I'm a "B Minus Traveler"

I patiently took time took ticking off all the places in the Philippines I've already been to in Eugene Villar's Lakbayan: How Much of the Philippines Have You Visited? test and the results say that I'm a "B minus Traveler". (Not bad for someone who does not even own a car, I guess):

What mainly accounts for this is that, years ago, I was able to travel well in the Visayas and Mindanao on business hence the many colored Southern provinces in the resulting Philippine map below:
This is a cool app for the curious traveler wanting to have a geographical view or graphical/mapped representation of all the places in the country that he/she was able to set foot on.

The Origin Of Familiar Phrases

Would you know the origins of some of the these idiomatic expressions or familiar phrases?:

"Be aboveboard"

"Beat the rap"

"Does that ring any bells?"

"Take someone down a peg"

"Paint the town red"

"Put on your thinking cap"

Well, if you don't, then this article is a must-read for you.

Giving A Whole New Meaning To The Phrase "Fiery Red Ferrari"

Lately, I've been marveling at Ferrari's F430, searching YouTube and watching videos (like the one below) of the super car and I thought this is the closest consumer version of Ferrari's F2007 Formula One car.

Epic. Staggering. Spectacular. Those were the words Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson used to describe the F430.

And so it was serendipitous that this afternoon I received from a friend a forwarded email containing these pictures of the F430 that made me see the car in a different light (no pun intended):
As the email said, these photos were taken along the South Luzon Expressway (apparently near the Susana Heights exit judging from the pictures' background) yesterday, July 22, 2007.

There you go: your GBP 180,000 (US$280,000) up in flames.
-------------
This is cross-posted in my other blog, Manila, My Manila.

How the World Is Changing

Al Gore also presented pictures showing the effects of climate change and global warming on the planet in his controversial documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, similar to the BBC News photos below tackling the same subject:

Indeed, "While the effect of human activity on the global climate is hotly debated, physical signs of environmental change are all around us."

Restless

This discovery may be a little late: William Boyd's novel 'Restless' won the 2006 Costa Book Awards which was previously known as the Whitbread Literary Awards.

The Costa Book Awards were originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc.

Costa, the UK's fastest-growing coffee shop chain, announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's most prestigious book prize in 2006, the year both Costa and the Book Awards celebrated their 35th anniversary.

Since 1971, the awards have recognised a wide range of books and authors across all genres, and the Costa Book Awards is the only book prize to use a category system that includes First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won seven times by a novel, three times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children's book.

Here are videos of William Boyd talking about his award-winning novel:
After seeing these Boyd videos for the first time, I wondered why didn't I ever think of searching the web for videos of my most favorite novelist before.

Were I that unfocused and restless?

The Pinoy Penman Long-Listed For The Man Asian Literary Prize

Foremost Filipino fictionist Jose "Butch" Dalisay, Jr. has been long-listed in the first-ever Man Asia Literary Prize, as he announced in his blog, Pinoy Penman, after he completed and submitted the rest of his novel, Soledad's Sister.

Prof. Dalisay said:

"I gave my students some special assignments and took the whole week off last week to try and complete in seven days what I had been sitting on for seven years.

I had about a week to come up with the rest of my novel, after submitting a sample of 10,000 words last March."

The Inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize (or MLAP just to have it shortened) is the Asian equivalent of the Man Booker Prize and will be awarded in November 2007.

From the MLAP website:

This major new literary prize aims to recognise the best of new Asian literature and to bring it to the attention of the world literary community. A distinguished panel of judges selects a single work of fiction to be awarded the prize each year. Works submitted for consideration must not yet have been published in English, although they may have been published in other languages...

More than 240 valid submissions were received before the entry period closed on 31 March 2007. Submissions were received from throughout Asia, in particular from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan. These included works both originally in English as well as works translated from languages as wide-ranging and Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Bahasa Indonesian, Hindi and Malayalam and came from both first-time authors as well as authors who are well-established in their own countries or more widely.

I hope that my most adored Pinoy author not only be shortlisted but bring home the prestigious prize.

The Fab Four At The Trinoma Mall

I know, I know, loyal visitors of this blog -- all four of you -- consider this post as long overdue. Sorry for not updating any of my blogs for over a month. My day job (and web-based games) hindered me from doing so and as a result, I committed one of a blogger's no-nos.

Ok, so much for unacceptable apologies. Here they are, our photos of Ayala's Trinoma Mall:

What this mall's corridors lack in height, they make up for their breadth -- the labyrinthine walkways are wide!

You can also find lots of colorful crocs in one of the hundreds of shops in Trinoma:

The Trinoma Mall boasts itself as the first and only mall in the country with a park on its rooftop or upper floors including seven water features complete with a reverse waterfall. Talk about architectural design novelty.

Here's the heart of the mall: the spacious Activity Center.

It's at the Activity Center where everybody can enjoy watching mall concerts like this one by The Beatles (or a Pinoy group emulating The Fab Four):

So there, I guess I've made it all up with all my Manila, My Manila readers. :-)