A superior Yahoo! Mail for mobiles

EARLY this morning, an entirely new interface greeted me when I checked my Yahoo! email account using my mobile phone.

Unable to get a high-res photo, I had to install this wmlbrowser extension for Firefox to reproduce how Y!Mail in beta now handles its email messages.

This means I can now access Y!Mail, and its unlimited storage, using the interface's superior layout. This puts Yahoo! a step ahead in terms of ease of use and accessibility, Neerav's Gmail-Mobile service notwithstanding.

An added bonus is its capability to store my login details, propelling me straight to my Inbox everytime I visit the site. Enabling me to skip the login page -- which can be quite cumbersome, especially with my LG KU250's rather tight keypad -- is a big relief.

This development fits in nicely with my approach to email management: Gmail remains my primary email address, but my Yahoo account, and its superior email interface, will be most convenient for my group emails.

More and more, I now access my emails using my mobile. In fact, my WAP usage for this month (at P390) is already higher than my voice (at P330 for both local and NDD calls) and SMS. But I wonder when I will be able to do the same with my Hotmail account.

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Vox Bikol and its online quiz

QUICK: What is the English word for "baligang," that dark violet bitter fruit that tastes better when shaken vigorously with salt?

• berry
• plum
• cherry
• grape

If you answered "berry," you got it right, as I did when I took this Bikol quiz that forms part of the newly built online home of Vox Bikol. Vox is the weekly newspaper I used to edit and for which I now write a weekly column.

Unfortunately, that was one of the only four I got right out of 10, prompting me this terse message: "Kaipuhan po na mag-adal pa nin bikol." (You need to study Bikol more.)

The site is still work in progress, Julma Narvadez said, thanks to the effort of Fr. Tebelin and the Ina nin Bikol Foundation, Inc. which now publishes the paper. Julma's late father, Joe, used to be the Vox publisher when I was with the paper, until his untimely demise.

But I am very happy with this development, as I have been clamoring for Vox to make its long overdue online presence felt and fill the gap in cyberspace for news, opinion and information about Naga and the Bikol region.

Why don't you give that quiz a try and share your score with me?:)

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I like this 'fake' Harry Potter series ender

IF YOU haven't noticed yet, there's now a MyBlogLog widget at the bottom of my sidebar. I just followed Irvin's lead here -- and that included joining the PinoyBlogosphere community, on Bratyfly's invite -- and I'm enjoying the experience.

One of the stuff that comes with a MyBlogLog account is a header called "Hot in My Communities." A fan of the Harry Potter series that is about to finally be unraveled on July 21, the top entry grabbed my attention as I was winding down work at the office. It is a link to an alleged fake version of J.K Rowling's 7th and final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

To cut the crap, I downloaded it and immediately went to the ending, and read my way backwards, scanning about 100 pages or so.

For a fake Harry Potter, the stuff I read appealed to the sucker-for-happy-endings guy in me. I dunno how J.K. Rowling's official version would look like -- I will still buy my eldest Ezekiel's copy when the price becomes affordable -- but this fake version is, to me, a good enough alternative Harry Potter universe. Especially if the original becomes dark as advertised.

As a final word, let me say this: whoever wrote this 659-page fake deserves some accolade. On first brush, it is a believable 659-page yarn; and writing all 659 pages organized into 34 chapters is no mean feat.

The graphic, as usual, was nicked from the New York Times.

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The furor on the Taal resort spa

THE DIFFERENCE between a local government strongly in favor of a project, compared to one that is not or at best indifferent, is illustrated by the ongoing furor on the proposed resort spa near the crater of Taal volcano in Batangas.

Activist farmers and fishermen are against it, joined by the outgoing governor and vice governor of Batangas province as well as the mayor of Tagaytay City.

“If Taal Volcano was (sic) under my administrative authority, I would have scrapped that project even during its initial phase,” Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham Tolentino was quoted as saying.

Only the municipal government of Talisay, which has jurisdiction over the volcano, is clearly in favor, with the mayor, Florencio Manimtim, entering into a memorandum of agreement with the Korean developer, Jung Ang Interventure Corporation.

That the community around the famous volcano only got to learn about the project last June 14, 2007 when the Environmental Clearance Certificate was issued on November 8, 2006, tells volumes about the secrecy attending the whole project.

