It was a shocking state of affairs  when Toyota announced that it was recalling millions of cars due to a very glaring “uncontrollable acceleration” problem.  And even though recalls normally happen for almost any car manufacturer for all sorts of reasons, this particular recall proved devastating for Toyota as a company, making them lose not just billions of dollars, but customer trust and satisfaction.

So the question is, can Toyota recover from this fiasco?

These kinds of recalls are nothing new.  The Ford Explorer had a recall ten years ago because of a “tire blowout” controversy that involved Firestone tires.  During that time, the Ford Explorer was THE most popular SUV in the market, and they took a massive hit on marketing and customer satisfaction based on their tire problems. But they have since recovered from it, and the Ford Motor Company still exists today.  But I guess this pales in comparison to the massive appeal of Toyota as a company, and being recognized as the most reliable car maker in the world.  Such a massive recall on their bestselling cars can surely spell doom on paper.

Many people have attributed Toyota’s current woes to their all-too-rapid globalization and complacent quality control.  A car company with the size and reputation of Toyota can be susceptible to such oversights, and many think it was just a ticking time bomb, waiting for the most inopportune time to explode.

And explode it did, to the tune of billions of dollars and the loss of critical reputation that it has built for decades.  Doom-and-gloomers have marked it the end of the Japanese car maker’s dynasty, and even the most devout optimist sees problems down the road for Toyota.  But is it really over for Toyota?  Is it over for the car company that has gained the reputation of being the best built cars in the world, with an old slogan even saying “I love what you do for me”?

And to pour more gasoline in the fire, some people have even entrusted upon themselves to take advantage of Toyota’s woes.  Even though Camrys and Corollas were the hardest hit by the recalls, we have people claiming that “insert-Toyota-model-here” is also experiencing problems.  But it’s just human nature.  Even some of the most common reasons for accidents, driver error, are being overlooked because people now have an alibi, a reliable scapegoat as to why they are getting into accidents while in their Toyota-made cars.  I’m not saying that Toyota bears no fault, I’m just saying that when the building is burning, expect the looters to congregate and converge in full force…

Now, I have always been a cynic, but I am thinking that it’s not all as bad as the doom-sayers tell it to be.  Granted, some of the best lessons are learned the hard way, and Toyota is learning it now in the hardest and costliest way possible.  Aside from the mandatory head-rolling that should’ve taken place, Toyota has to re-study its business philosophy.  Being an 800-pound gorilla means you have to be careful where you walk, because you have a lot more people to step on.  A little soul-searching can do a lot of good, and remembering how they got there can do wonders on where they need to go.

It is a known fact that, no matter how good you do, or how reliable you are, or how much you have brought happiness to everyone, one or two mistakes down the road can wipe out all the good will you have earned and strove for.  It is time to lick the corporate wounds, and limp along to the road of recovery.  It may take a long time, but hey, Toyota didn’t become the best car manufacturer in the world overnight.

Toyota is already trying to regain their customers’ good will by rolling out financial incentives.  They have been giving out faux apologies in their recent commercials and thanking their customers for sticking by them.  But this is just the start.  They need to do more.  And they can start by making sure that every car they make from now on is a masterpiece, from braces and bolts to plugs and pistons.  They should go back to the Toyota Way, specifically under the headings of “Respect for People” and “Continuous Improvement.”   It’s a long, hard climb back to the top, but Toyota cannot do it by dwelling on their mistakes.

And most of all, Toyota should follow its own, timeless slogan.  Moving forward.

Technorati: acceleration, forward, moving, recall, toyota

I hate the 500 word limit.

So what if it promotes brevity and conciseness of thought?  Not everything can be encapsulated into this stifling limitation.  How much can you really fit into 500 words if you have a lot of things between your ears that you want unleashed upon your captive reading public?  Does this mean that those with a penchant for verbal diarrhea will have to conform to this puritanical law of anal-retentive, number-crunching, grammar elitists?

