The Lone Donut Motel

You know how people say you can do everything in a mall nowadays? Well, I never realized how true that statement is until this weekend.

Driving along the Kalentong stretch passing the Marketplace Mall, I was bombarded by several signs declaring the Lowest Rates for a 10-hour motel stay. Then when I actually processed what I was reading, it dawned on me that this motel was actually in the mall.

I took the pictures of the signs with my mobile phone so they’re not so great. Here's what they actually say:
10 hours Promo
Pay as low as 490 Php

5th level Marketplace Mall

Garage Parking open 24 hours (4th and 5th levels)

So the motel is in the 5th level of the mall. Guess where the movie theaters are? Well, they're in the 6th level. So, when you go on a date in this mall, it can go like this: see a movie, have dinner and... take a nap. Well, it's really your choice what you do in 10 hours. Cross-stitch? Complete a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle? Use your imagination - or not (you can be very literal too). After a good nap, cross stitch, or puzzle you may be in the mood for a little karaoke. Just a few meters away from the mall is Maligamgam KTV. For our foreign friends, 'maligamgam' means lukewarm. I wonder what message they are trying to convey. Not too hot and not too cold - the GROs wear pants and they're apathetic.

Somebody must have thought that people might think it's inappropriate to have a motel inside a mall. Check out this document I stumbled upon: Mandaluyong City Comprehensive Profile 2004. It has a portion actually giving consent for the motel to operate inside the mall:
5.07 Tourism

• Resolution interposing no objection to Asia Inns, Inc. for the operation of Sogo Hotel branch located at the Market Place, Gen. Kalentong St, this city
I bet they don't discuss it in city government meetings when a restaurant wants to put up shop in a mall :P

I just noticed a couple of things about Manila Managed Services group:

1.
Women out number Men 2 to 1. Interesting especially after reading this article. Amazing how similar and yet different two cultures can be.

2. Our people are either really shy about taking the last piece or they have a natural aversion to donuts. A lone donut has been sitting in our area for almost a week now.

Might be because of this: 48 Ways to Know You Are Filipino
40. You eat every last grain of rice in your bowl, but don't eat the last piece of food on the table.
It's not right to treat donuts this way. Isn't there a Donut Abuse hot line we can report this to? Homer would be horrified.

The Lone Donut Journal (Day 5): It's been five days since I was abandoned. I think I saw someone peeking through the gap of my box. He must not have seen me as I was in the far corner. Was someone really there or am I seeing things? I think I'm going crazy. No one wants me. I feel like there's a hole in the center of my being. I feel incomplete, like something is missing. A munchkin! I need a munchkin!

Google Pranks HTML5 Users on YouTube

I love this one. HTML5 is a new web standard that Google is pushing for the Internet. One of the on-going projects they have for it is an HTML5 version of YouTube. The project is currently undergoing opt-in trials. You can turn on HTML5 for YouTube  here .  I signed-up for the trials earlier this year. I really haven't felt any difference between viewing videos in Flash and HTML5. That's great news as when HTML5 finally becomes widespread, that's one less buggy plug-in to worry about (i.e. Flash) in your browser. Imagine my surprise when I was viewing a video on YouTube and right clicked it to find a..... "Save Video As" option! That's great! No more using extensions and/or plug-ins for downloading videos on YouTube!  It's always been an unspoken rule to make downloading videos online just difficult enough so that the average Internet user is unable to do it easily due to copyright issues. So this was really, I thought, a bold feature to have on YouTub...

From the Far Side of the World

This is great! I just got the book I ordered from  BookDepository.com . I was drawn to try and purchase a book from the site as they were offering free worldwide shipping. Can you believe it? Free worldwide shipping!  With regards to online shopping, Shipping Rates that I've seen before are prohibitively expensive and impractical. If you were ordering a book or DVD from Amazon for example to be delivered here (Manila, Philippines), Standard Shipping is almost as expensive as the item itself. If you try and go the expedited route, forget about it. Expedited Shipping rates would be more expensive than the item itself. It was just ridiculous. Buying something online in a situation like that simply wasn't an option.  The prices I saw on the books are similar to Amazon.com . Prices are also competitive against Fully Booked (a local bookstore). In my particular case, I ordered a large format trade paperback of “Empire of Silver” by Conn Iggulden. This was not yet available ...

Drive By Shootings #1: Asian Massage

New series! These will be pictures I took, mostly from my car, while driving around the metro. They won't be the best quality cause I usually use the camera on my mobile. While I was driving home one night, this SUV pulled up beside me. My camera phone sucks at night shots, but you can still read most of the text. This really made me laugh when I read i t, check it out ( click photo for larger version ): If you can't read everything, here's what it says: Asian Massage Calming The Whole Nation 24 hour Massage Home Service & SPA (Php 250/HR) STRICTLY MASSAGE ONLY! - GOD CAN SEE YOU! I wish I could hear the recordings of the phone calls they received that lead them to put that in there. Wow. Makes me kind of paranoid. Someone is watching all the time. I think I'm going to start wearing my swimming gear when I take a bath. The Voices: That doesn't make a difference. Me: Why? The Voices: Well, if Superman has X-ray vision, don't you think HE will at least have...

The Rebellion Begins

It has been awhile since I flexed these blogging muscles. Hopefully, the kids these days still remember what that is cause I wouldn't know how to Vine this thing.  It’s the weekend. I woke-up and ran through my mental To-do list. There are a few things I wanted to get to, so I got-up to take a shower and wash-off the cobwebs. I bark at my sentient music player (well, voice enabled anyway). “Alexa, play music” Usually, I'll ask it to play news and read through headlines while I get read for work. But I wanted to start the day energized instead of bummed. Alexa replies back. “Here is an Amazon playlist you might enjoy, ‘Songs to Bug Your Parents’.” That made me chuckle to myself. Between the moment it announces the name of the playlist it recommended and the time it took to buffer-up the first song, the music video of Twisted Sister's " We're Not Going to Take It " flashes in my mind.  Then the audio starts and ...