Sense and Sensibility

I plagiarized my own work and inserted and edited a few things here and there to give this post a neoteric semblance. Read on.

When I tried searching the net for a some forms of abuse, I was appalled to see that there were only a few listed, and the ones I was expecting to find were nowhere to be found (or perhaps I was just darned lazy to search some more).

The said search for the abuse in question was prompted when a very good friend of mine hinted at having our auditory and olfactory rights protected. Having somebody invade your personal space is quite unnerving, especially if these insensitive and inconsiderate boobs become habitual or repeat offenders.

The form of abuse I am referring to is the invasion of privacy and personal space. Imagine a person looming over behind you and watch every activity going on at your desktop, scrutinizing every excruciating pixel of what you're doing. This would be okay if the person in question was your superior and/or boss. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Regrettably, there are also those who are completely clueless that somehow they are already encroaching upon another person's space. I'd like to call this passive invasion. I'm thrilled to cite the following examples to better best illustrate my point.

Try to think about someone yapping (ad nauseam) about some nondescript event in their inconsequential lives at the top of their lungs, like they had the inescapable urge to consume all of the oxygen within a 12-feet radius, within a short span of time. Their irritating voice permeates my hapless ears, even with my headset on. This is true despite the fact that the headset and the media player's volume is set reasonably high (supposedly high enough to drown outside noises). This effort proves futile in the face of their doggedly ululating uvulas. Aargh!

As a rule of thumb, if you have nothing nice to say, shut your trap. If you do have something unsavory to say, endeavor to make it palatable and have it delivered with tact and the proper voice modulation. Unless of course the speaker doesn't mind betraying their seemingly low pedigree and utter lack of class and finesse, we definitely can't expect more from them. Pity we can't shoot their traps with an amalgam of plaster of Paris and rusted caltrops. Or can't we? Hmmm...

 

What I've said may sound harsh because it's true. As a matter of fact, things like these are considered part of basic courtesy and shouldn't be mentioned anymore as IT IS basic already. B-A-S-I-C. BASIC. Pfft.

To those who've read this, I'm not angry. Maybe I'm salivating with madness, but not angry. Being angry would just be a total waste of energy. I'm just indignant that these people aren't actually totally clueless (that is if they can take hints or social cues), so I'm wondering what's with the continued abhorrent behavior and/or graveolence?

Just wondering...

Then picture this: a person who eats onions, tons of garlic and all manners of exotic spices available to humanity, and you happen to share a coach with them en route to work or you accidentally take a whiff off of their unearthly scent inside the office. Or worse, they go around, nonchalantly flaunting their olfactory-challenging wares. What is sad is, despite the condition, most of the time they are unaware of the powerful and disorienting effect that they have on our olfaction.

Though the two scenarios prove invasive actions occur rather passively, they can still be rather annoying. Admittedly, of the two, the former is more abominable than the latter. The latter is just sad. And unfortunately, smelly.

We are in dire need of auditory- and olfactory- rights lawyers specializing in these areas, so that we may sue people who (despite being unaware) invade and continuously pervade our personal space.

Please respect my personal space! Keep as far away as possible, especially if you have smelly fungal feet, bacteria-laden armpits and/or have surgically enhanced throats emitting 150 decibels of pure, unadulterated noise! DO NOT wait for my representation to slap your face with a TRO. That would just be unfair (to him and any or all persons accompanying him at that time).

Foible

A person's imperfections are actually 

what makes them unique, special, endearing. 

Try not to fight these faults 

but instead accept them, 

for as much as they are flaws, 

they also form part 

of who the person is. 

If a person needs to change, 

they should change 

not for anybody else, 

but for themselves. 

In their own time. 

See beyond their imperfections. 

Embrace their soul.

The LG Optimus One Fiasco: Taking the good with from the bad

I've been thinking of a good comeback post since I've been on hiatus from blogging for quite sometime now. I wanted to get back on the scene with a positive tone and not end coming up with an average-everyday-existentialist rant (there's gonna be a lot more chances of doing that later).  So I picked one relatively apt event for this: the LG Optimus One 1-hour sale.

