I'm the color blue!

You're the color blue. You have the three c's in
life--you're cool, caring and confident.
Trustworthy and honest, people are naturally
attracted to you. You're unusually optimistic,
but that makes life all the better. You're an
imaginative person who loves sleeping and
dreaming. Hard-working and determined, you
excell in school. You're everybody's favorite,
and this is because you have this undefined
richness in your personality and attitude.
Mild-tempered and stable. Not to mention very
intelligent. Along with the fact that you're
conservative, you're worried about the
environment. So basically, you're a generous,
dependable and devoted--just the kind of person
everybody needs. Wouldn't it be great if
everybody in the world were like you?


What color are you? (Amazingly detailed & accurate--with pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Marketing Manager, anyone?

I'm down in the dumps. Last Saturday, my boss (the Chairman and CEO no less) got angry with me. Then a while ago, it was the Vice Chairman and COO's turn. It was a decision I made, and I realize now I am partly to blame. But the entire story is unbeknownst them; I was a casualty in the situation.

If you want to know the complete story, hire me first and we'll talk about it over coffee.

Taken at the Riviera Golf and Country Club in Cavite City. Occular inspection for our upcoming Golf Tournament for our clients.

My good deed for the day

Today I joined the World Wildlife Fund as a supporter! I'd like to do something good for the environment, and it was great that WWF put up a temporary place in Greenbelt where people can register or donate. I joined, along with Pauline. I signed up my wife as well.

I look forward to becoming an active member of WWF. Who knows, maybe this is the start of changing my career as a couch potato to somebody who does more active pursuits.

Cornucopia (see article below)

cornucopia

Food abound wherever you go in the Philippines, be it in an urban district or in the provinces. Here are a couple of instances. My wife and I were dropped by a fruit stand to buy pasalubong for her ailing uncle who we were visiting that afternoon. The fruit stand was at the corner of a busy market place, and I took photos of both sides.

At the left photo, the lady vendor in red and white striped shirt was selling €˜chicharon (usually this is sun-dried, deep-fried pig skin, great with vinegar!) measured-out in small paper bags, while the other vendor is selling kwek-kwek (a rather hilarious name for a delicious concoction of hard-boiled egg dipped in an orange-colored batter, then fried; great with vinegar too, though I haven'™t tried this yet). Talk about cholesterol-laden delights.

The photo at right shows a couple of other vendors, one selling assorted nuts, and the other burgers (see the red container for ketchup?) and some hard-boiled eggs.

Filipinos simply love to eat. It is normal for a person to eat 5 times a day here! Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, then dinner. Sometimes before dinner, guys have a couple of beers which, of course, is accompanied by finger food of some kind.

And it is customary to invite guests to dine (kain na!) even if the food is not in abundance. If you see that there isn't exactly enough to go around, you can also respectifully decline and say that you're still full.

It'€™s astonishing how ladies here in the office are able to keep their shape, but most men do not fare as well as shown by their expanding bellies (mine is no exception).

A new blogsite!

As watson online grew, I saw some patterns emerge, much like the direct relationship between my sleeping habits and my food intake.

I have opened a new blogsite! Yay! It's baguio-quezon: A weblog of my travels to Baguio City (my hometown) and Dolores, Quezon (my wife's hometown). I will henceforth redirect my blogs on the aforementioned subject matter to the designated blog and bring some order here.

I was also thinking of having a separate blog for churches, but I really do not purposefully visit other places of worship other than those in the vicinity, so blogging about it here will do.

Visitors to watson online, please feel free to drop by my other blogsite as well. Many thanks!

Grande Island: a view from the top

Grande Island2, originally uploaded by watson.

Here is an excellent view of the new Grande Island facilities as seen from the Hotel. The pool is divided; the nearer section will be used for fishing. The gazebo you see at the far center is the entrance to this island paradise.

If I were a billionaire, I'd want to see this view from my room.

The vacation that never was

Grande Island, originally uploaded by watson.

Last summer, Team Marketing and Mr. Aboga of HR went on a field trip to visit potential outing venues for the company outing. We went to two places, but I'd like to mention the second one: Grande Island. This is situated in Subic. We had to take a speedboat going there.

The last time I was in Grande Island was in 1994. My, my. Times has certainly changed. The major overhaul they did to the place is simply fantastic. When you enter the place, you go through this main 'road' from the docking station. At night the path is illuminated by torches. The place looks like the passageway to Jurassic Park. What sort of adventure awaits guests?

Pass through the gazebo (see the photo's background) and you're greeted with this huge expanse surrounded by posh cottages and in the middle is the swimming pool! This is man-made, and is an extension of the sea (which means salty water). A section is being segragated for fishing.

