Advance Greeting For Year 2006

Ok, here goes...

Advance Happy New Year to all! Keep your dogs safe and sound for the coming year of the Fire Dog - 2006

Arf,arf...

Quiet Christmas Morning

Early Christmas day, I woke up early and prepared myself to go to the gym. It was already planned that I would be burning up calories for an hour to banish all the fats that I have accumulated from eating all those Christmas food treats at home (who can resist though my wonderful angel hair classic spaghetti recipe which was a hit among my family and close relatives).

But alas, I should have known, that the nearest gym branch was closed (should have known, or was I not really thinking and paying attention that that day was Christmas Day and I should be cutting the gym attendants some slack). With nothing else to do, I decided to go home. So I trudged along the path towards the waiting station of the FX transportation.

What I enjoyed though during that long walk was the serenity of the environment - chirping of the morning birds, the gentle breeze, the unusual absence of the morning traffic sound. That made my day. It sounds and feels cheesy alright. But hey, Christmas mornings should be like this, if not everyday of my life.

No stress, no rush hours, no pollution.

Holiday Break

Taking a break at the moment for the Christmas holidays. See you next week.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Earth Shaking King Kong Movie, Part 2

Watching the film remake of King Kong (almost as long as viewing the move Titanic and each part of the entire Lord Of The Rings movie series) was already a struggle, but the rewards are great and I find myself unabashedly teary eyed in some scenes between Kong and Ann.

Below are my thoughts (and some spoilers, so I am warning you):

• The first parts of the movie painstakingly narrates the Depression Era in the US, and how a jobless theatre actress and fledgling movie director meet each other to start an adventure to an undiscovered island. Along the way, they would meet other colorful characters - the ship's captain, the helpers, the sailors, the playwright etc.


• Much of the movie's meat and sauce happened in that mysterious Skull Island where huge predatorial creatures - the natives (looking much like the dirty orcs from the LOTR movie series), dinosaurs (borrowed dinosaurs from Jurassic Park?), insects (think of house pests the size of a St. Bernard dog or a rhinoceros), slimy leech-like worms (pinkish with crooked teeth) - abound every corner of the place. Expect plenty of fleeing scenes of the helpless human protagonists from these merciless creatures.


• Overkill in effects and execution. Example: the stampeding brontosauruses scene is a little bit comical for me. I think in real life, it's more likely that none of the characters would survive the onslaught even if everyone is a dexterous Olympic runner. And how about those moments when Ann is helplessly held in one hand of Kong while this beast trashed through the jungle? One way or another, Kong would have carelessly bashed poor Ann's head or scar her face on a protruding rock or tree branch. But hey, this is Hollywood, and the good guys always magically able to survive any impossible situation. Let's just forgive the script.


• As noted in Jessica Zafra's Blog, the now famous LOTR's Gollum actor Andy Serkis has played two characters in this film: Kong and the boat's cook. Taking a hint from that post, I kept an eye for Andy; indeed he chameleoned himself into Lumpy the cook. But his character died in the most slimy, horrendous way (not for the squeamish). And yes, his Kong beast character died too at the end. The Nazi guy of The Pianist, Thomas Kretschmann plays the boat's captain (no wonder he looked familiar, besides of course the pianist himself, Adrien Brody).


• Naomi Watts is a real beauty to behold. There are some angles that I could have mistaken her for Nicole Kidman (those curly 50's blonde hairs). I have this liking for blondes. :-)


• Be prepared to get teary eyed in this movie.


• Best scene: the frozen lake scene where Kong playfully slides and whirls on the ice while Ann sits on Kong's hand.


• Kong died as expected. Well, this is a (second) remake of the original film (1933).

Overall, I rate this 4 out of 5 stars.

Want more information on King Kong? Try this site.

Earth Shaking King Kong Movie, Part 1

Hmmm, if this is an indication that the massive special-effects laden movie King Kong is really a ground-breaking hit, then I'll gladly watch the film this coming weekends. The story may be bad, but I'll hold off any judgments plus criticisms after I watch the film. And then I'll review it afterwards and post my thoughts.

I hope when I watch the film, no (similar) disaster would happen.

"Angel of God, my guardian dear..."

Look At This Sheep

I am holding below a harmless looking sheep (reminds of Pokemon) keychain handed to me by a co-worker. He found this while searching for items in Market!Market! Lo and behold, this could be a perfect kris kringle gift or simply a Christmas gift until...

It's made from China. It was branded as one of those naughty animals that simulate excrementing. Or pooing. Or s*$%ing if you want it that way.

December Weather

It's raining outside. And someone told me that since it's already December, it should have snowed. But since our country is near the equator, the warm weather supposedly melted the snow flakes and turned them into liquid water. Thus it's raining instead of snowing.

Hahaha. Haha. Ha. Hmmmm. Makes sense to me.

Summarized Thoughts

Dear diary, today, it was...

Wait, this isn't a diary. Of course, not a dainty one. This is a blog. Main difference between a diary and a blog is that a diary is more of a confidant of thoughts and other stuffs deemed too personal to be marked for public consumption. Meanwhile, a blog is a repository of mostly (anything goes) stuffs that we all want to share to other Internet visitors, may it be a post about one's opinions, a news event that happened around the neighborhood, rants and complaints about some service, daydreaming thoughts and aspirations, and tons of pictures of anything to share and brag about.

But today, even yesterday and tomorrow, is marked hectic full of scheduled things to accomplish at work and at home. Momentarily, I just sneaked in this post in an attempt to break away from the monotony of analyzing and writing dead-end computer codes. Call it a "blogging" coffee break.

And what happened since the last post? Here is the list:

• Decided to go along with friends at work to supposedly watch Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Olivares (The [Feminine] Puberty of Maximo Olivares? Some say The Blossoming of Maximo Olivares) but ended up watching the last full show of Just Like Heaven. I dismissed latter film, thinking it would be a dragging mushy love story after looking at some of the movie's simple flyers (I almost thinked the same thing with Maximo though many regarded that movie a great film). I was wrong; the movie's script was witty and the jokes refreshing and not annoying. It's not the usual boy meets girl type of movie wherein dialogues are purely sweet nothings. The moral: Don't judge the movie. It's not a person. Er, I mean, see the movie, judge it later, puke at home if it's total crap.


• Later that night, me and my co-workers went to Temple bar in Greenbelt. My companions drank hard liquor; I drank water. Yeah, no joke. Not being purely a health buff person, I decided to avoid drinking since I was already sleepy. I feared I'll just aggravate my sleepiness and never wake up until sunlight. A couple of hours and the group decided to kill time in a dingy Videoke bar somewhere near Kamagong street, Makati (forgot the place, it was recommended by an officemate who happens to frequent this after work). Now, this I got to say: if ever you need to find a decent place for videoke belters and music lovers, choose a place where the locals don't sing songs out of tune and deliberately not follow the beat of the music. The place we got to was a torture chamber for our ears. All I could see across the faces of my companions in that dimly lit room where expressions of sourness as if we were served vinegar instead of beer. Imagine this: somebody behind you is nearly drunk, belting his own version of "That's What Friends Are For" in random tunes and six to seven words behind than the currently highlighted word on the videoke screen.

