fritzified edits

These are the nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, er, LOL, my nominations for the 2008 Emerging Influential Blogs.

Read the rest of this post at fritzified.com >>

Taking photos of stage performers can be very disappointing for point and shoot photographers. They were for me, at least. Take Bamboo for instance. I position the camera, wait for the auto-focus to work its magic, and off he darts to go elsewhere. The guy can't stay put for five seconds in one spot! LOL, like he would.

The corporate party I dreaded attending turned out to be great. Phenomenal, even! More than the buffet dinner, the roasted calf, gellato ice cream, flowing beer and coolers, soda, and Starbucks coffee was over the top! To cap the night with grander festivity, two bands performed for the crowd: Parokya ni Edgar and Bamboo.

During Parokya's performance I went backstage where the restrooms were. I saw Bamboo's Nathan go in as I was going out. To go back to where I was seated, I took the other way via the other end of the stage, hoping to bump into other Bamboo band members. True enough, Vic Mercado (Bamboo's super talented and multi-award winning drummer) was right there and all smiles. You really can't expect anything grand scale when two small-town-boys do small-town-boys speak. Vic started with a, "man, our school sent me a note saying I got nominated as Centennial Alumnus!" Whoa! I told him, "High five! But, man, it's not as if you're still not decorated with awards. I mean come on!" He answered, "nah! This one's different!" I didn't argue. Centennial Alumnus, FTMFW!

Vic already played drums since he was in elementary. In high school he was already really good. I saw him once while he was still with the Passage band and several times when he was already with Bamboo. OK, enough of the name dropping and pseudo-association and on with the photos!

Here are some photos from the event sans Vic's, ironically. But, but, he's too far back for my P&S to reach! LOL

For more of the photos, please visit fritzified.com through here >>

Theater: Avenue Q The Farewell Run

Yes, The Avenue Q cast will be off for the Singapore leg of their performance but before that, those who still haven't seen the play can watch it from June 13-22, 2008 at the the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza (in Ayala, Makati). Experience first-hand what the F it's all about (where "F" stands for "fuzz," catchy ain't it?!).

Tickets are priced as follows: Orchestra Center: P1,300, Orchestra Side: P1,100, Loge: P1,000, Balcony: P500

Get your tickets from TicketWorld through here. Visit Lorna's site, aka thebachelorgirl, for more of the buzz, er, fuzz.

.

Learn: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf sponsors Talk

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is hosting a talk that will cover three interesting topics: Photography, Creative Writing, Videography.

When: 7:00 pm 24 June 2007, TuesdayWhere: The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Bonifacio High Street, Glogal City, Taguig

Only 60 slots are available so head over to baratillo.net to sign up for free!

.

Party: Buhay Coke ng Bloggers with SM Hypermarket

Coca-Cola Philippines and SM Hypermarket invites bloggers to partay on June 27, 2008 at the SM Mall of Asia (Party starts at 7:00 pm). Come as either an angel or a devil (in either black, red, or white) and get to win prizes. All attendees will also take home a case of Coke Zero. Horray! For more details and to sign up, kindly go to Aileen's site through here, yo! A blogger may bring one other non-blogger friend. A blogger may bring one other non-blogger friend..

.

Three events from this weekend towards the end of the month. "Let's join us!"

Like Bim, I felt apprehensive to approach CosPlayers during the recently concluded 2008 ToyCon primarily because I won't be using a DSLR camera. If it was me wearing a costume and some random stranger wants to take my photo with a camphone, I'd feel paranoid, too. But being the hoe that I am, I'd probably be paranoid for only about 2 seconds tops.

Click here for the rest of this post + photos >>

Today's the last day for the 7th Philippine Toys, Hobbies, and Collectibles Convention (aka ToyCon 2008). Tonight, June 15, 2008 (Sunday), Ade's band, Lose Your Beer Belly, will perform from 7pm to 9pm.

To get inside Megatrade Hall (the venue: SM Megamall, 5th Level), you will have to pay a minimal amount of P80 (boo!). My friendly tip for hobbyists and enthusiasts: do not bring more than P1,000 with you because you will surely spend everything once you are inside. Happened to me. Wiped out the contents of my wallet. Good thing I only brought P1,000. Talk about foresight! I only spent P800 on rare comicbooks, no more than that. Right now, I wish I had bought more stuff, though. Oh, well. Today's another day.

