O Canada, how lovely are thy branches

I don't have anything to add to this.



--Ryan

The Vostro A840 Laptop for Your Growing Business (and more!)

With today’s economic crunch affecting most businesses around the globe, entrepreneurs and businessmen alike try to find ways to cut cost. One way is to utilize affordable solutions that deliver and address basic computing tasks on a budget – with Dell’s Vostro models. You can stay productive and focused on your business in the office, on the road, or at home. The Vostro A840 laptop delivers

Double Feature: Cute and Fuzzy Controversy!

If you found out your best friend had cancer, what would you do? This couple (lower left) got their beloved Sir Lancelot cloned, for a meager one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars by BioArts, a South Korean company. This company auctioned their service to the Otto family's dog, who won the bid against four other family pets.

I have nothing against cloning. I mean, if we're talking about people then it might be psychologically traumatizing to the individual in todays society... But we're talking about a puppy today, and a Woolly Mammoth in the near future. I don't think that's asking too much.


Admittedly, though, I'm sure a lot of crazy people are probably campaigning outside the Otto's household. It must be very hard on the family to know that a good chunk of the world hates their puppy. (Don't worry, Sir Lancelot the Second! I still think your neat!)

* * *

In other news, the one of the cars that drive around taking pictures for Google Earth's "Street View" feature has, reportedly, killed a deer. Furthermore, the van drivers proceeded to upload the pictures of the deer getting hit. Although the pictures are no longer available on Google Earth or Google Maps, they are still floating around the internet. I've uploaded two of them (right and below), but there are at least four pictures with the different states of the deer visible.

Yikes!


Google has responded to this incident, saying that "the deer was able to move and had left the area by the time the police arrived".


There are plenty of good sightings out there on Google Streetview - from drug deals, to police brutality, to a "this is your speed" sign that shows the Google van speeding -  though I can't find too many good websites that collect them. When they get around to touring Ontario, you can bet I'll out on the streets posing pretty!


--
D. Phillips

Betavine turns two and announces £20,000 widget competition

Last Thursday evening we attended the second birthday of Betavine, the developer program of Vodafone, and one of our valued affiliate partners. For Samsung Mobile Innovator, represented by Cheng Luo and Suman Chatterjee, it was a great to meet developers and hear their current thoughts.

In addition to fantastic hospitality, excellent compeering by Stephen Wolak and a great venue at the Frontline Restaurant, Betavine also used the event to launch the Betavine Widget Competition. As you can see from the photo whoever is announced as the winner of this competition in May will win £20,000.

In keeping with this theme, Bruce Lawson from Opera gave a brief overview of the functionality available through their Widget Manager. As a way to develop UIs that will run on a variety of platforms, this is definitely a compelling proposition for developers.

To celebrate Betavine turning two – relatively old compared to Samsung Mobile Innovator – there were also a couple prizes. One was for Golden Gekko who created the LynxFX application. Excluding Vodafone material, this is the most downloaded application on Betavine.

There lucky door prize was a Samsung i8510 (Innov8) phone that we happily donated to congratulate Betavine on their success so far. The winner of this phone was Tim Ocock, VP Business Development, from Symsource.

And finally thanks to the folks at Opera who gave us all a t-shirt, emblazoned with the logo below, as a parting gift. According to our technical team, this is a love affair that will continue to gather momentum.

Combating Boredom

The video to the right is completely unrelated to this post. Except that, I suppose, it fought my boredom for some three minutes. Anyway...



In the past few days, I've been combating Pokémon. Before that, I was cop-a-feeling a slab of clay. And all the while I was struggling the hurdles of writer's block. These are my latest effort in avoiding a confrontation with the real enemy: the existential.

I'm afraid of space and god and my own mortality. I made an honest attempt to be religious... but even if I can convince myself that a god exists, I still can't grasp that I have a soul. As far as I can tell, I am completely and 100% mortal.

I've decided that there's no solution, so these mentioned hobbies are the next best thing; I can only distract my mind.

*  *  *

In the past few weeks, I've dabbled with the following hobbies:

• Baking
• Blogging
• Cooking (real meals)
• Painting
• Personal Writing
• Reading
• Clay Sculpting
• Studying
• Television Watching (entire seasons at a time)
• Video Gaming

--
D. Phillips

Hourglass

The first sentence uttered by the first professor of the first lecture of the first class of the first year of my first university career was a question: "What do you think of when I say the word 'Stroumboulopoulos'?"

