halfwhiteboy

Updated with photos and tidbits, Nov. 1, 2023 Welcome to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory! It's been years since we last decorated our office for Halloween. Although our company continuously held office decorating contests up until the pandemic, it was in 2018 when we last joined (and won!) with our Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures Halloween office decor .  Now the annual contest is back and they've expanded it to multiple office locations. We've since moved to a new office and despite everyone being very busy with work, we still managed to execute our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Halloween office decor theme . Here's a quick, albeit shaky, tour.

No, this ain't Christmas. It's Halloween! Where I work, Halloween is so BIG. It's HUGE! GINORMOUS! EPIC! Even though it's officially a workday, it's practically a holiday where parents bring their costumed kids to our building for some trick-or-treating. And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year, with our HR steadily introducing more and more contests. Aside from different variations of best in costume for kids, there's now one for adults as well. Workspace-decorating, however, has been the core of our Halloween celebrations for many years now--and people are serious about it. Never mind that the prize isn't really that substantial; I guess it's the sheer joy of doing it that motivates employees to put up a great show. Okay, and maybe bragging rights for the winners. But auditors being the stereotypical boring professionals that we (supposedly) are, we never ever bothered joining the annual competition until two years ago when we de...

And 2016 has begun! Before the clock struck midnight, though, we managed to squeeze in a little family portrait for New Year's . We were all complete--me and Kwittiegirl in our ugly but cute Christmas sweaters , and our four cats Kwittie Boy, Foreman, Thordis, and Little Boy. We haven't done this in a really long time and our last attempt two years ago was a total disaster. It was already difficult doing a Halloween family portrait back when we only had two cats--how much more with four! They've got claws for chrissakes! Getting that usable photo above took quite the effort. First I had to set the camera up since I'll be using the timer. Next Kwittiegirl had to position herself with two cats in the frame before I start the timer, grab the remaining two cats, and get ourselves in the frame. And then of course we had to control all four of them for a good couple of minutes. Here are some outtakes (or should I say bloopers?) from our little amateur shoot:

So much glee under the sea! Oh, the Halloween blues... You know, fun times at the office and all. Where I work, annual Halloween celebrations are a blast--and last Friday was no exception. While in past years departments were given free rein on their theme and choice of decor, this year our HR stepped in and, based on the results of a survey, assigned a movies theme for all. They tied it with iflix , a movies and TV streaming service with which Smart  has a partnership. You can check out http://smart.com.ph/pages/iflix for more information about the service, available subscription packages (like a measly Php99/month, anyone?), and more. Reps from each floor drew lots to determine their designated movie. The choices were reportedly from iflix's top 200 movies. Personally I wasn't very happy about this--at least at first--because we already had grand plans for something else. It also didn't help that we got Shark Tale . Shark Tale. When I broke the news to my co...

Yup, I became Lord Voldemort. That was last year. For Halloween, of course. And it's not for any party whatsoever but for the office. For the life of me I've been donning Halloween costumes at work since 2008 when I dressed up as The Joker . Though my succeeding forays were rather simple in comparison, I've upped the ante again last year when our department joined our HR's Halloween decorating contest . We won, by the way. Looking back, it was quite the effort. I'm just fortunate to have Kwittiegirl with me who painstakingly did my makeup. My main problem was finding a bald cap. I was even so close to splurging on a swimming cap until I found one at a costume shop. Other problems included where in Metro Manila I could get some liquid latex and Spirit Gum, white face paint (which was out of stock in every store I went to), and finding a tailor at the last minute. And oh, I had to shave. The night before the big day I tried the bald cap on. It was a bit s...

Shortly after leaving our gate last Friday night for an errand, an energetic little kitten appeared out of nowhere and came running toward me. It was the first time I saw him in the neighborhood and of course I was delighted. Full of spunk, this little kitty. After a brief interaction with the little fella I went ahead. But when I came back from the convenience store he came running toward me again. It was like he wanted to play with me or something, so I gladly obliged.

I know, how cute is our dear Kwittie Boy. But he's not happy at all that all these New Year's Eve paraphernalia are being shoved in his face. And apparently our three other cats share the same feeling. Well, it's Chinese New Year and I thought we could use all those old cardboard trumpets for fun. It's still a New Year celebration, right? So what happens when you force this idea of Chinese New Year (even though we're not Chinese) on all four of our furry friends? Here's what...

