And now, he already looks bigger than me (and I’m 6’1).

So please, take a few minutes off and do the following:

1. Visit the Bow & Wow Facebook Fanpage here.
2. Like the page (I know, I know, this has become routine).
3. Click on the PetParrazi tab. When you see the page, click the image again to make the gallery come up.
4. Choose dog on the filter dropdown on the upper right side of the image.
5. Find Basti or Sebastian (just look for the yellow lab), click on the image, and click like (again).

That’s it! If by some miracle, he gets to catch up in the voting, just know that you will make this loyal dog very happy.

P.S. If anyone finds out how to share the actual vote page, please don’t hesitate to tell me!

*Good job with the social media campaign Bow & Wow team. Aside from not being able to share the actual vote page, having to click on like multiple times, and looking for the actual pic of the dog or cat I want to vote for, this campaign is really cool.

Read all about it here.

I then called Mr. Jay Mendoza, as owner of “Animals and Things, Pet Specialists”, to inform him that the dog is not a 6-month old puppy, as what his PCCI papers show and based on reports I have received about the dog. I reiterated the same request to be given the correct papers to reflect the dog’s true and correct age. Mr. Mendoza’s reaction took me by surprise. Instead of apologizing for the inconvenience that the incident has caused me, Mr. Mendoza brusquely replied to the effect that it is his word against “them”, and he stands by the PCCI papers of the dog. He said that I can sue him if I want to, then, banged the phone on me!

When I bought my dog Basti more 3 years ago, it didn’t really matter how many red marks he had on his PCCI papers, or who the sire and dam were. I just wanted a Labrador retriever for a pet. I’m also sure that anybody who doesn’t know anything about papers and passes through Animals and Things in Tiendesitas think about buying a pet for the same reasons — to have a pet they can take care of.

This is the exact reason why I am throwing my support behind Dr. Dino Pastor through this post. It is also such a shame that Mr. Henry Babiera of Tiendesitas has chosen to take Jay Mendoza’s side on this. I sincerely hope that no one registers their pets at KCUPI.

Think about it, someone sells you a dog, and has the guts to tell you to return it and give you your money back a year after? How heartless can you get.

Ask any married couple, and they will all tell you the same thing — there is no such thing as a perfect wedding. Well, the least you can do is prepare for all possible mishaps (that’s what your wedding planner is for). Before Mariel and I went to Cebu, we still had a lot of loose ends to tie up, namely:

1. Canonical Interview – Since the wedding was out of town, and we were trying to minimize on costs, we scheduled one two days before the wedding. It was also the first time we saw the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral up close.
2. Bridal Car – My aunt was trying to find out if we could get a good deal with one of her contacts, so we had decided to wait it out.
3. The Slideshow/AVP – Since I used to do this a lot, and had access to most of the pictures, I decided to do this myself.
4. Transportation for the guests – Since the hotel was a good 30-40 minute drive away, we were decided that we had to take care of all guest transportation (if you’re planning on doing the same thing, this is one of the biggest last minute costs you’ll encounter).

Now why did I bother to list these things down? Because coming from someone who has gone through all the stress, the bride or groom should be spending the last few days before the wedding relaxing. Or getting a massage. Or playing videogames. And I did none of these.

The night before the actual wedding, I helped Mariel transfer to her suite. After which, I went down to the lobby area to have a drink with my friends. Apart from having to worry about the arrival of most of our guests and family, it was the first timeI actually got to relax (apart from the sporadic 20 minute “quiet breaks” I would take in my room). We stayed up till about 2 to 3 in the morning, finishing a bottle of vodka and rum in the process.

And then the big day arrived.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt calm. I was sure that I had done everything that needed to be done. Our wedding planner was due to arrive after breakfast, to be followed by the team that was going to bring my suit, and all the dresses. I had a good breakfast with my family, and almost everyone who mattered in our lives were there. Everything was running smoothly until we were about to leave for the Church. Hala.

