in retrospect…

today found me, very early in the morning mind you, questioning where my life went to and where it is going… yeah, i know… i am not the thinking type, the actually-looking-deep-into-my-life-and-wondering-the-hows-and-whys type… but forgive me if i sound deep today, though… i just feel like it…

ever wondered why you are here in this earth doing your daily grind and seeming to get nothing out of it?? no, not the religious debate as i don’t believe in any of that crap, but more of the physical side… i mean, you get up in the morning, ready yourself for work or school, you grind the whole day, then go home in the afternoon or evening with nothing to show for it… then you do it all over again the next day… yeah, your boss may have been happy with your work, or your school teacher may have been happy with your report… but that is THEIR happiness, not yours… how about you? shouldn’t your goal be working towards your happiness? does a paycheck at the end of every workweek constitute happiness?? again, i don’t know that was why i was asking…

at least, when playing a game, you have somewhere to go to, or something to do, or a goal you work towards for… but with life?? what really is our primary goal? again, no religious stuff, please, as i have had that all my life and i am tired listening to all that bull… what is your final goal in life?? can anyone talk to the dead?? because if you can, i would like for us to do a seance and i have a multitude of questions to ask… and i may even pay!!

no, really… kidding aside, i would like to ask the dead if they ever lived their life as fully as they liked… if they know why they were here on earth in the first place, and if they will ever come back again given the chance… i would like to know all of these so that i’d know what to do…

then again, you may ask: isn’t bringing up a son or a daughter to be good enough? or keeping a good family life enough? enough for what? for whom? of course i’d bring up a good son or daughter… of course, i’d very much like a good life, thank you… but all of these for whom?

can you answer me, please? please??

oh, and a Happy Birthday to me… [darn it!! almost forgot...]

Ciao, sweetie…

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it is Friday once again, the work week is ending [for some of us, at least], and it is time once more for a new edition of IF #5… in no particular order, they are:

• have you already seen the latest release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? you loved it? liked it? or simply hated it? well, i am one of those who felt i was cheated right after watching that movie with my wife… it was like the whole thing was forced upon the viewers, the plot was going crazy with speed [must be on drugs], the characters suddenly became too mature and too serious… if this was what can be expected with the next release, i’ll just stay with the books and forget about the movies… darn… if you really really loved the book and don’t mind a few [a few??] ho-hum scenes of the movie, then go ahead watch, but if you are after that fun feeling after a movie, you’d be dissapointed with this one… Skye of Superficial.nu termed it aptly — a complete suck-athon!!
• there are 3 contests which are aimed at bloggers… they are: SEO Philippines’ [and not DigitalFilipino.com's as previously reported... my bad...] Paradise Philippines - The P600,000 Bayanihan SEO Contest, the SM Hypermarket Blog Writing Contest, and PinoBlogospher.com’s Wika2007… if you are into these kinds of contests, then head on over to the sites i mentioned and you just might win… balato ko, ha?? hehehe…

that’s it for now… see you all again next week!!

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ Harry Potter | Contests ]

i was driving along Gil Puyat Avenue [formerly known as Buendia Avenue] last week to attend an interview with LevelUp Games and to pick up my wife when, all of a sudden, a very big sound suddenly whizzed by my side… when i looked, it was a big bike with a lone rider… i immediately whipped my camera out of its case, and took this photo…

now, what’s sooo wrong with that picture?? forget about the blue color [nope, it was not raining at the time] nor the grainy image… forget also that you can see the top part of my steering wheel…

naww… see that man on top of the steering wheel?? riding a motorcycle?? conveniently weaving in and out of traffic?? well, if you still do not know what’s wrong, HE IS NOT WEARING A HELMET!! and this was in Makati to boot!!

now, isn’t wearing a helment, whether in Makati or other places, whether alone or with a passenger, compulsory??

Dictionary.com defines compulsory as:

com·pul·so·ry [kuhm-puhl-suh-ree] –adjective
required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.

simply put, all motorcycle drivers and passengers MUST wear a helmet… is he a cop? even so!! more so!! i have often seen MMDA traffic aides riding motorcycles, sometimes even in tandem, and both of ‘em not wearing helmets!! i thought there was a law regarding this??

here’s another fool rider not wearing his helmet taken on the same day, this time along Jupiter also in Makati…

do they have a death wish or something?? don’t they know that if they get hit by a four-wheeled vehicle, they will surely suffer a head injury, or worse a mortal wound?? apparently, they don’t care about their lives [and neither do the policemen and traffic aides, both of which abound in Makati] and the lives of the people around them… these daredevils/stuntmen/hellriders of our streets must be stopped immediately!!

