treaty trick over at bo's this halloween

Now, for some coffee-related promo ...

Our friends over at Bo's Coffee are serving up a treat of a trick for you Halloweeners! From October 22 until November 5, every single receipt P250 at Bo's will entitle you to a complimentary spooky cookie for free!

destination roxas city

Quite obviously I'm no travel writer. I tend to gloss over travel details that would make a blog travel entry quite attractive to kaladkarins (people quite easy to convince to travel) and those whose penchant it is to hit the trail or catch the next flight to the next vacation destination.

This is part true of my latest sojourn that involved Desk-work in Iloilo and then in Roxas.

After my one night in Iloilo City, I hightailed it out of the city the earliest possible time I could manage (around 7:30am) to catch the bus to Roxas City, some two hours away, I was told.

I underestimated the traffic from the city proper to Tagbak (which took some 45 minutes, with the cab avoiding horrendous city traffic caused by ongoing road repairs), where the central bus terminal was located, and failed to catch the 8:00 bus for Roxas. The next bus left at a few minutes before 9:00am.

The bus I took was the direct route from Iloilo City to Roxas City but the travel still took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, roughly. Again, because of the numerous road repairs that somehow were simultaneously on-going as if the budget for such tasks were only released earlier that week! It also did a short stop mid-route (forgot the name of the town) but the real time-wasters were the one-laners where the bus had to wait for minutes because there was only one road lane passable.

Forgive me if I don't have the appropriate travel pictures. I'm not much of a photographer and I admit, I don't have the "eye" to spot interesting stuff. When I try to take pictures, they end up bland, plain, un-dramatic, and flat. I can't seem to capture the so-called essence (not unlike my pal, Wendell, or my former colleague Jen -- see the Roving Shutter Bug blog).

Old-style architecture of Presidents Inn

In any case, half of the office contingent were booked at Presidents Inn, a popular hotel in Roxas City.

Just three stories high, the hotel is so-named because Roxas City is the birthplace of Manuel Roxas, the First Philippine Republic President who, according to the hotel's website, was born just a block away. It's obviously Spanish-Filipino in design and architecture and what makes the hotel ideal, at least to us who work at the Desk, it's just a block and a corner away from our Roxas City branch.

I got the Laurel Suite, a full deluxe, which simply blew me away with its simple elegance. In fact, all the suite rooms, I believe, are named after Philippine presidents as I saw a Macapagal room, a Quezon, and an Estrada. It was even better than the room I stayed in the night before in Iloilo.

Laurel Suite -- full deluxe room

My room had a full-size bed that would be comfy enough for two persons but was advertised as just for one. The room was homey and just bordered on the edge of luxury -- not too much but just enough to pamper you. While the bed dominated the space, there was more than ample space to walk around. Cable TV was powered by Sky Cable so it was a treat to be able to watch the History Channel during the down times of my two-day stay in Roxas.

I do wished the room allowed for a white light bulb. Lighting was provided by the two table lamps casting a yellowish light all around even during the day. But other than the lighting, I had no complaints as the room was swell. 

The hotel had free wi-fi but the signal was limited. There was no problem accessing the wi-fi from the resto but in my room, wi-fi signal was at best only at 36% -- and this was when I was standing by the room's door. Moving inwards meant losing the signal. So, feeling sheepish that I was standing by the door trying to position the PSP for better signal reception, I quit and just decided to go downstairs where I could properly sit down.

Being the seafood basket of the Philippines, Roxas City was the place to go to if you want your cholesterol levels to go up. Two eating trips to different restos located at Baybay (bayside) resulted into food binges on crabs, seafood kare-kare, shrimps, kilawing tanigue, fish broth, and Roxas' own diwal or Angel Wing, a mollusc delicacy. Sadly, no photos of the food I consumed as my hands were busy (the tradition is, at least according to our branch manager, you eat with your hands).

A surprise eating establishment however was the resto at Presidents Inn itself. On our second day in Roxas, my colleagues and I decided to just have lunch at the hotel as our presence was needed in the branch for most of the day. The fare was simple -- grilled squid, spicy prawns, and fried chicken -- but they were surprisingly deliciously-cooked.

Across the street from the hotel, I espied a small unassuming shop and with some time to kill, I decided to check it out. Turns out, the small shop was a food shop selling sweet delicacies and pastries. Called "Mamaitas", its signage claimed it offered "old fashioned desserts". Inside were cheesecakes, tarts, pies, and other bite-sized pastries.

Old fashioned but certainly delightful!

Since I did not read of any endorsement online, I wasn't expecting much but was curious enough to try out its delights. So, I bought myself a slice of their home-made cheesecake, a slice of their cassava cake, and two custard tarts. Went back to the hotel, ordered a cup of brew and proceeded to taste-test the cheesecake (saved the cassava and the custards for an evening snack, just in case).

The cheesecake was unlike the usual cheesecake. It was literally a cheesecake -- a moist cake flavored with cheese! And the custard tarts and cakes which I ate as post-midnight snack where equally delicious. Too bad that the store opened at 8am and I had to catch the 7am flight so no chance to bring home some of those goodies.

