#66: Boring city no more?

My family has been living in Chula Vista California for almost 8 years now and never heard any mention of the city on national news. In fact the city was mentioned by forbes magazine as one of the most boring city in the U.S.

Until yesterday.

I would have never known if not for a TV screen at my gym showing the World Little League Championship. The Park View Little League team was playing Taiwan for the title.

I'm no fan of baseball but knowing a local team gunning for a title makes it interesting. I caught a glimpse of the game only because it was right in front of the stationary bike am using. It was in the 5th inning when Chula Vista made a brilliant double play that made the guy beside me scream in awe and said "That's the play of the game". Chula Vista was still behind 3-1 but eventually came from behind and won 6-3.

The news of the win reverberated around the city and suddenly Chula Vista is in the spotlight. What makes the win so interesting is that it took 11-12 year old kids for the city to be finally get recognized. A feat that seems to be elusive with the mediocre performances of The San Diego Padres and the San Diego Chargers for years.

There's going to be a celebration downtown but it seems the Mayor (Cheryl Cox) is going to spoil the fun as she declared that it will just be a small celebration because of budget problem.

A once in a lifetime (who knows when is the next) opportunity to sell the city and she's bucking down. I'm sure that many individuals or business would like to help with the cost.

Well boring or not, I still love Chula Vista. This is where my kids got to roam around the city without fear.

The city may be boring, but the people certainly are not.

#65: The Internet turns 40

It was 1969 when two computers at University of California, Los Angeles, exchange meaningless data in first test of Arpanet, an experimental military network. This network would then became the Internet.

Since then, this huge network had a lot of transformation that most of the inventors would ever imagine. And as the Internet grows exponentially, so as the barriers as discussed in this posting.

Goofy videos weren't on the minds of Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA when they began tests 40 years ago on what would become the Internet. Neither was social networking, for that matter, nor were most of the other easy-to-use applications that have drawn more than a billion people online.

A variety of factors are to blame. Spam and hacking attacks force network operators to erect security firewalls. Authoritarian regimes block access to many sites and services within their borders. And commercial considerations spur policies that can thwart rivals, particularly on mobile devices like the iPhone.

For the last 40 years, we've seen great innovations most notably the launching of video sharing youtube and the development of social networking such as myspace and facebook. The key milestone in the development of the Internet is discussed in this article.

So what's the next big thing that will hit the Internet past social networking and video sharing? The answer could be somewhere in an obscure garage where innovative teenagers endlessly churning thousands of lines of codes.

#64: Being in my parent's shoes

Tonight is Josh's homecoming party at the Mariott off Coronado Island.

I offered to drive him earlier but was met by a big chuckle. Well it was expected. After all he's 17 and already drive his own car. So with so much reluctance I let it go.

It's quite unbelievable how time flies. Just some 25 plus years ago. I was in my son's shoes. I was a carefree teen. Endless parties and countless sleepovers. Not knowing that someone dear to me is home having sleepless nights whenever I'm out, my mom and dad.

I never understand then what's the big deal for being out all the time. I would reason out that I hang out with the correct crowd. I try to be careful and more important, let them know my whereabouts. But this would never make them feel at ease. There were countless times when my mom couldn't wait for me that he would walk around town and try to find me.

Now it's my turn to be on my parent's shoes. I'm sitting here trying to watch TV. I'm on my 3rd cup of coffee. It's almost twelve midnight and he's not home yet...

#63: Too much details

Here's another interesting news about burglars using social networking such as facebook or tweeter to find targets.

Facebook users enthusing about an upcoming holiday or a recently purchased high-tech gadget may not just be telling their friends but also potential burglars, warns an insurance company.

A survey of 2,092 social media users by British-based Legal & General found nearly four in ten, or 38 percent, of people using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter post details about holiday plans and 33 percent details of a weekend away.

Too much details in posting your activities could be trouble. One thing to avoid is to make sure you check who are trying to be in your friends' circle.

