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25 June 2009 @ 09:23 pm
new lj layouts.  
this is it. the ultimate sign.
the sign which means i'm always home, broke, and having all the time in the world to try different lj layouts.
nevertheless, i found a ridiculously cool layout for [info]countingfridays and [info]weekendworkshop! :D

applause to [info]thefulcrum for all the neat-looking layouts.
seriously, i didn't encounter any so-so design. every layout deserves a thumbs up!

. . . .

i miss my friends. :c
 
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21 June 2009 @ 08:45 pm
solar eclipse. july 2009.  
Philippine Astronomical Society (PAS) will be sending a team to China to observe the most-awaited total solar eclipse this year! (If I only have the money, my opening line would be: "China, here I come!"...but no. Haha!)

We, the poor ones, will have a local observation instead. The location isn't finalized yet. Message me if you're interested and I'll give you the complete info.
In fact, PAS always welcomes anyone who wants to join our meetings, seminars and observations. This group would probably be the coolest and the kindest people you'll meet. :D
Ask any astronomy-related questions (or maybe any geeky stuff) bothering you, no matter how silly you think your question is, we're always excited to try and answer them!

So going back to the event, I really hope the sky would cooperate. Locally, we will just witness a PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE because the totality will only be in parts of China, India, South of Japan and along a certain portion of the Pacific. (projected on Earth, the black dot - shadow caused by the Moon covering the Sun, is the umbra where the totality will be witnessed and the gray shadow is the penumbra where the partial shall occur.)


from http://www.eclipse.org.uk
"There you go...that small archipelagic country...under the gray circle"

On the morning of July 22, 2009, we will witness an almost 50% of our sun covered by the moon! You will see crescent-shaped shadows. It'll be crazy. Hehe.

LOCAL CIRCUMSTANCES:

Metro Manila, Philippines

First Contact (The Moon nears the edge of the Sun) :
8:33 am
Maximum Eclipse (49% part of the Sun covered):
9:43 am
Fourth Contact (Last contact of the Moon from the edge of the Sun):
11:01 am

Clear skies!
 
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20 May 2009 @ 11:57 pm
not all things  
not all things are bloggable.

Long floating on shipless oceans, I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers, drew me loving into your isle
And you sang, 'Sail to me, sail to me, let me enfold you
Here I am, here I am, waiting to hold you.

- this song is best heard from elizabeth fraser's voice.
 
 
Current Mood: complacent
Current Music: tosca - suzuki
 
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13 May 2009 @ 01:53 pm
sick.  
have you heard of the computer game, rapelay? if not, read it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapeLay

it is the sickest thing i've heard. what the f.ck is wrong with the people who made this horrifying game?
japan has been known for all its eccentricities but this game...it's just too much.
no matter what race, religion or philosophical belief you have, you know that this game is evil.
violence is violence and there aren't any excuses for that. this is blatant discrimination of women.
the government of japan must review their policies because, the sad thing here is,
it's apparently still legal in their country.

here's the news from theinquirer.net:

Japanese dismiss rape game complaint
Legal in Japan
By Nick Farrell
Monday, 11 May 2009, 11:27

HOPES THAT Japan had moved past Shogun era attitudes to women were dashed as a computer game maker whose game awards points to players who rape females brushed off complaints from US rights campaigners.

Yokohama-based games manufacturer Illusion said that the campaign to have the game. "Rapelay" banned in Japan was pointless because it was perfectly legal in Japan.

Spokesman Makoto Nakaoka said he was bewildered by the move as it made games for Japanese tastes and laws. He didn't need to know what was acceptable in the US because it does not try to sell the game there.

Although that is not quite true. As we reported earlier this year the game was on sale on Amazon until someone complained and it was pulled.

New York-based Equality Now launched a campaign this week "against rape simulator games and the normalisation of sexual violence in Japan".

