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The Best of Pinoy Web (week ending 01/01/10)

First post of 2010! Happy New Year/Decade!  :D

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 will share my best finds here. If you think I missed something really cool during the past week, please write about it in the comments. ^_^

New Year 2010 Special

(Photos) New Year 2010 Photos from Boston’s Big Picture
Includes 3 photos from the Philippines!

(Photo) An amazing display of fireworks in Albay welcomes 2010
Overshadows Mayon Volcano’s spectacular show of cascading lava on New Year’s Eve.

(Photoset) 2010 @ Eastwood City by ohhhace
Eastwood City, Libis, QC

(Photo) Fire in the sky
2010 countdown fireworks display as captured from San Miguel By The Bay, Mall of Asia, Philippines.

(YouTube) Eastwood City Grand Fireworks Countdown To 2010
by Dragon Fireworks ^_^

(YouTube) 2010 New Year’s Firework Display at SM Mall Of Asia (MOA)
3 million spent on this firework display!! — according to the news
Watch Video #1 : More complete but the camera is so shaky at parts.
Watch Video #2 : Incomplete but the best shot of the show I’ve seen so far!

(YouTube) AMAZZZZZING fireworks display in Manila-2010 Part 1 and Part 2
FORGET Sydney, New York, Hong Kong, Paris or anywhere else in the world for New Year’s Eve!!! MANILA is the place to be for the longest, most spectacular fireworks display ANYWHERE in the world!!!! I’m not Filipino so don’t think I’m being biased either. It’s just a fact. Take a look and see for yourselves and then book to be HERE next year!!! You will not be disappointed at all!!

(YouTube) San Juan City New Year 2010 Fireworks Display Part 1 and Part 2

(Article) All is Quiet on New Year’s Day
by: Lourd de Veyra

News-worthy


Pacquaio: idolo sa boksing; hindi superhero
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=8962

PSA: Automated polls a disaster waiting to happen
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/12/28/09/psa-automated-polls-disaster-waiting-happen

Taxi Meter Receipts Start January 1, 2010
http://trapik.com/newsfeature.asp?newsNum=2062

Best blogs by overseas Filipinos for 2009
http://asiancorrespondent.com/tonyo-cruz-blog/2009_best_ofw_blogs

Space Shuttle Max at Enchanted Kingdom
http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/2009/12/all-systems-go-space-shuttle-max-at.html

Internet Superstars Aileen Apolo and Jay de Jesus Wedding
http://realityweddingvideo.tv/internet-superstars-aileen-apolo-and-jay-de-jesus-wedding/

Entertainment: Music, Movies and TV

New Blood
“Shake Rattle and Roll 11″ movie review by Phil Dy

The Legend Killer
“Ang Panday” movie review by Phil Dy

The Joy Returns
“Ang Darling Kong Aswang ” movie review by Phil Dy

Doomed to Fail
“Wapakman ” movie review by Phil Dy

Afraid of the Dark
“I Love You Goodbye” movie review by Phil Dy

For Want of Restraint
“Nobody Nobody but…Juan” movie review by Phil Dy

35th Metro Manila Film Fest winners unveiled
http://www.pep.ph/guide/5313/35th-Metro-Manila-Film-Fest-winners-unveiled

For Pinoy Web Geeks

Telcos lost Millions to Facebook this Christmas
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/telecoms/telcos-lost-millions-to-facebook-this-cristmas/

Poll: Movers and Shakers of 2009
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/polls/poll-movers-and-shakers-of-2009/

SkyBroadband Customer Review, Feedback
http://www.bikoy.net/archives/2009/12/27/customer-review-of-skybroadband/

Yugatech’s Biggest Tech Stories of 2009
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/site-updates/our-biggest-stories-of-2009/

