I entered a challenge in one of my Shelfari groups to read 30 or more books in 2009. To make the challenge even more exciting, I must read a number of books in the categories identified by the administrator.
This means that I do not only read books in economics or science fiction to meet the 30 book requirement. I must also read biographies, books by European and Filipino authors, non-fiction and other types of books.
At first I thought that I could complete the challenge by the middle of this year but due to unforeseen events (what a lame excuse I know) I am still stuck with my 3rd and 4th books for the year. And it is almost March! That means in the next nine months, I will have to finish some 26 books to complete this challenge.
So wish me luck everybody. I should be reading a book instead of doing this post!
Food, gadgets, books, movies, music, places and everything else under the sun
Friday, February 13, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Filipina Flower Expo 2009
We went to the Filipina Flora Expo 2009 at the Quezon City Hall grounds yesterday. The event featured a competition for the best floral arrangement and garden design. There was also a display of different species of orchids that were so pleasing to the eye
Here's one that really caught my eye because of the color of the specks in the white petals.
There were other displays in the grounds, including Ikebana arrangements. Here's my favorite.
I have other photos of the other plant species we saw in the expo. There's a link to my Flickr photos at the sidebar of this page. It's for everyone to see so just drop by and enjoy.
Of course it is still different to see and actually experience the flowers and plants in the expo which will run until February 16. Entrance fee is also cheap, 30 pesos for adults and 20 pesos for senior citizens.
Friday, February 6, 2009
It can only get worse...
Today's newscast was peppered with stories about price increases. The on-going shortage of supply of LPG caused its price to jump to 600 pesos per 11 kilograms cylinder. I bought mine 2 weeks ago at only 500 pesos and if things do not improve, my next cylinder might cost more than 600 pesos. Those LPG Suppliers are even predicting the price to increase every week until, they say, the problem eases or supply becomes normal again. In the meantime, our energy department secretary washes his hands off the problem and blames everybody else.
Another commodity that is about to have a price increase is water. The head of the agency in charge for water announced that it is inevitable, blaming the problem to the global financial crisis. What was even irritating with this news is that just last month, this same person proudly reported to the people that there was no need to increase the price of water until early next year. And confronted with this, he said that the law creating his agency stated that they could increase prices to match inflationary factors. Again, government just shrugged its shoulder and at the rate these people blame the global financial crisis for all our problems, expect the worst in the coming days.
The other commodity which will increase its price this month is rice, our staple food. The grains agency heady said that this will be temporary because of dwindling supplies but will ease as soon as the summer harvest arrives. However, the chief of the International Rice Research Institute painted a grimmer picture. He said there would be less rice for us because Filipino farmers did not produce enough of the grains and hence, they don't have enough money to plant for the next season. With this kind of statement, expect some unscrupulous traders to take advantage of the situation and get the prices of rice sky high as in the same period last year. In fact, prices of rice has already gone up. The one I'm buying used to sell for 34 pesos two months ago, now it is at 37 pesos. I wouldn't be surprised if it increases to up to 40 pesos again or even more.
The newscast also carried a report of how average Filipinos like me are coping up with these hard times. I echo the sentiment of one distraught lady, "We spend this much already, but how much do we earn?"
They say we Filipinos are as resilient as the bamboo plant. But sometimes, even the bamboo breaks.
Another commodity that is about to have a price increase is water. The head of the agency in charge for water announced that it is inevitable, blaming the problem to the global financial crisis. What was even irritating with this news is that just last month, this same person proudly reported to the people that there was no need to increase the price of water until early next year. And confronted with this, he said that the law creating his agency stated that they could increase prices to match inflationary factors. Again, government just shrugged its shoulder and at the rate these people blame the global financial crisis for all our problems, expect the worst in the coming days.
The other commodity which will increase its price this month is rice, our staple food. The grains agency heady said that this will be temporary because of dwindling supplies but will ease as soon as the summer harvest arrives. However, the chief of the International Rice Research Institute painted a grimmer picture. He said there would be less rice for us because Filipino farmers did not produce enough of the grains and hence, they don't have enough money to plant for the next season. With this kind of statement, expect some unscrupulous traders to take advantage of the situation and get the prices of rice sky high as in the same period last year. In fact, prices of rice has already gone up. The one I'm buying used to sell for 34 pesos two months ago, now it is at 37 pesos. I wouldn't be surprised if it increases to up to 40 pesos again or even more.