Last before I stop typing. I congratulate our country for winning overall the recent 2005 SEA Games. Next stop, Thailand 2007 SEA Games. We better be prepared for their so-called "revenge" amidst the rumors that we have cheated.

Chasing New Rainbows

Riding an FX this morning along the stretch of South Super Highway, a soft drizzle caused quite a spectacle as seen by the photos above.

These are no two rainbows. These photos show two different parts of the same rainbow. While the sun was slowly rising, one end of the visible part of the rainbow slowly disintegrates while the other end appears. In effect, the visible part seems to move from right to left in a circular way.

Kris Kringle Names

I know some office companies, school classes, friends or families practice exchanging Christmas gifts to one another in a special Christmas party gathering.

In some events, participants were either assigned a "baby" (person to whom a Christmas item is given) or drew their own "baby" randomly from a collection of rolled-up papers of codenames. For the first option, there is a name keeper that holds a record of "parents" and their corresponding "babies" (this name keeper usually does not participate in the Kris Kringle).

In our office, this year, I (in)voluntarily became the name keeper because I voluntarily created some outrageous and downright silly codenames. The initial batch of names were already funny, but as I created more names, the process grew on me. The funny response I get from my co-employees inspired me to continue on with devising codenames that I volunteered to become this year's name keeper.

While last year's batch of codenames were a combination of body parts and descriptions in Tagalog (example, Maitim na Singit or Blackened Groin Area in translation and Pangong Ilong or Flattened Nose in English), this time the codenames are a combination of animal names with uber weird descriptions (in Taglish speak).

Here's a list of some of my favorite codenames I created. You might use them in your own Kris Kringle if you haven't gotten enough name ideas for your parties.

• Alimangong tumatahol (Barking crab. Eh?)


• Arwanang may pimples (Arowana fish with acne problem)


• Balyenang may elesi (Whale with helicopter fan blades)


• Bangus na sinisipon (Milkfish with colds)


• Buteteng may braces (Tadpole with teeth braces)


• Camel na may manibela (Camel with steering wheel)


• Chihuahuang adik sa cherifer (Chihuahua addicted to local growth syrup medicine)


• Cobrang may goiter (Cobra with goiter. What else? Duh?)


• Coyoteng bungal (Coyote with no teeth and all gums)


• Elepanteng naka-bra (Elephant wearing a bra. Yes, it's true.)


• Garapatang naka-tsupon (Dog lice with pacifier)


• Hipong may balbas (Shrimp with beard)


• Kabayong naka-diaper (Horse wearing a diaper. Must be a pony.)


• Kiti-kiting naka-swimsuit (Mosquito larvae wearing a yellow polka dot bikini)


• Kunehong may battery (The Energizer rabbit)


• Kwagong ututin (Farting owl. Ever seen one? Ala, the Rock of WWF: Can you smeeeellll what's this owl is cooking?)


• Lintang may bigote (Leech with moustache)


• Pagong na may high heels (Turtle wearing stilettos)


• Pating na may pustiso (Shark with false teeth)


• Poodle na bouncer (Soft and fluffy poodle working as a disco bar bouncer)


• Pumang naka-addidas (Play of words: Puma cat wearing Addidas shoes)


• Sawang nangungulangot (Snake picking its nose. How does it do that? Beats me)


• Skunk na amoy cologne (Skunk wearing Axe deo-cologne)


• Starfish na rectangle (Starfish that is rectangular in shape. Freak of nature I guess)


• Tahong na may pangil (Mussel with fangs. Classic.)


• Tunang naka-wheelchair (Tuna fish on a wheelchair)

Things You (May) Ought To Think About

Searching the Internet to research (really huh?) and find any tip or clue on how to solve a particular problem may land you in some sites either trash or treasure or something like this.

Eventually, you end up with more questions than answers.

Here's a classic one I'm more familiar with and I usually find as a joke rehashed in comic strips: "Can you face a problem if the problem is your face?". Ha, if you ask me, I don't have that problem. Except acne. Acne when you're already into adulthood. Acne that attacks with revenge into adulthood.

Grrr.

The Flaming Toe

Hooray for the Internet, I could browse easily for any ready information regarding medical maladies. Currently, I am experiencing excruciating inflammation at the middle toe of my left foot. It's swollen and swelling. I got a cut mysteriously nicked at the one side of my middle toe where the nail and skin meets (I know things are getting gross from here so bear with me).

Is this paronychia? Paron-whatever.

Blood has formed but has dried up. I believe pus has formed but it's not visible on the outside. I don't want to touch my swollen appendage nor try to pry open the wound for fear of aggravating it. All I could do was clean the wound and occasionally swab the area with a cotton ball dabbed in alcohol. And every time I do that, I feel like I'm stabbing my toe with a singed knife. It's painful, but sometimes, I'll do it again and again.

I know, this is one weird behavior among us humans - we know an act can be painful, but we sometimes repeat the same behavior either consciously or unconsciously.

But I'm glad I'm still able to walk around. Walking around not in a perfect posture that is. I plan to visit a doctor and have this checked up.

Timeout For A Block

[*cough* *cough* *cough*]

Blogger's block (if there's such a thing).

Momentarily scratching my head...

[*cough* *cough* *cough*]

McDonald's Stripsearch

Forwarded by an officemate, I find this utterly disturbing and mind-boggling especially that the female assistant manager followed word for word every command from someone over the telephone just to.

Amazing. It took about more than 2 hours before she noticed something is not right with handling this poor female employee before she called the right authorities.

I think her logic (plus her disgusting fiancé) has been depleted from indulging too much in fattening burger patties and high-cholesterol french fries.

The Wedding In My Mind

Nope. It's not my wedding. It's a wedding of one of my Magic buddies in college held at the Santuario de San Antonio, Forbes, Makati City last Saturday.

Elegance in simplicity, everyone was in their best formal attire. Relatives from outside the country attended the said wedding. It's one happy reunion among the relatives, friends, and officemates of the bride and groom.

The reception was held in the Manila Peninsula. Being held in a five-star hotel, one could expect the best in ambience, facilities and services. Buffet style dinner was served with the entries personally selected by the newlyweds. Since both of them are health-buffs and gym-goers, the selection was truly on the healthier side: mostly leafy vegetables and cold cuts for appetizers and chicken, lean beef and fish-based dishes for the main course.

But the main focus is of course with our friend and his lovely wife. I can't help but smile every time a new picture of the couple is projected over a white mantel. The sincere, happy look between the two as they gaze each other while strolling over a beach backdrop.

