The worst thing being in a very unfamiliar place is probably missing things you're familiar with.

That's what I'm going through right now being here in Bangalore. I'm away from home and I haven't been able to watch the nice movies being released this summer season. Good thing I was able to catch a few movies like Iron Man before I left Manila but I've already missed movies I've had my eye on like:

• Speed Racer
• What Happens in Vegas
• Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay

The new Indiana Jones movie is also coming up, as well as the new Chronicles of Narnia installment.

Sheesh, I better step my search for a decent movie house here in Bangalore that shows more than Bollywood films.


Tags: Hollywood

I'm here in Bangalore, India for the next two months and I really haven't explored the place. One of my goals here is to watch a Bollywood film in a movie theater here, but I really don't know the place. :(

So, if anyone can recommend a nice cineplex or movie house here in Bangalore or a nice Bollywood movie to be released within the month, please do chime in! I'll definitely appreciate any suggestion. :D


Tags: Bollywood

Thanks to Jayvee, I got an invite to Red Box Karaoke's Beer Appreciation Night last April 3 at Greenbelt 3, Makati. The evening was highlighted with a sampling of the new line of international beers being served at Red Box Karaoke.

The Philippines is a San Miguel Beer country, with the Pale Pilsen, San Mig Light and San Mig Strong Ice leading the way, so the event gave me a chance to expand my beer horizons. Red Box sampled Heineken and Beck's from Germany, Stella Artois and Hoegaarden from Belgium, Kirin from Japan and Budweiser from the United States. Food that complemented the beers were served and recommended as the best "beer matches," like having tasty fish & chips with Kirin to complement the beer's subtle taste. Chef Philip John Golding gave a short talk on each of the beers and educated the audience on what makes a beer good. (Answer: the water)

Apart from the TV and print media folks, several bloggers were also there: Annalyn, Bim of the The Man Blog, Poyt, AJ, Lauren and Arpee (Although I did not meet her, Khursten of Punked Noodle, blogged about the event) tasted the beers and were treated to the event's finale-- a taste of Le Fin Du Monde, a 15-year old Canadian fermented beer that is no longer produced. (I sampled it and it actually tastes like wine).

Thankfully, I did not get drunk during the event. :)


Tags: Red Box Karaoke

In honor of my birthday today, I'm posting the lyrics to one of my favorite birthday songs:

Birthday
Music & Lyrics: John Lennon & Paul McCartney

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too--yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party.

I would like you to dance--Birthday
Take a cha-cha-cha-chance-Birthday
I would like you to dance--Birthday
Dance!

You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

Tags: Birthday

I'm very pleased with the growth of this blog in the last ten months, both from a traffic/readership and commercial perspectives. As a way of marking the success the blog has been experiencing, I've acquired the domain Screensucked.com. I believe this blog has definitely earned it. Good this Blogger has a feature that will still maintain the old url (http://screensucked.blogspot.com) and even point the RSS feeds to the new domain.

While the logical next step would be to get a hosting package, and probably migrate to WordPress or another blogging platform, I'm inclined to stick with Blogger. It's very easy to use and easy to just whip up a quick post, plus its improvements has been very helpful.

So thanks to the readers and visitors for making Screensucked.com possible.


Tags: Screensucked

The image you see above (taken January 2, 2008) is from another blog that ripped a review I wrote for the movie Gone Baby Gone. Beth of Beth Loves Hollywood was good enough to point it out to me. Apparently, she also had some blog posts getting ripped by the same blog.

I'm not sure how to go about dealing with this, but I've contacted the owner of that blog. I'll probably try to secure my posts with some links to my blog, but I'll probably research more on techniques on how NOT to stop blog piracy, but to actually leverage on it.

Looking at the bright side, they say you're on to something if other people copy and imitate your work, so I must be on to something here.


Tags: Blog Piracy

There was a Christmas party organized by Jayvee Fernandez for bloggers last December 18, 2007 and it was aptly called the Red Box Blogger Christmas Parteh. As you would know from the event name, the party was held at the Red Box Karaoke in Greenbelt, Makati and it follws the tradition(?) of not correctly spelling the word "party." (Here's another example.)

Juned has some nice highlights and videos of the event, where Jayvee and Marcelle had the show-stopper of the night. Rico and Marcelle probably had the best rap number, performing the Salbakuta classic "S2pid Luv."

I was very happy to sponsor a DVD giveaway during the party and all-original DVD's of The Princess Bride and Veronica Mars Season 3 were given to the "last man/woman standing," or those who left the party last.

The usual blogger suspects were there and I'm please I also met new folks. So here's my mental inventory of the attendees (links to their respective to follow):

1. Abe
2. Marc
3. Anton
4. Sharm
5. Markku
6. Jayvee
7. Noemi
8. Benj
9. Andrien of AsiaPay
10. Fritz
11. Aldrin and Anna Leah
12. Eric
13. Eugene
14. Rico
15. Sasha
16. That floppy hat-wearing jester
17. The Man Bloggers (well, some of them attended)
18. Juned
    
19. Poyt
20. AJ

Sheesh, that's a lot so please drop me a line if I forget to include you in this list. :D


Update:
Congratulations to Juned for winning the Veronica Mars Season 3 DVD Set, Poyt for winning the web hosting package from Noemi and AJ for winning The Princess Bride DVD. :D


Tags: Blogger Events

The Belle De Jour Power Planner 2008, the the planner for today's "IT girl," is now available. This version contains neat features like an Expense Tracker, Menstrual Period Tracker (whatever that is), Goal Planning, Travel Planner and Birthday List.

There are also tons of coupons from these popular brands: All Flip Flops/Havaianas, Bayo, BYSI, Celine, Charles and Keith, Chocolate Clothing, Claw Daddy, CMG, Cocorama, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Crustasia, Culte Femme Rustans, Cupcakes by Sonja's, Fiorgelato/Fiorcafe, FlyWear Eyewear, Freeway, Get Happy Accessories, Heaven 'N Eggs, Karimadon, Kashieca, Laybare Waxing Salon, Levi's Girls Store, Luna Rustans, Maybelline, Moschino Fragrances, New Orleans Restaurant, RedCrab Seafood Club, RedBox, Rred Rustans, So! Fab, The Ramp Crossings, Tomato, VNC, and Ace Water Spa.

You can buy the Belle De Jour Power Planner at National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Crossings and Cupcakes by Sonja's. You can even get the planner directly from Belle De Jour themselves! So IT girls out there, grab your Power Planner now!


Tags: Belle De Jour Power Planner

I'm running a social experiment to test a theory I've developed. The theory is called The Six Word Description Theory and it posits that an object's qualitative attributes can be adequately and satisfactorily described using six words.

My theory was developed while thinking of how to minimize the responses for an interview and it was inspired by Six Degrees of Separation. I'm developing this theory to extend it to describing abstract ideas and how it would apply to tagging and labeling for items on the web. It's like developing this rule of thumb: A blog post can be adequately described using six tags or labels.

I'm validating this theory with a survey that will go through the typical hypothesis testing some theories undergo. The survey has only 10 questions and may be finished in 5 minutes. Please take the survey via the link below:

Take the Six Word Description Theory Survey.

I'd appreciate your help in validating this endeavor.

Tags: Six Word Description Theory

Yesterday was my last day at my (now previous) job. The office did a nice gesture of giving me a send-off, which I really, really appreciate. (I hope I can upload the pictures soon.)

While the people on the office praised my contributions and my legacy, I realized that yesterday how much help I received from them. The first thing I could think of was Sir Isaac Newton:

I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants

I think it's very appropriate-- my hats off to my colleagues at OHSI.

Tags: personal, random