Discovering Old Maps of Manila and the Philippines

I was originally searching for the name of the body of water beside Davao. I wasn't sure if it was the South China Sea or Pacific Ocean or some other name. My geography seemed to have failed me so I researched about it on Wikipedia, which didn't mention much about the ocean and instead about everything else about Davao. So I went to google to find an asian map, and clicked from one link to another and finally got to a section of "Philippine Maps" links.

I clicked on one of them and wound up at this website. It's the University of Texas at Austin website. I couldn't have imagined they would have Philippine maps on their website but I checked it out anyway.

I was very surprised to find maps of the Philippines and key cities dated back to 1898. and with an original scale of 1:10,000. It's like opening a treasure vault. You suddenly see these maps from decades and centuries back readily available. I looked at the huge map of Manila in 1898 and you could see the original names of streets. Sooo cool !

Out of curiousity, I also opened the Cebu 1944 map and it was published by U.S. Army Map Service in 1944. The header of the image file had the text "For use By War and Navy Department Agencies Only". Isn't this during World War 2 ? Wow ! I just used to read about these in history books. I didn't realize I could possibly be looking at actual maps from that era.

I just had to share my personal revelation. Check out the other maps there too.

Maximizing Ad Space

This is EDSA passing the bridge entering Guadalupe in Makati City. These are where most of the biggest billboards are placed. You can see a huge ad for Coke. Compared to the one beside it, Kris Aquino's face covers a wider area than the angel in the Coke ad.

My weird imagination was thinking that it would be creative if the bottle of coke had a straw and it would extend past the rectangle ad area towards the direction of Kris' mouth. I saw a similar ad (Visa I think) with Jacky Chan jumping out of the billboard.

It's an instant double endorsement for Coke. Of course, I'm sure the facial care ad would be furious.

The rainy season is nearing and I hope these billboards won't be causing any hazards to motorists like what happened sometime last year. I certainly wouldn't want Kris Aquino's nose to fall on top of my car.

Elvis Presley Is My Stress Reliever

This afternoon, I was stressed out. I appointed a consultant to work on some tasks over the weekend. However he waited till the last minute and crammed today on deadline day.

So after trying to manage some damage control, I decided to take a break to relieve me of the stressful situation.... so I visited my favorite Timezone branch.

My favorite game is the Elvis Presley Pinball machine. I usually play this game three times a week. However today, the machine was missing from its regular spot. I thought they just moved it to another location since they rearrange game machines from time to time. When I couldn't find it, I asked the manager where it went. He told me that some Elvis aficionados rented the machine for one month for personal unlimited use. Huwwwwat !?!?!?! My stress reliever is gone !

And so I'm going to have to settle for Tekken or visit another Timezone branch.
To those who rented the machine, feel free to beat my score. I have the top 2nd and 3rd score with 180 million as my highest score. Practice well and you can challenge me anytime afterwards.

Goodluck !

Overflowing Content

The past few days have been events coming in two's. Last Saturday was iBlog4 and 88db.com party both geared towards the bloggers. Then a 2 day Manila tour with the Davao bloggers followed. All of this was sandwiched by a 2 part food tour sponsored by spot.ph.

I've been taking pics, video and audio recordings for almost all the events. I need to make some space for all this digital content on my desktop. Stories and pics to follow in the days "2" come.

Meanwhile, here's a pic of a semi-sunset at Manila Bay.

Unofficial Philippine Blogger Day

Yesterday felt like a Philippine National Blogger Day as there were 2 major events specifically geared towards bloggers.

iBLOG4, an annual blog summit was a whole day affair held at the Malcolm Theater at the UP College of Law. The event included a series of topics discussed and presented by distinguished, experienced and noted speakers. One of my favorite talks was about the legalities of blogging as this is an interesting and current issue. With the emergence of bloggers and the popularity of blogging, this topic is timely. It was basically a legal "do's and don'ts ". I also enjoyed Aileen and Coy's presentation on vlogging and podcasting. I was part of the video crew (translation: tagahawak ng digicam with matching personal moral support for sweetie). Ria's talk on the history and emergence of a blogger culture in Davao is uplifting and a real success story. Positivity , teamwork and a common goal for the good are their keys to success.

The evening set a social mood for the bloggers as 88db.com organized a blogger's party with the theme "Come as your blog". The party had bloggers representing their blogs as batangyagit.com, pinoyblogero.com and chickenmafia.com proved to be worthy finalists to faithfully represent their respective blogs. I was rooting for batangyagit.com but majority backed up chickenmafia.com for their cartolina human chicken costume. They even have a tutorial on how to make it if you feel the need to dress as a chicken someday. I was dressed up as a DJ equipped with headphones, sporting a turntable and mixer shirt, and an autobot blingbling. I even had to dig up a vinyl record from my dusty bodega to use as additional props. But it was all cool and fun for a change representing my blog instead of my website.

Overall the day was a blast for all bloggers. Nice to have seen the faces of those people behind their blogs. Mabuhay ang Pinoy Bloggers !!!

(pictures to follow, tinamad ako magdala ng digicam kasi. Aileen has all the photos).

Half Rice for Half the Price

Finally !
Cafeterias serve it, carinderias offer it.. it's about time fastfood joints follow.

Now you can order half a cup of rice for half the price of a full cup.... for those who feel "bitin" with a cup of rice. It usually happens when you still have "ulam" (viand) left yet you've consumed your rice. This is for those who feel that one cup of rice is not enough and two cups of rice is too much.

Available currently at Tropical Hut and KFC.

Woohoo !!!