incessant rambling

Click on Read More for more pictures of the event

it is roughly 58 hours and counting before the new year is officially welcomed and i hope everyone has taken enough precautions to ensure a safe celebration. wag na lang tayong mag paputok sa mga daan, mas mabuti pa siguro kung sa loob na lang ng kwarto mag paputok. and yes, you still need to take precaution, unprotected putok can potentially be hazardous and bring unexpected surprises nine months after. be sensible ika nga and follow the ABCs of putok.. A - Abstain B - Be careful if you can't... C- and wear a Condom, but just in case you really get the urge to do it... D - just Do it and E - Enjoy the F - Fun (in the spirit of alcohol, err being wholesome, i used this word instead of the more commonly used F-word) to my friends who are working through the new year, specially those doing hard labor, paalala lang na nakakamatay ang putok, putok sa kilikili po. magbaon ng tawas o roll-on para mabango ang pasok ng bagong taon. sa mga taga call center, don't greet your customers a ...

Ricardo Dapat , Director of the Bureau of Corrections claimed that convicted child rapist and ex-congressman Romeo Jalosjos fled from the national penitentiary and subsequently flew back to Zamboanga Del Norte last December 22, 2007. before you continue with this piece, take a nice good look at the picture... find the man with the big humongous bulge. and i meant the tummy, silly. this picture was taken about two years ago. since then, jalosjos gained more weight to officially become a member of the Balaenopterida family (aka "whale") genus specie: homicidal pedophillus . in fact, he has gotten so obese that when he tried the hullahoop , it got stuck.. and am just referring at the neck point. he has gotten so big that he needed the other inmates in the national penitentiary to roll him over from his bed every day just to get him on his side. well according to Dapat , this same fellow managed to flee the national penitentiary. i am trying to imagine how jalosjos did tha...

people jostled each other to get a good vantage point, patiently lining up so they can get a good seat. the crowd is so big that it actually spilled over the road. perhaps expecting a standing room situation, some people even brought their own chairs. when the music started people settled down and quietly paid homage to the biggest box office hit this christmas season: the simbang gabi (midnight mass). i spent my christmas in naga city, south of cebu. for some reason, the celebration is more solemn and heartfelt - never mind that i can not fully understand the mass as it was celebrated using cebuano, i felt the same feeling of hope as i bowed my head and prayed for peace for myself, my family, my loved ones and for all mankind. merry christmas to everyone.

i love my spam , honey glazed with a nice chunk of pineapple, crispy bacon and squeezed between kaiser buns. then again, am pretty sure facebook, wayn and a whole lot of other sites don't sell the edible spam variety. if you're a gmail, yahoo mail or hotmail user you probably have gotten all sorts of spam mails that try to sell you cars, give you a bigger penis, browse porn all day, you're a pedophile, take viagra like taking vitamins, think you need your house on a second mortgage or generally think you're a loser. heck, the mails will give you a bloody insecurity problem. well, time to fight back using the tools that are available right in your choice of mail server. the most common approach is to block all mails (otherwise known as "filtering") coming from a particular domain (e.g. @wayn.com, @facebook.com etc) for gmail users, here are the simple steps you need to follow: log in to your webmail interface select the check box of the sample mail you want to ...

If you haven't heard of the Big Brother franchise you're probably too uncool to read this blog, so go ahead and skip this one. Just in case you're one of those who got hit by this tv show (willingly or not), you probably have the feeling of being a perverted voyeur as you watch strangers do all sorts of idiotic things under the watchful eyes of Big Brother. ok last warning, everything after this line goes really colorful - if you know what i mean. so for the faint of heart, move along now and do some penance. you're probably familiar with the setup, the housemates are supposed to learn life-lessons or something, but somehow at the end of the day it is all about playing a game and planting a big boot to someone's behind during eviction night. Life aint a game, there are winners and losers in a game. If there's anything good about this show, it just goes to prove that even celebrities (the Celebrity Edition) are just, well... people. yup, their shit smells just l...

tis the season to be jolly breaking up. i think. i previously wrote about two friends telling me their charmed delusions have literally hit hard reality and just this week two other friends decided to end their relationship one caused by delusions, paranoia and a bout of multiple personality - i guess my friend is not into threesome, foursome and some more (he told me his girlfriend wanted to try on whips and chains). the other one was caused by messages being sent through friendster and deleted and people sneaking behind doing some other thing... sounds complicated? believe me, i had to get a pen and paper out to sort out the chronological order of the series of unfortunate events. ergo, in tribute to this series of breakups, i am giving you famous breakup lines (and possible rejoinders when you're at the receiving end) that you may find useful when you've run out brilliant things to elucidate your thoughts: Famous Break-up Lines "I just realized that I still don't wa...

