It has just started to rain. Bugger.

It was reported on the news that veggies up north have been cut off due to roadblocks caused by the recent typhoons. It's somewhat ironic that I only read about this last night given Tobie and I immediately got to experience it first hand when we hit Shopwise for our weekly grocery run.

We intentionally time our grocery runs for Tuesdays since all produce is at least 10% off and there are usually some other good deals available. Sure, the service at Shopwise can be pretty crappy, but the goods are pretty cheap, so I guess I better not complain too much. You get what you pay for and all that. Anyway, as we went around the aisles, we were surprised to see that the vegetables area was devoid of lettuce, potatoes, bell peppers and even okra. I initially had plans of making sinigang, but that idea was quickly scrapped given the current produce situation. I guess this potentially means more meat over the next few days, so I tried to stick to fish and chicken for now.

It's really sad since Tobie and I have become major vegetable people here at the Sietch and to see that there's pretty much a shortage all around is quite sad. I guess I'll just have to shift to alternative ideas like pasta and the like, which will definitely ruin my efforts to minimize the amount of carbs we've been consuming. The occasional potato has been quite a treat and to not have even that is just sad, sad, sad, sad.

At least we find one interesting thing during the grocery run - a simple 4-tier shelf of sorts that seems perfect for our DVD collection. I might get around to assembling it tomorrow unless Tobie beats me to it and tries to put it together while I'm at work. It's slightly ironic that we found this before finding actual shelves for my books, which are living in boxes until now. The Sietch remains to be a major work in progress and I'm just about ready to settle for those cheap shelves you get at SM just so I can start addressing the shelving concern. I know they're not very strong and the boards start to give way over time but it's certainly better than nothing given the current circumstances. There's a possible alternative at Shopwise for a savings of just P100, but depending on how many they have it just may be worth it. We shall see in time.

Well, I better wrap this up quick and get some sleep. Oddly enough, I'm starting to get hungry despite the chicken afritada I had prepared for dinner / brunch. Oh well, such is the life.

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I'm sorry, I really don't think this year's Nobel Peace Prize makes sense at all.

We're all still dealing with the after-effects of Typhoon Onday this week - this is certainly a motherhood statement that I'm confident will apply to practically all of us. It's strange since it wasn't a fierce typhoon that lasted for days but instead of was just one long sustained downpour that gave us the equivalent of a month's rainfall, as people are estimating it. The floods have crippled many parts of the city, cost many people their homes and ultimately their lives and who knows how much the total damage will cost us in the long run. With two more typhoons potentially on the way, it's going to be a rather difficult time.

Of course you get people like us - those who can take the time to write about all this or who are able to get online to read such blogs and articles - who got away relatively better than the rest. One can't help but feel a little bad about being comfortable in a time like this when others aren't doing well at all but we can't let those feelings overcome us. All we can do is get up, keep on living but more importantly do our part to help those in need and to keep the city pretty much functional. This means volunteering at relief centers, donating whatever we can to help others out or still going to work so life goes on. Google has set up a fantastic resource for relief efforts for those who are looking for ways to help out or to get assistance out to their loved ones.

The tragedy of this storm, like many others in the past, can get very overwhelming and yet we all know we can't let things like this defeat us. And so we move on.

To some extent, I'm dreading going to work today. It's not because of the usual feelings about Mondays and another start to the work week but more because of the stress of coordinating what's left of the department in terms of those who will be able to get to work this week. I have trainers who have lost practically everything in the floods and yet they're still reporting in and apologizing for not making it to work today. We will have trainees who will brave the floodwaters in order to keep their jobs. We'll have agents who keep making the effort to get to work every single day even though their families are living without power, running water or even a roof over their heads. We've seen this kind of resilience of the human spirit time and time again with every major typhoon and as a people we continue on.

If there was any way to doubt as to the effects of weather and environment on shaping culture and human behavior, the anthropologists need not look further than to the Philippines and many other Asian countries whose entire histories have been shaped by the storms and typhoons that regularly wreak havoc in the region.

For now, I'm cooking some munggo as comfort food while I steel myself for the long work shift ahead. It may not sound like much for now, but it's something to start with.

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Sadly, my company actually has a policy for creating policies. Hello paradox!

Patrick Swayze died today. I've seen too many status updates about him now being a ghost, that it's so not funny anymore.

Oh, and the Kanye VMA thing? Par for the course, so I'll just say MEH.

