Under the Genetically-Modified Organisms Department: Tim Yap (whose private party at 12 I CRASHED a few weeks ago) writes about watching the coup unfold in the wee hours of the morning with his "trusted driver Abet".

Tim Yap writes: "Wag kayong lalapit- not one step!" A voice from the darkness howled. "We need to get something from our room. We are checked in at Oakwood," JM and I answered back, hands up in the air. "Si Tim Yap ho ito, si JM Rodriguez po, artista po!" We tried to charm the rebels, thinking they would recognize us. But I guess not."

Charm? Tim Who?

Doris Bigornia, of ABS, gets a namecheck: "We stayed till sunrise, chitchatting with the media reps from CNN, BBC and Associated Press. "I think it's stupid that you guys went there, you are much safer here," said ABS-CBN's Doris Bigornia as we waited outside Rustan's."

Stupid is right.

Yap continues: "The weekend's incident showed young people, the idealistic rebels included, reacting to a situation that they felt should be corrected and reformed. Which shows that young people will continue to make a statement in the only way they could-with "passion and intensity" (just like Louie Cruz's generation) and most important, with new ideas and refreshing idealism."

Exactly how far up do you have that stick up your ass?

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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Since I started reading up on Adobe InDesign and electronic prepress publishing (okay, I successfully made all of my 2 readers tune out), I've been lurking in newsgroups. Constantly grateful for those who maintain free NNTN servers (my alma mater has one at Maxwell), I've been reading in comp and alt groups with the fervor of a teenage boy flipping through porn mags.

There is, in fact, a lot to learn, if you can weed through the useless ads and basic rudeness. Job openings can be found too (I did get my new visa, so the rubberstamp work permit is a few months away). But more impressive is the amount of time some people take to answer sadistically detailed questions. As simple as some of them may sound (How do you scan negatives?), newsreaders gladly pontificate on the history of film and the diligence required in acquiring images from negativ film.

Of course, this is a use-at-you-own-risk situation. They are authorities by virtue of their verbage alone, and quite frankly, they do talk.

Which takes me to: what the f*ck do they do the rest of the day? I'm cooking rice in between blogging, but these are just random thoughts, not studied words of advice. Further frightening me is a question closer to heart: Am I right in suspecting that there are really thousands of underemployed or unemployed graphic designers out there?

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 10:26 PM | Permalink
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Just wanted to give a shout out to my favorite photo blog, Andrea Harner's.

Andrea: haven't looked in a while, since I've been busy. Have you ever been down South? If you haven't, say you will take pics when you do.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 10:07 PM | Permalink
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Damn. (via GA)

The funny part, really, is how the website scares you not to go into the water.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 10:05 PM | Permalink
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Divorce by text.

Getting a quickie divorce has taken on a whole new meaning in Malaysia after it was decided that a man can divorce his wife with a text message. The government's adviser on religious affairs, the man who counsels Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said as long as the message was clear and unambiguous it was valid under Islamic Sharia law.

"SMS is just another form of writing," Dr Abdul Hamid Othman was quoted by the New Straits Times daily newspaper as saying.

The decision follows a Malaysian court's ruling on Thursday in favour of a man who served divorce on his wife via a text message.

Sharia judge Mohamad Fauzi Ismail declared that the divorce declaration was valid and that as such the marriage between the plaintiff Azida Fazlina Abdul Latif and defendant Shamsudin Latif was annulled, the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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So, my wife asks me: "When you masturbate, do you close your eyes?"

Funny, it seems like she married me just to ask this question.

I said: "Well, of course yes! How on earth will you imagine Sharon Stone clearly while staring at the bathroom tiles."

Needless to say, she nearly broke me with a tirade of questions: How often do you do it when you were in high school? Do you do it during the morning, or at any time? Do you do it in the shower?

Those questions I fielded quite well. Until she asked this one: Have you ever done it over a person I knew? I said: Of course, I have. All the time. She was quiet.

