It seems that the online user counter and the top referrer counter is messing up my sidebar. It seems both cannot fit into my sidebar whatever size adjustments I do. I have proven once again that I am script-stupid. I can figure out how to fix this thing.

I've gone to UQG-2000.COM's Forums and it seems I do not gripe alone. Another gripe of other users seems to be that the referral counter resets everyday. LOL! That's useful. You're referrals are gone tomorrow.

Anybody else know of any other service that provides similar tools? Or maybe you could tell me how to resolve this problem? I will leave it for now.

Dave gave me a real nice site to get website tools from. I got a online user counter and referral tracker from UQG-2000.COM. They also have their own tagboard application, guestbook and a "clicks counter" that, "Track(s) the number of hits you are sending out to other websites." Really kewl, but I'm not into that yet.

Meanwhile, I also installed the Weather Underground weather feed on my sidebar. Hope this works! ::::crossing fingers:::

I just came from the bank to pay some bills. I was actually hoping to be there a few minutes before they opened. Never saw a bank open before. Just curious. Well, I was late because I had to spray Lysol on parts of our staircase. Lemme expound further on the matter. You see, our staircase is typical for a Pinoy apartment. A third of is is made from cement and two-thirds and up from short wooden planks. Well because of th recent weather, mold had invaded where the paint was peeling on the cement part, about 2 inches above the floor. No wonder we all felt like we were having a cold. Must be allergies. Anyway, I got down on my knees sprayed the darn mold. I felt a sadistic grin form in my mouth as I saw the mold wilt from the vicious onslaught of Lysol. You might be wondering why I'm blabbering about mold. Well, I just want to share the my trivial housekeeping adventures.

Hey! Why are you looking at my blog like that??? Mold is a legitimate housekeeping concern! If you think that's dull, well you obviously haven't read the dullest weblog in the world. Now this guy has perfected the craft of being dull. He is the world dullest, hands down. So don't come around and say that what I write is dull. I am trivial, but not dull. K?

Now this on the other hand is true art >>>> Jennifer Love Hewitt on Rolling Stone. While you're there, check out the Jim Carrey and the Blind Melon cover. I remember this one time that I was chatting with someone (I can't remember who exactly) who didn't know Blind Melon. I over-reacted to the quizzical look in his face. "Blind Melon??? Blind Melon??? You don't know who Blind Melon are?"

Overheard over the next stall in a small internet cafe, 50 yr-old caucasian male talking to someone over his mobile phone:

"Listen, all he sent were 1, 2 , 3, 4 pics. Three in the nude, the other one isn't.... Now, you want to come and look or what??? I'm not going to be here all day...... 20 minutes and that's it....OK."

Sheesh! Pervs are everywhere. Hmmm..... Why do most of them happen to be old caucasian males? Is it just a coincidence or are they more prone to perversion?

I was looking for weather feeds for my blog. I found resources indexed in FreeSticky.com. I initially wanted to use Weather.com's Weather Magnet, but have found it nearly impossible to get it to display a city remotely near where I am. I only get options for US cities. I was hoping for better results from LiveWeatherFeeds.com. There wasn't any option for any nearby locations. The nearest was Subic Bay. It's too far from where I am.

I finally hit paydirt when I accessed Weather Underground. Don't let the weird name get to you. They have a comprehensive list of Philippine locations. I found one for Clark AB (or should I say 'former' ?), which is where I work. Our offices are located inside the former military airbase, now called Clarkfield or Clark Special Economic Zone. It's center is about 14 kilometers from my home. We live a couple of clicks away from the nearest gate. Close enough. Anyway, check it out below. I can't modify my Blogger template yet as of this writing, so I'm unable to add it to my sidebar just yet. I hope Blogger gets fixed real soon. At the minimum, I hope I don't loose my template.

Something is very vrey wrong here. I went to my Blogger account's template and it's displaying the very first version of my weblog. If I save this, it'll set me back a hundred links and a hundred manhours trying to restore everything. I will have to slowly rebuild the links and the graphics (the links to the graphics, that is). Blogger, what's wrong here?

