From Donelle's point of view

You can never win a Chess game against Chuck Norris...

2011-12-12T21:23:00.001+08:00

...it's chuckmate the moment you sit opposite him.

Thanks 9gag!

Simple Joys of Life 1: When I throw my clothes into a clothing hook, and they don't fall down

2011-12-10T10:03:00.001+08:00

Kate Upton teaches how to Dougie

2011-04-05T16:53:00.000+08:00

Kate Upton dancing. I like Kate Upton here more than the photoshoots she's done so far. Why? Because it shows her personal, fun-loving side.

Funny interactive Skittles commercial

2011-04-01T00:42:00.000+08:00

My only advise to you is this: Follow the instructions in the video :)

It is indeed challenging to be in the advertising industry nowadays. There are too many things competing for the consumer's attention now, so agencies have to come up with amusing, entertaining, and interactive ads to engage and influence the consumer.

Enough talk - view the commercial here.

Mind-blowing stuff

2011-01-27T18:57:00.002+08:00

1. Mind-blowing toughness in an animal: Water Bear

Yes, this is the water bear. Thanks to mudfooted.com

Water Bears, known formally as Tardigrades, are microscopic creatures that are tough as nails. They are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of −273 °C (−459.400 °F), close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, and almost a decade without water. In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally. (Wikipedia)

2. Mind-blowing idea espoused in a mathematical theorem: Banach Tarski paradox

The Banach Tarski paradox is a mathematical theorem that states that a solid sphere can be divided into pieces such that the pieces can be reassembled into two spheres, with each sphere the same size as the original sphere. Colloquially, it is also termed as a pea can be broken into pieces and reassembled to form the sun. It is mind-blowing because it just doesn't make sense! The key things to realize is that the sphere mentioned here is a mathematical sphere not a physical sphere, and the cardinality of infinite numbers.

3. Mind-blowing awesomeness in a human: Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table because he only recognizes the element of surprise. Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice. Chuck Norris's computer doesn't have the CTRL button because he's always in control. Kids wear Superman pajamas, Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.
For more proof, please refer to the true to life accounts below.

4. Mind-blowing hotness in twins: The Davalos Twins

I don't know all the twins on earth, but I am pretty sure we have the hottest set of twins ever right here in the persons of Camila and Mariana Davalos.(pics thanks to egotastic.com)

5. Mind-blowing violence in a book: 120 days of Sodom
120 Days of Sodom tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate sexual gratification in orgies, while locked away in a castle. As the days pass by, their activities become more and more violent and gross. Let's just say the novel involves a lot of s**t. I don't want to publish violence in this blog, so let me just refer you to this Wikipedia article.

6. Mind-blowing awesomeness in music: Soothsayer by Buckethead
A youtube comment said it best: "The True Story of the Origin of the Universe: there were two all powerful gods of awesome who fought before the universe was created. Their names were Buckethead and Chuck Norris. They fought for eternity until Chuck Norris kicked his most powerful round house kick at Buckethead while Buckethead shredded the most epic solo ever and their two titanic attacks collided and ripped a hole in the fabric of time and then the most massive explosion ever recorded occurred. This event is known today as the Big Bang."

If you like the song, you might like the entire album.

7. Mind-blowing horror due to a disease: Fatal insomnia
Just imagine what it would be like one day to wake up and never fall asleep again, to be tortured in a twilight world of perpetual insomnia, lying in bed, exhausted but with eyes wide open, listening to the groans and whispers of the night -- sleepless, until death mercifully claims you. That is fatal insomnia. (MSNBC)

8. Mind-blowing sniper: Simo Hayha

Finnish sniper Simo Hayha killed 705 Russians in the Winter War of 1939. Consider these:

He accomplished this feat in 100 days
He did it in six feet of snow
The temperature was 20-40 below zero
A task force, a team of counter snipers, and artillery strikes tried to take him (just him) out. But they all failed. Instead, the task force and counter snipers were all taken out.
He didn't use a scoped rifle.

Foolishness is part of human nature...

2011-01-20T16:02:00.000+08:00

Tim Jackson mentioned the following in a TEDTalk, and I paraphrase: We're using money we don't have (credit cards etc) to buy stuff we don't need, that don't make a lasting impact ("flavor of the month"), to impress people who don't really matter to us.

I believe this applies to life in general. People like to spend their energy doing things that don't make a lasting impact.

Happy New Year song!

2011-01-04T16:55:00.001+08:00

Happy new year everyone!

Let me share with you a song I discovered recently by a great band called Thanatopsis. The song is aptly entitled "New Year."

If you like their songs, you can buy them here.

Things to be thankful for in 2010

2010-12-28T00:48:00.000+08:00

As 2010 draws to a close, let me look back at what I had done this year, the successes and the setbacks, and share some of my thoughts with you. I've never formally done this before (if a blog entry can be considered formal), but the pastor in Church last Sunday mentioned that thanking God for His blessings is the right thing to do, so here I am.

Turns out, there are quite a number of things to be thankful for. In terms of...
1. Work, this year had been smooth sailing. I've had some pretty tough projects that got exponentially more challenging as the year ended, but it seems that these difficulties can be surpassed before 2011. I wouldn't have imagined this to happen 3 weeks ago. I have also gotten a small recognition at work this year, something that only happens once every few years. This year was also the year where I traveled the most - to China/HK twice, Korea, Singapore, even Boracay.
2. Work, I'm happy to be active in the recruiting space. It is mildly gratifying to know that you are helping people by giving them jobs. The key to this though is to balance the students' futures versus your goals, which can be a tough decision to make sometimes.
3. Life, I'm really glad I started going to the gym at the start of 2010. I do not go to the gym regularly, and yet I have gained around 15 pounds. But of course, the task of keeping yourself fit does not end after a year of work.
4. Family, I'm glad that everyone in our family is still in relatively good health and the family still has a strong bond though we don't deliberately create memorable experiences.
5. Life, what seems like a golden business opportunity has opened up for me and my friends (actually, the opportunity opened to him - and my friend invited me and another friend). I'm hoping and praying that this really is one.
6. Spiritual life, this is the year where I have begun to be more active in Church. In fact, I had been virtually absent from my Church since I graduated from college! Finally I'm getting myself back on track...
7. Life, it's great to have good friends. I'm not the emotional type, but it's great to have friends you can talk to about anything. Another reason I'm thankful is that the resulting circumstances in #5 actually led me to find an awesome friend, someone who wowed me the moment our glances connected.

And one more thing - it's awesome to receive a birthday SMS from a friend as the clock hit twelve midnight 2 days ago :)

In terms of improvement areas:
1. I've got to learn to be more flexible with my personality, and realize when to be deliberately more emotional in my dealings with people. I think from an all too logical perspective (thanks to my years of studying chess, math, and playing RTS games), and radiate a very neutral outlook (eg: hiding/tempering down emotion, which is actually a double edged sword.). These two things combined is often mistaken by others as a very cold demeanor, even though I do not intend it to be.
2. And yet, I need to be more rigorous at work. Managing increasingly tougher projects makes this all too critical.
3. I need to get more experience. I'm 26, and I still have a lot of things to learn and experience. The professional situation I end up with in 2011 can help steer this I think...

Even the Einstein of humans is still... just a human

2010-11-10T14:07:00.000+08:00

Found the insightful comic above from abstrusegoose. You can just as easily substitute the monkey for a human, and the human as a "higher entity" (multidimensional beings? Read Clifford Pickover's hyperspace book for an explanation. God?)

Classical movies I have seen (and why) - part 1

2010-11-10T11:06:00.001+08:00

I've never been a fan of classical movies until very recently. Black and white just didn't appeal to me, and I thought that the stories were too shallow. Not to mention that the camera techniques and effects back then are very primitive compared to the present - hence boring.

But then I chanced upon a list of the best movies ever created and I was shocked to see majority of them being dominated by very old movies. How could movies created with ancient technology come through as being best of all time? That piqued my interest, and I began watching a few of them...

...and now I can say I am more or less hooked. This from a guy who's seen probably only Ten Commandments among the classical movies before. It wasn't the technology - it was the story and the storytelling that carried movies back then - no amount of special effects can substitute that. Every now and then, the technological breakthrough would happen, which would go on to become the standard for all succeeding movies.

Without further ado, here's the list of the movies I have seen, in no particular order:

1. Ikiru (buy the movie in Amazon)

What it is about: A man - who spent the last three decades of his life dedicated to work - suddenly realizes he has stomach cancer and has only a few months left to live. He realizes he's been dead for the last three decades, and begins looking for ways to truly live his life.
Why did I watch this movie: Roger Ebert said it is the greatest movie of Akira Kurosawa. And Akira Kurosawa's movies are always among the top of the list of greatest movies ever.
Why you should watch this movie: Every person who's been working for a few years now should watch this. Before it's too late. Let me rephrase Ebert: Watch this movie every 5 years and inevitably you'll see how you're slowly transforming into the man in the movie.

2. Rashomon (buy the movie in Amazon)

What it is about: A priest, a woodcutter, and a passerby sit under a gate discussing the most bizarre experience they've had - a hearing about the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife.
Why did I watch this movie: Because it is another highly regarded Akira Kurosawa work - in fact, this was the movie that catapulted him to international fame, winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival
Why you should watch this movie: This movie will make you think very hard about truth, justice, and people's motives. Listen to the testimonies of the priest, woodcutter, thief, wife, and (how did this happen?) the samurai himself. As Ebert wrote, "The wonder of 'Rashomon' is that while the shadowplay of truth and memory is going on, we are absorbed by what we trust is an unfolding story. The film's engine is our faith that we'll get to the bottom of things"
- is it clear I am an Ebert fan? :)

3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (free movie!)

What it is about: The last few days of Joan of Arc's life, starting from her trial in front of the priests until her execution.
Why did I watch this movie: I watched this movie because many have said that the performance of the lead actress Renee Falconetti is widely considered one of the best - if not the best - performance ever caught on film.
Why you should watch this movie: The performance is indeed mind blowing. Many shots are taken close up, showing only the faces, but even these alone carry the emotion and tension of the movie very well. I watched this movie with Richard Einhorn's musical composition "Voices of Light" which makes the silent movie all the more haunting.

The whole movie is available on youtube!

This is a long overdue post.

Modern capitalism isn't that ruthlessly profit-focused.

2010-10-21T15:16:00.001+08:00

So true.

If I delivered our graduation speech...

2010-10-01T11:11:00.000+08:00

If I was the one who talked during our graduation ceremony 3 years ago, I would have said something like this. I wrote the following note 3 years ago, a few hours after our graduation. The same idea was forming in my mind when I was asked to apply for the grad speech, but I decided not to write it down until after graduation. I will not edit this to reflect my current thinking :) I noticed the ending was abrupt - sorry for that.
The essay follows...

I am angry, but I am also quite happy. This would be the best way to explain how I feel right now, as a graduating student standing before you all, and soon, the Philippine society. I know this wasn't the type of opening you all were expecting from me at such a grand event as commencement exercises, so let me explain myself.

Happy.

There are several reasons to be happy.

One. We are students schooled in ideas, concepts, and technology that will be obsolete in 2 to 3 years. We are schooled to find solutions to problems that don't even exist yet.

Now why be happy about this? Because there is one competitive advantage the Lasallian education gives us: the ability to adapt to change, and the discipline to attain success in the face of dizzying changes. And that means we can manage almost anything that the world may slap on us. We will soon find our way around these hurdles, thanks to the torture that our school training gave us. Do I need to elaborate on the "torture" part? On the "dizzying changes" part, I recommend you to watch "Did You Know" in youtube.

Two. The education that we have is not manifested in our diplomas alone. This is an education that is also deeply rooted in values. And that means we have a smaller probability of getting swayed by corrupt practices when we leave the University's four walls. We have a smaller probability of instigating the corruption in our areas. We have a bigger probability of putting an end to corruption and lead the country out of poverty, like Moses who lead the Israelites out of Egypt. But I will come back to this topic in a while.

Three. The third reason is us. There is unlimited potential in each of us, and we can tap these to affect our society. Whether or not we tap these potentials is outside the scope of the school. The school has equipped us with the two important things I have stated above, and it is up to us to awaken our passions and awareness. That will be our foundation for our impactful contributions to society.

Angry.

But why angry?

We are not special. We are not the only batch of graduating students of DLSU. To think in numbers, hundreds of thousands of Lasallian graduates have come before us. Scores of graduation speeches have been said. I bet all of them declare that we - the graduating students - are the future of this land. That we should help those in need, that we should not only look for bettering ourselves but always to think of the common good. The list of these grand ideas goes on.

People say this because these lines are proper, and at such a time when our egos are tremendously boosted by the attire, diplomas, and medals, why can't we? Having it any other way would seem completely stupid. But ask ourselves: If we hear these, do we take it to heart? Or are we already thinking of how we will spend the night in celebration of this "momentous" event? Or thinking of where you can find work? Or, as quite many scientific studies tell, thinking of sex?

Picking up from where I left off a few minutes ago, we should be angry because even after the hundreds of thousands of graduates that have come before us, many of whom carried a huge sense of idealism we currently (might) have, the Philippines has not progressed far. Some would even argue we have progressed in the opposite direction. Corruption is still the norm in most of our government. Worse is many of the people who occupy positions of power in our society are from the creme de la creme of Philippine Tertiary Graduates (like La Salle). What has happened? They have forgotten the speeches they've heard or written years back. They have switched off these ideals talked about so loftily.

But, being angry can sometimes be a good thing. Suppose someone tells you that you did a poor job, and you won't be able to bounce back. What do you do? Accept what you were told? Or will you get angry and tell the person, "I will shove your words up your rear." Then propelled by this anger, you deliver and make the person eat his words in the end.

There are other things we should be angry about, but as we are all graduating students, I believe we have the capacity to figure these out ourselves. This serves only as a spark plug.

Therefore we should be angry, and keep this anger in our hearts and minds.

These are the reasons why I am both happy and angry.

Please watch: Akira Kurosawa films screening at CCP/UP Film Institute

2010-09-03T18:29:00.001+08:00

**Update: I just called CCP today. They confirmed this is free, but you have to be early as they don't accept any reservations and the maximum seating capacity of the theater is only 100.

From Sept 14-19 and Sept 22-30, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and UP Film Institute respectively will be screening the movies of acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa for free. This is done in partnership with the Japan Foundation.

Akira Kurosawa is in my opinion one of the best directors who ever lived. Just look at what other directors have said about him:

Steven Spielberg (E.T., Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, and a lot more)- "I have learned more from him than from almost any other filmmaker on the face of the earth."
Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, enough said): "One thing that distinguishes Akira Kurosawa is that he didn't make one masterpiece or two masterpieces. He made, you know, eight masterpieces"
Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Aviator, Shutter Island): "Let me say it simply. Akira Kurosawa was my master, and... the master of so many other filmmakers over the years"

For a list of his numerous awards, please refer to this resource.

He directed some of the best films I've ever watched - Rashomon, and Ikiru (I even wrote about Ikiru). So I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone to please go to CCP or UP Film Institute to catch some of his films!

Please see the schedules below:

See you there!

The deadliest, most terrifying diseases ever

2010-09-01T01:43:00.001+08:00

Everyone of us hates disease. But there are some diseases that are utterly terrifying. Here's a quick list of the most terrifying diseases I've ever come across.

1. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva - Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is an extremely rare disease of the connective tissue. Essentially, this disease screws up the body's repair mechanism, causing fibrous tissue (including muscle, tendon, and ligament) to be ossified when damaged. Ossified - turn to bone! In many cases, injuries can cause joints to become permanently frozen in place. What's worse, surgical removal of the extra bone growths has been shown to cause the body to "repair" the affected area with more bone.

