Lost Soul

Moved

2011-09-29T23:48:00.002+08:00

To the very few people who are willing to waste their time to check my blog, I have moved to a new location since 2010. :)

Globe Tattoo on Fedora 11

2009-08-18T22:10:00.003+08:00

Finally got my hands on a Huawei E1552 USB Modem (disguised as Globe Tattoo with a cheap sticker). With the help of this article, I quickly got it working under my Fedora 11 (x86_64) machine.

But I needed to make some minor tweaks:

Change the APN from internet.globe.com.ph to http.globe.com.ph
Change DNS servers to OpenDNS servers (208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220)

Globe, from my experience, is notoriously "reliable" when it comes to their DNS servers.

My initial usage experience with Globe Tattoo was average at best. According to www.speedtest.net, my average download speed is around 400kbps which translates to 50KB/s. It was far better than I what expected it to be, however, just like the sales personnel had "warned" me, the signal indeed fluctuates, A LOT.

Apparently, the 5 Pesos for every 15 minutes means that you'll ONLY have 15 minutes of stable Internet connection. :P

Alcohol Abuse

2009-08-16T17:37:00.004+08:00

Since Kira spends most of the day just lying on the floor, we figured we could take some really funny pictures... :P

Kira with some mini beer bottles

Kira with a bottle of whisky

Cannibalism

2009-08-14T16:11:00.003+08:00

Kira just bit off the leg of a lizard...

a rubber lizard... ^_^

Slowdown

2009-08-13T12:00:00.003+08:00

I went to back to Line Bank yesterday to try again. Guess what? They're still offline. PLDT never got the problem fixed. This time, however, instead of asking people to wait indefinitely, go home, or look for another branch, they will proceed with the transaction (without the validation step) if the client wishes to.

Apparently, they're not the only ones affected by the PLDT service interruption. My DSL connection has been experiencing a general slowdown for the past 2 days. I guess I won't be working on our Amazon EC2 instance for a while.

Offline

2009-08-11T12:50:00.002+08:00

My 2nd attempt to pay my taxes this week failed miserably. Yesterday, the line outside the bank almost reached the end of the block so I decided not to even try.

This morning, I was there before the bank opened, and was 6th or 7th. The bank opened at 8:30AM. When I got to 1-person away from the teller, the unexpected happened.

Their dial-up connection failed. It was 8:55AM. I waited.

And after almost 4 hours, I've finished the book (The Last Samurai), I've learned some new stuffs from Linux Magazine, and they still haven't restored their line yet.

I finally gave up and just headed back home for lunch. Tomorrow morning, I'll be back again (3rd time this week) in ~~Land~~ Line Bank of the Philippines for another "uncertain" banking experience.

Compaq CQ40 ALSA Configuration

2009-08-08T23:37:00.003+08:00

... for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

I'm posting this for future reference...

Append the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=hp-m4

Bad Influence

2009-08-08T23:32:00.001+08:00

This is why humans could be such a bad influence to cats...

A Screw Up Sounds Good... Sometimes

2009-08-07T09:00:00.008+08:00

I was told some TV anchor screwed up during the live broadcast. I never thought somebody will actually publish it.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/abs/20090801/tph-state-funeral-for-cory-no-pomp-for-d-8061bf7_1.html

Attack Mode

2009-07-08T15:09:00.002+08:00

Our cat is getting ready to attack after seeing me with a camera...

Cat and Mouse

2009-07-06T18:19:00.002+08:00

Working from home could be boring sometimes...

Movie Day: The Accidental Husband

2009-05-23T21:36:00.005+08:00

Due to the lack of new and interesting movies, we had to settle with a romantic comedy, The Accidental Husband.

Well, it's neither good nor bad. I was more interested in trying to remember where I've seen one of the supporting characters.

It took me a while (due to deteriorating memory) before realizing that it was the guy from Office Space. The one who played Mr. Samir Nagheenanajar (yeah, try pronouncing it as fast as you can).

Watching him in his short scenes was more entertaining than the rest of the movie. :P

Graft Monkey in Action

2009-05-22T10:55:00.004+08:00

You've probably heard of U.S. President Barack Obama's recent visit to Ben's Chili Bowl. It was really interesting and admirable in some ways.

Well, yesterday the Great Monkey of Asia (from the Banana Republic), reportedly visited a McDonald's (an American fastfood chain) branch in Makati, ordered a longganisa meal, sat down with a bunch of call center agents, and had a chit-chat with them. Mostly about their personal lives and other stuffs like their request to extend MRT operations (and breakdowns) to until 12 midnight perhaps.

If I was there, I would probably have stuck a plastic knife on her neck...

but then I'm not really fond of eating at McDonald's... He he he... >:)

Shake

2009-02-26T11:32:00.005+08:00

I decided to delay my call to my boss today because our good neighbor is playing the "Body Dancer" song from the 80's. Yes, the one popularized by Maricel Soriano. >:P

How am I supposed to explain that to my boss?

I definitely need to find a new place... :)

Mixed Up

2009-02-16T22:39:00.000+08:00

A week ago, I contacted Emerald Headway about my Linux Magazine subscription. I asked Helen, who is in-charge of my account (Franklin Chua), to change the delivery address from the office (Makati) to my home address (Tondo).

Since I couldn't remember the last time I paid for the subscription, I asked her when my subscription ends. She told me that it's going to end this February. I recall her asking me about a "PC Magazine" to verify my subscription, to which I failed to clarify, because I assumed that I'm the only subscriber with the name "Franklin Chua".

It turned out that I was wrong... partially...

When the courier came (2 days late), he showed me a receipt with the name "Frankie Chu Ang". I immediately informed Helen about the mix up. I even wrote the correction in their copy of the receipt. I thought that was the end of it.

Yet I was wrong... again...

Today, I was surprised to see a copy of "C! Magazine" (Not PC!!!) on my desk, with the name "Frankie Chua". I should have told her "Wrong Person" instead of "Wrong Name". Ha ha!!!

I just inadvertently stole a magazine subscription from another person. Technically, I paid for his 2009 subscription and got his last copy for free. :P

Anyway, I should contact Miss Helen tomorrow to fix this confusion. :D

P.S. Perhaps this is a sign for me to consider getting a car... >:)

Thought of the Day

2009-01-31T21:56:00.001+08:00

MNG = MANGO = MAN + GO = MAN GO... AWAY

He he... >:D

Strange Dreams

2009-01-28T22:53:00.001+08:00

Normally, I would have a hard time remembering my dreams, but these dreams from weeks ago somehow managed to get stuck in my head.

Dream #1

I was walking along the corner of Tayuman and Jose Abad Santos street when I notice someone following me. I immediately realized that he's a mugger (holdaper in Tag-lish). I pulled out my pair of red scissors (pointed edge, same one that I'm using at home) in order to scare him off. Then all of a sudden, he appears behind me with his knife pointing at my side (kidney area). At that moment, I instictively swung the scissors towards him.

And to my surprise, the scissors disappeared, and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. Then the guy stabbed me. I woke up before his knife could even touch me.

Dream #2:

I was trying to catch a last train. I started inside a mall, most likely Park Square I. I was dashing through people, objects, and various obstacles before jumping and sliding through a tunnel.

When I reached the end and got out, I found myself in a room, with lots and lots of bats. Suddenly, they stared flying (chaos) and the whole room started to fall apart (more chaos). I woke up wondering what happened.

Dream #3:

I bought an Apple MacBook online which costs around 75,000++ php. I woke up feeling happy and guilty at the same time. :))

Big Binondo Food Wok

2009-01-25T18:20:00.000+08:00

We (Me, Jas, and my youngest sister) got the chance to join Ivan in his Big Binondo Food Wok, Chinese New Year edition yesterday.

Ivan shared with us his favorite foods and places in what's considered to be the oldest Chinatown in the World. Aside from stuffing our tummies with delectable treats which originated from different parts of China, he also fed our minds with his intimate knowledge of the town's history and origin.

Most of which I never knew until now. And for someone (a local Chinese) who's living outside Binondo, and always getting associated with the place, it felt nice to be in touch with the history of the place and the Chinese community who has been an integral part of the country's history.

Overall, the tour was interesting and enjoyable, both for our minds and our bellies... :)

But the most unforgettable moment in the tour is when one of the street kids approached Jasmine and started poking her, asking for money. Jasmine said to the (dirty) street kid, while trying to avoid him:

"Excuse me kid!"

I was hoping the street kid would respond something like:

"Duh!"

That would really be funny... Ha ha ha... :)

Box of Styrofoam

2009-01-20T23:25:00.005+08:00

I paid $11 for a box of useless styrofoam balls "minus" the DS Lite Protector I bought from Play-Asia. It seems to me that someone from the Postal Office (around 99% probability) stole the content even before it got delivered to me. It's just a plastic case for God's sake!

I wanted to call the Post Office to demand my item but they would definitely deny any knowledge of it. I just hope that Play-Asia would be considerate enough to reship my item.

It wasn't really my fault, I paid them to ship it via FedEx, but since the DS Lite Protector was unavailable at that time, they split the order in to two. The first one shipped via FedEx, which arrived the day after. And the other one shipped via Air Mail.

Unfortunately, it was intercepted. What's more frustrating is the fact that it's virtually impossible to recover the lost item.

I don't want to be evil but... I hope/wish/pray/curse that whoever stole my DS Lite Protector gets devoured by a large predator very soon. >:)

Year (2008) End Post

2008-12-31T23:59:00.003+08:00

I spent the last few weeks of the year cleaning common areas of the house, removing cat/rat/roach droppings from the dirtiest corners of the house, dismantling 40-50 year old furnitures, disposing 30-40 year old garbage, and patching the holes in the ceilings in preparation for this day.

I already used up 10+ rolls of 33 meter duct tapes since November, in my effort to cover every crack and hole in our ceiling, and minimize the dust fall when firecrackers begins exploding today.

Because of that, I didn't have much time to prepare/think for this post. Indeed, time goes by pretty fast. :P

2008, for me, was really about "regaining my time". For the past few years, a great deal of my time was taken up by work, business trips, and overtime. This year was different.

I was able to spend more time at home with my family, with my sisters in particular. I had the chance to work, shop, and play with them as well. Some credit goes to my Nintendo Wii and DS Lite. :)

I was able to make some major and minor home repairs and improvements. Like replacing floor tiles, replacing old fluorescent lamps with compact fluorescents, covering tables with vinyl stickers, any many more. :)

My gaming skills were also restored and improved because of the Wii, thanks to my flexible work schedule, I inserted short Wii sessions in between work. >:)

The work from home setup also allowed me to attend tours, events and gatherings with friends without having to worry too much about schedule and location.

And the most important is the time I spent with Jasmine. :)

==========

2008 has been a really good year for me. I got to see a lot of people, acquired some cool toys and gadgets, learned some new stuffs, got my impacted wisdom tooth removed, visited some very nice places, attended weddings and parties, spent a lot but saved a lot as well.

2009 is probably going to be a tough year for me, as the effects of the Global Financial Crisis finally sets in. I'm keeping a positive outlook as we enter another uncertain year, but I must and I will prepare for the worst. :)

Happy New Year! :)

P.S. This post is not possible without Globe GPRS Services. Because some smart guy aimed a firecracker at the power line which effectively killed electricity in the whole block. (at around 12:01AM)

I sincerely hope/wish/pray/curse that the guy blows all his fingers off before this day ends.

4 Months Ago

2008-12-30T23:00:00.001+08:00

Here's (finally) the second part of my Wedding and Reunion series.

To continue where I left off last time, we spent about an hour in Starbucks, talking mostly about work, future plans, and a bunch of Anime stuffs. Yes, we're the "geeks" of our batch. :P

The reception was held in Gloria Maris, Greenhills. We left Starbucks, Binondo just about 20 minutes before the "scheduled" time of reception, but managed to get there before the program started. We're late, but they're delayed. >:)

Ellyson did not join us because he had to stay home to look after his dad who just had surgery. We shared a table with our high school batchmates, the "populars", just like last year, during Kate's wedding.

There were 2 more tables for our batch, one was occupied by the "regulars", and the other was occupied by the "bullies". I'm using these general "labels" for discussion purposes only. My assesments are largely based from my experiences during our high school years. For some, there are only 2 classifications, "ang nangongopya" (copier), and "ang kinokopyahan" (copyee).

The event was generally fun, it was really nice to see and hear from them again after a fairly long period of time. Too bad these kinds of events are not well suitable for "catch up sessions" with old friends. Good thing that I'm not attached to most of my high school friends so there's not much to catch up. High school must have been boring for me. >:)

What's significant about this event is that, it was the first time I had wine (from grapes, not rice). At first, I refused to take it when my classmates coerced me to. They tried several times and failed repeatedly. The one who actually made me decide to take it was Noric, Nerissa's brother. He was our math/computer teacher. He was one of the reasons why I pursued Computer Science. He's also the one who offered me a position in Rebisco last year. :)

I'm not really the alcoholic type, but I guess I really had to make some exceptions. :P

Before the ~~eating~~ event ended, I got a chance to talk some classmates, who seemed to be quite interested or intrigued with my personal life, something new for someone like me. One offered to give me a ride back home but I told them I'm with Glenn and Magan.

After having our picture taken with Nerissa and Simson, we exchanged goodbyes and went home. I had to thank Glenn for generously giving us ride back home. :)

Until the next wedding event... :D

P.S. I guess Kim is next... He he...

The Frying Pan Incident

2008-12-21T17:02:00.003+08:00

I accompanied Jasmine last week to pick a non-stick frying pan for their Secret Santa. It took us (actually her) a while to decided which frying pan to take.

She had a pretty hard time choosing and deciding which frying pan to take because some of them have dents and some have collected dust.

The incident led me to tell her (jokingly), "I imagine myself waking up one day, starving because she refuses to make breakfast after discovering the dent on the frying pan." He he he... :D

Reboot

2008-12-21T16:38:00.007+08:00

I've been putting off my blog posts for the past couple of months now. I wanted to catch up before the year finally ends. This post serves as a 'reboot' for my dying blog. Dedicated to none other than Jasmine, of course. :)

Special thanks to Despair, Inc. for their simple yet powerful DIY tool. I also re-created my "Disappointment" lithograph using their tool.

I'm quite pleased with the results. :)

I'm a Ghost

2008-11-12T18:32:00.006+08:00

You Are a Ghost

Mysterious, independent, and often unseen - you always do things your own way.
You are introverted, shy, and even a little secretive.
People are dying to know you better, but you're a difficult person to know.
A lot of your contributions to the world are left invisible and unfelt.

Your greatest power: Blending in really well
Your greatest weakness: Being too passive
You play well with: Witches

What Kind of Monster Are You?

46444 Days

2008-11-08T22:02:00.004+08:00

I would never have imagine that file transfer nowadays could take this loooooooooong...

46444 days is around 127 years from now, I would be dead by the time it finishes copying. Amazingly enough, it completed the copy in under 5 minutes. Ha ha ha.

When Grownups Stop Growing

2008-09-27T19:02:00.007+08:00

The Piattos Incident

It's been 2 weeks since the "Piattos Incident" and my dad still has never spoken even a single word to my mom or my aunt.

I don't really know what exactly happened, but I'm pretty sure that "Piattos" was involved. Yes, it's that junk food. As stupid as it may sound, they love to fight over petty things here.

According to my cousin, who was with them most of the time, my dad was shouting at my mom, over "Piattos" perhaps, then my aunt berated him about his rude behavior. Then some heated argument probably broke, to which my dad, most likely have ended it with something like "wala kang pakialam!" or "huwag mo akong pakialaman!".

My dad has always been this way, he has this tendency to resort to brute intimidation (by shouting and cursing) when dealing with issues and situations, however small they would be. Actually, my aunt is just the same, but on a different (lower) level.

My mom, on the other hand, was influenced by these two, by being with them most of the time. She too sometimes exhibits the same behavior when dealing with situations.

The Unusual Birthday

After that incident, my dad, aside from not talking to my mom and my aunt, also stopped helping out in the store. Spends most of his time doing pretty much nothing. There's a noticeable "silence" and "peacefulness" in the house. We no longer hear his daily complains about the food (as mentioned in one of my previous posts).

The following Monday (September 15) was my dad's birthday, but because of the incident, my mom didn't even bother to prepare or cook any special meal. It was like a regular day. The Saturday before, my sister (with her BF Gene) brought some food to celebrate, but he wasn't around and never even touched the food when he arrived. My eldest sister (with husband Perrin) also came on Sunday, but I don't recall him joining us for dinner.

