A Special Hour in a Year

Earth Day is still a month from now (Apr 22) but tomorrow, a special hour is dedicated for the only home that we have. It is called the Earth Hour. From 8pm to 9pm (SA time), few governments in the world and a number of environmentally-conscious individuals have committed to turning off the lights on public monuments, offices and homes. This is a mass action designed to highlight the campaign against global warning and climate change.

Hope the Philippines and people here in Davao get on in the action too! Pinoy bloggers, we should!

International Woman's Month

There is no other figure of a woman that merits our attention especially on this International Woman's Month more than our mothers. There are no words enough to describe the strength and spirit of these women.

Here is a poem by Pablo Neruda that tries to capture in words our passage through life with the woman that nurtured us.

To my mom, I love you and I thank you.


TO WASH A CHILD
by Pablo Neruda

Only the most ancient love on earth
will wash and comb the statue of the children,
straighten the feet and knees.
The water rises, the soap slithers,
and the pure body comes up to breathe
the air of flowers and motherhood.

Oh, the sharp watchfulness,
the sweet deception,
the lukewarm struggle!

Now the hair is a tangled
pelt criscrossed by charcoal,
by sawdust and oil,
soot, wiring, crabs,
until love, in its patience,
sets up buckets and sponges,
combs and towels,
and, out of scrubbing and combing, amber,
primal scrupulousness, jasmines,
has emerged the child, newer still,
running from the mother's arms
to clamber again on its cyclone,
go looking for mud, oil, urine and ink,
hurt itself, roll about on the stones.
Thus, newly washed, the child springs into life,
for later, it will have time for nothing more
than keeping clean, but with the life lacking.

Facebook Quizzes

I had a bit of fun taking Facebook quizzes today while waiting for 10pm (I wanted to sleep but no matter how I try, it won't come). I think it's such a time-waster but oh well, here are the results:

1) What is my Japanese Name?

Rin/Seiko

Rin means dignified,severe,and cold your respected and admired and people might be a little scared of u:) And Seiko means force and truth so you like the truth even if it hurts and your honest with almost everyone.

2) Which Greek God am I?

Poseidon

God of the sea, protector of all waters. Poseidon is the brother of Zeus. After the overthow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Hades, another brother, for shares of the world. His prize was to become lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titan Oceanus. His weapon is a trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He is second only to Zeus in power amongst the gods. He has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy. He had a series of disputes with other gods when he tried to take over their cities.

3) Which Twilight Character am I?

Alice Cullen

You are bubbly, fun and optimistic. You love Jasper very much, and you are very fond of dressing Bella up. You treat Bella as a sister, and will try your best to save her when she is in danger.

Transferring a Video for N95

I had a .mov file in my computer that I wanted to be able to watch in Nokia N95 8G. However, when I uploaded the file on to the phone, it said that the format was not supported. Turned out I need to convert them to mpeg-4 format using Quicktime. An additional problem came up: I couldn't convert the file unless I buy the Pro software. To fix the problem, I followed this. Now I can easily transfer videos from my computer and view them using N95!

The Wrong Jao

This month is our team's month and we're calling it GradQAtion Month. Basically, this is just a program to increase (fingers crossed) the QA stats of the agents. We decided to hang small diplomas and black caps with yellow tassels on the ceiling so we were there on a Sunday. We called it a night at around 11 PM.


While Wanda and I were walking towards the intersection of Uyanguren and Bajada, waiting for text replies, I saw Kuya Jao with a friend. They were deep in conversation. I needed something from him for our planned team-building at Eden Nature Park in Talomo. I hesitated but approached him anyway. I thought now was as good a time as any.

N: Hi! Kuya Jao?
(J and friend exchanged blank looks)
J: Did you say Jared? Or Jao? If it's Jao, I think you meant the APM. It's not me.
N: Oh... Sorry.
(J's friend, having been interrupted in their convo, was looking daggers at me.)

Shit. With a capital S. I hid behind Wanda. I couldn't wait for a cab to take me away from the place. All along I thought he was Jao, my schoolmate and the brother of my amegang JM. Super kahiya.

