Thursday, June 21, 2007

Snapshot Talent

I've been 'petix' for more than 2 weeks after the first phase of the project has finished cut-over. I'm running out of sites to surf everyday, it's hard to pretend AIDS (As If Doing Something) :). Of course I am not complaining, I'm enjoying the meaning of 'work-life balance' at its peak. hehe

It's only recent that I get to tinker with a celfon that has a decent resolution-camera. I've just learned a few edit options. It's actually just inserting plain text, frames, clip-arts, into the images. I forgot to scale the images to a higher resolution, tsk.

ZzzZzz




Brokeback (they're not gays in real life) :)




Courage


I definitely love the last shot. I couldnt believe that it's
allowable to sleep (as in literally higa!) in the office. The one sleeping is a developer. Oh by the way, the fat guy at the back is his team lead. I couldnt stop laughing. Talk about being the 2nd Global IT Consulting company in their country. Whatever! haha

I'm beginning to think I'm quite good in capturing 'kodak' moments. :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Food Lab: Episode 2

Time for a second episode. :)

I think there is a little improvement (naks!). Scroll down to delight your taste buds. :)

Go Seafood!

Calamares - The hard part is cleaning the belly area (black ink
container) and removing the skin (it actually stinks!). This is good for appetizer.



Tanigue Steak - marinated with lemon juice and parsley, then fried in butter.



Rellenong Pusit - squid stuffed with ground pork, tomato, bell pepper, etc. The image is the uncooked version.



Crabstick - wrapped in lumpia wrapper. I copied this dish from the canteen.



Seafood Scrambled Egg - I put all the leftover seafood (squid, shrimps) and veggie and created this not-so-good-looking scrambled egg. Yet to my surprise, my housemate liked it. :) Talk about recycling.




Chinese dishes:

Sweet & Sour Pork - pretty normal.



Lemon Chicken - I separated the sauce from the meat, wala lng.



Nido Soup/Hot and Sour - I like having these soups at times. They are very easy to prepare: just add minced pork, shitake mushroom, tofu and break some eggs.. and you're done.



Chinese Pork Adobo - the difference between Filipino style and Chinese style (accdg to my hausmate) is that in Chinese style
it's a sweeter version, no vinegar or calamansi added. Usually you can add hard-boiled eggs into it.




Veggie Time:

Butter Veggies - you need some of this to go with your meat dishes, para ndi plain. :)



Tortang Talong - Hehe tinamad na ako ayusin.. this looks like a massacred version, taste is normal though. :)




Beefy:
Finally I tried cooking beef. Beef is an all-time favorite.

Beef Guisado - this is a simple dish to prepare, yet very flavorful. It has ground beef, cubed carrots, potato and bellpepper. You can add some other stuff to convert it to a taco filling.



Beef with Mushrooms (and Celery) - I like this dish, but I dont know why it's always a failed attempt back in Manila
(matigas parati yun beef) This time it's a whole lot better, chamba cguro. :)



Soups:

*Ginseng soup - I went to the grocery the other day and saw some
packed dried ginseng - you know those typical ginseng soup that your mom forces you to take for nutrition purposes. I cant believe I am actually making those hehe. I've tried using pork liver, pork heart, and chicken cubes, not so bad. :p Para maiba naman.



Chicken Tinola - there is no green papaya here so normally sayote is used as a substitute. I added some tomatoes to give it a twist. (hehe pauso)




The STAR(s) for this episode:
2-way prawn - buttered garlic and deep fried.

Left side: Buttered Garlic version - one of my favorite dishes in Dampa seafood market. The sweet tangy taste of butter, garlic and sugar is a good combination. Natuwa ako sa bata sa bahay ha
when she tasted it..she commented 'sauce pa lng masarap na'. (hehe tuwa nman ako). Actually butter sold here tastes creamier than in Philippines, so that must have done the trick.

Right side: Deep fried version. Deep fried prawns in quite popular here, lalo na yun may oats. I put some oats into the batter for this for the crunchy coating. (you can actually eat the shell as well) D2 ko lng din nalaman yan. :)





Seafood Chowder


Dapat lng na sumarap ito kasi marami ako nilagay hehe :). It's a cream of mushroom soup, with hefty servings of shrimp, clam meat, ground pork, minced chicken, ham strips, mushroom bits, carrots, potato, celery and cheese cubes.

