I Have Da Powah

Ugh. At this day and age it is agonizing to go more than 24 hours without electricity or phone lines.

Typhoon Milenyo has come and gone, leaving floods, uprooted trees and collapsed electric posts/ billboard signs in its wake. Today was cleanup day, particularly with our poor mango tree, w/c had even more branches cut off in an attempt to balance the weight, 'lest it finally give up and crash unto the street below. Fortunately trees, unlike humans, can stand living like a mutiple amputee.

My day yesterday was spent keeping water from coming into my room. Strong winds and rain kept slamming into the windows. Rolled up towels were pushed into crevices while the water outside seeped into the corners that I failed to seal properly with silicone gel. If nothing else at least now I know it needs doing over.

In the afternoon that same day I drove out w/ Wilson to buy some gas for the generator (w/c I predicted--correctly--wouldn't work). Managed to take some pix of the devastation, mostly in the form of downed trees. That most of the fastfood restaurants and gas stations were closed was more of an afterthought.

Right now the phones are still out, and I'm in dire need of a showah. Also need to catch up on past downloads. Yup, I gots my priorities staight.

More typhoon related pix after the jump.

It's A Small World After All...

I love getting to use a blog title that holds the right amount of irony. Case in point, a story from my brother, that almost sounds urban legendy:

Lawyer arrives at his daughter's birthday party. Lawyer's wife made all the arrangements, so his shock upon seeing the party theme was understandable.

The party organizers chose a Disney Mickey Mouse theme, complete with a guy in full MM costume. Why the shock? Seems the lawyer represented clients who held Mickey's intelluctual property rights, which the party organizers were blatantly violating. At his daughter's birthday party.

Long story short: he had them arrested (presumably after having a looong talk w/ his wife). Whether it was during or after the party, I'm not sure. I'm hoping it's the latter. Who needs to have kids traumatized from seeing cops slap the cuffs on Mickey Mouse?

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Speaking of kids, presenting for no reason other than he looks sooo cute here, new pictures of my nephew, Jian:

Uh-Oh

Coup attempt by the Thai opposition goverment in progress. An army commander has declared martial law.

So much for the that trip to Bangkok I didn't plan.

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My cloning hobby has now reached Hollywood. Sorta. Click here.

Free Movie

Went to the Shang mall w/ Lola to catch Doraheita, one of two samurai jidai geki (period film) being featured at the 4th Japanese Filmfest. The last time I went was in college at the CCP, where the "cinema" was a small room that resembled one where you'd hold AA meetings or anger management classes. It's also the first samurai film I've watched since Zatoichi.

Got two surprises that evening. The first was to see an old Beijinoy friend (who as of late stopped taking my calls) on (I assume) a date. You know those awkward moments where you wave Hi to someone who's not on speaking terms w/ you (but not you w/ them, if you could help it), and they're caught unawares and wave/shurg/nod back, an awkward smile across their face? I live for those. Pseudo-karma, baby.

The second was the cinema offering the tickets free of charge! We expected to pay 50 bucks each, so good thing we decided to catch this instead of that Aussie filmfest over at Greenbelt 3 (your loss, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morell). Definitely a cool way to catch a flick at one of the priciest cinemas in town.

The flick itself, it wasn't so bad. Typical Japanese action-drama with bits of comedy, though the whiffing noises made by the kimonos when the characters moved were definitely distracting. Also definitely PG, as evidenced by the bloodless swordfights and jiujitsu moves in the action scenes. But, hey, it was free.

In what's almost becoming a ritual for both us (but not likely, given our schedules) we had a nightcap at Starbucks Ash Creek. What caught our eye was their ongoing photo contest. Then and there we decided to join and already thought of what kind of picture to submit. Hee hee, exciting! And for the 5K top prize it's a steal!

As Alanis Morrisette Might Say...

"Isn't it ironic," or somesuch lyrics.

My house's security camera was stolen last night. (Our security guard can be just as useless at times.) That's like robbers coming to the bank to steal the vault door.

My fondest memory of the security camera was when it captured the images of someone stealing the side-mirror off my cousin's car w/c was parked outside the house at the time. (My cousin later gave brief chase, to no avail) I say captured loosely since we don't actually record the videos taken. (See what I mean by useless?)

Ooooh, I'm Sooo Scared

In today's Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Doesn't seem to have as much impact, I think.

Hairspill (UPDATED)

For the past couple of weeks local media have been reporting on the oil spill in Guimaras. From that also came follow-up features like possible health hazards the spill imposes, Senate investigations/blame-game and of course, how to clean it up. It's the amount of reportage (or specifically, the subject) on that last one that's bewildering.

