diss-connected
Until November 1, I will have to rely on my mobile pre-paid internet to gain web access from home and it can only do so (web-access, that is) in spurts. The signal at our apartment is just weak and unfortunately, the mobile pre-paid kit stabilizes at GPRS access, not at the supposedly-faster HSPDA platform.
After weeks of trying to coax out an answer from both Globe's hotline Customer Service and from their Globe Service Center in Greenbelt, they finally managed to release info that landline and internet service in our area in Makati will be restored by November 1.
Thanks for the Halloween gift but as I subscriber, I can't help but be pissed off by the quality of service being offered by Globe's CS department. They should seriously re-do their script and I honestly think that the quality of "real" service (as in substantative and qualitative service) has gone down.
What I'm trying to say (and meaning no offense to BPO-workers) is that I would rather talk to an impolite and rude company representative who can give to me straight the answers I need than to a sweet-talking CSR who profusely says sorry and offers a million apologies but who has no idea how to answer my questions. I think there are a lot of us consumers and subscribers who share similar experiences with call centers and their agents in that we don't usually get the quality of service we expect. The quality and substance of service should go beyond being polite and apologetic and repeating formulaic phrases over and over again; it should be relevant to the one who's on the other end of the line fuming mad.
philippine speculative fiction V submission
Last two days and nights (until 11:59pm of October 15 technically) to submit your entries for the fifth running of the anthology, Philippine Speculative Fiction, slated for publication Feb next year. Rules here.
It looks like I might be submitting after all but I'm not all that hopeful that what I will submit will make the final cut. But since the story has been completed, I just need one more look-over for final edits and I'll be blasting it off to the antho's editors (Nikki Alfar and Vin Simbulan) and then await what I expect to be a letter of rejection (yes, pessimistic me is speaking).
Whether my story gets accepted or not, this will be a good experience for me. The real, first step I'm taking into finally doing something about writing creatively for the spec-fic field. Otherwise, I would have abused myself again for coming up with excuses not to submit an entry.
komikon 2009
The leading names of local komiks (sans Carlo Caparas, hopefully) will be gathering at SM Megatrade Hall this Sunday, October 18, for Komikon 2009. It's bound to be a fun day filled with everything to do with comics -- new publications, artworks, comic book artists, publishers -- and Komikon is the culmination of the Philippine International Cartoons, Comics, and Animation (PICCA) event.
Gerry Alanguilan has already posted that Komikero Publishing will be coming out with two releases at Komikon: Elmer Collected Edition (I've been waiting for Gerry to collect his Elmer issues in one graphic novel-styled edition) and the highly-anticipated Where Boldstars Go to Die featuring the comics debut of Arlan Esmeña. Gerry is also featured in a graphic anthology published by Summit Media called Underpass along with other Pinoy comic greats, so this can not be missed.
I'm sure there will be lots of stuff to see and (sigh here), buy. So, I will have to allot several thousand pesos for what's bound to be a spending spree at Komikon :)
weighing the issue
I've grown a few pounds heavier in the last few months and that's a bad sign. I've been guilty of sneaking in more than a cupful of rice during dinner time and it didn't help that there were several events and occasions where I could not help but indulge.
The good news is that my sugar level is under control and I am now able to monitor it more frequently as I've finally bought for myself my own blood glucose monitoring device. The last time I tested my blood sugar was Monday, right after I opened my eyes in the morning, some 10 hours after my last meal (optimum testing time) and the result was an 84 mg/DL. Normal blood sugar levels are between 80 mg/DL and 115 mg/DL.
However, I need to resume some semblance of enhanced physical activity so that I can trim down the once-again-enroaching fat. The past few weeks of unpredictable weather have drastically affected my daily brisk-walk regimen and last night, I resumed brisk-walking home.
If I don't slim down to say, around 195 pounds on my next visit to my endocrinologist (for another blood-sucking session of lab-experiments), I'm going to hear her say I'm overly and grossly obese.
My wife has been egging me to buy that portable air-walker-whachumacallit device and I am just waiting for Shopwise to put that on sale again. It was being sold for P1000 when I went to Shopwise right after Ondoy but didn't have enough money with me. Alas, I also left my credit card at home. When we went for groceries last weekend, it was no longer for sale. One of these days, I hope to catch it in its drop-down price again. Outside, the same device sells for at least P2000.
And I need to buy a new bathroom scale. My relatively new scale was the unfortunate victim of my daughter who discovered a new way of using it -- as a trampoline.
It looks like it's high-time to get back to working on The Diabetic Daddy which has been on hiatus since August.
detour
While walking home last night I passed by the same homeless man along South Avenue. There was nothing unusual about that as I routinely pass by him and his mobile home (a wooden kariton filled with odds and ends) when I walk home except that yesterday he was animated. He was talking. And not just talking but having a debate -- with himself.
On other days I pass by him, he was usually quiet -- either he was just seated beside his kariton and idly looking over all who pass by, or, lying spread-eagle in his kariton, fast asleep.
Yesterday, with a PET bottle filled with either plain water or gin, he was again seated beside his kariton but talking and arguing and debating with someone I could not see.
And what topic was the homeless man schizophrenically or drunkenly debating with himself?
Jose Rizal.
As I drew further away, I could hear his voice in debate:
"Si Rizal, sa Calamba, Laguna yun lumaki. Sa Calamba!" (Rizal grew up in Calamba, Laguna. In Calama)
"Wala siya dyan sa J Rizal (street) na yan." (He's not there in J Rizal Street)
"Sa Calamba si Rizal lumaki hindi dyan sa J Rizal!" (Rizal grew up in Calamba, not in J Rizal!)
Just imagine the discourse happening in his mind -- purely spec-fic material!
eye contact
Incidentally, I'll be undergoing a minor eye surgery tomorrow to remove a cyst from my upper eye lid.
The cyst first came to life as a kuliti. Not because I was peeping, as people would say, but because my eyelashes managed to collect dirt and debris and made the corner of my eyelid their garbage bin. Hence, the kuliti. The disturbance however failed to respond to medication and after seeing an eye doc earlier this week, I've decided to have it lanced.
So, after the operation tomorrow morning, I'll be a one-eyed Jack for probably a good part of the day.
