I Am A Font

The CHOOB Stripes font!


Hooray! :)

And if you look at the design credits, Choob Stripes was first seen on MyFont on December 11, just one day after my birthday. Yes. My destiny is intertwined with the Choob Stripes!

Nonsensical IM Conversations Entry #4

Enrty #4 - Save The Africans!

diane717:
aaron gave me a plant
as a test to see if i can take care of a living thing
official_choob:
haha!
how nice
what kind?
diane717:
african violets
official_choob:
you must not let them die then
diane717:
so i think if they make it thru, we'll move on to hamstsers
official_choob:
i will pray for your africans.

END.

You Know What It's Like To Be A Tree?

Cool rotoscoped animation about a boy who claims he was a tree in another life.

Children... they are wise.

Pinoy Thriller

Watch 1500+ Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center inmates do the "Thriller"...

Entertaining siya ha... in fairness...

Please Press The "Pon Pon"

I purchased a padlock today. It was manufactured in a country where the primary language is NOT English. And how did I come to that conclusion, you ask? Well, ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I rest my case.

By the way... I don't know what a "pon pon" is, but asking me to "press" it in a "concealed spot" just sounds kinda dirty.

Rehab

I will be offline for the remainder of the weekend. I'm going to a rehab center for internetz addiction. Wish me luck! LOLzers.

Takot Ako Eh!

I was browsing around for some good reading material at Powerbooks the other day and came across one of their Harry Potter promotional gimmicks. It's called the Powerbooks Pensieve (in reference to that magical bowl thingy from the story where you can put your memories in for examination at a later time). But the Powerbooks Pensieve, on the other hand, is a not a bowl but a book filled with questions where customers can write down their creative answers. One of the things it asks is: if you encountered a Boggart, what would it turn into? The Boggart, for those of you who flunked Defense Against the Dark Arts, is a shape-shifting creature that will turn into the worst fear of anyone who encounters it. And here are a few of the answers that I read:

(1) snakes

Yep. Snakes certainly are scary.

(2) cockroaches

Gross.

(3) my high school P.E. teacher

I remember mine. He would pronounce P.E. as "fee - eee", but he would say "pisikal" education.

(4) Jolina Magdangal singing Paper Roses

I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seem so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart

*shudders*

(5) Wendy from PBB

Total. Psycho.

and lastly...

(6) Willie Revillame in a bikini

Boom-Tarat-PAKSHET!!!

Now THAT is scary...

The Mystery Of The Outrageously Low Alexa Rank

So I've been reading about Alexa rankings, which is basically a measurement of the traffic one receives to his or her website. I won't really go into detail about how it works (mostly because I don't really know, and I'm not about to make stuff up... not this time at least), but basically, a HIGHER Alexa ranking should mean that your site is getting LESS traffic compared to another site with a LOWER Alexa ranking.

Higher Alexa = Lower Traffic

Lower Alexa = Higher Traffic

So if your site has an Alexa rank of 6,345,654, don't go bragging about that. A 20, on the other hand, should mean that your site is quite popular. Notice how I keep using the word "should". Many people argue that Alexa ranking really isn't a very reliable way of measuring the traffic volume of websites. Again, I won't really go into detail, but I'd have to say that I'm more inclined to agree with that. You see, I checked the Alexa rank of this blog today and it comes in at an outrageously low number of 16! To give you an idea of how low that is, Friendster's Alexa rank is 20. So it should mean that my blog is getting more traffic than Friendster! Clearly not the case...

I took a screen shot of my ranking as it was displayed by my SearchStatus toolbar (which is a Firefox add-on that lets the browser display Alexa and Google Page Ranks):

I checked out two other blogs that belonged to my friends and found that they, too, had Alexa ranks of 16:

Straight On 'Til Morning

Poutyisms

All our blogs are on blogger so I suspected that that probably has something to do with these seemingly inaccurate rankings. So I went to the Alexa.com website to double check if my blog really does have an Alexa rank of 16, and here's what I saw:

The Alexa rank being displayed by my SearchStatus toolbar was the one for the Blogger.com homepage (which is 16), and not the rank for my actual blog. It probably means that my Alexa rank for this blog is non-existent, so the toolbar just displayed that of Blogger.com, which is where my blog lives. The non-existence of this blog's Alexa rank does however support the assumption that yes, I probably only have 3 readers.

