In a surprise move, Year School allowed one writer to interview 2014, who will make his debut as the new year in festivities around the world happening in a few hours. That writer they chose happen to be a lowly blogger from the Philippines: me.
Good morning, 2014.
Good morning to you too, Niko.
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12/31/2013
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12/28/2013
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I'm a third of the way through my three-week holiday. I know, I know, I don't really take breaks from work this long. Actually, I don't really take breaks from work.
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12/24/2013
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We're at that point in our lives when Christmas becomes a big, big thorn on our sides.
Now, I don't mean to be a Grinch - although I am aware, yes, that my last blog entry suggests otherwise - but think about it. When the holidays roll by, we hear the same warnings, of more robbers, more traffic, more chaos in stores, more pounds in our bodies. We have to think of gifts to give, to both the ones we love and the ones we're forced to give gifts to. We have crisp paper bills to put in envelopes for our godchildren, the number of which is exploding exponentially without our knowledge. We have impressions to make. And then we have the things we really ought to do, like earning money and wooing people we want to be with forever.
So, yes, I almost forgot about my Christmas eve thing - you know, the thing where I send Christmas greetings a day early and document the responses. I'll admit, I don't even know why I'm still doing this. This is a tradition that nobody holds dearly. I certainly don't have the need, or at least a bigger need, to reaffirm to myself that people still care. (To be fair, the same thing happened last year, but the whole thing with Rainy was still under wraps then. If you look at it one way, it was very, very, very new.) I am also running out of people to text, because, well, we have the things we really ought to do, like earning money, networking with influential people and avoiding Niko Batallones.
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Now, I don't mean to be a Grinch - although I am aware, yes, that my last blog entry suggests otherwise - but think about it. When the holidays roll by, we hear the same warnings, of more robbers, more traffic, more chaos in stores, more pounds in our bodies. We have to think of gifts to give, to both the ones we love and the ones we're forced to give gifts to. We have crisp paper bills to put in envelopes for our godchildren, the number of which is exploding exponentially without our knowledge. We have impressions to make. And then we have the things we really ought to do, like earning money and wooing people we want to be with forever.
So, yes, I almost forgot about my Christmas eve thing - you know, the thing where I send Christmas greetings a day early and document the responses. I'll admit, I don't even know why I'm still doing this. This is a tradition that nobody holds dearly. I certainly don't have the need, or at least a bigger need, to reaffirm to myself that people still care. (To be fair, the same thing happened last year, but the whole thing with Rainy was still under wraps then. If you look at it one way, it was very, very, very new.) I am also running out of people to text, because, well, we have the things we really ought to do, like earning money, networking with influential people and avoiding Niko Batallones.
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12/21/2013
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I couldn't unlock the car. I tried pressing the unlock button so many times but it just wouldn't work. Then I looked inside the car and noticed that, for the past four hours, the car's engine was running.
There's one problem with keyless cars. The "key" - the car has to detect that device before you can start driving - will often be in your pocket, and you will tend to forget about it. Well, not me, because I'm not the one driving. I'm just the guy who went to the vehicle to get a box of giveaways.
So I opened the door, shut off the engine and opened the trunk. There were several boxes there. I went through them, looking for the box I'm supposed to get, when a group of male teenagers came up behind me. One had a guitar. One had a tambourine. Oh my, I thought. I have been cornered by carolers.
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There's one problem with keyless cars. The "key" - the car has to detect that device before you can start driving - will often be in your pocket, and you will tend to forget about it. Well, not me, because I'm not the one driving. I'm just the guy who went to the vehicle to get a box of giveaways.
So I opened the door, shut off the engine and opened the trunk. There were several boxes there. I went through them, looking for the box I'm supposed to get, when a group of male teenagers came up behind me. One had a guitar. One had a tambourine. Oh my, I thought. I have been cornered by carolers.
Read more »
12/16/2013
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A free lunch at Yakimix. You can eat whatever you want, and how much of it you want.
A free lunch at Yabu. What, Yakimix too mainstream for you? Sure, you've probably been at Yabu, but you'll take the opportunity to be able to have free lunch at one of the city's most popular restaurants, right? I don't care if you think the food's ordinary. I'll treat you there.
A free lunch at Spiral. Still too mainstream for you?
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A free lunch at Yabu. What, Yakimix too mainstream for you? Sure, you've probably been at Yabu, but you'll take the opportunity to be able to have free lunch at one of the city's most popular restaurants, right? I don't care if you think the food's ordinary. I'll treat you there.
A free lunch at Spiral. Still too mainstream for you?
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12/11/2013
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During the height of the latest pork barrel issue, my father and I were discussing another one of Noynoy Aquino's speeches on the matter. I have forgotten what that particular speech was about, and why we were talking about it, but my dad raised a very good point as we traversed the jittery zig-zag road along San Pedro.
"Hindi na puwedeng tumakbo si Noynoy," my dad said. "Isang term lang siya puwede, so hindi na siya dapat nag-aalala tungkol sa legacy na iiwan niya. Tanggalin na niya 'yung pork barrel. Magtrabaho na lang siya."
