- Tshirt Hell is closing shop.
- Some multinational companies are closing down or scaling back their operations in the Philippines.
- This blog will be on indefinite hiatus. I have a new blog that I’m trying to figure out what to do with.
Author Archive for Danny Boy, FCD
In a prior post, I noted that there will be an atheist meet-up next month. Before the meet-up, there will be an an informal gathering where we’ll discuss our agenda for the meet. I plan to pitch my idea for an atheist outreach. The Philippines is a very religious country, with 99.9% of the population believe in a god or higher power, where Catholics have the courage of their conviction to impale themselves like their man-god, where mystics earn a decent living bilking the faithful, and where an oversized action figure can command crowds larger than the Messiah Barack Obama.
In this sea of piety, atheists are few and far in between. Most are lonely, ostracized by society, and ashamed of their unbelief. We should reach out to them. Tell them that they are not alone. Organized atheism in the Philippines must be a support group. There is a time and place for countering religious propaganda, but we must first "be there" for other atheists. In this regard, I’ve thought of starting an atheist ad campaign (coincidentally*, just as other atheist groups are doing the same) so that atheists-at-large would know that we exist. No, we are not going to proselytize to believers (although it is not out of the table). I’ve come up with simple ad ideas which I hope should not be offensive to most believers (it cannot be totally inoffensive, our mere existence is an affront to the truly devoted):
(Click image to enlarge)
(Click image to enlarge)
(Click image to enlarge)
What do you think?
It will be an online campaign (for now). Maybe we can get it advertised on local websites (at last, something useful from the problogging cottage industry!). If the response is promising, we can expand the online campaign or even explore the possibility of advertising to regional newspapers and radio stations (Cebu, Ilocos, etc.) where advertising rates are lower. Funding will be a problem and the financial crisis is starting to impact everyone. This could be met by 1) setting up a fund just for this campaign, and/or 2) start charging for annual membership dues. I have a feeling that option 1 is more acceptable to the group.
* It is a coincidence. I’ve been mulling this idea since 2006.
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
-Thomas Paine
The local atheists are planning a meet-up:
Who: Any interested Freethinker, Atheist, Agnostic, Secular Humanist, Deist,
Pantheist, and non-dogmatic believer or religionist.What: "1st PINOY FREETHINKER FORUM 09"
Where: A decent and conducive place somewhere in either Makati or Ortigas. (Personally, I’d like it further north, like TriNoMa.)
When: February 22 or 28, 2009 (depends on celebrity blogger Benj‘s schedule.)
Agenda: NO political agenda but mere fellowship with friendly discussion on
freethought topics with some snacks on the side share some insights and
experience about being atheist and last but not the least, to establish
friendship with you guys and gals.Organizer’s contact information are:
Mobile # 0916-4933057
E-mail ad: menagofever AT yahoo DOT com (no idea who, but s/he seems like a good person.)
I’ve only attended an atheist meet-up once, and I’m glad to say it’s not terribly boring. Who knows, if I’m not going to Bulacan to visit the in-laws, or out shooting, I might attend…
I hope someone’s going to pay for the food. 
I’m such a glutton for pain. Yesterday I decided to install Firefox and make it my default browser. I don’t have a problem with Opera itself, but since most sites still fail to support web standards (rather than just the two most popular browsers, IE and FF), I resolved to join the rest of the herd cool kids and use Firefox exclusively.
I’ve been using Firefox on-and-off since it was still called Mozilla Phoenix 0.5, then Firebird, and finally to the name it has now. The last version I used with some regularity was 1.5. The bare-bones default install seems like a good idea, as I can completely customize FF to my liking. Firefox boasts an extensive add-ons library, with new extensions being uploaded every day or so. Finally, since it’s open source, anyone can scrutinize the underlying code. The reality, though, is quite different.
