Isla de Nebz: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009 14

Mama Filipina

While watching Mama Filipina, I kept telling myself: Philippines is beautiful...

"I remember how we used to be
growing up in the land of poverty
now you gotta leave home
to feed the family
gotta make it in the land of opportunity"

Those lines are from 'Mama Filipina', a cut from 'U Can Dream' album of Allan Pineda Lindo, popularly known as apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas.

...and we are a gifted race.

The song was directed by Michael B. Chait and released by Jeepney Music, apl.de.ap's own recording company, which also features other Asian American singers.

I've this looming thought: the shots for this video...were they taken in the Philippines, or the US? I'm not sure. Just the same, I'm welling up with pride watching Mama Filipina. I'm pretty sure you will too.

(Thanks to Madz Nicolas for introducing me to this video).

Friday, August 28, 2009 15

Things taken for granted (in the absence of something decent to write about)

"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful."

I'm pretty sure you reading this and all the other bloggers around the world have come across those lines in its original Latin form but totally ignored it (I did, until today). How is that? Because it was H. Rackham's 1914 translation of "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...".

Lorem ipsum texts are normally contained in Blogger and Wordpress templates like this.

Ahhh. I originally thought Lorem ipsum was simply a goobledicock, nonsensical sentence used to fill up gaps in blog templates and graphic designs but alas, it actually came from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero, a contemporary of Julius Ceasar and Mark Antony, was a philosopher widely considered as one of greatest orators and prose stylists of the Roman times.

Lesson to be learned: There is value in some things that we take for granted.

Three lessons here:
1. There is value in things that we thought are unimportant.
2. There is always an interesting story behind all things -- especially those we take for granted -- including those people around us!
3. If we look a little closer at things, we will realize the lessons behind them.

There is actually a fourth lesson here: Don't blabber too much to disguise the truth that you really have nothing imaginative to write except this lorem ipsum thing. (The lesson was actually for me! Haha. There are days when the mind is not working.)

The continuation of the first paragph says: "Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"

Now I'm really being a blabbermouth!

Read www.lipsum.com for more details.
Read about Cicero here.
Template was sourced from www.cmsandblogtemplates.com

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11

I fear age and you fear what you don't know

Aging comes with perks: you can blah-blah about anything and claim it's from experience. You get respect. People younger than you treat you kindly. But honestly, I hate aging.

Browsing the previous posts I did some seven, eight months ago, I can't help but wonder where am I getting those ideas and the flare (reads 'being thick-faced in writing and publishing them') to come up with ideas out of the blue.

It's not actually out of thin air. Most of them come from actual experiences. Others, inspired by writings of other people. A few, copied from other people's work (and I hope you won't find out which of my posts are plagiarized!).

Today, I'm writing about old age (which, I know, only a few of you, er, us care to mind because you're, er, we're still young, contoured, fresh-looking and at the prime of your, er, our lives).

Well, who am I kidding?

Yesterday, my computer in the office conked out. All of a sudden, it died on me. Because I'm so unlike that guy in my post Learning IT, the first thing that I checked is the power supply. It's not working.

Yesterday, I went to a computer shop and bought a power supply. Lesson learned: check the voltage before paying your money. I needed a 110V-240V, they gave me a 220V-240V power supply.

(Reminder: I have to return the power supply to the store and have it replaced. Today.)

I am really not that familiar in computers but you know that saying about necessity being the mother of invention? What I did was take out the power supply from an unused computer in our office and put it in my CPU. Before I unscrewed my power supply, I labeled all the wires to ensure that I know where to plug those sockets later.

I did it! Proudly I say, I now know how to replace a power supply of a computer. And I now know where each of those dreadful-looking sockets go. It is actually fairly easy and it only takes a few sweat and half hour to know.

Lesson learned: There are things in life that we're so afraid of doing because we think they're hard when in fact, they aren't. The truth is: we only fear because we don't know. Hence, we have to know.

Okay, what has age got to do with it?

While working on my computer, I was using...okay, please don't laugh...a magnifying glass to read the voltage information at the back of my PC. I think my eyes are slowly giving up on me. I dread eyeglasses because, although a pair make me cuter, they also add age to my look. For me, to wear an eyeglass is to admit that I'm really, really getting old. Many years ago, I promised myself: no corrective focals! I'd eat papaya, I'd perform yoga, I will use Eye-Mo but I will not wear eyeglasses!

Today, I realized that I have to. That's life. Sooner or later, our body organs will give up on us and we will need some remedial works.

Too...

I easily forget things. My potbelly is starting to grow again. I sleep lesser and lesser every night. And I'm having this pain in my knee joint (I think it's from eating too much beef and beans).

Haaay....

I'm now listing the remedial works I need so I could start saving money for them. I really feel sore.

