[Pinoy Gay Blogs] The McVie Show

Next in the spotlight is The McVie Show, Season 5, aptly named since there are four previous "seasons" before this one. The McVie show is the personal blog of Joel McVie run off the Blogger platform. If that alone wasn't enough to ensure speed, the first thing you'll notice about this blog is how clean and austere it appears to be. Just look at the screenshot above and you'll see that it's a sea if white broken only by his words and the occasional image here and there. Given that, it certainly helps keep this blog tagged as Safe For Work for those conscious of shoulder-surfing supervisors checking on what you're doing. You'll be fine as long as they don't start reading too closely, haha.

This helps define the strength of the blog - what McVie has to say. His manner of writing is fresh, witty and very honest, something I've always found to be a key to truly good writing. His blog acts as a running commentary of the world of the Metro touching on a variety of topics such as the latest movies or even the traffic situation last Thursday. It's fresh and brilliantly real - in other words what a lot of good blogs should be about. Amongst the various entries you'll find little snippets of his personal history, stories from his youth or just a few hours ago which provide interesting peeks at what his life as a gay man is like.

Blogs were originally meant to be personal, revealing and candid. The McVie Show is all that and more and definitely a great read.

Related Links:

• McMultiply
  
• The McVie Show, Season 1
  
• The McVie Show, Season 2
  
• The McVie Show, Season 3
  
• The McVie Show, Season 4

[Health] A New Treatment for Asthma?

In one way or another, I've been living with asthma all my life. I say this even though my asthma only came out after puberty shortly after I had turned 20 given that of course many in my family suffer from asthma as well.

When I read about bronchial thermoplasty, a new potential treatment for asthma, I was pretty excited. Although it's still in early testing, the initial results have been promising. What makes this treatment so radical is that it doesn't involve drugs or other medication.

To keep things simple, the treatment uses heat to burn off some of the "smooth muscles" responsible for the contractions you feel during an asthma attack. Low level radio frequency or thermal energy is run through the muscles in your bronchial passages appear to damage only these smooth muscles and little else, thus allowing the doctor to more or less control how much "damage" will be done. Treatments are spaced out as one hour sessions across three weeks and the initial test results show a reduction in the need to use conventional asthma medicines like inhalers for the test group.

It's not a cure - oh no, it's anything but. However if you've ever gone through an asthma attack or had to help someone close to you going through one, then you can more or less understand why even partial relief can generate so much excitement. Asthma sufferers like myself will do almost anything to become less dependent on the steroidal drugs that keep us breathing through the worst pollutants abundant in the world today.

I certainly hope this treatment does generate clear results in the long run - I can assure you that I'll definitely be one of those who'll be willing to sign up for it one it becomes available locally.

Related Links:

• EARTHtimes.org: Drug free treatment for asthma
  
• ScienceDaily: Bronchial Thermoplasty Offers Asthma Treatment

Photo linked from rainspoo's photostream.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] It's a Gay-Gay-Gay World!!!

This is the first of probably many future posts featuring various blogs now appearing as part of the Pinoy Gay Blogs List. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I agreed to help write feature reviews for Pinoy Gay Blogs. If you too want your blog to be featured, feel free to get in touch with Migs, who is the owner of the list or you can leave a comment on this entry and I'll try to get around it.

First up is It's a Gay-Gay-Gay World!!!, pretty much an eye-candy / entertainment blog created by Edmond Ray Castro. It's a light and highly energetic blog that features various celebrity pictures, discusses popular queer lifestyle news items and a whole lot more. There's not a whole bunch of writing - it's really more about multimedia entries filled with pictures and such.

Since it's run off the Blogger platform it's highly unlikely you're going to get Page Cannot Be Displayed errors if too many people visit the site. However I have to warn you that given the sheer volume of images, flash embeds and other video clips, the site runs really slow even for faster computers running off broadband internet connections. Seriously. I'd recommend viewing this blog one entry at a time or you could try pulling from the site's RSS feed instead so you can view the entries isolated from all the others via an RSS reader like Google Reader.

I'd tag this blog as NSFW - Not Safe For Work, given the sheer number of interesting pictures. Even the RockYou slideshows do little to hide the graphic nudity involved in some of the posts given it takes a while for the additional animation to load and cover up the most incriminating photos. Take my advice, this is the kind of blog you can only view at home and definitely not over dial-up.

So if you're into the full multimedia experience, loads of interesting and sometimes delicious images and videos, then this is a blog you're going to appreciate. Hopefully Edmond can resolve the technical issues in the future.

[Philippines] The Heartfelt Hostage Taking

In the Philippines, everything has to be a little different I suppose. The funny thing is that even our hostage takers are strangely different if the Armando Ducat, Jr. Incident is any indication.

Early Wednesday morning local time, Armando Ducat, Jr. and a companion took a bus full of 26 children and 4 tutors hostage. The strange thing was that the children were from a daycare center that Ducat himself owned. His demands? He wanted free education until the collegiate level for all children in the daycare - approximately 145 kids - and better housing to be provided for the families. It was a hostage-taking in which the hostage taker couldn't possibly harm his hostages since they were the beneficiaries of his demands.

Ducat's message was supposedly that of protest against the way things are, how the poor get poorer and how Filipinos shouldn't let them lives be run by "traditional" (translated: corrupt) public officials. Of course early into his protest / hostage taking, he also demanded that Senator Bong Revilla, Jr. speak to him. Oh yes, that's clearly showing independence from the politicians he so distrusts.

While the hostage drama ended about 10 hours later with Ducat and his companion surrendering to provincial Governor Chavit Singson without bloodshed, it also ended with his demands promised to be met for the 145 families. Talk about the ends justifying the means. Towards the end, the crowd that had gathered was already chanting in support of the civil engineer, even as he surrendered to the police. Only in the Philippines would major political figures be brought in to handle hostage negotiations instead of the local police, especially in an election year. Oh joy.

This is not the first time Ducat has resorted to extraordinary means to get his message across. He once held two priest hostage in 1989 over allegations of fraud and graft in the running of the diocese but no charges were filed. He also climbed a tower in 1998 to protest a candidate whom he claimed wasn't a full Filipino citizen. he also attempted to run for Congress in 2001 but was disqualified given his history.