Below are photos I took from the event. No photos of cute CosPlaying wimmins, though, but there are plenty of them all around (from all walks of "beauty," LOL). I actually went because of SamJuan's blog on Kukoman but I didn't get to see them. I was there at 3pm and they were nowhere in sight! Oh, well. Today's another day.

Lookit more photos and the full-length article of the ToyCon 2008 at Comicology. Bim was there from the wee hours of the morning and fell in line and got all stinky and blew an entire mid-year bonus on toys. Chikitout!

The rest of the photos are here >>

Cross-posted from fritzified.com >> Click on the link for photos.

When Nokia Philippines, sent us an invite for Nokia ACTS (Artists Coming Together to Serve), I just had to come despite its Sunday afternoon schedule. Nokia ACTS is a collaboration between Nokia Philippines and the talented minds behind Rock Ed Philippines. It has built on the latter's Project VIA (Volunteers Initiative for the Arts) whose primary goal is to teach underprivileged children how to either play musical instruments or train for voice via music camps.

"Through this program, we hope to make an impact in the lives of the children by giving them a chance to excel in something and a chance at a future profession," says William Hamilton-Whyte, General Manager, Nokia Philippines.  "We are glad to have partnered with Rock Ed Philippines who are very passionate in their belief that we should ‘educate to end poverty'."

For their part, Rock Ed's Founder and Executive Director Gang Badoy offers that "the cooperation of Nokia ACTS has allowed us to sustain Rock Ed's Project VIA and make the music camps more regular.  I think that consistency makes all the difference in the lives of the scholars."

We were told that scholars had to undergo a selection process to ascertain who among them was cut to do what musically. The instructors later on found that certain kids would shine on doing several musical instruments so they had to manage and give the multi-talented children exposure to different classes as well.

Gang Badoy, in between sets during this first ever concert of the scholars, shared that it would be helpful if each scholar could have a musical instrument to practice with at home. Unfortunately, the children can only play with the guitars, drums, and keyboards during formal sessions with the instructors during Sundays. Gang adds that donations would go a long way to help make this vision a reality.

More than just a music and arts camp, Nokia ACTS also has an expansion plan in the offing.   The project aims to care for the scholars by providing them also with medical and dental support, mentorship, a community and ultimately something productive to do with their time.

Through Nokia ACTS, Nokia hopes to arm 120 kids with music skills, offering them a chance to upgrade their lives through donation drives for 3 years. Beneficiaries can either perform as bands, solo artists, vocalists and instrumentalists.  The street children participating in the Nokia ACTS program come from foundations such as ChildHope Asia and Virlanie Foundation.

Musicians are usually booked during Saturday nights. Instructors Francis de Veyra, Jay Gapasin, Junji Lerma, and Noel Cabangon are not exempt from the general rule yet they come tirelessly during Sundays for this worthy cause. Francis, Jay, and Junji form part of the infamous Radioactive Sago Project band.

How about you? How do you "give back?"

(Quoted excerpts from the event's press release)

NEXT POST: An individual's commitment to teaching children

Or maybe not.

Some have left Twitter for an indefinite time until it gets its act together for Plurk. So, what is Plurk? Darn, what is Twitter?! I can almost see the 0_o on my non-internet friends' faces. It'll have less traffic if you don't sign up so don't. But if you do decide to be cool, add me up and let's be in each other's timelines.

Still not clear? Don't worry.

Experience it yourself and add me up while you're at in. Sign up through here.

Before the Nokia N82 (five megapixels), even before the Samsung U700 (three megapixels), I used to carry around the then schmexy Motorola V3X, 2 megapixel snapper of a clamshell-type mobile phone. At times when I would get the urge to just point and shoot at people, the camphone is instrumental in curing the creative itch. The down side is, although the composition would almost always be impeccable (wink wink), the image output leaves much to be desired in terms of colors, depth, and contrast to name a few. Hell, it's the general problem that plague users of mere point and shoot cameras.

