Dispatches by Adrian Conoza

   What if you're summer is like life on Adventure Time —the animated series on Cartoon Network?    Watching Adventure Time is one of the things I do this summer. For your information, Adventure Time is one of the standard cartoons on Cartoon Network today. It is one of my favorite cartoons as a teenager who still appreciates the wonder of cartoons. It follows the adventures of Finn the human and his best friend Jake the dog in a place called Land of Ooo. The cartoons are definitely wonderful. Yes. The cartoons and the stories are weird and funky, but I like it that way. Every story is well-written and cool.  The music is cool, often featuring electronic and synthesizer-made sounds similar to video games from Atari 1600 and Family Computer of the 80's. Adventure Time is certainly distinct and unique.    What if your summer is like Adventure Time ?    I think it would be new, different yet enjoyable.    When you spend that vacatio...

   Last April 5, Maundy Thursday, I found out a breaking news on the Internet. It was shocking enough, unexpected.Angelo Castro Jr., one of the Philippines' well-known news anchors, died of lung cancer. He was 67. Wow, I thought. It was sad news for the people in broadcast journalism,especially his fellow broadcasters in ABS-CBN.      Angelo Castro Jr., known to many as ACJ, was known as a great newscaster. As spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, he was "a calm and reassuring presence in the late evening news". He anchored The World Tonight long before I was born. He is very known in the late night newscast, which was transferred to ABS-CBN News Channel(ANC) in 1999.      Yes. I haven't watched him since he anchored the show in the 80's. But just this year, he returned hosting the newscast after he left the news desk since 2009. And so I finally saw the man. It was nice to see the ACJ who first worked as a film actor, then as ABS-CBN's news manager ...

    It has been Holy Week.People took a break from their jobs.They either leave their homes and had leisurely or spiritual vacations-whether it's Baguio or Boracay or any other place;or they'll just stay at their homes,entertaining themselves on Internet,cable TV,or DVD.The radio stayed silent for a while,beginning on Maunday Thursday,though other stations turned somber or calm as they continued playing soft music.Some local television stations on free TV temporarily left the airwaves beginning on the same day-including the People's Television(the station of the government).Most of the stations remained on air,although they began signing on at a later time and broadcasting special programming,showing cartoons,movies,and religious specials,and documentaries.Thanks to cable,I can have more entertainment and information to watch,not waiting for the stations to sign-on.When I was a very young child before,I thought radio and television stations acted this way because it's H...

The cover of The Myrmidon Project ,showing a simple newsdesk.     I just recently finished a thriller novel entitled The Myrmidon Project written by Chuck Scarborough,an Emmy-award-winning newscaster of a local station in New York(WNBC-TV);and William Murray,an author.The book was published in 1981.The novel focuses on Harvey Grunwald--a famous anchorman of the television station ACN(American Communications Network),and "the best anchorman television ever produced" who beats other newscasters of other stations in America.He demanded an annual salary of ten million dollars,and he felt it was fair enough since his contract would only last for five years.     However,the network's chairman didn't agree;but he can't and won't also loose Grunwald,for he hosts the station's evening news that topped the ratings,making his show number 1 in the country.Hence,the network formed a solution to the problem- The Myrmidon Project ,a concept of advanced technology that i...