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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of June 27, 2010

1. Toy Story 3
2. Grown Ups
3. Knight & Day
4. The Karate Kid
5. The A-Team
6. Get Him to the Greek
7. Shrek Forever After
8. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
9. Killers
10. Jonah Hex
11. Iron Man 2
12. Sex and the City 2
13. Marmaduke
14. Robin Hood
15. Solitary Man

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Bloomberg Business Week ranks again the world's most expensive cities. Second placer for 2009, Tokyo, grabbed the top spot this year. Here are some of the items that made them so expensive:

FOOD: Lunch at a restaurant: $18
Can of beer from grocery: $3.37
One kg of rice: $8.47
One dozen eggs: $3.78
ENTERTAINMENT: Movie ticket: $22
APPLIANCES: Washing machine: $879

Here are the other cities that made into the list:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Oslo, Norway
3. Luanda, Angola
4. Nagoya, Japan
5. Yokohama, Japan
6. Stavanger, Norway
7. Kobe, Japan
8. Copenhagen, Denmark
9. Geneva, Switzerland
10. Zurich, Switzerland
11. Bern, Switzerland
12. Basel, Switzerland
13. Libreville, Gabon
14. Helsinki, Finland
15. Moscow, Russia

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Have you noticed PGMA's new plumped lips? Anyway, this was her farewell address shown yesterday night.

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Yesterday, I left the office one hour late. I was hungry and grouchy as usual. I still have the "Sinigang na Bangus" left over so I had my dinner at home. When I reached the Bus Interchange, I was a bit relieved that I can finally rest. I took the other bus since I don't want to wait. When I was to alight the bus stop I noticed that there was a gum on my seat and it was stuck on my black slacks. Great right? I only have two remaining slacks and my old ones are already in the Philippines.

Yesterday night, I was able to search on YouTube on how to remove the chewing gum from clothes. Unfortunately, I was only able to do it tonight. Sadly, it was too late.

Anyway, for the different methods on how to remove chewing gum, click here. By the way, I tried the freezing method.

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of June 20, 2010

1. Toy Story 3
2. The Karate Kid
3. The A-Team
4. Get Him to the Greek
5. Shrek Forever After
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
7. Killers
8. Jonah Hex
9. Iron Man 2
10. Marmaduke
11. Sex and the City 2
12. Robin Hood
13. Splice
14. Letters to Juliet
15. Raavan

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I have been hearing it a lot in DZMM that PAG-IBIG contributions are now required to all employed Filipinos whether you're OFW or not starting July 1, 2010. It is now a law, Republic Act 9679 specifically.

In my case since I work in Singapore, OFWs can pay their PAG-IBIG contributions at i-Remit. If you're not a PAG-IBIG member or have an existing account, you need to register and just pay at least one month contribution. Contribution can go from a minimum of 200 PHP to a maximum of 1,450 PHP. The more you contribute, the more you can loan in PAG-IBIG. In i-Remit by the way, you need to pay 3 SGD charge, so better pay for the whole year.

For OFWs, make sure to start contributing to PAG-IBIG or else the embassy won't issue you the Overseas Exit Clearance or (OEC).

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Last Wednesday, the heavy downpour resulted to a flash flood. The shopping district of Singapore, Orchard was surprisingly hit by the flood. Damages was estimated to be more than S$60 million. The last major flood in Orchard was in 1984.

Here is the video that I got from YouTube.

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Monday after work, I finally got myself a Starhub MaxMobile SurfLite. It is the mobile Internet from Starhub that comes in a USB stick. Cool, huh!

It was actually a competition between Singtel, Starhub and M1. I chose Starhub because aside from Unlimited Bundled Data, it is just the same price with M1. Between M1 and Starhub, I think Starhub is far better than M1. Well, Singtel only offers until 50GB data plan and it is quite expensive than Starhub and M1.

Now the testing portion. I tried it the instant I reached home. It is a plug and play USB so the installation was breezy. My plan by way is 27.10 SGD, which is already 30% off monthly. The download speed is 2 Mbps and the upload speed is up to 512 Kbps. The connection was just okay and based on the Statistics of the Mobile Broadband Modem it reached the download speed of 1.4 Mbps and upload speed of 400 Kbps. I have a queue of download so I just left it until the next morning. The next morning, I was shocked and amazed that the download and upload speed was way over ceiling. To be exact the download speed reached more than 2 Mbps and upload speed reached more than 500 Kbps. Very cool!

It's just awful that my contract is until 24 months.

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Our supervisor sent an email yesterday regarding our official time. That's why I made sure this morning that I would be early. Anyway, I was ten minutes early. It just sucks that before I reached the last MRT stop, the rain poured heavily. I was carrying my back pack with my gym stuff and I forgot to include my handy umbrella. I had no choice but to wait for the rain to stop or to wait for an officemate to rescue me.

I think it was more than twenty minutes before I saw my Pinoy officemate and luckily he has an umbrella. Minutes after my Indonesian friend arrived, no umbrella though. We reached our floor at exactly 9 in the morning, 30 minutes late from work with a semi-wet pants. My supervisor was already there and she didn't ask any questions. I guess it was obvious that people were stranded at the MRT. And I noticed that there were only a few people in our floor when we arrived.

Anyway during lunch break, I noticed a magazine spread posted in our Division's bulletin board. It was our Division Head's interview at MIS Asia Magazine May-June 2010 issue. I didn't have time to read the whole article though but at glance I read that he actually quoted one of my web applications. I quote, "We now have a Corporate Services Dashboard to track and communicate the detailed print usage by staff with the business heads. This, in turn, allows them to drive usage behaviour within their business divisions."