This whole situation says a lot about the state of affairs in the country. While I don't approve of what he did (and I'm sure the parents of the 26 kids don't either), you have to admit he raises a valid issue - that there's too much politicking going on in the country and not enough attention is truly being given towards addressing the needs of the public in a meaningful way. At the very least, it's clear the large majority that lives below the economic poverty line don't perceive that the goverment is doing enough for them regardless of what programs are already in place today. The need is part Public Relations, part government focus and visibility.

In the meantime, we can only wait and see if the 145 children will actually get the education and housing promised to them. Now that should be interesting.

Related Links:

• CNN.com: 'Dud grenades' used in Manila school children seizure
  
• International Herald Tribune: Children freed after Manila bus standoff
  
• Inquirer.net: Palace: Don't make heroes of wrongdoers
  
• Inquirer.net: Children unfazed during Manila bus siege
  
• Inquirer.net: It's a trip to the Palace for children after hostage drama
  
• Inquirer.net: Ducat to face raps even without parents' complaint -- Gonzalez
  
• Inquirer.net: Gov't determined to file raps vs Ducat
  
• Inquirer.net: Hostage-taker to remain in Manila jail -- police

Photo linked from Jason Abbott's photostream. Picture is unrelated to actual hostage-taking in Manila.

[US] Star Wars Stamps

The United States Postal Service has just launched a series of Star Wars themed commemorative stamps which look pretty wickedly cool. While they go for 41 cents a pop, just looking at the complete set definitely encourages stamp collectors and snail mail lovers to get to their nearest post office.

Why don't we have cool stamps here in the Philippines?

Related Link:

• CNET News.com: Star Wars stamps feel the force

[Web] Working with Pinoy Gay Blogs

Now that was a quick turn of events.

After writing an entry about my issues with the requirements for the Pinoy Gay Blogs List, I left a comment on the site summarizing my concerns and left things at that. I wasn't expecting for Migs, who manages the site along with the ever popular Manila Gay Guy blog, to get in touch with me directly via email.

He clarified that adding MGG to your blogroll won't be taken as an absolute requirement, although he did acknowledge the benefit to his search engine ranking because of the move. He stated its being taken more as a request rather than a requirement and simply commenting on the instructions entry over on Pinoy Gay Blogs should more or less suffice.

Then the conversation turned to the possibility of me writing reviews of various gay blogs on the site as a sort of weekly feature. I warned him I tend to lean on the candid side of things so any reviews / features I'd write might not sit well with everyone. Then again, it'll help generate traffic for the featured blog and for myself as well since we agreed that all entries I'd write for Pinoy Gay Blogs would be cross-posted here on the Geeky Guide.

Strange times.

For the most part, I've said yes and I'll probably start checking out the various blogs now part of the growing list over on Pinoy Gay Blogs so expect new reviews for those sites in the future. I'm not sure if Migs will be able to use all my reviews since I intend to discuss them for good or for ill at least here on the Geeky Guide, it remains interesting to see how things go.

[Google] A Bigger Pack

Some time back I finally decided to download the Google Pack along with the Google Updater since (1) I'm usually willing to trust Google and (2) I had most of the software in the Pack anyway.

Google recently announced the addition of new software to the Google Pack, namely:

1. Norton Security Scan
2. Spyware Doctor Starter Edition
3. Google Photos Screensaver

What's most interesting this time around is that the security applications are freeware - they are not only free to try programs that you'll need to pay for eventually. It's definitely an interesting move on their part to partner so fully with Google on this endeavor and I'm definitely not complaining.

Spyware Doctor was the biggest application but ran the best by managing to find over 140 infections on my computer despite the use of Ad-Aware and SpywareBlaster currently run weekly. I also had Windows Defender at the time of installation and promptly deleted it after Spyware Doctor completed its first scan. So much for Defender's "active" protection (and overly aggressive memory usage!)

Norton Security Scan has the joyful memory requirements of any other Symantic security product, but at least it's free and pretty thorough. I ran a full scan and it still found two items of interest despite the free edition of AVG Anti-Virus running daily scans on my system.

I've yet to really put the Google Photos Screensaver through its paces, but it seems to be pretty dynamic and is definitely getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere. I'll keep everyone posted on how it performs.

So now, my total list of Google Pack applications looks like this:


Related Links:

• Googlified: Google Pack Now Packs More
• Lifehacker: Google Pack updates: better screensaver, new AV and spyware apps
• Google Operating System: Google Screensaver
• Google Blogoscoped: Google Pack Screensaver Update

[Web] Pinoy Top Blogs

I've just about had it with Pinoy Top Blogs. The site, very similar to Blog Top Sites, aims to rank all Filipino-created blogs to show where everyone stands in the blogosphere. It's an interesting way to help promote your website while letting everyone find local blogs all in one location. I'm all for community building after all, since if we don't watch for each other, who will?

I signed up for both of the above sites in February and was quickly added to the rankings for Blog Top Sites but remain on the default "disabled" or "suspended status" which all new registrants maintain while in queue. I think 45 days was more than enough time to expect some sort of a response from the site owner as to the status of my registration, but no dice.

I tried emailing Abe Olandres, the site owner but never got any feedback either. the site says nothing else about how long it'll take and such and I think I did my part in terms of putting the appropriate tracking code and such.

It's going to be two months on March 8 and I still haven't been ranked and somehow I think it's highly unlikely they'll ever get around to it. Normally these kinds of things are triggered by crawl programs or "spiders" so unless he's chosen to manually check on every site, there should be no issues. Thus as of today, I'm officially giving up and removing the referral icon / tracking code from the site.

Oh well, it was worth a shot. Why are the local ranking / blogosphere community sites so disappointing? Am I expecting too much here?

Related Link:

• [Web] Pinoy Gay Blogs List Hypocrisy

[Web] Pinoy Gay Blogs List Hypocrisy

So I was checking out my feeds on Google Reader and came across this Manila Gay Guy entry about a supposed Pinoy Gay Blogs List with the claim that this list will help "...form and encourage a gay blogging community that helps improve the positive presence of gays in the blogosphere..." When I first read about it, this seemed like a great idea. I'm all for supporting the LGBT community and I've been known to cover queer issues on this blog - to some extent the Geeky Guide is a gay blog after all.

