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Alright, what happened to George Rocha?

There's a spike of visitors looking for George Rocha

Tamiya's Loopwing Wind Power Generator Set:

A concrete demonstration of a capacitor-powered motor.

Video here

Astronomical Trivia

For the same reason Crux [Southern Cross] was visible from Jerusalem at Jesus Christ's time and was best visible during the spring time (i.e. Good Friday and Easter). The evening after the crucifixion (most probable date April 3, 33 AD) Crux was just above Jerusalem's southern horizon.

Jeepney operators should seriously consider this

Regarding that "bent, ugly" crozier:

"There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him." (Is 53:2)

Memo to Lefties:

Your Photoshopping skills suck!

Good news and Bad news:

Peso to hit 37.2:$ in 2008 as remittances pour in - HSBC

Good: Since I've always believed that the dollar ought to be valued for less than P40. For an import-oriented economy like ours, this ought to be good news.

Bad: Since the appreciation of the peso will devour our firm's revenues from abroad. Call centers, who until now were awashed with abundant cash, will have to tighten belts soon.

In that regard, I've noticed that the usual practice of people from several BPOs is to leave their workstations (computers) open even if they're home. I dunno, but that sounds like a tremendous waste of energy that not only contributes to the surging power costs in the country, but hurts their employers' bottomline as well.

Blogging break

Blogging shall be intermittent for the next weeks. I'm still adjusting to the demands of a new client whose books are driving us crazy!

You know you're a Filipino child of the 80's when.....

1.) You have scars on your knees and elbows.

2.) You owned a bike

3.) You had a barkada around your neighborhood (all of you had bikes)

4.) You loved climbing on your house's roof (and your neighbor's roof as well).

5.) You went inside an abandoned house in your neighborhood just to see what it
looks like inside.

6.) You ate all the aratilis in your neighborhood.

7.) You plucked all the gumamelas in the area for soap bubbles.

8.) Your parents forced you to take afternoon siestas with the threat that you will not be allowed to play outside.

9.) You are never found in your house in the afternoon. You are often found playing in the street with your neighborhood friends.

10.) You loved exploring vacant lots for hidden knick-knacks.

11.) You just can't resist jumping in a sandpile.

12.) You know all the street games (patintero, agawan base, langit-lupa,
etc., etc.)

13.) You owned a family computer.

14.) Your hand-to-eye coordination is terrific due to family computer.

15.) You'd rather go outdoors in the afternoon than play family computer.

16.) You gleefully boast that games today are so easy because of the
character's life bar (remember when we used to play Mario? we died the minute a
goomba hit us)

17.) You know this code by heart: UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-B-A-B-A-START
(select-start for 2 players)

18.) You owned a superhero costume (especially a superman costume).

19.) For the girls: You dressed up like Punky Brewster, Madonna and Debbie Gibson.
For the boys: You dressed up like David Hasselhoff's knight rider, David Bowie
or had CLARKe KENT's little bang. And now you think that the 80's had the
suckiest dress sense.

20.) You had a denim jacket.

21.) You had a sticker book especially that Age of Dinosaurs sticker book.

22.) You were addicted to rainbow brite, carebears, my little pony, thundercats,
bioman, voltes v, mazinger z, daimos, smurfs, etc., etc.

23.) You played pc games like tapper, moonbugs, alley cat and prince of persia.

24.) Ms Word did not exist in your vocabulary but Wordstar did!

25.) You love 80's music even if you don't want to admit it.

26.) You've climbed up mango trees to catch salagubang, tie a sting around its
neck and let it fly around in frenzy.

27.) You've spent hours in the afternoon catching tutubi... yellow-green was the
easiest to catch, blue being finicky, and red being a rare breed...

28.) You used to take Flinstones vitamins (which you didn't mind 'cause
it was yummy) and Scott's liver oil.

29.) You know the catoon show, Beverly Hills Teens.

30.) You know Kuya Bodgie from Batibot.

31.) You watch Uncle Bob's Lucky Seven Club.

32.) You used AQUA NET to fashion ur 4-inch-high bangs.

33.) Your blouses had paddings.

34.) You owned wide studded colorful belts.

35.) You watched some of your favorite shows on betamax or even UHF 17 (the
channel from Clarke Air Base - or was it Subic?)

36.) You collected and "swapped" perfumed stationeries with your
classmates and friends, but followed the unwritten rule that you never write on them.

37.) The only place you go to for summer vacation is BAGUIO !

38.) On that note, camp john hay served BEST ice cream.

39.) Most of us were brought to the EDSA revolution.

40.) You remember what Ricky Martin used to look like back then

41.) ...when you think that Julie Vega is a better actress that Judy Ann

42.) You get confused playing playstation because of all the buttons
on the keypad (nintendo only had the direction pad, a & b buttons and the
start & select keys ).