Come to think of it, we never really celebrated birthdays in any other "better" ways.

Negative Thoughts Attract Negative Situations

Just a few days after the incident, we learned that my dad's car broke, soon after he plugged his portable TV with a wrong polarity. By the way, the portable TV is now a paper weight. The 32-year old car being broken is old news, only this time, he had to replace the whole engine, and it took him a week to find a compatible engine and fix it.

He could repair almost anything, as long as they don't have ears. Using his car as an example, my dad, obviously has problems with letting go of a lot of things, including junks and most importantly his pride.

Meanwhile, one of our helpers, have finally, decided to quit. Although her reasons for leaving are quite unreasonable, I think what actually made her leave is the constant scolding she gets from my mom (mostly), my dad and my aunt.

She used to help my mom in the kitchen, my mom teaches her and instructs her to cooking tasks, but she always tends to forget things, or do things differently, which makes my mom angry from time to time and thus getting scolded by her.

But from a personal stand point, the scolding after the "Piattos Incident" was on different level. I guess that was the last straw for her. She disappeared for half a day, returned, then after 2 days, left again and decided not to comeback, as I predicted.

The Unexpected Response

Last week, my dad "miraculously" started cleaning and organizing stuffs. He has also disposed a bunch of trash which has been there for more than 20 years, something I never thought was possible to happen. This photo was taken in March of last year (2007). Note that the table is barely recognizable.

He started buying some plastic containers and sorted some of his things, which are mostly composed of electronic parts, screws, wires, and tools. He doesn't like storing things inside containers because according to him, it's very difficult to search for something hidden, so he prefers everything lying around in plain sight. Yeah right!

We'll just wait and see what will happen in a few days or weeks. This wasn't the first time he cleaned his area, the last time was probably 5 years ago, and 2 days after that, it started returning to its "normal" and "cluttered" state.

"Ang gulo-gulo nga eh", this is arguably the best phrase I've heard from him in the last 25 years of my life, referring to his desk area. Finally, acceptance.

Getting Nowhere

Being a person of great "pride", in other words, "stubborn", he tried to help out in some of the household chores last week. His attempt on the rice failed, it wasn't thoroughly cooked. He ended blaming my mom (not directly) for messing with it. I guess some bevahiors are really difficult to let go.

His attempt to make some ice tubes also seemed to have failed, when my mom got angry after seeing the imperfect water bags. My mom stopped bickering after realizing that is was my dad who made them.

The Mouse Trap Incident

The last event happened yesterday, when my mouse trap successfully caught a mouse. The mouse has been wandering around the house for a long time and the traps set by my dad failed to catch it. 2 days ago, I placed the mouse traps and my dad commented that it won't be able to catch mouse (everything not his just got to be wrong).

He woke me up telling me about it (while carrying the mouse trap), I told him I already knew about it and that my cousin wanted to use it in his laboratory test. He folded it and placed the trap vertically. A few moments later, the mouse started struggling, gravity might have played a role as well. And it could almost get away.

As an immediate response, I said that he shouldn't have touched it in the first place. The same way he always tells us whenever we try to sort or rearrange his things. Then he got mad after that, telling his rants to my cousin, something like "ako na nga nagmamalasakit tapos napagsasabihan pa, kaya ako na-bwiset", with stress on "bwiset".

I didn't realize that it has anything to do with the mouse trap incident. For me, it wasn't really a big deal. I have no idea where the sudden "sensitivity" came from. I said nothing after that. Within my thoughts I was hoping that he realizes what he have just said. Ha ha ha. :)

Close Encounters with the Reptiles

2008-09-22T23:56:00.004+08:00

I recently purchased some items from an online store (I just took advantage of their free express shipping promo). O:)

The package did arrive in less than a week (the non-express shipping took almost 2 months), but unfortunately, what I received was a notice that package is subject for customs examination.

This is quite different from the previous notice cards. Before, the packages were actually delivered to the postal office nearest to the shipping address. This time, I had to go to the postal office along Domestic Road (Pasay) to claim the parcel.

When I arrived at the postal office, there were a bunch of people outside the warehouse, waiting for their parcels to be release. I gave the notice card to the EMS personnel and I was told to wait outside until my name is called.

After an hour or so, they called me and as part of the operating procedures, they would open the parcel and inspect its contents. Attached in the box is a document declaring the actual amount of the item. Normally, the online store would lower the declared value to avoid detection. In my case, they put $20 in the declared value (from actual value of $40).

However, the little curly crocodile, Celia Bantig, told me that she would not accept it. Of course, because she is GREEDY. After that she went to their office, then she returned with a piece of scratch paper with lots of computations. o_O

She wanted to price my item for an outrageous price of $150, which meant that I had to pay more than Php 3000 for the release of my item. Talk about hostage situations. o_O

I did not agree to that so she asked me how much did I pay for it, I replied $40, but she wasn't convinced (or she just wanted to extort me). I asked her if they have a computer with an Internet connection so I could show her the price. She rep(lied) to me that they don't have Internet connection, and they don't even have computers in their office.

She's probably expecting me to give in, but I told her that I'll just return the next day and bring with me a copy of the receipt.

==========

The following day, I returned with a printed receipt. I was told to go inside their crocodile den (office), and search for Pemma, the mother crocodile. I told her my situation and showed her the receipt.

She offered to make a new computation. She wrote some numbers, punched some keys on her calculator and ended up with $50. I was relieved to learn that I only had to pay a little over Php 1000.

But before I could celebrate, the mother crocodile, suddenly changed her mind, acted as if she had forgotten something, then punched some keys on her calculator again, and this time, came up with $90 (WTF?!?). She probably realized that $50 just wasn't worth their time and effort.

Anyway, I decided not to argue with her, because I knew nothing about customs laws and procedures. Although she did mentioned that they had to include "insurance" and "postage". Then again, I don't really believe that it would double the price?!?!

So, she wrote in her report that the price of the item is $90.51. With the following computation:

$90.51 * 47.077 (Exchange Rate) =
Php 4260.94 (Price in Peso)

Php 4260.94 * 15% (Rate of Duty) =
Php 639.14 (Import Duty)

For the VAT, her computation was:
Php 4260.94 (Adjusted Price) +
Php 639.14 (Import Duty) +
Php 265 (CDS) +
Php 250 (IPF) =
Php 5145.08 (Big F*cking Amount) * 12% (VAT) =
Php 649.81 (VAT)

For the final amount:

Php 639.14 (Import Duty) +
Php 649.81 (VAT) +
Php 264 (CDS) +
Php 250 (IPF) =
Php 1804 (Ransom Money, almost same amount as the item!!!)

The Import Duty, I supposed, would go to the pocket of some greedy bastard in Department of Finance, while the VAT money, would be added to one of the many bank accounts of the Evil First Gentleman Mike Arroyo (Husband of the Evil Bitch). He he. :))

The CDS, which probably stands for Customs Documentary Stamp, which according to the fine print in the receipt should only amount to TWO PESOS (Php 2.00), and the IPF (only God knows what it stands for), will probably be distributed among the crocodiles and lizards crawling within the post office compound. Ha ha. :))

Oh, I almost forgot, the little curly crocodile lied to me about the computers. There were 3 computers in their den, and there's another one outside. And she seemed to be avoiding me, but I still managed to get her name from her ID.

==========

Unfortunately for normal citizens like me, it's impossible for us not to be taken advantage of by greedy people like them. :(

At least now, you know where you're money is going... :P

The Office: Japanese Version

2008-09-21T11:33:00.001+08:00

Wedding and Reunion - Part 1

2008-09-20T22:00:00.000+08:00

On September 7, I attended a wedding of two high school classmates, Nerissa and Simson.

The only time I get to see my high school classmates is during occasions like this. Last time I saw most them was way back June of last year (2007), during Kate's wedding. :P

The wedding ceremony was held at San Sebastian Church, Quiapo Manila. I was supposed to meet Magan and Ellyson in Tutuban but I had to leave them behind because I didn't want to keep my uncle waiting too long. I tried contacting them but I never got through, because of the 6-hour service downtime of Globe. :(

We arrived at the church at around 3:45. My uncle offered to wait for me and take me to the reception at Greenhills but I declined. I told them most of my friends have cars so I'll just tag along with somebody. >:)

I joined the guys (Sze Tin, Lawrence, Jeremy, Jason, Aldrich, Edwin) who were waiting in the parking area. We chatted for a while, mostly about our current jobs and salaries. Although for my case, Sze Tin have already announced my salary to almost everyone, which is quite annoying. o_O

A few moments later, another group of guys came. It was Jason's Gang, the other Jason, we have two Jason's in our batch. His gang includes Ryan, Genedale, Michael Manlavi, and another guy from the lower batch. If the first group was the job/salary-oriented guys, these guys are the vice-oriented people, credited to their habits of drinking and smoking. :P

Magan and Ellyson eventually arrived. Glenn also got there before the ceremony started. We chatted for a while before we went inside the church. Most of us stayed in the last row. The girls of the batch were seated a few rows in front of us. Kim (w/ BF), Kate (w/ Husband), Abi (Single), and Jacq (Unknown) was there. Aisha (w/ BF) also followed.

Gilbert and Jerry were also there although I couldn't remember when they arrived.

After the mass ended, we spent a few more minutes chatting and taking group pictures inside the church. Then waited outside for the newly wedded couple to come out.

Instead of going to Gloria Maris right away, we (Magan, Ellyson, and Glenn) decided to hang out in Starbucks Binondo first.

To be continued...

Big Ass Table

2008-09-20T01:04:00.003+08:00

Sticking Out Your Leg

2008-09-19T11:43:00.006+08:00

The Batman

2008-09-18T21:11:00.005+08:00

A mysterious man hopped inside the jeepney which I was riding this morning. He was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of worn out denim shorts. His zipper was open, by the way. :))

What's interesting with this old man, who's probably in his late 50's, is that he started introducing himself and his job (to everyone) the moment he got settled in the jeep.

The man identified himself as Juanito "Batman" Yap (Yeah, Batman is for real). According to him, he's a "mestisong intsik" (I hate that word), who lives in Tondo (behind Puregold) and performs healing for a living. He claims the he can cure all kinds of illness, as long as your are not allergic to his medicine (LOL).

His "magical" medicine, which we shall call the "Bat-Ointment", is a yellowish cream like substance in a small glass container. The "Bat-Ointment" seemed like a familiar Chinese ointment that is used to heal burn injuries. He claims that the "Bat-Ointment" is very effective.

He's also selling some homemade solutions made from a mixture of water, "tawas" (alum), and a special medicine. The said solution can help people with body odor problems. He also carries a folder board with prices on it, similar to the ones we often see with printer ink buyers. Amazingly, he tested the solution on animals like cats, dogs, and chicken. :D

People call him "Batman" because he loves helping others, that's what he claimed. Before we reached Rizal Avenue, he told us that he can also cure diabetes (w/ money back guarantee), and that there is no need for amputation. :)

I wanted to continue listening to his stories but the jeep has already reached Rizal Avenue. I jumped out of the jeep with some hanging questions on my mind:

Why is "Batman's" zipper open? Did Robin forget to close it?

Ramen and Chocolates

2008-09-18T12:32:00.005+08:00

Rajah and I went to PC Reform (Makati) yesterday to purchase some desktop modding accessories. While on our way back to Buendia, we discovered a Japanese convenient store located at the corner of Sacred Heart street and Metropolitan Avenue.

The store is operated by New Hatchin Trading Corporation. They sell various imported Japanese grocery items; chocolates, candies, cookies, Pocky's, instant ramen, curry mixes, canned and bottle beverages (those found in vending machines), sake (Japanese rice wine), chopsticks, ice creams, various Japanese frozen cooking ingredients, and many, many, many more. Oh, they also sell cakes, only 3 variants though.

I went around the stalls a couple of times because I couldn't decide what to buy. I settled, eventually, with a small bottle of yasai (veggie) juice (P93), an instant pork curry ramen (P88), and a small box of Galbo chocolates (P78). :))

I guess the only thing lacking in this store is a gashapon machine.

Identity Mix Up

2008-09-14T11:19:00.005+08:00

Precious from World Vision contacted me a few days ago telling me that Danny Dy, which they thought was my father, told them to contact me about his sponsor child.

I was surprised to hear that. Knowing that helping a charity organization would be the last thing my dad would ever do. I talked to her some more, and she asked a few questions on her end too. Later, we realized that we're talking about two different persons.

The other Danny Dy, works in Petron Megaplaza, and has been a sponsor since 2001. They probably assumed that we're related when they called here before and my dad gave his name. My dad's real name is Danilo Chua, but for some unknown reason, he uses Danny Dy most of the time.

So, when they updated their records (presumably), they called Danny Dy (my dad) again asking about his supposed sponsorship. In which my dad, responded immediately by telling them to ask me instead, without really clarifying it. Which finally ended up as the reason for this blog entry.

Precious apologized for the confusion and also thanked me for my continued support to their organization. :)

99%

2008-09-04T18:38:00.003+08:00

Almost there... :)

Missed the 2nd to the last note of the last section... :(

He he he... :)

Google Chrome

2008-09-03T10:33:00.002+08:00

Google joins the browser wars... :D

http://www.google.com/chrome

mov (%rdp),%rcx

2008-08-25T19:32:00.004+08:00

... that would pretty much sum up my long weekend... o_O

I ran into a serious assembly code bug when I tried building and running a month's coding changes under 64-bit openSUSE Linux.

Good thing that Rajah provided me with some very useful GDB debugging techniques before he went to Bohol for a vacation. :P

I spent most of the weekend, debugging, thinking, learning assembly, shopping for PC components, playing Guitar Hero, and more debugging... :D

And for some side stories...

My Inno3D video card fan stopped again, for the nth time this month. I took it out and went to PCX to have it checked or possibly replaced, but the tech support guy told me that they don't do replacement if the item was purchased more than a month ago.

Although the warranty still applies, the shop won't replace it right away, they had to ship it back to the supplier for testing, which would probably take 4 weeks, at the very least. o_O

He suggested that I check the IT shops in Gilmore to find a replacement fan, which I'll probably in the coming days. :D

Since I was expecting something like that to happen, I just bought some upgrade components for my desktop. Additional 2GB DDR2-800 memory modules. :P

==========

When I got home from PCX, I took a quick shower and prepared for a ~~message~~ massage session. The old masseuse was referred by my sister's boyfriend. Gene's family is a regular customer of the old lady. She was also here last week but I declined because I had to do some work.

After almost an hour of joint twisting, muscle bending, bone cracking, I was feeling relaxed and energized again... :P

The masseuse discovered my injured ankle which I myself never noticed. Although it's been aching from time to time, I just kept on ignoring it.

==========

Back to my work area, I installed the 2GB memory modules and booted my machine just to be greeted by a black screen and 100% CPU usage. I tried reinstalling the Linux NVIDIA drivers several times using different methods but all of them failed. :(

I resorted to re-installing Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04) then installed the NVIDIA driver. But it failed again. :(

I spent another 2 hours searching for possible solutions in the forums. Tried several BIOS configurations like suggested in the threads, but they all failed. :(

With no concrete leads, I decided to revert back to my original configuration, then put the memory modules one at a time. The 2GB and 3GB configurations worked fine, so it's 4GB configuration that really screws my setup. >:(

I continued to search through the forums, this time with a specific issue. One thread mentioned something about upgrading the BIOS. Although it's for a different motherboard, I figured it might just solve my problem. O:)

After bumping my board's (GA-MA69GM-S2H) BIOS firmware to F5, the NVIDIA driver for Linux miraculously worked. Ha ha ha!

7 Missed Notes

2008-08-23T18:45:00.005+08:00

My current addiction and lifetime frustration...

My best record so far. Too bad, I never had the talent to this on a real musical instrument. :D

But who cares... I would gladly settle with my Guitar Hero... >:P

Restoring My Left-Click

2008-08-17T13:56:00.008+08:00

With help from some old friends, I was able to restore the left-click button of my mouse. Good thing that I kept some of my defective mice, which all suffered the same left-click problem.

When the symptoms started to manifest, I tried poking around the left-click mechanism, which ended getting destroyed by me. :P

I tried putting it back but I had no idea what it looked like before I punched a screwdriver into it. :D

Then I thought that I may be able to take a similar part from another mouse and replace the broken one. Luckily, both mice (A4Tech and Logitech) used similar parts for the click button.

So, I desoldered the right-click button (probably in better condition than the left-click) from the old A4Tech mouse and soldered it to my Logitech mouse.

