This photo appearing in a BBC article (via brownpau) on the Philippines’ poverty divide shows “a shocking contrast of rich and poor.” I encountered many contrasting images such as this in the Philippines. The following photo taken in Olongapo juxtaposes the area’s past and present.
Yesterday turned out to be a day pleasantly spent with a couple of old and new friends. I met up with Edmund, a long lost friend of mine, to check out the Macworld expo together. Ed was a roommate/co-worker from back in the day.
Ed and I at Cha-Am Restaurant across the street from Moscone Center.
Click here to see how we looked ten or so years, and pounds, ago.
Cha-Am is a Thai fast food restaurant which occupies the space where Jollibee used to be. While dining there, I recognized Mike of Pusod and Jayadewa.com. I introduced myself, then invited him to join our table. We had a nice little chat about Macworld (which he himself attended), the internet and work.
We do! We do! We do need our steenkin’ badges!
More Macworld pics here.
I suppose I’m not the only one who deems Jollibee worthy of a Macworld snapshot. PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak posts this picture up and says this of the Philippine fast food chain and Mac fans:
If any of you follow international news, the Jollibee fast-food franchise is out of the Philippines and notorious for rousting McDonald’s. Since its early marketing victories, it is now expanding, and this is one of the first in the US, right across from Moscone Center. It was packed with Mac fans. I only mention this because I observed an interesting phenomenon in the press room. They had four sandwich selections in huge piles. There was ham and cheese, beef and cheese, chicken salad and vegetarian. The beef sandwiches were clearly the most popular, while the vegetarian sandwiches had almost no takers. This, to me, marks a fundamental change in the general Mac community. Also, outside the halls, there were an inordinate number of smokers puffing away. A nervous, meat-eating crowd of smokers—all Mac users. Danger looms.
[link courtesy of Hudahelru at the PhilMUG Forums]
I’m posting this live from the Internet Cafe at Macworld. I had trouble connecting to the wireless network initially because of user overload. But thanks to the help of this friendly guy sitting beside me who happens to be an Apple Consultant, I’m on.
The company I work for has a booth here but I went solo and not as an exhibitor. For lunch, I went to Jollibee across the street from Moscone Center. It was packed with Macheads escaping the exorbitant prices of Expo food.
