the two timin' slut!

so barbie dumped ken a while ago. mattel managed to shock the world and destroy a 43 year old romance between two plastic un-anatomically(?) correct toys. that's kinda like nicole kidman and tom cruise breaking up but without the height difference. apparently she found a new hubby in some justin timberlake look-a-like surfer dood. the world is officially coming to an end.

Inappropriate salesmen

So I took a look at the pontiac vibe this weekend at the local pontiac dealership. The vibe is a nice looking car but that's pretty much what it has going for it. it's like that cute girl in the club with super crooked teeth and can speak two syllables of engrish. it didn't fit the bill, which was alright.

what wasn't ok was how the salesman was soo very very pushy. aside from the constant pestering about the optional features we could get, on the walk back to the car, the sales man asked, "are you filipino? would you like deal with a filipino sales person? i can introduce you." to which i responded very politely that we were very pressed for time and we needed to get out of there ASAP. that didn't seem like a big problem, we thanked him for his time and left it at that.

the next day, the phone rang and it was the pontiac dealership on caller id. i should've let it go to voice mail but i was curious to see what they could possibly be calling for. so i picked up the phone:

• me: hello?
• filipino sales man: hi ritchie, this is jose, gilbert passed your number on to me. i'm the filipino sales man that he was talking about. i understand that you were looking for a car yesterday?
• me: uummm yes, but we've already come to a decision.
• fsm: oh....[insert 10 second awkward silence here]
• me: yea.....[insert 5 second awkward silence here]
• fsm: so.... macapinlac eh? where in the Philippines are you from? tarlac, cebu?
• me: actually uumm, my dad is from pampanga but i was born in manila.
• fsm: oh really? cause i know a macapinlac that comes from cebu. are you related?
• me: i don't think so....[insert 20 second awkward silence here]
• fsm: well.. let me know if you chance your mind about the vibe. should i leave you with my number?
• me: no. i think i have it here. bye!
• fsm: oh.....[insert 5 second awkward silence here]... bye!

i know they made me fill out some information sheet but are they really allowed to call people just like that? i mean how do they know that the customer won't have a weblog and post up the conversation on the web for all to see? i didn't even know that the stereotypical car sales men still existed.

blockbuster's worst nightmare

yeap, i'm admitting that i am probably blockbuster's worst nightmare. why? well i'm notorious for being late with returning dvds. when time comes to returning the videos they're usually so late that i'm extremely embarassed because no other human being on the face of this earth could possibly be this late (all the time) at returning their dvd's. i usually sneak up to the the drop off box, drop the videos and run like the dickens in the opposite direction because i'm sure that there's some sort of alarm going off alerting the manager that an extremely late dvd has just been dropped off. the manager would catch me and lecture me about how some lady wanted to borrow the final episode of 2nd season of smallville but couldn't because i've been holding the store's only copy.

in theory, i would actually be a good thing for blockbuster. i return my videos late, i pay the late fee when i rent again and they make 20-fold profit from me. they might as well direct debit from my paycheque because they're fees are so high. at least in theory this works. i tend to dance around the issue to avoid it completely but there is one flaw to my strategy (as you will see in a moment).

blockbuster doesn't have a consolidated database of users. each store has their own customer list and manages their own late accounts. which also means that i can go rent a dvd, unintentionally return it late and well, thats it. so what do i do when i need to rent the last episode of dawson's creek? well, i open another account at another blockbuster and that allows me to rent videos late charge free. [insert evil laughter here]

so what's the flaw? well, i'm running out of blockbuster stores to rent dvds from. i should really start paying off those late fees.

trailer life

i've really been meaning to take this picture for a while and only remembered to bring my palm zire to the 7-11 magazine rack this morning. if i was a trailer park afficionado, this would be the magazine for me.

creature of unorganized habits

i'm a creature of habit. i like getting into certain routines and i like repeating things over and over again. i don't really mind having the exact same thing for lunch for a month and i don't really mind ordering the exact same thing from a restaurant if i know that it is a good dish.

the exceptions are my bedtime and wake-up routines. although there are a few things that i tend to do regularly (like shower and washing my face), wake up time is usually in disarray and involves me walking stumbling around the house with a confused look trying to put my lunch into a bag while shaving or brushing my teeth. this is usually because of my late wake-up times and grogginess. it's not a pretty sight.

