Lyndon Speaks

The EDSA Bus Segregation Scheme

Are you brave enough to take EDSA with the new Bus Segregation Scheme in effect?

Welcome back to Lyndon Speaks.

Yesterday, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) implemented the EDSA Bus Segregation Scheme. The scheme aims to address the heavy traffic caused by the buses who loads and unloads passengers along the bus stops in one of the busiest streets in the metro – the Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA).

Before yesterday, city buses are allowed to take in and drop off passengers in any bus stop along EDSA. Buses are sometimes waiting for a long time along the bus stops for passengers and with the amount of city buses that use EDSA everyday, a long queue results on these bus stops thus causing the hellish traffic most especially during rush hours.

To address this situation, the MMDA strictly implemented the EDSA Bus Segregation Scheme yesterday. In this scheme, buses are given letter codes – A, B, C – and they are only allowed to stop on bus stops with the same letter codes as their buses – Bus A on Stop A, Bus B on Stop B. However, there are limited buses which can use both Stops A and B. These special buses are coded as Bus C. However, passengers riding Bus C will have more travel time since the bus is required to stop on all bus stops along EDSA.

I think that it is too early to tell if it is helpful or not. I also believe that information wasn't disseminated thoroughly since some passengers are still confused and rode the incorrect bus.

To help you in your journey along EDSA, here are the bus stops for each bus code. To reiterate, there is also a Bus C, and these buses are allowed to stop in both Bus Stops A and B.

I just hope that this will be strictly implemented because based from the track record of our government offices, this scheme might just live for up until mid-January next year. In the Philippines, we call that – ningas kugon. Nevertheless, congratulations are in order for MMDA. Thank you for always thinking the welfare of the Filipino citizens in the metro.

Until next time. I hope that Lyndon Speaks has helped you with your EDSA travel.

Bus on!

~Lyndon Jason

Christmas: More Fun In The Philippines

Christmas - it is more fun in the Philippines!

Time for another round of Lyndon Speaks.

Exactly one more week before the much-awaited celebration of the year - Christmas! As Filipinos, we put so much effort into each celebration that we have, most especially Christmas. Christmas comes only once a year but Filipinos do not forget the traditions that we observe during this season.

Why not look into these traditions and share these with our friends from different countries and let them decide if Christmas is really more fun in the Philippines.

The longest Christmas season eveeeeeeeeer!

Philippines may have the longest Christmas season in the world. It starts when the calendar displays the first month that ends with BER - September and ends not on Christmas day, not even on the last day of December. The Filipino Christmas ends on the Feast of the Three Kings which is in January of the following year. During this more than 4 months of celebration, the Christmas air is felt all around the country.

Misa de Gallo

The Simbang Gabi (Night Mass) is a Filipino tradition that was passed down by the Spaniards. This starts on the 16th of December and runs for 9 days (or nights) up until Christmas Eve. Filipinos try to attend and complete these because it was believed that your wishes will come true.

Bibingka and Puto Bumbong

After the Simbang Gabi, Filipino families (and couples) go directly to the sidewalk vendors outside of the churches to buy their favorite Christmas foods: the Bibingka and Puto Bumbong. Both translated as Rice Cake - correct me if I'm wrong -, these Filipino Christmas best-sellers are to die for.

Caroling

Every Filipino kid comes to an age where they collect softdrink bottle caps, put them together, go out of the streets, and sing Christmas Carols at each house. In turn, those serenaded give these kids some loose change or candies. But beware, if you will not give anything to them, they have a song just for you: "Thank you, thank you. Ang babarat ninyo! Thank you!" (translated to: You are so stingy!)

Tree, Lights, Star

Each house during the Christmas season is being decorated to please the eyes of the people who will pass by. The Christmas Tree is usually placed inside the house where gifts are placed before they are opened on Christmas day. The outside of the houses are decorated (and sometimes literally being filled) with Christmas Lights and the Parol (Christmas Star).

Party! Party!

From school and company parties to family reunions - good food, lots of stories to share, and the time to be with loved ones - these what make Filipino Christmas more fun! It is also the time of the year where Filipino kids ask for aginaldo (money as gifts) from their godfathers and godmothers. Exchanging of gifts is also a must on Filipino Christmas parties most especially at schools and companies. This is also the place where every one comes in their new clothes bought just for Christmas.

There are still loads and loads of Filipino Christmas traditions. But I guess that the most important one of all is that Christmas is the time when Filipinos remember that a very special child is born - Jesus Christ! And I do hope that this one is still within each Filipinos heart.

That's it for now. May you all have a wonderful Christmas next week!

Celebrate on!

~Lyndon Jason

My Grown-Up Christmas List

No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end

Welcome back to Lyndon Speaks!

8 more days to go before the one of the happiest day in the year arrives - Christmas! Have you guys been good this year? Have you already visited your favorite shops at the malls and your favorite e-commerce internet websites? Have you prepared your Christmas lists?

When I was younger, I never failed to prepare my Christmas list. I wrote down everything that I wanted to receive for Christmas - from money, new clothes, new books, and most especially new toys! Making the list and checking it twice was quite fun. The excitement is overwhelming to the point that I was hoping that each day was Christmas.

Now, I seldom do my Christmas list. Maybe that is part of growing up. But a lot has happened this year, especially these past few days that I am now thinking of doing a Christmas list. This time, the list would not be for myself, but for the people who needed much more this Christmas. Here is my grown-up Christmas list.