Well, I'm here. Might as well blog an entry. I was trying to add this small weather box thingee on my sidebar. Unfortunately, the Blogger servers are lcoo again. Can't edit templates right now. I was hoping to add a link (to www.clarkab.org/maps) as well as correct the Audioslave hyperlink on my sidebar. www.clarkab.org/maps is a particularly interesting site by an American map collector who lived in the former Clark Airbase as a kid. I wonder where he got the Satellite pics. He must have connections high up ;-)

::::sigh::: All will have to wait.

Damn! I'm feeling the urge to smoke again. It's been close to five months now. Five months and not a single whiff. I get antsy now and then, only this morning was different. I saw someone lighting up a cigarette at the supermarket we went to. A few minutes pass and I make a snide remark to my wife about something so very trivial when minutes before we were smiling. Darn! The tension is back. I won't be able to look at smokers for a few days from now. It'll make me more stressed out. The longest I've stayed off was six months. I'm hoping this time it's for good.

Micheal Jackson is in the headlines again. There's yet another lawsuit taken to a hospital because of dehydration. I dunno about you, but I personally think Jacko is already wacko. Just seeing the man makes me shudder. I don't have the slightest idea why I react that way. Maybe because of the way the press portrays him. You think, maybe?

Times like these, I wish I had a weekend off. At least me and the missus were able to go to Quezon City last week. It's difficult to get a vacation leave on Saturdays, but last week my request went through. We went there to meet up with my sister-in-law's mother-in-law (did I just confuse you? -hehehe). My sister-in-law had sent a gift for my dear son. She gave it to her mother-in-law who was flying back home from the States.

Well, it was a little adventure of sorts since I don't know QC so well (same with the wife). We boarded a bus bound for Cubao and told the conductor to let us off at Quezon Avenue (or was it Quezon Blvd.?), where road branches off towards Fairview. The conductor did so dutifully, calling our attention a hundred or so meters before we got there. After getting off, we didn't know where to go. Being the man that I am, I refused to ask bystanders for directions (hehehe!). I grabbed my wife's hand and tugged her towards the general direction of traffic. Voila! We came upon an FX that was going to SM Fairview, our destination for that day. The Tamarraw FX was parked infront of a small restaurant. We would not have noticed that it was plying a route if not for the caller who was shouting, "SM Fairview" over one of those cute little bullhorns. Such are the ways of the unlicensed colorum taxis. They have to make a living too, you know.

Anyway, we got to SM Fairview after a 45-minute horn-blaring-traffic-around-every-corner ride. Alas, SM never fails to feel like Mecca to the weary traveller! The first thing we did was find a restroom. It took us about 20 minutes. The place was new and huge. Think 26 hectares of parking space with a large nondescript square building jutting out right smack in the middle of it. I can't even begin to calculate how much floor space it has. Lemme put it this way. It was around 50 stores long and 8 stores wide -- LOL!

Next, we had lunch at Pancake House. My wife was obviously hungry, so we ordered in a hurry. When they served the Hot Grilled Chicken, she whispered her disappointment once the waiter was out of earshot. She told me over a whisper that she found the servings too small. After finishing our meal and I was about to ask for the check when I saw my wife fidget with her wallet. I told her not to use our cash, since this restaurant accepted credit cards. I saw the Mastercard sign when we came in. Around here (the Philippines), credit cards aren't as widely accepted in dining establishments. Sensing she was about to protest, I asked her how much she was carrying. She retorted she had Php 800, then thought about it for a while and eventually told me to pick up the tab. Hehehe... I just love it when I'm right.

To burn some calories, we made a quick round of the stores. We lingered at Surplus Shop, our new mall favorite. Then we went to the SM Department store to check out some audio CD's. Why? Because rare CD's have a way of winding up in some SM store. It's weird, but true. My wife found a Dave Matthews Band's Under the Table and Dreaming at SM North EDSA. Unfortunately, on our trip last Saturday we didn't find anything that interested us. My wife did manage to buy a Martha Stewart Living mag (the Nov., 2002 ish) for 80 bucks. Original price? Php445. Hehehe. A bargain never ceases to lift your spirits.

