Happy Anniversary!

ewctwentyone celebrates its first year anniversary as a blog station where I post my musings, disappointments, triumphs and thoughts. In total I have 136 blog posts for the year which, on average, is about a blog posted every 2.6 days.

Thank you to those who have spent time reading my entries: Merly, you seem to be the only habitual reader here (thanks!), Karen (hope to build a snowman with you over there); Jimmy, looking forward to reading your blogs too!; Raymond, your e-mails about my blogs are heartwarming; to the others who prefer to be anonymous, muchos gracias.


My Most Valued Blog Entries
1. Reminiscing Computer Center
2. Keeping the New Year's Resolution
3. The Word Goodbye
4. Seventh Haven
5. I Alone

Blogs In Most Need of Comments
1. The Great Firewall of China
2. What If Steve Nash is a Filipino
3. Ranking My Music
4. Is IE7 Going to Save Microsoft’s Face?
5. My Personal Billboard

Blogs That I Should Have Never Posted
1. Is Graham Lim Stupid?
2. Nowhere to Hide
3. Bus Advertisement Hong Kong Style
4. One of the Worst Movies
5. ‘Yan Ang Pinoy

Best Things To Do On Weekends

Since settling in Hong Kong four years ago, I found a lot of ways to spend my weekends. There are parks, shopping malls, game arcades, empty sports grounds, cityscapes to explore and mountains to climb¡K The list goes on. The only thing that prevented me from doing many of such activities is the obvious time crunch.

When Russ and Mike circulates invites for pre weekend drinks at Lan Kwai Fong or CFC¡¦s activities on any given Sunday I often find myself entwined with other things like overtime weekend work, meeting a ¡§kababayan¡¨ or worse, laying in bed recuperating from an ailment.

Nevertheless, while I am still in this place, I still look forward to experiencing worthwhile weekend activities:

1. Jamming with Jay and Kuya Mer. This is one of the things I always wanted to do. Jay and Kuya Mer are musician extraordinaire. Jay can play guitar, Kuya Mer does the keyboards, Chito does the piano, maybe Eric will take the bass guitar. I will play the drums. We can sing songs of America, Third Eye Blind, U2, True Faith, RiverMaya, Eraserheads, among others. Of course the girls can join and sing songs of the Cranberries, Barbie Almalbis and Color it Red.

When GK had its fund raising in full swing last year, I thought of having a mini presentation of songs dances and patriotic films to coincide with the Philippine Independence Day 2004. Some will sing, some will dance, some will act, while others can haul chairs and adjust the spotlight.

Right now, it¡¦s limited to choir practices. If only many of us were at SFC Conferences¡K


2. Hear Mass en masse. I have been into three generations of Sunday mass companions. First there were Onin, Leo and Raymond. Then came Karen, Benjie and Narnie/Girlie. Then with Jun. Now I am alone. While I should feel alone in Mass whoever is with me. The thing is that after Mass, I am unsure where to go: eat at Yoshinoya, listen to new songs at HMV or go home and cook some noodles.

I feel lonely especially now that I live alone. And while going to church is not going to a picnic, having lunch with friends after the Eucharistic celebration should be great.

It's ironic though...


3. Play volleyball, barbecue, karaoke or go biking with colleagues. Same as my peers at PhilWeb, many of my colleagues at Ion Global are mostly singles and have plenty of time at their hands.  We do organize basketball or table tennis games at Victoria Park on Thursdays but the time is too limited or the court is filled up.

Kin, Jan, Jess, Kit, Raymond, Ginny and Henry are almost shoo-ins to be there. Even though I am the only Filipino in the office, I am at home with their presence. Only language barrier seems to be a big issue to me.

I want to know more about Chinese culture and there's no better way to achieve it through this.

I wish Jacqueline is still in the office.


4. Watch a real movie shooting in Kowloon Tong or in Central. One goal that I did not really pursue seriously is to see Jackie Chan in person. Not that I am a big fan of him; I am not even watching karate movies. Just wondering how his aged legs perform such camera-defying stunts in the past on those generic good-guy movie flicks over the streets of Wan Chai and Des Voeux Road West which look more of Hong Kong of old.

I know many HK artists but I have no personal favorites among them. I want to see how they act preferably those karate matches in the middle of supermarket stalls, inside trams or sliding in MTR escalators.


5. Walk up stairs leading to the viewing dock of ifc 2. I think I am afraid of heights and I don't know why because our 34th storey office location is not high enough to gauge it. Yeah, walk and not take the elevator. It could be equivalent to a portion of trekking the mighty Everest.

