"You must like this girl if you're willing to give a Korean pop girl group 45 of your precious indie seconds, no?"
Dexter tweeted me that after I teased a blog entry that Rainy would be writing on earthings! - she just got on board by then. Girls' Generation just released a new single and she was going to write about it.
"Well, the blog wasn't always very indie, though, Dex," I told him.
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2/28/2014
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2/27/2014
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I didn't really make it clear when I wrote about it a month ago. I know it's weird that people who have not seen each other ask "how are you?" when they do meet, and then leave it unanswered. I mean, really, what's the point of asking if you aren't expecting an answer?
But, really, it's just a minor quibble. It's still nice to see a familiar face when you least expect it. It's still nice to, in whatever way, be able to reconnect, even if it's just an awkward excuse for a handshake, or a simple "hi".
I mean, I no longer expect much. I've bumped into so many people I know since graduating. Only a few times did we linger for a chat. Nobody lingers for a chat anymore, unless you set an appointment or something, or you're already special to them, or whatever. We're at that point in our lives where talking to people we used to hang out a lot with requires a special occasion. But since that never really happened to me - college was me being adrift, oscillating between "hanger on" and "no friends at all" - I'm really perfectly content with a "hi". Or not, because I'd yearn later, but for a split second, at least, I'm fine with it.
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But, really, it's just a minor quibble. It's still nice to see a familiar face when you least expect it. It's still nice to, in whatever way, be able to reconnect, even if it's just an awkward excuse for a handshake, or a simple "hi".
I mean, I no longer expect much. I've bumped into so many people I know since graduating. Only a few times did we linger for a chat. Nobody lingers for a chat anymore, unless you set an appointment or something, or you're already special to them, or whatever. We're at that point in our lives where talking to people we used to hang out a lot with requires a special occasion. But since that never really happened to me - college was me being adrift, oscillating between "hanger on" and "no friends at all" - I'm really perfectly content with a "hi". Or not, because I'd yearn later, but for a split second, at least, I'm fine with it.
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2/25/2014
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I was supposed to write this blog entry two years from now, when we mark thirty years since the first EDSA revolution.
By then not much would have changed. The 25th of February would still be a school holiday. There would still be events at the People Power Monument - maybe, since this year the president decided to mark the event in Cebu, for some reason - but there would still be events, featuring the same faces that stood up to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos all those years ago, now older, maybe wiser, or more cynical, depending on how you look at it.
Some of the major players have already died. Jaime Cardinal Sin, he who called for the people to protect the mutineers at Camps Crame and Aguinaldo, has passed. Same with Cory Aquino, she who became the symbol of the freedom the Philippines could not have under Marcos. (Granted, she hasn't really gone away, now that her son is president, occasionally invoking the events of 28 years ago to rally Filipinos towards whatever it is that he's pushing. The fact that the thirtieth anniversary of EDSA coincides with his final months in office is something that just occurred to me now, as I write this.)
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By then not much would have changed. The 25th of February would still be a school holiday. There would still be events at the People Power Monument - maybe, since this year the president decided to mark the event in Cebu, for some reason - but there would still be events, featuring the same faces that stood up to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos all those years ago, now older, maybe wiser, or more cynical, depending on how you look at it.
Some of the major players have already died. Jaime Cardinal Sin, he who called for the people to protect the mutineers at Camps Crame and Aguinaldo, has passed. Same with Cory Aquino, she who became the symbol of the freedom the Philippines could not have under Marcos. (Granted, she hasn't really gone away, now that her son is president, occasionally invoking the events of 28 years ago to rally Filipinos towards whatever it is that he's pushing. The fact that the thirtieth anniversary of EDSA coincides with his final months in office is something that just occurred to me now, as I write this.)
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2/24/2014
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"Niko."
And again I realized that she knows many guys named Niko. Or Nico. So, again, I had to qualify myself.
"Niko B. Hiiii."
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And again I realized that she knows many guys named Niko. Or Nico. So, again, I had to qualify myself.
"Niko B. Hiiii."
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2/18/2014
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It's been more than a year since Noynoy Aquino signed the Cybercrime Prevention Act - a piece of legislation designed to bolster government response to crimes done online, such as hacking and identity theft - into law.
It's been more than a year since it went on limbo, after critics deemed the law a threat to freedom of speech, especially after the revelation of provisions penalizing online libel, and allowing the government to shut down certain websites only on the basis of prima facie evidence. After at least sixteen petitions were filed, and almost everyone on Facebook blackened their profile photos, the Supreme Court issued a TRO - initially for four months from its signing in October, and then on an indefinite basis - suspending its implementation.
Today the Supreme Court finally decided that most of what is now known as the Cybercrime Prevention Law is within the bounds of the constitution.
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It's been more than a year since it went on limbo, after critics deemed the law a threat to freedom of speech, especially after the revelation of provisions penalizing online libel, and allowing the government to shut down certain websites only on the basis of prima facie evidence. After at least sixteen petitions were filed, and almost everyone on Facebook blackened their profile photos, the Supreme Court issued a TRO - initially for four months from its signing in October, and then on an indefinite basis - suspending its implementation.
Today the Supreme Court finally decided that most of what is now known as the Cybercrime Prevention Law is within the bounds of the constitution.
Read more »
2/15/2014
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The plan was to not allow all trucks in major thoroughfares in Metro Manila as long as the sun is up.
