The DJ who's not a DeeJay

Geocities is a free web page and hosting service that became immensely popular way back then... so popular that Yahoo! bought them in 1999.   It offered people a chance to own a part of online real estate in the form of a website instead of just being a passive internet surfer.

I remember all those long cryptic URLs that had everyone exchanging links and telling their friends to visit.   You had a URL with a virtual city name and a 4 digit address.   I had one too, but I just couldn't memorize my address and I may have got buried in my decade old e-mail signatures.

With the advent of social networks, cheaper web hosting and simply more alternatives to their free web service, Geocities is no longer accepting new registrations and existing users will have till the end of the year before Geocities will be declared a ghost town.  

Thanks for the memories Geocities.   

How did I come about this ?

Well my dad gave me some old monetary bills from an old collection of his which he never got to display.  It was just in an envelope and contained several small bills from different countries, Portugal, Chile, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam , Peru and the United States.   

Excited to find out if any of these old bills had any value, I turned to the internet to find out.  And since the US Dollar bill is the most popular of them all, I checked that first.

I then found out that some fake denominations were released at one point in time by different individuals either as novelty items.  Some people though intended it to attempt fraud.

Some weird denominations that never existed were $22, $200, 1 million dollars, $1,329,063 and 1 billion dollars.

The 1 million dollar tales of failed attempts to use it were hilarious and at the same time a dumb move on the part of the suspect.  Here's a few:

It says "Wow ang itim!" (wow it's black) and a name "Katrina #2" with some numbers (1825).

I'm clueless.

I tried this and my palms got swollen, not to mention that I got confused and couldn't do it as fast as a fraction of the speed this guy claps.  try it and you'll get confused too.

Introducing Kent, the world's fastest clapper.

I hate to be slapped by this guy.

Most things come in sizes: small, medium, large... big, bigger, biggest... small, huge and the like.  Simple names to describe simple things.

Most fastfoods offer drinks but they always start with medium, then large.  If there's a medium and large, how come there's no small ?  Wendy's has a Biggie sized drink, which is like extra large.  

What about Starbucks cup sizes ?  I still get confused with the names they use: tall, venti and grande.  I later found out that grande is Italian for "big" and venti is Italian for "twenty" which is the no. of ounces the grande size holds.   So tall is small,  grande is medium and venti is big?  Confusing huh ?

With cinemas, there used to be three sections: orchestra, lodge and balcony.  Now it's just orchestra and deluxe.  But some people out of habit would call the upper portion balcony.  Some cinemas call their seating sections deluxe and premiere.  So is premiere the balcony and deluxe is reduced to orchestra ?

Speaking of "deluxe", how about hotel rooms ?   Deluxe sounds like an above-average room for me, but for some hotels, deluxe is the chepeast and smallest room.  Even a Junior sized room is bigger.  And when you hear of a Junior suite, how come there isn't a Senior Suite which could pertain to a bigger room ?  Instead it's an executive suite.   And what's bigger, an executive suite or a presidential suite ?  What's the difference ?  Most of the time, I look at the prices cause numbers are easier to weigh on which is which than these names.

It's with these kind of names I cherish the computer acronym when coding programs, KISS : Keep It Simple Stupid !

I was originally planning to make a hotdog for merienda the other day but I found out that the hotdogs were solid frozen and we didn't have any hotdog buns.  I saw some hamburger buns on the table so I figured I'd use that instead. 

And since I didn't want to wait for the hotdogs to thaw (even if I could just defrost it in the oven), I decided to open a can of vienna sausage and slice them into flat portions.

I checked the ref for some other ingredients I could use and happily found mayonaise, mozarella, pickle relish (sweet though, I like dill pickles more),  cheese, lettuce.  And since I wanted more, I put mustard, ketchup and sprinkled some bacon bits.

And so my vienna sausage burger grew and grew.  I had to squash the burger to fit in my hand and mouth.  

I think I'll make one of these babies again soon.

I've seen personalities, political figures and celebrities jump in the bandwagon and have their own blogs too.

So this is a first for me and a real delight to discover that Kristie Kenney, the US Ambassador to the Philippines, has a blog too !

Aside from the role of being the official US ambassador to bridge any concerns of Americans residing in the Philippines and other duties of the Ambassador, Kristie Kenney is also active in representing and joining goodwill projects for the benefit of Filipinos.   I was honored to have attended one event of MTV which promoted public awareness of human trafficking and what can be done to stop it.

I also got to see her last year when she was also the guest of honor at during the US Navy 7th Fleet free concert at the Mall of Asia.  

And it was cool for her to be at the ribbon cutting of the very first Philippine branch of Krispy Kreme opening at Bonifacio High Street since both of them had the same initials (KK).

Check out her blog to know Kristie Kenney on a more personal level.   Learn about her insights on the Philippines and culture through her perspective and find out what projects she's been involved with lately.  Thanks Ms. Kenney for blogging !

Her blog is apltly entitled "The United States Embassy Manila - Ambassador's Official Blog".

(Shot taken at Padi's Point on a clear evening)

Location: Across Eastwood Mall.

According to http://wwf.org.ph, the Philippines saved 611 MWh of power during the Earth Hour 20009, outshining the rest of the world.  The Philippines beat all countries with its 650 cities participating with Greece and Australia placing at 2nd and 3rd place respectively.  The power saved by the Philippines during the voluntary power off was equivalent to shutting down a dozen power plants for one hour. 

Several simultaneous events happened around the nation to show support for Earch Hour.  The SM chain of malls like SM Baguio, SM Cebu and SM Mall of Asia also showed support by conserving energy from their power-consuming malls.   I was on the road driving by the Makati business district during Earth hour and it was very evident that Makati City was participating as the street lamps were all turned off and several landmarks and buildings were either dimmed or totally unlit.   People from other barangays reverted to lighted candles during Earth hour in support.

Quoting a famous line in an animated movie "Light our darkest hour."  Ironically, as dark as the Philippines was during Earth Hour, we outshined the world.

It's a great feeling to do something in your own little way, and yet feel being one with the world in sync with a common cause.

Roll out !