The Photography of Honza

My Czech friend Honza is an accomplished website designer, painter and photographer. Most of his works are posted on his website www.koumar.net but once in a while he sends me his latest pictures. He’s using a Pentax K100D with a 15-50 mm kit lens and 70-300 mm Tamron lens.

I adore his pictures. It inspires me to visit his place on the Czech Republic. In time, I’m hoping to travel to Europe. For now, let me just share some of his latest pictures he sent me via email. We both love to take pictures of churches by the way.

Thank you Honza for the gorgeous pictures! Keep them coming.

Technorati Tags: Honza,Czech Republic,Churches,Pentax K100D

Santo Domingo Parish Fiesta 2012

Yesterday was my first time to see the Santo Domingo Church along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City. It’s a huge church that has a bas-relief of Santo Domingo as well as a bas-relief of the Virgin of La Naval on the facade of the church. Santo Domingo (Saint Dominic), according to tradition, received the rosary from the Virgin Mary.

The complete title of the Santo Domingo Church is National Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila. On the main entrance of the church, you would see the bas-relief of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila. It is said that the victories against the Dutch invaders in 1646 were attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

I also saw the banner announcing the different activities for the Santo Domingo Parish Fiesta 2012 for Barangay Tatalon and Barangay Santo Domingo. This year’s theme for the celebration is “One Faith, One Community, One Parish”.

Here are the activities for the weeklong celebration:

• August 1 (Wednesday) – Binyagang Bayan for Infants (8AM) and Adult Baptism (2PM)
• August 2 (Thursday) – Kumpilang Bayan (2PM)
• August 3 (Friday) – Kantahan (Amateur Singing Contest) at 7PM
• August 4 (Saturday) – Fun Run at the Parish (5AM), Palarong Pambata (9PM) and Parish Night (7PM) including activities like dinner, raffle, singing, dancing and partying
• August 5 (Sunday Fiesta Day) – Misa ng Bayan (4PM) and Procession in Honor of Saint Dominic (5PM)
• August 7 (Tuesday) – Kasalang Bayan (2PM)

To the devotees of Santo Domingo and to the parishioners of Santo Domingo Church, Happy Fiesta!

Technorati Tags: Santo Domingo Church,Fiesta 2012,Quezon Avenue

Happy 3rd Year Friendship Anniversary Honza!

Honza is my Caucasian Czech friend whom I’ve been exchanging emails for almost 3 years now. Our 3^rd year Friendship Anniversary is actually on the 17^th of August, 2012. I’m just excited to greet him thus I’m already posting my blog post about him now.

I saw Honza’s profile on Gay Friend Match and I sent him an email on August 15, 2009 saying:

Hi!

I read your profile from www.gayfriendmatch.com and you seems like a good guy! What's your name by the way?

I'm Elmer, 32 years old from the Philippines. I'm also looking for penpals around the world. I hope we could get to know each other soon.

Hope to hear from you!

Elmer

Honza replied back on the same day saying:

I am very ordinary guy from the Czech Republic, looking for penpals all around the world in order to know more about foreign countries and about people living there. We can talk about everything.

I am especially interested in people who prefer the spiritual life to the perfect body and who know how nice this world can be

I look forward to your e-mails

It seems that I wasn’t able to reply immediately so he made a follow-up email saying:

Hello Elmer

Thanks a lot for writing.

Well, my name is Honza ( it is an informal shape of the name Jan ). I am 31 years old and I live in Jihlava which is a smaller town in the centre of the Czech Republic at about 120 km far from Prague ( our capital ). I work here as a shop assistant and sometimes I work as a guide in the local historical Underground Labyrinth, because I like guiding and tourists and languages

I am single but I do not look for partner by this way, I think that the relationships on the distant do not work. How about you? Are you engaged? If you are interested be sure to write. I look forward to your email.

Honza

I finally replied back saying (or should I say, emailing):

Hi Honza!

Thank you so much for writing back! I really hope we could get along very well and have good correspondence.

I'm also a single guy and is not engage with anyone. I do have lots of good male friends but no lover at this moment. I'm meeting guys around my vicinity, in Pasig City, but I can't find the right guy for me. Maybe it would take some time. I also don't believe in long distance relationship (among lovers) but I certainly believe that 2 guys living half-way around the world can be the best of friends.

I'm an average happy-go-lucky Filipino guy. I'm Catholic (but I'm not religious) and I work in a Call Center as a Customer Service Representative. It's my way of improving my oral and written English since our clients are based in the USA. I've been working in the Call Center Industry for almost 3 years now. Prior to that, I work in a construction firm as a Clerk.

I'm a guy who loves playing computer games. I'm also into novels, movies and music. I'm fascinated with the vampire myth -- that is why I read almost all novels about vampires. Have you heard about the novel-to-film "Twilight"? It's a huge box office movie about a gorgeous vampire.

Regarding relationship, I had a boyfriend for about a year and a good sexual buddy as well. I do enjoy monogamous sex a lot.

Tell me more about you. Can you send me some pictures? I'm inserting a picture of me using my cellphone Nokia.

Take care always and hope to hear from you soon!

Elmer

From those first few exchanges of emails, we soon find each other celebrating our 1st Friendship Anniversary and our 2nd Friendship Anniversary. I can’t remember exactly why our friendship anniversary is during the 17th of August (when in fact, I sent him my first email on August 15, 2012). I guess I was the one who suggested that date and I erroneously saw my Thunderbird client showing that I sent the email August 17. It’s only now that I am certain that I sent the email August 15, 2009.

