The Coffee

Then-and-Now Pictures of World War II with Google Street View

2011-10-03T09:45:00.006+08:00

Here are some WW2 era pictures from The Atlantic, placed along with the equivalent view today in Google Street View. Amazing how little things seem to have changed in some of them, over the past 65 years.

American soldiers march along the Champs-Elysees in August 1944, with the Arc de Triomphe.

Google Street View

Parisians scatter for cover as a sniper fires in the place De La Concorde, August 1944.

Google Street View

Crossing a damaged bridge in Cherbourg, July 1944.

Google Street View

Allied soldiers on Omaha Beach in Normandy, June 1944.

Google Street View

American soldiers march past the Colosseum in Rome, June 1944.

Google Street View

Mike on a Ball

2011-09-27T02:56:00.002+08:00

Pictures of me sitting on various decorative balls around the world:

Atlanta, September 2007

Milwaukee, January 2011

Makati, August 2011

Noteworthy: I'm wearing the same jeans in the first and third pictures.

Comparing

2011-08-24T04:24:00.003+08:00

A friend recently posted on Facebook:

Stop comparing yourself to others..start loving yourself :)

Funny. I compare myself to others when I want to feel good about myself.

712,958 Steps in 12 Weeks

2011-08-17T02:16:00.008+08:00

A few months ago at work we got an irresistible offer to join a program meant to motivate people into keeping fit. Irresistible because it's completely free.

The deal is we get a free pedometer in the mail, and for 12 weeks we report our results on pedometer steps, exercise minutes, and weight management. I was less interested in the exercise and weight goals-- my weight is just fine. But I have come to develop a bizarre fondness for gathering data on things normally taken for granted, so having a pedometer was an alluring prospect.

My total: 712,958 steps.

Pedometer steps per day

My most active day (29,646 steps) was on May 29, when I joined a 10K fun run in the morning, then went to the Mall of Asia in the afternoon. Only one other day breached the 20,000 step level.

My least active day (1,138 steps) was on July 25, when I stayed at home all morning, slept all afternoon, and worked from home at night.

Pedometer steps per week, 12 weeks.

This weekly graph shows the same data but looks more stable, less affected by daily events.

Cumulative pedometer steps

The kit included a little booklet that I used to track my daily progress of steps, exercise minutes, and weight management. It also included a rough guide to how many steps you should be taking for a healthy lifestyle. The recommended number to aim for is 10,000.

Under 5,000 is Sedentary
5,000-7,500 is Low Active
7,500-10,000 is Somewhat Active
10,000-12,500 is Active
Over 12,500 is Highly Active.

For me, simply getting to work means walking for about 1 km-- or 1200 steps-- so I'm already pretty much assured of 2,400 steps per workday. Still, only one third of my days reached that magical 10,000 step target. Worse, another one third of my days failed to reach even 5,000 steps-- which is classified not only inactive, but sedentary:

Other numbers to look at:

Days: 84
Total steps: 712,958
Most steps in one day: 29,646 (May 29)
Least steps in one day: 1,138 (July 25)
Average steps per day: 8488
Most steps in one week: 88,813 (Aug 1-7)
Least steps in one week: 36,869 (July 4-10)
Average steps per week: 59,413
Days with over 10,000 steps ("Active"): 28 (33%)
Days with under 5,000 steps ("Sedentary"): 33 (39%)

Assuming an average stride length of 80 cm (a figure I came up with just now from a few minutes of Googling), my total steps in those 12 weeks would add up to 570 km, which is approximately the straight line distance from Manila to Cebu.

The 12-week program may be over but I'm still wearing the pedometer this very moment. I think I'll decrease the tracking of my progress to a weekly basis now though, lest I lose my mind in graphs and statistics.

Flood of Wedding Photos

2011-08-09T04:37:00.005+08:00

Well we finally received the complete set of photographs from our wedding photographer, and I was immediately crushed by the sheer volume of it. The whole thing came on 10 DVDs. Not CDs, but DVDs, each of them with their storage capacity reasonably used up.

The photos are shot at a resolution of 4288x2848, and average about 5 MB per image, with the largest ones reaching 10 MB. I had to copy them straight from the DVDs to my external hard disk because I simply did not have space for them on the actual laptop.

Here's a breakdown of where all these pictures are coming from:

Granted, the vast majority of these are duplicates, and it's not uncommon to have 15 images of the same pose with minuscule variations:

It will take several days-- perhaps weeks-- to sort through them and clear out the redundancies, choose the favorites, and post them on Facebook (that is, of course, the point).

Here's a random image. Not even one of the greatest photos, just a good random one:

Credit must be given where it is due: Our wedding photographer was Rolando Pascua, who is based in Cebu, extremely talented, and worth every cent.

The YouTube Alphabet

2011-08-02T03:21:00.000+08:00

YouTube's search does the same thing as Google does, suggesting the most popular search queries when you begin typing something. Here's a list of YouTube's top suggestions for each letter of the alphabet. Perhaps predictably, almost all of them are related to music.

adele rolling in the deep
bruno mars lazy song
chris brown
drake
eminem
friday rebecca black
give me everything pitbull
how to love lil wayne
im on one
justin bieber
katy perry
lazy song bruno mars
michael jackson
nicki minaj
on the floor jennifer lopez
party rock anthem
queen
rihanna
super bass nicki minaj
the lazy song bruno mars
usher
victorious
wiz khalifa
x men first class trailer
youtube
zumba

Special credit goes to Bruno Mars for taking B, L, and T.

The Google Alphabet

2011-08-01T03:19:00.002+08:00

Start typing into Google's text box and it suggests to you the most common search queries. Here's a list of the top suggestions for each letter of the alphabet. The unsurprising result is a veritable who's who of internet giants, retailers, common search terms-- and for good measure, some companies I have never heard of.

amazon
best buy
craigslist
dictionary
ebay
facebook
google
hotmail
imdb
jet blue
kohls
lowes
mapquest
netflix
orbitz
pandora
quotes
redbox
southwest
target
usps
verizon
weather
xbox
youtube
zillow

Transfer Passengers, Delayed Flights, and Running Through NAIA-3

2011-07-06T08:09:00.006+08:00

Once upon a time, Cebu Pacific proudly advertised that their flights were 95% on time. Can't remember if that was the right figure exactly, but the point is that punctuality was their strong point. Not that it should matter much-- It's a wonder at all the humans can travel through the clouds at 800 km/h, so who cares about a delay of a few minutes, right? Yet, things always seem to go wrong when it matters the most.

Getting from Dumaguete to Puerto Princesa via Manila with Cebu Pacific was my first time to have to transfer to a connecting flight within the Philippines. I'm not even sure if I'm using the right terminology, that's how rare it is. Before this it has always been a straight trip from source to destination. And when traveling in the Philippines, one of those is almost always Manila.

Dumaguete to Manila

The time between the scheduled arrival of our first flight and the scheduled departure of our second flight was only 55 minutes, so it was with some trepidation that we boarded the plane in Dumaguete well after it was supposed to have taken off.

Already late, it was even more concerning when the plane flew north past the airport and circled Metro Manila seemingly aimlessly. I continued peering out the window as the plane wandered above Commonwealth Avenue and the Batasan complex, then around the grassy hills of Rizal, then the fish pens of Laguna de Bay. For some reason. A plane from Dumaguete to Manila has no business flying above the northern part of Metro Manila. The pilot hadn't announced anything, and he never did.

Airport dash

When we actually landed and got into Manila's NAIA Terminal 3, it was already a few minutes beyond the scheduled boarding time for Puerto Princesa. Adding to the troubles, it seems that the NAIA-3's infrastructure for transfer passengers to get straight back to the pre-departure area was under construction or something, so we had to go the long way-- pretty much just like normal passengers, except without lining up for check-in.

We climbed up the broken escalator, ran past the broken walkalators, up more non-functioning escalators to the check-in area, then through the maze of security checks and bureaucracy. I even had to pay the terminal fee. It's 200 pesos per person to briefly run through an airport terminal that is neither our starting point nor final destination? I was too much in a hurry to be frazzled by the injustice of it. Luckily a kind (or apathetic) soul let me cut to the front of the x-ray machine line when I told him I was already late for my flight.

Finally, out of breath, we reach the fathest end of the most inaccessible gate, and the dude tells us that the flight to Puerto Princesa is delayed. Boarding isn't for another 40 minutes. Heh.

Manila to Puerto Princesa

The delays did not stop there. Even after boarding the plane late, it just sat there on the runway for 20 minutes. I fell asleep, then woke up, and we still had not moved. The scheduled arrival time had already come and gone by the time the plane got to the air. To the pilot's credit, he did regularly give updates of the situation (something about the weather) to the passengers and apologize for the delay.

In the end the plane arrived in Puerto Princesa at 1:45pm, around 1 hour and 15 minutes behind schedule. Yes I did travel over 1200 km in hardly half a day to get to where I was going. But the minutes do seem longer when they're part of a lost hour of the only honeymoon I'll ever have.

Getting a Cebu Pacific Ticket for Palawan

2011-07-04T01:07:00.004+08:00

Choosing a honeymoon destination was something that came up on the agenda soon after getting engaged in April last year. In some ways it seemed like more of a thing to look forward to than the actual wedding.

It should be somewhere new and exciting, as me and my then-fiancee are both game for adventure. But also somewhere relaxing to unwind after what surely would be an hectic run-up to a big wedding.

Singapore was an early contender, as we've both never been there before. And it seems like a trip to Singapore is just something people do at our age when they have the energy and the money. But going abroad seems to have its risks, and puts too much pressure on me to see all the sights in a short period of time.

Eventually we settled on Palawan, with its reputation of being the Philippines' final frontier, and its untamed but pristine beaches providing the right mix of excitement and relaxation we were looking for.

Booking a cheap Cebu Pacific ticket

Way back in August 2010, long before we had started to draft a honeymoon itinerary (or even begin to think about it seriously), Loren excitedly contacted me saying that there was yet another Cebu Pacific dirt-cheap ticket sales.

I have no idea how Cebu Pacific is able to sell plane tickets so cheaply. You can look at the payment breakdown on the emailed ticket-- at the most extreme, they pretty much get no revenue from this. They basically give out a limited number of these seats for free, to whoever can race their way through the online booking system fastest.

Now, me, I'm always wary of these promos. Booking tickets that far in advance has often not worked out well for me as plans change, and the cost of rebooking a ticket is usually ridiculous. But it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement when you realize what a bargain it could be. Also, these are seats in demand-- spend too much time thinking about it and you lose your chance.

So, with no research about our destination whatsoever, we decided we could go to Palawan on a Monday morning (two days after our wedding), spend four nights there, and return to Manila on Friday afternoon.

Boom. Five minutes later we have a round trip ticket from Manila to Puerto Princesa for P750 ($17.50)-- for TWO PEOPLE. Cheaper than dirt.

Booking the expensive Cebu Pacific ticket

Fast forward to April 2011, when we actually start to think about what we're going to be doing with our time in Palawan. The capital, Puerto Princesa, is the definitive entry point on the island, but all the reviews say that the real highlight is in El Nido, a grueling 8 hour bus ride away to the north. Our new plan is for 3 nights in Puerto Princesa, and 3 nights in El Nido. It is clear that the originally planned return trip ticket is unusable.

But our ticket actually going to Palawan is still good, right? Well. No. The thing is, although our Palawan trip would still be starting on that day and would require flying from Manila to Puerto Princesa, we're actually coming from Dumaguete. The original idea was that we would buy a Dumaguete-Manila ticket separately, but as it turns out, the gap in time between the arrival of the scheduled Dumaguete-Manila flight and the departure of the Manila-Puerto Princesa flight is just 50 minutes-- not enough time to get to the check-in counter.

After a frustrating call to Cebu Pacific's customer service representative, I was resigned to the fact that the only way to do this would be to buy an all new ticket for Dumaguete-Manila-Puerto Princesa, and the original Manila-Puerto Princesa ticket was unusable as well.

The result

So much for the cheap Cebu Pacific promo fare. But you only get one honeymoon, right? This is as an appropriate time as any to bite the bullet. Total damage:

June 20: Dumaguete - Manila - Puerto Princesa (for 2)
PHP 11,027.52

June 26: Puerto Princesa - Manila (for 2)
PHP 6,639.36

Totally worth it.

7-Day Palawan Intinerary

2011-07-02T14:48:00.006+08:00

Palawan is, I think, the most remarkable place I have been to in the Philippines. Puerto Princesa is such a peaceful and homey city, filled with pleasant people and things to do. And God seems to have let his imagination run wild when he made the stunning Bacuit Archipelago in El Nido, with its limestone cliffs rising dramatically out of the waters and hundreds of feet into the sky.

Sunset view from El Nido

Below is our glorious 7-day Palawan honeymoon itinerary-- Puerto Princesa City, Sabang, and El Nido. I was very pleased with the way it all turned out, allowing us to see almost all the highlights, with just enough rest time to keep our sanity.

