The DJ who's not a DeeJay

If you've scheduled your car for maintenance or checkup in a automotive service center, you'll know that it takes hours to have it serviced.   Some people like me bring their car before opening so the car would be the very first car to be serviced.  But being early and number 1 on the list doesn't mean you'll get your car in less than a hour.  The average time for a car to be serviced is 3 hours (with Toyota and Ford service centers).  

Traffic was really bad everywhere in the Metropolis last week. I tried to avoid some traffic by passing through some shortcuts but eventually, you'll need to use a main thoroughfare.

In my case, I avoided C-5 by using EDSA. I had no idea traffic would be as slow as a turtle.

Right near EDSA Buendia in the midst of crawling traffic, I was startled that my car moved when I knew my foot was on the breaks. I realized it immediately that I moved when I checked my rear view mirror and saw the car behind me kissing my car's rear. I immediately turned on the hazard lights and went down to see what happened. It was a white Fortuner SUV that bumped me. Good thing EDSA traffic then was at a standstill or else we would've been honked by drivers left and right for causing more traffic. I checked for any hits, scratches and dents on my car. I didn't care about theirs, since it's their fault to begin with. All I noticed was that the car plate's plastic cover got smashed and left a 3 inch crack. I was glad that was all there was. And so to shorten the discussion time of what to do (negotiate, wait for police or debate on who was right and who was wrong), I told them it was their fault cause I wasn't moving at all when they bumped me and since the only casualty I found was the cracked plastic plate cover, I said that could be easily replaced by buying another one for around P200. They immediately complied and gave me the P200. I left them a last message to be careful even in traffic and went back in the car.

While still stuck in traffic, I was pondering on what just happened and came up with these thoughts:

1. If you're going to be reared by another car, the best (in a series of worsts) situation is in traffic where all the cars are running at a very slow pace. So chances of high-impact smashing is least likely to occur.
2. I got bumped by a bigger car (an SUV). In this case, your bumper doesn't touch their bumper. So look upward for any dents, scratches or hits. My license plate and the area below it (near the trunk base) got hit.
3. Keep your cool even though you're the victim. Panicking or accusing won't help in a situation like this. Try to even out the situation in a calm manner (no matter how your innter thoughts would like to smash the hell out of their windshield).
4. When both of you leave the scene where the accident occurred, let the car at fault pass you. If the car was careless enough to bump you, chances are it may happen again, even seconds or minutes afterwards. And at this point, you already know the car, just avoid it.
   

I can't remember anymore if I mentioned that I have a slight obsession to modify my Toyota Corolla. Blame it on playing the video game Need For Speed & Fast & Furious plus more recently, watching Transformers The Movie.

After checking out some auto accessories stores and canvassing at some car shops, I've come to the conclusion that I don't have the budget for any major modification. So any 17" mags, adding bumpers, spoilers, sidesteps and the like will for now remain a dream.

What I was able to do with my limited budget was customize my car by adding some reflectors, stickers and minor car accessories.

Out of frustration, I decided to turn my customization obsession to my laptop. Thinking of how my laptop would stand out, I wanted to place some neon lights on the cover, but haven't been able to go to Gilmore where the computer haven awaits me. So with the extra car accessories I bought which I didn't use for my car, I thought of adding them on to my laptop. What is supposed to be applied to the car doors to prevent it from being dented, is the exact same thing I placed on top of my laptop. I also added some other visuals to make it more appealing and hip.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome cause it doesn't look like a standard laptop anymore.

I still plan on placing two blue or red neon lights wihch would intersect at the top center highlighting the autobot insignia. Great too while the Transformers hype is still at an all-time high.

I wonder what else I can do to my laptop ?

I was at the Ayala Center 2 days ago set to attend the monthly Digitalfilipino.com eyeball. Whenever I'm in the Ayala Center area, I only park either at the Glorietta 3 underground parking (between Shangri-la Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe) or at Park Square (with a bridge connecting to Landmark and Glorietta 2 I think). The venue for the meetup was at the EGG internet cafe which was located at Glorietta 4. I've never been to that cafe before and I was running late so I decided to park somewhere closer. I decided then to try parking at the Glorietta 4 underground carpark, which is below the fountain/park.

I was surprised to learn that this parking lot leads directly to the Glorietta food court and cinemas which is convenient. The meeting ended early and next on my agenda was a 9pm album launch in the Ortigas area. So I decided to hang around Glorietta for a while. Around 7:30pm, I was set to leave Makati. I went down to the carpark, started the car and was ready to leave when suddenly, I couldn't find my parking card. I searched for a full 5 minutes in the car and even took out a flashlight to check underneath the seats, but couldn't find it.

I suspected that I may have dropped it somewhere in the mall. And so I retraced all the places I've been to in the mall and asked the security and customer service officers at each location if they found any lost parking pass but got no luck in doing so. Being an OC person, I was really frustrated that I couldn't find it nor remember where I placed it. I couldn't reconcile the fact that I misplaced it. By this time, I knew I was going to be late for my 9pm event if I didn't leave yet. And so I went back to the parking lot and asked the guard on duty how to proceed with a lost parking pass. I was asked to provide license & registration. To make matters worse, my face and license number are literally erased providing me with as much identification as a fake license. It's a good thing I had an additional SSS ID with me.

So after filling out a form, I was told to bring the receipt to the carparking checkout booth and pay a total of P260. P200 is for the lost card (which I can reimburse at Ayala Customer Service if I do find the card) and P60. is my parking fee. I wasn't really concerned of the amount. I was more concerned that I wasted time looking for the card which I never found and being late.


Anyway, I was late for my 9pm event at Ortigas. I got home past midnight and discovered the darndest thing. As I took out my laptop to recharge, my carparking pass fell to the ground.

I was actually happier to discover that I never lost the card, I just misplaced it. Now Ayala parking owes me P200.