He was referring, of course, to George Stroumboulopoulos (hard word to type, I should set up a macro), host of CBC's nightly talk show 'The Hour'.

At the time, I had a vague familiarity with Stromboli (macro, abbreviation, whatever) and his show, but had never actually seen it. In the ensuing two-point-five years, I've watched the show on occasion, usually when I'm interested in the guest.

Why have I not watched it more often? Well, every time I do watch it, something seems lacking. Something about The Hour makes is blatantly inferior to David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, or any of the American late-night shows.

It wasn't until earlier this week that I figured out what it was. I'll start with what it wasn't.

It wasn't the guests. While some guests are unknown to me or the tired old fake Canadian 'celebrities' (Paul Gross, for one), The Hour does attract genuine Canadian celebrities (Robert Munsch!) and even American A-listers (Tom Cruise! Jimmy Carter!).

It wasn't the host. Stromboli is only 37 years old, and able to connect to people half his age with ease. He has a strong screen presence, and is at once intelligent, curious, and funny (the three best traits for someone in his job).

It wasn't the writing. Most of the jokes and one-liners he gives, it's not the least bit difficult to hear the same joke in a Jay Leno or Jon Stewart voice.

It was the reaction to those jokes that clued me in. Stromboli saying something hilarious does not lead into the same amount of audience guffawing that David Letterman gets when he drops something off the roof of his studio.

Two reasons for this. One, look at the audience next time the camera pans over to them - it's a really tiny group, maybe a quarter the size of a Letterman or Stewart audience. Secondly...they're Canadian.

If there's one major difference between Americans and Canadians that both sides can usually agree on, it's that Americans are louder. And they like to laugh more. So David Letterman can tell a joke, Stromboli can tell the same joke, and Letterman will get a much better reaction - not because of his delivery, but because his audience is full of loud, boisterous Americans. For once, our reservedness is a negative.

(The same thing applies to sitcoms - notice that Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie don't have laugh tracks, while most American sitcoms do?)

--Ryan

PHP Roadshow 2009 - UP Diliman Leg

A University of the Philippines academic association - UP ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) - UP Student Chapter and the PHP Users Group - Philippines (PHPUGPH), in cooperation with Orange & Bronze Software Labs, Ltd. Co., bring youPHP Roadshow 2009 - UP Diliman legDate: January 31, 2009Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pmVenue: Lecture Hall, UP Department of Computer Science, Velasquez Street,

Samsung Supports a Greeener Industry

“As technology continually evolves, so will your digital lifestyle. When you upgrade your consumer electronics, you will need to recycle your old products – responsibly” states Samsung’s Recycling Direct website which promotes end-of-life recycling programs. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. recently announced in Las Vegas a number of award-winning products and technologies that are designed to

honeygarlic 3.0

Oh!

I didn't hear you come in!

While you were gone, I thought I'd do some redecorating. How do you like it?

I know you were tired of all the blue, so was I - when we first got the place, it was blue, then Dan gave us even more blue in the spring. Brown, yellow, and various shades thereof make a nice change, don't you think?

I got us a new welcome mat, too! "A place devoid of sanity, of rules and structure, and so on," just wasn't getting the job done anymore. We can change the message if you don't like it.

You'll notice that the sidebar is over on the left now...again, I thought it was time for a change. Not that big of a deal.

I finally installed the blogroll you'd been nagging me about forever. I threw out that old 'blogs we know' gadget...I guess I should have saved it for a yard sale, but I just figured we didn't have a use for it anymore.

It's really something, the blogroll. Eleven different blogs - mostly written by people who've commented here once upon a time, a couple just because I like them - but only the five most recently-updated will show up at any given time, the others just hide somewhere in the machine.

But let me show you the best part. Look at the window. Now play around with it, so you can see it in different shapes and sizes. See it? No matter what size the window is, everything wraps to fit it - no more moving left and right, and no more wasted space for people with bigger resolutions!

And while I was at it, I updated our registration info to include 2009 - since, you know, it is 2009 and we're still here.

I hope you like it. It was hard doing this without any professionals.

--Ryan

The History of Peanuts (Part VI)

(Links to the first five parts can be found on the right, most contained around the beginning and ending of 2008. As always, clicking on the pictures makes them bigger.)

A regular joke in the early Peanuts strips - and being 1954, this is still early - contained Lucy asking a peculiar question which demonstrated a poor grasp of science, Charlie Brown providing the rebuttal, and Lucy waxing philosophical as the punchline. Here's one example:


But for every scientific miscuriosity Lucy had, Charlie Brown was always there with an all-too-literal grasp on the English language:


(Actually, I'm intrigued by the concept. "Power motor" is an inherently funny term.)

