By any means necessary

I've been following Philippine politics off and on since the 1980s, and since I am on again, I've gotta give my 2 pesos on the administration candidates. They've employed yet another movie star, Edu Manzano, as the VP running mate of the administration candidate, Gilbert Teodoro. They were trying to get Bong Revilla and he said no, so they got the next movie star cum politician, Manzano. The problem with Teodoro, is he has no star power, and his time in Congress has been a blip on the radar. What the real porblem is with Manzano, he likened his acceptance of the VP slot as akin to McCain getting Palin. If he wants to go there, McCain lost. Arroyo's tenure as President was a big FAIL. The Philippines desperately needs, after 10 years of malaise and scandal after scandal after scandal, is a transformative figure, someone who can rise above all the BS that goes on in the Philippines, keep his or her hand out of the public trough and get the country into the 21st century where it belongs, because let's face it, if the next administration doesn't tackle the big issues of the country, poverty, corruption, and population explosion, it will be ill prepared when the country becomes 200 million living in squatter camps nex to the rivers.

Choc Nut or Cloud 9?

We went to Goldilocks in Cerritos for brunch on Sunday, and the last time I ate there, about 15 years ago, I didn't care for the food quality. The Kare Kare didn't have enough peanut butter. Actually, the food quality at Goldilocks in Cerritos SUCKS. I ordered up the Fried Bangus, which actually was quite good, but the rest of the food was pretty much garbage; The Lechon Kawali was not crispy, the Crispy pata was not tasty, and the fried chicken tasted like Fried duck. The garlic fried rice was way too greasy, and the Kalamansi juice which at $2.99 a glass, tasted like it came from a can. My mom told me the Lumpia Sariwa is good, and all the rest of the food is terrible, and my mom is right. If there is ever a restaurant that relies on its name it is Goldilocks. The food is so very mediocre at best, and the white rice, it has to be the cheapest grade on the market.

ON another note, we went to the super market next door to Goldilocks and bought a couple of these:



Now I first bought these back in 1989 when I had a chocolate fix, but the stores in the Philippines didn't have any decent chocolates in stock at the time. As a matter of fact, all they had were Choc Nut and Cloud 9's. I've been a fan of both for a long time, but the Choc Nut, well they are a powdery type of candy, that sorta, and I am being generous, sorta taste like some type of chocolate, I am just not sure what kind. I've had five already this morning, and am going downstairs for more. I've a sweet tooth right now and these are pretty much fulfilling the crave.

Mind your own business

I have relatives who need to mind their own business. It is sad, but these people judge others by the way people look, hair style, if they have tattoos, if they live in a gated community. It is a complete joke these people.

Truth offends

I wrote a post on this blog a long time ago that detailed a dinner I had with cousins. After the dinner I was witness to a unique (what I thought was a funny exchange between cousins) that had to do with certain things regarding the dinner. I was witness to this whole charade and couldn't believe what I was hearing, so I thought what the heck, I'd blog about it. But as Elaine did, which seemingly got her banned from Hop Sings, I named names, and in the process took a serious tongue lashing from one of the said cousins, complete with profanities. So, at his suggestion, I removed the post. He is absolutely right. I shouldn't have posted this for all the world to see, and I am now truly sorry that I did in the first place. Life can get fucked up.

RIP

Two of my cousins and their dad were killed, along with their driver and two muslims in a gunfight that occurred on father's day in the Philippines. Really sad as it was apparently a road rage incident that blew up into a full blown gun battle. The rumor is that after Raffy was shot in the back, his body was dragged into the street by muslim onlookers and stomped. The driver was also apparently shot in the back in what appears to have been an ambush by the muslim cell phone store owner. At any rate, six people died in total and that is a sad thing, especially given that it was a seemingly innocuous road rage incident that started it all.

Plagiarized by Pat Cates

This piece was written in 2002. Digital Photographer Magazine printed an article on Adobe Photoshop Elements written by me that the hack, Patricia Cates, or Pat Cates stole off the internet and pawned it off to the hapless editors of the magazine as her own.

By far the most significant professional accomplishment that I was the unfortunate recipient of was the plagiarism of an article that I wrote, which subsequently appeared in a national magazine with my name not on it. In journalism school, the single most important code, above writing a good lead, or maintaining objectivity, is to never plagiarize the work of others. If you paraphrase, give attribution. if you present a similar series of thoughts, give attribution. When all else fails, give attribution. In an academic setting, committing the act of plagiarism are grounds for suspension, and in many cases, expulsion. We all know that plagiarism is not accepted in academic settings. But how are such acts treated in professional settings? The act itself is tantamount to the act of stealing copyrighted songs from a service like Napster without having actually paid for the music.

