Born on a Syzygy~ is the Filipino Blog of the Week!!!

Filipino Blog of the Week Winner for Week 153

This has been a very stressful but uber awesome week for me at work.
And a great weekend-icing-on-my-cake is winning Filipino Blog of the Week! Uber Awesome indeed!

I was lagging behind on votes: at 2nd place (28 votes to the leading contender's 40 votes!) because when I posted it last week, I didn't realize you could vote once a day! So I was really surprised to find that I had won it! I won only by a margin of about 1.5 percentage points! Haha. That actually meant the judges and talk, author of The Composed Gentleman, gave me just enough points to win. Nevertheless, I wouldn't get 2nd place without your help! So THANK YOU for voting!

Just to explain a bit, votes account for 55% of your score, 35% from pre-appointed judges, and 10% from blog owner, talk.

By the way, I'm up for votes again this week. If you have time, please go on over to The Composed Gentleman and give me a VOTE! And yep, you can VOTE ONCE A DAY!

Theme Thursday: Mineral

My thoughts about a mineral
do not come up with several
Quite opposite! A general
feeling like a struggle...

My freshman year I was "Opal"
Which now I learned isn't a mineral!
because opal has no crystal-
-line structure..thats for real!

(Hm...I need to shave my stubble)

Hold on this is not normal...
can't find words ending A-L!
A challenge to my mental
capacity! Be gentle.
At least I didn't use "rectal"
In this my rhyme so playful

I fumble and I foible
I diddle and I babble
just to make a single
post on my Theme-a Thursday.

oops.




Vote for me to be filipino blog of the week!! (yes you can vote daily!)

Vote for me to be the Filipino Blog of the Week!

I got a pleasant surprise when I checked my blog today! In the comments section of my Theme Thursday: Vegetable post...

"Hi, Your blog is nominated for the Filipino Blog of the Week award (week 153). You may visit the site and vote. Please find the poll at the sidebar."

Please VOTE for me on this famous Filipino blogsite:>> click > The Composed Gentleman
The poll is on the sidebar. Just tick the box "reyjr" and Vote!

Haha. Thanks in advance. :p

Forbes' The World's Billionaires 2009

On my birthday (hehe) Forbes' published this year's list of wealthiest people in the world: The World's Billionaires. You can find the full article on the Forbes' website.

According to the article, there are less Billionaires this year than in 2008, largely because of the economic recession. For 2009, there are only 793 billionaires. From Wiki, the current estimated population of the world is 6.76 billion, which makes the billionaires oh, about 0.00000012% of the population. Haha.

The Top 3 are still #1 Bill Gates (up from #3 last year), #2 Warren Buffet (down from #1 last year), and Mexican telecon titan #3 Carlos Slim Helú (down from #2).


Without further delay, here the list of Billionaires, top 10 only...

#1 William Gates III $40 billion Microsoft/U.S.
#2 Warren Buffet $37 billion Investments/U.S.
#3 Carlos Slim Helú $35 billion Telecom/Mexico
#4 Lawrence Ellison $22.5 billion Oracle/U.S.
#5 Ingvar Kamprad $22 billion Ikea/Sweden
#6 Karl Albrecht $21.5 billion Supermarkets/Germany
#7 Mukesh Ambani $19.5 billion Petrochemicals/India
#8 Lakshmi Mittal $19.3 billion Steel/India
#9 Theo Albrecht $18.8 billion Supermarkets/Germany
#10 Amancio Ortega $18.3 billion Fashion/Spain

Other notable Billionaires, the Waltons (owners of the Walmart franchise) are at numbers 11 to 14 (yes, they are billionaires - EACH ONE of them). New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is at #17. Filipinos Henry Sy and Lucio Tan still make the list at #234 and #522 respectively. Celebrity Billionaire George Lucas and Steven Spielberg tie with others at #205, and of course, Oprah Winfrey is at #234.

See the FULL LIST HERE.

Theme Thursday: Vegetable

Quickie post!

Did you know that the term VEGETABLE is not a botanical term, but only a culinary term?

Did you know that a tomato is NOT a vegetable but a FRUIT! Well, a BERRY to be precise. It is referred to as a vegetable in culinary terms, but it's really a fruit (like a coconut is not a nut but a fruit!)

And the tomato is NOT the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.

VEGETABLE backwards is ELBATEGEV. - random!

From the letters in VEGETABLE, you can form the following 5-or-more lettered words: table, beget, beetle, bagel, gable... add some more!

An Irish Blessing: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Even though we don't celebrate it here in the Philippines, this traditional Irish blessing has a very special meaning for me.

When I was on tour around USA and Europe with my college choir, we would sing this blessing everytime before we leave a tour stop. We usually stayed with locals at every stop, sharing wonderful moments and memories during our short stay. Every place that we left was a sad goodbye to the friends we made, sometimes it was goodbye for good.

We often sang this around hugs and tearful goodbyes,

CLICK HERE AND PLAY THE SONG >>> An Irish Blessing by the UP Concert Chorus

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sunshine warm upon your face
The rain fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again
Until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of hand...