Bon Voyage Wysgal...

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For me, one of the big benefits of blogging is meeting fellow foodies and bloggers who love food!  It starts with the occasional foodie EBs, then to the occasional food trips and frequent get together. Over time you become friends and once you get invited to someone's house, then the relationship elevates to a new level. This is how I met Wysgal.  She invited us for a despedida dinner and she cooked for us -- how sweet!  The dishes ala Wysgal was so good and most of us would have to agree that it was a nice dinner despedida.

We are so happy for you Wysgal as you move on to the next chapter in your life. I was so impressed that she got into Wharton MBA. I've always wanted to go to an Ivy League MBA in the US but it is a distant reality for me now. Thank you for the friendship and for cooking for us :) We will miss you and excited to see you back in December.  Please continue to blog and share with us your adventures in Wharton and Philadelphia. Blog about the amish community near there so that we can get a glimpse of them. Blog about the people you meet so that we can share in your adventure!

Bon Voyage Wysgal!  (see related post: And she's off... )

Technorati Tags: wysgal

 
Watermelon and Arugula Salad ala Wysgal (Priceless)

 
Penne Pasta with Vodka Sauce ala Wysgal (Priceless)

Roast Beef ala Wysgal (Priceless)

Roasted Chicken ala Wysgal (Priceless)

Nadia Comaneci - The Perfect Ten

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Do you still remember Nadia Comaneci?

Personally, I don't know who Nadia was, until lately when I started researching about her life and achievements.  I'm now a fan. What was she thinking when she scored a perfect 10 at the age of 14. I'm not sure how big the gymnastics scene was in Manila and how many people still remembers her. My younger brother, Rommel was just born when Nadia scored the perfect 10 in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.  Let me know if you are a fan and any more interesting stories about her glory days are very much welcome...

Nadia Comanici @ 1976 Montreal Olympics
(source: Wikipedia)

"At the age of 14, Comaneci became one of the stars of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. During the team portion of the competition, her routine on the uneven bars was scored at a 10.0. It was the first time in Olympic gymnastics history that the score, which signified a perfect routine without any deductions, had ever been awarded. The scoreboards were not even equipped to display scores of 10.0--so Nadia's perfect marks were reported on the boards as 1.00 instead. [2] Over the course of the Olympics, Comaneci would earn six additional 10s, en route to capturing the all-around, beam and bars titles and a bronze medal on the floor exercise...

"Comaneci was the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title at the Olympics. She also holds the record as the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion ever; with the revised age-eligibility requirements in the sport (gymnasts must now turn 16 instead of 15 in the calendar year to compete in the Olympics), this record will stand indefinitely.

"Comaneci's achievements at the Olympics generated a significant amount of media attention. The theme song from the American soap opera The Young and the Restless became associated with her after the television program ABC Wide World Of Sports used it as background music for montages of her routines. The song became the best seller of the year 1976, and the song writer renamed it to "Nadia's Theme" after her. "

Technorati Tags: gymnastics, nadia comaneci, puppy

Paalam, Julia -- Your Spirit lives on.

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As shared in my iBlog 3 speech, life is too short that you should concentrate your blogging on all things beautiful and positive. Because you will be remembered by what you wrote and how you live your life. Now that it is confirmed that Julia Campbell died in Batad, we should remember her for not how she died but how she lived and loved the Philippines so much more than most of us Filipinos.

(From Interesting Snippets)

Her last entry on her blog, Julia in the Philippines last January 13, 2007 was entitled "Buhay Pa Tayo"

"Buhay Pa Tayo
One of the most familiar phrases people say here when you ask them how they are is "Eto" (here) or "Buhay pa" (still alive). Never has it had more meaning than in recent weeks here as we recover from one of the worst typhoons to hit the Philippines in decades..." - Julia Campbell

How many of us Filipinos would say that I want to live in the Philippines! Only a few, and most would rather immigrate. As for Julia, her blog introduction says it all:

"Mabuhay! (Welcome) For those of you who could not be convinced to follow me into the Peace Corps, this is for you! Welcome to my new adventure in the Philippines! At the age of 38, I decided to step out of the rat race of New York, join the Peace Corps and board a plane for Manila. This blog is dedicated to my adventures in the Philippines for the next two years. Wish me luck.... " - Julia Campbell

As for me, I envision this last blog entry on my tombstone and this drives my blogging passion:

So for all bloggers out there, how do you want to be remembered? What will be your last blog entry?

Happy Birthday Our Awesome Planet!!

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Happy New Year to all of you!!

Thanks to some of you who emailed me and expressed concerns on what happened to me over the holidays. I was recuperating from a very serious case of flu and sore throat; I was confined for 3 days in the hospital. The experience reminded me to take care of my health and strengthen my immune system.

