2nd-quarter Philippine growth highest in 20 years

In the headlines today, unfortunately the crab mentality of the Filipinos immediately stuck out like a sore thumb - including that pinoy rep of a japanese media outfit. They have to rain on someone else's parade right away.

===========================================

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine economy grew at its fastest pace in 20 years in the second quarter as government spending and private consumption expanded.

The gross domestic product -- GDP, the value of goods produced and services rendered, not including income from abroad -- grew 7.5 percent from the second quarter of 2006, bringing to 7.3 percent the average growth in the first semester.

It was the highest annual growth rate since the 7.7 percent in the third quarter of 1986, the year dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown.

It outshone the second-quarter GDP performance of Asian neighbors, such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, but trailed Singapore’s 8.6-percent and China’s 11.9-percent expansions.

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said the first-quarter GDP growth was 7.1 percent, revised from 6.9 percent.

The gross national product -- the GDP plus income from abroad, like remittances by overseas Filipino workers -- expanded 8.3 percent, a substantial improvement over the 6.4-percent growth in the same quarter last year. Net factor income from abroad grew 16.6 percent.

A beaming President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, “Our economic plans succeeded.”

“No one thought that we could get more revenues, cut down on tax cheats, strengthen the peso and move the stock market. No one thought we could bring our budget into the balance, repay our debts and increase jobs, but we have done it,” she said at a televised news conference.

Arroyo said the economy was on track to a full-year growth of 6.1-6.7 percent in the GDP.

My Sked today, Friday

Just thought I'd share with you how my day is like today

9:30-10:00 Negotiate C5 and Friday traffic to get to work in Makati

10:00-1:30 Deskwork

1:30-2:30 Late Lunch with Pam and Aimee (who are having a meeting nearby)

2:30-4:430 Deskwork

4:30-5:00 Meeting with Swedish Venture Capitalist at Greenbelt (they somehow found me in Linked In, this friendster fro professionals/business types)

5:30-7:30 Manila Yacht Club Installation Ceremony of the new PITC President who is a
colleague at the Foreign Trade Service Corps

10:00 Catch the movie Invasion (with Nicole Kidman starring)


a lot of going around, good luck to me given the horrible Friday Traffic (plus it was payday yesterday)

Friday traffic along C5

I decided to take C5 instead of EDSA today. It was a big effort trying to get to C5 from Shaw but somehow i managed to get through even with several really dumb drivers on the road who seem to just let everyone else cut in front of them (this is really annoying especially if you are the car directly behind them). I was originally planning to go straight on C5 and take the on ramp to Fort Bonifacio (just before Market Market) but because of the said incredibly dumb driver in front of me, and because of the two REALLY ODD stoplights to give way to the U-turners before you reach the Pateros intersection of C5, I decided to take the right turn at the Pateros intersection instead that lead me to Fort Bonifacio via the side entrance (Pembo, Rembo, Comembo area - what gives with all these names)

I don't know if anyone understands my rambling here but anyway, as I was driving along c5, this MMDA traffic Marshall in blue decided to all of a sudden, walk in front of me with his arms raised, signalling STOP! along c5 (probably the traffic lights were not working) in a bid to stop me and the others behind me. What the heck, i just step on the gas and avoid him, but that my dear sir, is hardly a valid and safe STOP sign. he shouted fuming mad and tried to hit my car with his hand.

Oh well, if this is not a public admission of a traffic violation, then I'm lucky, but for now. I really think I should write about it.

In the headlines today: 31,275 pass board the last board exams for nurses

OMG! and they're complaining about brain drain, the lack of nurses in the country because our nurses leave for work abroad. Isn't the Philippines a virtual Nurse-Making Machine? wow 31,275 nurses!

Even if 13,338 are retakers from that scandal filled nurse's board exams from last year, graduating and registering even just 10k nurses a year is really something. Aren't we a nation of nurses. . . wow

Where I am now

Under the covers, between the sheets on top of my (sigh of relief) queen sized, bed. what a glorious glorious feeling . . . at last. it's been one helluva day, that's why at 8:21 pm on a Friday am on bed. haha. plus maybe there's still that chance of waking up around 12am to party a bit . . . no?