Day 1 - Monday

8:00am - Check in at Dumaguete Airport
9:00am - Plane departure from Dumaguete Airport
10:00am - Plane arrival at Manila NAIA-3

12:30pm - Plane departure from Manila NAIA-3 (very delayed flight)
1:30pm - Plane arrival at Puerto Princesa Airport

2:00pm - Check in at Hibiscus Garden Inn
3:00pm - Lunch at Balinsasayaw Grill

4:15pm - Butterfly Garden
4:50pm - Baker's Hill
5:30pm - Mitra's Ranch

6:00pm - NCCC Mall

7:00pm - Dinner at Kalui
8:30pm - Back at Hibiscus Garden Inn

Day 2 - Tuesday

6:30am - Check out from Hibiscus Garden Inn
7:00am - Tricycle to the van terminal
7:30am - Van departure from Puerto Princesa
9:00am - Van arrival in Sabang

9:15am - Check in to Sheridan Beach Resort

11:00am - Boat to the Underground River place
12:00pm - Underground River tour
1:00pm - Start Monkey Trail / Jungle Trail
3:00pm - Arrival back at Sabang Beach
3:30pm - Lunch at Daluyon Resort
5:00pm - Back at Sheridan Resort - Rest time

8:00pm - Swimming at Sheridan Resort pool
9:30pm - Dinner at Sheridan Resort's restaurant

Day 3 - Wednesday

8:30am - Breakfast at Sheridan Resort

10:00am - Mangrove paddle boat tour
11:30am - More picture taking and swimming at Sheridan Resort

1:30pm - Check out from Sheridan Resort (late check out requested)
2:00pm - Van departure from Sabang
3:30pm - Van arrival in Puerto Princesa
4:00pm - Check in again at Hibiscus Garden Inn

4:15pm - Lunch at Jollibee
4:45pm - Puerto Princesa Baywalk
5:15pm - Unitop
6:00pm - Palawan Provincial Capitol / Baragatan

7:30pm - Dinner at Kinabuchs
8:30pm - Back at Hibiscus Garden Inn

Day 4 - Thursday

7:00am - Van pickup at Hibiscus Garden Inn
8:00am - Van actual departure from Puerto Princesa
2:00pm - Van arrival at El Nido Airport (drop off at airport was requested)

5:00pm - Boat departure for El Nido Lagen Island Resort
6:00pm - Arrival and check in at Lagen Island Resort

7:30pm - Buffet dinner at Lagen Island Resort
8:30pm - Cultural show

Day 5 - Friday

7:30am - Buffet breakfast at Lagen Island Resort
9:00am - Boat departure for island hopping tour

9:20am - Pinasil Island - Cathedral Cave picture taking
9:45am - Cudugnon Cave on Palawan mainland
10:40am - Vigan Island (Snake Island)
12:15pm - Picnic lunch and picture taking at Entalula Island
2:30pm - Miniloc Island - Big Lagoon tour
3:00pm - Miniloc Island - Small Lagoon kayaking
4:00pm - Snorkeling near Miniloc Island

5:00pm - Arrival back at Lagen Island Resort
5:15pm - Swimming at Lagan Island Resort pool
7:30pm - Buffet dinner at Lagen Island Resort

Day 6 - Saturday

7:00am - Boat departure for more adventures
7:45am - Buffet lunch at Miniloc Island Resort
9:20am - Dibuluan Island - Picture taking, swimming, catamaran ride
11:30pm - Back in Lagen Island Resort

11:45am - Swimming in pool
12:30pm - Buffet lunch

2:00pm - Check out from Lagen Island Resort
3:00pm - Boat departure from Lagen Island
3:45pm - Boat arrival at El Nido Airport; Tricycle to El Nido town
5:00pm - Check in at Rosanna Cottages
5:30pm - Walk through town; Pasalubong shopping
6:30pm - Dinner at Sea Slugs

Day 7 - Sunday

7:00am - Van departure from El Nido
12:30pm - Van arrival in Puerto Princesa

1:30pm - Crocodile Farm tour
2:30pm - Pasalubong shopping at Tiangge Tiangge
3:00pm - Late lunch at Chowking

4:30pm - Check in at Puerto Princesa Airport
5:30pm - Plane departure from Puerto Princesa Airport
6:30pm - Plane arrival at Manila NAIA-3

The Pacquiao-Mosley Effect on Wikipedia

2011-05-12T18:14:00.000+08:00

I actually didn't even watch the Pacquiao-Mosley fight on the day itself-- first time I missed a Pacquiao fight in at least five years.

Anyway, here are a bunch of interesting graphs showing the spike in Wikipedia page views for the articles related to the fight. All of these graphs are from the Wikipedia article traffic statistics tool by Henrik.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley - The main article for the fight got 62k views on the big day.

Manny Pacquiao - Pacquiao got 260k hits. His Wikipedia article, I mean. The man himself took significantly less hits that day.

Shane Mosley - Mosley's article got 122k views, less than half that of Pacquiao.

Boxing - Even the article for the sport of boxing itself received 3x the usual number of page views.

Sarangani - The province where Pacquiao serves as congressman got around 10x the normal number of page views.

General Santos City - Pacquiao's home town. He's no longer introduced as being from General Santos, but the page still got around 6x the usual number of views.

Mama Said Knock You Out - Shane Mosley's entrance song got over 3x the usual number of page views that day.

Eye of the Tiger - Manny Pacquiao's entrance song got 10x the usual number of page views.

Survivor (band) - The band that made "Eye of the Tiger" a hit in 1982 also got around 10x the usual number of page views.

Jimi Jamison - The lead singer of Survivor from 1984-1989 and 2000-2006 performed "Eye of the Tiger" and walked with Pacquiao as he entered the arena. He went from virtually unknown to getting 10k views that day, a 100x increase.

Lupang Hinirang - Even the Philippine national anthem got 5x the usual number of views that day.

Jimmy Lennon Jr. - Showtime's ring announcer for the fight got a massive increase in page views.

Michael Buffer - HBO's usual ring announcer was not a participant in this fight at all, but still got 7x his usual number of page views, probably from people wondering what happened to him.

Antonio Margarito - Pacquiao's last opponent got 10x the usual number of views on fight day.

Juan Manuel Marquez - Pacquiao's old nemesis and likely next opponent.

Obama's Big Week

2011-05-03T11:20:00.003+08:00

President Obama seems to be everywhere and doing everything at once lately. A busy schedule this past week:

Wednesday: Release original birth certificate, scold critics and conspiracy theorists for wasting everyone's time, expose Donald Trump as the real fraud. "We've got bigger problems to solve".

Friday: Travel to Alabama to console victims of the America's deadliest tornado outbreak in the past 80 years.

Saturday: Perform 20 minute monologue at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, roasting political opponents right to their faces.

Sunday: Kill Osama bin Laden.

At this rate he may very well... umm... I'm trying to think of a hyperbole to use here, but killing Osama bin Laden is just about the best thing that a US president could ever, ever do.

Eye-Opening Photoshop

2011-04-17T08:00:00.001+08:00

The point of a good Photoshopping is for people to not be able to tell that it's Photoshopped. In this one case, however, I'm just so pleased with the subtleness of the job I did that I can't help but show it off.

A few days ago I went looking for a new Facebook profile pic. People probably see me far more often on Facebook than they do in real life, so a good profile pic is a reflection of myself to the world.

Here's the original image I got:

It's a good enough close-up picture taken last month, but I couldn't get over the face that my right eye seems a bit sleepier than the other. Enter Photoshop.

I made a selection around the right eye with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, promoted to another layer, then stretched it vertically to increase hight by around 25%.

The other issue is that there's a reflection of lights on my left eye that isn't present on the right eye. So... Selection around the pupil of my left eye with a few pixels of feathering, then copy it on top of my right eye. Then decrease opacity a bit to make it more subtle.

Finished picture:

Of course, there is probably no one that would perceive the difference in the 50x50 image on people's news feeds, or even the 180x120 image on my profile page. But... yeah.

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - April 2011

2011-04-16T14:29:00.006+08:00

Here's a map of the high-resolution satellite imagery of the Philippines that's available on Google Earth as of April 2011. Areas in red have high-res coverage.

Some background-- seav made some maps like this before, but it's been a few years and I felt like seeing what the coverage looks like today.

Compare this with what the coverage looked like in June 2006 or March 2007.

Note, in Google Earth you can more clearly see which areas are available in high-resolution by clicking the historical imagery button.

The top 40 most populous cities and municipalities in the Philippines all have high-res coverage. The largest uncovered cities are poor Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija (rank 44, population 259,267), Marawi in Lanao del Sur (rank 67, population 177,391), and Valencia City in Bukidnon (rank 71, population 162,745).

Also notably lacking high-res coverage are the tourist spots of Boracay and Panglao/Tagbilaran.

Still, 54.7% of the Philippines' total land area is covered, including 65.9% on the island of Luzon. That's more than half! What a glorious age we live in.

Law, Justice, Crime, Punishment

2011-03-30T08:18:00.004+08:00

As I write this, three Filipino drug traffickers-- tried,convicted and sentenced to death-- are relishing the last hours of their life in a Chinese prison. By the time I get around to posting this they very well may be dead.

A trip to China by Vice President Binay bought them some time, but China's justice system has proved as impenetrable as their government. Let's face the facts, if we want them to respect our law we'll need to respect theirs. Honestly, the Vice President has just as much business going to China to plead for them as he does going to our local jails and begging the wardens to free the prisoners. I don't believe in the death penalty, but I do believe in the rule of law.

Today's newspaper headline is "Nation on bended knee". There is this horrible tendency of Filipinos to overlook the fact that a person is a convicted criminal whenever the conviction is in another country. Like that time two years ago when a different Vice President successfully won freedom for the confessed killer of a 6-year old boy. I can't help but feel that the moments of silence, prayers, and vigils should go to the innocent.

In a related story, Senator Ping Lacson has finally returned to the Philippines from his life as a fugitive on murder charges, successfully escaping an international manhunt. While the charges against Lacson have been dropped, the Justice Department is supposedly pursuing the people who helped Lacson evade capture.

Tell me, what exactly is the point of going after the coddlers if you're going to completely let go of Lacson himself? If anyone is responsible for the millions of pesos and millions of manhours utterly wasted on trying to find him, shouldn't it be the fugitive himself? It should not matter that he is no longer officially a murder suspect. When Senator Lacson fled the country over a year ago, he wasn't merely eluding captivity by the police, he was betraying the very system of laws and government that he swore to uphold when he took his oath of office. And now he has returned to the country to continue being a member of congress and making a mockery of the rule of law.

Meanwhile, Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson serves his own time in a Hong Kong prison for drug possession. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and shortly thereafter resigned from his position in Congress amid talk that the House of Representatives would vote to expel him. But really, why demonize Singson but tolerate Lacson? At least he cooperated. He didn't waste anyone's time. He plead guilty and accepted his punishment. Yet not once did I hear a suggestion of expelling Lacson from the Senate for his abandonment.

Then there's Antonio Trillanes. If you're still on his side then there's simply no reasoning with you. He and his cohorts abandoned the chain of command and took hostage a luxury apartment tower. When given his day in court four years later he stormed out and seiged a luxury hotel, causing more chaos. Fast forward just three years, a new president comes to power and lets these characters go scot free barely a month before the court is scheduled to render judgement upon them.

I haven't even mentioned Estrada yet, who finished second place in the presidential election less than three years after being found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of plunder. God help us.

Lacson, Singson, Trillanes, Estrada, Webb, and those three drug traffickers in China-- somehow I get the feeling that there's a connection in the way the Philippines' methods and priorities in terms of justice are all utterly backwards. There's definitely something wrong here at a very basic level.

Stuff from the 90s

2011-03-18T07:14:00.002+08:00

Things, trends, and habits from the 90s that are no more:

Encyclopedia on a CD
Having a separate phone line for internet access
VHS cassettes
Watching TV all day because you have nothing to do
The Windows 95/98 startup sound
The "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen
Getting an external light for your Game Boy
VHS rewinders
Carrying data on floppy disks
That dialup modem sound
Having to "log on" to the internet at all
Walkman
Discman
Measuring processor speed by megahertz
AOL keywords
Going to an actual library to do research
Beepers
Carrying around a zipper case full of music CDs
Discovering the concept of the gigabyte
Car phones
Disposable cameras
Memorizing DOS commands to load up games
Learning HTML to put up a personal webpage on Geocities
Angelfire
Altavista
Ask Jeeves
Yahoo! Internet directory
Shareware
Chatting with random people in FreeTel
Polaroid cameras
Not knowing how photos turned out until they're developed
Buying film
Blowing into video game carts to make them work
Sega vs. Nintendo
Reformatting a computer because Windows is getting slow
PC games coming in huge boxes for no reason
Saying CD-ROM for any reason at all
"Information Superhighway"
"Cyberspace"
Sites with MIDI background music
Animated gifs
Webrings
The blink tag
Best viewed in Internet Exporer or Netscape Navigator
Sites with frames
Stuck in a video game? Stop playing.
Calling every first-person shooter a "Doom clone"
Boy bands
Saturday morning cartoons
Rollerblading
Hand-animated movies
TV Guide
Goosebumps
Beavis and Butthead
Wearing a baseball cap backwards or sideways
Linux being on the verge of taking over the world
Microsoft being the evil empire
Thinking that history has ended and democracy has won

12 Photos from US Trip 2011

2011-01-28T07:00:00.007+08:00

On Monday night I got back from a three week trip to the U-S-A. Two weeks of work in freezing Wisconsin, then one week of vacation in sunny Southern California. Last time I was in the US was in late 2007 when I went to Atlanta for work (with a different company).

Here are 12 of my favorite pictures:

12. Santa Monica skyline seen from the pier

11. Getty Villa

10. Milwaukee Bucks vs. San Antonio Spurs

9. Chicago skyline as seen from the Adler Planetarium

8. The Bean in Chicago's Millennium Park

7. Getting drunk on tequila with Mexicans at Hooters

6. Ball jumping outside Milwaukee's Miller Park

5. Snowboarding at Mountain High

4. On glass at the observation deck of the Sears Tower

3. Chasing a goose outside the Harley-Davidson Museum

2. Battling the snow

1. Oozing manliness in Wisconsin

Highlights of 2010

2011-01-03T19:26:00.002+08:00

Just a bunch of stuff that happened.

January
Happy new year 2010
Bowser's Inside Story
Finished new hire training at HP
Started actual work at HP
Got Loren a laptop

February
First work from home
Weekend vacation in Dumaguete
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

March
Pacquiao vs. Clottey
Saw Jason Castro at Market Market
Donated blood
Signed the Articles of Incorporation for Wikimedia Philippines

April
Holy Week in Dumaguete
First on-call shift
Turned 25
Vacation in Cebu
Bought a ring, proposed, got engaged. Yeehaw!

May
Voted for the first time
Work outing at Costa de Oro, Batangas

June
Pamanhikan
Noynoy becomes president

July
Hong Kong vacation
Visited Disneyland, Ocean Park Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Victoria Peak
SQL training

August
Manila Ocean Park
Wild offsite at Canyon Cove, Batangas

September
Wedding seminar
ITIL training

October
Was godfather at a baptism
Nearly 2-week vacation in Dumaguete
Ran the first of five 5Ks fun runs

November
Joe's wedding
Pacquiao vs. Margarito

December
First 10K fun run
A whole bunch of high school reunions

Numbers of 2010

2011-01-02T18:43:00.003+08:00

One of the practical lessons I've picked up from work is to document what you do-- if there's no record of what you accomplished, then it's like you didn't do it at all. Such is life.

