TheFranciscos.Net

This week sucked. The picture below sums it all up.

Flight delays and cancellations are inevitable in the life of a business traveller, but this week’s trip just takes the cake. I had to spend one night in Houston enroute to a customer site at Biloxi, MS because of thunderstorms. Good thing M & D now live there so they were able to pick me up and I was able to spend the night at their place. Unlike some of the other poor saps that were forced to sleep on the floor of Terminal B, I got to sleep on a nice bed. The next day, after waiting to go on 4 flights on standby and not getting in, I finally got to Biloxi in the afternoon. My luggage didn’t fare as well as I did though, and actually didn’t see my luggage until I was back in Tyler. Anyway, I took a flight to go home the next day, and again, thunderstorms messed up my flight plans. I almost had to spend another night in Houston since all flights to Tyler were cancelled. I lucked out though and was able to rent the last available car at Advantage. I drove home that night, tired and pissed off at the whole week-long ordeal, but glad that I would be spending the night at home.

One thing I’m proud of is that considering how pissed off I was at the airport, I was able to fight off urges to scream and let off some steam at the customer service reps. In fact, I noticed that most of the people that were screaming bloody murder were people who (at least in my perception) weren’t frequent fliers. Maybe I’m just more patient with airport snafus since I deal with it all the time, but this week’s problems were above and beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before in my travels. Still I kept my cool. I must be mellowing in my old age.

Listening to: My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

Today is a sad day for music… I just read on MSNBC that Tower Records announced recently that they were liquidating their assets and going out of business. This doesn’t come as a surprise though – their prices haven’t been competitive for years now. Shops like Best Buy, Circuit City, and even Walmart have been bringing CD prices down to rock-bottom. A B&M with mostly only CDs and DVDs to sell simply can’t compete with that. Still, none of them even come close to having the selection that Tower had. I used to go to the Tower branch in downtown Philadelphia whenever I had the time (or when I was bored with work) during my days working at First Union. There was also the branch right across the street in King Of Prussia that I used to frequent. More recently, I was working on a project in Nashville a few months ago, and right across my hotel was a Tower store that I visited whenever I could. Many nights (not to mention many dollars) were spent browsing CDs and DVDs in those aisles. This was a sanctuary to me where I relieved stress and depressurize after a long, hard day. Besides the vast selection of domestically produced CDs, it also had a wide array of imported CDs that no other store (at least the B&M sort) came close to. The people who worked there also seemed like they loved what they were doing. They were always knowledgable with music (any kind), and were genuinely friendly. I’ll always have fond memories of Tower Records.

So what can we do as a replacement now? Well, there’s always the internet. This is how I’ve been buying most of my CDs lately anyway since I haven’t lived near a Tower Records in years. There’s a couple of stores like SirenCD, Duffelbag, GEMM, SecondSpin and even Amazon and Ebay to fulfill my CD addiction needs. Still, internet shopping doesn’t and will never have the same sense of instant gratification that you can only get at a regular B&M store, but it will have to do.

Long live Tower Records! I’ll drink a beer (or six) in your memory tonight.

I wonder what this will do to Tower branches outside the US like the ones in Japan and the Philippines? I think those are franchises, so they’ll most likely stay open, but I wonder if they’ll be keeping the Tower Records brand?

I’ll keep it short but sweet – “The Departed” is no “GoodFellas” (nor was I expecting it to be), but this is one helluva movie. Great performances all around from Leo and Matt (neither of whom I was ever a fan of), to Martin Sheen and of course the always excellent Jack Nicholson. Even Mark Wahlberg had a great, albeit short role, as the second-in-command of “The Staties” (Boston slang for state cops).

This is not a gangster movie. Rather, it shows how two moles infiltrate different sides of the law. I’ve read that it’s based on the Chinese movie “Internal Affairs”. which I haven’t seen yet. I’m not sure how much of the script is a direct translation, but one thing “The Departed” has as an advantage over its Asian counterpart is Mr. Nicholson. There is simply nobody else that can deliver those lines of dialogue quite the way he does.

This is another career milestone for director Martin Scorsese. Maybe this time the academy will finally give him the Oscar for Best Director. Well worth your time and money.

I’m about halfway done with my courses to earn my MBA degree from Indiana University, currently taking up a MacroEconomics course (C561 – The US In a Global Economy, to be exact), and it dawned on me that I’ve never even mentioned that I’ve been working on my MBA on the blog. So I’ll jump right into explaining what led me to pursue it.

A little over a year and a half ago, I began to look at MBA programs that were being offered online. Why did I want to pursue an MBA? Many different reasons, but it basically boils down to improving myself and keeping competitive. Why an online degree? I’ve got a wife, a daughter, not to mention a job that requires me to be on the road around 60% of the week. If I wanted an MBA, either full-time or even part-time, that would have been a major disruption in my family’s lifestyle.