More on facebook. For those iphone users, there's a new version of the facebook apps. You can check the features here. Then download it using your iphone's Apps store.

#62: From Excitement To Typical

I woke up with the blaring song of Springsteen's Born To Run. It's my alarm. It was set at 6:30am. Time to wake up Nadire. She moaned and said 5 more minutes. That's fine I thought. Her school doesn't start in an hour.

Few minutes later, I heard her jumped into the shower as I fell back to sleep. I woke up an hour later and she was gone. So were Josh and Deirdre. The house is now empty and strangely quiet. It's another hot summer day.

I quickly scanned today's calendar and nothing's exciting. Good I sigh as I took a quick shower. Just 5 minutes according to the city officials, we're in a water crisis. Fine I said to myself.

My office is just a 10 minute drive. As usual no traffic. Of course, Chula Vista is considered a boring city (that according to Deirdre).

I scanned the parking lot in my office. There's a few car's already parked but I can''t see my assistant's car around. Great, he's not in yet. I hate arriving first because it means I have to disarm the building alarm. I always think I'm gonna mess it up and imagine police cars rushing in and shouting at me to get down on my knees.

As I was about to open my office, I felt someone's walking behind me. I slowly turned around and there she was. She was walking towards me. She was wearing a green striped tops and a tight jeans that seems to cling around her magnificent curve. She has a long black hair that's freely flowing pass her shoulder. For a moment, I thought I was watching a shampoo commercial but this time it was all in slow motion. She was smiling and with all my confusion and what not, she seems to be saying something that sound blurry to me.

She greeted me and asked if I have time later in the day. She wants to go over some numbers with some accounts she' s working on. All I can do is nod as if I forgot to speak. "Perfect", she said. She smiled again and turned her back as her hair swayed. There goes the commercial again I thought.

I finally made it to my office without triggering the alarm. I sat there for a few minutes and contemplate on what my day would be.

I realized that aside from an early excitement, today turned out to be just another day. I closed my eyes and suddenly I heard Springsteen singing again "...Baby this town rips the bones from your back, Its a death trap, it's a suicide rap, We gotta get out while were young, `cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"

I didn't finish the song in my head as I was interrupted again. "Good Morning Boss, coffee?'. It was my assistant. Sure why not I said...

#61: What Matters Most

As I was rushing back home to pickup Nadire so we can go to the library to borrow some books, I heard this song "What Matters Most" playing on the radio.

I have not heard of this song for a long time. This was a sign-off song of one of my favorite radio station back in the Philippines. The station would play this song at exactly 12 midnight everyday together with a sign-off quote from the DJ "Keep reaching for the sky but keep your feet on the ground". It's a very short song but the lyrics makes it worthwhile to just listen to it over and over.

It's not how long we held each other's hand
What matters is how well we loved each other
It's not how far we travelled on our way
Of what we found to say
It's not the spring you see, but all the shades of green

It's not how long I held you in my arms
What matters is how sweet the years together
It's not how many summertimes we had to give to fall
The early morning smiles we tearfully recall
What matters most is that we loved at all.

It's not how many summertimes we had to give to fall
The early morning smiles we tearfully recall
What matters most is that we loved at all.

What matters most is that we loved at all.

Here's the song by Kenny Rankin:



Can't view the video? Click here for the original post

#60: The day my father rocks

It was one summer day when there was nothing to do. I don't exactly remember what year that was, but it was a day when time seems to be on a stand still.

I was hangin' out with my brother Dennis when my father came home. "Let go take a drive", he excitedly barked. "Where?", I asked leisurely not seemingly interested. "Where?" my brother repeated my question. "Well I don't know, let just drive around and why don't you bring your cassette player so we can listen to some good music", he said.

We look at each other and said "Sure, but can we drop by the music store and buy a new tape?" we asked. "Ok, but it better be a good one", he cautioned.

So we packed some batteries in our cassette player (sorry no ipod then) and off we went. As he promised we dropped by the local music store. Me and my brother scanned through the tapes and unanimously picked the double album the wall by Pink Floyd. He obligingly paid and off went.

