White hair chronicles XVIII - queuing at senior citizen's lane and discounted jeepney fare

Two weeks ago, a cashier at Shopwise grocery store across my office asked for my Senior Citizen's ID. This sent my officemates to a laughing fit and the cashier to an embarrassed smile when told that "kasing tanda lang namin yan!"

Yesterday at breakfast, I lined up at Jollibee counter with the shortest queue. It turned out to be the senior citizen only lane. The crew didn't ask for my ID this time but served me just the same (though no discount was given). An officemate snapped the photo at left.

Jeepney drivers now also start to give me discount without being asked. I give it back saying "sobra sukli mo". Hmm, I'm beginning to see the white hair advantage.

I write like ...

The new site "I Write Like" has gone viral. It analyzes your writing style and tries to compare it with known authors, I pasted a blog post to the analyzer and it said I write like Canadian science fiction writer Cory Doctorow. I pasted another post and it said I write like David Foster Wallace. Another post was written like P.G. Wodehouse. But I got Cory Doctorow mostly.

The site analyzes your text based largely on the words used. Works of just about 50 authors are uploaded to be used for comparison. The results may not be accurate but it's fun to know how you compare to other writers. Now I intend to read a Cory Doctorow book.

CNN tried to punch in some text to the analyzer and found out that an Obama speech was written ala Stephen King and a Supreme Court decision was written like Dan Brown.

And this post was written like Cory Doctorow. 

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Can the police eat 21 million pesos worth of hamburgers?

The new PAGCOR leadership thinks the previous administration's large food orders for the Philippine National Police (PNP) is irregular. The food orders were purportedly for policemen securing rallies and demonstrations for eight dates between January and June.

McDonald's quickly said the food orders were legitimate. It noted that dates indicated in the official receipts reflect the date of payment and not necessarily the date of the food delivery.

Over the radio, a police general belabored the excuse that policemen securing rallies were provided meals for the whole duration of the rally. But can we remember long rallies in the first half of the year? And even assuming that the dates do not reflect the rally dates, it is safe to assume that the rallies were held before those dates. Which means that the rallies were held before the elections. Could they possibly be campaign rallies? For which candidate or political party then? Who controlled PAGCOR during that time?

The 21 million peso bill translates to P2.625 million pesos per rally. Again assuming that they spent 500 pesos per policeman, a princely sum for a day's meal, that means more than 5000 policemen per rally day were fed. Can we remember a big rally that required one third of the police force to secure?

Can the police eat 21 million pesos worth of hamburgers? PNoy said "kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap". Conversely, PAGCOR-rupt, hindi mahirap.

Facebook and Twitter in the PNoy government

With his presidential campaign successfully fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, PNoy will now try to tap those tools in his good governance campaigns. The first government unit to try to use them was the Supreme Court. It was also the first to deactivate its use. The Supreme Court is not giving up though on Twitter. It says it's still tweaking its account.

The Department of Finance today announced it will soon launch its own social media accounts. The department hopes to receive from the public some leads in its anti-tax evasion and smuggling campaigns.

These departments are definitely not the first to use social networking media to reach out to the public. It has been tried before but the rigid bureaucracy nipped it in the bud. Mid level bureaucrats are unable to explain to their superiors the utility of the social media in disseminating information although many of them use them personally. It is only now in PNoy's time, with new blood being infused in the top, that social media gets a second look. With the mid level bureaucrats' Malabanan mentality, expect many to suddenly like those tools now and suggest their use to management.

Didn't they know resistance is futile?

Hopeless Pag-asa X

Reports say PNoy criticized the PAGASA for not warning the residents of Metro Manila about a strong tropical storm that pummeled the nation's capital. Hopeless PAGASA had it coming. Our weather bureau could have used a dart board in predicting the weather and it might have gotten better results. They are that bad.

PAGASA's own website says public storm signal no. 1 is raised when winds of 30-60 kph may be expected in at least 36 hours or intermittent rains may be expected within 36 hours. Public storm signal no. 2 is hoisted when winds of greater than 60 kph and up to 100 kph may be expected in at least 24 hours. This is summarized in the Philippine's first website on tropical cyclones.

What did PAGASA do this time to deserve the presidential ire?

They wrongly predicted the places where typhoon Basyang will hit. They raised signal no. 1 in Metro Manila. When winds over 100kph started to batter the metropolis, they hastily upped it to signal no. 2, only to quickly lower it back to no. 1 after 6 hours, when the typhoon  has passed. You raise public storm signals to notify residents of impending weather disturbances, so they can prepare for contingencies. With its performance, PAGASA does not forecast the weather, it describes the weather. Last night when they raised signal no. 2, they did not mean to forecast winds up to 100kph will come in 24 hours. They meant to describe the winds we have now at 100kph as signal no. 2 category.