Making better Mojitos

First of all, let me allay any confusion about my being a bar tender - nope, I am not a bar tender, nor have I ever been one - I have not taken any training for such - though I probably would like to, still, for the benefit of this blog, I'm sorry to say that this will just be a purely amateurish viewpoint.

Having said that (and set aside the important caveat, let me mention that I am a relatively observant person - and I have observed some bar tenders practicing their wares, in the past... and I can say that I've observed them, at least several times, when it came to making certain drinks, enough to get some things right (like properly preparing the drink called a "Blow Job"). I was able to do this because i normally stay by the bar whenever I go to such places... normally striking up a conversation with the man behind the bar.

Besides, aside from first-hand observation, there are a lot of cocktail mixing books... so anyone can start mixing drinks or cocktails... albeit with a few failed mixes along the way. I know I have at least three of them - for cross reference purposes... and in case two have a discrepancy, then hopefully the 3rd will be a tie-breaker.

That aside, the drink I would like to focus on right now, is one that a few friends and I have constantly concocted whenever we have a get together in my place at least once a month... a practice that seemed to have begun December last year (2008). It has become so regular a practice, that we've even adapted the drink's brand as description of - or a way of labeling the drink we all seem to enjoy in these evening... the Bacardi nights, and the drink that we normally enjoy in each of those nights? - the Mojitos.

Creating the Mojitos is not that hard - in fact, anyone who wishes to learn about the famous drink can visit the Bacardi web page, ( www.bacardi.com )and find instructions on how to make Mojitos - both for a glass or for a pitcher. There are at least three other cocktail drink instructions available in the Bacardi website, but I believe the Mojitos is the most popular amongst them... my opinion, of course.

For the benefit of this article, let me give a quick low down on how to make Mojitos - you'll need the following: Bacardi Rhum (white), sugar, mint leaves, soda or carbonated water, lime. The preparation of such a drink starts with the need to muddle some mint leaves with a pestle (the Bacardi web site even suggests to use 12 mint leaves) with half a spoonful of sugar and half a piece of lime (said half piece being the slice of lime - or lemon, that you normally see garnishing cocktails).

The relatively crushed mint leaves, sugar and lime piece's juices are then mixed with one part (shot glass) of Bacardi and three parts carbonated water. Transfer to a glass with ice and garnish with more mint leaves... and there you have it - a glass of Mojitos, as suggested by Bacardi.

But if we simply followed the Bacardi suggestion, this article would be done.

So how did the impetus to seek improvements to the Mojitos drink come about?

Simple... at times we searched for ways to make the drink easier to prepare - I mean, if you'll be tending bar, it does take time to muddle the ingredients, so there had to be a better, easier and yes... faster way to do this and we did discover one - which I'll get back to in a while. Another reason was simpler - that being the unavailability of Bacardi white... so naturally the need to replace it with something else. In this case, Bacardi Oro.

Now I'm about to share what is relatively six months of trial and error by our resident Mojitos maker – Jingo, as he (and I) experimented with what we had when it comes to making our Mojitos... if in case this article inspires your curiosity and you happen to try our concoction out - well then good, this article's 'raison de etre' has been reached. Likewise, if you do experiment, and stumble upon a 'better' Mojitos - well then please let me know... okay? Great!

So... concern one - how to make preparations easier and faster? Here's what we tried. It takes time to muddle with a pestle – about two to three minutes (a rough approximation) and it does take some effort whenever a new pitcher is to be made – forget doing it on a per glass basis, that’s just too much work. So I thought… what can replace the mint leaves? Obviously it would have to be something minty.

Option 1) I found a possible solution – thick mint sauce, courtesy of Fountain (the brand). It was basically made of glucose and had floating mint leaves in it – definitely promising. This little experiment, I’m glad to say, was a resounding success – so if you stumble upon Fountain’s thick mint… I suggest getting it and trying it out.

Slight problem, though… it seems that this product is rarely found – and be careful, Fountain has another mint sauce… one it uses for salads, and is vinegar-based. Definitely not for Mojitos use. The main difference is the latter is just called Mint sauce… as opposed to Thick Mint sauce, which is the one you’ll want to use.

Problem number two – assuming you do find the product… It’s sweeten and mint to taste, and each pitcher consumes roughly a third of the Fountain thick mint sauce from our perspective – and I guess you could say that with convenience comes a price. Each Fountain Thick Sauce bottle costs roughly Php180, making each pitcher consume roughly Php60 per mixture.

Compare that to a pack of mint leaves costing about Php40, which can be used for around 10 pitchers easily… and you get the picture. I won’t even go into how much additional cost sugar is… lets just say that the mint leaves and sugar won’t reach Php60 per pitcher. But if you don’t bother with the economics, then this is one viable option.

Oh yeah, one other advantage with this is that while drinking your regular Mojitos, there is the tendency to have the mint leaves enter your mouth. Unless you’re the type who swallows the mint leaves, I’m guessing another minor hassle is the need to remove the mint leaves from your mouth or your glass. Like I said, a minor distraction – one which this option definitely removes, as it’s mint leaves are cut to tidbit sizes, hence definitely easy to drink – no need to awkwardly remove from one’s mouth.

Option 2) Jingo tried placing mint in boiled water in an attempt (some would say desperate attempt) to replicate the thick mint sauce – to make things easier too, we added the sugar into the water. Result? Well, maybe we didn’t get things down pat – but it did not taste that minty… though there was some mint taste, but the sweetness was there. Should we try replicating this again, maybe we’d do the syrup effect first then add the mint leaves later – but really… we were just putting the muddling effort ahead of the mixture – but not eliminating it, so it really wasn’t the answer. I’m no chemist, but I guess something changed from the mint’s state when boiled – it did not taste as fresh… so although it was useable, it did not make for better Mojitos.

Option 3) The use of mint syrup. Again, this was not thoroughly explored – since we were just limited to one mint syrup and I can’t say it was a success… however, it could have been because we got the wrong mint syrup - I got peppermint, and our Mojitos that evening tasted of… well, toothpaste.,, and toothpaste with Rhum do not a good Mojitos make. I drank some, but did not really enjoy the mixture – so scratch that one. Again, I may revisit this option – but it had better not be peppermint. By the way… we were contemplating on using Mint liqueur as an option – but were reluctant to further spike our Mojitos by adding the liqueur… but who knows?

End result? Nothing beats the real deal… so Jingo and I – together with our friendly Mojitos consumers, decided to stick to mint leaves and muddling – after all, the fresh taste of the Mojitos and the fresh feeling we get while drinking them do come from the fresh mint leaves freshly muddled.

Next, we’ll discuss the better sugar and Rhum to use.

Question: :Is Bacardi white the best Rhum to use? How about the Oro? Is there a difference? I’d have to say yes. Now, I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I think the Oro version has slightly more kick than the white (or clear) version. It just so happens that Mojitos are known to be a clear drink – but it does not have to be. Heck… being a Filipino, I don’t mind my Mojitos browning… or turning golden in hue.

How did this discovery come about? By accident… honest. There came a day (probably during the holiday season) when stores ran out of Bacardi white… so not wanting to miss out on Mojitos, we decided to go with the Oro version – and to our surprise, we had great Mojitos. We actually preferred Oro over white ever since. And while we’re at the topic of brown versus white… let me also warn everyone about mixing white and oro in one evening.

You see, one of the good things of having Mojitos is experiencing the day after – no hangover whatsoever. Even if you did not drink moderately, come next day, the worst one can experience is a good buzz – but no headache. Somehow, when you mix Oro and White, the ‘punch’ seems stronger… and yes, the buzz seems to linger longer. Now if that’s your trip then you’re welcome. If not – then let white be used one evening and Oro another… but don’t mix your Bacardi Rhums – strange but true… at least, far as I can recall.

Next question: Is there a better type of sugar to be used with your Bacardi? Apparently, yes there is.

This last Bacardi night (June 5), we were not as organized as we wanted to be – the result of moving the drinking night one night ahead of schedule… and said date being the day itself. It was a friend’s request, and since we were all available later in the evening, we said ‘why not?’

That said, when we were in the process of muddling and needed the sugar – we just then realized that we had no more sugar. Now, it would not be much of a hassle to go out and buy sugar at the nearby store – did I mention that we were experiencing heavy rain that night? I guess I forgot to… but yes, it was pouring hard that night. But like I said, no sacrifice was too great for Mojitos… but wait… we did have sugar – though the unrefined version – otherwise known as Muscovado.

Once again, Jingo and I were in that ‘do we, or don’t we’ mode? In this case, it was to use Muscovado instead of refined sugar, or not?’ Muscovado, after all is still sugar –albeit a less refined version… but in the process – and this is according to Jingo, who’s opinion I trust in health matters – him being a registered nurse, after all… the Muscovado happened to be a healthier option. But, of course, we did not just jump into the fray… having learned from many experiments, we tried a glass of the Mojitos using Muscovado before committing to pitcher mode – and it did taste good… so Muscovado it was.

Now, if you know your Muscovado, you’ll know that using this type of sugar tends to turn things brown – but since we use Oro anyway, we did not mind the brown color. Okay… it wasn’t really brown as in chocolate brown, rather it gave a golden color – as opposed to the light amber color that the Oro gives when diluted with the carbonized water. Since I, too, am used to taking beer – our Mojitos that evening just looked like beer in pitchers – well, beer with mint leaves anyway.

