Once Upon a Lick

Wasting time reading just book reviews and browsing. Was gonna update my WP Blog and also make a journal entry but..mind is static. I'm browsing the web doing the where-are-they now search. Mostly grade school and high school friends and online friends.

Just wish I have Ben and Jerry's Ice cream to snack on. Heh. It's morning. Not wise to do so. Rustans finally brought back the brand in their supermarket so.. can't wait to eat and lick. And By the way, this crop crap licking shot of me was 5 years ago. Heh.

New Lenovo Laptop and NetBook

For the budget conscious there's a s 13-inch notebook IdeaPad U350, S12 IdeaPad Netbook with option of having Nvidia's Ion processor for graphics, Lenovo G550, a 15.6-inch laptop and the C330 all-in-one desktop. It's an Atom-powered desktop with the display and motherboard in a single case, a trendy desktop form factor.

Reviews, specs and shots from Engadget CNET Gizmodo

A joke to some, it's serious for others

Actor Alec Baldwin made a remark about getting Filipina Mail Order Bride during his guest stint at the David Letterman show. News link via SF Chronicle. Read the 300 plus comments draw your conclusion. Revillia's the butt of the joke. Actually, some of the comments left were more offensive than what Alec said.

It was meant to be a joke but then again it came from Alec Baldwin so I guess people reacted? *edit/update.. he apologized already.

I mean, when the movie Jarhead came out several years ago, there's a reference about Filipino women being Mail Order Brides and no one reacted to that? Well, except those who were watching it..they were laughing. But anyway, what Alec said was the truth. There are hundreds of women throwing themselves at white men. They think that it's a way out of poverty. Do we blame the women for that? No. Government, yes.

On the other hand... in a different case, I think that the Senator should be lauded for making that speech against a doctor who secretly videotaped his actress girlfriend (and others as well)... while having sex... . That doctor(Kho) is fcktard!

Love and Devotion

**edit/update.. Farrah Fawcett passed away Thursday morning 25 June. (AP/yahoo).
Remember the first scene and lines from Love Story and also the the last scene? Sad day for Ryan O'Neal.
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In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not receiving~ Nicholas Sparks

Enduring, Endearing, these words simply cannot describe the sacrifices partners of Farrah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze has had to endure.Both actors are now facing a battle with sickness both had been diagnosed with cancer. Lisa, Swayze's wife and Ryan, O'Neal, Farrah's long time love have been by their side throughout the ordeal and I think it's just worth mentioning.

We are often so jaded and cynical about relationships but there those whom we can admire the longevity of love and devotion for one another. In these trying times they're facing, we are being reminded about faith, hope and strenght

NBC recently showed video diary/ documentary of Farrah's battle with anal cancer and many have been touched but it also earned criticisim. It's been reported that she is nearing death and it must be heartbreaking for the loved ones. This post is mainly about the devotion of long time partner in the struggles faced by the ones they have devoted their life and love.

Geek in the Blog

Microsoft unveiling it's new OS Windows 7 (build7100). I blogged about this some time in February and mentioned how it has so many editions: starter, home basic, home premium, professional, enterprise and the ultimate. Whew. Pick one there.

Anyway, Windows 7 RC (release candidate) available now for download but will expire 2010 and after that it will auto shut down every two hours before it's expiration. Ugh. There is also an XP mode that comes with this new OS. Read the CW link for more.

Read different reviews for Windows 7 via Arts Technica ZDnet CW IT Management Gizmodo

I think I OD'd Watching the Commercials... instead of the fight!

Just watched the super delayed bout on t.v(not pay-per-view) and not in any establishment. I'd like to knockout those advertisements. Delayed telecast plus overload of commercials! I mean, they were longer than the fight rounds! Tsk.

Not so Breaking News: Pacquiao KO's Hatton!

Floyd Mayweather Sr. must be eating to shreds his poem! Ha!

Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao demolishes Ricky Hatton in the second round of their bout billed as Battle of the East and the West! Hatton was knockout during the first round but recovered, then come the second round, Pacquiao went for it. Result, Hatton knockout again.. and never recovered. He was lying on his back longer than the round. But's he's alright..

As usual, the fight still has not been shown in our television screens. Delayed thing again. I got the news of the victory through the radio because my sister was listening to the news. And then CNN had a breaking news about the win of Manny.

News link : yahoo sports, TSN, Fox sports, LA Times

I'm so Square.I Like my Guilty Pleasure: AI

It's hip to be square. Man, I can't help it. Call me square if you like. it just draws me every time to the telly screen. Last week I had a one liner blog about American Idol. Yep not in 140 character or less type. Twittered though. Last night was musically entertaining. No yawns for me. Almost 3 a.m now, wanted to blog because I keep humming the songs.

And yeah, I'm such a square. Three more weeks. He he.

Economic Woes, Debts, Depression Triggered a Man to Kill His Family

Depressing news. It's graphic it's gory it's sad. The reality of life comes in to play here. Still I know it does not excuse what the man did.

This story from Washington Post

The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.

Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings.

According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once. After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun.

Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.

"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.

