EATG - 02

02 - Hundred Island National Park, Alaminos, Pangasinan, Philippines (Southeast Asia)

Everywhere around the globe.

hello everyone, i know i’ve been quiet. too much things, too little time.

i’m pleased to announce a new section of this blog, and it will be all about photo blog. i’ll be posting a picture from my previous collection, and will include details no more than where it was shot on the face of the earth.

01 - Puka Beach, Boracay Island, Aklan, Philippines (Southeast Asia)

Let the battle begin!

In the last 5 days, I’ve put extra attention to the Philippine politics. Last Monday was a milestone for us, the Filipinos, as the country held its first automated national election. Of course there has been last minute glitches with the machines, but the nation was adamant to push through the scheduled day, May 10, 2010. Thousands of position were up for grabs including Presidency: the highest, most powerful, and most controversial position in the highly exalted democratic country.

This is an attempt to summarize what happened during the past days, highly emphasizing on sooner-than-expected reactions of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, currently the leading presidentiable candidate and practically waiting for an official victory declaration. I have to make my point clear that I’m not for Aquino. In fact, I mentioned here a while I ago, that as much as I want to vote, and if I’m capable of voting, my vote certainly won’t go to Aquino. I may not be perfectly accurate, but most of that follows, apart from personal opinions, are information reported from inquirer.net.

(more…)

the silence of the goats

just like cooking my meals and doing my laundry, i feel obligated to write something on this blog to keep it going even non-sense, so maybe it’s about time to update you on what’s going on, which is sad to say, not really much. i’ve been occupied lately with the usual stuffs: work, swimming, and running, but the latest addition that obviously taken a huge part of my time is ‘TINY’, the newest machine i have. i’ve recently finished LOST Season 05 on it (yes i know i’m too outdated), and is about to finish Resident Evil 5, very nice RPG. i really liked the monster display, and despite not being portable, it’s semi-portable around the flat, and definitely easier for me to carry back home in the philippines someday. i’m really hoping and expecting that this thing would last for another 5 years, just like my old toshiba machine, which is actually still in superb working condition that i would pass it on for my mom to use.

and so settled with a new camera and a new laptop, i guess this is the perfect time for my wallet to start calming down. this friday would be pay day and the whole of it is only enough to pay for my credit card (for the purchase of the laptop), apartment’s rent and utilities. good thing i have some surpluses in the earlier months so i can pay for my food and other things. i still have money in philippine denomination, but they are in the form of somebody elses debts, and it is a proven fact that getting them to pay is severely something a lot less easier than i had expected.

the past weekend has been fast starting with a friend’s birthday celebration last friday (carmi’s), saturday work for me, and the rest of the weekend was scattered among LOST marathon, computer games, cooking meals, laundry, sweeping my room, and swim training on sunday late afternoon.

i would also like to announce that i quit already. NOT WITH MY JOB, but i sincerely hope i could as quickly do the same with my work. today is the 5th day with cleaner air for my lungs. so far, i’m surviving. contrary to when i started smoking,  i’m now in a state of less calamity and stress, and i appreciate that. i just thought that if it’s something i can live without, then i can quit it…or maybe i can take it moderately.

trust me. i am well worth it.

Up-to-date, once again.

april 7, 2010

okay, i probably lied when i told you that the biggest expenditure for gadgets i’ll be having this year is kafka, the olympus pen. i was 5 years behind the computing technology, so i recently acquired a monster toshiba laptop, named tiny, which at 18.4″ screen, is not really tiny at all. my old toshiba served a good 4,6 years with me and it never failed save for changing the battery pack once, usb becoming loose, and the lcd plastic frame cracking. when the crack finally gave up and tear off a few weeks ago, i decided to replace it. this is the beast machine from toshiba, qosmio x505. it’s not the top of the model, but i-core 5, 4gb of ram, and a full-gig of nvidia gts 360m video memory is a huge leap for me, technology and money-wise. i would like to think it as a prize for myself for placing 7th during the run (boo!!) and crossing the 50-m olympic size pool in freestyle (yey!!!) way ahead of my original deadline of june 2010. i’ve yet to check my lap time, but i guess it is around 50 seconds, extremely close to michael phelps 22 seconds for the same distance!!

when i started proper swimming (3 months ago), i genuinely told myself i would be happy to just learn the proper freestyle stroke and finish a 50-m lap continuously. but then, things change whenever you get closer to them. that’s a fact. now, i want to learn how to dive properly, head first, and not the expert belly flap i always do, flipper-dolphin kick, and tumbling/somersault when returning immediately AFTER crossing the 50m length. wow, i know that is something hard to achieve. whenever i practice in the community pool, i see kids learning to swim from a very young age, and i know that is more desireable and when they grow up at the same age as myself, they would most certainly swim better than how i swim now. but if you always reason out things, then everything will be out of the way and you will do nothing.

alright, before i become too serious here, i’ve never felt waiting for office-closing time of 6pm as much as now! imagine, i slept last night, well technically, today, at 3am, and that gives me around 4,5 hours of sleep. that’s may not be alarming to you, but i have to tell you that i need at least 8 hours of sleeping time to function properly. i’m excited to go home and tweak tiny, customizing to my preference (i am vista and win 7 idiot) and then some games, probably starting with resident evil 5 because it’s the installer that i have at the moment. assassin’s creed 2 crack is not working, and battle for middleearth, and crysis is on it’s way.

but before reuniting with tiny, i will hit the pool first because i don’t want any gadget to interfere with my swimming career (lol). someday, michael phelps will be proud of me (another lol).

