Saturday, July 16, 2005

Things I Do With My Different Groups of Friends

**They say that if you lied down with dogs, you get fleas in the morning. I say that you choose your dogs, and then love your fleas. To hell with everybody else.

1. With the kababatas (my childhood friends for more than ten years now), it's a couple of smokes after dinner. And then a few more after that until it proceeds to three hours of chain smoking. Somebody then takes out a pot of hot water, and then it's a coffee party up until breakfast.

Recently, we have been actively interrupting this itinerary with movie reviews. Yup, movie reviews. Turns out everybody is a critic, and though it's different levels of extrospection uncommon to people our age, it's still a barrel of monkeys and all that funny snot.And then when we do get more than the required amount of nicotine in the system, our brains are just soo pumped, we can talk about anything.


Sometimes, a conversation starts with a tsunami. It then mutates into this funny assortment of concerns which also mentions the government, religion, sexuality, and all that jazz nobody ever touches with a ten foot stick. The last time we had a long talk was over a pot of coffee and a couple of packs of lights. This was brewed after a bottle of tequila, and believe me, alcohol plus nicotine plus caffeine made me so eager to admit I was gay all over. If I hadn't done that before, I knew I sure will.


2. With the queers, it's laughing our hearts out, and then getting laid. OR getting laid first, and then laughing out loud. And it also happens too, y'know, laughing out loud while getting laid on account of some people can be such stupid fuck buddies.Here's a piece of unsolicited advice, a great lay isn't really with how your partner looks like. It's not even with the range of his shotgun. It's not EVEN with how he uses it, since there's no OTHER way to appreciate it with. I would describe a good lay as this ONE sex machine who knows how to work his tongue, knows how to move his body and use his hands, and has the best damn timing like a Rolex.

To quote the magnificent Stan Lee, "'nuff sed."


3. With the SnB boys, it's playing pool straight for at least two hours. There was a time when we did this for seven hours straight, but there was a thirty minute interval for dinner, and then six and a half hours of uninterrupted gambling.There are times when a gay guy appreciates the male stink, most especially when it's stink coming from the people you're having fun with. It's so fun, I never did mind getting all sweaty and oily and dirty with my right hand all blued up from the cue chalk. Minus being naked from the waist up, I WAS still one of the guys back then, and I'd revel in my pool brilliance while I trash talked like Tom Sawyer.

Sometimes, me and the girls, the SnB girls, would get set and pull an all nighter over a case or two of beer. Or three, but it doesn't really matter since we'd be laughing at each other in the morning over who looks the most like shit.

Those were easily some of my best days.

4. Random stuff with officemates from my different companies. But it's usually getting shitfaced for the most part. And kicking the crap out of them over a few games of pool.

One of the scariest things is a yuppy, on a payday, with his office buds, and helluva lot of time to spare.


5. The nerds are gone, but there was a time when it was nothing but video games and CCG's all along. We never knew how to smoke then, but if we did, we could have died already.

This was mostly back in high school where I associated myself with this group of nerds. Yup, nerds. So there goes a confession, and here's another one: I graduated with honors back then thanks to this unlikely motley crew.Do I want to see any one of them sometime soon, sit down and have a cup of hot chocolate? Hell yeah.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Confessions of a Telemarketer

**Or "Why" Spelled in ___ Different Ways.
**Or "Kissing Telemarketing Goodbye."


If, for some reason, you beg to differ with all the hostility you can summon, then leave me alone. Do something else, like polish your sales pitch, or practice speaking faster. I've been there, and I CAN sell. I can probably outsell you ten to one if I'm still interested, but Ben Tumbling has left the building and is now doing a happy job as a technical support personnel.
And don't get offended. You'll get over the effin truth anyway.



What do you mean you can't go fuck yourself?Aside from learning how to speak like an American and argue with an American, the other good thing about telemarketing is quitting.


I've been doing a lot of telemarketing for about more than a year now, and for some people, that's just about long enough. I did hardcore telemarketing, phone scamming, and business listings for more than is required, and I figured it's just about time to rinse my brain cells for something fresh. I quit doing it, and since my resignation letter was as honest as it can get, there are still other reasons which strengthened my resolve to go and, as those Americans placed it, "get a better job."

So I did it for the pay, and the pay's excellent. There was a time when my tax alone was another person's income for a full pay period, and that made me feel good. Not because I'm making this much money, but because I'm worth this much dough. And I wasn't even THAT good yet. So I stayed to figure out how far I can go. Turns out that I wouldn't go THAT far, thanks to the various influences I met along the way.

