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Supafly Singled Out from the Quiapo Crowd

Kids, I have to warn you that fishing out your camera on the LRT platform can be very dangerous even if it’s a mere point and shoot camera you’re using. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon while we were lounging at the San Mig Cafe inside the Oceanarium after a day of walking around Manila, I was reviewing my shots and came upon this:

I don’t know if it’s typical of Quiapo to be this crowded but I wouldn’t be caught dead swimming with that swarm. I’m not really a crowd person is why. I zoomed at the photo to see if anybody’ll stand out. Yeah, one person did.

See him yet? Let’s zoom in a little more.

Wide view… magnified… magnified… hold it right there Supafly! LOL

Now, the big question after this exercise: “Can your point and shoot camera do that?” /gloat

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Year-Ender Post: 2009 in Fritzparazzi Photos

Whew! This took too long. I’m sure there’s an easier way out there but I’m old school (i.e. a noob) so I rocked the hard way. If we’ve had interactions in the past year and if in those moments I was crazily snapping away like a loon, then most probably you’ll be in one of the 250 odd “fritzparazzi” photographs I used to come up with this vid. I was too tempted to use photos of other bloggers from most events because I later realized I was missing a month’s worth of pics off my archives, July 2009 to be exact, but thought better. This should do, I hoped.

So I start out with the Baconator and end with a snap of the lunar eclipse that happened on New Year’s Eve. Ok, that’s a lie. The ending’s totally different and I might end up getting killed for having that up LOL. Watch the vid already so you’ll know what I mean.

This one’s for you. For the company, the good times, your work, your craft, your dedication, and your passion. I hope that one day, I could at last measure up with the amount of efforts you have put in this endeavor, with or without Google AdSense.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a better year ahead of us all. And world peace.

Cheers!

Note: You may want to watch the full HD sized format of this vid straight off its youtube page. You’ll see the detail better that way.

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What If… The Internet Died?

The thought hit me last night between sips of my scrumptious Bulalo soup and Sago’t Gulaman during dinner: What if the Internet died? What if it totally stops working and disappears from the face of the Earth? Is that even remotely possible? The answer: yes. Highly improbable, but not impossible. In the event that the Internet does end, the world as we know may change but not before these things can happen:

Online sellers will have to peddle on the streets

Hosting will be a gig and a chore rather than a service

Domain registrations will rightfully go back to the Registry of Deeds

Big halls like the World Trade Center will forever be booked and become one big chat room, divided into zones/categories

No more AdSense earnings

No more spam

No more blogger events

Hits will be painful

SEO guys will be jobless

Forum moderators will have to use mics to be effective

Scammers will be con men in trench coats in dark alleys or in corporate weare in malls doing MLM

Weather/torrent/RSS news feed addicts will convulse in withdrawal

_________ (fill in the blank with your take, share them in the comment section)

and my lame list could go on and on and on…

Cracked.com, however, egged its readers to come up with their take on “The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today).” As expected, submissions of Photoshopped images came in droves. From the hundreds, they narrowed the best down to 20. #1 is HUHLOLZ, trust me!

In a totally unrelated note, here, have a radio transmitter.

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No More Bad Days Ever

In the living room a while ago, my gaze lingered on something familiar: a small black book that’s been sitting on a shelf untouched for a while now. I took it, saw the familiar silver letters on the textured hard cover, and remembered it was what Nina gave me for my birthday this year.

I took one more drag of the cig I was smoking before I began flipping through the pages. If this were effective, I thought, maybe I should have this with me wherever I go, just in case I or someone else needs it. First I opened it where Nina left the bookmark (more snapshots of the content after the jump). (more…)

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Cab UpLOLstery Be Hideous

One early morning, I hailed this random cab for work. Story of my weekday life. I opened the door, told the driver my drop off point, got in, said “Thank you” like clockwork (I always thank cab drivers as a habit, no matter what city I’m in. This gesture, I realized, almost always promotes a good vibe between me and my temporary chauffeur), and got myself comfortable on the back seat. No biggie, right? It gets better.

It took 2.5 seconds after my butt found its center of gravity on the cushion for me to notice the upholstery. No, more like upLOLstery. They reminded me of one blog post by Alexei a few months back where he showed another cab’s seat cover sporting animal prints.