Kind of weird to have this feeling of being sentimental all of a sudden whenever I remember events such as these. Maybe because I knew I'm getting old and seeing some of friends have already tied the knot puts pressure to me to be serious and finally plan out the rest of my life.

In the world where mistrust, infidelity, and cynicism ruins a marital relationship (and eventually leads to bitter separation), it's refreshing to enjoy and share a moment in time in witnessing a covenant of love between two people, hoping their relationship would be strong and last for a lifetime.

Good luck and God bless to them. Amen.

The Dog Bats

Finally, the lowly Philippine fruit bat is getting some attention.

My first close encounter with the creature was way back when I was around ten or eleven (I think). I was with my cousins playing around in the sprawling front yard of one of our cousin's grandparent's house in Bulacan. We all noticed some bats perched upside down a tree. We all took a closer look of the critters when suddenly one bat started to stretch out its rubbery wings as if aroused from deep slumber. The bat looked nothing like the frightening vampire bats (pug nose and fangs) most are used to seeing in horror movies. This one resembles a dog - a hairy unshaven dog with dark circular eyes and a pointy snout. Hmmm. I believe that's why these are technically named as dog-faced fruit bats.

I vaguely remember the rest of that fateful day as all I could recall was one of these bats fell down from the tree (I don't remember my cousins throwing stones at these creatures). A cruel fate awaits the bat though as some dogs inside the house were already waiting patiently below the tree–the dogs suddenly pounced at the screeching bat, trashing it on the dusty pavement. We all frantically stopped the dogs from tearing up the poor bat.

Luckily, the bat survived the onslaught. The bat lay struggling on the pavement. One of us picked up the creature and slowly perched it on a lowly branch of a tree. Instinctively it attached itself upside down; its bloodshot eyes showed pain while it silently whimpered (as if it's saying "What the f$%* did you do that for?"). I can't stand the scene; I left the vicinity without a word but with a heavy heart.

----

I could still see these species of bats down south of the city. I would see them flying low during the late afternoon, at dusk, while I walk to the gym in Westgate area, Alabang. Before I even arrive at our house, I would sometimes catch them whiz by from one tree to another in our subdivision (evening).

----

Some trivia: I remember this old comedic horror movie Saturday the 14th which I watched as a kid (with my two hands covering my eyes but sometimes curiously peeking out in between my fingers). In one scene in an attic, a man and a woman were looking at a bat. The woman asked her companion: "Oh, look. Isn't that that boy Bavarian from Budapest?". The man answered back: "No, that's a fruit bat from the Philippines." Quote here.

Just Passing By

Will be back on Monday. Looooong vacation indeed. Nothing beats a time off from everything to rejuvenate.

Something For The Halloween

Class, here's something for the coming Halloween (though traditionally, this is not really celebrated in this country, but instead All Saint's Day is observed):

So don't drink too much coffee or you'll end up nervous and jittery of even the tiniest sound you'll hear while working alone inside a room.

I'll be back again after taking some break and visiting and praying over some dearly departed ones.

Booya!

10 Flavors Of The Jelly Bean

For Halloween, I think it's a nice (and nasty) treat for kids to receive this special Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's 10 Flavor Discovery Box filled with jelly bean candies of assorted flavors. But no, these flavors are not of the familiar sweet flavors such as raspberry or chocolate. For those fans of Harry Potter, they knew what's in these flavors - either you'll get booger, earwax, or maybe vomit.

[Spoilers of flavors ahead - beep, beep!]

I got hold of such a box from a friend. I tasted some of the interesting flavors - the grass (Bermuda grass as someone joked), the soap (Safeguard I guess), and the black pepper (really, it has black pepper particles so it tasted slight gritty).

I've tasted every flavor in the box especially those that most deemed too gross for tasting. The booger tasted booger (how would I know the taste of booger? Sweet though), earwax (the beans have slightly melted so they closely resembled the real thing), spaghetti (no meatballs?), vomit (now this I could say tasted like spaghetti, only chewed and spitted out), sardines (this has got to be the nastiest in the bunch, in my opinion) and the dirt (very interesting since it tasted really like... what else but dirt and grains of sand). For a truly nature fresh feeling, try combining the dirt and grass flavors. Then wash up with a dose of soap flavored jelly beans.

If I'll contribute to this "every flavor" beans, I'll let them create some of the true Filipino flavors such as balut, bagoong, pansit canton, or siling labuyo for the adventurous.

Flowerhorn, Arowana, And Other Fish Stories

I used to have assorted freshwater fishes kept as pets in a small rectangular aquarium tank and equipped with a motorized oxygen maker. The aquarium has held quite a number of different fishes ranging from the common goldfishes to guppies and including a monster looking janitor fish that seems to be the only one that gets bigger each day I peer inside to check at their growth progress. This aquarium was placed inside our house's living room; guests would have some momentary entertainment watching these tiny creatures.

There is a local pamahiin (omen) that says it is unlucky to have an aquarium inside the house. Or so they say. I find it silly. Yet, majority in the house ruled; it was decided to place the tank outside, at the house's front porch.

Days passed and I noticed some of the fishes either were missing or turn up floating corpses. My theory that some animal, particularly a cat, could have gone fishing at the open tank. My theory was right: I witnessed one day a stray cat cautiously waiting and lunging its paws in the waters atop the aquarium. I quickly shooed the cat away before it decimated the rest of the fishes. I think the only one strong enough to survive was the janitor fish.

I think that pamahiin was meant for the fate of the fishes and not us.

----

Yesterday, after lunch break, my office barkada group went to see an exhibit of colorful flowerhorns, arowanas, goldfishes and other colorful fishes held in Glorietta Mall. I knew what arowana species look like but I never saw a single flowerhorn up close until then. I kept on hearing from a friend that flowerhorns are currently the most expensive and sought after breed among fish collectors and breeders. I only saw images of these species from the television. But I never thought I'll be astonished to see one as shown below.

Frankly, the fish looks ugly – the head looks like a mushroom head that's about to burst any minute now (reminds me of the martians from Mars Attacks!). By the way, this one was declared the champion flowerhorn as indicated by the label on top of its tank. I have seen other pictures of flowerhorns with smaller head bumps but this one is ridiculous.

Below is angled shot of another flowerhorn with a smaller head bump.

Another, up close and personal.

I've set up a flickr set of other pictures taken from the fish exhibit. The set also includes a lone arowana picture (that fish kept on swimming around making it impossible for me to get a good picture of its entire body) and some huge goldfishes (I've included one toilet humor shot of a goldfish taken by an officemate).

City Rainbow

A rare phenomenon in this part of the city. Pardon my camera phone, it's not as good as any digital camera, yet I have no other choice but to use it before sunlight erases the spectacle.

It looks like it's going to rain early this morning as some low lying dark clouds slowly congregate around the vicinity. Good thing I caught this beauty before it eventually vanishes.

Relaxing In Pain And What A Start

What a long respite from blogging. I got to relax my mind a bit and stayed away from posting anything that happened since five days passed. I needed that. And I loved long vacation.