43.) You know all the Bagets and Ninja Kids. bonnin!

44.) You got to ride the train ride at greenhills shopping center.

45.) Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were the players at the time.

46.) ...when you know more 80's music than the song "Buttercup".

47.) You were allowed to bathe in the rain.

48.) You were taught to comb your hair one-sided.

49.) You've collected matangpusa and mongo beans so you can have ammunition for sumpit

50.) You knew who madam bola and sitsiritsit and alibangbang was.

51.) Every Christmas you anticipate going to BIG Bang sa Alabang-with the
giant slide.

52.) You know the Ewoks.

53.) You had Mighty Kid shoes and Greg shoes.

54.) You know what Time Space Warp means and you know who Fuma Lae-Ar is)

55.) You and your barkada had a specific Bioman name.

56.) You sucked all the nectar from the santan plant hence your mother got really pissed at you for destroying the santan plant.

57.) You played with marbles and text (yung cards ha!!!) And you count cards
like this: I-SA, DALA-WA, TAT-LO, A-PAT... walo na iyon!

58.) For girls: You wore denim miniskirts with rubber shoes. For guys: You had those bitin na pantalon which you wore with high-top rubber shoes!!!

59.) You loved cheezels and chicakdees because of the great prizes it had!(remember sticky hands, bear popups,and the stick on tattoos which were "banned" due to drugs daw?)

60.) Puffy cone still existed!!!

61.) Sosy ka if you bought a Magnolia drumstick.

62.) Twin Popsies were meant to be shared with a friend.

63.) Ice Drop was the cheapest treat.

64.) You have those disney bow biters for your rubber shoes

65.) You know who Alf is.

66.) You're familiar with the show "Perfect Strangers".

67.) Idol mo si McGyver.

68.) Thats Entertainment" ang "the bomb" nung mga panahon na yun.

69.) Sikat ka kapag alam mo ang wordstar at lotus 1,2,3

70.) Six digits lang ang telephone number niyo dati.

71.) Tatlong .25 cents lang eh makakatawag ka na sa pay-phone.

72.) Cute pa si Aiza non sa Eat Bulaga.

73.) Si Amado Pineda pa ang nagbabalita ng panahon

74.) You drank Chocolate milk from the Magnolia glass bottle which you kept for
holding water in your ref.

75.) Brown Cow tasted better than Hersheys!

76.) Shake Rattle and Roll 1 was the most horrifying movie for you then.

77.) The most comfortable shoes for you is still Sperry Topsiders.

78.) Dress shoes mo eh loafers pa rin.

79.) The best movies of all time are pretty in pink, breakfast club, 16 candles and some kind of wonderful

80.) You show off your pencil case which have hidden compartments that pop-out at
the press of a button...

81.) You have Bensia pencils which are refillable...

82.) Fiesta carnival was the place to be kumbaga enchanted kingdom sya ng 90's)

83.) Takot kang mag-year 2000 ksi baka magunaw ang mundo.

84.) Masarap ang Goya and Serg's.

85.) Nakakasakay ka pa sa kotseng walang aircon.

86.) You know the lyrics ng "Tinapang Bangus" at "Alagang-alaga namin si Puti"
ng Batibot.

87.) You know these commercials:
a. YCBIKINIBRIEF - remember this one?
Ycbikinibrief / ycbikinibrief /
ycbikinibrief for the man who packs a
wallop / YC had fashion / YC has style...
b. RA Homevision - those guys from cash
and carry makati couldn't have done it
better. Sports. Adventure. Cartoons.
Award Winners and More. Featuring the
voice talent of Frankie Evangelista. I
will never forget the creepy hand at the
start of the ad. Parang ET na nasa
spaceship!
c. Arthur's Legaspi Towers - nuff said.
d. La Germania Mama Mia commercials - ditto

88.) Bumibili ka ng caramel candy, Texas or bazooka bubblegum, tira-tira at
tootsie roll sa tindahan

89.) Naabutan mo pa na korteng flower ang singko

90.) You're familiar with this song: sinena ay bata pa, kaya ang sabi niya ay
um-ah-um-ah-ah. hanggang patanda siya nang patanda at pabastos ng pabastos hehehe! are red...

91.) Takot ka sa bumbay. Takot ka ring magkasugat kasi may lalabas raw na pari... =)

92.) You loved watching WWF (world wresting federation) every wednesday...Jake the Snake Roberts, Hulk Hogan, The undertaker =)

via my Friendster Inbox

Compare and Contrast

Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum:

"We desire that this practice... of using distinctive names by which Catholics are marked off from other Catholics, should cease; such names must be avoided... [they] are neither true nor just... they lead to great disturbance and confuse the Catholic body."

from an email Mr. Palad sent me [not his words BTW]:

I was rather hoping for a Fr. Zerrudo, or a Msgr. Andrade to give a talk, hehehe. I think they should've included the Pope's Summorum Pontificum, and it's effect on the Blessings and the Sacramentals of the Church. After all, it's Fr. Zerrudo's "bisyo" to use his old "book of spells", in traditionally exorcising objects after Mass. Hindi tulad ng ibang Novus Ordo na pari na basta na lang "wisik ng wisik" ng Holy Water.

