in his first ever trip to the bottom three, constantine got eliminated.
to say that i'm shocked is an understatement. it's absolutely frustrating to see a good performer getting cut! what made this frustration worse is the fact that an average contestant (i refuse to consider him a singer or a performer) managing to survive and land in the top group! f#*k!
pardon the expletive, but i really feel so sh*#ty about the results.
constantine technically isn't the best singer in the competition. but i must give props to him for being a great performer. he knows his audience. he knows how to appeal to them. he knows how to make people enjoy watching him. hell, he pouts way much better than supermodels! he definitely has more "star quality" than carrie, who is a better singer and a favorite to win.
making comparisons between him and scott is pointless because scott is simply not in the same league as constantine. constantine has star written all over his performances, scott seems like he's just singing in the shower.
the shocking results remind me a lot about john stevens from last season. no matter how awful (and painful) his performances were, his fans just kept him going. george huff and latoya london got the boot before him, although george and latoya definitely gave better performances.
but compared to scott, john's better. at lease he has some "star quality" and charm - he's just not a pop-music material. scott has none. he's just an ordinary guy who happens to know how to sing. his being described as an average joe doing well in a competition speaks a lot his lack of star quality.
and if you're in a competition searching for the next american pop music superstar, then you've got to look and be a star. (in the first place, i wonder why he even made the cut to the final 24.)
it's like reuben studdard. he may have won season 2, but look where he is now. (where the hell is he now?!) kelly has done absolutely great. fantasia's album is still ranking high on the billboard charts. clay, the runner-up, is doing even better than reuben.
i won't say that because of this shocker, i'll boycott idol altogether, that's plain s*#t. but i do hope the season will end with a really deserving winner. whether it be bo or carrie, or even vonzell or anthony, i don't care, they're all deserving. they are good performers, and arguably good singers, but most importantly, they are american idols.
a f#@kin' idol shocker
papa ratzi
actual cover of a british tabloid
just a short thought about the new pope: although he is known to be a conservative and a hardliner when it comes to enforcing church doctrines, i remain hopeful that benedict xvi will take a more moderate and pragmatic stance towards dealing with sex, birth control/contraception and homosexuality. the world is constantly evolving, times have changed and the church must keep up and make themselves more attuned to people's needs.
shanghai diary (part 2): a must read!!!
pagbigyan nyo na ako. i just had to squeeze out every single bit of juiciness from this "highlight" of my trip in shanghai. that's why i decided to break this out into a separate item.
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april 14: caught in the act
state of mind - bored and exhausted. pissed with my roommate - jj - because he "unilaterally" decided to stay on for an additional night, whereas based on the schedule, he should be flying out in the evening - and i should have the room all to myself that night.
i know that he's staying over because he wanted to spend more time with his girlfriend. but heck, without any prior notice to his superior nor the project manager, he simply decided that he will stay for an additional night. p***ng**a, kabago-bago feeling boss na sya!
if it's anyone else, i wouldn't mind. but it's jj, with a bloated ego and menopausal prissiness. all i wanted was a comfortable night without feeling like i'm walking on eggshells - and his decision to stay meant i wouldn't get any of that.
after several attempts of wiggling out of having him as a roommate for another night, and after his boss spoke to me and told me to just let jj stay so he can focus on work, i agreed - grudgingly.
that night, i joined the iic operations team along with friends from the manila office (tatlo sila, so let's collectively call them 'mel') for a nice and tasty shanghainese hotpot dinner. it was nice getting to know these people outside of work. masaya silang kasama.
knowing about jj and his "ulterior" motive for staying over, mel were teasing me "are you sure pwede ka ng bumalik sa hotel?" to which i said yes, thinking that jj and his girlfriend will be out on a bar, as what he hinted earlier that night.
but no, as i opened the door to our hotel room, i suddenly heard panicky voices. then a head popped out the corner. it was jj, naked, giving me a sign not to go in (you couldn't see the bed from the door). okay, so i get it. sige na, tapusin nyo na yan.
i left them alone, pero syempre being the chismoso me, i checked out their clothes hung over the hotel room's couch before finally closing the door. after the initial "shock" (more like, natawa ako sa katangahan nya), i felt pissed again. i was very tired from the week's activities and all i wanted was to be able to lie down and relax. of course, i couldn't do that because MY ROOMMATE'S FREAKIN' HAVING SEX IN MY HOTEL ROOM!!! ta***na!
