Jay Can Blog Too - Just Not Much Time

Check out my newest blog about living in Marikina City.

http://www.marikinalife.com

Just to remind everybody, my active blog is at blogspot and I have an easier URL for you to use to access my blog.

It’s http://www.jaydj.info

Check it out and leave a note !

I’ve kinda abandoned my blog here on Friendster for a much more user friendlier blog.

My new blog entries can be found at

http://jaydj.blogspot.com

Cya there !

I’ve been totally busy and it looked like I almost abandoned my blog not having posted for a long time.  So making a quick update, here’s a top 10 list of some new stuff that has been going on with me.

1.  I now wear a 128MB USB Flash Drive as a fashion accessory.  It’s a head turner.  I wear it around my neck and it hangs around my chest area.  Now I know the feeling of women when men pass by and stare at their boobies.

2.  I seem to be answering text messages in batch mode.  And I read and reply to them around 11pm before I go to sleep. Sorry to those who texted around 10am and was antipicating an immediately reply.

3.  I try to pass by the video arcades when in the mall and play at least one video game (usually car racing) a day to relieve stress and to break my schedule.  My latest craze though is Bowling (Duck pin).  My highest score for a 5-set game is 127 and got a turkey (3 consistent strikes). 

4.  I have lots of backlog stuff I really need to set my mind to doing for my website.  There is just soo much to do.

5.  Someone needs to slap me to get me motivated to do number 4.

6.  I have a feeling that 24 hours a day is too short nowadays.  I propose a law to make 40 hours the new timespan for a day.

7.  I just finished judging several categories for the upcoming 2006 Awit Awards.  I was judging with the likes of Grace Nono, Bob Aves, Divo Bayer and other recognized people in the music industry.  That was an honor.

8.  I want to lose weight and stay fit.  I want to exercise.  I don’t have time.  Hence No. 6.

9.  I have over 10 books I’ve bought within the last 12 months which I haven’t had any time to read yet.  And get this, one of those books is entitled "How To Manage Time".

10.  Speaking of time, my Swatch watch is kinda hinting me it wants to retire.  If so, I may have to rely on my celphone for the current time cause buying a new watch is the least of my financial priorities.

The MMDA car coding scheme in Metro Manila seems to be unique.  What used to be color coding is now number coding and depending on the last number of your license plate, you’re not allowed to use your car on a certain day of the week. 

To make it more confusing there are so called "window hours" wherein during the day your prohibited, you can still use your car within the allocated hours.

Here’s a quick rundown on the scheme:

Prohibited cars from the road (7am - 7pm):

Monday - cars ending in plates with a 1 & 2

Tuesday - cars ending in plates with a 3 & 4

Wednesday - cars ending in plates with a 5 & 6

Thursday  - cars ending in plates with a 7 & 8

Friday - cars ending in plates with a 9 & 0

Window hours are 10am-3pm in which it’s a free-for-all.  Anyone can use their car during these hours.

In addition (and in complication), certain cities have chosen to excempt themselves from the window rule.  So Mandaluyong, Makati and San Juan are not included.

So here’s my story.

I went out on a thursday (car had a license plate ending in 7 so I could only use it between 10am-3pm)

It was 2pm and I was over at E Rodriguez in Quezon City.  I needed to be at Robinsons Galleria by 3pm.  I thought of parking the car in Cubao and take the MRT but it would be a far walk to Galleria then.  So I thought of using the sidestreets and take an alternate route to Galleria to avoid the highway traffic (enforcers).  This is where it went downhill. 

From Aurora Blvd, I passed through Gilmore then went straight to Ortigas.  Before I realized it, it was too late.  I was in unwanted territory.  The moment I passed Gilmore on to Ortigas was San Juan.  I shocked myself by doing so cause surely I’m gonna get arrested for violating the coding scheme.  I immediately pulled over at the nearest parking lot which was a bank parking lot to think and pose as a parked car.  I called my  friend up and asked for suggestions.  I thought of going back where I came from.  Problem is that I remember that there was a traffic enforcer in that intersection.  It just so happened he didn’t see me the first time I passed by.  So my next option was to go down the scary stretch of Ortigas all the way to Galleria and pray I won’t get caught… which was highly unlikely.

So I did the one thing I could think of… tailgate.

I waited for a big SUV to pass by and immediately tailgated behind it, close enough for my license plate to be concealed if we passed by a traffic enforcer.  I tailgated all the way till Greenhills and immediately turned where he turned.  Unfortunately he made a U turn which exposed my license plate dead center to a traffic officer manning the intersection.  I immediately turned left and went in the Greenhills Shopping Center Complex.  That was considered a safe area cause traffic enforcers won’t arrest you for strolling or driving within their mall zone.

