An Inconvenient Truth

I first saw the announcement about this movie from the World Wildlife Fund e-newsletter. I watched a movie about our Oceans and the Life therein some months ago. Though it was rich and colorful, the orchestral music at times made my mind draw blanks, and my companion snore.

Not so with this movie. It's a presentation of facts by no other than Al Gore about the current trend and effect of global warming. He presents numerous data and photos substantiating the global warming phenomenon and it is indeed very disturbing.

Within 50 years, we will have fresh water shortage.
Why are we having typhoons and hurricanes of magnitudes never seen before?
What will happen to land masses when the glaciers in the North and South Pole melt?

This movie is an excellent educational material not only for viewing by students but by people from all walks of life. It explains in plain detail and with illustrations what global warming is.

Sit in his lecture and you will learn a fact or two about what is happening in the world around us today. And it will move you to think about your lifestyle, and how to make a difference.

Click on the button above to pledge to see the movie. Currently showing in SM Mall of Asia and SM Megamall.

Visit the Climate Crisis website and get an equivalent pledge widget to place in your blog or site.
Additional scientific reading on global warming at Wikipedia.

whew!

I just finished my Business Plan presentation! Time is 9:20PM! Now I can finally sleep well tonight!

I would like to thank my team members who gave valuable inputs for the plan, to the cook for the wonderful meals, to admin for the transpo, to management for the nice accommodations, and to my officemates who did not ask mind-boggling questions.

Mushroomed burger

Business Planning season! I will be quite preoccupied until the end of this week. Thank you all for visiting my blog. Hope things let up after our planning.

At any rate, we had an event at Tagaytay last week. While on the way to the town proper to buy some school supplies, we spotted Mushroom Burger, a restaurant where they use mushrooms for the patty. You may also buy mushrooms if you want. We decided to drop by for a quick lunch.

Mushroom Burger once had a branch in Greenbelt. But when the place was renovated years ago, the restaurant row disappeared, which included a Japanese shop (was it Tokyo Tokyo?) and a "lugawan" (congee shop). So I believe you can have your Mushroom Burger craving only at Tagaytay these days.
The place is laid-out cafeteria-style. My companion said the place gets filled with customers in the weekends. Students also have field trips there and visit their mushroom farm which is adjacent to the restaurant.
I had my first mushroom burger years ago, so I was likewise excited to taste it once again.

Well... I was a bit disappointed actually. Filipinos in general like their burgers sweet, but in this case I wanted to really taste the patty. But the dressing (mayo and ketchup combination) overpowered everything else. My companions, though, loved it, and they were pleasantly surprised that it was like eating a regular burger.

The photos by the counter, of course, displayed really nice photos of the burgers. We ordered the jumbo versions. But when it arrived ... it mushroomed! Oh well. Sign of the times eh?
Maybe it's just me. Maybe I expected too much. Anyways, if you happen to drop by Tagaytay and get curious about having mushrooms for lunch, do drop by there and let me know!

A series of unfortunate events

Oh wow. It's been a week since my last post. Things are really getting busy at the office, and I have been going to Baguio every weekend for over two months now. It leaves little time for blogging and bloghopping. Things should normalize by mid-December.

I'm writing on my lunch break to share with you ... a series of unfortunate events. Last weekend, I lost my camera phone in Divisoria. Things were just fine, until it was time for me to go home. I had 4 huge bags of purchases that I was trying to balance all the way to the FX station. One minute my phone was in my pocket, the other minute, it was gone. That was Saturday.

Then last night, my wife called to inform me that our car was broken into. The car stereo was gone. Not that it was a high-end car stereo, but it was lost nonetheless and it became an urgent issue where to park, for the car might get stolen the next night. There was no place by the house to park so we, along with other cars, park by the road near our place. Five cars were broken into that night.

And when my wife got home, baby Jo-Lo had accidentally broken the glass top of our living room table. Fortunately Jo-Lo wasn't hurt.

I hope this string of misfortune ends soon.

Yacon: down to earth goodness

Isn't it strange how one fails to observe may things in his surroundings, but when we are alerted to its presence, it seems like it's everywhere?

Before I hardly take notice of the brand of cars that ply our streets. But when I started driving, I suddenly realized how many Honda Civic ESIs there are still being driven around.

And then there's the trekking adventures. Going to the mountains and staying by the river is a treat I always look forward to. When I come back to Manila, I notice the prevailing absence of vegetation and the presence of pollution. But sometimes in the late afternoons, when the skies are clear and the clouds lazily drift by, I sometimes catch myself staring upwards and wishing I was back in the mountains.