But then I read the terms for getting on the list:

At first glance things seem innocent enough, right? It does make sense that you'd need to discuss the list to help promote it. But then the second part of item one got to me - about the need to add the list's "sponsor."

This geek wasn't born yesterday - this requirement changes the purpose of the entire list from genuinely trying to foster a community to instead just trying to increase the SEO value of MGG. With all member blogs listing MGG as part of their blogrolls, then that means more links pointing to that blog alone, thus increasing the likelihood the blog will come up high on search engine results. That just seems wrong - the list is really about being opportunistic instead of fostering a community!

Until the site changes the parameters for getting onto the list, I urge all of not you to jump the gun in terms of joining the list just yet. A Philippine gay blogging circle is a great idea, but it would truly have to benefit everyone in the same way webrings link to other members of the ring so everyone has a chance at increased readership. Instead, this method supports MGG solely and theoretically it might help some of the blogs who join the list, but only through the solitary link provided by the actual list blog itself.

Despite this warning, I'm sure people are going to join the list in droves like another internet meme. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Movies] TMNT

Got to see the new TMNT movie. For you kids too young to have really experienced the original series or those too old to recognize the letters anymore, that stands for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a comic book that got turned into a hit cartoon series that ran from 1987-1996 with a few attempts and updating the series in 1997-1998 and the current series which began its run in 2003.

The movie was done completely as computer animation and I have to admit this was the strongest part of the film. The animation was amazingly crisp, especially in the rainy sequences. It captured the feel of both the cartoons and the previous movies which used to feature live actors in animatronic suits. Amazing what folks can do with computers these days.

The weakest point, unfortunately, was the story with too much of the film dominated by the Raphael - Leonardo sibling rivalry instead of the potentially interesting story about the immortal lord and his stone generals. Extradimensional travel has always been right up the alley of the TMNT universe but this ended up way too much like a weird soap opera.

Even the comedic piece felt a bit forced. While the one-liners were more than plentiful, their delivery seemed kinda flat and the timed was somehow off. I didn't laugh at most of their remarks, which is strange considering I normally enjoy low-brow humor.

The TMNT is worth the animation and any lingering nostalgia you have for the original series that you might want to work out of your system. Other than that, leave this one for the kids.

[YouTube] College Saga

Sue me if I only saw this recently, and because a friend referred me to the link to boot, haha. For all your RPG fans, especially those of the Final Fantasy series - this sooo rocks!

[Security] What were you thinking, Microsoft?

By default, Windows does not display the extension names of common file types. This was OK until someone sleazy took advantage of that oversight and used that as a social engineering tool.

The I Love You virus (VBS_LOVELETTER) is such a simple worm, very small since it is only a script. Yet it had caused much damage, and put the Philippines in the malware map. All because it appeared as a text file and its name made a lot of people curious. All because Windows hid the extension name. All because Microsoft thought VBScript files were common.

Microsoft Vista was supposed to be a secure OS, but it seems Microsoft has not learned its lessons (or it is being stubborn). In its weblog, F-Secure laments the fact that Vista by default does not display the file extension names. I ask the same question that the post author posited: "What were they thinking?"

[Web] The Prefix "Bi"

The recent announcement about ICON Magazine going bimonthly had me thinking about that word - bimonthly - and what exactly it meant. This partially stemmed from a running joke about the office in terms of our pay cycle, which is every other Friday. Some say that biweekly is the correct terms while others argue that it's semimonthly.

Being the good trooper that I am, the words of my mother echoed in my head - look it up! She'd answer this way whenever I'd ask her the meaning of any particular word, not in order to avoid answering the question but to condition me in looking for answers to my own questions as much as possible. So let's do just that.

First I tried a Google search using the keyword "define" as in [define: bimonthly] and this is what I got:

Publication issued every two months.

Which is what I thought, so end of problem, right? However, being the thorough researcher, I tried hopping over to Word Source, my favorite social dictionary, and ended up with these definitions instead:

1. occurring twice a month; "a semimonthly publication"

2. occurring every two months; "bimonthly visits"

What gives? Two definitions, both somewhat conflicting with the other? I had to try this again, this time with biweekly:

1. occurring twice a week

2. occurring every two weeks

So it turns out that the debate at the office is moot - they're both right, to some extent. Semimonthly and biweekly technically can mean the same thing! It's amazing that the English language just doesn't make sense most of the time. Good grief.

It pays to take the time to look things up, even when you think you know what you're talking about.

[Magazines] ICON: Turn the Heat On

This week I managed to pick up a copy of the latest ICON Magazine called Turn the Heat On since it's pretty much their summer issue (March-April 2007).

ICON's comeback for the year (this is Issue 1 of Volume 3 after all) comes with a change in their distribution cycle and more content that before, which is always a great thing. I've always liked ICON for three reasons (1) they dared to be a front line magazine focused on the LGBT community, (2) they have pretty smart articles and (3) they have excellently creative photo shoots. This issue still meets those requirements all the while remaining sophisticated and not overly slutty like how most LGBT magazines in the market are stereotypically portrayed.

There are certain articles and features I liked more of all and I thought it would help all of you who're on the fence about getting a copy make that buying decision, haha.

My favorite photo shoot in this issue is not one of those overly sexy ones but one that pushed the creative and stylistic envelope for me - this being the High Fever shoot as part of their Closet Space section. It's hip, dynamic and androgynous given all the guys were garbed in more or less female attire. It didn't come out looking like a transvestite photo shoot but simply an artistic one that fits perfectly into the LGBT theme of the magazine.

My favorite feature article for the issue had to be Sugar Daddy Manqué as written by Dr. W. Scott Thompson. It's a rather stark and honest look at the whole "sugar daddy" mythos in the country as the writer tries to show that in the Filipino context, it just might be possible for younger men to genuinely fall in love with older, foreign men.

There's a lot more in store of you in this issue, which is out in most major newsstands now. I was a bit disappointed that this issue seemed to highlight too much the gay male segment and somewhat glossed over the L and the BT in LGBT. They're normally a but more conscious of that balance, always trying to make sure they feature at least one piece for the other portions of the queer market they attempt to cater too. Maybe they were just rushed for time, or it might be a deliberate shift for the magazine. We'll only really find out when the next issue comes out.

