I don't watch local shows, minus the occasional evening news and anime shown on local stations. But other than that, I skip local channels. Frankly, the shows are often repetitive, shallow, cheaply-made, and have drama/soap opera plots recycled too many times (or just plain stupid).
The cable we have hardly has any channels worth watching. There are less than ten channels that I actually enjoy, as the rest are pure crap. If there is hardly anything worth watching in cable, I can only imagine how horribly painful it is to sit in front of the television with an even limited number of channels. Ugh.
Local telenovelas, in all honesty, are utterly stupid. It's an insult to intelligence really. I wonder how most Filipinos could stomach the unbelievable and absurd plot lines, the cheaply made costumes, and annoying characters who must probably suffer from dehydration with all the crying they do on a daily basis.
When Ging was around to take care of Inay temporarily (my grandmum has Alzheimer's), I was exposed to one week of local telenovela. She hogged the television during her stay. Me and my family just watched along, and she probably thought we watched and enjoyed the same brand of entertainment she did. During that time, I spent half the evening rolling my eyes and drinking so much water to drown the sarcasm yearning to escape my lips. I wanted to yell how stupid the shows were. That the plots were so mundane and pathetic I wouldn't be surprised if the viewers' brain neurons fizzled after long exposures to these shows.
But the show that truly annoyed me was ABS-CBN's rehashed TV version of "Princess Sarah." The child actresses who played Sarah and Becky (I think that was the other girl's name...or was it Betty?) were no where near as cute or endearing as Camille and Angelica were in the movie version. That obviously fake curled up mustached of one of the actors annoyed me to no end. And his pathetic excuse for an Italian accent only made me want to hurl knives at him. The set was clearly not set in the 1800s even if they had carriages. Come on, 19th century houses were not designed like that, nor had that kind of furniture. And the costumes were horrid. Who in their right mind would actually wear a bright, shiny orange dress in the Victorian era? Eww. The costumes seemed mismatched. My guess is they were probably assembled together simply because they looked like the clothes of yesteryear, be damned that they don't actually belong to the same period. As long as they look like what people would wear a century or two ago, then it's good enough. Pft. As if that was what people from that time actually wear.
Come on. ABS-CBN earns billions of pesos every year and yet the props and sets on "Sarah" seemed so cheaply budgeted. Just slap on some peasant looking dresses, market place that a three year old could tell is fake, and some little children to endear the audience and you're all set. What happened to quality? Heck, they didn't even research the time period when "Sarah" was set. Ah, but I guess when you're concerned with profits, everything else can be thrown out the window. Quality be damned. Filipinos could not even tell how everything in the show is grossly inaccurate. As long as there are cute children, humor, a bit of teen romance on the side, and a saintly protagonist who gets bullied and pushed around by mean people for no apparent reason, Filipinos will watch. Big companies like ABS-CBN know this and use it to their advantage.
This is why Filipinos get dumber. They are exposed to shows that do not even spend time getting facts right. It is an insult to Filipino intelligence, but the sad thing is that I think most Filipinos don't really mind at all.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Woes of an EIC
I usually try to keep my temper in check. And I usually do not explode just because I am extremely pissed at someone. They first have to push me...twice, thrice, or even more...before I finally cannot stand it and am forced to confront them straight in the face that I detest their behavior.
Right now, I have a few people whom I would dearly love to get my hands on. If possible, I would want to give them a piece of my mind while they are buried neck-down in hot sand. I shall delightfully watch and listen to their agonized screams while sipping iced-tea and watch with satisfaction as fire ants feast on their pathetic faces. Okay, maybe that's mean. But then again, since I can't really do that in real life, seeing them suffer slow, painful deaths will be left in the anals of my imagination.
My Managing Editor, Vic, is frankly (excuse my course language) a pain in the ass. He knows how important he is in the functioning of the school paper, but he is being a liability more than an asset. He wasn't as bad in the first semester. I sometimes wonder if he does this on purpose just to annoy the heck out of me and some of the senior eds, or this is just how he really is: a bona fide slacker who cares about nothing else but his boyfriend. And yes, that's boyfriend. I didn't spell it wrong.
