Chicago, We Meet Again

Armed with my trusty laptop, Microsoft Word 2007, an unlimited stock of instant coffee, and a pack of Marlboro reds bag of chewing gum, I venture into the world of the Chicago Manual of Style once again. It has been ages since I last edited a full-length, migraine-inducing, sent-from-hell manuscript, so I kind of found it to be unfamiliar territory when I began copyediting again last week.

It takes a lot of work to be the pessimist behind the monitor. We're trained to look for errors and correct them. The publishing world does breed us grammar and punctuation nazis (I'd like to consider myself a dangling modifier nazi because I just hate those annoying phrases!).

Everyday scenery

I love my job, and I love what I do. I get paid for reading (although the stuff I read do not really qualify for the kind of stuff I enjoy) and for exercising my talent of pointing out the bad things *evil grin* Oh well, life is short, and I might as well take this time to enjoy what I am doing.

I am a nurse by profession, that could never be denied; but I will never be one by heart. I lack the compassion for others, the will to serve, and the drive to become a good nurse. It saddens me that I have wasted four years of university education, but there is nothing much I can do about that anymore.

Oh well, *shrugs*

Death by Dubbing

Disclaimer: My views may not entirely meet with yours, or vice versa. If you think otherwise of my opinions, then you are more than welcome to get your arse out of my site or stay and suck my baaalllss. :)

Everyone in this country who owns a television set is no stranger to the catastrophic art of dubbing movies, television shows, cartoons, TV ads (commercials and infomercials for crying out loud!). Yes, stupid-sounding people behind the beautiful faces that we see on TV. It seems that everything on television these days is DUBBED. What the f*ck, Philippines?

Understandably, dubbing happens because majority of the Filipino population does not speak Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Mandarin, Niponggo, Italian, German, Afrikaans (just in case)---but English? You must really be screwing me all over! Where is the justice in dubbing English movies and shows and the like? Where? Sometimes I wish I had just packed my bags and joined Curiosity on Mars.

When I was a kid, I used to look forward to Saturday-morning cartoons on the local channels. I remembered them to be fun and educational. Plus, they're in English. I was taken aback when one day, I turned the television on for my son to watch TV only to see Spongebob speaking---well, what dya know---Tagalog! Holy mother of crapshit, WTF are you, Philippine networks, doing to the children of today?! I know it's important that Filipino kids should learn to love our national language. I perfectly understand that. But why dubbing? Why this? Why not make more educational, child-friendly, and airtime-worthy kid shows in Tagalog slash Filipino? Why murder foreign cartoons? WHY? Too lazy to make something worthwhile for our kids but enthusiastic enough to create crappy afternoon soap opera shows that simply make no sense AT ALL?

RIP English-speaking Powerpuff Girls.

Trivia Night: Because Your Brain Needs Exercise Too

 Trivia (noun plural but singular or plural in construction): unimportant matters : trivial facts or details; also singular in construction : a quizzing game involving obscure facts. ---Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

I recently joined a college friend for trivia nights. A couple of years back, when Trivia Night was just starting out, I had been invited by Mae Ann, one of my best friends, to join them; but I never really had time and was only able to play the game once. When I came back to Cebu in June, Rey Angelo (trivia geek extraordinaire) messaged me on Facebook and asked whether I was interested in joining them for a game of trivia. Actually, if I remember correctly, invites had been coming my way since early this year. But you know me, I can't always get my act straight, so I was messed up all over and had so much on my hands that the idea of going to trivia night slipped from my mind.

It wasn't until a month ago, when I was unhealthily busy with poker, that I realized I should be doing something that I truly enjoy. Poker is fun, yes, but it's just not my "thing." So I finally decided to text Rey that I was going to join them for Trivia Night at Alejandro's. I became part of MON-MON-MON (the etiology of the team name I have no idea of!) I learned a lot that night and made new friends: Ram Mar, Richard, Mariel, Rey Doyee, and Doms. Most of them are from Bohol; Doms is from Leyte. Maayoha man!

My first Trivia Night "guesting" with MON-MON-MON.

And then, the madness.

Why I Enjoy Facebook

It’s a mortal sin for the unconventional people of this world to be overly engrossed in social media, especially Facebook. With that said, I would like to apologize to you, unconventional people, for being too mainstream. Now, hear me out and take heed of why I and most of your beloved mainstream, conventional, and bandwagon-joining friends enjoy Facebook.

People like me who work from home and are at the brink of a decaying social life could only do what is right to keep us alive in the social sphere of things, and that is to log on to Facebook and virtually interact with the people we know, used to know, and probably have only known through the magical world of the Internet.

You see, reading my news feed is like reading the morning paper---only better. I have everything I need on my Facebook news feed: current events, amazing facts, trending articles, photos, announcements, birthday and event reminders, and most importantly, showbiz and real-life gossip. Juicy, hot, fresh gossip. As I’ve said, I don’t go out much (the only trace of social life running through my veins is Trivia Night every Monday and Wednesday, which will be discussed on next post), which means that my social life is thriving. The only people I talk to are Horace and his siblings, whom I currently live with. Other than that, nobody else. I don’t talk to my neighbors because (1) I don’t care about the things they do and (2) I don’t like them. Haha!

All in all, I think it’s great that Mark Zuckerberg was geek enough to come up with a site like this. I can keep in touch with people I haven’t seen in a long time, contact those who are very far from me, play games, be updated with the latest trends, keep track of the activities of my favorite people, and lastly, Facebook gives me the feeling of still being “part of it all.” Thank you, dear Mark.

It doesn’t really matter how incredibly overrated and overpopulated and sometimes annoying Facebook is. All I care about is that I have a site to go to and see other people online. It’s fun. I know you think so too.