4th of July..

This year, I joined a few friends to watch the fireworks along the east river. I have it on video on my multiply site if you're interested in checking in out. Again, walked through central park and I took another set of pictures.

If there is one part of central park that I never get tired of, that would be the Mall. We actually spent almost a good 30 minutes just taking pictures of the area and playing around camera trying to get a really nice shot!

As is usually the case, I'll be posting them on multiply but since I haven't gotten to it, here are some of the shots I took during the day.

I was trying to imitate I shot I took of my dad when he was here a few months back. I just love how the perspective comes out.

I have no idea, who the couple were. But I just found it so sweet cause it was starting to rain and they cuddled up next to each other under the umbrella. Just had the impulse to take a picture of it =).

Trying to be artsy! Hehehe! (top picture - Karla, bottom picture - Chilai)

Grand Central at night, on the way back after the fireworks display.

Some pics from Joy's visit

As I said a few days ago, my cousin Joy was in town. Here are some pictures when we went around the city.

It was nice getting to stroll around central park again. Whenever I go stroll around, I really feel refresh and re-energized. I think just taking in the fresh air and just allowing yourself to relax and enjoy nature does wonders to our body and mind.

We visited the Apple store on 59th and 5th ave as well as the FAO Schwartz store. I just had to have Joy take this picture. (sort of an inside joke with me and franny)

from left to right : Joy, Kevin, Karla, Jonner and Chilai. We had a nice dinner at Dallas BBQ (I don't think we've ever had a bad experience there). Afterwards we hung out at Columbus Circle. You can view the other
pictures from my multiply site.

It was really great having Joy visit. Her timing was perfect since I was getting down just hanging around in my apartment.

Happy Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to all those celebrating their birthdays this month of July!

1 - miguel q.
3 - tito ian, giselle t., paola d-m., tj o.
5 - gad g.
7 - jay e.
11 - armi c.
12 - tita marivic
16 - jonas d.r., owen h.
17 - lady c.
18 - abby a.
28 - paolo a.
31 - jonel h.

God bless and may you all have more birthdays and blessings to come.

favor for those back in manila...

My sister is asking my help with regards to her friend's film project.

please watch the trailer

http://ligawliham.multiply.com/video/item/2

and watch the movie on july 20-29 at ccp and on august at UP FILM CENTER.

I would greatly appreciate it, if you can help support her friend's film. Thank you!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Considering that I've been living here in the Bronx for almost 6 years already. It was only yesterday and the day before that when I finally got to watch a baseball game! Playing were the NY Yankees and the Cleveland Indians at the stadium here in the area. It was such a nice experience, we were able to watch 2 games, the first one was a night game and we had seats which were a few rows behind the dugout of the Indians (thanks again David & Taryn for inviting us to join you guys!) The second one which was an afternoon game was one we observed in the bleachers section.

Both of the games we watched were fun games, it helped that we won both games! Though for the second game we didn't get to finish the game cause Franny and I had to get back to school to finish some stuff and meet up with a professor. To sum the game up, it was a great comeback by the Yankees to win the game after being down by 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning.

I wasn't able to take too many pictures that night. I just wasn't too concerned taking pics. It was just enjoyable being there and enjoying the whole atmosphere of the game. Thanks Leanne for the pic during the afternoon game.

franny, cheering after a home-run by giambi!

the view from our seats.

leanne, tina, franny and me - bleacher section

Fr. Ben Nebres's visit

Ever since I started at Fordham University, Fr. Nebres would always visit the campus and give a talk at the Economics/IPED department. It would usually be either the week before or after Holy Week. Most of the topics involved would be the current political state of the Philippines, along with other issues being faced by the country. This year given that its a few weeks before elections, his talk touched on the the lack of issues being raised up by the politicians.

Along with that, Fr. Nebres also discussed Gawad Kalinga. An organization which is trying to gather more support for its projects which involve providing homes which clearly help in uplifting the poor. It may not seem much, but as he mentioned in the talk, that for the poor having a home for themselves that they can be proud of is really a major step for them.

One of the memorable quotes of the night was when someone asked about the issue of population growth. How the issue was being addressed in the country and what was the opinion on the said issue. Basically, he answered that increasing or providing a means of livelihood is the key issue, given that "0 divided by 10 is the same as 0 divided by 2, thus by giving them a source of income it would make them realize that planning the size of their family will have a direct affect with the income that they earn.

Just thought that was a nice way of saying things. I've included some pics as well.

leanne, justin, chilai, fr. ben, karla and me

me, karla, jose rizal, chilai, justin and leanne

the inside of the embassy lobby

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Sunday to everyone!

It was a nice day today, a bit cold but nothing a jacket couldn't handle. Franny and along with a few other friends of ours decided to enjoy the day by going out to Curry in a Hurry. It's a nice little place on 28th and lexington ave. They have great food and its very affordable as well.

