Boring

Boring time
Scoring Rhyme

Not much
So much less

Bye bye
Board game

Hello, hello
Insane 

No more
Low score

Boring

Hail oh Hale!

Today and yesterday showed us how crazy the weather system has been. Morning and noontime high temperatures were followed by afternoon rains and this caused too much traffic along the Aguinaldo highway and coastal road going to Cavite. I say it has been as crazy as the old man from my character book because it rained hale yesterday in Imus, Cavite while it was scorching heat around Paranaque City.

I received an SMS from my wife telling me how hot it was at home but been raining cats and dogs. The first splash didn't sound right from the roofs so she had to check out and she felt like pebbles were hitting her feet and the ground. When she looked she was surprised to see crystal-blur specks of ice! Hail oh hale to the weather system brought to us by the Global Warming phenomenon.

Acid rain it was last Wednesday and I can't help but regret the fact that the people who enjoyed the wetness of the afternoon didn't know about it until they complained of itchiness on their skin. Sigh!

In a matter of hours I'll be boarding the bus that will bring the grades 6b and 7 to Bauan, Batangas for their Environmental Sciences Outbound Education. This will be the second time for me and Ms. Ana and this ain't no peanuts as we both know the responsibilities of herding and shepherding teeny boppers who thinks they know better.

With the weather system we're having now, I pray dearly to God and Mother Nature to guide us and protect us in our endeavor. May in all things God be glorified forever!

It is a full moon since Tuesday night and tomorrow I will find out the effects of the moon on the water, real-time.

So long!

Imus Sports Council

Last weekend  I attended the chess tournament of the Imus Sports Festival sponsored by the Imus Sports Council in cooperation with the Imus Ches Association. On that day I learned about the change in chairmanship of the Imus Sports Council. Former chairman was my neighbor and schoolmate Shernan Jaro but he had to step down to focus his efforts and energy to campaign for a seat in the Sangguniang Bayan.

So I there I met the new Big Boss of Imus Sports and he is none other than Mr. Rommel B. Camerino. His demeanor and sincerity is felt from afar and is very easy to approach. The kind of guy for the kind of job, Rommel at least showed us he can help in the development of the sports in our town.

Thanks a lot Mr. Camerino for the help!

Since I'm having difficulty posting photos today, let me share my two Lightning games at chess.com tonight:

RP History and our Young Electoral Democracy

I had the chance to chat with Voltaire Formilleza this morning about the coming election, politics, democracy, his life as a student of  the College of Law of San Beda, his works and his classmates and about Rene Saguisag as his professor.

Regarding Rene Saguisag, Voltaire would tell me that he insipres the class with his life stories. I learned through Voltaire, that the present location of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas used to a baseball field and that during Saguisag's younger days, the craze was baseball and not basketball. Imagine the baseball players after the game heading to the beach.

The place where Robinson's Galleria stands used to be Ateneo de Manila  and  I was told now that in Robinson's Ermita Padre Faura wing entrance now stands a historical marker which tells the passers-by there used to stand Ateneo de Manila building.

So much for the historical trivias. Let me share Voltaire's required speech in his Legal Philosophy Class:

From Plato to Jovito Salonga: Adding Potency to a Young Electoral Democracy

By: Luis Voltaire D. Formilleza

"I am very fortunate to have been given this opportunity to share my views about the importance of Legal Philosophy and its relevance to a young electoral democracy like the Philippines. Legal Philosophy is a very broad and rich course. To us law students the subject is an additional memory exercise where the professor asks us to recite the highlights of different articles on various topics which includes inter alia: Democracy, the State, justice, law, peace, crimes and punishment. However, a deeper reflection on these topics will reveal wisdom immortalized in the annals of our history; classical not because they are archaic but rather they are simply timeless. Their value and importance is real and relevant in our lives today. Hence given this opportunity I would like to explore the condition of our democracy and some factors that made it become what it is in status quo; the many stakeholders that it affects, and the role of the primordial lessons of Legal Philosophy and how these seeds of acumen can be utilized to strengthen our democracy.