It's a good thing we ate a light lunch at Pancake House. When the my sister-in-law's mother-in-law (there I go again!) arrived, she treated us to a late lunch at Kenny Roger's. She wanted us to splurge (LOL!) so my wife ordered ribs for us. Dang, those ribs were tasty! Good thing that the two ladies I was with were in a particularly chatty mood. Gave me time to finish my plate. It was the first time in many months that I have eaten so much in a single meal (not out of choice, but out of necessity). If I eat a lot, it usually means I'll get tummy aches again.

After a logn chat and a picture here and there, we finally said our goodbyes. We went over to the parking lot to board passing jeeps. I changed my mind when I saw a row of FX Taxis waiting for passengers. The only route out Manila that I am familiar with is through EDSA, so we boarded yet another FX Taxi enroute to SM North EDSA. We patiently waited for the FX to leave (they don't leave until they're filled to capacity). I didn't want to risk taking the jeeps since it was already past four, just in time for rush-hour traffic. That and the fact that an FX taxi will take all the possible shortcuts enroute since its already full of passengers. The trip still took around 50 minutes.

When we got there (SM North EDSA) I almost wanted to knock my head on a nearby lamp post. There was a massive throng of people waiting for buses. I had to pick one of the busiest places to wait for a bus on a Saturday. A lot of poeple go home to the provinces on Saturdays. We still managed to get on a bus pretty quick. We waited about 30, 35 minutes. We had to settle for an ordinary bus though. I'd have to hand it to my wife though. She isn't picky. She didn't mind the dust at all. Well, at least not as much as I did. I'm lucky to have her.

We arrived at Dau by 7:30 pm. We did some last minute grocery shopping at a nearby supermarket, then got home by 8:30 pm. It was a tiring day, but I was glad to spend time with my wife. We even got to take home a gold Sto. Niño pendant for our son.

Breaking news folks. 6 civets tested positive for SARS. These poor animals were found being sold in a still unnamed Gaungdong market. Apparently, they eaten as a delicacy. It just goes to show you that nature is a bitch when you go against her. These small furry critters are endangered, you know. They have enough trouble staying allive in the wild without us running after them to eat them. I found this old article, while we're on the subject of consuming.

I received this in email about how the $20 bill has a "creepy" tribute to 9/11. This is a great one for conspiracy theorists -- LOL! You can check it out in this page. No wonder they "unveiled a new design". Maybe someone in the Treasury Department saw this and got the creeps, suggested a new design or something. Well, they should take a look at this page and they'll change a whole lot more.

My wife has been in the night shift for two nights now. Tonight's her last night in a 3-day (or 3-night, if you will) training session. I miss her. I just miss her physical presence. I miss waking up in the middle of the night to see her feeding the baby (she moves faster and always beats me to it). I miss waking up to her feet hitting mine (she always kicks her feet about when she's dreaming) I miss just plain seeing her there, sleeping soundly, while my insomnia keeps me awake. I miss waking up to her kiss in the morning. It's only three days, I know. But that's three days less in our lives. I won't get those three days back. Maybe I'm being trivial when I'm saying that. Petty, some would say. To me, I'm just being me. I love her, sometimes to a selfish extent. There's no reason for it, except that she has the power to calm my restless soul. Having my wife near makes it all feel alright. It may seem strange to you, but she has that effect on me. And to me, that's not a bad thing. It's a great thing to miss each other so much. When you want to be with each other so much, you tend to spend time that way it should be spent -- spent like precious gold, cherished in memories. :::sigh:::: I wonder if we'll stay like this forever. I hope so.

I got one of those emails again. Yes, there are email that never die. They just morph or change with the times. An old email can be recycled by adding in a recent event or TV ad; maybe change some of the names in it or maybe the city where it happened. But the circumstances still stay the same. Some contain useful information, some just try to scare you out of your wits.