310 days in Manila, 46 days in Dumaguete, 4 days in Cebu, 3 days in Hong Kong, and 2 days in Batangas.

18 plane rides. 2 of those were international flights.

0 Philippine islands set foot on the the first time.

1 blood donation.

2 Pacquiao fights watched on choppy streams.

7 fun runs joined. That's 41 kilometers in 245 minutes.

1 wedding attended. 1 baptism attended. 0 funerals attended.

5 Christmas parties.

4 days of sick leave. 5 days of vacation leave.

31 work days of day shift. 23 work days of afternoon shift. 154 work days of night shift. 25 work days spent in training.

37 completely work free weekends. 15 weekends with at least 1 day of work / on-call.

50 movies watched. Of those, 46 movies were watched for the first time, and 4 were repeats.

29 movies watched alone, 19 movies watched with another person, and 2 movies watched with a group.

15 movies watched in theaters, 1 movie watched on cable TV.

1118 shots taken on my camera.

3 DS games purchased. 1 Wii game purchased. 2 laptops purchased for others.

49 blog entries.

KFC Double Down

2010-12-22T07:23:00.001+08:00

I like to compare KFC's Double Down to skydiving. It's a radical and dangerous idea, and I keep telling myself that somehow I am going to try it at least for once in my life. But then, when faced with the actual decision, I can't bring myself to take the plunge.

Until one day, I did.

For the uninitiated: This meaty monster is not a sandwich. This is two layers of greasy chicken fillet surrounding a slice of cheese, a few strips of bacon, and mayonnaise. It is certainly sandwichesque, but it is even more certainly not a sandwich.

I wanted to surround the thing with a loaf of bread. It was not as good as I hoped, and not as bad as it sounds. An interesting experience but not one I plan to try again any time soon.

Week 6: Quezon City International Marathon

2010-12-21T23:46:00.000+08:00

I started my binge of running in late October by challenging myself to run a 5K every week for five weeks (or as long as I could keep it up, really). Five kilometers is a good distance, short enough for anyone to finish but long enough to demand a great deal of endurance if you are going to put effort into it. Five weeks is long enough to build up a comfortable routine, but once you gets too comfortable it's only natural to push yourself further.

Set on December 5 was the Quezon City International Marathon, featuring a 5K race, a 10K race, a 21K half marathon, and a full 42K marathon. With the promise of a huge event (the word "International" entices me) and long running distances, it seemed time to finally step up my game, up to a target I had long looked up to but never before considered within reach. 10K.

I had once thought 10K as an impossible distance. Sounds silly saying that in the context of a race with a full 42K marathon, but it is true. Running 5K leaves me mentally exhilarated but physically exhausted. Going for twice that long would be-- twice as much.

(For reference, 10 kilometers is the distance from the SM Mall of Asia to SM Megamall visa EDSA. But please don't run on EDSA.)

Quezon City International Marathon
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City

Distance: 10K / Time: 1:00:37 / Rank 325 of 1314

Now, despite the word "International" in the title, it seemed that so much about the event was amateurishly organized. I shall elaborate in bullet point form:

The poster said registration would end on November 7, yet registration was going on far beyond that date. This isn't much of a complaint, since even I registered late, but why bother setting a deadline if they won't stick to it, right? I'm sure many missed the event because they thought the registration period had passed, and the extension wasn't clearly communicated.

The singlet design posted on the internet was colored green, yet somehow the final thing itself turned out a bright neon yellow. They posted a sort of apology on their Facebook page but no real explanation, except to say that's the way it turned out when they got it from the printers.

Registration included the unusual and unnecessary step of claiming the singlet and race kit from UP on the weekend of Nov. 27-28. Why couldn't they just give it out along with the actual registration itself? Or why not have registration itself at UP that weekend? Seems like they're imposing a logistical burden on both organizers and participants.

Race kits were supposed to be distributed at the Bahay ng Alumni in UP, and I had to ask around since no directions were given, and the UP campus isn't particularly visitor friendly. When I got there I found only a sign saying that the venue had been moved, and it gave some vague directions on how to get there. Turns out it was at a remote and dusty gym at the furthest corner of the campus.

I get to the race kit distribution place, show my claim stub, and-- surprise! My name is not on the list. Seems I wasn't the only person with this problem, because they had an ad hoc workaround in place and did a quasi-registration on the spot.

I suspect that the workaround registration is the reason why the race results show me as an ageless, sexless, "Unknown finisher". Overall, 677 out of the 3515 finishers in the 5K/10K race results are listed as "Unknown finisher", identified only by bib number. That's nearly 20%.

The baggage counter had me a bit worried. They had such a small storage space considering the amount of runners, and bags were overflowing out of their area. When I came to claim my bag after the race, I was able to just pick it up myself without any assistance. I could easily have stolen someone else's bag.

This doesn't affect me, but there are many reports that the 21K race distance was actually more than 23 km. How they can make such a large mistake in distance is beyond me. Several people brought this up via the Facebook page, with responses saying that would look into it, yet nothing was done.

The cutoff time for the full marathon was supposed to be 7 hours, but they removed the timing sensors an hour early. If I ran for 42 km and this happened to me I would be barking mad. Absolutely barking.

Ok I think that's all I have in terms of organizational complaints. Whew.

Sweaty masses of humanity at the finish.

The starting point of the run was where Commonwealth Avenue meets the Quezon City Circle. They closed the entire northbound half of Commonwealth Ave. for the event, and I can just imagine the furor from motorists. I've seen the event advertising that runners would be passing Quezon City's most glorious landmarks, but really for the 5K/10K runs there is nothing to see along Commonwealth Ave.

Hydration was plentiful, with tables of water and Powerade at good intervals. I may have helped myself to a little too much water since my stomach began to protest in the last few kilometers and about half the time was spent walking. People were passing me but I comforted myself in the thought that no matter how slowly I go it would still be a personal best.

Post-run ceremonies at the Quezon City Circle.

I finished in the very respectable time of 1:00:37, and ranked 325 out of 1314. Not bad for my first 10K, eh? Of course I would have preferred to be 37 seconds faster and finish within the 1 hour mark, but I'm quite pleased considering I thought my time would be more like 1:20:00. Plus, I'm still in the top half in the rankings. Maybe I could be pushing myself still harder in terms of distance. 21K? Who knows. Someday.

Then I came home, took a shower, had breakfast, and slept for 10 hours straight. Not even exaggerating.

Week 5: Resorts World Grand Fiesta Run

2010-12-12T06:42:00.001+08:00

My week prior to the Resorts World Grand Fiesta Run on November 28 was full of distractions and conditions that were a completely unideal preparation for running. Because I had visitors in Manila, I was only able to run for a total of 10 km during the whole week as preparation. I was eating way more than usual. I spent entire days getting my legs and feet sore by walking around the malls. And the night before the run I had a mini-reunion with high school friends.

One bright note though was that these visitors would be going to the airport on early Sunday morning, which was just perfect since I could be dropped off right at the race venue across from NAIA Terminal 3, at Resorts World Manila.

Resorts World Manila Grand Fiesta Run
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Resorts World Manila

Distance: 5K / Time: 28:10 / Rank 29 of 266

The run's route was around Resorts World and Andrews Avenue in front of Terminal 3, a new and untested route for fun runs. This probably added to it's appeal and explains why it managed to be decently attended despite heavy competition-- the Runrio-sponsored Run BGC and the McDonald's-sponsored McHappy Day Fun Run were scheduled the same morning, among others.

The downside of this venue is that Andrews Avenue is a heavily used road that can't be blocked off from traffic too much since people are going to the airport. When going southeast on this part of the route only the two inner lanes were for the runners, so it's a choice between being close to the heavy pollution coming from the traffic in the opposite lane, or getting too close to the speedy cars on the other side.

I didn't even come close to finishing the whole 5K without walking, but was still surprised that I got a decent sub-30 minute time. Even more pleasing was my rank of 29 out of 266, nearly in the top 10%.

Running with NAIA Terminal 3 in the background.

Superman emerges in the 1K "Rat Race"

An interesting gimmick to this event was a 1K "Rat Race" where participants were encouraged to come in business attire. Personally I thought this would be a waste of time that no one would join, but there were just enough people to keep it interesting and successful. Most photogenic was a guy (a minor celebrity, I think) who ran in a full suit, then revealed in the final stretch that he had a Superman costume underneath.

Finishing off the event was a generous raffle. Lots of prizes were given out, which got people excited since the number of participants was not that big. The two grand prizes were vacations to Resorts World in Singapore, along with tickets to Universal Studios.

People stuck around to the every end, hoping to get lucky. Then it came time for the final grand prize. "The last digit of our grand prize winner is... a seven!". Disappointed moans erupted from the crowd, with a few scattered cheers. I didn't even bother sticking around to hear the rest of it-- I just picked up my bag and left.

As I walked away from the event I happened to be walking beside another dude, and our eyes met, and we laughed out loud at the unspoken but shared understanding of our lack of fortune. Hah. What can you do.

Week 4: Animo Run

2010-12-10T23:28:00.002+08:00

I was faced with two options for the morning of November 21:

Big Blue Katipunan Run at the Ateneo campus, sponsored by Ateneo
Animo Run at the SM Mall of Asia, sponsored by La Salle

Seemed kind of funny and not at all coincidental that fun runs by Ateneo and La Salle would be set on the same day at the same time on opposite ends of Metro Manila. The choice for me was easy enough though-- the Mall of Asia is relatively closer to where I live, and also I was a bit wary of the loose organization and low turnout of the Ateneo-organized run two weeks earlier.

Also, the Animo Run's singlet design as posted on the internet was better and free of sponsor logos. The actual thing was full of sponsor logos though. Oh well.

Animo Run
Sunday, November 21, 2010
SM Mall of Asia

Distance: 5K / Time: 25:24 / Rank 110 of 1384

The crowd was bigger than I expected. I think the host announced that there were something like 5000 registrants-- there are no results for the 3K though so I can't be sure. Apparently, joining the run was required for some PE class.

Even though I'm the opposite of a Lasallian alumnus, I loved the fact that the cheering squad's drums were booming to greet runners as they came into the final stretch. It was the first time I finally achieved the goal I set for myself of running an entire 5 kilometers without taking breaks to walk, and the drums kept me motivated to keep going despite a dull pain in my side started to creep up in the final kilometer or so.

Despite being able to finish the whole thing without walking, my time and ranking were not as good as my 5K personal record set in the run the week before. It's just a minor letdown, since I really think that week's run was actually shorter than this was.

La Salle's drums

Runners in front of the IMAX theater

The real thing to be disappointed about was the "loot bag" given to finishers. Despite the promises of generous freebies from sponsors, the loot bag actually given out had hardly more than coupons and a thin magazine. They could have put it in an envelope. I threw it in the trash before I left. I wouldn't have minded if there was no loot bag at all actually, but they shouldn't set expectations if they'll just let people down.

In spite of that I walked away from the even a happy dude. Just ran five kilometers straight, felt like I could have gone on for five more, and nuthin' could stop me.

Week 3: Race for Life

2010-12-06T09:46:00.001+08:00

My third straight weekend of 5Ks was for the "Race for Life", a fun run for some charity that I am unaware of. Apparently it's a pretty popular charity, because it attracted a crowd of thousands of participants-- surprising, given the relatively steep registration fee. All in all there was a total of 2694 people across all categories who finished the run (that's over 10 times the number of people in the Ateneo run the week before).

Race for Life 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Bonifacio Global City

Distance: 5K / Time: 25:03 / Rank 43 of 1259

This one was held on the shiny new streets of Bonifacio Global City. For a pleasant change, the route was just one big loop with almost no backtracking. Unfortunately though, the distance based on my most generous calculations in Google Earth was just 4.8 km. Actually I suspect it was even shorter.

I'm not so familiar with the streets of BGC and didn't bother to study the race route, so during the run itself I had no idea how far along I was, and it came as a surprise afterwards when I found that I nearly finished the whole thing without walking. With a time of 25:03 I was somehow ranked 43 out of 1259 finishers in the 5K-- a ranking that remains my best ever in percentile terms.

In fact it seems fishy to me, and I had to double check the results just now to be sure. Maybe there were a lot of women and old people.

Final bend before the finish.

Epic line for goodies from sponsors.

After the run there was an area set up with the sponsor booths in a row, forming a sort of assembly line where finishers collect freebies for the generous loot bag. There were drinks, candy, sardines, soaps, shampoos, a pen, alcohol, vitamins, a raffle entry... I think there was even a bank offering loans or something. Almost enough to make the 30 minute wait in line worth it.

Week 2: Ateneo Law Blue Race

2010-11-29T23:13:00.000+08:00

The process of registering for this run should have raised a few red flags for me. It required going to either the Ateneo Professional Schools in Rockwell or the Ateneo Lex office in the Loyola Heights campus. Rockwell was closer for me so I went there.

So, I get to the Rockwell campus in the morning and find the Ateneo Human Rights Center, which is where the registration should be, but I find just a single lady at her desk who could only tell me to wait for the students to be around, which would be at some undetermined time in the future. I then spend the next hour or two exploring the building, poking my head curiously into places I don't belong, and eventually wasting away the time on the internet-- until finally someone comes long and facilitates the registration.

Ateneo Law Blue Race
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Ateneo de Manila University

Distance: 5K / Time: 31:23 / Rank 28 of 104

A few days before the run I get a text message from the organizers saying that they had somehow lost the list of names associated with the numbers, and asked me to give my info. I replied as they ordered, and wished them a heartfelt best of luck. Losing the list of participant names is a big deal.

What pleased me most about this race was that the race route is pretty much just two loops of my usual jogging route when I was a dormer in Ateneo (though I would go all the way to the end of the high school road, to the Moro Lorenzo Sports Complex). It also gives me a chance to see what's changed in the past year since I've been there-- Ateneo never runs out of new things to construct. Also, being held in the Ateneo campus on an early Sunday morning meant that I wouldn't have the satisfaction of having traffic stopped for my sake.

The small pre-race crowd.

Tree-lined road in the Ateneo campus.

The distances for the race were 3K, 5K, and 7.5K. I have no idea why they would truncate it to a strange non-standard distance of 7.5K when they easily could have drawn a 10K distance with another loop or two within the campus.

