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!

It's Ash Wednesday

When I was 13, I joined a TV quiz show representing my school. One of the questions were: What is the first day of Lent?

...I didn't know. :p
We lost but what the heck. I was 13 and I was on TV. lol.

Some funny things at the Ash Wednesday mass I attended over lunch break at work.

- When everybody stood up, there was this 6 foot tall intern standing in front of a lady colleague who was less than 5 feet tall. Poor lady couldn't see the priest!

- After we were all given ash crosses on our foreheads, a male colleague took out his handkerchief and began wiping his face and forehead, then suddenly exclaimed, "Ay! Nabura ko!(I erased it!)" hahaha...

- Then the Shutdown meeting snack later that day was siopao. (Bread with pork inside).(Note: Abstaining from pork during Lent is a Catholic practice.. in case you didn't get why it was funny! :p)


On a totally unrelated topic, here a creepy photo of the moon I took a couple of weeks ago when it was full...(click to enlarge)

Talking Fish at the Manila Ocean Park

Photos from the Manila Ocean Park

Here are some photos from when I visited The Manila Ocean Park with my girlfriend for her birthday last year...

I found Nemo (in Manila!) - I knew it!

Creepy looking fishy eggs that sort of look more like lizards than fish...

I bet your eyes would be this red too if you had to sleep with them open. :p

I can talk to fish 'cause I'm a Pisces. :p

Happy Valentine's Day Liz. I love you!

a Theme Thursday post

Honest Scrap Blog Award

*** The Honest Scrap Award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger
whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant! ***

I received this award from Fren over at Because It's Human Nature to Communicate where she wrote that my blog was "a very informative, flexible and a jovial blog, authored by a fellow UPian; a link from Chase Images; ‘bet you, you’ll be amused at the many choices and links you’re about to see because of his excellent blog presentation.:)"

Thanks Fren!

The Rules?
When accepting this auspicious award, you must:

1. Write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real.
   
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
   
3. List at least ten honest things about yourself and make it interesting!! Then, pass it on!

I chose these 7 bloggers to pass this award to (and I'm hoping they haven't already received this before because they have such great blogs...). Actually, I don't really know some of them personally, so I'm not sure if they will be able to pick this up, and I suppose it's OK if they don't. But it would be great if they do. Haha. Anyway, here are my blog picks...

1. Coffee Messiah - who was the inspiration behind my Coffee addiction post. He has captured an audience, not just of coffee addicts, but of so many others because of his really interesting posts. He was also recently recognized on Bloggers' Blogs of Note.

2. Coachblogger - who I am giving this award to in the hopes that it goes from a string of mommy bloggers (see explanation at the end of this post!) to a string of daddy bloggers. Haha! A lot of stories and movies have been told about single moms but not a lot about single dads. Here he blogs about the life of a single dad with 4 beautiful girls, and he's a high school football coach too!

3. The Wild Onion Cafe - I wandered into this blog through some links, and left a crazy little comment. Then I was very graciously welcomed by the bloggers that run it. For being a truly warm and welcome place for new(ly revived) bloggers like me, I am awarding them an Honest Scrap award. I suggest you give them a visit!

4. Atheista - a former Tabangao-er and 2008 winner of the Philippine Blog Awards. His posts are intelligent and reflective, and definitely worth a visit.

5. Bikoy - Bikoy is a young student currently a freshman at the University I went to. His life, his views are common in UP Diliman and shared by a lot of other students. My political views are not as pointed as his or Atheista's (I never went to demonstrations or rallies) but I am nevertheless interested to hear what they have to say. It keeps me informed and educated. Plus,it's always great fun to read about UP and reminisce about college life. ;)

6. Magnifique_f8h - My high school batchmate and friend so has this very well maintained blog which I used to visit so often. I am trying to catch up and read up! She describes herself as: Coffee addict, procrastinates, loves a lot, hurts a lot, idealist.

7. The Brownian Motion of a Photoplankton - This is the blog of a colleague and friend who recently had his first baby with his wife. He is a smart, honest, passionate and wonderful writer. Perfect for the Honest Scrap award!

* * * * * * * *
To complete the award, here are 10 honest things about me:
1. I get easily annoyed with bad service and have reprimanded many waiters, guards, salesladies, concierges, and other service people...
2. I truly, honestly believe that I was 11th place on the Mechanical Engineering Licensure Exams (but they only announce the Top 10)! Haha!
3. I always-always mistake "sinigang" (a kind of Filipino soup dish) and "sinangag" (one way to cook rice) even when I pause to think about which word to use. I also always mistake Bicol and Bohol (they both begin with "B"!).
4. I overanalyze everything. EVERYTHING.
5. I used to sing (understatement! more like do a concert...) in the shower all the time, but now I don't anymore. I just sing (and dance too sometimes) in my car while I drive.
6. I have tried to get six pack abs every year for 5 years now. But I still don't have six pack abs.
7. I was an achiever as a child and am still trying to return to my former glory.
+++++++++++++++++++
*edited 07-Feb-09 to complete the 10 honest things! i fell asleep while making this and I forgot all about it...
===================
8. Ironing also relaxes my brain, but going to a spa is way better. Haha.
9. I sleeptalk. zzz.
10. I was born on a syzygy! (On the evening of March 10, 1982 there was a rare celestial event where Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn would be on the same side of the Sun, within a 95 degree wide interval. I was born on that night, at the stroke of midnight on March 11. (hence the title of this blog...)

Aside from giving this award away, I wanted to trace back the origins of this award to as far back as I can starting of course with the one who gave me this award. It was quite amusing to find that I came upon this blog award after a long, looong line of Mommy Bloggers!

Here goes! Born on a Syzygy > Because It's Human Nature to Communicate > kayni's corner cafe > witsandnuts > Intricate Thoughts > Niko's Blog > The Baby in Between > Pensive Thoughts > The Mommy Journey > Make or Break > The Breathing Post > Momma Young at Home > Misadventures in Baby Raising > Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History Janana Bee > Sometimes Lucid > La Mom > Under the Influence > Adlibby on the Loose... > Delightfully Inappropriate > PINKNIC > C'est What?? > shop girl's blog > Stuff I Think About > Mainly Mandy > A peek at Karen's World > Good things come to those who blog > stil more to come!

Statue: The UP Oblation

Oble - UP Oblation

The statue dearest to my heart is called the "The Oblation".

The Oblation is the symbol of the University of the Philippines, the university I went to for my Engineering degree. I have so many wonderful memories of UP. It was where I met my girlfriend of course. Haha.