I dread the 500 word limit.

I know I’m guilty in this blog of spewing words with reckless abandon, the same way a sewer drain unloads its deadly cargo everyday.  When I was a little Pinoy boy with limited grasp of language, I dreaded writing classes.  I always wished that one paragraph, or even one sentence, was enough. It was neither laziness nor ignorance, but rather, the inability to articulate what I wanted to say onto a written medium.  But as I progressed through grade school, and proceeded to the secondary academic circus, I learned how to write more than just a title and a cacophony of jumbled randomness.  Upon reaching that savage  jungle we know as “college,” I was a virtual writing machine.  I loved writing almost as much as I loved reading.  Whenever someone imposed limits on how much I can write, I flipped the literary middle finger by writing twice as much.  Sometimes my figurative protest was heeded, but mostly I received a reprimand, or a demand for a re-write.  All because I surpassed the word limit.

I am confused by the 500 word limit.

So why the 500 word limit, really?  Why not a 755 word limit that doesn’t count the swear words?  What strictly counts as a word, anyway?  Are antecedents, conjunctions and simple prepositions counted as words? Is an acronym, or an abbreviation, or even a “forced” contraction (i.e. ’twas, ’twasn’t, etc)  counted as a word?  Is the number “500″ even considered a word?  If not, can I get away with writing a lot of numbers to offset the 500 word limit?  If I write out the value of Pi, is that considered a work of literature to rival Tolstoy’s War and Peace? Come to think of it, if I spelled S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G out, is each letter counted as a word?  Worse yet, is punctuation counted as a “word,” too???!!!!…

And what…

about…

paragraph breaks

?

I laugh at the 500 word limit.

It may be a necessary evil in order to prevent meaningless ramblings, or to make sure your article fits canvas space, but I snicker at it.  I am amused beyond comprehension.  The sheer audacity of the powers that be to LIMIT what I can write, just so it’ll fit a predesignated column space, or maybe because the attention span of the proposed reader is as focused as a flying plastic cup in the middle of a busy freeway, staggers me.  But I guess, in the end, so be it…

This blog entry meets the 500 word limit…  asshole.

This blog entry meets the 500 word limit

Technorati: 500, limit, word

I worked at the Philippine Daily Inquirer in mid-1996 as a proofreader, and this funny poem just became funnier to me when I remember those long nights at the office, burning the midnight oil, trying to make sure the newspaper was flawless, in grammar and syntax.  This was penned (and performed) by Taylor Mali, a really funny modern poet.  I don’t particularly care for poems in general, but this one was just too funny to pass up

* * * * *

THE THE IMPOTENCE OF PROOFREADING
by Taylor Mali

Has this ever happened to you?
You work very very horde on a paper for English clash
And still  get a very glow raid – like a D or even a D=
and all because you are the liverwurst spoiler in the whale wide word.
Yes, proofreading your peppers is a matter of the the utmost impotence.

Now, this is a problem that affects manly, manly students all over the word.
I myself was such a bed spiller once upon a term
that my English torturer in my sophomoric year,
Mrs. Myth,  she said I would never get into a good colleague.
And that’s all I wanted, that’s all any kid wants at that age, just to get into a good colleague.
And not just anal community colleague, either,
because I’m not the kind of guy who would be happy at anal community colleague.
I needed a place that would offer me intellectual simulation,
I really need to be challenged, challenged menstrually.
I need a place that can offer me intellectual simulation.
So I know this probably makes me sound like a stereo,
but I really felt that I could get into an ivory legal colleague.
So if I did not improvement
then gone would be my dream of going to Harvard, Jail, or Prison
(you know, in Prison, New Jersey).

So I got myself a spell checker
and figured I was on Sleazy Street.

