For the past two years, the President displayed her knowledge on Philippine geography, numerical proficiency and adeptness in name recall. But a Sona should be more than just a report card of government’s achievements.

Read more at Mongster’s Nest

This was written back in 2002 in the Inquirer, but it still holds true today especially to the new Chinese immigrants to the country. An article about the Chinese will be also be posted tomorrow.

No doubt, the Chinese and Korean economic migrants know the problems besetting our country. But they also see its potentials for growth and development. And they are willing to invest their time, money and effort for the opportunity to get a piece of the “golden egg” that the Philippines can provide.

They must know something about this country that our countrymen, especially those who have given up on it, do not know as to inspire them to leave the safety of their native land to try their luck here.

More at Wake T-Rex

I know, I know. I’ve been MIA the past few weeks. I mean, honestly, can you even call my recent posts “blog entries”? I don’t think so. Still, can’t help it. It’s me being the fickle-minded and depressed person that I always am. My friend thinks differently though. It’s the “pre-birthday blues,” he says. And it’s so obvious that some bloggers even begin to notice that Shari’s, well, gone poof.

Well, it’s not like my birthday’s just around the corner because it’s not. Or like I’m feeling the ever famous “quarter-life crisis” because I’m much too young for that (depends on how you look at it though…if I live to be only 80 years old, then 20 is the QLC, right?). I think what I’m feeling now doesn’t even have anything to do with the age or the event, y’know? If you’ve been a reader of this blog for quite some time now, then you’d notice the ever so often absences with this same old lame-o reason: I don’t feel like blogging.

Continue Reading »

Last time, I talked about Facebook’s Photos application that lets you upload an unlimited number of photos. Sure, it’s a lot of fun to share photos of you naked in the crapper while puffing smoke, but there’s one Facebook app that let’s you create compelling images by hand: the Graffiti app. The concept is simple and very appealing:

Draw on your friends’ profiles! It’s fun.

See? It’s simple, yet it strongly appeals to your inner vandal. It gets more charming after you install the application and you’re presented with a few samples of art done using the app. Here’s a sample by Javier Sedillo:

Awesome, right? Wait, it gets awesomer.

Be awesomed >> 

Visit here.

What are the HSBC Living Business Awards for?


HSBC Living Business is a corporate responsibility (CR) programme designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) become more profitable and productive by implementing socially and environmentally responsible business practices.

For more information, pls. visit the HSBC HK site

congratulations to our colleagues in HK - this award is a testament of AsiaPay’s commitment to empower the small and medium enterprises (SME’s) of the world to become part of the ecommerce revolution

posted by Paul The Pageman Pajo

Postcolonial projections of paradise elsewhere. Read here!

from here and here

I AM NOT PLASTIC impromptu photo shoot at the Sonic Boom prodnight at Mag:Net Bonifacio High Street. Thanks to Dicta License, Sonic Boom & Roy Lopez for the pix! Get your I AM NOT PLASTIC bags from Jessica Cabuay and Carisse Escueta

check out the launch poster:

check out the announcement in Bandscapes

check out the NOT PLASTIC PROJECT website

Here’s the NOT PLASTIC PROJECT Press Release in Scribd

check my story out also at:

also in the Irene’s Closet blog, here and here!

It was a dark miserable Sunday in June and Honey and I had to drag ourselves out of bed. This is it. He’s leaving me. Alone. In Cambodia. By myself. With my lonesome. My redundant repetitive self all alone by myself alone in Cambodia. Did I mention that he was leaving me for two whole months alone by myself in Cambodia?

I brought him to the airport and we said goodbye (the mushy details of which I refuse to divulge on the Internet).

Read more in Toe’s Kurokuroatbp.

The Palm Beach Post 3rd Annual Focus on Nature Photography Contest received over 3,000 entries from amateur photographers in the USA and Ruel Tafalla, a Filipino, emerged as the 1st place winner in the Oceans Category.

More info on Ruel Tafalla Wins Ocean Category in Palm Beach Post Photo Contest at Shutter Box Philippines.

