change is good

at least i think so... most of the time...

in an attempt at simplicity, i am consolidating most of my active blogs into one. this one.

why? so that i have just a single place to update and maintain. it gets a little tedious updating multiple sites and keeping track of what's in them. this move will also force me to dive deeper into sql and php programming which is what wordpress is based on.

i will still visit every once in a while to keep things tidy and neat but i will have to spend less time here. i've added a feed from my current blog to here in the sidebar to more or less keep things moving here a little.

vacation feel

the christmas vacation feel has set in. but school is not over yet. some of the people i'm working with are unwillingly sliding into that vacation mode already. the weather is cooler which doesn't really help.

the neighborhood too seems quieter. slower.

robin is swimming in vacation mode. he doesn't want to go to school. lazy. he wants his gifts from santa yesterday.

and i've been wanting to go to the mountains again (san pablo). i saw this one there the last time time i visited.

running in my head: apologize

its been running in my head since this morning. its crazy.

sunday ride

cold morning. rode from ust to mall of asia (moa) and back. plenty of cyclists in moa. as in, plenty of cyclists. i tried a bigger gear most of the way and it burns. stop near the power station to drink. i really need to practice that drinking-water-while-riding-slow thing.

the ride back was pretty good but there's a headwind so the going is a little slow. the ride gets pretty dang cold with a cold headwind. but the sinus did go away though so that's a relief.

maybe next time i'll do a couple of rounds in moa instead of the "touch and go" thing i've been doing. its a great time to ride. temperatures are in the low 20s, air is a little dry.

pasko na.

really really really funny video

its pretty rare that i get to laugh really really really hard. i think the first really-laugh-hard-with-tears-in-your-eyes event happened years and years ago with cyn -- a friend of mine (wonder how she is).

this video is one of the latest ones (i'll likely post the other one another time). pump up the volume so you'll hear better.



hope you like...

blood work

i had some blood work done a couple of weeks ago and i just got the results today.

its mostly within normal levels except for my cholesterol - 232 (max range is 200), triglycerides - 185 (max range is 150) and ldl - 161 (max range is 150). my hdl is low - 34 (min range is 40).

i really should bike regularly now. i've started already every sunday mornings for two sundays now and i'm not pushing it yet because i feel like i'm restarting. later on i'll probably do more frequent rides.

i'm not really worried because i don't really eat fatty foods that often although i should cut down on the sweety stuff.

ugh.

riding and rain

in my case, those two doesn't mix well. i have a steel bike and its been raining. there's two "tropical cyclones" — if you will, that's flanking the country. screenshot came from pagasa.


i want to ride for a bit but can't.

so what do i do? work is always a good aternative. and then play around with what i can change with kikay (my bike).

the most immediate would be changing the brakes. my current ones have been loose mostly because of use and age. the brake set is as old as the frame so i'm looking at last year's ultegra as a replacement.

the other stuff that i thought of was upgrading the drivetrain from seven to 10 speed. yeah. late in the game and all. but the plan is to still use downtube shifters but in the 10-speed incarnation and just change the rear hub and derailleurs to 10-speed. this way, i bypass the weight penalties of sti.

or i could just replace the chain.

another is plan is to convert the thing to a fixie. but that's for another post. besides, i can't find any parts here in the pinas.

newton

i went to newton with lito today. bike shop. very nice bike shop. it has a lots of stuff that i like but cannot afford. ha! they sell colnagos. dura-ace downtube shifters and tools.

but no track stuff. the kind lady at the counter showed me the shimano 2008 catalog and its not there. but i did see plenty of goodies. so now, i have to do some research on the shimano part numbers of the track specific stuff that i may ask them to get for me. unless i can ask javaman to do it. 8D

there's also a very nice cannondale frame that's at 50% off:


because:

its off by 50%.

har har.

i have a lot to save up for. i'm not sure if that is bad. or good.

frames

i just saw this pic of a mountain bike frame. its full of holes! well, triangles, actually. but its apparently ridable and lighter than usual — 2.7 lbs for a standard hardtail. the bike is called arantix from delta 7 sports.

i'm trying to think of how heavy a roadie version would be...

soccer field

ust soccer field. one sunday night. i think the guy's playing with his cell.

sunsets

this is along roxas boulevard. we (robin, cherry and i) were walking and robin was on his bike. pinoys like sunsets.

full day

i've had a full day today.

kiara sunning after a bath

i biked around the neighborhood trying to get familiar with the surroundings. i encountered the corner of oroquieta and tayuman -- street names i remember hearing from my mom. i cleaned and waxed kikay (the bike) after a late breakfast. the cleaning included making the spokes a little shinier. har har. i also cleaned cherry's mountain bike. now its all shiny fuzzy all over. i even tested it around the yard. man those tires grip like crazy. also cleaned the turtle's bowl -- the water was turning green already. had a late lunch. gave the kiara (the cat) a much needed bath. she didn't like it of course but i only got one claw mark out of the whole encounter. now she's all white. that's her on the photo sunning herself in the afternoon sun.

kicked a little soccer in ust with robin and then went to mass.

the day's not finished yet.

dining table

the dining table. leaning on the wall is cherry's mountain bike.

study table

this is actually cherry's study table which was handed down to robin.

saint michael

saint michael the archangel, san miguel, manila

i'm not sure if you see the serpent's head but its there in front of him.

week long weekend

its starting to feel like the week is a long weekend. which is bad because it just started -- robin goes back to school tomorrow. and i have some work to finish. i feel so tamad (lazy).

i had a physical exam today. it seems like the blood pressure is slightly up. i have to get some more exercise. the results from the blood work will come in seven days so i'll know for sure if the ldls, hdls and sugars are good. or bad.


robin at rsun.

we're ok

we're ok. nothing happened to us. although cherry was in makati during the bombing. robin was in school and i was in fti just finishing up lunch when someone sent us a text message saying there was a bombing in glorietta. i called up cherry and apparently they didn't know about it yet.

i went to pick up cherry in makati and bring her home. traffic was understandably bad but everyone was patient and there were a lot of regular and traffic police in every corner in makati. i saw an ambulance speeding away at the corner of ayala and makati avenue headed towards makati med i suppose.

so, long story short, we're ok. we're not happy about the situation but we're ok.

things i see: 2007.10.18

today i think i'll start a picture series of the things i see (tis). i don't think that it may interest any of you but then pictures are pictures.

that's an old capiz window with a wall as a view.

things i see: its a new thing now that i have this phone that passes off as a camera. its just 0.3 megapixels so don't expect much.

sunday morning staple

it seems that anywhere i go tom jones' delilah is a staple on sunday mornings. anywhere.

so...

sick

robin's sick. fever and sniffles. and i think i'm getting it too.

waaaah...

well, it is a good day to be sick. its raining. its cool and its nice to curl up in bed.

but that's not my style. unfortunately.