The highlighted part just strikes me in the wrong way. I suppose that a more charitable reading would tell me that the statement was written by a very excited fellow who thinks that it's short for "priests who administer the sacraments using the revised rites". But initially, I read it this way: "those poor, unenlightened saps who have not experienced the majesty of the almighty Pian rite. Kneel before my Rite!".




Hat tip to the Whapsters for the BXV quote

Another earthquake

Magnitude 4.2 quake recorded off Batanes.

Like I said before, is this a sign of a future catastrophe or are we just getting more news about it? After all, low-intensity quakes happen all the time without anyone noticing.

Missa ad orientem in San Pietro

INConsistencies

The INC prides itself of being ritually free and unblemished from the pagan accretions which one would [obviously!] find in Catholicism. Funny though that they still retain in their commencement exercises (as the pictures below prove) the use of academic gowns which those darn Catholics wore in the medieval ages. Speaking of Catholics, didn't they originally invent the concept of unversities and hospitals? How about that, the INC has them too.




Perhaps New Era University should consider using other attires for such occasions. Just like this Baptist who recognized the inconsistency of the practice of wearing the traditional academic gowns in Protestant schools.

Hat tip Amy Welborn

Tasty combination

I dunno if anyone else has tried a concunction similar to what I've come up lately:

Ingredients:
red ice tea powder [1-litro pack concentrate]
bugnay/strawberry wine [about 1/2 to 1 cup]

Directions:
Add the powder to 1 liter water in a blender then blend for about 10 secodnds. Add the wine afterwards then blend again for the same amount of time. Serve chilled.

I havent't come up with a name yet.

The Leftist Connection

NO VAT

Roman Leftists from La Sapienza express support for their Filipino counterparts in demanding from the Arroyo government the scrapping of the 12% VAT on oil and petroleum products.

At least that's what I thought when I saw the picture.


Photo credit

IBON sees new tax for 2008

In a gathering in Miriam College in 2006, IBON also boldy predicted that PGMA wouldn't last another year in office.

Strike anywhere!

Too bad Georgie never hanged out with me and my college buds otherwise he would have learned to love the virtues of "striking anywhere" and never had to suffer the "accident" in the end.

A friend tells me

that one (1) bottle of beer bought from a convenience store in California costs about $2-$3. Yes, that's one solitary bottle. Meanwhile, for that same amount, I can get at least four (at least 4!!!) tall bottles of Red Horse in good old Islas Filipinas.

So why should I go abroad again to earn a living and lose all of it for expensive beer especially when I can easily get foreign beers in Makati?

Finally!

The Pope does "ad orientem" in a televised public Mass.



I certainly hope this will encourage priests to use this traditional posture when celebrating the Ordinary Form of the Mass and attract them to look at it more deeply than just a Mass "with priest's back to the people".

When I was something like 9 or 10 years old, I've often wondered why the priest had his back to the cross or the tabernacle. Even at a young age, it was unsettling for me to see the priest facing us, the congregation, rather than the God supposedly being worshipped and prayed to as he utters his prayers. Of course, like the rest in the Church, I merely consoled myself that this is the ancient practice since altars back then were ordinary tables.

Years later, I read John Evangelist Walsh's "The Bones of St. Peter", a book recounting the discovery of the Apostle Peter's bones under the main altar of the basilica in Rome which bears his name. I found there mention of the Tropaion which was erected over the supposed hallow grave where the Apostle's remains were interred. Among the various theories Walsh disclosed regarding the Tropaion's purpose, the most compelling for me was that it was an altar. But if that was the case, then the Mass celebrated on that altar would have necessitated the ad orientem posture as the priest facing the people during its most important part would've been highly unlikely. So here we have a very ancient and powerful evidence for ad orientem.



I would prefer that priests celebrated the liturgy in this manner. It would be a return to a more ancient pratice as the Tropaion demonstrates.

Also, for a more practical reason, it would allow the use of older altars attached to the apse. Such altars, in my opinion, are more rational in the use of space in sanctuaries. A free-standing altar creates two spaces in the sanctuary, the one in front of it and the one behind it. Ritual Masses (like weddings and ordinations) would neccessitate the use of the space in front of the altar so that the congregation would be able to witness the wedding or ordination. When the ceremony is over, the space in front is largely abandoned and the space behind is used. The economist in me is shouting that this is a misuse of scarce resource (in this case, space). Ad orientem and the use of altars attached to walls would solve this economic problem.

