A few things made the whole thing seem not quite right to me. First of all, she didn’t have a drink. Second of all, the shop wasn’t actually full. Out of growing suspicion, I actually scanned the place and found a few empty tables, so it wasn’t like she just had no other place to sit.

The distrustful little brat that I am, I didn’t say anything, but I just sat looking vaguely bothered and hostile. It wasn’t purely an act, since I was in fact feeling bothered and hostile, because she was distracting me from my work. I kept glancing around and throwing glances toward her general direction, as well as a few toward the nearby guard.

My aura of unfriendliness must have been radiating like whoa, because after a few more minutes of avoiding eye contact and trying to ignore me, she picked up her laptop and left. Now, I could feel guilty for not being a nice person, but here’s the weird thing. A minute or two later I looked around the place to see if she’d transferred to another table, but she was nowhere. Not at any table, not at the counter. And there were a few more empty tables than earlier, including the set with couches right behind me. Logic says if she actually just needed a seat, then I should have found her there.

I don’t really know what was up. Worst case scenario here is that I was grouchy toward a stranger who didn’t mean anything wrong, but I can deal with that. I know coffee shops are supposed to foster this atmosphere of friendliness, but I just don’t think it’s cool to just help yourself to half the  table when the other person didn’t say you could. I mean, would you guys do it?

Of course, there’s also the (off?) chance that she was actually trying to pull something and I foiled her attempt, but I don’t want to think about it.

x x x

A short while later: literally within minutes of leaving Starbucks, this young dude (early 20s, I guess) catches up to me while I’m walking and asks me if he could talk to me for “just one minute”. It was the sort of intro you’d get from the credit card guys (and the GreenPeace folks) but he wasn’t waving a credit card flier in my face so he wasn’t the usual “legit” hawker, and he was dressed in casual clothes. I don’t know if he was trying to sell me something or trying to con me into something, but I didn’t care, I just held my hand up to say no and sped up walking.

And the thing is, instances like these aren’t even all too rare–I’ve gotten similar approaches before. Which kind of weirds me out because it’s not like I waddle around smiling at strangers like a moron when I’m at the mall. So it’s strange, if these people do think I’m an easy target.

I first noticed something was up when I was getting in, and telling him where I was headed. “CommonwealTH?” he repeated, strongly enunciating the th.  Most other drivers would yelp “komonwelt?!”, then wince and scratch their heads as though wanting to guilt-trip me for living far away. (Or shake their heads, mutter some excuse, and refuse to convey. Bastards.)

We’d barely exited the mall lot when he brought up the subject of yesterday’s hostage taking. Himself a former cop–something he’d mentioned in passing while telling me how a security guard had earlier threatened to give him a ticket–he was apalled by what that bastard Mendoza did.

“How could someone of right sense do such a thing?” he wondered out loud. And yes, I quote him verbatim. Este tio habla ingles, hombre. Taglish, for the most part, stringing his thoughts together with “Well…”, and “For one thing…” and “In the first place.”

“Imagine,” he also said, shaking his head, “men in uniform doing such crime.” He called Mendoza a “criminal in uniform”, and expressed his disappointment at the fact that someone with such an unstable personality was even in the police force in the first place. He was appalled that a man could do something so terrible just out of frustration, and because of money.

He spoke with conviction, too. Every now and then he would turn to look me in the eye while making a point. Fortunately he only did this whenever the vehicle wasn’t moving. Sure beats those cab drivers who spend the majority of the way complaining about the traffic, in attempts to bully me into giving a large tip (it never works; on the contrary I give nicer tips when the driver is respectful and drives safely).

Although if you ask me, I’d rather this guy still be a cop.

x x x

Also today: I went to a shop called Alterations Plus in TriNoma, hoping to get the sleeves on my FC Barcelona replica jersey shortened.

They said the alteration would cost P350.

P350 FOR SLEEVE ALTERATIONS ARE THEY BATSHIT INSANE LOLOLOL

I skedaddled the hell out of there.

I know how to sew, I’ll just alter the damn thing myself. It’s fake anyway, so I’m not too worried about ruining it. :D

x x x

I have PES ‘10! And I have a gaming controller for my desktop! *jitter* I just need to hurry up and get the rest of my work done for this week so I can play!  *shake*

And the caffeine *twitch* (1 venti + 1 grande iced latte in a span of three hours!!!) is kicking in so brb I’m off to work now. Baibai.

