Friday, February 29, 2008

From Rotterdam to Split part 2



























Today the promised photographs of the Tender Silni on transport (thanks Mike) from the port of Rotterdam to Split on the deck of the Heavy Load Vessel Scan Brazil are mainly the preparations to lift the Silni on board. Photos via Mike see label Sini


Beter laat dan nooit , de beloofde foto's van de Tender Silni op transport naar (dankzij Mike) vanuit de haven van Rotterdam naar Split op dek van het zware landingschip van de Scan Brazil het zijn hoofdzakelijk de voorbereidingen van het aan boord hijsen van de Silni die te zien zijn, meer Silni bekijk label Silni
More /Meer Heavy Load Vessels see / zie Webshot

March 2008


going up, going down

After Jasmine Trias, it looks like the Philippines will, once again, show the world how talented Filipinos are. That’s via Ramiele Malubay, 20 years old from Miami, Florida who, with her black hair, chinky eyes and very cute height is undeniably carrying Pinoy blood all over her.

She made it to the top 20 of American Idol season 7 after the first elimination round where 2 guys and 2 girls were eliminated from the 24 qualifiers.

Judging from the AI site, she’s quite popular. Discussions on various forums are always focused on Ramiele. Or maybe this is Pinoy bayanihan in full force again. Something Simon Cowell poked at during Jasmin’s time when he said ‘the whole of Hawaii must have voted twice to keep you here’. … or something like that. Coz he thought Jasmin didn’t deserve to be in the top 3 spot of AI season 3.

What Simon didn’t know is that talented or not, Jasmin deserves that spot because of the ‘kuyog’ voting system all Pinoy-blooded Americans must have used to keep her in the competition. In fact, if AI will only allow internet voting, Jasmin will win by a thousand miles from Fantasia.

Pinoys support each other fiercely especially if it touches upon Pinoy pride and identity. Especially on international stage. Something that the organizers of Miss Universe beauty pageant has realized after one of their minor awards (was it Miss Photogenic?), which was done via internet voting, was won by the Philippines two years in a row. They immediately scrapped the voting system the following year.

Actually, that shouldn’t be a surprise anymore. We are the inventor of People Power. An original phenomenon no other country has ever done before. Until we showed them how powerful it can be.

This leads me to the current situation in the Philippines where mass protest actions are going on again. Al-Jazeera news channel just showed footages of the rallies that went on today. It estimated the protesters to be at 75,000 strong. Gloria must be having sleepless nights. She’s seen this before. And she knows it’s ominous for someone who’s at the receiving end of the booing.

And so I’ve started from AI and ended up with the Philippine political climate. What’s the connection, you might ask.

Well, Pinoy power can put two ladies in the exact opposite of fortunes. Ramiele to the top spot of AI in the entertainment scene and Gloria to the bottom of the pits in the political arena. Let’s just see what happens. In the meantime, go go go Pinoy People Power!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

goin plasma

a friend who's goin on vacation wanted to ship his bravia. kaso, sabi ng freight forwarder, he will be taxed as much as 18,000 pesos daw for the 29 inch tv! ganon din ang sabi nong isang napagtanungan ko nong bago ako magbakasyon. i was planning to buy din sana. na-discourage nga lang ako sa laki pala ng tax.

although yong tax na yon daw applies only pag air freight. pag sea freight daw wala. kaso alam naman natin ang sea freight, it takes a whole month bago mo matanggap. baka nakabalik ka na ng saudi, hindi pa nakakarating sa pinas yong pinabagahe mong tv. aside from that, parang mas malaki ang risk of damages pag ganon.

nevertheless, bakit nga ba tayo dito bumibili ng electronics. marami na rin namang mapag-pipilian sa atin. yon nga lang, medyo mabigat na pag sa atin ka bumili. kasi pesos na ang usapan. pero mura nga ang purchase price dito, hindi ba lumalabas na halos pareho lang kung ida-dagdag natin yong tax plus the freight/insurance charges?

eniweys, for those who are planning to go plasma, let me share some prices na nakuha ko nong nag-canvass ako sa atin. i got this prices from only one shop (abenson) and it was december pa. at least baka makatulong if you wanted to compare.

