Solidaridad Bookshop Don’t Want Your Business

I just had the unfortunate opportunity to walk into Solidaridad book store, a book shop owned by F. Sionil Jose. I was walking along Padre Faura St. with a friend and we decided to just take a look at what the books were on sale. As we entered, we were immediately told to leave our bags somewhere, not exactly shown where but we have to leave our bags.

I was carrying my 3ds, a huge wallet, a few valuables, cell phones, and other gadgets that I had to carry a backpack to carry all of them and the idea that I had to carry all of them by hand so I could look at what books they are selling, so I could pull out a book from the shelf with my mouth wasn’t an appealing prospect.

I told one of the staff that I’m carrying a lot of gadgets, hence why I carried a bag in the first place.

There was an old gay man sitting by the door who said we have to leave our bags and he said it like this. “It is the store’s policy to leave your bags if you want to go in. Those are the rules. Just take your things with you.” To which I replied “So you would rather inconvenience your customers?” I was carrying a lot of valuables and carrying them to leave an empty bag, was a stupid idea for me. I wasn’t dying to enter but I asked anyway. I asked if they would take responsibility if my things were to be damaged or lost, they didn’t answer my question but just said “It is not an inconvenience, it is the policy of the store.” That answer my question and didn't make me comfortable leaving my belongings, ah but who cares about customer comfort??

I suppose they wouldn’t give a damn whether my stuff were damaged as long as I leave it there and they wouldn’t have to think about someone shoplifting a book, because who cares if a customer’s valuables were stolen or damaged as long as they are keeping their store from book thieves? How horrible is the idea of someone stealing a book, they might actually get rid of their ignorance from reading, oh the horrors.

I didn’t really feel like going in anymore because the way the old gay man was saying the store rules sounded like they didn’t want customers. I wouldn’t mind my bag to be checked before entering and checked before leaving but these guys have some serious customer trust issues. The old gay man then said “If you don’t want to leave your bags then WE DON’T WANT YOUR BUSINESS!!” he said it raising his voice in a way, he should have just said “GO AWAY” and I just said “Okay” because at the end of the day, it wasn’t our loss. My friend was checking out a book and told me to wait a second. I told her “You still have your bag and they don’t want your business.” So we went on ahead. They didn’t even bother to welcome us into the bookstore anyway in the first place and immediately imposed the bag policy. I wasn’t able to read the sign if there were any, about it.

I’d hate to break it to the half-bald gay man by the door if he is the definition of security in the store, but brick and mortar book shops like that NEED customers and shooing them away is not going to help the book shop at all. If they want security, they can hire a security guard or install CCTV cameras. Would they drop dead and compromise between the staff and customer were to happen?

I hope they would treat their customers better in the future if they want establishments that carry a good selection of Philippine Lit to survive long enough and not just appear on some hipster blog saying how awesome it is.

They don’t need to intimidate customers like they did with us and such treatment is not deserved by any customer. That was the rudest and most offensive experience I’ve had in a book shop. It’s not like they are the only book store in Manila or that the books there can’t be seen anywhere else. I’ve taken to just buying books from Amazon because they are cheaper and the million selections available is amazing. Online book buying in the Philippines is also improving, people are trading, selling, and buying books online from fellow book enthusiasts. Who would want to traverse horrific Philippine Traffic and torturous for a book nowadays?

At the age of Kindle and ebook reading, book enthusiasts have found very convenient ways to get the books they want without ever having to leave their houses. Also, the Philippines have a very small crowd of readers. A population of 100 million only has a tiny percent of readers that if a writer here has sold 1000 copies, it is considered a best-seller and would appear in papers already.

That the bestselling Filipino book isn’t something that F. Sionil Jose has written, it was a pocket book titled Kristine by Martha Cecilia, which is the block buster hit of Philippine literature that managed to put a lot of books to shame by selling hundred thousands of copies and probably passing the million mark today.

I love Philippine literature and have read a few of F. Sionil Jose’s saga and novels. Reality is, not a lot of Filipinos care much about Philippine literature. It’s a sad reality in our country where only handfuls are avid readers, and very few are avid readers of Filipino written books exist.

So today, I will be selling all my F. Sionil Jose books at a friendly price online. It is high time to clean out the library at home anyway. It doesn't have to be hard to get his books.

