Kalami Sa Inun-unan (Ang Sarap Ng Paksiw)

(This Post Can Only Be Understood By Cebuanos and most Visayans)

Daghan kaayong mga panahon nga magsige na lang mi kaon ug karneng baboy, mao nga mailhan kaayo sa among lawas nga tambok. Niwang ra man unta mi sa una apan karon pwerte na mang dagkoa. Makapaminghoy usahay kay bisan ug pagsaka sa hagdan, maghangos na intawon.

Ingon akong amigo nga maayo sad nga mokaon na lang ta ug isda para dili manambok. Ug tinoud gyud, nagsige na lang pud mi ug palit ug isda. Barongoy lang nga gagmay kay barato ra. Tag singkwenta ra ang kilo didto sa may eskina.

Apan usahay maglalis mi sa akong asawa unsaon pagluto sa isda. Usahay pinirito, inun-unan, eskabetse, steamed ug uban pa. Pero ang amo gyung kalalisan kay unsaon pag un-on sa isda. Simple lang gyud ang akong istilo. Suka, tubig, asin ug ahos. Binisaya lagi kaayo unya parat sad ug gamay. Pero ang akong asawa kay duganga pa gyud niya ug asukar. Naa ba go’y inun-unan nga inasukaran? Matod niya, mao sad na iya style. Busa para wala’y gubot, si nanay na lang amo paluto-on. Nagkahiusa mi pag-uyon nga lami mo un-on si nanay.

Inun-unan ko kagabii, inun-unan sad ako pamahaw. Ug basin unya, inun-unan na pud. Tungod sa kalami, di gihapon mi ani mangniwang kay hurot man gyud kanunay ang bahaw.

Photographing Summer

Two of my friends recently bought DSLR cameras. One locally procured a Nikon D40 and he is currently enjoying his newfound hobby by going out with other enthusiasts. Summer is currently his photography subject.

Another friend bought from ebay a Sigma DSLR camera. It cost him a little under P40k and last night he showed me his week-old toy. "Wow!" was all I said to him abiut his gadget. We discussed of plans to go out and photograph summer.

The truth is, I really envy them. I want to have a DSLR camera too, but I have other priorities as of this moment. Had Google not slashed my PR, I could have earned enough by this time to buy entry-level DSLR cam plus a nifty lens. Oh yeah, some wistful thinking. I just had to be contented right now with my camera phone.


Photo above is taken by a friend who bought his Canon DSLR cam last summer. Yeah, seems like everyone else has a DSLR.

Play For Fun And Play To Win

The beach volleyball game had always been the highlight in our company beach outing, regardless of the weather. This time around was no different. But unlike in the previous years, the current edition requires at least two female players in the court.

The highest ranked officer in our team emphasized that our first objective is to have fun. And the second objective is to win. I am one of those who at any game want the best players on the court. But we cannot just turn away those players who want to play despite their lack of skills. Not in a company sportsfest.

The first set was close. The weaker players were obviously our team’s weakness. So the boss declared that for the second set, winning shall be our first objective. I assisted him in choosing the better players. But the other team was just so fortunate in their plays. We lost in two sets.

In the afternoon, we played against the loser in the other bracket. We were fighting for third place. The rules changed allowing us to bring in our best players with or without females. I thought that had it been the rule in the elimination round, we would have had a bigger chance of winning. It was also the same with our current opponent. The result: we won in two sets after exhausting ourselves under an early afternoon sun. Then after that, we watched our tormentor win the championship.

A teammate and I just shook our heads. Sometimes, the desire to win takes away the fun. And sometimes, there is no fun at all when you lose.

After The Tax Season

My whole professional life revolves around accounting; 6 years in an auditing firm and another 6 and a half years in corporate finance. And many times I wonder what if I pursued my high school dream of taking up Agriculture (my first choice) for College. There will be no tax season, only harvest season.

Yeah, some wistful thinking now that the tax season is over. I actually want a vacation, somewhere outside the city, preferably the beaches in some islands north of Cebu; Bantayan, Malapascua and Camotes. Or even Boracay. My first time there was during a firm outing after my first ever tax season. Boracay has been my standard for beaches ever since that day. So far, none can compare.

Outsourcing: As Applied At Home

Outsourcing, in its simplicity, is letting a third party do some of the work you usually do but is not your main job, or your core business.

Outsourcing is practiced at home. And here are some of them:

1. We hire a neighbor to wash our clothes on weekends.
2. We hire father in law’s carpenters to fix our stairs
3. We hire a teenage neighbor to clean some floor and bathroom tiles in our house.
4. I pay my nephews to wash my car

This is better than keeping a housemaid. But it does not mean that we are too lazy to do the household chores. We know how to do these things (except for the carpentry job). But the laundry girl needs money for her tuition fees, the teenage boy has to earn for his poor family, and my nephews want money for extra allowance. We don’t want them begging for money so it’s a win-win situation for all of us.

My wife and I knows that when the time comes for us to migrate to the US, we can no longer avail of these outsourcing services at home. The outsourced workers are in Asia so we have to do the chores ourselves. Or else it would be very expensive.

