• 20Nov
    Shaped like Magellan's hat

    Shaped like Magellan's hat

    We were at Sto. Nino Parish Church in Mactan to hear mass on a late Sunday afternoon. This is the first time I attended mass conducted in Cebuano dialect and saw young women in their ministry wear long veils like the very icons in the altar. We left with no idea what the entire one-hour sermon was all about. It felt like much being a foreigner in your own land. I hope they have English and Filipino versions during the day, and even Korean. This particular area in Mactan Island is a tourist belt.

    Inside the hat-shaped church on a Sunday

    Inside the hat-shaped church on a Sunday

    So in between ho-hums, unimaginable boredom and missing church services at CCF, I managed to steal shots of the Sto. Nino Parish Church. The small church is right across two major roads leading to Cordova and Punta Engano. What’s amazing about this church is its unique architecture. The building was shaped like Magellan’s hat (I would have said Anakin Skywalker’s) and its glass panels depict the image of the Sto. Nino tinted with bright colors. It is no longer as backward as what a typical parish in the outskirts of a province should be, bamboo blinds and all. Cebu churches have actually come a long way to become one of the province’s heritage sites.

  • 16Nov
    Basking under artificial light

    Basking under artificial light

    Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort is not really my typical beach haven compared to other beaches I’ve been to in the north. Crablets seemed to have invaded their artificial shorelines and made walking around the beach area on barefoot quite uncomfortable. Either I might crush one of these creatures or I risk losing a toe. My feet simply missed those smooth white sands that define most of the beaches in Luzon.

    Allegro Restaurant at night

    Allegro Restaurant at night

    But Maribago’s facilities and the hospitality of people made up for what is lacking. After dinner, we went around the beach and saw how lovely the place was at night. The lights made the entire beach landscape appear more like a fantasy island than a resort. We went to The Cove, a bar and restaurant that allows you to choose from a selection of live fishes, seafood and appetizer recipes and drinks.

    The way to The Cove

    The way to The Cove

    And there’s this cold sea breeze blowing from the north. So we got out frolicking along the shore in our rubber shoes.

  • 12Nov

    Just very recently, news about free Ericsson WAP laptops broke out like SARS over the internet. Maybe one of you might have received this message in your inbox:

    Dear All,

    The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer laptops in an attempt to match what Nokia has already done. Ericsson hopes to increase its popularity this way. For this reason, they are giving away the WAP Laptops. All you need to qualify is to send this email to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18.

    But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive R320.

    Make sure you send a copy to: anna.swelung@ericsson.com

    Cheers and enjoy your laptop when it comes!

    Ericsson T18

    Ericsson T18

    This was indeed good news especially to someone who has always wanted to own a laptop. So if you’re pretty excited about this free offer, take a look at the prizes first. Not even one of them is a camera phone.

    Surprisingly, this email offer has been around since the late 1990’s and Ericsson’s female ghost employee Anna Swelung was formerly known as Anna Swelund. Ericsson has been bombarded with queries they had to set-up an Anna Swelund email with an auto-respone message denying such offer. At Ericsson’s website, the company has also posted similar statement to set the rumors straight:

    5: Is it true that you are giving away mobile phones? Please give me Anna Swelunds e-mail address.

    No, Ericsson is not giving away phones for free. The chain letter is a fraud.

    [First published 10 April 2000]

    R320

    R320

    A chain letter is currently in circulation via e-mail, purporting that Ericsson is giving away mobile phones. The e-mail is a fraud and Ericsson is not giving away phones for free. The following is an
    extract from the letter:

    “If you forward it [the letter] to 20 friends, you will receive a brand new Ericsson phone.”

    The letter is signed off Anna Swelund, Executive Promotion Manager for Ericsson Marketing. This person does not exist at Ericsson. The legal and IT departments at Ericsson will trace the person who initiated the illegal chain letter. Ericsson is sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused and kindly ask people not to forward the chain mail further.

    From marketing perspective, no company in its right mind would give out cellphones, laptops, houses, cars or even a tankless water heater without any return. Companies out there intend to sell their products and make profit, and not reward people for spamming inboxes.

  • 11Nov

    After two days of mental torture and disturbing people at unholy hours, I found the solution! The website I’m working on has successfully been migrated back to Wordpress. I tried Joomla for awhile but somehow their complicated CMS is too much for me. To uninstall it manually was a nightmare. If only I have dug in deeper, I would have found that automatic uninstall script lurking around Fantastico. Well, I’m learning each time I try to mess up with the system. And I thank God for web-savvy friends.

    Let me share my latest finds to untechie minions out there. One of them might just stumble upon this and thank me someday for documenting my misery.

    When you see this error “You cannot install more than one script in the root directory of a domain” while trying to install Wordpress through Fantastico, don’t panic. Here’s the remedy I found:

    1. Access your cPanel and open the File Manager;
    2. Go to .fantasticodata in your Home Directory;
    3. Delete all the files inside this directory.
    4. Drink coffee, juice or tea

  • 10Nov
    Magellan's Cross, believed to be miraculous, is nothing but a deceptive tool to conquer the unsuspecting ancient Cebuanos.

    Magellan's Cross, believed to be miraculous, is nothing but a deceptive tool to conquer the unsuspecting ancient Cebuanos.

    I find it disturbing how some history textbooks tell us that the Philippines was “discovered” by Spanish-hired Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Wow Philippines has even repeated the same confusing remark when describing the island of Limasawa as a birthplace of Christianity in the Philippines. I question the use of the word “discovered” because hundreds of years before these Spanish/Portuguese explorations, the islands have long been inhabited by its natives. In fact, Mactan Island’s chief Lapu-Lapu was already there when Magellan and his team arrived.

    The word Christianization also does bother me. Spain that time was using God as a scare tactic to conquer and manipulate inhabitants in the east. What the Spaniards had really brought us was an idolotrous religion that subsisted on the sweat and blood of those they have conquered. Where is Christianity there? Not even a trace.

    The house built for the ancient cross

    The house built for the ancient cross

    Just across the present Cebu City Hall is Magellan’s Shrine that houses the Cross of Magellan. The original cross, believed to be encased in Tindalo wood, was made a symbol of Cebu and local government seal when it is nothing but an ugly reminder of how our own gullibility made us Spanish captives for 333 years. Lapu-Lapu, probably one of the brightest minds of his time, refused this religious crap from gaining a foothold. We all know how this brave warrior made a faucet out of the Spaniard’s body. Our historians may have named a small city after him, but Magellan’s cross was made a symbol of the province the Mactan chieftain so tried to defend. Call that irony.