Cassava cake with 2 custard tarts, taken out

One thing I got addicted to however, during my stay in Roxas, particularly in the Presidents Inn was their hot chocolate. This was native hot choco, a tablea slowly melted down with water and served hot. It was awesome -- not too sweet, just the right hint of bitterness, absolutely savory for a chocolate. It took 15-20 minutes for your order to arrive but it was well-worth the wait.

So, while the seafood was the supposed highlight of anyone's trip to Roxas, I was more delighted with the pastries from Mamaita's and the hotel's hot chocolate. And oh, you can also count on the fried chicken from Presidents Inn as well.

monday mumblings: iloilo trip -- batchoy, brian, and coffee; comics on the reading list

I've not been reading any books of late because I've been rather hooked to reading (backtracking) on the events in DC comics. Right now I'm working on getting through the pre-Infinite Crisis series of books. As can be seen on the right side of this blog, I'm currently reading The Return of Donna Troy, one of the books that tie-in to the whole Infinite Crisis and after this 4-issuer, I'll get on to Villains United before I finally read Infinite Crisis proper and the ensuing 52 (and 52 Aftermath).

When I'm done with 52, I'll be proceeding to Final Crisis.


The unfortunate victim of my sudden turnaround to comics is A Game of Thrones which continues to be unread despite having traveled with me to Iloilo and Roxas City last week.

* * * *

Desk-work brought me back to Iloilo City last Wednesday.

My last visit to the place was I think late 2004 when I went there with the then RP National Basketball team coached by Boycie Zamar and bankrolled by Cebuana Lhuillier, my former desk. We were in Iloilo for the "Try-Outs ng Bayan" along with then the young national players of which I remember only Dennis Madrid, Celino Cruz, Marc Pingris, and Cyrus Baguio.

Last week, work again found me in Iloilo albeit for a quick stay (unlike the 2004 stay which was, if I remember correctly, 5 days). I had to visit our Iloilo branch and see what improvements can be done on the marketing-advertising side. I planed into the city on the noon-time PAL flight and was at the branch by 2:30pm. After an hour and a half and a dozen or so photos of the branch, I then had to kill time before meeting up with my pal, Brian, later that evening.

So, I undertook a mission I had promised to do -- sample the local coffee shops.

I was aiming to sample at least a couple of coffee shops but due to time constraint and the fact that the night plans changed abruptly, I was only able to check out Coffeebreak.

Near the Desk's branch was a branch of Coffeebreak which I promptly went to for a late lunch (I had just realized that I hadn't had a proper lunch as the flight was right smack in the middle of lunch-time).

Hazelnut coffee with passion "brownie"

I ordered their brew-of-the-week which was Hazelnut and also ordered a pastry which CB called Passion.

Passion is a moist choco-cake slice that is more brownie than cake with a choco-layer in between and almonds (or were those walnuts?) on top.

I'm not much a connoisseur of coffee but the CB brew was quite good and brownie was filling. Since I only had enough room for one coffee-type, I didn't have the chance to sample their iced or frapp coffee versions. Next time probably.

Aside from the great coffee and brownie was the free wi-fi at CB. 

Access to wi-fi granted!

I finally got the chance to test out the wi-fi capabilities of the PSP I brought along and after finally getting it configured, I simply asked the barista for wi-fi access and in minutes I was happily surfing away.

Using the PSP to connect to the internet shows one that not all websites have been configured to work on all mobile devices. Maybe the sites would work well on most tablets and smartphones but websites like Yahoo and even this blog did not display properly on the PSP screen. I could not even access the CMS of Blogger.com which made on-site blogging impossible. Fortunately, the mobile website versions of Twitter and FB worked well. Maybe I just need to install another internet OS on the PSP or upgrade it.

Just like any other coffeeshop, Coffeebreak's counter was easy to understand although they were more colorful than your usual green, brown, mocha variant shops.

Aside from passion, there were a lot other pastries and sweet stuff to chose from. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for a sugar-load. The other delicacies will just have to be tested on another occasion.

* * * *

It's always good to see Brian. 

Brian relocated to Iloilo several years back, got married, had kids, and has settled in his home province for good. So, it's quite seldom that we see each other, the last time being on the sad occasion of our friend's death.

Despite my trip to Iloilo being just a one-nighter, I still checked up on him and we agreed to meet later in the evening. He picked me up from my hotel around 9:30pm.

Deciding that coffee was the last thing on his mind that evening, we went instead to a small watering hole just off Loney Bridge (I think) for two bottles. While the videoke was blaring with tunes sung by the other patrons of the bar, we talked about life, careers, future plans, diabetes cares, and other stuff including reminiscing old times. 

After the two bottles and a song each, Brian proceeded to give me a tour of the city. I was surprised that at before 11pm, Iloilo was already relatively quiet, not unlike Cebu which at midnight was still roaring with life.

See you on my next vist, bro.

* * * *

The next day, I got up early, had breakfast at the hotel's resto, packed up my stuff and headed to the bus station for the trip to Roxas City which I'll chronicle on a next post.

* * * *

Everyone knows that Iloilo is famous for La Paz Batchoy. And when it comes to batchoy, the name Ted's easily comes to mind.

