Mobile Cowboy's Cuisine Trek

I am neither a food connoisseur nor a resto virtouso. Heck, I don't even know essentially the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand, much more than deciphering hard-to-pronounce continental cuisines. But I have been into lots of restaurants that I can already rule out which of the entrees serves superb sapidity. The rule of thumb is simple, choose whatever is the house speciality. But usually, such concoctions are priced relatively high than other courses. 

Going into Filipino restaurant always make a safer selection and a quite easier way to savor taste without the need to google encyclopedic food jargons. 

After a long and laborious meeting with our client at the UP Ayala TechnoHub, we went to the place that reminds us with our college days in restrospect. Mang Jimmy has been a haven for students along the Katipunan universities. It accurately defines the very term "home-cooking" since it is situated right at the very shard backyard of the man whose concept made the place needless to introduce. 

Unpretentious and utterly simple, Mang Jimmy is a place for mobile professionals(empie's for short, an evolved term from yuppies) to gratify mouth-watering goodness without violating one's shoe-string budget. Located right smack at the MWSS compound in Balara, just a stretch from the UP Campus, it has earned notoriety for serving good food with bang-for-the-bucks value. In fact, our bill barely hits the Php500 mark and the three of us are already satiated with bloated tummies and grotesque forms. 

The only sinful indulgence that we have repeatedly committed that day was to feast over a huge serving of Crispy Pata smidged with home-made sauce. It will even definitely lure diet-conscious and South Beach advocates. You can never go wrong with their sizzling plates and I bet one will never go home with an empty(or even mid-full) stomach. This is probably what my friend Shy means when she describes their home dishes to be "abundance is food." 

They didn't let us pay for our rice when most of it glided to each of our stomach quite profusely. 

Given our speed to be close to a hundred kph, we arrive at the place 4:00PM, started eating 4:20PM and ended up 6:45PM. It was absolutely room-filling. 

Jetson's wedding of the future

It's wedding time. At least that is what I have felt this season, not so much with the forthcoming yuletide break, since it has been a prevailing cycle when we pave way to the -ber months. 

But it is definitely noteworthy when one felt December to be vicarious alternative to June. Maybe because people are bent on receiving huge lump sum of Christmas bonuses and annual incentives. Or perhaps they just simply would like to start a year long being into each others arms. 

Couple of years back, Cat got wed. Few weeks ago, Pen just got married. Now Sha is about to tie knot too with her dearest inamorato. I mean, most of the pals that I have been hanging out with for so long are in one way or another disintegrated into our singlehood circle... gradually.  And ultimately leaving me alone in the circle. 

And speaking of Pen, let me start my story by asking an apology. You know, there are things that I couldn't do in my solitude just so in the present times that I am still nursing a broken heart. Things that would remind me of her, things that would make me long for her, I have been eluding it. I couldn't even watch a movie all by myself, much less than attending a wedding ceremony. It was plainly bad timing and I'm sorry for not attending, for not being there in the most celebrated moment in your life.  

Going back to the heart of the matter, I am neither a bane to romances nor have I possess expert knowledge in the dissertations of marriage and its grandstanding. But I have more or less an opinion on what I want whenever this technophilia that I am decided to walk down the aisle with my bride. Techno-thematics in its finest.

But Catholic Church is flooded with century old "conservatism" which might oppose the cultivation of new, rising radical ideas. So I will try my best to stand on the amicable ground between what is reasonable and what is reformatory, on what is historical and what is hype. 

Given my affinity to cars, I'd start thinking my quentessential wedding picture on settling what car would be used. Partly reminiscent of the Cinderella pumpkin-inspired carousel, this is enclosed in glass, so that my wife can be seen at all angles. I mean hey, she is the queen of her own, she should have the claim of exposure, the right to royalty. Afterall, the difference between a bride and a debutante is the sealed commitment of her eightenth rose.

If having an iPod that plays church music is already an uncompetitive thought in the Jetson's wedding of the future, maybe a wedding ring that has a playback capability to project videos into a screen would make bells and whistles. Yes, a wedding ring that works much like MP4 players slash microprojectors. Projecting into a screen would be quite an extraordinary idea as devices that should have this feature must comply two essential requirements: 1) light bulb small enough but can project large screen dimensions and 2) a battery pack also small enough but can withstand an hour of playback. 