As disappointed as I am, I can’t help but have some sympathy for the cops who had to put their lives on the line there. It’s not their fault if they’re ill-equipped, and probably not even their fault if they’re not adequately trained. It’s just sad that people had to die and get hurt for us to see how dangerously unprepared our law enforcers are. I still don’t know what the hell they were thinking smashing in the windows with fucking sledgehammers. No matter how I try to look at it, or give them the benefit of the doubt, it seemed like a pointless and careless move.

That said, it’s easy to dictate what to do when you’re not the one being shot at, with nothing but a vest, helmet, and riot shield protecting you from rifle fire.

Now a lot of people are talking about how this incident, which got worldwide attention, would damage our tourism, but I’m personally not too concerned. That will recover in time. For the meantime maybe we should be more concerned about looking after each other–and maybe demanding better from the people whose job it is to look after us.

By the way, I take my hat off to the reporters, photographers, and cameramen who stuck it out over there.

Take care, everyone.

I’m likewise happy to report that I’m sort of kind of almost getting the hang of the game controls (which means I don’t fail as spectacularly as I started out, but I still suck) and I can play the game on Beginner. And I am loving the player reactions when they score a goal or miss an attempt. THE SPANISH TEAM DOES THE MANPILE LIKE THEY DO IRL OMG BAHAHAHA.

This should hold me over until I make a decision about StarCraft.

*In case anyone needs to know: My netbook is an Asus 1005P with the standard-issue specs, running Win7 Ultimate. PES ‘08 runs smoothly at low settings.

x x x

A few things about my recent two-day trip with the family (which I mentioned in my last post):

1. Since I was kind of spooked by the place (and because I am not used to sleeping at 10PM) I had trouble staying asleep Saturday night. I woke up at 2AM, and just to keep myself from thinking scary thoughts I ended up having to wear my big-ass headphones in bed. Yes, it felt as stupid as it sounds. I would’ve used earbuds but my last pair died months ago.  Anyway, it worked well enough and I was able to fall asleep; I just had to stay on my back the whole time and ignore how much I felt like an idiot. XD

2. I think I look better in a swimsuit now that I’ve put on a bit of weight. :D Yes I have pictures. NO I AM NOT POSTING THEM HERE LOL.

3. On our way home we made a stopover (one of FOUR) at this restaurant called ViewPoint in Tagaytay. BIG MISTAKE. It took them almost an hour to serve what was supposed to be short-order dishes (several bowls of noodles and clubhouse sandwiches, what’s up).

4. Another stopover was the Starbucks at Paseo in Sta. Rosa, definitely one of the nicer branches I’ve been in. When I first stepped in I was like “WTF all these empty tables on a Sunday night!?!?” To be honest, it was kind of weird having my whole family at a Starbucks. XD I think I’m satisfied with it being a me thing. LOL

5. Delicious noms for taking home:

:D

Anyway. The trip seems to have done away with that lethargy/laziness spell that was plaguing me all of last week. I guess working freelance, I forget that I need to get myself out of ruts too. So  I think this trip was well-timed.

It doesn’t help that I’ve always had the feeling that this place is haunted, although admittedly I feel that way about most resorts because I am a scaredy-cat. I always get spooked when taking showers in unfamiliar bathrooms. *__* I shower twice as quickly as I normally would.

The beautiful thing is that the resort sits right at the foot of a telecoms tower so the signal is great. :D Which is why I’m here tippy-typing away instead of swimming (it’s still too hot out anyway).

x x x

My attention span for games has been incredibly short lately. Either that or I just haven’t found another game that really does it for me, the way I was totally crazy for Company of Heroes. Over the past week or so I’ve started a couple of games only to drop them after playing once or twice. The only exception is Rome: Total War, but I’m not even too heavily into that anymore.

(I have a copy of Pro Evolution Soccer ‘08, though, and I do like being able to play using the Spanish National Team. I think I would love that game more if I didn’t fail at it so spectacularly. :/ )

I’m tempted to give in to the hype and get into the StarCraft franchise (since RTS is my favorite genre after all) but it could be hit or miss since I’m really not into sci-fi stuff. The consensus in most circles is that StarCraft is the Best. RTS. Ever., which kind of gets my hopes up, but I don’t want that to happen. The last time I got my hopes up for a game was for Red Alert 3, and I thought that was rubbish.

I miss the feeling of being hooked on a game. :’D

She got me shoes! :D I am in love with these:

The heels aren’t crazy high, and I love the fact that my feet are totally strapped in so I don’t have to worry about stepping the wrong way and hurting my ankles. The back part kind of digs into my heel a little bit :’( but I’m guessing that’ll go away once it’s broken in. I’m not usually one to suffer for the sake of fashion, but I’ll make an exception for this, lol.

