Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends

Tomorrow we revert back to standard time at 2:00 am thus we gain one hour of extra time/sleep! Since 1966, most of the United States has observed DST from 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April to 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Starting in 2007, most of the U.S. will begin DST at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and revert to standard time on the first Sunday in November. That gives us almost 4 weeks extra for DST. So it's from almost 7 months of DST to almost 8 months of DST starting 2007. Standard time will just happen for like a little more than 4 months every year. Kind of an irony in terms of terminology but that is really in repect to the rest of the world.

The change in duration starting in 2007 was due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which President George W. Bush signed in August 8, 2005. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.

For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona. The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

As a guide to how we adjust the time, just remember these words, when it's spring, "spring forward"; when it's fall, "fall back".


A safety reminder:
Many fire departments encourage people to change the battery in the smoke detector when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. "A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire," says William McNabb of the Troy Fire Department in Michigan. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries.

How to make debtors pay-Filipino Style

This is a photo from yesterday's Philippine Daily Inquirer online. Apparently, this man, a sari-sari store owner got fed-up with his customers' unpaid debts to him that he posted all these signs in front of his sari-sari store. Now, it's human nature that you don't want your transgressions being broadcast like this so as of press time for this article, about half of what he was owed were paid. Now that's resourcefulness in action. By the looks of it, he would probably still keep the same customers and perhaps they will be more timely with their payments unless there's another store in their vicinity where they can have more lenient terms, but I'm just speculating. One thing though will never change in this type of microeconomics, 'pakilista lang po'.

It's all about the Dash

A friend sent me this link sometime ago. Although it's a touchy subject, there's no question about the truth and reality of this one. Click here to connect to the link, don't forget to turn on your speakers.

How does the Philippines compare to the US in terms of population?

Yesterday in the news, the US finally hit the 300 million mark in terms of its population. Now whether that includes a certain estimate for undocumented aliens where it is said to be around 10-12 million, I’m not sure. I’m trying to gauge the relevance of this figure and have been playing around with some numbers and data to compare it with the Philippines and this is what I gathered.

US population (Oct. 2006) - 300 million
Land Area - 5,984, 685 square miles or 15,500,263 square kilometers
Population Density - 19.35 persons/sq. kilometer

Philippines’ population - 89,468,677 (July 06 est. from Wikepedia)
Land Area - 298,170 square kilometers
Population Density - 301.85 persons/sq. kilometer

301.85/19.35= 15.6 x (Phil. Population Density is almost 16 x more than the US)

Now comparing the most populous state in the US which is California to Metro Manila which is obviously the most populous place in the Philippines, this is what I gathered.

California population (2005) - 36, 132,147
Land Area - 155,959 square miles or 403,932 square kilometers
Population Density - 89.45 persons/sq. kilometer

Now for Metro Manila and this is just unbelievable.

Metro Manila Population – 11,289,368
Land Area – 636 square kilometers
Population density – 17,751 persons/ sq. kilometer
(Note: Manila alone has a density of 41,014 persons/sq. kilometer)

I don’t know if I’m comparing apples and oranges here (probably) so let me compare Metro Manila to the most populous city in the US.

New York City Population (2005 est.) = 8,213,839
Land Area – 303.3 square miles or 785.5 square kilometers
Population density – 10,456.8 persons/ sq. kilometer

Lastly, I just want to compare the ratio of one person to land area in terms of square meters.

Philippines – 3,312.9 sq. meters/person
Metro Manila – 56.3 sq. meters/person (that is 24.6 feet by 24.6 feet space per person)
Note: Manila alone -24.4 sq.meters/person (that’s roughly 16.2 feet by 16.2 feet!!!)

United States – 51,679.6 sq. meters/person
California – 11,179 sq. meters/person
New York City – 95.6 sq. meters/person


These are just numbers but they mean a lot and affect almost anything that pertains to anything (am I making sense?). I don’t intend to imply whatever but I did just want to check the numbers. I hope I did my math correctly but I double checked my calculations. Now, if it means anything, the Philippines is the 12th most populous country. Manila is not in the top 20 most populous cities in the world but we are the 19th most populous urban agglomeration. Looks like just a play of words here. Now, if that will only translate to winning medals in the Olympics as a matter of statistics, but that’s another “political” matter.

Have you seen this script before?

This is a translation of 'Ariel Magno' in 'Baybayin', also known as 'Alibata', a pre-hispanic script that Filipinos where using before the Spaniards came to our soil. Filipinos where still using it up to the first century of colonization until it just slowly disappeared. I'm sure it had very much to do with the foreign influence but this also showed that Filipinos were already literate even before colonization.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if I've learned about this script in high school or college. Perhaps it was mentioned in passing without any visual aids and I may have been doing something else whether I was inside the classroom or not. As I grow older and now living outside the Philippines, I just developed a natural inclination to know more about my home country, especially its past, things that I have taken for granted when I was much younger.