Firefox has never really caught my fancy. It is slow to launch, sluggish to use, and noticeably slower to load pages (important as I still find myself using dial-up connections). The memory issue (it’s not a bug, it’s a feature" – copied verbatim from Microsoft’s quotebook) is well known and, last I checked, still not fully resolved. The much-ballyhooed add-ons library is filled with vanity extensions with no practicable utility, or caters to narrow demographics with no widespread appeal. Most FF users can probably live with less than a dozen core extensions (Adblock, Greasemonkey, FlashGot). It’s also a bit annoying since it requires a restart to take effect. Same with the Theme Editor, wich is a major hassle when I’m shopping around for a new look. In Opera, skins load immediately after downloading, and I can change it just as easily. And I do not understand why search engines must be installed as an extension.
And the open-source nature of FF is oversold. Very few actually look at the code, fewer still would understand it. Being open-source is not a cure-all, as Debian’s broken OpenSSL random number generator has shown. It takes more than eyeballs to make bugs shallow. (Disclosure: I use a lot of open-source applications, I even used to use Linux as my primary OS.)
Since I’m trying to ease into Firefox from Opera, I decided to emulate as much of the built-in functionality from Opera as I can. Opera has a built-in adblocker, which one can update by updating the urlfilter.ini file from the User profile. I decided to use Firefox’s Adblock Plus extension. Opera has an excellent sidebar (called panels), so I downloaded Firefox’s All-in-One Sidebar extension. Opera introduced Speeddial, and it quickly spread to other browsers. I chose Fast Dial as the nearest Speeddial clone. In a surprising change, the refresh and stop buttons in Firefox 3 have been unmerged. Opera popularized the Reload-Stop button, and I prefer it that way, and so I installed the Stop-or-Reload Button extension. Opera again innovated the browser world by introducing the trash button, which can undo closed tabs. The nearest Firefox equivalent is the Undo Closed Tabs Button. Opera’s Wand button is another great innovation, as it’s a better, more secure way to input login data to webpages. Firefox’s Secure Login extension seems like a passable equivalent. Opera can use userscripts to tweak certain websites; and the ability to use them is built-in to the browser. In Firefox I had to install Greasemonkey just to use the userscripts. Opera’s old progress bar (still available by changing the settings) is very informative, and gives me an idea of how fast, or slow, the website is loading, and which elements are slowing it down. In IE and FF, we get a green progress bar. The Extended Statusbar gives Firefox the same effect. Other minor Opera functionalities I can’t live without are emulated in Firefox extensions Bookmark This Page Plus and Copy and Go.
I no longer use Opera’s RSS feeder (having migrated to Google Reader), so I didn’t download the buggy, crash-happy RSS readers in Firefox (Sage, NewsFox, etc.). I also don’t need Notes, the bittorrent client, or the IRC client. I also don’t need the M2 email client (Mozilla Thunderbird Portable is better IMO). Opera has all these and more built-in, yet it’s installer is not appreciably bigger than Firefox’s. And unlike FF, Opera is still snappy and responsive. When I finally installed all the extensions I needed, FF crashed. It refused to run a couple of times, until I closed Thunderbird, which was also running at the time. I guess Mozilla siblings aren’t too keen on sharing the same resources.
But despite all these, I will persevere. Firefox has captured the hearts and minds of the masses, and has therefore become a de facto internet standard. Websites that are coded primarily for IE (including Microsoft sites like Hotmail) will accept FF as an alternative. I will still keep Opera, but I will try not to use it for a month. This gives me enough time to evaluate FF, giving it a fair hearing. I’ve done this before, with FF v1.0 and FF v1.5. I’ve come away disappointed both times. I hope that FF has improved its stability, responsiveness, and speed (1-out-of-3 ain’t bad). Otherwise I’ll come running back to Opera, the best way to experience the internet.
(BTW, I’m using a 3G connection to post this. When I lost my connection temporarily, Firefox froze for a couple of minutes, almost taking this post with it.)
