I'm Google Earthing, Earthlings

It's been a week since I started using this fun tool from google.

I've found my house,

the family house in bulacan,
the insane islands UAE people are trying to build
and Nazcan Lines (Hummingbird).
Try it out! Its tons of fun.

A Shining Star Amidst an Otherwise Dreary October Day

Tsk, tsk... this would have been a great picture. That's if it wasn't overshadowed by the two people in its foreground.













Why? Why did they have to pose in front of the camera? That bonklers with the goatee and that 'ever so pretty, charming and angelic host of Us Girls' Francesca (Chesca/Cheska) Garcia.


Seriously, I was having an absolutely rotten day. I got stuck on my way to Makati and arrived incredibly late. I accidentally left my phone with her the previous night so I had absolutely no line of communication. The reception desk of Renaissance Hotel was adamant that she hasn't checked out yet. I wasted 3 hours having the operator call her room and going up to knock on her door.

There was a 'thank you for respecting my privacy' tag on her door so the staff are not allowed to barge in. That really worried me with the what-ifs. What if she dozed off and missed her flight? What if she slipped an knocked herself out? What if some crazy bloke sneaked in and... *shudder*. I wanted to call my mobile that was with her, but how? All they had that can call outside was fonkard payphones and their business center/landmark didn't sell cards to use on it.
Long version of the story removed from here to save you from boredom
So abandoning monetary efficiency I found a way to get my mom's mobile number and then found out that my sister left the hotel 30 mins before I arrived and barely made it to the flight. Up to this moment, I'm still flummoxed about the 'privacy' and 'hasn't checked out' bits of the story.

I was tired, sweaty and pissed so walked back to grab lunch then head home. With a determined indifference to what was happening in the world I could have missed it, but I didn't. An angelic phantasm appeared to my left. My heart skipped a couple of beats then raced like mad. Such brilliance! The old me would have shied away and regretted it for the rest of my life. I did want to be reborn, with a love for life and enjoy it as if there is no tomorrow. I fiddled and checked the 350D's settings and made a beeline towards her. I waited for her to finish her yo, stepped up and said:

"Excuse me..." she turns to me with an encouraging smile.
"Can I take a picture with you?"
"Sure :)"
Fiddle, fiddle. Click.
"Thank you :3"
Then I walked away.

With wobbly knees but giddy happy, I realized later that I got to screw up this magical moment. [tech] I prefer having just the center AF point active instead of all 7 of them[/tech]. So the trees behind us is in focus and we are a bit soft and blurred. But heck, this is a success for my courage, screw the perfect photo :P

When September Ends

SCU
A friend recently described me as a Self-Contained Unit(SCU). The term was not familiar, but it more or less explains itself. I don't know what is worse, that it was somehow accurate or that it is used to describe houses. Is being at that level of independence really a good thing? I love the feeling of being needed, but why can't I extend that same courtesy/opportunity to other people? Probably shows that I am a Taurus born in the year of the sheep: stubborn and bullheaded. Baaaaaaaaaaa.

Sheep simply want a bit of peace. They enjoy carrying on with life in their own quiet, individual way, content to be in the middle of it all rather than to be leading it. Sheep are quiet and calm people. They enjoy cultural things and focus much of their energy on artistic hobbies. Sheep are easygoing and relaxed, happy to be going with the flow.

THE EARTH SHEEP 19l9 AND 1979

The Earth element gives the Sheep a grounded effect. Although he struggles with a lack of self-confidence, this Sheep is a very stable person. They are independent and practical, leaning more towards conservancy than liberality. An Earth Sheep’s family is his most important asset and he spends his life working hard to provide for his loved ones. Earth Sheep are born with a joy for life that generally becomes infectious as you get to know him.

