Graduations… a reflection

I had the privilege of attending Ben’s graduation last Friday, April 3, 2009 – held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Naturally, this ceremony led me to try and remember – vaguely, at that, my own graduation held at the very same place some 2+ decades past. Back then I was a happy – you might say, thankful participant with a ‘glad that it’s over’ smile… not bother to think about what tomorrow would bring… graduation day was to be savored, after all… and the loss of friendships and bonds forged in College or High School, the worries of an unemployed – or the busy schedules that work would demand… those were things for the unknown future… so now worth wasting any effort on.

I saw a lot of students/graduates to be wearing that exact same smile - happy that the rigors of College were behind them, and wondering what tomorrow will bring – but first the graduation ceremony itself would have to be done. Ben’s graduation ceremony started out early with assembly by 8am. I guess they wanted it this early to compensate for Filipino time – and rightly so, since PICC in itself may not be surrounded by heavy traffic – but the streets and highways leading to the place were experiencing just that.

Anyway, I had the presence of mind to think that since this will be a whole-day affair, it might be prudent to bring a book that I could read in-between activities. But enough about me… let me first share some observations about the graduation participants itself.

It might be safe to say that the graduates of Unciano College are not as well-to-do as that of La Salle, Ateneo or U.P.; I mention this because I marveled at how some graduation participants needed to get to P.I.C.C. by cab or bus or jeep – not many having the opportunity to have a car at their disposal. I shall also get back to that point later.

I vaguely recall how I got to and from my own graduation. I did not have a car and relied on my uncle’s car to bring my mom and me to the P.I.C.C. Maybe we had a driver – it was that long I can’t really recall. My dad may have even fetched me – or met me there, with my grandmother. With separated parents, it was not an automatic thing that I could just grab the family car back then – even if I already knew how to drive.

Taking a cab was also a problem as cabs to P.I.C.C. were easy enough – or at least as easy as one could expect with Friday rush hour to contend with. But possibly getting one when the graduation ceremony was over – with picky cab drivers to boot, and P.I.C.C. not being in the busy transportation lane – you could say it was indeed a hassle for such graduates and their guests to get out later.

But that’s not all I eavesdropped on one particular graduate and her cell phone conversation with her father - apparently he was not there, and based on the conversation, he was not going to make it to the morning mass, nor probably the afternoon graduation ceremony itself. I heard her joke about the gift she was expecting form him – then she gave her mother the phone… and left to go dry her tears in her own privacy… possibly not wanting her mom to see – and by extension, her dad to know how his absence meant to her in this – her special day.

Yup… as I watched this mini-drama transpire, I again reflected on how lucky I was – that despite my parents living separately, I could say (and prove with photos) that during my graduation day, my parents were there – and in college graduation, my grandmother – Lola Nena was present too. I wondered why the father was not around on this day… I could not judge him as I knew not the situation – for all I know, work had him impossibly far to be there… or work schedule might be the culprit… heck, he might even be indisposed.

But that was not the worse of it… I learned that some graduates did not even have a parent or guardian to join them as they walked on stage to get their diplomas. And though some faculty opted to join them, to be their stage companion – I could just imagine how they felt… looking around them with almost everyone else having a parent or guardian with them.

I just had to resolve that I not put my kids in a similar situation… that I would make any and every effort to be there with them… for them when their graduation comes. If my parents; despite their complicated social standing, could do it… I should find a way to do it too.

Then there were the speakers… rather than be inspiring, the first speaker mentioned that despite their being a second-rate school, who’s graduates may not merit a priority shortlist. Granted that there may be some truth to this – I have long ago realized that just looking at the CVs of only graduated from Ateneo, La Salle and U.P. was not a very good practice – and yes, it was a form of bias. Make no mistake, I belong to that list of graduate elites – coming from one of the three said schools, but I don’t think that makes us much more special than others… and I would still give other schools’ graduates them time of day to interview them for any job openings. I would even give the same time of day to people who have pending graduate statuses, as I know first hand that some non-graduates have even better work ethics than some graduates I’ve seen.

My point in all this? No need to confirm (as it seemed from many a student’s viewpoint) the biases they will face – instead, they… the faculty, would better serve their students by teaching them how to get around such bias. Don’t accept the status quo – find ways to correct it.