Sometimes the Charlie Brown/Lucy misunderstanding would go on for a few days, and be dragged out a lot more than it was in the first strip of this batch. Here's an example of that:


And we'll end with one of the very, very, very few jokes that can be made about Pig-Pen:


--Ryan

UP Chinese Student Association (UPCSA) Celebrates Chinese New Year

The University of the Philippines Chinese Student Association (UPCSA) celebrates the coming Chinese New Year with their Cultural Week Celebrations in UP Diliman & SM Fairview.This year's Chinese New Year falls on the 26th of January. UPCSA celebrates its Cultural Week annually and check the attached poster for this year's line up of activities to start the year of the Ox.You may contact Madie Co

Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead!?!

I may be a bit behind on the current issues... but here's my news anyway:

Saturday Morning Cartoons are effectively dead!

This is coming as a huge shock to me, who hasn't woken up early enough in the past few years. Fox was the last network that really had a good selection.

What could have caused this? Some people try to give answers, but I think it's the terrorists Chef Tony of the Miracle Blade.

I just thought you should know.

--
D. Phillips

New ASUS Eee Top Revealed

ASUS recently unveiled the new Eee Top ET16 Series that boasts of the full functionality of a desktop PC with a touch of the screen. It is equipped with a 15.6” slim LCD monitor with a touch panel from where a user can operate the PC by applying direct pressure onscreen with their fingertips.Powered by Intel Atom N270, with hard disk drive space of 160GB, memory of 1GB, and packaged with Windows®

The Gotham Times

Perhaps it's become old news now (no pun intended -- though would that technically be a pun?), but I highly recommend reading the the current events from Gotham's paper.

Note that there are four pages... hyperlink on the top and bottom right-hand side. Further note that there are archived issues linked at the top left.

Happy reading!

--
D. Phillips

Reflections on a new President

Barack Obama has been President of the United States for over 48 hours now. In that time, he has not been assassinated, there have not been mass racial protests in the deep south - and at the other end of the spectrum, he has not taken off a mask to reveal Osama bin Laden, and he has not banned firearms (not that I am condoning American gun laws).

In other words, he hasn't done anything other than exactly what he said he would - and he has done a lot of that, from closing Guantanamo Bay to freezing salaries of any public workers making over $100,000/year.

Obama is obviously a great campaigner, who was able to win the Presidency on the basis of promising change, and being black. Now, he must deliver that change, and quite frankly, nobody cares that he's black. He's a President, he will be judged by the same standards as the rest of them.

It's too early to say for sure, but it looks like he's off to a good start.

--Ryan

Snow Cream

I found a recepie for "Snow Cream" that I'd like to try. Just in case I lose it, I thought I'd copy it here.

Basic Recipe

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

large bowl of snow (about 3 quarts)

Directions - Blend milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream consistency.

Variations - There are many variations for snow cream. For example, substitute canned cream for milk for a heavier flavor. Add Nestles Quik for a chocolate snow cream, or use instant cocoa mix. Another variation is to add plump raisins and cinnamon, or add a beaten egg for a nog taste. Puree an overripe banana and add to the mixture.

I hope it's good!

--

D. Phillips

Man Jumps in River; I try to write news-like

And now for some local news.

Early this morning, the police were chasing some guy around the block from our neighbourhood. It seems that he jumped a rail behind the casino, and broke through the ice, into the river. Sounds chilly.

A special investigations unit is investigating now. The Expositor (from where I stole the image, right) tells me that this happens every time a death occurs after police involvement.

UPDATE 21/01/09 - The body of the guy has been recovered. Police were chasing him because he was driving a stolen vehicle. Now you know.

--
D. Phillips

American President Obama Inauguration Party at Friday's Bonifacio High Street

New American president Barack Obama's inauguration was celebrated around the world in all TGI Fridays worldwide. Joining the party is Philippine's own TGI Fridays at Bonifacio High Street branch in The Fort, Taguig.President Barack Obama's inauguration will be held in the US today, January 20, 2009 at 23:30hrs Philippine time as the whole of United States is in a festive mood. They see their new

You'll probably groan...

...but I laughed.