TAUREAN SHEEP

These Sheep are a bit materialistic and desire much wealth. Although they aren’t money hungry, they do out themselves and their own comfort before everyone else.

from this site

Homecoming
Its been ten years since my batchmates and I stepped out of high school. Feels both like an eternity and a blink of an eye. High School was the first and only time I slept in a dorm, backed out from performing in public, played a guitar, gone into a dodgy theater, kissed by a girl (on the cheek, lame I know), dressed in a suit, used a computer, used an SLR camera, frequented R.Hidalgo, joined a contest, and met my first girlfriend.
Some see HS just as a stage of growth, for me it marked a lot of firsts and even half my life after, brings back fond memories. [pics here]
For the homecoming, I made an AudioVisual Presentation(avp) here. Its around 9mb so leave it to load and just go back to it later(right-click, rewind, play).



Medical Mission
This a was a project initially cooked up by joey and mic, based on simple assumptions: lots of batchmates in the medical field and moderate contacts to pharmaceutical firms. With that and generous contributions from various sources, the mission was underway. RockEd also volunteered to teach kids and parents alike. [pics][joey's pics][mic's pics][leonardo coll's pics]

Knocking out the Philippines
Last time all it took was a ton of jellyfish. This time around, its a direct hit from a storm. That's 30+ hours of black-out, no internet, phone(bayantel) nor mobile(globe). Boo.

Panget's Back
Due to the need to chaperone a client, Blessma is back in Manila. She had to drop by the house earlier than scheduled because my dad in UAE got worried. No texts, internet, movies, games, work. Its been a lousy couple of days.

Deafening Silence, Blinding Darkness
Its been ages since I last experienced this. I'm used to sleeping with scores of LEDs blinking, a couple of fans spinning and 3 7200rpm HDs whirring. Those are the lullabyes that put me to sleep. The blackout robbed me of all of this and left me with such eerie silence and darkness, it almost drove me insane.

I once watched an anime series (PLANETES) where the lead character got lost in space and exhibited a disorder due to trauma (Deep Space Disorder). It manifested itself when the lead was placed in a room deprived of light and sound. He went nutters in a matter of seconds.

I had a ringing noise in my ear, monochrome blurred images playing regardless of my eyes opened or not. I'd be glad to have all the real noise and blinkers back...

Beals-a-bug
We went out to SM MoA to watch "Ant Bully" on IMAX 3D. For an animated film that seemed to be for kids, it had tons of hidden jokes and easter eggs: "Beals-a-bug", the name of the exterminators company is probably a pun for beelzebub. Notable voice actors for me are: Allison Mack as Tiffany(also Chloe from Smallville) and Zach Tyler as Lucas Nickle(also Avatar from Avatar:The Last Airbender)

Just a Tad Bit Too Late...

"If I've known this sooner..." is a phrase I'd like to use for this post.

If you've read my previous entry, you probably think its a lot to spend on ink. You're right... because I just found out a way to cut the cost to 1/3. I won't be popular with HP once I blog about this but hey, being practical is important.

After finishing my printing spree, I came upon this in DataMax@SM san lazaro. It's a Do-it-yourself(DIY) refill kit from Fullmark. Its priced at 390Php (vs 1200) and contains enough ink to refill a cartridge thrice(which is also the reuse limit a of catridge). Ink quality is acceptable so far (paper, photopaper, iron-ons) ; with that many cartidges, I won't need to buy genuines for a while.

disclaimer: I'm neither affiliated nor paid by datamax/fullmark. Such products are still 'try at your own risk'.

Odd Stuff

For me, not being afraid of new things is part of learning. I've accepted rakets, challenges and requests that come my way if only for the slightest chance that I discover something that I did not know before. But for the life of me... I sometimes end up doing some pretty odd things.

Costly Certification
During college, I was asked if I can produce colored certificates. I was able to clear that but it killed my Epson Stylus printer. Should have learned from this XD.

Domestic Help
I recently finished a project with the Department of Foreign Affairs(DFA) and International Labour Organization(ILO) entitled "Protecting Domestic Workers from their Vulnerability to Forced Labour and Trafficking" which is an interactive cd training tool made in Flash. After months and months of content revisions, I was reminded that I had to make 200 copies complete with packaging and a 12-page printed manual. I had difficulty in looking for a printer(offset/publisher) that can do this for me (6 unique color pages @200 copies each~1200sides, is too costly to run). So after busting my wallet for ink cartridge cost, my beloved HP Deskjet 5740 had to bear with me in this foolish attempt at printed production.

