Pala-isip

Yesterday, March 27, 2007, a man held 26 people hostage in a bus at the Manila City Hall. The hostage taker, Armando Ducat Jr. took his own students hostage on the way to a field trip to Tagaytay they said. Although he released his hostages after 10 hours. It made me think, is this really a hostage crisis or just a political ploy to get more mileage out of the coming election? Here are the reasons why I think this way. First, they got Senator Bong Revilla, Jr. to be the hostage negotiator. What the hell? What does he know about being a hostage negotiator? Don't you need to be trained in psychology and police work to be an effective negotiator? Second, Bong Revilla claims to have close ties with Ducat. What!?! You're friends with a hostage taker/terrorist? Third, Chavit Singson also went to the scene and was shown on television boarding the bus. I mean, who in their right mind would go inside a bus with a guy threatening to blow up the bus with his grenade? Well, I know Chavit i...

RRSP season is finally over. If you're Canadian, you probably know or have heard what an RRSP is and knows that RRSP season runs from January 1 to March 1 every year. What is an RRSP? An RRSP is basically a self-funded retirement plan similar to a 401K in the US. The money you put in to an RRSP eligible investment can be used to deduct your income from your taxes. That way, your taxable income can be lowered. Depending on how much taxes is taken from your paycheque, you may be able to get some tax refund after you file your taxes. The deadline for filing taxes is April 30. It has been a hectic two months and I haven't had time to sit and think on what to write. I'm only able to write this because I am in the office on a Saturday and it's pretty slllooooowwww... It has been a slow two weeks for the office which is unusual. Anyway, this is all I can think of writing for now.

I don't get it, what makes someone who is popular in the Philippines suddenly get the "calling" to run for politics? Just because you're the "Kamao nang Bayan" doesn't mean you are the saviour of the people. And what's this with Cesar Montano running for the senate? What on earth is up with that? I read on the news that he is even taking a crash course in public service to learn how to become a public official. WTF?!? How do you learn how to draft a law in a few months? Lawyers takes at least 6 years plus a bar exam to even understand the law. But a few months and you want to run for the senate? Holy Guacamoli! And he even said that he stands to lose P100 Million in endorsement for running for the senate. I would just take the endorsement, all I have to do is smile and look good for the camera. Why even get the headache of running the country? Oh I know, he got paid a lot more than P100M to run for the administration. Guess who's money that came ...

Are you guy who loves his throne? Who wish he could drink beer, watch football/basketball/baseball and wish you didn't have to get up to go to the bathroom and miss that spectacular play? Do you wish you can have a beer on tap while you're in the john? Wish no more! You could win the ultimate john! It has an XBox 360, a 20" LCD TV, a 15" laptop, an 30Gb iPod with iCarta Bathroom tissue dock, a refrigirator with a beer tap, a USB powered cup cooler/warmer, a dual sided magnification mirror, a DVD player and a Tivo! It even has a megaphone if you need more toilet paper. Here's what takes the cake, it has a resistive pedal exerciser! I guess you can't make the excuse that you can't exercise because you're in the crapper. A man's ultimate dream machine!

Tell me if this is you. 1. You heard a tune that you really like but you just can't figure out what the title of the song is. 2. You know a part of the lyrics of the song, but you can't remember what the title is or how the song goes. 3. You can hum the tune, but don't know the lyrics or the name of the song. If that is you, good news! There's a new site that helps you exactly find that tune! The site is called Midomi . You can hum, sing or type a part of the song and it will search its 2 million database of songs and match what you're looking for. If you're an aspiring American Idol or Pinoy Idol star. They also have a place for you to register and record your own songs. Your performance might even be the top result! Check out the site at htpt://www.midomi.com .

Ever wondered how the home game consoles evolved over time? I found a website that shows the history of game consoles from 1970 to the present. Remember this? The Atari PONG released in 1975 How about this? The Atari 2600 released in 1977. I still remember owning this. Man, those joyticks really break easily. My favorite was this Intellivision released in 1980. Too bad I didn't have a lot of games available at that time. But the graphics was great and putting in different cards on the keypad to have different controls was great. The the biggest hit that really revolutionized the game console was this Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1985. With Super Mario Bros., the game truly changed the landscape of home consoles and paved the way for the Playstation and Xbox of today. And now of course, we have the Wii. For the full list, visit this website .

I'm always amazed at how imaginative people can be. I'm especially impressed by industrial designers who are able to take ordinary objects, inject a new twist in design and make them more usable and attractive. Just like the iPod and how it redesigned an MP3 player where the design focuses on ease of use, simplicity and clean lines. Here is another product that engages the user to have a more experience in eating breakfast. A new design of the ordinary toaster. You just slip the bread on the ceramic loop and the bread rolls out to the catch completely toasted. It's an innovative design of an ordinary household item that one usually relegates to the kitchen corner. This would make a nice piece in any kitchen. Here are more photos on how it works. Here's the link to the designer's website.