Christian the lion

 

 

 

I'll let this video speak for itself.

Sucky music though, so be warned.

 

 

 

 

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photo credit: http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n114/corsiphoto/liontv_468x649.jpg

Date # 2

          During movie dates, I usually pay more "attention" to my date than the movie itself.  But "The Dark Knight" was such a good film that I seriously forgot to be a bit more romantic towards Tine during the course of the movie.  See, I even chose SM Megamall as the venue because it still had the old style Balcony division. 

          (I wanted to make a separate review of the movie, but I don't think I'd contribute anything new.  Just take other people's word for it.  It's an excellent movie.  The best Batman movie to date.)

          Dined at Sbarro afterwards.  Good thing the place was not packed like it always is.

          Had a bad cold all throughout.  Bugger.

Does anyone know...

... if there's a photography ban in the Makati CBD?

I was in the act of taking pictures of RCBC plaza when I was prohibited from doing so by a security guard. According to him, "Ser, bawal iyan dito.  Kahit saang building dito sa Makati, bawal iyan.".  Since I didn't want to debate with someone who is trained to not be reasonable, I simply acceded.

So here's what i want to know: Could it be merely a building-specific rule?  Or is it an actual City Ordinance?

The Pinoy "Gay Indie Film" redundancy

          My flamboyantly gay friend Sam recently put up a list in his blog of what he referred to as the top 5 best Philippine gay indie films. 

          That subject reminded me of a drinking session I had with a few co-workers wherein one of us (Pinky) commented that virtually all Philippine independent films have gay themes.  Up to that time, I thought I was the only one who made that observation.  I actually kept my silence on the issue mainly because in today's obsession for political correctness, I've already lost track of what might be considered discriminatory.  (That, and the fact that I interact with gays and lesbians on a daily basis, and I actually had a gay housemate for a couple of years - they're generally nice people and I didn't want to offend any of them.)

          So, getting my needed affirmation that my original observation was valid, I'm now publicizing the question: "Why do almost all Philippine independent films have gay content?"

          I don't really care if these same films have reaped awards in international competitions.  Has it come to a point that film independence in the Philippines has become so skewed in favor of gay filmmakers that non-gay films can't be produced independently anymore?

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          Of course, there's nothing I want more than being proved wrong on this point.  So, my dear readers, please suggest some good non-gay Pinoy indie films.  You can place them in the comments section.  Thanks!









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photo credit: http://volcanochild.co.uk/images/maximo_oliveros.jpg

Chito, Olga and the Batman Dark Knight backpack

Just to show how pleased I am with my new toy. ;-)

• Olga (Canon EOS 450D) mounted on the aluminum tripod (manufactured by Wizen).
• Chito in his 4th year high school football jersey (manufactured by Botak).
• Dark Knight backpack freebie in the background.

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          I realized that I'll never be a cam-man-whore with this DSLR.  As my friend Edvic pointed out, I'll most certainly spend the rest of my shutterbug days behind the camera, and will sorely miss being its subject.  So one afternoon, I set up Olga in her tripod and took pictures of myself with it looking for my best angle.

          Here it is.  Probably the only picture of myself taken with this camera that will ever be in existence.  (All the other pics I already erased.)

Presenting...... Olga!

          Who?

          "Olga", for the information of the faithful readers of this blog is my new toy - a Digital SLR, more specifically of the Canon EOS 450D variety.  (Oh yes, another major purchase just two months after I got Isaac. )

          This means I'd have to apologize to my dear friend Ampy who came up with the name "Athena", which was, until very recently, the leading name suggestion for this DSLR. 

(Ampy, I had every intention of naming this baby "Athena".  However, when I finally held it in my hands, it didn't feel like an "Athena" to me.  This one felt bulky, loaded, and tough.  For a split second, I thought of Lloyd's suggestion - "Holmes" - but then it hit me... OLGA.  A very tough female Russian name.  It was perfect!  Sorry, I guess "Athena" is the perfect name for something else.)

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          I tried hard to produce a good-enough first photo of Olga using my Sony Ericsson P990i, but they didn't really turn out well.  That's the problem with buying a really good camera for the first time - you'd have to take pictures of it using an inferior one.  In this case, a smartphone with a 2 Megapixel camera. 



          The photos you see in this page were already taken using a flash and added lighting from a fluorescent lamp.  I guess it only goes to show that I still have a lot to learn about photography.  The good news is, I now have Olga to learn with. 

