Nice shirt!

"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow."

Busy mode

This week is the toughest week so far, I've been spending 16 hours at work and probably lucky if I could have 3 hours of sleep, then go back to work. Heaps of work to be done and still it is piling up every single day.

I spend the whole night at the office, because I can concentrate, and for me, it is hassle free,... no boss nagging behind me, lol!

Since I don't drink coffee, I munch on fries and chocolates the whole night, plus a cup of hot chocolate!

I know french fries is one of the worst food anyone could have, considering large amount of calories and saturated fat that will require anyone 3 days to burn it. But well, fries are great for midnight snack.


And of course chocolate! I love cookies coated with chocolate or waffle. See, I can consume a box of chocolate for a single night.


It is obvious I look so tired and sleepy, and it is freezing inside the office. My eyes feel sore, my back and shoulder is aching, too. And yeah, I am starting to have my sinusitis again.


But still at the end of the day, manage to smile, or at least try to smile. It is better to be busy on something than do nothing, that will make me bored and crazy.

Must keep going...

When you aim for something, go for it no matter how hard it is,... give up when you prove to yourself that it is not meant for you, but at least you tried your best.

A photo I found from the web. It is rare and hilarious. This big cat is surely aware what she's about to catch, and it would be painful before she could feast on a delicious meal. She is so persistent, and would go beyond her limit just to get the best meal for the day.

Today, I'm about to give up, things are not working the way I expected and I think its getting worse. But by seeing the picture, it wake me up and realised to go for my goal.

Simple Little PINK House

This time, I have bad backache and I had a busy week. We moved to a new apartment which I will call it “Our Simple Little Pink House”. It’s a small apartment—just enough for me and my sister and it is painted pink! I don’t like pink so much because I prefer shade of green but, it doesn’t look bad at all. So, I liked it. Before, I rented an affordable room. It was a small room just enough for one person with everything I can enjoy including tv cable, air conditioning unit and free wi-fi connection, but here in our new pink house, we don’t have even a tv set, I can’t use my aircon unit, and the worse is a poor internet broadband signal. But considering that we have our own kitchen, comfort room and one small bedroom, I can stay here with extra patience.


For now, I feel like I a stranger in a strange place. Everything is new to me. One of the hardest things in life is taking changes. I feel like I am starting again from the scratch—familiarization of the place and especially the people around me. It is not easy; living in a place for years and suddenly will move to a new place is something that make me sad. I miss everybody and the routine I’ve been used to do. Anyway, it is said that “Life is a constant change” that is why I have no choice but to adjust to everything new and maybe I can be used to it, in no time.

So the next morning I stumble upon a new neighbour, I hope to meet a nice and friendly one.

What's for dinner?

So whats for dinner? I'm having Odong for dinner! Odong is a different kind of noodles, because it is straight like spaghetti and taste salty when it is cooked. I never know about this until I came here in Manila, one of my board mate from Visayas introduced it to me, in fact I never hear about this when I was in Bicol.


For those who don't know odong, it is a small diameter noddles that is sold in tiny packs and very popular in Cebu. I love it, because it is so easy to cook, won't even take 30 minutes.


I sauteed the garlic, onions and a can of sardines--I prefer hot and spicy, and like to add some vegetables (patola), then pour a glass of water or more (it depends on you), black pepper and simmer until its cook, then bon-a-petit!!!!

Everybody liked it for its economical, delicious and satisfying comfort food, no wonder why it is so popular in the Southern parts of the Philippines.

Upgraded Toshiba's mini NB305 netbook

Toshiba NB305 is a stylish, compact (1.43-inch thin) and lightweight 10.1-inch "TruBrite" LED backlit display. I saw this a while ago at the mall and I was easily attracted to its color and design. It is upgraded with new Intel Atom N450 which will give you up to 11 hours on a single battery charge(wow!). It is so attractive having a polished aluminum full-size keyboard and palm rest.




Specs:

◦10.1” WSVGA LED-backlit display (1024×600)
◦Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz)
◦Windows 7 Starter
◦1GB DDR2 800MHz
◦250GB HDD with shock absorbers
◦Bluetooth, Wireless-N and built-in webcam

Price starts at $350 or P27,990 and comes in Cosmic Black, Scarlet Red, Mocha Brown and Indigo Blue.

