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The parents and the youngest sibling left for Bangkok today. It'll be several months before I see Dad again (his work is based there) - while Mom and Sis are just on vacation for a few days or so.

I'm torn apart between missing Dad and enjoying the use of his car while he's away. I feel guilty that he has to use his other car, which is a bulok Kia Ceres (that has no aircon) when he's here. What's a good offspring to do? Just go with the flow I guess...I mean, he understands that I need his car nowadays in case I need to take Lyn or Dan to the doctor/somewhere else.

It was great that we had dinner with (most of) the family, including Dad, and running into some co-workers as well. I got to show off our precious baby boy in all his cute/handsome glory!

On to to other things, there's this restlessness that's been gnawing at my peace of mind for the longest time. It's this this feeling of hitting a dead end in this stage of my young life (I feel so old even though I've only been in existence for nearly a quarter of a century). Me and Lyn long for more financial and household stability - what I mean is that we haven't been making steady progress towards establishing a better life for our small family. While she's stuck at home to look after the baby and me just earning enough to make ends meet (and not left with any savings), this is stagnant to me.

We need a nanny to take care of Dan so that Lyn can work/study. She applied for post-graduate studies so she can teach after. Being a teacher has its benefits, so I've learned. It'll be easier on the pocket for a teacher to send his/her kid to same school where they work at. Maybe when she starts working, we can rent a place of our own...and don't even get me started on the price for pre-school alone...the anticipation is killing me, and I don't mean that in a good way.

This is my life. I am many things to many people: A husband, father, son(in-law), brother(in-law), co-worker, classmate, friend, nuisance, cause of pain, etc.

So this nice woman calls me 3 times (couldn't do the troubleshooting steps I gave since her MAC was having issues) because her software isn't launching. On the third call, she finally got it to work.

"At this point, I would like to speak to your manager for the wonderful help you've been"

Yeah, I guess I have my moments....

Drone of the Digital Empire

Having worked almost two years in this specific call center account, I guess it's not possible to avoid any work-related tussles (which might be an overstatement) with fellow reps. Anyways, I was able to air my side about the whole thing, and I feel that I was able to do my job even if it wasn't absolutely by the book. What remains to be seen is if we can still remain in good terms after this. Honestly, the whole thing upset me, but if they're willing to let me know their own side, then I'm all for it...I can personally let them know my two cents worth as well. I mean work's just work right?

This ditty is a bit personal so my apologies to anyone who might not be able to follow my train of thought, since it's so vague and all that.

I think I need to take this test again...

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Very High
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	High
Dependent:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

Greetings from Dagobah

It's just one of those days when you just want to curl up in a secluded corner and sleep to the point of hibernation. The cold climate in the office is making me all the more anti-social today. Don't get me wrong, having a job is something I appreciate, knowing that other people don't have the means to support themselves (even if they wanted to). But today, I don't have a burning desire to compete with my co-workers to become employee of the month or anything like that. I just want to get it over with and go home...is that so bad? If everyone is raring to emulate Spongebob at the Krusty Krab, then you can cast me as Squidward, behind the cash register, waiting for the work day to end.

In all honesty, there are days when I am enthusiastic to help people out over the phone. But today, my empathic tone will be a synthesized replication of my better self (confused? we'll just leave it at that). Not that I'll let the quality of my calls suffer, but I could care less if the guy on the other line is having a computer crash/virus/meltdown etc. I'll just do what I have to do to help him.

Why not try and Make Yourself

Ok, so it took me a while to write more about the Incubus concert. I was doing a bit of google hunting for the "Pantomime" mp3 (which was part of their set) and I came across this Brazilian fan blog (http://www.incubuscometobrazil.blogger.com.br/). Here's an accurate list of the songs that they played, and in the proper order too:

01. Megalomaniac
02. A Crow Left of The Murder
03. Warning
04. Consequence
05. Idiot Box
06. Just A Phase (Brandon na guitarra)
07. Priceless (Brandon na guitarra)
08. Wish You Were Here
09. Pantomime (Brandon na guitarra)
10. Here In My Room (Brandon na guitarra)
11. Drive
12. Pistola
13. Circles
14. Vitamin
15. Clean
16. Talk Shows On Mute
17. Magic Medicine
18. Certain Shade Of Green
19. Sick Sad Little World

**encore:
20. Are You In?
21. Pardon Me

It was a very welcome surprise that Brandon played guitar on some songs, which I've never seen in any of their videos before. He was like "I'm checking if this in tune....hey Mike, is this in tune? Oh it is in tune, I'm just weird, sorry " (that isn't verbatim). He started playing a song, and my mind was quickly trying to figure out what song it was...I drew a blank. It turns out that it was a little-known (on our side of the world anyway) song called "Pantomime". What a treat it was indeed. The site I mentioned also had the song list of the other concerts from their Asian tour. It's pretty much the same with a few variations, and all opened with "Megalomaniac". It makes sense since their tour is named after their latest album.

I was singning along to all of the songs - is that geeky or what? I was so glad that Ben took the effort to learn the old songs, and play them well. I thought I'd never hear them play "A Certain Shade of Green" or "Idiot Box". We were close to the speakers which made my ears ring a bit after, but damn, it was worth it.

My biggest regret was that I didn't bring my camera. We asked beforehand if we could bring it, but the guy on the phone said no. Well, when the show started, the people beside me were gleefully taking snapshots of the band playing as well as themselves. Security wasn't so tight about that after all. I should've just taken my chances and brought my cam along.

They ended the set with "Sick sad, little world". After the song, Brandon said "thanks y'all, well see you real soon". With those words, my heart sunk knowing that they probably won't be coming back. As they exited the stage, the crowd started chanting "more, more!", and singing the "ooooh-hoooooh-hooo" part of "Are you In?". Being the gracious dudes that they were, they came back and played two more songs. Sure enough it was "Are you In?" and then the excellent "Pardon Me".

Seeing Incubus actually get up on stage and play their instruments added another dimension of my respect for the band. The whole experience underscored the fact that they're real people playing music, and not some manufactured group put together. I recall NU 107 DJ /The Dawn guitar man Francis say that it's important to see past the marketing and really listen to the music. Well, I had the wonderful chance to connect to their music and jump past the hype and packaging. This just occured to when I saw a poster advertising the event after we left the area. Strip away the whole marketing machinery, and all you're left with is the music.

The primary thing that they do is play their music, but they also have to show up for endless photo shoots as well, as part of the whole media vehicle to promote them. I guess it comes with territory.