There are organized races going to the top but I am sure I can't handle it so I'd rather take it nice and slow.

I have never been into the upper floors of ifc2 so it would be a delight going up gradually, unmasking the unobstructed vista of Hong Kong (and beyond).

I can't imagine how beautiful it looks like at night time. But at daytime it looks like this one, thanks to my colleagues at Ion Global who built the web site.


6. Bus rides through Tai Tam, Stanley, Repulse Bay, Pokfulam, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai.  Traveling over Hong Kong's interior as well as the coastal roads is a great experience. Firstly, buses are comfortable up and down and drivers are not too selfish to blow the air conditioning units on hot summer days.

Roads are narrow but well paved that I could easily fall asleep coming from a tiring walk around the metropolis. I would prefer the Southern coast where views of South China Sea from Stanley, Middle Gap Road and Repulse Bay in the east to Pokfulam and Cyberport in the west. On some portions of the ride, you couldn't think you are in Hong Kong because of the lush vegetation, serenity of the bodies of water and apparent remoteness of the area. The Cantonese phone conversations in the would always bring you back to reality though.


7. Tram ride from Shaukeiwan to Kennedy Town. It takes two hours to travel about one-fourths of the circumference of Hong Kong island through the age-old trams of Hongkong Tramways. Used more of a novelty heritage than an ordinary means of transportation in this efficient metropolis. From the northwest is the image of 60s Hong Kong where a bastion of dried seafood wholesalers and retailers thrive and buildings are not as high as those in most other areas such as Hung Hom and Tai Koo Shing.

It has been my means of transportation for a while when I lived along the so-called 'tramlanes'. Though I started out from the western end, I only reached up to Sai Wan Ho in the east, a good fifteen minutes away from its terminating end. Sitting down in the upper deck, with iPod on hand, you can see a microcosm of Hong Kong life, from Central's tall buildings, Causeway Bay's bustling human traffic to old edifices of North Point. From jaywalking to queuing for a bus ride to window shopping, you get a picture of what a typical Hong Kong person does in a day.


8. Spending the night with someone. I always imagine this. Assuming I am with someone, we sit at Tsim Sha Tsui's promenade as we gaze at the fireworks at 8 o'clock in the evening. We take the ferry to Wan Chai and dine in at one of the elegant Japanese restaurants in the area. We take a fairy tale walk in Hong Kong Park, the oasis of the city. We bargain items at Temple Street and have a drink overlooking at the harbour. How I wish this weekend won't end.

Too bad a weekend consists only of two days. Worse, that someone is not even there.

Google Talk

When I announced the launch of Google Talk at our office Intranet, nobody seemed to comment on it and I was less surprised with the lack of attention. Perhaps people in the office are aware that the latest messenger service to be offered in the market pales in comparison with the rest of the leading pack such as AOL Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and ICQ.

I learned that this product does not provide the usual bells and whistles of an instant messenger tool: SMS capability, teleconference chats, search boxes and file sharing. After all, who could expect a little program less than 1 megabyte in size to cover such features?

Not everyone can use this as well. Someone must have Google Mail account to activate this service. Justifiably this is intended to curb the abuse of unscrupulous individuals who could manipulate Google Talk into a spam machine.

It is unusually under-hyped compared to other Google product offers launched in the past (think of Google Desktop Search, Sitemaps and Google Earth). Was this intentionally planned? I bet it is.

With Google’s capability to innovate things it’s not difficult for it to provide features that are deemed out of this world at this time. (By the way look at this). Therefore it will not surprising to see later versions of Google Talk overwhelm the competition with unique features. Remember, this release is its first.

Wowowie

I was in high school in Holy Cross as freshman when I knew her as a Senior. While not much memory was recorded about it, she was already gaining popularity owing to powerful personality.

Wowie Satorre's ageless finesse in the pitch earned her one more championship belt just recently in the National Women's Football Championship in Davao City. A national MVP a couple of times, she is a force to reckon with in the Philippine football scene.

Do not ask me how far below we are ranked in the world. No thanks to the government of the republic of the Philippines, football has been relegated as a secondary sport even if it is the world's most popular game. In the Olympics, Asiad or SEA Games it takes eleven uniformed athletes to win a medal as opposed to swimming, gymnastics or track and field where individuals win multiple medals. Maybe this is the philosophy of Philippine Olympic Committee insofar as 'high-maintenance' sports are concerned. But same with basketball, whose leadership crisis has dragged us deeper into the wasteland.