DOTA Revisited

When I feel like taking a break (although there are loads of things I need to do), I open up Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and play DOTA, which is short for Defense of the Ancients. Somehow, being able to pawn AIs is very relaxing. It has become one of my therapies.


Because I slept for 14 hours and had nothing better to do, I played DOTA again. I played Traxex, The Drow Ranger, and because I get impatient now from building up my gold coins, I just type in greedisgood and voila!- instant amazing items. :)

Watchmen

I saw Watchmen yesterday after my aborted gimik right after work at Charlie's on-construction drive-by lodge at Times Beach. I was drinking my second glass of Red Horse and was next in line to sing my favorite "Stitches and Burns" by Fra Lippo Lippi when Jhae called. I forgot to return the keys to the board room so I had to get back ASAP.

As much as I'd like to be a bit productive and do audits, I could't because the 2 glasses got to me already and my head pounded like crazy the moment I put my headset on. After a bit of Excel tutorial online, I got ready to go to Gaisano Mall.

There were lots of good movies at the moment. There was Milk, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Street Fighter and You Changed My Life, which I promised myself I will watch. Hearing a lot of buzz about it though made me watch Watchmen instead.

I've heard about Watchmen before the movie, when one classmate in college boasted he received his copy of the graphic novel. I wasn't able to borrow it, the thing somehow a bit sacred to him. All I knew about it was it was about a group of vigilantes who had their heyday in the 60s, grew old, who for some reason were outlawed and lived their separate lives as their "normal" but very damaged alter-egos.

With the movie, which I heard was a very faithful to the written/drawn form, I was able to see the attraction that my classmate had. The movie was visually spectacular; the slow-mo effects, which are getting outdated by the way, were put in much use to show the hyper-action fight scenes. It was a bit raw and vivid in its depiction of gore and violence: image of broken bones, punctured skin and splattered blood replete with crunching jarring sound. And then there's naked blue Dr. Manhattan, the only hero who has real powers. Albeit his didn't get hard, he was still fun to watch for at least 5 minutes.


That said, there were lots of times when I found myself dozing off. I suppose it was meant to be a cerebral, satirical view of contemporary society. The irony was there: the sociopath Rorschach with the creepy mask who had a twisted sense of morality, in contrast to the world leaders in general, bottled in the brutish The Comedian, who are getting ready for nuclear war. It shows that the human being is fundamentally destructive and that only a sacrifice can save it: the world uniting for peace against Dr. Manhattan. The plot was Ozymandius' brainchild, supposedly the world's smartest man, and he somehow represents idealism; achieving a noble cause at a very steep price. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are the two most "normal" in the group but they were shown to have problems of their own- the former impotent and the latter, living out the life deigned by a ex-superhero mother who hides a very dark secret in her life.

I was able to see its attempt at a deconstruction of superhero mythology, although the superheroes here are basically broken individuals who hides behinds masks, capers and latex fetish-y jumpsuits. However, I got lost and bored silly somewhere along the way. At almost 3 hours, it tested my patience. I wished they had made it more compact and streamlined.

I was able to finish it, much in deference to the material's history (my classmate loved it so much) and to satisfy my intellectual curiosity (emotionally, I was long far gone from caring for them or the movie in general and was only jolted shock when Rorschach who I was slightly rooting for was reduced to a gooey splatter in the end). Now that I've finished it, I can't wait to watch You Changed My Life.

Hoboneil Goes Minimalistic

Finally, my page is up with the new layout I found through Google. I pretty much messed it up at first by trying on a lot of different ones. Funny thing is this "new" layout I've decided on can only be used with the classic or "old" blogger. That simply means it won't work with widgets and the page elements can't be easily adjusted. For some reason though, the layout connected with my mood. It suits me to a T right at this exact moment so here it is.

Layout can be downloaded and reviewed here.

Extra-Curricular Activites

I don't feel like I'm any good with graphics design but I do get satisfied after I'm finished with a certain project. It is therapy and is almost as good as writing.


I hope the people who asked me for these would like them. If they don't, then that's not my problem. Hahaha! :)