2010 Year-End Rambling

The year 2010 has been up and down year as a blogger for me as I got more focused on updating my Twitter and other things that can be done on my iDevice. But nonetheless I still manage to write a blog when I get some free time (and an urge/inspiration to write a blog) either through the said iDevice or on my laptop (which ever I am comfortable).

Focusing on work has paid dividends as I get a very good rating on performance evaluation from the top admins even though this will also take some of my time off blogging. Since I can only use my laptop during the break time at work. I decided to write the drafts of my blogs on my notes application of my application to which I will post during the break or before I get home.

As of late, I am also fond of listening to podcasts more than my musical playlists. I regularly download episodes of podcast shows like Filmsack and Appslappy as they give reviews to old movies and iDevice applications respectively. I am also excited that DJ Mo Twister will be back on the podcast scene probably to do a more improve "Good times with Mo" podcast which I would hope will include his co-host on the Good Times morning show.

Aside from work, parenting, blogging, social networking and games, I might give reading a try again and I will try to reconnect myself with the Dragonlance books (to which I finished reading the Chronicles and the Legends series and will proceed on with the next series of the chronogical timeline after which will read the prelude series ). I will also probably do some reading on the Shadowrun series as well as classic Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Watching TV series will also continues on to next year since most of my favorite TV shows are still showing new episodes (to which I will updating my Crime scene TV series blog).

That will be it for now. Up next will be my first blog post for the New Year.

December to Remember: My First post for this month

It's almost a month since my last update and a lot has happened since then but I got sidetrack as always with work but manage to update my daily rambling via twitter. I also have been pre-occupied with some of the applications on my iOS device that I almost neglect to use my laptop which is almost relegated to downloading my favorite TV series via torrent (I know it's wrong but if the US networks opens up their TV shows to the world, we won't be resorting into this kind of endeavour), good thing almost all the thing that you can do on computer or laptop can now be done on a small mobile device. 

Yes times flies so fast to the point that I'm still stuck on using my old Sony Ericcson mobile phone and I have been dreaming of getting a Samsung Galaxy S with Android OS 2.3. Call me a tech geek but how I live my life. I have most of the gadgets on wishlist: a laptop, an iPod Touch, a dSLR camera (although the additional lenses and external flash will be added later on but these are not a priority) to which I can showcase some of my photography skills.   

As of late I've been doing some resto/bar/cafe trips on my spare times for my Food blog and my Foursquare and Gowalla social networks. Speaking of social network, Facebook is also one reason why I wasn't able to blog but "hey, everybody is doing it, so why can't I do it". Games like Mousehunt, Urban Rivals and just recently Eredan took most of the time (damn this trading card games, it goes to show I haven't got over with Magic the Gathering) than adding friends.

Oh well that would be it for now. I would hope to do an update for weeks to come because another special day is fast approaching and I'm not talking about Christmas ;) 

And by the way, I would like to greet my dear grandfather Eduardo Sr. a very Happy Birthday (December 17) even though you are gone, your spirit, guidance and the good memories will always be with me. 

The Gorillaz cover The XX - Crystalised (Acoustic BBC1 session)

For those of us who are still wondering who are the people behind the group Gorillaz I found the Acoustic BBC1 session of the song "Crystalised" originally by the XX. As you can see frontman Damon Albarn (of Blur fame) is singing the song.

First Post for November

Ahh November, the last month before the Christmas month begins. This month is one of the special months for me as this is the month that my mother will celebrate her birthday. I also noticed that it's been raining mostly (is this our version of the snow? Perhaps).

Happy Halloween to Everyone

Today is the last day of October and it is considered Halloween day to most people and I would like to greet each and everyone Happy Halloween!. I have a very nice poll to to determine which character I have listed is the scariest of them all. Visit the Scariest Urban Rivals Characters

Sunday Afternoon Blog: The new Kasagingan

It's been a while since a did a Sunday afternoon blog on Kasagingan. What makes this special is that I am writing  this blog at the new Kasagingan which now located beside the Mongolian Barbecue restaurant (just inside the Sarung Banggi compound). The place is much nicer ambience and much bigger than the previous location. Another good thing about the new location is that the compound has a much bigger parking space which is a plus unlike the previous location.

Aside from the new location, Kasagingan now serves Blended Ice Cream Drinks like the Banana Boat, Vanilla Dream and my daughter's favorite, Strawberries and Cream. My wife ordered "Banana Ispilit" which is basically a banana split served with whip cream and a cherry on top. I on the other hand ordered the classic Crema de Carda which is a serving of two scoops of Vanilla ice cream with some chocolate syrup and Jackfruit strips and two Toron sticks. 

