Jay Sonza: Patron Saint of Hopeful Idiots

This post is a tribute to Jay Sonza, who by my standards is the one politician who manages to stand out by not actually standing out. In my opinion, he is the true Filipino politician, the representative of the real Filipino.

• Hindi galing sa mahirap, pero mahirap sumuko.


• Hindi nangangakong hindi magnanakaw, pero parang sa sobrang nakakaawa, pagbibigyan mo na rin kumupit kahit onti lang.


• Hindi suportado ng administrasyon, kaya salat sa budget pambili ng peluka.


• Walang seksing first lady, at mukhang hindi na talaga sila magkakatuluyan ni Mel Tianco (sorry to hear that)

Yan si Jay Sonza.

Seriously though. What drives a man who's lead a seemingly successful career in one profession to wake up one morning and say "I'd like to do something different today." and completely go do a 180 degree turn and head for another field where he routinely shits himself and throws away what dignity he saved up all the years of his life?

The man anchored for a really good talk show, when him and Mel still had a good thing going, and he's a broadcast manager for a channel, albeit a somewhat obscure one. The man had a show called PINOY SCANDAL for fucks sake. Any show named after a porn site should be something to watch. Think about that, man. Think about that. (I'm not kidding. Check Wikipedia.)

6 years ago, probably out of shock from the Mel and Jay breakup, Jay Sonza finally broke his greymatter flask and gunned for senator, despite the fact that we only know him as "that" guy Mel Tianco always hangs out with, and ended up as the 41st out of 45 candidates, presumably beating three other candidates that may or may not actually be placeholder pieces of vegetables, and not real people. He did not even garner a top 20 spot in his own FUCKING HOMETOWN. I'm not sure about benchmarking popularity, but if you can't get even your own uncles to vote for you, you got some serious issues to work out.

Fast forward to now, Jay is once again trying to break into the scene (and hilariously). Figuring the only reason he failed before is that he was trying to get elected to a too low position, he aimed for the highest possible position in the land that allows you to be completely lazy and still post a good resume entry for it - Vice President. (Because let's face it, President-in-case-shit isn't exactly demanding, granted the president doesn't die. And since we haven't had a mabait-kaya-kinuha-ni-Lord president since Magsaysay, every VP since has been utterly useless)

Jay is seemingly blindly wandering through the sea of turmoil that is the campaign period without so much as a clue as to how the fuck he can win a vice presidential race - but none of that seems to faze our guy.

Asked in an interview on how he hopes to win, Jay is silently assuming that all those undecided votes are actually just secretly pining for him, coming out during the election day like ninjas that will break everybody's expectations in two.

Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but the jist is basically the same.

Jay Sonza - helpless, but never hopeless.

MRT Ticket Shortage Fun

Alright listen up.

I have with me a GENUINE RARE STORED VALUE MRT TICKET. March 2010 mint, limited edition, autographed by window cashier. 100 peso face value. Never been used, with faint scent of sweat used to acquire this darling piece of heaven. One of the last 100 in existence.

If you use the MRT as much as I do then you know that there is a retarded unexplainable shortage of tickets. Possible reasons I can think of so far are as follows:

1. Dear Leader Arroyo wants her face on every ticket (she almost already does actually) and she wants her face now on both sides, full body shot.

2. We will be replacing the ticketing system soon with Smartmatic scanners that will only let you in if you shade the Administration bets.

3. The MRT is running out of supplementary diet advertisements featuring either Chinese people or mediocre celebrities nobody remembers anymore. Less stored value tickets = less bonus rides = more profit = fuck you, dear commuter.

4. The stored value tickets are now being hoarded by a secret syndicate that wishes to open an underground economy of scalped tickets.

5. We will be releasing new MRT SVT prints that feature rising ABSCBN stars for no real reason at all. Nope. No real reason.

Anyway, best bid at the end of the day wins.

LRT New Operation Hours

For the information of the real environmentalists, LRT operation hours have now been adjusted to the following:

Last train ride to Monumento (weekdays): Departs from Baclaran at 9:30 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekdays): Departs from Monumento at 10:00 PM
Last train ride to Monumento (weekends): Departs from Baclaran at 9:00 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekends): Departs from Monumento at 9:30 PM

p.s
I'll take heed to your environmentalism babble after you get off that stupid car of yours and commute like me, as God intended.

Random Musings

Why do we have postcards of Philippine Presidents? I can't imagine a situation that a tourist or anybody who uses postcards for that matter would need to send somebody that kind of postcard. "Hi Anna! I'm in the Philippines right now, and I feel that you need to know what the deceased 2nd president of their country looks like." WISH YOU WERE WITH HIM.