One website said that they were expecting a maximum of 1000 runners, as though they were dampening expectations in case they ran out of singlets or whatever. The reality was that only 256 people actually participated, in all race categories. This was perhaps because of the inconvenient registration place, or maybe a lack of promotion, but I imagine the organizers would be disappointed with the turnout too.

The actual race results were not posted until 2.5 weeks later, and that only came after I personally emailed several organizers. They explained that their database was screwy since many registered on the race day itself. I'm a gracious participant and I say thanks, but another person blasted the organizers for the problems. When they finally posted the results on the Facebook page (with only bib numbers, not actual names) it came with an apology, and an appeal for understanding since the organizers were all full-time law students.

I hate to admit it but all that really says is that one can't expect competence from full-time Ateneo students of law.

Week 1: Adobo Run After Dark

2010-11-28T22:47:00.003+08:00

Faced with several weekends with nothing on my calendar, I embarked on an ambitious project: Five consecutive weekends of 5K fun runs, each in a different location.

The rationale:

I like to run
I need to exercise
I want to do something I can brag about

I've joined a couple of other fun runs in the past (five to be exact; and yes I keep count) so I'm familiar enough with the mechanics. I'd be happy enough if I could just beat my own personal record-- 28:12 at the 2006 Milo Marathon in Dumaguete-- and maybe finally manage to run a whole 5K without resorting to walking.

The first event on my itinerary was one I saw advertised at Inquirer.net: The Adobo Run After Dark.

Adobo Run After Dark

Saturday, October 30, 2010

McKinley Hill

Distance: 5K / Time: 33:20 / Rank 71 of 477

This one brought me to McKinley Hill, a route known for its steep roads, as well as for the fact that no one knows how to commute there. I've done this route before but that doesn't make the climb any less backbreaking.

The event was unusual in two notable ways: First, as you can tell from the name, it was held on a Saturday night instead of the usual early morning. Second, it was the night before Halloween, so participants were encouraged to come in costume. Just enough people came in costume to make their gimmick a success, I think. Tragically I forgot to bring my camera, but you can see the pictures at takbo.ph. I was running alongside swimsuit guy for a while-- watching bystander reactions to that was a lot of fun.

This was organized by Adobo Magazine, which is apparently some kind of advertising company I have never heard of. After the race there was a loot bag with a free Adobo Magazine, refrigerator magnet, and some other stuff I can't remember at the moment. The tragedy here was that they only prepared 1000 loot bags even though there were far more participants than that, and each participant had a loot bag claim stub. Naturally the 10K runners, who ran farthest and arrived last, are the ones that end up getting nothing.

There was a loud after-party which I didn't really stick around for. It had live bands and supposedly unlimited beer which they jokingly (I hope) said would be thirst quenchers for the runners. I like beer as much as the next guy, but pumping alcohol into exhausted people in need of hydration sounds like the worst idea ever.

Sandwich

2010-11-20T21:04:00.002+08:00

Check out the sandwich that I am eating this very moment:

The menu called it a Smoked Chicken Roast with Canadian Black Bacon. P128 at Earle's Delicatessen in Makati.

Smoked chicken roast, Canadian black bacon,

romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers,

white onions, honey mustard and cheese,

on French bread.

Music at McDonalds

2010-11-19T07:36:00.004+08:00

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

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

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

"Music!", the guy says.

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

Then they turn on the music.

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

Before and After: NLEX-C5 Interchange

2010-11-15T10:05:00.003+08:00

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

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

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

Dumaguete in 2005 and 2010

2010-10-17T02:46:00.002+08:00

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

Dumaguete Business Park

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

Port

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

Convention Center and Oval

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

Airport

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

Diversion Road

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

Noynoy in the Hot Seat

2010-09-30T17:19:00.004+08:00

There's some kind of poetic symmetry to be pointed out here, with President Noynoy Aquino lamenting the people that have nothing better to do that criticize the government blindly:

Aquino appeals for unity

DAVAO DEL NORTE, Philippines – President Aquino called for unity here on Thursday, saying it was important to the country’s development. [...]
But the President lamented that instead of helping the government in solving the country’s problems, some quarters were making an issue about just anything.
"May mga tao lang po talaga na ayaw yata ng kaunlaran at lahat ng ginagawa natin ay pinupuna (There are people who do not seem to want progress, they criticize our every move)," he said.

To be fair, he's absolutely right. As I've said time and time again, the culture of cynicism in this country too often goes far beyond mere patriotic opposition-- it's damaging to the country's long term growth.

Problem is that Aquino's campaign for president was centered around positioning himself as the epitome of the type of person he is now criticizing. Despite the attempts to portray himself as the new Obama, he didn't reach the top by being a uniter. He did it by driving a wedge into the country's divisions, and claiming the biggest piece as his own.

And now, to expect anything different from his own critics? Well. Good luck with that.

Time to Mourn

2010-08-26T02:12:00.000+08:00

I, BENIGNO S. AQUINO III, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby proclaim August 25, 2010 as a day of national mourning, in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong and the bereaved families of the slain.

A time to mourn, ok, great. But my complaint here is why do we declare a national day of mourning and lower all our flags now, when 8 Hong Kong people die, but do nothing for all the other times a bunch of Filipinos die?

5 soldiers killed by rebels in Agusan del Sur the same day (link)

9 police officers killed by the NPA in Samar on Monday (link)

39 passengers killed in a Benguet bus crash last week (link)

Their deaths may not have been broadcast on live TV in prime time, but that doesn't diminish the significance of the loss of life.

Are they any less deserving of our sympathy? Or are Filipino lives simply not worth as much to the government of the Philippines?

Bus Drama

2010-08-25T10:08:00.004+08:00

Now, about this Rolando Mendoza guy.

Show him no mercy, make no attempt to romanticize his story, do not paint him as a martyr. No one who hijacks a busload of innocent people and sprays them with bullets deserves a good word in their eulogy. He's an embarassment to the Filipino people, and the whole human race for that matter. I was so pleased to hear that his journey ended with a sniper's bullet straight through the head.

Make no mistake, this story's ending was tragic, and the reports in the coming days will shed light on what really happened that day and what should have been done better. But personally I'd prefer we don't belittle the heroism and courage of the men who risked their lives to save 17 of the 25 passengers on that bus.

Ants Carrying Meat

2010-06-06T14:17:00.002+08:00

A bunch of ants carrying a chunk of meat from lasagna:

They carried it to the edge of the table, then they all fell off.

Pancakes

2010-05-30T15:49:00.002+08:00

Today's project: Pillsbury Creamy Vanilla Hotcakes.

My first pancake failed, and it's not included in this pile. It stayed a pale yellow without turning golden brown, and it crumbled when i tried to flip it over. I think the pan wasn't hot enough yet, or something.

Everything else turned out decent enough, despite a miscalculation that resulted in me using twice as much oil as the instructions said.

Content-Aware Magic

2010-05-19T05:23:00.003+08:00

Ok, so the new "content-aware fill" feature of the new Adobe Photoshop CS5 is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. You may have seen it in this video, a preview of the most amazing thing ever.

All of the following were made by drawing a crude selection in Photoshop and pressing the delete key. Click for much larger images.

After seeing the edited picture, the original looks fake.

Mediterranean Eggs

2010-05-18T10:03:00.003+08:00

Today's project: Mediterranean Eggs.

Based on this Betty Crocker recipe.

I could not be more pleased with how it turned out, it looks just like the picture in the cookbook.

Philippine Senate Batch of 2004, Where Are They Now?

2010-05-14T18:09:00.005+08:00

A look back at what happened to the Philippine Senators elected in 2004, whose terms end on June 30, 2010:

Reelected to the Senate this year are Juan Ponce Enrile, Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Richard Gordon and Jamby Madrigal both lost in their bid to become President, and Mar Roxas has apparently lost his bid for Vice President.

Senior citizens Aquilino Pimentel and Rodolfo Biazon both had their proxy candidates who lost in their campaign for the Senate (daughter Gwen Pimentel and son Ruffy Biazon).

And it took Alfredo Lim just 3 years to get tired of the Senate. He was elected Mayor of Manila back in 2007.

Philippine Senate, Batch of 2010

2010-05-13T06:00:00.002+08:00

A look at the names that the people of the Philippines chose on Monday to comprise half of the Senate:

The Facebook Campaign, Pt. 2

2010-05-12T22:26:00.005+08:00

Now that the election is over, here's a look back at the growth in Facebook fans of the Philippine presidential candidates since the start of the year. (See my previous post, from back in February)

Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar kept a surprisingly tight race going for most of this graph, with Aquino leading by just around 40,000 fans-- until around April, when the anti-Villar propaganda began to pile up and Aquino began to pull away. The lead widened to 100,000 in late April, then something weird happened to Noynoy's fan page (his official site described it as a technical and security issue), rendering it mostly inaccessible. This allowed Villar to take the lead just days before the election.

Gibo Teodoro placed a valiant third. The others, by comparison, are hardly worth mentioning.

It's interesting to note that Erap Estrada, though ranking a shockingly strong second place in the actual election, is a very distant 6th place on Facebook. I don't have a single friend that supports him.

Nothing to Offer but Sincerity

2010-05-03T10:36:00.005+08:00

Once again looking into the past through the thick lens of perspective, here's a good long New York Times article from 1990 titled "Cory Aquino's Downhill Slide" by Pulitzer Prize winning historian Stanley Karnow. Some excerpts:

For all her achievements, however, Aquino has lost the luster she enjoyed after toppling Marcos, when the world exalted her as the devout housewife who had exorcised evil. Her approval ratings in the Philippines, once astronomic, have dropped to below 50 percent.

"We like Cory personally, but nothing has changed".

"She is sincere, moral and honest, but the presidency is obviously beyond her, beyond her capabilities, beyond her experience."

"We hope that she'll muddle through," says a senior [US] State Department official, "but she simply doesn't know how to govern"

The Philippines needs more people to remember what it was really like having a president with no qualifications, no accomplishments, and nothing to offer but a stoic sense of sincerity.

Comelec Precinct Finder

2010-04-14T05:32:00.004+08:00

The Comelec website has this Precinct Finder, which is a very cool thing. For one thing, it tells you exactly where to go to vote on May 10.

Even cooler, it tells you exactly where anyone will be going to vote on May 10, provided you know their full name and date of birth. For example...

GLORIA MACARAEG MACAPAGAL ARROYO / April 05, 1947
PAMPANGA, LUBAO, LUBAO EAST CENTRAL ELEM. SCHOOL

BENIGNO SIMEON III COJUANGCO AQUINO / February 08, 1960
TARLAC, CITY OF TARLAC, CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

MANUEL JR. BAMBA VILLAR / December 13, 1949
NCR - FOURTH DISTRICT, CITY OF LAS PIÑAS, STI COVERED COURT

GILBERTO, JR. COJUANGCO TEODORO / June 14, 1964
TARLAC, MAYANTOC, CARABAOAN ELEM. SCHOOL

JOSEPH EJERCITO ESTRADA / April 19, 1937
NCR - SECOND DISTRICT, SAN JUAN CITY, PEDRO CRUZ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

RICHARD JUICO GORDON / August 05, 1945
ZAMBALES, OLONGAPO CITY, EAST TAPINAC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

EMMANUEL DAPIDRAN PACQUIAO / December 17, 1978
SARANGANI, KIAMBA, KIAMBA, CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

MANUEL ARANETA ROXAS / May 13, 1957
CAPIZ, ROXAS CITY, RUFINA ANDRADA SANTOS MEM. SCHOOL

IMELDA ROMUALDEZ MARCOS / July 02, 1929
ILOCOS NORTE, BATAC CITY, M. MARCOS MEM. ELEM. SCHOOL

FIDEL VALDEZ RAMOS / March 18, 1928
PANGASINAN, ASINGAN, NARCISO R. RAMOS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

I was hoping to find some prominent political personality who scandalously is not registered to vote, but so far have had no such luck.

Cebu in 2005 and 2009

2010-04-09T07:50:00.004+08:00

Google Maps recently updated their satellite imagery for Cebu City, for the first time in years. The previous data was from 2005, and the new data brings a whole four-year jump to 2009. Here are some highlights of what's changed.

Mandaue Reclamation Area
Previously barren land now has the glorious Cebu International Convention Center, and just across the street is the new Parkmall.

Asiatown IT Park
Five new high rise office buildings and a newly rebuilt mall. The jail beside the business park has been dismantled. And amazingly, the slum area to the north disappeared and was replaced by greenery.

Cebu Business Park
A bunch of new high rise hotels, office buildings, and Ayala Center Cebu added a new expansion wing and the wonderful Terraces.

SM City Cebu
The already huge SM City Cebu added a huge expansion wing on top of its parking lot, making it the 4th largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the 11th largest in the world.

South Road PropertiesSadly the area that showed endless promise in 2005 still has nothing to show for it but endless promise today. Aside from extravagant street lights and a pointless red sidewalk to nowhere, the place is practically unchanged.

The Photoshopping of Manny Villar

2010-03-23T05:51:00.004+08:00

Left: Manny Villar at the T'nalak Festival in Koronadal City in July 2009, captured by Louie D. Photography and uploaded to Flickr.
Right: Manny Villar as seen on his official website in March 2010.

One note of comfort, at least he has more than one of those orange golf shirts.

The Branded Candidate 2010

2010-03-19T17:18:00.004+08:00

One of Time's Best Inventions of 2008 was "The Branded Candidate", referring to Barack Obama's amazingly well executed use of coherent system of fonts, logos, and slogans in his campaign. Of course all candidates are actively marketed to the people, but Obama's brand was far more cohesive than anything that came before it.

Naturally, anyone running for office anywhere would want to follow his example. Here are some logos of 2010 Philippine presidential candidates. Click the images for much larger versions.

Noynoy Aquino

Noynoy's use of typography is not consistent-- his website uses Impact, his Facebook uses something else, his twitter uses something else, and so on. What is consistent is his use of color and the dove-ribbon logo. I'm not a fan of the way the dove's wing curves around into that awkward shape, but the dove image brings along a sense of peace and innocence. The color yellow instantly draws a mental connection to his strongest selling point, his parents. And his adoption of the yellow ribbon as his logo shrewdly converts Cory mourners into instant Noynoy supporters.

