Punta Corazon Beach Resort

    Mar 24, 2008JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    I want to share this to my fellow bloggers and to my loyal readers about this remote beach resort in Romblon, Romblon. I had the chance to go there together with my cousins just to visit the place believed to be the hidden treasure in the island. The entrance fee costs around P60 for adults and a discount for children. The very location of Punta Corazon is hidden from the main road. Getting there from the town proper requires you to hire/ride a tricycle. The road leading to the entrance of the resort is not passable for vehicles. A 3-4 minute walk is required to reach the main entrance.


    The place was spectacular. I fell in love with the place while gazing through the almost perfect landscaping of the area. Almost everything you see there is well planned. Although the main entrance is not yet finished as you can see below on the first image. However, it doesn't spoil my excitement as I saw the clear waters and the man made pool which harbors seawater. I couldn't resist taking some shots of the area... even the grass found there. The outside lighting is powered by the sun. One way to lower electricity costs and to contribute eco-awareness. The walkways and stairs are creatively paved with white pebbles and shells. The cottage there is somewhat designed by a professional. I like the cottage in the top-most portion of Punta Corazon which is named "Casita". The green grass is pleasing to the eye. Punta Corazon is like a paradise!

    How to get there:

    1. From Manila, you can travel by ship from Pier 8 via the MBRS Lines or Superferry which travel to Romblon.
    2. Batangas seaport also has shipping vessels going to Romblon via the Montenegro Shipping Lines.
    3. You can also book a flight via SeaAir which has scheduled flights to Tugdan Airport in Tablas Island 3 times a week. Upon arriving there, you need to ride a small ferry or a pump boat to take you to Romblon, Romblon.

    Pictures of the resort below:




























































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    Acer Aspire 5315-2142 Laptop

    Mar 4, 2008JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger




    Specifications:

    Acer Aspire features a 15.4 WXGA Acer Crystalbrite LCD wide screen laptop monitor. With this size, you can enjoy watching movies in widescreen format and enhance your gameplay and internet surfing. It has an Intel Celeron processor 540 with speeds of up to 1.86 Ghz, 533 Mhz front side bus and a 1MB L2 cache. A 1 GB DDR2 of memory is available right out of the box which can boost those memory intensive applications. The laptop's video card harbors up to 252 MB of memory Mobile Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100, enough for the some of the latest mid-sized games in the market today. 120GB of hard drive space which you can use to store lots of data like music files, movies and pictures which you can then later burn on it's DVD-Super Multi DL optical drive. When it comes to connectivity, Acer Aspire 5315-2142 has a built in Wifi which is capable of connecting to other devices and on the internet wirelessly. Windows Vista Home Premium Edition is the OS installed in the laptop.



    Pictures after the jump. Note: This is not a sponsored post!


















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    Eagleman Joins Entrecard

    Jan 2, 2008JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger




    I've seen a lot of bloggers joining this online business card program called Entrecard. Most of the Pinoy Blogs I usually visit today contains what they call "Blog of the Day" or "Featured Blog" on their sidebar that features Entrecard blog avatars (pics) which links to that blog. These avatars are from blogs that where approved by the site owner to be shown/advertise for full 24 hours. This is indeed a nice way to get a substantial amount of traffic to your blog and at the same time provide or share traffic from your blog to others. However, I'm shying away from joining the hype of subscribing and putting Entrecard widgets on my blog before. Even if everyone else hopped on the bandwagon and enjoy the benefits of increased blog traffic. I dunno, I just don't feel the urge to join that time. But then, it's all about to change.

    Christmas day, I decided to join Entrecard on the start of the year 2008. And so I did. At first it was quite confusing. Don't know how to earn credits or even advertise at first until I stumble upon this Help section and read the details many times just to understand it carefully. Advert requests are piling up as well as the number of cards dropped on my site. It was fun seeing the stats rise from 0. I must drop my cards to those blogs listed on the Campaign menu to earn credits. It was that easy! I already seen the effects on my blog traffic stats 15 minutes after putting the widget on my blog. Cool!

    If you're a blogger and haven't joined the Entrecard craze, why not visit their site, watch the video and sign-up. Already a member, dropped your card Now!




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    2007 In Review: Eagleman's Top Three

    Dec 30, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger




    I feel like joining this "Year Ender Post" thingie which most blogs around the world are doing through this holiday season. Two days remaining and 2007 will be over and to welcome the new year, I decided to create my top three on my blog. I thought of making this post a week ago as soon as possible but weren't unable to do so. I'm fully occupied with the holiday vacation until Christmas Day. This is my first ever year ender post for my blog. Nothing much to brag about. :P. Here are my top three's this 2007...

