Lucban Weekend

It's been 20 years since I've last been to Lucban, Quezon. Geland invited me to tag along with him to Lucban last Sunday for his brother's birthday celebration and the town's fiesta.

It's a 3 hour drive from Batangas City. The good thing about Lucban is that it's a small town, and everything is within walking distance. I got to see the church, the town cemetery, the tiangge, the palengke, the schools and the plaza.

And no trip to the province is complete without the obligatory food trip. Lots and lots of food: handaan, pansit lucban, pansit habhab, kakanin, kalderatang kalabaw, adobo, lucban longganisa, halo-halo, tilapia, sinigang softdrinks, beer, coffee and pizza. Many many thanks for Geland's aunt for the awesome hospitality.

On the way home we paid a visit to VIA DOLOROSA, a grotto with a 40-foot image of Christ at the hill's peak. Catholics flock to this grotto in search for healing intervention (and miracles for some) for their various ailments.

And of course, pictures!


Clockwise from top left: (1) Geland with cousins at Cafe Rizal (2) Battle of the Bands showcase (3) Via Dolorosa (4) Lucban Cemetery (5) longganisang Lucban (6) Lucban church (7) Rizal Avenue, Lucban

Z.Z.Z. : 5 Stars

I was browsing at Powerbooks last Saturday, and I chanced upon the collected comics edition of Carlo Vergara's Ang Kagilas-gilas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni ZSAZSA ZATURNNAH. My college-friends-slash-Literature-majors highly recommended the stage play but I hadn't had the opportunity to see it, so I decided to browse the comic book. A few pages into the short comic novel, I was snickering at the bookstore.


imagine swallowing that rock everytime you need to be a superhero... wehehehe!

I finished reading the comic book last night, and it was absolutely hilarious. Never mind that it seems like it's gay literature --- a good comic book is a good comic book. I enjoyed it so much that I plan to buy a few more copies next weekend and hand it out to a few friends FREE. The world could use a little bit more happiness.

My Typhoon Mis-Adventures

I think yesterday was a record-holding day for me, in terms of the most number of expletives and curses I've churned out in one afternoon.

Blame it on the rain.

I spent more than 4 hours inside my car at SLEX (Bicutan area) yesterday morning/afternoon in a standstill traffic situation.

And as luck would have it, my car's fuel tank was almost empty.

The situation for me and my car yesterday was hopeless, so I left my car at SLEX, left the hazard lights 'on', placed a wheel lock in my steering wheel and removed all valuable items from the car.

I had to walk (with my laptop in tow) from Bicutan all the way to Villamor Air Base. And I haven't even had breakfast or lunch yet. It took me about one-and-a-half hour of walking, avoiding muddy puddles along the way. At Villamor Air Base, I was able to get a tricycle and spent another hour onboard it before we got to our house in Baclaran.

Dammit dammit dammit. Hungry, wet and tired. Plus the worry that my car might be towed or stolen or stripped off its wheels.

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At around 9 pm last night, I and my elder brother got to my car. I had to siphon off gasoline from the container we brought along and hose it to my car's fuel tank. (Did you know that the fuel tanks have a check valve?)

The gasoline vapors made me feel wretched the rest of the night. I wanted to vomit.

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Wasn't able to report to work this morning. I arrived at Batangas at around 1030 am today.

Weekend Celebrations

So many things happened last Saturday... whew. Congratulations are in order to the following:

1. Dylan Noah, for celebrating his 1st birthday. Happy birthday, Dylan!

2. Lorraine is sporting a new accessory. Kung hindi ko pa napansin, nobody would know. Woohoo! Congratulations, Lorraine!

3. Papa Gabs gets redundated, and a week later gets hired by their competitor. Pramis ni Papa Gabs: dinner for the warriors. Whoopee!! (p.s. do we get to pick the place?)

4. Niks gets promoted to manager on September. Yeah Niks! You deserve the promotion! :D And for that, Niks treated everyone for coffee last Saturday.