Gomez and Morticia Addams. Okay, just one more. I know Halloween is long over and it's Christmas that's in everyone's head right now but I just couldn't move on without posting this. A day after I sported a Voldemort Halloween costume , we had a little get-together with friends over wine. It was supposed to be a 90s theme but it turned out that My Bibe and I were the only ones excited enough to wear a costume. Anyway, instead of going all Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls we took to the movies of that decade and stumbled upon the delightful The Addams Family .

A feeble attempt at recreating that 8th Harry Potter movie poster. I can't say it enough that I love Halloween and this year was probably one of the best, if not the best. First off My Bibe and I took leaps in the dressing-up department with her donning a Maleficent Halloween costume and me transforming into Voldemort . Yeah, they do make a good couple. Second, our department decided to join our HR's workplace decorating contest for the first time since it came to be 3 years ago. Interestingly, our building's 16th floor won this thing 3 friggin' years in a row. I showed my colleagues photos from last year where they went with a carnivale Halloween theme  and told them this is what we're up against. After firming up our collective decision to join, I pushed for a Hogwarts theme. We transformed our workplace into the famed witchcraft and wizardry school from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. Or at least we tried.

Halloween is one of my most favorite occasions and I'm personally glad that it's becoming more and more widespread each year in this part of the world. All the costumes and trick or treating were not really existent when I was a kid, so I guess I'm more than making up for that deprivation right now as an adult.  Since 2008 I've been dressing up for Halloween at the office. No, not for any party, just the office. I've had my costuming debut as The Joker , then put on much easier stuff like a devil-turned-angel and The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper . Later My Bibe would also join me in playing dress-up and so far we've done Goldilocks and the Three Bears (with our cats) and Alice in Wonderland , where she was Alice and I the White Rabbit. This year, we sort of leveled up. She was Maleficent while I was The Dark Lord. I did Voldemort to coincide with our Hogwarts-themed workplace decor. Anyway, here's us. Voldemort was instantly smitten ...

Expecto Patronum you say? Throughout my years of stay in this job, I've seen how Halloween has evolved into one of the most-awaited occasions here at our head office. From simple trick or treat activities organized by small groups many years ago, Halloween celebrations have since grown in scope that later involved decorating office areas and which have only become grander each year. Our HR has even been handing out prizes for the "best floor" for the last 3 years. Zooming in on our department, we first tried our hand at serious decorating 7 years ago in 2007. We held a contest where cubicles were clustered into teams, competing for cash prizes donated by our bosses. At the time we fondly called our area " Azkaban " after a floor re-layout that left us feeling we were in an enclosed pen or something. Anyway, we stuck with it and used it as our theme for the decorating contest.

Still hung up from the fun-filled Guardians of the Galaxy, I so want a dancing baby Groot toy for myself, maybe something in this mold:

The Philippine National Anthem playing at the start of #BoomPH's main event. Cool lights, huh? Yesterday, June 28, hundreds of netizens trooped to the Samsung Hall at SM Aura Premier for the 3rd Social Media Day in the Philippines. Social Media Day (#SMDay) is an annual global event launched by Mashable in 2010 "as a way to recognize the digital revolution happening right before our eyes," where people and communities are encouraged to organize local meetups in their respective cities. In the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular, the first such event was organized in 2012 by Tweetup Manila (@TweetupMNL), an online community of people who I can say are genuinely into social good, be it about disasters, rescues, and many more. It's their passion, one that's good and one that brings even more good. Anyway, yesterday was the third, which was dubbed #BoomPH , short for "The B est o f O nline M edia in the Ph ilippines." Since 2012, #SMDay has...

I mentioned a few months ago in my review of Acuaverde Beach Resort in Laiya that they've built their restaurant around two trees where they've also set up two mini aviaries housing a bunch of love birds. And then I saw this: I already noticed these two behaving differently, with the green guy seemingly pursuing the yellow one relentlessly. So this is how love birds make love, complete with pecking and all.