This is a terrifying disease because it restricts your life so much. You can't put yourself at risk of injury, otherwise you risk ossifying a part of your body, and losing movability of that body part. That effectively rules out almost all physical activity! Being careful/paranoid doesn't guarantee that you won't suffer some sort of injury, and the moment you do, you will probably be permanently disfigured.

The best known FOP case is that of Harry Eastlack (1933–1973). His condition began to develop at the age of ten and, by the time of his death from pneumonia in November 1973, six days before his 40th birthday, his body had completely ossified, leaving him able to move only his lips.


Image thanks to this source. Notice that the bone has "grown" irregularly, leaving a man stiff in areas where he should be able to move.

2. Naegleria fowleria - Ok, so this isn't really a disease. Naegleria fowleria is actually a free-living microorganism (think of something like an amoeba) typically found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs.

Why is it terrifying? Imagine that you're taking a simple, relaxing swim in a pond or lake. Then unknowingly, N. fowleri can enter your body normally via the nose. You can not detect it or shoo it away. And here's where it gets scarier.

The more common name of this organism is "brain-eating amoeba," and it's meant in a literal sense. While it rarely attacks, it almost always means death. How does a very small organism like N. fowleria do that much damage to a human?

In humans, N. fowleri can invade the central nervous system via the nose. The penetration initially results in significant necrosis of and hemorrhaging in the nose. From there, they climb along nerve fibers into the brain. The amoebae begin to consume the cells of the brain piecemeal by means of a unique sucker apparatus extended from their cell surface. It then becomes pathogenic, causing primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM or PAME). PAM is a syndrome affecting the central nervous system, characterized by changes in olfactory perception (taste and smell), followed by vomiting, nausea, fever, headache, and the rapid onset of coma and death in two weeks.

3. Fatal familial insomnia - This is by far the most terrifying disease I've ever come across. As you can probably determine from the name of the disease, it is fatal insomnia. So, one night, you realize that you can no longer sleep even though you're very tired. Then the next. And the next. And the next. Until you die.

Here's one story of a person who suffered from such disease:

Shortly after his 40th birthday in 1991, Michael Corke, a music teacher from Chicago, began having trouble sleeping. In the following weeks, the insomnia grew worse and his health rapidly deteriorated. Eventually he couldn’t sleep at all.

The doctors were baffled but could do nothing for him. Michael was physically and mentally exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to be able to fall asleep. But his brain wouldn’t let him.

Video footage of him appearing at a school orchestra concert revealed a frail old man - a far cry from the fit and healthy individual he was just months earlier. Eventually he was admitted to hospital and doctors diagnosed him with an extremely rare genetic disorder discovered just seven years prior: Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI).

Michael Corke died in hospital after six months from a complete lack of sleep.

Fatal Familial Insomnia strikes between the ages of 30 and 60 years, with no apparent trigger that the sufferer can relate to. Patients have been known to survive for up to three years, gradually passing through four stages of illness:
   1. The onset of insomnia, creating panic attacks and unfounded phobias, lasting for four months.
   2. Severe insomnia, worsening panic attacks and hallucinations, lasting for five months.
   3. Complete insomnia and rapid weight loss, lasting for three months.
   4. Dementia and unresponsiveness, lasting for six months. FFI is eventually fatal.

Why is this so terrifying? Have you ever gone for a week without sleep? Just imagine how much this pain/exhaustion/depression will be magnified, if this is to last for as long as you live (not long, actually).

Thanks to wikipedia and suite101.com for the references.

WTF bus hostage by policeman game - why crimes end up in games

2010-08-24T19:02:00.000+08:00

Barely a day after the deadly bus hostage killings by estranged policeman Rolando Mendoza, an online game about the event had been released.

The game was definitely done in bad taste, reminding me of the dreadful Atari ET game that destroyed Atari itself. No need to explain why, right?

On the other hand, this game reminds me of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG, wherein two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and one teacher. They also injured 21 other students directly, and three people were injured while attempting to escape.

I guess there are a few people who like to take advantage of bad times to make a few bucks.

Watching Starcraft live in Korea - MBC HERO Game Center, Seoul

2010-08-10T01:43:00.006+08:00

Being a Starcraft: Brood War fan (and eventually a Starcraft 2 fan), no trip to South Korea would be complete without watching a Starcraft pro-game live. It was the chance to experience physically what I had watched only via Youtube uploads.

August 8, Sunday. I planned to watch this game:

Now getting around Korea without knowing a bit of Korean can be a challenge. Good thing Teamliquid had a write-up (complete with photos!) of how to get there. The game above was broadcasted from the MBC HERO Game Center, which was fortunately just 3 train stations away from the guest house at Hapjeong.

So after walking a few minutes of walking under a hot Korean sun and asking a few Koreans who knew English along my way, I finally got to the MBC Hero Game Center. Free entrance! :)

The view inside. When I got there the event wasn't starting yet.

Players enter the booth. That is to avoid distractions from the spectators, who tend to shout loudly.

The entire thing was televised! So I made my television debut in Korea...

Turns out that the game that day was Woongjin Stars versus Hwaseung Oz - the latter being the team of my favorite SC player, Jaedong. It's a race to 4 wins.

The Woongjin stars bow before the crowd. Hwaseung does too, later.

It's Jaedong vs Free for the first game. Jaedong opens with a 12 pool into gas into hatchery. Free opens with a forge FE.

I'm not going to talk about the plays that happened. But instead, I'm going to talk about what struck me watching the games live.
1. Set is amazing - For a pretty small set (probably 2-3 classrooms big), it had a whopping 12 screens! The big screen, 4 screens each to show the first person view of each player, and 3 screens near the back of the set. It's easy to see what's happening, but it's a bit hard to follow the overall game, since you can look at 3 views.
2. Atmosphere is intense - In a Youtube game, the excitement isn't there. You can see how long a game lasts, and more often that not, you find out who wins beforehand. That's not true when you watch live. The audience screams "player name hwaiting" before every game. The TV camera focuses on people who are doing something weird - like this Korean guy who took a photo of a player and uploaded it into a photosite - the camera zoomed in on the guy's computer!
3. Fangirls - What I found weird was the fact that there are way more girls than guys who watched this game. And they seem to be the highschool-early college type. I was able to talk to one student who told me she's a biomechanical engineering student, and despite busy schedule, she would find time to watch these games. And indeed, after the game, she patiently waited for her favorite player to come out.

Please take a look at the video I took of the place:

Why you shouldn't try robbing Chuck Norris

2010-08-02T00:20:00.000+08:00

Have you ever imagined what would happen if one - or two - incredibly stupid men would actually try and rob Chuck Norris? Well, this happened in real life! Thanks to listverse for this funny story. These criminals are so stupid, it's funny.

It happened in 1994. Norris mentions this whole thing in his autobiography, “Against All Odds.” And, by his testimony, this is what happened. Honest to God, it really happened.

In 1994, right at the beginning of his run as Walker, Texas Ranger, Norris was, and still is, living in Dallas, Texas, where the show was filmed. One day he was walking down the street by himself, no entourage, no fans following him, no bodyguards, not even his wife. He turned a commercial block in the downtown skyscraper area and saw two men a little bigger than he coming straight for him from the other end of the block.

They were staring right at him, and he figured they wanted autographs, which he enjoys signing. So he walked up to them and stopped with a smile, whereupon they stood in front of him, whipped out a couple of large pocketknives, and one of them demanded, “Give me your wallet, Chuck! Give it here!”

Norris actually opened his mouth wide and then asked, “Are you insane!?”

“No! We know who you are! And we know you got a lot of money! Now give it up, or you’re dead!”

Now before we go further, let us just go over a few of the particulars. All jokes aside, Chuck Norris truly does have the following black belts: 1st degree in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 8th Degree Grandmaster in Tae Kwon Do, 9th degree in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee and Lee’s best student, Dan Inosanto, 10th degree in Shito Ryu Karate, 10th degree in Tang Soo Do, 11th degree in Chun Kuk Do.

Granted, the last art is his own concoction, a hybrid of all the best moves he has learned over the years, all blended for both self-defense and competition, and you are only allowed a 10th degree or better in anything when you found your own dojo. But suffice to say, the muggers didn’t even use guns. From a hundred feet away. They used knives within arm’s reach. What happened next was rather anti-climactic.

The police arrived about 4 minutes later, 3 officers in two cars, and were greeted by the scene of two men with SEVERELY broken arms (the bones had gone through the skin) sitting on the curb, two bloody knives in the gutter, and Chuck Norris, the Almighty Himself, leaning against the wall, wearing his beard, jeans, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat….he shrugged at them. The police started laughing so hard that they bent over, holding their sides, unable to put the handcuffs on the muggers. One of them managed to ask, “Did you not know who he was?!”
One of them said, “Yeah, we knew who he was! We figured all that crap on TV was fake!”

Hilarious Old Spice ad parody - Study like a Scholar, Scholar

2010-07-30T12:02:00.002+08:00

The amazing success of the Old Spice ads have spawned a number of parodies. Here is arguably the best parody - Study like a scholar, scholar.

When ads spawn parodies, that means something!

On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning - Haruki Murakami

2010-07-28T14:38:00.002+08:00

This amazing short story by Haruki Murakami was shared to me by a Korean friend. The charming part of this story is that it can happen to you - have you ever anticipated getting close to the person you desire, and you begin thinking about the myriads of possibilities that may happen once you're there, and how you'd rehearse reacting to each of the situations? The stuff daydreams and other dreams are made of.

The whole story follows, below. There's only one thing this story is about: how would you react if you met the 100% perfect girl one morning, while walking on the street? This story is a part of Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of short stories.

On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl - one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you're drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal. I have my own preferences, of course. Sometimes in a restaurant I'll catch myself staring at the girl at the next table to mine because I like the shape of her nose.

But no one can insist that his 100% perfect girl correspond to some preconceived type. Much as I like noses, I can't recall the shape of hers - or even if she had one. All I can remember for sure is that she was no great beauty. It's weird.

"Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% girl," I tell someone.

"Yeah?" he says. "Good-looking?"

"Not really."

"Your favorite type, then?"

"I don't know. I can't seem to remember anything about her - the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts."

"Strange."

"Yeah. Strange."

"So anyhow," he says, already bored, "what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?"

"Nah. Just passed her on the street."

She's walking east to west, and I west to east. It's a really nice April morning.

Wish I could talk to her. Half an hour would be plenty: just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and - what I'd really like to do - explain to her the complexities of fate that have led to our passing each other on a side street in Harajuku on a beautiful April morning in 1981. This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock build when peace filled the world.

After talking, we'd have lunch somewhere, maybe see a Woody Allen movie, stop by a hotel bar for cocktails. With any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart.

Now the distance between us has narrowed to fifteen yards.

How can I approach her? What should I say?

"Good morning, miss. Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?"

Ridiculous. I'd sound like an insurance salesman.

"Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaners in the neighborhood?"

No, this is just as ridiculous. I'm not carrying any laundry, for one thing. Who's going to buy a line like that?

Maybe the simple truth would do. "Good morning. You are the 100% perfect girl for me."

No, she wouldn't believe it. Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me. Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you're not the 100% boy for me. It could happen. And if I found myself in that situation, I'd probably go to pieces. I'd never recover from the shock. I'm thirty-two, and that's what growing older is all about.

We pass in front of a flower shop. A small, warm air mass touches my skin. The asphalt is damp, and I catch the scent of roses. I can't bring myself to speak to her. She wears a white sweater, and in her right hand she holds a crisp white envelope lacking only a stamp. So: She's written somebody a letter, maybe spent the whole night writing, to judge from the sleepy look in her eyes. The envelope could contain every secret she's ever had.

I take a few more strides and turn: She's lost in the crowd.

Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said to her. It would have been a long speech, though, far too long for me to have delivered it properly. The ideas I come up with are never very practical.

Oh, well. It would have started "Once upon a time" and ended "A sad story, don't you think?"

Once upon a time, there lived a boy and a girl. The boy was eighteen and the girl sixteen. He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful. They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them. Yes, they believed in a miracle. And that miracle actually happened.

One day the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

"This is amazing," he said. "I've been looking for you all my life. You may not believe this, but you're the 100% perfect girl for me."

"And you," she said to him, "are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I'd pictured you in every detail. It's like a dream."

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It's a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one's dreams to come true so easily?

And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, "Let's test ourselves - just once. If we really are each other's 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail. And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we'll marry then and there. What do you think?"

"Yes," she said, "that is exactly what we should do."

And so they parted, she to the east, and he to the west.

The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary. They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other's 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met. But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were. The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

One winter, both the boy and the girl came down with the season's terrible inluenza, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years. When they awoke, their heads were as empty as the young D. H. Lawrence's piggy bank.

They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to acquire once again the knowledge and feeling that qualified them to return as full-fledged members of society. Heaven be praised, they became truly upstanding citizens who knew how to transfer from one subway line to another, who were fully capable of sending a special-delivery letter at the post office. Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 75% or even 85% love.

Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon the boy was thirty-two, the girl thirty.

One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to send a special-delivery letter, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. They passed each other in the very center of the street. The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts. Each felt a rumbling in their chest. And they knew:

She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fouteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.

A sad story, don't you think?

Yes, that's it, that is what I should have said to her.

To the people who don't know, this is Cheryl Cole

2010-07-26T00:31:00.001+08:00

Why many people in my social circle don't know of Cheryl Cole is a mystery to me. This woman is easily one of the hottest women singers/reality show judges on the planet. She isn't famous here in Asia, but if you're that hot, shouldn't the news travel? Anyway, according to Wikipedia:

Cheryl Ann Cole (née Tweedy, born 30 June 1983) is an English singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, model, and television personality.

Following her appearance on The X Factor, the media have referred to Cole as "the nation's new sweetheart". Simon Cowell stated, "she must now be the most popular person on TV."

In a 2009 poll by the Style Network, Cole was voted best dressed woman of the year and style icon of the decade. Cole was also named the "Sexiest Woman in the World" in the 2009 edition of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll, having reached number seven the year before.

Unfortunately, she was married - Cole married Chelsea and England football player Ashley Cole in July 2006. In February 2010 the couple separated. In May 2010, the singer filed for divorce from her husband.

Anyway, here are some of Cheryl's pictures: (images thanks to kineda.com askmen.com current.com)

This is probably one of her most famous pictures

This blog article is now... DIAMONDS!

2010-07-24T02:12:00.000+08:00

You can't read this blog because Old Spice Guy converted this article to diamonds.

More here. Even more at Old Spice's Youtube channel.

The long term joys of teaching

2010-07-06T23:46:00.004+08:00

Let me start with this - at the beginning, teaching is a thankless job. These are the two biggest barriers in my opinion:

1. It's tiring - before the lecture, as you have to plan what to say; during the lecture, for obvious reasons; and after the lecture, for I chose to walk back home :)
I taught Math during Saturdays at my high school - the school wanted its students to know more Math beyond what's taught in the curriculum, so they invited me to teach a few of their current students. I also taught summer Math classes in my nursery school. At that time, I was still a University student. Because I was a student for five days of the week and a campus journalist for seven days of the week, teaching during the weekends becomes exceptionally more tiring.

