Photohunt: Thankful

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.

-- Vincent van Gogh

Oh yes we're thankful! My sister-in-law's expecting. She's about 2 and a half month pregnant now, and we're all eagerly awaiting the arrival of the family's next generation! I'm secretly hoping she takes after me... hehe...


Posted while Liveblogging at SM Marikina.

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Potpourri of Stuff including Photohunt for Warm (Up)

Yeah, I've been pretty busy these past couple of weeks. Haven't had a chance to actually post an entry. I've been swamped with work, extra-curricular activities, and lots of other stuff I'm unable to label properly. Even as I type this entry my eyes are starting to droop, and I suppose I'd be unable to post a proper entry. Let me give it a shot anyway.

Here's a run down of things that I've been up to...

• Got a new phone, and ever since I got this about 3 weeks ago, I've been hooked to FM Radio. Particularly "Good Times with Moe, Mojo and Grace Lee" at Magic FM in the mornings, and Papa Dan in LS FM where they have a Wanted Sweetheart thing in the evenings. Both fun stuff bordering in the hilarious but in a different way.
  
• And man man! The injuries this year keeps on piling up. I just lost Nene Hilario and Danny Granger for who-knows-how long on one of my teams, and Amare Stoudemire and Jameer Nelson for good on the other. Sigh! Yeah, I've been busy with a little Fantasy NBA. Lots and lots of injuries make up for an interesting season and a lousy chance at the championship. I'm making the playoff in 2 out of my 3 leagues, but championship is still up for grabs the way big names keep falling these days.
• Busy last weekend due to an educator's conference we had. Yes, I'm a Physical Therapist and an educator--at least to my interns. I'm a member of the Educators Special Interest Group of the PPTA (Philippine Physical Therapy Association), and one of our goal is to improve clinical instructions. Last weekend's Module 1 was a big step in the right direction.

My PPTA Educ SIG-mates. Pretty cool group huh? (More here and here)

• Also last Sunday, we had our 9th Walk for Life. This is basically an activity where we invite cardiac patients who graduated from our program from years past to join us for our morning exercise and a walk around the lagoon in the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife. It's a very positive experience seeing a lot of them still healthy and keeping the lifestyle changes we taught them. We're definitely walking for life!
• 

Here's us warming up before the walk.

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• Oh, and finally had a chance to visit some of the blogs I frequented before I became a lazy bum. Looks like I wasn't the only one who bummed hehe... Hey, if you haven't seen funnysexy.ph's Xandy yet, go do so right now. I promise you that it's loads of fun!
  
• If you're into the arts, I attended the opening of "Love Deconstructed" a couple of weeks ago which included a collection from Lizz-- and my my, she sure had some lovely works in there!

There's Lizz and JC modeling my favorite painting of hers "You Are My Beginning and My End". (This photo does not do it justice, go check out the link I gave you or better yet, visit the exhibit at Art19b at Cubao X)

Photohunt: Nautical (And diet that's good for the heart)

These photos are not exactly "nautical" in the truest sense, but they belong in the nave of the sea nonetheless. So allow me to present, seafoods!

A diet rich in fish is one of the most healthiest diet one can take on for the heart. Coupled with a diet abundant in fruits and vegetables, and a daily dose of exercise will keep you not only looking young but feeling young as well. They are rich in Omega-3 and low in saturated fat. What more can you ask for? Boneless fish I suppose hehe...

Contrary to popular belief, shellfish is good too! While they may not have the same amount of Omega 3 as the fishes do, that's primarily because of size. Not only that, they're a rich source of calcium too! So be kind to your heart, eat seafoods! :)

Happy Hearts Day to all!

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Photohunt: Bridge (at the Subic Extreme Adventure Park)

I'm doing photohunt early today because I'd be busy this afternoon with a Toastmasters Prepared Speech contest for our Area. I'll let you know how it turns out. Anyhow, these photos were taken at the Subic Extreme Adventure Park when we trooped over to Subic during the long holidays last December. Two things we came here for:

SLIDE FOR LIFE (CANOPY SLIDE)

Here you climb a stairway to the top of a large tree. You secure your harness; your assistant connects you to a cable system in preparation to transverse a distance of over 100 meters of dense tropical jungle 20 meters below. You must surrender your fear on this test of courage as gravity will propel you extremely fast alongside large trees and foliage. If you ever wondered what it was like to be Indiana Jones, this is the challenge for you.

and

THE HANGING BRIDGE

A high-adventure cable and old wooden-slates bridge suspended over lush tropical jungle foliage, at a height of 100 feet at one point. You need to walk over this bridge in order to get to the second canopy slide. The bridges are actually suspended over the canopy slide at one point. The bridge experience is one definitely one out of a Hollywood high-adventure production.

