2008-12-27

Merry Christmas!

So I'm back from a short stay in the two Sans in Pangasinan (San Jacinto and San Manuel) and all I can say is: it was too tiring. First day, I drove from Manila to San Manuel. Second day, I drove from San Manuel to San Jacinto and back. Third day, I drove from San Manuel back to Manila. How cool is that?

This December really tired me a lot. And my wallet, too! To think that I still have a long to-do list which SHOULD expire before the year ends.
  • Figure out which set of cousins will receive which set of gifts.

  • Do 5S (it's a jap thing) on all the stuff in my room. Not that I'm into professional hoarding, but watching it in Oprah made me think I'm a 'mild' hoarder. Like how I'd like to think that I have 'mild' OCD. hehe

  • Try to keep track of finances next year. Just TRY.
Did I say long list? Well, the list is just collapsed. Expanding it will be just as tiring to do. And I have 8 effing days left! Haayyy I'm definitely gonna miss procrastinating.

2008-11-29

Torn

After test driving the Canon IXUS 95 IS (which is just a pabili when I went to Japan), I suddenly realized maybe the reason why I've always wanted to dabble in photography but couldn't appreciate the images I'm capturing is because of the camera. Comparing the Disneyland photos taken using Canon with Sony, and borrowing a few clicks from an officemate's EOS Kiss X2, I'm now thinking of buying a Canon camera. And I'm choosing among these three.

Which reminds me of the Wii. I was planning on buying it in Akihabs, but due to time constraints and most people telling me about the jap version, mod, and updates thingy, I decided to buy it here in Manila (Greenhills, to be exact). So now... To Wii, or not to Wii? That is the question.

2008-11-09

déjà vu

I'll be on a junket to Tokyo in a few days. Same autumn time, same dorm, same train line, same cobblestone streets to the office, same old, same old. I just hope it's not the same attendant at the weekly mansion. The last time I stayed there I left a rice cooker half-filled with, well, cooked rice. I didn't have time to gobble up breakfast as my companions were on a hurry. We were the next back-to-pinas trippers after Hans & Andrei set a milestone in the company history by being the first junketeers to miss the plane. Naturally, we can't set a second milestone just a few weeks after them or else our asses will be on the line when we get back home.

This trip's 2 weeks shorter than the previous one, which means lesser allowance, lesser time for gallivanting around Akihabs albeit the one lucky holiday (galing mag-propose ng sked ni koya, hehe), and lesser whatever. It was also a 2-week notice, which left me with little time to figure out what to do with my hair when it starts braving the dull, arid autumn air of Japan. I don't want to look like this anymore: (pic to follow)

Which leaves me with: (1) haircut? (2) leave-on hair conditioner? (3) wig? (4) shave?

Too bad both Toray and AIG are already finished. I would've been willing to pay even if Masha's absent. Still, I might not be able to watch if I'm not with Tin (Tan) or Teddy. Anyway, trekking with Frodo (not his real name) in the cavernous bazaars of Okachimachi will likely be our jaunt during the day-offs. The mission: find the ring. Yes, the ring who will bind him with his wife-to-be. I just hope he already knows the size. If Tin's (not Tan) coming with us then she could do the fitting for him, just not me. I'll be staying in that stall where the Jap who sells perfumes speaks Tagalog and Cebuano very fluently.

2008-10-27

Breakfast in Bed

Same 'Ace' Rothstein
Meet my workstation. Ace (the laptop - not an Acer brand as you might suspect from his nickname, so I'll give his full name just to prolong the digression: Sam 'Ace' Rothstein) sitting atop his 'cooler' throne, fits snugly on the tray. Sadly, there's little room left for the mouse to wander around, which makes life playing DotA a tad more laborious as I have to sweep the mouse at least twice just to get my hero running to a far-flung place on the map. Well, you can't have it all. Still the tray's a best buy costing me only around Php500. Plus it has devotedly served my potato couch disposition in working in front of a computer for months now. So there, be strong for me tray, er, nameless-wooden-tray, ok?

2008-10-16

Movies that I missed

...so far:
  • Iron Man - haven't seen Robert Downey, Jr. in a film (as far as I can remember)

  • Wall-E - although an officemate told me it's boring at the first half of the film.

  • Righteous Kill - I'm a De Niro/Pacino fan. If someone says s/he's also a fan but didn't even know Heat, then s/he's lying.

  • Eagle Eye - premiere of this flick happened to have started sometime around the days of the UAAP Finals. When Ateneo won the championship, my classmates started asking if anyone wants to watch 'Blue Eagle Eye'. Corny, hehe. They watched it anyway.
And then there are movies I might (highly likely) miss for the rest of the year, so I'll just have to patiently download:
  • The Changeling - the type of flick where I would want to see Angelina Jolie become an actress (just like in A Mighty Heart). I've heard her acting here has generated quite an Oscar buzz.