I so want to write for this magazine. Do you hear that ICON? I'd love to write for you guys!

Related Links:

• [Pink News] ICON is Now Bi!
  
• [Magazines]ICON unpublished
  
• [Magazines] Mega Magazine: August 2006 Issue

[Magazines] Mega Magazine: August 2006 Issue

After cruising the bargain bins and magazine stalls, I finally found a back issue of Mega Magazine's August 2006 for only Php 35.00. It's not that I'm a big Mega Magazine fan, but I had been curious to see how a certain article turned out that the writer had consulted with me about via email.

The feature article entitled Call of Duty written by Aol C. Rivera was a look at the call center generation here in the Philippines and what it could all possibly mean in the long run. She had sent me a partial draft when writing this article in order to get my opinion on the concern and I couldn't help but react somewhat violently.

Just take this paragraph as an example of the initial premise:

In 2006, these call center agents are well-known as human chimneys crowding in front of your office building, smoking away their ubiquitous cigarette. Often loud and rowdy, call center people have earned the disdain of the professionals with whom they share buildings. Based on that impression, CCRs are often characterized as rude and un-professional. Does this unbecoming behavior reflect a form of deterioration in the work environment? Do graveyard shifts lead to dead-end careers? Are call centers the new professional wasteland?

Come on, how could I not react violently to something like that?

I was kinda pleased that they quoted me extensively, although at the time of the writing of the article I was only a Training Supervisor. I got full credits for my identity and they actually used a line from my article as the closing piece:

Ultimately, Rocky believes, call centers may provide a setting where young Filipinos are exposed to not just more information, but to a new kind of information that they wouldn't have otherwise been aware of. "The call centers may be helping in getting them the information, he says, "but they are not the agents of cultural change - that is still up to the individual."

It's not much, but I got words in print! I so want to be able to write for a living, haha. Pipe dreams...

[Movies] Stardust Trailer

In case you haven't a chance to do so, you really ought to take the time to watch the official Stardust trailer. This looks like another decent film adaptation of another Neil Gaiman work.

[YouTube] Chad Vader Episode 7

Alright! The latest episode of Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager is finally out! In case you haven't heard of this series, it's an amusing YouTube original that places a Darth Vader style character in the most unusual of settings - running the day shift at a local supermarket.

You have to see it to fully understand it, hehe.

[YouTube] Who's In China?

Saw this over on Googlified and I thought it was pretty funny.



This is actually a parody of the Who's on First comedy routine by Abbot and Costello. Someone posted a video of that too, so I might as well include that video in this post:



Enjoy!

[Movies] Blazing Saddles

Slow Sunday today and I decided to have a movie day given the large number of DVDs I've purchased in recent months. On a whim I "whipped out" a great classic comedy, a little movie called Blazing Saddles. I loved this movie as a kid and I wanted to make sure that my appreciation for it wasn't just born out of childhood naivety.

Mel Brooks movies need a certain kind of humor to be fully appreciated. They're not the kind of movies that make you fall off your chair, rolling in laughter. They always tend to be a bit more subtle than that, the key being the actors remaining totally deadpan and in character, thus making the inane situations all the more funny. More than anything, his movies are always witty and satirical, often taking any opportunity to sneak in small political statements here and there.

Blazing Saddles is definitely no exception, considering the story in itself is about a black sheriff trying to protect the town of Rock Ridge, something unheard of in the stereotypical Western tale. Through in corrupt government officials trying to make money of the path of the railroad and you have this movie, littered with subtle sight gags and constant reminders that you're still watching a movie given often actors breach the "fourth wall."

The movie should be out on DVD considering it already past its 30th anniversary back in 2004. It's a great buy considering all the additional scenes as part of the special features along with commentary by Mel Brooks himself!

If you really want to know what classic comedy is all about, then you definitely have to see this movie. Forget about the excessive slapstick and gross-out antics of today, this is comedic writing at its best.

Related Links:

• Wikipedia: Blazing Saddles
  
• Wikipedia: Mel Brooks

[Movies] Be Cool

We had recently purchased a DVD copy of Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty. This time former loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) is setting his sights on the music industry after his past success with Hollywood.

The movie was really funny and a lot of fun to watch. What I liked most about it is that it's a smart kind of funny and not just some stupid slapstick piece, which appears to be becoming the current trend in comedies in recent years. Be Cool works because of the writing and the skills of the actors involved, and there are more than a few involved in this picture.

The film is littered with celebrity cameos, which are all tastefully done such that it doesn't seem to ridiculous for them to appear. It also says a lot about the forces behind the movie given how much clout was needed to get so many people in one film.

Special mention has to go to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for his performance in the film as the gay bodyguard Elliot Wilheim. This role was a painful one when you watch it given The Rock had to get past his usual gruff image as developed in the wrestling world and instead position himself as an ambiguously gay character. I'm not a fan of his previous works but I have to admit he did pretty well here and was quite entertaining.

The DVD is a great purchase since it's loaded with a lot of special features like a significant amount of deleted scenes, a gag real and a whole host of other tidbits and featurettes. This is definitely worth your time and money.

[Philippines] The Non-Security of Makati Offices

Sadly, the Philippines has become a country stained with the reputation for being a terrorist haven. International news agencies can't help but capitalize on our numerous rallies, random acts of violence and political mudslinging that help keep our days and nights entertaining at the very least. As a way to combat this reputation, a lot of business have taken on various security practices in order to provide a semblance of security.

But we're not really made safer by all these extra steps such that it has become rather ridiculous at best. Does anyone really think our security forces are going to find anything in case of a real emergency? Allow me to discuss the security practices at one of the "premiere" buildings in the Makati Business District, the RCBC Plaza, and you'll see that even the best make really stupid mistakes. The RCBC had to bolster its security arrangements since the Canadian, German, and Australian embassies are located there along with an office representing the European Union.

Plus I work there.

1. Starting from outside your car is checked for explosive devices at a checkpoint. The have these mirrors they run under the sides of your car as they check for things and they have drivers open their trunks for inspection. Based on their search patterns, the best place to hide an explosive device is in the laps of passengers or even sitting in plain sight on the back seat. If you're feeling a bit nervous, you could also hide it under your seat. They'll never notice - half the ti,e he guards are too busy talking to one another instead of really inspecting.
   
