As mentioned sometime last year, we will be migrating to a new/improved version of our content management system.

The main goals for the upgrade are:

• provide better integration with multimedia content (MP3s, Flash and Images) and take advantage of sites such as YouTube or Flickr;
• improve management of spam/flood;
• improve our search engine results position;
• provide a more usable interface.

These new features will be gradually implemented and will be rolled out at www.barangayamerika.com. This older version of the site will remain here at home.barangayamerika.com.

Please let me know if you notice any weird or lost functionality and thank you for your patience in this transition.

-kyo-

The man many consider to be the best pool player in the world, Efren "Bata" Reyes, is a skinny, almost toothless, 52-year-old Filipino with a slight paunch, an infectious grin and a legion of fans both at home and abroad.

Listen to the segment.

TESTDB.

Download Now!

In celebration of the New Year and a recent phone upgrade, I'm posting 35 photos from the archive formatted for the E62's 320x240 screen. I'm also releasing 2 new ringtones I created in mp3 format. »click here

-kyo-

Siyempre alam ng mga kabarkada ko noong college na paborito ko ang Eraserheads. Incidentally, isa sa mga kanta nila dati "Tindahan
ni Aling Nena" ay tungkol sa isang binata na napa-ibig sa isang dalagang lalakad ng Canada sa loob ng tatlong araw.

Noon namang high school, no doubt "The Dawn" ang paborito namin. Sobrang kaunti pa lang kasi ng mga banda noon di tulad ngayon. A few years later, siguro nasa college na rin kami, ni-release nila ang "Talaga Naman".

Isa ata sa mga pinaka-madalas na tema sa musika ng mga Pinoy ang pakikipag-sapalaran sa ibang bansa. Hindi nakakapagtaka na may sinulat rin ang Yano sa topic na ito. Coincidentally, wala na ata ako sa Pilipinas nang lumabas ang pangalawang album nila "Tara" so hindi ko alam kung sumikat ito (upbeat ang rhythm pero malungkot ang istorya) ...

Paalam Sampaguita
Yano

Chorus:

Natatawa ako kahapon at napakinggan ko ang isa sa mga paborito naming album noon sa college, ang debut album ng Yano. Hindi lang yun, Two albums in one pa at ni-redesign ng batikang si Arnold Arre ang cover. Napabili na rin tuloy ako ng Color it Red (Fool's Circle + Hand Painted Sky) atsaka FrancisM's (FreeMan + FreeMan 2). Ni-rip ko na rin agad sa iTunes Apple Lossless Format.

Solb na solb. Mabuhay ang Iskolar ng Bayan.

-----------------
KAMUSTA NA
written by Dong Abay and Eric Gancio

Kumusta na, ayos pa ba
Ang buhay natin, kaya pa ba
Eh kung hinde, paano na
Ewan mo ba, bahala na?

Napanood kita sa tibi, sumama ka sa rali
Kasama ang mga madre, pinigilan mga tangke
Umiiyak ka pa sa harap ng mga sundalo
Namigay ka pa ng rosas na nabili mo sa kanto.

Repeat Chorus

Dala-dala mo pa, estatwa ni Sto. Nino
Eskapularyo't Bibliya, sangkatutak na rosaryo
At sa gitna ng EDSA, lumuhod ka't nagdasal pa

Found this blog about my birthplace, hometown and alma mater:
http://whatsuplb.blogspot.com

Recent posting is on the aftermath of typhoon Milenyo.

-kyo-

September 9, Sand Hill Road

We found this "trail" in Foghorn Outdoors' "Northern California Biking". The 15 mile loop starts out at the mall parking lot in front of Nordstroms and was capped by a late lunch at our favorite Japanese joint on University Ave: Miyake. We were so proud of Kamille when we finished it.

The Miyake leg is not really in the book but since you're around the area, it's the perfect motivation to burn all those calories. Yum.

-kyo-

I moved the 2nd batch of fries today to the 20gallon tank.

Batch 2 at 20 days old:

Batch 2 at 20 days old:

Batch 2 [spawned 2006.08.09]:

Batch 3 [spawned 2006.08.21]:

Last week I was surprised to find eggs on a leaf in our 55-gallon tank. Our koi angelfishes have spawned their first batch of eggs!

I immediately googled on what to expect during the first 7 days and moved the leaf into a smaller tank. Dropped some methylene blue and ran an airstone to circulate the water.

At day 7, the yolk sac is starting to shrink and the eyes and tail are well defined.:

To improve survival rate at fry stage, one of the recommendations was to feed baby brine shrimp but right now all I have is Hikari First Bites. We'll see how many will make it to 3 weeks!

-kyo-

Currently listening to "Jazz Vocalists: Hear & Now" (Concord Jazz, 2006) and there's this cute track by Tommy Wolf sung by Kitty Margolis "I'm Always Drunk in San Francisco". What can I say? I think you're going to agree. Here's the full lyrics:

------
I'm always drunk in San Francisco;
I always stay out of my mind.
But if you've been to San Francisco,
they say that things like this go on all the time.

