The One Peso Beggar :: And I Thought Life Was Bad For Me

I was opening a pile of bank statements a while ago looking for a certain check because I need some details for a payment I was going to make.

I remember the bank charged me every year for something that amounts to P800 pesos which reflected on my online statement. This year I got fed up and asked the bank about it and they told me that it was because I have not picked up my bank statements from their branch. Funny thing was, I am always there every week but did not know about their policy. While all the while I was also wondering what happened to the checks that I issued.

I then remembered that for the longest time they had a sign that they will impose penalties for statements not being picked up. For some unknown reason, I thought that it did not include me. Maybe it was because I have a habit of ignoring announcements.

Opening the bank statements, I saw the checks that I issued this year. I thought that if it was the other way around, that instead of issuing these checks I received them, then I would have a significant amount saved. Unfortunately these checks were all necessary for the life I am living right now. Not that I have a good lifestyle or anything, but rather I have to pay for some loans, advanced deposits on rent, plus some items that I consistently buy for the shop. To cut it short, this is the cost of living for me.

Lately I have always pondered how this year was a bad year for me. Never mind the recession, the typhoons and the floods because it did not affect me directly. Frankly the flood even helped me extend the time I had to pay my supplier because the checks I issued them was destroyed by the flood.

Through the years, the company I am working for is not just losing money, but also losing its brand image. I will not dwell too much on it, but to summarize, the future is not that bright here and I really need to look for another job.

Health wise, this year my father was diagnosed with cancer and we pooled our money for his operation, check-ups and medicines. He is still not cured but he is not in pain, he even gained some weight and is always busy with projects he had no time for when he was still working.

This year I also felt that I was not getting any younger. I am feeling less motivated in everything I do and just want to sleep. I feel like my health is deteriorating but the incompetent side of me does not want to go to the hospital to get checked.

Anyway, I found what I was looking for and headed for the bank. On my way there, I saw this beggar with a big pail on his head and handwritten posters. By the looks of his face and the poster that he wrote, he is from China and ended up as a beggar here.

If I understand his letter correctly, he is saying that he discovered an anomaly in China's stock market and was forced to leave and ended up here. A little conspiracy theory angle to get attention I thought.

On another part of the letter he enumerated how hard it was for him to get something to eat or drink, and that he was poisoned... An officemate of mine jokingly said when I showed her the letter "By what? Insanity?"

I tried to understand everything that he wrote but I cannot make anything of it, just the part where he said his English is bad.


Anyway, all I can do is say a silent prayer for him, that somehow he would escape his current situation and live the rest of his life without misery.

At the end of his letter it says "pls help one peso!", I did not give him any.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You :: Bad Idea

Today I bought two chicks for my Boa Constrictor. I think it has been a month already that I last fed it due to the scarcity of chicks. I have always feared that the next time I will look at the cage, it will already be dead. Boas are known for surviving even if they have not eaten for a long period of time, you just have to provide it with adequate supply of water.

But they are also know for dying because hunger, because after a long period of not eating, they become too weak to eat. This is what I am afraid of, so I plan to feed him every week but the problem was not finding a steady supply of chicks.

Also last week, I had my 75 year old father customize a snake hook out of a thin stainless rod. This week I was surprised that he actually did it, considering his age and the cancer cells eating him up slowly.

Anyway, I was excited to test the tool, but I am not about to let loose a three year old snake that directly came from the wild. Yes, it was sold to me by two miners quarrying a few kilometers away, and even these two brutes are afraid of it.

I opened the cage slightly and used the hook to move the snake, as expected it hissed and attacked me. If not for the wire mesh, it would have bitten me with its long fangs. So much for my plan to clean the cage, the snake is now too agitate to be moved, so what I did was to put one of the chicks in the cage.

It chirped for a minute and then squeaked. I did not see it but I know that the snake already attacked it. After a few minutes, I placed the other chick in the cage, and like the other one, it just chirped for a minute then became quiet, signifying that it has already been attacked and eaten by the snake.

It was a real pity for the chicks, especially now that I really do not have any love for that snake because of its temperament. But the chicks that I bought were sold by peddlers on the street, and the maximum life that they have is just a week. These chicks are from a farm that sells chickens, and disposes the weak ones. Either way, they will be slaughtered. I just put them out of their misery.

It is a big question of what will become of this snake. With continuous feeding, it will grow very big therefore a bigger house is needed.

