Perhaps this can help but...

it's rather ironic that claiming retirement benefits from the Philippine Social Security System(SSS) is anything but social.

Here's a colorful rant from a FIL-AM based in he USA trying to claim his pension benefits:

"I can't understand what really freak they want, lagay
ba? or paddrino. These are very simple matters why
they are trying to make it hard. How can they verify
the premiums of my previous companys for my sss
contribution. It will take them forever, maybe some of
them aren't existing anymore and how could they do
that its been 23 or 25 years that's rediculous!
The only company that might be able to give them maybe
the big ones but i am not sure if my name is still in
their files ... "

Now for what this is worth, I could perhaps hook this fellow up to someone who could be of assistance to him and anyone similarly situated. So, buddy, just shoot me an email at joel.yuvienco[at]gmail.com

I like ...

Marcus Miller's "Run for Cover" cover by KoYoungHwan

aka "Yesterday, David Cook was on the Top 10 most searched items on Yahoo".

Free online games help reinforce math and language skills

aka eSchoolNews showcases Arcademic Skill Builders.

"Arcademic Skill Builders is a nonprofit web site that features online educational games offering a new approach to learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills."

More here.

Elevator pitch is dead?

Muhammad Saleem  says yes and introduces us to twitpitch. So say goodbye to  140 words and hello to 140 characters on twitter.com. More about twitpitch.

[via Javed Alam on his Facebook Status]

Thus Google gets more social

Associated Press reports that Google joins effort to make more Web sites more sociable.

"Google hopes its latest social tools will encourage people to
spend even more time online, giving the company more opportunities to
show the advertising that generates most of its profits."

Time to party? Don't ask me but I don't know who'll come home with a headache.

Can't wait to lay my hands/eyes

... on Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior,   Ori Brafman's second book which I'm told will be out in June.

8/10

aka how Blogged.com editors rated Ad Astra. That's about 94 percentile among technology blogs (17,331 so far). And I'm not even into SEO. Not that it has anything to do with that rating. I am told that "evaluation is based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style."

Not bad considering that Wired and Techcrunch were rated a superb 10. Click here to see the current field of blogged.com-rated technology blogs.

Thanks Amy Liu.