Wanted: Bike for Rent

My friend has a friend, Crazy Person, who wants to rent a bike here, not a motorcycle or a bisikleta that a messenger uses, but a real bike. 

bike shop at The Collective. 3-27-10.

Oh, like the one LdA uses.  He bikes all morning, past Taytay, from Metro Manila.

What do you call them, mountain bikes?  A quick google showed that there are also urban, road and path bikes.

I emailed him and my friend VPL who has a friend who bikes in UP.

I had tried to contact New Old Bikes at The Collective around last year but there was no response.

I also contacted Dan's Bike Shop to ask if they knew of any place that rents out bikes.

Anyone have any other ideas?   Or anyone willing to rent his bike to a friend's friend?

When I googled bikes for rent, I found the Travelphil site, which included a link to the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.

 Maven photoblogging class at The Collective.

I was just talking with Mike Abasolo maybe last night and he said that there was no such thing.

AE I-Glasses

AEI, 8-26, taken by my friend.

Thanks to the Cubik promo, my blog has reached 52 posts sooner than if I were left to my own devices.

The reason why I'm posting yet another pair of glasses again because Mike Abasolo said that he didn't like any of the glasses that I've posted so far, because I look too singkit.

Trust a male friend to tell me the truth.  Is that what I want?  :)

Pabder

3ima and I were at Asian Eye Institute at Trinoma at around 11 for her consult with Dr. Harvey Uy.  After we had had lunch at Super Bowl, she was still more than ten turns away, so we went shopping.

The most formal comfortable shoes that I could find.

One of the stores we went to was Pabder.   We snubbed the local shoe stores, even Via Venetto, because my experience is that local shoes, though stylish, tend to be uncomfortable, not durable, especially for our flat feet. I was in the market for a comfortable black shoe, say, moccasins, one that I could wear to Fort Santiago and the National Museum, then to a souvenir shop and Barbara's Restaurant.

So I tried on a pair, and almost bought it until I realized that it might be too low, like the pair of what my friend calls 'glorified tsinelas' that I got from Sanuk.  So I'm sending a photo of the Pabder to my PT-cousin ADG.

I always thought that, with a name like Pabder, that the brand was local.  It turns out to be an Italian brand, with the Italian price of P 3,000+.

Kaya Natin! Shirts

Got this email last November 9:


'Dear Friends,

Good morning! 

Please give me two minutes of your precious time. 

During the last Transparency International Corruption Index, our country ranked 134th out of 178 countries. The Philippines was lumped together in terms of corruption in our government with countries like Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Togo and Bangladesh. More recently, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation's Doing Business Survey for 2011 showed that our country ranked 148th out of 183 countries in terms of the ease of setting up and running a business here. Sadly, it was our Asian neighbors such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia which ranked within the top 20 of this same survey. One major reason why we ranked this low is the continued prevalence of graft and corruption in our national and local government institutions.

If there is one thing that is clear, the work of good governance is still far from over. Even if we have elected a President who is known to promote and implement anti-corruption measures, we have to realize that he cannot do it alone. We all need to chip in and do our own share of ensuring that we have better leaders in our government who will always practice good governance and leadership with integrity.

As such, the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership, a national movement initially convened by the Ateneo School of Government together with known good governance advocates' Among Ed Panlilio, Grace Padaca and DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo invites you to support our advocacy by volunteering your time or by supporting any of our products which you can also share as Christmas gifts to your friends and families:

a.) Goodies for Good Governance Brownies - P 195.00 per box

b.) Kaya Natin! Book about Inspiring stories of Good Governance and Ethical Leadership - P 295.00 per copy

c.) Pasyonista Shirts: Fashion for Filipinos with a Passion for serving our Nation - P 350.00 per shirt

Proceeds from the sales of these products will allow us to bring our Caravan of Good Governance to more colleges and universities that will inspire more young Filipinos to believe that Good Governance is still very much possible in our country. 

If you would like to volunteer or order any of these products, please get in touch with Wendell Balderas at (02) 433-1440 or you can send an email to knmovement@gmail.com .

We hope that you will join us in this journey of good governance for our nation. Please feel free to pass along this email to your friends and help us in spreading the good news about good governance in our country.

