Spiderman 3 was a big let-down: most definitely not a worthy successor to the two previous hits. I wouldn’t be surprised if it flopped in the box office. For one, the movie dragged on and on during the first half.
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Today I woke up to a text message from my friend, Janette, congratulating me for my blogs’ new PageRank numbers. Woohoo!!! Finally, the Big G’s gotten ’round to ranking my sites! All of them are new blogs, created only this year (well, the first two below are actually much older blogs, but since I got my own domains for them, Google considers them new sites). I’m in the mood for a little showing off… just humor me. 
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The summer heat is proving to be quite a challenge to everybody. Lately I’ve been hearing of rising cases of heat stroke, serious nose bleeds, flaring tempers in traffic jams…. And yet, at times, the human spirit manages to shine even brighter than the sweltering sun.
A few days ago, inching along the highway in 35°C heat, a car ahead of me was passing the traffic policeman, who was sweating profusely in the blistering weather. Out of the blue, a hand thrust out of the car and reached out to the policeman with a cold bottle of mineral water. I am sure everyone around him felt a lot lighter after seeing his genuinely gratifying smile.
It’s not solid infrastructure, nor is it sound economics — it’s not even good governance — that keeps society in one piece. It is these acts of altruism that somehow enables us to keep faith in our fellow man.
After the much-publicized presence of a U.N. rapporteur here to investigate the spate of killings of journalists, and after the horrific number of those killings itself, unbelievably, here comes another incident.
Last 18 April, Radyo ng Bayan’s Carmelo Palacios was beaten and shot to death at his home in Nueva Ecija. I hate to say it but, after so many unresolved assassinations, people seem to have become apathetic, unaffected. Instead of outrage, around me I hear “Tsk tsk! another one?” And from our government, apart from platitudinous commiseration, …what?
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As some of my more loyal readers may have noticed, I’m very much into Japanese culture. I speak the language, for one (read & write as well). I used to play judo; and my hobbies include calligraphy and reading manga. I also used to grow bonsai (hmmm… can you say ‘grow’ in this case?).
In 2002, my very good friend Ichido gave me my Japanese nickname: Maru (accent on the 1st syllable, please). And last week, he gave me my real name’s kanji equivalent (see image) — it’s for ‘Oliver’ but in Nihongo it’s read ‘oriba‘.
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I recently gave someone (unsolicited) advice to go bloghopping before forming opinions about something or other. So, before that advice rebounds to me, I thought I’d do some of my own. It’s amazing how much about a person you can deduce just by rummaging through his personal stuff, right? Well, the same goes for a person’s blogs, I think. That is, if he or she has several blogs.
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I don’t pretend to be a writer in the league of Conrado de Quiros, nor do I purport to be an accomplished blogger of long standing in the Pinoy blogosphere. However, I cannot but help notice a problem among a number of bloggers. Blogging is a free means of expressing oneself freely — yes, it is a right, not a privilege — however, many bloggers do not seem to realize that freedom comes hand-in-hand with responsibility. So, after much bloghopping, I have come to realize that quite a few bloggers out there just say what they want, publish anything they feel like publishing, without regard for journalistic ethic or, worse, without considering the consequences. [read on]
I rarely attempt to endorse political candidates — partly because of my jaded attitude towards Philippine politics, and partly because politicians rarely fail to disappoint. However, I’m going out on a limb here to campaign for Ang Kapatiran Party’s Mr. Jess Paredes for senator of the Republic. Aside from my father’s willing support of this candidate, Mr. Paredes’ platform has convinced me to vote for him.
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Apple has popularized and innovated many things that are household names today. And it’s quite refreshing, because they’re always coming up with something new. Now somebody’s riding on that wave — or as they put it, giving “tribute to Apple and all their goodness.”
I found out about iNames through another Davao blog, eetsie’s world. It looked like a fresh gimmick, so I thought I’d check it out. And the result is:
It doesn’t really do anything for you but create a name that looks like it’s a Mac or an iPod. But, if you get your own iName, you get to enter this iPhone contest! I don’t know, I’m not very lucky when it comes to contests like this. I just liked the rendering of my name. 
But why don’t you get an iName & maybe win an iPhone?
After meeting so many kindred souls during the Davao Bloggers Party #1, I thought I’d start a tagging game.
Let’s talk about stress relief. 3 or 4 funny things you do to relieve stress. When deadlines are fast approaching but you’re not even halfway through. When your boss is on your ass like a crazed bullrider. When you feel your salary (or allowance) just doesn’t fit your preferred lifestyle. When you partner feels he/she just isn’t getting enough from you. So what do you do?
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