so heto nagmukha akong tanga walking aimlessly around the vicinity of the hotel - carrying a watson's plastic bag containing packing tape (i forgot to leave it in the room) - at past 1030pm in china. i went back to the hotel about 1115pm na.
ang pathetic di ba!? at that time, feeling ko ang loser ko. pero come to think of it, jj's the real loser. una, kung hindi ka ba naman tanga't kalahati't to be caught in the act by an officemate. and secondly, if he ain't a loser, then i won't be here creating a separate post just to highlight the fact that jj is among men who think with their dicks rather than their brains!
i rest my case - evil bitch marky (mwahahahaha!)
shanghai diary (part 1 - updated)
after two back-to-back sales conferences and a technical event, i simply decided to stay home yesterday, open a pack of chips and just vegetate! let me share with you my week-long trip to shanghai - with as much detail as i can. day 1 is the most eventful so it'll most likely have the longest account. read on (some patience required)...
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april 9: always follow your instructions
took the 9am dragonair flight to shanghai. oh my, when dragonair says it's economy class, they really mean economy class. i barely have leg room. how do they expect me to put my laptop underneath the seat in front of me?
shanghai's new pudong airport is far different from hk's airport: getting from the airport and into the city is chaotic. it lacks (clear) signage within the airport, and there were too many people who are "nangongontrata".
in her pre-departure advisory, the sales conference's project manager advised us to take bus route c, which will bring us directly to the hotel's doorstep. i was with the project manager, along with sales guys from hk. these guys asked around and was told by a bus driver that his route will take us to central hotel. so we took bus route 6 - not route c, per the instructions. while in the bus, we had a hunch that we've been had. and yes we were.
the bus brought us to the city, but not to the hotel's doorstep. when the kunduktora informed us about our stop. we asked where the hotel is. she and the driver told us to take the cab to our hotel. freaks! masiraan sana kayo ng bus!
a further 15-minute cab ride took us to the hotel. while checking in, a colleague from japan arrived and was thanking the project manager for giving helpful directions. he explained he took bus route c, and was dropped off at the hotel. ouch! moral of the story, follow your own instructions.
i was roomed with our new sales manager - an american who used to live in taiwan. let's call him jj. from the outset, jj has been ranting about being in room shares. he was complaining about his shenzhen roommate's snoring. now he's complaining that the room-share arrangement will not allow him and his girlfriend, who's living in shanghai, to hang out together.
while unpacking, jj told me that his girlfriend is dropping by and politely asked me if he could spend some time alone with her. mabait naman akong tao, and i've got stuff to take care of anyway, so i obliged. jj's girlfriend arrived just when i finished unpacking, and i left them alone. i went out to hunt for a china mobile sim, bottled water and something to eat.
to my surprise, what used to be a very warm afternoon, suddenly became cold and damp. when we got to the hotel, it was about 26 degrees. about 3 hours later, it was only about 16 degrees. i wasn't prepared for the sudden cold that i went out of the hotel without a jacket wearing only short-sleeve shirt. and later that night, i think it was a mere 11 degrees.
had a pathetic curry dinner - it really sucked. at about 11pm, i headed to the conference hall for the setup. the "much-awaited" sales conference is set to begin the next day.
april 10: overtime and overeating
day 1 of the conference. i miscalculated the time when i told jj that a 730am wake-up call is fine. i forgot that that i had to be in the conference hall by 8am. good thing jj woke up earlier than 730am and was finished when i got up. after rushing to shower and get dressed, i made it to the hall a little past 8am. setup the projector, made sure everything is ok, then headed down to the coffee shop for a 5-minute breakfast.
the sales conference started promptly at 830am. everything went smoothly the whole day - save for timekeeping. all the day's presenters, except for one, took the agreed schedule as mere suggestion. no one followed their time allocation. good thing the almost 2-hour workshop served as buffer, so we ended the day overtime by only about 30 minutes.
group dinner was at jade garden restaurant. it served shanghainese cuisine. some western colleagues seem unable to have the palette for chinese food. it seemed like they were on a diet. dinner was great - but i was just too much. we were all stuffed to the brim.
april 11: oooops!
again, for the second day, breakfast was hurried. it was another 5-minuter. i'm starting to get sick and tired of not "appreciating" my breakfast. the sales conference was running smoothly without hitches. well, not until the "knowledge quiz" portion. i don't know what happened, but my powerpoint answer key had the wrong answer and it caused some commotion among the participants. all that time, i thought i had the correct ones. it was really an "oooops!" moment for me.