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Brad's turn this time. He's not the only reason I want to see the film, though, but also Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still - it's been a while since we've last seen Keanu in a movie. I also have a side story with regards to this film. Once in the office I happen to get this fortune: 'Klaatu barada nikto!'. That was in the morning and I just wondered what the hell that fortune is all about. When I got home in the evening and surfed about movies for 2008, I read the entry about this film and its trivia section said:

    Trivia: Klaatu is famous in part due to the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto!” used in the film and its re-use in the Bruce Campbell cult film Army of Darkness.

    Oookay. Now I know. Thanks!

  • Body of Lies - could DiCaprio get an Oscar this time around?

  • Angels & Demons - though I didn't like The Da Vinci Code at all.

  • Quantum of Solace - even though Daniel Craig disappoints me as James Bond (he's rough, even in his ways with women, and his hair's blond for chrissakes - is that how Bond's supposed to be? A B'l'ond?), there are other equally important aspects making up a Bond film. There's his car/s, gadgets, women, villains, and for me the most important (and lasting) of them all - the song. Performed by Jack White (of the White Stripes) and Alicia Keys, I have yet to hear it. I'm hoping the orchestral arrangement (if there's any, although it should be present because it's an identifying element in bond films) is as sophisticated as the ones arranged for GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World is Not Enough (all Brosnan). Alright, add Nobody Does It Better (performed by Carly Simon for The Spy Who Loved Me).

  • Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt - need I say more?
Ok, go ahead. You can now flash on me an 'L' on your forehead, but not for long because I've already seen The Dark Knight. :P

2008-10-09

1.01 sparse fifo

  • This week, I've forgotten I'm experiencing the "so-called" QLC (at its peak) just because all my favorite US TV series have finally commenced their respective new seasons: House M.D. in its 5th season, Prison Break in its 4th season, and Heroes in its 3rd. So I'm back to potato couch mode again.

  • I got a slight fever (again) on Monday, so I went on sick leave (again) on Tuesday. A pathetic, sick potato couch. hehe

  • Mom's returning next week and I'll be the one to pick her up at the airport. Which also means I won't be able to attend a former officemate's wedding. Not much social life for me these days.
fifo empty.

2008-09-28

Woes of a Wretched Week

It's as if the whole universe has conspired to give me everything there is to make last week (probably) the worst week of my life.

Sunday: After taking a bath and getting ready for the church mass, I felt quite unwell, like a general feeling of discomfort. Malaise is the medical term for that, I think. And as we leave the house for church, La Salle just lost game 1 to Ateneo.

Monday came and I'm already feverish. But the fever somehow felt different. I can feel slight, stinging pain in my feet, my knees, practically everywhere. The pain just travels from one body part to another. A few paracetamols and I felt better towards the end of the day. Unfortunately, cough and cold replaced the fever. Never mind, at least I can already go to work tomorrow.

Tuesday saw me going to the nearby clinic instead of the office because the fever is back. But I felt confident since I am now armed with medicine that will fix me. Again, I felt better towards the end of the day. Also, news came telling me that a Singaporean employer is coming to the Philippines to conduct interviews. I'd better get well soon so I can prepare for this.

Wednesday and I'm finally in the office. But the day was marred with frequent visits to the clinic because of the recurring fever. To make things more worse, I couldn't breath most of the time due to a clogged nose, making it hard for me to swallow food and eventually losing my appetite. As I got home I'm still burning with fever, so I already called up my ninang for help. Everyone was alerted of my condition (even my mom's cousin who lives in the nearby village), and so they came and asked if I wanted to be confined in the hospital. I said I'll just rest the whole evening and tomorrow if my condition's still worse, I'll have myself confined. And in the middle of my uneasiness, the call from Singapore came and asked me if I could come for the interview on Saturday.

Thursday: I just went for a check-up since I'm already feeling fine. Plus, if I'll be confined today, there's a big chance they won't discharge me by Friday so I can go to the interview on Saturday. Got my blood extracted for CBC, waited for 3 freaking hours in the cold, dull corridors of the MATI building for the lady doctor who looks like Susan Roces, had my CBC results interpreted by her, then finally went home. Everything was normal in the CBC except for the white blood count which frightened me. It was way below normal, but the doctor said that's 'normal' when you have a viral infection. I see. So that's what's gotten into me. She even added that it's usually 3 to 4 days. Dammit. And to end a rather fever-free day for me, the Archers lost the championship to the Blue Eagles.

The whole Friday was spent in recovery and in doing nothing to prepare for the interview. I've already read the job position requirements and none of them matches with my current skills anyway. So there goes our popular mantra back in college: "Bahala na!"

Then Saturday. Eventually I failed the interview because I'm not really proficient in C++. And that's what was needed in all 3 available positions. I even felt stupid showing off my expertise in e when the employer told me "This is not C." Fine. All of my officemates (who went to the interview) got the job, but my college classmate also got the axe like me. At least I'll be taking this as an experience in being interviewed by a foreigner. More opportunities to come, I hope. But for now, I'll just content myself with thinking about how to move on for the other, hopefully wonderful weeks ahead.

