The Pumpkin and the Easter Bunny
Went to the mall today to pick up a few groceries, a few hours after Typhoon Santi decided he’d slapped enough trees and pulled the fronds out of coconut trees. I was expecting to find the mall deserted, but since the power was out in most parts of the city, everyone and his cousins thought the best thing to do would be to hang out at the mall.
In fact they not only hung out, they came with their kids dressed in costumes ranging from the so-so to the outlandish, to join the mall’s Halloween event. Some wore off the rack assemblies, I think I saw one dressed as a Oakland motorcycle accident lawyer and a couple who looked like bloody mummies.
There was a time when November 1 and 2 meant going to visit our departed relatives wherever they may be interred. These days it means loitering in a mall with your kid in tow dressed like a walking car crash victim, begging treats from the owners and the general public.
November 1 in the Philippines is All Saints Day. It meant going to church (when I was small I did go) and praying for our dearly departed. Now the malls say that we should go the American way and celebrate Halloween, with all the attendant competitions and activities related to that peculiar American holiday.
I don’t think the ordinary Pinoy in the mall concourse knows that Halloween started out as All Hallows Eve in northern Europe thousands of years ago, and brought into America by immigrants. All the ordinary Juan knows is that Americans celebrate Halloween by dressing up in costumes and going trick or treating. Little do they think that trick or treating in the Pinoy context is actually teaching a child early on in his life the joys of extortion.
All in the name of commerce and the creation of the need for a product where there previously was none. The Pinoy is the perfect target for such marketing strategies, we who so idolize the American that we play basketball despite our average heights, and celebrate Halloween though we have no idea why.
Now don’t get me started about the Easter Bunny and egg hunts.
Life within the Monitor
Years and years ago I was the queen of the Internet. Or at least I thought I was. I had my own website on Geocities, reverse-engineered html sites that I liked. I even knew every chat software there was, I operated a registered channel on IRC, setup bots and quizzes and autoresponders.
I never thought back then that chat would slowly morph into a means to take care of my clients at the office, and even have live chat software as a plugin to our website.
Nothing beats instant response. For me that holds especially true when a client has a question and the phone lines are busy. Enabling the client to click on a button that says “Live Chat” or “Online Now” and getting an instant response to one’s inquiry is a great plus for any company.
Paris and the pig
I wonder if Paris Hilton gives her pig pet supplements. But the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is more concerned about how some celebrities like Hilton are treating animals as part of their wardrobe accessories.
Paris Hilton is a huge animal lover and is often seen with one of her many many many dogs. But her latest purchase has got PETA up in arms.
Last week Paris announced that she’s going to add a little piggy named Princess Pigelette to her growing collection of pets. Royal Dandie miniature pigs has supplied Paris with a four to five-week-old adorable new miniature pig for $4,500.
Princess Pigelette is on its way to the US as we speak and Paris couldn’t be more thrilled about it. And PETA couldn’t be more pissed.
“So excited for my new piglette to come home to me,” Paris tweeted. “I just picked out the cutest piggy from Patty at Royaldandie.com.”
But PETA is accusing Paris of setting a “wretched example” by treating animals like they’re “as disposable as her friends and fiancés.”
I have always wondered about how the mind of one like Paris Hilton worked. Is this the result of just having far too much money at ones disposal, without having had to work for it?
What do YOU think?
The trials and travails of a weight watch-me-not
When you get to be my age things tend to go haywire. Especially my weight. There are times when a little food makes me put on pounds just by looking at them. Then again there are times when I eat about five times a day and not feel the tightness when I button my pants. And I’m not even taking diet supplements as of yet.
Then again, my dad once said that once he hit 60, his diet changed. He didn’t seem to need as much food per meal as he used to, and he had radically cut down on his meat intake. I wish I had as much discipline. And I really need to look into packing lunch from home as well. Not only it will be cheaper in the long run for me, I would also be able to avoid all the salty fastfood I’ve been chucking down my throat at lunchtime every working day.
About Me
