Got a free eBook on KFC's Col. Sanders

We got Col. Sander's Autobiography for free! Thanks to #KFCPhilippines in Facebook.


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Haven't really had any interest in it, but hey! It's free! And it's just a few clicks anyway! :)

New Books on Our Bookshelf

Among other things, our recent trip back to the Philippines triggered my latent fondness of books... Thanks to the frequent trips to National Bookstore beside Shopwise. :)

So for the last three weeks, these are some of the books that really took my fancy:

Guess How Much I Love You
Written by Sam McBratney
Illustrated by Anita Jeram
Published by Walker Books Ltd

I guess my daddy-side is already showing, ain't it? :) Anyway, it's a story about Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare telling how much they each other. It's a rather short and simple story but one that you would love telling your kids every night. Although it's "short", it's actually quite longer than other baby picture story books out there. Plus, the watercolor illustrations on each page is great and makes the story even more endearing. Personally, my favorite picture is the one shown below, in which Big Nutbrown Hare is holding Little Nutbrown Hare who finally falls asleep.

Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin
Written by Eduardo O. Roberto Jr.
Illustrations by Roli Sabado
Published by OMF Literature Inc.

This one we got as New Year's gift. Like most of the self-help financial management books, this one deals on how one should manage money. Unlike most of self help financial management books, this one actually has a religious tone about it -- citing several verses from the Bible; it is written in Taglish (Tagalog-English "slang"), which means it's specifically intended for local Pinoys; and, containing just about 100 pages, it is very brief and concise.

The presentation is rather simplified which makes it easier for anyone -- or at least anyone who readily understands Taglish -- to read and follow. The strategies are presented simply and logically, with some Bible verses cited every now and then as needed.

Interesting fact (I've learned from the book): Money is the second most talked-about topic in the Bible, with over 2000 verses in all.


Book of 101 Fables
Retold and Illustrated by Johnny C. Young
Published by Luminaire Printing and Publishing Corp

In case you haven't noticed, I like stories. And in my opinion, there's no better collection of timeless stories than Aesop's Fables. The good thing about this particular book is that (1) it contains several fables which are not attributed to Aesop such as the local Philippine fables; (2) there are commentaries and moral lessons at the end of each fable, which is the reason fables are written in the first place -- to teach a lesson; and (3) the index at the latter part of the book groups the fables by the general moral lesson (i.e., Honesty, Sincerity, Procrastination), which makes it easier to look for fables for different ocassions.

Top Ten Things I learned from You on a Diet

I find "You on a Diet" one of the more unique diet books out there, in that it focuses not on the usual aspects of dieting like food, calories, exercise, and sheer willpower, but on the biology and chemistry behind the gaining and losing of weight. And it is written in layman's terms complete with cartoon drawings which, therefore tells you that this is for the common man.

Here are some of the things I learned from it so far:

10. Waistline is a better indicator of your progress -- or lack of it -- of dieting than your weight. When you lose weight, you might actually be losing muscle mass instead of fat.

09. The state of mind is half the battle. Food is the common way to combat stress, but this leads to an endless cycle. Fat Bastard in Goldmember said "I overeat because I'm sad. I'm sad because I overeat." Sounds familiar? That's why the more stressed you are, the bigger your wasteline.

08. Never get hungry! Two reasons: One, in starvation mode, the body uses less of the stored energy, aka your fat. Two, you are less likely to overeat. So don't skip meals!

07. When you feel an empty stomach, drink a glass of water first. If the hungry feeling goes away, it's actually thirst that your brain -- through bad habits, or other external factors -- interprets as hunger, which therefore tells you to eat.

06. Watch what you eat. Focus not only on reducing intake of bad cholesterol, but also on increasing intake of good cholesterol. Good cholesterol HDL helps clear the body of bad cholesterol LDL, which can only mean a good thing.

05. Walk at least thirty minutes a day. Walking is good. Do we really need to explain? Just do it, okay?

04. Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells. Therefore, bigger muscles means lesser excess calories to worry about. So work out those biceps! :)

03. Swing diet is bad. Period. When you sum it up, chances are, you gained more weight. So do whatever it takes to prevent you from swinging.

