It’s too bad for MERALCO that they have been the subject of this issue, when in fact, all of the distribution utilities (private and cooperatives) in the Philippines have a system loss item in their electric bills and they, themselves, are passing it on to the consumers. Read More…

After announcing the acquisition of Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise, Inc. (CURE) last April, Smart has finally re-launched CURE as ümobile with a prefix of 0999 and some interesting features.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING

It has been exactly two years since I visited the Batanes Islands, the awe-inspiring and otherworldly northernmost province of the Philippines. Preparing for my two-week stay at a friend’s house in Basco, I had every reason to be thrilled for the surprises that the islands had in store for me. Read more. . .

For the longest time, I had been fighting the urge to get for myself a DSLR camera with following arguments in mind: better control of image depth, higher quality resolution with RAW, wider angle, and powerful optical zoom. Those and I’d look cool lugging around a DSLR (come on, who wouldn’t?!). But then, it’s very convenient to just carry around a point and shoot camera. We fish the cam from our pocket and shoot away whenever there’s a need, a habit that became more convenient with the advent of high-megapixeled mobile phones (mine has 5Mpix).

Over the weekend, I’ve immersed myself to learning how to better post-process photos with the use of Adobe Photoshop 7. Yes, they already have CS2 and CS3 but this is the version I currently have. Later in this post, you’ll see that although outdated, Photoshop 7 still does wonders.

My objective for this post is not to show off how I can majestically compose subjects in photos nor would I want to bitch-slap readers with my new-fangled Photoshop skills. With the processed photos below, I’d like to share with fellow point-and-shoot photographers that it is still possible to greatly enhance our “inferiorly captured” photos (something I’d disagree to with my whole being) and take them to greater heights visually.

Photos and the rest of this article through here >>

The list of the 24 finalist for GMA Pinoy Idol is already posted at my Blog, I am constantly updating details of them.  And I am looking for the Pinoy Idol Pictures also . So Whom do you think will be on the final event.

It is also good to know that there are some that came from Batangas.

One other thing I that got me excited to set foot in Bangkok again was to see for myself their much hyped and new international airport. If anything, I was floored and wowed. It’s architecture is amazingly modern and yet it has touches of the rich Thai culture in key places. Its construction had been beset with challenges here and there, I’ve learned, but the airport finally came through and I’d dare say the benefits must be worth the wait for the Thai nationals and its government.

There is more to having a world class international airport than the obvious comfort it gives to travelers to and from a country. Carefully planning its location, accessibility, construction, and architecture can boost a nation’s economy, rake in jobs, and gain trust of more foreign investors. I remember a senior HR person from another company asking their company’s regional head why they had to resource training services elsewhere when their Philippine counterpart is more than ready to take on the job owing to an already ready local talent base. The regional head’s answer was simple: “you guys do not even have a decent international airport that is convenient enough to fly in trainees regularly!” Sadly, as you must have already seen NAIA, such is our unfortunate plight.

The rest of this post and photos through here >>

Philippines’ weekly music charts / countdown as of May 19, 2008 — Myx International Top 20, Myx Hit Chart, Pinoy Myx Countdown, 103.5 Max FM Final countdown, RX 93.1 countdown, Magic 89.9’s Magic 30 Countdown, and 99.5 Campus FM’s Top 20 @ 12.

Check out the latest in Philippine radios’ weekly music charts at Music Picks blog.

And get a chance to WIN Duffy’s Rockferry album and you can have this CD delivered straight to your home (for free)!

Lumipas na naman ang aking birthday kaya heto ako ngayon, still young at 17… este 25. Silver age na para sa akin kaya pwede na akong pamuksa sa mga werewolf. Medyo disappointed lang kasi walang nag-prepare ng surprise party para sa akin. Kaya salamat sa lahat ng nakaalala na bumati sa akin sa araw na iyon. Ituloy ang pagbabasa…

As if the stars in heaven were aligning themselves to outline my fate, in May 1970, Cambodia, the country where more than thirty years later I was destined to go for my first foreign posting, was all over the international news.