Post-Valentines Celebration with My Cousins

I spent the whole afternoon at Mall of Asia. I haven't had bonding time with my cousins and sister for a long time, so I invited them to eat dinner with me and of course, do some photography. I was a little disappointed with the sunset and night photography. I didn't bring my tripod resulting to blurred and poor colored photos, so I won't upload them, for now. I've been reading articles and tips about camera settings for night photography but I end up forgetting what I read and I had difficult time setting my camera manually. I even missed the beautiful sunset and can't get the right angle to shoot the horizon because there are so many people blocking the view. But anyway, enough with the rants. I'll make sure to be more ready next time.

When we got exhausted walking around, everybody wanted to have pasta, majority decided to go for Shakeys!


We enjoyed the family pack menu in Shakeys. I love the thin crust pizza with hot sauce.


And of course dinner won't be complete without having crispy fried chicken(I should have turned off the flash to get sharp photo of fried chicken) and potato chips.

I had a great time and looking forward for a lovely day tomorrow!

We Are The World 25 For Haiti

A Video of Michael Jackson's "We Are The World". The remake was made by various artists for the benefit of Haiti earthquake victims. You can download the new version of the song and donate to Haiti relief.

Happy Valentines Day!

February 14, is such a special day. Love is in the air!



I received a cute home-made chocolates shaped into little rose as a Valentines gift. I love small things that is worth remembering. There are lots of attested traditions on Valentines Day, like sentimental verses for the young lover, chocolates, roses, poems, jewelry, e-cards and love coupons but for me I like cooking a special dish for everybody, especially my family. In fact today is Sunday and would be perfect celebrating Valentines day.

Happy Valentines Day to Everbody!!!

Musical PyroTechnnics 2010

I just got back from work. My day went painfully boring and I felt like ditching a while ago. Anyway, when I was on my way home, I saw a beautiful fireworks display that made me smile and forget the exhausting day. Oh no,... today is the starting day of International Pyrotechnics Competition. As far as I know the event starts at 7PM, and the time I saw the fireworks display was past 10PM so it must be something else. I've been wanting to watch the competition since last year, but unfortunately I had conflicts with my work schedule so I always forget about it.

Anyway, Pyrotechnics Competition suppose to be held in Mall of Asia, last year--it used to be at the end of the year, but for safety purposes, they cancelled the event and moved the dates to February 14 - March 14, 2010. The ticket is so affordable with food and drinks. For event schedule and inquiries, just go to its website or World Pyro Olympics.

Vaio Green PC

Sony had launched new innovative products recently. And for Sony lovers, its great they have more choices what PC would fit their personalities.


But one particular vaio series that really caught my attention. It's Vaio W series Green PC, an ultra-green mini laptop. It is so elegant-looking, made from eco-friendly materials. And if you buy one, it comes with a bag, made in a green-tinted plastic enclosure made from 23% recycled CDs and its carrying case is made from recycled plastic bottles, and the device is RoHS, Energy Star 5.0, and EPEAT compliant. Sony’s latest offering also has a high-definition, 10.1 inch LED screen, 250 gigabytes of hard drive storage, and up to seven hours of battery life. Awesome!

By the way, did you hear something about "engagement Condominium Unit"? How about "engagement Vaio Laptop" or a Valentines day gift to a love one, hmmm, sounds great, right? So here is the price: $450 or PhP40,000.



Specs:

Processor
Clock speed - 1.66 GHz
Processor type - Atom N280
Processor manufacturer - Intel

RAM
RAM installed - 1024 MB

Motherboard
Chipset type - Mobile Intel 945GSE Express
Data bus speed - 667 MHz

Storage Hard Drive
Hard drive size - 160 GB

Interfaces / Networking
USB 2
Ethernet - Yes
Bluetooth - Yes
Wireless networking - Yes

Video Output
Graphics processor - Intel GMA 950

Display
Display technology - LED-backlit, X Brite-Eco
Display diagonal size - 10.1 in.
Maximum resolution - 1366x768 pixels

Audio
Built-in speakers - Yes

Dimensions / Weight
Dimensions (W x H x D) - 267x33x180mm
Weight - 1.2 kg
Available - colours White, Pink, Other

Battery
Battery technology - Li-ion
Number of batteries supplied - 1
Estimated battery life (mfr) - 3 hours

Miscellaneous
Operating system - Windows XP Home Edition

Twilight & Harry Potter to be Studied in Cambridge

According to BBC news, Twilight, Harry Potter and video games as works of literature, will be some new additions for the study of children’s literature in Cambridge.