January 1 is special to me. It marks the birthday of my blog: Our Awesome Planet; it is 2 years old already. At last, I finished the Index site of the Best of Our Awesome Planet. This would make it easy for readers to check out the best of my restaurant posts and for newbies to the site to navigate around the blog.

You can see the main index site at: www.ourawesomeplanet.com which contains the following:

The Best of Our Awesome Planet (2005-2006):

Top 50 Awesome Philippines's Restaurants! - People often ask me, what's my favorite restaurant? I always answer it depends on what type of food, the occasion, the budget, and what is the celebration is all about. This is my top 50 restaurants and use this list if you want to try out the Awesome Restaurants in the Philippines.

10 Awesome Desserts in the Philippines! - I also love desserts and if Lori is the Queen of Desserts, I dream to be the King of Desserts. But I know I won't be as good as Lori when it comes to desserts, but this is my humble attempt. This contains the best desserts I loved over the last two years.

Amazing Chefs-for-hire -- These guys are the best because of their unwavering passion for cooking for other people! Pat Choa, Joan Manalang and Popit De Leon -- thanks for the memorable meals you cook for me, my friends and family. I hope to build a top 10 list of Amazing Chefs-for-hire; let me know if you know of any other passionate chef out there.

Awesome Mall of Asia -- The Best places in Mall of Asia. Check this out if you want to find the hidden treasures inside Mall of Asia.

The Best of Walking Tours in the Philippines! -- If you are looking for Awesome Tours, you should try all of these tours by Carlos Celdran, Ivan Mandy, and Tina Decal.

The Best of Quezon and Laguna -- If you want to explore Viaje del Sol and other areas around Quezon and Laguna area, this is your one stop shop for the very best of my post on Viaje del Sol. Even Lonely Planet is not able to cover this rich information about these areas.

The Best of Serendra Restaurants! -- My prediction was right that Serendra Restaurants would bring life to the Fort. During the holiday season, I avoided this place because you can't even get a decent parking anymore. With the newly opened City Center, I love this place even more. I'll continue to update this index as I explore more restaurants in this area.

7 Unique Spas in the Philippines! -- The very best of spas and massage places in the Philippines. If you are like me who loves massages, you got to check all these unique spas in the Phlippines.

Unique Stores in Metro Manila -- I should update this. I'm always fascinated with stores that are not located in the malls. This is the list of all the unique stores that you should check out.

Miscellaneous Favorite Posts:

My Very First Post: Life and Death in 2005 -- It was funny looking at this first post.

Pagudpud.awe.ph : The Definitive Travel Guide to Pagudpud! -- My first online travel guide. Watch out for the Tagaytay Guide soon.

Romi's Everest and My One Big Dream. What's your Everest? -- The driving force behind Our Awesome Planet.

Project Management Professional (PMP) Roadmap! -- I often get questions on how to become a PMP. This is the roadmap that you should take.

"Pinoy 2.0": The next generation of Global Filipinos -- This is the blueprint that I want to follow for developing my son, Aidan. We need to develop the next generation of Global Filipinos and we need to start with the right mindset and strategy.

First Philippines Google Earth Tour! -- This is the first version and I plan to come up with my version 2.0 soon.

A Creative Adventure in the Writing Salon -- My very first formal lesson in Creative Writing.

Thanks to all the readers of Our Awesome Planet!

My main goal this 2007 is to finally release my book Our Awesome Planet: Philippines. I'm planning to go back to some old time favorites and visit the other awesome places in the Philippines. Also, if you want to help out let me know. I'm doing this on my own and would start looking for publishers, editors, etc.. If you want to donate and support the effort financially, feel free to do so via the Make a Donation button. Thanks again!

I wish and pray that all of you would have an awesome 2007 ahead of you!

Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery? Website Jacking is Not!

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Original article:
Our Awesome Planet: The Perfect "Dampa" in Seaside Macapagal Blvd! (Dec. 23, 2005)

Plagiarized article:
Foodfor2.com: Dampa at Macapagal Ave - Shylin Tating Restaurant (April 19, 2006)

Have you been plagiarized before? How did you deal with it?

UPDATE 8/22/06 --- Finally the guy revised all the posts already! Even just an apology would do but I guess he is scared. I'm glad he also changed the plagiarized Lori's posts and starting to come clean. The google DMCA complaint did it :)

April 28, 2006 Update: I wrote the website owner about the plagiarized article as advised by Lorelle in her posts What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content. Thanks to Nina of for this great article and suggestion!
_________________________________________________________
Carlos Lim (mybuysell1111@yahoo.com),

This is to advise you that you are using copyrighted and protected
material on your website/blog. Your illegal use of "Dampa at Macapagal
Ave - Shylin Tating Restaurant" article at foodfor2.com dated April
19, 2006 is originally from my blog called "The Perfect "Dampa" in
Seaside Macapagal Blvd!" at anton.blogs.com dated Dec.23, 2005. This
is original content and I am the author and copyright holder. Use of
copyright protected material without permission is illegal under
copyright laws.