OK, I may have been a bit harsh with my judgment so, here, see for yourself and prove me wrong. Be ready to say HOOOOOLY MOTHER OF FRRRRRR!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My initial reaction was to get my ass off of the material because it looked as though it belonged to some hapless and now-extinct animal from the wild. An animal with ticks, also multi-colored but blood sucking and hungry, ready to find another host to feed on.

Oh lookie here, it’s got a bronze plate tag, awwww. They don’t make it like this anymore, do they? Huh-YEAH, because we’re in the year 2009 and not the 60s, THAT’S WHY!

I told myself that this is may be the very fabric that nightmares are made off but, hey, I’m getting off this cab in under 10 minutes so there’s seriously nothing to worry about. Only then did my pulse rate start slowing down to almost-normal.

Do note that all the while, I was on my feet inside the cab, my ass pinned to a closed window, my back glued to the ceiling, and both my hands were holding on a sturdy fixture for balance (my left palm was spread flat on the back window and my right had apparently grabbed the driver’s then tousled hair, God bless him).

Good thing this is an isolated case of bad taste. I’ve only seen one, so far, in my regular weekday cab ride of 8 years. That’s a 1 out of a 2,088 reandom chance if you allow me to get geeky with it (na na na na na-na-na, get geeky with it!).

Part Deux to this entry can be found here!

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ISO variables on the Sony DSC-H10 (alt title: The Day I PWNT Mensa LOL)

Digital noise.  You’ve got to hate them like the smell of sun-baked scalp poised under your nose while you travel via the MRT, one typical rush hour Friday. 

I’ve been toying around with the ISO settings of the Sony DSC-H10, an 8.1 mega pixel point and shoot camera with 10x optical zoom and full manual settings, under a normal, single, energy saver light. To judge whether it is up to the challenge of capturing clarity under feeble lighting, I took several shots of a letter I recently received under different levels of ISO. Now, don’t go whining about my choice of subject. Its importance, we will later on find out. (more…)

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I dare you to take the Mensa IQ Challenge

…because I did. I’ve been wanting to since high school (which seems eons ago already, come to think of it) and I finally gave in and went. And took it. And felt molested intellectually, afterwards. The day after the Elation Buffet Launch, I did. I mean, we did. 

Here’s the thing: If I don’t pass, you’ll never find out. If I do, however, that’s a different story. And by “story,” I actually meant sorry. Sorry because you’ll never hear the end of it. Imagine the state of my posts, post passing Mensa:

“Khthul khult tuhklthuu. Menkrukhldt.” That’s Mensan for “I’m srsly awesome, you’re not.” All this lower-IQ speak by trying to translate Mensan to English is making my IQ drop. Back to regular programming… Khukldhrrrtlidtl, umdtkhrrl hkthul!

Got the picture? I mean, got the Fritzparazzi-Mensan picture?!

Yeah, somewhere in those lines. Sad ain’t it? 

Dickery notwithstanding, we were told that IQ exams in league with the Mensa test could cost you at least P1,500. You get to only pay P500 (and P300 for students who can present a valid ID) for the IQ Challenge slated on November 30, 2008 at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street in Serendra, Taguig City.

The Mensa IQ challenge is explained in the following paragraphs:

“The only criterion for Mensa membership is to score within the top 2% (98th percentile and up) of the test. The test is culture-fair and does not test for math or language skills.

Limited slots are available to those interested in taking the Mensa test.  To avail of these slots, interested parties can pre-register at the online facility available at mensaphilippines.blogspot.com.  The deadline for pre-registration is  before 12 midnight of November 28.

Mensa has over 100,000 members in over 80 countries worldwide. Actress/Olympian archer Geena Davis, comedian John Cleese and science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov are some of the more prominent Mensa members.”

If like me you are still in the dark as to what IQ level you have, then this one’s the one to beat, pass or fail. Not passing may mean we are not in the top 2% of the population. IQ test results, however, can’t make any of us lesser rock stars. NOTHING CAN! I mean, come on, share my gloating lime light with me should I pass (I imagined it could be lonely up there LOLOLOLOL)! I and 5 others took the advanced Challenge last Saturday without as much as a single preparation nor idea what the questions would be like (no clues on what to expect here, so move along, people! LOL).  Also, think about it, if I don’t pass and you do, you can make ME not hear the end of it! That’s a sweet deal right there! 

For more details on how to sign up for the exams, click on the photo in this post. View the video below for the teaser. 

embedded by Embedded Video

Yes, that’s Kring right there, alright! LOL

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