Arn @ the Dept of Foreign Affairs

I had my passport renewed for my botched onshore assignment. I’m not a big fan of government agencies as they all have the same long boring lines, poorly implemented system, manual processes and hundreds and hundreds of people.

Here are some random thoughts while at the DFA:

- As always, there are fixers everywhere! There’s an amazing booth outside the DFA that will “inspect” your photo and will come up with something that makes it unacceptable (and therefore you have to take your picture there).

- The instructions for renewing your passport is posted outside: “Proceed to the DFA basketball court and fall in line”. Basketball court? So you have to shoot some free throws to get your passport renewed? Make 1 out of 5 and get it 2 weeks later? Make 5 out of 5 and you’ll get it tomorrow? Make a shot from half court and you get a green card? Weird.

- The dude at the “data inspection” counter amazed me. He got my papers, typed something on the computer, stamped it then signed it… all without looking at my documents and without looking at the screen while talking to the girl at the other counter (who was doing the same thing). Wow!

- The passport claim area shows us the type of system these guys have. We have a window for all last names ending with “A”, another for “B”, for “C”, “D”, “E” “F” and “G” were in one window, well, you get the idea. “M” had its own window. “W” “X” “Y” and “Z” were all in the last window. Based on that, we all know how this was supposed to work right?

… and my passport came out of the “C” window. Genius.

- Here’s the funniest thing that happened that morning – all the people there had the same claim forms since we were all there just for one reason… (and that’s why they called it the “passport claiming area”)… Anyways, all the people fell in line and submitted our claim forms then we wait for our name to be called in an area 10 feet away from the counters. One annoyed employee picked up one of the forms, raised it up and asked sternly “Kanino ito?”

People were quiet. I was chuckling.

“KANINO ITO? DI KO MABASA YUNG SULAT.”

Look dude, if you can’t read it from 5 inches from your face, how can we at 10 feet? People started laughing. The poor dude was embarrassed.

Well, I got my passport now. Next stop…

Secret :)

On Weird Habits

I was blog hopping and I stumbled into Liza’s site again. I know I’ve already read this particular entry of hers before but I only realized now that I was tagged.

The topic?

8 Weird things about yourself…

So it’s a weirdo telling everyone else weird things about himself… where do I start?

Here’s how to play: The rules are, “once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog post with (8) weird things/habits about yourself”. At the end you need to choose the 8 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says Tag You’re It.” in their comments and tell them to read your blog…

1. Sound Effects
… which led me to think about applying at RX 93.1 with Gene. It didn’t push through though. I still do the old Donald Duck voice to quiet down crying babies. Sadly, I couldn’t do one of my favorites anymore ever since I reached 20 – the crying dog wail. I used to do that when cars would pass by hee hee.

2. OC and locking cars
It’s my daily routine – I park my car in the morning. I hop out then walk towards the lifts. 20 steps away, I run back to the car and check if I locked it. I walk towards the lifts again then I forget if I did lock it or not.

Sometimes while I’m at my desk the thought still lingers… “did I really lock my car?”

3. Lists and Post Its
I always have a to do list, a to buy list, a to do for now list, a to buy just for this particular trip list, a to do now or never list and I even use sublists like say, a to do list for the weekend which will have a list inside it just for Saturday afternoon. Once I start working on the things on my list, anything not on it will have to wait which is why my mom would always sneak in her chores into my list. Nice one mom…

I have post its everywhere. Most of these are quick thoughts and random “to do’s”. My last post it pad actually I used up all in writing verses and quotes and guitar chords all of which I stuck behind my guitar. For some of you, you know which quote I'm talking about...

4. Switch Shooter
…when playing basketball. I shoot free throws with my left hand. I shoot three point shots with my right. I shoot left handed on the right side of the court and I shoot right handed on the left side of the court. Go figure. I guess that makes me harder to defend?

5. LSS
When I get hit by LSS it’s always a bad case. It doesn’t matter if the song is old and new, sung by a guy or a girl, ballad or rock, pop or novelty. For some reason, the unusual songs are the ones that catch on really fast (eg. Quit Playing Games with My Heart and Don’t Touch my Birdie)

6. Microscopic Handwriting.
I measured it, it’s 1mm for lower case letters and 1.5 for upper case. It’s handy when I have just a small amount of material with so many things to write and it’s impossible to be copied from during exams. I would just leave my paper on top my desk and still no one could copy off it. The downside is that it takes me forever to write a sentence. This is why I never really write down my thoughts since my brain gives them out faster than I write them (which leads to a lot of lost thoughts). I have to type them :-/

7. MSN status
Ok ok. I admit I kinda got the idea from Gezelle but I really do love using the MSN status feature for letting out what I feel. Sometimes I write out the exact line of a song that just made me think (not necessarily it applies to me). Oftentimes it leads to controversy and a lot of questions. It’s amazing how other people really do notice these messages (eg. Mahar, Berns, Jaye and Ria). One thing I observed? The people who notice my status messages are the same people who let it all out through MSN statuses as well. Takes one to know one I guess.

