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  <title><![CDATA[Kevin Marcelo]]></title>
  <link href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
  <link href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/"/>
  <updated>2015-01-14T07:50:46+00:00</updated>
  <id>http://kevin.marcelo.ph/</id>
  <author>
    <name><![CDATA[Kevin Marcelo]]></name>
    <email><![CDATA[kevin@marcelo.ph]]></email>
  </author>
  <generator uri="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</generator>

  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Idea: Cooking Diary]]></title>
    <link href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/idea-cooking-diary/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-09T12:26:52+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://kevin.marcelo.ph/idea-cooking-diary</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><em>A diary for cooking activities and experiments, to encourage cooking newbies and to converge into a database of different ways to cook recipes.</em></p>

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmarceloph/status/553376286677020672"><img class="center" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B638zIvCMAAVQhr.jpg:large" width="400" height="400" title="Pork Sinigang (Tamarind Soup) = shoulder cut pork + onion + radish + tamarind broth + kangkong (water spinach)" ></a></p>

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<p>If you&rsquo;ve seen my <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/2015/">2015 post</a> (as of this writing; I&rsquo;m planning to change it soon) or <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmarceloph">my Twitter</a>, you&rsquo;ll see that I&rsquo;m building a list of dishes I&rsquo;ve cooked. Some are good, some are fail, some are repeats and some are firsts. Someday I will look back at this list and laugh at my failures, and then find a dish I want to cook <em>today</em>.</p>

<h2>Problem</h2>

<p><strong>Core Problem: I need a place to log my cooking escapades, with pictures, description/recipe and rating.</strong></p>

<h3>Additional Problems:</h3>

<ol>
<li>I want it to be taggable and searchable. &ldquo;How many times have I cooked Pasta Alfredo before? Have I ever cooked crabs?&rdquo;</li>
<li>I want to discover new dishes and new ways to cook my dishes. &ldquo;The many ways to cook spaghetti! :)&rdquo;</li>
<li>I wish to collect recipes I want to cook later. &ldquo;Found this image about cooking with instant ramen.&rdquo;</li>
<li>I wish to compile the ingredients from those recipes into a grocery list. &ldquo;Hmm, what should I get from the meat market? The grocery?&rdquo;</li>
</ol>


<h2>Proposed Solution</h2>

<p>Easiest: The easiest would be a dedicated Twitter account (which can be retweeted back to my main account). Other features can be done by hashtags, but using too much would be ugly.</p>

<p>Here it is: <a href="https://twitter.com/cookalike">@cookalike</a></p>

<p>Next: Creating a dedicated app for me to solve the core problem without being limited to 140 characters. So this involves login, feed and form (with image upload). And then next is adding tagging, search and discovery. Of course, these will be done alongside design and marketing work. And then the want-to-cook and the grocery list will come later.</p>

<h2>Monetization</h2>

<p>Uhh&hellip; ads? Premium users?</p>

<h2>Future Directions</h2>

<ol>
<li>Site chat!</li>
<li>Recommendations!</li>
</ol>

]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Tagaytay, January 2015]]></title>
    <link href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/tagaytay-january-2015/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-04T11:50:04+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://kevin.marcelo.ph/tagaytay-january-2015</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>So in the spirit of the holiday break and using my father-in-law&rsquo;s van for trips, we went to Tagaytay, the land of Bulalo, Taal volcano and the current holder of the largest Ferris wheel in the Philippines.</p>

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<p>And now for something completely different:</p>

<h2>Max&rsquo;s Restaurant Sucat (Dr. Arcadio Santos Ave, Sucat, Parañaque)</h2>

<p>The van broke down along the Skyway, so we went through an episode of having traffic cones placed around us and getting towed to the repair shop, and walking around the area while the van was repaired. And then we found Max&rsquo;s Restaurant Sucat, the most beautiful Max&rsquo;s I&rsquo;ve seen so far. (Seriously, if you&rsquo;re going to a Max&rsquo;s anyway, avoid the malls and go to their dedicated locations like this one or on QC Memorial Circle.)</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/maxs-restaurant-sucat.jpg" title="After the unexpected breakfast." ></p>

<h2>The State of Food Reviews</h2>

<p>I did some research beforehand, mostly how to go, what the city looks like, where to sightsee, where to eat. On the &ldquo;where to eat&rdquo; front, I found a lot of foodies blogging about where the best bulalo in Tagaytay are, but they had different answers. When we reached Tagaytay, I realized why: there&rsquo;s just too many bulalo restaurants here, and they were just posting about what they ate in the first place.</p>

<p>I think there must be a good way to round up reviews to reflect this concept. Also, we need a Tagaytay foodie map.</p>

<h2>Diner&rsquo;s Bulalo (Aguinaldo Highway near Mendez Crossing)</h2>

<p>That being said, we ended up eating bulalo (among others) at Diner&rsquo;s Bulalo. It&rsquo;s good for four, and we were five, so I bought lechon kawali for myself. It ended up in everyone&rsquo;s plate, and the bulalo was quickly devoured too, so we got their mixed seafoods and lechon paksiw dishes too. :)</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/diners-bulalo.jpg" title="Selfie because the food was already gone." ></p>

<p>In the spirit of inexperienced food reviews: the food was nice but not good. The bulalo&rsquo;s beef was tender but it lacked vegetables, the lechon kawali was melts-in-your-mouth good, and the others were reheats so they weren&rsquo;t that good. Service was not good: the place was relatively empty when we arrived and when it became full, the others after us were served first.</p>