But instead of thoroughly enjoying my weekend, my body instead ached from muscle fatigue (gym). I also felt very tired to go out and do any outdoor activities. Later in the evening, my stomach ached and cramped heavily as if some force is clutching my inner intestines. Puzzling pain, but I was not able to leave anything in the sacred burial grounds (that is my subtle of way of saying "leave something in the bathroom"). You could tell I am quite ranting here but I was in absolute pain for the rest of the night. The following day was no good either as my oversleeping left me with a throbbing headache.

Though at pain, there were moments during the weekend that I enjoyed my relaxation period. I got a DVD version of Land of the Dead (a good horror film from the master zombie creator George Romero but with zombies evolving - communicating and thinking in a primitive way; there are gory scenes that I think would be cut in the versions being shown in local movie theatres); watched it including all features inside the DVD. I continued next with viewing 28 Days Later (zombies here look more like sick people with contagious viruses instead of walking dead, plus they chase preys instead of walking); finally checking again some scenes from one zombie film I watched last year, Dawn of the Dead (now the zombies here look like a cross breed between those dead corpses from the Land of the Dead and 28 Days Later running monsters).

Yes, I got a morbid way of entertainment.

Finally, just to speak out my mind regarding today's interesting start of day, I'll leave my two cents (long story short): public properties do not give anyone the right to lord it over such spaces. Everyone is entitled to such space. I've heard people quipping side comments when other people are at the other end of a long seat trying to pass by politely and calmly to exit the vehicle. Is there something heavy in their buttocks for them to find it inconvenient to move out momentarily from the vehicle to allow other people to exit?

It's amusing to be involved in a verbal tussle with disrespectful and inconsiderate people thinking that they are landowners of public space especially in public utility vehicles.

Thank goodness, in the end I got the last laugh. In Japanese words, such baka.

Beauty And Madness Around Me

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world."

I love this quote. For the last few days, I have been entranced with the way these words were spoken from the film American Beauty which curiously I have perused information again about the movie, remembering the memorable scenes that made me chuckle in utter disbelief and cry silently inside.

Pissed off. Get mad. Blow off your top. See red. These are the feelings that in today's world we usually see and feel more often because of the stress in life and problems we encounter everyday.

Ehem. I should be pissed off, really. Things got out of control lately. Things both in the realm of physical/material world and the emotional dimension. That's all I have to say and share.

But these words offer a message of hope or rather a taste of a fact in life - whatever happens, life is still beautiful. Learn from mistakes, cheer up, shake off the dusts, stand tall again and embrace the beauty and tranquility of life around you.

It is hard to stay mad when around you (look harder) are God's beautiful creations (they may not be always be physical; chances are they may be situations in time that made you smile and cheer up a bit).

I should relax.

I need it.

Monster Playmate

Inspired by looking at the drawings of Diong and Miel, here's another drawing I've done before:

Class, this blog is beginning to be a hodge-podge of posts, pictures and drawings. This is beginning to be a scratch book. Hahaha.

October A Comin

I heard someone say "It's October 3 already". In this part of the world, somewhere in the Pacific, it is October 3. Time sure flies fast. One day, I awoke to a rainy morning last Saturday October 1. Now I am wide awake, still trying to sink into my system that today it is October 3. Two days have passed already. What did I accomplish during the two days?

Not much.

I'm still clearing up my thoughts for now. I'll be preparing for what adventures and events will happen today. Signing off (just today).

September Heroes

Before September ends (reminds me of the song Wake Me Up When September Ends), I'd like to congratulate some of my fellow Filipinos for giving a good name to the country in various fields:

• Manny Pacquio - Who else to top the list by this inspiring Filipino boxer and current hero of the country. Who doesn't know this guy? He's even in the list of fighters of the featherweight division in the EA Sports Fight Night Round 2 Playstation 2 game (never mind his awful yet funny dance routine in the game).


• Boxers Brian Viloria and Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista for knocking out their respective opponents, on the same night hours before the Pacquiao-Velazquez fight. Were these signs of the impending victory for Pacman Manny? Joyous night indeed.


• While lamenting over the influx of too meztiza-looking and foreign blooded types of Filipina beauties, it's refreshing to note that a Filipina came victorious after being crowned Miss International 2005 in Tokyo. Our country sure has more supplies of beautiful women (inner and outer beauty).


• And hear this (or rather read this), the news reported of a little known victory of a Filipino winning an international essay contest. I downloaded his essay and shall read it later. He might have written something controversial yet creatively to catch the attention of the judges.

Speaking of Pacquiao, he is one of the finalists listed in Time's Asia Heroes. As of this writing, he is in a neck-to-neck battle with Korean superstar Rain (Justin of Full House, a Korean tele-series of... ehem, silly pa-cuteness with a female companion in a single house; seems that many young Filipinos go gaga over cutesy antics than substance). I'm not familiar with this guy so I could not draw any inspiring conclusions from this individual.

So you could already guess to whom my vote goes to (no, not with the two feuding female political figures Aquino and Arroyo - they're more of the country's headaches than inspiring Asians).

On the other hand...

I can't help but post my sentiments of the hitting incident that happened yesterday during the first game of the UAAP 2005 Basketball Finals between DLSU and FEU. The game was won by FEU. Losing is quite hard to swallow, but it is an unacceptable act to hit a player out of flared up emotions just for a game. I share the sentiments in the last paragraph of Tin Gamboa's news report.

This is a game where it is expected that someone would win and another would lose. This is a game between schools forged in a pact of sportsmanship and friendly competition in which everyone is expected to act chivalrous and accept whatever the outcome of the game with dignity. A friendly game that should never be mistaken as a do-or-die situation or winning is all that matters only.

We expect this from older individuals whose experiences with life make them think and act maturely unlike the younger ones. But no, this time someone did the mistake to act immaturely and let his heightened emotions control him.

Whatever apology was stated, the deed was done. The name of the school has been tarnished, with the media unstoppable in magnifying the issue (even if he is, as the forum stated, is totally independent from the school). For the moment, let's keep our mouth shut, relax a bit, loosen some muscle, cool some heads, and pick up the broken pieces.

Let this be a lesson in responsibility for any individual, a member or not, who represents the name of an honored institution.

Charcoal For You and Me

"My momma always told me to use charcoal to deodorize a stinking smell"

Or so all mothers would say practically to remove the stink from the refrigerator especially the fishy odor.

That's what I found out upon entering the office room. Sprawled behind me is a pile of charcoal on an old newspaper sheet. Apparently, this was placed to suck in the nauseating scent of some paint product like turpentine.

And some playful individual decided to draw on a scratch paper using one of the blocks of charcoal (not me, I insist; that's not how I draw). A pig. With a moustache. With human ears.

Ah, the things you do to relieve stress.

Class, this should have been a photoblog. Bah.

