dravenworkz journal

years apart

2010-11-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

(lifted from my sister's photo creations on facebook)

These photos were taken year apart yet, they share some common poses.

3 months

2010-09-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

this is mico @ 3 months

look alike

2010-09-05T20:36:00.001-07:00

a picture done by tito comparing ate gabby and baby mico.....they do look a like.

1st royal mandaya hotel mini championships

2010-08-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

another title conquest by the atene de davao 11-under blue knights. the boys captured the 1st royal mandaya hotel mini division championships last saturday vs uic at the almendras gym. the 1st championship for the year for the grade school blue knights.

catching up

2010-08-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

i've been using this site as an example for my class on website design and the last entry was still way back december of 2009. a lot has already transpired since then so i'm just going to recap events i have missed via photos.

to kick things off, i present our new bundle of joy: mico gabriel samante

(with ate gabby)

he was born on may 20th of this year, just in time before we left for the batang pba national finals

(batang pba team)


(regional championship trophy)

we were not successful in our batang pba stint but we all had fun. the organizers treated us to free pba games and an ocean park tour and i finally got to greenhills.


(i got buzz & woody at greenhills to update our toy story collection)

now, it's the start of the basketball season, i'm not into a head coaching stint now but our teams are very successful nonetheless. we are currently participating in four local tournaments. the best center sbp-passerelle, the gaisano south cup, the 1st royal mandaya cup and the dacs tournament.

(addu team a warming up @ woodridge gym)

(addu team b)

(mandaya cup team)

this weekend, the mandaya cup team will be playing vs uic for the championship. god bless to us. go blue knights!

100th

2009-12-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

this is the 100th post in this blog.
after almost three years of existence in the blogging community finally made it to 100. incidentally, this 100th post comes at the time when i can't compose anything. i may still need to find the resources to spontanieously compose again...up to this point, i still experience writer's block, as i have posted here a few months back. i also have a number of other blogs that still lack content because of.....yup, writer's block. (this is already quite a lot considering that i have writer's block.)
after this posting, i never know when i will be able to post or compose a content for this blog again.
here's wishing everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year!

another bridesmaid finish

2009-11-24T23:20:00.000-08:00

we spent the weekend at baguio city to compete in the 20th edition of the MILO backed SBP-PASSERELLE national finals. and for the second year in a row, we ended up with another bridesmaid finish in the competion.

back to back regional champions

2009-10-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

we made it as back to back regional champions in the sbp tournament of the best center over the weekend in tuna city, general santos. the boys carved out a masterful game in beating xavier university cagayan in the championship game. the xu team were very good in containing the best of our players for every quarter but they couldn't contain the rest of the team and in the final canto, we blitzed them, en route to another title conquest in the mindanao region.

kudos to the players, parents and supporters.

animo baby blue knights....on to the national finals we march again.

sidenote: we will be adding a new one to our family...wifey is pregnant with our second child.

national championship

2009-10-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

we finally nailed a big one. in the first 3 on 3 national finals sponsored by growee, we emerged as its first national champions besting three other schools from manila, cebu and cagayan de oro city. we have been playing since saturday and sunday was the culmination of all the hard work of the players.

prior to the national championships, all the teams fielded sweeped the 1st to 3rd places. in the national finals, ateneo team a bannered by our team captain, jair igna, tsutumo tateishi, jeucharist binoya and co-captain vernon bonleon, bested the team from cebu, usc north campus via free throw shoot out. final tally, 12-11.

it was a total team effort by the boys to withstand exhaustion from two days of basketball and emerge as the national champions. jair was the local and national mvp of the tournament and i got the recognition as the best coach in the local leg and the national finals.

recognition goes out also to the other ateneo teams who competed and bested their local counterparts. and to my co-coaches, frankie and henry. we did this together and i share the recognition with you.

sidenote:

our sbp team will be going with our passerelle counterparts from the highschool in the regional finals. we bagged the local sbp championships already.

goodluck to the college blue knights as they try to get the regional championships of the pccl.

this has been a very busy year of basketball for the university and we all hope to add to our growing collection of championships for the year.

go blue knights!

baby blue knights and the blue knights

2009-09-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

4 minutes & 38 seconds of the 3rd quarter and a full fourth quarter. this is all that's left before we finish the first step of our goal to go bak to the sbp national finals. this occured because of the unfortunate downpour we experienced during the original schedule of the championship game last sunday. the gym got flooded and the organizers had t\no choice but to postpone the game.

this afternoon, our baby blue knights continue with our goal of making it as champions of the sbp local leg again. the school have never had a hard time getting the local championships all the time. after this afternoon, we will hopefully be getting ready for the regionals in gensan on october 17-18. i will be updating this tomorrow with the result of this afternoons game resumption.

sidenote: the passerelle team of the school (which is also considered the baby blue knights) already bagged the local championships at the expense of the rival reds of the hcsd 78-77 last sunday. they are already geared up for the regionals. the college varsity(which are the blue knights)also bagged the collegiate championship against the um wildcats last night.

kudos to all the ateneo teams!

writer's block

2009-09-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

.............
(hope to come up with something to write again...soon)

baby's day-off

2009-06-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

taken yesterday while gabby and i were left at home. i was doing the dishes while i asked her to play....she already learned how to use my ps2 console....looking forward to games that we might share playing.

2009-06-01T18:05:00.001-07:00

the davao toy community and gaisano mall of davao in cooperation with g.a.m.e. and davao diecast club will present toyplay, a toys and cosplay exhibit from june 15-21, 2009 at the spazio, 3rd level gaisano mall of davao.

new OS

2009-03-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

i'm currently using a new operating system for my unit here in the office.
after my system crashed the other day, i finally had the opportunity to try this new OS. it is called gOS, short for good OS. here is a screenshot:

as of now, i'm trying to learn how it works but i have never really encountered any hitch yet.
in a few weeks, i will try posting a review for this new OS i'm using.

new challenges

2009-02-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

this is the year that we as a family may be facing new challenges. gabby recently turned two and we had a simple party for her at home...what challenges await us as the year goes by inour parenting of gabby?

another challenge that we least expect is wifey travelling to a new place for work...and i mean a far place. if plans do push through, this will be the first time in that we will be apart, really apart. continents apart...hopefully after a year, gabby and i can be with her there. the prospect of going abroad is thrilling and exciting yet filled with uncertainty, but we can definitely make it work.

happy new year

2009-01-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

first entry for the new year! hope the new year turns to be as colorful and sweet as the year that has just passed.

movie for 2009

2008-12-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

this is something i lifted from a friend's blog. just can help but post it here.

thanks bro markus! i really enjoyed this one.
happy holidays(in a few more days ) to everyone!

my first sbp team

2008-12-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

i present my very first sbp team. we have accomplished a lot together for this school year, 4 championships for the school, a runner-up finish in the best center sbp national finals and the sportsmanship award in the same tournament. i can never thank this boys enough for the breaks they gave me during my coaching stint in the sbp but what is very important for me is the friendship we share.getting those championships is a very good feat but the friendship and camaraderie is the best i gained this year.

wishing you boys all the best in your basketball careers.

animo ateneo.

