Jemzologist Blogsite

Magayon Festival – tragic and heroic tale of two lovers

2010-09-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

The History

The legend of Daragang Magayon is a tragic and heroic tale that told the story of two lovers who come from rival tribes. Pressured by the bloody feud between their families the lovers decided to end their lives. From where they ended their tragic lives rose the most beautiful volcano in the whole world – Mayon Volcano. Her beauty is shadowed by her destructive fury upon eruption, for she is still an active volcano. Tourists from all corners of the globe visit her to see her almost perfect conical shape which no other volcano could compare.

The Festival

Despite the series of calamities that hit the province, Governor Al Francis Bichara used his executive power to promote a month-long event to promote and enhance Albay’s vast array of natural and man-made landscapes. Backed up with special events and fairs, the event became known as the Magayon Festival which was launched in 1999. Gov. Bichara even won the support of non-government agencies and various government units. He is determined to reclaim the title of Albay as one of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, at the end of his term in 2004, the festival was cut to two weeks for the sake of prioritizing the countryside’s development.

But thanks to Gov. Joey Salceda, after winning the election last year, the Magayon Festival is revived to its former state but transferred in April.

The festival carries the theme “Albay Rising,” focusing on a month-long celebration of the good life in the province.

In Succession

The activities during the festival are sure to attract visitors, be it local or foreign. Some of the activities include art exhibits, songwriting contests, the Search for Mutya ng Magayon, Mr & Mrs. Bikini Summit, chorale competitions, fairs, exhibits, sports activities, any many more colorful and lively activities that will surely leave the visitors with smiles on their faces.

The true Dracula: Vlad the Impaler

2010-09-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know it yet, Dracula once walked the earth, soils of Transylvania to be exact. Long before he became a blood-sucking aristocratic debonair who sucked the blood of just too many young beautiful women in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and in the many Dracula movies throughout the years; he was a warrior, king and yes, an aristocrat, perhaps a debonair, more importantly Dracula was human.

He never sucked blood like he did in Stoker's novel but whether or not he drank blood remained unanswered. He enjoyed the sight of blood squirting from someone's body that's for sure and his favorite punishment was impalement.

If you are to ask someone from Transylvania, they'd tell you upfront that Dracula was their hero. Dracula was a countrywide recognized national hero of his land who fought against the Turks all throughout his lifetime to protect his people.

The True Dracula was known by many names, he was Vlad Dracula, Vlad Tepes, and Vlad the Impaler. Vlad Dracula was born as the second child of Vlad Dracul in fortress of Sighisoara in Transylvania, late 1431.

Vlad Dacul, his father was a military leader and a member of the Order of the Dragon from where he got his name "Dracul" which meant the "Devil" or "Dragon".

Dracula, getting his name from his father was known as the "son of the devil", a name that he was proud of even when he was a child, for which he was constantly teased by others.

Vlad had the opportunity to taste life's luxuries at a very young age when his father took over the throne of Wallachia in 1436 but just after two years in the throne, Dracul betrayed the Order of the Dragon and formed a faction with the Turks, turning Dracula and his brother Radu to Sultan Murad as collaterals of his loyalty and to prove his assurance that he would never stage a strike against the Turks.

Following Dracul's betrayal of the Order of the Dragon and his faction with the Turks, John Hunyadi who was a close relative planned his assassination which was successfully realized in the winter of 1447.

When their father died, Sultan Murad II granted Dracula and Radu their freedom, Vlad grabbed it while Radu chose to remain.

Right after hearing about the assassination of his father, he was informed about the death of his elder brother Mircea, whose eyes were gouged-out and who was buried alive by the boyars of Tirgoviste. He promised revenge against Hunyadi and the boyars for these deaths though he was only a teenager at the time, and revenge he did!

With the help of Pasha Mustafa, Dracula staged an attack against the boyars for which he succeeded and took over the Throne for which he believed he was the rightful heir.

His rule was cut-short by Hunyadi's appointment of Vladislav II to the Throne but this was not for long...

In order for him to win Hunyadi's trust, he collaborated with the latter then later on tried to convince him that he was the rightful heir to the Throne but Hunyadi was hard to convince. Vlad got his sweet revenge for the death of his father by killing Hunyadi in 1456 and once again regained his Throne.

In 1569, he ordered the arrest of all the boyars, condemning those with good health to slavery, and the impalement of the old and the weak. Vlad's tyranny has begun! 20,000 people were impaled, mothers were forced to eat their own babies, many were skinned to death, hearts were driven out of live bodies, and even children were impaled.

He enjoyed impaling so much that it has become the official punishment of his kingdom. Rumors abound that he drank the blood of those he impaled.

His stature, tyranny and his fascination for blood is what made Bram Stoker name his vampire "Dracula". Though accounts of Jack the Rippers murder contributed to the story, the rest of Bram Stoker's vampire book was mainly Vlad Tepes and Transylvannia.

Not once in his life did Vlad Dracula turned into a bat or ever had a set of vampire teeth but yes, Vlad Dracula was a vampire, a real life vampire of his time. No one in history has ever impaled more people than he ever did.

"Happy Holloween 2010 everyone =[ "

Mayer Makes it to Kona

2010-09-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Disoriented after a night of partying, Richard Mayer woke up, not at a stranger's house, but on an airplane. Bound for where, he didn't know.
“Where’s this plane headed?” he asked the flight attendant.

“Mexico City,” she replied.

A week later, Mayer, then 22, was back home in Denver, his father having paid for the return flight. A waiter at the time for an upscale restaurant, Mayer asked for his old job back.

“If I slip again,” Mayer told his boss, “fire me on the spot.”

Mayer was rehired. Three months later, having cascaded back down into his destructive lifestyle, Mayer sat on the floor of his apartment after partying, the heater blasting, knees pulled to his chest, sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably.

“That night,” Mayer said, “I felt I wasn’t going to make it to the next morning.”

Feeling he needed military structure to turn his life around, Mayer called a Navy recruiter the next morning. He enlisted weeks later, headed to boot camp, stayed in the Navy for nearly nine years, and the strict, disciplined lifestyle helped set him straight.

He’s 44 years old now, living outside Denver, married, the father of two children ages four and five, and the owner of a pawn shop. At 6 feet 5 inches, 218 pounds, he’s also in the best shape of his adult life after winning a lottery spot for the Oct. 9 Ford Ironman World Championship.

For Mayer, crossing that Kona finish line won’t just cap a 14-, 15- or maybe 16-hour day. It will purge him of ghosts that have rattled about his brain for more than two decades.

“I’m really ashamed about my past,” Mayer said. “This is going to put an end to that previous life. This will be the pinnacle, the final step.”

One of Mayer’s most vivid boot camp memories: running. And running some more. And running until he thought he’d fall face-first on the pavement. It was sometime in boot camp when Mayer formulated a goal. The young man who only recently had been spiraling out of control, punishing his body, would run a marathon.

“From breaking the body to bringing it to its most ultimate, optimum place,” Mayer said.

Four years later, and stationed in Bangor, Wash., Mayer sampled the swim-bike-run. Meanwhile, the marathon dream was still there, unconquered. Only now, in his mid-20s, he adjusted the goal. He still wanted to run 26.2 miles someday, but now it had to be in an Ironman.

Mayer has completed two Ironman 70.3-distance races and six road half marathons. But never an Ironman. Kona will be his first. He has never run a traditional marathon. The 26.2-mile carrot is still hanging there, waiting to be crossed off life’s to-do list.

After a while, Mayer modified the marathon ambition some more. It couldn’t just come at an Ironman. It had to come at THE Ironman, on the Big Island, where you can see the heat vaporizing off the pavement, where the legs turn to mush after cycling 112 miles into the bleak lava fields, up to Hawi and into the trade winds.

By his estimation, Mayer entered the lottery 10 times before his name was drawn last April. He used to train vigorously for weeks before the lottery announcement, wanting to prep his body for the coming arduous task. But after so many lottery letdowns, he stopped the advance work.

Then his name was selected. From August of 2009 until April 15 of this year, Mayer said the only exercise he had done was a 7 kilometer road race. He weighed 250 pounds last April, hardly obese at 6’ 5”, but not Ironman fit.

He hired a coach and his first week of training included three twice-a-day sessions, plus a 50-minute run one day and a two-hour bike ride another day, all at an easy pace. The first-week schedule may sound daunting for someone who basically hadn’t exercised for eight months, but Mayer had some factors in his favor.

He’s typically on his feet nine hours a day, six days a week at work. His diet’s healthy, And he’s no training neophyte. From 1999 through 2004, Mayer raced weekly during the summer when living in outside Denver, everything from 5Ks to half marathons and sprint tris to Olympics distances.

So that his Kona quest would have as little impact on the family as possible, Mayer has regularly hit the alarm button at 4:30 a.m. for morning workouts. After the kids retire to bed, it’s not unusual for him to head to the basement, hop on his bike trainer and log a two-hour workout.

“I’ve been just very impressed with his discipline,” said Michelle Ford, Mayer’s coach. “From the moment I met him he was gung-ho. He wanted nothing more than to train It’s a huge balancing act (including work and family). And his family is very, very supportive.”

Mayer’s wife, Sandy, is his No. 1 fan. So that Mayer can get away in the middle of the day for some workouts, Sandy has held down the fort at the pawn shop. There have been side benefits for Sandy.

“He looks amazing. He looks extremely fit. He looks phenomenal,” she said. “He’s hot.”

Of her husband’s dedication, she said, “He’s really taxing himself, trying to do the workouts but not affecting us. I don’t know how he’s managed it this far. He never complains. It’s pretty amazing, pretty impressive is what it is. I don’t understand how he keeps going.”

Here’s how he keeps going. He thinks back 20 years, remembers his destructive past, remembers how it felt to be curled up in the fetal position, shivering, wondering if he’d see the next day. And he remembers that 26.2-mile goal.

Eighteen days before Kona, Mayer was asked what was on his mind as race day approached. He paused, his voice choked up and for a couple seconds you could hear crying on the other end of the phone.

“I’ve just wanted this for so long,” Mayer finally said. “That marathon’s been sitting out there, dangling for too many years.”

Matthew Dale profiles a Kona lottery competitor.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2 review

2010-09-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ubisoft’s latest Tom Clancy title, HAWX 2, is a flight combat game that utilizes futuristic technology, aircraft, and weaponry. The experience is not limited to its exciting dogfights – there are also missions that involve UAV recon and obliterating insurgents with an AC-130.

Obvious effort and care went into the plot, but the storyline is difficult to follow unless you enjoy watching military officials drone on about orders, terrorists, or doomsday scenarios. I applaud Ubisoft’s effort in blending this story arc with titles such as Splinter Cell: Conviction and Ghost Recon: Future Warfighter. On the other hand, splitting the story between multiple factions makes the plot difficult to follow, and HAWX 2 is guilty of this.

Regardless, the cinematic scenes and in-game cut-scenes are presented with an excellent score that sets the mood throughout the game. I definitely found myself more engaged as I tore through the campaign. It helps that the visuals use a nifty “GeoEye” satellite-imaging technology, so all of the environments look fantastic. The weapon effects, aircraft designs, and visual filters (night-vision, infrared) are also impressive. It was marvelous shooting the water with the AC-130’s machine guns, making patterns and shapes with the infrared filter turned on.

The intuitive flight controls and user interface make playing HAWX 2 a breeze. It is simple to understand the HUD, which helps you avoid missiles, locate enemies, and monitor your speed. Even the take-off/landing sequences are not a pain in the ass, as I expected – I enjoyed the prep talks before each mission, and celebrating success with a graceful landing was rewarding.

HAWX 2 extends its replay value with PEC Challenges and Ubisoft’s “Uplink” service, similar to Splinter Cell: Conviction. There are multiplayer modes for Xbox Live/PSN, split-screen, and co-op. The single-player campaign features 15 missions, so having this extra bit of content is a nice bonus. Although the online multiplayer modes are not the most exciting features in the game, HAWX 2 has a decent community of players ready for action, so you won’t feel lonely searching for a match.

I was decently surprised by how much I enjoyed playing HAWX 2. Compared to recent flight combat games like Top Gun and Ace Combat, Ubisoft’s latest is an ace, but it could still learn a few tricks before HAWX 3 takes off in the future. For example, the new refueling sequences were a great idea, but they are too difficult to perform consistently. Also, one mission requires you to protect your naval allies from ground and air targets. I constantly had trouble switching between the different missiles to destroy the countless SAM sites and enemy fighters that continued to sink my allies with ease.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2 proves that the series has what it takes to fly higher than most dogfighting games. I was satisfied far more often than I was frustrated, and though the plot could have been a little better, the intuitive HUD and smooth controls kept me playing without being overwhelmed. I always enjoyed Rogue Leader and Crimson Skies, but HAWX 2 is one of the genre’s best in recent years.

by Cliff Bakehorn, September 23, 2010

The Truth Behind the Myth of Kevin Mitnick

2010-09-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Most people's conceptions of who the real Kevin Mitnick are derived from media-created myths. The media created this fantastic story and credited him with activities being carried out by other hackers, because if there was one villain, the story was much more interesting. The more interesting the story, the more newspapers and magazines it could sell.

Kevin Mitnick has been fascinated with technology since early childhood. His dabbling in electronics began with CB and ham radios. He eventually graduated to manipulating the phone system to play pranks on people, after the hobby of phone phreaking was introduced to him by some high school friends. Mitnick was intrigued by the phone systems, and had a desire to know everything about how they worked. When the phone systems converted over to computerized, switches, he graduated along with them, and approached computers with the same vigor with which he had mastered the phone system.

Kevin was never a malicious hacker and his hacking was never performed for personal gain or to cause damage to systems. His pursuit of hacking was purely to satisfy his intellectual curiosity, and, contrary to many inaccurate reports, he never destroyed data or profited from his exploits.

Unfortunately, the government could not understand a hacker who was motivated by a personal quest for knowledge and a good challenge. Since computer crime was a relatively new challenge for the government back in the mid-1990's, there were major efforts to obtain funding for these new crime-fighting programs. These programs couldn't get the funding without the public's support. This drive for funding, combined with the sensationalist media reports depicting Kevin as the Most Wanted Hacker in the World, was all the government needed to make Kevin Mitnick their prime target.
Kevin describes how he won the "scapegoat sweepstakes" based on the intense fear and propaganda generated by the American media and the U.S. government. You will hear first hand about what he did and why he did it, and his experiences at the hands of the United States criminal justice system.

Mitnick Security.

The Art of Deception: Are YOU In Danger Of Being 'Conned?'

2010-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Join us to hear the world's most famous former hacker share his perspective on the threat of "social engineering"-a highly effective type of attack that exploits the human element of corporate security.
While relatively unknown to the general public, the term "social engineering" is widely used within the computer security community to describe the techniques hackers use to deceive a trusted computer user within a company into revealing sensitive information, or trick an unsuspecting mark into performing actions that create a security hole.

Mitnick illustrates why a misplaced reliance on security technologies alone, such as firewalls, authentication devices, encryption, and intrusion detection systems are virtually ineffective against a motivated attacker using these techniques.

Although there are no reported statistics on the number of successful social engineering attacks, these ages-old techniques have been and continue to be extremely effective against unsuspecting targets, and pose the least risk and cost to your adversary.

In the corporate environment, a large number of unsuspecting victims never realize they have been manipulated. Will your employees be the next? Through concrete examples, Mitnick shares what your business can do to develop a creative and engaging security program that heightens awareness, motivates employees to change their attitudes, influences them to think defensively, and encourages the adoption of good security habits.

Mitnick Security.