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ motorcycle | helmet ]

clean… safe… fun… bright… unpolluted… well-kept…

normally, you would not equate these adjectives to a government-run park… but yesterday morning saw the wife and I over at Quezon Memorial Circle, and we experienced all of these, and more, at the park… why were we there? there was this food-writing workshop which will be held at Serye inside the Circle… we were early, so we decided to take a stroll around the park, or at least a part of it…

from the parking lot, which was very well-kept and cheap at P15 for the whole day of parking, we walked within the Circle… from the scenes we saw, one can do anything within the park [long as it's legal, of course], as well as participate in the events the park offers…

view all pictures from my gallery…

there were street and ballroom dancing, team-building activities, massage services, and a host of other activities going on while we were walking around… i was thinking to bring my 1-year old son here and just let him have a run of the place…

you into biking? or running? or simply strolling around a nice, clean and safe place? then, maybe, the Quezon City Memorial Circle is the place for you… i know i’d be back just to hang loose…

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ QCMR | safe | clean ]

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here are some of the highlights of the blogging world for this week’s edition of IF #4:

• Luis of drivebyshooter.net is one of my favorite reads when it comes to photography… and his Playing with water post made me want to take up my camera again and do some playing myself… but, alas!! i don’t have the gear nor the time to tinker around… haaayyyy… maybe i’d just stay an amateur myself…
• Connie, owner of Sassylawyer.com, in her latest post pointed out our penchant for stereotyping people as either “this” or “that”… her Truths and myths about men delves on the funnies, but also clearly points out that assumptions that lead to stereotyping are baseless… go read…

i really haven’t got much time these days to browse through blogs and only got these 2 entries… both Luis and Connie are in RSS feed, and that was why i get to read them more often than others… maybe i’d have more for the next edition of IF… next week!!

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ camera | Interestings Friday | stereotyping ]

Janette Toral posted last May 12 that her next project was “identifying identifying new and emerging blogs that are making an impact to its readers in 2007…” the only condition being that the blogs you nominate to your top 10 are those that started from 1^st August 2006… so, short of asking the blogger when exactly he or she has started, the best way to find out when this blog started is to look at the archive and look at the date the 1^st post was made… in the absence of the archives, you can look at the very 1^st post and look at the date the post was made… also, that it must be a Pinoy blog… and so, on to my Top 10 Most Influential Emerging Pinoy Blogs of 2007:

1. Carlo Ople’s Waukster: Ragnarok Online 2 & other MMORPGs — started March 7th, this blog jump immediately from PR0 to 4 in a matter of 2 months… Carlo is a brand manager of Philippine Ragnarok Online and himself a gamer, and his gaming blog caters to millions of pRO gamers in the Philippines… his posts, which consists of news about his favorite game, is the foremost site to look into first if you want the freshest news about pRO… well, that is, aside from the official forum of the game…

2. my own Kubiertos — this may be a shameless plug, but i believe that this blog i co-author with my wife Apples is the up and coming source of restaurants and food people may want to try… started November 2006 and currently at PR4, Kubiertos gives thumbs up to those who deserve them, and thumbs downs for those who don’t… and we can’t say that nothing’s personal when we do our rating, because this is all personal… of course we also accept paid reviews, but if we feel that we cannot give a positive review, we say so… if you want a no-nonsense food review blog, Kubiertos is what you’re looking for…

3. Carl Ocab’s Make Money Online With a 13-year Old — when SEO and making money online is your cup of tea, then, better head on out to this 13-year old’s blog… although a little young for his chosen niche, hist posts on 69 Ways to Boost your Web Exposure! Fast! and 5 Reasons Why People Don’t Read Your “Make Money Online” Blog (Probably) merit a look… you just might learn something new from this little fella… and he is not into SEO only!! he is also a prolific theme creator and a Web2.0 proponent, as well… oh, and his blog started just Feb 4th, 2007…

4. “Two people can look at the same thing and see it entirely differently. PROJMLA is how I see things differently.” this is the 1st line you’ll see after getting to Rick Manzano’s site, ProjectManila.com… the site looks at different aspects of Manila life from a different perspective, from restaurants to events, and it gives its readers a different view… i believe this a rebirth of the old site, and is worth mentioning as one of up-and-coming influential blogs of the year…

5. we all know that the Philippines, by now, is known all over the world as the texting capital of the world [if you didn't know that, from which rock did you crawl under from??] and apaprently, Carol Sinyel, owner and maintainer of TxtBuff.com — a Collection of SMS Quotes and Text Messages knows all about it, too!! her blog’s contents are all about txt messages friends and relatives forward to us everyday, which we also forward to other friends and family, and so on… a vicious cycle, maybe, but this is one cycle that makes you happier to know that someone else is willing to spend Php1.00 simply to send you a funny quote or an inspirational message… the site, which started Dec 2006, will surely not lack materials since she is inviting friends, family, and readers as contributors to her site…

