Knock-Out!

Darlene Antonino-Custodio wins by landslide!

"...The angelic winner definitely didn’t look like she packed a devil’s punch that could stop the most popular living Filipino hero...."

You got that right. She's definitely Angelic... he he he. According to Mr. Recah Trinidad, Manny may even have helped boost Darlene's popularity to make her a winnable senatorial candidate in the near future. She gets my vote for making Manny eat humble pie.

Idol, huwag na tayong papagamit sa mga politiko next time ha? Kung naipantulong mo na lang sana sa mga kababayan mo sa GenSan yung mahigit 100 million na nagastos mo...

The most beautiful legislator alive
*let's thank Chuvaness for this pic.

Update: Manny spent around 170 million pesos for the election. That's more than $3 million. What a waste! Can he even afford to lose that much given his lifestyle and his vices?

The Five Levels of Drinking

Got this from AskMen.com




The Five Levels of Drinking


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LEVEL 1: It's 11pm on a weeknight, you've had a few beers.

Just as you get up to leave because you have to work the next day, one of your friends buys another round -- one of your *unemployed* friends. Here, at level one, you think to yourself, "Oh come on, this is silly, as long as I get seven hours of sleep, I'll be fine."

LEVEL 2: It's midnight. You've had a few more beers.

You've just spent 20 minutes arguing against the use of artificial turf. You get up to leave again, but at level two, a little devil appears on your shoulder. And now you're thinking, "Hey! I'm out with my friends! What am I working for anyway? These are the good times! Besides, as long as I get five hours of sleep, I'm cool."

LEVEL 3: 1am. You've abandoned beer for tequila.

You've just spent 20 minutes arguing FOR the use of artificial turf. And now you're thinking, "Our waitress is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!"

At level three, you love the world. On the way to the bathroom, you buy a drink for the stranger at the end of the bar just because you like his face. You get drinking fantasies (like, "Hey fellas, if we bought our own bar, we could live together forever. We could do it. Tommy, you could cook."). But at level three, that devil is a little bit bigger... and he's buying. And you're thinking, "Oh, come on, come on now. As long as I get three hours of sleep... and a complete change of blood, I'm cool."

LEVEL 4: 2am. And the devil is bartending.

For last call, you ordered a bottle of rum (Fundador Brandy in our case) and a Coke. You ARE artificial turf!

This time, on your way to the bathroom, you punch the stranger at the end of the bar just because you don't like his face! You and your friends decide to leave, right after you get thrown out, and one of you knows an afterhours bar.

Here, at level four, you actually think to yourself, "Well... as long as I'm only going to get a few hours sleep anyway, I may as well stay up all night! Yeah! That'd be good for me. I don't mind going to that board meeting looking like Keith Richards. Yeah, I'll turn that around, make it work for me. And besides, as long as I get 31 hours sleep tomorrow, I'm cool."

LEVEL 5: 5am.

After unsuccessfully trying to get your money back at the tattoo parlor ("But I don't even know anybody named Simon!"), you and your friends wind up across the state line in a bar with guys who have been in prison as recently as... that morning. It's the kind of place where even the devil is saying, "Uh, I gotta turn in. I gotta be in Hell by nine."

At this point, you're all drinking some kind of thick blue liquor, like something from a Klingon wedding. A waitress with fresh stitches comes over, and you think to yourself, "Someday I'm gonna marry that girl!" One of your friends stands up and screams, "WE'RE DRIVIN' TO VEGAS, BABY!!!!!" (or Puerto Galera... Ha Ha) -- and passes out.

You crawl outside for air, and then you hit the worst part of level 5 -- the sun. You weren't expecting that were you? You never do. You walk out of a bar in daylight, and you see people on their way to work or worse, jogging. And they look at you and they know. And they say, "Who's Simon?" Let's be honest, if you're 19 and you stay up all night, it's like a victory -- you've beat the night. But if you're over 30, then that sun is like God's flashlight.

We all say the same prayer and then, "I swear, I will never do this again as long as I live!" And some of us have that little addition, "and this time, I mean it!"

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Sounds Familiar?

Asan ka na, pareng Eric? He he he...

The new Bond Girl

Found this while browsing.

Enjoy!

On Archetypes

Mr. Jim Paredes asked these questions on his article in the Philippine Star last May 13:

1. What archetypes dominate or rule the Philippines today?
2. What can we observe from the way we behave as a people?

I think that our nation's archetype would be a talented high school freshman orphan who is studying with some help from a well-off (and arrogant) Tito from abroad. A Tita is her local guardian but this Tita uses most of the money meant for the child's schooling expenses for herself. The Tita also verbally and physically abuses her. The child is aware of things that happen around her but she does not act on them because she feels powerless as an individual. She usually goes with the flow. She tries to sugarcoat this feeling of powerlessness with humor, partying and "having fun". One big desire is to escape from her current environment when she is capable of doing so.