May 11, 1970 cover of Time Magazine

Read more here.

The Philippines has always been a good place to start a food craze. Many restaurants and food establishment that start abroad often makes its way through to the malls and stores of Metro Manila. Often, these places customize their menu to cater to the Filipino palate. Take McDonald’s rice meals. There is no such thing in the US.

Such is the same for Roti Mum – the famous coffee bun from Singapore. I had the opportunity to fall in love with this coffee bun last year. A couple of months ago, I heard that they were now serving choco buns. Hmm… sounds yummy right. Unfortunately, I missed the launch of these chocolatey-ness which they offered for the christmas season. So when I found myself looking through the glass at the choco buns cooking inside Roti Mum Megamall, I did not even think twice and bought a box of assorted buns.

Read more…

Are you a shopaholic? Do you go to the nearest mall when you have had a row with your boyfriend? Do you buy the latest trends because your this girl at your office does? Do you avoid calls from credit card collection officers? Do you feel compelled to buy those new shoes you saw by the shop window? Are your credit card bills piling up unopened inside your desk drawer? Do you lie to your parents when they ask you about money?

Read more…

More eNGy business humor toons here

How can there be God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and yet end up with only one God? There must be something wrong with the mathematics of Christians. But someone has managed to solve that problem. Trinity Sunday

WARNING: This post is extremely long. And it has no pictures.

There was once a girl so ugly, she’d sometimes just look at herself in the mirror and cry. ‘A face only a mother could love’? Psssh! Screw that. Because even her own mom never thought she was pretty. Well, actually she used to be a cute kid until she turned seven and it was all downhill from there.

Her classmates would call her names like “tamby” (walis tambo), or “wooly” (steel wool), or “skurry” (Scary Spice) because of her dry, unruly mane, which was so fucked up, it was often mistaken for pubic hair. She’d often sit in a corner with furrowed eyebrows and wonder what the hell was wrong… until many many years later, she would discover the miracle we all call shampoo and conditioner.

Her teeth wasn’t the nicest in the world, too. She’s congenitally anodonsic and had a Madonna-gap between her upper front teeth. And so, in mid-puberty she wore braces and basically looked like Betty La Fea for 4 1/2 years.

This said ugly girl also had utmost hate for her complexion. Living in a society where people associate fair skin with beauty (uhm, hello German Moreno? Yachang?), her dark skin (DARK, mmmkay? Not olive. She’s no Jennifer Lopez) had always been a disadvantage. She had tried to many ways make it more… white and obviously failed miserably because one cannot bask under the sun and expect to be as translucent divine as the JaBoom twins. Also, she found out that leaving soap to dry or using industrial-level loofah to scrub skin with don’t work for shit.

Read the rest here… 

More eNGy business toons here 

If you’re a Lifehouse fan like me, this is really a very good news. Few days ago, I got an information that Lifehouse might come over to Manila and do a concert here, specifically at the Araneta Coliseum this coming July.

Continue reading here… 

Abs-cbn news reported that “The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday filed a case against several officials, including the mayor, of Malay town in Aklan after a hotel company was allowed to destroy mangroves to build a hotel in Boracay island.” Read more

You see the vast expanse of urban decay. You see an endless road, cluttered with tricycles, jeepneys, taxis, and various vehicles. In the horizon you see an impressive skyline of buildings, and at their feet you see a pile of makeshift homes made of used tires and rusted corrugated metal. And everything is coated with a think layer of smog and cigarette smoke.

Welcome, my friend, to Metro Manila.

It may look benign from a distance, but I swear, you will get killed if you are not careful.  Metro Manila is home to various types of creatures, harmless and predatory, and you will lose your belongings (like an unviolated asshole, among other things) if you let your guard down for even just a moment. What you, need, kid, is a guide to guide you through the dirty and dangerous streets of Manila in spite of your naiveté.
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Get a chance to WIN Duffy’s Rockferry album. Just follow the easy steps and you can have this CD delivered straight to your home (for free)!

Click HERE for the mechanics…