Rufa Mae, kaw nga ba talaga yan???
If you want the video, leave a comment and I'll send you the download link.
May 28, 2009
Rufa Mae, Kaw Ba Yan?
I'm not going to talk about the Hayden Kho - Katrina Halili Sex Scandal issue anymore. It's been discussed to death by too many blogs already. But what I do want to know is if this is really Rufa Mae Quinto, one of Hayden's ex-girlfriends who also have a sex scandal video with him.
Rufa Mae, kaw nga ba talaga yan???
If you want the video, leave a comment and I'll send you the download link.
Rufa Mae, kaw nga ba talaga yan???
If you want the video, leave a comment and I'll send you the download link.
Go Barca!
I rarely watched any football matches this season simply because I didn't have any chance to do so. When you have a wife who insists to watch cooking shows or movies, there's really no way to follow professional football. So coming into the Champions League finals last night, the only game I watched was the semifinal match between Chelsea and United. I was rooting for Chelsea in that match only because I don't like Ronaldo. He's like someone who God showered with everything. Good looks, awesome football talent, all the money he can ever be able to spend at such a young age. I'm not too sure if he's got anything between the ears, but if you can crash your Ferrari, walk away from it, and buy a new one a couple of days later, who needs brains, right?
So last night, I was rooting for United's opponent again. I have not seen any of Barcelona's games this season, but I was aware of the fact that they are being coached by Pep Guardiola, who happens to be a professional football rookie coach. I would say that was just outstanding. To be able to guide your team through the Champions League, and as well as La Liga and Copa Del Rey on your first year as coach is amazing!
Both teams played well last night, but it was apparent that Barcelona wanted it more than United. Barca was moving the ball well in the midfield, and came up with a lot of brilliant attacks. To me, it seemed that United was struggling throughout the 90 minutes to get their pace going. I would have loved to see more passing from United, but you can see that everybody wanted to take a stab at Barcelona's defense. To me they were just not playing as a team.
So congratulations to Barca. And to Pep Guardiola, PEP PEP HOORAY!!
So last night, I was rooting for United's opponent again. I have not seen any of Barcelona's games this season, but I was aware of the fact that they are being coached by Pep Guardiola, who happens to be a professional football rookie coach. I would say that was just outstanding. To be able to guide your team through the Champions League, and as well as La Liga and Copa Del Rey on your first year as coach is amazing!
Both teams played well last night, but it was apparent that Barcelona wanted it more than United. Barca was moving the ball well in the midfield, and came up with a lot of brilliant attacks. To me, it seemed that United was struggling throughout the 90 minutes to get their pace going. I would have loved to see more passing from United, but you can see that everybody wanted to take a stab at Barcelona's defense. To me they were just not playing as a team.
So congratulations to Barca. And to Pep Guardiola, PEP PEP HOORAY!!
May 14, 2009
Sweating Like a Pig
I like spring. Spring is that time of the year when you get really fresh fruits and vegetables, and everywhere you go you see flowers all abloom. The mornings and evenings are comfortably cool, and during daytime, it doesn't really get that hot. But one thing I hate about spring is how it seems to be more humid than winter, and how it affects my sweat glands. While I rarely sweat during winter, during spring I feel like I'm always just walking out of a Szechuan restaurant. I sweat all over. My undershirt stickily clinging onto my skin. My skin feeling moist and sticky. And I get an impression like I'm beginning to smell like someone who hasn't taken a bath in days.
I checked Swiss Meteo and found that the current relative humidity in Birr is a mere 63%. That's not even anywhere near the high 90's typical of a Philippine summer! Whew... I can just imagine how gross I would look like when I come back to Manila in the middle of May.
I checked Swiss Meteo and found that the current relative humidity in Birr is a mere 63%. That's not even anywhere near the high 90's typical of a Philippine summer! Whew... I can just imagine how gross I would look like when I come back to Manila in the middle of May.
May 04, 2009
Kinidnap ni Arroyo ang Libro ko
aka The Great Book Blockade of 2009
The great book blockade of 2009
By Manuel L. Quezon IIIPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 04:15:00 05/04/2009
According to Malaysian blogger-turned-parliamentarian Jeff Ooi, if you buy books or computers, the government will allow you to deduct your purchase costs from your income tax. The Malaysian government seems to be of the opinion that buying books and computers are good things; that these good things should be encouraged; and that the benefits of personal purchases that improve knowledge and increase modern skills outweigh any potential loss of revenue to the government.