--Ryan

A Digital Book Geek Contest - Be the Book Geek of the Month

I got a comment/message from my old blog itsComplicated.i.ph yesterday inviting me to join and help spread the word about Fully Booked's Book Geek of the month.It's about a contest to be held this coming 4pm of January 22,2009. The first 25 Bloggers Book Club (BBC) members who can submit their complete entries with all the correct answers shall be qualified as contestants to the competition on

Is There Life On Mars?

It's a god-awful small affair to the PMO during election season that we've discovered there's water on Mars. Though perhaps the media was allowed to release news of methane on Mars. As the New York Times puts it, "what belched?"

I'm actually posting about the television show. A few years ago, on my dad's recommendation, I watched the sixteen episodes (over two seasons) BBC version of Life On Mars. Then I found out they planned on an American version... Intriguing only to see the differences in how the show would be made. And then the writer's guild went on strike. I assumed it was postponed indefinitely. I curbed my enthusiasm with the BBC's sequel to the show entitled Ashes To Ashes. Not as good, but still worth a watch.

Anyway, having run out of shows to pirate, I'm tuning into cable for the first time in years... and I just found out that they did make the American version. I'm not sure if I approve yet, and probably won't get around to watching it for a while... But I do approve of the BBC's show. Go on and check it out!

--
D. Phillips

(I stole the image from worth1000.com ... It seemed suiting.)

I'm on a Mexican radio

I haven't even been away from Kitchener for two weeks yet, and already all heck has broken loose on the radio dial.

It started with Oldies 1090 abandoning the slowly-edging-ever-closer-to-extinction AM dial, moving to 99.5 FM and rebranding itself as 'KFUN'. Now free from the CRTC regulations governing AM music stations (could only play music from up to a certain year), the playlist has been tweaked - the station is now more of a cross between oldies and classic rock (the difference being that 'oldies' were generally considered 'pop' in their heyday).

This infringed ever so slightly on the format of DAVE FM (107.5), which had been playing music from all time periods, generally with a rock-ish tinge - suddenly, there was another station competing for the classic rock listener, and older DAVE listeners were likely to head to KFUN. So DAVE rebranded itself as 'the Tri-Cities' best rock'...their signal doesn't make it out to Brantford, so I haven't heard the new format yet, but their online playlist suggests that the music itself hasn't really changed.

I consider this a good thing, as I would frequently discover new (well, old, but new to me) music on DAVE - be it an entire band, or just a song I'd never heard before by a band I knew. If this hasn't changed, DAVE will remain my favourite station. If it instead turns into something closer to Y108 in Hamilton or Q107 in Toronto, I'm not so sure I'll be listening.

The third player in this little drama is KOOL FM (105.3). KOOL has two big advantages over their competitors - they play new music (DAVE does as well, but a limited amount), and they pay attention to their listeners. KOOL listeners are invited to take part in the 'KOOL Music Advisory Council', which involves going online once per week, listening to the top 40 or so songs of the week, and giving your opinion on them (basically rating them from 1-5).

The problem with KOOL is that, possibly because of these surveys, my least favourite genre of pop/rock (the Hedley/Faber Drive/Hinder-type bands that sound virtually indistinguishable and nobody will remember five years from now, let alone fifty) is represented much more than I'd like - DAVE doesn't play any of this stuff, and that's why it's my first choice.

There are some other players on the local scene. CHYM (96.7) is generally the highest-rated station in the area, playing mostly what I'd describe as 'soft rock' - will people who don't like today's harder music start gravitating towards KFUN and leave CHYM needing to retool itself? Will KOOL, in an effort to set itself apart from DAVE and KFUN, start playing more hip-hop - and what would that do to the Beat (91.5)? Or will they start slanting less to rock and more to alternative - I know I'd listen in that case, but I don't know how big that market is - and distinguish themselves that way?

The changes aren't over yet.

--Ryan

Khaaaaaan!

You've probably already heard, but Khan is dead. I mean, sure he died on 8130.6 according to the films... But those are just historical documents of a time yet to come.

Historical documentation of a time that just came (roughly two days ago) includes the death of the eighty-eight year old man who played Khan... And Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island... And the grandfather from Spy Kids... And Señor Senior Sr. from Kim Possible... And a whole bunch of other things.

So, that's my tribute.

Rest in Peace, Ricardo Montalbán.