There isn't much room for learning. You can only learn as much, and then your brain proceeds to rot from the same mind numbing telemarketing. I mean, how much brain work does it require for anyone to update a business listing and sell crap after that? See, you can only do so much with your rebuttals, twist them and turn them around for plausible manipulation as you please. But it sometimes verges on scamming, so there isn't much you can really DO with them. It's always the same routine, day after day after day. And then the day after that. You can get to master everything in this much time, but what happens after that? You can get lucky and learn a new product in a span of six months, but that is only if you are lucky enough. And unless that happens, you're stuck to updating online business listings which nobody ever looks up.

I'm smarter than this sonofabitch who's cussing at me over the phone, and I wonder why I can't just cuss him back and get it over with? Damn, I learned the art of cursing assholes early on in grade school, and it's pretty much a secondary nature. But there's somebody listening in to this call and may actually be recording it for posterity. Quality. So I give him the finger while I'm doing my rebuttals, but, for all the wrong reasons, it just doesn't feel right.

Quality in this context simply refers to the quality of the verbal receipt involved in all this telemarketing. We record the agreements over the phone, and we're doing that just to say that we have a tape of them saying YES to the sales pitch. They have no other choice but to pay us since we have them caught on tape. And just to be real sure, the tape's well recorded and the conversation was just as clear as bottled water. Quality, then, makes sure that the receipt's flawless, and that the scam's a work in progress.

I studied mathematics for five years in college, and for the most part, math at my level (as a telemarketer) is basically all about counting sales. The extra mile in this instance would actually involve DIVIDING my daily sales by this much hours, or computing my cash incentives to involve MULTIPLICATION, and that's basically it. I never needed to use what I know in differential equations, operations research, or even linear algebra; it's just addition, division, and multiplication, and I'm all set.

That probably explains why undergraduates overachieve in this field.

The previous reason then gives birth to another question: I finished college for this? And for some of my friends back then: I passed the board for this? I'm beginning to wonder whatever happened to my "edge" in this industry that brags of its fair share of successful undergraduates. I'm getting as much as this telemarketer in my team, and yet I'm the one with the diploma. And then when I go on and think about it, I can always use my diploma and apply as a teacher, or a programmer, or a teller in a sperm bank. But then it's either earning the minimum wage or working as a telemarketer. And there really is no sense in pointing out that you're a telemarketer with a degree in mathematics. We all sound the same to the person we're speaking with over the phone. And we receive the same paycheck as everyone else.

It needed a wake up call to realize all this. One of my most memorable telemarketing calls was with the owner of this bakery. When I introduced myself over the phone, THE verbal handshake as they called it back then, he interrupted me and told me that he needs to close the door. Then I heard a click, and then he started with this enraged litany over harrassment. He said that he's been called by US people more than a dozen times, and he has been polite all along. For some reason, I knew that I'm speaking with a man nearing his breaking point, and that was more that validated when he started screaming: "What have we done to deserve this kind of harrassment? Not buy anything from you guys?"

I received a lot of calls very similar to this one, but for some reason, this was the ONE call I needed. This baker rattled me more than $10,000 threats, the Secretary of state, or the Better Business Bureau. He isn't even cursing, but all of the foulmouthing from a hundred previous assholes does not even begin to compare with this one guy who's had enough.

The common rebuttal to this kind of objection, when the customer's at his breaking point, would go something like, "Sir, I'm terribly sorry you feel that way, so let me just go on ahead and remove your from our calling list." Tough luck, since I knew better. At the back of my head, I was like, "Yes, I might be telling you that we'll be removing your name from our calling list. But I'm just telling you that, since we'll still be calling this number soon, and we'll be wishing like hell that someone else will answer. And then we'll throw him the sales pitch. We can tell you one hundred times that we'll remove your name from our calling list, but that's never going to happen. Your number will still end up as another prospect call. So, come to think of it, we are harrassing you, sir."

I didn't even try pushing the product forward. I just wished him a nice day, went on break, and started thinking. Maybe I've had enough myself?

Monday, June 27, 2005

My Favorite Forwarded Messages


Here's a quick list of some of my more inspired posts. Not that the rest of them posts are any less inspired, no sir, its just that these happened to gag the most comments. So there.


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What's a gay guy's blog without gay write ups? No tips for the perfect blowjob, though. Like I said, I'm mostly harmless.


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I have a Page Rank of 3, but I don't get it. I managed to learn me a whole heaven about blogging, and here's pretty much everything.


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I used to be a telemarketer. And I was most thoroughly inspired by the work and the call center agents I'm with. Here's to us. BTW, I'm now doing technical support as some sort of penance.


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There are some things you just can't love in this effing third world country I'm in. Here's some of them. Everything else, well, they're just so positively charming.


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It's a delectable list of random nothingness served to pleasure your varying appetites.Includes my hot Hate List, Blog Rules, and my impromptu Soups. Enjoy!


