Archive for March 4th, 2007

Hiatus

Posted by Top Dog on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 6:23 pm in Personal - Philippines.

I've been on blogging hiatus for about a week or so. But it felt like months.

We've all heard about sophomore slump. I think I have a "blogging slump".

I hope I can get my groove back.

In this Corner of the Universe, KRIS AQUINO is taking a leave from showbiz

Posted by CelebritiesCorner on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 11:04 am in Entertainment.


Television host and actress Kris Aquino has chosen to take a sabbatical from her ABS-CBN shows “to focus on the two people who truly matter in my life—my two biggest blessings, my two sons Josh and Baby James.”

I now say a temporary goodbye to all of you. In the coming weeks, my one focus is to be the best mom I can possibly be to Josh and his baby brother. The only way I can succeed at this is to leave this spectacle behind me and totally retreat from the public eye. Please know how much I will miss being a part of your daily TV viewing. I’ve always said that my career’s biggest blessing has been that all of you who has tuned in to my shows allowed me to become a part of your family. And now, it’s my turn to focus on the two people who truly matter in my life—my two biggest blessings, my two sons Josh and Baby James. At the end of the day, after all has been said and done, my ability to give them good lives is what matters most.”



Pahingi ngang kleenex. Prssssttt.

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QotD: Chores

Posted by msquareone.com on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 10:12 am in Personal - International.

Which household chores do you most/least enjoy?
Submitted by falcon.kmc.


Least Enjoy: All
Most Enjoy: None

In This Corner of the Universe, Ara Mina versus Jomari

Posted by CelebritiesCorner on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 9:34 am in Entertainment.

Ara Bira, Ara Bira. Si Ara Mina at si Jomari Sison nagsasayaw ng pakaliwa, pakanan. Nakuha ang piktyur perfect na ito sa Amsterdam.



Sayaw sa kanan, sayaw sa kaliwa. Palagi sa kaliwa kasi si Joma Sison ay founder ng Leftist Organization na Communist Party of the Philippines.

Sabi ni ARA," ARA akong alam diyan sa Komunista, komunistang yan ha. Ang ARAm ko, ako ay binayaran dito para magperform.

Sabi naman ni Joma, ARA namang sama kung makialiw ako sa mga mahihirap na Pilipino dito sa Europa.

MAHIRAP ? Pakipitik mo nga itong langaw na dumapo sa aking ilong, please lang. Mahirap ba yong nagpaparty sa mamahaling hotel? Ay ayaw ng mga OFW yan.

Pero sabi ko nga sainyo mga kabarangay, huwag tayong makialam. O savaw, savaw tayong magsabi, Wala kaming pakialam. Cheee.

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Have Jeepney, Will Travel

Posted by Everywhere and Here on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 8:20 am in Personal - Philippines.

Rural Philippine JeepneyI live in a country where only a little over half a million have vehicles. Considering that the population is roughly 88.7 million, that’s a lot of people without their own means of transportation. And now, I’m one of them.

I recently sold my 91 Toyota Corolla. It was actually given to me by a friend two years ago. Yes, given. He blessed me as an act of faith - sowing as an answer to another’s prayer. But fast-forward two years and I find myself in need of cash and my only quick and legal solution is to sell the one thing with the highest yield - my beloved car.

Being car-less in Manila isn’t actually that bad. Since so many people can’t afford to own vehicles, creative means of public transportation have sprung up and evolved in the country. The motorcycle with an attached carriage we call the “tricycle”, its non-motorized version of bicycle with carriage known as the “pedicab”, and various types of shuttles can all be found on Manila’s roads alongside the ubiquitous jeepney, bus, and cab.

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Xocolat

Posted by Possum on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 7:45 am in Personal - Philippines.

Last month my friend (and flatmate) Tink and I decided we'd do one new thing for the first time every month. In January, owing to a lack of time, we opted for a day out exploring a campus other than our own. We hoped that we'd get better about it and do something really different, but no such luck. This month has been so hectic school-wise that we kept putting it off... until today.