Within minutes, we are on the highway heading south. I still remember vividly how great the scenery was. the scene was dominated with green fields and thick trees everywhere. Suddenly my dad broke the silence and said "Let hear what you got!". My brother pushed the play button and turned the volume up. Suddenly this great guitar riffs and screaming song filled the air. "what the...", he turned to us as he tried to control the wheel. "What kind of song is that?", he said. "It rock", my brother replied. "well why are they so angry, all i can hear is shouting", he replied back. I looked at my brother and we both smiled.

We continued driving pass the Abra tunnel (which is the gateway to and fro our province) and head north towards the beaches. By then we are already on the second album and Comfortably Numb was playing. He finally turned to us and ask "Do you have James Stewart, You've got a friend?". We were puzzled for a moment until we realized he got James Taylor and Rod Stewart mixed together. We chuckled as we headed further north.

By the time we got back home, it was already dark and my mom was already at the door waiting for us. "Well where did you guys go?", she asked. "We drive around and listed to some Pink whatever", my dad replied. "What's that?", she asked. "I don't know, ask them", as he pointed to us smiling.

We had numerous road trips with my father, but this one tops it all. And every time I hear a song from the Wall album bring back memory of that day. The day when we introduced rock music to our father.

here's the amazing video of the song Comfortably Numb


Can't view the video? Click here for the original post

#59: College Buddies

Today I finally got a chance to re-connect with my college buddies through facebook.

I attended University of the East (U.E) Caloocan, College of Engineering majoring in Electronics and Communication in 1983-1989. I remember it was during this time when the school were in some kind of financial difficulty. In fact it was almost sold to a school based in the U.S. who promoted the practice of transcendental meditation. But it was averted due to protest by the students. Soon the government has to step in and save the longest running University in the Philippines.

U.E. wasn't as high profile as La Salle or Ateneo, but what made it worthwhile was I was hanging out with friends that has the same dream as I am of finishing college. As far as I know we all made it and become engineers.

With the permission of Kuya Manny Rulle, here's a snap shot of our group during a trip to matabungkay beach. Guess where I am in the pic?


During this outing, I think 3 of us didn't have partners. So we were kicked out of the cabin while those who had, had the luxury of sleeping inside.

Staring at this picture, I can't help rewinding 20 or so years ago...

#58: Are facebook quizzes sneaking up on you?

I joined the facebook social networking for the simple reason, to be in touch with friends and families. I've never use much of the games or apps that goes with it because they're not so appealing to me.

But for those who do, here's an interesting quiz you may want to take to find out what does these apps or quizzes means:

Ever whiled away five minutes on a Facebook quiz, finding out what cartoon character is your look-alike or how your IQ stacks up? These quizzes may seem like a perfectly harmless way to spend a few spare minutes. But have you stopped to think about what these quizzes are learning about you and how that info could be used? Take our quiz and learn more!

So next time you take that quiz, think twice. Also, you might want to check your facebook privacy setting and see what apps have you authorize to access your profile.

#57: Lemon Detox Diet anyone?

I first heard of the lemon detox diet from a co-worker. She told me that she heard it works so she's looking for someone to try it with.

Oh no...yet another form of diet. So before I said yes, I wanted to know what I'm getting into. I research about it and found tons of information about this diet. The diet seems to be very simple. All you need is to mix a freshly squeezed lemon, maple syrup (organic) and cayenne pepper in an 8 oz of very cold water.

On some information I read, you need to drink at least 60 oz. a day for 7-10 days and avoid eating anything. How can I survive not eating anything for 7 days, I asked. There's no way I can do this. For one, I am working out at least 4-5 times a week. Where will I get strength to lift weights?

I finally found one information that seems to fit my needs. You can read it here.

Detox cleansing drinks will help you excrete extra waste from your body and will help you lose water weight, but this weight loss is temporary. To use this diet effectively, you need to combine the lemon detox diet with healthy eating and adequate exercise. The beverage will help you shed water weight and clean out your colon, but it will not help your body lose fat unless combined with a proper diet and exercise.

