Samsonite Locus Bkpk: Low-cost laptop bag

Because I am stuffing so much in my laptop bag including the cosmetics essentials like lip gloss, concealer, loose powder, perfume, and toothbrush/toothpaste, aside from the usual cargo like credit cards, chargers, USB drive, external hard drive, a digital camera, and some documents from what is supposed to be my paperless, fully digital universe, it tends to amass so much bulk from the previous slim type backpack. That previous laptop bag was screaming for a justice of space and mercy of rest.

So I gave it what it deserves, a rest in the cudgels.

That compelled me to go and hunt for its replacement killer. At the Samsonite Podium, a boutique chain run by Stores Specialist Inc of the Rustan Group of Companies, I found a bag astutely fitting to meet my mobile lifestyle.

The bag, Samsonite Locus Backpack. It has an adjustable laptop sleeve that can fit laptops with sizes 12.1" up to 15.4" which is made of a thick, fleece-like material - Tricot, a less harsh but sturdy alternative to Velcro straps. It has an EVA(Ethylene Vinyl Acetate)-padded handle and an ergonomic back panel to make lugging it around comfortable. Not only does it come with an expandable laptop sleeve, it is also actually an expandable bag that you can unzip to expand its main compartment.

And Locus it sounds, it is "low cost" at a price of Php4,450.

Mercado buffet at Resorts World Manila

We(me and my college room mate) were about to head to BeyondTheBox RWM to buy some Mac accessories, but we're too hungry to start the day shopping. So for a cheapskate meal, we decided to hit on Mercado buffet's food with epic proportion, a buffet that is, something that can get us through the entire day.

Mercado as an en masse definition from its Spanish word stands for marketplace. And true to its meaning, it indeed is a marketplace of the amalgamation of Filipino dishes with a bit of continental fusion of Asian and European cuisines. Tucked inside where the Casino is at, evokes a certain charm and a myrrh of exclusivity to RWM members.

Because taking a picture is strictly prohibited, I took few stolen shots using my iPhone 4, at a discreet angle and dangerous disposition from the possibility of getting caught. So spare me if some photos didn't yield a better composition.

I was supposed to commence my meal with bread and soup but I surmise to go ahead with main entrees, a Roasted Pumpkin(not in the pic) and Carrot Cream Soup, Bulalo(not in the picture) Shrimp Gamba, and a steamed Potato.

Chicken Barbecue with a Macaroni Salad, an unorthodox combination.

Roasted Porklion in an Apple Sauce and Pene Pasta.

Japanese Maki(not in the picture) and Chinese dumplings.

Shanghai Roll and Vegetable Tempura.

Comfort foods, Taco and French Fries. They also have hobbit burgers(with a circumference as small as a Php10 coin but I forgot to snap a picture).

They also have a Mongolian station that you can ask a chef to prepare it for you with your choice of ingredients. Mine came out spicy hot and doesn't have a rice not to preserve my gastric space.

Fruits and fruit salad to conclude my main entrees.

I made my own salad to aid in my digestion.

They have a whole slew of desserts, from Chocolate Fountain to Chocolate Mousse, from Strawberry Lemon Bars to Chocolate Rolls, from Leche Flan to Coffee Panna Cotta, from Ice Cream to Ice Candy.

Although they only have a limited entrees, for a price of Php578 I got from a groupie site, I think it's worth a try. Sadly, they don't have a steak, lobster or a lamb.

And oh, they have refillable drinks too, Pepsi products in soda dispenser, Pineapple Punch, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, and a draft beer.

How to eat in a buffet

Because I have been buffet-ing more frequently than anyone's definition of frequency, this has evolved to be my third profession. And MobilityReel aptly describes it to be"mga propesyonal na mangangain".  My first profession being a technology journalist, second as an astrophysics lecturer, third a professional "buffeteer." And yes, it's too frequent to the point that I have developed both an art and a science of doing it. Life in a buffet is not just about eating to death, there are so many buffet restaurants out there that you need to enjoy life at dining at all of them. It's not about eating a lot, but eating a lot in the right order of things.

Let me share to you some tips on how to eat in a buffet, call this post a buffet booster.

1) Practice makes perfect. You heard it right, even eating in a buffet takes practice. Try going on a diet, and all of a sudden, eat in a buffet, you'd end up throwing it all up. So practice, and what I meant by practice is that try to eat a profuse amount a week or weeks before so as to expand your stomach space, but don't overdo it the day you are scheduled for your buffet.

