Electioneering

Since the election season is just around the corner, well it's still actually a year off, but judging from the seemingly well-meaning ads of the Presidential wanna-be's proliferating in the airwaves, you know that the election charade has already started.

You know that commercial on TV where Mar Roxas was pedalling a tri-sikad (bicyle with a "side car" attached to it) with a small child as passenger and getting all existentialist ("anak itabi mo, ako na"/"anong gusto mo paglaki mo?") about it? Not only is it a blatant example of premature campaigning, I think it's corny and just plain annoying.

I used to like Mar Roxas. Except that he has turned out to be just like any other politician. If he's gonna win the election, it's gonna be a come-uppance for Gloria. You see, I think Mar just used Gloria, sort of like the DTI position was just his stepping stone into government, first as a Presidential appointee, and later on he ran as Senator with the full support of Gloria's party.

When he was firmly ensconced in the Senate, he started to distance himself from Gloria, knowing fully well that the extreme unpopularity of this corrupt President would not help further his political ambitions. I'm pretty sure Gloria's digging her heels over this ingrate Senator.

And his proposal to marry Korina Sanchez on national TV? Oh come on, Korina. Can't you see he's just using you?

Store Branding

While having coffee inside Starbucks, my friend Tony, who's an American expat, told me once he had to ask a police officer about a cat-and-dog store.

"Mr. officer," he went on in true American fashion, "I'm not trying to be funny or anything, but can you please tell me where "Pussies and Bitches" pet store is located?"

He also said that in the US, retail merchants catering to big women have names like Lane Bryant. Here, he said, it's called "Tubbies".

"If that store were in the US, it would go out of business in no time! No woman in the States would ever want to be seen shopping in there!"

Summer Cheers

I tagged along with Johnny Bravo and his friends last week and ended up in some beach resort in Subic.




Photos courtesy of Jun E.

Apology Not Accepted

Chip Tsao of Hong Kong magazine says his piece is "satirical" and that he didn't mean to insult Filipinos. Satirical, my foot.

His assumptions are just plain wrong: (1) If you're a servant, then in general you're at the lower end of the food chain-- you can't complain, you can't voice out your opinion, and you can't negotiate, for crying out loud, all you can do is nod your head and obey; (2) that a nation of "servants" like ours should act accordingly, take a servile attitude and allow ourselves to be kicked in the butt when dealing with powerful nations like China.

He tries to redeem himself by saying that he likes our democracy and he wants to visit Fort McKinley. Fort McKinley! What a joke! That's Fort Bonifacio for you...if only we're still in the seventies! It only goes to show how puny his brain is.

I think he's lying. And he's only apologizing to save his sorry ass. Deep inside, I think he remains a racist.

Sunday Run

Valerie, Jun and I participated in the Airspeed 10K Run at the back of the Mall of Asia yesterday (Sunday). It was pretty uneventful: flat surface, two loops and I still didn't manage to finish the race in under an hour.

Anyway, Val was with a guy, Brian I think, who I mistakenly assumed was her current boyfriend and told Jun about it. Turned out he was Val's officemate and her boyfriend was just in Laguna.

And so while filling up the forms for the next race, Jun -- without skipping a beat -- asked Val if she will be attaching Brian's surname to hers in the near future.