For the carbonated water, there are many options to choose from – even those with fruity taste are acceptable. Personally, we use Zero Cal (for their purported zero calories) which comes with a few flavors. I’m partial to the citrus flavored ones, while Jingo likes the one with a Watermelon taste. Either way, it’s a great mixer to the Mojitos. If you can’t find them, your typical softdrinks (7-up or Sprite) will do just as well.

Last, but not the least – the lime. It’s hard to find lime in the Philippines, in that nto all your neighborhood stores keep them in stock – but they do keep lime juice in stock, as it seems to be a popular mixer to a local brand of Gin for the more labor-intensive folks, not just for the taste, but for the affordability. Well, apparently, they knew a good thing – and Jingo tried using Lime juice as replacement for your lime slices – with great tasting results.

Bottom line for me here is if you want to try a different way of making Mojitos – which I would like to refer to as the Manila version of Mojitos, try it with Bacardi Oro (instead of white) and Muscovado (instead of refined sugar).

But if you’re a Mojitos purist and prefer your Mojitos clear, then there’s nothing wrong with that – just keep with the tried and tested route.

By the way, whether you’re mixing the brownish or clear version, please use fresh mint leaves – unless you’d like to try the Fountain Thick Mint Sauce – assuming you can find it. But as I said earlier, having the fresh mint leaves does give the Mojitos a really refreshing taste – whether in a hot and humid night, or a rainy and windy one.

So here’s to the Mojitos – cheers!

Credit where credit is due... I would like to thank my friend and drinking buddy, Brian, for the pictures he took that night with his Canon DSLR.

Oh yeah, a bit of public service here...

We can enjoy our drinks, but if we need to travel after our night of drinks, please make sure to have designated sober drivers. I cannot emphasize that enough. Thankfully, our group has not had any bad experiences regarding drinking and driving - related accidents – but we don’t want to push our luck either… and neither should you.

Please don't drink and drive.

A Spiritual Pause in the middle of the Metro

This afternoon (of June 5, 2009), I did something I never did before... or at least hd not done in a long… long time. What may that be? Simple, I entered a church – and not just any church, mind you – but Santo Domingo Church to just sit down, relfect and - you could say, reflect / connect with God. Was this a planned visit? Nope, not really. Circumstances just brought me here – now isn’t that great?

“What’s so great about visiting a church” one might ask? Simple, I was able to find a very quiet and peaceful sanctuary amidst the hustle and bustle of the Metro – and I did not have to go to a Spa or drive for hours away from said Metro to escape to a beach resort. I had time to spare, was in the neighborhood, simply went inside Santo Domingo... and realized how peaceful it was.

Okay, so I’m starting this at the middle – let me backtrack to explain how I ended up here. It happened to be a day when I had to accompany Barbie to a training she had scheduled – by that, I mean she happens to be the speaker/resource person. This particular training was happening in Quezon City, specifically near the Banaue and Quezon Avenue area, for those of you familiar with the place - you would know that this place is a very busy place in terms of traffic.

Now, since she can’t drive yet, and she needed to get to the location – after which, when said training was done, she would need to get out from said location… I had to drive for her. This is, I’m not too familiar with said place, though it is located along Quezon Avenue, which means I had a general idea of how to get there.

As I said earlier, this is a very busy place - that means that there would be a great many public transportation option available to Barbie – though whether she could get one fast was still a question to be answered. As I was driving for her, she need not have had to think about all these; besides, I was around and had nothings scheduled that day, so off we went.

Now the question was… what do I do while she’s busy? I basically had to wait for four hours. The natural tendency would be to look for a fast food, preferably, one that wasn’t too noisy, and hopefully, one with WiFi so I could use my laptop and surf the net. But not being familiar to the place (I said that, right?), I did not know where the closest Starbucks or Seattle’s Best was, relative to where I brought Barbie.

So I did what most red-blooded Filipino male would do – drive around and seek said places (asking directions being so... uncool). Not that I did not know where certain Starbucks were – but I did not want to be far from Barbie’s location either.

Well… after a few rounds around the block in search of such a place – likewise getting the ley of the land, I could not find any of these coffee shops. I did see one or two - but aside from the fact that they were not well recognized brands, parking was tricky and a challenge to find… it being relatively lunchtime by then.

Then I thought, hey… since Santo Domingo was just near, why not stop there – at least, I was assured of having parking… after all, who would crowd into a church yard when there were no scheduled masses? And so I maneuvered to Santo Domingo church’s parking, entered and parked = after all, I could plan my next moves while in said parking location.

I also had a secondary reason for this... Banaue has a 'not too safe for cars' reputation - whether unfair or well deserves, I did not bother to consider such merits. I was just worried enough to not want to park anywhere near Banaue lest I lose one or both side mirrors. I thought, it would really be a brazen move should someone try to target me car while parked in the Santo Domingo church parking lot, and was banking on that point of safety when I was parking.

Soon as I entered and parked, I struck a mini-conversation with the parking attendant who without knowing, gave me information I had suspected a while ago… see, the rain had been heavy the past two – maybe three nights, and with these rains came flash floods… and as I looked around while driving, I could not help but notice that many establishments had their businesses raised in relation with the roads – which to me meant that these places experienced floods. Lucky for me, it was a sunny day today – in contrast to days gone by – sunny, yet windy… which meant the noontime sun’s heat was hardly felt. So, it looks like no rain today, or at least, not in the same volume – and with that, no floods. Good.

It was then that I proceeded to the church. I mean, I could not recall if I had visited Santo Domingo before - for sure, I did, but it wasn't really for spiritual reasons - rather more political. After all, Santo Domingo seemed a focal point for popular political uprisings... among others, it was where Ninoy Aquino's funeral mass was held, it was where many thanksgiving masses by Cory Aquino were mostly held. So it was not just the religious significance that caught my curiosity, but the historical implications of the location as well.

I entered through the front, and as I did, I immediately noticed the vastness of the church – it was indeed long, large and wide. It was also very quiet – with a scattering of devotees in it’s pews. I proceeded to it’s midpoint, found a relatively windy spot, near one of the church's side entrances, and sat down.

Now, as I said, I had not done this in a long time… in fact, I could recall visiting our school chapel ever so often while I was in Grade (primary and intermediate) School, maybe not as much in High School, and hardly at all in College. Apparently there seemed to be a progression of less visits – though I would be quick to say, I did go to mass almost religiously… meaning I never skipped a Sunday, though I might have skipped the Holidays of obligations. I guess, it simply meant that as I grew older, I 'needed' to visit less often.

Going back to Santo Domingo… as I sat, I started meditating about how my life was… realizing or reminding myself of a few personal goals not being met. As they are rather personal, I’ll just keep them vague here, and just continue… So I was meditating… I then knelt down and started praying/communicating (with God of course), and the very first thing I said was “Thank You…” I thanked God for letting me discover this place of peace and quiet… where i was seated, I could not hear the outside traffic of cars, buses and jeepneys jockeying for position in Quezon Avenue – it was really quiet, and I could actually concentrate / meditate.

I literally poured out my heart… (mentally, of course) and actually had a few tears rolling down my cheeks as I did so. Yes, it was that serious. I, of course, prayed for a better life, and then thanked him for what I had, the things I was doing right - and one more time before I got up, I thanked God again for this unplanned, very peaceful visit.

Now, this was not a short meditation either. I’m not one to kneel too long – after all, it’s not the most comfortable position I know… but I believe – that very afternoon, I cold have knelt for an hour or more – if needed. That said, I think I was kneeling for about 20 to 30 minutes… long in my book, trust me on that. So why was I able to do just that? Again, I would have to point to the environment of peace, comfort and yes… even with little people around, the spirituality that I could feel in the place.

Now, maybe it was just because I did not do such a thing for a long time, that I might have been very recipient of the surrounding… but I had gone to visit the Greenhills shopping center chapel last weekend during a non-mass moment – so I don’t think it was due to any length of time for not having visited a chapel or church.

Maybe it was, indeed, Santo Domingo church – I mean, the fact that this was a historic church in our not too long political landscape, was not lost to me either. This was, after all the favorite gathering of Cory Aquino, Cardinal Sin and many more dignitaries… you know, the states-people type, not the traditional politicians (or trapos for short). I was probably feeling the vibe of such a place having been an important part fo recent history. Maybe if I stayed long enough I would feel the same passion and commitment these people had - by tapping into the same spiritual font of strength that they had tapped.

I could have stayed much longer, but decided I wanted to look around some more.

I then visited the adoration chapel, prayed a bit – then decided htat this wasn't a daily occurrence, and had to write about this experience, to then be shared later in my blogs. Should you be reading these words now, you know I did just that.

So that’s basically it. I found a place to pause - even if just for a while. A place where I needed to commune, to re-energize, to reassess. Oh yeah… and I’ve actually eaten up almost two hours just visiting Santo Domingo.

I'm currently by the side garden as I type this article - sweating a bit due to the weather – though it seems that even that little problem is being addressed by the shower I now see, feel (laptop is relatively safe – for now) and smell (the wet grass – that is).

Should I do this again? Meaning the visit and spiritual renewal? Definitely… though it may not necessarily be in Santo Domingo, but the meditation, reflection and communication did help. Like a Spa, I felt a renewal, or replenishment of my spiritual self… maybe more so than going to mass at times – which may tend to be crowded, noisy and less spiritual as we’d like it to be. Not that I’m advocating stopping people from going to mass – no way… I’m just saying that I rarely found churches this peaceful, and it was a very welcome pause from all the hustles of city living.

