Recently, there have been a lot of hate towards the KPOP fandom in the Philippines and KPOP itself. There are a couple of Facebook fan pages that are dedicated solely in hating KPOP. While searching for the term “KPOP Jologs” on Google, I found out that there’s a discussion thread in MYX’s Facebook fan page entitled “KPOP IS JUST FOR JOLOGS JOLOGS!!!!” (Ironically, the group was created by Westlife fans ) Honestly, I wasn’t THAT surprised by this turn of events… I have somehow anticipated that this would happen sooner or later given the raging popularity of KPOP in the Philippines. Just last year, I posted an article expressing my disagreement to the soon-to-be KPOP craze with the anticipation that KPOP will soon be “jologs”. Nonetheless, I do feel the need to defend the Fandom by debunking the common attacks against KPOP and its fans.

Why the hate?

I felt the need to post this blog because “arguing” on the MYX discussion board is pointless. The entire discussion is a huge flamebait wherein each reply contain at least 1 Ad Hominem and 2 curses. I have posted a very long, three-paragraph rational argument and my reply was followed with a post that reads “Putangina mo”. So yeah, I wish your eyes good luck if you wish to read that discussion board.

So okay, let’s start discussing the most common “attacks” to the KPOP fandom and KPOP. I will continually update this post when “new” attacks surface. 

1. KPOP is JOLOGS

Before we can sanely argue if “something” is “jologs”, we must first define what jologs is. In my previous post wherein I discussed SNSD’s popularity, I defined jologs as:

I don’t really know how to define Jologs but I will try to give an example on how something can achieve the Jologs status. Just as a certain footwear became the “in” thing in the Philippines. This particular footwear is really expensive considering its just a pair of rubber stuff worn on one of the smelliest parts of the human body. But since the Philippines has that penchant for creativity, anything is plagiarized just as fast as the speed of light, the said footwear now cost only 50 pesos and is readily available at your local tiangge. Now everyone from your driver, to your labandera’s son owns the skillfully crafted identical footwear you are wearing. The footwear is now “mainstream” in the sense that the “representative population” of the Philippines (AKA “the masses”) can now own and wear the footwear. Congratulations, your footwear is now jologs.

In summary, something is jologs when the “representative population” of the Philippines (AKA “the masses”) have direct access to it. In terms of music (or entertainment), a certain music genre is jologs when “the masses” have direct access to it by means of local radio and TV. The jologs factor of the music is being amplified when said music is being played in places where “the masses” thrive like the “Divisoria” or some low-end malls. In one word, a music genre (or anything for that matter) is jologs when it is already “mainstream”.

Given the criteria above, I must sadly acknowledge that KPOP is now jologs. Here are the telltale signs:

• Remember Wondergirls’ Nobody? Even Jollibee and KFC’s Chucky wasn’t immune to it.
• SHINee’s visit for the Korea-Philippines Friendship day
• 4Minute’s guess appearance at Wowowee (I love Hyuna!)
• F.T Island’s concert at PICC
• 2PM’s Nichkhun Danbi shoot at Payatas (Ala Manny Villar)
• UKISS’ guess appearance at Party Pilipinas
• Upcoming Super Junior concert at Araneta

If that wasn’t enough, local KPOP-wannabee groups such as POP GIRLS and XLR8 are polluting the local KPOP scene. (Side comment: I think XLR8 is a huge improvement from POP GIRLS. The entire act is so KPOP-ish. They even release 30 second trailers on Youtube lol. )

Here’s the take-away: Most western groups are jologs (yes, that includes Westlife). Both (them and KPOP) have already achieved critical mass to be considered jologs. However, the “English” group’s  material is much more accessible to the pinoy “masses”, thus achieving more jologs points. Case in point, I say that there is a certain level of sophistication that is required to be a TRUE KPOP fan… the barrier-to-entry to KPOP fandom is way higher compared to western music. Remember that our country is more “western” (in terms of music) than Asian and most Filipinos can easily understand English by default… so there is a tendency for them (the masses) to listen to “English” songs more than KPOP. So the question is, why the sudden influx of KPOP fandom “membership”? I say it’s just a trend. Like the Macarena trend, we true KPOP fans hope that it will soon fade out of the limelight.

As a side note, please do not confuse the poser KPOP fan — one who merely follow the trend, with the true KPOP fans. They are not of the same caliber.

2. KPOP Fans do not understand the lyrics

This has to be the most pathetic assault on KPOP. For the sake of argument, I must say that I can’t really follow the English lyrics of Paramore (Or songs with growling in it). Now, people might say “Well, you just suck at understanding English lyrics”… Those people are usually the ones who do a mockery of the song by singing it with a different lyric with the defense of mishearing the song. (Side comment: I have a colleague who went to the Paramore concert and was singing “That’s what you get” and I had to correct his lyrics). Although this argument does not justify the inability of Filipinos to understand Korean, it illustrates that people can enjoy music without really understanding the lyrics.

Setting that point aside, let me just say that we “true” KPOP fans are willing to go the extra mile to understand the idols (Note: Idol is another word for boy band or girl group). Each popular KPOP group has their own international fan cafe (read: Fansite) where fans can download “subbed” (with subtitles) music videos (MV). To have a more deeper understanding (or connection, if you will) of the group, fans would usually download variety shows, commercials, BTS (behind-the-scene) clips, award show clips, documentaries and news clips where their idols are in. Not only that, true fans will usually take the effort to learn the basics of the Korean culture because it is impossible to fully grasp the context of the songs without such understanding of the Korean society (Like what does “Oppa” mean? Why is there a need to suffix names with “Ssi”, etc). Also, most true fans that I know can read Hangul (I said read, not understand. )… If you really put an effort into learning it, you can read any KPOP lyrics in just 6 hours! (Watch this series of tutorials to learn Hangul now!)

Remember what I was saying about KPOP having a high “barrier-to-entry”, well this is it. For us, this is what makes the fandom more meaningful. Having a deep understanding of a foreign culture that we admire and at the same time, having a deeper connection with our favorite groups. Since the Philippines is intrinsically western (we are more American than Asian), I doubt that there’s a need to “go the extra mile” to understand the English bands and their culture.

