Far From Neutral Notions - Philippine politics, culture and stuff

Slight disclaimer: not debugged in IE. Expect breakage. Or get Firefox It doesn’t validate — yet — but you can bet your baby blues I’m working on it. There’s still some errant javascript. That said, it *should* look right.

I was supposed to be doing something different — another theme for a friend’s site to be exact — when I got tired of all the clean whiteness of it all. I needed a break. I needed some color. I needed to make something that didn’t look, feel and smell Web 2.0. I had to get away from gradients, drop shadows, pink (pink!!!), baby blue (baby blue!!!) and white (white!!!).

Then it hit me: I needed shit brown.

I’ve always loved brown — one of my first sites had a brown theme going for it.

Comments welcome, of course.

Edit: it may not be immediately obvious, but the colors stand for something Brown for Filipino, and blue, white, yellow and red for the colors of the Philippine flag.

Edit: now serving you valid xHTML 1.1. Up next, proper semantics.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A couple of days ago my mother had a panic attack, thanks to a friend speculating that I had diabetes. Seems he noticed that I went to the li’l boys room a bit too often, but never factored in the fact that I drink copious amounts of water (over 3L a day) and the inordinate amount of Vitamin C I intake. As a result, I am on a coke diet — despite having normal blood sugar levels. Better safe than sorry, they say. But darnit, I miss my coke fix.

Another funny thing — it’s been noted by more than a couple of people, so I guess I’d better put it to rest — I am not on hiatus. Although I’d have to admit, it’d be very Jorge, quitting after winning. But no, to clarify, I meant to blog this Holy Week, but Prison Break got in the way. I still can’t believe it lasted two seasons, much less starting on it’s third this fall. Halfway through the first season I was like, come on! Get it over with! I mean, seriously, the amount of crap the inmates have gone through is insane, to the point of inanity. Season 3’s tagline may very well be Prison Break: Murphy’s Law. That said, it’s addictive! Some things:

1. Agent Paul Kellerman reminds me of Dan Akroyd. I’m glad he had a more three-dimensional character in season 2.
2. I hate Bill Kim. What is it with Asian-American villains portrayed as being so devoid of conscience? Agent Sandoval in Earth: Final Conflict comes to mind.
3. Allan had a good laugh, noting that the internal affairs guy chasing after Mahone looks a lot like Kevin Pollack.
4. Mahone looks a lot like Clint Eastwood. And we were half expecting him to run along the presidential limo ala In the Line of Fire.
5. I’m glad C-Note got a happy ending. I do NOT want to see him in season 3, because that’d mean things went wrong. Again.
6. Speaking of C-Note, I’m still convinced he’s LL Cool J.
7. T-Bag is the kind of creepy lowlife that I can’t help but root for.
8. The Les Miserables scene with Sucre and the old man is awesome.
9. Thatcher Grey.
10. For some reason, we keep expecting a train or a bus to crash into whatever car Michael or Lincoln are in at the moment whenever there’s a lull in the action, or they’re feeling pretty good about themselves. Yes, their karma is that screwed up.
11. Does Bellick have any redeeming qualities at all?
12. I think Henry Pope would make a kick ass Jim Gordon if ever Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is translated to the big screen.
13. Speaking of Batman, Michael Scofield would make for one kick ass Dark Knight. Always three steps ahead? Check. Swagger? Check. The unwavering belief that he will always win? Check. Just add some martial arts expertise and a Bat Suit (without the Bat Nipples) and you’re good to go.
14. On that note, T-Bag would be perfect as Joker. Did you see how he looked at Suzie when she refected him again? Classic.
15. I just realized Lincoln Burrows played Dracula in Blade Trinity. Ugh.
16. Sara Tancredi is the hawtness. But maybe that’s because, after that girl Tweener did the horizontal tango with for an episode or two, she’s the only pretty girl in the whole series. Still, she bears an uncanny resemblance to Natalie Portman on certain angles.
17. There had better be no season 4.

Popularity: 4% [?]

As traffic generation schticks go, nominating myself for the Philippine Blog Awards was a pretty nifty idea, altho it’s not as overwhelming as I thought it would be. Go figure.

Of course, I never counted on being a finalist for three categories: socio-political, design and best free custom theme (from my ill-maintained Outside Looking In pseudo-tech blog — although I didn’t nominate this one, but thanks to the one who did, whoever you are). And right here, right now, I want to extend my apologies (and props) to those I whom I took a slot away from in the socio-political category, particularly those whose blogs I regularly read and believe should be there instead of my wise-ass entry:
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Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve been itching to do this for a long time now, and alternating from being sick to being unemployed, I finally have the time to do it. Presenting, the Guitar Blog, where I talk about, well, music in general, guitars in particular. I’m also gonna be doing something I call Single Song Breakdown, where I take apart  song and try to play it my way, and show you how, too.

Popularity: 2% [?]

After several months of sitting on my ass, I’m back, and with a new theme shamelessly derived from Bryan Veloso’s AvalonStar. This time around, I’m trying to make Wordpress work more like a CMS than a blogging tool, with issues/themes coming out every month (or whenever I feel like it) which you can navigate via the theme switcher. Sort of like what KaKosa.com was. And the funky icons are from Rokey.net.

This month marks the 33rd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law - the darkest day in modern Philippine history. If you’re about my age, then you only know about that period through history books, documentaries and stories. But just because I wasn’t there doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care; just because neither I nor my immediate family were victims of the human rights abuses of that era doesn’t mean I feel no indignation (nay, outrage! if I may ever be so melodramatic) towards the atrocities. May I never forget September 21, 1972. Marcos’ victims, and we as a people, deserve no less.

So this month’s theme/issue is all about Martial Law and the Marcos Legacy, where I’ll be compiling links to relevant literature, as well as writing commentaries of my own. So as I’m putting this together, feel free to look around and comment. Links to articles (your own or someone else’s) regarding this month’s theme/issue are very welcome.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’ll be taking a breather from blogging, I think. Don’t know when I’ll be back - if ever - things’ve happened lately. Crazy, not good things that make me want to scream. Anyway. You take care.

Popularity: 3% [?]