Some Discriminatory Article, Against OFWs by some Woman I'd rather not comment on

One of my best pals Mike (currently studying in Vienna) forwarded me this article of some Woman and her blatantly derogatory reference to our brave new heroes, the OFWs.

I'd rather wait for your comments and keep my mouth shut. As they say, if you got nothing good to say . . .

Christmas in Capiz in the early 1900s. (A True Historical Narrative)

Christmas in Capiz in the early 1900s.

"excerpts from Ambeth Ocampo's column in the the PDI quoting an American School Teacher in Capiz in the early 1900s." Ambeth has his comments in the paragraph. I am putting in my comments as well in red font, being a born and bred Capizeno myself


Ambeth Ocampo: Fortunately, I found a whole chapter on "Christmas in a Woman's Impressions of the Philippines" by Mary Fee, an American school teacher in Capiz in the early 1900s. She wrote:

Mary Fee: "The Filipinos do not understand Santa Claus or the Christmas tree. The giving of presents is by no means a universal custom of theirs, and such as are given on the festival of the Tres Reyes or the Three Kings, some six or eight days after Christmas. Mrs. C. decided to give a Christmas festival to certain Filipino children, and she actually managed to disinter, from the Chinese shops, a box of tiny candles, and the little devices for fastening them to the tree. No Christmas pine could be found, but she got a lemon tree, glossy of foliage. With the candles and strings of popcorn and colored paper flowers, this was converted into quite the natural article."

Me: This is pretty much the practice in Spain. When I was there as an International MBA student 2003, I was kinda surprised to learn that the Feast of the Three Kings was seemingly more important celebration-wise, for the kids than Christmas day itself. Much of gift giving was done on the Feast of the Three Kings."

Ambeth: This could probably be the first Christmas tree displayed in Capiz. Everyone in town seemed to have come out to see it. I only wish I had a Filipino account of the Christmas tree so that I would know what they really thought about something that is so common to us today.

More intriguing in Fee's account was the description of a toy or lantern I have never seen:

Mary Fee: "Nearly every child was displaying a toy that seems to be the special evidence of Christmas in the Philippines-some sort of animal made of tissue paper and mounted on wheels. It is lighted within like a paper lantern, and can be dragged about. Great is the pride in these transparencies, and great the ambition displayed in the construction. Pigs, dogs, cats, birds, elephants and tigers, of most weird and imposing proportions they are, and no feuds and jealousies grew out of their possession."

Me: "Honestly I do not have a clue what this is, maybe something similar to the Piñatas of Mexico, perhaps, as they took in different animal shapes, probably using papel de Japon, not tissue paper. None of this tradition has remained among the childhood toys/ traditional games in Capiz, perhaps, something that came in vogue at the time."

Ambeth: Today our lanterns are star-shaped and rather boring. Fee even describes a parol hung in church and made to fly above the heads of the church-goers:

Me: "This parol tradition inside the church is still carried on to this day! Well at least when I was attending Christmas Mass there at the Eve of Christmas day itself several years ago. Can anyone confirm if this still is being carried on?"

Mary Fee: "At midnight the church bells began to toll, and the three or four hundred ball guests adjourned en masse to the church. . . "

Me: The Circulo Galante Christmas Ball!!! We still had this when I was a kid, until it was stopped by Roxas City society after a series of calamities befell the province, to avoid being accused of too much ostentatious disply in the middle of hard times. The Ball is a society event, all the ladies in expensive formal floor length gowns/ternos from popular designers, the men in their best barong finery and the members would dance the Rigodon de Honor. (Honor March/Dance) while a select number of youngsters, myself included several times, danced the coutillion. The Program was being emceed in Spanish, and there was a reception line at the Main entrance, everybody who came in was being announced. heheheh. A lot of culture in such a small City, even at that time. haha.


