The DJ who's not a DeeJay

I'm up to my 78th blog post and it's been almost a year since I've reguarly been posting. Looking back, I remember blogging for personal reasons. Way back when blogs didn't even exist, I already had my own personal digital journal. It was inspired from the show Doogie Howser MD. where this genius of a doctor at an early age, posted his daily thoughts on his computer. I was a computer science student at the time and decided to create a journal program which looked very similar to the one he used in the show. However, I wasn't able to match his wit in posting entries. He had such profound and meaningful entries, whereas, I just decided to talk about incidents that happened during the day without analyzing them or coming up with a profound conclusion.

Fast forward to present... due to the popularity of blogging, I once again resumed this art of posting personal entries but on a more high-tech scale, being online.

I really did resume this hobby as I enjoy writing. What used to be a hobby for personal reasons and enjoyment has become much more due to the internet's setup of sharing information.

Now, I've been able to warn people of unlikely and unfortunate experiences, share random thoughts, interactively get others' opinions, give suggestions based on personal experience or just plain talk about how my day went.

From the days of private diaries (keeping those bulky notebooks safe in a locked box for no one to read), to the high-tech online blogging (sharing information to practically anyone who visits your blog and read it), I'd say, give me a keyboard rather than a pen and let me type away.

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Most people don't know this about me, since I do it when I'm alone... that is driving fast.

If I'm headed home and it's after 11pm, I'm fond of rolling down the windows, blasting music from my mp3 player to full volume and speeding up on the less-populated roads to the tune of heavy metal, hiphop or techno music, depending on my playlist sequence.

I don't do this during the day and especially when I have other passengers on board cause I value their safety and it's just too hot to roll down the windows and turn off air conditioning.

I'm still a safe and cautious driver even though I speed up. I don't break any traffic rules, I still signal when turning, I slow down when approaching checkpoints and wherever police visibility is setup.

After reading this article (" Study: Racing games may spur risky driving"), I realized that this may have some truth in my experience as one of the video games I'm regularly fond of playing is The Fast & The Furious. Check out the top players in Timezone Marquinton and I'm in the top 10.

FAST AND THE FURIOUS (TRAILER)

I'm not an avid fan of local soap operas, I'm not really into spending time watching them ... however you call it, telenovelas, asianovelas, chinovelas, korenovelas, spanishovelas (okey, I don't think that was an actual word).

I do like watching American reality TV shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race. There aren't many Filipino reality TV shows to actually consider watching. However this particular season of Pinoy Big Brother is interesting enough for me to catch my attention and watch.

I guess it's because there are many twists and new concepts introduced in this season as compared to the last 3 batches. I particularly like the concept of the house having secret rooms and there are 4 castaways which make me feel like I'm watching part of Survivor as well.

For those who do watch and are famliar with the housemates, I feel my character is similar to Mickey, the German dude. If you know me well, and you watch the show, I think you can pinpoint why.

Nahhh.. this has nothing to do with the more popular meaning of the phrase "red light district".

Last week, I was driving along the Ortigas avenue stretch and happened to be sandwiched between 2 trucks. I couldn't see the stoplight cause of their massive physique and just assumed that since they weren't stopping nearing the intersection, that it was a green light. I was shocked to find out that they ran a red light, me included ! Since I was the slowest among us three vehicles, a policeman suddenly saw me and was directing me to stop. He was actually walking towards the 3rd lane where I was situated. As intinct (and fear) overruled me, I pretended not to see him and never stepped on the brakes until the next stoplight.

By this time, I was a nervous wreck. I knew I was bound to pass by some checkpoints and some other police along the road. I was afraid that the police who tried to apprehend me radio to his comrades and be on the lookout for my car. My companions in the car were trying to comfort me however as much as I appreciated it, it was my license on the line and I'm not very good with dealing with officers giving traffic violations. In short, hindi ako marunong maglagay o makitungo sa kanila. And I would want to avoid any incident leading to that.

So the next few days, I avoided the Ortigas stretch just in case they'd remember me or the car.

Ironically, a few days after, I was along EDSA and coming on to a major intersection with the stoplight being red, the police officer signalled me to proceed. I refused to do so and made hand gestures pointing to the red light. He kinda got frustrated and made it apparent by gestures as well. And so, you might say, with his blessing, I crossed the intersection during a red light. I looked at my rear view mirror after crossing and I was the only car he let go.

These red lights are tricky. And these policemen are trickier.