If  you haven't been to Kasagingan as of late, try visiting their new location which still along F. Torres St. but inside the Sarung Banggi compound just beside the Mongolian barbecue restaurant.

First post for October 2010

It's the second "-ber" month and it's the month on which other countries celebrate the annual festivals and holidays like the Oktoberfest in Europe and the Halloween season in the United States.

Personally, October is the month to which two important people in my life will be celebrating this respective birthdays (actually one already happened on October 6 which is my daughter's 3rd birthday, the other is will be on the 13th which is my wife's birthday). Aside from the birthday celebrations, I have expanded some of my online works by adding more writing projects on Squidoo as well updating some of my blogs.

Here are the list of the blogs that I added and recently updated

Urban Rivals Guide and Tip blog - new
Crime Scene TV - new
Facebook Games Review - updated
Visual CNSQ blog (Photoblog)  - redesigned and updated

New blog/website: Urban Rivals Guide

It's been almost 3 months since I discovered Urban Rivals while playing the game on my iPod Touch. Since then I have been playing the game almost everyday as long as I have a wifi connection. With that said I have written several Squidoo lenses about the game and yesterday, I finally purchased the domain "urbanrivalsguide.com" and create my own game guide website/blog under that said domain using blogger.com as my content management system.

A Day of blog updates

I was fortunate that today is a non-working holiday and I was able to do some blog updates on some of my blogs. Some are really in need of an update (been really busy of of late) so here are the blogs that I recently updated:

ICNSQ Tech blog (2 posts)
CNSQ Online Blog (Web Development / Wordpress) - (2 posts)
Visual CNSQ - 2 New Photos
Digitaltoolz
How to update your Twitter via SMS using Gladlycast

Also for Urban Rivals fanatics
Urban Rivals deck construction tips
Best Cards in Urban Rivals

Check them out now

New blog: Crime Scene TV Blog

I've been a long-time fan of forensic-themed TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, NCIS, and Criminal Minds and the new ones like NCIS: Los Angeles, The Mentalist, Lie to Me, and the newest Criminal Minds spin-off show.

And on that note, I created a blog about these shows called Crime Scene TV blog which is a blog about the aforementioned shows.

So if your into these shows I invite you to please do visit my Crime Scene TV blog and please do leave some comments on some of my blog post.

Kadayawan 2010 Festival Starts This week

It's August again and it's also the start of the Kadayawan Festival which is celebrated annually usually on the second week of August. For those who aren't aware, The term "Kadayawan" is derived from the Mandaya word “madayaw”, a warm and friendly greeting used to explain a thing that is valuable, superior, beautiful, good, or profitable.

Expect tourists from other parts of the world will grace this annual event. I'm still hoping the I can get my own DSLR camera so that I can join the coverage of some of the events like pictures here taken by miss Jojie Alcantara.

Friday the 13th Blog

Actually there's really no special reason for this blog post just because it the Friday the 13th, but to some who believe in the urban legend that this day is called the "unluckiest day" is (in humble opinion) an exaggeration because they put in mind that the 13th day that fall on a Friday is always unlucky.

I believe that things happen for a reason and we should not put our minds into this "dreaded" number that has hounded most people

Lunch at Coco's South Bistro

Another Sunday Afternoon blog for me and I would like to do a short review about our experience at Coco's South Bistro. My brother has been raving about the baby-back ribs on this place and my wife and I decided that we try it out. When we arrive at the place, it was not yet full as it still quite early (we went in around 11:30 AM). We ordered Onion Rings (for appetizers),  Baby Back Ribs, Chicken Salad with Caesar's Salad dressing, Corn-on-a-Cob (my daughter's favorite).

The food was great and I will really recommend the Baby Back Ribs as it is tender and very tasty. If you want to try it out Coco's South Bistro is located at Victoria Plaza compound, JP Laurel Avenue, Davao City (beside Metro Bank).

Update Twitter and Plurk via SMS

I have been having some problems with my internet connection here at home as of late so I wasn't able to update my Twitter and Plurk statuses online. Good thing a colleague of mine at work suggested that I use Gladycast. It's an online service on which you can update your Twitter and /or Plurk via SMS by associating your mobile number to your Twitter or Plurk account. And since then I never miss a tweet or plurk in a day. 

Live Writing Again

It’s been a while since I used Window Live Writer since most of the time there’s an internet connect, Yet as of this writing, the internet connection here at home is still intermittent for the past three days now. I don’t know why that everytime there’s a rain, the out ISP connection bugs out. *sigh*.

