saying goodbye

awwww...

in another sad tv development, a long-time sitcom comes to an end. and it's one of my favorites. today showed the final (FINAL!!!) episode of 'everybody loves raymond'.



*sniffle* i'm just going to have to be contented with other networks showing the syndicated episodes (replays).

the tragedy of losing a cellphone

the normal pinoy is almost always with his cellphone. it has become a necessity of sorts, providing you with time, games, stored notes and messages, not to mention the all-important convenience of keeping in contact with relatives/friends to leisurely look/shop around in places, such as the mall.

but last night while helping my cousin with his science project, it was just gone. not in my room. not in any of my bags. just gone.

my heart almost stopped beating for a second. then came the paranoia. using another phone to call your cel while franctically searching each rooms, each corner. retracing steps. checking the car. room searching again. calling. stop. the last time i left it, it was still in SILENT, VIBRATING MODE. oh. my. god. it was controlled hysteria, folks. and the bitter part of it all, as the realization was slowly setting in that it was nowhere in the house, or car, was it had happened to me before. TWICE.

the first time was at the Tokyo Fashion, Festival Mall. it was a Nokia 5510, and i just bought a new casing for it - pearl with purplish highlights - and i distinctively remember leaving it inside one of the changing stalls. the whole mall was closing then, and certainly we were the last persons to leave that store. when we leave the mall, i realize i had left my phone, but we couldn't get back in. that night we made franctic calls, but no one answered the phone. the next morning, as soon as the mall opened, we rushed in to Tokyo Fashion. but it wasn't there, supposedly. i looked at the sales people dejectedly, but oh so menacingly. i was convinced them greedy folks had taken it for themselves! the liars! and from then on, i CURSED that store. i wished its lousy business sales or better yet, its demise. i abhored the very sight of it, avoiding it always and even vowing never to walk inside it or any branch OF that store.

few years passed and new, better cellphones passed in my possession. the last one before my current sony ericcson z600 was the nokia 3650. THAT phone i was fond of. and the longest list of accumulated phone numbers of friends, acquaintances, and business contacts. how i lost it was unknown; somewhere between walking from my office to the tricycle (i was going home then), it went missing. or pickpocketed. or fallen. but oh, the heartbreak!!! like losing a friend! like being stripped naked! and with no one to blame!!!!!!!

and here i was, AGAIN, on the verge of losing yet another one! and while it had almost no sentimental value (i had wisely kept a copy of all phone numbers, this time), the SE z600 was the most expensive i had bought (after diligent research and a few months of budgeting), and had the most features. bluetooth, infrared port, camera, sound recorder, the works! and i left it at another freakin' changing stall again!!!!!!!

by then, i had calmed down a bit. i knew of a relative who had a spare phone and was devicing how to ask for it, if i could. i thought of calling the service provider to have the phone temporarily cut off, but then decided to just visit the store the following day. i didn't want to get my hopes up, but it was better to not lose hope at all.

thankfully, i got it back. had it been a philippine scenario, let's face it, that phone was a sure goner. in a bad example, the finder might contact you and offer to give it back, but only for a fee. the saleslady unhestitantly gave it to me, with an amused smile. no bother of even verifying if i was the owner. i guess the relief must have been so clear in my face, and it was enought.

it was just that, the moment of return was strangely... un-momentful. just like that. all that panic and worry, when it was all just for a phone. there are other things in life are much more important to worry over for, but then again, why focus on worrying in the first place? i had to remind myself to just relax and enjoy.

of course, that's not gonna stop me from making sure this losing thing won't ever happen again (crosses fingers).

meeting bruce and foolishness

was with my auntie today helping her hook up to earthlink (an internet connection server) when after determining i had done everything possible to verify the modem and establish a connection, i decided to just call the hotline number of the company.

fast forward to conversation with operator after voice prompts.

i'm already talking to bruce who basically confirmed i had done everything the earthlink manual mentioned for a dial-up connection (and other 'kalikots', as neophyte and professional techies are wont to do on their pc's). but when he came to asking me the account name, i had to call my aunt over for the information, and i had done so in tagalog. then bruce asks me, miss, pilipino ba kayo?