Last year, MMDA banned sexy advertisements in EDSA, and I support that, granted that a few years back, an Ashanti picture nearly sent me flying over the Magallanes cloverleaf. But WHY is it that the new rule only applies to females, while male models are centimeters away from revealing their testicles on a 50x50 canvas? If a tourist were to observe how we cover our girls and make sure our men are stark naked in our ads, they'd think our whole country is gay.

The Country Of Dreams

by Hasna Usman, GW

Poverty is a state of mind.

Most people would, when confronted by this phrase, immediately disagree. Others would nod in an instant. To the disagreeing lot, poverty is a result of ill character, bad luck, and falling victim to an ever vicious cycle of materialism rampant in our society today. To the agreeing lot, poverty is but a hurdle to get over for the willing. Who wants to be poor, they'll ask. The answer to that question is indisputable.

I say both cases remain true, for there is potential in everybody to overcome poverty, and at the same time there exists a widespread vice-like grip that prevents our brothers from rising beyond what fate has laid out - absolute despair.

Consider the word "Dream". For such a short word, I cannot think any other can rival the weight it carries in its meaning: aspirations, ardent wishes, lifelong goals, and hope. It is a heavy word, for everything begins with a dream. Every good thing begins as somebody's wild thought, escaping from the mind that spawns it and then made a reality. Everybody has a tale of how some idea revolutionized the lives it touched, dreams that came true. Dreams are the seeds that sprout and give people the fulfillment in life that they seek. When it comes to dreams, our country is never poor.

The Philippines is a country of dreams. Honest dreams made by enthusiastic young spirits. Dreams that can make lives better.

It is sad to say however, that ours is not a country where dreams can truly thrive in. We live with a culture that urges us to keep in line, to do what society dictates us to do. For every dream that a child can come up with, there is an equivalent looming despair that will prevent that dream from ever becoming more than a moment's reverie.

It is said that James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine, was no older than six when he first started his fascination with steam power after seeing the boiling kettle. Schooled by nobody other than his own mother, he was explained the basics of steam. Twenty or so years later, he went on to create a machine that would catapult civilization into the industrialized age that we live in today.

James had the simple dream of harnessing that simple energy, a dream kindled by his first educator, James' mother. She could not have possibly imagined how such a simple lesson about steam back then would have changed the world as we know it today.

At school we are taught, if you learn this and that, you will eventually be able to get this or that job, you will not find it fulfilling, but your stomach will not grow hungry. We are taught, if we know slightly more than the other student, we will be more successful than him or her someday. In our minds, we are made to believe that everything we will ever need to succeed in the books. Anything that we do outside those precepts will only make us miserable. Breaking out of your mold will just give you despair.

But is this ever the case? William Gates III, the world's richest man never finished college. Steve Jobs, a man who revolutionized computers as we know it did not even complete two years of college. These people had dreams, and they realized success could not be achieved without them. There are countless more examples, people who realized something that many of us still haven't - the value of real education, one that we currently do not have.

Yes, the greatest failing of our educational system is that the youth of today are given poverty as a state of mind. Not physical poverty, but one that takes root in our mind. One that gives us despairs for every dream that we try to fulfill. This is not real education.

Real education is one that fosters what's already intrinsic in man - to be innovative, to rise above expectations, to find a vision, and make it real. Real education is one that goes beyond teaching a person. Real education inspires. Real education is the cure to the poverty as a state of the mind, and eventually the same cure that will remove poverty itself.

I have a vision. One day I can walk into any academic institution and see how it provides real education to its students. One day there will be schools that let its students realize that the distance between where the ground that they stand on and their lifelong goals are not too far away; schools where dreaming is encouraged, supported, and helped in realization.

And you'd think this is all farfetched, of how we are surrounded with rigid walls, built by tradition, closed-mindedness, and a vicious cycle of do-unto-others-what-had-been-done-to-thee. I tell you, my fellow country man, this is not far from what can happen. For a long as there is a single principal, a single teacher, a single parent believing that education is more than just learning to earn one's keep, that education is more than just memorizing the established, that education is questioning and seeking answers, and that education is a process of dreaming and realizing dreams, this ideal will remain moving towards the eventuality. This I can tell you.

No, this is not a dream. The Philippines empowered by a real concept of education is coming into fruition. A revolution is happening as you read this sentence, in the rurals, in the impoverished areas of Manila, in the words of the mother slowly but surely gifting his child with the light of literacy through a worn out pencil and a piece of paper, in the heart of the working student curiously looking at steam rising from the meal he is cooking.

