Catching up from KL

Ok so I finally get to update my blog again. I am in KL right now and it's 12:36am. I just came back from buying a very lame cheese sandwich and 2 kitkat bars from 7-eleven. This friggin hotel doesn't have room service after 10:30pm and they don't change foreign currencies. I asked the guy at the desk what the fucking forex exchange rates list sign behind him is for then, and he says it's only for information purposes. So in essence, it's so you know how much the going rate is, and now you have to haul your ass to somewhere else where the rate is most probably different than the hotel's - ok got it.
At least the wifi at the lobby was decent. But it was the fucking wifi that made me skip the 10:30pm curfew on food anyway. I was checking emails while they were clearing the tables - and it didn't even occur to my sorry ass that it's probably closing time. Of course, it's probably because I was reading the reports from Manila saying that there were major failures in the test run. And my senior engineer who lead the development is in Singapore on training, and I'm stuck here for some leadership training.
At least the hotel is quite near the Petronas towers so we have a nice view. I'm gonna get together with some former colleagues from my previous company. Our KL office was the biggest back then. Now everybody I know has moved into other companies or have been sent elsewhere on a project. But at least there are a couple of ones that are ok to meet and have a few beers for old time's sake.
I got upgraded to deluxe room, and it is essentially a 2 bedroom condo type layout. The elevator sucks though - they have attached an ELID security before you can press a floor button, and my card doesn't work too well. I had to get out on 9th floor and walk up to 10th through the fire exit stairs. Well there ya go - we shall see how all of this pans out. Will be posting some pics soon... ciao for now!

Sunday Afternoon

It's a dog day afternoon; forced to work in the office preparing for the web app demo to executives tomorrow. Actually, as in other cases - work is actually baby-sitting. The consultant is here finishing his program, one of my staff is on standby for deployment, and another one is on his way.

I had to treat them to some snacks of course. We went to LASA restaurant at Podium. They have a great deal on buffet merienda. Php90 gets you 15 different viands. Actually it's Php108 becasue of taxes, but it's still a winner deal. They have a very tasty pancit canton, spaghetti, arrozcaldo, maja, palitaw, tokwa, ube something (?), dinuguan, and some other local stuff. The really cool thing about it is it already includes drinks. Well, sort of - you only have buco juice and sago't gulaman to choose from, and a very ordinary halo halo. It's nothing to write home about, but still is a sweet deal considering your in podium.

I guess it is good enough that I find myself having slack time in front of my laptop finally. Haven't written any blogs for a while. Got a lot of stuff that's happened - might as well give it a shot right now...

I think around a month ago, an executive visiting from the US was here for a couple of days en route to Sydney. He's an IT guy so my boss and I were discussing the projects we've done here in Asia Pac and the chances of maybe doing the same thing for EMEA (their region). We were the last appointment for that day, as he literally had his bags with him and was prepared to shuttle directly to NAIA after our meeting. My boss offered to porter one of his huge bags and I naturally offered to do the same for his laptop bag, but he begged me off and said he could handle it. So anyway, my boss ended up walking him out and down and I said my goodbye from our floor lobby, and that was it.

And then around 30 minutes later - I got a call from my boss asking me if we had a spare laptop. I said yes, and then he asked me to configure it to be usable for the US guy. And then blah.. blah.. blah... it turns out his entire laptop bag got swiped right in front of our building. Now I'm not gonna say which exact building, but it is one of the most prominent ones in ortigas, and is located in one of the most prominent streets here -- and that just fucking blows your mond away.

Apparently they were all standing just outside the door waiting to hail cab, and then they had to pee so they left the bag there amongst all the other US guys who were also standing and chatting. In fact, some other company colleagues were also standing there since it's the designated smoking area for the building. The way I heard it is that a couple of people actually worked as accomplices to distract all the guys there -- making some commotion about a dropped US$100 bill and then a cute girl walked over to my friend and asked for directions to shangri-la mall.

Nothing really special about that except that my friend is a freaking nymphomaniac (kind of like quentin tarantino's role in the movie "from dusk till dawn") and so the thought of a hot girl walking over to talk to him would literally shake his bones from within.

Naturally -- it rendered him impervious to other outside stimuli and so his peripheral vision was gone. And while all this was running about, a gay guy swiped the entire bag and walked away. The fucking dollar bill even turned out to be fake... what a bummer!

And so there was a police report, and everybody was shocked and amazed, etc. Besides his laptop, the bag also contained the guy's blackberry, some personal stuff, his passport and airline tickets. I felt so embarassed that it happened in Manila, and right in front of our office building. We have barong wearing security just 10 feet away when it happened. And the bag was left just a few steps outside the door. It was swiped right there... not even in the street pavement.

Security video was replayed but the whole thing was conveniently tucked behind a pillar in front of the building -- almost too coincidental if you ask me. Even looked like they knew where the camera was located. But then again, it looked really coordinated and were definitely works of pros, so I'm sure they scoped the place for a couple of days first.

The day after, I got talk to him and he at least believed it could've happened anywhere. At least he's not thinking about not returning to Manila ever. Well, another bad day to charge to experience I guess. I have been travelling a lot myself and I just can't imagine how fucking awful that would've felt if it had happened to me in some other country....

Breaking Benjamin

OK, I guess I really am getting older. I just recently discovered this band through a friend who suggested we cover their song 'Firefly'. A quick google shows that they've been around for a few years now and have had some hits go mainstream.

Just downloaded a bunch of their singles from the internet and so far I like every song. But they do sound like they use a drop D tuned guitar, so learning their songs might be a second priority since my guitar has a floyd rose lock.

Well, ok maybe they are third priority since I've already told the guys that we will be playing Creed songs which uses an annoying DADADD tuning or at least drop D as well.

Saging ni Mark Lapid

This has to undoubtedly be the best or worst line ever written for a pinoy movie.

Eto at ginawan nila ng remix...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYfHGldsE0

Toilet Graffiti

I snapped this photo from a toilet in Megamall, 3rd level I think.

The text reads:

"Makati ka pa sa gabi,

malaswa, sinungaling,

malandi ka Ariel Catindig

Bakla ka! Mahiya ka sa

Asawa @ Anak mo."

So what can we actually derive from this? First, that some people actually poop with pentel pens. Second, faggots actually do fight amongst themselves, and they can really be bitter.

Playing Badminton

Ok, so I finally went and played badminton. I still think it's corny and as gay as roller blading but I am only doing it because of my team.

We've pretty much started the Thursday Basketball group going on in my company right now but 2 of my guys don't know rat's ass from dribbling the leather ball so I had to reluctantly agree to badminton. Maybe it's superficial, but maybe on a subconscious level, it really is hard for me to reconcile being involved in a sweaty activity that involves hitting something called a "cock". Or maybe I'm just finally starting to shed off the last remaining piece of my homophobic existence.

Well, whatever it is, now it's on every Tuesday. So we have Tuesdays for shuttlecocks and Thursdays for hoops. If only I could ressurect my boxing sessions and put it on Sundays then I'd be all set.

The Wife and the TV

If you must absolutely talk or ask me something, can't you wait until the commercial?


... and then you snap on me for ignoring you... sheesh!

Elevator Assholes

Don't you just hate people who go inside the elevator first ahead of people trying to go out... and then they fucking stand in front, refusing to move over to the back even if there are people still trying to get in? I mean, there's still plenty of space you jerk!

I don't give a flying fuck if you're floor is the first we'll reach... get the fuck out of my way or I will shove my arm down your throat and pull an organ out you fucking dillweed!

Christ! What is it with you people?