MANNY PACQUIAO VS RICKY HATTON (streaming, video & photos)
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What? What? Can you repeat that PLEASE!
…mula sa isang puting kiwi
___________________________
I read with a sinking stomach that Telecom, in their infinite wisdom, are moving 250 call centre jobs to Manila which will bring their number of call centre people there to 700.
Must be a money saver…why pay Kiwis a half decent wage when you can get the job done more cheaply elsewhere?
hisssssssssss…………..
I’ve had a lot of problems with email, am on the phone to xtra at least once a week - and it drives me nuts.
It’s bad enough that Telecom/xtra can fail in their service to us full stop, and it’s even worse if that failure is not reflected in a reduced phone bill, but what’s really infuriating is not being able to understand the person on the other end of the line who is supposed to be helping.
Filipinos learn American English and their accents are diabolically hard to understand. They are so heavy!
When I have to call them for help I am always stressed out (because my job is communication and I can’t afford to be offline and incommunicado - that would mean blank pages in About Town!) so getting someone with a voice that a) is almost unintelligible and b) grates, really fires me up. It shouldn’t I know. But it does. Their voices are not just impossible to understand, they are really annoying as well. You know how some accents can be totally charming? Well, these are anything but! They must be the least attractive accents in the world!
And because these people are as close as we get to the actual corporation I allow myself to fully vent my anger…
E.g. after getting someone to repeat something 6 times I will yell in frustration.
I am better with Indian call centres since I saw Slumdog Millionaire, and I can cope with Cairo, but Manila? I lose it!
Wouldn’t it be nice if Kiwis could do these jobs instead of adding to the unemployment.
It’s mental. It doesn’t make sense and it makes me really really mad!!!!
The War at Home
mula sa isang intsik beho…
__________________________
The War at Home
By Chip Tsao
The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on-—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as HK$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.
As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.
Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her Government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.
Oh yes. The Government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout ‘China, Madam/Sir’ loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly”. They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.
dude…buggy!
yes, juan next time you see a picture of the moon buggy always remember a pinoy had a hand on designing it.
His designs might not be exactly what went up to the moon ( read comparative analysis), but hell there’s no denying his initial proposals where part of the end product.
Mechanical engineer, Eduardo San Juan (aka The Space Junkman) worked on the team that invented the Lunar Rover or Moon Buggy. San Juan was also the designer for the Articulated Wheel System.
Elisabeth San Juan, the proud daughter of Eduardo San Juan, had the following to say about her father.
When my Father submitted the conceptual design for the Lunar Rover he submitted it via Brown Engineering, a company owned by Lady Bird Johnson.
During the final test demonstration to select one design from various submissions, his was the only one that worked. Thus, his design won the NASA Contract.
His overall concept and design of the Articulated Wheel System was considered brilliant. Each wheel appendage was mounted not underneath the vehicle, but were placed outside the body of the vehicle and each was motorized. Wheels could work independently of the others. It was designed to negotiate crater ingress and egress. The other vehicles did not make it into or out of the test crater.
- kya pinoy, next time ka tumingala at mapagmasdan ang buwan alalahaning kahit papaano ay naka-abot naroon ang talino ng lahi mo.
YO! yo…man
Pedro Flores
The Flores yo-yo was the first yo-yo manufactured in the United States, it’s originator was Pedro Flores. Pedro Flores is considered the original yo-yo guru. Mr. Flores was the singular most important person in introducing the word “yo-yo” to the United States. Although the yo-yo as a toy (known as a bandalore) has been used for centuries, even existing in the United States for years prior to Mr. Flores, as one astute observer noted in the late 1920’s “we’ve all done the yo-yo before but we never had a name for it.”
Pedro Flores was a native of Vintarilocos Norte, Philippines. He came to the United State in 1915. He attended the High School of Commerce in San Francisco 1919-1920 then he took up the study of Law at the University of California Berkeley and the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
Flores dropped out of school for reasons unknown and moved to Santa Barbara, California. He worked at odd jobs for years and at the time of starting his yo-yo business he was working as a bellboy.
He developed his vision for the yo-yo’s potential when he read about a man selling a ball attached to a rubber band who made a million dollars. He remembered the game yo-yo which was played for hundreds of years in the Philippines and he thought it had a good market possibility in the U.S. Mr. Flores was quoted saying “I do not expect to make a million dollars, I just want to be working for myself. I have been working for other people for practically all my life and I don’t like it.”
In early 1928 Flores came to Los Angeles and asked some wealthy Philippine for assistance in manufacturing yo-yos. His friends thought him crazy and he returned to Santa Barbara with only his dream. Being a true entrepreneur, at the age of 29, on June 9th 1928, he applied and received a certificate of conducting business for the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara. On June 23, 1928 he made 1 dozen yo-yos by hand and began selling them to neighborhood children. By November of 1928 his company had 2000 yo-yos and he was able to attract two American financiers, James and Daniel Stone of Los Angeles. Now with the ability to produce machine made yo-yos, four months later, over 100,000 yo-yos had been produced. By November of 1929 three factories were making 300,000 yo-yos daily and employing 600 workers. These companies were the Flores and Stone, Los Angeles; The Flores Yo-yo Corporation, Hollywood; and the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company, Santa Barbara.