sbp national finals

2008-11-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

haven't updated in a while because of a very hectic school schedule. but here it is, we won the regional finals and we are going to the national finals in iloilo. the national finals is set on november 22-23, 2008 and we will be facing the champions in the luzon, ncr and visayas legs of the milo-sbp tournament.

before we will be going there, 9 of the sbp boys participated in the mindanao childrens games together with 6 players from the gaisano team. they played for the gold medal against university of the immaculate conception and they got the gold with a 94-64 win. it was a good enough tune up for the 9 sbp boys who will be playing in the national finals.

we will be going to the national finals to enjoy the games, the camaraderie with fellow champion teams but if the chance to get the national title presents itself, we will not hesitate to grab that chance.

sbp local champions

2008-10-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

we're at it again.
yesterday at the ladislawa gym, our sbp team won our nth local milo-sbp championship plum against acd. the boys played hard and they were rewarded with the championship. our road to the sbp nationals' next stop will be the regionals which will be this weekend.
congratulations boys!animo ateneo!

sbp road to the nationals

2008-10-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

our team will begin our trek toward the road to the sbp nationals in two weeks.

over the weekend, the boys showed their defense limiting a high scoring acd team to only 19 points. next weekend we will be facing another offensive team in hcdc...hopefully the boys will still have the same defensive intensity they had againts acd and maintain that defensive intensity through out our trek back to the nationals.

(i'll just update this blog as we progress. see you in next week)

dtc september meetup

2008-10-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

our meet-ups are becoming a monthly thing dtc members look forward to. last saturday, we had our october meet-up at mts.

(taken during the ice cream break.(thanks for the ice cream lex!) )

(group pic this time, since it is my camera, i'm not in the group pix)
some toys present during the meet-up

"daddy!"

(paeng's hml cap and squall and rinoa's minimates cap)

(pikot's armored core)

( aj's crocmaster and paeng's firefly)

song

2008-09-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

i've heard bob carlisle sing "butterfly kisses" a lot of times but it never had the impact it had on me last sunday while playing with my baby. i was playing with gabby when the song played from our cd player.

listening to the lyrics made me realize things.

i just would like to share some lyrics that caught my attention: (somethings to get sentimental with..hehe)

"There's two things I know for sure: She was sent here from heaven and she's daddy's little girl.........I thank god for all the joy in my life Oh, but most of all For butterfly kisses after bedtime prayer........In all that I've done wrong I know I musthave done something right to deserve a hug every morning and butterfly kisses at night."

i love you baby!

davao toy community

2008-08-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

presenting our very own davao toy community.
photos were taken at the meet up during the amk anime event last sunday at metro avenue...thanks to bro squall for the pix.

(l-r rowil, tamtam, kaervek, me, pikot, aexstatic, the aj(seating), ralphloris, galaxy_ram,squall, m.e.n)

(same guys this time with bro deadpool taking bro squall's place)

anniversary

2008-08-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

wifey and i are celebrating our second year anniversary today. happy anniversary hon!

visitor

2008-08-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

got an unexpected visitor yesterday. ms.holly calica, a fullbright study tour participant two years ago, visited me here at the office yesterday. it was totally unexpected since, i never thought that after their tour here, i would see them again. it was very nice of her to visit and catch up with things after two years. to ma'am holly, it was very nice to see you again :D

paascu

2008-08-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

we are currently having our paascu re-accrediation here in our school. this is my first experience at an accreditation and somebody from their group entered my 9 am class earlier. i got the "jitters" when the accreditor came in but, i calmly overcame the initial shock and spent the next 30 minutes or so delivering the lesson. the accreditor never got the chance to see what the students can really do because he did not stay long enough but i'm prepared with my class, so i have nothing to worry about.

rain and the 80's

2008-07-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

it is raining hard as i write this entry. the weather here in davao has been very erratic as of late...hot during the day and suddenly rain clouds appear out of nowhere to drench the earth. everytime itislike this, i feel like the kid i was back in the 80's...staying at home, waiting for the rain to stop so i can be with my friends and play with them. if the rain will continue for the whole day, i would just wait for my favorite cartoon shows in the afternoon and waste my time with my toys or the television tube. these were my fond memories of childhood.

looking back, those trends are slowly coming back. the toys i grew up with are making their re-appearances and catering a new generation of kids who would long for them, just like how we longed for them when we were kids....new generation, same toys...i bet when they reach my age i'm in now, they would also have fond recollections of the days they spent playing with their toys while waiting for the rain to stop so that they can share the joy they have with their friends who also long for the rain to stop so that they can play together.

toy fascination

2008-07-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

i have been into toy collecting for a few months now, particularly the gi joe 25th anniversary line. i can say that i have more or less "owned and re-claimed" the joe figs i had and didn't have as a youngster. my joes doesn't total a lot. i'm not a completist, i just buy figs i want. (i have been this choosy in my toys really. even with this new line i'm collecting, i still wouldn't dive on every figure available.i choose.) that is the reason why i still have only eight 25th anniv line joes inspite of the fact that a lot of figures were already released.

it also helped that there is already a local toy community here in davao, organized by fellow davaoñeos. i am part of the group. now, i gained new friends who are into the same hobby as i do. meeting fellow collectors is a real thrill. we did have an initial meet-up that is yet to be followed but i guess each one of us is really looking forward to meeting again.

as for my recent birthday, i got myself a new joe, the 25th anniv zartan fig. i already have my very first joe, duke so i guess i'm done with the singles card and i may move forward to the comic packs to get my missing 13 figures. 13 figures to go and i'm done with this line and i don't care if the 13 figs are mint or not. i already have my mint characters i can now settle for loose figs of my magic 13 figs which i still need (i'll just post them on the DTC wanted list perhaps so i can finish this line by years end.)........movie line up next? depends on the figs,how they look like and if they really live up to the hype of the movie...none the less, i will get me a movie line snake eyes.

basketball 08-09

2008-06-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

as of this writing, our sports coordinator has just informed me that i will be handling the team a of our basketball teams this year. more on this development as the sy progresses.

...

2008-06-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

for some strange reason, i can't compose anything for this blog except this piece that i'm writing now. a lot has transpired since my last post, but i can't really organize my thoughts and express them all here. a case of a writer's block (hopefully, it can't get the best of me 'cause i have a lot to write for this year.)

peace out!

toys update

2008-04-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

after 20 years, dad bought me a gi joe figure again. i still remeber my first gi joe, it was duke. it was back when i was in grade 1. last saturday, i finally saw the first available 25th anniversary singles here in davao. i immediately asked dad if he can buy me one.( i wasn't really hoping he would get it for me but i tried.hehe. and it worked, after lunch, he asked where the gi joe was located in the toy department and he brought it for me. i felt like the grade 1 student again. literally, my heart was pounding and i cannot contain my excitement of owning my first 25th joe. thanks dad. i'm very lucky that after all these years, dad still can buy me a toy..hehe).

here are a few pix of my very first 25th joe: dreadnok buzzer

while i was taking pix of my new toy, i also did a few pose shots of my marvel figs,

and of gabby's toy stack which is long overdue:

a laptop, a house and toys

2008-04-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

wifey has long been planning to buy a laptop for her own. since em-em, my sister in law, is coming home from singapore, wifey asked her if she could help her buy her laptop. lo and behold, here comes the most nifty gadget i have ever seen, the asus eee pc.