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You know how it's like when you have this sudden burst of insight, and you have no one to tell it to because its just too stupid for speech? Yeah, this is why I write in the first place.


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These are more of a personal project than silly fillers since I love horror movies as much as I love to write. It's a perfect marriage on the ideal blog.
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I'm the same both online and offline, but I'm mostly more inappropriate in front of a computer. Here's how I am when I'm borderline well-behaved.


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Sometimes, when I'm about to run out of things tos write about, I turn to what I'm holding in my right hand for inspiration. I'm referring to a cigarette.


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I sometimes channel the spirit of this college girl with a knack for social climbing and insults. I call him Ben. Verily, the poor man's valley girl in all the proper respects.


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Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Blog Soup #1

(Over the phone)
MEL: Hello, puwede po kay Jen?
GIRL: Ay si Ate Jen? Ay wala po sha.
MEL: May lakad ba siya?
GIRL: Ay si Ate Jen po? Ay nag-badMENton po.
MEL: Ay. Ganon ba? O sige, pakisabi na lang tumawag si Mel, okay?
GIRL: MEL po? AY opo.
If that ain't too much "AYs" in one short conversation, then I'm a
gay guy swearing on goat eyelashes as a sex toy.



(Video City)
Cashier: Sir, hindi pa po kayo puwede makahiram ng unlimited. Sa ngayon, puwede niyo lang hiramin ay hanggang dalawang titles lang kasi bagong member pa lang kayo.
MEL: So kailan pa kami puwedeng humiram ng unlimited?
Cashier: Kailangan po, makasampung balik kayo rito.
MEL: Tapos, sa isang balik eh maximum of two titles lang?
Cashier: Opo, minimum of two titles, maximum of two titles. (Exactly.)
MEL: So ibig sabihin eh kailangan muna naming humiram ng dalawampung titles bago namin ma-avail yung unlimited?
Cashier: (Pauses, looks at the ceiling). Opo.
**Jesus, lady, it's just ten multiplied by two.

(At a birthday party in Jollibee)
Emcee: Hokay kids, we're going to form two groups. One for boys, one for girls, and etceteras, okay? Let's join us together common. (Nobody stands up except for five kids already in front.) Common kids, common, let's join the jollibee group. Do you want to join yes or no? (Yes, that's one sentence).
**Let us join us together common?

I'm not updating my blog as religiously as I used to. Well, that's a fucking given. But that does not mean that I've given up on what used to be such a devouring passion. For the time being, I had to sacrifice my "blogging time" to give way to my sexy night job as a technical support
representative. But don't you all worry, I'm still kinky, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I have so much to write about, and yet I have so little time with which to work with. See, in between technical support, avoiding really stupid people, and having a life of my own, I really can't find just the right space to get busy with my writings. I know it doesn't pay the bills,
but it allows for a satisfaction paralleled maybe by a wicked gangbang with the OC boys. Okay, I'm not punishing myself for a diversion which is as gratifying as it gets. I mean, I'd love to write more and get more of my sick thoughts in this here blog, but I just don't have the time. I'll find a way to work this out, but for the time being, it's another six minutes left to log back in.

I have this new friend, and he was just relentless with his discussions about singing contests. And for some reason, it got me thinking. I mean, How gay is a guy who can differentiate the two contests which Sarah Geronimo and Rachel Ann Go championed? I'm not jumping to conclusions, but yeah. The only thing gayer than that is Erik Santos wearing feathers in his hair. With a dress cut down to there. Is this going to trigger another endless verbal attack towards my "silahistang" gay bashers? Nope. This dude in question's nice, and I was JUST thinking, see?

And if anybody asks, tell them yes. I'm looking for a boyfriend. It's just about time! (Insert otherworldly laughter here.) I mean, it's about time to get in love again. And there's a reason why I'm saying it like it's more of a choice than anything else.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Triggering the Dirty Finger

**Have you seen this program on TV? It's called the news, and watching just thirty minutes of it gave me enough inspiration for a tankful of foul retch.

And by the way, I really don't think much of our local celebrities, and there is more to television than who's fucking who, or who's gay this time, or which local program's attempting another American Idol rip off. It all looks the same to me. I mean, that thing which comes out of your ass smells no different from anybody else's, right? So pardon the reference.



Cesar Montano's leading a lost cause.

If you've ever seen him endorsing that new service by Touch Mobile, then you'll begin to understand my point. He was marching along, flanked and surrounded by the local "masa," and they are advocating a new slogan supposedly empowering the purchasing power of the local currency. If I remember it right, the new catch line screams "Power to the Piso," and for all I care, it might as well be "Power to the People," and it wouldn't make no difference at all. There isn't much substance in what he was campaigning for, most especially with what filth they're reporting in the local news programs.

