Parking blues

You have no complete control over the actions of other people.  How you react reflects on what kind of person you are.

Early morning at the office parking lot, I saw a car parked diagonally.  After parking Celver and out of curiosity I walked towards the car I saw earlier.  I theorized it probably developed a mechanical issue and thought maybe I might be able to help.

It turned out that the car was trying to block a wrongly parked motorcycle's way out!

In retrospect, I should have told the driver to call security instead to look for the rider of motorcycle.  Unfortunately, I didn't.  My lame excuse is that I was rushing to beat the bundy clock.

I hope I can do better next time.

The Concept of God

From the simplest to the brightest human minds in the planet there has always been a struggle whether to believe if God exists or not.  I'm not writing this piece to convince anybody to believe what I believe.  For some reason, today I had this urge to write about the idea.
I don't go to church regularly.  In fact I can't remember the last time I attended  a service.  I won't claim to be perfect or sinless or holier than anybody because I am certain I am not. But I do believe that there is God.
I haven't seen someone being risen from the dead but it won't stop me from believing in Him.  My personal opinion is that everyday is a miracle.  I don't know how the different parts of my body works but what I know is that I am alive.  I consider this alone as a miracle.  I also do not know why I was born into this world.  It is not my idea to exist but here I am.  If the beginning is not so clear the end is also the same.  Some people because of their intelligence refuse to believe that there is God.  I don't know if it is their understanding of their own existence that lead them to the idea.  I think only God can explain why we are here.  The purpose of each one of us existence' he knows for sure.  To be born in this world live a few years and then die later won't make any sense.  This applies to all of us however great or small.
I believe only God can put some real sense into a man's existence.

Pacquiao and Gay Marriage

Some people overreacted when PacMan made a comment and said that he doesn't agree with gays getting married.  What they missed is that he also said that they should be loved irregardless of their sexual orientation.

If the reference is the Bible, for sure it doesn't allow this kind of union.  Pacquiao believes in It and it is therefore expected  for him to echo what is written in the Book.  But denouncing the gay community, I think he did not.

God made us individuals with freedom to choose and decide what to do.  But He also prepared for us some guidelines on how we should live our lives.  I myself will not condemn anyone simply because I don't have the right.  I am far from being perfect and has committed violations against His rules.

But I believe that there is life after death and we will all be accountable to our deeds.  God will be the judge and the Bible will be the reference.

Philippine Holidays 2012

From : http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/103845/palace-announces-2012-holidays

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III has declared a total of 16 official holidays for 2012, Malacañang announced Thursday.

Aquino signed Proclamation 95, which designated 10 regular holidays next year, five special non-working days and one special holiday.

The proclamation was in accordance with Republic Act 9492, known as the “Holiday Economics,” which was made into law in 2007.

Following are next year’s holidays:

A. Regular Holidays
New Year’s Day: January 1 (Sunday)
Maundy Thursday: April 5
Good Friday: April 6
Araw ng Kagitingan: April 9 (Monday)

Labor Day: May 1 (Tuesday)
Independence Day: June 12 (Tuesday)
National Heroes Day: August 27 (Last Monday of August)
Bonifacio Day: November 30 (Friday)
Christmas Day: December 25 (Tuesday)
Rizal Day: December 30 (Sunday)

B. Special (Non-Working) Days
Chinese New Year: January 23 (Monday)
Ninoy Aquino Day: August 21 (Tuesday)
All Saints Day: November 1 (Thursday)
Additional special (non-working) day: November 2 (Friday)
Last Day of the Year: December 31 (Monday

C. Special Holiday (for all schools)
EDSA Revolution Anniversary: February 25 (Saturday)

Chinese New Year, which will fall on January 23, 2012, may be declared as a special non-working day without detriment to public interest, the proclamation said.

The Chinese New Year is “ one of the most revered and festive events celebrated not only in China but also in the Philippines by both Chinese Filipinos and ordinary Filipinos as well; and the joint celebration is a manifestation of our solidarity with our Chinese Filipino brethren who have been part of our lives in many respects as a country and as a people,” it added.

November 2, 2012 will be declared as a special non-working day “to give full opportunity to our people to properly observe All Saints’ Day with all its religious fervor which invariably requires them to travel to and from different regions in the country.”

Traditionally, only November 1 (All Saints’ Day) is declared a holiday.

Meanwhile, the proclamations declaring national holidays for the observance of Eid’l Fitr and Eid’l Adha will be issued after it is determined in accordance with the Islamic calendar, the proclamation read.

The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos will issue the dates when will the Islamic holidays fall, it added.

The Department of Labor and Employment will promulgate the implementing guidelines for the proclamation, it said.

