For those of you who pass through the South Luzon Tollway, I don't know if you've noticed the billboard near the Sucat exit for this new product Asia Brewery is trying to peddle. It's a new energy drink called Cobra. Personally, I found everything about it ridiculous. But then again, every thing's worth a shot right?
I finally had the chance to give this drink a run for its money at a Mini stop a few days ago. Coming into it I was skeptical. I ain't gonna lie to you, I'm not much into energy drinks so excuse my uneducated palette. I was very methodical in analyzing every aspect of the drink. I'll break it down for you as I went along with ingesting that fruit-flavored sweat. Surprisingly I found the trip very interesting..
First of all, I find the pet bottle idea a little much. When I first picked up the bottle I was already thinking about how to consume the whole thing in one sitting. After I was done drinking the thing, I bought another bottle of water just to get my thirst back in order and to get the yellowing in my mouth to go away. (More on that later) at the back it read:
Cobra contains carbohydrates and B vitamins for the extra energy needed for enhanced mental and physical performance. This unique refreshing drink delivers a power packed combination of Taurine, Caffeine and Ginseng. Take Cobra everyday for a refreshing and energy boosting experience.
The spiel at the back sounded very appealing. But just rewind for a second there.. take it everyday?! If I took Cobra everyday, the only energy boosting experience I'll get is an insulin shot at the hospital after getting diabetes from this thing!
Now, opening the bottle I checked the coloration and consistency. Well.. the consistency's fine. It's just the color that's terrible. Looking at it very closely you'll realize that it does NOT look anything like it in the ad. It looked like a cross between chili oil and sweet and sour sauce.
Here's me taking a swig at the motherf*cker. I have to admit, the taste is fine. It's like that of your run of the mill energy drink. Although like most energy drinks you can get sick of it after a while. (Again taking us back to why it was so big in the first place) Not to mention, it does this:
If you look closely, you can see a slight yellowing of my lip on the top portion. And I wasn't even halfway through at that point! Too much food coloring if you ask me.
All in all, I'll have to admit Cobra is a fairly decent drink that's reasonably priced. But if you have enough money to buy yourself a bottle of Redbull, please do yourself a favor and just get that instead.
For those of you who don't know yet, EDSA stands for Epifanio De los santos Avenue. Named after a famous Filipino historian, 24 kilometer stretch of road that crosses The SM Mall of Asia in Pasay city, to Monumento in Caloocan city. Now, for those you who have been living under a rock the past 22 years you must be wondering to yourself "What's the fuss about 24 kilometers of asphalt and concrete?" I'll tell you, absolutely nothing.
EDSA at this point is just some cheap excuse for a gathering of people. They close the Ortigas intersection, "prominent" people go up on stage to where the church and the giant gold statue of Mama Mary stands and blasphemously state their cases and cries under God's good name. You know how when you do something too often it starts to lose its meaning? Well such as the case with this one. Cause when you start adding sequels to historic events in history, you know you're definitely overdoing it. God, If this avenue was meant for sh*t like that to happen they might as well have renamed it "Rally street" or "Revolution avenue."
Bottomline is, one's good.. Two is enough. The '86 EDSA revolution we're celebrating should be a means of unity and not divide. That way, maybe it wouldn't lose its meaning so much.
5 parts Vodka
2 parts Coffee liqueur
3 parts Fresh cream/Milk
Pour Vodka and Coffee liqueur in a glass add cream and stir
This seems to be my drink of choice this whole Valentine's week. Me and The White Russian go way back though. It's something I'd order during nights in the bar and is also a drink I'm more than happy to let people try. Me and The Scrotums recently bought bottles of Vodka and Coffee liqueur for Valentine's day. We spent most of it watching "Notting hill" while sipping glass after glass of this concoction. My brother keeps telling me how girly this cocktail is. But f*ck that.. It tastes good and gets me sloshed. So I'll drink to that!