Well, the important thing is that we’ll be celebrating our 3rd Year Friendship Anniversary very soon. So far, Honza is the 2nd guy that I’ve been exchanging emails with the longest. The longest foreign pen pal I had was Geoffrey, a Canadian guy around my age, who, I’ve been exchanging emails for 4 years until his untimely death in 2004.

Honza is tied for 1st place with my first love John as the closest guy I have ever met. I have talked with Honza (through email) on EVERYTHING under the sun. I feel very comfortable when I share the things that have been bothering me with Honza.

Honza, I just wanted to thank you for being friends with me for almost 3 years. I hope we’ll celebrate more friendship anniversaries in the future and hopefully, we’ll meet in person soon. Take care always and I love you my friend!

Photo taken from here.

Technorati Tags: Honza,Czech Republic,3rd Year Friendship Anniversary

Coming Home to Mandaue Foam

I always wanted to renovate my room and add a few pieces of furniture. The only thing that’s keeping me from doing that is money. So whenever I check for new things to buy, I always take into consideration the price followed by the manufacturer (brand name) and the location of the store.

Fortunately, there is a new player in the furniture industry and it’s called Mandaue Foam. I checked their website and find out that it started in 1971. It was Mrs. Rosita T. Uy, a foam manufacturer in Cebu, which started the business. Their trademark products includes signature Flex Foam and Gala Bed Mattress. Now they have grown into a complete home store and they have become "Your home, your imagination."

My top 3 great finds on their website are the following:

3-door wardrobe with drawer (MF350) currently priced at P5,650 – It’s economical and can accommodate my wardrobe. It also has a very minimal design which is another thing I’m looking for in a furniture.

Bookshelf with magnetic system (ID840) – It has glass door which makes it easier for me to see the contents of the bookshelf. I can clean it easily with a wet cloth and it will close easier because of the magnets.

Modern 3-door shoe rack (0032) priced at P2,900 – I love the color of this furniture and the price. It’s affordable and can accommodate the most number of shoes. It’s also slim in design which can fit the corners of my room.

I also checked their website and the nearest branch to my place. Fortunately they have 3 branches in Metro Manila: Quezon Avenue, Las Pinas and Cainta, Rizal. The closest to me is the one at Km. 23, Ortigas Avenue Extension, Cainta, Rizal. I’ll probably call them one of these days at their number 02-656-6804.

I was also inspired by their YouTube video which I’m also posting here.

Your home, your imagination.

For more great finds, visit the Mandaue Foam website at http://mandauefoam.ph/. Like them on Facebook here.

Technorati Tags: Mandaue Foam,Nuffnang Philippines

Canon A495 vs. Nikon Coolpix S205

I stumbled upon these old pictures of my first digicam, the Canon A495, and my brother’s Nikon Coolpix S205. These pictures were taken in February 2011 at The Linden Suites when my aunt from the United States went for a vacation here in the Philippines.

This is my way of comparing the two popular brands when it comes to quality of pictures. I set both digital cameras to their default settings and took some pictures. Back then, I was convinced that I purchased the better one.

This test is one of the several comparisons I did with the Canon and Nikon brand which led me to purchase a Canon DSLR. At the time that I took these pictures, I felt that the Canon A495 captured a more realistic color of the place. Not to mention that my brother’s Nikon Coolpix S205 was broken a few months after my aunt gave it to him (from normal wear and tear).

Yup, the Nikon digicam was from the US. They tried to have it repaired at the Nikon service center (at Megamall I believe) and they were advised that there are no parts available here in the country. They need to import parts abroad and the cost of the repair is not economical. They ended up buying a new digital camera.

Moral of the story is that both Canon and Nikon cameras are great brands. The other factors that would come along in considering which one to purchase is the availability of service centers, concept stores, the price of the units, ease of use (interface), guides, after sales support, among others. This is the same principle in buying a DSLR.

For someone that is new to DSLR, the first thing that comes into one’s mind is the eternal debate: should I go for Canon or Nikon? I hope this comparison that I did would add to your decision.

Shots using the Nikon Coolpix S205.

Shots taken using the Canon A495.

Technorati Tags: Canon vs Nikon,Canon A495,Nikon Coolpix S205

Free Ice Cream Tasting From Marks & Spencer

Yup, you read it right. Marks & Spencer will be launching their own brand of ice cream. Anyone living near Greenbelt 5? You might want to drop by their store this Thursday, July 26, 2012, from 2:00 PM onwards to have a taste of their new product.

The decision of Marks & Spencer to launch their own brand of ice cream was probably influenced by the pull-out of ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs from the Philippine market scheduled this August. Whatever the reason, I’m sure glad that there’s a new brand to fill out every Pinoy’s cravings for ice cream.

This event is brought to you by Nuffnang Philippines. If you’re on Twitter, you may Tweet @NuffnangPH with the hash tag #FreeIceCream.

Technorati Tags: Nuffnang Philippines,Marks & Spencer,Free Ice Cream Tasting

Episode 26: Revolution

It seems that there are some changes to the release dates of the patches for Philippine Ragnarok Online. Instead of releasing the 2nd jobs for Ninja as Episode 26, it seems that Level Up! Games decided to release the 2nd phase of it’s renewal process.

Episode 26: Revolution is the newest update to Philippine Ragnarok Online and is due in August 2012. It’s mostly a balancing patch for the 3rd jobs to make the game an even playing field for the job classes. I sure hope that LUG will soon release the exact changes to the game.

The good thing about this is that I’ll have more time for my ninja named Jan Sef to reach level 99. He’s currently at level 62.

Technorati Tags: Ragnarok Online,Episode 26 Revolution,Renewal