--
D. Phillips

A Digital Fund Raiser: $3 Feeding Program Project For Cagayan De Oro Flood Victims

We were made aware of the recent flashfloods in Cagayan De Oro through the news broadcast. It has shown how the heavy rains and overflowing river affected around 80% of the barangays displacing a large number of people in evacuation centers. Now, an impending food shortage, if not yet, is looming as warned by the local city government. In light of this, the Cagayan de Oro City Bloggers Group led

Samsung's “Seamless Experience” at CES 2009

The next evolution of the seamless user experience – one of greater interactivity, more intuitive user interfaces, and fresh eco-friendly technology – debuted last week January 7, 2009 in Las Vegas at the 2009 International CES as Samsung Electronics unveils an exciting array of new products and features at the company’s annual press conference.This year’s offerings earned Samsung an

Google's not invincible?

My feeds just came in... It seems that Google is not the sole proprietor to the economy. In fact, their not even immune!

If I understood Google's two apologies from the past few hours, it seems their restructuring many of their engineers and sacking their contracted hiring squads. Some 70 engineers are being asked to relocate, and Google doesn't seem to expect that they all will...

As for the recruiting "changes":

Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.

If I were a company who probably hires a great majority of the great thinkers of the world, and I decided not to hire anyone for a while... I'd probably fire the people who do the hiring too. But hey, they've still got a hell of a lot more tact than Yahoo.

But I kind of thought that was just me.

All hail Google.

--
D. Phillips

Snow on Mars

This is old news, but I didn't know about it until the other day, and it got a good reaction when I mentioned it to a few people last night, so here it is.

A few months ago, it was snowing on Mars.

The Canadian Space Agency knew this.

Why didn't we?

Because it was during election season and the PMO put a block on any government agency communicating with the media for any reason.

I'm still kind of cloudy as to exactly what damage would be done to the Conservatives' campaign by the public learning that a stunning discovery had been made on their watch.

But that's not even the worst part - the story still got out, because it was a NASA ship, and obviously Stephen Harper is unable to muzzle the American space program.

So, to recap: the Prime Minister's Office blocked the Canadian Space Agency from releasing news that could in no way look unfavourably among the Prime Minister, news that was also going to come out from other sources anyhow.

Well done, lads.

--Ryan

Sea Kittens

PETA has once again failed in their quest to limit my diet. In fact, they have broadened it! Now, not only have I had the pleasure of eating fish, but also sea kittens .

Their theory is that we won't hunt, gut, and ultimately ingest a cute and cuddly sea kitten?

The PETA website contains a while bunch of crap material about saving the sea kittens, as well as some entertaining stories. I just read one on a boy who ate a sea kitten and fell victim to the effects of mercury. (The fish was the top of its school, but the boy got stupid. Get it? School? "The irony was not lost on him.")

Thus far, if I type "Sea Kitten" into Wikipedia, it yields PETA. I can only anticipate that some fanatic editor will adjust that to redirect the article on "fish". (In ten years, I expect typing "Fish" will redirect "Sea Kitten".)

Be sure to check out PETA's about page on the topic, which displays a few random facts about sea kittens. (Click the image below to enlarge.)

Brings a whole new meaning to the word catfish.

Wait, no it doesn't.

--
D. Phillips


(Rats! I totally forgot to use my joke about sea cow burgers!)

The 2008 Honeygarlic Awards

Consisting of twelve months (tied for a modern-era record) and 366 days (ditto), 2008 was truly a year unlike any other. To celebrate this great year, I present the First Annual Honeygarlic Awards!

(Note that some of the winners are from December 2007 or January 2009. This is due to inconsistencies in the voting process.)

Our first award tonight is for Movie of the Year. This was made much easier by the fact I saw very few new movies over the course of 2008...the winner, in a landslide, is The Dark Knight!

Excellence in popular culture is also celebrated in the category of Song of the Year! To win, a song must demonstrate popularity, catchiness, and at least some degree of musicianship. This year's winner is The Offspring's You're Gonna Go Far, Kid!

Sticking with music, the award for Fastest Turnaround goes to an unknown song I heard over the Christmas break, which contained the word 'a-shoe-sination'!


The final award in the music category is the award for Best Recycling of Music! It's important to recycle - a principle the CBC should have adhered to when they were looking for a new Hockey Night In Canada theme song. Seriously, who wouldn't have loved this?

We move now to a very special award, the Selflessness Award for Acts of Saving the World. This award is not given out every year; only when somebody has saved the world on a truly major scale. I am honoured to announce that the recipient of the SAASW for 2008 is whoever pushed the Large Hadron Collider turn-on back to February.