In movies, I wonder why there are some people who go to visit the church when there was no mass – and I normally related these people with the desperate… those really in need, due to a crisis or an illness. Well… this afternoon’s experience was an eye-opener. Not everyone need go just because of trouble – but it is a nice place to hang… maybe there are no parlors, no fast foods, no movie or game joint… but if there were, then the peace I felt – the one I liked – the one that let me commune… that would not have been there.

Oh boy… now were really seeing rain – hope it does not last too long. I’m ending this now – not for fear of flooding… nah. It’s because I’ve said what I had to say.

Now I’m energized… until the next time. Oh, and try it some time too. Just visit - specially if you feel the need to get away from it all. You need not get away too far. Go visit your church, or any church for that matter. Give God some time for a one-on-one with you. Who knows? You could find that 'peace' too.

By the way, pictures here are courtesy of my Nokia N70, since I had not brought my Canon Camera... not bad either. Imagine that, I can literally blog on the go wiht just my notebook and cell phone.

How do they do it?

As I surf the net, once in a while I come across blogs of friends or future friends, and the first thing I notice is how great looking their site is. A definite far cry from basic Blogger or Wordpress templates at that (though I should be honest that the Wordpress templates seem a whole lot more artistic)... and the differences are just too glaring when I hop from their site to mine.

So as I said earlier, how do they do it> Are there HTML codes and commands I have to recall? Java scripts I have to collect? What should I do to make my sites look more... well, artistic and professional yet aesthetically sound?

I don't mind reading and learning... but I do want a road map. What should I do to shift from default template user to a more versatile, power user. Suggestions are most welcome.

My Have-Do-Be state

Have – Do – Be… a very simple model that we (in our in-house trainings) teach / preach in Coaching; one that we liken to the analogy of a tree with fruits. So how does it work? Simple… the tree has fruits – which can be likened to fruits of our labor being achieved… goals attained, or target acquired.

Now… to reach these fruits, one need climb the tree – which could represent the actions that we do in an effort to reach our goals. This is represented by the tree’s trunk – as it connects the fruits (at the tree’s top) to the roots (at the tree’s bottom). So, to reach the fruits, we need to do some action that will get us closer to the fruits – until we eventually reach them.

And, as mentioned earlier – at the tree’s bottom are it’s roots… symbols of the unseen factors that affect our actions – whether we realize it, or not. These roots are symbolic of four such factors which we identify as our values, beliefs, assumptions and thoughts.

Why these four? They influence our actions and decisions. For example, when we have our thoughts… whether we voice it out or not, we are possibly reacting to some outside stimulus (see, hear, smell, touch) and these reactions are actually formed based on our experience - our own or others, in which case, this latter situation can be seen as assumptions. These experiences may be seen as truths (at least, our version of it) and we may come to conclusions – or even judge a situation or person, based on what these experiences have taught us… in a stimulus / response manner. We oftentimes refer to this as learning.

These learning experiences can form truisms… maybe even cultures, if said truism is replicated to a whole community. For example, openness of a community to strangers – or caution, could be due to said community’s collective experience with said strangers. It won’t matter if said strangers stumbling into contact with their community represent a statistical representation of a country’s population to form an acceptable pattern – just one stranger adversely affecting them can keep them on their guard come next time another stranger appears. These truisms, in turn, become beliefs and even values.

If they’re still hard to grasp, it’s my limitation in explaining them without expounding on the ideas some more… and as I am writing (typing really) these words at 2am, I hope to either find time to expound them in my second pass (editing), or leave things as they are – after all, the Have – Do –Be is the lynch pin of this entry… but not necessarily the cornerstone. On the other hand, I’m sure many others can think of other considerations that can join this group of four if one really thinks hard enough – and they may even be right – but for now, let’s just stick with these, as they are just background to – and not the main reason for my current thoughts.

Nope, that Coaching model (if we can call it that) was just the introduction (hence the need to get it out of the way ASAP) – what is the more important aspect here is my using this same model with what I am doing right now. Easier said than done, apparently – because, the Have – Do – Be model needs a firm understanding of the ‘end in mind’ (the ‘Be’ part).

My problem is, I have not been putting strong focus on any ‘Be’s these days – hence, the feeling of unfocussed living of my life. Why do I feel this way? Simple… my current situation, wherein I have a very nebulous earning capacity these days, makes me feel unhinged – specially since there are days where I need to find ways to meet my expenses, and contribute to the household maintenance. Until I find a steadier source of income, I will remain unhinged. What’s worse is that I feel too reactionary – no proactive sense at all.

The problem is… I have not been able to search for a new job – although, I will also have to admit that I have not really been too active in searching for one… relying instead on what I used to do – that is, part-time training, which paid well before… though not too well these days after the U.S. recession – so that’s what? Since November of last year… almost half a year has gone by. Damn…

So… what should I be doing? Let me try things form a Have-Do-Be perspective.

‘Have’: I want to have a high paying job – one that will give me at least six figures a month… even after taxes, and reward me – in terms of both compensation and career advancement. What kind of job? Therein lies the rub… what do I want, and what can I offer to a company or organization? I will naturally have a bias towards training business… after all, it’s the business I’ve been in for decades – but it seems that such a business may not help me achieve such a goal. Either that, or I’ve not been looking at this the right way.

Though many people – not in the training business, of course, will quickly say that the reasons training practitioners do not earn that much is because they do not directly contribute to the profit margins… or are perceived to be stress-free (or at the very least) have little stress in their jobs.

I don’t think this is true either… but I will need to sit down with whoever says this and enumerate what they do and what we do. Yes we don not possibly contribute directly to sales and marketing… until you figure out who is making sure that the sales and marketing folks have their knowledge and skills in place – yes even the experienced hires. But again, this is a different point.

So… what now?

‘Do’: I need to assess my transferable skills… one that can be used in any business? I need to know my strengths… to see what other career I can jump in to. In that regard, I took the Strength Finder test, and it told me what my top five skills are – and I could readily agree with them. But how do I leverage these? And for that matter, are these enough?

I feel that I just scratched the surface. I need to know – or discover more. I need to reassess my capabilities, and I have a book that can help me… specifically, ‘What Color is your Parachute’ – and I should do the activities inside it. Lord knows I’ve had this book for about a year now… but I was still in a relatively comfy enough job – both when considering work and pay, so I was in a comfort zone. Back then, I already knew it wasn’t something I wanted entirely… but I was too busy earning to stop.

Will doing this… namely assessing my strengths, be worth it? Will this help me solve my problem? Won’t it be considered a waste of time? Won’t this be something akin to ‘analysis paralysis’? My answers in the same order… I hope so; maybe not immediately – though it can be a necessary prequel to the exercise of solving my predicament – as it can certainly help me avoid future problems; waste as compared to what? I mean, I’ve already got a lot of time that I’m not maximizing; and no it won’t be – at least, so long as it is not preventing me from acting out on some solutions. But… it is not a direct ‘Do’ action item when considering what I’m talking about – so what else can I ‘Do’?

Well, there is… for starters, the idea my dad broached to me… about trying out his business – though with a different perspective. Basically it’s pre-need selling, specific to memorial lots. Now that may not be the most attractive product (and yes, there is a product – specifically the memorial lot being sold), but in practical terms… people eventually die. Question is, will they be able to say that they won’t let their family worry about where to put their departed loved one – them or someone else, when that time comes?

Right now, dad’s business model is to set up shop and offer the lots to the people near the office. Fully dependent on walk-ins and a (deputized) sales force coming from these walk-in folk, once the business model is explained to them – so basically a form of pyramid selling – without the negative connotation of the pyramiding scheme. Despite this, the business can only go so far. What he proposes I do, is to actively market the same concept - but not via sales office (though that, too is open to possibilities), but to target companies in the Calabarzon (south of Paranaque and Muntinlupa) area.

It’s ideal is several ways – for one, dad will be there to help me out… and so will Burs (my youngest sister – half-sister, really… but I don’t care too much for the details). Next, it taps my (Strengthfinder) skills – so it’s akin to saying I can jump into the role like a fish in water.

Downside? It’s not a full employ, and it won’t get me my five figures… at least, not yet… unless sales will really be booming… and continuous for years to come (decades preferably). I’ll be basically an entrepreneur here… which is both good and bad – good since it will make me stretch my wings… bad because… well, I’m not exactly the most detail-oriented person to run a business and keep pristine records (i.e. I’ll need an accountant).

So what else can I do? Actually, that’s it for now. I can’t think of any other option right off the bat, that won’t be a ‘status quo’ thing… and as I said earlier – the status quo is not working out, right now.

And what of my ‘Be’?

To be brutally honest with myself – how do I answer the question ‘How did I get into this mess?’ Do I always look for the simple way out? No, not really? Am I not a dependable person? Definitely not! What attributes am I lacking? Right now… I’d have to say ‘Passion’. Passion for what I’m doing – passion for improvement, passion for getting things done right and well – though I have rarely slacked in this regard, since my strong sense of accomplishing what is right by the customer always gets things done right. But going back to passion - it may be this lack of passion that is making me act complacent. But I was certainly not always this way.

