Archive for April, 2005

19
Apr

PSP vs GBA

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Games

Now that I have loads of free time again, sitting strapped on a plane, I’m considering either getting the hot new Playstation Portable (PSP), or the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Here are the pros an cons:

PSP
Pros:    Newer technology
            Can watch movies and play music
            Better graphics!
            Hotter than the I-Pod
Cons:    Currently no games I would like to play
            No easy way to get TV shows on it
            Version 1 hardware. Bug fixes sure to come   
            Less portable than the GBA
            Only 3-5 hours battery life
GBA:
Pros:    Large game library. And I know I like Doom, Doom II, Wolfenstein, Wing Commander
            10-18 hours of use
            Smaller and more portable than the PSP   
Cons:    Older technology
            Smaller screen and dated graphics
            Strictly a game machine
            Uncool. I’ll look like I stole the GBA from my kid brother.. or worse, my son!

19
Apr

Taken By “Taken”

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Books, TV and Movies

4/5 Stars. When I first got my TiVo working is Seattle, one of the first things that I did was to record most of the mini-series that were on Sci-Fi channel’s "Mini-Series Month". I missed the last installment of "Stephen King’s Rose Red", but I did get to record episodes 2 through 10 of "Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken".

"Taken" is a story spanning several generations about people being serially abducted by space aliens, and how this affects their ongoing lives. What is most interesting about this miniseries is that each 2-hour episode is set in a different time period, each episode chronologically generally being several years apart.

Admittedly the first time I watched episode 2 I didn’t want to continue using up my TiVo’s precious 40 hours of space. But then, somehow, it started getting under my skin. Before I knew it I had watched 2 1/2 episodes consecutively, and it was almost 3am when I turned off the TV. So I’m hooked.

19
Apr

Getting Sick and Tired With All This Flying

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Travel

Just like the title says, I’m getting sick and tired of flying.. literally! This is my 3rd round-trip in almost as many weeks, and still 5 more months of this to go. I really cant stay away for extended periods of time, as the rest of my life is in NYC, and I won’t give in to laziness and just stay out in Seattle until the project finishes.

In keeping with this itinerary, I often arrive in NYC tired and with a headache and jet lag. That makes me lose maybe a day. But really, there is no place like home. I’ve grown accustomed to my housie, and sometimes I dread the inevitability of having to rent it out eventually when I get a bigger home.

So far I have changed my flights from good-timeslot-long-flight-time to bad-timeslot-short-flight-time. Long flight times mean 9 hours in the air. Short flight times mean 5. Right now I’m on the air with still almost 4 hours of flight time to go. 4 hours really is nothing if you have a lot to do during flight.

I could do work on my notebook, but right now there is nothing to do. Maybe when the schedules start tightening?

I could watch stuff recorded on my TiVo on my computer, but that will probably keep me entertained for 2hrs, until the battery runs down on the notebook.. still that’s worth a try

I could keep on reading the magazines I subscribe to. I havent been able to keep up with all my subscriptions. They’re all free BTW. For some reason I keep getting 500 bonus miles on one of my frequent flier airline accounts - an airline I never use! I use these miles to subscribe to Esquire and Entrepreneur. I also have a paid Newsweek subscription. Then there are the back issues from my past subscriptions to a couple of business and personal finance magazines. This might be the best way to go - catching up on my reading. Right now I’m reading a June 2004 issue of Entertainment. Yes, and it gets worse. I have maybe 2 years worth of back issue magazines that are taking up 3 levels of my bookshelf. That’s bookshelf real-estate that could be used for other more worthy things.. like a wooden statue of Hawaiian king Kamehameha. But reading hurts the eyes after a while.

I could load up games on my computer. That would be an entertaining way of passing time. There are some games that I haven’t completed yet, but I have a longstanding phobia of games, after they nearly ruined my life back in college.

I could get a portable gaming system like a Game Boy Advance or that hot new PSP. That would be cool, but would cost some dough. I’ll dedicate an entry for that later.

19
Apr

And With Winged Words I Said..

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Books, TV and Movies

I was finally able to borrow Homer’s "The Oddysey" again this weekend. The last time I borrowed it, I was about 80% done when I had to return it, just missing the juicy part - Oddyseus returning home after 20 years.

The interesting part about reading a book as old as this is simple - it gives a glimpse into the everyday Greek world 4000 years ago. A couple of observations that I have noted:

- Charity to the poor is partly based on fear that they may be gods in disguise testing humanity

- Oddyseus almost strangles his old wet-nurse when she almost gives away his disguise! Shocking that the hero of our story would beat up on the old lady who raised him.

- Men are honored largely based on their material worth or power, and women are treasured because of their beauty. Some things never change. But at least then, there was no pretense of other redeeming values.

I still have about 2 hours reading left on this book. Hopefully I can finish this before I need to return it again.

19
Apr

Unexpected Fun With the Automotive Appliance

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Cars

Last week I’ve been driving around again on the 2005 Toyota Corolla CE, the stripper Corolla model. For some reason, I was starting to drive the thing like it were a sportier little car. Taking faster turns, flogging the engine (it had a nice-sounding exhaust from a 4-cylinder powerplant), making more aggressive maneuvers on the road. Was it because it was a fun little car to drive, even though it looked like a big loaf of bread? Or was it something non-automotive that spurred me to take a little more risk than usual? Whatever it was, it made me again want to get the little MR2 Spyder convertible. This is the final production year for the MR2, and already I dont see it on sale at Carsdirect.com, nor did I see it at the 2005 NY Auto Show. Maybe I can afford a 2nd car when I’m loaded.