Please take one or more of the following actions immediately:

1. Re-write the post to include excerpts with a link to the original content.
2. Credit the material specifically to me, as author, and my website
anton.blogs.com.
3. Remove the plagiarized material immediately.

I expect a response within 5 days to this issue. Thank you for your
immediate action on this matter.
--
Anton
Our Awesome Planet
http://anton.blogs.com/

_________________________________________________________

a Cabalen Food Trip: An Open Invitation to a Culinary Tour of Pampanga

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I've always wanted to explore Pampanga but my search for a culinary tour always ended in a disappointment. So the next best thing, is to do your own tour of Pampanga with a foodie person who knows the best authentic and original foodie places in Pampanga. Thanks to Spanx who will be the official culinary tour guide of Pampanga! Here is a draft itinerary and feel free to add any inputs/ suggestions:

• leave manila at 8am or meet at 9.30am in Shell NLEX
• brunch at VFW in Clark
• drop by Antoinette's AFC (Angeles Fried Chicken) for take out
• pass by "Crunchy Sisig" at the secret pulutan joint
• Halo Halo stop at Razon's
• Mely's Sisig for early dinner
• Main Store of Pampanga's Best
• arrive manila at 9pm estimate

By the way this is the first time I will be meeting Spanx in person. I'm also excited to meet Ajay in person with her foodie friends who will be joining us too. I'm inviting all foodie people out there to join us. If you have a whole saturday afternoon to spare, and you want to pig out with us, let me know. We are estimating that all the food could costs P1,000-P1,500 including take home and pasalubong. Of course, this is a KKB culinary tour so pay as you order depending on what you want so you could manage your budget. Transportation will also be up to you so better bring a group of friends too and we will have a culinary tour convoy.

Lastly, maybe some of you would also have suggestions on places to visit in Pampanga. I'm particularly interested on foodie places and photogenic places that we can pass by in between the food stops. Please leave your suggestions in the comments. By the way, this is a food trip purely for the fun of it so expect that there will be awesome moments as well as misadventures :)

Cabalen Food Trip: August 12, 2006, Saturday. Mark this date! Join us and I'm sure it would be fun to meet other foodie people out there. If you are joining let me know your name and how many are you in your group. Please also send me your mobile phone for proper coordination before and during the meet.

PS Angel julie -- you might want to join us so that we can finally meet.

Technorati Tags: Manila, Philippines, Restaurants

Our Awesome Planet Blog Traffic

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First, I would like to thank all my readers for constantly following my adventures and for referring my blog site to other people. I had a fun time blogging for the past 16 months and I'm glad that people appreciate some of the posts. I have constantly tracked my blog traffic via statcounter and last May was an all time high of 22,285 unique visitors in a month. That would be almost 700 visitors in a day mostly referred by google or organically referred by other blogs or loyal readers. I'm still planning to create a summary link or index page so that first time visitors can easily find contents in my blog.

One of my reasons for blogging is to showcase the Philippines as a tropical paradise and hopefully inspire people to appreciate our country a little bit more. Also, I do hope that I inspired other people to blog their adventures as well and as a token of appreciation, sharing with you some of my blogging secrets targeted to those people who want to start up their own blog about the Philippines or travel in general.

I'm continuing to hone my skills on travel writing and travel photography and one of these days I do hope to accomplish my dream of having my works published in printed media. I'm planning to sell my photos about the Philippines and start up my own Stock Photography pool dedicated to the tropical paradise of the Philippines. Lastly, I'm still dreaming about self publishing my book " Our Awesome Planet: Philippines " and I'm starting to look for sponsors to help me with it.

Thanks again, and please do let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can further improve my blog. It is not perfect but it is a start of hopefully something bigger.

Technorati Tags: Manila, Philippines

Sunset View

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Equinox Sunset View, originally uploaded by antondiaz.

Magnificent view of Singapore dusk taken from the tallest building in Singapore :) I'm glad I had the chance to eat in Equinox Restaurant in Swissotel The Stamford. I've been traveling the whole week so I'll leave you with this photo from my travel :)

Can you share a secret place or experience in the Philippines?