Hair. Seems human hair is perfect for absorbing oil spills like a mop. Now cut and shaven hair is being collected all over the country. Jailed convicts are volunteering getting their chromes domed. Salons are collecting and donating their hair haul. Congresswoman Imee Marcos crudely suggested that her fellow politicians donate their spare wigs to the cause (though her mom Imelda's hair alone could probably suck up a liter or two, easy). There was even an event organized to collect the cut hair of celebrities. (Right, because nothing sucks up goo like famous hair.)

Noble intentions aside, this is the 21st century. It's not like WWII where Americans were encouraged to save every scrap of metal they had for the war effort. There are alternatives out there, people. All this hair talk is becoming this year's AIDS ribbon.

Scientists have already come up with several strains of oil eating bacteria like Bio-System B35, which is probably more efficient. And unlike clumps of hair saturated with crude oil, the bacteria won't leave a mess that would resemble the world's largest clogged shower drain.

UPDATE: Okay, it turns out NO formal study has been done on the effectiveness of human hair for cleaning up oil spills. None. Seems the idea was based on the use of coconut husks and its own effectiveness. Long story short: "Genius" thought coconut husk = human hair = just as effective! Also, environmentalists opposed to the idea say the untreated human hair (particularly those that come from salons) might do more harm, as the artificial chemicals in the hair might interact w/ the already messed up enviroment.

Photoshop Fun

The Before Pic...

...and the After Pic.

Spot the differences! There is no prize involved. My services are now for hire. :)

Days Gone By

Haahh... updates, updates... This long blog entry was inspired by my missing-in-action-friend (several months and counting) Bitey's recent long blog entry.

Aug 25. The week was mostly spent anticipating the Beijinoy reunion dinner w/ Manol, who's back from Shanghai on vacation. Heavy rains delayed my departure from the house, and 40 minutes was spent trying to find a parking spot (30 of them at Greebelt3's basement parking when the booth lady wanted to charge me the minimum 40 bucks, and in a Seinfeld-ish moment I protested, saying that's fine if I actually parked my car here, so in the end she just made me sign the receipt and let me out). It was when I tried out Greenbelt's valet parking service that I found P90 reasons why more people don't.

Finally got to Recipes. Turns out I have been here before. And I didn't like the food back then. Ah, but it's the company that counts, right? Well, I was reminded why I hate being late. Either you run out of good seats, or most of the only people you know start/have to leave. Weng, Kathy and Tin left, and soon me and Pyao (and later on Dave, Lyndon and Dennis to some extent) were left with Manol and his Shanghai posse, w/c he failed to introduce properly to us, w/c made for lots of listening but no talking on my end. Already I has getting Oyster Boy flashbacks.

Now as much as I like to accomodate a friend's requests for "wanting to see everyone," I wish Manol had planned separate get2gethers for Beijinoys and Shanghainoys. Sigh. I'm just saying: my ability to handle a large group of people improves when I know them all.

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Aug 26. With 2 hours to kill before Wilson picks me up from home (and off to Rockwell where I was in charge of videotaping SJCS Batch '86's 20th anniv reunion), I drove out to Starbucks at Ash Creek to meet up with Lola. We exchanged items: for her the Firefly, Mirrormask and Neverwhere DVDs (w/c I burned for her), for me the Tim Burton's Corpse Bride movie photobook. Took pictures and chatted the rainy hours away. Finally I dropped her off at SM Centerpoint.

CUT TO ME and WILSON driving off to Rockwell (with brief SEGUE to FRIEND'S HOUSE in Greenhills to pick up the nametags). Wilson and Ogie were in charge of the multimedia presentations (read: slideshows). I, having seem to much Battlestar Galactica or NYPD Blue in my lifetime, started going off with fast zooms in and out, 3-5 second cut scenes and really giving the autofocus a workout. The first half of footage taken would be best seen as a montage.

The second half was comprised of the program proper, with the slideshow, games, and a raffle. We got there at 6:30 PM and left 6 hours later. Too bad the one Batch 86er I was most familiar with (besides my brother)-- Katherine Go-Alcantara-- didn't attend.

Aug. 27. Hunh. Weird. Completely blacking out on what I did yesterday. Oh, yeah, planning for a dinner reunion with the HuaQing Apartment Bejinoys.

Okay, so the post wasn't as long as I thought.

YM Haiku

When eating breakfast
And using YM she says,
"Stop bugging me." Sigh...