Yolanda was definitely one helluva bitch. And the world's strongest tropical cyclone at landfall made sure everyone knew it with the untoward havoc her 195mph winds wreaked across central Philippines last Friday. I was in constant touch with my mom in Cebu City that day, who in turn was also in communication with our relatives in Ormoc City. Cebu City was on typhoon alert no. 3 while Ormoc was on no. 4, the highest possible warning by our local weather bureau. Ormoc is in the province of Leyte, one of the first hit by super typhoon Haiyan (locally named Yolanda). I asked about my grandpa and the rest of our relatives in Ormoc and she said they had already evacuated to our aunt's house next door the night before. It sounded very familiar to me because when I was growing up in Ormoc, moving to a relative's more secure house during typhoons was not at all uncommon, just like we did during the 1991 Ormoc flash flood . My mom said she had been texting with a cousin till th...

And just like that, the long weekend's over. It's back to work and there's absolutely nothing to cheer us up but those fresh memories from that little fun day called Halloween. After going Goldilocks and the Three Bears last year, My Bibe and I went for another fairy tale theme this year: Alice in Wonderland . Or Underland, whatever. ( I was also The Joker in 2008, a devil-turned-angel in 2010, and Dr. Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory in 2011. ) My Bibe, of course, was Alice and I was The White Rabbit. No, I didn't put on a gargantuan bunny suit. I wore a suit but I had bunny ears and bunny paws. And a bunny tail.

Yesterday's magnitude 7.2 earthquake sure jolted the nation. Amid all the photos and clips we saw of people scampering for safety, heartbreaking evacuations, and of the resultant destruction, it was hard to ignore the images of centuries-old Catholic churches in Bohol and Cebu that either sustained major damage or were simply reduced to rubble. Truly one doesn't realize how important something is until it's gone. I never really cared much for such heritage structures before and it was only recently that I started developing some interest in them. However faint that interest is, at least I'm starting to point my camera at them. While I'm relieved to learn that the old churches in Siquijor are intact, including the one with the wooden floor in Lazi , regret is the only thing I feel with regard to the ones in Bohol, some of which I've never even seen. I found this collage of before and after photos of these churches from Facebook, which is just hearbreaking....

(Continued from Part 2 ) In August 2007 I had undergone an ERCP ( endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography ) to remove the stones that were constricting the normal flow of my bile. The doctor opted for sphincterotomy to facilitate removal of the stones. And as luck--or lack thereof--would have it, I suffered from ascending cholangitis  shortly after being discharged. It's a complication suffered by a small percentage of patients who had such a procedure. So I was back to hospital confinement. Antibiotic treatment Since there were no more obstructions in my CBD, what was left to do was just treat the infection with antibiotics. I think they gave me Unasyn (ampicillin/sulbactam) then. Administered in drip form, this is a much faster way of releasing the medicine into the bloodstream. It also does not strain the liver because unlike tablets or capsules, the liver no longer needs to break the antibiotics down into usable components for the body. After all, my liver had jus...

Foreword Yesterday, August 26, 2013, it happened. Throngs of people trooped to the Luneta Park grounds in Manila to call for the abolition of the pork barrel and to demand accountability from those who have misused it. Before this, citizens -- taxpayers most of all -- were already enraged by rampant corruption in government highlighted by the alleged Php 10 billion pork barrel scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles, who is now in hiding after a warrant for her arrest was issued. Then just less than two weeks ago, the Commission on Audit (COA) released a bombshell of a special audit report on the PDAF , and people went berserk on social media. Almost immediately, the call to join a rally at Luneta spread online. Silence from both Palace and lawmakers followed, as if they were stunned. Then one by one we hear them either suddenly declaring their support for the abolition of the pork barrel or pathetically trying to defend the need for it, only to flip-flop later on. We also heard part...

It is no secret that the Philippine government -- whether of administrations past or present -- is corrupt, and to dismiss it as mere public opinion is downright insulting. It is in this regard that we welcome, however enraged we might be with them, all these exposés on the misuse and pocketing of pork barrel funds. Many of us taxpayers have been expressing our anger at this government that shows no genuine regard for its people and that does not have an iota of any sense of accountability at all. While so-called "pork barrel queen" Janet Napoles is in hiding, which, by the way, is really no surprise given her extensive connections with the most high in government, the Commission on Audit (COA) released a report on their special audit of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or more widely known as the pork barrel fund. The report sent more bloods boiling -- mine included -- and prompted more angry tweets and posts, including calls to stop paying taxes, and whi...