Best Cake I Ever Tasted

My wife recently celebrated her birthday and for food she said she wanted something different. She was craving for a certain garlic pancit sontanghon that her mom brought home one time. So she called her up asking where she bought the pancit and her mom said that she got it from BF Homes in Paranaque from a certain Conti's Pastry Shop and Restaurant. My wife immediately hit click the city and did a search for the restaurant. She then got my attention by asking me if remembered the garlic sontanghon that her mom brought one time and I said "of course" and I distinctly remembered that it was particularly yummy. She then showed me the site and asked me "what if just ordered out?" I said sure and then it hit me, the name of the restaurant sounded familiar because I remember one of my supervisor's bringing a cake at work she called choco overload and I saw a distinct green and yellow box with the name Conti's on it. I then started telling my wife how divine their chocolate cake was... Let me tell you I am not a big fan of cakes and pastries but this was definitely something that I liked and enjoyed. I suggested that we might as well try their cake.


Last Saturday I scoped out Conti's Greenhills and did my initial survey. It was a posh and quaint restaurant located in Connecticut and when I got in, the place was jammed-packed, I guess this says a lot about the food and I bet people wouldn't go of their way if they know that it was worth the trip.


We decided to try the sans rival and we definitely made the right choice. It was literally mouth-watering. This is definitely going to be a tradition in our household -- overall this is one of the best cakes I ever tasted, I can't wait to try the rest and explore their diverse entree.

Sleeping Positions and Personality

Have you ever noticed yourself sleeping?... I know it's kind of hard but ask someone who can observe and tell you how you sleep, particularly what position you take. In a study conducted by sleep expert Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, suggested a correlation between six common sleeping positions and the personality traits of the sleepers themselves.


Fetal Position (41%) Curled up on your side, holding the pillow. The most popular sleeping position, this one was favored by 51% of the women in the study. The personality of these sleepers tends to be shy and sensitive, though they may present a tough exterior to the world.

Soldier Position (8%) Flat on your back with arms at your sides. Indicates a quiet and reserved personality who sets high standards.

Starfish Position (5%) Lying on your back with arms and legs outstretched. Indicates a good listener who makes friends easily, but prefers not to be the center of attention.

Freefall Position (7%) Flat on your stomach with arms at the head or ears. Indicates a brash and gregarious exterior who may inwardly be nervous and sensitive to criticism.

Log Position (15%) On your side with legs outstretched and arms at your sides. Indicates a social, easygoing personality.

Yearner Position (13%) Similar to the log, but with arms outstretched. Said to indicate a suspicious and cynical personality.

Hellboy 2 Review

I had the privilege to watch an advance screening of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and I must admit that it was worth every penny or should I say every minute (Thanks Angel). The movie is about 110 minutes long and easygoing, funny with a lot of metaphysics and is packed with an ensemble of moods and elements. The story revolves around an ancient truce between the elves and the humans that has been broken by an elf prince (Luke Gross) when he sets a quest to seek the only artifact that can control an ancient indestructible mechanical army that he intends to awaken to bring "order" to the succumbed human world. Back at the top-secret paranormal government lab/agency where Hellboy (Ron Perlman) works, he's faced with a new boss and authority figure Dr. Johann Kraus - a gaseous entity in a containment suit (resembles a diving suit voiced by Seth MacFarlane). Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Red's sidekick, friend and resident know-it-all returns and finds romance with the sister of the elf prince (played by Anna Walton).

Some Highlights:
** Red's love affair with the combustible Liz Sherman (Selma Blair)
** Barry Manilow's "I Can't Smile Without You"
** That elf prince has got some serious moves
** Hellboy, a baby in one hand and an oversize gun in the other, top it off with a giant, angry plant.

HELLBOY II: The Golden Army

Directed by Guillermo del Toro; written by Mr. del Toro, based on a story by Mr. del Toro and Mike Mignola and on the Dark Horse comic by Mr. Mignola; director of photography, Guillermo Navarro; edited by Bernat Vilaplana; music by Danny Elfman; production designer, Stephen Scott; creature and makeup effects by Mike Elizalde; produced by Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson and Lloyd Levin; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. WITH: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien/Chamberlain/Angel of Death), Jeffrey Tambor (Tom Manning), Luke Goss (Prince Nuada), Anna Walton (Princess Nuala), Seth MacFarlane (voice of Johann Kraus) and John Hurt (Trevor Buttenholm).

Fancy Your Footwear

You can tell a lot from a person's shoes... Believe it or not there was a research conducted in Lancaster University in the UK, whose primary concern was with how shoes function as a communication code in everyday life. The project revolves on the study of:

1. How shoes themselves can communicate aspects of a wearer's or organization's personality and attitudes.

2. how people talk about shoes and themselves using everyday language - what words they use and how these words vary from context to context and from language to language.

Areas of Research

• Shoes and the communication of personality
• Footwear terminology - comparative studies in a number of languages
• Connotative meanings of shoe styles
• Shoes and corporate image
• Students' attitudes to footwear - cross-cultural study in Germany, Poland and Russia
• Interaction effects of shoe styles on perception of verbal communications

Sounds as if the guys who conducted this research couldn't come up with a decent thesis proposal or just has a really huge thing with feet. I on the other hand merely narrowed my observations on the indigenous footwear of the call center industry and the psychology behind it. Just said that to sound as if there was some research done but naah, I'll give you a run down of the usual footwear I see on the floor.

First off, you have about 60-70% of your FTE wearing sneakers for the obvious reason that it's comfortable . Most popular of which include canvas shoes, cross training shoes, running shoes, basketball shoes and the like. They have a huge variety to chose from: nike, adidas, puma, reebok, vans, pony and of course the most popular, converse, Chuck Taylors in particular. I have the low-cut basic black, I admit they're one of the most comfortable shoes I have.

Second, you have your leather shoes (including boots) and loafers. Levels 5 and up usually sport this mainly because it's status quo for them. The spiffiest I see who wear these come from the Training Team (usually the best-dressed and anyone who works in the industry can attest to that).

Lastly, we have the flip flops which include slippers, happy feet, havianas, I'll include crocs here and sandals. These are not usually allowed, but hey I see them anyway. Regardless of what you wear the good thing about it is that nonbody gives a hoot about your preferences.

Evolution of the Call Center Fashion

During the dawn of the booming BPO (Business Processing and Outsourcing) industry aka call center industry during the late 90's, none, if not little is known about the exact fashion sense of the type then. One can only speculate what the pioneers of the industry sported. It was assumed that they usually adapted the usual yuppie-type, stiff, business to semi formal-ish apparel. Given that the industry's usual service window revolve around US business hours which is about 10pm Manila time and extends up until the wee hours in the morning, the group did not see the relevance of donning the rigid attire. This was later justified when some wise cracks raised the fact that their customers doesn't even get to see them.

I haven't been around in the industry that long to actually give you an in depth narrative on the evolution of the call center fashion but I can tell you one thing though, you can definitely tell whether the person you run into works for the industry with the stuff he/she wears.