my interests « a few of my thoughts….

A trip to Tagaytay..

October 11, 2008 at 11:50 pm | In enjoying life, my interests, my life..., travels | No Comments

I’ve been living in a share a condo unit with 8 other people (minus my sister) in Makati for a year already and believe it or not we haven’t had the chance to go out together in all those months. NOT..until last weekend. Yup! Finally!!!

We went to Tagaytay last saturday night..spent the night there and enjoyed some tourists spots the following day. We stayed at a place called Foggy Heights Villa. It was very affordable. It is like a townhouse for rent with 2 floors, 3 bedrooms, 3 comfort rooms, a living room, kitchen, a garage area, and has its own gate - very suitable for groups of 7-10 people.

We rented a van for the trip, which made it easier for us to go around and our first stop was…

Splendido Tagaytay…

We were actually not familiar with this place and I guess it’s not even a tourist spot but our driver recommended it. He just drove us there and when we got there, we automatically understood why he insisted….

The view from there balcony was beautiful

Next stop…

The Woodsborough Log Homes

Again, this is not one of the popular spots in the city. We just passed by it and we found the houses nice so we decided to drop by and made use of our cameras and our smiles…

Time to proceed to..

The Picnic Grove!

So what’s with the Picnic Grove?

A breath taking view of the Taal Volcano

It was a hot, tiring morning which made us hungry even if it was not yet time for lunch. So off we went to LZM Resto where we had boneless bangus, sinigang, and chopsuey. In terms of food, I highly recommend this place but in terms of service, they kinda “sucks”. The food tasted really good but the waiter who was attending to us was “rude”. He looked like he does not want us to order anything. Talking about customer service!!! But the good side is.. the waiter did not stop us from having fun.

Hungry and waiting pero smile pa rin…haha

Now that we are all full and charged up, it’s time for the next stop.. the People’s Park in the Sky!

Overlooking Tagaytay…

What do you think is down there?

Yes..we are the Pineapple People… haha

and that is the last stop…we’re heading home..

So that’s about it. Our Tagaytay trip.. It was fun but I was expecting it to be cold but when we got there, it was like we didn’t leave Manila. It was so hot that I thought everything was just a dream…haha.. It got a little cold when it rained and the whole place was fogged (which was beautiful) but that was it. Still, we enjoyed ourselves and we enjoyed the place. That’s what matters.

Software Freedom Day ‘08 at UMAK

September 26, 2008 at 6:55 pm | In Asia Source II, FOSS, my interests | 1 Comment

The Software Freedom Day 2008 was celebrated worldwide last September 20, 2008. Several celebrations were conducted in the Philippines simultaneously on the same day.

One was done at the University of Makati, which was headed by the CP-Union. Our team, Asia Source Pilipinas (sponsored by IOSN, Exist, and 8Layer) facilitated one breakout session in the afternoon. The session started with a talk on the background and history of Ubuntu and then followed by the basic applications of Ubuntu, which are usually used on a daily basis. Afterwhich, the Edubuntu and its educational applications were introduced as well.

Together with Diane, Myra, Joanna, and Lawrence, we were able to gain the interests and enthusiasm of our audience, which was composed of students, teachers, and IT Professionals. The afternoon was not just all talks and lectures. Headed by Myra, the group facilitated an “Ubuntu Olympics” making the audience learn while having fun. For the said game, the audience was divided into 5 groups and they performed 10 ubuntu tasks. It was soooo fun. Nobody was bored and everybody learned. Win or lose, each one had some freebies and knowledge to take home.

Happy Software Freedom Day!

My Cinderella Experience

August 29, 2008 at 11:55 pm | In enjoying life, my interests, my life... | 1 Comment

I know this is a late post “again” but I just can’t stop myself from posting it. It was a very wonderful experience to let it pass.

Eversince I heard of the Cinderella starring Lea Salonga, I totally drooled over it. I wanted to watch it so much but I heard that the tickets were really expensive and I did not know that the lowest price is 500 pesos. Until…

My office had free 500 worth tickets for it. Yep! You read it right! I was able to watch it for FREE! I know they were the farthest seats but still nothing can compare to that experience. It was amazing!

I had 2 free tickets and since my sister cannot come with me, I invited my housemate instead. At first, we really can’t see the faces of the actors and actresses but the stage design and the costumes were really beautiful so even if we can’t see the faces, it was more than enough for me. And of course, the voices… Hearing Lea Salonga sing live was one hell of an experience.