Next is to think of a place that where all these high tech(albeit farfetched) ideas roll into reality. Maybe a dome stationed in the Earth's orbit? Connected into the ground via elevator with cables a tensile strength of the univserse's strongest alloy? 

Skin sizzlin' your laptop

I started skinning my laptop four years ago via Gmask, whose only laptop skinning outlet is at Greenbelt 1. That was way way back. And way way far from my place of work. Now my Acer Aspire 3620 is collecting dust like magnet, while serving its sole purpose of entertainment, playing dvd to lull me to sleep, or before I sleep.

But true to the apothegm that you'd go far places to make yourself beautiful, same goes true with laptop. Afterall, one's laptop is an embodiment of your personality. Seen in today's teen with laptop the colors of pink and pastels, with the designs of Hello Kitty and Tweety Bird, laptop has been gradually evolving to be fashion statement other than its main purpose of computing slash surfing. Probably competing fashion spots with cellphone's interchangeable housing wayback its heydays, today's laptop also dresses up according to the myriad of user's personality.

But skinning your laptop is not an easy task and is mostly done by professionals, and taking an hour to finish(at least that is what Gmask advised customers as the lead time of service).

Well, gone are those days. Cretouch skins are easy to install and don't require sweat producing glands to work.

Care of Cretouch at cretouch.com, you have plethora of premium skins to choose from, from the wood finish to the leather designs. Short for Creative Touch, Cretouch is your ally in terms of revolutionary make overs on boring laptop lids. My favorite design would be the carbon fiber, maybe drawned by my affinity to cars with carbon fiber hoods.

My gripe with Gmasking my device is that it doesn't come cheap. I remember having shelled out around 3grand for overall maskable area.

Now, I'm glad I don't have to spend a dime as my netbook's lid already has a decent design out of the box. See the similarity of the carbon skinned MacBook above with my Toshie NB205?

How mobile are you

One has to defy the orthodox rule of social lifestyle to be able to answer question like "how mobile are you."

For some, it is measured as to the frequent flight miles they had with their airline loyalty privies, while others think of it as the number of times they are at home versus the lifestyle they lead outside. 

I myself measured it by how I easily adhere working lifestyle with personal ones, while maintaining the ever shifting landscapes. 

You see, I had been always on the perpetual move since I started marketing role wayback God-knows-when. Probably since the time I had my social security ID and TIN number. 

Remember the PocketBell days? When pagers used to be the primary means of contact for mobile professionals? I am one of those donning EasyCall pager on my left waist while Philips Fizz cellphone(analog) on my right. 

Then comes the revolutionary age of the PDA, those electronic brick that poses to be the handy computer via inception of wifi. With my immersion to wwireless technology, I was even featured in a magazine that speaks about mobile sphere in the Filipino culture. 

And now, with netbooks came into fruition, plus the advent of 3G, a promise of mobile lifestyle has even sharpened in massive scale. One can now juggle work at the time of pleasure. An unhealthy combination but considerably convenient. The hussles and bustles in getting confined at the four cornered office is now replaced with cozy and sleazy coffee shops where you can just bring your laptop and cellphone, and viola, the mobile office is with you. Unplug and play is the name of the game. 

One can enjoy the atmosphere of his favorite hang out circuit while not missing business documents and deadlines. 

But as to how far has this reached us is best measured by the laptop shipments in a year. Atom processor doubled sales figure in just a short span of time, cannibalizing the other conventional CPU market. 

It used to be the dictum of the OLPC brainchild to have widespread distribution of portable computers, hence the abbreviation "One Laptop Per Child."

And so it is. Today's Filipino household possessed at least one laptop. Some even has one laptop per family member. 

And the coffee shops' primary amenity don't limit to the variety of palatables and drinkables. In house, store sponsored wifi are already part of the offerings. The doors are not only gracing with menus to choose from but with wifi logo to stay connected, a come-on feature. 

