Good morning, Philippines!

Well, what can I say? It's really a good morning, right? As for me, I am boneless-bangus-fried-egg-garlic-rice happy! Hehehe.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Breaktime! Showtime!

So, I was watching Showtime! just a while ago. I saw Georgina Wilson, she's a judge. And ganda pala niya!
Then there's Anne Curtis who hosts the show. It's like it was just yesterday when she was one of the Batang X kids. At ngayon... Ang ganda pala niya! (She's so beautiful!)

And of course, if there's Georgina and Anne, there's Solenn, my future GF (but of course, she doesn't know it yet, and once I let her know about it, she'll first reject the idea... girls!). Ang ganda lalo ni Solenn! (Solenn is even more beautiful than the two!)

Anne Curtis. Georgina Wilson. Solenn Heusaff. Can you guess what I'm thinking right now?* Well, I'm thinking if there's anyway I can get to meet these three face to face. You think dating sites, speed dating events, and similar stuff can be of help? Hehehe.

*'Langyang Richard na yun! One lucky b!

I almost died

Pulungang Claro M. Recto

UP College of Arts and Letters

I miss this place. This conference hall used to be my (and my friends') tambayan. We can guiltlessly skip classes attending symposia and fora here - whether they feature local or foreign speakers, sponsored by student organizations or cause-oriented groups.

18 February 2011 -- The legends of social and intellectual activism: Dodong Nemenzo,
Edru Abraham, and Randy David (and there's Trillanes o?)

I remember the first time I attended a forum here. It was my first ACLE week (Alternative Classroom Learning Experience, a week when different school organizations sponsor their own fora and symposia, giving the students the chance to learn something they are more interested in, thus, supplementing the goal of the GED curriculum). I attended a forum sponsored by Atheists Circle. I was so excited to attend it so I sat somewhere in the front row. I think I didn't know exactly what the topic would be but because I saw Friedrich Nietzsche's idea as one of the topics, I entered the conference hall anyway.

When the symposium was about to start, they dimmed the light and I remember them bringing in front of the hall (read: right about a meter where I was sitting) a coffin with the word GOD on the side. And then, they started serving coffee and biscuits.

I ALMOST DIED. SERIOUSLY.

If some of you think that's funny, well, get this: I am a college student from a provincial high school which is always exempted in NSATs (because of consecutive weeks of no classes due to floods; and yeah, they call it NSAT before), a first year in a Kryptonian university, and I never even heard of the word atheist before. And suddenly, there was a coffin in front of me with the word GOD on the side.

Whew.

Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. - FN

Oh, yeah, this is basically it. If you're looking for more intelligent posts, check my bloglist on the sidebar. :-)

Playing WITH the Sun

kame hame waaaaaaaaaveeeee!!!

success!

i come in peace...

seize the day! errr... the sun?

Shot with my bro's Nokia N8 (gave it to him, hehehe).
My sister took these shots.
Model is no other than, well, yours truly, Eks.

Do you love fishing?

Well, it's Monday once again and I hope you all had a nice weekend. I did. Spent the day working a bit, watching a bit of House Season 1, a bit of 24 Season 4, and a lot of eating. S$%&e! Oh well. Ganun talaga.

I would like to start my day by sharing this very beautiful story I got (and already posted once) somewhere:

An MBA graduate visited a small village on his graduation trip and saw a lone man fishing by a pretty lake. Curious about the lives of such quaint folks, he asked the fisherman how he spends his days.

“Well I usually fish by the lake for about an hour or two, go home to feed my wife and kids and then we’ll spend the night singing as I strum along on my guitar.”

The MBA graduate was astounded by what appeared to be a lack of productivity, “Listen old man. I graduated from Harvard Business School, and I can tell you what to do to become filthy rich. You should really start by working longer hours and catching more fish.”

“I always catch enough to ensure that my family is well-fed…” The fisherman said. “Whatever would I do with all the surplus fish?”

“You could sell them in the market and earn a profit. Think about expanding the business altogether!” Exclaimed the graduate, now on such a roll that nothing could contain his excitement and his eagerness to share his new knowledge with the world, “With the profit, you can invest in better fishing equipment that will increase productivity. With all that money earned, you can outsource the actual fishing by hiring help. You’ll make more by managing the business. Hell, you could make millions!”

The fisherman nodded slowly. “And then what would I do with the millions?”

“And then – this is the best part - you retire!” Said the graduate, now glassy-eyed as he thought of his own retirement, some fifty years into the future. “Move to somewhere scenic and peaceful to spend quality time with your family, doing something you’ve always dreamed of doing. Isn’t there something you really love to do?”

The fisherman lifts his head to the sky and ponders for awhile. “Well I really like to play the guitar...”

The MBA graduate leaned forward.

“And I sure love fishing.” Said the fisherman.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I know this is easier said than done… But I posted the story anyway, in case this would somehow remind us of what we really want -- wait, what we really love to do in our life. Why do we work? Why do we pursue post-graduate studies? Why do we do whatever it is we are doing? My point, I guess, is simply to set things in perspective, in their right perspective.