2. You don't even need to go through the checkpoint - go around the building and have yourself dropped off at the side entrance! There's no inspection for vehicles there.
   
3. Bomb sniffing dogs are only around during peak hours in the day. The best time to sneak through is in the early evening when all the call center people are swarming the doors and the guards tend to be more lax in checking your things.
   
4. Don't carry a bag - the guard needs to check that. Instead conceal your weapons or small explosive devices taped to your check or hanging off your back. The guard's standard frisk pattern for men without bags is a brief tap at the small of your back near your waist and a slight tapping of your pockets.
   
5. For IDs, just wear any brightly colored lanyard and a plastic ID card. You don't need for it to face front - the guards will never take a closer look. Even if your lanyard doesn't belong to any of the offices in the building, it won't matter. Just look like you know what you're doing.
   
6. Once in the building, there are two more checkpoints, one of each of the towers. The lanyard trick will help you get past them. If you want to smuggle anything past them, carry them in any plain plastic shopping bag, preferably from a major fast food joint. They never check these bags, as long as they're not too big.

As you can see, there's no real challenge to getting into the building with an explosive device given such devices don't have to be larger than a cellular phone or PDA. This is already how a top notch building tries to manage security - what more the shopping malls and such that are even worse?

All the frisking, car inspections and delays are just for show. If they really wanted to improve security in the area, there's a whole lot more that needs to be done than just hiring flunkies to cop a feel off of every person walking through the checkpoint.

Related Link:

• [Philippines] PERC Survey Results

Photo linked from eeggee's photostream.

[Viral Video Chart] Did You Know?

Saw this video as part of the Top 20 the other day over at the Viral Video Chart and I felt it was pretty striking. Did a quick Google search on the guy who made it - Karl Fisch and it appears this particular presentation has been getting updated since August 2006 at The Fischbowl. There's nothing fancy about it - just simple and direct to the point facts about the way things are going.

I think most of you will be able to appreciate this. Enjoy!

[Web] Time Magazine Website Features

In case you haven't already noticed, I tend to favor TIME Magazine as a reference in a lot of my postings here on the Geeky Guide, and can you blame me? Their analysis pieces and columns are pretty top notch and they're pretty accurate in capturing the essence of the story in a pinch. It probably also helps that I have the TIME Magazine Top Stories module on my Google Personalized Homepage. Go figure.

I wanted to bring everyone's attention to a few features that caught my eye and the random article that just blew me away.

First up is the Four Years in Iraq photo essay of sorts, which is an interesting look at the Iraq war month after month using various images highlighting critical events starting from 2003 all the way to today. It's not just photos but quotes and news bits as well so you can remember everything that has happened between then and now. On a related note, there's also a striking photo essay entitled War of Shadows by Yuri Kozyrev has some amazing pictures of the war. They're all interlinked as part of one major multimedia look at the Iraq conflict, pretty much launched in time for the war's anniversary this month.

For you more entertainment-inclined folk, there's the on-going Judging American Idol feature as updated by resident TIME blogger James Poniewozik. He normally acts as time's TV and media critic and his on-going discussion of the popular singing contest has been developed into a full feature. He's pretty spot on in terms of estimates - he managed to accurately predict Stephanie's departure at least.

Other interesting pieces include Why the Buffalo Roam, which is a look at why the US Bison population is growing because people have started to eat them. Talk about irony! One last piece of interest is Limousine Liberal Hypocrisy is a run-down on why celebrities and public figures aren't really as "green" as they're claiming to be.

TIME Magazine has a lot of great reads - you might find something that strikes your fancy should you give it a shot.

[Movies] Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation just didn't quite do it for me. I liked Fahrenheit 9/11. I loved Super Size Me. But Fast Food Nation? Not so much.

I'm not sure if the blame lies on the movie in itself and how it was brought to screen or if the book it was based on is to blame, so to speak. My main issues were with the story - it was just attempting to tackle so many aspect of this issue that things just got muddled in the end.

The cast was surprisingly big given the number of cameos - things got kicked off with Greg Kinnear as a fast food marketing executive. Throw in Wilmer Valderrama as an immigrant, and don't forget Bruce Willis, Ethan Hawke and even Avril Lavigne for good measure. See, a lot of notable names - but it didn't account for much in the end, quite frankly.

The story just goes downhill once Greg Kinnear's story arc ends and you're left with the immigrants and the eco-activists. Do I still want to eat a burger after all this? I'm bound to, I suppose. Despite the striking scenes of cow slaughtering, it just didn't quite hit home for me the way it should.

Oh well.

[Viral Video Chart] Barack vs Clinton

We all know that the campaign war for the 2008 US Presidential elections have started pretty early, and this has gained recognition on the web as well. In fact, YouTube has even created a channel devoted to political videos from the candidates themselves. This is not to say they're the only one talking about politics. Leave it to the web community to create their own brand of videos for their respective candidates.

So as a new category for The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything, I thought it might be interesting to highlight videos currently making waves over on the Viral Video Chart, which has always been in communication with the Geeky Guide in one way or another.

I was surprised to see that amongst the top 10 videos were two opposing videos playing on the classic "1984" theme as derived from an old commercial used for the Super Bowl, if I'm not mistaken. Which one do you like better?

[Call Centers] PeopleSupport's Stock Woes

PeopleSupport, Inc., an LA-based contact center with majority of its operations in the Philippines has been taking a beating in the US stock market in recent weeks. Things started off on the wrong foot when their 4Q revenues, while higher than 4Q of 2005, were still lower than Wall Street expectations. This triggered a massive drop in stock price for the company from a high of about $22 per share before the announcement to a staggering low of around $13 per share.

Things go worse when it was announced last Friday that Vonage Holdings Corp. decided not to renew their long-standing contract with the business outsourcer, which accounts for a fair amount of their current business in the Philippines. This triggered a re-evaluation by financial analysts. Cowen & Co. downgraded PSPT shares to "Neutral" from "Outperform" that has lead to another drop in stock value to a low of approximately $11 per share. While the loss of revenue from the termination of the Vonage contact in May isn't that significant, it still caps expectations of their growth this year while the full impact of the pull-out is determined.

Now their stock price is on the rise as a lot of investors and analysts are seeing PSPT as a prime acquisition opportunity for some should anyone want to buy into call center operations in the Philippines.

