MY HERO

Here's a few Jose Rizal trivia that I learned during my recent trip to Zamboanga del Norte. They sound like trivia to me probably because I wasn't listening during JOSERIZ class back in college. Here goes:
(1) The chickboy of a hero had 9 girlfriends!
Side Comment: He had 9 GFs in 35 years. My 5 pales in comparison.

(2) He had a Japanese girlfriend whose name is Sei-Kiyo-San.
Side comment: I also had a GF who is a quarter Japanese and her name is Judy Mineko.

(3) He had a love child with Joseph Bracken whose name was Francisco.
Side Comment: The love child Francisco was stillborn. I had a sister who was stillborn too. Her name is Charo.

(4) His forefathers were Chinese.
Side Comment: My maternal grandmother is a full blooded Chinese. Check out my eyes, it’s a give away!

(5) He lived in ZamNorte for almost 3 years.
Side Comment: I lived a stone’s throw away from Dapitan for 3 days!

DV8 IN DAKAK

In the afternoon, I deviated from the usual swimming, billiards and sing along that my peers indulged in. I opted pursue my 3 interests: photography, walking and basketball.

PHOTOGRAPHY. On day one, I was preoccupied taking portrait pictures as the un-official TCP photographer that I missed some nice landscape shots. I went to the resort's dock, reception area, garden and chapel.

WALK-A-THON. Going around the places that I mentioned was a blast. I must have walked nearly 2 kilometers of rolling terrain while taking pictures. There was this sign "to the repeater" which tempted me but decided not to because it seemed unsafe.

BASKETBALL. I love this game but nowadays the feeling is not mutual. We played ball with college students from Ateneo de Zamboanga University. One of the opposing team’s player was a varsity so he led his team to victory. We were led by an officemate who similarly was a varsity player during his college days. My role during that game was to bring the ball down, dish out assist and grab rebounds.

RIZAL DAY BUMMING.

Our escapade today was threatened by an early morning rain. Good thing it stopped just around 8 o'clock right after breakfast. The call time was 9:30am so I had time to walk around the resort and take my precious pictures. Then we were off to Rizal Memorial in Dapitan. I have to hand it to JR, he knows how to pick a location. In Dapitan, he lives by the sea. His compound in Zambo is at least a hectare nestled in a forest with a water fall, a pond and his own version of Willy's rock.

Next up was the pasalubong buying part. There was just time for one stop so we went to Montano's famed bottled sardines. Majority of my teammates bought half a dozen to a dozen sardines at p60 per bottle. I figured, a sardines is a sardines is a sardines. Nothing special so opted not to buy.

To tame our 'growling' stomachs, we had eat all you can at Kamayan ni Manay. It was a resto near the beach and halfway between the airport and the resort. Parking was packed so that suggests that they were racking in money that day. For P250 per person, you had overflowing iced tea, sesame seed peppered fried chicken, crabs swimming in coconut (or was it the other way around), tempting talaba, cholesterol friendly lechon cebu and nilasing na hipon para busugin ang customer.

DOCUMENTING DAKAK

I almost backed out of the Dakak, Zamboanga del Norte trip with 1/8th of the customer care team. I lined up my things to do for this coming week and figure there was no way I can complete them on time. Then again I already shelled out P3,500 for this trip so I better make my money's worth, leave work behind, have fun with my teammates and take tons of pictures.

DAY 1 AM : MORE MILES.
The airline of choice was Philippine Airlines hence more points added to my PAL Mabuhay Miles. The flight time from Manila to Dipolog was about one hour and a half. No we did not have a "smooth landing" so that suggests that the pilot was a newbie. From the airport, there's another hour of land travel to Dakak Beach Resort. The resort is located at a cove north west of Zamboanga del Norte. It's owned by the family of infamous ex-congressman Romeo Jalosjos.

