The RubeTube

As I mentioned in my not-so-recent update, Andreé and I went on a 3-day, 2-night vacation in Boracay. Here is a selection of photos from the trip, which some of you have already seen and commented on. Took a lot of nice shots, thanks to my new camera! It was both our first trips (in recent memory) to Boracay so we were both very, very excited to visit one of our country's premier tourist destinations.


Day 1, August 12, Sunday. Our flight departed from Manila at around 9 AM. It was Andreé's first airplane trip, and understandably she had some flight jitters. But it was no big deal (it helped that I was there with her) and soon we were on our way. After a 30-minute flight to Aklan airport, a lengthy ride by land to the port, and a boat trip to Boracay island, we were soon at our hotel, the Boracay Tropics. It wasn't a beach-front hotel (around 5 minutes walk to the beach), but the room was absolutely fantastic!


We arrived sometime past noon so we took a walk along the beachfront, looking for a place to eat. We ended up eating at Mang Inasal, which wasn't the most "Boracay-ish" of restaurants, but the food was good. Neither of us expected that there'd be so many shops! Quite sad that Boracay has become so commercialized. There were so many vendors hawking their wares and we got so many offers of "Ser, ayland-haping, parasiling, dyetski." At first it was annoying but after a while we got so many offers it became something to laugh about.


In the afternoon, we dressed up in our beach attire and went for a dip in the ocean. The sand was clean and white, and the water clear and blue, probably better than we imagined! The waves were quite strong at this time of year but nothing that we couldn't handle. In the evening, we went for a dip in the hotel pool, and just had dinner at the hotel, too tired to go looking around for a place to eat.


Day 2, August 13, Monday. August 13 was the day of our second anniversary and it indeed turned out to be a memorable day! In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (good enough) and we dressed up, prepared to go island-hopping. Yes, we gave in to the guy who named the lowest price. We didn't go island-hopping just the two of us (that wouldn't be much fun, really); we went with three others: Flor, Malis (Andreé's officemates), and Malis' sister (sorry, forgot her name!), who just so happened to be in Boracay at the same time. There were some dark clouds which worried us a bit but the weather turned out fine.


Our first stop was a location near the boat station where we went snorkeling. I'm proud to say that I was able to overcome my fear and jump in the water! It was the first time for Andreé and I to go snorkeling. The view of the corals underwater was breathtaking and the tiny fish eagerly jumped at the Skyflakes crackers we were feeding them. It was an amazing experience.


After snorkeling, our boat took us to an privately-owned island called "Crystal Cove". As you can guess, there were a bunch of caves where we could go swimming. The island itself had a lot of trails where you could just walk around and take a look at the fantastic scenery; there were also a bunch of weird statues and animals in captivity. The first cave (aptly named Cave 1) was quite disappointing. The water wasn't very good and the "crystal" was actually artificially transplanted in the cave. Cave 2 was much better. The water was nicer and the girls had fun dipping in the water and looking for curious rocks.


We had to pass through a dark and cramped tunnel to get to Cave 2 and I had a tiny accident in the tunnel; watch out for it at 0:24 in the video below:


After Cave 2 we walked around the island some more and then headed back to our boat. Crystal Cove was the last stop and after that we went back "home" and bade farewell to our friends. Back on Boracay island, Andreé and I stuck around at the beach for a brief photo-shoot before heading back to the hotel.


Upon Borgy's suggestion, we went for dinner at Hawaiian BBQ. It was much farther from our hotel than we expected, but it was well worth the walk! We had baby back ribs, pork barbecue, and fresh mango juice. The food was delicious and affordable! Without a doubt it has to be one of the best restaurants in Boracay; you must try it if ever you're in Boracay!


After dinner, we had a photo taken of us showing off our beach figures (this is the only photo with me in it in this blog entry):


Day 3, August 14, Tuesday. Our last day in Boracay was fairly uneventful. We had to check out of the hotel at around noon and we spent the morning shopping for shirts and trinkets to take home. After that, we headed back to the hotel, packed up our bags, and waited for our ride back to the port and the rest of our journey home.


Best. Vacation. Ever.

Labels: :), Andree, Boracay, vacation

So it was my 22nd birthday yesterday, August 22... And you're never too late to drop a greeting, you know!

