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.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

A wedding singer is born...

It seems the feathers are piling up on my hat as a singer.

The wedding went well, although not without frustration. There were last-minute changes to the song lineup and the singers which irked Ate Maya, Ate Edith and me to no end. A friend of the couple actually approached us at the choir balcony with chords to a song in hand. We were surprised and irked because it was totally uncoordinated, but we let the woman sing her guts out anyway.

As the designated chauffeur, I was also faced with the hassle of having to find a decent spot to park at the reception. The Oasis is a good place, I'll give it that, but parking there is a bitch. I reluctantly had to leave Aibo's keys to the valet because I was threatening to leave.

There goes my beginning as a wedding singer. I'm hoping this isn't the end. Probably not: Aileen's wedding is on December 26 and I'll probably sing there as well.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

"Not for everyone," huh.

And "if you're everyone then everyone sucks," eh.

If being a purist means having to contend with blown egos, spending contests and hardparkers, I'd gladly be part of "everyone."

Thanks for the invite, but you can have your JDM. I don't want it. I have bigger fish to fry.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Deep blue something

This morning as I drove to work at 6:30 am, I saw a pleasant surprise climbing up the C5 off-ramp. I was about to pass my old steed WHH687, my 1999 SX8 Honda City 1.5 EXi.

It had been neglected by the new owner, at least cosmetically. I saw only its left side and rear; the rubbing strip had come off the left rear door exposing the mounting holes beneath. However, WHH687 was still mechanically sound. It was nice to know that my trusty, wieldy SX8 was still purring along without any smoke from the tailpipe.

The encounter was all of five seconds, but it was enough for me. It's nice to see you again, old pal.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Are YOU worthy of your power?

We as forum moderators have power. We have been entrusted the power to silence, the power to redirect attention, and the power to mediate in conflicts.

But are we deserving of such power? The reasons why we are moderators, I believe, come to the fore and are tested when we are forced to deal with offenders.

I've had brushes with forum mods and admins who fancy themselves on a power trip and mete out warnings and bans without giving the offending party some slack. Said mods and admins even dole out warnings when they themselves have been reminded by a fellow member that they are out of line on another forum.

Personally, I don't think we are moderators simply to suspend or ban offending members. Rather, we will be much better at our duty if we can get them to stay on while making them remember the rules of the forum.

That I believe is our ultimate goal. And I became a moderator again precisely because of that reason.

It would be much, much easier to mete out a suspension or ban, but it is much harder to grant an offender a second chance and a shot at reform. It's also the humane thing to do.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Time to rebuild, perhaps

Things used to be a lot simpler back in the day. People met online in forum websites purely for discussions' sake. People logged in, made friends, networked, reached out to other friends.

Nowadays there just has to be the odd profiteering gesture thrown in. There just has to be the odd fragile ego that has to be crushed by nothing more than an honest remark. There just has to be the proverbial bad apple in the basket making life miserable for everybody else.

This is the year when I realized I've had my fill of that. Frankly I'm sick of it already. I'm not going to break away and make my own forum because let's face it, that's just going to lead to the very same thing I was complaining about.

Perhaps this is the long-overdue signal for me to get off my ass, stop it with the Internet and just look for a quiet hobby I can enjoy by myself without worrying about inflated egos and over-commercialization. It turns out I had one all along.

After a year of doing other things, I found myself going back to my work-in-progress, my MG Zeta Plus C1 model. I had planned on painting it with my own colors, but somehow I never got it done because I got discouraged by a few mistakes I had made with putty and painting. Funny enough it took a power outage for me to get back to doing it. I just ordered a new kit to replace my botched parts, while I continued putting Tamiya Fine Surface Primer L on the assembled parts.

So far here's what I have to show after 60% of the kit has had primer sprayed on.




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