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Most of the stuff that I post here in my blog come from raves of people about the great experiences they have or secret places or personal scoop on the Philippines. I've never run out of ideas, places and restos to visit and the Philippines never fails to surprise me in a lot of ways. I've never hesitated to share this secret out in my blog and it would be our secret :) I'm never fond of places that are hyped up or the mainstream restaurants because they are already there and a lot of people knows about it. I'm looking for virgin places, places or restos yet to be discovered, experiences that makes you happy.

Everyone has their own secret place, experience or personal scoop about the Philippines. Can you share it with us?

Pinoy Travel Blog Launched!

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Yehey, the Pinoy Travel Blog (www.pinoytravelblog.com) is officially launched! This is part of the series of group blogs launched by Yuga after Pinoy Tech Blogs. This is a group travel blog composed of 8 distinguished bloggers.

Also, I just posted my inaugural posts in pinoy tech blog about What do you do with only 1% regular internet users in the Philippines.

Sick, Crashed and Lost (Aargh!)

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I can't believe it that all these things are happening to me all at once. I thought bad luck comes in three's but I'm on my fourth and I don't know when will it end! I bet you nobody could top these things that are happening to me all at once within just five days!

1). It started last Thursday, when I got sick with Coughs & Colds coupled with a painful infection in my jaw that permeates to my teeth. It was soo painful that I had to take a leave on Friday and missed a lot of my office commitments and what should have been Aidan's first Halloween Trick or Treat in the office.

2). Also, on Thursday, my wind was focused so much on the pain, I lost the keys to my Honda CRV. I had to take a taxi to Ortigas for my appointment and get the spare key from my Dad. In my life, this is the first time I lost a key to a car and I'm pretty sure I left it on a taxi when I went to the doctor to have my infection checked.

3). Sandara, my tablet PC, crashed on me last Saturday! Yes, my favorite PC loaded with a lot of my data accumulated over the years is dead! I was spending the entire Sunday trying to revive her to the best of my abilities but I was able to get the critical files I needed (password file, quicken finances file, and the google earth Philippine virtual tour file I was doing when it crashed) Most of the photos, I was able to backup in Angelika, my ipod.

4). Today, our maid lost the keys to our condo unit -- my worst nightmare! It would mean that I would have to replace my P7,000 worth of double lock or add an additional lock. My wife and I have been protecting these keys even since we transferred and cannot imagine the thought of losing these keys. We are now paranoid that it was an orchestrated attack on our family. Just this morning, something was calling and when we answered, the person on the other would put down the phone as if checking if somebody is in the house. We missed another opportunity for Aidan to go on a trick or treat in Bel air :(

I'm afraid that this is not the end but at least so far no life threatening situation happened and I still have my family and this blog :)

Writing Salon Series 3: My Feeble Attempt at Characterization

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The setting was perfect -- breakfast @ Illustrado's and Sunday morning preaching from James Nave' on Journaling and Characterization. The ambiance is very important so that the writing flows out and you can let your imagination take control. Our writing exercise for the day was in developing characters and I realize how easy it was to get started with it and how difficult it was to develop the level of detail the character needs. We selected random first names, and random last names then for 15 minutes develop the character. I chose to develop Erundina Lim, Taipan Heiress and Alex Fonacier, Politician responsible for babies genocide in the Philippines. My piece needs improvement but here it is in its raw form:

Erundina Lim

Daughter of a Hongkong taipan who loves to travel, wants to be unique and has a passion for the arts in the area of theater and broadway shows. She is single coming from past relationships that don't seem to work out. She constantly looks for the meaning of life and her purpose here on earth. She love children and travels around the world to help malnourish children in Asia and Africa. People admire her because of her beauty and generous heart. However, most people get intimidapted by her presence because of her overflowing confidence and passion to do what is right and fight for what she believes in. She loves her parents very much and a very family oriented person. However, she sometimes disagree with age old chinese traditions that is not appropriate to modern times or does not make sense to her point of view. An example of such tradition would be chinese women should only be married to chinese men discriminating other races. This gets a lot of tension in the family and would have caused the failure of her past relationships with other asians. She currently work as a teacher in a local university. She dreams of being an ambassador for Unicef or UN and pursue his passion of helping the next generation of Citizens. She would love to have her own children one day but time is against her as she would be celebrating his first birthday outside the calendar days.

Alex Fonacier

I am a nationalistic governor of a province in Luzon. I want our beloved country, the Philippines to prosper. Filipinos become poorer and poorer each day and the rich becomes richer each day. It seems that there is no end to this vicious cycle. I need to take matters into my own hands. Increasing population is the biggest problem in our country perpetrated by the priests who are always against artificial population control. This is my motivation for passing my personal bill to only have one kid per family and rest will be killed if you violate my law. I got to do and make the tough decisions to make this happen.