Brand - Model - Price (in Php)
Samsung 32R81B - 54,900
Samsung 32S81B - 47,900
Samsung 37R81B - 74,900
Sony 32V300A - 84,990
Sony 40S200A - 119,990
LG 42PX4MV - 129,999
LG 42 LC4R - 109,999
sige, pag nakabili kayo, maki-panood na lang ako! hehehe!

Tashan Movie Wallpaper

Language: HINDI
Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj
Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma
Music: Shekhar Ravjiani, Vishal Dadlani
Lyrics: Piyush Mishra, Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt Guptan
Editing: Rameshwar Bhagat
Story/Writer: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Art Direction: Sukant Panigrahy
Choreography: Vaibhavi Merchant
Action: Peter Hein
























Sunday, February 24, 2008

the results

well i didn't do badly with my 3 out of 5 correct guesses! and the Oscar goes to...

Best Picture - No Country for Old Men
though i said it was a toss between There will be Blood and No Country for Old Men, i gave the former the edge so i consider that as a miss. darn!

Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis.
said so.

Best Actress - Marion Cottillard.
said so two.

Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem.
said so three.

Best Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton.
ah well, i guess Ruby Dee has to wait another lifetime to win.

just a thought. both Daniel and Tilda are british, Marion is french and Javier is spanish. i think this is the first time that the four major acting awards went to non-American born actors. interesting.

there you go folks. it was fun and i sure will do this again next year.

ay, complex kayo dyan!

A friend and I were chit-chatting yesterday. Our conversation turned into leveling. Yon bang tipong discrimination at level-level sa buhay because of social status or whatever. So I thought I’d better write something about it . Coz it’s something I strongly feel about.

If you haven’t noticed, the quote I have right at the bottom of this page is a line from Desiderata. It says ‘If you compare yourself with others you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself’.

Hindi ko yan nilagay dyan just for the sake na meron akong words of wisdom sa blog ko. I put it down there coz I’m a firm believer of Desiderata. Particularly this line.

As much as possible, i do not compare myself with others. Kasi, para sa akin, comparing yourself, insecurities, inferiority/superiority complex and loving yourself all belong to one thread. Here’s how.

Comparing yourself with others kasi is a direct manifestation of your insecurities. Ke tungkol man yan sa pagiging mayaman o mahirap, about your looks o yong intellectual capacity mo. Whatever your insecurity is about, it eats you up whether you’re conscious about it or not.

You always compare yourself with the next guy/gal dahil may insecurities ka. At pag na-enhance ang insecurity mo dahil sa kako-compare mo, don nag-uumpisa yong mga complex-complex. Buti kung housing complex tulad sa Taguig. Pero hindi. Yon yong mga superiority at inferiority complex na commonly umaatake sa mga taong either kulang/sobra ang tiwala sa sarili or talaga lang tagilid ang takbo ng kukote.

Pag nakakita ka ng mas guwapo/maganda and you feel bad about yourself dahil pangit ka (sa tingin mo), then your insecurity is giving you an unwarranted inferiority complex. Iniisip mong ‘sana ganon din ako ka-good looking’ which, unconsciously, is one way of telling yourself that you don’t like your own self. But have you ever thought na guwapo/maganda man siya, it doesn’t necessarily make him/her a better person than you are?

Pag nakita mong bago ang mp3 player ng isang kaibigan mo and you thought to yourself na ‘hmmmp, mas maganda pa rin ang i-pod ko’. Then you are giving yourself some hot air to blow your ego. Things like this make you harbor superiority complex over other individuals na hindi umaabot sa standards mo.

And that is sad.

Dahil yon nga, if you compare yourself with others, you become bitter. Dahil laging merong mas mayaman, mas guwapo/maganda, mas matalino at mas bago ang i-pod kesa sa yo. Everytime you meet somebody who you think possesses more than what you have, you’ll burn in envy, disappointment and feeling inferior. And that, to me is pathetic coz you’re feeling sorry for yourself for not having more when in fact you should be thankful for having what you have.

Inversely, you will become vain. Dahil laging merong mas mababa ang sweldo compared sa sweldo mo, hindi makapag-ingles ng diretso tulad mo or hindi kasing-macho/seksi ang tindig tulad mo. And you look at them as lesser person compared sa yo. Then you put yourself above these people, you look down upon them as if they were lesser forms of human being. Aastahan mo sila ng buong kaangasan.

