Ooh, no wonder my hit count leapt to over a hundred uniques per hour: Evan Williams blogged me! Now my head’s big.
Average Day
One year since ex-president Joseph Estrada’s impeachment, and not all is well. When we ousted the Corrupt Incompetent earlier this year, it was hoped that the country would learn from the tribulations of its recent history and begin a path towards mature socio-political improvement.
That has not happened. Loyalists from the Marcos/Estrada establishment continue to clash with the now-entrenched administrative dynasty, both sides disrupting legislative and judicial processes with conspiracies, accusations, investigations, and coup d’etat rumors.
Estrada’s own plunder trial has been delayed time and time again, both by his lawyers’ dilatory tactics, and by political infighting within the judicial body prosecuting him — even among the justices of the Supreme Court.
Peace and order have suffered. Nida Blanca, a famous TV/movie actress, was brutally murdered last week. Communist rebels in the North have attacked telecom relays, while in the South, extremist Islamic bandits continue their kidnap-for-ransom activities, evading our own deficient military. Kidnappings are on the rise here in Manila as well, and foreigners fear to tread the streets of the city — with good cause.
Dirty politics, rising inflation, record unemployment, unmanageable poverty, civil unrest, rampant corruption in the government and military and police, intolerable levels of air pollution, traffic, crime, drug trafficking, kidnappings, overpopulation…
Yup, just another average day in the Philippines.
VCDHelper
Although I work in DVD production, with MPEG-2-specific encoding/authoring equipment and software, a lot of our projects are requests for VCD’s and plain MPEG-1 and AVI files. Since MPEG-2 is relatively new on the digital video scene, and with the DVD industry as protective as it is, the format tends to be rather hostile toward any attempt at conversion or translation. So it’s tough work, doing that kind of conversion when your gear can only handle MPEG-2 encoding and DVD authoring.
Fortunately, I found an excellent resource of how-to’s and freeware gems on VCD-Helper VideoHelp., to convert DVD and MPEG-2 video to AVI and VCD-compliant MPEG-1 format with minimum fuss.
Update: The site has now moved to VideoHelp. Adjust your bookmarks accordingly.
Leonids this weekend!
Leonids this weekend! I hope we get clear skies here in the Philippines. I love meteor showers. Even if you’re not watching for them, you can still spot incidental meteors all through the night until early morning. I still remember the Leonids two years ago: I was just heading for the Sucat bus stop at 5.45am, and just as I happened to look into the eastern sky, a bright meteor plunged into the atmosphere and left a briefly glowing trail of smoke right overhead. Wow.
Back in college, my Liberation Theology Immersion outing to Zambales came right during a Leonids weekend. The whole group just went out to the beach and lay on the sand, looking up at the sky all night. Ganda!
Oh, and ignore the over-sensationalized Ananova news item.
Brownpau’s Cost-Cutting Tips
Brownpau’s Cost-Cutting Tips:
– In a city where you can’t get a decent takeout rice meal for less than P60, sidewalk vendors are a life-saver. Aling Pacita, across the road from my office, can give you a full meal of pork chop and pinakbet with rice for just P40. (But be sure to have your own plates in the office.)
– Why spend P80 for Starbucks coffee when you can just have a packet of Nescafe Frothe?
– Walking is fun!
The “Mater’s” Name
Closing hymn at morning service today was “Call on the Master’s Name,” but there was a typo on the transparency, so the first line read, “Call on the Mater’s Name.”
*heretical Romanist giggle*
Slowking
Going to the nearest Chowking to try those new Motong and Oriental Chicken noodles? Be prepared for a long, aggravating wait. Whether it’s braised beef, fried rice, or simple kangkong with Chinese bagoong, almost every Chowking branch is notorious for consistently slow, sloooow service. Between the time you order and the time the cooked food comes, you learn to get very familiar with every facet of the little plastic number they give you. And they have the temerity to put up those posters with a smiling Dingdong Dantes saying, “Thank you for waiting!”
