On Being Jack

(Hi Diklaw!)

I have a name that is quite different from the regular names. It is so uncommon that simply appending @yahoo.com or @gmail.com to my name would generate my email address. No need for the name388@ or firstname_lastname@ that those, unfortunately named with the more standard names, have to resort to in order to achieve uniqueness in places like yahoo or gmail or hotmail. Like Eminem or 50 Cent or The Game, any mention of my name and you can be pretty sure it is referring to no one else but me. Google my name and the closest proper noun it gets is a town in Cameroon and a Jewish artifact of some sort.

In the course of conversations, it is entirely a different thing. There are certain disadvantages in having an uncommon name. When i tell a new acquaintance my name, I might as well have told then it is Krzyzewski (say what?). Conversations like the one below have happened numerous times:

Me: Pabili ng isang tall na frapuccino.
Starbucks cashier: Whats you're name, sir? (para isulat sa cup)
Me: (I mention my name)
Cashier: I'm sorry?
Me: (I mention my name again)
Cashier: Par-what? (while leaning forward with the ear tilted towards me)
Me: (I slowly mention my name for the third time with exagerated emphasis on each syllable)
Cashier: Fernan?
Me: Jack na lang ho.

Thus the evolution of my name Jack...

dog stories

Edward and Fred, two grown men, were arguing over something. Fred was with his young daughter Domay and Edward was with his dog Brownie. On the heat the moment, Fred lunged at Edward. Domay sensed this and went between the two men with the intention of preventing a fight from escalating. (But to the dog, it might have appeared as something else.) As it happened, the dog saw this, proceeded to join the meelee, defended his alpha dog and bit Domay on the leg. It was quite a bite and Domay received several stiches from the hospital.

A while back, I saw Domay limping and asked her why. And this is what she told. The dog was simply protecting his master.

Which reminds me of another dog incident two Christmases ago. At that time, we had three dogs: one dog that we have had for more than 10 years now and two of her fully grown puppies. It was Christmas and my father and I decided to 'christmasen' one of the two fully grown puppies. We had the dog all stringed-up and my father just delivered the killer blow to the dogs head. On seeing that, the puppie's mother, our dog of 10 years, growled and bit my father at the heel. Hehe. Mothers' instincts..

Anyway, we still proceeded to butcher the grown puppy and made yummy adobo, nilaga and dinuguan out of it. After eating, I decided to give my leftover dog bones to the mother dog to see what she will do.

She ate the bones.

Hehe. If I were a writer, I would have been inspired to write a song and a poem out of these instead of just a blog entry :-)

the adventures continue

It happens again. Pumunta akong Insular Life headquarters sa Alabang kanina to finalize a deal that we have been emailing back and forth for quite sometime. I had to give my ID to the reception and my conversation with the barong-clad guard at the counter went:

Guard: Saan kayo?
Me: Ahhh.. (di ko agad naisip yung name)
Guard: Messenger ho kayo?

To think, naka-long sleeves and slacks ako..

One of the boys...

I think I am the kind of person that do not inspire deference from the first look. I think that I'm the kind of person that exudes some sort of negative physical vibes to certain people who I meet for the first time.

=*=

Tipong pagpunta ko sa planta ng Pepsi-Cola Philippines sometime ago, the guard at the gate assumed I am not someone who is meeting the IT manager:

I was walking up to the gate when the guard blocked my path, "Saan kayo?"

"Sa IT." That is what I usually visit in our customers, the Information Technology (IT) department. It can also be called Information Systems (IS) department. Its the same, IT or IS or any other names..

"Saan?"

"Sa IT."

"Kanino?"

"Kay Bong Tanamayor, IT Manager."

"Sa IS. IS kasi sabihin nyo. IT kayo ng IT. Walang IT dito."

Honestly, I don't think the guard was disrespectful or rude. He may well be that, but I think that I project this persona of a 'probinsyano' and 'simpleton' that the guard simply does not effect his "respectful" persona or his "im-at-work" mode when he was talking to me. Like the maids and other househelps, we know they are there but there is no effort to be decent or respectful to them; we simply behave as ourselves in their presence.

I think I have this effect on people, I strip them of their pretensions. That is why I have this unusual number of similar experiences.

=Starbucks=

Once, I went to the Starbucks in Emerald Avenue, Ortigas and told the girl at the counter, "Miss, isang kape nga. Maliit."

Counter girl: "Bosing, 60 pesos ang kape dito. Diretso ka dyan sa kaliwa (pointing outside the Starbucks) may canteen dyan."

When I was relating this to my business partners, they said I should have complained to the manager or at least slap a bundle of thousand peso bills on the counter. My girlfriend said I should have retorted with some witty comeback. I did nothing of the above. In fact, I think the counter girl was simply, honestly being helpful, being emphatic.

=Travel Agency=

Ako: "Bili ako ng isang roundtrip ticket puntang Singapore."
Agent (looking at me): "Sabihin nyo sa amo nyo, kailangan ng passport."

=Property Sales Agent=

While taking a look at the booths and displays of condos, houses and lots in one of those property agents in SM Megamall, I approached one of the salesmen:

Ako: "Pwedeng humingi ng pricelists?"
Salesman (after looking at his notebook): "Wala na ho kaming available na mga low cost housing."

=Acebedo Optical=

Ako (pointing to a particular frame): "Magkano to?"
Saleslady (pointing to the cheaper plastic frames): "Mahal yan sir. Dito ho kayo pumili."

=*=

Of course, there are certain upsides of stripping strangers of their pretensions. I could also say that I probably get an unusual number of random kindness from strangers. I will write a blog on this aspect one time...