Dan In Real Life (2007)

I can't imagine that I missed this film when it came out in 2007. It's a great feel-good movie!

Nice!

GaryV: The ONLY reason one must watch ASAP

Relapse

Had a long weekend (Fri-Sun) last week due to a night system activity which I had to attend. The weekend was filled with pizzas, pasta, and Owa's special killer bulalo (which none has dared beat). I was at 176lbs Saturday morning so, in a state of panic, I hopped onto my treadmill for a 4km run. Sunday morning I ran 4km again.

I've dropped to 175.2lbs as of this morning but still it's a long way from the 173.8lbs that I achieved last Feb19.


Sigh, buti weekday na uli. So I'm back to my wheat-bread peanut butter breakfast and snacks. Btw, I hope to run more this week thanks to my sister's mp3 which I heard yesterday: "Insomnia" by Craig David.

Kewl song!

Meralco Stocks

If you had P3,600.00 last June 2008 and bought 100 stocks of Meralco (MER) at P36.00/stock (plus necessary charges/taxes of course), by today (Feb 19, 2009) your original investment of P3,600.00 would've ballooned to P8,800.00. That's a hefty profit!

Such is the "game" of stock-investing. If you play your cards right, you'll win! I think the important thing here is to know the right stocks to invest in. Specifically, I suggest you invest in those companies that have products that are always in steady demand (Meralco, SanMig Beer) and those whose industry you're very familiar of. In my case, that would be PLDT and Globe.

I hope the current economic crisis that we're in improves soon. So that stocks will go up, and we'll all be happy (investors) again.

Binging on Weekends

So far I've lost 2lbs. The problem is that although I'm losing weight from Monday to Friday, all that lost weight is almost gained in the weekend.

I'd really have to up the ante on the pounds lost. The other guys in our small bet have lost more than my 2-pounder.

If I had P200,000,000

Wow, no one won the P206M Lotto jackpot last Sunday. So I guess the amount will increase in time for the next scheduled draw.

If I had P200M, I would....

....buy a house, particularly that unit in Poinsetta Residences near our place which costs P14M

....buy either a BMW Roadster or a Mercedes Benz SLK

....give P20M to charity (or 10% of my winnings)

....buy PLDT and Meralco stocks

....enrol a portion of my money in Time Deposits

....buy mutual funds

....give 1 or 2M to my Lola in Ilocos Sur

....schedule another trip to LA

....and so on.

So, expect long queues this afternoon until before 8pm. Hopefully, no one wins (so that I can bet next time, hehe).

A Different Feb14 Date

This year's Valentine's Day date was a whole different one as I surprised the missus with a Dinner Cruise on a yacht courtesy of Realship Corporation.

Thanks to clickthecity.com, I was able to contact Realship to make a reservation. The Feb14 dinner is a once-in-a-year thing since the rest of the year, the yacht is rented for events, parties, and marriage proposals. The latter costs a hefty P22,000 which includes food and musicians. Of course, the engagement ring is not included (smile).

The Feb14 dinner was for 11 couples only, with the tables spread out all over the yacht. It costs roughly P3,000/person and includes a 4-course dinner made by an international chef.

The duration of the dinner was for 2 hours which goes around Manila Bay from the yacht's dock next to Harbour Square(?) to Sofitel to Mall of Asia. It was a delightful experience to see the MOA fireworks just a few feet above from where we were sitting in the yacht. Plus it was great to see MOA at night from a different vantage point. It then turns around up next to the pier near Manila Hotel and heads back to the dock.

It was a memorable dinner for me and the missus which I highly recommend you do at least once in your life. But, I guess you have to wait until Feb 2010 to make a reservation.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Another Farrelly Brothers, Ben Stiller classic, this film is downright funny. A great addition to the movie soundtrack could be "Sad To Belong" by England Dan and John Ford Coley.

Great popcorn movie!

Shooter (2007)

I've just finished watching this film. My officemate was right. Mabibilib ka kay Mark Wahlberg after seeing this movie.

Ang bangis!!!

Love Me Again (Land Down Under)

Great scenery shots of Bukidnon and the Outback. Hmmm, well the movie as a whole was not good, but not bad either.

My Weight Loss Update

This morning I weighed 174.4lbs, no thanks to the delectable Cebu Lechon paksiw that Mom brought over the weekend (rapsa!).

Being the statistician geek that I am, I've created an Excel chart to track my progress. Hopefully there'll be real progress next week.

The Biggest Loser

My quest to reach the coveted 152lbs weight (ideal BMI equivalent for my height) has taken a new level. EG, my good friend working in Japan, proposed our little gang of college batchmates to shave the pounds off with a bet.

The guy who looses the most weight by April will receive an original NBA jersey of his choice, with his name stitched at the back...

...AND...

...an original pair of Zoom Kobe IV Carpe Diem limited edition basketball shoes! All courtesy of EG.