          I know this bloke Rockwell said that "it's not the camera, it's the photographer" (or something like that).  But still, it does help if your camera has 12.2 Megapixels, and a $h!tload of other features that are not a few notches above those that are present in even the most advanced point-and-shoot digicams around. 

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          Aside from the items in the box, Olga came with the following freebies/accessories as part of the bargain with Kim (my seller):

• a 2 Gigabyte SD card
• a 1 year Canon Philippines warranty
• a screen protector
• a 4 ft. high aluminum tripod; and
• a black Dark Knight backpack (which is really way cooler than the Rudy Project camera bag that they were giving out before this week)

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Many thanks go to the following:

Kim Lato
- For very good customer service, and another gadget in excellent condition.  Buy smart, Buy Kimstore! 

HSBC Girl Ampy,
Smart Boy Lloyd,
Mrs. Muchay,
Soon-to-be-Mrs. Sheh,
and ex-girlfriend Me-Ann
- For your name suggestions and for sharing my excitement. 

The Social Security System
- For approving my salary loan. 

A Brief History of Time

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Science
Author:	Stephen Hawking

[When one reads a book and finds that he understands its content only around 35 to 40 percent of the time, the propriety of rating it 5 out of 5 stars (and indeed the very act of making the review itself) is very questionable. Thankfully, the privilege accorded to one who actually owns the particular site containing the review renders this difficulty entirely negligible.]

Flashback: During my freshman year in college, I took Physics as one of my required natural science subjects. During that first semester, I used the book "Conceptual Physics" as the course textbook. It was written by a bloke named Paul Hewitt - who's apparently an American Physics teacher. He writes well, and he seems to be someone who genuinely wants to make Physics be understood by laypeople. However, it seems that not even a pleasing conversational style in writing can make a person gain a better understanding of Physics. Somewhere along the way, the mathematical element has to be introduced, and from that point onwards it becomes confusing.

Now, Stephen Hawking is far more accomplished than Paul Hewitt - he is universally acknowledged as the greatest scientific mind after Albert Einstein himself. One would then come to expect a number of similar things when faced with the prospect of actually reading a book written by someone of his stature. Worse, he isn't likely to have Paul Hewitt's conversational tone - an impression no less brought about by his being afflicted by Lou Gehrig's Disease.

There are a number of striking observations that one can make regarding this book - all of which are unexpected and might come as a surprise for some who, like me, know very little about Physics. It is along the lines of these observations that this review is organized.

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Observation #1: There are no equations nor computations in this book.

Actually there is one - e = mc^2. And that's the only one. Stephen Hawking was so conscious about making this book understandable to laypeople that he specifically set out to write this book without the normally confusing computations associated with the study of Physics. He, however, made an exception for Einstein's famous equation in order to stress its importance to Physics and the study of science in its entirety. Other than that, everything is in plain English and suffused with everyday examples that illustrate the particular principle he is explaining.

This does not mean at all that the book is easy to read. Hawking has a tendency to go on long, winding explanations with little regard for whether or not the explanations themselves are still understood by the reader. Nevertheless, the effort bears fruit in terms of creating a readable flow in the text (which is usually abruptly interrupted when computations are introduced) that at least enables the reader to have a basic idea on how ideas on time and space have progressed from the time of Aristotle.

Observation #2: If you try hard enough, you will begin to be familiar with some scientific jargon you previously did not understand.

This is the direct result of Observation #1. If, for example, you read Dan Brown's book "Angels and Demons" and never understood why CERN had to create an enormous particle accelerator (nor understand what particle accelerators are in the first place) then this book will be a good reference for you. Personally, I'm fascinated by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. I've always had an idea that it talks about the way the act of observing a moving object makes it deviate from its path. I just didn't realize in what way this applies to reality until i came across this book. Reading this book also gave me a very basic idea of String Theory - an idea that was supposedly featured in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. But I'm still trying to read the book again (and surfing the net) in order to better understand the difference between Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity.

Observation #3: Newton's laws are (gasp!) outdated.

Throughout our grade school, high school and even college years, what we took as "law" on matters of time, space and motion are Newtonian. It would then come as a surprise that the only reason Newton's laws are still applicable for us Earthlings is because (1) Earth conditions are uniquely suited for such laws; and (2) the findings of more advanced theories, specifically those of Einstein, while more accurate, have very little discrepancy with Newton's laws on on an Earthly setting. The difference becomes apparent when one's subject of inquiry is beyond the confines of the solar system

Observation #4: The word "God" is scattered throughout the book.

