Filed under Photohunt, human interest, travel, trivia
This is the aerial view of Chicago as seen from the sky deck of the Sears Tower. I just love that beautiful loop of roads in the center. It’s called Circle Interchange, one of the worst places to be stuck in traffic in the world, and it’s an example of a Spaghetti Junction.
But still, I love Chicago! I hope to go back there someday.
It used to be that this big, old house had 12 merry girls living under its roof. Weekday nights were filled with conversation and laughter while we sit around the television and eat dinner in front of it. Oftentimes, in the middle of the night, someone would say she’s hungry, and we’d be happy to have an excuse to order burgers and fries and Coke and boxes of pizza.
Sometimes we would all just go out in our pambahay clothes to eat at the fastfood outlets that abound in this area of the city. Every time there is a birthday, or a promotion, or a regularization, or just about anything worth celebrating, we would hold a party, and because there were 12 of us, we would have at least one party a month. That excludes the big party at Christmas, the weekly official gatherings on Monday nights, and the random getaways.
Things have changed, though, in only a span of few months. There are only six of us now. The others have gotten married, eloped with the boyfriend, left to live with a sick father, or moved back to watch over the empty family home. Of the six of us still here, one is rarely here because her family lives just a town away, and two are always out with their boyfriends. (Should I just get a boyfriend, too? LOL). My roommate is also leaving in a week to prepare for the coming of her baby. It’s sad, but I’m also glad that she is keeping the baby.
Filed under rants, technology, work
So I take a break from writing about cables and signals and transmissions to see if my blog is still up and decided to vent. Okay, I know what PSTN is. That’s not really what this post is about.
I was just overwhelmed these past few weeks about how much I needed to take in, especially when I was in Lexington. And the more I learn, the more I realize how way behind my third-world country is in terms of technology. I consider myself more technically advanced than the average Filipino, but when these lay American people talk, you’d think they have offices in their homes. I could only think, we don’t have that in our mountain.
It was tempting to butt in and say, excuse me, but we only have three telecommunications companies in my third-world country and they don’t offer that service, so can you please bother explaining what you are talking about?
That should have told them how far behind we are, and to be more, uh, considerate of me.
Don’t believe me? Go inside Circuit City, and go inside a Filipino IT store (uh, what do we have, by the way? CDR-King?). The difference screams in your face.
Hear ye, Americans, how blessed you are. I wish you would realize that.
I am back playing in PhotoHunt! 
For my comeback, I introduce my beloved brother and his twisted sense of humor:
He is mentally okay, in case you are wondering if he is. He just thought it funny to pose and pretend to be asleep in the middle of a country road. This photo was taken in Bukidnon, a highland province in the Philippines known for being the “Pineapple Capital of the World,” where he travels a lot to for his job. The traveler streak obviously runs in the family.
P.S. I hope he forgives me for posting this in my very public blog.
Filed under blogging
Update 09/21/08: Congratulations, Winston!
Two of my friends, Winston and Maya, have been nominated for the Bloggers Choice Award in the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards. Winston, the web prodigy, is the most promising batang yagit I know. He’s probably the only yagit who owns several web sites, flaunts a wireless-capable phone, and takes photos using a DSLR.
Maya, my college blockmate, is a good writer, and it shows in her posts. She’s kick-ass smart, too. She goes to nowhere else than the best law school in the country. I am rooting for her because I think she would become a Supreme Court justice someday, and she could help me get away from legal entanglements.
There’s Jester, too. I met him through Maya, but he claims to have known me way before through my online presence. He is controversial, but I like how he puts effort into his posts. If you’re into intellectual masturbation stimulation, visit his blog.
I am not allowed to vote for more than one blog, so I am abstaining and helping in the campaign instead.
To vote, please check the guidelines here.
Filed under people, technology
So I just wrote about how amazed I was that Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder, is only 24. Well, I found out today that the founder of Facebook is as young. He is Mark Zuckerberg, dropout from Harvard, and the world’s youngest billionaire today.
Wasn’t Bill Gates also a dropout? I see a trend here.
Tells us all how wit and initiative can get us farther than old school education, of which I was never a fan.
