Terror in Bohol

For a supposedly tough "strongman" type of leader, the enemies of the Philippines seem to be on the rise on Duterte's watch. You got the Chinese building artificial islands near the country but to be fair, there's little we can do about that. You got the NPA in the strongest position they've ever been for years and making all sorts of outrageous demands while adhering to a very loose definition of "ceasefire". You got communists infesting the cabinet ready to implement their obsolete ideas and lastly, you got the Abu Sayyaf acting up again. Remember those assholes?

The Abu Sayyaf are currently hiding out in some ditch somewhere in Bohol. Thankfully, many of them have already been killed including their waste-of-life leader although government forces sustained some casualties. The Abu Sayyaf's plan was pretty audacious - sailing all the way to Bohol with all those men and equipment and intent on kidnapping some unlucky foreigners as is their modus operandi. Worse, they managed to evade capture for quite a length of time. What gives? You'd think they'd be scared of Duterte.

For his part, Duterte has offered a one million peso bounty per head on the Abu Sayyaf, dead or alive. He's ramped up the rhetoric and gave the order to have them all killed but that's pretty much what was gonna happen anyway. I dunno. It might not be fair to say this but there seems to be a lack of zeal coming from the President. When it comes to two-bit (alleged) street druggies, he rants and raves but when it comes to actual direct threats to the state, he's pretty blase. Giving the NPA the time of day was bad enough but the Abu Sayyaf have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They're not even making the minimum effort of at least pretending to fight for their own Islamic state or some political goal. How lazy. They're really just a bunch of bandits at this point.

The Abu Sayyaf should have just sailed to Bohol to enjoy the sights and the beaches instead of trying to kidnap people. It's summer after all. Time for vacation! Hey Omar, drop that gun and bring the banig. Find a nice white sand beach and take a load off. You know, you can just relax under the shade of a palm tree after eating some lechon halal food while sipping some cool coconut juice. Wouldn't that be the life?

Not for them, hopefully.

Holy Weak

Holy Week is supposed to be the special time of the year when we reflect on Jesus' ultimate sacrifice to save mankind. But looking at the country nowadays and the rest of the  world, there's not much worth saving, I think.

I dunno. It's kind of like Christmas. At some point, the magic is gone. Everything feels so empty. Holy Week is just a time when you're off work.

Jesus should come back already and get it over with.

I Hate Adele

I hate Adele. I think she's one of the most overrated singers of all time. My mother loves her songs but too bad. I, on the other hand, think all of her songs are garbage.

To clarify, I don't hate the person. I hate the songs, which are all terrible without exception.

I liked Skyfall. It was a pretty good James Bond movie. Adele's song for it was just a mess, however, and ruined the movie for all time.

Why do I hate her songs? Just listen to it. It's always about two people talking to each other over the goddamned phone. She sings about people trying to talk to each other. Wow. Here's a song about the difficulty of communication. Big deal. Hello from the other side? More like goodbye.

Its not just the substance of the songs but how they sound. Allow me to ruin every Adele song for you. Listen to any one of them. If you'll notice, all she does is overextend her vowels. It's all long, drawn-out vowels. I had the misfortune of listening to an Adele song over the car radio one day. What song it was doesn't matter since they're all the same anyway. She sang only three words in the span of ten minutes, stretching out the vowels of each word to pad time. I could stomach her ululations no longer and smashed the radio with my fist. Mercifully, it changed into one of those stupid AM radio shows but that's miles better than Adele.

The sound of twenty jackhammers pounding into concrete while a jet takes off overhead is lot better than having to listen to her inhuman wailing.

Anyone can sing like Adele so why does everyone treat her songs like they're so special? Go ahead and pick up any piece of writing you want. Grab a newspaper. Take a place-mat from Jollibee, for all I care, and read the contents aloud. Stretch every vowel for ten to thirty seconds. Congratulations. Collect your Grammy.

Her songs should be banned as a war crime.

Civ VI OST - Mama Munu Dile