02. Keep your hands busy. If not, you're hands find something else to do -- such as opening that candy bar which miraculously appeared inside your pocket! Turns out that playing video games tend to keep you from eating.

01. Like exercise, good sex makes you feel less hungry. The pleasure center of the brain that says you enjoyed sex is the same part that says your stomach is full; doing either satisfies it. Therefore, after sex, you are less likely to eat. Ergo, less calories that takes up residence on your belly!

Hope you're learning and enjoying at the same time while reading this.

Update after a two-week hiatus

Just found sometime to post something here after two weeks of absence. It's been a busy two weeks for me. It's my "duty" month, which means I am on call 24/7. And the last two weeks have been anything but quiet. :)

So anyway, what the hell have I been doing the last two weeks?

My TV rants
The Olympics coverage here in SG is very thorough, with StarHub dedicating about somewhere around seven channels for the Olympics. I just watched last night (that woulkd be Sunday here, SG time) the Women's Team Table Tennis Finals. I think this is one of the more significant matches for Singaporeans, as many posters here show the picture of Li J. W. She is one of SG's hope to bring home the Gold. Unfortunately, though she gave her best effort, team China was just that a bit better, taking home the gold for both the Singles and Team Women's Table Tennis match.

Anyway, aside from that, I haven't really been keeping tabs on the Olympics. Not a big fan, sorry to say. It's just not my thing.

Aside from that, I've been continuously struggling with the different LSS (Last Song Syndrome) from the Disney channel. The two-year-old David, my godchild and our housemates' kid, is always watching Disney channel shows. That's the only decent channel we have here that is "safe" for a kid.

So let's see, the latest ones that I have are "You/ are my/ bestfriend/" (I think from Little Einsteins) and "tivotivotivotivotivotivo" (from Tivo the Gift Dragon). Perpetual Favorites are of course the ones from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Hotdog, hotdog, hotdiggidy-dog...) and My Friends Tigger and Pooh (Hmmm... How does that "Think" song go again?)

Hrrmmm... Okay, I think I should move on....

My readable reads
I've also been catching up on my reading about Marvel's latest crossover event, the Secret Invasion. I've purposely been holding back on reading, at least until I can get a copy of at least five comics titles included in this story arc... Reading just one issue of a great story arc at a time just leaves me hanging and I just can't stand it. I would rather re-read the earlier storylines I have completed than to be left hanging like that.

So while waiting for the five latest Secret Invasion comics titles, I've been reading the Dragons of a Fallen Sun, volume one of the War of Souls trilogy. Admittedly, I stopped reading Dragonlance novels after reading the original trilogy, Twins trilogy, and the Dragons of Summer Flame. But, hey, I bought the book for a very good bargain price, so I might as well read it...

Money Watch
We've been also monitoring the SGD to PHP exchange rate. After an all-year high of PHP33 to SGD1 about a month ago (see related post here), the exchange rate dropped to just PHP31 to SGD1. If we were looking for a good time to remit to the Philippines, that was it. Anyway, while skeptical about the exchange rate to return to the PHP33-level, we're still hoping to get a slight increase. Perhaps just about PHP32, in order to maximize the remittance value. :)


Uh-oh. Something came up again. :( Damn 24/7 support! Oh well, at least I was able to get this far. I'll just have to postpone the rest of my posts for now.

Bookshelf update: Marvel 1602

It's been a while since I last updated my shelfari. Found a bunch of new features since I last logged in.... well, it's so long ago, I can't remember!

I decided to check it again when I just happen to be in the campus library when I came across the Marvel 1602 paperback (check my shelfari bookshelf below). I've had fun reading this before, and I have no problem reading it again!

Simply put, Marvel 1602 (due to some complicated cosmic plot I'd rather not discuss) the age of heroes (i.e., today, present time when all superheroes are about) was moved back four hundred years into the past, during the time of Queen Elizabeth I, King James of Scotland, the Spanish Inquisition, Templar Knights and the Crusades, the discovery of the New World.