I would that by the time this blog post gets posted online, that our ISP (which I will is called “PLDT”) would finally stabilize their internet connection. 

Final Fantasy 8 Triple Triad Game on PC

Its been years since I finished playing Final Fantasy VIII during my early college years and since then, I got hooked on the the trading card mini-game called Triple Triad. Just recently I found a like on some gaming forum that we can play the same game of Triple Triad on our very own PC computer by going to the Triple Triad Gold site and download the game for free.

You can also play the game with your friends via your local network or with your friends online and experience the games like those times when your playing it on the Playstation.

The Hof Gorei Beach Resort Escapade

This is a late post as this happened on July 17, 2010. We visited Hof Gorei Beach Resort (located at Kaputian, Island Garden City of Samal ) as part of our company's team building workshop. I won't be able to talk more about the place since I was to busy with the team building but I would say that we had a good time on that place.

Urban Rivals and Warstorm Online Trading Card Games

Online trading card games has been my favorite pass time for recent month now since I can no longer afford to go back playing in playing Magic:The Gathering might as well play games similar to it online.

Some of the games I am playing (which I play on Facebook) is Warstorm and Urban Rivals. Warstorm is very much closer to MTG in terms of the fantasy theme that it brings but unlike MTG each faction is divided between the following races: Humans, Elves, Orcs, Undead and Demons.

On the other hand Urban Rivals has a different style of play and theme from Warstorm. UR has a street fighting theme with over twenty different factions or "clans" (unlike the Warstorm which only has five). You can create a deck of eight cards from one or several clans depending on the success of the dynamics of each card similar to what we do on MTG.  Urban Rivals can be played on three seperate online venues: It can be played from the main Urban Rivals site, as the aforementioned Facebook app and in your iPhone and iPod Touch as an App.

My Very Own Food Blog

Food blogging is one of the most popular blog niche for sometime now since all of us wanna explore those sumptuous meals that we hear about from other people who where able to go to various restaurants. cafe's, bars, etc. So I decided to create my own food blog which called Foodtrip ni Cesar (or Cesar's Food trip). 

This food blog of mine features mostly the resto's, cafe's, or places that serves the best foods as well as recipe's to some of my favorite menus (which some of it are from the collection of recipes my grandmother collected from magazines and newspapers). 

Castle Age Tips and Strategies

My old Castle Age tips site was also taken down (similar to my Mousehunt Tips and Strategies site) due to some sort of "Terms of Use" violation which I find really bogus. But rather than whine I took the liberty of creating a new Castle Age Tips and Strategies Site with new well written articles.

New Mousehunt Tips and Strategy Site

Just recently, my old Mousehunt Tips Squidoo site was taken down due to some violations of the site's Term of Use. So rather then keep on complaining, I just made a new and improve version of my old Squidoo Lens now title "Mousehunt Tips and Strategies" which will focus more on strategies that are based on personal experience and feedbacks from other players that are not written down on the MH wiki site or on other "guide" site.

I will be adding new tips and strategies every now and then since the game has recently undergone several updates as of late.

Sunday Morning Blog: Foodtrip bonding

It's been a while since I did a Sunday blog and today I wanna share my "foodtrip" experience at Brothers Burger at IT Park Damosa, Davao City. We were the first customers for the day and I ordered Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger (I can't really help it if there's a Chicken Cordon Bleu written on the menu), French fries (for my baby daugher) and some sodas.

All I can say is that even though the food is a bit pricey it's really worth your money.

A Warning to Squidoo Lensers

I would like to share this warning to all Squidoo lensers out there. Please check your articles for duplications as they are very strict right now and will outright "lock" your lense without notice if your lens have been found containing "duplicated or copied" content.

I have learned the hard way because I have two lenses that are locked.

Getting an Android Phone

I't's been a while since I have a nice mobile phone, and I am planning to get my self  a new one. I was thinking    since I already have a Apple device (iPod Touch) why not get myself an Android Phone.  A lot of my blogger friends have rave about how cool the Android OS is. I am thinking getting myself either a Samsung Galaxy or a Google Nexus One.

A Father's Prayer

Lord I'm askin' for Your help

To raise cute little daughter,

Give me strength and guide me

'Cause I know that You're the one.

That sent this angel to me

A little heaven here on earth,

For now I know my place in life...

I'm no longer who comes first.

Once I had no answer

As to why it is I'm here,

But when I looked into my baby's eyes....

It all became so clear.

This little bit of heaven

Owns me, heart and soul

And it's You that sent her to me

A greater love I'll never know.

