big j

that's my first encounter with an ugly american.


yeah i know its a toy. its called a "Big Trak", and based on Google searches, there's still a lot of former kids out there who profess a love for this electro-mechanical wonder that came out back in 1979.


so why is the concept of an "ugly american" involved in this post? ah, well, back in those days, our landlord's relatives came to visit from America. i used to play with the landlord's kids, and with their new fandangled American cousin(s) in tow, they had to show off stuff to the dirt-poor child who lives in the ground floor. first among which would be this Big Trak, which made beeping sounds and followed commands input in the keypad.

their big American cousin (the male one), whose name is the same as the one of my best mate on the sidebar, also had to show off his karate moves to me, or rather with me as the tackle dummy. and the landlord's kid, who's dumber than a rock, cheered his cousin on, forgetting that when the guy returns home to America, he'll be begging me to play with them again.

so i wonder where the hell is that cousin of theirs now? i never saw them again, up until we left the place and transferred to our current home in Cagayan. he's probably collecting bottle caps and beer bottles for the 5 cent refund he can get from each. or maybe the jerk's a damn CIA agent now and he's monitoring blogs for anything nasty said about him.

darned kids.