Since then, on and off, as if to pick up from an unfinished conversation, she would ask questions that begin with: "When you masturbate...?" Hardly the kind of questions I'd like to answer, I said. Curiously, I think it brings us a bit closer, if not the Q&A helps diminish the myth of how often (and on what fodder) do teenage boys do it.

So, today was: "When you masturbate, do you think about real people, models or porn stars?" Somebody take this one. :-D

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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I haven't been around much, for about two weeks now, since everything's been moving pretty fast. Am working on this project (corporate identity system and branding) that should take about 6 weeks. So, it's been an intense first two weeks and what time I have, I have dedicated to other pursuits (like writing out them thank you cards).

I do occasionally have things I want to share, and of course, the usually links and stuff. But I haven't gotten down to that either.

There was a coup -- rather a peaceful armed demonstration -- a few blocks from where I lived. Their leader was a rather articulate, somewhat intelligent, and very determined junior officer, who had a Masters degree in Public Administration and graduated top of his military class. He did a great job of embarassing the news anchor who was interviewing him, and was smart enough to surrender by day's end.

They looked great in their fatigues too.

Other than the fact that there was an entire tank battalion parked outside my street, everything was a-okay.

Then, there was the World Pool Championships, which ended in Alex Pagulayan (a Filipino living in Canada) losing to an unheralded German. The last two years, we've had Filipinos in the finals, but never a repeat of 1999 when Efren Reyes won it all.

Maybe I'll stop by again. Tomorrow. And see what's going on.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 06:07 AM | Permalink
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So, Danding lost UCPB, then now the government is after SMC. SMC has not seen the kind of growth it has had since Danding took over. Of course, there could be a lot of loans and dealing left out of print that may surface later. Needless to say, the powers that be don't want Danding sitting on that warchest with his eyes on the presidency.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 05:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The Manila Times is reporting that Dagul has been conferred the Elizabeth Lewyt Award which acknowledges the heroic deeds of animals.

In The Manila Times: at the height of the typhoon on May 27, Dagul’s timely warning barks alerted his master, Wilmar Castillo, 16, from his impassioned singing in front of a karaoke player inside their residence at Dominican Hill as a massive landslide was about to gobble up the two-bedroom house.

Castillo escaped but Dagul was trapped inside the house, which was almost buried by tons of loose soil, gravel and rocks. The following day, May 28, Jhylannie Castillo, 19, and Wilmar’s older brother went back to their house, not to salvage their belongings, but to look for Dagul. He opened the door and out came the dog, which was trapped inside.

The first pet to be awarded the Lewyt Award in March 1999 was Nene, a cat that saved her sleeping master from a fire in Idaho.

In October 2001, the Lewyt award was awarded to the 300 search-and-rescue and cadaver-finding dogs, which went on duty at New York City and Arlington, Virginia, in wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 05:44 AM | Permalink
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So, Premier League Football is over, and so is the NBA. There's not a lot of sports going on that I'm interested in (does Fear Factor count?). But it's July and it's Cardiff! And several Pinoy hopefuls are slinging their cuesticks and potting them balls in the World Pool Championships. Perhaps the greatest who ever played the game, Efren Reyes (who hails from my father's hometown of Mexico, Pampanga - REPRAZENT!), is on a roll, and not dropping a single match in the round-robin eliminations. Other Filipino greats (and up-and-comers, like Marlon Manalo) are breezing through their elimination racks. Even the two Canadians who are of Filipino descent (Alex Pagulayan and Raymond Cruz) will most likely be in the round of 64.

What makes watching the games more worthwhile is that my wife likes watching it too. It's the only sport we watch together.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 05:36 AM | Permalink
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So, Ruffa Gutierrez has managed to NOT stay away from controversy by marrying a Turkish "Prince" who apparently is a big-time drugdealer (his father, I heard, is incarcerated for such a crime).

Rumors aside, Ruffa is now grappling with Yilmaz's ex's claims that she co-owns several of Yilmaz's homes, and is already married to Yilmaz and that they have a daughter. That, in between spotting fits with her fetus.