2008-09-11

Lakbayan

A geeky officemate of mine created this nifty website that gauges how much I've traversed my very own country, the Philippines. Well, a picture's worth a thousand words they say, but the places I've been to don't even amount to a hundred words. Nonetheless, here's the outcome of my adventures.

renvill's travels

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

At a rate of 2 to 3 new places per year, I wonder when will I get to have a grade of A? I'm gonna tell Jho & Tin to push through with Busuanga, Coron in Palawan, then Caramoan in Camarines Sur. Wohoo!

2008-09-02

Blog Hiatus

I'm on extreme OCD mode these days, trying to apply my CSS learnings in this blog. So don't be surprised if you suddenly see unusually large fonts somewhere, or distorted layout, or you simply find this blog very uninteresting already (I doubt it ever became interesting to anyone). This is how I'm coping with my QLC, which is apparently at its peak these days. It could be a mere hormonal thing, though. I'll double check the Wiki article. In the meantime, I want the ads and external (to Blogger) widgets to be at the center of the sidebar. Maybe I'll want to add some more widgets to spice things up a bit, too. Be back in a few days...

2008-08-26

Scam or Spam?

Pued po b akong humingi ng 2long sa inyo? I'm Anne, 21yo fresh grad po from bacolod. Gagawin ko po ang lahat ng kapalit na gusto nio, ma2lungan nio lng po akong makapunta sa mynila. Im willing to take the risks. MY job hiring na po kc ako jan sa smc-ortigas, sayang naman po kung madidissolve lng.. My picture po ako at supporting documents sa www.annevelasco.cjb.net - Anne

August 17, Sunday, 0900h and I'm busy experiencing r.e.m. when my cellphone in its loudest profile woke me up for the SMS received above. Anyone could get easily annoyed by this, but I felt different. Of all the scams-thru-SMS I receive, this is by far the most... I should say, elaborate. I even got to the point of checking out the said website. hehe.

You'd think twice when you see the webpage. (By the way, as of this writing, I checked the URL again and it now points to a different webpage, so it's a scam after all! But I'm getting ahead of my story). The girl tells her family history in the webpage, from how she became an orphan to the beauty contests that she joined just to support herself. She's currently living with a relative and, as what her SMS said, she's already accepted a job in Manila. She even has a copy of her transcript of records and a grad photo.

There are a lot of loopholes in that strategy (or modus operandi, as commonly used with criminals/scammers for that matter), and I'm not gonna enumerate them anymore. The point is that there really are people who would do anything to scam you, and my mobile number seems to be roaming (not as in I'm abroad) far and wide as I receive more scams, more offers of loans at lower discounts, more invites to something at somewhere, etc.

I'd rather have the endless forwards by my friends just because they are on unlimited txting. :)

2008-08-25

Bummer Monday - Not!

0634h : Woke up to a spicy tuna breakfast and a cloud-obstructed sunrise
0720h : Left the house still feeling sleepy
0834h : Arrived at Powersmash (Pasong Tamo), played badminton 'till 1230h
1300h : First time in the Powerplant Mall
1330h : Pepper Lunch at last!
1530h : Bogged down for the next 2 1/2 hrs
1900h : Addict mode - net-surfin'

2008-08-23

"The Queen no longer bleeds..."

...and she somehow resembles Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (the Philippine president) when she speaks. Nevertheless, "The Other Boleyn Girl" is my second best movie of the year next to "The Dark Knight". Well, my top three are: (1) The Dark Knight, (2) The Other Boleyn Girl, and (3) Wanted, and nothing more... because those were the only flicks I've seen this year. :D

She really looks like GMA!
Image from www.dvdizzy.com

This film's plot is kick-ass. If one is not aware this is based on a novel, one would believe this is what really happened. Of course I researched about it in Wikipedia, but the article was too long it bored me. I don't know if Henry VIII really had a bastard son with the other Boleyn girl. No twists, but full of the most mundane of emotions that drive the characters' actions and their attitudes towards others.

Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) is strong, cunning, and intelligent (only in the beginning), while Mary is naive and simple. For this, Portman overshadowed Johansson. However, I find that Johansson's portrayal of Mary brought out an exceptional actress in her. Anyway, if it was Portman, she would have done it all the same - but they would need to find a 'bitchier' actress than her to play the part of Anne. Since towards the end they somehow switched qualities (e.g. the other became weak, the other stronger), their acting styles were also swapped, so it evens them out.

I wonder why it only scored a measly 41% in Rotten Tomatoes?

2008-08-21

1.00 sparse fifo

  • Got through the most dreaded stuff for me to do in an APE today. No. Not the blood thingy, or needles thingy. Something you'd want to give right away to the nurse. Something that's placed inside a small covered cup you'd either wrap with tissue a dozen times, or keep in a bigger container (plastic or paper bag). Ewww.

  • Despite having finally passed that sample, I still felt gloomy at work. Saw the sun today after its no-show yesterday due to the typhoon *ahem* 'karen', but it didn't help either. God how I'd give anything just to be somewhere else. I don't know where my life's heading. Must be the 'small' signs I've been seeing/hearing at work. People around me seem to be getting somewhere. Or at least they're happy with themselves. I'm getting nowhere. I'm pathetic.