And boy were they worth it! If you ever find yourself in Subic, go up to Cubi and try this. Trust me, it's worth your money!

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Photohunt: Furry (Happy Chinese New Year!)

This one's suppose to be a dragon. Ok, so a real one would probably not be this furry.

This is a "lang sai", used for the lion dance. Yeah yeah, less furry than it should be.

I know this is a late Chinese New Year entry (the lunar new year started last Monday), but I already decided to used this photos for this purpose and was to lazy to think of a different one for the new year hehe... Anyhow, these 2 are common sights during a Chinese New Year celebration. They usually dance around entertaining the shopkeepers and half-scaring the children who would scream in delight. The culmination of their dance of course is when they are reaching for the red packet (which contains money). Back in Chinatown, the shopkeepers would usually place these packets and on the highest part of their ceiling to make it difficult to retrieve... but the lang sai never fails to get it.

Anyhow, I promise to post better photos next year as I intend to go to chinatown to document it then. Happy Chinese New Year again! :)

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Photohunt: Chipped

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

--Lucy Van Pelt (in Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz)

Yep, I love my chocolate chips!

“My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy the ice cream while it's on your plate.”

-- Thornton Wilder

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Photohunt: Aftermath

Ever wondered what happened to Bobby Kimball of the Grammy award winning band Toto?


He's still singing. Saw him on a mall tour a few weeks ago.


Even got my CD signed.

"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa..."¹

¹ Africa.

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Photohunt: Hope

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1 (correction, it's NKJV not NIV--thanks to Lester for the heads up) 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

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Photohunt: Squeaky

That's me trying to squeak through an igloo hehe...

Nah, we don't get a white Christmas down here in the Philippines. That's from snow city in Singapore (who don't get snow either hehe...) . Seeing as how people often equate Christmas with winter, I just thought this would be fitting.

Merry Christmas y'all!

N.B. You might want to check out my previous post if your Christmas wasn't merry enough.

UPDATE: The Golden State Warriors just squeaked past the defending champs Boston Celtics who just lost their first back to back this season. Oh, and Jax is back. I just thought it's appropriate to mention them as the Warriors are still the undisputed "Squeak King" (whatever that means) of the NBA who squeaked into the 8th and final playoff berth of the Western Conference during the 2006-07 regular season and then topping that by beating no. 1 seed Dallas Mavericks who had the regular season's best record.

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Photohunt: Breakfast

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's Eggs Ben--a concoction of Rosemary focaccia bread with cheese, turkey ham, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.

Although this one's a bit pricey for breakfast (at close to P150 if my memory serves me right), it is nonetheless visually appetizing, which I suppose makes it apt for this theme. This was ordered by somebody else from our group when JC was kind enough to treat us at CBTL during his birthday so I personally didn't get to taste this. My feedback weren't all that good though. They said the taste was ok, but not really good value for your money, but the serving size really left something to be desired. Of course, he did eat this for dinner so you might want to try it out yourself though.

Tosilog: Tocino, Sinangag at Itlog (Honey cured pork, Fried Rice and egg!)

Now this is a more traditional Filipino breakfast. This is what we ate when my friend Chin and Khloe came over here last year to see the country. While in itself not visually appealing, it is more satisfying and a whole lot cost-effective at just P32 per plate. Of course us Asians prefer rice to bread, so that might explain the increased satiety of this one compared to the first one.

(This last one is not actually my photo. You might want to check this out to see the source and to read more about her experience with this and her other adventures here in the Philippines.)

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Photohunt: Metal

A metal screen door is a common sight on front doors here in the Philippines.

This is because we live in a tropical country, and it gets really warm sometimes, a practical way of addressing this is leaving the door open to allow fresh air in which unfortunately attracts thieves and mosquitoes, best response? Attach a metal screen door. It allows the air in and keep the pests out.

Here's the man we hired to build us a screen door.