GMail is a great webmail service. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. You can use your email client to access your inbox (via POP or IMAP), for free. I personally have a GMail account, and two domains that uses GMail through Google Apps. I have almost no complaints about it.
Except that GMail seems to be a big spam enabler. For some months now, my work email is being regularly inundated with spam from a lowlife named Sophia Navarro, a peddler of useless "business seminars". Despite my repeated complaints to abuse@gmail.com, there seems to be no lasting effect that stops her from sending unsolicited, bulk messages. She’s using the same few email addresses from GMail to do her deeds:
phia05@gmail.com
cannary05@gmail.com
navarro.sophia@gmail.com
No amount of spam-forwarding to GMail’s staff has any effect on her accounts, as she is able to continue using these accounts to hawk her unwanted services. She used to send her spam through her Yahoo account but after a couple of emails to Yahoo’s Abuse address, she is no longer using it (either Yahoo has better anti-abuse policies, or GMail is a better platform for sending spam).
Spammers are scums of the earth. It’s sad that Google is turning a blind eye to service abusers.
A literal Bible presents me with far more problems than assets. It offers me a God I cannot respect, much less worship; a deity whose needs and prejudices are at least as large as my own. I meet in the literal understanding of Scripture a God who is simply not viable, and what the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, (1991), p. 24.
After repeated prodding by my wife, I must make a confession. Last holiday break (Dec 25-Jan 2) the missus and I made "home movies" of ourselves making out. Then she had me upload the video on an online amateur porn website (sort of like Youtube, but for naughty vids) so she could have a blast reading their comments. Now she wants me to blog about it (hi baby!). I feel violated. My loving wife, a good mother, an upstanding Catholic lady* of supposedly high morals. She, of all people, would make me do unspeakable acts! And I thought Catholic girls are meek and mild.
And no, I will not tell you where the video is at. I want to keep what little dignity I have left. :worried:
* Her father and brother are members of the Knights of Columbus, while an uncle is affiliated with Opus Dei. She even has a relative (from her extended family) who was a papal awardee by the late Pope John Paul II.
Happy New Year! Here’s a video of my fireworks just before the clock strikes 12 AM:
These are most of the books I’ve read in 2008. There should’ve been more, but a hard drive crash took my list with it. :irked: 
- Unintelligent Design: Why God Isn’t as Smart as She Thinks She Is by Robyn Williams
- The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings by Jan Harold Brunvand
- Darwin’s "Origin of Species": A Biography (Books That Shook the World) by Janet Browne
- The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan
- Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam by Michel Onfray
- Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens
- Apocalypse Pretty Soon: Travels In End-Time America by Alex Heard
- Which Bible?: A Guide to English Translations by David Dewey
- I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith through an Atheist’s Eyes by Hemant Mehta
- The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind by Robert M. Price
- Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman (Re-read)
- A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
- David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
- Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
- Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins by Carl Zimmer
- Bible Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment? by Tim Callahan
- Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey
- The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? by Robert M. Price
- Skipping Towards Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire by Michael Standaert
- Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq
- An Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas by Stephen Jay Gould
- The Kiwi’s Egg: Charles Darwin and Natural Selection by David Quammen
Yet another internet meme. December can be boring, and next week the country’ll have an entire week off c/o the dictatress president.
This is called the Get a Life meme. Just copy the list of movies below and type an x on the movies you’ve seen. If you’ve marked more than 85 movies, then you have no life! Let’s see how I did…
For a couple of days now, I’ve been noticing a squadron of T-41 training planes flying overhead. This is an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence since the Air Force does not usually fly over the Metropolis on training flights. Are they doing battle simulations on the off-chance that a local terrorist group would wage an aerial assault? And is this a further sign of the impending dictatorship of the current regime?
