“Addressing The Problem of Long Lines of Voters During The Philippines First Automated Elections”
People power. Edsa II. The world took cognizance of these events which proved that the Filipinos can rise up to calls of greatness! May 10, 2010, the Filipinos made a repeat! Personally, a day before the Philippines' first automated elections, I was skeptical: will the PCOS machines work? Will my country finally use computers instead of the jurassic “mano-a-mano” elections? Well as the whole world now knows, we were able to conduct our first ever automated elections last May 10, 2010 successfully!
However, just like a mother giving birth to her first born baby, it had its birth pains! I will cite the first and to my mind was the biggest problem: THE LONG LINES OF VOTERS WAITING FOR THEIR TURN TO VOTE. In the case of my family, we finished voting after staying on the line for 1 hour and 45 minutes! This is no match to an office mate who waited for four hours under the heat of the sun!
“Here Comes the Bride: Marketing an Indie Film”
With my credit card's freebie, my family we went to watch “Here Comes the Bride” a film by indie director Chris Martinez. But before my two cents worth of comments on the film, let me share with you a not so nice experience we went through using my credit card's promotional freebie. I was all praises to Citibank's free movie pass for every P1,500.00 purchase using the card when I came to know about it. However ,when we went to watch “Here Comes the Bride” at the SM Fairview Cinema, the teller told me that there is now a memorandum from their management that the mechanics of freebie from my credit card has been altered and instead of a free movie pass as it was advertised and which I was able to avail when we watched Jennifer Lopez' “Back Up Plan” last month, this time the P1,500 purchase using the card is only worth P100.00 meaning that if the movie ticket is priced at P130.00, using the freebie, I have to pay and additional P30.00. This is a glaring example of false advertisement. The teller showed me the memorandum and I did not argue with her. I paid additional P120.00 for the four of us. The following day, I called up Citibank and and called their attention about it. The call center representative from bank – named Micky Ave confirmed the alteration. I knew that our conversation was recorded and I told him that Citibank committed a clear case of false advertisement. I likened their move to a game that the referee suddenly decided to change the rules of the game while the game was going on.
“My First 18 Hole Golf Game, The Conclusion”
I slept early the night before as a preparation for the golf game. A 53 year old body needs all the sleep he can have to pack up enough energy, so I thought! As a virgin golf player, I really did not know exactly what would happen on the fairways, but my experience in college as a varsity long distance runner told me that I should have enough sleep to have endurance before a long distance run.
15th day of May 2010. I woke up at 5:00 am. Had a full breakfast. Took all my vitamins. After a quick shower, I put on my loose cream colored pants and an imported brown 100% cotton t-shirt so as to stay comfortable under the heat of the sun. I hit the road at 5:45 am, made a stop at a 24-hour convenience store to buy four bottles of 200 ml purified water and placed it inside my golf bag.
“My First 18 Hole Golf Game”
Nine months ago, I finally decided to use the set of golf clubs that was a gift to me from my son-in-law Martin. Off I went to Ace Driving Range (formerly Maru Driving Range) beside Don Antonio Royale Village, Commonwealth Avenue after some prodding of my office mates at SSS who are avid golfers. The manager of the driving range and my office mates gave encouraging words as far as my first few strokes were concerned. I remembered the Manager commented that perhaps I am a good dancer as shown in the way I hit the balls! During those moments of my first driving range experience, I was still lukewarm if golf is really for me. I had some hesitations despite the words of encouragements that I got.
“Family Escape from Heatwave:Ace Water Spa”
The continuing effort of our family to combat the overpowering rise of the temperature brought by the “El Nino phenomenon” have made our heads more imaginative in coming up with ideas on where to spend the simmering day comfortably and at the same time enjoy family bonding moments.
My family thought of one of these places and it is a place called Ace Water Spa. I came to know about the place some four years ago and in fact had brought my family there before. It was during our tapings for a show for kids aired on Channel 5 titled “KIDARKADA” where I was one of the hosts as Tito Right. Ace Water Spa was one of the show's sponsors. The Ace Water Spa TV ad shown during commercial break was effective that I decided to bring the family to this city oasis.