It never happens nowhere else,
maybe it's the air;
Can't really seem to help myself;
And, what's more, I don't care.

I'm always drunk in San Francisco;
I'm never feeling any pain.
But tell me, why does San Francisco,
just like a lover's kiss, go straight to my brain?

I guess it's just the mood I'm in
that acts like al - co - hol;
Because I'm drunk in San Francisco,
and I don't drink at all.
------

It's a nice album by the way, featuring Ray Charles, Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Madeleine Peyroux among many other great vocalists.

I've just uploaded photos to my flickr account.

It was a great 4-day weekend.

Saturday, we went down to Half Moon Bay for a picnic, kite flying and a sidetrip to the plant nursery (where as usual, we were all overwhelmed by the thousands of vibrant plants to choose from). Sunday, we managed to rearrange the living room with a quick run to the nearby store (yep, that was "rest").

On Monday we headed out to the Mendocino headlands for the ultimate picnic: blade chops and tagalog fried chicken (yes, the kind you take along on field trips in elementary) with kamatis and itlog wrapped in banana leaves which mommy lovingly prepared at 3am. As if that wasn't good enough, we were lucky to find a public picnic area set underneath the redwood trees overlooking the rugged but scenic Pacific Ocean. This alone made the 3 hour drive from the Bay Area well worth it!

Isa sa mga maipagmamalaki nating mga Pinoy ay ang ating hospitality. Mga ilang taon nakaraan ay bumisita kami sa bayan ng San Simeon, CA para silipin ang naiwang kayamanan ni ginoong Hearst at dahil linggo yun, nagsimba kami sa katabing bayan ng Cambria. Dahil probinsyang probinsya ang lugar na ito, kakaiba ang 'atmosphere' sa loob ng simbahan kung ikukumpara sa mga ibang simbahan sa California. Halos mga puti lahat ang tao (siguro, may tatatlong Asyano) at tila ba nagtataka sila kung bakit may ibang kulay na napadayo kapag napapatingin sila sa amin.

Ikumpara mo ito sa simbahan dito sa St Anne's ng Union City kung saan ay pagpasok mo pa lamang ay para ka bang 'tineleport' sa malaking simbahan ng isang subdibisyon sa Maynila (95 to 98% ng nagsisimba ay Filipino). Ang pari, deacon, choir at taga-basa ay Pinoy lahat. Bago mag-umpisa pa lamang ang misa ay pinatayo agad ng pari ang mga "bumibisita", tinanong kung saan sila galing at isa-isang binigyan ng welcome sabay masigabong palakpakan ng parokya. Hindi ako magtataka kung ganito rin ang iyong mararanasan sa Fremont, Daly City, Vallejo at iba pang Pinoy Communities dito sa Bay Area.

"Ma'am, ser, mayroon na po ba kayong tsinelas para sa beach?"

Home video of our trip to Boracay in December of 2002.
[27mb, Flash 8 Player required]

-kyo-

"Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it? It wouldn't be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because you couldn't reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make a silicon valley even here?

An interesting article by Paul Graham that reminds me of an interview with Pinoy success story Dado Banatao [From Cagayan Valley to Silicon Valley].

-kyo-

Mga Ka-Barangay,

The updated version of the software we use to run our site has just been released and I'd be curious to hear what sort of improvements or new features you'd like to see.

Here are a few that I came up with (may or may not be available yet):

1. an easier way to share/post photos, perhaps with Flickr.com integration. here's a proof of concept loading images from the flickr site. click on the larger image once the Photoset loads.
2. maybe we should switch to a 2 column layout? the current layout has a 450pixel wide limit. maybe it would be nice to bring it up to 500px.
3. provide better support for flash content: audio (mp3s), videos and photos.

lemme know what you think ...

-kyo-

ErnieA and Deebeedee has captured my sentiments on the movie that I would just link to their blog entries.

-kyo-

San Francisco Chronicle Launches Podcast for Filipinos

San Francisco – The San Francisco Chronicle announced today its launch of Pinoy Pod, a weekly program of interviews, news features and information about the Filipino experience in Northern California, the Philippines and beyond. This bold experiment, the first of its kind by a major American newspaper, can be downloaded at http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/ podcasts or http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=5&entry_id=5378.

"The Pinoy Pod allows us to use multi-media technology to connect very powerfully The Chronicle/SFGate to the vibrant Filipino community here in the Bay Area, throughout the country and overseas," said Phil Bronstein, editor of The Chronicle.

In addition to English, some episodes will be in Tagalog and other Philippine languages. Topics will include arts, culture, entertainment, business and political and social issues. Pinoy Pod's 10- to 20-minute podcasts will be posted Tuesdays.

Just got back from the Death Valley, N.P. trip. Loooong drive. Was able to go shooting with Horace and Jerry but was not able to meet Jill and company on Saturday night (we left around 9am on Sunday).

UPDATE: I've uploaded the photos from the trip on Flickr.com viewable also as a slideshow.

-kyo-