I'm not bragging but it just made me smile. To read the whole article, click here.

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of June 13, 2010

1. The Karate Kid
2. The A-Team
3. Shrek Forever After
4. Get Him to the Greek
5. Killers
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
7. Marmaduke
8. Sex and the City 2
9. Iron Man 2
10. Splice
11. Robin Hood
12. Letters to Juliet
13. Date Night
14. The Secret in Their Eyes
15. Solitary Man

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I am officially one week without Internet at home.  I have no other choice but to connect the Internet using my iPhone.  It's just that there is only a limit of 12GB per month.  I am a heavy user of Internet in my iPhone since I use it to drop cards in Entrecard and I do radio streaming for RX 93.1 and DZMM.

Now, I am thinking of getting a portable Internet in a USB stick.  It is either Starhub or M1 since they offer Unlimited Internet compared to Singtel which only offers 50GB.  Anyway, both Starhub and M1 costs 27.10 SGD per month for 24 months.  It just bothers me that aside from my mobile post-paid plan, I now need to allot money for the Internet.  Isn't that horrible?

Wish me luck on my Internet hunt!

High Speed Internet by Distributel

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Last Saturday, my friends and I went to watch Sex and the City 2 at Cineliesure in Orchard. Before that, I searched for an office bag, which I was able to buy the next day.

Now with my movie review. I can say the second installment to the Sex and the City franchise is gayer this time. Starting with a gay wedding of Carrie and Charlotte's gay friends. Anyway, the plot of this movie is about the current relationships of the main casts. Carrie and Big are now on their second year of marriage and they are working on retaining the "sparkle" of their marriage. Samantha on the other hand is experiencing the side effects of menopause and keeping her libido. Charlotte is now with two daughters and getting crazy on handling them plus a hot nanny on the side. And lastly Miranda is having problems in the office and has less time with her son. The gang went on an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi courtesy of Samantha's PR job.

Anyway, compared to first film the plot this time seems to be dull and haven't thought of. There are some funny and witty scenes especially with Samantha but in general the movie is just so-so. I also find the gay themes exaggerated. They should have balanced it.

So, what is your say about Sex and the City 2?

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of June 6, 2010

1. Shrek Forever After
2. Get Him to the Greek
3. Killers
4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
5. Sex and the City 2
6. Marmaduke
7. Iron Man 2
8. Splice
9. Robin Hood
10. Letters to Juliet
11. Raajneeti
12. Date Night
13. Just Wright
14. How to Train Your Dragon
15. The Secret in Their Eyes

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The Great Singapore Sale is back and will be running until July 25, 2010. Enjoy as much 70% discount on almost everything. Aside from the big discounts, there are many promotions and draws that will make you splurge.

For the GSS coupons, click here.

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Good news to my fellow OFW, you can now apply for an Overseas Exit Clearance or OEC online. Just visit this site.

All you need to do is to fill up the form on that site and pay P 2,650 at an Aboitiz/2Go branch. Breakdown can be found below. I think it way cheaper in the embassy here in Singapore.

Breakdown of fees:
POEA Processing Fees P 100.00
OWWA Membership P 1,135.00
Philhealth P 900.00
2GO / ABoitiz Courier Fee P 160.00
Teleserv Service Fee P 355.00
Total P 2,650.00

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Last Monday, I had scheduled an appointment for Wednesday in the Ministry of Manpower. My employment pass is up for renewal and I need to do fingerprinting and to submit a new photo.

So yesterday, I woke up early since my schedule is at 8 A.M. I arrived in Clarke Quay around 7:30 and waited until the door opened at 7:45. According to the guidelines, you need to scan your appointment copy to get a queue number. When I was about to scan at the kiosk, I was shocked to see that it says that I don't have an appointment. I immediately asked for assistant and was so ashamed to learn that my appointment was actually on June 9 and not yesterday. Isn't that stupid or what?

When I scheduled my appointment online, everything was grayed except for Tuesday onwards. I thought that Tuesday was on the same week when apparently it was next week. I had no choice to go back in the office. Thankfully, I reached the office on time and I don't have to explain my stupidity. I survived the whole day without telling anyone about my stupidity. Even my boss who expected that I'd be late for work.

My annoyance was extended when I reached home. I was told by my landlord that he changed the password of the WiFi. In short, he's cutting me off with the Internet access. He was told that he needs to upgrade and I need to pay now 20 something per month.

What's annoying is that there's not even a consideration to tell me before cutting me off. He kept on mentioning about the downloading issue when we had agreed that I will only download at dawn.

I said no to the additional 20 something per month since my utility portion is already over the top. It just strenghtens my desire to move out soon. Hopefully before my birthday and this time a serene place and near my work.

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of May 30, 2010

1. Shrek Forever After
2. Sex and the City 2
3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
4. Iron Man 2
5. Robin Hood
6. Letters to Juliet
7. Just Wright
8. Date Night
9. MacGruber
10. How to Train Your Dragon
11. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
12. Alice in Wonderland (2010)
13. Babies
14. The Secret in Their Eyes
15. City Island

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I saw this shocking video on YouTube days ago. Apparently, a two-year old toddler from Indonesia is now addicted to smoking when his father introduced him to cigarette when he was 18 months old. The Indonesian baby smokes 40 cigarettes a day. It just annoys me that the people on the background are smiling while watching the baby smoke. Saying awful words to them wouldn't be enough to suffice my disgust!