New Orleans at Resort's World

We seem to be eating out a lot lately :) Good company makes for good food, and good food makes for a happy blogger! Haha..

This time, we had dinner right before catching The Sound of Music (the theatrical play) at Resort's World's Newport Theater last night. We didn't know where to eat, and New Orleans looked like a good place, so we went there.

Sourdough Bread.

Crab and Corn Bisque.

Not very clear, but this was Pork Belly.

PJ with her massive Cajun fish (I forgot the proper name).

The place was quite crowded but we were lucky to get a nice table at the side. Food servings were huge and for the price, one of the most worth-spending-on we've ever had. The pork belly went okay with the house wine, though they could have had a better selection (the waiter only mentioned 3-4 bottles). Pretty decent, and the service is quick, if a tad hasty. Even though the servings were heavy, it left a little bit (not enough to stop me from going there again, mind you) of a greasy after-taste.

Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Value for Money: 9/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,200.00 - PHP 1,500.00

Jay~

Run for Pasig River

See you there! I'll be doing my usual 3k.

Registrations end Nov 15!

Sign up now!

De La Salle University registration booth is located at the St. Joseph Hall lobby.

For more information, please visit Run for Pasig River 2011.

Jay~

Run for Life

3k in 13:55, bib #3704

Jay~

Balducci Dinner Date

Balducci Ristorante is a pretty Italian restaurant at Serendra, at The Fort, and it is currently my new favorite restaurant. Good food, good wine, very good service = recipe for a good experience.

Appetizer.

PJ with her seafood soup.

Minestra di Pesce alla Balducci, or as I like to call it, "seafood soup".

Spaghetti alla Pescatora, or "seafood pasta".

A glass of Chianti to cap the night off. But no liver, Mr. Lecter :)

I cannot stress enough how much I loved the food that night. It was really good, much better than the many (commercialized) Italian places around Manila. I could be going to too few places, but for now, Balducci is a decent place to have a meal. The ambiance was very nice as well, but the music choices were strange for the place (pop and some heavy R&B?). Well worth whatever you spend.

Balducci menu courtesy of munchpunch.com, if you're curious :)

Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Value for Money: 10/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,000.00 - PHP 1,500.00

Jay~

Weekend Getaway

After what has turned out to be a very draining first ten months in the working world, a nice weekend break to my favorite place - Davao - was in order. Obviously, I cannot detail the trip here in its entirety but perhaps some pictures would help :)

I ran a race (Life Run 2010), joining in my usual 3k. I'm pretty fond of the 3k; the speed and competitiveness of the first kilometer is an adrenaline rush for me, and the mad dash at the last half a click gives a massive high for me later. I posted my best time so far in a run, at 13 minutes 55 seconds. I know it's not that fast (world record stands at a little over 7 minutes) but I am continuously improving :)

Julian, my Davao brother (blood couldn't make us any closer) also opened his mum's graduation gift for him. A massive 840W sound system. Holy crap LOL.

840W of sound muscle.

For Halloween, we spent it at Julian's uncle's place, which turned out to be the largest private residence I have ever been in. For comparison, the outdoors dining table where we had dinner on was a little less than the total length of my condo. WTF. I also had the opportunity (since it was Julian's graduation and all) to have had a couple of glasses of Cristal, definitely one of the most delicious drinks I've had. Also, a bottle of Cristal goes for something like $800. WTF Pt. 2.

Also known as the pimp of all champagne.

Spent the next couple of days with friends, and then a day with a Sister of the MIC (Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception) for the much needed spiritual R&R. I learned a lot about myself, and so much more about life and the challenges I have overcome and should expect.

Capped off my November Davao Retreat with an awesome Japanese dinner, but unfortunately, I was so famished I only managed to snap a picture of the appetizer.

Sashimi goodness.

All in all, one of the best retreats of my life, and needed so badly too.

Jay~

Typhoon Quiel

As Typhoon Quiel passed by the Philippines yesterday, I went to the rooftop of my condo building and snapped some pictures of the very low clouds and very little visibility caused by the second storm to hit us inside a week.

Overlooking Mandaluyong City.

Overlooking North.

Manila Bay takes the cake!