The vibrato bar --more commonly referred to as a "Whammy" is a tool that depresses tension of the strings of the guitar whilst in play. For if you tried to do that with your tuning pegs, you'd have a big problem in your hands! This thing is virtually indispensable. I believe that the Whammy bar is an integral part of my guitar repertoire and I believe that if it's used properly it'll give your playing a whole different dimension apart from what's already in the fretboard. But just to put a little background in to the lesson, I'd like to run you through its history for a bit..
Rickenbacker was one of the first makers of the whammy bar for their Spanish line of guitars. They were not manipulated by hand like modern-day Vibratos but instead, it was operated with a electrical thinga-ma-jig. It was basically conceived to be able to manipulate the guitar's pitch. Hence, the phrase "Vibrato" in Vibrato bar. Many people to this day mistakenly call it a "Tremolo bar" which is in fact a misnomer created by the Fender corporation when they released their "Synchronized" bridge in the early 1950's. The term "Tremolo" more specifically refers to the manipulation of volume and not pitch.
Essentially, there are 3 popular kinds of tail-pieces in the market today:
The stop-tailpiece
Okay, so this isn't actually vibrato type of bridge. But I'm here to help you distinguish the differences in bridges so as to avoid any confusion when you start playing guitar. This is an example of a stop-tailpiece typically found in Gibson Les Pauls and SG's. They dont come with a bar and have to be modified with something called a Bigsby to be able to achieve the Vibrato effect. Tuning wise these things tend to be very stable since there is almost no manipulation on the string's tension save for some string-bending and stretching. Other than that, this is a pretty solid bridge and is suited for players not requiring and vibratos.. but then, this lesson is all about The Vibrato bar! So enough about this..
The "Synchronized tremolo"
So this is your basic vibrato bridge. These were one of the first commercially available vibrato bridges as standard issue on guitars. This type of bridge was also the kind famous players like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen had to first tinker with. Taking some further advancements from the Bigsby, The Fender "Tremolo" allowed for much more deeper depressions and was more stable in terms of tuning degradation. This bridge also allows the player to pull up on the bar with a little careful adjustments of the springs at the back of the bridge. This is an all around type of bridge that was stable enough for steady players and forgiving enough for those whammy-crazy players.
The "Floyd Rose tremolo"
This is for players that require just a little more than what the Fender bridge had to offer. These are essentially locking tuners. Meaning, when it has been tuned and has been locked.. Theoretically speaking, it should not come out of tune. This bridge is also capable of raising notes 4 to 5 semitones (or 2 to 2 and a half notes) up. This makes for some really fun sounds when manipulated properly. Players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani use this type of bridge to achieve surreal sounds from their guitars. Noises like squeals, grunts and divebombs are effortless in this bridge.
Okay, now that we've got them established, It's time for me to walk you through playing it properly..
The key to using the Vibrato bar properly is to use it sparingly. I've come across players who constantly fiddle with the whammy bar every chance they get. Not only is it annoying, it makes your playing sound redundant. What I would do when soloing is to achieve the vibrato sound from the notes by hand instead of the bar. That way, it sounds tempered and at the same time controlled. Nudging the bar while fretting a note is also a clever trick to add a little flavor to your playing. One of the basic ways to use it is to create some sort of segue from one portion of the song to another. A divebomb maybe or a squeal.. either way, always use it sparingly and do not use it every time you move from one portion to the other.
Here are a few tricks that make use of the whammy bar:
Divebomb: Pluck a note note and let it ring. While it's ringing slowly push down on the whammy bar. This should create a sound similar to a plane nosediving or a car decelerating.
Horse's squeal: With your picking hand, create pinch harmonic. Once you've created the harmonic gently press down on your whammy bar.. shake it if you want!
Garbled notes: While fretting notes, try chopping the bar rapidly. This will cause the bridge to move up and down very fast that it'll sound like a person gargling.
One last thing.. when you attempt to do this in front of a live audience please try to bring a back-up guitar as much as possible. The strain to the strings caused by the rapid change in tension makes it very vulnerable to breakage. I've had this happen to me a lot of times before and it always pays to back-up. I hope this lesson helps in any way possible. Peace out!
