Make your vote count.

          It's only 3 days away from the National Elections. The last time I was able to vote was 12 years ago and i'm glad to be able to take part again. Right now, I am still torn between Noynoy Aquino and Gibo Teodoro. All candidates have their own pros and cons... I guess I'm just going to choose the one with less cons and more pros.

President(yet to be decided)

Vice President

Mar Roxas

Senators: 

Adel Tamano

Joey de Venecia

Pia Cayetano

Ralph Recto

 Ruffy Biazon

TG Guingona

Gilbert Remulla

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."

-George Jean Nathan

Protect Your Vote!

           10 May 2010 will be a milestone in the Philippines' historical time line not just because we are voting for the 15th President but also because this is the first time that we are getting automated. No more manual counting(although, politicians are seeking a parallel manual count because of the recent problems with the counting machines). It will still be paper-based for the voters, we have to shade an oval  located just before the name of the candidate of our choice. Kind of like taking the NCEE exam, only it's oval. As for the teachers and volunteers, they don't have to count the votes manually, the job will now be done by the PCOS machines.

So, what are PCOS machines?

PCOS stands for Precinct Count Optical Scan. It uses electronic technology to tabulate paper ballots.

At the start of Election Day:

• the PCOS machines shall print a “zero report” to show that there are no pre-existing votes/ballots in the machine. 
• The ballot boxes will be made of semi-transparent plastic which can clearly show that it is empty but at the same time make the ballots cast unreadable to protect its secrecy. 
• The voters can now proceed to obtain his ballot from the Comelec officer who will verify his identity.
• After filling in the ballots by shading the appropriate oval, the voter will cast the ballot by feeding it to the PCOS machine. 
• The ballot is scanned by the PCOS machine on both sides simultaneously and a scanned image of the ballot is taken by the machine and stored in it memory module.
• In case of power failure, the machines are certified to operate on back-up power for at least 12 hours.
• At the end of Election Day, the BEI will seal and shut down the PCOS machine and will print 8 copies of the election returns. Thereafter, the PCOS will electronically transmit the electronic election return to several servers, namely the Comelec server, municipal server, and the servers for election watchdogs.

Additionally, it will(should) be secured and encrypted using the same standards as what the banks use for wiring money. Hopefully, we will know the results within 48 hours.

Comelec will also be posting the results of the transmission on-line. Thus, the general public may view the results from each precinct or district or province as they come in.

Polls open on May 10 at 7 AM and voting ends at 6 PM.

Mark no more than the exact number of choices. 1 president, 1 vice president, 12 senators (you can vote for less than 12 but not more), 1 Party list, 1 mayor, 1 vice mayor, 1 governor, 1 vice governor. If you vote more than the specified number, that portion of the ballot is invalidated. Do NOT make mistakes, otherwise, you’ll spoil your ballot. Good luck.

 sources: computerworld.com.ph
              comelec.gov.ph

The Battle of the Social Networking Sites

These are  recently the top 6 social networking sites based on the number of users:

6. Orkut - 100M users; owned by Google; named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Buyukkokten; Popular in India and Brazil; blocked in Iran and Saudi Arabia due to the countries' censorship drive

5. Twitter - 105M users; sometimes described as the SMS of social networking because of the 140-character-only way of updating status or communicating with friends, known in twitter as followers.

4. Friendster - 115M users; founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006; more popular in Southeast Asia; the top subscribers are from the Philippines

3. 51 - 120M users(in China alone); the audience is a nation: China; (facebook and twitter are both banned in China so they have their own)

2. MySpace - 185M users; a sort of virtual audition stage to debut new tracks, share information or arrange special shows for fans of unsigned bands or musicians

1. Facebook - 400M users; founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students; The idea for Facebook came from his days at Phillips Exeter Academy which, like most colleges and prep schools, had a long-standing tradition of publishing an annual student directory with headshot photos of all students, faculty and staff known as the "Facebook"; it just started as a Harvard thing and became popular in othe universities and colleges; because of Facebook, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) has now a networth of $4 billion.