Two years after I took Rochelle's (my good friend's) portrait, two years after I've tried editing the photo firsthand by only adjusting contrast and hues, would my newfound Photoshop killer skillz do more with an otherwise great photo? Another challenge is would said skillz work with an image taken using a two megapixel camphone? The result may make or break Scott Kelby's reputation, author of the book The Photoshop CS2® Book for Digital Photographers so I better represent, ho!

Read more through here >>

For two years and running in the company I currently work for, we are required to allot four hours of company time (half of a workday) and four hours of our personal time (either we sacrifice part of a weekend or file a half-day vacation leave during a workweek) to extend help  to the underprivileged. Last year, 99% of our total company headcount (of about 800) went in groups to various Gawad Kalinga communities around the country to teach children in their makeshift schools. This year, for want to explore other areas where our help may be equally needed, it's going to be either CRIBS Philippines or Kythe Foundation.

It is one thing to be willing to help and another to have the heart to want to deliver the "service" well. I have long realized that I'm not cut as a teacher because I have very little patience around kids in that I easily get annoyed when they randomly move about, cry for no apparent reason, and, most especially, they take on a particular smell after being active all day. And they can't talk LOLCAT. And they're needy, clingy, and immature (hmmm, this sounds soooo familiar. TOO familiar. *strokes Photoshoped beard on avatar. OH! I was describing an adult, sry.). In a nutshell, if you know you're not cut for teaching, do other things to make yourself more useful like contribute food, prepare the snack area, coordinate with the agencies, clean the site's perimeter, or re-paint the school's existing mural (only when they ask you to). Doing so will do the kids a big favor.

Read the rest of this entry here >>

Along with a group of UP bloggers, we have come up with a special project for the UP Centennial Month this coming June. It's called "UP@100: Capturing 100 UP Moments" - It is a Music Video Project which will compile 100 photos and videos from participants consisting UP alumni and students. It aims to capture 100 unique UP moments from 100 different points of view in the past 100 years of the University's existence.

We are inviting YOU to join us in this endeavor.

Mechanics: How to submit an entry

I. Who can participate:

1. Any University of the Philippines Alumni.
2. Any University of the Philippines student.

II. How to submit your photo or video:

1. A participant can submit at most two pictures of himself/herself (alone or otherwise) taken in UP or during a UP event OR a 15-sec video of the participant taken in UP or during a UP event.
2. Each entry should have the the following information:
   • Name
   • Student Number
   • Degree and Course
   • Two to five words describing the event (include the year the photo/video was taken)
   • If it's a group photo, please indicate your position in the picture.
3. Entries could be submitted by doing one or more of the following:
   • Sending them with file (photo/video) attachments/links to:
     • up100 [atsign] googlegroups.com or
     • admin [atsign] fritzified.com.
   • Posting the photos on their blogs and leaving the url as a comment on this official UP@100 post.
   • Uploading the video on a file sharing site and leaving the download link as a comment on this official UP@100 post.
4. Only ONE of the entries submitted per participant will be selected.
5. The deadline for submissions is on June 19, 2008. A day after the UP Centennial Anniversary (so that photos from the centennial celebration could be included).
6. The launch of the video will be on June 26, 2008 on all the organizers' blogs.
7. A microsite will be created for the project where all (part of the 100 or not) the submitted photos & videos will be posted in sync with the video launch.

Here are more UP@100 coordinators: Coy, Juned, Benj, Ederic, Poyt, Gino, Karla, Kevin and AJ.

We are very excited in this project and I hope many of you can join! Looking forward to your great UP moments! :)

Maligayang Sentenaryo sa ating lahat!

DISCLAIMER: The UP@100 Project is in no way related or connected to the official Centennial Activities of the University of the Philippines. This is a volunteer effort and project by several UP students and alumni.

Cross-posted from fritzified.com >>

I did one American Idol 7 performance review this season and it would be pointless to not put a close on something I started, albeit regrettably. So it goes down to the Davids this year. Cook vs Archuleta. Rock vs Pop. Manly vs Boyish. And that last versus was so totally lame but, yeah, you got the picture. Two contestants with a unique niche, fanbase, and vocal style. Both very talented. How would they both fare? Here you are, Idol Fans, a blow-by-blow account of how the David's did in the Season 7 finale aired today. Continue reading at your own risk (spoiler alert!).

