(Part 2) Top products from r/Philippines

^^ Listen to /u/prpna; he's a very wise man.

Gonna answer this and share my experiences without using a throwaway -- booyah!

(Source: nearly a decade of talking to/flirting with/hooking up with random girls in clubs and bars, so I can definitely say that culture difference hardly plays a part here.)

When I'm in a bar or at a club, I almost always use what PUAs call a "direct opener" -- basically, starting a conversation by expressing your interest in her.

Why? Because in these types of places, there's a lot of potential distractions going on (loud music, alcohol, chatty/dancing friends, and the biggest distraction of all: other men) so you need to come in strong and differentiate yourself from every other dude who's approached her.

I always say something along the lines of "I saw you and I thought you were cute, so I had to come over and say hi."

And then I reach out for a handshake and introduce myself. And the conversation begins.

There are very few circumstances in which you would want to ask for her number right away -- dude, you don't even know her, what the hell would you want her number for? You have no idea if the two of you would have anything to talk about or even get along, that's why it comes off as creepy.

Anyway, that opener buys me anywhere from 2-5 minutes worth of interaction at a busy club. There will be times when a girl just plainly isn't interested and will ignore you; but it works surprisingly well in most circumstances (around the same if not better than the Naked Man's 2 out of 3 times! </half kidding>).

While I've used that opener in clubs mostly, I've also had success using it in sit-down "inuman" places as well as coffee shops like Starbucks. It's actually better outside of club situations because in addition to the fact that nobody approaches strangers in these places, it's also a very strong and bold way to start a conversation. And I've heard that girls dig confidence ;)

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NOW THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART: One reason I think it's worked well for me these past few years is this: my mentality when approaching isn't to get anything from them.

In all honesty, if the conversation ends right then and there (and many times, it has) I'll be completely fine with it. I don't even mind getting blown off and rejected. In my head, my only purpose for opening with this line is to give them a sincere compliment: if all I can do is to make her day/night a little better and that's it, then so be it.

(And let's face it; whose day wouldn't be made up if a random stranger came up to you and told you that you're attractive and yet not want anything at all from you?

One time, I was hanging out in Katipunan with my friends and noticed this super cute girl who was drinking with her friend. I wanted to approach, but later noticed that she started crying and wouldn't stop -- presumably coming off a breakup or something. Before I left, I walked up to her and told her that I thought she was cute, and that she was obviously having a very bad day and I thought that a compliment from a complete stranger would at least help brighten up her night. If you've ever seen a girl genuinely smile after a solid round of crying.. It's a beautiful thing. Didn't even bother asking for her number but no approach has ever made me feel like a champ more than that one did. )

Which is pretty much what /u/prpna said, but a lot more eloquently and succinctly than I ever could. I agree 200% with his "she made your day; now try and make hers" statement. Seek to give value, not leech it away from people -- it truly does make the difference between creepy and confident.

What you do next is totally up to you, but in general you definitely want to do at least a few minutes of small talk before you close for the number (or you could go and take the interaction as far as you can for the night before you close it) -- that way, she's a little bit more comfortable with you and you actually have something to text her about when you do text her -- but this is a completely different topic in of itself though.

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There's also the indirect opener in which you start a conversation without revealing your interest (sometimes even going out of your way to downplay it). Somewhere in the replies to this post, someone mentioned "The Game" which popularized the opinion opener (i.e. "Hey, I need a female opinion on something: who lies more, men or women?" etc.).

If I have to go indirect, personally I'm a fan of using situational openers. Basically, you use the situation around you to start a conversation with them. Let's say I'm in a club and I'm buying a drink -- if a girl is waiting along with me (btw one of the best times to time to start a conversation with a girl is when she's at the bar buying a drink) a lot of times I just look at them and say "Hi, how you doing?" or if they're holding a drink already, just reach out with my bottle and say "Cheers" then start some casual small talk.

Not such a fan of this approach especially if I'm really interested in the girl, because it takes a lot more conversation (and you have to be super interesting and/or super good looking) before she'll actually be interested enough to give you her number. Plus I'm extremely lazy to bother going through a whole bunch of this throughout the night. Also, getting the number doesn't always mean that she won't flake on you when you text her -- but it is a way to start an interaction with less risk.

But there are times when the situational opener is actually much more useful than the direct one. For example, if you're at a place where there's a lot of social accountability like a school party or whatever (friends, and friends of friends, where getting hit on by a complete stranger with a very strong come on may make you look a little too weird). Or "day game" situations like at the mall or at a bookstore or at a coffee shop where you might feel too vulnerable/exposed to use the direct opener (sidenote: it's not really a problem -- people are paying more attention to themselves and don't really give a fuck about you, so remember to tell yourself to get over yourself; you are not a unique snowflake).