  • The Tennis Masters Cup on November will be held in Shanghai - for the last time. Next year they're moving it to London. One of my college kadas told me she knows a place where we can stay for free. You guessed it. She's chinese, of course. Checked how much the round trip airline tickets will cost, but not the event tickets yet. Affordable... So far. I'm gonna do all my best to convince Tin & Teddy.

fifo empty.

2008-08-17

Pusakal Tragedy

Warning: If you're eating something right now, most specially if it's siopao, you may want to finish it first before reading this post.

A few weeks ago, as I was backing the car in our garage, I found a pusakal - a tagalog portmanteau of pusa (cat) and kalye (street) - lying dead stiff. At first I thought she may only be sleeping, but it's impossible for her not to hear the 'cat-frightening' sound of the diesel engine once I started it off. My suspicions were confirmed when I came near and nudged her with my foot. Tsk tsk, poor thing. What could have caused her death? It's very unusual considering the only times I see a dead cat is in the middle of the street with all its innards now 'outtards' its body.

That cat, together with her two babies, always stay in the garage. Sometimes at night I would also catch them all huddled up together on the doormat. Whenever I'm about to start the car while they were resting underneath, they'd get startled and would scamper out of the house. Cute. The only annoying thing they do is to scavenge for food in the trash bins, messing up our street.

Aww sweet!
Cozying up underneath the family car.

Oops, must've heard the digicam click.

We never had a pet animal at home because my brother had asthma when he was just a kid. Now that he no longer has it, we still didn't get one simply because we were too lazy to get one :D. Enough digressing... These cats seem to like staying in the outer parts of our house that at one point I even asked my mom maybe we could 'adopt' them as our household pets. They were too cute and pitiful to be homeless. Too late now, though. Mommy cat has passed away (I don't know where my cousin buried her remains) and just a few days after, another tragedy had befallen her family.

Following her mom in the afterlife, the little one was gruesomely run over by some asshole. I didn't witness the actual killing. I just found the body all ready for an autopsy one lot away from our house. Oh dear. I can hear them meowing all night looking for their mom, and now one of them was brutally killed in the midst of their search. I never knew what happened to the other one, though. Maybe s/he left the place to forget everything that happened and started to move on. Or maybe she went all crazy and committed suicide somewhere else. Either way, I'm sorry something like this had to happen. I guess I'm partly to be blamed. Anyway, I wish their fat feline friends in Japan could file petitions for them. I'll check with the Japanese embassy.

2008-08-11

D-uh!

Yesterday I tried out this PayPerPost thing that one of my former officemates has in his blog. Upon reading one of Rod's posts that says the stuff is real and he has already earned $, I decided to give it a try. Actually, I've been seeing this PayPerPost for a long time already on some blogs while I'm blog-hopping. What really pushed me to click on it was because of my mild OCD (if there's such a 'mild' thing).

You see, I have this OCD sort that I myself have diagnosed. I'm kidding, ok? Well, some articles I've read way back told me so. Anyway, now I'm working on 'cleaning' my music files to be synced with my iPod. By cleaning, I mean that my music files has to be all of these:
  • Filename should have this format: Artist - Title.mp3/wav

  • Correct album title, artist, song title, and album artwork

  • No year, comment, and track no. information

  • +40% volume adjustment level

My OCD-ness before was actually only on item no. 1. Had Eugene (an officemate) not told me about stuff he does to his music files, it would not have added the other 3 items to my misery. So to satisfy this expanded OCD-ness, I searched for software that will make my life easier in performing the said file modifications. Unfortunately, the best ones are only free for 30 days. Buying the license will cost me around 20 bucks. Now going back to Rod's post, he stated there that he earned the same amount. Ooohhh. Instead of dedicating most of my computing time in editing the files just to make full use of the 30-day trial, why not: (1) Try the PayPerPost, (2) Earn $20, (3) Buy the license, (4) Get to edit the files wherever and whenever I want to (or, whenever my OCD strikes again). Sounds simple, eh?

In the end - er, not really, I'm not yet even on step 4 - I got this reply from PayPerPost:

... Unfortunately, as per our terms of service, submitted blogs must have at least 10 original, non-sponsored, quality written posts in the past 30 days in order to be accepted to our Marketplace...

which leaves me stucked at step 1 and wondering where the hell did my blog fail. If my posts were all original, non-sponsored, then it only leaves me with two presumptions: (1) The 'quality' issue - oh well, nothing I can do about this, that's why I chose engineering for a profession for chrissakes; (2) 10 posts in the past 30 days - highly possible since as of this writing, there are only 2 posts since July 11. D-uh! (there goes the post's title). Lemme make 10 then.

2008-08-04

"A bunch of over-caffeinated white people..."

The post's title is one of the lines said in the film "Crash", more particularly by the big mouth Ludacris. And this is what I only have to say about the movie: You take a bunch of big names in Hollywood, squeeze them all in one almost-two-hour film, they won't be sharing much screen time, but their characters are all going to be interconnected, and you can now draw a diagram that can summarize the whole plot of the film. In engineering, it closely resembles an FSM state diagram.

2008-08-02

"Random thoughts for Valentine's Day..."

