You are browsing the Places category.

January 13, 2011Also posted in Events

New Year 2011 in the Philippines

Happy New Year! We’re almost at the third week of 2011 but hey, better late than never, right? So here’s a music video mash-up of New Year fireworks as only Filipinos can celebrate it.

Let’s begin with a customized pyromusical display from Trinoma’s last fireworks for the holidays, edited in sync with the music by yours truly.

Sorry for the slightly shaky cam footage… it was so cold that night.

Trinoma 2011 Fireworks: "This Is The New Year" from Patrick on Vimeo.

I was supposed to capture this last fireworks display from Trinoma’s garden but I couldn’t make it because I didn’t have much sleep after the craziness that was New Year’s eve! (See my videos on Vimeo!)
This is one of their best shows and I wanted to make it special by putting fitting music in sync with the explosions. And what better song to use than my latest favorite song which I first heard from a Star World ad.

I’m a fairly new admirer of Ian but I’ll keep a lookout on his music especially now that I’ve learned that Yanni is his childhood hero too!

Song: This Is The New Year
Artist: Ian Axel feat. Chad Vaccarino
No copyright infringement intended. Please, this is all for the spirit of new year and new beginnings. ^_^

If you only have time to see one video, see part 2 below. It has the most fireworks. Open-mouthed smile

New Year 2011 in the Philippines – 1/3 from Patrick on Vimeo.

Part 1 of 3 – This is just the beginning! A taste of what’s to come. ^_^
Video shot in: Pag-asa, Quezon City, Philippines

New Year 2011 in the Philippines – 2/3 from Patrick on Vimeo.

Part 2 of 3 – This is it! The best New Year celebration in the whole world!
Video shot in: Pag-asa, Quezon City, Philippines

New Year 2011 in the Philippines – 3/3 from Patrick on Vimeo.

Part 3 of 3 – Happy 2011 everyone!
Video shot in: Pag-asa, Quezon City, Philippines

4 Comments

November 30, 2010Also posted in Books, Personal

Chords of Strength and Peanut Butter

I didn’t really have any plans to write here today but there have been a lot of signs lately telling me that I should do this so here I am to talk about Chords of Strength and Peanut Butter!

Chords of Strength is a book by American Idol runner-up David Archuleta where he shares his life experiences from childhood all the way to stardom. He tells in his book how music has shaped his life, how his faith in God has taken him to where he is now and how it continues to help him get through each day.

You see, my David Archuleta experience began with an answered prayer so I have no doubt in my mind that meeting him in person was God’s will and reading what he says in his biography only confirmed that.

“Sometimes it takes a miracle to ignite a person’s passion. Sometimes when you least expect it, the tables turn and that scary feeling that has taken hold of you for so long somehow turns into hope.” ~ David Archuleta

God really does know when to give His divine helping hand. You only have to trust in Him much like what David did when he was faced with the dilemma of whether to audition for American Idol (a huge risk!) or continue with his normal teenage high school boy life (most people in the history of the world go down this safe path). And we all know where his praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance has gotten him into.

“Even if I failed, I thought to myself that maybe there is something that I need to learn from going. I guess I just have to have faith right now and go with this feeling. I decided that it would have to become my mission to accept all of the opportunities that He laid before me as little blessings, each one a stone for my path. I would accept them with appreciation and give back by trying my best every single time. I realized that just because I’m unsure doesn’t mean that God is as well.” ~ David Archuleta

Being a book lover, I was naturally curious about what this kid wrote in his book. I’ve been reading it on my Kindle for a week now. Not the hardcover copy which is what my sister reads. Reading on the Kindle is strangely liberating.

Anyway, with still three chapters left to read, I can already safely say that “Chords of Strength” is in my top 2 fave books for this year. It might be even a tie between this and A Sense Of The World.

To say that David has inspired me would be a huge understatement of the actual effect his life story had in me. I am extremely grateful to God for giving me the chance to know more about such a good person and role model like David. It’s really serendipitous that the values David upholds closely matches the ones I’ve been trying to live by this year.

“That was the first time I had overcome my fear of singing in such a big way that I started to realize how many great things could happen by confronting the things that scare you most.” ~ David Archuleta

Meeting strangers or facing new people has always been one of my biggest fears. One of my monthly challenges this year attempted to address that problem. And so in keeping with the promise to do something challenging every month, I met with my Plurk friends again. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 at Trinoma C4 (my 2nd time and it’s still good!) and had dinner at Peanut Butter Company at SM City North Edsa. I had Roast Beef Sandwich and potatoes with Peanut Cucumber Mayo.