Within the digital media industry, most writers, editors, and reporters have a good grasp of certain aspect of that industry to which they are well known.

Having been in the industry since before the days of Windows 95, I have written more than 500 articles related to computer graphics and digital imaging. Until recently I have never had the experience of someone stealing my "stuff." If it is said that copying is the sincerest form of flattery, then I have been truly flattered (though also bitterly disappointed) that an article that I wrote was stolen and reprinted.

In this industry, you are always toiling, pushing yourself to maintain the reputation and expertise that you have worked so hard to build up. You maintain visibility by attending the mandatory trade shows. After the trade show day's end, you schmooze at the social events put on by companies. You get wined and dined by these companies, in hopes that you will write something that sings praise toward company A's particular product. And in the event that the product that you look at lives up to the claims of the company, you do sing praises about that product. However, you are constantly questioning your intent and talent, as well as the end product to that which you work on daily. Are people reading your articles? Do my opinions count?

When I first picked up the magazine with the plagiarized article in it, I was fuming, on the verge of going ballistic. Only after I showed the purloined prose to my wife did I realize the true meaning of the thief's actions. "The thief must like your representation of the content of your article, consider it a compliment," she said. Sure the thief's intents were perpetrated in an effort to do minimal work to get a paycheck, and in a sense, stealing an article off the Internet, complete with section headers, and pasting it into a word processor and sending it off to some hapless editors is surely an easy way to procure a paycheck. After the discussion with my wife, my views on the whole act changed. To have someone plagiarize an article can be construed as a form of flattery, even though the total act of plagiarism is reprehensible.

South County People are MENTAL

Disclaimer: I lived in South County (Laguna Niguel) during the middle of the 1990s, from the end of 1996 up until we up and moved to Hawaii in 2000 for an extended two year "vacation."

Today I surfed Doheny, When I first got to the parking lot, I parked facing the beach, and was about to paddle out when a bird dropped a load of bird shit on the trunk of the Chitty Chitty. Pissed, and not wanting my car to be covered with shitn when I got back, I got back into the car and pulled into a parking spot that was tree free. When I did, an old man in an SUV who had been sitting in his car, started his car up, rolled down the window, and said to me, "Nice View, until you parked in front of it." and then he proceeded to leave before it even hit me that he was pissed I parked in front of his precious view, IN A PARKING LOT. What a fucking sense of entitlement. That is a South County attitude.

So Im paddling out at Doho and there is this older blond Japanese woman paddling out to. She turns around to catch a wave, and I am sitting on the shoulder, well out of range for her to even remotely catch up to me, and she hoots me off. Fair enough (I guess). So I don't take off. About 20 minutes into the session, the waves were getting better and I am taking off on wave after wave after wave. I chase everything down, and I happen to catch almost everything that comes my way. So Ms. Blond Japanese lady paddles over to me and asks, "Are you from here?" and I say "No" and she says, "well what do you want us to do"? And I am like WTF? and then I got it, and I say "what you want to drop in on me? Go ahead, and she says "well I don't" and proceeds to catch a wave. Then another guy paddles up to me and says, "What is her deal?" and I say, I had no freakin clue. Turns out that guy was at my neighbors house a few years ago for a fireworks show, and we knew some of the same people. Every wave that I caught, either came to me, or I chased it down. I didn't snake any one, and if they don't want to chase waves, they ain't gonna catch waves. Ms. Blond Japanese lady can basically screw herself, because 1. I was catching waves like you are supposed to, and 2. if she doesn't want to work for it, then she isn't going to catch anything. Waves aren't just handed to you. Well they can be, but she was a dick in the first place for barking me off when clearly we could have shared it.

The Brits are funny

I got this from one of my Facebook friends. I must admit, the Brits are funny folks. Ford should bring the Fiesta to theb United States.

Ala Moana and the Skip Frye

I went to Hawaii to visit Paul and he said that Ala Moana was going off. So I brought by 7'2" Skip Frye single fin. Paddling out the water, though warm, still felt a bit sharky. But it wasn't a shark, but a rather large Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle that was swimming underneath. We then proceeded to paddle in and it was pouring rain, so one of our group said he'd go and get the truck, which was a white F250 diesel. When he got the truck and we all piled inh, it really started to pour. We were still checking out the surf, but this time I was in Oceanside visiting David, who had a condo right on the beach. The waves at the North Jetty were going off, and Mike T was ripping it. And that was all I remember about my dream.

