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Guy Fawkes masks and hacktivists

November 5 is a special day in Britain, but the masks used for the occasion have gotten so popular this year they have become top-selling store items in Western countries. What’s up, que pasa, anyare?

My first reaction was that the mask is a very creepy mask: a man’s pale face with glowing pink cheeks, mustache and goatee, and an unnerving smile that’s almost like a leer. You wonder, “Where have I seen this mask before?” Then you suddenly realize. It’s those Guy Fawkes masks worn by growing ranks of demonstrators in American and European cities and that have come to symbolize Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests.

November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. But how did his masks find their way into the Occupy Wall Street movement? Welcome to the strange new world of 4chan, hacktivists and anarchist revolutionaries. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Demotix/Corbis

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ABS-CBN’s 12-foot icepick

ABS-CBN booboo

I know it’s tragic enough that Charice’s estranged father had to catch up with the November 1 memorials to the dead, lying inside a coffin with an ice-pick stab. But it’s doubly tragic that an ABS-CBN news item early this morning had him killed “with a 12-foot icepick.” What did the writer have in mind, a bamboo skewer for lechon vaca?

And it’s triply tragic for media showbiz reports to spread vile rumors about Charice’s alleged reactions about his father’s death. What do showbiz reporters wear for Halloween night anyway, a repulsive bat’s face? Or do they simply come to the party as they are? What is it with Metro Manila media these days anyway?

ABS-CBN booboo
I know it's tragic enough that Charice's estranged father had to catch up with the November 1 memorials to the dead, lying inside a coffin with an ice-pick stab. But it's doubly tragic that an ABS-CBN news item early this morning had him killed "with a 12-foot icepick." And it's triply tragic for media showbiz reports to spread vile rumors about Charice's reactions about his father's death. What is it with Metro Manila media these days anyway?
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When flipping a coin produces the best decision

Piet Hein
Piet Hein (December 16, 1905–April 17, 1996) was a Danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, designer, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks, first started to appear in the daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi occupation in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". Source: Wikipedia

Sometimes I’m stumped by a very difficult decision point, a fork in the road, an “answer with yes or no, no ifs and buts” type of question. Faced with that situation and with the kind of personality that I have, often I will agonize for days before coming up with a decision. Even then, while I go ahead with its implementation, it will take another round of self-convincing to assure myself that I made the right choice.

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