David Cook started the ball rolling with U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The Great Bono is legendary. To take on a song that big and effortlessly manage to engage the audience to go wild during the chorus could either mean that Cook nailed the living shit out of the track with his vocals and stage presence or the people in the front rows are his groupies (even my delusional sister, Zhan, had gone Cook-oo saying over and over and over again, "Kuya, ako si Mrs. David Cook"). My take? Cook's performance was brilliant and he totally owned the song, something I haven't seen anybody do for a U2 track before. His raspy voice was absolutely perfect for this rocking joint.

David Archuleta was up next with his version of Sir Elton John's "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." I went, "are you kidding me?" at first but then this is David Archuleta: the kid who can supposedly make a hit out of words from any random "pambalot ng tinapa." What sets little David apart from other artists his age is the connection he has with the melody of his songs. He does some of the arrangements himself. Maybe that's how it goes when you totally have control over your chops and make them do amazing slurs or ties at will. Archuleta did a knight proud with this one.

Please read the rest of this review here >>

For the longest time, I had been fighting the urge to get for myself a DSLR camera with following arguments in mind: better control of image depth, higher quality resolution with RAW, wider angle, and powerful optical zoom. Those and I'd look cool lugging around a DSLR (come on, who wouldn't?!). But then, it's very convenient to just carry around a point and shoot camera. We fish the cam from our pocket and shoot away whenever there's a need, a habit that became more convenient with the advent of high-megapixeled mobile phones (mine has 5Mpix).

Over the weekend, I've immersed myself to learning how to better post-process photos with the use of Adobe Photoshop 7. Yes, they already have CS2 and CS3 but this is the version I currently have. Later in this post, you'll see that although outdated, Photoshop 7 still does wonders.

My objective for this post is not to show off how I can majestically compose subjects in photos nor would I want to bitch-slap readers with my new-fangled Photoshop skills. With the processed photos below, I'd like to share with fellow point-and-shoot photographers that it is still possible to greatly enhance our "inferiorly captured" photos (something I'd disagree to with my whole being) and take them to greater heights visually.

With the exception of the McFarlaine Dragon photo in the set which I took using my old 5Mpix Canon Ixus i5, everything else were taken using my Nokia N82 5Mpix camphone. Hover on the images with your mouse to show how the photos looked "before" they were processed using Photoshop. Please bear with me if the "before" images take some time to load. Please just let the mouse hover over the image until it changes.

Please click here for the 5 photos I'm talking about with before-after comparison >> (Sorry, Multiply does not allow css in blogs)

One other thing I that got me excited to set foot in Bangkok again was to see for myself their much hyped and new international airport. If anything, I was floored and wowed. It's architecture is amazingly modern and yet it has touches of the rich Thai culture in key places. Its construction had been beset with challenges here and there, I've learned,  but the airport finally came through and I'd dare say the benefits must be worth the wait for the Thai nationals and its government.

There is more to having a world class international airport than the obvious comfort it gives to travelers to and from a country. Carefully planning its location, accessibility, construction, and architecture can boost a nation's economy, rake in jobs, and gain trust of more foreign investors. I remember a senior HR person from another company asking their company's regional head why they had to resource training services elsewhere when their Philippine counterpart is more than ready to take on the job owing to an already ready local talent base. The regional head's answer was simple: "you guys do not even have a decent international airport that is convenient enough to fly in trainees regularly!" Sadly, as you must have already seen NAIA, such is our unfortunate plight.

As a backgrounder on the (New) Bangkok International Airport aka Suvarnabhumi Airport:

The airport has become a key economic strength for the nation, as a modern motorway connects the airport, Bangkok, and the heavily industrial Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, where most of the export oriented manufacturing takes place. Despite little media attention paid to cargo, around the clock cargo shipments with excellent connections for exporters was a significant reason for its construction (as lobbying by Japanese exporters and Japanese government support were major facilitators), and the export led recovery of the Thai baht and the nation's strong current account surplus since its opening is further evidence of its massive effect. -Wikipedia

As an end note to the government, please PLEASE get your asses in gear and LEARN from other nations. Copying best practice is nothing to be ashamed of.

