The Wheel and Axle

Magandang Gabi ng Kababalaghan

by on Oct.29, 2016, under Film & TV, Travel & Culture

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My 90s experience, as with a lot of Filipinos in my age bracket, would not have been complete with the Halloween specials of Noli De Castro’s Magandang Gabi, Bayan.

Every year, I looked forward to the Saturdays just preceding Halloween. It was when the show, which was a typical somewhat square news magazine program, would switch gears and feature interviews, footage, and reenactments, documentary-style, of supposed real life supernatural tales around the country: ghosts, aswang, tikbalang, dwende, the living dead, white ladies, black ladies, possessions, ghouls, fucking floating caskets, and more.

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Here’s to a long weekend of fun and chills!

by on Oct.28, 2016, under Film & TV, Society, Travel & Culture

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It’s the start of a four-day weekend (for the Philippines, anyway), so here’s to the coming holiday full of remembering our dearly departed and, of course, some halloween fun!

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Walking Down The Plath

by on Oct.27, 2016, under Literature

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27 October 1932 – 11 February 1963

Cinderella
Sylvia Plath

The prince leans to the girl in scarlet heels,
Her green eyes slant, hair flaring in a fan
Of silver as the rondo slows; now reels
Begin on tilted violins to span

The whole revolving tall glass palace hall
Where guests slide gliding into light like wine;
Rose candles flicker on the lilac wall
Reflecting in a million flagons’ shine,

And glided couples all in whirling trance
Follow holiday revel begun long since,
Until near twelve the strange girl all at once
Guilt-stricken halts, pales, clings to the prince

As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk
She hears the caustic ticking of the clock.

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I Heart Hartley

by on Oct.26, 2016, under Film & TV, Queer

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Ellen is probably the only lesbian who loves having shirtless hot men frequently appear on her show. And we are eternally grateful for this.

I’m glad she recently got one of my faves, Justin Hartley (Smallville‘s Green Arrow), to come and do this water thing. Because, well, wet Justin Hartley is a hundred times even better than regular Justin Hartley. Too bad his Aquaman show way back when didn’t get picked up.

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Gorgeous at 75

by on Oct.25, 2016, under Film & TV, Geeky

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Here is the latest publicity shot of Wonder Woman in next year’s Justice League.

Stunning, isn’t she? To think she’s 75 years old.

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Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 3)

by on Oct.24, 2016, under Snark, Society

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Continued From:

Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 2)

7. “Stupid Rules For Performance Reviews.” First off, let me just say that many companies are now doing away with the bell curve. The remaining ones, however, usually have controls to ensure a fair assessment.

There’s a financial component to a stack rank: a company cannot give 100% of its employees a 20% annual raise. It needs to bucketize. Top performers get higher raises, those who meet goals get basic raises, and those who under-perform… well, why reward a lazy freeloader?

Top performers also get to be considered for promotions more often.

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Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 2)

by on Oct.23, 2016, under Snark, Society

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Continued From:

Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 1)

4. “Stupid Internet Restrictions.” No matter how diligent you yourself are, there will always be that person – or several persons – who will abuse privileges.

You might not be an abuser, but if you belong in a company of 1,000, I guarantee you there will be many who would be. Multiply that by individual lost productivity as well as strain to network bandwidth, and you should have an idea why such restrictions exist.

However, the more important reason for such restrictions is risk management, especially for companies that deal with financial and personal information.

There have been cases of fraud where credit card data weee stolen and sent out via social media or personal email, costing some companies millions of dollars in penalties, loss of business, and damage to reputation.

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Stupid? No, you’re just self-entitled. (Part 1)

by on Oct.22, 2016, under Snark, Society

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I recently came across this article that complains about “stupid” policies that basically ruin office life and chase employees away. Supposedly.

The author of this stupid article has obviously never been in a leadership role that requires one to manage productivity, quality, risk, and profitability, among other things.

And when I did some research and found her LinkedIn profile based on information on her profile on the website she posted on, yes, it’s true. She is an R&D employee who doesn’t seem to have any legitimate qualifications to discuss how a company should be run. Now, I do not think all millennials are self-entitled, but this one certainly fits the stereotype.

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Make A Hawk A Dove

by on Oct.21, 2016, under Geeky, Society

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Today is Wonder Woman Day.

And it’s not just any Wonder Woman Day.

It’s a United Nations-declared Wonder Woman Day!

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Forever Living

by on Oct.20, 2016, under Film & TV, Literature

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20 Oct. 1882 – 16 Aug. 1956

Today is not just the birthday of the fascinating legendary poet Arthur Rimbaud.

Today is also the birthday of another legend, this time from film: the one and only horror icon Bela Lugosi, whose portrayal of Count Dracula forever ingrained the master vampire into the global consciousness. Though there have been other iconic Draculas who succeeded Bela (Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman, in particular), it was Bela’s Dracula that first brought into our collective minds our idea of who and what the count could be and which informed and influenced almost all other later portrayals.

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