Says Ruffa: "I guess my husband should be the one to clear the issue, not me. After all, I wasn’t around during their time," she states. "He’s even surprised why Selen is doing this. Yilmaz is a very private person and he doesn’t want his name dragged into this kind of controversy. There had been other women in Yilmaz’ life before me, in the same manner that there had been other guys in my life before him. But all of them are part of our pasts. What is important is now and our future," she reasons out.

"I, Ruffa Gutierrez-Bektas am issuing this statement to set the record straight and rectify the erroneous claims made by Selen Gorguzel on the July, 2003 issue of Yes Magazine. First and foremost, I am the first and ONLY legal wife of Yilmaz Bektas."

To Selen, she shares: "I pray that she finds peace within herself soon."

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Saying that Bush was not "going to be doing any apologizing", Rice told Tenet "Remember, you got a copy of that speech. You didn't tell us to take that out."

Hours later, Tenet released a statement:

First, C.I.A. approved the president's State of the Union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my agency. And third, the president had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound. These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president."

Maybe Tenet should have worn one of these shirts instead.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 09:04 PM | Permalink
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The DTI is set to standardize the pandesal to keep it at P1.00 each.

IN LINE with the government's effort to provide consumers with quality products, the Department of Trade and Industry Pangasinan Provincial Office will wage "Pinoy Pandesal" in Dagupan City and Pangasinan on August 6. The launching of the Pinoy Pandesal, a nationwide program to standardize the weight and size of pandesal at a price of P1 per piece, will be in cooperation with the Philippine Federation of Bakers Associations. About a hundred bakers and bakery owners from Pangasinan and Region I will participate in the bakers training for Pinoy Pandesal, according to DTI Director Jaime P. Lucas.

Now, what do you do about keeping the one peso at P1.00 each?

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 12:50 AM | Permalink
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Please forgive me, that was really cheap.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 12:33 AM | Permalink
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So the reason why Jomari Yllana and Aiko Melendez (ang true love ni Aga, then again, there was Janice) split up was, according to Judge Abednego Adre (what a cool name!) was "prolonged refusal of a spouse to have sexual intercouse."

Melendez had complained of the unusual behavior and philandering ways of Jomari even before she revealed in court the absence of sex between them. The actress mentioned two actresses she claimed to have had a relationship with Yllana while they were still living together. The actress said she decided to separate with Yllana when she discovered a condom in her car which she believed was used by the actor. Melendez’ allegations remained undisputed after Yllana opted not to present himself as a witness.

Poor Aiko. Don't worry, there's always Bistek.

(P.S. Adds Adre: "Those hapless episodes occurred even on their wedding night. Whether it was due to respondent’s exhaustion or sheer lost of interest to make love to his own wife or both appears to be what broke the camel’s back," the court stressed. -- Hey, I was exhausted on my wedding night as well!!)

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 11:22 PM | Permalink
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So, I was with my wife and we were standing along a strip of stores. There was plenty of sunlight and a few people walking back and forth. We were looking for a place to pay our taxes. And I remember standing there and going over some forms with my wife when Jimmy Carter, in a light blue polo t-shirt and cream pants walks by. He says to us, with a surprised look, "I just paid almost 10 million dollars in taxes! About 9.7 million to be exact!!"

In the meantime, my wife and I have this look: "That was Jimmy Carter!" And then he walks away, still a bit disgusted. Then, we head towards the direction where he came from, presuming that he had just came from the tax office.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 09:29 PM | Permalink
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Now, why would he be upset?

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 08:43 PM | Permalink
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Via Metafilter, again, in the WTF? department:

Kolkata, June 24 (IANS) A 13-year-old boy whose bizarre ailment has a fly-like insect emerging out of him is far from being cured as doctors struggle to detect the source of the parasite. The fully-grown flies, as doctors described the parasites, have been emerging out of Chandan Goswami's genitals and flying off for more than two weeks now. Chandan, now receiving treatment at a state-run hospital in West Bengal's Burdwan district, is said to be suffering from a condition called myiasis, a disease seen mostly in Central and Latin America.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 08:34 PM | Permalink
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Can you please pass the ketchup?

