Meeting Showbiz Personalities

This evening was special because we met some celebrities from PI. Didn't know most of them, but hey, they're popular back home. Or at least some of them are.

The girls are from a group called Viva Hot Babes. The group popularized the songs bulaklak and sayaw kikay. They've also been casted on movies. These girls are sexy hot. So most of the movies they played on were not suited for the young ages.

Let me start with who I think is the cutest of them all. Singer, actress, and hotty Cherry Hazel “Sheree” Bautista. I think she's one of the original member of the Viva Hot Babes. I found some interesting facts about her on the web. She has been in the cover of MAXIM and FHM Philippines. She began her career lounge-singing in her hometown of Cagayan de Oro at 16. Her debut single, which I actually like was "Heaven Knows."

Sheree on MySpace
Sheree on Friendster

Here's the "Heaven Knows" video:


The other girl was Michelle Bayle. Just as hot and just as sexy. Whew! But she's more likeable. She reminded me of Bernadette Sembrano when I met her for an episode in "Nagmamahal Kapamilya." Michelle is as friendly and down-to-earth as ate B. She welcomes any conversation and she can talk for hours. She was one of the last ones to come but the first one to accept to have her photos taken.

Michelle used to be a high school cheerleader in Canada. Cheered for the Toronto Argonauts, who are part of the National Canadian Football in 2000. We almost had the same birth day. She was on movies and tv series like Panday, Beautiful Life, Otso-otso pamela-mela wan, Lastikman, Bestman: 4 Better, Not 4 Worse, Jologs, Basta't kasama kita, Forevermore, I Think I'm in Love, Sanggano't sanggago, and Pangako sa 'yo.

Michelle's Website
Michelle on Friendster

Now here's the fun girl -- Myles Hernandez. She stood up before I could ask her for a photo. She smiled, with her cute dimple, and said "do you even know who I am?" All I could do was smile in shame because I had no idea who she was. hahahaha. But she was cool with it. We talked for while. She was the jokester on the group. She tried to guess how old I was and she was off by 5 years (younger). So that made me happy. We took a lot of pictures together. She kept asking if I'd watch their concert and I just answered with a smile :-)

Miles' Website

The last girl was Ella V. And she has the biggest... you know! I hope she doesn't get a back problem. But she's a nice girl. When one of the managers asked to see our concert tickets, she stopped her and vouched for us. Albeit she knew we didn't have tickets. I guess she really liked us.

But there were times that she herself would joke around and say "puro lang kayo pakuha ng pictures, wala naman kayong mga tickets!" And then she said "mga epal kayo!" What the hell does that mean? First time I heard that word.

My friend reminded me of which film she was in. My friends and I once had a boys' night out which ended up watching a movie in a friend's house. The movie was "Boso." And she was in it. It was a boring movie but perhaps the alcohol made us enjoy it.

We met these guys in a restaurant promoting their concert tomorrow. There were two more celebrities who came with them. These two were legends.

Rico J Puno and Willie Nepomuceno. I don't think I need to write anything about these two guys. Everyone knows who they are. I just wanna say they were really nice and funny when they were with us. Especially the funny but green remark he made to my friend who has both arms missing (since birth). Lagi raw parang tinitigasan! hahahaha!

Black Friday

There are only two days in a year I anticipate most for big sale shopping. July 4th and Black Friday.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.

The term "Black Friday" has been traced back only to the 1970s. "Black Friday" was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside, the stores shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big draw items.

Electronics and popular toys are always on the top of my list.

I set my alarm at 3:45 this morning so I could have a big chance of being one of the first persons in line. My plan was to be at best buy and grab one of the 12 available 22 inch Samsung flat screen monitor.

I got there shortly after 4:00am but the line was already all the way at the back of the building. There were probably over 500 of them lined up. Some of them camped out. Of course I backed out. There's no way I could get that monitor with the limited number of items they have. So I drove up to my second choice of shop -- Staples. But not without grabbing a free coffee from Best Buy. At least I got something out there.

I believe this would be my 3rd Black Friday at Staples. They always have great deals on electronics. I bought 3 items.