later that afternoon, jj and i shared a cab and headed to the tech event venue for some pre-event walkthrough and last-minute checks on promos. the doorman hailed us a taxi. i gave him the address where we are heading to. he advised the cab driver and we were off to intex - or so we thought.
after about 20 minutes, i noticed that the road signs were pointing to the pudong airport on shanghai's eastern side, while the show venue was closer to hongchiao on the western side of town. i got alarmed, checked with the cab driver in chinese, and found out that the doorman gave him wrong directions. apparently, there is more than one international exhibition centers in shanghai, and the one in pudong is not the one we were supposed to be heading for.
so we made a u-turn, travelled from the eastern side of town all the way to the west. it seemed like a day tour of shanghai of sorts, but it was frustrating. what was supposed to be a RMB30 max. cab ride ended up to be RMB90.
it was my first time to witness moving-in day for a show. and it was totally chaotic. but i was amazed at how fast they were able to put the booths and all. that afternoon, i also met up with friends from manila who were part of the show management.
april 12: promos gone pear-shaped - almost
sales conference over, it's now time for iic-china. the opening ceremony was spectacular. loved the theatrical treatment (don't know why my boss really hated it).
my main mission for the show's first day was to make sure all our china white paper promotions are in place. especially for the latest white paper - communications - which is not selling well. after making sure everything is in place at intex, i headed down about 75 meters across the road to shanghai mart, where the company's other show - china sourcing fair - is being held simultaneously.
there, 6 mini-booths were suppposed to promote the company's market intelligence reports, including our china white papers. but not a single booth had a copy of the communications white paper nor copies of our order form - f***ing s**t!
so i hunted down the show's key operations guy to claim our order forms, which were shipped to them two weeks earlier. got enough forms for all booths. handed them to the officers-in-charge and headed back to intex to get copies of the white paper for display. got 6 copies of the white paper, and trekked back to shanghai mart to handover to the oics.
by the time everything got sorted out, i was dead exhausted. and i headed back to intex - again - in search of something to eat. geesh, it's kfc.
april 13: and the award goes to...
had the chance to have a slow morning. didn't have to be at the show venue anyway. i just had to be at the sheraton after lunch to help setup for the night's cocktail party. for the first time during my stay in shanghai, i was able to enjoy breakfast - without hurrying.
as always, i was tasked to clean-up the powerpoint for the cocktail party. dropped by the show before lunch to get the boss' sign-off. but guess what, he didn't like it. he wanted me to ditch the corporate template and make the powerpoint look more like the oscars. so with only an hour to go before the 1pm "call time", it was a mad scramble to overhaul the presentation.
lunch was once again a hot and spicy kfc zinger (any moment, baka tumilaok ako!). 1pm na, deadma. 2pm, finally done! headed for sherton, which was just about 25 meters away from intex. ...briefing, briefing... uy! video and audio switchers! feels just like comm class!... dry-run, dry-run... showtime... party's over, let's grab dinner - where else in shanghai? but at (drum roll, please) pizza hut!
capped the night with a walk towards the bund - only to realize that lights are turned off at 10pm. it's past 1030pm when we got there. anyhow, we did go up to the rooftop of the historic peace hotel - which hosted the final pitstop of amazing race's season 6. nice view from there (photo still in rt's camera, i'll post it once available).
online - finally
in my last post (the morning after), i ranted about financial woes brought about by unplanned expenses. i closed that post with a brief anecdote about the lucky penny of my keychain breaking and dropping to the floor. and ended asking "masamang signos kaya ito?"
masamang signos nga sya!
a couple of days after, my laptop totally conked out. it was a saturday morning, i was just starting my day. after a night's downloading, i decided to restart my computer just to clear the memory and speed things up a bit. but lo and behold, the computer did shut down, but never restarted. and the panel lights started acting weird.
i was alarmed with what happened. distressed, too, by the thought of going offline for a day. and i lost no time in bringing it over to the service center for repair. initial damage was a non-refundable $700 inspection fee. then they'll call me back for a final quotation for the repair.
to cut the long story short. the motherboard had to be replaced. so here i am back online almost a month after that ordeal. a further $3,030 poorer. but i guess, no amount can compare to the emotional comfort of being online at home every single day.