Flores also inaugurated the yo-yo spinning contest which spread the first yo-yo frenzy in the United States in late 1928 and 1929. The yo-yo was promoted as the Flores Yo-yo “The Wonder Toy” and using a phrase which now familiar with a slight variation “If it isn’t Flores it isn’t a yo-yo” as the slogan. Although early contests resulted in the spread of the yo-yo fad they were clearly different than the more modern contests. In the initial contests endurance was the main event. The winner was the individual who could keep his or her yo-yo spinning up and down without missing, for the longest duration. Many contests resulted in ties after hours of continuous yo-yoing by stubborn competitors refusing to quit. Frequently, the champion of these endurance events was determined by drawing straws. Other contest categories included the yo-yo thrown farthest with complete return and the largest number of perfect spins in a five minute period. Prizes were also for hand made yo-yos, and yo-yos made out of bicycle wheels and wood barrel tops were not uncommon submissions. Early contests could be found anywhere but on November 22, 1929 the Gates Theater in Portsmouth, Virginia, became the first theater to offer a contest. For the rest of the 20’s and 30’s theaters became popular sites for contests. Although some Flores yo-yo strings were made out of silk which allowed for less sleep action than later cotton strings. Several different designs of the Flores yo-yo were done. Prices in 1929 ranged from 15 cents to $1.50 each depending on the design and decoration. Flores employed Dorothy Carter as his chief designer of his yo-yos.
Although Pedro Flores was frequently described as the inventor of the yo-yo, Mr. Flores never personally claimed to have invented the yo-yo, and he always mentioned it’s past history as a centuries old Philippine game. He was also frequently described as the patent holder of the yo-yo, but yo-yos (Bandalores) prior to Pedro Flores had already been patented. Even though patent applied for and patent pending are often seen on Flores yo-yos this was a technique used to dissuade other toy companies from producing yo-yos. There was no legal patent held for the standard yo-yo by Pedro Flores. He did apply for and receive a trademark for the Flores Yo-yo and this was registered on July 22, 1930. It was shortly after this that Flores sold his interest in the yo-yo factories which were later acquired by the Donald Duncan Yo-yo Company.
At the end of 1929 a true yo-yo craze was going on across the country initially inspired by Flores but new competitors had entered the arena including Don Duncan, Lewis Marx and others. Although Duncan’s name is most associated with the popularity of the yo-yo contests, the original yo-yo fire was fueled by Pedro Flores. It is uncertain exactly at what date Duncan Yo-yo Company acquired the Flores Yo-Yo name (probably 1930) but it did have the Flores trade mark legally assigned to it in 1932. For a period of time in the early 1930’s Duncan corporation not only sold Duncan Yo-yos but they also sold Flores Yo-yos as well. In very early contests in 1931 either a genuine Flores yo-yo or a genuine Duncan Gold Seal Yo-yo could be used in the competitions.
Pedro Flores was reported to have sold his interest in his yo-yo manufacturing companies for greater than one quarter of a million dollars, which during the depression was a fortune. Mr. Flores was quoted saying “I am more interested in teaching children to use the yo-yos than I am in manufacturing of yo-yos.” Flores followed through by becoming one of the key promoters in Duncan’s early yo-yo campaigns. Especially during 1931-32, Mr. Flores was instrumental in setting up many of the promotions in the cities where the early Duncan contests were being held. The contest’s were vastly changed from the initial contests ran by Flores just two years previously. These contests now required a series of tricks similar to modern day contests with ties being broken by the number of loop the loops completed.
Flores stayed involved with yo-yos most of his life and even after W.W. II he helped Joe Radovan in the establishment of the Chico Yo-yo Company. He also started the Flores Corp. of America in 1954 which briefly produced yo-yo in the 1950’s. Although Flores has less name recognition in the general public compared to other yo-yo manufacturing companies it was Flores who introduced the yo-yo craze to America.
- yan ang tribiang pinoy!
Finding “kubo”
Filipino Design Artists in “Finding Nemo
‘Bahay kubo’ ( “Nipa” Hut)
Next time you watch the movie, LOOK closely into that dentist’s aquarium, right where the little clownfish Nemo is resting. Yes, that is a bahay-kubo. That little touch is only one of the different contributions to the Disney/Pixar film “Finding Nemo” courtesy of two Filipino artists involved with the production. It may be set in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but there’s a lot of the Philippines in there, thanks to Nelson Bohol and Gini Cruz.
Bohol, 41, is one of the movie’s main background designers. “I provide the environment, props, anything they need,” says Bohol on the phone. Bohol, born in Catbalogan, had always liked drawing since he was little. After graduating with a degree in architecture from the Manuel L. Quezon University in 1985, Bohol went to work for Burbank Animation in Makati, cutting his teeth on Saturday morning cartoon shows.
