introspective observations and revelations

any regular viewers will have noticed that i have decided to upgrade my template to the updated sets that are available now with Blogger, enabling a bunch of new features that wasn't there before. i'll keep up with my efforts to continue updating my blog with any details about my life. i'll also start back tracking and labeling my older posts. let's hope that exercise doesn't take me too long though...

also, i've noticed some key items with the way people are getting to my blog. people just can't seem to get enough of the kwek kwek recipe that i posted almost 3 years ago. i'll keep up my efforts by looking for recipes of other street foods soon... maybe even getting some inside tips from the "pros". i have seen some stuff that i want to blog about, but i'll consolidate my discussions to make them more coherent.

i hope my visitors would drop in sometime and leave a note or two - i'd love to hear from anyone who may have chanced upon my blog.

till my next post!

it's been a long while!

i've been away for so long that i only realised today that i've been gone a whole YEAR from this blog. talk about being such a lazy bum.

anyway today i've created my gadget review blog (located here), and i'm quite excited at going back into the blogosphere. hopefully i'll have a great time back.

looking forward to making a lot more updates over the next few days...

update: i stand corrected - it's been TWO years since i last made a post! EGAD!

blogging from Singapore

i'm currently composing this post while i'm so many kilometers away from my home - and it's my first time out of the country, not to mention my first time having to stay in a residence ALONE. i'm a bit nervous for work tomorrow since we have to face some clients for discussions, but i'm happy to announce that i've managed to get to do some things for the first time now:

- checking into the airport and riding an airplae (well, duh.)
- staying alone in the wonderful Somerset Liang Court - and on my own again (surprise surprise)
- having a long dip in a bath tub (and getting scalded by the hot water too)
- actually ironing my long sleeved polo shirts for work tomorrow (steam iron - really should invest on one)

well, this is all for now. have to sleep so that i can be ready for work tomorrow.

stuff i've missed talking about

here's a rundown of everything that's been going on with my life for the past couple of weeks:
- things are settling down with my HP Pavilion a1238l, though i still haven't gotten around to registering the damn computer. i guess i'll have to worry about that some other time.
- i've been pulled out of my original "home" in Makati (GT Tower) and shuffled off to Pioneer (Cybergate), which makes travels to work faster, but also makes commuting home a bit more troublesome, since there's no shuttle services operating in the vicinity.
- i'm actually going to get out of the Philippines - to Singapore, to be exact - for free. i'm pretty scared and excited about the whole idea, but i really don't know what to feel until i'm actually miles away from home... i hope i don't feel too homesick too quickly.

well, that's pretty much it for now... will be posting some more (hopefully) in the days to come. :D

belated holiday greetings and then some

belated holiday wishes to everyone - was too lazy to make any new updates lately.

for my Christmas gift, i went off to get myself an HP Pavilion A1238L yesterday. at ~P37k, 0% installment for 6 months, i think i have myself covered pretty well. why they only managed to release just ONE ad for this computer (so far anyway) has got me wondering though... could it have been related to the fact that the computer was supposed to be on the promotion last December, but the unit never made it in time? or maybe the newspaper ad was done wrong (which i doubt, since HP confirmed this for me).

well whatever the case, i'm still in the long process of setting up the computer for actual use, like moving my SB Live! in. too bad i might have to drop my LiveDrive in the process - there doesn't seem to be a free bay for me to drop it into. i'll figure this out as things move along.

in case you're one of the few people who's been looking for any further information about this particular computer, i'll get a quick review up when i have everything up and running. one thing you may want to be aware of though, is that this is a Venice core Athlon 64. also (and unfortunately for us), there doesn't seem to be any way to fiddle around with the multipliers, etc. etc. so no overclocking on this rig.

video game cosplay Christmas party

our choir is going to have a video game character theme for the Christmas party tonight, and, being my usual self, i decided to take on the character that had me glued to the TV and our trusty PS2 all over again.

though i'm pretty sure i will never, ever, get as good as these two here, at least i'll manage somehow - i'll post up some pictures sometime. :D

and if you have no idea what the game is, get real!

