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Drivers License Renewal at LTO Satellite Offices in Malls

My drivers license is about to expire, so I decided to have it renewed way before the expiration date. Driving without a valid drivers license is a violation with penalty amounting to 1,500 pesos (as of 2012). I'm renewing my driving license as soon as possible since being a government-issued ID, this can be used as proof of identity.

Inside the LTO Satellite Office in SM North

Good thing, the Land Transportation Office now have satellite offices in malls, which makes renewal of drivers license easier and faster. Last time (which was three years ago), I went to their kiosk in SM North Edsa for my renewal. The satellite office was located at the far end of the warehouse-like building which used to house the former SuperSale Club (I feel really old while typing the words Super Sale Club, haha!) Anyway, the LTO satellite office relocated to the newly-built NorthLink building in SM North, making it more accessible from people coming from EDSA. The new location is also much nearer to SM Carpark, adding to the convenience for people should they decide to bring their car.

Although my previous experience with drivers license renewal was "hassle-free", there's this one thing that I don't really enjoy -- drug test. No, not that I'm a drug user. I just think its not really needed and this drug test requirement is slowing the whole process of drivers license renewal. Good thing, this drug test is no longer required when renewing drivers license. Finally! I called the LTO Main Office in East Avenue to verify this and the guy who answered the call confirmed. As of last week, drug test is no longer required for drivers license renewal.

This will bring down the drivers license renewal cost, since drug testing (I think) is usually around 200-400 pesos. I then proceeded to the LTO office in SM North Edsa for my drivers license renewal, and I'm listing here the steps on how to renew the drivers license in LTO satellite offices in malls.

What to bring:

• Old Drivers License
• Pen
• Cash (150 pesos for medical exam, 420 pesos for license renewal)

Step 1 (you may skip this)
Go to the LTO Satellite Office. Proceed to Window 1 and show your old license. You will be told to go to the adjacent clinic for medical clearance.

The Problem With Philippine Standard Time

A new law setting the Philippine Standard Time has been signed by President Benigno Aquino III last May 15. The law, known as The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act of 2013 is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 3284 and House Bill No. 164 which was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives last February 4. Aside from setting the Philippine Standard Time, the new law assigns the first week of the year as the "National Time Consciousness Week".

This means that all national and local government offices is mandated to display the Philippine Standard Time on their official time devices, bundy clocks included. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) is tasked to be the official time source and will maintain the time standard. All government offices shall coordinate with Pagasa at least once a month to synchronize their official time devices.

I checked the website of DOST to see what the official time is, and this is what I got:

Time difference at around two and a half minutes (click to enlarge)

Since it's just a minimal difference, I thought I would look around for the Pagasa timeserver. However, I came across this one: http://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/wb/timeserver.html

Uhm, I'm pretty sure its still morning (click to enlarge)

Anyway, growing pains. The law will take effect after 15 days its publication in Official Gazette / 2 newspapers of general circulation, so maybe we should just wait.

* I found the official time of UP, synchronized with other time servers in the world. http://time.upd.edu.ph/

Funny Tricycle Sign

I saw this one somewhere in Baras, Rizal.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, wait, definitely not a bird.

Facebook Warning - Six Brothers Taxi (Plate Number TWP-527)

A warning appeared in my FB wall about an apparent overcharging of a cab, Six Brothers Taxi, with plate number TWP-527. Below is the message as posted:

BABALA: Six Brothers TWP 527!! Tandaan!
Wag na wag kayong sasakay sa taxi na to. May cuztomized lock ang pinto nya at walang bukasan ng window na pwedeng pwede kayong holdapin o worse ma-rape sa taxi na ito. Kakaiba din ang metro nya, P100 per 100 meters! San kayo nakakita nun na walang presyo ang metro at gawa-gawa lang nya ang presyuhan, parang kada-30 seconds ata siningil samin galing NAIA Terminal 2 hanggang Resort's World P400!! Nung napansin kong kakaiba na metro nya tinanong ko na kung bakit walang presyo, at magkano na ba ang natakbo namin, nung sinabi nyang P400 pinatabi ko na sya at bababa na kami ng boyfriend ko na galing abroad nung gabing un. Sabi ko "P200 lang ibibigay ko manloloko ka" hindi sya pumayag, bumaba sya ng taxi inilabas yung mga maleta sa trunk.. binubuksan namin ang pinto at bintana (na walang bukasan sa loob!) pero naka lock na kami sa loob. Tinakot ko na sya pag pagbalik nya at sabi ko nakuha ko litrato nya irreport ko sya, pagabot ko ng P300 (napagkasunduang presyo). Binuksan na nya ung pinto namin at pinalabas na kami.

