Down the Rabbit Hole

Still part of my Manila Ocean Park adventure with Ate Bing and Ate Mary... After enjoying our lunch at Makan-Makan , the three of us decided to go directly to the foot spa. But wait! This wasn't an ordinary foot spa. Fish were actually doing the treatment for us! There was some comfort for us because these fish are professionals: they aren't called doctor fish for nothing. Doctor fish The first time I submerged my feet in water, it felt weird! Fish approached my legs and began nibbling at them. It felt really ticklish during the first few minutes and Ate Mary just kept laughing. Since we got to the pool ahead of the crowd, we were able to talk with the pool's attendant about the various exhibits and what people can expect in the near future at the Manila Ocean Park. The fish looked like they enjoyed feeding off their feet. The fish were very effective at what they're doing. As I was putting my slippers on after we finished, I thought that the s...

That's something new I learned as Ate Bing, Ate Mary, and I walked into this exhibit at the Manila Ocean Park called "Trails to Antarctica". But there are penguins . The penguins calling Manila Ocean Park home, however, are not the emperors which live in Antarctica. These penguins are the South American ones which were born and raised in Germany. Confusing, huh? Aside from seeing the penguins, we were able to feed them with fish as well. That was a unique experience for me; I've seen fairy penguins in Sydney before (from a boat deck) but I've never been close enough to a real live one. I had wanted to pet the one I gave the fish to (as if it were a stuff toy) but the marine biologist who guided us warned against it. After all, these were still wild animals despite being near people their whole lives. Humboldt penguin Feeding the penguins, if it can be taken as a risk, reminded me of the time I walked along the side of a building in Cebu City . Bei...

Manila Ocean Park with Ate Bing and Ate Mary , a set on Flickr. Via Flickr: The three of us visited the Manila Ocean Park on June 19th. It's a good learning experience. We got to feed penguins and had our feet pampered too!

After greeting Jose Rizal a happy birthday , Ate Bing, Ate Mary, and I ate dinner at La Cocina de Tita Moning . Yes, I like eating at the restaurant so much that I went there a third time; and each time I go there, I'm with a different set of people. The first time was during my birthday weekend last year and the second was with the family . As I was driving the car through the restaurant's gate, I noticed that the parking lot outside was busier than usual. The guard, who's checking if people had made reservations before going there, answered my unasked question: there were two big corporate groups that night, eating at the same time slot as we were... and we were in casual attire! Great, we were going to be in the midst of power-dressers and we looked like we were on holiday (which we really were that day). By the ancient camera gear collection. Despite the fully booked time slot, it didn't feel that there was a crowd at all inside the restaurant. In ...

I enjoy watching this series on TV called "Suits". It follows a strong mentor-mentee relationship. Harvey Specter (played by Gabriel Macht), one of the best lawyers in the city, gives valuable lessons to his associate, Mike Ross (played by Patrick J. Adams), the lawyer without the law degree. I find myself taking notes (and tweeting them) as I watch the different episodes. While waiting for the July 1 premiere of the second season of Suits on Jack TV, I list down the top ten lessons that I gleaned from watching the first season of series. It's not surprising that many of them came from the great Harvey Specter. There are few things in there that came from Mike and Harvey's arch-nemesis, Louis Litt (played by Rick Hoffman), as well. NOTE: if these sound like a lecture, it's because these are notes I write to myself for when I need them... and to whoever is reading this list. Here we go: 1. "First impressions last. Start behind the eight ball and...

One of my first encounters with jellyfish, or sea jellies (as scientists call them now), was when I was eight years old. I, along with the siblings and some friends scooped out a jellyfish from the sea (back then, all of us didn't know the dangers of doing so) and placed it in a transparent glass powdered coffee bottle filled with water. Since the water came from the tap, we added salt into the water, iodized salt. Poor jellyfish. I've since gone to visit a few aquaria during trips overseas. So when the Manila Ocean Park opened a few years back, I wanted to go there to see how it compares to the other ones I've seen. The first chance I got to really explore the place was on June 19th, when I went with Ate Bing and Ate Mary. One of the attractions we visited was the "Jellies: Dancing Sea Fairies". It turned out to be one of my favorites. Just inside the room, we were greeted by the life cycle of a sea jelly... in glow-in-the-dark. The room was bathe...

How does one lead when he or she is not in a position of (recognized) authority? This is a question that was voiced out in one of the dinners during the GRiSP Leadership course I attended last year. And it is one challenge that we have to face after graduating from that class. While "small rocks vs big rocks" and " sharpening the saw " are some of the lowest-lying fruits from the leadership training tree, this question is one of the harder challenges from the class. If leading without the positional advantage (also known as the job description) is akin to butting one's head onto a brick wall, it certainly is one very painful experience. While I am not afraid to butt my head onto brick walls if I need to, I have to stop when I draw blood. As I see it, for people with seriously sore skulls, there are two alternative approaches: (1) Back off. Stay within the confines of one's comfort zone while consciously seeing what needs to be done and not making a c...