Free Breakfast

Nothing irritates me more than reading the newspaper and finding out about McDonald's celebration of "National Breakfast Day". They celebrate by handing out the first thousand Sausage Mcmuffins for free.

"National Breakfast Day"? I celebrate breakfast everyday but now there's a special day for it? It's just some made up thing by McDonald's for publicity.

What irritates me is that there are pictures of people lining up early in the morning for "free" food. The lines are long with people standing around for hours. What a load of crap.

There's no such thing as "free". It's not free because they spent a lot of time lining up and waiting for their "free" food. Time is valuable. To say that they paid nothing for their meal is ridiculous. They could have spent that time doing something else worthwhile. Unless of course, this means that their time is totally worthless such that they can afford to wait hours to eat when they can eat at anytime.

I hate that this stunt by McDonald's is getting more attention than it deserves.

I Put A Spell On You

So Manny Pacquiao earned a victory against Timothy Bradley. Well, good for him. You may think I don't like Manny Pacquiao given the tone of my writings but it's not him I don't like. Rather, it's the legions of "pinoy pride" mouth-breathers that annoy me. I'd rather credit a man's own hard work and perseverance than the notion that being born somewhere gives you magic powers. "Genius has no country", as Rizal said. Besides, how can one reconcile "pinoy pride" of Manny Pacquiao's victory when he had to go abroad to a foreign country to succeed?

Anyway, the funniest thing during the fight was when "Mommy D", Manny Pacquiao's mom, began pointing to Bradley with the bad finger on one hand while clutching a rosary and prayer slips (?) on the other. She was then visibly muttering stuff to herself... or at someone. The Internet ate it up and joked that she was casting a hex on Bradley.

Here in Cebu, the term is "barang". Barang is understood as a curse or some kind of evil sorcery used to bring sickness or misfortune against someone, like an enemy. Personally, I think it's horse dung but the mouth-breathers are the kind to believe in that sort of thing. More entertainment for everyone, I guess.

Maybe she was just trolling.

I, Myselfie and Me

To be frank, I'm a bit sick of all this Typhoon Yolanda disaster porn. Sure, it's a horrible disaster but it seems quite exploitative already on the part of the media as they milk this for all it's worth.

Anyway, this is the first disaster of this magnitude to hit the Philippines in the age of social media. While I have no doubt social media has been instrumental in bringing attention to the calamity and gathering support for the people, one thing struck me as strange.

After the storm, there was an unwritten rule that seemingly sprung out of nowhere on Facebook and other sites that it was a bad thing to post pictures of yourself on the Internet. It's called a "selfie" apparently and the fact that such a term was added to our lexicon speaks a lot about the modern self-obsessed and narcissistic culture. Anyway, it was bad to post selfies, especially of you pigging out or enjoying life in any way, shape or form because it was "insensitive" to the people suffering in typhoon ravaged areas.

I don't have a problem with this rule. I don't feel strongly about it in any way. It's just the thought process behind it that I find curious. If one wants to understand how a line of reasoning works, it's often helpful to use backwards questioning.

Why is posting selfies wrong? Because it's insensitive to the typhoon victims. Why is it insensitive? Because they are suffering and you are not.

They are suffering and you are not.

Call me crazy but I don't understand exactly how posting selfies is a bad thing. They are suffering and we're supposed to and ought to feel bad. But if, for example, somebody posts a picture of himself having a buffet dinner at the Marriott, from that picture alone, is it actually possible to deduce that that person is an unfeeling man? Is it fair to say that the picture alone is proof that he's a bad person? Can we conclude that he is insensitive, has probably done nothing to help the needy and posted the picture perhaps just to insult the typhoon victims? Of course not. It's not fair. One can post pictures and still volunteer later, right? Point is, posting pics and "doing your part" isn't mutually exclusive. It's just perception.

But what's worse is that this isn't really about being insensitive, is it folks? It's about perception. I know what this is. This is all about image. This is yet again, another example of the narcissism and self-obsession that modern culture is descending into.

People worried about looking bad.

The cynic in me says that this isn't about the typhoon victims. It's about a bunch of guys (or girls) who probably wanted to look holier-than-thou and started saying that they stopped posting selfies because their hearts go out to all the suffering victims and that they just had to let everyone know how caring and thoughtful they were. Pretty soon it spread around and it became a contest on who could seem like a selfless and sensitive soul without actually doing anything in the real world. It's all perception.

This kind of crap is why I don't do Facebook.

A Sudden Realization

I just realized that I still watch wrestling. Why? Hell if I know. I'm sick of John Cena (for the past 8 or so years). The WWE don't put on as much good wrestling as they used to. Plus, the WWE has this wierd obsession with social media and always go on and on about "twitter" and "tout". What garbage.

There's still some bits worth watching. "The Shield" are pretty entertaining and are good wrestlers. I'm trying my best not to feel actual shame for watching but the WWE is sure making things difficult, especially when they put on shit like this:

No wonder nobody admits they watch wrestling in public.

SimShitty

The newest SimCity was just released and oh boy, I've read some bad things about it.

 

I'm a big SimCity fan. I've been a fan since I played the first one that came with a six-in-one pack of Simulators. SimCity 2000 and 3000 were both awesome but SimCity 4 is probably the best city simulator this wretched, unworthy planet deserves. Imagine how happy I was upon hearing the news that a new SimCity was coming and then imagine the soul-crushing disappointment that came when I learned it would be an  oversimplified, "multiplayer"(???) and always-online DRM piece of crap. The last one, I absolutely cannot stand.

 

Basically, you need to be always online to even play the game. Worse, the cities you make are saved on a cloud and you can't reload from different saves of the same city. The cities are small and you share the region with other players. What is it about games today that always jam multiplayer into everything. SimCity is one of those games people play alone because they're trying to build the mega city of their fucking dreams and don't need the input of a bunch of noob idiots.

 

I guess SimCity is an MMO now or something. Christ. First Hitman and now this.

 

Game over, man...

Mockery

This Sunday there's going to be a "mock Bar" exam on Remedial Law which is mandatory for me.

It seems I must learn and re-learn everything about Civil and Criminal procedure.

This is one of those times I doubt I have what it takes.

Personally, I think this is some kind of money-making scheme.

Nostradamus

The world is going to end? Where have I heard that before?

According to the usual gang of nutters, the world will end come December 21. Why? Because the Mayan calendar ends on that day. Why the Mayan calendar in particular is held up as some kind of super magical forecaster of doom, I will never know. What's the connection? I think the Mayans are overrated, pretentious hipsters. It's just a load of crap like Y2K or all the other end of the world predictions gone past.

And just how will the world end anyway? I doubt it will be instant like the lights will suddenly go out on December 21 or something because that's just cheerful optimism. The universe is dark and cruel and the end will be agonizingly slow, drawn-out and incredibly painful just as we deserve. There is no other way. Even if, say, the sun were to go out on that day it would affect one half of the world first and then slowly, the other will perish too. Boy, that would be quiet a show.

Relax.