Riley's Great Wall of Toys! :D

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"Riley's great wall of toys! :D" 

BULALO! Oh Bulalo!

Every now and then, we want a taste of home and have one of our favorite delicacies. It's pretty rare that we look specifically for bulalo, but when we do, we always end up disappointed: Meat was not tender; wrong type of meat; wrong type of bone; not enough meat; you name it. I think we've been served every type of disappointment in the bulalo department for the last five years we've been in SG.

That changed tonight.

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"BULALO! Oh Bulalo! Where have you been all this time?! ;))"
(taken at Lucky Plaza)

REPOST: About the Good ol' Days

Reposting something from Facebook which I can identify with... :)

When I was a kid, I didn't have a laptop, iPod, Blackberry, PS3 or iPad. I played outside with friends, bruised my knees, made up adventurous fantasies and played hide and seek. I ate what my mom made and Jollibee was a treat. I would think twice before I said "no" to my parents. Life wasn't hard, it was great and I survived. Kids these days are spoiled. Re-post this if you appreciate the way you were raised. I think we were happier kids :)
Kids these days lost something - Appreciation

Cheers! =)

originally posted by jv.

Conan saved by Star Trek Legend! Live Long and Prosper!

Have been on the sidelines for a while now; just one of those times again when you're way over your head. Just got a downtime and I was watching the usual feeds then this morning then BAM! I saw the headline: George Takei Saves Conan's Ass.



George Takei played Sulu in the original Star Trek series back in the 60s. Just not sure how the Trekkies will react to this. :))

It's probably one of Conan's best Fan Corrections edition yet. :)) This segement aired on the August 15, 2011 episode of Conan.

oh well, only thing left to say is...

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.

Baptism Ideas for your Baby Born Abroad

Happy New Year!

After completing your "quest" to get a valid pass for child -- and you're Roman Catholic -- it's only natural that you arrange for your newborn to be baptised. For most Filipino Catholics here, you either have your child baptised where you are, or back to the Philippines where most of your relatives and friends are.

We went for the Philippine route. So anyway, if you're interested, here are some firsthand tips from us.

• Prepare the documents. Namely, the child's Birth Certificate and the parrent's Marriage Certificate. Prepare some photocopies as well. If you don't have this, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble.
• Contact your Church. You should have done this waaaay ahead of your target date of baptism --even way ahead of your flight back to Philippines. Ask for the requirements (i.e. above documents, seminar for parents and godparents, etc.), whether they offer "special" (i.e. solo) baptism or only mass baptism, available schedule, and what fees are required, if any. Most parishes have websites nowadays, so you should check them out online.
• Contact your local contact. To make things even easier for you, you need someone "onsite" -- could be a relative or a close friend -- to actually help smoothen things out even before you arrive. They should be able to help out arranging with the church/parish, talk with caterers, prepare your place, etc.
• Prepare the budget. Can't be stressed enough. A well-planned budget goes a long way. This will help you plan ahead with the event.
• Prepare the Guestlist. With the budget on hand, you should be able to make a list of the people you want to invite. Usually, this should always include your immediate family, close friends, and godparents. This is a bit trickier than what you may think. So plan ahead.
• Consider your luggage when booking a flight. Expecially if it's your baby's first-time to travel, you should consider the amount of luggage. You'd be surprised that the large bulk of your total check-in baggage is your kid's. So you may want to consider carefully before going for the cheaper airline's 15kg check-in limit or the more expensive one with a slightly more 20kg check-in.
• Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! If you're like us, you'd probably want to take pictures of your newborn everyday if you could. Save, collect, and collate. It may not seem much now, but you should organize the pictures before the total number is way too much to handle -- you'd be surprised that you may end up with hundreds of pictures in one month alone. Anyway, where are you going to use this pictures? Well, in case you have absolutely no idea, here are some hints for you:
• invitations
• sourvenirs
• tarpoulins
• guest book
• Hire some Help. Might be a bit costly and some may think even unnecessary. However, you need some people to take care of stuff -- food, pictures, video, whatever -- so that  you can have the time to concentrate on the things that are more important. You don't need to hire someone for everything, but you should consider hiring for the "big stuff" that you should not be worrying about like caterers and a photographer.
• DIY Stuff. There are some stuff that you can do yourself, provided, you have the time, energy, and resources. Example: for us, since we have photoshop, tons of pictures, and a decent printer, we did the invitations ourselves.