Deco's La Paz Batchoy

So, I evaded Ted's even though it was just around the corner and instead tried the La Paz batchoy at Deco's.

I ordered their special which promised a whole lot of extra stuff that would turn-off my doctor. This was dinner, some 30 minutes after I just had my mid-PM/late lunch at Coffeebreak. 

Along with the batchoy, I ordered four pieces of pre-war pandesal. The digit-sized pandesals were more interesting than the batchoy, sadly. These pandesals were bite-sized and were packed. You could use them as pamato if they were flatter. Despite their diminutive size, they were surprisingly filling. And they were baked well -- firm, packed, solid, yet easy to munch on. More like soft biscuits only thicker.

Going back to the batchoy ...

If my tastebuds remain accurate, the batchoy at Ted's was tastier. Although both stores used the same ingredients and are cooked the same, it all boils down to the sabaw or the broth. Ted's sabaw was the more superior one IMHO.

friday frolics part 1: sleep, gaming, blogging via email

It's a rainy Friday, folks and with just a little over three hours of sleep this is going to be one yawn-filled day at the Desk :P

* * * *

No, insomnia is not attacking me at this point. It's just that my night hours have become erratic. I sometimes fall asleep before my actual bedtime of 11pm, napping and snoozing from somewhere 15 minutes to an hour, and promptly getting up because I needed doing the hygienic stuff one is supposed to do before actually sleeping (like brushing your teeth and changing to more comfy wearables). That's when the problem strikes because after the toothbrush and the change of attire, I no longer feel sleepy having just recharged. So, I end up staying awake late.

Like last night ... while babysitting our baby to sleep (my wife was working on an emergency case that spelled A-S-A-P), I also fell asleep. This was around 9:30pm. I woke up a little after 10pm and didn't fall asleep until around half past 1am. Then I had to wake up around 4:30am because we had to leave by 5:45am as Elvie's shift was at 6am (thank goodness for the big red car and the fact that we're just about 3 kilometers away from her office -- counting all the one-ways and turns, of course).

So, now, I feel sleepy and no amount of caffeine will fix this up for sure.

* * * *

But I will take in coffee .. in a few minutes ... after I email this blog entry. Yes, I am blogging via email as direct access to Blogger is blocked by the Desk's network police.

* * * *

To kill some time last night while waiting for sleep to come, I powered up Freedom Fighter and played around 20 minutes. Sadly, couldn't turn on the volume to hear all the rat-tat-tat-tat and booms as the kids and the wife were all sound asleep.

Now, I'm missing another game -- Zeus: Master of Olympus, that heck of a city-building game that I think I consider my all-time favorite. My CD is actually so scratched that I had to make an extra copy of it. Trips to Data Blitz, hoping the game would be re-sold as a budget pack game has so far been nil. Other city-building games like Rise of Nations are already being re-sold as budget pack games (selling for around P800) but so far, Zeus has evaded such fate.

* * * *

That's in for this morning, folks. Will likely email another entry later today. Until then, enjoy the Friday!

coffee is generally heart-friendly, studies say

Something fitting for a blog so-aptly named ...

COFFEE IS GENERALLY HEART-FRIENDLY

By Ed Edelson, HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- Coffee drinkers can take heart from a series of studies presented this week at American Heart Association conferences in San Francisco.

For example, coffee drinkers appear to have a lower risk of hospitalization for abnormal heart rhythms. And there's no indication that having a few cups every day increases the risk of atherosclerosis, the thickening of blood vessel walls that can lead to heart attacks and other problems. What's more, something in coffee other than caffeine might be responsible for a reduced risk of diabetes for women who regularly imbibe java.

Read the rest of the article here.

Do you believe in these studies? I do hope so as that means I can once again up the number of cups I can consume in a day :)

friday frolicks: ad congress, globe diss, starbucks, spec-fic news, ikai, isa, psp

Globe has got some serious issues when it comes to fulfilling its promises to its consumers.

After promising to yours truly that the landline and internet connection would be back by November 1, guess what? Still no connection until now. Why am I not surprised.

Their most recent excuse after I visited their Greenbelt business center earlier this week -- their field contractors have revised their earlier deadlines and now our area is set to be serviced on or before the second week of November.

Egad!!! Doesn't the use of "on or before" entail a definite date and not a vague period of time such as "second week"?

My innards were screaming for blood and I wanted to turn the CSA's own innards inside out but I controlled my temper and left the counter without another word. No use in saying thank you, thanks or gracias (although that's impolite, mind you) because I did not receive the expected assistance that had me wait 30 minutes for my number to be called in the first place.

Hay, ang buhay consumer nga naman.

* * * *

And since I've not been blogging or surfing at home for the longest time I've turned my attention to other stuff.

I'm currently in the midst of the winter season in Innocent Life, a PSP game that touts itself as a "futuristic Harvest Moon". For those already scratching their heads and asking what the heck Harvest Moon is, well, it's a game, actually, a series of games released initially for SNES (1996 first release) and subsequently in other consoles such as GameBoy, GBA, PS 1 and 2, Nintendo DS, etc. It's a series of farming simulation games whereby you inherit a farm, grow crops, tend livestock, and a gazillion other tasks including being friendly with neighbors.