We see Captain America as an (American) Indian, Nick Fury and Dr Strange as members of Queen Elizabeth's court; Magneto as the Spanish Grand Inquisitor hunting down mutants -- or witchbreed (Interesting to note is that Magneto here is a witchbreed in hiding); the witchbreed led by Carlos Javier (Prof. X.); Count Otto Von Doom the Handsome, ruler of Latveria; a young Peter Parquagh (Spider-Man) as Nick Fury's squire; Matt Murdoch (Daredevil), Nick Fury's agent; Thor and his alter-ego, Donal, the a hermit/Templar Knight and others.

If that does not convince you to read this, perhaps the name of the author will...the award-winnig English writer Neil Gaiman (The Sandman comics series, Stardust starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes).

Gaiman's take on these superheroes and taking them back in time makes a particularly good read. At least for me, who likes reading history AND comics. And most especially, for those who are always ask "what if" about history.

Dragonlance Bargain Books

In baragin book sales, I almost always end up empty-handed. I guess the books that I'm looking for are either very rare, or not usually listed under the "bargain" (i.e., not easily sold) category.

About a week ago, we went home, with me happily nursing my sore arms -- they're sore because of the tons of books that we bought from Carrefour. :)

Two of those books are from the Dragonlance series. Dragonlance, as Mister Wiki explains, is a large series of fantasy novels consisting of around 190 novels. I've no plans of buying the entire lot; just the mainstream or the "core" novels, although I do buy some of the side novels every now and then; so far, I have the Chronicles trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, Spring Dawning), Legends trilogy (Time of Twins, War of Twins, and Test of Twins) and the Dragons of Summer Flame.

A few years back, I somehow lost interest after reading the Summer Flame book; besides the fact that college time was a busy time, I'm not really a big fan of how some of the heroes ended up dying the way they did and all that. Although I do like the part about the Knights of Takhisis (basically, a group of Knights worshipping the evil goddess Takhisis) and their code. It goes something like: "respect your enemy...so that you will not underestimate him" or something (sorry, I can't remember fully the exact words nor the exact page where I read this). Not a bad idea, if you ask me. :)

Well, enough about that...

So anyway, going back, I bought two books from the next "trilogy", War of Souls; I got Dragons of a Fallen Sun (book 1) and Dragons of a Vanished Moon (book 3). Too bad there were no Dragons of a Lost Star (book 2) anywhere that time. Still, I'm bappy with what I got.

Since it's a Carrefour book sale, each of the books (all of them are brand new, btw) costs only S$5! That is regardless of the size, edition, whatever. As long as it's a book, it's S$5! The Fallen Sun book sold is the paperback edition. The Vanished Moon book is the big hardcover edition -- this happens to be my first hardbound Dragonlance book! So that's S$10, which is not a bad bargain if you ask me; a few years back in Manila, I remember each book (paperback edition) costs between php250 and php350 -- that's around S$8 to S$12 each.

Well, I hope I like this one. I'll look for the other book just to complete the set.

Freaky Economics Book!

Wow! There are relatively very few books which deals with ideas, which people would consider unconventional or unorthodox. Things most people would feel uncomfortable with.

Well, unlike the other unorthodox books that I like, this one does not deal with religion or morality -- such as the trilogy of Robert Greene, and books dealing with the Gospel of Judas, Mary Magdalene and the like -- this one deals with the world economy. The topic is "closer" to the real world so it should appeal to more people, unlike the books dealing with the topics stated above.

Freaknomics (by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner) is a great read for people who want to explore the world from a different angle or point of view. Many of the questions asked here are radical questions; those which a typical person would not normally think of asking. But once you get down to it, these questions make a really good sense and forces you to think of the world in a different light.

Here's a simple question asked in the first chapter of the book: What do school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common? Would you believe that the answer is..... CHEATING??? Yeah well, that got me stumped the first time I read it, so don't be surprised if you're stumped as well. The chapter discusses about "incentives"; what makes people do or not do something; what keeps people to be honest; what forces people to cheat. Ahh...now your brain is now processing this info... now we're getting somewhere... :)

If you decide to read it and you are inclined towards the subject, have a great fun reading it! I'm down to chapter 4 within the first two days I started reading it!