Deep inside you, deep inside me is a piece of this country of dreams, with eyes that open little by little through education, waking up with the grand vision of the beautiful tomorrow, the only Philippines that we should be aiming for.

A country of realizing dreams.

Philippine Bond Investment 101

A few months ago I wrote a couple of articles here about stock trading here in the Philippines.


Stock Market 101 (part 1)
Stock Market 101 (part 2)

Between that time and now, I tried to refine my stock trading skills and at the same time, while I also studied and entered into other investment instruments. One of the better investment instruments that you may be interested in is the bond, which is like the more mellow, less drug-addled brother of the stock.

(more after jump)

First things first. A bond differs from a stock in a sense that a stock is a unit of ownership of a company while a bond is a unit of ownership of a debt (i.e. somebody owes you, and not the other way around, because in that case, we'd all be bigtime bond holders already).

In terms of income, a stock, like a company, may give you earnings but it is not guaranteed the if and the when, becuase not all companies have a steady source of earnings. A bond, being debt, will give you yearly "repayment interest" based on the agreed upon interest rate or "coupon rate", which is guaranteed, to some extent anyway.

The biggest risk of a bond is when the debtor becomes no longer able to pay for the debt, or refuses to do so. We will discuss this scenario in a bit. There are two types of bonds - corporate issued and government issued. Corporate bonds are generally with more interest but at a bigger risk of not being repaid due to the company folding.

Government bonds hold the same risk, but come on, when was the last time a government went totally bankrupt? As in not threaten to go bankrupt but completely bankrupt, Mr-President-Will-Sleep-In-The-Streets-Tonight bankrupt. Another risk is the government totally disappearing due to civil revolt, a war, or a giant meteor crashing down on your country (tough luck). The new government that will replace the old has the option to no longer recognize debt from the previous government. The same way we no longer recognize non-electronic, non sports-related stuff we gave to our exs. But then again if those things ever happen, not getting your bonds back will be the least of your worries.

Long story short, as far as investments are concerned, government bonds are a hellot more secure. And although it's not nearly as high yielding as stocks, it certainly beats the shit out of time deposits anyday of the week.

The lowest dollar bond I can see right now is at a coupon rate of 6.35% per annum, whereas the best dollar time deposit wont even reach the lower limit of 0.5% per annum. See the difference?

Bonds are usually issued per series. Philippine Government bonds are coded ROP's, followed by a series number that identifies it from other bonds. This number has no apparent pattern, and I've long since given up trying to figure out how they come up with it. Counting the number of hair strands left on the Banko Sentral Governor's head sounds like a sound explanation.

Anyway, bonds are usually sold to banks first, who then sell their acquired bonds to their higher end customers. By higher end, I mean minimum unit investments are large. Whereas a time deposite requires 5k and stock trading requires 10k, bonds usually trade on the range of 100k pesos or 10k dollars for foreign denominations. I'm not too sure on this, but that's what I've learned so far. Lower end investors are allowed to join mutual funds that pool the money that they have to avail of the larger investment requirements. (hence the term mutual fund)

Bonds also come with a number of years before the bond is paid back in full. For example, a bond that matures 2016 at a coupon rate of 10% will have 6 years (as of this writing) that will pay the bond owner 10% of the original amount EVERY year. Then on 2016, the amount is returned to the lender, by then the capital would have grown by 60%. (ridiculous, but it happens). Each ROP series will have a different maturity year and a different coupon rate, since the time each series is issued is different.
As a rule of thumb, bonds issued during times of prosper have high interest rates, while bonds during recessions have very low interest rates. One reason for this is becuase during good years, it's easier to make your money grow on any other investment than bonds, so the government has to sweeten the deal just to get people to buy. And vice versa.

Now, sometimes Bonds have a maturity date of almost 30 years. (mine wont mature until 2036, for example). What if you need to lose it? Answer: Sell it to some other guy at a price he's willing to get it for. Hence the bonds market.

The bonds market is kind of like a stock market for bonds belonging to previous owners of bonds that were issued during the initial government issuance. Kinda like a buy and sell lot for government debt. If you want to sell a bond, the price is usually affected by #1 the potential of a bond and the willingness of a buyer to buy your bond at your set price. The potential is usually obeserved by how much higher the coupon rate is and the number of years left in a bond before maturity. The higher the rate and the longer the number of years, the more value a bond holds. (need to check on the effect of years though). The willingness of buyers can usually be affected by a lot of things, too many to mention here but the majority is as follows (i.e. these things will drive the demand up):

1. Stock market/economic instability
2. Banks lowering their interest rates to entice borrowers
3. Overall inflation increasing.