2) Go with the most expensive first. Yes, it can be a little bit of everything but you try the pricier courses first in order to maximize your one thousand grand worth of meal. The general rule of thumb is that, eat what you don't normally eat, or eat what is not found in your usual household table. Perhaps you go with a slab of steak first, then on to the Peking Duck, Roast Turkey, or Lamb, then Lobster, Crabs and Prawns.

3) Try to observe plating. The mistake of most people is that they tend to over-utilize the plate space by piling in different courses in one plate. This will not only produce ickyness(closest word for "umay" in Filipino) but will ultimately reduce your appetite. It doesn't matter how many plates you have used, they'll take it out of your table anyway.

4) Avoid reusing the same plate. The grease and other left-overs will mix into your new entrees. Plus, it's a bit of unkempt to use just one pate for the entire buffet period. You're not in a town fiesta, so why would you use single plate repititiously.

5) Minimize pork but if you can't help it make it to be the the last meat to take. Pork has a tough meat, and you can't waste a gastric space for it.

6) Avoid carbo-loading. I don't eat rice in a buffet. Instead, I eat a bit of bread but not too much. The thing with bread is that it is more digestible compared to rice. Have you noticed why you tend to be hungry faster after eating a loaf of bread than eating a cup of rice?

7) Water is a no no in between meals. If you felt like the food is already about to expel out from you, take a hot soup. Aside from the fact that hot liquid settles down the food components, the saltiness of the hot soup also accelerates your appetite.

8) I already mentioned about eating a little bit of everything. It pays to survey the food little by little first, a la taste test. Round them up, then go full throttle with something you really like.

9) Fruits and vegetables are water-based, so make it your grand finale. Also, vegetable aids in the digestion process, which then might give you a chance to enjoy your next meal, just in case you're about to eat two buffets in a day.

10) While wine or any refillable beverage of that sort has been a buffet add-on, don't be fooled by it. It will only lessen your chances to maximize your buffet stint. Yes, a wine is so good to complement a juicy, delectable slab of steak, but you're in a buffet not just for a steak but for other courses as well. You can drink lots of water after eating in a buffet. Eating a lot will consume your body fluids that you tend to hydrate a lot faster after a buffet.

Perhaps you have other tips as well but these are the things that I can share and has worked for me and my monster pack. Contrary to the myth that when unbridled, stomachs could reach up to the Moon, we have in fact a very limited gastronomic tubing, so eating in the right order of things helps, especially in a buffet restaurant where almost everything looks too sumptuous.

Space Shuttle and Space Station: New Toys

I was born during the SkyLab generation. If you don't know what it was, it was the world's first largest space station that was used to study the sun(particularly coronal holes) and microgravity, including its effects on long-haul orbital or deep space flights.

It has been a media event, as it was launched into orbit at the height of a Cold War, where space program is an interferometer of military might and technological power, and a country that has one is touted to rule the world.

Because of the micrometeroid, its thermal protection was torn apart, exposing itself to the dangers of the intense solar heating. The SkyLab was then predicted to make a re-entry and fall back to the Earth, citing Pacific Ocean to be the crash zone.

It created massive fear as countries, including the Philippines, near the zone may be hit a rain of burning debris(metals coming from the Earth's atmosphere tend to be so hot, they're almost at a melting point).

My mom always told us to be good always, using the SkyLab crash-landing as an iota of fear, saying that it may burn our house. We lived with that fear until the SkyLab finally kissed the ground and hit the Esperance town of Australia.

Just recently, I got a gift from Dr. Armand Lee, my fellow Board of Director from the astronomical community I belong to. It's a US Space Shuttle and a Russian Mir Space Station. I laugh at it saying, ha, I got the Russian and US space agency in my hand.

I brought them in the office and they are now happily gracing my used-to-be-drab desk, in between my laptop and desktop. Someday they might render useful when I use them as props for my discussion on Einstein Theory of Relativity, time dilation, and probably time travel.

My thanks to Dr. Lee and Merry Christmas to him and his family. He sure knows how to tickle my geeky bones.

Corniche Restaurant at Manila Diamond Hotel

Corniche in French stands for a road on a ledge, and indeed it is, the Corniche Restaurant is located at an esplanade where a breathtaking rock formation of cascading waterfalls is at. And perhaps, for this Diamond Hotel's resident restaurant, roads too here are always a lane to the ledge, and life to be lived on the edge.