Saturday, August 22, 2009 11

How'd you like a pre-packed 'lutong-bahay' for business? Read this.

John Gokongwei Jr said: "...to be a truly great nation, we must also excel as entrepreneurs before the world. We must create Filipino brands for the global market place."

This is what the original product looks like.

After immersing it in boiling water for five minutes (or after microwaving it for five to ten minutes while submerged in water), here's the end result.

Doesn't it look delicious? The tab? PHP45 (including rice)!

This sumptous afritada is one of the many menus of Pigout Food Corporation's Ready-to-Eat-in-5-Minutes Quick Meal Packs.

I first saw this business prospect from Anton Diaz's Our Awesome Planet, and I thought it has the making of a good business: the idea, although not entirely new, is clever, the vacuum-packed packaging is state-of-the-art, and (these, for me, are the big pluses!) it is hygienic and the retail prize of each item is very much affordable.

The idea, according to Chief Operating Officer Dr Sarah Carungcong-Uyguanco, was conceived by a group of food business entrepreneurs and health-conscious doctors with the desire to create a "lutong-bahay" menu that is clean and hygienic, affordable, easy to prepare, healthy and deliciously Pinoy.

The food packs can last up to six months and this was made possible even without preservatives because the home-cooked meals are vacuum-packed in heat-resistant plastic packages and stored frozen.

The products are available in 2 sizes: 100-gram packs (good for 1 serving) and 200-gram packs (good for 2-3 servings). A variety of 30 viands is currently available but more viands are being tested and will be coming out soon.

Retailer's price list

Whenever I eat out at a Filipino restaurant in Saudi, I spend an amount equivalent to PHP 150 (around SAR 12). A friend in Saudi who owns a small canteen in the Philippines said that they sell one viand for PHP 50 and rice for PHP 10.

If you check out Pigout's price list, I think you'll say that their rates are affordable.

Meals: Price per 100gm pack(good for 1), 200gm pack(good for 2-3)

BEEF MEALS
Beef Caldereta: Php 35.00, Php 65.00
Beef Pares: Php 31.00, Php 60.00
Beef Steak: Php 31.00, Php 60.00
Beef Strips in Oyster Sauce: Php 32.00, Php 62.00
Callos: Php 29.00, Php 54.00
Corned Beef Sinigang: Php 75.00 (200gm pack only)
Fresh Corned Beef: : Php 75.00 (200gm pack only)
Kare-Kare: Php 30.00, Php 58.00
Korean Beef Stew: Php 39.00, Php 77.00
Lengua in White Sauce: Php 38.00, Php 73.00
Lengua Sisig: Php 35.00, Php 65.00

CHICKEN MEALS
Chicken Curry: Php 26.00, Php 48.00
Chicken in Ginger and Onion Sauce: Php 30.00, Php 55.00

CHICKEN AND PORK MEALS
Chicken and Pork Adobo: Php 35.00, Php 63.00
Chicken and Pork Afritada: Php 29.00, Php 54.00

PORK MEALS
Binagoongan: Php 30.00, Php 52.00
Chinese Humba: Php 31.00, Php 55.00
Dinuguan: Php 25.00, Php 45.00
Minced Pork in Salted Egg Sauce: Php 29.00, Php 54.00
Pork Adobo: Php 30.00, Php 54.00
Pork Siomai in Chili-Garlic Sauce: Php 31.00, Php 61.00
Pork Steak: Php 30.00, Php 53.00
Sisig Adobo: Php 30.00, Php 55.00

VEGETABLE MEALS
Ampalaya with Tofu in Spicy Cocomilk Sauce: Php 28.00, Php 52.00
Gising-Gising: Php 28.00, Php 48.00
Pinakbet: Php 27.00, Php 50.00
Sautéed Sayote: Php 25.00, Php 49.00
String Beans Adobo: Php 26.00, Php 50.00
Vegetables with Fish in Coco-Tomato Sauce: Php 29.00, Php 54.00

RICE
Dinorado Steamed Rice (per cup): Php 10.00

Who can benefit from Pigout products?

If you're planning to put up a catering service or a small restaurant or perhaps a canteen near a school, you don't need to go through the hassle of waking up early morning to do your marketing or be in trouble if your cook fails to show up.

Dr Uyguanco said: "The company puts its focus on research and development of food products as well as efficient production to satisfactorily supply its dealers since it aims to work in synergy with them rather than compete with them."

"One of the visions of our company is to be able to help small-scale dealers and OFWs in terms of providing a business opportunity for them, which only requires minimal capital."

Interested? Here are Pigout's contact details

Pigout Corporation is more than willing to respond to your enquiries through any of their contact details:
email pigoutfoods@gmail.com
call +632-7211366
text +63-922.8998058

Pinoys as entrepreneurs

The quote I used for this post is from John Gokongwei Jr's speech during the 20th Ad Congress in November 2007. He said:

"But to be a truly great nation, we must also excel as entrepreneurs before the world. We must create Filipino brands for the global market place.