I'm not exactly sure what triggered it, but suddenly I have travel in mind. I guess given the months that Archer and I have been together, it seems fitting to start considering more exotic locales, but hopefully on a manageable budget.

Maybe it started with a comment by Nick on one of my entries where he asked how was it that we had so much time for so many geek things. I never got around to posting an actual reply, but what had first come to mind was how it just helps that in terms of the geeky things we like to do, many of them are things we share and thus can do together. This way, one doesn't need to divide time between personal geekiness and social interaction with your significant other. I know not everyone gets to do this and thus I count myself fortunate, but I also definitely see the merit in this kind of an arrangement. Folks really ought to get involved with people they share a lot of common ground with - it makes for a nice foundation for a relationship and a more efficient way of spending one's time. So yeah, this got me feeling all warm and fuzzy about how nice things are.

Thus this got me thinking about other things that Archer and I might want to do together and that sorta led to thinking about travel. Hmmm, I guess that really was the reason and it pretty much makes sense, haha.

Top of my list is something domestic and nearby. Thus locales like Batangas and Tagaytay seem to make sense. Given this, the first place I thought of was Sonya's Garden, a place that's been often mentioned in friend's blogs like Aina |scratch_fury| As appealing as the place seemed, the price seemed a bit high given I could probably get a Boracay package by adding a little more (but without the airfare yet, I admit), so I decided to keep looking and resort to social network updates on Twitter, Plurk and Facebook to get recommendations. People had a lot of good ideas and it's definitely something worth considering. At the same time, Sonya's seems a lot more affordable now given that I've been able to compare prices with other resorts in the area.

Another domestic prospect is trying to explore other parts of the country. Boracay seemed too typical plus it seems Cebu Pacific is required to redirect all traffic to Kalibo these days, so that makes it less appealing. I'm now contemplating places like Cebu, Bacolod, Bohol or somewhere further South in order to expand my horizons a bit more. Despite 27 years of living on this Earth, there's still a LOT of the country that I haven't seen. I still need to do more research about such locations and will post updates as prospects come to mind.

Finally, the price of trips to Boracay and the like can get pretty steep and so that got me thinking about travel overseas, and of course the first place to consider going to remains to be Singapore. My sister lives there and it'll be fun to visit plus other friends like Joboy are also living on the island, so it wouldn't hurt to drop by some time. Playing around the Cebu Pacific website has resulted in tickets as high as around 9k each and as low as 5k each, which isn't that bad. I doubt I can map out a trip out of the country this year and so it'll have to be something that will have to wait for sometime in 2010, which is reasonable. I guess I better start saving up!

Do you have any recommendations for affordable vacations? Please keep us connected to the internet though - I'm going to die without connectivity, hahaha.

Damn, and I really wish I had a good bridge camera again. Travel always merits photos!

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As always, this strip is eerily true.

Cory Aquino died today. It seems like a bit of a shock despite her struggle with cancer since 2008, but that's just how it goes. She's been such a pivotal figure in our history and it's never going to be quite the same without her. The again, one would like to think that this paves the way for new heroes and public figures who will continue to believe in that great future the Filipino People will one day achieve, and perhaps deserve. Rest well, Cory Aquino, you've earned it many lifetimes over.

The work week is finally over and it ended in a manner that seemed not entirely expected given how it started. There's a lot for me to sort through in my head as I process everything and with luck the weekend will provide enough rest and relaxation so I can put things in order. Monday doesn't wait for anyone, unfortunately and so I'll just have to make the most of these next two days.

It's frustrating how 48 hours isn't that much time at all, especially when there are just so many things that you could possibly do. I've love to see either Public Enemies or The Proposal, if only for sequences involving a shirtless Ryan Reynolds, LOL. I want to finish organizing the DVDs into magazine cases and I want to hit the spa and get a full body massage to work out the worst of the kinks in my system and hopefully a lot of the stress too. Naturally I'll want to cook over the weekend and I really want to learn how to many monggo. Then there's hanging out with the geeks at Fandom, maybe going out to O Bar on Sunday - the list goes on and on.

At least I've managed to finally clean the bathroom, despite coming home pretty late. There's a unique sense of satisfaction you get when you clean a bathroom from top to bottom, rinse out all the dirt then immediately shower in order to feel refreshed. Perhaps it's the feeling of accomplishment that really gets me and naturally making things clean is just so comforting.