We visited the major spots and visited the cottages on a guided tour. And then we were left by ourselves for the rest of the afternoon til the boat arrives to take us back. It was relaxing.

It was also expensive. The company did not push through with the outing, but Team Marketing nonetheless had a good time with the field trip. And that was the vacation that never was.

It's like an earthquake ...

I was roused from my sleep at 3AM. There was something wrong. Indeed, I felt dizzy, the door was creaking, the vertical blinds were swaying ... an earthquake! I quickly woke my wife and we both huddled there, waiting if it will get stronger. This tremor was the type that swayed (the other one is the up-down motion which is more destructive). We heard Arnold, who's in the room next door, open his lights and hastily go down the stairs. After a while it subsided, and Arnold went back to his room.

I slept lightly after that, what with the 1990 Baguio earthquake in our minds. We learned later in the news that the epicenter was in Bataan, measuring 7.2 in the Richter scale. Nobody was hurt, nor property damaged. Thank goodness for that, what with the recent losses in the storm that passed by Tarlac and Pampanga recently.

So here I am at work, a bit sleepy ...

Burnham Lake

Burnham Lake, originally uploaded by watson.

This is the man-made Burnham Lake, where you and your friends can rent a boat and row the time away. At the extreme left you can catch a glimpse of the Baguio Cathedral, and at the right side is the SM mall.

Burnham Park's football field

Burnham Park's football field, originally uploaded by watson.

Hmmm.... The football field is greener than it usually is. My wife, fresh from Baguio, brought back a couple of photos including this one. During summertime, the football field gets a worn-down path right smack in the middle from promenaders.

This football field is testament to happy memories. As a kid, we used to watch movies here during Holy Week. There's this group who would arrive in a van equipped with the movie paraphernailia. They'd set-up a large screen and come nighttime, they show Popeye the Sailor Man (usually the Arabian nights segment). We'd all bring our mats and protect ourselves from the cold with jackets, bonnets, and mufflers. Of course, snacks is a must. When Black Saturday is nearing, they'd show movies significant to the religious event. It is also here where I watched The Sound of Music, and it's become one of my all-time favorites.

As a high school student, I saw the football field get transformed into a sea of linoleum mats after school hours, as breakdancing was the rage those days. Students would do struts and head-spins alongside a boombox and garbed with an oh-so-colorful attire which marked the 80s.

When we did group study in college, we'd simply enjoy the shade of the trees and read. The Public Library was also one of our favorite haunts; it was still in Burnham Park at that time (the old, wooden structure didn't have a chance when the 1990 earthquake struck). I remember my friends and I rushing off to visit this Library after school. The wooden stairs, heavy shelves and cabinets, the smell of old books, the quaint atmosphere ... it was so much different from the brightly-lit, cement structure of a library we had in school.

At the background you can see the new SM mall. From the football field you can surmise just how big the structure is, just one of the many reminders that Baguio is rapidly changing.

Feel the Force within you

starwars, originally uploaded by watson.

First-off I'd like to clarify that I'm a big Star Wars fan. I've watched episodes 4 - 6 countless times, rode the amazing Star Tours at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, read the excellent trilogy after Episode 6 by Timothy Zahn, and collected action figures.

And here I am this Sunday morning, my mind drawing blanks as I try to churn from it ideas on how to start my article for Questor Magazine due on the 15th. So I play Return of the Jedi to jumpstart my still-sleepy brain. And it got me thinking, 'how come episodes 1 and 2 is not as endearing to me as 4 to 6?' Big, big question. I loved the lightsaber duels, but something more than eye candy gives 4 to 6 its oomph!

And then I got it. It must be the way the story is told! I remembered how we were watching the Episode 1 premier at Camp Aguinaldo (this is a military base; don't ask me why they were premiering Episode 1 there; a review of war tactics perhaps?). When Qui Gon Jin and Obi Wan appeared on screen everybody cheered. And then everything went by so fast. Before you can ponder on what was happening, another scene is placed before you. It was hurrying through the storyline. The latter part of Episode 2 was also like that. It was hiding and investigating at one moment, then the next thing you know Amidala and the gang were already fighting for their lives in the arena and then the Jedis came in to give a piece of their mind to the rebels, and then whoa! The big war. The transitioning was just not right.

Take the series of events in Return of the Jedi culminating to the fight at the Death Star. You personally experience their gathering, their jump to light-speed, the events at the forest moon of Endor, how Lando and Admiral Ackbar's team desperately gave time (and lives) til the Shield generator was destroyed, Luke's anger at his twin sister's discovery by Vader. Episodes 4 to 6 had emotions you can relate to, even if you had viewed these scenes countless times. Oddly enough, it was difficult to feel these in 1 and 2.