6. what is a community without someone looking over our shoulders, eh? just like a kuya wanting to make our lives easier, Karlo Licudine of PinoyBlogero.com wanted to do just that… started barely 3 months ago, this blog aims to compile everything about blogging, from making a bloggers life easier to breaking the writer’s block… if you are a blogger and you think you still have some things to lear about blogging, head on over to Karlo’s site and you just might learn a thing or two…

7. another budding video blogger here… following in the footsteps of happyslip.com, Coy Caballes’ CokskiBlue is a vlog [short for video blog] of almost everything, from his personal travels to movie reviews… how he does that, all you need to do is head on over to his site and look for the SpiderMan 3 review and find out for yourself… who knows? he may just be the next happyslip, eh?? hehehe

8. …

because of that limitation of having started August 1, 2006, my list is currently limited to 7… will add on to the list as i find new ones… or, if your blog, or you know someone who’s blog fits into this category, please do comment here with your real name and blog URL… i promise i will look into it as soon as i get your comment… if it’s worth putting on the list, you’ll get to know it here on this list, as well…

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ Top 10 Most Influential Emerging Pinoy Blog ]

the past week was made very exciting because i met some [very] old friends, as well as new ones… walking along Libis, i was greeted with the sight of old studens and friends, that i wondered whether this area is now the new APC [http://www.apc.edu.ph]… hehehe…

the old ones

Che of KAlaWang yugto [http://cheheki.blogspot.com/] was one of my former students over at APC… we met last Friday while i was eating lunch… she sat down [not at first, though] at my table, and we just talked and talked until we were both reaady to return to our own offices… that was one of the highlights of my week as i was able to catch up on the goings on with her former classmates [like Jacob putting up his own consulting business, like the owner of Txtbuff.com (http://textbuff.com) was also a former student, Carol, etc], and many other things that were of concern to both of us…

Friday afternoon saw me at Extreme Gaming Grounds [EGG] in Glorietta for an EB with my clanmates over at PerfectWorld… but before that, i saw a very old [as in] friend in the guid of Lily… she was a college friend and a colleague atthe College Editors Guild of the Philippines [CEGP]… we weren’t able to catch up on things as i have things to do that night, and she still has to pick her son up from school… oh well…

last July 1, i was greeted by a call from, also, one of my former students, though i barely remembered her… Sheila Yu was with APC for just 1 term, and she said that i was one of her professors who made an impact in her life… since then, she will now [or has she?] graduate to become of the nurses in the country… i say, good for her!!

July 3 saw me leaving work at about 3pm when i saw, again, a student from my car… his name was Carlo, and one of my “good ones”… hehehe… i said good ones because, though he doesn’t look like he is serious in life, but when it comes to the work we were doing, he gives it all his time… i say, good luck!!

and finally, another Carlo, this time a colleague from PLUG [Philippine Linux Users Group] works in the same building i was in… he works in TrendMicro as trainer…

the new ones

one good thing about jumping work is that you get to meet all kinds of people, both bad and good ones… but with the new work i have, i have only very high praises for the people i work with… they are all good workers and they look up to me as some sort of a “kuya” only because i am the oldest of the bunch, the youngest being just 21…

the only bad thing in jumping companies is that you don’t get to grow roots… but who need roots when the soil is bad, eh?

anyway, another bunch of new [and very young] friends were from Clan =Lotus=… you see, i love playing MMORPGs and 2 of the games i played over the years were Ragnarok Online [played for over 4 years] and PerfectWorld, a new addition to the offerings of LevelUp… we held a mini-EB last July 1 for the softlaunching of the game, and a mini-grand EB at EGG with another clan, the Holy Order of Light [HOL]… we just played some games, and a dinner/inuman after that…

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and so, that was my week… how was yours??

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ friends | MMORPGs | students ]

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i have been so out of the loop ni the blogging world for over a month that i am having a hard time filling this post up… but if there’s a will, there definitely is a way… so, for this Friday’s most interesting reads, here they are in no particular order:

• long have i been on the lookout for techie-materials that i have even sought out friends going abroad to have them buy for me… alas! i don’t have to do that anymore… tekingpinoy.com promises “to come up with unique apparel that showcases Filipino ingenuity in Information Technology specifically with free and open source software.” being an opensource advocate myself, this recent development really is welcome… but they don’t have anything on sale yet… so, guys, when?
• well, almost everyone is blogging about the Taste of Asia event over at the Mall of Asia which happened last Tuesday… sad to say, the wife and i [heavy eaters both] weren’t able to come because the wife had the cough and sniffles since Sunday up until yesterday… so, instead of going to the event, we decided to stay home and spend quality time together… *wink* *wink*
• i don’t know if i should cry or be happy about this bit of news from Abe… in his post, the BSA [Business Software Alliance] said that the Philippine software piracy rate is currently at 71% or $119M, which is lower that the previous rating of 90%… if only our OpenSource initiatives will push through, i am sure this number will significantly go down…

well, that’s it for now folks… see you again next week!! i promise i’d have more by then…

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ BSA | techie-pinoy | opensource | food ]

ok, i am now settling very gently in my new job… i am a project manager for a company in Libis, QC, and i must say that the usual honeymoon period between PM and programmers [which usually last from a week to about 2, and not a month!!] didn’t happen in my case… after that 1st day of orienting myself with the operations of the company, and the individuals behind them, i went on ahead and started really working after that 1st day… i was barraged by work from then on, and that’s what’s keeping me busy nowadays… well, aside from PW, of course…

i am not complaining, though… far from it, in fact… i love my new job!! i get to play around with technology [Windows Vista really suck when your PCs RAM is only 512MB, tsk tsk tsk], and i get to manage a nice bunch of young people [am not the oldest at 39 with the youngest at 21], and i get to regularly talk to with my counterpart abroad… ti’s really a nice job so far… really… hehehe…

at the homefront, it really is nice to find out that your 1-year old son is following in your footsteps… the other day, while i was at my keyboard, he came near, and push my keyboard away from me, sat on my lap and said nonsense to me [like how 1 year olds do], pointed to my PC, and said “‘puter” indicating that he is telling me something about my computer… the wife remarked, “uh oh, even this early, i think i know what he will be when he grow up…” all the while tsking… and even before he was able to say “mommy!!“… he can now say “di” to call me, “ter” for water, and other gobbledy-gook which i can only call normal for his age… i can’t wait for him to close my monitor while i was working!!

makes you feel good knowing that your son is being brought up nice, eh?

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ work | parenting ]

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ok, i know i have been too remiss in my posts this past month… i actually have several in my plate right now, and i am having a hard time dealing with them… but slowly and surely, they’re all going away one at a time, and i hope to be back regularly posting in the next week or so…

to give all of you a rundown:

have you ever been fired from the company you were working from?? if you were and you want to get back, then, your bestfriend will be the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)… if you really have a valid claim, then go to the NLRC along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City, file a simple form detailing the owner/general manager of the company you are filing a claim against, then have your claim raffled off to an arbiter… the arbiter will then set a date for a conference between you and the company or its representative at a later date…

if, during or after the conference, which is set for 2 days, you or the company representative do not agree on a settlement and decided to bring this to court, you have 2 choices: either 1) you get a lawyer to create and file a position paper for you; or 2) you can drop your claim if you think you don’t have the time or resources to go through with your suit…

me? i decided to go through with it since i know i have a very strong and very valid case… or at least, that’s what my lawyer was telling…. LOL

———–

i will be going to several blogging activities during this month… two of which will be A Taste of Asia at the Mall of Asia [July 3] and a food writing workshop [July 14]… last Tuesday [June 26], we also went to the opening of the Krispy Kreme DriveThrough in Greenhills, the 1st ever in Asia and the Philippines… we got to bring home to big boxes of their very tasty [but very fattening] donuts for free!! weeee….

we will now become regulars of the blogger badminton every Thursdays which include the likes of Abe, Gail with husband Marc, Bimbo and wife Des, and others… Abe invited us specifically to challenge the husband and wife teamup of Bimbo and Des… hehehe…

———–

i am now an avid player of PerfectWorld from LevelUp… you’ll be able to read a very extensive review of the game [at least from my point of view] from my game site…

a softlaunch of the game was held July 1 at the Robinson’s in Malate and i was able to get a set of installer CDs for the open beta which will start on the 18th…. but again, that news is not meant for this… watch out for that in my game site…

———–

it was a very good thing that i wasn’t very active in any activities, if there, where i need to take pictures, since i don’t have my Pentax with me… i have to bring it back to where i bought it from, and they, in turn, have to send it back to Japan, for repairs on the built-in flash… this i did last May 6, and only got my camera back last Friday, June 29, in time for the softlaunch yesterday afternoon…

———–
and finally, i have a new job… it is a project management job, and the guys i work with are all very good at what they do… as far as relationships go, i still am very new at the company, and will find out about that in the coming weeks and months… but we came off a good start, at least… so i am keeping my fingers crossed…

that’s it?? that’s it!! for now…

Ciao, sweetie…