The State of the Youth Today
I had to laugh (sympathetically of course) at mark's situation over a press release he posted way back in 2001.
Due to the vagaries of the Internet and search engines, kids looking for information had landed in mark's journal. Unfortunately, these kids were rather... demanding and started peppering the comment system with rather urgent calls.
A look at the comment system notes that the demands started around 2003 and these just avalanched to other requests. As of last count, the post has around 451 comments. Granted some of them were just people commenting on the funny situation. However, most of them were very, very demanding and worded their requests in the most abrupt way possible.
It doesn't help that a lot of the requests were in almost indecipherable text-speak. Ironically, most of the kids were asking that whatever it was they wanted be sent the next day ASAP for class or a report or some such. Some even berated mark for not having the information they were seeking on his website.
Some examples (mostly the English version)--
Linzel Ann: "Pls post the story of life of Rogelio Sikat now pls………" (which mark replies "Linzel Ann, please use a library now pls.")
Barbhie_18: "PLZZZ GIV ME AN EXMPLES OF TLMPTI, EPIKO, TLMBHAY, ANKDOTA, PRBLA, MITOLOHYA, SABAYANG PAGBIGKAS, KWENTONG BAYAN…. TNXXX POH… PLZZZ!" (yahh! quit shouting...er... whatever it is you're saying)
Mike: "i need a copy of an anekdota, parabula, kuwento ng katatakutan, kuwento ng katatawanan, kuwento ng pakikipagsapalaran, kuwento ng kababalaghan and kuwento ng pag-ibig if you don’t mind. tnx!" (do you want fries with that?)
Riane: "i need a poem for sabayang pagbigkas. i hope you have one. please e-mail it to me. i need it tomorrow. thanks. :-) " (at least she used a smiley face)
Mahal: "plis send me 10 examples of filipino anecdotes..tagalog po!!and 1 maikling kwento..pwede po pkicnd now na sa email ko..its urgent!!tnx alot!!muaaaahz.." (and this one gave a kiss)
Christian: "Whoever who knew people with connection in searching for commercial models please email me or call me ___. I want to auditon because I really want to appear in a T.V. Commercial even without talent fee. I hope my dreams will soon be a reality. Thanks! Godspeed." (Uh, I think you're in the wrong place, kid)
*sigh*
I'd say something snarky or sharp but this is one situation where the kids have said it all...
Seen in the wild: Here's what I've seen recently in 2nd-hand bookshops.
- Octavia Butler's last book before she died, Kindred (hardbound)
- Candas Jane Dorsey's very feminist Black Wine (tpb)
- Michael Moorcock's Gloriana (tpb) with this edition
- Peter Straub's The Throat (hardbound)
... and yes, eldritch, the last one's for you. It's funny how you can find a certain book just when you're not looking for it anymore. *grins* (And no, I still can't comment in LJ-land. Weird.)
Also, skinny, you might like Moorcock's Gloriana with its Mervyn Peake-esque style.
20 comments:
woah.
tamad. they should burn in hell.
Yes i do do do want Gloriana! i have the Fantasy Masterworks edition with the "re-worked" (read: wuss-out) version of the penultimate chapter.
hang-on, you mean you found 2 editions? i wouldn't mind sweeping up both eds, unless you want em...
if not, dibs on that...
incidentally, i'd meant to be a lurker for a while, but you do know how to draw a guy out of the woodwork...
fuhrer: Hehe tell me about it.
skinny: Okay, lemme try to get it also. I already have a copy meself (a small paperback that also has the original version) so am cool.
That also explains why you've been quiet on the skinny front. ;-)
Oh man. Since I've just finished reading The Throat, I guess I'm more inclined to laugh than to fume that a hardcover shows up. Where did you see it?
As for those kids...oh boy. F! They all get F's! And a meeting with the Disciplinary Committee!
df: well, a big factor, i'm sure is their home lives, our society, the educational system, the government... so in that case, we should all burn in hell.
bc: way thanks man!
eld: er, nothing really, just didn't want you to feel left out or anything...
arg. am in an uber-weird mood today.
Dudes, I've already posted my Manile Envelope: Manila 2020 review.
Its in my blog
eldritch: Heh. At Books for Less Pearl Drive, of all places. I also saw a couple of John le Carre's The Russia House with the same type of cover you're looking for (hb and mmpb) as well as a number of The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People (both mmpb).
skinny: That's okay, we're all weird here. :-D
fuhrer: Great! On my way. :-)
Skinny: *chuckles* Don't worry about me feeling left out!