Thank you very much for sharing your two minutes with us. May you have a pleasant week ahead!

--

Warm Regards, 

Kirstin Leigh A. Lopez

Program Officer

Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership

Ateneo de Manila School of Government

Mobile Number: 0917 874 7080
Email: krzlopez23@gmail.com

Kaya Natin! shirts.  Photo courtesy of Kaya Natin!

Office No.: (02) 433 1440
Website: www.kayanatin.org' 

I asked Kristin for the shirt material, but she did not reply.

I just bought an icanserve shirt at Power Plant last month.  It cost P 550 but the material was very nice, thin, soft, cool enough for badminton, I think.  The L I got was too big, though, so I hope to exchange it for a M.

A few days before their bazaar last weekend, she sent me an email about it but I only saw it this week as I was busy taking out my balikbayan friends JK and BKB.

It was such a pity because my balikbayan friends and I were in Makati last Saturday and we could have gone to the bazaar.  My friends had never been to Rockwell.  I don't know anything there that would be of interest to them, except for Via Mare, which has branches in Greenbelt and Bonifacio Global City.

I advised her to send out her emails like a month in advance when my balikbayan friends and I were planning our itinerary.

My friends bought 7 Collezione map shirts.

Lately, I saw a Pinoy Lab ad and the design looked way more interesting, though younger, bigger than the Collezione map shirts.

For sizing, it would be best to have a size guide much like what Fitz Villafuerte has.  If I recall correctly, he included the shoulder, waist and hip dimensions.

Unbloggable Blogger Events

In a Pinoy Bloggers post, Jeman Villanueva asked why bloggers would go to blogger events if they don't blog about the events.

I don't blog about all the events that I go to.  I go to blogger events to discover things that would fit my blog.

Sometimes, I end up not finding anything interesting enough to blog, or the most interesting--or urgent--for me to blog is something else, so the event does not make it.

Orchard Road upset my tummy, but then it was just me.

One example is the Orchard Road blogger event.  Although the food was ok, it was not spectacular.  I had had better laksa at Nasi Lemak and Edsa Shangri-La Hotel.

Why did I go to Orchard Road in the first place?  Because I liked the food when I went there a couple of times.  In fact, I suggested it to Dexter Matilla and his friend after another blogger event.

The PR handling the event, Charlie Agatep Associates, which had wanted to hire me a hundred years ago, asked me if I would blog about a National Geographic food show.  I said I would if I like the show.  

The most unbloggable event that I had been to recently was MedChef's.  Since then, I have decided that I will only attend blogger events in the mall.  I had stupidly thought that the restaurant was inside the ABS-CBN resto complex.  Read: parking.

I ended up parking in a no-parking zone with the assurance of a watch-your-car-guy that it was ok to park there.

I have just about the same thoughts as a blogger who commented that Ceres doesn't go with cakes.  I saw some yummy-looking, more ornate cakes downstairs served to other guests, while we bloggers huddled upstairs to eat the more ordinary cakes.  I don't get it.  Why bother inviting bloggers--or anyone--at all if you're going to serve us un-praiseable cakes?  To me, the message is that bloggers are easy to please.  It's ok to give them--us--the so-so stuff.

New Peso Bills

Which new peso bills do you have? Jerome Bautista asked me last August 23.

The P 20 bill is my only new bill.

I had to check out New Philippine Peso Bills to double-check which bills are new.

How long will it take for the new bills to reach us?

Maven classmate Jhoey Hernandez told us Mavens that her husband designed the New Generation Bills.for the new peso designs.  Despite the controversy, I think that they're pretty.  Wikipedia says that the bills were designed by Design Systemat.

I proudly told my balikbayan friends JK and BKB that the New Generation Currency was a best new currency finalist.

Asus Transformer Uses Android

The original wallpaper, which my 7-year-old niece changed.

Read: difficult to manipulate.

Gmail is synchronized. 9-3.

To this day, I still don't know how to do computations in the Android Excel.  I use Excel just to make charts.

When I need to manipulate data, I just do them in my Acer then transfer the file to an external hard drive or flash disk then transfer it to the Transformer.

