Month: February 2007

From OFW to Business

Seventy-six percent of businesses put up by overseas Filipino workers fail because the OFWs lack the skills, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Luis Cruz said Thursday at the Dr. Alfredo J. Ganapin Advocacy Forum at the University of the Philippines.

Source: Asian Journal (Click this link to read more)

The key note here is you have the knowledge of the business you are investing into.

Tsk tsk tsk. One should just really think hard before parting with their money.

Lex Luthor and Smallville

I have been a fan of Smallville, and maybe you can say that I’ve been one of the followers of the Clark-and-Lana tale. Though, I’ve not watched it for quite sometime now. We’ve no cable tv and no access to youtube (so far, we’re still at the mercy of Qtel).

Anyway, news about it is that Michael Rosenbaum (aka Lex Luthor) is leaving after the next season. Counting with my fingers, I think the current season is season six, so the next season is seven, therefore Lex is gone after the seventh. Does this mean no more Smallville Season Eight?

Lex Luthor

Can you firmly believe that Smallville can still go on without Lex Luthor? For sure, switching him with another bald-headed will affect audience impression.

Smallville

What really is the reason, I don’t know. For me, I’m too busy thinking about when will Qtel install our ADSL connection.

News here.

Patronize Pirated Filipino Movies

Indeed, it leaves a “mixed feelings” about it for every Filipino. I’m not sure if I should take this crusade seriously or as a joke.

One sure thing of a bitter truth about being a Filipino. Laugh at your own dismay.

SMS (text) messages are circulated as follows:

PLEASE PATRONIZE PIRATED FILIPINO DVDs and VCDs so that the Philippine movie industry will DIE and we will no longer have ACTORS and ACTRESSES or their spouses running for public office. Please pass.

Please post your reactions below.

Deutz and the Valentines Day Special

What’s the relationship between the two? Nothing that I can think of actually. I just wanted to integrate the two ideas in one post. (LOL)

Deutz Corporation

Never had the idea that such company exists. I am not related to it in some way or another. I just found it out when I checked my MyBlogLog statistics.

Somebody was searching through Yahoo! Search about Deutz Engine. But he mispelled “Deutz”, that’s why he/she was led to my site. Searching further, I found the site that he/she was actually looking for. In deutzamericas.com:

Since 1876 DEUTZ engines have played a role in the mechanization and development of the Americas.

The first DEUTZ engines sold in the USA were marketed by Schleicher, Schumm & Co, Philadelphia. This company was succeeded in 1894 by the Otto Gas Engine Works, also located in Philadelphia. The DEUTZ engines were re-introduced to the North American market in 1951 by Diesel Energy Corporation. This company became a DEUTZ subsidiary in 1955 and its name was changed to DEUTZ Corporation in 1974.

DEUTZ Corporation is a sales, service, spare parts and application engineering center for the Americas, supporting the DEUTZ product range of 5 – 600 hp diesel engines. Located northeast of Atlanta, GA in the US, we employ 134 people covering all aspects of marketing and support.

Throughout the years we have produced gas engines, diesel engines, trucks, buses and tractors in the Americas. Our engines have provided power to bring in the harvests, to transport people and goods, to bring electricity to remote areas, to mine minerals and to move the very construction equipment that shaped and continues to shape our surroundings.

Quite interesting!….since 1876…

On Valentines Day

I think the blogosphere is getting a bit more like the mainstream media already. I remember when I had access to TV yet, every holiday there’s always a special feature for the particular holiday. Be it Valentines, Christmas, New Year, Rizal Day, Bonifacio Day, etc. I remember when I was yet in Iloilo and listening to special features by Bombo Radyo about say Graciano Lopez-Jaena Day or Evelio Javier Day, narrating about the lives of those two distinct national heroes.

Anyway, cruising the blogosphere, you’ll find special features about Valentine’s Day, from how, what, why love over, under, whatever. Basically, you’ll find it everywhere!

I was frantic, I should make my own Valentine’s Day special, even if it’s unlikely that I’ll celebrate it (when did I celebrate it anyway? :() Yet, this is the best that I could come up with!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO EVERYBODY!!!