this seven inch wonder of a laptop immediately caught wifey's fancy. we already saw one for sale in a few computer stores here inthe city and i can feel her excitement in owning one. (sister in law, agreed to help her get a unit when she arrives and it will be another week away from now . she arrives on the 29th and everybody in the family is getting their "pasalubong" from her..hehe. i hope it includes me.)

our classes officially ended some two weeks ago. we are on "summer mode" as i write this entry. aside from our summer work, what kept me busy was the processing of all the paper works for our house. the utilities and the finalization of the details of our house really is taxing. fortunately, the utilities are halfway done with the water utility to be followed up this friday. after the water utility, the house can be livable already which we hope to do on may 11th. (if we finally occupy our house, it will really be a fulfilled dream for wifey and i. we have longged for the house for sometime and we can really live in "our own place".)

another thing that has caused excitement aside from our house is that, 25th joes are already here in davao. i've been longing to buy one for myself. in fact, i have been tempted many times to purchase form e-bay but i decided to just wait for them to arrive and last monday, i finally got word that they are here. (i immediately asked wifey, if we can check the mall if they are really there, but unfortunately they weren't. as i write this, i'm waiting for my lunch break to be able to check on those toys again if they have been displayed on the shelves already. for my first 25th joe, i plan to buy snake eyes and storm shadow if they become available. i really can't resist buying these toys. i wil just endure what wifey will have to say if she finds out i bought joes again. she understand my passion for these toys although i still get reprimanded for getting them.)

to close out this entry, i present to you, two people i love most:

gabby and wifey!

(cheers to 20 months of being with both of you! )

haircut

2008-03-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

i officially got a haircut after six years last thursday. not that i didn't ever cut my hair for six years but everytime i went to the barbershop, i would let my barber trim my locks so it still has the "long hair" feel.

last thursday, i did ask my barber to give me what they termed as the "barber's cut". it is a close trim and a clean cut. i finally managed to let go of my locks. my brother calls me "boy haircut" after seeing my new do.

well, we do "new" things once in a while and i just did something "new" by having a clean cut.

moving out.....again

2008-03-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

in a few weeks time, we will be moving out again of our current residence. this time for good. we will finally occupy our very residence @ catalunan pequeño. wifey is very excited..we processed our light and water yesterday.(we never thought that processing those things can be so tiring...but i won't mind all the trouble as long as we get to transfer at our own home soon.)

we will be leaving our "mini-house" and wifey and i will finally get to decorate our own home just as we please. we have a lot planned and hopefully we can see it come true.

artco

2008-02-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

i've been thinking of what to write and i chanced upon pyk's blog and saw this image:

it's our images, the artco. pioneers. it's been already ten years since we conceived this group....an friendship among artists who love art. what bound us together was our friendship, love for art and anything that pertains to both. (the art sessions, the planning sessions which ultimately leads to some "inuman" sessions. excluding the female pioneers of course.)

as of this writing, pyk has told me that a chapter in another school has been established.

if somebody was going to interview me about this group which we pioneered and how it has survived ten years of existence...i would be proud to say that aside from our love for art, what really helped artco. through the years is the friendship forged by each batch of artco. members.

as long as the bonds of friendship will continue to develop, i will predict that artco. will live for a lot more years. after all, friendship was what helped conceive and bring our organization to fruitition.

agony of defeat 2

2008-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

"with the game clock ticking down, victory was imminent. the winning team had a comfortable lead and another championship will be added to their ranks."

this best describes the athmosphere of the final seconds of the game at the almendras gym yesterday when we took on acd for the championship of the cherifer under-12 mindanao leg tournament.

retribution was claimed as we got the better of them this time. after our gaisano gup loss last december, i was personally itching to get back at them at all costs. ironically, didn't need to wait very long for my time, after 2 months, i got to deliver another championship for the school making the school back to back champions for mindanao for the said tournament.

i guess, i have endured the agony of the defeat long enough to garner this new championship and add a medal to my collection and another trophy to the schools collection.

congratulations to my players! animo ateneo!

pre-valentine gift

2008-02-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

got wifey this as a pre-valentine present. she has long been looking for this toy and finally i got her one. she was so amazed and surprised when she recieved it.(i gave up part of what i'm saving for my gi joe to get her this.luv u mee, hope you like the new toy you have.) i am just so blessed that the family i have likes toys. collecting these things are something we can enjoy together. (even gabby has her own toy collection.)

slippers

2008-01-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

last saturday, we went malling with gabby. we had promised the kid that we would go out during the weekend so we did. we were so busy looking up the things we need to purchase for her birthday like candies and toys and i completely forgot about her slippers. it was only after we had payed for our purchase that i noticed one of her slippers was missing....wifey immediately went back to the grocery area to check if it is still there, leaving gabby and me. i tried consoling myself that we could still find the missing slipper until wifey returned to no avail...no slipper.

i then looked for it, searching high and low along the aisles...pfft....still no slipper.

wifey did what every mother i think would have done, who would be in the same predicament, ask the help of the customer assistance. (i guess that is why there is such thing as customer assistance in the first place. :))

a mother would really do everything for her child and i admire wifey for it...luckily, they found the missing slipper yesterday. wifey will not be sad anymore and i have learned to look after gabby's things more carefully from now on.

my gi joe collection

2008-01-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

a few months back, i spotted several gi joes on sale at the local mall. i had a sudden rush to buy the figures and i did. after 3 months, i have this collection i can finally show off. i returned the previously loose figures to their cards and displayed them together with my recent hauls.

what really got me into collecting these figures again? i really can't say but it's more of the nostalgia of owning these classic figures again. i used to collect them when i was still in elementary and now...i can literally own them again.

( my recent hauls, comprising of the cobra forces.)
(the gi joes)(all of my gi joes, that's my reflection on the mirror...hehehe)

our holiday photoblog

2008-01-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

gabby playing with mr.potatohead, she's holding his arm

playing with the camera

playing w/ momee

"smile"

media noche

w/ lolo on new year's eve

tito von @ the christmas tree

first media noche

my christmas haul (thanks hon for the gi joes)

christmas break

2007-12-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

this is the last day of work and we will be starting our week-long break tomorrow.

finally some time to really spend at home and lounge all day. so i will be blogging again at the start of the new year...this is perhaps my last entry for the year.

yesterday, we had an advent recollection and one of the reflection questions was about blessings received for the past year. i can think of a lot but what i am really thankful for this year is having my family. seeing our little girl develop from her 1st month with us upto now when she is almost turning a year old. seeing how happy her mother is everytime she holds her. seeing them both every time i wake up is one of my greatest joys....sets me up for a bright day everytime. i love you both, momee and gabby! may all of us have merry christmas and a happy new year.

agony of defeat

2007-12-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

i've been trying to come up with this ever since our first loss at the just concluded gs cup came. it was really hard to accept that we were defeated then.
we braced for another meeting with them having to win all of our remaining game assignments to be able to get back at them. we did sin with ease, sweeping all our remaining games. that winning streak came at a halt during the first game of the title series. we almost won..."almost" being the operative word. our opponents literally took game one away from us just like the way they took our victory during the first meeting.

blame it on inexperience, blame it on sloppy calls and officiating, blame it on anybody and anything under the sun....the fact remains...the opponents swept us in the title series 2-0.

in a basketball game, there are winners and losers...we were the latter. after 7 straight years as the champion, we finally got our first 1st runner up finish and trophy.

i was not able to get the championship i worked hard for this year...maybe next year i'll get a chance at redemption but for now, i must still endure the agony of defeat.

yoxx's wishlist

2007-12-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

19 more days till christmas. as usual, we have our wishlists every christmas time and just as everybody does i have my own wishlist.

yoxx's christmas wishlist

1. a sony psp-i would really like one since it is not only a game device but also a wifi gadget. i'm lusting over it because of it's wifi capabilities more than anything else.

