your street

animal collective

2008-08-31T15:25:00.004+08:00

Whole-grain breads get snapped up quick at the weekend market. I'd been meaning to try Mr. French-guy-with-big-mustache's whole grain bread but he was all out, so I bought a few other things instead. I asked two of his shiny pain au chocolat, and he gave me three. The pain au chocolat cost 50 pesos each -- this isn't too cheap, but its the closet thing I've had here that tasted Genevois.

I went next to my usual place for whole-grain bread, a little stall next to Tita Moning's and Vargas Kitchen. I should pay attention to the name of the stall. They were also out of whole-grain bread. They said: try the kraft(?) korn bread, it actually has more types of grain in it and is filling as well. I had it this morning and they were right. It is filling. Hopefully they will last me longer than the whole wheat pitas I had also bought in this stall. I scarfed 12 pieces down in 2 days.

I bought a few other things for lunch and then went home. Time for the weekly trek back to QC.

* * *

T decided to have a dessert party to gather all her friends the short time she was in town. I most enjoyed the achingly sweet Young BTS cake. The strawberry short cake was also good. But the most winner thing was: the sparkling chardonnay. Good shit. I wonder if it costs more than champagne. (Mental snob note flashback commercial: sir, Asti is not. . .wait never mind). I enjoyed being social. There were a lot of cute chicks in this party. That will really do me a lot of good right. . .

Everyone was talking about the E-heads concert to take place later that night.

* * *

Next evening's stop was Cantinetta, it was just Jill's birthday. She looked gorgeous. I decided to steer clear of risotto and raviole since I was stuffed with dessert. Please eat their seafood tomato soup. It was very good.

* * *

Night ended in a club. There was a Madonna-thon. I did not spend any money. Snuck in for free (bad bad bad), drank other people's drinks in a pitcher. Lambanog, cranberry and other things I don't want to know. The crowd was good. Why? Coz it was OLDER. Yes. How often do you hear that.

* * *

We're watching the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre later. Why do I trust the artistic tastes of the Taiwanese? I do.

2008-08-04T21:51:00.002+08:00

I got massacred today playing a tennis game. The score read 6-0 6-1 6-0. Maybe I should take consolation that it wasn't a triple bagel. My timing was all-off, and my opponent new exactly what to do with feeble returns and groundstrokes -- send it flying off at an angle to the opposite side. My opponent was gracious enough to thank me for making him look good. He wanted to assuage the matter. We're supposed to play again; though I don't know if that would be a good thing for him, if my level of play stays this way.

* * *

But my weekend was good! I played tennis on Saturday and Sunday, the latter with a trainer who was young yet I thought pretty good at this motivational skills. I'm looking forward to the weekend already so that I can work on more things. One good trait that he has is that he listens also to the point of views of his coachee/student. Good coaches have to understand that each person is different, and that listening is what will help them diagnose what is the best approach to learning. Just before the weekend I exchanged some slightly feisty text messages with a gym trainer, coz I felt he didn't have that important listening attitude at all. Thankfully, he eventually came around

* * *

In exchange for my sister and dad having lunch while I was playing tennis (yes, this counts as accompanying me to the country club), I found myself watching The Dark Knight for the 2nd time. Now I understand why Dent was so pissed off at Gordon, and also it hit me that the Joker wasn't on the screen all that much. This movie gave more time to Dent and Gordon than the Joker I thought. Watching this movie the 2nd time wasn't too bad.

* * *

The weekend highlight though was a last minute invitation by a friend to watch the Ateneo-UST UAAP game at Araneta. We were seated really close to the players, at the Patron section. I'm so glad Ateneo won. I do feel that when I watch games live, 2/3 of the time, we lose. So this was a nice surprise.

* * *

I have too much adrenaline in my system, so its going to be a bit of a chore getting to sleep. Maybe it's time to organize a few things then.

* * *

After 2 failed meetings, 3rd one took place and I thought it was successful and worked out quite well. Both parties are moving, and things look good. :)

* * *

Do I still remember how to do this?

2008-07-25T20:24:00.002+08:00

There is such a thing as being too accessible. It's called living in the part of the city where people will insist on picking you up for a gimmick even though what you'd rather do is stay at home and sort your laundry. Of course, this would be a non-issue IF you were the sort of person who would tell people that you will not go out with them and they can stuff it.

I am not that person.

* * *

I've been living in Salcedo for more than six months now, and it has truly worked out. I lucked out finding a friend with a small room to let in a condominium along de la Costa. My daily weekday routine is to wake up at the latest possible time so that I can take a shower, get ready and still have the eight minutes walking time I need to get in my office by 9am. The route to work is okay. I go through Velasquez Park and normally there is only a little doggie poo to worry about. There are many cute dogs. I know the dogs, and not their helper-walkers. Scarcely anyone walks their own dogs in this park. But this is not surprising. They will not walk their children either. In the evenings, on the way home, I normally will not pass through the park grounds.

We are in Makati CBD so there is a choice of 18 Starbucks to go to within a 250 meter radius. It is frustrating because the cute baristas never seem to stay in one location long enough.

* * *

I have not explored much of Legaspi Village, but already judge that it is the village on the wrong side of Ayala Avenue.

Next time: favorite neighborhood spots.

Highs of 12F, Lows of -3F.

2007-01-15T03:59:00.000+08:00

I had some personal time, yesterday, to see some parts of downtown Minneapolis. Foremost in my agenda was to get proper winter head gear, especially since weather reports for this coming week have temperatures falling to -3F. Yes, Fahrenheit. I can only begin to imagine what that's going to feel like, but I will say that I've already revised my view of what cold means. Prior to this trip, anything sub-zero in the Celsius scale would start freaking me out -- I think I over-estimated the actual temperature a few years ago when we were caught in a wind during a debate tournament in Toronto.

In the same way that you would be crazy to stand for more than a couple of minutes under the noon time tropical sun during summer, it is equally daft to go out into a Minnesota street during the winter improperly protected. I ended up getting a great deal on a good wool scarf and hat on sale in Macy's (P.S. I couldn't find crap in Target, which I had expected to be more helpful). I would have been ready to spring for earmuffs and a face mask had I actually seen any for sale, much less any stylish ones. I caught a glimpse of more than a couple of people who had some nice things on, though most people were more ho-hum, I don't know perhaps it's a MidWest thing. I bow to some of these Japanese winter fashionistas tromping around Narita airport.

* * *

Deliberately avoided Mall of America for shopping this weekend. Aside from the fact that once done with shopping I'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere, I didn't get the greatest vibe during a quick visit for dinner earlier in the week. It's a big place, but it seemed sad, and the goods boring, or boringly displayed. The Gucci and Prada shoes at Nordstrom seemed sad.

So my game plan was to wander around Nicollet Mall, a shopping strip not a mall with the major buildings connected to each other by way of a 2nd level skyway. It was a great relief to use these enclosed bridges rather than walk in the cold at street level. It's while navigating these skyways that someone asked me for directions to a particular shop, which I promptly supplied. A guilty pretentious pleasure of mine: being mistaken for a local. It happens all the time, and partially because I have the audacity, I think, to feel as if I am local. Made my day, even though it's "just" being a Minneapolis local.

* * *

Found a nice independent book store. Couldn't find the right book to buy, either content or price-wise. Rats. It would have been better for me, if it was a library. I would have plopped down and read for a couple of hours...they were piping in some pretty good Jazz, though I didn't get to ask the proprietor what it was. While going through the shelves, I was reminded of the various Minnesota characters I had serendipitously bumped into a few weeks prior to leaving: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Garrison Keillor(!), and that damn movie A Prarie Home Companion. That dang radio show actually goes live at the Fitzgerland Theater at nearby St. Paul every week. Ok, now I want to watch it, even if I found the movie a bit of a chore. Aside from writing books my Dad reads, and hosting that radio show, he also writes for the Tribune paper here. Keillor is everywhere.

* * *

PS. the following phrases are supposedly MidWestern in origin: "You betcha," "Aw Jeez," "You're darn tootin', "Okie-Dokie," "Yup," "Be there in a jif," and "Yah.

* * *

More next week: winter sports, hi-tech offices, asian food, culture and theatre

Minneapolis

2007-01-06T11:13:00.000+08:00

Hi guys, just letting you all know that I'm flying tomorrow morning to the US for work for the next two to three weeks. This coming week I'll be in Minneapolis (Brr), and later on probably New York and San Francisco. Let me know if our paths may possibly cross!

re-claiming an old life

2006-12-29T22:42:00.000+08:00

I didn't get any work e-mails today or yesterday, so thankfully, as I expected (but didn't count on), I had Thursday and Friday's practically off on this very light work day. If there would be a time for a Taiwanese earthquake to screw up internet systems Asia-wide, the timing couldn't be better. The extra time has allowed me to re-visit some aspects of my pre-work life that I had unwittingly given up the past few months (running, tennis games, DVD marathons, multiply updates, not including reading -- work will never make me give that up), and now I start imagining how the best of these old things are going to marry with work come 2007. Some people really dig Xmas, and I do, but it's the new year that I look forward to more. I'm among the 91% people in the Philippines, according to a recent SWS survey, who look to the new year with hope.

* * *

the party season has been pretty good this year. have met up with most people I wanted to see this Xmas, and managed well enough that I had no shitty evil traffic to contend with. One takes for granted that friends had flown in from everywhere.

One more party tomorrow down south (I call Paranaque down south, he he) with the HPAIR people, and that should turn out okay. It seems like everyone wants to get real wasted on this one. I'll be sure to post some good photos of this in my multiply come 31st.

* * *

I only have one resolution for 2007, most cliche of all resolutions, but it's always been there. I want to get thin, and, away from my old strategies of trying to achieve this goal, I've been telling people about it.

* * *

Memories of 2006

10. Swimming and Total Immersion
9. 2nd Ateneo Aquathlon
8. Food Blogging
7. World Schools Wales
6. Underwater Hockey
5. Job interviews, Job rejections
4. iTi Consulting
3. 19 Nova Scotia
2. Mitchell Madison Group
1. Grandmo

Most Enjoyed Movie of the Year: The Prestige
Most Enjoyed Author of the Year: Jose Saramago
Most Enjoyed Music of the Year: See me Goon Squad Multiply Playlist (David Bowie, KC Tunstall, Moby, etc.)

Crap Movie of the Year: Nacho Libre
Crap Book of the Year: NA (Yey!)
Crap Music of the Year: "Only in Boracay"

we're always the same age inside, G.S.

2006-11-23T18:18:00.000+08:00

How do you write sentences? Can someone answer me that question?

* * *

I got off early from work today. I have some time to write a few things. (Aside: there's nothing like consulting/office work to totally linearize your thinking)

First, I received via e-mail a performance review form. I had never seen one of these babies before, my being new with this office thing and all. It was a good form let me tell you though. I expected some vague and bull-shitty form -- I should have known better coming from a company that trades on business analysis. It segments well all the skills, and traits that they expect from someone who wants to be a kick-ass consultant. There was no way this one could be fudged (at least not without a sizeable amount of lying, padding and crapping all over the place). I momentarily felt a little small that I obviously had a long way to go with some of my technical skill (ability to work with Acess, Excel, BIQ, etc.).

What jolted me back to a balanced outlook was my realization that I don't have any spare time at the office to train myself and improve on these things. One has to learn everything and do crash courses as needed.

This I do not find surprising. My company has a cowboy reputation of making things work. Learning something right the first time is such a premium: learning by doing and quick. One immediately knows who the slow people are at my work place. (does that sound like paradise to some of you)

I have to finish the PR form by Monday, but I'll probably hand in my self-review before the weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

* * *

frivolities/perks/delights:

small joy realization #1, realizing that eating cream sauce on pasta doesn't have to be a heavy affair. was at Cibo last night with a friend, and remembered that there's the Cibo/Bellini way of a white sauce, and there's the CPK-heavy style.

realization #2, realizing that a book can excite you on the rack, leave you confused the first forty pages, and then proceed to increasingly delight you as you figure it out. Book in question: Saramago's Double.

realization #3, that sometimes all you want is to listen to old albums from start to finish. Dave Matthews Tim Reynolds: Live at Luther College one of them.

charged and shuffled

2006-11-05T20:53:00.000+08:00

this weekend wasn't particularly restful, though it was pretty interesting. it began with an odd note when i received work e-mail early saturday morning that i had to be ready to do some remote work at the drop of a hat. in the end, said work didn't materialize and i think that contributed to the sense of never being truly fully at rest. i hate it when i start relating closer and closer to workplace cliches. but to deny that i am relating to these cliches just might make me more insufferable. i had long though that angst was retro, but then i'll have to remind myself that denial of it would then be medieval.

i found myself wishing for a blackberry aloud in the middle of a party. someone said, no you don't want that. and i said, umm, yes i do.

* * *

early saturday took a semi-poorly planned trip to Divisoria/168 land. I don't want to dwell on it too much but suffice it to say that I was riding in a car with a low-IQ driver. i should have realized that sooner. bought an evil cheapo Ipod shuffle to replace the mini i lost a few months back. im still trying to figure out how to get it to work consistently though, since it's been acting weird. i swear if i dont get it working im gonna return and give that woman at the counter a peace of my mind. i dont care if i have to brave the jungle again.

* * *

positive notes: went to a foodie eyeball at the fort. info about it at: marketmanila.com; i liked the food, and the vodka tonics, vodka on the rocks were the perfect lubricant midway through the proceedings. props to a friend for making the host give a speech towards the end of the gathering. as i related to her, i would have gone for the yelling for speech, speech. i would have never followed up with tinkling a glass with a fork. the speech turned out well anyway. throught that foodie eb, discovered an interesting blog along the way. anton.blogs.com; in particular it's interesting to read his ideas about Pinoy 2.0 and his thoughts of how pinoys could take further advantage of the web. he took good pictures of the event as well.

* * *

sunday i spent mucking around my room and getting it messy. now im gonna clean it up. i've been watching old game shows on you tube. bob barker is funny. hope this upcoming week turns out well.

1991

2006-11-01T20:44:00.000+08:00

Minette just flew out this morning to return to the US. That just leaves Robin here, until the 4th, after which my cousin-entertaining duties will go on hibernation mode. One thing I didn't expect was how cooperative they were in wanting to eat. They would call us on all suggestions to have another snack, another place for dessert, a second breakfast. I think their goals were to gain weight while here.

They don't fly in as often as my other cousins. In fact, the two haven't been here in 15 years. In the week or so they've been here though, I'd like to think that we somehow filled the void between of who we were as 11 year old kids and who we are now as people in our mid 20s. One funny recollection we talked about this afternoon was how we'd hang out before. They lived in Valle Verde, and we lived in Sta Mesa Heights. We would just show up un-announced at their apartment-step during weekends, and their helper would get all worked up trying to figure how to feed three extra mouths for lunch. Sometimes also, our driver would just ring their doorbell to announce that it was time to be picked up and brought over to our house. Can you imagine spending time with your friends now without flagging what the activity would be, or making a schedule, or figuring out where it is appropriate to meet? It's regression in many ways, isn't it.

* * *

I think we were heading off to Metrowalk to buy some pirated stuff (yes!) when the subject of Irish-ness was brought up. I used to make fun of Mahar for wearing it as a badge of pride. As I clarified to a co-worker who thought I thought as my younger bro did, I don't self-identify as Irish. I don't even self-identify as American so I don't really get why any of us would want to talk about it in that way. My cousins gave me a fresh perspective though on what it meant for the family. 'Coz they more on the, yes, we're Irish and shouldn't hide it bit as well. they said that our grandmo thought very strongly about this as well -- and communicated it too. I had to ask: well, what is it then that would mark us that way, for us to legitimately (caution!) claim such a thing? Yes, our great-grandfather was Irish . .and?

Musicality, poetry, Irish names, catholicism(? how ironic if they had brought this up but they didn't). Most interesting though was the comment brought up by Minette...you could say it's also Pride. People who are even "less" Irish then us, know they are. So that was something I had to think about. . .but then we started moving on to talking about how occasionally frustrating it was to deal with this multi-cultural baggage. . .more on this another time.

* * *

I visited 3 cemeteries this All Saints day period. first time i think for us

an account of me

2006-10-08T22:50:00.000+08:00

hi. to all those who greeted me, thanks.
to those who forgot, tsk tsk.

that's ok. you probably forgot coz you weren't invited to any of my parties.

im kidding. sort of.