As I remember before, Wowie was an all around athlete in the only Intramurals we both joined (she had to graduate that year): dodgeball, softball, banner relay, etc. She is so athletic that her brother who was my scoutmaster pales in comparison in physical agility.

Already in her thirties, I hope Wowie continues to make the country proud in the sport she dominates.

One Year Ago..

This is gonna be the third in a streak of short blog entries. I felt compelled to update it only on weekends and today is a Saturday and I haven't got a good topic to start with.*

One thing I remember though. It's been a year since Jacqueline left the company and I still miss her presence in the office.

Rain has been keeping Hong Kong people at bay during weekdays and weekends.

I have been using Blogger's add-on for Microsoft Word which makes blogging easier without having to login to the Blogger Dashboard.

* I have seven pending/unfinished entries in ewctwentyone, including the so-called "anniversary blog".

ESPN NBA Blog

I am just disappointed why ESPN NBA Blogs have to be in the Insider. Featuring Chris Broussard and Chad Ford, non-paying former Insiders like me won't be able to read this so called blog. Do they properly know the definition of this word?

New Blogs

I have a penchant to write lots of blogs instead of talking about them to my friends here in Hong Kong. That's because I don't have a lot of time to do so.

I have created a few more blogs that will keep me busy:

http://seo-stuff.blogspot.com
My blog for Search Engine Optimization stuff

http://hongkong-life.blogspot.com
A dedicated blog about my life here in Hong Kong

I made a few entries since the weekend.

I still do not know who are consistently reading my blogs. If you are, please send me an e-mail at ewctwentyone@yahoo.com.

Thank you.

Filipina Cooking

As I mentioned before, Filipinos always take pride of the achievements of fellowmen in any aspect, wherever they may be in the world. Since we can't be proud of our President and the Philippine Congress, we resort to honest taxi drivers, Math wizards and Broadway performers who can trace themselves as Filipinos, as source of pride.

The feat of Cristeta Comerford (you can tell her name is half Filipino and half foreigner) is something that Filipinos should be proud of. Being the first woman chef of White House, catering to world dignitaries is not a small matter.

Just asking again, if Filipinos/Filipinas can be good cooks and chefs, how come I seldom see any Filipino restaurant among the 10,000 eating places here in Hong Kong?

Next stop, photo op of Mrs Comerford with the President (of the Philippines).

Having Fun at Wikipedia Cebuano

One thing I am interested on is contributing to the Wikipedia Cebuano language. It's nice to read Cebuano over the Internet. I grew up in Davao City therefore speak the dialect fluently. But even with that fact, I find our Cebuano tongue in Davao is slightly Tagalized and less deep than those spoken in Cebu.

Nevertheless, I can understand the words no often spoken on my conversations with friends, but are still often heard in the radio and read in newspapers.

Wikipedia needs Cebuano editors and I am trying to offer my time and talent in this endeavor.

Dili lang ko sigurado kung unsaon pagbuhat ug bag o nga topic mao nga kinahanglan gyud magtuon pinaagi sa pagbisita sa website sa Wikipedia matag karon ug unya.

Keane's Music

I'd like to personally recommend rock band Keane's album Hopes and Fears. While I haven't spent much time doing the reviews, I feel this album is the best since being overwhelmed by Sarah Mclachlan's Afterglow album released a year ago.

The wails of Tom Chaplin hits me on the spot on songs such as This is the Last Time and Bend and Break. Their melody is comparable to Radiohead and Coldplay but has its own creative identity. Bass and keyboards combination works well in this three-man band.

I can't remember owning an album that I love listening to all the songs. This is an exception. While 'Everybody's Changing', 'Bend and Break' and 'This is the Last Time' are regulars in many rock alternative playlists, my emerging favorite is the unorthodoxy 'Untitled 1' track.

Hopefully I made a convincing case. Try listening to Keane and if you like the songs, we share one more common interest.

Song of the season: My My My (Rob Thomas)

The Pains of a Domestic Helper

We had our usual Christian Life Program last night at Catholic Centre. And since the venue we had also shares the same office with the Migrant Filipino Workers, we occasionally have other visitors apart from our participants.

Last night was no different. This time it was one Filipina who has cut short her contract because she is suffering from ulcer and cannot handle her job as domestic helper any longer. She often lays in bed and is therefore unable to fulfill duties to her employers.

