For a few years I had an aquarium, but it was an exercise in mass murder. Perhaps if I had stuck to goldfish (but for some reason I can’t stand them) I would have done better. Instead, I had a plecostomus that grew larger and larger and indulged in long, extravagant bowel movements that festooned the plants with long strings of poop; a coolie loach I liked very much but which spent most of its time hiding in the gravel, and a series of incredibly stupid oscars that had to be depth-charged with small balls of fresh food, but would only eat them if the food dropped directly in front of their mouths -otherwise starving to death. There was a variety of hapless guppies mostly eaten (I’m convinced) by a couple of sinister angelfish, and a bunch of other fish that took turns dying of various diseases when they weren’t busy leaping out of the tank to die on the floor. I ended up giving the plecostomus and coolie loach to a friend after all the other fish died.
But if you keep an aquarium and remain interested in the lives of fish (and the interesting stories behind them: for example, when fish grow big and get releases into ecosystems unprepared for them) you can’t beat Piscinarii.com.
This weekend’s links fiesta: My Liberal Times visits Cebu City and Bacolod City. mongster’s nest and Alleba Politics share thoughts on tomorrow’s state of the nation address.
caffeine-sparks on football, Filipino kids wanting to be British and French citizens, and questions of nationalism.
down to the wire & squirming offers a reflection on the idea of authorship, and the dangerous notion authors can ignored and attention paid only to their texts.
New Economist on an emerging blog niche: the development blogosphere.
joey interactive on an interesting character design community.
Manila Vanilla on over-the-top, gonzo marketing, Philippine-style. Speaking of marketing, Vain Boys don’t KILL Themselves! announces the first ever Philippine call center lifestyle magazine.
Speaking of reading, FriscoDude reviews the most recent biography of the King of Thailand, which has been banned for lese majeste (the book, not the review; the ban has been a brewing story for over a year now).
Pikbakbum: Linky Linky to the Weird and Dinky is not affiliated with the Black & White Movement. Rather, it aims to be a weird and wonderful place like… all those other weird and wonderful link-a-ramas (image below looted from one of their posts).
Candy scabs are just wrong. In other culinary notes, One Month of Slow Cooking provides 30 days of crockpot cuisine; one of the recipes is a crockpot version of an American culinary classic, Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes. The crockpot is, of course, the perfect bachelor cooking appliance next to the microwave and the telephone.
Jessica Zafra returns to column writing and recounts a tale of someone who knew someone who resembled Rita Hayworth.
On a semi-related poignant note, Gigi Goes Gaga reproduces two letters that say goodbye.
Bulletproof Vest has an idea on networking blogs, socially.
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub on non-existent famous person quotes that then get recycled ad nauseam.
Politics Central (the newest feature of Pajamas Media) crows it’s produced a blogstar: Live from an Israeli Bunker.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, food, history, journalism, media, Philippines
damn right about the microwave!
Wow, this is what you blog about?????
You may be a Quezon… but you are not Manuel Quezon.
Yeah, my kabayan is not MLQ
Manolo maybe even be more than his grand dad, who knows, this is just the beginning of his career.
BTW, Daly Boy, do you know something about SPICE of LIFE?
BayAreaPinoy… What do you mean “just the beginning of his career”… Q-3 is over 35!!!!!
But who did you end up last Friday night?
Well, as usaual, like almost all Pilipinos, I was with my wife, and children, ate dinner after saying the “oracion”, talked about life, schools, works, and discussed a few unusual cases with my wife (something like informal referrals/second opinion).
we are a happy family, like most Pinoys.
how about you, my friend?
Am headed to London for 3 days… then next week I’m on vacation. First Hongkong, then Bangkok, then back to Philippines. I’m going to Legaspi — I just have to see the Mayon volcano with lava flowing from its top.
Regards to your family.
BayAreaPinoy… my dissatisfaction with Q3 is that he is wasting the gift that his grandfather has left him — the great ramily name. But he has to focus. He is already almost 40 years old, he is not a pimply teenager anymore but still, he writes about goldfish and guppies… what a waste. If he wants to be a political ommmentator, then he has to work hard at it, he has to be an expert at some thing, to have the credentials and earn the respect of the public, the business community, the international community. At a job interview, Q3 is asked “So what did you do last week?”… and he answers “I wrote about my goldfish…” yeah, right… that gets respect and attention.
Pacman, mayaman na iyan. He thinks he won’t go hungry ever again! Tignan natin! I feel sorry for this guy in fact. Met him when he came over to attend the fight of one of the people he was promoting, and gave an interview to a magazine and I acted as his interpreter.
Flying high indeed! Sayang that he would try to do it with some skunks overstaying at the palace by the murky river.
Now, do you think he is doing all those free ads for the two Fatsos at the palace by the murky river for nothing, you are wrong! He actually bragged about having a direct phone line with the Midget and her husband, and that he has been promised position in some future set up to replace the jueteng with some other number game that would be accepted as some Lotto game. Presently, he reportedly takes charge of the Sabong, etc. operation run indirectly by the Fatso!
Oh these gamblers! If they think they are favored of God, they are wrong. “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him ddeclare I unto you. • • •
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now ccommandeth all men every where to repent:” (Acts 17: 23, 30)
And for all his religiousity, Pacman is surely ignorant of the real ways of God, which are not our way. His ignorance though will not save him as stated by this verses in the Scriptures:
“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.(Rom. 1: 13)
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10: 3)
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Rom. 11: 25)
Kawawa naman kasi mangmang!!!
daly, if you take a few minutes to go over this blog, you’ll see that i write about guppies and things on weekends, when we all deserve to take a break. but i think you’ll see the overwhelming majority of the entries of this blog are serious enough.
who in hera’s name is dalycitypinoy? hello! let’s see if u can whip up a good enough social analysis.
Ang masama sa iyo, DiYumu… eh minamata mo ang mga anak-mahirap. Pambihira ka naman!!!
I don’t think you gave those fish enough love. Fish need to be loved!
Manolo, please ignore those who bait you in order to get attention they obviously don’t get elsewhere — brilliant minds are never one-dimensional and, besides, hobbies keep your mind keen and nimble. Anyone can be a one-trick pony (one-trick guppy???); very few writers can discourse about practically everything on earth, the heavens, and in the sea. Or inside an aquarium, for that matter. 🙂