Go.

dear readers, you might be wondering what happened to the run i had last time. well, it took me a few days to save up the courage to post the result. yes, i lost, but still i finished the race. perhaps my preparation was just insufficient to handle the agility and speed of chinese, but for next year, i’ll be more armed and my desire is just to get in the top 3. it’s was really hard..

the result,

170    Chinese #1            17:50
140    Chinese #2            18:52
127    Chinese #3            20:50
135    Chinese #4            21:06
166    Chinese #5            21:41
138    Chinese #6            22:13
165    Jeremy Chua (Filipino #7)    22:21
174    Chinese #8            24:14
.

.

.       Runner #19               38:07

what is shocking to say is that the number one spot was taken by a certified uncle! it really proved that nora aunor is correct, “do not judge my brother, he is not a pig!”

in fairness to myself, it has been a great run because my total of 2 practices for the event ticked 26:54 and 24:29 for 4km runs. in the event itself, it took me 22:21 for 4.3km, an additional of 300 meters for less time. that is around 5 minutes 12 seconds per kilometer. yehey! hahaha

Ready. Get Set. Ready.

okay, tomorrow morning is the run, and i guess i have to sleep early because i’ll have to wake up half-past 6 in the morning, but i think i have to post something for tonight , like a pre-run.. well, i had a very good meal for dinner, loaded with protein and carbo (as you can see) and everythings set-up, i even cut my toe nails but made sure i don’t overdo them because if i do and they bleed..then that’s going to be a pain!

how to disappear completely

there are really a lot of things to say this past few weeks despite being quiet, starting with the biggest news at home with my father returning to the philippines after 11 years of extinction. i could probably write something with the length as much as this blog contains from the start if i would say what’s dealing with the family right now, but dear readers, i’ll spare you the dramas. i just want you to know that everything is better than i’d expected, very much, astounding, enormous, humongously way better.

so let’s just talk about a great endeavour i will be having. this coming saturday, i’m going for a company run event. this will be my first official run (if you call it that way), and i realize that 4.30-km run, the category i’m in, is indeed very feeble. i run on and off the past several years but with my recent career *ahem* in swimming, i almost forget that i have a rubber shoes. well, they are both cardios i guess, but it’s still essential that i get some actual training in the form of running. with the event coming in 2 days, i had a grand total practice of not 1, but 2 runs!.  my stats last monday was 26:54 for the 4-km, and last night (wednesday) was 24:29 for the same length, improved but definitely not impressive.

i decided not to run for tonight, and friday as well. no swimming too, just pure relaxation, maybe a couple of movies, and the most pleasant thing of all is that i get to eat a little bit more rice guilt-free. afterall, i need all the carbos i can take. normally, i cook 1 cup of rice (that plastic standard that comes with rice cookers, if you know what i’m talking about) every night and that is good for 2 meals, the dinner and lunch the next day. yes, that’s 1 cup =  2 meals. when i was living in hong kong, the very same size of cup, i needed 2 cups of that for 1 meal. yes, 2 cups = 1 meal. it has been reversed. no wonder then, i always appeared fantastically healthy whenever i go home.

do not feel bad for me that i might appear skinny and deprived. it’s very far from that that i never ran out of milk, fruit juices, yoghurt, and fruits in forms of apple, oranges or strawberries. actually, i feel better this way, and i know that it is more right to some extent, but i do not have to tell you that the biggest benefit of eating the proper amount of food apart from being physically healthy, is that it is more cost-effective.

anywho, going back to the run, since i mentioned that 4.3-km is chicken, i could definitely finish that. the longest run in one single session i had in my entire life is about 20km, but that was on the tread machine. like i posted somewhere here ages i go, running outside is different from indoors. you are to consider a lot of other things like friction, air resistance, maybe gravity, inclination, and most of all, any nice-looking girls running just like you (too bad i always see aunties most of the time). the real question is how fast i can finish it, if i would be better than most runners, or will i be behind everyone else and leading the veteran team. it’s a competition, and as hardly prepared as i am, my only wish and hope right now is that my opponents are all uncles.

Moving Clothes

really bad..but i’d rather post it anyway..my laptop is so slow at rendering videos..i hope i have enough money to get a new one.

StripTease

concept from asofterworld and jun