Year: 2007

When Philippines was Discovered by Magellan

You might have not noticed but we’re celebrating the 486th year of the discovery of the Philippines.

You wonder how I knew? Well, it’s in the song of Yoyoy Villame:

On March Sixteen Fifteen Hundred Twenty One
When Philippines was discovered by Magellan
They were sailing day and night
Across the big ocean
Until they saw a small Limasawa island.

Enjoy the youtube video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhegdwwvpEk]

To continue with the song:

On March Sixteen Fifteen Hundred Twenty One
When Philippines was discovered by Magellan
They were sailing day and night
Across the big ocean
Until they saw a small Limasawa island.

Magellan landed in Limasawa at noon
The people met him very welcome on the shore
They did not understand
The speaking they have done
Because Kastila gid at Waray-Waray man

When Magellan landed in Cebu City
Rajah Humabon met him they were very happy
All people were baptized
And built the church of Christ
And that’s the beginning of our Catholic life

When Magellen visited in Mactan
To Christianize them everyone
But Lapu-Lapu met him on the shore
And drive Magellan to go back home

Then Magellan got so mad
Ordered his men to camouflage
“Mactan Island we could not grab
Cause Lapu-Lapu is very hard”

Then the battle began at dawn
Bolos and spears versus guns and cannons
When Magellan was hit on his neck
He stumble down and cried and cried

“Oh mother, mother, I am sick
Call the doctor very quick
Doctor, Doctor shall I die
Tell my Mama do not cry
Tell my Mama do not cry
Tell my Mama do not cry”

That’s the end of Magellan in the island of Mactan long time ago ladies and gentlemen

So, how do I say it, Happy 486th Discovery of the Philippines!? hehe

Fluorescent Lamp

I’m not exactly sure actually whether it’s true that indeed a Filipino invented the fluorescent. They say that it was written in textbooks in elementary and high school, but that I didn’t encounter.

Here’s what the wikipedia have to say:

Many believe that a Filipino named Agapito Flores was the original inventor of the fluroescent light. It is reported that that he received a French patent for his invention and sold it to General Electric, which made millions of dollars from his idea. Flores however presented his patent to General Electric after the company had already presented the fluorescent light to the public, and much after it was originally invented.

On the other hand, about.com detailed the timeline on the invention of the fluorescent.

So what now becomes of those textbooks, if there’s a claim like that indeed?

Tigbauan Church

The Tigbauan church was just featured in Explore Iloilo. This is not the first time that Tigbauan was featured in that site. But this time, the pictures are just simply awesome!

I wanted to repost some of the pictures here, and I hope the people from Explore Iloilo won’t mind. Anyway, it has watermarks on it.

Tigbauan Church

Tigbauan Church

Tigbauan Church

I really encourage everyone to visit the site and explore the beauty that is, Iloilo!

Spreading the Link

Just as I am overwhelmed by our ADSL wireless connection, I would like to spread some links that you may find useful.

An old news of former FIDE president, a Filipino for that matter, Florencio Campomanes, had a car accident. Here’s the news on how he celebrated his 80th birthday at the hospital, and also a lookback at his legacy to world chess. (read article). Truly a pride for Filipinos.

For those who are fortunate to have access to youtube, just wanna share this superman comedy, starring Hugh Jackman and Will Ferrell. The video would serve interesting for superman fans as well as smallville fans.

One can learn photography by describing what are brilliant photos. Here’s a collection of them.

Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world (next to Bill Gates), was interviewed by CNBC. A summary of which you can read here. Quite inspirational, huh.

More to come in the future.

Wireless Internet At Last

At long last, we now have our wireless internet connection. After 6 months and 7 days stay here in Qatar, we have our wireless internet from Qtel up and running. That is, after waiting for 1 month till we found a place to live in, another month for our residence permit to be issued (residence permit is the primary requirement to transact with Qtel), 3 months till we get our landline installed (also by Qtel), one more month till we have our internet connection installed, and 3 days till we get our wireless router into running.

Creative BroadbandWhew! It’s a Creative Broadband Blaster Wireless ADSL 8426.

And now we can connect ten of our notebooks in the house: 5 Dell Latitude, 4 Acer Aspire, and 1 HP Pavilion, and enjoy unlimited wireless internet browsing (well, actually, unlimited up to the extent of what Qtel permits, no bloody x-rated and violence-related websites, of course!)

Thanks to Sandro for the help! It was very generous of you!

Making a Living

I’m amused by the memory of my younger brother actually literally taking what our parents were trying to teach us back when we were younger. “Mangita kwarta“, which literally translates to “to search for money”, actually means “to make a living”. He really thought that one makes a living by literally searching and finding money out in the streets, or maybe from your neighbors’ house (LOL), I don’t know. He thought that you can find money just like finding cigarette packs/covers we used to play with and use as gambling money (well, at least, gambling not to the extent of using gambling cards, etc., we were kids remember hehe). It was totally out of an ignorant mind of an innocent child.

Memories like this flashback to me when I read articles like this one, Dear Younger Ones. I couldn’t agree to her more. I have been into such situation before. As I even recounted in my comment to the post of Marky (Mid Life Crisis of a Mid Twenties):

I remember when I was yet in high school or maybe early college. I was seeing myself that at the age of 25 to already have a stable job, owns a comfortable house, a car, maybe even happily married. But now, I�m already 27, and, do I still need to elaborate?

And so, yes, to the younger ones, don’t ever think that the best of life comes right after school. You should believe it when your parents tell you that it cost them blood and perspiration (dugo at pawis, hehe) in order to deliver food at your table. It’s true, believe me, I tell you, from the bottom of my heart!

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.