Thursday, March 19, 2009

FAST GEEZER

For a time in my life, I was a motoring journalist. My favorite memory of that time is when an old geezer kicked my ass on the Subic International Raceway when I was testing new tires that BF Goodrich was launching in the Philippines. That man was the legend himself--Pocholo Ramirez.

I just passed the starting line and was on the straight-away when from out of the pit came out hurtling Sir Poch. I said, “Here is my chance! All I have to do is try to keep his line and I could race like a pro!”

I of course, failed miserably at it and by the third turn was eating dust. By the time I reached the second to the last turn Sir Poch was already behind me. I drove into the Pit so that he wouldn’t get the chance to overtake me. The fact that he was in front of me and then was behind me meant that he drove the track in half the time it took me.

That was as exhilarating as it got. My worst memory was also with Sir Poch on the same day. I took the TV crew of then ABC 5 around to take establishing shots. During one turn I managed to skid 720 degrees into the gravel past the fast chicane. Were I not able to control the spin, we would have ended up on the concrete barrier rather than the gravel trap.

Past the start, the same old geezer who just made me eat dust and kicked my ass was waving me into the pit, even though it meant going against traffic. I thought he would bite my head off, and I deserved it if he did. But to my surprise, he simply said, “Are you ok? Good. Look, you were just tired, that’s why you made the mistake. That was good driving, take a break then go again later. Ok?”

And for that I will never forget Sir Poch. It was an honor to have interviewed him, covered with him, drove in a convoy with him, and raced with him. He will be missed. Vaya con Dios Senyor Poch.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

SUPERMAN COMIC SELLS FOR US$317K

A copy of Action Comics #1 that came out in June 1938 just sold for US$317,200 in an auction in New York last Friday. I'm sure you've read the full news already somewhere. The funny thing is that the seller said if it wasn't a recession, it would have sold for more.

Think about it, the guy who owned it bought his copy in 1950 when he was 9 years old for 35 cents US. Incidentally my beautiful mother is of the same age group. According to her, by that time the comic was 12 years old and would have cost only 70 Philippine centavos.

To put that in perspective, a jeepney ride during that time was 5 centavos. A bottle of Coca Cola was about 10 centavos, a bowl of special goto was also 10 and a movie was 20 centavos. The return in investment alone in goto would be difficult to comprehend!

Imagine--for 7 bowls of special goto then, you get in return 9,062 bowls! That's a lot of goto!

ROHAN LAUNCHES CBT

Level Up! Games recently began the Closed Beta Test of their newest MMORPG Rohan. Now why am I announcing this? Because I overheard someone in a net cafe I was renting at that "Hey! Rohan is in OBT already?!"

No it is not...CBT pa lang kuya!