           A book based on the founding of Facebook has been published, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. This book has now been adapted into a movie, The Social Network, which will be released in October 2010, starring Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg) and Justin Timberlake.

 Mark Zuckerberg

funny animated short story about social network war:


sources: wikipedia.org, onlinemarketingblog.com, news.discovery.com, imdb.com

Choosing Your Government Leaders

Now is the time to vote responsibly. Filipinos need a good leader now more than ever. Here is a guide to all the things the voters should know and some information about our presidential candidates published by the Philippine Online Chronicles website:

• Know your beliefs. It's about time we all stand up for something. If you don't have an opinion on some of the critical issues that we face, get the facts through research. Being informed is always the start of our political maturity.
• Know our candidates well – their complete profile, their political history, their business dealings, etc. How they achieve their present status can show us how competently they will be able to perform as our national leader.
• Know their platform of government. This will be a tool to help our economy grow. Don't be swayed by surveys, by their celebrity supporters, or by their promises alone.
• Know that you are the focus of negative campaigning: the undecided, the critical, the careful and deliberate voter. You are the one intended to be manipulated.  They just want you not to show up at all on election day. If you stay away, their dirty tricks would have worked. Don’t give them the satisfaction. It’s up to us to break the shackles of ignorance and apathy by educating ourselves and finding out the real score regarding the people we want to vote into office. It won’t be easy but if we persevere, the truth will reveal itself in the end.
• Know that surveys do not provide  information on platforms. Surveys just say that one candidate is popular at the particular time that a survey is conducted. Let’s not waste our vote by basing it on trending and survey-driven analysis. The real results arrive on election day.

The top 5(according to survey and not in order) candidates and their platforms: 

(glennong.com)

Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III

Noynoy Aquino’s platform is about transformational leadership. An example of which is from a President who tolerates corruption to a President who is the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption. He asserts good governance, transparency and prudent budgeting, education and social welfare, and economic reforms as his primary thrust if the nation will elect him as President in the coming 2010 Elections.

Jose Marcelo “Erap”  Ejercito

Estrada adheres to the political, economic and social platforms of his political party. For its political platform, emphasis is given to the pursuit of an independent foreign policy; reconciliation with insurgents who take up arms against the government; making the judiciary fair, impartial and efficient; and local autonomy. For its economic platform, emphasis is on  the development of the national economy and the countryside; privatization, deregulation and debt reduction for the benefit of the masses; limiting of foreign debt servicing to a certain percentage of our export earnings; comprehensive agrarian reform program for food and production security; implementation of programs that allow Filipinos to own and/or control big business enterprises critical to the national economy; improved tax collection, and requiring Government corporations to pay taxes. For its social platform, emphasis goes to the equitable distribution of wealth, environmental protection, and education.

Richard “Dick” Gordon

The primary platforms of Dick Gordon are best encapsulated in the document entitled “Manifesto for Change” of his party, Bagumbayan.  In the manifesto, he identified the problems besetting the country and the group’s guiding principles geared towards the alleviation of the country’s woes.  He begins with a focus on the individuals as having primary responsibility for themselves and their fellow Filipinos in the task of transformation. He wants an educated Philippines.

Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo "Gibo" Cojuangco Teodoro, Jr

Teodoro identified basic education reform, health care, agriculture and long-term infrastructure planning as the priority concerns of any administration that he will head. The most important urgent economic issues that would need to be addressed by a new President are infrastructure development and lowering power costs. He said he was also for independent monetary policy, developing power from sustainable energy sources and improving investor confidence in the country. Because of the potential economic benefits of the new Tourism Act, he will also be focusing on the tourism sector. Teodoro pushes for academic excellence and a better curriculum, because he thinks that the current curriculum does not place enough focus on technical skills, mathematics, and English. Teodoro hopes to enable the poorest of the poor to finish college by encouraging them to loan from government. He also intends to increase farm productivity through modernizing our agricultural and agri-industrial sectors.

Manuel “Manny” Villar, Jr.  

