A pair of black teenagers threw stones at me as I was heading back from Rite Aid. One stone hit me in the shoulder, and all I could do was glare over said shoulder at them as they ran off. What was that about, anyway? This sure doesn’t help my opinion of the local savages. Little brats.
Abu Pula captured
Abu Pula captured. The AP story makes it seem at first glance that Abu Sayyaf officer Mark Bolerin Gumbahale was caught in a military battle in Mindanao, but read more closely: it just so happens that government troops were down South fighting the MILF — a separate group — at the same time. This guy, in an unrelated incident, was apprehended in Taguig (that’s the municipality right between Sucat, where I lived, and Makati, where I worked) playing a video game at an Internet cafe.
And I will bet you he was playing Counterstrike, like most Pinoy youths are these days. I wonder if he was playing Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist, eh? ;)
Update: Told you so! Intelligence agents reportedly pounced on Gumbahale … while playing “counter-strike” outside his house at the Maharlika Village in Taguig at about 11 a.m. on Thursday. (Can you see the dangling participle? Are you sure it wasn’t the agents who were playing Counterstrike?)
Microsoft’s Fake Switch Ad
CARS is, of course, all over Microsoft’s latest PR gaffe, which the rumor-mongers call a “fabrimonial.” Apparently the real reason for the fake switch ad was a “damned fairy imp”. In truth, the lady was switching from Mac to something else.
In other news, you’re not supposed to open your iMac because… you will find, surprisingly, nothing. Following up on the success of the fanless iMac, Apple decided to make an iMac without any components whatsoever. All you will see is one big honkin’ Airport card that sends your commands back to Cupertino where they are processed on, again surprisingly, a Dell PC and then sent back for display on your screen.
Evil. EVIL!
EDSA Bus bombing
Bomb explodes in bus. On EDSA, near Balintawak in QC, says the news. Three dead. This was at the height of the Friday night crush. And riding buses in Manila is deadly enough without terrorist attacks. You folks in Manila take care.
William Shatner Bobblehead
“Plush” Neighborhood Bombed
Looks like there was a grenade blast in Forbes Park, Makati — though this looks more like standard Filipino unrest rather than terrorism. The grenade appears to have been thrown at McKinley Street from the Edsa-Ayala flyover. When I was working in Makati, that was where I would catch the bus to Sucat.
The linked breaking news report refers to a “plush area.” I think the writer meant “posh,” unless Forbes Park has been populated by stuffed toys or soft pillows since I left.
Palo
I just got my 401(k) primer at work. It’s addressed to “Palo,” which in Tagalog means “spank.”
Past Myst
Myst is a phenomenon like no other in the world of CD-ROM. That’s not a remarkable statement; CD-ROM is too new to have already had many phenomena. Mostly it’s had complaints and dire predictions — it’s too slow, it’s too expensive, it’s too clunky.
Guerrillas in the Myst. (Aug 1994) From Wired, a blast from the past; when the first Myst game had just been released and 4x CD-ROM drives were still an expensive novelty. Did you know the game’s creators were Christians, kids of a preacher?
There are copies of all three episodes of the game lying about the house; I’m looking forward to dusting them off and playing again.
Zamboanga Bombing
Hot on the heels of the Bali bombing, two bombs exploded in two separate shopping complexes in Zamboanga, Southern Philippines, killing at least five and injuring over a hundred. Seven more bombs were reportedly found and defused.
The people killed were not combatants or soldiers; they had nothing to do with Islamic separatists or any other extremist rebels in the country, for or against. And someone killed them anyway. I can’t find words.
(If there are any Mindanao-based bloggers reading, please do comment or trackback your entries on this so we know what’s up over there.)