At least in one of the CSI TV series that is…

Check out the video after the break.

Just Bieber Shot Dead (in CSI TV)

Okay… yes, he’s still alive. There. As of this post, that video has around 16M views! Whoa! The Bieber is really hot property.

Don’t forget to share. Thanks!

I hate fires!

Back in 1993, our old home (also in San Juan) was burned to the ground. This year alone (around 4 months ago), I was witness to another fire in our city. But that one was relatively far from our place. This fire just today (at 6:30pm) was just around 6-7 houses from our place. It was terrifying.

My complete report after the break…

Sept. 12, 2010. 6:30pm. My Place.

I was doing some emails and browsing Facebook when I heard some shouting outside of my home.

My wife was hysterical as she yelled to me as said there was a fire. I quickly asked where it was, my son told me that it was a basketball court. I asked if it was near, they said yes. I grabbed my camera, changed to the telephoto lens and ran out of the house.

In our street, there was a shortcut under the market. This led to the basement of the San Juan market, located under the Puregold complex.

I ran towards the area. As I was running, I could feel the heat of the flames and saw plumes of smoke from the distance. I continued towards the basement parking, took the flight of stairs to my left and exited to J.Basa street.

I saw the street flooded with “uzis” (bystanders) and a sea of firetrucks. There was an old gated compound with a couple of old (Spanish style) houses. The flames were roaring so high that I had to shoot portrait-style with the camera.

It was really hot. You could feel the tension in the area. Next to the burning house was a group of apartments. People were busy rushing down their stuff… clothes, TVs, you name it. It was utter chaos.

6:45pm

Having seen them, I told myself that this was too close to home. I ran back and prepared for the worst (just in case). I packed the essentials into my SUV, important documents, my notebook PCs, my camera, jewelry all into the back of the car.

My neighbors were also doing the same. I finally found my wife and she told me that everything will be fine IF the firemen did not run out of water.

I went to the 3rd floor (where we do our Gundam and Model Kit sessions) and saw the belly of the beast. The fire was so strong that you could feel the heat from there. It dawned on me (from this angle), that all it took was for the fire to skip to the next house, over a low wall and everything in its path will be obliterated, including our home.

7:00pm

It was panic time. I could feel my anxiety going past the safety point. I was thinking of how to systematically pack and save stuff when one of my neighbors shouted to everyone that the fire was contained. It was at that point that several firetrucks were already parked outside our gate ready to “protect” the batch of houses from our side.

Damn!

That was a helluva day.

I’m glad it’s over. I think no one got hurt nor killed. The fire team contained the blaze around an hour later.

Props to the brave men of the San Juan city Fire Dept and all the other Fire volunteers. You did your job well…

Heroes indeed!

A million thanks!

Thanks also to everyone who texted and commented at my Facebook page with your concerns. Much appreciated.

Let’s all do our part in making sure we do Fire Prevention Safety Measures to keep our own homes safe, okies?

Building a scale model is a great hobby. Having nice displays takes it to another level. In this post, I’m going to teach you guys how to make a simple base for your scale models, whether it be Gundams, Military models or sci-fi (like the one in the example: my Imperial AT-ST).

Shall we start?

How To Make a Base for your Scale Models Part 1 – by GM Tristan

List of materials. You’re going to need the following:

• An old photo frame (best if wood). You can buy this cheap at any bookstore or department store
• 1/2 kilo Plaster of Paris. Buy it in the hardware. It costs around P45.00 a kilo
• Water
• A small bucket for mixing the plaster
• Old paint brush
• Spatula
• Rags

Step 1

Prepare the materials. Mix the plaster of Paris with water until it has the consistency of melted ice cream. Wait for a few minutes until it hardens a little more.

Step 2

Pour the mixture slowly into the photo frame. Use your spatula to guide the mixture and level/even out the surface. Make sure to do this on a level surface. Leave it under the sun to dry for a around 30 minutes

Step 3

Once it’s still wet (after 30 minutes), indent the feet of your model. Press lightly. You may need to add some of the left over plaster to make an outline of the feet. Take away the model. Allow to dry overnight (or 3 days, the best).

