digitaldaydream

A few months ago i was reading a NYTimes article about how the Large Hadron Collider, 15 years and 9 billion dollars later, isn't quite working. My brother looked over my shoulder and asked what I was reading about and i struggled to explain the LHC.

Fortunately, the scientists at CERN aren't too concerned about fixing the LHC and now devote their time to dorky rap videos to explain to us common folk what a giant particle accelerator really is. I didn't find this myself, my closet geek of a boyfriend did!

i want to write about politics and the whole noynoy - mar thing soon... but for now i just want to say that i am happy noy is topping the surveys and upsetting villar, because i can't stand villar, don't trust him, and am glad that this is going to shake some of his confidence. a source close to me met with him last week and he said that all villar talks about is himself (ako ito, ako ganyan, ako ako ako...). trapo! now that mar is out of the picture i want to learn more about teodoro. but at the end of the day one of the things that's important to me in a new president is that he will prosecute GMA once she is out of office. and gibo won't do that.

i had a really fun weekend. we went bowling in eastwood and it was so much fun! at 10PM it turned into disco bowling complete with disco lights, neon balls and blacklit lanes. too bad they only serve beer.

as much as i love beer i have finally admitted to myself that i am allergic and it makes my skin itch. sad face.

another discovery of the weekend is patron XO cafe - tequila + coffee = amazing coffee liqueur! so so yummy.

leaving for the states for a month at the end of september. i'm excited to see my sister and ogle beautiful shoes.

four out of the ten deadliest ferry accidents in the philippines happened to ships owned by sulpicio lines. full list at the inquirer

June, 2008: MV Princess of the Stars, owned by Sulpicio Lines, capsizes at the height of a typhoon. Of the 850 on board, only 57 survive.

September, 1998: MV Princess of the Orient ferry, sister ship of Princess of the Stars and owned by Sulpicio Lines, sinks off Batangas City. About 150 die.

October 1988: MV Doña Marilyn, owned by Sulpicio Lines, sinks off the central island of Leyte, leaving more than 250 dead.

December, 1987: MV Doña Paz, sister ship of Doña Marilyn and owned by Sulpicio Lines, collides with an oil tanker off Mindoro island, leaving more than 4,000 dead in the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster.

WTF? at least one major disaster every ten years and they continue to operate? sulpicio has a horrible track record like and looking at the data, they haven't done much about their safety record.

 i want to start LJ-ing again but i twitter too much and writing more than 140 characters feels weird.

last night i cooked sun-dried tomatoes and garlic oil pasta. today i made a creamy mushroom and tuna sauce with fettucine.

i came across something pretty LOL-tastic. Victoria London (as in THE victoria london, our very own)'s online store that sells "sexy clubwear" "costumes" and lingerie... except they all look like lingerie to me.

as she says at the top of her page, "enter at your own risk."

i'm celebrating my birthday a little differently this year. i funded a project called "making little dreams possible" - where 30 sixth graders from two of the farthest schools in my town here in sarangani are brought into the city for two days of learning and fun. yesterday, they visited the central elementary school and made friends with other kids. then they visited a power plant and even got to walk through the control room with lots of computers and switches and buttons. back home, they don't have electricity. after the power plant, we took them to the ocean - and this is the first time they saw the sea up close.

where they live, they can see the lights of general santos and the surrounding towns. what i was told was that all they wanted was to go where the lights are - and that's where we're taking them. today they visited the airport and fish port in the morning. this afternoon they're going to visit two universities and get to watch a movie, eat in jollibee, and possibly go bumper cars.

the goal of this trip is to encourage these kids to attend and finish high school, and realize that there is a bigger world out there for them to conquer. all of the children had never been in a car before and had never been to the city, either.

it takes five to six hours of walking to get to their villages.

one of the mothers ran after her child to press some money into his palm -- all of two pesos. she has never been to the city, either.

in these two years that i have lived here, i have had so many experiences and interactions with people that really changed my perspective and also made me realize the kind of work i want to commit my life to.

i continue to believe that education is the way out of poverty and the way towards peace and development. it sounds like such a cliche but nothing is truer than that.