I was feeling a bit under the weather Thursday night, and especially Friday. I think it mostly had to do with overdoing it with the hockey endurance training Thursday night. I hadn't done it in two weeks and here I was swimming in a pool with a t-shirt on (to create drag); we were doing all kinds of finning, diving, swimming drills. It lasted about 30-40 minutes, but I felt that "dumidilim na ang paningin ko", especially during one of those diving crucifixion drills. After training, I played a few games.

So come Friday, I wasn't in too hot shape. Thankfully, my co-workers didn't mind when I begged off early from work. I took few breaks during the day, so I could ask to leave at 5 pm. (Yes, my job breeds workaholics. Flexi time means that ppl become workaholics) Thank god I have colleagues who can finish work and deliver the goods.

Slept in Saturday morning, which was great. Woke up to some gifts mom brought in over from BKK. Got Saramago's book Seeing (good book choice: nice semi-snobby author, cover looks nice, published recently, no stupid person raving over it), and some DG cologne (subtle enough fragrance, though in true my-mom-style she also bought for herself the feminine version of what she gave me. ha ha ha). Sweet. The packaging worked out too. Book was hard bound and black, and the cologne was in a silver box. so they looked perfect together. I have to really give props to my parents for knowing my taste pretty well already. They wrapped it up using some apple green metal twine. Later in the morning Len called from SG with a funny story about cooking (thanks len); got a few overseas texts (bob, jojo) so that was nice.

Started getting ready at 1030 to pick up Jill, since she wanted to join the intro hockey session at La Salle. She did pretty well, and I got to play. She broke the mask I lent her though. Semi-grrr. Got home, kinda exhausted. Vincent came over in the evening, and what was supposed to be a dinner party became a DVD/Video fest with junk food. Watched March of the Penguins. Awww. and several episodes of It's always sunny in philadelphia.

Slept in a bit again Sunday. Went to mass and then treated the family to Outback. Had my share of red bloody meat. Yeah baby. Afternoon, mucked around the PC and took a nap before heading out for a haircut, and aromatherapy massage. Got home to small dinner party w/ parents + desserts and tasty alcohol. Blogged.

that was my weekend. i hope you enjoyed it reading it much more than I did typing about it. But I DID enjoy it though. Especially the massage. Ready to kick ass this coming week.

2006-09-30T18:10:00.000+08:00

Since the recent storm has knocked out power in my house for more than forty-eight hours now, I've found myself spending more time at work. I'm not doing more work; I'm just making use of light, air-conditioning and the internet. For the benefit of those who can't watch the UAAP game today at their electricity-less homes, we've set up a projector here. 10 pt lead by UST at the half. Shit.

chubby little ateneo kids helping blue babble.

***

tang ina why do i do this to myself. i hate watching these games

AFP sky

2006-09-24T00:32:00.000+08:00

It was a toss up today between attending a wedding, and going to a hockey tournament. Guess what I chose? My sister gave me the appropriate tsk tsks because, "it's a WEDDING." Well my only regret really is that the one who invited me will find out and will feel sorry about the whole thing. My own rationalization is that I would be hardly missed, and there aren't really any people there that I want to talk to or meet anyway, save one or two perhaps.

On the other hand, I haven't played hockey in several months. And I've never regretted going to a tournament, game or training session. This seemed like a sure thing. Not to mention the fact that I received the 3 guilt SMSes of 'we're counting on you." The two games we played today were sweet. The 30 or so minutes for one game is really too short. They should come up with a 20-5-20 minute game format -- of course, I can imagine that the fitness standards will have to be all the more heightened.

As I said earlier, I haven't played hockey since May, and I can feel my left arm complaining. I hope I'm not in agony tomorrow morning.

And to those of you who don't know me, I'm talking about underwater hockey.

* * *

I've been reading Gandhi's autobiography, and I'm at the part that he's in South Africa and is experiencing discrimination first hand as a 'coolie' or a coloured person. He's beginning to meet some Christians, and start reading Christian texts; what makes interesting reading is when he explains what about Christianity he doesn't agree with. One is the notion that striving for perfection is an impossible task and that Jesus intercession is thus necessary. The other bit has to do with the interpretation of the Bible. I haven't gotten to the full elaboration of these bits so I won't go on further lest I misinterpret what he said ( a real issue he identified before he began the arguably "Western" practice of writing one's autobiography).

I almost forgot to mention that there is a portion of the book where he is unhappy that his love relation with his wife remains lustful, though their love is moving gradually to something more pure. I couldn't help but think, isn't that a good thing? Aren't you supposed to lust after your wife?

I actually can relate to Gandhi in certain levels, especially when he frets about being treated like crap. But I don't share his sexual/love issues though, nor his very strong devotion to his parents.

It's taken me around 3 weeks to read 100 pages. Reading non-business related texts has become a bit of a luxury but I try to keep at it.

Suddenly I See

2006-09-17T17:20:00.000+08:00

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon, the sort that is good for staying in. Unfortunately, it is perhaps wasted on my relatively drama-less life. My main angst or issue these days is how they stock the office pantry with evil-tasting transfat laden cream biscuits. I haven't been around long enough to influence purchase decisions in this regard. Actually, the office should get a large refrigerator, so people will spring for fresh food and bring more home-cooked food. Presently, it's a parade of peanuts, chips, sweets and the occasional pasalubong of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Most people in the office are just a bit younger than I am and don't have office bodies yet. What a waste I keep thinking.

We wonder at the supply-chain mechanism behind the company/manong who delivers the daily orders of lunch. It's a meal with 1.5 cups of rice, two pieces of chicken/beef/fish, a portion of soup or vegetables, a small banana, a piece of hard candy, and a set of plastic utensils. This all costs 40 bucks. They'd have a responsive market for even 50 bucks. I don't even see any competitors (or maybe they were all priced-out).

* * *

I've been playing semi-workaholic. A couple of late nights this past week (which led to my cancelling my endurance training session for UWHockey, punyeta); but I've continued to maintain that weekends are sacred. It's a fine balance sometimes but you have to understand what is due to you -- speaking to a lot of French white collars (haha, who else) in the past has made me more confident about this attitude.

Was talking to a colleague late Friday night, "hey, if you need help on the weekend, don't call me. Fine, if you really really need help then call me." No calls. He he. Fair enough, I think. I bust my butt there 5 days a week.

If you want a lot of work and want to work weekends, you will enjoy my place of work.

I've also been there long enough to get a general feel of what people's weaknesses are. Does this sound a little too cut-throat? Wait, I know your answers already. Ha ha ha.

* * *

new content-wise changes in this blog in the upcoming week. stay tuned.

thank yous

2006-08-28T22:54:00.000+08:00

thank you that when i woke up this morning it felt like I had a decent night's sleep.
thank you that I didn't get stomach cramps in the middle of the morning coz I had a shredded wheat banana breakfast.
thank you that I can buy a chicken curry lunch with two pieces of chicken for just forty pesos.
thank you that I got my work done today.
thank you that co-workers sent my YM messages asking how they could help out.
thank you that I have co-workers who care about the quality of work they produce.
thank you that my calls to India weren't as torturous as they were last Friday.
thank you that work ended at 6 so I was able to make it to my spinning class.

thank you that my room fixing turned out quite well.

thank you that tomorrow is another day

* * *

no this isn't Mitch Albom's blog

It's always sunny in Manila

2006-08-22T22:38:00.000+08:00

I was relating to my mom over the phone that I had gotten into a heated argument with an ex-officemate last Friday, and she remarked, "yes, you can be temperamental." Temperamental!

I had to stop and think about that for a bit, because I was of the opinion that I was temperamental BEFORE like especially back in high school, but nowadays I had more control and restraint. There's nothing like your mom to tell you otherwise. "Well, it's coz you're a bit spoiled and impatient." She said that in a matter of fact way, not judging. The idea that I'm out of control, I don't like that.

Me and my officemate have patched our differences already anyway

* * *

It's been a week since I started with my new job at a management consulting firm. So far, things have been pretty ok. It feels much better to be doing work on an area that I'm actually quite interested in. Everyday, I learn something new. Quite literally. And if I spend my downtime reading McKinsey articles or business news, I don't feel that I'm just wasting time.

* * *

I'm reading this simple and short book called "What Do Muslims Believe?" by Ziauddin Sardar. It's good because it explains in plain language Muslim beliefs, its varieties, history, etc. All these random facts that I learned from years of debating now fall into a more coherent story and picture. It will give you an idea of why Iran and Iraq have gone to war with each other. It will also give you an understanding of how Muslim extremism has come about. But most importantly for me I think it gave me a glimpse of just how sophisticated, inspiring, compelling and progressive Islam can be. Normally we read articles in the magazines about how Islam is a peaceful religion, or how great scientific developments have been borne from Muslim scholars. This book puts forward historical developments, and explains the significance of Muslim texts in such a way that the previous sentence's pronouncements don't just seem like lip service to political correctness.

* * *

Funniest show on TV now

quiet departure

2006-08-14T23:04:00.000+08:00

The office was so empty today, most everyone was on leave. There were only a handful of people around, and oddly enough they were the perfect bunch to be around just before finally leaving. Big fusses are ok of course, but many one-on-one's throughout the day are even better.

What was a nice touch though was that aside from wishes of good luck for my new job, there was the genuine invitation from all parties, whether HR or my colleagues, or quality assurance, or the boss, to hang out and party in the future. I'm going to our firm's mid-year party, and someone else's birthday, and I'm celebrating my birthday with them October. I know: they like me! they really really like me! he he he.

Sometimes one hears that the first job one lands is crap. you have to work for peanuts, long hours, take crap from your bosses. Well, I'm lucky. My official first REAL job was great, in the many dimensions that something could be great. I wish all of you have this good a first job as well.

* * *

Onward and upward!

Bebot

2006-08-08T00:43:00.000+08:00

The Black Eyed Peas have released two versions of their music video Bebot,

one called Generation 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeFNDUBcrwc

the other Generation 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp0DcffERYs

You guys should see this. This ain't on MTV and VH1 yet, so hope it gets enough of a buzz or it gets released there or something.

Background on Bebot, the guys who made the video, and the Little Manila Project here: http://www.kidheroes.net/bebot/

Aside, Bebot is the reason why some Welsh kids in Cardiff even knew who we were and where we from.

mind branding

2006-08-06T00:20:00.000+08:00

Seal, "Killer" (Peter Rauhofer 2005 Mix)

David Bowie, "Fashion"*

Moby, "Beautiful"

Brazilian Girls, "Don't Stop"

Sarah Hudson, "Girl On The Verge"

Fischerspooner, "Just Let Go"*

The Bravery, "An Honest Mistake"

LCD Sound System, "Tribulations"

Deep Dish, "Flashdance"

The Postal Service, "We Will Become Silhouettes"*

_____________________

Harold Barefoot Sanders III "Get Plastered"*,

(?) also Sanders III?,"Breathe on Me"*,

Biff Sanders, "Prodigal"*

_____________________

A few tracks that I've been listening to. No prizes for guessing the over-arching theme. ;) Tracks with stars are those that I particular enjoy, not all for the same reason. Barefoot Sanders mostly coz of resonance and association with things new, Postal Service 'coz its like meeting an old friend (okay how slam(?) book, barf), Fischerspooner 'coz it's not about living here, David Bowie 'coz its gradually dawning on me that Labyrinth wasn't his best work. He he.

I have another track that I do like but I haven't found its name and title yet.

_____________________

excuse to Party

2006-07-31T01:39:00.000+08:00

Party I threw this weekend turned out pretty well I thought considering that I had thrown caution to the wind when I invited people. I invited workmates, hockey players, high school friends, college travel buddies, mountaineers, theatre people, miscellaneous friends, and debaters (low turnout for the last group, losers!). Props for people who showed not hardly knowing anybody, but mingling well and having a good time (Mickey, Ria, Tina)

Bobby & Len: You would have more than made up for everybody if you were here. Carl was sick, and Kellda flaked (hmm). Maita had another engagement. John and Amanda showed up, good of them.

The authentic Thai food that was served early on was received really well; thought it was nice that people got an idea of how more scrumptious Thai curry and noodle salad could be. Drink of the night was the traydor "blue frog". This can easily become a staple for future parties IF people will chip in for the Amaretto.

There was a lot of booze, except for beer (on purpose, bwahahaha).

The home entertaining tradition lives on. . .

Leaving London

2006-07-16T03:08:00.000+08:00

Resting my heels now at Easyinternet Cafe along Bond Street. It was a day of shopping, hoo ha. Met up with Tams and her cuz Addie (sp?), and we were "good tourists" first: Buckingham Palace and National Gallery (!), but after lunch at Covent Garden we went on shopping mode. Actually, it was really just Harrods.

What a place. I had never been much to the Kensington-Chelsea portion of London before. I've really seen grittier bits more, read: Camden Town, East End and Brixton. This was a nice change, seeing posh cars, posh buildings, and posh people. So many Arabs here dang. I was also feeling ashamed that I wasn't preppie enough to wear loafers without any socks, boohoo.

* * *

Leaving London with a bit of stuff. Really hope it'll all fit into the luggage.

* * *

World Schools Update. Yeah, that's the reason I'm here after all, not shopping! he he. Australia won. Again. Corny.

We did okay, thought we really missed the break by just that much. We ranked 21st, and had 4 wins and 4 loses. South Korea made quarters and booted out top ranked Pakistan in Octos. Singapore made semis but lost to Australia.

The kids were very social during this tournament. Made many friends, and were quite popular I thought. He he. I do hope they decide to try out for next year's tournament in South Korea. We've got a strong chance to do really well, like make the final. I really think that World Schools is just a puzzle that the Philippines has been a little delayed in figuring out. All ingredients for a good run are there.

* * *

Okay, logging off now. Am flying out from Cardiff in about 7 hours. I'll probably be home in Manila around lunch time Monday. Til then I have no load. Sorry!

World Schools Update: Some Good News, Some infuriating news

2006-07-08T00:28:00.000+08:00

Okay, I can't take long here. There's a line behind me. But this is the short of it.
We carried the round through with Lesotho, no surprised there, though it was a split decision. Some of their speakers are really quite powerful. So a 2-0 slate was nice.

Today was a different story today however. We lost to South Africa (deservedly actually) on a motion on treating terrorists as Prisoners of War (we were opposing).

And we (unfairly) lost to Scotland in the next round. I can give you a blow by blow about how I found such a decision to be ridiculous. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on negative feeling. But this par for the course anyway, unforunately, for World Schools. So we're 2-2.

Fairness to the tournament though, there have been some interesting upsets, so it isn't as if there are unbeatable teams. Pakistan has made the big splash today beating BOTH England and Australia. Good for them.

* * *

On more positive news, we absolutely adored the school we were in today, called Ysigol Plasmawr here in Cardiff. The high school kids (Ryan, Ruth and Angelauch (sp?) ) who were watching after our team were saying Go Team Philippines and also following the debate well, and making fun of our opponents bad points. That was really swell of them. Also nice to hear that one of them actually (no joke here), is going to be in the next Harry Potter movie. He has to be hush-hush about it though. He can't tell people much about it. Wow. We're one degree of separation from the entire Harry Potter cast. He he he. We've got pictures of him if you want to see. He really looks like he can be a character in the movie. It's a wonderful school really. Great kids.

* * *

I think the girls today are gonna do some retail therapy the next day since it's free day. We're gonna be at Cardiff Bay tonight. More updates soon. :)

Philippines: First Win

2006-07-06T20:22:00.000+08:00

On the motion that this house would have a worldwide ban on civil nuclear energy, Montenegro (AFF) and Philippines (NEG), the debate went to Team Philippines with a unanimous 3-0 decision.

Getting the first win in was good. Even though Montenegro isn't a highly touted team, getting that first win has been vitally important. We look to improve and solidify our performance for the next round. :)

Did that sound enough like a press release? He he.

As I blog on this matter, our team is in the middle of a one hour preparation for its 2nd Round. We are on the affirmative side against Lesotho, on the motion, roughly, that this house would have full-time education students engage in compulsory charity work.