A few years ago, I have already come across Stephen Hawking and his reputation, and my impression was that he is an atheist. It was then a surprise for me to encounter the repeated mention of God in this book. In hindsight, this should not really come as a surprise because Hawking's area of expertise is on the very composition and creation of the universe - an area that still has huge gaps for science, and big enough for an idea of God to fill in. Early in the text, one gets the idea that he is not really an atheist but someone who is both very open-minded and very scientific at the same time. That is, one who does not prematurely discount the possibility of God's existence and would rather reserve his judgment until such time that he has enough information to make a definitive statement on the matter. Later, when one nears the end, one realizes that he might already have made up his mind that there is no God but is merely toying with the idea for the sake of demonstrating how incompatible it is with what is being suggested by scientific evidence.

Hawking begins by stating it is possible for a creator to exist but places limits on when the act of creation should have occurred. He ends the book by saying that there may in fact be no room for a creator after all. In any case, he did the right thing by not being confrontational about his disbelief in God's existence, and instead made a careful and detailed explanation that points his readers to realize for themselves what he considers the unavoidable conclusion on the Universe's beginning and end.

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I would of course oppose any notion of God's nonexistence due to my Christian orientation. But that doesn't stop me from admiring this gargantuan work by Stephen Hawking. Here is a book on Physics that one can actually read from cover to cover. For those who wish to know more about Physics and the history of scientific thought, this book is perfect. There's no guarantee that one would understand the concepts right away, but it provides an appropriate starting point for further inquiry.

"Benjo kag ang Batalyon Pitbull"

[I really should be putting these in the videos section, but since I already dedicated that part of the site to Steely Dan, the blog section would have to do.]

          This series of videos are, in my opinion, the funniest Pinoy creations in Youtube for the year 2007.  They're really just edited scenes in the movie "300" that were dubbed with hilarious Ilonggo dialogues.  It's popularity has spawned the same videos re-posted with Tagalog subtitles - which further enhanced its popularity.

          To the unknown original creator of these videos, thank you!

Click each link below to view the videos (parenthetical notes are notable lines in the clip):

Benjo: Mangayo Ko Kwarta
(AKO!  SI!  BENJO!!!)

Benjo Kag Ang Batalyon Pitbull
(Ako ya waay ko ya bungot!  CLEAN CUT!!!)

Benjo: Ang Paglalakbay
(WHOOOOOOOOO!!!  TEN YEARS!  Ten years na kami waay kapaligo!)

Benjo: Ang Pagsalakay (The Rise of the Black Bord)

Benjo: Sa Ulihi Nga Ginhawa (part 1)
(Benjo: Gintext taka... WER NA U?!!! / Kalbs: Nagreply ko sir... HERE NA ME!!!  hambal ko HERE NA ME!!!)

Benjo: Sa Ulihi Nga Ginhawa (part 2)









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photo credit: http://blogs.nypost.com/movies/archives/300-Leonidas.jpg

A real blue eagle

          This entry was supposed to be a about the Ateneo winning against La Salle during yesterday's UAAP basketball match.  However, in the process of looking for a suitable photo to go with the entry, I typed the term "blue eagle" in Google Image as an exact phrase search and was surprised to find out that there is a real blue eagle.

          The photo on the left is of the Chilean Blue Eagle, which is indigenous in, er, Chile ... and also Peru (where it is called the "Blue Eagle of Peru".  Duh.)

          I decided to just forego my original idea and instead show everyone what a real blue eagle looks like.  I figure that there's probably a hundred blog entries talking about Ateneo's win anyway, making my own most likely wouldn't contribute anything new.

          (Later on, I made a similar search on the term "green archer', but I didn't find anything interesting.  Quite predictable, if you ask me. ;-) )

          What's great about this blue eagle is that it is not purely "blue", but it also has some white on it - matching the Ateneo's school colors of blue and white.  The beauty of this avian is complemented by the detail of the feathers.  Those on the torso (white) are clearly of a different type from the one on the upper breast, crest and wings (blue).  It's of course nowhere as majestic as our own Philippine Eagle - but still, like all eagles it's a sight to behold in a stationary pose, and probably more breathtaking in flight.