i don't want this to sound like the usual boracay-praise-to-heaven-cliche write up. so... instead of writing about the best things that boracay can offer, here's the dirt dish: 1. Dirty Old Men - try reading up the lonely planet entry about Cebu and they describe the usual european/american foreigner here as old, twice divorced, living on pension, drunk, rowdy and have this fashion accessory called exotic ladies in tow. same goes for boracay. it is bad to generalize but that's generally the same set of people i see beached by the shore, probably too fat to drag themselves once they drift away from the herd (yes, a group of whales form "herds"). Click Read More for Boracay Pictures 2. Persistent Vendors - try to take a stroll in Station 2 - 3 and every other step along the way you'd get offered to buy shades, pearls, an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) ride, paraw sailing, island hopping, boat ride, banana ride, bicycle ride and recently, a ferris wheel ride right in...

am sure if it was a chunky hunky dory dude, pader would have given more than just his blessings. my question is, what was pader doing skinny dipping in the first place? this is truly a woman's worst nightmare ha ha ha.

trilly really has to get his noggins checked fast. me thinks he is on to something, perhaps snorting tear gas made him think he is part hero part snake, err that is kamandag on tv. on the other hand, his actions do resemble that of a devious snake. i can literally see the forked tongue slither in and out of his lips... hsss hssss.... i don't know if i am suppoed to burst out in laughter every time i hear a quotable quote on tv from any of the miembro de teatro in this comedy. trilly really has to rethink his strategy, posh hotel (oakwood) + call for support (zilch) = failed coup attempt. he just repeated his formula: posh hotel (the pen) + call for support (pwede pa text...) = laughing stock of the country. bibeth orteza was quoted to have said (with matching hysterics and directions from carlito to turn and pose for the camera) " I want to die a meaningful death! " - aktibistang sosyal eto, sa Pen pa nag drama, para syang pangit na version ni mariel sa pinoy big brother ...

Yesterday, Trillanes held the country hostage once again to try and justify the means to his ends. His arrogance knows no bounds as he proclaimed that the Filipino people support his cause. Although it is true that the Filipino people is wary of the string of scandals that continue to hit our current administration, an overwhelming majority of the people don’t condone nor approve of his theatrics and methods that placed innocent lives in danger; majority of us still believe in the rule of LAW. As if this is not enough, some senators, media, church personalities, old trapos and other cause oriented groups joined the circus to give their own two cents worth of unsolicited advice. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Leah Navarro (Black and White Movement) proclaim on national television that these people (Trillanes et. al.) have the right to express themselves in the way they believe is right. Navarro is a perfect testament to the statement that wisdom does not come with age. Bishop L...

"fingering" has taken a completely different meaning with filipinos and their mobile phones. earlier, i almost busted an artery as i stopped myself from running over a motorist driving his motorcycle ever so slowly along a major road. i originally assumed he was just being overly cautious but when i passed by, i saw him holding a mobile phone busily texting with one hand as he balanced his fat ass on his motorcyle. I blared my horn so loudly he swerved and the cars following my trail did the same. i believe that guy just took idiocy to stratospheric levels and should be banned from public roads. i was so sorely tempted to get my mobile phone out and take a snap so i can post his face along with this blog, then again, that would make me as stupid as that fellow. as idiotic as the police officer i saw riding his motorbike without a helmet. wearing helmets have a purpose, to protect your noggins just in case you get knocked off your bike. it's not the same as not wearing c...

have you ever noticed that the bigger company gets, the more pretentious the so called mission and vision statements they have? add to that a kilometric list of core values? i just got off a chat with a former staff who is reviewing a possible employer's mission vision and core values in preparation for a possible job interview. i've worked for a number of multinational companies and some of them do live up to their mission vision statement or have a definitive process in place to try and measure if they are living up to their ideals. on the other hand, the real measure is in the execution . sadly, some companies should be executed for grossly violating their own mission vision, perhaps they should rename it to Missing Vision. just a reminder for some people not to make representations on MY behalf - the results can be disastrous.

i've always liked the japanese yakuza tattooed look. i like the "look" part but dread the tattoo part as it involves needles. so what's the next best thing? get some photoshop tools and do overlays of tattoo patterns that can be found all over the web. voila, insant tattoo. why japanese? many many moons ago i was assigned to do some work in tokyo japan and for some reason, the locals mentioned that i looked like a famous japanese actor of ainu descent. i hope they weren't referring to the kabuki actors, i don't look good in make up or drag. ugh. they can't believe i don't have some japanese blood running through my veins and i usually tell them i am half japanese, half spitz. growl.

