Surprise: Texting & Driving Is A Dangerous Game

This is absolutely NOT A SURPRISE at all!!!
We don't need numerous expensive studies and surveys just to prove the hazards of cellphone use while driving vehicles. Its just common sense. Statistics showed that its about 23 percent more risky for drivers to crash their cars while using the phone as compared to those drivers focusing their attention on the road.

There is indeed a need to stop the use of cellphones while driving vehicles or even ban it completely. NOW, COME ON....lower the notch a little bit. I myself is not amenable to the total ban of cellphones on the road. What's the use of headsets for cellphones? Although making a call with the use of headsets does not provide 100% safety on the road but talking with your companions inside the car while you are driving is not that safe either. There are people, including myself, who considers cellphone as an important part of our daily lives so I might be one of these techie people who would rally against the total ban of cellphones on the road. Lets take advantage of the fast advancement of technology specially with mobile phones. There are phones right now that has speaker phones capability. Bluetooth wireless technology is quite common nowadays for wireless headphones and speakerphones. Its a worthy investment to consider buying these phone accessories for the sake of improving the safety of drivers and commuters on the road.

Below is the blog entry of a freelance technology journalist, Todd R. Weiss:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/169173/surprise_texting_while_driving_is_dangerous.html

Party Days

For the past couple of weekends, actually during my days off, I practically was a homebody. I mentioned in my previous posts that I just stayed home, watched movies on DVD and on TV. Except for going out for the gym, I basically just stayed home. Eventually my boredom sets in and I wanted just to get out from the house no matter what I would do as long as I could get out. Over the weekend or should I say my own weekend from Sunday through Tuesday, I was lucky enough to receive invitations from my friends for parties. Yes, for three days people, three days of partying! I can't help but Tweet about it and put some updates on my Facebook, too. I was actually beginning to like it!

Last Sunday was already a scheduled affair. We got together to plan and prepare for our upcoming celebration of Maasin Fiesta here in Las Vegas. It's been 5 years now that people from my hometown of Maasin City celebrated our fiesta every 15^th of August in honor of our Patron Saint, Our Lady of the Assumption. Part of the preparation we did was to practice our dance number as we intend to have a short program with production numbers during the Dinner & Socials event. So, this is what we will be doing for the next 4 Sundays.

A family friend invited us for a birthday party at their house last Monday. That was my second day of partying. There were lots of food, booze and karaoke singing, a basic Pinoy staple for home entertainment. In-house Pinoy parties will never be complete without karaoke sing-a-long system. Although I had my usual chatting sessions the previous evening, I was able to sleep during the daytime so I was in good condition to drink with my friends. I only took some wine but I can't remember how many rounds I took. The most important thing is I know my limitation with regards to drinking alcohol beverages because I still have to drive home by the end of the day. While at home from the party, I still got the precious time to chat with my partner in the Philippines.

Yesterday, a Tuesday was my third and final day that I was free from work. I was considering to do some shopping for personal items, chill out at Starbucks in the afternoon while catching up my reading of Bob Ong's books and finally may watch Harry Potter movie before retiring for the night. Luckily again (& for the 3^rd time) I got a call from my friend inviting me in his house for dinner. They are just having a get together because their brother and his wife just arrived from California. All my "barkada" were there.

Basically, I was partying hard for the last 3 days and I was beginning to like it. Unfortunately for today, I have to get back to work. I started my day right by going to the gym with my gym buddy and completed my whole routine. I'm quite ready now for another day of life-saving work in the hospital pharmacy.

Couple's Sleeping Positions

I went through my email archives awhile ago and found this particular email from a friend about these various sleeping positions for couples and their meanings. I'm not sure if these are true but looking through them I ended up laughing on the last picture.
Which of these positions fits you and your partner currently? Does these apply to homosexual couples?
Dont forget to click on the picture to have a larger view.

Some Benefits I Get For Being A Homebody

Maybe because of the heat brought about by the American summer, especially that I'm located in Southern Nevada and particularly in Las Vegas, I always felt lazy. I'm lazy to go out to do anything. I usually did that before, bringing along my camera and just take pictures wherever and whatever I want to capture. I always go out alone if I plan to bring my camera along because this way I can go wherever I want and I don't have to take into consideration what my companions would like to go and do. It's been a couple of weekends now that I just stayed home and trying to be away from the searing heat of the sun outside. We are already on triple digits in terms of temperatures and even during the evenings, the temperatures are still on the 90s level and that's on Fahrenheit scale. So far I tried to get busy and make myself productive but I still felt I don't have enough energy to do anything. Aside from going to the gym, I ended up watching DVD movies on marathon and I realized I still have movies that I haven't watched before or have forgotten all about it. Staying home all day also gave me the opportunity to bond more with my folks as we can have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. Bonding together means watching DVD movies or TV shows with me. This also gave me another opportunity to appreciate and enjoy more of my favorite Bose home theater which I bought last Christmas shopping spree together with a new Panasonic blue ray DVD player. It's been 6 months or so that I got these pieces of technology that I normally took for granted after the first few days of excitement when I bought them. It's nice to rekindle that excitement feeling and a certain high when you are immersed into the sea of clear fidelity of sound and the clarity of vision brought by this entertainment system. Catching on my sleep is also another good thing that I've been doing. I never had enough sleep needed for a healthy body specially that I'm working on the evenings and working out with weights in the gym, I need enough recovery time that sleep can provide. One more thing, I got to save some dough and that's practical as it can be. I usually watch movies, clubbing, dining and shopping with my friends during my days off. With the state of the economy gripping the world today, saving money is one of the first steps one can do. Another best thing that happened when I just stayed indoors is my spending valuable time with my special one back in the Philippines. We just chatted for hours since I have all the time in my hands to spare.

