Music at McDonalds

So, I was at McDonalds at 7:15 AM today to get some breakfast. There was a guy sitting alone a table, probably in his 40s at least, having pancakes and reading his free newspaper.

He calls over to a guy behind the counter, gives a knowing look and points indistinctly towards the ceiling.

The employee behind the counter returns a puzzled expression. What?

"Music!", the guy says.

Employee's face is like, Really? He turns to a manager-looking person behind him and says something. Guy over there wants music. It's kind of early in the morning, McDonalds probably doesn't normally have their music at this time of the day. But how would I know, who notices that sort of stuff anyway.

Then they turn on the music.

I have no point to this story. Just thought it was weird.

Before and After: NLEX-C5 Interchange

Here's another stunning before-and-after find in Google Earth. This is located somewhere in northern Metro Manila, at the under construction interchange of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and C5 road.

Check it out in Google Maps. The map layer overlay still shows where the old roads used to be.

It's practically a whole village wiped out. The history of satellite imagery shows that a lot of the houses here have been existing since at least 2001. This must be one of those things I hear on the news about people causing a riot over their homes being demolished. Hard to blame them.

Dumaguete in 2005 and 2010

Dumaguete City's satellite imagery has finally been given an update in Google Maps and Earth, jumping from February 2005 to June 2010. Here's a collection of the more significant changes I noticed, just as I did for Cebu a few months ago.

Dumaguete Business Park

The huge chunk of barren land practically adjacent to downtown and formerly owned by Julio Sy, now transformed into Robinsons Place Dumaguete and the Teletech call center office-- the beginnings of Dumaguete Business Park, hopefully launching the city into a glorious future.

Port

There's a land reclamation project going on at the port area, which I actually haven't been much aware of, but it has added a large bit of area to the seaport. Also, there's a new passenger terminal.

Convention Center and Oval

Previously a dusty old track oval known as the Perdices Coliseum. Now features a nice rubberized track with the Negros Oriental Hotel and Convention Center surrounding it.

Airport

The airport runway has been widened by around 10 meters and equipped with lights for night landings. There also seems to be little hangar for small aircraft now.

Diversion Road

The diversion road (or circumferencial road) is a project that's been talked about forever. Supposed to connect Sibulan to Bacong without passing through the congestion of Dumaguete, it finally seems to have gotten off the ground a little bit. A roughly 900 meter stretch of road has been cleared so far, with a width of 20 meters.