Hello there blogosphere and welcome to a new section of my blog, Gear Grinder, in which I will rant about anything and everything I hate.
I know, there isn't much originally in the name. I can think of a better name, I swear. I'm just too damn lazy to think of something. What? it's in the middle of a sunday afternoon and it's as hot as hell in my bedroom.
Anyway, onwards my beloved words.
Do you know what grind my gears? Public transportation in the Philippines.
Last night I was on my way home from Robinsons Center Point. It only took 20 minutes to get from Pasig to Edsa but it took me almost an hour to travel from Cubao to SM north. Driving in a private vehicle, it would have only took me 10 minutes (Yah, I drive dangerously fast when I drink coffee). Do you know why it took so long? Public bus stops.
My bus waited in Trinoma for around 20 minutes. I didn't really mind since Rise of the Planet of the Apes was on but what really grind my gear was, it look another 20 minutes waiting for passengers in SM North. It took me 40 minutes to go from Cubao to Munoz. If I walked, I would been home, and have enough time to flipped the bus drivers off as I pass by Munoz.
They shouldn't ever call it public transportation because the majority of this vehicles are privately owned. And when public transportation is privately owned, the government are useless to enforce anything to help ease traffic. They make their own rules and most of them doesn't even care about their passengers.
What kind of bus is in full capacity and still take on passengers? Our kind of buses. Even jeepneys have the decency to know it's passenger capacity, though I'm not saying they're any better. But I'll get back on that topic.
I could understand if their is a scarcity of buses but no, they're a centimo-a-dozen out there. I could see buses that looked like they were in business before the Marcos regime and others that old films use to blow up. The sheer amount of those buses makes me wonder why they over load and why people force themselves into this over loaded buses. People, there are still more buses to come. I wait for a good 10 minutes and a more lax bus arrives. Is it because half of our population is running late? (But Filipino Time will be for another blog entry).
The privatization of the public transportation and the lawlessness of our roads is a really sad sight to behold. There are no constants, our time in the road is at the mercy of this ruthless drivers. Traffic laws are useless to them who drives like their above the law. They think that they're just making good business but they may be causing much more than they think.
They became obstructions in both the road and productivity. The common man doesn't have anything reliant for his transportation needs and the ones who own private vehicles are harassed by their constant clogging of major roads. Jeepneys bottle necking major roads to wait idly for passengers and barkers making senseless noise. I can read, my dear barker, and if I need directions, I'll ask the drivers. I can't even grasp why you exist and what's your function. To me, you're just a leech.
It's hard to think of a solution for such a sad state of our road. It's like the wild west. We could regulate the numbers of jeeps in major roads, minimize the waiting time of buses in bus stops, construct and assign specific waiting areas for bus and jeeps (like in SM North) so they won't bottle neck the major roads but as long as they're in the hands of the private domain, we'll have a hard time making that dream in to a reality.
What do you think?
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Flowing in the Sea
Since the beginning of March, I have been unemployed.
I was working in a, what we fondly called, factory for the graphic artist. We call them that because we were an assembly line of graphic artist who does nothing but assemble print ads from standard work books. It drained the creativity out of me for awhile and I thought I wouldn't be able to leave. Until one day, I decided to when brighter opportunities popped in the horizon. The sad part is, I counted my chickens before they hatched and I'm stuck here at home, for four months (and counting), with nothing to do but watch television series and jump from one interview after another.
As most people during this time of their lives, I feel like a fool. A drifter and a vagabond. I don't know where to go and no idea what to do or what I'm good at. Not like when I was still in college and my whole future is entirely mapped out. I don't even know if I have a future now. I've been through a lot of interviews already and still no call back from any of them. Some I thought would be cool to work in, some I didn't entirely like, and a selected few, I'd dragged the heaven and earth to get in.
