A Summer to Simmer

The Manila summer season is just barely reaching its boiling point. The sensation of warm sand granules between the toes, ice cold beer in your left hand and a half lit cigarette on the other, all under the hot crimson afternoon sun.

More excitement for the best part? None. It’s because I’ll be sitting this one out.

No bore me out at Bora this time.

 

Replacing the blue, seducing seas with damp, freezing, after-winter air.

Sinugba for grilled whoppers, margaritas for black coffee, migrating seals for blue seal, sun-burnt shoulders for cozy windbreakers.

In a manner of seeing it, it sucks.

All there is, is to sway that humble gaze, pack the backpacks full and look forward to the sakura trees grown on foreign soil.

Another Hot J-Pop Chick (Keep ‘em Coming!)

Here’s another specimen that just got in through my radar. She sang the ending credits for the new season of Gundam 00. As always, I am quite impressed with the latest installment, and the soundtrack is pretty good,far better than those featured on Gundam Seed. The second ending credit for the this season gets the hair on the back of my neck tingling when I listen to it, and the animation sequence goes along well for the rhythm. . I found at that the singer is a hot korean-japanese-Los Angeles born chick named Yuna Ito. Eureka! My google-fu hasn’t failed me.

She’s so….hot.

She looks like a cross between Aubrey Miles, a bit of Nikki Gil and a younger version of Barbie Almalbis. Talent and anime-looks make a good tandem.

Nakaka-in-lab.

And I do look for lyric translations, I believe that the Japanese are profound lyricists. These days, most of their poetry are pretty much inserted into their music. I noticed that their songs may sound like your typical ballad, but if you listen closely and check out the words used, the lyrics and the thought widely deal with humanity and social issues, freedom,self-realization, ideals, nostalgia, and a little but not the overwhelmingly mushy “I love you – you love me” redundant stanzas (Yeah, it’s their “itsumo” thing). Don’t forget the hopeless romantic element.

Some excerpts from the lyric translation I got, and the thumb set of Gundam 00 Season 2 end credits at the bottom:

hana ha kaze ni yureodoru youni
ame ha daichi wo uroosu youni
kono sekai ha yorisoiai ikiteru noni
naze hito ha kizutsukeau no
naze wakare ha otozureru no

Flowers dance in the wind,
rain moistens the Earth…
If everyone in this world want to live together,
why do they hurt each other?
Why do they separate?

sekai no hate wo dare ga mita no
tabi no owari wo dare ga tsugeru no
ima ha kotae ga mienakute nagai yoru demo
shinjita michi wo susunde hoshii
sono saki ni hikari ga matsu kara

Who has seen the world’s end?
Who informed us of the Journey’s End?
I can’t see the answer now, but even in long nights,
I hope you’ll continue on the path you believe in
because a light is waiting for you.

Windows Live Writer ~ A Test Drive

Yesh. I’m trying this one out. Hopefully, all goes well. No more mis-refreshing.

No Posts, yeah, stop the slur.

Yeah. That’s zero, nada, zip, nil..

Been quite pre-occupied with a lot of stuff lately, so haven’t been able o get any posts done. All blog entries I happened to make at this point are still on their draft forms, I will try to get them all up as soon as my free time allows it.

Some titles on the pipeline for dunongkalye:

- Gone in 6 Seconds, Quick Escape Out of Windows Vista (Tutorial);
- P.S.P. ~ Please Stay on Portable (Ranting);
- A World Full of Play-Safes (Ranting);
- Games on my Hit List( mock title for my new blog section).

Thanks to everyone who never get tired of leaving their comments. Ill try to get them up all soon. Also, I am thinking of migrating this blog to a stand-alone website. Been studying joomla for quite some time now, and this site’s implementation could most likely be my very first web dev project.

Watch out for updates soon.

The Joys of Public Urination

And some pictures to prove it!!!!

McDonald’s El Bimbo Meal

Talk about the power of TV advertising. Had lunch in McDonald’s Greenbelt today, and the combo, although not on the official menu, is taking cashier booths by storm.

I went for the usual, chicken, fries, soda and extra barbecue sauce. If I’m in an extra state of nostalgia from that e-heads song, or perhaps when nobody’s looking, I think I could slip in and order one for takeout, which I presume however is most unlikely to happen.

It’s a weird combination.  Something sweet and something salty. The melodramatic tune fits perfectly with the tragedy of the first love that ain’t meant to be at the end, as cleverly depicted in the minute-long  commercial.

As surprising to realize, we do get a taste of familiar scenes during the course of our everyday  lives.

Just like dipping fries on a choco-vanilla sundae,  life indeed at times, could be bittersweet.