ABA, TUWA!!! and as one kababayan does one seeing/hearing another, we immediately conversed in tagalog, as if we were friends. naging close ba. we began talking off-pc-topic and talked about the weather in both of our locations and what we were doing. his name wasn't actually bruce, it was his foreign name daw (to which we both laughed). he was working lunchtime in makati and i laughed again. this was more so not because the philippines had scored another outsourcing job from a US companies, but because earthlink had aired (and continues to do) commercials of caucasian people working as phone operators. granted, the ad itself did not lie because it did say that there were real people on the people; they just didn't portray the kind.

but i didn't tell bruce abt that. instead, i asked him what name of the company he was working on. he laughed, then, surprisingly a moment of silence followed. i said, uy, hello? he then speaks again, but in english. not a big deal, but for a split second, my mind imagined a possible scenario. his supervisor must have appeared. then it hits me. or maybe, it hit both of us. THIS CONVERSATION IS RECORDED. the very last line from the voice prompter before it hooks me up with the operator. yikes.

i quickly said my goodbyes to bruce and thank him for the wonderful job he did (i might have overdid the praising part).

i told my aunt abt the conversation, but of course, it still didn't help her at all since the connection server wouldn't work. then for the second time, it hits me. HARD. all this time, i had forgotten the simplest thing -- attaching the phone modem into the pc. ouch.

so desu ne

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to
improve the world. ANNE FRANK

so desu ne is japanese for "indeed".

i initially had thoughts on how people just going a tiny wee bit out of their way to be kind and considerate can make this world a better place (being surrounded by -mentality here in America can get to you). but there are times i feel like my words simply aren't adequate (or concise) enough to express what i feel.

gack. m not a really good writer.

then i come along another blogger's site, and he captures my thoughts (and more) so completely that, well... just go read his.

celebrating mediocrity in america

just came from my cousin's 'arts concert', feeling deprived and disappointed. not only did i miss watching the new episode of Lost/AmericanIdol/Smallville, i had to endure spending that precious time watching a horrible ensemble from some gradeschoolers.

man, i'm bad.

it's really the school's fault, actually. it was obvious the 'concert' was another mere attempt to get the parents to flock to an after-school activity (previous ones included a science fair and poetry reading -- all pathetic), judging by how everything looked unprepared and rushed, with some clearly last-minute ideas (like getting gradeschoolers as host and poetry readers).

the result was a lifeless series of acts that made me cringe in frustation and desperate to just leave. it was all a dillusionment, knowing ho-hum performances made perfect excuses for parents to take pictures of their children and for the school to appear family-oriented and child-development-focused. gack.

man, i'm really really bad.

it was the whole mediocrity that got me. like the school was just contented with the whole package, just so long as there IS one to present. afraid to push the kids to try harder, lest they incur the wrath of parents. and then there are the really exaggerated displays of awe and wonder extended to the children; the congratulations made me squirm a bit, since they wanted the kids feel there was no room for improvement.

i guess this could translate to average performances from being a student to being an employee. coupled with knowledge of their rights (which they abuse), americans feel empowered by the little work they do, feeling they've done enough (to never do more), and must therefore deserve the appropriate commendations.

so am i still bad, or did i at least hit a right chord here?

---

how different it is in the Philippines. reminiscing my own pre-highschool presentations had me recalling weeks of preparation, the minimal-but-creatively stage, and the different costumes, choreography and props for each act. there was that excitement in the air, even for one as young as i was then. and at the end of the show, i remembered the audience would applaud loudly, not only because of their pride in watching kids perform, but for the appreciation at all the hardwork and teamwork that pulled the event together.

i checked the internet later and was disappointed not to have watched, yet elated to know, that scott savol has been eliminated from american idol. the week before, i had the delicious satisfaction of seeing constantine off (man, was that guy annoying with his pathetic cuteness/appeal attempts at the camera). then on, i hoped i would see scott saying his goodbyes.