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Photohunt: Reflection (Pasta Scientifique)

Today I had the opportunity to reflect on the science of gastronomy with Pasta Scientifique!

Pasta Scientifique is part of a series of creative and informal fora designed by Cafe Scientifique to reach and teach a variety of audience to see and appreciate science in all aspect of our lives. They discuss the science of everyday things in this case pasta preparation! Cool huh?

Here we have Cibo's very own Margarita Fores (middle) teaching us a few of her recipes and Mitzi Borromeo (left), Philippine coordinator of the Cafe Scientifique as moderator.

They showed us how to prepare 3 of Margarita Fores' own recipes and gave us insights on pasta preparation.

Farfalle alla Genovese, a ribbon-shaped pasta with sauteed mushrooms, cream and Pesto Genovese--a basil pesto made in the classical way using mortar and pestle.

I'm not sure I'm gourmet can tell the difference between hand prepared pesto as to a food processor prepared one, but this is definitely yummy! This is also the first time I was able to taste pasta that actually had it own taste. Apparently, the secret is to actually put a lot of salt in the water used to cook the pasta. She said if it doesn't taste like sea water yet, there's not enough salt.

Spaghettini al Pomodoro Crudo, spaghettini in raw marinated tomatoes with garlic and sweet basil.

This is a culinary delight indeed! So good yet so simple to prepare. Basically, she marinated tomato in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper for an hour and voila! She suggested that when choosing tomatoes for this you should pick the overripe ones, ones that are soft and plump and easily bruised for these are the sweetest ones. She also suggested leaving the tomato seeds in.

Fettuccine al Bolognese

Here she used fresh egg pasta. Again, I can't say I can tell the difference except that again this is good. She says that when cooking pasta, it's important to use enough water (5L per 500g of pasta) at the right temperature (i.e. when the water is boiling vigorously). Don't use oil, to prevent pasta sticking from each other, just give it a quick stir right after you put the pasta in the water. And while one is advised to follow package instructions as to the time it takes to cook, one should always check the pasta to see if it's al dente (i.e. soft enough to eat, but firm enough that it bites back).

It really was a delightful learning experience. And what made the whole thing even more interesting is the presence of the scientists! Yeah, there were physicists, and chemists who were there because they wanted to help clarify certain concepts or rather misconceptions.

That's me being creepy and asking for an autograph and a photo-op hehe...

Cafe Scientifique is supported by the Mind Museum--a science museum project by the Bonifacio Art Foundation set to open in 2011 at wherelse? Global City, Fort Bonifacio--near Bonifacio Highstreet just across Market Market. Isn't that something to look forward to? (Check out the video on their site, really exciting stuff!) If you want to participate in some of their future activities (like I hear they've planned a session where they tackle the sciences of shopping and the physics of magic) you may email them here.

NB If you have questions or if you want copies of the recipe (which they graciously provided) feel free to leave me your email address and I will attend to that as soon as I can.

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Photohunt: Together

Question: What do beads do when they get together?
Answer: I don't really know, but they sure turn out beautiful adornments!


The Chandelier


Victorian Style


Spiral Bracelet

These intricate beadworks are actually crafted by my friend Kat. I thought I'd post some of these to help her promote her work. In case you're wondering, yes, they're all for sale. And there are much much more stuffin her multiply but I only posted these three because I personally took these photos. Feel free to go there to contact her. You can also visit her as she's set to make an appearance at a few bazaars over the next few weeks.

• November 17 to 21 (Monday to Friday) 8 to 5pm, she'll be at the UST Education Building where the College of Music is celebrating their college week.

• November 29 (Saturday) at Hope Christian High School for the Hope Foundation celebration.
  

• December 19 t0 21 (Friday to Sunday) 12noon to 10pm at the Noel Christmas Bazaar at the World Trade Center--her shops name there would be Pumpkin Gift Shop.

PS If you don't know these places feel free to ask me for directions. Have a great week everybody!

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Photohunt: Blue Three!

Sky blue! The hue that lifts me up from being blue.


Clever marketing technique if you ask me. (Here's a close up.)


Here's something that I'm not sure is blue, but might make you blue. (That's the exact package for the stopwatch.)


And here's how much we paid for it. Now P85 may not seem much, but who knows how many P85 gets filched that way?

N.B. In case you wondered, the title is in fact a reference to Bioman's Blue Three.

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