What was the root cause for this? Can I trace it back to my I/ACT days? I don’t think so – I was very passionate there… I always gave it my all… my best. It was in the latter days – when I perceived that management was not acting in – say, I/ACT’s best interest that I lost some passion in continuing to work for them… but not to work in a training business.

When I transferred to Fujitsu, I had a better pay… and I was in demand – but I held on to my principle of loyalty to the company – though, it, apparently could not hold on to me… thanks to 9/11 and it’s effect on the global economy. But then, I should have seen the writings on the wall – realizing that the training business was not really a priority of our CEO back then and he and the Chairman did not really see eye-to-eye. Still, I had a very good team – one of the best… which I helped build ground-up… a feat I replicated, by the way, from my I/ACT days. Still, it wasn’t enough, it seems. I’d say my frustrations started then.

Later, my joining PrimaryEdge was a good thing to start with – again it was about training… a strength I definitely had.. and it brought me into contact with colleagues I would really know and respect. Though I was not the lead – I was, in many instances, accorded the unofficial accolade of someone who was a senior (not age related – but experience specific). It would have been a good job – had it not been for the management… once again.

Why training businesses I end up with are not being handled by passionate training practitioners is a wonder… and this, once again, became apparent when I was talking to the CEO of PE – who saw training as a less stressed and therefore less pay valued job. I could disagree a whole lot – and I’m sure she was saying this to us… but equally preaching about such benefits to their main client. So I can’t fault her for her shrewdness. But I can fault her for not keeping her pool of faculty happy.

This was true in several cases… but I’m not writing this to dig up past instances – and remembering just puts me I a foul mood, so let me just say, I was again frustrated… and was wondering if the pattern I could see was because of me… a dangerous situation, since I was beginning to doubt my capabilities.

This self-doubt creeps in at times… and I have to convince myself (yet be careful not to delude myself) that I am not a failure… I am not at fault… I am not just lucky… but I, too, need to be more assertive – if not aggressive. I am a great professional – globally capable and able to adapt to a globally challenging culture, one with high work values. I am a great leader / manager – specially when in a training business. I can work with the best of them – and am considered (without hubris) one of the best trainings business facilitators.

I can hold my head up high… and I can handle any work that entails building teams, managing teams and setting goals, managing problems and keeping morale high. I value respect for the Individual, continuous improvement of the person and the processes, client relationship is something I value highly – but not at the expense of the team or the organization. I can sell ideas and am not shy to talk to anyone on a business level. I’m a management asset to anyone willing to try me out… and any organization that does not hire me, missed one hell of a human asset – their loss… not mine.

Question is… is that all I need to adjust in my ‘Be’s?
Not the end of my self discussion / self-disclosure… not by a long shot. I will need to review this document once in a while… and reflect on it. After which, I will need to do the hardest thing… a plan of action - something challenging, doable, yet not too safe / comfortable.

So definitely, this isn’t the end, but rather… a ‘to be continued’.

The ironic and mundane day

Warning... if you don't want to read about boring stuff - skip this entry.

Ironic… that is what I’m thinking of right now. That I have more access to technology that could help me blog faster or better… and yet, fins myself blogging even less these days (or weeks). The question is – why is this so?

Is it due to a lack of time? Don’t think so… but I do think it comes into the picture. A lack of topic, perhaps? Maybe – see, though I could possibly talk about so many things… I don’t want to talk about too mundane stuff – things that may seem just… well, everyday-ish (I can imagine what some grammar police will be thinking of that last statement). Is it basically a lack of interest or inspiration worth writing about? Now, that… can be the root of it all. But, again, why is this so?

Take today (the date escapes me right now – it’s just one of those slow days for me… meaning I’m slow – not the world), for example… if I were to just talk about what has transpired, I’d say that I brought my wife to work – as I usually do.

I also decided, early this morning, that I would go straight to work real early – about half a workday early (basically four hours early) because I don’t want to scamper for parking in the Robinson’s Forum (shopping mall) parking lot; due to the fact that the Cybergate office building’s parking would definitely be full of your regular office arrivals. So I really don’t mind being too early, as it offers less hassle later.

But what do I now do… with this extra time? Well, for starters, I can catch up on my blogging – albeit, in an offline sense, as I’ve been trying to find wireless networks that will allow me access. I simply needed to get to my work area (12th floor conference room) early and hang out there. I was even planning on taking my breakfast there – however, the best laid plans did not consider the fact that the training room I would be in would actually be occupied from 10am until 12nn - thus unusable by me.

I ended up at the floor’s pantry – plugged my laptop to the outlet in one corner, and started typing out my thoughts and feelings. However, things got a little noisy – hence I decided to pack up (after breakfast) and head on to another floor – with hopes of finding a colleague. Unfortunately, it seems that there was no one else around. So I decided to once again go to that floor’s pantry – find a socket and continue blogging. Yes… it was comparatively more quiet in this panrty.

So far, I’ve been at this for three hours, with two blog posts to boast about – one (this one) being a mundane piece – despite my earlier statements, and another which came out a little too profound for public consumption... oh I’ll still post it, though may consider a more private setting for it.

Since I still have two hours to spare – I have to think of activities (including lunch) where I can spend less – if not at all. Plus… it seems like I’ll be looking for another location after all, as this particular pantry (18th floor) is getting too noisy – will people chattering and the City Service personnel cleaning mugs will little regard to the noise he is making.

I also know I need to go to the mall later – withdraw some cash (in case my parking gets higher than Php100 (which I doubt – I hope), the tight money matter (prior to withdrawing) was another reason I decided to park the car in the Cyber 2 building, and not the mall. Another reason for my need to withdraw some cash? Just to have some contingency funds – it’s an ‘in case’ thing. I need not do it during lunchtime… which is just 30 minutes away, as many people may troop to the ATM during their lunch break – and my training will allow for some break time… I can use one such break time to get to the bank’s ATM . Whew…. Time flies when you’re preoccupied.

Ah well… half the workday is done, but my training has yet to start. Lucky for me, I’ll be with Mon – so one of us can really sneak out to the mall while the other lectures – so long as whoever is out gets back before his turn to talk comes. Unfortunately, that could entail spending – which I already said I would not want to do… being on a tight budget and all.
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I need not worry for meals – for one I have some ‘snacks’ and second, my training has meals included – possibly an afternoon snack and dinner. So I’ll survive this day’s meal requirements… and if there isn’t any available meal… well, I could afford to lose a few pounds.

Side thought…Wow! eleven paragraphs; approximately one page and a half… of mundane talk typed out – how about that.

Another side thought – this while eating a Washington Apple that Barbie gave me for snacks (and it is 2:13pm anyway, so it really is snack time)… this tastes crunchy and great! Too bad it was just a little apple – kinda ‘bitin’ and the café mocha that I’m taking on the side with it, somehow does not go with it too well. Note to self… don’t mix an apple with coffee – or specifically, café mocha. They aren’t the perfect snack match.

So… was this interesting? Did my reader(s) learn from it? Yeah… they probably learned that I can be a raving lunatic or blabbering idiot – uh oh… was that thunder I heard? Is it raining outside? Doesn’t look like it – but I can’t be certain, as the windows I see are shaded – and I see no darkening effect or wet marks. Ah well… no worries – I do have the car. Barbie, on the other hand, will have to worry about the rain this afternoon – if it does rain.

So back to the blabbering idiot part… yes, I can be verbose. But anything else learned? Here’s one… as a running commentary for my day, it sucks… why is that? It does not give the reader… myself included, any idea of time stamps… one that I was used to doing in my journals of old – you know, like the Star Trek supplemental logs. Oh well… next time.

How am I doing this, by the way – meaning, writing while I’m supposed to be supposedly conducting training? Simple… in the partnership I have with Mon regarding the trainings we share, it is currently his turn to talk. I’ll do so later – and I’m sure he will then be doing something similar to what I’m doing now. He does have a blog, after all.

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

There is a song that starts with this line, and as one gets on with life, one realizes that – yes… for whatever reason, old acquaintances do get left behind and eventually forgotten, as we move on – move out or simply just move… elsewhere…

We see friends less and less – at times making a point to try and keep in touch – but even this tends to get caught in the many trivial and important things life throws at us, and without realizing it… we hardly find our old acquaintances at all.

And yet… in these days of cell phones, internet instant access, virtual social networks, email or instant messaging, maintaining contact isn’t that hard to do… nor is it expensive, either. We can even get near-real-time information of what others are thinking or doing via sites like Plurk, Twitter or Facebook – so what excuse would we have for not keeping in contact?

Hardly any, really… even distance, after all, is not an excuse, since the typical PC can be configured to send and retrieve real time video/audio streaming… resulting in being able to have a very decent (quality-wise) conversation; whether pure text, voice or video.

And yet again… these may not always be enough. After all, say what you will about these tools for communication – and I’d be agreeing with you, but face-to-face, real time conversations are still the better style (or medium) of communicating with friends.

This leads me to what seems to be such a practice – thought, probably not a reason for such practice’s humble beginnings – but it is one obvious advantage fulfilled… namely the keeping of friendship bonds. So how do I do it?

Bacardi Nights…

There is nothing really special about the Rhum – other than the fact that we almost all love it as a mixed drink that can help fuel our conversations. It certainly keeps us from getting thirsty while we talk (or listen) – usually catching up to what’s been happening to each and everyone sine we last got together.