"Just one itty bit input, I have found someone else who I love, but I'm not leaving [wife] for her. Rather I'm leaving [wife] despite of her . Mi amigo , aside from that, the article wouldn't be so dramatic though, but I appreciate the friendship and understanding." -- got this from my friend who wanted to have this "distinction" done as to the motive behind the decision to do the splitsville dance.

"rendering overtime will not significantly increase your bottomline margins. if you take a look at this data... kuya, am calling off my engagement ." you know how yahoo messenger windows happen to pop up in the middle of something? what's more interesting is that you're in between breaths extolling financial management to a group of senior managers and you get this message. "uh... that is the cost of long distance love affairs." that got me some laughter - which is a good thing but it made me think about one of my dearest friends based in san francisco. it was just a matter of time but i knew it was coming. i had a two year relationship with someone based in the US and in the two years we were "together", we were only physically together for three weeks. suffice to say that relationship ended as a footnote in my life. ------------ mc donald's, munching on fried chicken while lending a sympathetic ear to another friend. "pare, am leaving my...

you've probably heard enough of vicky belo but not of her 25 year old boy toy Hayden. in an excerpt from a YES interview, he was quoted to have said: "i learned number one, from Jesus Christ, and i learned from the hindu god Shiva. and i learned from Einstein. The fibers of their being are now running thru my fibers. They are inside me, and any time you want their intelligence it will come to me at the snap of a finger. if i want the intelligence of Einstein today, right this moment it will come to me." i didn't know this happens when you had too much work done on you. honestly though, i thought that vicky belo only did cosmetic surgery with matching pedicure, manicure and hair extensions. i didn't know brain surgery was part of her services, though the one she did with hayden somehow went terribly, terribly wrong. ----------------------------- got this as part of a text message from a friend.

story goes that alma moreno went to mc donalds and ordered adobo burger with cheese. she was promptly informed that mec donalds doesn't serve adobo as part of their menu. she of course insisted and sang the jingle of their commercial... " adobo-dobo chess chess, barger barger fleas fleas.. " uh, she must have been the voice coach of flash-in-the-pan-ty sexy dumb star alyssa alano who massacred the song "kiss me" with her own version - " keys me ". speaking of killing the english language, melanie marquez must have been a mass murderer with a number of quotable quotes that rivaled the vocabulary and depth of another english serial killer: erap estrada. melanie was invited to a tv show where she was asked if she really said " you are barking at the wrong dog! " to which she promptly answered: " hello, kay alma moreno kaya yun. " and before the hosts could stop themselves from falling off the chair, she quickly added " it's n...

opinions, facts and perceptions have entirely different meanings yet people have a tendency to use and abuse these words. there was a lot of buzz when faelnar (aka barangay captain of guadalupe) was asked by tommy to step down as ABC president to give way to someone presumably younger and more dynamic to lead the association of barangay captains. the public perception is that tommy is fed up with faelnar's antics and questionable activities. my partner and i got to talk about this one and there was a lot of discussion about faelnar as a corrupt poitician. i admit i've heard that allegation previously and truth to be told, i hated the way faelnar looked in his campaign poster. that is an opinion , but that's not the point. my partner was so passionate about lumping faelnar as a corrupt politician and i sat listening and nodding my head. during a slight pause of heated proclamation of disgust against this personality, i butted in - yeah i heard he is really corrupt but do you...

i get really annoyed with anoymous text messages. on the other hand, you are tempted to answer specially if you use the phone for business and it might be a potential client/customer and what have you. a couple of days back i got a message that said "hi! how have you been? haven't heard from you in a long while." i suppose that it was someone i kept some form of communication a while back and am pretty sure it wasn't an ex. i answered: "am doing pretty ok, sorry i don't have your number as i had to reprogram my unit sometime ago. may i know who this is?" yeah yeah, lame excuse but we filipinos just hate to be blunt and ask "who is this?" "this is kath from cavite, may i know your name as well?" putcha, there goes my piso. errr. i forgot, was using my sun cellular phone so texting is free. it doesn't matter, i've lost some valuable time fiddling with my phone when i could have fiddled with something else. i quickly answered, ...