thoughts on an increasingly connected society - part 1

i've been thinking of how our society has changed in the past decade or so... and i thought i'd whip up something in the process...

there was a time when the only way to arrange events was through call trees or call brigades laboriously set up to make sure that when something has to be communicated to the group, it would reach their intended targets. they were also often set up such that everyone gets the number(s) of the crush(es)-ng-class/org/office.

or when a group goes to the mall to do some shopping, there's an agreed meeting place at a certain time so everyone could do what they please without having to inconvenience the others. whenever someone was late getting back, they'd wait within the vicinity of the area while some would do some last-minute window shopping.

of course, none of these really hold true these days, now that the text message revolution (circa 1997) has taken over our daily lives.

need to send an announcement to your org? you can send 20 text messages in one go. (or split it up to text trees/brigades - making sure to still set it up such that everyone gets their crush(es)'s number(s). fun!) need to divide and conquer the mall? no need to set meeting places anymore. as soon as they're done, they just send text messages to each other so that they'd converge at the store where the last shopping friend is - hopefully he/she isn't in some embarrassing store to be in (like a guy in a lingerie store, or a girl in a "toy" shop).

there's so much more to think of in this direction. more on those later.

Friendster atrocities

this was just too good to pass up. i am glad my picture ain't there though.

The Window Shaker

talk about interactive. :)

Sony memory card tip (for your PSP)

note to self (and to other interested parties): if you're experiencing extreley sluggish transfer/copy speeds on your PSP using a Sony MS Duo Pro (i'm using a 1GB), try to format your memory card using the PSP itself.

i had the unfortunate opportunity to try this out when i nuked all the data off my memory card about two days ago, and after formatting it on the PSP, it's actually writing loads faster now. it sure won't beat Sandisk's performance though.

Flashback for the PS2

for some of us, the game Flashback gives us memories of cool graphics and nights of gun-slinging action. and now we can play that very same game we've grown to love on our PS2s (modified) by checking out this site. just download the image, burn to CD and play!

3,000 hits!

i know this isn't something that great to brag about, but for a rather obscure blog, i've managed to hit 3,000 hits over the course of its ~ 2 years of existence. and just as i'm about to make my 300th post too (i'm on my 299th now)! that means that on average i'm making 10 hits per post...

hmmm... that can't be right. ah well, never hurts to dream. :)

cooking experiments - Episode 2

i'm back with another episode of my cooking experiments. this time, i literally took a leaf out of sacha's CookOrDie. sorry i was too lazy to bother posting it in right after cooking it up.

Episode 2: Twice-baked potatoes (November 5, 2005)
ingredients:
1 medium (about the size of a adult fist) potato (any size would do, but the bigger, the easier)
grated cheddar cheese or cheese spread
small bowl
a sheet of paper towel or a few sheets of tissue paper
knife, spoon and fork

1. wash and scrub potato clean of any dirt or eyes (the growth-like members coming out of the potato itself) on the skin. you may use a small brush if it helps with scrubbing. do _not_ use soap.
2. while still damp, pierce the potato with the fork thrice, making sure not to break the skin through. wrap potato with a paper towel, or a few times with some tissue paper. the idea is to get the paper towel just a tad bit wet.
3. put in microwave and zap. the length of time and power will change depending on the size of the potato, but for a medium-sized one, i put the microwave on high for 3 minutes for each side.
4. take out the potato (hot!). using the knife, cut off the top portion from the wider portion of the potato. then using the spoon, scoop most of the potato out and put it in the bowl. leave enough to create a potato "bowl".
5. combine the cheese with the scooped-out potato, and mash well.
6. put everything back into the potato bowl. i also put the "cap" back on top for good measure. put a bit more cheese on top.
7. put the potato in the bowl and microwave on high for a bit (30 seconds or until the cheese bubbles, whichever you prefer).

there you go - a quick meal you can prepare almost anywhere (with a microwave). enjoy!

free streaming media server

for free video/audio streaming and storage, check out Castpost - and it looks like it'll be free for the next few months. now i have no reason not to get my creative juices flowing for those tunes in my head (as promised earlier).

