My Non-Work and Work-Related-To-do List

Busy-busy-busy:

1. Buy a birthday gift for my younger bro. Maybe a Crumpler laptop messenger bag.
2. Drop by at the Nationals (as in the National Climbing Competition) this weekend. Venue: Power-up Silver City Mall.
3. Watch Transformers and Fantastic Four.
4. Defrost my BQ freezer, and re-stock on groceries.
5. Pay bills.
6. Date.
7. Go to Baclaran house for dinner with folks.
8. Update my blog for Tinter's wedding.

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1. Restore new long-term LP model.
2. Create an input deck for crude diet selection.
3. Do the stupid HEMP.
4. Write a position paper to DOE on fuel specifications.
5. Write the C3 report.
6. Retrieve new cases evaluated for the masterplan.

Gack.

AAAACCK!!! The Weight Shocker

I had myself weighed in today in support of the Diet, Exercise, Active Participation Lifestyle (or D.E.A.L.) health program at our workplace.

As of April 10, 2007: 126 pounds, 29-inch waistline.
As of June 21, 2007: 132 pounds, 31-inch waistline.

AAAAAAAACCCCKKKK!!!! No wonder I don't see my 4-pack abs recently.

I think there are 3 reasons for this:

1) I stopped going to the gym, because either I'm too stressed from work or I'm still at work;
2) Frequent business travels recently
3) The one-or-twos have now become three-or-fours

Better start making time for exercise again. Sheeesh...

(Late) Father's Day Post

The greatest teacher I've had is none other than my father.
(Belated) Happy Father's Day, Pops!

A teacher tells.
A good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.

A Rare Privilege

It's been exactly 3 months since I first had my DSLR camera. Three months of practicing and self-studying photography, buying magazines, reading books and looking at picture galleries.

Last night, I took my 5000th shot. It made me feel happy when I realized that it was a milestone for me, and it made me feel warm when I saw who were in my 5000th shot. =)





Janice and Glenn
Aperture priority
f/6.0 aperture
flash disabled
Taken at the Trellis, Taclobo Club

Kuwentuhang Brip

Last Sunday night, one of my friends chided me to join him for a late round of beers at a local bar in the Batangas area. What the heck. It was a very humid evening, and a couple of ice cold beers in an airconditioned bar sounded like a good idea.

We got a good table at the bar, ordered our beers and discussed some of the things that guys bring up in a conversation: the weather, work, girls, friends, sports and cars. We were there just really to past time and cool off a bit, so the topics were diverse.

Halfway through our second round of beers, a couple of girls approached us and struck a simple conversation with us. Pretty soon, the ladies settled themselves at our table and officially joined our conversation.

Girl A, seated to my left, opened a topic regarding her thoughts on men and their underwear. The topic was prompted by a hip-hop customer tugging at his baggy pants when he passed by our table.

Girl A: Yuck. Ayoko talaga sa mga hip-hop. Palagi silang naka-boxers.
Me: Bakit naman? Okay naman ang boxers ah. Depends on the place and the occassion.
Girl A: Gusto ko na yung mga magiging boypren o asawa ko eh palaging naka-brip. At hindi lang basta brip. Kelangan puting brip.
Me: Sige nga, explain mo sa 'min yung paniniwala mo tungkol sa mga brip.

Geez. I can't believe that I'm having this discussion with a lady-stranger.

Girl A's "brief philosophy" is as follows:

1. Ladies and sophisticated gay men adore men in clean tighty-whities. Hipster cut preferred. According to her, it's sexy and clean to look at.

2. Men who wear colored briefs have poor hygiene down there. The darker the brief color, the dirtier they are.

3. Boxer-type briefs or sports briefs are for grandpas.

4. Guys who wear "bacon strips" (loose garter) are either financially challenged or mentally deranged. Or both.

5. Only homosexuals wear the tanga-cut briefs.

6. Men who wear thongs shouldn't be allowed to talk to girls, even to little kids.

7. Metallic-colored briefs are only for wrestlers and transvestite performers.

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I was at the mall yesterday with two of my friends, a guy and a girl. When we passed by the department store, I blurted out that I'll need to buy a pack of briefs soon. Maybe in a month or so.