BBC News:

Professor Maria Nikolajeva, who will be the centre’s first director, said it was important to get an understanding of what was influencing young people.

She said: “It’s easy to say that these things are just kids’ fashions or that they’re trash, but I don’t believe that’s good enough.

“If what we regard as trash is popular with young people, we need to know why and whether, as researchers and teachers, we can offer them something that addresses the same needs but also deals with these themes in a critical and ethical way.”

She added many trainee teachers did not understand the significance of the latest children’s books or films when they went into the classroom.

“Studying this can help us deal with questions which are important not only for the children themselves, but for adults as well,” she added.

I think not everybody will agree about this, in fact some said its a "trash". The concept of teaching these new literature is to study about the ideas children pick up from books as well as other sources the university's new centre for the study of children's literature.

Just my technorati verification code.

786AV57PCUA4

Anesthetic Approach that Revolutionize Pain Management

Researchers have discovered an anesthetic approach that seems to achieve a long-lasting nerve block that eliminates pain sensation while not affecting motor function.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have discovered an anesthetic approach that has the ability to achieve a long-lasting nerve block that eliminates pain sensation while not affecting motor function. The research was led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, from the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children's, originally sought only to find an agent that would prolong the anesthetics' effects. This discovery is very important because it can help for childbirth that would block pain without interfering with the mother's ability to push, so that giving birth will be less painful, or for musculoskeletal disorders in which it is important to maintain mobility.

After this discovery their next steps will be to explore the effects of different permeability enhancers and examine their safety, since at high doses the drug combination could potentially be toxic to the nerves.

Come to think of it, lots of people--including myself, ignore their illness because of fear of pain. That is why this new approach is so vital to revolutionize the pain management especially during surgery. For full article click here.

I am a bit uncomfortable by the new layout of facebook, but I liked it, its simple and more organize.

I can easily access to all my friend's shoutout as well the notifications on top and oh, the applications was moved to left corner of the layout. I thought they'd removed it and I would put a new bookmarks to appear somewhere in the layout. Well, I think since I am a facebook addict, it will take not more than half an hour to explore these changes.

A very Close encounter

Hey, if you were in the boat, what would you feel? I think I will be more worried than be thrilled! Look how huge this guy is, he could tear the boat into tiny pieces, but anyhow this is such an humble giant. Love to see this in the ocean.

Memory Game

I played a very interesting game last night and I just quit playing when I noticed that its already dawn. It is Memory Game, I found it in national geographic site. And because of this game, I am worried for myself.


Its a test for your memory on how fast you can memorize figures in a very short time. For an average humans, they can store up to seven items in their short-term memory. I got so curious to check out how my short term memory work. Oh man, its so frustrating, and I got idea how stressed my mind is, I had hard time memorizing figures. I can't concentrate.

I was worried for myself after playing this game because it supposed to be easy for me, but instead it became difficult, to think that figures are easy to familiarize. For a long time I've been ignoring how important "eating the right food" is, living and a healthy life. I've been abusive to my health and its paying off. I'm having hard time concentrating, I easily get irritated especially at work and frequently had headache at the end of the day. Its not something to ignore this time because my work is affected, I am working as a data analyst. Well, I have to do something about this.

But anyway, try this game. Its a mind gymnastics and I'm sure it will make your neurons at work. After all, we need to exercise our mental agility but sadly we frequently ignore it and get busy exercising to have a nice looking abs.

Radio Control Car Fueled by Cola

Too much Cola is bad for the health, but probably now it will be useful as a fuel for cars or device that needs fuel to start running. Japan toy maker Takara Tomy manufactured a prototype RC ‘ene Bio Engine’ car that runs on Sony’s sugar fueled Bio-Battery.