3. Korean group members are not talented

This really really makes me mad. I have a colleague (yep, you guessed it right, she’s a she) who will always insists that Girl’s Generation (SNSD) is not talented in terms of singing and dancing. I mean., W.T.F., she even compared SNSD to Sexbomb! Blasphemy!!! Okay okay, enough of the obsessive fan boy act.

According to her, SNSD members are not talented singers because they are producing “synthesized” music (or music that is heavy on the usage of Synthesizers). Okay, she might have forgotten that SNSD is a POP GROUP performing a Bubblegum pop song; I may not be an expert on music but Bubblegum pop rely heavily on Synthesizers. I mean, I don’t even understand how the use of synthesizers undermines the singer’s vocal capabilities. Another issue that she pointed out is that SNSD is always lip syncing during performances… My response to that is that – SNSD performances are not concentrated on just “singing”, they also do a lot of powerful dances with cute poses together with the performance. Singing is just a part of the performance. If the performance is just singing, then they will always sing live. Local artists are more pathetic, the number are just singing and yet they are lip syncing.

Another colleague of mine has a girlfriend with innate hate towards SNSD. She criticizes SNSD’s dance routine; according to her, the dance moves are just cutesy and not even hard (she even showed us how “easy” it is for her to dance Gee; I will just leave the imagination to you on how it turned out). Adding insult to injury, she said that the “Pussycat Dolls” is a lot better than SNSD when it comes to dancing just because their dance routine involves breaking your bones in 17 different places (Italicize text is mine).

This is what I want these people to understand. SNSD (and other KPOP idol groups for that matter) is a POP GROUP. Their total entertainment value does not rely solely on just dancing or singing; it’s an entire package. They are, what I call, entertainers. Allow me to explain.

In Korea, there are big entertainment companies (like conglomerates) that control the Korean media. These entertainment companies hold “audition” all over the country to recruit (more like hoard) really young talents (like 9 years old). After they recruit talents, they will put them on a crazy “Training Academy” in where they will be trained in areas of singing, dancing, modeling, acting, rapping, foreign languages, asian poses, looking at the camera (projection), fashion, etc (all of the needed skills to be successful in the entertainment industry). The average training period is 6 years… during this time, they do not have any exposure to the public (If you’ve watched Batang-X, it is somewhat like this ). Now, when the company decides “Okay, we need a new group”, they will select from this pool of well-trained entertainers to create the group and they will let them sign unfair contracts that span 10 years (and then perform plastic surgery! Kidding! ).

My point is, how dare you compare these well-trained entertainers to a group of On-the-Job trainee entertainers. No, sorry, that’s not my point. My point is, these people are “commercially” created in “talent factories” to entertain. They are performers that are “created” to suit the public taste. They do not write their own song, they don’t even choreograph their own dance. The company will decide on what “concept” (song, dance, fashion, etc) suits the current entertainment climate and they will hire armies of stylists, composers, choreographers to “train” the group. But that doesn’t mean they are not talented. Even before they “start” training, they are already talented. Remember the gruesome audition process? They are being picked against thousands of candidates. And right after that, they are even trained in all aspects of the entertainment business. How can you say they are not talented?

One argument that I always receive is this: “Local artists don’t even need years of training and yet they are performing okay”. Seriously? I was a genius at birth but I still had to attend school and college to get a job. So don’t throw me that argument, it’s just stupid. And as a side effect of this “untrained” entertainers, just look at their performance on noon-time shows… its mediocrity at its best. They don’t know where the camera is, they don’t have any “emotions”, and they have that smile on their face that says “I don’t know what I’m doing but since I look good, I’ll just copy the backup dancers”. Your entertainers are not just “untalented” (incapable), they are also unskilled. Maybe it is best to put them in some “training academy”.

4. KPOP fans are not nationalistic

Growing up, I was not really fond of music. Okay, I take that back, let me rephrase. Growing up, I was not really fond of contemporary music. I grew up listening to my Dad’s antique song collection that includes John Denver, Matt Monro and Frank Sinatra. For me, contemporary music (both foreign and local) is just too “noisy”. Somehow, I felt that the “perfection” found on my Dad’s antique song collection is not found on said contemporary music. That all changed when I first heard the local band called Eraserheads from our neighbor’s loud boom box. The music of Eraserheads is what we call OPM (or Original Pilipino Music) and up to this day, their albums are still on my MP3 player (together with Rivermaya’s and Parokya ni Edgar’s albums). Sadly, as one of my dear readers have pointed out, the “O” in “OPM” is now long gone; It’s no longer “original”. It’s the same crappy, mediocre, cheap rip-off of whatever music is perceived “cool” by the masses (usually foreign songs).

My point? We, KPOP fans, will not “support” the local music industry just because “we need to support our own”. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way. I would gladly buy a repackaged E-heads album but I will NEVER EVER EVERY buy POP GIRLS’ album or Sexbomb’s album or Sarah Geronimo’s album (Sorry SG fans, you don’t have the right to label “Right Here Waiting” as OPM). If local artists wants our support, they should first rid themselves with the mediocrity that is so common in the local music scene today.

One of the reasons why I am addicted to KPOP is because I can see “perfection” on everything they do. From the superior technicality of their music videos to the perfect execution of their dance routines, you can never see a hint of mediocrity on their performances. I was never able to detect the prevalent “Puwede na yan” (It will do) mentality on their products. It’s just perfection all around. Let me emphasize:

• In terms of technicality: They have HD videos (720p at least) while we are still stuck with Standard Definition. The camera angles (close-ups) are just perfect, I can’t say the same to the camera angles on our noon-time show (I often end up puking out of dizziness).
• In terms of dance routines: Synchronized. Just watch our local talents on noon time show to get your daily dose of mediocrity. (and hey, wardrobe malfunction anyone?)
• In terms of “concept”: In Korea, they have this concept of “debut”, “hiatus” and “comeback”. When a certain KPOP idol group “debut” for the first time, they will promote their album using a certain “concept” (Sexy concept, cute concept, dark concept, etc). The concept covers fashion (Wardrobe), hairstyles and behavior (Yes! Each concept have a certain “feel” that the members of the group needs to emit) among others. After promoting their albums on different shows for a couple of months, the group will then go into “hiatus” which will officially end their “group activities” and promotions. Using the “hiatus” time, the company and the group will then prepare the new “concept” and album for their “comeback”. Usually, the new “concept” is totally different from the previous concept and you will feel that its an entirely different group! My point? KPOP groups always deliver fresh material. Unlike our local talents who are just stuck on whatever image they started with (Uh sorry, I shall correct myself. When local artist reach the lowest point of their careers, they usually post nude/sexy on Men’s Magazine. Maybe that’s their new “concept” huh? )