2. Is it really worth it? - In many university classes, some students would always quip, "am I really going to use <> when I graduate?" Some students do not appreciate the things that are being taught to them. Now imagine when you teach in what others would say optional classes. How less appreciated would you be?
I told my students that in the academic arena, the primary object of learning is to learn how to learn, because school can't teach you all that you need to know in life. But it can equip you with the right framework and discipline for learning, for adapting, for succeeding. Even with that, I've had some (young) students give a blank stare from the beginning till the end of class, and these would hurt me. Some though would believe me, and that consoles me.

At least to me, the joy of teaching becomes imminent once you realize that you've changed someone's life, or you've imparted something that they still remember after a long time. Those have happened to me!

1. Changing someone's life - In my summer Math class, I had a young high school student. He said because he was struggling in Math, it being his worst subject in school, his mom enrolled him for summer. So we went through the summer, and he was one of the energetic students in class. He even came to my house a few times to say hi, play games, or ask questions.
The good part: One year later, he told me that Math is now his best subject! He even asked if I was teaching the next summer. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the next summer...
This memorable experience could not have happened without the help of Paul Garilao and my brother. They helped make this summer class possible by substituting for me in quite a number of classes. (I was doing my thesis, and working as the editor in chief of the university paper at this time.)

2. Imparting something - Continuing what I said to my students about school, since school is primarily about learning to learn, what is more important to achieve then is excellence and well-roundedness.
The good part: 5 years later, someone told me that she remembered this point I said. :)

img thanks to http://philspector.wordpress.com

This is honesty

2010-07-06T16:24:00.001+08:00

Now, this is honesty!

For more 419-related fun (this is the serious type), go to 419eaters.com - scambaiting at its best.

Just who is this woman, the face of Estee Lauder?

2010-07-03T13:43:00.001+08:00

Estee Lauder ads seem to dominate airports both in and out of the Philippines. So in my recent forays abroad, I have frequently seen their ads and wondered just who the model in those ads is.

Thanks to a stroke of luck, I now know who this woman is. Her name is Hilary Rhoda, a 23 year old American model.

Seems that Hilary is a well accomplished supermodel. According to wikipedia:

She has appeared in advertisements for Balenciaga, Valentino, Belstaff, Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Donna Karan, Gucci, Gap, Dsquared, Shiatzy Chen, Blumarine, and Ralph Lauren, and in Victoria's Secret catalogs. She has also appeared on the covers of American Vogue, Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris, British Harper's Bazaar, Time, Numéro, and W.

In January 2007, Rhoda signed an exclusive contract with Estée Lauder as their newest face. In July of that same year, earning at an estimated total of $2 million in the past 12 months, Forbes named her twelfth in their list of The World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels.[5] She is the current face of St. John Knits (replacing Angelina Jolie), ERES Beachwear, and the Neiman Marcus spring/summer 2009 campaigns. 2009 also marks Rhoda's debut in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

Images thanks to proscoutblog.com and atouchofblusher.blogspot.com

When you know the answer, but not how to solve it, improvise! Force fit.

2010-06-29T17:12:00.000+08:00

Many people are like this, especially in business. Given a problem, and our own personal biases and experience, we will always tend to favor a certain answer. Then what would normally happen is that we force fit the scenario to make our preferred answer the right one.

Did the folks at BP experience this, during that fateful project?

Not sure how many ideas have been killed because of this thinking.

Take a look at the alt tag of that image:

Handy exam trick: when you know the answer but not the correct derivation, derive blindly forward from the givens and backward from the answer, and join the chains once the equations start looking similar. Sometimes the graders don't notice the seam

Thanks XKCD!

Seriously, this woman is 43 years old.

2010-06-23T09:18:00.000+08:00

Meet Araceli Gonzalez. A few facts about her:
1. She's Argentinian.
2. She's a model, actress, and TV host.
3. She's 43 years old!
4. She has a daughter, who was born in 1988!!

Imagine that - not only is she 40+ but she also has a daughter! How can a 40+ year old mother look like this? Wow. Some pictures of Araceli Gonzalez:

And here's her daughter. I actually like Araceli more.

The color strata

2010-06-21T18:36:00.002+08:00

For those who are obsessed with color names:

Here are some weirdly-named colors that aren't necessarily in this infographic. (Thanks toptenz!)

1. Malachite
2. Gamboge

3. Fallow
4. Razzmatazz
5. Falu red
6. Arsenic
7. Feldgrau
8. United Nations Blue
9. Xanadu
10. Caput Mortuum

Talking to a prisoner serving 500+ years

2010-06-19T12:52:00.003+08:00

This is sad. A man convicted of several home invasion robberies, serving time totaling to 521 years and 11 life sentences! Listen to Louis Theroux interviewing him.

Or watch Louis Theroux interview two brutal, wanted criminals in South Africa. They talk easily about how they'd force people to give up their money. Some excerpts from what the criminals said:
"I don't feel ashamed (to kill a cop)... I will die for my job... to do crime... I like crime"
"only money that I want... I will show you with your last born if you don't want to give me money... to the oven, microwave oven. I put him like this to the oven. Then you see I want money... I make oven on... What will you say?"

Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.

2010-06-14T14:01:00.000+08:00

This is probably the shortest "speech" ever made, spoken by Edmund Hillary (first person to reach the summit of Mt Everest) to his friend George Lowe on returning from Everest's summit.

Once more.

Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.

The secret powers of time - Phillip Zimbardo

2010-06-14T10:19:00.001+08:00

Please watch this.

Beer, men, girlfriends, and a transporter

2010-06-08T16:55:00.000+08:00

I think every bar in the Philippines needs this. But I won't be using it. :)

In any case, take a look at the video, it's amazing marketing!

The Davalos twins: Who could be hotter than these twins?

2010-05-29T02:06:00.002+08:00

Meet Mariana and Camila Davalos. They are US-born Colombian models who host a show in Colombia.

I'm pretty sure they are the hottest twins on the planet. And if you google them, you'll get a ton of photos but in case you're lazy, here are some of them:

Camila's on the left. I think she's more popular between the two.

Since I like Camilla more, I'll post more of her pics:

Thanks to portal-colombia.com, photobucket, and blogspot for these photos!

Wired.com quoted my article! :)

2010-05-27T10:53:00.000+08:00

Please take a look at this Wired.com article.

They quoted a Multiply blog entry I wrote ~2 years ago on the Internet Tidal Wave, a famous 1995 memo that Bill Gates wrote. Well, to be completely transparent, they only quoted my transcription of Gates' memo.

That's all! :)

The tragedy of the commons

2010-05-26T23:11:00.000+08:00

thanks to cashewman

A few people have asked me why I don't have a car, although it's quite easy to obtain one given our company policies. I have a number of reasons for doing so, and most of them are pretty mundane. There is one reason though which I would like to share to you, and I hope that you'd also learn something from it.

The tragedy of the commons

The tragedy of the commons is an idea created by ecologist Garrett Hardin. It describes a situation in which "multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource (the commons) even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen." In other words, this happens when what's best for a group of people conflicts with what's best for individuals.

Cows in a piece of land

Let's try to understand what this means. (thanks Wikipedia!) Imagine a group of herders sharing a big common parcel of land, on which they are each entitled to let their cows graze. It is in each herder's interest to put the next (and succeeding) cows he acquires onto the land, even if the carrying capacity of the common is exceeded and it is temporarily or permanently damaged for all as a result. The rationale is: The herder receives all of the benefits from an additional cow, while the damage to the common is shared by the entire group. Additionally, the damage to the common is too small to be spotted at first. If all herders make this individually rational economic decision, the common will be depleted or even destroyed to the detriment of all.

Note that you don't even need to be greedy and put in many cows. Even just one cow will degrade the common, but at a slower rate. This is the real tragedy.

Translating to modern times

This translates very well in modern times because we still have commons, and many more people than in medieval times. Our capacity for raping the environment has also increased.

So in the example above, if you would take air as your commons, and cars as the cows, the situation is the same. We know cars will degrade the air around us, but the damage is too small to be felt, and the damage is shared by everyone. The benefits to the individual would outweigh the damages, given the individual is comfortable financially. So it's in everyone's best interest to drive cars everyday and/or get more cars. But, there will come a time when this environment can no longer bear the damages and shut down.

This is true not just for cars. Take littering for example. When you litter, each individual instance brings too little damage to the overall environment, so everyone does it. But at the end of the day, we see that the floods are caused in part by blocked drainage due to the combined effect of everyone littering.

I just hope this concept was taught in university. I think one of the impacts if this was widely propagated is a decrease in consumerism, and our economy in its current framework would suffer.

What does it mean to me?

What this means to me is that I won't be having a car for quite some time. There will come a time though when I can no longer make the sacrifices. And it's sad.

MOST AWESOME FIGHT SCENE EVER. Watch it :)

2010-05-25T20:26:00.001+08:00

I didn't know someone in Asia can potentially stand up to Chuck Norris.
I wanna watch this entire movie!

The entire movie is available on youtube. Part 1 is here, it's part of a playlist.

The secret of attracting women - by the Book of Secrets

2010-05-22T11:51:00.001+08:00

I'm starting to read Thomas Eaton's Book of Secrets, a book compiling several unrelated secrets, trivia and how-to's. Articles inside include: How to survive a shark attack, the inspiration behind Harry Potter,
why a black box is called black although it's orange, the history of Kotex, and the molemen of New York.

One of its opening articles is "The secret of attracting beautiful women" where Eaton highlights 10 points:
1. Be appealing - After first impressions have faded, women are more attracted to a man's manner than his look. So a man should work on honing charm and being more appealing.
2. Lead an interesting life - A recent survey revealed that women look for men who have led interesting lives. So don't refer to your failed business venture, spin the truth to make the episode sound like an example of your brave, impetuous, go-getting nature.
3. Aim higher - Beautiful women frequently complain that men never approach them.
4. Dress well - Be well-groomed and tidy, but don't spend too much on appearance - a woman will rarely date a man who is prettier than she is.
5. Make her laugh - A woman will find humor entertaining, which subconsciously means she can relax.
6. Be sincere - Women are receptive to men who are kind, thoughtful, sincere and good listeners
7. But don't be too sincere - Another study revealed that women instinctively divide men into those who can be friends and those who can be lovers. If you play #6 too much, you're the friend.
8. Play cat and mouse - If she's playing hard to get, then do the same. But you must make the next move.
9. Make her feel special - Treat her as if she's unique, appreciate her and never take her for granted.
10. Do your homework - Find out what her father is like, for most women, the father is the most powerful image of manhood. Then determine what you want: women want a fling with a cad, but a relationship with a dad.

What do you think?

Overall, this book is really fascinating.

I hope I was at the receiving end of this CPR

2010-05-21T14:57:00.001+08:00

Unfortunately, not all CPR is like this.

Super Sexy CPR from Super Sexy CPR on Vimeo.

There will be a new video coming Jun 1. They will be showing super sexy abdominal thrusts then.

The tale of the Painted Bird, and social norms

2010-05-21T01:48:00.001+08:00

One book that I have been looking for recently is "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski. It is set in WW2 times about a six year old boy who was sent by his parents to a distant village to avoid the horrors of war. Little did the parents know what would happen to their child...

I haven't gotten around reading the book, but an excerpt from it sparks my interest. Find it here:

Sometimes days passed and Stupid Ludmila did not appear in the forest. Lekh would become possessed by a silent rage. He would stare solemnly at the birds in the cages, mumbling something to himself. Finally, after prolonged scrutiny, he would choose the strongest bird, tie it to his wrist and prepare stinking paints of different colors which he mixed together from the most varied components. When the colors satisfied him, Lekh would turn the bird over and paint its wings, head, and breast in rainbow hues until it became more dappled and vivid than a bouquet of wildflowers.
Then he would go into the thick of the forest. There Lekh took out the painted bird and ordered me to hold it in my hand and squeeze it lightly. The bird would begin to twitter and attract a flock of the same species which would fly nervously over our heads. Our prisoner, hearing them, strained toward them, warbling more loudly, its little heart, locked in its freshly painted breast, beating violently.

When a sufficient number of birds gathered above our heads, Lekh would give me a sign to release the prisoner. It would soar, happy and free, a spot of rainbow against the backdrop of clouds, and then plunge into the waiting grown flock. For an instant the birds were confounded. The painted bird circled from one end of the flock to the other, vainly trying to convince its kin that it was one of them. But, dazzled by its brilliant colors, they flew around it unconvinced. The painted bird would be forced farther and farther away as it zealously tried to enter the ranks of the flock. We saw soon afterwards how one bird after another would peel off in a fierce attack. Shortly the many-hued shape lost its place in the sky and dropped to the ground. These incidents happened often. When we finally found the painted birds they were usually dead. Lekh keenly examined the number of blows which the birds had received. Blood seeped through their colored wings, diluting the paint and soiling Lekh's hands.

One day he trapped a large raven, whose wings he painted red, the breast green, and the tail blue. When a flock of ravens appeared over our hut, Lekh freed the painted bird. As soon as it joined the flock a desperate battle began. The changeling was attacked from all sides. Black, red, green, blue feathers began to drop at our feet. The ravens ran amuck in the skies, and suddenly the painted raven plummeted to the freshly-plowed soil. It was still alive, opening its beak and vainly trying to move its wings. Its eyes had been pecked out, and fresh blood streamed over its painted feathers. It made yet another attempt to flutter up from the sticky earth, but its strength was gone.

What this excerpt nicely illustrates is the concept of social norms and how it - in a way - forces people to act and behave in a certain way. If you do not conform, you are isolated and pressured and harassed. This is even more pronounced in the corporate setting, but we have the concept of diversity masking it.

Why chasing beautiful women isn't worth it

2010-05-18T00:35:00.002+08:00

Because it can literally put your life in danger! Let me explain.

This happened 6 years ago, I was still a college sophomore. It was around 5pm, and I was on the way home, waiting for either a jeep or an FX on the northbound side of Taft right across DLSU. It took quite a while on that particular day for a suitable ride to come by, I remember getting agitated.

A jeepney finally passed by and stopped. I caught a glimpse of an FX right behind it. While normally, I would opt straight for the FX, I decided against doing so. It was because I noticed there was a beautiful girl (a Lasallian, probably Chinese judging by face) who also took the jeepney. Two thoughts entered my mind: maybe I can get to know the girl; a beautiful girl would take the jeep why shouldn't I.

So I entered the jeep. I sat in the middle of the jeepney, diagonally from the girl - yeah, not the best positioning.

Right as we entered, 3 men also entered the jeepney. I remember that it was exactly 3. Two men sat beside me - one to my left, one to my right. The other man sat further out, near the exit. I remember feeling that these two men couldn't settle in their seats well, they were always jittery and shifting their weight around. I thought they just felt uncomfortable.

Then somewhere near Malvar, as the jeep slowed to a stop as it approached the stoplight, the man near the exit suddenly got up and covered the exit with his body. Feeling some sort of panic, I glanced around to see the two men to my left and right suddenly announce a holdup. Throw in a bunch of expletives to heighten the suspense. I can't remember if it was the man to my left or right who lifted a gun from his bag - probably the left. I think the gun was a revolver, details are hazy.

The man pointed the gun straight to my belly and told everyone to give their stuff. The man seemed to know how to carry the gun, and I don't think he was shaking - it seems he has done this before. At that moment, my life flashed before my eyes for a split second, but amazingly I remained calm. It's good I carry around an old phone (even by the standards of 6 yrs ago!) and only little cash in my wallet. So I calmly gave my stuff to the men. I think a few of the passengers were shouting and cursing the thieves. It's good that didn't irritate the thieves or else they could've opened fire (at me!).

They took phones and wallets from the passengers, and quickly got off the jeepney. I didn't lose much that day, but I noticed one young girl crying hard. She said that the phone the thieves stole was only a few days old and was expensive. When I got down at Binondo, the girl was still crying.