So I told my co-worker, I'm in. I started my first drink two weeks ago. The taste is surprisingly good. It's more like a spicy (because of the cayenne) lemonade drink. But the effect is quite noticeable as I kept going to the restroom to relieve my bladder (so this is the detox part). I also felt sleepy by mid-afternoon.

To keep up with my workout, I also increased my protein (eggs, chicken breast, fish or tuna) intake, increase my fruits and veggies and reduce my carb (rice, pasta) intake.

I did the lemon detox for a week and slowly went back to my normal eating habit on the second week and the result? Well I weigh myself today and I actually lost 6 pounds and feel much healthier. Not bad huh?

Diets worked differently to every individuals but this drink combined with exercise and healthy foods actually worked for me. It might work for you to, so try it!

#56: Hannah Montana Linux

The hit TV show Hannah Montana products are everywhere. It's printed on shirts, bags, even shoes. But what about a computer that has the look and feel of Hannah Montana?

Well there's Hannah Montana Linux powered computer!

I am a little bit familiar with Hannah Montana. I've seen a glimpse of the TV show when Nadire's watching it. For the benefit to those who's not familiar with the show:

Hannah Montana is an Emmy Award-nominated[1] American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.

The Linux Distro is based in Kubuntu, a variant of Ubuntu. Interestingly, you can grab a live CD to try it on your (or your kid's) computer at the project's official website. Creating such a distribution is easy due to fact that Linux codes are available to anyone and can be freely modified.

So next time your kid's acting up and you know Hanna Montana is their favorite show, pop in that live CD and turn your computer to a Hannah Montana nanny. And Don't worry because the program won't modify anything in your computer

#55: SOPA

There's a new posting at the highly politicized website abrenian.com regarding the SOPA (State of the Province Address) of Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin of Abra.

In his SOPA, Gov. Bersamin sum up his achievements for the past two years in office. He talked about infrastructure, health and other concerns affecting the province.

He highlighted his on going battle to defeat the persisting Peace and Order problem. The Governor knows this very well. After all, his brother Chito Bersamin (then a congressman) was gunned down in 2006 which many believed to be politically motivated.

He said:

"So we address the problem with the only way that we know: public service at its best. Helping the poor so they will not resort to desperate measures, serving the neglected so they will not fight against us, leading by example so we end political killings – THESE, along with special projects which we have implemented side by side with the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police"

My burning question though is what if the perpetrators are the rich and the powerful? Can we do something about it?

Already, politician are jockeying for position in preparation for the 2010 elections and once again Abra will come out gasping for breath as violence will explode.

There's no indication if Gov. Bersamin will run for re-election, go for another position or just decide to walk away. Whatever his decision may be, he will always be credited in ending the 20 year or so reign of former Gov. Vicsyd Valera.

you can read the full speech fo Gov. Bersamin here.

#54: Sharing knowledge online

One big headache for a company is how to manage internal documents in either electronic or paper formats. You'll be surprised how much this information grows through the years. But these are valuable information that needs to be kept indefinitely.

Today, I am starting a project to implement a company-wide Knowledge-based system to make available every internal documents online for easy retrieval.

I opted to use KBPublisher, a web-based system written in PHP. The nice thing about using such as system is to be able to centralized all information, categorize documents, create FAQ, create user manuals and even use it as a support help desk.

I couldn't be more happier having such a system since my department (IT) seems to be a natural go to department when staff needs copies for a particular document. Although sometimes that same document was already requested before and was sent to them for the nth time. With this new system, they can grab it themselves.

KBPublisher is not free (we did got a reduced price because we are non-profit). But paying a one time fee will give you access to the code and the license is perpetual.

note: If you can't afford such a system, there's 68kb which is totally free and open source. This product has a lot of potential but it's still in the early stage of development. It can be more useful for a smaller project.