Strength for the loved ones of those who were victims of the horrendous Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

May the families have strength to at least celebrate this Christmas and more so to carry on with their lives.

Remember the shooting victims and the heroic acts of the teachers

I hope that the memories of the children and the teachers would never be forgotten. May the heroic acts of those teachers serve an inspiration to all of us and a reminder that these second parents that we have will always do everything to protect us.

New tomorrow for the people in the Southern Philippines devastated by the super typhoon

May they find hope for a better tomorrow amidst the catastrophe that just transpired.

World peace

It may be a long shot, but I still believe that this can be achieved.

I know that there are still a lot of things that can be added on my list. Things that may seem unimportant to us but undeniably very important to those who need them.

I am not asking you to scratch your Christmas lists, but at least add them to your list and remember that there are people who expects none of these material things rather all the support and love that they can get.

As one people, let us stand together and hand-in-hand let us give succour to those who needed them most.

Let us all spread happiness, peace and love this Yuletide season and hopefully as long as we live.

Until next time!

List on!

~Lyndon Jason

Change

There is nothing more constant in this world than change...

It all began on August 2, 2008, a Saturday, the day Lyndon Speaks was born out of boredom. During those days, Lyndon Speaks was just a mere pastime. It was just a place where I can record the experiences that I had. It was just a website created from a crappy Windows XP desktop computer and contained only three elements - the header, the blog post, and the archive of posts - all written in simple HTML. Lyndon Speaks was like a road on a remote Philippine province where traffic is an unknown word to people. Back then, Lyndon Speaks only had a hand-full of readers - and that already included my parents. Hahaha!

But times have past, Lyndon Speaks has slowly evolved from its humble beginnings as a blog that only talked about my personal experiences to one that has also shared what I have learned from them; from selfish all-about-me stuffs to helpful how-can-I-inspire others stuffs. Lyndon Speaks has shared things that would help people go on their everyday lives - of course, all based from what had transpired to me, to my friends, to other people, or to the world. From the crappy desktop computer, Lyndon Speaks is now being created from a MacBook capable of producing much more creative designs; from a simple HTML code, to a more complex XML design. The once almost-nothing internet traffic has grown to thousands of page views per day - coming from all around the globe - and I am sure that my relatives would not count close to these numbers of page views. =)

Change is the most inevitable thing in this world. No one can escape from it. Change may do us good or may take as to the opposite side of the road. Yes, sometimes it may be difficult to know in an instant whether change will do us and the people around us good. But we all need to take the risk of changing because only when we change will we grow. If change did not bring you to the road that you wished to take, you can always steer the wheel to a different direction and change for the better.

Having said all of that, let me (and I am dying to say this) welcome all of you back to a changed Lyndon Speaks! The long wait is finally over. February this year when I started on updating Lyndon Speaks, but because of the many changes that transpired, I never had found the energy and the time to continue on the updates. But just like what I had said earlier, we can always take the wheel to a different direction. And that is what I did early this morning. And here it is: the new Lyndon Speaks - louder and bolder! So, what's new? Here they are:

Cool design.

A new template created by Urangkurai and customized by yours truly to further enhance the design and add more rich functionalities to take your reading experience at its finest. I have added several new XML, CSS and HTML codes to make your stay as pleasing as possible. Several new changing banners were introduced together with the upper links to Lyndon Speaks pages for easy access.

Share, share and share.

The new Lyndon Speaks is now capable of letting you share my blog posts via email, a reblog in Blogger, and via the two most popular social networks of this generation: Twitter and Facebook. You can find the social icons in both the summary of posts in the home page and at the end of every post. You can visit old posts using the Blog Archive at the side of the website.

Lyndon Speaks on the go.

You can now use your smartphones to scan the Lyndon Speaks code and save it on your devices for easy access in the future. You could still bookmark Lyndon Speaks on your iDevices by following the previous blog post here. Now, we'll be even closer than before.

Join in on the fun.

View twelve of my latest Instagram pictures on the Instagram widget just above the footer of the website. Feel free to comment and find me @lyndonjason. You could also join in on the conversation at Twitter - just look for @lyndonspeaks and for my personal account @lyndonjason.

Follow and enjoy.

You can still follow Lyndon Speaks on Facebook and Twitter, and receive updates via the RSS feed. If you are having troubles with the site, have comments and suggestions, or you just want to say hi, email Lyndon Speaks using your preferred web mail. I'll get back to all your concerns as soon as possible (but I prefer Facebook and Twitter conversations).

Enjoy more.

To get the most of Lyndon Speaks, use the latest version of the best web browsers in town - Firefox, Chrome, Safari. The least version compatibility can be found at the sidebar. As much as I want to support the Internet Explorer, but honestly, I am having a hard time in dealing with the stubborn browser. Hahaha!

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed all the latest updates that Lyndon Speaks has to offer.

And for the remaining days of 2012, let me assure you that I will be with you all the way as we prepare to welcome the changes that 2013 has for us.

For those of you who have been with Lyndon Speaks for the past four years: Wow! Four long years! And we are still in this together. I cannot think of how to thank you guys, but let me do it through the posts that I ahve to share in the coming days. And for those who are new: welcome and I really hope that you will enjoy your stay here in my humble cyber-abode.

Change is always just around the corner. Grab it, and with that change, together let us make a difference!

Until my next post. See yah!

Change on!
~Lyndon Jason