Notable Tweets

What is this guy on? RT @PAGASAWeather: ONdoy was retired. Wonder if the future name of the next O replacement will be OFFdoy
~ random_salt

just saw the MichaelV/MannyV TV spot. Senor Manny. I mean well when I say this to you. Hold off on the botox, dude.
~ carlosceldran

in my book, the biggest death of 2009 was mininova =P
~ thomasmmm

from resources for the blind:for 750 peso donation someone can have cataract surgery free! gift of sight is priceless. www.blind.org.ph
~ nevakares


Life

Naglakbay nAPO ako
by Jim Paredes

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The Best of Pinoy Web (week ending 12/25/09)

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 will share my best finds here. If you think I missed something really cool during the past week, please write about it in the comments. ^_^

News-worthy

Help evacuees from restive Mayon volcano
http://asiancorrespondent.com/tonyo-cruz-blog/help_mayon_evacuees

UP Lantern Parade 2009 (Flickr Photo Set)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdelamerced/sets/72157623028108958/

Entertainment: Music, Movies and TV

Avatar grosses P57 million during its opening weekend in the Philippines
http://www.pep.ph/guide/5285/Avatar-grosses-P57-million-during-its-opening-weekend-in-the-Philippines

DASAL by Santino (Globe Commercial Full Song WITH LYRICS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VySlreKl2cI

Star ng Pasko (ABS-CBN Christmas Station ID for 2009) (Version 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Caz7xJxsnw

For Pinoy Web Geeks

Play and Win a Motherboard from ASUS Philippines
http://www.gameops.net/2009/12/play-and-win-motherboard-from-asus.html

Waiting for 2010 before getting a netbook
http://www.pinoytechblog.com/archives/waiting-for-2010-before-getting-a-netbook

Notable Tweets

“If you’re a telco, how do you convince a farmer to spend his money on prepaid load over food?” — Globe CEO Ernest Cu http://ow.ly/OrmK
~ tonyocruz

So that Star Cinema can further decimate IQ points? No thanks, Sen. Revilla. rt @smeieralbano Revilla: “We should show only 1 Hollywood/mo.”
~ heyessa

“The world is full of obstacles and problems that come your way. Learn to bury them and they will stay away.” Xmas wishes from the Ampatuans
~ scribblerjack

1990s I saw a TV ad: guy took out “X” from “Xmas” & changd it 2 “Christ”. I’ll never 4get it, meant a lot 2 me. Celebrate THE REASON folks!
~ tjmanotoc

Life

After the Christmas frenzy, what’s next? (Christmas day homily)
by Fr. Jboy

It’s ok NOT to buy people stuff this Christmas
by Arnold Gamboa

A Very Filipino Christmas (illustration)
by dan matutina

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The Best of Pinoy Web (week ending 12/18/09)

Every day, I scour the Pinoy web for the most interesting Philippine-related articles, tweets, tumblogs, pictures, videos of the week. Then every Sunday, I will share my best finds here. If you think I missed something really cool, please write about it in the comments. :)

News-worthy

Judd Sta. Maria first reports the Serendra car explosion

Juana Change – “Horror”
Juana Change’s new video about the Maguindanao Ampatuan Massacre
(Warning: Video contains extremely graphic content)

(Photo) Lava cascades from the slopes of Mayon Volcano in Albay, Bicol

2 Filipinos win CNN, YouTube climate video tilt

Comelec reopens voter’s registration on December 21

The President’s Formspring page (it’s fake but fun)
I’m eagerly awaiting Nanay Dionisia’s own formspring. :D

Entertainment: Music, Movies and TV

GLEE Star discovers aspiring Pinoy Artist on YouTube

Film critic Phil Dy reviews James Cameron’s movie “AVATAR”

Experience AVATAR at SM Digital Theater Megamall with Motion Effect Seat Simulators

“Lola” wins Best Film in the 6th Dubai International Film Festival

For Pinoy Web Geeks

YugaTech Contest #1: Merry Tweetmas

Daphne Osena recommends Flip for your HD video recording needs

Notable Tweets

“People in the Philippines are super nice! Funny too…”
~ LenkaMusic (Lenka Kripac – artist)

“A christmas tale: friend just saw a street child drinking water from the gutter.”
~ mlq3 (Manuel L. Quezon III)

Life

Advent Part III: The Face of Joy
Fr. Jboy’s homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Have You Helped Anyone Today?
An insightful post by J. Angelo Racoma

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HOME : The Most Beautiful Nature Documentary You’ll Ever See!