Shining Through

I remember seeing this ad on TV while in the Philippines. From 1985 to 1989 I must have flew to the Philippines six or seven times, almost every year. I spent three months there in 1985. Was there for my cousin's wedding in 1986, went again in 1987, and a bunch of times in 1989. That ad campaign was late 1980s I believe. Very cool campaign. Really beautiful country.

A boy called Milo

For those of you who are XBOX 360 fans, this technology is a glimpse of what might come in the future. It is really crazy fun technology developed my Microsoft, called Natal

Doheny

I surfed Doheny today for about four hours. The 6-8am session there weren't a whole lot of people out. The water was a bit chilly, I'd say 59, but was prepared as I had the wetsuit on. It was about 1-3ft SW swell, no wind at all, but it was drizzling on the way there. I woke up super early, which is often on Sundays, cause I like to surf as much as possible. I paddled in at around 8am and walked to the car, and said to myself, wtf, I am here, might as well make the most of it. So I went back out and surfed some more, until 10am. I rode the 9'6 OLE, and only had to chase the board three times or so. I got a super nice toes over the nose on this right. The reason I like Doheny is it is good for noseriding, which is what I've been practicing for the last couple of years. I've been getting super bold, scooting up to the nose and seeing how far I can ride it. I just need to work on the cross stepping. Going left is not a problem. I have no problem cross stepping or backpedaling when going left. It is the front side that needs lots of practice. My goal for this summer is to get better at my cross stepping going right, and that means more trips to Doheny when there is a good south swell pumping.

minding the weight

Back in 2005, I chronicled a weight/cholesterol issue that I had been dealing with. I have fallen into bad eating habits once again. Now I've successfully weaned myself off all the junk food that I was eating back when I worked in an office, what I call the del Taco diet, but I haven't completely gotten rid of fast food, I still enjoy the IN-n-Out urge every once in a while (maybe three or four times a month), and still eat the chinese fast food, and the mexican fast food (Alerto's here in Little Saigon is a favorite). I cut down on the candy and the cookies back then and have to again cut down on the sweets again now. Now I am not fat, just a bit overweight for my small frame. So, in the interest of better health (my better health), Jovi and I are embarking on an exercise and hopefully a diet regimen. Now when I first met Jovi, she had just quit flying for Pjhilippine Airlines and she was a trim 140 or so, which is proportional to her size. Although she is a filipina, she really isn't. Her mom's side of the family is more Spanish than Filipino, and her dad's side is more Chinese (Limsiaco, related to the famous Chinese pirate), so she is bigger than a typical filipina. Well, now she and I are on a mission to lose some pundage, in the interest of fending off any ill effects, such as diabetes, heart disease and all the associated diseases that come kknocking when one is overweight. We're not obese, just need to lose some of the poundage, so hopefully this blog will be updated with our progress, or at least my progress. I plan on weight training, Tae Bo (yes it helped immensely back in 2005), and of course, I plan to try and surf more, though my main surf bud moved to Hawaii! Lucky bastard.

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago I was watching a Chinese man on Television defy a column of tanks at Tiananmen Square in China. Actually I had been watching the events unfold over the course of several days--the student protests with bullhorns the hundreds of thousands of Chinese occupying the square, and the Unknown Rebel, who most certainly was executed for his act of rebellion against that advancing column of Chinese tanks. It is really a trip on how time has flown by so fast. 1989 was a turning point year of my life. All of the actions and decisions I made during the years preceding 1989 came to a head, and I didn't know how to handle any of it. Being young and dumb, and well you know the rest, doesn't do a whole lot of good, and though you are supposed to learn from the things that you do, oftentimes you still don't and always go back and analyze things, and then just chock it all up to experience. Basically 1989 was a year of rebellion, not only with external events such as Tiananmen, but internally within my own self as well. Twenty years later, it causes me to wonder, what in all heck was I thinking? Twenty years later, I feel my age. I am no longer a 20something with $hit for brains. I've got three kids, a mortgage payment, a car payment, a boat payment, credit card bills, college tuition bills, and the list goes on. I work from home, on a computer, on the Internet, and this enables me to visit far off places during my down time and just imagine. Lately I've been looking at this place called Cloud 9 in the Philippines. Its a right reef break that is pretty much one of the best tube rides in the world. And I want to go there next time I go to the Philippines. I also want to go to La Union on Luzon, there is some pretty good waves there as well. I just need a car. And a driver.

