Tlaquepaque is a highly fashionable suburb less than 10 kilometers from Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, with a hip, up market colonial center with a character and style of its own. A must on any Pinoy tourist agenda. The street of the main shopping area is closed to traffic so that people can stroll and shop at a leisurely pace. The colonial-style streets that remind me of the streets of Intramuros are lined with shops and restaurants.

[Read more HERE]

From UPAlumni.net:

Calling all UP alumni. A dinner-fundraiser for the benefit of the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons basketball team dubbed “Maroon Pride” will be held on June 30, 6 p.m. at the Bahay Alumni inside the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City. Attire is strictly maroon and price per plate is P3,000. Interested parties may call Romy Nones at 4211193 to 95.

It’s summer time in the other half of the world… enjoy this song (of course it’s still related to the Philippines ). Not sure who made it, if you know let me know

Check it out at Wake T-rex

It’s easy to get around Sydney, even for a first timer. The public transport system is extensive, so you wouldn’t have to rely on costly taxis everytime.

You can buy and pay for tickets everytime you board the bus, ferry or train. However, it’s more convenient to buy a travel pass, which can be used on all services.

Which ticket to buy?

I give you three choices: the Daytripper, the Sydney Pass and the Travel Pass.

Continue reading…

Here’s one more reason to be jumping about with a stupid grin on my face this morning: The ladies at Berate My Blog just gave me their highest rating–9.8–which beat McVie’s by, uh, 0.1.

[Insert sounds of me doing cartwheels here.]

Not familiar with Berate My Blog? Heller, check out the site, like, now! Two girls, Fiona and Unica, review other blogs for free aside from offering practical ideas for sprucing up your home. A knockout combination. One day you’re reading a post on the merits of a plush sofa, the next you’re hearing them knock some sense into a blogger infatuated with eye-crossing black backgrounds.

Read complete post here.

Welcome to the web 2.0 “social”.

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A water purifying system can’t go smaller than this.

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With thriving opportunities for business and investment, Cebu is poised to place itself at the center of the drive to move the country’s economy forward.

Cebuanos expect the addition of Bogo, Carcar, and Naga to Cebu’s growing list of emerging cities to further speed up the momentum of the economy.

However, this economic expansion will be stunted or go side by side with the specter of uninhibited growth for the sake of growth if left undirected.

Read the rest of this entry »

I purposely missed this movie when it opened in theaters. “Why?”, you ask. Well, there are several reasons. One, it’s directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the dude who gave us “Daredevil”. Yes, the Ben Affleck flick with an annoying Bullseye and a black Kingpin. Should I go on? Because I think that’s enough for you to understand where I’m going here. OK I’ll give you another: it’s too glossy. When I heard about the plans for a Ghost Rider movie, I hoped that it would be dark and gritty and R-18. The minute I found out that Johnson would be writing and directing it, I decided to pass on the theater release and just wait for the DVD, because I’m not watching this movie without watching some extras. And here we are.

More badassery…

Having survived the initiation rites, I believe I could suggest certain tips to the brave neophytes who would want to get into this marriage fraternity.

Weddings are for brides. Men want a simple wedding - say I do, sign the marriage contract and just go home. However, because men love women (or we simply masochistic), we would willingly suffer through the preparation and ceremony of wedding. Women, on the other hand, have planned their dream wedding since childhood. Bottomline: if you love your bride, let her enjoy one of her life’s highlights (some other highlights include the birth of your first child and, ahem, meeting you, of course). Continue reading here.

From Apacible’s “To the American people an appeal”