Now, my mouse is back to its left-click-able state. :D

Crazy Day: Part 2

2008-08-16T23:52:00.001+08:00

August 8, 2008

The second part of my story happened at the wedding reception. As I've mentioned in my previous entry, it just kept getting weirder and funnier.

When Carlo started calling names of the guys to join the garter ~~game~~ trap, I had a feeling that something is going to happen (to me), and it did. :D

As you might have guessed, I was the one who got the garter. The game started with all the guys given a balloon to inflate. My battle plan was to make sure that my balloon is not the largest nor the smallest. I even tried to distract Bert so he won't be able to inflate his. >:)

However, it was never about the size. It was the color of the balloon. It was all about the PINK balloon, which I was holding from the very beginning. o_O

What happened next is more bizarre. Each girl was given the end of one of the laces wrapped around the bouquet. The idea was, whoever picks the one strand which was actually tied to the bouquet gets it.

And guess who won? It was Jasmine! :D

Mathematically speaking, the chances (6 guys and 6 girls) that we will get picked as a pair would be around 2.7%. But then again, the fun factor won't be that much if someone else got picked, right? :P

Overall, it was a memorable and fun event, not only for the newly weds, but for everyone as well.

Again, cheers to our new couple, Carlo and Sheila. :)

Floody Friday

2008-08-16T00:48:00.000+08:00

The sudden and heavy down pour of rain late this afternoon caused a lot of trouble for commuters like me. I tried to avoid as much delay as possible by avoiding the seemingly never ending line of commuters in our *&^%$#@! MRT.

My first choice was to take the Baclaran-bound bus to get to LRT in Edsa-Taft station. When I reached the loading bay, there were a bunch of people standing and waiting in the "supposedly" restricted area. It was a bad sign.

I ended up walking towards Ayala Avenue (across Rustan's) to take a Buendia-bound bus. Normally, the buses would pick up passengers in the unloading area, but since it was still early and there were traffic enforcers in the unloading area, bus drivers didn't dare to stop.

I have no idea when those guys would leave so instead of waiting for them to leave, I went on to walk towards the official loading area, which happen to be 4 freaking blocks away!!! I don't get the whole point to separating the loading from the unloading area. It's been there for quite a long time and yet it has never resolved the congestion problem in Ayala Avenue.

After a few minutes, I reached the loading area and got inside an almost empty bus. Then, I spent the next hour or so seated inside the frustratingly slow moving vehicle before finally transferring to the shuttle service to Moriones.

The shuttle avoided the Buendia - Roxas Boulevard route and took the Taft - Intramuros route. We reached Juan Luna street in under an hour, however, I was faced with a terrible obstacle.

The streets were flooded, ankle-deep, I had no way of getting out of the van without getting my shoes, pants, and feet soaked in dark water. The inevitable happened.

It was frustrating, I decided not to take the jeep anymore and just walk home. I walked at least 7-9 blocks before finally reaching home. I tried to avoid the flooded areas as much as I could but in most areas, I had no choice but to dip while trying to avoid open manholes. At one point I was literally in the middle of the road, tailing some jeep or with another car tailing me.

====================

The best part of the day, however, was not the rain nor the flood. It was the time when I punched a stupid kid in the street after he made fun of me. Most of the time, people make fun of Chinese people like me by uttering some random phrases which basically makes fun of the Chinese language.

Normally, I would just ignore them, even though I really find it offensive and disrespectful, regardless if it was being done for fun.

This time it was different, the timing and the place was perfect, he never saw it coming, the stupid kid thought I'm gonna let him get away. He got what he deserved. Ha ha ha. After that I walked way and he continued his bullsh*t, I wanted to turn back and punch him harder, but my "kindness" prevailed.

He was lucky because it was a very weak punch. I only intended to scare him off. If I was serious enough, he probably might have bled or something. He he he.

Happy long weekend everyone! :)

Crazy Day: Part 1

2008-08-11T22:45:00.000+08:00

August 8, 2008

Sometimes bizarre things happen when you least expect it. And if you're "lucky" enough, they would occur one after another. It seemed that someone up there wanted to make fun of me.

Before I continue, I would like to congratulate the new couple, Carlo and Sheila, and wish them a wonderful married life. :)

It started like a regular Friday, I woke up at around 6:30AM, still tempted to go back to sleep, but I had a wedding to attend to.

Good thing than San Agustin Church was relatively near from my place so I didn't have to get up very early. Since I wasn't sure if I could still remember the place, I alloted an hour to get there.

I reached the San Agustin a little past 8, and met up with Jasmine and some old NSP friends. We waited for a few minutes until Carlo and Sheila arrived.

Everything seemed to be OK until Jasmine asked me (after Carlo asked her) if I could do the 1st reading for the mass, to which I "willingly" agreed.

When I received the copy of the missalette, I was shocked to discover that it was in Filipino. Not that I don't speak the language fluently, it's just that I'm not used with the selection of words.

Some of them are really difficult to pronounce even for a native speaker. I was worried that I might laugh or utter something stupid in the middle. Anyhow, I went on to silently rehearse the lines, and identified the proper location of pauses and places of emphasis. :-S

After a few more minutes, the church/wedding assistants told me to take a seat in front so I did. I waited anxiously as the bridal entourage marched down the aisle. Clueless of the things to come.

The moment the priest started the mass, one of the church assistant approached me and asked me who will be doing the Salmong Tugunan (Responsorial Psalm, not a kind of fish). I told her I don't know. :-?

She consulted with the Namumuno (Leader, not a logger), then went back to tell me that I should also do that part. I was shocked, for the second time. o_O

Although shaky at first, I did manage to complete the 1st Reading and Responsorial Psalm without laughing or doing anything stupid. Whew!

I'm beginning to feel a little relaxed until the church assistant approached me again and asked me to do the Intercession (Is this correct?) part as well. It just keeps getting better and better. o_O

And that was the last of my attempts to embarrass myself, inside the church. Unfortunately, it did not end there...

To be continued...

P.S. I don't regret my participation in the wedding rites, it was actually fun. I even got a nice view of Carlo and Sheila, and the rest of the guests seated in front. I just find it a little weird and funny, that someone who never goes to church got involved in this kind of situation.

It Runs in Their Blood

2008-07-12T21:44:00.001+08:00

My aunt (father side), who I mentioned in a previous post, visited my other aunt (her sister), who seems to be suffering from a certain illness.

Tagging my cousin along, they went all the way to their home in Parkway, Quezon City. Their place is quite far from ours.

As a way of showing concern, my aunt bought some pastries and gave them to her sister, which the latter refused to accept, and left the former no choice but to bring it back home. Sweet and Cold.

Sounds familiar? She just tasted some of her own medicine.

It seems that she's not the only one who hates the idea of being fed.

As for the older aunt, I have no idea what kind of sickness she has, however, I'm pretty sure that her miserable condition would not be too far from my dad's and my aunt's.

It runs in their blood after all...

Warning: Graphic Content

2008-06-21T17:51:00.000+08:00

Just a few hours after I went to sleep, I was awaken by droplets of rain entering from the window near my bed. As I would normally do, I closed the windows.

But before I could get back to my sleep, I felt something weird inside my mouth. It was blood with some "chewable" mass, which I thought was clotted blood. And there was at least a tablespoon full of it. o_O

After cleaning my mouth, I went back to sleep. A few minutes later, I woke up again and realized that the bleeding never stopped, and I was back to seeing thick, sticky, radiant red liquid coming out of my mouth.

At the time, I realized that there was something wrong...

It has been 4 days since I had the surgery (impacted wisdom tooth removal) but I never encountered any severe bleeding after the surgery. I may have tore the wound while brushing or during my sleep.

==========

Anyhow, I tried my best to stay calm, because I know that panicking would just increase my heart rate and aggravate the bleeding. How would you stay calm after seeing lots of blood coming out of your mouth? (see picture at the bottom) >:P

I took a 500mg capsule of Hemostan to help stabilize the bleeding. But since it needed an hour or so to take effect, I had to find a way to control the bleeding, otherwise, I might pass out. I took a cotton ball and stuffed it on the operated gum area.

The bleeding continued as I replaced the cotton balls. Either I wasn't hitting the right area or I was bleeding in several areas. At that point I was starting to get worried, my dentist appointment is at 8:30AM and I still have more than 3 hours to wait and probably bleed more. :S

My mom panicked after I told her that the bleeding won't stop. She gave me an ice pack and it somehow managed to minimized the bleeding. I also managed to get an hour of sleep with cotton inside my mouth. :P

I got up around 7AM just to find out that it began to bleed again. I removed that blood coated cotton ball from mouth and replaced it again. Then started to prepare for my visit to the dentist.

==========

I was accompanied by my sister and our dad was the one who took us to the dentist. The dentist was surprised to learn about the bleeding. I told her what happened that morning and she told me that putting the cotton balls was a bad idea. :))

She then started checking and cleaning the wounds. She revealed to me that one of the stitches was tore open. I had 2 stitches from the surgery. Somehow, one of them tore open the wound and started the bleeding.

After the effects of the anesthesia kicked in, she removed the new formed tissues that was torn. Then she put some powdered medicine on the wounds.

Unfortunately, there's one specific area that the bleeding won't stop. She had to use a stronger medicine and a new stitch to finally control that area. I actually felt the needle punching through my gum because the effects of the anesthesia was starting to wear off.

We left the clinic almost 11AM, she assured me that she won't let me go home until the bleeding stops, and she did. Whew!

I'm lucky enough that it happened this morning. My dentist was scheduled to go to Canada this evening for a 1-month vacation. God still loves me. :D Hopefully, I don't have to go through something like this again. O:) I'm estimating that I've lost at least a half glass of blood. o_O

==========

For those who are curious, here's a picture of my blood. It appears to be a lot, but it's just diluted with water in the chamber pot. The solid looking objects are the cotton balls that I've used.

==========

Before I went to sleep last night, I was watching these final segments of Bubble Gang. I'm not sure if my excessive laughing have contributed to the bleeding. Ha ha ha...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn3JayerHoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgewH18IDLE

The moral of the story... never watch comedy shows after surgery... he he he...

Yeah... People Hate Change

2008-06-11T23:20:00.003+08:00

If you're a frequent MRT passenger, you probably have come across the following announcement or something similar, scattered across different locations in all MRT stations recently.

I deliberately cropped it for blogging purposes. If you're interested in the full version, you can download it from here.

Surprisingly enough, the supposed "measure to ease overcrowding" resulted in this...

It took me a while to get inside and tried my best to avoid or minimize body contact. I could still remember some people commenting that the new system sucks and that they (MRT) should never have implemented it. Some even started cursing the security personnel who was trying to organize the crowd.

You don't have to be an expert in crowd control in order to realize that their "plan" was not carefully "planned" at all.

And because I don't want to criticize without sharing some constructive suggestions, here are some of my ideas...

Remove security checks on all entrances. Obviously, the bottlenecks are the security personnels. The rate of their "bag poking" is far lower than the rate of passengers arriving. >:)
Put walk-in metal detectors on all entrances. They DON'T have to work. They just have to look convincingly real, and beep randomly. This way we could achieve the same "sense of security" like what we currently have, minus the cost and the effort. >:)

And for the fun part, here are some suggestions to instill some discipline among passengers...

Deploy stanchions (posts), but instead of using the usual metal chains or nylon ropes, "rusted barbed wires" SHOULD be used. This way, passengers would not attempt to overtake one another or create new lines. >:)
Attach "rusted blades" or "broken glass shards" at the sides of the train doors. This way, passengers would not attempt to stop the doors from closing. >:)
An alternative for option 2 is to use "electric doors", similar to electric fences. Same effect, minus the bloody mess. >:)
Finally, hire bouncers. The can be deployed inside the trains or in the platforms. To help weak passengers in getting in and off the train. >:)

Till next time... ride safely... :)

Really Sad News

2008-06-01T18:53:00.000+08:00

Friday afternoon, I received an SMS message from Dominic, informing me that his dad had passed away (Morning of May 30). I was shocked to hear the bad news, and for a while, could not think of a proper way to respond.

Wilfredo Dandan, 50, fell asleep while on his way to San Juan Municipal Hall and never woke up. The taxi driver rushed him to a nearby hospital, where they attempted to revive him. However, it was already too late, and he was announced dead-on-arrival.

Dominic is a good friend from college. Our houses are just few blocks apart. He was my jeepney buddy for 4 years. By his request, I contacted CJ and Carlo, our college buddies, and arranged a meeting so I could bring them to the funeral house on Saturday or Sunday.

On my way home, I went his father's wake in Lorenzo Funeral Homes, just a block away from our house. I stayed there until 12AM, before heading home. I also had a chance to talk to Dominic, Marilen and also Dominic's aunt. Dominic told me what happened earlier that day, while his aunt shared her experiences in her courageous battle and triumph over cancer.

The following morning (Saturday), I met Carlo and CJ at UST and accompanied them to Lorenzo. We had lunch there and stayed for until 1PM. We shared a couple stories on some recent updates on our lives. The last time we had a chance to this was way back in college.

It was nice to see them again after a long time, but as Dominic would put it, it could have been a lot nicer if the circumstances were not sorrowful.

My deepest condolences to the Dandan family for their lost.

To Mr. Wilfredo Dandan, may you rest in peace.

Superiority Complex

2008-05-25T19:33:00.004+08:00

After 20 days of inactivity... :P

Refer to a subconscious neurotic mechanism of compensation developed by the individual as a result of feelings of inferiority. - Wikipedia

A few days back, my dad and my aunt had a heated discussion for a very unusual topic, 'which is the shortest way' to Ylaya Street from Jose Abad Santos street. And by “heated”, it means that they were shouting at each other, telling each other how ignorant the other one is.

But, who cares??? It doesn’t really matter which way you take, because you’ll just end up in the same place. Why bother?

Unfortunately, for those two, being correct is like their addiction. They love to argue with people just to prove that they are better, smarter, and superior to others.

My dad would almost always contradict any person’s opinion or idea regardless if it’s already correct. He would always have a “more” correct idea that would render your idea incorrect no matter how twisted his opinion was.

Another manifestation of his condition is his constant complain about food. You would always hear negative remarks from him for almost every meal of every day, except when he’s not around. Some typical comments would be... “rice is burnt”, “rice is half-cooked”, “the food is not edible”, “don’t know how to cook”, "same food as yesterday", etc.

I really hate it when somebody complains about food. People are literally starving to death in almost every corner of the World and yet some people are incapable of appreciating how lucky they are to have food on the dining table.

====================

Moving on to my aunt, who manifests a different behavior towards foods, she would never voluntarily eat anything that I or my eldest sister buys. Although mainly due to some personal issues, another reason is because she doesn’t like the idea of “being fed” by someone else.

She has always thought that the “feeder” should be in absolute control of the “consumer”, a very self-serving belief indeed.

I do appreciate everything that they've shared to us and I'm really grateful for it and I would be glad to return them the favor. But it won't just happen if they're not willing to accept our help and support.

I would always hear her complaining that she's been working for a very long time and that she should be retired by now. And yet she's not willing to give up the store or do anything to make that happen.

I guess, that basic fear of change have crippled her ability to become satisfied and happy in her life.

====================

It's just unfortunate because it seems that there's no way they would even consider their behavior as improper, let alone change for the better.

How would you tell a grown person to grow up?

====================

P.S. I have a lot of things on my mind regarding this topic but I find it a little difficult to put them all into writing... :(

An Expensive Month

2008-05-06T00:37:00.001+08:00

I made two major purchases last April, one at the beginning of the month, and the other towards the end. Including the amount of taxes that I've paid, I almost hit the 6-digit mark... ouch!!!

Meet my DS Lite, Misato, named after the character in Neon Genesis Evangelion. It came with a very nice leather case and a bundled game, Brain Age 2. After a week, I bought Cooking Mama from Data Blitz, the same place where I bought my DS Lite.

I was planning to get a Wii but opted for a DS for several reasons. It's cheaper. It's safer, since it does not require major bodily movements which might cause the collapse of our house. It's compact and portable. And finally, because I wanted to play Super Robot Wars W.

I still wanted to finish the previous editions of SRW(A, R, D, J, OG1, OG2) in GBA though, before I get a copy of SRW W. So until then, I'm letting my sisters enjoy playing with Misato.

