Gasoline Prices

It’s crazy how I’ve been refueling at P44.37 for the past month. Apparently, unleaded gas prices (and other types of fuel as well), vary in prices a lot. And my gas station charges particularly high rates. Hell, all the gas stations nearby charge very high.

So far, the cheapest gas I’ve found are in Mandaluyong. The Shell station at the corner of Shaw and A. Mabini charges just P42.20 per liter, P2.17 cheaper per liter. That’s around P100 savings per full tank.

I think we need better information for gas prices. The better and more accessible the information, the greater the competition. As we all know, that benefits the consumer most.

Why don’t you leave a comment? Say where you gas up, how much it costs per liter, and the kind of fuel.

Update: The Shell and Petron stations in D. Macapagal Ave. near Roxas Blvd. charge just P41.45 per liter of unleaded fuel. –Aug. 31

Update: Shell Shaw Blvd. cor. Mabini St. now charges just P41.20 per liter. –Sept. 4

Alternative route to Makati

I live in Quezon City. On good days—e.g. Sunday—it takes just forty minutes for me to get to the Makati business district, which is 14.5 kilometers via EDSA. However, it takes an hour and a half on bad days (e.g. everyday). Especially now that I’m working and have no choice but to go with the rush hours.

So, I’ve been staring on my maps. (I use two, by the way: City Maps from the bookstore, and Google Earth.) I’ve tried various combinations, but so far this is what works. It’s only 11.3 kilometers long, and it took me only 50 minutes to get to the parking lot this morning.

Quezon City to Makati

1. From E. Rodriguez Ave., I take Gilmore Ave. (later renamed Granada St.) all the way to Santolan Road.
2. I turn right at Santolan Road (not doing so—going straight—will take me to Ortigas/Greenhills).
3. Then, I make a left at P. Guevarra St. (I believe this is at the first stop light.)
4. I keep following the road past Wilson Ave., till it becomes a one-way street. After a block of the one-way part, I make a slight left at Luna Mencias St.
5. I take that street till it dies at Shaw Blvd., where I’m forced to make a right.
6. At the first intersection—9 de Febrero St.—I turn left. I follow that street till it becomes Martinez St. and takes me to the Maysilo Rotonda.
7. At the rotonda, I go counter-clockwise till I cover half of the circle. I turn right at San Francisco St.
8. It ends at the Pasig River. I turn left at Coronado St.
9. I make a left that’ll take me up the P. Burgos Bridge so as to cross the river.
10. Upon crossing, I end up in Makati Ave.

Going home, however, I’m still forced to take EDSA. This route is biased for bringing cars into Makati because of the one-ways.

First week at work

Thursday marked my first day as an employee—of a multinational bank. It feels really new, especially since I’ve been in just one school for sixteen years. There are so many details that working people take as givens, but require some adjustment from my side. Nonetheless, this adjustment period is keeping me excited right now.

Here are a few things I’d take for granted soon enough:

1. No more attendance: once I get into the office, I start working. I leave when I feel it’s time.
2. No supervision: when I have to, I just go to whichever part of the office, without having to report to anyone what job I’m working on.
3. Self-study: although someone tells me what I’m supposed to learn, I just learn what I feel like learning. I can either study files of clients, or surf the intranet for online learning.
4. Own area: I have a permanent place out of home. Unlike in school, I no longer have to change desks every time at work. I have my own drawers, computer, desk and supplies.
5. Daily expenses: I spend P472.16 a day just so I can work—including P312.16 for transportation alone.
6. MRT: if I take the MRT, I save P286.16 a day. However, it’s hell especially on Friday evenings. (Mornings are okay, except for the pushing and shoving in the Cubao station.)

Nonetheless, the company has done its best to make me feel welcome. I’ve been toured through all the departments. Now, I’m just waiting for my software so I can practice on all the concepts I’ve learned from PowerPoint School.

Metal Value of Philippine Coins

Recently, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP / Philippine Central Bank) changed the composition of coins it produces. In general, this development is due to higher prices of metal. In particular, the prices of copper and nickel—the main components of RP coins—have soared because China is consuming a lot of them (or what they’re made of).

According to Reuters, one-peso coins produced until 2003 are made of material worth P3.50. That means, if you have a million pesos in the bank, you are a million pesos rich. But if you have a million pesos in your piggy bank, you are 3.5 million pesos rich. (My computations say you are P4.19 million rich.)

