I would like to greet my readers, friends, family, and all a Merry Merry Christmas!!!
I will post more as soon as I have a stable net connection.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Official List of Philippines 2011 Holidays
Wow an early holiday gift from Malacanang and PNoy!!! Malacanang Palace announced the much anticipated list of Philippines 2011 Holiday. According to Batangas Today and Official Gazette, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, signed Proclamation No. 84 today December 20, 2010. Proclamation No. 84 is the announcement about the Regular Holidays, Special Non-Working Days and other 2011 Holiday in the Philippines.
The Regular Holidays for Year 2011:
- New Year’s Day – January 1 (Saturday)
- Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9 (Saturday)
- Maundy Thursday – April 21
- Good Friday – April 22
- Labor Day – May 1 (Sunday)
- Independence Day – June 12 (Sunday)
- National Heroes Day – August 29 (Last Monday of August)
- End of Ramadan (Eid’l Fitr) – August 30 (Tuesday)
- Bonifacio Day – November 30 (Wednesday)
- Christmas Day – December 25 (Sunday)
- Rizal Day – December 30 (Friday)
The Special Non-Working Days for Year 2011:
- Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 (Sunday)
- All Saints Day – November 1 (Tuesday)
- Last Day of the Year – December 31 (Saturday)
February 25, the Anniversary of EDSA Revolution will be a Special Holiday for all schools only.
There will also be other holidays related to our Muslim brother’s celebration of Eid’l Fitr and Eidul Adha but as the date of these celebrations are not yet fixed, other announcement will surely follow and will be added to the list of 2011 holiday Philippines.
It is interesting to note that 5 out of the 10 regular holidays and 2 out of 3 of the special non-working days fall on a weekend (Saturday and Sunday). And this means there will be no more of that holiday economics of the previous administration.
For more details kindly visit the Official Gazette article in http://www.gov.ph/2010/12/20/proclamation-no-84/
Update 2011.06.09
June 20, 2011, a Monday is also declared as holiday (Jose Rizal 150 celebrations). For details kindly check this post.
Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty Sale: USD10 off
Wow! Blizzard is having a sale for the Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty.
Don’t know if this is an early Christmas sale but Blizz is offering a 10-dollar off for the Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty digital copy. Before the game costs USD 59.99 and now its USD 49.99 only.
Starcraft 2 description in the site is:
StarCraft II®: Wings of Liberty™
In the distant future, in the darkest regions of space, the ghosts of the past whisper your name. You are Jim Raynor, a marshal-turned-rebel on a vigilante crusade to bring down the Dominion and its nefarious leader, Arcturus Mengsk. Haunted by betrayal and remorse, some believe you may have given up the fight. But you have promises to keep… and a need for vengeance that’s long overdue.
It’s really amazing that Blizzard keeps on giving out freebies and discount these days. Last month they gave free Starcraft 2 play for the South East Asia region and big discounts for WoW Battle Chest and Wow Burning Crusade during the Thanksgiving day sale.
I think with this sale there will be less need for starcraft 2 crack 🙂
For more details kindly visit
http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100001122
Enjoy the game 🙂
New Philippine Money Launched by BSP
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) launched a new generation of Philippine Banknotes. It boasts of several new security features including embossed prints, improved serial numbers, embedded security fibers, a watermark, and a security thread among others.
Leading the new Philippines money is the new P1000 bill with Josefa Llanes Escoda, Vicente Lim, and Jose Abad Santos on the obverse and the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, the South Sea Pearl and the Tinalak (Ikat-dyed abaca) on the reverse.
The new P500 bill follows with Corazon Aquino and Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on the obverse and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park and the Blue-naped parrot on the other side.
The new P200 bill features Diosdado Macapagal on the obverse and Chocolate Hills in Bohol and the Philippine tarsier on the reverse.
The new P100 bill has Manuel Roxas on the obverse and Mayon Volcano and the Butanding (whale shark) at the back
The new P50 bill have Sergio Osmeña on the front with the Taal Lake, the Taal Volcano and the Maliputo (Giant Trevally) at the back.
The new P20 bill banners Manuel Quezon on the front with Banaue Rice Terraces and Palm Civets (the one who produces the Alamid Coffee) at the back.
All images courtesy of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (www.bsp.gov.ph)
My Christmas wish is that may we all (readers, friends and family) have plenty of this new money in the Philippines for Christmas and New Year!
Trend Micro Titanium Power Up Game
December is menardconnect.com anniversary month, but as I don’t have solid plans of giving away freebies myself, so I will just connect my readers to some other promos giving away real freebies.
Trend Micro recently launched the Titanium Power Up Game as a security education and awareness tool. Titanium Power Up game is similar to those classic arcade like Super Mario wherein you can jump and kick some bad guys butt 🙂 . But it comes with a twist as the challenges are related to some basic consumer behaviors and IT Security.