Manny Villar

Villar has long worked on adopting the color orange into his brand, wearing that same orange polo shirt everywhere he's gone for the past year or two. His presidential campaign uses the check mark for his logo, integrating it into his name as the letter V. That, combined with the forward-leaning letters, sends an image of an active and forward-looking campaign. Interestingly, the main page of his recently redesigned website no longer has the check mark logo.

Gilbert Teodoro

The Gibo campaign has been horribly inconsistent in implementing its brand. While there is a consistent use of the number 1 in place of the letter I (G1BO), I've never seen it implemented in the same font twice. The image seen here is just one of dozens of interpretations that I found in Teodoro's Facebook fan images. What they do have consistent, if nothing else, is the use of the color green.

Dick Gordon

Gordon no longer appears to be a seriously winnable candidate in this election, but he earns mention for his logo. The bolt of lightning integrated into his name conveys a sense of energy in his campaign that I would not have otherwise sensed. His color of choice is red, though he hasn't really been visible enough to establish it himself. Another thing to note... compare his website and barackobama.com-- it is clear where he gets his inspiration.

Jell-O

2010-03-07T20:24:00.004+08:00

This weekend's project: Jell-O.

Stir one pack of powder in boiling water for two minutes, mix with cold water for another two minutes, then refrigerate for at least four hours. Serves eight.

If I knew it was this affordable and easy I would have tried it a long time ago.

It has a scar through the middle because it broke in two when it plopped out of the pot. Yeah, I used a whole pot, couldn't find any other good sized container.

Truth be told, Jell-O is more fun to look at and to jiggle than to actually eat. It's basically sweet water with a jiggly consistency.

Precious

2010-03-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

The full title of this movie is-- brace yourself-- Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. Far and away the most pretentious movie title I've ever heard. Before I even started watching I was totally prepared to hate it for pompous self-importance. Fortunately though, it carries just enough weight to live up to its title.

It's about Precious, a tremendously obese (you can hardly tell she's pregnant) and nearly illiterate black girl. She's from a hopelessly poor family. Not poor in a way that triggers sympathy, but a truly pathetic family that mooches off of welfare and lives devoid of dignity. The utter wickedness of Precious' parents is a spectacle to behold. Her mother abuses her, her father rapes her (she's pregnant with his child-- again), and her Down syndrome baby is treated like an animal.

Precious takes it all with stoicism against the relentlessness of her circumstances. The movie isn't exactly about her steadfastness to uplift herself-- her thoughts wander into delusions of grandeur when things get rough, as they often do, and she's resigned to a life of misery because it's all she knows. It's more about the sympathy and the potential that others see in her, like her teacher and the social worker. When she is invited to her teacher's house for a peaceful meal at the dinner table, she comments that it's just like in the movies.

This movie would fit right in with the whole batch of Best Picture nominees two years ago, dark and depressing stories that everyone recognizes the artistic merit of but nobody actually enjoys. Precious grinds away at your comforting shell and exposes a scary world. Not really something to be enjoyed, but it's an experience to appreciate.

Up in the Air

2010-02-28T23:00:00.000+08:00

For most hardworking Americans, a job is more than just a means of earning the money to get by, it's a part of an identity. Take a look at a random Wikipedia biography-- more often than not, right there in the first sentence is a name, date of birth, nationality, and occupation. In fact, see my profile blurb right here on this blog. Take away a person's job, and they lose a part of themselves.

In Up in the Air, Ryan Bingham is a person whose underappreciated job it is to takes away other people jobs. More specifically, he's hired be companies with bosses too busy and too cowardly to fire people themselves. Says director Jason Reitman: "If you're going to make a movie about a guy who fires people for a living and you still want to like him, that actor better be damn charming and I don't think there’s a more charming actor alive than George Clooney". I can't improve on that.

The other half of his profession is as a sort of life coach, and he's invited to give motivational speeches to give people's lives some direction-- except that his philosophy is to abandon all commitment. Relationships hold you down. Physical possessions hold you down. The less you have, the more you can move, and the more places you can go.

You can see how these two jobs fit comfortably in the same person.

There are two other important characters in this movie. One an ambitious young coworker who pushes a plan to fire people by video conferencing. Another is a casual recurring fling that Ryan fires up from time to time. Without going into the details, in their way they each press him to face the question of what's more important, how far you can spread your branches or how deep you dig your roots?

The movie exposes something I will hopefully never have the misfortune of experiencing: The stark uncertainty that people feel when the rug is pulled out from under them, and they suddenly realize their vulnerability. What can they turn to? Who can they turn to? What is there in life that's really real?

There's a lovely song, also titled "Up in the Air" (listen to it) that plays over the second half of the end credits. It drives home the significance of the movie's title. It's really too bad that it's not eligible for Best Original Song because it's that beautiful, it's honest, it deserves some recognition.

I'm up in the air,
Choices drifting by me everywhere
And I can't find the one
That would help me do the work I've left undone,
'Cause I'm up in the air.

A Serious Man

2010-02-27T11:00:00.001+08:00

"These questions that are bothering you, Larry, maybe they're like a toothache. Feel them for a while, then they go away."

Larry Gopnik is a physics professor who explains something to one of his failing students: "You can't really understand the physics without understanding the math... that math tells how it really works, that's the real thing". It's a perspective that makes sense only within the walls of a school. Real life is never as orderly as math.

A Serious Man, the latest movie by the esteemed Coen brothers, continues a theme explored by their previous movie, Burn After Reading. I use the word "theme" almost ironically here, as the point of that movie was its lack of theme. The difference here is that Larry has had enough of it, enough of the unbearable weight of life's meaninglessness. How does one make sense of anything when you life your life as a serious man, but nothing seems to add up?

Larry's life is beset by a series of misfortunes and uncanny coincidences. His wife suddenly announces he's leaving him for a family friend. His autistic brother has a run-ins with the law. Both he and his wife's lover have unrelated car accidents in the same day. During a consultation his lawyer drops dead for no reason at all.

Well of course there was a reason for the lawyer dying. It was a heart attack. But did it really have to happen right there? What the heck does it all mean? After watching enough movies you develop a sense of things, and you come to accept that if it happens in the movie it must happen for a reason. That's just the way things flow, and it's comfortable and enjoyable and makes sense. This film doesn't exactly go against the usual movie flow, but aggressively ignores it, until you recognize that the real secret to life is there is no big secret at all.

An Education

2010-02-26T23:00:00.003+08:00

"'Action is character', our English teacher says. I think it means that if we never did anything, we wouldn't be anybody. And I never did anything before I met you."

An Education, as the title hints at, is an unabashed bildungsroman(!) featuring a girl named Jenny who is seduced in more ways than one by a man named David. Jenny is a schoolgirl, who is young enough to be called "a schoolgirl". As for David, his age is not mentioned, but the actor portraying him is 38. In any case there is a rule of thumb for these things and these two are well out of each other's range.

David is smooth talking, impossibly charming, even a bit criminal, and it's no surprise that Jenny so willingly gives in to his magnetism. Her parents are the conservative but sensible type that find no place for the silly thoughts of little girls. They want her to study hard and get into Oxford University, and to find success in life the way they know how. David represents an exciting quick escape into a seemingly much larger world.

The title of the movie is An Education, and Jenny is presented with the choice between two distinct paths of it. The long haul of an Oxford education, or David's life of carefree lollygagging.

In the end I'm left with the feeling that the movie doesn't quite come full circle, and doesn't fully answer the questions it poses. Jenny argues passionately that she's only truly experiencing life for the first time thanks to David, freed from the mundanity of the conventional path. And she makes a convincing argument! But then we're blindsided by a twist that turns everything around and seems to nullify all the lessons that came before it, or at least bring them down to earth. I may be missing the point entirely. Or maybe the point is that the point isn't as clean cut as you'd expect.

Inglourious Basterds

2010-02-25T23:00:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time, in Nazi-occupied France...

The opening titles of Inglourious Basterds are presented over classical Western music in five mutually incompatible fonts. And I don't know why, but it feels right. Coming from any other director it would probably just be the most pretentious thing. But this is Tarantino, and he doesn't give a shit, and I love it.

The movie opens with Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, notorious "Jew Hunter", arriving at the house of a French dairy farmer suspected of hiding a Jewish family. The conversation is maddeningly polite as he quietly asks to be invited into the home, refuses the offered wine but asks for milk, and asks if he can smoke his pipe. Each sentence magnifies the unspoken tension. There's something in the screenplay in-between the dialogue. You don't know exactly what it is, but you feel it.

I've been trying to figure out about what's the "thing" with Tarantino movies, and I think it's the alluring combination of flippancy and gravity he adds to each scene. There are performances exaggerated to the edge of credibility, bizarre use of music, humor in horrible violence-- all bringing things up to the top, but not quite going over it. It's gloriously entertaining, and not just in a forgettable way, but in a way that reaches inside and demands a place in your memories, oozes with freewheeling power, and demands your respect.

The actual plot of the film is not what's important. It's set during the war, but I'd hardly call it a war movie. Inglourious Basterds belongs to a genre you may have encountered once before, following in the tradition of 300 by taking a historical setting and ripping history to shreds. World War II is perfect for this sort of schtick. The Nazis are such perfect villains.

Yes, the Führer is in there too, and only Quentin Tarantino could have the audacity to rewrite World War II to give him the sort of ending he deserves.

Up

2010-02-24T23:00:00.001+08:00

There is only one animated movie among the ten Best Picture nominees this year, making the awarding of Best Animated Feature nothing more than a formality. And if, by some unearthly act of God or the Devil, it doesn't win Best Animated Feature, something is seriously wrong with this system.

Pixar continues their incredible winning streak, once again affirming that for them perfection is simply routine. I'm happy to report that Up is yet another finely crafted, exceptionally refined film, an instant masterpiece that's sure to stand the test of time. Yawn. If you know Pixar, you know how good it is.

The story is the sort that demands to be taken with a sense of childlike wonder. An elderly widower named Carl flies to South America in a floating house suspended by thousands of helium balloons, fulfilling his wife's childhood dream. What is he going to do when he gets there? Where did he get that much helium? What about the physics of lifting an entire house with balloons? Only by embracing that sensation of wonder can one truly experience this movie.

Up doesn't merely pull at the heartstrings; calling it a tearjerker would be a disservice. It effortlessly sets up the heart and whisks it in ways that only Pixar knows how, all conducted to the melody of a waltz as lovely as I've ever heard. (I just rechecked the list of Oscar nominees-- Best Original Score? Yup, it's in there.)

About halfway through the film we're introduced to a pack of talking dogs, or rather, dogs with translation collars. It's never explained how these scientific marvels came to be. In fact they never even mention it. It's like they came up with the premise and the script, then decided it needs to do more to appeal to kids. Well, they're entertaining enough, but distract the movie from how good it can be.

One last thing: There is something wrong in the way they presented the villain here. All he wanted was to redeem his reputation and get that bird that he's been after for the past 60 years or so. And I wanted him to! I did not want the old man and the kid to stand in his way, and I certainly did not want him to die.

The Blind Side

2010-02-23T23:00:00.002+08:00

The title and poster suggests a sports movie, and sure enough there are sports to be found, but thankfully it's not about that. The Blind Side is no more about football than Inglourious Basterds is about war.

In the film, Michael Oher is a massive black high school boy, born to a crack mom and a runaway dad, seemingly slow-witted to the point of mental retardation. His IQ is just a little bit higher than Forrest Gump's, he's as big as a bull, and about as lovable as a rock. So it's a real stretch of the imagination to accept that rich white Leigh Anne Tuohy (played by Sandra Bullock disguised in a Southern accent) would pick up this silent hulking bear from the street and adopt him into her family. It's a story so domestic and inspirational and Hallmarky that it just has to be based on a true story (it is).

They even got the appearances of the characters so accurate that, when real-life photos are shown along with the end credits, you can tell who everyone is. Reading about the actual true story it does seem like the thing that movies are made of, and the end result is whipped into the rough mold of a movie by employing an endless string of cinematic tropes.

"Is this some kind of white guilt thing?", one of Leigh Anne's rich white friends asks her in what must be, I presume, the movie's attempt to preempt the racism argument. I don't blame her. Apparently there was some controversy over this. After all, it's got the black brutish football player, the black crack whore mother, the black violent drug dealer, even the black snippy low-level bureaucrat-- and of course the upper-class white mother with a heart of gold for her magical negro. Seeing that the movie rather accurately portrays a true story, perhaps it is real life which is racist.

District 9

2010-02-22T23:00:00.001+08:00

Avatar is not the only Best Picture nominee this year that is sympathetic to an alien race, portraying humans as the villains except for one empathizing protagonist, one who faces a crisis of identity when made to penetrate the alien society. Also, hopefully without giving away too much, but both these movies end the same way.

District 9 takes place in South Africa where an alien ship seems to have stalled above Johannesburg. The aliens, unlovingly nicknamed "prawns", are extremely hideous but seemingly helpless, and the human race musters just enough goodwill to set up a refugee camp for the poor saps. Just not enough goodwill to treat them like anything but garbage.

Everything I've read about this movie can't help but go on about how it's an allegory for South African apartheid. Luckily(?) I know next to nothing about apartheid so there'll be none of that. No use pretending otherwise.

Our nerdy protagonist is tasked with serving eviction notices to the prawns in their shanties, until an accident turns his hand into a sort of lobster claw. He then goes around saying "fohck!" a lot and gains the ability to use the alien weapons which, well, I'm not sure exactly how they work but they seem to have a button that auto-detects enemies and makes them explode.

The movie is fiercely original, and though it glides into the typical sci-fi action movie climax, it presents plenty of creative ideas and leaves us with a lot to think about. For instance, we're given the premise of how the prawns arrived on Earth, but nothing as to where they came from and why they left. Why did they come here? How did they find us? The lack of exposition only enhances the intrigue.

And how does an advanced alien race travel across the cosmos and encounter another intelligent civilization, just to act like a bunch of slum-dwelling spearchucking macacas? Ah, the mysteries of life.

Three Phones

2010-02-19T05:42:00.005+08:00

In 2001 it seemed as though I was one of the last people to get onboard the cellphone thing. Today I find myself walking around with three of these things in my pocket.

There's my Smart phone, which I use for most of my usual phone purposes. There's my Sun phone, which I use to take advantage of their Sun-to-Sun 4 hours call and unlimited text for 150 pesos a month. And then now there's my work phone, which there's is simply no getting around.

