allanko.net » Life and Others

I’m back.. sort of

sinch — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:42:37 +0000

Just a quick little entry of miscellaneous tidbits to let everybody know that I'm still alive!

Had been tweeting more than blogging lately… and been traveling for work too.

Anyway, my dogs Nash and Sean are here with me while the other two (Alison and Haley) stayed with my folks in Manila.. time for a little split family action, boys without girls hehe.

Just saw Toy Story 3 with friends earlier.. really nice movie. Pixar never disappoints.

We had Xin Tian Di's dimsum buffet for lunch earlier, and it was superb. Service was fantastic too.

Sorry still have not been posting any new restaurant reviews yet.. we've been to a lot of really great ones recently but I just couldn't find the time (and the patience) to compose full-fledged blog entries about them (yeah, I'm lazy like that ). But if you were to ask me which of the recent ones we visited I'd recommend, Google these establishments and pay them a visit.. you won't regret it:

- The Goose Station (W Fort) by Chef Rob Pengson and Chef Sunshine Puey

- Felix (Greenbelt 5) by Chef Florabel Co

- Lusso (Greenbelt 5) by Margarita Fores

- Pino Resto Bar (UP Village)

- Enchante by Chef Jessie Sincioco (Oakwood Joy-Nostalg Center, ADB Avenue)

So that's all for now. Til next time, when I get into the blogging mood again.

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Hello there.. yes I’m still alive :)

sinch — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:38:46 +0000

So you may be wondering, why is this blog not updated?

I've been busy of late, and as such have been remiss with my blogging chores.

I do have a TON of food pics snapped on many food trips, but have yet to find the time to write about them. The pics are raw as well — no post-production done yet.

That said, I'm keeping the site alive for now primarily because of the archives and people who find use in them.

Hopefully, once things settle down I'd get back to my old blogging routine.

Or not

Thanks for visiting!

Allan Ko

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Nash and Sean’s Halloween Dress-up ‘09

sinch — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:19 +0000

My two rowdy pups Nash and Sean dressed up for Halloween last week, in time for a long weekend to spend with family. Here are some snaps.

It's the amazing Spider-Nash!

Can you guess what Sean's costume is?

He's Naruto. Look at how big he is now — looks like he's already as big as Nash!

Nash: are we having fun yet?

Sean: er.. I think so?

Nash: With great power.. comes great pictures!

*we still miss you, Chloe*

Goodbye, Chloe..

sinch — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:10:09 +0000

Sad sad day..

my youngest pup, Chloe, succumbed to sudden death today (Oct 29, 2009) due to viral contamination.

I guess she was too young and too fragile to have fought the infection.

Her memorial page is here.

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Meet Chloe

sinch — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:00:44 +0000

Oh no I didn’t — but I just did! Last weekend, another shih tzu puppy has joined the clan. Meet the dainty, petite, and adorable Chloe, who is totally unrelated to the two boys but is getting along quite well.

Chloe has this innocent vibe about her.. doe-eyed and demure, she instantly won over the brothers’ affection

You can’t see it clearly on these pics, but she has curly lashes! The groomer must have deliberately done it that way haha

Nash, Sean, and Chloe: from big to small, on the cage where they are trained to poop and pee appropriately (but oftentimes doesn’t work!)

The ceremonial photo by my portrait, hehe

Is anybody looking?

Hmm… looks like the coast is clear…

Pa-kiss nga!

*escape, escape!*

Whoa, who would have thought!? I have become quite the dog lover!

Sean poses for the camera

sinch — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:00:10 +0000

It's been a while since I last posted pics and updates about my pets. Earlier today, I caught younger pup Sean on camera lounging around on a stack of old newspapers (while older brother Nash was snoozing). Here are some snaps: Looking cutesy whaddup dawg? Exorcising! yeah, whatever. the rug pose the *pant pant* pose and the irresistible head tilt pose

my blogging journey so far

sinch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:00:41 +0000

While migrating the site from Quick Blogcast to Wordpress, I got the chance to browse through all my older blog posts — and realized how much the site has evolved.

In the relatively short span of time that I’ve been publicly chronicling aspects of my life online, there is an obvious change in the way the blog entries are composed.