Activists are asked to pen protests to the maker and Prime Minister Taro Aso, arguing the game breaches Japan's obligations under the 1985 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

You don't have to be Freud to work out that the game shows a dark side to Japanese attitudes to sex and women. Players earn points for acts of sexual violence, including stalking girls on commuter trains, raping virgins and their mothers, and forcing females to get abortions.

Japan only just bought in a law against making kiddie porn, but the law does not cover actually owning it.

US online retail giant Amazon in February took RapeLay off its websites after receiving complaints but clips of the game were still available this week on popular video sharing websites.

According to AP, a spokeswoman for the Japanese government's gender equality bureau said the office "realises the problem is there" and it is working out what can actually be done about it. Presumably without offending any male in charge by making him give up his Japanese schoolgirl porn.
 
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12 May 2009 @ 09:24 pm
STS-125 mission  
earlier, at around 2 in the morning, i watched the launch of the space shuttle atlantis, live on CNN.
ooh...i miss this. a lot! it felt so good having to witness such a thing.
my seven-year old dream of being an astronaut (this dream secretly went on until highschool and stopped when i reached first year college when i gave up on my physics degree. lol!), that indispensable and immaculate feeling, came hurling back to me. haha! it felt nice.

but of course, my future of being an astronaut is now a desolate piece of land. i've accepted this fact (it hurts but i must) and is now contented being a member of an astronomical society, teaching kids the wonders of space and probably...unconsciously, passing on to them my childhood dream.

going back. i saw the space shuttle launch and tonight, back to my geeky self, i checked my trusty heavens-above account to see if STS-125 has visible passes. :D



STS-125, a seven-member crew, will be fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. Yey to that!
links about STS-125:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-125
 
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08 April 2009 @ 10:53 pm
100 hours of astronomy  
Yey! Philippine Astronomical Society (PAS) was featured in Phil. Daily Inquirer yesterday.
This year marks the International Year of Astronomy and part of it, as a cornerstone project, was 100 Hours of Astronomy celebrated last April 2 to 5.
PAS conducted a public viewing for the event at our office in Pasig.
Too bad I wasn't able to come and help Engr. Dacanay...too busy with my thesis (thank god, it's done!).
I miss stargazing. :c

Moon, Saturn leave new stargazers starstruck

MANILA, Philippines—A blanket of clouds cast a pall over eastern Metro Manila on the cool summer evening of April 3, and a chill in the air foreboded rain. Somewhere over the horizon, the moon and the stars were obscured by a dark gray haze.

Quite an inauspicious start for a night of stargazing.

“Clouds are the astronomer’s worst enemy,” Milo Dacanay, chair of the Philippine Astronomical Society (Philastrosoc), said with a chuckle. “We wait,” he told the others.

The practice of astronomy requires patience—a lot of it, Dacanay said.

Last Friday was one of Philastrosoc’s free public viewing events in front of the Semicon Building on Marcos Highway in Pasig City. With the group were a handful of high school and college students it invited to the gathering.

“These activities are meant to trigger a spark of interest among our youth,” Dacanay said. “There could be a Newton among us, or a Galileo. All it takes is a trigger.”


from inquirer.net
complete story HERE.
 
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07 April 2009 @ 10:27 pm
under the covers  
here's the third compilation of all pinoy indiepop!
this time, all tracks are cover songs.
the wentletraps covered "just like honey" by the jesus and mary chain. :)
thanks dale (the master) and nice cover art too by connie of melody style apartment/carnival park :D.
it's for everyone to share! you can download it from HERE or HERE.



 
 
Current Mood: complacent
 
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01 March 2009 @ 10:38 pm
three biggest mysteries in the universe  
these are the three biggest mysteries in the known universe, according to me, as of this very minute i am writing this entry.

1. dark matter
2. bermuda triangle
3. cocteau twins' lyrics

seriously.
but this is actually one of the major reasons which makes the band all the more appealling.
and i love them.
and most of the time, i sing along, burden-free of not being mindful at all of the correct words or what they mean.
sometimes, listening is enough.
 