You can monitor the rise (or fall) of PSPT stocks and others by using Google Finance, which offers interactive charts, correlations between critical price changes and news events, information about the company and comments from Google users also interested in this stock.

[Geeky Guide] Understanding the Guide

Ever since The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards were announced, I started thinking about what exactly The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything is meant to be. This blog didn't get nominated, which is alright with me given how relatively young it is. However as I reviewed the categories, I realized even I didn't know how to classify the Geeky Guide. The coverage of the site is pretty diverse.

A lot of blogs try to specialize and remain focused on one major topic. I've decided to diversify and remain more of a general opinion blog, bringing things to my reader's attention that I considered interesting and hope they do in turn.

This is a political blog - we cover world affairs, whether in terms of US partisan politics or even local Philippine political squabbling. Personally I tend to be more of a liberal democrat, so that tends to influence my approach towards news events.

This is a queer blog, given my sexual orientation. I try to focus more on news related to gay rights and political representation and of course some human interest pieces. I know sex sells, but early on I decided this needs to be a Safe-for-Work blog, hence my prudence in terms of selecting topics and pictures.

This is a technical blog. I love all things Google and am a big support of Open Source initiatives. I'm okay with Microsoft since we have to live with them and sadly I have yet to have extensive experience with using Macs, so I can speak too much about those things. We also cover gadgets and gear to some extent.

This is an entertainment blog, but not overly so. We do cover major celebrity events that can't help but dominate the international headlines but we're not going to follow every burp and hiccup of Paris Hilton or something. I also post numerous reviews for movies, books and TV shows that people might find interesting, if they value my opinions.

The Geeky Guide is all this and potentially more depending on what we choose to write about and any future writers that might join the team. Oh yes, we're always interested in new talent who might want a venue to share their ideas and allow themselves to be heard. If you're interested, just let us know.

In time the Geeky Guide will find its place in the hierarchy of things and connect with its true reader base. For those already loyally following the Geeky Guide, your readership is very much appreciated. We'd love to hear from you and learn more about your ideas and opinions on what we've written since this is still an avenue for public expression and discussion.

Happy Reading!

[Web] Checkout and Other Payment Services in the Philippines

While I'm not actually a heavy online shopper or anything like that but of course it's always fun to add another Google product to my account and in the chance that I need to make an online payment, I'd rather have Google handle my account information. I guess I really just trust them, huh?

Anyway, based on this help page, technically Google doesn't support users with billing addresses in the Philippines. However when I actually tried signing up at the website, the Philippines is listed as one of the supported countries. I completed the signup process, got my confirmation email along with my $10 sign-up bonus and my credit card information is now saved as part of my Google Account. What's up with that?

Based on another help page, the Philippines is supported as a shipping destination, so this may connect to why I was able to sign-up. On a whim, I tried sending feedback to the Google team in the hopes that someone picks it up and edits the help page to reflect the Philippines as one of the supported countries or perhaps invalidate my account if the case warrants it. In the meantime, I'm holding off on experimenting with purchases until I know I'm not violating the ToS somehow.

On a side note, PayPal has also been made available to Philippine rresidents as of October of last year, which is somewhat good news for people like myself who signed up for the PayPal for the Philippines petition movement.

Before you jump up and down to celebrate that PayPal is available, allow me to clarify to what extent the service is available, especially in contrast to Google Checkout. Checkout is a payment only service that supports online payments but nothing else. PayPal for the Philippines also provides payment support and none of the other features currently available to US users, namely loading accounts through credit cards, receiving funds via PayPal and the ability to withdraw funds into a local bank account. You're also limited to sending only $100 unless you verify use of a credit card or a debit card. So there's no real difference between PayPal and Google Checkout at this point, unless either company decides to expand its portfolio anytime soon.

The only local payment service I remember trying to fill the void of online payment solutions available locally was a site once called PayPlus+ but is now called Kaban and is a member of the Yehey family of products. If you didn't already know, Yehey is a local search engine that has managed to survive over the years with limited success. PayPlus+ was previously limited to ATM signups for BancNet cardholders. The new Kaban now accepts more banks and now supports credit cards. Sadly, it remains strictly a payment site and does not support receiving payments.

Whoever does manage to support actual funds transfers will definitely make a pretty penny in terms of the Philippine remittance market. With at least $12 billion coming into the country every year in terms of remittances, there is a definite market for this service in order to escape the heavy transaction fees charged by services like Western Union.

Are you listening Google? PayPal? Don't you want a piece of this pie?

[Web] K-Fed to Drive Google, Yahoo Out of Business

Google and Yahoo, beware. K-Fed is out to put you out of (the search) business.

With tight integration with FireFox and IE via plugins, this tool will do search and presents

* results with K-Fed's comments (as if you want to know)
* results being delivered by K-Fed - in rap (prepare to mute your headphones/desktop speakers)
* results with relevant products that K-Fed endorses (if any)
* results with pictures of Britney Spears (bald or with hair)

You have been warned. Get it here. As if you're interested. And hey, if you want to party with K-Fed on his birthday, better get it fast.

[Gadgets] Hi-Tech TV at the Kitchen

My mom loves watching those telenovelas (TV soap shows) being shown on ABS-CBN. She watches them all time, although she had to contend with (1) the kitchen chores, and with five males in the house, kitchen chores can be a mountain pile; (2) five males who would either want to watch anime or movies; (3) or me who wants to watch the news or play PS2 or GameCube. But having invested in three TVs (back in the late 90s, though the latest one was a hands-me-down by an uncle), numbers 2 and 3 are no longer in contention. It is the first that competes with her TV time.

If there's one thing that I would get for my mom (and if I have the money, of course), this would be it:



It features

an 8.5-inch widescreen LCD display and can play audio and video from an iPod, DVD, (S)VCD, MP3-CD, CD(RW) and Picture CD. The system also offers a built-in ATSC/NTSC TV tuner, digital AM/FM tuner, two 2-inch speakers, cooking timer and clock, and wireless remote.

With the features like that, I might end up using it, and relegate the old TV to the kitchen, he he.

[Via Engadget and Ubergizmo]

[Pink News] ICON is Now Bi!