And now, F. Sionil Jose would be writing his endless essays on why Filipinos don't read and don't buy Filipino literature... this is one of the reasons.

Tongue Exchange

Hellishly tired and would really like to sleep but here I am typing away on my netbook. I know I haven't kept this blog alive for quite some time and now I'm being active again.

I celebrated CNY last night at our temple in Manila and was taken by my friends on a road trip to nowhere right after. Slept in a car and I was glad I brought a tooth brush and some change of undergarments. It was only in the afternoon when I finally got back home. I'm happy about getting to spend some quality time with my friends and it was a blast, but it really does take its toll on the body.

Last year, I have decided to commit myself in learning Japanese. To really improve my skill from where I left it a few years ago and a Japanese friend recommended a teacher. I happily organized a small class out of my friends to learn it once a week but I found that it wasn't something that I wanted so I searched for another option, of course there are many ways to skin a cat, I decided to look for ads online of people willing to practice their language with someone. So I found someone in Sta Rosa who was a Japanese and was interested in learning Filipino.

It was something that I never really expect would bear any sort of fruit and it was just a try whether it would work out or not. It took a few days to get a response and just when I thought my message didn't push through, she replied and we immediately set a date to meet in my hometown, a rather convenient place for me and for her.

This is my first experience with utilizing online language exchange sites. I've read about it when I was in Taiwan, how foreign men would not only get a language partner learning Chinese but also a partner in bed... of course it is a mutual kind of relationship.

It gave me a few laughs back then because it was something I had no idea about. Back then I didn't need a language partner to practice my Chinese on, we had classes and was most of the time with people who speak Chinese and were willing to correct my sentences when I braved the atmosphere to say something.
I was finally getting the hang of it and memorizing characters wasn't a bad thing but I questioned my ability with languages and if there's a new language I would like to add to my arsenal of fluently spoken languages, Japanese won out. I had to turn my back on Mandarin.

"I think you're an Otaku" Shino said, my language partner gauged.

"Really? You think so? What are Otakus anyway?" I replied, though I had an idea of what an otaku is, a person who is probably a geek who is interested in geeky stuff. Honestly, she wasn't too far off...

"Otaku is a person who looks forward for the weekend to watch animes or play videogames. They just spend their money on their hobbies like that until they're middle aged. But it is alright, we Japanese are proud of our Otakus." Shino answered.

I simply agreed and continued our studies together, but being labeled as an Otaku was a bit unsettling but I  was fine with it. I know in a few days, I must really become an adult, must make commitments and prepare for a lot of things. I am not always an otaku, or will be...

I meet Shino once a week. At the same time and at the same place. It's been going on for months now. I can say that she's enjoying herself because she asked me to have dinner with her on our second meet, I guess I'm good company. I find that she is an agreeable and pleasant person to be with. Shino is not an Otaku, she prefers to go out into the wild and explore things on foot. Her interest in culture and art is rather insatiable and she has traveled half of the globe to satisfy her free spirit.
I consider myself very lucky to have met her. I'm giving myself three years to master Japanese.

Hand Made Monster Hunter Icons

I really love the Monster Hunter series. So I decided that I would make a wooden carved key-chain out of the icons from the game.

Great Sword Icon

I know it's not much but I wanted to see how the icons would look like on wood because of their simple and recognizable design. I'm a bow user so I decided to make one from the bow icon and I found that the Great Sword icon is rather simple enough to give it a try. 

I've been playing Monster Hunter for years now and it started back when I still owned a PSP, was thinking of buying a PS Vita if they had an MH game but sadly the PS Vita didn't, so I decided to buy a Nintedo 3DS instead. 

Currenlty playing MHX today and I'm quite happy about it even though it is only a Japanese release and we don't have news yet if it's coming to the West. I still have a few projects on wood carving so I'm a bit busy with these projects and I also have an upcoming project that is currently in the works.

I'm rather sad about not having the time to play games but I have to take it like an adult. I'm not ashamed that I love playing games and it is perfectly a wonderful source of entertainment and abnegation. 

I will make more of these and see where I can go from here, as long as I have extra materials and time to work on trinkets like these again. In the mean time, projects and commissions come first and I would be happy to show some of the projects that I have been working on some time soon.