The Transformer comes in a beautiful box with teeny-tiny manuals that labels the parts and very few other words. 

I wish that Asus had thrown in a free case and a basic box, as I had a hard time shopping for case.  I finally settled on a Halo V-Mall  reversible sleeve that makes it impractical to use when you're waiting for an elevator.  I want something like the iPad cover, wherein you can take out the iPad from your bag, then flip open the cover then use agad.

So I still bring a book with me.

BTW, it doesn't turn on immediately like the iPad.  It turns on after about 11 seconds.

What I like about it is that, when I'm lining up at the bank, I can turn it on and read from it.  And because I can bring around just the top portion, it is much lighter than bringing around the Acer.

Even when I'm offline, my Gmail messages pop up.

xT suggested that I ask the Asus Service Center at V-Mall's top floor for assistance.  The first guy I spoke with couldn't help me out with Copy and Paste.  The second tech guy taught me how.

Otherwise, they could not help me as it was their first time to see an Asus.

The hotline was not much help, merely confirming to me that I could not connect the Transformer to the Canon MX 416 since the Canon Sg site did not have the driver for it.

Polaris Office has Excel and Word or the like.

I didn't bother asking for anyone higher up, like Asus Asia or something.

Times like these, I think of Steve Jobs' grappling with the tools.

Even the Inquirer write-up about the Transformer used the words Asus and Acer interchangeably.  It said that 375,000 units were sold in a month.  My friend, who told me about the press release, thought that the sales figure referred only to the Philippines when there were so few units in V-Mall.  If not V-Mall, where else can you find computers?  Greenbelt?  Glorietta?

When I read the article after she told me about it, I figured that the figure was worldwide, which doesn't make it so bad compared to iPad's 2.5 million.

I hardly used the Calendar.

Besides, how can there be so many people with a Transformer when everywhere I go, I am asked to demo the Transformer, even at the iGig shop at Promenade.  I was shopping for a case when a guy manning iGig asked me if I could bring the Transformer over.  When I went back that weekend, iGig was under renovation or had evacuated.

Asus Transformer

Or: Why I still want a laptop.

I still use my two-year-old Acer laptop most of the time. 8-30.

My friend reminds me that I saw the Asus Transformer for the first time at a Mang Inasal raffle poster at SM Hypermart on Shaw.

Then I saw my suking store, xT Pro, carry it.

Then I salivated.

I had been considering the iPad for my dad, for him to read PSE quotation reports in.  Before that, I had tried to find out if the iPhone could download PDF files.  I was discouraged with the Apple products when I realized that PDF did not come naturally like it does in PCs, and that the iPad does not have flash disk capacity.

My teen niece showed me how files are transferred using the iPad.

My friends who own iPads say that they use WiFi to transfer files, which is a bummer for me as my Globe Broadband is slow and my Linksys router is so old my suking tech guy Anton told me to change it.

Jerome Bautista's iPad. 8-23.

When I asked xT about the Transformer in their shop window, I was told that they had not opened the box and don't know what its features are.

I needed a touch screen because my dad, who is not computer-literate, did not like using the mouse or mousepad.

When I found out online that I could transfer files to and from the Transformer using a USB, I plotted to buy it.

The top costs something like P 22,000, which is cheaper than an iPad which cost about P 25,000 for 16 GB when I got the Transformer last August.

Asus hotline: 636-85-04.  Posted at Asus service center, V-Mall. 9-3.

I also got the bottom because my friend said that it might be hard to find the keyboard later.  It turns out that the USB slot is in the keyboard.

I didn't bother to find out the other technical details of the Transformer.  I just consulted Handy Cobankiat who happened to be xT's customer, and Boy Kuripot.

I was hoping for a laptop, though.

I often find myself wanting to get data from people while standing up and wished that my laptop had an organizer that I could remove from it, much like a wallet that you could take out from your bag when you don't feel like bringing the whole thing.

Well, although my dad figured out how to use the Transformer to read his stock reports, he could not appreciate the ability to increase the size of what he was reading.  He still wanted his reports printed out.

The iPad map has Reyes Barbecue Stopover in it; the Latitude Map doesn't.