"Actually, legacy na niya 'yung ma-elect," I answered. "Kasi nga, Aquino siya, pinalitan niya si Gloria. Kaya lang, ang problema, his allegiances lie with the Liberal Party and not with the Philippines."
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"Hindi na puwedeng tumakbo si Noynoy," my dad said. "Isang term lang siya puwede, so hindi na siya dapat nag-aalala tungkol sa legacy na iiwan niya. Tanggalin na niya 'yung pork barrel. Magtrabaho na lang siya."
"Actually, legacy na niya 'yung ma-elect," I answered. "Kasi nga, Aquino siya, pinalitan niya si Gloria. Kaya lang, ang problema, his allegiances lie with the Liberal Party and not with the Philippines."
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12/09/2013
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I was supposed to write about weddings this time last year. I was supposed to write about how it feels to be the guy who's all but given up on love, who suddenly has to be there as two people express their love in the grandest, schmaltziest, most romantic manner ever. I was supposed to be completely repulsed by it, but then again, I can't, half because I'm watching my colleague get married and I cannot make a scene, and half because I didn't really feel much about it.
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12/04/2013
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I am a bored journalist.
Every morning I report to work and I feel, well, bored. Well, I work for a national newspaper, so I just ring up my editor and say, "sir, nasa Batasan na ako, sir." I find a place to sit, fire up my phone, and file my first dispatch for the day.
Like in previous days, all members of the House of Representatives were at the Batasang Pambansa today, at work in drafting laws that, they say, will benefit all Filipinos.
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Every morning I report to work and I feel, well, bored. Well, I work for a national newspaper, so I just ring up my editor and say, "sir, nasa Batasan na ako, sir." I find a place to sit, fire up my phone, and file my first dispatch for the day.
Like in previous days, all members of the House of Representatives were at the Batasang Pambansa today, at work in drafting laws that, they say, will benefit all Filipinos.
Read more »
12/03/2013
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I'm sorry for whatever I will say about you in the next few paragraphs. It's not you, although perhaps it is just my dislike for the weepy, needy Peeta you portrayed in the Hunger Games trilogy. I mean, maybe that's really how he is in the books - although I have friends who've read them who will tell me that it isn't - but, well, you know. I'm sure you're a nice guy who does the best with what he's given.
That said, Josh, I really don't like you at the moment.
That's the key phrase. At the moment. You see, you're now the guy of the moment. You're now every girl's ideal guy. Anyone who's seen you in the films - and yes, before you react, yes, I have seen the films, partly because I have to, and no, I have not resisted watching the films because it's based on what is essentially a young adult book wrapped around some dystopia, a description that, I admit, is best suited for the first book - anyway, anyone who's seen you in the films is suddenly in love with you.
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That said, Josh, I really don't like you at the moment.
That's the key phrase. At the moment. You see, you're now the guy of the moment. You're now every girl's ideal guy. Anyone who's seen you in the films - and yes, before you react, yes, I have seen the films, partly because I have to, and no, I have not resisted watching the films because it's based on what is essentially a young adult book wrapped around some dystopia, a description that, I admit, is best suited for the first book - anyway, anyone who's seen you in the films is suddenly in love with you.
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12/01/2013
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And over and over again, you are told that you should not be jealous of others; that you should be happy with what you have, because, hey, at least you have something, and you have what you have now because some cosmic force up there has decided that it is enough for you. And, if you do deserve more, then you will get it, someday, somewhere, somehow. In time.
You think about it, and you agree. Well, yes, I do have something. And, actually, I am better off now than I was before. Those stupid months I spent sulking in the corner, wondering why nobody is willing to take a chance on you. And now I do have someone, and I am happy. And you are happy. But then you see what everybody else is up to, and you don't anymore.
Why, you ask, do people choose to connect to other people rather than you? What makes them so special? What makes you so despicable? Did you do something wrong, somewhere, somehow, and suddenly you've been marked for life, like the way HR departments tell other HR departments that you fudged your job application and should thus never be hired? Did someone spread a malicious rumor about you, one that's very much untrue (which explains why you never heard of it) but very much potent, and suddenly you've been marked for life, like the way government officials publicly pronounce the evils of a predecessor they seemingly wholeheartedly supported just a day before?
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You think about it, and you agree. Well, yes, I do have something. And, actually, I am better off now than I was before. Those stupid months I spent sulking in the corner, wondering why nobody is willing to take a chance on you. And now I do have someone, and I am happy. And you are happy. But then you see what everybody else is up to, and you don't anymore.
Why, you ask, do people choose to connect to other people rather than you? What makes them so special? What makes you so despicable? Did you do something wrong, somewhere, somehow, and suddenly you've been marked for life, like the way HR departments tell other HR departments that you fudged your job application and should thus never be hired? Did someone spread a malicious rumor about you, one that's very much untrue (which explains why you never heard of it) but very much potent, and suddenly you've been marked for life, like the way government officials publicly pronounce the evils of a predecessor they seemingly wholeheartedly supported just a day before?
Read more »
Niko Batallones writes The Upper Blog.
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Some photographs have been edited using post-production curves from Shalla Yu.
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