My other major item would be my new camera. It's a Canon S5 IS, which I got for a very very "tempting" price of P13K++. While on the Laguna trip with sir Melvin, Gloi called me up and asked if I wanted it. And after a careful deliberation (30+ seconds), I said yes. Then, after 2 weeks of waiting, Gloi finally arrived with it. Thanks again Gloi.. :)

I named my new camera Kaworu, who's also a character from NGE. Yeah, he's the controversial character from the Manga/Anime, which started endless debates on his sexuality, and tainted Shinji's as well, unfortunately... :(

Putting those not so important issues aside, I chose Kaworu because he's the 5th child. Asuka was the 2nd. Asuka, S2 IS and Kaworu, S5 IS. That should make a little sense now... :P

OK... now I'm feeling a little weird giving names to inanimate objects... ^_^

Anyhow, I should be minimizing my expenses in May in order to make up with the April expenses... O:)

The Last Gig

2008-04-27T22:59:00.004+08:00

Last April 20, we visited Avilon Animal Prison, or more commonly known as Avilon Zoo. As a tribute to my semi-retired camera, I posted some of the pictures taken that day here. By the way, the full set is available on my flickr page... :)

Arapaima Gigas Feeding on Chicken Heads

Sleeping Siberian Tiger

Trixie on a Bicycle with Balancers

Flamingo

Eat Like a ~~Jasmine~~ Bird

Pink Flower

Budgerigars

Sun Conure

A ~~Jas'~~ Duck's Quack

Flock of ~~Jas~~ Ducks

Philippine ~~Government Official~~ Crocodile

Ostreeeeech!!!

Semi-Retirement

2008-04-27T21:53:00.002+08:00

After two and a half years and more than 12,000 shots, I'm now putting my Canon PowerShot S2 IS into semi-retirement. Which means, I would no longer be bringing her along on my travels. Instead, she'll be staying at home, resting, and doing lighter tasks.

I'm not planning to sell her or give her away, because she's my 1st camera, and she's been a significant part of my life. She went as far as I could go, never complained, and gave her best, all the time. :)

I got her on September 24, 2005, a day after my return from my 1st business trip in Cebu. It was Marben who bought her from Japan, and left her with Jas on Friday (September 23).

Coincidentally, Jas was celebrating her birthday that day. I gave her the special birthday scrapbook and box of origami's which we've made back in Cebu, in exchange for watching over my camera... :P

Since then, we've travelled to far places together, attended company outings, crashed high school reunions, enjoyed family outings, celebrated birthday parties, and many many more.

I really couldn't imagine my life in the past 2 years without her... :P

アスカちゃん。。。お疲れ様でした。

When Love Begins...

2008-04-26T00:14:00.002+08:00

I had a really hard time uploading this image. It seems that Blogger had some technical problems. Here's the result of my poor and senseless creativity... :P

Cagayan de Oro Weekend (Day 3)

2008-04-24T19:18:00.004+08:00

My 3rd and final installment of my CDO series. My flight was 7:40 in the morning so there was really nothing much to do.

Panic Mode

Reggie met me at the hotel around 5:30AM, we were supposed to leave for the airport, but the university service did not arrive as planned.

After minutes of wait, we started panicking because we have no idea where Mang Teddy is, and we have no way of contacting him except through Mam Christine. Although reluctant at first, we still contacted her, and she instructed Reggie to call the university.

Due to the delay, I was able to buy some pasalubong (4 boxes of Pastel) from the store just across the street.

Reggie learned from the university personnel that Mang Teddy was seen earlier but his current whereabouts is unknown.

Mang Teddy eventually came to bring us to the airport. We got to the airport in under 15 minutes with plenty of time for check-in. I bade farewell to Reggie and thanked him for his generous company during my short stay.

Boarding Time

While waiting for boarding, I also bought some souvenir shirts. One for me and another for my dad. Although they're more expensive, the quality and designs are not bad.

After I got the shirts, I noticed two guys taking turns in taking pictures with this woman. She was wearing shades so I thought she must be a TV personality of some sort. I wasn't sure if she was Bangs Garcia until I overheard a saleslady mentioning her name.

I'm not sure if the whole picture taking episode was just a ploy to attract people's attention, because it turned out that the two guys were actually with her. Anyhow, I don't remember seeing anybody else asking for a photograph so I guess they're plot failed.

I was thinking of asking a picture with her just because I wanted to see Jasmine's reaction. >:) In the end, I never had the courage to do so. :P

For those who are curious on how she looked like... from behind... just click the image... this was taken during our arrival in Manila... he he... >:P

Final Words

My Cagayan de Oro experience may have been really short, but it was indeed a memorable one. Thanks to the people that I've met and became friends with. And most importantly, for the free WiFi access all over town. :))

I'm looking forward to my next visit to the City of Golden Friendship.

Cagayan de Oro Weekend (Day 2)

2008-04-21T23:48:00.002+08:00

The 2nd part of my CDO series... it's taking me quite some time to publish anything significant these days, it must be the weather. :P

Anyhow, I told myself that I'm gonna finish this one today, especially that the PhilNITS FE results were already out. :S

April 6 was the PhilNITS examination day. I had to be on the testing site before 7AM so I got up around 5AM, took a quick shower and had the free breakfast. Mam Christine met me at the hotel, then we proceeded to Capitol University. Taxi ride from Hotel Conchita to CU took less than 10 minutes.

When we arrived at CU, Reggie was already there. Some of the examinees were also early.

On the Exams

We started the examination at 9AM then everything else went smoothly, except for some occasional text messages from the PhilNITS counterpart in Manila, which contains the corrections for some test items.

After the AM part, we had our lunch break at the faculty room. I had grilled milk fish for lunch. Then, I rested for a few minutes in the dean's office before going back to the exam room.

For the PM part, it was pretty much the same as the AM part. As stated in the Proctor's Guidelines, we had to stay in the exam room at all times, record any unusual events that happens, record the attendance, arrange the answer sheets in a prescribed order, seal and sign the envelopes that will contain the answer sheets, any many more.

After the last examinee submitted his answer sheet, we started packing all the exam stuffs, cleaned the area, and called it a day.

Time to Relax

We decided to go to LimKetKai to relax and also to have dinner somewhere in Rosario Arcade. But before that, I had to return to the hotel to leave the big heavy box. Mam Christine, on the other hand, had to meet someone, so we just decided to meet up her sometime before dinner.

While waiting for Mam Christine, Reggie and I, hit the arcade and played some racing and shooting games. After that, we got some snacks from a nearby hotdog stand. A few minutes more, Mam Christine arrived. Then we proceeded to Rosario Arcade.

Rosario Arcade is somewhat equivalent to Greenbelt in Makati. This is where the most popular coffee shops, restaurants and bars are located. Bigby's, Sun Burst, Bo's Coffee, Taza Coffee, and Cafe Macumba, to name a few.

We ordered some drinks from Taza Coffee, shared a couple of nice stories, and went around to take some nice pictures. A few minutes more, Merbert came. He's a professor in STI, he was the thesis adviser and a good friend of Reggie. He's also a good friend of Mam Christine. By the way, Reggie and Merbert, are both younger than me, although they both agree that it's not obvious. :)

Dinner Time

After a while, we decided to order some dinner, Mam Christine and Reggie went for the buffet in East Wok, while Merbert and I settled for Cafe Macumba. I ordered fish and fries for dinner. After eating, we stayed for at least an hour more to listen to the old guy singing some nice classics. He was really good. :)

This is also the time that I discovered somebody who can recite the garbled lyrics of "Ken Lee" perfectly. It was Merbert. :P

Divisoria

The first time I heard the name, I immediately thought of the market place in Tondo. I was wrong. It turned out to be a very nice long plaza in the middle of the street populated with colorful lamp posts similar to the ones you can find in Roxas Boulevard.

During Fridays and Saturdays, they have live band performances in the evening. There's also a big screen in the middle, where people can watch TV shows, movies, and events like Pacquiao's boxing match. You can also find several blind masseurs offering their services to visitors in the plaza.

At the far end of the plaza, you'll find another popular place called "The Park Cafe". According to Mam Christine, it's similar to the park in-between Glorietta and 6750.

We stayed there for another hour or so. Talked some more, drank some more, and ate some more. Until we finally felt tired and sleepy.

They accompanied me to the hotel, said our good byes and parted ways. It was a tiring but interesting day indeed. :)

To be continued...

Recent Acquisitions

2008-04-19T22:56:00.007+08:00

After more than a month of anticipation, it's finally here... :)

I bought this from YesAsia last March 13, but the notice from the Makati Post Office only came last week, even though the package was already there since April 2. :|

And because the package stayed there for a while, I had to pay a storage fee of P35.00. I guess this is their way of generating "extra" revenues. :P

When I went there to pick up the package, the customs guy opened it and asked me how much did I pay for it. I told him around P1500. Probably, after realizing that he won't get that much money from it, he did not bother to charge me any additional fees. >:P

It's the latest album of BoA. I recently stopped getting the singles and just opted to wait for the album because most of the songs in her singles will also appear in her album. That's another addition to my collection. :) :) :)

Despair Stuffs

Speaking of delayed packages, Jasmine purchased some items from Despair, Inc. last December. And for some unknown reason, the 1st time the item was shipped, it was lost, or probably stolen by some custom official. After weeks of e-mail correspondence with Despair, they willingly re-shipped the items. It reached the post office last February 26, and the notice came mid of March. Jasmine almost gave up on it. :P

Here's the custom calendar from Despair. You can choose your preferred Demotivator for every month. You can even add custom holidays or special events.

The 2nd item is an ego t-shirt, for people with superiority complex. Although I don't consider myself being one, wearing something like this still looks pretty cool... and provocative... >:)

Finally, a must-read book for executives and a must-not-read book for employees, according to it's author... The Art of Demotivation. I'm reading this out of pure interest and not because I'm aspiring to be an executive. O:)

It's a pretty interesting and unorthodox book with a nifty camouflage cover, supposedly boring, so that regular employees would not be interested in discovering what's in it.

At first, I thought that it was a misprint, but the author explained it in the preface section of the book.

====================

P.S. Happy Birthday to President Erap... Wishing you more success in your political career. >:)

Cagayan de Oro Weekend (Day 1)

2008-04-16T23:20:00.001+08:00

A fairly late post but here goes...

I had a pretty interesting weekend last April 5 to 7. I went to Cagayan de Oro to administer the PhilNITS examination for that region. It was Sir Melvin who recommended me to take the job. Thank you sir! ^_^

I was originally assigned to go to Zamboanga but due to safety concerns, I was reassigned to CDO. Either ways, both places are unknown to me. I just happen to like visiting new places. :)

The day before my flight, I went to the PhilNITS office to pickup a heavy box which contains the exam materials. Since I don't have a car, and I can't take the train (because of the LRT/MRT insecurity protocols), and no taxi driver is willing to go to Tondo, I just asked the taxi driver to drop me off at Buendia/Taft, so I could take the Moriones bound FX. :|

===================

It was a smooth and fast plane ride to CDO. In flight, I took some pictures, played Brain Age 2, ate some snacks, and took naps in between.

At CDO, I was welcomed by Mam Christine and Reggie. After exchanging greetings, we headed for Hotel Conchita in Cogon.

I left the heavy box at the Hotel then we went to Bigby's in Rosario Arcade for lunch. I had a half Rack-A-Bye Baby and a Monkey Business Freeze. Reggie took the remaining half. I used to share this meal with Dennis, during our Cebu days. It's really nice to dine in Bigby's again. ^_^

While eating, I had the chance to know more about my new friends. Mam Christine was a professor in PLM a few years back before she joined STI-CDO, then transferred to Capitol University. She's the current dean of the College of Computer Studies in CU.

Reggie, on the other hand, graduate from STI-CDO last year (I think), and currently handles several computer subjects in different colleges in Capitol University. He's a smoking buddy, drinking buddy, bar hopping buddy, food trip buddy and a good friend of Mam Christine. He's originally from Sta. Mesa, QC until he moved to CDO 4 years ago. He hasn't return to Manila since then.

===================

After our nice meal, we proceeded to Capitol University. It was part of the protocol that I examine the room one day before the exam. We also took some time discussing some issues about the exam in the dean's office.

Before I returned to the hotel, I asked Mam Christine if I could go around and check the campus. She generously agreed and even requested Reggie to show me around. We spent around half an hour going from one building to another. CU is a really nice campus. Their president, Casimiro Juarez is doing a really good job.

===================

After covering the significant locations in the campus, we left CU, took a motorela and went to LimKetKai Center. LimKetKai is the most popular mall in CDO, and is probably comparable to Glorietta. Personally, I think LimKetKai is bigger and better.

After LimKetKai, we went back to the hotel. I wanted to go to Sun Burst for dinner but because I became a little lazy, I opted to stay in the hotel and get some rest. >:)

====================

My hotel room is nice but it was pretty boring and lonely, specially without a computer. The view from the window is not that nice too. Good thing there's an unsecured wifi access point visible in my room. It felt really good to be online, even if it's just through my PDA. :))

I decided to order some hotel food for dinner. While waiting for the food, I chatted with Jas over YM, and played with my DS Lite. After a few minutes, dinner was finally served. :)

Shrimp and Broccoli in Oyster Sauce... These are the times when you can be thankful that you're alone in your room. >:P

After dinner, I spent a few minutes playing with Brain Age until I finally hit the hay.

To be continued...

Men Have Bones Too

2008-04-15T13:41:00.000+08:00

My youngest sister and I went to the grocery store last Sunday to buy some baking/cooking supplies and some other stuffs. When we passed by the milk section, she realized that she wanted to buy some powdered milk. She was concerned about the fact that two of our sisters are diagnosed with scoliosis.

While searching for a good brand, I noticed that most of them, if not all, are packaged and designed in such a way that it's intended customers are all women. Even the TV commercials are geared towards women, older ones to be exact.

As if men don't have bones to care about. Or maybe, it's just easier to sell "look good" and "feel good" stuffs to women than men... >:)

Peace to all women... O:)

Thou Shall Not Steal

2008-04-03T23:33:00.002+08:00

Extended Earth Hour

After 4 days, they've finally restored the electricity in our block. Hopefully, for good.

It has been like a super-extended Earth Hour in our block. This power outage have caused a lot of inconveniences at home. My youngest sister, who's on vacation from school, spends the whole day answering Sodoku or Crossword puzzles. And she didn't shampooed her hair for several days. :S

Without electricity to run our water pump, we were not able to use our showers and faucets upstairs. We had to optimize our water usage since it's quite tedious to carry pails of waters. In my case, I've managed to acquire a new ability, "Maligo sa Pitong Tabo" (Bath in 7 Buckets). :P

Like me, my other two sisters, who are both working, were lucky enough because we didn't suffer during morning. But after we get home, we still had to bear with the darkness, heat, mosquito bites, and boredom for the next 10 or 12 hours. :(

As for our store, we used kerosene powered gasera's (gas lamp) to provide adequate lighting. Just like old times. :)

The Replacement

It all started last week, when the Meralco guys began replacing the old wooden posts with concrete ones as part of their upgrade activities. They also replaced the old transformer with a new one, but with a lower capacity. We're not really sure of the basis of lowered capacity value, but it's probably based on the daily consumption as reflected on the electric bills in our vicinity, and some allowance.

They blacked out half of our block last Sunday at 9AM and began installing the new device, and rewired some of the cables. The power was restored around 6:30PM that day, but it didn't last that long. A little past 8PM, the new transformer blew up (figuratively), then there was darkness.

The following day, the Meralco guys returned to fix it. But just like the previous day, it blew up again around 8:30PM. They returned the following day to fix it for the nth time. But this time the transformer is already broken, possibly permanently. The Meralco guys said that they would have to replace it with a new one.

The Jumpers

So, why did the new transformer kept on blowing up? There's no one to blame but those stupid "jumpers". I'm not talking about the guys from the Jumper Movie. These people have abilities as well, they can climb on posts and work on live electrical wires with minimal protection without getting electrocuted. Basically, they steal electricity by tapping to some active power line near their homes.

Before the Meralco guys replaced the old transformer, we would normally see some sparks and at times, even small flames on the cables. Our house is just next to the Meralco post, so if some explosion or fire occurs, we're going to be the first victim.

When the new transformer was installed, it repeatedly broke down since the power consumption of those "jumpers" were never considered in the first place. And the moment they turn on their appliances, down goes the transformer, and so is the electricity for half of the block.

The Meralco guys have probably known this for a long time but the thing is, they really can't do anything about it, and we can't blame them. When they tried inspecting the houses of some our neighbors, they were threatened to be killed or something to that effect.

Most of our neighbors even know who are these "jumpers" but they won't cooperate with the Meralco guys. Either they're afraid, or they're just doing the same illegal thing.

The Fix

"Jumpers" are very common in our vicinity, and the guys from Meralco have devised several methods to protect their services and electrical supply. One of which is to transfer the electric meter/s from each house to electric post. This way, if someone taps into an electric cable, he would be tapping from his neighbor's supply.