Two things I learned from this experience:
1. Always be alert. Watch out for people who can't sit still, eyes are darting around, and won't pay the driver.
2. When riding the jeepney, it's better to sit near the exit so you can get off when you sense something bad. Or the front seat.

OK, maybe "chasing" isn't the right term :)

Oh yeah, the thieves also stole from the beautiful girl.

Ketchup gang - new modus operandi?

2010-05-17T01:18:00.000+08:00

I was going home one evening and I was in the Buendia cor Taft-Divisoria jeep when I witnessed this crime a few seats away.

I got in the jeep around 8PM near the Buendia-Taft intersection, there were only roughly 4-5 people then. Everyone inside looked safe (I always take a look at the people inside and if I can get a good position before I get in - I've experienced bad stuff there more than 2 times already. This was still early so, although it's not the best setup, I figured it's ok) so I hopped in and stayed at the end near the exit. A minute or so after, a 40-ish guy got in and stayed in the middle on my side of the jeep, and shortly afterwards 3 or 4 more people. The jeep was still in Buendia at this point.

This 3-4 people consisted of a mother carrying a small child, and 2-3 decent looking men. They don't seem to know each other. All except one sat on one side of the jeepney. The mom and child sat on one side of the 40-ish guy, 1-2 men sat on the other side. The last of this group sat on the other side of the jeepney sat right in front of the guy.

A few minutes after the jeep turned to Taft, the child spilled what seemed to be some ketchup on the guy (Or it could be someone on the outside, I'm not really sure. My mind was a bit preoccupied at that point). Then this group sprung into action, helping the guy wipe the ketchup from his shirt. I'm not sure if other passengers offered to help - I guess not. They even had tissue paper ready. In all honesty, there was very little ketchup on the man. But their actions seemed like there was a lot.

At this point, we thought the man and the man in front of him knew each other. The man in front seemed to be the most enthusiastic in helping. They tried to wipe ketchup from him for a full minute or so, maybe a bit more.

The guy was finally "clean." A few seconds after, the people seated beside him all got off the jeep at the same time. A few minutes later, the man sitting on the other side got off as well.

When we got to the DLSU area, the man checked his pocket and realized that his mobile phone and wallet were gone.

A crime perfectly executed. This happened because of the distraction offered to the passengers, and no one knew of this beforehand.

On the other side, I'm happy this whole fiasco happened without guns.

How great leaders inspire action

2010-05-13T19:00:00.002+08:00

I love this short talk. In essence, tell people (in this order) why you're doing something, then tell how you're going to do it, then what needs to be done. That is how you inspire action.

This is the most hilarious set of commercials ever!!

2010-04-30T17:29:00.000+08:00

Terry Crews stars in Old Spice Odor Blocker commercials. Warning: what follows next is sheer awesomeness!

School 360 - the story of our (yet unpublished) book - anyone willing to publish it?

2010-04-25T23:30:00.000+08:00

In the year 2007, my friend Paul Garilao and I were faced with a question: What have successful people done during their youth that set the stage for their future success? Did they do something special during their schooling years and the few years after their graduation?

We hoped to uncover a few principles that can help current students maximize their life, and invest in their future.

So throughout 2007, we interviewed several people who many people would consider successful in their fields:

Rico Hizon - multi-awarded Filipino BBC broadcaster
Cecilio Pedro - CEO, Lamoiyan Corporation
Paeng Nepomuceno - one of bowling's all-time greats
Jim Lafferty - former President, P&G Philippines
Lea Salonga - internationally renowned performer
Bobby de Ocampo - former Finance secretary and president of AIM
Donald Lim - CEO, Yehey! and the youngest president of PMAP
Bebet Gozun - former DENR secretary and one of the UN's 7 Champions of the Earth
Boni Comandante - inventor/entrepreneur, pioneered "sleeping fish" technology
Francis Kong - author, sought-after speaker, and businessman
Jim Libiran - News and Public Affairs head and director of Cinemalaya 2007 prize winner "Tribu"

There are a few other people we interviewed. Overall, we interviewed a good mix of people.

Nearly 3 years have passed. We have had our own personal endeavors and can't devote all our time to this, and we've struggled to put our book together. Youth became an impediment for us, I think. But not before making a few drafts and a framework together. :)

In brief, let me share this framework with you, my dear readers:

We have found that our "school360 champions" have knowingly or unknowingly adopted a 4-step framework in their student lives. Note that it proceeds from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, although you can always take steps back.
1. Openness to new experiences - This is a combination of getting out of one's comfort zone, trying new experiences, and taking risks in life. It always starts from this.
2. Passion and purpose - Step #1 enables people to Step #2. This is about finding a consuming passion or a purpose. It doesn't matter how early or late it's discovered, but having it early is definitely a help.
3. Hard work - Having clarity on Step #2 makes Step #3 worthwhile. This is all about hard work, perseverance, grit and pushing yourself for years.
4. Improve yourself - At the end of the day, one should improve from his/her experiences. You come out of your experience a better, stronger person! This improvement can be either personal or professional (esp. in business.)

Would you be interested to read this book once we publish it? Please let me know - I'm looking forward to your comments. Thanks!

Why Dick Gordon is arrogant - and why he should be President

2010-04-22T18:11:00.000+08:00

Sharing this amazing writeup from Facebook.

To my friends here in the US: It is very much agreed even by supporters of top leading contenders Villar and Noynoy Aquino that Dick Gordon is the most qualified of the Presidential Candidates for the forthcoming election in May. Not only is he intelligent,not only is he organized and honest but also because he has the guts to deliver on his promise. However many feel he is too arrogant to win. Read on and see why some people do not want him to win. Please read on. And if you are convinced he should be the next president of the Philippines, please pass on the forwarded reasons why Dick should be on the ballot of every single relative or firend you have in the Philippines.

After all these years, it took a Dick Gordon to tell GMA to her face that Pardoning Estrada after conviction of corruption and plunder if a gross miscarriage of justice. It made a mockery of all the small fries out there who had the guts to expose the bad things happening in the government. Our Mother country deserves to come out of the the hole all the corrupt officials have buried our country in. It is not too late to get Dick to the top of the race and win this election. IF you cannot vote, I am sure you care enough to tell your family and friends who are in thePHilippines to vote for the right man. Forward this mail. This is a Battle to regain our Country.

Dick Gordon was arrogant as class president in the Ateneo when he started an anti-complacency campaign that students were apathetic and indifferent to society's ills and were basking on the shadow of the greatness of Rizal and dela Costa during the 60's.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he joined Raul Manglapus' presidential campaign under the Party for Philippine Progress and went against the traditional politics of then major parties of NP and LP.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when after his father's assassination he left a cushy corporate job at Procter and Gamble to study law at UP and seek justice.

Dick Gordon was arrogant while still 24 years old and a law student at UP and against the advice of his professors ran for a seat in the 1971 Constitutional Convention representing Zambales..and won.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when as the youngest delegate he called for a vote on the ban Marcos re-election measure in the 1971 Constitution Convention and even debated with Marcos who was his brod during a student demonstration against the CCP and PICC construction amidst the social unrest of the First Quarter Storm.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he left his career as a lawyer at ACCRA to ran and become the youngest Mayor of Olongapo City in 1980.

Dick Gordon was arrogant before the nation when he transformed the community of Olongapo that was portrayed as Sin City by instituting reforms such as the Color-Code, efficient Garbage Collection and enforced Peace and Order and went against the very criminal syndicates that had previously cost him his father's own life.

Dick Gordon was arrogant to call for a joint use of the US bases by Filipinos and Americans coming up with a plan even while Marcos and Reagan were re-negotiating the bases treaty in the 80's long before the closure in 1992.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he jailed some 20 policemen including a chief of police for disturbing the peace and abusing their authority in his city even during the period of Martial Law.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he interfered and went against the wishes of the Aquino administration and the NDCC and brought down 8,000 Aetas from the mountains of Zambales as well as led a rescue team with Americans to the ruins of Central Colleges in Cabanatuan and airlifted relief goods using US marine choppers from Clark to Baguio in the earthquake of 1990.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he let the then Admiral of the US Navy walk and apologize to the community for not letting Filipino citizens of Olongapo safe passage through the base when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991.

Dick Gordon was arrogant before Congress and the Senate when he lobbied for the creation of a Freeport and at the same time take the reigns as Chairman of the SBMA in 1992.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he competed against leading freeports like Hong Kong, Singapore and Labuan to make Subic an international trade and tourism destination.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he refused to go before Congress to receive a budget from the national government to run SBMA and instead raised his own revenues to spare Filipino taxpayers additional burden and add more to the government coffers.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he competed against Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong to host Federal Express' Asia One hub in Subic that resulted in Orchids from Davao and fresh tuna from General Santos to be brought overnight to Japan and the US markets.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he reprimanded, suspended and fined foreign investors like Hong Kong Chinese of Reebok, Koreans of Hanjin Construction, Taiwanese of UIG, Germans of Alcatel and Americans of Enron and Coastal who were abusive and or have violated labor and environmental laws, respectively in Subic.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he forced the longer stay of 21 world leaders of APEC in the Leaders' Summit to prove that the country was a safe and a sincerely changed nation.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he fought for the best bid for the Filipino taxpayer of Hutchinson to privatize the Subic container port against vested interests in the industry and co-opted high ranking officials of the Ramos administration who wanted to maintain and preserve a monopoly.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he was the first to stand up against the most popularly elected president, Joseph Estrada, who issued his first act of not recognizing government security of tenure and the rule of law in 1998. He still remained arrogant going against and even after GMA granted the latter pardon.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when despite initial demonstrations and walk-outs he made the Department of Tourism shape up as a frontline service agency to be voted top government department in a survey by the Makati Business Club when he ended his stint in 2004.

Dick Gordon was arrogant to lead the tourism industry at the height of kidnappings, war in Mindanao and even more arrogant to sustain the effort to promote the Philippines amidst Abu Sayyaf, SARS, and the Oakwood mutiny.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he stood up against first world countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia who issued unfair Travel Advisories indirectly rewarding terrorists against third world countries like the Philippines who's economies depend on tourism.

Dick Gordon was arrogant to run for the Senate even while surveys placed him at number 29 and that he had no money and machinery yet landed number 5 even without sectoral religious support.

Dick Gordon was arrogant in the Senate in consulting and unifying the fragmented tourism industry to have a common policy body and push for the Tourism Act in Congress until it was finally signed into law in 2009.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he commandeered an entire US marine battalion to relocate their joint training exercises in Luzon to assist in rescue and relief operations in the St. Bernard, Southern, Leyte landslide in 2005.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he took charge and ordered various government rescue personnel and even media during the chaotic Wowowee ULTRA stampede.

Dick Gordon was arrogant in the 13th Congress when he defended the integrity of the Constitution, despite voting against it in 1987, before unlawful moves for CHACHA, PIRMA and PI by GMA and Speaker de Venecia.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he summoned PCGG officials and jailed Chairman Sabio who refused to be investigated for corruption and mismanaging ill-gotten wealth that they were supposed to retrieve and protect.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he grilled Abalos at the Senate hearings where his litigation style of questioning unmasked the earlier grinning and sheepish former COMELEC Chair to admit that at the height of election period for the May 2007 mid-term elections he traveled on many occasions to China to play golf with ZTE executives.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he debated for four years with his colleagues to pass the Automated Election System law to ensure the sanctity of our votes and for our electoral system to modernize and become at par with democracies like the United States and India where results are decided immediately the next day. He still remained arrogant in pushing the COMELEC to implement the law ASAP and have the budget that now in May 2010 we will finally have automated elections.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when even while on vacation in the US in 2007 he went to the Senate and House of Representatives in Capitol Hill to lobby for the Americans to settle and pay their Debt of Honor to World War II Filipino Veterans that fought and died side by side with American soldiers. He remained arrogant when he authored, pushed and had the Veterans Benefits Act signed into law by GMA that the US Senate voted their counterpart measure 94-1 and the new Obama administration included US$198 Mil Fil-Am Veterans Benefits in the impetus bill.

Dick Gordon was arrogant not to join GMA in an official trip to the US in 2008 and instead flew to Iloilo to lead rescue and relief efforts for typhoon Frank victims in Panay island and Negros island in the Visayas and Cotabato in Mindanao.

Dick Gordon was arrogant as Blue Ribbon Committee Chair that in the Fertilizer Scam he jailed JocJoc Bolante in the Senate on Christmas and Paule in the Pasay City jail and in less than 18 months when he continued pending investigations that took years, came up with a report, recommendations for laws needed and the filling of charges to perpetrators of the Fertilizer Scam and the NBN-ZTE deal including concerned members of the Cabinet, the President and the First Gentlemen in 2009. He remains arrogant and wants the Ombudsman elected as it has been corrupted many times over and JocJoc Bolante is still free and now running for Governor in Capiz while GMA is running for Congress in her hometown and maybe immune from suit in the future.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he had more equipment and rubber boats than the government and NDCC to lead rescue and relief at the height of Ondoy and once again commandeered a US Marine force to refocus from joint training exercises to humanitarian missions with Red Cross and Coast Guard in rescue and relief effort for typhoon Pepeng flood victims in Pangasinan, La Union and Benguet.

Dick Gordon was arrogant when he stood up in the joint session of Congress to question the validity of GMA's declaration of Martial Law in Maguindanao and the issuance of firearms and ammunition by the DND to para-military forces under the Ampatuans in said area.

Dick Gordon was arrogant even on Christmas when Mt. Mayon erupted and the MV/Baleno sunk of the port of Batangas that he investigated the concerned shipping and maritime agencies who's mismanagement yet caused another disaster in 2009.

Dick Gordon was arrogant during the last days of the 14th Congress this year when he asked colleague Manny Villar to be interpolated to defend himself on the C-5 controversy. He remains arrogant in challenging Villar to a debate after the latter left the Senate Session Hall refusing to answer questions from colleagues.

SO now you know why Dick G. is arrogant.

We must now therefore find fault and castigate Dick Gordon for being arrogant. It is about time that we elect him as president for with such passion throughout the years and with such measure of arrogance he will cope with the myriad challenges of a thankless job of leading our country and putting fire in our bellies to be able to compete with the rest of the world - proving that only he has what it takes to stomach and overcome the relentless social, political and economic corrupt system we are in.

All in all, Dick Gordon is a passionate leader who does not let anything or lets anyone get in the way in doing what is best for the country and people. It's up to you to believe in such arrogance and make the arrogant choice on May 2010.

Be arrogant yourself and pass this on to your friends and loved ones!

Create your own album cover - quite fun when you're bored

2010-04-20T01:29:00.000+08:00

I am bored now, so my friend suggested to do something quite unique - create my own album cover! It's a very easy 3 step process:
1. Come up with an artist name - get the name you see via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
2. Come up with the title of the album - get the album name you see via http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 get the last few words of the last quotation.
3. The album art - get an image you see via http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days

And here're mine!

Let me know how yours comes out!

Beautiful Asians battle: Angelababy or Ayumi Uehara?

2010-03-26T17:04:00.000+08:00

I recently stumbled into HK model Angela Yang aka Angelababy online. According to Kineda, she is one of Hong Kong’s most popular models. Angelababy began her modeling career at the young age of 14 and has literally been on the cover of every woman’s magazine in Hong Kong. The media simply can’t get enough of her huge eyes, sweet smile, and eurasian looks. Last year she grossed over HK$2 million from product deals with Nokia, Shiseido, Giordano, Fendi, 7 for All Mankind and other high profile brands.