#53: Words Women and Men Use

I normally don't read forwarded email but today this one caught my attention (due to some circumstances). I'm posting this "9 words women use". Some of you may already have read it but I can't resist sharing to those who have not.

Well instead of posting the email. I found a video version of this:


Now to be politically correct, I have to post "phrases men use"


Here's a bonus video on How men talk to their wives.


Can't see the video? Click here for the original post

#52: Open Source Project for Health Centers in the Philippines

I've been involved with HIT (Health Information Technology) in a community clinic setting for the past 10 years using open source.

In my earlier post, I mentioned about my involvement with the ClearHealth Project. This project is more usable in the U.S. health care system.

So what if this project can be used in the Philippines? It could probably work but needs to be customized to reflect the health care landscape in the Philippines.

But then, I just stumble on an existing project called Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS.

according to the official website,

The Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS (www.chits.ph) is an extensible, modular, open source information system for rural health units (initially for the Philippines). It collects existing routine health data from vertical programs in the Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS) and integrates them into a unified, comprehensive computerized information system. Through CHITS, community-based health information is made available not only to public health agencies requiring community level information but also to the community itself which generates the information. It enables the community to use this information for local decision-making and health planning. In addition to software, CHITS also includes structured capability-building programs designed to improve the health information systems within local health centers, regardless of the level of automation. CHITS began in Pasay City and is now in 18 health facilities (July 2008) around the country with requests for installation from many more.

This is such an exciting project that can power up Health Centers in the Philippines at a low cost. Checking the system requirements, the program was written in PHP and uses MySql database and Apache web server. A platform that doesn't require expensive hardware. In fact, the project would cost around P20,000.00 per install.

The Philippines has 1,495 towns. If we have a community center per town that will cost about P30M. Quite an amount.

But there's a way to reduce this cost. Each province can establish a data center and install a higher capacity server to be shared by each health center within a province. Let's say a data center average cost is P200,000.00 x 81 (provinces), the cost will just be around P16M.

There may be some other cost not included such as maintenance and program development cost but think about a nationwide Health information system that will improve the delivery of health services in the rural areas. Think about a system that is free from the clouts of proprietary vendors.

Maybe the Provincial government of Abra might want to consider this project...

#51: Host multiple websites in one machine

Running multiple websites in one machine using a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) stack requires some heavy and dirty hacking on the different configuration files of each of the programs mentioned.

To simplify installation and maintenance, the best way to do it is to use a Web Hosting Manager/Panel. Popular products such as Plesk or cPanel are good programs only if you are willing to shell out some monies. Or you can opt for ISPConfig.

ISPConfig is a free and open source hosting control panel for Linux. Major features includes creating virtual hosts, FTP servers, email servers and MySql-based Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla. Since it's a hosting manager, you can set disk quotas, traffic control, antivirus, billing and even a trouble ticket system. The full features are listed here.

I'm currently using ISPConfig on Ubuntu with multiple Joomla installs to host websites in the office and some other personal sites. A real perfect low-cost hosting solution.

#50: Thunder Road

This is my 50th post since I started this blog. So far I'm true to my promise to post everyday for the next 365 days.

To celebrate my 50th, I'm featuring my number one all time favorite song "Thunder Road", the opening song from his best album "Born to Run". You can read about how this song evolved here. My favorite part of the lyrics, "Show a little faith, there's magic in the night, You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright" and on the last line of the song "It's a town full of losers and we're pulling out of here to win".

This is the one song that I painstakingly learn to play on the piano.

I have watched a lot of version of this song but this one's my favorite version. Enjoy this video! while you're at it, here's the full lyrics so you can sing along.


Can't view the video? Click here for the original post

#49: Who killed Trudy?

I've been watching the TV series monk since it's debut in 2002.

For those who didn't know about this show, Monk is a brilliant detective who developed OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) after his wife Trudy was killed by a car bomb. You can read more about this show here.

The final season started this month and each episode will slowly lead to the revelation on who killed Trudy. A fitting finale for Monk to finally solve the most difficult case of his career.