Picasso may not be the best artist to commission a portrait of oneself. Unless you are Chuckie ( Child's Play 1988 ), Chaka Doll (Kakabakaboo), Michael Jackson (Thriller) and anything would be better than your face. That aside, the National Press Club of the Philippines recently commissioned a work from the Neo-Angono Artist Collective (NAAC) for a mural that is supposed to depict press freedom. The issue came up when the artwork was recently unveiled with some noticeable changes to the painting. At this point, NAAC complained that censorship was the root cause of the alterations (click on the link to view the changes) so as not to "embarass" President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) when she unvelied the mural in a ceremony held at the office of the NPC. The mural is supposed to be 8 X 32 feet and I had an image of PGMA who stands barely less than 5 feet (add two or three inches for heels) on tip toes trying to remove the covers of the mural. So much has been said about ...

Binay for president? This guy believes too much to his own Press Release . If there’s anyone to give credit it should be the Ayala (aka AYALA AVENUE) family and Sy (AKA S.M.) who built the foundation of the premiere business district in Metro Manila. Running the country is different from managing Makati where literally,everything is handed to the mayor on a plate - a golden plate. Let him try to manage Mindanao where a lot of people don't even have food to eat off a plate, where eating is an uncertain event. I suspect that he has never been to the real Mindanao (Sulu, Tawi Tawi, Zamboanga) except for Davao. The business leaders of Makati must be smiling with gritted teeth at this presumptuous boast. Let Binay come to the Visayas or Mindanao and the real people (aka masses) would be more likely to say: Binay who ?

Harry Potter fans had mixed emotions when J.K. Rowling casually mentioned that Dumbledore is gay after a young fan asked if Dumbledore ever found "true love". me thinks she got inspired by Ian McKellen who is gay and played the part of the White Queen err, Gandalf. to the constantly pessimistic critic, both characters loved to run around with boys, young boys. to quote another blogger: "Great, another old queen". It would probably be a different story if Rowling and Tolkien made the characters of Sirius the Black or Boromir gay. They do make the perfect candidates, both are loveless and had some sort of infatuation for another man (Sirius Black is the closest friend of James, father of Harry Potter whereas Boromir has a love hate relationship with Aragorn and loves to chase around small young boys - aka Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) either way, the declaration that Dumbledore is gay gives an entirely diferent color to his relationship with Grindelwald (read the last...

Glorietta Blast Caused by Gas - PNP : ok, someone's gotta admit to eating a hell lot of beans. binay - prove it, ayala - terrorist did it, pnp - bomb star, err gas leak did it. someone forgot to note that if it was a terrorist act you would have heard a lot of press release from the group by now - just ask bin laden. dear ate glow... Erap Pardoned by GMA : you are forgiven for a sin you've never committed. Erap due for a Saintly promotion by Cardinal Vidal - just in time for All Saints. Boy and Kris Losing to Sis : showbiz news, Boy and Kris is getting a beating with competitor Sis that they decided to reformat the show and have Piolo Pascual and Sam Milby to host the new show also titled SIS. Ah... this is just a joke, leche baka ma lolit solis ako nito. Witnesses place Milby at a posh hair salon in the Ortigas area during the time that Solis claims he saw him with Pascual : I didn't know Solis is a male - Solis claims he saw , workers from the salon were allegedly quo...

For everyone who is so hung up on getting the correct American Accent, here's something special for all Call Center wannabee american-sounding-pinoy: they should have gotten these actors some lessons in pinoy accent, pak shet talaga.

Darn, I'm never going to be able to watch professional sports in the same way again. he he he :)

October 31, 2007 - eve of all souls day celebration what do you do when you see a sign along the road that says "no stopping anytime"? you stop, put your lights to hazard and quickly dash off to the flower shop and grab your bunch meant for the dead. they could just as easily have saved it for themselves as i had the strongest urge to run them over. just as strange, there are more policemen standing around in the area where even a traffic enforcer can't be found. guess what, they're not doing a single thing to apprehend the violators. i can hear the background music from martin nievera play "flowers for you, in this lovely evening..." except that i suspect these policemen receive more than flowers from the vendors. on hindsight, that's not the perfect song as it is the eve before all saints day. somehow, flowers for you sound uh... morbid. i spied the policemen loitering around and not doing a single thing to apprehend the private cars. i suspect these g...