I talk to some friends and they say some people go over a year without finding a job, while some just takes a few weeks before hopping into a new one. Where did I go wrong? During my time in college, i was sure that I'll get the job of my dreams at one point or another since I worked hard and applied myself in everything I did. But now, I feel like that wasn't enough. I need to read more about my beloved field I guess and duke it out for a little while in those creativity draining jobs until I can equip myself with the skills that I really need. That field is really demanding, and I thought I was prepared for it, but I guess I wasn't.
I'll continue to flow in this endless expanse of uncertainty until I find what still for me, either by luck or by shear will.
Ideas, I have tons, execution, I have little.
I was working in a, what we fondly called, factory for the graphic artist. We call them that because we were an assembly line of graphic artist who does nothing but assemble print ads from standard work books. It drained the creativity out of me for awhile and I thought I wouldn't be able to leave. Until one day, I decided to when brighter opportunities popped in the horizon. The sad part is, I counted my chickens before they hatched and I'm stuck here at home, for four months (and counting), with nothing to do but watch television series and jump from one interview after another.
As most people during this time of their lives, I feel like a fool. A drifter and a vagabond. I don't know where to go and no idea what to do or what I'm good at. Not like when I was still in college and my whole future is entirely mapped out. I don't even know if I have a future now. I've been through a lot of interviews already and still no call back from any of them. Some I thought would be cool to work in, some I didn't entirely like, and a selected few, I'd dragged the heaven and earth to get in.
I talk to some friends and they say some people go over a year without finding a job, while some just takes a few weeks before hopping into a new one. Where did I go wrong? During my time in college, i was sure that I'll get the job of my dreams at one point or another since I worked hard and applied myself in everything I did. But now, I feel like that wasn't enough. I need to read more about my beloved field I guess and duke it out for a little while in those creativity draining jobs until I can equip myself with the skills that I really need. That field is really demanding, and I thought I was prepared for it, but I guess I wasn't.
I'll continue to flow in this endless expanse of uncertainty until I find what still for me, either by luck or by shear will.
Ideas, I have tons, execution, I have little.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Advertising And Everything Else
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need" ~ Chuck Palahniuk
I respect Chuck Palahniuk's opinion but I disagree with this statement. And am sure he's not the only one thinking that advertising is the reason why a modern man is obsessed with material possession. Or in other words, a consumerist society.
I would say that we (me being an advertising student and hopefully a future practitioner) advertisers are partially responsible for such behavior, but not fully. Because come on, if we think about it, if we don't have new stuff, we wont have anything to advertise. If engineers don't make new cars, then there wont be any car commercials. If fashion designers don't make their new line up of summer clothing, then there wouldn't be towering bill boards of half naked models on highways. And if writers don't write their new epic novel, then there won't be a print ad of a book in the literature section of the newspaper.
And we don't manipulate your mind into buying the stuff we advertise. We're just showing you your better options. Human beings are rational creatures and has the ability to decide on what is better, brand A or brand B.
We also don't create the need, society creates the need, we just.......help out a little in creating it.
And am getting tired of all those people who hates "the system" and that there is a big "evil greedy businessman" controlling everything for the sake of money. Come on people, the "system" is beautiful logistical flow of products. People create them, people advertise them, people sell them, people use them (and the service counterpart of it) and we're all happy. We contribute to society and it's advancement through this flow. Maybe its a little rough around the edge right now, but soon, it would be greener and logical to most.
Advertisers doesn't create consumerism, society creates consumerism. If you're gonna blame advertisers for advertising a product, you should blame engineers too for creating your cars and laptops, heck, even blame doctors and chemist for making medicine and keeping you healthy, heck, now that we're playing the blame game, blame your parent's as well for bringing you to this society we call our home.
I respect Chuck Palahniuk's opinion but I disagree with this statement. And am sure he's not the only one thinking that advertising is the reason why a modern man is obsessed with material possession. Or in other words, a consumerist society.
I would say that we (me being an advertising student and hopefully a future practitioner) advertisers are partially responsible for such behavior, but not fully. Because come on, if we think about it, if we don't have new stuff, we wont have anything to advertise. If engineers don't make new cars, then there wont be any car commercials. If fashion designers don't make their new line up of summer clothing, then there wouldn't be towering bill boards of half naked models on highways. And if writers don't write their new epic novel, then there won't be a print ad of a book in the literature section of the newspaper.