I was hoping to get a new laptop to replace my stay-at-home, forever-low-batt Acer, as a new battery, at around P 6,000 at Ambassador V-Mall, costs half of a brand-new Acer, P 12,000 in Makati, P 12,500 at xT Pro, the last time I checked.

  The new Acer has more than 200G, unlike my current one which holds 160 G.

Now that my dad doesn't want to use the Transformer, buying a third computer is too much.

My dad wanted to know if he could watch the stock market report in real time.  Like the iPad, the Transformer cannot read Java.

The keyboard and the rest of the Transformer is pretty.

Cubik Eyeglasses

The contest requires that the blog be at least six months old.  Since my first post was dated January 15, then this blog is more than nine months old.

The other requirement is for the blog to have at least 50 posts.  This blog has 45 so far, plus this post = 46 posts, so I'm planning to put four more after this.

Photo taken at AEI, last August 26, by my friend.

Does this pair of Levi's glasses fit me more than the others?

Cubik Glasses

Ferretti silver rim with silver and brown sides was in the short list.

One of my choices.

Just like Italianni's coffee cups: Too big.

Not bad for rimless, something I've never had, too.

Masculine?

My first time to like square-rimmed glasses.

This I can live with.

Catwoman librarian swimmer.

Christian Slater in Murder in the First?

It's funny how things seem to fall from the sky when I'm in the market for something.

My AEI prescription last June 29.

I had been thinking of getting a headphone for my laptop when I got an Urbanears set from the Digital Hub blogger event.

I had been planning to go to Megamall to buy bra extenders y otros when I got the SM GC for a coffee survey, thanks to Rowena Wendy Lei and the Kuripots for picking up and hand-delivering my gift certificate to my choice of venue.  Life is good!

Now that I've been trying on frames, I see this one-in-25 chance of winning eyeglasses!

Tried on this pair that I could get from my sister. 8-27.

I choose the contests I join.  The blog post should fit my blog, sound like me, the prize should be worth at least
P 1,000, the chances of winning at least one in 25 haha, and the effort required to win and get the prize should be commensurate to the prize.  Plus nothing too technical, which is mostly everything in my case.  I don't tweet, I have a hard time registering in most sites, and so on.  Plus the requirement should fit my talents or situation.  For example, I have no chance in purgatory of winning a photography, beauty/ABS-CBN (not that I'm not beautiful haha) or art contest.

And no to Fb Likes.  Nica Mandigma told me of how she was invited to vote for an ugly photo.

My friend Raq voted for a friend's kid who joined a singing contest.  She said that she should not have supported the untalented kid.

My contest standards result in a friend like Carol Chan of Carol's Texan 5 asking me why I didn't go to her blogger event.  I told her and Jinkee Umali that I didn't want to be forced to post a tagline in my blog that sounded like I was an endorser.  Plus I didn't want to sound like everyone else.

This doesn't help the advertiser even, for bloggers to parrot their tagline.  The reader would be more interested in a more honest write-up, I think.

Jinkee said that she didn't post the Carol's Texan 5 tagline in her blog but she still got into the event.  Jinkee, my classmate, you are my inspiration.

Do these glasses make me look thinner?

Anyway, back to the glasses.

My brother-in-law, Ophthalmologist Rigo Reyes, suggested years ago that I try progressive glasses.  My other options were the doble-vista, which would make look like a senior citizen (que horror!) or two sets of glasses, one for far and another for near.

The feedback I got on progressives, and Rigo admitted this to me, was that you could get dizzy from moving your head quickly to the side.  He also said that it takes time for some patients to adjust as to where to look.    The patient I know was not happy with progressives.

I wonder if there's a duplicate of this photo somewhere in the post.

I could imagine myself  getting dizzy while driving, so I rejected progressives.

Anyway, Rigo said that I would finally get tired of switching from one pair to another.  He was wrong. :)

I'm happy with using two sets of glasses, and did not give in to the pressure from Dr. Nanagas, who asked me at an Asian Eye Institute Institutional Board meeting why I haven't had my eyes Lasiked.  He was amused as I changed my glasses from far to near and back as I read the documents in front of me and tried to follow the PowerPoint.