The policy of our government seems to be the exact opposite: to put the squeeze on citizens in order to add to government coffers depleted by electioneering expenses. Over at McSweeney’s is an entry by Robin Hemley, the director of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program who’s in the Philippines on a Guggenheim Fellowship. In “The Great Book Blockade of 2009,” he details the creativity of Filipino bureaucrats like Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales.
According to Hemley, the situation developed this way. Stephenie Meyer’s novel “Twilight” apparently did so well in the bookstores that the number of copies being imported attracted the attention of a Customs official. Examiner Rene Agulan decreed that duties be paid. It seems that the importer of the book reacted in a manner familiar to most book lovers in the country: to eliminate the hassle, the importer complied with the Customs levy on the title.
Hemley says surrendering to the authorities was a mistake because the Philippines, back in 1952, became a signatory to the Florence Agreement, a United Nations treaty that mandates the tax-free importation of books in order to facilitate the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials.” The importer’s submission to the whims of Customs whetted the Bureau’s appetite; they put a squeeze on all book importations by air. The result? For two months virtually no imported books entered the country.
Not least because it seems book sellers had the gumption to challenge the government. Enter Undersecretary Espele Sales whose PowerPoint presentation to booksellers Hemley describes as “Orwellian,” because of an essay in which Orwell examined how officials twist words to suit their purposes.
Take the official’s interpretation of the following sentence in RA 8047 (the Book Publishing Industry Development Act): “the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.” According to Sales, this lacked a comma after the word “books,” which meant that what was tax and duty-free was only books used for book publishing.
People in the book industry were left scratching their heads, wondering what a “book used in book publishing” is. Customs went further and said it interpreted the Florence Agreement to mean only educational books are tax-free, with Customs deciding whether a title qualifies as being educational or not. Booksellers responded that this went against half a century’s common understanding of the treaty; did this mean everyone had been wrong and Customs suddenly right? Sales replied, “Yes.”
Their books sequestered in warehouses, booksellers trying to comply with red tape found the rules being changed every time they seemed on the verge of getting their documents in order: “Now they were told that all books would be taxed: 1 percent for educational books and 5 percent for non-educational books.” With Customs officials doing the sorting, manually, on a per-volume basis, it seems, tying up inventory as storage fees escalated.
This finally led many booksellers to comply (under protest) with the government’s levying of tariffs. Who says kidnap-for-ransom doesn’t pay?
For years now, Filipinos bringing in books have had to wrestle with Post Office and Customs officials trying to impose tariffs, hoping that citizens would meekly submit to paying duties and fees on books. But back in September 2008, there was an opinion of the Bureau of Internal Revenue that the importation of books for personal use is exempt from value-added tax as well as from the payment of import duties. A small handling fee, is, however, legitimate on the part of the Post Office.
While Republic Acts 8047 and 9337 put in place Value-Added Tax exemptions for imported books, the government seems intent on nullifying those privileges; and citizens and booksellers alike seem headed to being at the mercy of Customs officials pressured to remit to the national government even to the extent of defying international treaties. This is a government policy that has basically declared obtaining knowledge, in any form, as subordinate to fattening the national purse.
But of course this is simply yet another manifestation of a larger trend, which is to deemphasize government’s being in place to serve the citizenry, and instead fortify it’s existing in order to mulct the population: the rule of law being nothing more than systematized extortion, whether one talks of traffic enforcement or books.
As a writer and a partner in a modest book publishing concern, I have a bias for books. But then again, this is, to my mind, a healthy bias and one shared, for example, by countries like Malaysia. You’d think any reasonable government would encourage all forms of reading, as healthy and beneficial to the population. The teenager who reads “Twilight” might just go on to reading the classics or about science; however, at the rate officialdom’s going, it seems content to keep us starved for affordable reading materials. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?
* * *
YOU can read Robin Hemley’s entry in full at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/manila/1dispatch6.html
The great book blockade of 2009
By Manuel L. Quezon IIIPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 04:15:00 05/04/2009
According to Malaysian blogger-turned-parliamentarian Jeff Ooi, if you buy books or computers, the government will allow you to deduct your purchase costs from your income tax. The Malaysian government seems to be of the opinion that buying books and computers are good things; that these good things should be encouraged; and that the benefits of personal purchases that improve knowledge and increase modern skills outweigh any potential loss of revenue to the government.