I'm veering off from the subject matter on hand. Have you ever heard of "Yacon"? I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't. It was, in fact, my first time to learn about this two weekends ago! I was in Baguio when a friend here in Manila sent me an SMS asking if I knew what Yacon was. I didn't, so I asked my wife. "Sure", she said. "It looks like potatoes and it's said to have medicinal properties."

Whoa. She knows about it. And it's being sold in the local market!

That afternoon, I went out and searched for this Yacon. And there it was. It was not clearly a popular item; only a handful of stores sell them. But those who have them have a large "Yacon" sign to attract buyers. I bought 3 kilos for my friend's father.

When I hand-delivered it to them, his father sliced up some for me to taste. It was crunchy and a bit sweet. It tasted good. We finished one batch and we were served up another.

Yacon is good for people with diabetes, it aids in digestion, and may help prevent colon cancer. As stated in the website I have referenced below, Yacon is "high in fiber, low in fat, and rich in oligofructose, Yacon is considered by many to be a superfood of the future."

Amazing. A superfood of the future, right under my nose.

Read on about Yacon at Seeds of Change: Certified Organic.

The Black Story

I promised to narrate the "black story" in my previous post so here goes ...

Unlike in other places where Halloween is being celebrated with parties and trick or treating, we just wanted to quietly observe the day by having some furniture fixed and purchase flowering plants that will be placed in our small garden, and have candles lighted in strategic places inside and outside the house so no ghosts come wandering where they're not supposed to.

So off we went in the early afternoon carrying four black chairs that comprise our dining area seating that needed upholstering. After some considerable arranging and rearranging, we managed to stuff these all in Blackie, our black Honda Civic.

We got into the car and turn on the ignition. The engine rumbled slightly then died off. Uh oh. A couple more tries revealed the same "uh-oh" result. A neighbor passed by and said it might have trouble starting because we did not use it for a couple of days so we just have to try and try and try.

That we did, until I finally gave up. I told my wife that I better carry the chairs by twos to the upholstery shop because they might close early. So I carried two chairs to the shop, then went back for the next two. My wife accompanied me on the second trip so she can haggle the price with the shop owner.

A black cat appeared out of nowhere from our right side and cross right in front of us. We stopped. Wasn't that a sign of bad luck? Where's a pinch of salt to throw over your shoulder when you need one?
It's turning out to be a black day for us. Black chairs, black car, black cat. Is this Friday the 13th? Did this mean we were being warned not to continue with our trip to the Orchidarium?

We went back to the car. Lo and behold. The engine hummed at first start! Well, there's no turning back now. We made our way to Burnham Park to buy our plants.

And that's the end of the black story. Bitin ba? :-) How anti-climactic! lol


Here's Jo-Lo enjoying our trip to the Orchidarium.
My wife and Jo-Lo buying grapes from a wandering vendor.

Belated Happy Halloween everyone!

Firstly, thanks everyone for greeting me on my birthday! Actually, I did not have any plans of celebrating. I just wanted it to come and go. But as early as the day before, I was receiving greetings already, and it indeed lifted my spirits so I said, what the heck. I'll just celebrate it on my blog! :-).

Fast forward to Halloween...
Have I mentioned before that I'm choosy with my friends? Yep. I celebrated Halloween with only a few select pals. Here they are:
Oooh, Death hasn't aged one bit!
Here we are, hanging around with Sadako.
And here's my good friend from Tales from the Crypt whose eyes whitened by the sight of me and played me a merry old tune on the piano. Awww....

Kidding. Those figures are from the Mimosa Leisure Park in Clark when we had a seminar over there a day before my birthday.

I celebrated Halloween in Baguio. Thanks to the typhoon and GMA declaring only Nov. 1 as the holiday, I wasn't able to visit my parents' house on that day. We visited them instead last Sunday, which is my father's birthday. The following day, the typhoon arrived, making it dangerous to make a second visit.

On Halloween, we visited the market. Coconuts are very popular at these times, as it is a primary ingredient for making rice cakes.

Inspite of the rains, we placed candles in each room of the house and the surroundings. It was raining at this time, making it impossible to place candles by the gates.
It was a silent Halloween for us. Oooh I have to tell you about the "black event" that happened but I'll talk about that in the next blog.

They said all I talk about is food these days. Not! I talk about it too in my Baguio-Quezon blog! :-)

Belated Happy Halloween everyone!