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 08:29 PM | Permalink
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Mwahahaha!! This means they knowingly used to?

Catholic bishops appealed yesterday to the government and public to contribute to the country’s “housecleaning” as they announced that they will no longer accept contributions from people who have the reputation of being corrupt.

A statement released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), headed by Orlando Quevedo, said the bishops are appealing to the Filipino people since they have observed that Filipinos have a high tolerance for corruption. This may be the reason why perhaps, it becomes very difficult to totally eradicate corruption in the country, the CBCP said.

"Corruption has weakened the resolve of many to work for change as they are gradually being conditioned to accept and tolerate systematic and institutional corruption as being part of the nature of things, and no longer as a matter of individual wrongdoing by those in power."

The bishops said they are determined to do their own housecleaning and they are resolved not to "accept contributions from those known to be corrupt nor honor them in a special way lest we convey the message that we condone their activities."

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 03:12 AM | Permalink
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In the WTF? department:

BACOLOD - An elderly couple were beheaded by neighbors who accused the victims of being witches, police said Wednesday. Police in the remote town of Cauayan on Negros island detained three men including the victims' son-in-law, who was implicated by the two other suspects in the grisly July 4 killings. Generoso Casupong, 65, and his 64 year-old wife Isabelita were both decapitated inside their home by two men armed with a large curved knive used to harvest coconut fruit, said Cauayan police investigator Alvin Cuenca. Detained suspect Eugenio Tanguar blames the couple for the death of his daughter from unspecified illness last year.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 02:45 AM | Permalink
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A must for every office. Instead of taking a coffeebreak, amp up the adrenaline with a round of Little Fighter! It's absolutely free and will bring you back to your Streetfighter days. Simple, three button attacks (with another four to control).

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Admitting she's NOT a virgin (she lost it to Justin), Britney says she's looking for a new squeeze.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 06:18 PM | Permalink
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It used to be that you could do very little in this mountain city. You could go to Camp John Hay and twirl around their skating rink (about 1 hour), play mini-golf in their rapidly disintegrating course (about 45 mins), buy alfajor and ube in Good Sheperd (about 1 hour, depending on what time you get there), and go to the market to by Tantamco's, vegetables and a walis tambo (about 1 hour, and 20 mins to park).

Now, you can stay at Camp John Hay Manor (really nice hotel, except that they don't have a pool and gym yet) for a promo price of P2,000 a night. We stayed there and babysat our visiting relatives.

Then, of course, off to Ukay-ukay: bargain-hunting paradise. A friend bought these Prada fur boots (faux) for less than 15 bucks, and Kinkyape t-shirts for about a buck each. There are shirts, pants, shorts, shoes -- name every article of clothing (except maybe leather underwear, although we didn't check) and you'd find it there in that honeycomb of stores in that condemned building. The best strategy is to go with a group, know what everyone wants, and take them walkie talkies.

Cafe by the Ruins is overrated, by now several other establishments have just as good food as they do for a reasonable price. I can't name any of them. There's Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

Nevada Square is now a dump -- they used to have a decent coffee shop there with pretty good foccacia. There's Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

You can also surf and do your email in any of the growing number of internet cafes near session and around the St. Louis University area. The folks up there are pretty friendly (they let me download drivers and install stuff), so here's a shout out to Ate Lourdz and Mang Temy at Boom-Boom Internet. You guys rock! And you have good coffee. Of course, there's always Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

There was a time when it took 5 hours to get there by car. Now it takes about 7, even if you leave Manila at the unholy hour of 3 in the morning. And I still can't see that sleeping woman silhouette of Mt Arayat.

Posted by Bulletproofvest at 06:16 PM | Permalink
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