Another is can it still be tamed? What about my temperament? I have not been bitten by a snake before, especially the one that I saved from sure death. What will I do with it if it bites me and my instinct is to fight back and kill it?

Nah, I believe I am too educated to do that. The first time I acquired it, I spent hours and hours on the net on how to be a responsible owner of this kind of animal. I studied everything from housing to feeding. I would be a fool to kill something that I already invested a lot on.

If I will not be able handle it then I have to look for local government institutions that takes care of these animals, at least I know it will not end up dead or in other people’s stomachs. Tastes like chicken, as some described it after cooking and eating them.

Image Credit: http://travel.mongabay.com

Looking For Love :: In All The Wrong Places

So love cannot be bought, as many unfortunate human beings learned the hard way. But what if you just want the warmth from another persons body? A kiss from a beautiful lady? A hug? Affection or even passion? What if you are just plain lonely and looking for something which is not even love?

If love cannot be bought then what can my hard earned money buy?

A friend of mine is a certified playboy. You can see it in his gestures when he is checking out ladies. He looks at them like a boy looking at a nice new toy. Eyes glimmering, smiles like he already had his way with them.

He frequents spas with special services, with a big laugh he even told me the slang term for it, "spakol". Some attendants are already his girlfriends. According to him, in these spas you cannot fornicate with the attendants, but he does, they allow him to eff them. Honestly I have no idea how he does it.

When he is not at the spa, he is in a girlie bar somewhere watching nude ladies dancing, tables them if he likes them, then stays there until the place closes for the day. Money is no object.

What is the trade off then? His family ofcourse. He is already married with two kids. He also has a girlfriend at the office for quite some time now. Five years to be exact. And this girlfriend is not letting go of him.

Maybe out of boredom he calls me after office hours and invites me to go out with him, to check out the places that he has been, the adventures he had experienced, and is even willing to pay for me.

But this is not my life. I love to go home early and see the mother of my kids, and especially my child with a smile that can melt the hardest of hearts.

Don't get me wrong, I love sex as much as the next person, but I also fall easily. Some show of affection and caring, a little time and effort, and I will soon be hooked. I don't think I cannot use people the way that he does because I feel too much. At the same time I cannot love someone whose work is giving pleasure to other men, and just imitates love so that you will keep coming back for more.

Ruined Plans :: Early Retirement Drawback

While talking to the head of HR, I just learned today that our company has no early retirement policy. Ouch!

In some companies, when you quit your job, your separation pay amounts to “your current rate multiplied by the years of service you rendered to the company”. All the while I thought this was default in every company, seems that I counted my chickens too soon.

So without something to look forward to when I resign, I am back to square one. My original plan was to resign after a couple more years and use the money to open up a small business (or to inject the money to the existing one that I had for the longest time).

It is too late now to look for another company that has a this policy because of my plans of early retirement, so I guess I am stuck with this job for a couple more years, and during that time I need to know how to come up with the capital that I need.

"Make do of what you have". I heard this from my former boss at my second job. But even before I heard it from her, all my life I have been using every resource that I have to be able to survive. Notice the term I used, survive. This is the life that I have known ever since I was young.

When I was at school I used my skills in drawing to make projects for my classmates. The only research material that I have is two editions of The Book of Knowledge. One project I remember is the musical instruments. I browsed the two inch thick books and looked for pictures, then copied them using a bond paper and a pencil. No colors.

Another money maker before was printing shirts. Since I do not have money for the materials, I made them myself from wood, slippers, stockings, and paper. The only thing that I bought was the textile paint. I also remember ruining some shirts because I over used the paper that I cut out. I also remember using low cost shirts that gets destroyed after one wash. Those were very embarrassing times for me, but I still managed to earn a little.

So I guess I have to do what I do best, I need to be resourceful once again.

A Night At At A Girlie Bar :: An Hour To Be Exact

Last night I was invited by a friend to take a peek at this girlie bar named Queen's Castle along Quezon Avenue. He fetched me at the office riding one of his cars that he jazzed up.

While on our way there, my friend was sharing some info about his success in his endeavors, including how much money he has at home and at his bank account. Plus how much will be coming in the next couple of months.

I on the other hand was telling him about the bummers in this company I am working for.

Some might find him boastful when it comes to everything about him, but for me I think of him as a human calibration tool. Only problem is, he has set the bar too high that I can't really measure up to him at anything. Money, sports, work, lifestyle, you name it. Frankly, we even compared our dicks, and even at that he is a couple of inches longer.

