THIS KEYBOARD BLEW me away!  When I first saw the photo I thought it may just be a mock up, or perhaps someone with lots of time to waste did it on PhotoShop (or GIMP).

Turns out it is in fact a real keyboard.  I still find it difficult to comprehend what application it could have been designed for but this particular model is supposed to be for right-handed folks (there’s a version for lefties).

The only application I can think of is for handicapped people, i.e.   those who only have one arm or have control of only one arm.

Or maybe you can use this keyboard if your other arm is busy (like with what?!!!).  Hmmm…. if you are thinking what I am thinking then you are a pervert. ;->

I AM PLEASANTLY SURPRISED to learn that my good ole friend Dominic Cimafranca, with whom I just got reunited with via Blogosphere [visit his blog, Village Idiot Savant], is also into poetry.  It is a big surprise because I don’t know too many geeks (and Dom is a certified triple platinum geek) who are into poetry.  It is a pleasant surprise because I am also into poetry, although mildly.  So that makes two of us.

Which brings me to the title of this blog.

I visited Tacloban for the very first time about a year ago (Nov 2007) to attend a business conference conducted by my company.  We stayed in a hotel in Tacloban that will easily pass for a museum with its rich memorabilia of WW2 photos and relics.    Aside from being a geek and a “mild” poet I am also a “war freak” so it was such a treat for me.

A framed poem on the hotel’s lobby caught my attention.  It is a poem written by the mother of the famous Gen. Douglas MacArthur.  I’ve pored through lots of materials on Gen. Douglas MacArthur but I haven’t seen this one until that day in Tacloban.  Here it is…

A Letter to Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Do you know that your soul

is of my soul such a part

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THIS IS gruesome!  But this can happen to anyone even, or perhaps especially, in the Philippines.

Click on the link below to view the short video clip of a real road accident that took place in Shanghai, China: 

accident-in-shanghai-china

AAP (Automobile Association Philippinnes) has a Road Safety advocacy program called THINK BEFORE YOU DRIVE.  It is actually a worldwide road safety program of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) to which AAP is a member organization.  We were launching the program in the Philippines before I left AAP in 2006.  I continue to support and promote the road safety advocacies of AAP and I encourage all of my friends who drive, including those who chance on my blog, to think before you drive. 

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DON’T BOTHER ATTEMPTING to find the connection between the turtles, the frogs, and the pretty lady.  There is none.  I just thought it is a much more provocative title than “Three Excellent Moral Lessons,” which was the subject of the e-mail forwarded by my good friend Harry Estipona of the UP-MBA Housemates.

Harry has the knack for forwarding really interesting e-mail messages, like his usual wife-bashing jokes.  This is not a wife-bashing joke.

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THIS IS TOO unbelievable to be faked so it must be for real!!!

I’ve seen some really crazy pilot acts in You Tube but all of them pale in comparison to this one.  I can’t seem to find it in You Tube, though.

Click on the photo to play the video.

LAST WEEK I featured a cool and free online tool to make your photos funky.  Here’s another one that you’ll surely love to try soon.  It is called PHOTOFUNIA and what it allows you to do is to superimpose your own photos into a number of predetermined photo themes available from the PhotoFunia site. 

(If you’ve been visiting my blogsite and paying attention to the CHEAT LINKS on the right navigation panel you should have seen this already.)

These things are better seen than heard (or read) so just take a look at these simple examples I did.

WE WENT to see Quantum of Solace, my ex-girlfriend and I, on its first day of showing last week at Greenbelt 3.

I will not write a movie review about the latest James Bond thriller.  Suffice it to say that it is a superb and extremely entertaining movie.  Daniel Craig is doing a great job in reinventing James Bond.  Two thumbs up.  Go watch it if you haven’t yet.

It was about 8:30 PM when we arrived at the box office counters of Greenbelt 3.  We bought tickets for a 10:00 PM screening.  I was famished so went to look for a place to eat.

Unknown to me, my ex-girlfriend already has her agenda all laid down as far as our dinner is concerned.  She wanted to check out a relatively new dining place right at the ground floor of Greenbelt 3.  It’s called O Kitchen.

She was curious, and I got curious too, since we know of a place also called “O Kitchen” somewhere in Libis (very near Eastwood City) QC.  It was one of our favorite lunch places when we were still working at the IBM Plaza up until 2001 (we are not sure if it is still there).  It was also one of the few dining places my ex-girlfriend hasn’t tried yet in the whole GB1-5 complex!