Guess that's it. There are still many other considerations but this list, based from our personal experience, tops them all off. Good luck! :)

Gaga over Plants vs Zombies!

Been playing Plants vs Zombies for a few days -- erm, maybe a few weeks? Hehehe... Yeah, one of my latest addictions today. :) A very nice casual game, where you strategically place your plants to stop the onslaught of zombies which are after your brains.

Simple, entertaining, and extremely replayable. With several modes to choose from, you can zone out for hours before realizing that the sun is already up. (Yeah... Been there, done that...)

Here's my Plants vs Zombies list:

My Top Five Favorite Plants:
(Note these are my favorites, not necessarily the best plants in the game)

5 - Cherry Bomb - very cheap "panic button" for taking out all zombies within a small area.

4 - Spikerock - the upgraded version of Spikeweed deals out significant damage to all zombies who walk on it. Plus it can take out several zombie vehicles. And it is the toughest plant in the game, able to withstand six strikes from the biggest zombie Gargantuar.

3 - Winter Melon - massive slowing/freezing damage that can take out several zombies at once. Simple and straightforward.

2 - Cattail - perhaps the best aquatic plant in the game; it can target any zombies in any lane and it can pop those annoying balloon zombies out of the sky.

1 - Gloom Shroom - short-range fast attacker; all you need is a good strategy and you're all set.


My Top Five Annoying Zombies:
5 - Balloon Zombies - forces you to reconsider playing with Cactuses in stages where Cattails can't be used.

4 - Digger Zombie - digs all the way to the end of the lane and eats your plants from behind; makes you think twice about defending not only your frontline, but also your rear.

3 - Jack-in-the-Box Zombie - left unchecked, this fast-moving zombie can wreak havoc on your frontlines; the zombie equivalent of the Cherry Bomb.

2 - Zombonis - it has high toughness, can crush your plants, and lays out ice on its wake where you can't plant. And if that's not enough, the length of ice provides the launching pad for the zombie bobsled team.

1 - Gargantuar - the lean, big, fighting machine of the zombies... need I say more?

My Other PvZ Lists

My Favorite Mini-Game - Last Stand - enables "gold farming", to buy those important plant upgrades and Zen garden supplies.

My Longest Survival Flags - 40 - still need to try out more strategies...

Highest Trophy - Gold Sunflower trophy - plus finished the game twice

Vasebreaker Endless Streak - 10 - damned Bucketheads!

I, Zombie Endless Streak - 5 - still not used to playing zombies!

Tree of Knowledge height - 62feet

My Favorite Zen Garden - Mushroom Garden - well, I'm a night person, I guess :)


You'll love the simple charm of this game!

I, Expecting Dad

Yep... In case you haven't seen my or my wife's Facebook profile yet, I'm now an expecting dad...

We were completely taken by surprise. So surprised that Che used up two pregnancy tests just to make sure. :) It's been a long time but finally we've been blessed! Of course, there were the usual jitters and agitations. Everything's surreal... But overall, we're excited and can't wait to see him or her...

Anyway, we had our first checkup last Tuesday. Here's what our baby looks like for now.



According to them (I have no idea how they come with it, so don't ask!), the baby is about six weeks old. We're scheduled for another checkup in two weeks time which, hopefully, the ultrasound will reveal much more...

I'm not really sure, but I'm guessing the next two weeks will just quickly pass by...

Feel-good commercials

Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of TV ads/commericials that have that "fee-good" feeling. These two are my favorites:

Camella Homes' Sikip Ad
Reminds me of one of our nieces. :)



Heineken's Walk-In Fridge
Wow... If you had one of those at home... Damn! :))


Hahahahahaha :)) Can't stop laughing....

Good things come to those who wait...finally!

We've been waiting for this for a long time. If a picture paints a thousand words, well, guess what words describe what we're feeling right now:



Woo hoooooo!!!!!

Back in Manila March '09 - Day One

March 25, 2009 12:25 AM, PR506 flew from Changi Airport bound for Manila. The place landed just before 3:30 AM. It took me a while to get past immigration; I forgot to bring a pen, so I was only able to fill up the disembarkation card -- given much earlier during the flight -- when I got to the immigration. By the time I finished the form, all of the open immigration counters already had long lines.

