Closure

I have to close this one indefinitely. I have some things to attend to and its taking much of my time and energy.

Until I get back my groove in blogging. So long. Au revoir. We'll meet again - someday, somehow.

To Start Anew

By the start of the Chinese New Year, I've neglected a lot of the things around here in this blog. Things have happened (a lot) so fast in my life (with some of them I'm grateful for) that I've poured out most of my energy and time in attending to these matters.

In times like these, I've decided to close up this blog and (will) try to create a new one, concentrating a lot more in showcasing most of the pictures I took for the past three years since I've purchased my very first digital Canon camera to my very own first DSLR Canon 400D.

Give me a week or so. I'll let you know of the new blog.

Closing time is imminent. Have to retire the old and start fresh.

Auspicious Ox Year To All!

It's kind of strange for me to wake up in the gray cloudy morning (which seem to warn me anytime soon it will start to rain) with occasional gusts of wind pounding at my room's glass windows. The morning after yesterday's eve of the Chinese New Year is... looking rather dull and uninviting. The streets below is almost void of people (now I see a couple of two people walking slowly, hand-in-hand). It's awfully quiet that it starts to bug me in a strange way. Well, the only sounds I currently hear are the gentle wind and occasional birds twittering (and now the passing MRT train).

I always find the Singapore celebration of New Year (may it be the traditional Chinese or the worldwide version) quite emotionless for most part of the island nation, as not all seems too giddy to celebrate with happy sounds like laughter, family or friend greetings, and such. I know that there is a law (not sure about the exact details of this but I just heard from local friends and strangers alike) that prevents people here from engaging themselves in noisy activity that disturbs the peace and quiet of their neighbors (unless it's a wedding party celebrated below the HDB flats that I mostly observe). New Year celebration is the exact opposite of the New Year celebration that I'm used to and miss back in my home country, the Philippines - the the laughter, the boisterous shouting of happy children and young adults, the mini-street and house party noises, and of course the firecrackers (not fireworks, which are mainly done in the city areas) blasting all around us. I miss all of these noises, minus the firecracker noises which I've dreaded and hated since my childhood days.

Anyway, I hope to see and experience good fortune this year. A short prayer will come a long way to ease anyone of their tensions felt from the previous year. Resolutions are a passe; careful plannings are the way to go this year. I could not clearly see a bullish year (pun intended for this 2009 Ox year) ahead, but who knows, with careful plannings, hard work, and a kiss from lady luck will help us to achieve anything we wish and hope for ourselves, our friends, and for our families.

Xin Nian Kuai Lei (uh, did I say it right?).

A bit of trivia I've learned recently as I curiously pondered why people like to start their New Year greetings with the word auspicious (sometimes playfully as "Ox-picious") - the word means to bring or augment good fortune and sucess. So in way, we wish each other good luck and success in life.

We also have no work today and tomorrow. Yay, a long vacation here! :-D.

Questions

To reiterate what this timely blog post has mentioned from one of my favorite blog haunts (freelanceswitch): "Are you sure this is your path?"

Lately, at the start of this year, I've been thinking a lot (as in lots of my daily time) about another question to myself: "Should should I stay or should I go?". I know it's quite cryptic (to a degree), but for some close friends and office mates of mine whom I confined about it, they know my plans (well, just plans and not yet written on stone).

I guess I just have to end this short post here (I had to exhale my thoughts).

Happy New Year 2009 To All!

Belated happy new year! 2009 will really be a challenging year to all of us. I agree, as I soon found out once I stepped back into reality inside my office's premises. :-)

Things will change. I just could feel it. Moreso, things will change here in this blog. Changes, like a new lifestyle catered to the recession everybody is experiencing even here in Singapore. Soon.

Cristmas Pictures In Singapore

On this day, the celebration of Christmas in this island of Singapore is in full force especially for the Christians like the Filipinos. I was grateful enough to at least attend three out of nine night masses (simbang gabi) in different Catholic churches spread around Singapore.

Here's my share of pictures I took while enjoying various trips along the heavily decorated (and overly chaotic) Orchard Road, Raffles City, plus a peak to the food feast my friends and I had partaken for our Noche Buena.

These are red poinsettias found inside a church.

Here are some dangling Christmas decorations adorned at the entrance of Lucky Plaza.

Here's the wonderful Filipino choir singing before Tang's mall one night last week.

I experimented with taking shots of speeding cars at the Orchard Road intersection. Look closely at those long light trails. Those are the cars and buses' headlights.