These Bacardi nights are simply a monthly gathering of friends, with the sole intent of sharing the night in a relaxing manner… where conversations can revolve around work, or people at work, or of other things in any manner or order. The important thing is you come prepared to unwind, talk and renew bonds of friendships.

That is what I and a bunch of colleagues have endeavored to do. We rotate houses where we can have these Bacardi nights, so as to not impose too much on anyone – and we also bring some dish (or drink) to help support the gathering’s needs.

So far, I’ve been privy to around three Bacardi nights at friends’ houses… and an almost equal number held at home – albeit, with a smaller crowd… and all I can say about it is that there’s never been a Bacardi night that I have not enjoyed. What do we normally do with out Bacardi? We make Mojitos, sometimes we just mix it with fruit juice – or sometimes, we use other alcohol available… my home is usually stocked with Jaegermeister (schnapps), Absolut (vodka), Contrieu (orange liqueur), Bailey’s (Irish Crème), Kahlua (coffee liqueur) and a few bottle/cans of San Miguel (beer). We don’t mix and match alcohol - though if we do mix our alcohol, we are careful not to go for a lower alcohol content.

Friendships preserved, updates exchanged,and should the Mojito run out of ingredients, we cn always mix the Rhunm with other things (like Coke). If we were to call it a night, I would say that there would be days when we would rather stay around longer… but the next day’s activity beckons… and in my case, I can’t be too drunk and nurse a hang-over (which , by the way Bacardi does not do) while going to mass.

So what are you waiting for? Why not organize a Bacardi night for you and friends and keep those acquaintances unforgotten?

Another day of blogging on the go…

It's a Monday, the 27th of April, and I’m currently in Starbucks’ Mega mall branch (the one found on the side of building A – facing building B). I’ve just finished one blog entry for my coaching site, and am now just typing this out for my minutiae musing site.

But to go back a bit, what am I doing here? Well… Bryce and Sharmaine are apparently celebrating a monthsary (monthly anniversary) by spending the day either watching a movie or just hanging around. I, of course, had to bring Bryce here – as, lucky for him, I did not have anything pending this day… but how about me? I did not want to be a chaperon from 11am to 4pm, so I had to think of doing something.

So, I lugged my laptop into my North Face backpack – complete with charger – placed my iPod in as well and decided that I would try to find a Wi-Fi hotspot, and either blog or just read my downloaded e-comics.

After Bryce and I found Sharmaine, I was left on my own… and started looking for, well… a place to have lunch and maybe hang around while using my laptop. I was trying to look for the soup place - the place that served different soups; which I remembered to be on the side of Mega mall – hence my coming to this side - but when I could not find it… well, I spotted Starbucks, and thought, why not?

Three hours later, I’m still here… having had a chicken-turkey sandwich and orange juice for lunch. Right now, I’m slowly sipping on a Tall Non-fat, no whipped cream, Café Mocha, as I type this out. The music is a bit progressive – but not annoying, and it certainly beats the traffic noise outside… and lets not forget the lingering summer heat. I’m glad this place is air conditioned, or I’ll be in a very crabby mood.

I also visited two comic shops here – just to see what they were displaying, but I had to control myself from buying any comic… after all, my funds are limited these days, so I have to avoid unnecessary expenses… and given the fact that these can be downloaded from the internet torrent sites… well, lets just say the temptation to spend has less impetus or reason – plus the fact that I can enlarge the images, and not really need my glasses to read the comics is getting to be a plus factor.

But enough of that… how is my blogging experience going? Just fine, really. Granted, I’m more using a word processor first, to help me get my thoughts in order… edit here and there for consistency (and spell check) before downloading the whole article to my various sites… that seems to be the current practice. I can, of course, do impromptu writing direct to the sites – as I have done at times in the past… but they tend to be unedited, which makes me go back to fix them later. Now, since the typical word processor already has a spell-check, then it won’t be (or shouldn’t be) a problem anymore.

So on I go… blogging here and there.

Note: apparently, that place can get noisy by 3pm, and I then decided to finally leave Starbucks, so I could walk around - even briefly, before I rendezvous with Bryce.

Graduations… a reflection

I had the privilege of attending Ben’s graduation last Friday, April 3, 2009 – held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Naturally, this ceremony led me to try and remember – vaguely, at that, my own graduation held at the very same place some 2+ decades past. Back then I was a happy – you might say, thankful participant with a ‘glad that it’s over’ smile… not bother to think about what tomorrow would bring… graduation day was to be savored, after all… and the loss of friendships and bonds forged in College or High School, the worries of an unemployed – or the busy schedules that work would demand… those were things for the unknown future… so now worth wasting any effort on.

I saw a lot of students/graduates to be wearing that exact same smile - happy that the rigors of College were behind them, and wondering what tomorrow will bring – but first the graduation ceremony itself would have to be done. Ben’s graduation ceremony started out early with assembly by 8am. I guess they wanted it this early to compensate for Filipino time – and rightly so, since PICC in itself may not be surrounded by heavy traffic – but the streets and highways leading to the place were experiencing just that.

Anyway, I had the presence of mind to think that since this will be a whole-day affair, it might be prudent to bring a book that I could read in-between activities. But enough about me… let me first share some observations about the graduation participants itself.

It might be safe to say that the graduates of Unciano College are not as well-to-do as that of La Salle, Ateneo or U.P.; I mention this because I marveled at how some graduation participants needed to get to P.I.C.C. by cab or bus or jeep – not many having the opportunity to have a car at their disposal. I shall also get back to that point later.

I vaguely recall how I got to and from my own graduation. I did not have a car and relied on my uncle’s car to bring my mom and me to the P.I.C.C. Maybe we had a driver – it was that long I can’t really recall. My dad may have even fetched me – or met me there, with my grandmother. With separated parents, it was not an automatic thing that I could just grab the family car back then – even if I already knew how to drive.

Taking a cab was also a problem as cabs to P.I.C.C. were easy enough – or at least as easy as one could expect with Friday rush hour to contend with. But possibly getting one when the graduation ceremony was over – with picky cab drivers to boot, and P.I.C.C. not being in the busy transportation lane – you could say it was indeed a hassle for such graduates and their guests to get out later.

But that’s not all I eavesdropped on one particular graduate and her cell phone conversation with her father - apparently he was not there, and based on the conversation, he was not going to make it to the morning mass, nor probably the afternoon graduation ceremony itself. I heard her joke about the gift she was expecting form him – then she gave her mother the phone… and left to go dry her tears in her own privacy… possibly not wanting her mom to see – and by extension, her dad to know how his absence meant to her in this – her special day.

Yup… as I watched this mini-drama transpire, I again reflected on how lucky I was – that despite my parents living separately, I could say (and prove with photos) that during my graduation day, my parents were there – and in college graduation, my grandmother – Lola Nena was present too. I wondered why the father was not around on this day… I could not judge him as I knew not the situation – for all I know, work had him impossibly far to be there… or work schedule might be the culprit… heck, he might even be indisposed.

But that was not the worse of it… I learned that some graduates did not even have a parent or guardian to join them as they walked on stage to get their diplomas. And though some faculty opted to join them, to be their stage companion – I could just imagine how they felt… looking around them with almost everyone else having a parent or guardian with them.

I just had to resolve that I not put my kids in a similar situation… that I would make any and every effort to be there with them… for them when their graduation comes. If my parents; despite their complicated social standing, could do it… I should find a way to do it too.

Then there were the speakers… rather than be inspiring, the first speaker mentioned that despite their being a second-rate school, who’s graduates may not merit a priority shortlist. Granted that there may be some truth to this – I have long ago realized that just looking at the CVs of only graduated from Ateneo, La Salle and U.P. was not a very good practice – and yes, it was a form of bias. Make no mistake, I belong to that list of graduate elites – coming from one of the three said schools, but I don’t think that makes us much more special than others… and I would still give other schools’ graduates them time of day to interview them for any job openings. I would even give the same time of day to people who have pending graduate statuses, as I know first hand that some non-graduates have even better work ethics than some graduates I’ve seen.

My point in all this? No need to confirm (as it seemed from many a student’s viewpoint) the biases they will face – instead, they… the faculty, would better serve their students by teaching them how to get around such bias. Don’t accept the status quo – find ways to correct it.

The honored speaker, as I understood it, came from a regional office of C.H.E.D. which stands for the Commission on Higher Education. But apparently, her delivery skills were even more horrendous than the first speaker… who at least, showed some life. This was a story of how perseverance helped her… and her siblings. Both speeches had themes of rising from rags to riches… but this latter speech was delivered more like a litany. How can these graduates be inspired at all? As I look back… I realize that I can hardly recall who the special speaker was during our graduation – guess my memory fails me in this regard – aided perhaps by what could have been an uninspiring message. This one, too, shall suffer the same fate.

What a waste of time, and opportunity. Luckily, I did have my book – and actually got to read several chapters, and if you wonder if I wasn’t rude… hey, at least I wasn’t sleeping and snoring as one member of the audience was apparently doing. If I sound too critical, forgive the haughtiness, its just my Toastmaster background and training being slighted for having to listen to such a speech… read at that, not even done extemporaneously… but the biggest irony was that this was a performance coming from a representative of Higher Education. As Homer Simpson would say - D’oh!

These student – through their parents had to shell out close to Php9K each… the least the school could have done was to get better – more inspiring speakers. Or is this another limitation of a not too prestigious school? I don’t believe so. It may be just a lack of networking to find better speakers. Maybe they need to better tap their alumni – or are all these past students already abroad?