Take for example the email I just got (again, that is). It warns against one-way mirrors in fitting rooms and restrooms. This time around though, it makes a reference to a TV ad (M/S SAINT GOBAIN GLASSES). Haven't seen that ad yet. Means that this email was last morphed by a someone from another country. Anyway, you can read the one-way mirror story (obviously improperly titled as "how to detect a 2-way mirror") if you go to the end of this page.

Then there's that email about organ-stealing syndicates. You know, the one where the victim wakes up in a tub filled with ice with a note written on the bathroom mirror (there are many variations: mirror, folded piece of paper nearby, on victims chest) that says, "Call 911 or you will die!" In the first ever email I got years ago, they were victimizing salesmen in Vegas. The most recent one (I got it a few weeks ago), they were vicitmizing 20ish and 30ish single men with a taste for partying and "recreational drugs." Quite the stereotype of the Gen X and Gen Y males. I wonder what its the next incarnation will be?

Wow! I just read my Gear Report (that would be the email newsletter of FreshGear.com). Apple just came out with the latest i-Pod. They gave it a rave review in this Fresh Gear article. Unlike it's earlier siblings, the latest i-Pod is now compatible with both Apple machines and PC's (there used to be a seperate model for PC's). If I had a wishlist, this would definitely make it to the top spot. Wait. . . Maybe number two. Number one would be a PC. Still don't have my own PC. Actually, I've been talking about getting a new PC so often that my wife once told me she was thinkin' about buying me one just to shut me up -- LOL! That's marriage fer ya!

Read the review guys. You'll be impressed, I promise.

I think I made mistake in my last entry when I said Penelope Trunk quit Business 2.0. Actually, I found a link to this Q & A column of hers on Business 2.0. I think she still writes once a month for this particular column on Business 2.0.

My apologies if I mislead you. Honest mistake, folks.

I recently opened one of my many email accounts. I use this particular to receive emailed articles from Business 2.0 and from Penelope Trunk. Penelope used to have a regular column on Business 2.0, but she quit a several months ago (family concerns, if I'm not mistaken). On her last issue, she said goodbye and asked interested readers to email her if they'd like to receive future articles from her. I emailed her a short message, saying I supporrted her decision and would appreciate being emailed her future articles. I was pleasantly surprised that she emailed a personal reply, thanking me for my email. Goes to show you that there are still some honest-to-goodness down-to-earth people out there aren't affected by their apparent fame. Hehehe.

Anyway, here are a few of the articles I read.

• An article from Business 2.0 analyzes the Blogging phenomenon from 2 points of view. It's an eye-opener for me to read that most bloggers are from the Right and that most detractors are from the Left. I like the article's parting words though. "Each blog is like a blinking neuron in the circuitry of an emerging, chatterbox superbrain. Resistance is futile. WE ARE THE BLOG. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED."


• Penelope Trunk offers practical advice on how to avoid email woes at the workplace in her article, Five E-mails You Should Never Send.


• Another artcicle from Business 2.0, Covering the Last Mile, Finally, tackles the advances in 802.11's offshoot technology, 802.16 or Wireless Metropolitan Area Network.


• A little Powerpoint-bashing in Unplug That Projector!


• Geoff Keighley takes a look at how profitable drudgereport.com is in The Secrets of Drudge Inc.

After a gruelling travel sched yesterday, reading news online was a welcome activity. I'll share more about our adventures yesterday some other time .

The Matrix just opened in the US. I wonder how many weeks it'll take before they open it here in the Philippines. One thing's for sure. I'm not lining up at any theatre any time soon. I'll wait till the raving throngs of fans lessen.

Truly, this is a cruel world we live in. Why do children have to suffer?

2 Doctors Accused of Not Reporting Abuse

Jury returns a guilty verdict in stun gun child abuse case

Authorities consider murder charges in case of alleged child abuse

Here's another test for you....Dante's Inferno Test . If the idea of Hell doesn't appeal to you, go and try this Zen Quiz. A word of warning though. Don't sign-up for the newsletters on that site. I got bombarded with tons of advertisements when I checked on those small listboxes that they had at the end of the quiz.