    Top Three Most Commented Post

    1. Show Me Your Desktop tied with The Chosen Blogs
    2. EntrePinoy and Photo Manipulations
    3. First Blogniversary Post and the New Domain Launch

    Top Three Most Visited Post

    1. Kami nAPO Muna Ulit Finale Tribute Album
    2. Nina Does Barry Manilow
    3. Christian Bautista's Just A Love Song Live Album

    Top Three Traffic Sources (Search Engines)

    1. Google
    2. Direct
    3. Yahoo

    Top Three Referring Sites

    1. Blogger.com
    2. MyBloglog
    3. Philippine Blog Awards 2007

    Top Three Browsers used to access my blog

    1. Firefox
    2. Internet Explorer
    3. Opera

    Top Three of My Most Unforgettable Post (Personal)

    1. Checkpoint Incident and My First Airplane Experience
    2. Two to Six Meter Waves
    3. Graduate Na Me tied with Blogger's Got A Taste of Taste Asia Last Night

    Top Three Keywords that made traffic to my blog

    1. Club MYX CD
    2. Christian Bautista Live Album
    3. MYMP New Horizon Album

    Happy New Year 2008 to all!


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    Charice Wowed America

    Dec 20, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    I had to cancel my scheduled post for today about "Nina in the Mix" to give way to this special appreciation to our fellow Filipino citizen named Charice Pempengco.

    Since I saw her performance on Star King on YouTube, I knew and believe that she is the next Lea Salonga who would bring glory and honor to our country. Imagine at the age of 14, she managed to do a low and high pitched note like that of a 20+ female singer. When I heard and watched the announcement that Ellen wants Charice on her show, I visit this Charice Pempengco Fan Site to see some updates. I also check Ellen's website for new episodes. Last night I was able to watch Charice performance on the show's website. Listening to her voice brought me major goosebumps! Haha. See clip after the jump.



    Want More? There are pictures and reviews as well as the second video of Charice Pempengco's performance doing her own version of "I Will Always Love You". Head on to this Charice Pempengco Fan Site to learn more. :D

    I'm proud to be a FILIPINO! Mabuhay ka Charice Pempengco!

    Other post/s related to Charice Pempengco on Ellen Degeneres show. (Link love 'to!)

    Charice Pempengco Live At Ellen Degeneres Show by Pinoy Ambisyoso
    Charice Pempengco on The Ellen Degeneres Show by Relativity by Normand
    Charice Pempengco on Ellen by Starmometer
    Charice Pempengco's Performance on Ellen by The Gossip Fix


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    Dreaming Out Loud

    Nov 30, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    The smashing hit single of OneRepublic's "Apologize" which featured as a remix version in Timbaland's "Shock Value" Album garnered popularity and draw a lot of attention from the music industry. The single broke the all time record for most airplay of any song in Top 40 history. The band started from 2006 and was consistently ranked as one of the top musical acts in MySpace due to high exposure to the online community. Last week November 20, 2007, the group launched their album "Dreaming Out Loud".

    I really like the song. It taps to your emotions and the lyrics have this shade of melancholy. Comparing to other bands, some likened them to Maroon 5, Coldplay, Keane and the Fray. I already heard some of their songs and when compared to OneRepublic, I think they're somewhat similar as regards to their genre. But the band's song writer and record producer Ryan Tedder mentioned that they were no respector of Genre. "If it's a good song or a good artist whether rock, pop, indie or hip hop, they've probably influenced us on some level...nothing's new under the sun, we're a sum of a bunch of parts" says Ryan.

    *The song "Apologize" explores the personal pain of multiple relationships gone awry and the necessity of moving on, while "Stop and Stare" describes the common frustration of getting to a place in life where you think, "How in the world did I end up here, this isn't where I wanted to be, watching what I wanted pass me by." "The lyrics have shades of melancholy, and there is a definite emotional undercurrent running through them," says the band. "If you can't tap into emotion, you're just selling catchy tunes." link


    Track listing of Dreaming Out Loud Album

    1. "Say (All I Need)" - 3:50
    2. "Mercy" - 4:00
    3. "Stop and Stare" - 3:43
    4. "Apologize" - 3:28
    5. "Goodbye, Apathy" - 3:32
    6. "All Fall Down" - 4:04
    7. "Tyrant" - 5:02
    8. "Prodigal" - 3:55
    9. "Won't Stop" - 5:02
    10. "All We Are" - 4:26
    11. "Someone to Save You" - 4:12
    12. "Come Home" - 4:21
    13. "Apologize (Remix)" (featuring Timbaland) - 3:05
    14. "Hearing Voices" *
    15. "Dreaming Out Loud" *
    16. "Something's Not Right Here" #

    * – Tracks available at Target locations.