This is a simple shot of golden Christmas balls used as table decorations by my friends inside their flat.

Inside UOB building in Raffles city, here's a giant toy soldier guarding an equally giant Christmas tree.

This was our Noche Buena feast last night: Cold Storage styled vegetable salad, some KFC fried chicken (in the picture above), baked macaroni, butter cake, spaghetti and oven toasted chicken (again).

Merry Christmas to all!

Pacquiao Gobbled De la Hoya

Pacquiao did prove me wrong with my predictions that he will lose his fight to the more experienced and bigger Oscar. That's good. That is very good. I lost confidence with him for quite some time now after his character turned for the worse throughout the years (the noted gambling stories, controversies with women, his penchant to run in politics like it's the only thing he can do good for the public people, his current government affinity and tendency to say and do "yes" to all kinds of filthy and corrupt politicians out there).

Oh, I saw this internet poster from this Nike site for Manny Pacquiao (we all know he won already).

It was a different story yesterday afternoon. I was able to watch online a live streaming video of the fight with my laptop. I knew I was going to be late with my meeting with friends that afternoon but I decided I better stick in and watch the entire match for it will be very difficult to catch replays online. All my notions of Manny have gone into smoke from the time he stepped into the ring beaming with a smile to his people to the 9th round when Oscar called it quits and slowly went up to Manny to embrace him. What a fight! But as some of my flatmates and friends mentioned, it could have been a better and more exciting fight if De la Hoya displayed more aggressiveness like what Manny did. He looked more like a punching bag or sparring partner to Manny (his handsome features reduced to a heavily sored and pinkish mess). As one ESPN announcer had mentioned -- a beating of an old De la Hoya.

The running joke is that Manny has more beatings with his post interviews such as this.

Congratulations, Manny, for winning the fight!

Days Before Christmas

It's just 24 days before Pasko (Christmas Day). I could barely feel the Christmas chill here though in Singapore (unlike in the Philippines) and instead always feel hot and sticky from the humid weather outside. The aircon inside my room barely delivers the chilly temperature that I need. Looks like the global crisis has also invaded the airconditioning unit (or maybe I just need to remind my flatmates that we need to have our aircons cleaned up before the year ends).

I'm breaking on this day my long vacation from blogging since the beginning of the half of this year. There are many things I'd like to tell again, stories and things I'd like to record again in this blog.

I did miss blogging and never really forgotten about it.

Hello again to all.

On Poverty: Some Points From An OFW

This is my entry for Blog Action Day 2008.

As an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker), I wonder from time to time whether the money I religiously remit back home does contribute greatly in helping out not just my family but also my country (thinking of the money I send as financial aid to our suffering economy). I know my country is poor and in very bad shape. The years pass and several presidents have come and go (either finished their term or removed from their seat of power) yet nothing concrete was still accomplished in addressing the widespread poverty plaguing my country. The illusions created by the current president are not enough to paint a rosy picture of a “stable country” capable of withstanding this global crisis, trying to cover and sweep under the rug the evidences of dirt poorness brought about by corruption, bad governance, massive consumption, overpopulation, low productivity and inadequate education among the people.

As an OFW, I always think nowadays how I could possibly contribute in helping out the poor back home. While I know that the money I remit to my family is just enough for their needs and could not possibly be shared to other people, I’m thinking of various ways on how to help out my poor fellowmen. As of now, I’m thinking of contributing my old stuffs, particularly my old shirts, and other usable clothing to any possible institutions back in Manila (ala Salvation Army like here in Singapore). I’d like to someday join my fellow office mate here who usually joins his other friends in spending their vacation in the Philippines doing Gawad Kalinga activities like helping out in building houses for the homeless. I like also the idea before of Bob (from Live In The Philippines) when he mentioned about him and his family buying and gathering some of their food from fast-food restaurants and distributing them to young beggars and street children near their vicinity. I know, there are many things that an OFW can do to help out the poor and needy in the Philippines but these are some of the ideas I can currently think of. Maybe someone out there have better ideas.

* * * *

On the side note: Here are some other web links I find interesting, tackling the issue of poverty especially in the Philippines.

If you care about the poor, let's brainstorm for ideas.

Poverty is a simple issue.

Corned Beef (a moving article from Tingog.com)

Street Children of Manila (this links to good friend Sid's photo blog and his magnificent photographs of Manila's poor and yet smiling street children).