The policy of our government seems to be the exact opposite: to put the squeeze on citizens in order to add to government coffers depleted by electioneering expenses. Over at McSweeney’s is an entry by Robin Hemley, the director of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program who’s in the Philippines on a Guggenheim Fellowship. In “The Great Book Blockade of 2009,” he details the creativity of Filipino bureaucrats like Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales.
According to Hemley, the situation developed this way. Stephenie Meyer’s novel “Twilight” apparently did so well in the bookstores that the number of copies being imported attracted the attention of a Customs official. Examiner Rene Agulan decreed that duties be paid. It seems that the importer of the book reacted in a manner familiar to most book lovers in the country: to eliminate the hassle, the importer complied with the Customs levy on the title.
Hemley says surrendering to the authorities was a mistake because the Philippines, back in 1952, became a signatory to the Florence Agreement, a United Nations treaty that mandates the tax-free importation of books in order to facilitate the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials.” The importer’s submission to the whims of Customs whetted the Bureau’s appetite; they put a squeeze on all book importations by air. The result? For two months virtually no imported books entered the country.
Not least because it seems book sellers had the gumption to challenge the government. Enter Undersecretary Espele Sales whose PowerPoint presentation to booksellers Hemley describes as “Orwellian,” because of an essay in which Orwell examined how officials twist words to suit their purposes.
Take the official’s interpretation of the following sentence in RA 8047 (the Book Publishing Industry Development Act): “the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.” According to Sales, this lacked a comma after the word “books,” which meant that what was tax and duty-free was only books used for book publishing.
People in the book industry were left scratching their heads, wondering what a “book used in book publishing” is. Customs went further and said it interpreted the Florence Agreement to mean only educational books are tax-free, with Customs deciding whether a title qualifies as being educational or not. Booksellers responded that this went against half a century’s common understanding of the treaty; did this mean everyone had been wrong and Customs suddenly right? Sales replied, “Yes.”
Their books sequestered in warehouses, booksellers trying to comply with red tape found the rules being changed every time they seemed on the verge of getting their documents in order: “Now they were told that all books would be taxed: 1 percent for educational books and 5 percent for non-educational books.” With Customs officials doing the sorting, manually, on a per-volume basis, it seems, tying up inventory as storage fees escalated.
This finally led many booksellers to comply (under protest) with the government’s levying of tariffs. Who says kidnap-for-ransom doesn’t pay?
For years now, Filipinos bringing in books have had to wrestle with Post Office and Customs officials trying to impose tariffs, hoping that citizens would meekly submit to paying duties and fees on books. But back in September 2008, there was an opinion of the Bureau of Internal Revenue that the importation of books for personal use is exempt from value-added tax as well as from the payment of import duties. A small handling fee, is, however, legitimate on the part of the Post Office.
While Republic Acts 8047 and 9337 put in place Value-Added Tax exemptions for imported books, the government seems intent on nullifying those privileges; and citizens and booksellers alike seem headed to being at the mercy of Customs officials pressured to remit to the national government even to the extent of defying international treaties. This is a government policy that has basically declared obtaining knowledge, in any form, as subordinate to fattening the national purse.
But of course this is simply yet another manifestation of a larger trend, which is to deemphasize government’s being in place to serve the citizenry, and instead fortify it’s existing in order to mulct the population: the rule of law being nothing more than systematized extortion, whether one talks of traffic enforcement or books.
As a writer and a partner in a modest book publishing concern, I have a bias for books. But then again, this is, to my mind, a healthy bias and one shared, for example, by countries like Malaysia. You’d think any reasonable government would encourage all forms of reading, as healthy and beneficial to the population. The teenager who reads “Twilight” might just go on to reading the classics or about science; however, at the rate officialdom’s going, it seems content to keep us starved for affordable reading materials. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?
* * *
YOU can read Robin Hemley’s entry in full at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/manila/1dispatch6.html
January 29, 2009
Mabuhay Ang Short Time
At a time when people are losing their jobs, factories are closing, and everybody is struggling to put food on the table, it's good to know where the Philippines' Supreme Court priorities are. Click on the post title to find out what it's all about.
January 19, 2009
Emergency Numbers in Switzerland
My wife and I were eating some grapes last night and I contemplated on what will happen to me should I accidentally choke on one of them. I asked her if she knew how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, even though I already know the answer, which was no. She told me she will instead call 911. Of course, 911 is something which is used in the USA, but Switzerland also has equivalent emergency services. Unfortnately, more for me than for her, she also didn't know the emergency numbers in Switzerland. So I'm posting here some information on what to call in case something untoward happens. Note that this is the current known numbers, and that you should get in touch with your local Gemeinde if there are any specific contacts for your area. The Gemeinde also issues information mailed to your address either at the end or early of the year.
