El Gitano

Introducing my new baby, Gitano. If you're into football you'll know whose famous moniker is that for. I'm actually not that thrilled to have this after all, I've been pining for a new laptop for almost a year. Good thing my impulsiveness had its use. Margz and I went to Gilmore for this. It was a total boon that the shop upped the memory from 2GB to 4GB. I also got freebies. Bravo.

First week upon purchase, I already had to install 9.04 twice to update to 9.10 seamlessly. I skipped a 9.04 update on the first install so it's mea culpa. I still have a lot of files to transfer after getting copies of my documents and pictures. There's my ongoing torrent downloads and gigabytes of films, concerts and shows stored in Bisyo. This is going to be a tiring weekend.

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Happy days at the office ended today. Starting next week I'll be drowning in the sea of planning a personnel doctrine. Heaven give me strength for that. Not for the lack of effort on my superiors' side but they fail to recognize that we don't know the military laws like the back of our hands so they can perhaps start explaining the project by starting from step one and not jump in the middle and let luck lead them to which topic they want.

Pushing ebay.ph scammer

I'm still fuming enough to write this rather useless post about an ebay.ph scammer.

*angelmariesto.tomas is hellerwatermeller

Beware. Caveat. Caution. Fuck off.

Ominous November

Everything in the match was going pretty satisfactorily until the second half when Sergio Ramos was furnished with a red card for challenging Kun in the penalty area which, admittedly was a foul but not enough to deserve a red card. It was painfully gripping, I had to pathetically cover my eyes in the last ten minutes, after Forlan and Kun managed to push their way through our 10-men team to score 2 goals in under a minute. On the other hand, before doomination struck the derby, the first half presented a good performance for Real Madrid, showing weak points in Atletico's defense when Kaka scored under the 5th minute unmarked followed by Marcelo's incredibly angled goal and Higuain's brilliant footwork that produced a "What was Perea thinking?!" from the commentator. Now with Adam's tweet that Sergio and Albiol will miss the El Clasico this month, worse comes to worse and expectations should run low unless I suffer from cardiac arrest. I might not even watch the entire match fearing a waterfall of tears bursting from the first whistle.

I thought I would not be able to sleep after the match, as it turns out I got another 6 hours of rest full of Real Madrid-induced dreams. The sad thing is, I could not recall any of it though it was a lively one.

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I cannot wait for my contract to end. Everything in the office is so stuffed with rules, other employees are bordering on obsequiousness and I just want to quit if not for my decent division and cool bosses. It's a good thing my bosses are level headed and knows how to share timely caveats otherwise I would've filed my resignation already. Hell, even me is succumbing from the absurd weekly meeting with nothing but mud throwing and gossipmongers. Government employees indeed. It's despicable and it's amazing how much of my patience is suffering just from shutting my gob up. I just wish December would already close in.

Torrent news! I finally finished downloading Casino Royale and Muse's Hullabaloo. I don't know when will I have the time to watch those since I still have pending BBC specials in my book but perhaps I can take a peek or something afterall, it's Daniel Craig and Matt Bellamy.

Be a saint

Let's face it Madridistas, we are not yet ready for this month's El Clasico. Watching the Real Madrid - Getafe match proves that we still lack the defense, coordination and communication amongst the team. Gago's skills (dribbling and passing) are seriously almost non existent (I even wonder wonder why women fall over him excluding his looks, he's not extraordinary) and Marcelo looks like he forgot his daily dose of vitamins, in other words, lame. Iker Casillas has made tons of save, part of a goalie's job but seriously, the defense is not led by a goalkeeper. Pepe and Sergio Ramos are thankfully doing a decent job but it's not enough to mark your opponents. Getafe's defense is downright envious, a mile wide from Real Madrid's shabbily built one. Set pieces make me nervous as hell not to mention the irritating referee of the match. Seriously, he was getting trigger happy handing out yellows and reds in the most illogical sense. Albiol's red tops the most ridiculous decision overall. Even Kaka who stumbled near the penalty expressed disbelief when the referee did not raise a penalty.

The consistent average to poor performance will not make us a leading team in the CL and we cannot always rely on comparing Real Madrid to Barcelona. It's unfair on both parts. Barcelona's in top form because they've established their stability and consistency throughout several months. Like what Adam said on his very illuminating review, it's not all the players and the coach's fault that these defeats are happening, it's all part of a change. It won't simply take 3 months to polish everything and expect a spot on the CL finals. We have to have enough patience to see that there are small, sure improvements happening to the team. So let's have faith in Pellegrini that he can help change and develop the team's identity and philosophy and let's have faith that the players are working their best to establish a better relationship with each other.

Hala Madrid!

In bullets

- Finally finished King Lear. I loved it. One of the best tragedies I've ever read.

- Currently reading Origin of Species.

- Loving Auntie Anne's Cinnamon Sugar pretzel.

- Just saw Eytan Fox's Yossi and Jagger. Film review postponed for another year or so.

- Sleepy as hell.

- Looking for a laptop already although my savings is still pretty shaky. Crap.

- Work? Just fine although I have to polish that damn spend plan.

- I'm probably going to join my uncle and his wife to celebrate tita's birthday in Makati. Expecting exhaustion.

- Getting addicted to ebay.

- I miss the unemployment era

- Hoping for a Real Madrid miracle soon

Project day off

Pushing through 1986 with the brilliance of a John Hughes.

Double trouble!

There's the perennial maxim "speak nothing but good of the dead" that lacks the fact of questioning what led to gain a consequence of death. That's a very Pinoy thing; terribly salient especially in times of calamities like now. A report earlier mentioned that the authorities had to threaten people at gunpoint for them to get the point (pun intended perhaps) and evacuate their homes before the Typhoon Pepeng can do more than make them eat bullets. It's appalling yet it's ingrained in us. Yes, you can't leave your dream house, your flat TV and your priceless documents so never mind dying for them. So it's like this, if people don't want their safety offered to them (because god knows they know better than other people, riiiiight), do me a fat lot of good and make the world a better place. Less people, less pollution hey? Double trouble!