Handling the stick..

Today, I have failed in one of my important careers in life - driving. (yes, literally driving no pun intended) I'm no race driver nor your manila's mang-jimmy-para-na-po-driver. I'm simply a college student with a license who, like a majority of drivers in the philippines, has never had a formal degree or education in driving.

I've always viewed driving as an exercise of character. It depicts your willingness to drive around while keeping everyone's lives safe (pedestrians, fellow drivers, and of course your passenger). Driving takes a lot of skill, experience, and insight. Giving that pedal a go would imply reaching your destinations alive. If one had bad character, he is unfit for driving simply 'coz it places everyone's lives at stake.

I've made this saying about driving in the Philippines: "Most filpino drivers aren't blessed with skill, rather they are gifted with savegery." Apparently today (and probably on other days as well), I've gotten in touch with my savage side. It's true they say filipino drivers are skilled wherever you put them (a friend of mine who drove for navy officers in the United States was given complimented of this)..but at times, you just can't ignore our culture of beating the red light, making u-turns from the outmost lanes, switching 2-3 lanes all at once, etc..

So today, I was bent for re-examining certain points I need to work on about driving:

1) Lane-consistency - although switching lanes may get you to your destination faster, excessive lane-switching not only exposes your vehicle to having a blind position from your side mirror, it also tends to annoy your fellow drivers before you. - "putsa, di makapagdesisyun tong kotse na to ah"

2) Acceleration-operations - there are speed limits in this country, although no one really watches out for them. Apparently accelerating too quickly may get you into an accident simply because you're moving faster than your reflexes.. aside from this, it's bad for the environment. Imagine that 33 pesos per liter gas you're burning faster.

3) Punctuality - this one isn't skill-oriented but more of efficient scheduling of time. If you had waken up earlier, you'd probably won't be rushing and driving mad on the road. Aside from that, getting to places and meeting up on time is a practice of the partitioning of time, as Michel Foucault (writer of the book, Discipline and Punish) would have said it

Lastly, what's at stake here is everyone's lives - Not only your life, but everyone elses. Driving is therefore an activity that lends to achieving the common good.

After such reflection I've figured that for me: "Driving is about keeping your passengers happy, healthy... and sane." Hehehe... if I ever get a perfect score on my driving, I'll start serving my passengers cool drinks and pika-pika on a platter :)

A Discourse on Technology Part 1

Plainly said, technology is such a wonderful tool. Its roots originally came from hand-axes and other tools prehistoric man came up with. But let's set aside history...today, technology has become the focus of living and today's generation dons the title "technocrats" eversince technology has become more integrated with our lifestyle. What were yesterday's geeks are now fashion chics - a living symbol of this being the i-pod.

Anyhow, life has been more convenient 'coz of em..

So, ang tanung atm ay, geek ka ba?

have i told you lately that i love you
have i told you thre's no one else above you
fill my heart with gladness
take away all my sadness
ease my troubles that's what you do

for the morning sun in all it's glory
greets the day with hope and comfort too
you fill my life with laughter
and somehow you make it better
ease my troubles that's what you do
there's a love that's divine
and it's yours and it's mine like the sun
and at the end of the day
we should give thanks and pray
to the one, to the one

~i like songs like these.. calming... like being shot by a tranquilizer. but hey, it's not hyped up like some songs... gotta love this beef :)

A Concerned Bastard

After having an ecotheological presentation recently, I found out that I'm not as "environment-friendly" as I thought. As a concerned person, I just dig throwing my waste at the proper segregration 'bin'. In fact, I never fail to distinguish non-bios from the biodegradable binz. Pero after doing this eco footprint thingy that measures your capacity to 'waste' the earth's resources, I realized that driving myself home back and forth to school was the most wasteful activity. Hell, riding a private car everyday is damning enough in terms of fuel consumed and further contributes to our already-nasty polluted city.

Just some thoughts to promote to a more 'sustainable environment'
1) take a bath quicker! - Wisik wisik is the way to the glorious Brad Pitt hygiene
2) shut off the computer when not in use. - Bye bye overnight downloads!
3) perhaps commute - i'll give this one a thought first hahaha!

on the bad side, i got this off from one of the forums...

Aug. 31, 2005— The seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica has widened sharply this year, making it the biggest hole since 2000 and the third largest on record, according to measurements reported by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Data sent back by ESA's Earth-monitoring satellite Envisat showed the hole had swollen to an area of 10 million square kilometers (3.86 million miles) in mid-August, approximately the same size as Europe.

The hole is likely to expand further before reaching its maximum in September, ESA said in a press release.

- pretty alarming eh? halina mga kapwa ko; sana'y payabungin na natin ang libog natin sa pangangalaga ng kalikasan; saludo!