I never thought peanut butter could taste good with these stuff but they did! Mati and Jerwin are a sort of food adventurers you see.

Surprisingly, Mati knew about my coming special day so he even prepared a gift. Wow! At this age, I rarely ever get gifts so this was a very welcome surprise. He’s aware of my recent love for Christian music so he gave me a CD of Steve Green.

And as David did, I accepted it with my whole heart treating it as a sign that I should continue working on my relationship with God.

I have touched on David’s book in this article but don’t think this is already my review for it. I’ve learned a lot from this kid so it deserves to get a more comprehensive review. I’ll probably publish it on The Bookish Pinoy this weekend.

And around this time, I should have already posted my special birthday plans this year but they didn’t come into fruition due to several circumstances that I hadn’t anticipated. Normally I would have felt bad about this but David again was there to remind me of something I already knew but always keep on forgetting.

“things never happen exactly how you think they will”

I tend to overplan things a lot and it almost always doesn’t end up the way I wanted it to, resulting in massive emotional trauma for having been disappointed. So does this mean I have nothing special coming up for Thursday? Well, I guess we’ll just have to see what the Spirit will inspire me to do. And no, it’s not gonna involve peanut butters.

Read reviews of “Chords of Strength” by David Archuleta at Amazon.com

Write a comment

October 25, 2010Also posted in Books, Events, Personal

My Seminar at UST: The Rundown

So what really happened on that fateful day of 17th September 2010?

Well, I gave a speech, talk, seminar (or whatever you want to call it) to UST students!

I decided that the 9 Ways to Screw Up Your Speech list is the best way to record that experience. Instead of a blow-by-blow account of everything that’s happened there, I wrote the points I need to remember the next time I’m offered the chance to give a talk.

It should go without saying that the list should be taken in a reverse psychology kind of way. I got this idea from the demon Screwtape whose cunning I admired but whose morality I despised.

Obviously, there are a lot more things a good speaker should do and not do. But the ones I listed are personally relevant to how I carried out my speech in UST. In simpler terms, I personally made all those boo-boos.

Books on Public Speaking

I even bought a book just to prepare for the talk. But without enough time, unfortunately I didn’t get to internalize everything the book taught me.

Public Speaking and Personality Development
by Wilma Cruz-Tapalla and Valerie Cruz Tapalla

You can read my book review for this at The Bookish Pinoy.

Another book I owe my thanks to is this fun and entertaining book called Confessions of a Public Speaker written by Scott Berkun. I didn’t finish reading this in time for my speech but the few pages I read from it were invaluable.

While Tapalla’s book was more textbook-like, Berkun’s Confessions book reads like a conversation with a friend who has been doing public speaking his whole life. It’s a really good book and I would have bought it in hardcover if it wasn’t so expensively sold here. They have it in Fully Booked for 1550 pesos. I’ll definitely keep a lookout for this book in case it appears on a bargain table one of these days.

Acknowledgements

Now, for the thank-yous. First of course is Daryl. Without his crazy idea of inviting me there, I wouldn’t be learning the stuff I wrote on that list.

To Daryl: Next time, please don’t leave your guest speaker alone to fend for himself. I looked like a loser waiting for his turn in that corner. But thanks Apple fanboy.

Next, thank you to the UST students who endured starvation just to listen to my talk. Haha! I don’t know if anyone even noted the URL of this blog when I showed it in the presentation but I hope they learned something from my 60 minutes of babbling.

Here’s the presentation again… unedited with all the typos.

WordPress: a stepping stone to Web Development

And sorry for not explaining what a CMS is.

Next in the gratitude list is my family. (This is beginning to sound like a speech in itself!) My mother and sister even dropped me off at UST to keep me company while I vent out my fears and the insanity of this whole idea.

And last but not the least, thanks to Him. Without Him, I wouldn’t have had the strength to take on this challenge. The ordinary wimpy me would have said no without a second thought. But He reminded me of my promise for this year. I have been quite neglectful of my resolutions and this was my way of making up for it. After a few minutes chatting with Daryl, I immediately said YES. Talk about reckless bravery!

Although I made a lot of mistakes on this first talk, overall I consider it a success. If you had told me last year that I’ll be doing this, I would have told you that no alternate reality in all sets of quantum universes would ever have this kind of event. But look, in this dimension I actually did give a talk!

UST seminar 2010 - certificate of appreciation

So it’s easy to see that no matter how much man wants to control his future, even just one year on, it’s nothing short of impossible. But I have conquered the seemingly impossible by winning this challenge and I sure am ready for more!