Innocent Life is pretty much the same as the earlier Harvest Moon games but flash-forwarded a gazillion years to the future where farming tasks can be automated.

It's not exactly an exciting or engaging game (personally, the Harvest Moon game I played before was more exciting and fulfilling) but since I'm a sucker for RPG simulation games, I'm sticking to it and hoping to finish the main pivotal task (appeasing the Fire Spirit via the Water Spirit thereby preventing the explosion of the volcano that will surely and likely destroy the town where my creator (you play a robot trying to be human) and the friends I will get to know live) within a year and not withing the allowable two years.

The problem with the game is that there tends to be dragging moments when you find yourself with nothing to do -- especially at the start of the seasons when you just finished planting your seedlings for that season. And, the game starts to become boringly predictable and that you can't "speed" up the movement of events because the important events that trigger the chain reaction of events is so time-bound. Like right now, I am just waiting for the 24th day of winter for the next main event to happen even though I've completed the prerequisite tasks for it before autumn ended.

At least in the Harvest Moon I played (Friends of Mineral Town played on PC via emulator), I seemed to have not enough time during the day to do tasks and build up my character. It was exciting but also stressful, in fact. Innocent Life is, let's just say, less stressful and at times, ah, I just plod on until the next main event.

But since there's really nothing better to do during my free times at home, I'm sticking with this PSP game for now.

* * *

What I haven't been doing though during this "downtime" of mine from blogging and surfing is reading.

I've been amassing books and graphic novels and magazines but I haven't been reading them. They're all in the book pile, some with their wrappings still intact. Still waiting to be opened include all the stuff I bought at Komikon along with Martial Law Babies as well as a couple of issues of Entrepreneur Philippines and tons of books. The book I got last week, Firebirds Rising is the latest victim unfortunately.

And there are many books in the pile that remain on the "unfinished-reads" list. I'm guilty of leaving a book I'm reading unfinished and owe much apology to the likes of JRR Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, Terry Pratchett, among others, for letting their works collect dust while I fiddle and diddle and take up another reading material (or the PSP nowadays) and promise to get back to finishing the erstwhile books "one of these days".

* * *

And have I told everyone that Elvie and I are expecting a girl?

She's going to be a Christmas baby (give or take two weeks) and as such, we'll be christening her Risa Kristine. Her aka will Isa (pronounced EE-ZAH and not the Filipino I-SA).

Ikai, our eldest, has now taken to pertaining to herself in the third person as "Ate Ikai". And that's a good sign for us because it's an indicator that she is now prepared mentally and emotionally for the coming of her baby sibling.

Elvie and I are quite excited with the coming of Isa and more comfortable now than before when we were expecting Ikai. That's because, financially, we're secure and emotionally, we know now what to expect. We're just hoping that it's going to be an easy labor (Elaine, how do you do it?) because it seems like this one's going to be a bigger baby to birth than Ikai was three years ago.

* * *

And speaking of Ikai, she's turning three this month on November 18.

We'll be having a small celebration with a few family and friends and Ikai will be hosting a smallish children's party for the neighborhood kids (roughly about 6-10 kids).

Our little baby is growing and she has become quite the talkative type. Her mouth never seems to close and when she's not talking, she would be singing instead and can repeat the songs and dialogues of almost every commercial on the tube.

Here's here photo when she and her cousin, Mark, went trick-or-treating last October 30 at Elvie's office.

You can check out other photos at her own blog where I've uploaded them.

* * * *

Over on the speculative side ...

Jeff VanderMeer is currently on a suicide mission, este, book tour to promote his new books Finch and Booklife in 14 states for 27 events covering 36 days. So, his blog will be hi-jacked by a slew of guest-bloggers, playing mouse while the be-whiskered cat is away. Enjoy a change of tone for a wee bit until the VanderMeer gets back zombified from his book tour.

Congratulations are in order to Charles Tan, the Bibliophile Stalker, for winning the Last Drink Bird Head Award for International Activism for "his efforts to bring writers from other literary traditions and countries to the attention of readers in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia" as well as to Kenneth Yu of Philippine Genre Stories for winning Fantasy Magazine's flash-fiction-and-graphic contest.

Filipino horror writers you are summoned!!! Estranghero Press's Joey Nacino and horror-guru Karl "M.F." de Mesa are calling for submissions to a new online horror anthology they've entitled "Demons of the New Year: Horror from the Philippines". Guidelines here. Deadline is January 15, 2010 with a target publication at the end of the same month.

Two Filipino authors are included in the latest issue of Expanded Horizons -- Eliza Victoria with her story "I Am the City" and Catherine Batac Walder's "Twin Cities". I've yet to read them but you can check them out in this fine SF webzine. You can even download PDF versions, mind you, if you prefer to read it traditionally. Plus, EH is also now accepting art submission! Check it out.

Rocket Kapre has announced that we only need to sleep five more nights before the launch of its planned quarterly SF webzine, USOK. Paolo Chikiamco promises for USOK's inaugural launch -- five short stories, two quality reprints, three all-new tales -- all for FREE on November 11.

* * *

Anyone going to the Ad Congress later this month?