I think I have the answer why the local music industry is suffering from mediocrity and its bad effects: Lack of competition and complacency. Big stars are complacent because there is no competition and somehow, new artists never seems to threaten the big stars. When was the last time Regine Velasquez or Christian Bautista came up with a new concept? It’s the same stuff and I’m sick and tired of it. Complacency kills competition and lack of competition kills innovation. Did you know that in just 2009, there are a total of 10 KPOP girl groups that debuted in Korea? That is how tough the competition is in Korea! And big stars such as Lee Hyori is never complacent because they are never guaranteed the top spot anytime they make a comeback — they need to fight for it. Anyone who took an Economy subject knows that market competition is a good thing — and that applies in music, too.

5. KPOP boy band members look gay (or lesbian)

I have a colleague who’s a practitioner of MMA (Mixed martial arts) and I wasn’t surprised that he thinks Super Junior (and other KPOP boy band for that matter) is gay. Ironically, he thinks that LFO and Justin “Beaver” is cool.

Anyway, there’s a recent scandal between the popular Philippine DJ Mo Twister and the KPOP boy band UKISS (Details here). Apparently, MO dissed UKISS by twitting “UKISS looks gay” or “UKISS looks like my lesbian aunt”. Filipino KPOP fans shouldn’t really be surprised about this, Mohan is known as a “careless” DJ with a penile disorder (Wikipedia’s words not mine)… the guy’s surrounded by scandal for saying stupid things. Also, just a little bit of FYI, Mo is born and raised in the US of A. His perception of what “manly” is is being influenced by his American lineage. For Mo Twister and my MMA friend, this is how they define manly:

"Manly" by Mo Twister

What I am saying is, when judging KPOP boy bands, please do not forget that this people are POP GROUPS from an East Asian country. For them, being “manly” is not defined by biceps and tight shirt nor is it defined by grown men cuddling with cute teddy bears. The issue here is that Koreans (boy or girl) have an insatiable addiction to cute things. This is a “social” thing in Korea… I will let the Korean do the explaining:

Why is this happening? A society’s consumption pattern is a complex sociological issue, requiring many eggheads and inscrutable doctoral dissertations in order to uncover the multitudinous layers that create a sophisticated mosaic comprised of tastes, class identifications and …

Heck, who is the Korean kidding? The answer is one word:  Japan.

Although Korea is a major exporter of culture at this point (in the form of movies, TV dramas and pop music,) Korea had no significant pop culture to speak of as recently as 40 years ago as the country struggled to build their way out of the heap of rubble. As Korean pop culture grew into form, it was influenced by two major pop cultures close to Korea — American and Japanese. It is, then, no surprise that Korea is infected by Japan’s love for cute cartoon characters. Let’s face it — people like cute things. There is no population of children in the world that rejected Pokemon, and that’s not because of its compelling story line. It is perhaps the first cartoon whose only appeal was cuteness overload.

So, there you have it, blame the Japanese’s Kawaii culture!

Okay, let me move on to my next point. We Filipinos are heavily influenced by the Americans. When they bought us from Spain for US$20,000,000.00 in 1898 (Treaty of Paris), they didn’t just “use” the Philippines as a military base, they’ve also “educated” us. In the process of educating the Filipinos, the transference of their social, political, and economic culture was inevitable. As a result, Mckinley’s dream for the Philippines has been fulfilled. A nation who thinks and speaks like an American but will work for half the price (I Kid, I Kid ).

Anyway, my point is, most Filipino’s outside the Fandom will think that KPOP boy band members are gay (or lesbian) because they are mentally-conditioned to do so. Growing up, they (or we) were bombarded by movies of Robin Padilla wielding dual handguns in a shiny leather jacket… for them, that is the definition of being a man and we cannot change or influence that. Being a true KPOP fan, it is our obligation to just ignore their lack of understanding of cultures outside of their own. Let me quote the Korean again for his words of wisdom:

The only reason why American adults are inhibited from embracing their cuteness-loving nature is the years of Puritanical repression they suffered as children, only using yellow No. 2 pencil when they secretly desired colorful mechanical pencils with anime characters printed on them.

As a side note, it is my hope that we start to act more like Asians than Americans. Not that there’s something bad about the American culture… but maybe we can take what’s good from the Americans and merge it with our own Asian heritage (Like in Japan where they’ve successfully merged the old with the new). I may not be THAT proud as a Filipino but I am a proud Asian.

If you liked this article, I suggest that you also read this. And If you know of any other attacks to KPOP and the fandom, just leave it at the comments and I will try to update the article! KPOP Hwaiting!

PS: You do not need my permission to re-post, re-blog, tweet, or link this blog post. I do appreciate a linkback/trackback but it is not necessary. Please propagate this message to all KPOP haters. Let us spread KPOP love! <3

Thanks to "Jesika Wabbit" noona for proof-reading this post. <3

Isn't she cute with those earmuffs?

At first, I thought “Can I wear earmuffs? I mean, those are for girls only right?” and then I found this:

Even KPOP Boybands wear cute earmuffs!

I was ready to get my own pair of those cute earmuffs but then I realized that THERE IS NO FREAKIN WINTER IN THE PHILIPPINES! Unfortunately, continental drift wasn’t on our side when it decided to the place Philippines near the freakin equator. So until the next Polar Shift, I’ve agreed to settle on a compromise: Headphones. So the search was on for my KPOP inspired headphones. I am glad to have watched the S.E.O.U.L music video by SNSD and Superjunior where I saw the SuJu guy wearing a very cute headphone:

Mixstyle headphones!