The opposite of course will drive the bond prices down instead.

1. Stock Market bull runs, economic recoveries
2. Banks gradually increasing interest rates
3. Inflation dropping or going neutral

Of course somestimes, the price is pushed down lower than its actual face value. A 100$ bond sometimes gets sold at 86$, which is already a solid bargain, because on top of the interest you get, you will get another 14$ if you sell on the date of maturity, or more if ever the demand pushes bond prices higher than 100$ and you decide to sell.

If you're interested in this sort of investment, the best person to talk about it is your bank manager (as long as youre not in a rural, blood, or sperm bank), who should be more than happy to assist you. Transactions through the bank are usually charged with a 2% comission for both sales and acquisitions.

Short of it? Bonds are a good investment to fight off cash depreciation. A good percentage of your dormant money can be stored here at very little risk and it's a good investment tool to compliment stock trading if you can't afford to stake it all in the high risk game of stocks.

Good hunting.

PARTY ON

"God damn, that's one sexy poster. Are we rocking or what?"

"Oh hell yeah. If the hands in the pocket doesn't tell everybody we're game, I don't know what will"

"Hang up. I got another idea. Dude's going to be so hard, panties will come flying at us at supersonic speeds"

"Okay, what's the plan?"

"Break the goddamn leg."

"Wait, you can't do that. Remember the last time we tried that with one of the models? It was a bitch having to haul the body to Cavite"

"Alright. I got this covered. Do you have a copy of MS Paint?"

10 Stock Lessons I Had To Learn The Hard Way

Here are 10 things that anybody trying stock trading should know. Most of these are fairly common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people violate them anyway, in the name of losing money for the sake of stupidity. I know I did. In any case, I'm going to try and save you the hassle of going through some of my most gut wrenching experiences. If you listen, good. If you don't well, treat this as a program brochure for the play "How The Fuck Do You Lose Your Money" starring your trading self.

Oh, yeah, it's written in Tagalog since I wrote it for another website.


1. Pag kumita, wag makati ang kamay at bili ng bili. lalong mawawaldas ang kita mo pag naexcite ka pumasok ulit. Bumili ka na lang ng dvd.

2. Pag nalulugi, wag maging desperado humanap ng ibang stock na makakabawi ng pagkalugi. Mahirap magisip ng tuwid pag desperado. Lalo ka lang mawawalan. Cut loss agad, tapos wag magpadala sa agos ng trading.

3. Wag sakim. Pag nakita mo na may kita ka na at medyo kuntento ka na dito, wag mo na hantayin pa na nasa tuktok na ang presyo. Pag nakalabas na at umakyat pa rin, wag na pumasok.

4. Speaking of labas-pasok, iwasan ito. Broker lang ang kikita. Matutong maging pirmi.

5. Pag maganda ang ekonomiya, buy and hold ang pinakasafe na paraan, except kung "wonderstock" ang usapan. Dapat dun lagi nasa labas na ang isang paa mo palagi. Ready to run palagi, parang si Erap.

6. Wag mangakit ng iba pang tao pumasok sa stock market dahil lang sa isang tip. Marami nang tanga na nalulugi sa market. Wag na paramihin pa. Dadami lang kaaway mo at dadami lang ang katulad ko.

7. Iwasan maging emosyonal. Kung gusto mo magventout, bumili ka ng punching bag, o di kaya makipaginuman ka sa kanto.

8. Wag maniwala sa kahit na sino. Kahit si Andres Bonifacio pa yan, pag may payong stock sayo, pagaralan muna. Hindi lahat ng bagay nabubuhay pagkatapos ng 3 araw.

9. Magbasa ng TP at dyaryo araw-araw. Hindi lang ng isang guru, lahat. Big picture dapat palagi, parang Imax.

10. Ugaliing magpasalamat. Sa dyos, sa mga bossing dito sa TP, sa broker mo, at higit sa sa lahat sa sarili mo, kasi ikaw ang sarili mong boss pagdating sa trading, wala nang iba.

Life, Love, The Works

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, and it seems to have been raped by enough robots to be able to sell the rights to a filmhouse making nerd porn. As is customary, I am now to enumerate updates on my life (i.e. best attempts at excuses why I wasn't posting anything noteworthy)

Actual excuses worthwhile endeavours after the jump.