Actually, when I was starting out with "the game" I once gave myself a mission to ask 5 strangers (female, of course) for recommendations on stores to buy good "guy clothes" from. It's a great exercise, IMO -- straight out of the Stylelife Challenge (now known as "Rules of the Game") -- and actually ended up having a 10 minute conversation with a girl on the elevator about whatever (too bad I was too chickenshit to get her number, but I've learned from my mistakes since then).

Anyway, complete wall of text already so I'm going to end this here, but hope that actually helps you out.

I am not Filipino but I have enough connection now to have more than a passing interest. By reading "In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines," I feel somewhat more informed on the topic than even well-educated Americans and Filipinos I run into. I would be curious to know of similar or better books to read on the topic.

The wikipedia page for Bonifacio goes into some detail as well.

There are two ways to read history -- one focuses on the personalities, the "great men" if you will -- while the other is more of a study of culture, resources and demographics. Both aspects are important. To make history approachable for normal people, you have to kind of shine the light on individuals. However, I think the great movements and outcomes are generally determined by less personal forces. Who one chooses to illuminate and elevate often reveals more about an author or speaker than it does about history.

If I remember correctly, Bonifacio went to Hong Kong to buy guns from and enlist support of the Americans but they had already set sail without him. If that story is correct, it seems to me that his political ground game was not so tight. Like he may not have been in the same league as other figures he was dealing with on a pure power-politics level. But he also seems like a more admirable guy than Aguinaldo.

Where it seems the Philippine independence movement fell short is that Aguinaldo was basically fighting on behalf of the elite to preserve the status quo just without the Spanish. His idea of Philippine nationhood was not terribly expansive or inclusive and he didn't really have the regular people behind him in a committed way.

When it sounded like the independence was going to offer them a good deal, the elite of the Philippines were cautiously for it. (But almost certainly keeping their options open just in case.) Later, as dealing with the Americans promised greater riches and became less threatening, the enthusiasm for independence among them subsided. Aguinaldo also lost support of regions through the trial and execution of Bonifacio.

The main concern for Philippine elite was protection of their land titles. The prospect of trade deals leading to export contracts with the US -- then rapidly becoming one of the hottest markets -- was also a major draw. What could independence offer that would be better than that for them? For the regular Juans also, Americans offered education and other benefits.

I wonder what would Aguinaldo's Philippines have looked like had he succeeded. But then again I also wonder what America would have looked like had it remained part of the British empire -- a similarly improbable outcome.

I highly recommend these books:

• The Intelligent Investor - I owe everything to this book.
  
• Stocks for the Long Run - Incredibly well researched book on global markets.
  
  Madali lang kumita sa stocks. Madali din malugi :). Ginawa ko yung /r/phinvest a few years ago, pero hindi ko na halos nabibisita. May mga pinost ako doon na intro stuff sa investing at stocks.

I could recommend this book Delusions of a Dictator: The Mind of Marcos As Revealed in His Secret Diaries by William C. Rempel

It shows insight to Marcos' mindset before he declared Martial Law. I read it as a supplementary book at our History subject at the UP Main Lib Filipiniana Section.

http://www.amazon.com/Delusions-Dictator-Marcos-Revealed-Diaries/dp/0316740152

Another book, or rather a collection of essays is Nick Joaquin's A Question of Heroes: Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History It shows another side on the story of our heroes and a take that is unconventional and far from what we perceived them during our Elementary and High School education

Don't worry about the N# levels, they really don't indicate your skill at all. Many people have studied for those tests specifically and had no skill in Japanese other than those tests, and still managed to pass N5. It doesn't test you for anything other than reading.

For learning hiragana and katakana, you can do that over the weekend and the kanji you can learn in two or three months. Personally I'm doing 50 a day. You should look in to a tool called Anki, and some books. Specifically, Teach Yourself Complete Japanese, Colloquial Japanese and GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. Send me a PM and I'll see what I can do for sending you some E-book versions of those books.

For Kanji, check out Heisig's Remembering the Kanji. There's a shared deck for it on Anki. I changed the particular deck available on Anki so the kanji is on the front, and the meaning and the story are on the back. It doesn't teach you the meanings of the kanji, which I believe is a good thing; you should learn the readings of the kanji from the context in certain words. I'm currently learning 50 new kanji a day with Anki + doing my reviews.

I actually emailed the son of the professor who first translated the Hinilawod into English (Dr F Landa Jocano). He said his father's estate was in the process of doing a second translation edition with side-by-side English and Kinaray-a which I assume will be like the copy of Beowulf I read in Junior English class. If that happens, I'll be ecstatic.