* * *

Cultural Wales Update:

1. Food still crap.

So-called creamy herb chicken for dinner at Temple of Peace turns out to be boiled milky chicken fibers. Beef Bourgogne with a wine sauce means black-brown sludge. I kid you not. We were given a brief respite today at Bettws High School in Newport, today's venue for the rounds. We had yummy quiche, egg and ham sandwiches, curry samosas type stuff, and orange juice. The kids eat better than the uni students thank God.

2. Weather becomes more British.

Which I actually don't mind much. Rainy and colder now. Makes me feel that I'm really in Britain. The sun has come out again quite recently though, which is nice. Makes me hope that by the time we get to London in a few days, there will be neither the past weeks heatwave weather nor rainy-rainy-rainy depression.

* * *

Wales is starting to grow on me a bit. Caerdydd the Welsh name of Cardiff seems so much prettier than its usual name. We heard some musical performances in last night's opening ceremony and they were really good. We had a tenor, a choir, a soloist, and fiddler all give good performances (esp. the fiddler). We were proud to stand and show our Philippine flag and Filipiniana attire during the opening ceremony.

* * *

Italy vs. France. Wot.

cardiff

2006-07-05T04:39:00.000+08:00

We have no use for our rain gear and sweaters here in Cardiff. I spent the whole day in my tsinelas. Yes, it's the most appropriate footwear here in Wales. Some people in the main shopping area are nakahubo. Most are lean and have abs. A few needs to work out more. He he.

Speaking of shopping, I've gotten some done already. :) I'm never gonna shop at Zara at home again. I got a polo and a shirt here at 15 and 9 quid. they'd probably cost somewhere from 50-75% more back at home. The shopping area at downtown Cardiff is pretty okay. Much better than anything in Geneva (not that THAT is a tough standard), and Cardiff castle is in the background! *end ditz commentary*

Funny the people I've bumped into here at the tournament. Peejay Garcia is the coach of South Korea. Wen Qing (remember him William?), is the coach of Singapore. And JJ of La Verne is the coach of the USA. (die of jealousy Maita and Mahar). We had cross training today with Singapore that turned out okay. And we're doing something with the Korean team a little later.

Last bit to blog about before I go, since there is a bit of line here at the internet provided by the university, british food really still truly sucks. They have to a) learn to cook with garlic and b) stop frying things to death. I'm getting quite potatoed, and breaded out.

More later. Wales is great ey, don't get me wrong. There are lots of bikelanes and Bute Park and downtown shopping is not too shabby. Til next update.

World Schools

2006-07-02T21:37:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, will be semi out of commission for the next two weeks. Am flying off with my younger sis to Wales with the Philippine team to the World Schools Debate Championships. This is the World Cup for High School debating. I'm there as a coach/chaperone. It'll be me and 6 high schoolers (2 miriamites, 2 povedans, 2 atenistas).

I bought a Philippine flag today, which we'll use during rounds. We'll put it on our table. If you think this is a little kitschy, shuddup. All teams do this. He he. We also have little pins of the Phil flag which we can put on our shirts.

Like the World Cup, we have an idea of our draw already. We are facing the following teams:

Montenegro (newly independent!), Lesotho, South Africa, Scotland, Wales, Peru, Lithuania and Germany.

there are 36 countries competing, and these are the one's which we'll be facing. The top 16 seeds will then face each other in knock-out rounds. Thankfully, we won't have to meet teams like Australia or England but til later.

Wish us luck! I'll still be textable, but can't receive or make phone calls. :)

* * *

Incidentally, the ADS is now in New Zealand. My bro is there. I think this is a first. All 3 of us debating siblings in international tournaments. (*proud*)

Intro to Underwater Hockey

2006-06-15T11:51:00.000+08:00

INTRO days are for people who want to see if underwater hockey is for them. Can't hurt to try, and it's loads of fun anyway. :)

No regrets eventually joining the school! You'll feel like a dolphin. :)

* * *

Guys and girls,

INTRO TO UNDERWATER HOCKEY
Sponsored by the Philippine Underwater Hockey Confederation
La Salle Greenhills swimming pool
Two dates to choose from:
- June 24, 2006 (Saturday), 1-4pm
- July 1, 2006 (Saturday), 1-4pm

*Instruction and use of equipment are absolutely free!
Just bring your swimsuit and PhP150 for pool fees.

If you have your own/borrowed diving mask, snorkel and fins,
grab them and you’re good to go!
Gear Loan available upon request (specify shoe/fins size).

Definitely a unique and exciting new experience!
For reservations and inquiries, please call/txt/e-mail fabian.mangahas@gmail.com / 0918-4299166.

See you underwater!

“It's a sport like no other. Practically the whole game is underwater! It’s unique, fun, challenging and it’s all about team play.”
- Rafa Valdes, 19 years old, college student and Ultimate Frisbee player

“It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, old or young, fat or thin, tall or short, swimmer or non-swimmer. You can still play as good as anyone else.”
- Chari Ongyanco, 28 years old, 5-foot-tall tri-athlete and mountaineer

“I love the water… With underwater hockey, I get to have fun and keep fit at the same time.”
- Roland Mendoza, 38 years old, businessman and water sports aficionado

More on underwater hockey at
www.98dpi.com/puhc
http://www.friendster.com/puhc

House Warming

2006-05-30T00:17:00.000+08:00

The biggest difficulty was deciding who to spend time with. Unlike other family gatherings, I was glad to see most everybody. Classmates and professors from grad school, cousins from down South (ok, just Paranaque, he he), cousins from around the block, feisty titas & lunching ladies, jesuits, and neighbours.

Neighbours. That is such a novelty. My dad was at the neighborhood community center earlier in the day and he remarked that he met more neighbours that morning than he had ever met in 30 years of living at our old home. One of our neighbours is this remarkable lady who said that she enjoyed reading the obituary section of the Economist. When I mentioned that half the time I don't know who they're writing about she countered with "all the more you should read them!". Good point.

One highlight of the day though was the entry of our next door neighbour of Ponds cream fame. Goodness. Luminous and amazing. I usually make jokes to my siblings and cousins and call them "pathetic" for being so star struck, but I do know that I get that way too. I said something quite moronic like, "Hi, I'm Fabian. I'm the son of my father". DOH!

For this family event I was in charge of dessert. This meant some last minute shopping for pistachio ice cream, and a decision to buy a cake. Courtesy of a "tea party" I had attended a few months ago, I had the idea of ordering a Lemon Torte . Out of the many wonderful desserts served during that party, this one stuck out. I also figured it would handle the heat well (though I took more than a few precautions). Needless to say, it was a hit, especially as it was unveiled to Auntie Susan and Mom's classmates in the air-conditioned dining room. It seemed like a special cake for them only. They were the best audience really. Pristine white lemon torte cake on white table cloth and white plates and silver. It all worked out. I was knighted a 'foodie'. "Nigella Lawson is quite sensual." "Where did you buy this?" Ha ha. That's the kind of question you love titas to ask you.

Only little hitch was when a strong downpour came and we had our old problem of leaks on the 2nd floor. We had to drill holes to prevent the dreaded pooling that devastated Kel's room just the weekend previous. A few guests over stayed a bit, but it's all good. Good time to share things with people.

* * *

Prior to this family thing, I wanted two things to happen. I wanted us to remember well where we came from, and I wanted people excited for the future. Not much of the former, enough of the latter. One of two ain't bad. It's a changing different time.

Anilao

2006-05-21T21:51:00.000+08:00

Just returned from Anilao, a little burnt and tired. Quite a good trip though. Arranged this trip primarily for cousin Johanna who wanted to get some mileage in as a newly certified diver. Thought she got her moneys worth: overnight stay + gear rental + good food + 7 dives(!) = around $90 US. Diving in the Philippines is really a steal.

We stayed at Planet Dive , which was a no-brainer coz that place has always been reliable and comfortable. Just a bit of a chore to get too 'coz of the rough roads, but well worth it.

Finally had the excuse to do a discovery dive, something that took two years to do. Perhaps thanks to being in the water more this year, that whole bit went without a hitch. No problems equalizing, and all the colorful fishies to see. Our divemaster Carl was cool, and helped Martha out well when she was having trouble with her mask and tank. Being underwater is just about being 'chill' as Gica would put it. Feeding fish and watching the aquarium movie. Evenings spent some time with J just looking at books about molluscs, echinoderms, fish, coral, etc.

Rest of the time, when not enjoying PD's yummy meals (kilawin and seafood curry, pare), we just went island hopping and snorkeling. More fishies. More coral. Last bit was just working on some snorkeling skills 'coz people were tired of going to other places.

Could I imagine getting certified 2006? Perhaps. I think it's just a matter of time really. Money and Motivation shouldn't be big problems. I think I need a dive buddy for this one, someone besides all my other friends who already got their c-cards.

Finally, some color on my skin!

my so-called suburban life

2006-05-14T22:01:00.000+08:00

Have been living, comfortably, in LGV the past two weeks and things are going well. This is fortunate because I am able to temporarily distract myself with whatever dissatisfactions I've been getting in my professional life. Thankfully, we have quickly moved into a civilized existence here. We've got cable, phone lines, and internet. The first few days, I semi-felt (though not regrettably), that I was far away from everything, what compounded by that fact that we are in the further reaches of LGV. That has its own charms, but i digress. Now, that I'm plugged in, things are more comfortable again. :)

Airconditioning and Internet. Very important.

My room is shaping up! All you guys who I've bugged about advice, thanks. The room isn't complete yet, and it 'never will be" (haha). BUT, as Mahar will probably be glad to hear, I have lost the urge to hang-out in my siblings rooms. The minimum livable-ness quotient has been breached, and I could even legitimately claim that there is some sort of atmosphere in the room. Bob's framer did a decent job on this poster, and the color choice of the walls really worked out. Still would like to add other comforts in the room, but won't put that all down here, coz then that'll just be Queenie McBear braggy.

Living in a subdivision is a new thing for me, and, I find myself wondering if some family members realize how they're being sucked into the alternate reality that comes from living in a gated neighborhood (and in a pretty paranoid, though not without reason, gated neighborhood at that). Askals are not allowed/frowned upon here. So I still feel a little pang of guilt that we had to leave our askal dogs back in our old place with the tenants. The names of our dogs were Mommy Dog (coz she's a prolific puppy-bearing dog), and Zorro. Now, we have a mixed retriever that was gifted to Kel. His name is Nash (yes, Phoenix Nash), and he actually now sits when we tell him to. I know, how sub-urbia right. Hilarious. Our manang now speaks to our dog in English. "Come here, Nash!" Oh no, not you too.

We did a very sub-urbianny thing this afternoon. Pop bought bikes. Two bikes on the cheap, bought in Marikina (our backdoor). They look nice enough, but of course would never stand up for a real road test IMHO, much less for a triathlon. But, during early mornings I guess I'll be able to get around the neighborhood with less hassle. Really, this neighborhood is so Pro-Car already it's kinda gross. People can scarcely commute to this place (unlike our old house near Banawe and Quezon Ave.) If you take a cab home, you kinda feel you have to tip big, coz he really is 10 minutes into a neighborhood where his chances of getting a passenger are slim-to-none.

The end of the summer is just gonna speed along. I know it. Ateneo is hosting the Asian Universities Debating Championships. They're gunning for the 5th win in a row. Inside tsismis for debaters: I heard ICU made semis in rival tourney Asians. That's something huh? he he.

My cousins from the US are also coming over, partially to celebrate the 90th birthday of my recently passed Grandmo. It's Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day Grandmo! It's the first holiday I think that we won't be placing a call for her. No kwento about what their ulam and celebration is gonna be. We should play mah-jong (her game).

Drop me a line guys, I miss a lot of you guys. til next entry

bye bye old house

2006-05-01T11:23:00.000+08:00

Gica and I passed by P. Florentino yesterday afternoon for a last minute clearing out of things that would then be transferred to Nova Scotia (street). Macy did a good job in moving things out though, since there was scarcely anything left for Gica and I to cart away, just a few stray musical score books that were gathering dust in a bodega.

Our old house has been transformed! We even have some photos as "evidenciary support". Our front door now has mini-Chinese lions on either side to welcome guests about to walk in. The foyer had all these religious figurines (ready for installation), and fake plastic flowers everywhere. Our patio has the orange fall-effect fake potted plants. What's with our tenants and the penchant for artificial foliage?

Upstairs, my parents room were painted deep pink. I'm glad actually coz it gave the room a better look. It looked much less sorry than the mess we had left it in from last week. It gave me the feeling that some Chinese spirits are gonna move into this house. My old room is now the temporary storage area for the new tenants things. There are multi-colored balls, for luck I assume, in a basket in my room. lovely.

* * *

Further up north, it has been moving in and decorating time at the new house. lots of problems/issues to deal with, which is why I've been neglecting this spot somewhat (and also because our house is very un-civilized in that there is no internet connection there! awful). the landscaping needs work, but our rooms are coming along. Megamall is a new friend coz we get stuff from Our Home to spruce the place up. you guys should check out my new room. i can imagine now burrowing and killing a lot of time in there. Never have I been so organized.

* * *

you guys should drop by for a merienda and chat. it's May, summer's almost over

music

2006-04-19T22:50:00.000+08:00

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

what i do today

2006-04-13T19:40:00.000+08:00

i drank many glasses of cold water today. also cold milo, cold sarsi, and cold iced-tea. the weather is so hot, that you can wear a sando in a coffee shop and it will be ok.

jeans are hot. but be careful if you wear white linen pants. why? because they can be clingy. your underwear and droopy butt might show.

i was pissed. my two Camus books have gone missing. maybe they're in some random movers box and i will not see them for weeks. what will i read now?

I tried reading Girl Meets Boy by Meg Cabot. useless.

the book is entertaining, but the book feel like a computer print-out. everything is either an e-mail, a voice-mail, an IM transcript.

i use the computer the whole day. why are u trying to make books look like computers, ms. cabot?

EVERYTHING HAS TO GO

2006-04-09T18:03:00.000+08:00

Hey, guys, a real resource here we're giving away. We simply do not have space.

If you know people who want these things, tell me right away and tell them to come over and pick them up:

--> Engineering Textbooks (thermodynamic, circuitry, steel and industry, etc.)

--> Daedelus (American Journal of Arts and Sciences). We got a whole bunch of stuff from the 60's and 70's.

If anyone wants them, they'll have to come over and pick em up!

-Fabs

Garden of Elmer Gimmick

2006-04-02T22:37:00.000+08:00

I told myself that I would not do any work this weekend, and that's exactly what happened. With some mountaineering buddies, trooped off to very far away Bulacan to hang out at Elmer's Kubo. Elmer's family runs a landscaping concern and this spot in Bulacan is where they have their nursery of impressive palm trees and koi fish. Would you believe that koi cost 70,000 a fish? I think it's crazy.

Elmer's Kubo isn't really a Kubo in that there's a dining hall area and a kitchen extension. It's more of a chill out house. We arrived Saturday night and watched Keeana Reeves win the finale of Pinoy Big Brother, after which it was pigging-out. Ruffles, Doritos and Onion Dip, pancit malabon, lechon manok, dark chocolate, asti, beer and red wine. Come to think of it, I think it's pretty amazing that I didn't get a stomach ache. I think it was coz I was mentally prepared for this one. Chatted til 5:30 in the morning. Running joke of the evening was that if you want a girl to fall madly in love with you, forget about giving flowers or chocolates. You should volunteer to clean her refrigerator. Spoken by a friend based on real-life experience.

After breakfast (at 930, yeah we woke up then), it was just more hanging around reading magazines till the trip home. The original plan was for some of us to go biking the morning to Subic from Bulacan (yeah right, diba). We passed by Razon's on McArthur Highway and they really have very soft and tasty puto (though im not into the butter brand topping), and a super yummy halo-halo which they're famous for.

The 45 peso concoction contains only a few ingredients but I think that that is the secret to its tastiness (ice, lecheflan, evaporated milk, macapuno, and a little banana). The whole thing is positive drowned in evaporated milk, I suspect, so that's why its so tasty. And it's just 45 bucks! If one goes to Bulacan you got to pass by here and get your halo-halo. It was particularly great coz the afternoon was so hot.

It was baboy weekend. I was allowed though, 'coz 1) it was yummy and fun and I deserved it, and 2) I'm practically gonna swim everyday this week! That's part of the reason exercising is fun. . .

summer

2006-04-01T11:24:00.000+08:00

The blog has a new look, thanks Maf.