Listening to a classic Filipino rock album, which conveniently has ten songs (and an unlisted eleventh track). It’s from the local group The Youth, and the album is titled Album na Walang Pamagat (trans. Album With no Title), released in 1994:
- Kapag Nagunaw Ang Mundo (trans. If the world ends)
- The Alphabet Song (Mother Funker)
- Supernova Scum
- Multo Sa Paningin (Multong Bakla) (trans. Ghost in Appearance (Gay Ghost))
- Payo (trans. Advice)
- Anak Ka Ng Ina Mo (trans. You are Your Mother’s Child)
- Magulo Buhay Ng Tao (trans. Life is Chaotic)
- Mukha Ng Pera (trans. Look of Money)
- Takbo (trans. Run)
- Basura (trans. Rubbish)
It’s an odd mix of hard rocking beats and light-hearted (even comedic) lyrics. Really great stuff. I watched the band perform live just once, in 1994 or 1995 at the Ateneo de Manila University gymnasium. The production wasn’t top notch, the show had a garage-band type feel, and the venue was thrashed by people jumping over fences to get to better seats and the mosh pit. But it was still very entertaining. They brought the house down as they belted their hits from this album.
<Soapbox>Times have changed. Fourteen years on, we’re subjected to manufactured bubblegum "rock" music on the radio. Sure, the newer acts are good musicians, and some of their hits are tolerable to listen so. But I really miss the Pinoy bands of the 90s. Edgier lyrics, "raw" sounds, eccentric personalities. I guess Pinoy rock sold its soul just to be admitted to the mainstream. </soapbox>
Back to the album. Kapag Nagunaw ang Mundo is my favorite track. The Alphabet Song is just that, the letters of the alphabet sung to rock music. Supernova Scum is the only English track. Multo sa Paningin was their most popular single. The rest are standard fare rock songs.
From Hemant Mehta comes a new blog meme:
The mechanics are simple. Just copy the list below from his blog. Bold all entries that you have done. You’re free to include comments, and all my comments are in italics.
I subscribe to a lot of tech blogs, including gHacks. In a recent post, gHacks writer Martin writes about various browsers’ "secure cookie management". Sadly, the post is a mess. Almost everything he wrote about Opera’s robust cookie management is wrong. This is almost to be expected, since most tech blog writers are Firefox cheerleaders. gHacks compared cookie management in FF, Opera, IE, and Google Chrome, and except for the parts about Opera, it’s mostly informative and correct. Now I know that Opera is a niche browser with a comparatively miniscule userbase, but that’s no reason to go around and write an error-laden article about it. gHacks should’ve had an Opera user (not even a power user) check the article before they posted it. Fail!
The freethought blogosphere is abuzz regarding the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s (FFRF) attempt to display an anti-religion sign next to a Nativity scene and a Christmas tree at a public area in Olympia, Washington. A few have questioned the display’s efficacy, questioning whether it could convince people to abandon religion and embrace atheism. I think they’re missing the point.
It’s not about proselytising, it’s about protest. The FFRF is committed to untangling religion’s cozy relationship with the state, and this is no different. Their display is obviously confrontational. It’s to remind those who support displaying sectarian religious symbols in public areas that it could be both a blessing (pun intended) and a curse. If they want their beliefs to be showcased in public property, then so can other belief systems, even those by groups they despise. The only way to prevent anti-theists from displaying their sign, legally, is to prevent everyone from doing so. No one religion ought to be privileged. If the FFRF decided on a less offensive sign, the status quo (over-accomodation of religion in state affairs) would not change. And that is nothing less than failure.
I snapped a couple of pictures of the night sky:
Someone up there (aliens, perhaps?) might be sending me a message (don’t worry, be happy?). :p BTW, anyone know what the two other celestial bodies are? Planets would be my guess, but I’m not an astronomer.
UPDATE: Sorry for the thumbnails, they don’t show the full detail of what I wanted to show. If you click on the images, they show what seems to be a smiling face. According to news reports, the phenomenon is caused by the planetary conjunction of the planet Venus and Jupiter, which forms the eyes. The smile is, of course, the crescent moon.
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