Really, he knows how important his job is and yet he acts irresponsibly. The least he could do is be professional about it. He joined the paper out of his own free will. wasn't coerced into joining the school paper. And most certainly he isn't the only one wishing to quit just to get rid of all the pressure, scrutiny and busy schedule associated with being part of the school paper. I would love nothing more than to quit, but my sense of responsibility and accountability prevents me from giving up my post.
But apparently that does not exist in Vic's case.
And if that is his normal behavior (to find excuses to avoid his duties, simply disappear when needed and avoid replying to important text messages on purpose) then he should not have entered the school paper to begin with. He should have just quit early on to save us all the trouble instead of setting a ruckus in the middle of the school year by threatening to quit (which is devastating news when there is no other person qualified to replace him just like that).
If I could replace him, I would. Really. Fact of the matter is, no one else is trained for his position. He was the only one trained by the previous Managing Editor in all the functions of that said position. All of us expected him to perform all the tasks delegated to and expected of him. He was capable. And he seemed responsible enough. How sorely wrong we were.
It's frustrating to work with him. So frustrating at times that I want to just tear my hair out of exasperation and cry. But since these actions aren't productive or going to help me anyway, I try to be more rational during these times. I just pop chocolates and think of happy thoughts (like skewering him with a large fork).
There are times when I envy Roh having Jinx as her Managing Editor. You can count on Jinx. She probably had superhuman abilities to have been able to accomplish all the workload Roh piled on her. I don't even assign Vic the same amount of work and yet his performance is dismally slow or unsatisfactory. These days, I need to prod him a couple of times or get extremely pissed off before he does his duties. So stressful.
And what's even worse is he gives off all these excuses or leaves his work unfinished simply to meet up with his boyfriend. I mean, honestly, can't their rendezvous wait until his responsibilities in the school paper are through? That is so damn unprofessional and unfair on the rest of the staff, as he is relied upon to work on action plans so we can have the MONEY for our activities. I'm not even asking him much. I simply want him to be more responsible.
Just this Monday, I stayed up until 1 in the morning waiting for his call because we were supposed to plan for the Christmas party and Christmas outreach. I told him that regardless of what time he came home, he should call me because this was important, as we had limited time to prepare for these. He said he would call at 11 PM, since he'd be home by then (how strange though that he comes home that late as it is a school night and he has classes at 8 AM the next day). But 11 came and gone but he never called. He never even notified me that he'd never call. Never even apologized. Nothing. I could have spent all those hours getting much needed sleep. That was so inconsiderate of him.
And just yesterday, I told him we'd meet at the publication office to discuss on the activities. He came, but he told me he was very sleepy and he had not gone home (geez, I wonder what nocturnal activity he did...). We discussed for an hour, but there were still some areas left to clarify or finalize. He did an action plan. After which, I decided to update our bulletin board. He asked if he could go home since he was sleepy. I told him that it was not my problem since it was his undoing (come on, that's no excuse...and besides, he should accept the consequences of having sex all night), and instructed him to finish all his assignments (which included the long overdue inventory, the project proposal for the Christmas outreach, action plans, venue for the Christmas party...all of which he could have done so a long time ago.)
When I came back, my friend, who had been loitering in the office, told me he had left. Without telling me. On purpose.
Now that got me steamed. Not so much because he had completely bailed on his assignments, but he did not even have the decency to tell me he was leaving. Would it hurt just to inform his superior that he was leaving? I wouldn't really stop him from doing so anyway. I found his behavior infuriating and completely rude.
And right now, he won't even respond to simple text messages asking whether he has actually booked the venue for our Christmas party or not. I am only waiting for a yes or no answer so we can arrange or finalize the venue as we are short on time as it is...But I bet if I were Deo (his BF), he'd reply in a hear beat.
Gugmang giatay. Peste talaga.
Right now, I have a few people whom I would dearly love to get my hands on. If possible, I would want to give them a piece of my mind while they are buried neck-down in hot sand. I shall delightfully watch and listen to their agonized screams while sipping iced-tea and watch with satisfaction as fire ants feast on their pathetic faces. Okay, maybe that's mean. But then again, since I can't really do that in real life, seeing them suffer slow, painful deaths will be left in the anals of my imagination.