ICON Magazine, the Philippines' premier gay lifestyle magazine has changed its distribution cycle and is now bi-monthly instead of being quarterly! They're starting the year off with their first official issued entitled Turn the Heat On which features Jon Mullaly on the cover.

I visited the site directly and was surprised to find out that the ICON folks had also created a YouTube account to post promotional videos for the site as well! Coolness!

I'm re-posted the videos for your enjoyment...





I've always loved ICON since they first started out and I'm happy that they're continuing to grow and prosper, thus helping promote LGBT awareness in the Philippines. You can pick up a copy at your local newstand or magazine store or you can subscribe by emailing subscribe@iconmag.com.ph with the needed information.

Related Link:

• [Magazines] ICON unpublished

[Web] 2006 YouTube Video Awards

Finally, YouTube has decided to host its first-ever Video Awards, to celebrate all the popular content we've seen over the past year that have made the viral video circuit. The voting runs until 03:00pm PST, March 23, 2007.

You can vote for your favorite viral videos in the following categories: Most Creative, Most Inspirational, Best Series, Best Comedy Video, Best Music Video, Best Commentary, and Most Adorable Video. While the "winner" doesn't get a big cash prize or anything, he does get a trophy icon that will appear next to the winning video and of course the much-vaunted bragging rights any internet geek would love.

You can see the nominees and vote for your favorites here.

Related Links:

• Googlified: Youtube 2007 Video Award
  
• Webware: YouTube Awards 2006: better late than never
  
• Google Operating System: YouTube Awards

[Theater] Gay Birds

Every gay man needs culture in his life to make him whole and my partner and I managed to find the time to watch Repertory Philippines' production Gay Birds, a comedy based on Jean Poiret's musical La Cage aux Folles. This is the same play that inspired the Hollywood comedy The Birdcage.

The performance was a play and not a musical - allow me to make that distinction. As much as I was hoping for a musical (since I'm such a sucker for them), it wasn't the case. Of course this didn't make the play all that bad - just a minor disappointment that you can easily get past.

The story centers around a gay couple - one being the owner of a club that features drag performers and the other the "star" of this same club. To add that local twist, the time-place setting was changed to Ermita during the last years of the Martial Law era, which helped provide it an interesting place in history as well as access to the fun and vibrancy of the disco age. The club owner, George (as played by Arnel Carrion), learns that his son, Emil (as played by Topper Fabregas), is engaged to be married to the daughter of the leader of a religious movement. Emil pleads with his father to pretend to be straight in order to make good impression for the daughter's family when they come to visit later that week. What ensues his a humorous attempt by the family to become something they're not.

The play wasn't amazingly funny, I have to admit. There's the need for a whole lot of talking and the writers did their best to keep the story development interesting by inserting a generous amount of "gay lingo" into the dialog to keep witty and humorous. The producers went as far as including a little glossary of terms inside the playbill. The story somewhat drags in the middle but certainly picks up towards the end.

Kudos to the set design - I'm a sucker for multiple entrances and exits that allow for dynamic scenes and possibilities. As expected, the comic relief character Jacob (as played by Jejie Esguerra) stole the show with his multiple costume changes in homage to some of history's most memorable musicals and shows.

Gay Birds is currently running at Greenbelt Onstage until April 1 with shows at 08:00pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 03:30pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets go for 550, 350 or 250 unless you have a season pass for Repertory Philippines.

[Movies] 300

300 is a visually stunning film that brings to life another Frank Miller comic book. In case you didn't already know, Miller was the same creative genius that inpired another comic-book-to-film transalation of his work, Sin City. Are you starting to see the trend here?

The story is all about a fictional representation of the events that occured around the Battle of Thermopylae during which one of the Spartan kings, King Leonidas, defended the pass at Thermopylae with 300 Spartans and some Greek soldiers also supporting. The bottom line is that they were vastly outnumbered in the face of a massive Persian army.

The movie was very stylized, which I liked a lot since it tried to keep to the feel of the original comic book and was somewhat reminiscent of Frank Miller's style. This of course could just be a natural consequence of the film being pretty much shot in a "virtual studio" with most of the backgrounds and landscapes added in later digitally.

Most of the buzz around the movie tends to center on either the somewhat excessive but still stylized violence or the fact that the actors didn't need costumes - they just had to show off their bodies earned from weeks upon weeks of rigorous training. Teh hot! It's quite surprising that the amazing-looking King Leonidas (as played by Gerard Butler) was the game who previously brought The Phantom of the Opera to life. Now that is working out!

Special kudos to my personal faves Tom Wisdom and Tyler Neitzel who played Astinos and the younger King Leonidas respectively. Sorry ladies, but I really have a thing for slim-and-trim, somewhat twinky guys, haha. Special mention also goes to Rodrigo Santoro who was also very, um, impressive in his golden garb, although I'm not sure if I'd ever really get into golden "unmentionables" haha.

So based on that last paragraph, I think I obliquely hit on the concern that 300 is kinda gay in some aspects, mainly because of the ludicrous amount of eye candy and how touchy-feely some of the Spartans were. Then again at the end of the day they were still Greeks and the period was known for a higher appreciation of the human form and male, um, friendships.

So whether you're a hard core Frank Miller fan looking for some amazing fight scenes or you're just a gushy school girl after the male eye candy, 300 promises to be an amazing movie for you. I just wish that people would just appreciate it as a work of fiction an not turn it into some Hollywood metaphor for the conflict in the Middle East. Go figure.

Related Links:

• IMDb: 300
  
• TIME Magazine: The Art of War
  
• TIME Magazine: 300 Sparks an Outcry in Iran
  
• TIME Magazine: 7 Reasons Why 300 Is a Huge Hit

[Movies] Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko is an amazing film that has become quite the cult classic in many circles. Despite a cast featuring many names that are now considered notable now, at the time the movie was a bit of a sleeper hit with a powerful story to tell.

It's hard to classify what this movie is in terms of genre - at first glance you might thing it's a horror flick but as it develops you see it's more of a science fiction piece with a dash of fantasy thrown in.

In the movie, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is haunted by strange visions of an anthropomorphic bunny named Frank who tells him that the world is going to end. Frank also encourages Donnie to commit seemingly random acts of vandalism as the end of the world draws near.

