Happy Birthday, Panda Tai Shan!

This is Panda Tai Shan. This panda celebrated its 4th birthday at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington DC. According to the zoo, it take them 2 weeks to prepare this cake, which is made of frozen beet juice, fruits and bamboo.

From Smithsonian National Zoo (Mehgan Murphy).

Freed (at last).

The last remaining hostage of the Abu Sayyaf, Eugenio Vagni, is finally released today, after six months in captivity. The news from BBC.

Video of the Week: Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”

Where is Neil Armstrong?

The Moon landing is commemorated on July 20, 2009 for its 40th year. But did you hear anything about its most famous personality, Neil Armstrong? In a new magazine article from BBC Online, Mr Armstrong is enigmatic, and has spent most of his life post-Moon landing in recluse, away from the limelight.

True enough, we never heard any thing from his life. No biography or book. Rare interviews on television, too.

Here’s a snippet of the article:

That an ordinary small town boy from Ohio might struggle with becoming one of the most famous men on the planet is hardly surprising. But Smith thinks his steely, disciplined determination to shy away from the public eye is another of Armstrong’s strengths.

He says it helped him cheat death three times before he even got to the Moon.

“He always kept his cool. At one point on a flight he was just a fingernail away from not making it. Afterwards, fellow Nasa astronaut Alan Bean told me he saw Armstrong filling out an incident report but recalled him saying he’d just had a ‘little difficulty’.

“He thought Armstrong had stubbed his toe or something, but actually he’d been two-fifths of a second away from death. He couldn’t believe he was just calmly filling in forms as if nothing had happened – but that was the kind of man he was.”

Rogue Cover July 2009 Issue

Marian Rivera is on the cover of the 2nd anniversay issue of Rogue Magazine.

Via Kalibo

The flights of CebuPac and PAL to Caticlan will now be diverted to Kalibo instead due to the new scheme in Caticlan Airport. This is in connection with the frequent accidents in Caticlan airport, the recent one being the plane of Zest Air overshoots the runway.

CebuPac and PAL will provide free shuttle from Kalibo to Caticlan, a travel of around two hours.

Read more.

Wealth of the few

Last Monday, I got the chance to be in an exclusive village in Makati. I was there for a “concert”, someone from abroad is going to perform to a select few invitees of a certain organization. My companions are my work colleagues.

I have no expectations from the mini concert; in fact, I was not excited at first. I was thinking, I’d rather go to the gym than be there. But when we got there, I just have to act amazed.

The venue is just a private house, er, mansion of a rich family. It’s like you are entering a house you only got to see in telenovelas on TV. Swimming pool, centralized air con, fully furnished comfy seats, maids in uniforms, and the like. And there are about close to a hundred guests. And it fits the sala area. Yep, that big.

It made you realize that this country has its own face for poverty, but it also has its face for the super rich. All you have to do is enter those exclusive villages in Makati.

Video of the Week: Green Day “21 Guns”

Happy birthday, Jing.

Birthday treat to my good friend, Grezelle at Red Kimono Megamall.

Be the alalay, instead.

Some weeks ago, while I am in the elevator, a work colleague is asking a new employee how did she got accepted in the company. The new employee said that she just accompany her friend to her application. But while at it, she also decided to try her luck and apply.

Luckily, she passed and the friend did not.

We have heard of the same story from showbiz to businesses, to ordinary folks. That those who accompany somebody in an audition or application, or competition, normally ends up as the luckier lot. I don’t know if there is a scientific statistics on this but it seems interesting.

Well, the next time you want a job or something, try looking for a friend who also is applying. Then volunteer to accompany him/her. That’s how you do it.