General

Wanted

By on Saturday, June 28, 2008

If you’re a fan of hard-hitting gun-slinging extreme action flicks like The Matrix Trilogy, Equilibrium, Underworld, and Underworld Evolution. then you will like this movie as I did. It is loosely based on the graphic novel of the same name. An accountant (and you know all the jokes) finds himself in the middle of a vendetta between The Fraternity, a group of assassins, and an errant former member. Soon he finds himself taking the side of the fraternity, training to be an assassin, and going after the errant member. Non-stop highly-entertaining action from start to finish. And then there’s Angelina Jolie…

Rating: 4/5

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General

Retrenchment

By on Friday, June 27, 2008

A month or two ago, there was a retrenchment in a company where some friends work. And it got me wondering about its impact: of learning that you’re being retrenched, the uncertainty whether you will be retrenched, the doubts about the future of the company…  too many morale busters. Then suddenly it happened to the company. Luckily, IT wasn’t affected… for now. But you can still see the detrimental effect on everyone. How should a company handle it? How do we handle it? The only answer I can think of is to go on and keep doing what we’re doing. After all, we’re not the only ones with that sword hanging over our heads.

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General

Write Protected USB Storage Devices

By on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I encountered a vexing problem right about the time I got my Nokia 5310. My Thinkpad T60 won’t write to the phone when connected as a storage device. I thought it was a phone problem and I asked Nokia Support for help but as expected, they weren’t really able to help. Meanwhile, I was stuck using Bluetooth to transfer files. No fun. Later, I noticed that my external hard drives, card readers, and generally USB storage devices don’t work either. I tried searching for a solution and eventually I found it. You just need to use the registry editor to delete the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect. Voila! I can now write to USB storage devices. How that key got into my system registry, I don’t know. Another one of the many wonders of Windows.

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General

Tinola

By on Tuesday, June 24, 2008

After sinigang, Michelle now has taught me how to cook tinola. I’m gonna be a cook! Haha. Below is the recipe.

6 pieces chicken wings (pakpak)
1 cup sliced chayote (sayote)
¼ cup ginger (luya)
¼ cup onion (sibuyas)
¼ cup minced garlic (bawang)
1 bunch chili leaves (dahon ng sili)

Boil chicken wings in pot until tender
Remove chicken wings and add chayote
Mince ginger, onion, and garlic.
Sautee ginger, onion, and garlic in pan.
Add chicken wings into pan and sear slightly
Pour everything into pot
Add chili leaves
Serve hot with fish sauce

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General

Game Crab Boardgame Cafe

By on Saturday, June 21, 2008

I was looking for a place to go to for Friday night and I read about Game Crab Boardgame Cafe. Board game cafes are places where you can play, what else, board games. Apparently the concept is big in the US and Europe and these guys are aiming to bring and make it big here. Curious as to how it all works, I invited Michelle for a visit.

The cafe is situated at the 2nd floor of FBR Arcade in Katipunan where Yellow Cab Katipunan branch is. Thankfully, There was sufficient parking at the basement as parking is a major pain in Katipunan.

When you go in, the friendly servers and game masters welcome you in, ask you what your order is, ask you what game you want to play, show you how to play and so on. We first played two rounds of Amazeing Labyrinth and then an assisted (by JB) round of Heroscape. The whole board game cafe concept sounds fun in writing and I’m glad to say it actually is quiet fun in actuality.

However, I’ll have to say that the food is definitely not Game Crab’s main attraction. We tried the “special” pasta and the chili wings. The pasta sucks and the chili wings were so-so (but they are hot indeed). It’s too bad since it could easily be made better and make the place a really good place to hang out in.

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