"The passive-type bio battery system generates eco-friendly electricity by breaking down sugar using processes similar to those in living organisms. The speed/running-time of the toy depends on what drink you use"

The car is still a prototype for now, but once on the market, parents will be able to use the toy to encourage less waste and introduce a bit of life science. This invention looks more like a futuristic delivery truck. Oh, the more sugary the drink juicing the battery, the more power the car will receive, it should be noted that although for commercial reasons Tomy has chosen to use colas to promote the car (Coca-Cola, Sprite, 7-Up), the most efficient fuel tested was grape juice.

Well, maybe this can be helpful as substitute for gasoline, and to minimize drinking to much sugar content drinks.

Natural Oddities

This is a 7 century old stone carved houses in Iran or widely known as Persia.

Can't think of a good Title...

Its been a tiring day. I (accompanied by a good friend) tried to look for an affordable apartment for rent near my work, but I didn't found one. I am sad and frustrated...

I had enough for this week, so much stress and so tired from work. But late this afternoon, I walked along greenbelt and take time to look at some beautiful flowers. It made me relaxed for a bit. I had my SLR with me so, I can't resist not to take photos of them.


55mm - ISO 200
Shutterspeed 1/320s - F/5.6


55mm - ISO 200
Shutterspeed 1/80s - F/5.6


18mm - ISO 200
Shutterspeed 1/640s - F/4.5

I hope I could eat breakfast at the backyard surrounded by these beautiful flowers it's like a good start for a beautiful day.

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

Its Bob Marley's 65th birthday today.

The Last Airbender

One of the things I spend on weekends is to watch Avatar - The Last Airbender. Well, call me childish or something... but I am such a fan. I am so excited to watch the movie in big screen and I do hope that this will also be shown in iMax *cross fingers*


Take a look at its latest trailer. Awesome!

Release Date: July 2, 2010
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man!

I think this month gives everybody a lot of pressure and stress, why? For women, they are usually tossing and turning on their bed thinking if they will receive a flower on Valentine’s day, and for men perhaps its brainstorming on what flower or gift will be perfect for his girl.

But anyway, I’d like to share with you something that is about love and relationships. A great advice to save a failing relationship, and help make a relationship stay strong.



This one is especially for the Ladies. I found a great book about "what men really think about love, relationships, intimacy and commitments”, the book titled Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Written by comedian Steve Harvey who teamed with relationship expert Denene Millner to help women understand what they need to know about the men in their lives. The book has a direct, and often comical, advice in dealing with their male counterparts. It explores many common scenarios that women encounter in their quests for a long-term, substantial relationship, like dealing with "mama's boys," marriage, and when to introduce men to children in one's life. Harvey also take a candid approach to the sport of dating, dishing out the viewpoints of most men with unashamed honesty.

The book is enjoyable to read that dispenses life stories with dose of comedy. Easy to read and based on stories to which many will relate. Candid wit and down-to-earth humor keep readers laughing and empathizing with the case studies used within the book.

Happy Birthday To my hero

When I woke up early this morning, one thing I remember, its my Dad’s Birthday today! And I badly miss him. Not easy to live miles away from my family, and only got to see them once a year.

I look up to my dad as my Hero. He teaches me how to dream big and encouraged me to make my dream come true. He is one of the few, who believes in me... someone who is so patient and never demanding of what should I achieve.

Thanks for always believing in me. It's truly a blessing to have you as a father.

Happy Birthday Dad, I really would love to take time and have a cup of coffee with you, talk about future plans... just like the old days. But what can I say; I’m running late this time, still stuck here in the big city.

Real State Bailout Made Homebuyers Tax Credits Expanded

It’s always been hard to buy a house, much more in time of recession. Real Estate Bailout is so helpful for home buyers not to mention including the first-time home buyers and those who have low incomes. 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits had focused especially for those who are first-time home buyers and for the low income earners, as well.

Benefits are up to $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. And for those who have lived in a current home consecutive 5 of the past 8 years can receive up to a $6,500 tax credit. About the income limits, for singles, $125,000, and $225,000 for married couples with a $20,000 phase-out of the credit for both. It is important to know that qualified homebuyers must act and have a written, binding contract by April 30, 2010 (close by June 30, 2010) and there will be no extensions.

Having a home is so vital for everybody so this news is really a great deal for everybody. Click here for more information.

Moon Flower

I happened to see a beautiful moon flower opening before my eyes! Well, it would be perfect if i can witness this in my mom's backyard.