I gave strict instructions to kill each one like a ritual of first stabbing the stomach, mutilating the face, then cutting their genitals, slicing & dicing their arms and legs before finishing off with a stab to the heart. I enjoy the blood bath and this grows on you like a drug addict. This is the start of the purging of the Filipino race and sends a clear message that if you have one more than one kid the rest will be sacrificed for a higher cause.

Writing Salon Series 2: I Am From

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One of the most interesting writing adventure in the writing salon was developing a piece that starts from "I am From". There was a lot of setup, artistic warm-up and conditioning techniques to generate my own interpretation of "I am from". Here's my piece:

I AM FROM

I am from a state
of showbiz and political controversies
counts life in terms of cross roads

I am from my mother's womb
of love not minutes
that offers interesting twists
trained to be hopeful

I am from a mind
of turns in my life
that is passionate
faithful to God's sweet embrace

I am from a life
from my day 1 on earth
that strives to find
celebrating life's blessing

I am from a soul
of beauty of ordinary surroundings
that lives for
the purpose and meaning

I am from a persona
of day-to-day chaos in life
inspiring and touching
defined by integrity

I am from a place
of beautiful sunsets
with other souls on earth
governed by truth

I am from a heart
propelled by love
that yearns to love.

Where will you be this coming Long 1 Week Vacation?

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As a traveller, you look forward to these weekend holidays and I would like to remind you of the fantastic opportunity of a week long vacation this coming Halloween. Let me refresh you regarding the upcoming holidays:

October 31, Monday  (Special Non-Working Holiday) Proclamation #839
November 1, Tuesday (All Saints' Day), National Special Day
November 3, Thursday (Eidl Feitre, Last Day of Ramada), regular holiday
You just need to take a leave on November 2, and November 5 which are sandwich days and there's your 9days vacation for you.

so, Where will you be this coming long weekend vacation? Let me offer you my options:

1. Explore the places I longed to go to Guimaras, Balesin, Sagada, Coron, or Bohol.
2. Complete Viaje del Sol: the San Pablo, Laguna and Tiaong, Quezon exploration
3. Culinary Escapades in Tagaytay and Laguna.
4. Finally go to the Pinatubo Spa and explore Mt. Pinatubo.
5. Redesign my blog and apply the techniques learned to optimize search engine results for my blog.
6. Trick or Treat Halloween in Ferndale, and visit our love ones in the cemetary.
7. Complete Christmas Shopping in a week!
8. Since manila will be empty, play badminton, eat in new restos, and just hang out with friends.

I have not decided yet, and maybe you can share your plans as well...

I passed my PMP Exam!

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Finally, I PASSED my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification last friday!! I'm proud of this achievement for passing this certification test and now I can be more confident about my competency as a project manager. Admittedly, I'm scared that I might fail because it's been a while since I studied for any exam. The last was 10 years ago for the B.S. Electronics and Communications Engineering Board (imagine that). Also, I only studied for one week which includes a vacation leave one day before the exam. All my practice tests were a failure and I was afraid to pay the cost of the exam (which is the agreement we have in our company).

This week, I'll be writing a series on the PMP certification which only a few IT professional knows about and it is a great credential in your resume:

PMP Series 1: What is PMP and PMI?
PMP Series 2: What does it take to become a PMP?
PMP Series 3: How much is the PMP investment?
PMP Series 4: What are the effective ways to review for the exam?
PMP Series 5: Power Tips when taking the test.

Let me know if you need more information about PMP.

Engr. Jose Antonio Diaz, PMP

my 2 seconds of fame

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Just want to share with you my 2s of fame published last last Sunday, Aug. 28 in Inquirer. No I'm not the one in the big picture but just the small guy wearing white shirt at the bottom picture. (click to enlarge)

Romi Garduch and Jonjon "LA" Villareal made it to the top of Yala peak!

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Here is an update on Romi's Mt. Cho Oyu climb :) Here is an excerpt:

"that last 5 minutes of rock scrambling on the slippery and unstable knife-ridge of the summit of Yala (w/o safety ropes), with 1000m vertical fall potential on both sides of the ridge; those leaps of faith over several crevasses (again w/out ropes hehe) "

Good luck on your Mt. Cho Oyu Climb!

The New Anton

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" The New Me". I learned about this nike free blog contest from tanya, and it is very timely since I've been struggling for quite sometime to have a self makeover. From changing my selfish attitude, to improving the way I look, to reaching a new level of badminton skills, to living my life as meaningful as it can be.  I truly believe that reinventing yourself needs to be wholistic -- physically, mentally, and spiritually. What it takes is a combination of will power, positive vision, and relentless action that sometimes looks impossible to do. This is a gift to myself on my birthday today, The New Anton....

