From the monthly archives:

May 2007

In the Philippines, We Take Karaoke Seriously

by Joey deVilla on May 31, 2007

Joey deVilla doing accordion-assisted karaoke at the Rivoli nghtclub, Toronto.
Me singing some accordion-enhanced karaoke.

Unlike here in North America, even the toughest bar in the Philippines — even the ones with real-life pirates — are likely to have karaoke. That’s how hardcore we are about it. In my immediate family alone, we collectively own 4 karaoke machines (6 if you count my PlayStation 2 and XBox with their karaoke-based games).

And believe me, that’s nothing. Here’s a story from ABS-CBN news…

Man slain for singing off-key in videoke bar

For singing out of tune, a jobless man was shot dead by a security guard of a videoke bar at the height of an argument in San Mateo, Rizal Tuesday night.

The victim, Romy Baligula, 29, was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival in a local hospital.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas, acting Rizal police director, said the suspect, Robilito Ortega, 43, was arrested by responding policemen and yielded a caliber .38 revolver with five live bullets.

Rojas said Baligula and his companions were having a drinking spree at the Jullives KTV bar where Ortega worked as a security guard.

Prior to the incident, Ortega approached the table of Baligula’s group and shook hands with each of them, apparently in a show of friendship.

When Baligula started to sing, Ortega even danced to the tune. But when the song progressed, the suspect reportedly commented that the victim was out of tune, triggering a verbal tussle.

At the height of the argument, Ortega pulled out his service firearm and opened fire at Baligula before fleeing.

Rojas said policemen patrolling the area heard the gunshots and responded to the scene and eventually arrested Ortega.

Dave, who sent me the link to this story, wrote “I will never do karaoke in the Philippines,” to which I responded “Lightweight.” They should try to incorporate firearms-assisted judging into American Idol.

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Staircase Drawers

by Joey deVilla on May 31, 2007

Here’s a clever space-saving idea: a staircase with drawers embedded in the steps:

Staircase with drawers embedded in the steps
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Of course, the drawers can pose a safety hazard: you’d better be the type of person who closes drawers — if not, you’d be setting yourself up for a nasty spill one night when you go downstairs, half-awake at o-dark-thirty.

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Latest Articles on "Global Nerdy"

by Joey deVilla on May 31, 2007

Let's go to prison

In case you missed them, here are the latest articles from the tech blog I do with my buddy George, Global Nerdy:

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"The Difference of Love"

by Joey deVilla on May 31, 2007

Photo titled 'Difference of Love'.
Click the photo to see the original at full size.

The photo above, titled The Difference of Love is getting a lot of discussion on Reddit.

My own feelings on the matter are best summed up by this musical number from the television series American Dad:

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God’s Business Plan

by Joey deVilla on May 30, 2007

All the best business plans got started as scribbling on napkins…

God's business plan, written on a napkin.
Click the photo to see it at full size. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

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Virgil Could Use a Hug Right About Now

May 29, 2007

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

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100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

May 28, 2007

According to the folks at Houghton Mifflin, every high school grad should be familiar with the words in the list below. I’m not surprised that I was unfamiliar with the word abstemious given its meaning, and moiety is now part of my vocabulary.

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

If you’re a Simpsons fan, the word chicanery should be familiar to [...]

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My Articles at Global Nerdy

May 28, 2007

Over at the tech blog I write, Global Nerdy, I’ve got these stories:

Lara Croft, Then and Now: A review in pictures of the evolution of everyone’s favourite hot archaeologist.
Advertising: Best Left to the Professionals? Ad execs are unimpressed with the contest submissions for Heinz ketchup’s “create you own ad” contest.
Sony’s Very Special Screws: Maybe Sony [...]

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Portland’s "Jesus is Lord" Neon Sign

May 28, 2007

John Philip Green, Pete Forde and I went out one night in Portland to check out Ground Kontrol, an place that’s both bar and arcade devoted to 80’s pinball and video games (I wrote a little bit about the arcade in Global Nerdy). Along the way, we passed by a glowing red neon sign that [...]

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More from That Pre-Keynote Performance at RailsConf

May 28, 2007

Here’s a great shot that New York-based Ruby guy Sebastian Delmont posted to Flickr — it’s of that pre-keynote performance that I did with RailsConf organizer Chad Fowler:
Click the image to see it on its Flickr page
Texas-based Ruby guy Sean McMains took a video of the whole performance:

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The Tamago Double Mac: Two McFoods in One

May 26, 2007

Having trouble choosing deciding whether to have an Egg McMuffin or a Big Mac? In Japan, you can get both in a single package: the Tamago Double Mac (tamago is Japanese for “egg”). You get the two burgers for the Big Mac-ness, bacon and poached egg for Egg McMuffin goodness, pepper sauce to make it [...]

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Meanwhile, Over at Global Nerdy…

May 25, 2007

The image that goes with the Global Nerdy story abou tkids huffing compressed air. Click it to see the story.
Here’s a reminder: Global Nerdy, the tech news site that my buddy George and I write, is an ongoing concern! Here are the most recent stories:

Spam’s “80-200″ Rule. 80% of the world’s spam — and remember, [...]

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Playing Accordion at the RailsConf Keynote

May 25, 2007

Photo by James Duncan Davidson. Click to see it on its original page.
Yes, it’s total bias on my part, but one of my favourite moments from last week’s RailsConf conference — the premier conference for Ruby on Rails developers — was playing the intro musical number for the evening keynotes — me on accordion, along [...]

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If the Baby Gets a Stroller, I Want a Stroller Too!

May 25, 2007

Seen in Seattle (and soon, across the internet):
Click the photo to see it on its original page.
Mom’s teaching her kid this valuable lesson: Walking is for suckers.

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Remixes of "Identifying Wood"

May 23, 2007

Remember the cover of the book Identifying Wood, which I featured last week?
An anonymous commenter pointed me to a FARK challenge to remix the book cover. FARK got the idea from this entry in the Make blog, who in turn got the inspiration for the entry from

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