What is odd though is that I don't bike, though I have a bunch of friends who keep on bugging me to do so. I have a bike helmet just over a year old gathering some dust in a drawer.

Every other verb on the site description, I do: these days biased towards swimming and reading. I haven't climbed a mountain since late October.

Summer is on everyone's mind these days. School is out, and the holy week is approaching. Since our family is moving out to a new place this April, there are no grand productions / major outings lined up. We'd all be presumably too busy (and out of disposable cash!) to do any of those. There have been some invitations to go to beaches nearby, but I've got this slight aversion now to just pile into a car and take off to the nearest nature spot (whether beach, mountain, or forest).

No matter how careful you are, as an eco-tourist, you're gonna be making a dent on these environments. Environments are not destroyed just by loggers with chainsaws. They're also affected by people who bake in the sun while ordering their fruit shakes. Mind you, I've got nothing (much) against this type of consumption, 'coz I've done that sort of thing myself. But if you're going to be heading out this summer and going to Bora(cay), Bohol, Palawan, wherever, you got to realize the impact you make.

I've told myself that if ever I go to a mountain this summer, I want it to be in the context of a clean-up climb. Same thing if I visit a beach or a dive spot. Since, inevitably, I'll be "leaving a trace", I want to already give something back, if only to achieve balance in this place that I'm visiting. A tourist/traveller is a powerful thing.

There's a big brother / big sister climb coming up some time this summer, and I'm thinking of doing this again. I did this last year, and essentially climbers go to remote communities (in the mountains) to give them some books and school supplies. It's nice if you're a mountaineer to do this. This is your small niche in helping out education in the country. But people who aren't into climbing can also join in. Some of the people who tried this out for the first time ended up taking BMC (Basic Mountaineering Courses) the rest of the year. This year, there's a climb May 13-14 in Abra. I will put in more information about this project the succeeding weeks.

It's April 1. That means it's Jess Lopez's birthday. He'll be topping the bar in a few years like Len and Joan? Stranger things have happened. He he.

Things to do this Summer

2006-03-22T14:32:00.000+08:00

Hi. Are you guys feeling that your brains are rotting from too much work in the office? Do you yearn for some sort of stimulation, whether intellectual, physical, or social? Then perhaps you should try one of the activities listed below. The information has all come to me at the same time, and I'm lumping them all together.

1. Critical Social Theory Group

a gathering of individuals who will read texts and talk about social theory. suggested first text will be paulo virilio's ground zero. gatherings will start mid-April. generally open to all interested individuals. the group is informally based in Ateneo. to sign up in the mailing list, head for badrabbit.blogspot.com

2. Underwater Hockey

for the underwater hockey blurb, I'll just paste the SMS that a friend forwarded to me. i've tried intro last year, and it's quite fun, especially if you like water and competition. more formal hockey school starts sometime mid-April as well.

* * *

Hey, wanna try UNDERWATER HOCKEY? Sign up for ur FREE INTRO on Mar 25 or Apr 1 at Ultra 1-4 pm. Just pay pool fee P150. Limited Slots only. Reserve now! Call/Txt Nikki: 0917-8902330. Xtreme fun guaranteed! :)

* * *

3. Groupe de Conversation en Français

Avril 8, brunch, La Vista, environ 1030.
un petit groupe de personnes qui veulent pratiquer et ameliorer le Français, avec la connaissance au moins du Français de base. :) E-mail si vous êtes intéressé

Books to go + New Books!

2006-03-15T11:56:00.000+08:00

Friends,

I know a few of you like books. Since we are preparing to move to a new house this summer, a lot of our old books, some in storage, have come to see the light of day. We have too many of them; we have to get rid of some.

Here are a (partial) list of books that I'm giving away. Some of them are pretty good. Just contact me if you're interested.

C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle (1970 edition)
Peasants and Peasant Societies - Teodor Shanin, ed. (Penguin Modern Sociology Readings)
Signs and Meaning in the Cinema - Peter Wollen*
The Speculative Philosophers - Commins, Linscott, ed.
The Political Philosophers - Commins, Linscott, ed. *
More than Conquerors - Edilberto K. Tiempo
Selected Stories of Lu Hsun*
Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited - Aldous Huxley*
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway*
Haircut and Other Stories - Ring Lardner

I also have a few of my Grandfather's old issues of the National Gardener

edited to add:

The Christmas Mystery - Jostein Gaarder*
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power - Nicholas Kristof & Sherly Wudunn

new books:
Now You see it, now you don't! Lessons in sleight of hand - Bill Tarr
The State of the World's Children 1995 - UNICEF
Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps - Bruce Pandolfini
The Home and the World - Rabindranath Tagore*
Guide to Better Bowling - Chuck Pezanno
The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus
How to Win Chess Games Quickly - Fred Reinfeld
An Outline of American Literature - USAID pamphlet
An Outline of American History - USAID pamphlet (well, more of a book)
A Book of Angels - Sophy Burnham
God's Country and Mine - Jacques Barzun
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other Story - Ernest Hemingway (Bob, you can have first dibs on this one)
The Oresteian Trilogy - Aeschylus
The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling*
Interior Design with Feng Shui - Sarah Rossbach (paperback)
The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain
A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Books - Charles Dickens
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
Questions and Answers on Bringing Up Children - Emma R. Tan
Making Effective Presentations - Robert B. Nelson & Jennifer Wallick
Discovering the Enneagram - Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert
Love Song - Andrew M. Greeley (hardbound)
The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino
Webster's New World Thesaurus
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (de-faced copy)*
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift*
The Chamber - John Grisham
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Dubliners - James Joyce*
Doctor Dolittle In the Moon - Hugh Lofting*
The Fit-or-Fat Target Diet - Covert Bailey
Bowling - Martin/Tandy/Agne-Traub
Public Speaking for College Students - Lionel Crocker
Literature 2 Selections - Ateneo High School (1994)
Your Book of Secret Writing - Geoffrey Lamb
The Pearl - John Steinbeck
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
The Inferno - Dante*
The Purgatorio - Dante*
The Paradiso - Dante*

* someone asked for them already

new rule! :)
if you're gonna request for these books, and I don't normally hang out with you, you have to be willing to pick 'em up in a week in any of my "territories". Starbucks Katipunan / Coffee Bean Eastwood / Coffee Bean Salcedo

"If you can't change the way Manila looks, change the way you look at Manila"

2006-03-13T14:49:00.000+08:00

I spent this Sunday afternoon getting lucky at Lori Baltazar's "tea party" in Malate. Quotations because what occured was more of a cake party, and not just a cake party, but a serious cake party for lovers of sugar, cream and chocolate, of which, I have come to discover, I am simply a rank amateur.

How can you not be overwhelmed with 12 or so cakes there for the taking? Some were very good, some were exquisite, all quite rich. We're talking a banana cream pie, a carrot cake, a strawberry shortcake, mango torte, this nut pie contraption, lemon torte, cheesecake, caramel cake, chocolate xanadu, strawberry short cake, blueberry and strawberry cheesecake, white chocolate cake, and a triple hazelnut mousse.

It was crazy. The cakes were served in two batches to avoid impacho (sp?) as Carlos said, but there was still an audible (yet happy?) groan when it was announced that the 2nd batch of cakes had arrived. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies. Damn good.

My assessment of the cakes probably was colored though by the heat that was permeating throughout the Living Room. I think some of the other creations would have tasted better in a chillier setting. e.g. the chocolate xanadu. But given the circumstances, the winning cakes for me were the lemon torte and the triple hazelnut mousse, the latter being made with Gianduja chocolate.

Part of the event was a cake raffle, where I parlayed a mango torte I won into a triple hazelnut mousse. I had tasted this mango torte last Christmas and wasn't too excited about it. Thanks to a friend's extra raffle ticket, I also won a framed photograph of Panna Cotta (sp?). [I'll spell check all these terms ASAP, sorry].

Will try to get some interesting photos of the event. In the meantime, lots of info about the event and the features desserts at Lori's blog: dessertcomesfirst.blogspot.com

life update # whatever

2006-03-09T16:10:00.000+08:00

ugh. it's afternoon as i type this and i think im paying for last night's episode of temporary gluttinous (sp?) insanity. i wolfed down some chocolate chips and mixed junk food. i think it was just my brain asking for calories.

had the HSBC assessment center bit yesterday, and i thought it turned out ok. i should be getting a call from them by the end of this week, and hopefully the response is going to be a positive one. i find myself leaning towards entering into a position in this company, among various reasons is that they seem to know best who i am and what i am capable of. that can only bode well for me receiving the proper kind of work that won't keep my unhappy. what helps is that friends who work for this company actually have LIVES despite being compensated well. this is a pretty good deal i think. oh yes, their CEO is also a triathlon nut. company culture should be compatible enough.

other things happening include the ateneo aquathlon finally taking place last sunday. just a little hairy and hectic during the morning registration, but over all something that turned out ok. the medal ceremony was nice. the overall winners were teenagers from laguna. nice to imagine that they'll be doing well and great in the future. glad this project is finally OVER. stress for sure. but it taught me a lot of things, and will help in the way that i manage and implement projects in the future.

bob and i have been working on our amazing race video. it's full of hot air. sent a few clips of our work off to len and jojo and they could only say, "yabaaaang". ha ha. well, that's gonna be our little differentiating tactic. we can't be as fun, perky and adventurous as other people, but it won't be easy to top us in terms of sheer arrogance and self-assured smugness. he he. it's an act, folks. though we do loove ourselves. hopefully bob figures out how to do all the editing soon.

what more is there to report? well, a little disappointment that brokeback didn't win. and the political noise going around the internet, "middle class" folks sending around all sorts of e-mails. valid points some of them, some pretty silly points in others. all quite loud, angry, and intolerant of viewpoints other than theirs. kinda shows that they dont think much actually, the fact that everything is black, white and nothing is concilliatory. well being simplistic is always the easy way. i haven't wired my brain yet to think that way about certain things. least of all political, economic issues.

am looking forward to the weekend! bob's b-day AND i get to attend a tea-party w/ lots of cake Sunday. hope ur weeks are turning out good.

talking about myself, about my weekend, Jack Nasty

2006-02-26T23:27:00.000+08:00

I did some closet cleaning this weekend. This is in preparation for our big move to LGV some time mid-April. You should see my room these days. It's never been this functional and organized. A little ironic, now that I'm leaving this place in less than 2 months.

I had Saturday and Sunday sessions trying things on and marching towards the mirror on the landing to assess how wearable said garment was, and also getting a 2nd opinion from Gica about how the whole thing looks. Funny, huh. Anyway, she knows what she likes but I got to say that she has some odd notions about what is not wearable but actually is. Maybe she's just a tad spoiled that way. Maybe.

So now I've got an organized closet, and know exactly what I'm missing and what I need to get. Managed to fill in that hole with a little shopping this weekend. I actually spent money I earned myself to buy these clothes. I realize that I can get addicted to this. It's fun. I must have tried out 10 pieces in one store. I knew something was going on outside and that things were getting chaotic. I felt mildly guilty, but that disappeared soon enough. I decided to watch Memoirs of a Geisha, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

* * *

I don't speak or think too deeply. I let some of my ranting friends do that. I'd just rather watch and let things play out, especially when truth and facts are so gray now.

* * *

I was reading a few old letters this evening which is what I do when I want to revisit myself. Realized that I was kinda pikon in high school, and really something of a dweeb, esp. to people who didn't know me. I present facades for people, that's for sure. I want them to get to know a certain part of me, as a matter of survival it might have started, and maybe morphed into a matter of habit or a matter of getting what I want. Is it deception if I never pretended to be something I wasn't, but merely hi-lighted certain aspects of myself?

* * *

tang-ina bitin naman yung Oprah Prime Time tonight. Nice interviews though.

2nd Ateneo Aquathlon - 1st Leg 2006 Speedo Aquathlon Series - 5th March

2006-02-20T10:48:00.000+08:00

Triathletes, Mountaineers, Swimmers, Runners, Weekend Warriors, Lovers, Fighters, Friends:

Am helping organize an aquathlon! It'll be a fun, sporty (& competitive if you so choose) atmosphere at Ateneo this March 5! This is brought to you by the Loyola Mountaineers and Speedo with the help of TRAP (Triathlon Association of the Philippines)

Official ITU distance of 2.5km run - 1km swim - 2.5km run

Race Fee : 400 pesos til 2nd March
(includes Speedo Swim Cap + Speedo shirt)

500 pesos for 3rd-4th March

800 pesos on Race Day

Masaya 'to! Cool day in the lovely Ateneo Campus. He he.

If you guys are interested send me an e-mail, comment, SMS and I'll send you a registration form with payment details. :)

end of an era

2006-02-13T11:35:00.000+08:00

I didnt expect that my whole weekend (including friday night) was gonna be gobbled up by debate tryouts. Thought I'd pop in at strategic times, but I actually saw practically every debate on this one. For those of you who are interested, and I know there are at least a few, the contingent line up is as follows:

[names in ranking order]

Ateneo 1: Leloy, Sharmila, Charisse

Ateneo 2: Glenn, Mahar, Miko

Ateneo 3: DS, Kip, Allan

Ateneo 4: Czarina, Cris, Danni

Ateneo 5: Adrian, Pat H, Franz

Ateneo 6: Faith, Bev, Dan L

Ateneo 7(?): Steph Poon, X, Y

Judges: Steph Co, James

Too bad Kellda's dream to be on the other side of a snakepit didn't materialize. Closest was the final slot for Team 2.

since this contingent is for CSB IVs (aka Ombudsman debates), IIDC (Inquirer interschool) and AUDC (asian universities), this will be the last tryout for a few months, and probably the last tryout in this house (we're moving in a couple of months).

It probably will also be the last tryout that I'll be attending, or at least attending this fully. Bob sounded out a theme earlier in the weekend: What the hell am i doing here? and I had ask mysef that as well.

Tryouts has a functional role, but it's highly social as well, but of course. The pecking order is confirmed or in some cases newly changed and established. Occasionally, alumni in town will be around to gather, and it'll be time to meet up, exchange gossip, and see each other.

I found it comforting yet, also a little bizarre, that soon it might be Gica who'll be in the middle of all this, holding court with all these speakers. In her case though, the physical venue would have changed. P. Florentino, something that could be argued as a debate-houses, with 3 debaters, and countless tryouts would give way to some place else. Maybe our new house? Not unlikely if a few circumstances turn out as they are.

In our little family-view, this all began sometime mid 1995, when I figured that joining the high school debate team would be a fun thing. More than a decade later, here we are.

the devil's right hand

2006-02-06T14:22:00.000+08:00

do you know the despair of never being able to watch a movie for the first time, again? maybe you watched brokeback mountain saturday afternoon, like i did. this plus the news friday night of my grandmother's death from a lingering battle against cancer made for a messed up weekend.

saturday afternoon and evening, spent some time with bob discussing and threshing out the more poignant parts of the movie, so i won't go at length talking about that here. what i will say is that Ang Lee has given me the kind of heartache that is reserved for adolescents in high school. odd moments during the day (And in the middle of parties), i'm thinking about the movie. . .

you can't watch a movie for the first time, more than once. so i do other things. have been listening to the score of Gustavo Santaolalla when i can, and reading more annie proulx short stories. when i told gica last xmas that her choice of giving me Bad Dirt was a jackpot choice, i didn't realize how prescient i was being at the time.

so i read wyoming stories with the Gustavo guitar score. take note of the silences between the notes . . .

also find myself groovin to country music tracks, who would have guessed. Willie Nelson in the house.

* * *

tend to avoid reviews, the making of, specials, interviews about the movie unless the primary source is involved. maybe if heath is talking to Parkinson or if Jake is in the Actor's Studio. NPR Radio has a good piece on Gustavo in its archive. Not interested in Jay Leno / Entertainment Tonight bullshit. Much less movie reviews. Why? 'coz if someone gets it wrong, some dumbass comment, i just might hurl a brick at the tv set.

lookin forward to the 5th/morning of the 6th March, Oscar Awards. best film, best director, and best original score my bets

Roger Federer, Marcos Baghdatis, the great sport of tennis

2006-01-29T16:24:00.000+08:00

The past two years, as I've gotten more into sports, one element that I've been confident in possessing was a different type of mental will. I felt that I could outperform, outlast and defeat opponents because of a mental will that would not let me down. This is what has brought me up 10 mountains, has made me (me?!? me!) join adventure races, and even make a fool of myself (just a little) on international cable tv.

so it's a joy to behold, someone, who is the epitome of a person who controls and disciplines his mind in such a superior fashion. This I saw in tonight's grand slam final between the great mental man in person, Roger Federer, against the refreshing presence of Marcos Bagdatis --- who in more ways than one, is a true twenty year old, but I'll get to that portion later.

The score doesn't tell you much, so if you hope to be able to analyze the match by looking at a 5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2, you won't even get a shadow of what really occured.

5-7 and 5-5, we had Marcos relentlessly testing Federer. Federer was struggling to hold serve at times, and I wondered what the hell was with the easy errors Fed was committing. Baghdatis played many brilliant points, and at a certain point could have even been up two breaks on that very set. But this is when the turning point came where Roger staves off a forceful attack on his serve and managed to hold to 6-5. He then wins the next 10 games.

Baghdatis goes off the boil, loses momentum in the 3rd set. That much is evident with the 6-0 score. It's a 6-2 score in the final set, but there was a lot of drama here. 3-0 we see Marcos falling from a cramp. Dang he's got a friggin cramp. I was hoping he'd come back.

The cramp doesn't visibly show in the next games, but it's obvious that Marcos doesn't move as well. His ability to return the impossible balls starts to wane. This is a spent Baghdatis, mentally and physically drained. There was valiant stand at 4-2 though. Very close he could have broken Fed, which would have put him on serve. Doesn't happen. The precocious kid from Cyprus, the most fun thing from the last 2 weeks, has run out of gas. Later, during the awarding ceremony, he recovers his usual persona: smiling, goofy, loving life. For now, it's the pain of impending defeat.

* * *

Always always always watch the awarding ceremonies of Grand Slam Finals. This is where all the drama occurs, and where you fall in love (or in hate, e.g. Hingis' occasionally icky speeches) with your tennis players. Baghdatis comes up and is happy to be there. This is a big win for him, for his family, for friggin cyprus. His heart shines through. All through the two weeks he's wore his heart on his sleeve and he has been pounding his chest. Yeah, all heart. Like a typical young person, he forgets to say a few things. Only later, with the help of the commentator, does he make amends when the MC says that Marcos wants to insert that he also congratulates Federer for his win (he forgot that), and also that he much appreciates the presence of his girlfriend Camille, for the last two weeks. YOU FORGOT TO GREET YOUR GIRL YOU DORK!!!! Bwahahahaha. Ok, lang. Ha ha. He's 20! But man, did you see that beard? These Cypriots really. . .wait, I digress.

Back to the Drama. Oh, yes. Roger Federer. All the while, all these two weeks, he's been MR COOL. Tennis Australia head calls him a King, and I think, well, Federer is awfully used to all these compliments. I wonder what it means to him all now? Does the dam ever break? IT DOES. He's given his trophy by the great Rod Laver. Rod Laver, non-Tennis fans, is the ONLY person to have completed a grandslam (win Australian, French, Wimbledon and US), twice. This was 1962 and 1969. After receiving his trophy from Rod, he goes to the mic and is speechless. "I don't know what to say," Roger says. A few more seconds pass and he starts crying.

He finally let's his guard down, and it "all is coming out now", he admits to the entire crowd. He thanks Marcos, Marcos' team, his team, the audience, tennis australia, the sponsors, everybody who watches. And finally he thanks the great Rod Laver. Thanking Rod Laver brings him to tears again. He can't help but give Rod a hug after stepping down from the microphone.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images, taken from AustralianOpen.com website.
* * *

I thought the glistening eyes of Mauresmo last night as she finally won her first grandslam was gonna be the most poignant image stuck for me from this year's Aussie Open. Turns out it's a far second to Roger Federer's emotionality. With three in a row now, he'll be gunning for the French. Baghdatis is the new fun face of Men's tennis. Tennis in 2006 looks promising.

2006-01-26T18:22:00.000+08:00

am actually enjoying my part-time job, mostly due to the interaction that i get with French people. Occasionally, I even have to employ my French language skills to get something productive done. I'd say that the language environment here is 10-15% French and 85-90% English. That small percentage is more stimulation in this language than i've had in a long time.

What I didn't expect though is that I'd be dealing with people who would talk about other topics like economics, finance and art, so I find myself boning up also on these issues (in both languages). The dreariest part (and thankfull shortest) is evaluating language levels of leaners, but after that is done with, I find myself engaging in intelligent conversations. If I happen get to a low-level learner, then I get to do translation work and also occasionally speak in French.

As with all office environments, there are a few things to get peevish about. But why grouse about that? Actually, office grousing and griping CAN be fun. Just don't do it with your co-workers. Ha ha. I find it hilarious when I see people getting political. . .ooh, oh so early, I hear office tsismis.

I haven't gone swimming in a week, partially due to an allergy. Dang.

weekend richness

2006-01-22T23:17:00.000+08:00

my weekends are always good, coz i don't do any work (even if i have to). i think i've been this way since forever. my dad's birthday is tomorrow, so we did our celebrating today already. we ended up eating rich food at banana leaf in podium, and then headed to cafe breton afterwards. now i feel like getting up at 5 in the morning tomorrow to meditate and do yoga before a breakfast of gemeincha green tea and porridge. yeah, that bad.

i've brought in an arm-chair sofa into my room coz we had a superfluous one in my dad's room. now it's my favorite place to read and take phone calls. i don't know why i didn't think of this sooner. this surge of practicality came about 'coz of the progress the house construction has taken so far. we visited the site and the top floor has been primed white. the doors are on! unvarnished and all, but on nevertheless. we're waiting for the windows now. little by little, as the weeks go by, im beginning to absorb the spatial sensibility of this place. the outside world sure comes in. there's gonna be light everywhere -- only concern is all the chi getting out.

tomorrow is the beginning of the week.

resembling my photo

2006-01-20T16:07:00.000+08:00

am actually beginning to resemble my b&w high contrast photo these days. I feel so pale as a result of going to part-time work in a refrigerator environment (the later in the afternoon it gets, the colder i become) and the bleaching that comes from being dipped in chlorinated water 3x a week. the last straw will be my hair getting even more white hair strands.

i'm changing yet again. i find myself becoming so conventional. is this what 20 somethings inevitably become?

2006-01-16T21:05:00.000+08:00

I skipped my swim tonight at MSC because I've had enough of Makati for one day. It was the odd bureaucracy of a firm that would not give me an offer and yet is already having me fill out forms for the BIR and for opening a bank account. Well, that's a little presumptuous of them I think.

The retarded road logic of that city is appalling. Whoever heard of a major avenue suddenly becoming oneway at the daytime? AND w/ warning roadsigns at very poor locations (i.e. right at the point where the one way system begins)! Yes, I'm talking about Makati avenue, and having to turn into P. Burgos. All that Makati avenue traffic has to enter little P. Burgos.

I imagine all the Makati denizens snickering because of my naivete about the city. The city is relatively progressive, but it's psycho. I've told myself that when I move out, I'm not going to locate in Makati. I'm gonna get something at the Fort. I need a place that'll rejuvenate me, and not some place that'll piss me off. If one lives in a state where logic and sensibility are absent, you end up becoming semi-psycho yourself.

2006-01-11T14:51:00.000+08:00

some so-called intelligent people quickly turn into irrational beings once their egos have been pricked. i've had the misfortune of being blasted by (imo) an insecure twat. please give it a rest. u bring out ur guns, i call your bluff.

i asked (coach) Ria who was the new addition to the swim class yesterday. There were only three of us in the pool, so it was easy to spot that someone new had come. I heard Via, but was later corrected that it was actually Pia, and not just any Pia, but our Senator Pia Pia Pia Cayetano. Yeehaw. She was consulting with Ria about her training and the way she felt in the pool. One thing I notice is that she "cerebralizes" sports, too! Thinking out feelings and intuition, etc. :) I have a celeb classmate.

im doing work errands: medical certificate, getting my diploma, and getting NBI Clearance. I was supposed to get the latter this afternoon, but I saw the gross line at City Hall. I'm not gonna stand in that packed and stifling heat. Ugh. I'll come back one morning and try to get it. Am I maarte? A little.

Started reading Annie Proulx's short stories book: Wyoming Stories. Pretty good stuff.

2006-01-09T12:21:00.000+08:00

one week into the new year, and things aren't looking that bad. i just came from another one of those time-pressure tests that corporations like to give you to gauge your abilities. am a little pissed off coz i didn't finish the quantitative portion of the test (w/c i normally do). i will be placing a call at around 330 for the results. hope it works out.

ive gone swimming this first week. that's the main constant thing for me this 2006. i've got a swim coach that makes me swim laps and corrects my technique. it's pretty empowering to get your body to do things that you never do. i'm trying to get my technique perfect, so that i feel the most comfortable and relaxed in the water. i feel that what im going through actually is more of a transition phase 'coz doing the right things still don't feel completely natural. am trying to get to natural .

i've nothing else left to do today. i've got a book here that needs finishing. i can also always try to do some marketing that im supposed to do for a concert. but am just not into it just right now. for one thing, i'd need a ready phone. i'm here at an internet cafe, in a nice mall yes, but w/ no dedicated phone line. im not gonna waste my credits making cold calls. yeah, im cheap.

hmmm. why is "I'll never love this way again" piping in from outside. I thought this was a posh mall.

it's an incoherent post, so shut up

2006-01-01T19:47:00.000+08:00

My brother and sister are groaning that the holiday season is ending. Schools starts for them this Wednesday, Jan 4, which also happens to be my bro's birthday. (Poor him, his celebration always comes when people are stopping the celebrating).

I'm not sorry that the holiday season is ending.

This isn't Ebeneezer Scrooge talking. I actually really enjoyed this holiday season. So far, I've had great parties and dinners with friends and had also taken a good trip to Ilocos in between Xmas and New Year. I got some cool Xmas gifts (jackpot Gica on the annie proulx!)

So why am I glad that it's ending? Coz there's a joy and energy that comes from getting back to work. I'm looking forward to not eating fatty meats and cheese, nor ensaimadas and hot chocolate, to glasses of wine and champagne. Come on. They're tasty but do you want them all the time? And the wreckage that is your body afterwards. Those bastards who talk about holiday will power -- I already am showing will power! Could you imagine though if ur the prick who won't toast in the new year with your alcohol? And of course, once you get started, well the ball keeps on rolling.

I'm looking forward to my gym being open again, to my swimming lessons restarting, to my job applications again being processed. I'm looking forward to semi-normal traffic, and people temporarily halting the spending and returning to producing. An economy needs consumption, but also investment and production. I wonder what percentage of our spending is bunched up during the 4th Quarter and how this affects things.

So I don't dread Jan 2. I'm thinking, thank God. No more holidays ok until Holy Week.

Maf!! My new layout! I think I'm gonna have to pay you, even though you say you don't charge.

There will be no problem looking for material to update my blog with the next few weeks. I've got enough stuff from Ilocos and books over Xmas. What I need now is to go on a climb! :) There's a clean up climb in Maculot on the 7th of Jan. God, this reminds me that I'm gonna have to fix my sports calendar of sorts.

more later. hope 2006 is cool for all of you.

it's world cup time again!!!!!

Are you really blogging on Christmas Eve?!?

2005-12-24T21:57:00.000+08:00

Yeah, why not? One has to kill time before opening the presents. ;)

All done with noche buena which was relleno, shrimps, potato salad, green salad, two kinds of gravy, apples, grapes, bread, three kinds of cheese, pecan pie, apple pie and champagne. i tried everything. so guess who's on heifer mode.

The barrage of SMS xmas greetings have started coming in and I want to share with you guys my favorite one so far, though it seems more like a new year's one than a xmas one:

"Thank you for another fantastic year with you guys. May we all achieve greater heights, find happines in our everyday life, and continue to strive for perfection, joy and peace in Christ. Another outdoor adventure next year! Merry Christmas. "

This one's courtesy of Elmer. Yeah, I know. Did he actually come up with this one himself?!? He he. Jk.

What are Pinoys looking forward to eat this Xmas?

2005-12-23T16:55:00.000+08:00

I got this graphic from the Social Weather Stations website. They are results of a survey questioning what Pinoys are most looking forward to eat this Xmas. And the winner is, surprise surprise, ham! Taken as a whole, it's ham that we pinoys want to eat. Taken separately, Visayans #1 food anticipation is desserts. But Ham is a close 2nd among Visayans. Dessert foodie concentration just might be quite high in Cebu. People in Mindanao don't seem to care much for Ham. They want Lechon Baboy

Ham is the #1 food anticipation across all classes, except class E. They're mostly anticipating "Other Chicken Dishes".

Funnily enough, the rating of ham's traditional accompaniment, keso de bola is quite low.

week reversals

2005-12-23T12:21:00.000+08:00

the christmas season has turned my gimmick habits on its head. i spent Friday night to Sunday afternoon veging at home, and since then i've been heading off to all sorts of weekday night social activities. the pain of weekenders doing their xmas shopping is enough to turn me off from any travel. today should be hellish, since it is the last working day before xmas. those banks should be packed.

finally was able to meet up with Premila last night. spent much time looking through her 700 picture collection of Nepali/Tibetan men working in and around Camden. Prem's got this funny all male barkada in London as her network. I couldn't keep track anymore of who was from what tribe or what, or who was part Belgian or part whatever. Jason was a welcome addition later on, and we played a little classic MSK* while finishing up our cans of beer. (Apparently, I'm the beer light-weight)

tonight is the final stretch. most of the gifts have been bought. there's just a xmas concert to attend to, two dinners, a wild party (?), before the calm of the 24th and hieing off to Ilocos

we can help out

2005-12-20T03:35:00.000+08:00

there's been a lot of rain down south in Oriental Mindoro, Palawan. so we're talking of floods and displaced people here. xmas is around the corner. let's help make people greet the 25th with more ease and less worry.

got this text tonight:

Ateneo Task Force Noah: Calling on volunteers for Mindoro Floods Relief Operations. Star at 5 pm dec 20 tuesday at the Eliazo Hall Basement. Contact Bobby Guevara / Michelle Juan at 09209225674 for more info. Thank you.

Compilation Lists

2005-12-17T23:01:00.000+08:00

A lot of people can be quite anal about organizing their record collection -- ordering it by genre, chronologically in terms of date of purchase, alphabetically by artist, or whatever Rob Gordon style obssession they feel like for the time being.

We have an interesting way of organizing CDs here at home. We have CDs that are removed from their cases and scattered in the various glove compartments of our three cars. There are special CDs that we've placed nicely in synthetic Case Logic containers. And there are CDs that are hopelessly gathering dust in one of those ugly metal towers that seemed like excellent birthday gifts not too long ago. If you ask any of us where a CD is any given time, we probably won't be able to tell you with any surety, which is why come Christmas time we are hard pressed to gather all the right discs at one place. We end up grasping for whatever crumby Xmas CDs happen to be in the vicinity -- this means Alvin and the Chipmunks and Perry Como. Ugh.

To remedy this situation (!), I'm starting to create a master CD or mp3 playlist, if you will, of the holiday tunes I plan to cycle (subject to) my family during upcoming long road trips / living room lounging / crammed bits of wrapping presents. They're not all strictly Xmas songs

So far I've got:

Winter Wonderland - Diana Krall
Grown-up Christmas List - Michael Buble
Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby ( I wanted something that would be the classic core)
I've Got Love to Keep me Warm - Dean Martin
Winter Wonderland (again!) - Ray Charles

You can sneer if you like. He he. Your constructive suggestions though would be more helpful.

* * *

Just finished rereading the Nick Hornby's book of many music sneers and humor, High Fidelity. I first read this just two or three years ago, when I was fresh out of college. I still don't get most of the musical references (though I DO know now who the lead singer of the Wailers is!). What I find most amusing is how his observations about his relationships are things that I can now identify with. Been there, been that in pinoyspeak. I used to find Laura such an ass. . .

When one is a little younger, one can't understand why older people can be so retarded with their romantic relationships. At a later age, one figures that one really is just a little crazy, like everyone else?

Jack Black and Catherie Zeta are perfectly cast as Barry and Charlie, but John Cusack is a bit too handsome, as has been observed, to really be a "loser" like Rob.

technology enabling information gluttony

2005-12-16T11:43:00.000+08:00

I discovered from bloglines.com that there are two individuals who subscribe to my blog's RSS feed. well one of those individuals is me. who could the other one be? wow. i have a fan.

actually i haven't figured out all the ins and outs of bloglines.com but it's a great way to keep track of blogs and when they're updated. i used to have firefox launch ten tabs of blogs that i wanted to read. now i just look at my bloglines feed list, where i now keep track of 45 blogs more or less. could you otherwise imagine opening 45 tabs?? he he. technology enabling information gluttony.

* * *

I thought I was gonna end up with a loser night last night but that changed quickly. Kel and I had to share a car so the plan was for him to drive to Ortigas Center (where he had a meeting and two gigs) and for me to take a cab to Makati Sports Club for swimming training. BIG MISTAKE. Seems like everyone is doing their Xmas shopping now. Pucha. I ended up in the dumbest taxi queue on the planet: Basic Taxi in Shangrila Mall. Was able to practice matrona-style evilness and ring their main number. Hello. Where's the fucking dispatcher?

* * *

The night was saved coz I trooped over to catch the Dicta License gig at 12 in El Pueblo. Recently saw Dicta during their album launch of Paghilom and they were pretty good again this time around. I'm tired though of hearing Ang Ating Araw (over played for me), and enjoying Daloy ng Kamalayan and Enemy more in their set. They played four songs, w/c is about the right number considering my limited rock stamina for a band.

Also heard Itchy Worms (galing ng Hanggang dito na lang ang masa lyric song, whats it called); Mojofly (so-so), and Sponge Cola. Sponge is one of those bands whose name I've heard for a while but I can't associate a melody or song to. I wonder why I've heard a negative comment about them in the recent past. They were good. Their drummer (Charlie? edit: Chris pala) he bangs dem drums hataw. Overall sound dynamic balance ok naman. Vocalist ok na ok rin. And guitars too. Bassist? Hmm. I don't know how to evaluate them really. It was a fan girl night. Screechers and bobbers, esp. for Dicta and Sponge.

Butch and Patching came over and brightened my night. So I didn't get to swim; heard some good music. Loser night transformed.

Maximo Foucault

2005-12-12T00:01:00.000+08:00

after planning to watch from Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, I finally got to watch it in Gateway with Tina. I thought I was doomed to have to catch it via pirated DVD, but I was pleased that Teens came through the last minute with a YM message earlier this morning.

Everyone has made comments about how technically it was limited, and how the story was good. I won't go into that anymore. What I'm going to say though was that I found it pretty obvious that Maxie is played by a straight boy. He wasn't gay enough.

I'll give the film credit in that it didn't overplay the gayness of Maxie (part of the reason that they picked a straight boy to portray the character), but Maxie was still missing a certain playful defiance and self consciousness that characterizes young gay boys. It's pretty essential that the Maxie character will make you relate to his coming-of-age pains. We all have yearned for that someone we couldn't have once upon a time. I wasn't brought into that portal; didn't work for me. It didn't seem real I guess. You know who had the gay sparks? The moreno kid friends of Maxie. Check out the scene: Representing Thailand(seems gay), Venezuela(seems gay), Philippines(seems like a straight boy playing a gay guy)!

Not being gripy here. It's just an honest observation on my reaction. No regrets watching this movie.

* * *

Other pursuits. Started reading first chapter of Foucault's The history of sexuality. Finally, echoes of what Maita and to a certain extent Bobby have been talking about. Photo taken from amazon.com

Bourgeois existence

2005-11-29T01:45:00.000+08:00

part of my bourgeois existence is the privilege to head off to the beach at a moment's notice. Monday being a holiday, I received an SMS invitation Saturday night from Lorraine - "Let's go to Punta Fuego this Monday!" I had to reply, "Now that's a brilliant idea. What are the details?"

The troop this time around was Lorraine & Lala (pillars of the gimik gung), James, Brian S and me. We lazed around Punta from 1030 - 600 pm, and pigged out in Tagaytay afterwards.

Talk got around to what would be one's perfect day. Initially, mine involved getting to play in the morning, read in the afternoon, and party at night. Had to mention now that it would have to take place in a lovely beach resort. :)

Relatively idyllic day, and I didn't even spend much.

i'll blog while i can

2005-11-19T11:04:00.000+08:00

why? see my lj. username fab_ab for an explanation.
i composed this entry last night and now i post it here while in rizal study foyer (yes! i no longer have internet convenience!! not lately anyway)

* * *

I saw Sarah Silverman on Conan tonight, that crazy bitch (Sarah, not Conan). Totally not likely that her movie(?) Jesus is Magic will show here. They couldn't show a clip of it, instead we got Rosario Dawson doing the A-ooohhh scene in Rent. Gave me an idea of how offensive the movie probably is. He he. Semi-Quote from Sarah's routine: "I don't care if he thinks I'm a bigot, I just want him to think I'm thin."

Speaking of half crazy women, am presently reading Francoise Sagan's Scars on the Soul. A little trippy, experimental novel type of the 70s. Author is talking to you as she writes her novel. So far quote enjoyable, and the book is thin! :) If any of you guys have her, Bonjour Tristesse please tell me. I'll lend you another recently deceased author in exchange, Saul Bellow.

grunge meme

2005-11-15T11:56:00.000+08:00

Grunge! You're all about the music and would even
turn your back on fame just to stay true to
your roots... You reached your high in the
early '90s, but you're still making some good
stuff! Keep rocking!

What genre of rock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

getting dunked

2005-11-15T11:50:00.000+08:00

mental note: every time there's a meeting in Jason's house bring a swimsuit. 'coz if u haven't got one, you'll still get a soaking as people throw you into the pool.

i spent the rest of sunday afternoon at Filinvest for the evaluation / pool - dunking seminar of the loyola mountaineers. We didn't get much work done as is ALWAYS the case when students decide to have an evaluation seminar. It's like rest anyway. It was like the last summer day for most people. We tossed frisbees in the backyard and played a game of dodgeball (20 people). You know how satisfying it is to pitch a ball to someone and chuck him out? He he. We also played some weird 2-3 games of basketball in between eating inihaw. thought Sunday turned out well.

Sabay sabay lumiliyab

2005-11-14T12:53:00.000+08:00

on a whim, i decided to attend Dicta License's album lunch (Paghilom) at 6 Underground. Turned out pretty well, good crowd, and the band line-up was pretty interesting

Happy Meals -- good sounds! actually my fave afer Dicta for the night
Cog -- teeth grating after the first 3 songs but legit or those who are into that heavy sound
Up Dharma Down -- good vocals
Twisted Halo -- ok, but was already impatient to hear Dicta at this point

'thought their sound was pretty good, though Kel thought that the vocals volume wasn't loud enough. I didn't really notice. They played practically their entire new album. May dating, first go. This is a good product, imo.

Managed to drag John, Bob and Jess in for a few songs (fish out of water moment daw). I do wonder what Jeline will have to say about that night's performances. North Park chow before heading home.

truly shitty

2005-11-02T09:57:00.000+08:00

I hate it when the day starts shitty. Dad 'coralled' the kids around to give them a talking to, something he's really good at, and it's something that increasingly I'm losing patience with. The situation is kinda pathetic actually, and also unfair. We are a unit, but I hate the way that (he admits this himself) that we get 'roped-in' to the negative energy fest that he seems to perversely dispense to all of us. I even said, "I don't want to argue. . ."

I'm going to fix my room now. Maybe some physical work will get the general shitty-ness out of my system. It's a stupid and pathetic state of things. Un-necessary in my point of view; I hate having to be some sort of emotional sponge, cleaning up everybody else's neuroses. That's selfish of you all, you jerks.

Back from the North - Pulag adventure

2005-10-30T08:15:00.000+08:00

i've been gone for almost two weeks. no sooner had i returned from an induction climb to Mt. Pulag, I headed back to the Baguio area to give a debate seminar. I had no real reason to go, except that I owed a good friend a Baguio adventure. We were calling it a promise that was three years old.

Many things to say about the LM (Loyola Mountaineers) induction climb. I was team leader to the applicants, to a certain extent. For the most part it was Jason who led the entire team for the 4+ days in the mountain, but I had to handle the group for an entire saturday, the day applicants were 'left behind' by the members to find our own way to the camp by the summit. This meant having to figure out the pace, rest stops, and other such issues for 19 people. It wasn't easy. One can imagine that it is difficult enough to calibrate pace and rest for a group of 5 people (normal group size for AMCI), but I had to figure this out for 19. Days later in the post-climb I got a few comments about how things were much too fast, etc. Well, I explained, I could only try to reach the happy medium. Figuring out optimal rest stops for 19 is like coordinating monetary policy for the EU. Someone's gonna bitch.

Til now, LM training climbs had sorta been easy. This isn't a criticism, it's just an observation, from my point of view (w/c I don't trumpet much anyway). I chalk it up to the (proper) conservatism that the org has maintained in terms of deciding what applicants can handle. Members can easily do harder climbs when it's just them.

This induction wasn't easy-LM anymore. I'd even call it an AMCI level TC. It was the first time that I did 4 night-treks in a row. I hadn't even done 1 night trek up to this point. Previous (AMCI) climbs, I'd always been in a sub-group that was a little obssessed with getting to the camp quick, before darkness set in. (I call it Sir Manny Torralba style). Now, for various reasons, like a jeep breaking down, or setting off late in the morning, we had to do night treks. The saturday evening night-trek was through the open grasslands of Pulag. It was nearly 3 hours of being hit with wind and cold, while trekking on a trail one could barely see because of failing headlamps and flashlights. We were so happy when we saw the lights of the rescue party -- 30 mins away from the camp. The members thought we were 'dead'. I was very proud of the team. We had decided to do this 3 hour crap fest rather than settle down in another camp. We're all crazy bastards as one of the applicants said. Later we found out that arriving that late in camp, and trekking that long was some sort of LM record.

We had induction rites the following morning. (Hush-hush about the details, of course). I can say though that Pulag gave us a small window to see the summit in its glorious version. Running up to the peak, i saw the sun come out and wash the side of the mountain in golden light. The famous 'sea of clouds' was on display for a few brief minutes. This was the 'best' peak so far that I had been to.

The rest of the climb was uneventful after that tough Saturday. We scuttled plans to climb down via the steep Akiki route and decided to do (easier) Ambangeg. Later, after the 3 hour (vomitous) ride back to Baguio was done, we were conducting the Post-climb. Naturally, got a lot of comments, queries, being TL for the group. It was humbling, 'coz everything I did was put under scrutiny, and commented on. Realized that the work of TLs was a lot tougher than I had imagined. All the more respect I have for the members of this org. You can't just take care of yourself, with this role. You got to take care of everybody. You have authority and respect, but also the weight of a lot on your shoulders. No regrets doing this job though, and I thought the applicants were pretty happy. The comments during the post-climb were straightforward, but also constructive and fair.

Thanks to the prodding of Jaja, we didnt take the first bus home after the climb. There was time for hanging out and kalokohan around Baguio. Everyone had the mountain high. A highlight was when were all eating at Oh My Gulay. We were tasting each other vegetarian fare like mountaineers -- standing over plates, and relentlessly attacking with out forks. It was a nice atmosphere. We all did some shopping before heading to the bus home.

* * *

Shout outs (yuck, can we think of a better term?) to Batch 16 who survived the Pulag ordeal / induction climb / adventure. We got through the never-ending (yet surreal) Mossy Forest. Not to mention our bizarre eating habits (feast and famine, crap and tasty stuff). Pretty thankful for my team (group 1) who put up with a lot of Analness in my part -- I hated the way they entered the tent with their wet jackets. UGH. They're tough though. I'm referring to (Tiger) Mancy, Mons, Carlo Carlos, and Mickey Lu.

why write. . .

2005-10-12T20:33:00.000+08:00

why write angry things? the world is angry enough.
why write 'happy' things? the world is deluded and escapist enough
why write mundane things? the world is shallow and stupid enough
why attempt to write deep things? the world is pretentious enough

why write lies? you have a difficult enough time grasping the truth.
why write the truth? that's a good question why write the truth.

why write about ugly things? do people really need to see more ugliness?
why write about beautiful things? that's a good question why write about beauty.

Captain Incompetence strikes again

2005-10-03T19:58:00.000+08:00

Goodness. I had this mistaken impression that a colleague of mine had been getting the hang of doing his job as a teaching assistant with me. I guess I was mistaken.

I put in a bit of effort of making two sets (one green, one blue) for last weekend's final exam. As we all know, this discourages students from cheating. We used to be lazy by making one set and putting them in two different colors so as to give the impression that it was two different sets. Of course, you can only fool the students once with this technique.

ANYWAY, during the day of the exam, Mr. Colleague picks up the collated test papers in the assistants room, and proceeds to distribute the exams for each classroom in this manner: all green exams in one room, all blue exams in another. Hmm. I wonder why we even bothered put them in two colors? For aesthetic purposes?

The ironic thing is now that I've bothered to make two DIFFERENT sets, we get the worst of both worlds by somebody giving each section the one set with the same color.

He later rationalizes his actions to me that he thought that either color was the same set.

"Umm, all the more you'll want to mix them together, right?" God, I actually went straight at him for a change and semi-chewed him out (how do you chew out a colleague right? if he was my subordinate, oh he'd be dead.)

Thank God a fellow pissed off colleague of mine was a simple mobile phone call away.

"Whatever will make we want to get up in the morning"

2005-10-02T13:15:00.000+08:00

The semester is coming to a close, and with it thoughts of what next. This is my final semester of grad studies and also probably my final semester of teaching at UP and Ateneo. Perhaps in the future, I will return, but that's not what I'm thinking about now. I feel that it is so right to do something else. After 2.5 years doing academic things, it's time for a change. I just have to figure out what that will be.

A quick criterion I threw at Bob last night, about what I wanted to do, was something that would make me want to get up in the morning excited to do what I'm supposed to do. That's tough, it's probably easier to find a job that will just give you a lot of money -- he said, or something like that. I'm gonna have to figure that out.

We (Me, Bob and Len) had such a fun and funny night last night. Let's just say that Bob kept on making fun of me because I kept on making scenarios of how I would act in front of famous people. To think that I had been remarking that nothing interesting seems to happen anymore. The newest things are the most exciting and I guess that's what keeps one young. Sometimes I have such an Oprah well-adjusted blog.

I feel that i'm on a fence between young and old. I'm turning 25 later this week. You bastards better get me some presents.

dear concerned person

2005-09-21T17:52:00.000+08:00

Please get your check-up already so that your health insurance can be properly processed. I've been receiving international phone calls requesting that I look into this problem. It would not be of such urgency if you were the type of person who was not prone to getting sick. Unfortunately, it does not take much to make a case, given your predisposition to allergic reactions, obscure conditions, and overall lack of proper nutrition and exercise. Looking at this in a purely financial point of view, the cost of medical care is rising and will continue to rise. Mitigate this risk by making fixing up your insurance a top priority. Thanks

a semi-public service announcement by the owner of this blog

2005-09-20T20:27:00.000+08:00

so i blew another soy mocha in starbucks this morning, dang that stuff is good. it's probably fattening. you know what they say. anyway, i just want to get into a little ramble here, and i don't know why im apologizing to the cyberspace air, but anyway. . .

so i was deciding what to teach my econ kids today. wow. i've practically finished the entire syllabus! i guess i will teach them that chapter on basic tools of finance after all! i decided to give them a little lecture on the costs of inflation and then move on to basic finance. never got to basic finance. costs of inflation ended up taking the whole time. and it wasn't because of their questions, it was because they couldn't keep up. oh well, i guess i bore myself to death when i teach slowly so i sped up a little. poor kids. they're not gonna find my lecture in the book. i have to figure out how to reward people who actually listen. i think i'm gonna put an essay portion in my final exam. i'm gonna give them a little curve ball, just to be fair to those who actually pay attention.

jojo l (leviste! not lastimosa) fresh from Syd was actually sitting in my class. we were gonna hang out in the afternoon. apologized for giving a class that i think bored a few them to death (despite my contrary opinion that actually things were getting really meaty. oh well. we'll see what they put in my evaluation). we had a semi-baboy lunch at Libis, this italian place and browsed around a different bookstore. we went to metro walk (yuck) to buy his boss some DVDs and ended up in the best part of the afternoon. i just hung out in his condo watching the new concert dvds, eating cookies and reading whatever books looked interesting in his room. jojo was organizing his social life during his one week and a few stay here. which reminds me that harvey is in town nga pala.

got home and started doing some work and because im afraid that watching TV is gonna derail me from further progress, i started typing somethings here. where has mahar been? he's been coming home late a lot.

2005-09-19T19:12:00.000+08:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Conservative
(60% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Phone got waterlogged

2005-09-16T14:36:00.000+08:00

I had a real good run last night with some LM mountaineers. Finished strong which is a nice feeling. Running in the rain rules. Downside though is that my phone is now messed up. It can receive ur texts and calls, but the buttons are useless. Must be some moisture somewhere and the 0 button gets stuck. If u guys need to get in touch w/ me just e-mail ( I check it A LOT ) or send me a (offline) message on YM (fabian_b_mangahas).

tonight i'm gonna see a high school friend I hadn't seen in ages. I want to give him the guilt trip. Ha ha. It's his fault really. Then I'm gonna go back to work. This weekend promises to be just as BUSY as last. Oh well, the semester is winding down anyway. I've picked up another book that's been lying around. I gave Theroux's Hotel Honolulu another chance. It's better this time around. When the sem is over, I'm gonna buy myself some some more paper and ink.

'spoke to Harvey last night, after ages. Still has the same droll sense of humor. Debate ppl, did you know he's flying in for a few weeks? maybe we should organize something. he doesn't have much time though. his weekends are already booked

end of a project

2005-09-12T20:58:00.000+08:00

today was the culmination of the globe gizmo debate 'tournament' and i thought it turned out pretty well. the kids did the best they ever did, and the principal, the parents and the kids themselves seemed happy about it. i'm glad that all the work and the training seemed to have paid off. they seem that much more confident about themselves. i also got paid. bwahahaha. which is ALWAYS nice.

len, kellda were the ADS people who showed up to judge, glad for that. thanks again guys. made all the difference. after the event, drove len to makati and dropped her in the KAF office but not before having a little coffee time with her. mid-day in Salcedo Village is actually not such a bad thing. i'd even call it pleasant.

back in QC traffic was hell. it took me forever to get to UP, just to read in the bulletin board that offices were closed at 1pm onwards because of the transport strike. sheesh. killed time (na lang) in Starbucks before picking Gica up at six. To kill time I read Gaiman-Pratchett work Good Omens. I fell asleep listening to my mini in Starbucks. I was on one of the arm-chairs.

Pops brought home today his special economist subscription card. yehey. i get premium content online again. ;) i got home and acted lazy. just wanted to document the day though, where I was in black trousers, black shose and a dress shirt. it's actually nice to be in office attire sometimes.

thanks ebtg for inquring about the proceedings. there were some funny moments which i'll tell you about next time we meet.

today

2005-09-08T01:01:00.000+08:00

the grade school kids had their 2 exhibition debates this morning, and i thought that it turned out pretty well. it's nice to see other kids who were once quite shy and quite monotonous sounding to come out of their shell. the teachers and parents thought that they did pretty well today. well, wait for monday i boldly said. they're gonna kick ass.

I attended the LM post-climb afterwards, which I've noticed is a drawn out fairly inefficient affair. Oh well. I don't like complaining coz then I'll be Mr. Know-it-all. Roy has a big mouth though. Now, I have to write this proposal for an environmental project (that I sorta drafted a simple version of) or everybody gets a sanction. Today at least, Jason announced that we were all at the "Backlog" point, meaning that in case we were removed from LM now, we'd be able to start at this point of the application process (post 2 climbs and post 5 and 10 K trials).

Afterwards, had a good conversation in Starbucks with Dondi while waiting for my high school classmates. We were gonna meet up to head to John Paul's Dad's wake. That was a little sad, a little odd, a little ok what now. John Paul, well, condolences to him and his family. His dad was 55 and he was shot in the back last Sunday.

Back in Ateneo, we killed a little time at the Gonzaga parking lot. Some reminiscing, and a quick remark I gave to Cesar: The number of adventures kinda decrease when you get older, right? Yeah, people don't take risks as much, and you can't blame anyone.

Gonna check out this group that beat out Coldplay in the Brit Mercury Awards: Antony and the Johnsons

kids don't miss a beat

2005-09-05T19:46:00.000+08:00

i was training some grade school kids in debate, and was increasingly spacing out and losing focus, mostly cause the parents of the kids were there to observe that day. what didn't help was that i was using a microphone hooked up to a karaoke. so they could catch most every word. i told the kids, "let me not use the mic, 'coz I find myself getting pretty conscious." kid pipes up, "is it because the grownups are able to listen to you?" or something to that effect.

sometimes i get a little frustrated with my UP students. They're an OK lot, but sometimes it takes so much to extract anything from them. It makes me wonder if they have the sense that asking for help is a bad thing. Younger kids, if they don't get something, will get it off their chests and say so. College kids have already built their outer shell. If they don't get something, they just clam up. In a sense, that makes it more difficult for them to handle. One thing that you can't rely the younger kids to do though is to take initiative. It's just an observation on my part, not so much a generalization.

i think i don't remember the pace at which students learn. they cram everything at the last minute (still). so, why expect discussion classes to be optimal? they're more supplemental. heard a few stories today though, that some discussion leaders dismiss them after 10 minutes of lecture. but hey, these people keep on coming back right? at the very least to submit problem sets. there have to be getting some value from it.

2005-08-30T16:18:00.000+08:00

some ideas certain students aren't ready to process just yet. in this case, i'm not talkin about readiness that comes from life experience. i'm talking about readiness that comes from a person who would do a little reading outside the realm of what one encounters everyday. so, for some of these people, knowing certain things won't be a matter of time, but whether they want to be individuals who actually care about ideas and their roles in being vessels of change. i'm not worrying too much about it though. . .

earlier DSL was screwing up. damn. i drank 85 bucks worth of soy milk in starbucks earlier. where do i get all this money

2005-08-28T16:56:00.000+08:00

I decided to ditch Nams today, foregoing a day trip to her farm and restaurant in Pampanga, in exchange with spending some time with Pops. Gica and Mahar are off in the first debate invitational of the school year, and Kel had some music business with Marc. So that left only me at home, and I thought that I had been spending more than one recent weekend away from home. I needed the brownie points, too. I'll be away and gone next weekend to Mt. Cristobal.

It takes a bit of time to get Pops to talk animatedly. He waxed on and on about jesuits and religion while we were eating at Heaven and Eggs in Tomas Morato. He knows his priests. I forget that he was actually sitting next to Horatio de la Costa many years ago on a trip home from Rome. My pops doesn't always talk much, so it was refreshing change to see him pretty much start getting all excited. He didn't lose any steam when I had to check a few SMSes that came in during the conversation. Memories like these are important. We talked a bit about the house today, and also the arrangements for P. Florentino. I see a potential conflict here, 'coz parents seem to be of two different minds as to what to do with our old house. Income generation is an important element in any future plans as far as Pops is concerned.

fuss over Sigur Russ

2005-08-27T21:02:00.000+08:00

I've been fixing up the tracks in my IPOD, using snatches of lyrics and discography lists to fill in the missing elements. Can someone tell me what's the big deal with Sigur Ros and why some of my friends rave over this Icelandic group? It's majorly boring. Luvstory is now playing on Itunes. It's 7 minutes of grr hss grr. I'm falling asleep. Maybe it's suppose to approximate an ice floe. Njosnavelin from the Vanilla Sky soundtrack seems a little better. Flugufrelsarinn. What is this. . .

I thought Serj Tankian was some guy on Broadway. Ha ha ha.

2005-08-27T10:25:00.000+08:00

Another page of the book of one's life.

Went to Maita's despedida dinner last night. It was the usual cast of Maita characters that I mostly getting along with -- well, I've accepted that sometimes you can't get along with everybody, and to force the issue isn't worth it. Also realized, that some people morph into better people when their evil-influence friends aren't around. Isn't this the case for all of us? Even at our age (gasp!) we still get swayed by the EI people.

Ate so many of those cocktail hotdogs with marshmallows. Food hi-light though was the chocolate fondue that I slathered over bananas, grapes, marshmallows and taisan cake.

I'm glad Maita appreciated the Canada book I gave her. I do hope she uses it! She'll be leaving soon, and I'm guessing (hoping!) that the one year she's gone will go by real fast. Told myself that I wasn't gonna drink much, and I succeeded, taking in only a glass or two of red wine. Still got home at around 4 am though hailing a cab somewhere in the middle of Ortigas.

Am loading up my Ipod with classical music I like. Mobile music for your moods. You can start mapping out your emotional makeup depending on the kind of music needs you have, I think. I have my classical moments, still.

2005-08-18T21:09:00.000+08:00

:)

watching South Park now on Jack TV. had forgotten how funny this shit is.

August sucks. People start leaving for school that starts in September. I have a bunch of friends who are leaving. It doesn't change each year. Ever notice that it's the cool and fun people who leave? I want to be the one to leave -- not coz I hate this place, but then I don't get left behind. Well, I did that 2002. My turn. What a bitch.

Actually the ideal would be all of us in one big ass cosmopolitan alive city. It can be Manila, but we'd have to be all here. . .

2005-08-18T17:23:00.000+08:00

i'm flying off to davao this weekend to give a debate seminar. i wonder what hotel the organizers are gonna book me in. i last went to davao around 4 years ago, and it left me with a very positive impression. the people were cool there, and it was more relaxed than manila, and there seemed to be a whole bunch of spots to hang-out in.

davao davao davao. la la la la. im gonna see what the LP and other guides say about the place.

its 530 pm. i want to go home. too tamad to work out today. im supposed to run 10k tomorrow. screw making a best time. will just get the dang thing over with. too busy to train properly. sheesh

2005-08-07T21:17:00.000+08:00

my body probably thinks im schizo. saturday i had a bumming morning, ran 6-7k in the evening, then scooted over to bobby's to drink up and smoke up. slept in this morning before lunch and then shopping at galleria. i bought sports equipment. lovely.

i've been leaching off lorraine's backpack for more than a year, and now i got my own. a 75 liter conqueror brand for just over 2k. im pretty happy that the people at the store told me that it was around 3.5k before, and that i had gotten a good price on it. it's larger than the 65L i used to borrow from Lorraine which is what i want anyway, and im used to this brand. i just have a small worry about the straps and how it will feel after a long trek, but im comfortable with it, and it seemed quite stable and good when i had loaded it up w/ a 4 man tent, sleeping bag, cookset and stove. i was marching all around the store w/ the gear strapped on my back. i guess i can take it out for some ramps this coming wednesday.

it's gonna be a busy week. i have a paper to write, a long test to give, and a climb to prepare for. i dont think i have time for crap this week. that reminds me, i got to get JV's trekking pole fixed -- mental note.

i love buying good and good value gear. :) i finally bought a few dri-fit shirts today, so that i have something different to wear for the climbs and the runs. i have the same 2 (though good!) pieces. i rewarded myself w/ 3 new ones. i think i don't deserve them though, i haven't been very 'good' when it comes to fitness and discipline.

* * *

bob's leaving his house, and last night it looked like a club. it was empty and there were lights. lots of mike's cute friends were there. ha ha. so it was sorta like a club. there was nice booze and smokes. normally i don't touch much, but i was in an odd mood so i say life is short. now, i feel though as if my body has to repair the damage. sometimes i wonder when it'll all catch up. i won't stress over it too much though -- what's done is done.

* * *

i'm meeting with pat this tuesday, to consider buying her mask, fins and diving bag. gee, im gonna run out of money soon. i spent a lot of money on food, too. oh well, guess im gonna be a bit of skinflint the next few days.

busy day

2005-08-04T18:32:00.000+08:00

I'm going to Mt. Mariveles the weekend after next, and I've decided that the trip there can only be a reward from more than a week of productive hard work! So kept myself busy today, working on things that I normally would postpone til later. I figured that, really, my productivity is related to how much time I spend in front of the computer. How gross is that, I realize. I wish that I could be productive if I had a stack of books and an Ipod in Starbucks. No, to complete the whole picture, I'd have to be lugging along a laptop.

I sat in Sir Weyms (from my mathematical past!) Math class this afternoon. Andre was coming over to visit, so I decided to sit in as well. I actually liked sitting in his class. Felt I learnt something again (even if we were just talking about functions). Now I find myself being more able to interpret the teacher's sighs, side comments, etc. Essentially students are lazy, and as a teacher, you have to snap them out of it -- even if you are a real lazy one yourself. He he. They have to really see the value in what you're teaching, that's one thing. Not always easy to communicate that.

funny realization

2005-07-25T17:36:00.000+08:00

older bro (25) kel and I have always been painted as polar opposites.

rocker jock vs. more nerdy prep
music vs. bookworm

list can go pretty much on. . .

today though, he started making fun of the test scores of some of my students, and how he would torture them as he announced their scores.

we actually have similarities in our sense of humor. funny only realizing that now.

SONA

2005-07-25T16:47:00.000+08:00

SONA: a little disappointing, but i didnt expect much.

It is called a State of the Nation, so how was the state stated?

Economic and Social Analysis: Poor.

1. Talking in absolutes is useless. 4 million jobs created. Never mind that official gov't data on employment has not been as credible lately -- why don't you talk about the unemployment rate? Talk about NET jobs created, and the increase in the size of the labor market. Talk about the change in unemployment rate. Guess why it won't be talked about?

2. "Economy poised for take-off." Big big assertion. As an optimist, I actually would agree with this IF, and this is a humongous IF, the fiscal situation is resolved. Recap: Watered-down sin tax law passed, TRO for the EVAT. Prognosis: not good.

3. Mention of government programs . Credibility problems. It's easy to mention programs implemented. Please prove that such programs are not tokenistic and do not have negligible impact in the big picture.

Political Analysis - Non-existent

1. Political structures are flawed. This isn't a hard assertion to buy, but funny how she mentions that present structures still allow for reform and yet later on mentions that the best of the efforts of the politicians may not be enough for this structure.

2. Criticism: Failure to characterize/mention flaws of the present day political system. If reform is proposed, foremost is an explanation of the present day flaws. Closest thing mentioned is the problem of a centralizes bureaucracy. Is this really the biggest problem? Big problems include: 1. A fucked-up Comelec (no mention) 2. Sources of campaign funds that cause the booty-capitalism that is counter-productive. (no mention)

No mention of issues/struggles/concerns about the debate on the Parliamentary system. But then I guess it would be premature to bring this up now.

No mention of current crisis of leadership on her part. I guess I don't expect her to be able to say anything productive on this point, but you know, the state of the nation is very much affected by her issues. Early on, there is an implicit request that we insulate reform activities from this problem. Is that possible? One wishes so.

* * *

* * *

* * *

My bro has the screwy habit of coming into the room to play video games or watch dumb-TV (well 1/2 the time), when I start using the computer. It's irritating coz I realize that I truly get distracted and get diminished enjoyment when there is alternate media beside me. I don't mention it too much though, coz a. well, it's not my room, and b. he'll think that it's more of an issue that I want some privacy when I use the internet for whatever reasons. Well maybe it is, but that's only a small part, really. I wouldn't mind if he was behind me on the bed reading a book.

nuggets

2005-07-25T12:07:00.000+08:00

Some of these I gathered from a nice conversation with Ria A. Last night. She was so 'on the mark' last night. Well, not too surprised actually, 'coz she's been in a contemplative mood. Enjoyed her recent blog entry about triathletes. Anyway, it seems that you're in funny trouble when you start collecting/listing senti songs for somebody and if you're intelligent, you know that it never is just sex

* * *

I was happy with my off-beat half-crazy talk to HPAIR Sunday morning at Alpadis. Kulang kasi sa tulog! Plus the stimulation of 'first speaker' Edsel helped. Anyway, I want to blog a few of my messy notes, so that I have it for reference in the future. In case I have to give some real interesting talk again.