"this odd conglomeration of mostly working infrastructure and unimpeachable cultural security, this city where you never have to wonder if the movie will open or the band will play or the author will read, is a place I shall never take for granted."

i'll see you soon, nyc.

from here

I can't find a big size of the poster but here are the deets - i won't be in town but LJ's very own wexistence  will be there!


On May 11, 2009 we will begin our COUNTDOWN TO CHANGE as we encourage Filipinos to vote for reform in 2010.

365 DAYS TO CHANGE is organized by Artists' Revolution, and headlined by the enduring Apo Hiking Society, as well as Joey Ayala, Isay Alvares, Robert Sena, Kjwan, Jon Santos, and Juana Change.

More artists are being invited so STAY TUNED for the evolving artist lineup!

For tickets to 365 DAYS TO CHANGE...TODO NA 'TO! please contact: CHINGKEL, AISSA, or MENARD at 8982913, 8983221, or 8997691 loc. 2222-24.

NOW NA! :)

JR and I are heading to Japan for Holy Week! Thank god for the two long weekends and cheap PAL tickets. Round trip Manila-Osaka flights were $240 roundtrip plus taxes...it comes out to just under $650 for two tickets. 

We're both big fans of Japanese food and are determined to make the trip a feeding frenzy. We start out with a night in Osaka then two nights in Kobe and then we head to Kyoto for three nights and then we spend the rest of the trip in Osaka.

We're going to Kobe just for the beef. I've already found some good restaurant recommendations. I discovered this site called Bento that has english reviews to restaurants around Japan. Kyoto is a must-see for the temples but I got overwhelmed while doing research because it sounds like Kyoto has more temples per square mile than any other place in the world. Or something like that. But thanks to piracy and illegal downloads i found a copy of Lonely Planet Kyoto on torrent. Someone had taken it out from a public library and scanned each and every page. Thanks a lot, whoever you are! Lastly, Osaka is where Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki originate from. We also downloaded Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Osaka episode and got excited about all the food. Bourdain goes to this tiny sushi restaurant that has all of six seats and everything they served him just looked so good.

The challenge of course is the language barrier but I'm sure we'll manage, and that is always part of the fun anyway.

The other bonus is that we're going right smack in the middle of cherry blossom season!

I have to say, it feels good to be back on LJ.

And welcome back, Mika and Jill! ;) 

Ever since J and I got together, I've been eating so well. Little Tokyo is a favorite, and we are determined to go through every single restaurant in that area to find the best eats. So here are our recommendations for three out of the many restaurants in Little Tokyo.

At Urameshi Ya, we ordered the beef set, which was good for 4-5 people. We finished everything but the liver.

We recommend the "second class beef". Much better (and cheaper) than "first class" and wagyu.


At Niko Niko Tei, he shoyu ramen is made with a slightly thicker and more flavorful soup base than what you would get at Shinjuku. Very yummy. Their sushi is affordable and pretty good as well, although their nori isn't as crisp as it should be. I'm still on a quest to find the best sukiyaki in the area as Niko Niko's wasn't anything to write home about.

Nodasho, next to Niko Niko Tei, serves excellent chicken teriyaki. They also give free beer stubs for your next visit. Next time I'd like to sit at the sushi bar as they had two Japanese chefs working the bar.

And a word of warning, do NOT eat at KIKOFUJI! When we had lunch there, we saw one waitress loading the salad bowl with her hands. She was taking lettuce from this giant bowl and loading it onto the serving bowls. We were already grossed out and then ALL the other waitresses joined in and did the same! There were about five waitresses using their unclean hands to load the salad bowls and then putting them onto trays and serving the patrons. I was watching for a while and no hand washing or sanitizing took place. There were multiple waitresses dipping their hands into the giant bowl of lettuce. SO GROSS.