I started by taking the GMAT and TOEFL exams. I aced the TOEFL (I think Pinoys should be exempted from taking this since we generally speak good english), and did pretty good on my GMAT (I surprised even myself by getting a 700 on it with only 2 weeks of studying). I then started to look around at prospective B-schools. My selection process was pretty simple. I simply looked at the top schools on the Business Week list, checked to see if they offered an online version, and found out if the program was within my budget. I wanted to spend around $40,000 or so maximum, and because of this, some schools were out of my reach (Duke, Thunderbird, etc.). I eventually narrowed it down to 2 schools – Arizona State University (#31 on the BWeek list) and Indiana University (#20). They both had similar programs costing almost the same amount with the main difference being courses being offered sequentially (ASU) versus parallel (IU). I eventually chose IU mainly by default since I just missed the ASU application deadline by about 2 days by the time I got my recommendations together. I submitted my application in mid-July last year, got approved 2 weeks later, and flew to the IU campus in mid-August to start the first introductory course (other courses were done online).

Anyway, school has been pretty much what I expect it to be. I believe I’ve been getting as much knowledge as I would have gotten from a regular brick and mortar university, plus I have the added bonus of being able to study at my own pace. I’m halfway done now, and I’ve throttled down the number of courses I’m taking from 2 to 1 per quarter. Taking 2 courses at a time was just so hectic at times so I decided to take it easy. I’ll finish the course in 3 years instead of the regular 2 that it takes, but I think it will make things easier for me in my personal life.

At any rate though, I’d definitely recommend online learning to anybody who is thinking about getting an MBA (or any advanced degree).

I’ll be posting pictures (new and old) sometime soon, but in the meantime, here are some pictures with our friends Eugene and Mae in Washington DC during our trip there last week (courtesy of Tayam.Net). Most of these pictures are from the Natural History Museum and the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian.

Zoe had another classic line while looking at the Gems & Minerals collection at the Natural History Museum. While looking at the huge gems there, she saw one of the big, long emeralds, then points to it and says:

“Look dad, it’s kryptonite.”

Everybody within earshot broke into laughter, and Zoe just looked at me with an impish smile. My daughter is truly a comedian at heart.

Here’s a list of stuff that I’ve been into this year:

TV: House, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, CSI, and Heroes (my vote for best new series of the year). I’m also a fan of 24 and The Sopranos. Can’t wait until their new seasons start next year.
Movies: The only movie that stands out for me this year has been Monster House. X3 (X-Men 3) was pretty good, although not as good as the Bryan Singer movies. Superman Returns was a little on the disappointing side.
Music: Sam’s Town – The Killers, Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Major Lodge Victory – Gin Blossoms, Etc – Lloyd Cole, Under Attack – The Alarm. There’s also been a lot of good OPM music that’s come out recently the ones I listed to the most are Dong Abay – Flipino, Manila High – Kala, Makatha (self-titled) and Peace Pipe (self-titled).
Websites: Emusic, Newsarama, Comics101, Home Theater Forum
Comics/Graphic Novels: Fables by Bill Willingham, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, Life & Times Of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa, Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan, Ex Machina by Brian Vaughan, and Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. I’m also looking forward to The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and the new Wildstorm titles by Grant Morrison. The Zsazsa Zaturnnah graphic novel by Carlo Vergara that I picked up during our recent trip to Manila was also very entertaining.

What’s up world? After 2 1/2 years of being offline on this blog, I’ve decided to come back to it. The main reason for my inactivity? Laziness. But there were also other reasons (too many to mention without boring my audience). But now, after re-reading my old blog, I’ve regained that sense of fun found in keeping an online journal. Things and memories that I wouldn’t remember easily (sign of getting old) have been refreshed because of reading this blog again. I’ve come back with a resolve to post something semi-regularly, even if it won’t be as often as I used to.

So what’s new? I guess the first order of business is to catch up on all of the things that have happened. Chronologically, here are the major events that have happened to us after my last post in March 2004 –

1. The Whale graduated from Family Practice residency at UPMC. It was a quiet, but fun ceremony at the Youghigheny Country Club (I think that’s how it’s spelled) attended by myself, Zoe, Mommy Digna, and “Baby Grandma”, as Zoe likes calling my mom. After 11 years of schooling, The Whale is now a full-fledged Family Practice doctor.

2. As a result of major event #1, Aileen accepted a new position as one of two physicians at a n outpatient clinic in the quaint town of Tyler, Texas. “Saan yon?”, puzzingly asked by almost everybody in the audience. I asked the same question myself when I heard of it. It’s a small town in East Texas, with around 120,000 people, about 100 miles east of Dallas on I-20.
Bakit sa Texas kami napadpad? The #1 consideration we had when we decided that we were leaving Pittsburgh was that we needed to live in a warm climate. After living through 3 harsh Pittsburgh winters, we decided that we tropical folks just couldn’t live through another winter like that. So we were thinking of moving to Florida, Texas or California. Florida, we decided, had too many hurricanes. California was just too expensive. Texas (as Goldilocks would say) was just right.
Bakit naman Tyler ang napili ninyo? Good question, and I’m not really sure I have a good answer other than the cliche “it’s a nice place to live and raise your family in”. We were considering moving to a big city like Dallas or Houston, but Aileen was having a hard time looking for a position that fit her needs. When the opportunity came for the practice in Tyler, it seemed like a good fit, but the only problem was that we never even heard of Tyler before. To get a better idea, Aileen’s then-prospective employer flew us out to see the city and look at houses, schools and the like. When we got to Tyler, I can’t say it was love at first sight, but there were definitely a lot of things to like about it. Aileen really liked that it was a small town with big city amenities. The shops and restaurants that she loved (or an equivalent) were in Tyler. She also liked the fact that there wasn’t a lot of traffic, at least when compared to big cities. She’s always said that she’s a small-town girl at heart. I’m a little bit easier to please – I just saw that the city had a Best Buy and a Circuit City, and I instantly knew that I could live there. Another plus was that there was a good Catholic school in the area with an excellent reputation. Lastly, we thought that living in a small town would be a nice change from living in the city (or suburbs) that we were used to. So we finally decided to move to Tyler in the fall of 2004.