Jose Rizal once wrote:

This language of ours is like any other,
it once had an alphabet and its own letters
that vanished as though a tempest had set upon
a boat on a lake in a time now long gone.




"To My Fellow Children”, 1869
English translation by P. Morrow


Read more about Baybayin and Pre-hispanic Philippines. You'd find them very interesting. Here are some of the links:

Baybayin: The ancient script of the Philippines

How to write the ancient script of the Philippines

Ancient Philippines

Catalog of Filipino Names

Laguna Copperplate Inscription

In the 'Ancient Philippines' link, you'd find out that there are still a few groups of people/tribes in Palawan and Mindoro who are still familiar with the script and can still write it.


If you want to translate your name or any other word to Baybayin, click

Translate to Baybayin.


You just need to keep some pointers in mind like you have to spell the word(s) the same as you will pronounce it in Filipino (i.e. Di-yo-se-pin for Josephine) since some letters that we are using now doesn't have an equivalent letter in Baybayin. All other pointers can be read on the link provided.

Hope this little bit of history lesson has made you appreciate more my/our home country.

Photo Tip #4 - How to Compose

Imagine your camera viewfinder as a frame with grid lines similar to a Tic-Tac-Toe square. Just by placing your subject off-center, at one of the intersections of lines can make wonders to your composition. It is easy for our eyes to be drawn to the middle of the frame but it doesn't make a great composition. By making your subject off-center and employing even just one technique to lead the eyes to the main part of the subject (i.e. the face, the eyes) such as framing, converging lines, selective focusing, selective lighting, etc., one can easily make the distinction between a snapshot and an artistic photo. Just don't forget to lock the focus and re-compose before you press the shutter.

In landscape photography, placing say your horizon not in the middle but at the upper third line or lower third line also can make or break the composition. Placing the horizon at the lower third suggest spaciousness, upper third suggest closeness. Choosing between the two depends on what you'd like to convey but there's no harm in doing it both ways. A great cloud formation that perhaps signify an approaching storm would look good if you show more of the sky, for example.

There are people who are naturally more creative but creativity can be developed and knowing the rules of thumb in basic composition helps. Just know when to break the rules if needed.

David as Superboy

Last Sunday, I had a scheduled session to photograph a boy who was turning 5. I brought David with me to act as a kid wrangler if in case I need one, at the same time I may need him to hold a reflector or a diffusion panel but unfortunately the boy was just not in the mood no matter how much the grandma, his mom and me try to coax him and be photographed. So we had to re-schedule the session. Since David and I were already there, I decided to just shoot some 'fun' photos of him and came out with the photos above.

Kids' Party at the Blancaflors

Last Saturday, we went to Brian Blancaflor's birthday party in Miami. He just turned 7 years old. Brian together with CJ are David's original Sunday School friends when we used to attend their church. David sees CJ more regularly now since his family live very close by and we still have the same old bible study group every Friday.

Anyway, I decided to bring my camera since the Blancaflors, Ronie and Cora doesn't miss to hold some games for the kids every time there's a kids' party at their place.

Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the games:

This is a photo of Missy with her best friend Julinna, I think Julinna was a little afraid to join the sack race and Missy is just giving her a little encouragement.

Photo Tip #3 - Zoom with your feet

Robert Capa, the famed WWII photojournalist once said "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". This is the time when zoom lenses were still non-existent. Today there are tons of zoom lenses around for SLRs. Also, most point and shoot cameras come with built-in zoom lenses making it an all around camera. Finding a fixed focal length point and shoot is not an easy task.

Do I believe that zoom lenses are not to be used? Not exactly but we should learn to look for the best spot first before we ever use that zoom. Most photo enthusiasts I see, when there's a need for them to take a snapshot almost always remain on their spot and let the zoom lens do its thing even when just a few steps forward would certainly allow them to take a better picture.

Unless you're using a camera with a professional zoom lens known for making very good and sharp images, most zoom lenses are not as good as a fixed focal length lens, also known as a prime lens. Also, most consumer zoom lenses are not 'fast' lenses (having a maximum aperture of at least f/2.8) thereby making you use (albeit involuntary) a slower shutter speed which is set by the camera when you shoot in 'program mode' or automatic. When you zoom out and the shutter speed is not fast enough, it is almost certain that you will have a blurry picture. This is more prevalent in low light situations. That's why a tripod becomes a must for this kind of shooting situation. Even under bright sunny conditions, a tripod becomes necessary when you're using a longer focal length. You will always notice that's it's very hard to maintain a clear view of what you're looking at when using a high powered binocular. The principle is the same. When you zoom in, the angle of coverage becomes lesser and lesser and you'd notice that it's harder to steady the camera if you're just holding it even with two hands.