Blog Action Day 2008 Registration

I've finally registered for the Blog Action Day 2008 event (only 7 days to go). I've got a few days left to spruce up everything here and get back to blogging.

See you then (we might see again earlier if possible).

Sabbatical - Blog Break

I know I haven't written anything new since last month, after I lost my domain (jiometry) and website hosting of my wordpress blog. Now I came back to my old blog at blogspot (I tend to treat blogger like a loyal friend always ready to support and cherish me with open arms even if we haven't seen each other for a long, long time).

I'm still on the verge of fixing things and thinking deeply of many things (mostly of personal matters). Soon, maybe by the start of the next month, I'll be back. A promise that should not be broken.

Seeing Little Things In Grand Villa Resort

I've managed to take close-up snapshots of objects both plants and insects while we were enjoying our visit in the Grand Villa Resort and Butterfly Center in Laguna.

We're peering here inside a yellow gumamela (hibiscus) flower. This flower is found inside the butterfly caged sanctuary.

This looks like a tied-up knot; an extension of the vines I noticed entwined around iron grills.

I'm looking up close to an unknown white flower, a yellowish flower blossom, and a stem wrapped with tiny flower buds and blossoms below.

Meanwhile, lots of insects can be found crawling or hovering on flowers and shrubs around the garden pool, like a black wasp I noticed resting on a vine tendril, or a spiky caterpillar nipping at some plant buds, a big black ant methodically scavenging around a leaf, or even a pair of mating yellow ladybugs (let's not disturb them below).

On the wooden table tops and stools dotting the scenic gardens around, interesting tiny objects can be found, like a hairy pod or plant pollen, a possibly dried up, knotty fruit seed, and an undetermined fiery orange outgrowth that could be a fungus below (certainly it doesn't look like a bubble gum; I never dared to touch it).

These are rusts on a decorative iron swirl, part of a makeshift metal shed in the garden area (image below).

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day for all of us Filipinos, both still living back in the Philippines and those living overseas - either as migrants or workers!

I greeted some of my officemates here who are still busy doing some work here, oblivious of the fact that today is our country's birth date and (official) independence celebration. I have been greeted by them with surprised looks; they seemed to be awakened from some deep suspended animation upon realizing that, indeed, today is the 12th of June, an important day for all Filipinos worldwide. "Ah oo nga no, araw ng kalayaan ngayon. Gusto ko nang lumaya dito!" (Ah yes, today's independence day. I wish to be free from here!). My officemates are referring to their plight of doing heavy work that they yearn to be free from what they're doing, drop everything, go out of the office and be merry all day. Hehehe. I wish it's that simple, but we're all deep at work concentrating in finishing assigned tasks especially fixing some production issues.

* * * *

A prayer for my country: "Dear God, bless my country and us, her children, so that we Filipinos can continue to grow and be fruitful in our lives without fear, but instead filled with love and compassion for one another. Continually bless and nurture our souls to appreciate more the beauty of our lands and to have a sense of pride and dignity to our heritage and what we have at hand, without the feelings of contempt and regret for what we lack of. Thank you God for the gift of freedom. We truly appreciate this as it contributes greatly to our distinct glow of happiness and resilience renown throughout other nations."

Butterflies And Flowers Of Grand Villa Resort In Laguna

Besides the usual features found in every swimming pool resort in Laguna, the Grand Villa Resort and Butterfly Centre offers much more with beautiful botanical landscapes (lots of plants, trees, and ornamental shrubs) and their main attraction - the butterfly sanctuary, near the far end of the resort, before the adventure camp area.

As I said, this resort has some magnificent display of tended gardens and plant landscapes showcasing a variety of flowering plants and shrubs. Some of these are the colorful orchids featured at this mini-garden with a wooden shed in (which also doubles as a swing) in the middle.

The butterfly garden was not yet fully open to public (or was still being maintained by the staff) when we arrived there. Some people emerging from the place told us to use the exit door to enter the garden (I'm confused there). So we entered through that door. We beheld in awe the enchanting surroundings that greeted us inside. There were lots of trees, flowering plants, shrubs, and ornaments all neatly arranged to make the enclosed garden look like a fairytale place.

I initially mistook most of these white and black spotted butterflies as the monarch butterflies until I later searched through google images similar to these. These are actually the Paper Kite butterflies.

Meanwhile, the pair of mating butterflies below (a lot of them are actually doing this inside so that's why I could take pictures of them without bothering or scaring the butterflies away) are from the species of heliconiine butterflies, specifically the Leopard Lacewing.