I myself has no idea who the killer is. Is it the captain? Dale the whale? Sharona? Natalie? Randy? or was is Monk himself (thus the nervous breakdown)? All I can do is speculate, as what most of the fans in this forum are discussing.

It''s gonna be a long wait (the last episode will be on Dec. 4) and I would be watching every bit of the action. Watching Monk is a good reason to stay home on friday nights.

#48: Bleed Normally?

I just came back from a 2 day Open Source World conference in San Francisco.

In a nutshell, the conference showcased the next big thing in technology which is Cloud Computing. I did talked about this technology earlier in this post and it looks like a wave of companies are getting into it. Pretty soon, the cloud will most likely dominate the way we do business online.

Anyway, it's always a great experience attending this type of conferences. You got to see emerging trends that could spun a new revolution in the computing world.

It's been two years since I last visited San Francisco and each time I didn't had a chance to see the city. Although, I was surprised to see a Jollibee just across the Moscone Center on 4th and Howard. I quickly snap a picture of it.



The trip is quite hectic. I spent most of the time in the conference center, going in and out of the countless sessions. Information is enormous. It would take me a couple of days to review all the materials I gathered. By mid afternoon on each day, I was struggling to keep up and what made it worse is they stop serving coffee after 10am.

By the time I finally boarded the plane back to San Diego, I was so exhausted that I thought the stewardess said on the intercom "...although we don't expect any change on the cabin pressure, if needed, oxygen masks will drop down. Clobber your mouth and bleed normally" (the correct phrase was actually "Cover your mouth and breath normally").

I let out a short chuckle, closed my eyes and relish the thought that in an hour Ill be arriving in sunny San Diego, back in the comfort of my home...

#47: Dead Zone

I'm in San Francisco attending the Open Source World Conference.

I am typing this on my phone via text to blog.

I can't believe I am on a dead zone considering I am probably in the most high tech place on earth.

Anyway, I hope this will reach my blog. I will tell you more about my trip on tomorrow's post.

#46: Almost Famous

One of my favorite movie is Almost Famous, This film is based on famous director Camerron Crowe's experiences touring with rock bands The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. kate Hudson is so lovely in this movie.

I love this movie so much that I bought my own copy. Here's a perfect scene that transformed the movie into a classic. This is a song by Elton John "Tiny Dancer".



can't view the video? Click here for the original post

#45: What's up doc!

There's this story about a blind man who finally got his wish to have an eye transplant. His family were so excited. The transplant will be performed by renowned eye specialist in the Philippines, Doctor Quack-Quack. The operation took 10 hours to complete.

When it was time to remove the bandage from his new eye, the whole family where there to witness the miracle.

Doctor Quack-Quack: Ok, aalisin ko na yung benda ng mata mo. pero wag mo munang buksan ang mata mo. (I'm going to remove the bandages on your eyes but don't open your eyes just yet).

Blind Man: ok doc.

Doctor Quack-Quack: Sige, buksan mo na yung mata mo. (Now open your eyes)

the blind man slowly opened his eyes and look around the room. The whole family where all holding their breath.

Doctor Quack-Quack: Anong nakikita mo? (what do you see?)

Blind Man: Utak doctor (my brain doc)

it turned out the Doctor made a mistake and place the eyes in reverse. oops!

This funny story reminds me of a brilliant doctor who certainly not like Dr. Quack-Quack.

He's Dr. Joselito "Doking" Bringas, my brother, who's celebrating his nth birthday today.

Doking, as we fondly call him, is the eldest in our family. I don't remember exactly when he became a doctor but I certainly remember he placed 5th in the medical board exam. A feat that made our family very proud especially my mom and dad.

I have always admire my brother's dedication to his career. He had stayed in Abra all his life and build a very successful practice. He would have opted to a more lucrative career elsewhere but he choose to stick it out in our province probably realizing that he's needed there the most.

I have not seen my brother for almost ten years but my brother Dennis would tell me stories about his exploits has now spread out to the neighboring provinces or even as far as Manila.