I won't but a couple of colleagues are and despite the disappointment that it's being moved from Baguio to Subic for all-too-obvious reasons, it looks like it's going to be a great event.

I will most likely be attending next year's event as the Desk where I am now working is quite open to such activities for the development of its workforce. The participation fee is a bit on the expensive side as it costs around P16K per attendee (EXCLUDING hotel, transpo and other expenses which you (or your company) will shoulder) and of course, you will need to bring your own pocket money for those unofficial expenses (the tons of pasalubongs come to mind).

The Direct Marketing Forum organized by DMAP and Salt and Light Ventures seems to have gone unnoticed this year. Have they held it earlier in the year? This is another marketing forum that I would like to attend next year if they hold it again. I've attended the first three that DMAP and SLV did and the learnings from those conferences have helped me in my career as a marketer. I am now a firm believer in direct marketing -- marketing that really works because they elicit a response from the consumer.

I will also look forward to the next Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) events as I am also a practitioner of digital marketing having been an online marketer for the past five years (before my recent incarnation as a brick-and-mortar marketer in the Desk) so I'll be keeping my calendar open for that.

* * *

Speaking of calendars ... I am NOT going to be bitten by Starbucks' Christmas planner promo again. Case in point, the planner I redeemed after consuming P2,000+ worth of Starbucks last year (not helping the D, of course) went to waste neither my wife nor I used it. I already saw SB starting to advertise its Christmas offerings and I'm steering clear of any SB branch for the meantime :)

thursday tidbits: hunt for precious, turin book, w3888, write stuff, free coffee

hobbit appetizer: hunt for gollum
Excitement over the forthcoming "Hobbit" is starting to gain momentum and if you can't contain your excitement, head on over to the Hunt for Gollum website for some appetizer.

The site is a movie site "made by fans for fans" and the idea behind the site is a creation of a movie (for online release only) that will last about 45 minutes. The movie will revolve around that chapter in Tolkien's Middle-Earth between "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" storyline, specifically Aragorn's search for the creature Gollum. Low-budget yet quite interesting, this should be a good enough filler until the Guillermo del Toro-helmed Tolkien flick comes to town next year.

The site has got a full trailer and a couple of teasers online so head on over there.


sleeping with turin turambar
Before taking 40 winks for the past few nights alongside my cute but uberly kulit daughter (her mama has been on graveyard duties the past couple of weeks), I've had a chance to re-do a habit of mine -- reading to sleep. Although the problem is that instead of being lulled to sleep, my mind and imagination is awakened with the book I am reading -- The Children of Hurin.

The book, a hardcover US edition, is a personal gift of my sister, Rochelle, and was part of the balikbayan package she sent last month (along with a couple of cook books for diabetics). For non-Tolkien fanatics, the books is not your Lord of the Rings type -- it's more likened to reading Homer's Iliad or Odyssey (or critics likened it to Finnish folklore legend/hero Sigmund) so it's not that easy a read. Think of it along the lines of our own Filipino legends -- Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura -- but in the case of The Children of Hurin, it's a tragedy (like Oedipus Rex). Unlike Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura, the book ends in sadness.

The book harkens back to the earlier Ages of Middle-Earth, some 6,000 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, back when Men were just newly-awakened and the Elves were the dominant race. Sauron was just a henchman of the original Lord of Darkness Melkor aka Morgoth.

If you've read The Silmarillion and liked the book, then you'll like The Children of Hurin. If you didn't like it, maybe wait for the movie version because I've heard and read that there are plans of turning it into a movie as well one of these years.


w388
I've switched phones.

But don't get me wrong -- I remain loyal and very much attached to my Nokia 6680 and in all likelihood I will return to using that phone as soon as my "trial" period with this Motorola W388 is over.

Rather than let it rot in the corner of my drawer, I'm temporarily using this Motorola W388 unit which I won from the company Christmas Party last December. And after more than a month in repair (it had an LCD problem), I finally got it back late February and have been using it as my main phone for about two weeks now. Incidentally, my 6680 is the one currently rotting in the aforementioned drawer.

After sporting the gadget for the said period, I am now ready to assess it -- I'm sticking with my ole trusty Nokia but keep this one as a back-up.

The only good mark on the W388 on my personal benchmark is its music -- it is after all, a music phone. Great speakers and an FM radio are the plus marks it gets. But then again, I want more out of my phone than an FM radio. I miss the Bluetooth capability, there's no video or voice recording on this one, no notes, and the camera sucks at a dismal 640x320 pixels and that's already high!

Texting is also another matter because the response time of the phone is slower and erratic. Hitting the key twice to generate the needed letter or punctuation is not guarantee you'll get the correct one. This makes texting on the W388 twice as long.

But this one will serve well as a back-up and can be used as an entertainment device when doing my "walk"-xercise. Who needs an MP3 player or an iPod when I have this on hand? And anyway, it's quite norm nowadays to carry at least two phones (to compliment your netbook, iPod, PDA, and nifty lazer gun).


writing venues
Thanks to Bibliophile Stalker and Philippine Genre Stories, new writing venues have been discovered:

Crossed Genres - now accepting Western-themed SF; but with a March 31st deadline it looks like I'm going to miss this one especially since I've learned about it only today. If you think you can beat the deadline, read the guidelines here.