Electoral Democracy connotes the foundation of the popular will of the majority by virtue of which government exercises its authority over the governed. It safeguards the dignity of the individual and his concomitant unalienable rights from the intrusive arms of the government which at times hides under the cloak of the same political will that gave it powers. Post- colonial and post-dictatorial regimes during the turn of the 21st century would show us how this happens. This trend is likewise apparent in the Philippines. The polarization of the citizens to the haves and the have not’s paved the way for political power to be superimposed to the upper strata of the caste. Although the presumption is that citizens are all equal in opportunity for political participation, since one’s right to office is tantamount to one’s right to vote, the conditions of young emerging democracies demand more than the basic statutory electoral qualifications. More often than not, the race to the polls are defined by the capacity of a person to tap his constituency no matter how doubtful his intentions and credentials are, the capability to mobilize political and campaign machineries and the skill to utilize the “patronage bandwagon” to amass supporters that can translate to votes. These undeniable pragmatic pre-conditions to office made it more difficult if not impossible for the plebian yet able candidate to penetrate the political arena.


The effects of this trend are even worse and are too numerous to mention. On the level of the societal behavior an immediate effect is the growing apathy to civic participation and distrust in the political system. Politics is rather seen as an agenda for the elite. And while the common peoples try hard to tolerate if not make politics irrelevant to their lives, the one’s in power breeds a social illness of corruption and nonsensical politicking that feeds bucks on their purses. More frustrating is the fact that those who choose to fight against the rotten system stand to perish. The story of democracy becomes nothing more than a series of fairy tales and during the elections the carnival begins. Some tales end in tragedies like what we witnessed in Maguindanao while others end up as comedies.


An Asian statesman once remarked that democracy is not working in the Philippines. Is this really true given the state of things in our country? My response is a resounding no. I beg to disagree. No political or economic system can be claimed as perfect. We can only say that systems work for us for a period of time until it evolves to become an antithesis to what it used to be. Ours is a young democracy and it is constantly being molded to be one that we can call our own. This is the kind of struggle that we have been perpetually fighting for as a nation, a struggle to a claim to freedom, a claim to an identity. Legal Philosophy is more than a memory exercise or a course requirement. It leaves lessons and guiding principles to the many people who have a stake in preserving and forwarding our democracy. As philosopher kings the subject is challenging us to dare the odds and put the resounding echoes of our learned forefathers into action. For now as part of that challenge our goal is to be inspired to cultivate ourselves and do everything that we can to become sentinels of the rule of law that is aimed at preserving the vision of an electoral democracy that we all dream for ourselves and our children. So that tomorrow we may become the next Plato or Jovito Salonga who can inspire others to sustain what we have started."

Local Absentee Voting Today

On my way to work this morning I saw on the news about today's local absentee voting. Today's election has a registry of 21,000 and is meant mostly but not exclusively for the members of the Police Force. From what I've heard the counting and the election process for today will be done manually.

I wonder what were the results of the Overseas Absentee Voting which took place a couple of weeks ago. To our readers who would like to find out about their polling precint details, visit Online Precint Finder.




You know it's election time when all the roads are better, billboards are everywhere and election campaign jingles give you the last song syndrome at night!

Imus Sports Festival: Chess Tournament

Check out The Brown Man Diary for photos and results from the event.

ISF 2010: Chess Tournament

The Chess Tournament for the Imus Sports Festival took place last weekend and there were 51 participants for the 5 round, two day event. The event was sponsored by the Sangguniang Bayan and Mayor's Office, in cooperation of the Imus Chess Association. Chief Arbiter was Nap Ramos, Assistant arbiter Ramil Coliados. Stewards were Kris, Kim and Jenwin of the University of Perpetual Help College Team. Tournament director was ICA President Asi Bagaipo.


Let me buy a hat a take it off only for this, a very successful and well-organized tournament!

