Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The banners for the new Harry Potter movie are now available online. Haha. I just saw on Click the City. Go get -em if ya want -em bloody banners!



I remember the first Harry Potter movie that came out, I had no clue what it was about. My girlfriend was explaining to me while we were watching. lol. You can probably say I'm one of those converts. I have since then read and enjoyed all the Harry Potter books and have all the movies so far on DVD. lol!

So 'ere's the 1 and a half (almost!) minute trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, coming out on July 16 in the Philippines...

Directions for Driving from Manila to Baguio City

Baguio City, Philippines is a well loved vacation destination for Filipinos and foreigners alike, with numerous touristy places to visit and a weather that's perfect for those who seek to get away from the heat and humidity of the city.

Here are directions for how to get to Baguio City from Manila...

Baguio via NLEX-SCTEx

 1. Take EDSA and go NORTHBOUND. You will pass by SM North EDSA on your right (now one of the biggest malls in the world!) and just go straight until you see the entrance to NLEX (National Luzon Expressway) on your right...

Sleep All Day

I got my new queen size mattress yesterday! Thanks to my dad for getting me one. Haha. I went from single bed to queen size bed! It's great!

This morning, I was stretching on my new bed, testing the expanse, reaching for the edges. It was so good I wanted to sleep all day. Haha. (And I was actually late for work because of it!) I'm excited to buy new bedsheets. :D

sleep all day - jason mraz

His after moan though cries oh no
Hes building up a shine but he take it slow
And he knows it time to make a change here and time to get away
And he knows its time for all the wrong reasons and time to end the pain
But he sleep all, sleep all day, sleep all, we sleep all day over again
Why dont we?

She said what would your mother think and how would your father react oh lord
Would he take it all back what theyve done
No way he said take it, take it and dont break it with your own two hands
That was my old man and he said
If all is grounded you should go make a mountain out of it

Oh what a lovely day to have a slice of humble pie
Recalling of the while we used to drive and drive here and there
Going nowhere but for us, nowhere but for the two of us
And we knew it was time to take a chance here
And time to compromise our lives for awhile
And it was time for all the wrong reasons
But time is often on my side and I give it to you tonight
And we sleep all, sleep all day, sleep all, we sleep all day over again

As time goes by we get a little bit tired waking and baked another marlboro mile wide
Its sending the boys on the run in the time in hot summer sun
To swim beneath or over outside as theyre reading between the lines
Then they remember the part in the hallmark card where they read about the dreams
And reaching for the stars to hold on a little bit closer to
And they knew it was time, time to take a chance here
Time to compromise our little lives for just a little while
And they knew it was time for all the wrong reasons
As time is often on my side and I give it to you, oh boy
And we sleep all, sleep all day, sleep all, we sleep all day over again

She said what would your mother think and how would your father react oh lord
Would he take it all back what they've done
No way he said take it, take it and dont break it with your own two hands
That was my old man and he said
If all is grounded you should go make a mountain out of it

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...

Nerdy Joke #01

A Hydrogen atom and a Helium atom were strolling in the park when suddenly the Hydrogen atom exclaimed, "Oh shit! I lost an electron!"

The Helium atom asks, "Hm.. are you sure??"

And Hydrogen says, "Yes! I'm POSITIVE!"



tee hee hee...

Theme Thursday: Animal

こんにちは、ようこそ！
Here's a couple of weird/unique animals we saw at the zoo in Tagaytay.

The first one is a 5 legged-cow...

This second one is an albino carabao (water bufallo) with an albino baby...

Both photos are from my Valentine's Day 2009 set, Liz and I went up to Tagaytay for Valentine's Day, which will be the topic of a separate post. :p

On Thursday we're off to Baguio! Yay!

It's a virtual birthday!

I spent most of the day processing my driver's license renewal, then went off in a hurry to Makati to get the Baguio staffhouse occupation documents. The day was quite stressful and yet, here I am, at the end of my (birth)day with a big smile on my face and a happy heart.

Here's a big THANK YOU to all those who remembered my birthday!

...to everyone who posted a greeting on my Facebook wall!
...to everyone who emailed my GMAIL account!
...to those who sent (offline) messages on the Yahoo! Messenger!
...to everyone who sent me a message on Friendster!
...to everyone who commented on my Multiply and Blogspot blogs!
...to everyone to called or texted me through my cellphone!
...to everyone who called me via landline! (Tatay!)

...and of course to those who greeted me in person!


You have all truly made my day. :D

Francis M's final blog entry

I found out on Friday after work when I opened my Facebook account. I was quite surprised because I didn't know he was diagnosed with Leukemia, and now he's died already.

I do remember the first time he broke into the music scene with "Mga Kababayan Ko". I was in elementary school and I had memorized this rap song. Haha.

Here's a link to Francis M's final blog entry: a Free Mind

It's on Multiply, you can add to the 3000+ messages there.

I got my weekend back

I was on leave from shutdown duty yesterday! And from the looks of things, my weekends will be back for good... well, until the next shutdown. I needed the break badly, and the 2 hour trip to Manila was so worth it. My gf told me I was even talking in my sleep about work!

I had planned to sleep until late morning, but I woke up at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep anymore. I got a haircut. I took my car to the vulcanizing shop where they took a screw out of my left rear tire. I watched "21" on DVD (it was okay, except for the weird ending). Had too much to eat (veggies!). Had 3 cups of coffee. And spent quality time with my gf and my family...
********
On Tuesday, March 10, it will be the 27th anniversary of the most amazing planetary alignment in recorded history.

"On March 10 their apparent positions, as seen from the Sun, will be closer together than at any time in the last 179 years..."

Then on the midnight of the 11th, it will be my 27th birthday. :p

I'm off to Baguio on the 12th to the 14th with Liz! Who wants to go? I have 1 more spare room, good for 2 people. Let me know ASAP!

I want my weekends back

It's my first time to be a Maintenance Shutdown Coordinator.

It has been 30 days since I left home.

And I've taken a total of 1 vacations. :p

My daily grind...
Wake up at 0530H (shit, i find it hard to wake up at 630 on normal days...)
Attend Handover meeting at 0600H (at least there's free pandesal and coffee)
Update tracking and organize activities for the day (mostly office work)
Walk/Bike around the plant and coordinate inspection activities (via a 2-way radio)
Attend daily Coordination meeting at 0930H and send out meeting minutes
Continue field work until lunch break at 1130H (then drink some more coffee)
Back to work at 1300H
Field work under the scorching heat of the sun (ouch)
Get sunburnt. (more and more each day)
Coordinate field activities until 1800H (to the last minute!)
Attend handover to night shift meeting at 1800H
And every other day, be the meeting scribe and stay until minutes are reviewed and sent out (sometimes until around 2030H)
Go home and shower to remove the sweat and dirt from the day's work
Dinner at around 2130H (and this is why I'm gaining weight instead of losing weight)
Go home to sleep by 2300H (no late nights!)


I have been counting the days, the hours, until I can have my weekends back.
I am optimistic that this coming Saturday will be mine. ALL MINE.
Finally...

update*
They just lit up the flare. :D
Hopefully tomorrow, the flare will bring new energy to all the workers (including myself) to get this whole thing done. It's been a looong road, but the end is near.


yay!