I was watching the news one time, and I saw a clip of this guy being arrested because he claimed to be a member of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Yes, ma'am. It is horrible being here.His line of defense was that he was merely doing that to pacify a near-erupting gangfight between two local groups. He was thinking that posing as a law enforcer would bring people to their senses, and that claiming to be a member of an "elite" bureau would command the cooperation of these local thugs. Anyway, that's not the point. I mean, why in the world would that goddamn fool assume to be an element of the National Bureau of Investigation? I'm not particularly impressed with the kind of magic those badged posers weave, like there was any to begin with, and affiliating with them's not as helpful as it used to be. I'm sure they try, but the impression they're leaving as of the late's not really working for them. See, the NBI doesn't perform well anyway, much like any other office in the government, so he might as well assume to be the President or something and it wouldn't do him wonders.

Who really cares? He still ended up as another dipshit in the already asphyxiating kennels we have here as prison cells.

At this point, I'll be doing something which I rarely do at all. I would like to apologized to all of you kids out there who are in one way or another connected to our local law enforcement agencies. Like as friends, or more importantly, as family. See, you don't have dumb parents. They simply love the job they're doing, but the thing is, the system we have here doesn't give them a real good impression at all. Yes, it sucks, but they're sticking to it just the same. And you just have to adore them for that.

Anyway, after sometime, this news program I was watching cuts into a commercial break. And the first thing I saw was this clip about the selective killing of broadcasters in Mindanao. Of course, this wasn't really surprising at all, I mean, this was the kind of news they serve us over dinner.

Nothing's quite as fantastic as having your appetite disturbed by mugshots of news reporters in bodybags, one after another. I got kind of used to this, and in the long run, this failed to elicit no element of shock at all. Thing is, they're killing media men down south for being media men down south. So much for Power to the People.

Beginning May 26, an additional two pesos (P2.00) will be collected from each passenger riding the local jeepney or buses. Sure. Three commercial breaks later, and it's the senate increasing the value added tax (VAT) to a constant ten percent (10%). Literally speaking, VAT means that they're taxing the value of a product, but I just don't see the point in doing that here. In theory, our local products aren't really worth much at all, if you ask me, so imposing ten percent on something for it's "value" is simply an entertaining concept. See, ten percent of zero is still zero. So, a VAT of zero is really not much at all. But that's just theory speaking. Reality is that sales receipt you're holding in your left hand, or that utility bill in your right.

I can't wait for May 26 to see just how ugly thing's are going to be for the local commuter. It's bad enough that they'll be fishing out more coins from their pockets to get to where they're bound to be. But it gets worse.

Most of our local jeepneys and buses are maneouvered mostly by these sweaty, hotheaded fiends who foulmouth a tad too much. It might also be implied that they drive with a deathwish, in case you've never lived to tell what it's like to be travelling with your life flashing back right before your very eyes.

I remember being in this one bus ride from Makati.

I wasn't even out of the Makati Business District when the bus I was on just started swerving from left to right. It started with this abrupt movement to the left, more like a jolt or something, but then it was followed by a sudden turn to the right. For some reason, the driver's acting fucked up. Real bad. It even came this close to this other bus, so close that we were almost five inches apart! It was near the MRT station in Buendia when things started to really get out of control.

The bus came to a screeching halt, real abrupt, and then these two ugly thugs operating my bus just started erupting in the most fluent expletives. The conductor opened the door, and then went out in the street, obviously infuriated by another bus which happened to be tailing ours. I was three seats away from the driver, and I saw him take out this LARGE KNIFE from his drawer or something, and then he followed his conductor out into the street. My fellow passengers were already halfway to violent, and they were all looking out of the windows, screaming for their money back. Imagine that.
Anyway, our driver and his partner came back in like three minutes flat, apparently appeased and enormously apologetic to all of us. Turns out that they were being assholed by the driver from the other bus, and that they were just giving him his just desserts.

That was an eleven-peso bus ride, but I never had no idea that eleven pesos can be such a pain. I'm paying this much for service which just threatened my physical well being, and now they're upping it to thirteen pesos? I'm not being cheap or nothing, but would you be okay with paying your possible executioner two pesos more?

But that's just icing on the cake. See, riding from point A to point B anywhere in the metro exposes your lungs to the finest polluted air ever. We're talking generous quantities of carbon monoxide, and tar, and nicotine, and all that good jazz. Basically, a trip in one of our local jeepneys is the closest you can get to getting high on carbon monoxide. So, if you're the type of person who usually gets his kicks on dirty air, then you're almost always in you're element when you're commuting in the metro.

But we're not like you. I don't think it's fair to pay two pesos (P2.00) more to get nearer to lung complications. You don't even smoke, and yet you're respiratory system suffers as much as your coin purse.

Power to the Piso? Told you Cesar Montano's leading a lost cause.

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