frogbites thoughts

Death-ly correspondence

It’s a slow day, so I have an excuse to answer those wayward text messages I’ve been getting.  This one, I couldn’t resist answering:

UNK: Wat f, im 0n t0p of a 99-flr bldg…redy 2 jump…Gv me a 1-line sentence, 2 c0nvince me dat i shud nt die.

This is too easy.  So I wrote:

ME: There is no life after death.

And then he replied:

UNK: fuck! who are you?

ME: Sorry, my phone does not recognize your number.  And it’s rude to curse someone you don’t know.

UNK: what is your name?, I txt my cousin not you…

ME: I’m Azrael.  Good.  I thought you already jumped.

UNK: I thought you are an angel of death.  Where you from?

ME:  Nice to know that you’re literate.  I’m mostly everywhere.

**I wish I didn’t jump the gun in calling him 'literate' as I’ll be proven otherwise later.

UNK: Where is everywhere? Fuck i dont play games!

ME: You started it when you sent me a text.

UNK: im not txting you., i txt my cousin not you… Where do you live?

ME: I live in the Netherworld.  Now, why would you text your cousin that you’re about to jump off a 99-storey building?

UNK: Where is netherworld? what is that place?

ME: You’ll find soon enough if you still feel like jumping.

UNK: Can you call to my phone now, can i talk to you? I dont believe in heaven and hell but i believe in death.

ME: I seem to have misjudged you.  I thought you weren’t one of them -- ordinary.

UNK: One of them? Who? I have no time to playing games…

ME: See how insignificant you are?  You don’t even know that you’ve just been insulted.

UNK: Im not insulted! I wanna know where do you live,i dont know where is netherworld because i live in netherland with peter pan and tinker bell.

**Duh! Netherland?!?

ME: (laughs) How old are you?  Pray, tell.  And I might just visit you tonight while you sleep.

UNK: Im 22, dont visit me if you are a guy,visit me if you are a girl.  Why you visit me do you know my address?

**At this point I stopped replying.  For the love of Zeus! He’s 22 and he texts like 12.  Should I start complaining about poor education in the Philippines again?

frogbites thought #19

I had a peanut butter craving last night, but I had second thoughts when I saw:

It's made in China.  It's a local brand, but it's made in China.

With a lot of sinophobia going around these days, for a split second there I wanted to have the peanut butter tested for mercury, lead and aflatoxin levels.

And it's not just the local peanut butter that's been from China.  Jollibee's Kiddie Meal toys are from China, clothes wear Bench and  Penshoppe have their apparels made there too.  And there are more examples out there, where known Filipino brands use and market Chinese-made products.  And it's pretty much understandable: low wages, low product costs.  It's good business.  And it also does not necessarily mean that everything coming from China is substandard.  (We hope.)

Someone told me that China's economy is in trillions of dollars and they can easily bankrupt a country like ours.  They've conquered us, even before F4.

Anyway, in the end, knowing that the peanut butter came from China didn't discourage me from preparing a sandwich and eating it.  I was hungry. 

That must be it.  We're all hungry.  How to feed 6 billion using the least amount of dollars?  Darn globalization. ^_^'