That's all for now, suggestions welcomed. :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Gadget Hunt is on

For someone who's not really into gadgets (like me), sayang magSG hehe. Come on, this is the hub of gadgets in Asia, maki-in naman ako! hehe

So last Jun2 I attended the big IT event here called the PC Show. Before going, what I had in mind was to buy a nice celfon. (finally naisipan ko rin palitan ang old, old celfon ko) :)

And I ended up buying a TV! a Sony Bravia V series that costs KK php (ata) in Manila which I got for a very good price here (you wont believe it, ei we're not talking about demo units ha). Look at the image, pogi dba. Elegance speaks for itself. hehe now my major hurdle would be how to bring it back to Manila next time! Patay talaga, please pray for me, that the TV arrives safe and sound :)


Because of that, I was laughed by almost all people who knew about it. It's the first time that they have heard of OFW ITs here na HINDI inuna ang pagbili ng laptop sa TV. Talagang some even mocked sarcastically.. they find it foolish - why buy something na ndi ko magagamit for my own. I stand by my own reasons and decisions okay.:)

So the week after, I and my officemate continued our hunt for cellphones. I'm a Nokia baby and the cellphone I was using is I think the first generation Nokia cellphones with camera. Kaya ko yun binili nun kasi nanakawan ako ng phone sa Glorietta, see how lazy I am to change phones hehe?

Anyway, all I had in mind then was to buy something top-of-the-line kasi matagal ako bago magpalit, so better invest in something good.

This time I fixed my eye on the Nseries of Nokia. Talagang print-print pa kami ng specs to compare N73me, N80, N93i, N95, etc. My ofcmate was eyeing on another Nokia phone that comes in pink casing (hehe girly).

We arrived Sim Lim Square. All our research efforts went to waste. My, the seller was good in marketing. He said Nseries are hyped, typecasted as the best, but in reality sucks. They hang, they are bulky, they are slow, and they are a bit pricey. Then we asked him what his recommendation is. He asked me what my priorities are. Just a few things I said: good camera, radio, mp3 player. An add-on would be the wi-fi. He took out his own phone, the slim 6300 and showed us the basic features, boasted of the 16MM color w/c is better than a 3MP N80 phone with 256K colors. He has 2GB installed and it doesnt hang at all (which is true, navigation is still fast).

So that's how the story goes, we both bought 6300. See, this celfon is really meant to be hehe. So far, I'm enjoying the phone still. :)

Flashbacks: Bohol

My friend prepared a video of our Bohol vacation last Mar2005. Shucks napareminisce ako :) I miss having out of town trips. Vacation trips are just relaxing, it's like being contained in a fictional world, far from the worries and chaos of the city. You breathe fresh air, see nice scenes, eat and sleep like pig. :)Probably the main concern as you wake up every morning is just to hop into some touring vehicle that takes you to some nice spots. Of course, ndi mawawala ang picture-an blues. Dba ang saya, some breaks from the daily routines.

I forgot I have this shot from Alona Kew. I call this the 'Queen Bee' shot.. hehe cute dba parang napapaligiran ng mga summons, mga alagad. hehehe


I think I didnt change much (physically), except for the long curls I had back then. I even have shots in the video wearing glasses. (hello 20-20 :p!) My achi also looks the same. Cya forever payat, ako forever hndi hehe.

My project (at work) has just completed, so again I have lots of time. I'll try to add some useful facts about Bohol next time. Been wanting to keep a Lonely Planet version of my travelogue.

Enjoy this Bohol Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhfdVLUSMKo

Monday, June 11, 2007

Maldita



I was invited by a college friend to watch Shrek3 last week. It actually didnt excite me that much because I didnt watch the 1 & 2 in its entirety.. to be exact, actually I wasnt much of a fan for cartoonic movies.. hardly watched any of those in the moviehouses before.

