seatbelt

I always immediately pull on the seatbelt whenever I sit in
the front passenger seat of a car or a taxi cab. But the driver of
the cab we rode from SM City Manila tonight told me not to bother when
I asked why I couldn't insert the seatbelt.
He said that he didn't even bother putting one himself and
that only greedy policemen bother to apprehend at night. He went on
how these policemen always picked on poor drivers, how they could
stomach feeding their families with dishonestly earned money, and so
on.
I didn't even bother to reply. In my opinion, someone who
doesn't follow rules and regulations doesn't have a right to complain
when's he's caught. It would be double standard – the pot calling the
kettle black.
And when we got off, our fare was Php72.50. This driver
didn't want to give me back the change for Php80.

sayong
04-29-06

series endings

Two of my favorite telenovelas ended tonight – Encantadia
and My Name is Kim Sam Soon. I'm glad to finally see the resolutions
but also sad that I will not see these again. I rush home every
evening to catch these TV series and I will miss these.

sayong
04-28-06

retiring boss

I usually sleep for 7 hours. But it was not even 10am
yesterday when I felt so sleepy.

My boss' news simply weakened me. He told us yesterday that
he would avail of the retirement/separation benefits under the
Rationalization Program
(http://www.pia.gov.ph/faq.asp?menu=faq&faq=ratplan&pg=1&i=section1q1)
being implemented in the government.

Tito Conrad, as we call my boss, turned 60 years old last
February but didn't want to retire yet. But he was finally convinced
by his contemporaries that this chance to get more benefits from
retirement will not come again.

Since I transferred to this agency, he has been my boss.
This means that we have worked together for almost ten years.

He is simply the easiest boss to deal with. He doesn't care
much for office politics. He just works on the speeches and whatever
is assigned to our group. As long as we, the staff, do what is
assigned to us, he doesn't mind whatever we are up to :) He allows us
to attend trainings and seminars. He let us read first his personal
Time magazines. He alerts us on new movies and cultural shows,
especially those that are free. Our group even sometimes goes to
these events. And he sometimes treats us out.

But what I like most about him is that he respects us. He
is unlike some bosses who like showing off their authority by
unjustifiably shouting at staff, unreasonably withholding permission
or making slaves of their employees.

I will surely miss working with him.

sayong
04-25-06 5:50pm

a happy death

This morning greeted us with the news that 1980 Ms. Universe
runner-up Maria Rosario "Chat" Silayan died in her sleep at 46.

It's the kind of death that I would wish for myself. No
drama, no suffering and no astounding expenses (like hospitalization)
left for my family to pay :)

Our late parish priest, Fr. Raul, said that one should
always pray for a happy death. It's quite odd, isn't it? :)

I used to fear death. When my grandfather died and followed
by my youngest aunt in less than two months, I was a nutcase. I
thought that I'd be next :) And I didn't want to be in that dark
place called purgatory, where the spirits of the dead are said to go
first until their sins are fully pardoned. I was afraid of the dark
and the unknown.

But that was in 1997 and I have since then accepted that we
all die and that my fear was as much a fear of the unknown as well as
my unpreparedness.

I have since taken care of things like insurance, etc. I
guess that all that remains to prepare is my spirit -- that I will be
good enough to accept God's grace.

I found a site that compiled several prayers for a happy
death at http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/Pray_happy_death.html.
You might want to check it out.

sayong
04-24-06 4:55pm