Mary Fee: "This building is larger than any I can remember in America, except the churches of Chicago and New York, and was packed with a dense throng. It was lighted with perhaps two thousand candles, and was decked from lantern to chapel with newly made paper flowers. The high altar had a front of solid silver, and the great silver candlesticks were glistening in the light. "

Me: "Wow, imagine at that time! she says the Capiz Cathedral, was larger than any building in America that she can remember save for the St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and the other one in Chicago. Wow!!! Then she describes that the Main Altar , the Retablo, was made of Silver! I wonder where this is now. Sad to say, Much of the Capiz Cathedral's renovations since the 1900s have been without any architectural restoration consultation. For instance, some priest just decided to have it painted blue last year, on a whim. without regard for the fact that it has always been beige. And also, much of the restoration of the Cathedral facade after the war, was not very faithful to how it originally looked. Probably something like the facades of the churches in Panay Town or Dumalag, which retained the stone brick facades!"

Mary Fee: "The usual choir of men had given place to the waits with their tambourines, though the pipe organ was occasionally used. The Mass was long and tedious, and I was chiefly interested in what I think was intended to represent the Star of Bethlehem. This was a great five-pointed star of red and tallow tissue paper, with a tail like a comet. It was ingeniously fastened to a pulley on a wire which extended from a niche directly behind the high altar to the organ loft at the rear of the church. The star made scheduled trips between the altar and the loft, running over our heads with a dolorous rattle. The gentleman who moved the mechanism was a sacristan in red cotton drawers and a lace cassock, who sat in full view in the niche behind the high altar. There seemed to be a spirited rivalry between him and the tambourine artists as to which could contribute the most noise, and I think a fair judge would have granted it a drawn battle."


Me: "This tradition exists to this day! I mean it was still there when I was attending Christmas Eve Mass (The Main Christmas High Mass officiated by the Archbishop at 12 midnight) The Lantern, a rather huge one, pulled by a pulley from the Choir Loft to the Altar, representing the Star of Bethlehem to Signal the birth of Christ, the lantern's trip ends just in front of the Altar by 12 midnight. Wow, I never knew the tradition dates back in history back to the Spanish Times, no one even knows probably, this is one for the books"

In other travel accounts of the period, the same thing is basically said: midnight Mass was accompanied by a pipe organ, an orchestra or band and people sang a lot. Mass was long and boring for the American Protestants who thus detailed the church decoration rather than the Catholic service.

Me; "What could you expect, the Main Christmas Mass, sung in Latin to boot, is really looooong even to this day."


Mary Fee: "Mass was over at one, and we went back to our ball, and the supper which was awaiting us. I shall speak hereafter of feasts, so I will give no time to this particular one."


"...I was once more yielding to slumber, when the church bells began, and some enterprising Chinese let off fire crackers. I gave up the attempt to rest, and rose and dressed. Then the sacristan from the church appeared in his scarlet trousers and cassock. He carried a silver dish, which looked like a card receiver surmounted with a Maltese cross and a bell. The sacristan rang this bell, which was most melodious, went down on one knee, and I deposited a peso in the dish. He uttered a benediction and disappeared. After him came the procession of common people, adults and children, shyly uttering their Buenas Pascuas..."

Me: "Every Christmas Day, some sacristan would go to the houes, carrying a small statue of the born Christ, the families where to kiss the statue and give donations in the box"

These accounts show how much we have changed and continue to change in the past century.

***

Bong Alvarez gets two solid blows from Gretchen Malalad this morning

I saw this report on TV while dressing up for work this morning and it really made my day. A drunk Bong Alvarez (a 6 footer something former Phil. Basketball Association star) figured in a fistfight with Gretchen Malalad. (erstwhile Pinoy Big Brother figure, taekwondo medalist, 2005 Taekwondo SEA Games Gold Medalist, a member of the Armed fores of the Philippines and a Beauty Queen, now news reporter for ABS-CBN)

An apparently drunk Bong Alvarez woke up in the middle of his cab-ride, confused as to where he is. Shaw Blvd. was heavy with traffic and the cab driver decided to take another route and decided not to wake up Alvarez. Bong Alvarez, reportedly got mad and kicked the driver in the head, the cab driver ran for his life and called the cops.