But there are several missed aches
that a spell checker can’t can’t catch catch.
For instant, if you accidentally leave out word
your spell checker won’t put it in you.
And God for billing purposes only
you should have serial problems with Tori Spelling
your spell Chekhov might replace a word
with one you had absolutely no detention of using.
Because, I mean, what do you want it to douche?
No, it only does what you tell it to douche.
You¹re the one sitting in front of the computer scream, with your hand on the mouth going clit, clit, clit.
It just goes to show you how embargo
one careless little clit of the mouth can be.

Which reminds me of this one time during my Junior Mint.
The teacher took the paper that I had written on A Sale of Two Titties
(no, I am cereal, I’m cereal!)
and she read it out loud in front of  all of my assmates.
It was, quite possibly, one of the most humidifying experiences I have ever had,
being laughed at like that pubically.

So do yourself a flavor and follow these two Pisces of advice:
One:  There is no prostitute for careful editing of your own work, no prostitute whatsoever.
And three:  When it comes to proofreading,
the red penis your friend.

(Spank you)

* * * * *

Technorati: funny, mali, poem, taylor, text, the the impotence of proofreading

So you’re someone who doesn’t speak ANY word of Tagalog, and you’re embarrassed to speak with Filipinos…  maybe you are a non-Filipino who is friends with/is dating/is married to a Filipino, and you would like to understand them more… or maybe you are visiting the Philippines and you want to impress them with your knowledge of basic Tagalog words… well, here’s a short list of all common (and not so common) Tagalog words that can be used in everyday speech… learn them well, and take them to heart… it is guaranteed that anyone who understands Tagalog will look at you in a whole new light once you say these everyday words in Tagalog…

These are common colloquial Tagalog words, not the formal meanings.  So don’t worry if some of them sound weird… Good luck!

* * * * *

* * * * *

Technorati: colloquial, common, joke, tagalog, translation

Lakas is strength (as a noun) or strong (as an adjective), used in the same sense as the former and the latter, with additional connotations as well.

Word Usage:

Si Tolitz ay nagpakita ng lakas.
(Tolitz showed strength.)
or
(Tolitz displayed undeniable power in his being.)
or even
(Tolitz exuded unearthly energies in his never-ending quest for omnipotence… muahahahaha!)

Masyadong malakas ang dating ni Tolitz.
(Tolitz is coming on too strong.)
or
(Tolitz is actively oozing with charm and guile.)
or even
(Tolitz, the dashing, the debonaire, the diabolical philanderer, is exercising his God-given right to put everyone under his testosteronic spell!)

Ito ang alamat ni Malakas at ni Maganda.
(This is legend of Beauty and Brawn.)
or
(This is the tale of Muscles and Dimples.)
or even
(This is the tale of Tolitz and… and… and…  yiiihiiii!!!)

Technorati: lakas, strength, strong, tagalog

Tili means scream, or shriek, a loud, sharp, shrill cry, normally done by women, but also done by a few men.  Used as a noun or a verb.

Word Usage:

Ang tili ni Julie ay napakalakas!
(Julie’s scream was very loud!)
or
(Julie let out a loud, bloodcurdling scream that seemed to emanate from the very deepest recesses of the underworld!)
or even
(Julie shrieked in ecstatic glee, almost to the point of fainting, after she saw Jacob Black’s hot,  smolderingly sexy body splattered across the movie screen.)

Si Tolitz na maskulado at kelot ay tumili na parang babae nang makakita ng ipis sa sahig.
(The muscular, masculine Tolitz screamed like a woman when he saw the cockroach on the floor.)
or
(Tolitz the macho man shrieked like a little girl when he caught sight of the disgusting cockroach on the dirty floor.)
or even
(Tolitz, the inimitable man’s man, the bane of all single ladies, the accomplished casanova, the heart throb of skirts, went crazy with outright terror and screamed… screamed… SCREAMED! when he caught a glimpse of the horror on six legs!  Oh my gawd!)

