The Whoas!, Ooops!, and Acks! of a less than ordinary individual who would want to live a more than special life in the Philippines.

28 November 2004

Chowking

For some reason, I've been getting google hits for Chowking, the Chinese fast food chain here in the Philippines. Finally I found a site with a backgrounder on the restaurant.

"FOR a long time, Robert Kuan, founder of Chowking, the popular Chinese fast food chain, the first of its kind in the country, was known to many as Mr. Chowking. He cast that label aside when he sold his business, lock, stock and barrel, to fast food giant Jollibee in November 1999. Why? 'Because the offer was good and it was time to let go,' he replies without hesitation..."


24 November 2004

Philippine American War

This was America's first true colonial war as a world power. After defeating Spain in Cuba and in the Philippines in 1898, the U.S. purchased the Philippines, Puerto Rico and several other islands from the Spanish. However, the Filipinos had been fighting a bloody revolution against Spain since 1896, and had no intention of becoming a colony of another imperialist power. In February of 1899, fighting broke out between the occupying American Army and the Filipino forces...

Don't know where to put this in my links below so I just decided to post this for those who need a reference to the US - Philippine War of 1899. This should be under Philippine History but this site is too specific.

LINK


21 November 2004

Got to keep it Real....

Barcelona 3, Real Madrid 0.

Man. A team with Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Owen, Ronaldo, and Roberto Carlos just got trounced by a wide grinning Ronaldhino. See that ten second exhibition he did with the ball late in the game? Wow. Plus that look Ronaldo had after the third shot said it all...

I've been a Zidane fan since the 90s hence my affiliation with the team but 3, 0? I watched the game this morning and that third penalty shot by Ronaldhino just broke my heart.

Of course, the racial chanting that marred the last Spain - England friendly didn't die down. Now it was targetted towards the Brazillians (Roberto Carlos in particular).

I can't believe they would do that to Roberto Carlos forgetting that Ronaldhino, another Brazillian, is on their team....

LINK


Only in...

A short series of photos of Only in (name of country).

LINK


20 November 2004

The Top 10 Advertising Icons Of The Century

Well, those are the top advertising icons in the US. Here's a link to it.

But what about here in the Philippines? Who are the most well known mascots or top icons in the advertising industry? Well not in any order here are my picks:

1. Charlie Balakubak -for those born after the 70's, he was the guy in those dandruff commercials, the catchphrase was "Charling Balakubak? Excuse me...". I think the shampoo was Gard

2. Jolly Bee - The Jollibee mascot although I preferred Hetty Spaghetti. I mean, what a wonderful mascot for a kid. A screwed up girl who would put noodles on her head....

3. Mr. Clean - Bald guy, white shirt. Nuff said

4. Ronald McDonald - well, McDo is everywhere....

5. The Bebel Gum Girl - remember Hapee toothpaste?

6. The Alaska Kid - endorser for alaska evaporated milk.

7. Nino Muhlach - Remember that milk ad? "Grow tall little man"? Well, he didn't.

8. Jaworski - Timex, the tough watch.

9. The bouncing Klim ball - sundays when I was a kid, i remember the Klim commercial where you follow the bouncing ball to sing along with the commercial. I forgot the lyrics but I still remember the ball.

10. The Sarsi with Egg man - this one is a bit vague but until now whenever I see a can of Sarsi softdrink, I remember this commercial where this guy puts in a whole raw egg in the glass with Sarsi

(The top link via Tom McMahon)


UPDATE

Mark kindly corrected me with the Bebel Gum Girl. It was Pepsodent with Orly Mercado. But I have this distinct impression that it was Dong Puno doing the interview. Anyway, thanks Mark! Can't wait for Dec 1 when you relaunch your site!


WindowsMediaPlayers incompatibilities with Firefox

A friend emailed me saying that Windows Media Player doesn't seem to work with Firefox.

Well, actually it does. All one has to do is to copy the file npdsplay.dll from c:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\ to the plug in directory of Firefox (c:\program files\mozillafirefox\plugins\). That should work.


Matching Colors

I woke up from a phone call. It was the office.