Graduation should be a milestone in one’s life – that said, the institute/college/university that organizes a graduation ceremony should pull out all effort to give their departing ambassadors (for these graduates will now prove that they have had a good education and will… for good or bad, represent the school through their capabilities) the best ceremony they can come up with.

If these students sacrifice a lot to get to the place; if the parents find time to attend, and pay for these miscellaneous fees – then at least, give them all their time and money’s worth. Organize better… choose better… prepare better – and I’m not just talking to the organizing committee here, but to everyone involved… specially the speakers.

Then maybe… the students will not need to be automatically inducted into their alumni program – as they will be proud to be a part of such. Then maybe… the ceremony can be shortened to just half a day without losing any of it’s prestige and importance. Then maybe… I won’t have to write about things in this manner.

Oh well… to the graduates of Unciano - what’s done is done. To you – and to all graduates of 2009 – you enter a depressed global economy, Now you can see it as tough luck or golden opportunities to shine – I suggest the latter… after all, attitude is one important factor, aside from hard work and perseverance. So instead of me saying good luck – I would rather say, make your own luck. people. No one else will do it for you.

Find ways to shine… be noticed. Show others that you are better than what others may think of you – prove that you deserve more than just a cursory glance at one’s CV. Learn how to answer interviews confidently – and don’t be afraid to turn weaknesses to strength.

A day in the life… or blogging on a laptop

Now that I’ve got a laptop computer, I’m thinking that it looks like my journal writing days may be further limited – I mean, even before I had this, the concept of writing had to consider the fact that I did not forget the journal, did not forget to write in my journal (which also included, of course, the pen I would use to write), so right there I already faced a few obstacles. Had I, for example brought the journal, it would be a different issue to consider my remembering to write – or my feeling like writing.

Of course, a plain journal still has some inherent advantages – namely it does not run out of batteries and needs no electricity, so I may still end up writing… though much less than before.

Still, just to let one in on the advantages I’m experiencing right now, I just started this journal entry while I was ordering my lunch in Kitaro, a relatively fancy Japanese restaurant – and ordered the usual… Kakiage – which is basically a deep fried vegetable dish; and paired this with a side order of rice and bottomless Iced tea (it really was hot, so I needed to cool down). And what did I do while waiting? Obviously, open the laptop and start typing.

When my meal arrived, I just saved my work and enjoyed lunch. Now… I’m waiting in the IMAX lobby, until it is time to enter the theater, What’s showing? Monsters vs. Aliens – my first official IMAX movie – unless I include the Disney theater experience in Hong Kong.

My problem is, I’m having a bit of a headache – possibly due to my having to try and balance my taxes… a hopeless cause at this time, so I stopped – resigned to the fact that I’ll be penalized for filing it late… but wanting to make sure it is filed correctly. Hence the decision to watch the movie now… on a Wednesday afternoon. To get my mind off the tax thing, and enjoy what I can (and probably lower my blood pressure, which is the possible reason for the headache).

So yeah, going back to the fact that I already have a laptop – it does allow one to be more productive – as I would definitely have the option to not just write articles for my blogs, but to do other things as well… as anyone with a PC can attest to al the possible things they can do with their computer.

Which reminds me… I’ve still got a scanned copy of Captain America’s 65th anniversary issue to read. A friend sent it to me upon knowing I had not read I yet (thanks again Sam!), and with this laptop, I can basically read it anywhere. I just need the time.

Oh well… thirty minutes to movie time, but I might as well rest my eyes, hands and mind… after all, I don’t want to be too winded that I won’t be able to enjoy the movie.

Movie done, and the story was great – there were a lot of funny moments and naturally, the 3D effects were wonderful too! Although that will be the last time I’ll decide to go eye-level with IMAX – as it comes across as too close for me. I felt like I was at the front row, straining to look at everything, and I noticed that the technology… whether due to my closeness to the movie screen – yeah right, middle of the theater seat row and I still felt too close, ahd some adverse effect on the movie – because the effects were not totally 3D in the outer portions of the image. But when I adjust a bit they become more solid again, hence my consideration that it was indeed my seating area.

By itself, it was a great movie – and with the 3D effects, it becomes a better movie – and unlike some movies that may have limited 3D effects for the duration of the film, this one seemed to be 3D all the way. Heck it was entertaining enough to keep me awake – on an afternoon, with me full, and having just about 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

So I’d say that yes, it was not my first 3D movie experience with today’s technology – the Disney one was exactly the same – but it was my first IMAX experience… meaning watching it that large – that engaging. Oh, but the Disney movie had other features… namely wind and water effects – I did not expect that here, of course, but decided to mention it in a compare and contrast manner.

I will definitely try to find time to bring the kids to watch IMAX… when the right movie comes along. Though technically, this one would have been a good one – except that Bryce had a date – and Bernice decided to stay at home. Oh well… next time.

As I said earlier,one downside would be running out of battery (another was feeling the laptop's weight on my shoulder after lugging it for the better part of a day) - and not having an electric socket to plug into... well, it eventually happened to me as I was enjoying some iced Cafe Mocha in Bo's Coffee around 5pm, while waiting for the time to pass before I called Bryce from his date (the very reason I was at the Mall of Asia).

So what did I do after? Lucky for me I brought a book along - I'm slowly reading Obama's Audacity of Hope... currently in the latter chapters, and this afternoon gave me the opportunity to shave off a few more chapters.

Once I linked up with Bryce, we tried looking for a few online game cards - and in the process found ourselves in Book Sale... a move I slightly regretted as I ended up getting three books at really low prices... but three books nonetheless.

We then linked up with Barbie, who had a reason to be in MOA as well, and after some snacks at Starbucks, it was home for the three of us.

So there you have it... a day in my life - not always the same though, but still, a recap of what I did this 15th of April... one that I could easily do, now that I have a laptop to lug around.

Refelctions... part deux

Easter Sunday ends... just like any day, with the hours passing us by, until... 12 midnight arrives and Monday officially steps in. The question is, how did we maximize what is supposed to be Catholicism's most important holiday and celebration?

Granted, we have the usual Easter mass, and people take the time and effort to greet friends for Easter - some would even have Easter egg hunt, families may be together for Easter lunches... or dinners, but in reality, has anything changed? Aside from the usual fanfare, are we any better for the reflections of the Holy Week that was?

Good question. How did we spend our Easter?

I can only answer for myself, of course - and in some way, for my family.

First off - we hardly had a perfect Easter. Why so? Due to our not having been able to have had our confession prior to Good Friday, we simply could not partake of Communion during the Easter mass celebration.

Now here's something we (meaning Barbie and I) are not too sure of. In Easter masses, we renew our Baptismal vows... does this automatically remove us of our sins? Going back even further... to the Easter message itself, where any priest or pastor would remind us of (or claim that) Jesus died for us to save us - to have God forgive us... to, as our priest (Fr. Noel) said in a relatively clear analogy - rebuild the bridge to God that was broken with the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. Doesn't this mean we are sinless? Doesn't this mean we could have taken Communion?

The answer isn't that clear - and if my conscience is to be my judge, I'd say better to play safe and not commit another sin by receiving communion without having had confession - and let's not even jump into the debate of why one can't just confess directly - I'm not saying one can't... I'm just saying I'd rather follow the Catholic practice, as I've been used to. Whether I'm just making myself and my family suffer for this more... well, what's a little sacrifice? Besides, needing to be honest to a priest, in confessing one's sin... I see it as helping one test their own resolve and inner courage. After all, if one isn't totally honest, won't that mean it was just a wasted effort? You can fool the priest... but can you fool yourself? Question is, would said person fooling themselves even care to be honest?

I'll leave this philosophical discussion for now, since I'd like to further reflect on this - or even better, discuss it with friends. Let me, rather, reflect on another item - one that our priest focused on as the cornerstone of his Easter message.

That Easter should be the cornerstone of the Holy Week, rather than Good Friday. Think about it... I see so many religious icons of the Crucifixion - and much less, images of the Resurrection. Yet, without said Resurrection, then Christianity in general would just have been a joke. The Crucifixion represents dying and self-sacrifice... in that sense, it is important... it proves Jesus' ultimate love. Yet the Resurrection represents God's acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice - and forgiveness of sin. It represents the renewal of salvation... it represents hope. So believers of the faith can always have that hope... that as bad as things may look, there will be hope at the end.

Naive? Maybe... but it can be empowering for anyone. I don't know about you - but I would rather be optimistic too. No, we do not forget the death... but recognize it as a necessary step to set the stage for hope. Guess that's where we got the saying "...darkest before dawn". The hope being that dawn will come.

This gets me to think... why, therefore, do we not 'generally speaking' celebrate Easter with grander scale than - say, Christmas? I mean, you can feel the goodwill in Christmas, and for some... many people look forward to a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Well, aren't we supposed to be equally thankful (if not more so) for Easter? Shouldn't we celebrate it more? Why don't I see a greater mass build-up for Easter day? Is it because we first need to be stoic and sad for Good Friday? Hard to sell?

Hmmm... we may need some strong reallignment here. Until we celebrate Easter better, we may stay stuck to the fact that Christmas will always be the best loved holiday, with Easter always playing second (or even third) fiddle.

It shouldn't be so.

Reflections... or a lack of it.

