Anti-Stress Part N (for Ndi tuloy)

I'm wasting the night of April 24 away. Oh, it's April 25 already. In about 2 hours, I should be leaving for McDonald's Katipunan. It's our meeting place for the Mt. Pinatubo trek we all vainly called 'Conquer Pinatubo: Rain or Shine'. Sadly, the trip was cancelled a few hours ago due to... the universe.

The original plan was way, way back March (3rd week, if I remember correctly). I already had a scheduled trip at that time so we decided to move it to the succeeding weekend. However, as the open invitation reached recipients outside our group who wanted to join but only if it could be done on April, we now moved from March to April 18. Further discussions and negotiations urged more people to join the trip and move again the schedule to its final date of April 25. And so we wait in delight.

But the universe said: "Not so fast, techies. Let's see if you can dodge this!". The first roadblock: There's an ongoing US-RP Balikatan exercises. They will only allow the 4x4s to pass through at these times: 7-8am, 12-1pm, 5-6pm. Ok. So let's move our meeting time from 5am to 3am. Fine. Kaya yan! Let's go sago!

Incensed, the universe again: "Aba, ayaw nyo talaga ha. Uhm! (Throws in two low pressure areas in the middle of summer, thereby not only ruining our own plan, but the rest of the Filipino people who also wanted to chillax this weekend)". Ah, ok lang yan, hindi naman umuulan sa umaga eh. Tignan nyo 'tong forecast ng PAG-ASA sa Capas, Tarlac. Kaya pa yan! Let's go sago!

Universe: "Mwahahaha! Yan ang akala nyo!". Then Gyobs finally received an SMS saying that the 'skyway' (the path we're supposed to trek towards the crater) has been rendered impassable by the heavy rainfall...

Si Jenard kasi pakipot pa kay Finley eh! Bumili pa man din si Milo ng sandals for the trek. :P

Gone are the days

I miss the old office life. The previous years were like the kindergarten of schooling. It was like the dermatology department of SGH if you've seen Grey's Anatomy season 5 (episode 4). Back then a group is composed only of 20+ engineers, a batch of new hardware engineers could treat all HW groups to a meryenda, there's no hassle in delivering your work products to the customer, and I could win prizes from my favorite radio program in the afternoon!

**** !@#$%^&*()_+ ****

I should've been at the Caramoan Peninsula right now for my very first and much needed R&R this summer. Sadly, I had to cancel an October 2008-booked flight a week before the scheduled trip. I felt there was too much apprehension with my project task's delay and preparations for the trip that I started feeling chronic abdominal pains for almost a week. One colleague described it as an IBS and its article said that it may begin after an infection or a stressful life event. I blamed the latter and, true enough, after getting rid of the Caramoan-CWC getaway and resigning myself to programming work on Friday & Monday, the IBS has subsided.

Gone are the days... tsk, tsk...

It's the best time for...

Finally bringing this topic up. I just remembered this as I dined in at Wendy's today: their food pricing is, for lack of a wider vocabulary, weird. Since college this was the only fastfood restaurant that has got me looking longer at a receipt than I normally would.

I bought a Bacon Mushroom Melt (Php 82) and a Baked Potato (Php 88). Total: Php 170. Part of the receipt showed this:

BMM            :  73.21
BP             :  78.57
-----------------------
Sub-total      : 151.78
12%RVAT        :  18.21
1.01% local tax:   1.53
=======================
Total          : 171.52

First of all, I don't remember seeing the 'local tax' itemized in other fastfood restos' receipts. I could be wrong and it may be a city ordinance to exclude the local tax from the food item's price (as seen by the customer's naked eye), then add it later in the receipt. It didn't really bother me.

I paid 502, and got 330. I'm pretty sure I still know basic arithmetic so it's crystal clear they rounded up the total price to 172. Which I don't blame against them, and instead would like to ask why they need to sell food priced at N.XX? (where N is a natural number not less than 100 and XX is any random no. from 0 to 9). Why? It's not an issue at all had the total been 172. The feeling is like being sold with a 115-peso worth, paying 150, and getting only 30 because a denomination of 5 doesn't exist anymore. Ok it's an exaggeration, but if you're going to add up all those unreturned centavos from all customers, then the sum must've been quite evident.

Which leads me to ask another question: why not just come up with a raw price that will total to a decent normal price after taxes so that meddling customers like me won't feel, uh, cheated? I know it's only 48 centavos, but what if this happens to all their customers always? From the 1.01% local tax and 12% VAT, they could easily determine how much would be the 'normal' initial food price. That way I won't have to do calculations inside my head anymore and just start consuming the food happily. Besides, their balance sheets will be clean. Or could it be the lost centavos amounting to we-may-never-know are going somewhere we-will-never-know? Or maybe, just maybe, it's a naturally occuring accounting/business phenomenon so this rodomontade is pointless.

So, still the best time for Wendy's? I haven't tried their Baconator yet, though.

and a Happy New Year!

My prayer for a rainy new year's eve fell short. It only drizzled and the fireworks still, well, worked. Are there 'smokeless' fireworks?

Same old customs on a new year's eve: round fruits, wear something red, turn on all lights, radios, car alarm, and anything that can contribute to the otherwise loud noise of the firecrackers. And here I am, still up at 0213h, thinking of a name for this little one:

Pollux? Vincent? or Neil?