Am happy for my former students winning major awards in this tournament. 14 year old Joyce Canta won the girls division championship for the second straight year while Tristan Wayne Dandan won the Best in the 16 year old and Under while 13 year old JB Noveloso won the 12 year old and Under.


Here are some photos from the event:

I had a great time playing Lightning with Narquingel Reyes of College of St. Benilde. I produced an egg in all of our encounters!!!  It was a great Sunday for me and my chess life but when I got home I heard myself asking "Why the hell did I spend so much time there when my life awaits at home?"

Chess is such a great, educational tool but I will never again pursue the game outside of the scholastic arena. It is an all too consuming passion that if you allow it to control your, you will lose all the things that really mattered in this life.

Anyways before I forget, congratulations to the players, parents, organizers and sponsors, you all did a great job!

Taiwan Earthquake April Edition

Another entry for our Earthquake Chronicles with the news about Taiwan's earthquake which struck at around 10:59 in the morning. Here's the headline news from Reuters:

"A 6.9 magnitude quake struck in an ocean area north of the Philippines on Monday and was felt throughout Taiwan, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no mass tsunami warnings."

At 6.9 magnitude, no reports of injuries, death or collapsed buildings but a tsunami warning caused confusion among the authorities.

Good news is that everyone's safe!

Dust and Cobwebs

It's been years since I last posted here and I guess it reflects my life as a teacher for the past two years. I've been very busy juggling my schedule with my students in the schools I have been teaching to, plus my private chess teaching, my community activities, my role as a father to my three children, my role as a husband to my very loving wife and my Apostolate.

In the last 24 months or so, I have worked in Morocco for 6 months as a private home school teacher, won fourth place with my juniors chess team in the chess tournament of NCAA of the Philippines on my first try as a chess coach and have gained a lot of experience as a result of this.

The consultancy me and my wife started have gained momentum and we work within the areas of music (voice lessons), scholastic chess, academic tutorials and events planning. So far so good and I pray that Claire and I get to update this blog more often than not.

Until next time!

Chess Tournaments

While the Asian Continental Championships 2010 is on, I am busy now preparing for tomorrow's chess tournament I am organizing for my students. There will be two categories which will be played on different days. The Middle Years Program (MYP) tomorrow at 1245 noon and the Primary Years Program (PYP) Wednesday next week.

There are colors (team) that will be competing and each team will have two players. A round robin system is in place and it will be a 15/G or 15 minute per player.

These matches are part of the MGIS Games 2010 and as part of the Physical Education Team for this year, I and my colleagues wish only the best for the students, teachers, parents and the whole community. The highlight of the games is the Sports Day which is scheduled on May 21.

Awarding of the team of the year will be on June 4 during the moving up day celebration.

The hell with this, who cares anyway?

To Blog or Not To Blog

To post or not to post?
To blog or not to blog?

Grammar and (de)Composition
Semantics Corruption

Why or why not?

Brush up
Stand up

Dictionary and Grammatics
Books to pick up

Please oh please!

Embarrassment knocking on your door,
Readers laughing at your blog!

Check your post
Its full of noise

Shouting "Spell checker, grammatical error and semantics... Vocabulary needs rehab!"

What a shame!

Earthquake in China 2010

 Another post for our earthquake chronicles and this time it's China Earthquake 2010.

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is providing us the necessary information on the movement of the floor we're walking on, thanks. We all know that information is a powerful tool we all can use and we need to take advantage of this. There are lots of sites we can go to and they are there waiting for us, to read up on what they can tell us about earthquakes... please read them.

This 2010 Yushu Earthquake killed an estimate of 400 people and injured at least 10,000 more. With MSNBC calling this area as the Roof of the World, about 250,000 people populate this area and is mainly inhabited by Tibetans.

Let us all pray for the recovery of missing family members who are victims of this earthquake. 

