Author Archives: admin

International cat day and commodification of culture

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I am not one to celebrate silly special days like this but in honor of my cats who give me joy especially during the darkest days, I am now recognizing this day just for them.

One presscon, Kimchi pulls this stunt. Photo by CallMeCreation

Here I was, a screencap of our Zoom press conference last week with my cat, Kimchi, in her weird sleeping position. During the first Q&A my background was blurred but it looked so unnatural that I had to revert to normal background. And now I have a cat acting out in the background.

Meanwhile, I posted this on social media the other day at the height of my despair that may have something to do with Nas Daily’s exploitation of Filipino indigenous culture.

There is a lot of them out there. They make vlogs about the Philippines–from the fake “I love the Philippines”-type of content to exaggerated reaction videos of anything Filipino/Philippines to exploit the Filipinos’ hunger for validation from foreigners, especially the white ones, by doing Pinoy-clickbaiting.

This happens more often to Filipinos because majority of us are English-speaking compared to other nationalities in Asia, thus, we are very accessible and ripe for this type of click-bait content.

And this feeds into Nas Daily’s strategy. After the controversy with Nas Daily’s exploitation of Apo Whang-od (making a Kalinga tattoo course in Nas Academy), Nas Daily lost 500,000 subscribers. That’s how big his Filipino audience is, or that may just be a fraction of his overall Filipino audience.

Nas Academy also lost some content providers like Catriona Gray and Panlasang Pinoy.

As a half-assed academic, I wanted to write a paper about this phenomenon of commodification of culture by so-called influencers viewed through the lens of neo-Marxism. Like there is this conflict between social equality and freedom. In this context, Apo Whang-od has the freedom to monetize her skill (if indeed she fully understood the alleged agreement between her and Nas Daily) but it is not for Nas Daily to exploit because the designs, technique, tools, rituals, and traditions belong to the Butbut tribe of Kalinga (conflict between individual freedom and social equality). There is a governing body that protects all things concerning our indigenous peoples–to make sure that social equality is protected–that Nas Daily bypassed.

Let’s see how this controversy will turn the tide regarding the exploitative vloggers.

Music therapy

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I never thought I would be singing a Selena Gomez song. But I did. And it’s therapeutic. The lyrics are like a lightning bolt to the heart.

And I swear, I will never cry over you again.

In the end…

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As Linkin Park said:

I tried so hard and got so far

But in the end it doesn’t even matter

I had to fall to lose it all

But in the end it doesn’t even matter

I won’t quit, not just yet. Because you know why? I’m a great loss and I’m a threat. I will bid my time. The ball is in my hand. I’ll know when it is time.

Just like in other aspects of my life, they will only see my value after I’m gone.

And I’m having the last laugh. Good riddance.

No more feeling sorry for myself. No one can shortchange me again. I have everything; they’ve got nothing. Because I am me and they cannot replicate me.

You’ll see.

Lockdown again

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The strict enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) a.k.a. hard lockdown has started a few hours ago. Since I was busy with work, it was only this morning I was able to go to the barangay hall to apply for a quarantine pass.

But they sent me home because I didn’t bring a 1×1 photo for the pass, which they will make as an ID of sorts. Who the hell carries a 1×1 photo all the time?!

Good thing I always have a stash of photo papers at home. I printed 1×1 photos all over my A4 sized photo paper. I just don’t know how I will be able to use up all those when everything these days are digital 🤔

I went back to the barangay hall only to be told that I don’t need a quarantine pass because I can use my work ID. Drats. So I called up my househelp and told her to apply for her quarantine pass instead so both of us can go out.

While I was at it, I asked about the seal of authentication for my vaccine card. The barangay officer took my card and said the barangay captain will collate all those needing the authentication seal and have them stamped then they will return it to us. I just hope they do it soon.

Then I spent the rest of the morning and noon panic-buying. I bought a lot of meat from a Monterey Community Market, then shopped at Puregold for other food and household supplies we will need in the next 2-3 weeks. Then went to UP for vegetables.

My shopping cart. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then added some essential stuff. For my sanity.

For mental health. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

In other news…

Carlos Paalam’s fight will be at 1 pm today. He can either win silver or gold.

Fighting!

Quit

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I just want to quit. Quit this company. All I can say is you cannot make yourself small for somebody who refuses to grow up.

As I told a friend, I just do my job, keep my head low, get my salary, then jump when the opportunity comes.

I’ve been looking at openings but so far none stirred excitement inside me. I mean, none tugged at my insides yet.

Pita bread and curry. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Beef strips with enoki mushrooms that I made myself. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Since we’re stuck indoors again, I have been trying to cheer ourselves by cooking yummy food (and yes I am forcing my girls to eat Indian food). I no longer know how to make things better for the four of us (the other househelp already went home to her hometown and got married the other day) because…we are all tired of all of these.

I have already asked for a leave of absence for a few days this month before they announced the lockdown. I was initially planning to go to my hometown for a mini-break (bike to nearby towns and just chill) but I guess that won’t be happening anytime soon. So I will be stuck with nothing else to do.

I don’t want to live inside my head again.

There it goes

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Filipinos are glued to their free tvs and internet streaming to watch the Olympics. Because we have nothing else to cheer us up during these dark days. We’re facing a hard lockdown in three days and beds are running out in NCR hospitals. We are looking for distractions that could allow us to leave the grim realities, even for a little bit.

We now have three medals in sports that really do not attract a lot of sponsorships (weightlifting and boxing). Our bet in men’s pole vaulting didn’t make the podium but that’s ok; EJ Obiena still ranks 6th in the world and that’s something because we had nothing before. Carlos Yulo, was near podium, finishing fourth overall in men’s gymnastics but that’s still ok; we didn’t have anything before. He came a long way.

Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial are assured of a bronze after shocking the world with their wins to reach the semis/final round. You know, boxing is a sport in the Philippines to get people out of poverty. They’re fighting with all they have because they had nothing to start with so they have nothing to lose. That’s how Manny Pacquiao fought his way out of literal hunger.

I was once interviewed by my journalist cousin who was writing for NBC at that time (or I cannot remember which outfit she was writing for) about Manny Pacquiao’s near-legend status in the Philippines and why his story and his wins resonated with all Filipinos and Southeast Asians. I can no longer find that article online.

Meanwhile, the RAM stick I ordered arrived the other day and added it to the laptop-turned-desktop to make everything faster. My daughter saw me once again operating on that 15.6″ laptop and asked what was I doing? I said, “Saving me at least PHP 500 of labor,” because I can do this simple task on my own.

It’s a Samsung DDR3 stick shipped from China that I bought for about PHP 1,500 on Lazada. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I think this machine will stay with me for a while, even after Windows 11. I think this is the only physical remnant of my relationship with J that is left with me. I still couldn’t bring myself to call it mine and I think I will always refer this to as the laptop that I hijacked from J. I didn’t know why I did what I did even though I knew I could buy my own. Maybe at the back of my mind I wanted a piece of him because I always knew he would leave sooner or later. He already left me twice to go back to his adopted country. He was also trying to get back to Singapore because he was applying for jobs there. It was just a matter of time, it was always weighing on my brain. I don’t know how long I will keep this but based on experience, I can keep machines running until they’re past 7 years old. This Acer Aspire E-573G is already 6 years old (released in August 2015) but is still working well.