BUT (yes, there's always a but), if EG wins, we all treat him and his family to an eat-all-u-can at Jollibee when he arrives from Japan this April.

Wow. Talk about coincidence, I just blogged about the Zoom Kobe IV a few days back and now here's an opportunity to get my hands, err feet, on them, for FREE!

Dang!

Well, just to give an update. I'm now at 174.8lbs based on my digital scale's reading this morning. So far I've lost 1.6lbs. Ang hirap kase umiwas sa pagkain.

Sigh.

But I'm still keeping my hopes up. April is still almost 2 months away. That's still enough time for me to go down to the 152 magic number.

Let's see.

Manny Pacquiao's Basketball Shoe

Yup, he has one. Released by Nike, it's called the Nike Air Max Bizness Manny Pacquiao PE.

Lufet!!!

Read more here.

Her Son and Grandson

My mom tries to keep herself abreast with the latest computer technology whenever she can. She's taken advantage of Globe's P5.00 every 15mins surfing rate so that she's always online even when she's working outside Metro Manila. I believe she's one of those got first hold of those laptops with finger-scanning ID technology. Yup, she's pretty high-tech.

Well, the latest she's done is that she's opened a Multiply account which introduces her to the world of online networking.

Her first entry was simply entitled, "Can you spot the difference?" with a lone picture of me and Lucas. Yup, he's no doubt my son.

Btw, that pic of mine was taken right after I tried cutting my hair a la David's Salon which obviously killed any plan of opening up my own barbershop.

Zoom Kobe IV

During my office lunch break I try to make it a point to window-shop at the Nike and Adidas sports shops. Last week, I was amazed to find the latest Kobe shoe: the Nike Zoom Kobe IV.

Today I dropped by again at Nike to see and hold it but I was taken aback when I saw that the pedestal where the shoe used to sit was empty. I approached one of the sales personnel and he said:


Sir, it's all out of stock.


How about in the other Nike stores?


Out of stock na din po. Naubos lahat due to early reservations.


Any chance they'll ship out a new batch?


Wala na po. Baka ibang model na po padadala.


How much did it cost?


P7,000 a pair.





Sigh. It was a very nice pair that I've come to appreciate much like the Air Jordan XI. But price is really the ultimate drawback, especially for a family man like me. Siguro ipon pa ng Citibank Rewards so I can exchange it for Nike GCs. Hehe, but that'll take some time. Hopefully there'll be a similar shoe as the XI or the IV when I've got the purchasing power.


But for now, I'll still stick it out with my 2-yr old Nike Uptempo Legend which btw I wore in our practice last night wherein I converted six wonderful 3-pointers and a fanciful teardrop drive to the basket.

Pero, sigh, ang ganda nung Zoom Kobe IV.

Bench: Sculler (1991)

This is probably one of the best TV ads in my all time list. The soundtrack is entitled "Claire De Lune" by Chopin.

Second year college ata ako nung pinalabas 'to sa TV. Ah yes, the good ol' days. (smile)

Thank goodness for YouTube!

Weight Loss(?) Update

The reason for the question-mark on my blog-title literally questions my 2009 goal. The reading on our digital scale wasn't encouraging after I stepped onto it this morning: 177 lbs. When I started blogging my goal a few weeks back, I was at 176.4lbs. After a weekend of basketball and threadmills, I went down to 174lbs. I thought I was on the road to recovery back then but, sigh, here I am again.

The root-cause of the sudden relapse, I assume, would be the cold (cold!) mornings the entire week last week which caused me not to exercise at all. I only managed to get enough motivation yesterday morning when I walked around the neighborhood at about 7am for 30mins. The missus discouraged me from doing this type of workout again since she learned that there's a possibility of being kidnapped and asked for ransom. Haaay.

The missus said she heard in the evening news that the cold nights last week might be the last of it since temperatures are starting to rise again. I hope this encourages me to return to my loyal threadmill and jog off this excess weight every morning.

So, here I go again...

Nick Vujicic

Really touching...

More Macros

At a heavy price of 5thou, I had my trusty point-n-shoot Canon IXUS750 digicam repaired this morning. The lens gear got broken during a wedding reception I attended last week so it had to be replaced. Good thing there was a spare part available at the repair center.

Whew, for a moment there I thought we were buying an SLR! Well, this IXUS750 of ours has accumulated its sentimental value already, having bought it with the missus at a gritty Singaporean at SimLim last 2006. This camera has been from Singapore to the Philippines, Malaysia, Europe, and the US. Thus it's good to know that it's spankin' refreshed and ready to shoot more scenes for me and my family. 

Some more macro shots I tried at Owa's garden below...

Brrrr!

Our bedroom's thermometer read 23.1 degrees last night. That's the coldest I've seen it read so far. Lately we haven't been using the aircon nor the electric fan since it's been freezing weather these past few days.

Brrrr!