Ang Pagbati

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The Dance of Pagbati is hundred year tradition in the town of Ibaan in Batangas. This happens every Easter Sunday after the traditional Salubong and Dagit. The dance itself is naturally performed in quick tempo to commemorate the happiness felt for Christs' Rising. The Pagbati is danced by one lady who acts as the kapitana and two male escorts.


This years Kapitana is Miss Giselle Ann Cayetano.



One of the little angels who performed the "dagit".


The dance started with a bow to the audience and to the risen Lord.






















During this day, most parishioners normally wake up early to attend the early mass and be able to watch the Salubong and Dagit and the Pagbati afterwards.





















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Oh no he didn't!!! Kobe Bean Bryant Over Emeka Okafor!!!

Three consecutive Finals appearances. Two Consecutive Championships. 5 Rings. And yet some guys have not learned basketball wisdom.

Been hearing a lot of flak lately with the way the purple and gold are playing especially the black mamba himself. One guy atrociously have to claim that this year is the year when the Lakeshow becomes a no-show with the series with Hornets being tied at 2-2 and all and with Kobe just having this ankle sprain added to his list of injuries.

LOL If only this guys dreams can come true. Too bad in the world where all fans are not created equal cause bunch of them are of the losing kind, here is for you:



I just love the anchors reaction - "Oh No He didn't!!!"

I say, "Oh yes he did!!! Smile Okafor! You've been posterized!!!"

Ankle what??? Nuff said!!!

Buti Na Lang May PhotoRec : Best Free Recovery Application

I have been a Nikon user for much of my days as a trying too hard photography hobbyist. So naturally I became used to taking , saving and processing photos the basic fanboy way especially when shooting in Raw.

I was given the chance recently however to bring along a Canon 550D in one of our trips up north. Due to my unfamiliarity with this Canon model, I decided to select Raw mode whenever I think shooting in jpeg would risk having improper exposures, white balance etc. I am just too amateur of a photographer to rely solely on my instincts. And so I did for duration of our travel. Shooting in jpeg most of the time and then going Raw whenever I think there is a need for it.

The problem happened when we got home after the three day trip. I instinctively transferred all photos off the memory cards to the laptop using the Nikon Transfer software that came with my D60, totally forgetting that the software will only read NEF files and not the Canon's version for RAW which is CR2. What's worse? It is my habit to automatically reformat memory cards after I each transfers. It was too late for me to realize that I was not able to copy the Canon Raw files to the computer. ALL memory cards have been reformatted already.

Good thing my wife is there to suggest using a freeware recovery program called PhotoRec that we downloaded from this link.

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed for recovering lost files which include videos, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures from digital camera memory. What it does is that it ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or "REFORMATTED" by someone dumb like me.

Distributed under GNU General Public License, this open source multi-platform application is very much free to use. I do not need to pay a single centavo. Had I not found out about this from my wife, I might have been $40 poorer now as that is what other recovery software normally costs. It does not matter also whether you have MAC, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris etc as the program runs in almost all OS platforms. It can even be compiled in most Unix systems.

This application really made up an almost ruined day. It was so easy to use but if you want step by step instructions you can go to this link or this youtube vid. Was able to sleep well in less than 30 minutes of using the software to recover everything. Imagine if I was not able to recover all those photos. Batanes would be madly missed.

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Wasted Weekend Warrior

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It was one busy weekend. So busy, I felt like not reporting for work this early Monday morning due to these stiffed legs. Just imagine feeling like having cramps all day. 7 hours of sleep from the day before simply was not enough.

As usual, the weekend started early for yours truly considering that Friday is also my off along with Sarturday and Sundays (not unless I am requested to do OT on the weekends). So off to the mall I go and at first did the usual window salivating. I am not into shopping so that is what I do, salivate.. and drool too. That is part of the itinerary whenever a poor-as-a-poor like me goes to such places.

But I came to the mall for two main reasons.

First, I want to buy "mi wifey" something. I do not care what it was going to be but I just want to give her a gift that she'll appreciate which is not really hard to do. It is just that I heard her complaining about headaches in her sleep (not because of me, it's her work!!!) that I wanted to give her something that will soothe her.

The second reason was to get myself a CPL filter for my 52mm lenses. Was planning to get a Hoya but Pixel Pro was out of stock. Due to the immediacy of my need for one, I got sales talked and went for the Nisi CPL instead. I am not sure if Nisi is a good brand for filters but I got it for only a little more than a thousand bucks which is way cheaper than the Hoya. Anyways, it is my first time trying a CPL so I do not really care.. for now (hehe maybe later I will).


A group from Sorsogon representing the Sosogon Festival in the recent Aliwan Fest 2011

Went back home after that quick tour of Megamall but I was off again after 30 minutes of staying cool in front of our older-than-me-(I think) electric fan. Manila's weather is blistering hot this summer but I have to start this little project about our National Hero Jose Rizal or else I might lose my drive again and place it in the backseat photography priorities.

As part of his 150th birthday, I am planning to shoot as many Rizal monuments, statues, busts and memorabilias of Rizal that I will post here in this blog and on facebook before the year ends.

I visited first the Jose Rizal University located in Shaw Blvd asking if I can take some snaps of the Rizal statue that I saw there before. The guard on duty promptly asked me to gain permission first from the school admin. I have no time for that at that moment so I courteously said thanks and decided to try the other university in this city.

