11am, the following day, at a conference room in Taal Vista

My colleagues are walking out one by one to... the comfort room. 9 out of 15 participants were hit by food poisoning. Going back to the loo as much as 6 times inside one hour. I was one of the 'survivors' who later drove to the nearby Mercury drug to buy boxes and boxes of gatorade.
By the time we were distributing the drinks, one wing of taal vista is fecal odorous. Other guests lodged a complaint by the same afternoon, so we had to buy three tubes of Lysol. (I think two more were given by Taal Vista Management).
All victims ran a fever and called their folks to bring them home. Two others had to be IV'ed with dextrose.
The suspect is either the dinner at Josephine's the night before or the buffet breakfast earlier that morning.
By the next day, Taal Vista was serving plated breakfast (instead of the buffet).
I wasnt involve on the negotiation on claims.
But I wont be going back to Taal Vista or Josephine's soon.

8pm, Josephine's, Tagaytay

This place looks old. Waiter seems to be haggling, pulling, and craving the expensive order from us. While waiting for our food, boss is yapping non-stop. Most of the people from the far side are busy surfing using the free wi-fi.
These sorts of planning session, junket, sojourn are tiring. Id rather stay at home and read. Play with babies in between breaks from the pages.
Haaayyy.
845 the food arrived. The bulalo is not good. Paella is ordinary, tawilis is just ok, crispy pata fine. Blueberry cheesecake is horrible, leche plan is bad. Not worth the money and time in Josephine's

Two weeks hence, and still swimming

Two weeks after the storm most emails that we receive at work still start with: “First of all, I hope that you and your family is safe...”

To most colleagues all these are funny. But to those whose daily lives today still consist of riding a raft daily, to and from work, these are big, big burdens!

Imagine giving up to the routine of having your underwear wet everyday... with stagnant water.

Panalo ang batang ito!

Kwistyonz, hijo: 

alam ba nang nanay mo ang pinaggagawa mo?

Masarap ba ang  fwrapucchinowz sa starvuckz?

Sino ang naggupit sayo 

Grand Villa, Bay, Laguna

[Bay is pronounced as Ba-i. It's the next town after Los Banos. Grand Villa has a website for complete directions]

Another place for team building.

What sets it apart are the decent-sized pool,

butterfly farm that really raises and cultivates butterflies.

Definitely better than Balai Isabel, though I havent seen an equivalent Obstacle Course; I think you really need this to complete any team building 'excursion.'

I wasn't involved in the dealings in on prices and cost though, so I have no idea how they compare in this aspect.

Rebyu: FHM Celebrity Diaries

Tangina naman FHM. Nakita ko yung FHM Ladies Confession ninyo. Wala na ba kayong makuhang ibang models. Ampangit naman nung iba. Mga hipon! Hindi yata karapat-dapat. Parang naging pampuno lang tuloy ng mga pahina para makapag-publish ng isang full-fledged na special issue. Nakakontribyut pa yata kayo sa lalong paghina nang industriya nang paglalathala sa Pilipinas.

Review: The Lost Symbol

I made a reservation for this book with the expectation indeed that I wont get Literature with a capital L. As an extra mileage of the book, yes it can prompt me to Google and research more on some of the purported "Facts" used in the fiction

But in the end this really is something you finish very fast, more of a junk-food of a book. You won't expect going back to any sentence to savor any well-turned phrase. Instead one should expect the clichés, and overused adjectives.

Dan Brown repeated so many times "staring right in the face," "so obvious," "it was so simple" too much in each revelation, it's a bit annoying. There's also "starled," "stared in horror," "held his breath," peppered in generously. To any reader, as an appeasement, I recommend you just credit everything to writing style. Just plow long. Dan Brown anyway is now a confirmed master of cliffhanger chapters. He makes it a point that you keep on reading--this is a credit.

My primary problem in the book is in its building up to a very shallow prize (relative to the Da Vinci Code). The last pages are almost a disappointment because of this. The ending made me ask... "that's it?" To my mind, it's unbelievable for an organization to go to great lengths to hide in symbol something so not worth it. This makes the book weaker than the Da Vinci Code. I wonder whether the author tried to avoid too much controversy in writing this one or this is really the conspiracy thing lined up for discussion. I think even the first National Treasure movie (also regarding masons) one-upped the book in this regard.

Also as mentioned elsewhere, it's almost the same package, half of the book: the single assassin who had to be naked again, an intelligent lady partner with a personal stake, running from authorities, the running, and escaping so close, etcetera. Im sure Ron Howard is now scratching his head, thinking about putting into film another book of the same exact flow.

Finally, was it worth my money and time nonetheless. I believe, yes. Still good entertainment. And Circumpunct is a funny word, I don't know why it sounds funny to me. Circumpunct! Say it out loud! Makes me smile everytime.

The Flood

Everyone has a story to tell, of loss, sadness, thankfulness, hatred, disilussionment...

Officemates living in Pasig whose houses are up to this day submerged in mud. Friends still sleeping on cold concrete.

im writing our own story here just for posterity.

It can actually be summarized in two words: we're lucky. As everyone else who were unscathed, we all devote it to luck. Like it's expected of our government to be this way, for our drainage to be of this state, for our officials to have moved this way. To have stopped helicopter rescues by mid-day in favor of ferrying politicians who want to 'visit' the carnage. All the relief effort, bayanihan thing is all good, but it will reach a point when everyone gets tired of that ABS CBN vtr, fund raising, and all the shit that seems to be becoming a cycle. It shouldnt be happening in the first place if our waterways have been taken cared of.

And that Gibo stupid fuck had the audacity to spend his department's budget for his disaster preparedness tv commercial, when they cant even do the first step of bringing food to the stranded. There were no resources... what preparedness are you blathering about?

We almost transferred to a place in De Castro in Pasig. We wanted a place with a garage so I can avail of the car plan in my company. I was trying to negotiate with the landlord.

I cant imagine what would have happened if we did agree on the rent. Just one bridge separated us from an unthinkable calamity:

(photo from msnbc and boston.com)