Displaying comments 1 to 47 of 47
MeFi post:
The Visible Man
Incredible. He's essentially taken on the government's burden of spying on him, by doing all the spying himself.
One might argue that he's not being smart by doing this, he's being a sucker.
"Thank you, citizen, for sparing us the effort!"
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 6:57 PM on October 27, 2007
MeFi post:
you cant eat applause for breakfast
Agree with miko about demographic diversity. I was surprised - and surprised that I was surprised - when I realized my Chinese-Singaporean officemates ate char kway teow for breakfast.
My own preference for a fried rice/marinated fried pork/eggs-over-easy combination, or chocolate rice porridge sprinkled with bits of dried salted fish, would probably have them making faces, too.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 8:41 PM on October 8, 2007
MeFi post:
W.H.N.I.O.W.H.I.C.B.T.F.A.C
It is more or less organized crime anymore, despite ostensibly a communist revolutionary group.
Ditto, and ditto. What's worse is, we have idiots working within our own government who think that revolutionary taxation is a fine and dandy thing. Fucking useful idiots.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 3:24 PM on September 18, 2007
MeFi post:
Manila in my mind
Congratulations on your decision, jfuller, although I don't think it needs saying that you're going against the flow.
(Hey, should you need any help building contacts or getting around or what not, I'd be happy to help; my email is in my profile.)
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 7:44 PM on August 28, 2007
dhartung - it seems to me like there's a cultural shorthand at work: journalists covering your community (and mine) seem to have decided beforehand what symbols would best represent their subject in a few seconds' worth of footage. Most of the time, the actual residents get no say in the process.
I might be tempted to call it laziness, except that these guys are probably working under extremely tight deadlines. Why not just resort to the usual cliches, or shallow... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 9:45 PM on August 28, 2007
Artw - that's not even in Manila! But yes, every year some guys in the provinces get themselves nailed to crosses. It's a cult Catholic thing.
rhymer - I'm not in favor of covering up Manila's slumminess. It's there, and we have to deal with it realistically. I disagree, though, that slums are all the city has to show international journalists. (I'm in no position to judge how far you got around in only 10 days, and I have no idea how long ago that was.)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 3:22 PM on August 29, 2007
MeFi post:
NBC Dateline reporter busted at hacker conference
You're right... it seemed way too "convenient". She knew they were on to her even before she walked into the place. She admitted to "goons" that she had a hidden camera on her, even before she stepped into the conference hall. Anybody want to bet that a triumphant "gotcha" Dateline feature is in the works?
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 3:47 AM on August 5, 2007
MeFi post:
Asia’s Nobel Prize
I guess I should be more impressed, but I feel like a lot of the awards were given more for their symbolic value over the awardees' accomplishments.
I can't really speak for the awardees from other countries, but a brief rundown of the Filipino awardees just makes me go... meh. Corazon Aquino? Eggie Apostol? Miriam Santiago? One could make a case that their achievements were not very good examples of "integrity in government,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 6:07 PM on August 1, 2007
MeFi post:
Heather and Derek are suddenly out of JPG Magazine
Is it too early to ask about this crisis' long-term consequences? I ask as an outside party; I never really paid much attention to JPG until now, and don't know Derek/Heather/Paul from Adam.
Has JPG magazine/8020 been dealt a really serious blow, from which they might not recover?
Has the JPG community lost a critical segment for good? How many people left because of this, and how many stayed on nonetheless?
Did Paul's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 8:49 PM on May 17, 2007
MeFi post:
A million who leave
This reality is brought home every time I pass by the Foreign Affairs building and the U.S. embassy... and see the long queues crowding the entrances of both buildings.
Needless to say, I can't afford to look down my nose at these crowds. I've stood in both queues myself.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 5:46 PM on April 22, 2007
You have to wonder, too, how this will affect the average Filipino family in the long term.
My English teacher friend tells me that most of her students have at least one parent abroad; more and more families are dependent on remittances from absent parents to keep going. For a country that is sworn to "protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution" (it's even in the fucking Constitution), we're sure doing a hell of a job keeping... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 12:33 AM on April 23, 2007
MeFi post:
A Secret Society Spills Its Secrets
deep dish: my father is a Freemason, but much as I admire the organization for their activities and philosophy, I never bothered to join, because I'm an atheist. Unless they changed the rules on that one?
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 1:31 AM on October 5, 2006
MeFi post:
No rest for the dead...
Or, as Mary Roach describes in Stiff, you could also get composted.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 4:31 AM on August 8, 2006
When my family and friends bury me, I want them to know I will be the flowers at their funerals.
There are a few difficulties inherent in the process - among others, the need to be chopped up into bitty pieces, which might not go down well with most families.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 4:57 AM on August 8, 2006
MeFi post:
Blogs under scrutiny in Malaysia
Sounds like the government is conflicted on walking the talk where democracy is concerned. Religious freedom is one realm where the govt. sends mixed messages. And we all know what happened to Anwar Ibrahim.