If we want to be philosophical, we can say that, with a world-class brand, we create pride for our nation. If we want to be practical, we can say that, with brands that succeed in the world, we create more jobs for our people, right here.

Then, we are able to take part in what’s really important—giving our people a big opportunity to raise their standards of living, giving them a real chance to improve their lives."

Here's the full text of the speech.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Kablogs 2009 Awardees

Thank you Kablogs! Congratulations to all the awardees!

This annual Kablogs honor is bestowed to OFW and non-OFW bloggers who, by the standard of Kablogs' selected jurors, are meritorious of the individual category of awards. This honor is an affirmation, an acknowledgment, a show of appreciation and gratitude for the support of individual bloggers to the cause of Kablogs.

As American humorist Robert Henry once said and I quote: 'people do not live by bread alone, they need buttering up once in a while'. (I'm just kidding, of course!).

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with honor and pride to present to you this year's recipients of the Kablogs 2009 Award.

ACTIVE BLOGGER
"Blogger na laging may post, rain or shine. Laging madaming ideya sa utak ang blogger na ito kaya naman palagi syang may post."

ANG GANDA MO!
"Para sa blogger na babae na nagpapakita ng angking kagandahan di lamang pisikal kundi maging sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga posts."

ANG GWAPO MO!
"Para sa blogger na lalake na nagpapakita ng angking kakisigan di lamang pisikal kundi maging sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga posts."

ASTIG ANG BLOG MO!
"Blog na nagpapakita ng kakaibang impormasyon at mga kwento."

COOL BLOG!
"Techie. Informative. Hip and cool. Lahat ng in sa fashion, technology and gadgets, nasa blog na itech!"

CREATIVE BLOG
"Madaming mga pakulo itong blog na to. Iba't iba ang gimik niya tuwing gagawa siya ng post."

CUTEST BLOG
"Isang blog na nagpapakita ng pagiging payak na kagandahan ng kanyang pahina, sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga posts at ng maayos na pagkakaayos ng kanyang pahina."

FRIENDSHIP AWARD
"Para sa palakaibigan...madaming kaibigan na blog /blogger."

FUNNY BLOG
"Nagpapatawa at nagpapangiti sa mga nakasambakol na muka ng mga blogger na mainit na mainit ang ulo."

GALING NG BLOG MO
"Blog na maganda ang pagkakaayos, at maganda ang nilalaman."

GREAT LAYOUT
"Blog na nagpapakita ng kahusayan sa kanyang layout."

INFORMATIVE BLOG
"Blog na maraming naituturong bagong ideya sa mga mambabasa."

INSPIRING BLOG
"Inspiring as it is. Hindi dahil may halo ang may-ari ng blog kundi dahil nagbibigay ng aral ang kanyang bawat posts."

KIKAY MO NAMAN!
"Isang blog na maraming mga disenyo at ang mga nilalaman ay hindi basta basta. Ang bawat isang bagay sa kanyang pahina ay may angking "kakikayan" at kagandahan."

MAINSTAY BLOGGER
"Itong bloggers na ito ay may staying power. Naghiatus man ang iba ng one hundred decades, still fighting and kicking alive ang banat niya."

Truthfully twisted Jay

Says the movie site: Jay is a "meditation on the ways in which the third world is produced everyday as a spectacle and (how) audiences...prefer their entertainment to be as crazy as their lived reality".

Last night, I saw Jay, the movie that won as Best Picture for Cinemalaya 2008 and is in running for Urian Best Film for 2009. (One film that I'm yearning to see is Yanggaw, also an Urian contender).

Jay, the film, is about two Jay's: Jay Santiago, a gay TV producer documenting the family of a gay hate crime victim whose name is Jay Mercado. In documenting the news, Jay Santiago unemotionally intrudes into the private grief of Jay Mercado’s family. Baron Geisler starred as Jay Santiago.

Jay is both funny and painful and too near the truth. I can't help but laugh at how Baron's character deadpan-ly sweet-talks the grieving mother on how to re-enact her wailing after seeing her son's body, or how the other characters in the film acted (literally at times) their grief in front of a camera. (Notice the film's poster and you'll see a tv screen inside the niche).

Jay is an insider's view at how manipulative media can be, at how the media can unemotionally zero-in on the pain of other people, at how the media can easily twist some facts to their advantage. The sadder part is that we, the viewing public, easily believe what is printed on the newspaper or what is broadcasted on tv as news. The saddest part is that there's no way we can know whether what we see and read is true or not.

Nothing is more apt to describe the entire film other than a quote from Jay Director Francis Xavier Pasion who said: “Do not believe everything you see as truth.”

