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This post is more than a tad late, but hey, what can you do about it? Thats me :P

Friday night was Lystra's gig with a band from church. She got invited to play the rhythm guitar for them, roughly a week before they were to play a gig at a church members birthday party. During this period of time, we actually managed to experience most forms of public transport.

On thursday, due to a band practice over at a jamming studio, we took the jeep (local form of public transport) without dying/getting mugged/getting lost which I consider a bonus. We were with the other band members though so I guess we were pretty safe. I wonder what will happen though if we took it ourselves. Probably one of the above things will happen so yeah. Anyway, their jamming went pretty decently. The vocalist showed off his previously unknown (to me and Lys anyway) talent for screaming which was pretty cool and the musicians polished their act more. I actually got to play the bass a couple of times cause their bassist wasn't there but I probably just looked like a poseur.

So friday was the actual day for the gig. We met up with the band at church so that they could get last minute practice in before they played the gig. Among their lineup of songs is Hellsong by Sum41 and one of the funnier moments of the night was when the band actually contemplated practicing hellsong in the sanctuary. In front of two pastors. They turned to each other and asked each other, "Do you want to practice..", their question actually trailing off before they mentioned the actual title. I guess you had to be there to appreciate the irony.

After the practice they packed up their gear and we were off to head to the gig. The pub they were playing in was somewhere near paco park and we were quite a ways away from there, so again we got to experience the marvels of Philippine's public transport system. Since we couldn't get a taxi or a FX and it was getting pretty near the starting time of the party the band decided we should take a bus there instead. Hurrah. It's quite a different experience than taking a bus in Singapore, I can assure you. For one thing, they still have bus conductors to go around collecting the bus fare, and if you're small enough you probably can fall out of the bus through the window. Lystra was actually too scared to sit by the window and forced me to take the window seat. Heh heh.

Unfortunately, halfway through the bus ride, we got caught in a traffic jam. After maybe half an hour or so of sitting in the bus while it was practically at a standstill, we finally had enough and took to the oldest form of transport known to mankind: we walked! Walking turned out to be much much faster than vehicular traffic. It was different I guess. Usually the places we're out walking about in the evening would be at really nice places like Eastwood, but that night we were just walking on a main road. It was a very different experience and it turns out I really am quite suicidal when it comes to crossing streets. I crossed the street in front of a tricycle and the driver shouted at me, something about running me over or something to that effect. Hah. Bite me.

So after walking, we went on to take a FX. Basically a FX is like a mass taxi. The vehicle is some sort of van-like thing and a few people would ride it along its route, getting off at their convenience. It's main advantage over the jeep (jeepneys kinda work the same way) is that its airconditioned so its a more comfortable ride. It was kinda packed though. So with that I end my chronicle of how we got to the gig. Basically we just walked the rest of the way and a guy met us to bring us to the pub.

So now we're at the pub. As the band walks in, people shout something along the lines of, "Now the party can start"! Hmm, this is so going to make Lystras ego get oh so big. Sigh. The pub wasn't really that great but eh, it was adequate for the party I guess. Lots of comfy chairs so Lystra couldn't hog all of them. There were actually, ahem, hostesses in the pub, but they were mostly ignored and they kept out of the way. I guess it was still too early for them to do their, err "work".

Amongst the bands who played only their band, Corny-something, had a punk rock sound. The rest were either alternative or pop. Before the band actually went up on stage, one of them (I think it was Don, their vocalist) suggested the B word. Booze. So they actually performed in a buzzed state. At least they didn't start really drinking until after they performed their set. When they went up to perform, the band was introduced as a band from church (which was funny/embarrassing considering the drinking) and Lystra was said to be imported from singapore. Ha ha. Anyway despite being buzzed, the band performed pretty well. Amongst the band who performed that night, they were the only ones who had a punk rock sound so thet distinguished them from the other bands. Their performance was well recieved, even recieving shouts for more after they had finished their set.