I just love VW's. As a small child, I rode on my father's orange`75 bug. When that one hit the junkyard, my dad gave up driving his own car. After a few years, oppurtunity struck and his brother-in-law (from his first wife) handed him the registration to his own `75 bug. It had been unused for a few years. My dad patiently took care of it until it was back in running condition. Years after he died, I reluctantly sold it to a friend of my dad's. I couldn't keep up with the repair bills. I had to sell it or it would rust away slowly.

Why all the nostalgia? I found this G-Blog entry posted by Petrol. It lead me to this page about Kikai that reminded me about all those plans I had about remodeling my dad's bug. Dreams gave way to reality as the bills piled up. Anyway, something will come up in the future. One of these days, I might just meet someone who will give me a chance to own one again.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why I talk so much about Petrol's blog, I'm a fan ;-)

Saw this entry on Petrol's blog abut another one of those loco personality quizzes. To find the quiz, you can float your mouse pointer below...



src="http://mywebpage.netscape.com/DaySleeper%20Ed%2001/images-entry/xp.jpg" border="0" alt"Which OS are You?">




Or if your a purist and you absolutely abhor all those graphics that have invaded the modern web and you wish to refuse to click on any as a sign of protest against the world gone crazy over eye-candy, you could always do it the hard way and copy this URL: http://bbspot.com/News/2003/01/os_quiz.php and paste it to your favorite browser's address bar. Whew!

I was supposed to move my blog today. I had signed up with Lycos for 50mb's of free space. I created a new blog just to test if there would be any probs if I publish using Blogger. I tested the darn thing for weeks today was supposed to be the big day. Well, I ran into a problem. I saved the the FTP settings for the site in one of my webmail accounts. I just accessed the damn account and it's under maintenance. I had saved it there precisely because I needed access to it wherever I blogged. Ah! The pitfalls of not having a computer of my own.

:::sigh::::

Even my shoutbox from dekap.com isn't working. Maybe this is a divine sign that I shouldn't move. I mean, Blogger has been good to me. There have been weekends that I was unable to post or edit because of system maintenance, but after trying out the new Dano interface I have a better appreciation of those days. A lot of new have been features incorporated in Dano, many of which have been in the Blogger users' wishlist for some time now. When that is in place, all will be better.

For now, I must postpone my move :-{

I've added quite a bevy of new links to other blogs I'll be reading from now on. You'll find them in my sidebar. Check them out. You're bound to find something that interests you.

In other things, I discovered Rebbeca Blood's blog. If you think the name rings a bell, well you're right. Rebbeca is the very same Rebbeca Blood that wrote The Weblog Handbook. I browsed around her site and found this gem of an article (an excerpt from the book, actually). I also found (on the same article) a link to an older article in Scripting News which also discusses weblog ethics to some extent. Both are great reads. Well worth your online time.

To read a review of Rebecca's book, you can go to this Digital Web Magazine review. You can also go to Amazon (I'm guessing more poeple have read reviews from Amazon than from anywhere else on the web) to read a review from the Library Journal or read reader's reviews.

Ha! I am not alone. There are many of us out there. My fave read for today .... 10 Conspiracies Theories That Won't Go Away .

While there, try out this test to find out if your paranoid, and this one to find out if you qualify as a conspiracy theorists.

Oh, and by the way. Please support BanTransFats.com, a group suing Kraft/Nabisco. They allege that Nabisco has participated in a long-time conspiracy to cover up its use of trans fat in Oreos. Ain't that grand. LOL !

And in other news...

Just thought I'd share some stuff I'd read lately.

Finally, spammers are paying for their misdemeanors. . . Reuters | lleged Internet Spammer Settles SEC Case

Privacy or the sanity of the public ? Which comes first? Reuters | China Checks Mobile Messages for SARS Rumors

Students are migrating to online campuses . . . Reuters | Bricks to Clicks Trend Enriching Education Sector

Who in their right mind would waste US$ 14.95 on something like a Boogerboard? Apparently, the same kind of folk who would be willing to carve out a car from a 3,500-pound chunk of cheddar cheese to "support the new and cheesy paint scheme on Labonte's No. 5 Kellogg's-"Got Milk?" auto". Why don't they just donate the cheese (or better yet, the money they used to buy the cheese) to some starving village in Africa or some other impoverished corner of the earth? That'll be a better tribute, don't ya think?