Gotta concentrate ... feel the Force around you ... and make Episode 3 the best ever ...

foot-long footlong and dinner delight

footlong, originally uploaded by watson.

I left the house around 4PM to drop by Joseph's place (one of my good buddies here) so we can buy a prepaid internet card which I need for my research.

There was this food 'stall' which did not sell the regular street fare. Instead they had french fries, hotdog sandwiches, burgers ... you get my drift. I have no problem with sanitary concerns of street food, especially when the vendor is a friend of mine! Joseph was still cooking rice, so I decided to have a bite.

That's Rommel in the photo holding a footlong. It comes with coleslaw, mayo, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and it costs only 25 pesos (that's less than 50 US cents)! I was talking about the footlong, but for the sake of art, Rommel is also a friend and Joseph's neighbor. Now rewind to the humongous sandwich: I myself can't finish one, so I split mine up with one of my other friends there.

In front of Joseph's house, they were cooking two dishes over charcoal: monggo (little green seeds that's as nutritious as meat) and bulalo (yum yum!). The beef had to be continously cooked from 1PM til around 5PM to make it tender, and the soup sumptous. They invited me over to dinner, and since my wife is in Baguio preparing her academic documents hence I was not exactly going back to a home-cooked meal, I was more than happy to join them. They are excellent cooks, and the food was great. We ate right in front of their house, and the food was also shared with other friends.

They actually do this nearly everyday, and they are already planning tomorrow's menu: perhaps kare-kare (pork cooked with vegetables including the banana heart thingy and peanut butter sauce - great with alamang! [shrimp paste]), or pochero (beef in soup with vegetables and saba [a type of banana used in cooking]). My wife just texted me saying the binding of her thesis isn't done yet, so she has to stay an extra day there. Now you know where I'll be having dinner tomorrow!

Really?

notforsale, originally uploaded by watson.

My friend Harry and I used to visit this "Bulaluan" (a canteen of sorts that sells this yummy beef soup. I GOT to have a photo of that) at Edison St. in Makati. Right beside this is a huge, vacant lot covered with galvanized iron and with this huge signboard.

Question: it this a trick advertisement? Or does the owner simply love to receive calls and inform prospective buyers that it's not for sale with a matching "duh" expression?

9PM and I'm still here in the office. Can't seem to stop hitting the "next blog" button. Can't resist .....

Another long Monday at the Office

chapel, originally uploaded by watson.

It's 8:30PM and I'm still here at the office. The "ber" months are usually the busiest time of the year for us Marketing folks. We have yet to arrange the annual Golf Tournament for our clients, plus there's the Christmas giveaways, then the M1 Conference, then the long list of events this September (I counted around 4 so far), and a Principal is after my neck already for a Case Study we are doing with one of our customers...

Not that I'm not grateful. With the state our beloved country is in now, I am thankful that I have a job I can look forward to each waking morning. Plus it puts food on the table too. Reminded me of the homily message of yesterday's mass. The gist of the message is to love our work, and if we are to do something, do your best, for what good is it if you settle for "pwede na (good enough)?" My boss also said that to me when we were having this after-office talk, and I have used that guideline in most of my work. I said "most" because there are times when I commit blunders, and usually it's with a job requested by him. Sometimes I smack myself right at the forehead and ask, "why him?" I do a great job with the others but I seem to blunder when it comes to work requested by him. So much for a promotion.

Anyways, the photo was taken at Greenbelt yesterday at the 6PM mass. It didn't rain, so a small crowd was cozily sitting on the grassy area near the chapel. So sit there we did. It was a cool afternoon. Having mass there is really something. It's different from sitting inside the chapel. It's a relaxing feeling, and it makes you more receptive to the mass.

Back to the office. Still need to do more paperwork before I call it a day. Hmmm. When I started work here, it was normal to leave the office at 11PM. I'd love to arrange for a weekend hike and trek somewhere far away like we used to with my officemates. I think I'll post a photo of our trek in Mt. Majayjay in Laguna in one of my blogs. Uh oh, I'm drifting away again. *slaps forehead* back to work!

videoke time

videoke time, originally uploaded by watson.

My wife and I went to Music21, a Videoke place near our office, with friends. We stayed til 11:30PM, and had a heck of a time singing OPM (original pilipino music), from the 70s era, along with a couple of new wave and alternative songs.

I look drunk in this photo I think, but I only had a couple of beers and was able to drive us home safely.

One of our boss, Sir Jan, and a colleague, Vic Tamayo also dropped by the place. Sir Jan brought the house down with his concert performance, complete with backgrounders on the songs' "sentimental values".