Three phones that I need to keep charged at all times, switch to silent when necessary, answer calls with, reply to texts with, and so on, and so on, and so on. This is not the way it should be.

Philippine Election 2010 - The Facebook Campaign

2010-02-15T23:03:00.001+08:00

So, I scoured Facebook to check how many fans each Philippine presidential candidate has. And here you go:

Methodology: I only counted the number of fans from each presidential candidate's one most popular fan page. Some candidates have fans spread out over a bunch of minor fan pages, but if we start rounding those up and combining them it risks slipping too far into the subjective. Plus, it's possible for one person to be a fan of multiple pages.

Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar are way ahead of the pack. Aquino leads with 661k fans, and Villar is not far behind with 630k. Gibo Teodoro is probably the only other one worth mentioning, with a respectable 155k.

This is followed by Eddie Villanueva with 30k, Richard Gordon with 15k, Joseph Estrada with 7k, Nicanor Perlas with 3k, Jamby Madrigal with 600, and JC de los Reyes with 500.

As for "Vetellano Acosta" (I must put his name in quotation marks, as it seems unclear whether this candidate actually exists), he scrapes the bottom of the barrel with a jaw dropping 6 fans. The only page for him that I could find was called "Vetellano Acosta for Philippine President?"-- yes, with a question mark-- and listed other presidential candidates as its favorite pages. The page's only wall post asked, appropriately, "Sino ba si Mr. Vetellano Acosta?". Nobody knows.

The Twitter Illusion

2010-02-14T23:53:00.001+08:00

Another interesting thing I found while putting together the previous post. A Google Trends graph comparing the search volume of "twitter" and "facebook":

As seen in the upper graph, Twitter emerged in 2009. But with Facebook in the scale, Twitter is reduced to practically nothing. It's simply annahilated by the Facebook juggernaut. The one-sidedness of the comparison may be surprising, but the winner is not.

The real revelation is in the lower graph, tracking news reference volume, where Twitter and Facebook are practically neck-and-neck.

Why such a huge discrepancy between news volume and the search volume? It seems to support my theory that Twitter is just a hype machine for news sources that no one in the real world actually uses.

Friendster's Fall

2010-02-13T20:52:00.004+08:00

My number of friends remaining on Friendster has gone down by around 15 from its peak. I don't have it in me yet to delete my account entirely, so I deleted another 20 people that I've decided are not really friends. Maybe that'll make it easier to let go, eventually. Friendster has become an internet wasteland of neglected, obsolete, and embarassing information.

This is interesting, a Google Trends graph showing search volume for "friendster" and "facebook" in the Philippines:

Friendster continuted to grow gradually over the years, hitting its high point at the end of 2008. It then went into a steep decline throughout 2009, and is now about 70% off from its peak. Notice how the drastic redesign at the end of 2009 barely registered on the graph.

Meanwhile, Facebook exploded in 2009, passing Friendster at around August, and actually becoming bigger than Friendster ever was.

Also interesting, the same graph but for the whole world:

Undecided

2010-02-10T17:53:00.005+08:00

It's now only three months until the presidential election, and while I have my opinions, I find myself still a generally undecided voter. However, here are some other things of which I am sure:

I have decided to stay well-informed to the best of my ability regarding local and national politics and issues that affect the nation and its citizenry.

I have decided that I will perform my civic duty and vote with a full ballot for the candidates best equipped to serve and defend the country.

I have decided not to partake in the divisive cynicism that undermines our government and disillusions Filipinos from the democratic process.

I have decided not to be hoodwinked by propaganda techniques and logical fallacies, nor to utilize them to support or oppose candidates.

I have decided not to resort to demonizing the other presidential candidates after I do make my decision who to vote for.

I have decided to support, recognize, and respect the office of the 15th President of the Philippines, whoever that person may be.

Oh Ping

2010-02-04T07:39:00.004+08:00

The most shocking thing about yesterday's headline was how little it shocked me.

Summary: One of our country's most prominent senators has fled the country to escape charges of murder.

You can't make this stuff up. Read that sentence a few more times to let the gravity of it sink in. And yet, while the rational part of the brain urges you to take it seriously, the impulses just shrug and say "Whelp, there he goes".

Some part of us, I think, knew all along that Ping Lacson was kind of a weirdo. Even the people who supported him for president in 2004 did so seemingly more with tepid applause than eager sabre rattling. There's just something about those eyebrows.

And now we're seeing Ping at his nuttiest, practically a fugitive from the law, ranting on about an "evil conspiracy", throwing the blame on, who else, the president. And it was nearly a whole month before anyone started to wonder what happened to him.

Oh, and apparently there is still one person on his side. Someone who says she'd do the exact same thing in his position. Who else, but Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

These punchlines, they write themselves.

Large Coke and Fries

2010-02-03T06:55:00.002+08:00

So, last Saturday I went to Burger King in Glorietta for lunch.

I ordered a Whopper Jr. meal since it comes with a free strawberry sundae. The lady at the counter asks me if I'd like large fries and coke-- it's an offer I rarely accept, but today I was just that hungry-- so I say yeah, I'll have your large fries and coke.

What I did not realize is that Burger King has a 3-tiered system for their sizes:

There is regular, which is the reasonable size.
There is medium, which is what one would usually consider large.
And then... and then there is large, which rivals the size of the planet that created it.

The fries seemed to come in the usual large container except it poured out over the top and onto the tray forming a little hill. And the coke was an intimidating surprise worthy of more superlatives and hyperbole. The size of it made the burger struggle for relevance, and reduced the free sundae to a mere afterthought.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me for a photo of the whole meal, but I brought the cup home so I could get a picture of this son of a bitch.

The size of this cup is 1 liter. One whole liter of coke.

Breach of Facebook Etiquette

2010-02-01T23:39:00.002+08:00

Some ground rules:

1. Having your baby with you in your profile picture? Fine.

2. Having ONLY your baby in your profile picture? Annoying, but whatever.

3. Changing your NAME to your baby's name? Wrong wrong WRONG.

It's like I'm friends with the baby. :|

Never Change

2010-01-23T07:25:00.003+08:00

Yesterday there was a forum of presidential candidates in Cebu:

"Estrada used up 1 minute and 30 seconds greeting the organizers and the sponsors. By the time he got around to answering the question, 'Why should Cebuanos vote for you,' he had only 9 seconds left."

In 1998, dumbstruck by pre-election surveys, I thought: Go ahead guys, vote for him and see what happens, then maybe you'll finally learn something.

Never change, Philippines. Never change...

More New Shoes

2010-01-17T21:15:00.007+08:00

I got new shoes today. And now I'm showing them off to you.

Made of genuine basset hound.

Hurrah!

Gibo Campaign Follows Obama's Lead

2010-01-11T05:04:00.003+08:00

Looks like someone in the Gibo Teodoro campaign has been finding inspiration in Barack Obama's 2008 presidential run.

I saw this Teodoro ad on TV a few days ago (see it on YouTube) and recognized the font as the Obama campaign's signature Gotham:

It's also the font used on the splash page of his official website, so it seems they at least have someone looking out for brand consistency.

And on Facebook, the primary picture on Teodoro's page echos the iconic Obama "Hope" poster by Shepard Fairey:

Actually it's more of a pale shadow of the Hope poster. They need to get some real graphic artist to fix that thing up.

Dumaguete's Great Leap Forward

2010-01-10T14:49:00.003+08:00

I can't get over how pleased I am with Robinson's Place Dumaguete.

When Dumaguete's first Dunkin Donuts arrived a couple of years ago, its opening was celebrated with a parade through the city's main commercial street. I can only imagine the utter pandemonium that must have accompanied the opening of the province's first big mall (some would say the first real mall) last November. It is far and away the city's new Best Thing. Suddenly our small city feels twice as big.

For some perspective on how much this means: This mall gives Dumaguete its first KFC, CD-R King, Booksale, Mang Inasal, Bo's Coffee Club, and much more. It also contains the city's 4th Jollibee, 2nd Shakey's, 2nd Goldilocks, 2nd Dunkin Donuts, 2nd Greenwich, 2nd Chowking, and 2nd McDonald's. It also brings 3 cinema screens to a city which had (in my opinion) no acceptably decent movie theaters.

People from Dumaguete have a lot of pride-- well, maybe not so much pride, but certainly great affection-- for the city. It feels small but it has everything one needs, with modest tourist attractions and a good quality of living on what's usually seen as the "other" side of Negros. Now, with a mall, a real mall, it feels, finally, like we've hit the big time.

Numbers of 2009

2010-01-04T00:53:00.006+08:00

Here's a bunch of statistics from my past year. Mostly compiled from notes on my monthly calendars and expense records.

141 days in Cebu

206 days in Dumaguete

53 days in Manila

2 days in Bacolod

36 trips between Dumaguete and Cebu

7 plane rides

4 Philippine islands set foot on for the first time

171 days employed at NCR

46 days employed at HP

148 days spent unemployed

2 job interviews

1 successful job interview

4 weddings attended

1 baptisms attended

1 graduations attended

3 5K fun runs

9 movies watched at theaters

3215 pesos spent on cell phone load

72 blog entries

Highlights of 2009

2010-01-03T22:24:00.002+08:00

Here's a listing of highlights from my past year. Just a bunch of significant events without context or commentary, and that's the way I like it. Better than pretending there was some thematic coherence, with blanket statements like "It was a good year".

In other words: I like how Dom did it, so here's my version.

January
Ihna's wedding
Trip to Tabuelan, Cebu

February
Flood in Dumaguete
Katrese's wedding in Bacolod

March
Moved to new Cebu apartment
House pool/pavillion blessing
Katrina's graduation
Trip to Simala
Valencia Souvenir Shop opening

April
Turned 24
Trip to Apo Island
Became a godfather

May
Bernice's wedding
Moved to new office building
Submitted resignation from NCR
Trip to Bohol/Panglao

June
Resigned from NCR
Took Foreign Service Officer Test
Michael Jackson dies
Moved out of Cebu and back home to Valencia

July
Solar eclipse

August
Cory Aquino dies; Everyone goes nuts

September
Jojo Binay visits Valencia
Google Code Jam
Milo Marathon in Dumaguete
Interview at Smart
Typhoon Ondoy

October
Interview at HP

November
Moved to Manila
Started work at HP
McHappy Day fun run

December
Ateneo Big Blue 150 Run
Trip to Grande Island

Grande Island Resort

2009-12-13T11:58:00.003+08:00

Spent Friday-Saturday at Grande Island Resort, on an island right in the middle of Subic Bay.

A view of the beach on Grande Island, with the untouched mountains of Zambales in the background.

This is the 17th island of the Philippines that I have set foot on.

Also, it was my first time to travel the new Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, which was just as amazing as I dreamed it would be.

2010 Presidential Roundup

2009-12-08T14:41:00.006+08:00

There are six months to go, election season seems to have properly begun. Around a hundred dudes have filed their candidacy for president. Filter out the jokers and no-hopers, and it we seem to have a four-way race.

Here are my quick, tentative, oversimplified thoughts on the four candidates to rate higher than 1% in the latest SWS survey:

Noynoy Aquino. Currently perceived as the frontrunner, his most positive trait seems to be his clean image which can be a potential unifying force for the country. His famous name recalls the heroism of his father and the sincerity of his mother. Unfortunately his positive qualities seem to stop at his name. He has had a poor record as a Senator, a poor record as a Congressman, and an undistinguished private life before that. I have nothing particularly against him myself, but the empty zeal of his supporters is off-putting.

Manny Villar. Previously perceived as the frontrunner until the death of Noynoy's mom. He has a distinguished record as Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, and an extremely successful career in real estate. His rags-to-riches story of a self-made billionaire is something that I can appreciate. However his omnipresent self-funded campaign feels forced, and his very noticable absense from the recent forum of candidates due to a "business meeting" is disillusioning, as is his partnership with coup leaders and leftists.

Gibo Teodoro. Perhaps the most qualified of the candidates. His policies and his record have so far been bulletproof, and his educational history is outstanding-- bachelor's degree from DLSU, law degree from UP, master's degree from Harvard Law, and topnotcher of the Philippine bar exam. That said, he is relatively unknown, has no compelling life narrative, and as a result he lags far behind the pack. His connection to our current unloved president means he can never be a unifying force, and his presidency would undoubtedly be subjected to the same barrage of nonsense the opposition constantly aimed at Gloria.

Joseph Estrada. He is lazy, dishonest, incompetent, divisive, and found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of plunder. His candidacy makes no sense, is probably unconsitutional, and you'd have to be nuts to support him.

Metro Manila EZ Map

2009-12-03T17:36:00.004+08:00

A few days ago I bought a new EZ Map street map of Metro Manila. My previous four year old map was getting outdated in places like Bonifacio Global City and the Mall of Asia complex.

Spot the three things wrong with this image:

1. The majestic highway depicted in this picture is the South Luzon Expressway and Metro Manila Skyway, at its intersection with the C-5 road near the airport. The view seen here is actually facing towards the south, and away from the City of Manila, not heading directly towards it as the picture would have you believe.

2. For whatever ridiculous reason, the image of the Manila skyline has been horizontally flipped, such that 1322 Golden Empire Tower (the tallest building in the City of Manila) is seen at the right of the skyline. This means that this particular view of the Manila skyline is impossible to see in real life.

3. The image of the Manila skyline used here is the panorama that I took myself and uploaded to Wikipedia, used here in a derivative work and sold commercially, which would be fine if not for the fact that I remain unattributed. I give and I give...

New Shoes

2009-11-29T17:24:00.002+08:00

Hey everyone, check out my new shoes.

Yeeeaaahhh.

10 Philippine-related Wikipedia articles that surprisingly don't exist

2009-11-26T21:21:00.004+08:00

You would think-- five years after Wikipedia exploded into our consciousness as the online encyclopedia that has everything-- that by this point there would simply be no more articles to create. Incorrect!

Here are 10 potential articles that somehow slipped through the cracks.

Rizal Day. National holiday commemorating the anniversary of Jose Rizal's execution. Currently redirects to Jose Rizal.

Expanded Value Added Tax. The centerpiece of President Arroyo's economic reform agenda, both extremely controversial yet praised for averting potential financial disaster.

Quirino Grandstand. Site of presidential inaugurations, independence day parades, and a bunch of other epic events. Currently redirects to Rizal Park.