Thanks to everyone who sent their greetings. I think I received more greetings this year than last year, and I'm really happy that I even got some from unexpected sources. But the strangest greeting I got this year was from my past self! Imagine my surprise when I checked my email and found this message with subject "You're 22":

Dear FuturePunzki,

You have just turned too old to be considered "cool."

So sad.

Cheers,
PastPunzki

This surreal birthday greeting came courtesy of FutureMe.org, sent on August 1, 2006. I swear, I have no recollection of ever writing to my future self!

Seriously though, now that I'm a year wiser, I think 22 is a pretty darn cool age.

Labels: :), birthday

Back in September 2006, I wrote about Fukuda Potato Crisps (now being sold in stores as Fukuda Chipz) the one-of-a-kind, no-frills Pringles clone with a wonderful wasabi flavor and a price that won't hurt your pocket. Although I have managed to convince some of my friends to try it out (and most of them liked it as well), I didn't think that my aforementioned blog entry in particular caught the attention of a lot of people.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Friendster message (of all places) yesterday from Gilbert, VP of Sales and Marketing of Richburg Corporation, the local importer and distributor of the Fukuda chips. Here is the meat of the message:

Hi Mark,

I chanced upon reading The Rube Tube, and found out you have tried our products Fukuda Potato Crisp.

We appreciate the comments you have made about the product not because its all positive but its simply the way you constructively explain what you liked about it.

In appreciation of your support to our products, we would like to send you a simple gift pack and samples of our other products.

You may comment on it, good or bad, because we believe that consumers like you are the ones who let us strive harder to make sure that what we put in the market are to the satisfactory of the majority.

You know what, that really, really, really, really, really made my day. How many times do you get a message like that in your inbox? I appreciate their effort to reach out to a single consumer like me, despite the fact that I don't review products for a living and I'm not even pretending to be one. The gesture made me feel important and it also made me feel empowered as a consumer.

Thanks, Gilbert! I'm looking forward to receiving the gift pack soon.

(If you do a search for "fukuda potato crisps", you will find that The RubeTube is first on the list. In fact, if you search with the quotes, then The RubeTube is the only source on the list. Am I the first person to have ever written about Fukuda?)

Labels: :), consumer, food, junk food

Our Biggest Loser contest is over and I'm not the biggest loser. Aside from the 500-peso ante, all I lost were a couple of pounds, and around 3 percentage points off of my body fat index. That was far from being competitive. But at least I achieved a few of my goals:

• Lose a couple of pounds. Doesn't matter how many as long as my weight doesn't creep back up.
  
• Look noticeably thinner. My friends and officemates will attest to this; too bad "audience impact" doesn't count.
• Be conscious of my diet. Never would've thought it'd happen, but I am actually making an effort to understand those "Nutrition Facts".
  
• Get into the exercise habit. Gold's Gym really helped out here. In fact, I feel awful whenever I miss out on my regular M-W-F gym days.

I am winner!

Labels: :), Biggest Loser, exercise, health

("Attaboy" is the term popularized by Dilbert author Scott Adams that refers to an award given by a company to recognize one of their employee's achievements. Don't underestimate the power of an attaboy.)

Last Tuesday, I received my very first attaboy, in the form of an HP eAward. eAwards are given out monthly to individuals for their outstanding work, and I finally got my turn this month. This is the text on the print-out:

Labels: :), awards, HP, work

My dad's finally home! He arrived from Singapore this afternoon along with my sister. He doesn't look like he's skipped a beat. The doctors said he shouldn't do anything strenuous for at least a month, but otherwise he looks like he's back to normal...

...Except for the fact that he's on a health crusade now. There seems to be no end to the advice he's picked up from the doctors in Singapore. Look for all our meals to undergo a mandatory health inspection from now on. But it's for our own benefit too so all's well and good.

I'm very, very happy that my dad's back.

Labels: :), family, health

After a successful angioplasty, Dad has been discharged from the hospital. He'll be staying in Singapore (not sure where) for a week to recuperate before heading home. My sister will be accompanying home (I think). (I obviously don't know much of the details... I haven't been able to ask my Mom a lot of questions.)

Thanks once again, everyone, for your prayers and concern.

Labels: :), family

I reporting to work late in the afternoon today because I had to pass by Ateneo first to pick up some documents I had requested/ordered from the registrar (80 pesos for a flimsy sheet of paper with the Ateneo seal, geez). I dropped by the CS department before heading to the office to deliver a package: my donation to the Pamana Fund.