And that’s a no-no for me. Being richer, more beautiful/handsome, more intelligent or more popular doesn’t necessarily mean you are ‘superior’. It doesn’t give you the right to treat people with disrespect dahil lang sa tingin mo ay mas mataas ang level mo kesa sa kanila. (But of course galit din ako sa mga taong maangas pero wala namang karapatang mag-angas!)

In short, if you are so conscious about anything in your life, you will never ever find contentment. Dahil doon mo dini-define ang existence mo sa mundong ito.

Pasalamat ako dahil hindi ako madalas inaatake ng mga complex na ito like most people do. Mahilig man akong mangarap na yumaman, hindi naman ako yong tipong turning green pag may kaibigan or kakilalang mapera. Oo nga at nakaka-inggit ang mga material things na meron sila. Pero wala man ako non, meron naman akong heart of gold. Hehehehe… joke lang… may pagka-idealistic ako pero hindi ako naïve.

Seriously, sa akin kasi, wala man ako ng kayamanan mo, at least nagsisikap ako on my own to achieve it. And instead of turning my insecurity into something that poisons my entire being, ginagamit ko yon to fire up myself. I strive harder and enjoy the fruit of that hard work. And for that, I don’t think you can consider me a lesser peron than you are. Na-ah!

Ganito ang mentality ko because I know who I am. What I can and can not do. What I know and don’t know. In short, I’ve come to terms with my ownself. I know my strengths and i fully harness it. I know my weaknesses and try to work on it. But I never beat myself about it. Kaya in the end, I love myself. That is why, I’ve long stopped comparing myself with others. At kung anoman ang insecurities ko, I can put most of them at bay. Thus leaving me complex-free. Most of the time.

And so, as I said, comparing, insecurities, superiority/inferiority complex and loving yourself - magkaka-dikit yan. But you can wipe out the first three by the last one. So why not give it a shot. It’s something difficult to achieve. But it’s definitely worth trying.

Friday, February 22, 2008

MY Anastasia




In april zal de Y703 naar buiten worden gereden om vervolgens op een ponton te worden geplaats en dan te water zal gaan , de naam is al enkele weken bekend Anastasia , maar gloedje-nieuw is dat er er een website bestaat YachtAnastasia.com te zien zijn er een gallery met afbeeldingen van binnen en buiten , technische informatie en de bemanning , en haar bestemming naar exotische oorden. afbeeldingen afkomstig van YachtAnastasia.com

ega's bday

so here's the second february celebrant among the adiks, ega 'sinturongpangkaligtasan' who hosted an intimate dinner party last night, exclusively for the adiks... and some. this time raoul made it but still, the group missed out on neil who is busy practicing with pne for their july trip to austria. some pix here....










and oh before i forget...



Wednesday, February 20, 2008

news bits

Being a certified couch potato, i've picked up a few interesting reports from tv over the last couple of days. Let me share them with you.

The Digital Fight
(Euronews)

HD DVD will soon be out of the market coz it’s developer, Toshiba, has thrown in the towel in it’s fight with Sony's Blu Ray. Which means, we will no longer have a choice and instead have to contend with just one media storage format available in the future.

It also gives Sony monopoly of the market which, of course, is bad for the consumers. No competition means stranglehold on the buying public.

The report didn’t mention what will be the immediate effect of this on HD DVD units currently attached to our computers and other video machines. I also wonder what happens to our HD-ready plasma Tv?

Toshiba said they will maintain after sales support to units already purchased. But I wonder for how long? Eventually you’ll have to change formats and this means you have to spend, once again, some thousands of dollars just to update your media format.

This is bad news for people who are very much into digital technology. Like most of my friends are. Good thing i'm not!

Stealing Thunder
(Al-Jazeera news)

So the Philippine government is currently embroiled in corruption charges. But some African countries are actually stealing the thunder from us.

Heads of five African countries including Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville, are reported to have purchased prime real estate properties in Paris worth millions of euros along with numerous luxury cars including Ferraris. These purchases are charged directly to their nation’s coffers according to documents dug up by the NGOs and anti-corruption agents that initiated the investigation.