Afterwards, we just sat around talking, having beer (freeflow!!!) and just watching the other acts. It was a blast and we got to know the band members better, who were really quite fun to hang out with. Got pretty buzzed with all that beer too. Had maybe 4 bottles or something. Most of the attendees of the party left at around 12 and we decided to head home too, but not before the band was actually invited to hold more gigs in that pub by the owner. Good exposure for the band I guess.

Anyhoo, pictures of jamming/gig

Found something interesting while I was self-googling. My blog is worth B$2,458.98. I feel so rich. Well, comparitively anyway. Most of the blogs I've linked to (Thomas, Regan, Words With a Payload, ) aren't worth as much as mine. Take in mind though that the valuation attached to my blog is just a concept and has no real fiscal worth, so I'm not really sure why I'm celebrating over this. The only blog that blogshare has connected me to which has a higher valuation than mine is Leon's blog, which is worth B$2,922.82, and that's without anyone even touching his stock.

If you haven't figured it out yet (huzzah for being condescending), BlogShares is a virtual stock market game with blogs as the commodity being traded. Though I never really got into it (and don't really understand it), virtual stock markets are a interesting things. There has been research that shows virtual stock market games have a predictive power. I heard about it a long time ago but I forgot all about it. It's a very interesting concept since it attaches value to something intangible. I suppose it reflects the status of a blog in the (gag) "blogosphere". The higher the readership of a blog, the higher it's value.

But right now, I'm more interested in it as a tool for evaluating blog connectivity. Blogshare seems to connect blogs to each other by looking at the links that are posted in the blogs. It then shows the links that go out of and into a blog. It seems to me that it could be a really hacky way of implementing trackback. An interesting thing I've found is this Gary LaPointe person who seems to have linked to my blog. I've actually come across him before in my self googling sessions when his site would appear in the results (not sure of the search terms), and I've always wondered why the heck he comes up. Now I know, he just linked up to my blog. Now, the question is why he did that and how he found me. I don't think he's in any of the communities I lurk in.

Hrmm, gotta wonder about the person who played around with my stock though. He bought stocks in my blog on the 1st of November and then sold it all by the 7th (my posts that time), but I don't think I wrote anything really that good to make my stock go up. I'm guessing he was just trying to pump up the price of my blog or something so he could make a small profit. So he probably didn't read my blog at all. Heh.

Ah well. Value of other people's blogs may go up or down now since Regan decided to use his economic eductaion powers for evil and play around with BlogShares. Other Virtual Stock Market games in which you could trade concepts.

• Hollywood Stock Exchange
• Foresight Exchange
• TerrorXchange

Looking through my christmas list again, I feel its too expensive really, so here's revision 2 of my Christmas Wish List. Less expensive I suppose and easier to procure. I don't think HL2 is even available for purchase here.

• Good music. Something along the lines of classical stuff. Something along the lines of Vienna Teng I suppose. Although you can surprise me too and get me something else if you think I would like it.

• Something caffiene related. Not necessarily coffee, but strange exotic caffiene related paraphanelia. Could be some sort of energy drink, a shirt that relates to coffee, caffiene soap, ANYTHING!

• Something geeky. I want something to wear my geekiness on my sleeve. Literally. Think stuff like ThinkGeek apparel. Stuff so obnoxiously geeky only geeks will get it.

• Board games? Kinda on the expensive side but board games are really fun things to play.

• Messenger bag. As much as I heart my current one, its really kinda on the large side. Maybe something more along the lines of this. In size anyway, not that bag specifically.

• Clothing. Clothing would still be good. I once joked with Lystra that socks would be good (I only have white socks!), but no, no socks please. Or underware (sic). In fact, underwear would be quite a disturbing present to get.

• Books. Suffering from a dearth of reading materials now.

The shirt I'm wearing now has a depiction of naked boobies and a guy who looks like he's playing with his single ball. Disturbing. I only realized it while I was brushing my teeth and glanced at the mirror. I don't usually look at the mirror. Scares me too much. Share the pain.