The procedures for a securing an ECC in an environmentally critical area (which applies to Taal Lake) are found here, specifically on pages 21 to 23. It provides for a 120-working day processing period (roughly five to six months) starting when the submitted documents have been verified for completeness. This means the application for that Taal spa project was submitted to the DENR Regional Office sometime in June or July last year, or even earlier.

The procedures require at least two public consultations, one before the 120 days and the other during the review of the application. The most relevant questions are: Who attended these two public meetings? Did these really take place, or merely on paper?

Another set of relevant questions worth asking: Did the Sangguniang Bayan pass a legislative measure authorizing Mayor Manimtim to enter into a MOA with their Korean partners? If it did, were there public hearings conducted on the matter? Did those consultations really take place, or are they merely on paper?

Another aspect that should be looked at is the role of the preparers of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report that is one of the "must" document requirements for an ECC. The procedures require an accountability statement from the consultant hired to conduct the study.

It will be very interesting to find out how the EIS was completed by these consultant-preparers -- a cottage industry spawned by our environmental regulations -- in complete secrecy. Maybe their consultations were held in Korea, and not in Batangas?

Photo by R. W. Decker of the University of Hawaii Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes.

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Maria Flordeluna, Happy Slip and Levy Aureus

My column for this week's issue of Vox Bikol.

BY THE time this column comes out, the 93-episode run of Maria Flordeluna over ABS-CBN would have been over.

Now, I don’t usually follow the ratings of the two giants in Philippine television, but my gut feel tells me -- judging from my kids’ reaction to the penultimate episode Thursday evening -- Maria Flordeluna easily beat out its competition over at GMA.

My four year-old daughter Nokie in fact raised her arms in triumph, and started jumping up and down, as did her sisters, when Leo Alicante was finally reunited with Jo, Flor, Rene Boy, Wilma and Brigida. If you don’t know these names, you must be living in another planet.

I am happy ABS-CBN produced -- or perhaps more correctly, revived -- this soap opera. It allows my children to see something that was also part and parcel of my own childhood, even if what my generation saw then had a different storyline. In the ‘80s, Flordeluna was all the rage at RPN 9, with the late Julie Vega providing it stiff competition over GMA 7. They came at a time when television sets were mostly black-and-white, propelling Janice de Belen (as Flordeluna) and Herbert Bautista (as Rene Boy) to instant stardom.

But there is one name that I took mental note of as I followed the drama series: that of Marcos Navarro Sacol, who wrote the original script for Maria Flordeluna when it made its first run as a radio drama in the ‘70s.

Googling his name, I found out snippets about Mr. Sacol: it appears that he is a veteran Cebuano drama writer-director who, according to a Sun.Star columnist “wrote such hits as Milyonaryong Mini, Si Goot da Wanderpol, Maria Flordeluna, Hinog sa Punoan and several other radio, stage and television dramas that truly delighted audiences in the Visayas and Mindanao.” His latest work is Gugmang Dakog Mata, a comedy-drama-action teleserye that has been running over the Cebu Catholic Television Network since last year.

I have to mention this to hammer the point that being a promdi like Sacol should not prevent local writers from dreaming big. While it is true that it is difficult to penetrate the big leagues, the Manila-based networks whose powerbrokers essentially set the agenda, emerging internet-based technologies can provide a viable alternative.

The best example remains to be Christine Gambito, aka Happy Slip, a New York-based Filipina comedienne who is a bona fide star on YouTube. Again, in case you are out of the loop, YouTube “is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published.” Time magazine selected it as the “invention of the year” for 2006.

"During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web…According to a July 16, 2006 survey, 100 million clips are viewed daily on YouTube, with an additional 65,000 new videos uploaded per 24 hours. The site has almost 20 million visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings…YouTube's preeminence in the online video market is staggering. According to the website Hitwise.com, YouTube commands up to 64% of the UK online video market."

And Christine? As I write this, her one-woman production outfit is the 11th most subscribed, and her videos 80th most viewed of all time in YouTube. So when she said that through YouTube she has the world for an audience, you better believe it.