Here are some of her pics:

Ayumi Uehara on the other hand is a pretty 27 year old fashion model and actress from Tokyo. She started acting in 2000 and has since appeared on 12 TV shows and is currently appearing in TV Asahi’s Eazy Sports and Otome音女 .

Despite her TV appearances, she has really been more popular as a fashion model regularly appearing in magazines such as S Cawaii and Puckish. She’s also modeled for lingerie maker Ravijour, MTV Pinks, Kobe Collection 2008 Autumn/Winter and appeared on MTV Japan and girlswalker’s Girls Collection vol1 and vol2.

Update: A lot of high res pics are here. Just scroll down the page to see more photo sets.

Some sample pics below.

So who do you choose? Ayumi Uehara or Angelababy?

The best eye photos

2010-03-22T23:20:00.000+08:00

The first photo is of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan girl photographed by National Geographic's Steve McCurry. Her photo has captivated the world since coming out on the cover of a Nat Geo 1985 magazine.

Image thanks to photobucket

She was never photographed again, until 17 years later. To find out more about Sharbat, click here.

The second photo is of a young girl. I don't know her name, but I find her eyes incredibly beautiful.

Image thanks to pixdaus.com

Google's take on our 2010 presidential candidates...

2010-03-22T14:40:00.000+08:00

I only picked out the 2 most popular candidates. Google doesn't seem to have suggested search results for the others.

Manny Villar

When it comes to search volumes, Manny Villar dominates the race according to Google Trends, followed by Noynoy Aquino (at 46% of Villar's search volume), Gibo Teodoro (at 24% of Villar's), Erap (19%), and Br Eddie Villanueva (7%). Dick Gordon does not generate enough search volume.

Youtube now transcribing audio!

2010-03-04T10:20:00.000+08:00

Youtube is now transcribing the audio part of its videos - see screenshot...

This seems to be for a select number of videos only. Songs for instance can't be transcribed.

This is an amazing development for deaf people to benefit from Youtube, and for normal people to understand better and faster.

And here's the actual video!

Funny Chinese products - Can opener

2010-03-01T18:16:00.000+08:00

I bought a China made can opener yesterday, so that I can eat canned goods in the office. Reading the product characteristics in the can opener I bought is a laugh! Here it is: (word per word, capitalization copied as well)

Product characteristics and usage:

1. High-Quality products through Manpower design, using effort and convenient.

2. Specialized manufacture, specialized production-runs equipment, cutting high rigidity and sharp.

3. Beautiful shape, reliable structure, guards against rust durably, strives for perfection the perfect manufacture.

4. Keep sanitary, wiped it clean after uses up

Why I love "Ikiru"

2010-02-28T00:12:00.000+08:00

Ikiru is one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen in my whole life. It revolves around Kanji Watanabe, a public servant who recently discovered he had stomach cancer and has only a few months to live. Realizing his whole life went by worthlessly (the movie goes on to describe that "he has been dead for the past 20 years"), he resolves to spend the last months of his life doing one final selfless act.

I love this movie. Let me share with you what parts of the movie impacted me. I'll mention a few spoilers to reinforce my point - but I think they won't destroy your viewing experience.

1. It is an attack against living for the sake of living - This is the problem Watanabe encountered - he has stomach cancer, and he only has 6 months to live. Several tries at redeeming his life (entertainment, drinking, gambling, flirting with a girl) failed. In a flash of insight, he decides to do something of enduring value with the last 6 months of his life - to put up a park in a city area where originally there was a cesspool.

...which I think is a problem many people have. It is a problem I have. Life is reduced to routine, and we try to break our routine by having "fun." But at the end of the day, what was the purpose of all that?

2. It is about politics - During Watanabe's funeral, Watanabe's (only?) achievement in life was claimed by the deputy mayor. A debate ensues between his colleagues finally showing bits and pieces of how Watanabe worked through the pain and the bureaucracy. He worked passionately and silently, as the cancer was killing him slowly. A note on the bureaucracy - the citizens who raised the request have been shuffled through all City Hall departments but to no avail. Watanabe-san had to humiliate and risk himself to get the papers moving.

...this issue still dominates workplaces and life in general. I do not like politics. It robs the excellent but self-effacing people the credit they deserve. And there is a breaking point.

3. It encourages you to listen - In one scene in the movie, Watanabe-san was about to tell his son of his stomach cancer when his son rudely interrupts him. His son then complains about his supposed "affair" with the young girl (see item 1) is causing problems. Dumbfounded at his son's outburst, he decided to not share his predicament at all. Fast forward to the funeral, the son cries, "Why is Dad so cruel? He didn't even tell us he had cancer."

...we have to listen. Maybe it won't be repeated again.

4. It tells the cold truth about inspiration - During the funeral, after his colleagues realize the great work Watanabe has done, they resolve to do things better. To "sacrifice self for the many" and to not waste his death. But once back to the daily grind, their idealism fades...

...Inspiration dies fast often. Which is why rallies are not effective. Which is why our politicians make great promises but fail to keep them. Which is why great ideas die in the bureaucracy.

There are other great things in the movie, but I choose to write only a few very obvious ones, and other more obscure ones.

Oh no, a Villar ad is in my blog...

2010-02-15T23:34:00.000+08:00

Villar has a lot of money. :\ And there's round 2!

...and another one.

JK Rowling - The fringe benefits of failure (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

2010-02-12T16:35:00.000+08:00

I highly recommend JK Rowling's commencement address at Harvard. She talks about the fringe benefits of failure, which I think is very, very applicable for us. Especially so, since majority of my social circle led very cloistered lives in school, and were also pretty much successful without getting a taste of bitter failures.

Let me highlight a few points that struck me from Rowling's speech:

1. There is an expiry date at blaming your parents for steering you to the wrong direction... The moment you are old enough, responsibility lies with you. - At some point in your life, you begin to take the wheels. I believe this, but this has to be clarified.

It's true that you have to take responsibility for your own direction in life, but what your parents imparted with you can make or break your desired state in life. Read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, the one on Bill Gates. Success is not just because of you, it's because of everyone and everything around you. In quick points, Bill was born in 1955, the so-called perfect date for software tycoons. Bill's parents enrolled him in a forward-looking school, one that allowed him to be exposed to computers at a young age. Because of this, he had the prerequisite 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert in the field.

But it is true that once this preparation was set in place, it was up to Bill to take Microsoft to the next level. I would think though that if Bill's parents weren't there, he probably wouldn't be where he is right now.

2. It's impossible not to fail, unless you've lived so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which you fail by default. - Many people choose to play it safe and avoid risks. This statement strikes straight at this belief.

I was talking to a friend (still a student) over the weekend, asking how his day goes. He goes: wake up in the morning, go to school, go to the tutor, go home and eat dinner, study, take a bath, then sleep. The next day is exactly the same. So what do you do during the vacation, I ask. TV, and possibly Math summer class.

Even for people who are employed, it's the same routine over and over. Settle into a routine because it's safe. Avoid risky things because they might present harm.

I have been like this for a long time, but I'm happy because I know I'm doing something out of the ordinary. Let's see how it goes.

Rowling said it best - when you don't take risks in life, you fail by default.

3. Failure meant stripping away all of the inessential/set free by failure - Rowling said that failure strips away the inessentials and allowed her to direct her energies to what truly mattered to her (which is writing). This is a new perspective to me - by failing you can narrow down your focus on that one thing that matters to you.

By failing, she knew herself better: her inner strengths, and the strength of her relationships.

4. Life is not a checklist of achievements - But there are those who confuse it. In a way she also meant that happiness in life is not obtained via achievements, or money. A sad reality in the world today, more so because it's driven by the world economy so there's virtually no escape from it.

Google Buzz - firsthand impressions

2010-02-10T23:41:00.000+08:00

I got Google Buzz last night, and I've been playing around with it for the past few hours. Here's what I think about the product.

What is Google Buzz to me?

Google Buzz is a Twitter/Friendfeed on steroids with Wave-like features.

Strengths:

1. Photos and videos - Buzz makes uploading and viewing photos very easy. Take a look back at Twitter: Twitter was never meant to be a photo-sharing service, but as the site matured more and more need arose for sharing photos. Services have come up addressing this need (like Twitpic) but the user experience is not seamless. Buzz addresses this problem nicely.

Apart from displaying the images inline (a la Facebook), viewing the images in large size is also a breeze for Buzz. In the screenshot below, note that the image is displayed over a grayed out Buzz window.

2. Integration with Google ecosystem - Buzz is closely integrated with Gmail, and let me explain why this is a good thing. Google emails buzzes where a comment has been made, similar to FB's notification bar. You can then comment on buzzes directly from that emailed message. Since Gtalk is intertwined with Gmail, you can also directly IM that person. Buzz also allows for @-ing people even within your comments (Facebook doesn't support this).

The fact that Google Buzz slid into Gmail also leverages the natural email network that you already have. I don't have a lot of contacts, so it's not entirely useful for me, but for people with many contacts, this may be more fun. I think that this network can also be used to serve as a noise filter in the future.

It also allows for nice integration with other Google properties like Google profiles, Blogspot (more on this later), Reader, and Youtube.

3. Blogs * - One of the biggest uses people have for Twitter and Facebook is for posting links However, to actually see the contents in that link, you have to click the link. In Buzz, blog posts (seemingly only for blogspot atm, but I'm hopeful they'll expand!) are shown inside the individual "buzz" and you don't need to actually visit the blog to see the content.

Clicking expand shows my entire blog post.

(Why did I not include mobile and the Foursquare-like features? Because I don't use it :) )

Cons:

1. Facebook - I think this is a deliberate effort of Google to leave out Facebook integration, but with Facebook being the world's largest social network (at 400 million strong), Google not integrating with Facebook means people still need to open Facebook. Facebook is soon launching its own webmail service, and that will just eat into Gmail.

2. No extensions - This is too early to tell, but I'd appreciate if Goog would roll out Chrome/Firefox extensions.

3. No outgoing capability - My blog automatically posts to Twitter, my Twitter automatically posts to Facebook. I'd like Google Buzz to have this capability as well, so that when I post a buzz, my Facebook and Twitter profiles are updated. It should be intelligent enough though to interpret duplicates and remove them from my stream.

What would really make me happy:

1. If Google Buzz would become the ultimate social aggregator - I've long been hoping to have a one-stop shop for all my social networks.

Here's the official Google video on Buzz:

Creative bento boxes

2010-02-10T14:42:00.000+08:00

If I were to come across bento boxes like these, I wouldn't eat them at all.

via Oddee

Google's Superbowl ad - A love story told via searches

2010-02-08T12:03:00.000+08:00

Google's first Superbowl ad. Techcrunch described it well - "Amid dozens of ads focused on cars, beer, and busty women, the Google spot definitely took a different approach: it tells a love story through a series of search queries. The tale begins with a query for “study abroad paris france”, moves on to “impress a french girl” and eventually makes it all the way to “how to assemble a crib”, showcasing Google’s technology in a way that pretty much everyone can relate to."

Strip games

2010-02-03T13:18:00.000+08:00

I gotta hand it over to Randall Munroe (of XKCD) for his ingenious use of Google.

Strip tennis sounds.... awkward.

My favorite Chuck Norris facts and videos

2010-02-02T14:23:00.000+08:00

Everyone knows Chuck Norris is the man. Here are some of my favorite Chuck Norris facts, ranked in no specific order :) There's too many to mention, actually.

Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because Chuck Norris only recognizes the element of surprise.

There is no "ctrl" button in Chuck Norris' computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

In fact, if you "find chuck norris" on google and press "i'm lucky", you'll get the screen below.

Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter

For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Chuck Norris, each testicle is larger than the other one.

If at first you don't succeed, you're not Chuck Norris.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.

Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

In a fight between Batman and Superman, the winner would be Chuck Norris

Fire does not burn Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris burns fire.

Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.

Chuck Norris is suing Myspace for taking the name of what he calls everything.

Here's why Chuck Norris can never become a video game character. The game would be too easy.

And here is what Chuck Norris likes to do for fun, when he's not out beating the hell out of every person he sees:

Classroom conversations - say this when you're caught sleeping in class

2010-01-24T17:15:00.000+08:00

Say this when you're caught sleeping in the classroom:

Teacher: Mr/Ms ____, must you fall asleep while I'm speaking?

Student: No Ma'am, it's purely voluntary.

This witty response is attributed to British politician and WWII leader Winston Churchill when he was dozing off at a meeting. Note that the teacher has to say something along the line above, or the response will be out of place.

(img thanks to jeanchoi)

Best sniper ever. - Simo Häyhä "The White Death"

2010-01-23T02:04:00.000+08:00

Simo Hayha (1905-2002) is the best sniper who ever lived, accumulating over 505 (505 confirmed, 800 according to local figures) sniper kills and 200 submachine kills in his less-than-100-day stint during World War 2. He is Finnish, and was a farmer and hunter before joining the war.

What makes Simo Hayha the deadly sniper that he was? (sources 1 and 2)

1. He used iron sights rather than telescopic sights. While harder to aim, Hayha pointed out the benefits during a 2000 interview:

a. the scoped rifle forced him to raise his head a bit more than he liked, and this added profile might have given a Red Army sharpshooter too good of a target

b. sunlight glare in telescopic lenses will give away position

c. iron sights were not prone to breakage or fogging which was a real worry in the snow and ice of Finland during the Winter War.

d. he had always used iron sights and was used to them.

2. He blends in with the snow

a. he compacted the snow in front of him so that the shot wouldn't disturb the snow, thus revealing his position

b. he kept snow in his mouth so that when breathing he wouldn't reveal his position

As a result, read this Listverse snippet:

Of course when the Russians caught wind that a shit load of soldiers were being killed, they thought ‘well this is war, there’s bound to be casualties’. But when the generals were told that it was one man with a rifle they decided to take a bit of action. first they sent in a counter-sniper. When his body was returned they decided to send in a team of counter-snipers. When they didn’t come back at all they sent in a whole goddamn battalion. They took casualties and couldn’t find him. Eventually they ordered an artillery strike, but to no avail.

Eventually though he was shot in the jaw by a stray bullet during combat on March 6 1940. He was picked up by his own soldiers who said half his head was missing. He didn’t die however and regained consciousness on the 13th, the day peace was declared.

(image from this source)

Classroom conversations - say this when you are sitting in a class

2010-01-19T13:30:00.000+08:00

An engineering student sat in an algebra class once because he had friends in that class. The professor came in and after a few minutes noticed that student. It so happened that the professor knew him from a past course, and said:

Prof: Mr. ___, are you sitting in in my class?
Student: No ma'am, I'm sitting down.

This did happen in university, shared by Eric Nabos.

How to live a longer life

2010-01-14T17:25:00.000+08:00

One of the best TED talks I've heard. Listen to Dan Buettner share simple and practical longevity tips.

A revelation to me: Exercise (in the modern sense of the word) is not evident in the lives of the world's long-lived folks. :)

Usain Bolt, Japanese style

2010-01-12T22:52:00.000+08:00

Funny Japanese show :)

Google's Nexus One phone is dubbed the "superphone" but a better phone is already out

2010-01-07T18:55:00.000+08:00

Mike Arrington writes, "Google introduced the term 'superphone' to the world yesterday when they unveiled the Nexus One Google phone. Right from the beginning of the hour+ presentation, Google execs were referring to the Nexus One as the first 'superphone,' a term not previously widely used..."

The article title is "let's just skip to the super-duper-phone."