It's not a mind-boggling amount by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel that my contribution was fairly significant. When you're contributing to a good cause, any amount given feels like a whole fortune, especially when you factor in the warm-and-fuzzy feelings into the equation.

Seriously though, I owe a lot to our department (and to Doc Mana) for much of the experience that has shaped me into what I am today. I feel more like I'm giving back what I owe rather than just sharing what I can afford. I chatted a bit with Dr. Rodrigo and we discussed the declining Ateneo CS/MIS population, and the waning interest in ICTs in the Philppines in general. I'm hoping that my tiny contribution can help stem the tide. I'm not sure how, but I trust that the capable people at DISCS will find a way.

Labels: :), Ateneo, donations, IT, Philippines, PMana

Success Built to Last (official website here) was at the top of my wishlist for our exchange gift within Simon's team (the others on my wishlist were a poker book or a go book). I had finished reading Jerry Porras' previous book Built to Last a month ago and Success Built to Last had good reviews so I decided it was a great book to put on my reading list.

I had the good fortune of drawing Simon as my "parent" for our exchange gift, but I didn't expect him to actually buy the book for me. The title was just a few months old (August 2006) and didn't have a paperback edition yet; it would cost much more than our 500-peso minimum. I also tried asking at Powerbooks in Megamall but they didn't have it there. So I was pleasantly surprised when I opened Simon's gift and it indeed was a hardcover copy of Success Built to Last. He found it at National Bookstore, of all places.

Thanks for the awesome gift, Simon! I'll make sure to apply what I've learned from the book and share its lessons with the whole team.

Labels: :), exchange gift, gifts

I haven't been blogging regularly for the past few weeks, but the RubeTube has still been averaging around 50 hits a day despite my inactivity. (I know this is not a very impressive number, but hey, I'm just a small-time blogger.) There are a number of factors contributing to this phenomenon:

1. I have been more "aggressive" in promoting my blog, via different media: email signatures, website profiles, YM status messages, use of Technorati tags, etc.
2. More people are linking to my blog (mostly friends; thanks, friends!) which directly increases hits by providing more entry points, and indirectly by making my blog more reputable in the eyes of search engines (see how search engines work). This is a natural form of search engine optimization (SEO).
   
3. My blog has reached the critical mass of content (quality content, of course) such that people are stumbling upon my blog through search engines. Never underestimate Google's power to drive traffic.

If I were to rate the above factors in order of significance, based on my own analysis of my blog's traffic, I would say that 1 and 2 are almost equal in terms of impact. However, the impact of number 3 (quality content) dwarfs that of both 1 and 2, and is by far the most important factor to consider if you want to increase your site's traffic.

Here are some of the more popular posts on the RubeTube, in increasing order of exposure (by my own estimates):

1. The YM status message trick. Apparently, a lot of people are wondering how their friends are able to put hyperlinks in their Yahoo Messenger status messages.
2. How to remove the Blogger NavBar. "How to" posts are great; not only do you help people out, but they're also great for getting more visitors.
   
3. PoW! Pandora Internet Radio. Visitors stumble upon this entry looking for a way to rip MP3s from Pandora.
4. Taiwanese Guitar Idol. "Canon Rock" is a masterpiece and it's no wonder there are lots of people looking for a downloadable video of it. Also, a number of the visitors to this entry were Googling for "JerryC versus funtwo".
5. Downloading Mozart. Try Googling for "download mozart collection". Everyone's on an MP3 hunt.
6. How to rearrange programs on the Windows XP taskbar. I'm not the only one who wished there was a program like Taskbar Shuffle.
   
7. Entrance of the Gladiators: "The circus music". By far the most popular post on the RubeTube. Now the whole world knows the name of "the circus music", and also, where to get a MIDI of it.

What's the lesson here? If you are an attention-seeking blogger on the verge of breaking down because your blog isn't getting as many visits as you had hoped, here are some handy bite-sized tips:

1. Write unique blog entries. The battle for search engine supremacy is all about finding your own niche(s). Be the first or one of the few to write about something. You don't have to dedicate your entire blog to something totally out-of-this-world like the mating rituals of the Nicaraguan stag beetle; a few "odd" topics once in a while will do. I'd say there are around 5-7 people a day looking for circus music that end up at my blog. Certain categories of entries are also popular, such as the "how to" and the "top N" list. If you have a dozen or so of those "all-star" entries, it all adds up, which leads me to my next tip...
   