43 Goals and Counting

A friend recommended me this site - 43 Things - and already, I have to say, I am quite hooked. This site is simply a list of goals in life per individual who registered with the site. Yes, we can make a list of our own by writing them down on a piece of paper (ala Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill where she list down the people whom she would kill. Uh, but that is a violent comparison), but this old idea was made practically new by letting your list be shown to others across the globe. Each list of things or goals you want to accomplish in life can be also included in another one's list of goals through linking (ala Friendster). And each goal can have an entry of its own (ala blog entries) in which any individual can pour his or her ideas or steps on how to achieve this goal. Even the craziest goal can be written down in your list.

Two of the most linked up goals that I've seen so far (and shared some of my ideas) are to lose belly fat and to be a better blogger. The former can have a post later on. The latter can be summed up as what I have shared in the site:

"Don’t blog if you feel not like sharing something. Blog only if it matters to you and you are really interested to share it. Don’t worry much if readers would not like what you have posted, as long as it matters to you."

Enough said.

Images in Chinatown

Along with a friend, we went to Chinatown, Manila yesterday to meet up with some of our friends at Wai Ying restaurant. Food is truly excellent and delicious. Inexpensive too. Don't expect much on the ambience. Loved the dimsum and the curry flavored fish fillets.

Took this photograph using my cellphone's camera. Bit dark. I really need a digital camera.

Almost there. Just a block away. The street we were passing through was filled with people and cars parked on both sides, even on a Sunday.

Can't get enough of my friend's new 4-doored Mazda 3 gray colored car. A sleek machine indeed.

GMail in Tagalog

I learned about this Gmail feature from Yugatech. After reading, I tried it out at once and, personally, I find the feature more annoying (and funny) than helpful. Instead of reading words in pure Tagalog, I get a muddled mixture of English and Tagalog words or Taglish. It's like I'm talking to a stereotypical colehiyala (Konyo English). Can't blame the translators though, for there are no direct Tagalog translations for common Internet words which most computer savvy Metro Manila folks would understand better in English. Take for instance, as shown in the image, the word Mail. I think it's koreo in Tagalog (I might be mistaken). But technically, the word is E-mail. So what should be the right Tagalog word? Kuryenteng Koreo? Eh? I don't know my Tagalog anymore.

Another word is burador. I tried to understand this word, until I gave up and went back to English language setting just to see what the word is in English. It was draft. Hahaha. I thought it was related to something connected to erasers (come to think of it, constant erasures would apply to sketches or drafts).

Now for the word spam, I know this is junk e-mail. But speak spam to ordinary folks here and most would recognize it as delicious canned luncheon meat or food resembling MaLing. And of course, the word basura. This is trash. No doubt about that. Trash indeed.

Now, like burador, etiketa made me scratch my head twice before I reverted back to English setting again. Etiketa meant label. I prefer label. I prefer to say, "Basahin mo ang label ng bote" than "Basahin mo ang etiketa ng bote" (eh?).

I suppose it's a way for Google Mail to include a Tagalog version for those individuals who don't speak in English (or who knows little English but prefers to use Tagalog). Good try though. But I'm thinking of using this language setting for a while until I get so annoyed I'll switch back to the real world of English.

Pardon me, Jose Rizal.

New Layout

A fresh start. A new site layout. In grays and bright hybrid orange/red color. Already checked the look and feel of the site in both IE browser and Mozilla Firefox. Currently, the layout works fine. The only strange behavior I see in Firefox is that the delete icon for comments is not displayed, unlike in IE browser.

And soon I found the same issue from other bloggers. I'll look into this if I have some spare time.

If you see something strange in the neighbor... I mean this blog's layout, please call my attention (commenting would be fine).

Congratulations Pacquiao!

Congratulations to Manny Pacquiao for winning (TKO) against his opponent, Hector Velazquez, in the concluded super featherweight bout yesterday. To me, his winning did more than lifting the spirits of his countrymen - entertainment-wise he made a good show worth watching while drinking and feasting with buddies. Meanwhile Erik Morales made a lackluster performance of his match and eventually lost.

You really can't win them all.

Anyway, we'll see if the rematch (scheduled by next year) between these two fighters would generate more fury and grit.

Ahem, let we dedicate the popular song, Noypi, of the band Bamboo to our boxing hero (we'll go directly to the chorus, and sing with pure angst):

...Hoy! Pinoy ako
Buo aking loob
May agimat ang dugo ko
Hoy! Pinoy ako
May agimat ang dugo ko...

People Power Doodle

The recent events in Metro Manila (and that is another story) led me to go back and rummage in my stock of drawings depicting events from People Power 2 (image above was more of a satire of what really happened then). I was present there along with a handful of officemates, as we were even encouraged by our employer to join and support the gathering. It was my first experience to be a part of a historical struggle. Indeed, I'll go down in history along with my officemates and friends.

And no, Optimus Prime did not join the rally (find him above).

Talent For Drawing

Cockfighting in Cyberspace

Tumbang Preso (Knocking the Can Down)

(Max, if you are asking if I still draw, here are the evidences. These are some of my works coming from my old blog)

I love to draw. I have this talent for drawing, sketching, and painting images of different colors and shapes. But since I am busy at work (for the past 6 years) and shifted my interest to other things, I have neglected much in improving my drawing skills. Add to that the fact that I have simply lost some inspiration to draw again.

But lately, I have found some sites (see some of the site links at the special interest blogs) showcasing their artworks. These gave me some of the needed inspiration to boost my interest again to pick up a pencil and sketch images.

I'll try to post some new artworks again if time permits.

Christmas Is Nearing To Town

Slightly groggy upon waking up, I was surprised to see the hosts of a daily morning show in the TV donning Santa Claus's hats. Behind them stood a Christmas tree complete with bright and colorful trimmings. Gifts abound their set table and the background music can be heard slightly to the tune of a Christmas song. I now realized that today is September. The first day of September to be exact.

This early celebration is perfectly normal around here in the Philippines, so please, don't nominate this situation in any list of world wide weird wonders.

So what is the significance of the first day of this month being the start of Christmas celebration? Beats me. Maybe it's because of this: Christmas is generally associated as a cold, chilly weather celebration. And when we feel cold, we shiver. We say "brrrr". "Brrrrrr....brrrrrr". And since the months of September to December end with "ber", some inventive Pinoy started to connect this with the icy sensation. "Brr" sounds like "ber", thus we get "Septembrr", "Octobrr", "Novembrr", "Decembrr". Then whoever made this logic started to don his house with Christmas decors, whistling Christmas tunes, making a Christmas list and checking it twice. He's gonna find out whose...

Anyway, class, particularly here in the Philippines, the "ber" months (months ending with "ber" - September to November) are the most anticipated ending months of the year. The yearly countdown to Christmas begins. Christmas music, local and foreign, can be sometimes heard in radio stations and shopping malls here. Numerous advertisements for Christmas bazaars start to pop up every where. Workers start to contemplate on how to save enough money to stack up on their Christmas gift lifts for their loved ones, friends, and even their godchildren who they usually try to run away from.