She is still finding out slowly during her education that she possesses power. She has the potential to use this power for either good or evil later. Sadly, it will be much easier for her to do evil than good given her current environment.

Pinays on Everest

Wow! All three Filipinas of the Pinay Mount Everest Expedition Team have reached the summit of the world's highest peak!

They are officially the first South East Asian women to reach the top. Not only that, they are the first women to traverse Everest, climbing from the North Side to the peak, then down the South Side. I don't think the guys (Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata, and Romi Garduce) took the same route last year. Noelle Wenceslao reached the summit first, followed by Karina Dayondon and then later by Janet Belarmino.

Janet Belarmino, by the way, was my classmate from Grades 1 to 6 in the Saint Mary's College Elementary Central in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. I remember that she used to belong to the NKOTB fans club...he he he She was an avid lawn tennis player even then but I had no idea that she will turn out to be the super-athlete among us. I think she was a tennis varsity player in UP. Aside from mountaineering, she also participates in triathlons (champion), adventure races (winner) and Dragon boat competitions. She just gave birth to her baby boy, Himalaya, five months before the climb.

Congrats to the Pinay Mount Everest Expedition Team for making the Filipino nation proud.

Congrats to Janet for her double blessings. Thank you for making us Novo Vizcayanos prouder.

Let's pray for their safe return.

Philippines and India? or Philippines vs India?

The Outsourcing Insider blog posed this question: "Does the Philippines still need to collaborate with India whose outsourcing industry predicted to lose about 40% of global market share by 2007?"

Collaborate with India? Probably, if we're talking only about the higher tiered services in KPO where Indians have the clear lead. We can learn from them.

However, the Philippines is doing more than okay in most basic BPO services. The country is already posing a serious challenge to India. Our industry is only limited by the number of qualified CSRs from our labor pool. Reforming the educational sector will help address that. Methinks Gloria is looking for a quick solution so she wouldn't have to do the reform herself.

Sharing the BPO pie with India will mean lesser revenue and lesser growth for the domestic sector. It will hurt the Philippine BPO sector in the long run.

Officially....

....I am now a senior analyst. Congratulations to my officemates who likewise got regularized and/or promoted. Got this picture from the Anitokid.

By the way, I want to congratulate the AnitoKid for his previous post in SeekingAlpha that also got featured in Yahoo Finance. He's the first Filipino contributor in Seeking Alpha that I've read, so far.

PSE Training Days 1 and 2

Our team took the Philippine Stock Exchange training for Fundamental and Technical analysis.

Trading Floor

Team Picture

With our resident party people, Criz and Sam

Our host and veteran technical analyst, Leo Quinitio

The Taipan rings the 80-years old market bell.


The AnitoKid rings it one more time, just to make sure...

Clique-ing , Supplier-style

Did we, or did we have fun?

Exploring Emotions: Shock, Fear, Anger, and Desire(?)
Team Fotogra with Eventscape, Make-up by Madge and Francis

Practice muna


Team Fotogra: Mimi, Karl, Captain Karlvin, Loverboy Markku and me


High School connection
Epekto ng sobrang pag-aaral? Naaah...

A Friday Night at Cable Car

The Boys went out for beers on a Friday night.

Nothing beats a mug of ice-cold San Mig Light after a hard day's work.
The beer made Dondon very, very happy. He he he

Dondon, "ang Manunumbok", drew first blood.

Karlo the "ChickBoy" considers his next move.
The man has lots of "options", you know. He he he

Dondon sets it up.....

I finish... We (Dondon and I) Won 3-1 against the formidable duo of Dundee and Karlo.
Courtesy of Dondon's relentless trash talk.=)




Join us next time!

Leslie and Ryan arrived after I left. According to the grapevine, many more "happy" things happened after my departure.

Photos are from Dundee's Flicker account.

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Model Shoot

Zhen, our resident IT specialist, invited us to a photo shoot somewhere in Makati. I forgot to bring my camera. However, Dundee was able to get these few shots with his phone.

Dennis Padilla thinks the girl is OK

The incessant flash explosions nearly blinded us. We didn't stay long enough to see the lingerie wardrobe change...really. We left to have a couple of rounds of ice-cold San Mig Light in a bar nearby.