These past days - in prepering for Holy Week, I've often wondered how my family and I can best spend the time in proper reflection. Do we go 'bisita iglecia'? Do we do the stations of the cross?

Unfortunately, it seems that we've been waking up real late these past days, so before our day starts, it's close to luch time, and then the afternoon sun tells that it's not that good an idea to go out - and it's not jsut the heat, it's also because I've had warts cauterized and have been told not to bathe for three days, as my wounds get better - wounds that would start getting pricky when sweat gets mixed with their presence.

So what has been happening lately is the fact that this long vacation has been mostly days of rest - which we do need as well, but one with little reflection, as well. Then there's always watching DVDs, but as I looked at my collection - well, let's just say a lot of these don't really fit the holiday reflective mode... and somehow fit proper viewing for my kids... to explain a bit, I may not think they're ready to watch "The Last Temptation of Christ"; in fact, I wondered if they were ready to see the stark realism of another film... "The Passion of the Christ"... but watch this one we did.

What made me decide to enforce this viewing? Simple... yesterday, as we were having dinner, I asked my kids... "What is the significance of this week?". Now I rarely ask such questions, but I was wondering if they did indeed have some semblance of what we were observing. Needless to say, I found out that my kids guessed - and not too confidently at that, what Holy Week was about. So I said, okay... time to get the exposed to the Passion... with the hope that Christ's sacrifice gives them pause to consider their fun-focused plans for the week.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fun - but we need to put it into perspective with Christ's sacrifice this Holy Week.

Is the lack of understanding mine? I'll have to admit to that - I assumed that their school would let them know this week's importance, but I guess we - that is, Barbie and I, needed to ensure that their knowledge of the story of the passion would be appreciated and inherently understood.

Do watch the Passion of the Christ we did... this afternoon. I found myself crying - and tried to spy to see my kids reactions. Either they're made of sterner stuff, or the film was just going above them - not being able to understand all it's implications, due to what I percieve are two things... their lack of knowledge for the story of Jesus, and the film's Aramaic dialogue. Reading the English sub-titles must have really been really 'ínteresting' to them.

So... lesson learned, I'll need to find DVDs with English versions of the Passion - maybe not the Passion movie per se, but other tellings like "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or it's likes. I'll also have to better plan for Holy Week activities - staying home may be cheap... but not at the continued expense of my kids' seeming ignorance to / lack of confidence in telling the story of Jesus.

Nature pics - part 5

Yes they're back... my interest in capturing more of nature's works. To see if I could do justice to capturing the beauty of some flowers and plants. This time, I tried getting closer - see if I could focus said flowers up close without losing the image's focus... taking into consideration what Mon said about how these new digicam's allow you to tell them what to focus on.

Here's a little of what I got, from my recent Cuenca trip last March 28... I'm ashamed to say i can't remember what these flowers are called... so I'll just have to get their names later on and repost them here. My first pic, as you can see presents a bunch of Lavander colored flowers forming a near dome-like shape (will insert flower/plant's name here later).

Whereas my second subject (insert name here) is a very bright red flower... first focusing on the bunch - then refocusing... and coming even closer to get the flower. I'm rather glad that the flower's texture did not get lost in the taking - which goes to show that I was able to properly focus on the subject. Whether I can get a sharper image... I still need to reassess my knowledge or mu Canon Ixus V's capabilities.

Then here's another attractive plant (insert name here later) and I first tried getting it with a flashbulb... the camera's automatic decision - not mine; then I tried once again without the flash, this time... just to see how things went. The results - as you can see are both great (I shy away from the adjectives breath-taking or spectacular, since I feel that I don't deserve explaining my pictures in that manner... at least, not yet, anyway.

Though they're not that large, the picture's closeness makes the plant come across as much larger... I might even mistake it for a local grape (or the Duhat, for that matter) had I not known that grapes grow in vines and Duhat on trees.

I hope to continue my understanding of nature and capture them through pictures. Until next time... see you.

Facebook, Plurk and other social networks

I've been using Facebook for quite some time, and the things I like about it is it's interactive capabilities that allow me to know what my friends are doing - something another social network site seemed to have missing, so naturally, after seeing - and experiencing this, I gravitated to Facebook more often than said other site.

At first, I thought it wouldn't be that easy, as I already had many friends in the other site. but my Facebook friends - some of them who are likewise friends in the other site, now surpass my friends in said other site, so it shows that I'm spending more time (and effort) updating Facebook than the other. I even posted on the other site's quote portion my Facebook account link... in case peopel are wondering why I visit on rare occasions.

What's stopping me from just dropping the other account? I've still go t a few (though not really that many) straggler friends who still greet me in the other site. Now, you'd wonder what to do in a social network that seems very friendly? For starters, I checked my privacy settings - after all, friends of friends are fine... but I don't want everything too exposed to just everyone - not that I'd place pictures that would put my friends (or me) in a bad light, of course - btu I just wanted to limit the viewing of said pictures to people I know, and not complete strangers.

How much time do I spend on Facebook? Good question... there are days I feel that I spend too much time with it - others where I am thankful for it 9specially in reminding me about others' special occasions. And since my birthday just passed - I got to be on the receiving end of these greetings.. and let me put some statistics here to show you how Facebook keeps me connected with friends.

On March 15 - my birthday, I received 23 text message greetings from friends and family, via my cell phone of course. In my other site? I got about three. From Facebook, I received 49 greetings... even I was surprised at the influx... and though others might also point out that said number was really just a fourth of my friends here, I'd still say I would have a hard time remembering when I received such numbers. I would alos like to point out that one friend greeted me by text, because she was confused with the new Facebook format... which apparently did not remind her of friend's birthdays - as easily as it used to. So these were high numbers despite the learning curve of the new Facebook look and feel.

And since we're on the subject... what about the new look and feel? It can get confusing, and searching for other items aren't as easy as it used to be. I know I had to fumble around to look for my pictures and notes a while ago.

So why did Facebook make the change? Still don't know... though some TV shows say it's in reaction to Twitter's interactivity... and maybe that of Plurk, too. Well, since I've not really used Twitter, I can't react to that - but Plurk is another matter.

I've been a fairly recent Plurker, and what I can say is that it gives me a quick and dirty manner of updating my status - not just in Plurk, but said updates also appear in both Facebook , and my other site. So it's got two things going for it... basically boiling down to having a fast AND convenient manner of letting everyone know what you are doing... and that's it.

I do not see how Plurk forced the hand of Facebook - though from what I read/hear, it's the interactivity - the same strength I chose Facebook over the other site, that got them worried and thus changed theri look and feel.

Does the new design give more leeway... more freedom? I'm still learning, but these past few days have been humorous, as I see some colleagues make some mistakes - due to Facebook's new style or setting... mistakes that somehow cause them to accidentally spam others. Ah... growth pains.

Personally, I don't see any conflict with both Facebook and Plurk.,,, and I'll continue using them both - to keep in touch, to inform... or to simply break the day's monotony. Will I Twitter as well... hmmm... still thinking about that. If I can see some unique capabilities not offered by either Fcebook or plurk, I just might do that.

One thing seemingly going for Twitter is that it's got lots of blog contents - in fact, it's community is composed of a lot of bloggers. I see attempts by Facebook to try showing the same number of blog contents - but since Facebook seemingly did not start that way, few folks kinda miss the fact that you can actually blog in Facebook too - through the notes portion.

In fact, let's take another site... this one in particular, Blogger.com. It's no Twitter either - since there is no limit to how long a suggested article is going to be (or at least, I've not encountered one yet) . Not so in Twitter... you've got a maximum ceiling to the number of words, so you're forced to be succinct, as opposed to my possible ramblings here... and thinking of minutiae considerations, it looks like I've not been minutely blogging as much as I should.

Meanwhile... as the site wars seem to continue, I just write this article and any other thing that comes to mind... after all, I'm not in it for the strategies - I just like to keep my thoughts documented and posted somewhere (blog), let some friends know what I'm thinking of or doing at a particular time (plurk) and keep tabs with friends - maybe see their pictures and learn more about them (facebook). I don't need changing looks or themes - unless I myself find a reason for making the change.

But how do these social networks affect my productivity and all that? Ah... that will be discussed in a separate segment.

Fun Pictures II

Here's a fresh batch of pictures that I've played with... and wanted to share with everyone else. Unlike my first entry, I now used another fun place for helping enhance some pictures... I'm talking, of course, of magmypic.com which helps you superimpose magazine templates like the one you see on the left, with Bernice's picture.

He he... my kids will most likely kill me for posting this, but what parent can refuse the guilty pleasure of posting cute pictures of their kids from years ago? Yeah... when I saw this picture, I had to scan and post it... but how to post it with a reason? Well, here's a (rather shallow I might admit) reason for doing it - and I get to post said picture.

I could, of course, say that it's preence here is a good compare and contrast with Bernice's face than and now... yeah... that woud be a good alibi.
Now, to play fair, I also played with an old picture of mine. Remember the one I used to be placed in a black and white television tube? - yeah... the one where I looked like a sourpuss? Well, its back (since I have hardly any other almost full facial picture. Still, I have to admit - this cover looks almost natural - and besides... if fame does arrive, it won't really be just mags or TV crew coverage, now - won't it?

Now here's another one of those convincing covers - this one of Bernice and her female classmates... all in the spirit of having fun while posing with their teacher. Of course, I had to choose a more appropriate mag title.

