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This post is the second of 2 posts about my 2009 summer at Puerto Galera, White Beach in Mindoro. Read the first post here . The end of summer 2009 Summer is over for the Philippines when it's supposed to be just beginning. (It's only May!!!) Our trip to Puerto Galera (although in retrospect was quite headstrong ) would probably be our last summer outing to the beach, or rather, anywhere which requires you to ride a boat to reach the beach. For now, I'll be happy that we got to go to at least one beach this year. :D I love the beach. When I'm filthy rich, which is soon, hehe, I'll buy the whole Boracay Island. Haha! Anyway, on with the story... Relaxing Day On our second day in Puerto Galera (Sunday), our friends Paolo, Princess & Jenny left early in the morning for Manila because some of them needed to work the next day. Liz, Bing and I agreed to spend the whole day relaxing. As opposed to the first day, we did not make any plans on the second day, ...

Filipina singer Charice 's first single, "Note to God" which she debuted on the Oprah show on May 18, enters the Billboard Hot 100 chart today at #44. The #1 spot is still held by the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" who also has a Filipino member, rapper Apl de Ap. Here's Charice's Oprah performance video in case you haven't seen it: Charice will also be appearing in 20th Century Fox’s "Alvin and The Chipmunks 2," slated for December 2009... Charice's singing is of the "birit" diva style reminiscent of other divas like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and the younger Mariah Carey. She has a huge voice despite her small frame and can reach up to the heavens with her vocal calisthenics. She became famous on YouTube where her video (and her story) was picked up by Ellen Degeneres and Oprah Winfrey. Charice's career was put into high gear when multi Grammy winning songwriter David Foster took her under his wing. ...

Over lunch today, the topic was the Lottery, or here in the Philippines, "Lotto." Or more specifically, what will you do if you win the lottery? Most of the people in that table said they were going to resign, with much drama, packing their stuff in a box and lashing out at difficult bosses and officemates, slapping people with bundles of money to pay for loans (hehe), buying everything they want in the world... So, I took a quick look at the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office Website (because I was curious how much we are really talking about here) and found that the grand prize for today's draw for SuperLotto is a staggering Php 182,000,000.00 (or about $3.7 Million) . Holy ef! I never knew it was that much! Haha. (Seriously, this is the first time I checked...) Let's put things in perspective here... that much money can buy you either: 10 of the 2009 Ferrari 599 cars (and still have enough gas money for a lifetime), or One of these islands, or Around 9,000 G...

On my last post , I spoke about the weather being not so good before we left for Puerto Galera earlier this month. Then just last week, this happened. The boat we took was not overloaded, far from it, but still... it could've been us. I remember our boatman saying that our boat cannot sink because it's made of wood. True enough, but then again, the boat below did not sink either. In fact, it's still floating now. Let's pray for the souls of the departed. M/B Commando 6, a 12-ton, 21-meter outrigger boat capsized on May 23, Saturday off the coast of Batangas while on its way to Puerto Galera Beach. Coast guard officials estimate the boat's capacity at 42 passengers and 5 crew, however various reports of the actual number of passengers say the boat was overloaded by over 20 passengers. The accounts of survivors explain that the weather was okay, but the waves were quite big, and so the tarpauline covers were pulled down to prevent the passengers from getting wet from ...

The storm before the calm This has got to be the most stressful vacation preparation I ever went through. On the day before our scheduled trip to Puerto Galera, I was closely monitoring the PAGASA website for updates on the weather. They lifted the storm signal warnings just in time for me to convince my friends that it's safe to take the boat through the shark infested waters on the way to White Beach, Puerto Galera in Mindoro. :D On May 2, onboard Paolo's dad's pick-up, we drove to and parked at the Batangas Pier and made our way to the boats. It was a quick enough trip, only about and hour and a half, but that didn't stop Liz and Jenny from taking a nap, and Princess for finishing her "baon" Romance Novel (yep, she was crying like a little girl over it too!) The Beach We arrived on the cream colored beach too early for the 2pm check-in time... but the good people at White Beach Guest House allowed us to check in at no extra charge. It was not a bea...