Here's one with a longer deadline:

Catastrophia, a planned anthology - open call for submissions (started September 9th last year) for catastrophe and disaster short stories. Think War of the Worlds, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, Jericho (TV Series), and now condense them into at most 8,000 words. Deadline is on May 31. Rules can be found here.

Plus, be reminded of other calls for submissions -- Farthest Shore on April 15 (to get some out-of-this-world spec fic done during the Holy Week alongside religious obligations, of course), and Destination: Future on June 30 for SF writers out there.


free starbucks
Ever had a free Starbucks beverage before?

I had one last December and another due soon just as soon as I step inside a Starbucks outlet.

And all it takes is just a series of clicks, and, oh yes, internet connection.

Starbucks it seems is still doing a global customer satisfaction survey and if you’re a lucky SB addict, the receipt you get from your latest purchase of a frap or hot coffee might be one that asks you to take their online survey over at www.MyStarbucksVisit-ph.com. If you complete the survey, you get a Beverage ID and you use this ID (along with the complete receipt, of course) to claim a free drink!

Here’s a screenshot I took of the complimentary beverage ID I received just about after I completed the survey. Just so nobody claims my free SB, I blotted out the actual ID number :P.

starbucks instant?

Facing declining sales and with shops closing one after the other in the US and worldwide, gourmet coffee giant Starbucks has announced that it will be introducing instant coffee as one of its product offerings.

Egad!!! A SB Instant Coffee??

Inquirer reports that the coffee giant has been brewing this project for more than 20 years. An official statement on the SB site also confirmed that next week, SB will be holding exclusive events in New York to introduce its instant coffee.

The patent-pending technology used in the development of the instant concoction will replicate the Starbucks taste albeit in DIY packets. No need for a barista or a fancy coffee-maker!

And it already has a name -- Via, and that it will be initially sold in packets of threes and twelves for US$2.95 and $9.95, respectively.

Wait a minute! Three packets (or sachets as we fondly call them here in the P.I.) at S$2.95 is PHP138.65. So, that means each sachet of SB Via instant coffee will cost PHP 46.25??!!

Consider the cost analysis ... SB Via will sell (based on the announced price) at almost PHP50 per sachet. One packet of Nestle's regular 3-in-1 is about PHP7 and Nestle's special coffee (the purported healthy ones) sell at about PHP8 a sachet. Kopiko sachets sell at PHP6 while Jim's 5-in-1 Organic Coffee is at the same level. Even the Maxwell sachets sell at the PHP7 range. I don't even know the cost of the other local coffee sellers like Great Taste or Cafe Puro.

And for the same price range as the three-packets-per pack I can already buy one medium-sized bag of Monk's Blend Coffee for use with our coffee maker. I just bought one last Tuesday at PHP144.

So, it would seem that Starbucks would be in a distinct disadvantage if ever their sachets show up on the store shelves one of these days. Whether SB will adopt a different price strategy in the Philippines (if they do decide to intro the product here) remains to be seen.

But re-thinking about it. SB's Via will still have a market in the P.I.

Who you ask?

Well, the same market who actually consumes SB gourmet coffees that sell at the hundred peso range per order, myself included :) Personally, I will most likely buy Via at least once, just for the experience.

wednesday warbles: the 4400, ikai's sick, b.m.a., star trek: enterprise

After proudly exclaiming that 2008 was a banner year for me in terms of blogging, here I am some three weeks removed from my first post for 2009 doing just my second (and I repeat, just my second) post.

It has been a helluva busy, busy three weeks with work mostly taking my time. I've been spending rather longish hours at the office and even at home, I still had to log-in and do some "home-work" otherwise, I would've been buried up to my neck with projects and stuff.

The start of this week signals a rather sudden decline in projects as most of the work for the past few weeks are due for fruition this week. So, without further ado -- onwards to Wednesday Warbles Circa 2009:

the 4400
Since Elvie had to take a couple of weeks of graveyard shifts, my own schedule has also been juggled a bit. I find myself staying up late and to pass the time until sleepiness overtakes me, I have taken to watching The 4400.

The 4400, a sci-fi TV series, ran from 2004 to 2007 for a total four seasons and it deals with the plight of 4400 people who were plucked from different periods in history and returned to the present. However, they were returned with special abilities and the series later on revealed the poor fellas were actually brought to the future and "modified" so that they could save mankind from extinction.

Quite an engaging series actually as it's not overly laden with sci-fi jargon. You don't have to be a geek to understand it and it's not too heavy on twists and turns like Lost or Alias or the X-Files. Then again, it takes to liking -- it's not everyone's cup of tea as it may seem too simplistic for hardcore sci-fi fanatics or non-sci-fi people will find the story too boring or dragging. It's akin to Eureka -- dealing with daily happenings to people who are extraordinary.

There's one more season for me to work on but as mentioned on Wikipedia, Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger but there's no 5th Season to tie things up after CBS cancelled the series due to the Writers' Guild strike and lower than expected ratings.

need a working rig
There might be several personal projects lined up for me to work on thanks to Marizel of Key Printing Press which necessitates the need to have the rig operational.