Divisoria. The market district in Manila renowned for its assortment of cheap stuff. Currently redirects to Manila.

Mr. Chips. Also Chippy, Piattos, Nips, Skyflakes, Cream-O, Dewberry, Cloud 9... The best we have is the long list of products at the Universal Robina article.

Jollibee Foods Corporation. The current article for Jollibee is a hybrid that interchangably talks about the fast food chain and the company that also owns Chowking, Greenwhich, and Red Ribbon.

Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. PhilHealth, the government-owned social health insurance provider. Or something like that.

Social Security System. I hardly have a clue what SSS does, but I know it's important.

Harry Stonehill. American businessman said to have most every Filipino politician in his pocket in the 1960s, whose name was synonymous with corruption. Read more.

San Miguel Beer. The beer making company has a 95% market share in the Philippines, yet there's no article on the beer itself. Currently redirects to San Miguel Brewery.

Hello Makati

2009-11-10T11:15:00.003+08:00

This sure is something, to be able to wake up in the morning and see my workplace from my bedroom window.

Proximity to Chowking

2009-11-04T02:12:00.004+08:00

A map of the Philippines showing proximity to the nearest Chowking:

Source: www.chowking.com

There are 376 Chowking restaurants in the Philippines-- that's 1 per 798 sq km, or 1 per 244,635 Filipinos. Nearly half of Chowkings are in Metro Manila: With 175 restaurants, that's 1 per 3.64 sq km, or 1 per 66,019 Filipinos in Metro Manila.

I originally was going to do a map for Jollibee or McDonald's, but they have way more branches. Maybe some other time.

The new big C2 and economies of scale

2009-11-02T13:44:00.008+08:00

At the grocery store a few days ago, rising off of the shelves like a torpedo, the new big bottle of C2 caught my eye.

I do not know if this is a new thing, or just new to me. This is 1.5 liters, the same size as a bottle of Pepsi or Coke. Before this the biggest bottle available was 1 liter, and that was only sporadically available.

It's about time we started getting our groceries in larger volumes to save on costs. I feel like such a chump when buying milk in those 1 L cartons, with the knowledge that America buys their milk by the gallon (3.78 L).

One of my favorite principles of economics, which people do not seem to take advantage of as much as they should, is economies of scale, the principle that per-unit cost decreases as output increases. In other words, it's cheaper on a per-unit basis to buy goods in bulk.

The 350 mL bottle of C2 costs P14.25, while 1.5 L bottle of C2 costs P32.25. That means that the 1.5 L bottle is about double the cost, but has more than four times the content.

Buying the 350 mL bottle is essentially paying double what you could be paying. So, yeah. Think about it.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

2009-10-30T23:50:00.003+08:00

Yes, I watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

An astoundingly rich Beverly Hills woman leaves her impossibly spoiled pet chihuahua with her irresponsible niece, who then proceeds to lose the dog during a trip south of the border, sparking an epic journey across Mexico to reunite the pampered pooch with her life of luxury.

The DVD cover claims it is "the greatest chihuahua movie of all time".

That is probably true.

Top 10 3D Philippine sights in Google Earth

2009-09-28T15:50:00.008+08:00

The 3D Buildings layer on my Google Earth has been neglected for too long. I recently turned it on for the first time in years, and found that a band of dedicated internet warriors has been modeling 3D buildings for Google Earth-- even buildings in the Philippines-- while I wasn't paying attention.

Here are the ten best 3D sights I found in the Philippines.

10. Talisay Ruins
Rising out of the sugarcane fields around Bacolod City, this old building was burned by retreating Filipinos to prevent its use by Japanese invaders in World War II, leaving behind some gorgeous ruins. Also check out the other 3D models around Bacolod City, including the PNB Building, Old Bacolod City Hall, Queen of Peace Church, New Bacolod Government Center, Provincial Capitol, and Bacolod-Silay International Airport.

9. Tribeca Private Residences
This impressive cluster of 15 buildings is found along the South Luzon Expressway in Muntinlupa City. What's so surprising about it is that it doesn't even exist in satellite view-- turn off the 3D Buildings layer, and all you'll see is an empty lot. The satellite imagery is dated March 2007, so I don't actually know how many of these buildings have been completed, if any, but the 3D models are there anyway to give us a glimpse of the future.

8. Mandaue-Mactan bridges
Two bridges connect the island of Mactan to Mandaue City-- The old unnamed Mactan-Mandaue Bridge (built 1970), and the newer Marcelo Fernan Bridge (built 1999). Both of them have 3D models in Google Earth. The newer bridge is the one that's better looking in real life, but the old bridge is pictured here because it's better looking in Google Earth.

7. Davao City
Davao City has a whole bunch of nice 3D buildings too, most of them (all of them?) done by one guy, appropriately named "thatDAVAOguy". The buildings are spread out across the city though, so you need to go hunting for them. In the foreground here, are Marco Polo hotel and Ateneo de Davao University. Other buildings in the city are SM City Davao, Royal Mandaya Hotel, Gaisano Mall, Fransisco Bangoy International Airport, Victoria Plaza, and a lot more.

6. Rizal Park
You'll need to zoom in close to see the 3D monuments and statues in Manila's Rizal Park. Pictured here is the Rizal Monument. Other 3D features in the park are the massive Philippine flag, the Gomburza execution site, the Pantheon of Heroes, and the Sentinel of Freedom (the enormous statue of Lapu-Lapu at the east side of the park).

5. EDSA Shrine / EDSA-Ortigas Flyover
In front of Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas, you'll find not just the EDSA Shrine rendered in 3D, but the entire flyover structure at the intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue. Zoom in close enough and you can actually read the passage of scripture on the wall under the statue of the Virgin Mary.

4. University of Santo Tomas
One guy seems to have channeled his school spirit into rendering almost all of the buildings of Manila's University of Santo Tomas in 3D. Among the finished models are the Arch of the Centuries, Main Building, UST Library, Health Service Buildings, Benavides Building, Gymnasium, College of Architecture, Albertus Magnus Building, and Roque Ruano Building.

3. Cebu Business Park
Cebu Business Park in Cebu City has, undoubtedly, the best skyline in the Philippines outside of Metro Manila. 3D skyscrapers in this area include the Keppel Center, Innove Tower, Marriott Hotel, Pioneer House, Park Tower One, Park Tower Two, and Ayala Life FGU. Also check out the other nice rendered buildings in the city, including Magellan's Cross, SM City Cebu, Malacanan sa Sugbo, and others.

2. Ayala Avenue
Makati City has, far and away, the country's best skyline. There aren't enough 3D buildings there in Google Earth to really show that dominance, but it's still very worth checking out. Skyscrapers include PBCom Tower (the country's tallest), GT International Tower, LKG Tower, Ayala Triangle Tower One, and Makati Shangri-La Hotel. There's also the Peninsula Manila, and Hotel Intercontinental.

1. University of the Philippines - Diliman
Up north in Quezon City is the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines, with Quezon Hall, the Oblation, Amphitheater, Gonzalez Hall, Sunken Garden, University Grandstand, Carillion Tower, and a whole bunch of other buildings I don't know the names of, enough buildings to slow my computer to shit when I try zooming in close. Nice work, man. Nice work.

Words of horrible wisdom

2009-09-19T01:06:00.003+08:00

This awful, inexplicable gem is found in Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport, inside the toilet stall of the men's restroom. Something to look at and ponder while taking a crap:

Don't complain about life, many die young.

Maybe it's just me, but the absolute last thing I want to be thinking of while waiting for my plane trip out of Manila is the possibility of dying young.

The Jojo Binay Story

2009-09-11T12:21:00.005+08:00

So like I was saying, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay visited Valencia last Saturday to meet local political leaders-- and no doubt earn some exposure and support for his presidential campaign. Since then he seems to have been hit by reality and decided to slide down to running for Vice President. We'll see.

At that meeting he gave out a ton of copies of his 34-page campaign comic book: The Jojo Binay Story. Hopefully not paid for by the City of Makati, though it has the city seal on the cover.

Call it contrived, gimmicky... but there's a campiness here that perhaps only I am appreciative of. An ostentation so extreme as to have perversely sophisticated appeal.

Some scans:

Page 6-7

Page 12-13

Lalaban tayo!

After the meeting I went around the tables collecting comics that other people didn't bother to take with them. If I wasn't such a wuss I would have gone up to Binay himself and asked him to sign some copies, probably increasing it's value tenfold. Oh well.

Milo Marathon in Dumaguete

2009-09-06T15:35:00.006+08:00

I like running. There's something poetic in the simplicity of it, trying to get from point A to point B in as little time as possible, with nothing to aid you but the strength of your legs and the endurance of your lungs. Kind of like how nerds can appreciate mathematics for the way it expresses pure truth.

This morning I joined the 5K race of the Milo Marathon in Dumaguete, finishing in around 30 minutes. My time would have been better if it weren't for the weird abdominal pain that showed up halfway through, forcing me to walk for a while-- not enough time to digest breakfast, methinks. I probably did better last time, in 2006.

Route: City Hall - Sta. Catalina St. - San Juan St. - Hibbard Ave. (through Silliman) - E.J. Blanco Dr. - Sidlakang Negros (and back)

Pre-race

Start of 5K. Last year, 2234 people finished the 5K in Dumaguete within the curfew time.

Me (left), looking very drained, with other dudes after the race, showing off our certificates of completion.

Edit:
My time was 31:07, rank 408. In 2006 my time was 28:12, rank 377.

Mayor Binay visits Valencia

2009-09-05T13:40:00.004+08:00

Makati City Major Jejomar Binay came by last Wednesday to meet with local political leaders in Negros Oriental, for a campaign stop very thinly veiled (I think) as an educational tour.

Binay was one of the earliest to unequivocally declare his candidacy for president, way back in November last year, but not once during the meeting did he say exactly what office he would be running for-- the closest he got was to mention that he was interested in a national position in the executive branch. A hint he would be willing to go for VP? Hmm.

The introductory PowerPoint presentation and video were more impressive than Binay himself. Undoubtedly he knows what he is talking about, but I'm not surprised his campaign hasn't blossomed. For a person with ambitions set on becoming president, he doesn't have the prerequisite vigor and stage presence. Maybe this could be attributed to recent events: Just the previous evening, Mar Roxas dropped out of the race to support Noynoy Aquino, pushing Binay even further from serious contention. In recent polls he trails Villar, Estrada, Escudero, Roxas, De Castro, and even Legarda.

He gave out gift-wrapped copies of his books, signed a few calling cards, and left behind a whole bunch of "The Jojo Binay Story" 34-page comic books-- that last one is cool enough that I'll show it off in a different post.

Before he left there were some brief photo ops, and on his way out I got the chance to shake his hand. There's no chance that he would earn my vote-- his divisive, combative rhetoric is the opposite of what the Philippines needs, and I have a hard time mustering respect for anyone who supports Erap as much as he. But at the very least he seems to be at least a competent administrator.

Mar Roxas' subliminal campaign

2009-08-28T14:01:00.007+08:00

Maybe this will work better than those TV ads.

Sly dog...

Why Noynoy?

2009-08-27T10:18:00.004+08:00

I can't be the only one disturbed by the sudden increased perception of Noynoy Aquino as a potential presidential candidate.

There's an image on today's front page of volunteers soliciting signatures for a petition endorsing Noynoy for president. The workers are wearing a yellow shirt with the tagline "the legend lives on", and the stylized signature image of his father.

It's one thing to have a romantic notion of the son following in his famous father's footsteps, but Noynoy Aquino has nothing else going for him.

Let me be clear, I have nothing against Noynoy. But the fact is that he has done nothing to deserve his current position of prominence, or even his current seat in the Senate. He has no greater qualification than that his mother was once President of the Philippines, and nothing to offer the country aside from a perceived inflated sense of moral righteousness. No outstanding leadership, initiative, or vision.

It remains to be seen whether the media's fixation on Noynoy corresponds with an actual wave of grassroots support, but the idea of it is disappointing. The Philippines needs more than just another poetic twist in its unending soap opera.

Valkyrie

2009-08-21T12:32:00.004+08:00

Valkyrie is a movie about a bunch of good Germans who plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II. If you are spoiled by my giving away the ending-- that they are unsuccessful-- then you probably aren't the type that would be interested in a historical thriller in the first place. It ends with a montage of all the protagonists being executed, or executing themselves.

The movie itself is well-made enough, but here's a different question: Who wants to watch a bunch of people fail to kill Hitler?

I hear the upcoming Quentin Tarantino movie, Inglourious Basterds, is about a bunch of people who plot to kill Hitler and actually succeed. I find the whole concept of it absolutely delicious. Now that's the kind of thing I'm interested to see.

Full Metal Jacket

2009-08-19T23:59:00.003+08:00

I've seen four Stanley Kubrick movies before. The only one I can say I liked was Dr. Strangelove. The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey were way to bizarre for me (especially the latter). And Eyes Wide Shut was just bad bad bad. But in spite of his mixed record I continue to give him a chance, holding out hope that I could still be pleasantly surprised and finally realize what everyone else sees in him. And even if I don't, at the very least I'll know what other people are talking about.

So, Full Metal Jacket. Very awesome first half, very average second half.

The first half deals with a bunch of US marine recruits undergoing their training under drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who surely became the archetype for all sonofabitch drill instructors hence. This hour is quiet, haunting, captivating, and feels like a great movie. Years from now, this half is probably all I'll remember.

The second half has those marines serving in the Vietnam War, experiencing all sorts of horrors and adventures. This part feels like a different movie, and it stumbles from a lack of focus. It's a collection of scenes which, taken individually, seem right at home in a great movie. But collectively they go in all different directions with little coherence, little connection to the first half, and the climax brings up a new theme that comes out of nowhere.

I look forward to the movie that awakens me to the essence of why Stanley Kubrick is held in such high regard. The first half of Full Metal Jacket probably came closest to that goal, but a forgettable and uneven second half tarnishes its record. There may or may not be a movie out there that gets me to put Kubrick up on my mental pedestal, but this does not quite seem to be it.

Fun with Photoshop and Bananas

2009-08-18T13:04:00.004+08:00

This is what I was doing last night until 3AM:

Special thanks goes out to the pen tool, the cutout filter, and Google image search!