19
Apr

“Revalations” is a Revalation

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Books, TV and Movies

5/5 Stars. When I first saw this 6-part mini-series about the "End of Days", I was intrigued. From the outset, it looked like the "X-Files" meets the "Da Vinci Code", with big-name-star Bill Pullman as an astrophysicist in the "Scully Role", and Natasha McEnhoe as a nun in the "Mulder" role.

The start of the show was a bit rocky at first, with seemingly unconnected events happening, like lighning rendering a young girl comatose, the finding of a baby in rough seas, and the capture of a satanist cult leader. At the end of the episode, most of the parts seem to come together, and in the next episode, the last open thread seems to have been laid in place.

I’ve always been a fan of religious conspiracy tales, although I have not yet read "Da Vinci Code" (I plan to get it on audio book so as not to waste reading time - or maybe I’ll just wait for the Tom Hanks movie), and this one shows lots of promise. Hopefully its good for the entire 6 episodes. If it’s good enough, hopefully it spawns a regular series.

13
Apr

Thoughts on the Corporate Apartment

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Travel

This is my 2nd week at the Oakwood Corporate Apartment in Seattle. Funny how quickly I’ve moved in. Clothes and groceries check. I even got myself a small rice cooker and a 25lb sack of rice! Also, I’ve moved my TiVo here as well, as the TV has cable. Get the hence Satan! There’s a reason why I only have broadcast channels (in High Definition) at home.. because I’m a recovering TV-holic!

Interesting because during the first 30 years of my life in the Philippines, TV had never been a meaningful part of my life, in terms of hours spent per week. When I was in my Makati apartment, the TV was only on when I was watching anime on the VCR. But of course there was no History, Discovery, or Sci-Fi channel back then.

Hopefully I get to keep more of my per diem in my pocket, now that I can cook my own dinners.. not that I didnt usually just order room service when I was staying at hotels. This seems like a good setup for the next 6 months. We shall see..

13
Apr

Investment Worries

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Making Moolah

I finally signed the contract for the pre-construction condo. That entailed a 10% deposit on the selling price of the condominium when it gets built. I learned from the builders that the building will be completed Spring 2006, not on October 2005 as I had originally thought. This is both good and bad.

Good because it gives me more time to save up for the rest of the downpayment - another 10% - and gives the condo unit more time to appreciate in value before I have to pay any mortgage on it.

Bad because mortgage rates next year would most likely be higher, and the real estate market could have bottomed out by that time. The signs are everywhere. The Fed making statements that they are worried about inflation. Usually that means that they are about to raise interest rates to dampen inflation. Then there are the articles on the web and in magazines about the housing boom being over. Man I will have to flip that property as soon as I own it. Either that or rent it out - renting either my housie or the condo being the more fiscally responsible thing to do.

This is probably what people are calling investment risk. Investment paranoia is more like it. The moral of the story is: to be less worried, do your homework. And I’m afraid I haven’t done mine very well.

02
Apr

I’ll Be Seeing You, Pope John Paul II

By jjao 0 Comments
Categories: Musings

The Pope passed away 9:37pm, writes the AP article. Its just now that I realized that he didn’t mean Eastern time, but rather local time in Rome, which probably means 4:37pm EST.

I guess it was fitting that Daylight Savings Time was set today. So an hour goes missing, along with the only pope I ever knew.

"According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying (New York:
    Macmillan, 1969), there are four stages to coming to terms with a death. Psychiatrist Neal  Barnard has stated that these stages apply even to “the death of an idea”. The first stage is denial. The second is anger. The third is bargaining. The fourth is acceptance."

I just stole that from another website. I am still in a bit of in denial right now. I have this idea that the pope really is still alive, hidden somewhere in the Vatican, so that the pope doesn’t get into the Terry Schiavo scenario. It would make a great movie.

But then, why would the pope want to be kept indefinitely alive in life support? He of all people should have supreme confidence that he was going to a better place. In fact, the only thing that scares the bejeezus out of me is that I dont know if I’m going to a better place if I die.

So why all the mouring back in Manila and in Rome? Certainly we are not mourning for the Pope, for he’s cast the mortal coil. I’m sure hes glad to be rid of Parkinsons. On the BBC I keep seeing pictures of him when he was newly elected - full of power, confidence, and charisma. I’m sure he missed that too in the later years.

It is obvious then that we are mourning for ourselves; for our loss. Will we have another pope like him? I’ve been reading up on the Renaissance, and boy, you wouldn’t want to have popes like they did back in the 1400’s.

I hope we get another pope just like John Paul II. He once said that the world should conform to the Church, and not the other way around. That’s why he had a hard line with women clergy, celibacy, birth control, etc. etc. What many people in democracies have a hard time getting their arms around is the concept that the Catholic Church is not a democracy (although popes are elected). And that changing times does not mean that the Church change its principles along with it.

But that is for the cardinals to decide, when they hole themselves up in the Sistine Chapel, under Michelangelo’s frescos, and elect a new pope. In the meantime, I will be happy for John Paul II, and sincerely hope that I get to meet him one day.

Because I missed World Youth Day in Manila last time he was there.