Hands, Quizzes, Names
Okay, here are the poll results on where you people put your hands while singing. It seems that the greatest number of you — 25% — can be seen holding hymnals. A close second at 23% comes the sinister and ominous action of resting your hands on the pew in front of you. Tied at third are the protective — almost defensive, wouldn’t you say? — action of folding arms over your chest, and the more happy-cheerful clapping of hands, 10% each. Only one person prefers to combine the lifting of one hand with one of the other actions, while, surprisingly, two of you keep your hands at strict attention. Awkward, don’t you think? As for the three of you who lift up both hands, I recommend lots of women’s deodorant. Rexona Cotton-Fresh. My favorite.
By the way, I am:
… 68% blogaholic.
… 52% geek.
… 9% raver.
… 26% goth.
… 10% punk.
My Hobbit name is Hob Goldworthy of Michel Delving.
My Pokename is Chutwo. I live in the snowy valleys of Kamchatka, and my diet consists mostly of grapes, TV dinners and beer. I can throw cosmic energy bolts and bricks. I breathe hot death and resist sledgehammers. I have a cell phone. My natural enemy is Voltcow.
My Jedi name is Ordpa Gapar, of the planet Verorab. Yes, my planet is named after a follow-up rabies vaccine.
My African name is Mahamid. (Although repeated tries also generated Shaft, Buckwheat, Shawasha, and Huggy Bear.)
My porn star name is X Diggler. (Again, repeated clicks gave me Dick Lustley, Seymour Caves, and Hard John Hunter.)
My reggae name is Bunny Natty.
My Hawaiian name is Paulo Olukoweka.
My Cyborg name means Positronic Artificial Unit Limited to Observation.
And of course, my Mr. T name is Fool.
Dangers of Rebecca Brown
Many evangelicals have probably seen those “Christian” books on Satanism and spiritual warfare entitled He Came to Set the Captives Free, Prepare for War, and Unbroken Curses, by a certain Rebecca Brown, M.D.. I often see the first two books used by Christians against self-styled Wiccans and Satanists, and the third one contains some rather paranoid accounts of demon-fixation, of an intensity I would consider rather unhealthy in any Christian’s life. (Take, for example, her assertion that one should not accept flower garlands upon arrival at Hawaii, as these are actually totems of “Hawaiian demon-god worship.” Or the strange idea that the curing of Satanic curses requires anointing with cooking oil.)
The matter is greatly cleared up in “The Bizarre Case of Dr. Rebecca Brown”, where we find some extremely pressing reasons to disbelieve her astounding claims and questionable theology. The evidence presented is unnerving:
That on numerous occasions Respondent stated to her patients that she was “chosen” by God as the only physician able to diagnose certain ailments and conditions which other physicians could not because the other physicians, including physicians from Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana and St. John’s Medical Center in Anderson, Indiana were, in fact, “demons, devils and other evil spirits” themselves.
Also submitted into evidence at the hearing were 11 photographs taken at St. Vincent showing bluish-yellow sores over most of Mrs. Edna Elaine Moses’ body apparently caused by repeated injections. The article goes on, “Several witnesses said they saw Dr. Bailey inject herself, Mrs. Moses and Mrs. Moses teenage daughter with Demerol and morphine. Great quantities of drugs were kept on hand, and the Bailey home was littered with used needles and syringes.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The true “Dr. Brown” seems to have been mentally unbalanced and dangerously unstable, posing a severe threat both to herself, her patients, and those who read her books.
Dikiam
After church today, I joined my family at The Rockwell Power Plant, to greet my youngest brother happy birthday. (Happy 14th, Javi!) We then returned home (family home, not my apartment home) to check up on Mom’s new Persian kittens. (AAAWWW!!!!) As I was about to head home (apartment home, that is), Mom — just returned from a trip to mainland China — dropped a bag of strange-looking Chinese goodies into my hands.
Me: Uh, Mom, what’s this?
Mom: Dikiam.
Me: How do you eat it?
Mom: You unwrap it, put it in your mouth, and eat it.
Me: Oh.