the jeep psychology

I’ve been riding jeep for around 20 years now and I’m telling you there’s an entire ecosystem there. People make this little habitat interesting. And of all those times, I have learned to classify these people. This strange, sometimes annoying, but fun-to-observe-with people are the subject of the picture.

While reading, try to classify yourself which among them you belong. The first noticeable people inside the jeep are the annoyings, for one obvious reason they’re very annoying! They have mastered the art of annoyance too (if you have been following my blogs). They can annoy you with almost every little thing. Some of them annoys you with blabbering their daily complains in life or how their neighbor looks like today or worst, even their bathroom habits! Oh don’t forget those who smoke while inside the jeep. Sometimes I want to take my sanity off my head and deal with them, hehe. Next noticeable ~ or maybe not that noticeable ~ type of people are the commoners. They exist just to fill the remaining seats, or hand over your fare to the driver, or listens to the annoyings annoying stories. Yes, they exist; we don’t just notice them that much. Next are the semi-perverts. These are people are almost perverts or have the potential to be, at least. You usually find them staring outside the jeep’s window as if they have the world on their shoulder. Also, you might catch them observing everyone else on the jeep. If you’ll ask them, they surely know everyone on the jeep. From their names, what they had for breakfast, and the color of their underwear. They’re freaky but harmless. The worst thing they could do is pay for your fare even you don’t have the slightest idea who the heck are they. The last type of people are the show-offs. And they’re the biggest miscast of the picture. One of their remarkable characteristics is the way they dress: they usually come in screaming colors. And how they brag their disco-lighted phone with its volume set on level 5. These people are related to the annoyings. Either you get annoyed on how they look or just on their presence.

Like jeep’s colors, these people make the entire picture look beautiful. They may not be as good as when their alone but they sure make an important piece of the puzzle.

life is waiting

According to Amelia ~ remember her? Viktor Navorski’s friend ~ life is all about waiting. Everybody waits. Everyone wait for conference to be finished, Birthdays to come, Busses to arrive and more. Come to think of it, we’ve all been waiting. When we were young we have always wondered how’s it gonna be after finishing school. After that, we waited to have our first job. Next, we will wait for a person to come in our life. This person will be the reason for another wait: for us to get married. And when we are married and there’s nothing more to wait, everything starts to be routinary. That’s when we began to wait again. To wait for something to happen in our life. Something that will snap us out of this cycle. That’s a very absurd way of looking at it but you can’t blame me, because right now I am in the middle of a wait. A very important wait of my life.

Is it me or that’s how things really goes. When you are waiting everything seems to be freaking slow. Busses take forever to arrive. And it takes another forever to get on the place you wanna go. People tend to be annoying. It’s like they instantly mastered the art of annoyance. They move so slowly and when you try to ask them to move faster, they look back and smile at you. What is that?! Huh?! They smile at you when you’re trying to make them move fast! Wtf?! Also, everything around you just piles up. Radio plays the song you hate. Television makes you remember of the things you want to forget. Everybody moves strangely familiar. It’s like you’ve seen these moves from someone.

I know I’m overreacting, hehe. But really waiting is no joke. In fact, it’s a serious business. It’s a near insanity experience. So all of you there laughing, I challenge you to take the burden of waiting. Let’s see how sissies you all are! Ok, I’m cool now, hehe. Sigh.

Tick-tock-tick-tock. Are we there yet?
No? Oh.

trying surfing

Elden (My boss) promised us before that he’ll be teaching us how to surf when he get back here in the Philippines. So last Saturday my company, Revacomm, had an outing at the Crystal Beach Resort in San Narciso, Zambales to surf! This will be a christening experience for me since I haven’t tried surfing before. I’ve always wondered how surfing feels, I’ve watched videos about it and it thrills me every time a surfer soar high with his board,  or under a big wave, it is just amazing.

San Narciso beach has rough seashore so a newbie in surfing will find it hard to practice here. But since this is the only place we’ve got, we go for it. We started to surf around 9:00 AM, the wind is offshore (one of the terms I learned, though I don’t fully understand it, hehe). Elden told me that surfing while during offshore is a good thing. After some picture taking (evidence, hehe) we strap on our leash and head to the beach. The first spot that we tried was so rough. The waves range from 4 – 5 feet and it is too much for beginners like us. But what the heck, we’re drooling already so we stupidly dive in. The first try was a disaster because the minute I dive in, another wave came and pushed me back to the shore, and then another, and another (you get it right?). After gathering myself (and my soul) together, I took a deep breath and asked Elden that I’ll try again. And it was another mistake but this time, a deadly one. The minute I dive in, a HUGE wave trampled over me and flipped my board that causes it to bump my head. It felt like some of the data in my mind was partly misplaced. But my stupidity did not end there; with my consciousness still away I tried it again. But the waves were in the mood to perfectly ruin my appetite for surfing. And then that’s it, I had enough, or I mean I had enough pain for that session. So I took a rest while regaining my strength and my sanity back.

Since I am so determined to learn surfing, after a few hours of rest, I joined some of my officemates with their surfing instructor. This time it was so easy. We have a less rough spot and someone’s there to guide us. After the instructor gave a few lessons we head back to the beach. The first try was good but not enough. I was able to ride the wave but I barely make it to stand. The second one was the best try I made. I was able to stand for a few seconds and then I hit the shore. The succeeding tries were ok. The trick is you need to gain confidence and balance on the board. You have to feel it. If you are not feeling confident, it will be pure luck for you to make it.

All in all it was a fun experience! And I’m sure I will be trying surfing again. Maybe not too soon, hehe. By the way here are some pictures.

fighter

Here’s a picture of my old electric fan (AC here in PI is a luxury, you know). Now before you start laughing to the ground you should hear my story first. There’s a reason why I’m keeping this old heap of junk with me. There are four electric fans in our house. It was never really an issue that this old crappy thing is my fan. As long as it is generating enough wind, I’m cool with it. To start, my fan loses its screen covering a few months ago. It was really funny seeing my fan turn without its screen, considering its size is like a chicken, it’s like a chicken running naked (no feathers, hahaha)! The next is, some of the buttons get stuck, you can no longer choose between buttons to moderate the air. The only available option is number 3 so it’s actually a blessing in disguise since I don’t have to change (hehe, ok. that’s stupid). A few weeks later the back-cover ~ the one that covers the mechanical part ~ fell off. I was laughing when I saw it happened. I told my sister “This fan has been through a lot, look at him. No screen, buttons are broke and now no back cover? Wow, it’s like we’re mutilating this poor appliance”. If that’s not enough, just the other night, it didn’t work when I plug it in. I was gonna declare “Rest In Peace” but upon moving the end of the plug, it started to move! hahaha! There must have been a lost connection.

At that point I realized that this one’s a fighter, a real toughie. It doesn’t matter how badly in shape he is, just as long as he could serve his purpose: to give air. That’s a hard conviction. How far are we willing to push our conviction just to serve our purpose?