So take these rugged hands of mine

Help me to understand,

Just what it is I need to do

To raise this little girl.

Help me build a girl that knows

It's You that holds the key,

To all that heaven holds for us

Show her Your love through me.

The A-Team Movie

"I love it when the plan comes together". These are the immortal words of George "Hannibal" Smith which was first heard during the 80's series version of the A-Team. This year the A-Team returns via a movie with Liam Neeson playing Hannibal, MMA fighter "Rampage" Jackson playing B.A Baracus. I plan to watch the movie since I wanna compare how Sharlto Copley can handle "Howling Mad" Murdock's witty antics compared to Dwight Schultz.

Geek Comedy at it's Best

I've been watching this TV series titled "Big Bang Theory" which is about two University physicists Leonard  and Sheldon got their lives shaken up when an attractive young woman named Penny moves in to the apartment across from theirs. The key to the show, though, is not that they both fall haplessly in love--Leonard does, but Sheldon remains impermeably aloof and caustic about anything resembling romance or human relationships in general. While the push and pull of Leonard's yearning for Penny motivates much of the series' ongoing plot, the show's real drive comes from Sheldon's fantastic combination of obsessive-compulsive neurosis and grandiose obliviousness.

Even my writing has become somewhat "geeky" now (hehehe). If you don't get what I mean,  here's a sample clip from the show.

Rotational Brownouts are Back Again

After almost 2 weeks after the national and local elections, power companies has resume their rotational power outages as to continue conserve power will the Ill Niño phenomenon is still on. These outages ranges from 1 to 3 hours depending on the power companies.

We could only hope that these power outages will last sooner than later.

Google celebrates Pacman game birthday today

To celebrate the 30th birthday, Google has embedded the Pac-Man game on the Google homepage itself. And it playable too using the arrow keys to control Pac-man

Update, updates and more updates

Oh what work can make you busy and almost forgot to blog, but hey blogging is part of my system (well at least I still blog despite the hectic work and family time on which I have no complains). Well as an update I will blog about my latest updates on some of my projects which includes my Castle Age Squidoo Lens (which I now regularly update due to the fact the the game is constantly updating) and upcoming update for my Mousehunt tips Squidoo lens because of the new updates the game developers have made today.

I also plan to create a new niche blog about TV series that I follow. I still have to conjure a title for that blog as well as the platform that I will be using (either blogspot or another self-hosted wordpress are in order).

That will be all for now. Have a nice day
Oh by the way follow me on Twitter for my latest update.

Five days before the National Elections

It's been a while since I posted an update and this one will be considered my first post about the upcoming National elections which will be held on May 10, 2010. In my humble opinion, the upcoming elections will be considered a "make or break" event for our country as we carefully choose the next person(s) to lead our country from economic crisis and others.

I won't be mentioning any names because everyone of us has it's own opinion on who should lead our country and what more important is we should exercise our right to suffrage. I just hope that whoever gets elected should adhere to the platforms that they are "preaching" and shy away from the so called "dirty politics" that been hounding the country for several years now.  Moreover, candidates who where unfortunately "lost" the race should in turn help the upcoming government rather resort to any "sour graping thoughts". This might be far fetch or far off from the reality yet there is nothing wrong on doing things right.

And to sum up this post, everybody to vote who you think is right to lead the country. Pray before you vote and of course, Vote wisely.    

The NFL Draft excitement

For those of you who don't know what the NFL is, it's the National Football League and last Friday was the 75th annual NFL draft on which each of the 32 teams will draft college player in order based on the team's regular season standing of last season (the worst team gets to pick first).

My favorite team is the St. Louis Ramsand I have been following the teams since 1999 when they won their very first Super Bowl title. I even created a blog about the team. Currently the Rams are on a rebuilding process having to suffer three straight losing seasons.

Sunday Evening Blog: Enjoying the Summer

It's been a while since a wrote a Sunday blog post because I always give my time to my family and usually at the end of the day, I am usually exhausted or busy preparing for work the next day. I got a free time now and decided to summarize my blog post about my summer experience with my family.

Happy Easter to Everyone

I would like to greet each and everyone of my readers and fellow bloggers a very Happy Easter to all.

Creative Writing Workshop with the Davao Bloggers

Earlier today, I attended the Creative Writing Workshop which was organized by Davao Bloggers. The speaker was a writer, SunStar Davao columnist, Toast Master, and former educator, Rene Lizada. The workshop was an enlightening experience and it made me realize that I still need to improve my writing skills. We were taught how to create "ideas" out of nothing and how experience and inspiration has become the stepping stones of becoming a good writer. 

