History of Blogs

I'm really learning a lot from the various blogs that I have stumbled upon in cyberspace.

I just came across a very informative site on the history of weblogs - Rebecca's Pocket. According to her article, it was Jorn Barger who coined the name weblog.

Check out her site and find out how the name blog, blogger, came about, the original weblog portals and other trivia.

Globe G-Cash wins a GSM Association Award!

You won't believe this but I stumbled upon this breaking news in a friend's blog :)

Globe's G-Cash just won in Cannes, France! Partly quoting Justin's blog:

"Globe G-Cash, the breakthrough mobile commerce service from Globe Telecom, brought honor to the Philippines as it made telco history as the first awardee for "Best Mobile Messaging Service" in the prestigious GSM Association Awards. The category for "Best Mobile Messaging Service" is new this year, making G-Cash's victory a true milestone. Further, Globe Telecom received the distinction of being the only Filipino telecommunications company on this year's short list for the prestigious GSM Awards for both "Best Mobile Messaging Service" and across all categories. "

I knew G-Cash was bound to win this year. I believe its a killer ap. Am mighty proud of the filipino talent. Smart Comm. won twice in a row the previous year for their Smart Money and Smart e-load.

Some books bought on impulse

Books bought feb13

Last Sunday, after I attended mass in greenbelt, I passed by Powerbooks to check out a Marketing Book I had been trying to find for some months now, 22 Immutable Laws of Mktg by Al Reis and Masters of Success by Ivan Misner.

They said they had ordered this last year but it has not yet arrived. As always I try to scan through the new books on display. All of a sudden I noticed the newly arrived "Secrets of Angels and Demons"! I had been a Dan Brown fan since Da Vinci, Digital Fortress, and Deception Point, but my favorite remains to be Angels and Demons.

Dan Burstein, the author has an interesting comment on why Dan Brown's novels including all the characters and information stated has become very controversial and popular.

He believes that " our culture is starved for intellectual discussion about the big questions of our time. " and that "we no longer understand the signs and symbols that were once intuitively obvious to our forebears".

He further states that " We are becoming deracinated from our own cultural heritage. We are torn between the impulses toward faith and spirituality on the one hand, and science and technology on the other. The more logical and technological our society becomes, the more some of us crave spirituality and a return to past values." The more some conclude that God is dead or irrelevant, the more others find themselves returning to church. And the more globalized and materialistic our cultures become, the more small groups seem attracted to the most illogical, untenable, extremist, and dangerous religious dogmas." We are supposed to be living in the information age, and yet we don't know if we are being lied to about basic facts. We know more and more about what happened microseconds after the big bang, yet we still know nothing about what happened before it. We are plunging headlong into a new millenium that is qualitatively different from the two millennia prior. We desperately want to talk about the experience, but there is no forum for doing so."

"Dan Brown's books give us the chance to engage in some of this discussion."

I bought "TheTruth behind the Da Vinci Code" since its short and easy reading compared to the other similar books which came out last year. The more I will not be able to read all of them if they have several hundreds of pages. I found out from this book that Da Vinci never named any of his works! It was the author Giorgio Vassari who actually named Mona Lisa, which was originally named Monna Lisa.

The Holy Place (Sauniere and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau) was from the same author as Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which I have not finished reading and which was the basis of the book Da Vinci code). What made me buy the book is that it contained some photos of the Holy Temple specifically in Rennes-le-Chateau which some believe may be related to the Holy Grail. I had been to some places in the Pyrenees area particularly in the Languedoc Region but never had stopped by Renne-de-Chateau. One day I hope to be able to visit the place.

Of course the other three books are related to my south beach diet. The 40 30 30 book was on bargain so I got it otherwise it would not have been on my cart. The Low Carb recipes were very easy to make and used some local materials. In my previous post I mentioned that this south beach thing is getting expensive so I am trying to learn how to cook the meals myself.

The smallest version of the South Beach Diet series (Good Fats, Good Carbs guide) provides summaries and tables of all the types of food per phase. Dr. Agatson must be a billionaire by now :)

Oh and most important of all, I bought one business book - "Niche and Get Rich". The word Niche stuck to my mind after I consulted a good friend and successful business person who is more than Rich - Dennis Valdes :) This is the reason I just had to buy this book. Fortunately I found out it was rated very high in Amazon, compared to other similar business books.

So this is what happens when I step inside Powerbooks, to think I didnt find the original book I intended to purchase :)

On Valentine Bombings, New BSP governor and other news

Whew what a day! As posted earlier I received news early morning that that Sr. Lucia just passed away. Come noon time I learned from the news that my classmate's husband will be the new Banko Sentral governor so I texted her. Apparently she didnt know of the announcement since she was in Rome with her dad a former BIR commissioner. She didnt even want to believe it till I told her I was watching the news on TV!