at night, the only thing that i tend to do by habit is to brush my teeth. on occasion i would forget and head straight to bed without my visit with the toothbrush. i would be constantly haunted by my mom's voice in my head/dream yelling at me, "BRUUUUSHH! RIIIIITTTTTCCCCCCHHHHHIIIIIIEEE BRUUUSHH TTTEEEEEETTTHH!"

at that point i usually wake up in the middle of the night and march myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth and put on my mouth guard.

who wants a gmail account?

so i think google screwed up and gave me 7 invites for gmail to give out. so now i'm at a loss, i've already given out two invites to my friends. now i have 5 left to give and i don't know who to give it to.

email me in my gmail account, tell me why you want one get as creative as you want. i will scan the emails by the order they arrived (i hope this thing has some date sorting functionality). every 5th email i will give an invite to. good luck!

• invite 1
• invite 2
• invite 3
• invite 4
• invite 5

update: wow that went quite fast.

worst pain ever...

last night i woke up clutching my leg because of cramps. worst. pain. ever! now before my lady readers start yelling at me, i know that leg cramps compared to child birth is probably about as close to comparing a mosquito bite with getting hit by a parade of cars. please take into account that i am a guy and the closest thing that even comes close to the physical pain of child birth is getting kicked down there by the whole squad of manchester united and leg cramps.

anyway, it hurt bad enough that it kept me awake for another few hours. plus, i'm walking with a limp today because some of the residual pain is still there. a quick search didn't reveal anything except that it could be caused by pretty much anything and everything under the sun.

besides walking it off, advil, and eating bananas, what other remedies are out there for me to try out?

so i redesigned

well, the last design broke in opera, it didn't display well on internet explorer 5.3.2.1.5 on the mac.

so i've fixed it. actually, i rewrote the whole thing. i even managed to open up photoshop and fiddle my way around. i've also rejigged a few pieces of content like the about page and even added a colophon section.

so let me know if i've missed anything or just drop me a note and tell me what you think. Of course, if you liked the old design. It's still here.

giant rat problem solved!

i was just minding my own business at my desk working when they sent out this company-wide announcement:

Head Office staff may notice that there is a 13 foot Mousetrap outside the North entrance. Staff need not be concerned as the presence of the mousetrap is not an indication that we have a giant rat problem at Head Office. The trap is the mascot for the Bait Car program and will be on display in front of Head Office today, from 10:00am to 1:00pm.

that totally made my day!

music time capsule

i've been reading a couple of blogs out there and they've been posting lists of the worst songs that manage burn a hole in their ears. i sat around trying to figure out if there were any out there that sticks out.

in my search, i came across an old mp3 cd full of music that i've managed to keep throughout the a couple of years. i brought it to work to look through the songs on it. the cd is made up of old songs that i've managed to overplay, mostly slow jams (since i'm a slow jam, r&b freak).

here's the playlist that i've managed to put together:

• Brandy - Have you ever
• TLC - Dear Lie
• Divine - Lately
• Kai - Say you'll stay
• Nicole feat Missy Elliott - Make it hot
• Shanice - When I close my eyes
• Tyrese - Sweet lady
• Onyx - Shut 'em down (remix)
• Mya feat Blackstreet - Take me there
• Jesse Powell - You
• Bravo All Stars - Let the music heal your soul
• LL Cool J - 1, 2, 3, 4
• The Moffatts - Miss you like crazy
• The Roots feat Erykah Badu - You got me
• Voices of Theory - Say it
• Monica - Angel of mine

yes, i just posted my sappy music tastes on my website for all to see.

lego blocks on the browser!

so yea, i redesigned this site a few months but frankly it still looks like any other design that i've come up with. its really quite monotonous And this new design breaks on internet explorer mac and opera.

so here it is, a redesign is once again in progress. this time i'm asking some friends to help me out. friends with a lot more photoshop and fireworks skill than myself. in hopes of coming out with a layout that is nice to the eye rather than an explosion of lego blocks on the browser page.

soon. it will come soon.