6 Comments

April 25, 2010Also posted in Books, Personal

A Day with Percy Jackson, Moleskine and NBI

The day was February 10, 2010, a Wednesday. It was supposed to be my first day at the new job but I got a call telling me to report the next day instead. I was all dressed up already so I decided to spend the rest of the day securing a new NBI clearance which I had to submit for work anyway.

My first NBI clearance was 4 years old already. They are only valid for a year actually. I got my first a long time ago from the main NBI office and that was a grueling experience I have no intentions to relive.

Anyway, I knew about the NBI kiosk at SM Megamall so I went there that Wednesday afternoon at almost exactly 3 PM. I read a few blogs about this process and thankfully my own experience wasn’t as unfortunate as the others. I was in and out of that place in less than 20 minutes!

But let’s rewind back to a couple of hours before that. After reading a few traumatic accounts of this NBI renewal process, I decided to go to National Bookstore first to get a copy of Percy Jackson book 4, The Battle of the Labyrinth. Strangely, they did not have a single copy of any Percy Jackson book available. All five books were out of stock!

nbi office - sm megamall

So I just proceeded to the NBI kiosk and was delighted to see the absence of a long queue! I planned on reading Percy Jackson while waiting in line. Turns out I would not have had the time to read after all.

With my new NBI clearance inside my envelope, I went to see if Powerbooks had the PJ book I wanted. To my surprise, right at the entrance was a table dedicated to the Percy Jackson series itself. There’s even a poster of the movie right beside it. But to my dismay, the clerk told me only books 2, 3 and 5 were available. They had the hardbound 5-book set selling for 3,239 pesos! Tempting but I can only afford the paperbacks right now.

I went back to the MRT Ortigas station with no new Percy Jackson book on hand. It was a long wait for the northbound train to come so I took out my trusty old Creative Zen mp3 player and Sennheiser HD-205 to listen to some Christian songs. That’s how I cheer myself up nowadays. Listen to worship songs.

I might have looked like a pretentious idiot in the crowd with that huge DJ headphones but I don’t mind. I like my music as close to audiophilic quality as possible.

After 3 jam-packed trains scooted across the station, I was finally able to squeeze myself onto the fourth one.

As my train passed by Santolan all the way to Quezon Ave., I had a huge grin across my face as I saw each station sporting a Percy Jackson billboard ad.

percy jackson - movie poster

It’s the one where he acts like Moses because he’s in between two walls of water. The same one I saw at Powerbooks. I hope the marketing for this movie here paid well. I loved the movie by the way and have seen it 3 times!

Upon reaching Trinoma, I dropped by one of my favorite secondhand bookstores. It looked like it wasn’t God’s will for me to get the fourth Percy Jackson book that day but I wasn’t gonna let myself get back home without a new book in my bag. I felt like another book was waiting for me again. That’s how I got my last book purchase which now dearly holds a special place in my bookish heart.

chapters and pages - trinoma

I chanced upon the trade paperback fictions which sell for as low as 90 pesos. After much internal bleeding struggle, I got “Island From Home”. I chose it over “Master and Commander”. It’s the more juvenile option but I got it anyway just for kicks. Then I took a picture of the store or stall rather, for what else? For this blog post!

Upon arriving at SM North Edsa, I felt myself being pulled into National Bookstore again. Obviously, I’m a hard-headed bookworm. I wasn’t giving up that easily on Percy Jackson. But I’m sure you know what happened. The fourth book was probably available at their Bestsellers branch at the Annex building but I didn’t bother going there anymore because my feet were dead sore from all those walking. So that’s how my search for Percy ended that day.

Oh wait, rewind back again to Powerbooks Megamall. (Get used to it. This is how my mind works. It’s a huge mess, really.) I also checked out the expensive Moleskine notebooks. How expensive? The pocket sized notebook costs 795 pesos while the bigger ones are around 1800 pesos! Yeah, just for a notebook. Obviously, this is not your ordinary school notebook.

moleskine

I was surprised to see these expensive contraptions at National Bookstore because previously I thought Fullybooked was the only bookstore that carried them.

They are thread bound, have leather covers, straps and acid-free paper. The pages won’t yellow with time. Therefore, they’re perfect for archival purposes. What could be so special that would merit getting written on such pricey paper? I have no idea. Nonetheless, there are legions of sketchers, diarists and wannabe writers out there who would swear by their Mol-a-skeen-a! (That’s how it’s pronounced.)