3. As a result of major event #2, I switched careers from IT/Software Development to Project Management/Implementation. I still work for my old company (MAH), but transitioned from being a Software Engineer to Project Manager, mainly because this is a position that I could do remotely. It’s been a good change for me because I’ve been getting burned out on software development. The only downside to this is I have to do a good amount of travel. The travel schedule is not too bad though, so I’m not really complaining. I’m usually travelling 3 out of 4 weeks in a month, but only around 2-4 days per week, with the rest being office days (e.g. work from home). It’s also been a plus that I was able to stay with my company because I now have 28 vacation days, plus holidays. Seniority is definitely good.

4. Zoe is now in school at Rice Elementary. She has always been in daycare, but moving to real school was a big step (I think more for us as parents than for her). Zoe’s also involved in a lot of extracurricular activities like gymnastics, soccer and cheer, and is generally just having a good time being a big kid.

5. That brings us to today, and the biggest bit of news – we are going to have a baby boy! Yup, Aileen is about 19 (or is it 20?) weeks into her pregnancy, and we’re due in the middle of February. Valentine’s day, to be exact. We’re all very excited about this. Zoe in particular is excited to become a big sister, but she insists that she won’t help with changing diapers.

That’s pretty much the past 2 1/2 years in a nutshell. Hope all is well with everybody.

Man – what I wouldn’t give to be able to go to Coachella. With a lineup of some of the best bands ever – like The Cure, Radiohead and The Pixies (yes, they’re coming back), this will be two of the best days of live music ever.

On another note, Sofia Coppola won for Best Original Screenplay. Yay! One of my favorite directors finally gets her due. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Lost In Translation, and if you want more, also check out The Virgin Suicides.

We’re currently watching the Oscars, and so far The Lord Of The Rings have nabbed the costume and art direction awards. It looks like it’s going to be a shoo-in for Best Picture, but favorites have lost before. In case they lose though, I hope that my favorite film over the past year, Lost In Translation, gets the nod.

The biggest winner for me so far though, seems to be Angelina Jolie’s dress.

It seems appropriate that while watching this year’s awards, I’ll jot down some of my thoughts on what is sure to be a film that wil be vying for next year’s awards – The Passion of the Christ.

I have to start by saying that while I consider myself a good Catholic (basically meaning I believe in God), I am not someone who is overly religious. I’ve attended Catholic schools from elementary to college, so I’ve studied the bible all throughout my school years as part of the curriculum. I also go to church every Sunday. On the other hand, I haven’t read the bible in years, and usually during Sunday, my mind wanders while the priest says the homily. There are also things in the church that I don’t necessarily agree or believe in.

Having said this about me, I have to say that this is one of the most moving motion pictures I’ve seen. I won’t go so far to say that this was a experience that changed me, but it definitely reaffirms my belief that Christ went through a lot of pain and suffering to save mankind. This film does such an excellent job of showing the audience just what Jesus Christ might have went through in the hours before his crucifixion. This film was so good that it was mesmerizing throughout its entire 2+ hours. This despite it being spoken in an ancient language, and also despite showing some of the most realistic acts of brutality ever captured on film.

On that subject, this movie has gotten a lot of criticism for was what a lot of people deemed as “unnecessary violence” and “gore”. I think the violence portrayed on screen was realistic, and I definitely see how the Romans in those times could have been as brutal and sadistic as shown. The public punishment and executions which were done in those days were definitely not meant to entertain people, rather they were meant to scare people into obeying the law. The film doesn’t even overly gross out its audience by showing violence gratitously. It only does it enough to get it point across – that Jesus suffered, a lot for that matter, for man’s salvation.

Case in point – during a scene during the scourging at the pillar, while the Romans were using those “whips with claws” (for lack of a better description). The filmmakers could have shown each and every time those contraptions hit Jesus’ back, and also could have shown each piece of flesh that was ripped off during each contact. But they didn’t. They only let the audience see it once, and the rest of the whipping was done off-screen. In my opinion, this even made it more convincing, because in the audience’s mind, each whipping was progressively getting worse, and therefore let them feel Christ’s suffering more and more. And it was the same way throughout the film None of the violence was done just for violence’s sake.

This amazing film is definitely a work of love by Mel Gibson. See this film.