Random Discovery # 6

Remember that old unfinished building beside the MRT-Magallanes station?  The one across Mantrade?  The one that has been abandoned and unoccupied for more than 20 years?  The eyesore that greets people from the south upon entering Makati?

Well, it's apparently finished now.  And it's definitely no longer an eyesore.

I couldn't find an actual photo, but I came across a promotional artist's sketch.  Check it out.



I actually came across the "new" building when I was traveling by EDSA a week ago.  The sketch is a pretty accurate representation.

Never thought I'd see the day that this building would be completed.  In a bittersweet way, it was one of those visual icons of growing up in Metro Manila.  On one hand there's the nice places like Rizal Park, Manila Zoo, UP-Diliman, Fort Santiago, etc.  On the other hand, there's also the not-so-nice places like the Pasig River, the Payatas dump site, the sleazy ACT Theater in Cubao, and of course that gray concrete monstrosity right across Mantrade in Makati.

I heard that a staggering P1.2 billion was spent just buying the property from the old owners, and another P1.2 billion was borrowed just to finally complete and develop the building for use.  Well, to the investors, thank you and good luck.  You did Makati a favor, I hope you profit from the effort. 




photo credit: http://www.epropertyph.com/epro2x/item/1608

My most insensitive post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See, kids?

Glutathione kills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patience catching up with me

WARNING: This blog entry contains disgusting things.  If you are eating or are about to eat, please stop reading now.

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Intro 1:  For those who know me, I'm the type of guy who's so hot-headed that I'd look for a fastfood restaurant's manager if I feel that the food server put too much ice in my drink.  I've lectured a rich-looking old lady on the concept of fairness when she made the serious mistake of cutting in front of me in a long line.  And if, for some reason, something actually happens to me worse than that, I've been known to make a scene to the point that either myself or the other party would end up starting a fight.

Intro 2:  You know how they always claim that any intense feeling that's kept inside for too long would accumulate?  And that if you kept accumulating it, it would get uncontrollably released later on in a more destructive form?  Well, that's what I've more or less believed, that's why I've been lax in reining in my confrontational behavior.  Now, did you ever wonder whether the same thing applies to non-intense behavior?

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AFTER my shift yesterday, I went straight to Megamall to eat.  Being the incurable bookaholic that I am, I ended up going straight to Powerbooks to browse on any new releases, the result being by the time I was through browsing, I was famished.  It was already 11:30 am and I last ate at around 12:30 midnight.  Not being satisfied with the selection in the Food Court, I decided to treat myself to Sbarro.

Here's what I ordered.  Caesar Salad, Chicago White Deep Dish Pizza and Mushroom soup (As Tine would attest, I always order soup.)

I was eating the soup when two things happened.  (1) I discovered a quarter inch-sized dead cockroach after consuming about half of the soup. [Now, let that settle in first.  A cockroach.  In my soup.  And I've already finished half of it.]; and (2) I did the shockingly unthinkable thing of taking out the cockroach, and proceeding to finish the soup.  [Again, let that settle.  I finished eating the soup. And a cockroach has been cooked in it.]

Under normal circumstances (well, normal for myself at least) I would have immediately shouted an expletive, and looked for the manager in a loud voice for everyone to hear.  But here's what actually happened:

After finishing the soup, I then ate the Caesar Salad.  I was pondering on how this whole thing was against my nature when a waiter passed by.  I called his attention and calmly asked for the manager.  When he asked why, I simply pointed to the cockroach in the side of the saucer under the bowl.  I recall being amused by the facial expression of the waiter when he showed a look of unrestrained disgust as he immediately ran to look for his manager.  I wonder what he would have looked like if I told him I actually finished the soup even after knowing there was a cockroach in it.

So the manager arrived with a worried expression.  No doubt the waiter already told him about the cockroach.  Here's how the conversation went:

Manager: Sir...

Me:  Have a seat.

Manager: (Not sitting) Sir, I'm really sorry...

Me:  Please, I insist that you have a seat.  I have no interest in making a scene.

Manager: (sits down)

Me:  As the waiter might have told you, I found a cockroach in the soup I was eating.  That (pause) is (pause) unacceptable (pause) for a restaurant such as yours.

Manager:  (interrupting me) I'm very, very sorry sir.  If you want we'll just replace the soup.

[At this point, I should stress that this was an astonishingly stupid and insensitive thing to say, given that they have no other type soup, and she was actually offering to give me a bowl from the same source as the one the cockroach got cooked in.]

Me:  No.  Please think.  What would be the use of that?  I've already finished the soup and I don't want any more. And you are actually proposing to give something just as bad.

Manager: Sir, we could give you a refund...

Me:  I did not call you here to ask for a refund.  Hindi ko rin kailangan ang paliwanag mo kung bakit may ipis sa soup niyo.  What I want you to do is to dispose of that entire cauldron of mushroom soup because it is already contaminated.  And you should to it now, lest someone else sees a cockroach in their soup.  Other people may not be as patient as I am now.

Manager: Sige sir, we'll just give you a refund and check the soup.

[Check the soup?  What, check it for more cockroaches?  Isn't one enough?]

Me: Like I said, I am not interested in any refund, but if it makes you feel less guilty, then you can give me one.  But just for the soup.  I want to be fair to you.  And you have to get rid of that batch of soup.  Now.

Later...

Manager:  (Giving me a refund) Sir, here's your refund.  Pasensya na ho kayo, sir.  Here in Sbarro we have high cleanliness standards.  Minsan lang ho talaga may nakakalusot.  It will not happen again.

