It has been years since I last saw them live and it sure was great hearing them again like nothing has changed (except that Wolf wasn’t there). Coupled with over-flowing beer, this event also became a reunion of sorts with old friends from Wolfpac Mobile, Noreen & Ethan, and Norms from Paramita/Silent Sanctuary.

Play Slideshow

 

Kudos go to Channel [V], Smart Communications, and Lizza Nakpil for putting up a very wild, intimate, and jejemon/orc-free show! Of course, thanks go to Ian Magbanua of Pulse.PH for squeezing me in! Sorry Ian, I was hoping I could get better shots by flirting with the bouncers so they’d let me climb one of the scaffoldings. Sadly, I just didn’t have enough beer that night. Haha!

Posted via web from migraineboy

At a NAIA Boarding Gate. En route to Boracay.

Sia Marcelo-Magbanua's Toes at 6 months

Last weekend, with the brute force planning of Dikky and a good friend, Ama, I was able to drag my ass out of bed to go on a flight to Coron via Busuanga. It was tempting to spend the long weekend resting at home but this trip had been planned for months already and I must say I was also excited to go. I’ve been eyeing this trip for years and finally, with a lot of political will, it has happened! After all, my ideal vacation has always been to spend it out at home with no additional expense. Yeah, I could be that boring at times. :)

Since we got to our hotel (Coron Village Lodge located in Coron Town, Busuanga Island) around mid-afternoon Friday, there wasn’t much left to do so we opted to visit the Maquinit saltwater hot springs north of where we were staying. We spent the rest of the afternoon there and started heading back slightly after dark, after which, we had a sumptuous home-cooked meal. Yes, our lodging had a good kitchen in it!

Early the next day, after filling up the chiller with fresh food, water, and beer from the Coron Public Market, we hopped on a boat to go around the Coron Island cluster itself. And that’s when we experienced the sheer awesomeness of what nature has laid out before us, from the interesting and towering granite formations of the island cluster to secluded white beaches, and of course, to the calm and really clear waters. The sights were simply captivating! While it’s okay to enjoy Coron from the surface, I believe, the real deal is when you dive into the water and experience for yourself the diverse marine life and shipwrecks beneath it, and if you don’t, you will just be short-changing yourself. :)

Before leaving Manila, I was contemplating on bringing my DSLR so I could be better “equipped” but decided against it and just brought a P&S so it won’t feel like “work.” The heft of the DSLR was also an issue so travelling light proved to be a better idea.

One would assume that I would have shot thousands of photos during this trip but you’d be mistaken. When Dikky and I got home and started organizing our photos, I soon realized that I only got to shoot a little over a hundred! Imagine my surprise and dismay! What was I thinking? What was I doing? Well, that’s what this paradise can do to you. It was just so breath-taking and peaceful you can get drawn to it easily. While I may not have lots of photos on this trip, I’m happy I still got a few keepers. Besides, what’s important was the total experience, right? It may have been disappointing at first but I realize this is another good enough reason to go back as this trip was definitely just a teaser. There’s just so much to experience in Coron! Of course, it was equally fun being with good friends from the other telco network so you could imagine ourselves bashing each other (in the spirit of fun) throughout the whole time. :)

I may not have been around much, as I have yet to see the rest of the Philippines, but I would tend to agree with what’s written on this funky tricycle we rode in on our way to the pier: There’s no place like Coron.

Dingalan Bay Moon Rise

Dingalan Bay Sunrise

You can see the rest of the photos in this gallery.

Why coffeeshops just work.

it’s not so much about the expensive coffee but how it makes itself conducive for work. A cafe is a good balance between a prude office environment and your home that’s too comfortable for real work to get done. It can be surprising what you can accomplish in just 30 minutes to an hour. As I said above, while coffeeshops are technically more distracting than the confines of offices, the change in environment is what we’re really after. Simply put, it’s peace among strangers.

But for me, it can’t be just any coffeeshop. I still do have my preferences as far as choosing which coffeeshop to lay a nest on. Here are some tips you might want to consider in your own pilgrimage.