The newscast also carried a report of how average Filipinos like me are coping up with these hard times. I echo the sentiment of one distraught lady, "We spend this much already, but how much do we earn?"
They say we Filipinos are as resilient as the bamboo plant. But sometimes, even the bamboo breaks.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Isolation
Our office was like an isolated island this day. We didn't have Internet connection the whole day. We were cut off from our email, our contacts, and out sources of data.
We were used to just calling our contacts and asking them to send the data we needed through email. But today, we were back to asking one of our clerks to leave the office and pick up the data. Talk about going back to basics.
While waiting for the ICT guys to get back our connection, my co-workers and I contemplated on our helplessness without an Internet connection. Some say that we have become too dependent on the technology that we are now slaves to it.
As usual, I disagreed. We are merely taking advantage of the technology because it is available and it makes our job easier. We may be dependent on it but we could, if needed be, always use the old ways.
Our day at the office ended and the connection was still out. The tech guys told us that the server conked out and it will take until tomorrow till they can get it running.
By the way, the messenger hasn't returned yet when we left the office.
We were used to just calling our contacts and asking them to send the data we needed through email. But today, we were back to asking one of our clerks to leave the office and pick up the data. Talk about going back to basics.
While waiting for the ICT guys to get back our connection, my co-workers and I contemplated on our helplessness without an Internet connection. Some say that we have become too dependent on the technology that we are now slaves to it.
As usual, I disagreed. We are merely taking advantage of the technology because it is available and it makes our job easier. We may be dependent on it but we could, if needed be, always use the old ways.
Our day at the office ended and the connection was still out. The tech guys told us that the server conked out and it will take until tomorrow till they can get it running.
By the way, the messenger hasn't returned yet when we left the office.
Monday, January 19, 2009
SPORE
Last December, my brother installed a new game called Spore in our home PC. The game was created by MAXXIS, the same people behind the hugely popular "The Sims" and "The Sims2", two of my favorite computer games. I immediately immersed myself in the game and found it highly entertaining.
The object of the game is to help your creature evolve into a civilization that will ultimately conquer the universe. You begin as a single-cell organism, spored by a crashing asteroid, and go through a series of evolutionary processes. The creature's brain gets bigger at each milestone until it develops a civilization, conquer nations in the entire planet and so on.
I was so proud when I was able to evolve from a single-cell organism to a land dwelling creature in less than an hour. Before the week ended, I already had a tribe with creatures using weapons, fishing and killing off their rival tribes.
Then my nephews and niece came. It took them less than a day to evolve their creature into a tribe and in less than a week, they conquered other planets. Not only that, their creatures were so beautifully designed and made mine look like a work of a 5 year old kid. My 15-year old nephew even found tricks and shortcuts that I didn't even know existed.
Meanwhile, my creatures are still languishing in their tribal existence. They can't even neutralize the purple tribe which is so treacherous. Adding salt to injury, the inhabitants of my 10-year old nephew's planet came in a spaceship one day, abducted my tribe and summarily dumped them in a sea of lava.
The object of the game is to help your creature evolve into a civilization that will ultimately conquer the universe. You begin as a single-cell organism, spored by a crashing asteroid, and go through a series of evolutionary processes. The creature's brain gets bigger at each milestone until it develops a civilization, conquer nations in the entire planet and so on.
I was so proud when I was able to evolve from a single-cell organism to a land dwelling creature in less than an hour. Before the week ended, I already had a tribe with creatures using weapons, fishing and killing off their rival tribes.
Then my nephews and niece came. It took them less than a day to evolve their creature into a tribe and in less than a week, they conquered other planets. Not only that, their creatures were so beautifully designed and made mine look like a work of a 5 year old kid. My 15-year old nephew even found tricks and shortcuts that I didn't even know existed.
Meanwhile, my creatures are still languishing in their tribal existence. They can't even neutralize the purple tribe which is so treacherous. Adding salt to injury, the inhabitants of my 10-year old nephew's planet came in a spaceship one day, abducted my tribe and summarily dumped them in a sea of lava.
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