Main points:

We live in exciting times.
We actually can make a difference. We can rock.
You can compete. Your ideas have to count.
Are you interested in Harvard? or in Asian and International Relations?
Governments come and go. Ideas STICK.
Intellectual Capital. We are supposed to be already it, baby.
But, I am an optimist.

Anecdotes:
China. India.
"Pacific Century"
Ho Kwon Ping.
Read Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point.
HPAIR Singapore 2001
HPAIR HongKong 1999

from a friend who thinks about political and economic issues

2005-07-10T16:46:00.000+08:00

Hello, please share with others if you wish.

Some Convictions on the Current Political Issue
Karl Kendrick Chua
July 8, 2005

Thesis: The call for resignation must come with
accountability for our decisions and a plan for the
economy in case of a succession.

On resignation: Calling GMA to resign and giving it
the right reasons (moral and practical) are not
enough. Stopping here is only a short-term solution
and is bound to cause more problems in the medium- to
long-term. Those calling for her resignation must
accept and be accountable for the following:

1. The Vice-President must, without question, succeed
the President.

2. The choice of Noli de Castro as successor must have
gone through a very thorough cost-benefit analysis and
discernment. On the positive side, NDC is neither
connected nor is biased to the following: Marcos and
Martial Law, and EDSA 1, 2 and 3. He is also
non-political. His experience as newscaster,
reporter, and TV host, which has brought him to all
places in the country and to all kinds of people in
different social conditions may be an important asset
to the Presidency. While he is seen as less competent
for the position, some may argue that his good
advisers are enough to guide him. But woe to the
people who are naïve not to think that equally bad
advisers and blackmailers can influence him and ruin
him and the Presidency again. It is a deep tragedy to
think that the Presidency cannot be influenced badly.
It is a myth to think that good can win over evil.
This may be true at the end of times but not at the
present battle. Those calling for GMA's resignation
and thus NDC's succession can only do so after giving
the entire issue and its consequences much thought.
Otherwise, pushing for the short-term solution without
thinking of its gigantic consequences would only
plunge our country into deeper uncertainty and
turmoil.

If we agree to call for GMA's resignation, we must be
held accountable for the consequences, even the
worst-case scenario of an incompetent NDC as President
surrounded by useless advisers with greater vested
interest, an economic crisis similar to 1983-85, and
institutions plunging to total uselessness. If we
cannot accept accountability, we should preserve the
status quo.

On the economy: The economy must always be insulated
from the political mess. It must remain resilient and
inelastic to the political situation. Most
importantly, the fiscal and tax administrative reforms
must continue without delay to avert an economic
collapse already predicted by respectable economists.
In this light, those calling for the resignation of
GMA and thus the accession of Noli de Castro must
accept and support the reappointment of the economic
team to the Cabinet upon succession of NDC, most
especially Emilia Boncodin and Willy Parayno, without
delay. The reappointment of Parayno is paramount as
his departure will stall the most important reforms in
tax administration history.

On unity and leadership: Since so many people and
groups are declaring their stands, they are
nevertheless close to futileness without a clear
unified stand and a recognized leader. Without
Cardinal Sin and given a tired Cory Aquino, there is a
vacuum in moral and civil leadership. We need to
rally behind a leader. We must first identity the
most credible leader in civil and religious society.
Personally, I would rally behind the collective Jesuit
leadership and the collective decision of CBCP.
Second, we must swallow our own pride and be humble
before our chosen leader and his decision/stand. In
this case, we must discard our petty quarrels on the
minor details of the issue as well as everything
connected to the bigger issue which is not important,
urgent or critical. As a benchmark, let go of
everything that we are not willing to stake our life
to. The most important points that should unite us
are the following: Constitutional succession, fully
accepting accountability for the resignation of GMA,
the succession of NDC, the unpredictable scenario that
may arise in the new administration, and shielding the
economy from the political mess.

On the credibility of electoral institutions: Given
some consensus and evidence that the oligarchs have
ruled for generations and have drastically stunted
economic growth and holistic development of the
country, we must declare, among other things, that
beginning the next election, we must refuse to elect
any member of the political oligarchic clans to any
position in government no matter how competent and
sincere they are. It is only then that we will have a
government less vested with political interest and can
serve the people better. On a similar tune, it must
be obvious by now that we must also call for the
resignation or impeachment and conviction of the
obvious politicians in Comelec who have no reason to
be there in the first place.

On attitude towards the whole issue: It must be
realized and obvious by now that any form of stand,
debate, argument or complaint without a workable
alternative or solution must be considered useless and
a waste of resources. Problems without solutions add
to noise, confusion, and uncertainty.

On how to strengthen the new President's capacity to
rule: Here is an initial list of what civil and
religious society must do to allow the next President
to rule with maximum capacity.

1. Civil and religious society which have clamored for
GMA's resignation and consequently allowing NDC to
succeed must declare publicly and adhere strictly and
sincerely to this declaration: That NDC does not owe
civil and religious society anything, especially his
seat of power, and thus is free to run the country
without resorting to payments and honoring political
debts.

2. Civil and religious society may give advice to the
new President but should again declare publicly and
adhere strictly and sincerely that they will not push
for one of their members to be in the Cabinet or in
any other position in government. They must also
declare that NDC is free to appoint as he wishes
subject to the normal rules of appointment and tests
of competence and neutrality.

To summarize, there are two main points to remember
and stake our life to:

1. There is no other viable option but constitutional
succession and that we must fully accept and be
accountable for the resignation of GMA and the
succession of NDC, no matter what happens (even in the
worst-case scenario).

2. The economy must be insulated from the political
mess. Reappointing the economic team (unless a better
choice is determined) must be priority upon succession
and we must support it.

good news on the paper street

2005-07-01T09:29:00.000+08:00

i spoke with my adviser yesterday, knowing that it would be make or break time. it almost turned out badly. i thought we were hurtling towards the dreaded conclusion of me facing no choice but to change topic for my paper.

This is a recreated conversation, ok.

"are you still working on the environment?"

me thinking: "what else would i be working on? i'm not going to change my topic! not this late in the game."

i showed him my new model. Quite radically changed my left-hand side variable. He bought it.

One problem: Missing variable on the right side. "If you don't put even a proxy in, it'll cause the omitted variable problem. (How could I miss this?!?)"

"Sir, that variable you're asking me to put in is the problem I had with in the first place. If I had it, then I wouldn't even bother changing my left-hand side."

"You don't need a perfect variable, just a proxy."

"My old LHS variable can be a proxy then?"

"You'll need yet another one though, so as to determine that this proxy is a good one."

curiouser and curiouser!

"Sir, that variable comes in three versions, so I can use those?"

"Ok then."

"Do I model these and come back with you with the output (i.e. regressions)"?

"No, write me already the analysis or I might not appreciate the regressions...Isulat mo na"

It's the go signal to write the paper. God, a horizon in sight.

E says that I can be done with this in as little as a week. And I believe him. HA.

2005-06-27T19:18:00.000+08:00

Your Slanguage Profile

Aussie Slang: 75%

Prison Slang: 75%

Canadian Slang: 50%

British Slang: 25%

New England Slang: 25%

Southern Slang: 25%

Victorian Slang: 25%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?

2005-06-24T08:25:00.000+08:00

QUIET OUTER-DIRECT
You scored 44 sociability and 66 directedness!

This test is measuring the extent to which you are SOCIABLE and where your attention is DIRECTED.
These two variables will determine how you interact with others and can
predict a plethora of social and sexual behaviors. Pretty cool eh?

You are a QUIET OUTER DIRECTED
person. In other words, you prefer to interact with small groups of
people and prefer to reflect before speaking and acting. Sometimes you
can be rash, but this is the exception to the rule.

Your focus is EXTERNAL.
You differ from a tradtional introvert - because you can play the role
of an extrovert for short periods of time. It's less important that
your behavior is a true reflection of your beliefs and attitudes -
you're socially fluid and often look to others for cues about how to
behave - and you're so good at this that others seldom realize you're
doing this! You're less concerned about being "right" and can read
situations very well.

Your friends may know you pretty well, but
there's a lot they don't know. You're a complex person - and who you
are in private is not necessarily who you are in public. What you see
is not necessarily what you get when it comes to you! But don't worry -
this is just who you are!

Thanks for taking my test!

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 47% on sociability
You scored higher than 57% on directedness

Link: The amazingly ACCURATE personality Test written by alphaspinx on Ok Cupid

2005-06-24T08:13:00.000+08:00

Jeff Buckley

You are 51 deep, 32 controversial, and 44 nice!

A beautiful heart but a soul as deep as an ocean. There's a reason why everyone loved Jeff.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 30% on deepness
You scored higher than 9% on angryness
You scored higher than 65% on niceness

Link: The Which Musician Am I? Test written by loveisthelaw on Ok Cupid

2005-06-24T08:11:00.000+08:00

Bourbon
Congratulations! You're 116 proof, with specific scores in beer (60) , wine (133), and liquor (52).

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the
bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild
Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know
how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 31% on proof
You scored higher than 75% on beer index
You scored higher than 98% on wine index
You scored higher than 72% on liquor index

Link: The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid

2005-05-30T20:59:00.000+08:00

Your Sexy Brazilian Name Is

Rafael Carvalho

What's Your Sexy Brazilian Name?

2005-05-27T19:39:00.000+08:00

have been feeling under the weather the past week and i've been getting quite irritable. hot rainy weather and strong airconditioning don't mix. i just want it to rain and rain and rain. yung sobrang lakas, siguro tapos mag-brobrownout at sobrang hangin.

Magic of Film

2005-05-18T14:46:00.000+08:00

All great forms of art make you want to be a better person afterwards. Something to this effect is what Oprah once said.

I find that if I want to quote a source that will have 'authority' over other family members like my mom, Oprah ranks pretty high on the authority list, along with Rushdie & Nelson Mandela.

Here's an interesting article today on Marilouz Diaz-Abaya. She says encouraging things about the Filipino film industry, and the opportunities that are there to be grasped. Story linked here

teaching development economics

2005-05-15T00:08:00.000+08:00

Jeffrey Sachs makes an interesting comment about how economics is taught to students. This is an excerpt from a recent interview found
here

Emphasis added in the article is mine.

The End of Poverty: An Interview with Jeffrey Sachs
Interviewed By Onnesha Roychoudhuri

MJ: Now you suggest in your book that we need to assess ailing economies just as doctors assess patients. You call it "clinical economics." Does the current academic curriculum for development economics provide a sufficient framework for educating people to ensure that the MDGs will be achieved by future economists?

JS: No it doesn't. I realized 10 or 15 years ago that the students in economics departments write dissertations about countries that they never stepped foot in because their advisor gives them a database from Nigeria or Kenya or some place else, and they do their thesis that way. That's like becoming a doctor without ever seeing a patient. We don't do case studies. We don't train students to understand the differences across countries. There are a tremendous number of loose generalizations made all the time

Similarly, people aren't trained in the practical experiences of being operational. Sometimes people say, "We teach academic things, we don't teach operational things." But, frankly, to do development right, you have to do something that's more like going through medical school and having a clinical hospital where you actually learn about different cases, and do case analyses. When something goes wrong, you study it. There are what are called "M&M rounds" in hospitals—morbidity and mortality rounds. When something doesn't work, when a patient dies or doesn't get better, the doctors get together to discuss the case. We don't do that in academic economics. For me, the field is not properly organized right now to really take on these challenges adequately and I'm hoping that the field will become more like a clinical science.

Fake Feedback

2005-05-12T20:05:00.000+08:00

Here's an e-mail I wrote to Inq7.net

Dear Editor,

I just want to bring to your attention the misuse of the term target
in your article, "Finance sees budget gap below target with new VAT
law".

You quote Finance Secretary Purisma as saying:=20

"I'm confident that with this measure, we're going to beat the target
and come up with a lower deficit (this year)."

In the context of the article, the main point being communicated is
that the VAT law may cause the deficit to be below the ceiling amount
that government has set.

Strictly speaking one doesn't aim to "beat the target", because a
target represents the ideal value, more or less of which would be less
than ideal. A target is like the center of a dartboard. Whether or not
you hit above or below the bullseye, it still isn't as good as if the
center had been hit in the first place.

One can exceed expectations, surpass goals, but one doesn't beat targets.

Thus, your article title more appropriately should read as, "Finance
see budget gap beneath ceiling with new VAT law." In its present form,
one can interpret the headline as a negative development, one being
'below target', which is the opposite of what is expressed in the
article.

- Fabian Mangahas

* * *

I e-mailed this to money@inq7.net which is the posted e-mail address for writing the editor. Guess what I got in return not 5 seconds after e-mailing? This:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at inq7interactive.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

This might be part of the reason why the quality of writing on their site is such.

i took a test. is this true? hmm

2005-05-11T21:22:00.000+08:00

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is 100%. You are not suited for a monogamous relationship.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

gym adventures

2005-05-09T19:50:00.000+08:00

wait a minute, that title sounded like something off a porn story. but why should i change it right? today, after a 2 day hiatus i went back to lovely Fitness World down the road (5 min walk away). Everybody there greets me and smiles so I always get a good vibe when I'm there.

I did the usual 24 min cardio (rotating between the 8.5 and 10 pace, gym ppl you know what im talking about), and resistance training bit, and decided to try this (old) class, Body Combat.

Body Combat. I was laughing inside for the first 5 mins. I guess I should be thankful of the training I got last year for a few weeks under the tutelage of Jun Delmo, who revamped our mountaineering workouts and gave us some 'kick, punch jab kick' body combat style training. The funny part was seeing ur awkward self in the mirrors but also images of Elmer 'eulogio' complaining and insisting on his lack of coordination. I don't have much gumption yet to shout 'HA' during the workouts though. But it got better as the class went on. Spinning is still more intense.

i'm half-way through Jeffrey Sachs book Ending Poverty. His case studies on Bolivia, Poland, Russia,Africa etc. contain some interesting bits that one use when considering a 'clinical diagnosis' of the state of the Philippine economy.

Gica is getting her hair colored!

Bangkok - Day 20

2005-05-07T22:45:00.000+08:00

my routine here is to work out and read, and so far it's turned out pretty well. i've been enjoying some yoga sessions and also completed Chabon's Kavalier & Clay book, that I've been wanting to finish for ages. I think I will look back at this summer as one that is idyllic, at least on the surface. Once one approaches a certain age, a sense of idyll is forever lost, that is, if you want to remain human. I think my seventeenth summer was the last real one. i have a pile of books to read and i'll have to take them home. my suitcase is gonna be bulging.

so today we went to world trade center to do a little book shopping, which is a good thing, since I've been making it a project to get mom to buy me Ishiguro's latest offering (success, he he). Also managed to get Kel the Marketing and Music book that he wanted. Wow, Kel is wanting to buy books now. *Change* We went to Asia Books and Kinokuniya.

I had a sweet Lassi yoghurt drink before heading home. do you know how much sugar they put into those things? damn. never realized THAT much no wonder it's so goood.

funny coincidence today. the cab we took home from central world plaza was the EXACT same driver who took me home at 2 in the morning from Silom last week. he knew me, and i thought it was funny. he insisted for 5 minutes though that we don't use the meter to which i kept on saying: if u dont put on the meter, we're getting down. i was damn firm. ha ha. anyway, he relented. this driver was so frigging un-Thai (ok, am i gonna start Thai bashing again? I'm not! Anyway, I've met so many nice Thai people lately). Why was he so un-Thai? Coz he was so chummy and 'familiar'. I realize that I hate people who try to be familiar with me when I'm not in the mood. Ok, I don't like scammers to be chummy. He didn't have to tap me on the side before I got down the cab. Yo. MY PERSONAL SPACE brotha. "See you next week." Is what I said in my most ironic tone. It didn't translate of course.

i have about 10 days left here. Gica is homesick for Manila already. Means that I better finish my shopping soon. I'm already making a neat pile of things that I'm gonna have to bring home. I'm gonna be bringing home some sharp STEAK KNIVES to carve up our meat well.

Mahar, we got ur into the woods DVD ;)

mundane info

2005-04-27T00:06:00.000+08:00

much better to have a tall non-fat cappuccino (sp?) than to have a tall non-fat no whip cafe mocha. even if ur cap has one pump of flavored syrup.

cap > latte > mocha

chocolate hazelnut biscotti= vanilla almond biscotti
damage: 110 c