Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster (Official Video)

Everybody Was Kung Flu Fighting

My gym closed down today due to the virus. For once, I have a legitimate excuse not to go.

It feels so strange, like I'm in a Stephen King novel or something. Manila is under lockdown. I don't think that's ever happened before. There's an electricity in the air - a restless energy. I believe that if enough people think of the same thing, you can actually feel a change.

To be honest, I'm a little scatter-brained. So I'll just fire away in no order.

Well, work has been reduced to once a week. If I'm not working, I'm not earning. I can't imagine how hard it is for others. No, wait, I don't have to. There's no shortage of secular moralists on social media telling me how this is all the fault of greedy companies, the government, the "chinks", etc. Never let a crisis go to waste and pass up soap-boxing. I don't got the mood and stomach for that right now. It's just a major turnoff.

I don't care if I get the virus. I do care if my loved ones do.

I find it amusing that they're calling it a "community quarantine" in Manila. Not making light of the seriousness of the situation, but do people realize how overpopulated Manila is? I just find calling it a "community" as quaint.

"Social distancing" sounds like a plot point in a telenovela. I can see it now: "Oh Mark, I love you but we have to sit on opposite sides of this park bench. Our love cannot be." "Christina, noooo!"

On the local front, things are slowing down here in Cebu. There's a curfew, though, I doubt if it can be enforced. I think people will quarantine themselves well enough.

With people staying in, they're trying to find things to do. Read a book? Play video games? Watch shows? I've been training all my life for this moment, it seems. Hell, maybe I can start posting on this blog regularly for all my three readers.

Why toilet paper? Haven't people heard of bidets? Maybe they anticipate a collapse and toilet paper becomes the world currency. Imagine buying a piece of bread with five "squares".

If there's any benefit to this whole situation, it's that its a moment to pause and take stock. It's a time to reorient ourselves and think about who we care about and what matters most to us. Ironic that this respiratory virus is giving us a moment to breath.

Stay safe.

Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine

Quiet Dramas

In my workplace, I have the displeasure of regularly encountering prison inmates in the hallways. They smell of stale sweat and feces.

I feel bad for the newly arrested detainees, I really do. These thugs and hoodlums act all tough but all that bluster can't hide their palpable dread. You can see the fear in their eyes and the tension underneath the skin. Nobody likes prison, especially Philippine prison. Acting tough is laughable. I'll spare the reader the details regarding the situation of our jails but it truly is hell on earth. Conditions there are inhumane, it's where the dregs of society are dumped to be forgotten. They're the justice system's problem now. With luck, they might find some cog in the machine who really cares.

These new offenders need only take a good look at the older detainees passing by to see their future. Those that have been in the pen for too long carry an air of quiet, fatalistic acceptance. They're shuffling automatons who have either lost too much of their lives and are desperate to make up for it, or have accepted that death will probably take them before they get out.

It's not all so bleak. The inmates are brought to the courts en masse in the morning even if they're trial is in the afternoon. Their families use this opportunity to visit them outside the court in between office hours. Now, I think that prisoners interacting with the public is prohibited (or ought to be), but the prison guards just let it slide. They do this not out of the goodness of their hearts, but rather the fact that there's too few of them to do crowd control. The families often bring with them food and other little comforts. It's not uncommon to see wives and children using this time to be like a family for a while. The inmates relish this opportunity to get some "fresh" air and use toilets (that even flush!).

Come to think of it, this moment of laxity by the prison guards is the perfect opportunity to sneak in contraband. Maybe this is why the wardens of our jails can't seem to get a grip on drugs. Ah, well.

Even through the worst moments of these people's lives, their families are there for them. It's admirable. It's depressing. It's very human. Most of these people are dirt poor and have nothing but  each other. Some of these people are scum but somehow, there's still someone who loves them.

Hmm...

The Witcher 2 Soundtrack - Dwarven Stone upon Dwarven Stone

Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone

Swan Lee - Tomorrow Never Dies