The DJ who's not a DeeJay

I was so happy to find out that Church's Chicken has put up a branch here in the Philippines. As far as I know, it's only at the SM Mall of Asia.

I'm particularly familiar with the restaurant cause my parents used to buy chicken from Church's Chicken in San Diego when I was a kid. I remember they even had gizzards and other weird chicken parts on the menu.

Located at the extreme North area of SM Mall of Asia, it's at the corner and has a huge mascot named Churchie. (Trivia: You won't find that out unless you read what's written at the mascot's back.)

I was pleased to discover that their chicken tastes very similar to the ones I've eaten years back. A plus is that they have very affordable prices. If you get to check it out, lemme know what you think about their food.

Go to church ... church's chicken. (What a lame ad if it've existed.)

I was driving along Buenda yesterday going to Mall of Asia. It was a Sunday so the usual Makati Business District traffic was non-existent.

Upon entering the Buendia stretch from the C5 bridge, I witnessed a motorcycle at top speed disengage from the driver and both of them tumbling over and over separately. I had no idea how it happened since it was all happening at an instant. Good thing the driver wore a helmet cause I actually saw his helmet bounce on the concrete while tumbling at a fast pace. All the cars behind came an abrupt stop to give way to the unfortunate driver and check as well whether he was fine or not.

He was able to get up after a few seconds. Seems he only got some minor bruises. I don't know if his bike is okey too. Another guy on a motorcycle tried to help him but the shaken up guy kinda said something to the other guy and made some pointing signs towards a speeding car almost disappearing in sight. I guess he signaled the guy to catch up with the car. So it seems like it's a hit and run.

It was a scary sight. You see these kinds of accidents on TV but you can never prepare yourself for the shock of witnessing it live right in front of you.

A couple of nights ago, I was with my college computer science kabarkada, Kristine. She's based in Singapore and is here on vacation and to celebrate her birthday in the Philippines for a change (Happy Birthday Kristine!).

We met up and and hung out at the nearest Starbucks and reminisced about our college days and updated each other on the whereabouts of our other college peers.

Along with my new (hi-tech) 3G-capable phone, I also brought my (not-so-hitech) laptop and decided that since we were talking about our friends which we couldn't seem to remember their full names, I booted up and went online to where else but... friendster.com

I tell you it was such an easier exchange of stories viewing our friends on our friendster accounts while learning about our other classmates whereabouts and getting updated on what they're doing and more especially, how they look now. Thanks to friendster for letting users upload their self-portraits. :)

It was the day after that I realized that most of the people I know who have a friendster account have way many more friends/contacts than I do. I was envious of Kristine's friendster account who had way more contacts and friends than mine. So I decided to spend an hour searching for my other friends whom are not on my friendster list yet, to beef up my friendster count so to speak. I think after all that searching within an hour, I only found 10 more friends.

So for those who are reading this and know me personally, add me up on friendster. PLEASE !!!!
hahahaha ! No I'm not that desperate. But I'd appreciate the add up. Cya on friendster soon !

After more than two years, I finally bought myself a new phone. I was pretty much satisfied with my old Siemens M55 phone as I didn't long for video, camera, memory cards, bluetooth and other features newer phones have.

I was actually canvassing for a low budget phone, simply because my old phone became stubborn when pressing the keys. I guess after two years of pressing something, it will refuse to be pressed afterwards. I only wanted a replacement that had better keypress and a bit more color (65K as opposed to my 4K color phone).

Anyway, the turning point of getting a high-tech phone was when I witnessed a 3G phone being connected to a laptop and getting DSL speeds instantly. When I saw that, I thought to myself, I need that. Fancy phones - not too keen.. can live without, but fast internet mobile connection - it's a must for my profession.

And so after a week of canvassing and searching in shops for this extremely hard-to-find phone, I finally got one at a premium price. Behold the Sony Ericsson K608i. :)

Even though the price has increased by P2,000. cause it's phased out, it's still the chepeast 3G phone available. I tried to connect the phone to my desktop and laptop and I get internet speeds of 15K/sec. which is much much better than my regular 3K/sec. dialup connection.

But now since I have the phone, I might as well utilize the other features. It's my first time to have a phone with a built-in camera. My digital SLR is still way more superior than the pics taken here, but I may use it for those times I don't have my camera with me. I still have to learn the other features. The manual given to me was in Malaysian. Good thing there are online manuals available on the Sony Ericsson Website.