DAY 1 PM : WE COMPETE.
The trip was not purely junket as we had parlor games in the afternoon. The first game was a relay where you had to fill up a 2 liter pail with water using a sponge. The blue team (that's us) won. The second game was the age old get-the-coin-from-the-bottom-of-swimming-pool. It was a tough one. It seemed so easy when I was younger. The red team won that one. In the evening, we had a sumptuous meal for dinner (a great recovery from the lunch meal that failed our expectation) and a big bonus was a show featuring regional dances.

DH from Orlando

Dwight Howard from Orlando Magic wins the 2008 NBA all star slam dunk contest. Howard, a 6'11" all star center from the second NBA team from Florida won a sweet victory over Gerald Green of Minesota Timberwolves. Green won the dunk contest in 2007.

GREEN OWNS '07
Green, a 6'8" power forward from the T-wolves won last year's dunk contest at the expense of Howard. The only Howard dunk that stood out was an ultra high leap dunk where he placed a sticker of his face on the backboard. I reckon more than half of the NBA players can easily do that dunk.

HOWARD SWEEPS '08
This year though, Howard owned the dunk contest starting from the first round. The first dunk was an off the "rear" backboard throwdown. Actually, I'm not giving justice to the dunk so you'd have to watch the contest on check out this link http://dwight-howard.com/. He got a perfect 10 score from the 5 judges for the first dunk.

SUPERMAN VS. BDAY CAKE
For the second round, Green blew a candle from a small cake placed on top of the ring support before dunking the ball. For his part, Howard wore a superman jersey, jumped from the free throw line and dunked the ball. Frankly, the dunk wasn't as impressive as the first one but enough to put him in the finals.

NO CONTEST SHOWDOWN
The finals was a face off between the defending champ Green and high leaping Howard. Green's dunks were so lousy that I couldn't remember what they were. On the other hand, Howard had 2 creative dunks that's never been seen. The first was a bounce pass, then ball bounced to the backboard using the left hand before throwing it down with the right hand. The second was just icing on the cake: using a small ring as a 'tee' he jumped to the ball, double pump before the throw down. Again, the first dunk was more impressive.

While I didn't get to see the awarding ceremony, there was no doubt it was Dwight Howard who won the contest. It was sealed as early as his first round dunk.

MTB: Decisions, Decisions

It's so sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along... A nice song indeed but I'm trying to relate it to a decision that I have to make now that I'm officially back to my second love - mountain biking! It goes without saying that my first love is my family.

GIANT NRS
It's like this: I'm currently using a 2003 Giant NRS mtb. It's almost a 5 yr. old bike which I got via a frame swap deal. It still serves it purpose but I'm exploring the idea of upgrading the frame to a newer model. I maybe able to sell my current frame for a reasonable price of P20,000 ($500). The plan is to look into cross country frames like Giant Anthem or Santa Cruz Superlight.

GIANT ANTHEM
I love my NRS frame. It's an award winning frame which is a dream frame for entry level mtbikers. The ANTHEM is the next generation NRS however, my take is that the ANTHEM doesn't come close to NRS' performance. But the price is right. An ANTHEM retails for P30,000 ($750) therefore my cash out will be in the range of P10,000 ($250). If I upgrade to an ANTHEM, it's analogous to upgrading from a Toyota Revo to a Toyota Innova. It's your trusty Toyota for the mass market.

SANTA CRUZ SUPERLIGHT
This maybe a long shot and might cost an arm and a leg pero astig na option ito! Kung milyonaryo lang ako, wala ng isip isip pa, mag Santa Cruz Superlight na ako! I've always been fixated with the SC Heckler, the Superlight's older and mightier brother. It retails for $1,200 (P48,000) for the frame only at http://www.rbikes.com/, a US based web based bike store. In our lovely Pinas, it sells for a whopping P60,000 ($1,500). Owning a SC Superlight mt bike is like driving a brand new 3rd generation Honda CRV. It has a wow appeal and deserve a second look.

The biggest question is if I can justify the $700 (P28,000) expense to myself then to my family. We'll see in the coming months...

Kalulu

Menakit ku kalulu nandin.

Melunus ku rugu.

Marinat ya ampo lupang maranup.

Ligpasan ku ne uling mamalagwa ku.

Belikan ke rin, ali ku ayatim.

