Octales gets pimped

I rarely get worked up over any web 2.0 social networking bullshit these days (I shit on you facebook, I shit on you in a cup) so when I get hooked on something new that must mean it’s special (and yes, special in exactly the way you were thinking of). Octales is that something special, and while it’s not in open beta yet, it’s getting a little bit of love from the inquirer. I’ve known Luis since I started “writing” for highfiber.org, so it’s nice to see all of his ideas start to come full circle in this way.

Our senators need to learn the art of brevity

It is frustrating to watch the senate hearings sometimes, or at least watch senators grilling Jun Lozada with novella-like questions that could very easily be said in a few words.  I feel almost as frustrated as Lozada looks when trying to comprehend why our senators choose to speak in long winded roundabout ways when simply coming straight to the point is much more efficient.  I’m looking at you, Dick Gordon and Loren Legarda.

Hot air balloons!

Back from the 12th Philippine Hot air balloon festival, which was much colder than we thought it would be, and held plenty of photo ops, especially for pets.  You can find the pics here.

Housecleaning

Cleaned up my links, some of which have been pointing to dead or abandoned sites for almost a year now.  I actually wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for this urgent message from my friend ET:

“ey what’s up with your blogroll? hindi na ako coderscompass. elmerandes.wordpress na po. thanks! adjust mo. siniseryoso ko na blogs ko e”

Well then, from now on when you click on ET’s name in my blogroll, you’ll be going to his new blog, where he discusses stack based thinking VERY seriously.  Miriam has also updated her blog, made with with equal amounts of emo and sunshine.  Lastly, it’s about time I linke dto my girlfriend Aissa’s blog, since it’s a wonder she hasn’t noticed her absence on my blogroll yet.

Wheel of Torture

I hate how Filipino TV manages to mangles imported shows. Aside from the fact that Kris “I’m going to talk like a retarded colegiala high on drugs” Aquino is the host, I just saw that one of their words today is “eleventh monthsary” and it’s categorized as an “event”. O RLY? Aside from the fact that monthsary is a word made up by kids and 20-somethings who can’t even manage to stay together long enough for an anniversary (o hai, self), how the fuck is that an event?!?!?! Seriously! Like, you could have picked “first monthsary” and that would have made more sense! I don’t even know why this bothers me so much but it really really does.

Back from Bohol

More pictures soon, hopefully not on this blog, but on the new one we’re planning but still have yet to name.  It is difficult, coming up with a good name for a blog.  Especially if you have standards.

Street Art Manila : Bluegreen Nuno

Spotted again on Amang Rodriguez. Looks like it’s a favorite spot of his.

Street Art Manila : Multicolored Nuno

I’m thrilled that some of the guys whose street art I’ve put up have come to the site (what’s up pilipinas street plan and the K-street crew), so I’m putting up some more today.  This was found along the little side street that connects c-5 and Amang Rodriguez, taken a few days ago.  It’s actually a row of three Nunos in different colors, but I couldn’t get a good enough angle to get them all in one picture.

Own your own island for as much as a condo

After watching a BBC report on it this morning, I decided to look into how much it would cost to buy an island. Not that I’m looking to buy one, mind you, I was just mildly curious because in the back of my head if I ever got filthy rich that’s one of the things I’d do with my money, buy an island getaway. What I found out astounded me. You can get a small island in the Philippines for about as much as a condominium. Take for example Gilligan’s Island in Palawan. This 3 acre island with a small cottage and tiny beachfront area set someone back just $45,000. When converted to peso, that translates into roughly 1,800,000 pesos, or a studio unit in Eastwood or the Fort. I don’t know about you guys, but that totally blew my mind. Of course buying an island comes with its own set of problems and responsibilities, but the fact that it’s actually within reach (relatively speaking) is astounding to me.

Powermac store raided?

 

Looks like the Powermac store in greenbelt was raided, but there’s little definite information as to the the reasons and occurences.  I couldn’t find any news bits online and only have this forum to go on, but it looks like they had either pirated music or software on some of their computers on display.  Not entirely sure how I feel about this.  I hate the powermac store because they overprice their products (don’t believe me?  walk a few meters from the powermac store to Avant in Greenbelt and compare prices) these raids always feel like a waste of taxpayers’ money to me.