For more details on this phone, check this link out.

3G baby ! Watch out ! I'm on the internet highway with a Ferrari now! Am short on gas though.

I just came from Virgin Cafe, the bar/restaurant/gig venue along Tomas Morato.

You can't smell it while you're there cause I guess it's everywhere and you get immune to it, but I swear the moment you get out from the enclosed canned airconditioned joint to the fresh, unadulterated atmosphere (or at least around 2am it is), that's where you'll start to smell your clothes, and boy do they smell !

It's the distinct scent of cigarette smoke which clings to your clothes like a leech; rendering your clothes unusable for anything afterwards with a non-stop one-way ticket to the laundry.

I need to take a shower as well cause I feel as if the smoke has penetrated my clothing walls and silently sinked into my skin.

I left my computer to conduct a complete scan test for viruses while I ate breakfast this morning. I was surprised to learn that I had over 300,000 files on my computer !

If I were to name at least some of them, like the filename and subdirectory they're in, I guess I could only reach 5,000. And I just backed up a lot of files on DVDR last week ! So I could originally have had a half a million files. I wish this were cash !

If you're not familiar with Batista, we'll he's one of the most popular wrestlers now in World Wrestling Entertainment. Batista was scheduled to visit Manila for 2 days to promote the upcoming Smackdown Manila Tour set for October 2006.

Out of the 5 malls he'd be touring, I picked the one least likely to have lots of people and on a weekday. I was with my former officemate EO and we were lucky to get in because we already had tickets for the October event. To make our experience even more exciting, both of us were two of 10 lucky texters who won a special official WWE matt and an exclusive opportunity for a meet and greet up close with the Animal.

The whole experience was so surreal and for this day in particular, I was a fan and not a media person covering the event. I was also nervous as what I could say to Batista since there was only a 15 second chance each winner got since they were rushing the event. I clearly remembered I told him "I admire the fact that you acknowledge your Filipino heritage." Ehhhh !!!! Wrong answer ! I don't think he heard me cause of the noise plus the fact the I wasn't able to finish my sentence or else I would miss the photo opportunity. I should've just said "Hope you become champ again !" ... at least it would be short and sweet.

Damn he's huge ! His shoulder is as hard as a rock and his arm is as big as my puny thigh. His thigh is huge enough to be my friend's waist !

The 3 hour wait was worth it. I got my autograph and pic. (Note: I intentionally cut the pic to hide my useless identity. hehehehe!) This is the closest I've gotten to an actual international wrestler. Whooooohooooo !!!! Batista ! Batista !

It was a first time I think that I've been complimented for my clothing, particularly my shirt.

Yesterday, three people from 3 different places noticed my shirt and complimented it saying it was a nice shirt. Well, I really didn't notice the design when I wore it yesterday. All I remember before leaving the house was that it was a black t-shirt. I didn't take any notice of how nice it was cause for me, it's a shirt, something decent to wear and clean. I wasn't aware my shirt could get compliments that day.

So now I'm taking note of this particular shirt and if I need a good shirt or at least one that may possibly attract attention, I'll wear this one. Funny thing is I don't remember where I got it.

Last Thursday was a series of shockers for me. One is bearable but 3 in succession feels like it's too much for me to digest all at once.

First, I received a text message that my girlfriend's condition in the hospital went from not good to worse. And later that night when I read more about the medical terms on Wikipedia, the more it scared me.

Second, I was at Eastwood early evening and couldn't find my celphone. I had a hunch I left it in the car, which is actually better than losing it. I figured I just forgot to bring it. I just remembered my friend Ernie who I was supposed to pick up that night, that he just lost his celphone the other night in a taxi. I was hoping I wouldn't be receiving the same fate.

So I went back to the car. I sorta panicked when after 5 minutes of looking under each car seat, I still couldn't find it. I took the flashlight then, opened all doors and crawled into the seat floors of the car. While I was losing hope, added pressure to me were 3 cars waiting for me to leave so they could take my parking spot. Don't they know I can't find my celphone and they're only interested in my parking space ? Well, can't blame them. They don't know why I was frantically moving from door to door. The security guard even had suspicions if that was my car because the way I looked puzzled. Get off my case guard. I'll show you my parking ticket if I have to.