Currently trucks are not allowed out between six to ten in the morning, and between five to ten in the evening. (And trucks are not allowed in EDSA at all.) That means me driving through SLEX in the morning, on those few mornings when I drive myself to work, is comfortable; relatively less so my drive home. I just drive a sedan. Being sandwiched in between cargo trucks is no fun thing.
But the traffic situation isn't getting any better, so the MMDA planned to implement a daytime truck ban. Yes, no trucks out while the sun is up, in all major thoroughfares in Metro Manila. The only exception would be the roads leading to the container ports in Manila, and both the NLEX and the SLEX; they can go through between ten in the morning and five in the afternoon. And, of course, EDSA, where trucks are not allowed at all.
Read more »
Currently trucks are not allowed out between six to ten in the morning, and between five to ten in the evening. (And trucks are not allowed in EDSA at all.) That means me driving through SLEX in the morning, on those few mornings when I drive myself to work, is comfortable; relatively less so my drive home. I just drive a sedan. Being sandwiched in between cargo trucks is no fun thing.
But the traffic situation isn't getting any better, so the MMDA planned to implement a daytime truck ban. Yes, no trucks out while the sun is up, in all major thoroughfares in Metro Manila. The only exception would be the roads leading to the container ports in Manila, and both the NLEX and the SLEX; they can go through between ten in the morning and five in the afternoon. And, of course, EDSA, where trucks are not allowed at all.
Read more »
2/08/2014
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Writers are a very subjective thing. Sure, there are constants when it comes to, say, how the words go together and how the narrative builds up to a satisfying conclusion, but in the end, one person's trash is another person's "definitive wordsmith of our time". I mean, John Green will always be crap to me - possibly an ill-informed, hater-y opinion, if any - but there will always be someone - or, unfortunately in my case, many people - who see him as the man who has given their life meaning. But that's another story.
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2/05/2014
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"It is a deceptively simple game," I told my brother, as I peered into his iPad and he attempted to play, well, that game. Flappy Bird.
Surely by now you know how it goes. You simply guide a bird through a series of obstacles. Well, more of fences, 8-bit fences that don't look out of place in the Mario Brothers' land of whimsy. Without prompting, the bird flies upwards. You tap the screen and the bird flies downwards. You make sure the bird avoid the obstacles. One hit and you're done.
Deceptively simple - I know the description is long, but still, deceptively simple - but extremely hard, as it turns out. The learning curve is steep, and everybody around you is suddenly judging you from, well, your ability to guide that bird through a series of obstacles.
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Surely by now you know how it goes. You simply guide a bird through a series of obstacles. Well, more of fences, 8-bit fences that don't look out of place in the Mario Brothers' land of whimsy. Without prompting, the bird flies upwards. You tap the screen and the bird flies downwards. You make sure the bird avoid the obstacles. One hit and you're done.
Deceptively simple - I know the description is long, but still, deceptively simple - but extremely hard, as it turns out. The learning curve is steep, and everybody around you is suddenly judging you from, well, your ability to guide that bird through a series of obstacles.
Read more »
2/03/2014
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"Noooo!" I yelped out from the bathroom. I was doing number two - number one for the day - and I was flicking through Twitter, like we all do, and there it was. Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead.
I don't do lists of my favorite things. I mean, I likely have done this - I have a good idea of who my favorite musical acts are, for instance - but when you're writing on a friend's slumbook and you're faced with a limited space under "favorite" this or that, you realize you'll have to name one as your absolute favorite, and forget the others who you like a lot, too. And then you can't decide on who you like the most, and you end up writing "too many to mention".
In the case of favorite actors, there's also the fact that I don't, unsurprisingly, watch a lot of films. Sure, I took some film courses in college - watched the best of them, ended up doing two of them, and writing a few short screenplays in between - but I'm not really that guy who treats film as a religion, who can name a definitive actor and enumerate his definitive roles and explain the nuances of it all. So you can imagine how frustrating it can be to see my film-inclined friends talk about these things - say, Krizzie, about her love of Martin Scorsese - and you get it, but at the same time you don't, so you just hit like or something.
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I don't do lists of my favorite things. I mean, I likely have done this - I have a good idea of who my favorite musical acts are, for instance - but when you're writing on a friend's slumbook and you're faced with a limited space under "favorite" this or that, you realize you'll have to name one as your absolute favorite, and forget the others who you like a lot, too. And then you can't decide on who you like the most, and you end up writing "too many to mention".
In the case of favorite actors, there's also the fact that I don't, unsurprisingly, watch a lot of films. Sure, I took some film courses in college - watched the best of them, ended up doing two of them, and writing a few short screenplays in between - but I'm not really that guy who treats film as a religion, who can name a definitive actor and enumerate his definitive roles and explain the nuances of it all. So you can imagine how frustrating it can be to see my film-inclined friends talk about these things - say, Krizzie, about her love of Martin Scorsese - and you get it, but at the same time you don't, so you just hit like or something.
Read more »
2/02/2014
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Apparently JK Rowling, in an interview with The Sunday Times, admitted that she was wrong in marrying Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley off.
"For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron," she told the interviewer, a certain Emma Watson. "If I'm absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility."
Ultimately, she says, Hermoine should have married Harry instead.
Read more »
"For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron," she told the interviewer, a certain Emma Watson. "If I'm absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility."
Ultimately, she says, Hermoine should have married Harry instead.
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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