A tragic and story and especially knowing the reason that the husband did it because of economic hard times. I once blogged about 12 year old girl who committed suicide because of poverty and what drives people to to things like that.

We always say that money is nothing and family is everything but. Money is causing all these anxiety and depression and and driving people to kill others, commit suicide and end lives to spare one's self or the others of the hardships. It's wrong. It shouldn't be like that. But that is reality.

The harsh realities of life is drives people in the brink of madness. Financial problems and the difficulty of where to get money, how to raise kids and put them to through school and then losing a job. All this adds up the pressures of providing the daily needs for the family in this economic hardships we're facing. Meanwhile the situation becomes a constant reminder and in turn depression sets in and it becomes too much. The end result is to eliminate the problem and not fix the cause. It's not right. Not right all.

Nature Gves Us Peace and Hope

But I look out at the open window too, over the large area of Amsterdam, over all the roofs and onto the horizon, as long as this exists, I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this last I cannot be unhappy. God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, I know that there will always be comfort for every sorrow. I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all our trouble" - Anne Frank

Good Morning. Happy Earth Day.

Susan Boyle Showed Us What Human Grace is All About

If you're a news junkie..pop culture or otherwise, chances are you've probably read or seen or heard about Susan Boyle. Already 50 million views on You Tube, she appeared in Britain's Got Talent and made everyone cry and take a long good look at themselves.

From BBC article .. (long one so click the link to read everything)

Last Saturday, viewers saw Boyle, with double chin, unkempt hair, frumpy appearance and eccentric demeanour, step onto the talent show stage and proclaim her dream of being a professional singer.

The judges rolled their eyes and the audience pulled incredulous faces. Onlookers, on set and at home, were rubbing their hands at the prospect of another hopeless, deluded loser being crushed by a withering Simon Cowell insult.

Then she opened her mouth and sang I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.
Her voice confounded all expectations - the judges' eyes bulged, the crowd went wild and Boyle became an instant star.

Boyle has shattered prejudices about the connection between age, appearance and talent. She has proved that you don't have to be young and glamorous to be talented, and recognised as such

Lisa Schwarzbaum, writer for US celebrity magazine Entertainment Weekly, said the performance was a powerful reality check.

She wrote: "In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging - the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts - the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.

"She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

It is such a fairytale story for a spinster who from the physical appearance outside one would never think that she she would have the beauty and grace from the inside. Her voice carried the inner beauty that the outside look belied.

This is the story where we should all just pause and think why we should never ever think that we are far more better than the others. That we look much superior, that we have that pretty face face, dressed in fancy clothes and no can make fun us. Susan Boyle showed us all that when you have that inner grace and beauty inside, it will show on the outside.

It's painful to lose a wife, it's harder to to lose a mother

Broadcaster Ted Failon's wife passed away at around 8:50 due gun shot wound in the head. The news said there signs of if improvement but she didn't make it. (abs cbn)

What I'm more concerned about is the effect on the younger child. It must be be very hard especially for a 12 year old to learn of what happened to her mom. At a time like this, it's important that she gets surrounded by family and relatives.

This is what they say about Twitter....

Twitter helps you become a better writer. Oh kay. You'd have to be precise because you only have 140 characters or less to tweet. But isn't that the same as sending a text message? (texting doesn't help you become a good writer) or am I wrong? Probably depends on what kind of cell phone you're using. Anyway, I do have twitter. I'm never too wordy. Hehe I am concise and I can get across the blahs I need to in 140 characters or less. Hah!

For longer sentiments, I use WP and this blog and CDX. Lemme tweet now. Ha ha

Whatever comes to mind

I have no idea what Toxic Assets means. I'm not miss- know it- all. I do know the world is feeling the economic crisis. Hell, my pocket feels it too and so I gotta save.

Crap. I want the 70 pesos Halo-Halo. He he.

A Rapist Should Never Get Out of Jail!

Oh no! I just a heard a news from the telly that Romeo Jalosjos maybe release tomorrow! I think I mentioned during my previous entry that rapist, molestors, pedophiles should be forever lock up. If he did it once, 99.9 % he'll do it again! What the hell is happening to justice and principles and convictions?!

Subic Rape Victim Retracts Testimonies Against US Marine

Update: Daniel Smith acquitted by CA. News via INQ.

Looking back I would not have agreed to talk with him and dance with him no less than three times if I did not enjoy his company or what at least attracted me to him since I met him for the first time on the dance floor."

With this statement, "Nicole," the Filipina who caused the conviction of a US serviceman in 2006, changed her testimony against Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, hinting that she was not raped by the American.

You can read more from GMA News and see the pieces of her sworn statement retracting her testimonies that Daniel Smith raped her.

She fooled herself and the people who rallied to her cause!

I somehow knew that this was gonna happen. As early as the beginning of the trial, somewhere at the back of mind, the "victim"would someday recant everything that she had accused Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of raping her.

When I blogged about the court's decision (4 accused, 3 were aquitted while main suspect Smith was sentenced) I said that she looks like she could care less about the decision. And she was insincere and phony for saying a lot of things but then going to the jail to visit Smith because she of felt sorry for him.