2. a set of 25th anniversary joes-this will be a nice addition to my growing collection of toys.

3. a new cellphone-not for me but for wifey, a nokia n-series perhaps.

thinking about it, these are things that can be had even if its not christmas time. what i really want this christmas is to win the gs south cup championship. it will really be a merry christmas if this holds true after all the trials we had to endure for the entire school year.

winning the championship can be the icing on the cake of my coaching this year. after all, i have gabby and wifey, there is nothing more i could ask for.

dravenworkz joeverse

2007-12-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

i have finally uploaded "reincarnations" the first part of my gi joe fanfic based on the action figures i have. i really don't know how many parts my fanfic will cover but as long as i can purchase my action figures, the stories will continue on.

joes

2007-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

update below.

these are my new joe's from the comic 3-packs general abernathy, tunnel rat and flint.

update: a pix of the cards of my joe's. the last card is my recent haul, a dtc major bludd figure. i'm looking forward to this weekend when i can hopefully purchase my dreadnoks.

family day

2007-11-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

after i arrived from iloilo, i spent the following day resting at home. fatigue brought about by the delayed flight from cebu to davao has really caught up on me. i was with gabby the whole day and all we did (when i was not asleep) was to take pictures. here are some of our pictures from our "mini-house".

in the afternoon, we went to sm since i promised them that when i get back from iloilo, we will go malling. these are some pictures of them eating at shakey's and riding the carousel.

dethroned

2007-11-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

our team has been dethroned as the national champions. ateneo de manila university succedeed us as the national champions for this years national tournament. we got the third place and the most coveted award which is the sportsmanship award.

we had no luck in gaining the ntaional title for the second time but we won something more valuable that the national title and it is the value of sportsmanship. regardless of who we meet in any tournament, we have proven that we can be competitive and fair in competition.

for all our efforts, animo ateneo!

new toys and our trip

2007-11-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

shopped for my fbl win toy trophy yesterday. after 2 weeks i was finally able to buy my first comic 3 pack joes. i bought the pack with general abernathy, flint and tunnel rat. i almost missed on them because the last time i checked, i couldn't find the set, luckily last night, i saw one set so i decided to really buy it even if it would cost me some money....(it did cost me money.but i'm happy with my growing joe collection...it also cost me a lot because i was able to buy a loose fully poseable degeneration x triple h figure. now i'm in the look out for a fully poseable dx shawn...damn toys.so hard to find.hehehe.)

tomorow, we'll be leaving for iloilo for the milo-sbp national tournament. we are the defending champs in the sbp division so we will be defending our national title. hopefully, after this tournament, i will be able to buy another set of trophy toys. i plan on buying something from my allowance and i might end up buying the remaining comic 3 packs. (the one with zartan, fred and zarana, the dreadnoks and breaker, scarlett and hologam cobra commander. it's just a shame that these toys arrive here in our city late. all the good stuff are already sold out before we can get our hands on them. but this fact will not dampen my hopes of giving my joe collection another try. with all the figures available, i can more or less come up with close to 30 joe pcs both from the comics packs and the dtc's they've already released.)

will just post pictures of my new toys, hopefully with the other set i can buy when we arrive from iloilo. will also update on what happened there in the tournament once i get back.

the time of year

2007-11-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

it is the time of year again wherein new titles for the different computer game consoles are being released week after week. one of my awaited titles this year is the annual smackdown vs.raw 2008. i've been reading about it since information about the game was released after wrestlemania 23 last march.

can't wait to get my hands on them.

update: finally got my copy yesterday (november 14, 2007) just had little time to try it out but it is really worth it.

ching2's birthday

2007-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

yesterday, ate celebrated her birthday. mommy treated us all to dinner at buffet palace. of course, the scene stealer was gabby. here are pix of her taken at buffet palace yesterday.

sembreak

2007-11-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

we spent the semestral break packing our things for our transfer to wifey's place. we are currently occupying the 2nd floor of their house...it seems that we are living in a condominium unit...:)

this is gabby's picture at our "new place". she is leaning at our bed.

part of my sembreak was buying my "trophy toys"....we recently won the regionals in the milo sbp and wifey granted me two new toys as my "trophy". i bought a spiderman figure, and my 2nd dtc gi joe footloose. i already have two joe's to my collection.(i started buying toys as trophy's when we won the championship for the basketball summer league in 2006. i bought my wolverine figure and from that time i began buying toys as trophies to help me remember the championships we won. i still haven't bought something from our recent fbl win.....have to go and check the mall for more joe's this weekend.)

back to back

2007-11-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

this basketball year for us is all about defending titles. and we have been doing good at it.

recently, we bagged our 3rd championship in three weeks. our fbl boys successfully defended our championship from last year making us back to back fbl champions in the mini category. the boys defeated the uic team 52-38 to get our second fbl championship.

these are new boys that are playing for the fbl because they changed the age bracketing. we had grade 4, grade 3 and grade 2 kids playing this year unlike last year when we won our first championship, we had grade 5, grade 4 and grade 3 boys playing for the team.

the team also bagged two of the three individual awards. miguel belen of grade 3 got the mvp award for the 9 year old category and jeremiah aguilon for the 10 year old category.

congratulations!

champions....again

2007-10-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

we are once again representing mindanao in the milo sbp-pasarelle national tournament. it's a third straight nationals appearance for our school, also the third nationals appearance for coach ice gravador and this is my second tour of duty for the nationals. the road to the nationals wasn't that easy for us. we had to escape defeat narrowly against sacred heart of jesus montessori from cagayan de oro. believe it or not, the final tally came at 35-33. that was how close we came to being denied an entry to the nationals for the third straight time. in fairness to the sacred heart boys, they really played a very good game...it was a game you really dread seeing one team lose...unfortunately for them, we escaped with the "w" and will be heading back to the nationals again.

we will be leaving for iloilo on the 16th of november for the national tournament and hopefully bag a second straight national title. it will be a tall order for us since one of the teams we will be going against is ateneo de manila university. as coach ice would say, " we go to the nationals and try to get the title...if we will be given the chance to get it, we try."

and so we begin the defense of our national title.....animo ateneo!

new old place

2007-10-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

we are back to living at wifey's place. can't afford to pay two rental dues in a month's time so we had to give up the comfort of staying in our own rented place. we started moving back last friday and hopefully, we can finish all the moving about today so that everything will be settled before the week ends. it's actually a "new old place". "new " for me since i get to live at wifey's house together with mama & papa (my in-laws). "old" because it's wifey's place and she literally spent her entire lifetime there. after a year of living away from them, here we are going back to their place while our own place in pequeño is still waiting to be finished. (we really can't make it their by december. have to put plans of moving there onhold for a few more months.) hopefully, we can start occupying the new house by summer of next year.

toys and gadget

2007-10-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

wifey and i recently purchased our very 1st television set.(our early christmas gift to ourselves since our old set won't turn on anymore....thanks tita sev for the old unit. :)) a samsung flat (reviews of the brand which states that they are the best producers of screens in the market today made us decide to go with the brand.)
because of this, my toys were displaced...the toys were previously atop the old unit but now, the new unit cannot accomodate them anymore that's why they were displaced. i took the liberty of arranging them on top of the divider and took a picture of them until i find a more suitable place for them. hopefully, when we transfer to the new house, i can place them on a nice display case.( a display case where gabby cannot reach them.)

(picture summary: pix 1-wolverine, cpt.america and eric draven action figures, pix 2 (l-r)-tallgeese gundam, elite forces figure, voltron, sandrock gundam, pix 3 gabby's mr. potato head, rasta man figurine, astroboy)

last saturday, i purchased my fist g.i.joe to start my new joe collection. i bought the spirit dtc which is from the wave 1 set of the g.i. joe dtc. only a few of the wave 1 figures is available here. i will just buy all the figures available for my collection. unfortunately, i was not able to take a picture of it. i will just update this post with the pix of my new joe. (wifey allowed me to collect them. she promised to buy me another figure at month's end. can't wait for that time to buy my new figures.) together with my joe, i bought gabby two new plush toys, tom & jerry. they will join gabby's other plush toys. (will just create a post of all of gabby's plush toys one of these days.)

as promised, here are the update of the pics of my spirit joe:

going back

2007-10-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

the provincial campaign for our milo-sbp team has just been concluded and we are going back to the regional competetion to start our campaign for the national tournament. our boys won against assumption school of davao by a large margin. the game was played yesterday at the montaña gym here. one of our boy was named mvp. congratulations josh and to all of the sbp players...animo ateneo!

proudly pinoy

2007-10-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

stumbled upon this logo in one of the blogs i have read. being a pinoy makes me proud to have this logo displayed on my blog.

another surprise

2007-10-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

received another surprise yesterday. our house is already ready for take out according to our developer. well, surprise, surprise..we can really move in the new house before christmas. this just means that we have to postpone decorating our current place to save us the tiresome job of taking them apart before we move in. wifey thinks of moving in on the 8th of december...hopefully, no glitches arise in our application of light and water for our new house so that we can really move in on that date. here's an updated picture of our house i took when we visited it some two weeks ago.

yo joe

2007-10-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

went to the local mall yesterday with wifey. everytime we go to the mall, i would always frequent the toy department to check for new action figures. something caught me unaware yesterday at the toy section, these action figues are all for sale....the toys of my childhood are once again finding their way to the local shores....i'm a child of the 80's and these action figures are very much a part of my childhood. can't resist to look at them figures and see if they are really real. (backstory: i've been searching for this line of toys for years after i misplaced the last figures i had at my own room...that was before i got married. upto now, whenever i go home, i still try to look for those toys i lost....i never really got over them afterall. i tried the other soldier action figure line created by bbi, the elite forces line but they didn't live up to the experience of having a gi joe.) now, with my discovery, i can't wait for the next payday to buy me at least one action figure i can play with. i'm planning on buying the major bludd figure i posted above. then slowly build up on my collection again. (i have thought about my early christmas wishlist but i guess, i don't need one. i just want my gi joe.) this time with the new releases from hasbro which they say will run upto 2008. this year really is a tribute to all things about my childhood and all the children of the 80's. (i just hope that wifey allows me to indulge on this....hehe)

portability

2007-09-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

the tech bug just bit me.

i've been trying my best to customize my office pc for quite sometime now and make it run as fast as it can. i've tried all the tweaks in all the places and the all softwares that lets me do it. this has been a personal project of mine....come up with a pc that works with limited resources. i've chanced upon portableapps. these are a set of pc apps in portable editions.......as the site would say...."runs comfortably from a 512 drive" these apps really do work and it does use minimum resources of my pc.

i've downloaded all the necessary apps i need and installed them individually on my pc. (i downloaded the suite but it won't work so i started downloading the individual apps contained in the suite.)

i was able to get the following portable apps to work:

a. clamwin portable

b. gaim portable

c. openoffice portable

d. firefox portable

e. vlc portable

the other apps i plan on installing perhaps some other time. hopefully by then, i will have a fully functional pc working on portable apps. (by the way, i was able to free up close to 10 GB of my 40 GB hard drive just by using the said apps....and still counting...cheers to portability

little joys

2007-09-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

went malling with wifey and gabby. this is our first time to go out as a family now that gabby has already turned seven months old. the picture here is taken at KFC while we had our dinner.

going to the mall with them is one of my little joys. i always look forward to days like this. no basketball game to coach, no school activities to attend. just strolling at the mall with them can account for a truly great day.

seeing gabby like this is also one little joy i always look forward to.

"happy-sad"

2007-08-22T23:42:00.001-07:00

haven't blogged in a while due to a lot of things that has kept me pre-occupied for several days until this very day. to sum up the events that has kept me busy, i have tought of categorizong them into the title that i have for this entry: "happy-sad".

happy- had the chance to emcee our celebration of "buwan ng wika"
sad- my team b lost to holy child last saturday during the sbp games
happy- wifey and i celebrated 1 year of married life. she even got me a new fone for our anniversary.
sad- one of our players got hospitalized because of dengue
sad- my former teacher and now, co-teacher passed away today.( gracias, sir tony)
happy- finally finished all of my grades which are loooong over due.

life really can be so short....we have to enjoy every minute of our existence. we need not fret about things that come our way. basically, only there are only to things we can experience in our whole lifetime...."happy and sad".

what's up?

2007-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

between the last post i had and today, wifey and i have been very busy preparing paper works for our new home....yes we are finally getting our own place. the new place is at wellsprings highlands, a new subdivision at catalunan pequeño. it will be a 90 sq.m. lot we will ultimately call home. we finally completed all the necessary requirements yesterday.

this afternoon, wifey and i will go to the area and start the layout of our house. this is the developers proposed layout for our house model:

as i frequent the web, i chanced upon this site, floorplanner.com. wanting to fulfill my architectural frustrations, i instantly signed up and put my architectural frustraions to work. this is what i came up with:

this is a floorplan roughly based on the floorplan provided by the developers. of course, there can be slight differences because i just tried doing things by myself. hopefully, the layout i made and theirs will match more or less. excitement really is mounting as i think of living there a few mnths from now. when that time comes, all the home magazines i've been collecting will be ultimately put to good use.

the truth is, wifey and i are both happy that we are able to provide a nice home for our little princess. after today, construction of our home will start. we'll try to post pictures of the progress of our home monthly.

what i got for my birthday

2007-07-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

celebrated my birthday 2 weeks ago. got a surprise present from wifey to add to my toys...she got me a cpt. america action figure...thanks hon. now cpt. america stands proud together with wolverine and eric draven on top of our tv set.

( cpt. america with wolverine and eric draven (both partly hidden))

( cap w/ wolverine and my discman)

Life and Coffee

2007-07-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Found this in my webmail inbox. This came from a friend, a former co-worker. Jsut like to share it.

