1st Anniv: Crack Shot, Cracked Voice

Today is the first anniversary of this blog (yey!). There have been a few title iterations, the first one was Pitik Blog (baduy!), then Kastilyong Buhangin, and now Pinoy Pie. And just because, here's a link to the first post.

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Blogger introduced a new feature last month: video uploading. When you want to put an original video on your blog, you don't have to go through a third party service such as YouTube, you can directly upload on Blogger. Very cool, so of course, I felt obligated to use it. The following video is my first time in a live shooting range.



I guess all that money spent shooting plastic ducks and toy soldiers paid off. So don't mess with me. I keep a gun in the car. I don't have a license to carry a firearm, so it's a water pistol for now. To make it more lethal, I have filled it with soap water. You hassle me, I'll shoot you in the eye. Believe me, it's gonna hurt. Maybe it's not too late to change careers. I always wanted to be a cop. It shouldn't be hard to transition. I already have the body type of the average Manila policeman.

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Warning, the following paragraph contains several references to undesirable bodily gas emanations.

My darling wife, who tolerates my burping during meals, who can stand me farting in the car with the windows rolled up, and who can give me a kiss even with morning breathe - draws the line at my singing. I always thought I was a bad singer, but never really appreciated how bad until now. To think that once upon a time, someone actually asked me to sing a duet on stage.

Darn Kids Pie

I've been playing around with the blog settings this weekend and made some changes. Immediately noticeable is the new template. But the real biggie is that "Kastilyong Buhangin" is now "Pinoy Pie". I'm also no longer on the blogspot address as I've switched over to a custom domain (fancy!). There's no need to update your links as all previous links will automatically redirect here. But it would be nice if you did as it would help my Google PageRank for www.PinoyPie.com. I've been wanting to use Blogger's Custom Domain every since they released it back in January this year. I held back as there were still issues I was waiting for Blogger to resolve before I moved over. This issue in particular:

For those of you who switched their blog*spot blogs to Google's custom domain for blogger, you may have run into some unexpected errors, mainly being only able to publish either directly to your domain (example: mycoolblog.com) or to the "www" address (example: www.mycoolblog.com) but not both. (link to full article)

Well, Blogger hasn't addressed it themselves yet and I got tired of waiting for a fix from them. There were already people out there who came out with quick fixes. This particular one from instabloke helped me. The only drawback was that I had to switch over my domains to GoDaddy.com for it to work. Well, I was planning to do it anyway as there were services in Dotster.com, where I was originally registered, I had to pay for which is free on GoDaddy.

I changed the name to something with a more universal appeal. My old URL address was a mouthful and non-Filipinos find it hard to remember. This one's short and sweet and easier on the fingers to type. Plus, it stays faithful to the unexplainable relationship with pastry of this blog.

So let's get to business. My links of things to blog about have been piling up quite a bit. So I'm gonna dump a bunch of things on 'ya. I'm gonna follow a theme though, you know, just for the sake of having a theme.

Kids Are the Darnedest Things

Yes they are. They don't just say the darnedest things, they are it. I have a lot of respect for the mothers and fathers out there. I'm not sure I can handle kids myself. I like going to visit them and maybe play with them when I do, but I'm really not sure if I can live with them. They should have a petting zoo with kids instead of animals for people like me. Oh, I just realized, I already have such a setup. It's called being an uncle.

We'll start with an old clip from Jay Leno. It's real funny, check it out:



You gotta look at the bright side. At least the kid knows how to call 911. That will come in handy in case of a real emergency, you know, like division.

I gotta say, I sympathize with this kid. I know exactly how she feels. Everybody, meet Little Becky.



And finally, here's a beautiful site you should give a visit: scary.net. It's a collection of beautiful, dark, creepy, and touching animations done by Katy Towell entitled "Childrin R Skary". Watching them is like being told a bedtime story. Her work reminds me of Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman, and Mono. My favorite of the ones I've seen so far is "The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten By Absolutely Everyone (Even The Postman)". Oh yeah, have a tissue handy for this one. Great stuff.

A Song and a Banner

I've been wanting to update my blog banner for sometime now. Finally did it. My image editing skills are somewhat lacking, so I tried to mask that fact by using a blur effect. Yes, I know the sun is in front of me but it looks like sunlight is coming from behind me. Well, guess what? The picture was not taken on Earth. It was taken on a planet with two suns. So quit it.

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Since I started this blog, one of the consistent hits I get from Google is people searching for an English translation of the song Kastilyong Buhangin by Pilita Corales. Not sure though if the Pilita Corales version is a revival or the original. I do know that the song has been recorded by several OPM artists, both old and new.

I tried looking for an English translation of the song myself just to see if there is something available somewhere in the web. I didn't find any. So, in an effort to help those people, I did a translation of the song myself (the horror!). I just warn these people that I don't do this for a living. Here's the links:

- Original Tagalog version of Kastilyong Buhangin
- My English translation of the song

Critics are welcome on both items, just be gentle. I just hope my high school English teacher doesn't see it.