By 1pm, after all our pre-wedding pictures were taken, I walked out of the hotel to look for the van that I was going to take with my friends. You guessed it, the damn thing wasn’t there. After confirming it twice, the driver of the other van we had rented for Pat Dy’s team told me the other van was still at least 30 minutes away. It was already 1:30pm then (the wedding was at 2:30), and the Church was at least 40 minutes away. Stress! Our wedding planner made me ride with the photographer van instead, leaving behind around half of the entourage. I spent the time in the van trying to compose myself, thinking that the only thing that mattered then was that I made it to the Church on time.

I arrived at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral at around 2:20pm, about 10 minutes before the wedding started. The Church was packed. It felt like a politician was getting married, where in actuality, there were just two non-Cebu people who decided to re-plan their wedding in less than 3 months.

At 2:30pm, the entrance song played. My friends were not able to walk down the aisle, but it didn’t matter. The hour or so I was stressed out before getting to the Church was soon forgotten. Seeing friends and family there, complemented by how beautiful the atmosphere was in the Church was more than enough to make me fight back all the emotions. Holy shit I was going to get married.

Before I knew it, the doors for Mariel had already swung open. Everything was perfect. All the things that go wrong in weddings, believe me, they won’t matter — and it sure didn’t matter for me then. My bride was being escorted by her parents in a beautiful gown (it was really beautiful, and she was beautiful in it). Before I knew it, it was time to give my dad a handshake (didn’t bother looking at his face because I knew he was already crying), and my mom a kiss on the cheek. And then I picked up Mariel, and we took our place before the altar.

Yes, I was nervous, but not during the ceremony. I was nervous of getting caught on film or video with tears in my eyes (my dad and younger brother were the ones who got caught, see 3:23 of the video below).

When I think about all the preparations Mariel and I did, I can very much say that given the chance, I would go through it again. When I was still working in Summit, I had been involved in several events that required me to forget about sleep. Whether I was doing legwork, or editing some video, I knew all the sacrifices would pay off in the end. In this case, the sense of accomplishment was multiplied tenfold. If you’ve never done manual work before, like following up on guests, reservations, and flights, and you’re in the process of planning your own wedding, I highly suggest you don’t rely preparations on family members or solely on the wedding planner. It’s only once in your life that you actually get to plan your wedding.

Sure, you’ll have photos and videos to remember the wedding by, but the hurdles you have to go through to get to that point, those are priceless.

Of course, there is still the incomparable Kate Torralba and Pat Dy, who made the wedding as wonderful as it is. These two people should be part of the “Wedding Dream Team” if there was one. Thank you as well to Ms. Em Ravina and Janice Jacaban of Be Resorts, Peddy Acebo, as well as Bong Abella of Koncepts and More. And to everyone else who had to put up with our tantrums (specially the Jimenez, Cancio, Chua, and Manaloto clans), thank you, thank you, and THANK YOU. You people, are doing the Lord’s work.

You see, I work with some of the best people in the Internet Marketing industry. While we definitely kick ass at what we do, some of the people at work are also known outside our US Auto Parts circle.

I just hope this late post can help a brother out (we can only hope to benefit from the windfalls of this P500,000 contest).

To quote CSJ..

The Philippines is by large an agricultural country, and the Carabao (a water buffalo often used by farmers, locally known as Kalabaw) has been long considered as a national symbol. It’s a big part of our culture, and I thought I’d pay homage to it by creating a modernized, stylized representation. I hope you enjoy my submission

Please visit mechalabaw.com and follow all the instructions. Christian San Jose is in the final stage of this worldwide T-shirt design contest, and all he needs is a few minutes of your time. Vote now!

I remember back in high school, we would pass around an empty Selecta ice cream can once a week. One of my classmates would then use the money we gathered for Lotto tickets. Any winnings we would get from this exercise  would then be used for the purchase of a “Dboys” compound. That’s just how close we all are. Pretty soon we all got tired of it and turned it into a “Piso para kay Cuervo” donation can. Anyway…

I think winning the Lotto is always on top of the list when it comes to all those what ifs. After placing another bet just this Sunday, I thought of coming up with a list of what I would immediately spend the money on if I won a hundred million bucks.

