misstinapie

I am no newbie to the SMX area so I wondered a circus can fit in the convention halls. I was thinking of a huge open court where all the trampolines and trapeze lines could all fit in but when we came there no tent was in sight. Even when I asked the guard she just instructed us to go downstairs. They are dead serious that Halls 1 and 2 are enough! So I held my breath as we we walked in. How in hell would they be having a circus in a convention hall...? (Cricket chirping) You won't see a photo of the entire place because I forgot to snap some shots with the lights on but I will describe it to you the best way I can. On the left side is the circus ring where covered monobloc chairs formed a half moon for the audience. No special theater-like seating like in those carnies, just simple chairs. Well there is a bit of elevation but it's just about a ruler high I estimate. On the right side you have some food stands, a Private Iris booth, a souvenir shop, a stage for photo ops and...

Why Imus hasn't yet become a city is because of the rare businesses that should be there in the first place. Take for example the food industry. There are only a few of these restaurants that exist in the Imus area and most of it are either in malls or just your regular fast food joint. So it's not hard to imagine why Yellowcab has been a breath of fresh air especially to the social wannabes who wanted to have other places to hang out. One of the restaurants that opened this year was Yang Chow in Palico. It's this small little Chinese place which after it's grand opening, closed even before a week due to technical difficulties (says so in the banner back then) and reopened. And when it did, we it was our chance to finally have a taste of the place. First they'd offer you tea. I know that I shouldn't be drinking tea because of me being acidic but what the heck. It's the best free tea I've ever tasted in a chinese restaurant.  Then came som...

"Do I add the friend of the ex of my boyfriend?" -- heard in a bus from a girl caller in a local radio station That's why I don't join Facebook.

Urban Adventures: Switching to Touchscreen (An LG Optimus One Review) It's now days since I own an LG Optimus one. Remember how I ranted about not getting anything at that LG fale (fail sale) of theirs? Well, I was one of those guys who got so hyped and disappointed but in the end gave in buying it on regular price. Maybe the marketing manager thought that it would be better to piss off a few clients and hope that suckers would still buy their unit due to the hype. They’re lucky I’m stingy. LG Box First off, I really have small hands so the width of the gadget has to matter, in this case, I could never flip it in any way as it needs my entire hand to hold it unlike the one I've been using for a long time. I also have to mention that the finish is a bit slippery to the palm and I might need an anti-slip cover for it just to lessen any stupid accidents in the future. Here's a comparison of the Optimus One to my sister's Itouch: We still can’t figure out ...

Even if I haven't watched all of your films, I enjoyed the ones I did. Thank you :-)

Although it isn't obvious, I have semi-dismissed my movie reviews (as if anyone would miss that haha). Anything I've seen starting from the last Resident Evil I haven't thought of writing but I'm making last Saturday's movie an exception-- the first part of Harry Potter 7. With the thought of Rowling co-producing the last two movies me and my youngest sister have huge expectations. For anyone who have seen the last one and actually read the book, I'm betting that we all are much disappointed how the last film turned out. It skipped so many important things, the Elder wand was out of place and the amazing description of Dumbledore's funeral never took place. And since we are now saying goodbye to the series, it is most fitting that we get to see more of the celebrated franchise. And so we watched. It wasn't in an IMAX cinema as I've promised before but because I thought that since there isn't a 3D moment, there is no use shelling that much m...

Dear LG, Hello. I wanted to thank you how you ruined my date last Saturday. Imagine, 4 hours of our date was spent sitting on those hard steps of SM Megamall. We even ate lunch at a takeout from a fastfood joint which we haven't done for the past months of dating not until today. That mother who was complaining how she can't leave the line to eat and her blood sugar were down must be also thankful. I wonder if you rushed her to the hospital in courtesy. Thank you for bringing our hopes up that no matter how long the line is, for as long as we are IN THE LINE from 2-3 we atleast will get something from you. For all we know you only went to as far as giving out stubs to less than a 100 people. And those people who are so fortunate to get in are either your parents, friends, sales ladies or fitness first employees. The rest of us are left to be told that 'please stay on the line, WE MAY BE ABLE TO DO AN EXTENSION' (yes, this statement was from this LG girl in black ...