Thank God this storm has passed, and did not deliver a nature-smackdown the way Typhoon Pedring did.

Jay~

Globe Postpaid

I finally have a post-paid mobile number, but I have to say, the experience was less than charming. In the end though, throwing some weight around fixed some problems (permanently, I hope).

On September 19, I applied for my post-paid line at the Globe website (the plan I availed was the P299 line + P599 unlimited call/text to Globe or TM). The company emailed me, and said that my SIM card would be ready within twenty-four hours. True enough, they delivered on this promise (it was delivered to my doorstep), and by the evening of September 20 (when I was out of town for work) I was making phone calls and sending out my usual ungodly amount of text messages. I was on unfamiliar territory, having a line and all, so the next day, I called Customer Service, just to check if I was being billed for my usage. The answer was "No". 

The next week, on the 27th, saw Typhoon Pedring make landfall. Rains were heavy, winds were wild, and my line was cut. Yes; in the middle of a natural calamity, my means of communication to the outside world was taken away. Why? Because apparently, I have not been on any unlimited call/text service - note, one which I paid in advance for. For the next three days, until yesterday, I spoke with customer service a total of fourteen (14) times, a ridiculous amount of "helpful and eager" assistants.

And NONE of them looked like this.

Here were my three problems with Globe post-paid.

1. My P299 plan with the add-on of P599 totals at P898. My line was cut because I went over my credit limit (more on that later) of P600. If the system automatically cuts lines that go over a credit limit, then why was my initial application for the line (which amounted to P898, mind you) approved in the first place?
2. My credit limit was set at P600, a limit when an applicant's monthly salary is P10,000 or less. Since I was not earning that amount at all, where did they pull that number out from?
3. Why did my requests for information, customer support, and assistance reach fourteen instances? Shouldn't any number more than one be too many, and thus reflect gross incompetence in their customer service department?

How about UNLIMATH to 8888?

Anyway, at my wits' end (and a little beyond), I emailed Globe's president.

I receive a call from the office of the president and guess what? Globe will fix everything. Currently, my credit limit has been increased in reflection and in parallel to my actual salary, and my unlimited call/text package has been activated. The company has also promised me that they will investigate the customer service issue.

Moral of the story:

Sometimes, you gotta go all the way.

Jay~

Work: It Kills You

 I spent the past five days away from Manila, on a business trip. There was possibly only two good things that came out of it: I was in my favorite place in the country (Davao City) and I made a few new friends. Other than that, it was one of those things that I would very much rather forget.

While it is tempting to write a detailed account of the trip, this little should suffice:
Work is work. It should supersede any and every thing else.

Jay~

9/11 - Defining a Decade

9/11 Tribute Lights light up the Manhattan skyline.

It has been ten whole years since the world experienced one of the worst attacks on a nation in recorded history. It was an attack that painfully exposed the vulnerability of the world's lone superpower, and an attack that prompted two major wars and many more small-scale operations. It was an attack that affected the lives of virtually everyone, from policy makers to the average air traveler. It was 9/11, and akin to 12/7 (Pearl Harbor), it will forever be an event that can be summed up and remembered just from the date of its occurrence.

9/11 occurred when I was thirteen years old, in the first year of my secondary school. I remember watching it live on television, and as it unfolded, my young mind was understandably confused and scared at the same time. I grasped neither the impact nor the importance of this event at that time. Six years later, as I majored in International Relations, the 9/11 attacks virtually became the center of my academic life. As I wrote papers on national security, domestic and international policy-making, international law, and even international economics, 9/11 somehow, some way found itself in my work. It defined so many things that we are 'used to' now. Strict airport security measures? This stemmed from 9/11. "Terror" as a household word? Blame it on 9/11. Muslims around the world - radical and moderate alike - branded as "fundamentalists" or worse, "terrorists"? 9/11 played a big part. The attacks on America not only changed our experiences in the days that followed; lifestyles and mindsets changed as well.