How does Levy Aureus get into picture? If there is one thing common between Tio Levy and Happy Slip, it has to be their sense of humor. And Levy Aureus, I think, represents the Bicolano writer’s sharp wit and funny bone that have a place in the alternative world of YouTube. Mayor Robredo discovered this belatedly when he realized why his own book launching paled in comparison with what Aureus recently had: his obra was too serious for comfort.

The promdi Bicolano writer therefore, when he has a good story to tell like Sacol, armed with the humor of Aureus, and willing to push the boundaries of emerging technologies like Gambito, can rise above the confines of his physical environment and conquer this brave new world.

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Another footnote to the language wars

AN AWKWARD moment in the oath-taking that followed the speeches in this morning's 59th charter day celebration came when Sen. Joker Arroyo asked 10th-ranked Councilor-elect Ma. Elizabeth Lavadia to recite the "panunumpa" after him.

My favorite Bikolano senator had difficulty reading through the oath in Filipino, which how Tagalog is now known. (Although the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) knows better, admitting that "Filipino is simply Tagalog in syntax and grammar, with no grammatical element or lexicon coming from Iloko, Sinebwuano, Ilonggo, and other major Philippine languages.")

As a result, the others that followed -- from 9th-ranked Councilor Nelson Legacion up to Mayor Robredo himself -- simply went through the motions, mostly for photo-ops.

If it were in English, in which the Senate conducts its business, or in Bikol Naga, the regional standard in which Joker spoke flawlessly in addressing the crowd that mostly lined along Elias Angeles Street, the faux pas would not have happened.

The reason is generational: Joker's contemporary senior citizens are not as exposed as today's youth to mass media, especially TV which exerts a tremendous influence in developing and popularizing Filipino.

The generational divide was even evident when the senator, who also guested in the book launching of Liberato "Levy" Aureus's Sabi ni Levy, mentioned Bikol Naga's being the "purest" of the Bikol dialects. It actually made me cringe: the regional standard, yes; but the purest form?

It is certainly a debatable point, and one that the other flavors of the Bikol language he mentioned will not take sitting down. Among the literati who attended the event at the Raul S. Roco Library at city hall were leading Bikolano poet Kristian Cordero and Frankie Peñones, a Ford Foundation international fellow who just arrived in town for a much needed break from his studies at the University of San Jose in California.

Like Joker, we hail from Rinconada (the 4th district of Camarines Sur) and consider Bicol Rinconada our mother tongue. Both the multi-awarded Cordero and Peñones, in fact, have blazed the trail in elevating Rinconada literature to a prominent place in the vibrant literary scene. Yet Joker can only speak about the late Luis Dato who, like him, hails from Baao.

But policy, I strongly believe as I argued here, is another culprit. For instance, if policy and conventions allow, or better still encourage, the use of the vernacular in government forms such as the "panunumpa," consistent with the reality that we are a multilingual nation, that awkward, "wow mali!" moment starring my favorite Bikolano senator would not have happened.

In this light, the KWF's decision, under the leadership of the Bikolano Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, to finally give long overdue attention to the development, preservation and propagation of some 170 regional languages and dialects in the country is a step in the right direction.

The use of the vernacular in government forms or even laws of local importance -- the resolutions and ordinances that our sanggunians churn out regularly, which are for local consumption anyway -- can be a powerful contribution of government to this effort.

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Joker fetes Naga's 59th charter day

TAKING A break from his word war with Sen. Panfilo Lacson over the revival of the senate blue-ribbon investigation of Jose Pidal, reelected Bikolano senator Joker Arroyo flew to Naga today to lead the celebration of the city's 59th charter day at Plaza Quezon this morning.

In his message, he profusely thanked the people of Naga for giving him the highest vote during the recent election, saying he would have lost face in the Senate "as the gentleman from Naga and Camarines Sur" if Nagueños chose somebody else as their top senator.

But more importantly, Joker also saluted Naga for maintaining its oppositionist tradition, saying it is something they should be proud of. "It takes courage to say no, and go against the wishes of the leadership in Manila," he said. (How I wish my favorite senator were as consistent as his fellow citizens.)

Where people in the Visayas and Mindanao have long been clamoring federalism, Naga stands out for its federal mindset and practices, Joker added, operating independently of the central government. He therefore suggested that the city maintain its independence from Camarines Sur as provided for under its charter, Republic Act No. 305.