Si Janine ay napatili nang makita niya si Rex na tumatakbo sa bahay ng nakahubo.
(Janine shrieked as she saw Rex running around the house naked.)
or
(Janine screamed in utter surprise as she caught sight of Rex reconnoitering the house in his birthday suit.)
or even
(AAAAAAAYYYY!!!  ANO BA!!!  KAINIS KA!!! Wait, the weather must be cold, huh Rex?)

Technorati: scream, shriek, tagalog, tili

Liit means small, tiny, miniscule, diminutive, something of limited size; of comparatively restricted dimensions; in other words, not big.  Used as an adjective.

Word Usage:

Ang liit ng pusa ni Tekla.
(Tekla’s cat is small.)

Habang lumalaki ang aking problema, lumiliit ang aking pasensiya.
(As my problem gets bigger, my patience gets smaller.)

Ang liit ng _____ ni Tolitz
(Tolitz’s thing is small… hey wait a minute!)
or
(Tolitz’s thing is very tiny… what the, hey, stop it!)
or even
(Tolitz’s thing is so teeny weeny, so itsy bitsy, so microscopic that it’s so hard to see it without a…. Nooooo! Lies, Lies, LIES!!!)

Technorati: liit, small, tagalog, tiny

WARNING:  This work contains adult situations and pornographic images.
This is not intended for children.  Consider yourself warned… pervert

* * * * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
“RE-TAKE”

Author/Mangaka: Studio Kimigabuchi

Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Romance, Adult, Doujinshi

Plot Summary: What if the Evangelion anime ended differently?

Shinji Hikari, the young pilot of Eva 01, wakes up at the infirmary, and discovers that he is seemingly transported back to the time when he is yet to encounter the final angels.  Having seen what happened in the end, Shinji now tries to correct all the mistakes he has made, and tries to improve his relationship with the fiery, red-haired girl Asuka Langley Soryuu, and prevent the tragedies he had witnessed before.  In so doing, Shinji has created an alternate reality – a reality where he and Asuka become more than friends.  A reality where he becomes close to distant friends – and distant to intimate ones.  A reality where Rei Ayanami encounters a crisis of identity.  And a reality where Shinji’s dreams come true – and his worst nightmares become a reality.

Shinji Hikari must decide whether this “new” reality is better than the one he witnessed before going back – whether the End of Evangelion was ultimately a better outcome for his destiny…

Volumes: 6  (4  + 1 interlude + 1 after story)

Review: I have to say that, for a fan-made piece of fiction, this doujin is one of the best I have read.

One thing about doujins (fanfiction) that made me stray away from them was that 90% of them were pretty much hentai (adult/porn) based on other popular manga and/or anime.  Not that I have anything against porn – I like them as much as the next guy – but the norm for porn is that the story and art itself takes itself down several notches in favor of graphic sex scenes.

Such was not the case for RE-TAKE.  This was very inspired work from Studio Kimigabuchi, one that begs the question “did they do the ending better than Hideaki Anno did with the original Eva?”

The best thing about this doujin is that the main characters are now LIKABLE, unlike the pretentious, emo-driven cast of the original Evangelion anime.  No, the characters didn’t suddenly behave radically different, but more of an elevated “consciousness” – an enhanced perception of who they are, where they are, and what they are supposed to feel in a particular situation.  It’s still in the same vein of Evangelion – it still tries to mindfuck you in a lot of ways, but now there is an underlying order in all the chaos.  A clear theme, and a clear goal in the end.  Unlike the anime, this one had CLOSURE, even if you don’t read the last ~After~ volume.  And the ending of the fourth volume was much more powerful than the anime… by heaps.

This doujin is not targeted specifically at Eva fans, but it obviously requires that you actually finished the anime series before reading this.  Evangelion isn’t really one of my favorite anime series (I still think RahXephon is a better mecha series by leaps and bounds), but reading this doujin has actually enhanced my appreciation for the original series.  Hideaki Anno has squandered the overwhelming potential Evangelion had by putting out a preachy, pretentious and mind-numbingly confusing ending, but I feel that Studio Kimigabuchi helped in realizing that potential.

