Kim - Siong (Episode One)

"Malayo pa ba ang Silang dito?" I asked Jollieboie, who was at that time dozing off after coming from work during the day.

"Sabi ko sayo malayo pa eh. Hindi pa nga tayo lumalampas ng SM Dasma," He said, with a hint of annoyance from asking him the same question over and over for the last hour.

Meanwhile, Nate_Fish3r, who was seated beside Jollieboie preferred to listen to his mp3s rather than join in the commotion between me and our other companion. Being the silent guy among the three of us, he preferred to observe how we figured things out on our way to the Hanap Barkada Group's post-summer outing. Separated from the rest of the group and leaving Manila after dark, finding the resort in the backwaters of Silang, Cavite was no mean feat.

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The Hanap Barkada GEB (HB) Thread was established in Pinoyexchange two years ago. It is the successor group of the Outsiders (ODDERS), Straight Natured Gay Guy's Group (SNAGG) and the other LBGT threads that passed into oblivion after its members realized that they no longer needed to hide in the forums anymore. HB started as a small, loose group composed of regular posters in the Alternative Preference subforum of PEx. It would remain so for the first year of its existence.

The group's main objective is to organize a friendly group eye-ball among non-straight PExers who frequently posted on other threads that directly addresses a certain bisexual or gay issue that thrive in the subforum. Since these issue-related threads are many and quite provocative in many cases, the posters in these threads had different personalities and views on the non-straight world. These different views sometimes lead to conflicts and misunderstandings that needed a neutral ground for discussion. On the other hand, those who agree on certain issues also needed a neutral ground for discussing subjects (which are mostly trivial) that don't relate to a certain issue. HB is considered a neutral ground so its main purpose is to serve as the main tambayan thread of these PExers.

However, organizing the GEB was another challenge. First, the thread founder suddenly left the group even before the other PExers started joining in. The one who came after him and tried to organize things wasn't charismatic enough to reach out to many. He gave up the responsibilities even before the first grand eyeball ever happened. And the first GEB itself was met with a cold shudder. Two of those who came were from the Outsiders and when the Odder organizer suddenly informed us of another meet up the same evening the HB set its first GEB, we immediately left, leaving those who stayed texting more people to come.

Because of the cold reception the organizers received after the first GEB, the Hanap Barkada Group had its hiatus. I, for one had a conflict with several of the original members after I felt they're being plastic towards me. In the long run, the only real friendship I have established from the original group was with Bronxdude and Bananaboy. Bronxdude is a small, fair-skinned guy whose smiles and punchlines can make anyone's day shine like sunrise. Bananaboy on the other hand, keeps in touch with my online journal. Anyone who actually reads my deepest thoughts have a special place in my heart. Even if we don't talk that much, my respect and admiration for him has always been sky high. Throughout the entire hiatus period of HB and into my warring days in the subforum, my cordiality with Bronx and B-boy never faltered.

The next time our lives would cross again was at the same thread. A month after a surge of new members came to the thread, the new organizer called for a grand eye-ball.

This time, things were much more hopeful than the first GEB I attended.

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We passed SM Dasmarinas and my two companions were either sleeping, or their thoughts were so far, they have missed the fact that the resort we are looking is not that far away. The stretch of highway after the mall became increasingly dark and ascending - an impending sign that we have finally left the urban side of Cavite.

Being a guy who doesn't leave the confines of the city very often, a sight of rural life is something very disturbing to me. The moment the bus windows revealed plains and rolling hills shrouded in perpetual darkness and distant lights blinking in the horizon, I became restless and focused my thoughts looking at the highway marker.

"Kilometer 48... If we missed the landmark, then we're off to Tagaytay."

"Don't worry too much, I told the conductor to drop us at Km. 48," Nate Fish3r assured me when we're in Imus.

"But what if the conductor forgot Km. 48?" I quietly asked myself.

So when I saw that we had just passed Km. 38, several more minutes of bus travel and I informed my companions that I would go in front to permanently remind the bus authorities to drop us at the exact spot where we needed to be.

"Malayo pa kayo dun sa babababaan niyo," The driver insisted.

But I was already getting restless and very dark. Expensive and brand new cars overtook the bus several times and billboard signs advertising the fancy restaurants in Tagaytay became increasingly more visible on the road.