I should probably write more, but I'll leave things at that for now. I'm pretty sleepy and I need to be able to wake up again later when Tobie gets home.

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With great power comes great responsibility. Same goes for tequila.

Today marked a rather sad news day for folks around the globe. Two fairly significant celebrities died - namely Farah Fawcett of Charlie's Angels fame and the King of Pop Michael Jackson. On the one hand, I feel bad that such well-loved artists have moved on and can no longer contribute to our continuing state of entertainment evolution. On the other hand, Michael got really creepy in his later years and it certainly makes it a lot more challenging to really sum up his life. Even further, there's just way more important things going on in the world and it's always a tad disappointing that the world seems to stop when the circumstances involves a major celebrity and yet barely pay heed when the situation involves something serious like political injustice of racial genocide. Ah well, that's life for you.

I'm on leave for work tonight - one of those pre-planned vacations of sorts for the sole purpose of burning through my leave credits before they go away forever. I chose this particular Friday since tomorrow's the annual White Party, which is sort of a Pride celebration (it is June after all) and yet not given the more activist side of things such as the parade was moved to December in order to avoid some of the reasons or whatever reason.

With that in mind, Tobie and I had the luxury of being able to stay up a little later this morning in order to get some errands done and some home improvement shopping. After getting my banking stuff done, we first went to Butter Diner for breakfast, which was pretty good and supposedly cheaper than it was before based on Tobie's memory. The place is sort of like a Pancake house with heavier pancakes and waffles - their blueberry pancakes were great and the addition of the flavored butter (either mocha or chocolate) was pretty good too. Given I was in a pretty good mood given the plans for the weekend, I also indulged by getting a chocolate milkshake, haha! Oh chocolate, you are my favorite sin.

We then made our way to SM to look for some storage solutions to thwart the evil ant empire that has been making advances into our cabinets. They have yet to be successful in gaining a foothold in our region but we're not about to relax our guard and give them any openings. Thus we ended up getting a pretty good airtight container, a new utensil holder, some great Rubbermaid cooking utensils and a dish drying rack. Moving on to the supermarket, we made the rounds and gathered enough supplies for a fair amount of the week in terms of salads, canned goods and a daring attempt at making sinigang. Wish us luck!

More and more I'm considering getting myself a netbook in order to take my blogging mobile. I'm always frustrated by the fact that I miss the mobility of having a laptop on me for blogging purposes, but now I'm not so sure if a full-powered one is the best solution for me. There's definitely to be said about the ease of transport for those tiny computers but of course I don't think I can survive the smaller size of the keyboard. I've been asking around (as you've seen on my various status updates or micro-blogging posts) and it seems the HP Mini line of netbooks seem like the best bet for me since they have designed the keyboard to be about 92% of the size of a full keyboard. The 2140 model is pretty robust but there's a new 5101 model coming in July that promises to be a better purchase and thus potentially worth the wait.

It's not like I have an urgent need to get one - it's definitely a luxury purchase since we do have this desktop for me to "work" on. Then again, my need to blog daily and my desire to update the Geeky Guide more despite everything I'm responsible for definitely limit some of our travel plans, and thus this purchase might make sense. I'm holding out a bit more to see what happens when the 5101 hits our shores and of course it'll make a lot more sense to get an actual gas range before continuing on along this purchase path, haha.

Now on to relaxing and general enjoyment for the night despite a 03:00am conference call that I still need to attend, hehe.

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I can so relate! Don't we all phase out of boring conversations to solve equations?

Odd coincidence in terms of entry number - does this make this the "evil" entry? Then again, my entry numbers are actually in hexadecimal, so that's technically entry #1638 or something. Yeah, my entry title serves no other purpose other than that.

Anyway, still at Fandom Cafe after this week's shooting of a few Fandom Live episodes. I've pretty much "run out of time" to get home with enough time to get an entry posted before midnight, so I'm blogging here before we leave. I should generally have enough time to sleep before work in the morning. Let me say that again...in the morning. *shudders*

It's been a pretty interesting Sunday so far. The Pacquiao fight was either a big success since he knocked out Hatton in two rounds and probably an epic fail for advertisers who hoped to get a lot more air time than that. Hell, the fight is even short enough to fit on YouTube despite the timing limits. Seriously, it was such a short fight. Good job, Manny.