117 - Police
118 - Fire Department
144 - Ambulance
1414/1415 - Helicopter rescue (Rega)
145 - Poisoning emergencies
140 - Emergency roadside assistance
143 - The helping hand (I have absolutely no idea what this is about)
147 - Support for children and kids
There are also some miscellaneous services available. What I do not know is if dialing these numbers will incur you some additional cost on your landline bill.
161 - Talking clock
162 - Weather forecast
163 - Road conditions and traffic news
164 - Sports and lottery results
175 - Telephone fault assistance
187 - Avalanche reports
1600 - Regional/local information
0900 77 hh mm - Automated wake up call (Replace hh with hour and mm with minutes on what time you wish to be called)
Now that you have these numbers, there shouldn't be any reason why anyone has to die of choking by grape.
117 - Police
118 - Fire Department
144 - Ambulance
1414/1415 - Helicopter rescue (Rega)
145 - Poisoning emergencies
140 - Emergency roadside assistance
143 - The helping hand (I have absolutely no idea what this is about)
147 - Support for children and kids
There are also some miscellaneous services available. What I do not know is if dialing these numbers will incur you some additional cost on your landline bill.
161 - Talking clock
162 - Weather forecast
163 - Road conditions and traffic news
164 - Sports and lottery results
175 - Telephone fault assistance
187 - Avalanche reports
1600 - Regional/local information
0900 77 hh mm - Automated wake up call (Replace hh with hour and mm with minutes on what time you wish to be called)
Now that you have these numbers, there shouldn't be any reason why anyone has to die of choking by grape.
January 14, 2009
Untitled
I was terribly disappointed at my office colleague yesterday. We were having a staff meeting and he was his usual self: laying blame on everyone but himself, making it appear to the boss that he's the only one working in our group, and basically, just showing how big an asshole he really is. I was really pissed at the fact that he makes it appear to everybody that he's the only one in the group who can accomplish anything. I wouldn't really make a big deal out of it, except that even outside of our group, he would usually push himself as "the man" who knows everything about our processes, and that he's the only one who can make things happen.
I have to admit, he gets things done. Unfortunately, his working style is only effective with one group of people. He tried, unsuccessfully if I may add, to use this kind of working attitude to two other groups and failed miserably. This was the reason why our manager decided to give the more challenging task to me. Unfortunately for me, success has been slow but I think we all believe the reason for this is that those two groups are really hard to push.
So after our staff meeting yesterday, I have decided to get out of my colleague's way. If he's really aiming for the top position in our group, he's welcome to have it. I have decided to get out of his way. I would rather move to another group, hopefully to one with no competitive jerks.
January 09, 2009
What would you do for fun if you had to give up tv, movies, electronic games and the internet?
For the past couple of years, I feel like my life has revolved around exactly just that: internet, movies, and TV. I had taken up photography for the past three years, and I feel it has helped me get out of the house and do something not related to anything electronic, although I do have a digital camera, and that means sooner or later, I would have to use my laptop to download the pictures and upload them to my Flickr site. And that's the problem. No sooner than I had downloaded my pictures then I start browsing the internet for good ways to tweak my pictures and one thing leads to another then I find myself surfing for something totally unrelated to photography. Lack of discipline on my part, I guess.
So to answer the question, here are some things I would do this year that is not related to TV, movies, and the internet:
1. Pursue photography even more. But this time, I would remind myself not to get drawn to the internet whenever I start photoshopping my pictures and uploading them into Flickr.
2. Learn how to play a musical instrument. I still want to learn how to play the guitar; and there's this shop I found in Brugg which sells that drum-like thing which you sit on. Yes, the one you usually see when bands have their acoustic sessions.
3. Learn how to ski or snowboard. Fat chance this is going to happen soon, but my office colleagues are bent on teaching me.
4. Write more. This blog needs the much needed attention from me.
5. Read more. I know English books are expensive in Switzerland, but spring will come soon, and with it, flea markets. Or tap my friends in Couchsurfing to see who's trying to get rid of old books.
6. Spend more time with friends. Most of my friends are not into anything electronic. They just want to hang out, have a couple of drinks. Not really good for the beer belly, but at least I'll get a chance to travel more outside Brugg.
So to answer the question, here are some things I would do this year that is not related to TV, movies, and the internet:
1. Pursue photography even more. But this time, I would remind myself not to get drawn to the internet whenever I start photoshopping my pictures and uploading them into Flickr.