WarpLinks:

- Click for the Mcdo Vid on Youtube

- Click for the Song Stream in Imeem

Women According to Engineers

Had a good laugh after reading some mails from my SPAM Bin. These have been out for quite a while now, thought of giving them a good place to post.  Accolades to the twisted yet brilliant minds who have cracked the nut on what have been plaguing scientists for many decades.  Now the proof is out and its time to compare your notes, I know a lot of you reader’s there will find it hilarious, men, or women alike.

By the way, my apologies for not being able to post updates on the DOST-NBI clearance guides. I will try to get to your comments soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the following results of years of research::

Theory A: The formula to Demise

Theory B: HazMat Warning

Theory C: Under d’ Saya Transformation Graph

Theory D: Variable Switch Circus

Theory E: The Long Winding Road

My New Little Black Box

I got my Dell XPS M1530 laptop a week back. I have been stress testing it for quite some time now and all seem to be clicking on all cylinders. I do load testing for every electronic equipment I buy, for a couple of practical reasons. One, is to check if everything is working fine while still within the return warranty period. The other thing, is for me to find out if the gadget is really the type, model, and has the mojo that I wanted.   So far, this little black box has no intention to disappoint.

I’m not really after the portability, making me not a  big fan of laptops. Due to the lack of support for dedicated  video cards, notebooks will always fall prey to most mediocre desktops.  The XPS line however, for its size, supports up to 256 Mb of dedicated VGA processing, and what’s more sweet about it is that the hardware architecture is made by NVIDIA. It saved me from settling with for those X1300 integrated graphics cards by Intel, that comes with most of the newer lines of laptops, which is basically just there to relay the display from MOBO to the Screen.

I have been using RADEON for my desktops until now, and although the graphics are really astounding, there has always been some heat issues. NVIDIA cards handle heat spikes better than RADEONs, and that fact will be fairly handy on portable machines, since there are only a handful of ways available to enhance the default cooling system. No water cooling, no copper mod, do not even think of opening the vents.

It is also lightweight, around 6 lbs tops, and has very slim form factor towards the edges. Such a good takeaway knowing that its performance is basically at par with the more bulkier 17 inch laptops in terms of gaming capabilities.

Since I ordered this monster online, I was able to customize all its hardware settings. I made sure that all specs exceeded what I have in my trusty desktop back home. Even the color, I had a dominant gray over black motif for my PC, now I got it the other way around. I almost chose the Red color series, but I think it would just be too much flare to bring along. The black design, like clothes, is versatile enough to be match any accessory, and blends enough on any environment. After getting all the needed specs finalized, i look at the finished build and it occurred to me that what I really wanted was not a laptop, but rather a DESKTOP replacement. The hesitation settled down and being the impulsive buyer that I am, I realized that I just could be having both in a small but powerful package. “Add to Cart” buttons away!

Size comparison between XPS M1330 on the left, XPS M1530 on the right. Bill Gates, Bono, and Michael Dell are just there for the shoot.

The XPS M1530 has a sibling, a smaller M1330, about 2 and a half inches diagonally smaller than the 15.4 inch screen.  It also looks great, but simply won’t make the cut since I plan to play some graphic intensive games, thus defeating my purpose of buying a gaming machine anyway.

I also find the biometrics feature quite convenient. A small thumbmark scanner below the keyboard allows me to log on to Windows by just swiping a finger, unlike the normal way of having to type in the passwords. I downloaded new drivers for it so I can use a designated fingermark to launch programs. Firefox also has this plugin to launch different websites via  a finger press, quite a nifty trick that surely pleases the geek in me.

Anyways, I tested Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars a bit earlier before this post, and it works flawlessly with all settings maxxed out. I can’t wait to try it on Crysis or COD.  I’ll follow up with the results on future posts.

My first little black box (Sony DSC – H7) now has sparring partner in getting my attention span. Just sweet.

The Warp Zone: DOST Temporary Clearance Letter

I promised to post something like this for the benefit of anyone else who never expected needing it at one point.

To make the long story short, I felt a heck of a shock after receiving word that I am to be sent to the United States for some official business or training regimen by my current company. This happened about a month ago. Being a DOST Scholar once, I know there would be hurdles along the way, as the contract dictates that Il still have a couple or so months to go before being cleared off the 5 – Year , temporary restraining order.

I said to myself “Okaaaay..Relax.. Breath lightly, now, documents check. What do we have..”

1. NSO Birth Certificate – None

2. NBI Clearance = Nada

3. Passport = Zip

4. Government IDs (SSS ID,Driver’s License”, TIN ID, Postal ID) = Sorry

5. Dost Clearance (Still serving the 5 year term)  = DREAM ON.

Shiiiiiiiiitttt!!!!!!  Am I being PunK’d? No choice now but to push the PANIC BUTTON.

Days go by and with little to spare, I have to make all the stunts just to collect the necessary papers.