I hated Baron's manipulative character and he, for me, totally deserved the Best Actor award from Cinemalaya 2008 (and I won't be surprised if he wins Urian this September).

During the last scene, I was secretly hoping Baron's character would end up like Jay Mercado: dead. Well, he didn't. I honestly felt that the film's ending was like an unconsumed climax. Nabitin ako and it left me more opinionated about how I negatively view our media as being twisted and self-serving.

Watch Jay with your friends. Your post-movie conversations will surely be entertaining.

Jay's honors:

The film won the Audience Award in Black Movie Film Festival 2009 held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The film was nominated for the Sutherland Trophy in The Times BFI London Film Festival in 2008.
In the 11th Festival de Cine Asiatico de Barcelona (Barcelona Asian Film Festival 2009), the film won the D-Cinema Award "for developing an original and sharp critic to the media which entertains and makes you think, going beyond its political and format boundaries." The D-Cinema award is given to the most innovative and experimental Asian film shot in digital format.

(Photocredits: Paolo Feliciano)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 16

A paragraph about savings

Since this post is about savings, I guess my putting it in one paragraph just saved me quite a number of white (web)space ;-)

These are my personal views about saving money: It takes at least one life's blow before we realize how important it is to save money. Some people are lucky to experience it an early age; others only experience it at the apex of their lives and therefore die sorrowful. (Oh, I know I'm certainly wrong in saying that). Some purchases that we claim to be important are actually not necessary. We only learn that when we finally lose money. To 'live a simple life' is easier for those who have money than those who don't. The have-nots sometimes live more extravagantly than the haves. That's why some people become poorer, the others, richer. We sometimes boast unnecessarily and sometimes, too, boasting costs money. (Mayaman ka? Bweno, ilibre mo kami!) When you borrow money from a friend, the friendship ends as soon as you delay your payment. Contrary to what they claim, banks never care for you; they only want your money. Their service charge is always high and their interest is always low. I envy those people with credit cards because they get to make purchases in a jiffy. My envy ends every end of the month. Credit facilities are secretly praying that you delay your payment, fortuitously or by choice. The more you delay your credit payment, the happier your bank becomes. I also envy those people who 'live for today', spending money like there's no tomorrow. I hope they live a long life. Finally, when you grow old, you become thriftier, more practical, and wiser in your spending. I'm neither. Because I'm still young!. Why I did this post in one paragraph? It's about savings so I guess I just saved quite a number of whitespace by doing this. I promise never to repeat this. (But at least now you know how boring it really is to read a one paragraph post, right?).

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 11

Let's low-carb diet

Let's go low carb for our children.

When I saw our company booklet with its pristine cover saying 'low-carb diet book', I initially thought the reading material is about healthy foods. Wrong! In fact it has nothing to do with our bodies.

It's actually about the environment. More particularly, it's about how we can help in reducing carbon emissions at work and at home. (I thought the booklet title was somewhat cheeky: Low-carb pertained to low carbon emission, not low carbohydrate diet. It did serve its purpose though because it hooked me into reading its contents -- and they are very informative!).

I thought it would be nice to share this reading with you so you could also do your own share of 'low-carb dieting'.

When travelling...

Carpool. When commuting to work or to malls, share a ride with others.
Be easy when driving.You can reduce your fuel consumption by up to 30% by driving at 50mph rather than 70mph. Drive smoothly. Agitated people drive erratically, increasing fuel consumption.

In the office...

Save trees. Reuse paper that's been printed on just one side (except if it's a confidential document, of course! I once made a thoughtless mistake of making a scratch paper out of someone else's payslip and I got some scolding from my boss.).
Do it right the first time. Think, run a spell-check and proofread online before printing any document.
Online newspapers are often cheaper (you can't really swat a fly with it but that's fine).
Use double-sided printing whenever you can.
Switch off and unplug your computers at the end of your workday.
Bring your own coffee mug in the office and avoid, if you can, using disposable cups.

At home...

Train your family to switch off and unplug appliances that are not in use.
Engage family members to recycle things (I said things, not food!). If you have unused toys, bags, shoes, clothes, there are always other people who'd want them.
Use e-billing to save paper.
Refuse disposable bags (this, I think, is the most important thing I need to learn because quite frankly, I don't if I can't leave without using plastic bags).

The booklet ends up in saying that we may not be able to do everything but any 'low-carbon' change is a good change -- so please do what you can.

Let's. For our dear planet. And for our dear children.

(Note: Philippines rank low in carbon emissions.)

Other interesting readings on low carbon emission:

Sunday, August 02, 2009 7

She's gone to a better place

She's feeling much better now. And she's praying for us.

Be sad not.
She's gone up to a place
far, far better than
where most of us are now.

Fear not.
There's now a saintly soul
praying for the rest
of us. And someday, we too,
will be better.