2. Don't give up, keep on writing. You don't have to be a full-time blogger for people to visit your blog regularly. Just keep on writing. On some days, you'll just spew out crap; that's okay, blog space is cheap, if not free. On other days, you'll have masterpieces flowing out of your fingers like a blogging Mozart. But the question is: what to write about?
3. Be spontaneous. The key is to just share whatever interests you. Every topic is a potential hit in the making. Your thoughts, observations, conversations, and experiences are probably as boring to everyone else as you fear, but you can make up for it by sheer volume (see tip #2). But that is no excuse to sacrifice quality over quantity. Quality, of course, is also very important, which leads us to my final tip...
4. Pick your words carefully. There are two aspects to this tip. The first one is obvious: watch your grammar and spelling, and expand your vocabulary. Develop your own writing style that is pleasing to the eyes. You may have had the most fantastic near-death experience in the world, but no one's going to want to hear about it if your blog entry reads like a eulogy. The second aspect to this tip is more subtle. Pick your phrases such that people are more likely to stumble upon your blog when doing a web search. From the popular RubeTube entries above, sample key phrases are "rearrange programs on taskbar", "complete mozart collection", and "remove blogger navbar".
   

Forget trying to get dugg; the secret is to write great, high-quality content, and the hits will simply follow. After all, bloggers are writers and if you want your blog to be a bestseller, you better start writing like a pro (which I am not, yet).

Personally, I'm not in it for the AdSense hits, and I have no dreams (for the time being) of making it big in the blogosphere. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing that I made someone's day more interesting because of something he/she read on the RubeTube. That is blogging's greatest reward.

Happy blogging!

Labels: :), blogging, RubeTube, SEO, tips, writing

Happy 21st birthday to you, my one and only Andreé.

I pray that you continue touching and blessing other people's lives as you have mine. I love you, honey!

(Today is November 30, 2006.)

Labels: :), Andree, birthday

I attended the Philippine .NET Users Group's (PHINUG) Tech Sharing last Wednesday night. As a speaker. My brother Jerome is the president of PHINUG and I sort of volunteered to make a presentation. I was supposed to present some of the things I learned about Sharepoint at work, but I couldn't find the time to set up a Windows Server 2003 Virtual PC image (Sharepoint doesn't run on Windows XP) so I changed my topic to multithreading in .NET 2.0 instead.

I've forgotten when was the last time that I participated in a Microsoft event. I've been practically invisible to the Microsoft community for over a year now. "punzki" used to be one of the most active members in msforums.ph but he simply disappeared one day. I wasn't surprised at all when my MVP status wasn't renewed last month.

(What, you didn't know? That's okay, I don't think I ever blogged about it. I enjoyed my two years as an MVP and my only regret was that I failed to live up to it.)

It was tremendously nerve-wracking to be speaking in public. I had gotten used to it a long time ago, but on Wednesday night I was sweating profusely a mere minute into my 15-minute presentation. I think my presentation and my topic was a bit too "heavy" for the time alloted, but all in all, it went fairly well. It was really nice to see old and new faces alike in the Microsoft developer community. I hope to be appearing in more Microsoft/PHINUG events soon.

You can download my slides and examples here (courtesy of fileXoom).

Labels: :), .NET, Microsoft, multithreading, PHINUG, presentations, public speaking

The RubeTube was offline these past few days because of this weekend's offsite (an "offsite" is defined as any event that happens outside the office and usually refers to a recreational outing). It was the first offsite of Simon's new organization, the Supply Chain Management group, which has three teams under it: Supplier Portal (my team), SAP XI, and STAR.

The offsite was staged from my teammate GM's house in Tagaytay. Some people (including me) arrived on Thursday night but most arrived on Friday morning. The whole of Friday was dedicated to teambuilding, planning, and recreational activities (videoke, poker, Cranium, card tricks) in the evening. Interestingly enough, I won all three Texas Hold 'Em games we played by a huge margin, which never happened when I was playing with the DISCS faculty. I think the "bet 1700" technique totally messed up my opponents' minds. The food we had was absolutely terrific even though we had chicken for almost every meal, but cooked in different ways. Kudos to the cooking committee for a job well done!

