CRV, Malapi Na!

Nakita ko na nung biyernes ang pang apat naming sasakyan sa aming isang decadang buhay pamilya. Natural nagagalak ako ngunit sinilip ko siya dahil naninigurado lamang ako sa kundisyon niya. Yung pangatlo naming sasakyan na 2002 Revo ay may kaunting diperensya nung nakuha naming ngunit huli na nung aking nahalata – na pinturahan yung bandang harapan ng hood. Hindi man siya halata kung tutuusin subalit kung mahilig ka sa sasakyan tulad ko ay mahuhuli mo ang pagkakamali. Sinabi ko nga sa Toyota yun pero ang sabi sa akin ay natural lang yun. Natural man o hindi, sisiguraduhin ko na sa susunod naming sasakyan ay hindi na mangyayari ito.

Palagay ko makukuha naming ito sa susunod na lingo kaso mga dalawang lingo pa bago naming makuha yung plaka ng kotse. Umabot ng mahigit isang milyon ang sasakyan ngunit 62 porsiyento nito ay sinagot ng kumpanya. Masaya ako dahil nakakuha kami ng P25,000 na diskwento at mga P40,000 halaga ng libreng gamit tulad ng pang atras na sensor, ilaw pang ulap, punong tanke ng gasolina, 3M mahiwagang tint at kalawang proof.

Napakatagal ng hintayang ito para sa isang mahilig sa sasakyan tulad ko pero sa wakas, malapit na din!

A Ferrari on Fire

Guess what’s wrong in the picture?
a. It’s daytime and the driver forgot to turn off his headlights.
b. A man is walking in South Luzon expressway on a rush hour.
c. The car is burning rubber (and steel and composite material).
d. The car is a super smoke belcher.
e. All of the above

The picture above is genuine and it happened last July 23 along South Luzon expressway. A Ferrari F430 was literally “on fire.” The car which cost in the neighborhood of P20 million caught fire because of an unknown cause. Forum flicks says it was caused by an engine overheating flaw in that particular Ferrari model. This was confirmed by my cousin "Big DST" who works in Top Gear Ph mag and my favorite portal wikipedia.

No wonder they call the color variant as Ferrari Fire Red.

The Crossover Story

Presidentiable Senator Manny Villar is keeping his Senate President post in the 14th congress. This came after crossing over for the Nth time from the opposition to the administration just less than 3 month after the May midterm election.

I've seen Senator Villar twice already. The first was in Tarlac City when he inaugurated his now defunct Capitol Bank. He was a congressman of Las Pinas then. The second time was in Baguio City while we were on vacation. We were in Mile High inside Camp John Hay and along came Senator Villar.

In 2001, then House Speaker Villar ran for the senate under the administration ticket. In between ‘01 to ‘07, he became Senate President, had a falling off with GMA for her stance in the con con, ran for senator under the opposition wing and now he's back in GMA's arms. This just goes to show that some politicians will go through all means to push their 'hidden' agenda. And for Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga, this equates to mastering the crossover move.

Duped by ALI

I was ‘duped’ into attending a Wealth Management seminar yesterday (July 19) at Peking Garden Restaurant in Glorietta last night. The invitation was for a 6PM seminar but started almost 8PM. It was hosted by Community Innovations, a subsidiary company of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) I must admit I attended the seminar because of the catchy title knowing too well it was just a ploy to sell The Columns Legazpi Village condominiums to prospective buyers. I was invited by one of their Property Specialists a.k.a. real estate agents.

The speaker for the seminar was Rex Mendoza who was their Vice President for Sales and Marketing of Community Innovation. Actually, the speaker sounded like a foreign bred or at least foreign exposed Pinoy who was probably in his late 40s or early 50s. The guy was good. I guess he is a financial planner first then a real estate person. The seminar actually ran for 1 hour but only 5 minutes was allotted to selling. The top things that I learned from him that night include:

I. The Three Stages in a Person’s Financial Life
1. Man @ Work
2. Man & Money @ Work
3. Money @ Work

II. Last Will & Testament Writing Tips
Acronym is ACTS meaning:
A – Adoration
C – Confession
T – Thanksgiving
S – Supplication

These are the types of seminar I’d like to attend: crisp, straight to the point, just enough examples and no autobiography. I learned a lot during my one hour of listening.

My blog site turns one!

Time flies when you’re having fun! And fun equates to meeting my target of 2 blog entries a week. Although I may be a bit amiss on the Top 10 (or 5) tips which I initially targeted 2 entries per month but I hope I am forgiven because it takes more time to create those types of entries although more meaningful for the general readers.

Happy 1st year anniversary to my blog site!

And thank you, dear reader, for patronizing my site.

DyLac

Abe's, A Ribbitin’ Resto

Abe (ah-beh), noun. Capampanagan word for friend, companion and getting together; nickname of a beloved son of Pampanga Emilio Aguilar Cruz (1915 to 1991), a writer, editor, painter, connoisseur, bon vivant and legendary eater outer.