Dininan keng singkwenta.

E man pepasalamat.

Pero alang problema ita.

Meka saup naku man.

Kasanting ku pakiramdam.

Blog it!

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted a blog entry. I've been swamped with THINGS TO DO. In previous entries, I mention about predicting a 2 notebook year this 2008 but it looks more like a 3 notebook year. The current notebook that I'm using is already 40% fill up and we're only on the second month. I'm happy that I'm busy because I feel useful at work and deserve the pay that I'm getting. On the other hand I'm also a little bit sad because there is less 'petiks' time like searching the web for just about anything. Surfing the net at home is taking a back seat because it's eating precious family time. Fact is, I wasn't able to view my friendster account for the whole month of January!

ST & LT Goal

Goal setting should be an eternal exercise. When I was in college, I dreamed of owning a Daihatsu Feroza by age 20. I didn't meet the Feroza goal and got my own ride which we bought out of our own blood sweat and tears around age 26. I'm turning 36 this year and since our first car, we've had 4 car replacements, two of which are brand new. That's an average of a new ride (not necessary brand new) every 2.5 years. While I didn't actually meet my Feroza goal, critical to the experience was the goal setting and planning factor.

ST
ST may mean a dozen things, for generations 90s movie buff ST means Sex Trip, for presidential aspirant Manny Villar, ST means Sipag at Tiyaga but for this blog entry, it actually means Short Term goal. My short term goal is to Learn Chinese (Mandarin). Why? Aside from actually being 1/4 Chinese and having strong Chinese features, learning the language is a critical tool for business. I actually got a 50% discount from my full blooded Chinese surgeon just for saying that "I'm Chinese, don't speak the language, but plan to do so." I reckon he would have given me a 75% discount if I spoke the language or even operated on me for free.

LT
Hearing the acronym LT, only one thing comes to mind - Lorna Tolentino. She's the Filipina actress married to DaBoy, Filipino action star Rudy Fernandez. For this entry, LT means Long Term and for me my LT goal is to retire comfortably in Tarlac City at age 55. To quantify it further, we should be earning in the neighborhood of p200th per month in passive income from various sources. That covers the financial aspect. For the mental aspect, I should be teaching any management course at least 2 times a week at the local university. For the social aspect, I should have my own foundation which focuses on granting college scholarships to qualified students interested in an entrepreneurial course. Lastly for the spiritual aspect, I should be a lay minister.

How's that for goal setting? I'm nowhere near my LT goals but what's important is I start laying the groundwork for my 20 year timeline. As to my ST goal, enrollment is within the next 2 months. Zai - Jian!

Ayala Land @ Fifteen!

“You keep dreaming, Ayala Land keeps building. Fifteen years later, our vision remains clear: We want to build only good things for Filipinos. Thus, we keep innovating by building not just houses but communities and homes for every life stage. Not just malls but entire lifestyles. Not just offices but real estate solutions for corporations. As long as people continue dreaming, we’ll continue building.”

Six months after purchasing on installment a condo unit in Avida Makati West, three months after the Glorietta 2 'bomb blast' incident and one month after some passengers got stuck at The Columns Ayala Avenue (TCAA) elevator, the BIG QUESTION is if Ayala Land Incorporated (ALI) has learned from their recent experiences. In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned that ALI is in a lose - lose situation regardless of the G2 investigation result; if it’s a terrorist attack, then how come they were able pass through G2s “tough” security? If it’s a faulty sewage system, then that’s reflective of their property management (or mismanagement). And the most recent TCAA resident ordeal which I think is NOT an act of terrorism, have our fingers pointing to property (mis) management once again.

A financial magazine says that the property boom is in play and will continue until Y2010. Furthermore, it said that some of the players include Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Properties and Robinson’s Land Inc. with ALI leading the pack. The Avida Makati West project’s expected turnover is fourth quarter of Y2010. There’s ample time to react and get your act together. Small time investors like us don’t want to deal with problems with security, elevators conking out and a stinky sewage system. That’s the prime reason why we choose to invest in Ayala Land Inc.