Life and Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to
visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the
lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and
an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some
expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If
you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving
behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want
only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously
went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are
the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, but the quality of
life doesn't change.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee
in it.

Don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee.

reset

2007-07-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

it has only been a month since classes started yet i feel like i'm so exhausted already. why? perhaps a lot of this has to do with adjustments. i am undergoing a lot of adjustments as of late. work related, family life related, financially related, even adjustments i can't seem to figure out until now.

however, slowly i am coping with the changes. with work, i just look forward to the weekend and everything turns out fine already. with family life changes, i just don't complain anymore....i just do things as they present themselves...like bathing gabby even if it's not a weekend and preparing meals in the weekend which i rarely do now (i just came up with a new recipe yesterday but that is for another blog.) with our finances, well...still coping...i got back my car i had to give up a few weeks ago because of....yes, our current financial scenario.
everything seems to be coming back to its original state now and i vow never to let these things happen again. (still i can't use my cellphone because i have t leave it with gabby so wifey can contact them, technology not working at its fullest that's why. our helper's fone can't get any signal from our place. this still has not returned to its original state).

it's a monday, hectic and manic yet a few days from now, it's the weekend already, time for myself and my family. can't wait for the weekend to arrive.

my first father's day

2007-06-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

last sunday was father's day. together with a lot of firsts for me this year, i celebrated it for the first time with wifey and gabby. this is my recolletion of my father's day.

i woke up early and played with gabby while wifey prepared her bath. ( i volunteered that i will take care of bathing gabby during weekends but she still has to prepare the things needed..hehe.) after bathing gabby, we both slept....i guess wifey allowed me to doze off because it was father's day, had it been not father's day, i wouldn't have had the time to doze off like that. i prepared our lunch because i wanted to eat kinilaw and i was surprised when wifey said that she'll be the one to go out and buy liempo. i really wanted to eat liempo for a long time and i kept on bugging her about it she finally brought me one last sunday.

that was the best father's day gift i recieved from her. thanks hon!

to wifey on your birthday

2007-06-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

there were bells on a hill

but i never heard them ringing

no, i never heard them at all

till there was you

there were birds in the sky

but i never saw them winging

no, i never saw them at all

till there was you

then there was music

and wonderful roses they tell me

in in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew

there was love all around

but i never heard it singing

no i never heard it at all

till there was you

happy birthday, hon!

what's up

2007-06-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

it has been quite a long time since i last placed an entry. i owe it to the summer vacation. no work, just stayed at home, went to basketball practice, coached a few games, took care of wifey and our bundle of joy, gabby. the recent vacation was a really looked forward event this time of year since it is the first summer vacation wifey and i would have after 4 years in work. this is our real "summer off", not the two weeks they normally would give starting employees here. a month of just lounging at home, watch tv, watch movies, play videogames.....all i can say is, that was life.

anyway, it was also during this summer that we had gabby baptized. pictures are already at my picasa web album.

it was also during her baptism that we had the chance to have our first family photo.next week, wifey will be celebrating her birthday and perhaps we will have a new family picture by then. but till that day, enjoy the pix of our baby's baptism. ( i have also uploaded pix on her own picture page.)

lifes lessons i learned from the movies

2007-04-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

movies are meant to entertain us, cheer us up and let us forget about our daily worries and anxieties. since i've married, i haven't had the time to go to the movies however, if i have time, i visit my firendly neighborhood movie retailer (read: dvd, dvd) and buy some movies i may have missed. lately, i have been watching films that have been memorable for me. i really can't understand how i feel about the movies i've watched lately but i've been getting life lessons from them. ( this may be a sign of old age already, but nonetheless, i enjoy it.) i just like to share the latest i've learned while watching a movie.

watched "click" yesterday at home. a really entertaining film but is really different from past adam sandler movies i've seen.( we're big adam sandler fans so with will smith, so me and wifey never miss their movies. we also saw " the pursuit of happyness,but that may be for another entry.) what made it interesting was the fact that since it deals with the dilemma of attending to one's career and family life, i can somehow relate to the premise of the film. the lines " .....family, family, family,...." uttered when he was dying really had a strong message i could still feel radiate in me up to now.

perhaps, it made such an impact on me because there are times when i want to focus on my work and tell wifey that the work i'm doing is part of my responsibility as the coach, as the teacher or whatever...come to think of it, where should my biggest responsibility lie, on my work or to my family?

i guess a large portion of ones responsibility should be with his family or at least it was what i got from the film. the common adage " don't take things for granted" should really apply to families. of course its very tempting to say that my family will always be here for me so i attend to things that are of the minute, but we have to remember that we may also miss out on the little memorable moments of our family.

- you may never be able to tast your wifeys home cooked meals again. (she may only dare once.)

- you may miss out on the laughter shared by your relatives, (they may stop visiting you.)

- you may miss out on all the first things your baby will do. (first steps, first words uttered, etc.)

enjoy every minute we shall spend with our families. don't be tempted to push the "fast forward button" that life just passes us by without us even noticing it. the next thing we know, we have already skipped a chapter of our lives, our families lives.

these are the life lessons i learned from this movie and this experience really makes me change the way i watch films.

(this part is for my friend who is finding it difficult to face the world: watch this film, and enjoy every moment of the film. don't push the chapter select and skip on the great parts of the film. you know where to find me in this part of cyberspace.)

the week that was

2007-04-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

it's the end of the week.it is quite fitting that i end this week with a new photoblog consiting of the events that transpired last week. (luckily, i have pictures of those events...:))

with yve @ paradise island last saturday during our planning & evaluation

gabby's picture @ church last sunday

one of ching2's wacky look (taken @ gmall)

gabby, mami & dady lo (@ gmall)

finally

2007-04-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

finally, i'm done with all the things that has kept me preoccupied for the past few days.
i can finally attend to blogging. i can finally sit back and relax in my workstation. finally, i can post the images i've been wanting to post.finally, everything returns to normal.....:)

the week and the week before this.....

2007-04-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

it has been a very busy week right after we spent holy week.

the holy week, we spent with my family. we had to go to my mom and dad's place because gabby was getting restless because of the summer heat at our house. no choice on our part but to bring her there where the use of electricity is free, so with the water, cooking...so basically, we had a "free" holy week. ( it did save us from buying our food ration for a few days.) while we were there, i prepared some of my homecooked meals of which i am going to post @ dravenworkz cookbook one of these days. (I'm still very busy with work. don't have time to squeeze my brain for the directions on how i came up with my recipes.)

as i've mentioned in this entry a couple of times already, i've been quite busy for some time now. and yes, upto now, i'm stil busy....busy preparing work materials long overdue.( this is what one gets when one procastinates...but i think i'm better when i'm feeling the pressure to deliver. (i'm just trying to justify my procastination.........:)) however, we had a grand time over the weekend because we had our office outing at paradise island, samal...pictures from that activity will be posted within the week. (here i go procastinating again....) the weekend really was remarkable for me perhaps due to the fact that we went to mass as a family again, yve, gabby and myself. what made it even remarkable is that gabby had the chance to go strolling at the mall with us. (it is really one of the things i looked forward when i began this family.) (there are pictures of that strolling but.....you know, i opt to procastinate again.)

this has been my week and the week before this...and this is yoxx signing out.

holy week

2007-04-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

its already the holy week. vacation time for some, for others, a time to spend for themselves and their loved ones. nonetheless, it is also a time to thank the lord for the year. personally, holy week is the start of my year. it is during this time that i renew all my commitments to our Lord. unlike my previous holy weeks, this coming holy week is quite different.

what makes this holy week different from the other holy weeks i had before?

