Photoblog - day 70, Jun 19, 2010

Boni Bacardi Night - June 2010

As I've shown and mentioned many times in FB, a few colleagues and I, plus Barbie and Cecille spend a night at our home - conjure up some drinks and snacks... and enjoy each others company.

These Boni Bacardi nights may have been an offshoot of the larger Bacardi Nights - but since this is done at home, well... it's somehow more laid back and enjoyable - and we try scheduling it at least once a month.

This particular Boni Bacardi was organized to somehow celebrate Barbie's birthday and likewise be a send off to her for her U.S. business trip (don't sweat it - she'll just be gone for two weeks). By the way, did I mention why we call it Bacardi Nights? Simple - more often than not, we use Bacardi Rum as our main mixer - and though in the past we'd make Mojitos, this particular evening we did some Chi Chis - courtesy of Jingo.

As usual, we had a great time - so here's looking forward to the July Boni Bacardi night.

Photoblog - day 69, Jun 18, 2010

Dream Hunters:

This is Sandman: Dream Hunters... a comic book/graphic novel by Neil Gaiman revolving around Japanese culture and how Morpheus a.k.a. Dream of the Endless ventures to such a land.

What's so different about this Graphic Novel is how I came about it - you see, it was a prize at a raffle conducted in honor of Gaiman's visit to the Philippines some time... oh... last summer (or was it earlier). Anyway, i got to join this raffle by buying a Gaiman novel - Coraline, I believe (I was actually choosing between Coraline or Dream Hunters - but chose the former, as it was cheaper - and hoped to pique Bernice's curiosity to read it)... I then filled up the raffle stub in the Fully Booked, Greenbelt branch.

Time pased, I soon forgot this raffle - I was obviously not putting any high hopes in winning... Gaiman came and went, and I hardly had time to even plan to go to the events he was a part of... near impossible since it was a week day.

Still, I was apparently chosen and they called me, since for some reason, they could not contact me by email - and I even had some difficulty claiming this prize seeing as I lost the claim stub (I swear I saw it a week before they called), so I had to wait another two months before claiming it with a letter explaining I lost the stub. All's well that ends well - and I would like to naturally thank Fully Booked for the prize.

Photoblog - day 68, Jun 17, 2010

Back to School...

This week also saw the start of school year 2010-2011, and naturally, Bryce and Bernice had to join the millions of students who saw themselves returning to their alma maters. It also meant the resumption of having to sleep - and wake up real early for the two... since they would have to be ready for the school bus.

What's different about this particular year? For one, it's Bernice's freshman year in High School... while it's Bryce's Senior year (also in high school). My how time seems to fly, huh?

Photoblog - day 67, Jun 16, 2010

Creative side to Leadership:

This shows the final 'fun' output of my most recent Leadership Workshop - and the keen eyed, and knowledgeable person would easily discern from the symbols in these 'magazine covers' that we discussed topics from John Beck's 'The Leader's Window' - as suggested (or represented) by the group interpretations of 'lessons learned' from our workshop.

These magazines are actually on top of a drawing of the L4 quadrants that I asked my participants to write their names on upon considering which leadership quadrant they saw themselves working or using as in 'default mode'.

This workshop lasted two days and I was glad to know that even though I had not been given this particular training for nearly six months (at least, it feels that way to me), I still had the lessons, messages and stock knowledge of the topics internalized (look ma... no notes at all - he he he) My participants had fun - I had fun... oh yeah, and we welcomed back AM and PM snacks too.

Photoblog - day 66, Jun 15, 2010

Guitar Hero Wanna-be:

This is Liza, a friend of my sister Bing - and she normally visits us when she acts as courier for my mom in Batangas - in this case, it was about a bank card she had to give me and then get back. My kids naturally have taken to calling her Tita Liza.

That aside, this particular say, Bryce lets her try out a few... okay, one song in Guitar Hero... how do I describe the results? I guess I can sum it all up to what I said that night as I observed her play. She was thinking too much, and was lucky to successfully follow a stanza. I would even venture to say that she takes after Guitar Hero like a fish out of water -I'm not mean, mind you... it was that bad.

Still, trooper as she is (notice the smile on her face?)... she continued on until she showed obvious signs of marked improvements (almost finishing a stanza), and maybe - just maybe, if she keeps it up - she'll finally get a song done before the year ends. Needless to say, we all had a few grimacing moments - but lots of laughs (including her) at her seeming misfortunes of playing - or should I say, agonizing through Guitar Hero. Hmmm... can't wait to see how Bing will fare with this as well - that is, when she comes down.