This way, Meralco will not be affected by the stolen electricity. The problem is left to the owners to resolve, and to make sure that nobody will be tapping into his cable. Unfortunately, most of our neighbors do not agree to this arrangement. Probably because, they knew that one of our neighbors will surely steal from them. Plus the fact that, the farther your house is, from the electric post, the greater chances of someone tapping into your cable without you knowing it.

Anyhow, it's a deadlock. I think the Meralco guys gave up and just increased the capacity of the transformer to accommodate the loses due to "jumpers". They've probably realized that their lives worth more than stolen electricity.

House of the Syndicate

By the way, the building owned by a big crime syndicate in our vicinity is powered by "jumper technology". Imagine 5 floors of "free" electricity. And the policeman living next to them can't even do anything about it or the illegal things they're doing.

One morning, the Meralco guys removed their tapped connection, the afternoon of that same day, they bought electrical tape from us, and by night time, they already have electricity again.

A Day of Troubleshoot

2008-03-29T09:49:00.005+08:00

I woke up today with a message from my cousin posted on my computer monitor. It seems that the computer shuts down after around 20 minutes of operation, and it won't turn on again.

I figured it might be the power supply. I started my machine and tried it for several minutes and it halted without any warning. Only the CPU's lights went out, the monitor is still blinking so I thought the power supply should be working properly.

Then I opened up the chassis to see if anything is overheating, that's the time I realized that the fan in the power supply is not turning. No wonder it keeps halting!

Now I have the excuse of going to PCX to get a new power supply or a new fan and some other "necessities"... He he he... >:)

Easter Ducks... Anyone?

2008-03-24T00:55:00.007+08:00

We use to hear Easter bunnies and Easter eggs.

How come there's no mention of any Easter chicken or Easter duck?

Rabbits DO NOT lay eggs. But Chicken and ducks DO.

With a little bit of Googling, it turned out that Easter Celebration is an adopted Pagan holiday of the Goddess Eostre who's symbol animal was a hare or rabbit who laid eggs.

Click here to read article.

Windows Mayhem - Part 1 (Vista)

2008-03-24T00:19:00.001+08:00

My sister just got herself a new Sony Vaio laptop from Singapore and she came over today to ask me to move her files from our old desktop to her new machine.

It was my first time to have actually used Windows Vista (poking around display units doesn't count). To be honest, I wasn't disappointed. Why? Because I've read enough bad reviews about it, so I knew what was coming... or what was not coming.

The first thing I did is to configure the wireless network to connect to my home network. It was pretty simple and straightforward so I was done in under a minute.

The real pain in the a** was when I tried to access my desktop. In XP, I would normally go to Start -> Run, type in the network path, then it prompts for my username and password and I'm done.

In Vista, either the Run button is missing, or I'm just blind. Which I am NOT. So I tried it the M$ way, I clicked My Computer, and a "new and supposedly improved" explorer window popped up. I selected a Network icon on the side panel to see which computers are nearby. And the only computer found was itself. I realized that this was a common problem for Windows Networking so I didn't bother to troubleshoot it.

Thankfully, the location bar was still there, but when I typed in my \\hostname, it could not resolve the IP address. This works for my laptop (XP64) and my 2nd desktop (XP32) and I don't understand why it wouldn't work on Vista. Grrrr...

Anyhow, I just used the IP address instead and was finally able to do what I wanted to do. After finishing the transfers, I gave my sister a lecture on how to search and download files through torrents/trackers. I also asked her to put a password on her administrator account. I told her not to use the administrator account, and create a standard user account instead. But before that, I had to scare her by telling her I could easily logon to her laptop and wipe all her files clean. >:)

So I created a standard account for the sake of security. At first, we were satisfied. But after 3 logons/logoffs, we got sick of the security popups asking for the administrator password each time we try to connect to the wireless network after logon, and I ended up changing her account type to administrator. Scr*w the Vista Security!

In the end, we still got to play around with some cool tricks with the built-in camera. Although it was nowhere near the Apple's iSight and Photo Booth. And I mean nowhere.

My encounter with Vista wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but it wasn't that bad too. Maybe I just need to spend some time poking around with it.

I am actually planning to get a copy of Vista soon, specially since Service Pack 1 was already released. Hopefully, it will be better.

====================

Just a few hours after my sister left, my uncle called, asking for help with his computer...

Some Abstinence and Hatred

2008-03-22T11:30:00.004+08:00

I find it rather amusing that we practice meat abstinence at home on Good Fridays even though my parents doesn't consider themselves as Catholics. I guess it's just a case of false fear rather than true belief.

My mom have always been vocal about her disgust towards people going to church regularly and yet repeatedly commit evil acts. You can't blame her for type-casting all Filipinos as such. We live in a not so friendly neighborhood, where kids and even older ones, do bad and say bad things to us even though they just came from Simbang Gabi or a regular Sunday Mass.

She spends most of her time at our store so it's not unusual that she meets disgusting people, or hears kids or teens shouting bad words (in Chinese) in front of our house, obviously trying to mock us. And she gets deeply affected by all these.

These things have been going on for years. It's now difficult if not impossible to remove these closed-minded impression and hatred towards people, Filipinos to be exact.

But we live in the Philippines, this is a Filipino nation. It's normal to see bad things happening, people doing bad things to each other. I guess the only reason she hates this place is because she's living in it.

It's unfortunate that people tend to blindly focus on the not so good things happening on their lives instead of appreciating the good things. They pray that bad things will not happen instead of wishing that good things to happen. And end up living on an enclosed world which they themselves have created, lonely, fearful, and stagnant.

Taxation 101 - Part 4

2008-03-20T23:33:00.002+08:00

This is probably the last of my taxation series. I went to BIR Manila last March 5 to get my certificate of registration and other tax documents. I began the registration process last February 19. Normally, it would only take a week for the processing to be completed, but we ran into some issues.

Due to some misunderstanding, instead of applying for a Percentage Tax Type, we initially applied for a VAT Tax Type, which means I'll be paying 12% of my monthly pay instead of 3% every month.

And because I didn't want to be late for the February 20 deadline, I immediately paid the 12% for the month of January. The following day, I found out that I was supposed to pay only 3%.

Ate Weng offered to return to BIR to have my documents fixed, including a late registration for the last quarter of 2007, and to ask if there is a way to get my incorrect payment back.

She had my documents fixed, but the BIR officer is no longer interested for the late registration for 2007. When Ate Weng insisted that we wanted to pay for our taxes for the last quarter of 2007, the officer told her something like "kung marami talaga kayong pera, ibigay niyo na lang sa amin" (if you really have lots of money, just give it to us.)

We decided not to pursue the taxes for 2007 since the BIR officer himself is not even interested in it. As for my incorrect payment (12%), we learned that there's no way to get it back or even credit it for next month's payment. It turned out that the "system" only takes and doesn't bother to give anything back. Anyhow, I just think of that 12% as my tax payment for the last quarter of 2007.

====================

Going back, I went to the BIR officer who processed my registration. To my disappointment, before I could get the certificate, I still need to do a couple of things. So what the hell was that 1 week processing time for?

1st step was to obtain a documentary stamp from the "collection" unit located at the far end of the office. The tiny stamp, similar to a postage stamp, officially costs P100, however the "collector", Normita Azurin, asked for P115 from me. P15 maybe not that much, but corruption is still corruption.

2nd step was to proceed to room #3 to have the stamp and receipt attached to the certificate, then have it signed by the office-in-charge in that department. The officer in this room was very different from all the other BIR employees. She's soft-spoken, polite and shows genuine concern to people.

3rd step was to give the documents to room #2 for some date stamps, a couple more signatures, and finally a dry seal. I had to wait for around 15 minutes.

4th and last step was to give the stamped and signed documents to the releasing section, where it will be stamped and signed for the last time, and finally given to me together with a tax certificate which we would normally find in establishments.

====================

My recent encounters have given me first hand experience with taxation, red tape and corruption. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to go back to that place and transact with those people anytime soon.

To end this post and this series, I would like to share some photos which I took from the BIR office...

This is a typical ceiling that you would see in almost all places in the BIR building. The building is really old and seems to be poorly maintained as what these ceilings suggest.

This is the men's discomfort room in one of the floors. The other discomfort rooms on the other floors do not exactly look like this but feels the same.

I wanted to take a picture of the office itself but I never had the chance to do so. But if you could just imagine, a big office with lots of tables, each table with lots of papers stacked and lying around, some employees not in their proper uniform, some playing solitaire during working, disorganized and unfriendly...

The Most Annoying Person

2008-03-11T23:16:00.001+08:00

I met this person during my 2nd visit on BIR Manila. She was next to me in the line for the payment. I was number 40 and the line was moving very slow. It was one of the worst moments of my life.

I'm estimating that she's in her late thirties. Still single, and probably for the rest of her life, unless she finds a nice deaf guy. As you would have guessed, she's extremely talkative and intrusive.

====================

There was another young lady who was next to her and she became her first victim. It was supposed to be me but since there were few seats left, I gave them my seat and decided to stand.

Just a few minutes after she got the seat, she started talking about what happened to her earlier. That she had left home really early but got delayed by an hour because the jeepney that she rode had to stop at every corner for a long time. She repeated her story for at least 5 times to different people in the line.

After she throws her "tragic" story, she begins asking questions to the victim. Where's the victim living and working, what's the line of business, what's his business with BIR, among other things.

In the middle of the questions, she attempts to insert her own personal experiences with whatever business or topic which might be brought up. She tries to make herself look knowledgeable in these things.

====================

She turned to me when she realized that the young lady has no interest in her stories. That's when my misery started. She began asking my line of work, forcing me to explain Programming, Artificial Intelligence and the Stock Market, which is quite pointless because she admitted she has zero knowledge with computers. o_O

Anyhow, I managed to stop her further attempts for intellectual discussion. But she was insistent, she turned her attention to my registration documents, asking if I have all the requirements. I told her I already have the DTI permit. She told me I still have to get a mayor's permit, and that she knew someone in the city hall, and that she knew a lot of people in some government agencies, etc, etc. :|

I did my best to ignore her while making her think I'm not. >:P

====================

She mentioned that she's a member of some "charismatic" Christian fellowship group, but it seems that her words and actions doesn't support it. She kept on cursing the Landbank security guard for being rude and impolite, she even made fun of the unevenness of the eyes of the security guard. After finish her corn, she just threw it on the floor, and even reasoned that there are no trash cans around. And, she hates cats. I love cats, so there's no way we're going to get along.

Her third victim was an old man, in his seventies, perhaps. She went as far as asking the old man to buy her some snacks. Just because she learned that the old man had saved enough money to build a 10-storey building.

====================

I didn't want to waste my time doing nothing or listening to her so I decided to read the book that I brought with me. I haven't even completed a page when she started talking to me again, asking what's the title of the book, if I also read novels, etc, etc. Dammit!

Eventually, she got tired talking to me and to the others. She put on her shades and took a nap. It was nearing lunch time. I was getting worried that if we don't get called before the cut-off, she might asked me to have lunch with her. :-S

====================

The best part was the moment she got her turn at the cashier. She only brought 2 copies of the BIR form, while the requirement is 3 copies. Alleluia!!! The cashier won't process her documents unless she has 3 copies. She had no choice but to get a third copy somewhere. >:)

That was the end of our misery, and it was a happy ending. The old man even tells me to get to the cashier immediately, he's probably satisfied with what happened. I never saw her again. Hopefully, I won't, ever again.

P.S. The most unforgivable thing that she told me is that I look like Patrick Garcia. :|

The Suicide Note

2008-02-25T17:58:00.004+08:00

When I opened my Gmail inbox this morning, I was surprised to see this particular e-mail, which I felt is to be some form of suicide note, or e-mail to be exact.

Here’s what he wrote:

“to all my fellow alumni this maybe a little bit out of topic but i feel more confortable hearing from yo b4 i should decide to end my life ever since i was young i struggled to by the best among my classmates and somehow as time rolls by i have gain enough knowlege but kept it on to myself but with all the sucess i have the only thing i cant conquer is love....no one knows what accomplishments i have made coz i never wanted to boast it now i'm stuck between something i dont want to be.i came from a broken family since then i vowed not to be like it but now im stuck between 2 women whom i both love. if anyone could see this help me but if not when i die hope god would forgive me. i guess theres a price in every sucess.bye my fellow sakyans i will always be one like you all”

I didn’t know what to think after reading it. This is the first time that I’ve received a suicide note through e-mail. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen or received a suicide note in any form. This e-mail was not personally addressed to me. It was sent to one of the Yahoo! Groups that I was a member of.

I couldn’t help but notice some spelling and grammatical errors in the note. But I guess if someone were planning to kill himself, he wouldn’t bother to proof read his suicide note.

Looking at it from a different angle, this message might have actually been sent via SMS as well. That would explain the use of shortcuts “b4” and “coz”.

I also tried searching for his Friendster profile, and the only information I got was his first name and his age.

Anyhow, being a concerned individual, I did my best to respond to the message. I sent my response directly to him. There were 2 other mailing list members who replied to the mailing list.

Until this moment, we haven’t heard anything from him yet.

Taxation 101 - Part 3

2008-02-24T15:45:00.002+08:00

Third part of my taxation series...

I found myself back within the creepy walls of BIR Manila. This time I was early. I arrived a little past 8AM.

I went up to the 5th floor, where RDO-029 is located.

When I gave my forms, the officer told me to make the payment first. She gave me a payment form and after I completed the form, I went to the ground floor for the payment.

For taxpayers' convenience, there's a Landbank branch inside the BIR building, with a whopping "2" tellers.

It was still closed when I got there but there were already around 50 or so people waiting. These people were divided into 2 groups, one with bulk forms and the other for few forms.

The tellers are divided this way as well, so technically only 1 teller processes all the payments.

At first I didn't know about this setup, so I found myself joining the bulk forms group. When the bank opened, the guard came out with a piece of paper, which would contain the list of people.

====================

The moment he came out, chaos broke out, and everyone was trying to get their name on the list through some forms of flirting with guard.

I went to see what's happening and one of the "hired fixers" approached me and asked how many forms will I be processing.

I just call them "hired fixers" since they've probably been hired by business owners to go through the tedious process of lining-up for hours, and stamping hundreds of forms.

So I told her I only have one form. She was surprised and told me that I was in the wrong line. My innocent look seems to have some advantages. >:)

I transferred to the other line but I was already 41st. Some of those guys were already there even as early as 7AM. That was a really bad sign. :(

True enough, I waited from 9AM until 11:45AM before I reached the teller. It was a grueling experience. I'll explain why in my next post, but somehow I was able to endure it, thanks to "The Secret". :)

====================

After I made the payment, I ran back to the registration unit at the 5th floor. It was 11:50AM.

But to my disappointment, some guy who is not even in proper uniform told me get a photocopy of the payment form first. I asked them if they have a copier somewhere and he replied to me that all of their copiers have no inks.

At that moment I wanted to tell that guy "f*ck you", but I was able to control myself. I knew he was lying, just to make sure I wouldn't be consuming some of their lunch break. I just hope he doesn't get home alive. Just kidding. O:)

So I left the building in search of a copy machine. I was expecting several copiers around the area but to my surprise there were only two, and they're charging 2 pesos per page. O_o

====================

I had lunch at Port Area Grill and stayed for a few minutes before heading back to BIR. It didn't took me more than 15 minutes to have my registration processed.

However, I still need to come back for the Certificate of Registration and for the printed official receipts, which somehow, was the source of corruption for the low rank officers.

The BIR officer just took a scratch paper and gave it to me as a receipt for the printing service. I didn't know printing some few pages of receipts would cost 950 pesos. O_o

Anyhow, that was the end of part 3. I still have a couple of things to share but I'll just include them in my next post.

====================

To be continued...

Taxation 101 - Part 2

2008-02-17T16:13:00.004+08:00

As I've have mentioned in my last post, we were required by the BIR to have a DTI permit before they would process our tax registration. So I went to the DTI office in Park n' Ride, Lawton to apply for a business name. For software consultants like me, we are classified under sole-proprietorship. It took me more than 4 hours to get my permit.

For those who would register their business someday, I've prepared a short guide...