(Naga is an independent component city by virtue of its charter, one of the five in the country, the others being Cotabato, Dagupan, Ormoc and Santiago; its residents do not vote for provincial officials and in return are not subject to supervision by the provincial government.)

Earlier, local historian and journalist Jose Fernando Obias, in looking back at Naga's 59 years of cityhood, suggested updating its carta de privilegios many of whose provisions are no longer attuned to its needs. For instance, the original charter calls for only a four-person municipal board, which might be applicable to the demands of those times.

Obias also suggested reexamining its relationship with the province, as well as the possibility of Naga becoming a congressional district in its own right, entitled to a representative of its own.

Photo nicked from the Commission on Appointments website.

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Not hypnotized, and not by the 'Budol-Bedol' Gang

SCHUMEY of Philippine Experience, I think, was the first to describe what's going on at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as the handiwork of the "Budol-Bedol" Gang. In his entry last June 1, he said

So the Garci legacy continues! This time its Budol-Bedol and his gang of magicians. The COMELEC's mental state is now in question. The lieutenants of Garci have done their share, its up to Abalos to cover their tracks. Not only were the elections in Maguindanao stolen, the people were swindled by the Budol-Bedol Gang.

It's a word play on "budol-budol," which he explains parenthetically: "Budol-budol is a scam wherein a bundle of cash is padded with paper cut in the size of paper money. Only the exposed faces are genuine money and everything in between are just plain paper cuttings."

But there is one element which Schumey, I think, forgot to mention: the element of hypnosis. In most, if not all of the "budol-budol" incidents I've read or heard about, even the ones in Naga City, there is always some sort of mind control exercised by gang members on the hapless victim.

Consider the following example from Bacolod involving a 79-year old lawyer, as reported by Sun.Star:

(Luz Dato) Lacson was even puzzled as to why she was convinced by the suspects to get into their van. She later disclosed to the suspects her bank deposits at a bank in Lacson street.

It was as if she was hypnotized, she said. The suspects convinced her to take from the bank's safety deposit box her US$10,000, P65,000 and P2 million worth of jewelry.

But is the apparent hypnotic mental state that the Comelec now finds itself in the handiwork of the "Budol-Bedol" Gang? I don't think so, because it is not even hypnosis. Garci, Bedol, Abalos and his cohorts at the Comelec are actually complicit puppets in this game, having been captured by somebody else.

Their puppet masters at Malacañang have lost terribly in the last senatorial elections, but are still finding ways to kick out Pimentel and kick Zubiri into the 12th Senate seat.

This is what the hullabaloo on the fraud-tainted Maguindanao vote is all about; the senior citizens over at the Comelec en banc are only appearing to be hypnotized, like helpless preys in a classic "budol-budol," but are actually willing participants in this perfidy.

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Getting a dose of her own medicine

NOBODY'S perfect, and that includes my daughter Sofia. In spite of her wonderful traits and extraordinary diligence, she has this tendency to embellish stories and in the process put words in some other people's mouth.

But yesterday, my future little teacher got her unintended comeuppance, courtesy of younger sister and my pusong mamon-of-a-daughter Pep.

For two days now, Sofie failed to report to school because of an ear problem. Ever deferential -- to the point of being fearful -- to her teacher, absenting from school is the last thing that would cross her mind. But what we thought was another bad tooth-related pain that would soon pass away persisted; so yesterday, I motored back to Grandview just before lunch to fetch Sofie so that Lynn and I can have her seen by an EENT.

To make the story short, she was given the necessary treatment that somehow eased the pain. But when Pep reported back from school in the afternoon, the relief quickly turned to blazing anger towards her younger sister.

It appears that Pep, instead of telling her ate's teacher about the real score, offered a lame, damaging and ego-busting excuse when asked why Sofie has not been reporting to school: "Tinatamad po ma'm."

According to Budi who saw everything, Sofie went ballistic right after, and was only pacified when Pep got a stern warning from their mother and a quick rap in the butt. This morning, Pep dutifully brought Lynn's letter to Sofie's teacher explaining her absence, with Dr. Delfin Rosales's prescription attached.

While my son was explaining to me last night what happened, I can't help but smile: probably without realizing it, my eldest daughter just got a dose of her own medicine.

Pep and Pia during their Ateneo dance recital.

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