I am not really a big fan of Super Junior. But I am the biggest SNSD fan in the Philippines (Self-Proposed). So when I saw SNSD wearing Mixstyle headphones, I just have to get one for myself!

Yoona, Sooyoung and Hyoyeon loves their Mixstlyle!

So I tirelessly searched for a shop (online or not) that sells Mixstyle headphones in the Philippines. My search was fruitless. There are a lot of people selling Mixstyles on Multiply but a lot of them are fake! I saw a dude selling Mixstyles for only 1,500 PHP but how is that possible when Mixstyles retails for about 4,000 Yen (or about 2,000 PHP) in Japan (these are Japanese headphones, afterall)? My friend, Carlos, even told me that Mixstyles are available at Trinoma for only 500 PHP! Since I don’t really want to use cheap, fake ripoffs, I was glad to know that Mixstyles can be bought online for a reasonable price (around 50 USD). But there was a dilemma, I have never bought anything online! But fortunately, I found out that its so easy to buy stuff online! Read on and be amazed on how easy it is!

(For more of my experience with Yesasia, click here!)

So how do I go about buying stuff online?

First things first, you will need some kind of a bank account that accepts online transaction. From what I know, a Credit Card or a Debit Card will let you accomplish this. There are certain advantages in terms of ease-of-use and security when using Debit Card over Credit Card for online transactions.

Credit card vs Debit Card

You can get a Credit Card that you can use for online shopping at BPI (there are a lot, but this is the only one that I know of). Their entry level Credit Card called the BPI Express Credit Blue MasterCard can be used to register for a Paypal account that you can use for online shopping. However, it is not easy to get a credit card (especially if you’re still a student!). They (the bank) will first need to investigate your “earning capabilities” before giving you a credit card. Also, most credit card have some sort of an annual fee that you need to pay. For the BPI Express Credit Blue MasterCard, the annual fee is 1,550 PHP.

BPI Express Credit Blue MasterCard

According to Wikipedia, Credit card works like this: “Credit card is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder’s promise to pay for these goods and services. The issuer of the card (the bank) grants a line of credit to the consumer (you) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant  or as a cash advance to the user.” In simple terms, the bank will pay for you in advance, then you will pay them back later. This doesn’t mean that you can buy a plane with your credit card right away. There is a thing called “Credit Limit” that limits your spending potential. Depending on your “earning capabilities”, the bank will decide on your credit limit.

It’s important for you to understand the above concept. In the scenario that your credit card got hack, the hacker can buy anything until he maxes out your credit limit. Scary huh?

So I opted to use a Debit Card. The question is, which bank offers a debit card that you can use online? Lucky for us, Unionbank offers a debit card with Visa Electron! The debit card is called UnionBank EON Cyberaccount card or just Cyber EON.  Signing up is easy. Just go to your nearest Unionbank branch and approach the teller then ask for a Cyber EON account. She will give you a form that you need to fill-up (basic information such as your name, address, etc). She will then ask for a photocopy of two valid I.D.s (Driver’s License, TIN, School ID, Company ID, etc) so make sure to bring a photocopy of those with the original ones. Then that’s it!

Unionbank Cyber EON

You’ll need to wait 7 banking days for them to process your application. Unlike a credit card, Cyber EON is like a normal bank account wherein you can withdraw and deposit funds so that means that even student can get a Cyber EON account. However, Cyber EON charges 300 PHP annually but they don’t enforce a maintaining balance. Don’t forget to bring additional 200 PHP that you will deposit into your Cyber-EON account. You need this to verify your Paypal account later on.

Signing up for Paypal

Paypal is much safer!

Now that you have a credit/debit card, you can now register for a Paypal account! Although you can already use those cards to shop online, I highly recommend that you get a Paypal account for your own security. It’s free anyways (the 1.95 USD / 200 PHP will be credited back to you after you verify your card) and provides additional benefits such as the Buyer’s Protection Program.

Signing up is easy. Once you get your Cyber-EON card, you need to create an account over at Paypal.com. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll need to “link” or tie-up your Cyber-EON to your Paypal account. After that, you will need to verify that you are the owner of that card. Paypal will charge 1.95 USD to your account, then you will see a charge in your statement from Paypal (you will need to log-in to your Cyber-EON account online to view your account’s statement). This charge will contain a “code” that you will use to verify your account. Don’t worry, Paypal will credit back your 1.95 USD after you’ve verified your card. After you’ve verified your card, you’re ready to shop online!

The most common question about Paypal is how much do they charge for their services? You might be surprised to know that they will not charge the buyer (you) anything. The charge will be shouldered by the seller.

For a more detailed information on how to use your Cyber-EON with Paypal, go to Unionbank’s page.

Ordering online

Online shopping!

There are a lot of online shops in the web. You need to be careful when buying from individuals because there is no guarantee that they will “send” you your item. When shopping from E-Bay, always remember to check the seller’s reputation first before buying and even if the reputation is high, that is not even enough guarantee to trust the person (what if the person is selling fake goods?). So I suggest that you do your research first.

Personally, I only buy from reputable online shops (such as Yesasia.com). As far as possible, I try to avoid transacting with individuals; I make sure that I buy from a ” real company” with a “business address” and “business permits”. You know what I mean right? A real “online business shop”. So when something goes wrong, you know that you have someone to go after.

Anyway, the concept of online shopping is mostly the same everywhere:

1. You search for the item you want to buy
2. You click the “add to my cart” button
3. You click the “check-out” button
4. You will provide the shipping details (shipping address, shipping method, courier, etc)
5. They will give you choices on how to pay: Choose Paypal.
6. Login with your Paypal account. Confirm the payment.
7. Done.

Depending on the company or their chosen courier, they may give you a tracking code that will let you track your parcel (package) online.

Shipping

Online shops use different couriers

There are tons of courier and shipping methodology out there. Some company will ship your package directly at your house (door-to-door delivery) and some will ship your package to your local post office (postal service). If the courier ships your package to the post office, the nearest local post office to you will mail you a claim stub that you will use to pick-up your package.

When you “check-out” your order, most often than not, the online shop will give you a choice of what shipping methodology you want. The shipping charge will depend on the online shop (some even ships for free!), so make sure to contact the online shop regarding their shipping policy.