That was pretty much it. Hope everyone else had a great easter!

in front of the restaurant

look at all that nice food!

leanne and chilai happy!

Bisita Iglesia...

Following the traditions that we used to do back in Manila, we did a Bisita Iglesia. Pretty much it meant us visiting 7 churches and praying the Stations of the Cross. It was nice being able to redo the traditions that Franny and I used to do back home with our respective families back in Manila.

Churches we visited :
Mt. Carmel - 187th Street & Belmont Avenue
St. Paul the Apostle - 60th Street & 9th Avenue
St. Patrick's Cathedral - 50th Street & 5th Avenue
St. Malachy's - 49th Avenue b/n 8th Avenue & Broadway
St. Francis - 16th Street b/n 5th & 6th Avenue
the Transfiguration Catholic Church - corner of Mott Street & Mosco Street
Fordham University Church - Fordham Rose Hill Campus

After the 6th Church, we ate dinner at Hop Kee! Hehehe! Always a great place to have dinner and just pig out. It also gave us a chance to meet our friend Dom's mom. She was in town for a week or two and they were able to join us for dinner. Click here for more the pictures I took from our little go around. As is the case, I'll post a few pics here, the rest will be on my multiply site.

first stop mt. carmel

in front of the nintendo store

St. Malachy's Church

after dinner at Hop Kee

on our way home from Mass at Fordham

Congratulations to all our new lawyers!

Congratulations to all those who passed the 2006 Philippine Bar! I'm sure you are all rejoicing and celebrating with your loved ones on this great accomplishment.

Happy birthday to April celebrants!

Even though my palm desktop may have screwed up, I will still make sure I greet all of you celebrating their birthdays! Hope you all have a great time celebrating and may you have more birthdays and blessings from our good Lord.

1 - maita j., ferdie e.
3 - ep g.
4 - gemma a., daphne o.
7 - tringie c.
9 - alf c.
10 - tita belen
11 - jenell c., vincent v.
12 - errol m.
15 - mian d-d.
20 - jowie m., rj v.
21 - mark d., kayo c.
25 - geof m.

God bless and have a great year ahead of you!

busy weekend... part 2

... Saturday was going to be an interesting night for us. It was a night that was agreed upon. by most of us here, to be a night that we will really drink and try to find our limits in terms of how many shots of a particular drink (our choice) we can take.

We decided to start around 930pm and each have their own dinner. We pretty much only had a choice of 3 drinks, tequila, rum and vodka. I think we had just been into the session for about 3o minutes when one of our group started to really act a bit drunk. I won't say any names, since I think it might be nice to omit the name of the person who got a bit wasted. It was around that point that she then mentioned that she hadn't had dinner. Big Mistake!!! A few minutes later, she was soon lying on the floor trying to gather herself and more important (for her) fix her hair!

Soon she was crawling all over the floor, stating that she still wanted another drink and that "I'll still remember all of this yesterday!" To think this was the same person who was telling us that there were 4 stages in drinking, you get tipsy, tripsy, drunk, and last dripsy. I must say that she fairly accomplished all 4 stages in less than an hour! Pretty much she was the only one who really found out what her limit was, cause everyone else, sort of slowed down cause we had to help take care of her.

We pretty much finished around 1am already. One of our group decided to call it quits and head back home before having too much. And our host after locking the door, ended up on the aerobed and soon was fast asleep. There were 3 of us left, and we decided to fix up since it didnt make sense to keep drinking since one of us wasn't drinking at all (she had taken some medication that's why alcohol was a no no for her).

At the end of the night, it was a pretty eventful and tiring one given that one of us really got wasted and really needed our help just to get to bed and to the bathroom, for obvious reasons. Below are some pics from the night, again I won't show any of our friend who was wasted, it just wouldn't be nice of me to do so. =)

starting things out

goofing off while our friend's on the floor =)

the last 3 standing

ps - oh in case you're wondering, i managed to wash all the dishes and not break anything.

busy weekend... part one

It's been a pretty busy weekend for me and franny. Had a nice get-together with friends last friday to celebrate jonner's birthday. It was a bit of an impromptu get-together, just a few quick phonecalls and we were there to just relax (that also says something with us graduate students, friday night and no plans of going out to bars). hehehe! Given that it was a friday, no meat was served, we just ended enjoying leanne's mushroom lasagna, as well as various kinds of cheese with crackers and wine. I'm more of a mozzarella or cheddar cheese kind of guy, not much into the other types. Of course, no birthday would be complete without a birthday cake, which was provided by leanne.

Cheese!!!

jonner slicing his chocolate cake!

At some point though we craved for more food so we had to order some more chow from the nearby mexican restaurant. Of course, I had to make fun of the nice round containers. And as is usually the case, we end the night just playing a few rounds of mah-jong.

goofing around with the containers!

may quorom!

That was just last friday, saturday was much more interesting...