The Kid

When I went home tonight, I met this kid. He was either an albino or at least someone with foreign blood coz he was really pale. He also had this big eye-glasses that magnified his eyes. He literally chatted me up as I got off the taxi. Our conversation went like this:

Me, shuts door of taxi, turns around

Kid: Ate, ano po pangalan nyo?
Me (taken aback): Uhhhh... Bakit?
Kid: Kayo po ba ung nakausap ko kagabi?
Me (relieved): Ay, hindi... Hindi ako yun. (He stares at me for a moment longer.) Bakit andito ka pa sa labas, gabi na ah.
Kid: Ganitong oras po talaga ako gising (wow, ain't that a weird statement coming from a kid. Even I, at his age, haven't awakened my nocturnal side yet.)
Kid: Ate, san po kayo nakatira?
Me (alarm bells started ringing in my head): Um, jan lang (points vaguely in the direction of our apartment). Ikaw, san ka nakatira?
Kid: Jan po sa F8. (looks down) Alam naman po ng mama at papa ko, pinayagan naman ako.
Me: Ahh.

I move towards our apartment. Unfortunately, he followed, shooting rapid-fire questions as we went along. I dodged as best as I could and tried to walk slowly.

Kid: Ate, may celfone po kayo?
Me (suspicious): Um, meron
Kid: Pwede po patingin?
Me (really suspicious): Ha? Bakit?
Kid: Tingnan ko lang po. (I chuckle but make no move to show him my celfone. Two seconds later...) Ate, patingin po ng celfone nyo.
Me: Hehe, bakit?
Kid: Tingnan ko lang po.
Me: Hehe. (changes topic, a bit desperately) Late na ah, di ba dapat tulog ka na nito?
Kid: (doesn't answer)
Me: Umuwi ka na, nakakatakot dito sa labas, mag-isa ka lang.
Kid: Okay lang po, dito lang naman ako...

I reach our apartment without shaking him off (damn). I take a long time rooting through my bag looking for my keys, stopping at intervals and hinting he should go home already. He doesn't take the hint.

Kid (watching me root thru my bag): Ate, ako rin o, may susi. (shows me his keys. I laugh.) Meron din ako nyan.
Me (laughs): Syempre, magkaiba naman yan. (opens door partly) Cge... uwi ka na.
Kid: Ate, di nyo po sinasara.. nil-lock ung ito ? (points to our deadbolt, which was left unlocked by my housemates since I wasn't home yet)
Me: Sinasara din.

He wasn't satisfied. He went to the open door and looked at the lock, jiggling it. I watch him, surreptitiously blocking the entrance. He glances at the inside of our apartment, then spots the TV.

Kid: Ate, ano po brand ng TV nyo?
Me: Umm...
Kid (enters our apartment): Tingin lang po ako. (looks at our TV). Ah, JVC. (spots the printer) Printer po to?
Me: Oo.
Kid: Eh nasan yung computer? Ginagamit nyo po to?
Me: Oo, pag kelangan.
Kid (sees my housemate's DSL modem, picks it up and examines it): Di ba ito yung kinakabitan ng mga linya ng telepono, pag marami?
Me: Oo.
Kid: Asan yung telepono? (looks around) Ah eto.

He goes on to randomly picks things and examines them, keeping up a running commentary. I watch him furtively, keeping a close eye on what he touched. At one point, he asked me about the occupants of our apartment, and as usual, I kept my answers short.

Finally, I was able to shoo him out (LOL), citing tiredness (which was true enough, by the way, it was freakin 12.30AM), and again telling him he should be in bed like a good little boy. As he went off, I could see him looking around, probably looking for something to entertain himself. Poor kid.

If it wasn't so creepy and a bit surreal, I would probably have enjoyed the experience.

As it was, I was tired and it was midnight - a kid hanging around asking personal questions and following me home was NOT your usual occurrence. Maybe I'm just not good with kids, or maybe I'm just too paranoid. Maybe other people would have taken it at face value and even made friends with the kid - maybe he WAS just weird in the sense that he was wide awake at such a time and his parents allowed him to roam around. Maybe I'm the only one seeing it as weird or creepy.

Whatever. I just hope I don't wake up tomorrow to find out it was all part of some elaborate scheme and we've been tricked or something (*knock on wood*).

On The Side of Me (Corrinne May)

The first time I heard this song, it really grabbed me. I remember pausing in my desk at work when the first line whispered in my ears. You would think it's not really my type, seeing as I lean more towards the alternative music thing. But I liked it - it's angsty and her voice is smooth and easy to listen to. I tried searching for a music video in YouTube to refer you to, but couldn't find one as of the moment. Oh well.


===============================================

I'm not the easiest person to love
I'm often the one who lets things go unresolved

Yet you choose to be
on the side of me
on the side of me
Yet you choose to be
on the side of me
on the side of me

I'm not too proud of some things
I've done in my life
The skeletons in my closet
Are too big for me to hide

Yet you choose to be
on the side of me
on the side of me
Blessed Charity
You're on the side of me
on the side of me

'Cause everyone needs a friend to hold
when it's cold outside
and there's no place to go
Everyone needs a friend to hold
all alone I cried
there was no place to go
I remember when nobody cared
but you

I'm not the easiest person to love
But you, you've opened your heart to show me what I'm worth

'Cause you choose to be
on the side of me
on the side of me
What a mystery
You're on the side of me
on the side of me

'Cause everyone needs a friend to hold
when it's cold outside
and there's no place to go
Everyone needs a friend to hold
all alone I cried
there was no place to go

I remember when nobody cared
I remember when nobody cared
Nobody cared
But you

Yeah you choose to be
on the side of me
on the side of me

===============================================

New Look - The Desktop Version

A while back, around mid-March to be exact, my computer unfortunately crashed. (That accounted for the period of time between March and April that I had no updates here). The computer technician said my hard disk needed replacing, but being the kuripot that I am, I asked them if they could try just re-installing the OS. They readily agreed (which made me think they were probably just feeding me that line to get me to buy a hard disk; although, admittedly, my computer IS kinda old. But then again if they were just feeding me that line, they'd probably be more persistent, right? So maybe they had a point.) Now, here I am with a squeaky clean PC that feels brand-new... only because it still has nothing in it. Nyahaha.

Hard disk failure or not, I could have re-installed the OS on my own - I've tried it enough times before (which just goes to show there probably IS something wrong with my hard disk, LOL). The problem this time around was because my build-in CD-rom drive died on me a while back and I didn't replace it because I had another external drive anyway (kuripot nga). Only, the motherboard (or is the BIOS?) doesn't allow booting from USB devices. Well, I hit a dead end right there. Sigh. It's not like I had another computer lying around which I could use to format the hard drive of this one (which is what the technician did). Anyway, I shelled-out P800 for that - which I think was a bit expensive just for reformatting a computer, but I guess it was fair enough given that they had to first diagnose the problem/s before they could fix it. And it was a flat rate for their diagnostics services. I could have done worse, I guess.

Looking at the bright side, I'm having fun tweaking my desktop and personalizing it. See my current desktop:

That is from an XP theme called Alien World. I found that, and a lot of other cool stuff, from themes.belchfire.net <- pretty neat site, go check it out.