Heartbreak Weekend :(

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I've got a couple of heartbreaks this weekend and I just want to share them with you guys:

1. La Salle was defeated by 1pt by FEU. I got to admit that the defensive stops of Arwind Santos was key in stopping La Salle's effectiveness in the shaded lane. But there were also alot of miss opportunities from La Salle, including 3 turnovers by FEU in the last 2minutes. Also, when Rico M. was injured and Tang had to shoot in behalf of Rico M., the two free throws could have sent the ballgame into overtime ( he split his free throws).  DLSU can definitely beat FEU despite our lack of big guys, we can exploit their lack of point guards. I'm sure that we will meet again in the final four.

2. Our globe platinum theater reservations got cancelled.  Aarghh, this was a bummer when we were trying to watch "Must love dogs." in the Lazy Boy Globe Theater in Gateway. I was excited to watch finally for P300++ in this 40 seater Lazy Boy Theater with free flowing pop corns since January this year. Our reservation got cancelled because you need to get the ticket two (2) hours before the showing time. They are very strict on this and the system just automatically gives up the reservations. Next time, I'm hoping to be able to blog about this soon.

3. Missed the 3rd Flickr Meet in Lamesa ni Grasya. I always look forward to the flickr meets specially since people there are very nice and share the common interest for the love of photos. Particularly on this 3rd meet, Lil Anna and his boyfriend is coming over and this is a rare meeting that cannot be missed. The usual gang was there: Koolitz, Enzo, Ayeona, Stitch, Jolengs, Bing, and much more. I've also wanted to meet Rain who is the lomo authority and I'm interested with lomography as well. Lastly, fafa Jolengs gave out Flickr Pins -- which I missed! Oh well, will look forward to the 4th meet...

 

"Fear nothing except to waste the moment."

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If there is one thing that I learned from The Fred Factor book, is that each day is an opportunity for you to make life a better place to live. The book is based on the extraordinary customer service of Fred the postman, and teaches you how passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. When Fred was ask what motivates him on doing that things he is doing, here is the key ideas on what motivates him to be a "Fred":

1. Do good and you'll feel good.
2. The best never rest.
3. Treat customers and others as friends.
4. The impact you have on others is the reward.
5. Live the golden rule.
6. Fear nothing except to waste the moment.

The book contains heartwarming and inspiring practical examples of how to become a fred.

"You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100 percent of what you feel."

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This article  The CEO's Secret Handbook published in the Business 2.0 website inspired me to create my aphoristic revelations blog. It is based on Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management written by Bill Swanson, CEO of aerospace contractor Raytheon (RTN). According to the article, this tiny handbook has become an underground hit among senior executives and management thinkers. It contains Swanson's Aphorisms on Management which I loved very much -- practical wisdom. My personal favorite is that you always have to appeal to emotions of people for you to be effective. Here are his management aphorisms:

• You can't polish a sneaker.
• Learn to say "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be used often.
• You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100 percent of what you feel.
• Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there; few can see what isn't there.
• Never direct a complaint to the top; a serious offense is to "cc" a person's boss on a copy of a complaint before the person has a chance to respond.
• Treat the name of your company as if it were your own.
• Have fun at what you do. It will be reflected in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump!
• When faced with decisions, try to look at them as if you were one level up in the organization. Your perspective will change quickly.
• If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
• When something appears on a slide presentation, assume that the world knows about it and deal with it accordingly.
• A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter -- or to others -- is not a nice person. (This rule never fails.)
• When facing issues or problems that are becoming drawn out, "short them to ground."

It's truly inspiring and you can immediately apply this on your work. You have to read the article to understand the wisdom behind the aphorism's above.

"The point of living is loving."

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I was deeply touched by this essay "Not everything is a power struggle" by the ExpectoRANTS blog. It makes us reflect that life is not a rat race that the more money you have the more successful you would be. It reminded me of my favorite broadway Rent song "Seasons of Love" where it poses the question:

How do you measure a year in the life? In 525,600 minutes or In Love?

For most part, I'm still measuring it in calendar terms. I need to change.

Just got back from a blog vacation :)

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After almost a month of hibernation from blogging, I can't wait to blog about all the things that happened during my vacation. The month of May is the most hectic month in my schedule because it is summer in the Philippines and every team in P&G literally goes out on an offsite for a teambuilding/ training. I had alot of adventures in May from experiencing the funky tour of carlos celdran, shooting in sta. elena with raymund isaac,  a visiting the no. 1 tv station GMA7, to the teambuilding inTagaytay highlands and The Farm, and much more....

Welcome to Pearl of the Pacific, Boracay Island!

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  welcome to Boracay 
  Originally uploaded by antondiaz.