    # – Tracks available at Circuit City locations.

    I like the song "Say (All I Need)", "Come Home" and "Someone to Save You". The last three tracks in the list are only available on target locations. You'll be surprised to see that the song "Dreaming Out Loud" is not available in some torrents when in fact it is the title of the album. "Someone to Save You" sounds familiar to me as soon as I started listening to this song. I recalled a movie where Anne Hathaway is the lead actress. I'm right, "Devil Wears Prada". The part near the ending where she (Anne) and Meryll saw each other for the last time. You can hear this song as the movie starts to roll its credits. Anyways, I like the new band, a new addition to the Keane, The Fray, Maroon 5 and Coldplay genre as what I like to call it. I hope they can release a new video of their next single by this month.


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    Smart Load Update: New Load Denominations for Smart Subscribers

    Nov 17, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    Smart has just updated its Smart Load system as reflected to almost all Smart Load retailer sims getting their update notification today. The new update includes a new load denomination of P50 and P100. Aside from that, Smart added two load denominations under Smart All Text that includes the all new "All Text 40" and "All Text 50". Gaan Text has also been updated, adding Gaan Text 20 to its service.

    There is this option "Other Load" from its menu and sub-menus under Smart Menu. I thought that this could provide load credits aside from the options available on the menu. Let say that we (retailers) could load starting from P15 then could do a P16 up to P1000. It could be as I tried the service earlier only to receive a text message that this option is "for future service/coming soon". I called their free Smart Load hot line to inquire about the new denominations. Sadly to say, the customer representative could not disclose the future service of this "Other Load" option from the menu. If you ask me, I like the idea of "tingi" credits like that of Autoload Max from Globe. For the mean time, I'm glad that Smart did add some load denominations so consumers are able to choose more from their Smart Load loading service. Since we get a lot of customers reloading everyday, I need to create a poster again to post in front of our store to inform them of the new load denominations. This is good news to them!

    Details of the New Load denominations from Smart

    New 50 peso load = P50 airtime/SMS for 5 days
    New 100 peso load = P100 airtime/SMS for 10 days
    New All Text 40 load (P40) = 200 SMS (180 within network and 20 to other networks)
    New All Text 50 load (P50) = 300 SMS (270 within network and 30 to other networks)
    Gaan Text 20 load (P20 Talk and Text only) = 100 SMS (90 within network and 10 to other networks)

    The All Text load denominations, particularly All Text 20, is the most sought after load denomination from Smart since it debuted a year ago. It's cheap but somewhat "bitin" as customers top-up their Smart sims with this 1 day load expiry service. One must spend the whole 100 SMS credits to make the most out of the service within 24 hours. With the addition of All Text 40 and 50 (2 days and 3 days), this could provide a convenient way of spending the load wisely.

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    Featured Skin: Andamant

    Nov 14, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    Welcome to my fourth segment about Windowblinds where I feature one of its GUI skin for Windows XP and Vista and give it a review here in my blog. The last time I made a review about a Windowblinds skin was 2 months ago. Since then I've been using the Night Vision '07 skin on my desktop PC. This time, I've chosen another dark colored theme that has the capabilities to do transparency, mimic glass effects and glowing buttons.

    Andamant was created by Stardock Design and this skin is compatible with both XP and Vista using either the WindowBlinds 5 or the newly released WindowBlinds 6 skinning application. Included in the skin are 4 different UI types like transparent XP and Andamant XP along with transparent Vista and Andamant Vista. Four of these can be used on either platforms. However, trying the Andamant Vista on XP will cut-off the image in the start menu. The skin also supports per pixel alpha and those video cards that support it (hardware support) may experience the transparency and vividness of the window border of the applications. Despite having the latest software driver for my video card, the hardware does not support per pixel alpha. Although you can select the option to enable, the minimize, maximize and exit button does not render accurately when you try to hover your mouse pointer above it. The best thing to do is to disable it.

    The start button also glows when hovered and the start menu provides transparency. The taskbar looks like that on Vista skins. It also provides transparency with taskbar buttons slightly leaning on the right. I like the color combination of black colored taskbar, blue colored taskbar buttons while the application is selected and green buttons when the applications initiates a notification. Green taskbar buttons are noticeable during instant messaging chats where IM windows minimized to the taskbar glows green when a chat message is received.

    View of my desktop using Andamant









    Icon managing program "Object Dock" is not included in WindowBlinds but is a separate application under Object Desktop. The wallpaper was created by Smash Method. The combination of this skin and the wallpaper was perfect. The wallpaper gives my desktop a cute but rugged attitude and with the Andamant skin, the experience was fresh and pleasing. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars for this superb skin!


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    Smart's myTV experiences technical problems

    Nov 5, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    Last Friday, November 2, 2007, we went back to Smart Wireless Center in Festival Mall Alabang to report the problem "again" about the error in the mobile device (N92) regarding their myTV service. It happened before (October 28) and the customer representative at that time provided solutions in which he did by re-setting/re-format the mobile device. We don't have any ideas as to what was the cause of the device error. The rep. didn't provide any extra details about the possibilities on how did the error occurred on the first place.

