Road Scene 3

this episode of Road Scene is a rather sad one. it was around 7 AM at the back of Cebu Doctor's Hospital when my car was clamped by CITOM.

you see, my sister-in-law was already in labor at the Chong Hua Hospital delivery room when the doctor advised us to buy blood at Cebu Doctor's Blood Bank for possible use. i was honestly a little panicky then. i was never a fan of hospitals, let alone the prospect of blood infusion. so i honestly did not see the No Parking sign. in fact, even if i saw it, i probably would have ignored it, the time being 7AM, rather ungodly for CITOM officers.

so when my mother and i went back to where i parked the car, there was the CITOM sign announcing to the world that i had been irresponsible and i needed to settle my violation at the CITOM office at the back of LTO. i was quiet furious (a little nervous because i was carrying a bag of blood, type B+), and i immediately searched the street for uniformed men. i found one and stopped short of shoving the bag of blood in the officer's face explaining the "emergency" because of which i can justify my violation to the rules of the city streets. i was in the second minute of my justified berration of the officer's inconsideration when i realized i was talking to a parking attendant. doh. so i asked my mom to take a cab back to Chong Hua and i took a cab myself. driver's license and car registration (both complete with official receipts from the government of the republic), i went straight to CITOM office.

the picture you see above is not a jail cell. it is where the tax-paying citizens of Cebu City queue and wait for their names to be called and settle clamping violations. quiet dismal if you'd ask me. it makes gotham city jail look shabby chic. the CITOM office reeks of testosterone, every corner and nook of the building. no wonder middle-aged women who work there, who could otherwise look like Martha Stewarts or even Demi Moores (why not?) have all decided to just give up on their looks and promptly dress and act like brute hooligans.

i was informed that the violation would set me back P500. fine with me, just take the damned clamp off my left front wheel, thank you. but first, CITOM must search thru my past violations, if any, and settle those. fine with me, i have never had any since that morning's clamping incident.

so i waited. and out came a receipt this long:

it was all the violations committed under my plate number for the past 11 years!!! (well, i told you i drive an old car.) imagine that, from running a red light, illegal stopping, illegal accessory, you name it! and the bill? the bill, you ask? P4,000!!!!

faced with the choice of having my car impounded and dragged by a towing car (all of which i must pay), i gave in and payed. doh.

PREVIOUS OWNER OF MY CAR: i will hunt you down, and shove this receipt in your throat! i will make you pay for your violations and charge you tripple for my efforts. i settled your violations, man! it was you who ran the red light, not me! it was you who did not stop when you should have, not me! it was you who committed six unattended vehicle violations near Osmena Circle, six! SIX! i will hunt you, and make you pay!

then again, my Christian upbringing compels me to go easy on you. just the same, what you did was bad, you.. you... you... TRAFFIC VIOLATOR!

Lord, can i just call him a really foul name for once? grrr....

digg this please!!!

you guys just have to digg this:
http://digg.com/movies/James_Batman_Filipino_James_Bond_Batman

hahahaha, too funny!!!

Rock Night website

ok, i'm finally announcing it:

Rock Night August 30 website, click click click.

please add us up as Contact. i know multiply is last season, but it is still the biggest social networking site here in RP.

UPDATE: we are now in friendster! i created a Friendster account for all those people I can't convince to go on multiply. then again, i will never maintain a multiply site myself. add us up: here.

grunge rock night

ok, i may have taken this whole grunge thing too far. my friends at church asked me to create a multiply site for the Aug 30 Rock Night (yeah... we are doing it again). and of course, i said yes, and thought immediately about the grunge theme. well, here it goes, the evolution of the site banner (arranged chronologically):





and the winner:

(will launch the site formally once we have content already).

that's it! no more grunge!

grunge butterfly

the grunge style has been around for a long time now and it's always an absolute delight for me. it combines dirt and grime and chaos but is strangely beautiful. i'm no graphics designer but i do like to play around with photoshop, so here it is, my take on grunge:

i know i'm gonna get a lot of crap about how her head looks severed, and how the splashes are a bit too much, but i absolutely love it. i wanted to bring out the pretty eyes, and i think i did it, grungely so. so don't be hatin' people, it's my first try.

my sister's boyfriends' gifts

i have a confession. one of the things i miss most about my sister is not really her. it's her boyfriends. particularly, her boyfriends's presents. haha...

you see, i have always lived with a beautiful sister. and as far as i can remember, she has never really had any problems in the boyfriend department. before, when her suitors came to our house, they always brought cakes or chocolates or ice cream. i miss those days. once i came home from school with 3 whole cakes in the fridge. all different kinds, of course.

i particularly remember one boyfriend who we shall not name here. every Friday, he would go to cockfight derbies to bet. my mom and i would know if he had won when we would come home to ice cream and chocolates on Friday evenings. hahaha... oh the benefits i had reaped from being kin to a looker. in all these years my sister had been away, i have almost forgotten how enormously gratifying it is to be in the receiving end of gift-giving, as it were.

just this evening, not barely a week after she had arrived, i came home to Red Ribbon chocolate mouse rolls! still stressed and shaken from rush hour traffic, i hurriedly grabbed a fork, took a seat in the dining table and said a prayer of thanks for beautiful sisters, gift-giving suitors, luscious chocolate whipped chiffon cake and love. then i wolfed down two whole slices.

as we speak, said sister is out on a date with some lucky man. they took my car (along with my precious gas -- still half-tank full), but promised to return it full-tank. ooohh... something tells me i will enjoy the coming days. :D

Google un-perks employees

Oohhh boy. I am hoping this story is not true.

Sergey Brin said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of "Googlers" who felt entitled to perks like "bottled water and M&Ms," according to several people in the meeting. (A Google spokesman denies that Brin made that comment.) On Monday, Google began the first phase of its new day care plan, letting go of the outside day care firm it had been using.

If Google, the fabled paradisaical company, can't keep up with its lovely perks, what hope is there for the rest of us?

this is awkward...

if you were venus and serena williams' father, how exactly would you react? quite awkward really. i rather like serena more, but after this speech venus is kind of growing on me.

Dance, dance

Dance, one and all! Dance!