The things-to-post list is piling up because of the 8-day-no-internet-at-home crisis. And I want to blog about that crisis, too. Plus the weekend BSoD scare a week before that. Hmph!

Lemme start with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". The plot revolves around Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) trying to resist Lacuna Inc's erasers (Mark Ruffalo & Elijah Wood) from completely erasing his lover Clementine Kru... Kruzc... Crap I can't spell it. I'm too lazy to search for it in the net. Let's just call her Clem (Kate Winslet), ok? And to continue, Joel doesn't want Clem removed from his memory anymore (which he agreed and hired Lacuna Inc to do in the first place). The movie's dreamlike atmosphere (I think they call it cinematography) is a change from the typical 'modern' feel of most movies today (see Crash for example), which is just appropriate since most of the scenes are set inside Barish's head.

Then there's this side story of Kirsten Dunst's character who is secretly in love with her elderly boss (the doctor in Lacuna Inc). Turns out she also had her boss erased from her memory in the past, simply because the boss is already married. It's a dull emphasis to the main topic of 'memory-erasing', but it also presents a good twist and connection to the main characters. Had Dunst not known the truth, I don't know how else they're going to end the story nicely.

I have one complain though. Patrick's (Wood) love affair with Clem was not at all helpful in making the story interesting. Although again, had Patrick not known Clem (by being partly responsible for erasing Clem's memory of Joel), he would not have tried to imitate Joel's actions and Clem would not have somehow felt that something's off.

Nevertheless, this is my kind of movie in this comic-based ridden Hollywood flicks. Lastly, I loved the song during the ending credits, "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" sung by Beck.

Joel & Clem

2008-07-14

Jeepney Jaunts

I had another knee-shaking jeepney ride on my way home today. You know, that long-lasting moment where only a half of your butt is sitting on the long, canvassed seat of the jeep, and as the jeep screeches to a stop you slide 'out' further that you now have merely a fourth of your butt clinging on to dear life. This is one of those situations that I keep on swearing not to let myself experience again, but beyond any explanation I don't know why it still happens to me.

It all started at the jeepney terminal in front of Citibank (southbound) with the toothless barker who told me 'Sige mam, meron pa yan!'. Personal experience tells me that 99.9% of the time when they said that, it really means there's no room left. The reason why I still climbed inside the 7-seater (7 on both sides) jeep, again, is beyond any explanation... Hayy, ok let me digress a bit and attempt to explain: Maybe I've completely forgotten about all the past knee-shaking experiences? Nyek. Or maybe there are things I want to do/try again no matter how bad the experience seems. Crazy.

Enough digressing. So now as I walked hunchback looking for two persons to part like the Red Sea and let me sit between them, I found a small gap and thought that I could still sit comfortably since I'm just wafer thin. The moment my butt (not the whole butt) touched down, I knew instantly this is gonna be one hell of a ride. And I remembered instantly those other knee-shaking experiences! Hah! O-M-G. To add to my excruciating almost-squatting position, traffic's heavy all the way until the first U-turn slot along C-5. So I had to endure this a little longer if the jeep doesn't unload until before Rosario, which is usually the first place where passengers alight.

What's even more frustrating is the fact that all are men seated at that side of the jeep, 'cept of course me and another one. In detail, the seating position is (starting nearest the driver): a woman, her boyfriend, me, fatso 1, fatso 2, not-so-fatso 1, and not-so-fatso 2. I said before it's a 7-seater, right? Yes, there's 7 of us, but fatso 1 and fatso 2 unfortunately defied the seating capacity. Going back to the point of my frustration, fatso 1 and the gay boyfriend didn't even slightly move out a little so I could just squeeze myself inside. For those who don't ride a jeep, you might already find it hard to understand what I'm talking about, so kindly ask others to 'show' you how this should look like. Sorry, but the subtitle of my blog says I struggle writing in english, so there.

Unfortunately, gay bf and fatso 1 maybe are both too gay to pretend to be gentleman enough. I feel the same for fatso 2, not-so-fatso 1, and not-so-fatso 2. But! There's a little luck left in me and it's all spent wisely when not-so-fatso 2 alighted near the overpass (in front of HTMT - a call center slash BPO). Aaaahhhh. Sweaty me quietly slided to comfort, and silently glared at fatso 2 and gay bf. Ooohh my knees are all wobbly from squatting I can barely walk straight towards the tryke terminal.

As I contemplate on this, I remembered an officemate who once wrote in his user wiki page (in the office): Ano ang mas mahirap, ang umupo sa jeep na waluhan at pang-syam ka? O ang magpanggap na hindi natatawa sa usapan nila Nicole Ayala at Kris Tsuper?. Something like that. Hmph! E ano pa nga ba? :D

2008-07-09

SG Madness

Am I being lured to the 'Lion City'? Or is there just too many people nowadays who are seeking greener pastures there?
  • A childhood friend has been there for a long time now although I don't know what kind of job he does there (we're not that close). I just saw it in his Friendster profile (including pictures).

  • Another childhood friend (this one's one of my best friends) - actually it's her older brother who recently accepted a job offer complete with the plane tickets and hotel accommodation (during his interview) and lodging all paid for by the company.