Knights of the Chess Nights

I played several online chess games and finished just about now. Of all the opponents I played with tonight, it was the diamond member with a handle "bubinga" who I played with the most. I lost most of the games and managed to win only two. Here are some of the games:





Off to bed I go!

RP Chess Community's Candidate

A month from now is the Philippines' Presidential Election and I wonder which candidate the Filipino Chess Community will be voting for. I could very well remember how former congressman Prospero Pichay Jr. run for the senate seat but never made it. He sponsored major international chess tournaments consecutively leading to the election year and still didn't get the needed votes to give him a senate seat.

Was it a right move when he actively presided over the chess federation of the country? Did he get the needed support from the federation and the community? With a community full of geniuses and talangka thinkers, I guess Pichay and most politicos would rather choose another sport to sponsor.

Sadly!

Election Campaign: Mud Slinging and Tantrum Throwing

Nacionalista Party and Liberal Party  bannered by presidential candidates Manny Villar and Senator Benigno Aquino III respectively are digging deep thrash against each other. From the secret candidate issue to pyschological reports scandal, the Filipinos have seen again the funny and irritating strategies of these supposedly "learned" and "decent" sector of the population.

Reason why they are seeking public office?

Public service, righteous governance, equality for all and nation's peace are some of the ideas abused and misused by these creatures of deception. If you grew up in a world as mine, you would know the eighties Pinoy punk band The Wuds. They said it right with their original song At Nakalimutan ang Diyos:

Lyrics | Wuds lyrics - At Nakalimutan Ang Diyos lyrics


So why do you want to serve the people?

Earthquakes: Here, There and Everywhere

As much as possible, I try my best to chronicle the earthquakes that has been happening worldwide since January this year. So far the activity of our tectonic plates have been restless and hyper-active. The people Haiti, Chile, Taiwan, recently California and Indonesia suffered tremendous loss because of the strong quakes.

Earthquakes strike and we are left to wonder when the big one will hit. The Philippines experience tremors every now and then and I really want to make sure that my household knows what to do when it happens. Basic common sense thinking will probably save lives more than anything else. I hope the government is ready if it happens.

Tomorrow, I will be going with grades 2 to 4 classes to visit Philippine Volcanology and Seismology and Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Offices in Quezon City. Expected time of arrival is at eight in the morning and we hope to be back in school by 2 in the afternoon. Safety for everyone that's my prayer and of course much, much to learn too!

We will find out tomorrow what's in store for us aside from the usual long sitting in an enclosed moving vehicle. Good night!

Why did Morgulis Resigned?

We have been playing out the game 1 in the book The Sorcerer's Apprentice by David Bronstein and Tom Furstenberg, published by Cadogan Chess. After Bronstein's 34th move, his opponent Morgulis L. resigned. Now we have tried to play through the game and found that black has more than a couple of ways to stop white's attack. As our "move of last resort" we entered the board position into HIARCS 9 and even the chip cant find the best continuation.

Why did he resign?

Here is the position after 34. Bxf7:

(1) Bronstein, D - Morgulis, L.

Pioneers Palace Championship,

Kiev, 1940

[C26] Vienna Opening

Folders for Ballot Secrecy: A Price to Pay

This coming election will be the first automated election for our very young, yet exhausted Philippine Republic. With the corruption taking places in almost all levels of government transactions, it isn't surprising at all to learn about the Overpriced Ballot Secrecy Folders Deal which was uncovered by the vigilant Philippine Parish Council for Responsible Voting.

Now that it's out in the open, everyone involved are trying to clean their hands:

The Comelec, however, claimed the contract was yet to be signed when the anomaly was discovered.

In a resolution, the Comelec en banc headed by Chairman Jose Melo, however, ordered the cancellation of the questionable contract with OTC Paper Supply after it was discovered that the price of the folder “was extravagant and beyond the ordinary needs of the commission.”