Yahoo! Mail Will Integrate YM

Beginning Monday, some Yahoo Mail users will be able to chat in real time through their e-mail program. Yahoo said in November that it would embed instant-messaging technology directly into its Yahoo Mail program so that users wouldn’t have to open up–or even install–Yahoo Messenger or another IM ,service to chat with each other online.

From CNET

It appears that Yahoo! is ready to compete head to head against the mighty Google, huh! (with the latter’s Gmail chat). I wonder if it can function well against the firewall here in the office. I’m looking forward to trying this new feature though, and I’m excited on how it will look like within Yahoo! Mail.

Yet, this news will “never” alter my preference of using Gmail over Yahoo! Mail. And the reason is up in my next posts!

Sierra Tequila Time

It’s one of those rare moments to enjoy alcoholic drinks here in Doha, Qatar…

Tequila

Looking for more meaningful content? Not really.

Sorry, I just actually want to showcase some of my not-so-good photography portfolio. 🙂

Here’s another, a night view of Doha:

Night View of Doha

The Concert under Review

Went to the concert last Thursday. The performance was fine. No, it was great actually.

There were some problems, though, before the show started. The area was basically an open field, meaning people were coming from different directions. But the organizers didn’t anticipate that, or maybe they did anticipate but did nothing to bring the entrance of the audience to a complete coordination. Come 7:30 pm (the show was about to start at 8 pm), the absence of a queue was apparent.

Monoblock chairs (it was an open field, remember) for VVIP’s and VIP’s with tagged numbers at the back of the chairs supposed to correspond to ticket numbers. But some numbers were missing, while some chairs were not tagged, bringing the event to the verge of chaos.

The night was cold. No, it was very cold. It was obvious from the trembling voices of the performers. Sarah Geronimo I presume caught a cold after the show.

Thank God, it didn’t rain, though (yes, there is rain in Qatar, one that could really ruin your day. Look at the Opening Ceremony of the Doha Games 2006. You can read more about the rain in Qatar in Anthony’s blog. It’s a good read, I promise).

Yet, the numbers delivered by the performers, which comprised Sarah Geronimo, Rachelle Ann Go, Christian and Mark Bautista, and Randy Santiago, were for lack of words, marvelous… entertaining… great!

We were seated quite far from the stage, that’s why I didn’t get a good shot using my not-so-suited-for-low-light-photography lens, the EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6IS USM (that’s why I hate Salam Plaza Photo Imaging Section.) Here’s one, though, for your viewing pleasure.

Mid Life Crisis of a Mid Twenties

guest-post-iconThis is a guest post from Marky.

So early in life and I’m already assessing my self if where I am now is where I really wanted to be. 23 years so far, passed high school without a glitch, cruised around college life, thrived qualifying for a professional license, struggled with work, now here abroad earning my fair share of the greenback as an auditor. I know that where I am now would have been the envy of a lot of guys around my age. But if you ask me if it’s all worth it, the financial stability, the prospect of going no where but up, the bright future that lies ahead, I think not.

I can vividly remember the chat I had with my officemate a few a days back. We were contemplating about what type of work we would opt to be doing. We had a few requirements. For starters, we wanted a job that we would be doing only if we want to. We sighted examples such as being an FX driver, or maybe something that has to do with freelance photography. Next, something that we would be doing because we love doing, again photography popped up, graphic artist maybe and probably pro athlete. Writing also appeared out of the back of my mind, playing music too, as well as doing some sketching. Another requirement we had was that we would have a steady income no matter what. I can only think of one profession that fits the bill, an owner of a “paupahan”.

Continue reading

Pinay Rape Victim in Qatar

This incident is quite new. I haven’t heard of it before until today, when I was given a copy of the affidavit supposedly filed by the complainant in the Philippines. Why the victim filed a complaint in Manila already and not in Qatar? Well, it appears that it’s because of negligence of duty in the offices of the Philippine Embassy here in Qatar and OWWA.

I wanted to verify the authenticity of this affidavit. If this case really happened, there should already have been discussions all over the net. So I tried googling for her name (the victim). And I found this one at the Pinoy Exchange. It’s going to be a long read, but please read the whole story.

I really can’t imagine we have such kind of Embassy and OWWA office here in Qatar. I would like to believe that it’s not true. Because if it is, WHAT IF? I can’t imagine!