The honored speaker, as I understood it, came from a regional office of C.H.E.D. which stands for the Commission on Higher Education. But apparently, her delivery skills were even more horrendous than the first speaker… who at least, showed some life. This was a story of how perseverance helped her… and her siblings. Both speeches had themes of rising from rags to riches… but this latter speech was delivered more like a litany. How can these graduates be inspired at all? As I look back… I realize that I can hardly recall who the special speaker was during our graduation – guess my memory fails me in this regard – aided perhaps by what could have been an uninspiring message. This one, too, shall suffer the same fate.

What a waste of time, and opportunity. Luckily, I did have my book – and actually got to read several chapters, and if you wonder if I wasn’t rude… hey, at least I wasn’t sleeping and snoring as one member of the audience was apparently doing. If I sound too critical, forgive the haughtiness, its just my Toastmaster background and training being slighted for having to listen to such a speech… read at that, not even done extemporaneously… but the biggest irony was that this was a performance coming from a representative of Higher Education. As Homer Simpson would say - D’oh!

These student – through their parents had to shell out close to Php9K each… the least the school could have done was to get better – more inspiring speakers. Or is this another limitation of a not too prestigious school? I don’t believe so. It may be just a lack of networking to find better speakers. Maybe they need to better tap their alumni – or are all these past students already abroad?

Graduation should be a milestone in one’s life – that said, the institute/college/university that organizes a graduation ceremony should pull out all effort to give their departing ambassadors (for these graduates will now prove that they have had a good education and will… for good or bad, represent the school through their capabilities) the best ceremony they can come up with.

If these students sacrifice a lot to get to the place; if the parents find time to attend, and pay for these miscellaneous fees – then at least, give them all their time and money’s worth. Organize better… choose better… prepare better – and I’m not just talking to the organizing committee here, but to everyone involved… specially the speakers.

Then maybe… the students will not need to be automatically inducted into their alumni program – as they will be proud to be a part of such. Then maybe… the ceremony can be shortened to just half a day without losing any of it’s prestige and importance. Then maybe… I won’t have to write about things in this manner.

Oh well… to the graduates of Unciano - what’s done is done. To you – and to all graduates of 2009 – you enter a depressed global economy, Now you can see it as tough luck or golden opportunities to shine – I suggest the latter… after all, attitude is one important factor, aside from hard work and perseverance. So instead of me saying good luck – I would rather say, make your own luck. people. No one else will do it for you.

Find ways to shine… be noticed. Show others that you are better than what others may think of you – prove that you deserve more than just a cursory glance at one’s CV. Learn how to answer interviews confidently – and don’t be afraid to turn weaknesses to strength.

A day in the life… or blogging on a laptop

Now that I’ve got a laptop computer, I’m thinking that it looks like my journal writing days may be further limited – I mean, even before I had this, the concept of writing had to consider the fact that I did not forget the journal, did not forget to write in my journal (which also included, of course, the pen I would use to write), so right there I already faced a few obstacles. Had I, for example brought the journal, it would be a different issue to consider my remembering to write – or my feeling like writing.

Of course, a plain journal still has some inherent advantages – namely it does not run out of batteries and needs no electricity, so I may still end up writing… though much less than before.

Still, just to let one in on the advantages I’m experiencing right now, I just started this journal entry while I was ordering my lunch in Kitaro, a relatively fancy Japanese restaurant – and ordered the usual… Kakiage – which is basically a deep fried vegetable dish; and paired this with a side order of rice and bottomless Iced tea (it really was hot, so I needed to cool down). And what did I do while waiting? Obviously, open the laptop and start typing.

When my meal arrived, I just saved my work and enjoyed lunch. Now… I’m waiting in the IMAX lobby, until it is time to enter the theater, What’s showing? Monsters vs. Aliens – my first official IMAX movie – unless I include the Disney theater experience in Hong Kong.

My problem is, I’m having a bit of a headache – possibly due to my having to try and balance my taxes… a hopeless cause at this time, so I stopped – resigned to the fact that I’ll be penalized for filing it late… but wanting to make sure it is filed correctly. Hence the decision to watch the movie now… on a Wednesday afternoon. To get my mind off the tax thing, and enjoy what I can (and probably lower my blood pressure, which is the possible reason for the headache).

So yeah, going back to the fact that I already have a laptop – it does allow one to be more productive – as I would definitely have the option to not just write articles for my blogs, but to do other things as well… as anyone with a PC can attest to al the possible things they can do with their computer.