After that, it took me only minutes to get all of my remaining baggage and past the customs. Shortly, my in-laws are there to take me home. We went through a McDonald's drivethru. Not sure what to get, I just went for the breakfast item that is not available in SG: the longganisa meal.

Shortly after getting home, I fixed some things in my backpack then walked all the way to my dad's house. But low and behold.... where once stood our 30-ish year old home now stands a bright pink bungalow! Well, actually, it's still the same house, but was, uhm, "renewed". It was back in '88 when it was last renovated, so my dad decided it was time to replace the leaking roof, some of the termite-infested doorframes and ceilings, and a cool new paintjob.

The ancient camias tree -- been there since '81 at least -- and the humungous macopa trees that are dropping vast amounts of leaves everyday are removed and replaced with some sort of red palm tree and a couple of pine-like tree.

The house walls are colored "princess peach" on the upper and lower sections with a "mellow melon" through the middle section. The roof is painted "spanish red". The water tank is also painted similarly. Inside, the walls are painted either in "true blue" or in "mint green". All in all, it's a fresh look and makes the house look like it's a new house for sale. :))

Even though I had coffee, I still fell asleep. If my dad did not wake me up during lunchtime, I would have probably dozed off until the end of the afternoon. As such, after lunch and waiting for some time for the sun to sink a bit -- I decided to push through with the rest of my to-do list.

First up, renewal of my license. For renewal, I needed the previous license (check), the application form, drug test result, and medical examination result. Too bad, the nearby clinic doing the drug test and med exam is "offline". Bummer :(

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I went straight to my mom. I think it'd good that I visit her during my first day back. I'm just a few days late; she passed on the 21st, five years ago. It's always a solemn time for me whenever I vist her.

After that, I'm done for the day. :) Well, except for the license thing. :) Guess I'll deal with it after I'm done with the rest in my priority list.

Our Pets in Pet Society

Well, it's 5:00 AM in the morning here and I haven't slept yet. You can blame it on my shifting work schedule... And I guess partially also the the Pet Society game in Facebook. :)

For about a month now, I've been combing through the difference applications there. Vampire Wars, Mafia Wars, and the like are all good. After a while, though, it gets old. I guess the dependence on the number of your friends playing this game can only do so much. Sometimes, it's stressing when you find out that people are clobbering your character all the time. And stress is not exactly why I wanted to join Facebook in the first place.

Unlike the other games, Pet Society gets high scores for me at this time. I guess the capability to interact with Che in a more... uhm... constructive way gives it that every needed boost in likeability. :) I guess doing simple things for people -- like giving a ninja suit or leaving a short note -- is all that's needed to put a smile on your face.



Che's pet's name is Jessie, named after our dog we left behind in Manila. Similarly, I named my pet after our other dog, Jessie's partner, Doggie. Yep, seriously, that's his name. :) Don't ask why! :))

The two are wearing "terno" ninja suits. We didn't actually complete the whole ninja look; the ninja facemask don't fit them very well, so we just kept the headgear casual. :)

Good morning!

The Incredible Hulk Movie!

We just watched the movie earlier today. Simply amazing! Hands down much better than the Hulk back in 2003 and, best of all, there is a promise of a continuity among the succeeding Marvel movie franchises in the future!

Graphics are astoundingly realistic. They sure made good use of those powerful computers to create the graphics; Hulk's skin shows texture and a very high level of detail. This can be clearly seen in the two major battles that took place; Hulk vs. General Ross' (William Hurt) forces on the Culver University field (too bad this clip did not show the sonic tanks), and Hulk vs. Abomination somewhere downtown New York.



While it takes off mainly from where the 2003 Hulk movie ended, with Bruce Banner (Edward Notron) getting "angry" in the forests somewhere in South America, Brazil I think, the plot is completely independent of the previous one. If they wanted to package this movie to be not a sequel while still continuing the plot from the first movie without a toal reboot of the Hulk origin, then they made a pretty good job.

The connection between the two movies is very loose, as can be seen from the flashbacks. Also, there are minor differences such as Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) seeing the Bruce transform to Hulk for the first time in this movie (note that Gen. Ross commented that now she will see, referring to Bruce's transformation into the Hullk).