That’s it for Part 1. I’m currently drying out the actual base.

In the next post, we’ll do the terrain texturing and finally, painting and adding the details to make the base realistic and stand out. Best that you like my Facebook page so you’ll be abreast of all posts and announcements on toys, scale modeling and more.

’till then…

Cheers!

Isa na itong, common Pinoy phrase. “Bahala Na Si Batman”.

Pero paano kaya pag si Robin ang nag bitaw? Lols.

Via Chino Yray’s Facebook

If you liked this post, please be my Fan on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Thanks!

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• Projectors For Rent Philippines – affordable projectors for events, parties, weddings, etc

We hear it everyday. We see it posted in Facebook, Plurk, Twitter and other SNS. You get text messages like it. But, what EXACTLY IS Jologs? Where did it originate? What constitutes being one?

It’s a boring, lazy Sunday and I tried to do a little Googling and share with you what I found…

JOLOGS, A STUDY

Definition(s)

To learn more about our subject, let’s see what the web defines it as such…

According to the Urban Dictionary, there are several definitions of the word

This study seems to validate the first definition, that of the daing-tuyo-itlong origin.

Now, that we have an idea of where the word originated, let’s take a look at the Factors that will make you Jologs;

JOLOGS KA KAPAG…

A. Fashion (from Death By Guilt)

• he or she wears fashion items from the ’80s, flamboyant and attention-catching.
• A young woman may be called jologs if she wears her hair in an updo and tucks in her blouses in brightly colored pencil skirts, or wears platform shoes from the Spice Girls era.
• Shoulder-padded blouses are definitely jologs.
• A man is jologs if he wears a suit jacket over a t-shirt and wears jeans.
• He is more jologs if the jeans he wears are “fashionably” tattered at the knees.
• Hair highlights in blond are jologs, especially if it is in stripes.
• The Dennis Rodman hairstyle is jologs.
• Ray-Ban eyeglasses are jologs.
• Colored socks may look good on girls, but not on young women, or anyone over 18, for that matter. F
• lared pants and bell-bottoms, which used to be “in”, are now considered jologs.

B. Music

• You like listening to baduy or “bakya” songs
• You like songs such as “Itaktak Mo”, “Ispageti”, “Bulaklak”, “Jumbo Hotdog”, or anything that Willie Revillame loves.
• You love, yucky LSS songs such as Nobody, etc.
• Fan ka ng Sexbomb
• Pag pumunta ka ng bar mag-re-request ka ng mga luma at baduy na kanta (insert song here)
• Feeling mo cool ka pag malaki ang headphones ng ipod mo? Tsk tsk.
• Parati mong pinapatug-tug ang hayop mong cellphone ng walang headphones. Di ka cool, gago. Naka-ka annoy ka.

C. Pop Culture

• Ang text mo ay di maintindihan. Often alternating small and caps letters with some numerals and/or special characters replacing the alphabet. A simple message such as Pare, punta ka sa site ni gmtristan sa facebook and be a fan will be something like this paRe, pnTA u sa sITe NI gmtRistAN sa facEboOk Nd BE a faN (Note: you can do this manually OR you can head to the online Jologs Translator to have fun)
• Names – you have this manic need to add an “H” to your name. See examples below
  • Bhaby
  • Jheff
  • Olivher
  • Vhong
  • Mildhred
  • Mhar
  • Bhoy
  • Ghirly
  • Jhing
  • Jhoy
• You don’t have table manners or don’t know how to properly eat in a restaurant
• Masyado kang Emo sa Facebook mo

I’m sure there are more definitions or criteria which can make someone Jologs.

But, ultimately, is it a bad thing?

For me, No. It’s a matter of personal choice. Everyone has a right to express himself (or herself). Society MUST NOT judge a person by the way he looks, the music he likes or even his cultural preferences. We can’t force someone to like what we like. That’s why we’re called INDIVIDUALS.