So far these are the things that I consider the benefits I got while staying home.

New Week

My 3 days off is over and now I'm on the start of a new workweek. There was nothing much happening during my free time except my regular video chat sessions with my "special one". This is the only way that we can still maintain our communications since we are far from each other. My friends were not convinced that this "long distance" relationship could work but both of us agreed that communication and trust for each other is the key to make this a long term deal. Even if one of us is away from our computers we see to it that we can still get in touch using other means like text messaging.

I actually didn't have any plans at all to go out because it's already summer time and it would be burning hot outside. Watching the weather news this morning, Southern Nevada where Las Vegas is located had only 0.003 inches of average rainfall since the start of 2009, much less than an inch of rainfall! We indeed have a long way to go. Temperature is 103degF and since it would be breezy for the next 2 days it would feel the same, but if it's not windy at all, you add 10 to 15 deg to the current temperature and that is what you would feel under the searing sun. We expect more rain to come in a few days or weeks to come as we are also on monsoon season. Flash flood warnings are all over the city billboards and infomercials on TV. By the way, today is the 10^th year anniversary of that major flash flood that happened in the valley last 1999. From that time until now, much has been done in the improvement of the city's flood control systems. So much of the weather talk, but this is the main reason why I really didn't want to go out especially during the daytime. The only time I went out of the house was to go to the gym for my much needed exercise.

I was also able to watch on TV the memorial for Michael Jackson. For me, it was fitting for the King of Pop and it was a celebration of his life. People talk about how their lives were touched by MJ and I also agree that MJ has made a mark of himself to the world. He was a worldwide phenomenon and his legacy would live forever. His memorial would linger in the minds of all the people in the world for a long time.

At last I was able to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and is quite a disappointment for me. It was quite long for such a genre of the movie. I love the animation and the graphics although during the fight sequences, it would appear a little blurry and made me a little dizzy. My friend and I actually planned to watch it on IMAX but we were late for the schedule so we ended up watching it on the regular screen although the sound effect of the theater is still superior. I thought it was a blessing in disguise that we missed the IMAX show because I probably would be very dizzy watching the fight scenes on an IMAX screen. One Facebook friend made a comment on me that maybe it was already a sign of old age when I mentioned this dizzy comments. At least I still enjoyed the movie because my two favorite autobots, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are still there. I just have to be a kid at heart again in order to enjoy the movie and I did. I love the first Transformers movie better though than this one.

So that's how I spent my last 3 days off, and now getting ready to go back to work for the next 4 days.

A Time Capsule

Today is Wednesday and my first day of work for the week. I think I started the day right by waking up early and went to the gym. While in the gym I had a "virtual gym buddy" with me who kept on sending text messages and in return I sent my replies in-between sets. My real gym buddy is nowhere to be found, actually he was tired from working the previous night and he just arrived from his 3-day trip to San Francisco. That "virtual gym buddy" was a welcome treat for me.

Back in the house, I wasn't sleepy at all, you're supposed to be energized after exercise but I've got to catch some sleep in preparation for my work tonight. To keep my eyes tired I browsed through the archive of my old blog, Lemuel Jon Online, a blog service of Friendster, an online social network which I was a member for as long as I can remember. I started my blog last July 2005…wow that long? At that time I was just blogging for myself since nobody cared to visit and leave a comment on my entries there. My postings there were about my day-to-day life's activities, my job, my friends, my trips, my own opinion on what was happening at that time and I realized that I've created a time capsule of my own. Reading through the archive was like reminiscing the events from July 2005 up to the present. I actually enjoyed what I wrote in there. Those entries may not be my best literary achievement but I have kept tab of what was happening to me and the world. Sometime in September 2007, I decided to start another blog with another provider and this blog, The Daily Grind came about. I did not delete or discard my old blog because I have used it to link and guide visitors to my new blog. So from then on, you can only read teasers of my main entries in The Daily Grind.

If you want to browse my old blog, just follow this link. Be sure to read from the oldest entry up to the present and you will know what I've gone through.