It was one heck of a roller coaster ride, but somehow, I managed to pull it off.

And you should too.

If you stumbled over this blog, I assume you are currently in a not so pleasing situation similar to what I encountered weeks ago. Feels bummer, doesn’t it? But don’t you worry. I have something here that might help. It’s fail-safe, proven, and certified by PAMET to kill 99.9 percent of germs.

<Drumrolls>.

1. Download the DOST TEMPORARY CLEARANCE LETTER TEMPLATE. ( Courtesy of Mich, thanks Mishhhhhhh!)

2. Fill up the form, print at least 2 copies of the document once done.

3. You have two options on how to submit it:

A. Fax the document to DOST – The FAX Number is (632) 839-0086. Once the fax is sent , make sure to CALL the DOST OFFICE to confirm if they have indeed received your fax.  The DOST Scholarship direct line is 837-2071 local 2382. Speak to a certain Sir Dante and he will be happy to handle your affairs.

B. Go to DOST Office directly. No need for anything to confirm since you’re already there . ( If you still want to, throw a rock on their window to let them know you were there, just for the fun of it. 

4. Wait 2-3 working days before your request is approved. You may call on the second day after you submitted your request for a follow up.

5. Once your Temporary Clearance is available, go to DOST Taguig to claim the new documents. These are the documents you will be showing in the NBI Quality Control, Passport Documents Verification and Beureu of Immigration steps. Get them photocopied and keep the originals. Only copies will be asked by the Government Institution requesting the clearances.

Well that’s it. Leave comments if you have any questions.

[BACKTRACK] – Check my post on NBI Clearance – A DOST Scholars’ Guide Part 1.

Before the Reunion Concert, Here’s the B-Side of the Story

Long ago, I remember Ely Buendia saying the words, “There are B-Sides to every story”.  With metaphoric relation to a lowly cassette, could a story having two sides imply that for one side, or in this case, one point of view, possess a more plausible sense than the other?

Does flipping a cassette tape and pressing play change the overall appeal of the whole recording? Does it change its mass appeal, are predetermined chart-topping “hits” grouped into one side and the weaker fillers all bundled in the other?  If that is the case, which side would the latter belong, the A-Side or the B-Side?

More so, who decides which, and where to put them.

That’s a lot of questions. Perhaps Ely was translating an already well-known basic principle (A story, having two sides) into a form that could transcend the 90’s local alternative era. May it be artistic license, or even an attempt to sound cool, the message indeed was clearly delivered, and it survived the test of time. It did sound cool alright, and it seemed unique. He should put a patent on it.

A reunion concert of the Eraserheads is set on August 30th. A reported 2.5 – 10 million Pesos per band member is said to be paid by the sponsor (Marlboro) just to get Ely, Marcus, Buddy, and Raims on the same stage for a 45-minute set.

A year ago, it almost seemed like an impossible feat. Is money all it took to free the lab rat-gone-wild (Eraserheads) out of the cage where the band’s leader thought it rightfully belonged (Read below)?  I insert an excerpt of a Pulp Magazine interview published late last year. Reading it may cause a bit of nostalgic feel, its like hearing the tune of the song “Minsan” lingering at the back of your head.

PULP ISSUE #53 Ely’s side of things:

Eheads was an experiment gone bad. It had escaped from the lab and wreaked havoc upon its creators and the unsuspecting townspeople. With this interview, diane and i hope to capture that monster and put it in a cage where it belongs, so that anyone with a curiosity can study it, dissect it or just fed it with peanuts if they wanted. Me, i”ve already made my mind up about the band.

It was good while it lasted, but now all i can remember vividly is the ugly business that led to the breakup. I just wish those people hadn”t involved Diane and our family. It was really uncalled for.

All of you people be warned: if you ever say something bad about
diane again there will be bloodletting. We dont want to blow it out of proportion, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Still, i dont want to be the one to talk about it because you would have to put me in a straitjacket and censor every word that would come out of my mouth. Diane is a better candidate for telling the story because aside from being there when it happened, she still has the mind to be objective and the bottom line is i trust her. Her opinion is what i value most. This may spark more mudslinging and controversy or it may finally put everything to rest. Either way were glad its finally on print

-Ely Buendia, by email

I want to include Diane’s ( Ely’s Wife) explanation however it will fill the whole blogpage. Here’s the link if you like to read it all.

To level the playing field, the A-Side of the story consists of all articles posted and published featuring the point of views of the rest of the band members, which you may already have heard by now.  I leave it to your judgment, which side do you think could better play the harmonic tune of truth, of course this is for the ones who are curious to know what really happened.

Me? Im not really in that much of a slump. I’m a fan of the music, not the band.

Fairly said, I’m just one of the unsuspecting townspeople.

Now let there be no more bloodletting. See you all on August 30.