GMAs Burj Al Arab adventure

Hear ye! Hear ye! Our President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is staying in Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. She's in Dubai to say HI to our OFWs.

GMA TRIP
GMA is in Dubai for a business trip. Officially, she's looking for investors and unofficially she just wants to know how our bagong bayani (OFWs) are doing. She's also there to grace the launching of LandBank's remit business in which SMT is a critical partner.

BURJ AL ARAB
Burj Al Arab hotel is in Jumeirah beach, Dubai. It stands on an artificial island in the eastern part of the city. It is a world famed 7 star hotel which is ranked 10th most expensive in the world. It is considered the world’s tallest hotel at 1,053 feet. Their flagship royal suite cost $28,000 a night. I hope that already includes breakfast else that would be a rip off!

Report says she flew there from Switzerland with a battalion of cabinet members, lawmakers and local government officials in tow. My estimate is that if she has a party of 20 people, easily she'll be spending P10 million at the hotel. At P10 million, I guess that qualifies as the most expensive HI.

Watch NBA or Bust!

When I was in the US in '06, one of the goals that I set was to watch an NBA game. The trip was in May so it was actually post-season.

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STAPLES CENTER, LA

That time, the LA Lakers were in the playoff lording it over the Phoenix Suns until they ran out of gas and missed the conference finals. My schedule in SOCAL was just too tight as I only had 5 days to check out the dozen of touristy places I set out to see and meet families and friends. The consolation was I saw the Staples Center and took pictures while on mobile.

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MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NY

New York Knicks had a bum team that year (and they still do) reason why they didn't make it to the playoffs. While in their homecourt, I found time to check out the historic Madison Square Garden. Actually, everytime I see the Garden, it reminds me of the Matthew Broderick movie Godzilla because he used the arena as a nesting place. That's one BIG nest.

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TD WATERHOUSE CENTER, ORL

On my list of places to see was the homecourt of the Orlando Magic. While in Florida, Miami Heat was battling it out with Dallas Mavs for the 2006 NBA World Champ trophy with the heat emerging as winner. If the Magic opted NOT to trade Shaq in 96, maybe, just maybe they might be slugging it out with the Mavs instead.

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Unfortunately, I was not able to watch an NBA game for 2 valid reasons: 1- Orlando to Miami is about 300 miles or a 4 hour drive and 2- an NBA finals ticket cost $800. Heck, that's almost 1/2 the cost of my airfare from Manila to LA! Cable TV was free so that did the job and I watched Miami Heat win their first NBA crown. Maybe watching the NBA during my first visit to the US wasn't meant to be. At any rate, I have a 5 year multiple entry tourist visa so I hope to watch an NBA game within that timeframe.

The Beauty and the Book

What's the advantage of the internet over a book? Convenience and Cost.

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I read a magazine article once that if you're the type of person who buys second hand items, a book is first on the list of OK TO BUY AS SECOND HAND. The last on the list is clothes and needless to say, undergarments. I bought a book called Lonely Planet - Los Angeles yesterday at Buy-the-Book in our fave mall Waltermart. It cost merely P149 compared to the P1000 price tag if bought in Powerbooks. That's a power price indeed. It's practically the same stuff except that the book is no longer a virgin and it's 1/6th of the price. The REAL downside of it is that the cook is copyrighted Y2001. Though half a decade has passed, I reckon the data would not have changed significantly except probably the admission fees.

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CONVENIENCE

The power of the internet is: information at your fingertips. It goes without saying that there is no information about Florida in the LA book. Nor the location of the branches of Ripley's Believe it or Not across the US. That's where the net comes in handy. Throw in the ease and quickness of updating the website data, assuming the organization is as responsible as they should be, then you have a potent information tool. While on mobile, internet browsing is easy as 1-2-3 on selected internet capable handsets. The internet is really God's gift to our generation and future generations. The problem now is the plan b or a dozen "what ifs" which the infallible book like the Lonely Planet can fill in. It has things to see & do, places to stay, places to eat, entertainment and shopping guides and Dora's favorite, the map! And you it doesn't need a signal or a battery to give you the information you need.

