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One Saturday Afternoon

Here's another "thought" I wrote back in November 2, 2002:
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a saturday afternoon. thank God, it was a holiday for me (and for most of us filipinos) the last two days, which was thursday, and friday; eve of all saints' day, and all saints' day. the idea was, that all souls' day, which is today, is usually a special holiday, but since it's on a saturday, and so that people will get their dose of their usual, yearly 2-day all saints'/all souls' holiday, they made the eve of all saints' day a holiday.

now, i'm thanking God because, if it were just an ordinary saturday afternoon, i wouldn't have known how saturday afternoons can become so... good. sunday afternoons certainly are great, but i never knew that saturday afternoons can be like this.

because in previous saturday afternoons, i usually have my breakfast, and work my way around the house, getting myself to "really" wake up. because on friday nights, i spend it, and i mean really spend the whole of friday night to holler at the world, "what a week!" it has always been like that.

and thank God, i had only a three-day work week. i had thursday and friday as my usual "weekend", and i have today, saturday to rest my mind.

and to think, i almost had to work on those two national holidays, but for some reason, uncomprehensible to me still, i was free.

as i usually do, i spent my thursday and friday "weekend," sleeping, and spent my usual "friday night" last wednesday, spilling my guts out to the world.

and here i am, i have enough of clearness of mind to write something down, and i feel great. but not without doing nothing.

i had to take my (un)usual dose of a cup of dissolved caffeine, had two sticks of West Ice, said my prayers, had a nice bath, that would have been nicer if we only had a bath tub, and, i did a very little amount of household chores, watched two movies on HBO. ahhh. if only my saturday afternoons were always like this.

Philippines, My Philippines

I just found this one bit of "thought" that I wrote on 28 September 2002:
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ahhh...

here in the philippines, (some) bs biology graduates end up as bank tellers.

for me, the civil engineer... the question is shall i take a PhD or an MBA... well, that is because, i want to be successful financially (here), because my dad does not own a civil engineering firm. i know a friend kasi who's around 29 pa lang and marketing ang job niya for this multi-national, and whoah, kaya niya nang buhayin sarili niya (and with more 12:00 and $ to spare).

there is certainly more money, and a sure financially comfortable life in "business" than in a "noble" profession such as civil engineering.

yung commercial nga ng san miguel beer, medyo... nationalistic siya. ang message niya is "dito sa pilipinas, pinakamagaganda ang mga babae at pinakamasarap ang beer." aba e, agree ako diyan.*

so for money and a sure and secure (financial) future... marketing, sales, management, or any other stuff like that, is the way. lalo na with a multi-national.

kung engineering habol mo, construction, project management, project engineer, site engineer, okay rin lahat yan.

for me na medyo, ambisyon ko nung grade 6 ako e "to be a scientist".. and at the same time, gusto kong yumaman. damn. ano ba talaga kelangan kong gawin?

kunsabagay, may option na sa isteyts magtrabaho... sa isteyts, may kakilala ako, hindi siya naka-graduate ng college, kaya niya nang buhayin sarili niya, at pamilya niya.

kahit ano trabaho mo don, ayos ka na. civil engineer pa tayo or karamihan sa atin, lalong okay. although, pareho lang naman situwasyon don at dito, mga $4,000 minimum yata nakukuha ng starting registered civil engineers don; dito sa pinas, mga ganon din, pesos nga lang.

* i must comment though that diyan sa san miguel beer add na yan, puro mapuputi at matatangos-ilong na mga pinay lang mga pinakita. ang yayabang ng mga hindi pure bred! oh well, feeling hindi aso kasi.

blog updates (re-updated 20060119)

ronj-blog Updates: coach potato's corner, consumer watch, & traffic watch, and THOUGHTS!... err, i think that's it... did you checkout the new ronjie.com/engineering site? enjoy. :-)

check out the "Slashes" to the right ===>

ronjie.com-slash-Photos updated second week of January 2006, with new photos from my trips last December. Nothing new in ronj-blog (ronjie.com/blog) until... maybe in a few minutes. ;-)

blog format at last

It is again 2:30 in the morning. You guessed it--can't sleep. Damn. Anyway, at long last, I've converted the ronjie.com main page into the blog format, courtesy of blogger.com.

Out of a coma

Hey, you haven't seen me in a while, have you? Oh well. I can't believe this thing was only actually active while I was in Japan. Hopefully, with how I've set this up, I could update RONJ-BLOG more often now. Did you see the main ronjie.com page, and the engineering page? They're blogs now. BLOGS - it's the new way of life. :-)

So many Filipinos who know how to make a car move, very few who know how to drive

Making a car move, and using it to get to where you want to go - that's not driving. Many Filipinos think they're so smart. Bad news kid, HINDI TAYO MATALINO! Oops, I forgot that Filipinos hate being told of their deficiencies. We don't like being nase-sermonan, kahit na mali tayo! We have all sorts of excuses, all sorts of unrelated things to say about the guy who tells us we're wrong and we're stupid.

Anyway, I haven't posted so much in this blog because, there are just too many out there. I haven't done anything "wrong" also, so until then, I guess this blog will hibernate for now.

Let me tell you of this story first of this big fat Filipino. Like many like him, because he's bigger, he thinks he could just get to where he's going, di bale na may masagasaan.

I was at the SM Centerpoint parking, I was waiting for this car in front of me to move out of his parking slot so I turned on the right-turn signal to signal that I was going to park. So the car moved out already, and out comes this Toyota FX on my left trying to get the parking space that I patiently waited for! So I made a maneuver to make sure I get the space.