One of my goals as a food junkie is to experience all the restaurants I can ever put my hands (or mouth) on in the area I am closest. Now I'm working near the Megamall area so my goal is to have atleast experience dining on each and every restaurant there is in the mall. Nearest to us is Mall A so let's start with that. One of the probably least looked at food chains are at the area where Toy Kingdom is facing. Currently Toy Kingdom in front of food court does not technically exist yet since it is under construction as of this writing so in case in the future you are reading this, Jatujak (Thai restaurant) can be found on the leftmost part of the Ground floor. It's just a small space that has a few tables on the actual store, way much smaller than Mexicali in that area. It also has this distinctive violet color you'd seldom see on a food shop and their waiters donning the same colors. I sat down on one of the chairs nearest the glass wall and pondered over my menu. Most...

After bargaining to my youngest sister where I would take her (this vs. the free movie showing in the Korean Film Festival) she agreed on this HP event held at Powerbooks Greenbelt just last Saturday. I've only heard of it from my PB Newsletter but haven't known of the existence of HPP prior. So even skeptical how we can fit in without robes we still pushed on. We maybe the first ones who signed up. When we got there, it was as I expected. I am not going to describe how they 'actually are' but just to be safe the members are in locally made robes and have this sort of inner circle of friends who are, to be honest, quite intimidating for us sore thumbs. Thank goodness more Muggles came, even though most of them are forum active. Some of Harry Potter Philippines members  Sister signed up for 2 games and without my knowledge signed me up in one too where we get to share a team with Sarah, someone we met just on site when she signed up on our group of 3. First game w...

One of my goals as a food junkie is to experience all the restaurants I can ever put my hands (or mouth) on in the area I am closest. Now I'm working near the Megamall area so my goal is to have atleast experience dining on each and every restaurant there is in the mall. Nearest to us is Mall A so let's start with that. One of the probably least looked at food chains are at the area where Toy Kingdom is facing. Currently Toy Kingdom in front of food court does not technically exist yet since it is under construction as of this writing so in case in the future you are reading this, Jatujak (Thai restaurant) can be found on the leftmost part of the Ground floor. It's just a small space that has a few tables on the actual store, way much smaller than Mexicali in that area. It also has this distinctive violet color you'd seldom see on a food shop and their waiters donning the same colors. I sat down on one of the chairs nearest the glass wall and pondered over my menu...

MIBF Entrance at SMX MIBF or Manila International Book Fair hasn't eluded my eyes again (or so you think since I haven't posted anything after the event). Inspite of being disappointed twice over last year after enticing an officemate to come with and not even coming close to her expectations, I still went here in positive to find gems. To give you reader to know how I do this book buying decision, I am that type who randomly buy books from fairs but I do have this criteria: 1. It must not be too expensive (since it's a fair after all). 2. It must still be intact, no dog ears, no book ridges. 3. The teaser must be exciting, I must have heard it elsewhere or the author is someone I know or have heard. 4. Decisions would only be made after making sure that I haven't seen it elsewhere. That's REX Bookstore So I made my rounds first, scouting every single store as I normally do on trade fairs. Again, not all picky with the authors. In the end here's wha...

On one of the rare occassions that I find myself awake on my commute on a bus I saw this host and Drew on morning tv talking about plastination. You know, the process of preserving the dead by adding some formula that will make them stiff as plastic and not decompose? Yeah that one. Instantly I thought of a wonderful change of plans on a Saturdate. I've always been in the haunt of finding good places to go in the metro and this I wanted to see. I never had the chance to know where and how much was the entrance fee because I slept on it waiting (commercials and the interview/roaming of Drew and the other host was cut into different parts) but knowing that it existed is enough. So after hopelessly searching for the details on the net without ever knowing that the exhibit was named as such (the title), using broad queries such as taguig, plastination, exhibit, museum, dead, corpses I really thought I wasn't going to find it. I was so glad when I really found their website a...