After 10 minutes of looking and a breaking out into a cold sweat, I finally found it. It wasn't actually on the car floor. It was behind the seatbelt buckle which was why I couldn't find it right away.

After that, I drove to pick up Ernie. My knees were still trembling from that last incident. Because of the celphone incident, I was also late. I was supposed to pick up Ernie and go back to Eastwood. Since there were lots of people there that night, parking was terrible. I couldn't find a parking space nearby. Then, some guard directed us to park at a new parking lot, which I followed. To our surprise, it was a road that lead to an basement parking of an unfinished (and currently being built) building. It was scary that you parked in a place where you could see cement trucks and workers fully equipped to handle any falling debris while you and your car are totally unprepared for any such mishap. Plus the entire place smelling like fresh cement added to the creepiness of the parking lot.

The rest of the night went well even though we were late.

As the day was almost over, I was heading home feeling hungry, decided to pass by one of my favorite 7-11 branches to get a quick bite. When I parked, I noticed in front of the car was a man who was sitting down near the curve. Behind him was an ATM Machine. When I left 7-11, he was laying on the ground looking lifeless and almost looking dead enough to qualify for the "Night Of The Living Dead" cast. That scared me. And there was this guy with a motorbike helmet using the ATM behind him who paid no attention to the man. It felt like it was a scene from a scary movie. Eerie.

This is why I don't like watching scary movies. If it were anything close to my day, I'd be in shock the whole time. And just antipicating the shock leaves me agitated. Good night.

I recently went to Megamall to look for a particular item.

I used to be here almost everyday years ago since my office was nearby. Years after, and the horde of people entering this mall is still immense.

This time I was trying to lay low, keeping my head slightly tilted towards the floor and not looking too much at people. I was actually avoiding seeing someone I know. I was just too lazy to made an effort to call their attention or make some chitchat in the case I do bump into someone I know. I just wanted to get my business done and get out of there.

Unforunately, I did see someone I knew, a former college batchmate of mine. Good thing he didn't see me so I didn't have to say Hi. I know, it looks bad but I wasn't in a social mood that day. Don't worry, I'm not usually this way.

I just came back from Banawe, the mecca of auto parts in Quezon City. I had to find a cheap mud guard since our terriers chewed up our front mudguards. Getting an inexpensive car accessory in Banawe is not a problem.

What you should worry about is the safety of your own car as there are lots of "tambays" who offer car services and some double as car accessories stealers. I've heard of some horror stories from Banawe. If the auto supply store doesn't have what you're looking for, they'll look for a car parked nearby and steal it for you to buy. Of course you never know if what you're buying there is hot or not.

One other thing I frown upon when in Banawe is that those street people who look for customers will stop and look at your car in detail and will critique almost everything so they can offer their services. For my car, I was told that I needed new suspension, headlight guard, another mudguard, rain protector, new tint, door protector and a paint job. If my car had any emotion, it must've gone into depression. I kept on telling the people that the car is fine and I don't need any additional accessories. Imagine, I was even offered a remote control for the car. Remote control ? For what ?!?!?

While the mudguard was being installed, there were at least 5 other people (usiseros) who had nothing to do with the installation. They just watched and eavesdropped on my conversation with the mechanic, possibly hinting for anything else they could offer me. I couldn't understand why they stay there. It isn't a damn freakshow. They made me more uncomfortable because I was thinking someone might distract me while somebody else may be stealing something from the car. I remember my side view mirror was stolen the last time I passed by this place in the past.

Anyway, I saved 80% of the regular price if I would buy it in an authorized Toyota dealer. I'm just glad I got out of there without any casualty.

I attribute my personal saddest couple of days to be last week because 3 things happened:
1. I got sick with the flu.
2. My website went down and I was too physically weak to even use the computer to fix it.
3. I lost 1 week worth of revenue because of No. 2
4. My loved one was ill too.

Now that I thought of it, it's been 1 1/2 years since I last got sick. And I don't miss it one bit. For someone who's a workaholic and is not content doing nothing, it was such an unbearable and frustrating week for me as I was restricted from doing anything but getting rest so I could get well.

And if that wasn't irritating enough, imagine my frustration that I couldn't even use the computer to go online and fix my website who is still suffering from server migration pains.

My website went down along with me for a week and I fear it sustained some damage in some way. I know it affected my steady visitor count. Also since my website was down, my online store was as well and I couldn't receive any product orders. Lastly, my advertising revenue also screeched to an abrupt halt with no ads being displayed due to the site downtime.