For countries with economies worse than the Philippines, this is something very, very appalling. I can’t help but think of the famine that has consistently plagued these countries while their leaders obviously live their lives in excess. Something we, Filipinos, can truly empathize with.

I hope UN will come up with some measure to prevent corruption especially in poor countries. It should be considered a crime to humanity and perpetrators of this crime should be hanged. No bail, pardon or clemency recommended.
.
A Different Pre-Nup
(News at Dubai One Tv)

UAE recently announced a directive that men and women who are getting married are required to go through a pre-wedding medical examination. Yup, you heard it right. Pre-nuptial medical examination!

The report was delivered immediately after a story about the deformities of children in UAE. I just didn’t catch the transition of the reports so I’m not sure if the requirement for medical examination is directly linked to the deformities.

But come to think of it, what happens if one of the couple fails the exam? What if the guy has signs of heart disease? Or the girl is showing signs of breast cancer? Can this be grounds to call the wedding off?

If it is so, then only healthy and fit people can get a husband/wife. Well, we’d better hit the gym. Right away! Hahaha!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

star guessing

It’s just a few days to go before Oscars and I know my friend ‘a movie fan’ is watching out for my posting regarding the event. He/she must be waiting for whatever I’d be babbling about, specially if I will dare make any bets on the nominees.

At first I thought of not saying anything, just wait for the winners to be announced and jump into it with my commentaries. Coz except for Elizabeth the Golden Age which I reviewed in my previous posting, I haven’t had the chance to see any of the films headlining the nominations this year.

But Oprah just featured a few of the nominees in her episode shown by MBC4 tonight. Then I said, ah, what the heck, let me play some guessing game here and see how it turns out. If you want, you can play along with me. Let’s see who better approximates Madam Auring! Hahahaha!

Best Picture Nominees

Atonement – A period movie set in the 1930’s about two sisters and their housekeeper's son. Starring Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy. Directed by Joe Wright

Juno – The season’s surprise hit film, both in the box office and in Oscar nominations. It’s a film about teenage pregnancy starring Ellen Page. Directed by Jason Reitman.

Michael Clayton – Starring George Clooney, directed by Tony Gilroy. A film about the drama behind law firms, lawyers and lawsuits.

No Country for Old Men – Directed by the Coen brothers Ethan and Joel, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem. A story about drugs, money and dead bodies in the barren West Texas range.

There Will be Blood - A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Daniel Day Lewis.

My Bet: It’s a toss between No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood. Though looking at Oscars history, only three western films have won Best Pic (Cimarron in 1930, Dances With Wolves in 1990 and Unforgiven in 1992, while drama has dominated most of the Best Pic winners. Which gives There Will Be Blood an edge.

Best Actor Nominees

George Clooney for Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will be Blood

Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tommy Lee Jones for In The Valley of Elah

Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises

My Bet: Daniel Day-Lewis. He already won the Golden Globe and to most Oscars observers, the Globe has always been a preview to the Oscars. I would be surprised if George Clooney takes home the Oscar. Based on the clips shown for these nominees, George is the least impressive among the five. Maybe his role is not as challenging as that of the others.

Best Actress Nominees

Cate Blanchett
for Elizabeth The Golden Age

Julie Christie for Away from Her

Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose

Laura Linney for The Savages

Ellen Page for Juno

My Bet : Marion Cotillard. I know I’ve said I’d vote for Cate if I were a voting member of the AMPAS. But for reasons I stated on the same posting, I’d guess she’ll never be given the trophy this year. Besides, Marion’s role seems to be more challenging and her performance more impressive.


Best Supporting Actor Nominees

Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James

Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson’s War

Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild

Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

My Bet : Javier Bardem. His character is said to be the most frightening villain in recent years and touted to be as chilling as Sir Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter. He has also bagged the Globe for the same category.

Best Supporting Actress Nominees

Cate Blanchett for I’m Not There

Ruby Dee for American Gangster

Saoirse Ronan for Atonement

Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton

My Bet: Ruby Dee. Come on guys, the lady’s 83 and still packing a 2-minute exposure with emotions more forceful than a full-length role (that was the trailer shown in Oprah). I’d say give her the little guy so she can have a smile on her way out.

There you go. Just predictions. Though I’m not good in guessing. I’ll just wait till the 24th and see how I fared.