The Innovation of the Year award goes to legal sports webcasting. During the Olympics, CBC had nine dedicated online channels for additional coverage to what you saw on your televisions - and two channels for rebroadcasting what was on TV - and they, along with other networks, have only stepped up their game since. No longer do sports fans have to rely on sites such as MyP2P to watch games online.

That's as good a segue as I'll get to move into the sports awards, starting with Sporting Event of the Year. This one was no contest, it was wrapped up VERY early in 2008. Super Bowl XLII was going to be historic no matter what, as the New England Patriots looked to become the first team to go undefeated through an entire NFL season and playoff since 1972. However, the New York Giants had other plans, and the game was back-and-forth, close throughout. Then, when it looked like everything was finally breaking the Patriots' way - all they needed was to stop NY from picking up five yards on one play - this happened. New York won.


In most years, that catch would have also picked up the award for Sporting Moment of the Year - but as I mentioned earlier, 2008 was not most years. 2008 was an Olympic year, and the Olympics were dominated by the story of American swimmer Michael Phelps going for a record eight gold medals - all of this leading to the Men's 100m Butterfly being the most exciting aquatic race I've ever witnessed.

The award for Best Published Rant from a Honeygarlic Blogger's Relative goes to this one - it's just too bad the audio doesn't work.

Longtime readers of this blog may recall my frustration with Dictionary.com's Word of the Day e-mails. 2008's winner of the award for Worst Word of the Day of the Year came in at the last possible minute - on December 31, the word was ultimate.

The award for Worst Book of the Year goes to The Futurist. It may have been 2007 when I read it, but the bittnerness remains.

This year's winners of Comedy Duo of the Year are TSN's Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, who pay more attention to being entertaining than talking about sports. And they sometimes wear the same suits.

The Best Question of the Year, limited only to questions asked of myself, "do you want to watch _______ sleep with me?" (name removed to protect the humiliated).


The Best Answer of the Year, on the other hand, does not need to involve me at all - and this year it doesn't. Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, on whether there is any way his party will support the budget due out later this month: "if my grandmother had wheels, I would call her a tractor".

For the year 2008, Lifetime Achievement Awards are handed out to Brian and Chris. They qualify on the grounds that they are names people mistook for being mine.

And our final award is the Most Awkward Photo Op Award, which goes to...


Welcome to 2009, everybody.

--Ryan

Okay now let's all pause for a moment and say 'aww'...

...because there's really no way you can have any other reaction to this story.

I strongly suggest that you read the entire article, but if you want a quick summary: a German boy (aged 6) and girl (5) ran away from home to get married in Africa. This wasn't just a random act of fun, it was quite clearly planned in advance - they had swimming gear and the girl's older sister (to act as a witness) in tow, and knew which trains they should be taking.

If nothing else can be said about these two, it's that their goal was far more adorable than somebody marrying a wall. What is it (vas ist it) with Germany and this sort of thing?

--Ryan

UPCAT Results 2009 To Come Out Tomorrow

University of the Phippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) results for 2009 will soon be released through the UPCAT Results Online. The site will display the web version of the UPCAT results come January 9, 2009 (which eventually beacme January 17, by the way).The UPCAT Results for 2009 will also be posted at the Office of Admissions by the 3rd week of January, 2009. It can also be retrieved and

Iggy and the stooges

(Coming this weekend, the first-annual honeygarlic awards - that's right, the Garlickies!)


It looked as though the Liberal Party was doing really well. A new leader, Michael Ignatieff, who is both a great orator and easy to understand in either of Canada's official languages (when I can understand spoken French, something good is going on). Warren Kinsella back to run the war room and maybe give the Liberals a decent communications department. A political position that would force the Conservatives to give in on a few points, or lose the entire government.

Things seemed good.

I guess they weren't.

This past Monday, I received a flyer in the mail. On the front, the caption 'The Conservatives misled Canadians on the economy' and a picture of Stephen Harper looking like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Definitely a good start - not quite as catchy as "Stephane Dion is not a leader", but almost as easy to explain.

Open up the leaflet, and there's some pretty damning contradictory evidence. Jim Flaherty saying "we will not run a deficit". Independent (i.e. non-partisan) budget officer Kevin Page revealing that the Conservatives will, in fact, run a deficit - somewhere in the neighbourhood of $50 billion over four years. A reminder that when the Conservatives took power, they had a $13-billion surplus left over from the Liberals - plenty of evidence to support the claim that the Liberals are good managers of the economy, the Conservatives are not. All that's really missing is a reminder of how far in debt the country was after Mulroney.

