Bryan Echo

Goings ons

There's lots of stuff going on lately...

Last week I was sick.  I'm still not totally recovered.  I had to go to the doctor and that makes me a little nervous.  It was fine as doctors go.  In the back of my mind I wonder if this is just part of getting older.  Am I going to get sick more often?  And have to take yucky antibiotics that upset my stomach? *shrug*

This week has been so much better. Since getting my tax refund I've been spending money like its going out of style.  I bought a nice new TV.  I've always had problems arranging the furniture in my living room.  Its a room that doesn't have an obvious place for a television.  But I'm really happy that I found a solution.  I bought a flat LCD that fits above the fireplace. 

Yesterday I also bought a Nintendo Wii.  Its so much fun!  I really had a good time playing it last night and then also tonight with Czarina.  The games are simple and amusing.  I'm impressed with the interface and the possibilities. Its nice that it has a wireless adapter.  Configuring it to use my wireless network was a breeze.  Its pretty neat that it can surf the web and download new functionality.  I'd like to see some sort of internet radio channel,  or a game info channel with reviews and news. 

I've been writing more lately too.  I bought a fountain pen ($27) from amazon that came today and I really like writing with it.  It makes it easy to write song lyrics or journal entries. 

That's all for now, I should get some sleep.  Good night.

EDSA Revolution Day

I've been on a kick recently to get more organized and using Google Calendar to keep track of appointments.  I was playing with it recently and I discovered it has lots of holiday calendars that are simple to add to your calendar.  This is how I stumbled upon a list of Filipino holidays and discovered this Sunday, February 26th is EDSA Revolution Day or People's Power Day in the Philippines. 

I've always been interested in the Philippines because my grandmother on my mom's side was born in the Philippines and my parents both lived there.  They met in high school when both their parents were stationed at Clark AFB.

I was researching on wikipedia and there's lots of information about this holiday.  Its in celebration of the peaceful overthrow of the Ferdinand Marcos regime by the people.  It was estimated that a million people assembled on the EDSA highway in Manila after President Marcos lost an election but tried to claim that he'd won.

At one point a televised broadcast showed the leader of the military getting orders from Marcos.  The military was trying to disperse the crowds and asking for permission to fire on the crowds.  It was chilling reading the transcripts:

Fabian Ver: We have to immobilize the helicopters they've got. We have two fighter planes 
 flying now to strike at any time, sir.
Ferdinand Marcos: My order is not to attack.
Ver: They are massing civilians near our troops and we cannot keep on withdrawing. 
 You asked me to withdraw yesterday....
Marcos (interrupting): My order is to disperse [them] without shooting them.
Ver: We cannot withdraw all the time...
Marcos: No, no, no! Hold on. You disperse the crowds without shooting them. 
 You may use any other weapon...

1986 EDSA Revolution @ Wikipedia

I remember very little about this happening.  I remember my mother being interested in it.  But I was only 8 so it didn't make much sense. At the time I remember thinking it strange that a government could change.

I also talked to Czarina about it and she lived there at the time.  She had interesting memories of singing this song.

Its the biggest part of my ethnicity and as I get older I want to learn more and explore it more.  I really enjoyed finding out this piece of history, all thanks to google. ;-)

Sick

Sick.  Sick of being sick.

A single snowflake

Tuesday night I went to the Paper Heart Gallery and read a piece of poetry at the weekly spoken word event.  Here's the piece that I performed there.  Next week I'll be the featured poet and performing six pieces.

   

Pictures of Kiwanis Park

Swimming V
Originally uploaded by bryanecho.

Riley and I went for a walk at Kiwanis Park tonight a little before sunset. I took my camera and got some great shots. I'm enjoying taking photos and I've been using my laptop to edit and proof them. This is the first batch that I've used Apple Aperture to process the photos.

Last embers of the weekend

Its Sunday night and I don't want to see the weekend end...

Right now I'm enjoying sitting in bed on my laptop bouncing around the internet.  I'm pretty addicted and always looking for new things to read.  I'm watching a video from CSS on youtube.  Its bouncy and danceable.  I'm also reading about the new appletv product. I'm going to buy a new tv soon and I need some way to watch the video I download on the tv.  Unfortunately I think the appletv may have problems with avi's and wmv's.  I downloaded season five of buffy the vampire slayer.  I think the best solution is to burn it to a dvd.

I'm amazed how technology changes lives.  Even a year ago the internet was a different place.  Websites like youtube, gmail, google reader, flickr and even myspace have really changed lives. 

This weekend I was talking to Czarina about the author William Gibson.  He wrote the short story that the movie Johnny Mnemonic was based on.  He was a visionary at the time seeing a world where everyone was constantly "jacked in".  His cyberpunk novels were exciting and cautionary.  Being "jacked in" hasn't been quite like imagined but who knows where things are headed.