Yep, I Was a Tour Guide (1 of 2)

I gotta say, for my first stab at being a tour guide, I sure landed a pretty sweet gig. If any of you who’ve been following this can recall, I posted about it some time ago. Even in the days leading up to it, my brain still had a hard time registering the fact that I’ll be acting as a guide for a contingent of lovely, lovely ladies from around the globe. Well, it’s over and done, and I can pretty much say that I had the time of my life… jitters, stress and all.

Let’s start from Day 1, shall we?

Ticking

I’ve managed to survive for two and a half years in a job that, despite how much I actually like it, just doesn’t pay enough. There have been times in the past where I’d consider letting my contract expire or just simply leaving, but somehow something always manages to pull me back in. It’s not happening next time. When that contract comes, I’ll just put the pen down and gently push it back.

Thanks, but this is pretty much the end for me here.

You let me be myself, and though my methods may be questionable, you let me continue. I just wish everyone else had that chance. They’re good people, and pretty competent too. Now, if only you’d focus on what they can offer rather than what they can do wrong. Things will be fine without me, I’m sure of it.

I’ve got about three months left. I promise I won’t half-ass anything or hold back. I’ll just be… me, going about with my stuff as I always have.

Me? A Tour Guide?

I woke up to a couple of text messages this morning from friends and family. It was the usual assortment of forwarded quotes and jokes and people asking how I was. After all, I came home from a night of drinks with friends from work. Strong beer and exhaustion from a hellish week make for a pretty damn good night’s sleep, I’m tellin’ ya. I haven’t gotten to my point yet, though.

Anyway, among those messages was one from my mom. She was asking if I can be in Mamburao (Occidental Mindoro) from the 10th to 12th of November for a special job. Now, I normally get these kinds of offers, and oftentimes I have to turn them down due to scheduling conflicts and/or budget shortages. However, this one in particular caught my attention, not because I’m getting paid (handsomely, as my mom implies), but because of who I’ll sorta be working for.

I have to be a tour guide…

… for this year’s Miss Earth candidates…

… when they drop by my hometown.

I shit you not.

Given how much exposure Mamburao’s been getting in various travel publications and shows lately, It’s not too surprising that it’s gonna be part of their itinerary. Apparently it was our mayor’s wife (and a good friend of my mother’s for that matter) who picked me for the job. When it comes to qualifications, I guess I got the basics covered like 1) I’m from the town itself 2) I speak English 3) I have experience dealing with foreign cultures. I’m not too sure if my personality’s the “winning” kind, though. There’s still time to brush up on it, at least.

So that’s it. Looks like I’ll be adding “part-time tour guide” to my resume soon. For the meantime, I’ll sort this out with the people back home and try to get more details on it.

For my dad’s 50th birthday…

the entire family decided to hold a surprise tennis tournament at the tennis court he usually plays in on weekends. My stepmom commissioned me to come up with a design for the t-shirts to be worn on the day of the tournament itself. I wanted to come up with something a little more fighting game inspired, given my leanings. Still, I like the final product, and so did everyone else who got a shirt yesterday.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from What Happens Next?

It’s Thursday, and I don’t have anything more interesting to write about than this…

One of my students, who I’ve been teaching for about a couple of months now got her required score for the IELTS Speaking section. As a teacher, hell-motherfuckin’-yes, this makes me really proud. Not only in her, but I also somehow get this sense of relief that my scatterbrained, disjointed, and offbeat approach works. I’m not saying it’s for everybody. I’ve lost many a student simply because I was either too intimidating or they simply couldn’t “get” me.

Now, for those of you, like Julie, how managed to stick around, thank you. I have to admit, sticking to the rules isn’t really my style. There’s a workaround to nearly everything, and if you’re sneaky and conniving enough, you can make things work to your advantage. It’s times like this that make me wonder why I haven’t started my quest for world domination yet, but I digress. Fact is, I’m probably not your best choice in a strictly learning context. I think I have more in common with an uncle who usually shares the occasional story that teeters a little close into WTF territory. That, and a bit of seemingly intoxicated rambling from time to time. I can assure you that I’m perfectly sober at those times, by the way.

So, once again, to those who are now reaping the benefits of whatever proficiency test you’ve taken, I salute you. I’d also like to thank you again for putting up with me despite those times when I’d be more like a mad scientist afflicted with a bad case of ADD and cattle prod in hand. Here’s to helping out more of you in the foreseeable future.

Some Sort of Review: Gamer

I just got back from a screening of Gamer over at Gateway Mall to cap off my weekend. Just for a bit of  a recap, Gamer is the latest release from the creatively unhinged screenwriting/directing tandem of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. These two were behind the Crank movies and also wrote the med school thriller Pathology. So, how does Gamer stack up compared to their previous efforts? Well, it’s good on its own, but it somehow lags a little behind the two Cranks in terms of balls-to-the-wall action and presentation.

