Adventures in Cultural Competence

ylai:

Texting HAITI to 90999: The U.S. Department of State’s Web site suggests texting “HAITI” to “90999” to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts.

You will receive the following message:

To confirm your $10 donation to Red Cross Int’l Response Fund reply with YES. Reply HELP for help or visit RedCross.org.

After you send your reply, you will receive a confirmation message with additional information. Your $10 donation will be charged to your next cellphone bill. Grab that phone now! Please. :)

American Red Cross

retroactive:

ylai:

I haven’t had real rain in so long. For the first time since I got here (June 2008), it  was actually audible. And for some reason, I almost panicked. Baka kasi bumaha/bumagyo/magblack out. Heh. Hehe.

My friends here found it so amusing - and slightly unfair - how we got days off because of rain. They found the concept very foreign, missing school because of water. Totoo naman diba? The only time here that I’ve ever had school get cancelled was because of snow. My friend was like “Yeah you see here, we get snow days. What the hell do you guys call it then, rain days?”

I remember the first time people told me it was “raining” outside. I went out with an umbrella and a jacket, expecting our kind of rain. I was really confused when light spritzes of water were lightly falling on my umbrella. I said, “Rain? More like spitting.”

ylai:

thegreatskadoosh:

pinoytumblr:

ladyindisguise:

I made this all up and aren’t necessarily factual. I guess I’m just writing what I see.
Not in order:

Watch movies like (500) Days of Summer, Trainspotting, Science of Sleep, French films, Cinemalaya, practically anything that you wouldn’t normally see in the local cinemas.
Read books like Catcher in the Rye, Perks of Being a Wallflower and other coming of age books.
When you text, spell everything correctly — ditching the whole text speak language or whatever you call it. Use the taglish dictionary.
Go to Cubao X as often as possible.
You must own at least one article of clothing that you bought from a thrift store (ukay-ukay).
Hang out in a Fully Booked store and never buy a book. You can buy the same book s from Book Sale anyway.
Be visually apathetic of the government but have your own opinion when asked upon
Listen only to indie music you’ve torrented. At the same time, buy original OPM CDs because the foreign artists already make enough money.
Own a camera. It doesn’t matter what. A lomo, digicam, DSLR, SLR, Vivatar, Lumix, etc. Take artsy photos with it.
Have a project 365 photo album.
Own a notebook where you write all your thoughts. Have other hipsters write on it. They’ll probably draw, or quote some writer or something.
Work in the arts. Be in an advertising firm, a production company, whatever. It needs to be in the arts field. If you work in a big, Fortune 500 corporation, tell other hipsters that you’re only in it for the money, then proceed buying beer or coffee for everyone.
Go to every Meiday gig. Meet other hipsters. Or not. If you’re threading the borders of anti-socialism. Also, always go to the annual Rock the Riles event.
Blog.
Be on Tumblr and never tell anyone else that Tumblr exists.

That’s all I could think of right now. Anything else?

Oh nooooo. Does the word “hipster” have any negative connotation? Cause some, if not most of these things sound like me.

I don’t wanna be labeled as a “hipster”. :|

But I guess there isn’t anything wrong with being able to relate to this list, unless you’re just being pretentious.

ano ba yan

Balance is everything guys. ;)