Finally, the coup de grace - Harper's memorable assertion that the downturn represented a "good buying opportunity", and a note that had anyone followed Harper's advice and bought a TSX index fund, their investment would have fallen another 21%!

All in all, a very good pamphlet, more effective than any of the million I've seen from the Conservatives over the past couple of years - if for no other reason than its reliance on facts over scare tactics.

But wait! There's more! Silly me, always forgetting that paper can be two-sided.

A three-question partisan survey, asking questions about Conservatives and the economy, and offering you the chance to join the Liberal e-mail list. To respond, simply tear off that fold, as the other side has been helpfully filled out with the mailing address of...

...

...

"Hon. Stephane Dion
Leader of the Opposition"

...

...oh, Liberals. And you were doing so well, too.

--Ryan

Of Clocks and Buttons - A Review of the Movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Do you remember as a child wearing you parents clothing mimicking to be a grown up? Or wanting to be an adult as soon as possible during your teens so you could be independent and do anything you want? But now that you’re older, you somehow want to go back in time even just a few years, if only possible; or at least look like one with some medical help. Well, Benjamin's case is a little more

Artists Sing for Red Cross

Red Letter Night was finally held 2 nights ago where various artists performed for the benefit of Philippine National Red Cross.Organized by fellow artist-singer and Awit Awards-winner Dianne Elise, it was held at Fiamma along Jupiter St. where 3rd Avenue Band, fellow Awit Awards-winner Thor, and other artists performed.They were also joined by Soul Child Julianne, The Out of Body Special, and

Solving and resolving

About time I got into this, right?

Down below, Dan helpfully linked to my resolutions from last year. Let's see how I did:

1) Keep a running diary of my life. I really don't care if people think of it as a 'diary', 'journal', 'log', or whatever. It'll be me, every day, writing down what I did that day in a Notepad file (so as to resist temptation to print it/turn it into a spreadsheet that shows just how boring my life is). No thoughts for the future or anything like that, just a record of what I did. Exciting, eh?

No, 2008 Ryan. Not exciting. Not exciting at all. You don't know this yet, but in a few months' time, you'll be done school (well, okay, you must know THAT), fall a couple of days behind, say 'screw it', and break this first resolution.

Actually, I made it to May 6th - a couple weeks further than I thought. Looking back at the Notepad file now, it is kind of funny to see entries such as "lock keys in car (:@)", "and their front lawn", "take pictures at odd angles", and at least three examples of the word 'blecch!' despite my attempts to keep the log free of any sort of opinion.

(Dan should be able to vouch for the fact that I was keeping up with it until that point; I seem to recall him walking in on me as I was going through my day a few times.)

0 for 1, but really I think I'm better off in the long run, so 1 for 1.

2) Watch more CBC. Yeah, I know that sounds stupid, but half my professors constantly talk about how we should get our news from multiple sources. My primary source, by far, is CTV - and if I'm going to pick up a new source, it'll be a lot easier if it's also televised.

Actually did it! More so in Brantford than in Kitchener (my parents watch CTV, it's easier if I do the same), but I now go out of my way to alternate between different networks as much as possible. I think I mentioned that a few times during the election/political crisis. 2 for 2, and this one's going to keep going.

3) Be friendlier. I don't really have the "party mode" that a lot of other people seem to; consequently if I'm at a party, I'm noticeably one of the quieter people there. I tried changing this at a gathering last week, and talked to people I ordinarily wouldn't have (a few I'd never talked to before in my life, despite going to high school with), and enjoyed it enough that I'm going to try to keep it up.

Erm...think that's a checkmark? I remember the example I used, and I think I'm like that more of the time now - talking to people rather than worrying about whether they remember me/know who I am - but it's hard to say for sure. I'm still quieter than most, but I'm a quiet person by nature - it wouldn't surprise me if somebody mistook me being quiet for boredom or arrogance or something, even after this resolution. Definitely not the life of the party, but that was never the goal. Three for three.

4) Figure out how the sink in my bedroom keeps attracting hair, despite it not being hooked up to any water, and thus never used.

I covered it with a bulletin board, and now there's neglibile amounts of hair. I win!

5) Learn the Charleston. This is fairly unrealistic, but I resolved to do it a few years ago, and never did. Maybe 2008 is the year.

Not only did I not learn the Charleston, I completely forgot I mentioned this one again.

Still, as Meat Loaf might have sang, four out of five ain't bad. Now on to 2009!