Below are photos I took inside the Suvarnabhumi Airport the night of my departure for Manila.

If I had my way, I'd be in t-shirts, shorts, and sneakers the entire summer season. "WTF, but we've never seen you in shorts EVAR!" Exactly! Come on gais, give the corporate rockstar slash almost-model a break! I don't have much of a choice since I'm practically coerced by my day job to be in corporate drab on weekdays and man, those things can be annoyingly uncomfortable even when it's raining out. Good news is, owing to the Intertropical Convergence Zone, we're in for a shorter summer season this year as heard from the radio this morning (says PAGASA). Whether that's a good or bad thing, blame it all on the ITCZ. Heck, we can even blame ITCZ for the hike in power prices since no one has balls big enough to own the boo boo!

On the subject of t-shirts (thank Jockey for supposedly inventing the tee in its current form way back in 1913 per the infallible wikipedia), I had for the longest time been wanting to get myself some David & Goliath goodies. A few months back, I was walking inside the Power Plant Mall and a statement shirt on David & Goliath's show window caught my attention. It read "Trust Me! i'm a liar." I went in, felt the shirt fabric, looked at the price, made a mental note to go back soon, and left. Good thing I didn't buy the "Liar" shirt because, about a month later, I saw Juned wearing it and I'm not so keen on wanting to look like twins with anyone just yet. Sry, Juned-san.

Photos and the rest of this post through here >>

I had only recently found out that in the 1980s, the Thailand government purportedly sent a few of their agricultural people to the Philippines to leverage on our advancement in rice production. The Thais then studied under the able tutelage of the International Rice Research Institute based in the country. Decades later, the "teacher" who in the past boasted of being a predominantly agricultural nation had lost its mojo in this very aspect while the "students" had taken what science they learned to advanced heights. To reinforce our country's plummet to rice-farming Loserville, the Philippines is now one of the world's top importer of rice. What happened to us and our rice themed glory days?

Read more here >>

Thai food will assault your senses with a well calibrated interplay of taste mixed with smell, texture, and visual appeal. Enough said. Below are photos of what we had for dinner just a few hours ago. I could have these all my life and never tire of them. Wait, lightbulb moment: I'll go buy some spice here so I can try replicating these sumptuous dishes at home in Manila! iGenius!

Enough with the talk. The photos, let me show you them. (TIP: you may drag the photos to see parts of the width covered by the margin. Try it! It was WOW for me first time I did it. Kthnx)

Continue reading here >>

It's Andrew Lloyd Weber week for your Top 6 on American Idol 7. To enhance your viewing experience, I suggest that the gentlemen don their best top hat/tuxedo and ladies, please spray anti-dust mite before wearing those awful feather boas (I mean, when did chicken and bird stink become fashionable on humans anyway?) and tasseled, itchy, and lacy dresses abominations (stay away from me while you're in those because the smell reminds me of my great grandma, post-humus, srsly). Sit back, restrain yourself, and listen to the excruciating renditions brought to you by your finalists as they take on songs that may bore non-theater fans and the non-musically-inclined to non-existence.

Let's begin.

Continue Reading here >>

Whether it is true or not that a predominantly black colored website saves energy when displayed on CRT monitors, http://fritzified.com is turning off the lights for Earth Day. I’ll be reverting to the old theme on April 23.

Is this tight or what?! These, my dear friends, were actually taken on June 1888, October 14, 1888, and January 20, 1889 showing the Eiffel Tower in three different stages during its construction. If this ain't the shiz, I dunno what is!

Read the rest of this post here >>

To the truckloads of fans of The Man-Blog (TMB), here's your chance to see this awesometastic blog's denizens do something other than entertain you with finely written dickery. TMB will be having a gig dubbed "The Banana Gangbang Rock Festival" happening on May 3, 2007 at Bela Bar in Greenhills, San Juan.

Read more here >>