Seems that we're short on manpower today and I have to oversee an event. Since Friday is usually a willy nilly day, I said sure. I was told it was going to be a wine event at the Mandarin Hotel.

When I got to the office, there was a change of plans. Now, I was going to oversee the Victory Party.

At La Salle.

I was wearing a blue shirt.

*** To those not living in the Philippines, the school color of La Salle is green. Ateneo, the rival school, are known as the Blue Eagles ***


16 November 2004

The early bird sometimes don't like worms....

I just saw Dateline NBC and it was the segment on the fat kid who can't seem to lose weight. What imprinted on me was the scene where there was that humongous burger he had in his hand. Prior to that, I saw "Harlold and Kumar Go to White Castle" and "Supersize Me". The thing was I was hankering for burgers. And I don't mean no Eddie Murphy type House burgers. I mean those really big, mushroom cloud laying, it could pass off as a monster truck wheel, 40000 calorie per bite, world starvation solution, that's no space station-that's a burger burger.

Wait, hankering is too subtle a word for this craving. I can't think of a word for it. But I can describe it. It's as if my stomach just tore into the time-space continuum and now it has enough space to fit the whole universe in. All of that empty void in my gut is now hankering to be filled up. Usually, when I get this feeling, orange juice would wash it all away. Seriously, if you have a craving for a certain type of food and you can't find it? Orange juice. Really works. I'd stake my li....

Ooops. I am digressing. Where was I?

Oh yeah, craving. So anyway I just got to have myself a really huge burger right now. I am losing my mind and I can't do anything about it. Why?

Well because it's 8am and McDonalds only serves breakfast.

UPDATE

Well, I didn't get my burger that day. And the next morning as I was watching MSNBC, they featured Hardee's Monster Thickburger. If you missed it, I said the next MORNING. Life's a female dog.


15 November 2004

POP goes the GMail

"It's your mail. You should be able to choose how and where you read it. Access your mail the way you want to, with free POP access and automatic forwarding. You can even switch to other email services without having to worry about losing access to your messages. Think of it as email portability..."

So now Gmail has POP access. For those Outlook users (I use Thunderbird) this may be good news. Although I prefer web access myself.

Gmail: Help Center:


14 November 2004

There is no devil, only God when he's drunk...

So I asked him, "Can I post this on my blog?"

"What's a blog?", he asked.

"It's like a diary on the net.". He gave me a quizzical look. I took a deep breath and said, "It's a website where I put in mostly anything I want to put in...".

"OK, as long as you don't put my name"

**********************

So there's this guy who is so madly in love with this GRO (Guest Relations Officer, or basically a girl who works in a girlie bar). At one point, they were so into each other. I mean, they'd be seeing each other everyday. If ever, the guy felt the very definition of what love is. Really. Why? Well, it's a doozy and this is stuff for a soap opera or drama show. Early in the relationship she worked for an escort service. Yup, the same ones that was on the papers months ago. And still he understood and loved her. She had two boyfriends on the side. But still he didn't take it against her. I mean, he even helped her get back with one of the boyfriends even if he was still with her. Guys would approach her in the bar and she would hug and kiss them right in front of him and it's still ok with him. He calls it love. I call it stupidity but then again,

Then one day, as most of these relationships go, it became cold. Well, the coldness was on her side. I mean, I kind of knew she was already seeing some other dudes (plural) on the side.

He didn't want to believe it. Or just looked the other way. He was way over his head on this. He was truly, sincerely in love with this chick.

It came to a point that one time, they went out on a date. And get this, while on the date, she excused herself and told him that she'll just visit some friends nearby. She never came back. The guy waited until 5 IN THE MORNING for her. He didn't get a call or anything on where she was. He went home and as he was about to sleep, she called him apologizing. I forgot the excuse she made to the guy but the thing is, HE FORGAVE HER!

And that's not all.

The next day, he was so distraught about what happened that he called her up and they talked. Somehow the conversation turned sour and the GIRL GOT MAD AT HIM. Didn't talk or answer his call the next two days or so. He even visited her and asked for her forgiveness!