Speaking about his dick, if he will rank the best things that he has, I bet he will rank the size of his penis as number 1.

Anyway, I am not an insecure person, but I do count my misfortunes in life. Blessings my ass, I am just a notch higher than the average Joe. The big problem with being average is, you are too close to the line that separates success and failure. And falling down is easier that rising up.

You might be wondering why there is a picture of Maxine Magalona at this post. I will get there in a few more key strokes.

We arrived there at 10pm and his "mama san" greeted him with a big smile. We were escorted to a table near the stage. Some girls were modeling on stage looking bored at what they are doing. Well, you too will get bored if your modeling routine is just walking and turning around while a song with no lyrics loops on the background.

A couple of beers were ordered and they had us sign a chit. P75 pesos for a beer... they are making a killing here. It only costs around P20 in the supermarket.

Anyway, mamasan was there telling my friend that she will get a girl for him, a certified starlet according to her. My friend told her that he will not table her if he does not like her, and they agreed. Soon enough the mamasan returned with a very pretty girl, a dead ringer for Maxine Magalona, maybe even prettier. But of course everything changed when the girl started to open her mouth. No matter how pretty she was, the IQ, the breeding, and everything else is close to zero.

My friend did not mind of course, she's just another broad that would amuse him for the next couple of hours or so. And he could afford this kind of amusement.

By this time the dull models on stage were finished with their act. Next performance was a solo act of another starlet. She was flawless. Wearing a black bra with fur designs and a skimpy short, she did her thing on stage. Her complexion was white. After the song she left for the backstage and returned with a more daring costume. Still the same top but with a leopard designed thong.

As much as I wanted to watch, my issues with pissing and beer is getting the best of me, so I had to go to the bathroom a couple of times. I don't know what is it about beer that makes me piss a lot. And this is just one beer! I think my ratio is 5:1. Five times to piss for every bottle of beer.

The bathroom was close to a room they call the aquarium. It has a huge tinted window when if you look inside, there are girls seated and waiting to be tabled. In front of the window are a dozen excited men choosing diligently.

So anyway, I got bored and wanted to go home already. I proceeded to the bathroom and washed my hand and face with soap, trying to remove the smell of smoke that stuck to my skin. The attendant there was nice enough to hand me a hot towel. It was nice, but I have no coins to tip him so I just thanked him wholeheartedly.

I went back to our table and excused myself saying that I need to wake up early tomorrow for work, which is a big lie of course because I am not at all that eager to wake up early for anything, specially work. It was 11pm.

I shook hands with my smiling friend and I gave the girl a big kiss on the cheek. She really was pretty, but that's all she will ever be, a part of my blog. As I left I thought about this girl's life and what her boyfriend thinks of her. Well, that is life for him, and this is life for me. “To each his own” as the idiom goes.

Too Much Arcade :: My Take On The Maguindanao Massacre

I think this politician who massacred a number of reporters and rivals in the Ampatuan town in Maguindanao have played too many arcade games when he was young. And that carnage and slaughtering people including pregnant women already has become second nature to him.

I was listening to Mon Tulfo this morning on his morning show interviewing Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton. Tulfo asked him why the military escort requested by Buluan Mayor Ibrahim "Jong" Mangudadatu for the convoy was denied, and the general candidly replied that their forces were already depleted because the soldiers were deployed somewhere, and that the PNP should be the one to provide the escort.

Tulfo also asked him why the military was seen giving escort to the Ampatuans before, and the general replied that they give escort when there is a threat.

I was waiting for Tulfo to ask him if there was ever a time that the military gave escort to the Mangudadatus, because if the answer is no, then we already know who's side that the military is on.

Anyway, after the phone interview, Tulfo lashed out at the general with words that only a Mon Tulfo can conjure.

Thank You :: But You Are Not Invited

So the annual PLDT's Pasasalamat night will ne on the 26th to be held at The Tent (Fort).

They will be giving away a brand new Toyota Vios and P500,000 cash to the lucky raffle winner.

Unfortunately, according to our company's account officer, my name is not on the list... and being not on the list means that my name is not included in the raffle. "But you are free to drop by..." says he, shucks, thank you very much man! Now I can watch in envy as the winner drives off in his new car or receive the humongous amount in that humongous fake checks I often see on TV.

Anyway, sour grape time. I am not a big fan of PLDT anyway. First of all, their internet sucks, and they partnered it with a service support that will just agitate you --- talking bout adding insult to injury.