This picture would have looked a lot better, but I got too excited, and grabbed a few spoonful of goodness before I thought of taking a picture.
The Philippines Presidential election is coming up in May. I actually registered for the absentee voting thing when I was at the embassy to renew my passport. I received the ballot a few weeks ago, and I still haven’t decided who to vote for. I have asked several people on who they would vote for and why. It has been very helpful and informative, but I still don’t feel like I have enough information to make a decision.
I’m almost tempted to just not vote at all. With all the corruption in the government, most people are close to losing hope in the government and the politicians who claimed to have the people’s best interests in mind. It is quite evident that their campaign proclamations are untrue, because the politicians are continuing to make their pockets fatter while the people continue to suffer from poverty.
It’s easy to see how people can feel hopeless in a country where you can easily buy votes and convicted criminals and terrorists can actually win elections by a landslide. If you’re a popular actor/actress that’s well-liked by the people and/or you’re super rich and you can afford to give lots of money away to people in exchange for their votes, then you have a really really good chance of winning an election.
Of course, I’m generalizing all politicians, and my claims might very well be inaccurate. I hope I’m wrong. I hope that there are still people in Philippines politics who truly are working for the people’s best interests and not their own. The challenge is in attempting to determine which ones are genuine and which ones are phony. It’s hard to tell.
It's only been 12 days since we got the Yaris, and I already drove over 1000 miles on it. I haven't even been on a road trip yet. I drive too much. It's my daily commute to work and back home that mainly contributed to the high miles. I drive at least 100 miles a day. At this rate, I would be getting an oil change every month.
The Thai New Year celebration was this past Sunday at Wat Thai in Silver Spring. Songkran festival, April 13-15, is traditionally celebrated in Thailand by "hitting" people with large amounts of water (via water gun, water buckets, water hose, etc), but in Silver Spring, people stayed dry and hot. There were plenty of food and performances all day long. Wat Thai was packed with people of all races. It was an interesting day of eating lots of great food and dessert, and getting a glimpse of a culture different from my own.
We ended the day waiting in line for an hour just to have some Georgetown cupcakes. People passing by the store were looking at us weird because we choose endure the long wait just for cupcakes. I heard it was worth it, and we don't do this everyday, so we waited. It was definitely worth it. Those cupcakes were definitely great.
Initially, I didn't know what the fuzz was about, but when I got to actually play with it. It was great. The iBook section where you can read e-books is so much better than the Kindle. The colored screen makes it better for viewing books with pictures. The books costs around $9.99 or more, and they have a great collection of free books - classics that are no longer bound by copyrights.
The games were a lot of fun, videos are so much better with the bigger screens, and viewing web pages is almost just like on a computer. It was a little heavy though, so holding it up for a long time might become tiring, but you can definitely set it down if needed. It's definitely lighter than a laptop or a netbook.
When you set it down, it makes it so much easier to type long documents and emails. I also heard the battery life is great. It would definitely be perfect for long trips. If I'm ever flying back to the Philippines, I'm bringing an iPad with me.
Dodgie has now been officially replaced by a brand new Toyota Yaris. It was a choice between a 2-door hatchback or this one, and it was also tough to decide whether to get one with manual transmission or an automatic one. Dodgie was manual everything - no power windows, locks, mirrors, steering, transmission, etc. So we figure that it was about time to move up to something more convenient. So we picked one with power everything.
Why a Yaris and not a Corolla? Because it's so much more cuter and we love the hatchback. Corolla's don't have hatchbacks. The Matrix does, but it also is much more pricier.
The new Yaris is great. It's pretty spacious inside. It's gas efficient. It has all the standard safety features. Handling is great, and the engine's pretty good as well. Of course, it not going to go to 100 mph in 20 seconds, but it does go pretty fast. It looks great and cute. It's definitely a major upgrade from Dodgie. We're loving it.
