Weekly Ketchup 34 - General Updates and Addenda

Lest my current work problems turn into a three-episode arc, I'm just gonna append the experience of the past few weeks with a simple "things had a way of working themselves out". So, yeah, I'm slowly creeping back to my hopeful self.

Thankfully, the rest of the week passed without much fanfare, which brings me to the subject of this week's blog: What to write about? I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some thoughts that have been buzzing around in my head for a while now. These are mostly ramblings that were in drafts of earlier entries but had to be cut off because the blogs were getting too long. Either that or there just hadn't been an impetus to share them in a given week. Until now.

Changing Social Behavior

A couple of weeks ago, I ran this list of geeky distractions. What didn't make the cut of that rather long blog was the behind-the-scenes dilemma I had throughout that entire week about whether I should share the movie, music, book, or game I've been checking out. In real time. On all my social networks.

The thing was that I didn't want this blog to be a curation of what I've been sharing on social media the past week. I didn't want it to be like an extended edition of what I've already shared. That's just too much time sharing, opining, and talking about the same set of subjects.

And so I resolved to keep quiet about my new interests until I can blog about them. It's not in real time and I don't even get a lot of views but I do get to archive my thoughts, which is why I still prefer blogging in long form as opposed to sharing random bursts of opinion or activity.

Waging A Silent War

One of the earliest entries on this series was about random thoughts I had while walking home from work. In another blog not too long ago, I briefly mentioned how jeepneys have never been part of my reality. I'm aware that they're there and I do take them on occasion, especially late at night when buses and trains are no longer available but, until the Manila bus ban, I've never had to take them on a daily basis.

These past few months I've devised ways to cope with my current predicament. One way, as one might guess, was that I've been walking home. Thankfully, the distance between my house and office isn't all that great and I could use the bit of exercise given my sedentary lifestyle.

Another way I've been dealing, especially in the morning on my way to work, is holding on to my payment until I'm near the office and satisfied with the journey. Because the worst part about taking these piles of scrap metal are smoking drivers, everytime a driver lights a stick, I get off - without paying - and transfer to another jeep. I will also transfer if the driver plays really loud awful music. I realize that this sounds cruel but as a consumer, I need to get this satisfaction from a service I'm paying for.

Consumer vs Creator

Another earlier post was how everything seems to be accessible online now, which has been rather good for me since I got to open myself up to new and even old books, games, and comics.

Not too long ago I also wrote about some first world problems I had during a recent storm that took out our power and Internet. What I cut from that entry was my hypothesis that I was much more creative and imaginative back when I didn't have much access to anything. I remember one stormy and blacked out day when I came up with an entire X-books crossover. At the time, there was nothing else to do and I also didn't read many X-men comics because I couldn't afford them.

In all my years as an Avengers fan, most of which time I've been able to afford everything, I've never once imagined a single storyline, let alone an entire crossover epic.  However, recently, now that I'm not following the comics (not because I can't afford them, rather because they weren't coming up with the type of stories I want to read), I've been daydreaming about fantasy story arcs I want to see! I even like launching a fan fiction series - but I would still like for it to be graphic, even if I'm not an artist. I just gotta iron out the story!

I shared this on my Instagram a few months ago.
I actually imagined a war game back when I could only fantasize about playing one.

That's just three of the most badly written ramblings ever but I do enjoy putting my thoughts into words, however haphazardly, otherwise they would just fester in my head. That being said, I'm looking forward to a more coherent blog next week!

Oh, and this blog was delayed because of two very important people:

Yesterday, I was recovering from a party we had the night before to celebrate geek friend Hank's birthday!

Photo from Lynn's Facebook

Earlier today, I was at lunch to celebrate the birthday of another geek friend, Carlo!

I'm sure there's a better photo somewhere but this will do for now.
From Tania's Facebook