May 28, 2004
Look Out Germany!!! David Hasselhoff, the gangsta himself, is at it again. Hip hop is even in his repertoire. He's teaming up with Ice-T and is working on a rap album. Is there no end to the talent!? Hassel the Hoff!!! Boyyeee!!!!

It's the start of a long weekend for many of you. I've got a busy weekend planned with the highlight being a trip to Atlantic City on sunday. What sucks though is that while most people are getting paid today, I don't get paid until tuesday. And with my last paycheck pretty much spent on my bills, I've got very little to bring with me to Atlantic City. On the other hand, that might just be less money for me to lose. But I've been practicing my gambling skillz and I expect to be coming back on monday in the black. Winning also makes that 6 hour bus ride more enjoyable.

The Lakers are just rolling along. They should win the next game on Saturday and my prophecy of the Lakers in 5 games comes true.

May 26, 2004
It's my brother-in-laws birthday today for those that know him (I only have one).

The month of May (or what's left of it) is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Sort of along that topic:
Last week a sophomore from the University of the Philippines, Patricia Evangelista, won the Best Speaker Award at the International Public Speaking Competition 2004 held by the English Speaking Union (ESU) in London, beating out speakers from all over the English Speaking world, including speakers from the United States, UK, and Australia.

Here is her award winning speech. It's a bit long, but it's a worthy and inspiring read. Especially for the many of us who can relate.

BLONDE AND BLUE EYES

When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino
children all over the country wanted. I wanted to be
blond, blue-eyed, and white.

I thought -- if I just wished hard enough and was good
enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow
outside my window and freckles across my nose!

More than four centuries under western domination does
that to you. I have sixteen cousins. In a couple of
years, there will just be five of us left in the
Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search
of "greener pastures." It's not just an anomaly; it's
a trend; the Filipino diaspora. Today, about eight
million Filipinos are scattered around the world.

There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose
to leave. I used to. Maybe this is a natural reaction
of someone who was left behind, smiling for family
pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year.
Desertion, I called it. My country is a land that has
perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our
heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the
Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and
deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that
sacrifice.

Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore. True, there
is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that
what was once the other side of the world is now a
twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless
world, where no individual can claim to be purely from
where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my
father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure
Filipino-a hybrid of sorts resulting from a
combination of cultures.

Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of
people of different ethnicities, with national
identities and individual personalities. Because of
this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the
world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England
is the world, so is my neighbourhood back home.

Seen this way, the Filipino Diaspora, or any sort of
dispersal of populations, is not as ominous as so many
claim. It must be understood. I come from a Third
World country, one that is still trying mightily to
get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship.
But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now,
when we have thousands of eager young minds who
graduate from college every year. They have skills.
They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.

A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet
one that is not so much abandonment but an
extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back.
We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support
the UK's National Health Service. We are the
quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the
world's commercial ships. We are your software
engineers in Ireland, your construction workers
in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in
North America, and, your musical artists in London's
West End.

Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from
other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still
remain essentially who they are. British society is
itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a
melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We
are, indeed, in a borderless world!

Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's
coming back that is. The Hobbits of the shire
travelled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to
come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call
people like these balikbayans or the 'returnees' --
those who followed their dream, yet choose to return
and share their mature talents and good fortune.

In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever
opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A
borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a home.
I'm a Filipino, and I'll always be one. It isn't about
just geography; it isn't about boundaries. It's about
giving back to the country that shaped me.

And that's going to be more important to me than
seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas
morning.

Mabuhay and Thank you.

May 21, 2004
My beloved Lakers take it back to the court tonight against Minnesota. My prediction: Lakers in 5, with 4 Laker blowouts. I can't take these close games anymore.

Currently in the CD rotation:

1. Modest Mouse - "Good News for People who love bad news". "Float On" is my sh!t right now. I have to listen to that song a few times a day.

2. Okayplayer - True Notes Vol. 1

3. Prince - Musicology

4. Talib Kweli - "The Beautiful Mix CD". A hefty sample of his upcoming album "The Beautiful Struggle" with freestyles and other treats.

5. N.E.R.D. - "Fly or Die"

6. Spymob - "Sitting Around Keeping Score"

May 19, 2004
Start the countdown!!! 365 days to go before Star Wars: Episode 3 is slated to hit the theatres on May 19, 2005.

------------

For the past few weeks, our department has been moving into a brand new building at Old Dominion University. We are moving from one of the oldest buildings on campus to the new, state of the art Engineering & Computer Science building.

While most everybody moved a few weeks ago, the computer room (that's where I work) was the last to move and we finally moved this past weekend. It's a big task when moving a whole university's network, consisting of over a hundred servers, from one building to another. And we had to still maintain a level of business to the university. We couldn't just shut everything down. But this past saturday, the biggest and most important pieces were moved. So I finally get to move.

I've spent the past few nights getting acclimated to the new environment, so I've been staying busy. As I get into a routine, I'll be able to update this page more regularly so you can delve daily into my so-called life.

-------

DVD release notes: A terrible movie, "You got served" gets released on DVD this week. A stupid story with stupid premise (battle dancing) with a bunch of singers that can't act. But the dancing is actually pretty good. But despite how bad this movie is, it's 10x better than another movie that also gets released on DVD today, "Torque". This movie just plain sucked. When they were filming this movie, couldn't someone just say "boy, this movie seems pretty dumb". Don't waste your money on any of this sh!t.

