3 inchIS More

Just got back from a 4 days vacation in Bohol with my family and was surprised by a 3-inch pile of SI magazines on top of my table. The subscriber's name was familiar so I went to his office and thank him for the mags.

This guy is our chief of security and every morning, he'd stand at the yard overseeing the security procedure of his staff. I would open my car window and greet him before proceeding to the north parking area, he then would shout "Howie Mandel!" and for a while I did not bother to check who's this Mandel guy until now.

And so Howie Mandel is a Canadian and the host of the US "Deal or No Deal" tv game show. He may be a fan of the show that's why he kept calling me with that name every morning as a way of making a joke. Anyway, he's a cool guy though many are afraid of his status, I got used to his type coz i'm more comfortable dealing or communicating with people with bold personality even when i was still young...

Thanks again, Jake!

Mi Primero DSLR

Ever since i was a kid, i’m fascinated by cameras and said to myself “I’ll get one, someday...” and so I did only after three decades of my life and only after this beatiful baby girl came to my life...

Being totally ignorant to digital SLR, i googled several reviews and asks several pros on what's best for a novice like me and majority votes for a Canon DSLR and so came my user friendly 350D.

Perlas ng Silangan NY

When I met my former colleagues Hector Bolante, the Paran’s (ninong Willie and ninang Roussel) in NY last december 8-9,2007, tito Ralph (Hector’s uncle) brought us to Perlas ng Silangan in queens. Where his uncle lives and where I stayed for a night before heading back to Virginia.

This bar is kinda big coz some pinoy bands performs regularly and it’s full packed during Fridays and Saturdays or when Filipino celebrities are in town for a show and would drop by to eat. I saw a lot of pinoy performers with their signed photos on the wall and the most featured photo there, for me as an FPJ posters “small-time” collector, is the Siete Infantes de lara movie poster reconstructed by the owner Nel Castellvi where one of the lead actor is his dad.

I was amazed that a lot of white folks are inside, some with pinoy friend and some just by themselves also eating and drinking SMB while waiting for the band. We’ve got crispy pata, papaitan (which i truly like), penakbet and sizzling sea foods. I wasn’t able to take a picture of the poster but the owner Nel was very friendly and he even sat at our table for some chats…

We didn’t stay long because we’ve drove back willie and roussel to NJ that night but it was a great time having seen a lot of pinoy and eating local foods which I missed a lot during my stay in the states…

Below is Nel infront of me, Hec and tito Ralph at my back and Ninong & Ninang on the other side.

Cendrillon NY

Reading my wife’s blog on Cendrillon kinda made me smile coz when we saw it featured a couple of days ago from Chikka Minute portion of 24 Oras, we kinda look at each other and talk in the eye saying “Hey, we’ve been there!” and Nelson Canlas was kinda freezing when he’s doing the latter part of his report outside the resto like what I was feeling when we we’re there around 8pm on November 2004...

To add up, I think it’s located at the Soho District at lower Manhattan and their business card is featuring a lady whom I forgot who she is but remembered that I ask about it with the owner Romy during that time. I’m proud to say that he’s a kababayan as well as an Oragon fellow like me, we both hailed from the same province and separated by few baryos.

I think we shared kare-kare with bagoong, tapsilog and chicken barbeque. It was a very good meal and celebrities do come by and eat at that place, and we’ve been roaming around NY before that so our tired legs got an excellent break from a first-class restaurant. Unlike here where restos were big in space and elaborate in style, the place is a typical NY resto with simple design and an atmosphere of which you’ll like to take a nap there before leaving…

Blood Diamond - Sierra Leone

In my three weeks stay in the U.S., I have studied a system so secure, well planned and strictly implemented but across the Atlantic Ocean, I never thought that I would hear a different story and almost an exact opposite of this system.

In class I met Mohamed, another Foreign National sent for training and he's a great story teller, he talked about his childhood, his family, his community and his country Sierra Leone. We have almost the same history, traditions and culture, we've been both under a colonial power, both experienced certain type of militarism and with unmanageable poverty and corruption. But I think no country has ever endured the turmoil that took place in their country several years ago...

If you've seen the movie "Blood Diamond" it took place in Sierra Leone and during this chaos Mohamed was a young family man with 3 kids and extended family. In that time, everybody seems to be an enemy, a rebel in military uniform, a military doing a rebel's act. For them to survive, he took his family on a journey out of the country on Dec 23 and reached Conakry, Guinea on Jan 3. It was hard, he said because you'll have to pass through forests, rivers, swamps and most of the time hiding from the rebels...

Amistad, remember this movie? The hero in this movie is also a Sierra Leonean Sengbe Pieh who was portrayed by the same actor in Blood Diamond Djimon Hounsou an African from Benin. Mohamed gave me a book "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah who was a boy soldier during those dark years which I read from from cover to cover during my flight going home. He gave me a 5000 Leones which has Pieh as the hero...

D "First" ISsue

Today, I received the best birthday gift to start the year. I got a Sports Illustrated gift set from mom and bela. I actually saw it at a bookstore in Rockwell and I called mom’s attention and asked her this, “do you know what I want for my birthday?” and then I showed her the book from my back and said, "this!"

And of course, she bought it as expected, Yahoo! What's great about it is it has reprint of the first issue, the very first SI issue dated 08-16-54 included also is a hardbound book entitled "The Best of Sports Illustrated". I guess being a sports fan, you'll have to know also or at least have a copy of this magazine issue... I always wanted to build a room full of sports memorabilia’s like posters, movies, balls, books, coins, jerseys, action figures and also picture frames of SI best covers hanging on the wall...

SI, inspired me, reading stories of athletes is like reading about your life struggles and challenges…You learn from their stories the importance of giving your best all the times, of being humble and thankful to those who made you what you are today, of how to handle defeat and losing, and how to make your family a part of your success…

I love your gift, mom and bela! You’re my inspirations, every single day of my being!