2. Learn how to play a musical instrument. I still want to learn how to play the guitar; and there's this shop I found in Brugg which sells that drum-like thing which you sit on. Yes, the one you usually see when bands have their acoustic sessions.
3. Learn how to ski or snowboard. Fat chance this is going to happen soon, but my office colleagues are bent on teaching me.
4. Write more. This blog needs the much needed attention from me.
5. Read more. I know English books are expensive in Switzerland, but spring will come soon, and with it, flea markets. Or tap my friends in Couchsurfing to see who's trying to get rid of old books.
6. Spend more time with friends. Most of my friends are not into anything electronic. They just want to hang out, have a couple of drinks. Not really good for the beer belly, but at least I'll get a chance to travel more outside Brugg.
Activity Equals Accomplishment? NOT
You see it time and again in the work place. People make side remarks on how you come late into the office, even though the company has a policy of self-time management. They comment on how you come in at nine o'clock and leave the office at five-thirty. On the other hand, you see other people who come in at six in the morning and leave at seven in the evening. Does that mean that people who spend ten, twelve hours in the office are more productive than people who don't?
Then there are those guys who send countless emails everyday. Most likely, they're the same guys who store tons of supposed work in the network drive. They're the guys who writes reports of whatever they do. Report this, report that, presentation this, presentation that.
In all of these cases, I talk about people who mistake action or activity as a form of accomplishment. While I don't really care much about how someone decides how to perform his or her work, I definitely take issue on people who say that they have accomplished something just because they sent an email, or created a file in the network drive, or, of all things, they spend twelve hours in the office. Accomplishment, for me, is a result that meets the group's end goal. Anything short of it is not. And what pisses me off more is when people tout they have "accomplished" something just because they spend more hours in the office than I do. And what pisses me off most is when these people get rewarded for it.
Then there are those guys who send countless emails everyday. Most likely, they're the same guys who store tons of supposed work in the network drive. They're the guys who writes reports of whatever they do. Report this, report that, presentation this, presentation that.
In all of these cases, I talk about people who mistake action or activity as a form of accomplishment. While I don't really care much about how someone decides how to perform his or her work, I definitely take issue on people who say that they have accomplished something just because they sent an email, or created a file in the network drive, or, of all things, they spend twelve hours in the office. Accomplishment, for me, is a result that meets the group's end goal. Anything short of it is not. And what pisses me off more is when people tout they have "accomplished" something just because they spend more hours in the office than I do. And what pisses me off most is when these people get rewarded for it.
January 08, 2009
London
Wifey and I spent our Christmas and New Year holiday in London. I guess you could now call me one of those guys who fell in love with that place. Understandably, being there during Chrismas holidays, the streets were just so packed with people. We only had the chance to ride empty trains in the mornings, when we would wake early enough to beat the crowds in the tourist places, and in the late evenings, coming back to the hotel late at night after watching a West End musical. Nevertheless, we felt so much in our environment: crowded places where you could shop the whole range from name brands all the way down to Baclaran-type nicknacks, and food from all over the world.
Unlike here in Switzerland, where everything seems to run perfectly, one of the reasons why I like London is because of its imperfections. It felt normal. Trains break down, you see people arguing heatedly, there are real traffic jams, those things. And coming into London, I heard about how some places are dangerous because of knife crimes. That made me a bit wary, especially when we were walking from the train station to our hotel, but at least it made me feel normal.
I can't even describe what we did, where we went to. All I know is that we had a good time watching the musicals, doing the tourist things, and even shopping. If it's any indication how good London shopping is, I managed to buy three pairs of shoes... and I don't even like buying shoes!
We missed our flight going out of London, so we had to buy a new set of return flights. So that means we will be going back. Sooner, hopefully rather than later.
Unlike here in Switzerland, where everything seems to run perfectly, one of the reasons why I like London is because of its imperfections. It felt normal. Trains break down, you see people arguing heatedly, there are real traffic jams, those things. And coming into London, I heard about how some places are dangerous because of knife crimes. That made me a bit wary, especially when we were walking from the train station to our hotel, but at least it made me feel normal.
I can't even describe what we did, where we went to. All I know is that we had a good time watching the musicals, doing the tourist things, and even shopping. If it's any indication how good London shopping is, I managed to buy three pairs of shoes... and I don't even like buying shoes!
We missed our flight going out of London, so we had to buy a new set of return flights. So that means we will be going back. Sooner, hopefully rather than later.
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