Sunday lunch last weekend was at Abe’s Restaurant in Serendra, The Fort. T’was my second time to dine at this restaurant. The first was with my officemates and this time I was with my family. Initially, we thought that the place was owned by Maritel Nievera of Cabalen but later found out that it’s owned by Larry Cruz of LJC group.

Our meal of choice included the following gastronomical delights: batute (edible frog legs), lengua (ox tongue), sisig (parts of pig's head), gising gising (spicy beans) and suam na mais (corn soup). We almost completed the food groups.

So what does Kermit taste like? It tastes like chicken!

Quiapo Quest : The 30K D40

My fancy for photography just went up a notch last Saturday when I purchased my first single lens reflex (SLR) camera. Since I was on a tight budget (P30,000), I looked into the pool of entry level SLR digital cameras but took careful note of a friend’s advice, to invest on lens and other accessories. That way, if you upgrade in the future, you can still use the lens and accessories.

THE CHOICE. The battle of the entry level SLR digicam was a toss between Nikon D40 and Canon 400D. The big differentiator was the weight and the price. The D40 weighed 475 gms while the 400D weighed 510 gms. The weight weenie in me is at work. The 400D has its advantages like 10MP compared to the 6MP of D40 but I won't be needing extra MPs or megapixels.

THE PRICE. I got the D40 unit for a bargain price of P 23,000 and the package includes a camera bag and a 2GB multimedia card worth about P 2,000. Before finally making my purchase, I surfed the net for great bargains and found some but the catch is the shops are all based in the US and shipping would be a problem. In our beloved Pinas, D40s sell for P35,000 in malls and authorized Nikon dealers. In Hong Kong, the range is about P40,000 but that includes a 200 mm Nikon lens which cost about P 9,000.

THE STORE. I got mine at the “camera capital of the Philippines” in Hidalgo St., Quiapo, Manila. The lucky store was Mayer Photo. We went to other stores but Mayer had the best bargain for D40s. The location is not the cleanest or safest in the neighborhood but what the heck, for savings of at least P10,000, I’d go there anytime!

THE NEXT STEP. Just like a little boy with a new toy, I played around my new gadget the whole Saturday night. I read the manual from cover to cover but have yet to apply what I read. The next step is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE and PRACTICE!

History Repeats itself…on another generation

By the looks of it, history will repeat itself for the Pimentels however this time on another generation. The 12th senatorial slot is about to be filled up and the announcement is expected to come out in a few days. In a sudden twist of faith, 3 termer Bukidnon Representative Migz Zubiri (Team Unity) is leading the race in a photo finish fashion. As of yesterday, he leads senatoriable Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III (United Opposition) with only 18,372 votes. Quite a slim margin indeed and makes you wonder if operation dagdag bawas was in effect.

In election Y1995, Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. ran for a senate seat but lost or rather was cheated (source: wikipedia). He elevated the concern to Supreme Court and was awarded victory in Y2004. That’s a full nine years after the election and the funny thing is, he was a sitting senator since he ran in the Y1998 election and won a 6 year mandate. This gives you an idea about the pace of the justice system is in our beloved country.

While the nation awaits Senator Zubiri’s proclamation, it may be short lived because if a protest is filed in the Senate Electoral Tribunal, the numbers in the senate are opposition friendly and they can easily unseat Zubiri and install the younger Pimentel. While it may take some time but definitely not nine years!

Seven Seven Seven

For some people, 7 is a lucky number and not 8. Last Saturday, the date was July 7, 2007 expressed 7/7/07 and everybody was scrambling to have a special event in their lives so the date will be forever etched in their memorabilia. San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker wed Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria in Paris that day. My cousin Bubbles’ son Kenzo was baptized that day and I was one of the godparents. Aside from the baptism, 7/7/07 was a typical day for me.

The number 7 is my favorite number. This is not because I am a big fan of Robert Jaworski, his choice of number and mine are just coincidental. I am also not a fan of ex-Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez who was obsessed with the number seven- from his house number, the number of flights in his stairs, his cars, etc. I hope he got 7 life sentences for committing a heinous crime. I wonder if his son won as mayor of their town last election?

My semi-obsession with the number 7 extents to the cellular phone number that my wife used to have (0918-8227777) during the analog days. Now that we’ve gone digital almost a decade ago, we’ve changed her number to her favorite number. Then there’s our next car’s plate number. Initially, I thought of spending P30,000 to get a CRV 777 plate number then realized it might just be a waste of money plus the trouble you have to go through to get that number so I just decided to get a “sandwich” plate number like 787 or 757 and just shell out P2,500. Hope to get that by next month.

