commentary, stories, philosophies, cooking and random thoughts. follow my life's journey as i unravel it. the main page contains five days of entries. this site is maintained by october30. for more articles please visit: ciudadista.wordpress.com

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Overheard

About two days ago while eating at a fastfood restaurant I overheard a conversation between two friends "guy" and "gal." They were sitting beside me and they were talking quite loud.

Guy was talking about seeing Gal's other friend, X in his church last weekend. Gal said, "oh, really!" Guy said X really enjoyed the service. According to him, X loved the format and the friendly atmosphere of their church service. Guy also added that X will be in his church more often.

The pleasant conversation took a different turn when Gal asked if one goes to a particular church because the services is more entertaining than the other one. Guy said entertainment was not that important but it can encourage people to worship. Gal replied in these exact words, "you don't go to church to watch a show or concert so that you are stimulated to worship, you go there because it is your obligation to your Creator in return for giving you life and blessings."

My mobile phone rang, it was my dad calling me. After my five minute conversation Guy and Gal left...

So cold last nigh

It was so cold last night. The rain made the temperature to drop even further. I hope my power bill this month would be bearable.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW movie

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

I saw this movie a few hour ago. It was a delightful apocalyptic movie.

It is a very political movie that presents the consquences of us not caring enough for the environment.

This is an M - memorable and would be one of my favourite disaster movies of all time. This is far better than Volcano and Deep Impact.

SPOILERS (in white text colour):
In the movie...
The northern USA states will be frozen as today's south pole including Canada, UK, Italy, Japan, big parts of China.
US citizens will become refugees in Mexico but were not welcomed until the US President promised to forgive all Latin American debt! HAHAHA!
The southern hemisphere and those close to the equator will be spared.

In the movie the US president looked like Al Gore and the VP who eventually took over looked like Dick Chaney.


Governments and the private sector must invest and push for environment friendly machineries now or we will soon suffer.

Obvious delaying tactics

Blockage - First Person by Alex Magno

If the current opposition bloc believes that their candidate has won why delay the official congressional count?

Their filibustering is an obvious scheme to stop the proclamation of the correct winner of the election.

He deserved it!

Female spectator tells Dilangalen to 'shut up' - May 26, 2004

People like him are a waste of money.

Didagen Dilangalen's group has been calling for changes on how the Philippines' legislature has been canvassing presidential and vice-presidential votes since the 1992.

- - - - - -

I am all out against Didagen Dilangalen's group as they represent the ugliest side of politics in the Philippines. Their group is responsible for tyrant leaders like Marcos and Estrada. How can one trust this group that is responsible to the hardships the country is facing now?

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

racism = ignorance
ignorance = stupidity
therefore, racism = stupidity

Sunday, May 23, 2004

BBC - Radio 4 History - What If

BBC - Radio 4 History - What If

I have always considered the BBC as a high quality broadcaster of news and information (at the expense of the TV licensees and British tax payers). This particular BBC Radio station/brand, Radio 4 broadcasts mostly radio documentaries.

"What If?" is a program that discusses the 'what ifs' in history. Such 'what ifs' include what if the Nazis successfully invaded the British Isles and what if George Washington's quest for US independence from the British Empire was defeated.

Interesting Facts about our World

Interesting Facts about our World

This site claims that there are more car thefts in Australia than anywhere in the world.

Another 'factoid' there is that Mexico has the most Jehovah's Witnesses per capita in the OECD grouping.

Friday, May 21, 2004

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Maid abuse case shocks Malaysia

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Maid abuse case shocks Malaysia

Nirmala Bonet, 19-year-old Indonesian domestic helper in Malaysia is physically abused by her employer. This kind of abuse is the worst case in Malaysia so far. Thank God this woman at least survived!

This kind of abuse is absolutely revolting. There is no justification for the employer's abuse! I will personally douse the abuser in molten steel if I get a chance!

Nirmala is not alone! There are many abuses against household helpers all over the world. If anyone in power or capacity to help can read this post please help these people!

The Star Online's (Malaysia) version of the story with more photos

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

O Portuges!

I have an interest for the Portuguese language too. I also find it as beautiful as Spanish.

I have tried to listen to some Portuguese language learning tapes and it is quite a challenge.

Pronunciation is challenging because of the nasal sounds but the grammar is almost similar to Spanish. For example, 'bem' (good) sounds something like 'bayng' or 'baym'

Hypocrites

Anywhere is the world there are people who proclaim that they hate or dislike America and/or the Western world and everything that represents them because of their arrogance and blah, blah, blah.