Aaaaand then we have these:

–which I have yet to figure out what to wear with (ideas plskthx). They look ok with jeans I guess, but I haven’t really put together an outfit that it works with. XD

By the way, my sister and I went to my usual coffee place yesterday and she pointed out that someone *cough* was checking me out. Hee. :’D I’ve got to get a move on about this crush, dammit. It’s just that I have this thing — I’m often unable to make eye contact with a guy that I like, let alone start flirting. *facepalm* (Uh. I guess I need ideas for this too, plskthx. Haha)

x x x

My addiction du jour is a strategy game called Rome: Total War. It’s not new (it came out in 2004) but it’s brilliant, and the learning curve is nice and steep. It’s basically a mix of turn-based and real-time, with the turn-based part involving the governance of your empire, and the real-time part comprising the battles that you fight in order to gain and keep territory. It’s wonderfully complex, and I’ve found it entertaining even though I’ve never been a fan of TBS games. (I recently started a game of Civilization IV but I’ve left it alone. I like the idea of that game and I can totally see why it has so many fans, but I guess I just don’t have the attention span for it.)

I might install Rome on Fernando Torres (yes, that’s still the name of my netbook), because the internet says it should be playable enough on a netbook. And check this out: a strategy guide that’s written in semi-archaic English for the lulz.  (“Have thy rodent chew upon these runes” = “click here”. OHOHOHO)

It turns out somebody called our landline phone around lunch, and one of household helpers, who has only been with us a few weeks, was the one who picked up. IS IT OK IF I CALL THE SUSPECT THE “UNSUB“? It’s short for “unidentified subject”. That’s what they call it in Criminal Minds. :D I’M JUST TRYING TO LIVE OUT MY CRIME-FIGHTER DREAMS HERE, THIS IS AS CLOSE AS I CAN GET BECAUSE I’M NOT QUALIFIED TO BE AN NBI AGENT. LOLOLOL.

Ahem. As I was saying–our unsub, who was female, told our helper to go to my sister’s room to look for money and jewelry because my brother-in-law had been in a car accident–you guys know the usual modus, right? She said not to tell my mom about it, because my mom has a heart ailment (which she does) and shouldn’t be worried. Fortunately for us, my sister doesn’t keep cash in her room and her other valuables were hidden. And, our maid did eventually end up telling my mom about it–because she asked my mom for my brother-in-law’s mobile number, which got my mother a little suspicious.

Basically, right now, everyone’s a suspect (with the exception of our family of course… and the dogs). It bears mentioning that the unsub knew quite a bit about us. Whoever it was knew the names of my sister and brother-in-law, the name of our new helpers, and the fact that my mom has a heart condition. My prime suspects are either of the two maids who left us recently (one eloped, the other got pregnant), but I’m not placing too much trust on the new ones either. But I’m convinced that it’s someone who knows us. I mean, if it were a gang of career crooks, they’d have no good reason to pick our house as the target–we’re literally surrounded by much, much better-off neighbors.

Anyway, to stay on the safe side, our househelps don’t get to answer the phone for a while, and we’re moving our landline to another location. We’ve also notified village security about it. The kids aren’t allowed to go outside for at least a couple of days. Basically we just have to be more alert.

I guess you really can’t let your guard down these days.

x x x

On a much lighter note, I’ve again been under interrogation by the baristas at my usual place, lol. So far they know what I do for a living, where I went to school and what my major was… among other things.  It seems, for some reason they find my terribly boring life RELAVANT TO INTARESTS. XD  But it’s ok, I like the feeling of familiarity anyway. Sure beats those snobs at Coffee Bean. LOL.

When the waiter and manager approached their table to ask what’s wrong, the wife explained that he was mad because, supposedly, one of the servers was disrespectful in laying down his utensils on the table. From what I could hear, she didn’t face him properly while she was laying down the utensils, or was rushed about it or whatever.

Despite profuse apologies from both the servers and managers, the guy proceeded to bark “Bill out!” at the waitress manning the cash register.

Then the guy and his wife stormed out of the restaurant. Without paying.

See, here’s the thing.

I don’t care what country or fucking planet you’re from. You do NOT go around demanding everyone to conform to whatever protocol you supposedly have where you come from, throwing a tantrum and leaving without paying when you find service unsatisfactory.

Besides, what kind of distorted hypocritical shit is that? You feel like someone has been discourteous, so you proceed to throw things around like a fucking two-year old and act all mad, then leave without paying for the food on your table. I seriously hope that this isn’t really a cultural thing–because I would hate to meet an entire group of people who are so mind-blowingly unreasonable–and more just a story of an asshat who likes to act like he owns every establishment he steps into.