Which reminds me… I’ve still got a scanned copy of Captain America’s 65th anniversary issue to read. A friend sent it to me upon knowing I had not read I yet (thanks again Sam!), and with this laptop, I can basically read it anywhere. I just need the time.

Oh well… thirty minutes to movie time, but I might as well rest my eyes, hands and mind… after all, I don’t want to be too winded that I won’t be able to enjoy the movie.

Movie done, and the story was great – there were a lot of funny moments and naturally, the 3D effects were wonderful too! Although that will be the last time I’ll decide to go eye-level with IMAX – as it comes across as too close for me. I felt like I was at the front row, straining to look at everything, and I noticed that the technology… whether due to my closeness to the movie screen – yeah right, middle of the theater seat row and I still felt too close, ahd some adverse effect on the movie – because the effects were not totally 3D in the outer portions of the image. But when I adjust a bit they become more solid again, hence my consideration that it was indeed my seating area.

By itself, it was a great movie – and with the 3D effects, it becomes a better movie – and unlike some movies that may have limited 3D effects for the duration of the film, this one seemed to be 3D all the way. Heck it was entertaining enough to keep me awake – on an afternoon, with me full, and having just about 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

So I’d say that yes, it was not my first 3D movie experience with today’s technology – the Disney one was exactly the same – but it was my first IMAX experience… meaning watching it that large – that engaging. Oh, but the Disney movie had other features… namely wind and water effects – I did not expect that here, of course, but decided to mention it in a compare and contrast manner.

I will definitely try to find time to bring the kids to watch IMAX… when the right movie comes along. Though technically, this one would have been a good one – except that Bryce had a date – and Bernice decided to stay at home. Oh well… next time.

As I said earlier,one downside would be running out of battery (another was feeling the laptop's weight on my shoulder after lugging it for the better part of a day) - and not having an electric socket to plug into... well, it eventually happened to me as I was enjoying some iced Cafe Mocha in Bo's Coffee around 5pm, while waiting for the time to pass before I called Bryce from his date (the very reason I was at the Mall of Asia).

So what did I do after? Lucky for me I brought a book along - I'm slowly reading Obama's Audacity of Hope... currently in the latter chapters, and this afternoon gave me the opportunity to shave off a few more chapters.

Once I linked up with Bryce, we tried looking for a few online game cards - and in the process found ourselves in Book Sale... a move I slightly regretted as I ended up getting three books at really low prices... but three books nonetheless.

We then linked up with Barbie, who had a reason to be in MOA as well, and after some snacks at Starbucks, it was home for the three of us.

So there you have it... a day in my life - not always the same though, but still, a recap of what I did this 15th of April... one that I could easily do, now that I have a laptop to lug around.

Refelctions... part deux

Easter Sunday ends... just like any day, with the hours passing us by, until... 12 midnight arrives and Monday officially steps in. The question is, how did we maximize what is supposed to be Catholicism's most important holiday and celebration?

Granted, we have the usual Easter mass, and people take the time and effort to greet friends for Easter - some would even have Easter egg hunt, families may be together for Easter lunches... or dinners, but in reality, has anything changed? Aside from the usual fanfare, are we any better for the reflections of the Holy Week that was?

Good question. How did we spend our Easter?

I can only answer for myself, of course - and in some way, for my family.

First off - we hardly had a perfect Easter. Why so? Due to our not having been able to have had our confession prior to Good Friday, we simply could not partake of Communion during the Easter mass celebration.

Now here's something we (meaning Barbie and I) are not too sure of. In Easter masses, we renew our Baptismal vows... does this automatically remove us of our sins? Going back even further... to the Easter message itself, where any priest or pastor would remind us of (or claim that) Jesus died for us to save us - to have God forgive us... to, as our priest (Fr. Noel) said in a relatively clear analogy - rebuild the bridge to God that was broken with the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. Doesn't this mean we are sinless? Doesn't this mean we could have taken Communion?

The answer isn't that clear - and if my conscience is to be my judge, I'd say better to play safe and not commit another sin by receiving communion without having had confession - and let's not even jump into the debate of why one can't just confess directly - I'm not saying one can't... I'm just saying I'd rather follow the Catholic practice, as I've been used to. Whether I'm just making myself and my family suffer for this more... well, what's a little sacrifice? Besides, needing to be honest to a priest, in confessing one's sin... I see it as helping one test their own resolve and inner courage. After all, if one isn't totally honest, won't that mean it was just a wasted effort? You can fool the priest... but can you fool yourself? Question is, would said person fooling themselves even care to be honest?

