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

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

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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)

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

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

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* * * * *

Technorati: colloquial, common, joke, tagalog, translation

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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

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