HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Today… I will again attend my classes after a week in hibernation. Today …I will be discussing Distributed Election Algorithm. Today… I have to be early to prepare for my presentation. My Operating System depends on it. Today… I rode the worst van of my commuting career.

These past weeks, I have observed that these FX (FX is the universal term for AUV’s, whether it be a van or an AUV or worst—an L300 FB) drivers have this insane idea to pack four persons in a seat designed just for three. And they also have this more insane idea that a fan or two substitutes for a good air-conditioning system. But enough of the insane, bad vibes brother! It reminds me of Darwin “the insane and the kleptomaniac’ who stole my phone a few months back and now has the nerve to say that I stole from him, now that is insane!

Let me tell you about my Tuesday ordeal. I arrived early at the FX station, two hours early before my scheduled presentation. I was fresh from my morning bath and had a pretty optimistic view of what’s going to happen having prepared and all. Surprises of surprises! Almost an hour has passed and still no signs of any FX. Damn! I wished they hadn’t adopted this stupid rule that you have to buy tokens before you can fall in line to ride those damn FX, I could have waited for a bus instead.

I was thinking… no use in crying over spilled milk. And in my definitely defining moment of impatience management, I sat there puffing my Marlboros and reviewing my printed report, waiting and waiting. At last! Here comes a van, which in all absolute certainty was one of those right-hand convert types that rolled of the port of Subic.

I had to sit facing the back since this van has the 1st and 2nd seat rows facing each other. Hell I had no choice. Better this than having to squeeze my behind along with three other dudes in the last row designed for three butts. Wrong choice though! As the “Microwave O’ Van” began to roll to our destination, I suddenly felt the kind of dizziness I usually encounter when bending elbows, yet I’m sober! Worse than that, the air-con was spewing fire. Well I guess you all are guessing it’s an exaggeration. Hell no! That was the only thing missing—the flames!

My printed report that I planned on reviewing took on a new purpose. I was continuously using it to fan myself lest I be like those sculptures in the crowd-drawer thanks to Paris Hilton—House of Wax. Now that is an exaggeration. Nah! You weren’t inside that van-of-a-microwave. And when I arrived at my destination, having stepped out of the “tongues of hell” I breathed a sigh of relief, my body felt the relief. The temperature outside was way better compared in that dilapidated excuse of an air-conditioned van!

The drivers charge Php55.00. We pay in full. Why can’t they give their services in full? That means comfort and a functioning air-con to say the least. I feel cheated out of my 55 bucks. Well who can blame these cheating FX drivers, they have President GMA to emulate. And so that is what this country will become or have already become—a nation of cheating presidents, cheating FX drivers and Microwave O’ Vans.

Damn! I was so wasted last night…My car stalled in the middle of nowhere but what was supposed to be the worst night of life and the expected worst day of life turned out to be a "star-strucking" experience…

This morning, I immediately asked for a mechanic who could do home-service for my car. All along I thought a fan or timing belt might have broke or the starter needs replacing but I was wrong…dead wrong! “Sir, stuck up makina mo”

An engine overhaul’s rate is around 50-60 K and will take a week, while a B-18 engine replacement would cost around 100 K and it would also take a week. A commute in the promising AUV costs 55 a pop. What to do? What to do?

CS week is tomorrow, I have to be with my fellow officers to finalize and tie loose ends that we might have overlooked in more than a month of planning. Damn! Rain! Commute is fine, but I hate the rains when I’m not inside my car listening to Eraserhead’s Tuwing Umuulan… Duty calls! I don’t want to let my fellow officers waiting for nothing, much like waiting for Gloria Arroyo to have a “conscience-attack.”

Go! Brave the rains! Good thing God blessed me with an angel. I was seated at the back of a van. It was raining like hell outside and the inside of the van was pretty hellish too. The ugliest of commuting, some people just don’t know that we are all paying customers. Hell! I think it should be considered a criminal act if someone, thinking he rented the whole van, would be “so careful in caring less” of everyone and have all the aircon vents all for himself. I still thank God I arrived at my destination safely but that’s it, just safe. CSI-Las Vegas (which is for me the best CSI) would be put to shame; there was no evidence of the two showers I took.

Everything went according to plan, except that there was this lying director who would really fail a lie-detector who really made my day (Don’t worry this sports dude really deserves a full post from me…coming soon, I got a better idea, since the forums are hot these days maybe I’ll post there too)

This is it! The commute back to home. I guessed that since it’s already eight in the evening, the aircon this time would at least be true to its purpose…dead wrong again! The worst of the worst of the worst of the worst! Our ride was the one ride I dreaded the most—an L-300 FB! The aircon is a con! And the seating arrangement is disarranging to the hips! Add the passengers who would not budge from their seat just to have their solo-saga of the aircon vents.

This is just the beginning, I know. And this is not the worst for this is the best that commuting has to offer. I know that the worst is still to come. But there is one thing I learned and recognized. The real stars are those who commute to work or school and back home. I thought that it was already a sacrifice to drive thru traffic on the over-priced, overly neglected roads full of “mags-breakers” and “shock absorber shockers” of the SLEX. Now I know that I should count my blessings. Now I know that my sacrifices were all luxury compared to the rigors of commuting

The CS week is up to Saturday and there will be at least two more Saturdays before I can rev my B-18 stock engine and sing along with “Tuwing Umuulan…” when it rains. But I’m ready for the coming days. And no matter how bad the commute is, at least everyday I get to seat with real heroes.