daybreak

i feel like Daniel, being thrown into the lions' den.

speaking of lions ... this always makes me laugh.



then again, who knows? maybe there's another change on the horizon.

the Sims, Philippine Edition

so what about this latest brouhaha back home - a hostage crisis, the second in weeks to happen?

picture this: a 60-year old daycare school owner takes hostage 26 of his own students, inside a bus for 10 hours, demanding to get 'support for his school and improved housing for the poor'. at 7 PM Manila time, the guy, Armando Ducat surrenders, ending the standoff.

my first concern was: did the kids even eat during the whole ordeal?

the answer is, they got fried chicken at the end of the day (Jollibee? Max's?). so this means nobody ate during.

last night, while i was checking news wires as the crisis progressed, i read that Malacanang convened a luncheon meeting to discuss the problem. two things jumped out at me:

- that they were having a luncheon meeting. did they have krispy pata, lechon paksiw, pancit luglug, and puto, while considering options on how to get out of the embarrassing situation? since this is the Internet Age 2.0, news like this get picked up immediately - and i bet you some officials in that meeting were among the last to know. and while eating that crunchy krispy pata, a couple of them probably threw out suggestions to bomb the bus. bomb bus! wooohoooo!

- that allegedly, no one was panicking. that's what Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said - "who's panicking? we are hardly in a state of panic." that's true. i mean, how can you panic when you're having krispy pata and pancit? what, me worry?

other people didn't waste time having lunch, going for the media mileage and goodwill cachet instead - witness the distinguished Senator Bong Revilla acting on his moviestar instincts and negotiated directly with the hostage-taker. even Senator-hopeful and gambling lord Chavit Singson talked to the guy. are they all mahjong and pusoy buddies? c'mon, we need to know these things.

and how about this Ducat guy? alleged historical behavior of the sort notwithstanding (holding a couple of priests hostage because he was unpaid?), he demanded free education for his wards (whom he threatened basically by brandishing guns - an Uzi! - at keeping them in a bus without food for hours) and "unite with President Gloria Arroyo" to "dismantle a corrupt government" ... ehhh? didn't the instigators of the coup de'tat of 2003 demand the same thing? so instead of taking adults as hostages, we Filipinos try to prove a point alternatively by taking helpless kids hostages. if this doesn't work, look out for somebody taking a whole pet shop hostage next time.

so what was he thinking? he knows he's gonna face jail time at the least. jail time, if he doesn't go down shooting, taking a few kids along. really? was he really bent on shooting kids with his "fine" and "Israeli-made"* Uzi? he was allegedly a contractor. was he "contracted" to put distracting news on the headlines, and make a few people look good? everyone loves the Robin Hood type.

* that was the description of Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarsoza. is there an Uzi that's NOT Israeli-made? or are you just trying to impress the press? just asking, sir. and oh, make sure that fine firearm does not end up in someone else's private arsenal. or yours.

with the elections looming on the horizon, the only ones who will remember this down the line would be the traumatized kids. or maybe that ChickenJoy was enough to wipe away the bad memories. oh wait, somebody will make a movie first! i can see it now: "Manila Hostage Crisis: God Save Us!". or at least a "Maalaala Mo Kaya" episode. expect Kris Aquino to interview a few kids. some of them might end up Star Circle Search Batch 2010.


and then we all forget about this crap. until all the pet dogs in Ayala Alabang get taken hostage.

not AppleTV

while everyone else was enjoying their AppleTVs, i went the other way and got a media receiver instead. i did consider the AppleTV, but they were shooting themselves in the foot like Sony by limiting media formats. and since the bulk of my ehem, appropriated media content is mostly AVI/DiVX and MPG, i neither have the patience nor inclination to convert everything to what Steve Jobs deemed playable on his new toy. plus it may not work on my not-HDTV TV. we'll talk again in June, Steve, when iPhone comes out.

so for a few dollars less, i chose the D-Link DSM-520, a sleek wireless media receiver that has been out for about a year now.


recommended layout had it connecting to the TV directly, but since i had my Pelican Pro Selector device, i sent the receiver through that instead. initially i tried using an S-Video cable (against common sense), but that didn't work (boooo!). i didn't have a spare component video cable handy so i used my DVD cables temporarily.

and it works! i just needed to enter my secret 128-bit encrypted network password and we're rolling.


now for testing ... what's in my laptop? ah, a good choice: Pirates of the Carribean in AVI format.


wait ... that's not Pirates of the Caribbean!


of course, 'garbage in, garbage out' applies here ... if you have poorly-encoded media, your output will suck. which also means you go 'wow' when you're playing HDTV-source AVI files (props to revolutionary encoders!) it also doesn't like low level WMVs, or QuickTime MOVs, but that's no big deal. you can also have the option of having several media servers, so you can switch from one pc to another to play your stuff.

anyway, the darned thing works! its not HDTV but now i can watch all that accumulated movies and TV shows of the past 24 months on a bigger screen than my laptop or desktop. which i have been thinking about for a long time now. hooohaaaa!


what, i have to do laundry?!? sheeesh.

thumbing my nose

new iPod entries:

Joss Stone
Introducing Joss Stone


LCD Soundsystem
Sound of Silver


Arcade Fire
Neon Bible


Bloc Party
A Weekend in the City



The Brand New Heavies
Get Used To It


Sugababes
Overloaded: The Singles