Bong Alvarez was brought to the police station where he refused to be interviewed by Media. Gretchen Malalad, former star of the Pinoy Big Brother celebrity edition, a taekwondo black belter and 2005 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, was the ABS-CBN beat reporter who rushed to the police station. Upon Bong's enraged wish not to be interviewed, Malalad did not bother to talk to him but tried to go inside the police station to interview the cab driver instead. When she passed Alvarez, he took a cheap shot at her and elbowed her right smack in the face (left jaw I think) and hit her in the temple, Gretchen who is a taekwondo blackbelter and a former member of the AFP, instinctively and immediately struck back with two solid punches to his face, driving the living daylights out of him. BWahahahaha. Helpless and surprised still drunk Alvarez reportedly responds with . . . get this, scratches and by pulling her hair. BWahahahaha. A girly fighter it appears bwahahhahaha from a man of his huge frame what an embarrassment indeed bwahahahahaha.

Alvarez reportedly figured in several similar incidents/fights the past couple of years. he even got shot in the back from some scuffle. . .

here's the news feed:

Former pro cager, female TV reporter exchange blows

INQUIRER.net
Last updated 09:19am (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A former professional basketball player and a TV reporter figured in a scuffle inside a Mandaluyong police station Tuesday morning, a radio report said.

The brief fight happened after Paul “Bong” Alvarez allegedly elbowed ABS-CBN reporter Gretchen Malalad in the face as the latter was about to ask the former cager why he was detained in the police station, a report of radio dzMM said.

Being a taekwondo black belter and 2005 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, Malalad instinctively defended herself and countered with several blows against Alvarez, the report said.

The apparently intoxicated Alvarez was earlier brought by barangay officials to the police station for roughing up a taxi driver whom he blamed for trying to overcharge him by taking a longer route -- passing through Boni Avenue in Mandaluyong City -- to his residence in Quiapo, Manila.

Alvarez had hailed the taxi near Hotel Rembrandt in Quezon City and initially asked the driver to take him to Pasig City but later changed his mind, the report added.

Orginally posted at 8:50 a.m.

Near Perfect Cloud Shot

It's a far cry from clear skies, but I'm loving the weather. It's not hot and driving around in the rain is fun fun fun. hehe.

This picture I took of some clouds while in Roxas back in May would have been perfect save for that little antenna . . . oh well. hehehe.

Hahaha a taste of his own medicine . . .

And the list of the world's stupidest criminals keeps on going strong . . .


Duct tape bandit caught in sticky situation
By Associated Press
Thursday, August 16, 2007 - Updated: 12:18 AM EST

ASHLAND, Ky. - A man with his head wrapped in duct tape tried to rob a liquor store over the weekend but was chased off by the manager with a duct-tape-wrapped wooden bat.
Shamrock Liquors proved an unlucky target for Kasey Kazee, 24. Manager Bill Steele gave Kazee two rolls of coins then grabbed a bat beneath the counter and went after him.
Though the duct tape seemed intended to conceal Kazee’s identity, it made him easier to spot running through the parking lot. That’s where store employee Craig Miller tackled “The Duct Tape Bandit.”
Miller said he put Kazee in a chokehold until police arrived.
Kazee was charged with first-degree robbery, according to Ashland police Sgt. Mark McDowell.
He was interviewed by a local TV station and denied he was the bandit beneath the tape. It is not known if the station teased its scoop during the evening by promising, “Tape at 11.”
Kazee pleaded not guilty Monday and bond was set at $250,000.

© Copyright 2007 Associated Press.

Quentin Tarantino rides lowly Pedicab in Manila (blogged by buddy Steve in his site)

It’s one for pulp fiction: Tarantino on ‘padyak’
By Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer
Last updated 06:12am (Mla time) 08/16/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Iconic Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino was the picture of an amused child after an unusual experience Wednesday -- he had to get off a flood-stuck limousine and ride a pedicab to reach Malacañang and get his lifetime achievement award for film.

“It was a lot of fun. It just took a long time but it was not bad at all,” said Tarantino, brushing his hair in place with a hand as he arrived at Malacañang’s Rizal Hall after his pedicab ride.

Director Tikoy Aguiluz said he and Tarantino were stuck in traffic due to heavy rains for more than three hours from Mandaluyong City, leaving them with no choice but to take a pedicab near SM Centerpoint in Sta. Mesa to Nagtahan due to the flooded Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard.

Tarantino, director of the Cannes Film Festival winning film “Pulp Fiction” and cult classics like “Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2” and “Reservoir Dogs,” was in Malacañang to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Cinemanila Film Festival, along with Robert Malengreau.