The movie is surprising in its depth and complexity and a number of sites exist as forums attempting to understand or explain the many concepts involved in the film. While the film is quite dark, it has a strong story to tell and does so in a manner which isn't too fast or too slow, as if the pacing of the film is so measured in order to reach the conclusion at the precisely correct moment.

You should be able to find a copy at your local video store and of course I'm sure you can download it somewhere.

Related Links:

• Wikipedia: Donnie Darko
  
• Stainless Steel Rat: Donnie Darko FAQ
  
• Ruined Eye: Cellar Door - a resource site with a lot of information and a copy of the pages from The Philosophy of Time Travel

[Google] Additional Acquisitions

Google pulled a double-whammy yesterday with two announced acquisitions of other tech companies, in a manner of speaking.



First came the announcement that Google had acquired Gapminder's Trendanalyzer technology, which had already been hosted on Google's servers for some time. Trendanalyzer presents users with interesting ways of displaying data beyond your standard pie charts and bar graphs. I wonder if they'll try to figure out ways to integrate this technology with Google Trends somehow, which allows users to see search patterns and behaviors represented graphically.

Then came the announcement that Google had also acquired Adscape media, which is a company that focuses on developing in-game ads. With the massive boom of MMORPGs, this does seem to be a potentially interesting venture that should promise to be rather lucrative should Google manage things well. Then again, they have demonstrated abilities in this area time and time again.

[Google] New Google Talk Gadget

Google, as of late, seems to be putting more focus on its Personalized Homepage recently by adding more social functions to their widgets called Google Gadgets such as allow users to share gadgets they like with friends or auto-populating a new tab with related gadgets based on the tab name.

Now Google has added something completely different - an official Google Talk gadget for the Personalized Homepage.

What's interesting to note is that it's not AJAX-driven, in fact it's Flash-based as opposed to Google Talk within Gmail which is HTML driven. Some of the initial reviews have people liking this new gadget more than alternative versions that can be found on Google Desktop or the Gmail version.

You can also previews YouTube videos and Picasa Web Albums directly within the gadget by just typing in the URL and hitting send. An interesting feature and the first time Google has allowed users to share online videos and photo albums within any of the version of its Talk application.

It does have limitations - you can't manage more than 4 conversations at once and I've noticed it tends to "float on top" of all other gadgets including its own gadget menu. This might interfere with other gadgets that trigger special pop-ups like the Google Reader Gadget depending on where you place the Talk gadget in relation to the Reader gadget. I find myself unable to click on the "X" button to close my Reader pop-ups because my Talk gadget is floating above it. Darn.

On the whole, it's a pretty robust application of sorts and it gives you an alternative place to use Google Talk. I'm just curious about the Call button they've placed on the UI which isn't clickable for me at this time - but will it be usable in the future, perhaps?

Only time can tell, really. Google has also created a fun little video (seen below) to walk users through the new features of this particular gadget. You can add the gadget to your homepage here or by visiting the main Google Talk page.



Related Links:

• Google Talkabout: Google Talk Gadget
  
• Webware: New Google Talk module better than desktop app
  
• Googlified: Google Talk Gadget
  
• Google Blogoscoped: Google Talk Gadget
  
• Google Operating System: Google Talk Gadget

[Philippines] PERC Survey Results

So the latest survey results are in and the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy has found the Philippines to be the most corrupt economy in the eyes of foreign investors in the area amongst 13 countries.

The PERC survey is designed to have only foreign nationals operating in the said country participate. Each respondent is asked to rate the level of corruption on a 10-point scale with ten being the highest. Our latest rating as a nation comes in a 9.4 - the highest score any country has received.

Of course PERC has set parameters around the survey and actually recommends that countries do not compare scores amongst themselves but instead look only at their own ratings and compare them to past results. This is because the investors and such aren't asked to rate all countries, just the ones they are involved with, which makes sense.

However no matter how you look at it, it's not good to get any scores in the range of 9. It probably makes sense since we're approaching national elections, and that's always a volatile time. However the nature of the trend in ratings for the country over the years indicates that while the level of corruption may not have necessarily increased, but nothing is really being done about it in order to reduce it either, hence things just get worse.

Just another feather for GMA's cap, hahaha.

Related Link:

• Inquirer.net: RP 'most corrupt' in Asia -- PERC

Photo linked from To2BoRnI's photostream

[Google] The $1 Billion Viacom Lawsuit

So it finally happened. Let's get real, everyone was expecting one of the media giants to do this sooner or later. Previously Viacom had already gone toe-to-toe with YouTube, and thus ultimately Google, by requesting for more than 100,000 videos to be removed, it's only natural for the media giant to take things to the next level with legal action. They've filed a lawsuit for no less than $1 billion in damages. Sweet.

Now the truly important questions are going to get asked when it comes to DRM in these modern times of Web 2.0 initiatives and more user-focused services. Just how much responsibility does YouTube as the host site have in terms of managing its users? While their standing privacy policy states they will remove any copyrighted content at the request of the content owner, that puts the burden of policing the site on the content owner instead of the website administrators and owners, who also seek to gain profit from any related advertising also found on the site. This is the case that Viacom is attempting to argue.

It's hard to say how things should go. While the web is certainly full of free information supporters who will advocate that Viacom has no right to force such a decision on the larger web community, from a legal standpoint I'm sure their case holds some water at the end of the day. The content was stolen and posted illegally after all and thus the same group of people that made YouTube the wild success that it is today are ultimately the cause of the problem since they continue to post copyrighted content illegally.

YouTube is being used as more of a symbolic fight, one that will define how the web will grow within the next few years. It's not like they're the only ones responsible. Where are the lawsuits for the rest of the video-sharing sites? Those cases might be filed...eventually. Maybe. For now, this is the big fight, one that Viacom has chosen to fight since it finally has a large company to deal with (and potentially earn from), which of course is Google.

Related Links:

• CNET News.com: Viacom sues Google over YouTube clips
  
• CNET News.com: YouTube's fate rests on decade old copyright law
  
• CNET News.com: The hypocrisy about Web video
  
• CNET News.com: Copyright quagmire for Google and YouTube
  
• Google Blogoscoped: Viacom Sues Google
  
• Google Operating System: Viacom Sues YouTube for 1 Billion Dollars
  
• Googlified: Viacom to Google: Give Me Some Money