According to the mom, Nicole left to start a new life and leave everything behind. And this I found ironic.. ..she left for the US! And there was 2 years ago accusing 4 US servicemen of trying to rape her! How was she able to get a visa? Man, that's puzzling.

According to Justice Gonzales “If she just went to Italy may be that would be more illustrative of her feelings against the US. But she did not go to Italy." I don't like that old fart but I will agree with him just this once on the victim going to the US.

Rape is a serious charge. To be raped is traumatic and one should never ever go through that and the derange perverts, rapist, molestors, pedophiles who commits sick acts should be put away for good! However to accused somebody of rape then lie about it, is just as worse. Imagine, somebody accusing you of something you didn't even do?

This from my 2006 blog when an AP correspondent interviewed him.

"I think it's horrible what I've been accused of"

"This place has taken a year off of my life that I can never get back and I just hope the lies will stop and the people will start to see the truth,"

"My career and my life in general has come to a screeching halt,"

"Even if there was an attempt to settle, I wouldn't want to because this is my life here and I'm being accused of what I feel is the worst thing anybody can be accused of," he said, reacting to allegations by the complainant's mother that prosecutors tried to talk her into agreeing to a settlement. "I would like my name to be cleared," Smith said (link)

And this from the statement of the Victim..retracting

.... "However…I can’t help but entertain doubts on whether the sequence of events in Subic last November of 2005 really occurred the way the court found them to have happened," she said.

She said that she was continuously being bothered by her conscience.

Yay! And so she left for US!

Imagine that. It's kinda like people rallying against the VFA but then maybe finding out that some of those who are demonstrating have US visas or wanting to visit the US.

One can only shake at people convictions and principles.

View more blog related posts:
He said, she said (article and interview)
Accused Marine Daniel Smith speaks out (AP interview)
Interview with the accused (Chad Carpentier)
Subic rape case: four u.s marines charged with rape
Subic rape case may not be a case after all
Military tales, Military woes

The whinings of getting the cold shoulder treatment

I guess all the tartness and money in world cannot get you to meet Thom nor demand to even hang out with the band.

Miley Cyrus wanted to see Radiohead back at the Grammy awards last month but of course.. she was turned down by the band. Snubbed.

I have this smirking laugh right now. Couldn't help it. Heh.

Cyrus promised to “ruin” Radiohead after being snubbed by the band backstage at the Grammys, Interview of Thom Yorke, offer some insight as to why the band would never want to encounter the Disney star. Link via Rolling Stone (click to read full article and see the other video interviews)

More...

So what was Radiohead’s response when offered the chance to meet Miley Cyrus? “We don’t really do that,” the band’s reps told Miley’s manager. From what we know, Yorke is a notoriously shy guy who probably wasn’t in the mood to hang out with a chirpy star-struck teenager who has probably never heard Hail to the Thief, discussing unicorns and Nick Jonas in the hours before his band was set to perform at their very first American awards show. Plus, Yorke had already snubbed Kanye West, so there was no way Miley Cyrus was going to get a meet-and-greet. Read full article again via Rolling Stone..and there is a video of the the tweeny star telling all about the snubbing.

Honestly, I'm thinking... why would Thom Yorke and Company would want to meet her (and even Kanye West for that matter) anyway? He's known to snub other fan celebrities.

The loss of a child is very tragic

Be it a child or many school kids like whats happened in Beslan.. it's gonna be very very sad event. Watching the new and and hearing how 10 year old grade school pupil of Ateneo was hit by moving and died was just painful. No words can comfort sorrow that parents must be feeling as the sudden loss of child. There's shock and hurt and then anger. You will numdb and then questions... why? It's a pity, th whole situation. It's sad for the vicitim's family.. the pain they much be going through losing a their 10 year old boy... but at the same time, I also feel pity for the other side. Pity because.. no mother would ever ever ever try to "kill a child" except maybe if woman is disturbed or an addict or a drunkard. I don't know. The suspect is a mother who also has a son studying in the same schoool. That boywould feel condemnation because he is son of the suspect. It's a a pity for the mom... it's tragedy and pain and sorrow to for the victim. Everybody's suffering.

Prayers are the best answers for guidance, for loss and for the sufferings.

Couch Potato News

In the year 2000....Conan 0' Brien's bid adieu to his show after 16 years. What I'll remember most about his show are never been seen and done sketches (think moving lips and stuff), triumph the insult dog, those bands which we rarely get to see perform... and of course his brand of humor.. self- deprecating one at that. He's going to take over the show which Jay Leno bids farewell too as he will have a new prime time talk show as well,. Basically, Conan still will be second fiddle. Heh

In the year 2000.. it's The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien...featuring Triumph the insult dog.

Blah blah for tonight

Switched from Outlook to Lotus . I don't like it. Maybe I'm just so used to the old one.

I went on a mini food trip earlier. Bought dulce de leche and minty chocolate gelato from Amici then went to Icings and ate shrimps and sausage pasta with matching Pandan drink. No wonder I'm feeling kinda blimp the rest of of the night. I was trying to be frugal and save money but.. appetite won.