"It's the people - the poor sector which is the largest part of our society who should choose and decide who they want to run or replace the government, not the few elitist and the churchmen ." erap was quoted saying this over the phone in an interview with the Inquirer . considering that it was the elite and clergy who brought about his fall from grace, i understand his sentiments. just a little bit, he has redeemed himself not because of all the good he has done, but by using his voice that compels people to listen whether they adore or abhor him.

i attended the late night service in Redemptorist Church and was silently contemplating the words of the priest. In his homily he casually interjected that he doesn't understand why erap needs to be pardoned as erap always claimed he is innocent. obviously, a sheep that doesn't follow the flock of vidal. amen to that.

we usually say "pardon me" when we burp in front of people. if only it was that simple in the case of erap. his pardon does not serve any purpose to the filipino people except strengthen the long held perception that the scales of justice tip towards those that have money, power and influence. except that when erap burped, i can smell the rotten stench of arrogance mixed with delusion of grandeur brought about by alcohol. he claims to be innocent and that the filipino people have acquitted him in the eyes of God. i wonder if we pray to the same God. instead of asking pgma to grant erap pardon, Cardinal Vidal should have gotten out of his palace, visit the nearest national penitentiary to see that thousands more repentant criminals deserve his intervention for pardon rather than one who claims to be innocent up to this point. on the other hand, these criminals can't afford the millions of contributions that erap gave to vidal - they barely have centavos to buy milk for a s...

I have a Cat that lives in London. Well, she happens to live there after taking up her masters and hopefully, she'd have decided by now to take up that job tomorrow in a company that offered her a post. We haven't really seen each other for a while but i live vicariously through her and her travels. she sent a recent invite to view some of her pics in Annecy, France and i was able to get her permission to post the pics - with a few minor artistic alterations. Enjoy this one. i can almost imagine the scents in the market. ah.. if you want to know more about annecy go to wikipedia and search for annecy and you'll come up with an interesting write up about the town north of france. perhaps one day, i'd be able to cross THAT bridge (cat, you know which one ha ha ha). Note: photos courtest of Catherine Huang; Annecy, France

i had to do some work and needed to get to a coffee shop where they allow me to plug in my laptop. thought of a couple of options and decided to work in brown cup (st. patricks). along the way i passed through redemptorist church in Cebu City and had to stop as i saw the spectacular play of the setting sun behind the church. good thing i carry my trusty camera in my car just in case something like this happens. and nope, the title is not about the end of the world, just a play of words referring to the time of day. :)

Barili is a small town Southwest of Cebu City, roughly about 60 kilometers and you can get there in about 45 minutes. That is, if you don't stop over in Carcar to get their artery clogging pork chicharon. Main attraction of the place is Mantayupan falls that contributes to the electrical capacity of Cebu province. There are fantastic roadside places that overlook the tanyon strait and you can see the majestic kanlaon volcano in negros oriental. the place we went to is on top of a cliff and had an amazing view of the barili-cebu shoreline. The town itself is an interesting visit as there are old houses that probably date back to the time spaniards ran around the country. we're not complaining, if not for the horny friars and some mestizos, we wouldn't have interesting castillan malay features. Note, the pictures were taken sometime March 2007

I wrote in a previous entry that a lot of the pregnancy in this world are simply results of an "accident". Made me think how the universe came to be, are we, for some strange inexplicable reason, a result of a celestial accident or experiment gone bad? if that is the case, the Big Bang theory makes really good sense and answers all of the questions of where we came from. hmmmm

I was getting ready to scoot out of the gym when a gym-mate came in with a big frown on his face. He apparently got stuck in a client meeting that took up some time off his workout schedule. Out of the blue he asked me how much it costs to buy a dozen roses. As it turned out, his wife is celebratin her birthday. I thought for a while and said: "The cost of a dozen roses is a priceless smile from your wife." His frown turned into a look of surprise and he said, "Heck... am buying two dozen roses for my wife."

former teen stars, has-been actors turned married men were asked about the importance of sex in a marriage in a tv show called "Moms" and what sort of advice they can give their sons. like some pathetic self-help (uhmmm, it probably is not the kind of "self-help" you think i was referring to...) lecture, they went on and on about sex to be an act of procreation that should be done between married couples. I am sure that 99.99% of sexual acts committed by people in the showbiz industry does not fall under the category "married". and if i am to believe all the gossip going around, more than half of those sexual encounters are not between adam and eve, more like adam and steve. before i continue, i categorically wanted to state that i am not encouraging extramarital or premarital sex. on the other hand, to state that sex should be exclusively for procreation is about the same thing as saying that the family is nothing but a farm where you take a hen and roost...