Lastly, the person I wished for additional comfort was in need of comfort as well as she was sick the same time I was too. As much as I wanted to be there for her, I myself was in the same predicament. We were like in a mutual support system where we had to reassure each other everything was going to be fine.

I dread having to go through something like this again. I can handle single blows but if they come in multiples, I may not be able to handle it.

Quoting my friend who texted me last week, "bawal magkasakit."

I was supposed to arrive on time for an event I was supposed to attend to. I had it all planned. I was to leave home and arrive at the Crowne Plaza Galleria exactly at 6pm. I arrived 640pm due to parking.

Robinsons' Galleria is one of those malls with so many people and so little parking space. Well it's not really little. It's just the way the parking was designed, and modified.

I'll give you a backgrounder. Robinsons Galleria was the first place on the spot of that corner on Ortigas and EDSA. It had ample parking. Then came the business building which is attached to the mall. Holiday Inn, was also adjacent with direct access to and from the mall. Few years after, there came the RCBC bldg adjacent to it where an access bridge connected to the mall. And just recently, the newest hotel in the Ortigas center is the 5 star hotel Crowne Plaza Galleria, which is also adjacent to the mall. With all these buildings adjacent and including the mall itself, guess what ? Basement parking was never expanded. And so you have all those wanting to go to any of these buildings parking at the Robinsons Galleria basement parking, which makes parking a living hell.

In addition, this is one of the most confusing parking lots where there's one way narrow roads and a lot of twists and turns. Don't get me started on Basement 3. It looks like a sewer.

I was surprised to find traffic officers actually inside the parking lot directing cars. Is it that bad ?
The only way to get a parking space at peak hours is to WAIT ! So a chunk of your parking fee goes to waiting to get an actual parking space. If I didn't need a car that day, I would've been better off commuting.

Ok... I feel better now that I've ranted.

I was fixing some stuff in my room and throwing away a lot of old brochures and papers when I stumbled across this paper bag which was sealed with a stapler and a receipt. I checked out the receipt and it says I bought this in Dec. 2004.

Curious as what did I buy then but never opened the bag, I discovered that I bought what's shown on the pic, yeah, 4 brand new 2005 mini calendars. This is kinda like a year and a half late. If this was food, this must have had grown fungus for surpassing the expiration date.

It's a good thing they were cheap. They have no value whatsoever now. I can't even sell this on Ebay.

I'm going to leave this somewhere (in a public place) and perhaps someone may be interested enough to actually pick it up and use it (for whatever reason, I couldn't care less).

I graduated from college as being someone proficient with computer software, not hardware, which is why I take pride in having the skills to tweak my own desktop.

From the generic computer, I've transformed my personal computer into one mean machine. If this were a car, I'd like to imagine it'd be one of those competing in those underground races. My basic specs are 1 cd-rom, 1 dvd-writer, 2 hard disks and 2 audio cards running on a Pentium 4 2.4 engine with 256MB RAM.

I set my PC to autoshutdown when temperature reaches 70 degrees celsius. Unfortunately, the room where my computer resides isn't that cool. In fact, it's one of the hottest rooms in the house. And for that reason, my PC autoshuts down regularly.

First, I bought a small electric fan and it's sole purpose was to cool my CPU... not enough. I've then added fans and heat sinks little by little inside my computer's casing.. but my PC just emits a lot of heat.

My last modification was to add a front panel with 3 fans which looks like an air-conditioner. I'm finally happy that my PC can stay on for a straight 24 hours now without autoshutting down. After tweaking my PC, I've noticed that I have a total of 6 fans inside. I've even placed hooks on the front to hang my portable flash drives and memory card devices. I've got a sticker on the side as well.

Then I just realized ... Damn ! I've built a refrigerator complete with door decorations !
All I need now is to install a water dispenser. hahahahaha !

I admit that when it comes to legal documents, legal terms, legal issues and anything else might having a tad bit of legalese aspect with it, my brain suddenly drops to a crawling IQ.

I had such trivial questions that I'm not quite certain if they merit any right to be asked. But I really had to ask cause I'm such a dodo with these stuff.

Here's an example. Should you staple or paper clip legal documents ? My reason for asking is that may be the document might be considered null and void if it had two holes in it (assuming you removed the staple wire leaving marks on the paper). I also had this pondering question of whether to sign all copies of a document or just sign one and photocopy the rest. Will they both be deemed legal ?

