Posts

Showing posts from December, 2008

Trivial Christmas Facts

if you ever find yourself stuck in the port of dumaguete waiting for a boat to Cebu, you may want to entertain yourself by watching the info-tv-board that flash bits of information, tips and trivia. I mean, do you know that the first recorded celebration of Christmas in the Philippines was 200 years before Magellan landed on our shores? Or the fact that "Silent Night" was composed in 1818 by Franz Joseph Gruber, an Austrian who came up with the ditty because the Church Organ had a malfunction, probably from disuse. (Church, Organ, Not-Functioning - makes sense eh?) other Christmas Trivia include the fact that Gloria is never sung in Advent Masses (and if you go by the signs of the times, that Gloria is really popular with the Church nowadays). It is an often forgotten fact that Advent Mass is not only to prepare for the Birth of Baby J but is also in preparation for the Apocalyptic Christ, or the second coming? That fact is emphasized by the gospel reading of the last and fi

Broken

my friends have noted that i look a bit sleepy and haggard for the past week. they are even wondering why i keep to a promise to attend the misa de gallo (a dawn mass tradition that lasts 9 days prior to christmas) when i missed the first day. the premise is that one completes the 9 day novena for one's wish. don't get me wrong, there are things that i dearly wish for. santa knows all about it except that i haven't been exactly a good boy this year :) anyways, we always ask for this, demand for that, petition this and clamor for things that J must feel like a government office beseiged with incessant requests. Despite the fact that everything is His to give, He deserves a thank you. if waking up before dawn to offer a quiet prayer is inconvenient, think about getting yourself nailed to the Cross.

To Do or Not To Do

If you're reading this today, Christmas time, you probably should be out and visiting part of the real world luv! (this is a pre-posted, scheduled blog entry, so am entirely excused!) In any case, I just want to greet everyone the Merriest of Christmas. No long message, no deep meaning, no reflective thoughts. As I'm typing this piece, I am scheduled to sign a new contract tomorrow (24th December, 2008) that is a totally unexpected last minute Christmas gift from the Big J before I take my break. In many ways, there could have been instances where this particular deal could have gone kaput except that in every moment I felt I was going to make a big mistake I had an invisible hand pushing me along. This is one instance where I appreciated Someone being pushy. No matter what we went through this year, we are certainly blessed. We're here right? This very second is a blessing of "existence". The only man who can't achieve his dreams is a dead man. We're stil

Running In Circles

Image
Just a quick photo blog entry for the Fluvial Procession for Santa Maria that's held annually in Tuyan, Naga of Cebu Province. There's a long history behind the tradition that won't fit given the short amount of time i have to post this entry. [which means i have to post a follow up entry, darn] a crew member, looked too young to be doing seafarer's work. boats go around the constantly moving vessel that carries the image, it is a careful maneuvering process to make sure that no boats collide with each other. miraculously, there has been no reported accident for the past couple of decades in this particular procession. i took a closer snap with our boat dangerously crossing the bow of the main boat.

Children of a Lesser God

Image
people avoided sitting beside her inside the church. who can blame them? unkempt, bedraggled, dirty and an odor borne from walking under the sun is enough to deter anyone. she held a deck of plastic cards on one hand and kept muttering to herself throughout the mass. despite my initial reaction of disgust, i reflected on the fact that she, not anyone of us who lived lives of comparative luxury, deserved more of God's grace and compassion. When we worry about everything in our lives, we listen less and less to his Words that fade into oblivion. Why is it, that when we're almost down to nothing, we listen more closely to his call?

Bading si Rudolph

according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer, the males shed theirs at the beginning of winter while female of the specie retain theirs until they give birth in the spring. which means that Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph were all pretty strong ladies. yes, girl si rudolph the red nosed reindeer. eleven more days to christmas :)

saengil chukha hamnida kim young sil!

Image
i hope that didn't mean you're an ugly ha g in korean. you see, i was looking for the right words to greet my friend kim young sil a happy birthday. together with some friends, we went to marco polo hotel where we were given a semi-private area near the buffet area - good thing that franco and tonette are good friends of hans hauri, the current general manager of marco polo. -picture from left, sitting: glenn, tonette, marie. standing from left: me, franco, yvette, nam soo, eduardo, sameer, ron in any case, dinner was like a united nations convention with a swiss-german, iranian-filipino, koreans and pinoys sharing an evening of laughter and good cheer. interestingly, the marco polo christmas tree is up and we didn't miss getting the chance to get our pics snapped. the firing squad. mr. park looked a bit funny he he he. great food, great company, great place. perfect birthday!

i'm in, i'm out

02 dec 2008 to quote maritess, the super housekeeper of the super friends, “I like flash. He’s in, he’s out, he’s finished!” I guess I was doing my flash moment when I went to dumaguete (02 december 2008) as an invited speaker for the negros oriental it expo 2008. Except that I had to catch my boat at exactly 6am, arrive in dumaguete around 1030am, whisked off to the spanking new convention building and deliver my talk on human resource challenges by 1130am with a couple of minutes to spare before getting served lunch. Over lunch I had the chance to talk with the provincial director for the department of trade and industry who was sponsoring the expo and discussed some of the issues the academe is facing in terms of producing graduates that can meet industry demands. Let’s just say that we are in real danger of losing the jobs that’s waiting for us just because we produce computer science and information technology graduates who can’t even do a flowchart much less do a proper system an

port call

09 dec 2008 slept at around 1am, got up at 430am, airport by 5am and on board a plane by 6am for manila and landed at exactly 715am to the gleeful announcement of cebu pacific that we arrived fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. except that in the twenty or so flights i did with the dang airline this year alone, this is the first time they met their 95% on-time all-the-time claim. so there i was waiting for my airport taxi, unsure exactly where to go as my next appointment has been moved to 3pm. thank God for friends, i called up adel and asked if i can crash at their pad while he and fatima are at work during the day. traffic was bad (uhm, central makati, 730 am. the rats scurrying to get to office. what was i thinking?) after breakfast, adel and fatima headed off to work and i got online to check any last minute update from my principal. yup, high-tech, they have secure wi-fi inside their flat. sure beats paying a hundred bucks for sucky internet connection in starbucks. have you ever