In the mean time, hang in there 'Tita Liza", it doesn't matter how many times you fumble or fall - what matters is you continue trying it out, until you get it right through your perseverance... and self-depreciating humor will definitely help too.

Photoblog - day 65 Jun 14, 2010

Summer leaves:

This was just one of several pictures I took when I was visiting and admiring the La Salle Damarinas (I can't seem to get the 'n-ye' symbol on my laptop keyboard - I wonder why) campus.

Looks like taking macro shots is almost second nature to my camera - the focus on the foreground leaves were great and the background - as obviously seen, is happily blurry. I also tweaked the picture a bit in Photoshop, enhancing the colors and darkening the hues to make the foreground stand out.

Photoblog - day 64, Jun 13, 2010

New Chapel:

This is the new Two Hearts Chapel found in the De La Salle Medical Center - I saw it as I was walking the grounds admiring the campus/hospital.

What struck me was the design - very elegant... yet simple; nothing too ostentatious or overboard - it really had a comfortable feel... even during 12 noon - while the outside temperature was very hot. What also caught my attention was how the crucifix was positioned against glass - some of them colored... and beyond the glass was a garden, further adding to the ambiance of the chapel. I can imagine a few patients wanting to stay in the chapel - both for it's serenity, and it's peaceful nature... not to mention it's seeming harmonizing with nature.

I guess, I was lucky to chance upon the chapel while it was almost empty - I mean, save for a trio of worshipers praying their novena, the chapel was deserted (though regular Sunday mass is scheduled in the morning and in the evening). I said short prayer for my Father-in-law, who was the reason for my being in Dasmarinas, Cavite that morning - then just had to take pictures of the chapel.

Photoblog - day 63, Jun 12 2010

Check-up and Flu shots:

In Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Greenhills, Dr. Joseph Regalado holds office for his patients... usually catering to children; he is a Pediatrician after all - and has been doing this for at least 15 years, his being the family pediatrician since... well, since Bryce was born. IT was here where we found ourselves a little after lunchtime.

Doctor Tito Joe as he would like to be called by his wards - has a very family-oriented, child-friendly manner and this is what makes him very popular to the parents... if not the children. This is also why we visit him at least once year, to have the kids vaccinations updated - plus the usual pep talk and vitamins changes all those years.

Today was more of the same - the first for this year... and aside from this, we also decided to have him administer our flu shots. So now we're better protected from the Flu - including the dreaded, though seemingly harmless (at least in the Philippines) AH1N1 strain. But even if it seemed to be harmless - it's still better to be safe than sorry.

But as I was saying, Dr. Regalado has that magic touch and personal touch that can't help but put the children at ease - and he does have ready pearls of wisdom for both children and parents alike. He embodies one of those client-value type personalities... one that makes you not mind paying a little extra, nor having to endure long wait list lines (at times lasting as long as two hours).

Photoblog - day 62, Jun 11 2010

Grilla's mascot:

Near our place of work... at least, one of them - we; that is, my colleagues in training and I, have a place we tend to frequent on Friday nights... the place is called Grilla - a play with the words grill and gorilla, of course.

Well. it so happens that Grilla has a mascot - a stuffed Gorilla costume, hanging above the place's basement, just like a gorilla probably would. It's eye level to people sitting at the ground area - where we happened to be at, this particular day.

Sometimes we stay long... and discuss the days that passed - sometimes, like tonight, we just stay long enough to await the number coding scheme's lifting at 7pm... and wouldn't you know it... at least three of us have the same number coding scheme situation every Friday - now if that isn't a formula for a regular drinking night every Friday, I wouldn't know what is.

Photoblog - day 61, Jun 10 2010

Experimenting with ISO settings:

One of the great mysteries of photography is what we refer to as ISO settings - and it was just recently that I got a feel for how to use this still mysterious capability to add different effects to my pictures.

This shows different people in a mall - some standing still, thus looking clearer in the picture - as against those walking by... thus having a blurred look. Some time soon, I shall try to have a picture with more ISO experiments - I hope to be able to capture moving items with more clarity... and at times, show blurred items specially in an evening shot.

Photoblog - day 60, Jun 9 2010

Rings

Yeah, yeah... they're not real rings - but then again, if they were the real things - I'd be in deep trouble just having them around (except for the Green one that is... and maybe the Blue one too).

Yup! These are the Lantern rings - in fact, the white one is the latest in the sudden rainbow of colors representing the different Corps of space armies in the DC Universe.