But really, what difference would the current government stance make in a country with little history of a free press? Both Malaysia and Singapore have this tendency to only barely tolerate dissent in the media. Do Malaysian bloggers have any power to prevent... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 5:46 PM on August 3, 2006
Um, "censored" = "banned".
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 5:47 PM on August 3, 2006
...and when I was working in Singapore, the "fuckfilm girl", as we called the pirated-DVD vendor in our building, had Zoolander for sale.
There is room for dissent in Singapore and Malaysia, I think, if only you learn to keep your head down.
(I never did figure out how fuckfilm girl got her stash over the strait.)
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 3:06 AM on August 4, 2006
MeFi post:
The role of sniper particularly suits the mentality of the Jap soldier.
Racist? Ask any Filipino or Singaporean who survived the war and you'd realize that such hatred was pretty much well-deserved.
When the Japanese were cornered in Manila at the end of the war, they decided to take the rest of the city with them to Hell.
My wife and I recently visited this crypt in Intramuros where the Japanese had once piled up huge pyramids of Filipino corpses. They'd put a glass of water in front of each pile. If the water had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 6:52 PM on July 16, 2006
odinsdream - without any idea of what the enemy was in fact doing to the citizens in their occupied territories, yes, it's quite easy to deplore this cartoon as somehow "dehumanizing". I mean, it's hard to presume the humanity of an aggressor who refuses to extend you the same privilege.
Again, context: the average Japanese grunt thought their conquests were somehow sub-human. The extensive record of Japanese atrocities in the Pacific bears this out.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 7:16 PM on July 16, 2006
"but there's also no question that this booklet, with its yellow skinned bucktoothed eyeglass wearing cowardly semi-human cartoon villains is a pretty racist document." - oh, no question. But it is an artifact of its age, when "the only good Jap was a dead Jap". I simply can't find it in me to make any worthwhile comparisons between their racial attitudes then and ours now, considering the Japanese Army's inhumanity throughout the war.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 8:00 PM on July 16, 2006
Yes. Japanese ones.
Good, just checking. But Japanese tactics weren't just repellent to "western notions" - the Chinese, Malays, and Filipinos thought it was pretty fucked up too.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 8:19 PM on July 16, 2006
in many ways American attrocities in the Pacific Campaign were easily the equal of those committed by the Japanese.
I second vronsky. Supporting data, please.
Oh, and while it can be argued that American GIs may have thought the Japanese were inhuman, this attitude never quite translated into wholesale massacre by American rifle and bayonet. On the other hand, you have whole nations that still haven't come to grips with the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 9:56 PM on July 16, 2006
How many lives could have been spared if we'd been willing to settle for something less?
What "something less" did you have in mind? Let the Japanese keep their possessions in the Pacific? A truce situation like with contemporary North/South Korea? Were the Japanese themselves open to any other option apart from total victory?
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 11:18 PM on July 16, 2006
Yes they were. From what I understand they wanted to negotiate and were willing to give up a lot.
I'd appreciate some sources here. I'd hate to think that Manila was leveled for nothing.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 12:54 AM on July 17, 2006
The Japanese *people* were more than ready for the war to end, even if the Japanese officer corps were not.
Fat lot of good that did us. The point is moot, considering the social and political structure of Japan at the time.
in many ways American attrocities in the Pacific Campaign were easily the equal of those committed by the Japanese.
In what way were they "equal"? Do we,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 11:13 PM on July 17, 2006
MeFi post:
They're Made out of Meat
I think the should have used disembodied voices witnessing human actions like in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Ahhh, but different...
Or they could have ripped off MST3K and had a couple of robots riffing on "thinking meat... dreaming meat" while watching the meat on a movie screen.
Then again, what do I know.
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 9:12 PM on June 25, 2006
MeFi post:
What makes a prank great?
Simple, slightly evil: Because we were organizing this big event at a hotel, our office was entitled to the use of one hotel room. Most of us took advantage, taking long steamy showers in the bathroom before heading off to the event downstairs. I noticed how fogged up the mirror was as I got out of the shower.
I'd read somewhere that if you drew on a mirror using your finger, the invisible marks would show up very clearly when it got fogged up. I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 1:00 AM on January 9, 2006
MeFi post:
Guinness. Shaken not stirred.
Huh. They tried something similar in Singapore & Malaysia - to me it seemed rather fake and force-fit. (Fade in: daring photojournalist! Seeking danger! Living for adventure! And he drinks Guinness! Product shot; tagline - "You can when you believe." Fade out. That was it for the TV commercial.)
Playing to a more cynical audience, the "Adam King" campaign only managed to raise a few eyebrows, if not a few hackles.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by micketymoc
at 9:35 AM on November 8, 2005