Bohol fell in love with the possibilities of this new industry. Bohol and four other animation artists formed their own company in 1991. Shortly after, Bohol got to work on early episodes of the now ubiquitous Nickelodeon show “Rugrats.” When the show received an Emmy, the Filipino animators even received a certificate attesting to the Emmy win. While that was a proud moment for Bohol, there was more awaiting him.
In 1996, 20th Century Fox’s animation division held an exam for local artists, intent on finding talent they could bring to the States. Thinking he had nothing to lose, Bohol took the exams, and wound up among the 50 artists-there were over 150 applicants- accepted by Fox Animation.
Working out of Phoenix, Arizona, Bohol got to work on such Fox animated flicks as “Anastasia” and “Titan A.E.” In 2000, he moved to Pixar Animation Studio, where he designed environments and props for a movie that took three years to finish — “Finding Nemo,” the latest Disney/Pixar collaboration.
Bohol explains that he is still very much into the traditional aspects of animation. “Lapis at papel pa rin (still pencil and paper for me),” he laughs, “I don’t know much about computers.”
‘Pinoy closeness’
Still very fond of his homeland, Bohol applied some personal touches to the aquarium tank in the dentist’s office. “The aquarium is 100 percent mine,” he says proudly. First, he was responsible for the bahay-kubo. Next, he used Mt.Mayon as an inspiration for the miniature volcano inside the aquarium, Mt. Wanahakalugi: “But I couldn’t make it as perfect as the real Mayon.”
Last, he added a very personal touch. “In the aquarium, there are three tiki heads. They’re actually caricatures of three artists who worked on the movie.” The one to the right resembles another Filipino-blooded artist, Ricky Nieva, while another the one on the left is of a Korean-American colleague.
“The one in the middle, that’s me,” laughs Bohol, “complete with bigote and nunal (mustache and mole).”
Now residing in the East Bay in Northern California with his wife and four kids, Bohol is ecstatic about his time working with Disney and Pixar. “This is it! This is the best place to work, my dream from when I started.” Citing Marikina as his hometown, Bohol loves basketball and misses the “samahan” (closeness) among Filipinos and the food-he even hopes to visit soon. Yet he never forgets how lucky he’s been. “Oh my God, I’m so blessed.”
Animator Virginia “Gini” Cruz’s path to Pixar is not too different even if her role differs from Bohol’s. Cruz was born in Pasay City but left the country when she was three as her parents migrated to Guam. “My late father wanted me to study here because he said the education was good,” Cruz recalls. Originally dragged home “kicking and screaming,” she found out she enjoyed herself here, studying at St. Scholastica’s College Manila for high school and taking up fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas, majoring in advertising. After graduating in 1987, she returned to Guam, where she worked in advertising, but her artistic sense was pulling her in a different direction.
She studied computer art at New York’s School of Visual Art, putting together a reel of animation for her thesis. She sent it out to different companies, but when Pixar called in 1996, Cruz knew immediately where she wanted to go. “I really, really wanted to work with them.” Working with Dory In some capacity or other, Cruz got to work on “Toy Story 2,” “A Bug’s Life” and “Monsters, Inc.” But her biggest contribution so far is her involvement with “Nemo,” as she got to animate Dory, the forgetful bluefish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. It was, after all, her job to look at the character designs, listen to the recorded voice, and make sure that Dory said what she was supposed to. “I loved working on Dory,” Cruz enthuses. “It really appeals to me, the idea of this fish with short term memory loss. Ellen DeGeneres was amazing. She has such a rich array of emotions in her voice.”
Cruz also enjoyed working briefly on the cowgirl Jessie from “Toy Story 2.”
Unlike Bohol, Cruz works primarily with computers but adds wryly, “I’m the one who keeps calling the system guys when I can’t get it to work.” Cruz says one has to learn to use technology if you work on actually animating characters “but it doesn’t necessarily make it easier. You have a lot of details to take care of. It’s all the same, in the end.”
Like Bohol, she is relishing being able to work with Disney: “I am still amazed. I mean, every movie I watched when I was a kid was by Disney.”
Next adventure
The very busy Cruz loves living in the eclectic city of San Francisco, where she is currently trying to develop a green thumb by cultivating a garden. “If I didn’t have my garden, I’d just be at work all week.” She’s been back to the country several times, recently for a wedding. But work is what drives her these days.
As “Finding Nemo” proves, Filipino craftsmanship comes in many forms but remains resilient and vibrant, visible in the way Dory mouths her lines perfectly or the mesmerizing seascape unfolding on the screen. Bohol and Cruz are now deep into work for Pixar’s next adventure-the superhero tale “The Incredibles,” due out in fall, 2004.
Sources:
http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/sec_sho/2003/aug/11-02.htm
http://www.inq7.net/ent/2003/aug/11/ent_2-1.htm
http://www.outsourcephilippines.org/newsIndex.cfm
Sabado Nights
Naaalala ba ninyo si Ina Raymundo at kung san nauso ang bansag sa “Sabado Nights” ?