Since this is a doujin, take note that there ARE sex scenes and pornographic images, but they are marginally “tasteful” – meaning they actually help advance the plot, instead of being put in for the sake of seeing a main character have sex with the other supporting characters, like most doujins usually do.  So if you find a little porn offensive, then stay away from this doujin.

(Recommended sequence for reading would be volume 1, 2, 3, 0, 4 and ~After~ – and if you want the “Eva” impact for an ending, stop at volume 4.  If you want a feel-good, happy ending with a shitload of closure, then by all means, end it with the ~After~ volume.)

This is one of those rare cases where the fanfiction almost surpasses the vision of the original creator – at least in terms of ending said vision.  This is highly recommended reading, and if you have not watched the Evangelion series or the End of Evangelion movie, I recommend watching those first before reading this doujin.   But by all means, read this epic work.

One of the best doujins ever created, and I stand by that, Eva haters or not…

(Click on the manga image below to download them, or check this list.)

Re-Take Volume 1	Re-Take Volume 2
Re-Take Volume 3	Re-Take Volume 0 (Interlude)
Re-Take Volume 4	Re-Take ~After~

How to open and read the manga:

• First make sure that you have CDisplay Comic Reader installed. To download CDisplay, click here. Follow the instructions on how to download and install CDisplay Comic Reader.
• Download the desired manga by clicking on its manga cover or link above. Remember the location where you saved the downloaded manga.
• You can start reading the manga using two ways:
  - Right click on the manga file, and choose Open With, and then click on Choose Program (if the CDisplay application isn’t one of the choices). Scroll down either the Recommended Programs or Other Programs and locate CDisplay (or it can say Sequential Image Display”), and choose it. Your manga will automatically show up and you can start reading.
  - You can start the CDisplay application (which will bring up a blank white screen). Right click anywhere, and choose Load Files (or L). Navigate to where you saved the downloaded manga, choose it, then click Open. Your manga will now show up and you can start reading.

Some of the common hotkeys for CDisplay:
- Pg Up (previous page)
- Pg Down or Spacebar (next page)
- Ctrl L (next volume/chapter; if the manga you’re reading has reached the end, and you already have the next volumes already downloaded)
- Ctrl K (previous volume/chapter)
- Shift P (choose a page to jump to using the page meter)
- C (brings up the Configuration Options, for advanced configuration)
- Arrow Keys (scrolls the manga left/right/up/down if it’s oversized)

IMPORTANT: Since this is manga (Japanese comics), it is read from RIGHT TO LEFT.

ENJOY!

Technorati: adult, doujin, doujinshi, eva, evangelion, fan, fiction, genesis, hentai, kimigabuchi, neon, re-take, studio

Busog means completely full, containing all that can be held, or filled to utmost capacity and/or satisfaction, but ONLY when it pertains to eating.  Cannot be used in any other definitions of “full”.  Used as an adjective.

Word Usage:

Si Tolitz ay busog.
(Tolitz is completely full.)
or
(Tolitz is so full that he is unable to eat another bite.)
or even
(Tolitz’s stomach is grossly bulged beyond understanding after engaging in grotesque, gluttonous desires that defies all laws of man and science.)

Gutom si lolo, pero busog si lola.
(Grandma is full, but grandpa is hungry.)
or
(The old fart is mortified, while the old hag is satisfied.)
or even
(Next time, I’m eating first, you saggy bitch!)

Ang aking kagutuman sa iyong pag-ibig ay iyong binusog ng iyong naglalagablab na pagnanasa.
(My hunger for your love was completely satisfied by your  hot desire.)
or
(My voracious, unquenchable appetite for your affection was sufficiently satiated by your fiery passion.)
or even
(My gourmandizing and edacious proclivity for your… Bah, enough talk!  Let’s do it again!)

Technorati: busog, filled, full, satisfied, tagalog