Funk

my latest acquisition, a 9'8" Junod Stinger

Today I've been in a funk pretty much the whole day. I know why and it is stupid, but sometimes things just get to me. I've been thinking a lot especially tonight when picking jeremy up from the Carnival. A U2 song, from the 80s came on the radio, and I heard myself singing to the tune, where the streets have no name, and it isn't really my fave song, but definitely one of the better albums. In fact, all the 80s U2 albums were good, its the new stuff that I felt has been a bit wanting. Anyway, that song conjured up my youth. Oh what it would be like to be 16 again. I would have totally done things differently, took things seriously and I would have never stopped chasing this one girl. Sometimes, to reminisce, I would read the note she left in my yearbook, and would think all the what ifs. If I wasn't so shy, If I wasn't hanging with the wrong crowd, if I wasn't doing the wrong things. . .You never know. It would be safe to say that 75 percent of my high school life was a smoky haze, if you know what I mean. And we all know what the surgeon general has determined. I saw that warning one time on of all things, a glass ashtray. Safe to say that somebody wanted someone to quit.

Anyway enough of that. I guess when you get older, you think back on your youth. I am fortunate that I can still remember my youth, because one of my friends, Mike Takayama, claims he can't remember a lot of what he did in his youth. Blame it on the drugs, the booze, whatever, but he honestly doesn't remeber a lot of things that I tell him that we did as teenagers, and its not that we hung out a lot because we didn't. We weren't good friends in high school. I envied him at the same time I didn't like him, he was such an ass. But we surf together as 40somethings, so that is cool. He still rips it on a surfboard, and I always wonder why he didn't go pro. He had all the tools, plus could have had the backing of his uncle. Well enough of this history, maybe next time I can write about more interesting things of my Wasted Youth.

My name is John and I am addicted to surfboards

While some folks get addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or sex, I have an addiciton to surfboards. My name is John and I am addicted to surfboards. I have just purchased yet another board that I don't think I really need. My justification was that it was shaped by a very good shaper who only does custom work, and it was cheap, at only $320. But the problem is I just bought a board about three weeks ago for just $51, and it rides well and is in very good condition. Now I don't know what I am going to do with all of my boards. I am looking right now at 10 boards in my office alone, and probably close to 10 in the garage, and three in the back yard that are just junk. I need to stop this thing because it is getting out of hand and I need a new laptop computer. Maybe time to sell some boards.

Even If

So I just returned from las vegas for the NAB trade show and had a meeting with this company that is working on film restoration hardware/software. It turns out that the technical advisor is Brad Carvey, a guy I met more than 10 years ago at the same trade show. He was a writer for the previous magazine I edited. . . well anyway, Brad, who is Dana Carvey's older brother, and happens to be this full on intelligent braniac, was at one point in contact with Charles Harner, who is married to Jam Morales. I met Charles back in the mid 1980s when he and Jam came to visit my cousin Marlon in San Dimas CA. At any rate to get to the point, when I thought of Brad not being at the show, I immediately thought of Charles, and then Jam, so I typed Jam Morales into google and got a few hits, one of which was this YouTube clip



I knew Jam was a singer in the Philippines and I think she gave it up to move with her husband to the States. I used to get a Christmas card from them a long time ago but those have stopped as well. Which gets to my interesting youTube observation, adn that is of heartbreak stories tied to this song, and the remake by Lea Salonga. In the Lea version, there is a gal pouring her heart out over the guy who dumped her, and people leaving text comments, giving her words of encouragement, to forget that guy, he is ugly, you are beautiful, etc. etc. Really weird, but I guess its not really a surprise given news today of a Saudi Arabian divorcing his wife via text message

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014747914

Sad state of tech affairs.

Now I wasn't even in the Philippines when Even If was a huge hit, but. . .

And back again

I've let this blog get a bit stale aws of late as I've been busy with other matters and frankly haven't had the desire to write. But alas, the desire has returned a bit, plus, I remembered my password to this thing, so I'm gonna be back. Soon. Juliana turned two, my dad had a whipple surgery for pancreatic cancer and is recovering, and I am seriously going to start working out again. Surfing is not enough (not that I get to do it often, which I don't, about three days a week), and I want to trim about 5 to 10lbs off my small frame. So at any rate, I'm going to try working out with my son jeremy at least thrice a week (thrice, who would use that word anyway? lol) and continue surfing three times a week. Im going to wean myself off junk food (I bailed on fast food about five years ago and have been successfully avoiding it), but I have to cut down on the sweetness. Once I achieve these things, I will be able to perform better in all aspects of my life. But alas, it is my life, and I have to take care of myself.

"Free your mind. . .the ass will follow"
Platoon 1986

And back again