Asked if the ride in the pedicab pedaled by a driver scared him, Tarantino made light of his experience, saying: “No! ... That’s just the way it is.”

When Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde greeted him and asked if he indeed rode a pedicab, Tarantino said: “We were stuck in traffic and we took the bike.”

Drenched pants

The floods also victimized his host, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who herself got stalled in traffic snarls on her way to her appointments.

The pedicab ride drenched Tarantino’s pants and he had to change into black jogging pants with white trimming for the meeting with Ms Arroyo. He also shed off his sandals -- not allowed, under the Malacañang dress code -- for a pair of ill-fitting shoes that apparently gave him discomfort as he walked.

Over the jogging pants, he wore a barong.

Late for the awards

As the 2 p.m. awarding ceremony time went past without Tarantino and the other awardees, Presidential Adviser for Culture Cecil Alvarez told reporters the Hollywood director and Aguiluz had been stranded in the flood and had to take a pedicab just to make it to Malacañang.

Film producer Arleen Cuevas found Tarantino and Aguiluz standing near the first sentry gate in Nagtahan, where the pedicab had dropped them off, and gave them a lift to the Palace.

During the awarding rites attended by Ms Arroyo, Alvarez recounted how the awardees and participants had braved the floods and the traffic jams to get to the Palace.

Ms Arroyo smiled.

Story for Hollywood

“A funny thing happened on our way here. From limousine to pedicab,” Aguiluz said in his remarks.

“I asked him (Tarantino) to take the pedicab and it was OK with him. It’s another Filipino story he will tell in Hollywood,” Aguiluz said.

Aguiluz said the two of them could not fit into one pedicab so he allowed Tarantino to take one pedicab by himself.

A gracious awardee

A gracious Tarantino made no mention of his ride in his speech.

Instead he talked about the first Filipino film he watched when he was only 7 years old and how Filipino-made action and horror movies were making money in the United States in the 1970s.

Tiffany Richards, a friend of Tarantino who accompanied him and Aguiluz on the ride, joked that “it was pretty traumatizing for me but he had fun.” With a report from Agence France-Presse

Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved.

Hot!!!! Hot!!!!!!!! GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr

I grabbed the yahoo weather reading on Manila today. At first glance, it looks like a nice comfortable day at 31 degrees. But if you happen to be outside in the middle of mid day, it's like you're being baked alive.

That's what the tiny line "FEEL'S LIKE 37 degrees" means. Humidity magnifies the heat so much it's driving me crazy. My power bill's been shooting up and it's supposed to be rainy season already. (yes folks, here in the Philippines, we only have two seasons, Summer and Rainy)

An Outpouring of the heart

Tell me what the problem here is . . . please
-------------------------
We' ve been friends for a long time ago. We come from the same alma mother. Actually, our paths crossed one time on another. But it's only now that I gave him a second look. I realized that beauty is in the eyes. The pulpbits of my heart went fast, really fast. Cute pala siya. And then, he came over with me. He said, "I hope you don't mine. Can I get your number?" Nag-worry ako. What if he doesn't give it back? He explained naman na it's so we could keep intact daw. Sabi ko, connect me if i'm wrong but are you asking me ouch? Nabigla siya. Sagot niya, The! Aba! Parang siya pa ang galit! Persona ingrata!!! Ang kapal niya! I cried buckles of tears.

Na-guilty yata siya. Sabi niya, isipin mo na lang na this is a blessing in the sky. Irregardless daw of his feelings, we'll go ouch na rin. Now, we're so in love. Mute and epidemic na ang past. Thanks God we swallowed our fried. Kasi, I'm 33 na and I'm running our time. After 2 weeks, he plopped the question. "Will you marriage me?" I'm in a state of shocked. Kasi mantakin mo, when it rains, it's four! This is true good to be true. So siyempre, I said yes. Love is a many splendor.

Pero nung inaayos ko na ang aming kasal, everything swell to pieces. Nag-di-dinner kami noon nang biglang sa harap ng aming table, may babaeng humirit ng, "Well, well, well. Look do we have here." What the fuss! The nerd ng babaeng yon! She said they were still on. So I told her, whatever is that, cut me some slacks! I didn't want this to get our hand kaya I had to sip it in the bud. She accused me of steeling her boyfriend. Ats if! I don't want to portrait the role of the other woman. Gosh, tell me to the marines! I told her, "please, mine you own business!" Who would believe her anyway?