  • A groupmate told me that her roommate will be starting masteral study there in August.

  • The same groupmate also told me that our groupmate's girlfriend will also work there.

  • A next door neighbor works there (I think he already holds a PR status).

  • My dad's officemate's cousin also works there (after working for sometime in the Middle East), but will be going back to work in the Mid East because he says he couldn't save money there (maybe he's just too much of a spendthrift).

  • A former highschool classmate went there last June (with her girlfriend) to work as an IT recruiter <-- Nice.

  • A college classmate started post-graduate studies at NUS right after our graduation, along with our 2 college professors. He recently e-mailed our batch's mailing list the current job openings in his company.

  • A former officemate (in the Quality Assurance division) is now working there, together with the other (there's lots of them) ex-ci-*bleep* QA and software engineers. If heaven/hell is the next destination of dead people, I think SG is the next destination of most ex-ci-*bleep* people. :D
  • Lastly, another two former officemates/batchmates quit their jobs in our company to alter the course of their destiny and become the first ex-ci-*bleep* hardware engineers to actually find relevant jobs there.

Sorry if I didn't name names even though I know no one actually reads this blog, hehe. Wishful thinking, I plurked about this and was very surprised when someone I don't even know responded to it.

2008-07-08

Things I want to do...

...but couldn't do - or at least 'start' to do - because I simply can't find enough time for it. I'm not even sure why.
  • Be proficient in HTML 4.0 and Style Sheets in general

  • Learn a new foreign language (Nihonggo at least. I've started teaching myself kana, but after a few weeks of non-exercise all I can ever remember was the hiragana for 'a' - pathetic.

  • Learn any EDA tool or HVL

  • Travel to a southeast asian country (SG or HK)

  • Buy and read 'the book'

  • Recover from the losses incurred in stocks since the start of weakening of the US economy

I don't know where to start. I'm thinking maybe 'the book' can show me how.

2008-07-05

Oil Food Price Hike

an Almon Marina sandwich
My usual order in Almon Marina is the Tuna Cheese & Pineapple Sandwich. Before it costs Php85, now it's Php105. Then in the nearby Roti Mum, the delicious coffee buns now cost Php50 from a previous Php40. tsk tsk.

2008-07-02

Book Badly Needed

Get It Together: A Guide To Surviving Quarter-Life Crisis
I've searched for it in Powerbooks and National Bookstore Megamall, walked all the way to Powerbooks Shang (because their database in Mega says that it has 1 copy left in Shang), had the staff there call up the other branches to confirm it's unavailability (MOA, Glorietta, & Greenbelt), asked my former PL if he could find it for me in The Fort, and even almost resorted to ordering online in Amazon and... There was none (out-of-freakin'-stock, and only second hand are available online).

2008-06-29

Sports Limited

There are upsets, but at least there's one to be glad about.

Wimbledon 2008

In the men's singles, Andy Roddick is out of Wimbledon by day 4 - so is James Blake. Plus, Novak Djokovic was defeated by Marat Safin on day 3 - could this be a comeback? Well, it better be so he could stop Federer from dominating Wimbledon again. If not, let's hope at least Rafael Nadal or Lleyton Hewitt will get the job done. I'm just not sure how they're gonna do it given than Federer is unstoppable on grass.

Then in the women's singles, Maria Sharapova bowed out of the grand slam tournament by day 4, and Ana Ivanovic by day 5. Could Jelena Jankovic step up so we won't see a Williams vs. Williams in the finals?

All I can say is: it's a blood bath in Wimbledon this year.

Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon Round 2
Lethal Combination

Manny Pacquiao once again brings glory to the Philippines by knocking David Diaz out after 02:24 in Round 9. Another blood bath.

Lethal Combination
Diaz Pacquiao Boxing
Originally uploaded by shoecrazy_24

2008-06-28

"You apologize too much..."

Imagine watching "Sin City" without knowing that it's based on a graphic novel so you're expecting that the characters, action scenes, etc. will be somehow closer to reality, then suddenly you saw this Yellow Bastard and you said 'WTF?!'. Well, that's how my watching Wanted last night turned out.

A few comments first on the cast:
1) James McAvoy - He still looks like a loser to me even when he's supposed to be a kick-ass assassin already
2) Angelina Jolie - I guess I could never complain. Just look at this:

Anj & her tats
3) Morgan Freeman - He was ok in the first part, portraying an old leader full of wisdom. Near the end, however, I felt horrified when he was giving out papers to his team like a teacher handing out results of an exam to his students and finally giving a persuasive speech to join him in his quest for world domination. yuck.

Then the plot:
Had I known beforehand that this was based on a comic series, I would have accepted the plot as it is. Even if I haven't read the comics, I would have thought that this could be how the story was created, so I'll just leave it be and watch the whole thing with delight and amazement. However, I was completely clueless, so I kept on thinking 'WTF?!' when I encountered these scenes:

  • a magical loom that weaves and tells the assassins who's gonna be their next target

  • Wesley Gibson gaining entrance to the textile factory with the help of rats

  • the idea of 'curving the bullet' - I was awed and even thought 'could that be possible?' - but then I saw how Fox killed her colleauges and eventually herself when she CIRCLED the bullet - argh, wtf?!