According to Pinoy netizens, the local post office is quite unreliable when it comes to handling parcels. They said that it takes between 3 weeks to 2 months for you to get your package from the post office. So I suggest that you always go for the “express” door-to-door shipping if you don’t want to wait and you don’t want the additional hassle.

Sales Tax and Import Duties

Be careful of the taxes!

Some online shops imposes Sales Tax. It depends on the country where the company is based so always make sure to check their policy when buying online.

Also, the Philippine government imposes Import Duties/Fees/Taxes on all parcels going in the country. I don’t exactly know how they compute such fees and it isn’t clear what parcels are getting charged. Some Netizens say that their parcels never got charged. Personally, when I ordered my Mixstyle headphones, I was asked to pay 548 PHP for Import Fees (Processing Fee/Stamps/etc) by DHL. Since Yesasia doesn’t declare the value of your purchase, I don’t know how the Tax Man will compute for the taxes. Also, I declared my Parcel as a gift, which in theory, should be enough to bypass the Tax Man, but I still paid 548 PHP. From what I understand, the 548 PHP fee doesn’t even include any form of tax; its just a “processing” fee of some sort.

I apologize if some part of this post is too general. Frankly, I only experienced online shopping once (from Yesasia). Click here for more detailed instruction on how to order from YesAsia! Happy shopping!

If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments and I will try to answer them. But remember, the most reliable person that can answer your questions are the online shop themselves.

My nine precious girls

Just recently, KPOP bands started becoming popular in the Philippines. I believe it all started when the news about Sandara Park (Yes, this is her) being part of a Korean Girl Group reached the Philippines. As Dara (her cool Korean nickname, we just call her Krung-Krung here) was a big star here in the Philippines, the media got curious and actually gave a f*ck about KPOP. Fire, their first single I believe, entered the local hit chart and every stupid emo kid everywhere was like “ZOMG, I know that girl. KPOP is so cool~~~~ KAWAII! I love Japan” without actually having a clue on what their talking about. So those little emo kids searched the interwebz and the youtubez and found Wonder Girl’s “Nobody” and spammed the local hit charts and radio stations with request of this song. That did it, the Hallyu was in full effect in the Philippines. With Nobody’s addictive chorus (which was incidentally in English), it reached mainstream media faster than you can say “Anyeong Haseo!”. From FM’s 102.7, to Mike Enriquez’s Saksi, there was no escaping Nobody. Even Jollibee and his close friend Chuckie from KFC wasn’t invulnerable to the craze. Nobody was everywhere!

Wondergirls - Nobody

When all of this “KPOP Insanity” was happening, I was quietly downloading all the SNSD videos on Youtube I can get my hands on and then watching them again and again and again till 5:00 AM in the morning or until my mom catches me and scold me to sleep. And while watching the very heart warming Kissing You music video, I was really hoping and praying (I do it once a decade) that SNSD won’t reach the mainstream media here in the Philippines. Almost a month passed and no news about SNSD on the local hit charts. I was relieved.

One fateful day came when a schoolmate popped me on Facebook and said “I just saw SNSD’s Genie on MYX”. I was shocked to say the least! So I asked “Where? On the hit charts?” and I was delighted when she said “On Myx Premiere”. That just meant that the Myx people are just premiering the new Genie song. So I quickly headed over to Soshified and warned everyone to never request for any SNSD songs on MYX. Months passed, and I was overjoyed that the pinoy SONES (local SNSD fans) over at Soshified heeded my warning. But I couldn’t be more wrong. Just a few weeks ago, SNSD entered the local hit chart. It was the result of an effort spearheaded by a pinoy SONE over at Soshified to “mass vote” SNSD’s Genie. SNSD went from rank 20 to 9 in just two weeks! That isn’t surprising at all given the girls’ charm and the wonderful song. As a fan, I should be happy about this. I should be throwing house parties every week to celebrate. BUT I AM NOT. In fact, I hate that SNSD’s Genie is being transmitted on local airwaves.

So why am I not thrilled about SNSD’s popularity here in the Philippines?

JOLOGS

I don’t really know how to define Jologs but I will try to give an example on how something can achieve the Jologs status. Say a certain footwear became the “in” thing in the Philippines. This footwear is really expensive for just a pair of rubber stuff being worn on the smelliest part of the human body. But since the Philippines has that creativity to pirate anything fast, the said footwear now cost only 50 pesos and is readily available at your local tiangge. Now everyone from your driver, to your labandera’s son owns the identical footwear you are wearing. The footwear is now “mainstream” in the sense that the “representative population” of the Philippines (AKA “the masses”) can now own and wear the footwear. Congratulations, your footwear is now jologs.

Divisoria and "the masses"

So back to my point… Since SNSD is now accessible to the masses via the mainstream local media, like the poor footwear who has once prided itself as the “most expensive rubber stuff you are wearing on the smelliest part of your body”, as hard and painful it is for me to admit, SNSD will soon be jologs. And no matter how much I love and care for SNSD, I can’t stop it. I’m just an obsessed fan with a “KPOP boy band”-like hairstyle.

Like Wonder Girls’ Nobody, SNSD songs will be played over and over again everywhere to oblivion. Here’s the list of what I think will transpire over the weeks as SNSD reaches the top 1 spot on the local hit charts:

• Willie Revillame will dance Gee on Wowowee
• The Sex Bomb Girls will perform a cover of Genie
• Maja Salvador, Erich, and that other girl (ASAP) will perform a “sucky” (”poor” to be more polite) rendition of Kissing You (With the lollipop and all)
• Kids from Divisoria will be shown on T.V. dancing Gee from a loud boom box playing from a “pirated” music store
• Bubble Gang will parody SNSD
• Mainstream Media will talk about SNSD (and mixing/confusing them with 2NE1 and WG)
• “Malilibog” (Dirty old) jeepney drivers will have the SNSD posters on their jeeps with indecent markings.
• A “disco remix” of SNSD song’s will be available in Divisoria’s pirated music stores
• Infinite jologsness to come…

The Sex Bomb Girls

However, even if SNSD becomes jologs, I think my love for the 9 girls will outweigh the harm done by the local media. I will still watch my SNSD video collection until 5:00 AM in the morning or until my mom scold me to sleep for staying up late, I will still have my mp3 player play SNSD’s album collection, and I will still buy SNSD albums from Yes! Asia. If this unfortunate event changed something, that would be me changing my phone’s ring tone from SNSD’s Kissing You back to Nokia’s standard tone.