I arrived in Boracay alone today because I was the only person booked into the 9.45am flight via caticlan. Most of the passengers in our flight are from Glaxo Smith Klein. It was also the saddest Boracay look that I've seen in years. The water is green with "lumot", the clouds have a gloomy haze, and there are alot of boats that signals that Boracay is becoming too commercialized. I'll be spending the next 3 days for our teambuilding session here in the Pearl of the Pacific. Fortunately, the PLDT Weroam service in working in Boracay. Imagine an 80kbps connection via Smart's Edge service -- Simply Amazing. I'll try to minimize my blogging ang get a beach life. I'm just waiting for some of our colleagues who was in the next flight.

Fr. Armand's 7 Last Words -- Awesome Homily!

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  The 7 Last Words @ Don Bosco Church 
  Originally uploaded by Where is Anton?.

I've always been a follower/fan of Fr. Armand (SDB, Salesian) who delivers awesome homilies -- touches your heart & soul at the same time funny, full of anecdotes and alot of references to funny expressions in the commercials. I really missed his homilies during the 8pm Sunday mass in Don Bosco ever since he left his parish duties about a year or so ago. So when I hear the announcement last Sunday that he will be giving the 7 last words today, there is no doubt in my mind that it would be the best 7 last words that I would have ever listened to. No doubt, Fr. Armand does not fail to amaze us with his excellent funny delivery (for 2 hours) and I learned alot of things. I would like to share with you my reflections/insights on Jesus' 7 last words:

1. Loneliness is the biggest suffering of Jesus and the 7 last words teaches us, how He finally triumphs over it. Contrary to Mel Gibson's depiction of the Passion of Christ, the biggest suffering of Jesus is not the physical torture He suffered or being nailed on the cross; but, being alone through out His crucifixion.  Judas betrayed Him, all His disciples abandoned him when He was arrested, and Peter denied him 3 times. This must have been very painful inside specially getting through it without your trusted friends or family.

2. Reflect. Pray. Find your inner strength.  God, the Father, loves us so much that sometimes, He would prolong our agony -- a little more that we can bear, so that we would find time to pray, listen and communicate with God. In the process, we would find the solution within ourselves and realize that God already gave us enough strenght through the Holy Spirit and He won't be giving us trials that we can't bear. This process might be longer than you would expect but He would send us the gift of our friends and family to help us through the ordeal. When Jesus said  "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me", He was not complaining but actually praying (psalm 22) to find that inner strength to overcome his loneliness on the cross.

3. To give life, you must die. When Jesus said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit", He was offering His life to God proclaiming that He was able to fulfill God's will and save us from our sins by dying on the cross. This really touched me specially now that I want to change to a more healthy, pious lifestyle. I realized that changing for the better is not only about cultivating new habits but more importantly dying and burying your old self. You must say goodbye to your old habits in order to say hello to the new and better ones. Lastly, it is important that you strive to be a lifegiver to other people through encouragement, positive outlook in life, and touching people's heart.

The 7 Last Words
"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do"
"I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise"
"Woman behold your son, Son, behold your mother"
"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me"
"I Thirst"
"It is finished"
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"

I'm too sexy for my pinoy blog!

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Mabuhay to all Singapore bloggers! What the heck, I succumb to my desire to join Mr. Brown's I'm too sexy for my blog  project and join our fellow asian bloggers with this craze.  Here are some of the entries from the project: I'm too sexy for my blog: Part 2. Just for some background info, it started with the famous singapore blogger Xiaxue --> read on for the background of the campaign: Thank you from Xiaxue.  Also, you can view all the photos @ flickr via the sexyblogger tag .

Ahiya Pierre's Engagement

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The Complete Family
Originally uploaded by pinoy.

Congratulations and Best Wishes to Ahiya Pierre and Atchie Irene! This is the first time for me to attend a chinese engagement party and it was unfortunate that we missed the first part of the ceremonies. Nevertheless, I started to appreciate the beauty of the Chinese traditions and proud to be part of the Lim-Uy family. I'll let the pictures do the talking --> Pierre & Irene's Engagement Party Photos @ Flickr 

43 Things We Love About Brobo!

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Dearest Kuya Yin, Even though you are far far away, It feels like you are only an arms away, Your laughter, kindness, and personality, Are always remembered by your friends & family. Happy Birthday! Hope you love our gift below! 43 Things We Love About Brobo! http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/brobo/

Talking Stick, Joy of Fatherhood, RED Valentines

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One of my resolutions in life is to count my blessings and reflect on life's lessons. Awesome planet have given me an avenue to reflect on these things and at the same thing hopefully my readers will be able to learn a thing or do.

