the mungo conspiracy

So it's Monday salary day. As usual, being the paycheck to paycheck guy that I am, I really needed to withdraw money from the atm. BPI has three atms at SM Fairview (close to my apartment). But of course, being the uber-efficient banking people that they are, when it is salary day, 2 out of the 3 will be off-line. 33.33% batting average is MVP performance, if you are a batter in the Major League, not when you are a bank. So ok, the line on the lone working atm was 30-people long. I measured the time of the first person withdrawing to around one minute. Perfect. In this day and age of instant messaging, instant noodles, and one-night-stands, I need to stand in line for half-an-hour or more to get my money. Which is exactly how I want to waste 30 minutes of my life away. Fifteen minutes, and my calculations is coming to bear. I am halfway there. Progress. Ten or so more minutes and the line is now just 5 people long. I can hardly contain my excitement. I am nearly there. But...

Turned on the TV this lazy Sunday afternoon, channel surfed around a bit and found Party Pilipinas on GMA-7. I caught the show at the point where a shot of hot chick, her back turned to the camera, takes off her bikini top and tosses it. Today's theme? The Strip Show. Yeah, that's what on TV this Sabbath Day. A strip show delivered to your living room on a Sunday afternoon. Congratulations GMA, you've raised the bar once again.

I uploaded on youtube my first experiment in typo-kinetic animation. Check the bottom of the page  here . It's my favorite song from my favorite band, the Eraserheads. Funny thing is, I was afraid my video was going to get blocked here in the Philippines by reason of copyright infringement. But according to youtube... Great. That means my German friends/fans will not get to shake theyr heads now.

Congratulations to the Philippines' boxing hero Nonito "the Filipino Flash" Donaire -- for finally getting the ringside announcer to pronounce his name right. It's DO-NAY-RE, and not DO-NEYR. Oh yeah, that too, that second round knockout against Mexico's Fernando Montiel was simply brilliant. Finally, Dyan, landing one good punch (in the first round) is NOT dominating your opponent. Thank you Ronnie Nathanielsz for correcting her. But hey, I am  just too happy right now for that to irritate me. So let me congratulate you too Dyan Castillejo for not mentioning the name "Oscar dela Hoya" in that championship fight. Maybe the fight was just too short? But hey, whatever, you got through one championship boxing match without mentioning his name and deserves kudos for that accomplishment.  

A university graduate, unable to find a job commensurate to his education, was forced to sell fruits from a cart to make a living. But the powers that be decided that that was illegal. And so his fruit cart, his only means of livelihood, was confiscated. In protest, the man doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire. It was a fire that not only killed that poor soul -- but also ignited an entire nation to rise in revolt against the oppressive powers that be. Within a few weeks, Tunisia had a new leader. And inspired, Egypt would also rise in revolt against their own oppressive leader. One man, one suicide, may well be the one act that will forever change the face of that part of the world. At home, a man accused of amassing wealth not commensurate to his salary was greatly embarrassed. He was shown the flight records of his wife during his tenure as AFP Chief, properties acquired in the US, etc. He was given every opportunity to explain himself. Instead, he decides to shoo...

The SWS (or was it Pulse Asia?) recently conducted a survey. Which would Filipinos rather have, a good looking partner or a rich partner? It is the usual near V-day stunt you half expect from a survey body that seeks to keep their brand name in the news. And GMA 7 obliged. The survey was close. Nearly 50-50. But the "rich" won by a hair -- within the survey's margin of error or darned close to it. Of course, GMA 7 would rather sell that as "Filipinos now prefer money over looks".  And Mike Enriquez sold that before the end of each gap until the news segment was actually aired. You know how tabloid news programs keeps us viewers hooked with stingers like "shark attack in Boracay," only to be disappointed that in the actual news segment we see that it is a 6-inch baby shark that bit the the toe (and not even a severe wound) of a tourist. But I am not even disappointed with that as I've consciously set the bar low. But even with lowered expectati...

Do you need to transfer large files over the internet? The 25 MB max limit in Gmail not enough for you? Then get yourself a Dropbox account (by clicking on this link).  Absolutely FREE accounts gives you 2 Gigs of hard disk space in cyberspace. Even with my (sometimes slow) Smart Broadband, I was able to transfer 856 MB of files in about 2 hours (upload  on my side and download on the client side). It's so easy to use. 10 minutes learning curve (just read the instructions).

So, was Gen. Angelo Reyes a hero or a heel? You would never know if you just read or watch the local news. Just 2 days ago, before General Reyes shot and killed himself, he was portrayed as public enemy number one. Go ahead and find yourselves a copy of the Inquirer from a week ago. So, what happened since then? Oh, yeah, he shot himself. And that absolves him of all his sins? Before the death penalty was revoked, plunder was a crime punishable by death, and rightly so. And as far as I am concerned, a plunderer that decides to kill himself becomes not a saint but nothing more than a dead plunderer. People died in the battlefield because of poor equipment. Remember the defective mortar rounds and fake kevlar helmets? Those foot-soldiers were real people too. People died and continue to die in exploding buses and other terrorists attacks because intelligence funds were being used by the generals' wives (and other wives) to vacation in the USA, according to your news re...

Receiving this breaking news via sms from the Bizman himself, "MTC is again under DDOS attack!"  This is the second time in a week and after MTC was forced to migrate to a new server. It is not even 48 hours since MTC has been restored online that this second vicious attack happened. Apparently, the Bizman is sending me the sms as he is buying groceries where he further reports that onions are now 200 Php per kilo! If this does not connect the two incidents to one culprit, the mafia, I don't know what will. Conspirators please be on the lookout for anyone who stammers and has onion breath. Please report any and all sightings to this blog.

Remember my entry from last year " So long lives this "? I was doing some surfing on the web when I found this link .  Ms. Isabel Martinez, the author below, was my beloved Mama Chabeng. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF TINGLOY Dec 26, '10 1:11 AM for everyone Written by: MISS ISABEL A. MARTINEZ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER This is first published on TINGLOY TOWN FIESTA SOUVENIR PROGRAM of 16-18 August 1979. Just off the southwest coast of the Batangas mainland, about two nautical miles away, lies the radish-shaped Island of Maricaban.  People by no less than 13,000 inhabitants, the Maricaban Island has a territorial expansion of about 14 square miles of rugged hills and sloping mountains with the occasional splatterings of lowland plains and a liberal springklings of valleys.  The coastal perimeter of the Island with green trees and clinging vines and sudden drops of stony mountains slopes is a real treat to the eyes.  Spread all over the Island are ...

chrisvillarin  said... MTC is under DDOS attack. At the moment the domain is pointed to google when you type in MTC. it redirects to FB when typing www.mtc I found this comment on the "Thank you ManilaTonght" entry. Apparently, the Mafia has struck back at MTC for its support to this blog. This means WAR! Arm yourselves conspirators. We are going to the mattresses (whatever that means).