Chase and Bev's Jamaican Patties

Ever since I got to taste Jamaican Patties a year and a half ago, during our company's quarterly general assembly, this food's become one of my favorite snacks since. And since I loved it so much, I got one for Chase to try out as well. Not surprisingly, he loved it as well!

Ever since, we'd buy ourselves Jamaican Patties every now and then. One day, for no apparent reason, we just asked ourselves, "why not try making one of these?"

After a couple of weeks, we decided to do it this weekend and we the plan finally pushed through! We went to the grocery this morning, shopped for our ingredients, and started making them around 3 pm, with the help of my mom. It's a pretty simple recipe. The dough's the tricky part though. The rest consists process consists simply of mixing the ingredients, and simmer.

And finally, our finish product!



It wasn't the best, but I think it was clearly a first attempt success for us! We got the filling right, but the dough wasn't right. I think it'll be nice to try creating one again some time soon.

Ubuntu for my Desktop PC

My desktop pc has not been used for quite a while. Since the primary computer I use now is my laptop, which is running on Windows XP, I've decided to reformat my desktop, and install a different OS, Ubuntu instead. This way, I get to learn how to use a different operating system. I'm looking into learning more on the command line processing rather than using the gui altogether. Been working at the office using Unix and been wanting to learn more. I guess this is a good way for me to learn more and familiarize myself with Unix like environments.

annoying

When you ask a question, you expect a decent answer.
That's all I'm asking and these people that I ask such a simple question cannot even answer appropriately. If you don't like the plan, reply properly, it's as simple as that. I'm just doing the asking thing as a favor.

At least the others are decent enough to reply properly.

Opportunity to Achieve Greatness

Out of boredom in the office, I was surfing through the web and found a pretty interesting article about George W. Bush. Seems that this guy's approval rating is dropping by the minute. I am no particular fan of American Politics, especially since our local politics is still much more disturbing. However, given than I am a fan of the financial market, and is keeping up with US market news, I just can't help but feel that the president has got some hand on the negative sentiments that is spreading through the market.

Random concerns aside, I found this article well written. Below is probably one of the best thoughts we, as Filipinos and human beings, can ponder on:

Here's an excerpt taken from
Rolling Stone's article: "The Worst President in History?
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush"

Bush has more in common with post-1945 Democratic presidents Truman and Johnson, who both became bogged down in overseas military conflicts with no end, let alone victory, in sight. But Bush has become bogged down in a singularly crippling way. On September 10th, 2001, he held among the lowest ratings of any modern president for that point in a first term. (Only Gerald Ford, his popularity reeling after his pardon of Nixon, had comparable numbers.) The attacks the following day transformed Bush's presidency, giving him an extraordinary
opportunity to achieve greatness.

Isn't it a shame that George W. Bush was not able to utilize this opportunity for him to achieve greatness? Back here in the Philippines, throughout its history, were we able to have a leader who was able to bring us up when there was turmoil and depression? In terms of the Philippine politics arena, either my history there is rusty or it's just that I can't think of one person right now while writing this entry.

On the other hand, on the business sector, I would probably mention PLDT's rise. I remember before, that PLDT had their fare share of losses, regular employee strikes, etc. But someone did make the turnaround (do we attribute this to MVP?), and look where it is now, PLDT's the most profitable company in Philippines to date.

I guess in reality, we all have our opportunities to shine. Troubled times does not mean that we do not have a choice. We have a choice whether to allow ourselves to be remembered with that dismal failure, or to allow ourselves to be remembered by how we overcame that obstacle.

random thoughts

I guess a good thing came out of our ATG to BEA Weblogic migration project - I've learned so much since!

Things I Want to Buy

Some things that I want to buy:
1. New laptop bag! I really don't like the laptop bag my laptop came with. Acer's laptop bag is big and heavy. This one's from Sumdex and I found one in Digital Walker Trinoma branch. Unfortunately, it costs way over my budget.

2. New white shoes. Suddenly, my sketchers sneakers just looks plain ugly after two years. I want something nice. Lacoste was my preferred choice but after seeing the prices there, I just had to backout and look for alternatives.

3. New jeans.

4. New Giordano shirts.

5. I just love love love love to purchase one of these. I wish!

Maybe it would be nice to set deadlines for these huh?

sold

After holding MEG for around 2.5 months, I finally sold it at 4.4 yesterday. I have a TP for MEG at 5 pesos per share but decided to sell it off as I'm not really comfortable with the state of the market for now. I'll be coming in again once I see a good bargain, or maybe I'd go and try testing out the gold-related and driven stocks for now, like PX for example. I will still monitor the market, and hopefully, will be able to get in the best time possible.

As they say, you buy low, then sell high.