I was browsing CD Japan when I saw a link at the top labeled IDOLS. My curiousity was piqued, so I clicked on it. Boo.

Anyway, here’s the link. Be warned, though, as you might get offended by what you will see (specially if you are Manoling Morato, Ma. Consoliza Laguardia, or Msgr. Nico Bautista).

I know that it is way past my waking time when I hear something. There is this man who is obviously not sane. From what I have heard, this man does not sleep at all, though it isn’t obvious. Sometimes he shouts at quarter to six in the morning, sometimes he sings songs loudly. Sometimes he roams the streets in his undies; sometimes he wears panties (yeah, I think he’s gay).

So, as I was about to dress up for work, I heard him singing a Roman Catholic song, sung during mass after the opening. The lyrics start with “Panginoon, maawa ka” (Lord, have mercy). On the jeep, I saw him hanging a wet campaign poster on someone else’s clothes line.

Yes. Lord, have mercy on him and on everyone like him.

No wonder no one takes the bait.

There is this man who is such a bore. He cannot maintain/keep a conversation. No one wants to chat with him on any IM. He even tried to elicit reactions to his “clever” status messages, not knowing that people don’t see them as clever; they reek of attention-deficit syndrome. In fairness to the man, he really tries hard in maintaining a conversation, but words always escape him. He always runs out of things to say.

He is saddened by the fact that people only talk to him when they need something from him or they need his help. Of course he is glad to be of help, but the fact remains that people only remember him in times of need. What if its his turn to need help? Would anyone come?

He did not even dare answer those questions, as the answer would only make him more depressed than ever.

How does it feel to be lonely? Just look at that man. There he is, typing away at the keyboard. There he is, staring at the IM, waiting for anyone to reply to his messages, waiting for anyone to send him a message. There he is, walking alone the road. There he is, at the mall, walking alone. There he is, staring at nothing.

There I am.

Last Friday, at 30 minutes before seven in the evening, there was a fire across the street, both from our rented apartment and from my aunt’s house. Well, here’s Wikimapia for your reference.

The place where I live is marked in blue, my aunt’s house is marked in black, and the firezone in red. The road at the left of the firezone is named Sampaguita, the road at the right of the basketball court is Kampupot, and below, 10th Avenue.

I had just finished eating dinner and was about to open the TV when a neighbor came in shouting, “May sunog sa Kampupot!” (There’s a fire at Kampupot!) So off I went, and saw the blaze. People were in panic mode, running away with their belongings and loved ones. Some were crying, even if they were not affected by the blaze. The direct victims of the fire were able to save nothing but the clothes they were on.

Dad kept on calling two phone numbers, supposedly for some fire engines. One was a wrong number, the other was busy. But when he got through, the operator answered that they were already swamped by calls for the same incident, and that fire engines were on their way.

I went near the fire as it blazed, and took some shots using my Sony Ericsson P1i phone. Here are some shots:

There was this mother with a little girl who stayed at a walkway going inside our aparment complex. The mom was done crying. All she was able to save was several thousand pesos, her daughter, and nothing else. The father was at the fire site, looking helplessly as their house was razed. I know, it was useless, but I think he was afraid to face his daughter when the kid begins asking difficult questions.

Which the kid did.

While the fire was razing (and I was done looking around), the kid asked her mom, “Pwede na tayo umuwi?” (Can we go home now?). And when her father arrived, she asked, “Pa, yung bike ko?” (Pa, where’s my bike?)

The fire was completely put out by 10PM. Here’s a news report by GMA7 (correction: Kampupot is a street, not a village). According to some witnesses, the cause was overloaded electrical wires due to illegal connections.

You will never know where you’ll get new information. Me, I got some new ones from watching those educational shows from KBS World. Yes, a Korean channel.

Well, it’s not bad, since they have subtitles.

Anyway, I got to see this TV show entitled Sponge earlier. The concept is simple. The show asks the viewers to send in interesting but not-well-known factoids. The TV show then verifies if the information is true. If true, here is where the TV show shines. Instead of presenting the fact in a straightforward manner, they make a game out of it. They get several famous Korean personalities as contestants, and they ask these contestants to guess the answer to a question or to complete a statement. After the personalities have answered the question, a video clip about the correct answer is shown. Afterwards, the factoid is rated, and if it gets 5 stars, the sender wins US$1000.

So, today I have learned that sheep avoids wolf poop at all costs. Yes, these meek animals are so afraid of wolves that they are also afraid of wolf poop. The show did three experiments to prove the factoid. First, they place food near wolf poop, and several animals were released in the cage. All animals ate the food except the sheep.

Then, they placed a pair of food and poop in a green patch of land where sheep roams. They placed poop of tiger, bear, leopard, and wolf. The sheep clearly stayed away from the food besides the wolf poop.

In the third experiment, they have a box with a partition. They placed wolf poop on the other side and covered it (the cover is almost air tight), and food on the other. So they placed the box on a field, and the sheep munched on the food. But when the other partition was opened, the sheep fled.

Ok, did you know there is a kind of sand that will never get wet? Yes, there is such a sand, and they call it magic sand. They put the sand on a series of tests, including immersing it in water, and pouring magic sand on water. It seems that to make magic sand, you coat the sand with hydrophobic substances, making it water-proof.

Well, yeah, they get to receive absurd factoids, and they have a segment called – what else – Absurd Sponge, to present these useless factoids in a funny way.

Now, how I wish the giant networks produce shows like these instead of the usual crap out there.

No, this is not a post about Halloween. You better look somewhere else.

Anyway, hit the link list. If you don’t find your blog or Web site on it, yell at the comments. The only condition is that you should link back to this blog. Fair enough, right?

Since I had dropped by Manila North Cemetery last Sunday, I will be dropping by the Chinese Cemetery and La Loma Cemetery tomorrow. I hope to take some pictures, specially on the Chinese Cemetery, since taking pictures is not allowed in that cemetery. And oh, maybe a decent post on the experience as well, since the Chinese tradition is colorful, noisy, and full of smoke. And cute people. Nope, no pics of cute people ha ha ha. Go look somewhere else.