Friendster

I've registered with friendster a few years ago but I haven't relaly been using it until a few days ago.

It all started when I joined a yahoo group called "Grace Christian Scouts" This was my old school and group when I was still in pinas. Late last week I got a Yahoo group announcement from someone who use to be my troop leader, Ross William Tan. His brother and I hang out when we were in the scouts. In fact, his brother Randy was one of the last people whom I said good bye to before coming here in 1992.

So I sent an email, said hello, and eventually I was chatting with Randy. He is now a dad and operate a barbershop and a bar and restaurant in Subic. He showed me some photos of his family and asked me to visit his Friendster accounts. So I did. He said why don't you join? There are heaps of Graceans there.

So I logged in my ancient account, saw a message left to me by El Nino 2 yrs ago...hehe..and true enough a lot of my old friends and classmates were there. So I started updating my profile, started viewing other people's profiles and added a lot of people as friends. I got a few replies back and some of them I wasn't expecting or the person wasn't who I expected them to be.

For example, one of them was Erns. I didn't realise he is really a cute Jap Girl. All these years of knowing him, he is really a she...?

I got a reply from Debbie Jane Ruste who is someone from my batch. We weren't really classmates but her cousins I do know. One was named Dennis who was a scout and the other was in my class and her name was Marilou Dyogi. Dyogi was one of a dozen girls (henceforth called the "Pretty Dozen") in my class whom I always thought were the prettiest girls in my school/batch. They were the ones always nililigawan ng mga school jocks/varsity players, etc...Dyogi did end up marrying one of them and here she is with her baby Lance.


Let's see who else is there? We have Jean who is the smallest person in our class and in the batch but she is the smartest. I think she was like Valedictorian or something.


Calina Prieto, another one of the pretty dozen, Calina is physically the opposite of Jean. She is the tallest girl and perhaps taller than 99% of the boys in school. There was this guy who had this huge crush on her and he was from a different class. But any chance he gets, he hangs around our class almost as if like he was part of our class.


Lyn Florence; I was only in the same class as her for a year I think. I'm surprised she even remembers me. I was quite below the radar I thought and wasn't part of the "in" crowd. Not to mention some students hated me.


Carren; we were never in the same class. But an old friend of mine had a huge crush on her and I often be his support when he would go mangliligaw... That was how I knew her. Been to her house a couple of times.


Fanny Marie; she was in my class and perhaps was one of the happiest people there. She always seem so carefree. She is neutral with everyone I thought.


Susan Lopez; now this person disappeared off the face of the earth before I came here to NZ. We use to hang out at her place working on group assignments. I have one thing associated with her and that is Bananarama - her fav band at the time.


Roselle (Uy); hmm....perhaps one of Lyn's best mates. I remember she was a very nice person...I've always had a soft spot for her. We use to hang out quite a bit in freshman year when we were in the same class.


Roselle (Teodosio); One of my best friends in school. We were quite close and her brother was also a very good friend of mine. He wasn't happy about it...heheh..


There were quite a few of them I saw. I saw my old high school crush, Rhea. The whole class knew I had a big crush on her but I was as torpe as I can be and it went no where.


Here are some of my quiet class mates: Tiffany, Michelle, and Cherry are among a few.


By now you must be wondering why all the ones here are girls? well, some of them I knew since I was in elementary school but in my school, the high school classrooms are arrange differently. Each year was divided to around 10 classrooms. One of these classrooms was called the "star class" if I remember correctly. The 40 or so students here are kinda like the top of the year level and it is composed of mainly girls. There were only 10 of us boys. I remember in Filipino and English subjects we use to have plays like Shakespeare and Noli Me Tangere...it was difficult for us to divide into groups because of the shortage of boys.


When I was freshman high school student, I was in section 7 or something. But for the last two years of high school in pinas, I managed to get into the star classes. I'm not sure how it works though because there are other really smart people in other classes which I feel should have been in my places...hmmm..dunno...


Also in our class was the Principal's grand daughter Rachel. One of her wedding photo is here.


Also in the photo are some I already covered above...plus Maureen Yu (bottom right with bouquet) and Jacqueline Ching (red dress), both are in the "Pretty Dozen". Maureen Yu is the daughter of the famous Manila architect "Willie C Yu". The girl in blue is probably the most tomboy girl of our batch and her name is Kevin...no shit.


Will see if I can get more "friends" added to my list. As I said, I was pretty low under the radar and most of the guys in my class hated me...so...

I want one of these!

Movie Review: Superman Returns

ok. i saw this film a couple of weeks back, and I would still give it 3 stars out of 5.


i enjoyed the 2-hour long film, and a much awaited one at that, since the last couple of Superman films ever to grace our screens are mediocre or ridiculous at best. maybe that's why former X-Men director Singer said something along the lines of "'Returns' comes after Superman 2", and decided not to credit 3 and 4 (i warn you all not to kill a million brain cells by subjecting yourselves to Superman 3!).


the 2006 script is good, and there comes at least a couple of engaging moments where i felt like the movie hit the stop for most movie-goers - lois lane's secret (?!) and Superman's first rescue since his return.


i reckon Perry White was a bit more clued in as to the coincidental re-appearances of the Man Of Steel and mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent. and Marsden's role in this film really didn't make much impact, and imo, he should've stayed with the X-Men franchise. He could've had a bigger role as Cyclops. but i digress....


routh is often seen to be making a great impersonation of Christopher Reeve, but i mean that as a compliment.


time for my usual gripes: 1) what kind of security does the Fortress Of Solitude really have? 2) was Spacey channeling Gene Hackman there? 3) they still could've done much better with the flying (although I heard that watching the sequences in 3D is a different experience all together).


oh... and 4) i'm expecting clobbering times in the sequels. please.