Sindikato to mula sa NAIA airport!

TANDAAN:

• Neon ang steering wheel
• Walang presyo sa metro
• Amoy putok

**I-check ang lock. Subukang i-lock at i-unlock ang pinto AT buksan ang bintana bago paandarin ang taxi.
**Wag lang plate number ang kunin! Picturan muna ang muka bago paandarin ang taxi!
****Magdala ng baril para mapatay na tong mamang to ng susunod nyang biktima

(Naganap noong April 6, 2013, 2am Sabado)

Posted photo of Six Brothers Taxi

If you suspect a similar modus is being done to you, report it to the Philippine National Police through their hotline number 117, or you may send TXT PNP to 2920. Whenever riding a cab, always get the details of the cab (i.e. name of the cab, plate number, and operator) and send the details to your friends via SMS.

Another safety tip is to always lock all doors of the cab as soon as possible. By all, I mean all four doors, ask the driver to lock his door as a precautionary measure. I've witnessed an instance of robbery happening in front of SM Megamall during a bumper-to-bumper traffic. At least two people will open the door from both sides and grab anything they can before running away. The passenger won't be able to respond accordingly due to the confusion caused by simultaneous attack from both sides, so its best to always lock all doors.

Ride safely!



https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4634330581037&set=a.1618563668749.2078809.1376116254&type=1&ref=nf

The Curious Case of Odesk Job Postings

While browsing around oDesk, I saw a job posting that aroused my curiosity  The job description was vague, although the position had the word "analyst" in it. I checked the profile of the employer and it seems it is a newly-created account; no feedback but with a bundle of job postings. 

Giving the employer the benefit of the doubt, I applied for the job listed and sent a formal cover letter along with my application. Here's the reply I got from them:

Hi Mark,
Thank you so much for responding to our add on gumtree. We really appreciate it.
We had so many responses we can't possibly respond to them all. Please answer these 5 simple questions so we can schedule an interview.

1. Can you handle several important tasks that needed to be done in a certain time frame? How good are you at multi-tasking? Give me an example of a challenging situation in the workplace and what you did to fix it.
2. What are your top 5 strengths that you are most proud of?
3. What would you consider to be your worst quality and why? This is vital information because we would also want to provide the necessary training if appropriate. 
4. Do you consider yourself a people-person - someone who provides exceptional customer support and satisfaction in order to strengthen my business? As you know my company’s goal is helping people and I would like to find a staff that has the same passion.
5. Write a small paragraph as to why I should select and interview you to be my right hand person. Why is this job a good fit for you?
Thank you for your response, and I look forward to reviewing your answers.
Please respond ASAP to be considered for this position.
Regards,

Well, well. Something's fishy. First, what's gumtree? With a quick Google search, I found out that Gumtree is a website for classified ads, perhaps some sort of Craigslist. Clearly, the person who copy-pasted the standard reply message missed this small error.


Ok, perhaps that's just an honest mistake. Perhaps the person who responded is too weary to function properly, or some other reason. However, the questions they're asking seems a bit "generalized", as to say. Nothing indicated in particular except that their goal is "helping people" and they needed "someone who provides exceptional customer support and satisfaction". A call center job? Helpdesk? L1 support? 

The funny thing is, in question #5, it indicated that they needed someone to be the "right hand person". Virtual assistant. perhaps?

