Meeting our Pastor from the Philippines

Last Sunday, instead of going to our regular church, we attended the 13th anniversary celebration of PhilAm Grace Christian Fellowship pastored by Rev. Joseph Jimenez. Their church is in Hollywood but they had their celebration in Tamarac Park. Their guest speaker coming all the way from the Philippines is Rev. Rene Atienza. He is our pastor when we were still attending CCBC or Capitol City Baptist Church in West Ave. in Quezon City. He is a board director of EE International and used to be the CBAP Director for 12 years in the Philippines. When we went home to the Philippines 3 years ago, we had a get-together in our Xavierville home together with our CCBC friends. It's just great to see people you've known ages ago. Every time he's here in Florida attending the EE international Banquet, we always make sure we meet up with him if we can.

Afternoon Rainbow

After attending church, we went to Costco for some supplies. On our way out to our van, lo and behold a full rainbow from end to end. It's good that we have our small Fujifilm Z3 camera with us to capture the moment.

Hatsume Fair at Morikami

On Saturday, we went to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Boca Raton for their annual Hatsume Fair, a Japanese spring festival. Missy was quite excited at first and told me she wanted to wear her kimono so we brought it with us. Once there, she changed her mind due to the fact there were so many people and it took some prodding and 'bribery' to convince her to wear it.

We watched a Tea Ceremony demonstration which is actually a very ceremonial event done in some very traditional and solemn steps so to speak. No photography was allowed thus no photos about it are here. They had some martial arts demonstrations and Taiko drum shows; flower arranging, bonsai and origami demonstrations too. There were also a lot of vendors selling anything from clothing to bonsai to koi. We just bought two small pots of a 'Giant Apostle's Iris'. It is said to be newly introduced plant to the US in 2006. We also got a pair of geta sandals for Missy. I've been planning to get one and would like to do a portrait of Missy in her kimono with the sandals.

For a change I just wanted to enjoy the fair and didn't really take photos of the events except for the pictures of everyone with us. Our friends Bebot and Debbie Bael together with Mama Jane met up with us there. Ophine's mom Linda who's staying with us at the moment was also with us.

Here are some photos from Morikami.

Free TV online

Watching TV for me is an exercise that emanates solely out of the need to learn something new and the need to relax. I don't follow any particular show but I have some favorite channels such as History channel, Food Network and sometimes Travel channel and Discovery channel. I usually watch during mealtimes when I can easily do two things at the same time. When I'm doing something that I need to focus on such as reading or working on my computer, I can't watch TV. My son David almost always never fail to watch TV and play with his Nintendo DS at the same time and I always tell him to either just watch TV or play with his DS, not do both.

There are times when I felt I just need to hear the news even when I'm working so more than a year ago, I bought a small TV for our den. I ended up removing it and just placing it inside Missy's room which she doesn't really use much and always doubles up as a guest room in the house. I realized that I can easily check the news online anyway just before I check my email mailbox.

Well, I found out that there are already a number of websites where you can watch TV online and it's free. It's just nice to know that it's there and even without a TiVo, you can watch particular shows when you want it, national and foreign.


Here's the link to the blog post from http://www.cucirca.com/

In summary, here's the list of where to watch TV online for free.

1. FreeTube (completely free alternative to cable television that lets you watch TV channels and TV shows online using just your browser.)

2. Hiveproductions (lists shoutcast tv streams.). Tape it of the Internet (Over 2,000+ TV shows or 90,000+ episodes, including all the big shows like Lost, Prison Break, etc)

3. Tape it of the Internet (Over 2,000+ TV shows or 90,000+ episodes, including all the big shows like Lost, Prison Break, etc)

4. Streamic (More then 300 real TV channels to choose from including NBC, ABC, ESPN, BBC1 and many more, organized in categories and ranked by the site users)

5. TVlinks (A directory that amalgamates the most popular TV shows, cartoon & anime series.)

6. PPStream (Sports, movies - all in one please. Just choose a show from the list of available channels)

7. ABC (Watch popular shows like Lost, Desperate Houswives, Alias etc online)

8. PeekVid (Over 700 episodes of popular shows such as 24, Buffy, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy. Shows can be downloaded)

9. PPlive (a popular service for watching many foreign channels). TV-Video (All the latest TV shows as they aired including 24, Smallville, Prison Break, Lost etc).

10. TV-Video (All the latest TV shows as they aired including 24, Smallville, Prison Break, Lost etc)

11. TVU Player (TVU is a nifty little player that offers users a variety of channels that can be used to watch normal TV or Sport. US channels are also found on this player.)

Happy viewing!

Phony Photo Booth Video

It's been a long time since I've been to one 'real' photo booth. The last time probably was in my early twenties. It's not that I've never been around one for so long but I learned to take my own photo by using my own camera and a tripod. Anyway, I just find this video entertaining to say the least so I'm sharing it here.

The Unspoken Rule of Holding the Door for Someone

Watch this video. It's somewhat funny but clever. In the end, it just boils down to common courtesy which sometimes is not really that common.

Princess Melissa

Well, not exactly but Missy's make-up or shall I say 'painted face' kind of depicts an exotic East Asian princess. She got this from a kids' party we attended today. Our friends, Alex and Sheila Villacastin threw a party for their son Ashton's 2nd birthday. We got home at 6 pm and it was already getting dark but I managed to get some quick shots of Missy with her face painted. Now, I hope David won't get mad at me for forgetting to take some photos of the dragon on his forearm.

My Wife's Celebrity Look-Alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

I was just having fun with a passport photo of Ophine that I made for our Naturalization application. This was the result and I'm really not surprised that all matches were either chinese or japanese looking. I tried one with my photo (a younger and thinner me) but it's better that I don't post it here. Even I myself don't believe it.

Poem Generator

If you really need to make a poem for a love one but your creative juice is somewhat lacking, then here's the solution for you.

Click here.

Just input the name of the person the poem is intended for and add a gift name into the space provided. You can even finetune any line in the poem to suit your taste.

Missy's Field Day in School

To celebrate their 100 days of school, all kindergarten students from Missy's school had their field day yesterday. I went not to volunteer as many parents do to complete their 30 hour volunteer hours for the year but to shoot some photos. Of course I have this bias where to point my camera so here are some photos and videos too.











































Videos:

Obstacle Course Race




Sack Race




Hot Potato