Google announced that it will be creating a search function specifically for Blogs. That'll be a new tab on Google just for blogs. Great! That'll mean bloggers will stick to their own and people who search the web for "Sexy Ranger hot elf cute hobbit boy RP," won't be directed to an entry in my blog. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus... and pervs as old as he is that are on the Net.

Iraq windfall

Just when you think its all over, former Iraq info minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf is set to become a chart-topping pop act (CNN Story, SkyNews-UK story). There's this short movie coming out in Egypt too. There's a deluge of surfers going to www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, which was closed down after it got flooded with 4,000 hits per second. I would say that's quite a lot of hits! Hehehe.

I went around the blogs that I usually read. Most of them haven't been updated in a while. I guess May is the lazy month. I've been bitten by the "idle" bug myself. Haven't been blogging in my usual everyday-the-blog-is-the-center-of-my-universe fervor.

Anyway, I just added Blogchalk code to my page. I just want to give it a try if it will bring more bloggers to my blog. I am yearning for the adulation of peers! Ack! There goes another Merit Badge on the sidebar -- LOL. My page is already getting heavy with all this code that I'm lazily copy-pasting. It's not like I don't know what I'm doing here. I have half-an-idea on every HTML thingee I do here. It's just confusing, is all. :-P

Last Thursday, my wife treated me to a late meryenda at Delifrance. The three days before that she was in SM for a job fair they were participating in. She had lunch at Delifrance and brought home 2 small bags of croissants. They were delicious! A little pricey, but you will just fall in love with them.

So, last Thursday we met up at SM Pampanga. I had gone north to Tarlac early that afternoon and I was hurrying back to Pampanga when I got caught right smack in the start of rush-hour traffic. It was already 6pm when I arrived. I was one miserable heap of human flesh when my wife laid her eyes on me. The heat was insufferable that afternoon. I felt so dehydrated, my skin felt sticky because of the humidity, and I felt a rash starting at my nape (or was that mild sunburn?).

My wife took my hand and patiently guided me to where Delifrance was. We ordered, I tasted the food and I just devoured the grilled chicken sandwich. I never thought bliss could be had in the form of a sandwich. Delifrance just changed my mind. After asking for a bite from my wife's sandwich, I told her we should come back every now and then to the place. She got me, hook, line and sinker. She was waiting for me to say that. I could tell from the way her eyes smiled at me when I said that.

I had always told her that for the beautiful things in life, you have got to be willing to spend a little extra. Delifrance seems to fit that general description. This is going to be one expensive food trip -- LOL!

This morning, I got up at about 4am to feed our son. He was fussing and it was time for his early morning feeding. He gets his breakfast early, what can I say? After shaking the bottle a few times, I go back to where my son is and gently picked him up. He was already awake when I did. I sit on the bed and after making sure I was in a comfortable corner, I feed him.

It was after I feed him that I realized that it was almost light. I tried to go back to sleep. After a few minutes of trying to, I reached for the walkman that I always leave on top of the dresser beside the bed. I listened to AM Radio. Lately, I've been renewing my affection for AM radio. I used to listen to it a lot a few years back. It kept me company when everybody else was asleep. Got the habit from my brother. He was an architecture student and he usually stayed up late to finish drawing plates. He would often times have some of his classmates over at our house to draw. It was in the wee hours of the morning that I would check on them. Usually, that was a good excuse to get out of the house and smoke a few cigarrettes. That was because they usually did their drawings in the dirty kitchen, a corner of the house that was sort of "detached" from the main structure. Short of it was the smoke won't waft into the dining rom where someone could catch a whiff and in turn, catch us. Smoking was fun then, because we were afraid of being caught! -- LOL.