  • Morgan Freeman giving that one speech that binds us all - one of my friends even said 'nababaduyan nako!'. haha
And then the ending credits said it was based on a comic series... WTF?! Ahhh, kaya pala.

Lesson learned: Do not be fooled by trailers. At least ask around what the movie could be all about so you'll set the right expectations.

2008-06-24

TBA - Team Building Ano ba yan

Was it the just the weather, the venue, or both? I don't know, but I think my groupmates will agree with me on this: our TBA sucked. hehe.

It rained all throughout our team-building activity, with the storm showing off its peak strength in the evening. We looked like residents of Caliraya, Laguna stranded in a refugee camp, only the camp is more cozy because we're staying at a resort; and instead of queueing for relief goods and worrying about the properties we left behind, we were all busy watching movies, singing videoke, playing cards, and the all-time favorite 'Island Question.'
L-R, T-B: (1) Heading south (2) Since it's raining outside, we decided to pass messages, which is fun (3) And we watched the puddle of water on the floor get bigger, which is cool (4) Everyone's having a blast in our TBA (5) On the way to our sleeping quarters to have more fun (6) The venue is just perfect for our TBA

2008-06-18

Blood Pressure

Last week me and my groupmates were talking about blood pressure and athletes. I can't remember how the topic came about, but I do remember watching an episode from House where, well, House mentioned that athletes generally have low blood pressure. My PM agreed with me, but one of my groupmates argued differently. He said that athletes should have high blood pressure since their hearts pump blood with more force than that of non-athletes. What they have lower than normal is the number of heartbeats per minute - and maybe this is what I meant by 'low'.

Anyway, since I'm not a medicine student, I decided to google the issue and, well, just post it here. hehe. The search words "athletes" and "blood pressure" got me quite confused because the results gave me links that point to some articles stating that athletes have low b.p., and some that say otherwise. I didn't click on all the links at the first page, though. What seemed to be a reliable source to me was if the url somehow has the words 'health' or 'heart' or 'medicine', etc. - and that made me click on the link and read the article.

Finally, here's how I got good, concise articles from google: "do athletes tend to have low blood pressure?"... Nice, isn't it? Just like asking someone (and hey, google's the best search engine there is, right? So my idiotic search strings should be no problem for it). Sorry, I'm not good in doing more advanced searches. Nevertheless, Optimal Heart Health has this article that says:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than other people. It is also the case for many people who eat well and maintain a healthy weight.

I also stumbled upon this by the Mayo Clinic:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than do people who aren't as fit. So, in general, do nonsmokers and people who eat well and maintain a normal weight.

See? I was right, and House too! hehe.

Which reminds me, we're about to undergo the APE (Annual Physical Exam) this June. I hope I don't faint again after having a test tube-full of my blood sucked out of me. My best guess why I always faint after such seemingly simple medical procedure is that since I normally have low b.p., having a considerable amount of blood taken out of my body will cause my brain not to receive an adequate supply of blood and hence, dizziness or fainting.

I remember last year's APE: after the needle got out of my left arm's skin, I dashed from the clinic back to my desk (with a lame excuse that I have to get something) and remained seated until my lightheadedness was gone. haha! What a loser. The clinic is just a few meters walk from my desk, so dear fainting didn't get a chance to embarass me in front of many co-workers lined up in the clinic. Oh, but this time, they said they're going to conduct the APE in our company's annex office - which is located in the other building!

Whuuutt?!? Hmmm, ano kayang pwedeng technique ngayon?

2008-06-11

2nd long weekend is coming! Aaahhhh!!!

The shout doesn't mean excitement... It means horror! Yes, I look at the coming weekend with a feeling of dread because there's still no plan about any sort of gimik chuvaness. None. Nil. Zero. Empty... And it's still summer! I've been monitoring the weather since the first summer storms hit Manila and I don't believe summer will be cut that short - which means bitin kasi ako. hehe.

Hah, blame it all on me. I could have already gone outing the past looong weekend had I not felt all antisocial about being with people that I don't know on a summer vacation. The heck if they think their friend's friend is a lunatic loner. I really am not that talkative or friendly with others whom I've just met (to quote a local commercial: "I'm glad we've met!". hahahaha). I digress.

So here I am wondering what picture perfect thing to do over the weekend. I asked my colleagues in the office while 'chatting', and one of them replied with these (as far as I can remember):
Right. O ano, taralets bagets?

2008-06-09

Blog post imported from Multiply

I'm moving this blog entry I posted in my Multiply site because I wanted all my blog entries to be here. I'm planning on making the site mirror my other sites so I don't have to repeat whatever updates I make. In short, my mild OCD strikes again. hehe
-------------------------------------------------
Originally posted on 2008-04-28, 10:04 PM

New Clamshell?

My phone is in comatose since yesterday. I just removed the battery, blew out some dust, and I can't turn it on again. Dang. I went to some free cellphone check-up store, and the techie's diagnosis was the battery. It simply died out. It's been in coma since then because all the Motorola concept stores I've been to (Megamall & R. Galleria) doesn't have any w3i battery in stock. I'll try my luck in Eastwood tomorrow. Now my SIM's temporarily squatting in my mom's cellphone.