This is the bitter fact of life to some of our domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They spend large amount of money to pay for employment agencies, only to be subjected to work more than 12 hours a day and worse, unfair treatment from employers. This woman was never properly fed during her few months stay. Her Chinese employers must have thought she is a robot; robots themselves have to be fine tuned and are therefore not invincible.

When this woman started to speak in Cebuano dialect, I immediately jumped into the same line asking, "Asa man ka sa atoa?" (Where are you in our land?) She told me she is from Guindulman, Bohol. Both my parents hail from this province, used to be known for backward economy but now saw the promise of eco-tourism. I was only 11 when I last went there but I can recall how tough life there is. As in many remote places in the Philippines, there is much poverty that I am always moved by the sight of them. If I extended help to children in China or the hungry in Sudan, I should help my fellow men as well.

She did not seem to feel in pain, and even conversed with smiles in her distinctive Boholano accent. She must be excited to see her children back home. It was a relief to know she paid her debts while working here in Hong Kong. She would have wanted to stay further and work to earn for her family. Her stomach pain said otherwise.

I feel terrible when I hear these stories. I know I do not need to be wealthy enough to offer help.

At the same time I immediately say a prayer of thanks I have a job and I am healthy.

Farewell Mr Roco

We lost another losing Presidential candidate in the 2004 elections.

After Fernando Poe Jr, it's now Raul Roco turn to die.

Looking back, I voted for Alfredo Lim in 1998 elections because, apart from the fact that we shared the same birthday, he was credible enough to lead by example. His leadership in the NBI and as Mayor of Manila made me conclude about his capacity. But he lost to Erap and Jose de Venecia.

Now when Erap was ousted in favor of Gloria Arroyo in 2001, I felt there was no chance for Fred Lim to make a comeback. Thus I had a new candidate to consider: "Roco sa Cuatro (Roco in 2004)". That's the exact phrase I remembered as I was on my way home from the rally in Edsa.

He indeed ran again for President but lost to the incumbent. I admit many Filipinos vote based on popularity than qualification, that is why despite his credentials in passing laws such as Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, Child and Family Courts Act, abolition of double taxation for OFWs, liberalization of local banking system by strengthening the existence of thrift banks and the Study Now Pay Later educational plan.

Too bad he is gone. He could be the best President we never had.

Embarrassing Web Sites of Davao Schools

I used to manage the University of the Immaculate Conception (www.uic.edu.ph) website back in the time when appearance is everything in Davao's web development lifestyle. It was the time when having Flash animation in the front page is almost a ticket to a web award. It was also the time when usability and critical analysis of visitor's page trail wasn't a major issue. (I remember it was the time when former colleagues who are Ateneo de Davao Computer Science graduates forgot if the suffix in the URL's "http" header is back slash or forward slash)

Several years since I relinquished the job to Richard Base, I feel that there is not much change taking place, looking at Davao's distinguished universities, a model and driving force in pacing technology. After all, technology taught in these schools must be updated constantly and refer to books only for theories and definitions.

I took time to visit some of the web sites before and even came up with a personal ranking of Philippine university websites in 2003. I must say that Davao City does is home to many embarrassing college web sites.

Lack of direction, infrequent update, misspelled words, poor color choice (red over gray?) and atrocious navigation are the most obvious items one can point out.

Take a look:

1. Holy Cross of Davao College (www.hcdc.edu.ph)
* Very colorful that I am reminded of those filthy Smart and Globe banners on any street in the Philippines. "Colorful" is a subtle bashing to HCDC designers. An example of site with color choice. But at least this site is a little better than most of Davao's school sites because of its rich text.

2. University of Mindanao (www.umindanao.edu.ph)
* I used to see this site as the best among Davao's school websites (except when Richard handled UIC's site) since I moved out of Davao City. Decent frequency of page updates. But the last time I saw it, it's a black site with infinite loop, drawing the visitor hypnotized to the blackhole leading to nowhere. Not much to say but I am dropping that recognition.

3. San Pedro College (www.spcnet.edu.ph)
* Operation time out was the error I got when loading the page (and trying to redirect it to an IP address instead of a valid html page). Very basic yet too boring to look at, photo quality is very poor. I hope to find something worth praising soon.

4. Ateneo De Davao University (www.addu.edu.ph)
* Among the revered Ateneo schools, this one has the most shameful website to offer. Old "news" items and those questionable ("?") characters present when viewed in Firefox are something you can notice for a website whose background isn't truly identifiable as Ateneo's very own.