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COST

The book that I bought cost P149. I opted to buy it over merienda - a roll of beef shawarma, a can of coke light and my fave toblerone flavor ice cream. Yum yum! In less than 24 hours, I've practically completed reading it but I'm pretty sure it will be used a hundred times more by me and even my children. The 360 page book contains unquantifiable information at the fraction of the cost to access the internet. I'm paying P500 per month on our unlimited braodband connection on our desktop PC however can't bring the information in our car. While mobile, I can access the net using my phone for P20 per hour. After under 8 hours, I would have attained Return on Investment on my old new book compared to mobile internet.

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Back in college, I used to be a book worm devouring books like fiction, inspirational and sports. As a professional, I've progressed to management, health and autobiographies. I still have the urge to buy books that delight my palate. I guess once a bookworm, you'll forever be one.

Infamous Wowowilly and his 430

The Wowowee superstar Willie Revillame is in the limelight again, this time due to his passion. No, I'm talking about women, that was 2 controversies ago when he split up with his model wife. I'm also not referring to his TV show entitled Wowowee which is most definitely not co-hosted by Joey de Leon. I'm talking about our common passion - cars.

Last time I heard, he was driving a Range Rover and a Porsche 911. I'm pretty sure he changes cars as often as he changes partner or even faster. Talks from the grapevine says he co-owns an imported car dealership along Wilson St. in Greenhills. He was news material once again this week for driving a Jaguar and Ferrari F430.

The Jag is plateless so it might have been purchased from his namesake Willy Soong's dealership. Willie knows his cars so he definitely won't get an X-type. The news didn't specify the model but I surmise that would be at least an S-type and I won't be surprised if it's an XK.

The red hot Italian sports car a Ferrari F430 is as controversial as the driver. The F430 is said to have mis-declared custom taxes. Imagine paying only P1 million tax on a P20 million peso car. And what's dubious is the fact that the car was registered in Cebu. In case you see it on the streets of Metro Manila, you won't miss it because the plate number is 430.

Tsk! Tsk! Some guys have all the luck, bad luck that is.

Love ko Busko

December 30, 2007 is just an ordinary day for every Juan de la Cruz but for the graduates of Don Bosco Technical Institute of Tarlac Batch 1989, it was a special day because it was our annual mini reunion. It started in Y2004 when the only Salesian priest in our batch Father Joel Camaya had this idea of celebrating New Year’s day mass at his hometown in Don Bosco Tarlac. At first, there were only a handful of attendees, not more than 7 if I recall right and through the years the number has grown. This year, the figure jumped to 33 boys and 5 girls from our counterpart school College of the Holy Spirit.

Intermarriage
My third year high school prom date Ada Maida C. is now married to my batchmate Rico B., who used to be the boyfriend of my good friend Rachel F. Another batchmate Edgar S. is married to Pinky P. (CHS batch 1989) who used to be my wife’s officemate in PLDT. There’s another one in the pipeline, I have to further mask their identities, as I’m not privy to the status of their relationship. Another batch mate and friend ex-Brother Malutu is seeing Doktora O.B. Gyne. Doctora attended to my wife when she had her executive check up in a hospital in Ortigas. This is the law of connection at work for you.

Professionals
These naughty boys are now grown ups! During the reunion, the spotlight was tuned to the professionals who were raking big bucks such as OFWs, migrants, doctors, politicians and stars (or at least married to stars). I reckon half of our batch mates are based abroad or at least 40%. Like most Filipino migrants, they are either in North America (Canada or USA), Middle East countries (Bahrian, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, et al.) and progressive Asian countries like Japan and Singapore. As of last count, we have 6 doctor batchmates. Their specialization escapes my mind right now. Rounding up the batch of big shots is a City Councilor and the better half of GMA 7 star Ruby Rodriguez - Aquino.