I was goin' to write a post, my brain brimming with a host of possibilities, a most exciting Thursday worth a toast! But I'm sitting here instead my home internet is dead! No one paid the monthly bill... No one had the urge nor will... So my friends, 'tis my short note In a hurry, this I wrote I don't want my boss to see My screen on 'Born a Syzygy'! ...whoops! A Theme Thursday post

Our company choir will be singing today at the Madz et al Festival. Despite having been a choir singer for 6.5 years, this will be the first time I will attend this festival. Because I'm not a "Madz", I'm a "Korus". :D Haha. Now, now, don't start debating about whether one is better than the other. Both choirs are wonderful in their own right. A couple of years ago, the Madz brought home their second (!) European Grand Prix victory in Italy. In the world of choral singing, that's definitely a feat! And I am really truly proud of them. The Korus, on the other hand, completed their 18th International Concert Tour last year to Europe. They have been going on tour (each 6 or 7 months long) since 1974 almost regularly every 2 or 3 years! Both choirs were established at around the same time, officially about a year apart. Now just by the age of both groups, you can conclude that both have something special. Not all choirs live to be over 40 you know. With ...

What will you do? Make a pledge now. Visit http://akomismo.org/ ----edited 08-May-09---- First off, let's agree to disagree. I've seen a lot of discussion on this, some quasi neutral like Now What, Cat , some quasi positive like Martin Perez and some negative like Bikoy . So many what ifs, so little time. Do I think this advocacy will change the world? Nope. Do I think it matters? Not really. It's like a New Year's resolution that you try to do for a few months, then you fall off the bandwagon... But surely, if this sudden wave of Nationalism gets 5000 or 10000 people to the voter's registration, if for a few months more Filipinos will think there is hope for our country's Judicial system, if after watching the ad on TV, 20 policemen feel guilty for extorting money from motorists, or 10 Angel Locsin fans think it's cool be proud of your country... then I would call that a success. Some are concerned about required info they gather on the sit...

A Theme Thursday post. Bangui Wind Farm in Ilocos Norte, Philippines. On the way to the Pagudpud Beach, north of the Philippines, we stopped by to take photos of the Bangui Wind Farm. The sun was about to set so we had to hurry to catch the last sliver of light. We were just in time. :D According to WikiPilipinas , the Bangui Windmills are located in Bangui, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. It was a project by the NorthWind Development Corporation as a renewable energy source and ... to help reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The project is the first “Wind Farm” in the Philippines consisting of wind turbines on-shore facing the South China Sea and considered to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. This clean energy source provides 40% of the power requirements of the whole Ilocos Norte province. Personally, I was just blown away by how clean energy could be so cool. ;) This photo of me and my dad, actually won for me a feature at our monthly e-Newletter sent to all sites i...

If you check out my sidebar, a few Koreans visit my blog! (lol!) Most visitors are Filipinos or Americans, next are Canadians, and then Koreans! I wonder if they come here by accident or are really looking around Filipino blogs. If you're a Korean reading this, please leave a comment! A lot of Filipinos have become Korean crazy, from the soap operas, to the clothes, to their hairstyles and even Korean food (kimchi anyone?). I even know a few people who work part time as English tutors for Koreans! They say Koreans go here to learn English because it's cheaper here than anywhere else. I think they like it here because people are not rude to them, and even treat them as special most of the time. Because of the tremendous increase in Korean tourists in the country, almost all the tourist destinations now have Korean signs, Korean restaurants, Korean spas, Korean everything. The net effect, give it a decade or so, you'll now have a generation of Filipino-Koreans (like Filipino-...

Last Saturday, a Britney Spears fan went up to the stage of her Circus tour concert in Connecticut, apparently wanting to dance with her and maybe get a little bit of spotlight. Well, he did. Kyle King, the 20-year-old man, was arrested, but was released after posting a $250 bail. Here's the video of the incident, the man comes in at 2:19 and freaks the hell out of Britney Spears... She was obviously lip synching because the microphones didn't catch any of her "Oh, my God!" screams. She was also stunned that for a few moments she stopped dancing altogether. Being myself a performer in the past, I can somewhat imagine how much she freaked out. While you're up on stage, you're adrenaline is pumping, you're concentrating on doing so many things at once: singing, dancing, making sure you go to the right places on the stage, you don't trip on the stairs, your face portrays what you're singing, listening to the music, and everything else. And then seeing...

I am not a big boxing enthusiast, I've never boxed my whole life, but whenever Manny Pacquiao is in the ring, I make it a point to watch: I shout at every punch and cheer every time he lands one on the face of his opponent. I even cuss when he gets one himself. "Ow!" "Wooot!" "Shat!" "Iyown!" And I'm not the only one. In fact, every Filipino is like that. It's widely known that every time Manny Pacquiao fights, crime rate is ZERO in the Philippines. Everyone is tuned in to support and pray for his victory. Manny's victory becomes our victory, as a nation, as Filipinos. "...because he is a Filipino..."