Now in relation to those, I find one user comment extremely hilarious:

Soon there will exist a device so powerful, amongst its features it’ll have a speaker capable of projecting voices several hundred yards… I call it the megaphone.

Why Ninjas > Pirates

2010-01-07T17:06:00.000+08:00

Here is why Ninjas > Pirates

AVATARIZE YOURSELF

2010-01-06T15:09:00.001+08:00

Many run, but who's run to save oneself?

2009-12-24T12:06:00.000+08:00

Many people are into running now, but I bet only a few had run to save themselves. I had this kind of experience, more than 2 years ago. Running is experiencing a revival in my social circle, so this old blog entry (over at Multiply actually) is seeing a repost, with a few edits.

I had a dinner with some of my P&G colleagues in the G/F restaurant of 6750 (the one before Lolo Dad's), and after nice food and talk, I finally left for home at around 1030PM. I commuted home.

At the time of this event, I lived in San Nicolas Street, a few meters from Chinatown Steel Towers, the 28-storey building in Chinatown (of course). It was already 1130 by the time I got there.

To help visualize the path, I have to walk along the Asuncion street side of the Steel Towers, and make a left turn into San Nicolas Street where my house was located. Asuncion is a brightly lit street, San Nicolas is a darker street with many vehicles parked alongside.

As I turned the Asuncion-San Nicolas intersection, I noticed two men sitting on a stump near the intersection. Being naturally observant, I took a quick glance at them - one guy seemed to be sleeping and the other was looking blankly into space. They didn't seem to be dangerous. Anyhow, I walked past them and around the intersection, into the darker street.

I was now walking along San Nicolas. Have you ever experienced that at times you can somehow feel if someone's looking at you, or even following you? I got this weird feeling a few seconds after turning the corner, and trusting my instincts, I turned around a few seconds after.

And, I saw the guy who was staring into space at the intersection. He was walking silently behind, following me. He must have been following me for about five seconds already.

There was absolutely no one (awake) within my immediate vicinity. There were a few sleeping people, but they were behind a truck and couldn't see me. Even if they were awake, I'm pretty sure these people wouldn't help me (the bystander effect). I've experienced it once before: I was robbed in broad daylight at knife point, and people saw it but just stood there, passively.

As I turned around seeing the person, the person's face suddenly became aggressive and started to chase me.

I carried a heavy bag, I was tired, and my mind was rather preoccupied with work. But seeing the person start to give chase (I only got to see his face and some features, I couldn't make out what he carried, he is probably carrying something), I had no choice but to run. For a split second, I thought of fighting - but I also remembered that this guy had at least one companion - who knows if he has more companions on the other end of the street.

Run on a silent, dark street at 1130 in the evening.

I ran, and I shouted while I ran to call attention nonetheless. I made a quick turn behind a truck, got near the sleeping people, and darted to the door. The guy must've panicked when I did that (again, I can't be sure, everything is so blurry). That noisemaking, along with the facts that I have a much longer stride than the guy, and there were people and street lights around 30m away, might have bought me time and I managed to get to safety and get into my house.

No one woke up when I shouted. My legs felt extremely tender then, and I felt that at anytime during the chase, I could've fell down. But it was just a short chase, probably lasting less than a minute.

The local government or the baranggay should be making sure its constituents are safe... Or, people can be more vigilant and form some kind of group. I am not sure.

What could have happened if I didn't trust my instinct and turned to see the guy? What could have happened if I fell down? We can never know for sure. Somewhere in the multiverse, my friends there know - if the multiverse exists.

Peace in the middle of the fire.

2009-12-22T01:06:00.001+08:00

Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Buddhist priest who set himself on fire as protest against the abuse of Buddhists by the government. This singular act was seen as the pivotal point that ultimately toppled the then-reigning regime.

But that is not my main point in writing about him. I'd like to mention what journalist David Halberstam wrote after witnessing the event:

I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

This is courage. You have to wonder how he endured that until the very end.

I oftentimes quit some endeavors even though I haven't poured out all my effort into them. Sometimes I feel I lack guts, or the determination to press on. I can learn some things from Thích Quảng Đức.

(img from Wikipedia)

My favorite "athletes" #1 - Lee Jaedong

2009-12-21T21:58:00.003+08:00

I think that Filipinos in general take "athletes" to be basketball/football/tennis/track-and-field/boxers/etc players. While yes, of course they are athletes, I think there's many more athletes that many Filipinos quite ignore. Let me talk about my favorite "alternative athletes."

Thanks to nerdnexus.com for the image

Pro-gaming - Lee Jaedong

20 year old Lee Jaedong is a Zerg progamer, and in my opinion one of the best Starcraft players ever. He has extremely solid mechanics. (very fast hands - over 400 actions per minute. Think about that. One action could be selecting a unit or morphing a larva or attacking a unit. 400 apm is close to 7 actions a second!) But more than mechanics, he has amazing game sense (timing), effective scouting, and even more effective aggressiveness/harassment. More on this later.

I can say that pro-Starcraft is a combination of several facets of other sports:
-> It is as strategic and rigorous as chess. "Build orders" or the order with which you build units, buildings, expansions, and upgrades are studied and practiced - think chess openings. As an example, in Terran vs Zerg, if you miss the timing for producing missile turrets by just 15 seconds, mutalisks will have already come in and ravaged your mineral line. Likewise, if the Zerg misses the timing for Dark Swarm upgrade, Terran siege tanks will have already destroyed your natural expansion. Which is why scouting your opponent's base is critical in Starcraft, to determine how your opponent opens, and know the appropriate timings of their attacks.
-> It requires as much alertness as contact sports like basketball. On the spot decision making is critical in Starcraft. When an opponent attacks your base, do you pull your forces back, or do you counter? In Protoss vs Zerg, a lone dark templar left unchecked can kill dozens of drones unless you bring detectors and attacking units to fend it off. And more often that not, you only see it as a blip on the minimap. A sneaky shuttle dropping a high templar on your mineral line, if not stopped, will often kill your entire mineral line in a few seconds. Pros need to see these things and move their miners out a few seconds before the enemy drops, or take it out with scourge (Zerg)/placing anti-air (Terran and Protoss).
-> Apart from these, it requires multitasking like no other sport. Harvesting resources (and controlling idle workers), creating unit-producing buildings, producing attacking units, upgrading, attacking your units, harassing enemy bases, expanding. All these have to be done in rapid fashion to keep up. This is especially true for Zerg, as units are fragile, and the units require a lot of clicks to manage (lurkers, clumped mutalisks, defiler/ling/ultra combos, scourge suicide attacks). I can not multi-task like this, so while attacking, my production buildings are not running at full throttle. It's amazing because pro-gamers can simultaneously attack, defend, build units, expand and more.

Take a look at this recent Jaedong game. You can see how the points above come to life.

The level of decision making these players have to think about are generally split into two: micromanagement and macromanagement. Good explanation here, and I quote: Good micro means efficient and precise use of individual fighting groups in specific encounters, and good macro means economic expansion, mass unit control and production, and appropriate technology choices. While a few years ago great micro was enough to dominate, today the emphasis is much more on well-rounded players with macro skill that will make up for errors in their micro control. In other words, Starcraft continues to become more and more competitive even at its highest levels.

The only bad things here are that you have to do this sitting down, your hands will eventually give up, and your eyes will be messed up. Which is why some teams require their players to go to the gym.

And this guy is a practice freak - according to a coach, "The gamer that possesses everything a coach wants is Jaedong. Not only he has an amazing record, his mindset and attitude and everything else is flawless. For example, when a coach asks a gamer to practice over 100 games to win a game, many gamers complain. However. JD takes such a demand for granted - a natural way to improve himself. That's the difference of mindset." This is the Nadia Comanece principle.

Our DLSU LEADERS student projects

2009-12-19T18:02:00.000+08:00

So the DLSU run of LEADERS (Leadership course, taught by retiring P&G Philippines General Manager Jim Lafferty) has come to a close. I'm happy with how the class has turned out, especially with the great projects done by our students. There were 10 groups all in all, and here they are one by one:

Note that these projects were taken from conceptualization to execution within a time frame of 8-9 weeks, by students who are pretty much busy with their other academic commitments, so the scale of their projects are not that big. Due to these constraints, these projects effectively served as "proofs of concept." There's definitely potential to make these projects even bigger, if the right organizations are tapped in the future!

1. "Leading them out of poverty" - This project jumpstarted a livelihood program (haircutting, etc) in a community in Tondo. The students had to find a community, and also an NGO that specialized in teaching livelihood skills. Since the entire training program lasts 6 months, the project was transitioned to an organization in DLSU.

2. "Flush less, save more" - This project aimed to reduce the water consumption within DLSU by putting water banks in DLSU's (old, high water consuming) toilets. They were able to perform a test in one toilet with considerable improvements, and is now being considered for scaling up.

3. "Budget management 101" - This project helped security guards in DLSU manage their own finances by partnering with BPI to administer a budget management seminar to them. The guards found this useful, and are looking to make this a regular activity.

4. "Let's make way for volunteerism" - This project was an NGO awareness week held inside DLSU. The students invited 6 NGOs to spread their advocacies in the school (a rarity) and also to get sign-ups from students. Many students visited the NGO booths and a good number also signed up.

5. "Taft guys think green" - This project advocated the use of hemp bags as an alternative for plastic bags. The students had to handle the entire supply chain and were able to sell a good number of bags. Proceeds went to Gawad Kalinga.

6. "sTARP it" - This project collected used tarpaulins and partnered with a business establishment to convert them into usable items like bags. They also sold these bags within the University and a store outside. Proceeds went to the environmental fund of DLSU. The store now wants to continue the sale of tarp-bags.

7. "Health alert" - This is a health awareness campaign specifically targeting Business students. They partnered with the Physical Education department to heighten awareness and increase reach. Additionally, their materials are going to be used by the department in their future activities.

8. "iMedical" - This project created a web app that contains data of hospitals within the Philippines, presented with a Google Maps-like interface. (They started with 50 hospitals entered in the system). To manage the site after the course, they partnered with an outside group.

9. Tree planting for kids - This project took a few dozen kids from a certain community to a tree-planting activity, with the intent of helping foster environmental awareness in these kids. The students were able to invite student volunteers to help out in the actual activity.

10. Course introduction videos - This project aims to help high school students make the right decision on what course to take up in college. A series of introduction videos for courses have been shot and recorded and uploaded in youtube. See an ECE sample.

So what did I like about the projects in general?

There is much diversity in this class, as seen in the projects they did. It is also nice to see people from different course backgrounds collaborate and come up with unique ideas.
It's interesting to see that this course provided a venue for the students to do something they probably would not have done otherwise. I have not done something like this in my college years.
It's also leadership in action. Since this is a leadership class, we wanted the students to practice leadership in practical situations. It's nice to see people applying the frameworks on leadership and project management that we shared during the course.
Finally, with their projects, they have helped some people in their own ways.

It was a great opportunity co-facilitating this class!

Places I want to go to - Socotra

2009-12-18T17:30:00.000+08:00

This is a place I want to go to at least once in my life! Socotra or Soqotra (Arabic سُقُطْرَى ; Suquṭra) is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean and is presently part of Yemen. Many blogs I've read regarding the place describe it as the most alien-looking place on Earth. I agree and you'll see why later. That's the reason why I want to go there!

The island is very isolated and DRB said it's been isolated from Mainland Africa for 6-7 million years, and so a third of its plant life is endemic to Soctra, in other words it's found nowhere else on the planet. If you're a plant or animal enthusiast, then this will be heaven on earth.

Socotra is famous for the so-called Dragon's Blood tree. It's a unique plant found only in Socotra, and you can see how its trunk suddenly spreads out into tiny branches in a mushroom-like manner. (photo thanks to besthike) It is called dragon's blood because the sap of the tree is a bright red color.

Another famous plant in Socotra is the Desert Rose (adenium obesium). People describe it as a blooming elephant leg. (img from fun2fun)

Another famous plant in Socotra is the Dorstenia Gigas. It's a very tough plant, and can plunge its roots down solid rock. (img from Flickr).

Apart from fascinating plant life, Socotra also has very unique animal life. According to ftiyemen, at least 80% of Socotra's reptiles are endemic. Some animals here include 20cm giant centipedes, huge spiders which spin yellow webs across woodland gaps, and the Egyptian vulture.

It's not just plants that are cool here. Check this out, Al Hajarah. (img via Christopher Fowler)

Or the beach, or the shipwrecks.

Want a slideshow instead?

Strange Plants Of Socotra

View more presentations from Trinity Blu*** Don’t Thank Me for Viewing Shows....but Rather, Pay It Forward :))*** .

[reblog] Boxer's brutal, realistic take on eSports

2009-12-16T01:20:00.000+08:00

Slayers_Boxer (Lim Yo Hwan in real life) talked about the current state of eSports in Korea. Boxer, being the man who almost single-handedly created the pro-gaming industry and creating countless Starcraft innovations (M&M play, Dropship play, micro in general), tells the brutal truths in today's pro-gaming scene. This is so eye-opening I had to repost from Teamliquid.

I am a pro-Starcraft fan, and I'm a fan of current players Jaedong and Flash. This article is not going to talk about the basics of Starcraft, so don't expect to know about how the game has matured over more than a decade - more info on Starcraft pro gaming is here.

On the past 10 years of eSports

It's a big accomplishment to have a market this big, from nothing. In the beginning, players worked as freelancers trying to win the competition prizes. It was the time when a sense of professionalism and teamwork didn't exist. It was basically playing for fun and going on to tournaments when they came around. After that, the team system was established because practice partners and a system were necessary. Still, there was nothing but the tournament prizes. Back then team managers didn't have other revenue models and things went on like that.

Then ProLeague started and corporate-sponsored teams were established. There was salary for players who aren't necessarily good or win tournaments. It was a good period as the team system got implemented.

Honestly, nowadays fans are leaving. When the time was good we should have pulled more corporations, embraced the existing fans, and attracted new fans. Even looking at ProLeague now, things are awkward for players. It's a feeling of not perfectly modeling it as a sports. It's the positioning of a half of sports and a half of entertainment.

One reason that fans are leaving is that the biggest chunk of eSports, StarCraft, does not have a big market globally. It's popular in Korea and there are tournaments, but oversea there isn't much attention. I felt the limit as I won WCG twice. It didn't feel great even after I won the gold. Not much attention from Korean media either.

The scale is different for basketball or other sports. Fan service is different, and with cheerleaders, gifts, and events, fans are totally occupied. You can even eat in stadiums. eSports stadiums don't sell food, and there's no entertainment beside watching the game. Fans concentrate when games are exciting, but when game are boring they lose focus. eSports is emotional, so more investment in fan service is needed to grab audience's attention continuously.

Replay is a big problem too. The retirement of old progamers was influenced by replay. Even when Nal_rA and others pulled off an interesting strategy, copying it a day or two after is possible because of replay. As the old progamers went down, fans left. More effort was needed to hold them, but such effort is insufficient nowadays.

When I met the former Korean president Roh, I asked for a government support to grow eSports. But the government said that since Korea is eSports' home and it will grow on its own, let's just watch it. No special attention.

I hope that government helps it grow more. Instead of just supporting baseball, basketball, and soccer which came from abroad, I hope that the government supports the domestically-grown eSports. Instead of just growing it in Korea, I hope that those who had their foot in Korea go abroad and help develop eSports. There's no answer unless things go globally.

On StarCraft 2

I haven't played it. But I hope that it spreads globally. When StarCraft 2 comes out, or even some other game gets to be competed internationally, it might be bigger than StarCraft-oriented eSports. When PC cafes are spread, popular games get support, so when StarCraft 2 comes out and other countries open more PC cafes, people might play it more. I'm worried that even if StarCraft 2 leagues are developed, they become a Korean thing after couple years.