5. Teacher Annelle and Coach Jayjay: Congratulations! The "promise rings" now have a new friend --- an "engagement ring"! Yip-yip-yip!!!

Hey, Saturday was fun! It's been a long time since I took time off to meet up with my friends, and for very special occasions at that!

Congratulations, everyone!

[pictures to follow]

Record 001

I decided to run AND swim earlier this evening. I went for a short run --- 3 laps around the compound (so that's 3.6 km) in 31 min. So that puts my pace at roughly 9 min per kilometer. I'm still 1 minute away from my target pace. And there's still the endurance portion that I need to do.

At the pool, I swam 5 laps to cool off and practice on my strokes. =)

Mamayang gabi, tatakbo ako uli. Target ko is 4 laps in under 45 min without slowing my pace to a walk. Need to build up on the endurance. :D

Two Women, Two Crusades, Two Passions

It's amazing how some of the people you know casually have the makings of being a great member of the society.

CARMELA: Biking For Life

I've been an avid reader of her livejournal, cyber-witnessing her very athletic endeavors. I got acquainted with Carmela through some friends a couple of years ago, and our blogs/livejournals serve as our main communication channel. She just completed a 3-km swim for her team in the O2 Triathlon (O2 = twice the Olympic distance) held last weekend at Clark. She's also a running enthusiast and a serious mountain/road bike hobbyist. She volunteered as a bike marshall for this year's Tour of the Fireflies.

photo of Carmela (in her cycling outfit) with friend, snagged from her livejournal

And her latest project? It's a 1500 km cycling tour from Manila to Davao to support the Cancer Warriors Foundation. I smiled in pride of this lady's zeal for worthy causes. She's not merely advocating it. She is going to participate in it.

In support of her project, I'm posting the details of the Bike for Life Tour 2007 here.

Friends,

We need all the help we can get. I will be embarking on an activity that will combine my love for cycling and my passion for cancer awareness. I will be cycling from Manila to Davao from Sept 16-30 to help the Cancer Warriors Foundation. The foundation is headed by James Auste who is a cyclist and a brain cancer survivor. My father passed away due to breast cancer and it is something that I feel I have to do something about. I have saved my leaves from work so I can allocate it to this worthwhile cause.

The Bike for Life Tour 2007 is a journey that will start in Metro Manila and will go all the way to Davao . There will be a core group of riders headed by James Auste, the executive director of the Cancer Warriors Foundation who himself is a cancer survivor. We will be riding together with 10 parents of pediatric cancer patients who are wards of the Cancer Warriors Foundation.

At the end of the day after each leg a forum on cancer awareness will be held with the message that Cancer can be Beaten. The tour is not a race, but you are most welcome to join and ride with us on any of the legs.

With determination, passion, perseverance and faith in God, cycling 1500 kilometers is possible. Likewise, giving a child a fighting chance to beat their cancer is achievable.

Maraming salamat po! Let's make this our fight!

Carmela Serina =)

More details of the Bike For Life can be seen here: http://www.c-warriors.org/projects/bike4life/

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MARICRIS: Yabang-PINOY!

She's looking for volunteers to promote what Pinoys can make and do!

The last time I saw Maricris was back in college. Not sure if she still remembers me, but we had the same tenure in the University's Student Council.

She's a member of the Children's Environmental Awareness and Action Foundation. If you happened to browse a Haribon magazine at your nearest Starbucks early this year, chances are you'd seen a picture of Maricris promoting tree-planting. :D

And here's my plug for her:

taken from the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Yabang Pinoy—an advocacy fast-becoming legendary for its unyielding support and campaign to raise consciousness and amplify Filipino people's philosophy and pride through a piece of braided abaca band among other creations—in its budding emergence, now holds a tie that day by day binds one and every Filipino.