And it came to my surprise that I like it :). It was cool, I love the paawa effect facial expression of the cat (puss in boots) and also the part when the song 'Thats what friends are for' is played.. funny. There wasnt any dragging part, at least I didnt glance at my watch to check the time. - this is definitely a good sign! :)

As I look back, I am thinking why I used to dislike watching such movies.. and then I remember the reason. (actually a shallow one hehe). I remembered there was this certain group of girls in school who likes to make pa-cute to the max. One instance is baking cookies and bringing them to school to feed the guys and attract attention. I wasnt impressed of their cookies (madali lng ata gawin yon eh), my goodness cook real food! hehe baking cookies is too pa-cute for me, not my cup of tea. :) I'd rather buy Chips Ahoy than make one.

Anyway going back, I remembered Finding Nemo was being shown then. They make lots of comments on the superlative degree.. 'ang cute-cute-cute-cute ni Nemo.. and ni Dory... you should watch that, I watch it for 3 (separate) times in the moviehouse'... ???? Okay... what again? 3x? I still havent tried watching a movie in the moviehouse for more than once. DVDs pwede pa, but probably after a long interval.

So finally I got to watch the Finding Nemo at home (I borrowed a DVD after it ceased airing), bearing the highest expectations... and I was disappointed. The movie probably is good, but sometimes you cant help to be biased by those 'superlative degrees' feedbacks. I actually got bored when Dory keeps on forgetting while Nemo is finding his way back home. Sheesh talking about my low attention span.. patience is a virtue hehe. After that, I think I havent watched any Disney or cartoon movie till now.

My maldita side probably is striking again haha. Why is it so easy to dislike the likes of a person you dont like? Ala-tongue twister ito ah. (same with the other way around, and why it seems effortless to like the likes of a person you like) Humans are weird beings.

There's one more I cant forget. Because of the evilness of this person, her/his every expression connotes disgust (actually to a lot of people, not just me). This person has this favorite expression that really gets to my nerves when I hear it, and that is the word 'bucks'.
'Yup cheap lng dyan, 50 bucks lng'
'I bought that for 5000 bucks'
'Give me 20 bucks'

Everything is 'bucks', and you'll hear it several times a day. Probably if you're conio, you still dont really have to permanently replace the word peso with bucks??! In normal conversation, you can simply say, 'it costs 1000' (obvious na yun, no need to append with bucks or peso) Probably you can use 'bucks' sparingly, occasionally but everytime is like too much? haha. Actually the word bucks is okay... biglang naging nakakainis lang kasi lagi-lagi nya ginagamit.

Above mentioned behaviors are not recommended practices, oopps ang sungay.. hehe magpapakabait na nga ako. :)

Friday, June 8, 2007

This Song and this bench



I like the tune of the song the first time I saw it in TV - one of those LSS moments. Gosh I didnt even know it was sung by Hugh Grant himself, the OST of the movie 'Music and Lyrics'

I like Hugh's voice, though he's not a professional but I would say this is a good try for a beginner. I somehow associate him with my undying memory of the Notting Hill bench hehe.

Btw, the image attached is taken from the park beside the place where I live now. I was so excited when I discover this area. Cute dba? :)

The lyrics.. oh i love it. It's sweet but not too malagkit (hehe). The tone (meaning of the song) is down to earth and sincere, not too mushy (at least for me). Basta read through and see for yourself. (I'll just edit this to post my review next week hehe.. gotta run.. it's a Friday!)

Way Back Into Love
I've been living with a shadow overhead
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I've been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past
I just can't seem to move on

I've been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need them again someday
I've been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
Oh oh oh

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I've been searching but i just don't see the signs
I know that it's out there
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere

I've been looking for someone to she'd some light
Not somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I'm open to your suggestions

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end

Oh oh oh

There are moments when I don't know if it's real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart to you
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do
And if you help me to start again
You know that I'll be there for you in the end

Oh oh oh

Porma Time



I was shopping for pasalubong for my nephews then I chanced upon this cool 2in1 polo with T-shirt. Cute dba, japorms for a kid? Hehe hope it's not too 'loud'. Cguro kung 8yr old ako, mapapalingon din ako if I saw an elementary boylet crush wearing this hehe.

Okay kung bata noh.. U can carry almost any fashion w/o being awkward or prejudiced. I wonder how would this look for an adult. :)