Me? I don’t see myself riding the Moleskine bandwagon ever. Any white sheet of paper would do for me. For instance, I wrote this article on several small index cards. I’ve been using them whenever I’m not in front of WriteMonkey.

writing on index cards

I simply can’t justify spending 800 bucks for a few blank pages. It’s insane. If Apple is the king of the most unreasonably priced notebook computers, then Moleskine is its paper notebook counterpart.

I’d rather buy “The Hunger Games” which costs just as much and is sure to be more fun to read than my (mostly) nonsense scribbles. That was a joke of course. I like thinking I’m the best writer there is in this quiet, little corner of the web.

7 Comments

March 7, 2010Also posted in Events, Music, Technology, TV & Movies

The Best of Pinoy Web (week ending 03/05/10)

This is sad. I’m just updating this blog with a new “Best of” article. Whatever happened to promising two blog posts every week. Even The Bookish Pinoy hasn’t got an update for more than a month now! So much for New Year resolutions…

Anyway, I’ll write about my (hopefully valid) excuses some other time. For now, let me give you the Best of Pinoy Web for the past week.

Notable Tweets

Try this: While seated, draw a clockwise circle with your right foot , while draw ing the number 6 in the air with right hand. Impossible!
~ jimparedes

Just saw the final rap-song of a Sunday noontime show. Gulat ako sa claim nung singer na di sila “matalo talo kailanman” nung kabilang show?
~ jovefrancisco

Using precint finder I found out my voter status is still deactivated. I have to contact local office. What about you? http://bit.ly/aNP9Ic
~ momblogger

salamat sa tax ko, kaya may footbridge na ganyan.lol http://tweetphoto.com/12890949
~ trinz

The 1960 tsunami generated by the Chile earthquake killed 32 people in the Philippines. http://bit.ly/yeTXY
~ ageofbrillig

Praying for chile. Hope the tsunami causes no major damage. We need some water for our crops, but not a tidal wave please.
~ 1ricoblanco

may kudeta ba sa pinas? bakit may blackout? ahahaha reminds me of the 80s.
~ jonijavier

Oratio Imperata at today’s Mass re El Nino, power shortage. Prayers asked for wind, water.
~ tonyocruz

Aurelio on the lessons from the recent quakes: Understand the phenomenon, the hazards that come with it and know how to live with them.
~ ANCALERTS

Just continue to do good & u will get what is due. God is watching he knows what’s in ur heart & can read ur soul.
~ kingbianca

Life

The Things We Don’t Do

2010: Brownout and Blackouts

Essay: Playing Tricks with eBooks

Can You be Ambitious and a Christian at the Same Time?

Think I missed something really cool last week? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Write a comment

March 1, 2010Also posted in Events, Music, Technology, TV & Movies

The Best of Pinoy Web (week ending 02/26/10)

best-of-pinoy-web-02-26-2010

Every day, I scour the Pinoy web to find the most interesting Philippine-related articles, tweets, pictures and videos of the week. Then every Sunday, I share my best finds here. Late again, sorry! But I promise, there’s a lot of great stuff below.

2010 Philippine Elections

Bro. Eddie broke my heart

A reader complains about Villar bias during voters’ education

(Photo) From the traditional yellow, the Comelec will use black ballot boxes during the May 2010 automated polls.

Newsworthy

(Facebook) Jim Paredes’s Photos – EDSA Celebrations 2010

Feb. 25, 2010 is Blog Action Day: The Real Heroes of EDSA

(Photo) A worker spruces up the monument of the late Senator Ninoy Aquino while the larger People Power Monument stands in the background…

How to live the way of People Power

Apply for Philippine passport at new DFA bldg. starting March 8

Priest hits Bro. Eddie rally near Quiapo Church

(Photo) A man walks on the exposed massive sedimentation of the Gamano River in Santiago City, Isabela, one of the provinces most affected by the El Niño phenomenon.

Entertainment: Music, Movies and TV

Delaying the Inevitable – Phil Dy’s review of “Miss You Like Crazy”

Paramore Live in Manila Promo

Meet The Twitterati: Top 20 Non-Showbiz Celebs with the Most Followers

The Shang’s Digital Cinema is First to Bring Active 3D Glasses to the Philippine Cinematic Experience

SOP to ASAP: ‘The Battle is Not Yet Over’

Pinoy Gossip Boy’s Movie Review: Miss You Like Crazy

MYX Brings the Korean Boy Band ‘Super Junior’ to the Philippines

(YouTube) RICO BLANCO-Ayuz/Bangon (Ako Si Chris’ American jOePM Version)