Katamari madness!

i've been so fond of playing Katamari Damacy (and its equally cool sequel We Love Katamari) ever since i got my hands on them for the PS2. but i don't think i'd ever be as crazy as to do something like this. it's really wicked though - and if someone gave me one of these, i'd flip, tumble and roll it straight up... into my stomach. :D

i will, however, go here to get more Katamari goodness!

the new Chicken Little trailer (AKA the Numa Numa dance)

i saw the trailer lately, and the catchy tune hit me hard - i need to know what the song was!

so i searched around for anything online that might tell me a bit more about the song, and wouldn't you know it, it's already some sort of cult classic on the 'net - check out its own Wikipedia entry. of course, now i know what the song is too.

and please do check out the guy that started that all with his crazy moves.

i'm beginning to notice a trend here... do people really love making fools of themselves for the world to see by lip-synching to songs (like these Asian nuts (AKA Backdormitory Boys) who did a Backstreet Boys song)?

hmm... i think i went link crazy back there.

cooking experiments - Episode 1

i mentioned planning to do something similar to sacha's CookOrDie sessions some time back, and since i couldn't wait to categorise my entire blog up to put this in, i just decided to post and hope that i manage to do the categorisation someday.

Episode 1: Baked Mussels (October 30, 2005)
i remember seeing this done a dozen of times already, be it homemade (my mom did this before) and outdoors (Dencio's comes to mind), so i figured, heck, this shouldn't be all that hard.

to prevent killing myself with salmonella, i decided against grilling them straight. that plus the fact that i realised too late that the entire batch of mussels my mom bought that morning were boiled in classic broth fashion (nooooo!) for lunch. oh well. i figured it would make for cleaner mussels anyway (since they usually have some grit inside them). so i decided to just prep whatever mussels that would be left over from lunch.

30 minutes before dinner time, i shuffled over to the kitchen and assembled my ingredients:

- 3 tsps. garlic margarine
- 2 tsps. butter
- 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 30+ mussels (in shells), boiled
- 2 cups cheese, grated (i used old Quezo de Bola shavings)
- microwave oven
- small oven toaster
- small brush, knife and tongs
- ground pepper (i used a pepper mill)

1. combine margarine, butter and coarsely chopped garlic in a small bowl and microwave for 45 seconds on medium high or until fully melted.
2. preheat oven toaster (there's no temperature setting on mine - just heat it up as per instructions, which is one minute on mine).
3. extract mussels from broth and discard shell (the half where the mussel doesn't stick). use a knife to cut the mussel loose from the shell. clean any excess grit that is visible.
4. brush mussels with garlic-butter mix until coated.
5. add a small amount of finely chopped garlic on top of each mussel.
6. put a generous amount of cheese on each mussel, making sure to cover the mussel and shell.
7. arrange on the metal plate that comes with the toaster (if yours doesn't come with one, just use any other plate that would fit), and heat for 45 seconds or until the cheese starts to bubble.
8. take out mussels, arrange on a plate, and lightly top with pepper.

obviously 30 mussels isn't something i could manage to gobble down on my own, so i shared it with everyone else at home. i think it was pretty good - would have been better if i had some cheddar or quickmelt cheese to use though.

if anyone else has tried a similar recipe, do let me know. i'd love to finetune my cooking skills (even if they are half-assed at best. heheh.)

[edit: thanks for spotting the typo claire!]

PSP subway maps from around the world

i'm not even going to bother changing the title - have fun with all the pictures available here, and hope that you never get lost while taking the train again.

and if you have a Palm, you could also use MetrO. i haven't used this in a long while, but it seems to be updated very frequently.

PSP 4GB Hard Drive

4GB Hard Drive Buy now at Lik-Sang.com

if i had the money, i'd love to splurge on this baby - it'd make my PSP the ultimate portable media player device!

of course, i'd probably want to wait for a few weeks for prices and demand to go down, and also see if someone will hack up a cheaper version of the darned thing. can't wait!

the hardest riddle available on the Internet (?)

they claim that they are, and so far i'm having quite a time going about the levels. so far so good though - maybe i'll finish it in due time. wish me luck. :D