“Why do the Imperialists wish to subjugate us? What do they intend to do with us? Do they expect us to surrender to yield our inalienable rights, our homes, our properties, our lives, our future destinies, to the absolute control of the United States? What would you do with our nine millions of people? Would you permit us to take-part in your elections? Would you concede to us the privilege of sending Senators and Representatives to your Congress? Would you allow us to erect one or more federal states? Or, would you tax us without representation? Would you change your tariff laws so as to admit our products free of duty and in competition with the products of your own soil? And thus would you allow the American trusts to utilize our cheap labor in the manufacture of goods that would compete with the products of your own factories? Would you permit the trusts to bottle up our people to sub serve their own ends, depriving us even of those liberties which you are enjoying Would you admit our artisans, mechanics, laborers, and servants to take employment in your country on an equal footing with American citizens, Indians and Negroes? Would you allow us to prohibit Chinese immigration? Would you permit us to retain our own language and not force us to adopt yours? Would you let us elect our own local officers? Would you allow us to share your offices, your honors and your privileges? And, as for the saloons (which were almost unknown in Manila before) would you allow them to go on multiplying at the appalling rate at which their number has increased there within the past two years? Would you allow the lands in the Philippines to remain at all untaxed, as formerly, simply because some religious corporations have acquired enormous and fraudulent properties in them? Would you remove your American soldiery and permit us to create an army of our own? Or, if you were determined to maintain a powerful army and fleet in order to protect your newly acquired “property” from foreign ambitions, aid from our natural and perpetual anxieties for liberty, would you do this solely at your own expense, because the revenues of a poor country like ours could not do so? You who so ardently protest against the destruction by England of two small republics which challenged her to war, would you continue to remain indifferent whilst your rulers are engaged in annihilating a weaker republic which is much more helpless than those of South Africa, and which, far from declaring war against you, was your obliging friend, your successful ally? What would you do with the Philippines and with the Filipinos if you refused to allow them to become a new American state, if you refused to allow them to enjoy your citizenship?”

(continue reading here)

The Vatican, which apparently is also concerned with your driving habits, issued a set of Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road. The Guidelines include a “decalogue”, in analogy with the Ten Commandments. Let’s call it the Ten Commandments for drivers (continue reading here):

A bad idea

June 22nd, 2007

It seemed like a good idea at the time, ousting Joseph Estrada from office. Almost from day one, the Church, civil society and militant groups had weighed the Estrada administration and found it wanting–outstandingly, it seemed, in the moral and competency departments.

A womanizer who did not conceal his numerous liaisons, former movie actor Estrada talked out of the corner of his mouth in the monosyllables of the neighborhood toughie, jeepney driver, and real-life hoods he played in the dozens of movies for which he was known during the better years of Philippine cinema. More »

Check it out here.

I read in a column of young blood about the early marriage of a friend. The friend was already pregnant. And she was just 18. And the writer thought to herself, “Is my friend ready to take the responsibility of motherhood. It’s not just giving birth to a baby. You have to raise it from infancy, to childhood, to adolescence and to young adulthood.” Parenting is serious business. Read more here [Birth of St. John the Baptist]

This is just too disgusting to imagine. I pity the passengers who had to endure this.

DALLAS - Continental Airlines Inc. is apologizing to its customers for “poor conditions” aboard a trans-Atlantic flight where one passenger described sewage spilling down the aisle from a lavatory.

“I’ve never felt so offended in all my life,” passenger Collin Brock of Washington state told Seattle’s KING-TV. “I felt like I had been physically abused and neglected. I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours.”

Source: MSNBC.com

Continue reading…

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole.

“In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal … we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared,” said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile’s National Forestry Corporation CONAF.

Uh-huuuh. It’s something that don’t happen everyday, no?

Continue reading…

At the House of Representatives, 6,115 bills were filed. Those pending in the committees reached 3,883. Bills approved after third reading were 787. In the Senate, 2,619 bills were filed while only 22 made it to the plenary after passing the 3rd reading. Of the bills approved by both Houses, only 88 were enacted into law. There are 64 pending bills waiting for President Gloria Arroyo’s signature.

Read more at Mongster’s Nest

Time flies. And as for growing children, time flies even faster. How could it have been five years already since we took home this sleeping jewel in our arms?

The day after Aya was born, Baggy and I just stared at this tiny breathing, wailing, demanding (don’t you dare take your eyes off me), red and toothless thing - you mean we really have to take this home with us? As first-time parents, we were fraught with anxiety and fear.

Sleepless, countless nights followed. We lost track of time; day and night blurred into each other. Food became something we just shoved into our mouths to keep ourselves going and going and going like the Energizer rabbit. We were pushed beyond the limits we previously thought we would never dare cross.

All because of her.

On my way to work this morning in the elevator, I looked up at the elevator screen Captivate network just for the latest news and tidbits. The one-liner that I chewed on long after was, “Chronic pain hampers our memory-making process.” It was a sort of a confirmation of what I’ve been thinking happened to me in my 20s.

My 20s were the busiest, and most turbulent, times of my life. A crazy schedule because of two careers, different gigs and a marriage on the rocks made it all a blur.

More @ Ir-ruminations…