Dahil it's not my problem anymore but her problem anymore, tumigil na rin siya ng panggugulo. Everything is coming up daisies. I'm so happy. Even my boyfriend said liketwice. He's so supportive. Sabi niya, "Look at is this way. She's our of our lives."

Kaya advise ko sa inyo - take the risk. You can never can tell. Just burn the bridge when you get there. Life is shorts. If you make a mistake, we'll just pray for the internal and external repose of your soul. I second emotion.

(reposted, originally from my buddy Sherald's site)

Photo of the Day: Missing Frisco big time

Por las Calles de San Francisco andaba yo

Para arriba, para abajo

Buscando lo que ya he visto

Buscando lo ya lo tengo

Cielos oscurros en pleno invierno

un invierno que no hicia tanto frio

Por las calles de San Francisco andaba yo.

Photo of the Day

from mall up
to mall down
up and about
the shops and restaurants
carrying bags for
the shopping crazed-woman
who is otherwise a normal wife
at home
from mall up
to mall down
haven't we been to this same shop
three times before today?
but off we go mall up
to mall down
up and about
the crazy mall run

i better sit here for a while
and sleep
my legs are killing me
this is madness
indeed.

am still at work at 6:10pm

the rain doesn't seem to stop falling. just last week, i was on a cab on the way to work one monday morning (my car is coded off the streets on mondays) and the am radio announcer was saying they were praying for a storm to come. . . i guess we got our prayers answered. it's a welcome respite from the heat . . . oh well , i can't say the same for people who get so wet commuting. surprisingly there's not much traffic lately when the rains fall hard.

treated the staff to cheap McDonald's meals because I was so hungry and I wouldn't wanna order for myself . . . hehe oh well. am still waiting for the boss who's on one looooooooong meeting, we're having our own loooooooooong meeting after the one he's having now.

Coding Day Monday

Yesterday, Monday was coding day for my car. (in the philippines, and in the world's great metropolises, they have coding days for cars. You can't use your car once a week or so depending on the code. For example, on Mondays, cars with license plates ending in 1 and 2 are not allowed on the roads, etc.) Froilan, the colleague I always hitch with on Mondays to a spot near my house, had to work late all of a sudden. Traffic was a bitch and getting a cab was next to impossible. It wasn't very hot so I decided to walk to the nearest MRT station (that's what we call our Metro) on EDSA cor. Buendia, like the countles times I do so while in Europe. I actually enjoyed the walk, it was about to rain then, but it din't even drizzle the whole time I was walking, all in all it was pleasant, and practically my first time to walk that stretch of Makati along Buendia, from Paseo de Roxas.

When I reached the Metro station, It was ok, the line to the ticket booth wasn't that long either. The train ride was actually another experience all by itself. At first, when the first train stopped to pick up passengers, I did not come up . . . too full, I thought. Then the next, the same situation as the last one, it was so full of people in business attire. Finally I had to take the next train even if it was filled to the glass window panes. Horror of Horrors I think i felt violated. It was jampacked like crazy. Everyone is intimately pressed against each other inside the train. Since I was a little bit taller than most, I was able to hold on to the ceiling, but I saw the shorter ones immobilized by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Some folks had there faces stuck into the armpits of the taller guy beside them, ewwwwww. hahaha.

Anyway, I think I learned my lesson. I will not catch the metro when it's rush hour ever again. But I still am resolved to use it once in a while when the conditions are better. like riding on a weekend or a holiday from shang mall to Trinoma for example.

Imagine the picture with times ten the number of passengers with eyes not as chinky eyed as those of the ones here.