I had brought the big external drive with me for the weekend and that's resulted in my sharing a lot of good stuff with Tobie and now it's even expanded into sharing more videos and good geeky stuff with the geeks here at Fandom today. I really love this drive and I definitely see myself getting even more external drives in the future. Yay for external drive media and yay for the constant improvements in computer hard drive storage limits!

Insert pause here while I check out the Pacquiao fight - the geeks are watching it again right now. Oh joy. No matter how geeky we are, we still find ourselves stopping in our tracks to see what the fight is all about. The wonders of violence being part of human nature.

I'm pretty excited for the new apartment - it'll be in the same building as Fandom Cafe here in Cubao. We were hoping to check out the unit today but it seems that it's not quite ready - complications with the lock on the door or something. Anyway, I can already see how things are going to go and Archer is coming up with some pretty crazy interior design ideas. There's all these ideas ranging from ways to display our various collections to silly little theme day plans that will keep things pretty interesting from one moment to the next.

Yeah, things are looking pretty good right now. Happy-happy, joy-joy? Perhaps, indeed.

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Archer has warned me that things may become like this every time I come home. Oh joy.

This is a Tri-Blog entry that will appear on all three of my blogs - The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything, Beyond Dinobot Island and Moonbase 8.

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Some day many years from now when people try asking me that classic question of "Where were you when Obama was sworn into office?" I'll answer as honestly as possible. I'll tell them, "I was at the office without access to a TV and our internet connection was wonky because we got hit by the W32.Downadup worm."

I know, it's not necessarily the greatest answer in the world, but it's pretty much how I'm going to remember things.

I didn't get to watch the live CNN coverage. I couldn't even get alternative sites like Justin.tv, Hulu, Joost or uStream to work for me. I guess the office was just too good at blocking streaming media and what they couldn't block was effectively stopped by the effects of the computer virus on our security infrastructure.

It wasn't a total loss, at least I got to catch news snippets here and there. I tried my best to catch comments on Twitter and I got to read the TIME.com Liveblog coverage of the event. I saw a few images on the various blogs I subscribe to via Google Reader and I noted how while the Oath was not perfect, it was certainly genuine and clearly marks Barack Hussein Obama officially becoming the 44th President of the United States of America.

The 8-year nightmare is over and now I actually feel excited about things. These past years we've feared how the awesome might of the US has been mishandled time and time again under Bush. Obama has a very tall order ahead of him and while I doubt he can possibly live up to ALL of the hype set up over the past few months, even years, but I can see it in his eyes that he's out to make a serious change for the better.

I initially wanted to end this with the full transcript of his speech but then I'm sure everyone's doing that right now and you've probably read it a million times by now. If you haven't then I've linked to it up there and you certainly should get around to it.

You go Obama. Your country and a very significant part of the world is rooting for you.

It's particularly nippy this morning - how lovely! While it's still a wee bit over that just right comfort spot I feel in terms of the weather, it's still pretty darned close and certainly worth celebrating! Well, celebrating with a notable mention in this entry. Yup, that's about it, haha.

I took some time out to modify some of my interests on my LJ profile to make them more unique. Consider it a work in progress, hehe. Yeah, I need more of a life. At least I now know that sleeping less than 7 hours increases the likelihood of catching a cold and Vicks VapoRub may not really do anything helpful and may actually be harmful to babies. Bugger.

There's a lot going on at work these days - haven't you noticed that I've been avoiding discussing it? Take notes people! When I don't really write about work, it means that there's a LOT going on at work. Don't worry about me, I still manage things. As a wise sage once said, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I love Google Calendar, I really do. It makes organizing events like housewarming parties a whole lot more fun than just doing lots of phone calls, text brigades or email bombardments. Sure, this still involves a fair amount of email, but at least it's in a more organized fashion and one gets to track everyone's responses automatically. I hope to actually have more events to track on Google Calendar this time around (and not just the ones we organize, since that's expensive, haha). Do you hear me my friends? Invite me out! Let's do stuff! Or engage in cheap activities at various people's homes (including my own, yes). Just don't make me go too far north into the hinterlands of QC and beyond. =P

I think I'm making good on my goal to act on my urge to meet friends more, which is a good thing. I may not have "official" New Year's resolutions, but I did list my urges and it's cool to see some progress in this area. Now I just need to get around to reviving my writing, picking up my blogging again and getting all caught up on all the movies, TV shows and books I want to go through. Oy vei.

Take things one step at a time, eh?

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Doesn't everyone want to find a T.A.R.D.I.S. in their home?