Don't want to reveal the rest of the plot for those who haven't seen it yet, so I'll stop the plot analysis here. :)

The cameos are also great. Three cameos I think are worth mentioning: Like most Marvel movies, Stan Lee is there again -- this time, unlike his previous ones, his cameo was of significant importance since that led to Gen. Ross to finding Banner in South America! Also there was Lou Ferrigno, who was the original Hulk of the 70's show, posing as security guard bribed by Banner. Lastly, Robert Downey Jr., as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.

That last cameo promises, finally, a continuity among the Marvel movies. Crossovers and guest appearances are common in Marvel comics. Why should Marvel movies be any different? Imagine Iron Man taking on the Hulk, Fantastic Four teaming up with Spider-Man, Avengers taking on the Masters of Evil, whatever. The possibilities are endless.

Official word is that the Avengers movie is slated to be release by 2011. Is this the team that Iron Man was referring to? Could be, but the roster would be a little different; in the comics, the Hulk was one of the original Avengers, so I don't see the screenplay following the "canonical" origin of the team.

Many elements are also taken from the Marvel Universe comics but have been changed to suit this movie. Weapon Plus, for example, is part of Wolverine's mythos, being the program that created Weapon X (Wolverine) and others such as Weapon I (aka Captain America).

Also, Spider-Man fans would recognize the Incredible Hulk poster as a nod to one of the most iconic covers of the Amazing Spider-Man.

Stark Industries is of mentioned (I'm still wondering if it's really the Avengers is what he was referring to; the Hulkbusters, I think, would have been a better fit, with him leading the charge wearing his Hulkbuster armor), as well as Nick Fury and SHIELD.

Maybe not the best movie out there, but IMHO one of the best storylines Marvel has created so far. And like most comic readers, I want good stories and this one is one of the better ones out there.

Getting sleepy now. I better get some rest. :)

Project aftermath...

Finally, after months of anticipation, the project had come to pass... and we all survived!

This is perhaps the biggest project I am involved in my entire career. I wish I could say that everything was smooth sailing, but that would be a lie.

So our team were there on site at 10:30 AM last Saturday, but people were already behind schedule; we could not start unless the first team has finished their task. All preliminary tasks on our side have been done, so all that was left was to wait for the other team to finish their task. So we waited patiently... And waited... And waited some more.

Around 3:30PM, that's when we had our first issue. Easily resolved, no sweat.

About 30 minutes later, then came the seemingly never-ending parade of issues... We had a list pasted on a wall were all the problems / issues encountered are listed. For the next 2 minutes, 10 issues are listed and there were no signs of it letting up. Thankfully it did stop, but there were already too much on the list and we were stuck with these problems for the next hours.

Bottomline, we finally called it a day around 2:30 AM. Workarounds were in place, although there are a couple more unresolved issues. We had to come back the following day. (Or technically, later that day since it's past midnight.)

We returned to work around the 11 AM, refreshed but not as eager as we were the previous day. Thankfully, all of the outstanding issues have been resolved around 3:00PM. Finally! We went home very elated that the project is finished.

While sitting in front of the TV, I realized a couple of things; first, I'm watching "Sunday" shows which means it's already Sunday; and, second, we have to go back to work the following day (to provide support in case problems do occur during normal production hours). I feel shortchanged. If you look at it, we would be working for twelve days straight (the 10 normal working days in two weeks plus the two weekends). Aint exactly your ideal scenario!

So today we returned, still not very enthusiastic. Problems did occur but thankfully these were resolved easily. We would be staying put for the rest of the week to ensure that any and all incidents are dealt with.

Aside from that, I had to update all the documents that are affected by the changes. Aside from the two documents I created for this project, my boss assigned me to update five other documents affected. I know for a fact that nobody is assigned to update one other document, so I plan to do that as well.

All in all, just another fine week. :)

Countdown to a monster project!

Although it was not my intention, I let this blog hanging again for a week without any posts. :( Due to the big project I'm involved with, I didn't have enough time to spare to do much of anything except do my tasks and keeping my sanity intact...

Good news is, aside from one minor task (which hopefully I can delegate to the other project members who are free), all of the prep work that I needed to do is finished. That should give me enough room this week to do, among other things, blog, play and have fun!