On the gaming culture

Society's perception on gaming is still not good. When I was practicing in ACE, an army officer took a kid to the practice room and asked me, "He's so into gaming. Please tell him to stop playing." I was in the army, but it was awkward because I was still a progamer. It's not enough for me to tell him to keep trying, but how could I tell him to stop. Parents know that it's a tough path and they know about the income distribution of progamers. It's difficult for reporter-loved progamers to come out either. Fans are diminishing too. It's a bad cycle.

On SKT T1's Chinese player

The company had expected much, but he didn't meet the expectation. Even before that, bringing in non-Korean players for Hexatron failed. Unless eSports becomes really a sports, I'm worried that we might have to buy some broadcasting rights from China. Talking about it isn't enough. Specific plan needs to be laid out. Korea has better driver experience, but China has better engine. You can't ignore China.

What does AIDS awareness and Adolf Hitler/Josef Stalin/Saddam have in common?

2009-12-14T20:06:00.000+08:00

An ad campaign is the answer.

Saddam Hussein, Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler figure in an AIDS awareness campaign. What I like about this particular campaign is the shock value - it doesn't get more shocking than this. The creators of this probably wanted AIDS awareness to be discussed widely and yes, they were successful.

If this was done in the Philippines, they can utilize the recent Maguindanao massacre in place of the three.

Make love, not porn - an interesting (but tricky) TEDtalk

2009-12-06T22:31:00.001+08:00

Make love not porn. Cindy Gallop talks about how hardcore pornography has influenced how young men think about sex. Since porn is readily available, it has become the default sex education of young men. Because porn is generally not realistic, argues Cindy, young men learn sex the wrong way. She also argues the need to reeducate and reorient their thinking.

Watch the TEDtalk below. There's graphic language but I think with the way she delivered the talk, that's fine.

My Nov 2009 HK experience in pictures

2009-12-06T13:47:00.000+08:00

This is my HK experience in a few pictures. Blogger isn't a very user-friendly blogging platform for uploading photos so I'll upload just a few.

Dinner at Cafe de Coral! The food there tastes good!

Majority of the food is already inside the pot.

At Stanley Market. We met two cute Spanish toddlers here. Charmagne wanted so much to take a photo with the kids.

At The Priory, we met three new friends there - Neva, Tami and Colleen. Hoegaarden was great - not cheap though - 65HKD (~400PHP) for 1 pint.

One of the attractions at Ngong Ping is the Tian Tan Buddha. You have to climb 268 steps in order to get to the top. It was foggy then so I couldn't get a clear picture of the Buddha.

Below the Tian Tan Buddha, there are several statues giving "offerings".

Nice view of the pillar, e? :) This is in the Buddhist temple.

Jet Li

A tourist's best friend- the always reliable MTR.

Bruce Lee.

My TEDxManila experience, and 3 things I've learned

2009-12-06T13:20:00.000+08:00

Social business, environment, and education topics were the recurring themes in the Philippines' first ever TEDx event held in the Malcolm Hall of the University of the Philippines last Dec 5.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading." While originally starting as a conference focusing on Technology, Entertainment, and Design, its scope has gradually increased to cover more topics like science, arts, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development (wikipedia). TEDx stands for an independently organized TED event.

Roughly 200 people from the academe, industry and civil sectors attended the event.

Tony Oposa talked about the environment, and the misconception of consumption and extraction (of the Earth's natural resources, to a point it exceeds the rate of replenishment) being used to gauge a country's progress. He advocates for a change to CPR economics - Conservation, Preservation and Restoration.

Mark Ruiz shared his idea of social business, specifically his work in Hapinoy and how it has been improving the lives of small sari-sari stores in the country. Illac Diaz illustrated his many ideas of using locally available materials to build sustainable and durable housing materials for people. More than being reactive to natural disasters Illac maintains that we should be proactively preparing for these. His way is by building these durable houses and empowering the locals to build them on their own.

Graham Glass emulates the Swedish system of knowledge schools in his educational venture called Edu2.0 and shares his vision of the future of education. Edu2.0 is an online learning management system offered free to schools. This enables students to learn at their own pace and in the comfort of their own homes. Glass believes that adventure learning leveraging games would be big in the near future. Mel Tan shared the progress of the government's elearning initiative eSkwela. Since 2007, 2500 learners have benefited from the program.

TED videos shown during the event included William Kamkwamba's brilliant innovativeness in building a windmill for his community using only materials found from the scrapyard and a few books. Pranav Mistry stunned the audience with his revolutionary SixthSense technology, a technology that brings the digital world into the physical world.

What did I learn from Ted?

1. The alternative view that an economy based on extraction and consumption is wrong. Primarily because this is not sustainable. As Tony Oposa illustrated, the Earth is like an inheritance of money from our forefathers. We should use only the interest and not eat up the capital. But at the rate we're using the Earth now, there would be no capital left for the next few generations. Global warming is the accumulated consequences of what we've done so far.

2. The right mindset in battling natural disasters should be prevention through proactive methods. Focus on the high-risk areas, but utilize cheaper alternatives so it can be reapplied faster. Social business can play a part in making this happen.

3. There are many things that can be done in life, we've got to go ahead and try them.

A small cocktail outside the Malcolm Hall after the event - This is where conversations happened.

Illac Diaz is a genius. Loved talking to him after TEDx. How he cools and lights his house is amazing!

Using boobs to promote shoes

2009-11-30T22:08:00.000+08:00

Ingenious ad by Reebok uses talking boobs to promote its new running shoes...

They say sex sells :)

Castrated for the love of music - the castrati

2009-11-26T23:16:00.000+08:00

Castrati are male singers who have singing voices equivalent to sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, or contraltos (female voices essentially) due to castration (removal of the testicles) of the singer before puberty or have never reached sexual maturity by some reason.

It is obvious that castration prevents the necessary flow of hormones to stop a boy from reaching puberty, hence the vocal cords cannot enlarge and cause his voice to become lower. As a result, castrati had the high voice of a boy soprano but the lung power of a grown man. Castrati were treated like superstars in the 18th century due to the popularity of opera. They made a lot of money and had throngs of fans. Girls would even seduce them and have sex with them because they were sure they wouldn't get pregnant.

Their training regimen seems to be harder than present-day singers. Wikipedia recounts "The regime of one singing school in Rome (c. 1700) consisted of one hour of singing difficult and awkward pieces, one hour practising trills, one hour practising ornamented passaggi, one hour of singing exercises in their teacher's presence and in front of a mirror so as to avoid unnecessary movement of the body or facial grimaces, and one hour of literary study; all this, moreover, before lunch. After, half-an-hour would be devoted to musical theory, another to writing counterpoint, an hour copying down the same from dictation, and another hour of literary study. During the remainder of the day, the young castrati had to find time to practice their harpsichord playing, and to compose vocal music, either sacred or secular depending on their inclination. This demanding schedule meant that, if sufficiently talented, they were able to make a debut in their mid-teens with a perfect technique and a voice of a flexibility and power no woman or ordinary male singer could match."

Wondering how a castrati's voice sounds like? Listen to the clip below. Comments to that video seem to indicate that this is Alessandro beyond his prime, so his voice quality has already declined. He does not seem to be the best castrato either, but he does hold the distinction of being the only true castrato singer who was ever recorded.

How academics differs from business.

2009-11-25T14:24:00.000+08:00

Spot on. Another amazing piece by XKCD that highlights the big difference between an academic career and a business career.

If you're interested, read up on Guy Kawasaki's blog on things that should be taught in school. He mentioned "Perhaps in school people have plenty of time and no money, so long papers, emails, and presentations are not a problem. However, people in the real world have plenty of money (or at least more money) and no time."

The most beautiful man in the world...

2009-11-20T19:07:00.000+08:00

...is this guy. Search for Nong Poy on Google.

Slideshare has a detailed presentation about his journey, plus some more of his pictures.

Most Beautiful Man In The World

View more presentations from aie006.

Good afternoon, my name is Russell, and I am a wilderness explorer...

2009-11-18T21:57:00.000+08:00

Does this kid look like Russell from Up or what?

This is the real Russell. Found by my brother on Facebook.

Anyway, cue Russell's lines: (thanks to kpbs.org)

RUSSELL: Good afternoon. My name is Russell. And I am a wilderness explorer in tribe 54, Sweat lodge 12. Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?

CARL: No.

RUSSELL: I could help you cross the street

CARL: No.

RUSSELL: I can help you cross your yard.

CARL: No.

RUSSELL: I could help you cross your porch.

CARL: No.

RUSSELL: Well, I gotta help you cross something.

CARL: No, I'm doing fine.

RUSSELL: Good afternoon. My name is Russell. And I am a wilderness explorer in tribe 54. Sweat Lodge 12. Are you in need of any assistance today...(door slams).

Gotta love Twitter's scheduled maintenance image

2009-11-18T17:03:00.000+08:00

Raise your voice for Climate Change - support the Filipino voice

2009-11-17T13:57:00.000+08:00

It's pretty rare to have unknown people raise their voice in a big way for climate change. That's exactly what my friends Paul Garilao and Ponching Orioste are doing right now, joining the COP15 Raise your Voice 2009 campaign. To vote for their entry just visit www.youtube.com/cop15; click vote; search Philippines on the videos per country; and click the green thumbs up sign for the entry entitled: Raise Your Voice by Filipino environmental advocates.

Please vote for them! :)

I've been thinking myself about what steps can be taken to help the environment. Often we focus on big controversial problems (like the recent Ondoy/Ketsana storm) and use that as a springboard for discussion. But I think some more fundamental aspects of our city life can be changed to produce significant results for our environment. Here are my ideas:

1. Improve traffic conditions

Problem: 5.3 million cars as of 2006 and an increase at the rate of 5-6% per year means a lot of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere. Given the bad traffic situations in majority of the country, these cars spend more time than they need to on the road, burning even more fuel. Go to Wolfram alpha to get a feel of how much CO2 is thrown to the atmosphere. Apart from the greenhouse impact, bad transportation also results to anxiety and poor health in people and economic hits due to productivity loss, perishable meats, and more.

What the solution might look like:

Expand train network - The model is Hong Kong. A small place connected by a lot of trains. This reduces people's need for cars, so the carbon footprint per person is markedly reduced. The trains should be underground so we have more space on the ground.

Eradicate jeepneys and other public transport - consolidate public transport under the bus. This seats the most number of people and is most efficient (I think, I have no data). Keep taxis of course. Most valid for large cities.

Disallow parking along the streets - We can plant trees there instead. Requires a cultural shift and the creation of a strong parking industry.

What it will cost: A lot. Billions range obviously over the span of a few years, but the benefit will persevere for decades.

Benefits:

To the environment: lesser greenhouse emissions, fuel stock will last a longer time
To the country: productivity and value creation due to lesser time spent in transit, fuel importation might be decreased
To the people: less stress in travel

I hope a Philippine President addresses this soon.

Other ideas (I like to stress the first one, so I won't explain these.)

2. Modify educational framework to focus on the environment in the curriculum. Intensify the instruction of environmental science, and encourage experimentation/projects in this subject. Better start young.

3. Reward actions that help the environment. Reward citizens for helping the environment (activities, purchasing eco-friendly products) and companies via tax breaks. Reward entrepreneurs for eco-friendly businesses.

Big Bird is in today's Google doodle!

2009-11-04T15:01:00.000+08:00

Today is the 40th day anniversary of Sesame Street!

But honestly, today's doodle made Google read like Googlle.

Testing Google Wave - embed a wave into a blog!

2009-10-28T15:52:00.000+08:00

I finally have a Google Wave account. Wave is a very nifty tool, and I'm spending some time trying to understand it.

One of the cool features it has is the ability to export Waves to blogs, and have people interact with your wave from within your blog, in real time!

Take a look at the Wave I embedded at the bottom of this blog: (Note: if you don't see the wave, it maybe because you don't have a Google account, or even a Wave account.)

If you can't see the embed below, please refer to the screenshots: Click the pictures to view in higher resolution.

I want a drag and drop feature, I wasn't able to find something like that yet.

PS: I noticed that waves have to be made public so that other people can view them. This is done easily by adding the robot "easypublic@appspot.com" as a contact and adding it to the wave.

How to do the Nozomi Sasaki dance (for Fit's!)

2009-10-25T22:14:00.000+08:00

Nozomi Sasaki starred in a Lotte Fit's commercial which became famous in Japan for this (very) cute dance. This spawned a dance contest in Japan. The steps are quite simple, but nonetheless, a Japanese magazine had to spell out the individual moves, as you can see above! Click the picture above for a high res version.

Thanks Reallycuteasians!

Did you know? (the extremely fast pace of tech changes)

2009-10-21T15:06:00.000+08:00

This is from the Economist. This video's main purpose is to shock a person with numbers to rethink how businesses have been spending on advertising.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer selling Windows (circa 1980+)

2009-10-20T22:41:00.000+08:00

LOL. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stars in a commercial advertising the original MS Windows product. As he said, "You get all these features plus reversi... for only 99 dollars!"

Watch the commercial here:

Discovered this via @JimAyson.

Twitter lists out as a beta feature

2009-10-16T12:21:00.001+08:00

Twitter rolled out a beta feature for lists to a part of Twitter's user base, according to Techcrunch. This summarizes the list feature:

Setting up a list is simple. Currently, the homepage features a Lists banner that allows you to start simply by clicking on the “Create a new list” button. Once you do this, an overlay appears and you just type in the list name (which Twitter then converts into a permalink along the lines of twitter.com/USERNAME/LISTNAME), and set the list to be public or private. This is obviously an important distinction as the public one, others will be able to see, while the private one will be for your eyes only.

On the right hand column of you Twitter.com homepage, you will see a new “lists” area under you bio. Clicking on this will take you to your list overview page where you can manage your own lists, as well as see other user’s public lists that you are a part of. Also, on user profile pages you will see that the users’ lists are now listed under the “Favorites” area in the right hand toolbar.

Clicking on any of these lists will take you to a stream of just the users followed by that list. Basically, this is a filter, if used the right way. This is something Twitter proper has long needed (though plenty of third party services like Brizzly have stepped in to offer it).

Unfortunately, adding people to your list is not as easy as it should be. The reason for this is that there is no user search functionality. Instead, you have to either go to your “following” page, or to that person’s profile to manually add them.

I have created my own list - for "friends." I'm still playing with this feature. As of now, its main benefit for me is to filter my feed according to my own personal preferences.

Dear God... (more funny letters!)

2009-10-13T00:48:00.000+08:00

After the first post, I decided to find more funny letters to God, and here are some of them!

By the end of the photos, I'd like to connect an amazing TEDtalk to these letters.

1. How hard is it to love people?

2. This reminds me of Kaitlyn Maher's answer to "Are you from New York?" and Maher's answer is... here.

3. Wow, this kid is suggesting to God what He should have done with Cain and Abel.

4. This takes the grand prize for me!

These letters written by kids remind very strongly of Rebecca Saxe's TEDtalk about how the abilities of children/people to reason out and judge scenarios of "people thinking about thinking people" develop markedly and rapidly between the ages of approximately three and seven years old.

She discusses how the RTPJ (the part of the brain that enables us to read minds and intentions) works (geek stuff here), and ultimately how we can influence other's minds (using magnetic devices).

It is a very exciting talk - one of the best I've seen via Ted.com!

Thanks to Geek Army for the letters!

Dear God...

