Brain Contour

USA Today and Gallup posted the results of the poll to determine the most admired people for 2009. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Most Admired Woman category while Pres. Barack Obama easily won the spot for the Most Admired Man category. Oh why former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin almost stole the top spot from Clinton?

Results were based on telephone interviews with 1,025 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Dec. 11-13, 2009 with a sampling error of ±4 percentage points.

Most Admired Woman List:

That is why we cannot rely on some senators! Senator Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana drunk on the US Senate Floor debating National health Care. He asks questions but doesn’t like the answers.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama offered Christmas wishes to the nation, including a special thanks for the U.S. military.

Fr. Andrew Dickinson is the new chaplain of the Catholic church located at the Newman Center, South Dakota State University. For the past Sunday masses, and in a number of daily masses, Fr. Andrew Dickinson has been condemning the “Merry Christmas” greeting.

The first time I’ve heard Fr. Dickinson asking people to avoid saying the “Merry Christmas” greeting before December 24th, was that afternoon when I felt, for the very first time, the very spirit of Christmas. The moment I thought Christmas was already in the air, Fr. Dickinson cut the happy moment short. That was sad. He said in his homily that people should not use “Merry Christmas” but rather say “Have a good Advent.” He further said that whenever someone will say “Merry Christmas” to him before the 24th of December, he will not answer the same.

I understand his argument.  He contended that “Merry Christmas” is often said minus the real meaning that comes with the words. In short, people who utter the greeting without knowing what it truly carries, are hypocrites and pretenders. He said that Catholics must instead prepare themselves for Christ’s birth and start the “Merry Christmas” greeting on the 24th and on each day for 12 days thereafter (like the 12 days of Christmas).

Bay Landing Hotel at the Bayshore Area in San Francisco exudes comfort more than what meets the eye. In my last trip to San Francisco, around mid-December, I was expecting the hotel prices to sky rocket due to the holiday season craze. San Francisco is one of the U.S. busiest cities — tourists and locals flock the metropolis for its shopping centers and favorably warm weather. The busier the city is, the pricier the hotels become.

But not with Bay Landing Hotel. The price of the room per night was only $69, without the necessary tax. While most of the hotels I searched online were priced at more than $100 a night, Bay Landing Hotel was listed as one of the cheapest hotels near the airport and close to the downtown area.

What was CNN National correspondent, Susan Candiotti, thinking today while reporting live at the protest in NY by 9/11 families who are against terrorist trials?

I was watching CNN around 11 A.M. central time, Saturday, when the news segment about the protest came. Susan Candiotti was with the protesters, covering the event on the field. When Candiotti went live on TV, it was the U.S. National Anthem that was played on the background with protesters around her standing still. What the news reporter, Candiotti, did next was totally beyond incomprehensible. She tapped one of the protesters (later named Geraldine Davie) on the shoulder and then began saying she was sorry for disrupting her in the middle of the anthem. WTF!

While the anthem was played, and while everyone surrounding her was showing the level of respect the National Anthem deserves, Susan Candiotti acted disrespectfully by starting the interview right then. The anthem that’s supposed to represent the United States of America was disrespected by a veteran reporter!

Yes, the Philippines has been manually counting election ballots all this time! But this coming 2010 national elections, the Filipinos will be introduced to the Automated Election Machine. For years, automating the election has been the topic of debates among lawmakers. There were many concerns thrown at each side, like questioning the reliability of the counting machines.

After many heated arguments, a bill was passed — Senate Bill No. 2231 (13th Congress) entitled:

Have you encountered the same problem as mine when you access your Verizon Samsung Trance wireless phone? There seems to be a bug on the Samsung Trance phone units after Verizon updated the software.

Last night, I received a note from Verizon to update the software on my phone. It says that while it is updating, I won’t be able to send messages or make or receive calls. Fine with me. It took only few minutes to update and the phone was back to its normal screen.

Only after I received a message from a friend early today that I noticed I could not access my inbox anymore. Clicking inbox automatically switched the screen to what seemed like a “start screen”. It automatically reboot and then returned to the homepage. Powering the Samsung Trance phone off and back on did not help at all.