I have also quite possibly stumbled upon the greatest song for geeks/nerds (take your pick, but I stand behind my claim that geek>nerd). Why Do You Have So Much Fun Without Me". The song is so liberally littered with geek-isms. Such lines as, "I'm writing code at home on friday night" and "I stay up late on IRC" just endear this song to my geekiness. Although the song itself is of the electronica genre which I don't quite like, this song is staying on my playlist purely because of the lyrics.

Short post today cause I don't really have anything else to say. Oh wait. Link just posted by Tom on IRC. Harvard Sucks. I remember someone at school mentioning they wanted to go to Harvard (whether it was serious or not is up in the air) so this goes up here, even if none of them ever really come here.

The title is weird, I could as easily have made that "police issue", but the image of G.I. Angst is just too deliciously ludicrious to pass up. Imagine some sort of ripped emo guy, hair combed over his eyes with thick black plastic spectacle frames. Grenades strapped on a bandolier and packing serious heat, ready to kick Unamerican Butt. G.I. Angst! He'll probably bore the enemies (Cobra Commando yo!) he fights with his constant whining though. Much like the angsty whining I'm about to deliver here. (cue evil laugh) Bwahahaha. Haha. Ha. Irunno, I'm beginning to think G.I. Angst sounds more at home with the bad guys.

The angsting is for later, now we make stupid little observations.

Didn't mention it in my last post but it was raining for pretty much the whole day yesterday. It was a light rain but it was constant downpour. As I've mentioned before rain makes me happy. There's something about the smell of the air and the play of the raindrops on the skin that just gets to me. However in the morning I came to learn that source of that constant rainfall was a typhoon that hit hard, causing flashfloods and hundreds of deaths. Two observations I can take from this. I'm so disconnected from local news that it's not really funny. Actually, I'm quite disconnected from current affairs in general, which is really a bad thing. One should always know what's happening in the world around him. Secondly, isn't it kind of morbid to think that the rainfall that made me happy was, at the same time, also killing people? It's grimly poetic in a wierd sort of way.

I seem to have a penchant for idolizing assholes, at least on the internet anyway where they are far removed from me. Maddox, Fr057m0urn3, Tucker Max. I relish their writing for some reason or other. I mean, in real life I'd probably hate these people if they exhibited their asshole-ness so openly but when separated from these people by the barrier of annonyminity the internet provides, I just have to laugh at their exploits. I know it's quite juveneille but there you go. I'm a bloody hypocrite. Actually, I have a theory that in every person, there is an inner asshole just waiting to get out and rip someone a new one. It's just that we're too bloody nice and just reign the asshole-ic tendencies in. Speaking of a-hole's, hi RGR :P

I suppose there are ways to express your tendency to be an asshole in a much more creative ways other than constant swearing/putdowns or outright bashing. One example that leaps to mind is my favourite comedy musician, Tom Lehrer. His songs, to me, seem to be words of a grade-A bastard cleverly wrapped up in nicer forms.

I won something at school. Woop de bleepin' do. It was just an English essay thing, nothing that big but I got P500 for winning it so I guess that's good. To celebrate, I went down to Starbucks to have a White Chocolate Mocha. Whee! Well actually, that P500 went to paying my sister back money I owe her, so I guess it all evens out. There's also a certificate for it though I don't place much importance on it. I don't really buy into the cult of pieces of paper defining the worth/potential of a person. Although the certificate might come in handy for when I finally apply for some other college.

Okay, angst time. Skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about my patheticness. Still here? Okay, someone tell me how the smeg do you get over someone? Cause I don't think I am. I was just too distracted by a percieved vibe of go-away-I-dont-want-you-here from her to do my work in class properly. It just made me way too restless, I'd even go so far as to describe a slight heartache. The nausea was dispelled though soon enough. I think whatever feelings I have for her border on selfishness. I'm not sure if I really do care for her.