Tag: Rambling

Thoughts on The Green Cross Saga, the Past, and Applying it to the Future.

Last month I finished up reading Gonzalo Co It’s The Green Cross Saga. Its funny how I thought it’d probably be somewhat controversial to write about the book, and it turns out it was, well, to a few circles at least, but certainly not specifically to me.

The reason being, Mr. Co It is a fairly well – known business personality hereabouts primarily because of his success, and this being the Philippines, whose populace I sometimes liken to being in a big town in terms of news and gossip getting around, anyone saying anything about him is bound to get written about and judged themselves.

The problem is, I had no such intention of involving myself in any form of controversy when I bought the book and writing about it as I am now especially given the light I wasn’t aware it was controversial to begin with, only finding out later after I wrote about buying it. Believe it or not, I only had genuine interest in learning about his story, maybe a little bit about himself (particularly him and why his generation migrated out of China in the 50s), and of course, how he made his millions. I had already read a few other Chinese family patriarch’s stories, and that, aside from the fact it seemed like light reading (I’m a lazy reader) made me decide to buy it.

Suffice it to say most of those questions I had were fairly answered. My interest started after picking up a book called China Hands, which was a recount of experiences by the first American Diplomat to China, who happened to grow up there in his early years and even at one time served as the first CIA operative, trying to find out what was going on behind China’s thick walls. Apparently when they refer to China being cut off from the rest of the world, they weren’t kidding. In the pre – satellite decades of the 60s and 70s, absolutely no one in the West knew what was happening inside China, and first hand recollections from people coming from there were either diluted or planted, and even then could not be relied on to reflect what was happening in such a vast country.

Continue reading Thoughts on The Green Cross Saga, the Past, and Applying it to the Future.

Here’s a short long list of things I
need / want to do at this very moment.

  • Write a pulsating, heart rending blogpost about DLSU getting ripped by ADMU the other night for Ballex.
  • *NEW – Write a pulsating, heart rending blogpost about RP’s win against China last night.
  • Fix Kikay’s navigation issues.
  • Make a graphic for Kikay re Sale Alerts.
  • Contact a manufacturer of a cool product I like for feature on Kikay.
  • Make a feature article for Kikay on a new product I checked out last night (secret)
  • Make the Nike Post for Momex.
  • Make a (camera manufacturer) post for Ballex.
  • Prepare Sales Kit for Kikay.
  • Make a graphic for Mom for MomEx Forum.
  • Ask parent – friends to sell their used stuff on MomEx Forum.
  • Deal with a person who wants to sell items on MomEx.
  • Make a movie review of any of the last 3-5 movies I’ve watched recently for MovieEx.
  • Make a new graphic for MomEx Parents Ponder.
  • Add RSS feeds to my phone whose GPRS I’m starting to enjoy.
  • Write Start on SME article.
  • Make a new poll for Ballex.
  • Investigate the forum mod John Knight and Cola requested for BallEx forum.
  • Work for an hour a day for a week on client’s site.

    okidokey. off to work.

    • Everyone, meet Karen. Karen, everyone.

    Funny how, since I’ve not blogged for such a long time, I actually forgot I had one. There I was thinking – man I should blog about this (topic), but how? Then I realized I had good ol’ lefthandedlayup. Shame shame.

    Anyway, ladies and gents, meet Karen. To the world, an IBM X21 P3, 256mb 20gb laptop. To me, Karen Walker of Will & Grace fame, my latest PC in a long line of PCs named after fave sitcom characters.

    x21_400.jpg

    Here are the reason I got it + some observations:

    Continue reading Everyone, meet Karen. Karen, everyone.

    I Am Legend, Stephen King, Transformers and Green Cross Rubbing Alcohol

    Who would’ve known that an ancient book I just picked up randomly from a stack of books here in the house (we have stacks and stacks of books), would turn out to be a Will Smith movie coming out soon?

    A few weeks back I picked up ‘I Am Legend’, which appealed to me since it didn’t seem like heavy fare, and besides my sis recommended it. And so I finished it off in 3 days or so, some of the images still in my mind from the terrific writing by Richard Matheson. The preface had a glowing recount from Stephen King himself, describing Matheson as one of the more pervasive and lasting horror writers. True enough, the book, which is about a man, Neville, being the only one left in the world after everyone else had turned to vampires, is compelling not necessarily because of the idea of monsters chasing after you (although that can result in some pretty heart racing stuff), but because of his utter loneliness, despair, confusion and waning motivation to live (I forgot his first name, but I can’t forget his last because the vampires call his name out outside his house at night trying to get him out).

    So you can imagine how surprised I was when we watched Die Hard last night. Amongst the movie previews was, lo and behold, Will Smith lying in a bathtub, similar in a situation like Neville’s. There are, of course, some marked changes. Neville was very much an ordinary man, but Smith’s Neville is some sort of SWAT officer, always having an M-16 by his side. Then there is the issue of the dog. In the book, the dog is a very important dramatic point in the story, which after months of loneliness, determines for Neville whether we wants to continue with his life. At this point, for the first time ever I’m gonna stop myself from spoiling the story, because I appreciated that part and its important I think others who might want to read it do too.

    You know, stories like these are extremely rare. Stephen King was living in such a different world of entertainment in his autobiography On Writing, when he was describing how he would steal off into town to watch movies with a friend. These movies and countless books of course, turning him into one of the greatest writers of the 21st century that I consider him to be. How can you not be completely enraptured by these absolutely terrific stories that earnestly and sincerely just wanted.to.tell.their.stories? They probably had terrible effects, and even maybe even low editing standards, but all they had was story, and so that’s all they gave to you. Nowadays, especially after watching Transformers and the other week’s Fantastic Four, movies not only want to entertain you, they also want to sell you cars, toys, video games, KFC, t-shirts, downloads, ringtones, and all manner of whatever.