Educate yourselves. Understand the data. Our education system is in terrible shape and we are in serious trouble.
Please make time to watch this video.

you can make a difference:

Synergeia

57-75: Reverse the Education Crisis

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080601-140015/Kuya-Ate-in-Sarangani-help-pupils-read-better

Our program, which I think is a FIRST in the nation, is featured in today's inquirer!!! Last friday, we held a consultation with our volunteers and all of them said YES they want to do the program again next year, YES they want it to be institutionalized, and YES they had an amazing time with the kids and were really challenged but recognized that it was all part of a greater learning process.

two of our programs made it to this week's local paper :)

Reading Camp
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2008/05/26/life/reading.camp.html

Villagers pin hope in baskets
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2008/05/26/bus/villagers.pin.hope.in.baskets.html

Two new sunscreens - La Roche Posay and L'Orealhere.

And other more "serious" entries over at Alabelle. Y'know, gossip girl and stuff.

i just discovered the glory that is google reader. wow, i'm light years late to the party.

Yorac awardee knows what it's like to stand up to giants

Ma'am Nene Guevara of Synergeia, one of the most dedicated public servants I know. She has committed her whole life to transforming the system one local government at a time. She inspires me.

xxx


thanks, everyone, for your kind words. :) i know it is difficult for most people to get knee-deep in community work, so you guys can all live vicariously through me instead. i will try to blog more. :) next up, you'll meet my goats. oh yes, you read it right!

check out all the photos from our education program at my flickr!

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.


i hope that by the end of 2008 i would have covered more of mindanao by land.

MANILA, Philippines -- Former president Fidel Ramos warned President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Thursday that pardoning convicted plunderer and deposed leader Joseph Estrada was a dangerous move that could lead to her own downfall.

In a statement, Ramos said Estrada’s plunder conviction and pardon are “bigger than President Arroyo and/or Estrada himself.”

“...All Filipinos are stakeholders in this case,” Ramos said prior to his departure for Guandong, China where he was attending a business conference. His statement was made before Malacañang announced that Arroyo had granted Estrada full pardon.

Ramos, who saved Arroyo from being toppled following the mass resignation of her Cabinet members and resounding calls for her resignation at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal in July 2005, also warned that she has “little time” to make the country globally competitive.

“She has barely three years left to stabilize the economy while contending with the present political instability created by divisions among the political leaders, graft and corruption, peace and order problems, political killings and human rights violations,” Ramos said.

Ramos also admitted to cracks in the administration coalition composed of the Lakas-CMD, of which he is chairman emeritus and Speaker Jose de Venecia is chairman, and Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, Partner of the Free Filipino), which was founded by Arroyo in 1996.

On Tuesday, Ramos was photographed with Arroyo and De Venecia to show that all was well between the two officials, who were reportedly at odds after the Speaker’s son, Jose de Venecia III, told a Senate hearing about the alleged corruption that accompanied the granting of the national broadband network deal to Chinese telecom firm ZTE Corp.

Ramos also said the requisites for executive clemency had not been met, and even Estrada had not admitted his guilt. And granting Estrada pardon just a month after his conviction could send a signal to other convicts to seek the same privilege.

“President Arroyo must bide her time and should not be rushed,” Ramos said. “This proposal must be evaluated on account of its impact on other felons who may also demand the same treatment.”

He cited retired Army major general Carlos Garcia, who is charged with plunder, as an example.

Ramos said setting Estrada free was also a “dangerous proposal” since the convicted former president could always rally his followers to mount protests against Arroyo, who may find herself “suffering the same fate as that of Estrada who was forced to vacate his office in the face of mounting protests.”

Ramos said Arroyo must also consider the sentiments the family of Bubby Dacer, the publicist who was abducted and killed allegedly by Estrada's men and whose case has remain unsolved for almost seven years.