Do me a favor, try to access http://www.bbwindow.com by clicking on that link. What do you see?

Do you find a damn cool website about a crazy American’s travels around the world? One with photos and stories from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Taiwan, and the Philippines in the last three months?

If you do, then I am right, its just The Peninsula Hotel that is blocking access to my joe-cool website. If you are in the hotel, using either their wired or wireless Internet access, you cannot see that website.

You also cannot access the website for 1and1.com, my host either, which makes me believe that The Peninsula is blocking access to a whole web server, not just my little, insignificant website.

So that would mean The Peninsula Hotel Manila is censoring websites. They are actively blocking access to specific web servers. And to think I was seduced by their luxury.

Censorship is never luxurious.

So while when I met Imedla Marcos(!), who beside her fabulos shoes, was drinking my favorite mix beer + lime + ice in the swank Peninsula Hotel, I was impressed

This week, when I arrived in Sri Lanka, I was amazed.

Here, far away from Manila, but suffering through similar oppressive heat, every one drinks beer + lime + ice in ice buckets.

As you can tell, working from Colombo is a rough life.

A job fair titled “24/7 Forum & Job Expo “ opened yesterday at Eastwood City Cyberpark featuring companies such as Trend Micro, HSBC, eTelecare and Citibank. The job fair is being sponsored by the Quezon City government together with Eastwood City Cyberpark and will run until Saturday. Booths are open 10am to 10pm at the Central Plaza so interested applicants should bring their resumes.

The 24/7 Forum & Job Expo is a five day career building, networking, jobmatching and hiring activity with the Forum starting last Saturday. Among the topics covered at the Forum is the Introduction to the various ICT enabling services: Call centers, Business Processing Outsourcing, Medical Transcriptions, Animations which will be held at the ICITE Auditorium in Eastwood Libis. Anyone interested may attend the forum for free from 9am to 5pm.

Do you have friends coming into town? Folks you wanna impress? Then may I offer a very simple suggestion? Do NOT house them at Diamond Hotel Manila.

With a few hours before my flight, I was hoping for a relaxing hotel bar, a sky bar really, where I could drink and write with a view. I heard Diamond Hotel Manila had a Sky Bar and went there hoping.

And I was disappointed. The bar is closed from 2-5pm, the exact time I wanted to have a drink. Stuck in the downstairs bar, I found their WiFi to be pay per hour – $5 pay per hour. $5 per hour which you had to pay for in the second floor business office, not, as might be expected, near where non-guests would be using WiFi.

Then, in the middle of my offline work, they switched from love ballads to World Cup, that would be low love ballads to very loud and annoying World Cup, in Japanese!!

Last, as I was leaving, I noticed that their crack security team was waving in cabs without the usual under-chassis and trunk check. A lapse not seen anywhere else in my several hotel visit in Manila.

All in all, a very bad experience, one that says Diamond Hotel Manila ain’t worthy for your friends and family.

Do you recognize this church? Do you know where it is? Can you tell, maybe by the green fields behind it, that it is new?

This is the church built across the street from Mall of Asia, built in the 90’s before the Mall of Asia even broke ground (or so my sources say).

This church, for me, personifies the amazing power of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It was up and running, “saving” souls long before there were souls to save.

Wow. For a atheist from Washington DC, a very liberal city in America, that’s shocking.

Heading out to dinner last night, I notice there is a security commotion at the Peninsula Hotel lobby front door. People are being frisked more thoroughly than normal and there are brown-shirted security guards roaming the corners of the huge atrium lobby.

Wondering what’s up, I asked the concierge who the fuss was about. To his credit, he shrugged off the whole disturbance as nothing special, but I knew better.

That’s when I asked the leggy blonde (hey I told you to hide your women!) and whipped out the camera.

There in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, the hero to all shoe-fetish women worldwide with her quote “I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty,” was none other than Ms. Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Looking a radiant 76, she tolerated my total tourist annoyance with much more grace and charm than I expected. She even had one of her security detail take this photo of us.

After the photo, as I excused myself, I looked down.

Nice shoes, Imelda!

While the Philippines Independence Day Parade already happened, today is the actual Philippines Independence Day.

I’ve heard that Angels City will reenact of the declaration of Philippine Independence at its actual venue – the Pamintuan Mansion. Too bad I have no clue where Angel City is.

I do know I’d love to do something fun, patriotic, and very Filipino during my weekend in Manila City.

Any suggestions?

Think today’s thunderstorm was a freaky mean one? Maybe took out a tree or two? Well you would be right.

Running around town post-storm, I found a few trees down. Nicely enough, this one, in a private neighbourhood around downtown, was felled with the right mind set.

Snapping off a large branch with ease, Mother Nature earned our awe, and that the branch came close, but didn’t touch a classic 1960’s Ford Mustang, she earned our respect.

Thanks for being mindful, Mother Nature. While the Mustang does pollute, it is still a work of art.

That’s the best advice I can give to fathers, brothers, and best yet, fiances this weekend. Why? Because Wayan is in town!

As a global Metroblogger, leaving women to morn, girls to yearn, and ex-husbands out for blood, this self-proclaimed (and self-absorbed) God’s Gift to Women will be talking up the local hotties in Malate. Beauties like Sigrid here.

No matter that she is the fiancee of my good friend or took pity on me and showed me bayside and her favorite bar, Havana, last night, I still had to play my game. Using my smooth skills of flattery and chivalry, I made my move early, at midnight exact; I fell asleep in my solo cab ride back to my hotel.

Yeah, hide your women; Mr. Lame-o is here!

The non-profit NGO group RockEd literally rocked Eastwood last Friday with Rock Bayan 2006, a concert celebrating the upcoming Independence Day. Among the performers were Noel Cabangon, Paolo Santos and Menaya.

The concert is part of RockEd’s national campaign called “No More Excuses, Philippines” and the group aims to provide venues and events for alternative education. RockEd promotes culture by teaching music, the arts, poetry, sports and new approaches to science, cultural studies outside the classroom.