 Manny Villar does not make promises alone. Although he has made poverty alleviation a top priority, he knows this is something that everyone, including the poor themselves, must strive for and work towards. Entrepreneurial revolution and a competitive environment will be the centerpiece of Manny Villar’s program if he is elected to the presidency. Manny Villar stressed that in his first hundred days in office, he will approve on national television all the contracts that need to get done in his six years in office, all above board. Villar believes that this impact will encourage investment, will encourage belief in his government to work. It appears from his many interviews that he thinks it is easy for a candidate to hire speechwriters and consultants to draft platforms and mission-visions on paper. What mattered, according to him, is how an aspirant can validate any claim to a platform with past experiences and records. His plans, he claimed, are backed up by his own past actions, and are not mere promises to deliver.

via: www.thepoc.net

a lot more about all the presidential candidates here!

their detailed platforms here.

The Party-List System

It's barely 2 weeks until the National elections. I already have a president and vice president and I am also already decided on 6 out of 12 senators but what about the Party List? What about it? Not a lot of people, myself included, have complete knowledge about this Party-list system. The last time I was able to vote was in 1998 and I don't even remember if I had to vote for these sectoral parties at that time. So here's what it's about....

Let's start with the Congress
The Congress of the Philippines is the national legislature of the Philippines. It is a bicameral body consisting of:
1. the Senate (upper chamber)
              -composed of 24 senators (half of which are elected every 3 years)
2. the House of Representatives (lower chamber)
             -composed of a maximum of 250 congressmen
                         2 types of Congressmen:
                                 a. the district representative (1 or 2 from each province and city)
                                 b. sectoral representatives (represents the minority sectors of the population)

          The sectoral representatives are also known as 'the party-list representatives'. They represent labor unions, rights groups, and other organizations. This enables the minority groups to be represented in the Congress. Since 1998, each voter votes for a single party-list organization. Organizations that garner at least 2% of the total number of votes are awarded one representative for every 2% up to a maximum of three representatives in the House of Representatives.

         On the 10th of May, each voter will have to choose 1 out of 187 Party-list Groups. To be honest, even with the information I now have regarding the party-list, I still don't have ideas anyway about most of the group candidates. A few comes to mind though because they are very active and you'd often hear about them on news. There's GABRIELA(for women's rights)- represented by Liza Maza; BAYAN MUNA - represented by Satur C. Ocampo; and KABATAAN -represented by Raymond Palatino

Sources: wikipedia.org , senate.gov.ph, comelec.gov.ph
Know more about the House of Representatives by clicking here.

 This is a sample/template of the official Ballot. This is available to the public and was downloaded from comelec.gov.ph 

Click the image to enlarge.

Yesterday, CNN came up with this report about the possibility of an earthquake(a strong one) hitting Manila next. The government is saying that Manila is not ready for it.
From GMANews.tv: "The Metro Manila Impact Reduction Study conducted in 2004 by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) found that the capital is vulnerable to a magnitude-7.2 earthquake that may be generated by the Marikina Fault. The study assessed Metro Manila’s preparedness and estimated that there could be 35,000 fatalities, 500 simultaneous fires in up to 98,000 buildings, and 170,000 structures may collapse in the event of strong temblors."
In the above CNN report, they are saying that there can be as much as 50,000 fatalities.
The Philippines is not new to earthquakes, we've had quite a few that we barely felt but I can still remember the strongest earthquake I have ever experienced 2 decades ago. I was 12, school probably just ended as it happened a little past 4pm. I was already riding my bicycle around our village and I was in the area very close to the grade school I was attending. That happened July 16, 1990. The magnitude: 7.8, but even with that high a magnitude, the death toll was 1,620.

Makes you wonder why the number of fatalities are so extreme even if the earthquake magnitudes that occur in different places are close in range.
Haiti(January 12, 2010) - 7.0 magnitude - 230,000 fatalities
Chile(February 27, 2010) - 8.8 magnitude - 486 fatalities + 70+missing
China(April 13, 2010) - 7.1 magnitude - 2,064 fatalities(not final)

How can a country be ready for an earthquake anyway?