I'll leave this philosophical discussion for now, since I'd like to further reflect on this - or even better, discuss it with friends. Let me, rather, reflect on another item - one that our priest focused on as the cornerstone of his Easter message.

That Easter should be the cornerstone of the Holy Week, rather than Good Friday. Think about it... I see so many religious icons of the Crucifixion - and much less, images of the Resurrection. Yet, without said Resurrection, then Christianity in general would just have been a joke. The Crucifixion represents dying and self-sacrifice... in that sense, it is important... it proves Jesus' ultimate love. Yet the Resurrection represents God's acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice - and forgiveness of sin. It represents the renewal of salvation... it represents hope. So believers of the faith can always have that hope... that as bad as things may look, there will be hope at the end.

Naive? Maybe... but it can be empowering for anyone. I don't know about you - but I would rather be optimistic too. No, we do not forget the death... but recognize it as a necessary step to set the stage for hope. Guess that's where we got the saying "...darkest before dawn". The hope being that dawn will come.

This gets me to think... why, therefore, do we not 'generally speaking' celebrate Easter with grander scale than - say, Christmas? I mean, you can feel the goodwill in Christmas, and for some... many people look forward to a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Well, aren't we supposed to be equally thankful (if not more so) for Easter? Shouldn't we celebrate it more? Why don't I see a greater mass build-up for Easter day? Is it because we first need to be stoic and sad for Good Friday? Hard to sell?

Hmmm... we may need some strong reallignment here. Until we celebrate Easter better, we may stay stuck to the fact that Christmas will always be the best loved holiday, with Easter always playing second (or even third) fiddle.

It shouldn't be so.

Reflections... or a lack of it.

These past days - in prepering for Holy Week, I've often wondered how my family and I can best spend the time in proper reflection. Do we go 'bisita iglecia'? Do we do the stations of the cross?

Unfortunately, it seems that we've been waking up real late these past days, so before our day starts, it's close to luch time, and then the afternoon sun tells that it's not that good an idea to go out - and it's not jsut the heat, it's also because I've had warts cauterized and have been told not to bathe for three days, as my wounds get better - wounds that would start getting pricky when sweat gets mixed with their presence.

So what has been happening lately is the fact that this long vacation has been mostly days of rest - which we do need as well, but one with little reflection, as well. Then there's always watching DVDs, but as I looked at my collection - well, let's just say a lot of these don't really fit the holiday reflective mode... and somehow fit proper viewing for my kids... to explain a bit, I may not think they're ready to watch "The Last Temptation of Christ"; in fact, I wondered if they were ready to see the stark realism of another film... "The Passion of the Christ"... but watch this one we did.

What made me decide to enforce this viewing? Simple... yesterday, as we were having dinner, I asked my kids... "What is the significance of this week?". Now I rarely ask such questions, but I was wondering if they did indeed have some semblance of what we were observing. Needless to say, I found out that my kids guessed - and not too confidently at that, what Holy Week was about. So I said, okay... time to get the exposed to the Passion... with the hope that Christ's sacrifice gives them pause to consider their fun-focused plans for the week.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fun - but we need to put it into perspective with Christ's sacrifice this Holy Week.

Is the lack of understanding mine? I'll have to admit to that - I assumed that their school would let them know this week's importance, but I guess we - that is, Barbie and I, needed to ensure that their knowledge of the story of the passion would be appreciated and inherently understood.

Do watch the Passion of the Christ we did... this afternoon. I found myself crying - and tried to spy to see my kids reactions. Either they're made of sterner stuff, or the film was just going above them - not being able to understand all it's implications, due to what I percieve are two things... their lack of knowledge for the story of Jesus, and the film's Aramaic dialogue. Reading the English sub-titles must have really been really 'ínteresting' to them.

So... lesson learned, I'll need to find DVDs with English versions of the Passion - maybe not the Passion movie per se, but other tellings like "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or it's likes. I'll also have to better plan for Holy Week activities - staying home may be cheap... but not at the continued expense of my kids' seeming ignorance to / lack of confidence in telling the story of Jesus.

Nature pics - part 5

Yes they're back... my interest in capturing more of nature's works. To see if I could do justice to capturing the beauty of some flowers and plants. This time, I tried getting closer - see if I could focus said flowers up close without losing the image's focus... taking into consideration what Mon said about how these new digicam's allow you to tell them what to focus on.