May 13, 2004
More about the eye glasses...
After the eye exam, I get to pick out the glasses I'm going to buy. There are hundreds and hundreds of frames to pick from and I have a hard time finding something I like (I did find one pair right away that I liked instantly, but it was WAY OUT of my price range). After about 10 minutes of walking around and not choosing anything, the young girl helping me out takes the initiative and starts picking stuff out for me. After a few minutes of that, she basically just picks out about 20 different frames and I was to try each one out and she would tell me if it looked good or not. After I try a few of them out, I stop looking at myself in the mirror and just put them all on for her until she sees something that looks good on me. I get to the point where I was "over it" and just decided that whatever she liked was the one I was going to buy.

After trying them all on, she narrows it down to three pairs. One pair had a little girlie design on the side, so that was eliminated. So I tried the final two again, and she was like "that's the one right there" for one of them and a fellow employee agreed. I took a quick glance in the mirror and they looked alright. But I couldn't get a good clear look because I needed to be wearing prescription glasses to see clearly and these glasses on had demo lenses on them. But they felt good and so I decided to go with what she had chosen. This place sends the frames out somewhere else to get the lenses fitted into them, so it takes a few days before I get to wear them.

So a weekend passes then I get a call saying that they were ready to be picked up. I go get them and try them on while an older employee helps me adjust them. I look at them and think "wow, these really do look good on me." So, I'm really happy at the way they look and I go home satisfied with a new pair of glasses. The new prescription does feel a little funny and gives me a little bit of a light headed feeling, so I decide to switch back to my 6-year old frames for a little bit. As I switch back to the older frames, I noticed something peculiar. These older frames felt exactly like the new ones. I glance at these old, worn down glasses and then I compare it to the new ones and notice that it is the exact same frame, aside from the loss of color and dirt all around the old pair. So out of the hundreds of frames they could have chosen for me, they end up picking the exact same frames that I already own. And I didn't even notice it. At least I know I've been wearing what looks best on me for all these years. But I still haven't bought my backup pair(s) and with those, I plan to go with something different

May 11, 2004
Last week I went to get an eye exam for new glasses. I haven't gotten my eyes checked in about 6 years, which I know isn't good, but I know my eyes haven't changed much since then. And the eye doc confirmed that. I've been trying to go for about 2 years, but things keep coming up and glasses are just expensive. For those that were at the Jose Wedding, you should remember my infamous breakdancing performance that led to the breaking of my glasses. I've been trying to save up for new glasses since. The money just ends up going somewhere else.

When you go to the doctors, sometimes they ask you not to eat or to just drink water or something. Or when you go to the dentist, you don't want to eat sweets or leave stuff stuck between your teeth. You want to avoid eating onion rings before seeing the dentist also. But I figure that I don't need to do anything before seeing an eye doctor, so I just go. But I went after working all night and I didn't realize that my eyes would be red and tired. So the doc tells me that I can't get a full proper exam with red, sleepy eyes, but he does his best anyways. He just tells me to sleep and rest my eyes before I come in again. But he also tells me that I probably won't need to come in for another few years because my eyes seem healthy and my prescription doesn't seem to be changing much.

So I ended up buying some $150 glasses and I've got nothing left to buy a spare set. But I plan to get a spare set from this place online that sells full prescription glasses for $19. (I may also go here, they have $39 glasses) Now it may be risky to buy something as important as glasses online, but I've done a lot of checking and a lot of people are really satisfied with their service. And I've got all the proper measurements from when I bought my $150 glasses from the optometrist. Plus, for $19, it's not much of a risk. If it sucks, I wouldn't have broken the bank. And this is just for a spare set anyways. But then again I may buy 2 or 3 extra pairs. I do have a few weddings to go to this year. And I've been practicing my breakdancing.

May 8, 2004
I finally have a weekend to sort of relax. Nothing major planned for this weekend, aside from tomorrow being mother's day.

Tonight on HBO... the pinoy sensation Manny Pacquiao fights Juan Marquez for the Unified Featherweight Championship. This will be huge if Pacquiao wins tonight. The Pac-Man is already a national phenomenon in the Philippines. A win would make the 125lb. pinoy even bigger.

May 7, 2004
Buenos Dia!! Hoy es el siete de mayo. No real reason to celebrate, other than it being friday, but a lot of people have no idea why they are celebrating cinco de mayo and yet they still have parties. Arriba!!!

Speaking of parties, who went to a "friends" fiesta last night? Not me. I watched it though. I'm glad that show is over (sorry "friends" fans) but I grew pretty tired of the show over the past few years. I think it should have ended about 3 or 4 years ago, before the creation of the crazy, plot-twisting, re-hashing, outlandish, everyone hooks up storylines. I stopped watching a few years ago because it starting getting lame to me and starting turning into a "chic" show. I was watching some girl on the news, she was about 16, crying about how she'll miss them and how tv will not be the same... but the darn show is on everyday, twice a day here and you can buy the show on DVD, eventually every episode. Por supuesto!! Go out and make some real friends. Believe me, it's best that it ends now before it overstays its welcome. Now if we can work on keeping the shows that I do like on the air for more than a season.

School is out for the students at ODU. I get less work to do now, but I took a stroll around campus on a nice day last week and admired the "scenery" that spring brings out. Now that the students are on summer vacation, there's less scenery to check out. Ohh, las muchachas!!!

And to those graduating tomorrow, Buenos Suerte!!!

May 4, 2004
It's election day for a bunch of locales. Here in Virginia Beach, a guy I know, Lyndon Remias, is running for a seat on the school board. If you're voting in Va Beach, a vote his way would be appreciated. It would be good to see a filipino on the school board again. And he's pretty qualified. I know that he's a smart guy with a lot of perseverance for whatever he does. You can check his website for his accomplishment and planned goals. Also, here is an article from the Virginian Pilot about him.