I might have to rely on the plastic for the meantime to meet the requirements so one of these days (most likely, a weekend), I'll be taking the rig to PC Express and have it souped up.

Hmmm, what I basically need is a new motherboard, new RAMs to go with the new board, and probably a new HDD. I will have to fore-go with purchasing a new processor and still work with my old P4.

to go boldly where no man has gone before
Thanks to my colleague, Allan, I now have the complete four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise which has been on my hunting list for the longest time. I've been searching for this TV series in DVD stalls for the longest time since its cancellation in 2005 but no one seemed to carry it.

With the help of torrent sites, the four-season series now sits waiting for me, occupying about 10GB of hard disk space.

little ikai under the weather
Our little daughter, Ikai, has been confined to the hospital since Friday noon.

Her cough-cold-phlegm has been on and off since December so Elvie took her to her pulmo-pedia last Friday for a check-up and some meds and instead of going home, both Ikai and her mother ended up in the emergency room of Makati Medical Center.

And it was a populated ER, mind you. We had to spend Friday and Saturday in ER because there was no room available for Ikai in their pedia ward. Of course, since we were going to use Ikai's HMO, we elected to use its allocated "Regular Private" accommodation but we only got to check-in late Saturday afternoon.

Ikai's doctor, Dr. Carina De Torres, is suspecting bronchial asthma and she has been under observation since Friday. And she expected us to have a nebulizer at home. So, that's what I did -- buy a new one and for PHP2,300 I scored a Blue Cross Ergonomic Nebulizer from Watson's Drugstore.

Ikai got out of the hospital Wednesday. Total bill was about PHP24,000 for 4.5 days of hospitalization. Thank goodness Ikai is a dependent under Elvie's HMO so the only bill we had to foot was PHP35.50 for phone bills (yes, Makati Med charges all the phone calls you make from your room).

b.m.a.
And now that the word on the who the winner is out over at By Moon Alone, I can now say that I have been a participant and, yes, actually submitted an entry to BMA's fiction-writing contest.

Congrats to one Paolo Chikiamco aka Paolo Gabriel for winning. As a prize, his story will be illustrated by BMA honcho HAI.

While I did not win, the mere fact that I had submitted an entry was already a milestone in my personal path to fiction-writing. I not only finished a short story but rather finished it in time for a deadline of a fiction-writing contest.

It actually feels good to have done that. Never mind that I did not win. To be able to submit an entry and have it judged among many others is already a win for me. I remember feeling real, real bad when I missed the deadlines for the Dean Alfar's spec-fic anthology, and again, when I did not submit an entry to the Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards.

The next entries to where-ever and when-ever contests will hopefully be much easier.

Speaking of Dean ... he and the Banzai Cat have teamed-up for an "else-worlds" online anthology to be dubbed "The Farthest Shore." You can read the contest guidelines at Dean's blog or if you prefer to read it off Banzai, read it here. You have until April 15 to send in your entries (why do I sound like a raffle contest here? :p).

And speaking of team-ups, Philippine Genre Stories (PGS) and Story Philippines are teaming-up as well for a special "experimental fiction issue. Read about it here. Deadline is about a month away, February 28.

coffee-maker
After sitting more than two or three years on top of the cupboard and a temporary change of ownership, our coffee-maker has finally seen use. It was first used earlier this month when Elvie started her temporary graveyard shift. And thanks to a gift of Delifrance coffee beans which I had ground, the coffee maker finally started churning out real black coffee. Nothing instant, nothing 3-in-1.

a belated christmas thanks
Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone for celebrating Christmas with me. Thanks to all who sent me and my family wishes, and many thanks to all who sent or gave me a gift. All your best wishers and gifts will be put to good use, promise.

tuesday tattles: welcome, nasty fall, avast! shiver me timbers!

welcome to tuesday tattles
I just realized that I have not yet christened a name for this blog's Tuesday collection of whatsoevers.

There is the Monday Mumblings, the Wednesday Warbles, the Thursday Tidbits, the Friday Frolics, the Saturday Shindigs and the Sunday Whatchamacalits (need to rename this last one) but no such title for Tuesday.

This is not to say that I do not blog on a Tuesday but in this blog's three years of existence, it never fell on a Tuesday for me to write "collectively".

Hence, I christen Tuesdays as Tuesday Tattles. Online Merriam-Webster defines tattle as idle talk, or chatter, or gossip.

Now, that is a good name :)

bucked!
Just five more coffee orders and I will have earned my first ever Starbucks Coffee 2009 Planner.

Yes, I have caught the fever and have been happily plunking down hundreds of pesos for branded coffee and a minute sticker ... almost on a daily basis. I have already spent PHP 1,240 on all those Christmas drinks requirement ... imagine that.

At least now, I will just need to order Caffe Mochas which are way, way a bit cheaper than the PHP 155 Grandes I've ordered daily going back eight straight.

christmas tunes
Thanks to good friend and colleague, Jacqui, I now personally enjoy a good selection of old holiday hits (or at least rendered old-style) whether at the office at home.