But during the break, they sold binoculars made of cardboard with real lenses and we enjoyed the show more. We saw their faces already! haha…

Anyway, what I really want to say is that the show was brilliant, perfect, amazingly wonderful. Watching it for FREE made it even more perfect. haha..

Get Involved. Be a part of advancing ICT for the people. Join the Computer Professionals’ Union

August 22, 2008 at 9:20 pm | In FOSS, my interests | No Comments

The Computer Professionals’ Union with its new effort to be actively involved in many IT-related issues that affect the Filipino people is initiating a new membership drive to unite more computer professionals on our advocacy. We are thus, inviting you to sign-up and be a member of the CP-Union. We will then be sending you an invitation to our get-together activity on the last week of August.

The new site for the organization is at www.cp-union.com. All our advocacies and positions are found on the said site. You can also browse new activities which you can support and be involved.

The registration page is at http://www.cp-union.com/content/cpu-membership-form. We will wait for your filled-up form using the online tool until the 27th of August. If you are able to sign-up before the said date, please reserve the 31st of August (Sunday) for our get-together activity. We will set-up a video stream for members outside the country and Metro manila.

The CP-Union has been active not only on Free and Open Source Advocacy but also on ICT-related concerns that impacts the grassroots. We made a stand on the GMA’s National Broadband Network last year. We joined txtpower.org in opposing the text tax pushed again by GMA early this year. Of course, we are one with the open source community in supporting the Free and Open Source Bill initiated by the Office of Representative Teddy Casino in the Philippine Congress.

The CP-Union leads on a number Free and Open Source advocacy effort in the country. We have primarily targeted students and NGOs for our free trainings and demonstrations. We coordinate the global Software Freedom Day yearly, since 2004.

We are proud to have developed, maintained and GPLed the third Human Rights Violations documentation system in the world. Karapatan-Monitor is also the only web-based system existing for this particular segment.

This year we will be releasing another documentation system for NGOs. Our members are on the final stage of polishing the Violence Against Women Documentation System. This will greatly benefit many Women’s organizations in the world.

We continue to be involved in the propagation of Drupal content management system - we are the first organization to organize a Drupal Code Sprint in the country benefiting NGOs. we have provided consultations and have implemented more than 20 Drupal sites for different NGOs since last year under our Project People’s Web. These efforts made us experts in implementing Drupal sites for advocacy groups and NGOs.

Our active members are eager to share with you these achievements. We learn from each other. We share our skills. We go beyond being members of our forums and mailing-lists.

Our efforts are linked with the struggle of the Filipino people to improve their situation. Our projects are based on their needs. Our training modules are for their benefit. They are our clients, our project managers. We advance ICT for their benefit.

Join us.

Be part of CP-Union’s effort to advance information and communications technology for the people.

By: Rick Bahague
Preparatory Committee Member

The Dark Night Fever

July 26, 2008 at 2:20 am | In enjoying life, how i perceive things..., my interests | 1 Comment

Okay. I am not writing a film review here about the Dark Night. I just love the movie so much that I feel I really need to write something about it. I think we all agree that the sudden death of Heath Ledger made this movie the most awaited Batman movie ever. I was not even aware that there is a Batman movie coming up if Heath did not die. I mean it was all over the news that it was his last movie so all the people who had loved Heath (which I think is a lot, including me) started to count the days towards its screening day.

First of all, I believe the movie did not fail these people. Well, it did not fail me! It was totally AWESOME! Before I watched the movie, there were rumors that Heath outshined Christian Bale. Well, Heath was indeed the best villain ever and the scariest one as well but Christian did great too. It’s just that the Joker role/character is more “noticeable”, especially with how Heath portrayed it, than the Batman role. Joker is loud, crazy, and scary compared to the quiet, kinda stiff, formal role of Batman. But in terms of justifying the roles, I think they both did great. In fact, all the characters did a very good job. 2 thumbs up!

But aside from the actor’s great acting, Chris Nolan also deserves a high five. He just made a movie that would nail the viewers on their seats and never blink an eye. There was never a boring scene and as my friend Jay said, it was not just a superhero story. It’s like everything is there already. Name it you have it.

There were also comments that the ferry scene was so unrealistic and that the people from both ferries should have blown each other right away. Well, the question is, if that was the ending of that scene, do you think it will be as good? I don’t think so. And the scene is not totally unrealistic. It can happen. A chaotic reaction would have been so ordinary.

I think whoever wants to do the next Batman movie should start planning already. They will have to reach the high standard set by the Dark Night.

Oh and don’t forget to smile…or else…