Thinking that I will have a better chance since it is a state university, I went straight to RTU or Rizal technological University only to be informed again that permits are needed first.


Palm Sunday in Antipolo, Rizal Province

Dismayed, I went ahead to Maysilo Circle, where the seat of the city is located. I remembered that a statue of Jose Rizal is standing at the place back in the days when the place was still a good spot during our skateboarding days. Rizal was a witness to some of the bruises and other under the cover of darkness stuff that happened under those seemly innocent shrubs and trees heheh. Upon arriving, I noticed right away that the pedestal is now empty. Good ol' Jose is gone. A City hall employee was quick to explain that the statue was already transferred to Welfareville.. it must be another baranggay or subdvision but I am not in the mood of doing searches anymore. So to Makati I went.

Just like Mandaluyong, parts of Makati (if not the whole city) used to be a part of the province of Rizal. It was during the creation of the Metropolitan Manila area that makati and other cities like Pasig and others became separate locales of their own. This is the reason also why our old friend Jose is famous in these areas, hence the statues and monuments in his honor.

And there, right in front of old Makati City hall building stands in his splendor Rizal, the subject. I placed the new CPL filter into my 35mm 1.8 lens and started shooting. Switched lens to the 18-55 mm kit. Shoot some more. Switch lenses one more time and then I am satisfied. It was time to pick up wifey from work. My legs were starting to cramp up also.

This photography hobby is making me feel like a wimp. Saturday, was again a tiring day. I went and covered the Aliwan Festival 2011 held in Grandstand all the way to the CCP area in Pasay through Roxas Boulevard. It was a long walk and so there goes my legs again and still needs to travel that evening to Taytay, Rizal where we were going to spend the night.

Palm Sunday was the reason why I asked my wife that we spend the night in my in-laws place. I want us to go to the Antipolo Cathedral and celebrate it there. That way I can also shoot how the people of Antipolo celebrate the start of the Holy Week. I was there also last year, I was just hoping to get better photographs this time. After the mass and the "shoot", we ate lunch in SM Taytay so another semi-walk occured as what happens inside these "convenience" malls.

It was already about 6 pm when we reach home in Mandaluyong. My wife who is into running, decided that she wanted to do so. After advising her that she may not be able to run at the Maysilo circle due to the mass being celebrated in the church by the city hall, she decided that she'll run instead at the Ayala Triangle.


The Ayala Triangle has transformed from just being the center of business. It also now is a great spot for after-work-hours fun.

I wouldn't want her to go there alone, right?!?! Being the gentleman husband as I am (weeeh) and to the disgust of my aching legs and busted right foot, I went with my wife and did brisk walking from Boni to Ayala Triangle... non-stop!!! I did some running laps as well wanting to make sure that wifey will enjoy our "date" heheh. I was even able to do stairs when she asked me to do it!!!

I am strong hahah!!! Not!!!

Apparently, I am fatigued. But as of the moment, let me enjoy every bit of me sitting with my legs resting on top of this table.

For tomorrow is another day... and I will tell you all about it when I return.

(Will be packing my bag, clothes and gears in few minutes... gotta go where we not always go)

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Desecration

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"I do not know the dignity of his birth, but I know the glory of his death"

This is what is written by the entrance of the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig. As we all know the place is a hallowed ground for martyrs and heroes of this country. This is one place considered so sacred that motherland howls and outcry were heard in the bellows of our "brilliant" congressmen and women's chambers after 193 of them signed a resolution urging PNoy to allow the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried under its soil.


We do not really know what is the reasoning behind this so sudden resolve by our "outstanding congresistas" to shove this idea to the President who so happens to be the son of dead dictators' most righteous foe. Surely the congresswoman from Ilocos herself is one of the main proponent of this resolution that was introduced by Salvador Escudero III, which is understandable for a wife. Escudero himnself, who is the father of Chiz, was the Marcos regime's Food and Agriculture minister. But the other 191 others seem to also want to nip the bud of the President and all other anti-Martial rule and anti-dictatorship citizens of this country.

You can see the full list of congresspipz who signed the resolution here.


Man oh man! Do they have amnesia or what!?! Clearly, their thinking is to set aside the atrocities that occured during marcos rule, forget the supposed fallacy of Marcos' Maharlika soldiers claims as proven by the documentations made by American and Filipino war historians and forget that there are even claims that some of the supposed maharlika even collaborated with the Japanese occupiers, set aside the fact that the marcos regime was found guilty of harsh human rights abuses, that even before the current military scandal involving secret accounts of AFP came to life there was already the secret swiss accounts. We could go on and on and yet still these tsongresistas will not remember them all.

For them it is a matter of convenience.This shows their dogged two-faced nature. For while they are celabrating the merits and benefits and freedom of EDSA 1 every year, they also will want to give honor to the dead one who for all intents and purposes was the reason why the people had to go and face tanks and death in that same EDSA uprising. For them, it is better to walk the halls of the House of Congress with a smiling Imelda walking beside them than see her again and again and be plastic for they know she does not like those who do not want her husband in The Fort.

It seems that they are hell bent in allowing the dead dictator rest under the heroes soil. This even if we all know that when marcos left and exiled himself out of the country, glory was not there no more as a hero. There was dignity in Marcos birth, he obviously became a veteran and that was dignifying as well. But when he became president and dictator and used it for his family and his crony and forgot the country, where could glory be?

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