So that, my 3 dear readers explains the mystery of my outrageously low Alexa rank. Not all blogspot blogs will display an Alexa rank of 16, however. Many of the older ones (who've come to have more incoming traffic) will display their very own rankings, but for those of you who come to find that your blogspot blog displays a ranking of 16, you can tell other people, "Hey, my blog's Alexa rank is higher than Friendster's!" Of course if you say that to people who actually know about Alexa ranks, they'll probably think your either lying, crazy or stupid. Those happen to be the names of my 3 readers, by the way.

Nonsensical IM Conversations Entry #3

Entry #3 - Umiwas Sa Dengue!

official_choob:
i talked to pouty before he left for his VIETBODIA trip
he was a bit panicked because he thought he may have contracted
dengue when he exchanged bodily fluids with a mosquito on the afternoon
of his departure
but i told him that i saw on the internetz that dengue symptoms usually
show after 6 days
so by that time, he should be back in the philippines
where he can spread his dengue from the comfort of his own home
via other mosquitoes
diane717:
he exchanged bodily fluids with a mosquito??
official_choob:
yes, the mosquito bit pouty's pouty lips
they kissed
diane717:
hahahahahahaha
official_choob:
i'm kidding ofcourse, but that would have been funny
diane717:
indeed

END.

Manang Neneng Is Looking For Something

So some of you already know about Manang Neneng, whom I wrote about in The Lamentations Of Our New Laundrywoman. Today, I overheard her while she was in the backyard, calling out to her pet stray cat.

"Oh, PUSSY! Where are you, PUSSY? Come here, PUSSY!"

Yes. There is nothing quite as unnerving as hearing an old woman calling out to her PUSSY.

The Lamentations Of Our New Laundrywoman

We hired a new laundrywoman a few weeks ago, because the old one recently got married to a man she had never before seen in her entire life (it's a funny story, but I think I'll talk about that in another entry) and moved back to her old province. So we now have a new one, and she is an old but rather spirited lady who used to be a beautician (which probably explains why her hair is not her natural color and her penchant for wearing ornate, dangling earrings at all times). She's in her fifties, so we all call her "Manang" which is a respectful term that translates to "old lady". But her real name is "Neneng" which roughly translates to "little girl". So that makes her "Manang Neneng" or "Old Lady Little Girl". Lovely...

Over the weekend, we took Manang Neneng, along with the cleaning lady, with us to our vacation house in Tagaytay to do some laundry. At first she was really excited, because it was going to be her first time to see it. She seemed to enjoy herself, and the weather was really nice. But on the second day, an overwhelming sense of sadness had overcome her. The cleaning lady found her in the basement, folding clothes with tears welling up in her eyes. She asked what was wrong, and Manang Neneng tells her that she's sad because she misses being in our house in Manila.

Oooowkay...

Then the cleaning lady laughed at her. And then she told us the story of Manang Neneng's lamentations about being home sick after a whopping total of TWO days. And then we laughed too. I wondered what on earth it was that she could be missing in our house in Manila, and then my mom said that she thinks it's all the stray kitties that she's befriended there the past couple of weeks.

So there... that's the story of our new, super-emo, cat-loving, formerly-a-beautician laundrywoman. And today our lesbian cook resigned so we're looking for a new one, too.

Orgasmic Delight On A Plate

Oh, yes...

Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ee)

For someone who is deathly afraid of cockroaches like myself, you would probably expect that I would elicit strong negative reactions towards rodents as well. But that would be an incorrect assumption. I do not seem to be innately scared of them. And I don't know why. In fact, just last night, I saw two baby rodents hiding behind the coin jar in the kitchen. I just stared at them saying "hey little fellers! you guys are so cute! come here! come here!," until I finally came to my senses and realized that there are RODENTS in my kitchen. DISEASE-CARRYING RODENTS. In my KITCHEN. Yeah. Not so cute.

Watch the Ratatouille trailer

Better Oral Hygiene

After the untimely demise of my toothbrush, I decided to updgrade to one that was electric. So I went to the supermarket and purchased the Oral-B... VITALITY! *insert jazz hands here*Conveniently rechargeable and nice to look at, the Oral-B Vitality's high-speed rotating bristle head brings teeth cleaning to a whole new level. Once you see the results, you'll never want to go back to that old & inefficient manual toothbrush ever again. Try the Oral-B Vitality and feel the difference.
*If gum bleeding persists, just suck it up and know that such is the price for ultra clean teeth.

Chillax, Pare...

I've been a little tense lately, the extent of which didn't really hit me until this morning when, while brushing my teeth, I accidentally snapped my toothbrush in half.

Nonsensical IM Conversations Entry #2

Entry #2 - What Color Is Your Bra?