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17 February 2009 @ 11:32 pm
piratebay  

Pirate Bay copyright test case begins in Sweden

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A copyright test case involving one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites that could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues started on Monday in Stockholm.

Four men linked to The Pirate Bay were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences.

Companies including Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI are also asking for damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.

Sites like The Pirate Bay allow people to download songs, movies and computer games without paying and the trial is being closely watched to see to what extent the entertainment industry can protect copyright against Internet users.

"This is not a political trial, it's not about shutting down a people's library and it's not a trial that wants to prohibit file sharing as a technique," said Monique Wadsted, a lawyer representing Warner Brothers, Columbia, MGM and other major media and computer games companies.

"It's a trial regarding four individuals that have conducted a big commercial business making money out of others file sharing ... copyright protected works."

The accused -- Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom -- denied the charges.

The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that since no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there, they cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.


click here for the complete article
YES to piracy!
 
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31 January 2009 @ 10:10 pm
the wentletraps on peacefully yours  
We are a Bangkok-based group of young Thais who are much concerned about the violence in the deep South of Thailand which has erupted and been growing consistently for almost 5 years, having killed about 3,000 people and injured about 4,000 people. To help relieve the casualty, our group has come up with a charity compilation, deliberately called “Peacefully Yours”, aiming to raise fund and make donations to an official fund for victims and officials who are installed in the area.


 
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25 January 2009 @ 07:00 pm
two eclipses to start the year.  
there will be an annular solar eclipse tomorrow, january 26 at around sunset, local time.
the totality will be where the Indian Ocean is about halfway between Madagascar and Australia so in the Philippines, we will only see it partially (62.70% coverage). the eclipse will start at 4:55 pm and the maximum coverage will be at 5:51 pm, Manila time. However, us in Manila won't be able to see the maximum coverage since the sun will set at 5:44 pm. maybe we can witness a 30-40% coverage. use filters/films to view the sun.
it's around sunset so expect the sun to be near the horizon. it will be unenjoyable to view with trees and tall buildings obscuring the western part of the sky so choose a good location.

The Philippine Astronomical Society invites the public to observe this special event with PAS members at the Manila Observatory roof deck, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City. PAS will be setting up different telescopes with solar filter before the eclipse starts. - philastrosoc.org

on february 9, 2009, there'll also be a penumbral solar eclipse. this time, the whole eclipse will be visible locally.



it might not be that spectacular since the moon will only pass the penumbral shadow of earth, but there will still be a noticeable dimming of the full moon once it hits the greatest eclipse.
the greatest eclipse will be at 10:22 pm, Manila time.

let's hope for clear skies.

P.S.
for the year 2009, two solar and four lunar eclipses will occur.
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.
February is the month for our National Astronomy Week. :)
 
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20 January 2009 @ 11:48 pm
poladroid.  
lethargic.
sever this feeling and i'll be your slave.

poladroid.
it's fun waiting for the images to appear.

tuesday.
still a long way to saturday.
 
 
Current Mood: (refer to entry)
 
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01 January 2009 @ 09:37 pm
i am zoey. i kill zombies.  
because i have nothing to do (and i don't want to clean my room or do any chores),
i changed my lj layouts again. lol.

this is the epitome of plain and simple.
minimalism.
arse. haha.

during christmas eve and new year's eve, jo and i were happily killing zombies.
wtf? no..."wtf, yeah!" i am totally hooked.
i am a self-confessed left 4 dead addict.
(good thing jo gave me a rantopad this christmas! :) very timely indeed.)
i hope they will release a new campaign soon.
please, please, pretty please.

happy new year everyone!
2009 shall be better than 2008
i fervently pray.

hey joligs! we must meet.
i miss you all.
 