Prexy Says
The current Don Bosco Tarlac batch president is Tikyo. On my timepiece (which I rarely wear), we’ve had 3 batch presidents but Tikyo’s the only visionary among the crop. His grand plan includes: preparation for 20th batch reunion in Y2009, funding for batch activities (in Y2009 and Y2014), batch communication and harmony. These may sound like BIG PLANS but like any plan, it should start from somewhere.

In the last four years that the mini reunion has been conducted, what’s noticeable is the compounding number of attendees. What started with 7 attendees has grown to 33 which accounts for 28% of the whole graduating batch of 1989. The expectation is we will hit 40% this Y2008. This will be a good preamble for the Y2009 planned batch reunion where the target is 60% attendance. Social status aside, it is good to see you guys again.

PBB season 18 : Pusoy Bonding ng mga Boys

The Celebrity PBB season 2 big four has been identified in its show last night. In the list are Racer Gaby, Wide bodied Will, Red hot Riza and Rural boy Ruben. The big night is this coming Saturday. My forecast is the leader of the bugoy squad Ruben will emerge as no. 1, followed by Riza, then Will and last will be Gaby.

A different PBB unfolded last December 30 and it's been an annual affair for the last 18 years. The Pusoy Bonding with the Boys with main characters mountain biker Dylac, globe trotter Tikyo, family man John and I.T. EL. These quadro bunch shares a common passion and that is playing poker. Thank God they're not playing strip poker as that would have been gross. Just poker with a few bets on the side to keep it interesting.

It started in 1990 a year after graduating from high school at Don Bosco Tarlac. These four friends had a number of things in common: playing basketball, drinking to death, enchanting women (at least most of them), alaskahan to name a few things but gambling 'with a cause' was what kept them together through these years.

In the almost 2 decades of playing poker usually during christmas season break, beyond normal scenarios occurred such as playing poker until the wee hours in the morning (as in 7AM the ff. day) and getting drunk a number of times. Once, we played poker while attending a friend's relative’s wake. In all occasions, the big winner IS ALWAYS globe trotter Tikyo.

Although there were years when we missed playing poker as a group because one of the members went on AWOL and went on a soul searching mode, we easily got back together and renewed our bonding. In the game of Russian Poker, having a "four of a kind" is considered luck and with this quadro bunch of friends where I belong, I consider myself lucky.

DYK: In Russian Poker, the maximum number of players in this game is 4. There are no wild cards. Deal 13 cards to each player. Each player makes 3 poker hands, a bottom, a middle, and a top. The top hand is made with 3 cards, and the other 2 hands have 5 cards. The bottom hand should be the strongest hand.

My TV

Just like a car that you have to change ideally every 5 years, I decided to upgrade my trusty phone from a Nokia N70 to a Nokia N77. It was actually planned because my N70 will be celebrating its 2nd year on February.

The requirements are crystal clear: data connectivity for internet, group texting and acceptable resolution (2 megapixel) camera. My celfone hunting produced a number of Nokia models but what stood out was the N77. It met ALL my requirements BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...aside from getting it on installment through our company's employee benefit (12 months to pay at zero interest) the phone was DBV-H ready. In layman's term, it had a myTV service. Still Greek sounding? You can watch TV on it. There, I think I got the message across. So the N77 is a phone cum digital camera cum TV.

And what's next on the technology roadmap? A phone with a digicam, TV, microwave and aircon?

1-1-08 : An alternative way to usher in the New Year!

Time flies especially while you are having extreme fun while living life. The Y2007 was relatively a busy year for me in general and my marker is the 2 notebooks that I fully consumed. In Y2006, I only used one and it was only half filled. This year look like a 3 notebook year for me.

The date 1-1-8 is significant because it is my son B5's 'birthdate' in a sense. He was born January 18 so expressed in numeral, that would read 1-1-8. That's the main reason why we made sure to get 1-1-8 as our car's plate number. He'll be turning 10 years old on his birthday.

While the son is turning a decade old, his old man is turning 36 years. The second reason why Y2008 is significant is because it is the Year of the Rat which is considered my lucky year. How lucky is lucky? Do I set luck targets or standards or just leave it to fate? A former big boss once shared that "Luck comes to the prepared mind."

