Netnet Camomot
Reading old newspapers is a recipe for delayed reaction.
You’re reading about a certain company quitting on its goal of bringing in a faster internet connection into Pinas, and you ask, This happened? What the...? Why, oh, why?
I’m writing this while having breakfast. The internet speed in this corner of the house is slower than the usual slow, and the phone automatically switches to its own provider’s connection which can also be slower than the usual slow.
People who need to send or receive emails and PMs ASAP will go mad amidst the loading and buffering. Sometimes I even have to shake the phone, hoping it will speed up the connection. Yeah, wishful thinking.
It’s 2016. It’s not 1916. Only the turtles and snails are allowed to be slow. But people should also slow down, to rest, relax, help the body recover from stress. For the body will have its way of reminding them it’s not the Energizer Bunny.
But the internet should be the Energizer Bunny, so it can go on and on and on at utmost speed. A slow internet connection can only add more stress to the body while you wait for the loading and buffering to be over already.
Try using Pinas’s internet speed in watching YouTube videos or any video posted on Facebook. Fun, eh?
Should make you wonder: Does the Internet provider’s top guy notice how slow the connection is? Or does he use the internet of, uh, Mars? Saturn? The Moon?
Does he throw his phone each time he sees the loading or buffering spinner while watching a YouTube video? Imagine having an e-meeting using the slow internet connection. Tsk tsk.
At least we can now look forward to change since isang tulog na lang, and Pinas will have a new president na. Change is coming! Well, through the exact change you’ll receive from the cashier.
The “Exact Change Act” bill is waiting for PNoy’s signature, in case he hasn’t signed it yet. Once it has his A-Okay, you can demand exact change from the cashier. No more conversations like this...
Cashier: Do you have 10 cents? I’ll give you one peso.
You: I don’t have 10 cents but here’s 25 cents.
Cashier: OK, give me the 25, and I’ll give you P1.15.
You: I thought you don’t have 10 cents?
Cashier: Nope, I don’t. That’s why I was asking for 10 cents from you.
You: But you said you would give me P1.15. 15 cents have two coins: 10 and 5. Unless you’ll give me 5 pieces of 1 cent.
This kind of exchange can go on and on and on, even longer than the Energizer Bunny’s batteries.
I wrote about this a few years ago, the perils of demanding for exact change. And it has remained a challenge for cashiers to give the exact change. Hmmm. As the saying goes, The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Wish ko lang for the cashier to continue giving candies once he has run out of coins. But the candies should be M&M’s, with the blue for P1, yellow for 50 cents, red for 25 cents, green for 10 cents, and orange for 5 cents. To represent some political colors in Pinas. Yum!
But cashiers don’t give candies anymore. They simply ask for coins from you so they can give the exact change. Or what he believes as the exact change. I gotta feeling, after all the exchanges of coins with clients and customers, his cash count will result to a shortage. Loss for him; gain for you. Yehey!
But the change the incoming president will bring is not only in the form of exact change. There have been drugelated peeps who have already surrendered, afraid of the worst-case scenario once the new president has taken his oath.
The new prez is expected to implement his Davao laws throughout Pinas, and misbehaving Pinoys are now holding their breath, afraid to even raise an eyebrow, lest it would be misunderstood as doubting the powers of the incoming prez.
This is one prez who doesn’t care about his own press. He probably operates from his gut instinct all the time, as long as it feels right, then yon na.
In “Finding Dory,” Dory realizes she has survived, despite the absence of her parents, by trusting her gut instinct and her heart. Although veteran journalist Butch Enerio has often said it’s the liver, not the heart.
But I still prefer to say it’s the heart since my favorite quote comes from “The Little Prince”: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
We are hoping the new prez has a heart that can help him see rightly. So, Pinas will have a faster internet speed? Hmmm.
Meanwhile, the first pile of newspapers in my room is now half of its original height. Reading old news is not advisable, it can be a waste of time. But old news is already part of history, and learning about history helps the heart in choosing the right path. Thus, age doesn’t matter even for the news.
