the boredom of ramfree17

In homage to the “In Russia, the … you” meme.

In a very irritating turn of event, a pedestrian actually hit our car in JP Rizal street in Makati city. The man (whom I suppose is slightly drunk) broke two cardinal and basic rules of crossing the road:

1. Look out for incoming cars, and
2. Look at both sides of the road .

We were already traveling at around 40kph since there was no car ahead of us when I suddenly saw a man suddenly darted from the other side of the street to cross to our side. In a split second I saw that his face was glued to the other side and didnt even took a peek at our direction. The distance between him and our car was less than 20 meters so I started slamming the breaks and blaring the horn (mind you the horn of the Toyota Avanza is very loud). I also tried to slowly turn the car to the right side of the road but I was fearful that there would be speeding motorcyles so I couldn’t pull to the side quickly. It was a slow-motion sort of experience where I saw in my peripheral vision the man’s right cheek hitting the window behind me a split second before his body bounced off the middle door and as I was just able to bring the vehicle to a full stop.

I immediately opened the door and saw the man was standing up. His companions already rushed to help and check him out. I am thankful he wasn’t seriously hurt but I would imagine that come tomorrow he will have some bruises on his face and body when the anesthetic properties of alcohol wears off. It took the man a while to slur out “Nakita mo naman akong tumatawid..” (“You already saw me crossing the street…“) to which I irritatedly replied “Oo Manong pero ang lapit at ang bilis ko na. Di ka man lang tumitingin sa mga parating na sasakyan! Mag-ingat ka naman sa pagtawid!” (“Yes but I was already too near and travelling at high speed. You didn’t even check out the incoming cars! [Please] Exercise caution when crossing the street!“). The man’s companions let us go when they were assured that the man wasn’t hurt.

I konw that when it comes to accidents like that it will always be the driver of the incoming vehicle who is at fault. Even if the pedestrian is too stupid for their own good to obey basic rules for crossing the street, I still have a responsibility as I was manning a vehicle. I always keep watch of the right side of the road but I didn’t expect a pedestrian to slam me from the other side especially as I was in the outer lane of a 4-lane road.

The experience was my first vehicle accident (not counting this) and strengthened both my dislike for driving, my respect and fear for the deadly nature of a moving vehicle, and that you can’t really avoid an accident. It is too easy to snuff a life when you have a ton of metal at your disposal. Especially in places wherein pedestrians lack the basic common sense to know basic road safety rules.

In homage to the “In Russia, …” meme: be extra careful when driving in the city because in Manila, the pedestrians accident you.

ciao!

Tags: Top of my head by Erin
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MS Office provides a helpful function in ensuring that style consistency is easily done on the documents being created. The function is called the “Format Painter” which is part of the Standard toolbar.

If the icon is not visible (if not previously used) it can be added from the toolbar dropdown which is located at the end of the toolbar section.

How to use the Format painter:

1. Highlight the text (or cells in spreadsheets) containing the style that you want to copy.
2. Click on the “Format Painter” icon to copy the style into the painter memory.
3. Highlight the text (or cell) that you want to have the same format.

Format Painter loses its “memory” after every cycle so repeat steps 1-3 as you see fit. Styles can also be used in Word documents to facilitate the document formatting process.

Tags: Top of my head by Erin
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I am maintaining an infrequent office distribution list that contains some tips and tricks regarding common utilities and apps that we use at work. I call that “newsletter” as “IT TipJar” which was initially intended for my co-project members. To quote the last description in an internal office blog:

What is normally just an email push to the members of our project team will now be mirrored in this blog. The primary reason is I am rolling-off from the project and there might be some people who are still interested to receive such information. Mail versions are still being pushed to my current project and those who have expressed interest in getting them but for the rest this personal blog would do.

What is It Tip Jar? It started as a cheesy IT tips and trivia posts that I think will help improve the day-to-day tasks while working with computers. Or at least get an understanding with how things work.

Isn’t that similar to the working smarter memos from CIO? Yes but the difference is that I am not taking responsibility with the tips and content I am sending out. I am not a nanny and I am a firm believer that our people actually have the necessary brain cells to decide what is morally proper. Just like the maxim “guns don’t kill. people do.” what I send out are just tools that can be gleaned from the Internet (which is probably where I find most of them in the first place) so whatever you do with them and the consequences are your own problem.

The decision to mirror the content here is that I also send the content to colleagues who have already left the company and who have express their intent to still keep on receiving these posts. The extra work would be worth it as that is how much I love you guys/gals.

ciao!

Tags: Top of my head by Erin
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During my high school and college days the instant noodle was the king of the kitchen, the ultimate go-fer for the hungry mind and stomach. Forget bread, back then I could live on instant noodles alone and with egg if I want a luxurious treat. Adding steamed rice makes it a full meal. Philippine noodles are notorious for packing large quantities of MSG but I was young and nothing can touch me.

When I started going out with Neth my tolerance for MSG-laden foods went down because Neth’s family doesn’t really use MSG because of the reported health risks associated with it. I still get to enjoy noodles every now and then, and MSG when we eat out but everything went south when a simple breakfast of noodles and pan de sal (local breakfast bun) turned into a 3-day toilet bowl marathon for us. Since then I gave up eating noodles.

About a year ago I started sampling local noodles again, especially during weekends. The temptation of a quick breakfast is hard to ignore. But I realize that when I do have noodles for breakfast then I will have an excruciating headache in the afternoon. I always blamed the afternoon naps but recently I put two and two together. One Saturday morning I tried eating noodles and not on the following weekend. Lo and behold the pattern recurred so I guess that means forever saying goodbye to those multiplying variants of instant noodles that are invading the market.

From my Picasa

ciao!

Tags: Garbage by Erin
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hodge-podge: n a motley assortment of things.

That describes the breakfast I prepared today: guisadong burong mustasa (sauteed fermented mustard leaves), beef longganisa, garlic fried rice w/ star margarine, and then topped with tarragon tea. There is no binding theme except that they were all spur of the moment decisions and what is available.

Burrppp!

The beef longganisa was bought from our grocery trip yesterday, and it only made it because I haven’t tried that combination before. It’s an average tasting fare but I didn’t really expect it to compete with the venerable Cabanatuan longganisa (sorry my Ilocano friends, but your Vigan longganisa is a poor substitute. You just have the luxury of mass marketing. ). The burong mustasa is the last one from the batch we brought from Nueva Ecija five weeks ago. It’s a bit salty but this preparation got my wife to taste and like this delicacy. Plus I finally got to do something with the pots of tarragon that grows in the front-garden.

I am still smarting from the breakfast but there are some left-overs that will make it to lunch.

ciao!

Tags: Garbage by Erin
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