The author of this video describes this movie to be simply about love, sex and death in no particular order.. but do not be deceived. for this may seem like another low-budget Youtube short film, the way this film was written was absolute genius.
The title of the movie is "Love story" which follows the life of feral man living deep in the woods. He lives in solitude and thrives off the land until one day he stumbles across a woman. There he learns how to love. How he learns? Well.. I'll let you watch it for yourself. It goes without saying that woodsmen have a different kind of love.
Lo and behold, my very first traffic citation! I'll be the first one to tell you this, but I swear this so-called "violation" is so full of horsesh*t. I got caught turning left in Makati where no "No left turn" signs were ever present. God, you gotta hand it to these city planners! Instant bait for crooked cops looking for a quick buck. At this point, I'd like to thank Tito Roger Marasigan for helping waive the charges and retrieve my license in almost no-time flat. Without him I would've gone to the city hall where the policeman said would be "no trouble." Sure.. and pigs can fly. It also goes without saying that if it were the end of the world and I had the last glass of water left, a certain SP04 Aviles will definitely not get it.
Another thing worth noting.. I got stopped a few days prior to getting my license back. This time I apparently beat a red light. Luckily for me, I got to pay the officer off this time. Kudos to you my good sir!
If you were a Zobel student back in the 90s, I doubt that there'll ever be a day that you wont see Bro. Felix going around the campus. Furthermore, There wouldn't be a birthday without you being called up to his office so that you'd be able to receive a stampita. The man did not forget birthdays. In the entire population of Zobel of more or less 3000, to this day I am still amazed at how he was able to remember each and every one of our birthdays. In a way, it made us feel like we weren't just some face in the crowd. He was a man that was definitely hard to hate. He wasn't just part of the school, he was an institution! In fact, he was so well known that I had learned of his death through my brother who didn't even study in Zobel! He retired and moved back to California in 2006 after an entire lifetime in the Philippines. He has certainly made an indelible mark on Zobel's history and that he will most certainly be missed by the students who were there during his long tenure with DLSZ. Rest in peace Brother Felix, keep that "Siko" watch running. Us "Gwapitos" will miss you over here.
If there is anything in this world I can live without, it would be apathy. I can't stand the fact that one would be as to be numb to outside stimulus only because one is lazy or too selfish to give a f*ck most especially if the person they're being apathetic to is me. But that's just besides the point. In this case, I'm not the one being ignored.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Are all of us aware of that? For a country who's apparently predominantly Catholic some of us couldn't really give a sh*t. --well maybe the people around me but that sure as hell tells a lot. Because even though this day was about remembering how we came from ashes and to ashes we'll return, some of us don't even bother to remember to "remember" anymore. I am not the most devout Catholic around and I can admit to that. But even then, I think I still know where I should draw the line between living my life with God and just simply living A life.
Whatever happened to "Fasting" and/or "Abstinence?" I'm not in a position to dictate to you what to do to prove your faith in God and don't think I ever will. But the people around me just make me feel like this was just some regular Wednesday when it's not supposed to.
The point that I'm trying to raise is this: I think we're losing our grip in convention. I think that we're all starting to develop our own personal Jesus. We have our own beliefs, yes. But does that mean that what I perceive as red might be your blue? Does the theory of "Qualia" apply to faith too? I don't think its suppose to. I think that we all have one God. And I DO believe that we have our own special relationship with him. But the reason why we're called a religion is because we're bound by the same belief. Us Catholics ALL still answer to the same father. So I'm still lost on the concept of others being exempt.
The next two words coming out of your mouth will be "Meat spin"
Good God! Hard to believe these sort of things were cool back in the 80s. I mean I am certainly an 80s fiend myself but even THIS is a little too much for my taste. But I must say next to Cher's "Do you believe in life after love" song, this is one catchy motherf*cker! And it might be unbelievable for you, but I did NOT (and I repeat did NOT) attempt to look for this song because of Meatspin.com! I looked for the song because Adam Sandler played this in the intro of his 1998 movie "The Wedding singer." Now THAT'S a quality movie right there. If you're into sub-par movies, watch this instead. Happy viewing!