1. I've been pouring extra effort in stock trading. My recent losses with MPI and LodeStar Mining have now gone down from six digits to a paltry four digits thanks to IPVG-E-Games and well, Loadstar Mining. With this I am glad to report that after all those stupid things I did, fate has been kind enough to ensure that I will not spend my latter years sleeping in the streets shirtless. Lately I'm tempted to go back to the stock market, but I'd like to take the time to reevaluate some of my personal trading advices (apart from "Just don't"). I'll post them later here, in case you also want to stake your future on a field as random as John Lloyd Cruz's dancing. Current position 30% cash, 10% stock, 60% canned goods. (SPAM does not devaluate, and worse comes to worst it's a good source of protein)

2. Chemical Manila, my ongoing apocalyptic speculative novel is still ongoing, now standing at 19 chapters, approximately 22,000 words, and a zero audience base. Apparently less people want to read about Chemical Manila that's actually set in Manila, compared to the earlier release that was set in Laguna. Maybe it's the hotsprings. Anyway it doesn't matter. The story will continue as I see fit. Meanwhile, if you're interested, link can be found here: CLICK HERE.

3. I've been writing for the soft reboot of the magazine I used to audition for. So far I've written three full articles already with another one coming up for the next issue. I'll be giving more information on this as the issue actually comes out, because even if I told everybody here that yes, some editor was crazy enough to actually thinks that the things I write here are fit for paid consumption (haha. hi pao), nobody would believe me. But yeah, it's been consuming my time and mostly creative energies. Kinda like Noynoy Aquino's gray material. When you work with very small amounts of something, you'd be surprised how often it gets drained.

4. I finally got myself a new computer, and seeing as my last computer's capabilities go only as far as 2003, I now have a backlog of 7 years worth of games to play. Just to demonstrate how far that goes, the only Call of Duty game I played until I finished Call of Duty World at War game a few days ago was Call of Duty 1. Without the expansion. So now I'm dunking myself headfirst into gaming again, although my body is now protesting against it, having been used to playing simple games that don't chuck photorealistic and highly dynamic environments in your eyes, which is the equivalent of trying to fit our First Gentleman into a handcarry luggage (forgive the comparisons, I can't really think of a lot of fat people analogies lately. They weigh me down)

5. Bonds. I've also gone into the bonds market now. My mother's been more than happy to teach me the ins and outs but so far, I've been as absorbent as a piece of marble. It's a whole different ballgame from the stock market and it moves at the pace of our economic development, and literally. Boring, but dependable I'd say. Still, you can't really beat 6% a year for dollar accounts.

6. Work. I can't really elaborate anymore how much work I have. I've long since given up trying to make sense out of all of it but I realize my job is still a whole lot better than Noynoy Aquino's PR staff. At least for my case, my problems aren't affecting national stability. I'm now open to any other major developments in my career, though in keeping with my principle that's exclusively based on the virtue of sloth, I'd rather stay here.

7. Digiworx and me are now officially part of the final roster of people who submitted movies to the Fully Booked Philippine Graphic Literature Awards. You can still vote for us (see post after this one) on the online poll thingie. We can get free IPod Touches for it. I'll be so generous to share you a free mp3 song if you vote for us and we win. (Download costs from 4shared not included)

8. My girlfriend, for if not for her my world would have long since crumbled. Well, maybe not really. I just thought it'd be awfully sweet if I said that, as though I'm dedicating a book to her, only I have no book yet, and I want instant gratification. Seriously though, we need more time together. Like we still haven't finished both Left 4 Dead installments. Maybe I need to put that on top of my things to do list. Yeah that.

Anyway, that's it for today. I have to go back to work now.

VOTE FOR US

Our Fully Booked Philippine Graphic Literature Awards 2009 entry for Short Film has been short listed. Story and script was written by me, while the film was directed by my cousin Gharawi Usman. Please vote for us using this link:

CLICK HERE.

Lost and Found is a short film that plays with the ruinous irony of granted wishes. Filipinos are raised in a culture that demands respect for elders at the constant threat of karmic retribution. The story of Lost and Found is a take on this idea, delivering poetic justice to a disrespectful young woman simply too eager to skip out on her family duties.

We really worked hard on this. Like ass hard. So we appreciate any votes you can give.

SPREAD THE WORD. WE NEED YOUR HELP. FOR EVERY VOTE YOU SEND, WE WILL SEND 100 pesos to the REDKINOKO FOUNDATION FOR THE EMPOVERISHED REDKINOKO. JUST KIDDING. VOTE ANYWAY. I LOVE YOU ALL! :D