I planned a new route from there.  Half way there, I figured that instead of going back to the main thoroughfare and heavily guarded Ortigas, I’d use the residential and sidestreets to get to EDSA.  Take note that this is still San Juan and any chance of me getting caught is still very likely.   My worst nightmare that day dawned upon me.  Traffic !  Good thing I saw this shiny black Ford Expedition… big enough to cover my entire car.  I guess the driver of this Expedition was suspicious of my intentions whether I may be a stalker or lousy driver.   I tailgated this car all the way to EDSA and got off the ramp back to Ortigas where I was in Pasig City then.  SAFE !!!

I parked the car at Galleria, had my meeting and left around 7pm where the daily coding scheme ends.

That experience was so nerve-racking that I won’t dare try something like that again.

I’ve had a blister near my left molar which has made eating an excruciating experience. I cringe and close my eyes when eating anything hard to chew.

So I modified my regular breakfast this morning but now after reflecting on it, it’s a weird combination:

2 pieces pandesal filled with butter and cheese

1 ponkan orange

3 cups Lipton hot tea

1 glass orange juice

1 glass of water

Now that I think of it, it was like more of a liquid diet than a breakfast meal.  I miss enjoying eating.  I’m going to the Mercury Drug to get me some medicine for this.

Happy Eating (and may I join you soon on that !)

Lately, I’ve been fond of answering crossword puzzles from the newspapers as a temporary scapegoat to the digital world.  It’s a chance to get away from the computer for a while and it’s paper based.

I remember trying to answer these daily crosswords years back but gave up after a minute or so due to the difficulty.  I did set my mind to be more patient this time around and tried answering some.  To my surprise, I actually was able to fill in some of the blank squares.  It was far from finishing it but it was a pleasant surprise to know that I can actually answer it.

After several days of answering the crosswords in the major dailies, I’ve kinda reconciled with the fact that they are just too difficult for me to finish.  So I set to look for a crossword puzzle book with a fairly average level of difficulty.  I did buy one.  I only answered one crossword puzzle so far but was pleased to see that I filled up more than half of the squares.

Yesterday, while taking a break from work and watching the news, I grabbed the latest newspaper and started to answer the puzzle.

After 30 minutes and 1 answer each from three different people I asked help for with (on the very difficult ones), I actually completed a crossword puzzle from the newspaper !  A sense of accomplishment set through as I didn’t realize before (or gave up too easily) that I could do it.

I wanted to laminate and frame the puzzle as my trophy.  I took a picture of it instead with my digicam for remembrance.

Tip:  The one I completed was found in the Philippine Star.  I think the crossword puzzles of Manila Bulletin are quite more difficult and mind boggling.

Last Tuesday was an unlukcy day for me. The light socket in my bedroom got detatched by itself which left me without light until it got fixed.  Then the phone line got struck by lightning that evening which burned our phone surge protector (thank God not the fax nor the modem) so I had no phone nor internet that matter to use until I could buy a new surge protector.  To make matters worse, our cable reception was so unbearable that if I wanted to watch a TV program, I could only listen to it.   It’s was like taking away the essentials (ok, tv wasn’t an essential.. but without the internet, it was my next choice to use).

So what did I do ?

I grabbed a magazine and skimmed through the page until I fell asleep.  Early next morning, I had everything broken fixed.  And we’re back to normal.  But it was kinda scary though not having tv, phone nor internet readily available.  Goes to show I am dependent on these things to be productive.

I’ve been out of circulation on TV shows, especially those favorite shows I regularly watch.

Our cable provider is beginning to suck.  The reception even for local channels is very bad.  And we’re paying for this.  I’ve called technical support 6 times this month and they always say someone will attend to us within 48 hours.  Multiply 48 hours by 15 days and that’s how long their 48 hours takes to attend to us.  We have no choice though as they’re the only cable provider in our area.

I have a hunch that someone is illegally connected to our cable line.  The last time our cable was unbearable was the time our cable provider discovered our cable being tapped by a neighbor.

These are the shows I miss:  Seinfeld, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O’ Brien, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Tech TV, Starting Over (okey…insert laughs here) and WWE.

The good side of this is that I’m spending more time in front of the computer and getting work done.

Recently, I was told that I don’t eat enough fruits.  To be exact, I have only been eating fruits lately if it’s served in a buffet during press events I"m invited to.  Otherwise, nada.

So I’ve added eating an orange a day during breakfast for my daily diet.  It feels good to eat an orange even though I drink orange juice as well for breakfast.  Kinda redundant… not to mention I take Enervon vitamins with is Vitamin C.  I wonder won’t I get a Vitamin C overdose with this ?