To add some dramatic background to the set of geek collectibles (yes... I'm a geek, so sue me) I placed the coffee table book "Rough Justice - the DC comics sketches of Alex Ross" and yes, that looks like an angry Superman charging forward, as painted by said Alex Ross, who to me is the best artist for comic books these days.

Photoblog - day 59, Jun 8 2010

My new BlackBerry:

This is my new phone - a BlackBerry Curve; and with it I join the 'always' online world - well, not really always, since I don't find the need to be online 24/7 - I'll be more in 'every other day' online mode with this.

How'd I get this? Simple... my old reliable phone was not so reliable anymore - it being almost 4 years old and all - but still useful, so long as you didn't mind the battery conking out every now and then. Long story short, Barbie did mind... and so got me the phone. I had the option to choose between this baby or a Nokia N92 - and since I've had Nokias all my cell phone life, I opted for something different. Besides, it was an advanced anniversary gift from her... me? I got her a wireless mouse (exactly like mine) - good for presentations, and a very portable hard drive to back up her office files.

How is the BlackBerry so far? well... I'm still adjusting to the qwerty pad - then again, I'd be adjusting to the same with the Nokia, and I may have sacrificed some mega-pixels in the process by way of the Nokia's camera; then again, I've a DSLR camera, so I don't really care about another one. The BlackBerry seemingly allows more flexibility online - for example, I can get my email, Facebook, Twitter and other sites... and since Barbie and Dict (my brother-in-law) already have BlackBerrys, we could do BlackBerry chats - so there you have it.

Photoblog - day 58, Jun 7 2010

True Believer or Fashion Statement?

Let's face it... any chance I get to wear my favorite heroes, you bet I will! In this case though, the team in the t-shirt are the New Avengers... an offshoot of the Avengers team as scripted by a writer who seems to have great ideas - but relatively poor follow through.

But this isn't about the story - the t-shirt just proudly sports the heroes I like... and the art here is great - in fact, it's definitely great enough to wear... and that is what I'm doing.

So am I a true believer of the team? Sure I am... and is this a fashion statement? I don't really care for fashion statements - if I like it, and if it's comfortable, I'd wear it... simple as that. Besides... with the way it's designed, the art simply hides my love handles (he he he), and what's not to love about that? Personally, I would have wanted the design a little higher, though. It would have possible - just possibly - afforded more art.

Oh yeah... this is my official picture for June.

Photoblog - day 57, Jun 6 2010

Look!... It glows!

Meet my new toy. I really needed to replace the keyboard of my computer located downstairs... for one, it was mysteriously not allowing the input of the numbers atop the letters - in other words... had it not been for the keypad, such numbers would be incapably entered - bad news to me, since my email address had a combination of letters and numbers... not to mention my password being in the same situation too.

Then there's the non-responsiveness of the '@' key as well - and to make matters worse - some letters were also unresponsive... like the letter 'o' for example. Obviously, the keyboard needed replacing.

I also remember mentioning in one of my Facebook status updates about the plan to purchase a keyboard with back-lighting capabilities... hence making dark room typing difficulties a thing of the past. So... once I saw such a keyboard in CDR King - and with a very affrodable price, I did not think thrice and got the keyboard at the next opportune moment.

How does it look? Well, judge for yourself... with the monitor having it's own light source, the keyboard was a very much needed input device in need of light - I'll have to say that night usage of the keyboard is a thing to look forward to. It used to be, I'd have a lamp shade to shed some light on the keyboard... a need doubly necessary when keyboards were dark colored - hence hard to see when in dim places, or at night.

Well... I just had to take a picture of it, since it was very cool looking. Oh yeah... and Bryce loves it too. In fact, as I type this, he's currently using the glow-in-the-dark keyboard.

Photoblog - day 54, Jun 3 2010

Testing School:

One for the trainings I tend to conduct is centered around Application Testing, which focuses on learning the concepts and best practices applicable to the concept of software testing.

Targeting the relatively new employees of this particular company, it helps reinforce the practice of having several layers to the testing practice. In this particular conduct, I had the chance to work with Tess Glipa - an old colleague in my Fujitsu days - and someone very knowledgeable with quality and testing concepts (she also took this picture). The school covers two days - very short when compared to the concepts being covered - but for the most part, our participants show a learning capability to match the expectations of the very compressed outline in so short a time.

Photoblog - day 56, Jun 5 2010

Wireless...