On the other hand, I am not so sure with the correct species of butterflies for the these two (another acrobatically mating) butterflies pictured below. I searched in the web and the nearest butterfly species I could tag the pair is the Ornithoptera priamus (the Cairns Birdwing butterflies). Am I right?

Summer Outing To The Grand Villa Resort In Laguna

It was a good, sunny day when our family went to Laguna and traveled through winding roads to get to Grand Villa Resort and Butterfly Centre. It was our last get-together outing before the summer season ends in the Philippines. Together with my parents (my Dad who came back from Kuwait, also an OFW), my brother, my sister-in-law, their son and my nephew, and the immediate family of my sister-in-law, we had the entire day enjoying each other's company and as well as exploring the beauty of the vast area of this resort.

I was impressed with the place when we got there. I like the way the garden landscapes were integrated in the design space of the resort. There were lots of greens - flowers, trees, and shrubs. Might be because of the flourishing garden scenes in and around the place, I noticed some uncommon birds flitting and seemingly playing in dense foliages. The place has a picturesque mixture of nature and architecture which delighted the photo bug in me.

Before the entrance to the main resort pool, we passed by this trio of metal statues (above image) right in front of the spa building. The carved expressions of the kids sort of remind everyone to relax and enjoy their stay in this resort.

This entrance leads to the main pool of the resort which is also the pathway towards the dining area and mini-bar. There are lots of hanging vines entwined around the metal arches of this entrance.

Again at the entrance, we passed by another statue, this time of a sitting mermaid on a rock. Amidst the background of trees and plants, the mermaid looked more (out of place) like a welcoming guardian of botanical nature instead of the aquatic type.

I don't know exactly why this structure has wooden wheels at the sides, but it does appear like a cross between a calesa and an elevated waiting shed. There are two of these inside the main pool area. Most of our group liked to relax and sit within the cool premises of the shelter.

It's quite innovative to form these washer faucets (above image) as jugs (as if somebody is pouring water over your hands after you twist the knobs).

As mentioned before, there is a variety of flowering plants found in this resort. Bright yellow bells are some of these flowering plants found in abundance here (image above).

Old, irregularly shaped woods were used to form the benches scattered around the garden area lining around the swimming pool. I thought the landscape artist did great with this place.

How about the swimming pool? We did not come here just to view and enjoy the garden scenery. Here are some of the pictures of the swimming pool area.

Water dribbles down this huge pool structure (wall painted with playing dolphins) at the laddered sides. Water also falls from above the sheltered portion of the structure. The falling water has enough (bearable I say) pressure to provide a massaging effect to one's tired torso and shoulders. This is not suitable though for kids though.

Besides bringing along some food and drinks, our group also opted to order additional noodle dishes like the tasty pancit bihon (below) and pancit canton at the nearby restaurant and mini-bar. The staff was friendly and accommodating and the service was fast.

Next post, other plants, trees, and the butterflies of this resort.

What Should My New Blog Be?

I came across this tumblr site showcasing its own blogging tool for some "new" type of blogs called tumblelogs. Kottke defined them as this while Wikipedia described them as this. If you need such a sample of a tumblelog I guess Kottke's blog can be categorized as one. And also Pau's Brownpau blog will be a good sample too.

Is this a new breed of blogs? Not really. Just by looking at the two sample tumblelogs, the term "tumblelogs" is a coined term for such types of blogs that are minimal in writings and focuses more in refering to an assortment of links or photos from various Internet sites. Most of these posts have very little personal commentaries or even noen at all. To me, its more like finding some great and exciting content from another website and I want to share these with my network of blog friends. Yeah, like a summary of lists, with some additional remarks, if any, peppered in between.

I could say that my first blog (around 2001) can be categorized as a tumblelog. I generally write posts then that are short and more like a mish-mash of links instead of long article-like posts. I would look around in the Internet, searching for controversial or worthwhile information to blog. Occasionally, I would comment on my posted entries only if I have something relevant to share on the things I have written about. Yes, my early blogging style has no direction whatsoever. Whatever interests me, I blog about it. Whatever I like to share (even some personal matters), I also blog about it. Different posts on different unrelated subject matters. My blog then is not a type of niche blog. But to me, blogging then was more fun since I don't have to think so hard about the posts that I need to write about for the day. I don't need then to write blog posts that are lengthy and look like well-written magazine articles. I don't feel pressured to blog. I can be informal in my writing style.