I looked at my companions at the back of the bus, who were obviously waiting for my hint to stand up and go in front. A slight nod made them rise up to go in front and join me. Unfortunately, the bus had a brief five-minute stop-over in their main headquarters along the highway and this delayed us in reaching our destination significantly.

However, I took this opportunity to buy a pack of cigarettes at a nearby sari-sari store and enjoy the fresh cold air blown from the highlands.

"It's been a long while since I last felt this cold air hugging my polluted body," I told myself. "Good thing I made this daring escape at home."

Jollieboie and Nate Fish3r also went outside only to complain as to why I asked them to stand up when in fact we're still far away from our destination.

"Ayaw niyo nun, at least hindi lang ako ang mukhang excited." I told them. Jollieboie gently scratched my head as a sign of disapproval. Obviously, among the three, I was the one who is really excited at the prospects of getting out of town.

Five minutes after we went outside, the bus blew its horns telling everyone to return. Several more kilometers of journey into barely lit roads and endless coconut plantations and the bus begins to slow down again.

"Dito na kayo," the conductor told us.

Dropping off the bus, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. There was indeed a waiting shed, which was the landmark the organizer told us. However, the road leading towards the interior was shrouded in pitch black.

"Saan dito yung resort?" asked by one of my companions.

"Hindi ko alam, magtanong tayo kung may dumaan."

Luckily, tiny orange lights lit a corner of the dirt road. It turns out that there were several tricycle drivers waiting for their passengers at the bukana. I approached them to ask where Kim Siong is.

"Lakarin niyo na lang, yung unang bahay na maliwanag, yun yun" answered one of the drivers.

So off we went into darkness, dodging possible snakes, eeky frogs and other critters that we might encounter along the road. Meanwhile, Jollieboie's imagination triggered a series of naughty thoughts that never crossed our mind while asking for directions.

"Tsk, ano kaya feeling na ma-rape ka dito?" He asked.

"Wag po! Wag po sa kahuyan, dun tayo sa tricycle niyo manong," I followed jokingly.

Within minutes, the sight of a big, lighted house appeared in front of us. Walking further, there was a Pai-fang gate with Chinese symbols written on it.

"This must be the place," I told my companions.

Sensing our arrival, the dogs began to bark. Soon, the guard opened the doors for us.

"Heto po ba yung Kim-Siong," I asked the guard.

He just nodded and pointed at the two-story house at the farther edge of the compound.

Then and there, I finally heard a guy singing at the videoke bar.

And it was Sad and Blue's voice making birit of a Regine's song. He's one of the confirmed attendees on the list.

Finally, we have arrived.

---

-tobecontinued-

Wanted: Txtfriend - Confessions Of A Paid Chatter (Matronix Remix, Last Part)

So how does one become a Professional Chat Operator?

“First, one must be mature, open-minded and sexually liberated.” John tells. “You may never know what the person on the other line would ask you to do as you have your role-playing session with the User.” He further explained that Operators are always encouraged to be imaginative and creative with their responses since telecommunication laws of the Client do not allow the sending of graphic sex words.

Instead, an Operator handing a “premium adult account” must use idioms and/or slang terms for human sex organs and sexual acts such as “kitty,” “meatie,” “melons,” “getting it on,” and “cherry.”

“Lastly, an Operator must try to have a substantial knowledge of US Culture and Geography,” he added. “When the company was just starting, there were some Operators who would spend time locating Baltimore, or what kind of restaurant Hooter’s is, but this had to be done as quickly as possible in order to avoid making the User impatient and opting-out of the chat service.”

To further give me an idea about the fundamentals of text chatting, John allowed me to briefly take over his post so I could see for myself how the text chat worked (it was a good thing that he was a supervisor and could pretend that I was an applicant).

As a last piece of advice, he told me to always remember that no matter how rude or aggressive the Users became, I was to keep in mind that deep down, they are just looking for someone to drive away their loneliness. As an example, he told me how a colleague was promoted to the Quality Assurance department for being compassionate and friendly with the users.

I nodded and waited for my first keyword. Soon, it came: STACY.

John explained that the User was looking for a textmate named Stacy, as advertised in the Client’s TV spots. I began by introducing myself to the User asStacy. After a minute or two, the User responded by giving his name, age and location. “My name is Kevin, 24 yrs old frm Nashville, bend ova fo me baby, I want to see if ur shaved down there.”

His reply gave me goosepimples. I could not imagine flirting with another guy, even if it was just mere text messaging role play.