8 hp 95 cartridges(1200php each), 3 hp 94 (1000php each) busting a wallet was never this easy

What was I thinking?

Had to hire my cuz (thanks kat!) to help me out with cutting and packaging. It was lauched at the DFA on Aug. 30, 2006 and I'm grateful to them for the experience and the chance to help train those who will help our domestic workers.
Saintly Shirts
My mom requested me to take on a task: Photo Quality Tshirt printing. This guy does not learn, does he? My excuse is: 'these shirts are for priests and religious people'. The order was 80 shirts, and I had a hard time looking for and buying Iron-on transfers. I ended up using 3 brands (HP, ImageFlow Pro and APLI). HP and APLI were acceptable (73 and 70php per sheet respectively) while ImageFlow (63php) was dreadful because it was so thin(the printer kept jamming). The difficult part was the ironing and I wasn't even bad with ironing itself. Some browning occurs if you iron it too long; the print doesn't stick as well if done too quickly. That's an average of 5min per shirt, 1000Watt Iron and full-body weight pressure (200lbs of purely brute brymac XD).

The one on the left is a reject/experiment; center is the Iron-on transfer print; right is the print on the back of the shirt.

Often times reason is abandoned for things like rewards, charity, lessons or blessings. How long will I learn and live like this? For as long as I can I guess...

Humid Dreadful Rain

Soft glow of the overcast sky and green leaves

My first High Dynamic Range(HDR) Photo

HDR of Adrian's shots

I was invited to join Adrian, Josephine and Andy in a PhotoOp at the La Mesa Ecopark. Had fun tagging along with them and talking to Andy about Miyazaki stuff.

It was a good opportunity to try HDR so I took time to compose the shot I wanted. Even with the brute power 'Rebirth' has, creating and editing HDR required me to leave my desk and do something else while it processed all that info. Imagine, an HDR PSD file is 93.3MB! The results are a little gloomy and washed out, but that was the mood as the rain was about to fall. A simpler way to get a better shot would be using graduated nd filter (don't nosebleed now, think tinted eyeglasses). Since I don't have one of those (yet), an HDR attempt is fine.

S is for Seven Years

Together with Mic's blatant slander on my err... unfulfilled desire, she gave me an S to post this:

1. September - Phats and Small feat Earth, Wind and Fire
2. Sets Go Up - Juvenile (OST Need for Speed Most Wanted)
3. Sucked In - Jerk (OST Need for Speed Underground 1)
4. Standing Right Next To Me - Arnee
5. Sugar We're Going Down - Fallout Boy

Comment on this post to receive a random letter from me. You will then be tasked to pick five (5) songs from your computer with titles that begin with that letter. And you are to post the five songs on your journal.

Any takers? :3

Brymac on Ice

There is no such thing as a practice life.

I've been thinking of this simple phrase since I came across it. It has furthered my desire to go out and live life. I'm also slowly taking down walls I probably built through the years. Given the chance, I'll go and try it. The amount of failures can be shadowed by successful attempts, its a matter of probability.

Swedish
I recently got my first formal massage. Aidz and I went on a night photo op, then decided to get one. Around 20 minutes in the sauna, a bath, ate some shabu-shabu then finally 30+ minutes swedish massage. I received a lot of elbows and knees, but all in all it was great. Whatever was causing my stiffneck probably got elbowed away.

Ice Skating
We went to MoA to celebrate Aimee's birthday. Ice Skating was part of the plan so we looked over the rink and weighed our chances against a battalion of kids. I've tried rollerblades now and then so I was brave enough to not use the rink wall. So after three hours, getting extremely wet, falling N times, straining my wrist and getting my hand 'toe-picked'... Ice skating is either not for me or I need tons of more practice.

Photo Op
While in MoA, I took some pics including Kimi's F1 that was on display. [Other pics here]

Like Losing A Friend
I said goodbye to something important. We've been through a lot together and I'm incredibly thankful to her. She held well enough and helped me buy her replacement. Bye, Tsunami(AMD Duron700)...
Here's how my station looks now: