One Day at a Time

3rd International PyroMusical in MOA

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:06:00 +0000

The dates have been set.

The 3rd Philippine International Pyromusical Competition will be held in SM Mall of Asia from Feb 11, 2012 to March 17, 2012 with twelve countries participating. Last year's winner was China.

Before the birth of the annual Pyromusical Competition in MOA, there was also a yearly international event called the World Pyro Olympics.

Relive the World Pyro Olympics by clicking these links:

Every Friday and Saturday at 7:00pm, SM MOA gives MOA folks a free five minute pyrotechnics show. Here is how it looks like from SM Sea Residences condo located in front of SM Mall of Asia.

Sea Residences Orientation

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:12:00 +0000

My wife and I can't stop thinking that our view and accept of the SM Sea Residences condo is only a few days away. It came to a point that on a Saturday morning we decided to gate crash on the house rules orientation even though we were not on the list for that day. It is our first experience to buy a condo and we can't get it off our minds.

Sea Residences is located in Mall of Asia Complex and is just a few steps away from MOA.

I remember our experience in the World Pyro Olympics in MOA, the fantastic fireworks and the unbelievably long time it took us to get back home. I guess in the back of our minds, this was one of the reasons why we decided to buy a property there.

A big arena and concert ground is near the area as well as PAGCOR City and a new Nayong Pilipino I also read somewhere that SM is negotiating to have some of the NBA games held in MOA Complex.

Ours is a simple single bedroom unit with balcony where a maximum of 3 occupants is allowed. The picture above was taken from the model unit. Our unit will be furnished and designed by my wife.

The kitchen is pretty decent with built-in electric stove on the granite countertop and a range hood above it (photo of the model unit also).

Keys, keys, keys. A mailbox for each condo unit.

We don't have any condo owner down and dirty rules experience in the past so the house rules orientation is a big thing to us.

Here are some of the highlights based on what us who attended raised.

During a power failure, the main electrical switch must be manually switched from Meralco power to the building generator. It is not automatic. So my mental note self: install a wall mounted emergency light. It's normal, I believe. Even hotels and malls have wall mounted emergency lights powered by rechargeable batteries. To protect the company I worked for from power failure, the whole plant ran on it's own energy center that houses several giant Myanmar generators 24/7. It was like this for more than a decade. Too much fuel used, Petron very happy. Then we decided to invest on UPS. But it is a very serious investment that needed tons on money.

The generator can't supply power to all lights and electrical outlets. It will supply power to only a select few. Requested that those lights and outlets be identified.

No garbage chute. Trash must be collected by unit owners, placed in bags and placed outside the front door on specific times. This stirred up the emotions of the attendees and images of hallways lined with stinky garbage bags floated in the air. This must be on top of the improvement items list of the the Home Owner's Association - us.

1.5 hp max air con capacity. Everyone was interested to know what the other max ratings are. But no direct answer was given.

Allowed delivery window for items to be moved in is 9am to 5pm, Mon to Sat.

Swimming not yet allowed in the swimming pools, although already filled with water and cleaned daily.

Underground parking have no identification numbers yet so parking slot owners will be given random parking slots but it does not mean it will be their permanent slot.

No service elevator. All stuffs you bring inside will use the elevators in the lobby. If your stuffs won't fit, use the stairs.

After the orientation, I peeked at the label in the main electrical switch. Max ratings I saw there:

Water heater = 3.3 KW
Air con = 1.5 hp
Range/Range hood = 3.5 KW
Washing machine = 1.5 KW

There was also a note there that the emergency generator will supply power to the living room and bedroom lights and the outlet assigned to the refrigerator. So I guess that indirectly answers one of the concern above.

No earth shaking news in the orientation. Valid and typical concerns.

A few work items to be ironed out by the future home owners.
But I am really interested on how other condos manage their trash.

Can somebody share?

Thanks.

2012 Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:50:00 +0000

The first generation Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner were launched in the Philippines in 2005. Three years later, it received its mid life kicker in the form of a facelift of the bumpers and new rear combination lights. Now its life is coming to an end (the average Pinoy car's model life is 6 years with a minor facelift in the middle). So late this year or in early 2012, the 2nd generation Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner will be introduced in the Philippines.

Toyota Astra is already starting to slowly update their website to the second generation Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner. These models were already on display in the recently concluded International Motor Show in Indonesia. So the pics below are fairly accurate on what to expect here in the Philippines, plus or minus some features.

The new Innova and Fortuner borrowed some genes from the Toyota Altis in the form of more horizontal grilles and the protruding headlights. The Toyota family resemblance is unmistakable and is now spread across most of their product lines.

A friend was planning to replace their car. But for now, they will patiently wait for the release of the new models. Because if they buy now, it will quickly look obsolete next year. Waah, I also want one.

Next Generation Toyota Innova (2012)

Next Generation Toyota Fortuner (2012)

CD-R King 7" Android Tablet - FastPad

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 11:28:00 +0000

CD-R King just introduced a 7" Android Tablet that they named FastPad. And it costs only 8,800 pesos.
The specs of their Android Tablet are pretty decent for its price.

1 Ghz Arm Cortex A8 - based Samsung S5PV210 processor
4 GB internal storage expandable to 32 GB
512 MB DDR2 RAM
7 inch 800x480 resolution capacitive touch screen
Android 2.2 (Froyo) with Flash 10.1 support
Android Marketplace
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
1 HDMI port, 2 USB ports, 3.5" audio port, memory card slot
Built-in microphone and stereo speakers
3MP front facing camera
Accelerometer for screen orientation and motion sensing apps and games
Video: 1080p HD, MPEG4, H.264, H.263, VC1, RMVB, RM, 3GP, AVI, MKV, MOV
Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AAC+
Image: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
Ebook: UMD, TXT, PDF
Quickoffice support

The only things missing are GPS/A-GPS, bluetooth and 3G SIM card slot.

My guess is it's a re-branded DroPad A8.
Click here for extensive web reviews.

If this is indeed a DroPad, one neat feature is ability to connect a keyboard & mouse to the USB port. With these connected you vitually have a pretty well equipped netbook similar to an ASUS EeePad Transformer. The USB port also accepts 3G USB internet sticks (available from Smart, Globe or Sun) to have internet connection on the go. So the absence of a SIM card slot has a work around.

Good bang for the buck!

MMDA Online Traffic Update

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:10:00 +0000

I envy the Google Maps version in the US with the up to date layer of traffic info that can tell you where traffic congestions are and suggest alternate routes for your destination.

MMDA and TV5 launched a beta version of a traffic update service for 6 main roads in Metro Manila (EDSA, Quezon Avenue, Espana, C5, Roxas Boulevard and SLEX). It's years behind whats available in Google Maps US and GPS navigators there, but it's still a good start for Manila than nothing at all.

Traffic congestion levels are color coded red, yellow and green. System view, line view and Google Map views are available. The traffic condition is updated every 5 to 10 minutes between 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.

I hope they get full integration will Google Maps for mobile phones so that Google Maps GPS navigation in Manila would be even better. For now you can access their website using either your PC or Phone connected to a wi-fi or 3G network.

System view of the traffic condition of parts of EDSA, Quezon Avenue and C5

Google Maps view of the traffic condition in EDSA

Home 3D Imaging Without The Glasses

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:17:00 +0000

There are a variety of ways to view 3D images and videos depending on how the media content was created.

A pair of color films, one for the left eye and one for the right eye then optics to direct each of the to each eye. The viewing aparatus is fashioned like a binocular like those View Master toys.
3D glasses where one lens is tinted blue and the other is tinted red. This is common in children's books.
Passive polarized 3D glasses like the ones used in SM 3D cinemas, Enchanted Kingdom 4D Theater and the IMAX theater in Mall of Asia.
Active shutter 3D glasses like those used in Sony, LG and Samsung LCD and LED backlit LCD TVs.
Holograms such as the authentication logo stickers on credit cards of Visa/Mastercard, Nokia batteries and HP ink refills.
Lenticular screens with a parallax barrier that splits images for the left and right eye like those used in the Nintendo 3DS and HTC Evo 3D.

There's another method that you can use and play around with at home. No fancy gadget needed. See the samples below.

This is an old photo taken in the 16th infantry camp in the Philippines a long time ago. It is a good photograph but you can make it even better. Turn it to 3D !

The photo above is actually a scan of an old stereographic card that was originally taken using a stereoscopic camera (a kind of old camera with two lens separated the same distance as the human eye). A special apparatus was then used to view the two images simultaneously in the stereographic cards similar to what View Master toys do.

But there's another way to view these stereoscopic cards without a need for fancy gadgets. It is called wiggle spectroscophy. To demonstrate, I combined the two images above and came up with this image where you can have a feel of the depth of the image and gives more umph to the old photograph.

It resembles that Matrix movie look on the scene when Trinity jumped and made her Karate Kid pose as time slowed down. This effect made my jaw drop the first time I saw it. You can do this at home using an ordinary camera or cellphone by taking multiple photos of the subject at slightly different angles then merging them like what I did with the wiggle 3D images below.

If you happen to see me taking photos while kinda dancing left and right, you may have just caught me framing my next wiggle 3D photo.

This wiggly stuff can be made easier. If current 3D gadgets like the Nintendo 3DS and HTC Evo develop an app that process the 3D image taken by the 3D camera to generate the wiggle image automatically.

A level higher in gadget development would be to combine the motion sensing algorithm of the XBox Kinect and the front facing camera of today's phones plus an app that tracks the user's head then adjusts the wiggle image displayed on the screen correspondingly. With this in place, you can take a slight peek of what's behind an image simply by tilting your head.

Of course for hard core photography, you can buy a Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap that fit popular DSLR cameras. Costs $93 to $150. Or buy a Fuji Finepix Real 3D camera, a Minoru 3D webcam. CD-R King displayed a 3D webcam a few months ago. or any of the soon to be released 3D smartphones and tablets such as the LG Optimus 3D, HTC Evo 3D or LG Optimus Pad 3D.

Lytro: Picture Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:20:00 +0000

It it not often that a technology comes along that has huge impact to the industry and to consumers - what we call as "the best thing since sliced bread."

Before sliced bread there was the invention of the wheel. Then some notable disruptive technologies after sliced bread are pasteurization, the internet, iPhone/iPad and now... Lytro.

What's so special about Lytro? It completely changes how we do photography since the word photography was coined and the camera device was invented. Up to now what we do to take a picture is point on the selected subject, focus manually or automatically, then press a button to capture the image. Lytro makes the focusing step obsolete during picture taking. You just shoot without care using a Lytro camera. What's great about it is that all images taken looks like it was taken by an SLR camera with a shallow depth of field (DOF) lens. When you view the image at home, you can select which part of the photo is focused and its background and foreground automatically becomes blurred. Then click again on another part of the photo then the image will re-focus automatically. No need for editing in PhotoShop or Picasa to get that blur effect. This is what I call "a true point and shoot camera" unlike today's camera that are actually "point and focus and shoot camera."

Shown below is a single shot taken with a Lytro camera veiwed depending on what part of the image you want to be in focus. Clicking on the tip of the spear results to the image on the left while clicking on the person produces the image on the right. No editing needed - the picture is fully interactive - just click any part of the image then the focus immediately changes to it.

Go to their website and browse the picture gallery. Each photo you find there are interactive Lytro images. Just click on an area of a photo and observe with mouth open what happens. I bet even Steve Jobs himself will call this "magical."

Chick-Boy Chicken and Baboy

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:58:00 +0000

While passing by GMA Cavite a few weeks back, I saw an eye catching restaurant being constructed called Chick-Boy. So when it opened, we were there a few days later. I love Cebu and Iligan lechon baboy. I haven't found that same lechon experience in Luzon where the meat is tender and tasty without a need for a lechon sauce - I call it the autonomous lechon. The love and quest for that kind of lechon brought us to Chick-Boy. Their lechon are roasted as meat slabs, not as whole pigs. Served as cutlets of crispy lechon with rice wrapped in banana leaves.

The meat has that saltiness and flavor that goes well with the vinegar sauce that comes with it. This is the style of eating lechon down south (Visayas and Mindanao).

All tables have a bottle of the sweet lechon liver sauce that's popular in Luzon and a bottle of crispy garlic so no problem making your own garlic rice.

Chick-Boy's lechon is closer to the lechon Cebu taste than what other Cebu lechon stalls you find out there. Now I have a go to place whenever I crave for lechon.

An order of a soup dish pairs well with lechon and rice. In our first visit we tried a bowl of batchoy.

For dessert we tried their leche flan and turones de leche. I though the turones de leche was some sort of fried Mazapan sweets called turones. But they were actually mini turon - thus the name turones. It's made of long strips of banana wrapped in turon wrapper to about the same size as your average lumpia shanghai, deep fried then served with some kind of gooey yema dip. Sarap! I'll have these again for sure the next time.

Next visit I'll have their lechon manok and sample their other soup dishes.

There are three Chick-Boy restaurants along Governor's drive in Cavite. One in GMA where we ate, another one is under construction in Manggahan, General Trias and another one will soon rise in Terraza of Robinsons Dasmarinas.

Pinoy Shabu-Shabu

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:36:00 +0000

Written by Lilia B. Unite

I have been staying away from shabu-shabu for quite sometime after my funny experience years ago in Chengdu, China:

It was already late at night when I went out with one of my colleagues for dinner. Most of the restaurants we saw were selling unfamiliar Chinese cuisines. We were a little bit relieved when we saw an English Shabu-Shabu restaurant sign. Unfortunately, their menu were all in Chinese without any picture to give us a clue what they mean. None of their staffs knew how to speak English. After 15 minutes of struggling with charades and pictionary style communication, we decided to just let the waitress order for us. Confused on what we wanted and to be safe, she ordered all of the possible ingredients available leaving my friend and I with a table full of familiar and exotic raw foods enough to feed an army battalion and enough for me not to crave for shabu-shabu for a long time.

Then came last week when we passed by the newly opened Seferino shabu-shabu restaurant in Robinson’s Dasmarinas.

Seferino’s ambiance was quiet and not smelly unlike other shabu-shabu restaurants I went to. It’s a great place to go for chit chat while having a good meal. On top of shabu-shabu, they also offer different Asian and Filipino cuisines. If you are ordering other meals, their shabu-shabu solo will be enough for two persons to share.

One thing I like about having shabu-shabu is seeing your food prepared and cooked in front of you and the variety of ingredients you can choose from.

At Seferino, they have a pre-selected set of ingredients when you order shabu-shabu that's a combination of seafoods like fish, squid, shrimp, squid balls, crab meat mixed with strips of thinly sliced pork, beef and lots of green pechay and cabbage. It's a good break from the typical fried foods we eat in fast food restos.

Surprisingly, my picky eater daughter liked it too. This prompted me to create our home made version of shabu-shabu using common ingredients in our kitchen.

Ingredients:
Lucky Me Pork Ribs Instant Noodles
Fresh pork bacon cuts
Squid balls
Siomai
Sweet corn
Pechay
Cabbage
Carrots
Tomato (whole or big slices)
Banana (the variety for cooking)
Soy sauce (depending on how you like the soup base to taste)

Procedure:
1. Prepare all the ingredients and place them in a platter.

2. Prepare the soup base by mixing Lucky Me Pork Ribs seasoning mix in boiling water. Set aside the noodles for now. You can use the noodles as alternative for shabu-shabu noodle if you don’t have any. Add soy sauce to taste. Let it boil for 1-2 minutes.

3. Put the meat, squid balls, siomai and corn and let it boil. When they're half cooked, add in the sliced carrots and banana.

4. When almost done, lower the heat and add in the noodles, tomato, pechay and cabbage then simmer for 2 minutes. Do not overcook the vegetables. Then serve immediately and enjoy eating.

Subic 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:56:00 +0000

From the 16th hot air balloon fiesta in Clark, we had a quick breakfast and proceeded to Subic.

We arrived just in time for the start of the morning shows.

The hilarious Sea Lion Marine Patrol Show.

A Walk on the Wild Side for a quick jungle survival tutorial and animal show.

The Adventure of Olongapo Jones that features the Basura Boys who are great trampoline acrobats. And lastly the dolphin show that was as good as ever. We finished all shows by lunch time. At 2pm we left Ocean Adventure and went to the hotel for an afternoon rest. The short rest was just enough to energize us again because we were up an about since 1:30am that day when we started our long ourney from Laguna to Clark's Hot Air Balloon Fiesta then to Subic.

Dinner was in Meat Plus for steaks and their banana fritters that I've been craving for.

Le Mans Go Kart was closed so after dinner we went back to the hotel. It was actually my mom's first time to visit Subic and to stay in a hotel for a night and she was very thankful. And this made me happy.

The next day was at a more relaxing to just savor Subic, being out of town, the scenery, shopping, dining and being together.

By 2pm Sunday, we were already in Makati. We were supposed meet my wife there before her afternoon class in AIM but she was still on her way to Makati.

We ate in Pepper Lunch then had gelato for dessert which were first time tries for my brothers.

It was a fun 2-day vacation and a memorable one for my mom.

16th Philippine Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:19:00 +0000

I brought my mom and brothers to the 16th Philippine hot air balloon fiesta. My dad was not able to join due to stuffs he need to do in Visayas. We left home at 1:30am and when we got there at 4am, there was already a long line in the ticket booth and the parking was starting to get busy.

At 5:30am the jeeps pulling the balloons started to position themselves in the wide lawn of the airport.

The sporadic flames from the burners lit the early morning skies.

There was no flag jump this time from an airplane. Instead there were these powered parachutes that carried the flag to open the Saturday balloon fiesta events.

Then they started firing up the burners to inflate the balloons.

The burners were not turned on everytime. They mix just the right amount of normal air and warm air to control the air temp in the balloons to inflate it and give just the right lift.

Hot air balloons of variety of shapes.

This balloon did not have a gondola. Just a rig to hold the fuel tank and a small chair for the lonely occupant to sit on. No girlfriend allowed.

The rise of Darth Vader - literally.

A couple having their pre-nuptial photos taken.

As the balloons rose so do the frequency of shooting and clicking from the ground.

The Festo balloons were nice. They were the pair of balloons in the upper right that were tied together and where one of them looked like an upsidedown flying balloon.

Tents and picnic mats were everywhere and reminded me of those old Woodstock pictures I see in old music magazines. We left Clark early to catch the morning shows in Subic.

Treveia NUVALI - the GPS Trace

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:05:00 +0000

I had to work last Sunday. It's a long drive so to put some spice into it, I decided to pass by Treveia NUVALI . There was no picture yet of Treveia in Google Earth and no roads drawn in Google Maps so I turned on the GPS of my Nokia device and started road tracing from SLEX Mamplasan exit to Treveia. When I got there, almost all roads of Phases 1 & 2 were already open. I took pictures of the lot we bought there then made a long and comprehensive road trace of Treveia by driving on all the roads and letting my phone record my track.

From the GPS trace log, I plotted the elevation from SLEX Mamplasan to Treveia. Good news is that Treveia is on a higher elevation compared to SLEX, Laguna Technopark, Solenad and Paseo de Santa Rosa.

I then uploaded the GPS trace in Openstreetmap and drew the roads in Treveia.

You can now view it Openstreetmap and Wikimapia. I also made a short drive around Solenad and drew the roads here.

I hope Google Earth is updated soon. They already updated Eton's South Lake Village and the islands are already visible. I hope NUVALI is next.

7-11 Microwaveable Chicharon

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 04:01:00 +0000

I have this fondness for microwaveable foods. It's like cooking but without the hassle of food prep and washing of utensils afterwards. It's also amazing to see something cook right in front of you in just a few minutes. I saw this microwaveable chicharon in 7-11 and felt the urge to pop it in the microwave. It's also my excuse to eat some high cholesterol chicharon.

The uncooked chicharon felt and looked like those uncooked Besuto Prawn Crackers that you deep fry in oil - thin and hard like plastic flakes.

You place it in the microwave oven like what you do with microwaveable popcorn.

The instruction is to cook it for 3 minutes. I started doubting my chicharon when the bag started inflating but I heard no pop or sizzle. It's just the hum of the microwave as the carousel turn. I had the negative thought of those chicharon strips getting hot but staying thin as it is and only producing water vapor that inflated the bag. Sad. There goes my chance to eat chicharon.

I sadly opened the bag but to my surprise, it was full of yummy looking, fully popped chicharon that started to pop lightly as soon as I opened the bag and exposed it to cool air.

How did it taste? Good! The saltiness is just right and it was really crunchy. I just wish they have a version with laman (meat) in it.

In a Mango Orchard

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:36:00 +0000

A very good friend, Cynthia, invited us to visit their mango orchard.

It was a great getaway for us and our daughter experienced a lot of firsts there. So let me give this page to our daughter as another first - blogging.

We are encouraging her to write short essays of her experiences to help develop her writing skills. It also serves as time machine snapshots that she can read again when she gets older. Forgive the word construct and appreciate the thoughts of our 7-year old little lady. Presenting you (drumroll) her first blog:

The Thing that I like in The Farm

In the farm my mother told me to climb the tree but I said "I don't like I'm scared!" Daddy just carried me to the tree so I don't need to climb the tree. Daddy pretended that the tree was tall but it was only short. Daddy told me to stand on the tree. Daddy was holding me while I'm standing on the tree.

I was a little scared because the branch is still thin, that's why I'm scared when I'm standing on the branch. After that I decided to just swing on the branch. It was fun and the branch did not fall too.

Mommy said to go to the top of the tree and stand up and raise one leg. I was scared and I just raised my leg very low. Only up to 10 inches.

Mommy just told me to sit down on the top of the tree so I won't be scared now.

After that we sat on a chair that was made of wood to rest.

After rest we picked some mangoes on the tree.

We also took pictures with the mangoes too.

There are dogs with us to protect us from snakes.

Mommy also gave me a stick to pinch the other snakes by myself.

Even if it's just a stick I still like it. I always play with it. I pretend that it's a shovel. I use it everyday in the farm.

At night we had a bonfire, marshmallow and a stick.

We placed the marshmallows on the stick, place it in the bonfire and ate it. It was very yummy!

After we woke up, we saw a white crane and two baby goats, one is color black and the other is brown and white.

We went to a river. We also swam in the river. We took pictures too.

We also picked stones in the river. They were many and colorful.

One of the stones looked like a chocolate, its the very small stone that we found.

I also swam in the river. Mommy was just holding me with the towel because I was scared I might not float.

Some of them bring carpet to sit on. They also brought some food and tricycle.

The river is also clean, there are no garbage.

I saw kids diving in the river.

GPS in the Philippines

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:14:00 +0000

Two years had passed since I took home my trusty mobile phone as part of Smart Communications customer retention plan. It was again time for me to claim a brand new free cellphone unit or get a more expensive phone with a big discount.

This retention round I chose a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It costs 15,000 in malls but I got it for only 7,300 under Smart's retention plan. Yehey! I chose it because of the high resolution video recording with 30 fps frame rate, Auto focus lens with macro mode for those close up shots, Vario Tessar focusing system, Wi-fi to connect our home's network and the thing I've always wanted to play around - GPS (Global Positioning System).

This year is a good time to buy a GPS capable phone because shortly after Google announced the availability of free turn by turn voice navigation in the US for their Nexus One phone, Nokia, to protect their worldwide leadership I guess, announced that it will stop asking payments for GPS voice guided navigation and will now give it away for free in all their GPS capable phones all over the world including the Philippines. I read that stock prices of GPS navigation devices dropped after this announcement. Good thing also that Nokia announced it early this year because I was eagerly awaiting for the GPS Navigation Systems that will soon arrive in CD-R King Stores. Now I don't need to buy it because my new phone already has it. Voice guided drive navigation and pedestrian navigation. Woohoo! I downloaded the British female voice as my voice navigator. So when the phone announces the driving directions, it's like being in James Bond's car complete with the British accent - bloody cool! hehe.

I owe much to CD-R King with their low cost consumer products so I bought from them the car mount for the phone.

Now let's take this new phone for a ride and see and hear what Nokia OVI Maps can do. I tied a safety cord to the car mount inspired by the harness we used in Dahilayan Adventure Park's longest dual zip line in Asia. It took 3 minutes for the GPS receiver to lock on to the satellites and determine where we're at.

We drove to NUVALI with the GPS navigation on and visited Treveia. Nokia OVI Maps has a navigation window that displays a real-time compass showing which direction you're headed, how long you've been driving and your current speed. The speed was actually very close to the car's speedometer. Those satellites up there looking at me sure have clear eyes!

The trip distance window shows real-time numbers and statistics of your trip. Now this is a good trip meter!

This is the view of Treveia's Phase 2 taken from the central park with a cloudy view of Mount Makiling.

And this is the altitude and GPS location of Treveia's Central Park.

The voice guided navigation displays where you are, street names, current speed, compass, how far you are to the next turn, total distance traveled and marks where the gasoline stations are located.

One thing funny happened is that when we were on top of the overpass crossing SLEX, it told us to turn left and jump off the overpass to get to SLEX. But if you don't do it for obvious reasons, it auto re-calculated our route and kindly told us to take the cloverleaf toll road instead. Never believe in it a hundred percent.

This is the dashboard window info while voice guided navigation is turned on.

This is what the screen looks like at night to lessen night driving disruption.

All in all, a Nokia phone with Nokia OVI Maps installed is a good GPS for a newbie like me. The whole Philippine roadmap is just a 12MB file that you can download at home and use on the road without the need to connect to the internet then pay 3G/HSPDA charges. When I tried using Google Maps for Mobile 4.0, it needed 3G/HSPDA/Wi-fi connection to download maps while you drive so it will cost you money. It also saves downloaded maps to the phone memory without an option to save them to the memory card. But one good thing with Google Maps is that they have more updated street maps than Nokia and Navteq. I hope Nokia catches up soon in this respect.

What's missing in Nokia OVI Maps for the Philippines are the POI or points of interest. After some searching I came across a Java based open source application than can run on any gadget that allows running Java apps including your PSP. The graphics is not as good as Nokia OVI Maps or Garmin Mobile but all the important and meaty guts are there - comprehensive POI all over the Philippines that's updated weekly thanks to Openstreetmaps.org, altitude, speed, compass, the ability to define roads & POI of uncharted areas, uploading to Openstreetmaps.org and voice navigation.

Driving along Governor's drive with visible POI.

Complete POI details of a part of Makati including traffic directions.

Zooming in will give you the names of each building.

Driving along an uncharted area. So what do you do?

Well, be an explorer like Magellan and define the roads as you drive by. Upload it later to Openstreetmaps so others will benefit from your exploration.

Uploading my first GPS tracks for an uncharted part of the Philippines in Openstreetmaps.

Before charting.

After charting.

Awesome!

Amaia Scapes Calamba - An Ayala Land Project

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:59:00 +0000

Ayala Land enters a new phase in their land development and offers affordable homes to more Filipinos with the same high standards that Ayala is known for.Time for you to get that dream home and good real estate investment.

Ayala properties are know to have above average property appreciation rate.
Amaia Scapes is located in Calamba City near SLEX Batino Exit.
Seven house designs to choose from. Price starts P600,000.
All homes sold comes with 1 year workmanship warranty.
Amaia Scapes will be continuously managed by Ayala Properties Management Corporation so you can be assured the village rules and restrictions will really be enforced similar to what they still do in Ayala Alabang Village, Forbes Park, Santa Rosa Estates and now in NUVALI.

Serious buyers can contact Lilia Unite at 09088637715 or lilia.unite@gmail.com for inquiries and reservations.

Still in pre-selling stage so hurry!

Click here for a satellite view (Wikimapia, Google Earth)

Dahilayan Adventure Park - Unfinished Business

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:27:00 +0000

It's time to return to Dahilayan Adventure Park for some unfinished business.

We had a great time on our first visit. The ride going there, the 320-meter and 150-meter zips were great but sadly we were not able to try the 840-meter line due to the long queue.

So this time we went there earlier and brought along more excited faces, snacks, lunch, hot and cold drinks. We're ready and nothing will stop us now from conquering that almost-a-kilometer cable.

Majority of the vehicles brought there are these big ones but that did not stop us from bringing a sedan. It was able to keep up with the two Rev-O in our group even on rough roads.

We went straight to the flight center to confirm our reservation and lined up for the 320-meter and 150-meter zip lines.

Now it's me and my wife's turn. Woohoo!

It's our second time in these lines so we had more time to enjoy the ride than trying to hold to dear life the first few seconds when we were here the first time. My wife even found time to wave at her fans :)

Jumping with joy - We made it! And plenty of time left for the finale ride!

But first, we went to the woods... spooky...

... for some demure shots...

a Twilight movie shot...

and Jollibee lunch.

After we recharged ourselves, we're looking at this long and high contraption of thrill and excitement.

This is a zoomed in view of the starting point.

It's time to go up there. And go up there in rugged safari style!

Woohoo! Smile muna!

The ride up was fast and bumpy like you're on a roller coaster with cold mountain air in your face.

Here we are at last.

The flight deck going down.

Zoomed in view of the landing area down below.

Finally, it's almost our turn. Can't wait. Nothing will stop us now!

Then the clouds came in, and with it came the rain. It became so foggy that you can't see anymore the adjacent mountain range.

But still, this did not stop us. "Naligo na naman kami." It's just water. Who's afraid of zipping in high altitude, in low visibility rainy weather, cold rain on your back and cold air to give you chills to the bones. Not us!

The flight deck crew strapped us in, two at a time.

While we try to see the best we can where the landing pad is.

Meanwhile, the landing crew had no idea if someone's landing or not. So they wait there in the foggy rain looking at nothing.

But thanks for their patience to wait for all of us to land.

It really was a great experience.

Come join us as one of the many who experienced the longest dual zip line in Asia.

From Cagayan de Oro, take the Davao-Bukidnon Highway, right on the Alae Junction, proceed 25 kms to Baranggay Dahilayan past Camp Phillips and the pineapple fields via Mampayag. Book online here.

Here are some tips:

Don't gate crash. Book online or call them days ahead. Walk-in adventurers rarely get a chance to ride. The line for groups with reservations are long enough for the day.
Bring a jacket if you go there on cold months.
Bring drinks, snacks and packed lunch. Plenty of benches in the woods. Hot water, choco and coffee is good to have.
Horseback riding and ATV rides are available.

Asia's Longest Dual Zipline is in Bukidnon

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:47:00 +0000

At 840 meters in length, only 160 meters away from the 1 kilometer mark, Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon has the longest dual zipline in Asia. It opened last October 2009 and is already a must go place when you're in Mindanao.

Thanks to Nick, we were there last Christmas holiday. None of us have ever been to Dahilayan Adventure park but locals helped us along the way. From Cagayan de Oro we headed to Manolo Fortich in Bukidnon. From there it was around 45 minutes of dirt road driving towards Mount Kitanglad.

We passed by Del Monte pineapple fields and numerous other crops that I only plant in Facebook's FarmVille.

Driving on a very long dirt road with all its ups and downs that makes the vehicle shudder and pitch in every direction plus the wide expanse of agricultural fields left, right, front and back was by itself an adventure already.

It was past noon when we got there. The weather was fine and the climate was cool. The park is actually twice higher than Tagaytay City and is nearly as high as Baguio City.

There are plenty of pine trees and just look at these dwellings!

Piture taking muna. Smile!

Pati horse may picture taking.

All-terrain vehicles for rent.

Time to talk about ziplines.

Let's observe the 840-meter long zipline. How do you stop? The zipline has an advance arrester system not just an old automobile tyre or person as the stopper.

As you approach the end of the flight, acceleration caused by the pull of gravity is negated by the sag of the zip line cable where you zip along to the terminal point at already a slightly uphill incline. A heavy arresting block is waiting for you to give added deceleration (see the block at the left side of the pic below).

Up close and personal with the arresting block.

A ground crew stretching his arms wide asking you to follow what he does as he clips his arms close to his body.

You'll feel a gentle thud as the arresting block hits your trolley.

Then a series of quick interactions happen in order to stop your flight gently with the use of springs, bungee cords and pulleys.

If these fail, there's a big net farther behind waiting for you.
It was our turn to try the zip lines.

We started with the shorter spans to get the hang of it - literally.
This is the starting point of the 320 meter long dual zip line. See how small the landing point look like.

This is the view from the landing point.

The slide down was high but smooth and it gave us the confidence to do the rest of the course. It was a great start. The cold mountain air gave me shivers as I got of the harness. The next ride is a single zip line 150 meters in length.

This is Nick and Chic zipping down.

My wife as she nears the landing pad with the arresting block and landing crew waiting.

And me finally having my Kodak moment in the zip line thanks to the great shot of Chaz and Corrine.

There's also an elevated obstacle course an the lowest part of the park after you zip down the 150m line.

The helmets, harnesses and trolleys are brought back to the 320-meter flight deck by crews riding all terrain vehicles.

It was already late in the afternoon and the fligh deck for the 840 meter zipline was still packed. We decided to go home then return there in a few days. And sure enough as promised, we did. Watch for the next post about it soon.

Here's a short compiled video I took when in Dahilayan Adventure Park.

If you're going to Mindanao, this is a good place to visit.

Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Our third day in Hong Kong was a whole day stay in Ocean Park followed by a late night flight back to Manila.

These balloons remind me of the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Subic which is a good place to watch a platoon of real hot air balloons being set up and fly.

The highlight of our visit there was the cable car ride that took us from one end of the island to the other. Being on a steep slope suspended very high in a cage hooked to metal strings then with strong wind in your face as you look far down below is - susmaryosep! Awesome!

The only place in the the Philippines where we rode cable cars was in Tagaytay Highlands.

Nemo and a funny looking fish. Visit Manila Ocean Park to see more.

The dolphins in the marine show did not cooperate that day so the show was very short. The sea lions and dolphins in Subic Ocean Adventure have more talent and stage presence. Maybe the dolphins in Hong Kong Ocean Park woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Now I know how giant panda's sleep. All of them were asleep when we went to the giant panda habitat. The toys sold outside looked more active.

The Skyfair acrobats were very good and we enjoyed watching them. Look! All of them are upside down except for the boy at the bottom of the picture.

1st and 7th birthday celebrations of our daughter - done.
Next mission: Hannah's 18th birthday.

Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Our second day was a tour around Hong Kong.

Avenue of the Stars is a few blocks away from our hotel but felt farther when we took the tourist bus because of all the stops, straights and turns. We passed by the same buildings twice or thrice as we drove along different streets. Kinda like deja-vu.

Next stop is Jewellery City Co. Ltd. They offer lifetime warranty to all their merchandize. If what you bought gets damaged, just go back there and they'll fix it for free. The reason they gave is that no matter how old your gold is, it's still gold. But they sure are expensive.

You'll see how they make jewelries.

Aside from jewelries, they also make these colorful gem globes.

A big chunk of natural rock found filled with Amethyst. Yummy for jewelers! I want to find one.

Next stop was a sampan ride that takes you around a jumbo floating restaurant and a fishing village. Hmmm, smells fishy.

The last stop of the tour was Victoria peak. It was smaller than what I expected but has a good view of all the tall buildings of Hong Kong. There's a picture guide there that explains the highlights of the harbor view are and the major skyscrapers.

It was still early when we reached the hotel so after an hour of rest it was time to explore Hong Kong on our own, without the tour guides and shuttle buses. Outside the 3-day Hong Kong package tour.

We took the subway from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Mongkok station and finally found out where the Hong Kong folks are. We were already wondering why there were not that many people are in the streets around our hotel, well, they were underground. Busy walking and taking the trains to wherever they were going.

One thing we noticed is the high density of 7-eleven franchise stores. As we walked around our hotel we found 3 of them just 5 minutes walking distance from each other. It's reasonable considering the high density of the area.

When we reached Mongkok station and exit at the Ladies Night Market it felt like Divisoria with the audio set to Chinese mode complete with their version of yummy street foods.

Shopping - a good way to end day 2 in Hong Kong.

Hannah's 7th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:15:00 +0000

I was told that for Filipinos, the must-be-special birthdays for a daughter are the 1st, 7th and 18th birthdays. So for Hannah's 7th birthday we thought of doing something else instead of the Jollibee kiddie party in school. She and her classmates are becoming very good in playing the longest happy birthday greeting game because kiddie parties happen quite often in school. We planned to go Zoobic Safari in Subic, Pampangga but thank God we changed our mind because we would have been stranded there scared of Typhoon Ondoy's wrath that ravaged Luzon on Hannah's birthday. We escaped Ondoy because before it hit Luzon, we left the Philippines and went to Hong Kong for Hannah's 7th birthday. The weather there was hot and sunny and we heard of Ondoy only when one night we saw it in CNN then family and friends started texting about what's happening. It was sad but we thanked God for guiding our decision to celebrate the birthday somewhere else.

This is our little lady filling up and signing her first departure card.

Welcome to Hong Kong !

A lady from the travel agency met us at the pick-up area in HK International airport and took us to Hotel Panorama.

Private Kodak, ooops, Canon moment in the elevator.

View from the hotel's viewdeck at the 40th floor.

After we left of luggages in the room, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Train Station

Can anyone tell me how to be the grand marshal of the parade? I'm guessing you should be the 1st complete family that enters Disneyland for that day.

Meet, greet, ride, enjoy

Our tireless daughter leading the way to meet as many princesses as we can

Cinderella

Our daughter told Belle that she played Belle in their school play of Beauty and the Beast.

Snow White

Aurora of Sleeping Beauty

Alice in Wonderland

Hannah enjoyed the cute dolls in It's a Small World

The castle changes it's look at night because we were there a month before Halloween.

We spent our whole day in Fantasyland that fit perfectly to what our daughter likes. This is the closest we got to Tomorrowland.

But it was worth it. This day of course is our daughter's 7th birthday.

Going back to the hotel

Happy birthday Hannah. We love you.

Pioneer Fishes in NUVALI Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:09:00 +0000

The lake in NUVALI turns orange every morning and afternoon.

It's not magic. It's the scheduled fish feeding in the lake.

8,000 Koi fishes were introduced to the lake. When feeding time comes, they gather in the taxi boat docks and you can almost hear them say "feed me!" So buy fish food near the lake and start feeding them. The fishes clean the lake of algae and keeps water insects away. It's an effective move. The water strider insects I saw during the NUVALI Grand Launch last April are gone.

The clubhouse of Treveia NUVALI is almost complete.

Ballet Recital in SM Mall of Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:30:00 +0000

When Hannah introduced herself on the stage during her Senior Casa Graduation in Montessori, she announced loudly and proudly to the audience that she wants to be a ballet dancer. It was a unique aspiration among tons of kids wanting to be doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, politicians and police men. It generated quite a positive stir in the audience that encouraged my wife and I to support her in her dreams. So we took her to a ballet studio to start training.

The first time she saw the practice going on, she whispered to her mom "Sana di na lang ballet dancer ang sinabi ko" (I should have not said that I want to be a ballet dancer). But those Barbie movies and the 12 Dancing Princess have such a huge influence that it did not take an hour for our daughter to change her mind and continue with her ballet lessons.

She took her lessons seriously and she never wanted to be late. She met a lot of new friends and every lesson was a fun experience for her.

After weeks of training, it was time for her first public performance. Where? In Center Stage theater of SM Mall of Asia.

It gave me a feeling of being back to when we watched Lea Salongga perform in Miss Saigon but this time with our little daughter on a similar stage. Performing in a real theater was a good experience for her - the final stage rehearsal minutes before the show, backstage makeup and chitchats, excitedly qeueing for their turn to perform on stage and performing in front of a fully packed theater. Hannah had absolutely no stage fright and she performed well.

Hannah with friends Shane and Louie.

Hannah with Jam-jam.

Seeing your daughter perform two ballet pieces on stage is quite a momentous event that makes you want to stand up and shout "That's my girl!"

Good job Hannah!

Video: SM Mall of Asia Recital

Encore In Robinsons Mall

After a few weeks, they had another full program, this time in Robinsons Mall.

She performed again two ballet pieces to a different set of audience free for all to see.

Here are some of the other performers.

Proud parents.

Video: Robinsons Mall Recital

Opening number - Waltz of the Flowers

Serenade

Thanks to coach Jonathan Terry of Dance Factory for teaching Hannah. He was previously a principal dancer of Dance Theater Philippines and partnered with Anna Villadolid, Maryanne Santa Maria, Lisa Macuja to mention a few.

Dance Factory
Robinson's Place, Dasmarinas, Cavite
(046)696-3275

What's at The End of The Rainbow?

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:51:00 +0000

What did Hannah enjoy doing this summer?
Aside from Ballet dancing, she enjoyed playing outdoors in the summer rain. I asked her to pull some small leaves and petals then drop them in the street gutter to pretend that they were boats on a white water rafting adventure. This simple game was enough to keep her jumping and running excitedly with a big smile in her face. When the rain stopped, she still wanted to play so she asked me to use the garden hose to make artificial rain. When I stopped after around ten minutes, she prayed and asked for the rain to come back.

The sun steadily shone brighter and the rain did not come back. But in return, my little girl was given a rainbow to look at.

One thing good about a rainy summer is that it gives you more opportunity to see rainbows.

And guess what was at the end of the rainbow that day? McDonald's and their tall golden arches. I'm loving it. Love ko 'to.

Dive and Trek Anilao

noreply@blogger.com (Hermie) — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Before the sea got rough, before the first storm of 2009 hit the Philippines and gave people the feeling that summer was already over last April, we experienced Anilao.

Dive & Trek is one of the dive resorts there. For 1,100 PhP per head you can enjoy a whole day of snorkelling (day trip non-diving package). This already includes a round trip boat ride to the resort, buffet lunch, afternoon snack and free flowing drinks. Pay 50 pesos extra for the parking area in the main land. You will pass Ligpo Island on the boat ride which is surrounded by a deep reef. A good part of the reef is what divers call the Highway where many schools of fishes rush by.

Overnight non-diving package is 3,050 PhP per head. Intro dive package is 2,500 PhP.

This is us out of the water.

This is us underwater. Hmmm... mental note: someday buy a reasonably priced water proof, shock proof, freeze proof, dust proof, crush proof, pocket-sized compact camera with image stabilization, HD movie mode and ISO3200 or higher. The Olympus Stylus 1030SW is a good 2008 model that you can easily shove carelessly to any bag and bring along everywhere. I'll wait for the next generation. Even if they come out with a shock proof and water proof digital SLR it will still be out of the picture. It's just too big.

Lunch was good and there were plenty to choose from. Afternoon snack that day was turon.

The boat ride going home with Mount Maculot in the horizon.

Next year ulit!