    Continue reading I Am Legend, Stephen King, Transformers and Green Cross Rubbing Alcohol

    We Encourage you to use Firefox.

    I have made the ff. banners to be installed on the Exchanges:

    I didn’t want to write the usual “Best Viewed by using Firefox”, because I didn’t want there to be any mistake. The sites still work alright on Internet Explorer (well at least I think so), but the term “Best Viewed..” might mean that I have only made them work on Firefox, which isn’t true.

    I also didn’t want to use the standard ‘Get Firefox’ buttons over here, because those tend, I think, to be ignored, or mistaken to be paid promo ads. I always design my sites not for techies, but for the ordinary, non – Internet users out there. I don’t have to worry about techies. If you’re a techie, I presume you should already know that Firefox is the better deal. Its the ordinary user I want to help out, and saying ‘Exchange.ph encourages you..’ means that it supports and recognizes Firefox and would like (but is not forcing!) everyone to use it, whether or not Exchange.ph looks better on it or not.

    Whew. That’s a lot to say huh.

    Continue reading We Encourage you to use Firefox.

    At Attempt To Write My Story – Part I

    Apparently there’s been a great upsurge – well at least in the blogs that I read – about getting out and starting your own biz. And obviously I’m all for it. I mean duh. I’ve been ‘freelancing’ for several years now, my last job having ended at the start of this decade.

    But you know, sometimes I have to admit, I have my reservations about reading all that advice. I mean, I know it’s all helpful and all, but honestly, and coming from someone who’s been there and gone through all that, if you really really really wanna get on your own biz, then you really don’t need anyone’s advice. To paraphrase a really overused slogan of a company I’m trying to court advertisement pesos from: You Just Do It. When the bug hits you, and you are consumed with wanting to bring to life your idea, then you don’t really have no choice, and there isn’t anyone out there to stop you or tell you otherwise anyway. You just go ahead and do it.

    When I was employed, I had the typical issues anyone in the IT business had then. I was overworked, I didn’t like my superiors, and I was a little confused as to where I was going with it all. Money was, admittedly, not a problem. (And please, at this point, I won’t apologize nor want to feel apologetic for being completely honest about such things. So I was paid well, I’ll admit it, and that’s how it is. I’m not trying to brag or anything, I just want to be completely honest.) I also didn’t have any problems finding work. There were lots of people whom I could call to get a job.

    Continue reading At Attempt To Write My Story – Part I

    Parents Ponder, Phoebe’s going, and yes, Another server memory upgrade

    First off, congrats to my main girl Jen for hosting a terrific parenting event for Mom.Exchange.Ph, sponsored by Verdana Homes, last Sat the 16th, at Coffee Tea Bean and Leaf (is that right? or something like that. I mix up that name often.), at the Convergys Building Makati. I peeled my lazy ass off bed early in the AM to get there by 9 to record the proceedings. A bunch of moms, some kids and a stray dad were present, along with fotogs and PR people. Jen did her mom thing with other moms and the resultant incessant chatter was indicative of true success afa im concerned. This is our first co-produced and sponsored event for Mom.Exchange and man am I am way happy and all proud of Jen. Parents Ponder is now a monthly thing and nothing but good things are gonna come out of this I tell you. If you’re a mom, and am interested in joining up, I’ve setup a page here.


    Jen doing her thing.

    Continue reading Parents Ponder, Phoebe’s going, and yes, Another server memory upgrade

    Thoughts on Heroes, JLA and The Sopranos

    I got a complete copy Heroes the other month, admittedly caught up in the buzz, and sadly, I’m not very impressed. It was interesting at the start, but soon that gibberish Suresh is mumbling at the start starts to grate on you, and you realize that, dang he isn’t making any sense at all. Everything else goes downhill from that.

    From the predictable plot to the inconceivable ‘I’ve got super powers, woe is me!’ idea, I just watched the thing to find out what’s gonna happen at the end, and even that was stretched when in the last three or four episodes, they obviously had run out of things to say, they were stretching as hard as they could, and the thing was slowing down to a goddam crawl. Case in point, that subplot about parents getting separated and their kid insisting they get back together? The kid was being an unreasonable brat, and was hardly worth sympathy. And now he can control machines. I can understand flying, also traveling in time, but controlling an ATM to give up cash? Dude.Come.On.

    Continue reading Thoughts on Heroes, JLA and The Sopranos

    How I Moved Everything to Lefthandedlayup.com

    If you entered Pisces-iscariot on your browser, or otherwise clicked a link going to Pisces-iscariot, please don’t adjust your sets. This is now my new blog, which I’ve moved to partly to separate my personal blog from the Exchange.ph domain and partly to practice the eventual migration of the Exchange.ph domain and subsequent websites to a new host.

    So I’ve been busy practising a big move to a new server, and this is the first of many migrations I’m about to do in the next few days. Everything looks like it’s working fine now, so I’m pretty happy and hella relieved as well. Below is a shortlist of what I’d had to do to transfer Pisces-Iscariot blogposts, comments and pics lock stock and barrel to this brand spanking new one. This is so that I won’t forget when I have to do it again, with some extra details for whoever else might need the same information. Believe me I’d had to do a lot of groping in the dark (ie. searching in forums, sending tons of email to my host’s excellent support team, testing on my practice server, bugging the chief, etc.) to finally be able to do what I did, so if I’d have appeared extra nervous or cranky these past few days, now you know. At any rate this’ll help anyone who’d happen to be in the same boat I’d be happy. Read on:

    Continue reading How I Moved Everything to Lefthandedlayup.com