Cagayan de Oro Weekend (Day 1)

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

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

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

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?

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)

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

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.