karaoke, anyone?

last sunday, as i was poring over a rack of fun shirts, my attention was suddenly assailed by this wince-inducing, bombastic sound of somebody singing lustily (greatly enhanced by a well-oiled microphone, of course).

…and ay-ayyyyy….  will alwayyys loooove youuuuu!!!

it wasn’t just the grating quality of that voice mind you. despite my assiduous efforts to ignore it, there was just no way of escaping its all-encompassing reach. instinctively, i turned to glance at the enthusiastic performer — a matronly woman in her 50s, who was probably considering buying a karaoke set, was trying out the merchandise with unbridled passion (complete with facial expressions and grand gestures that would put a prima donna to shame).

what was really riveting about that performance was her relentless pursuit of hitting (and consistently failing to reach) the right notes and her mangled pronounciation of certain words — which would have been enough to send me fleeing from the scene, except that i was eventually won over by her courage and and utter lack of self-consciousness (think Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend’s Wedding).

this was her moment. and nobody, not even the wincing and smirking passers-by — nor the long-suffering expression of the sales attendant — can deny her this pleasure of belting out her favorite tune in the middle of Robinson’s Galleria.

which leads me to marvel at how pervasive karaoke has become in the social scene. of course, it’s a well-known fact that karaoke first became popular in Japan (although the concept itself started in the US). the first karaoke machine was invented by a daisuke inoue, whose invention was cited for “providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.” amen.

but i’ll bet only a few people know that the person who actually holds the patent for this device is none other than roberto del rosario, who named his own version “Minus One” (that name ring a bell to you?). apparently, mr. inoue never bothered to apply for a patent to cover his invention. (tsk, tsk, that’s a huge pile of money down the drain)

karaoke ranks as one of the best ways to spend time with your friends and giving in to the secret conviction of yours that — given the right motivation and emboldened by several bottles of beer — you sound just like (or even better than) the original artist. cheers!

online amusements

it’s funny how the Web has effortlessly saturated — and constantly redefines — the way we live our lives these days.

the ‘Net has not only pervaded the ‘professional’ aspect of our daily routine (especially among those who frequently need to go online for various reasons), it is also playing an increasingly large role in our social lives. social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, and FaceBook have already become a fixture in our daily conversation. in fact, if you’re not into any of these and your friends are yabbering endlessly about their online activities, you begin to wonder if you’re already hopelessly left behind or slowly turning into an outcast of some sort.

of course, one of the most widespread uses of the Net will always have something to do with amusement (hobbies, gaming) and entertainment (music, films, TV, animation, etc.). in this sense, various game sites and online casinos are in the thick of things because of their captive audience and ease of finding a wealth of online resources for such amusements. foremost among these sites is Casino Online, which offers a variety of games like video poker, etc. for as long as there are interested players out there, this type of sites will always be a mouse-click away.

ooops…

my absentmindedness is fast reaching alarming proportions.

i know i can be rather offhand and forgetful about dates, but just this monday i actually stretched the limits of my blundering ways. after watching anime 5 hours straight the night before, i was understandably groggy when i woke up. after lunch, i did a few chores then watched some more (anime DVDs, what else?).

around 3:00 pm i received a text message from the ‘Shrink, who asked if i could buy her some take-out food (i usually buy food on my way to work). that, of course, puzzled me. now, why would the ‘Shrink go to work on a sunday? but my attention was still riveted on Bamboo Blade, so i let that pass — must be some pressing deadline, i thought.

the idea that i might be wrong about what day it was only started to kick in when another friend sent me a text message, which made a definite reference to dates. and that was around 5:30pm. you ought to have seen my DUMBfounded expression when a glance at the calendar confirmed my worst fear.

No way!/ [denial stage] can it be? [as if!]

a deafening sound of a gigantic thunderclap or the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony would have been appropriate at this point, but of course that didn’t happen.

my reaction? my jaw dropped, then i sat down abruptly. (yes, i know. apparently, the weight of one’s own stupidity requires overwhelming strength to support.) a face-squirming grimace, followed by few choice epithets, and then finally laughter.

next year, i’m getting a humongous calendar (with a LARGE FONT), then i’ll nail it on my ceiling and surround it with flashing lights.

throwback

as time goes on, the more convinced i get about being born in the wrong era. or at very least, perhaps i’m a throwback from a bygone timeframe that has long since lost its relevance. (translation: that’s how depressed i feel these days.)

i stumbled into this conclusion the other day when i realized that most of the things that really interest me are either things that dwell too much in the past or topics that have some sort of ‘history’ attached to them.

take, for instance, my inordinate fondness for fantasy books. well, of course, i do like science fiction too, but if i were to choose which of them appeals to me more — it would be the Fantasy genre hands down. (i’m a fan of JRR Tolkien, Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis, Susannah Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Piers Anthony, etc.). somebody once equated Science Fiction = Future, Fantasy = Past (because of its heavy use of medieval settings), which should give you a clue about what i’m driving at.

another sign would be my fascination for well-preserved historical buildings (although this could be mostly due to my course) and landmarks. and then there’s my general fondness for history itself (well, certain parts of world history, anyway) and several historical figures.

the more i see about the current situation, the more pessimistic i get. it’s like the whole world has passed me by, going through changes that have somehow left me isolated and curiously detached. sometimes i get the feeling that i’m stuck in a time warp or something.

or — as an irreverent friend had suggested — it could just be a form of arrested development. perhaps after hitting a certain age, i had suddenly stopped growing and instead of going forward, i kept yearning for the past. sheesh. now, that’s depressing.

the art of "texting"

to say that texting (sending and receiving text messages by electronic means) has become a national hobby is almost an understatement because it has steadily insinuated itself as part of our daily routine that we can no longer classify it as a mere hobby.

of course it goes without saying that as time goes on, people (esp. cell phone owners) who use it have become more sophisticated and have managed to tailor this tool to suit their own style, the most obvious of which is the way texters have raised the art of ‘texting‘ into a distinctive “language,” with its own peculiar set of rules, syntax and construction.

it’s as if this predetermined length (160 characters) of a single text message has forced us to become more wily and creative — if that’s a rule, then there must be a way to get around it. it wasn’t just about the cost, mind you. beating that unofficial “standard” without necessarily leaving anything important out of the message was a challenge like no other. and so the art of texting flowered.

throw spelling, grammar and language conventions out of the window. feeling too weary to type out the whole word? (oh yes, we all know how exhausting texting can be) never fear. you can always lop off a few letters here and there — as long as the word sounds remotely the same, it’s probably okay. who cares about spelling if the recipient knows exactly what you mean anyway (well, except maybe when the receiver happens to be your English teacher).

if you’re pressed for space and time, you can always do any of the following:
1. use numbers as a convenient “filler” = l8r, 2nyt, gr8, knock2
2. lose some vowels = dvlopmnt, mngr
3. lose a few verbs = hu u? (this one used to drive me nuts for its seemingly unrepentant disregard for everything, including sense)
4. use time-honored abbreviations = btw, imho, lol!
5. or, if you can’t think of anything to emphasize your point, throw in some ’smileys’ = , ,
6. i’m sure you can think of something else

this, of course, reminds me of a poem that i stumbled into when i was in high school. back then, nobody could have imagined that ‘texting’ would thoroughly infiltrate our lives. at the time, i marveled at the author’s cleverness and even memorized few lines in it (i was at an impressionable stage you see).

2  Y’s  U  R
2  Y’s  U  B
I  C  U  R
2  Y’s  4  me