On Saturday, around half of the group had to go home in the morning but the rest went for a trip to Punta Fuego. We had lunch there after which we went to the beach, played some frisbee, and then relaxed in the afternoon with a dip in the infinity pool. Now I am terribly afraid of the water but I reluctantly gave into the pressure, seeing that I was the only one staying away from the water. In the end, it wasn't so bad and I was somewhat pleased to note that I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to swim. We sure had a lot of fun taking underwater pictures; will post some of them when I get a copy.

We had dinner back in Tagaytay on Saturday night and went back to Manila afterwards. Got home at 1 AM on Sunday and promptly dropped off to sleep.

Too many things happened for me to describe the whole experience in detail, but I just want to say that after the offsite, I feel very much a part of the team and the HP organization. I'm happy that I'm not just "the new guy" anymore.

Labels: :), friends, HP, offsite, work

On our way home from church yesterday, I asked my dad if I could drive us (five of us: me, Kuya, Ate Tricia, mom, dad) home. Just to see if he'd trust me enough to put our safety in my hands. He (reluctantly) agreed. We made the switch after a brief stopover in Rustan's Magallanes and it was probably less than ten kilometers to home.

Following the advice of my driving instructor Alfonso, I tried to keep it relatively slow and safe: no overtaking, no changing lanes, no shifting past 4th gear until told to. His advice made a lot of sense: if I went ahead with my own driving style and my dad found it too reckless (for him), then I won't get a chance to drive the car again for a long time. But less than a minute into driving, he told me to speed it up and do some lane-changing and overtaking. We ran into a bit of a roadblock near Sun Valley but I managed to get past it. By the time we got home, my mom was sweating profusely from nervousness but my dad told me "Pasado na. (You pass.)" He did give me a few tips about following jeepneys and trikes but aside from that, I'd say he was very proud.

Later in the evening, my mom and dad left for a four-day travel tour of Shanghai, China. They're traveling with their mahjong barkada so they're in good company. It's been a long time since my parents went on a vacation together and they really deserve this break.

Before they left, my dad told me "Ikaw na bahala sa sasakyan. (You're in charge of the car.)" Yeah right, as if I'd pay for the gas.

Labels: :), driving, family

Today was my final day of driving at A-1 driving school (here's for my "first day" entry). I finished up the last three of the fifteen hours that I signed up for. I was glad to pair up with Alfonso for one last time; he's been my instructor for all but two of my fifteen hours. He's a really great instructor and by the end of driving school we were casually chatting about non-driving topics, including mahjong, his pastime.

I'm very confident now with my driving. There are still a few mistakes here and there but mostly due to inexperience. I can handle everything now: humps, overtaking, rainy weather, highway driving, uphill/downhill, backing, maneuvering, and all sorts of parking procedures. I even changed a tire today just for practice (not because of an actual flat). And I finally graduated from the "10:10" steering wheel position to a more comfortable "9:15". Alfonso was really tough on me in the beginning but in my last five hours he already said I was ready to drive in "the real world".

I've always been a quick learner and I managed to get the hang of driving relatively easily. Part of the reason why is that driving feels like solving puzzles to me, and you know how much I enjoy puzzles. It's like "How do I make the car do this?" and "How do I get from point A to point B?" Driving's a challenge for me and that's what makes every driving session fun as well.

Next step: finish the requisite A-1 classroom lecture on road rules and driving etiquette. Then it's time to get a non-professional driver's license. And finally... get something to drive? Uh oh.

Labels: :), A-1, driving, learning

Oh yeah, I just turned 21 an hour ago!

Happy birthday to me!

A comment would do. Electronic greeting cards are also welcome. You may email me at punzki [at] gmail [dot] com. Or SMS me at +639064973012. Now would be a good time to try the meebo me widget on my blog. How about singing "Happy birthday", recording it, and sending me an MP3? Or a video of it? Better yet, post your video on YouTube and send me the link!

Or... how about doing all of the above?

Labels: :), birthday

Today, the 13th of August 2006, marks the first anniversary of my wonderful romance with my one and only Andreé.

For those of you who don't know her, we've been blockmates/coursemates/batchmates for four years in college and we graduated together last March. She's working right now for Canon (in Eastwood, Libis). Our hearts met 365 days ago and we've been going strong ever since.


Don't we look so good together? I love you, hon!

Labels: :), Andree, love