When he died, I guess I sorta listened more to early morning AM Radio as way to remember him. Those early mornings, we laughed our hearts out at the dirty jokes announcers and phone-in callers made. In the last few years, I haven't listened to it all that much, since I worked in the graveyard shift for a year and a half. Now, I listen to it every once in a while just to reminisce about old times.

At the water cooler -- I approach as a young lady draws water into her plastic cup. When I get there, she steps back. Actually, it looked more like she recoiled about two feet away. Seizing the opportunity as she sipped her water, I fill my mug. An awkward moment passed as I waited for all 12 ounces to fill my righteous mug. With her back against a nearby cubicle, she set her eyes on the water cooler's faucet. She was careful not to look my way. As I turn, she cautiously returns to the faucet, her lithe frame tensed like a leopard returning to its prized prey after an unknowing hunter passes by. I fight off the urge to turn back and startle her with my sudden movement. I am so mean :-]

I was riding the shuttle service to work the other day when I overheard some one say that the .TK country domain stood for TOKYO. Sheesh! Some people think they're an authority on the internet if you give them a keyboard and a connection.

If he only bothered to Google it and look up sites like Check Domain (a page that lists countries and their respective domains alphabetically) he would've known .TK is Tokelau's domain. You should check it out yourself. Interesting items in there.

Late last night, before we went to bed, the sky let out a disturbed grumble. It slowly rumbled with thunder as the breeze picked up slightly. Our bedroom is on the second floor of the house and I could see lightning crash in the distant eastern horizon as I peeked out of the window. The breeze was cool, comforting. It brought with it the smell of rain.

A few years back, we lived in a house in the barrio. Most of Tarlac is flat, with a few mountains bordering it on the west. The barrio we live in was an extraordinarily flat plain. Save for the ocassional house, trees and clumps of foliage that sprouted every few kilometers or so, there was nothing but ricefields. Five years in the barrio taught me the smell of rain. You could sense the scent of rain as the breeze carried it loftily along. The sweet, heavy scent of water vapor just had a way of filing your nostrils with a cool sensation that was so relaxing. Once you smell it, you had to stop what you were doing just to smell it some more. It was a mesmerizing scent. You just had to relish it some more everytime you breath it in.

Last night, as I lay down in bed trying to console our restless baby, I took in the smell of rain as it gently wafted into the room. For a few moments, I forgot the insufferable heat of this year's summer. For a few moments I went back to that house in the barrio. For a few relaxing moments I whispered, "there, there, everything will be alright," to my baby. Then, as quick as the peaceful breeze came, it was gone. It was taken away by the jealous wind when it realized I was giving in to its allure. It rumbled away into the west, headed for the mountains of Zambales. It didn't matter by that time. I had fallen asleep moments later.

When you're blog-hopping, you're sure to find a few pleasant surprises. I went to Yuga's blog. His projects are a definitive gauge of Pinoy ingenuity on the web. Check out HyperionBlu, one of his latest babies. You will definitely love the flash.

When I can't seem to think about anything to blog about, I go to Petrol's blog. It's better than getting a random tip from BlogIdeas -- LOL.

When I want to read about emotion, I go to The Homeless Guy or to Sinister Sister. Sometimes I go to Anne From the Hip too.

I don't copy ideas ideas from these writers though. I just go to where these blogs point me to and I almost always happen to find something interesting I can blog about. It could be anything from website they recommend to an event in their life that sparks a memory of a similar long-forgotten event in my life. Whatever it is, nothing beats reading about real life unfolding. Except maybe blogging about it. Talk about having a blog-centric life -- LOL.

I didn't know they had children in Guantanamo. The US Defense Department is saying that they have good reason for jailing children at Guatanamo. Yeah, right! Hitler said the same thing about the Jews.

I did a search on Google News. I got tons of results. Apparently, a lot of publications around the world are talking about it, but it has largely been ignored by the American Press. Here's another article (opinion article, actually) from Working for Change.

Free music is getting a shake down! The music industry is waging an all out war against MP3 enthusiasts/traders. Read the NY Times story here.

In the meantime, I still can't figure out how I could wrap my blog entry around the graphics I insert here. I will have to research that. Hopefully some code I see will help.