Having said that, lets now look at another set of pictures... this time, using the photofunia.com templates. At his juncture, I'd like to describe this picture like Paris endorsing the CD of Bernice.

What did I say earlier about being famous? Magazine covers and celebrity endorsers too. In this case, not just any endorser, but a very rich one at that.

Next I've got a picture of Bing (goat) in a movie scene that I'm sure she'll cringe on the outside - but like really well on the inside - after all, she is a fan of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - so I doubt that she'll mind posing as part of the famous Azkaban wanted poster.

Heck, I'm a fan of the movie myself - so I just had to pose for the same picture... I guess the trick here - to make it look natural, was to get a picture where the face was a bit... well... eccentric looking.
And so, Bing's picture does not have that desired 'eccentric' or 'mad' look - her smile being too friendly, and all... mine, on the other hand... let's just say I'll get back to that in a while. It would look rather boring to have two of the same pictures literally right after the other. So, not yet...

Instead, I'd like to show another fun phototfunia template - that of the jigsaw puzzle - and again, it took some getting used to the kind of picture that would match this template - see, if one should choose a not too compatible picture, one person could end up having no face... having possibly landed in the under construction area of the puzzle. In this case, Barbie's face is complete... and the only under construction portion was just her red shirt (not really essential). Another inherent limitation here is that the faces may be a bit blurred due to the puzzle pattern's effect.

I call this next one a guilty pleasure... nuff said, right? adoring fans just rubbing up against - or kissing your poster says it all. And here's the green wall template - cute in a way... how passers-by look at the picture. It simulates some kind of store display.

Here's two more pictures with me... including the previously mentioned Azkaban poster where I look a bit harried - though not as eccentric enough as I might have wanted to. Ah well... it is hard to top Sirius Black's look... so i won't even try... or maybe I'll do give it a try - hwen i feel more up to the challenge. The other picture is - of course, my mug shot in a magazine... though I would have wanted a different title - ah well, maybe photofunia can crete more templates for these? So... I started with a picture of Bernice, and I'm ending this edition of fun pictures with a picture of Bernice as well... this simulating those large tiled panel billboard style... or whatever they're called. Still... as I said in the first article about these - such sites and templates help make some otherwise ordinary -looking picture look less ordinary... and in some instances, priceless even.

Lousy Internet Service - part 4

This is just to update my previous entry for the service problem that my family and I were experiencing with Globe’s DSL service.

It’s official – after about five (that I can personally recall) visits from their technical support team who tried to check our signal and the cause for all our service time-outs or inability to connect – specially during the week-ends, the official culprit happens to be their web’s inability to connect constantly with our internet-box (for lack of a more accurate manner of calling it),; be it through wireless means, or through the application of an external antenna to get better feed.

Having discovered that, we tried to see if the service would, at the very least, improve – but apparently, the use of an external antenna did not improve the capturing of any internet signal. As I was watching their technician type out a few DOS commands, and use a speed application - all connected to checking/tracking how strong or how fast the signal was… I noted that there was at least one remote site that was causing the failure.

Now, recalling what I learned about routing technology, I know that if a signal is not able to move one route, it automatically looks for another route – so why did it not happen here? Are we locked in a certain route – and only that route? Is the route that our signal was going to a central repository that could not accommodate us? These were questions I kept mum about, though, as I simply observed how the technician was trying to discover the perplexing problem – and if possible, close the issue.

Unfortunately, after over an hour (maybe even more than two), he had to admit that the problem was indeed related to Globe’s signal – in this case, its inability to receive our packets. Hence we could send, but it was not receiving… but when it sent, we could receive… as evidenced by the speed tests he tried, when the signal was restored (albeit temporarily).

So yesterday, my wife goes to Globe and delivers her request to discontinue Globe’s service to us – based on those findings. And since it wasn’t our fault… a waive of the ‘lock-in period’ – where we would have to use their service for at least a year; as stipulated in our agreement with getting the service, was granted us.

Over-all, it was rather disheartening – especially since I personally saw how Globe’s people were always courteous, accommodating and decisive in helping their subscribers out… a fact borne out of not just my communicating with them, but by observing Barbie’s communications with them by phone as well. I mean, had it not been for the technical issues, I would have been very happy to continue with Globe – who knows, maybe in the future, I will still consider the possibility of having Globe as a service provider for future internet services.

But… with that no longer an option, we now look towards two possibilities – Smart Bro; which is again, another wireless internet service… or maybe consider Sky Internet; which is the internet service provider of Sky Cable – so yes… internet service through cable connection. Since we’re not too convinced with wireless DSL for now, looks like we’re trying the cable option, as I have had at least two confirmations from friends that cable may be more stable than wireless – further corroborated by my brother-in-law, who’s got a relatively high exposure to a lot of computer hardware and set-ups. Of course, if the cable transmission goes down, there goes not just our cable TV viewing, but our internet connection as well. Ah well… then again, maybe not.

Meanwhile, I’m typing this now in my word processor – as opposed to a free form writing directly to the blog site manner… with the hope that when I get a chance to use the internet, be it here – once a new connection is considered, or maybe by way of using an internet kiosk. Either way, I will have this entry ready to be published for this blog, as well as its mirror site.

Why not Smart Bro? Well… to be fair, it is what my in-laws are using in Cavite… and they seem very happy with it’s consistency and speed, but as I said, our experience with Globe’s wireless DSL left us frustrated, and we didn’t want to chance it. After all, it might be connected to the population density of users, and I would guess that Manila has a whole lot more users than Cavite, so success in one site is not an automatic indicator of success in another – possibly more populated area.

When will we be able to experience Sky Internet? Hopefully, within this week.

So once again, here’s hoping that this will be the last of my ‘Lousy Internet’ entries… after all, I don’t want this to be just one more in a series of long rants and raves about the Internet industry – and its inability to offer acceptable quality signal service in particular.

Update on this update(as of February 13, 2009)

It took Sky Internet much longer than the proffered date, and I was getting frustrated with them - after all, they were the ones insisting that I avail of their free trial service.

Over-all, we waited close to two weeks before they finally came. Meanwhile, I was in the middle of negotiations, and my having no internet connections forced me to look for internet cafe - so it was really a great inconvenience. Not a good start, far as I was concerned.

When they finally arrived, I was confused with the need to install another cable line - their explanation was, it had to be separate form the cable TV’s line… okay. Maybe that was the reason the first installation seemed unable to catch some signal… maybe the first newly installed cable had incompatibility issues which they later realized but did not want to announce… lord knows that happens, as I’ve had my share of LAN frustrations before - only to finally track things back to the cable that was, for all intents and purposes - supposedly compatible (weird but true). Still, I was just glad they came - albeit rather late, and even helped by assisting them with menial details like holding the flashlight for better illumination, as they worked with their new cable layout.

Then comes the next frustration - for some reason, the internet was having a limited to no access… and their technician could not make heads or tails about it. It was obviously the first time he’d encountered something like this - and he just could not go around the problem. As it was close to 10pm already, we just agreed to continue this the next day - thinking it was just fatigue keeping us from finding the answer.

Why was this happening? For starters, I suspect it had something to do with either their set-up or my PCs configuration - to test one or the other, we tried the same set-up with Barbie’s laptop… and it did not connect either.

So they left… leaving me with some frustration. Then after I had taken a shower, and dinner… I tried once again… this time, double checking my PC’s security options. I tweaked things a bit… and suddenly found the internet just working!

Hnh… so what was the problem? I’d say the number one problem was the fact that the technician was not familiar with Vista… but Barbie’s laptop was using Win2K, and yet they were unable to make it run there too. Of course, Barbie’s PC had a lot of security too. So was having too much security a problem? After all, the PC or laptop couldn’t very well be without any security whatsoever.

Point was, by the time the technician finally came, I showed them a working PC - we then tried connecting to the PC downstairs - and once again, they could not find the reaosn for its not cooperating… and this PC had just been reformatted - so no security problems here.

Again, they left… unable to help, but secure with the thought that we had one PC working with their connection… and again, I was left pondering the problem. My brother-in-law, Benedict said it might be that their modem had ways of making usre only one connection was running - even if we tried a router connection… but the router connection was only tried when the first PC was already working, and the second was not… so it wasn’t the router.

When Barbie finally arrived from work, I twreaked her laptop - basically undoing whatever the technicians did - and viola…! Her laptop cold access the internet by wireless connection - so scratch router issue.

I would have thought that the cable might be a possible problem, but ther was limited connection - had it been cable-related, there would have been no connection at all. So having been bouyed by the fact that I had solved 2/3 of our connectivity concern, I again searched for ways and means to connect the PC downstairs with our router.

Things might have been simpler if I had access to the router’s website - but I did not… and thought restarting from scratch was always an option, I did not want to change things in that manner until I was sure I tried everything.

Apparently… just like the first PC, there were conflicting messages between the PC and once I streamlined those security instructions, things started going smoothly.

So now… no thanks to the Sky Broadband tech folks, I was finally able to get my home network running. a sI said in my Facebook shout out, I was glad tht somehow, someway, i retained what I knew about LAN design… though like the technicians, I was also having some adjustment period with Microsoft Vista… though I also have to say that its auto repair optiosn got things running faster - soon as I found possible problems.

So far, its been three days since we had this connection, and I’m glad to say that we’ve not had intermittent problems with the cable internet signal… and hopefully, with fingers crossed and all, I hope this will be my last internet frustration article.