In fact, I am writing this blog in a smoothie cafe while securing my needed break from a Mitsubishi event I was part of, showned by my red Mitsubishi T-shirt and the picture of the exhibit venue. (And it's one of those rarest, priceless moments that I wore rubber shoes on an occasion). A classic example of lifestyle/paradigm shift while traversing different landscapes. Speaking of which, do watch out for the next leg of Montero Sport Challenge by Mitsubishi Motors Philippines. 

Until here, I will be back to the event.  

Emergency Mobile Must-Have's

The past typhoon Ondoy ultimately gives us a stern lesson, whether on our way of coping tragedies, or our wherwithal to rise above distress, or even our workin plan in preparing such disasters.

The Ondoy which swept the entire into total darkness, literally and metaphorically, is a distinct mark at how adept and equipped are we in the face of turbulence.

With the city almost in total darkness after several languishing hours of power outage, one could almost account as what would have we prepped in the cases of long hours of brown out.

Not mentioning the flood, since it can only be coped at a massive scale and socio-political level, let's dichotomize this disaster into the nucleus of individual importance.

Had it not been with my Toshiba netbook, I would been gnawed in total darkness too. This is probably thing working in the entire neighborhood(not mentioning some PSP's of my younger kins), which professes to endure 9hours of continuous computing. My phone rendered useless as Globe's signal were a matter of futility, latter known that some communication tower near the flooded area conks out and can hardly be repaired because roads are impassable.

In my modest contemplation, I listed down the things I could have brought and bought as an emergency must-have's:

1) Battery Geek Portable Power Station: With over 30 + tips along with a travel case and a pouch to carry just the battery and cord, this is probably the must have gadget in cases of emergency. This claimed to power up your device up until 18 to 20hours. Imagine if you have a netbook that can last around 7 to 9hours, plus this portable wonder, then you'd be alive and online for close to 30hours.

2) OXO Candela Luau Portable Lamp: While many of us has different versions of what a portable lamp comes to mind, be it a hybrid radio/ lamp/flash light or a mere table top lamp, one should have at least this device to endure in lengthy hours of power interval. One thing that comes close to mind is the Oxooutdoor lantern that can light up your life up to 10hours, depending on the brightness setting. If your TV's out and DVD marathon's not possible, then better grab this portable lamp and just commune with good books.

3) Candles: But if you don't have $199 to boot for a portable lamp, then better get candles but you've got to be careful since it is one of the fireman's hot list on the most common causes of fire. The most nifty design I have come across with is this beer-inspired candle. Now, if you're thinking of pleasuring your alcohol-drenched friends with Christmas presence, this might be the IT thing.

4) Emergency Light: Known to be as common office must-have's as with fire extinguisher, this is also handy at home. Renowned as the industrial illuminator which automatically light up when AC outlet is not supplying power, it is probably the most seen and required building item.

5) Dynamo Torch with mobile phone charger: One of the most dressed-to-advantage devices is this flash light cum torch cum all other name-it-functionalities, including mobile phone charging and AM/FM transmitter. It can withstand up to 8hours of superb illumination. When TV's out, and books are all consummed to mind, maybe it's time to return to your humble auditory roots when radio drama and corny FM DJ's stormed the airwaves.

Post Mortem:

In the light of these, may I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our neighbor Noel who has a Christian congregation that took the initiative of carrying three sacks of slightly stressed clothings of mine to the site, when I am world-weary and could not mobilize for having hailed from work.

And just as the spirit of helping hand reaches, I ask a friend of mine too to donate some of her used clothings to the poor flood indigents. Just as I hoped, she said yes. She is a staunch believer of retail therapy and has an uncanny shopping habits like no tomorrow, with clothes piling up more than she could ever wear.

While some groups of friends in the industry participated in the photo exhibit at Badminton Galaxy, 2F Auto Galaxy Bulding, Sapphire Road, Ortigas Center. The exhibit featured photographs capturing the hope, love and heroism amidst typhoon Ondoy. "Capture the light" is all about the art and craft of capturing emotion, strength and bayanihan in action using whatever camera one have(yes even a cellphone). Proceeds of this exhibit was given to the destituted few of this flood.