The Digital Light Scribe

UPDATE – 19 April 2011 – I received an email from Johnny Air Cargo that taxes are included in their shipping fees. Nice, even with the taxes included they’re still cheaper that the big name couriers!

I’m a practical gadget and electronics enthusiast (technology junky). I get excited about consumer electronics easily and it frustrates me when those gadgets are only available from abroad, specifically, in the US. If I buy from the US, I’m forced to pay an unbelievable shipping cost because of international shipping. I’ve been shopping online for a decade already and I’ve written a short, but helpful guide on how to shop online and buy items abroad here.

In this article, I want to give some much earned attention to my favorite shipping service from the US: Johnny Air Cargo Retail Padala.

To get some information about the history of Johnny Air Cargo (JAC), visit there About page here. Johnny Air Cargo Retail Padala is their service for shipping items from the United States to the Philippines. Well, it’s not as simple as that. They offer more. They do the following for you: Continue reading »

Ok, I’ll be honest, 0ne of the perks of being an event photographer is experiencing great performance for free. Last Saturday, 5 February 2011, I was fortunate enough to cover Baliktanaw: A benefit concert for the construction of the rectory of St. James the Greater Parish in Panganiban, Catanduanes at the Philamlife Auditorium.

If you still don’t know them, ”A Cappella Manila (ACM) is one of the Philippines’ most respected choral groups today.” That’s a very big claim, but after hearing them perform, they’ve earned my respect, too.

They have done several European tours already, and “started its outreach program called Lakbay-Handog-Awit. In this outreach program the A Cappella Manila performs in various churches in the country for free!”

You can learn more about them from their website, http://acappellamanila.com/

Here are the photos before the concert: Continue reading »

My wife and I have a new favorite Italian Restaurant: Bistro Ravioli. The food tastes just right without too much oil. The prices are affordable given that the pasta are handmade, and the servings are good enough to satisfy a 106kg guy like me. I’m no food blogger, but I am a photographer and here are the photos of the delicious food!

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Visit their fan page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bistro-Ravioli/320682861484

Here are the affordable prices (click the thumbnail below):

When I got an invitation to join a photo bloggers tour of Ayala Westgrove Heights in Laguna, I instantly said yes, without even knowing what Ayala Westgrove Heights is. I guess I just wanted to shoot something different for a change.

I really didn’t give it that much thought until when we were about to start the trip to the location. Along the way, our guide gave us some information about the place like it was a high-end residential subdivision at Silang, Cavite (Google Map here) and that it was really “nice”. Ok, I’m a technical writer by profession and “nice” is one of the very vague words we don’t use. I wanted to clarify this but she said that we should see it for ourselves. Ok fair enough.

One thing that first struck me was how far the road trip to the place was. If you’re coming from Makati, you have to go through EDSA, Paranaque, Alabang, SLEX, Santa Rosa, then a few more kilometers from Nuvali, BEFORE you reach the place. I was thinking, “why would you go through all that just to go home?”. Well, the answer came when we arrived at the place. The place was VAST. It was filled with thousands of trees. Utility cables were under ground. The streets were WIDE. They had the Central Park that spans SIX hectares. They even have a church, the St. Benedict Church – Westgrove that can rival some of the best churches in Manila. They have their own security force, their own water treatment plant, their own cell sites, and their own Mercury Drugs store. Ok, the place is awesome. It was no surprise why those who can afford the lots there decided to stay there.

I can go on and on about how I WANT to live there, but I’ll just let the photos tell the story.

By the way, there’s an open house there on 3o January 2011. If you want to experience the place I suggest you take the trip and enjoy Ayala Westgrove Heights.

And here are the photos.

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