HOME : The Most Beautiful Nature Documentary You’ll Ever See!

Do you know that the world spends twelve times more on weapons than on aid to developing countries? Or that half the world’s wealth is in the hands of the richest 2% of the population? Watch “HOME” then you’ll know important facts like these and as a bonus, you’ll see awe-inspiring sceneries you never even knew existed on our planet!

I know words will not be enough to express my amazement in this show but I will try and hopefully you will want to see it too after reading this review. And no, this is nothing like Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. There’s no point of comparison at all.

home-logo

“HOME” is a 2009 documentary film that currently holds the world record for the largest film release in history. It premiered on June 5, 2009 in cinemas around the world with a simultaneous release on DVD, Blu-ray, television and YouTube. It is also the first ever movie that is 100% aerial footage, shot using a gyro-stabilized Cineflex HD camera mounted on a helicopter flying in over 54 countries.

It is a free movie so you can actually download it and share it with your friends. It has no copyright but of course, you shouldn’t alter or edit it. You can watch the movie on YouTube but first, let me show you the trailer.

The Big Picture

“Home” tells us the story of how we humans have succeeded in disrupting the balance which is essential for life to prosper on the planet. The movie is composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth and this is probably where the strongest appeal of the film is. My mother even mistook some of the shots for drawings!

home 2009 - pic 1

And this is why I think many people don’t realize how beautiful our planet is. The kind of art you’ll see in nature will easily beat out any million dollar painting in the Louvre!

home 2009 - pic 2

The shots are all picture-perfect that each frame can easily pass as a wallpaper on InterfaceLIFT.com.

home 2009 - pic 3

The cinematography is not just the only great thing about the movie though. The powerful narrative and score will make you almost taste and feel each image presented on-screen. It’s definitely one of the finest-looking documentaries I have ever seen.

What do we learn from it?

“Home” begins by describing how each component of the ecosystem in nature is vital. “Everything is linked. Nothing is self-sufficient.” — is the theme repeated throughout the film. The movie then shows how humans made drastic changes to the natural cycle therefore breaking the life-sustaining links.

home 2009 - pic 4

The movie presents several statistics, many of which can be downright shocking, so viewers feel the urgency of the subject at hand. It says that the big cities are the biggest consumers and therefore offenders of nature. One prime example is the following statistical claim:

“Nothing seems further removed from nature than Dubai. Although nothing depends on nature more than Dubai.”

The sad truth here is that it’s the poorest of the countries like Bangladesh and Haiti — countries that have little to do with climate change — that are the ones already suffering the effects of the abuse.

Many of the facts presented will surely make people wonder how much society is shaped and influenced by a select few.

home 2009 - pic 5

But “Home” isn’t all about doom and gloom. We can still fix what we have done to nature without necessarily having to go back to living exactly like our ancestors. Possible solutions like renewable sources of energy are mentioned, citing the ongoing efforts of the countries and NGOs involved. There’s no single solution to our problems but “Home” has an ingenious ending that is sure to make viewers feel compelled to act positively on the message of the film.

Why don’t we have more people watching this?

I am disappointed that “Home” isn’t publicized more in the mainstream. Instead, we have shallow attempts at human-vs-nature drama like 2012 grabbing more attention. It is obvious that many people are uninformed of the issues stated here. I think it is imperative for the youth to be enlightened by this film. Why? Because it’s precisely their generation that is in danger of facing Nature’s wrath in the near future!

home 2009 - pic 6

With an amazing cinematography, a captivating score and a fantastic narration, “Home” is the best documentary on the state of our planet that I’ve ever seen. It’s a movie that will make any human truly appreciate the beauty of nature. Plus, it has that profound effect of making people more mindful of their acts towards Mother Earth — our one and only home.