5. University of Immaculate Conception (www.uic.edu.ph)
* I hate the pink color; it competes those female-oriented websites in Manila. The content quality is fair, though many articles are written in superlatives they don't deserve. New content is added and the webmaster is too lazy to remove the old ones. (The headline is about a news that happened 8 months ago) The guestbook is haven for publicity-hungry mammals. Without bias as former webmaster of this site, it's one of the "best" the city has to offer.

6. Davao Doctors College (www.davaodoctors.edu.ph)
* I almost picked this as the best, even better than USEP, but looking at their homepage through Firefox, I had to withdraw the claim. A little fine tuning should catapult this site to the top, thereby shaming those universities who continue to maintain incompetent -- if not too inexperienced -- web developers and designers.

7. University of Southeastern Philippines (www.usep.edu.ph)
* This time it's my pick as the best in Davao. Noisy, unnecessary Flash buttons and inconsistent page header are drawbacks but I think this school has one of the better experienced web crew. Congrats.

8. Davao Medical School Foundation (www.dmsf.edu.ph)
* Decent website established through the years, with thinking webmasters not too busy to spend time analyzing what needs to be done. I assume this site ranks well in search engines. Perhaps the web design factor is a bigger issue why I can't pick this
site as superior. Images are not of good quality especially the menu graphics.

To other schools I can't rate, there are a variety of reasons
* I don't know if Rizal Memorial Colleges has a website
* Philippine Womens College of Davao (http://www.pwu.edu.ph/pwcdavao/main.html) is probably done in Manila and therefore is not Davao's pride.
* I don't know if there are new schools sprouting in Davao. It used to be technical schools in the past, now I believe it must be Nursing schools.

In comparison, look at the sites from other cities I admire because of the neat layout, visitor-friendly, despite some items which can be improved.

Compare them to Davao's best: http://www.usep.edu.ph

Cagayan De Oro: http://webserver.cc.xu.edu.ph/xuonline/index.html
Cagayan De Oro: http://www.ldcu.edu.ph
Manila: http://www.mapua.edu.ph
Manila: http://www.dlsu.edu.ph
Manila: http://www.letran.edu
Manila: http://www.dbtc.edu.ph
Cebu: http://www.universityofcebu.edu.ph
Zamboanga: http://www.wmsu.edu.ph
Koronadal: http://www.ndmu.edu.ph
Tuguegarao: http://www.spu.edu.ph

A message to Peter Laviña

Peter Laviña is a Davao City councilor who opposes the national ID system. I do not know if he is a traditional politician but in this blog I would like to explain him that his argument about ID system is flawed and is apparently along the lines of a traditional politician.

Dear Mr Laviña,

First of all, I hope Davao City council is alive and well. It's been some time since I left the city and has missed the daily musings and debates in the session halls as seen on television and personified by radio broadcasters. Bad English and unexplainable idiomatic expressions may be sprinkled in an otherwise serene deliberation, my respect still prevails over our local lawmakers, as much as we do respect the judges and of course the Mayor.

I would like to react again to your statement about national ID system and terrorism bill. First of all, the two don't complement and must never be treated that one stands in place of the other. Now we don't have terrorism bill and National ID. But we can have them both implemented.

How many times have you heard from people around the world (Filipinos if you will) that National ID system works and your mind should never be confided with an imagination that ID system will invade privacy and a threat to civil liberties.

Are you hiding something?

I live in Hong Kong where ID system is embraced by everyone. Now upgrading to Smart ID, most people's cards are now becoming more useful than ever. Transacting through post, bank, telephone bills, housing loans and claiming prizes, the Hong Kong ID is used with ease.

Do you like your wallet to be thick with Driver's License, Voter's ID, SSS, Pag IBIG, government ID, Philhealth, Credit Card and other freebies cards?

If so, then you are more vulnerable to scumbags plying their trade of snatching, robbing and misleading everyday all year round in search for that fat wallet. A national ID will encompass almost everything listed above and will consistently be a proof of identity.

Perhaps you have a point in showing that the National ID is a wrong concept, but the issue becomes the people who implement this system rather than the National ID system itself. As we say that if Gloria Arroyo is to step down from her post, nobody else is deserving to be in the top post. Same as in the ID system where even if the purpose is good, if the implementors have tainted records of human rights violations, then its our instinct to suspect anybody who will try to enforce the system.

I am tired of hearing people whine over many things, yet are not receptive to having changes take place. If there is something wrong with anything, then it's time to implement other methods to make it work. Otherwise, we'll never go anywhere.

Are you this type of person?

Should I be in Davao, I hope we can talk and exchange good ideas.

Regards,
Elmer