My Managing Editor, Vic, is frankly (excuse my course language) a pain in the ass. He knows how important he is in the functioning of the school paper, but he is being a liability more than an asset. He wasn't as bad in the first semester. I sometimes wonder if he does this on purpose just to annoy the heck out of me and some of the senior eds, or this is just how he really is: a bona fide slacker who cares about nothing else but his boyfriend. And yes, that's boyfriend. I didn't spell it wrong.
Really, he knows how important his job is and yet he acts irresponsibly. The least he could do is be professional about it. He joined the paper out of his own free will. wasn't coerced into joining the school paper. And most certainly he isn't the only one wishing to quit just to get rid of all the pressure, scrutiny and busy schedule associated with being part of the school paper. I would love nothing more than to quit, but my sense of responsibility and accountability prevents me from giving up my post.
But apparently that does not exist in Vic's case.
And if that is his normal behavior (to find excuses to avoid his duties, simply disappear when needed and avoid replying to important text messages on purpose) then he should not have entered the school paper to begin with. He should have just quit early on to save us all the trouble instead of setting a ruckus in the middle of the school year by threatening to quit (which is devastating news when there is no other person qualified to replace him just like that).
If I could replace him, I would. Really. Fact of the matter is, no one else is trained for his position. He was the only one trained by the previous Managing Editor in all the functions of that said position. All of us expected him to perform all the tasks delegated to and expected of him. He was capable. And he seemed responsible enough. How sorely wrong we were.
It's frustrating to work with him. So frustrating at times that I want to just tear my hair out of exasperation and cry. But since these actions aren't productive or going to help me anyway, I try to be more rational during these times. I just pop chocolates and think of happy thoughts (like skewering him with a large fork).
There are times when I envy Roh having Jinx as her Managing Editor. You can count on Jinx. She probably had superhuman abilities to have been able to accomplish all the workload Roh piled on her. I don't even assign Vic the same amount of work and yet his performance is dismally slow or unsatisfactory. These days, I need to prod him a couple of times or get extremely pissed off before he does his duties. So stressful.
And what's even worse is he gives off all these excuses or leaves his work unfinished simply to meet up with his boyfriend. I mean, honestly, can't their rendezvous wait until his responsibilities in the school paper are through? That is so damn unprofessional and unfair on the rest of the staff, as he is relied upon to work on action plans so we can have the MONEY for our activities. I'm not even asking him much. I simply want him to be more responsible.
Just this Monday, I stayed up until 1 in the morning waiting for his call because we were supposed to plan for the Christmas party and Christmas outreach. I told him that regardless of what time he came home, he should call me because this was important, as we had limited time to prepare for these. He said he would call at 11 PM, since he'd be home by then (how strange though that he comes home that late as it is a school night and he has classes at 8 AM the next day). But 11 came and gone but he never called. He never even notified me that he'd never call. Never even apologized. Nothing. I could have spent all those hours getting much needed sleep. That was so inconsiderate of him.
And just yesterday, I told him we'd meet at the publication office to discuss on the activities. He came, but he told me he was very sleepy and he had not gone home (geez, I wonder what nocturnal activity he did...). We discussed for an hour, but there were still some areas left to clarify or finalize. He did an action plan. After which, I decided to update our bulletin board. He asked if he could go home since he was sleepy. I told him that it was not my problem since it was his undoing (come on, that's no excuse...and besides, he should accept the consequences of having sex all night), and instructed him to finish all his assignments (which included the long overdue inventory, the project proposal for the Christmas outreach, action plans, venue for the Christmas party...all of which he could have done so a long time ago.)
When I came back, my friend, who had been loitering in the office, told me he had left. Without telling me. On purpose.
Now that got me steamed. Not so much because he had completely bailed on his assignments, but he did not even have the decency to tell me he was leaving. Would it hurt just to inform his superior that he was leaving? I wouldn't really stop him from doing so anyway. I found his behavior infuriating and completely rude.
And right now, he won't even respond to simple text messages asking whether he has actually booked the venue for our Christmas party or not. I am only waiting for a yes or no answer so we can arrange or finalize the venue as we are short on time as it is...But I bet if I were Deo (his BF), he'd reply in a hear beat.
Gugmang giatay. Peste talaga.
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