My Wish List (No particular order)

If you're wondering what to give Mike (it's way past my birthday I know, but we can always come up with a special occassion or two)


1. 1 terabyte external hard disk (for now a compact 120 gb external hdd will do.)
2. a Rolex Yacht Master II or a Chosmograph Daytona (36 -38 mm)
3. a Volkswagen Touareg
4. A Suzuki Grand Vitara
5. an Asus eee pc 701 16 gb flash drive Laptop - purse size for my tech savvy Mother
6. iPod Hi Fi Dock
7. 30-inch Apple Cinema Display
8. 8-core Mac Pro Workstation
9. MacBook 15" 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
10. Mac OSX Leopard
11. a Penthouse optimally located in NY
12. a resthouse in Boracay
13. HP iPaq voice messenger 510 (for that other phone)
14. 2007 Audi Q7
15. Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi / 400D DSLR

of course I also have other things in mind, like a vacation house in St. Tropez, a Yacht and something like airforce one.

Quote of the Day: Grandma to Grandson (In the Movie in the Land of Women)

Grandma: Carter, I am 133 years old.

Carter: No Grandma that's impossible.

Grandma: I spent my entire life trying to figure out something. and you know what, It's not going well. Hmm?

Carter: I din't understand anything. . . (shakes head)

Grandma: I'll be dead soon and you'll still be alive, so stop complaining.

- Actually it's another Meg Ryan movie and I was really not keen on getting out of bed, so I popped it in and watched it. so there. hehe.

Precioussssss Gravy!

The nice thing about living in a well located place is the convenience of being able to walk to dining places if you're too tired to drive out for lunch or dinner. I woke up late today thanks to the 3 parties I've been to last night. I had a late breakfast at 11 this morning at some buffet place and then lunch at 4pm just now at KFC.

Apparently, KFC's gravy is sooo well sought after they had to chain the warm bottle-dispenser to the wall . . . LOL.

I almost had a fit in Spain when I finally got to eat at the KFC in front of the beach in Alicante, upon finding out they don't serve gravy . . . bwaaaahahaha. What is it with Pinoy's and gravy. I've seen some families literally deluge their plates with gravyyyyyyy. Hence the free gravy all you can promo, this has even caught on to Jollibee and other chicken serving establishments.

The Man Who Raped the World's Hottest Chicken (This picture probably made him lose it, A hot Chicken in Jean Paul Gaultier zip up) hehehe

Why would someone rape a chicken?!

Thursday, 05 July 2007

There is no animal law that protects chickens from the brutal human rape in the Philippines. Not for any animal at all. In fact, we don't have strict animal protection policies. I am wondering what charges do they have to file against the Filipino man who raped the chicken. Maybe criminal charges, because the chicken died.

The rapist groaned and held on tightly to his victim’s small body as he forcibly penetrated her small opening. High on drugs, the beast apparently thought he was having sex with a human. In a corner, a horrified witness watched the suspect force himself into the chicken’s cloaca -- a channel for waste, and passage of the egg.

A bounty has been offered by the chicken’s owner, Ely Antonino Flores, for the arrest of the drug-crazed man who allegedly raped to death his prized hen at a local fighting cock farm in Bgy. Agnaya, Plaridel town.

SP02 Jimmy Marcelo of the Palridel police said Flores identified the suspect only as Janno.

Flores said that at 6 a.m. Monday, he was awakened by the noise made by his fighting cocks at his small farm at Doña Crispina Homes in Bgy. Agnaya.

Upon investigation, Flores saw Janno allegedly ravaging one of his texas hens. The farm owner shouted at the suspect, who immediately fled.

The ravaged hen died moments later.

Flores said a texas breeder egg costs P5,000 each (around $100 each). He added that his prized hen usually delivered at least five eggs at a time.

distractions too many for a good night sleep

cant sleep, i dint bring my mac to bed as usual so i can sleep right away, i barely slept last night because of some wild reasons. but my wi fi is still on so i fiddle with my pocket pc . . . for about an hour now, checking mail, multiply, saying hi to people in my messengers' lists . i gotta end this now else, i figger out its morning again hehehe i missed my bed i better sleep

Broken Leg of a colleague (no not me)

My colleagues went home late saturday night, after parking at the garage of his condo, he locked himself out of his car along with his house keys. Tired from partying, (this is a mild theory) he attempted to enter his condo unit from the back of the building, climbing up one floor. He slipped his hold and fell to the ground. After lunch we're trooping over to see him at the Medical City. He just had his operation done yesterday morning, he broke his femur (this is the long bone). Oh well, at least he din't break his lemur.

Poor ole chap!