Clean Desk

Although I'm far from a neat freak, I find it hard to function in messy surroundings. When my room reaches a certain level of clutter, I always make it a point to put my things in order. All throughout high school and college, I kept my study table as organized as possible. I adhere to the same mantra when it comes to my work desk. 

 

Since my line of work entails split-second decision making, a clear mind is imperative. A clean desk brings me one step to the latter.

Twenty-Eight Thousand Unread Messages

I've had my Yahoo ID, since December 2002, when I was still a high school senior. Back then, social networking hasn't gone mainstream yet (we had Yahoo Groups, instead of Facebook). The norm for internet connections was the humble dial-up connection, with only fortunate few having access to broadband. It took a good thirty minutes to download a 5MB mp3 from peer-to-peer sites like Kazaa - and three to four floppy disks to transfer it to another computer!

During the early days of my Yahoo account, a mere 4MB worth of email space was allocated. The advent of Gmail and its 1GB mailbox space saw Yahoo upgrade to 100MB (then to 1GB). In 2008, Yahoo offered unlimited storage space.

Since Yahoo did away with the lousy 4MB cap, deleting messages from my inbox have been a rarity. Through the years, I've accumulated thousands - then tens of thousands - of unread emails. I've had several dire attempts in marking the aforesaid emails unread. But then again, the page by page progress was tedious to say the least. Hell, I was proud of this monstrous amount of unread email. 

As of 12 July 2011, I had exactly 27,935 unread messages**!

This afternoon, while tinkering with Yahoo Mail yet again, I thought about how easy it is to sort email in my alternate AOL account. Then it hit me. Why not try out the new Yahoo? Since I'm an advocate of seamless, no-non sense computing (a legacy of the times I made do with obsolete computers), I've always considered the new version of Yahoo Mail to be nothing but bloatware. After a few minutes of tweaking, I found a solution. It took a good five minutes for the 28,000 + to get marked read. And please do no mind the spam message by a dubiously named "Candygirl" from the screenshot below

When I saw my inbox cleared of the clutter, I felt somewhat rejuvenated. It's akin to the accomplished feeling one gets after cleaning a messy room - which was, in this case, almost a decade's worth of backlog!

I gave the new Yahoo Mail interface a try, but its resource-intensive features were a major turn-off. If I owned a top-of-the-line PC, instead of a relatively outdated 3.0 GHZ Pentium 4, I could have lived with the fancier features. Hence, I did a quick Google search (I still prefer the Google engine for web searches) on how to revert to Yahoo Classic. Thanks to this site, I stumbled upon User Agent Switcher - a Firefox add-on that enables the browser to switch between different versions.

* - I came up with "high_hurdler49" because of two things: (1) I love the 110m high hurdles and (2) my mission (in high school, at least) was to run a 49-second 400m race. As the years went by, my internet alter ego stuck. I shortened it to a more manageable "hurdler49." Throughout the oughts, almost all of my web ID's are "hurdler49," save for the few instances I opted to use jrnquintos (or some other shortened variation of my name).

** - I used a cool website called Snap Bird to scour my old tweets.

Amy Winehouse - Me and Mrs. Jones (Live at the Eurockéennes Festival)

Check out Amy Winehouse's live performance of "Me and Mrs. Jones." It's my favorite Winehouse song among all her hits. It's not merely a run-of-the-mill cover of a popular song. The late English artist added her signature touch to the timeless hit. The way she performs is certainly unique.

Rest in peace, Amy!

Kenny Loggins' Awesomeness

Whilst browsing through the hilariously funny website, Cracked, I stumbled upon several interesting features on the 1980's music star, Kenny Loggins. If I weren't at the office, I would have literally laughed out loud! I'm a big fan of Top Gun, notwithstanding the film's homoerotic tendencies. Loggins' music certainly made the movie more engaging.

Click here to read more Cracked features

Come to think of it, Loggins is the Chuck Norris of movie soundtracks. Almost!

Photo from Cracked

Down with the Subsidized MRT Fare

Last week was a crazy one for this almost daily MRT user. A train breakdown caused a one-hour delay last Wednesday. I was stuck at the Ayala MRT platform waiting for the imbeciles who run the light rail line to fix the now-proverbial defective train. The same thing happened last Friday, albeit with a more merciful delay. In between the two days I chanced upon a rush-hour debacle, I read about a malfunction in the rail switching system at the North Avenue station. Again, train operations were severely hampered for around an hour.

The crowning glory of my week-long bad luck with the MRT was last Saturday. I had a 9:00 AM class in Makati. To get there in time, I left the house at around 7:30 AM, just to be able to board the train at approximately 8:00 AM. But lo and behold, another breakdown greeted my weekend! For a good fifteen minutes, the patrons of the crowded line waited in vain for a train. When the barely-audible speakers announced "STOP ENTRY!" to the security personnel manning the turnstiles, I knew that something was wrong. Then, the same raspy voice informed the agitated weekend users that the incoming trains will reach only up to the Shaw Boulevard Station.

For the third time in four days, the notoriously crowded MRT threw a monkey wrench into my well-oiled schedule!

Being the experienced commuter that I am, I calculated my options. It was around 8:20 AM when the MRT guys made the damning announcement. I had forty friggin' minutes to get to the Central Business District in time for my class. I made my way down the Kamuning Station, greeted by the sight of several Ayala-bound buses. I knew better than to ride those hulking, crawling behemoths. The fastest - and most comfortable - bus to Makati is none other than the fancily-colored Mannrose buses. 

I got to my class on the dot.

Unless our populist government slash a significant portion of the billions of Pesos it spends subsidizing the train line, the MRT shall always be packed to the brim. The PHP 15 fare is just way too horrendously cheap compared to the PHP 35 (on average) bus fares; hence, it attracts hordes of commuters. In my opinion, the government should decrease a significant chunk of the subsidy. 

Why in the hell should the Filipino taxpayer shoulder the brunt of an easier and cheaper commute for the Metro Manila resident? Doing so is a Manila-centric view on things and signifies everything that is wrong with this country. I say down with the subsidies. Spend it on something more meaningful, like rural electrification and building schools in impoverished Mindanao.

An Official Statement from Christopher Lao

When I first saw the video of a Christopher Lao driving through a flooded street and the subsequent interview, I must admit that I found the incident hilarious. I posted my fair share of cheap shots at the poor fellow. The video became viral and Lao became an overnight internet sensation. This was a textbook case of cyber-bullying. And I took part in it. 

It took a subtle message from a friend (who happens to know Lao himself) to realize that the incident has been blown out of proportion.

My sincerest apologies to Christopher Lao.

The least I can do is unlike the aforesaid Facebook pages and re-post Lao's official statement.

Official Statement from Christopher Lao
4 August 2011

The past few days have been very disheartening for me and my family.   As you know I have been a subject of a viral video that showed my helplessness during a trying moment.  As it stands right now, I have several hate pages in Facebook and Twitter with hurtful and derogatory messages attacking my person.  The reputation that I built the past years has been besmirched.   A bad day has now turned into wounded feelings and sleepless nights for me and my family.

I have been silent the past few days as I want this to go away soon but not before saying sorry and thank you to people who matter.

I would like to apologize for my behavior that was seen on nationwide television and now on the internet.  It was unfortunate that I was caught on camera immediately after an overwhelmingly stressful mishap.

I would like to again sincerely  thank those who braved the flood to help a distraught stranger like me.  Their selfless act reminded me of how dependable Filipinos are in times of crisis.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family, friends and all of those who showed empathy, consideration and support throughout these trying times.  You have given me strength and courage to rise above and be a better person.

Sincerely yours,

Christopher Lao