I've been thinking: should I just buy a class A (you know) battery, sell my w3i, and use the money to buy a Sony Ericsson w380i (Hmmm, sounds like just adding an '80' to 'w3i') ? Or settle for buying the original worth Php1.3k-1.5k, and live happily with my phone ever after?

No more blog entries here. You may visit this instead. Thanks!

Cross-posted from my multiply site:

Hi all,

You may read my blog entries here. I've mustered enough courage to revive my blogger account for no meaningful reasons at all... Well, for fun at least. Since this is one of those many times in my life where I feel I'm going nowhere, might as well type out my thoughts again online. Hope you'll appreciate it and, uh, link your blog to mine afterwards. hehe

Regards,

2008-06-07

Misantrophy? Or just plain unbalanced?

So it's the housewarming jaunt for me this first 3-day weekend of June. I decided to forgo the bash in Zambales and the Pagudpud outing with my college batchmates. Whuuut?! Although it doesn't sound like me at all (I haven't passed on a single invite since post-college), they both share a common reason why I begrudgingly indulged myself to bask under the nice, summer sun: I am becoming more and more antisocial - or so I think. Maybe I'm just not into meeting new acquaintances (note the 's', obviously it's more than one, and it's not just two either) and staying with them for more than a day to enjoy the beach together and get the acquaintance meter up to the friendly-friends level (I miss The Sims). Pathetic, eh?

There's actually a justification why anyone (by this I mean any introvert, hehe) would make a decision similar to mine, I think. Maybe somehow they'll agree with me on this. First fact: The first invite, 'the bash', originally included less than 10 of my officemates from other groups. They're already acquaintances and somehow we've already established this nod-or-smile-whenever-we-pass-by-each-other kind of relationship. So I think it's okay to join the group. The invite was sent via e-mail weeks before the trip and it didn't get much replies (either the invitees replied to the sender only, or talked to him directly). A few days before the trip, I confirmed if it's still a go because I and one groupmate would like to come. The answer's yes but, the participants have changed. There were now a total of 17, and it now involves family and college friends we barely knew. I'm so not used 'anymore' to large packed outings...

Which reminds me of my last Palawan getaway with my college friends last February (that will lead to the second fact, and the second invite). Of all the outings we've had, that was the first time there were more than one invitee who's not our batchmate. There were officemates, a sister and her boyfriend, and a boyfriend and his friend. I won't digress to expound on our 5-day adventure, just check this out...

snorkeling
L-R: Ley, Jaq, Me, Eric

The end result is that for me, it was okay except for the part where we couldn't do something as one whole group. Example: Breakfast - we don't wake up all at the same time (all 20 peeps? go figure); Diving - we were halved, first half went snorkeling (including me), second half went scuba diving (aawwww); Dinner - some wanted to eat here, some wanted to eat there; Drinking session - some bogged down early, some don't. Nevertheless, I'm grateful I got in a group where my 2 closest mates and her sis w/ bf are the coolest, so I still enjoyed the whole shebang.

On to the second fact and invite: to revisit Pagudpud with good ol' college batchmates. Frustratingly, there were more newcomers than the last trip. Enough said, I passed. So I figured, maybe the kind of vacation that will fit me is this: with only 3 to 4 friends to bond with and enjoy the summer with. That way, we get to do whatever we want to do "together" and "all the time". We can stay in one room, wake up at the same time, eat breakfast together, get drunk together, play something together, etc. In other words, there'll be no factions, no trying to figure out where the other group might be, no hurrying up coz the other groups are already somewhere else and we're way behind, no whatever else subgroups of a group tend to do in a supposed to be fun and memorable experience that is a summer vacation.

Oh well, I'm glad I get to bond more with my groupmates in their pad: Stolich and Sochu are the best (they're not persons, for those who don't know them, hehe).

2008-06-02

Arise, Lazarus!

This is an attempt to revive my blog, or my blogging activity so to speak. Hmm let's see... So the last post was way back in June 2006, and what a post that was - very, very meaningless. hehe. Oh and I remember last time this blog didn't look as neat as this. I left it looking completely horrible from the numerous edits and saves I did while tinkering with html and css. I figured that since I'm an engineer (whose main job right now is programming), I would easily learn the language (ya right, just as how I 'easily' learned OOP in e in, well, uhhh, a little over two years? hehe). So after a few days of forcing my brain to be creative and trying to come up with a theme that'll look nice (to me, at the very least), I gave up and abandoned the whole stuff. tsk tsk. What a complete waste of time feeling like I'm some kind of an artistic genius.

The 3-day weekends are near, and I still haven't got any plans. Well, there were plans but I don't know which one to execute. There's a summer outing (yep, it's still summer! It hasn't rained a tad bit this weekend) with my college kada, and another one for my office batchmate's birthday bash. Then my closest colleagues are planning to undo the damage done when we didn't come to their pad's housewarming. So which is which? It'll depend on the weather's - and my - mood, I guess.