The office opens at 8AM, if you arrive there at 8:30, you'll probably be getting number 50 and above, just like I did. :(

But before you could obtain that number you would have to wait outside for 30 minutes or so. Make sure you that have something to do, like reading a book or listening to a music player, otherwise it is going to be pretty boring. :|

Once you have obtained a number, you may leave the office, go somewhere else. SM Manila is just a few minutes away by foot. By the way, the guard might tell you to sit in the waiting area, just tell him you're going to the comfort room. >:)

After 2 hours, head back to the DTI office. Then tell the guard your number and he will insert you to your appropriate seat location, that is between two people who have now developed some hatred towards you. >:P

Try your best to ignore them. By this time, you should be on the front row, there will probably be around 5 to 7 people ahead of you but that's fine.

The next thing you would want to do is to make friends with you seat mates. If one of them wants to buy food or go to the toilet, tell him/her that you will save his/her seat.

Once he returns, you can have your turn. By the way, the entrance ticket for the comfort room costs 5 pesos. Yes, you can sell virtually anything in this country.

Note that the previous step is optional. That is going to depend on how near you are to being called.

Once you're called, proceed to the officer's window for processing. Make sure you have all the requirements with you, otherwise, they will ask you to come back after you've completed your requirements. You'll probably have to comeback on the next working day. o_O

Try to be nice when talking to the officer since some of them seems to have attitude problems. Smiling also helps. :)

After 5-10 minutes, you'll be sent to payment section. The registration fee is 300 pesos. After paying, you'll be asked to wait for your permit in window #9.

Check the time, if it's already past 11:30, just leave, and head for lunch. There's no way you're going to get your permit before lunch time. I learned this the hard way.

If possible, get back before 1PM, so you'll be able to secure a seat. And if everything goes well, you will be having your permit in no time. :)

But if you really don't want to spend too much time for this, just get there before 8AM. :)

====================

To be continued...

Taxation 101 - Part 1

2008-02-13T23:24:00.005+08:00

The best way one could learn about Philippine Taxation is through experience. In my previous job, I never had to worry or even consider worrying about the details of taxes. I just knew that the government is "legitimately" stealing money from me and let my employer do all the dirty work (filling, registration, payment, etc.)

Ever since I became an independent software consultant, I can no longer depend on someone else to do these things for me. I had to learn to deal with my taxes.

Fortunately, there are people who are helping us. First is Loryfel's mom, who happened to be a lawyer. She's the one giving us legal advices and tips. Second is Ate Weng, she's the one doing all the accounting stuffs. She's also aiding us with our tax activities.

Together with Laila and Ate Weng, we embarked in an "enlightening" journey through Philippine taxation, red tape, bureaucracy and lunch breaks.

====================

1st stop was BIR Manila, where I should be paying my taxes. We got there around 10AM. I went to the comfort room before proceeding to the registration office. Their comfort room totally s*cked. It’s even worse than those shown in horror films. 2 urinals were labeled out of order, the other 2 were 'usable' but there was no flush.

We entered the office and gave our forms to the BIR officer. To our surprise, she asked for a PRC registration, a Mayor’s permit, or a DTI business registration. We told her that software engineers like us don’t have board exams so there’s no way we could have a professional license. Anyhow, that stubborn officer insisted that we obtain a DTI business registration first, so it left us no choice but to leave.

She advised us to go to DTI Buendia instead of the satellite office in Lawton since she thought it is going to be crowded there. We asked a couple questions regarding the DTI registration, and while we were discussing, she took my TIN and pulled some records from her computer, she discovered that I was previously registered in Taguig, so she told us to go to BIR Taguig first, to have my previous record updated and transferred to Manila. What the f*ck?

I was not really surprised by these. I knew something like that was bound to happen. But, just imagine what could have happened if she got lazy to check my existing record and just told us to comeback. :-?

====================

Our 2nd destination was DTI Buendia for the supposed “business” registration. As expected again, we were immediately fended off by the security guard while we were trying to find a parking space. He told us to go to DTI Lawton since they have implemented these distributed registration system to make it more “convenient” for people. Holy sh*t!

Since Lawton is out-of-way, we decided to skip DTI and proceed to BIR Taguig since the DTI permit probably won't be issued within the day.

We arrived at BIR Taguig around 11:16. They gave me some forms to fill-up. Then they made me go to 3 more stations for some verifications and signatures. We were lucky enough not to get caught with their lunch break, which would have probably cost us another hour. Actually, they were already on “lunch break” when we arrived, the officer who took my form even forgot where he left my form. Except for having a slightly better building than that of BIR Manila, everything else seemed to be same. There were a lot of employees but only a few were really doing something.

5 minutes before 12 Noon, I finally got my update form back. But the bad news is, it is going to take "at least" 5 working days in order for the transfer of record to the Manila server to complete.

====================

Our 4th destination was BIR Pasig, where Laila's records are located. Like me, she needs to have her record updated and transferred to Taytay, Rizal. But before that, we had lunch at Greenwich.

After we finished our family size pizza, we headed to the BIR Pasig office. Guess what? If the BIR Manila comfort room s*cked, the whole BIR Pasig office s*cked more. It was "absolute chaos". Several layers of men and women were in front of the BIR officers in a free for all filling or "piling" fest. Oh, they do give out number cards, it's just that no one is calling out those numbers.

Impressively, Laila was able to work her way around the miserable crowd and completed the processing in under 30 minutes. We left the BIR office afterwards.

====================

Our 5th and last stop was DTI Ortigas (in front of Megamall). It seemed that our luck has completely ran out. When we got to the DTI office, they were having some technical problems with their system and so the processing was very slow. The guard told us that there is no guarantee that we could be entertained before the cut-off time. We decided to wait for 30 minutes, with that hopes that the system will be fixed soon, and to our disappointment, the line never moved (only people in front leaving). We decided to return on a different day. :(

While waiting, I "accidentally" discovered that they have an unsecured wireless connection in the building. Since we are just outside the DTI office, I assumed that it is coming from the DTI office. Not only that their wireless connection is unsecured, their wireless router is accessible as well. I "accidentally" opened the administration page of their router, but I was "kind" enough not to screw up with the configuration or change the administrator password. >:)

====================

To be continued...

Me and the Gym

2008-02-03T15:55:00.000+08:00

2 weeks ago, I had a short gym misadventure. It all started when a gym recruiter outside Robinsons Summit Center called my attention. She asked a couple of questions and invited me to check out the Fitness First Gym in their building. I told her I'm in a hurry and if it is possible to visit on a different time. She agreed and took my contact number.

The following day, she called me and asked me if it is OK for me to visit their gym that afternoon. I was planning to meet Juhl with some of my college friends that evening and I thought it was a good idea to kill my time there. So I agreed and scheduled the visit.

I also asked Jas to join me. I picked up Jas after work and proceeded with my scheduled appointment. After a few minutes, the recruiter came with a client information sheet and started asking a lot of "weird" questions, which, frankly, are actually difficult to answer. :|

After the initial survey, she gave us a brief tour around the gym in order to show us their facilities and equipments. Then we went back to visitor's area so she could show us the plans and their "bogus" pricing scheme.

They even have this "first visit promo" where they would slash around 5-6k from the fee. Which actually sounded really nice. But I'm not stupid to fall for that. :P

Why would they pump up the prices unreasonably in the brochures if they would mark it down drastically anyway? She even tried to scare me that they won't be any discount on my next visit. Ha ha ha... I could always go to another branch and tell them that it's my first time, and I will get the so-called "discount". >:P

I declined to join the club, and after realizing that she's going nowhere, the friendliness shown to me before immediately turned into an obvious disgust and coldness. Somehow, I knew that was coming, after all, it was quite obvious during our conversations that she's not truly interested and concerned in my health. >:P

Going to the gym might actually be helpful for some people, but it's NOT the only way to have a healthy body and lifestyle. Not for me, at least.

After the visit, I made a couple of observations and realizations. First, the gym is crawling with "out" people, some are members, some are recruiters, some are even the trainers, how worse could it possibly become. No, I don't hate them. But I'm really not comfortable with them, specially when some "guy" calls me "cute" or "pogi". :(

My other concern would be sanitation and hygiene. Just imagine how many people are sitting on those gym equipments, sweating, excreting bodily fluids while working out. And of course, those fluids won't just evaporate to the atmosphere, they would settle in the equipment itself until the next unfortunate person uses the equipment and acquires whatever liquid is lost from the previous user. Uuuuh... (I'm sounding like Adrian Monk). He he... >:P

Sakya Alumni Homecoming - Part 3

2008-02-03T13:52:00.001+08:00

I've been putting this off for quite a while now. Come to think of it, I've been putting off a lot of things lately. Probably due to my recent addictions, Bleach and Monk.

Before I completely lost track of all the happenings that day, I've decided to finish it right now. :P

The first two was about the place and the people, this time it's going to be about the event. So, why was there an alumni homecoming event in the first place?

Let me go back 8 years, while we were still in high school. At that time, I should say that the school was in its prime. I'm not saying that it was the best school in town, but I do believe that it is very capable and competitive.

But that started to change after we graduated. Some of the more experienced teachers began leaving the school. Some students started transferring to neighboring schools as well.

I don't really know the reason why the parents have decided that way, but I do have some observations which might explain it. I'll try to be as objective as possible.

If you're paying for something, you would want value for your money, in this case, good education. However, the school seemed to have given more attention, resources and incentives to student athletes while those performing well in academics were ignored. The tuition fee continued to increase while the parents are not seeing significant improvement in the school education and facilities. :(

The other major observation would be the increase in the acceptance of students who were kicked-out from neighboring schools. The school have been known for its compassion to students who've failed. But it won't be a surprise to see parents pulling out their children so they won't be influenced by these bad students. :S

Lastly, our school, like most schools, also suffer from "budget" problems, while some top school officials "mysteriously" get a new car every few months. And, I forgot to mention that the school is operated by the Buddhist monks. (I have a bad feeling that I shouldn't have said this.) >:)

Anyhow, those are only "observations", I'm not implying anything, OK? O:)

------

The student and faculty population continued to diminish and there were rumors that they are closing the school down soon. Until recently, Philip Go from Batch 77, organized an alumni homecoming event, which aims to restart the operations of the alumni association, which have been inactive for several years now.

So they invited some big names in some of the major industries to impart some inspirational message to the school alumni in the hopes that they would extend their support to revive that school. Another thing to note is that 2 years from now is the 50th anniversary of the school foundation, so they would really like to gather as much support from the school alumni.

The guest speakers were Tony Tan Caktiong and Albert Yu. Both are Sakya alumni, though I'm not really sure how many years did they spend in Sakya. Even if you stayed for 1 semester, you'll still be considered as an alumni. :P

Tony Tan just happened to be the owner of the largest fast food chain in the Philippines, Jollibee. I saw his name before in an issue of Varsitarian, UST's school paper. He is a UST graduate, but I was surprised to learn that he was once a student of my high school.

Albert Yu, is a well-known architect who runs his own architectural firm, ASYA Design Partners. He also happened to be the consultant hired by The Beacon.

Tony Tan recently funded the upgrade of the computer units of the school. Unfortunately, Tony Tan wasn't able to come. He was represented by his brother, who delivered the message from Tony. I wasn't able to listen to his message very well due to the noisy crowd. Too bad. >:P

------

After the speeches, we lined up to get our lunch. While eating, there were production numbers from different groups like the Lion Dance Club, Anklung Club, Sakya Dance Troupe, Wushu Club and more. There were also raffle draws in-between the presentations.

And as expected, after the free lunch, people started leaving. :P We stayed until the program ended where Philip Go gave a final message to thank the people who attended and the people who gave their efforts in making the event possible.

While many have thought the event would be a failure, I think it was a big success. I'm looking forward to the next alumni homecoming and the 50th anniversary celebration.

Finally, I really hope that the School Gym Project, which was supposed to be due in 2002, gets to be started and completed soon.

Sakya Alumni Homecoming - Part 2

2008-01-24T23:54:00.000+08:00

This is the continuation of my previous entry here.

After wandering for half an hour, Sze Tin informed me that he's already upstairs with some of our classmates. The school auditorium is located at the 5th floor.

I went up and met Sze Tin. Herwin and Marc were also there. Sze Tin is a Marketing Manager of Novelle Office Furnitures Inc., Herwin is managing their family business, while Marc is working in the sales department of a certain PC supplier. After some short greetings, I bought 5 'raffle for a cause' tickets. Marc got some tickets as well. Then, we proceeded to the auditorium.

Inside, some of our batch mates who came early already got a table so we joined them. They were Ingrid, Jessica, Lea and Grace. Jessica is helping out in their family business, Lea is a licensed architect working for a firm in Ortigas, Grace is working for NEC Toppan, I forgot what Ingrid is doing... :?

A few moments later, Maristel and Eirene came. Both of them are managing their own businesses in Raon. Eirene just got married recently, while Maristel has a 3-year old son. Marc also added that he saw Maristel appeared on a TV show. :O

At first, the auditorium was almost empty, it took more than 2 hours for the remaining guests to fill the place up. They even had to add more tables for the latecomers. :P

It took forever before the program started! They probably didn't want to start without the important guests. And as expected, lunch would be served AFTER the speeches. It was pure torture for my tummy... :|

Everybody was excited to see their old classmates and teachers that they didn't bother to listen to the speakers. I only managed to remember these lines... "Good Afternoon" and "Thank You" with people clapping. Some things just never change. >:)

I still remember when an old member of the Chinese faculty, codename: popeye, makes a 30-minute speech at the school assembly during Fridays. Then we pretend to listen to him and even clap after the speech, which actually means it's the start of weekend. >:D

By the way, Ellyson came before the program started, even though he wasn't feeling well. He was our high school valedictorian. Lia also came but left immediately. She was our elementary valedictorian and a lot of people had a crush on her during those days. :))

Melody and Aldrich were the last to arrive. Aldrich, who went "out" during high school, works in the marketing/purchasing department in SM. While Melody, just became our official batch representative after being volunteered by us. >:P

It's just too bad that only a few of us came, it would have been nicer if more of our batch mates came. :(

To be continued...

Man vs. Wild

2008-01-24T21:57:00.000+08:00

How often would you see someone eating maggots from a dead animal and a live trout fresh from water? Looks like Bear Grylls, from Man vs. Wild does these all the time.

I just saw an episode of Man vs. Wild in Discovery Channel and I was amazed how far this guy would go in order to survive.

Flossing Diligently

2008-01-24T18:04:00.000+08:00

I went to the dentist this afternoon to have my teeth patched up. Last week I had them cleaned and the dentist discovered some signs of decay in one of the Maxillary First Premolar and both of the Maxillary Central Incisors. On that same day, she patched the former with the usual amalgam filling and told me to return in a different day for my front teeth.

Since the cavity is situated between the front teeth, she had to use a different filling (white-colored) to patch it. The procedure was also different. She had to use a device, similar to a hair dryer. It took longer than the regular procedure too.

At first, I thought she is going to drill from the front area of my teeth. I was relieved to learn that she can drill from the back instead. Whew!

While she was working on my teeth, I had a recollection of a dream last year, wherein one of my front teeth was extracted. That was weird. :S

Anyhow, after the session, my dentist reminded me, again, for the 3rd time, to use dental floss regularly. Looks like I really have to floss diligently from now on. Otherwise, I'm going to lose them all. >.<

Full Moon

2008-01-23T00:11:00.000+08:00

The moon looks unusually bright tonight. I checked the calendar and realized...

It's full moon tonight.

Too bad my camera doesn't work well at night. I just hope that I could capture its beauty someday.

Not much of a big deal, but it makes someone like me appreciate my existence.

Plastic! Plastic!

2008-01-20T21:26:00.000+08:00

I'm sorry but this is not going to be a declaration of hatred for somebody. This is a post about my never ending battle against dirt, dust, and disorganization at home.

Recently, I've started buying some small plastic containers from different branches of ACE hardware. I had to check the other branches because it seems that someone else is hoarding those plastic containers that I need.

Anyway, here's what I've done so far...

This is one of the first containers that I've bought, it contains some of the original audio compact discs that I've bought. Unfortunately, I could no longer find the same model in any of the ACE hardware branches nearby. :(

In place of the long container, I opted for a smaller container with a carrying handle. Since it's smaller, I had to place each of my CD's and DVD's to a sleeve which I purchased from CDR-King, so it won't occupy too much space.

For the tiny stuffs, I bought a container with dividers to segregate the items. I also bought 2 more for my mom, 1 for the medicines, the other for the beads.

For my LEGO pieces, I got this medium-sized container, enough to hold 4 liters of water. I have 3 more of these, 1 for my souvenirs, 1 for my mini 4-wheel drive units. The other one, I'm still thinking of what to put in it. :P

One thing you would really find nice about these plastic containers is that they look very neat when you stack them together. :)

The wonders of plastic containers... :)

----------------------------------------

Last night, Bert gave me a link to a funny YouTube video. With some googling, I ran into Renaldo Lapuz's Official Website. It seems that this guy is gaining popularity, really fast.