1. First, leave your AC charger behind.

   While current laptops’ battery performance have greatly improved, somehow, without it, you’ll be “encouraged” to get your stuff done right away and get back to the office soonest. Besides, you won’t be staying there the whole day, or are you?

2. Do, however, leave with a fully-charged mobile phone.

   This needs no explanation. If Houston needs you back, they need to be able to reach you even if you’re behind the moon.

3. Get a good pair of headphones.

   While cafes usually feature relaxing house or chill-out music, sometimes, it’s just not enough to drown out the noise the other customers make, although sometimes the whitenoise is something that turns me into an energizer bunny. Music with words in it can really grab attention so stay away from it, unless it’s in a language you cannot understand, process, or sing along to. As soon as you can establish your OWN world, the sooner you can get to work, or at the least, catch up on your reading/research.

4. Choose a dead hour so you can have the place to yourself.

   That means several minutes after lunch or after office hours is a no-no. I find that one of the most ideal windows to go there is in the early morning and in the mid-afternoon. Perfect for coffee! Weekends are great too as most people will just be lazily hanging out recovering from a hangover the previous night.

5. Find a cafe on a not-so-busy street.

   The passing of vehicles and the noise they make can be very distracting. I’m also more particular for cafes with roadside parking in front of it. The sooner I get my coffee after getting off the car, the better. Be mindful of parking schedules though or else you may find yourself chasing after tow trucks. So, no, I’m not going to drive into mall parking and walk hundreds of meters just to get to a coffeeshop. That’d be a total time-waster.

6. Stay away from cafes with groups of friends in it.

   if you really want some peace and quiet, you’d want to be with loners people who are busy themselves. A cafe frequented by serious post-grad students is best. Those with high school and college students tend to be noisier. Let’s see you go through that chatter and I’m sure you’ll be heading back to the office in less than 10 minutes.

7. Stay off the grid.

   WiFI and 3G is a near-must and very reliable but sometimes, it’s good to be just offline. The less distractions you have, the better.

8. Keep your NDA in mind always.

   You don’t want to be broadcasting your killer idea on public. So to be sure everything’s safe from prying eyes, adjust the size of your screen font so it can be less readable by that guy sneaking a peek over your shoulder.

9. Stay focused.

   Lastly, I would suggest that before you leave your office, plan well what needs to be done so your new-found freedom is not wasted. Forget multitasking. Just concentrate on just one task and get it over with. The objective is to get to work. And when i say work, it’s not about FB’ing or chatting with friends on YM. :)

Are you a coffeeshop junkie or are considering taking your work there? How did your experience go? Can you say it’s for you or would you still rather be elsewhere? And is the price of designer coffee really worth it? Of course, not, unless the time used to sip it was used really wisely.

The doctor also said that this is pretty much irreversible but its worsening can be delayed by going through physical therapy, by wearing a customized insert (orthotics) inside my left shoe, and by considerable weight-loss via cardiovascular activities. The first two was easy. It was the latter which was the problem. It meant I had to lose more than 8kgs.

Why Cycling?

I love to walk. I love to run, and I was hoping that that could help but the doctor also told me to avoid impact sports in particular. I’d love to swim but the pool at the rooftop of my condo which is just a few meters long doesnt provide much challenge. I call that pool, a formality. And that’s when I considered my other old love, cycling.

How I Did It.

Living in the city has its perks but being able to bike safely is definitely not one of them. I had to do my sessions when the roads are less filled with cars. Plotting a good route around Makati that isn’t that boring was a real challenge but I really didn’t have any choice but be like a hamster. I couldn’t afford to just wait for weekend out-of-town trips and I wanted to be able to bike whenever I could squeeze it through my work.

And while it wasn’t really necessary, I bought a Garmin Edge 705 so I could keep track of my “performance.” It also helped push me whenever my speed was too slow, if my pedalling was too loose, or if my heart was racing too fast (that happens whenever I get a close call with a speeding car). It also has a calorie-burnt calculator but I have yet to find out whether it can actually be trusted. For what its worth, it does give me an idea that I’m indeed making progress.

So How Did It Go?