John noticed my apprehension and hesitation. Worried that the QA department might notice his response delay, he asked for his chair back and told me to observe instead. “My lovely pink kitty is shaved and Im touching it ryt now baby. Tell me your stats.” He completed his response in less than a minute.

I was taken aback by his casual ease in typing out the reply. Clearly, his job had already completely desensitized him from the awkwardness of flirting with guys. “They would sometimes ask you to take them from behind,” John said. “You don’t want to know what my response to such a request is, right?” We both chuckle at this.

I looked around the office and noted that there were seven other male operators in the adult account. The females only numbered three. When I asked him about the greater ratio of men compared to women in the adult account, John explained that most of the girls feel degraded by that service. “Nababastusan sila kaya they quit after a day or two. Siguro, dahil na rin sa kultura natin… hirap ‘yung mga babae na mag-roleplay,” he told me in Taglish,

John added that a single preference does not dominate the account. As I was about to ask him to further explain what he meant, a new User appeared on his computer screen asking for a guy text mate. The texter turned out to be a married guy in his mid-twenties who lived a double life, one that his wife was not aware of.

“One good thing about this service is that when a User is assigned to you by the system, it is your responsibility to prolong the conversation as much as you can.” He admitted that his responses to the Users have made his colleagues think of him as the most perverted person they had ever met.

In the time I spent watching John do his job, I saw him effortlessly change his character from a submissive policeman to a kinky blonde nurse, shifting to a dominatrix teacher who loved ordering the User to wear a tight school girl’s uniform and be spanked as punishment. Lastly, John;s character changed again to become a caring housewife who took care of the kids while the User worked in a mining site far away from home.

“The possibilities of getting into a new character are endless,” John said. “There were many times I had steady chat-relationship with Users for months, until they just quit on me, frustrated that I never ran out of excuses to avoid meeting them.”

Operators like John are bound by rules, also known as the “Terms of Service.” They are not allowed to say “I love you” to the User no matter how many times the User professes his or her feelings. They should also refrain from giving personal details such phone numbers – even if it’s just a made up one, or give tell the User to meet up at a certain date and time.

They are not allowed to talk to a User considered underage by the chat service (below 13), nor do outrageous roleplaying such as those that involved Incest, bestiality and extreme sado-masochism.

“There were a lot of Operators before who got fired by management for disobeying such rules,” John said. “Sometimes, the carelessness of a chat operator, especially when ignoring the underage rule can cost us an entire account. The Clients monitor us, along with our Quality Assurance Team. They are always on the look-out for Terms of Service Violations.”

As the final hour of the afternoon shift approached, I noticed the brief notes John added to the system about the basic information of the Users he had chatted with. “This is for the next shift.” He explained. Chatzone had a non-stop 24-hour operation, and the notes he provided for the next Operator who would take his place served as a guide for any continued conversations with the Users.

I told John I was going down for a smoke and would just wait for him downstairs. Actually, I wanted to give him more room so he could complete his daily quota of 300 messages.

Downstairs, as I smoked, I realized that no matter how the Operators appeared pleasant and concerned towards the User, at the end of the day, everything was just impersonal role play for them. I remembered how John confided to me that sometimes, he felt guilty about making a User fall for a person he will never see in his life.

“I just tell myself that my only real purpose in this weird job is to give the User a sense of belonging and a feeling of being cared for by someone, even if they have never touched, hugged or kissed that someone yet... nor will they ever do so.”

Reflecting on John’s words, I told myself that sex, or the promise of sex, at least, sells indeed, but this may only be because as society progresses technologically, our sense of connection to others gets compromised.

Perhaps it’s the concept of universal longing for companionship at work?

John came down a few minutes later. We agreed to go to a bar to unwind. As we waited for a cab, I received a message from one of my anonymous text buddies. “Hi there! I hope ur interview was a success. I miss u so much baby. Talk 2u soon,” the message said,

Smiling, I suddenly realized what John meant when he said that each and everyone of us wanted to belong to someone. Beyond the sex chat, what the Users really wanted is to feel human.

John noticed my smile and asked me what’s up. I told him, “Pare, sabi mo weird ang trabaho mo. Actually, naisip ko, hindi naman, e… Nakatutulong pa nga kayo sa ibang tao, di ba? Ang laking bagay nu’n!”

He smiled back. It was one of the warmest and happiest smiles I had ever seen.