Here's a little of what I got, from my recent Cuenca trip last March 28... I'm ashamed to say i can't remember what these flowers are called... so I'll just have to get their names later on and repost them here. My first pic, as you can see presents a bunch of Lavander colored flowers forming a near dome-like shape (will insert flower/plant's name here later).

Whereas my second subject (insert name here) is a very bright red flower... first focusing on the bunch - then refocusing... and coming even closer to get the flower. I'm rather glad that the flower's texture did not get lost in the taking - which goes to show that I was able to properly focus on the subject. Whether I can get a sharper image... I still need to reassess my knowledge or mu Canon Ixus V's capabilities.

Then here's another attractive plant (insert name here later) and I first tried getting it with a flashbulb... the camera's automatic decision - not mine; then I tried once again without the flash, this time... just to see how things went. The results - as you can see are both great (I shy away from the adjectives breath-taking or spectacular, since I feel that I don't deserve explaining my pictures in that manner... at least, not yet, anyway.

Though they're not that large, the picture's closeness makes the plant come across as much larger... I might even mistake it for a local grape (or the Duhat, for that matter) had I not known that grapes grow in vines and Duhat on trees.

I hope to continue my understanding of nature and capture them through pictures. Until next time... see you.

Facebook, Plurk and other social networks

I've been using Facebook for quite some time, and the things I like about it is it's interactive capabilities that allow me to know what my friends are doing - something another social network site seemed to have missing, so naturally, after seeing - and experiencing this, I gravitated to Facebook more often than said other site.

At first, I thought it wouldn't be that easy, as I already had many friends in the other site. but my Facebook friends - some of them who are likewise friends in the other site, now surpass my friends in said other site, so it shows that I'm spending more time (and effort) updating Facebook than the other. I even posted on the other site's quote portion my Facebook account link... in case peopel are wondering why I visit on rare occasions.

What's stopping me from just dropping the other account? I've still go t a few (though not really that many) straggler friends who still greet me in the other site. Now, you'd wonder what to do in a social network that seems very friendly? For starters, I checked my privacy settings - after all, friends of friends are fine... but I don't want everything too exposed to just everyone - not that I'd place pictures that would put my friends (or me) in a bad light, of course - btu I just wanted to limit the viewing of said pictures to people I know, and not complete strangers.

How much time do I spend on Facebook? Good question... there are days I feel that I spend too much time with it - others where I am thankful for it 9specially in reminding me about others' special occasions. And since my birthday just passed - I got to be on the receiving end of these greetings.. and let me put some statistics here to show you how Facebook keeps me connected with friends.

On March 15 - my birthday, I received 23 text message greetings from friends and family, via my cell phone of course. In my other site? I got about three. From Facebook, I received 49 greetings... even I was surprised at the influx... and though others might also point out that said number was really just a fourth of my friends here, I'd still say I would have a hard time remembering when I received such numbers. I would alos like to point out that one friend greeted me by text, because she was confused with the new Facebook format... which apparently did not remind her of friend's birthdays - as easily as it used to. So these were high numbers despite the learning curve of the new Facebook look and feel.

And since we're on the subject... what about the new look and feel? It can get confusing, and searching for other items aren't as easy as it used to be. I know I had to fumble around to look for my pictures and notes a while ago.

So why did Facebook make the change? Still don't know... though some TV shows say it's in reaction to Twitter's interactivity... and maybe that of Plurk, too. Well, since I've not really used Twitter, I can't react to that - but Plurk is another matter.

I've been a fairly recent Plurker, and what I can say is that it gives me a quick and dirty manner of updating my status - not just in Plurk, but said updates also appear in both Facebook , and my other site. So it's got two things going for it... basically boiling down to having a fast AND convenient manner of letting everyone know what you are doing... and that's it.

I do not see how Plurk forced the hand of Facebook - though from what I read/hear, it's the interactivity - the same strength I chose Facebook over the other site, that got them worried and thus changed theri look and feel.

Does the new design give more leeway... more freedom? I'm still learning, but these past few days have been humorous, as I see some colleagues make some mistakes - due to Facebook's new style or setting... mistakes that somehow cause them to accidentally spam others. Ah... growth pains.

Personally, I don't see any conflict with both Facebook and Plurk.,,, and I'll continue using them both - to keep in touch, to inform... or to simply break the day's monotony. Will I Twitter as well... hmmm... still thinking about that. If I can see some unique capabilities not offered by either Fcebook or plurk, I just might do that.