My Verdict: A perfect 10 out of 10!

If you need to see only one documentary on this subject, make sure it’s this one.

Watch “HOME” in full-length on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

You can also visit the official site for more info: www.home-2009.com

Disclaimer: I’m not really an environmentalist. I’m just an ordinary homo sapiens who realized how horrible our species have been to our planet and I hope you will too, after watching this beautiful film.

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The Return of SYAORAN.net

The Return of SYAORAN.net

syaoran-net-logo-discursiveSurprised? Yeah, well this new design has been in the works for almost 3 months! I didn’t even expect the launching date would reach my special day of the year. ^_^

I decided to change my blog’s name and URL. The original plan was to merge this blog and my book blog but that was canceled due to obvious and practical reasons. All links to the old “journal” address should now automatically redirect to the new one which just uses the word “blog” for simplicity’s sake. I just realized “journal” didn’t define what I was doing since I don’t really update every single day. So this blog is now simply called SYAORAN.net (with the uppercase letters). And the official blog URL is: http://www.syaoran.net/blog – funny to have this now since one of my previous blogs had almost the same URL years ago:P

So what else is new? Well, I’ve rewritten the About page, scrapped the Links page and added a new Subscribe page. Moved some things around a bit and added a few new stuff but the content is practically the same as before. The homepage has been revamped for a magazine-style look while the latest posts in The Bookish Pinoy are also promoted there. There’s still a few quirks here and there but I will definitely work on those in the coming days.

On the technical side, this design, which I fondly named “discursive”, is a child theme for the Thematic theme framework for WordPress. I just love the idea of child themes! Now I can easily make huge design changes without getting worried about new WP versions ruining things up for me. If you’re a WP blogger who knows CSS and some PHP, I highly suggest you look into theme frameworks.

To my fellow bloggers, I’m still open for link exchanges but just so you know, the blogroll at the bottom only shows 7 links at a time. It randomly picks the links to show. I haven’t created a blogroll page yet but will likely have one in the future.

Finally, I’d like to share with you what I just ate yesterday with my family.

December 2, 2009 Cakes!

December 2, 2009 Cakes!

Scrimped on them this year since I don’t have a steady source of funds. The important thing is I enjoyed them with the people most important to me. Thank you Bro for giving me another year with them. AMEN!

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2012 is an utter disaster!

2012 is an utter disaster!

2012 movie poster christ redeemer Literally. It is the ultimate disaster movie because of the technical aspect but it fails in so many other ways that I’m not sure if I like it or not.

Roland Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow” is probably the best disaster movie ever. I have a thing for films like this because I get awed at how amazing special effects have nearly blurred the line between what’s real and what’s artificial. Emmerich’s latest big budget disaster contraption is grounded on the Mayan civilization’s prediction of the world ending on December 21, 2012.

I have done a bit of research on this subject and even watched a rather dull documentary about it. I don’t claim to believe this doomsday prediction but I will say (like what most Christians would) that only God knows when. Anyway, the truth on the Mayan’s prognostication is hardly the focus of this film. The film’s length calls for a long review so I hope you’ll stay with me.

I love science-y stuff so I was happy with the inclusion of actual science facts like the San Andreas Fault and the Yellowstone Supervolcano. “2012″ also took the time to explain what caused the cataclysm in the film. I’m not sure how much of it is scientifically possible but considering how little we know about the universe, the possibility of an anomalous solar flare’s neutrinos creating new elementary particles that causes destruction to Earth suddenly doesn’t sound very farfetched. Awesome! :P

california disasterThis is my favorite sequence in the film. Simply breathtaking!