So how did WE usher in the New Year? We slept at 8p and woke up at 8a. A sign of a sleepy year you say? I view it as greeting the new year well rested so we can survive the grueling 365 days and come up a better person. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

FF TD: The third Fast made me Furious!

What the ?!?! I just finished watching 'Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift' a few ticks ago and that was the lousiest movie sequel. I watched the 1st one more than 10 times and even have a VCD. The 2nd installment I watched a couple of times and have a DVD (but don't tell papaya dance man that it's pirated). I enjoyed both films. The case is not the same for this trilogy.

D.K. was the acronym of the day. The supposed star of the movie, I forgot his name and don’t intend to remember it, attempted to be funny and said that it means Donkey Kong. I thought that was funny. It may also mean Donut King but actually means Drift King. Incidentally, the real life Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya played a cameo role in the film. He was the fisherman who kept giving comments on the side.

Another actor who played a cameo role was Vin Diesel. His movie handle was still Dominic Toretto who challenged the new D.K. to a race. Funny but he was driving a silver muscle car, a Plymouth Roadrunner GTX. The real muscle car star in the movie albeit weird was a Ford Mustang Fastback with a Nissan straight 6 engine. Ano ito, parang American car ng lolo ko na Ford Fairlane na sinalpakan ng Toyota 12R? At huwag ka, tinalo niya sa karera ang souped up Nissan 350Z.

Drifting is another car discipline which entails lots of tire skidding. This is quite heavy on the pocket as you have to change tires often. As in, 2 or 3 times a day depending on how tough you practice. I probably would not be engaged in this type of car discipline even if I have the resources. In my earlier blog entry, I mentioned that I'm the rally car type of guy.

The only thing nice about this movie is the cars used and the setting which was taken mostly in Japan. That accounts for about 20% so that means 80% of the movie was B–A-D. And that’s not an acronym for anything.

What’s a Subaru?

I believe everybody knows that a Subaru is a car brand. That answers the title question. Actually, the bigger question is: What country manufactures the Subaru car brand? Is it: (a) an American car, (b) a European car, (c) a Japanese car or (d) a Philippine car. Process of elimination tells you it is not a letter d. Philippines prides itself of the “King of the Road” the infallible Jeepney and the only similarity between the Subaru and the Pinoy workhorse is the four wheels. It is also not a Euro car as these have distinct sounding names such as Citroen, Peugeot, Mercedes. This leaves us with either a US or a Japanese brand. Truth to tell, in my three and a half decades of existence and a car junkie at that, I thought all along that it was an American car. In the 80s, they had this small truck called Subaru Brat which really caught my attention. You’ll see my Vroom Room Y2007 in an earlier entry and the Brat was in my 1987 to 1989 list. I only learned it was Japanese from a fellow car aficionado who was probably a notch or two higher than me. Heck, this officemate – friend of mine knows by heart the engine models of locally released cars! Ibang klase talaga!

When we were shopping for a replacement for our trusty Toyota psuedo SUV, we were looking at a Subaru Forester 2.0X priced at P1,275M. The beauty of the Subaru nowadays is that it is being distributed and serviced by Motor Image. Before, it was “bahala ka sa buhay mo” type of servicing so it was not practical for us. The Forester has a wow appeal (deserves a second look) and you won’t see much on the road. In fact in our hometown in Tarlac, I only see one silver Forester on the streets. We were eyeing the black Forester but when placed side by side with the CR-V, it didn’t measure up to our expectation. The CR-V was still a more pragmatic choice. Then there was the Subaru Impreza WRX Sti rally car which should be in my Vroom Room list. It would be a nice weekend car especially if you had P2 million to spare. I’m the rally car type of guy and don’t fancy the F1 series (Formula One). My race car driver idol is Sebastien Loeb of the WRC (World Rally Circuit) and not the F1 god Michael Schumacher.

To answer the 65 million dollar question, a Subaru is a Japanese car brand made popular in the United States because they are the only car manufacturer who produces horizontally opposed four cylinder engines. Talk about making a difference!