Expect more Christmas fiesta celebrations in the coming months here in the Philippines.

Brevity, Just A Thought

Being brief is something I have always wondered and tried to practice everytime I communicate with others. Sometimes, the things I would like to say to another can be told in a few words and yet I find myself going around the bush, using unnecessary words to clarify a point.

Maybe because I don't have the confidence whenever I speak up to another person. I used to talk less during my teenage years, speaking up only if necessary. I usually never initiate discussions. Because of these, I would always feel or rather would perceive that another person would not understand my trail of thoughts. Thus, instead of a simple answer to a question answerable by yes or no, I would rather reply with a speech.

If only I've got the power of short words just like... Ernest Hemingway.

Blogger Goodies

Looks like Blogger is trying to come up with its own gimmicks and lo and behold, I've discovered some hacks that Blogger is sharing with the community.

As of the moment, I am enjoying creating different mini-descriptions for the blog that you see above just below the title row (found at the black section). Simply refresh the page (or click the F5 button at your keyboard). See the changes with the description. Of course, you need to set your browser to allow javascript or scripts to be executed.

An Aging Issue In IT

A friend posted about some job recruiters with an additional requirement for their applicants to be not more than 30 years old. Like him, I know this has been a practice of some recruiters in the IT industry.

I find most of the job posts with this requirement in the classified ads of local newspapers. Some would indicate a preference for a certain range of age which they deem more suitable for certain technical positions like programmers, systems analysts or database administrators. This I find still surprising as if there is an existing standard among businesses to typecast individuals to certain positions by age.

I have been pondering about this since I started looking for potential employers after graduating from college. Full of dreams and full of confidence, I was glad then that I was under the age limit for computer programmers. But then I would ask myself, what if I started late for a college education and soon got my degree upon reaching 30 or so? Local IT employers would find it difficult to accept me then because I have reached their required age limit for starting positions? But where should I go then and where should I start so I could gain a much needed job experience? I could hear: "Too late, because you are 30 (or so), knucklehead".

What? I am now in the league of other chopped livers (as others would say) out there.

On the other hand, moving on to other companies armed with gainful experiences would not guarantee landing a job. Some would still require an age limit to positions such as programmers. But what if before you have been trained by your recent company to be an expert programmer and analyst (you have been pigeonholed to such a position, yet you have the expertise to be the best among programmers)? With such a good background, you could not be accepted because you are growing old to their standards?

Do they think that being in the range of 20 to 30 years of age is the life span of a sound computer programmer or application developer? Well tell that to my US counterparts who are older than me: fathers and mothers (and even grandfathers and grandmothers) who have children of my age.

Big Kuya Is Here

Kuya is a Filipino word for an older brother. English does not have an equivalent term for an older brother. Big Brother is not technically equivalent to Kuya since a Kuya can be smaller than you. If that is the case, then it's proper to say small Kuya. Anyway, class, this is not what I would be talking about.

I haven’t seen a single episode of the so-called popular Reality TV game series Big Brother from foreign countries. And now, local TV station ABS-CBN has officially launched its Filipino version (bought rights) of Big Brother yesterday complete with pompous street dancing and a drum and bugle band that could rival any street fiestas.

It’s too early for any assessment as to how successful the show will be, though some people are already dismissing it as will not hold much interest to viewers here (Why? Could it be that the show did not field any popular stars that the masa only watches and idolize?) Only time will tell.

Here’s a drill-down of the participants in the show:

• a bodybuilder who worked as entertainer in Japan


• a sexy vamp


• a Batangueño father *


• a corporate worker cum Corp commander


• an ex-councilor candidate


• a liberated cheerleader


• a bombshell men’s magazine model


• a self-confessed badboy now trying to be good


• a teacher from the province *


• a half-Filipino, half-Israeli contestant


• an ex-OFW, single mother


• a self-confessed jologs father

I marked with asterisks at those contestants who I am rooting for (two to be exact) now. I like underdogs in most Reality contest shows – the way these two presented themselves before the viewers (and during their short video clips) without any air of boastfulness and plain naturalness in the way they talked and acted made big impressions for me to develop an instant affinity towards them. I am not saying that the others are completely negative in character. Those are my initial impressions. Impressions may have lasting effects and yet people can always redeem themselves in the end through display of some hidden good qualities that are not shown initially. As I have said, it’s too early for any true evaluation.

It’s interesting as how things would develop among these complete strangers and how each would interact with one another (interesting to note how our strict MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and classification Board) would handle censorship of scenes deemed too risqué for broadcasting). And just like other Reality contest shows with eventual voting systems for elimination, we would be expecting much backstabbing and friendships/relationships tearing apart. For the contestants, it’s a known and sure-fire way to survive such a contest: form alliances. Think Survivor style here, but this time in a well-kept house environment.

There’s nothing new here, except Filipinos are the contestants. Game n k y sila? (Are they game?)

Help me, Mr. Sandman

Waking up from a nightmare is already bothersome but waking up from a night slumber for no apparent reason is truly uncomfortable. You may have this experience before of coming out of a deep sleep minus loud noises or physical intrusions from parents, siblings, friends or strangers.

Last night, I suddenly popped back into reality after 2 and half hours of sleep after I retired to bed at around nine in the evening. I couldn’t remember if I have dreamt anything. I could swear I didn’t hear any loud source to wake me out of my slumber. Everything was clearly silent inside and outside of my room.

I am aware that I have some form of sleep deprivation disorder for the past six years since I started to live in a province so far from the city where I work at. But I don’t have any for m of insomnia. With varying shifts of work depending on a current project, I would (sometimes) automatically wake up at a designated hour in time just before an alarm would go off. Only on weekends do I get a good span of forty winks and yet I still find myself waking up at odd hours in the morning, especially if I have some activities I need to accomplish the next day.

So, what I must I do to go back to my much needed slumber? I picked up my cell phone and started playing my favorite game of gem game. I planned to tire myself to sleep, yet being so engrossed with the game I soon found myself feeling more rested than tired (I was able to beat some old records). Doing this reminds me of the hyped sleeping technique of counting sheep which I tried before but failed to make me sleep. I would lose count or rather lose interest in counting those jumping sheep. To make matters worse, I am more awake than ever. It is really frustrating.

Eventually, I decided to enjoy the temporary moment of awareness and wait for my body to naturally relax back to its state of sleepiness. Slowly and surely, I finally succumbed to Somnus. The more you struggle your way to sleep the more you become tense, perturbed, and awake.

Any other techniques out there?

Hymn Music In Reggae

Someone passed me an MP3 version of our alma mater hymn in Reggae. I listened. I was appalled. I listened again. And eventually, I kind of like it (ok, I admit, I get irritated every time I hear the last lines of the song "Tama Na...". I feel, this is really unnecessary and simply pointless).