Not that I'm not having fun during last week. For the first time in this job, the end of the week was rewarding for me; well, rewarding technically. I've managed to setup a server switch -- a Cisco Catalyst 6000 -- in the live/production network and is ready for use. Providing tech support or doing configurations on a lab setup is one thing; actually configuring it on your own in production is another.

Also, as I've said, I've been working hard to keep my brain still intact. I've been continuing my Baldur's Gate II game as well. I'm planning on using a different character next time I play it. Also, I have been beefing up Che's Nintendo Dual Screen (NDS). Thanks to youtube and internet, I've tweaked the R4DS. Maybe I'll post a separate entry for the NDS customization.

Here's hoping to a smooth week!

My "going-home" boo-boos and yeah-yeahs list

Having spent about a week in Manila was not a cakewalk, but the following boo-boos made it just a little bit worse, although the yeah-yeahs seem to make it all worthwhile. I hope the list helps you out there planning to go home :)

BOO-BOOs:

Left Driver's License. You only actually need a license when (1) you get caught by those traffic enforcers, and (2) when you get caught in an accident. With these in mind, I always had that nagging feeling whenever I'm driving around the Metro... Yep, not the best feeling at all... which only makes you even more prone to accidents... :(

Left ATM card. What's worse than your wallet with missing driver's license? Your wallet with no money whatsoever! I already transferred cash into my ATM account in Manila (since remitting from SG to Manila has better rates than converting through money changers in Manila). Of course, that is useless if your ATM card is not with you. Darn! Good thing, we had a simple workaround: transfer funds into another ATM that you have access to (such as the ATM of your parents!) This was a bit of a hassle, but it's better than not having any cash at all!


No traffic "intelligence report". Traffic was so heavy, we spent the entire morning crawling through the South Luzon Expressway. I guess if I had tuned in to one of those traffic watch programs, I would have taken the Skyway or any other alternate routes. Oh well... That's a half day wasted. This is perhaps the worst case of "waste"... You waste time, energy, gas (and consequently money) in the middle of a damned highway. The only good thing here is that we were stuck in traffic in our entire stay only once.

Unset alarms. You'd expect some days in which you would have to stay up real late and, as such, you are expected to wake up late as well... However, time is not on our side. Alarms should have been set so as not to waste two or three hours to sleep. It's only a small thing to overlook, but one that cost us several hours... Multiply that by several days and you'd almost have a full day lost to sleep... Not the healthiest choice, sure, but we could have grabbed some sleep after finishing whatever tasks we had for the week... Oh well....

Planned a not-so flexible agenda. Many items in our list were not done mainly due to "surprises". At one time, we had unexpected (but welcome) visitors which practically cleared out the rest of our day. Our timetable was so tight, there was very minimal room for adjustment. Surprises like this forced us to leave out some items undone.

Not-enough days! One week -- actually, 5 workdays plus the 4 weekends, inclusive of the in and out flights -- is simply not enough! It was just enough time to finish off some loose ends, but not enough to actually enjoy the stay. One week would have worked for a non-flexible and completely predictable time. Otherwise, it's just not enough... :(

Note to self: next time, plan a two-week vacation at the minimum.


YEAH-YEAHs:

Meet family, friends and colleagues. What's better than meeting the ones we've left behind after a long time? Although sadly, we didn't get to meet everyone due to time constraint. But I guess we were able to meet with the people that we really needed to meet with anyway, so that's fine. :)

Home. No matter what you say, home is home, and there's nothing like being home after a long time... Well, in our case, it's actually just a few months, but still... In our case at least, we had three homes: our actual house where we live (or used to live), Che's parents' house (with all her pamangkin's including the newest one, Keisha), and my Dad's house (where I grew up and is the "gathering point" of my clan). Spending time in all three is very refreshing.