*Diane and I talking about her planned Puerto Rico vacaciones.

diane717:
i think we're going to calebro island
aaron's planning the weekend
official_choob:
I don't think I'd recommend that you go to "Caja de Muertos" also known as Coffin Island
diane717:
grabe i need a vacation.
official_choob:
yes you should really take this vacation
but i cant seem to find a calebro island on the internets
although i do see a culebra island
diane717:
oh thats it
hahaha
thats how aaron pronounces it kase e.. caleebruh
bobo
official_choob:
it's also known as isla chiquita (small island)
diane717:
ooh
official_choob:
or more interestingly ultima virgen (the last virgin)
hehehe
diane717:
hahaha
official_choob:
culebra is apparently pronunced as koo-lai-brah
as in anong koo-lai-brah mo?
diane717:
HAHAHAHA

END.

Greenhouse Gases Are All The Rage These Days

My mom was giving one of her friends a tour of our "summer villa" in Tagaytay, when they got to this yet to be finished area of the house. Mom wants this particular spot to kind of look like a greenhouse. So she says to her friend, "etong part na to gusto ko magkaroon ng greenhouse effect (I want this part to have a greenhouse effect)". I laughed, and they both looked at me, a bit puzzled as to what was so funny. So I had to explain to them that the greenhouse effect refers to how greenhouse gases heat up the earth, and that what she simply meant to say was that she wanted this part of the house to look like a greenhouse. Ofcourse explaining why something is funny really takes all the funny out of it, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to educate my mom on one of today's most pressing environmental issues. Then she says to me, "bakit? nagkaintindihan naman kame ha." I replied, "well yeah, but smart people would have laughed". "Tarantado ka ha," she said.

D 2007 PiLiFin VLaG aWarDz

Hola, people! How is everyone? Do hope you're all fine and dandy.

I was at the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards last Saturday (thanks to Pouty for going with me), because my other blog which I don't think many of you know about, was a finalist in the Technology category. Yey! But I did not win. Boo! Although feel free to check it out - PinoyMacLovers.com. It's a happy blog about Macs for the happy people who love them. Happy, happy! Joy, joy! Anyway, enough shameless self-promotion.

So the event was fun. I met and saw a couple of people behind some of the blogs I read. It's always nice to be face-to-face with an actual FACE instead of an avatar being displayed from a glaring monitor.

photo courtesy of Karla from RockersWorld.com
That's me talking with my new-found friends, the Baltazars. Such a nice couple. Like I'd imagine them being 80 and still talking and making jokes together. Lori Baltazar is the woman behind the highly succesful blog Dessert Comes First. Check it out. It's a great blog that's all about FOOD! And it's so popular that she gets invited to eat at all these different restaurants. And Krispy Kreme sends her doughnuts, too. That in itself is great motivation to write a food blog! We had such a nice time during the awards show. A little too nice actually, because I think we ended up annoying this old man who sat behind us. Sorry old man who sat behind us!

photo courtesy of Lori
Here's another pic of me and Lori. Do you like my shirt? I think it's so nice and shiny.

photo courtesy of Karla from RockersWorld.com
And here we are with some of the other finalists in the different categories.

So there you have it. The 2007 PBA. I felt like this was my formal induction into the geeky world of blogging. I even wore a tie and all (shiny too, like my shirt). Yey!

I Killed Spiderman

I saw this big, hairy spider in my room the other night. So I killed it. And when my mom found out, she said to me: "ay bakit mo pinatay? baka guardian angel mo yon." (why did you kill it? it might have been your guardian angel). My mom is so weird...

Nonsensical IM Conversations Entry #1

I IM with my friends all the time. It's a great thing to do at the office if you want to appear to be hard at work (just make sure no one can see your monitor and that your speakers are on mute). Most of the time I end up having pointless conversations about the most absurd of topics because I am just weird like that and so are my friends. So I thought I'd post exerpts from some of my IM transcripts just to show you. This will be part of what I hope to be a continuing series called "Nonsensical IM Conversations".

Entry #1 - The Holy Family

*A conversation with Mr. RJ Paculan

rjpaculan: every holy thursday we have pabasa
official_choob: really?
rjpaculan: uh huh
official_choob:
you spend the whole day praying?
the praying paculans!!!!
hehehe
rjpaculan: not praying! pabasa-ing!
official_choob: don't you pray during the pabasa?
rjpaculan: well yes
official_choob:
do you flagellate yourselves also?
the flagellating faculans
hhahaha
rjpaculan: hahaha

END.