Doc has been a good brother to us. My family have look up to him with respect and pride and we've consider him our father when we lost our dad.

In his honor, I am opening this mango wine (I wonder how this one taste).

Here's to you Manong Doc! And here's a video for you. I know you like this song



cant view the video? click here for the original post

#44: My top 10 Geeky Pick Up Lines

Ever wonder how Geeky Tech guys pick up girls? Here's my list.

1. It seems you caught a virus, you want me to scan you?

2. You had me at "right click"

3. I lost my email, can I have yours?

4. You're so beautiful, can I use your pic as my screen-saver?

5. I love to add you to my bookmark.

6. Wanna access my new website?

7. You make me want to upgrade my laptop.

8. I guess the search is over because you end up on top of my google search results.

9. I would love to clean your inbox.

10. Wanna download my new apps?

disclaimer: this list is on beta version thus not appropriate for production use. Use at your own risk. Aemes World is not responsible for any heart crash.

#43: Good (not so) old friends

The last time I saw Elite (Emilie Trinidad Bandayrel) (at least from what we think we both remember) was in 1993. It was during another friends' (Liberty and Pancho) wedding. Then we lost touch.

I finally had a chance to meet her today. She's in town with her husband and classmates in High School.

I met with her party at goldilocks in national city. I can see they miss Filipino food a lot as they ate their hearts out with crispy pata, sisig, pansit, rice and halo halo. I would have loved to join in but I'm on a strict diet.

Anyway, I drove them around National City and Chula Vista then finally headed to the border between the U.S. and Mexico which is just 10 miles away. Some of us wanted to actually enter Tijuana but not everyone had their passport handy.

We end up instead at Las Americas Premium Outlets which is located just on the U.S. side of the border. Going to the outlet is a little bit tricky because of it's proximity to the Mexican border. When you're driving, you have to watch the sign that say "last exit to the U.S.". If you miss the turn, you will end up on the other side.

The girls did a little (or maybe a lot) of shopping, while we guys enjoyed the "site seeing".

Unfortunately I have to excuse myself as I have some errands to do. It's a saturday and it's my usual grocery day.

I rarely go out since I really don't have friends in San Diego but having good old friends visit me makes my day a great one.

#42: Goin' Korean

Today my kids and I went to Zion Market, a korean grocery, a good 16 mile drive from where we live.

Deirdre has been bugging me for weeks to visit the place. She wanted to buy some stuff to make sushi and try some of the Korean food she's been reading about.

You see, Deirdre has been learning the Korean language and their culture on her own. She's so fascinated with it that she want to pursue some studies in Korea before going to medical school.

As we entered the grocery, together with Josh, she immediately disappeared amongst the sea of shoppers. This place is busy.

I was left by myself going around trying to figure out what to buy. Almost all the food labels are in Korean and they all look delicious to me.

I finally catch up with them with some stuff. "What are these?", I asked. "Don't worry about it, it's gonna be good", she smiled. "Well how much are these?", I asked. "Don't worry, it's gonna be good", she repeated. "Hey what about some kimchi", I shouted. "Why don't you grab some fruits they are cheap", she shouted back, as she again disappeared from my site.

Alright, I said to myself, since am here, I might as well pick up some things for myself. I grab some short ribs and rib eye steak, some spices and oh yeah some fruits as she suggested.

They finally came back after a few minutes and said their done. I went straight to the cashier and the girl at the counter smiled and started ringing me up. I looked at Deirdre, and with some protest, "Don't even think about it, dad". I said "What?". She knows that I have the habit of starting small talks. Which of course I did.

I said, "Hi". "Everything ok?", she asked. "Yeah great, this is my first time here", I said. "How'd you like it?, she asked. "Well the Kimchi is a bit expensive, but I guess that's probably because it's made in Korea?", I said as I caught Deirdre's eyes rolling. "It's our specialty, I'm sure you're going to like it", she smiled. "that would be $86.17, sir would that be credit or debit?", she asked.

