Life in the Eyes of John

A blog on life, love, people, cars, and everything I can think about...

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Digicam Part Two

Kat and I saw this nice digicam in Abenson last Monday. It's a Kodak CX7300; 3.2 Megapixels, 16MB Flash ROM w/ SD expansion, can record video (w/o audio). Although it doesn't have zoom-in capabilities and has a short battery life (nothing NiCD batteries won't solve), it has a tag of less than P8000.

Reviews online said that it's a user-friendly, snapshot camera. Photo enthusiasts, on the other hand, noted that the camera has about-par image quality and noted color oversaturation. My officemates and elder brother advised me to go for Olympus instead (but the most affordable one is worth P17000, but is weather-resistant and has an effective resolution of 4 Megapixels).

The search continues...

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Missing the Showroom

I was once king of the NFSUnlimited Showroom. You know... all I had to do was build a good-looking car, post it in that site, wait for votes to come in, and then find out if your car is number one in a ranking system.



This is one of the later rides I've built. Sort of a WRC rally car for me. As of this moment, it's the king of the guest list. Soon, it'll fall, just like every car that's made it to the top.

I miss posting on that showroom. I miss being the king. But hey... at least I've been there.

Digicam

To buy or not to buy this Digicam... that is the question...



3.3 Megapixels, 16MB Flash ROM, 4x digital zoom. Hmm...



For less than ten grand, it sure is interesting...

Fish All Week

Yep... it's Holy Week again. That means no meat-eating... at least in our family tradition.

You see... for the average Pinoy family, Holy Week means going on a long vacation. It's the perfectly long weekend to spend relaxing after working hard.

For us, it's quite the opposite. We observe abstinence to commemorate Jesus's passion on the cross, and how He saves mankind with the sacrifice.

That means no entertainment TV, no pop or rock music, and no leisure activities. Oh, and no meat, too.

So where will I be this Lent? At home.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

A Picture of Hunnie and Me

Hunniekins, look at the pic...

I love you! Mwah!

Monday, March 21, 2005

A New Blog?

Sooner or later, I'll be coming up with a new blog. Yep... I want to divide my motorista side from my non-motorista side.

Hmm... that gave me an idea... http://www.motorista.blogspot.com (Don't click! This is a dead link...). Problem here is there's already a website called http://www.motorista.com.ph. I don't want any trademark complication thingamajigs to happen.

How about http://www.pinoydriver.blogspot.com? Just checked, and I think this will become my next blog.

So what's my idea of this blog? Let's share with the world how Filipinos commute in Philippine roads. Also, I'll share some reflections on the road, stories, car care stuff, and hopefully modding guides as well.

New Goal: Learn a new word every day.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Slow

I don't know... maybe it's just my craving for more speed. Right now, a 1040-kilogram car powered by a 110hp 4G92 SOHC engine ain't good anymore. It feels too slow.

I've asked dad if I can attach a set of aftermarket headers and a sports muffler to uncork, say, ten more horses. He said no, and that I won't need extra power around the city. I even mentioned that I'll pay for the upgrade; still got a no. Sucks.

Ironically, the other slow thing in my life right now is financial progress. Yep... I'm still in a rather low salary level as opposed to the lifestyle I want to carry out. I want to be independent sooner, and when I mean independent, I want to be in a strong financial state. Being "strong" is far from being "stable".

I'm thinking of an open source project. Mga taga-Ange na CompSci, kaya natin 'to! Halos lahat ng software libre na over the internet! Eclipse para sa Java, PostgreSQL para sa DB, at samu't-saring plug-in anjan na! Konting aral na lang 'to...

To be able to uncork more power, I have to uncork the financial bottleneck...

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

A Typical Crash

On my way home, I witnessed an accident at the intersection of Aurora Boulevard and Dona Juana Street (near the computer shops). It's a blind intersection, devoid of mirrors to warn motorists of oncoming traffic.

The parties involved were a '97 Honda Civic crossing Dona Juana in a crawling pace, and a '98 Ford Expedition speeding along Aurora. From the perspective two meters behind the Civic (I was crossing Dona Juana, too), the Expedition was travelling at least 60 km/h ten meters before the intersection (via headlamp radiance). The Expedition was able to slow down to about 40 km/h before the impact, which caused the Civic to rotate 30 degrees to the left.

Weird thing: Before the impact occurred, I knew it would happen; thus, I wasn't surprised. I honked my horn, and told my mom that the driver of the Expedition was an idiot.

The driver of the Expedition was a girl in the late teens. When the crash occurred, all she did was step down from the SUV and send an SMS to I-don't-know-who. The driver of the Civic remained in the car, perhaps shaken from the impact.

I wasn't able to assess the damage from my point-of-view, but I think the Expedition's damage is minor (steel bumper only; maybe it moved back a bit). If the Civic is unlucky, aside from the shattered headlamps, it may suffer from damaged steering, which may escalate to drivetrain and suspension damage as well.

The way I saw it, the driver of the Expedition should be liable for all the damages.

Moral Lesson: Slow down at intersections, especially blind ones. You're an idiot not to.

3 Foot Drop

I like playing basketball. It's one of the few sports that can really make me sweat off fat without getting bored. In fact, I require a serious weight-shaver.

Last Saturday was Basketball Saturday with my former classmates back in high school. There were only nine of us, so it became a four-on-five whole court basketball game. I was part of the team with only four members, giving me a chance to burn more fat.

The game was friendly, sometimes even comical, but intense. We don't ruin the game; we make it challenging for each of us. Besides, it's more fun that way.

Sometime in the second game, the opposing team initiated a fastbreak after stealing the ball. I gave chase, thinking that I won't give them an easy basket. I caught up with Ron, who got ready to lay up the ball. Right on cue for a swat...

Or so I thought.

By then, I've blocked two shots. They were already cautious with the way they shoot. And so Ron faked the lay-up, and I was already in mid-air, surprised that he didn't lay the ball up.
Bad thing was his back caught up with my leg, which caused my body to turn 180 degrees and fall 90 degrees.

Half a second later, my lower back slammed against the concrete floor, followed by my two elbows. Ouch. It was a 3-foot drop or so; maybe only two... but it hurts. It hurt so bad, I wasn't able to stand for a minute or two.

Back in grade school, I had a similar experience. I clinged on a pipe, imagining I was dunking. The plan was to grip and cling, but I slipped, slammed to the ground the same way, and broke both elbows. My right elbow was able to recover after an hour, but my left elbow had to be slung to my arm thanks to a crack 2 centimeters long.

More than a decade later, I became afraid of reliving that experience. Plus, my lower back felt like it really took a blow.

Thankfully, I was able to stand and play after a few minutes. I got shaken, but it wasn't so bad.

Moral Lesson: Drink your milk. You'll never know when you'll get your 3-foot drop.