Small Talk

A Day in the Life of Chee Chiang Puen, Jr.

6:00 : I am awakened by my cell-phone/alarm. The sun peeks into my room. What a glorious morning! Another day to celebrate and greet with renewed vigor! And with my refreshed mind I resove to…

Snooze.

6:09 : Snooze.

6:18 : Snooze.

6:27 : Snooze.

6:36 : Snooze.

6:45 : Snooze.

6:54 : Snooze.

7:03 : Snooze.

7:12 : Snooze.

7:21 : The last snooze was the limit for my cellphone. I have to get up or I’ll be late. My roommates are up and about as well.

Unfortunately, during this time of day, everyone is gassy and unashamed of the fact. We exchange ‘pleasantries’ and queue for the showers.

7:30 : I am usually the first to switch on the TV. I like it loud in the morning. It helps with the somnambulism.

Right on the dot. Umagang Kay Ganda. Edu’s on. I watch him make his guests do the papaya dance.

Watching this serves as my excercise for the day.

7:35 : Watching the papaya dance stirs up a feeling within my bowels. Time to hit the showers.

7:50: la la la la la in the showers

8:00 : I change into my formal attire. And I note with increasing chagrin that my clothes are getting tight around the waist and around the chest. Must be all that muscle.

8:45 : I’m off to work. I cross busy Buendia-Taft to get to those buses that ply the Ayala route. I stew as hundreds of traffic offenders do their thing. I stew more as a troop of pot-bellied traffic enforcers do their tong.

8:50 : Like some bad joke, every bus I have ridden has Love radio on. And it’s around this time of day that Balasubas and Balahura (Chris Tsuper and Nicole Heyala ) have their AM show.

Korekted by. Hahahaha. Gravacious. Hahahaha. Trulalu. Hahahah. Nakakalurkey. Hahahaha. Mga Kabisyo. Hahahaha.

I so want an iPod.

9:30 : 2 km in almost 1 hour! A world record. I should have walked my way instead. At least the travel bought me time to catch up on some bus reading. My list for this week? Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, by Uncle John and The Jesus You Never Knew by Philip Yancey.

9:45 : Me pila ang elevator!!!?? Imagine if there were a fire or something, we’d all die in a neat file.

11:00 : Working (daw). 5 bathroom breaks in between.

12:00 : Time for lunch. If the SunLife crew send me an urgent email. I high tail it to BCon for a quick DOTA game.

1:00 : I am either at my desk or walking towards it. BCon is a far ways off.

3:00 : McDo Break. Time for McNuggets or Filet ‘O Fish. Or some 7Eleven Juice.

6:00 : I’m off in 30 minutes. But this is the most crucial part of the day. This is when all those last minute requests come in. I brace for a late night. 6 bathroom breaks in between.

8:30 : If all goes well I get off early. The way home is a looong traffic snarl. Tired and moody, I usually hie off to Powerbooks to find something relaxing to read. I think the security person already knows me.

Dinner is McDonalds…again.

10:00 The bus ride home is peaceful. I catch some zzz on the way to Pasay. The trip is generally smooth with the ocassional vehicular accident as the only hump.

11:00 Serei no Moribito episodes 10 - 14. Or something to that effect. It used to be Haruhi no Yuutsu (great one, that ).

12:00 - 1:00 Time to sleep. I’ve got a load of socks to toss in the wash. My stuff could use some organizing. My email could use some checking. RealDig could use some coding. My bedsheet could use a change. So I roll up my sleeves and say, "I should work on this…some other day," and roll up in bed, suck my thumb and snore until dawn.

(This could change as the days go by, hopefully for the better )

Quote of the Day

This one’s from a pop up ad, but it’s true all the same:

"Don’t almost give."

Short. Pithy. I agree.

Quotation of the Day

I love this quote:

"Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future"

Today’s Rant

This was actually a cigarette ad from the 60’s, I think. I found it at oddee.com.

One of my pet peeves is when someone indiscriminately blows cigarette smoke over to where I am.

I am not and have never been a fan of cigarettes. I’m not mad at friends of mine who do smoke, I just wish they didn’t. And I definitely wish they didn’t do so around me.

*****

Where I work, there are a few thousand employees cramped within layer on layer of concrete in this bunkhouse called the PBCom Tower.  It’s the tallest building in the Philippines, and,unfortunately, probably the slimmest as well. It could hide behind a cow I tell you.

But that’s for another story.

Anyway, of all those thousands, around 50 percent smoke. And since smoking within the premises could get you the boot. Them smoking people slide down their poles to the ground floor every 2 hours and light it up on the pathway from the building to McDonalds Madrigal.

That is why there is a perpetual smokescreen at the base of the building. And that’s why there’s a perpetual stench there as well. It’s the smell of lungs burning.

****

I know for a fact that people find it hard to quit once they start the habit. And I feel for them. I also feel for those that have to suffer and choke through second-hand smoke.

*****

One of my bestfriends, Neil, is asthmatic. We used to ride the jeep from our school AUP to Balibago, which, during that time, was a less than idyllic 30 minute slog through potholed, craggy terrain.

And since jeeps travelling the route were scarce, we once found ourselves hanging on to outside of the vehicle just to get to Balibago. And there was this guy who lit up a smoke inside the jeep.

Neil was having trouble breathing. So I considered politely asking the guy inside to quit his stick until we got off. Neil stopped me from doing so. It turns out that in that area, people had been beaten up for a lot less than asking others to put their smokes out.

*****

For some reason one of my major turn-offs is when I see a girl smoke. No matter how pretty she may be, if she smokes, It kinda takes her down a peg in my book.

We’d probably blame the media for that. If I remember my history well enough, it was in the ’20’s, with the advent of mass advertising and commercialization, that smoking among women became popular.  It used to be taboo. Then suddenly, overnight, it was cool.

*****

But smokers of the world, I still love you. Just take care of your lungs and the lungs of all the other people around you.

I don’t mean to be holier-than-thou on this subject; thimblesticks, I’ve got thorns of my own. Let’s just keep the smoke blowing to a minimum okay? For our sakes.

Crystal Clear

Okay….

When lawyers work on road signs

www.oddee.com cracks me up; plus, I learn a lot too….

New Year, New Hope

A rainbow outside my window on the first day of 2008. How fitting! Terrible picture, though

New Year Na Ba Yun?

Ang saya ng New Year ko.

Manonood sana ako ng fireworks kaya lang tinamad ako. Killjoy e. Hehe. Saka di masyadong nakakatuwa ung paputok. Palakasan lng. Di rin naman talaga ako mahilig sa paputok e. Di naman nadadagdagan ung machismo ko sa ganoong paraan.

Buti na lang nagluto si Mommy ng steak and fries with lumpia. Masarap din! Tapos meron pang ginawa ung kapatid kong si Diane na Mango Joke, este, Mango Float ( joke lang DIane :D). Kumpleto na ung Medya Noche

La lang. Nanood lng ako ng TV kasama si DIane at si Mommy. Habang wala pang 12 ay me palabas sa channel 7 na countdown special.  Nagtiis kami habang nagproduction number sina Katrina Halili at si Ehra Madrigal. Mukha naman silang masaya sa dance routine nila. Mukha.

Uy. Countdown na. Parang excited ung mga host habang nagbibilang. Parang. Siguro kasi pagkatapos ng countdown uwian na.

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Nag appearan kami, kiss ng konte, tapos tulog na….

Saya.

p.s.

Wag nyong pansinin tong si Scrooge. Actually, basta New Year dapat salubungin ng naka SMILE.