection—old issues of Autocar and Top Gear Philippines. Autocar I am particularly taken to reading because the ASEAN version which used to be sold here has all but gone from the newsstands, although I frequent their UK website. I guess you can say that re-reading has become a pastime for me.

I’m not in the habit of reading the newspapers because frankly much of what’s written there just goes over my head. My dad had other plans though.

Now that I had more free time, he said over dinner, I should read the business news. I should be listening to what the two dailies we subscribe to say about why the stock market and the peso exchange rate acted in a certain way. BusinessWorld and the Philippine STAR would have slightly different opinions, and over time I should observe which one was right. After a while of following the news, I should be able to make my own opinions. I suppose it’ll come in handy later on, when I have enough money to gamble on the stock market.

It’s just as well, I guess. Blokes like me who don’t have money ought to learn from those to make and handle gigantic wads of cash, the likes of which I can only imagine. Times like these, I think I should be brushing up on my old FINAMA1 and FINAMA2 lessons.
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Some proof I’ve been reading: The Philippine peso is touted as the best-performing currency in Asia and the fifth best-performing in the world in 2005, according to BusinessWorld.

The STAR meanwhile reported that our humble peso now trades at 52.80 to a US dollar.
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I am glad I have friends who truly do read my blog and appreciate what they read on it. Although they don’t make their presence felt via comments (which I’d welcome), they’re there.

Speaking of blogs...I’m not much of a bloghopper myself. Judging from the blogs I’ve linked to, however, I should really be spending more time reading them. A lot of my friends have good, insightful musings that are worth reading.
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Despite my unbelief in the usual annual craziness the fortune-tellers and feng shui “experts” spout every New Year, there was one of them who had timely advice: clean out your rooms.

This was supposedly to improve the flow of chi in the house. Whatever, man.

In the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, I set about cleaning my room anyway. I knew for a fact that I had so many shirts I no longer wore, and pants that I had long since outgrown. I guess I kept them in the vain hope that I would fit in them again someday. Well, it’s about time I accepted reality and gave them out to people who would put them to better use than I.

In the perpetual fire hazard that is my bookshelf, I cleared out the little scraps of paper that had become inconsequential to me as they were part of the more mundane elements of school life. My pink plush microfiber towel was put to good use cleaning up the dirt and dust that had built up in my room. With the volume of dust in there, it’s surprising I’ve never had an asthma attack.

It felt good afterwards. Now all I need are CD organizers and probably a glass display shelf for my models (so they keep from attracting dust mite shit). I’ll probably have to toss some old magazines out, but they can wait.
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Man. It’s not even my birthday yet but I’m so damn excited about finally bringing that MG Zeta Gundam ver.2.0 kit home. C’mon, Santa, I’ve been a good boy.

Dalong.net had just posted 150dpi scans of the assembly manual (well, this is a first), and while they took considerably more time to download, they were greatly detailed at high zoom levels. Shame they didn’t have finished photos and a final review/rating for the kit, though.

At the rate they’re going, I just might finish the build, write and publish my own review first.