Filed under blogging, events, technology
.. thanks to my boss who allowed me to cut my training short so I could go back to the Philippines in time for it. I had to make up for the lost days, such as having marathon meetings everyday, but it was worth the sweat. After all, I was only going to the first WordCamp in Southeast Asia, and I got to be a part of history. I also got to meet The Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress himself.
I got in on the first flight to Manila (4:30 a.m., and that’s right after going through a 44-hour international trip), so I was supposed to be the earliest there. It was stupid of me, though, to not go to the conference hall immediately and check if there were people there already. The organizers gave prizes to the first five who arrived. I was the sixth, I think, because I had stayed at an Internet cafe near the venue to pass the time.
It was okay, though, because later in the afternoon I got another prize: a WordCamp mug for being the second to register online. I love the mug! I had no idea that I was one of the first to register. I was busy plurking at the back of the hall when my name was called. I should have known, because my camper badge number was 002.
The highlight of the event, of course, was the appearance of the most eligible Matt in the world. He was an instant celebrity. The campers flocked to him, and everyone listened intently when he talked. Most of the time people were plurking rather than listening to the talks. But when it was Matt’s turn, everyone stopped. Or at least the girls did. By the way, he is only 24! And I am 23! So we are good together! LOL. (Roanne’s going to kill me for saying this.)
I was so amazed at how young and humble he was. He started Wordpress when he was only 17! What was I doing at that age? What were you doing at that age? And he didn’t look or sound like a nerd at all, nor did he look like someone famous. He came to the event in jeans, and he was very friendly. He was game enough to have his pictures taken with all those who wanted to have pictures with him, to think that the queue was very loooooooong.
I fell in line, of course. Here’s my picture with him:
Noticed my big, big smile?
My former colleagues took me to this restaurant that is said to be one of the best in Lexington one Friday night. We were discussing where to have dinner for a sort of farewell for me, and I told them I wanted to try something new. They brought me to Marikka’s, a German restaurant that serves authentic German cuisine.
It was the perfect choice, first, because I hadn’t eaten there. I eat out a lot whenever I am in Lexington (thanks to Jen who started that tradition for me) but I hadn’t gone there before. I also hadn’t tried any German food other than pretzels, which is pathetic because I realize now that German food is so good.
When we got to Marikka’s, I couldn’t read the food in the menu because they were all written in longish German names that were hard to pronounce, but I got some help from a colleague who had eaten there a lot of times. This was what I got:
That’s breaded turkey on my plate, plus mashed potatoes and a vegetable I forgot the name of grüne bohnen, or green vegetables. It was my first time to try turkey, and I loved it! It tasted like chicken, actually, but it’s a lot better.
Because I was so curious about German palate, my colleagues allowed me to try the food on their plates. The red thing you see above is rotkraut or sour red cabbage (yes, red cabbage!). It looks like corned beef, no?
Filed under religion, technology
I was very sleepy and was about to doze off when a nerdy friend, in his excitement, PMed me just to say that the Large Hadron Collider was switched on for the first time in many years.
Now, I am also a nerd. When he mentioned “physics research” and said yes, he was referring to that elite research center in Switzerland, I got excited, too!
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which made the Large Hadron Collider, has been trying for years to recreate the Big Bang in its quest to uncover the origins of the universe. The institute does this by producing small amounts of antimatter, the most powerful substance in the world, through high-energy machines called particle accelerators. The Large Hadron Collider is the largest and most powerful of these.
Filed under opinion, personal, rants
I find it weird whenever I am asked abroad if I have a degree, or if I ever went to school, or if we have this or that at home.
I just shrug it off, and answer the best way I can. I see no point in going into a long defense of who I am, where I went, or what I have seen of or done in this world. Sometimes they are surprised when I can converse well in English (Hello?).
No, I am not mad at all. And no, I don’t think the people I talked to were racists. It just makes me sad that the rest of the world still thinks of us as heathens, and this is probably our fault.
I was talking to someone (an American) awhile ago who told me a crazy story about a 20-year-old Filipina who was seriously considering a marriage proposal made on the phone by a 55-year-old American that she has never met.
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