My First Driving Lesson

I just got my first car yesterday, however i don't how to drive yet.
Great thing I have a big brother who is here to teach me how to. Yesterday, he thought me the basics like the clutch, break and accelerator. He also taught me how to change gears.

Today is my first day to try driving. My first try was horrible. I forgot to make sure that the gear on neutral and to release the hand break. hahaha. Did not get anywhere. Well, forgive me please, it my first day. So, I tried again after a few lessons from my brother. I made sure the gear is in neutral and that i release the hand break. Alright, I am ready to go. And the car run slowly until... BLOG...

The bottom part of the car hit a humps in front of our house. It did move though. The car ran a few houses after that however we have to stop because we dont want to get to far. Now it is time to try running in reverse. So I change gears, step on the clutch, release it slowly as I step on the accelerator. Then my brother shouted, "Breaks!!!"

We were moving backwards however I was not looking on our back. I was so focused on making sure that the car will move without knowing that i was about to hit a van. In my panic I released the clutch and step on the breaks. The car stopped. And so is the engine. The van passed us with an upset driver. So my brother decided to drive the car back to our house and park it there.

When we got down we saw the damage on the car when it hit the humps. My brother said "Let's just do this tommorow... We will resume the lessons after we make sure that the car is not low anymore". Hehehe. What a day. He said it will be ready by tommorow afternoon. Good thing it is my last day of work. I can now focus on my driving lessons. For now, It is break time. Need to get some rest for work tommorow.

Philippine Automated Election System or Automatic Counting Machine?

Before I start anything here, I believe, that it is important to understand what an Automated Election System is or should be.

Let us start with... what is "automated"?

"Automated" according to Merriam Webster is "to convert to largely automatic operation " (please see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automated), which in my own words is, to make a process "automatic".

"Automatic" - operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control.

This leads to... an "Automated Election System" is an election system with minimal human intervention.


Now lets start talking about the election system. (I maybe right or wrong; or my knowledge about the election system might be incomplete... your inputs would be appreciated as it will help make this post more accurate as possible)

First we need people to vote for; President, Vice-President; Senators; etc.

This people will file their candidacy using "pen and papers" (automated election system???) no, not yet. 1 vote for human intervention.

Next the campaign period, this is more on the candidates prerogative, so let's leave it that way.

Alright, Election Day is near... Before what they do is they send the ballots and the box where they place the ballots (whatever that thing is called). However, what they did now is they send the machines,ballots and chips to our local government so we can votes. Alright, 2 votes for human intervention. ^_^

Election Day... yahoo, We finally tried the so-called "Automated Election System". Unfortunately, it took me 4 hours before I was able to see the PCOS Machine. (how automatic). Well, I do understand that we are using machines and it may fail. The only thing I don't understand is, why... in anytime did it choose to fail on election day.

Anyway, so I got the ballot mark the people I want to lead our country. And place it on the PCOS Machine. Wait a minute, that is human intervention again. 3 votes for human intervention.

We have voted... all of us... so where is the automation?

I see, what we have and our country have paid for is... (drum rolling) "A Counting Machine".

This is where our taxes go. A counting machine. Oh well.

Anyway, after the machine got all our votes it will then be transported from the precinct to COMELEC (if I am not mistaken). (human intervention again)

Overall here is what we have. 4 votes for human intervention and 1 vote for Automated Counting Machine.

I think this already defy the very meaning of automatic.

This means our taxes were used on a very expensive "Automatic Counting Machine".

What do you think?