Let’s see how much each coin is worth if they’re melted and sold as chunks of metal.

Based on prices I got from www.metalprices.com (for metal prices) and finance.yahoo.com/currency (for the peso-dollar exchange rate), I’ve computed that:

1. zinc — P0.1728 per gram,
2. nickel — P1.5249,
3. and copper — P0.4066.

Since BSP publishes what each coin is made of, we can compute how much they actually cost. (If you want my Excel matrix of this, leave a comment.)

Which coins to melt and which to keep?

Of the six coins I studied, three have metal prices significantly higher than their monetary values.

• The one-peso coin is worth P4.19 (419% of its monetary value).
• The 25-centavo coin is worth P1.23 (494%).
• The one-centavo coin is worth P0.05 (488%).

The three other coins are P5 (P3.16 metal value, 63% of its monetary value), P0.10 (0.06, 61%), P0.05 (0.05, 93%).

The bottomline is, if all of your money is made out of one-peso, 25-centavo or one-centavo coins, you should be four to five times richer than you actually are.

Quitting

This has, by far, been my longest break ever. Not since I was too young for preschool have I been out of school (or out of work) for nearly six months now.

Yes, I have been unproductive for almost six months!

So what have been has happened?

1. I’ve become a professional interviewee. I feel like employers inviteme to talk, not because they’re interested in hiring me. Maybe they just don’t have much to do, and talking to me is free.
2. I’ve finished just one novel! This is a terrible development.
3. But, I’ve started reading The Economist.
4. I thought I’d be writing more often. I was. But now I’m back to barely writing. Maybe I should take Em’s offer.
5. My memory must have atrophied. I can barely remember names now.

I think it’s just about time I get out of this prolonged break. I’m losing so much. I’m not going out with friends; I’m not traveling; I’m not being productive.

[WordPress, what happened to you? Every time you auto-save you ruin my typing pace.]

Unusual Job Interview Experiences

I have gone through what I think is a countless number of job interviews. There have been a lot of forgetable instances—those times when I knew I should have said something else. Like wanting a job primarily because it pays well.

Still, there are the unusual experiences:

1. Poetry-making — While reading through my resume, my interview noted a few errors. For example, there are 70+ provinces in the country, not regions. He was looking into every little detail of my resume, including how the dates were entered (2002-1998 instead of 1998-2002, for example). Eventually, he got to the line wherein I revealed my interest for poetry. Besides expressing his surprise (only girls are interested in poetry, and I’m a guy, he said), he asked me to quote or make one. I did not get the job; their excuse was that I was overqualified.
2. Mixed Signals — At another company, Boss A told me that the salary would range from $600 to $800; Boss B told me it would be $400. Boss A told me that two to three papers would be due per week; Boss B told me it would be four papers per week. Boss A told me, on a Friday, to make one paper for the weekend, due Monday. Come Sunday, he added two more. Come Monday, he reduced his demands from two to one. Boss B told me there are only two vacancies and he’d only wait for me for 48 hours. Boss A told me there are four, and he’d wait for me for an entire month. Okay, this company is a multinational starting up in the country. Its claim to fame is its impressive research made by the best-educated people in the field. If they don’t get their act together—and prove that they’re the five-star outsourcing company they claim to be—I’m really going for other offers.
3. Incomplete test — I had to take an accounting test that I found impossible to finish. Instead, I put an explanation on the blank as to why I could not. Almost three months later, I again took the test, which already featured another sheet of paper.

Job hunting in the Philippines

I have not been as lucky as my college classmates. Among us, I am the only one left unemployed—the rest are either working or studying. But it’s not sufficient to say that: most, if not all of them, did not have to look for a job. Their jobs—the best ones in the country—just fell on their laps.

Now I’m left formulating a strategy to find that job, and nail it. For searching, I’ve tried three approaches:

1. Classifieds — Besides the Sunday Inquirer, I also look online. I look through a few, but now I only consistently visit JobsDB and JobStreet. The former seems to have a lot of good quality jobs, but the latter takes me straight into the databases of some of the country’s top corporations. Keppel, P&G, Smart, Ayala and San Miguel all use JobStreet.
2. Referals — Friends can sometimes give you leads. However, my school’s Placement Office has led me to more. Even a company that has rejected me gave me alternatives. I’ve also tried working with a headhunter, to no avail.
3. Walk-in — This is by far the most effective. Most of the best corporations house themselves in one of the buildings in the Makati Business District. I just bring with me envelopes containing my resume, transcript and cover letter, check out the building directory, and start submitting these to the guards. This is the most direct—and therefore efficient—way of jobhunting. I even received one call within three hours.