If you liked reading this post, you may want to read this post entitled “In defense of KPOP: Is KPOP Jologs?”

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Do you think my definition of jologs is inaccurate? Do you think I’m being a spoiled delusional elitist? Please assist me in finding the accurate definition of jologs… Help the world accumulate and catalog Human Knowledge, discuss! (Ad Hominem comments will be rejected).

PS: I am particularly interested if the “jologs” mentality applies to other countries as well.

6 Months of Corporate Citizenry

For those who are not acquainted with the Philippine’s Labor System, let me put you up to speed with the “regularization” process. When a new employee enters a company, there is a six-month “getting-to-know” period wherein the employer will closely observe the employee’s job performance and base on that performance, the employer would decide whether to keep the employee as a “regular” employee or not (Fired). During that “getting-to-know” period, you as an “irregular/probationary” employee, are not entitled with some benefits like full medical benefits, perfect attendance bonus, etc.

Somehow, the people who are responsible for monitoring my job performance thought that the performance I have shown for the last six months is acceptable and have decided to promote me to a regular employee.

During the past six months, I have experienced a lot of new, exciting things. Like learning a new programming language, approaching random girls at some public place and consuming alcoholic beverages. I can’t say that all of them are geeky experiences, but hey, its part of being human.

Listed below are things that I have experienced during the past six months (this is not a complete list of what transpired for the last six months):

• Worked on four separate projects
• Started a blog about software development
• Learned COM
• Worked on a Localization project
• Migrated a product to work on Vista
• Drank Zombie
• Asked the digits of a totally random chick
• Worked with bit patterns
• Discovered that Javascript doesn’t support internationalization (Russian dates)
• Learned Impersonation (and the basics of Windows Security)
• Consumed Alcopops
• Written a blog post about nationalism and got flamed
• Attended a Leadership Conference
• Received an award for delivering a product on time
• Bought a shoe with my own money
• Hated DateTime parsing on .NET
• Partially learned AJAX and JSON
• Maintained and supported three products
• Created and documented a new build process
• Discovered SNSD
• Dined at really expensive restaurants
• Wore a suit
• Felt the pain of migrating .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0
• Debugged a 25 line SELECT statement (with 5 joins)
• Coding Horror
• Got really pissed with an officemate
• Admired the technical knowledge of my superiors
• Treated the entire team to a Pizza
• Jogged 2 kilometers at a real outdoor red urethane track
• Talked to a Microsoft representative
• Coordinated with testers to resolve an issue with our product
• Paid Taxes
• Joined a fan club
• Had a Flu Shot
• Discovered that my bone density is uber low
• Wore eyeglasses
• Was astonished at how big corporations work (Changing a splash screen image needed the approval of a bunch of people)
• Appreciated my work environment
• Learned Windows Communication Framework
• Worked with SVG graphs (and discovered that Visual Studio 2005 and Adobe SVG Viewer hates each other)
• Had someone tell me that I lack professionalism
• Broke a daily build
• Really understood what text encoding is all about
• Discovered that the real world is full of mediocrity
• Experienced integration hell
• Surprised that most software developers doesn’t follow best practices for Localization support
• Studied MFC
• Understood the meaning of Teamwork

Most of these experiences are not possible without the help and encouragement of my teammates (especially the Zombie one!). So I would like to thank my team (you know who you guys are) for being such great geek buddies and for actually teaching me a few stuff about life. We may not agree on some topics (SNSD vs Wondergirls, Gravity, Time Management, Filipino Culture, etc), but I am damn sure that we had a lot of fun debating. Seriously, thanks!

Looking forward to a great year (and career) ahead!

A Typical Call Center in the Philippines

WOW. After watching this video/documentary, I can definitely say that the state of outsourcing here in the Philippines is SO MUCH better compared to India.

What happens when a successful US-based computer programmer, who lost his lucrative job to outsourcing, travels to India to try to get it back?

Will he discover the secret of India’s success, or that sending jobs overseas is an unstable gamble?

The videos below share his incredible experience. It’s a fascinating and humanizing portrait of real Indians in Bangalore, the “Silicon Valley of India”.

This inside look shows how ridiculous it is to throw around terms like “slave labor” and “stealing jobs” without understanding the realities of this unusual world where best jobs start at 6pm and end at 3am…

Three suggestions:

1. Keep in mind which jobs are displacing foreign workers and which are not.
2. Notice the level of complaining among Indian workers. It’s almost non-existent.
3. Give the videos a minute to load. Patience, young Jedi.

This is hard-to-find coverage that will change how you think about “your” job. Highly recommended.

Watch the documentary here!

“Madali lang to sayo. Parang laro laro lang.”

He would always give me that answer while putting on a big, warm smile. Every time that I see him coding or preparing a design document, I would always approach him and ask him out of curiosity, “Ano ginagawa mo Sir? Mahirap ba yan?” and he would always give me that answer. And I have always wondered what he meant by “parang laro laro lang“. Sadly, I was never able to ask him about the actual meaning of it (he is now in Singapore) but as an Intern, I assumed that he meant that “If you’re having fun, it’s easy!“.

So much for work being fun?

Even from Day 1, I have never looked at my job as *real* work. I have always looked at it as “laro laro lang”. That work is something fun. That does not mean that I don’t take my job seriously. As a matter of fact, I think that I am doing a good job while having tons of fun. Of course, seeing your job as “laro laro lang” does have some negative effects. As one of my co-worker has pointed out, I’m a bit lacking in the “professionalism” department. I don’t exactly know how she arrived to that fact but I am assuming that she doesn’t like me watching SNSD videos in the office or playing a casual Facebook game once in a while.