Tricycles in the Fast Lane

The tricycle issue

Ask any motorcycle rider in the Philippines about their sources of frustration and grief while being on the road and tricycles will definitely be one of them.

What are tricycles

Tricycle is a common mode of public transport in the Philippines.  As the name implies, it has three wheels, two for the motorcycle that propels the whole thing and one for the sidecar attached.  Most are powered by two stroke engines due to its torque characteristics but there was a law passed that requires all motorcycle manufacturers to produce four strokes only.  I haven't read that law myself but the effect can be verified by simply observing the traffic in the Philippine roads.

Usual encounters

For the old two strokes, the power plant is usually 100cc and having said this, the tricycle is severely underpowered. It is therefore not surprising that a tricycle cruises at about 40kph.  You can imagine running at twice their cruising speed and then at a certain junction, a tricycle driver decided to join your lane, you can't help but feel bad about your helpless situation.  It could've been better if there's no traffic on the other lane which is not always the case.  I could cite more equally stressful situations but I won't because a familiar reader might get a heart attack.

Adding more power

Being underpowered is one of the problems of these tricycles.  Fortunately, manufacturers are now selling motorcycles with higher capacities like the Barako 175.  I personally saw tricycles that can cruise at about 80kph which is an acceptable highway speed.  Safety wise, I am not sure and I believe even the government don't have an answer for this.

The main problem

Another problem with the tricycle and much more potent than the lack of power is the attitude of its drivers.  I am finding it really hard to describe how these guys drive but one thing is sure, most of them drive dangerously because they are like drivers from hell.  They would turn without signaling first, accelerate and decelerate erratically, ride during the night without headlights, tail lights or both just to name a few.  If the government would be competent enough to conduct a study to find out the real root causes of accidents on the road, tricycles would be one of the top ten in the pareto.

Blogger Templates

If you are using Blogger from Google and editing your template, you need to be careful specially if you have meta codes inserted into the html.

In case you are not aware, meta codes are used by some if not most of the search engines when indexing web pages.  The words or phrases used needs to be optimized both in meta and page content to get a better ranking in search engine searches.

Fortunately, Blogger allows one to save the current template first before any edit is done.  Another way is to save the meta codes into a text file.

Solo Rider on Venus Raj

You're a refreshing face amidst the gloom of what happened right in the center of our motherland. I hope you continue to stay humble.

I wasn't able to watch the competition as it unfold thus I didn't jump like crazy as those guys on Youtube. But that doesn't make me lesser fan of yours. I'm a big, big fan actually.

I wish you continued success in all your endeavors.

Note: The picture is not mine. If you're the owner, drop me a message so I can give you the proper credit.

I plan on putting English captions for these videos. Thanks GMA7 and hastdudick for uploading.

The Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis

As a Filipino, I am very much ashamed with what happened. I am terribly sorry for the lives lost. It is traumatic for me and for sure for most Filipinos. We feel the pain of those who lost their loved ones. I know it is only a fraction of what you feel but please believe me when we say we feel the pain.

To the authorities, how many more lives to be taken before you shape-up? You should remove the "FINEST" word in those decals. It definitely doesn't fit. I am tempted to recommend that you put "WORST" instead but I won't because everybody deserves another chance. Sadly, those who died won't get any...

A sad day for Filipinos and for those who care around the world.

Mangyan Rider's Blog Resurrected!

Starting today, this blog will be once again alive. In the first place and with last year's four posts, I wonder if we can really call this a living blog. Probably 'barely' would be appropriate, but anyway...

Yeah, past is past and it is all gone so why dwell on it? I always remember the saying, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift that is why it is called present. If you happen to see the movie Kung Fu Panda, this was spoken by the master.

Now, as if everyone in the world hear me, I declare this blog.... RESURRECTED!!!

(Mangyan Land Rider) Blog at last!

Well...well...well!

At long last, my own blog and this is the first post. Dunno if anybody will be reading this today, tomorrow or sometime in the future.

Now the apologies.

I'm not a native English speaker so ... pardon my choice of words, expressions, etc. I'm an engineer by profession and here in my country, engineers are known to be not so good when it comes to English unless they came from schools where English is the first language rather than the native tongue. There are exceptions of course. I know you've seen worst than this in the net before. But if there's someone reading this blog and found something that is unclear or hard to understand, please tell what it is and I'd sincerely appreciate your suggestion.

So what do I plan to do with this blog. Well, at the moment I'm into motorcycles, electronics, bicycles, cars --maybe although I've found out that I don't have enough cash to sustain what I'd like to do with my cage. And of course computers and how I can learn to earn money out of my interests. One thing I love to do most is to travel except by ship or by airplane. I'd walk instead or climb my motorcycle if possible.

Hah...

My first blog post.