Der Fuhrer: I'm checking out your entry on Manila Envelope in a minute or so.
BC: Thanks! I did see that copy of The Throat and almost bought it (I did pick up Mystery that day), but its spine was all twisted and stuff.
When I began having trouble hunting down for another copy, I was about to convince myself to go back there and pick it up, but Books for Less StarMall had a better copy (cheaper than the Pearl Drive copy, too).
The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People were both available in Books for Less Pearl Drive, too? I have The Russia House already from StarMall, but thanks! (It was due to that paperback's release in 1990 that the earlier Le Carre novels were reissued with that cover.)
eldritch: Geez louise! I saw that copy, it didn't look that bad. Are you a stickler for quality?
Btw, I saw Books for Less in Tomas Morato had The Honourable Schoolboy in mmpb but it had the totally black cover. Would that do?
To be exact, I've seen this:
http://i.biblio.com/m/57/0394416457.jpg
... but I've also seen this, which I presume you've seen? (Heh, I think you actually get around the bookshops as much as I do...)
http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0887-1/%7B96928E79-5CA2-44D8-9D0E-F623664D7FD9%7DImg100.jpg
(... er, it's a bit big.)
I'm not that much of a stickler for quality (I think), but the copy of The Throat in Pearl Drive was somewhat misshapen, and I didn't feel comfortable shelling out PhP 348 minus 20% for it. Thank God I followed my instincts, as the much better copy I found in the Starmall branch was cheaper!
I found a copy of The Honourable Schoolboy with this cover at BookSale Greenhills, so it's just Smiley's People that I'm looking out for these days. And I'm no longer concerned about the editions as my Le Carres have all turned out vastly different from each other, save for The Russia House and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which aren't really part of the same sequence.
Hehe that's the same cover I've seen around. I think I actually saw the book you mentioned. And funny enough, it's weird that I finally know someone who's actually plumbed the depths of all of Booksale's branches. ;-)
So I guess it won't be too weird for me to share how incomprehensible it is that there are no Booksale branches in Robinson's Galleria...
...although they do have a tiny selection of used paperbacks at Filbar's.
That's true but they did have that small bookstore before at the top of the mall beside the movie houses. I remember they had a lot of books but I never had a chance to go through the whole lot before they closed. *sigh*
The thing is, why doesn't Robinson Galleria have a Booksale but Robinson Manila have a branch?
Oh, good God. I do remember that small bookstore. I don't think I ever bought anything from them though, but their selection was somewhat Books for Less-ish, I think.
And Robinson's Manila also has another bookstore in it...Dymocks or something like that. I've never gotten anything from there though.
That's another shame, Dymocks. They didn't last long either but given their high prices, I wasn't surprised. Too bad about their UK book selections.
As for that bookshop in Galleria, I do remember finding a TPB copy of a fave book of mine Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. Given how the latter's falling apart now due to lousy manufacturing, I wish had bought it.
Ah, regrets regrets. Strangely, one of my strange regrets whenever I went to Dymocks before--as well as various branches of BookSale and NBS-Cubao--is that I wish I was more of a Richard Laymon fan. Tons of his books around; too bad I find his work execrable.
Yow. I remember those. Isn't that funny? Those books you don't like or collect are the ones that seem to proliferate more in bookshops while the ones you reaaaallly want seem to be mirages in the desert. Sheesh.
And yeah, I've read reviews of Laymon's work so am not exactly pining for his stuff. A pity.
Btw, have you ever heard of Stephen Laws? Someone once recommended him to me.
Isn't that funny? Those books you don't like or collect are the ones that seem to proliferate more in bookshops while the ones you reaaaallly want seem to be mirages in the desert. Sheesh.
No, it's not funny. *grins* Seriously, it does get irritating. And when I try to hunt for certain titles by big authors like Straub and Le Carre, I suddenly have a harder task!
Laymon has a huge following, but I think that may be because he was such a nice guy while he was still alive. But his work is dreck.
I have a couple of Stephen Laws short stories here. I'm interested in Darkfall and Ghost Train, but I'm not sure he's high on my priority list. His The Wyrm, which is the only one I've read, wasn't really that good.
Hmmm... I remember seeing Macabre before in Goodwill and though the story seemed okay, I loved the cover. ;-)
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