As soon as we’ve entered the joint and opened the menu we agreed that it was nothing like the “O Kitchen” in Libis that we used to go to.  The concept is different, the menu selections are different, the ambiance is different…  The only things that seem to be somehow similar, but not the same, are the spoons and forks.  Or should I say the trowels and gardening forks (they are huge!)?

Their menu is very interesting – entertaining even.  From their appetizers to entrees, to dessert, and to drinks they came up with really catchy names (mostly word plays of some popular or commonly used phrases).

For our appetizers, for instance, we ordered “Catty Remarks” (deep fried cat fish rings).  I strongly recommend this to go with San Mig Light.  Quite good.  Very crunchy, you can chew and eat even the catfish bones.

For our main course we opted for “Too Good It’s So True” (pan fried salmon belly with bistek tagalog sauce) for me and “Ribbit” (fried pork spare ribs) for her.  I find the bistek tagalog sauce too salty and the fried spare ribs too oily (must be the fat). More »

I HAVE TALKED ABOUT QUITE a number of people in my blog.  Most of them are loved ones and friends.  Quite a handful are people who don’t really know me  personally but, nevertheless, have made (or are making) an influence in my life one way or the other.  A few are people I don’t particularly like but are interesting enough for me to waste time on.

For this particular day everybody else will have to step aside and take the back seat in favor of a person who responds to the moniker, “Mr. Sprocket.”

On why he is called ‘Mr. Sprocket’ visit Extreme Trail Riders.  There you will find the explanation, and a lot more.

Mr. Sprocket actually responds to several other names:  JED to most of us who works for and with him; Eduard/Edward (I think) to his significant other, Margarita; Dad to his kids - Paolo, Clarissa, Camille and Anton;  Ed to some friends; Jose to e-mail spammers trying to sell him anything from a Website to some weird gadgets.

When he is not riding his KTM 525 EXC bike on some roadless mountains or dried-up riverbeds he may be working on the prototype of a designer hard hat cum golf cap cum mountaineering head gear.   Apparently, Mr. Sprocket not just wears many hats.  He makes them, too.  As  a self-professed mad scientist he invents all sorts of stuff most professional scientists will not even think about inventing.  His next project, as far as I reckon, is a specially designed pair of mountaineering shoes that may just put some popular brands of outdoor shoes out of business.  Okay, maybe not.  But the science to his inventions are really compelling you’ll look forward to buying your pair as soon as he mass produces them. More »

THAT PINOY GOT talent is old news.  But these ones are the first of many talented Pinoys who are taking advantage of the Internet in curving their names in the gloal entertainment industry.  Surely there’ll be more to come.

All of us have seen them on TV and on the Internet.  Or have we?  They are mostly ordinarily people, much like you and me.  But they pursued their dreams and didn’t stop believin’ so the rest of us can be proud that we are Pinoys.  And that’s why I took the trouble to compile them here in this post.

WE ARE HALFWAY THERE!  Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” manuscript has 13 parts and this is the seventh.

Here are the first six parts for your quick reference:

Part 1:  Laying Plans

Part 2:  Waging War

Part 3:  Attack by Stratagem

Part 4:  Tactical Dispositions

Part 5:  Energy

Part 6:  Weak Points and Strong

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TWO AND A HALF WEEKS AGO an unexpected e-mail message from a long-lost friend triggered a flurry of online activities by otherwise nonchalant members of a long separated but never forgotten “brood” – The Boys and Girls of P. Campa.  It is one of those disruptive events that throw everyone affected off tangent.  All of a sudden The Boys and Girls of P. Campa are abuzz and alive, with e-mails flying in every direction.

The initiator of this disruptive event has been Claret (or Iris, depending on who is calling her).  She just recovered from an emotional bout which, all of a sudden, triggered her nostalgic trip down memory lane all the way to the cockroach- and rat-infested bed-space-only boarding houses of P. Campa St. in the middle of Manila’s university belt.

I was the recipient of that fateful first e-mail.  She found me through Google and Friendster, Claret said, which I find to be somewhat flattering and outright funny.  Flattering because it means I now somehow exist in the World Wide Web.  Yippy!  I am googleable!    Funny because I do have a Friendster account but I have not really accessed it since I created it several years ago.

Claret has always been the sentimental fool in the group.  Okay, I rank a far second. More »