I urge you guys, if you have time, to read these posts: on boldness and on quitting their jobs to do what they want. Of course, they did not do this as if it was a walk in the park -- they had to cut down on so many things, like shopping, unnecessary "sin coffee", probably cut down on weight loss pills, etc. But the point is, they made it happen. Lois and Chichi are good friends of mine who loved "fishing" and enjoying it right this moment.

Carpe diem!

<3

In the spirit of everyone's dream of becoming a Hallmark greeting card writer, here's my piece (na ninakaw ko sa isang Facebook shoutout):

Peter Pan knew the secret of flying.

He said, "You just think of happy thoughts... 

because they lift you into the air." 

NOT TRUE. 

Because whenever I think about you,

I fall.

...not as much as it makes me smile. 

Wahaha! Wala lang maipost. :-)

Day 18: Mubarak resigns

I was closely watching the news since day 1 of the mass protests because this is Egypt. You know, the cradle of civilization, the place where modern technology was practiced even before there was a meaning to the word 'modern' and 'technology' (I wouldn't be surprised if someone says Egyptians actually invented diet pills!), the place where plagues were released by someone simply raising his walking stick, the place where aliens once ruled us (hehehe).

We all know these wonders were created by aliens, right? Proof?
Watch AVP and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

When I first heard about Egypt's civil unrest, I got too hooked with the story. Images of pharoahs, plagues, bloody river, and mummies, of course, flash into my mind. I was kinda fearing and expecting in fact someone would rise up from the crowd to lead them not out of Egypt but into government hallways. Good thing it was really peaceful. Well, there were some casualties, looting, and tensions, but considering it happened in 18 days, I think it was generally peaceful.

The question now is, how will the military run the country? How will they run their new government after 30 years of authoritarian rule? Our country experienced multiple coups after Marcos. I just hope this won't happen to Egypt. Why? Because Egypt is so special. See paragraph 1. Hehehe.

Goodluck, Egypt. You survived the plagues and the aliens... You'll survive this new development.

(Pero wala pa din kayong sinabi sa EDSA 1 namin. Hehehe.)

I am now using 27++ Gig Gmail. Thanks, Google!

In this post, I mentioned that Google is offering an extra 20 Gig for 5 USD per year. And I just want to update you guys that I took it. I bought an extra 20 Gig! Ang lupet! And because of that, my email usage capacity was significantly reduced to 20%! Hehehe. Saya!

Google is probably investing so much on their server farm.

Oh, also, I have started creating accounts for the Google Apps I mentioned here. I have a .ph domain, and the host only offers 5 e-mail address accounts for that (and 500 MB server space, I think. Well, boooo to them. With Google Apps, I now have 50 available e-amail accounts under my .ph domain, and 7 Gig capacity for each of these account. Ha!

Long live, Larry and Sergey!

Ever sent an email late at night, then, regretted it the next morning?*

It happened to me not just once. Probably twice. The most embarrassing was when I sent an e-mail to a U.S. client of ours at around 3 in the morning. I was so sleepy then... so tired. As far as I can remember, I was drafting an e-mail to this client, and then, all of a sudden, I woke up and found out that I already sent the e-mail.

I quickly checked the sent folder and saw a very embarrassing line in that e-mail. I think it said:

Uy, tara, kape naman tayo, antok na antok na ako!

The e-mail was addressed to the client, and CC'd therein are my bosses both in the Philippines and those based in the US. (It's a good thing, I guess, I wrote in the vernacular. Imagine the embarrassment had I said, "Hey, can you tell me where the the most affordable flower delivery in Los Angeles is? I need to send some flowers for my mom." Argh!)

But now, I am hoping it won't happen again. Check this out:

Buti na lang di kelangan ng SOH-CAH-TOA dito. :-)

This is an application from Google Labs. You have to enable it in your e-mail setting. You cannot send an e-mail without answering these simple problems first within 1 minute. You can actually schedule this "check" anytime or any day. For example: Perform this check  from 11PM to 6AM of any given day, which means, you cannot send an e-mail during that period without answering the problems first. The idea is that, if you are soooo sleepy and tired, the above simple problems may not be as easy as you think they are. This means that chances are, if you are so sleepy and tired during that time, and cannot even think and answer simple problems, you might want to reconsider sending any mail without reviewing them when you are wide awake. Make sense to me. Hehehe. But just for fun, I scheduled this application to run always. :-)

Google \m/ !!!

*Whew! Haba! Hehehe.

20 GB at 5 USD per year? Tempting!

I saw this offer from Google where you just have to pay 5 USD for an additional online storage (20 GB total including your existing 7++ GB). And I am really, really interested to buy one. I've reached 90% capacity so many times and I think this extra storage is just so cool.

In fact, I might go for the 80 GB plan!

Or 1 TB? Hehehe. I can store my whole life here!

Doctors may write the best diet pill review, but Google is just the best in making things better. (Really better!) More innovations, Google geeks!