Eight Celebrates its Tenth

Ain't that sweet?

September 9, 1999 yielded two major  events in the world of video games. Sega, before becoming a straight-up third party developer , brought us the Dreamcast, the world’s first 128-bit game console. Squaresoft, when it was still known as Squaresoft, launched Final Fantasy VIII to Western audiences.

If you ask me, I still think that was a pretty epic date for gaming to this day.

I’ll be talking about Final Fantasy VIII in this post. If you wanna read up on the Dreamcast, head on over to my friend Tim’s blog over at Pop Culture Crusader. Trust me, it’ll be comprehensive as hell, considering how he writes.

Ghost Town Brunch

I’m not really much of a morning person. Sure, I like randomly seeing the sun rise and having a nice hot breakfast, but the hype pretty much dies down after that. I prefer starting my days a little after the lunch hours. You can pretty much imagine how much effort it took to drag myself out of bed after only four hours of sleep this morning. I even think I might’ve put my phone’s alarm on snooze a couple of times before waking up at around 7:45 and going “OH SSSHHHI-”

See, I had a brunch meet-up with some of the folks from 8 Treasures. We were supposed to have one last week, but it fell through. Fortunately, though minuscule in number, we managed to push through with it this time with a grand total of four people.

It was cool meeting the 8T folks and discussing about random stuff like work, vomit, TV, and movies. Vomit, you ask? It had something to do about us mistaking Penny hurling out a huge chunk of tuna(?) which she just actually dropped on to the table. One thing led to another and we ended up talking about alternative forms of human vomit and the stipulations that come with them. And oh, the ladies think I do a spot on impression of Dug the Dog from Up.

Well, back to brunch. We had it over at Banchetto, about an hour or two before they closed. I’ve been going there since late last year, but I’ve never really seen what the place is like in daylight. Not to put it down, but it’s pretty much a ghost town compared to the gastronomic circus that it is when it opens a little after midnight on Fridays. It seems more like a street party at night. During the day, it looks more like your run-of-the-mill collection of food stalls. Not that much gril smoke and music filling up the air on Emerald Avenue. It’s either that, or I’m just spoiled by my visits to that place at night.

At the end of it, I was full, and still quite zoned out due to a lack of sleep, but it was well worth it. I headed home and proceeded do drop like I took a nasty hook to the jaw and slept soundly until around 4pm. ’til next time, folks.

Lazy Weekend Halo

It’s been a pretty lazy weekend for me, not that I’m complaining. In fact, I actually liked lull in activity over the past two days. It’s been a while since I had any time to actually stay at home as I please, as I’d usually have somewhere to go to or some event to attend.

On some random whim, I decided to install and re-play the PC version first Halo game. Yep, that game that introduced the entire gaming world to Master Chief and put the Xbox on the map. Given that its prettier and more feature-packed sequels are still getting a considerable amount of play, how does the first one hold up? Surprisingly, yes.

Sure, certain elements like the visuals and samey environments sure look dated by today’s standards, but the gameplay pretty much makes up for it. It’s simple, straightforward, and doesn’t require you to memorize dozens of functions. No wonder it excelled as an FPS built for console play.  The action is still pretty intense, even though your unfortunate Covenant enemies seem more cartoonish from when I last played this. The weapons, thankfully, are still a blast to use, especially my personal favorites, the shotgun and Needler.

I’m still in the early part of the single player campaign. I’m pretty sure I’ll be putting that on hold when my cousin gets back to Manila and we start playing 1-on-1 deathmatches, though. For all the trouble that setting up our home network has given me, at least now I can play competitively against pretty much anyone in our apartment.

Oh well, looks like my weekend’s over. The rest of you out there, however, still have an extra day of rest. Make the most of it. You dig?

Reminder: District 9 Opens In Local Theaters Today

It’s another Wednesday here in Metro Manila, and of course, a bunch of new movies are opening today. However, I’d like to direct you toward this little gem in particular. See that poster above? Do yourself a favor and watch District 9. Want aliens, conspiracies, violence, and some social commentary on the side? It’s all here. Anyway, I doubt I’ll be seeing this until the weekend due to a hectic working week.

For those unfamiliar with the director, Neill Blomkamp was supposedly slated to direct the Peter Jackson-produced Halo live-action movie. He did however, direct some amazing short films for Halo 3. Unfortunately, plans for the live-action movie fell through and the last we heard, Steven Spielberg was interested in getting involved in the project. The Blomkamp-Jackson collaboration didn’t die… instead, it gave birth to District 9, based on Blomkamp’s earlier work, a short film called Alive In Joburg.

I’d leave you with the trailer, but everyone’s pretty much done that already. So, here are the Halo 3 short films instead.

So what the hell are you waiting for?