Shop TV's Summer Shindig

Mocha heating up the show--all the real men were breathless

Skinny ladies and muscular men--it's the order of the day

My hardworking ASC girls--Love, Jessica, Beng, and Jean

We were at Hard Rock Cafe in Makati yesterday to help out on Shop TV's Summer Shindig. The party, attended by cable operators and participants of this year's PCTA convention (held in Crowne Plaza Ortigas), is courtesy of Home Shopping Network and featured Mocha and a fashion show of Mossimo and Nothing But Water apparel.

If you're watching Business & Leisure over at Shop TV, you might catch me in an ambush interview. Shop TV is at Destiny Cable CH9 and SkyCable CH13.

We can't get no satisfaction

In its satisfaction survey of the Philippine president(s) performance, the Social Weather Stations ask this question:

Please tell me how satisfied you are in the performance of (name) as President of the Philippines. Are you VERY SATISFIED, SOMEWHAT SATISFIED, UNDECIDED IF SATISFIED OR NOT, SOMEWHAT DISSATISFIED, VERY DISSATISFIED, or YOU HAVE NOT EVER HEARD OR READ ANYTHING ABOUT (NAME)?

And in the SWS website indicator page, you'll find this graph of one of the survey summaries, with the falling curves like saying we're going to the dogs in glorious pink, while the rest of us would've rather not ever heard or read anything about [your choice of president].

Nokia 'Tube' the iPhone killer?

Nokia unveiled a touchscreen device they're working on, what they codenamed as 'Tube' supposedly an iPhone challenger, at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, which could debut before the the year ends.

Given Nokia's penchant for unconventional execution of what's technologically beautiful, expect Nokia Tube to have iPhone features plus its powerhouse of Nseries capabilities--3G/HSDPA/Wi-Fi connectivity, Java applications, A-GPS, mobile TV, 5-megapixel camera with flash, and its own brand of multimedia and office productivity tools.

Either Nokia, the world's number 1 mobile phone maker, is keeping its promise of releasing a better touchscreen phone or it's simply prepping up the market as Apple is soon to come out with a 3G iPhone.

Whatever, good for us, we're not locked in with few, but presented with more choices.

Let's face it, we have a food problem that's getting worst

If any, the long lines of people waiting to get at least a kilo of the government-subsidized (NFA) rice can be an indication of this looming food-shortage crisis. Or is this simply economics doing its scientific wonders (via the overly used law of supply and demand)? Are we Filipinos to blame for panicking, when there's actually a lot of other commercial rice available (priced as high as P60 per kilo) but instead we scour the metro to get a few kilos of NFA rice, knowing that this is supposedly for the less-privileged (but we're buying anyway because it's what we can afford and just so we're sure there's enough to eat)?

And this same staple, selling now at P18.25, will soon be sold at a higher price (what with our heavy import losses caused by the continuing rise in world rice prices). Would the less than $10 a day earnings of a typical Filipino worker still keep him nourished then?

I think this is rather a clear indication of Juan dela Cruz's losing his faith in the present government, a government that is too busy cleaning up its messy scandals and dragging controversies and is doing nothing but keep itself look untainted by its own politicking. We are at a time when, we have nothing to count on but ourselves. Reminds me of the dog eats dog scenario--which I hope we don't end up in.

If there is really no reason to panic, why do I have this feeling that we Pinoys have to?

Say goodbye to our American Idol bet this season

The cute and sweet Ramiele Malubay, our Fil-Am bet in this year's American Idol, gets eliminated. At least she's joining the tour, if that's any consolation.
Image by Fox

I love volleyball!

While my wife Lhen plays volleyball and cares for nothing when the game's on--this is why I love this sport...
Photo from Business Mirror, Ateneo vs. Thai at The Arena in San Juan

She's evil...

And she's the luckiest bitch around. Who is she? Need not make a wild guess...

It truly is the year of the rants.

C.C. Lozano in the news

The Philippine Daily Inquirer - The Consumer - Not the same.

Year of the Ra(n)ts

The Chinese new year, the year of the earth rat, ushered in the period of ranting:

Jose De Venecia Jr. accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her government and her family of corruption (the 12-year-Speaker was voted out of his seat after a marathon session).

Rodolfo Noel I. Lozada, Jr., CEO of the Philippine Forest Corporation, appeared at the La Salle Greenhills campus and implicated former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos , Jr. and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in the anomalous ZTE deal.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I want to hear it from the horse's mouth," resigned COMELEC big boss Benjamin Abalos, Jr. insisted.

Yahoo and Google together?

Having received a bold offer from software giant Microsoft, news of Yahoo welcoming Google as a partner don't come as a surprise.

Anti-trust regulators will more likely disapprove though, as this is seen as Web domination (sounds creepily evil). But most users like me would rather the two Search Engines merging (imagine how innovative their services will be when integrated) than Microsoft dipping its foot in the already swamped pool of online services players.

I guess it really is a dog eat dog world, the Web not exempted.

Microsoft's bidding on Yahoo!

In a not-so-surprising bold move to conquer the Web market, Microsoft is offering to buy Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion.

Obviously, Yahoo is the most visited Website in the world, and is tops with its consumer email services, however it's trailing far behind Google in its single-handedly dominated search business.

If the offer (which is considered by insiders as too high) is accepted, this might be another shake up of the industry--merging (or overlapping) Microsoft and Yahoo's content-driven services.

I hope this Microsoft-Yahoo deal benefits the users more than the world's biggest software maker.

Erap on pardon?

Ousted president Joseph Estrada pardoned? We must be all going crazy.

Update: Seeing him finally released and watching him deliver his speech of thank you's to a roaring crowd and that short praise to his supposed savior current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is even crazier than I thought.

Glorietta 2: Bombing Attact?

I hope the lunch hour explosion at Glorietta 2 Makati yesterday, which claimed 11 lives and caused numerous injuries some heavily, is not an attack. So many problems (mostly political) have plagued our country we can't bear more battering.

Thanks to those who called and texted to check on me--I was out of the office yesterday.

The Green Buck's Getting Weaker

...not the peso getting stronger. That's what (most) economists are saying--what with the cuts in rates and the growing investor confidence (not necessarily here).

Sad but true--no matter how steadily the Philippine economy is said to be getting better everyday, just take a look around you (go talk to your 'manongs' at the office) as we still are tagged a third-world country, and famously flailing miserably.

Well, if you can buy food for a peso, then changes the story.