Every third Monday of July is the date of Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA). I expected her to rehash hollow words the country’s economic development repeated over and over again since 2001.

Nothing much has changed with Arroyo’s seventh SONA. She spent 56 minutes giving out glowing words to her patrons and enumerating a list of infrastructure projects in what seemed like a very long travelogue around the country. The people remains downtrodden as ever.

So with the same worn-out rhetoric being peddled by the president inside the Batasan I look for something interesting that may, as yet, encapsulate the real state of the nation. I find that in the various images that depict the president - symbols that are far from the public image that she tries so vainly to project.

And these symbols, I believe, have become best expressed in effigies - huge figurine parodies that has come to reflect Arroyo’s evolution as our banana republic’s leader:

Read the rest of this entry »

Librodo Librodo - Parallel Visions

Simultaneous Solo Art Exhibitions of Manny Librodo and Boboy Librodo at OWG Creative Centre.

More info on Librodo Librodo Parallel Visions at Shutter Box Philippines.

Senator Elect Antonio Trillanes IV is now the subject o0f a Senate Debate which dwells on his privileges to attend senate related activities and functions. The former Oakwood Mutiny lead man is still in jail despite a roaring vote of 12 million to get him to the senate.

Read on why Blogspot Humorist Anton Deleon thinks we should give him the chance to be present physically in the  senate hall. More here….

Huwag kayong magtataka kung sa mga susunod na araw ay may nakikita kayong naglalakad sa kalsada na may hawak na landline at nakikipagtelebabad pero wala namang kable ang landline phone na hawak nila. Weird pero totoo dahil narito na ang Bayantel Span, ang landline na mobile. Ituloy ang pagbabasa.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him…

Read more…

Paolo Mendoza has done a dastardly act. He has grabbed me by the collar, slammed me against a wall, and–not what you might think, *wink wink*–coerced me into coming up with my own top 10 list of emerging influential blogs for Janette Toral’s project. Something I’ve tried to avoid doing given the sheer number of blogs I patronize and feel are worthy of attention by everyone else.

“Influential” is also a word I don’t bandy about lightly. In my book, to be influential means, at a minimum, being able to offer a fresh take on old stuff AND getting people to appreciate the innovation. When somebody makes you see things in a new light, or creates a niche where none has existed before, or blazes a trail that has others enthusiastically following in his or her wake, that’s being influential.

So here are my choices, in no particular order…

Read complete post here.

eto e kwento ng tatlong taong naghanap ng pink na libro.

at kung saan matatagpuan ang libro sa national bookstore, cubao.

at yung pangarap ni kuya.

(ang given naman mashado niyan!)

yun ang akala mo.

alamin sa MGA KWENTONG PARLOR NI WANDA ILUSYUNADA

dahil si kuya, may libro na!!!

(pakikalat naman po …salamat!!!)

It is interesting to note that veteran Lineage II players have been waiting for events like this one from their old servers, and now, the whole world has set their eyes on L2-SEA to witness not just the event, but the service of AsianMedia. But, so far so good for them, the GameMasters (GMs) and Customer Support (CS) are getting nothing but positive feedback. Some members of the L2-SEA Community were even amazed that they are already implementing their Game Policies during CBT (Game Policy implementation usually starts with Open Beta).

Continue reading here…

Now, the serious stuff.

By now, we know that the police are hunting down the owners and operators of online investment scams such as FrancSwiss, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently mentioned that recruiters who marketed Ponzi programs are not spared.

So if you were a mere investor who made money in FrancSwiss (or all these other online Ponzi scams), you have nothing to worry about, right?

Think again. The government can run after your profits, under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act.

>>> Continue reading: FrancSwiss investors who made money can be investigated

First, the funny side of all this FrancSwiss hullabaloo.

If you invested in FrancSwiss (and this goes for other online investment scams and HYIPs or High-Yield Investment Programs), all profits you earned are — surprise! — taxable.

>>> Continue reading: Profits from FrancSwiss scam are taxable