I tried before to create blog posts that appear like newspaper/magazine articles. These would be posts on personal reviews of favorite TV show episodes or ponderings on political subjects in my country. But I soon found myself becoming less and less involved in blogging. I began to be too concerned on what to write or not to write. I became a perfectionist in writing such article like posts as if I am writing to get an approval of a non-existing editor-in-chief. Eventually, I became bored and burned out of blogging. Blogging then became an unenjoyable chore. I believed I pushed myself too hard on blogging deeply that I slowly did not enjoy what I was writing about. I left the blogging world middle of the year 2003.

I came back to blogging middle of 2005. As to what are my reasons for returning to blogging, that would be reserved for another post. For now, I'm deciding the direction and style for my new wordpress blog. Must I restrict my blog on posting for a few subject matters (niche blog)? Or must I make this blog a photoblog (since I have a knack for posting my photographs)? Or must I return to tumblelogging - anything goes and unrestricted? Personally I like the last option, but I also want to write more on a certain interesting subject matters with such as graphic designing, OFW matters and stories, and others. I also want to post my pictures from time to time. Why not all three options then? Yeah, these I will do.

An Album Launching Event - Banda Fantastica

This is a plugging for some officemate's and friends' mini-concert album launching along with other great Filipino bands here in Singapore. I support their concert this Saturday, as I've tagged along with some of the gigs and enjoyed the music of the Filipino bands.

Here's the poster/flyer I've created for them:

You could barely see my little signed name at the bottom right corner of the poster. I used the colors of blue, red and yellow, inspired with the colors of the Philippine flag. The rock musicians in the poster were not hand-drawned. These are stock photos I found around the web (thanks to Google) and digitally manipulated in Photoshop 7.0. Yes, I still do not have Photoshop CS. If ever I'll install Photoshop CS or higher, I'll be doing myself a favor and buy my own Macbook. In the meantime, I'd stick with PS 7.0 as it served me well in creating an assortment of graphics for myself, my family, friends, and co-workers.

Alas, I could not find the old Photoshop psd file for this image. It maybe somewhere in my laptop or archived in the externed hard disk. Hopefully it's there. Hopefully I've saved it and did not deleted it mindlessly while backing up my files since the last time I formatted my laptop's C drive.

The WORD Is Out

Hear ye, hear ye. On this night of Friday the 13th I say thee...

I'm moving out now from Blogger and heading to my new blog courtesy of Wordpress. I also have my own domain - www.jiometry.com. Yay, indeed.

Might as well head over there, so move along now.

Oh yeah, thanks for the memories, Blogger. As a beginner blogger in the year 2001, you've introduced me into the wonderful, colorful, and wacky world of blogging that I never knew existed then. I was just planning to create my personal homepage until I stumbled across one Blogger powered site. And I was hooked afterwards to blogging. Thanks to you, Blogger. You'll still be my first love in blogging.

Kinda cheesy, yeah.

On Silent Mode

For a while, I'll be leaving and taking off myself from blogging to attend to something else. Well, I'll not be totally leaving the blogging bug, but as of the moment I am attending to some project. No, it's not something like secretive sector 7 project. It's not office work, mind you.

Hint: something regarding moving out from one place to another. Cryptic as it may be, I'll let you all know once I finish it and figure things out. But you might all stumble upon it if you search it out there.

Jellyfishes + Lazy Sunday Day

I keep on looking at these videos of Jellyfishes to waste my Sunday or simply rest for awhile (while listening to Cambio's Divisoria on my iPod). Really, the slow wriggling and mindless motions of these jellyfishes do mesmerize me and soothe me(minus the background noise in the videos, but that can be muted out). Well now, this can be a therapy if I need to relax a bit from a hard day's work. Hehehe.

Pair of jellyfish videos (from Sentosa Underwater world).

* * * *

On the subject of being lazy on a Sunday, napping would be a very good activity, as suggested in the fifth post in 13 Bodacious Ways to be Nice to Yourself. I already have an established body clock in which between 530AM to 630AM I would be awake without even the aid of an alarm clock (alarmed cell phone to be exact). And yet, even on a weekend, I still wake up very early in the morning while most are still sleeping. I want to lie still in my bed and snuggle a bit, hoping I could get a very short snooze for a few more minutes but that won't happen. I'm already wide awake by that time. Only if I had a night of heavy drinking will I be knocked out fully and surely wake up very late the next morning. But sometimes, I would still wake up early, though drowsy and with a headache.

Ah, a little nap will do this morning. I'll take one after this post.