But it's a good thing I get to hear something new on our alma mater hymn which is really short and simple. So simple that blurting out "Hail, hail, hail" is enough to let others know you graduated from the green university. That seems not right. Um, I mean DLSU.

Choco Brushing

Unilever had launched three supposedly new flavors for Close Up toothpaste - Tangerine / Orange, Lychee and the outrageous Chocolate pictured above. The last flavor is the only one that caught my interest (I would agree that anyone would have an instant liking or curiosity for the flavor for this would be the first time to brush one's teeth with chocolate after eating... chocolate).

Class, and kids out there, if you want and like chocolate, have fun tooth brushing with this. Of course, don't mistake this for real chocolate and start to swallow its contents. Loco-loco.

Ever since I started using this, many of my friends are curious about the product's taste. It tastes minty chocolate. But of course, as soon as you relished the gel and started to brush your teeth, you would eventually lose the taste.

Jack And The Stalk

Jack (pseudo name for a friend who happens to have this problem) is being stalked (as in followed anonymously by other people) for he feels he became a "celebrity" because of his blog. I had this short talk with him some time ago and gave him some friendly advices.

Stalking is stalking as long as a person gets unwanted attention from strangers (classic example is following you in places you normally go or taking candid pictures of you from afar). Blog stalking is the same, but this time these weird people start looking for possible victims online via web logs.

To those who also feel being "stalked" or "followed" for any unknown reasons, here are my advices:

• Always remember that whatever you post online can be used by any malicious person to trace you and possibly know your whereabouts. Even if you deleted your post later on, it is still possible that some Internet spy or search bots could have already remember your posts and eventually still be displayed in search engines such as Google and Yahoo.


• Try not to use your real name. Use instead a pseudo name, like unstalk_me or please_do_not_stalk_me. You get the drill.


• Why show your face online when you can always display a different picture to represent yourself? Have it tweaked by using Photoshop, make it abstract or too colorful beyond recognition. Show a face of a celebrity even if you do not look like one. Display a picture of a human being even if you are a dog. Just kidding. Here are stock images of faces you can use - fotosearch.


• Always be aware of your surroundings wherever you go. Go out with friends or always have a companion with you. Go out with a dog in tow, a fish in a bowl, or a gorilla as a bodyguard. Simply don't be alone.

Any other tips out there?

Say A Little Prayer For Him

I was surprised when my officemate told me about his sudden demise last Friday afternoon.

* * * *

Amidst the choas of the times, let us all set aside our differences and political beliefs for a while, even for one day and say a little prayer (in any way we can, however we do it, whatever religion) to this great statesman of our country.

* * * *

As someone pointed out, isn't it too coincidental that there are already two candidates for the presidential elections last year who had already succumbed to natural causes (first was Fernando Poe, Jr.; now, it's Raul Roco)? I don't want to sound creepy, but let's pray that nothing like this would happen again.

Wearing The White Band

You may notice the white band over at the right side of this site (hopefully, class, you are using a newer version of a web browser). It's the make poverty history site band that I usually see at some blogs I browse and link to. Curious, I went to its homepage and made some adjustments to add this on to this site as support for their cause. Want to have the same white band? Click here and get the script code in the Support Us Online section.

Could this be some fad again like Lance Armstrong's yellow band that we see others are sporting (in other colors as well), but this time applied inventively to websites?

Hopefully, this effort would flourish and affect others to start doing something about worldwide poverty.

This got me thinking: we have been for years observing the widening gap between the rich and the poor and hearing countless appeals (add to that church sermons) from people fighting for the cause of the poor to help and share items (food, clothing, medicine, etc) to the needy and poor nations. And yet, we could see others wasting time and money showing off their wealth through gaudy parties, media-hyped gatherings and others (oh I see these people in one local newspaper).

I'm not against having wealth if for one's needs, as in necessary to survive each day. But to gather wealth (and simply wasting them) through any means necessary for the earthly pleasures of oneself, family or chosen few while living amidst in a nation where poverty is blatantly present and undeniable, that is what I am against for.

I know. This is a war against poverty that would take years (maybe centuries) if we don't cooperate to fight it as one.

Images of Transportations

Taking a hint from the comment of AnP, I decided to upload some images I have leisurely taken using my Nokia camera phone while I go out every day. Here are some:

Walking down CCP, I noticed this AFP truck parked nearby; while walking forward I tried to focus my camera back. Alas, I captured one big part of my left ear but the result looks interesting (as if I am listening to the sounds from this truck). Again, don't focus on my ear please.

With a friend, I noticed this stalled old vintage car in the middle of a road (which looks like a hearse but is not). The front right wheel is broken and misaligned; notice the skid marks below (white marks).

I captured this image of the arriving LRT (Light Rail Transit) train (from Monumento) at the other side of the station while waiting for my ride towards Gil Puyat Avenue (formerly known as Buendia Avenue, though I still use Buendia more comfortably when asking for the route of city buses here).

Silence, Just A Thought

Funny when something so used to be loud can be so silent and often when becomes silent can be so loud.

Just a sudden thought after our office air-conditioning was turned off a few minutes ago; a deafening silence surrounded us all. And when it started again, I could hear the natural hissing and droning of our office's air-conditioning shafts.

Everyday, routine work and play sure makes one ignore some people, places, or things in life. Sometimes, it pays to give attention and time to these people (give a helping hand to parents, say something nice to loved ones, greet a good day to friends), places (go out in the sunshine, walk over bay walk, have a picnic with friends in a park), or things (take care of one's belongings, read old books from the attic, clean up home appliances) before it's too late to hear again their presence.

We may never know when they will stop making their sounds in life.

My SONA Views

I know there are a hundred (or maybe thousands) of SONA blog posts out there from fellow Pinoy bloggers sharing their thoughts and reactions on the recent state of the nation address (SONA) by our Philippine president.

I'll not go into depths nor analyze into extemporaneous details about how the speech of the president could impact the economic and political stability of the nation. That job is the work of a political analyst and/or experienced newspaper columnists (look for them in news websites or political blogs). Mine, I'll make it short. Okay, medium.

In my observation of what has happened and shown in TV, we can group every citizen of the country into only three groups according to how they view or reacted from the president's SONA.

First, there is the Pro-GMA (Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) group who liked what the president said and plan to do in the next years of administration. You see them in TV standing and clapping endlessly towards the president. Either they suck up to the president for returned favors or other intentions, include such people in this group.

The second is the group is the Anti-GMA or opposition group. No matter what the president would say (or would have spoken in the SONA) they already made up their mind to "impeach" and remove GMA from the presidency. No amount of sugar-coating or persuasion from the current administration would move them to see the brighter side of things amidst the government scandals and intrigues.

Lastly, we have the indifferent people – who cares what either side would say or do. They mind their own everyday life and won't mind what type of government would rule eventually so long as they get something out of it. Let's put the business sector and the elite here.