Sakya Alumni Homecoming - Part 1

2008-01-19T12:26:00.000+08:00

After 7 years I finally had the chance to revisit the place where I have spent at least 13 years of life.

Last Sunday (January 13) was the 1st alumni homecoming since the day I graduated from high school.

In an effort to re-launch the alumni association after being dormant for quite a long time; Philip Go, from Batch 77, who happened to be one of the owners of Accel, thought that the idea of a homecoming event would be a great start.

I got there a little early because I was planning to spend some time checking out the school. I was greeted by a group of boy scouts who gave me a form to fill-up. After completing the form I went to the registration area to sign in the guest list.

The not-so-old-lady initially gave me the list for batch 2007 even though I asked for batch 2000. Either I really look that young or the graduates today look much older... He he... >:)

After I got my ticket and food stub, I went to meet Sir Harry, who was the scouting movement head when I was still an active boy scout. Not much to talk about so I left quickly. :?

Before I went upstairs I saw the organization chart of the school which includes the faculty. I was surprised to see that a lot of my teachers have already left. Only a few loyal and dedicated teachers were left. :(

I toured the 3rd and 4th floors of the building, where I spent my elementary and high school days respectively. Watching the classrooms instantly reminded me of my younger years, a lot of memories, and mostly good ones, nostalgic indeed. T_T

Nothing really much has changed except the noticeable drop in the number of chairs. I already heard before that the school is in some situation but to be there and actually see it made me feel a bit sad and somehow wanting to do something for my school. After all, the school is undeniably a part of who I am and I also owe my successes today to my alma mater.

This post is getting a bit long so I'm going to stop here for now and continue my story in the next post.

2008: Building My Future

2008-01-10T01:08:00.000+08:00

I'm back with my 1st entry for 2008... :)

I gave myself enough time to think about my plans for this year. I've spent the past few days reflecting on my thoughts, recalling my decisions last year, observing my daily routines, studying my spending patterns, understanding my desires, and realizing my needs.

Here's my guide for 2008...
Comments and suggestions are welcome...

Start...

Paying for condo down payment - I've already allocated a portion of my monthly salary for this but it is better if I could save enough money this year so I wouldn't have to worry next year.
Tracking and controlling my expenses - With great "spending" power comes great "saving" responsibility.
Paying my taxes - With great "spending" power comes great "taxes" as well. I better put it on a separate bank account so I won't be able to spend it "accidentally".
Taking over some of the bills - Since I'll be spending most of my time working at home it's just appropriate for me to pay for the additional resources I'm consuming.
Studying robotics - I should spend more time poking with the robot I bought from Sir Melvin last December.
Getting a Linux Certification - I failed to do this last year but I guess there's a greater chance for me to get it this year.

Stop...

Procrastinating - As always, I still need to remind myself not to delay the things that I've always wanted to do and accomplish.
Oversleeping - My sleeping pattern changes with the weather but it's not an excuse for me to keep on hitting that snooze button whenever my alarm goes off.
Staying up late - This is probably the main cause of my tendency to oversleep. It's also bad for my health so I should start sleeping earlier.
Wasting time spacing out - Daydreaming has been a part of my daily routine, I should convert those unproductive time to something useful.

Continue...

Paying for life insurance/investment - Hopefully, nothing bad happens to me this year.
Playing badminton - With my friends of course.
Reading books/magazines - I have yet to finish some of the books I've started reading last year. And, I should also start going over the December and January issues of Linux Magazines. I'll probably renew my Linux Magazine subscription.
Supporting World Vision - And maybe get another child to sponsor.
Traveling - We'll probably settle with local destinations for now due to budget reasons.
Catching up with old friends - It's better if I could go out with my high school and college friends more often this year.
House cleaning - Due to the sheer amount of decade old stuffs lying around the house, it would probably take me a couple of months to clear them.

Think about...

Getting a Canon S5IS Camera - I've really enjoyed using my Canon S2IS and I think it's about time for an upgrade. My target date would be May (1 Year after release date).
Getting a Wii Console - No time frame for this one, hopefully the price drops dramatically in the next few weeks or months. I still have to consider the integrity of the structure of our half-century old house though.
Getting a Mobile Hard Drive - I don't want 7+ years worth data and 2+ years worth of photos to just disappear due to some electrical accident or ant invasion. This is my top priority for now.
Taking some training courses - I still have to think of some thing that I would like to learn.

Looks like it's going to be an interesting year for me... :)

2007: A Year to Let Go

2007-12-31T22:33:00.000+08:00

Imagine for a moment that you're in a rowboat a mile from shore when the boat springs a leak. The bottom is quickly filling with water, and the boat is about to sink. At this point you have three choices: You can stay with the boat and surely drown. You can jump out, abandon the boat, and swim for shore. Or, you can jump out and swim for shore dragging the boat along with you.

An excerpt taken from a book by Joe Caruso, which pretty much summarizes the year 2007 for me. A year of important decisions, changing perspectives, future planning and letting go of a lot of things.

To pick up where I left off before, here are some of the highlights for the remainder of this year.

July

August

September

Last Day
New Job
Jasmine's Resignation
Corregidor Trip

October

November

JLPT Cram Sessions
Condo Reservation

December

It has been a really tough year for me, but I'm really thankful for all the blessings I have received this year. I'm also thankful to all my friends and colleagues, for making 2007 a fun and sensible year for me. Finally, to Jasmine, for being there for me all the time.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

I'm going to end this post with a continuation of the excerpt...

...Put in those words, the third choice sounds pretty ridiculous. But that's exactly what many of us do. We slog through life dragging along outworn ideas, false assumptions, and relationships that we've outgrown or worn thin, and all the while, we're exerting a lot of effort. If you can picture all that stuff as so much useless baggage, I bet you'll also be able to see that it's no more than dead weight that's keeping you from moving through life as effectively as you would if you just let it go. Your own dead weight may take many shapes and forms - including people and dead-end relationships. If you let go of it, your hands will be free to grab opportunity when it arises.

Old Toys: Childhood Memories

2007-12-30T22:06:00.000+08:00

I've always reminded myself not cling on material things too much. Not only because I could never bring them with me when I die, but also, most of these things prevent me from giving attention and focus to things which are really important and significant.

A few weeks back, I started cleaning and disposing a lot of things from our house. Most of them barely useful to anyone at home, some decomposing, some just collecting dust particles. My personal things were no exception.

Starting with some of my childhood toys, they are not those which can be considered as collector's items. But it seemed that I was able to keep them for a very long time. Not due to their financial value but probably due to their sentimental value.

Some of them were given to me by my grandma, some by elementary friends, some bought from a different country but was never used. But one thing is common, all of them had once made me happy as a child.

And now, I think it is time to let others experience that happiness. I gave them away hoping that it may put a smile on some child's face somewhere.

I never experienced having a lot of cool and expensive toys when I was a child. Although I envied my cousins and classmates for having those toys, I learned to be contented and happy for what I have or I don't have.

S2 Reloaded

2007-12-29T11:03:00.000+08:00

Finally, I got my camera serviced and cleaned at the Canon Service Center along Pasong Tamo (A.K.A. Chino Roces) last Thursday. It was a long walk from Jasmine's workplace to the service center, but it was worth it... I got them to inspect and clean my camera for free... maybe it was my "charm"... ha ha ha... >:)

They opened up my camera and showed me that there is no way the ants could get any farther inside. The speaker holes where I found the ants coming out is practically a dead end. Whew!

So I just asked the service representative if I they could clean the internals of my camera. While they were working on my camera I saw a notice saying that they will be charging P250.00 consultation fee starting from February 2006. I also overheard a customer commenting that the repair cost for her broken IXUS camera is P14,000, and she was nagging his son for dropping it.

When she returned my camera, I asked her where should I pay. But she told me it's OK and I don't have to pay anything. The cute... err... kind service representative just asked me to fill-up some form for record purposes, and the next time I come back, she'll be charging more. >.<>:P

Paskuhan 2007: Sweet Spot

2007-12-24T23:35:00.000+08:00

I went to UST last December 19 for the annual Paskuhan event. This year is a bit different for me because I got to do things that I've never done before. Thanks to my younger sister who's working for the Project Management Office, I was able to get to the highest part of the UST Main Building. :)

I was really excited to be up there. I was a bit shaky when I got to the top. I wasn't really sure if it was just excitement or fear of slipping and falling or dropping my camera. :S

It was such an unforgettable experience for me. Somehow, just being up there made me feel privileged and proud to be part of the Thomasian community. >:)

I took a couple of shots while I was up there. It was UST in a different perspective, literally. :P

===============>
Here's a shot of the Paskuhan crowd with the UST laser flashed in one spot. This laser was installed in the Main Building. It was rented specially for this event. There was another laser in front of the Main Building which displayed acknowledgments and credits.

<===============
Here's a shot of the evening sky in Manila, with a bunch of well-lit buildings.

===============>
Here's a closer look of the Benavides Park. Decorated with flashing blue lights and four giant gift boxes in different colors.

<===============
Like any other Paskuhan event, the highlight of the evening would be the fireworks display, where hundreds of thousands of pesos are instantly burned in the sky. Every student should witness this event because they paid for it. >:P

===============>
Here's the 2nd laser that I've mentioned. It initially displayed acknowledgments and credits. Later, they allowed students to put custom messages and greetings, for a price of course.

If you will look closer, the name flashed in the facade is my sister's. They're the ones who gave the most effort in making sure all the Christmas lights and decorations were laid out in time for the Paskuhan event.

After taking pictures from above, we went down for quick dinner. Then we went outside to meet some of my sister's friends. Then we split up, and I went around the UST campus. Unfortunately, I didn't bumped into any people I know while I was circling the compound.

<=============== Here's my last shot before we went back. I was on that small platform when I took the pictures. There's a spiral staircase that brings you to the top most platform. This is my first time to be there and probably my last.

Click here to view some of my selected shots.

Merry Christmas to All!

Get to know me better?

2007-12-22T23:13:00.000+08:00

This seems to be pretty interesting... Ha ha ha...
http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:
Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education:
You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:
You like privacy very much because you enjoy spending time with your own thoughts. You like to disappear when you cannot find solutions to your own problems, but you would feel better if you learned to share your thoughts with a person you trust.

Ants on My Cam

2007-12-18T02:11:00.000+08:00

It seems that ants not only like hard drives but cameras as well... T_T
Now I have no excuse for not bringing my camera to a Canon service center... T_T

By the way, I ran into this page while searching for some articles about cameras and ants.

http://www.whattheduck.net/

The Old Refrigerator

2007-12-18T01:58:00.000+08:00

How long are you going to keep an item you bought 30 years ago, stopped using 10 years ago, and has been lying around for 20 years now?

My mom bought this refrigerator in 1977. If my memory serves me right, we replaced this with a new one around 10 years ago. And just 2 years ago, we replaced it again with another. The 2nd never lasted that long compared with the 1st. But the 2nd was never kept as long.

The 2nd fridge was immediately taken downstairs and was used as a cabinet to store different things. The 1st fridge was never taken downstairs, it was stuck here, in the 2nd floor, rusting, blocking the light and air from our windows, and accumulating dust as time goes by.

This fridge is just one of the many old and useless things that this household just couldn't let go. And for whatever reason, I could not really comprehend. The electric fan in the photo is more than 20 years old now, it broke 2 months ago. It's still here.

For me, this is no longer an issue of wasting money or resources. Everything breaks. You could repair them several times, but there will always come a time when it is no longer possible to repair them. And the only thing left to do is to let go.

Few months back, I made a promise to myself, that 2007 would not pass without me removing that old fridge from this house. Last Sunday, I began the eviction process. It was a daunting task. Because it was too heavy, I had to remove the compressor first. I consulted my dad first because I was not sure if it might blow up or something.

When he learned that I'm going to take it apart, he told me that the fridge is still working, that the parts were all new... Yeah right! The parts were new, 10 years ago! And even if it's still working, it's pretty useless to keep it here if we are not planning to use it in the next 10 or 20 years.

I never really said that to him. He probably knew that it won't stop me from taking it apart so he just told me what to do.

First, I need to cut the metal tubes attached to the compressor and to the body of the fridge. The tubes are quite thick and difficult to snap. I spent quite sometime bending and snapping the tubes.

Next, the compressor body must be unscrewed from the base. The most difficult part was removing the last screw located at the back of the compressor, which I couldn't really see.

After the compressor was removed. My dad used a hand truck to move to a temporary location, until we finally figure out how to bring it out of the house.

The end result...

Everything looks a little brighter now...

But I had to pay some price... T_T

My left knee...

My left thumb...

And my right arm...

That's for being careless and blind... :P

I'm Straight (Part 2)

2007-12-15T01:05:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: I have nothing against people who consider themselves homosexual or bisexual. And, I respect the right of a person to express himself in anyway that pleases him as long as it does not offend or violate the rights of others. Having said that, I would like to apologize in advance, if the content of this post offends anybody in anyway.

I do have my share of stories and encounters with people who are "different". This is part 2, because a few months back, I had an unusual "indirect" encounter with someone. I've decided not to put any details here since it would be inappropriate to do so. O:-)

I'm posting this because I had a rather awkward experience today. Not that I met someone. It's because I was mistaken to be one of them. T_T

It all began the moment I got a hold of that Pink Leather Shoulder Bag in Power Mac Center located in Greenbelt 3. I inspected it and asked the sales lady to get me new stock. The other sales ladies in the cashier had probably noticed me and started thinking that I was gay. When the sales lady returned, she brought a pink one and a black one. Then she offered me the black one. :-?

Then I thought, why the hell is she offering me the black one? As if bringing a black shoulder bag would assert manhood. From that point, I was pretty sure she was thinking that I'm gay.

So I told her that I'm giving it to a girl so I'm going to get the pink one, I also added that it's a gift. She looked surprise when I said that. Then proceeded to the payment section. But wait, there's more...

When the lady in the cashier started processing the item, she saw the bag and seemed to got disoriented. Probably because there is a pink bag on the counter with two guys standing in front of it. One of the guy, of course, is me. The other guy is a big guy who I thought was gay, because of the way he dressed, although he didn't really sounded like one.

So the sales lady told them that the item was mine and they seemed to be surprised too. I noticed that they were somewhat trying not to laugh but I can see their smiles. The sales lady then told them that it was gift for a girl. Then the sales lady at the counter asked me if it is really a gift for a girl. How many times do they have to ask? :-(

In the end, one of them commented that the girl who I will be giving the gift is lucky. One even blurted that she hope someone gives her something like an iPod Shuffle.

-------------------------------------------------------

I'm not angry with what happened, I actually find it rather amusing.

Before, it is normal to see a guy buying girl stuffs, since everybody knows he is going to give it to a girl. But now, when you see a guy checking out girl stuffs, more often than not, he is going to buy it for himself. Not to mention a group of "male" individuals checking out stuffs in the women section of a department store.

What I see is big change in the way people think about other people based on the circumstances that surrounds them. I don't have any idea when this actually began and how. Perhaps during Pinoy Big Brother Season 1 Celebrity Edition? or after some allegations thrown by that no good Lolit Solis?

One thing is for sure, their numbers are growing and there is probably nothing we could do about it. Whether it will be good or bad for the human race... we have yet to find out.

-------------------------------------------------------

Just a side thought, this might actually be the solution for our ever growing population in the Philippines and in the World. Natural birth control. >:)

120 Gigabytes of Ants

2007-12-13T00:58:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I removed a spare 120GB hard drive from my desktop. I intend to use it as a replacement of my old 40GB hard drive where my operating systems are currently installed. But since Service Pack 1 of Vista won't be available until early next year, I decided to store it in one of the shelves above my computer table.

When I got home today, weird enough, without any reason, I took it out of the anti-static plastic. A few moments later, I noticed several small red creatures moving around my hard drive... ANTS!!!

I've heard several tragic stories of ants invading hard drives and rendering them useless but it has never occurred to me that it could also happen to me. Arrrgh!!!

I've managed to drive some of them away by shaking and successively hitting the surface of my drive. I just hope that they still haven't penetrated the internals of my hard drive. >.<

What's with ants that they love nesting on hard drives?
Do they prefer bigger hard drives to store their food supplies?
Do they prefer NTFS over FAT32 formatting?

I have an older 20GB drive lying around for months without any protective covering and yet they still picked the 120GB drive. T_T

It seems that I'm not the only who has experienced this problem. Ants were actually ranked as the top 1 reason for data disasters in this recent article.