Well, 4 months since I started cycling again, my beer belly has started to disappear dramatically that people would actually notice! I definitely feel much lighter after losing around 5kgs, and the effect on my foot is very significant. I also haven’t had the characteristic morning pains and the need to take a pain killer! It’s a very liberating feeling and my only regret was not conceding to a checkup much much earlier. Heck, now, I even miss my whining! Hehe. Of course, while this may have worked for me, it’s still best to consult your doctor.

How about you? Do you have Plantar Fasciitis as well? How are you dealing with it?

A Spiral Staircase

Camera Precariously Mounted On Tripod Without Sandbags

So here’s my initial attempt at Time Lapse Photography.

• Camera was mounted on a tripod.
• A set of 200 still images shot at a 5-second intervals.
• Exposure set at manual 1s and f/8.
• White Balance set on manual (Cloudy).
• Images batch-cropped in Aperture (no other post-prod).
• Assembled in Quicktime as an Image Sequence, played at 10FPS, with titles added using iMovie.

I’m pretty okay with what I got but I need more work on the overall image quality. Will also try shooting at a lesser resolution because besides, the end-result was only a 640×480 movie.

It was pretty boring while the camera happily clicked away so I used that time to catch up on some reading. Next time, I’m bringing lots of coffee! And I hope there will be more cloud movement. :)

There has been significant advances in harddisk technology especially as far as their robustness and reliability are concerned. So, what’s there to worry about, right? Murphy’s Law. :)

Based on my own and others’ experience, these would just be some of the reasons why you would want to have a really good and reliable backup:

1. These robust, reliable, and nearly-shockproof harddisks still do fail.

   While these disks may be covered by warranty and easily replaced, once they conk out on you, your data may be gone forever. What warranty can cover that? Sometimes all it takes to make a man cry is an accidental but jarring drop on the floor resulting to a catastrophic hard disk crash.

2. Your laptop may be stolen.

   Laptops can be replaced as disks above but not your data, your precious data. A friend of mine got her Mac stolen from a half-open car window. Nothing stopped the thief from doing so despite the car being in motion. If she had a Time Machine backup, I wouldn’t have felt sorry for her. After all, she can always get a new Mac and restore her backup there. But she didn’t and now, she’s practically redoing everything. Has she learned something from that lesson? I hope so! :)

3. Merciless Acts of God.

   Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and tsunamis. Yeah, this world is nearing its doom. But if you can have your data secure somewhere, you’ll have one less problem in your hands. :)

A Paranoid Advise

Disks are getting cheaper already. For general use, the more portable 2.5″ drives which just requires a single USB or FireWire port is always a good choice. While it may be pricey for some of us, just consider the peace of mind it’ll give you and that’ll be your ROI already. Some companies provide for their employees’ backup requirements but most likely than not, you’re on your own. Either way, it’s in your best interest to make sure that your data is well secure.

1. Use tools like Time Machine, Super Duper, or Carbon Copy Cloner.

   These tools are so advanced (actually, the tech is quite old, they just made the process simpler) that after making a full backup of your system, they are able to track the tiniest change (a new or recently editted file, etc) and back that up. They also allow you to back track on a timeline so you can easily restore that file or folder that you accidently deleted.

2. Backup periodically..

   At least, once when you get home from work, and once before you leave for work. That way, any work you do in and outside the office is safely backed up. If you’ve done a considerable amount of work in less time, feel free then to do a backup as necessary. Autosave sometimes just ain’t enough anymore.

3. Store your backup somewhere safe.

   I choose to keep my backup disk at home while it’s sometimes a better idea to store them in the office. If needed, keep multiple backups for paranoia’s sake and store them at a friend’s house across town. Just like your meds, these are better kept in a cool and dry place, away from rowdy children.

4. Keep your backup disk fresh

   Replace your backup disk every three to four years to ensure optimal disk health. These disks, like the ones you’re using on your laptop or workstation will die eventually. Make sure you have an alternative before that happens.

You see, I’m that type of person who carefully puts laptops on desks making sure there is no shock at all, and yet, I’ve had several close calls myself with disks being populated by bad blocks, and with disks which just died conveniently on me. There’s just too much to lose but doing backups definitely minimized the risks. For your sake, I hope you do, too. :)

SolarisOne

The Manila Yacht Club

But who am I kidding right? Haha! :)