New Year's To Do List

1. Take longer vacations. no one-day 'staycations'. i'm going long this year starting with...
2. Push through with my Sabbatical. Time for a recharge. Eight to 9 weeks should be enough plus another 2 weeks for my remaining yearly vacation.
3. Lifestream. i promise to make use of available technologies to keep a log which means i'll need to...
   
4. Shoot more with my DSLR. which in turn means..
5. Build my first PC. and it will be a monster (by my humble standards). which means i'll need $$$s so i'll have to...
   
6. Work even harder. still have to pay the bills.
   
7. Expand my professional network. part of a non short term plan.
8. Shut down. PC. everyday. Good for PC, good for self. (added 2/11/09)
   
9. unfinished....

might as well publish this...i'll make this an organic list with multi-adds and edits. stay tuned...

Holy Cow Crap

what was this guy doing unloading manure into a lagoon? somehow i have a feeling some of this shit might ultimately end up in our drinking water. Someone enlighten me please.

Meanwhile i feel for the guy but that must have been some form of illegal dumping. pun most definitely intented.

I did

my best to prop up the economy and bought GE at about $16 per share. Many are saying it's real cheap with a PE ratio of about 8. Personally, I'm going for the dividends. with yields at 7%, i hope that was good buy. it's around $17 now after going down to about 14 last week.

Connecting to hotspots -- made easy

Devicescape makes connecting to free hotspots easier -- especially for those who are less tech savvy.  i get by with windows but tried it just the same.   very easy.  personally, this might come in handy when i'm at the airport.  that will be the litmus test.  stay tuned... 

Long time...Gotta Love Tech post 1

read this from Gizmodo. yet another reason to love technology. But next time, Gizmodo, please get more information about the remote desktop application. I'm just too lazy today to google it.

It's chow time...

Wooohoo, time to saunter over to the cafe for lunch. on the menu today, insert your favorite chef prepped dish here. and the best part -- it's FREE.

oh wait, i don't work for Google. darn it. yet another reason to be envious of Googlers. i've been to the Googleplex a few times for work and the food really is great. but i shouldn't complain, i get free coffee and soda. by my calculations, depending on how juiced up I need to be for work, my company spends about $1500 per year on me. pfft.

Gadget of the week...for me

...the EeePC from Asus which is currently getting so much buzz in the blogoshpere. Gadgetheads all over want it. note to all 'mah-keting mucks' -- that's how you do it.

i'm dangerously close to getting in line for this for our fifth pc in the home. or maybe just to replace some of the aging desktops we have right now. This is Eeepc 2.0 -- bigger screensize, bigger RAM, bigger storage and comes with multitouch touchpad ala the Macbook Air. Was kind of hoping it would come out with Intel's new Atom proc.

Instead of including your typical product the hero shot, here's the Eee showcased in a much more, ahem, appealing context. enjoy!

Just wanted to say...

I CALLED IT!!!!(see two posts down). Kansas beats Memphis to take this year's NCAA crown. they almost lost it too and had to rely on Mario Chalmers 3-pointer in the last 2 seconds to send the game into OT. Completely took the wind out of Memphis's sails. All Kansas from then on. Kansas 75, Memphis 68.

Playboy in 'Pinas

This just in...

no frontal nudity? a little bit halfbaked, are we? What's the point? and for 199 pesos?! Good ole catholic guilt at work maybe. Wait til they find out about all the free xxx material they can get their hands on the internet.

Fearless Forecast

No, not another stock tip. Last one (Nokia) isn't doing too well.

But I think Kansas will take it at this year's dance.

New Gadget of the week...for me

Microsoft's UMPC -- the Pixl. hmmmm, pretty soon, we should see more of these gadgets, smart devices powered by smaller, cheaper chips.

Didn't say how much yet. but i'll be watching out for it.

Weary traveler pics

pictures from my pda from recent trip to vegas. Stayed at the Palazzo. Lavish. Woo

CBS Offering Free, Live, Online Coverage of Entire NCAA Tournament

oh my...One has to worder what the over/under will be on work productivity during the tournament. Overall, good news for fanatics. Bad news for corporations.

Anyway, i'd completely ditch network coverage and just hook up my pc to the tv. The TV coverage sucks. Games that are shown are completely out of the viewer's control.

http://mashable.com/2008/02/11/cbs-free-ncaa-online/ (for some reason, hyperlink option is not working)

Oh, f$&@ Queues!

I'm currently in transit right now and flying back to the US. I've had to travel back to the Philippines because of a family emergency. Anyway, I'm still fuming over all the lines i had to go through just to get to the gate. It's lines everywhere. In addition to the usual check in and immigration 'pila' (lines) to , one also has to get in line to pay for travel tax -- which is unique to the Philippines I'm told. Why nobody's suggested to build the tax payment into the ticket price or have passengers pay for it during check in is anyone's guess. They aren't kidding when they say to show up at the airport three hours before check-in. My thesis is that this inefficiency creates jobs so airport administration just lets it be. Either that or they're just plain stupid. I'm leaning towards the former. Nobody's that stupid or dense.

I have to say though that despite and because of these inefficiencies, the airport staff has created quick fixes to work around delays. Today, staff escorted us stragglers through immigration by opening a new counter. In a way, that is the typical Pinoy's redeeming quality -- he always finds ways to make do with the hand he's dealt with. It's terribly inefficient though and it penalizes weary travelers unnecessarily.

Still, I shouldn't be complaining. In a few days, I'll be attending the Consumer Electronics Show. When you get 140,000 people converging in one city, you get, you guessed it, more lines. Cab lines, restaurant lines, airport lines. Fun times.

Wet Market in Quezon City

Narita Airport -- no lines