As a trainer, the workshop has also helped me realized the proper use of words when writing technical articles and manuals. As a blogger, it helped me realize that I should be careful on what words that I should use to avoid being "misunderstood". 

All in all, the money and time spend was really worth it. It made me realize that I could become a better writer for as long as I keep on writing. And that's what I'm gonna do. 

Adding Criminal Minds on my TV series list

After the unfortunate cancellation of Numb3rs, I'm planning to add another police procedural TV series on my long list of US TV series, and I decided on to follow Criminal Minds. For those of you who are not aware about this TV series,

Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama series that follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, Virginia. It differs from many criminal system procedural dramas by focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself.

I have seen some episodes of the show during the time when CSI show goes on a weekly break and I found the series very intriguing because how the the agents analyzes the "unsub". With that said, I'm gonna start by downloading the very first season, one episode at a time.

NUMB3RS TV series has Finally Ended

image courtesy of CBS

I've been following Numb3rs since the very first season and I was disappointed that CBS has end it run with it's final episode last Friday. However the show ended on a very light note. Charles and Amita finally got married and possibly moving to London, and Don has found the answer to the question about his life and proposed to his long time girlfriend Robin. Well as they all say "All good things will come to end".

I will miss this show a lot and I thank Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz for giving us fans six wonderful seasons of NUMB3RS

Hour before Pacquiao vs. Clottey is on it's way

It's only hours 'til Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao embarks another challenge to his WBO Welterweight title against Joshua Clottey of Ghana. The whole nation will be in virtual standstill when the match starts. No Traffics, virtually crime will be low and families will be together to listen or to watch another monumental match in Pacquiao's career.

Happy Birthday Mousehunt

March 7 is the day that the Mousehunt game came into Facebook for us "Mousehunter" in catching various types of mice ever conceptualized by the game's developers.

With that in mind, a group of Mousehunt players decided held a gathering of all "Mousehunters" her in Davao in celebration of the game's 2nd birthday.

The gathering only lasted for two hours yet we had fun. We had some parlor games based on our knowledge of the game. 

Araw ng Dabaw Fast Approaching

It's now March and school year is about to end and summer vacation is fast approaching. It is also the month on which will be celebrating the 73rd Araw ng Dabaw festival on March 14-16th. The city will once again be jammed-packed with visitors both foreign and from other parts of the country.

How I wish I have my very own DSLR camera with me at this time of the year. Oh well, time to brush up my photography skills on a point-and-shoot for now.

Plans for the future of CNSQ Online

It's been a long while since my online portal CNSQ Online needs a major revamp since there are a lot of nice things that I wanna add to this portal page. I'm also planing to add a twitter feed on one area I want to do it without using any CMS system (Wordpress, Modx, etc. ) since I want to sharpen my web designs skills learning HTML 5 along the way.

But before I go into coding, I must design a good mockup since as they say "first impressions lasts"

Celebrating Valentines with my Family at the Entree

My family celebrated Valentines Day (and Chinese New Year) by having dinner at the Entree at the Apo View Hotel. The place is full as expected but we where able to get a table (which at the time extended into their Cafe Josefina section for we where seated). The food that where served was superb in my opinion. After the dinner, we decided to do some photo sessions around the hotel as a remembrance.

And by the way, I looked up for the recipe of Pan-Fried Potato Cake with Onions and Bacon: Potatoes Lyonnaise and posted on my other blog Food Trip ni Cesar

New Orleans Saints are SuperBowl Champions

(image courtesy of yahoo sports)

The game was very exciting and I would like to congratulate the MVP Drew Brees and the rest of the New Orleans Saints for winning SuperBowl 44 against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.

Recap of SuperBowl 44

Updating My Squidoo Lens

Been a while since my last update and I think this would be great time to post an update. Just recently, I received a hefty payout from Squidoo because I am having a great significant internet traffic on my Mousehunt Guides and Tips lens. Since I was in a mood to create a "tips and guide" I decided to create another lens, this time to my other favorite Facebook game Castle Age. And as of my last check

Blogger.com has significantly improved their post editor

I have been using Blogger.com as my blogging platform for some of my blogs and I kept raving to my friend how I wish the developers could atleast improve the post editor with more formatting tools AND a post break feature (similar to Wordpress). Alas that time has arrive as the developers has now improved the post editor which now includes the much awaited post break.

First post for year 2010

This is my first post for the year 2010 for quite sometime on which I have been busy at work. And am also fortunate that I'm having a great time with my blogs which include a new Squidoo lens entitled Castle Age Tutorials and Tips which showcases some of the tips on playing Castle Age