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photo credit: http://www.deemacphotos.com/images/chilean_blue_eagle_01.jpg

RP envoy charged in US

RP envoy charged in US
By Ninotchka Rosca
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:01:00 07/06/2008

NEW YORK -- AMBASSADOR Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., who headed the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007, is one of four defendants in a civil complaint alleging trafficking, forced labor, peonage and racketeering.

..... The complaint was filed by 39-year-old Marichu Suarez Baoanan through lawyers Aaron Mendelsohn of Troutman Sanders and Ivy O. Suriyopas of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

..... Baoanan, who holds a degree in nursing from Unciano Colleges and General Hospital in the Philippines, said she arrived in the United States in January 2006 with a diplomatic “red” passport and visa, as a “personal employee” of Ambassador Baja.

She said she stayed at the five-story Philippine consular residence at 15 East 66th Street, New York—a townhouse where she was made to work 16 hours daily, seven days a week, in the Baja household.

..... Baoanan said she was paid only a total of $100 for three months of work, and another $100 for taking care of Facundo’s son who, she said, was allowed to hit her.

(Edited for brevity.  More of the story here.)

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          This only goes to show that the practice of double-speak as regards how OFWs are prioritized by this government has permeated the hallowed ranks of the foreign service, and is no longer the exclusive province of the highest levels of the Presidency.

          What makes this so much worse is that the alleged crime is committed by the very same officials who should be upholding the interest of the Filipino people in that country.  This is not mere negligence of duty.  This is a premeditated and actively perpetrated crime.  A countryman was deceived and exploited by members of the official's household, in the Philippine consular residence itself. 

          If a non-Filipino committed this crime, the victim runs to the embassy or consulate for help.  In the present case, where can one run for help?  There are grave doubts as to whether any U.S. court has jurisdiction to decide on this particular case.  Although it happened in U.S. soil, the fact that it happened in the Philippine Consular Residence means that a Philippine court should have jurisdiction.  Which brings us to the question - can anyone of Lauro Baja's stature ever be convicted in a Philippine court?

          We could already foresee what will happen.  We will once again witness a grand "washing of hands" spree by various government officials led by the President herself.  This administration should be enshrined in the Guinness' Book of World Records for frequently promoting personal hygiene by the washing of hands.

          Meanwhile, the alleged victim never gets justice, and the alleged perpetrator enjoys his retirement with a fat government pension.









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photo credit: http://sonoranalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/ThumbsDown.jpg

The "Name That DSLR" Contest

The long introduction:

          I have a Macbook named Isaac, a smartphone named Primus, and an old CD Walkman named Onesimus.

          The fact that I give my gadgets personal names is something that was virtually unknown until recently.  As to why I do this, I really don't know.  They say that if you give objects names, you'd get emotionally attached to them.  It's not necessarily true in my case.  I really just like naming them.

          Many people are already familiar with Isaac - which I named after the biblical Isaac, who was born when his father Abraham was already well advanced in years.  This was because when I purchased it online in Kimstore, it took such a long time before I finally got my hands on it.  (Wasn't really Kim's fault, but that's another story.)  Primus, which is Latin for "first", was so named because it was the first gadget I took seriously.  (Ampy, you're a witness to this. )

          Onesimus, on the other hand, is something of a pun.  It was given to me as a gift at a time when the portable CD player was fast becoming obsolete in favor of the iPod.  As a result, I rarely got to use it.  Now, the word onesimus means "useful" in Greek, which is quite the opposite of what Onesimus turned out to be.  The name also has a biblical background.  If you remember, St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon contained a reference to a slave similarly named Onesimus - who was actually quite a useless slave, in addition to running away from his master and even commiting theft.

And so we reach the main point:

          In a couple of weeks' time, I'd be adding a DLSR to my gadget family, and this is most probably going to be a Canon 450D.  (I know, I know, I've wanted the Nikon D60 for the longest time, but the Canon 450D has live view.)  I'm still thinking of a suitable name for it and I couldn't seem to think of any.  I'm then inviting you all to give your name suggestions in the comments section.  No, you won't get a prize beyond eternal credit for giving the gadget a cool name... except maybe having the honor of being its first photographic subject, if its practicable.

Here are my preferences:

• It has to be a female name. (All my gadgets so far have male-sounding names.)
• It has to sound as un-techie as possible.
• Three syllables maximum.

         
          There isn't exactly a deadline for this.  So just keep the suggestions flowing.  Thanks!








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photo credit: http://www.digicamreview.com/images/canon_450d_focus2.jpg