Cory Aquino, 1933-2009

2009-08-04T23:02:00.002+08:00

"The only thing I can really offer the Filipino people is my sincerity," Cory Aquino said early in her campaign against Ferdinand Marcos.

Indeed, no one questioned her sincerity. Indeed, her presidency offered little else. But she offered the right message for the right time, resuscitated the Filipino sense of identity and pride, and momentarily weaved history into some sort of fairy tale.

The rule of decorum in such matters is to speak only good of the dead. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of making it sound like she was a perfect president. She didn't put an end to corruption, or poverty, or instability, or hopelessness. Her record of success was mixed, at best. But I don't think it diminishes her legacy to say that-- far more than her accomplishments in six years as president-- she's a greater gift to our country as a symbol of restored democracy, and the best we can do is to keep that memory burning.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-08-01T22:03:00.004+08:00

See my comments on Order of the Phoenix from two years ago. My criticism there applies even harder on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Generally faithful adaptation but extremely disjointed. Too many unessential scenes adapted from the book as fan service, yet nearly incomprehensible as a stand-alone movie. Case in point: In the end, Snape reveals he's the "Half-Blood Prince"-- with no explanation that his father is a Muggle and his mother's last name was Prince. The only way this revelation would have meaning is if you read the book.

It had its moments, but I think I liked this Potter film the least.

My current ranking of movies is as follows:

Goblet of Fire
Prisoner of Azkaban
Chamber of Secrets
Sorcerer's Stone
Order of the Phoenix
Half-Blood Prince

A disclaimer: My experience with the movie is probably affected by the fact that the state of Dumaguete's current movie theaters is completely unacceptable. Three power outages occurred during my viewing, including one during the climactic confrontation of Draco and Dumbledore. All together I spent 15-20 minutes sitting in darkness and waiting stupidly for the movie to continue. Add that to blurry visuals, muffled sound, poor air-conditioning, and a guy in the back sobbing loudly in an argument with his girlfriend... Even if the movie was brilliant, I would hardly notice.

Stepping down

2009-07-28T11:12:00.007+08:00

It seems The Inquirer and the Philippine Star were listening to different SONAs yesterday, based on their headlines:

Inquirer: No clear GMA goodbye
Star: 'My term ends in 2010'

In the SONA that I listened to, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated that were will be elections in 2010, that they will be automated, that her term will come to an end next year, and that she has never given any reason to believe that she would extend her term.

Demanding that the president explicitly state that she will step down next year is kind of like demanding that NASA refute allegations that they faked the Moon landings. Responding to these fools only dignifies their unfounded accusations. Filipinos need to start realizing that their constitution is bigger than just one person.

People have been pointing to Fidel Ramos' last SONA as an example of an explicit statement that he would be stepping down from power:

“I will be working and governing — you will all feel and hear and see me working and governing as your president — until I turn over the presidency to the 13th president of the republic at high noon on 30 June 1998.”

But did this work to silence his critics? If I recall, late-1997 saw a flurry of massive demonstrations protesting the silly allegation that Ramos would run for re-election, despite Ramos' repeated statements that he was stepping down. Excerpts:

The Philippines' most influential clergyman said today that President Fidel V. Ramos was so desperate to hang on to power that he was threatening to drag the country back to its dark days under Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Thursday, August 21, 1997

The Philippines' senior clergyman today told churches to ring their bells and drivers to blow their horns every evening for the next two weeks to protest ''immoral'' attempts by President Fidel Ramos to hang on to power.
Friday, September 5, 1997

Expect history to repeat itself later this year. So why do so many critics and cynics delude themselves into thinking President Arroyo plans to stay in power perpetually? The answer is simple: They're either intellectually dishonest or downright dense, and the real injustice here is that no one will put the spotlight on them when they are eventually proven, as usual, wrong.

Cancerous cynicism, dishonesty, and lack of accountability

2009-07-26T20:58:00.008+08:00

A few days ago former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz made headlines with some nonsense warning about President Arroyo perpetuating herself in power or whatever. Honestly I can't recall exactly what it was he was warning about this time, but I wouldn't heed it any attention, and neither should you.

You've probably forgotten, but the opposition in this country-- to any administration-- has this bad habit of disregarding reality. They seem to have a particular fetish for predicting martial law, our country's ultimate boogeyman:

And that's just from a few minutes of searching the online archives. Online newspaper archives older than that are hard to come by, but there are articles on more martial law whiners from 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, and even as far back as 1997. Of course, every single one of them was downright wrong.

And it's not just martial law-- in recent years there's been a bizarre pattern of behavior among the opposition to predict the apocalypse at every turn, and they've been wrong every time. Wrong about the E-VAT, wrong about the Human Security Act, wrong about US relations, wrong about the economy, wrong about elections not pushing through. Tip of the iceberg.

Time for a reality check. It's mind boggling how these folks could be so wrong, so often, so consistently, and still maintain any respect at all among the public. Their pompousness, cancerous cynicism, dishonesty, and lack of accountability is more than just an annoyance. It's damaging this country.

Dumaguete's Boulevard

2009-07-24T23:20:00.001+08:00

Last Wednesday morning I took a few pictures of Dumaguete's Rizal Boulevard, the best place in this odd city. It's clean, classy, and seems to be getting better all the time.

The walkway was paved with bricks in 2007. The stone pavement on the seawall barrier was added in 2008. Mid-morning is when the promenade is best illuminated by the sun. Unfortunately that's also when it's most deserted thanks to the heat.

This is what it says on a marker at the north end of the Boulevard:

"Rizal Boulevard was built in 1916 and extends 780 meters long. It was named after Jose Rizal who was said to while away a few hours on this stretch of beach long before the Boulevard was constructed. The Rizal Boulevard is considered the show window of Dumaguete."

A wide stretch of grass and acacia trees divides the promenade from the road. If I recall, they used to sometimes build a stage on the grass to hold a free concert with hundreds of people squeezed into the area. They probably don't do that anymore now that the grass is growing so nicely.

It's called Dumaguete's show window because that's where the best stuff is.

Keyboard activity statistics

2009-07-23T14:18:00.002+08:00

Here's some mouse and keyboard usage statistics from my laptop, gathered using a program called WhatPulse. The program was installed on October 28, 2008, so these statistics track the past 8 months and 26 days.

Total mouse clicks: 495,138
Mouse movement: 56.27 km

Total keystrokes: 2,347,495

Most used key: Tab (246,242)
Most used letter: E (98,690)
Most used number: 0 (5,009)
Most used function key: F2 (1,370)
Most used arrow key: Down (88,891)

Least used letter: Q (1,176)
Least used number: 7 (574)
Least used function key: F12 (0)
Least used arrow key: Up (59,672)

The Tab key has gotten a lot of activity since I use it to navigate forms, switch between windows, and switch between tabs.

I'm most amazed by my neglect of the F12 key, which hasn't been pressed a single time in nearly 9 months. Poor guy. :(

The Inquirer: Up means down?

2009-07-16T22:24:00.004+08:00

Yesterday the SWS posted their quarterly survey results on the president's satisfaction ratings. In 2Q 2009 she had a net satisfaction of -31, which rates as a "bad" in their scale, but it is a slight rise from the -32 registered in the previous quarter. So it's truly puzzling why, the following day, the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a front page story with the following title:

"Arroyo satisfaction rating still dropping—SWS"

Dropping? Sure, a one point rise in net satisfaction is statistically negligible, but by no measure is it considered to be dropping. If you were to compare it on a year-on-year basis, it's still an improvement from the -38 in 2Q 2008. So what's up with that title?

Turns out the first six paragraphs of the actual article were dedicated solely to reporting the results from Luzon, where satisfaction did drop. What about the improved satisfaction ratings in the Visayas and Mindanao? Mentioned briefly at the end of paragraph seven-- and off of the front page.

Hey Inquirer, how about tomorrow you run a story titled "Philippine shares still dropping". I mean, the stock market did actually rise 1.5%, but there were still a couple of stocks in there that lost value, so the title is still okay by your logic, eh?

How do you get away with such irresponsible and routine deception? Where's the outrage?

Asiatown IT Park construction update

2009-07-15T23:34:00.010+08:00

In February last year I posted about the construction projects going on in Cebu's Asiatown IT Park. Here's an update with some new pics of what the buildings look like now, 16 months later.

TG Tower:

This 15-floor behemoth looks monstrous from the road leading up to IT Park.

eBloc:

Construction on eBloc started really fast, but completion kept getting delayed for some reason (it was supposed to be done in November). The finished product is really nice though, looks exactly like the rendering from my first post. NCR finally moved into this glorious building last May.

i3:

There was some confusion for a while as to whether this would be called i2 annex or i3. Turns out it's i3, which is kind of awkward since it's in the middle of i1 and i2.

Skyrise 2:

Looks more like a high rise pension house than an office building. Not the most attractive building, but whatever, it seems to fit nicely beside Skyrise 1.

The Walk:

Construction on this was pretty much done at the time of my first post, but it took a few months before The Walk finally opened. It has some funky blocky paintwork on the circular section where Pier One is. And thankfully it wasn't named something horrendous like "IT Mall".

Skyrise 3:

Construction on Skyrise 3 started in the middle of last year, so I don't have any picture of it under construction. Last I checked, construction seems to be just finishing up. The picture here is actually a view of the back.

Michael Jackson is dead

2009-06-28T11:54:00.002+08:00

I've been repeating the news over in my head a couple dozen times, but it hasn't yet fully sunk in that we're living in a world that is now post-Michael Jackson. There's an enormous gravity to his death that I hope everyone else feels, thought it probably can't fully impact those who haven't experienced him in his prime.

The Michael Jackson I knew

The thrilling entertainer who exploded into greatness in the 1980s, his music stands on a league of its own, with versatility, passion, and an instantly identifiable voice. His dance ability, in case anyone has forgotten, was not only in a definitively unique style, but executed with unmatched skill. And most notable of all is the monstrous enormity of his celebrity. Probably the biggest celebrity my generation will know. The biggest celebrity ever? His impact was unprecedented, and may never be equated.

The tragedy of his death is dwarfed only by the tremendous tragedy of his life. When you reach the top there's no way to go but down, but his fall from grace was just as epic as his rise. I can only hope his legacy lies in his greatness-- before the child molestation, baby dangling, chimpanzee, private zoo, Peter Pan, Neverland-- all the weirdness that ravaged his reputation and alienated his fans. When it was all done, the undisputed King of Pop was a distant memory, replaced by this androgynous humanoid.

But perhaps the sideshow wackiness of his life served to enhance his legendary status. The reclusiveness and eccentricity made him, in his way, untouchable--distracting from his music and talent, but giving the man an otherworldly glow.

Michael Jackson was a god among mortals.

And now he's gone.

Leaving NCR

2009-06-20T23:46:00.003+08:00

I rarely use this space to talk about my own life, but it seems prudent to dedicate a post to announcing that I have left my job at NCR Corporation, effective today, and will probably be leaving Cebu for the forseeable future.

I've been a software development engineer there for 2 years and 9 months now. My first job. It's not easy to say goodbye to all the good people there, but it's time for change.

No one believes me when I say this, but there is no new job lined up for me just yet. Doesn't sound like a smart move with this economy, but I'm feeling confident.

As a going away gift, my teammates pitched in to get me this wonderful 5x5x5 Rubik's Cube-- with the sides replaced with pictures of our team, plus the company logo:

Such thoughtful people, aren't they? I had no idea.

Facebook friend statistics

2009-06-18T12:38:00.003+08:00

Just a bunch of statistics and graphs from playing with Facebook data in Microsoft Excel:

Of my 232 friends in Facebook, 209 have their birthdays specified, and just 145 of those also specified the year that they were born.

Here's an age distribution graph of my friends (more accurately, the age that they turn on their birthday in 2009). The youngest is 14, and the oldest is 63. There's a massive spike at 25, since that's the age of most of my high school and college classmates. I'm actually 24 myself, and a year younger than most of the people in my class. This graph may be biased against old people, who I assume are more reluctant to reveal their age.

I was able to divide my friends into five categories with very little overlap: Family (including many extended relatives), high school, college (including faculty), work, and others. College people are the biggest slice of the pie. The majority of the people lumped into "others" are known to me mainly as friends of friends, plus some other people that I simply do not remember but would feel guilty removing since we have a lot of mutual friends. Haha...

Any other ideas for graphs?

Taken

2009-06-17T20:55:00.003+08:00

Well, I just watched Taken, and Liam Neeson is the shit.

The premise: Albanian sex traffickers have kidnapped Liam Neeson's 17 year-old daughter during a vacation in Paris. Big mistake, because Liam Neeson is a retired CIA operative, a determined father, and a ruthless sonofabitch.

Ruthlessly effective is the best term I can come up with to describe him. He totally pushes the limits of how ruthlessly effective a character can be while still being a protagonist. The guy is a murdering machine. I can actually envision an alternate movie that's sympathetic to the sex traffickers as their business is besieged by the unstoppable Liam Neeson.

Bodyguard blocking a door? Kill him. Enemy henchman on the other side of the door? Kill him. Find a guy that knows where your daughter is? Shoot him in the shoulders, torture him for the information you need, and then kill him. There's not much complexity to it, the guy just keeps getting shit done. It takes an extremely Republican mindset to see the bad guys as simply bad guys, and justify dozens (hundreds?) of deaths based on that alone. Of course, it's an utterly stupid political philosophy in real life, but it's great so see Liam Neeson kicking so much ass.

The following is a major spoiler but I can't help myself because it's just that badass. Liam Neeson finds the guy holding a knife to his daughter's neck... there's a tense dramatic pause, then the guy says "We can negotia--" right before Liam Neeson shoots him in the head.

Shiiit.

Why Do Filipinos...?

2009-05-29T12:00:00.000+08:00

This is what the auto-completion feature suggests when you start typing these phrases into Google's search box.

"why do filipinos"...

why do filipinos have spanish names
why do filipinos have flat noses
why do filipinos look mexican
why do filipinos eat dog
why do filipinos smell
why do filipinos work abroad
why do filipinos leave their country
why do filipinos go abroad

"why are filipinos"...

why are filipinos good dancers
why are filipinos so ugly
why are filipinos short
why are filipinos good singers
why are filipinos always late
why are filipinos dark
why are filipinos poor
why are filipinos so poor
why are filipinos stupid
why are filipinos lazy

Ouch.