And this cool Pinoy revolution doesn’t just stop there. On October 21 at Rockwell Tent, the campaign for Pinoy pride goes to a brand new level with Global Pinoy Bazaar—a one-day fair that brings together both on-the-rise and professional Filipino entrepreneurs who have globally competitive Pinoy products to exhibit.
Living up to the organization’s mission, the bazaar aims to assemble original products—made by Filipinos for Filipinos—that not only further promotes our God-given craftsmanship but also unites Filipinos to build a SUPPORT & BUY PINOY advocacy.
Primary beneficiaries for this project include Yamang Isip library for Barangay Bagumbayan in Daraga Albay, Ecological Livelihood for Barangay Balanti in Tarlac and Barangay Ilaya in Muntinlupa.

For interested participants, entrepreneurs, media partners and sponsors, email yabangpinoy@gmail.com or contact 0917-5277141 or 0917-8151513. For more information, visit www.yabangpinoy.com.

Yabang Pinoy is a project of Children's Environmental Awareness and Action Foundation (CEAAF) whose thrust is environmental education on the richness of biodiversity in the Philippines.

Mid Week Ghost Story

I need to write about this. Today is Wednesday, just a few minutes shy from midnight.

I’m doing some engineering drawings at my room in the housing compound since 10 o’ clock this evening. My personal deadline to finish these drawings is by lunchtime tomorrow, so I’ve planned on doing some work tonight and complete it the following day at the office.

My workdesk is at the corner of my room. I only had two mood lamps and the laptop screen as light sources for the whole room (at nights and when in my personal space, I prefer working in the dark). I was seated facing the windows and my back against the rest of the room: a bookshelf filled with a motley of horror, action and fantasy literature, a 2-seater sofabed, the TV rack housing my prized 29” Sony Trinitron, video game console, DVD player and an assortment of DVDs, and the kitchen area.

Ricky Martin was singing “Shake Your Bon-Bon” on my IPOD speakers, and the ancient airconditioning unit in my room was making that buzzing-humming sound in the background. I was in MY zone, totally shut-out from everything else except the music, the airconditioning, and my work. I was deciding on the color assignments that I’ll be using for each addition that I will make on the engineering diagram I was working on, when a high pitch blip from behind me sounded off and made me jump from my seat.

In a split-second, I looked back and saw the TV turn on by itself! That’s when I went, “Shit!”

And in the next split second as the television bathed the 2-seater sofa in its eerie-white glow, I thought I saw someone (or something?) sitting on the sofa. He/She/It was in an ‘attenshun’ posture, not slouching, and staring at the TV. It looked eerily familiar; it looked like a couple of my acquaintances. And I went “howley shit....”. And I blinked my eyes.

And then he/she/it wasn’t there anymore. But the TV was still on.

I got off my chair, turned off the TV and removed its plug from the socket.

And I went back to my work, listening to Gwen Stefani. But I can’t help but glance at the TV and the sofabed every so often.

Volunteerism Damages

I spent a good amount of time last Saturday pounding soil, lugging sacks of dirt and mixing cement for the GK Build Activity at Ambulong in Batangas. I did about 4 batches. One batch is composed of 1 sack of cement, 3 sacks of sand, 3 sacks of aggregates and about two pails of water.

I didn't learn that at school, by the way. What I learned at school is that a good cement mixture is 1:3:2:2.

Anyway, I got some opportunities to snap some photos in-between mixing cement.




Volunteerism is alive.

But here's a problem that I see: do the volunteers do more harm than good?

Not all of the volunteers are skilled in mixing cement or laying hollow blocks properly. I saw a lot of the other houses being worked on, and some of them are showing "problems" already: a leaning wall, poor compaction of the cement, gaps here and there. The volunteers have the enthusiasm and the energy, but not the skill and direction.

Several areas, if I were a Quality Control director or a Building Safety specialist, will be for potential rework.

This is one area that the GK volunteer community can improve on. The community needs to identify members who can act as leaders who are knowledgeable in the tasks that needs to be done for a BUILD activity. Organization, logistics and task assignments are key areas for improvement.

Maybe in future GK Builds, I can volunteer as a 'structural consultant' to the other volunteers.