My first resolution for 2009 is to expand my horizons. This applies to pretty much every area of my life. I only watch TV shows I already know I like, I only listen to music I already know I like. I don't take courses in subjects I know very little about. I dismiss international cuisines on the grounds that I know nothing about it, therefore probably won't like it (note to self: pasta/noodles seem to be pretty much universal. You like pasta.). I try not to do things I've never done before.

Problem with all of this: at some point, everything I liked had to have come out of me deciding to try something new (I have only extremely vague recollections of this, but I'm told that as a toddler, were I to go to a Wendy's or other fast food restaurant, I would only be willing to eat salad. Anybody who knows me at all would find that hard to believe). So why'd I stop?

Point number two, and it's somewhat along the same lines, stop being so cynical. Or, depending on my mood, snobbish might be a better word. If something is popular - a TV show, a movie, a band, pop culture seems to be all that's coming to mind here - I assume that I won't like it. Well, if everybody thought that way, it wouldn't be popular - therefore it must be good on some level, so why shoudn't I give it a try?

(The preceding resolution does not apply to Twilight.)

As far as music goes, I have a hypothesis - there is the type of music that most people like a little bit (which is popular), and the music which a lot of people don't like at all, but those who do like it like it a lot (which is not). (There's also a third type, music which nobody likes - I wanted to make a Rihanna joke here, but that wouldn't be fair to music.) Music can survive without being popular, so it's up to me to search out unpopular music for what I like.

Television, on the other hand, cannot and will not survive if it is not popular - so to be popular, it presumably has to be good on some level. I know next to nothing about The Big Bang Theory, or How I Met Your Mother, or Chuck, or Journeyman, or Pushing Daisies - but I know that a lot of people like all these shows, so I should probably check them out...except that because a lot of people like them, I assume I won't. See how this is?

I also have resolutions which are more personal and less interesting to write about ('GET A BETTER SUMMER JOB!!!' being at the top of that list), and I've apparently resolved to change my Facebook status at least once a week. I think I'll regret that.

--Ryan

Travel Factor 2009 Trips Launch Party Digitized

Travel Factor 2009 Trips Launch Party Last night, the Travel Factor 1Q Trips Launch Party was manila-digitized. Held at Club Industry in Tomas Morato, the place was by filled by 9pm and jam-packed came 10pm with 200 guests.The event started with Travel Factor's new team members namely Leia Nagal, Tikoy Tan, Reg Mamaril and Ced Valera. Upcoming group tours and the year's first quarter schedule for

Travel Factor New Year Kick-Off Party

Join, Travel Factor as they celebrate the new year and kick off their new trips and events for 2009 in New Year, New Trips launch partyCome dressed in your best beach threads and party the night away as they give out cool freebies and prizes.Have a glimpse of the Travel Factor lifestyle!Tickets are available for P250 (w/ 3 free drinks).Club Industry, T. Morato (same building as Ratsky and CBTL)

Red Letter Night Concert

“RED LETTER NIGHT“ will be held on January 4, Sunday 8pm, at Fiamma along Jupiter St., Makati. It features Awit Award winner R&B singer Thor, 3rd Avenue Band, Miguel Escueta, 2008 Awit Award-winner Soul Child Julianne, The Out of Body Special, many other bands, and surprise celebrity guests.Let us make a good start this 2009 by supporting Philippine National Red Cross attain its commitment to

TV5 Shake Mo TV Mo! Caravan

Shake mo bagong taon mo!Isang sumasabog na pakalog sa bagong taon ang hatid ng TV5! Maki-shake sa pinaka-unang Shake Mo TV Mo Caravan! Sa January 3, Sabado, makakasama mo ang mga TV5 celebrities, TV5 shows at sa Star City, ika-10 ng umaga hanggang ika-12 ng hating gabi.Maki-shake kasama ang mga badang Sandwich at Imago! Mayroon ding mga palaro at papremyo!Para sa mga detalye at libreng ticket,

Happy 2009!

I just realized I haven't posted anything here in a really long time. Like, since last year.

*crickets*

I do have a couple of looking-back-looking-forward ideas, but they're on the back burner until at least Sunday. So here's a video.



-Ryan

Digitizing Manila

Manila is now digitized. Events. Reviews. Technology. Feature Magazine.Welcome to Digital Manila. This is the online magazine that caters to a wide array of happenings in and about the metro. From Manila hip events, to product highlights, to movie reviews, it can even be about your heroic local barangay chairman's wife's cousin who fell in love with a rising showbiz celebrity. You want it, we