Running Blind

i know it's a bit looney. who normally runs at night? and a sunday at that? anyways, i headed off to IT park for a run as i missed a couple of days in the gym the previous days. i have been doing the run-walk circuit program and it's fantastic. you normally do a jog-or-run for a number of steps and you do half of that with a brisk walk. the more advanced version of course is the run-jog circuit. i started off with a 20-10 pace before doing a 50-25 and eventually i made it to a 200-50 combination. after doing three rounds around IT park (and I mean, the WHOLE IT park) i was soaking wet and my sweat jacket is clinging to me like second skin. Grabbing a shirt from my parked car i quickly changed and crossed the road to grab dinner in Persian Palate. catch the pics in another post :) time to reward myself with some Mediterranean-Iranian food.

Spotted!

Image
i covered the URCC event and took a snap of this trio. The guy on the left is Franz Von Muhfeld and the other fellow is Jed Dario, producers. unfortunately i can't seem to place where i've seen the lady and it has been nagging at me for a while now. then i saw the PLDT broadband piece about Nikki Taylor making the switch. yup, that's the lovely lass. ain't the two guys lucky? (click on read.more for juicy tidbits about Ms. Taylor) Ms. Taylor got into some sort of brouhaha when she lied about her age when she joined Ms. Cebu 2007. she added (yup, isn't that a shocker?!) to her age so she can qualify where most women would want to shave off a couple of years.

King Kong Wins an Oscar!

Image
de la Hoya was quoted a day before his fight that he's ready for King Kong. King Kong won an Oscar (pun intended) - so I guess he was predicting the outcome of his fight with Manny The King (Kong) who won in a thrilling match that saw Oscar throw in the towel at the 8th round. At the end of the day, Oscar is still the bigger winner: making millions out of the fight, heading the Golden Boy productions, movie star looks and a potential career as an international actor. On the other hand, even Manny won't make the King Kong production, even if he wears the monkey suit. Don't get me wrong, Manny rocks! if he can only train his fists on some hanger-ons in his entourage maybe he can achieve the business savvy that makes Oscar the bigger winner.

Frustrated

i wanted to treat myself to a nice lunch after a night of constantly checking out the freezer. no, i wasn't having multiple midnight, pre-dawn cravings. i was thawing out the freezer that has turned into solid ice and at the risk of flooding my kitchen table, i had to set my alarm at 2am, 4am and 6am. talk about domesticated. so there i am, still rolling around in bed at 1030am when i should be heading to church. it took me another 15 minutes thinking where i'd like to have lunch before i got the energy to pick myself up and head out the door. i wanted meat and i wanted something local. i was thinking of heading to bop bernie's for a thick slab of pork steak. bop was closed when i got there and i spent another 3 minutes sitting in my car pondering where i can go next. around the corner is apurado's and the fried chicken and pork barbeque should be a good enough substitute. open. yes. parking. no. well, they do have parking except that half the lot is submerged in wat

The (Not So) Fast and Furious(ly waiting) Tokyo Drift.

Image
finally. teriyaki boy in ayala center cebu is always packed with an average waiting time of about twenty minutes and an even longer waiting line of customers waiting to sample japanese fastfood. yup, this is classified as japanese fastfood. they are famous for their teriyaki chicken that is a staple in every table. every time i get a chance to visit manila, i drop by the greenbelt outlet and order the chicken. soft luscious chicken meat, grilled to perfection, the skin cooked to a crisp and glazed with sweet teriyaki sauce. i guess they haven't perfected the technique in cebu as the skin is a bit stringy and chewy. it hardly matters as it remains my favorite. this time around i ordered tonkatsu as i was craving for some pork meat. a word of advice, when they serve the tonkatsu, make sure to keep the lid on for a minute or so to ensure that the raw egg cooks a bit from the trapped steam coming from the japanese rice that serves as the base for the the breaded porkchop. if you're

Macho Macho Man!

what is it with the pinoy's obsession with men in drag? every other christmas party i've attended feature production where some men are made up to dress like women and it almost always end up with some of them flashing the audience. last night i attended a dinner to celebrate teacher's day and two groups performed for a competition of some sort. the first production was a spoof of mama mia and had full dance productions where the main performers are two men in drag. having to suffer through ten minutes of unshaved arm pits and constant flashing of their underwear is potent enough to kill even a viagra powered erection. yup, the audience shrieked but not the cheers one would expect, more like EEEEEWWWW.... YAAAAAAAK... BABOOOOOY. my seat mate summed it up perfectly: this is just plain bad taste. i was told this theme happens EVERY year. there is bound to be one production number of men in ugly drag. this 13th i am supposed to attend the christmas party in the gym. what do yo

Copy Cats

Image
you know how kids are when they're young. they copy just about anything so you have to be extra careful when you're around kids or they might end up blurting something you probably want to keep in the bedroom. e-hem. in any case, i took a snap of budyok (he's wearing the red shirt) and for some reason he has this uh... well... constipated look every time he sees the red light from the camera start to blink. it's his version of posing and everyone guffawed at this funny behavior. i was trying to figure out where he got this behavior and my questions got its answers when i took a snap of his dad. you guess which one. he he he and no, that pic is not a fluke. click on read.more for another shot of budyok's pose. ready, camera... COPY!