Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Daily Report: Motorstar Makes My Shit List

Up early and had a great morning of work.


Epril poses with ketchup as
we sit down to a lunch of
pork adobo and fried chicken.
For lunch, Susan cooked some pork adobo with green beans, and fried some chicken, which we enjoyed while sitting in front of the television watching the world's silliest television program, "Wo-wo-wie", which is about 20 minutes of fat fililpino housewives dancing and making kissey-faces at the camera, followed by a 10-minute game show.

After lunch, I went with Epril to the L.T.O (the Land Transportation Office), which is the filipino equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles, in order to register my motorcycle and get a temporary license plate... only to find that the motorcycle dealership had never supplied me with an "O.R." or an official receipt.

Going home having accomplished nothing, I called the motorcycle dealership to ask them where my O.R. was, and they told me that it would take 3-4 weeks for them to obtain one, and that they only mail out such requests to their head office in Manila once per week, "maybe this Friday?" they hinted. (This Friday, by the way is Good Friday, the biggest holiday in The Philippines... they'll be closed that day.) Why didn't they mail it out last Friday, 5 days after I bought the motorcycle? I don't know.

Sorry MotorStar of The Philippines. That's enough. Your Panther 150 is of poor quality, with 2 breakdowns and 3 trips to the shop within the first 100 kilometers of operation; and the staff at your Cagayan De Oro dealership are nitwits who apparently don't have a clue to what is necessary for selling or registering a motorcycle. Consider this my official warning to anybody reading to never buy a Motorstar motorcycle in Cagayan De Oro, or anyplace else in The Philippines for that matter.

Yes: I'm keeping the motorcycle. It's not worthless... it's just not worth buying. It's not worth the going through the hassles of ownership... but I already have gone through those hassles.

It's like ordering a dish at a restaurant that isn't very good: You don't really want to fight with the manager about taking it back, and you can still eat the dish although you don't enjoy it very much, but above all else, you will certainly tell all your friends not to buy the same dish.


More people having fun along the
river bank, this time some
students swimming.
Anyway, back to the rest of my day: My afternoon of work was a little light. Epril and Susan went shopping.

In the evening, Epril and I watched the final episodes of season one of Heroes. Absolutely excellent... That's all I can say about it. Better than season one of "Battlestar Galactica". Better than season two of "24". I haven't watched "Lost" yet, so I don't know about that, but it is on my list. Does anyone have any other television suggestions?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Epril would enjoy "Desperate housewives" and for you jil "The Closer". I also like the show "Medium". They are great shows. I think you can watch these shows on demand on through their websites on the internet. Check out Desperate Housewives is on ABC. The Closer is on NBC. The Closer is on the USA channel. Enjoy!

Issarat said...

Desperate Housewives will make you (JIL) desperate to jump into the ravine that is in back of your house; it is a cliche' soap opera of western women who are never satisfied and cheat on their spouses. LAME (unless your female or gay)

Now, for a good show check out "The Wire", it is an HBO series that you can find season 1 and 2 on DVD, you won't be dissapointed.

Jil Wrinkle said...

Heh Issarat: I take any criticism of drama from you with a grain of salt. After all, your idea of good drama is "The Contender". ;-)

Thanks for the recommendations though, both of you above. I'll keep them in mind.

Anonymous said...

He's right about Desperate Housewives, Jil. I'd rather chew and swallow a handfull of nails than watch one full episode.

TheMindFantastic said...

Desperate Housewives I tried to watch in part because they played up the fact it was supposedly steamy and funny. After a season of it I found that they played the sex card to get an audience, but couldn't follow through because they worried about complaints. It was funny at times however.

The Wire, is pretty solid, it reads like a police drama but it isn't, season one is building a case on one group, and shows how things are from quite a few angles. Usually a show tries to get the bad guy before the end of the 43 minute episode, this they take all season, which seems like it would be boring but actually its quite compelling. Yes at times it plays up stereotypes, but then it does a bit to remove them at the same time.

For something maybe not as compelling and perhaps a little more family oriented but still kind of fun and interesting is Kyle XY, which just wrapped up (on TV in the US at least) its second season. Its trite and overly sweet at times but still something I found I have continued to watch until the end of season two, its about a boy aged about 15 or 16 found in the woods, with no memory, and seeing the world for the first time and trying to get around in the world, though he is quite a bit better than average at just about everything, which is explained before the first season comes to an end (hint... he has no bellybutton).

Your a Fan of Doctor Who so I shouldn't need to mention Torchwood, but Ill mention it anyways because its something I try and watch every week, if you don't know about it, its darker and sexier than Dr. Who by quite a bit and who doesn't like Captain Jack Harkness?

Lost is wrapping its series (if it hasn't already), and quite a few people would recommend it, but I dunno, I got "lost" trying to figure out what was going on in season two, they tried to make it more and more mysterious and just made it at least for me, be more and more contrived. It was like they were rolling dice on a D&D table of strangeness (percentile even) for what weird thing can we do this week? When it wraps up, Ill grab the last of the episodes I haven't seen and watch them but only to make sure the hanging threads get out of my head and I can forget about the whole thing.

That should be enough suggestions from me, I would suggest some of the newer shows but this season has been less than ideal due to the writers strike, a few good shows never got out of the starting gate before they were cancelled (the new Bionic Woman was one I was hoping would stick around, lasted only 8 episodes) and hurt a few others like Heros season 2. Another which wasn't a case of writers strike but just bad decision making was jPod, a Canadian show based on the book by Douglas Coupland (the guy who gave us the term Generation X) about working in a video game company in Vancouver, but its been cancelled as of last week and just showing the last of its episodes before going off the air. Its been poor pickings on TV, unless you want more American Idol or America's Next Top Model type shows, which there are more and more to come it seems.

Anonymous said...

I don't have any advice on shows - just wanted to say I love the pictures from your home. Beautiful. Makes me cry, as of right now I'm surrounded by the cold and snow in Minnesota. Yep - I'm jealous - I just keep thinking "15 more years till retirement - then hello SE Asia".

Please continue showing pictures of the Philippines.

Ding

Anonymous said...

Hi Jil. I was just enjoying a burger at Bob's TX BBQ and regretting never having run into you before you escaped to PI.

After the retirement age for Thailand dropped to 50 I decided to take advantage of it and got my O-A visa for a permanent vacation here in Pattaya. No visa runs for me.

Anyway, I'm very curious and interested about your acclimation to the Philippines, especially Mindinao. My impressions in the news made me think it's a volatile place with Abu Whatever "organizations" targeting Americans. A few years ago some Jehovah's Witness missionaries there had their heads sent home in a box.

More than one Filipino gf in the past has offered a PI provincial life, such as in Bicol, but I didn't feel safe when I last visited 10 years ago. That was in Manila.

I appreciate your insight and the next Beer Lao is on me when you're in Pattaya again.

Forgive the "Anonymous" signature but the Blog sign-up page keeps turning to Thai.

eDEE in Pattaya.

Nancy Molden said...

Hi Jil,

I'm writing this from Mom's computer! :) Anyway, I second the Wire. That would be at the top of our list. Let's see, our list of favorite shows we've watched on NetFlix- The Wire, Deadwood, Sopranos. I think you would LOVE those three. Things we've liked on TV this season, Heroes and Lost and Battelstar Galactica, of course, also Jericho and Friday Night Lights.

Glad to hear things are going well in the Phillipines!