Starting with Fingerplucking

Two weeks ago, my younger brother gave me a book he got from his recent trip to Singapore as a pasalubong. It was a compilation of music sheets with fingerplucking tablatures for some easy guitar pieces. The book was labelled as "For intermediate" players. He even lent me one of his guitars so I can test it out.

It was a mischievous trick on me by my brother.

Firstly, I hated the guitar the most among the musical instruments that's at our Baclaran house. In order of preference, I would pick the flute, clarinet, piano, violin and lastly, the guitar. Secondly, he knew that I've the tendency to get frustrated whenever I strike the guitar strings and produce a buzzing sound (indicating that I'm not pressing on the frets properly). Lastly, I'm not familiar with guitar tablature. What made him think that I knew how to read fingerplucking tabs?

So last night, I opened the book for the first time and read through the first few pages.

There was little instructional detail in the book. It took me an hour to figure out what the numbers meant in the tabs, and another half-hour to convince myself that I have the fingers assigned logically for each string and fret.

Greatly frustrating.

Patience, Stip. Music in all its forms has its rewards. Patience, patience, patience.

The Commandments of Cris

Cris has assumed (more of personally volunteered, as far as I see it) the role of my mentor long since I started working for my current company. Today, we shook hands to exchange thanks and good luck. Cris will take a leave from the company to pursue his MBA in the States while I take the mantle of the 'experienced guy' in our common area of technical expertise.

Naturally, he had a few last words for me. He "handed over" to me his 11th, 12th and 13th commandments.

The 11th Commandment: 'Wag magpahuli.'
The 12th Commandment: 'Pag nahuli, i-deny!'
The 13th Commandment: 'Pag hindi kaya ng pag-deny, mandamay!'

Loko talaga 'tong si Taga. But his words have wisdom in it.

Talo Kami

Shucks... Ateneo beats La Salle 80-77 in overtime.

Vertical Marathon

It was really so stupid of me to sign up for the first Vertical Marathon to be held in the country and not consult my travel/work calendar. I've paid the registration fee, but I didn't show up. Because I'm in another country. Sheesh!! Apologies to Keith and Zara for my no-show...

DLSU Outdoor Club and Adidas recently held the ADIDAS AKYAT ANDREW Vertical Marathon at my alma mater's Bro. Andrew Building. There were only 20 slots for alumni (total of 200 participants). It's a 20-storey up-and-down run on one of the campus' newer buildings. It's suppossed to be another one of my 'first-time' activities, and a chance to re-connect with the school that taught me the clenched fist in announcing my alma mater's name.


Shucks... participant's shirt lang naman habol ko hehe.

Anyway, thanks for pictures guys. Maybe next year.

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Something about running, Roms invited me to join him in the Putrajaya Marathon here in Malaysia on August 12th. Sus... I'm not ready for a full-scale marathon. Really tempting though for me --- I want to find out my official long distance running limit. I have three obstacles: my knee problem (badminton and wall-climbing related), my respiratory handicap (courtesy of my stressful work) and my endurance boundaries. Maybe after a year of training and cutting down on Winston Lights.

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It was raining heavily when we called it a night for the masterplanning work I'm doing with the team here at Petronas Tower. Stepping out of the building, I saw that it's gonna take me a long wait to get a taxi back to my hotel. So I decided to walk the 400-meter distance back to my hotel.

As I was walking unshielded from the evening rain, I couldn't help but notice the people passing me by, sans umbrellas or jackets, in a great hurry. Some had file folders or sheafs of papers placed over heads while half-walking half-running in the rain.

Maybe these people are unaware of the established fact that between walking or running in the rain, one intercepts more water droplets if you run.

Granting that, I pity them for letting their paperwork get wet and probably ruined just to reduce their getting drenched by a measly percent. Probably, those papers took them hours or even days just to write the contents. I pity the papers. I pity the people too, because they're not really aware of what they're doing and not doing.

There I go again, talking nonsense. Must be the rain's effect on me.