Hot, fresh, and unorganized thoughts

Just finished through a bunch of emails - time to kick back and log some overdue brain farts looming in my noggin. Currently trying to reproduce the Incubus concert experience by blasting a live CD in my ears right now (song: Circles). I know the last few entries have been reeking with discontent and neagtivity - but what the hell, that's what this blog is for right?? In light of the recent steam I've been blowing off, here's a to-do list for myself (in no particualr order):

- Stop being so pissed off
- Stop slacking off
- Lose some weight for god's sake

Don't get me wrong, I'm greatful for and appreciate the fact that my mom and dad in law lets me stay at their place while me and Lyn are still striving for total financial independence. At the risk of coming off as an ungreatful bastard, I actually find some things I find a wee bit annoying about the circumstances we're in. Lyn's brothers are nice people I can get along with, honestly. It's their quirks that upset me from time to time, even though I'm not the one directly affected by it.

The second eldest sibling has this grating habit of lying down all the frickin' time. When he gets back from school or somewhere else, he's like a hawk, eyeing the living room bench - waiting for the current occupant to leave....and then, bam! He rests his lazy bones on the couch to hog major butt space. When he gets up in the morning, he leaves his room in a hazy state to go downstairs...and sleep some more in his parent's room. Come on man, get off your ass.

The youngest brother is always out of the house. He's always somewhere else, mostly playing that online game I love to hate: Ragnarok (which by the way is why he's flunking at school). I love video games; I spent a lot of my high school and college days in front of the TV, playing until my eyes would bug out. But there's something about that damn game that's so annoying. When I'm at the nearby Internet cafe, throngs of kids are so crazed about it. I don't get it, and I don't want to get it. That's just me, I guess - counterstrike still rocks, even though all I did most of the time was die at the hands of loudmouth braggart kids laughing at the highest possible volume.

Anyway, he always comes home late and never eats the food mom-in-law prepares...magpapaluto pa siya ng ibang pagkain, usually hotdog. He's basically a spoiled brat when it comes to a lot of things. He's too picky with food for one thing. For instance, we were eating fried pork which he didn't find crispy enough. Then, he looked for some Mang Tomas to make up for the said lack of crispiness. The bottle was something like near empty, but you could certainly get a good amount for one serving. He wouldn't have any of it and said in a whiny voice "ayoko na nga...". Mom-in-law proceeded to go next door (they have a duplex type of setup where her sister lives beside us) to get another bottle filled with more of the brown pork sauce.

And when he hasn't arrived by dinnertime, mom-in-law sets aside a portion of food just for bunso after cooking...I don't see her do that for her other two offsprings. Dammit, the guy's already in college for pete's sake. And when he decides to grace us with his presence, mom-in-law sets the plate and utensils for him. Fuck man, you're 18 years old for chrissakes - fix your own plate for the love of god. Annoying, really annoying. When he comes home from school, he'll just dress up to go out again, and come home god-knows-what time.

The special youngest one also was upset because his parents didn't by him a cell phone as promised earlier; money was tight at the time. In an act of rebellion, he flunked all of his subjects in one term. So mom-in-law bought him his precious little camera phone, but whaddaya know, HE STILL FLUNKED HIS SUBJECTS. Puro laboy at ragnarok kasi.

Yeah, it's none of my business, so I don't say anything at home. But when I see stuff like that, I can't help but be irritated.

Me, me, me, me

I've been stressed these past few weeks, so pardon my fucking french. My potty mouth can be blamed on the crap I have to deal with everyday.

I need to blow a few things off my chest. First, money. It's always about money. I thought I could stand not having any of it for extended periods of time (2 weeks), but I'm only human. I can't blame myself if I get weary of lacking that mundane necessity. I know it's just a piece of paper, but goddammit, it really gnaws away at my patience sometimes.

Next, that piece of crap that's supposed to save me from heat exhaustion while driving in the sweltering tropical hell of this country: the car's airconditioner. For this year, I've taken the car to the repair shop several times to have that cursed piece of equipment fixed. It's finding new reasons not to work. If it's not the compressor, it's the pressure switch (so I've been told)....or sometimes, it's the freakin' fuse that conks out. Come on, WTF is up with that?? I am by no means a rich person. I can't afford to have the piece of shit fixed everytime it decides to piss me off and have a tantrum. There was one time it was so hot on the way to work, that I ended up having a fever (trankaso) that night. Imagine how it feels to come in the sub-zero office straight from the extreme heat outside. Picture yourself spending an hour in a sauna then walking into a cold room right after.


Third, the traffic in my area. I'm beginning to hate the City of Rizal for its roads. They're always digging up a HUGE chunk of the street for no apparent reason. Once they're done with whatever the hell they did, the road is left for dead, at the expense of the motorists who have to pass there. The street is literally turned into an obstacle course of potholes the moon would be proud of. It's a waste of OUR taxes. The roads don't look wider or smoother. In fact, it looks shittier than it was before. Not to mention it takes them forever to finish their "road work". The conspiracy theorist voice in my head tells me that they drag out the so-called project as long as they can to jack up the hours, and hence they get paid more. Not only that, the substandard materials they use to patch up the roads literally disentegrate overnight after a strong downpour. It's like they're using oreo cookie crumble instead of ashpalt. I guess the cheaper the stuff they use, the more change they can stuff their own pockets with. The people responsible for this travesty should be punished medieval style: drag them with horses over those broken roads.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of other things to bitch about soon.

Seeing Red

What's the fastest way to empty your bank account? Simple, withdraw from a fucked up ATM. I inputted the amount to be withdrawn (which happened to be everything left in my account) and hit "OK", then the machine gave me the cheerful message:

THIS MACHINE IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE - PLEASE TRY ANOTHER TERMINAL

I reported this to the branch manager who had the gall to blame my bank's system (my card is Equitable PCI, but they're a different megalink bank) for my loss. Excuse me bitch, but it was YOUR ATM that wigged the fuck out didn't it??

So the hag made a few calls and whoopee-de-do, the ATM came back to life. Of course the amount I withdrew is now gone. Needless to say, I gave the bitch a mouthful (in English, I might add, which she sadly couldn't keep up with). To no avail though - for all my anger, all I could do was fill out a complaint form, which she says will supposedly get my money back within today. "Supposedly?!?" I asked. "I have nothing to go on for the next 2 weeks." She then rephrased her statement assuring me the goddamn money will be back within today.

Maybe since I'm in the call center business, I'm overly critical of customer service that I'm given. But she had no sympathy whatsoever - hell, I probably wouldn't care myself if I was in her shoes. But come on, not even fake empathy? That blows big time.

So here I am at work, with no money or food to last me the day. Not to mention the car airconditioner is flaking out again, which is literally hell driving to the office at high noon. If I were Bruce Banner, I would've torn that place apart.