Cop with second job

So how does it go in the movies?


Potential Customer: Hey babe!
Call girl: Hey honey wassup?
Potential Customer: Yes. How much?
Call girl: Are you a cop?
Potential Customer: No.
Call girl: Good. But I am…


I suppose they are gathering revenue one way or another.

One question that must be asked though. Should cops have a second job? If a cop is trying to solve a crime, will he/she look at the clock at the end of shift saying "I'll do this some other time. I late for my other job." Is this why crimes don't get solved in NZ?

I think most people will be worried that if a law enforcer has a second job, it may compromise his/her effectiveness on the primary job.

Mailroom Etiquette

Went to the mailroom this morning to get our mail. So this "Little" guy was there sifting through a mail drawer. This guy is an editor of a men's mag and because his department/mag is small, he shares the drawer of 2 other departments.

What appalls me is that he was looking for his mail and left all others behind. The least he could do is grab a handful of mails and give it to the editorial assisstant on his way to his desk (which is on the way). At least the editorial assistant will not have to make multiple trips to get all the mail.

I know of other editors who are not too proud to help. Perhaps it is his nature. I once heard that he is a real arsehole...so up himself...?

Is it too much to expect such kindness/manners?

I want one: Hyanide personal tank

Do you want to have a motorcycle, a dirt bike, and a snow mobile? You can have all three without spending for all three with the Hyanide concept vehicle!

Read more about it here.

Now if only they can combine it with a quadski...

R.I.P. Yvonne Tan Part 2

Cont... from previous post.

This piece was shown on Sunday 16th July 2006 in two programs; Asia Down-under and Sunday.

Wanted: Real judges for NZ Idol

I find it interesting to watch reality shows and in this instance it is the NZ Idol. Not because I want to laugh at some terrible hopefuls (like the Oh no girl, The prison break dude, and diet Rick Astley) but because there are some fairly good ones. Of course NZ is always short of good singing talent when it comes to idols (compared to Australia and of course USA) but there are still some.

But that is not what I'm writing about today. I am writing about the terrible judges (except Frankie Stevens) such as Paul Ellis, Fiona Macdonald, Jackie Clarke, and now Iain Stables and Megan Alatini. I've made antry about this before and after seeing the first episode of NZ Idol, I feel I need to vent some disappointment again. In my first entry I complained mainly about Megan Alatini who was a member of the group "True Bliss" - a product of a similar "popstar" competition format that made the Spice Girls. But True Bliss didn't last that long which was my argument against Megan as a choice for NZ Idol judge. I felt she does not have the right to be there. I thought Carly Binding (another True Bliss ex-member) was the better choice. But today, I'm willing to give her the chance.

Iain Stables on the other hand is a radio man who don't even like pop music so what the hjell is he doing in a pop music competition??? The whole episode Frankie was apologising for Iain Stables' negative comments to some contestants saying Iain doesn't really like R&B or Iaian is not into pop...he clearly is a rock person. Were the organisers of NZ idol so desperate to find a nasty judge?

Let's see the next few episodes and hopefully it becomes better. Just remember judges, I do not want to here "You made it your own!" comments.

Today's interesting news

A couple of interesting news articles I read today. The first one is about a teenage girl inviting a stranger she met in Bebo.com to her house, while her parents are away, to have sex. Parents should really try to control this at home and schools should have these sites filtered. For budding parents like B0log3r, there is a software called Net Nanny which is quite good. I’ve had good feedback from our readers about it.

Second article: Police say severed foot not suspiciousSHOCK HORROR!!! It was like…

While walking along beachPoliceman 1: Hey look! A severed foot.
Policeman 2: Yeah…cool.
Policeman 1: Yeah…let’s issue some more speeding tickets.

I mean what is wrong with these people?

Great new idea for the police

The Police Commissioner Howard Broad found it offensive that the poilice have a quota system. Here’s a quote from him:

"I have a fundamental opposition to that because quotas, to me, suggest that we are somehow a beneficiary of what it is that we do, that we are collecting the revenue, that we are somehow punching the ticket along the way, that officers are somehow benefiting from this,"

My question is, Aren’t you? Doesn’t this help buy your toilet paper in the stations because you are all shit?

Here’s another one:

"That's just not the case. We're not a bunch of bounty hunters who are out there ticketing for ticketing's sake."

I have a great new idea. How about solving crime for solving crime’s sake! There are lots of unsolved crimes on your desks so how about this great idea…How about a crime solving quota!?

Hey what you think of that? It doesn’t have to be a daily quota. It can be a weekly or monthly quota. You can start with say solving 7 crimes a week each. If you feel lucky, solve 10. Hey by the end of the year you would have solved all the crimes!

Police - traffic quota system

The leaked internal memo exposed by National's law and order spokesman, Simon Power, confirmed what most of us believe, for a very long time, that the Police operate on a traffic ticket quota system.

Basically most people (people I’ve spoken to who are not related to a police-person) believe that the police have a daily target/quota similar to what parking wardens have. This means, just to reach the target $$, the police will stop anyone they feel like picking on.

This brings up a few questions as well:
Who do they normally pick? I police can be quite racist and pick on any dark skinned fella with a hoodie.
Also, shouldn’t they be solving crimes? There are plenty of cases left unsolved. In a way the police are not public servants anymore. They are a business. The do not solve crimes because it is not profitable.

Can you feel my anger?

Transformers Teaser

More than meets the eye!