The Corner Shot

Just saw it on Discovery Channel this morning. It's an Israeli-made weapon which combines a camera system and a firearm and allows the user to fire the weapon from behind cover without exposing him to hostile fire.

It's a good idea but I'm just averse at seeing a weapon bending that way.

Personally, I would prefer a small rifle-mounted camera that would broadcast wirelessly [through bluetooth perhaps] images to the user's visor-/helmet-mounted monitor. It would be simpler than what I see in the Corner Shot's design and can be applied to existing weapons rather than them having to be tailored to fit the new technology.

The lamest radio interview I've ever heard

was between Joe Taruc and Senator Mar Roxas that took place at DZRH yesterday morning. It was annoyingly repetitive and began with a major exhibit of Filipino stupidity. Apparently some taxi drivers were registering their complaints to Manong Joe because they expected pump prices to go down today because of the oil tariff reduction. Joe Taruc used this outrage of stupid taxi drivers who probably didn't bother to read the full account of yesterday's presscon in the papers to begin his interview with Roxas. In that interview, Taruc basicall kept repeating his questions which he would answer himself eventually and then Roxas would approve saying "Eksakto!" then the Senator went into detail which he would repeat again since Taruc repeats himself and then... Well you get the picture. Taruc sounded like Roxas' spokesman and cheerleader in that interview. Too sweet were they. I wonder how much Roxas' publicist pays Taruc.

I'm confused

Sen. Mar Roxas wants the government to either junk or to impose a moratorium on the Exanded Valued Added Tax on oil and petroleum products in order to save Filipinos from the rising cost of fuel.

In its place, in order to fill up the gap from lost revenue, the Senator says government should instead makes its tax collection system more efficient.

But the VAT (classic or expanded) is an efficient tax collection system, is it not? So why junk an efficient system to address a problem that's beyond the government's capacity to control?

Willie Revillame

Again!

This time the goverment has him under investigation for driving a smuggled 2006 Ferrari.

Black Pudding

I had the impression that Filipinos alone had the penchant for blood-based foods like dinuguan and betamax (shown below). Apparently I was wrong. Here are more examples of food made from blood.

Dinuguan

Betamax

Court junks ABS-CBN's complaint vs AGB-Nielsen

No wonder I heard so much whining at Tony Velasquez's DZMM news program today. They had the chief of their Research Group as a guest on their program and she came across as a whining 4-year old girl who couldn't get her mom to buy her a new barbie doll. In fact they all sounded like that.

ABS-CBN has been trailing behind GMA for a couple of years now. The conspirialist in me thinks that the whole thing is a publicity stunt created by the aggrieved itself in order to boost its ratings [as to who will measure the rise in ratings is yet to be determined], discredit past ratings survey results and tarnish the image of its rival, GMA.

To be honest, I haven't watched local television on a regular basis since 2000. I guess I should be thankful for that. Yes, I'm culturally illiterate in some aspects of local popular culture which originates from the belly of the media-beast. I've only watched one episode of Marimar [since I was staying at a cousin's house in Iloilo] and none of the F4 and Korean telenovelas. I don't know who the new doubtfully-talented artists kids worship these days and I am dreadfully ignorant of the implications of the new Big Brother winner to the nation. But I couldn't care less.

Eat and Sleep

I've noticed that during periods of unemployment, when I would normally stay at home and spend a greater part of my day in deep slumber, I would find that I have lost weight significantly. Interestingly, I've also noticed, that I usually gained weight during times I was employed and suffering from regular sleep deprivation because of the demands of the office.

I've always attributed gain weight during employed periods to the fact that I compensate my lack of sleep or shortened sleeping pattern with greater food intake. During unemployed periods, I eat less.

Apparently there's more to it:

We've known for some time that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population, but this study shows that getting enough sleep — even just two hours more — may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight

That reminds me, I need to sleep.

Simbahan.Net

aka Churches

Interesting Thesis Proposal

from a Filipino liturgist. He's saying that the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite IS the Classical Rite. But he did leave out a vital author from his resource materials: Ratzinger.

I'll give you a lead for this massacre:

The police or NBI need not go far. All they need to do is check all high-school to college aged men from Dasmarinas or Forbes Park. I'm sure their number isn't that significant.

I've observed that well-to-do guys are more inclined to do such petty crimes and misdemeanors than their less fortunate counterparts since they are confident that their wealth and social stature will keep them from the slammers.

Back when I was in college, there was a string of thefts of street signs in Manila. Believe it or not, it was perpetrated by DLSU students and they kept the signs as trophies in their condo. Why would they do such a thing? First, they can. Second, they can get away with it. Third, they needed a good laugh.

I'm sure the guys who killed those cats are operating on the same mindset and are having a good time right now bragging about their latest exploits, even perhaps online. Maybe the police should Google away and monitor local online forums for some guys bragging about it as well.