And we don't manipulate your mind into buying the stuff we advertise. We're just showing you your better options. Human beings are rational creatures and has the ability to decide on what is better, brand A or brand B.
We also don't create the need, society creates the need, we just.......help out a little in creating it.
And am getting tired of all those people who hates "the system" and that there is a big "evil greedy businessman" controlling everything for the sake of money. Come on people, the "system" is beautiful logistical flow of products. People create them, people advertise them, people sell them, people use them (and the service counterpart of it) and we're all happy. We contribute to society and it's advancement through this flow. Maybe its a little rough around the edge right now, but soon, it would be greener and logical to most.
Advertisers doesn't create consumerism, society creates consumerism. If you're gonna blame advertisers for advertising a product, you should blame engineers too for creating your cars and laptops, heck, even blame doctors and chemist for making medicine and keeping you healthy, heck, now that we're playing the blame game, blame your parent's as well for bringing you to this society we call our home.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Park and Wildlife
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Actually, am more concern on your criticisms on the watermark than the pictures.
I only just created that watermark, am not quite sure how the internet people think of it.
Does it look gay? Does it look too fantasy? Does it make an impression that a noob is taking the picture?
Comments are welcome and will be taken as intellectual criticism, unless your a troll.
P.S. Comments on the composition of the photo are also welcome.
Proper Introductions
Cool, my first blog in this new blogspot account.
Anyway, I'll need to introduce myself. My blog name is "Dead Poet" but am Mark in the real world. I also go by the name "Rivers", "Soramea", "DeadNugget" and "MyHappyPill" in online video games and other blogging sites.
I initially post my blogs in tumblr, but seeing that I don't have that much readers there, I decided to move to somewhere......more appropriate for blogging.
I do a little photography at my spare time, but am still learning from my masters. I love video games, I just finished God of War 3 this morning and it was epic, I'll write a review of it later. I also like to travel to the country, it goes hand-in-hand with learning photography. I don't know, maybe that just how it is, when you love to travel, you'll learn to love taking pictures.
I also like animes, manga, comic books and movies. Call me a geek but I dig those, but not as much this days.
Coffee is my favorite poison, beer would be second. They both have such magical effects that will fuel your creative pumps and unchain your imagination. I dont know how, I dont know why, leave that to the scientist, I do art, not math (motto of anyone from the CLAS departed of my school).
Expect to see blogs on my everday life. I like to talk and write alot, so expect long entries. I do a little photography as well so I'll post some photos that am proud of. I also do some movie and video game reviews so expect some of those too.
Anyway, thanks for reading and have fun.
Anyway, I'll need to introduce myself. My blog name is "Dead Poet" but am Mark in the real world. I also go by the name "Rivers", "Soramea", "DeadNugget" and "MyHappyPill" in online video games and other blogging sites.
I initially post my blogs in tumblr, but seeing that I don't have that much readers there, I decided to move to somewhere......more appropriate for blogging.
I do a little photography at my spare time, but am still learning from my masters. I love video games, I just finished God of War 3 this morning and it was epic, I'll write a review of it later. I also like to travel to the country, it goes hand-in-hand with learning photography. I don't know, maybe that just how it is, when you love to travel, you'll learn to love taking pictures.
I also like animes, manga, comic books and movies. Call me a geek but I dig those, but not as much this days.
Coffee is my favorite poison, beer would be second. They both have such magical effects that will fuel your creative pumps and unchain your imagination. I dont know how, I dont know why, leave that to the scientist, I do art, not math (motto of anyone from the CLAS departed of my school).
Expect to see blogs on my everday life. I like to talk and write alot, so expect long entries. I do a little photography as well so I'll post some photos that am proud of. I also do some movie and video game reviews so expect some of those too.
Anyway, thanks for reading and have fun.
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