    The error was all about the "program guide" under N92's mobile TV application. These program guides are being loaded whenever the application was started for the first time or if there's a need to after the phone was out of the broadcast range for some time.

    "Mobile TV uses a large amount of device memory to store the program guide. The device attempts to update the program guide periodically even if Mobile TV is not on."

    excerpted from Nokia N92 User's Guide page 12

    MTV Philippines is the only one viewable channel on myTV without activating the subscription. Among the package are these 9 premium cable channels which requires activation by subscribing on to myTV. Smart myTV is a per month subscription which costs a flat rate of P488/month.

    The problem we encountered with our N92 was that the premium channels are no longer viewable anymore. We can still watch MTV but the rest pops-out a message "End of Preview" every time we select these premium channels. You need to select "Preview" from the phone's "Options" menu in which the device retrieves the activation rights through 3G or GPRS connection... but to no avail. "Can't connect SmartBundle1 to server. Program guides are not up-to-date" is the only message returned every time. Under Mobile TV settings, the subscriptions indicate that the phone is still subscribed to SmartBundle1. I don't get it. What is causing the error? When the phone experienced the problem the 2nd time around, I thought the device itself was the culprit. The next thing that went in to my mind was to replace the unit. We acquired the handset from them (Smart Wireless) through a plan. It's possible since it was still weeks old and we have the official receipt on hand. We only found the answer when we went back to the wireless center.

    Since I am the techie guy in the family, my mom let me do the talking and explained the details about the unit's problem. The help desk lady there said that...

    "We need to re-set the unit sir."

    That was quick. I never expected a straightforward answer. Before I ask her again, my mind tells me that the lady knows about this already or she encountered the same problem as ours from previous customers. I then asked her as to what is causing the error. Is it the phone? She replied then.

    "Sir myTV service is experiencing technical/system problems at the moment. There's no notice yet on when the issue will be resolved. The only solution at this time is to re-set/re-format your device to bring back it's default software and hardware configurations. You must backup your contacts to your memory card as this will wipe them off."

    I said...

    "So you mean we have to go here (Smart Wireless) and let the helpdesk re-format our device whenever the problem occurs again?" That's a hassle.

    "That's the only option sir."

    I asked her to teach me instead on how to perform the soft reset and the hard reset. So that the next time the error occurred again, I will be the one who will reformat the device. No hassle on going to them again. The procedures only requires you to enter some code on the phone to do the re-setting. The lady gladly noted the steps on a piece of paper. Within 3 minutes, she already finished the re-setting and we were able to watch the premium channels again.

    Aside from N92, N77 and P were also affected by the problem. Since the program guides are updated periodically by the phone itself, there's nothing at the moment that can prevent the error from happening. How's that for a newly launched first of its kind service in the country? Will this be the same with the Smart Wifi issue in which it was re-branded to Smart Bro because of numerous complaints? Will Smart re-brand myTV if ever the early implementations of this service don't click? Not to mention the protest the service is facing from PCTA. As of this writing, the Smart myTV service subscription is still FREE (contrary to their "until August 31 free-view period") until further notice. That means I have to enjoy free live cable channels on the phone... up to sawa!

    Subscriber's who own Mobile TV capable handset's (specifically N92 and N77) may inquire about the methods on how to re-set the device. Just email me (located on my Contacts). I'll provide you the methods for soft reset and the code for hard reset. This procedure may only work on N-series devices.

    UPDATE 11/24/07: Smart already has details about the soft reset procedure. However in my case, it is not enough. One should do both, the soft and hard reset to fully reset the phone.


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    Random Post: Traffic Surge and Smart's MyTV

    Oct 25, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    There's a lot of things keeping me from acting normally for the past weeks. ^_^. However, these won't hinder me from blogging and at least visit some blogs and able to comment on some posts. I do have several draft posts since the start of my "so called" vacation status. Aside from these, we are still processing our SmartBRO SME application on one of Smart's Wireless Centers. We're hoping for an immediate approval.

    This is my random post which includes 2 different topics related to my "kinaaabalahan" from the past weeks. Traffic surge to my blog due to my previous music album review posts and the Smart MyTV tests.

    Traffic surge

    My recent post about APO's newest addition to their tribute album entitled Kami nAPO Muna Ulit Album gained an increase in my blog's overall traffic for the past few weeks. Traffic that now comes from "search engines" replacing my "referral traffic" to second place again based from Google Analytics. With the help of Google Webmaster tools, most of the search returns for these particular keywords (Kami napo Muna ulit track list) made my post land on the first page. Sometimes among the top 5 to 10 search results. Same thing happened to my last week's post about Nina's newest Special Edition CD. Posting about new music album releases is effective if you ask me. Especially when you are among the very few who posted something about it immediately. It took just under 12 hours to notice that the keywords "Nina Barry Manilow" appeared through my web stats. I am grateful that Google spiders indexed my blog that fast.