The girl asks "Why? Bakit next month pa?"

I told them that on the average, 2 or 3 of my undies are missing from my closet by the end of the quarter. So I needed to restock every so often. Same with socks.

And the guy goes, "Talaga? 'kala ko ako lang yung ganun. Kumokonti rin yung briefs ko e. Di ko malaman kung saan dinadala nung labandera yung mga brief ko."

Ahahaha... seems like we should introduce a 'Brief Fairy' to children's stories. Something like a cross between the boogeyman and the Tooth Fairy. And probably let the kids figure out that the Brief Fairy is your family labandera.

Industrial Photo

The big boss commissioned me to take some shots of our refinery so they can send it to Singapore and convert it into a wall mural for our company's office there. In the Asia-Pacific region, they're asking staff around to send in their best shots of their respective refineries.

So, one day when I thought I had about an hour to spare, I got a special permit to bring my camera to our highly explosive industrial workplace.

I'm not too good with landscape shots, but what the heck I gave it a try. AND, the safety helmet and safety glasses makes it difficult to do the shots properly. AND i should have brought a tripod along with me.

Store and Produce
1/30s shutter
f/4.5 aperture
ISO800
18mm focal length
Canon EOS 400D.
Shot taken at 551pm in Batangas.


Tabangao Refinery at Day
1/30s shutter
f/4.0 aperture
ISO800
18mm focal length
Canon EOS 400D.
Shot taken at 559pm in Batangas.


Tabangao Refinery at Dusk
shutter priority
1/6s shutter
f/3.5 aperture
ISO800
18mm focal length
Canon EOS 400D.
Shot taken at 647pm in Batangas.

Up

I managed to squeeze a couple of hours of wall-climbing in my busy weekend schedule. I dropped by at Power-up Pasig's new home at the Silver City behind SM Hypermart and Tiendesitas, joining up with Blos and Kat.

The new walls are higher than the ones at the old Pasig site, and they have a rock-featured wall. I just did four climbs: a warm-up on wall 1, a climb on wall 6 (comes with 2 successive overhangs), a climb on wall 3 and finally a route climb on wall 1. I haven't climbed in about 8 months --- my back muscles are still sore til now hehe.

I took a couple of shots of Blos when she was scaling wall number 3. I would have taken more shots, but my hands were covered in chalk.

It's nice to enjoy doing something sweaty.

Marlon's Night

Musikero pala si Marlon, so I grabbed the opportunity to get some shots of a musician in his zone. It was his last night at our site for a two-month training, and he amazed us with some of his suave talents.



Marlon Dejadina. Real-life job: Project Engineer. Badminton player. Acoustic guitarist, K-hon percussionist, composer. Can only take 2 or 3 San Mig Lights, must be washed down with a Coke Light after.

Recent Have Nots

I'm running out of superlatives to describe my workload. It's been challenging and stimulating for me, but the work has really been depriving me of sleep, leisure time and I'm starting to make work as an excuse for NOT to have fun.

Urk... that's bad.

I haven't played on my Xbox 360 since May 10th.
I haven't watched a DVD movie in two months.
I haven't finished reading the book I bought two weeks ago at Singapore. It takes me a week on the average to finish a book.
I haven't been blogging as often as I used to.
I haven't been playing around with my DSLR camera as much as I wanted to.
I haven't gone to the gym since April.
I haven't hanged out with the Twiddlebugs.
I haven't gone to the mall (SM Batangas doesn't count) to do "malling".
I haven't played airsoft in over a year!
I haven't cooked for my siblings.
I haven't cooked any 30-minute dinners recently.

Duh.

But at least, I've been able to see a movie last week, gone out on a 'short' date some time ago, designed our badminton club's t-shirt, gone out twice with collegaues for three-or-fours (not one-or-twos anymore), played badminton, and been swimming at the pool (10 laps lang though) almost every other night.

Good thing its Friday. I'm gonna catch up on my have-nots this weekend. :D