The last trivial question I had was with paper size. Is legal size the same as long bond paper ? Is A4 legal ? How come I see long bond papers in 8.5 x 13" and 8.5 x 14" ? Is the latter one called longer bond paper ? Is there a standard place to put the page number in legal documents ? On top ? Below ? Center ? Right justified ? Can I write the popular computer format of Page 2 of 3 ? Or 2/3 ? Or just Page 2 ? Or omit the Page and just write 2 ?

Arrghhh all these questions led me to the conclusion that I am better sticking to what I know best, computers.

I recently learned that there will be 2 wrestling events coming to the Philippines, one with the oldies like Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Iron Shiek and other 80's superstars, and the more exciting and antipicated one being WWE Smackdown.

It's set for October 21 and 22, 2006 at the Araneta Coliseum. I was able to watch both WWE Raw Live in Manila events last Feb. and I learned from my mistake back then: "don't wait for the last minute to buy your tickets". I almost wasn't able to buy the tickets I wanted. I was actually waiting for confirmation from friends that wanted to watch. I wanted to know what tickets they'd buy so I we can all be together.

Therefore I will do 2 things which will benefit me.
First, I will coordinate much earlier with my friends. My friend Quen, her daughter and my former officemates are kinda psyched up about it. Quen & I get excited just talking about the upcoming event and planning for it. :)

Second, I will create a fund for my ticket source. I'm definitely going. It's just when and what section I need to know. I just donated a P1,000. bill in an envelope labelled "WWE Smackdown Fund".

(Update: I removed the bill cause I needed to deposit it in the bank and replaced it with a P100. bill.)

ako
Yesterday, I saw this sign in front of a local restaurant:
"Drink and pay moderately".

I just had to think about it. Are they really concerned with their customer's spending habits in correlation to their drinking habits ? Now why would they want customers to pay moderately ? If I were the manager, I'd want my customers to spend lavishly.

I thought of it as a joke and just had to share this.
Blog and post moderately.

Before anything else, I just want to apologize for the huge interval between my last post. Been extremely busy. Now back to our regular blog programming...

Yesterday was banking day and I had to go to 4 different banks, to perform various transactions: check deposit, cash deposit, credit card payment and ATM widthrawal. 2 of the 4 banks I went to had long lines. I was the 20th person in line and there were only 2 tellers open. It took me a whopping 45 minutes before I got to the front. I had some gadgets with me just in case I would take this long. I had my celphone but unfortunately, the bank didn't allow celphones to be used while inside. I had my mp4 player where I could listen to some podcasts I downloaded. Problem was I forgot to bring my earphones and the external speakers would be much too distracting to the others. I could hold it up my ear but that would look like I was using a celphone. So my last resort was going back to basics. I had a book with me and was able to finish 1 chapter within the time I was in line.

While in line, I was thinking. "What if the line was on a conveyor belt with seats lined up so everybody would be seated down and in line. Sort of the Haunted House or Pirates of the Carribean in Disneyland where you sit and enjoy the ride. That would make lining up so much enjoyable. Oh well, back to reality.

I just fed our 3 dogs their dinner when I noticed these 2 flies on top of the hood of our car not moving at all. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were mating. Since they didn't fly away by my presence, even though I was accidentally close to the car, I thought of taking a pic of this rare scene.

I rushed inside the house and got my digital camera and tried to take some macro shots of them. It was hard cause my camera kept on autofocusing on the hood than them, being very minute creatures.

Finally, after around 30 shots, I got some very good and detailed shots of their copulation. On one hand, a fascination led me to think that this is how National Geographic makes documentaries. On the other (and sleazy) hand, I immediately felt like filming a porn movie for insects. I bet that those 2 flies were cursing me for watching them and even taking photos of them.

While I was taking my last few pics, a third fly approached them. The 2 flies suddenly stopped and froze as if the 3rd fly couldn't see them. It was witnessing animal behavior at its finest and very educational I might add. And of course my other evil half of me was thinking that this fly wanted to join in for a threesome but got the cold shoulder.




Oh well, it's still an amazing experience and I did get a chance to try shooting a little creature in macro mode. If you'll notice the picture of the flies, there are actually hairs seen sticking out of their bodies. Way cool !

Porn errr... I mean the animal kingdom rocks !