    MyTV

    This past week, I'm testing Smart's newest service named "MyTV" that let's you watch digital video broadcast on selected mobile phones. Smart does have this subscription package that includes channels like what your local cable providers provide in your television sets. CNN, Jack TV, Cartoon Network... to name a few (I believe there are 10) are included in the myTV subscription package. The subscription rate is a per month basis which usually costs P488 for both prepaid and postpaid. Currently supported handsets are N92 and the newly released N77 of the Nokia N-Series. These handsets are able to receive DVB-H or Digital Video Broadcast signal in which the included channels under myTV are able to broadcast.

    "Digital Video Broadcast - Hand held (DVB-H) is the technology driving mobile TV. A combination of conventional digital video and IP, DVB-H scales for smaller devices a technology that's already in place in millions of TV sets worldwide."

    N92 is bulky and much heavier than the rest of Nokia's N-Series. N77 is just released recently which features sleek design and much lighter than N92. It also offers DVB-H reception.

    Setting up Smart's myTV on N92 requires patience and an adequate signal from your mobile carrier. Since Smart broadcast this new signal transmission aside from 3G, HSDPA, GPRS, SMS, MMS and voice calls, many cable providers in the country protested against it.

    "Officials of the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) petitioned for the issuance of a cease and desist order against the myTV services being offered by leading telecommunications giant Smart Corp. But why? The reason? Visit this link"

    We have a low penetration of Smart signal inside our house due to a factory meters behind our subdivision. We must find an exact spot where the signal is consistent just to stream digital TV broadcast. Mobile TV application on N92 requires scanning for "program guides" to know the available channels in your mobile carrier. The subscription that was already settled and agree to had not been activated on the phone*. It requires connection to the web to download subscription user rights to watch that particular channel. Nevertheless, I'm able to watch MTV Philippines since it was one of the local channels here in the country that broadcast through DVB-H. And it is free!

    "I read that ABSCBN 2 will also go digital. Will this mean that the network will go for digital streaming through DVB-H to hand held devices? "

    The video stream is clear and pix elations normally happen when the signal drops or interferences in the signal occurred.

    *UPDATE: I just created a new subscription and able to receive activation rights from SmartBundle. What I found was that the subscription rate was 1 peso per month contrary to the P488 per month. I don't know but that is what I saw before the channels are unlocked. So far all channels are now accessible.

    Images below: N92 with Smart's myTV in action.














    UPDATE 10/30/2007: The subscription from SmartBundle1 suddenly ended for no apparent reason. I'm receiving "Preview Ended" message on the mobile phone whenever I watch unlocked cable channels. Now that is locked again, I try to re-activate it but haven't succeeded. I'm still seeing SmartBundle1 continuous indicated under subscriptions. But why? MTV Philippines which is the default accessible channel unlocked was the only one viewable at the moment.

    UPDATE 10/31/2007: We went to Smart Wireless Center in Festival Mall Alabang to inquire about the problem. We find out that the phone need to be reformatted due to a memory device error. How did it get an error? No idea actually. The next thing happened, the customer representative were able to access the channels again. Back home, I did a recap of the phone's manual. Based on the manual, "program guides" are automatically downloaded onto the device memory whenever the Mobile TV is launched for the first time or there's a need to in case the phone has been out of range from the DVB-H signal. This program guide eats huge amount of disk space on the device and this contains the actual updated program schedules every hour of everyday of every channel. What I know is that the phone's program guide was corrupted somehow and that the phone can't update the program guides in it. Without some visual notice on the phone regarding the true problem, the device only pops-out a message "Preview Ended" whenever I watch channels aside from MTV. Whenever I request for a license to view the channels, the phone returns an error "Can't connect to SmartBundle1 server. Program guides are not up-to-date!". See what I mean? So the best way to fix this is to reformat if somehow the phone experiences these problems again. The question is, why and how did the phone's memory become corrupted?

    UPDATE 11/02/07: The phone experienced the problem again this morning before we went to Divisoria in Binondo. We decided to go back again to Smart Wireless Center to reformat it somehow and inquire if the phone is defective. I asked this lady on the customer service area and ask her about the phone's problem. We find out what caused the error and the help desk representative provided me with the solution if ever the error appeared again. I'll post more about this on the 5th of November 2007.


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    Rivermaya's Bagong Liwanag

    Oct 18, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    The events are still fresh in my mind as the news about the Rivermaya's "disbanded" issue came into view months ago. Rico Blanco left the band and the ones remaining continued on the promise to their fans and supporters. Mike Elgar, Mark Escueta and Japs Sergio created a new 12 track album entitled "Bagong Liwanag" which highlights the previous ups and downs of the band as well as the current issue they were facing in. Six of the tracks contains vocals while the rest are all instrumental. Who wouldn't thought of creating a new album out from Rivermaya without Rico. The three gentlemen are also backup vocalists and composers and this won't hinder them from creating and producing such album.