Here's what I got from them this year:

1) TomTom One 3rd Edition GPS ($104.99 after $20 Gift Card)



I wasn't really planning on buying this one but I mentioned it to my wife when I was browsing the Staples Ad. Of course she wasn't interested. But everyone in front of the line kept talking about the GPS on sale. There were Navicon, Magellan, and TomTom on sale. I was behind an old couple who were browsing the Ad, and I asked if I could take a look. Navicon was on sale for $99 and TomTom for $129.99. I thought to myself that this could really be a good deal. And then the old guy asked me what items I'd buy. I said the items on my list plus the TomTom. He talked me into buying the Navicon because of the better features than TomTom. I told him I've never heard of Navicon but I'd buy it based on what he told me. However there's only 6 available in the store and I was 7th in line. The first 6 on the line were planning to buy it. So it's a matter of who gets to them first.

The door opened and we all raced to the GPS station. But there was no Navicon. Only TomTom and Magellan. So I grabbed one empty TomTom box because there's only 3 left. Then we proceeded to the register only to find that it's packed with people. People that were behind us in the line. People that were lucky. Lucky to have grabbed the limited stock of Navicon.

I ran back to the GPS station and got another TomTom box and gave it to the old couple. We lined up in the register to get the GPS. But they were giving the GPS even to those people who do not have an empty box. Now we're all pissed! The old couple was able to grab one. The last one in stock. And I was next in line. That meant no GPS for me. So, I thought I probably wasn't meant to have a GPS. But the old couple was really nice enough to offer me the GPS. I wasn't gonna accept it but they insisted.

Well, I'm glad I took it. This GPS is really nice. It's very easy to use and startup is really quick. And it's handy and fits in my pocket so I can take it anywhere -- even indoors. I love the night mode color too. I'll write more review later....

2) Maxtor 500GB OneTouch 4 External Drive ($79.98 after $20 rebate)

Now this was on the top of my list. I needed an external drive because my 250Gb is filling up fast. And this drive is the cheapest external drive I could find. Another good feature here is the one touch backup feature. I haven't used it so I can't write a review on this one yet.

3) Altec Lansing PC Speaker VS4121 ($19.98 after $20 rebate)


Ain't that a thing of beauty? Wait 'til you hear its sound. It's amazing! This was on sale for 75% off the regular price.

Each satellite contains 2 x 28 mm full range drivers, as well as a 3” mid-bass driver that points downward. The satellite is rated for 6 watts per channel, but those 6 watts are used very wisely. The subwoofer contains a single 6.5” long throw woofer rated at 19 watts. The total continuous power is rated at a meager 31 watts RMS.

These speakers do not exhibit any hiss at elevated sound levels by themselves.

The bass is very pronounced and crisp and not boomy or indistinct. The music is very clear and neutral without any shrieking highs or boomy lows. This was well worth my twenty bucks.

Now, the only item left on my list was a flat screen LCD monitor. I was pretty sure Best Buy ran out of this so I headed to WalMart because they have a 19 inch Acer Monitor for $150. They still have a few lying around so I grabbed one. As I walked to the Register ready to pay for it, I bumped into a friend. He was just at Best Buy and told me that they still have the Samsung 22 inch monitors. But we both thought that they would run out pretty soon, so I went ahead and paid for my Acer Monitor. Afterwards I drive to Best Buy hoping that I could still get a Samsung. I was really aiming for that one because I've had a Samsung 19 inch for a while now and I just love every bit of it. I got there at around 7:30 AM and voila! They had like 6 more available.

The main reason I wanted to buy a flatscreen is for my daughter. She always use the computer but the PC she's using has this bulky 20 inch CRT monitor which emits too much radiation and I'm really worried about her because her face is like inches away from it.

SAMSUNG SyncMaster 22 inch LCD Monitor ($199.00)

• Ultrafast 5 ms response time


• 1,000:1 contrast ratio; 300 cd/m² brightness


• 1680 x 1050 pixel resolution for rich, vibrant image clarity; displays up to 16.7 million colors

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