Nailing it is a different thing altogether. So far, here’s what I’ve learned after a number of interviews:

1. Know the company and the job. I still fail at this sometimes. But it has prompted me to buy a book on what banking is all about, what bankers do, etc.
2. List and give examples. Almost all of the interview questions are for lists: What are your strengths? What have you done in this organization? Why should we hire you? They can be easy to answer, but you want the interviewer to remember your answers. The best way is to list, and to explain by giving concrete examples.
3. Use the strongest asset of the fresh grad. That is, be idealistic. Say I want this job because it is a step towards that big goal. That I’m excited to contribute, after so many years of living off others. That the community is as valuable for me as the individual gains are.

Filipino traveling alone

The interviewee is a fresh graduate from a university in the Philippines and has just concluded a two-month-long trip to nine countries in Europe (including Monaco and the Vatican City). Here, he answers a few questions, including some which are frequently asked.
This interview is being conducted now. The interviewee is the same person as the interviewer.

DFoR: Tell us a little about yourself.

Interviewee: Well, I started becoming interested in independent and solo travel when I was eleven, when I went to the United States to stay with my aunt for three months. When I was fourteen, I got into backpacking around the country with the Outdoors Club of the high school I was in. Since then, I’ve become more and more serious in this stuff.

D: So serious you just had to do it alone.

I: Well, for some time doing it alone was the only way to do it. In college I was supposed to join a backpacking organization. However, I injured my knee and couldn’t make it through the try-outs anymore. I thought, if this were my passion, I’d have to find ways to continue doing it, even if it meant doing it alone.

D: But you said you met a new group, right?

I: Yes, and I travel with them more than I do by myself, I think. Traveling alone was a challenge at first, a goal, a milestone for my passion (travel). I had to learn how to do it. Eventually, it became practical; these friends of mine had jobs and didn’t have vacations as long as mine. Besides, a few of them are also solo travelers. That eased me into the world of solo travel.

D: Those are your reasons for traveling around Europe for two months by yourself?

I: Yes. Although my main reason: How the hell would I be able to bare seeing the same person, talking to the same person, eating with the same person, sharing the room—among other things—with the same person for two months? I’m too young for marriage, even if it’s just two-month-long.

D: You sound like an angry free spirit.

I: Sorry. No harm to the husbands and wives.

D: Tell us about Europe. Did you get to see other Pinoys?

I: There are quite a lot of them. I got to talk to one married to a Norwegian; she taught me how to cook adobo. A very popular, cheap but fine restaurant in Madrid—La Gloria de la Montera—is run by Filipinos. The best gelato shop in Rome, San Crispino, is also run by Pinoys. In Pisa, I came across a kid who migrated with his family. Occasionally, I spot a few traveling with their families. I haven’t seen any traveling alone, although they do exist.

D: Safety in numbers? Is there racial discrimination directed towards Filipinos?

I: A little. Not the violent type though. Expect a little inconvenience, not racial attacks. Service times were sometimes unusually long, especially in restaurants. Once, a Spaniard in Madrid lectured me on how progressive Spain was, and that we don’t have subways in Manila. Often, they’d think the Filipino traveling alone is working there, or is at least looking for a job. I don’t know if they think we’re stealing their jobs.

D: Is it rare for Asians to be traveling alone?

I: Not so. I admit that I see a lot more people from England, Australia and Canada doing it alone. But Koreans and Chinese are doing it too, though most of them are studying in Europe.

D: Where do you stay?

I: Most of the time, in dorm rooms of hostels. Hostelworld is a great resource. Basically, I’m put in a room with a few other backpackers. They just come in and out every time that I get to meet a lot of different people. Often, the beds are double-deckers, the bathroom’s outside, and privacy’s non-existent.

D: You’ve had one night stands?

I: I get this question a lot. No. I’m usually fast asleep a little past midnight. I usually keep to myself, too. And I think those whites are into in-breeding. I’m kidding.

D: How much did you spend?