    I love the cover of the album as well as the CD cover of Rivermaya's Bagong Liwanag album. The design was superb, kinda unique and the artworks are splendid. Pictures of the cover and the CD below at the end of this post.

    For just P200 I only got to have this 11 track CD in which half of it contains vocals and the rest are instrumental. I wish they added 4 more original songs to this album. It is few actually but I won't blame them. Maybe if they have a new vocalist in their band, the next album will surely fire up and be a hit in the airwaves during its release.

    Bagong Liwanag Tracklist

    1.Banda Ng Bayan
    2.Sumigaw
    3.Nawawala
    4.Olats
    5.Sayang
    6.High Speed Audio Message
    7.Banda Ng Bayan Instrumental
    8.Sumigaw Instrumental
    9.Nawawala Instrumental
    10.Olats Instrumental
    11.Sayang Instrumental

    I love the song "Olats" by Mark Escueta. It brings fun and humor despite the struggles their facing right now. A must song for the ones who lost from a game. Haha. The rest of the songs are okay.

    Some of the snapshots from the album:









    This is part of my back-to-back post for this day. Read my entry on Nina's Special Limited Edition Album.

    UPDATE: 10/29/07: Jayson Fernandez is the new vocalist of Rivermaya.


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    Nina does Barry Manilow

    JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    The country's best soul siren diva Nina has released her 2 Disc CD compilation which includes the Special Limited Edition CD together with her previous album NINA. It is out now since 2nd week of October 2007 in music stores all around the metro. The special limited edition Disc 1 comprises of 9 quality produced original and revived songs in which the first five of these were hit classics from Barry Manilow. Disc 2 was Nina's previous hit CD entitled "NINA" and was included in the edition. The album was produced under Warner Music Philippines.

    I've seen a lot of OPM albums from singers/bands releasing their so-called "limited edition" before. Most of them are also 2 to 3 CD Disc sets packaged in one where the first CD contains just a handful of new songs bundled with another of their previous album releases. This is a strategic way of promoting and adding a little bit of record sales to their previous album as well as promote the new one.

    There are also 4 bonus tracks on the special edition Disc 1 CD where it includes "What If (Acoustic Version)", "Someday (Band Version)", "Collide (OST Xenoa Movie)" and "The Christmas Song".

    The 2 CD's are encased in a gold engraved album title and track listing with a gray flowery design background. The design was the same with the Limited Edition 2 CD of Christian Bautista which includes some Christmas songs and his previous Live Album. With Nina's Limited Edition album, she did it again. Previous album "Nina Live" contains mostly of revival love songs from 80's and 90's and it was a hit in the Philippines since it debuted last 2005. This time, she revived some of Barry Manilow's hits in her own original way. Three of my favorites were "Somewhere Down the Road", "Even Now", and "Weekend in New England". Among the Bonus tracks on Disc 1, "Someday (Band Version)", "Collide" and "The Christmas Song" were my pick. Since Christmas is 2 months away from now, might as well play the "Christmas Song" over and over again.

    Disc 1 Track list: Nina featuring songs from Barry Manilow

    1. Somewhere Down the Road
    2. Even Now
    3. One Of These Days
    4. Weekend In New England
    5. If I Should Love Again
    BONUS TRACKS
    6. What If (Acoustic Version)
    7. Someday (Band Version)
    8. Collide (OST Xenoa)
    9. The Christmas Song

    Someday by Nina was a whole new version from its acoustic piano type one. It has included percussion instruments and backup vocals to the song. Collide was included in the OST of Xenoa which premiered last August of this year. You can watch the music video of Xenoa below.





    Disc 2 was also superb although at first I never intended to purchase it from the music store. I don't have a choice since the new songs that I'm after were bundled in with her previous album. I don't have her previous album "NINA" in my collection. I only bought her 2005 successful Nina Live album release prior to that. This could add to my collection of my original OPM CD's.

    Disc 2 Track list: Nina Album

    1. I Do
    2. Ooh Boy
    3. Where Is Love
    4. I Can't Make You Love Me
    5. I Need Your Love
    6. I Didn't Mean To Make You Mine
    7. Love Is Contagious
    8. What If
    9. Is It Over
    10. Someday
    11. Araw Mo

    The version of the song "Araw Mo" in this album was different from what I've heard from the video and radios before. I like this new version.

    For more reviews of the album, head on to Nina Soul Siren website.

    Some snapshots of the original album:






    This is part of my back-to-back post this day. Read my entry on Rivermaya's "Bagong Liwanag" Album.


