Mika Brzezinski, rip more
Praising national and international broadcasters has been part of my watching-tv activity everyday. When i was watching tv-patrol world on their world reports segment yesterday evening, i was amazed with the bravery of Mika Brzezinski of MNSBC in their show “Morning Joe”. Intrigued by the story, i checked it out in youtube.
Electric Jeepneys: The first of its kind in Southeast Asia
The ubiquituous jeepney, a filipino creation of ingenuity now has a new cousin. These are the country’s first e-Jeepneys which rolled-off Makati CBD in an initial test drive. The Electric Jeepneys are part of an innovative project, Climate Friendly Cities, led by Green Renewable Independent Power Producer, Inc. (GRIPP), Greenpeace and the Makati City Government.
Meeting Faces Behind The Anonymity
It was in the Taste Asia event last July 3 that I came to know more about the bloggers behind blogs. Bloggers were forced to bring down the curtains and show who they really are. It was like getting to know the same person you have been acquainted with in an entirely different way.
Pre, You don’t need to hide anymore.Â
The first person that I met during the event was the figure behind Misteryosa.com. I wasn’t completely familiar with her blog, but I know that she was the winner of the Philippine Blog Awards as the Best Blog for this year. It was because of lack of acquaintance that I somehow envisioned her as a person of superiority. One of the elite. This explains my surprise when she personally greeted me when I was sitting by a corner looking completely inexperienced to such meet-ups. Naawa siguro sa itsura ko.
Bob Ong’s Sixth Book Released!
Who would not know the great Bob Ong? The author of numerous books that has made Pinoys laugh and think throughout the years. Yes. He is back once again with a new book, and this time he promises that it will be a whole new experience.
A friend of mine told me about the newly released book yesterday. As if by impulse, I immediately dragged my girlfriend, who is also a Bob Ong fan, to the nearest PowerBooks store. In just a flash, the book was already in the bag. We went home with a hundred pesos less in my pocket and a giddy smile painted on our faces.
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Improve Gmail or How Gmail stopped being ugly
Look at the pic above…A new version of Gmail? Nah! Gmail miraculously finally out of beta? Nope! Its just a pretty nifty Firefox extension called Better Gmail. It customizes Gmail’s interface so that next time you get an angry e-mail from your boss, its packaged attractively! Get it here.
Oh in case you haven’t guessed you need the Firefox browser and a Gmail account. Sorry Internet Explorer users, no amount of plug-ins will improve that POS (piece of shite)
Interpol – Our Love to Admire review
Interpol is rock’s greatest hidden treasure. A band that displayed an astounding level of musical maturity right out of the gate on their debut (Turn On the Bright Lights) and follow-up (Antics), Interpol will manage to astound listeners once again with their latest album. Our Love to Admire finds a band that has achieved oneness with every aspect of music production;
1. Paul Bank’s voice – still perfectly distinct and now improved with nuances and high notes that markedly expands the admittedly limited emotional dimensions to past Interpol songs.
2. Instruments – the bass line inspires delirium, but the percussion grounds you. The guitars leads confidently until Paul Banks enters the scene where it becomes a competent second in command.
3. Atmosphere – dripping wet with atmosphere on the opener track (Pioneer to the falls) and the closer (Lighthouse) and sprinkled throughout the album with faint keyboards, wailing guitars and bass drums.
4. variety – each songs does what it aspires to do. You will feel the anguish, despair, hopelessness, anger, passion and other emotion when the song demands it. Slow tracks that don’t feel like a drudgery, hard rock songs that pound like a monster, catchy as hell sections on every song, and absolutely no filler.
5. Layered – Like all great albums, you will need to peel off layers and layers of listening until the album unravels its qualities. This album’s resistance to the law of diminishing returns doesn’t disappoint.
6. Lyrics – Interpol always puts emphasis on the lyrics as much as their melodies, theirs’ are symbolic but not to the point of abstract, and on some songs, lyrics are rather straight forward. This makes the songs more real as compared to bands that follow a lyrical ambiguous template.
7. The song arrangement – the first song on their every album always serves as a summary of the album, the loose concept, followed by the early singles, and with more powerful songs in the middle, the highlights comes after to elevate the listeners to aural heaven and the more melodic ones in the later part serves to gently put your feet back to the ground.