Most of the special effects here are topnotch although there were some parts of it that looked so obviously CG and that bothered me at times. Compared to “The Day After Tomorrow”, this film has less character development and has more bad dialogue. The relationship between the U.S. president and her daughter wasn’t as fleshed out and the budding romance between that girl and the scientist just felt contrived. I ended up mostly caring about John Cusack’s family although my heart did wrench also for the Indian scientist’s family. “2012″ is essentially a special effects extravaganza where you have to suspend your disbelief several times (while you laugh at the script and the clichés) just so you could enjoy it.

2012 yellowstone supervolcano Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption!

“2012″ also depicts a kind of world destruction wherein no organized religion will help anyone’s survival. Spoiler alert: The movie made this point especially clear on the scene where Catholics are shown praying in Rome and then just moments later they are crushed to their deaths by St. Peter’s Basilica itself! That was a horrifying scene that could send mixed signals to different people which is worrying. Could they have been praying that they survive the destruction only to brutally die therefore implying that faith was useless? And then towards the end of the film, it’s the self-interested billionaires who we see (kinda) surviving. But then again, what does it really mean to be saved in this scenario? I would argue that it’s not so much as how long we live in this world but rather how we make use of our short time here.

california disaster 2 Another shot of the 10.9 California earthquake!

The one thing I’m most happy about this film is the fact that it pushes people to be less superficial. It hits people with the reality of our mortality. When you are about to die, you don’t take solace from all the material wealth you’ve accumulated in this world. Nor all the fame and glory you’ve managed to earn in your short, earthly life. We know fully well that all of these things are fleeting and not eternal. It is certainly not the houses and companies we help build but the relationships with the people in them that will ultimately count in the end. (Anyone who expects to be consoled by their luxury cars or fancy gadgets during their final moments on Earth has serious issues. Really.) It is the people we love that will get us through to our death or more befittingly, to our next life. Not your iPhone. Not your viral YouTube video. Not your Twitter followers. Not even the lavish private room you will be able to afford for your deathbed.


Verdict: 7/10 – See this film for the eyecandy and the mortality check but don’t let yourself get too carried away by the doomsday aspect of it. Personally, I hope there’s nothing cataclysmic about the last day of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. I hope humanity at least gets the chance to form a Type I civilization. Regardless, we’ll all see each other anyway in paradise once Omega comes in about 10 quadrillion years from now. Alright, I’ll stop now. xD


For a hilarious review with the Catholic Church’s viewpoint of “2012″, check out:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/reviews/2009/2012.html


(Photo Credits)

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Want to wave with me on Google Wave?

Want to wave with me on Google Wave?

google-wave-collage

UPDATE: Changing the rules now because I got more invites. You don’t need to have a website but you still must be a Filipino. And no more raffles. Just comment below and if you qualify, I’ll send the invite right away. ;)

I’ve had these invites for a couple of weeks now and it would be a huge waste not to have anyone use them. I tweeted about them last week offering them both to my followers and the people I follow but only two were given out. Well I should have expected that since I don’t really have many followers there. Haha!

Anyway, I’m reserving one invite for a friend so that still leaves me with five a few more invites free to give out. I do have a few conditions though because I don’t feel good about revealing my email address to some random person under a cryptic screen name.

You must be a Filipino. I want you to be able to join and participate in the public waves for Pinoys, that’s why.

You don’t need to have a website but let me know if you have one. I’d still like to know who I’m inviting.

Priority will be given to people who belong to these groups:
1. Tech bloggers 
2. Friend blogs – both in Syaoran’s Journal and The Bookish Pinoy blogrolls

Post a comment below to request an invite. You don’t need to type your email in the message body. Just enter your Gmail address in the email text box. I can get it from there.

If you neither have an interest in Google Wave or the time to play with it, please give way to others who would really use it. ^_^

Deadline is on October 31,  2009 at 12:00 PM, Manila time.

No more deadlines. I’ll update this post and close the comments once I have no more invites left.


Off-topic: Wondering why I didn’t blog for weeks? Kindly read this post. ;)

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