Talking Stick.  I learned a valuable lesson on Friday on emphatizing and seeking first to understand then be understood. Very simple concept that we have learned from 7 habits but very difficult to apply specially in conflict situations. It is very dangerous that we act before we understand a person and this could make a situation blown out of proportion. Last friday, I finally had a chance to talk with my co-worker who I had a word war I. We used a talking stick approach to settle our big misunderstanding and it helped alot. I learned so much about her and how I totally misjudge and misread her. I learned the extreme value of communication and the lack of it. Listening to her exhaustively until she gives me the talking stick was very powerful because I was force to learn and absorb whatever she is saying. When it is my turn to talk, I would have the right to talk my heart out without the fear of being rebutted in the middle of what I was saying as long as I have the talking stick. I came out of the dialogue, an enlightened man and I thank God for giving me this blessing.

The Joy of Fatherhood.  My life changes as soon as Aidan was born into our lives. You've probably heard of the cliche more than once but its different when you experience it. The joy of becoming a father is when you see your son smiling, hugging you, looking at you, or stops crying everytime you carry him. He becomes a priority and going out with friends becomes less but you don't miss it that much. The best part of my day is when I get to spend some time with my son and during the time that he would sleeps on my chest. I'm soo excited to see him grow up and so that we do fun things together. I can't wait.

RED Valentines. This year's valentines is not only RED with roses but also RED with blood as three bombs detonated in a bus traveling edsa under the LRT station in Ayala, one in Davao and another one in Gen Santos.  Just when the Philippines is starting to enjoy a 19th month low of 54.56 exchange rate to a dollar, this situation could affect again all our efforts to rebuild a good image for our country.  Thank God, we celebrated V-day at home this year with my wife, son, lolo  popc and lola momc. 

I want to die a meaningful death- The Tumour Diary by Ivan Noble

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This is a very touching story. It is not because of the 2 years he was blogging about his battle with cancer but because of the impact it created on other people. As I read on the comments, you would cry with how Ivan was able to touch other people's life. He died last January and you can read his online diary in BBC --> Ivan Noble's Tumour Diary

I want to die the same meaningful death as Ivan by touching people's life in more ways than one. 

 

See more progress on: Touch One Heart

Life's lesson in Self Denial

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As I was listening to the gospel, last ash wednesday 5:30pm mass, the following verses struck me:
Jesus said to his disciples, "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly father." When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (Matthew 6:1-6)

This was reinforced by Father Bernie in his homily and said that the ultimate sacrifice for lenten season is self-denial. Deny yourself with burst of pride, thoughts of revenge, and urge to say bad words to other people.

I had the ultimate test of self-denial today. One of my co-worker in the office put me to the tests. She said alot of bad things in email to my co-workers, my boss, and other people that it started a Word War I between us. I cannot take the libelous accusations, character assasination, and personal harrassment that she is doing to people and now to me. My dark side is telling me to fight back, return all her accusations with words like "bitchy", "evil one", and "sales witch". Specially during occasions where she would ignore my attempts to reach out to her. I wanted to fight back and I was already planning a revenge plan for the next few months. Indeed, this was an ultimate test of self denial for me. I'll pray that He would guide me to the right way to handle the situation and that He enligthen my colleague to have an open mind and heart so that we can have a chance to reconcile. I learned a big lesson today -- deny yourself and do it in secret.

Warning! My CRV Spare Tire was Stolen!

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WARNING! I know that some of you in one occasion or another will be trying to visit us in our condo at Taft Ave. Last Sunday, my brother parked his car directly in front of the building directly right across the street. When he came back to his car after a few hours visiting Baby Aidan in our condo, he found the spare tire of his CRV stolen! He asked around and of course nobody knew who took it and we even asked the guards. 

As a learning experience, here are some tips when parking in condos such as ours:
1. Park directly in front of and on the side of the road where condominium is.
2. If you have to leave your car, ask the guard to keep an eye of your car.
Please be careful, and this reminded us that there are evil people lurking around in the streets.

Life and Death in 2005.

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Life is short to fulfill my mission in life. Death is imminent and this year my family are so blessed that we got to celebrate christmas and new year happily together. At first, I did not realize how devastating the tsunami was and in just one instance, you can just lose your life even when you are on vacation. I love beaches but I did not realize its power and the danger it could cause. Also, my close friend meli's mom just recently died -- diagnose with cancer and in a few weeks she died. Just this morning I found out that my other close's friend anna's uncle died under similar cancer circumstances.

On the brighter side, My wife and I are very excited to welcome Baby Aidan Dominic into this world. She is expected to give birth on January 20 but I'm hoping that she gives birth soon in time for our 2nd wedding anniversary on January 11. Aidan Dominic stands for servant of the lord and we hope that he would make a difference in this world.

With this context, I look forward to 2005 and I want to share it with you.

Anton