"Credit please", I said. "Oh one more thing, are you Korean?", I asked. Before she can even answer, Deirdre barked "Oh my God!!!". end of conversation...

#41: "Disruptive Technology"

The big news today is the DDOS (distributed-denial-of-service) attack on such prominent social networking sites twitter, facebook and live journal according to USA Today.

For Twitter's approximately 30 million users, life — even a few hours — without the popular service meant no tweeting about breaking news, work or the fact that Twitter was down.

Social networks Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal on Thursday morning were overwhelmed by denial-of-service attacks disrupting access to more than 300 million users. Botnets — thousands of infected home and workplace PCs — flooded the websites with nuisance requests, thus cutting off access to anyone else.

Hard to believe that millions of users depends on these sites to get through their daily lives. It's like going back to the dark ages and seems like the end of the world to those fanatics. Users have complained that they feel like they where cut-off from their friends and family. Well ever heard of the good old email? or what about picking up the phone?

Too bad Paula Abdul picked the wrong day to quit American Idol or Sotomayor being confirmed as the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Call this disruptive technology.

#40: Building web applications using open source tools

I'm an Engineer by profession but sometimes my job calls for some code hacking.

Recently I tried my hands using PHP, a very easy scripting language to build a resource and article directory for the San Diego API Health Network project. The site was built using joomla, an open source CMS (Content Management System). The Directory and Resources though was a result of integrating 68kb, a knowledge based system based on CodeIgniter.

It's amazing that you can build web applications with these freely available tools. That's the power of open source.

#39: Not easy being sick alone...

I woke up this morning feeling sore. I though a hot shower will make me feel better but it didn't.

I still went to the office as usual but my body pains make it worse. I finally had to leave early, drop by the pharmacy and pick up some pain medication and went home.

The sweltering summer heat didn't help at all. But the worse part of it is I have to do the nursing myself. That's the bane being single.

But hey it's just a mild case of flu (I hope). Got to finish this post, a good sleep and plenty of liquid, I'll be back on my feet tomorrow and maybe rethink my single status situation...just maybe.

#38: Free Enterprise Email Server

For every business, email is very important. And if you want to be taken seriously, you should have an email address that reflects your company's name. Imagine trying to make a million dollar deal and you are still using those public email services such as yahoo, gmail or hotmail?

Well why not try Zimbra, a a free Enterprise-Grade email server that rivals the features of say Microsoft Exchange Server.

I have been using zimbra as our company's email server and it's been very reliable. It's features are just awesome. You can have multiple domains in just one install, it relies heavily on ajax. Thus makes it look like a desktop application.

There's so many features of zimbra but personally I like the way you can share email addresses with a group (say your technical support department) and able share documents and calendars.

Installation is quite easy. I've installed zimbra on CentOS (community version of RedHat Linux) using this howto, and I was up an running in 20 minutes.

Zimbra was since bought by yahoo, fortunately they still maintain a free version of the program.

#37: More on Cory

While watching the coverage of the death of President Cory Aquino, I can't help but reminisce the events that led to her presidency. Admittedly I became a little bit sentimental as the images of the what transpired from when Ninoy was assasinated in 1981 up to the People Power revolution in 1986.

Here's the song that sum up what had happened. I have not heard of this song for a long time until today. This song was written by Jim Paredes. What struck me are the words:

'Di na 'ko papayag mawala ka muli. 'Di na 'ko papayag na muli mabawi, Ating kalayaan kay tagal natin mithi. 'Di na papayagang mabawi muli.

Unfortunately, it seems that these words are being swallowed by the current president who seems to want to cling to power forever...

While watching the video, read Ninoy's Arrival Statement just moments before he was gunned down.




Can't view video? view original post here

#36: Perfect Girlfriend and Boyfriend too

Commercials are part of our daily TV viewing. It's sometimes very annoying. But every now and then, they are entertaining.

Here's a commercial I really like...Perfect Girlfriend



But if there's a Perfect Girlfriend, there's a Perfect Boyfriend too.


Can't see the video? View the original post here.