1. this is my first holy week with my young family. we plan to spend the holy week at home. enjoy each others company (yve, gabby and i ) for the duration of the holy week. we cannot join the usual religious services we normally attend since gabby is still to small to bring along for the services;

2. i cannot do my yearly "panata" of going up the shrine hills during good friday. again, i want to spend our first holy week as a family. next year perhaps when gabby can walk , maybe we can bring her with us to the shrine;

these are just two reasons why i will be having a different holy week this year but these are very special reasons why i won't be having the same holy week i've been having for years.

before i go on spending my holy week with my family, here are some new pictures of gabby with us. enjoy.

new recipe

2007-04-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

new recipe at dravenworkz cookbook.

our toys

2007-04-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

these are pictures of our toys. i say "ours" because i have also uploaded gabby's new toy, a mr. potato head. the first two pictures are some of my toys, the crow and a stuffed toy keychain of crayon shin chan.

the crow

crayon shin chan

this is gabby's mr. potato head.

got this as our present to her during her 2nd month of birth.

gabby with her mr. potato head (look at their smiles.)

gabby's own picture page

2007-03-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

a friend sent me a link in my e-mail and it directed me to the invitation page of ringo. it was a photosharing web app similar to multiply. i have thought about creating one for gabby for a long time but i was not sure what web app to use, so this afternoon, i checked back the site and decided to use it since i was signed up automatically when i clicked on the invitation earlier.

i uploaded gabby's pictures and named it after her so it becomes her own. (visitors need not fret because, i did it purposely because i plan on putting pictures of her only. if you want to check other pictures, check on my albums link on this page.)

this is the link to gabby's own picture page: http://www.ringo.com/profile/yoxx_sam.html

yve and gabby

2007-03-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

mommy and daughter sharing special moments
(pictures taken here were before gabby turns another month older)

yve and gabby smiling.("magkamukha ba kami?")

while they were sleeping......(took this when they were still asleep.)

there are still new pictures of gabby in her web album. please do check them out.

work, work, work

2007-03-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

the past few days have been very busy for me. i have been juggling my time between computing grades, coaching and taking care of my baby. here is an update on the things that has kept me busy for the past few days:

computing my grades: i just finished them...i have just printed the last grading sheet.

coaching: we entered a 3 on 3 tournament and the finals were conducted last saturday. only 3 teams which we composed made it to the semi's and the finals. congratulations to team buchike for winning the 3rd place in the 10-under category, team assasins for getting the 1st runner up and team squakboom for winning the 4th place in the 12-under category. kudos to all the teams that participated in the said tournament....animo ateneo!

taking care of my baby: i guess this task will never get done...everytime i take the reigns in taking care of gabby, there is something new i learn. the latest i learned is that classical music can help indeed soothe the baby if the baby seems stressed. wifey and i tried it during the wee hours of saturday during the time when gabby seemed so distressed that nothing we do can keep her from crying her heart out. once the cd played, it worked wonders, gabby began to ease out on us until she was able to fall asleep. (i guess, gabby is undergoing the many changes in all her patterns like sleep, eat and play. nothing wifey and i can do anything about.) also, yesterday, gabby was left to my sole care when yve and our househelp went shopping. it was then that i discovered that gabby can be left on her own already. i was able to leave her temporarily when i had to get the laundry. i was able to finish my household chore before she gave out her usual cry signifying that "dad, ako naman asikasuhin mo." and true enough when i reached her, she began to stop crying and gave me her sweetest smile.

these were the things that has kept me busy the past few days and now that summer is fast approaching, there will be no more grades to compute and tournaments to coach at, but i will have all the time to care for my wife and our little angel, gabby.

dravenworkz cookbook

2007-03-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

just published my first recipe on my dravenworkz cookbook...you can find it here.

you can also check out the site on the personal links area of my blog it is entitled, dravenworkz cookbook.

a photomosaic experiment

2007-03-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

i've been trying this free photomosiac software called AndreaMosaic and these are some of the images i have created so far:

the set of images used here are from several of gabby's photos.

this photo is the original picture.

this second set of images are from our wedding.

the image below is the original photograph.

gabby's first visit to the office

2007-03-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

gabby was finally able to go with us here at the workplace.

here are some of the pictures:

(with tita christine, ate marie and tita cel)

(with the tita's from the IT Center L-R: tita yom, tita christine, tita cel, tita ja, tita mae2 and tita mai)

(photos taken: march 07, 2007 @ IT Office)

gabby's most recent pictures (a photoblog)

2007-03-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

these photos were taken march 06, 2007 at home

(there's something wrong with the settings of our camera that's why the date says :2005.05.01)

close-up of gabby sleeping on her carrying basket

gabby on her carrying basket

gabby's toys

(i know these are not gabby's pictures but i feel like posting them too. )

going hi-tech

2007-03-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

i tried something out of the conventional for one of my IT classes. i asked my students to email me one of their exercises in our powerpoint classes. i was planning to use it for next school year but had to conduct a test run so i did. after a few days of giving the instructions out, i already received a few emails from my students...and i saw some of my students doing their assignment of "email-ing" in our laboratories.

it's a good thing that i was able to have this "test run". somehow, i can gauge how useful this can be for next school year.

technology and education can indeed go hand-in-hand.

new toy

2007-03-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

this is what has kept me busy for a few days. i finally got my own mp3 player again. i've had one before but its in the safe keeping of my brother already. left it with him together with my dvd player when i got married. (thought, i would have no use for them anymore once i get married, thought wrong..hehe.) anyway, i've enjoyed tinkering with this new toy which i got for a bargain price. serves me well, less than 512 mb of my favorite songs stuffed here...with a few mb's left for a few files (decided to use it as a flash drive as well..think "multi-functionality").as my friend would say,"..if if serves its purpose, go for it." i didn't go wrong with this purchase. (just to prove it, i'm thinking of getting one for yve as well.)

fatherhood 101 (yoxx's guide to fatherhood-part 1)

2007-03-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

i still have a lot to learn from being a parent..barely a month has passed since our daughter was born and yet, all the theory's about parenting i have heard, never seem to work..or so it seems. being a psychologist, i have my own ideas and concepts on how i should rear my own daughter yet, for some strange reason, sometimes, i find myself going the opposite direction of my own ideas and concepts.
however, being a parent, i have began to develop and strenghten my ideas and concepts, ommiting those that don't work and developing those that work. what i share here are things i learned in being a father with my daughter, gabby and my wife, yve.

ss night when i was the one left to feed gabby at 2 in the morning, i couldn't help but blurt out the question: "ano ba anak?" a question uttered with some hint of anger and dismay at my baby's seeming restlessness. this brings me to the first lesson of parenthood i learned, always keep your temper in check, even when you are so sleepy and you cannot determine the cause of the baby's restlessness, just talk to baby in a nice way. ( i guess, at a young age,they can already understand what you are trying to say.)

they say that if your baby is cuddled and carried al the time, they end up not wanting to be placed in their crib or on the bed. i guess, the second lesson to be learned is here is cuddle your child as much as possible. why?you may ask. i think its pretty simple, the time will come when your child will no longer want to be cuddled and cared for. i don't want to wait for that time anymore.

i think, this next lesson is very important. take care of your baby and your wife. again, wifey, is responsible for bringing your bundle of joy to this world. (of course, she didn't do it by herself, unless she knows how to self-pollinate. :) ) she carried baby for nine months in her tummy, give her the care and attention she needs. i guess she deserves it. don't let her feel that you value the baby more than her.(which i guess is how they feel everytime the father pays more attention to the baby's needs.) she also needs your attention so the next time you feel like saying " i love you" to your baby, make sure that you say it to wifey first...things don't have to change betwen you and wifey.after all, you used to say it to her when you were still dating, right?

am i unfair?

