Oolong the pancake bunny

Here's one the cutest things I've seen recently: a bunny rabbit who has been trained to balance objects on its head. It's name is Oolong and he belonged to a Japanese photographer.
I came across Oolong's website when I was searching for information and photos of this curious food stuff being sold at a cart near the UPLB gate. I only knew that it was something Japanese thus it took some time before I finally figured out that the little pancake thingies were similar to what are known as obanyaki. (I also eventually recalled that something similar was being sold in the Jollybean stands in Singapore.) As there wasn't much information nor photos about obanyaki, this led me to read about similar Japanese food stuff like dorayaki. So it was in the brief Wikipedia entry about dorayaki that I first read about Oolong the bunny rabbit. And as usual, I got curious about this Internet Phenomenon like so many other web surfers before me and had to find out more about the cute bunny. Apparently Oolong became very famous because of one of his images became the basis of a popular image macro with the annotation

I finally found Oolong's photo journal website where so many photos of Oolong's cute "head performances" were posted by his owner almost daily. It was sad though to read that Oolong had passed away way back in January 2003. But from what people have said in their blogs about the passing of Oolong, the bunny rabbit it seems was well loved by many in the Internet community. And so to add to the many tributes to the beloved bunny here's my humble contribution: a wallpaper I made.
P.S.
By coincidence, Oolong was the subject of one of the recent Facts of the Day over at Mental Floss.

Harry Potter Book 7 covers unveiled

Wow! Have just read that the book covers for the seventh Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have been released. And boy, are they intriguing. The locket on the cover of the UK adult version (love the sleek black cover, by the way) is definitely the Slytherin heirloom that Dumbledore tells Harry about in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It must reflect the fact the last book will be about Harry's search for the rest of Volde- --oops! sorry--You Know Who's horcruxes. Nothing new revealed there though. But Harry along with Hermione and Ron among what looks like treasure (and is that Dobby on Harry's back holding a sword/dagger?) as depicted on the UK children's version will surely evoke a lot of debate. As for the cover of the US edition, that sure looks like a coliseum or ampitheatre where Harry and Voldemort are having a duel of sorts, perhaps with the Death Eaters looking on? Even more fodder for heated discussions no doubt.

I expect a slew of slew of essays/editorials discussing the meaning of what is depicted on those covers as well as to speculate anew what will happen in long-awaited book seven to appear on MuggleNet during the next few months leading up to the book's release.

I can only hope that it won't be as depressing as Book 6 which left me dazed and stunned for several days in July 2005. (At least I was not as unfortunate as a friend of mine who made the mistake of reading it during the Christmas break. Of course, it completely dampened his holiday mood.) I do know though that I'll be crying when I read Book 7, not because of what's happening in the book, but more from the realization that it will be the last Harry Potter book.

Doughnuts for ten pesos Part II

I've found that I was quite mistaken about ten-peso-per-donut promo of Mister Donut being only for one day. This noon, I went to eat lunch again at KFC and was delighted to see two large trays of sugar-raised and honey-dipped donuts on display again at the Mister Donut counter. And they were still going for ten pesos each! So I thought I'd buy a few to take home for Mama and Papa but only after I had run a few quick errands. (I'd hate to carry them around under the hot summer noon sun, you see.) I was shocked though when I got back a quarter of an hour later to see only two sugar-raised doughnuts left. Gee, I didn't think they'd go that fast. And no wonder there weren't any at the end of the day last week. Anyway, I just bought the last two. But at least I know there would be some available again at least for the next few days. I'll just have to be there early before they run out!

Early summer heat

Today was the first time this year that it has been unusually muggy. Can you imagine that it was at least 32C in our dining room this afternoon? Ouch. Summer seems to have come early this year and I definitely don't like it. I'm already beginning a cold due to the oppressive heat and at this time of the year when things are so hectic at the office, I simply can't afford to get sick. I've had a fan trained on myself nearly all day but it isn't giving much relief. Worse, I am still feeling sticky all over despite taking a shower (the second one I took today) earlier this evening. I might have to turn on the air-conditioning in my room tonight if it gets more unbearable. It's still 30C here in my room, by the way. It used to be a more comfortable 27C in the evenings before. Ah well ... at least I live here away from the city. Can't imagine what the temps must be in Manila!

My own monogram/logo

I've been trying to come up with my own monogram or logo for some years now. It has been quite complicated since I normally use the initials of all four of my names and couldn't quite put all four together in a satisfactory monogram. Most monograms I see after all incorporate just two or three letters. But I finally came up with an idea the other day and couldn't wait to actually put it down on paper so to speak. So I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning today (actually I fell asleep early and somehow woke up at 2am) working with Adobe Photoshop to make it. I initially came up with the first one shown below and later another one with the colors inverted which I believe looks better, don't you?

I decided to make one for my sister as well since all I had to do was switch the first two letters and modify the "C" to look more like an "E".
I'm hoping to turn these into stamps (or perhaps stickers?) that my sister and I can use to mark our books, etc.

Doughnuts for ten pesos

Dunkin Donuts and Mister Donuts seem to have stepped up the competition these past week by offering their doughnuts for a lower price.

Mister Donuts recently began selling their doughnuts for nine pesos apiece if you buy a dozen. Then yesterday, I noticed that they were offering the sugar-raised and the honey-dipped varieties for just ten pesos. So I bought one sugar-raised one to eat as dessert for my noon meal. I thought I'd come back to buy more to bring home for Mama and Papa. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a one-day promo and they were back to selling just their fancy doughnuts which are too rich for Mama and Papa.

I also spied an ad in the newspaper announcing that Dunkin Donuts was selling all their doughnut varieties for just ten pesos each as well. I managed to buy half a dozen (three chocolate glazed with nuts and three chocolate honey-dipped) to bring home today. I hope to be able to buy more next time.

[Hmm. I've just noticed that the Blogger editor doesn't recognize the word "doughnut" but recognizes the more informal spelling of "donut". Now, isn't that weird?]

New Themes for Personalized Google Page

I had just signed into Google to view my personalized home page when I noticed a link on the upper right hand corner next to the "Add Stuff" link: a link to select a theme! This can only mean that Google has just introduced themes for personalized Google pages! Woohoo! So I checked it out and found that currently there are six themes (aside from the Classic theme): Beach, Bus Stop, City Scape, Sweet Dreams, Tea House and Seasonal Scape. There are indications that the themes (except for the Classic one) will change throughout the day according to the current time or weather which is why one has to provide city/state or zip code. The only trouble is that the setting appears to accepts US locations and zip codes only. I hope they'll start including international time zones soon as the themes do look great. In the meantime, I'm trying out the Tea Room theme which seems to be the most interesting one (i.e. cute).