As what I have learned and heard from others, you choose which group you belong to according to how you reacted to the SONA.

I belong to the last one. I became indifferent. I became numb already of the political bickering and nonsense. No I do not belong to the elite. So okay, let's add to the last group: include people who are tired of political babble and gobbledygook.

Which group do you belong to?

Why I Quit Blogging Then...

A short history, if you may.

It was year 2001. I did not know anything about creating web sites nor even writing HTML codes. I used to envy even the young son of my previous employer's president who she always brags about his cute homepage complete with images her son created.

It was year 2001. With nothing to do within our development group (no project at all), each one of us decided to learn something new, some computer language and web development skill to train on. I chose ASP technology, but that would mean I have to learn first HTML.

While learning HTML, I stumbled across an article in Sitepoint about a new revolution in personal homepages called web blogs or simply blogs. Interested, I read everything in the article; inspired, I started to create my first web site cum blog. And the rest was history (But where is the copy of my previous blog? I have to find the rest of my posts here in Blogger somewhere and I'll let you take a peek of my previous writings soon).

And now for the reasons why I quit blogging then. Here is the list:

• I had full of ideas about the new version of my (previous) blog. I was so enthusiastic to create a fresh concept for a blog site. But all of a sudden... I got that blogger's block. Yeah, like burnout. My mind froze on anything I would like to talk, comment, share and speak my mind on. I lost on ideas.


• Upon rereading my previous posts, I realized that I have been writing carelessly on topics I should have not posted (At this moment, I begin to remember this page by Heather in Dooce regarding things that should not be posted. But trust me, what I have written before were not as serious as what she shared in her blog. I know then my limits.)


• I also felt pressure in blogging. You know the feeling that, sometimes, having some faithful readers of your blog, you would always like to come up with topics that interest them constantly. I became too conscious with everything I write, forgetting that I am in command of blogging. My readers should not be the reason for blogging, my interest for sharing and expressing my thoughts is the reason for blogging in the first place.

To counter these, I had to:

• Free myself from blogging from time to time. Stay away from the computer, the Internet and Blogger. This will give me time to gather thoughts and de-stress myself from blogging.


• To counteract lost of ideas, take note of things and events that happen around, if not daily then weekly. Life is full of surprises and things to talk about.


• Keep myself always focused and aware that this blog is part of the Internet and every content included here is in public domain (unless I install a security application barring others except friends and family readers). Public matters should be made public; private matters are definitely out of this blog.

Covering The Rally

In trying to be a pseudo-photo journalist during the height of the rally last Tuesday (07/19/05), I attempted to take some photos (via cellphone only) of the event as shown below:

Line of protesters (I saw this while exiting our building)

People of the city forced to avoid the rally

I did cross Ayala Avenue (and right in the middle of the protesters)

Sitting around and waiting for some leader's commands

A different angle of the rallyists

Too shy to show their faces, they hide in masks (I think they saw me taking pictures so they suddenly covered themselves)

Oblivious of the stares of some of the protesters, I just assumed myself invisible while taking stolen shots of the scenery.

Though amused with these pictures, I am still angry with the protests being staged during business hours. It's not good for business. It scares anything good within this city that I learned to love for the past seven years of working life.

Meanwhile, nature has her strange ways of showing its own protest to the current events as shown by this succulent cactus in our house:

(Dirty impression. Well, what can you do if nature designed it this way? You simply have to accept it.)

Don't think you're the only one who can show some bad sign languages.

Fixing Firefox CSS Problem

Class, we'll go technical today.

Someone reported to me that this site was having display problems in FireFox browser. I had downloaded the much talked about browser and had it running, viewing this site. While every other HTML components are in place, the divisions and boxed layouts were rendered with missing two to four letters of text content (as if cut off at the ends). I tried viewing previous layouts of the site relying heavily with styled divisions to display compact boxed areas (divisions with paddings and borders); all were having similar problems with cut off end texts.

I had to search through Google for possible solutions for this and successfully found a useful simple workaround in CSS. Box model issue was mentioned and I inserted the single line of code below to all of my DIV styles in this site's style sheet.

  -moz-box-sizing:border-box; box-sizing:border-box;margin:0;padding:0;

In a DIV tag style, the line code would appear as a sample below:

DIV#main
{
   -moz-box-sizing:border-box;box-sizing:border-box;margin:0;padding:0;
   width:100%;
   height:100%;
   padding-top:10px;
   padding-left:20px;
   padding-bottom:10px;
   padding-right:15px;
}

Though still unfamiliar with how FireFox handles CSS display, the code worked for my site in Mozilla FireFox the same way as it is in Internet Explorer.

I haven't tested the site with Netscape though. Most Internet users, according to statistics are either using FireFox or IE. With that, I assume Netscape is dead.

Or will it rise up again from the dead?

Me, I'm still loyal to Maxthon. Try it, you may be surprised.

Potter Had Errors?

While everybody's going gaga over the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Mark had already pointed out some proofreading error in his blog (with sample image, thus spoiler alert especially for those who haven't destroyed the plastic covering of their newly bought copy of the novel). Is that really a grammatical error? I am no English guru, so I couldn't decide if it is (can somebody also verify that error?).

Anyway, blame me as a lowly muggle, but I am not much into Harry Potter books. Sorry to say that to the millions of Harry Potter fans out there. But I have read the first book of the series to see what the commotion is and I must say, I did like it. Though I couldn't help myself comparing it to reading a children's detective book series such as... Bobbsey Twins. You know - children involved, cheesy storyline, light and fluffy events that kindle to anyone still child at heart (Do not be misled, I am not saying I dislike these types of stories. They're not my current interests though).

New Home, Same Blogger

Moved out of the old blog. And now I have moved here.

To start things off, I need to repost again the purposes for this blog creation:

• I always wanted to have my own column to write down my thoughts and opinions or anything I wanted to say. I am a highly opinionated person, depending on the topic or hot issue of the day. Influenced by high school and college paper columns up to current newspaper opinion pages, I decided to make one through blogging.
• I like to tell others what I know and share them ideas no matter how useful or not what I tell them. Man is a social animal and communication is natural to him.
• I have plans to move out and work abroad (when, I am not sure, but plans B, C, D and others are momentarily in process). When that time comes, I will continue to communicate and tell about my status abroad with my family and friends through this online blog.
• To meet new cyber friends. During my heydays of blogging (past few years ago), I met some of the Pinoy bloggers out there through mini-gatherings and enjoyed their company.
• I would agree with most bloggers on this: to record events big and small. Now that my blog will include pictures, I would be able to look back and recall certain times in my life visually.
• Indirectly, this is one of my purposes for blogging: to learn more about web-designing and website construction. It's true that I learned to create a well designed website by creating my own weblog. This is not my first blog, this is actually my fourth blog.
• To practice writing in English. Laugh, but it's true. I might have a grammatical error here somewhere...