The Fat Man Today

So the first day of 2026 saw the end of one of Netflix's biggest (and most well-sustained *cough Daybreak* *cough Dirk Gently*) shows. Stranger Things closed its curtains with a whopping two-hour long cinematic episode that was showed in 500 theaters across America from December 31st to January 1st, and premiered on Netflix on 9AM January 1st, at least in the Philippines.

I have a bunch of acquaintances - close friends, colleagues - who have a hard time explaining themselves. As a result, they always end up getting misconstrued or brushed aside, which infuriates them even more. And because of this, they end up giving up trying to explain themselves overall, which leads to them being misunderstood in general. But what are the chief barriers of communication that they're facing?

JPE with Brownie Kara David is doing some serious manifesting with all that's happening to corrupt government officials lately, that started with the passing of the late, notorious, Juan Ponce Enrile, the biggest political butterfly this country has ever known since the days of the makapili.

Two Saturdays ago - December 3, if memory serves - I was caught in the carmageddon that gripped the north-eastern part of Metro Manila. I consider myself one of the luckier ones since I didn't have a long way to travel, but it was still pretty bad considering that normally, it wouldn't have taken me that much time to make my trip. It was incredibly frustrating and inconvenient, and it was a good indicator of how much needs to be fixed in the metro's traffic infrastructure.

There's a post circulating online - mostly thru Reddit - about how Filipinos are the friendliest people in the world, but are the least considerate. The post was made by two Americans, and I originally saw the post on Nutribun Republic's wall on Facebook. The post goes on to show how our inconsiderate nature shows up in many, many things that people have come to take for granted as "that's just how things are, jut let it be."

Take a look at that image up there for a second and tell me if that little line – that bit about it being a work of satire – is immediately visible. These days, more and more works of satire are including these one-line disclaimers in their artwork body, perhaps in order to erase any doubt that the content of the piece was, in fact, not based on truth. 

I remember when blogging was the  big thing. It was social media before the age of Twitter, Friendster (I'm dating myself, I know) and Facebook. And my decision to blog again - aside from having a curated space of sorts to show off my writing style - got me to thinking back to when I was one of the bloggers littering the worldwide web with thoughts from my very own soapbox. 

Just a small update ladies and germs. I've never really utilized this channel for self-publication (aside from using it as a reference), but that ends today. If you've stumbled upon my page and you need to have some content written, hit me up! I've placed a link to my Fiverr up on the navigation, so head on over to find out more. Or feel free to message me via the contact form (I've also placed this on the navigation bar, since I don't think people use sidebars nowadays).

Courtesy of Joe Crann / X.com I just finished watching Happy Gilmore 2 , and you know what? It was pretty good. Adam Sandler might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but let’s not kid ourselves. His movies from the ’90s and early 2000s were comedy gold. So good, in fact, that they made him enough money to build his own production company. Say what you want, but the man had a formula that worked.

 One of the habits my dad picked up after his lung popped was watching TV nonstop. His preferred background noise of choice was anything cable by ABS-CBN, be it ANC Live, Teleradyo, or Jeepney TV. Jeepney TV was especially one of his favorites; this cable channel featured a lot of ABS-CBN's soaps from bygone years, which he apparently enjoyed. 

 It's fairly easy to think of the rise of AI as the next revolution in the history of humanity, in that the industrial revolution essentially created jobs for individuals by running craftsmen out of business. The blacksmith, smelter, and basically many fabricants in the old ways had to bow down to the superior manufacturing power of the fabrication plant, and the parallels between that upheaval and the one that’s burgeoning today are just too similar to each other.

It's been a year of many things for me, and while usually an introduction like that carries with it a very strong aura of foreboding (!), this post is one of thankful reminiscing, where we go down the (fairly recent) memory lane of when yours truly was part of the presidential campaign of one Mdme. Leni Robredo.

I spent the end of the week steeped in anger. I was angry because my internet provider was being unsatisfactory. It was affecting my work, and it had the potential to get expensive. So when my ISP - of whom I shall write about in another post - I snapped. And in an effort to lessen the impact of this post, I shall grace it with a picture of my sleeping tomcat. 

 Last week, one of my own personal heroes passed away. Mon Legaspi of Wolfgang, The Dawn, and Kontra was 54 when he went into cardiac arrest. He was in the US at the time, and the news was broken to the general public by his current band, The Dawn, via their social media page.

 The very first song I played on the guitar was from the Eraserheads' third album, Cutterpillow. I remember spending an entire night trying to teach myself the E and A chords on my tiny Lumanog starter guitar. The Jingle songhits I was studying had the picture of Michael Jackson triumphantly raising his arm, undoubtedly taken from his then-recently completed Philippines leg of the HIStory world tour. I was thirteen years old then, and I would begin what would turn out to be a very long love story with music, and it all began with the Philippines' fab four.

 One of the things that you learn early on in life is that hard work will get you places, and that hard work will be everything you need to get ahead in life. Right, so that's complete and utter bullshit. Because honestly, at the end of the day, hard work will get you places, but how far you get to go will depend on your starting point.

The last time I cooked for anybody on a regular basis, I was living on my own in Cagayan de Oro. Back then, I was limited to oatmeal and stuff that usually came from a can.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of when martial law was signed into law by Ferdinand Marcos back in 1972. I don't normally post about these things, but in this age of misinformation, disinformation, and social media, I think it's important to talk about these things again. 

Something I read somewhere recently: stop asking yourself why you're so lazy, and start asking yourself why you need to rest so much. To ape Good Mythical Morning, I decided to talk about that today, because for some reason, I find myself drawn towards rest more often these days, much to my frustration - but maybe I shouldn't be frustrated about having to rest after all. 

This is a work in progress. Story starts after the jump.