Yup! This is a wireless mouse - and even if the technology is not that new, it still can help us in impressive ways. This little critter allows me to move around an room with it in tow - and it allows me to manipulate any active document as I move around the room.

Partnered with another tool - your everyday laser pointer, it makes for a formidable and impressive-looking presentation combo.

The best part of this tool? It's price... with the likes of CDR King stores, prices for such gadgets as this are very affordable (assuming Php500.00 is an affordable price to you, that is). I got to use this twice already, and it can be handy - kudos to Brian (my colleague) for letting me know about this bargain. I also got another such mouse for Barbie - as I'm sure she'll find this little gadget useful with her work-related presentations.

Photoblog - day 55, Jun 4 2010

Starbucks Morning:

Believe it or not, this was around 6:30am at the Starbucks, Cybergate 2 branch - as I had to arrive early for my 8am training because of a little rule about the vehicle number coding scheme... and yes, my vehicle does have the affected plate number that says I have to be out of the roads before 7am - or risk being pulled over by traffic cops.

Having arrived real early then, I decided to grab some coffee - and breakfast... and it's really a convenience that this particular Starbucks is just one floor below my training room. So... camera and book in tow, I hied into this branch to order my usual tall latte... only this time, I decided to have a grilled three cheese and ham sandwich with it.

Aside from the very friendly baristas, the environment was cozy and jazz music was playing in the place's piped-in music system. I then proceeded to borrow the papers, read up on yesterday's new and enjoy my meal. If only my mornings would always start this way... I left feelign full, relaxed and energized - ready for the day's challenges.

Photoblog - day 53, Jun 2 2010

DVD Family Bonding:

In an otherwise uneventful day (even if it was Barbie's birthday), we found time to watch a movie we've never seen before... and call it mushy, but then again, I guess a movie with the title Valentine's Day would certain be filled with topics on love.

The plots were simple - several people with different lives... all searching to make their valentine's day experience something memorable and meaningful... that's it. What's different is that the movie likewise shows people in today's modern age. For example? Anne Hathaway's character moonlighting in Phone Sex is just one small tidbit that comes to mind... there are others still - but I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

I'll just say that we were all surprised to see some teens in the movie - which pretty much guaranteed Bernice's interest in watching the film... and this is one of those, cute movie revolving around the lives of many people... and it is a large ensemble of casting known (and some not too well known) characters... I 'm sure you see some familiar faces in the picture, right?

Cute movie, great family bonding moment - even if all we did was stay in the couch and watch - with minimal conversation... the mere fact that we enjoyed something together was what counted. If you're going to watch it with a critical eye... I suggest watching something else - this is a feel good shallow movie; and on certain days, I don't mind 'feel good' and 'shallow'.

As for credits... well, here's the link to the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day_%28film%29

Photoblog - day 52, Jun 1 2010

Tree Leaves and Overcast Sky:

Nothing overly dramatic about this picture - as the title says, it's just a typical mundane set of leaves with the cloudy sky as backdrop. So why'd I take it? What was the purpose of this picture?

I wanted to get a near silhouette of the leaves against a not so bright sky - after all, I did not want to totally overpower the leaves with too bright a background. I was also hoping that the overcast colors would show - not that there were too many colors to begin with... and since this was a near instantaneous shot - with hardly any preparation... one night even say a picture taken - on the go... then I'm surprised to see how nice it looked. How nice to see how the mundane can look good.

God sure is a great designer... even of the small, mundane things, isn't he?

Photoblog - day 51, May 31 2010

My latest readings:

Though it may sound inappropriate, I actually did bring this pile - and more actually, to my training, and started reading them one at a time while I was not lecturing. An explanation is obviously in order... simple, really.

Today's training was not solely handled by me - not by a long shot. I was facilitating Application Component Detailed Design, and when I do, it's normally with a partner - in this case, Fiel Javier. So... when it's Fiel's turn to talk (we take turns with the alternating modules), I pull out an issue and start reading. Eventually, as the day ended, I was able to catch up on my reading.

I guess this is also an indicator of how busy my weekend was - as I usually reserve reading my comics at home. Unfortunately (though with no real regrets), I found myself neck deep in many activities (as the two previous entries would allude to), hence not having been able to read my new comics .

If things happen as expected, I'll be talking again tomorrow morning - and Fiel will handle the afternoon... which will free me to have more reading time. I still have a handful of issues that I've not read yet, so I guess I'll squeeze those in too. Or... it's back to reading the novel I'm currently in the middle of... oh, and that Time magazine - after all, I've not yet read all the articles.