Maki Bajit sums it best in his post; “The jologs character may be subjected to embarrassment, or worse, becoming a laughingstock if he or she is in a community where invisible norms are strictly observed. On the other hand, the jologs would not be called such if in a community where everyone dresses and acts in the same fashion. They may be weird to look at, but without jologs, society will be bland. They are unique facets of a community who also play important roles in its development.”

SPECIAL THANKS (Resources)

• Death By Guilt
• Kalokohan.com

If you liked this post, please be my Fan on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Thanks!

To all my readers and friends. Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Looking forward to another great year ahead for all of us!

Peace!

~ Mon Macutay (aka GM Tristan)

When we Filipinos demand change… we do it this way.

So, what’s wrong?

It’s those I’m-so-excited-with-a-new-toy-and-totally-forgot-about-blogging kinda week. Anyways, gotta catch up!

Last week, I got myself a brand new Sony Playstation 3 120 GB slim. Got it for P15,000.00 at iTech in Glorietta. Anyways, here are the unboxing shots at the office. Thanks to Chino Carrion for allowing me to use his nice phone for the photos…

Also, I’d like to thank office-mate Paul Uy for convincing me (and helping me procure) this baby. Thanks, Paul!

Unboxing the Sony PS 3

We tested it with Tekken 6 and the projector at the office. Great game! That reminds me, Tekken was the reason I got my PS2 in the first place. It’s also the reason I got my PSP (Dark Resurrection) and now, it’s the same one for my PS3. I totally love this game!

Anyways, when I got home for the set-up, it was fairly simple. The unit automatically detected the Wifi connection and was online in no time. The only problem I had was that me home broadband provider, Globe blocks the PSN (Play Station Network) registration site when I get the 180.XXX.X.X series in the IP. Just some restarting of the modem and it worked fine.

Moreso, another cool feature is that the PS 3 automatically detected my Windows Media Player 11 from the PC as a media server. From the PS3, I can stream movies, photos and songs from my PC via the Wi-Fi. It even plays DivX and MP4 video formats. Basically, anything that Windows Media Player 11 can play, this thing can stream.

Just a minor annoyance was the fact that my unit was an Asian version and they use the “O” button instead of the “X” to confirm. Maybe I’ll get used to it. Darn.

But as a whole, I’m happy with it. I’m currently playing Tekken 6 and Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 is a kick-ass game! Asteeg! In the background, I’m downloading demo and other stuff on the Playstation Store… coolnezz!

Meanwhile, If you’re on PSN, just add me gmtristan and let’s play.

Gotta practice! I hate it when office-mates kick my butt! Hahaha!

>> More unboxing pics on my Facebook Album

A couple of weeks ago, I finally turned over the cash and in-kind donations to Habitat for Humanity, my official charity org/partner for my Baseco Birthday charity drive. Thanks to all the donors, we’ve managed to raise around P41,000.00 and got a lots and lots of old clothes, toys, books and other in-kind donations for the poor kids of Baseco, Tondo.

Habitat finally sent me via email the photos of the event. Allow me to share them with you. Again, many thanks to all who donated and offered support for this event… this is my best birthday ever. Just seeing the smile on the kids’ face gives me so much joy! I hope you feel the same way too.

More photos

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mia Castro, Allan and the rest of the officers and staff of Greater Metro Manila Habitat for Humanity for all the help and support for making this possible.

I hope next year, come my next birthday, we raise more money and make more kids happy!

For more photos, please visit the album at my Facebook. Thanks!

Peace!

Unbelievable!

Only in the Philippines. Here’s one for the record books too – a group of Muslim kidnappers have freed their captive, Fr. Michael Sinnott, 79, since they were eager to watch the Pacquiao-Cotto fight.

Details after the break

In a report by Yahoo, “The Rev. Michael Sinnott, the 79-year-old Irish missionary priest who was recently released from a month of jungle captivity in the south by suspected Muslim rebels, said his kidnappers had been eager to set him free because they wanted to also watch the Pacquio-Cotto match.

“‘Your freedom is our freedom. We don’t want to be here for a long time, too, and we want to watch Pacquiao’s fight,’” Sinnott told the CBCPNews, the news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines(CBCP), quoting his kidnappers.

via Yahoo