Eat foods missed. Needless to say, food abroad is nothing like food in Manila. So which foods did we have? Well, there's Jollibee's chicken and breakfast meals, Tapa King's Tapa Queen (the sweet and spicy one, I think), Goldilock's puto and mamon, and, of course, the home-made dishes (too many to mention). Aside from these, we brought back to SG some of the things that you'll never find there: Purefood's Tender Juicy Hotdogs, Purefood's Salami, Purefoods Corned Beef (simply the best corned beef for me), Century Tuna (Hot and Spicy), laurel leaves (bay leaves) and banana blossoms (puso ng saging) for the paksiw, different types of tuyo and daing, Filipino curry powder (i.e., our local yellow curry powder, not to be confused with SG's fiery red curry powder), bunch of chichiryas like Kirei, Oishi and Tortillos, and, of course, my favorite sandwhich spreads -- Cheez Whiz and Lady's Choice Guava Jelly. Actually, my favorite since way, way back was the Peanut Butter with Guava Jelly Stripe. If I'm not mistaken, it's either Lady's Choice or Kraft. Well, it no longer exists today, sadly, so I'd settle with the Guava Jelly with any brand of peanut butter such Lily's.

Note: Wow! What a long entry for food! Hehehe...

Had our first-time massage. We never really had a massage together before. So we thought that it was a good time as any to do it. We went to the Relaksasi in Park Square I in Makati. We went for the Combination massage. Hu-wow! What a massage! Maybe next time, we'll try their so-called signature massage, the Balinese massage. Almost twice the cost of the combination massage... That better be worth it! :)

Note to self: Include massage in the itinerary of any homecoming vacation.

Dealt with our wedding photo package. Yep, at long last...after more than a year and a half, we finally met again with our official wedding photographer to finalize our photo album. Allan Boras, excited as ever to take pictures, was more than happy to accomodate us. :) He still definitely exhibits that passion of his for photography. Here's a guy that just loves taking pictures. :)

Triggered retro-gaming. Checking out our PC at home, I came across one of the best games I've every played: Baldur's Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn. It's one of those early 2000 RPGs (role-playing games) based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. To make the long story short, I installed the game in our laptop (thank God, the game is compatible with Windows Vista!) and started playing on my free time. :)

Helped one of my cousins. We learned that one of my cousins is already graduating from college. Her life would be made easier if she had her own PC to use. Those reports can be a real drag if you don't have your own PC. Well, we wouldn't be using our PC anyway, so we gave a PC to her. Hope she makes the best of her final year in college!

Well, that's all for now. :)

Countdown to homecoming!

Just a few hours left.... Tonight, we will be flying back to Manila for about a week!

I miss a lot of things from the hometown, but there are also many things I'm not really looking forward to.

One good thing is the more favorable exchange rate; last February, SGD1 = PHP27++; as of this writing, SGD1 = PHP31++, the highest so far this year. So supposedly, one SGD can buy more now than last February. The bad thing: all prices went up; rice, gas, jeep/bus fares. Well, there goes the better exchange rate... Still, at least it's higher than last time.

Traffic, I heard, was getting worse everywhere. Good thing the places we need to go are not that very far. Well, except for a few items (Cavite, etc.), but aside from that, I guess we're okay.

We've been keeping tabs on our immediate families, and I'm happy they're all good. Although seeing them all with my own eyes should be so much better than hearing them over the cellphone. We missed all their birthdays this year, but work and obligations just prevents us from doing so.

Haven't seen a lot of our friends the last time we were here. Many of them did not even know we came back! ;) Oh, well, you can only do so much in a week.

I wonder how Santana Grove looks like now? When we left, the place was already becoming a people "magnet", promising to be one of the new "gimikans" or "go-to places" in Paranaque.

Water is still a problem, though. Could be a few more months, if not years, before NAWASA/MWSS (or whatever company is making all the digs along Sucat Road) can reach our subdivision. Plus, we need a new water tank. Hehehe :)

Oh well, still... Despite the imperfections, home is home. :) Nothing better to prepare myself before the June "showdown" I'll be working on than getting the "home-feeling" again. :)

Hope we can make the most of our stay; if everything stays the same, the next time we'll be able to go back is next year.

Hmmm... Just realized my post is almost like a jumble of ramblings, one thought only loosely connected to the others. Oh well, I guess that's how I am when I'm left with these musings about home. Hehehe. :)

I guess, happy homecoming to us then! Yipee!

"Brother"'s comeback in the finale!

The finale of this season's American Idol is perhaps the most expensive and grandest so far. (Not surprising, since votes for the final week alone totalled US$97million) So many guest artist performances on stage, plus the star-studded crowd lining the front rows...