Before I even started reading books, I was already introduced to this concept by Ed. I was fascinated by this and ever since I've learned about it I became more dutiful in saving. Pay yourself first is a concept wherein you simply have to allocate a portion of your money as payment for yourself, may it be for the work that you did or for the commission you received. Think of yourself as a resource that has to be paid. For most of us this is in the form of a treat, like a spa, or a movie. But we should not interchange this wonderful concept to indulgence. There is a huge difference. Bear in mind that in paying yourself first, you are making sure that you, your very own resource gets paid for the time you spent on working every single day and not the owner of that boutique you bought those pair of shoes. Not clear enough yet? Look at your paycheck. See the tax there? That's one way of seeing the beauty of paying yourself first. The government wants itself to get paid FIRS...

Ever since I started reading financial books and I was getting more interested in this personal finance stuff, I've had experiences on this matter when people learned that I am educating myself about it. First was the Powerbooks guy who was so eager to help me out when I gave up finding Lynch's book. That was after he looked at me from head to toe in astonishment when he asked who I'm buying the books for. I told him it's for me, that I'm the one who wanted to do investment. His reaction was 'you don't look like one'. The other one was over lunch times, there are three of us, one of us are onto stocks for around 3 years now. I frequented asking him what's this and that about stocks until one day, the other guy told me 'tell me if you've gained so I can do the same' The other time was with another officemate. When she saw this financial book on my table (this time it was Gamboa's), she asked if I was already investing. I told ...

When I was still in this Non-Life Insurance company I remembered that time when they had two consecutive outings, one was an all expense paid trip to Bora and a tour date at Intramuros. For a non regular employee (I was just deployed as a Developer/Consultant there) of course we can't take part on the trips but unlike most of my officemates who are envious at the Bora outing, I was more interested, drooling to add at that, to the Manila tour with Carlos Celdran. I don't recall when but I know for the longest time, I am quite fascinated with the guy (and I haven't even met him yet!). For the past weeks we've been seeing him on TV, and on how he was imprisoned for a while for his solo protest. I was shocked I almost stood from where I was seated (I was at the bus) but smiled after a while when I learned of his reason. It's so like him. Even his protest has 'class'. Like most sensible bills that haven't seen the light of day in this country, the RH bill i...

Just as I thought that E-vat was the stupidest thing that has ever happened to Pinoys, here's a neck to neck contender. The no Friday homework. The intention of this law is so that students may have more time to bond with the rest of their family during weekends due to teachers not giving them any homework. Even if the intention meant to be "good" as they say, I really don't see any sense. For one, students DON'T DO THEIR HOMEWORK ON WEEKENDS. They cram Monday morning. And what family bonding are they talking about? They'd (students) have more time in front of the computer or go malling with their friends! And why? Because their parents are either asleep the entire weekend, or are still keeping up with generating more income (that's because their salaries flow out of their pockets due to excessive taxations in every little thing there is) or do weekend chores their lazy fat ass kids don't bother do. Our student demographic are lazy and stupid enough ...

Though there is a difference in every individual on how much and till when would this be, for us singles, that amounts to your cost of living for 6 months without work. Someone said 3 months would do but since this is an emergency fund, I might as well do the 6 months mark. This would also be your source for whatever inevitable thing happens-- accidents, medical issues, death of a relative or whatever emergency means to you (puhlease. that cute bag you saw on sale is not an emergency). And when that time comes, no matter how much you spent, you must save back till the last cent to ensure that you have more of it for the next incident. I'm around 30% of my emergency fund as of this writing and my goal is to be done with it before this year ends. And because this is an amount that I needed to have anytime it is needed, I plan to invest just half of it to RTBs and the other half at my disposal so I can benefit from the interests gained in the tenure of the coupon and still be able...

Though it's not about a month of immersing myself into this investing business through reading and guidance from various sources (Ed, Investor Juan, Peter Lynch, Alvin Tabañag, Larry Gamboa, Colayco, Investopedia, etc.) I have now started to take action to the tune of Mutual Funds and Stocks. Why Mutual Funds? I've only read (not done with it yet) Lynch's Beating the street and though he was not discouraging his readers too much, one would notice that he is saddened by too many people engaging themselves in Mutual Funds  than in stocks themselves. If you ask me my impression with MFs are a good investment (with it's risk factors of course), though when I talk about it to friends, I get straight to the point, telling them, 'it's for you who are lazy enough not to do homework'. So why would I even bother? Here are my reasons: 1. The fund is a mix (what I got anyway) of government securities and stocks. I know I can't afford a decent RTB that would gi...