I find thier stand hypocritical as some of these people contradict their beliefs. (For example, Kim Jong Il of North Korea who is known to surf the internet but forbids its use to his people.)

When they eat breakfast they eat Kelloggs or Nestle cereals. They use Proctor and Gamble or Unilever toiletries to wash their bodies. They brush their teeth with Colgate. They wear apparel from Nike, Guess, Polo, Gap and Levi's. They use Max Factor, Revlon, Avon or Estee Lauder cosmetics. They ride Ford or GM cars. They have snacks at McDonalds or Starbucks. They watch Hollywood movies and Friends and Charmed. They listen to music from the US Top 40 charts.

If one really abhors the West one would have to emulate the likes of Osama Bin Laden.

Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot is the author of the successful "The Princess Diaries" series of books. Her first Princess Diaries book has been turned into a movie.

I discovered this author by accident as I was looking for love stories or romantic novels on the internet. When I first visited her site I learned that she was allowing her fans to view a draft of her then new book titled, "The Guy Next Door." This booked seemed revolutionary to me as the story is told through the e-mail correspondence of the characters.

I loved that novel it was funny and I thought that the characters were well developed although the reader was just reading their emails. I must admit that I am such a sucker for rom-com (romantic comedy) type of stories.

Now I'm half way in Meg's new book "Boy Meets Girl" and I think this is even funnier. Like "The Guy Next Door" the story is about another employee of the NY Journal.

Her books are not works of art or probably won't make it to Oprah's Book Club but people like me just want to be entertained some how and she fills that need.

No Change

I think I will not change the template of my blog.

I belive that my current template which was based from an old blogger template has now looked more unique.

Spanish or French

In my opinion Spanish is more useful as it has more geographic coverage than French.

I think the only exciting French destination is France while for Spanish there is Spain and the entire Spanish speaking America.

I also believe that Spanish is more phonetic than French and is easier to pronounce. Spanish is also clearer than French.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

A Unique Funny Moment

About two in the moring today I was in bed and watching BBC World to make me fall asleep. Unfortunately I was not able get some sleep because minutes later a fire truck was infront of my flat. They were not using their loud siren but the sound of the engine can drive anyone crazy. Thank God there was no fire in my building and the surrounding area. But I cannot understand why are they there. Since I cannot possibly drive the fire truck and men away I tried to ignore them by countinuing to watch BBC World.

Lyse Doucet was the current presenter and reported about Denmark's Crown Prince weds Australian commoner. Lyse had a guest who commented on the wedding. The lady guest told that there were at least 20 European princesses who are still single for those princes looking for brides. This guest joked to Lyse and said that Lyse can be a bride of one of Europe's princes. Lyse who sounded embarassed said to the effect that the guest cannot say what was said on BBC World. I think that dialogue was hilarious. It was totally unexpected as I can only expect that kind of interludes on US networks like CNN and NBC's Today. I wonder what Lyse really thought of that comment?

I wish I can see more of these incidents on BBC World.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Van Helsing

Van Helsing

I saw this movie last Friday. I was very dissapointed by this movie.

I really hated the CGI fight scenes.

It reminded me a lot about 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (LXG) movie.

The movie seemed like a sequel to LXG. Van Helsing should have been part of the LXG team.

Its a 'T'

See how critics think about the movie (I'm not alone):
RottenTomatoes.com on Van Helsing
Van Helsing - Critics Reviews - Yahoo! Movies

Taking Lives

Taking Lives

Taking lives is an entertaining* suspense flick I saw about two Saturdays ago.

The movie is set in Montreal, Quebec which is a Canadian Province.

Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) and Ethan Hawke and mixture of competent French (or maybe Canadian actors) supporting actors.

The story is about this 'serial killer' who kills male victims and assumes or 'takes' their lives until he finds a new victim.

The 'imported' FBI profiler Illeana Scott (Jolie) is tasked to solve this crime. James Costa (Hawke) seemed to be the next target of the serial killer or is he the killer?

I must say that Jolie has done pretty good acting in this movie. My most favourite and convincing film was during the climax. Bravo, Ms. Jolie!

*The My-Life-At-Large movie rating system called 'TERM' introduced way back. T-trash; E-entertaining; R-recommended; M-Memorable

Saturday, May 01, 2004

MS09.DLL error

This is a rare bug in older versions of Microsoft Word. When objects (excel tables, etc.) in your .doc file become corrupted MS Word will not open it and will announce that MS09.dll has been corrupted. Initially you will panic but the solution to recovering your important data is to open the .doc file in MS Word 2003 as it has a repair function. It will open your file like it should be.