And one more thing. The wife? Instead of trying to reason with the guy, all she did was explain to the staff why he was angry, like she was his lawyer almost, sounding as though she found his outburst justifiable. It was like watching a bad mother sticking up for a bratty kid. So really, as much as I wanted to punch the guy in the face for being so retarded, I kind of wanted to give her a jab too, because she was tolerating it.

I’d also like to see him try to pull that kind of crap in some seedy diner in the middle of Manila.

Even though it's David Villa on the wallpaper. :D

After months of hesitation, I finally went ahead and bought a netbook last weekend. It’s the Asus 1005P, and I’m really pleased with it so far. The keyboard layout might take a while to get used to though (although it’s not a particular flaw of this model). After two days of scouring Cyberzone in SM North EDSA, I ended up with what was most probably the best price for the model. I also got a Smart Bro modem, which I’ve only used for two days but has been a bit on the temperamental side–sluggish yesterday, but pretty awesome this afternoon.  But all in all my coffee afternoons have been a lot more productive now. And that’s good.

Speaking of which–on two occasions now, my friend Ned has randomly dropped by the Starbucks that I go to and found me there, even without knowing beforehand.  Haha. So it’s like my default location now? Like Chuck said, we have officially become the people we hated in college. LOL.

x x x

I’m watching FOX a lot these days. I’ve been into Bones for a while now, but lately Criminal Minds too. At first I didn’t like all the frowning that they did on the show LOL–especially from Thomas Gibson, who used to be Greg in Dharma and Greg–but the storylines are pretty awesome so it grew on me. Also, they started showing the episodes with Joe Mantegna. He’s really cool. He was in the Godfather III, and he voices Fat Tony on the Simpsons.

But if you're like me, you most probably remember him best from Baby's Day Out. :D

I should stop watching these things late at night though, seeing as how I’m such a scaredy-cat. (You know how parents try to make you get over your fear of ghosts by saying you should fear the living and not the dead? Well after watching all these crime shows, I’m scared of both. -_-;) I’ve actually been getting spooky dreams.

x x x

Ugh, speaking of spooky.

As much as I love the fact that people are actually bothering to read my blog, I have to ask–do you guys ever check a person’s blog, like, 8 times throughout a day? *wince* My stats tracker has been getting a ton of regular hits from a particular user and it’s bordering on, IDK, excessive? And none of my close friends use that browser or internet provider so I’m guessing it’s no one I know IRL. =_=

(Statcounter screenie here. Check out the logs for July 25.)

I think I’ll friends-lock my Twitter for a while. If only because I have been watching a lot of scary crime shows lately.

And I thought–

–because I had already been there three times this week. They expect to see me there every day now? :’D LOL. Granted, I will probably end up spending more time there (maybe not go there more often, but just stay there longer) when I finally get my netbook.

Oh right–I NEED A NETBOOK. I suppose I’ve needed one for months now but I’ve put off buying it (for good reasons, really), but now I’m starting to feel like only having one place to write–my desktop, in my room–is starting to take its toll on my work. So now I’ve decided to buy one, and hopefully the fact that I’ll be more productive will mean that the thing will pay for itself in the long run. :D  I think I may have been subconsciously using that same excuse for my long-term caffeine dependence.

As an added bonus, when I finally buy a netbook, people may finally stop wondering whether or not I have a job and why I have the luxury of being at the mall on many a Tuesday afternoon. You see, I am no good at explaining these things. Some of the baristas already know that I work freelance, but I don’t usually get into detail about exactly what I do, so I could be a freelance drug dealer for all they  know. :D

I can’t decide which one to get though– the Asus Eee 1000HE or the 1005HA. They’re very similar inside, with mostly aesthetic differences. I’ve read that the 1005HA is sleeker and better-looking, although I’m a bit partial to the matte screen and chicklet-type keyboard of the 1000HE. The keyboard is a big deal, considering I’ll probably be typing the hell out of that thing.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether a 3-cell battery would suffice or if I should spend on the 6-cell?

x x x

Plugging! IF YOU LIKE FOOTBALL AT ALL, or at least find it remotely bemusing, do check out http://larojaaaaa.tumblr.com. It’s the humor tumblelog that I’ve made, dedicated to the Spanish National Football Team (because that team, I swear, is comedy gold).

Yes, this is precisely the sort of shit with which I amuse myself.

It’s doing pretty well in terms of ‘likes’ and reblogs considering I only made it last night, LOL. I’ll definitely be adding more material regularly.