So I was parked. The big fat Filipino guy went down from his mom's Tamaraw FX, and was telling me, "why did you take that parking slot?" "kanina pa ako nagaantay para dito!" "yung slot don ang inaantayan mo e, hindi yan, ako dapat paparada diyan!"

Eto na naman tayo. Pokenengene. Paano niya "nabasa" kung ano ang iniisip ko. Paano niya sinabing doon ako paparada. Mabuti kung tama yung "basa" niya sa akin. E hindi naman.

Oh well, napikon din ako. Then all of a sudden, he was saying "tara, sapakan na lang!" Pukinanginamo! Well I didn't tell him that. I just ignored him of course. So I walked away. Big Fat Filipino guy was really enraged. He shouted "bakla ka pala e." Oh come on.

So I went about SM Centerpoint, and then a few minutes later, I suddenly realized, that guy might have etched his signature on my car using his keys! I ran back to the car, and it seemed that they were only able to park just then. The guy was still so fucking angry. Fucking shit. I still fucking ignored him. Then his mother who was with him, told me, "pasensyahan mo na yung anak ko ha." I mean, naawa ako sa nanay niya. To see your son go like that. Mabuti kung may punto siya. Wala e! Tangina mo, sana damihan mo kain mo ng chicharon para matuluyan ka na!

The car was safe naman. It's a good thing he's not such an evil genius. I was walking inside SM already, and from about 40 meters away I looked back at them, and there he was, waving his very big, fat arms at me.

Oh well. I'm so mad most of the time when I'm on the road. It's a good thing that most of the time, I am by myself. Maybe that's the bad thing. I hurry up. But I still don't beat red lights even at 4 in the morning.

[TV Series Review] House (formerly House, MD)

Am I reading this blog correctly? My last post was almost a year ago? Damn! I am that busy!

Oh well, short but sweet. Watch House starring Hugh Laurie. Get the Season One DVD! And watch the first ep. You'll know it's a good show if you find yourself watching the Episode 22, even if I didn't tell you so! Search Google for House. They've got it all out there. Great websites for House-related bits and info: the fox.com/house official website, tv.com, imdb.com.

[sub-labels: CPC tv]

PC Options (Gilmore) - I never learned.

My mom's computer had some motherboard problems, so I told her to buy an external hard disk enclosure so that we could recover her files. I was ready to park at PC Express (Gilmore), but my mom said we should go to PC Options instead. Two things at the back of my mind: the same guy or family probably owns the two stores so who cares, and not PC Options again!

My problem with PC Options was, you need something, they take some time before they get it for you. And that still IS the case. I never learned. Took us maybe 15 minutes to wait. We asked a sales person to follow-up on our order. She went "inside", came out, and told us, "it's there." My thoughts: where is it, why can't I see it if it's there?

Oh well, finally, it is really there. Unfortunately, they were not gonna give me a receipt unless I asked for it. That was a P1,300 thing. Attention, DTI, BIR!

Well I figured, everyone does it here, can the DTI or BIR or whatever handle it? Damn. But I still won't get my feet on the bandwagon.

Jollibee Philcoa - their fault, my fault, their fault, their payback - we're quits! no thumbs up for them

I hate Jollibee. Because they have (some) good food that my Filipino taste really crave for at least once a month maybe, like many Filipinos. And because of that, they as well as many other similar business establishments could get away with not providing customer service. I've hated ordering Coke at Jollibee, some branches just do not mix it right (too much soda water I think, or something). It just tastes bad! Then I also hate the fact that they just give you one, and just one piece of very fine (very thin!) paper napkin (or more commonly known as "tissue" in the Philippines).

So here I was at Jollibee Philcoa. No choice, because they have better parking than McDonald's. I was meeting someone. I was early. I ordered their fries with the beef and melted cheese. They didn't give me any fork. I thought I wouldn't need it (my first time to try the thing), so I didn't ask for one. So I was using my fingers to eat the thing. Suddenly, it's hard to eat the thing without making a big mess. Now I realized I needed a fork. So what will I do, should I bring my fries to the counter and have my seat possibly taken by other customers? I thought, well my fries aren't even halfway consumed yet, so if I leave it here, I could keep an eye on it anyway, there'll be no problem.

So I left the fries, ran to the counter, asked for a fork, I saw someone trying to take my seat so I ran back to my table, ran back to the counter and got my fork, ran back to my table, and voila! No more fries! "Did you see my fries?," I asked my neighbor. They pointed to a Jollibee maintenance guy. And then it was like I ate one whole chili pepper.

A manager saw something wrong and asked me if there was something wrong? I said, "Yes, that guy took my fries, I was not yet done." The maintenance guy returns and said "Ah, hindi pa ba kayo tapos?" Sa loob loob ko, "Pokenangenamoh!" Aangal ba ako kung ubos na yan? Good thing, the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Ang dami pa niyan, panong hindi pa ako tapos." Manager lady then said, we'll just get you a new one. I said "Ok, thanks!" but I closely watched the maintenance guy because he might just give me the very same thing that he already took... Which could have been dirty already!

Anyway, manager lady comes back with the newly fried fries with cheese and beef - maybe just about the same amount that I left. The lady also was giving me fork. I said, "No thank you, I got one already." In my head, I added, "if your staff gave me one in the first place, this mess wouldn't have happened."

So, Jollibee, I still don't like you. Your employees, because you're sad, pathetic little Filipinos who hate to be told what you're doing wrong, I still don't like you. But I guess I should give some sort of commendation to that manager lady. Well done. Ordinary Filipinos would have thought "naku, baka ibawas sa suweldo ko ito." Mga patetiko talaga kayo. Maka-sarili! Mag-hirap kayo! TIN!