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    The Will to Win

    Oct 8, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger




    Yesterday was yet another moment for all Filipinos to once again unite as one. The day of the most awaited airing of the live/recorded Pacquiao-Barrera 2 Will to Win bout. Where all are hoping for another victory, I myself never rushed into watching the rematch. I went to the busy wet market earlier that day to buy some seafoods and all I can hear from some by standers and tricycle drivers was all about the upcoming rematch. I guess traffic will ease later and the streets in this area which is full of pedestrians will lessen dramatically. Especially in the height of the boxing match. Then my phone vibrated as I walk to the tricycle station.

    ***Papaya message tone (download here)... an SMS message.

    "Balitaan mo ako kung sino nanalo." or "Inform me about the winner." A message from a friend.

    ***Papaya tone again... and then another. All messages are related that come from my cousins and tropa's.

    I went home. Upon arriving, a neighbor asked me if I could informing him of the winner of the Pacquiao-Barrera bout ahead of the local airing. I guess some of my friends, cousins and that neighbor are used to me as what I've been doing every boxing match before. They want to know the latest update fresh every minute.and wondering if Manny can defend his boxing title. A live information coming from a live source is needed. We don't have a satellite TV which is required to watch it live. Instead I will rely on the Internet.

    "Since the Pacquiao fights started, I always visit news and sports websites for fresh updates. I want to know who won the title of that day's event. As soon the results are known, I had this tendency to text my friends and colleagues about the event. Informing them that my favorite boxer won the match. That Manny Pacquiao won the battle by unanimous decision!"

    Such a bit of a spoiler guy, I sometimes forget to think that I may annoy someone. Kill their excitement before they ever saw the game. Local television here records the live telecast, edit it by putting up ads on-screen and then play it at a scheduled +8 GMT time. Good thing most of them are thankful for my sudden burst of happiness. Then they replied and asked me where did I get all of these. Simple. Why wait when there's a live update on the Internet? There are on-site reporters reporting the rematch live on TV and radio and/or publish their written reports on a website. I simply go to this site and refresh the page every 5 minutes. Until that time, the site never let me down. Thanks to the one updating the information, I got to read the latest happenings every round without watching it live.

    "I missed watching Pacquiao's fight on live TV. Last time I did was back in Romblon where Pacquiao fights against Morales. The excitement were always present. You don't know for sure what will happen next. Your heart beats faster and you breath faster as the punches and jabs went on. You suddenly rise up from your seat whenever the tension heightens. "

    Pinoys love to watch Manny Pacquiao's fight for glory, fight for our country. The pride and honor he brought along as he fight is such a good feeling for all Filipino's around the world. No wonder many are called, to join him fight not as a different individual boxers but as a one God fearing country with dignity. No matter what problem lies ahead, we Filipino's unite for at least a day to rejoice and celebrate being a Filipino.

    Knowing already who won the match before the local airing starts, I felt this urge to do something else. Instead of opening a pack of Eaji snack and drinking a glass of soda while sitting in front of the TV to watch the fight, I decided to Twitter some of the event. Also, I won't indulge myself into watching 2-3 minute commercial breaks in between rounds. Better watch the late re-runs where there are less advertisements. I did watch it later that evening on RPN-9 and felt proud afterwards.

    "I love the way Kyla sang our national anthem. Good thing she remembered the lyrics. Ahehe."

    Summary: Manny Pacquiao defended his title as the WBC international super featherweight crown following the 12-rounder. The event was held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Score cards show a 118-109, 118-109, 115-112, all in favor of Pacquiao. Both boxers manage to stay up to the last round where Barrera suffered a cut on his lower right eye on round 11.



    The question on everybody's mind was: When will be the next fight and with whom?

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    FTP problems and some desperate thingie

    Oct 4, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    It's been three days since my blog's sFTP publishing got hay wired. I'm figuring out which to blame: my webhost or bloggers ftp platform. Since that day, whenever I re-publish my blog to my webhost, the process took a long time than normal. I never saw the percentage indicator on the right side while publishing and after 2 minutes it will report an error. "Your blog published with errors!". I viewed my blog and searched for some anomalies or missing pages. All was fine but then it worries me a bit.

    I searched Google groups for the same problems I encounter and found some similar that dated back last month. A server was at fault that created the problem according to the Blogger groups moderator. It was fixed before October started but until last night I'm still experience the lag and the error. I hope that this post will be posted as soon as I hit the publish button.

    [Update: October 5] You're able to read this post, that means Blogger's ftp publishing is working again.

    Desperate thingie

    The Filipino community in America has raised their concerns about the episode on the Desperate Housewives aired last Sunday. Here's the video clip of that specific scene in that episode.


    “Ok before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Cause I would just like to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines."