My Linux Desktop

2007-12-11T01:48:00.000+08:00

I've been trying several Linux distributions which I'm getting from my monthly Linux Magazine subscription. It seems that Ubuntu Linux is still the most appropriate flavour for my configuration. It's simplicity from installation, to configuration, to usage is unmatched.

Long Day, Closures and Some Luck

2007-12-02T23:59:00.000+08:00

JLPT Day

I woke up earlier than usual this morning. I usually get up around 9AM on Sundays, just in time for Power Rangers and Inu Yasha. Today is special, because it's JLPT day. I've dedicated the past few days doing some final preparations for the exam and of course, watching a couple of favorite TV shows... :)

The exam is, I should say "manageable". But I'm not so confident with my answers in the listening exam, specially because of the several times that I've spaced out (not because our proctor is pretty) while trying to catch up with the conversations played to us. The effect of the coffee that I've taken this morning had probably worn off.

Well, there is nothing more I could do about it but wait for the results in a few months. At least, now I could finally focus on my new job.

I don't have any progress with my work since Friday and I was worried that I won't be able to give some worthy report tomorrow. Luckily, our boss e-mailed us that the Monday's conference call have been moved to Tuesday instead. That gave me another day to catch up. Whew!!!

Marben's Party

But my day did not end with just the JLPT exam. We went to Glorietta afterwards to meet up with Marben for our Wii + Pictionary + Pizza Party at Helen and Mau's place. Bert and Ate Weng joined as well. It was tiring but we really had a great time. And it was really nice to see Marben again, after being gone for more than a year.

Going home is exciting as ever... the taxi that we took got some battery or alternator problem while we were on our way to Jas' home. To put it simple, the head lights are not working, and we are running along east service road with very few street lights. We got to Jas' place safe, but that's not the end of my "exciting" journey. I still have to go home, remember?

Dance with Death

The taxi driver agreed to drop me off somewhere along EDSA so I could transfer to another taxi. I didn't realized how dangerous it was earlier, because we were on the express way most of the time (traffic in only one direction). Since we took the poorly lighted service road (two-way), the driver was just relying on the hazard lights to warn the cars and trucks from the opposing traffic. Talk about death wish.

The taxi driver took a road which was well lighted at some point. But at a certain curved road, we almost (5-10 meters) hit a parked 8 or 10 wheeler truck. Luckily, he realized it and was able to slow down on time... :S

Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if he really saw the parked truck, because he made some comment on another truck beside the parked truck. That 2nd truck has it's brake lights turned on, the 1st one DIDN'T. Probably, if not for the weak red light of the 2nd truck, he won't be able to notice the 1st truck!!!

We managed to arrive safely somewhere along Pasong Tamo and I transferred to another taxi. I tested some of my social skills and was able to extract some information from the taxi driver. He lives in FTI, Taguig. Stays in front of City Land most of the time, where his most popular customers are staying. And most of them are call center agents working Makati. His daily boundary is P1300. Works from night to morning and spends the rest of the day sleeping and eating.

LPG Dangers

But the most important thing that I've learned from him is that, most taxi drivers nowadays do not prefer the conversion to LPG due to some side effects to their health, probably due to prolonged exposure to some LPG residues. I still have to verify this information though. But for the mean time, I'll be avoiding them.

---------------------------

Even the dimmest light shines in the darkest dark...

JLPT Cram Sessions

2007-11-25T20:45:00.000+08:00

A few more days and we will be having the JLPT Level 3 exam. We've been preparing for this since December last year. It was originally planned that I will be taking Level 1 as advised by 田中先生. But due to some unforeseen circumstances (lack of ability), I was demoted back to Level 2 after a couple of months. Then, after the mock exam given to us, I was again demoted back to Level 3.

Not bad really. If I think about it carefully, even if I was able to passed Level 2, I would have just "passed" the exam. There is no real and deep understanding of the subject. And I'm not going to be satisfied with only that.

I never really had a chance to review ever since I started working for my new job. And after almost 2 months of avoidance (procrastination), I find myself cramming for it. Hopefully, I would find enough time this week to practice for the listening exams. That is, if I could finish the remaining vocabulary and grammar notes provided to us by 田中先生.

じゃあ、頑張ります!

Desperation: Part 2

2007-11-24T01:11:00.000+08:00

After several months, I find myself trying to recall the conversation I had with my uncle a few months back. To my disappointment, I could no longer remember all the details of what we've discussed that time.

This post is the continuation of my previous entry here.

So, why my uncle? Probably because he's the only one qualified to do so. He's the only one among the siblings who I should say became successful career wise.

Why not my parents? For a couple of reasons: They weren't trained that way. They didn't want to take the risk. And they just couldn't do the job. Cause they probably thought that I might kill myself in the process. Ha ha... I may actually be able to use that to my advantage. Manipulation 101. >:)

Basically, he insisted to me it's impossible to get their approval. He was once in the same situation but he gave up then went to Taiwan where he met his wife and established his own family. But who said I need their approval? If they don't like it, then they have to deal with it. :P

Based from our conversation, it is pretty obvious that he is really not happy with his family right now. That's why he advised me not to get married soon. Hey, I never mentioned that I'm getting married soon!

I don't remember how our conversation ended, but surely, it's much better than that of my dad. My dad has NO ability to make good conversations.

Reflecting on those exchange of words, I got a few important thoughts...

Respect, is earned by an individual through his actions towards others, not by his social status, affiliation, nor origin.
We can't and shouldn't try to have everything in life, but we could always make the most out of what we have.
We shouldn't blame anybody for our miseries, they may have indirectly caused us some troubles, but in the end, it is what we do about it that really matters.
Real happiness, comes from within, and not given nor dictated by the actions of others.

Essentially, everything revolves around fear. Fear that their friends might laugh at them. Fear that I will lose all my money. Fear that I will have a broken family. Fear that nobody will take care of them when they get really old.

They've already wasted 50 years of their lives living in fear. I've also shared 20 of those years living in the very same things they've feared. But I'm not going to continue doing that. I'm taking control of every aspect of my life.

A Sinful Lunch

2007-11-15T15:47:00.000+08:00

I was on my way to Glorietta for lunch when I saw a poster with a familiar name on it. It has never occurred to me that I would see one of those in this area. The home of the best ribs in Cebu is now in Greenbelt... :) It's La Maison!!!

I was planning to go for a regular "Barkada Ribs" but the waitress gave me this "Sigurado ka ba sa order mo?" look. Then she offered me the Baby Back Ribs Bento instead... :P

The food was as good as I expected it to be. Brings back some Cebu memories... :)

According to one of the crew members, two of them, including her, came from the Cebu branch. She also added that they have another branch in Trinoma which opened last June.

I'm gonna eat there again soon. :)

News Flash: Croc Blast

2007-11-14T00:23:00.000+08:00

Someone just blew up the largest crocodile den in the Philippines. Poor crocodiles. :(

Hopefully this time, it's not some pile of shit causing the explosion. Either ways, it was a pretty good target.

We're saving around P65,000,000 for each dead crocodile each year. Taking into account the P500,000 "cash gifts", that's enough to feed hundreds of starving families in the country for a year.

Let's to some math...

Current minimum wage in NCR for non-agriculture industry is P362 per day which translates to roughly P7240 per month or P86880 per year. Assuming it's enough to feed a family for a year, that means P65,500,000 can feed around 754 families per year.

Therefore, each dead crocodile can "theoretically" help 754 families. So the more dead crocodiles, the better. :D

But still, the end does not justify the means. Taking away lives is still not right regardless of whatever good purpose it will mean. I'm just being sarcastic. :)

Click here to read more.

P.S.
You just can't get enough of this country...
And yes, lightning do strike at the same place twice and sometimes even more...

Halloween Season Thoughts

2007-11-12T23:47:00.000+08:00

Halloween season is one of the very few times we get to go out together as a family. It's quite unusual that we only get to go out when visiting our deceased relatives in cemeteries or temples. This year is no exception. We visited 2 cemeteries and a temple in three separate occasions. Primarily to avoid heavy traffic, but it seems that we're not the only ones thinking that way.

As early as the Sunday before All Saints Day, we got stuck in traffic for more than an hour before reaching the Chinese Cemetery. By the time we head back home, the heavy traffic have disappeared. It's quite funny that majority of the population think the same way, that the more they try to get ahead of other people, the more they are stuck behind.

Not very far from commuters racing with and pushing each other, in order to get through one MRT exit while the other 4 exits have very short lines. It happens all the time.

P.S. More Halloween posts to come.

Help End World Hunger

2007-11-10T10:17:00.001+08:00

For each word you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger...

Jas and Ria would love this...

http://www.freerice.com/

Touch Me Not

2007-11-03T14:45:00.000+08:00

As I had promised myself a month ago, I got new gadget. I'm replacing my old Nokia 1100 phone with a new assistant. I bought this after receiving my last pay from NSP. A reward for my hard work, and also a gift for my birthday.

For the record, it took me a month to decide whether to buy it or not. It was a tough decision. At times, I feel guilty spending that much money for a gadget. >:)

Introducing, my HTC Touch...

Unfortunately, I accidentally purged all my 240+ contacts the moment I attempted to sync with Microsoft Outlook. Stupid ActiveSync! Stupid Outlook! Stupid me for trusting those softwares! I managed to restore some of my contacts through some of my friends, just 60 of them though. :(

Living in Fear

2007-11-01T15:30:00.000+08:00

If you happen to pass by Glorietta last week, even until the last couple of days, you would have noticed the massive drop in the number of mall visitors. The activity center which is normally crowded with children and also adults, is almost empty.

Glorietta 4 cinemas, which should have been jam-packed on weekend afternoons, seemed like no movie is being shown at all. Even the most popular fast food chains are half-closed, there was even a time when the number of crew exceeded the number of customers.

There's no better word I could think of that describes this situation other than the word "fear". Yes, we all live in a fear-driven world. Although fear itself is just a matter of perspective, is not that easy to eliminate it from our system.

There are many kinds of fear, but essentially they only prevent us from achieving real happiness. We all know what we fear, and it is not so hard to realize them, but the greatest question would be what are you going to do about it?

-----------------------------------------------------

Personally, I am against the inspection in malls and train station.s Aside from a "false sense of security", we get absolutely nothing from it. Ever since the Rizal Day bombing, regular citizens like me has to endure long, slow moving lines just to get on a train or buy something in a mall.

Hell, that was 7 years ago. How long are we going to stay this way? People like me suffer because people who are getting paid by taxpayers like me are incapable of doing their jobs. And whenever another bomb goes off somewhere, sometime, God knows what other kind of "heavier" security measures they could think of.

We waste millions, or maybe even billions just to develop weapons, and to strengthen our so-called "security". For what? For safety? For a better life?

-----------------------------------------------------

So what are we really afraid of?
That we might fail tomorrow's exam?
That we might not get a perfect score?
That we might not receive a gift on my birthday?
That we might lose my job next year?
That we might not be able to meet a deadline?
That we might not wake up tomorrow?
That we might be stabbed to death by a drunk?
That we might lose our love ones next week?
That another explosion would occur in another mall?
That tomorrow, Earth is going to be hit by a meteor?

There is an infinite number of things that you could think of fearing. But who cares? People will only care about what they fear. Humans are selfish by nature. If they were not, they would have been extinct early on.

A Year Older, A Year Wiser

2007-10-31T00:39:00.000+08:00

...or maybe not...

Jasmine, together with some of my friends in NSP prepared a surprise dinner for my birthday at Krocodile Grill. It was really nice of them to throw a party for me. I was really touched. T_T

A few weeks ago, Jas told me to reserve October 26. I asked her why, and she couldn't tell me why, after a minute of persuasion, she told me that her friend is going to be engaged. I knew there was something fishy, plus the fact that she's not good in lying.

After a couple of days, I forgot that event and believed that there is really going to be an engagement party. I even wore a polo for the occasion. I couldn't believe that I've fallen for it. :P

Anyhow, it was nice seeing some familiar faces again. I even got a new Gundam kit to add to my collection, and a bundle of messages from my NSP family.

To Jasmine, Bert, Rajah, Ria, Sheila, Cheann, Erik, Nelson, Renan, Roel, Harmy, Mabel, and those who've wrote a message for me...

Thank you! I appreciate the treat, the gift, and the messages. :)

Conspiracy Theories

2007-10-20T23:30:00.000+08:00

False Sense of Security

For a few weeks now, I've been planning to post something about the worthless yet annoying security procedures in LRT, MRT stations and all of the shopping malls.

Recently, several walk in metal detectors were installed in Glorietta. Amusingly enough, the metal detectors were beeping almost all the time, to the point that the security guards are just ignoring them. Not to mention the improper use of those hand-held metal detectors. Most security personnel use them as a stick to poke through bags. What an expensive BBQ stick.

Well, just poking through someone's bag doesn't really work at all. I don't think they even have any idea what they are trying to look for. It only causes unnecessary delay and extreme annoyance to most passengers or shoppers. Plus the fact that bombs are not made out of metals.

False sense of security, as I call it.

Until now, I still could not believe that a bomb did explode yesterday despite of all the attempts to establish this false sense of security. This should be an eye-opener for the mall owners, our police force and normal people as well.

Conspiracy Theories

Upon learning that there's a possibility that it was a bomb. I immediately thought of theories behind this gruesome event. If this was done by real terrorists, they would have chosen a better target, Glorietta 4 perhaps, where most people would be having their lunch. Or maybe they just didn't want to kill too many people.

Like some people would think, this event might just be a diversionary tactic of the current administration, to shift the issues from "Malacañang Cash Gifts" and impeachment to something more serious like national security or terrorism.

Another one would be, this might have been planned by anti-administration groups to destabilize the government. Very similar to the Rizal Day bombings during Erap's administration, which ultimately lead to the fall of Erap's presidency. Some groups have claimed that it was orchestrated by GMA's camp. And a little over a decade ago, FVR used the same methods to control Cory's administration as well.

Whoever did this and for whatever reason, we will probably know in the coming days or in the coming months. Who knows, we might already be seeing the face of the mastermind on the news.

Laziness Always Pays Off Now

2007-10-20T22:00:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, an explosion occured in Glorietta 2 instantly killing several people and injured several hundreds more. Earlier that day I was planning to have lunch at Yoshinoya, pay my credit card bill, then go to Park Square to buy some PC component.

An hour before lunch, Jasmine decided to have lunch with me instead of her officemates. Cheann also decided to join us for lunch, and tagged Erik along. Because Glorietta is to far from their office, we opted to have lunch near their office, World Topps.

The service at World Topps was unusually slow that time, we waited for more than 20 minutes before they served our orders. By the time we're done eating, it was way past 1PM.

I started walking towards Glorietta then Park Square to get the component. But then I got a bit lazy of the long walk (From PBCOM to Park Square) so decided to return to the condo instead. A few minutes later, I got a text message from Jas telling me not to proceed to Glorietta because there was an explosion.

A few minutes more, Rajah came. His hair was white due to the debris from the explosion. He was at the 3rd floor of Glorietta 2 when the explosion occurred. He's lucky he wasn't harmed.

I'm also lucky enough not to be there that time. I can't imagine what could have happened if I didn't have lunch with Jas, or the food came a few minutes earlier, or I didn't get lazy.

If it's halloween, It must be saw

2007-10-19T00:09:00.000+08:00

You think it's over?

You think you're safe?

You are wrong!

The games have just begun.

http://www.saw4.com

A Little Dose of Demotivation

2007-10-18T10:30:00.000+08:00

I came across this item while browsing at ThinkGeek. It's a poster containing a quote about procrastination.

"Hard Work Often Pays Off After Time, but Laziness Always Pays Off Now."

I find it funny and interesting so I did some research which brought me to the website of Despair, Inc. They're offering posters, shirts, calendars and other souvenir items that satirize motivational doctrines. They sell items which parody the motivational products produced by Successories.

They even produced a book called "The Art of Demotivation: The Doctor is out of Patience". I'm amused of their approach in problems of employee productivity, loyalty and self-esteem. If there's a chance I'm going to get myself a copy of this book.

Here are some of the quotes which I find rather interesting...

Apathy: If we don't take care of the customer,maybe they'll stop bugging us.

Blame: The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.

Compromise: Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

Consulting: If you're not a part of the solution,there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

Demotivation: Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.

Hazards: There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty. Miss that, though, and you're pretty much doomed.

Indifference: It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Quality: The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march.

Underachievement: The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower.

Worth: Just because you're necessary doesn't mean you're important