“Upon closer review of the Comelec Resolution 8795 dated March 15, 2010, it was discovered that the Bids and Awards Committee recommendation was a product of incomplete staff work for the reason that the total number of ballot secrecy folders recommended to be purchased (1,815,000) exceeds the total number of ballot secrecy folders that may actually be used during the election,” the three-page resolution signed by the en banc and promulgated yesterday stated.

Comelec director James Jimenez clarified that while they awarded to OTC Paper the supply of the ballot secrecy folders, the Comelec had yet to sign the contract. (Tribune Online.Org)

This washing of the hands came a day late after the Holy Week and yes, after the men in clothes unearthed this sinful deal. The Pontius Pilates of the controversy are doing everything now to twist (and shout) the story. But on my home tonight, I heard from Anthony Taberna's radio show the side of the contracted party for the deal. The lawyer of the company said they have all the papers that shows everything has been signed and have passed all the legal procedures when their project proposal was approved. I almost fell off my chair when I learned during the radio interview that the folders have all been produced and are now ready to be distributed for use on election day.

This is a big waste of resources whether we use the folders or not. Imagine the materials and man hours used to produce these folders. Even Anthony Taberna was apologetic to the company representative he was interviewing but he insisted that we do not need these expensive folders.

Election day and all the expenses our country will spend is the price we have to pay for the illusion of freedom to exercise our right to choose our leaders. A very costly exercise for a nation that has a budget deficit of PhP 298.5 Billion for 2010.

How much should a burdened nation like ours spend for a one day automated election?

Something I picked up from my conversation this morning with my colleague, Ms. Shaola Guttierez:

"The fight for democracy is the fight of Jose Rizal and his kind of people. And farmers are not his kind of people."

Manny V. Pangilinan Speech

Manny V. Pangilinan's speeches are giving bloggers and web owners the needed traffic increase these days. I don't really know what started this but I assume that there's one speech fanatic who started it all.


I am surprised at MVP's intention to resign from his official duties at the Ateneo because of the issues surrounding his commencement talk last March 26 and 27, 2010. For taking full responsibility at the "plagiarism", I expect him to do so.

But do not resign from your post and treat this simply as part of the terrain you are walking on. You win some, you lose some. Lesson of the story: Hire a better writer!

I read both of Manny V. Pangilinan speeches here and there are points we can highlight for humanity to learn than the lines they have exposed to us. No I am not an MVP Fans Club president or founder and I have no plans of doing so in the future but you have to read the articles and see for yourself the beauty in it.

There's beauty in everything and in this I want to look into for all eternity.

Soft Focus Magicus

I played with one of the features of Google's Picasa 3 and here is Manila Cathedral's Dome:

Guitar Man. I chanced upon him along the street leading to Manila Cathedral. He was singing for his breakfast . In front him was his donation box which I cropped out of the photo.

Church visitors coming from the San Agustin Church and going to the Cathedral and vice versa would pass him by and luckily he would be given a change, breakfast assured.



This next photo I took at the St. Joseph the Worker Church along the Mayhaligue street, Tondo, Manila. The ordinary looking photo turned into something special when my wife applied the soft focus glow and cropped the photo into it's present form. I think this is the first photo in the series which was given the soft focus effect:



Let me give you the titles for each photos starting from the top:

1. Blued
2. Guitar Man
3. Tabernacle

I wish I could get that DSLR Camera I've been wanting to have since last year but each time I get near my piggy bank goal, something more urgent comes and there goes my savings.

But my batchmate Alvin Pastorin would always remind that there more to photography than the model of your camera. Anyways, another fun-filled editing here at home.

All photos are owned by Francis A. Buenaventura.

All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use, copy, editing, reproduction, publication, duplication and distribution of the digital photos, without the permission of the photographer, is punishable by Law.

Killer Promotion

I played several games last March 30 at chess.com and here is one game that made it all worthwhile:





I leave the analysis to you my dear readers if you intend to become the next world champion. But if just like me, you only play chess because you know it adds further engram formation in your sensori-neural system which makes you a better citizen of this world, then rock on!