Like traits of other great geniuses, Interpol is meticulous on their music even on their live sets and their aversion to the press shows that they are true musicians that will consciously evolve themselves to attain musical greatness. This album shows just that. Masterful, intelligent, accessible and profound and a distinct progression from their already excellent past albums, Our Love to Admire propels Interpol from one of rock’s hidden gem to one of its greatest treasures.
Highly Recommended
BEST SONGS: Wrecking Ball, Pace is the Trick, Theres no I in Threesome, Rest My Chemistry
Philippine Healthcare From The Eyes of the Lay Person
Lately I’ve been featuring articles written by my fellow doctors regarding the current healthcare status of our country. And yes, we’ve received both positive and negative comments about the views presented by these doctors. But that’s the purpose of the whole thing, right? So that a whole lot of people be aware of what’s happening and to initiate discussion about it, in the hope that something could be done to stop the deterioration and to rebuild.
And since I want to have a balance of views here, today I’m featuring an article, written by Lalon dela Rosa of thE.thumBSuckeR. He tells us of his niece’s experience of being admitted in a government hospital and how disappointing it is that there can be very rude public healthcare staff. But, in contrast to the negative experience, he also detailed some good points these hospitals have.
What Makes Our Public Healthcare Poorer?
by Lalon dela Rosa
It’s been like 3 days and 4 nights already that my newest/youngest niece, Chryz Ghian was admitted and is staying in a government-subsidized hospital (the National Children’s Hospital in E. Rodriguez Ave, Cubao, Quezon City) due to the child’s on and off fever that’s been going on for 3 whole days before her parents then decided to bring him in to a doctor.. he was first brought in to a private clinic nearby but then the doctor there suggested if we could bring the baby to PGH so they could perform further diagnostics as to why Ghian is having such fever, the clinic is unable to do that for they don’t have the necessary facilities to accommodate us.
So we’ve got no choice but to bring him in to PGH instead.. but as always, that public hospital never failed to disappoint us with their poor public service.. we literally waited for nothing (btw, we waited patiently and we weren’t even that typical demanding patients although i believe we have all the rights to do so, we’re paying high taxes, we exercise our right to vote, we’re law-abiding citizens and we approach public officials respectfully).. disgusted, we then went to the National Children’s Hospital.. it’s really long ride from Taft Ave and you might wanna ask why there? simply because i have an Aunt that’s working there as a Nurse Aid for more than 25 years and at least we’re assuming that good public service is guaranteed for us there.. but still we didn’t have it the way we should have it, and everybody else as well.
why i said so? because most (though there are some nice nurses and doctors naman) regular Nurses there are all snob and freaking hostile (in general) to us.. one time i went there to pay a visit to my niece and i weren’t able to get a friendly respond or even a definite answer as to where i could find my niece’s ward.. here’s a conversation with me and a good-looking guy nurse there (sayang ang gwapo pa naman nya)…
It’s census time next month
Crossposted from my weblog.
FOR THE whole month of August 2007, expect a visit from the National Statistics Office (NSO) in connection with the 2007 Census of Population that it will conduct all over the country.
Last Tuesday, the Naga City Census Coordinating Board met to discuss preparations for this population count, which will cover all residents, both Filipinos and foreigners who have stayed or are expected to stay for at least a year in the Philippines. About 80 NSO enumerators — your friendly NSO census taker — will be fielded in Naga for this month-long activity.
It should have taken place in 2005 but did not — mainly for budgetary reasons and of course the impeachment battles triggered by the infamous Hello Garci tapes. When it was again postponed last year, Camarines Sur NSO provincial officer Eliza Solares told us, they were no longer expecting another census to take place, considering its nearness to 2010. But early this year, the national government had a change of heart.
By law, a national census must be taken every 10 years since 1980, in addition to other special counts mandated by the National Statistical Coordination Board. The last one held was in 2000, covering both population and housing counts.
The Black PBS
Naaalala nyo pa ba ‘to?
http://ver1.pinoyblogosphere.com
Halos pitong buwan din na ganyan ang theme ng PBS 