8. No Sense at All
Typical Arn – does a lot of things that just doesn’t make sense. I sing songs even though a different song is being played on the radio. I would pick up an item in a shop then browse on another item that’s on the display. I make up my own nickname for all my friends (eg. Mags is now Maggie, Ester is now Liggy, Fritzie is Fritty, etc etc…). I wear my watch on my right hand and I remove it when I’m in the office and set it beside my keyboard. I eat a double whopper and fries with diet coke… etc etc etc... absolutely no sense at all.

Told ya I’m weird…

I’m tagging hmmm…
Mags, Fritzie, Gwenny, Ria, Geena, June, Pamie and Knoll

You’re it!!! =D

I'm a Talent!

I'm a Talent!

You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.

Talent: 56%
Lifer: 44%
Mandarin: 41%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

I got this from Gwenny's blog. =D

Hail to the Pacman

He KO'd Morales a few months ago and he just toyed with Larios in his last bout last weekend. He's a symbol of hope for Filipinos that through hard work you can achieve anything.

This is why I'm not surprised he's in all the ads around the country. He has given so much to this country that I think he should be given more than just endorsement deals, a movie and an album.

Why not...

make him our national hero!



and while we're at it, why not put his face on one of our bills?



yup! Give credit where credit is due!

Of Chicago Parks and Statues

Lots and lots of parks… one of the things I really like about Chicago. There are more parks in Chicago than there are Ministops in Makati and these are parks where you can actually hang out and do stuff in. We also have parks here but they aren’t as nice the ones there. Besides, if I wanted to go to a place where I can read a book, draw or write something or just bum around, I’d probably go to the nearest Starbucks...

… or I can go to work.

My favorite parks in Chicago would include Wicker (hay…), Millenium (skating!), Grant (big open space) and Lincoln (lotsa squirrels).

Some things I found weird though about the parks, particularly the statues in it:

1. Lincoln in Grant Park

Walk into Grant park and you would see Buckingham fountain which used to be the biggest fountain in the world. Walk around and you would see a statue of… Abe Lincoln? What’s Lincoln doing in Grant park? Why not call this Lincoln park instead? Dunno, doesn’t make any sense really.

2. Grant in Lincoln Park

Take bus #22 along Clark and go down at Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s a nice clean place and best thing about is… it’s free! It’s also the place where I found the most squirrels (and you know I love them little critters). The pond at the middle, the ducks and geese, there’s a camel and oh wait… there’s a statue of Grant. Now what’s HE doing here?!?

Lincoln in Grant park. Grant in Lincoln park. It still doesn’t make any sense. In fact, what the heck where they thinking?!? How did they name these places?!?

Flashback to the early 1900’s:
Person 1: The Chicago Parks committee meeting is now in session. Now what do we name that place where Grant’s statue is?
Person 2: Lincoln park!
Person 1: Wow! That’s smart! But what do we name that place where Lincoln’s status is if we’re gonna call this other place Lincoln park already?
Person 2: Uh… Grant park?
Person 1: Wow! I NEVER thought of that!

Yeah yeah let’s laugh at them but years later they built the Sears Tower, reversed the flow of the Chicago river and drafted Michael Jordan.

At least we know whose statue to find when we go to Rizal Park :P

3. Grant’s Shoes

Here’s a theory: Maybe the statues were originally placed where they should supposed to be. If that was the case, how did they “switch” them? Maybe Lincoln and Grant walked… hahahahah

Or did they?

Here’s a pic of Grant’s statue. See his shoes? Those are grass and straw caught in his shoe. Wow! Could it be possible that this statue actually walked all the way there? You know what this means? You’re already riding a horse… then you decide to walk all the way instead?!?

4. Unusual Lincoln statue

Statues of people either in their finest moment or in a made up majestic pose. Did you see Michael Jordan’s statue at the United Center? Did you see the Christopher Columbus statue shrine? How about Lincoln… I wonder which pose he should have?

Never mind the “sitting Lincoln” statue. This here is the “fabulous Lincoln” version.

Weird isn’t it?

Now where did I see that pose before... lemme see... hmmm...

oh right...