I told Dr. Nanagas that I'm too chicken for Lasik.  An optometrist I know, Dr. Jefferson Kho, said that he knows an ophtha who refuses to do Lasik.

Reminds me of Kevin Costner in JFK.

This is how grumpy I am when I've tried too many glasses. :)

Contact lens?  Still too chicken even for that.  My friend who has been wearing them since maybe college said that part of the eye gets 'scraped' by the lens.  Over time.

Then my co-IRB 'lay' member Atty. Bernard Kaw said that he was happy with his progressives.

Then my AEI ophthalmologist and kumpare Dr. Harvey Uy, who never had Lasik done on him, and who was removing his distance glasses to read documents, switched to progressives and was happy with them.

I guess the technology has developed over the years.


Harvey said that if I don't switch now, that I would have a hard time by the time I reach (bleep!).

Cra-C said that this was not so, since her husband N switched to progressives at Age Bleep and is quite comfortable with them.

Convinced, I asked my friend to check out the AEI glasses with me when she went to get her check-up.  The pair we liked best cost P 24,000-P 25,000.  Man!  I ended up buying an Asus Transformer for P 28,500 last August haha.  So I put my progressive plans on the back burner.

Too bad I can't find my AEI eyeglass photos.

Then my sister C was in the market for glasses and had AR send a box over to our house.  I tried them on at home, had our hepatitic maid take my photo.  I also tried them on at Summer Palace, where my dad celebrated his birthday, because C was also trying some on.

I asked the opinions of my sisters AL, AC, my mom and my Isang, who all had differing opinions.

In the end, without looking at which one she chose, I went with AC's choice, since she seemed to know my style more than anyone else in the family.  It helps that she agrees that MTV's Daria is me. :)  And being the youngest, AC would have the younger taste.

So I'm waiting for AR to get back to me on how much the pair costs.  I think that they would cost below P 10,000, frame and glasses included.  Of course, none of the styles are as nice as AEI's.  But kuripot wins for me every time.  Except for socks and dental floss.

Then one day, I accompanied a friend for her eye check-up with Dr. Chiliz Co of George Optical at V-Mall.  My friend was surprised with how thorough the check-up was, given that she had brought Dr. Harvey's prescription with her.

Dr. Chiliz, who prefers to be called Elizabeth (no way!  too common!), is Cra's ICA batch mate.   In fact, I even brought her one time to V-Mall to pick up N's eye wear. 

AR reminded me that progressives need to be a certain height.

Dr. Chiliz's family used to live on the same street as us.  I know this because her sister was my sister's batch mate.

So I felt that I could tell her about how Bimbim and her mom's secretary had had lenses that had fallen out of their glasses at the Shoppesville branch.

Dr. Chiliz asked me for Bimbim's name to check out who had done her glasses.  Dr. Chiliz handles the V-Mall branch, to which my friend transferred to, because her suki (optometrist?) also moved from Shoppesville to V-Mall.

When I told Cra about Bimbim's experience, she said that maybe it was a remote thing.  I think that it is a Shoppesville thing.

Looks like my far glasses.  No to this pair.

Anyway, Dr. Chiliz gave me an eye exam but I couldn't give consistent feedback because it was the end of the day and I was tired.  She suggested that I go back on a weekend morning when I'm more relaxed.  I set an appointment for that Saturday, but cancelled it to accompany my aunt to look for vases.  And I haven't been back since.

Incidentally, when I told Dr. Chiliz about how expensive glasses are at AEI, she said that I should get a discount, being an IRB member.  Oo nga no!

Help me pick, dear reader.

Talking with Dr. Chiliz also got me into thinking about where Atty. Kaw got his glasses, as he's even more kuripot than I am. :)

I will have a chance to test Cubik's claim that they have qualified opticians (is there such a thing as unqualified opticians?).  If I win a pair, it will be subjected to scrutiny by one of my two ophthalmologists, glaucoma (Rigo) and uveitis (Harvey) consultants, or at least one optometrist, either Dr. Chiliz or someone from AEI.

And, oh, I like T101 C1, C2, C3 and T104 C2 because they're supposed to be lightweight, although the latter looks kinda short-rimmed for progressives.  My alternatives are T101 C2, 960 C1 and C2 because I've never had spring hinges before--they sound more durable and can fit better.

