I’m planning to go on an Internet “diet” this year, cutting down on unnecessary and time-consuming online activities and unsubscribing from useless, extraneous, or redundant free services. I just want to reduce my online presence to the bare essentials. (It may please you to know that Blogger and my home page are NOT among the accounts I plan to delete.) I will, however, unregister myself from ICQ, Hotmail, Mailcity, Unimobile, and a slew of other online services. Those of you who ICQ me a lot (which doesn’t happen much, anyway), I’ll be making myself accessible through email instead.
Manila pollution
The pollution in Manila is awful, especially when there’s no wind. There’s a perpetual brown haze hanging over the city, so thick you can not only smell it in the air, but feel it, clinging to the skin. When you enter Makati, central business district, the sunlight turns sickly amber, and when I go out in the streets to travel, the itch in my throat and lungs leaves me with a painful cough.
And it’s getting worse.
Barney Starts Playing Peekaboo on his Own
Oh my stars and garters. No. He can’t possibly. Sometimes Barney Starts Playing Peekaboo on His Own.
Netcabins and the NullPointerException error
Netcabins has been changing a few things without telling users in advance. Sort of annoying. Well, I’m about to upload something; I hope this works…
…Okay, it still works! Blogger uploads to Netcabins fine, too. But FTP got a little more complicated. And there are going to be some relatively unobtrusive popups for a few days. I will work to integrate this site with the upcoming changes.
Like the new extra blog page? And notice that the September archive is up there on the right? Yup! I found a way to get rid of the Error 104:java.lang.NullPointerException error in my Blogger archives!
Russ and PEX
This is really uncanny, but I noticed that when Russ posts something in his blog on a certain subject, someone almost simultaneously starts a thread in my Pinoyexchange forum about an identical topic. (Last time, it was Fight Club.)
Nice Lunar Eclipse!
Wow, that eclipse was beautiful. I didn’t wake up early enough for totality around 4am, but I did catch sight of the moon with a large chunk of shadow still on it by the light of early dawn. Real pretty. And on a clear harvest-moon night, too!
Dinuguan
Dinuguan is a delicious Filipino stew made from pig’s blood and meat. Yummy with rice. Just spoon some blood onto your rice, and you have a good meal already. You can buy it at almost any canteen or local fastfood if it’s on the menu for the day. Mmmm. Here’s the recipe, if you’re interested. Use more blood if you want the sauce thicker, but be sure to stir, so it doesn’t clot.
Lunar Eclipse 2001
Hey, the first lunar eclipse of the millenium is coming up. Totality will be visible from the Philippines at around moonset in the early morning; probably won’t be able to see it through all the smoke and buildings, but if I can get up around 3am, maybe I can catch the start of the show. Here’s a diagram of the eclipse at GMT. Philippine Standard Time is GMT+8.
DiK Mugshots
Speaking of photos, I submitted my puckered-up pic to the Design is Kinky mugshots section. Take a look. Raffy is there too.
Schilling Conspiring?
Jeffrey Schilling, the American who was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf last year, has been seen, armed, walking freely around Mindanao with the bandits. Great. Wonderful.
Just a few months ago, the Inquirer published a photo of Schilling complaining about his captivity and flashing a dirty finger at the photographer. It may mean that he wasn’t a conspirator before when they kidnapped him, and he’s only recently sympathized with them.
I wonder what the U.S. plans to do about it?
Update, 04/2001: Well, Schilling says “DESTROY!” My fears of conspiracy were completely unfounded.