Later early evening, I learned that the major cause of traffic in makati was not really because of Valentine celebratons but a Bus that had been bombed along edsa corner ayala! Good heavens, just when the economy of the country was going so strong, here comes the usual dampeners. I wonder how the stock market will react tomorrow.

Edna and I were testing my chat window earlier and she expressed the same concern.

My Valentine Date

dad on valentines

Yes my date is dad! I actually wanted to treat him out to Kimpura, one of his favorite places since I planned to take shabu shabu. At least its just boiled food but he didnt feel like eating japanese so off we went to Jade Garden in Greenbelt. He asked if I could eat steamed shrimp and shellfish soup and said yes.

Well Jade didnt have shellfish soup (its a chinese resto not jap or pinoy!) so we settled for spinach soup with crab meat. I ordered steamed lapu lapu, the most expensive meal on the table! Well it seems the safest food to eat for someone doing southbeach diet.

I also ordered some steamed taiwanese pechay but it all seemed a lot so I ended up taking it out after dinner.

Sister Lucia, Fatima visionary dies at 97

fatima visionaries

I received an sms this morning saying Sr. Lucia has just passed away in Coimbra. Before I forwarded the message I had to verify if its true. I went to the EWTN channel which was quoted on the text but the program was taped. Checked via CNN or ANC but no mention at all.

When I got back to office, I remembered checking via the net and found the story was true at Channel News Asia.

Somehow I get this eerie feeling that the Pope's illnesss, his determination to pursue work despite his frail body and Sr. Lucia's passing away is related.

My family has been a devotee of Our Lady of Fatima. We have had several opportunities to hear mass with our own filipino priest at the Chapel of Apparition, lead the rosary in the evening procession (in Tagalog) and more importantly, was able to kiss the remains of the oak tree where Our Lady appeared. The remnant of that tree is locked inside a room right at the back of the Chapel. It is tightly guarded and not even priests are allowed to go in.

We need to pray hard for the Pope. I remember that when I last visited the St. Paul Basilica outside the walls of Rome, our guide said the pictures of all the popes since St. Peter was placed near the ceiling. Legend says that once all the empty frames are filled, it will be the end of the world. I think its was the late 80s or early 90s when I saw the remaining frames. They were less than a handful.

I can't recall if during that time it was Pope John Paul I who was the pope. I guess it was already Pope John Paul II. We were able to have an audience with Pope John Paul I, the shortest reigning pope. Call it foreboding but I took a stolen shot of him while he was brought down on the aisle on some chair and when I developed the photo, his head was cut :( A month or less after, we learned that he died in his sleep.

Going back to Fatima, during one of the times we visited the Cathedral where Jacinta's and Francisco's body where interred, we learned that Jacinta's body was growing taller. They had to move her in another place. Both of them are declared Blessed and perhaps will be canonized soon.

Notting HIll, the movie

nottinghill

"I am just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her". Such a famous line from this hit movie several years ago.

It was just showing a while ago in ABS-CBN. Besides the fact that I remembered not seeing the first part of the movie in the cinema house, I wanted to watch something mushy right now.

I never really liked the song "She" when I heard it decades ago but when used in the movie and amidst the context of the story, it sounded so romantic.

I know I will be in for another week of corporate challenges so light movies such as this is a weekend essential.

Market! Market!

market bbq

If I had time during Sundays, I go to the fiesta market part of Market! Market! to buy some organic veggies and eggs. I try to learn the South Beach recipes since my daily food deliveries from a swiss chef is becoming trop cher!

Each time I visit, I get amazed at the long line in this particular special bbq food counter. They are the only food stall with such a long queue. Must be something special plus the price. I cant taste them for my diet will be ruined.

Valentine with Mom

mom valentine spray

I knew dad bought her some anthuriums the other day so I decided to have a spray made instead. I am sure he will bring her some roses tomorrow as he has done since they met more than 50 years ago.

As in any special day I make sure I greet mom first by visiting her resting place at Heritage. I miss her a lot.

She likes white so I bought white orchids and interpersed with some red cotton- like flower whose name I cant seem to recall right now.

Happy Valentines Mommy!

Blogger land discoveries

Gosh have been discovering many things from blogs. This morning, I just found out that Dondi Mapa's grandfather was a good friend of my dad.

I read his recent blog last night and asked him this morning if his maternal grandpa has a round face and lives near malate since I used to accompany my dad in Dr. Ongpin's residence when I was a kid and he said yes its the same person! Small world.

Early this evening, I also learned that my good friend Edna also has a blog! Well she responded to my recent post in the PICS mailing list about pinoy blogs albeit done privately.

Typical of Edna she will never identify herself in her profile and will not share her url with others ha ha :) Its just so cool that it was Dennis who finally convinced her to start via an sms message. Of course her interest now was much was influenced by the Webcon on Blogging we recently held last thursday.