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04 December 2008 @ 11:42 pm
twilight. emo vampires?  
instead of watching twilight,
we watched quarantine.

and it sucked. lol.
the girl reporter's acting was too hollywood. you know what i mean.
but the gory parts were cool.

nothing compares to the original, rec.
rec left me speechless and i thought my heart has never pumped blood that fast.
after watching rec, i told myself "now that's the kind of movie i want. god, that was fucking cool."
or something like that. rec's the best. f.ck everything else. (wtf. sorry for the total promotion.)

i think hollywood should just stop producing bullshit remakes.
it's just like blatantly telling the public that they are too dumb to think of an original one and are too f.cking greedy for money.

and twilight. i'm not sure. should i download it in torrent? hehe.

come on. it's not the end of the world. (insert other thoughts here).
 
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25 November 2008 @ 09:58 pm
forgiving  
with warmth
resilience with warmth

and everything's well again

the muted embrace
was regret and gone
synthetic kiss
was all and done

come clean
come home

with warmth
resilience with warmth

-c.s.s.
 
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29 October 2008 @ 09:02 pm
"one, two, three and turn...like you mean it.."  
i am totally canoodling with sembreak right now but you know, killing time is also a difficult task.

i am addicted to colors and patterns and i found a way to abuse them by changing my color themes and background for both [info]countingfridays and [info]weekendworkshop.

i want everything soft and clean.

who am i kidding?
 
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24 October 2008 @ 07:48 pm
happy...  
...because maynard's voice is orgasmic
and it's officially my sembreak! finally.

for the next few weeks, i will treat commres as if it's in a remote island,
a thousand shitmiles away from me. yeah! this feels so good, i can't feel my arms!

what to do?

clean room.
sort/organize things.
do the laundry.
learn gardening.
engage in reading again.
watercolor.
create new songs.
write.
attend PAS meetings and stargazings.
torrent, movies, torrent, series, torrent...(eternal loop)
reunite with friends.

look at that...
a rainbow!
and pretty butterflies!
and oh, a unicorn!

confetti!
 
 
Current Music: lateralus - tool
 
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13 October 2008 @ 12:06 am
sembreak...here, sembreak. yoohoo. come on little fellah.  
it's not sembreak for me just yet. i still have three more papers to pass this week. i want to puke.

i got my grad pic contact prints! haha. one sem left. oh yeah.
then after that, bum. haha! (joke lang ah. *to the heavens*)

i miss lj-ing but not quite. i miss stargazing and creating songs more.
the "downloads" folder is overflowing with unwatched series and movies.
they just keep coming. torrent is almost god.

i'm watching "privileged". i'm starting to hate the main character but what the heck, i already started it.
i think i'm bound to finish at least the first season.

tuesday is "big bang theory" day! this completes my week. can't wait for episode four.

my back aches. am i old?
tool's "parabol" and "parabola" should always be played one after the other.
i'm talking nonsense.
i are stupid.

i know someone who just turned 21 and i gave that person a non-stick frying pan.
the frying pan is non-stick.
it doesn't stick. the food. not the pan. the food that you will try to fry.
sorry. i'm just bored. you don't deserve this crappy entry. i wasted your time.
hahaha! october fools day.
 
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02 October 2008 @ 02:00 pm
the new heart  
Lead me to the incantations of your
Heart openly evolving
Into a soft cushion
Catching me in grace
Now and before
      suits me and endlessly
      without regrets
      eleventy times seven sets
        of evidences
Behold
The new heart
Swollen and happy
      bereft of uncertainties
Not forced nor taught
      but sought

-c.s.s.
 
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25 September 2008 @ 11:00 pm
let me introduce to you the rain  
let me introduce to you the rain.
i know it seems you've met but this rain is a different one.
it is not the same rain that was once.
it is never the same always.
when it saturates the soil and quenches the earth, the prairie celebrates.
the narcissistic streetlamps have already grown accustomed to making puddles as their vanity mirrors.
the rain tolerates.
when it reaches the ocean, it is redemption.
when it is generous enough, i deem my umbrella useless.
i dance in it instead.
my socks are wet and so is my soul.
not the squishy, bad kind of being wet.
not the annoying one.
instead it is the "i need one".
oasis in the desert.

-for jrsn.
 
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