Okay. So there are days when you have difficulty connecting your thoughts and you just dabble and write anything that comes to mind and hopefully it reaches 500 words. It’s 11PM 7/8/07 and I’m a bit sleepy. Time to park my pen or rather park the keyboard (and mouse). Good night.

PS: By the way, my blog entry reached 1,777 characters! How’s that for coincidence.

Discovery Adventure

I watched three books this weekend. That’s right, I watched three books! Well, sort of. Watching Discovery channel on TV is pretty much like reading a very interesting book. You figuratively and literally get glued to the tube, enough to get your spouse irritated because you seem to mix up your priorities that is TV over lunch or dinner.

I watched three interesting shows on Discovery last weekend and these were: (1) Man vs. Wild, (2) Everest : Beyond the limit and (3) How do they do it?

Man vs. Wild. The one hour show was hosted and starred by Bear Grylls. Don’t know the guy and t’was the first time I came across his name. I reckon he was either named after a mammal or a fish but what’s more important is what I learned from him which I am hoping I won’t be able to use. The show I watched was filmed in Colorado Rockies. It started when he jumped from an airplane and landed in the middle of the forest. With just a set of clothes and minimal outdoor gear, his target was to find his way out of the forest. It goes without saying that he conquered the forest else it won’t be a TV series.

Everest : Beyond the limit. I never dreamed of scaling Mount Everest. Losing my fingers because of frostbite is not my idea of an adventure. And that’s good news. The bad news is that you might just lose your life. In 2006, eleven climbers did not only see the world’s highest peak, they also saw the gates of heaven. They weren’t as lucky as the other climbers. Mount Everest is the world’s highest peak at 28,251 feet. It is located in the border of Nepal and Tibet. I guess everybody knows that. What you probably don’t know is that climbers are aided by sherpas (The term 'sherpa' is used to refer to local people employed as porters or guides for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas. They are highly regarded as experts in mountaineering and their local terrain, as well as having good physical endurance and resilience to high altitude conditions.).

How do they do it? Have you ever wondered how footballs are made? How about airplane propellers? And marbles? Ship engines? Amplifiers? Neon signs? All of these were features in a 30 minute show called How do they do it? After watching the show, you’d be saying “ganun pala.”

I used to love reading the contents of http://www.howstuffworks.com/ website but it gets pretty boring sometimes just like reading a book. There are times that you just want to laze around, watch TV and hopefully catch some sleep along the way.

Top Five Reasons why employees leave their jobs

In one of the trainings that I attended, a trainer shared a survey that says there are generally five reasons why employees join or leave a company. I have been using this survey and sharing it since I discovered it years ago. Allow me to share it with you:

1. Pay – It pays to be paid well. The key word here is right remuneration. The question is, how much is enough? The survey says people resign or join a company because of the salary. This seems to be the number one reason.

2. Company – Fresh grads would do anything to join P&G, Accenture, Ayala, SGV and recently Smart. It’s probably partly because of reason number one but then again a bigger portion is because of the company culture, the trainings that these companies offer and the experience that you’d gain from working in these companies. Often, they use the employment as a springboard to higher positions in another company.

3. Job – So you finished a B.S. Nursing degree and an R.N. (Registered Nurse) but you work for a company’s IT department. Sounds strange huh? You study hard to be a nurse (and probably hope to work abroad) but happen to enroll in a computer course and realized that you actually love working with computers. This just supports the adage: “Find a job that you love doing and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

4. Peers – Birds of the same feather flock together. If you’re a sheep, then you’re the odd man out and chances are, you’re going to find a group where you’d be most comfortable working. That may mean moving to another department or another company.

5. Superior – No leader will accept this reason but second to pay, this is probably one of the top reasons why people leave – the bossy boss. There’s this thing called chemistry and a superior-subordinate is the hardest concoction to mix. There isn’t one formula for all and the probability is at least one of your staff hate your guts. The good thing (or bad) is that he’ll eventually leave you.

The result is not actually in that order. The good thing about is that when I tested the theory, it was 99% accurate. And the one percent? It accounts for a staff who resigned from his previous employer because of her ex-boyfriend. Probably, the ex-boyfriend was his ex-boss who she wanted to avoid. Did I mention that the ex-boss is married?

Will Mitsubishi Fuzion zing past Toyota Innova?

Good thing Mitsubishi decided to re-brand their AUV initially called the Zinger to Fuzion lest it be mistaken for a Kentucky Fried Chicken product. At least the new name sounds like a science project or a cocktail drink.

While the name game is a first step towards beating the Toyota Innova, the design is in the shades of the recently released second generation Mitsubishi Outlander. Non car aficionados would swear it's an Outlander from inside and out.

Is styling enough to beat Innova whose forefather is the late seventies released Tamaraw? I don't think so. My estimate is that Toyota is at least ten years ahead of Mitsubishi in the AUV race. Let's see how the Mitsubishi Fuzion does. Waiter, isa pa ngang round!