Things happened and somehow, it's a real long story, they split up the next week. After about three weeks, for some odd reason, he was having dinner or something with the girl and a common friend (I was supposed to come but didn't. Had I known...). Things were odd somehow but afterwards as they all stepped out to go home, the girl tells the guy that he has to leave since her new boyfriend is passing by and the new guy can't see him.

Confused?

Turns out, the guy knows this new boyfriend. I don't know how to describe it but it's like this. Bear with me here. Since the girl works in a girlie bar, she gets to meet guys basically every night. And since this is her source of income, she can't tell them that she has a boyfriend. Now this guy would come there and pretend that he doesn't know the girl. But he does see her with all these guests. Of course he'd get jealous but she'd always tell him that these are just guests and mean nothing to her. Now my friend who I don't know what got into him, just grinned and bore it. You getting the picture now? So anyway, this guest who's always there all the time with her turns out to be the new boyfriend! And I found out, this was the guy she went out with when she left my friend on that date!

Guess what my friend did. He smiled. Waved goodbye to the two and left. But I could see in his eyes that he still longed for her. Now that's what I call P***Y POWER.


13 November 2004

Vince Vega can't a hold a candle to this....

Before you click the link better wear some cool shades, a dance partner, and go barefoot.

LINK

(via Retrocrush)


10 November 2004

Do or do not

Seems I have an opportunity to try out for a spot in a popular psychic/horror show on TV. Not really sure if I'd do it. I kind of like the anonymity I have right now but times are kind of hard.

I asked Lulu and Gabbi if I should try it out and both of them said yes. It is one of their favorite shows.

Maybe I should...


"Ghost or mist" "famous places in the Philippines" and "Joy Sumilang"...

Seems the term "mist or ghost" has been popular for the last few weeks. For the curious the link is here

Other search terms that keep coming up are "famous filipino scientists", "famous places in the Philippines", "Lala Monterlibano", and "Joy Sumilang", oh and also "Lord Vader, Rise"...

Can anyone spell eclectic?


09 November 2004

"Six Feet Under" to go six feet under...

"... if the show is about anything, it's about the fact that everything comes to an end..."
Alan Ball
Creator/Executive Producer
Six Feet Under

LINK


07 November 2004

It's not what you think...

Ban on Christmas caroling sought

Well I do agaree with her...


06 November 2004

Lord Vader, Rise

Ooookay! The Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith trailer is out. Well, this one rocks!. From the looks of it, this one should be better than the previous two. And for the brave of heart, the supposed script summary of EP3.

One thing though... those wookies reminds me so much of the Ewoks in Episode VI.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Trailer HERE

Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith Plot Summary Script Synopsis Story HERE

ADDITIONAL: I found another site hosting the trailer. Better hurry up before it gets put down! I updated the link!


04 November 2004

I'd rather think that you're buying in...

So, after ranking number one in search engines for "famous places in the Philippines", "famous people in the Philippines", and other things famous in the Philippines, I decided to add Adsense to my site.

Hey, income is income, right?


03 November 2004

Et tu Google?

Now even Google ranks me number one for "famous places in the Philippines". I better sign up for ad sense now...

And for those who are looking for famous places and other famous stuff in the Philippines, it's on the right side of this site. Just scoot over down a bit...

FYI Wow Philippines is ranked number three.

LINK


02 November 2004

Would a thesaurus help?

Sometimes the conversations we have day to day are far more interesting than those wine-liners, i mean, one liners we get in movies.

Take for example the one I had a few days ago...

"She never even looked back at me, the last time we saw each other. I told her I love her and she said the same too but she wasn't looking at me. She got in the cab and drove off. Not once did she look back. We didn't know it then but that was the last time we saw each other..."

What do you say to something like that? I mean, would something like this do?

"Dude, she never did accept the fact that she loves you. She does you know, but she never truly accepted that. It's better off this way..."

What do you say to something like that?

Where are those dang writers when you need them?


01 November 2004

There's money to be made somewhere with this...

Using Yahoo! Search Results for "famous places in the Philippines", I beat the Wow Philippines website. I mean, my site is listed three times (ranked 1 to 3). Although in Google, I'm ranked no. 4 for the same search result.

WOW.

LINK