The earlier months portrayed a lot of scattered, random thoughts about many things, particularly of my faith and mundane everyday stuff. Along the way, I started to zero in on specific things and subjects: my tech and multimedia passions, work musings, the food I eat, websites I browse, and lately, domestic life with my two puppies.

The tone of my entries has since forgone their casual candor, which for me somehow reflects a shift from my unsettled personal “multichotomy” to a relative certainty of self-awareness.

I had thought about whether or not the continued existence of the older entries bothered me. True enough, after reading some of what I had posted before, I would not think of posting that way today. More so with the entries from my older blog — one I started at Xanga and eventually to Blogspot.. those posts were totally outrageous!

That said, the totality of this current blog and its rich archive of entries represent chapters in my life that would remain online for as long as I find substantial purpose in having them so — regardless of what I feel about the state of mind I was on when they were written. They will continue to exist until the time comes for this site to sign off.

In the mean time, on with the show.

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from .com to .net!

sinch — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:17:34 +0000

I started the allanko.com blog almost 2 years ago under GoDaddy.com’s Quick Blogcast, an extremely user-friendly blogging platform, and it thus far had served me and my audience well all this time.

As I progress with blogging and blog maintenance, I’ve come to uncover all that the Quick Blogcast platform is not capable of offering.

The software had too many weak points:

Inflexibility of personalization. Customization is difficult in Quick Blogcast, and whatever little you can do with it, you have to do with utmost caution (my blog crashed about 2 times in the past when I attempted to overhaul the site design).
Absence of knick-knacks. Sidebar widgets and additional plug-ins that are readily available in other platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress are scarce in Quick Blogcast. Even the ubiquitous tag cloud is only given as a premium offering, available only if you pay an additional amount.
It’s just not pretty enough.

Then why did I have to move from the old allanko.com domain if I only had concerns with the blogging platform, you ask? Pretty simple.

The .com domain is tightly integrated with the old Quick Blogcast site, and I didn’t want to risk losing my current (albeit paltry) blog reader base as I migrate into Wordpress. And considering how cheap it is to register domains these days, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get the .net equivalent along with the new site. I will still retain the allanko.com domain, which should eventually autoforward here.

Thank you for visiting my blog and hope to hear from you on the comments!

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Nash and Sean at my parents’ house

sinch — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Over the weekend, my two puppies Nash and Sean bonded with folks at my parents’ house in Manila.

Nash is bold and friendly, while Sean is bashful and timid as ever.

My mom absolutely adore Nash. He’s starting to grow on my dad as well!

Earlier today, Nash ate two nibbles of pomelo fruit. Yesterday, he gobbled up two pieces of seedless red globe grapes. The grape-eating was a funny sight to behold — as he looked like lechon (roast pig) with an apple in the mouth.

I noticed that Sean does not like to be looked at in the eye. He looks away everytime anybody does that.

They both love the Royal Canin shih tzu formula dog food — which was Nash’s original brand before I tried others (Orijen, Pedigree, Alpo) before reverting.

Sean has been shrieking less frequently lately (he used to do that a LOT — as in every time he has contact with anybody). I think he is a pup with special needs.

There are times that I just want to throw my hands up in the air with Sean and his OA ways, but I guess I just have to continue displacing the stress in caring for him elsewhere.

Which does not go to say that Nash does not bring me any stress as well — in fact he still does so every time he pees on the doormat or tramples his poop.

morsels 08.05.09 – Sean almost drowns

sinch — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0000

* I think Sean almost drowned today — he fell into a bucketful of water and shrieked aloud while struggling to jump out. Thank God I was able to quickly get him out as he looks like he was about to suffocate! I suppose if I had delayed by a minute it would have been too late. His tongue looked pale white (as opposed to the usual pink) and boy did he look petrified. Poor little thing.

Here’s how he looked after I dried him up:

* The two boys are really fond of each other. Nash, who usually wails and yelps aloud non-stop when left alone, is now perfectly content to stay put as long as Sean is in the same crate as he is (they have separate crates normally). Sean, on the other hand, exhibits extraordinary energy and joy when older bro’s around. And they cuddle together like conjoined stuffed toys when they sleep.

* Nash has grown a LOT the past few weeks. I browsed through my old photos of him, circa April / May / June this year, and noted his remarkable size increase. I do hope Sean catches up with him soon.