I would immediately spend on the following:

Family

1. A new townhouse or condo for my parents – Why? Because our house is just too damn big for all of us. I would get them a place near our current place, just so they won’t miss any of their friends here.
2. A new Mitsubishi Pajero for my dad – When I was in 3rd year college, our Pajero got stolen near church. Since then, we’ve sworn off getting any “hot” vehicles. It would be great to surprise him with some car keys.
3. An around the world trip for the whole family – Even including my immediate family in the US. I don’t even remember when we last did this. I’d make the trip a month long. With outlet store shopping on every stop. And videogames.
4. A Jollibee or McDonalds – So no one from my family will ever have to work again. Nuff said.

Part II of this post tomorrow (that post will include all the toys).

The watch was bought by my dad in Hong Kong on a family trip to Hong Kong two weeks earlier. He was about to purchase an Elysee watch for myself (I know right, WTH is that), when I insisted on getting the Tag Heuer watch instead. Even though I wasn’t really into watches, I just felt like I wanted the silver Tag more. And though it was a little bit more insisted, my dad agreed.

Basketball practice usually lasted for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. I always dressed up near the restrooms, and there was a small (unguarded) area in the covered courts where me and my teammates would place our things.

On that specific day before practice, I carefully took off my watch and buried it under my books, notebooks, and other school stuff. I don’t usually put my valuables in the same place all the time, and I even had a separate bag for my basketball gear. Since I wasn’t driving yet, I also had the luxury of sleeping in the car after a tiring practice.

You can just imagine how many times I turned my bag inside out when I got home once I found out the watch was missing. It was even more difficult it was to tell my dad about what had happened (I ended up telling him at least  6 months after the watch was stolen).

Will I ever get one again? If I was financially capable now, I guess I would. I would get the exact same watch. But then again, I guess this was one of the turning points in my life that made me develop a “do I need this?” mentality before buying anything expensive.

No matter how deep those bag pockets are, you’ll never know when these things will just get, “snatched” away.

I can only hope that this first post out of the 30 I’m supposed to finish by same time next month isn’t an indication of how I want to do this. Posting a minute right before the stroke of midnight shouldn’t count. Though I should still be high after seeing Kobe up close for a good 30 minutes or so, today, the world lost a very cool guy.

Raoul Erana had been battling with a brain tumor for the past two or so months before today. Everything was so unexpected.

I wasn’t that close to Raoul. Since he used to work with the womens’ titles, the only time we’d talk to each other was during our weekly pick up games in Valle Verde. During the two or more years I had the chance of sharing an office with this guy, never did I remember ever seeing a frown on his face. I usually don’t like it when people think that lahat ng bagay nadadaan sa tawa, but this guy had a knack for it without coming across as irresponsible. That was just how he handled things — with that infectious smile on his face.

I think everyone who knows him will agree with me that it’s how we’ll all remember him.

Rest in peace, Raoul.

In a span of 20 months since I started this blog, I’ve done a total of 160 posts. Though most of them is nonsense, two years of nonsense is still er, a lot to remember and post all over again.

Whew!

And even at just 2.0 ghz and with 2.5 gb of RAM, the thing is still as efficient as when I first got it.  I owe it to the black Macbook Profolio I bought from some dude on Philmug for just P500. Though the battery dies on me every now and then (916 cycles and counting), I’ve never lost any files or botched up any of my work projects.

Needless to say, I’ll never buy a PC (for work) again.

If you have even the littlest bit of interest in Internet Marketing, you should know I’m working for one of the most kickass companies that do it in the Philippines. More so, if you’re interested in reading about stuff from my colleagues that I pass off as my own, go ahead and visit alvinjimenez.info.

There’s not much to see there (yet), but there soon will be.