    This video clip hosted on YouTube spread like wildfire and Pinoys in America demanded an apology from the show's producers. Their anger and outrage reverberated until it reach us here in the Philippines. In the Philippine blogosphere, there are a lot of reactions. Most expressed their anger and disgust towards the show claiming that they discriminate us Filipinos. There are also those that are calm, that shed light on the current situation and that the issue should be analyzed first before taking it to the next level. Last night, the media joined the controversy. TV Patrol World aired the YouTube along with the statement release of Sec. Eduardo Ermita in behalf of Malacanang. DOH and some politicians and in the movie industry expressed their concerns on the matter. All of them demanded a written or public apology from the show and it's producers. Airing this report last night will surely add fuel to the raging fire and put the issue in the long run. Let's hope that this issue will ease out as soon as possible.

    [additional comment] In my opinion, it's natural for anyone to be offended by such negative remarks against them. Me, I got offended at first. However, seeing the facts and reading all reactions from different set of people, I think we should analyze the situation first. The important thing is that we should not be impulsive in our decisions (I'm guilty of this...sometimes). I think it's enough that the network already sent their apologies to us. Peace World!

    Need to read more about the issue? Click the links below.

    PinoyAmbisyoso
    Karlo.Pinoyblogero
    Yatot Chronicles
    Makoyskie

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    Kami nAPO Muna ULIT Finale Tribute Album

    Sep 27, 2007JP aka Elmo
    Eagleman Blog
    Blogger



    I bought the original sequel to the successful "Kami nAPO Muna" Album tribute that debuted a year ago. This CD is the 2nd part of the tribute album which was recently released this first week of September 2007. The price tag was P300 instead of 250 which I thought earlier before I went to Music1. I chose to buy the original as a part of my advocacy to support Filipino music artists. I heard before that there's a sequel to the previous album so I visit the website of TitikPilipino for a list of newly released album from time to time. When I saw the CD on the list one day, I planned on when and where to purchase it. And so I did. The moment I had the original copy of the album was the time it hit the top 5 most purchased album on Odyssey music stores. Truly, the power of APO's phenomenal hit songs with todays collaboration of the hottest bands and artists is a testament to its success. This would never be possible if it wasn't for MYX music channel. This explosive finale to the phenomenal tribute album will dominate the airwaves again in the coming months. I'm sure of this. :D

    The album composes of 18 tracks

    1. American Junk - Kamikazee vs. Parokya Ni Edgar
    2. Salawikain - MCoy of Orange & Lemons feat. The SpaceFlower Show
    3. Princesa - Itchyworms
    4. Saan Na Nga Ba'ng Barkada - Sponge Cola
    5. Tuyo Na'ng Damdamin - Silent Sanctuary
    6. Wala Nang Hahanapin Pa - True Faith
    7. Mahirap Magmahal Ng Syota Ng Iba - Hilera
    8. Love Is For Singing - The Bloomfields
    9. Syotang Pa-class - Radio Active Sago Project feat. Raymond Marasigan
    10. Kaibigan - Up Dharma Down
    11. Show Me A Smile - Imago
    12. Isang Dangkal - Paramita
    13. Heto Na - Concrete Sam
    14. Tuloy Ang Ikot Ng Mundo - Dicta License
    15. Hangang May Pag-ibig - Chillitees
    16. Just A Smile Away - Shamrock
    17. Suntok Sa Buwan - Scrambled Eggs
    18. Lumang Tugutugin - APO All-Star

    I need to see the music video of Silent Sanctuary's "Tuyo Na'ng Damdamin" which was the first song to debut from the album. Update: The video is now available on YouTube, see below:




    Reviews:

    Spongecola's "Saan Na Nga Ba'ng Barkada" brings back nostalgia of my high school and college days. I like this song. With this, I decided to create another Prex Presentation using flash or video.

    Silent Santuary's "Tuyo Na'ng Damdamin" is the most heartfelt of all the songs in this tribute album according to me. I love the orchestrated type background sound with the use of the violin and the way they sang the song.

    Scambled Egg's "Suntok sa Buwan" is a nice revival of the original song with a twist of todays rock genre. I like the version of this song. Previous pinoy artist/band who revived this song before was Eraserheads which was originally sung by Sesssion Road. Corrected 10.24.07

    The rest of the songs are good. I hope MYX will pay tribute to yet another artist who contributed a lot to the OPM industry. Who should be next? Freddie Aguilar? Not bad. I'll leave you with some of the album's images and another YouTube video of Hilera's "Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba". See below:




    Kami nAPO Muna ULIT Finale Tribute Album



    Legitimate OPM CD's that I have:

    1. Club MYX CD
    2. MYMP's New Horizon Album
    3. Christian Bautista's Just A Love Song Live Album
    4. Jed Madela's Only Human
    5. Sitti's My Bossa Nova Album
    6. Jay-R's Christmas Away from Home (2006)
    7. Christmas Various Artists (2006)
    8. Sitti Live Album