You got to hate neighbors

Alex @ January 28, 2008 | | Lifestyle, Personal, Politics and Society | Comments (1)

I’ve lived in our house for all my life. Over those 24 years, we’ve had neighbors come and go. Most of the old neighbors were good. But now, I feel like I live in the pits. I hate our neighbors. I so swear, just as soon as I can make payments for an apartment or even a small house, I will just to get our of this blasted neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all too bad back then. Back when most of our neighbors were family friends. But things have changed over the years.

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Buhay America

Alex @ January 20, 2008 | | Lifestyle, Politics and Society | Comments (2)

Found this being forwarded as spam. But reading it, it’s not really spam-ish at all.

Akala ng mga tao na nasa Pilipinas kapag nasa America ka akala nila madami ka ng pera. Ang totoo, madami kang utang, dahil credit card lahat ang gamit mo sa pagbili mo ng mga gamit mo. Kailangan mo gumamit ng credit card para magka-credit history ka, kase pag hindi ka umutang o wala kang utang, hindi ka pagkakatiwalaan ng mga kano . Pag wala kang credit card, ibig sabihin wala kang kapasidad magbayad.

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EDSA II? What EDSA?

Alex @ January 20, 2008 | | Politics and Society | Comments (0)

An interesting article on Inquirer.net today: Forget Edsa II, says Palace. Call me apathetic but ever since 2001, I never found a reason to celebrate EDSA II. It’s a day of tragedy, a day of infamy, anyway. It’s not even a revolution. It was probably the most outstanding displays of f aux democracy in history.

“Remember, one legacy agenda [of the President] is healing the wounds of Edsa,” Ermita told the Inquirer. “And we thought not celebrating [it] will be one of the steps toward healing any hurt feelings brought about by Edsa II.”

Uh, okay

So here I am ranting about the government. But what healing are they talking about. Wounds brought about by malice should never heal.

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Lectures, seminars, and more lectures…

Alex @ January 19, 2008 | | Education, Personal, Work | Comments (0)

It’s just a few minutes since I arrived home from UP. For some reason, I feel like I’m in some intra-campus tour since I’ve been “booked” to have a few speaking engagements. Last week, I held a talk on resume writing for students from the School of Statistics (Stat). This morning, I had a talk on organization building for my former organization. Next week, I’ve been invited to give another seminar for the National College for Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG).

Now a few interesting thoughts regarding all of those.

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Nissan Commonwealth/Prince Motors sucks at repairs and customer relations

Alex @ January 14, 2008 | | Business, Money | Comments (0)

The one reason why I didn’t believe in sending your car (especially if it’s a used car aging gracefully) to the dealership for repairs is the cost. For me, that was the sole reason why I avoided bringing our old Corolla to Toyota even if the dealership was located a lot nearer than my trusted mechanic.

Now that I’ve purchased my own car (which I’m turning into a budget project car), I have to give props to Nissan for changing that mindset. They’ve totally convinced me that all that dealerships are good for is for them to sell you a brand new car. Wrecking your old one might even be one of their marketing ploys.

I’ve joined the ever helpful Nissanbayan (don’t get me wrong, the people here are real topnotch and are very helpful to Nissan newbies like me) and I was quite convinced that Nissan Commonwealth was the place to go for great service from a dealership. Unfortunately for me, the old, larger Nissan complex is now being turned into an IBM call center thing. Only one company owns Prince Motors (the Hyundai dealership right next to the old Nissan complex) and Nissan Commonwealth, so they had a sign indicating that Prince Motors is now servicing for Nissan Commonwealth. They still bear that “Nissan Commonwealth” so I thought they be offering the same service. Boy, was I wrong.

Here’s the story.

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