While I do enjoy the disco medley of Christmas songs that seems to be the staple everywhere, I personally prefer hearing the likes of Dean Martin, ol Blue Eyes, Nat King Cole, and the like hitting the holiday notes. You can also add in Harry Connick Jr., The Ray Conniff Singers, and Brian Setzer to the mix. But no Michael Boltons, please.

What I do miss right now are those stop-motion animation series Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman which were TV staples when I was still a kid. The last time I saw them was in high school on RPN 9. Since then, I have not seen them on the tube.

nasty fall
Met a bit of an accident last Sunday.

I was backriding on a trike on the way home from Shopwise, hand a clutching a bag of groceries and the other hanging on for dear life on the rear of the trike (the trike had no roof hence, no overhead hand-hold) when on a sharp (and rather fast) turn, I slipped from the backseat and fell hard on my butt.

I actually felt the accident coming and actually tried to gain foot balance as I fell but the momentum was such that I eventually fell on my right side. Just had enough thought to protect my back and head from a nasty bump and managed to jerk my arm to prevent a possible fracture and just managed to scratch and bruise it.

After landing on my butt, my back followed and a split-second later, after realizing I did not sustain life-threatening injuries, I laid my head on the concrete to reassess things.

Of course, that was how Elvie saw me -- spread eagle on the street with my head on the concrete and my hand still clutching the shopping bag -- which freaked her out thinking I had hit my head hard on the cement. Thank goodness I was wearing jeans, otherwise, I would've scrapped my legs as well or worse. Still it was a nasty fall and resulted in a pain in my right butt (most likely bruised on the inside). Stiller, I am thankful that the bruised butt and scratched elbow were all I sustained as injuries.

The last time I met an accident like this was when I was still in elementary when during a sidecar accident, I got dragged and scrapped my right shoulder and hand.

on hiatus
I am on a two-day vacation leave right now.

Absolutely no real reason for the VL but just to use up my leaves of which I still have a handful. So, that makes it a four-day hiatus.

Despite the four-day stretch, it has been a busy weekend. Saturday was spent with my mother-in-law and we shopped some items for her and other relatives. Sunday, after mass, we met up with balikbayan Jean, Elvie's best friend and one of Ikai's ninangs. From Taft, we proceeded to Market Market for some mallrat action.

On the first day of my official VL, I ran an errand for my father in Ortigas in the morning -- get the videoke system fixed for use in the holidays. In the afternoon, Elvie, Ikai and I toured Jean around the new areas of Greenbelt (GB5 included which I only saw yesterday as well).

Today (it's already 1:30am as I write this), no definite plans yet except to check on office emails and if I am up to it (butt willing), go malling (with really no intent to buy anything). But with the promised Fully Booked in GB5 not yet open, my enthusiasm to explore the new areas more thoroughly has been dampened a bit.

old friend
While malling with my family and Jean last Sunday at Market Market, I happened to bump to an old friend, Ina.

It was good to see her again since it has been really years since I last saw her. Recently married (as relayed by friends), it has always been a fond hi and hello moment for both of us since aside from sharing a brief interlude in high school, Ina and I shared the same name (somewhat because her full name's Ramina and mine is Ramelito), we also share the same birthday, February 24.

Yes, quite a coincidence and you can imagine my surprise when I first learned about it during the first day of class when I was but an HS freshman and she a fresh transferee to CSA Binan.

After the briefest of hellos, she proceeds to tell me that so and so has just returned (I assume a classmate of ours who has been abroad) and has asked if I heard about it. I had no idea what she was talking about and I guess she realized that from that perplexed expression she got from me. So, she dropped the topic and just waved goodbye.

tubed
With the promise of an extended vacation this holiday season, it may well be time to finally sit down (or lie down) for some serious tube action.

I've posted here on several occasions that I've still got discs after discs of TV shows and series to watch. This upcoming free days may just be the perfect opportunity to finally do so and get them over and done with.

And there are several new interesting shows that I may adding to my collection soon. Recent interests include Pushing Daisies (although already a cancelled series in the US), Criminal Minds, Dresden Files, and the intriguing Life. I have yet to understand what's the gist of Fringe but from the episode I saw last night on the CS Origin channel, it looks interesting.

avast, shiver me timbers!
Played pirate recently at the annual company Christmas Party.

The theme for this year's party was the Red Carpet Premier -- so that meant movies. Our group was lotteried to dress up and present a skit on the theme fantasy.

For our group's presentation, we did a shortened version (under 7 minutes) of children's fantasy play, Peter Pan. James, who was rather insightful, predicted that everyone else expected us to do Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Carribean. So, to surprise them, we chose to work on a classical children's fantasy. And despite the rather lack of practice, we still managed to earn the judges' nod good enough for third place! I think the synchro swimming recreation did the trick!

I definitely did not look like a pirate from Never Never Land. Especially when I donned my jeans after the performance, I looked more like a hardcore biker -- the dirty type that rides Harleys.

In the photo below, that's me on the leftmost, then Monique dressed as Cruella (from 101 Dalmatians), James in Eragon-inspired attire, Grace as Tiger Lily or Pocahontas (take your pick), and Perds as Captain Jack Sparrow.