The Construct

Irritating as it is, this whole hostage-taking situation has gone from bad to worse.

Call me crazy, but Rolando Mendoza’s story is just one of those where you can say, “I don’t say I agree with what he did, but I understand.” Getting sacked and taking the fall while many of his higher ups were undoubtedly more corrupt, come on.

Pretty much like OJ Simpson. Quoting Chris Rock, “He’s [OJ] paying $25000 a month in alimony, got a another man driving around in his car and fucking his wife in a house he’s still paying the mortgage on. Now I’m not saying he should have killed her… but I understand.”

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See? It wasn’t simply the incident that set people off, it’s the way we handle the situation. And yes, we’ll cry racism when we see these kinds of things on the Internet:

PS: As a casual Flash game designer, I have to say this was done in absolutely bad taste. At ibinandera mo pa talagang Pilipino ka.

De ja vu? Yet another person held a busload of people as hostage. But unlike the last one. This one ended in a bloodbath.

Instead of focusing too much on the failures of our police, I’d rather take a look at the varied reactions to the incident and provide some comments.

I really don’t want to dwell too long lest I run out of my very limited writing thanks to a writer’s block that I’ve been having for a loooong time.

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I always wanted to take on photography as a hobby. The problem is with the expense.

I bought a prosumer Canon S5IS about two years ago. I opted to get it  so as to curb my inkling to go with a DSLR. I knew that the moment I get a DSLR, it would open the floodgates to expense. I’m pretty obsessive as a hobbyist and I know I’d go into a GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) rampage.

It was a decent beginner’s camera. Its zoom and macro capabilities (thanks to its 6mm to 72mm lens) were enough for me to get around unlike with a DSLR where I’d probably have needed to buy lenses to fiddle around with those kinds of shots. Took quite a lot of decent pictures with it ever since having it. Learned about the basics and observed pitfalls (my tendency to use weak composition and let the horizon line slant quite a lot of times).

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Google first. Ask later.

Someone else’s got the answers to your stupid questions. We can’t be bothered.

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Yup. Maybe we should start offering this as a basic course in college. Better yet, teach Googling as early as basic education.

I remember that our teachers use to discuss the Dewey Decimal System to locate books in a library. Forget that. How about teaching effective use of keywords when using search engines.