Ten years on, the world is still experiencing two combat theaters, Iraq and Afghanistan. American involvement in these two countries - I have said this countless times on many academic papers - have strained the American (and in turn, global) economy and willpower to its limits. These wars have destroyed billions of dollars worth of property, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, alienated entire demographics, and claimed an appalling number of lives. Al-Qaeda, the group claiming responsibility for the attacks, has recently lost its mastermind, Osama bin Laden, after more than nine years of eluding international operatives. Has this changed anything, created an impact that can be felt? It still remains to be seen. What is important, perhaps, is that the world knows that threats can and may come from anywhere. A culture of paranoia has been created from 9/11.

9/11 represents, in my opinion, two sides of a coin. On one side, you have the United States and its allies, defending themselves and reacting to the terror attacks. On the other side, the radical religious groups, hellbent on bringing down democracy and everything Western. In the middle, much like the proverbial coin, is the very thin and small group of neutrals and fence-sitters, choosing neither side and risking the complete wrath of the other. Ten years on, this group division is still very much evident. Ten years on, we still remember, and we are still affected, whether we like it or not.

Jay~

External Links:
25 Powerful Images of 9/11

Run for Humanity

First run outside Manila!

Also, I've decided to keep a comprehensive blog on the runs that I will be joining from now on. Just so I know when I improve, and to keep tally of my participation :)

3k in 14:24, bib #0275

Jay~

Crying Out For Blood

You know a country has had enough when private citizens actively condone brutal, violent, and very public killings of criminals by law enforcement officials.

I have been in the Philippines for a little over four years now, and the level of violence here make the hardest Malaysian gangsters look amateur. Criminal organizations here have complex systems of organizations and even private armies; granted, these are the ones that present difficulty to the nation as a whole. Understandably, the frustration of the masses would blow over more to the petty criminals, the ones who operate on a much smaller scale and are either too unlucky/dumb/careless and were caught.

Reading the comments on this news report (see the number of "likes" as well!) has made me conclude that yes, many of these criminals have nowhere else to go but six feet under. Before anything else, let's not get anything wrong: I believe in human rights and I support it in principle and in spirit. In so saying, I also believe that individuals who would seek to deny another individual the very precious thing called "life" forfeit their claim to justice and their lives. When I think about it, I do not think that criminals who take away life deserve to keep theirs.

A Vigilante Attitude?
Of course, the public condoning of criminal killing is obviously not a long-term solution. The last thing anybody wants are roving packs of armed private citizens mercilessly serving out a deadly dish of vengeance. No. This will breed disorder, discord, and a false sense of justice for the country. There is also the chance of making grievous errors; an innocent man may fall victim to this witch-hunt. In the case of rooting out and killing known criminals, the means does not justify the end.

All Down to the Individual
In the end, where does this bring us? Crime is still rampant in the Philippines and the death of several criminals, while high-profile, will actually not do much to reduce the level of overall criminal activity in the country. I suppose apart from distancing ourselves from crime, it is far more important to maintain the "us against them" mentality (id est, "us" being non-criminals and "them" being criminals). Also, it is my opinion that we, bring private citizens, should (as much as possible) allow the law enforcement officials to be the ones to enforce the heavy hand of the law - they are much better trained and equipped for "removing" the "unwanted elements" of our society. Our part, I suppose, would be to remain vigilant against threats to our social well-being and security. After all, a private citizen, no matter how good the intention, will be considered a criminal under the rule of law if said citizen commits a crime to avenge/reverse another crime.

A tooth for a tooth would sounds fair, but I know for sure I wouldn't give a tooth for a criminal. Not even a single skin cell.

Jay~

News article linked courtesy of Yahoo! News Philippines.

Math Says You Should be Married at this Age

Yes.

Professor Anthony Dooley of the University of New South Wales devised a formula to calculate 'the ideal marrying age'. I personally think it's very convincing.

The magic formula:

1. Take the oldest age that you would like to be married.
2. Subtract from it the youngest age that you would like to be married.
3. Multiply the answer by 0.368.
4. Voila! Your ideal marrying age, according to Professor Dooley.

The formula takes into account "maximum rewards for minimal costs" - which I assume tries to calculate the 'readiness' of an individual to tie the knot. Even if you're a skeptic, it's still pretty fun.

I got 28.2 years of age, pretty near my ideal :)

Jay~