Termites And Troubles

Daily I walk up and down the stairs at our rented apartment. But last night I refused to go up to our room. Why would I do that? You might be thinking that my wife and I had some sort of a lovers’ quarrel but it is not.

Blame it on the termites that destroyed about three steps of our stairs. If I step on it, there’s a big possibility that it would collapse. I can’t just tiptoe or jump coz I’m 40lbs heavier than I was a decade ago. Good for my honey and the other occupants of our house. They’re all paperweights. But my wife prodded me to make another attempt.

Ok, I was adamant. So I slept in the sala, particularly on the bamboo bench. I know I can sleep anywhere and I immediately dozed off within five minutes. But it’s so awkward, sleeping separately inside the same house. And the thought crawled in my sleep.

3am I rose up and made one last attempt at climbing up the stairs. I felt light but surely I did not float over the weak structure. When my wife noticed my presence, she asked “How did you manage to climb the stairs?” “I sleptwalk” was my reply.

This morning, my problem was how to get down. Oh, those termites!

Technorati and Tags

Panaderos tagged me. It’s been a while since I posted a tag. I might even have some pending assignments, which I’ll try to dig one of these days. The best tool to use in finding these tags is Technorati. Why? Because it lists down all the blogs that linked to your site: whether it’s a tag, a link mention, or even a critique.

You know, every tag that posts a link to your site is good for the technorati ranking. But if you ask me about the importance of the technorati ranking, I consider it as one of those rankings that make you feel good. Tags can also be good for the blog’s backlink count and may even affect page rank. For those doing paid posts, this one is also a sort of a posting break.

Ok, let’s go back to the tag. This one requires that you tag 5 other bloggers. Here’s my five: Josh, Scotty's Princess, Ethyl, Wil and Gladita.

After tagging, keep adding to the list below. This one takes time if you don’t know the shortcut. Just keep adding to the list. No replacements or deletion, just additions. And these are the people who already took part on this tag:

*Blognation, Pinoytek, Reyna, Bluep, Kotsengkuba, Buraot, Iris, KCee, Banco De Reyna, Mitch, Melai, Malen, Beng, Sasha, Divaness, Jojitah, Joanjoyce, Gzel, Panaderos, Lazarus, (you!)

By the way, if you have joined Techorati and already claimed a blog, I wouldn’t mind if we exchange favorites. Fave me and I’ll fave you.

Do You Want To Change Your Blogger Template But Don’t Know How?

I have ditched my green blog clothes in favors of a blue one. My long search for a new template has finally ended. This used to be a dilemma for blogspot users. While those using wordpress have nice-looking templates, we, blogspot users, have to be contented of the few available. Sometimes, we just experiment tweaking the colors and the sizes just to make it appear different.

But it is now possible to have those templates previously available to wordpress users. At Eblogtemplates, they have quite an impressive display of free new blogger templates. If you are not yet satisfied, you can search for more using the google search engine. Type “free blogger templates” and search away. And when you have chosen a template, the next thing you might ask is how to install it to your blog.

Here’s a list of what to do:

1. Download a zipped file of your chosen template.
2. Extract it on your hard disk making sure that you have the XML file.
3. Go to your blogger dashboard and click page layout, then click “edit html”.
4. Download a copy of your previous template. It is for contingency purposes.
5. Go back to your page layout. Copy the html codes of all your widgets and paste them in word, wordpad or notepad. Label them properly as you may have difficulty in finding them. When you change template, plenty of the widgets will be deleted.
6. If you have installed meta tags and scripts in your html, like those of PPP, google analytics, webmasters tools, etc…, copy these codes and remember where you placed them.
7. Then go back to “edit html” and upload the xml file you extracted and downloaded earlier. It will prompt you and display the widgets that will be deleted.
8. Proceed with the deletion.
9. Save the template and then view your blog. You can also add those scripts and meta tags before saving the template. What usually remain are the blog posts, links, categories, headers, about me, and the archives.
10. Then go back to the page layout and re-add those deleted page elements/widgets. Don’t forget to click on “save”.

So, there! I hope you will learn from this post. If you also know any short cut, please feel free to comment here. If you are not confident enough, try creating a dummy blog and follow the steps above. But if you are happy with your current template, keep it as it is. Happy blogging!

Trade Show Exhibits

An ex-colleague of mine back in the accountancy firm is now into organizing trade shows, fairs and exhibits. She had plenty of exposures in such kind of business when she was still a kid since her parents’ business always had a booth in almost every fair or mini-market in the city.

I wonder how she does the organizing. I know that to organize such is not an easy task. Large trade show exhibits needs many booths, tables, tablescloths, curtains, counters and table covers. It is much more difficult if the organizer handles successive trade show exhibits with different design requirements in different locations.

But there is a company that offers affordable trade show exhibits requirements and accessories. Camelback Displays, Inc. is a one-stop shop for factory priced trade show displays, booths, exhibits and accessories. Theirs are portable and comes in plenty of sizes, colors and designs that would easily meet exhibitors’ specification requirements. This can really help anyone into trade show organizing.