2009-10-12T20:14:00.000+08:00

LOL.

Google barcode logo today!

2009-10-07T13:07:00.000+08:00

The Google doodle today is a barcode!

What is the significance of October 7 to the barcode? According to Wikipedia, on October 7, 1952, the US Patent Office granted Patent 2,612,994 for the barcode to Norman Joseph Woodland, Bernard Silver and Jordin Johanson.

The history of the doodle

There's a colorful history to the Google doodle. According to the Google Story, the first Google doodle was designed by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 to serve as an out-of-office announcement to their users. To people who knew, the doodle signified that Page and Brin went to the Burning Man festival, and if Google went down that day, no one will be there to fix it. See the historic doodle below.

Since then Google has been regularly changing its doodles depending on the occasion. According to Wikipedia, "Google doodles have been produced for the birthdays of several noted artists and scientists, including Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Louis Braille, Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch, Nikola Tesla, Béla Bartók, René Magritte, Michael Jackson, H.G. Wells, Samuel Morse, Hans Christian Ørsted and Mahatma Gandhi among others.[2] Additionally, the featuring of Lowell's logo design coincided with the launch of another Google product, Google Maps. Google doodles are also used to depict major events at Google, such as the company's own anniversary.[6] British novelist Roald Dahl has been featured, with the logo containing characters and items from some of his books, such as Matilda. The celebration of historical events is another common topic of Google Doodles including a Lego brick design in celebration of the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary."

Here's one doodle that appeals to me - the MC Escher doodle!

I voted for Efren Penaflorida as CNN's Hero

2009-10-06T14:23:00.001+08:00

Wanna have an ID photo like this?

2009-10-04T20:59:00.000+08:00

Would you like to have a photo like that adorning your ID? But this ID is nothing compared to...

Batman bin Suparman! I've blogged about this young superhero of superheroes before.

Thanks Oddee for the first pic!

Metallica - Turn the page

2009-10-01T01:48:00.000+08:00

This Metallica song doesn't make me sad - but after seeing its accompanying music video, I felt really sad.

It captures in detail the difficult problems of a single mother raising her child. What puzzles me and saddens me is when the mother said at the end, "if I were to live my life again, I would make the exact same choices." It's almost a statement of helplessness.

Stranded in DLSU-Manila (thanks to Ondoy) - part 4

2009-09-30T20:02:00.000+08:00

Continuation from part 3

When I went back to LS 309 to sleep, Toffee, Tim, MJ, Jessie, and 1 more person were already asleep. Tim, MJ, and Jessie were asleep on the wooden platform below the blackboard; Toffee and the other person (a girl - I don't know her name) slept on chairs. I tried to snuggle myself into a corner, and put another chair for my legs. I generally have a sleeping problem, but this setup complicated things a bit more. Anyway, I think I was finally able to sleep 230am.

Noah's Ark
We woke up around 6am. Looking out, like Noah's Ark survivors we celebrated the fact that we can see more and more land jut out from the water! We felt that we can already leave. Our newfound friends had already left (they slept in a different room)

Walking around DLSU at approx 630am, we saw Aimee Chua ferrying a bunch of sandwiches (breakfast) via a tricycle. That wasn't going to be of much use, since many people have started leaving.

We made our way to the EGI building with a newfound perspective of the power of nature...
... and a 200 peso parking bill, like it was our fault we couldn't leave that night.

The businessperson behind EGI is a rather insensitive guy. They even raised room rates astronomically (from 1500 (per Tim) to 6500 for one night stay)!

Tim and I made our way to McDonald's for breakfast. We saw Jill's group yet again and we had breakfast there. After breakfast and almost 24 hours of staying in DLSU, they were finally fetched. Since the flood in the SM Manila area is still very high and difficult to pass, Tim and I decided to go back to school to wait out a bit more.

Have a safe trip home!
Back at DLSU, the cleaning operation was already at full swing. Janitors were cleaning the pavement, removing water from the Amphitheater and cleaning the buildings. We wanted to walk around a bit more, but we were asked to go to the Chapel to not intefere with the cleaning.

Nothing much happened back in the Chapel. The view from the window presented a very calm and sunny weather - like nothing happened last night. The number of people staying in the Chapel slowly decreased until there was only a dozen people left.

Outside the Chapel, the volunteers assembled a board saying what roads are passable/impassable. That's nice - but it's too fragmented so we can't really use it.

One thing that I really liked was the concern Br Armin and the other leaders showed for the students. Before leaving, students were asked where they went home to, and how they would go home. If they deemed it was unsafe, they politely asked the students to wait out some more. If it was safe, then they were able to go. If it's a tricky situation, then they got the student's number to call him/her later.

Around 11am, Tim and I finally left. To get to my house, it was a little adventure since the water around the SM area was flooded up to the waist. But I was able to go home anyway. (cut out a lot of details here - it's not that important)

What happened to Jim and my brother?
Jim left DLSU at around 12 noon in his car with his driver. At around 1pm, he was still stuck in Taft. He was still in Quirino by 3pm. He actually walked from Quirino to his house in Alabang!

My brother was stranded in a nearby SM. He bought shorts and slippers there because he had to wade through waist deep waters. The waters eventually reached neck level, but by that time he was already safely in SM. At 5am with just 2 hours of sleep, he left SM, waded a lot more, then finally got home around lunch time.

Watch out for my next blog article - helping out in the relief operation!

Approaching a girl on the train - funny cartoon

2009-09-30T08:53:00.000+08:00

A break from my Ondoy blogging.

Via XKCD yet again. The image has an alt tag - "And I even got out my adorable new notebook!"

Stranded in DLSU-Manila (thanks to Ondoy) - part 3

2009-09-28T23:02:00.000+08:00

Continuation from part 2.

For the kids

Looking down from the choir loft, I saw a big number of kids (my guess: 100 8-12 y/o kids) sitting on the church pews. Kuya Aldrin from the LSPO told me later that there was a cultural presentation featuring kids from LASSO-supervised schools. Since LASSO has national scope, there were kids and parents from provinces all over the country. The event was to end at 430pm, but they tried to rush the event to end at 1 so that the kids can go home. But it was too late.

One of the kids looked up at me and smiled. I greeted him, and walked away. Now that everyone is all cozy (to some degree - students in the choir loft, Tim in a room charging his computer and phone), I decided to go down and offer what assistance I can give.

Trying to help

This was hard since everyone was busy. I tried walking around with SC President Aimee Chua and learned that everyone has to go to LS Building since power may go out at the other buildings soon. Some of the buildings were already cleared but some weren't. ROTC/Security/Janitors were enlisted to help out in this area.

I ran into Engr Oliva and asked him if DLSU can do something to lessen the flooding, like removing some covers and the like. He said there's nothing DLSU can do for the moment.

The water level at ground floor of the LS building is beginning to rise, so the volunteers tried to get people upstairs to the main Chapel at the 2nd floor. I tried to help out in this area. That proved to be a challenge.

For one, the TV that supplied critical news was in the ground floor. The food supply was in the ground floor. The water levels were still tolerable. Some people were dead worried about their cars and were hesitant to go up. Many people were still waiting for a friend before they would go up. But eventually, people moved up. I went back to the third floor.

At the third floor, volunteers were beginning to lay out mattresses for people to sleep. Priority were the kids. I tried to help move the church pews to clear out space - man they were so heavy. Then we laid out the mattresses in a close, tight fashion. Even the narrow passageways had mattresses. The kids were the priority, and they occupied the mattresses farthest from the edge of the loft.

I was sweating profusely. Thank God a LEADERS student (I forgot your name - sorry!) provided me an extra shirt. I kept the shirt for later use.

Wading

I went down to the 2nd floor and saw a group of student volunteers huddling around Br Armin. It seems some students are still in the Br Andrew building, and someone to go get them. I joined this group - there were 19 of us in total.

While walking, I asked John Bellosillo what we're supposed to do. Escort the students and Admin folks from the Br Andrew Bldg to LS, and we had to wade through the floodwaters. Gulp - I was wearing slacks and a dark blue Chuck Taylor. Never mind - it'll dry out anyway. So we went to the Br Andrew bldg and upon getting there my pants and shoes were soaked. Why wouldn't it be, the water was knee deep in some areas.

I found out that there was a cancer survivor staying in Br Andrew. She wouldn't leave because she doesn't want to get wet. We understood, got her number, and left her with the guards. She was a professor.

On the way back, I noticed how dirty the water was. In the SJ area, a newspaper folded and twisted like candy floated... I wonder what was inside that newspaper.

Dinner + Movies!

There was a very long line when I got back to the LS Bldg. People waiting in line for dinner. Afterwards, I cleaned my feet and shoes with the handsoap in the CR, but of course it still is not good enough. There was no medikit available so I had to ask around for alcohol. I finally got one (c/o Jill. I was actually looking for the kind mother who shared her alcohol with me a few hours ago but I couldn't find her) and rubbed alcohol on my feet generously, and changed my shirt. Then I went to line up for dinner, while chatting with the guard in front of me. A friend told me dinner can still be bought at the canteen so I just went down. (Previous population estimate was at 450 people, however the count was wrong - there were at least 1050 people! I chose to buy dinner so that someone else can eat for free.)

It was around 8pm already. Some students had occupied the classrooms and turned them into moviehouses. I was able to watch Love Actually (nice movie), The Unborn (good scary movie - but not as good as Rec or Inside), and The Proposal (the guard cut us off, as it was already 1am then!) I was also able to inform people that entering sndvol32.exe via Start->Run will display the Master Volume controls. :)

I tried to sleep at around 130am but it's quite hard, since my feet were still... uncomfortable and it's really hard to sleep while sitting!

Part 4 is here.

Stranded in DLSU-Manila (thanks to Ondoy) - part 2

2009-09-28T17:24:00.000+08:00

(this is the continuation of part 1)

Lunch, and a whole lot of waiting

Tim and I got lunch at Animo Canteen (further inside the Canteen, the one that serves coffee, pasta, Japanese food) and tried to wait out the rain. Many people are eating there although it's a Saturday - because it's impossible to go out, unless you'll wade.

It's been two hours and the rain hasn't stopped. This is becoming a boring situation for Tim and me, so we decided to try and join the group of Jill, one of our LEADERS students, who happened to be eating in the same place a few tables away. After chatting a bit, we moved out to the main Animo canteen area and sat in one of the benches.

Nilometer

We spent the next 1-2 hours between chatting, and going out to check on the situation. The water level had been constantly rising: one minute it was barely touching the benches, the next time we checked, the water was already nearing the pebble-laden sidewalk of LS. Some students even deployed paper boats on the brownish waters. The South Gate entrance has become impassable - the main sidewalk stretching out from the South Gate has become flooded, and tricycles have begun to peddle their services inside DLSU (just outside the LS building, near the men's CR) to students who wanted to go out. At this point, students can not sit in a tricycle the same way, they had to huddle differently to avoid getting their feet and buttocks wet. At 50 pesos a ride, they will transport you a few meters to maybe the mall outside, or McDonald's.

The steps and ramps of DLSU have become a Nilometer of some sort. But the "Nilometers" failed, because the flood waters reached and exceeded their height.

Dars (he'll be videotaping th LEADERS class) said that by around 2PM, the floods at the South Gate had already reached waist levels. He braved the flood, got to the LRT station, went down at EDSA, and was soon able to get home.

LS Bldg = relief center

At around 3PM, the school (led by Br Armin Luistro FSC, Aimee Chua, John Bellosillo, and a few others) began moving people from the other DLSU buildings to the LS building. The LS building was to serve as the main holding area for the stranded students. ROTC officers, janitors, and security helped to move students and admin alike. (I was a former ROTC officer - inside I was partially wishing this happened during my time...)

The university began giving congee in plastic cups to people who were stranded in the school around 3pm. I wasn't in the mood to eat, so I just watched the TV near the accounting office. There I found the real danger Ondoy posed. By that time, water was also beginning to break into the marble floor outside the Conservatory. The path stretching from the North Gate was already a river - a coconut husk floated by as I stood there. I went back to the Canteen.

Back in the Canteen, Jill's group suggested going up to the 3rd floor of the LS building, because the water level might rise even more given current conditions. Someone was even suggesting building a raft!

We went up to the 3rd floor of the LS building, and stayed in the choir loft of the MBS Chapel. I found the handslapping game played by Jill's group quite interesting and fun.

My brother, Toffee, and MJ

My brother was supposed to go to URC in Pasig that day to rehearse for an event. He SMSed me around 1-2pm and told me he was stuck in Kalentong with waters reaching the waist. It's good that he was able to go to nearby SM Hypermarket for some much needed shelter. I was worried sick for my brother - but there was no way for me to check on him, as I can't go there and his battery died soon after. I kept that at the back of my head the entire day.

Toffee and MJ meanwhile were in Sherwood place. They finally came back to DLSU availing of the tricycle service I mentioned before.

(Side note: Jill had a Reader's Digest which I borrowed to pass the time a bit. Inside was a joke about 4 Filipinos sharing their dreams. One dreamed to become a lawyer to help his countrymen. The two others dreamed to be a policeman/doctor to help their countrymen. The fourth dreamed to be a countryman. :) That joke was quite fitting - we became the countrymen that day.)

Part 3 will come soon. I might get some photos from people to add to my story. Thanks in advance!

Part 3 is here.

Stranded in DLSU-Manila (thanks to Ondoy)

2009-09-27T21:54:00.000+08:00

Approximately 1000 Lasallians, LASSO school members, and other visitors were stranded in DLSU last September 26-27 due to ravaging floods brought about by the typhoon Ondoy. (More info about Ondoy here.

I was one of the 1000, and I'll try to write my experiences. I'm quite tired, so it's gonna look loose in a few places. But here goes:

How it all began: LEADERS class

I was in DLSU-Manila Sept 26 830am for the 2nd week of the LEADERS class, taught by retiring P&G Philippines President Jim Lafferty. Timothy Chua and I facilitated the class. The LEADERS class is held in A1703, from 9am to 12nn. Approximately 90 students are enrolled in this class.

Class went well, Jim talked to the class about the 5Es of Leadership, we fixed some administrative issues about the group projects, and had the late students (and Jim too) do push-ups as punishment for being late. Class ended at 12 noon.

By the end of class, students were already peering out of the window, saying Taft Avenue is already flooded. I remember what I said to myself: "masaya to (this is gonna be fun)."

End of class: Assessing the situation

I honestly thought I can go home rather easily as I took the stairs down from the 17th floor. Throngs of students surprised me as I exited the ground floor. A quick check to the Taft-facing side of the Br made me doubt a bit: the flood level was quite high, preventing anyone from crossing the street. But I was feeling hopeful, because the Agno-facing side flood was manageable, so Tim and I made our way to the main campus. We braved the strong rain, jumped across a few puddles, and balanced ourselves on thin dry stretches of land.

When we finally got to the Velasco-Miguel area, that's where I seriously began to doubt whether it's even possible to go home. For the first time ever, the area between Velasco and Miguel was actually flooded, probably 3-6 inches deep. SJ walk was more dreadful, it was probably 6-12 inches deep. Planks and plastic chairs were set up so that students can traverse.

Having crossed the "bridge" of chairs and planks, I got to SJ and saw the first floor flooded. That was again new. A few meters away, the Amphitheater was slowly becoming a pool. At least, the fish in the fishpond might have liked that.

We were able to walk to the Conservatory rather easily, and finally got to the Animo Canteen. We were hungry so we decided to eat first and see what we can do after lunch.

(Note: I didn't know about Ondoy as of this moment.)

To be continued... part 2 here