The rule of thumb is you use a shutter speed that is at least equal to the focal length of the lens you are using. If you're using a zoom lens and it is at say '110mm', your shutter speed should be around 1/125. If your zoom is at 35mm focal length, you can afford to use a shutter speed of 1/40 or even 1/30 if you can really steady the shot. If your zoom is at 300mm, the shutter speed should be quite near that range. The problem is when your camera is fully automatic and it doesn't show what shutter speed it's at, there's no way you can know. You can only have a feel of it depending on the amount of available light and the ISO your camera had been set to. Of course you can use a higher shutter speed anytime especially for action shots if the light condition will allow it.

These focal lengths I'm using as an example is the 35mm equivalent. Most digital point and shoots have a crop factor of 1.5 up to 2.0. If your lens says 24mm at it's widest angle, that's equivalent to 32mm for a 1.5 CF and 48mm for a 2.0 CF.

Now, since there are so many things that should be met when you're zooming in like when you're shooting available light, you don't have a fast lens on your camera, you don't have a tripod at the moment, your subject is not close enough and there will be a lot of dead space around your subject, you just drank a cup of coffee, it pays to zoom in with your feet first before you press the shutter.

Check your neighborhood for sex offenders

This site http://www.familywatchdog.us/ has just been forwarded to me. It was developed by John Walsh of 'America's Most Wanted'. It is somewhat similar to http://www.criminalcheck.com/ but it is a lot better. When you visit this site you can enter your address and a map will pop up with your house as the small icon of a house and red, blue, green, dots surrounding your entire neighborhood. When you click on these dots a picture of a person will appear with an address and the description of the crime he or she had committed. The best thing is that you can show your children pictures and see how close these people live to your home or school. In fact, there is one that lives only 1200 feet (about 1/4 mile) from our kids' school and 3 more that are less than 2 miles. Florida law states that no sexual offender can reside 1000 feet or less from schools, public parks, etc. and there are even exceptions to that. Nevertheless, studies indicate that proximity to where kids congregate is not really an issue to 'recidivism' of sexual offenders but of course it's good to know where they live.

We must take note though that knowing where they live in our neighborhood and even knowing how they look like doesn't guarantee safety for our kids from these kind of people so we must remain vigilant at all times and teach our kids how to be safe. We also need to lessen the risk by protecting them and just be responsible for their safety. This site is just for registered sexual offenders. There will always be 'unregistered' sexual offenders (look at the stats below) and people who have not commited a crime yet but may have a propensity to do the same.

You'd be amazed at the statistics which relate to sexual crimes. This is from this website.

1 of 5 girls will be sexually molested before her 18th birthday.
1 of 6 boys will be sexually molested before his 18th birthday.
1 of 5 children have been propositioned for sex over the Internet.
2 of 3 sexual abuses are perpetrated against teenagers or younger children.
90% of sexual assaults are committed against someone the perpetrator knows.
The median age for male molestation victims under 18 is 9.8 years old.
The median age for female molestation victims under 18 is 9.6 years old.
There are new 400,000 victims of sexual assault every year.
There are over 550,000 registered sex offenders in the US.
There are over 100,000 sex offenders that fail to register in the US.
76% of serial rapists claim they were molested as children.
Over 40% of male juvenile delinquents were molested as children.

Sunday Brunch with Friends

Yesterday was an easy day! After attending the 9am church service at our local church, Christ the Rock Community Church (www.crcconline.org), we went to 'The Ark Restaurant' together with Jun and Lot Dominguez and Richard and Ellen Parchment who are visiting from the Cayman Islands.
The restaurant has this Sunday Brunch Buffet which is just terrific and it has become the Parchments' place to go to when they're here. I can't blame them, it's my favorite too! Their salad bar is just so good, it even includes caviar (of course it's not the very expensive kind) and my son David has learned to like it as well. I tried it with the smoked salmon. Not bad! I once saw Emeril Lagasse doing it on his show. They also serve poached dill salmon, big 'peel and eat shrimps', a variety of smoked fish and the best carving station our side of the planet. They usually have 4 kinds at any time but will always have roast turkey, sometimes leg of lamb, filet mignon or flank steak but they always have 'prime rib au jus' which is so good and tender. If you know me, I always try to make it the 'best deal', he he!

Anyway, it was a long brunch since we were there from 10:30 am to almost 1 pm, just trying to catch up on things but it was fun and the company was just good.