I got lost with the final question, "Why is this job a good fit for you?" Given that the job posting did not include specific job description nor skills required, it would be hard for me to answer this question. How will I know if I'm qualified for the job if I don't have any idea what the job entails? 

Even though I'm no longer interested, I sent another message asking for clarification regarding the issue, and to inform them of the typo. Below is my message:

Hello ,
You posted the "ad" on oDesk, not in Gumtree.
Before we proceed, can you tell me the qualifications for that position? I would also like to know what kind of business your company is involved with.
Thank you and have a great day.

I still haven't heard from them, one whole month and counting. Bogus. I checked the profile again and I was surprised to see there are 44 applicants for that posted job. Job posted by an unverified account, with no hires and no amount spent.

oDesk employer profile

So, to all freelancers out there. Always conduct background check for your potential employers. If the job posting is vague or hazy, most probably it's going to be a waste of time. If the offer is too good to be true, it probably is.

Communication and Culture - Food, Plagiarism and Information Wastage

Food, Plagiarism and Information Wastage

We are in the era of networking, where everyone is capable not just to consume information but to produce it as well. We have the computers, cameras, and other tools to create something for the consumption of others. We are the chefs of the digital world, capable of cooking delectable dish and share it with one another.

As with food, we have the option to cook new ideas and concepts and share it with other people. We can also borrow someone’s recipe and create something based from our interpretation of their recipe, which may result in either a good-tasting dish or one that tastes terrible. Either way, something new is created, and we learn something out of the experience.

However, it is different when it comes to information.

A quick Google search on plagiarism returned a myriad of definitions which are alike. I will use this definition found in the website of University of Miami.

"Plagiarism is the taking of someone else's words, work, or ideas, and passing them off as a product of your own efforts. Plagiarism may occur when a person fails to place quotation marks around someone else's exact words, directly rephrasing or paraphrasing someone else's words while still following the general form of the original, and/or failing to issue the proper citation to one's source material."

By Durova (Wikimedia Commons) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Copying from someone and failing to attribute the source is dreadful. It may help in propagating the idea of that someone, but failing to credit the original source will cause for that idea to lose its taste. Even though I take pleasure in trying out new ideas, I would like to know the original source so that I may understand it better, and perhaps I may come up with a different interpretation of the idea.

Just like in relay games, wherein a message is passed around one another, it is most likely that the end receiver will hear a very different message compared with the original message. This explains why we need to hear it from the original source; they can explain it much better and clearer.

In the book Development Communication Praxis, it is noted that information scientists are starting to realize that in spite of the increase in the quantity of information, there seems to be a need to improve the quality of information generated.

Plagiarism lowers the quality of the generated information, and in turn will produce another with much lower quality. If we tolerate plagiarism, we are not helping in the production of critical-thinking individuals. This copy-paste mentality, if taken on a larger level, will soon drive any society into oblivion. We will instead become a society that cannot think for ourselves, relying on others to feed us information.

By Dahn (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Information wastage can be compared to a pot of soup. If more people will want to have a taste of that soup, a new pot must be cooked. But what if you’ll just add water to it? Surely, there will be more enough soup for everyone, but that soup will taste very bland. As more and more water is added, the soup will no longer taste like the original; we might as well throw it away.

Information is abundant, inexpensive, and ubiquitous. As multimedia scholars, we should promote critical thinking and despise plagiarism, so that we may be able to cook something new and inspire others to be critical thinkers as well.

References

• Flor, A. G. (2009). Developing Societies in the Information Age: A Critical Perspective. Retrieved from academia.edu: http://www.academia.edu/189595/Developing_Societies_in_the_Information_Age_A_Critical_Perspective
• Flor, A. G. (2007). Development Communication Praxis. UP Open University.
• Pot, J. (2012, 07 28). Eating Only Dessert: Why Your Information Diet Is Probably Terrible. Retrieved from makeuseof.com: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/eating-dessert-information-diet-terrible/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=2012-10-01
• Soup Kitchen. (n.d.). Retrieved from wikipedia.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_kitchen
• What Constitutes Plagiarism? (n.d.). Retrieved from University of Miami: http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/161/plagiarism.html