trade offs

one half-day's work, or four days and three nights at boracay?

there must be something wrong with me. i actually had to think this over for a few hours.

yes, i am excited to go back to work, but am i that excited to actually choose work over a vacation?

i asked around, and the several points that people came up with were:

1. if i were you, i'd go for the beach. to hell with work.
2. go for boracay. you'll have difficulty going on vacation later.
3. you're not spending for bulk of the expenses. (we can bond the whole night.

ain't it obvious what i've chosen?

three cheers for the lto!

yes, you read it right. i'm actually praising a government office! *gasp!* :O

today i had my driver's license renewed at the "lto fast lane" in farmers plaza, cubao. i expected a dreary day waiting at long, never-ending lines. i expected fixers left and right. i expected bureaucratic redtape all around.

lo and behold, there was none of that. the office is located on the 3rd floor of the mall, at a space maybe 3 meters wide and 10 meters deep. exactly one stall in the mall. there were about 5 people manning the office, which had no doors, not even back doors, so customers could easily see what's going on. no fishy business about.

the first stop was to show the expiring license to the officer-on-duty. she would say if your license's data is already online. if not, renewal would have to be done at the main office at east ave. (ask anyone who's been there, and chances are, you'll hear true-to-life horror stories!)

next, the medical and drug tests. the lto has accredited a nearby (read: across the hallway, one stall down) clinic to administer the said tests. all in all, it took me about 30 minutes to fall in line, get a form, fill it up, have my picture and blood pressure taken, take the eye exam, get a bottle, pee in the bottle, give it back, and have the results out.

once the results are out, these would fall in line at the lto, then when your name is called, your picture and signature are captured.

payment, then you just wait for the card.

normally, this process would take 3-6 months (until you get the card). today it took me two hours. on top of that, i didn't sweat a bit (since the office was in a mall, hence airconditioned) and the computers were down for some time. had they been working all the time, i'd have gotten my license in an hour. maybe less!

there is hope for our country! congratulations, assistant secretary anneli lontoc! good job!

rating:

on ‘herbal’ butter and exploding penises

cannabis butter is a legal spread
"garlic butter. peanut butter. or just butter. all may be household names. now farmers in the baltic state of latvia want to introduce a hitherto unknown butter, cannabis butter, to the world."

very interesting. so i guess in a year's time, we will be tasting weed-laden pancakes? how about croissant and weed-butter?

honestly, i'm excited to actually taste this. would one get high eating it? i doubt. but if anything, the idea that prohibited soft drugs can be processed into something useful is actually a novel idea.

now how about this…

penis explodes during sex
"dr angela domocos, head of the accident and emergency department at cluj general hospital, said: "it is very rare for this to happen. we call it an exploded penis because it happens when the blood cavities in the penis burst."

ouch. i wonder how they'd fix the guy up. i mean, it burst! what, will you sew all the shreds back together? if the guy was lucky and his penis exploded into large pieces, maybe 2, then they'd probably suture it, right? then the healing process begins. will it be in a cast? wrapped in bandages? how will he pee??

i'd hate to be that guy.

7 megabytes = 1%

amazing. simply amazing.

i logged on to my gmail account and there, at the bottom, i saw this little gem. seven megs stored in my email, and the server's not balking! it's as if it was taunting me: "you got any more of that?"

i remember now why there are seven megs in the first place.

i sent my cousin abroad email earlier during the day. as part of my testing gmail, i decided to attach an mp3 to it. worth 4.21 megs, if i remember correctly.

good news was, it did attach and got sent. yahoo! mail would have choked in something like that. bad news was, her yahoo! inbox couldn't handle it. it was full.

yahoo! briefcase to the rescue.

send gm to 29766

in d gospel 2dy (jn 21:1-19), jesus asks peter: do u luv me? jesus asks not just once but 3x. skolars say dis s 2 let peter make up 4 denying jesus 3x also. peter betrays jesus; jesus givs peter a way 2 corect his mistake. b asured dat god wil do d same 4 us. r god is a god of 2nd chances. mor dan 2nd chances, god givs us 3rd & 4th chances. & stil he dosnt stop.

how many chances do we giv pipol wen dey wrong us? how many chances hev we been given?

last year, the jesuit communications group launched this "goodnews service". it's basically a sms-info-on-demand type of service, which costs 2.50pesos for every message sent. it contains piece for reflection and is active for all days of the year, i think.

very interesting reflection for today. the god of second chances. i've heard that before, and it never ceases to amaze me. that god would actually give each one of us a second chance. and a third. and a fourth. as long as it takes, just to bring us back to him. isn't it wonderful to know that? we will never be forsaken, even if times comes that we feel he's not around, he's just probably just letting us fly on our own.