So I wondered, what’s the big fuss about Professionalism and what exactly is professionalism? A close colleague of mine suggested that I should read about professionalism while we are having a discussion about proper work ethics. And so I did. Quoting from Wikipedia, for someone to be considered as a “professional”, he/she should have the following:

1. Academic qualifications – a doctoral or law degree – i.e., university college/institute
2. Expert and specialised knowledge in field which one is practising professionally
3. Excellent manual/practical and literary skills in relation to profession
4. High quality work in (examples): creations, products, services, presentations, consultancy, primary/other research, administrative, marketing or other work endeavours.
5. A high standard of professional ethics, behaviour and work activities while carrying out one’s profession (as an employee, self-employed person, career, enterprise, business, company, or partnership/associate/colleague, etc.
6. Reasonable work moral and motivation. Having interest and desire to do a job well as well as holding positive attitude towards the profession are important elements in attaining a high level of professionalism.

1, check. 2, specialized knowledge, check. 3, sure, check. 4, check. 6, motivation! check!. Out of the 6 criteria, I sort-of fail in one so I’m about 83.33% Professional. Kidding aside, despite having someone put me on the “unprofessional” basket, I still believe that I am a professional. I still think that I have a high standard of professional ethics (ask the people that I have work with), and I still think that my behavior, even though you can classify me as a Kid with ADHD, is still within the “appropriate” range (I am not a model employee in terms of behavior, though). I admit that some of my work activities are not professional though, like playing a casual Facebook game in the office. BUT I assure you, it hasn’t negatively affected my output and my job. I would even go out on the limb here and claim that being able to have fun at work resulted in a positive output. (Facebook vs. Productivity articles here and here)

"Nerds are always getting in trouble. They say improper things for the same reason they dress unfashionably and have good ideas. Convention has less hold over them." - Paul Graham (Hackers and Painters)

Last Friday could have been one of the happiest day of my young career (~4 months). I was recognized for my efforts in delivering a product on time that is of high-quality (I’m paraphrasing here, couldn’t remember the exact words from the certificate). But sadly, last Friday turned out to be one of the saddest day in my professional life.

During our weekly team meeting (which is held every Friday), our Manager gave a guideline about the team’s “Expectations on proper usage of internet resource”. The guideline basically says:

1. Use the internet resource wisely
2. Access to Social Networking Sites like Friendster, Facebook and Multiply should not be abused
3. If you’re going to use the internet that is non-work related, be discreet.
4. Absolutely, no GAMES allowed

The guys made it clear that this is just a guideline, not a set of rules that we need to follow. They also stressed the fact that access to Social Network Sites are not forbidden but we should exercise our “best judgment” when accessing them during office hours. Finally, it was said, in verbatim, that games of any sort are no longer allowed.

In actuality, I am not against this guideline. The exact instance that I took the job, I was asked to sign a 13-page document that basically say “The internet is just for work”. I am just frustrated that the guidelines are not clear. Telling me to use my “best judgment” is like giving a kid the key to a candy store. My judgment and reasoning is so unconventional that conflict may arise from my actions. Also, judgment is subjective, what’s okay for me may not be okay for others and what’s okay for them may not be okay for me and that scares the sh*t out of me.

For some, this guideline is just, well, a guideline. “This is just a guideline, don’t take it too seriously”, a close colleague told me. Well, not for me. This particular guideline is a team “expectation”. It is like a promise that we have to each other. That is how I feel about it.

Personally, using my best judgment, I think that I have never abused my usage of the Internet. I may not be discreet on using them because I don’t understand the value of being discreet. I mean, we are still doing it, but we are doing it “secretly”. For me, Its like lying and I don’t like to lie.

I don’t understand why casual games in Facebook should be banned. I don’t understand the difference between a video and a game. If we are talking about bandwidth, the bandwidth consumption of a 5 minute video in Youtube is so much greater than the bandwidth consumed by Barn Buddy, a casual game that I am playing in Facebook.One of my colleague has pointed out that you are not just focused on the game but your cursor is also in it (You can’t really multi-task!). That’s a good point though but I’m not entirely convinced. But for the sake of following the guidelines and as a respect to the people around me, I will indefinitely suspend playing games while in the office (or I will be just “discreet” ).

Judgment is subjective. And that scares the s*it out of me.

To check how different the judgment of my colleagues are, I asked them personally about their take on the guideline. And boy I was not that surprised to discover that judgement is really subjective. One of the guys basically told me that “The 8 hours in the office should just be for pure work”, while another guy told me that “It’s okay to take a break once in a while to relieve stress”. Another guy told me that “This is not an issue about productivity but the proper usage of the company resources.”.

This is what I am really scared about, judgment is subjective. You see, if I exercise my “best judgment” and still use Facebook, people on the team may think that I am being “abusive”, they may think that I am not paying attention to the guidelines, that I am disrespecting the entire team by not doing my part.

To be on the safe side, I just stopped using the Internet for non-work related stuff for the rest of the day. Considering that I only stopped using the Internet for just 4 hours, the psychological effect is so devastating. My motivation was down to ZERO and it felt like that I am just a slave that should do what he is supposed to do. From that point on, I felt that work is no longer fun. Work is now officially work and that made me extremely frustrated and sad.

My biggest fear is that this guideline will make work no longer fun. It will make work feel like *real* work. I can tolerate that kind of environment but I am afraid that this will hinder great work. I have always believed that the source of my skills is my passion. That I am doing a great job because I am enjoying every single moment of it. I am afraid that my output will be negatively affected if I no longer find work enjoyable. To quote Joel Spolsky:

For his part, Jeff says he didn’t want our new venture to feel “like work” — that if Stack Overflow wasn’t fun to do, he didn’t want to be doing it. If I had tried to make him play by my rules, I don’t think the project would have come together, at least not as well as it has.

The truth is, the three guys who coded Stack Overflow are great programmers. They’re smart, and they get things done. And in the end, that’s what really matters.

I believe that my team is composed of great software developers. I believe that we are smart and we can get things done. And I also believe that this is what really matter, to get things done.

So by Monday, I will default back to doing what I have always done which is to have fun. I will still try my best to get things done (which I have always done in the past). I will no longer play casual games in the office (to show my respect to the team’s expecatation) or at least hide somewhere when doing it . I can’t promise to be discreet but rest assured that my work and my job is still my priority. Finally, I believe in my teammates… I believe that they would always be there to offer me their best judgment when they find mine unfitting.