Soda!

I spotted these at SM Department store a few weeks ago. It did catch my attention but not enough to stop me from walking to check out the product. I saw a print ad yesterday and in the ad it said "Enjoy the freshness and convenience of homemade soda and protect the environment at the same time." Pretty cool... I want... So I'll be blogging about more of it within the next few weeks.

The Palm, The Passion and the Roman Catholic Traditions...

Holy Week - last week of the Lent; the week before Easter; starts on Palm Sunday; ends Easter Sunday. In the Philippines, which is dominated by Catholics, Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday with a mass which include the blessing of palm leaves. It then goes on to a Monday to Wednesday remembrance of the events that occurred between Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem and the Last Supper. There is also the Maundy Thursday(Last Supper), Good Friday(The Passion of Christ), and Black Saturday(silence and prayer which commemorates the Christ in the tomb). These are the days when most Roman Catholics participate in street processions and plays or street re-enactment of The Passion, but of course to some, it's just a start of a very long weekend since Holy Thursday is the beginning of a 3-day National Holiday. To others, it also means a time to head out-of-town to relax and bond with family since malls are all closed and national TV and radio programmes are suspended for 3 days from Thursday. The procession is one tradition that I never get tired of, I watch it almost every year.

Venus, Venus

Is she wearing a nighty?

Photo from Yahoo! Sports

Tallest buildings

Speaking of Hong Kong and high-rise buildings... the Two International Finance Centre in HK is ranked the 7th tallest building in the world.... it's height is 1362 feet and it opened in 2003.

2IFC, the tallest one here obviously

another picture of the HK skyline featuring 2IFC, taken from Victoria Peak.

The top 10 (not including the ones that are still under construction)

1.	Burj Khalifa	Dubai	2,716 ft
2.	Taipei 101	Taipei	1,671 ft
3.	Shanghai World Financial ..	Shanghai	1,614 ft
4.	Petronas Towers 1 and 2	Kuala Lumpur	1,483 ft
5.	Willis Tower	Chicago	1,451 ft
6.	Jin Mao Tower	Shanghai	1,380 ft
7.	Two IFC	Hong Kong	1,362 ft
8.	Trump International Hotel	Chicago	1,362 ft
9.	CITIC Plaza	Guangzhou	1,283 ft
10.	Shun Hing Square	Shenzhen	1,260 ft

Some of the tallest buildings in the world(including the ones still under construction and destroyed)
click picture to enlarge

In the Philippines, the tallest is the PBCom Tower located in Makati City standing 848 feet, it is ranked 117th in the world. It has 55 floors used for commercial offices. Naturally, the first 10 floors are occupied by PBCom or the Philippine Bank of Communications.

Still on IFC Tower and HK, I took this stunning night view video of the Victoria Harbour and HK Islands skyscrapers while sat on a bench along the Avenue of Stars just watching ferries crossing the harbour and some lights flicker from the buildings. I could really stay here for hours...

facts from: emporis.com

Quake

Today, there was an earthquake in some parts of Metro Manila at a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale. I was in Manila but didn't feel it but news reports proved it to be frightening to people who were, at that time on higher floors of a building. Fortunately, no one got hurt. I remember, the day after Chile was hit by a devastating quake, I was in Hong Kong and as I was wandering around the city, I was thinking that I wouldn't want to be there if it got hit by an earthquake(multiple knocks on wood).

From wikipedia.com: Hong Kong is mountainous and there are a lot of steep slopes. According to Emporis, there are 7,681 skyscrapers in Hong Kong, putting the city at the top of world rankings. The high density and tall skyline of Hong Kong's urban area is due to a lack of available sprawl space, with the average distance from the harbour front to the steep hills of Hong Kong Island at 1.3 km (0.8 mi), much of it reclaimed land. This lack of space causing demand for dense, high-rise offices and housing, has resulted in 36 of the world's 100 tallest residential buildings being in Hong Kong, and more people living or working above the 14th floor than anywhere else on Earth, making it the world's most vertical city.
I mean just look at where almost all of them live.