Hi.

Have you read Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal?

This is the most important Filipino book ever. :)

Amazon. The xkcd banner also says it's available via Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, and Hudson (I'm not familiar with the last two).

This can help: https://www.amazon.com/Prentice-Hall-Grammar-Composition-Forlini/dp/0137118708

I think matagal nang merong "no outside food" na policy ang ilang sinehan as far as I can remember...I mean, maski nung uso pa yung mga standalone na sinehan (at noong apat pa lang ang malalaking SM malls sa Metro Manila). Nung mga late 1980s, madalas akong nakakakita ng mga sekyu na naninita ng mga pumapasok sa sinehan na may dala-dalang take out food (at lalo na ng mga bote ng softdrinks). Only difference siguro in this particular image is that SM Cinemas decided to reinforce the warning because, hey, they also need to make a business with their own cinema food (and tbh they're not really the only movie theater operators who are doing this).

Ika nga ng mga film scholars na sina David Bordwell at Kristin Thompson sa kanilang textbook na Film Art: An Introduction:

>Once the exhibitor has contracted to screen the film, the distributor can demand stiff terms. The theater keeps a surprisingly small percentage of total box office receipts (known as the gross or grosses). One standard arrangement guarantees the distributor a minimum of 90 percent of the first week’s gross, dropping gradually to 30 percent after several weeks. These terms aren’t favorable to the exhibitor. A failure that closes quickly will yield almost nothing to the theater, and even a successful film will make most of its money in the first two or three weeks of release, when the exhibitor gets less of the revenue. Averaged out, a long-running success will yield no more than 50 percent of the gross to the theater. To make up for this drawback, the distributor allows the exhibitor to deduct from the gross the expenses of running the theater (a negotiated figure called the house nut). In addition, the exhibitor gets all the cash from the concession stand, which may deliver up to 70 percent of the theater’s profits. Without high-priced snacks, movie houses couldn’t survive.
>
>“Selling food is my job. I just happen to work in a theater.” — Theater manager in upstate New York

(Incidentally, this passage also helps explain why cineplexes would love to fill all their theaters with just the latest Marvel Comics film. And also, kung bakit ang bilis-bilig ma-pull out ng mga indie films sa mga sinehan.)

​

The same news paper who essentially denies climate change.

For more details, read this book.

Mastering the art

How about this edition from Penguin Classics https://www.amazon.com/Filibusterismo-Penguin-Classics-Jose-Rizal/dp/0143106392

Hail Santa!

Read up to know why they will sabotage your economy if you do not comply to all the big power's wishes.


https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081


John Perkins started and stopped writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man four times over 20 years. He says he was threatened and bribed in an effort to kill the project, but after 9/11 he finally decided to go through with this expose of his former professional life. Perkins, a former chief economist at Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main, says he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars," Perkins writes. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an extraordinary and gripping tale of intrigue and dark machinations. Think John Le Carré, except it's a true story.


What John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened.

:P

Sorry, ang malilibre ko sayo ay eto. I could not care less if it costs more than twice that of a Mortal Instruments or Kirsten White or Maggie Stiefvater or Roshani Chokshi book, eto lang kaya kong bilhin. :D

Have you read Hernando de Soto? It has a few chapters on the history of squatting in the United States, and if you believe him, it was totally illegal and also totally tolerated because of political considerations.

I disagree.

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420533271&sr=8-1&keywords=UX

30USD

http://www.bookdepository.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Steve-Krug/9780321965516

32USD

I'd like to be nice here so I'll refrain from the usual "this is f*cking bullshit, go study" post, and just understand that you know nothing about life and don't pay taxes such that you had the temerity to preach to this subreddit about your uninformed and utterly biased opinion that mass media is focused on the wrong things just because they did a segment on something you find "less important". Sure, you would think all nasty comments here are made by people who are unproductive just because you yourself are actually unproductive. But people don't flood this subreddit with their trolls unlike you.

At your age, you should already have had the intellectual capacity and emotional intelligence to understand that news agencies need ratings and profit, and they had to balance news and entertainment, unless you're a troll who intentionally disregards everything else and focuses on spreading malice and hate against news agencies due to their coverage of Duterte's fuckups.

If you don't know anything about politics or rights, try reading great political theories so you'll understand why people need to be aware. The way you carry on, it's quite obvious that you're either a sociopath who's disconnected with society and you think it only revolves around basura and kahirapan, or you made this post and all others in your post history with the malicious intention to bait people, upset them, and delight in their hate against your trolls.

TLDR: OP wants you to watch something else as the Duterte admin burns the nation down and waste your goddamn hard-earned money.