Highly Recommended: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Finally had the chance to do this entry on The 48 Laws of Power! :-)

I have always been a fan of books like Sun Tzu's Art of War and the like, so I buy them whenever my budget allows it.

After reading the concise version from cover to cover, I just couldn't wait to get my hands on the full version. If you think the concise version of the book was loaded, wait 'til you get inside the "big one" >:-)

The book introduces "laws" which increase ones power -- in politics, business, entertainment industry, whatever tickles your fancy. The book cites the unspoken and (before now) unwritten laws which have been used by people for over the thousand years and ARE still being used TODAY. What, you don't believe me? Well then, you can check out the hip hop community here.

THE LAWS DISSECTED

Greene has designed a format that makes it easier to follow and understand each of the 48
laws. The presentation of each of law is organized in a catchy, easy to follow template. The main sections are:

* Transgression of the Law
* Observance of the Law
* Keys to Power
* Image & Authority
* Reversal

Transgression of the Law - accounts of famous figures in history are cited as examples that violate the law which eventually leads to their downfall.

Observance of the Law - same as above, except these ones abide by the law and, hence greatly benefited from it.

Keys to Power - an in-depth explanation of the law and its underlying concepts; the "core" of each law is fully explained in great detail.

Image and Authority - an object that represents the very essence of the law; here's an example "Image" taken from the first law: Never outshine the master.

Image:
The Stars in the
Sky. There can be only
one sun at a time. Never
obscure the sunlight, or
rival the sun's brilliance;
rather,fade into the sky and
find ways to heighten
the master star's
intensity.

It is immediately followed by Authority - a final word or advise regarding the law.

Reversal - describes the circumstances in which doing the direct opposite of the law is either useful or necessary.

Aside from the major sections above, there are side notes citing anecdotes, fables, and such in which the law is applicable. This book made me appreciate more the lessons behind the fables. I don't see them as just mere children's stories anymore.


THE CONCISE VERSION

I recommend buying the concise version only if you want to introduce the book to a friend. This is pretty much how I got hooked into this book.

Although the Key Concepts are largely unchanged, the concise version is severely lacking in examples, i.e. Transgressions and Observance of the Law.

However, what I consider the biggest drawback is the lack of the Reversal section. One has to know the ins and outs of an idea in order to master it -- you must know when it is appropriate to apply the law and when to do the opposite.


AMORALITY OF THE LAWS

Just a precaution: have an open mind. The contents are brutally ruthless! If you follow this book to the letter, you WILL be stepping on some people. Such is the price of power. Win some or lose some. It's up to you to assess whether what was lost and gained was worth the trade.

Anyway, people who are very particular about the acceptable norms and moral standards will have a hard time digesting this book. If you have had a difficult time reading the likes of The Da Vince Code and The Gospel of Judas, then you would experience the same difficulty with this one due to the ethical implications.

Personally, I consider this book as amoral, not bound by morality. I think of it as a tool, say, a knife, which can be used either for good or evil. It is the INTENTION of the hand holding the knife that should be judged as good or evil, not the knife itself.


NOT JUST FOR FOLLOWERS

Whether you follow the laws or not, it's up to you. However, I believe that regardless of how you view it, you should at least be aware of them. There are people out there who WILL use this knowledge regardless of whoever is standing in their way. How do you know if you are being used? Would you like to be used? To serve as a stepping stone for another person's climb to the top?

These laws have been used one way or another for a long time all over the world, long before these are written down on this book. We should be thankful that we are now made aware of these laws and are now compiled in a single near-900 page volume.

Personally, I suggest that you do not dwell on the ethical implications of the book. Treat it as it is -- a book of knowledge that you can use to your advantage and meet your own ends or to protect yourself from those who would take advantage of you. (Knowledg is Power, or so they say.)

However, you use it is up to you. Whether you use it or not is up to you. Just remember, ignorance of the law excuses no one!

Here is the official blog of Robert Greene:
http://www.powerseductionandwar.com/