2007-02-27T21:56:00.000-08:00

how is it to be fair? what comprise equality?
isn't equality and fairness being able to do things that others are doing as well? isn't equality and fairness enjoying what others enjoy such as a long vacation leave in boracay, a new gadget every now and then, women, parties...all the things that make juan drool over what pedro has? isn't fairness the same as equality?
then this is bullshit,
who are we to talk about being fair, when we cannot think of another persons conditon and situation at a given time? who are we to talk about equality, when we cannot even distinguish what is right at a given moment?
who are we to say that people are unfair, everytime we cannot get what we want?
are we being fair everytime we complain and hurt other persons feelings?

fairness and equality are awfully misrepresented and misguided words. everytime, we complain of things being unfair and not equal, look back. are we the only ones feeling this way? we cry "unfair", we complain, the other person feels the same way, he cries "unfair", he complains. this vicious cycle goes on and on, until we get tired of it...does it seem fair that the cycle just goes on and on yet, we are the ones getting tired of all of it?

ranting about all of this mumbo-jumbo about fairness and equality, will get me nowhere.is that fair?
there is this thin line that divides fairness and equality from reality....we can be fair and equal to everyone but still we are not living in the same reality.
until all of us live in the same realm of reality where there is fairness and equality, then we can never experience what is to be fair and equal to one another.....isn't that unfair?

Playing with my Blog

2007-02-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

i came across several blogs which has the "recent posts" on their sidebars aside from the regular blog archive.
i want to have that feature in this blog of mine as well so i searched the template function on the dashboard but to no avail. i searched from the help topics but all they say is that i should have the classic template to be able to add the tags that they have.
the day came to a close and still i haven't figured out how to create that portion for my blog.

just this morning, the best of my eagerness to create the function for my blog grew stronger. i studied the html template of the blog and tinkered with it a few times, switched to classic template and then uploading my previous template (i messed up the layout a lot of times luckily i have saved the original template.) really cannot get it right so i decided to quit my endeavor...but still i wanted to have it in my blog....i looked and studied the html template one last time before i gave up on the idea totally when i figured something out....(this stuff is worth mentioning in the blogger hacks section. )anyway, i tried the code i figured out and somehow it works.
i'm sharing the code to everyone who wants to have the recent posts on their blogs and are using the new blogger layout and not the classic template.

brackets here b:widget id='BlogArchive2' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='BlogArchive' close tag brackets

enjoy the code, just leave a comment if you would like to ask questions or simply want some help.
this is the closest i can get it to be like a recent posts list. knowledge of html is essential in determining the code structure since i tried posting this entry several times already and the code just seems to disappear thats why it looks like this.

pissed

2007-02-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

i just found out that my daughters pictures are no longer on the server i placed them in!
i have transferred her pictures to a new picture server.
the former server says that they are no longer available...bullsh*t.i own the account yet i cannot find my own pictures.

a simple story

2007-02-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

once there was an island where all the feelings lived. one day, it was announced that the island is sinking into the ocean. the feelings prepared to leave when love asks richness: "can i come with you on your boat?" richness replied:"i'm sorry but there's no room for you anymore. there's lots of gold and silver here already." a bit disheartened, love went to sadness and said," can you stay here with me?" without looking at love, sadness replied in a sad note:" i want to be alone."

love was very sad now after being turned down twice. love saw happiness very eager to leave. love approached happiness and said:"happiness, i'd like to come with you." unfortunately, happiness never heard any of the words love said.

love didn't know what to do."i'll be doomed together with this island." he said to himself. when suddenly, love heard a soft voice saying:" love, i'll take you with me." love looked and saw that the voice came from time. feeling so blessed and overjoyed, love immediately prepared to leave with time. on their way to times boat, love couldn't help but ask:" why did you ask me to come with you?"
silence.
"because only i know how great you can be!" time replied as they set sail together.

"only time knows how great love can be" happy valentines!

"ae-i-o-u"

2007-02-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

"ae-i-o-u"
we used to mimic this sound when we were playing with our robots when we were still children. this sound has been made famous by the cartoon series "transformers". everytime, the vehicles change to their robot form, they make this sound."ae-i-o-u"

this sound was so magical back then. part of its magic was wanting to see how the cartoon vehicles-robot would transform in reality.would they still make the "ae-i-o-u" sound?

a few months from now, the children of the 80's would live to see the magic of those vehicle-robots. they have already created our wildest fantasy back then...a movie, and not a cartoon movie, based on the robots. transformers the movie will be showing come july and i will be waiting to be able to see how it plays out.....it should really be something "more than meets the eye".

and before i forget, they do make the "ae-i-o-u"sound.

pictures

2007-02-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

found a picture host for gabby's pix.have uploaded several pictures already.the pix are not shared publicly so you still need to log in to view them.the link can be found on the links portion titled "gabby's photos".....enjoy the pix!

edit: 2.05 pm
i decided to make the pix public para la na hassle sa mga gustong makita si gabby.

Patricia Gabrielle

2007-02-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

presenting: patricia gabrielle a. samante

january 27, 2007 was the day our daughter was born...as mentioned in my earlier blog entry, we were supposed to schedule her for C-section on the 30th of the same month but she had other plans. her mom already had labor pains during the morning of the 27th and at 3.55 pm, she came into this world.

(this picture of her was taken when she was at home already. i will post her other pictures sometime this week..am still looking for a picture server...please recommend any if you happen to know one.)

lifted from my previous blog

2007-01-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 24th 2007
01:25:02
waiting
after months of waiting....the end is near.
our nine months of waiting for our baby girl to arrive in this world is soon coming to a close. what a way to start the year.a new chapter in our life...in my life.as i anxiously wait her coming, i can't contain the emotions i have.this waiting can come to a close in a few days or the latest would be a week.nonetheless, it will be all over.
here's an advance welcome to you my baby.hope to see you soon
i love you

(i'm just too tired to re-type it and so i just copied and pasted it here.)
update:
my wife will be giving birth on the 3oth of this month by C-section....we will finally see our baby girl.

welcome to dravenworkz

2007-01-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

welcome to dravenworkz!
this is my first blog now that i am starting a new phase in my life....a few days from now, my baby girl will arrive thus this "new" blog...this will be about me, my wife, my baby and my family. (of course, a little personal commentary and stories by me will still be featured here), but this will primarily be about my family and family life.

have a nice day!