I: My daily budget was 40 euros per day. That excludes transportation and accommodation expenses. Beds usually cost less than 20 euros per night.

D: As for going around?

I: Rail, mostly. I flew three times. And cheap flights are really a great alternative. However, airports are usually far away, flights aren’t often, and you have to be there two hours earlier.

D: Thanks. I’ll be hearing from you again.

I: Of course you are. I haunt your dreams. No need to thank me; thank yourself.

Why people dislike America

It’s nothing new. In fact, I’ve seen quite a few books explaining this phenomenon in a bookstore in a tiny Czech town. And the reasons I’d note aren’t the reasons of terrorists for hating the superpower. These reasons for disliking I’ve compiled just through small talks with people I’ve met along the way.

The American Attitude

I’ve had a personal encounter with an American who works for their embassy in Turmenistan. She happens to be obsessed with America because it’s one of the only two nations (U.K. being the other, of which she claims to be a citizen of too, as well) who gives a damn about the world. She claims that all the other nations of the world who’d show concern about other countries are in it for some vested interest—either to protect their own citizens, or to make money out of it. She is very angry that no other country has shown concern over Turkmenistan.

This American girl has to understand that many other countries are into the humanitarian activities as well. And, if she insists that all nations are doing good things for a vested interest, she must include her own nation, too. They’re in it for commerce, for securing Americans, for pride and polishing their image. Just like how a petroleum corporation would initiate environmental activities to boost share prices and push away environmentalists, America may be doing humanitarian activities to boost American pride and prevent terrorist attacks.

The American Standard

A Brazilian lambasted an American who commented—in jest—that football (soccer) was a stupid game because players (especially goalies) dove into another player’s kicking foot. He said, referring to baseball, “Americans throw fast, hard balls into another person’s face, how stupid is that?”

When I was in Norway, an American who has just seen the Naeroyfjord was trying to convince me that it’s the most beautiful one in the world. Apparently, he insists on this even though he has not heard of the Geirangerfjord, the other one on the world heritage list.

Americans have a way of doing things. And most of the time, it works. What irks other people are their insistence that things should be done their way.

American Ignorance

The Americans I’ve talked to apparently do not like that Americans are ignorant. This ignorance covers a spectrum from: “They don’t know how to appreciate their nation.” to “They don’t know who to vote for.” to “They don’t know of anything non-American, not even where Canada is.”

Put it all together

What would be worse is combining all three together. That combination would create a person who walks and talks as if America’s the only good country, harp on the American way of doing things, while being ignorant at the same time.

Sounds like a tough combination? Well, many argue that these are the words to describe their current president, George W. Bush.

The public (and I don’t think that refers to Americans only) have also been losing their confidence for the superpower.

On the brighter side of things, America has not turned into what Greek was before (or perhaps any other past superpower). Back then, they classified people only into two categories—Greeks and barbarians. Why barbarians? Because their entire vocabulary is just one word: barbar.

Apo Reef

Although famous worldwide for its endangered tamaraw, Occidental Mindoro is now drawing tourists because of its Apo Reef—the second largest contiguous coral reef in the world.

The underwater paradise is just three hours by boat (PHP6000 per boat per day) from Sablayan, which is another 3 to 4 hours away from San Jose, Mindoro Occidental’s capital, by bus (PHP130 per person). Asian Spirit flies passengers in and out of this city every morning for PHP4716, roudtrip.

I’d recommend staying in Pandan Island, which is 2.5 hours away from the reef, for the first and last days of the trip. Some people opine that the reef by its shore is as impressive, and record more pawikan (marine turtle) sightings. Still, it’s not Apo Reef, which is also good for snorkeling, and even better for diving. The nearby Apo Island already has rooms (PHP 200 per night) available for tourists, although living aboard remains the more popular option. Personally, I prefer the former—just bring in the necessary supplies from the mainland.

There are many side-trips available, but most are time-consuming. One option is to hike for 2-3 days in the Mt. Iglit-Baco National Park, yet another site on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list. Up there are sightings of tamaraws in the wild. Another option is to take a boat all the way to Boracay (Caticlan). The boats leave from Roxas, a town 5 hours east of San Jose by bus; to arrive in Caticlan by 5PM, leave San Jose at 8AM (PHP600).

For more information, drop by the tourism office in the San Jose municipal office.