This was one of the finalists.

From my eyeglass photo exercise, I noticed that thin, simple arms suit me.

Anyway, I guess you readers are tired of seeing my face by now, and the glasses are beginning to look the same.  If I had known that I was posting these photos, I would have smiled more!   And availed of the Motives free make-up demo!  In the words of Spartacus, 'Apologies' for the self-indulgence.  Trying to get at least 10% of the score!

If I win this contest, it would be my first blogging non-raffle win.

The Blue Tooth headset that I won from Tanggera was through raffling.

I joined two Anton contests, OAP's Legally Blonde and a Maven scholarship. And my Maven classmates' Writers Block scholarship.  Jayson said that my entries to TV show and Nokia contests were pretty good, that my Nokia story was better than the winner.  But I never won boo-hoo. :)

Shortlist?

So I take back my sky-falling comment. :)

Eastwood Mall Open on November 1

Sentro 1771's signature dish, corned beef sinigang.

Laguna stall, Market! Market!

J, B and Cra-C like Greenbelt Chapel.

Caluag, Alimango cooked in garlic butter, at Crisostomo.  Yum!

For next year's reference, I'm updating my list of places open on All Saints'.

Last November 1, we went to Ateneo in the morning.  The grade school was closed, but we got in Gesu, walked through the pathways near PIPAC, visited the Loyola House chapel where a wake was held for Fr. Guido Arguelles (we met his niece), saw the new swimming pool near the Comm Dept.  We had lunch at Crisostomo in Eastwood Mall at past 12.  I found out then that Go West is performing this November 11, 7 pm at Eastwood Mall Open Park and on the 12th at 8 pm, Venice Piazza, McKinley Hill.

Krazy Garlic, Greenbelt 5 has terrific local fruit drinks.

If you guys want to catch Go West or any Eastwood Mall Open Park concert for that matter, I suggest that you reserve seats in the al fresco area of Kogi.

My sisters and I love Go West!  One sister, AC, even sang along to the instrumentation of Indian Summer.

From Eastwood, we headed to Collezione Greenbelt 5 for map shirts.  We then went to Krazy Garlic for drinks.  A few stores were closed.

After Greenbelt, we went to Market! Market! to check out the food stalls that represented different parts of the Philippines.  We then went to Sentro 1771  for dinner, thanks to JK and RT.

JK warned us that she was eating with her classmates at Market! Market! when a guy kept walking by with his hand inside his jacket, like he was holding his gun.  He was joined by two other guys.  They didn't need to pass by their table as there were a lot of empty tables in the area.  J's group could not find a security guard nearby.  I didn't get where they were eating.  They left without eating.

We went to Ateneo because I had asked my balikbayan friends JK and BKB what they wanted to do.  I suggested that we check out a spa in, say, Linden Suites.  We could also try Makati.  If the malls are closed, we could have pancit luglog and halo-halo at Manila Peninsula.

To which BKB said, Halo-halo sounds good, if it is necessary.

Ateneo won out because JK wanted B to see it, since they had a few Ateneo books on Fil-Chis.

All Saints' Day Schedules
Establishment/Date	31-Oct	1-Nov	2-Nov
BDO-V-Mall	closed	closed	open
Eastwood Mall		open
Freska Tagaytay		open
Greenbelt		open
Greenhills Shopping Center		12-9 pm
Mag:net Gallery	closed	closed	open
Market! Market!		open
Podium		opens at 12 nn
Robinsons Galleria		regular hours
Serendra		open
Via Mare St. Luke's Global		10 am-8 pm
Via Mare: other outlets		open

All Saints' Day Schedules

Establishment/Date

31-Oct

1-Nov

2-Nov

BDO-V-Mall

closed

closed

open

Eastwood Mall

open

Freska Tagaytay

open

Greenbelt

open

Greenhills Shopping Center

12-9 pm

Mag:net Gallery

closed

closed

open

Market! Market!

open

Podium

opens at 12 nn

Robinsons Galleria

regular hours

Serendra

open

Via Mare St. Luke's Global

10 am-8 pm

Via Mare: other outlets

open

BKB checks out tree seeds at Ateneo.