The restaurant interior is so edgy that it has one of the glitziest designs of all the restaurants I have been into, utilizing polished metals and acrylics to boot. The centerpiece is a suspended flock of migrating birds made up of a fusion of glass and metal, complementing the deluxe interior and communing the elaborate view of the waterscape.

This 650sq meter restaurant boasts of scrumptious cuisines from continental origins of French, Italian, Mediterranean, and Asian goodness.

A scenic view of their waterscape fronting the restaurant.

Roast wonders, Peking Duck, Chinese Soy Chicken, Charsu Pork, and Lechon Macao.

They also have a wide variety of fresh meats that you can ask the chef to grill them for you with your preferred choice of sauce.

And they have the noodle and paste section too.

Mandarin Style Chicken.

Sweet and Sour Pork.

Baked Pork Spare Ribs Vetnamese Style.

Sesame Ginger Roasted Cod Fillet.

Beef Pochero.

Cajun Roasted Potato. They're using some kind of herb, this tasted so awesome good.

Shrimp Crusted Mahi Mahi with Citrus Sauce and Cherry Tomato Confit.

Chicken Cooked with Red Chilli Sauce.

Carribean Jerk Pork Chops.

Beef Medallion with Pepper and Olives.

Variety of ingredients for the Salad Station.

Salmon Gravian, Salami, Chorizo Pamplona, Hummus, Salmon Rillete and Salmon Cheese Pate among others.

Margarita Pizza, Cold Cuts Pizza and assorted bread with different cheese kinds, Brie, Parmesan, Blue Cheese, Goat Cheese, etc.

Seafoods section, lobster, crabs, and what have you'd. They've got lots of them. Really.

Seafoods again, shells, shrimps.

Fresh greens on top of seafoods.

Japanese section has Gyoza and Tempura.

Sashimi and sushi welcomes you at the Japanese section.

Maki section, they've got lots of them too. And while people picked them like there's no tomorrow, you can see the chef on the background endlessly refill the display.

Sushi and Sashimi.

Even at Japanese section where raw meats unfolds, they still have cooked variants, Breaded Chicken with Egg and Sweet and Sour sauce. Although not in the pic, but they also have Fish Bacalao Teriyaki, Stir Fry Mix Vegetables, and Pork Curry.

Fresh fruits to conclude your meal.

Wait.. don't conclude your meal yet without the desserts.

Creme Brûlées.

Cakes.

Ice Cream(Coconut, Passion Fruit, Coconut and Vanilla, Almond, and Uba) and Halo Halo section.

Sugarless Raspberry Panacota for the diabetic me and Black Jelly for a non-diabetic me in another space and time.

More desserts.

Oh sweets, let it flow.. let it flow.. let it flow...

Dark Chocolate Ganahche Tart, Coffe Ganache Tart, and Cream Puff.

Chocolate fountain.

And my favorite, who could ever say no to a huge slab of juicy US beef steak. You know that my yardstick to a buffet is the presence of a steak, so let me say it again: a buffet is not a buffet without a steak. If you can't bring me a steak, at the least, bring me a nicely cooked lamb chop.

What's on my plate, ah Japanese delight, Sushi and Sashimi.

Japanese Maki.

Tempura.

Lamb Chops, a bit of Ham and a Peking Duck.

Asian section includes Chinese delights. They have noodle and Chinese Dumplings too.

Now, I'm on a full throttle with the main entrees.

Margarita Pizza and Vegetable.

I made myself a vetegable salad with red wine vinaigrette.

To get rid of ickyness, I had the chef make me a noodle soup.

Pork and Potato. Pork should be the last of my what-to-eat list in a buffet because pork has the toughest meat and besides I can eat them at just anywhere.

Desserts on my table.

Halo halo and ice cream combo

And concluding my meal is a crepe. I had it done by the chef at a crepe section.

The last time I was at the Diamond Hotel was way back 1999 when I took the podium and spoke to a 100 people regarding non-linear editing technology, a technology at its infancy phase from a consumer perspective. There was no Corniche at that time, as they have just opened November of last year.

In the celebration of Corniche anniversary, they have offered 50% discount of their lunch buffet from November 22-30, 2011. Per person, you only to get to pay Php710 nett Monday to Saturday and Php775 nett during Sunday.