EDIT: It was not my intention to offend people, I just want to share my opinion in my personal blog. Again, If I have offended you, I apologize.

I apologize for the sudden lack of software development updates. Its just that I got hit by the Korean Fever (no, its not a pandemic Flu! ) So please forgive this non-programming blog post.

Girls Generation

My addiction to all things Korean started when my Ex showed me a cute music video of a South Korean nine-member girl group called Girls Generation (SNSD/????). At first, I got very annoyed with the crazy jingle, but I instantly recognized the cuteness of the video. Now, I have a total of 4 GB of SNSD videos (meticulously stolen from Youtube), their complete discography on my Phone, and SNSD Ringtones. I am so addicted to them that I even have my four office monitors with SNSD wallpapers and SNSD Screensavers. I even watch and listen to my SNSD videos while working. My colleague, too, is also uber addicted to them and he says that the video increases his productivity!

To make my addiction worse, my brother who is addicted to Korean and Japanese Dramas, introduced me to Boys Before Flowers – the Korean drama adaptation of the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango. After watching the said video, I suddenly want a Korean Hairstyle and a wardrobe makeover. Now, my TV set is locked-in to KBS. (And somebody please remind me to call Sky Cable to inquire YTF they removed Arirang from my TV Listing).

To my curiosity, I researched about the history of South Korea, the culture of South Korea and the economy of South Korea. And one thing was apparent, South Koreans love their country. They are proud of their lineage. They are both protectors of their future and guardians of their past. Just like the Japanese, they are nationalistic.

So it begs the question, Why are they Nationalistic and Why Filipinos are not? After sometime thinking bout this, I arrived at a simple answer.

Because they have something to be proud of!

In South Korea’s case, there is really something to be proud of. After their formal establishment in 1948, South Korea’s GDP is insanely growing. Just look at this graph!

South Korea's GRP Nominal Groth from 1960 to 2007

Just reading this Wikipedia article makes me want to be Korean:

The economy of South Korea is a highly developed^[7] trillion dollar free-market economy that is the fourth largest in Asia and 13th largest in the world. South Korea’s overnight transformation to a wealthy developed country in less than half a century is often called the Miracle on the Han River and earned the distinctive reputation of “Asian Tiger” in the international community.

Today, South Korea is classified as a high income economy by the World Bank and an advanced economy by the IMF and CIA. Its capital, Seoul, is a major global city and a leading international financial centre in Asia.^[8] South Koreans enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world and have a high life expectancy and a high level of economic freedom.

An extremely competitive education system and a highly skilled and motivated workforce are two key factors driving this knowledge economy that has the world’s highest scientific literacy^[9] and second highest mathematical literacy.^[9]

It boasts the world’s highest broadband internet access per capita^[10] and is the most wired country in the world.^[11] In 2007, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked South Korea’s IT Industry Competitiveness among the top three in the world^[12].

For the longest time, I can say that my nationalism is peculiarly high for a kid my age. I have always believed that the Philippines still has a chance. That my generation will somehow get us back on track. But now, I’m having second thoughts. In the past, I have a strong hate against the people who are leaving our country to work abroad. Now, I want to grab the cheapest flight to South Korea and work there, forever. If only majority of South Koreans can speak English.

Lapu Lapu -- True blooded Pilipino

To be fair, I did some research too about Filipino History. Sad as it is, there is only one instance in the entire Filipino History that I can truthfully say that I am proud to be a Filipino and that was the time when Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan. This is how I imagined it happened:

Lapu-Lapu’s Second Hand Man: Sir, the Spaniards are arriving! They are 3 miles off the coast of Mactan!

Lapu-Lapu: Let them come to their deaths! /gg

Lapu-Lapu’s Second Hand Man: *Thinking* “What the f*ck? Are you freakin’ insane? They have GUNS!”

*After 5 hours of waiting* (The boats are not diesel-powered, afterall)

Lapu-Lapu to Magellan’s Messenger: Before you speak, Spaniard, know that in Mactan… Everyone, even a King’s messenger, is held accountable for the words of his voice. Now, what message do you bring? (In Spartan voice)

Magellan’s Messenger: Education and Religion.

Lapu-Lapu: You rode all the way from Spain for Education and Religion? Do not be coy or stupid, Spaniard. You can afford neither in Mactan.

Magellan’s Messenger: THIS IS MADNESS!

Lapu-Lapu: Madness? THIS IS M-A-C-T-A-N!

Lapu-Lapu then stabbed the Messenger in the right eye. He then grabbed his “Spear” and threw it to Magellan who is observing from the balcony of his boat. Magellan got hit in the heart and then died and his men, slaughtered.

How can you not be proud? That is pure courage and valiance! A mark of a true Filipino. After Lapu-Lapu, all of the so-called “Filipino Heroes” are either 1.) A modern equivalent of a Blogger or 2.) An exact replica of a Bayanmuna Representative.

We only have ONE TRUE HERO in our entire history and what did we do to honor him? Put him in a 1 centavo coin! Seriously? When was the last time you saw one?

Lapu Lapu on 1 centavo coin

On our largest bill (1 thousand peso bill), we have the face of three unknown clowns. The only one that I am a little familiar with is Jose Abad Santos. I am not familiar with “Jose Abad Santos” (the person), but I am familiar with Jose Abad Santos (the street).

One Thousand Peso Bill

As a Filipino, its really hard to be nationalistic. When you hear news about the Philippines being the most corrupt country in Asia, how can you be nationalistic? When you see Politicians sitting in their Limo being escorted by the Police in a congested Makati street while you, the TAXPAYER, is sitting in a Jeepney inhaling all the smoke and sweating to death,how can you be nationalistic? When you watch insanely corny and cheap presidential campaign videos that you know is full of BS, how can you be nationalistic? When you see a “senator” who involves himself in a celebrity scandal that has nothing to do in making the Philippines a better country, how can you be nationalistic?

Being a Filipino is there something to be proud of? As a Filipino, how can we be nationalistic? I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a clue.