It's like this everywhere, high rise, high rise, high rise.

Sources: emporis.com
wikipedia.com
abs-cbnnews.com

Lent

When we hear the word Lent, it usually reminds us of a few things: Ashes; Giving something up; Scrutinies: Examining our lives; Penance; Prayer; fasting; Stations of the Cross; and Blessed palms but Lent actually denotes to the forty days' fast preceding Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. It is also a season of soul-searching and repentance... of course lent is not the only time when we can repent but it is in most Catholics' beliefs that these things are widely practiced during Lent. I did not actually give up anything but in so many ways, as was taught to me as a Catholic, I try to keep up with the traditions brought about by this season.

I want to share a story that I have finished reading for the 2nd time. The Shack written by William P. Young. It's a like a prayer book, lessons from the Bible, daily bread, and fiction rolled into one great story that in one way or another will open the readers' minds and hearts. It will give you the reasons for one's lack of faith.

The story is about a father who lost his youngest daughter to a tragedy that made him question the capacity of God to actually save the one's who truly does not deserve bad things. It is not a story that is unusual but what's different about this is how the main character found his faith again. He met God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit who showed and reminded him of how painful, but also amazing life can be. These to me are the best parts of the book:

"Evil is a word we use to describe the absence of Good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of Light or death to describe the absence of Life. Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence. I am Light and I am Good. I am Love and there is no darkness in me. Light and Good actually exist. So, removing yourself from me will plunge you into darkness. Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from me, you can only draw upon yourself. That is death because you have separated yourself from me: Life."

"The person who lives by his fears will not find freedom in my [God's] love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe that I [God] am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it."

"Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive. But should they finally confess and repent, you will discover a miracle in your own heart that allows you to reach out and begin to build between you a bridge of reconciliation.........Forgiveness does not excuse anything.........You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness......"

"Each relationship between two persons is absolutely unique. That is why you cannot love two people the same. It simply is not possible. You love each person differently because of who they are and the uniqueness that they draw out of you. "

"Have you noticed that even though you call me Lord and King, I have never really acted in that capacity with you? I've never taken control of your choices or forced you to do anything, even when what you were about to do was destructive or hurtful to yourself and others."

Tron

I remember watching this over and over with my sister and little brother when we were in grade school in Betamax format. We thought it was the coolest "high-tech" movie at that time.

Now I can't wait to see the new film in December of this year... it will be awesome on IMAX.

A GQ profile of Manny Pacquiao

The best I've read about Pacman...

by Andrew Corsello:

"I think about how Manny Pacquiao's life is a cyclone of madness and dysfunction and karaoke and tango dancing and fucked-to-death lions and grown men vying to fluff his rice and cut his meat and massage his thighs and sing harmony parts on Beatles songs.

How can he live this way?

Because he is the serene centering Eye. The storm, his life, envelops but does not touch him. The Tysonesque psychopathologies that drive other boxers to the dark side are flung centrifugally from his body and soul, outsourced to his disciples, who carry this burden and lay down their lives for him."

via GQ.COM

Underwater Museum

On the March 2 issue of South China Morning Post, the cover story was about the underwater museum, located in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. I find it really amusing. It is not just for attraction, according to the website Environmental Graffiti: "The idea is for the sculptures – all made of pH-neutral concrete – to attract algae and marine life and therefore soon take on a life of their own, giving the local ecosystem a boost."

Random pics from my trip....

I wish some of our public toilets here have this...

or this... (toilet seat cover)

I love how they translate this not just in English but also in Filipino... I guess a lot of hard headed Pinoys over there...

In DreamWorld theme park, they call Snow White.... Snow Whote?

A sign by the entrance of Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. So basically, you cannot do anything. It would have been much easier if they put up a sign saying "NO ENTRY"


I loved seeing some familiar stores...





they don't have Walker's Thai Sweet Chilli crisps here :(

It says "do not walk outside this area"... I wouldn't dare!