This week has actually been my most hectic. I'm convinced all the teachers I've got this semester met up to plot amongst themselves and come up with the best way to drive me to the brink of insanity. Tink isn't that much better off either -- she's graduating (as are all my friends; don't get me started) and this week was her finals week. The only real reason we went and did this today is that today's the last day of February and we wanted to keep up with this once a month.

We had even less time this month, so we looked for something close by. We found (actually, Tink found) this cute, charming little chocolate place near Bo's Coffee called Casa Xocolat.



This is the menu, and Tink sneaking in while I was taking a picture of the menu. By the way, lest you start feeling sorry for her parents, Tink isn't her real name. Her name is Nikki, which obviously gets complicated when we're with a mutual friend. So, I call her Tink. Not that anyone gets confused about whom I'm referring to when I say "Nikki", because obviously I wouldn't call myself Nikki, so naturally I could only be talking about the other Nikki... you know what, it's a long story. But I do call her Tink.

We decided to order everything to share. We quickly decided on chorizo pasta. I'm not sure if you all get chorizo where you are, but chorizo is a kind of sausage. (Tink and I once watched this show where they pronounced it "choritso", as if it were Italian, but it's not!)


It was good. Not as special as, say, California Pizza Kitchen's portobello mushroom ravioli or Cibo's rigatoni al alfonso, but damn. It was still good.



We also ordered what we came for-- fondue for two.


The fondue came with four cups of things to dip into the chocolate: bananas, apples, Mandarin oranges, and marshmallows. Tink told me (to my horror) that she doesn't like marshmallows. Who doesn't like marshmallows?! They're soft! And sweet! How can you go wrong! And then she said I could have them all... and I shut up.



What made the fondue special was really the chocolate itself. The fruits just tasted normal, but the chocolate was absolutely divine. We had the choice between xocolat, dark xocolat, hazel nut, and tira misu. We chose dark xocolat, which is really just chocolate with some rum mixed in.


We quickly finished the fruits and I devoured the marshmallows despite several times of misplacing a few somewhere in all that chocolate, and decided that we hadn't gotten enough of the chocolate. So, we asked for spoons.

Tink stopped halfway into the cup of chocolate, saying she was too full. But me? I stayed and finished every last orgasmic syrupy drop.


Needless to say, it made me very happy.

After the Kris Aquino-James Yap issue, can we now talk about media coverage of the elections?

Posted by Bryanton Post on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 7:25 am in Politics.

Please do not forget to attend tomorrow's round table discussion on monitoring the news coverage of the elections. Luis Teodoro, deputy director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), will present the findings and recommendations from CMFR's Citizens Media Monitor of the 2004 elections. He will also talk about the ongoing monitoring project of CMFR on this year's senatorial and party-list elections.

In 2004, CMFR -- together with several civil society organizations and academic groups -- monitored the elections coverage of three papers -- the Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and The Philippine Star, six news programs -- TV Patrol, Insider (ABS-CBN 2), Frontpage/24 Oras, Saksi (GMA-7), News Central (Studio 23), and The World Tonight (ABS-CBN News Channel), and two public affairs programs -- Dong Puno Live and I-Witness. In the 2007 project, CMFR is still monitoring the three papers and six programs (although there were changes in the program selection). The six programs are TV Patrol World, Bandila (ABS-CBN 2), 24 Oras, Saksi (GMA7), Sentro (ABC-5), and Primetime Teledyaryo (NBN-4).

Are we getting relevant information about the senatorial and party-list candidates from the press? Is the press helping us decide who to vote for on May 14? Or are we just getting more confusing and misleading information? If you're concerned about these things, please attend the round table discussion tomorrow.

tomorrow

Posted by The Adventures of Vin on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 @ 5:13 am in Miscellaneous.