Daily prizes at stake are Trend Micro Titanium product license keys. Grand prizes are the following:
- Toshiba Qosmio Laptop with 18.4” Display , 6GB Memory and500GB Hard Drive
- Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System (3-Piece)
- 27” Wide-screen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor
So what are you waiting for? Play the game by visiting the Titanium Power Up Game or read more details via the Trend Micro Press Release.
Happy 2nd Year Anniversary to Menardconnect.com
Wow! Menardconnect.com turned 2 this week.
After 342 posts, 1588 legit comments, 13416 spam comments, 60 (sometimes peaking at 79) feedburner subscribers, 175 Facebook page likes (and other stats to follow) I am very happy with menardconnect.com activities that officially started on the first complete post (Eheads Concert CD Review on December 4, 2008) and I am really amazed how time flies so fast.
Image Credit: georgiatechdopp.wordpress.com
Some other highlights on the 2nd year includes the 10,000 spam, the 4-digit thing and many other activities including attending 2 blog conferences (iBlog6 and WordCampPH 2010 )
And now my thank you notes:
First of all, thank God for all the blessings He has given my family and me.
Second, I would like to thank Raven, my family and my friends for the support and inspiration they have given me.
Next in my thank you list is of course my blogger-friends and the great blogging community out there.
Last but not the least, my appreciation goes the readers and supporters of this blog. For you I will really do my best to make menardconnect.com better!!!
Just like last year, I consider the whole December as the anniversary month of this blog and will post other related stuff to menardconnect.com 2nd anniversary here so watch out for it OK?
Mafia Wars: TOS and Privacy Policy Update
Facebook Mafia Wars have updated their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. And I heard other Zynga Games done the same too.
Dear Mafia Wars Player,
As part of our efforts to improve our service, we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We hope you’ll take some time to review them.Links to Terms of Service and Privacy Policy:
http://www.zynga.com/about/terms-of-service.php
http://www.zynga.com/about/privacy-policy.phpTerms of Service Reminders:
You may not sell any part of the Service including but not limited to virtual goods, virtual currency, or user accounts
You may not purchase any virtual goods or currencies outside of normal game channels
You may not create user accounts by automated means
You may not manipulate network or server conditions to give yourself an advantage, or to the detriment of the experience for other players
You may not make false or improper claims to Zynga supportViolating Zynga’s Terms of Serivce can result in an adjustment to, a suspension of, or a complete ban of your Mafia Wars account.
Sincerely,
The Mafia Wars Team
Is Zynga preparing for some massive cleanup and crackdown of mafia wars cheats? Or just your regular policy update?
Nokia Holiday Rush Sale December 4
Wow! Nokia will have another Christmas sale and this time its up to 70% off on selected Nokia phones. Save the date: December 4, 2010 whole day sale at participating Nokia Stores nationwide.
Nokia detailed the mechanics: ONE unit per customer, NO reservations, only those in line are entitled to avail of the promo (oops long long line again?), open for cash and straight transactions only and terms on conditions apply on select phones.
According to Batangas Today news site, the following phone will be on sale:
- Nokia 1280 – Php 890
- Nokia 1616 – Php 990
- Nokia C3 – Php 4,990
- Nokia 5230 – Php 4,990
- Nokia C5 – Php 6,990
- Nokia C6 – Php10,990
Although not that attractive in terms of phone and pricing like the Nokia C6 deal last November 13 (in which I heard l lots of negative feedback from different websites and forums), I think Nokia Philippines plans to make up this time by having many phone models on sale and more Nokia Stores participating.
On marketing side of things, this Nokia Holiday Rush sale is (in my humble opinion) of great timing as many Filipinos have lots of cash nowadays because Christmas bonus and other perks are already out so kudos to Nokia Philippines.
Thanks to Spiderham for the heads up on this Nokia Sale. For more details on this Nokia Holiday Rush, please visit: http://www.nokia.com.ph/holidayrush
Philippines NDD Codes
I’m getting some calls from unlisted numbers. Some of the numbers are from mobile phones and some are from land lines. For the land lines some are from Metro Manila while some are from the provinces so I compiled some list of Philippines NDD Codes to help me sort the numbers.
So what is NDD anyway? NDD stands for the National Direct Dial. It is like IDD (International Direct Dial) but its the one assigned for the Philippines provinces and cities. The usual format for the Philippines is:
+63 <NDD Code> 6 0r 7 digit telephone number
As this info may be useful to the readers I will share then here. Below are the Philippines NDD Codes of key cities and provinces in the Philippines:
Albay 52
Angeles 455
Bacolod 34
Baguio City 74
Batangas 43
Cagayan de Oro 8822
Cavite 46
Cebu City 32
Cotabato 64
Dagupan 75
Dauin 3522
Davao 82
Dumaguete City 3524
General Santos 83
Iligan City 63
Iloilo City 33
Lipa 43
Lucena 42
Metro Manila 2
Masbate 56
Naga City 5421
Ozamis City 88
Pampanga 45
Puerto Princesa 48
San Fernando (La Union) 72
San Pablo 93
Subic Bay 47
Tacloban 53
Tarlac City 452
Zamboanga 62