Me:  Ok, I understand.  You're lucky that I'm too tired [which wasn't really true] and too hungry [which was true] to make a scene here.  Other people may not be as understanding. Anyway, all is well, thank you for the refund.

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So after that conversation with the manager, I noticed that I still haven't started on my Chicago White Deep Dish Pizza.  So I did the most logical thing - I ate it.

It was delicious.

Nation

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Childrens Books
Author:	Terry Pratchett

MY initial disappointment in purchasing this book was learning that this book is not a Discworld novel. With his Discworld series, Pratchett already parodied things such as moviemaking, postal service, publishing, and even space travel. I was hoping that this latest book would be an ambitious project in making a parody of nation-building. Turning the first few pages of the book immediately indicate that this isn't so. (There's a map of the standard spherical world, and the font size was way too big. I looked again at the mark of the publisher, and saw it was Doubleday, which specializes in children's books.)

Nevertheless, Nation is a passably entertaining read. A tsunami wipes out an entire island-nation in the Pelagic Ocean (Pacific to us - this is still set after all in an alternate reality) killing everyone except for one boy, who was supposed to undergo the official manhood ceremonies were it not for the killer wave. In the process, a European vessel in the area of the tsunami was shipwrecked and consequently crashed into the island killing everyone on board except a girl (who, unknown to herself, was already 2nd in line to the throne of Britain due to a disastrous plague killing all other potential claimants.) Together, the two adolescents overcome the initial difficulties of their cultural barrier and slowly pick up the pieces left by the disaster and rebuild the island-nation with the help of other survivors who arrived from nearby islands.

What is pleasing is that while Pratchett's distinctive style is apparent, there is no hint of Discworld in this book. No parallel characters to Lord Vetinari, CMOT Dibbler, Rincewind, Capt. Carrot, etc. This is an entirely different novel, which, if anything, proves that Pratchett is perfectly capable of making equally entertaining stories outside of the confines of Discworld.

The notion that primitive cultures are in reality superior to Western European civilization is a recurring theme in many books. But with Nation, the idea is pushed further by suggesting that the cradle of civilization is actually an archipelago in the Pelagic Ocean, most of which has sunk under rising waters after the Ice Age, and whose people seeded the earth with their genes and their learning.

Despite these delightful aspects however, the story is still a relatively simple one (i.e. simple but not weak), and adds very little value to Pratchett's very own sub-genre of parodying the real world through alternate realities.

Went to Manila to Look at a Jar

BEING a history buff, I'm a huge fan of Philippine history and pre-history.  It is for this reason that last Sunday's trip to the National Museum was something I earnestly looked forward to around three weeks previously.

Imagine this: a couple walks into a trendy ladies' shoe store.  The woman promptly begins to ogle and heap praises on particularly beautiful designs, while her boyfriend/husband is reduced to a mixture of boredom and disinterestedness.  Well, that's exactly what Tine and I looked like.  Except that I was the giddy one, and instead of a shoe store, we found ourselves in a gallery of archaeological artifacts hundreds of years old.

This particular artifact almost made me jump up and down:



Yup, that's the Manunggul Jar.  It's a Philippine national treasure.  It's actually a burial jar used to store the remains of a deceased person in the early days of Philippine prehistory.  What makes it so important is its remarkable state of preservation, itself being around 2800 years old.  The top portion shows a boat boarded by two people: a rower at the back and a passenger (the deceased) in front symbolizing a transition to the afterlife.

(I actually embarrassed myself when I got all excited seeing what I believed was this artifact in another more prominent gallery.  That one was apparently a replica that was created for the purpose of decorating that gallery with a specific theme.)

Never mind that I didn't have time to visit the Spoliarium in the original building, never mind if I wasn't able to give due attention to the equally-important Laguna Copperplate., and never mind that I was not allowed to bring Olga (my DSLR) into the museum.  Seeing this jar was worth the Sunday visit.  I'll probably just return one of these days and sign up for one of John Silva's walking tours.

In this day and age....

...being unconcerned about nature seems to be a crime.  Well, I'm no environmentalist and I've certainly almost done nothing for the cause of animal rights.  So yeah, I can be criminal. 

But I've been around cats long enough to be able to at least appreciate the greatness of God's creation in animals, and I've treated any cat that comes my way with a lot of kindness and fondness as a result.  So when I googled about the alleged crimes of a certain "Joseph Carlo Candare", a self-confessed cat killer, it seemed as if I wanted to add murder to my list of crimes.

I'll let you google it for yourselves.  The depraved cat killer's exploits are too sickening and appalling to repeat in this blog.

(Joseph, dude, if you brutally kill a kitten that happens to be well-loved by the college you belong to, brag about it in your blog and make a tongue-in-cheek "apology" afterwards, you are simply asking for it.  And I'm not talking about tree-hugging, nature-loving types threatening you with lawsuits  and/or expulsion for whatever legal violation.  I'm talking about normal joes who don't give a fuck what type of insanity you have, as long as your head is beaten enough to have some sense hammered into it.  ...By the way, where do you live?)

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What's going on with young people nowadays?  Not too long ago there was this bigot from the Ateneo who was not ashamed to show how much she hated Aetas for no reason other than they are poor.  And now there's this sicko Physics student from UP-Diliman who regularly kills cats and brags about it in his blog.

Are these the kinds of kids that receive supposedly qulity education nowadays?

Newest Filipinism

AS seen During Banchetto Day, May 2, 2009.