I got wind of the news of the LG sale late last week and went on to plan how to get in line early. This despite the fact that I was undecided until the last minute (probably because I had no actual need for a new phone). I just couldn't pass up the lure of a 50% off of a supposedly feature-packed phone. So Saturday came. I left the house.

I was there inside Megamall just around past 9am (courtesy of the gym pass). I was feeling a bit queasy going straight to the line after easily passing by hordes of sale-hopefuls, so I went around walking first to bide my time.

I decided to go to the LG Concept Store after 20 minutes or so of wandering around. Boy, was I surprised to find a queue already! Instead of my originally thought of place in the line to be somewhere between 1-10, I ended up being somewhere along 50-ish (54 to be exact). Imagine that!

And when the clock struck 10am, we assumed that the mall entrances were opened. We gathered this from the increasing number of people rushing to fall into line! The scene was reminiscent of attacking steroid-pumped agile zombies from the movies! It was unbelievable. Little did these people (including us of course) know that they'd be played around by the LG store's organizers like a dog's chew-toy; the increasing crowd was going to be  unscrupulously used for marketing purposes and milked for maximum media mileage.

Carla (who came around 11) was wondering if I was really going for it. I told her, being that we were already there and that despite being still undecided on the purchase of the Optimus One, I'd still endeavor to wait in line - for three and a half hours more. And so we did. We waned the wait with curious banter. Sitting there. With uncertainty.

Every now and then we got a bit impatient and had to stretch our legs; so every opportunity we got we went near the concept store to get updates. We were fed with what I'd like to think as "canned" responses for the restless would-be buyers, as well as some responses that would make you scratch your head in befuddlement. Here are just some of what I could remember hearing: 

• "May announcement po tayo..." (We have an announcement...) - We we're waiting for the rest of the announcement but apparently that was THE announcement.
• We will be cutting the line of those who we can't accommodate for the sale. We will do this before 2pm starts. - Yeah right.  We left past 3pm and the lines of disappointed clients were still there.
• "Sir sandali lang po ha kanina pa po kasi ako ihing-ihi e." (Sir please wait... I have to leave now as my bladder is close to bursting.) Pitiful. 
• We will be distributing stubs so that we may be able to proceed in an orderly and smooth manner. ORDERLY and SMOOTH were anything but present during those hours. Pfft.
• Please don't leave your line as we are not certain yet if we would be extending the sale beyond 3pm. Translation: WE NEED TO SHOW THE MEDIA THAT OUR SALE IS SUCCESSFUL IN DRAWING INTEREST AND THAT WE HAVE A LONGER QUEUE THAN NOKIA SO STAY PUT! Aargh!

And so we waited. Patiently and optimistic at that. Until 3pm.

At that juncture LG thanked everyone who were there. And congratulated those who made it. Only a handful were able to get the phone. And the crowd started booing. One girl (I don't know if she shouted out of dismay at what happened or was just goading the already discontented crowd) shouted an expletive. "F___ y__!"

"We are reminding everyone here to avoid saying anything that would risk the safety of our shoppers. Offenders will be escorted away by our safety officers."

The announcer repeated this line to pacify the crowd that was getting rowdier by the second. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears as the crowd continued to voice out their displeasure.

"Boycott LG! BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT!"

Before things got plunged into further chaos, we left Cyberzone. Not quite disappointed as the others albeit not too satisfied as well.

Things could have gone better if the organizers were ORGANIZED. It seems that they didn't have much foresight as the utter lack of planning and preparation was so glaringly obvious. Either that or they lacked half-a-brain due to some botched up lobotomy. I don't know. Pick your poison.  

Though we didn't end up getting an Optimus One despite our dogged efforts, I'd like to think this day wasn't as useless as most people would surmise. For the self-confessed impatient Carla, I guess those hours of waiting in the queue could be considered a milestone for her and is worthy of praise and note.

We learned. And instead of walking away empty-handed, we walked away with something  infinitely better. Experience.