<p>Diner&rsquo;s has another branch, and I think the mixed reviews online was due to these two branches. I dunno.</p>

<h2>Sky Ranch</h2>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-ranch-1.jpg" title="The wheel, the zip line tower, and an opportunity grabbed." >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-ranch-2.jpg" title="Look up." ></p>

<p>Next is Sky Ranch Tagaytay, one of SM&rsquo;s entries on the theme park scene, together with SM by the Bay and the recently-opened (Nov 2014) Sky Ranch Pampanga. (Aside: <a href="http://www.smstoryland.com/">cool under construction website!</a>) Like the others, it boasts a huge Ferris wheel called Sky Eye, together with the standard-fare rides.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-eye.jpg" title="Serious sees the world from inside the Eye." ></p>

<p>Aside from that, there&rsquo;s the Sky Rider, a two-way 300-meter zip line overlooking the whole park to the right and the Taal lake and volcano to the left. Since I&rsquo;ve never tried a zip line before, I thought it was the perfect first time. Result: The descent itself was exhilarating; the scary part was climbing the tower with the Tagaytay wind blowing on my face.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-rider.jpg" title="A formidable foe indeed." >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-rider-me.jpg" title="Whee!" >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/sky-rider-v.jpg" title="Violet lands feet-first." ></p>

<h2>Picnic Grove</h2>

<p>At this point I&rsquo;m already past my 24-hour mark (see <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/daily/">my daily schedule</a>), so I am already asleep on the van when we reached Picnic Grove on the other end of Tagaytay. I just sat with Mom on the viewdeck and let Violet and her sister walk around and take pictures.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/picnic-grove-1.jpg" title="All the views..." >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/picnic-grove-2.jpg" title="...I did not..." >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/picnic-grove-3.jpg" title="...get to see!" ></p>

<h2>Rekados Cafe and Restaurante (Tagaytay-Sta. Rosa Highway)</h2>

<p>I&rsquo;m also alseep on the van on this leg, and I expected to wake up in Manila, so I was surprised when we stopped by Rekados for dinner. And then the ambiance turned my surprise into wonder!</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/rekados-1.jpg" title="There's an &#34;e&#34; hiding behind the leaves!" alt="There's an &#34;e&#34; hiding behind the leaves!">
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/rekados-2.jpg" title="I wonder what's inside that house..." >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/rekados-3.jpg" title="That clock works!" >
<img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/rekados-4.jpg" title="The garden behind the restaurante." ></p>

<p>We ordered bulalo (again) and bulalo steak. The beef was not tender enough for me, but the vegetables made up for it.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/tagaytay-january-2015/rekados-food.jpg" title="Again, too hungry to take pics before eating." ></p>

<p>We also bought buko pie from the adjacent Balai Pasalubong, which is equally elegant and was actually the main store. (The restaurant was the expansion.)</p>

<h2>Back Home</h2>

<p>It was a long and tiring day, even longer and more tiring for me, but it was a great year-starter and vacation-ender. Totally worth going through the crowds and wrecking my sleep schedule. See you next time, Tagaytay!</p>
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  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Hello World!]]></title>
    <link href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/hello-world/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
    <id>http://kevin.marcelo.ph/hello-world</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/images/kevinmarceloph.png" title="Hello there! :)" alt="Kevin Marcelo's avatar image" /></p>

<p>Hello world! I am Kevin Marcelo, a follower of multiple passions. I previously describe myself as a jack of all trades, but I don&rsquo;t have a good list of trades to be a jack of. So, in the spirit of &ldquo;follow your passion,&rdquo; I follow multiple passions.</p>

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<p>I have <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/ideas/">a lot of ideas</a> waiting to be brought to life, and I&rsquo;m on a long journey to <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/projects/">finally executing them</a>. I am a full stack-ish web developer (Python + Django + basic front end + basic server), and while I try to <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/technology/">keep myself updated</a> with new technologies, I care more about picking up <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/not-technology/">the other skills</a> needed to make full products.</p>

<p>Outside ideas and projects, I am also a trope enthusiast. I&rsquo;ve long thought myself as <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/anime/"><em>otaku</em></a>, <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/games/">gamer</a>, <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/books/">reader</a> and <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/movies/">cinemaphile</a> combined (plus some <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/tv/">TV series</a> and <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/comics/">comic books</a>), but now I understand that what I get from them are the plots and patterns, more known now as tropes. This also explains why I spread myself across many media instead of focusing on one, and also why I play games for their narratives. TV Tropes has ruined my life, and that&rsquo;s good.</p>

<p>I also care a lot about rationality, both in the sense of <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/beliefs/">getting my beliefs straight</a> and using my knowledge <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/winning/">to achieve my goals</a>. (As &ldquo;rationality&rdquo; can mean someting completely different to you, I recommend you read <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/hpmor/">my favorite piece of literature</a>, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.) I also care about expressing my points with <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/clarity/">the sharpness of knives</a>, which I cannot reliably do yet, as I&rsquo;m <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/writing/">not a good writer</a> yet in general.</p>

<p>I am also human, so I also want to <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/fitness/">get fit</a>, <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/cooking/">cook good food</a>, <a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/travel/">see the world</a>, and many more (<a href="http://kevin.marcelo.ph/goals/">25 of them in total</a>). I probably cannot do all of them, but I want to get as far as I can, ticking off a few a time.</p>
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