I used to think that I was a pretty fast texter. In fact, there was even a time many years ago when I thought it to be unthinkable for anybody to text any faster than I and my Nokia 5110 could, pardon the egotistical lapse.

And then I read that the world record for texting was held by a Singaporean woman. And my world view shattered.

Well okay, not exactly. But it was a pretty challenging, er, challenge. And I couldn’t help but think that since we are a country of text messengers, it is only fitting that a Filipino should hold the record. So think of this as a call for time trials!

Here’s the challenge: Use a cellphone with a standard numeric keypad. Turn off T9 (or whatever predictive text method is in place). And then type the following as fast as you can:

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

This is supposedly the official Guinness 160-character text-speed sentence. And the Singaporean woman, Kimberly Yeo Sue Fern, typed it out in 43.2 seconds on June 27, 2004.

Now I’m thinking, whether or not we do the impossibly fast 43.2, I’d like us to at least try our hands in typing out the above. And then let us know how fast you can go!

And if any of you out there does manage to break 43.2 seconds, I’ll see to it that we at mph are going to bring the Guinness team here to the Philippines and we can have a go for the record!

(My time so far– 72 seconds, with typo corrections et al. )