(Not to mention, the two finalists each get their own Ford Escape Hybrid!)

Halfway through the show, just when you thought things could not get any better, he returns...



Same ol', same ol' Renaldo Lapuz is back, with his white costume, white hat, and shiny cape! And this time, with a marching band!

Oooh yeah!

Special thanks to Cocoidol08 for the amazing upload!

Trudging work with streaming radio

In case you didn't know, my job isn't exactly what I thought it was. The process (or lack thereof) definitely has room for improvement. A pseudo-team (one team leader and one team member) simply does not work for me. The organizational hierarchy is also bad, since any higher-ups can assign work to us without going through the team leader. Plus, the escalation of issues practically does not exist; most of the time, the issue goes directly to manager instead of us. (I guess, coming from a "real" technical support job, I can see clearly that the "escalation" procedure is -- well, let's just say it could use a major overhaul.... :) On top of it all, our projects are there and we get constant pings from the same manager who assigns multiple "very urgent" (but mostly trivial) tasks.

Oh well, enough of the rants... :)

Ever since my last job, I simply work better with music on. Back then, it was cellphone radios and earphones. Now, I can use that, but then again, I can only pick up SG radio stations. :( They're not THAT bad, but I comes down to cultural preferences, I guess.. Example, I just don't get a kick out of any Chinese, Malaysian, or Indian songs which get played as much as the English songs we know.

So, it's got to be internet radio! Unlike other companies here, it's a good thing that streaming (audio or video) is not blocked. Although there are days when it gets disconnected, mostly due to network issues. (They should really replace some of the devices here!) If streaming were blocked, I don't know how I would keep myself sane. Radio helps me relax back then. It's helping me relax now... or at least entertained enough to get through the day. :)

I listen to RX most of the time. :) That's were I get my daily dose of songs and news -- entertainment or otherwise. Keeps me updated on latest hits. (Che was really happy to know that Say It Again topped the top charts.)

Sadly, I don't get to work that early, so I can only hear the last hour of Chico and Delamar. I could go to work earlier, but then again, why the hell should I? :)

Okay, back to "work"! Hehehe :)

My Birthday Feast

Well, check the details on Che's post Happy Birthday to My Baby!

Most of the story is already there so just check it out. I'll just place here the food that they have prepared for me! Awww... How sweet. :)




Che became a master chef of sorts. Che and Cel prepared most of the food for the feast. The menu included the following:

• Baked Tanigue
• Pork and Veggies in Mushroom Sauce
• Pancit Bihon
• Salmon and Seafood Fried Rice
• Roasted Chicken
• Leche Flan
• Chilled Buko Salad

She cooks the best dishes! When we return to the Philippines, I bet she can start her own catering business. :)

Be, thanks for everything! Through the good times and the hard ones, you're always there. From my highs and successes through all of my lows and failures, you're there. And now I've grown a year older, you're still there. Thank you. :)

To Sentosa we will go...

My sister reminded us that there's one place we haven't been to yet... Well, actually, we haven't been to the many go-to places in Singapore yet, but that's not the point. :) Anyway, read my previous post about this here.

After six months, we finally needed to take a very good breather and so we went to Sentosa! I guess carefully laid-out plans don't always push through. We've always been planning to go there only to end up too lazy to push through. Drawing, drawing, drawing... This trip was simply made out of the blue; someone suggested it, everyone agreed to it, so awaaaaaaaaay we go!


While going down the beach, we spotted what appears to be an out-of-place Siberian Husky in the middle of the tropics...




Us with the rest of the gang!




This one was taken on one end of the beach....

Shot on another part of the beach are the bridge and the viewing platforms on the inlet, which is dubbed the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.




The two of us on the bridge to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.




On the platform that links the "two towers" i.e. the viewing platforms.




The rock says:

"The inlet that you are standing on now is 135 KM north of the Equator and is described as the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.

This inlet is linked to Asia via a suspension bridge which is linked to mainland Singapore by a 710 meter long causeway bridge. Singapore is further linked to Peninsular Malaysia and Asia by the Singapore-Johore Causeway."



Note: It's a bit tedious writing the "Southernmost Point of Continental Asia." This is like the fourth time it was written within this one post...


The two of us on the iconic rocks that spell "Sentosa".



See also Che's post on this one here.