One thing seemingly going for Twitter is that it's got lots of blog contents - in fact, it's community is composed of a lot of bloggers. I see attempts by Facebook to try showing the same number of blog contents - but since Facebook seemingly did not start that way, few folks kinda miss the fact that you can actually blog in Facebook too - through the notes portion.

In fact, let's take another site... this one in particular, Blogger.com. It's no Twitter either - since there is no limit to how long a suggested article is going to be (or at least, I've not encountered one yet) . Not so in Twitter... you've got a maximum ceiling to the number of words, so you're forced to be succinct, as opposed to my possible ramblings here... and thinking of minutiae considerations, it looks like I've not been minutely blogging as much as I should.

Meanwhile... as the site wars seem to continue, I just write this article and any other thing that comes to mind... after all, I'm not in it for the strategies - I just like to keep my thoughts documented and posted somewhere (blog), let some friends know what I'm thinking of or doing at a particular time (plurk) and keep tabs with friends - maybe see their pictures and learn more about them (facebook). I don't need changing looks or themes - unless I myself find a reason for making the change.

But how do these social networks affect my productivity and all that? Ah... that will be discussed in a separate segment.

Fun Pictures II

Here's a fresh batch of pictures that I've played with... and wanted to share with everyone else. Unlike my first entry, I now used another fun place for helping enhance some pictures... I'm talking, of course, of magmypic.com which helps you superimpose magazine templates like the one you see on the left, with Bernice's picture.

He he... my kids will most likely kill me for posting this, but what parent can refuse the guilty pleasure of posting cute pictures of their kids from years ago? Yeah... when I saw this picture, I had to scan and post it... but how to post it with a reason? Well, here's a (rather shallow I might admit) reason for doing it - and I get to post said picture.

I could, of course, say that it's preence here is a good compare and contrast with Bernice's face than and now... yeah... that woud be a good alibi.
Now, to play fair, I also played with an old picture of mine. Remember the one I used to be placed in a black and white television tube? - yeah... the one where I looked like a sourpuss? Well, its back (since I have hardly any other almost full facial picture. Still, I have to admit - this cover looks almost natural - and besides... if fame does arrive, it won't really be just mags or TV crew coverage, now - won't it?

Now here's another one of those convincing covers - this one of Bernice and her female classmates... all in the spirit of having fun while posing with their teacher. Of course, I had to choose a more appropriate mag title.

Having said that, lets now look at another set of pictures... this time, using the photofunia.com templates. At his juncture, I'd like to describe this picture like Paris endorsing the CD of Bernice.

What did I say earlier about being famous? Magazine covers and celebrity endorsers too. In this case, not just any endorser, but a very rich one at that.

Next I've got a picture of Bing (goat) in a movie scene that I'm sure she'll cringe on the outside - but like really well on the inside - after all, she is a fan of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - so I doubt that she'll mind posing as part of the famous Azkaban wanted poster.

Heck, I'm a fan of the movie myself - so I just had to pose for the same picture... I guess the trick here - to make it look natural, was to get a picture where the face was a bit... well... eccentric looking.
And so, Bing's picture does not have that desired 'eccentric' or 'mad' look - her smile being too friendly, and all... mine, on the other hand... let's just say I'll get back to that in a while. It would look rather boring to have two of the same pictures literally right after the other. So, not yet...

Instead, I'd like to show another fun phototfunia template - that of the jigsaw puzzle - and again, it took some getting used to the kind of picture that would match this template - see, if one should choose a not too compatible picture, one person could end up having no face... having possibly landed in the under construction area of the puzzle. In this case, Barbie's face is complete... and the only under construction portion was just her red shirt (not really essential). Another inherent limitation here is that the faces may be a bit blurred due to the puzzle pattern's effect.

I call this next one a guilty pleasure... nuff said, right? adoring fans just rubbing up against - or kissing your poster says it all. And here's the green wall template - cute in a way... how passers-by look at the picture. It simulates some kind of store display.

Here's two more pictures with me... including the previously mentioned Azkaban poster where I look a bit harried - though not as eccentric enough as I might have wanted to. Ah well... it is hard to top Sirius Black's look... so i won't even try... or maybe I'll do give it a try - hwen i feel more up to the challenge. The other picture is - of course, my mug shot in a magazine... though I would have wanted a different title - ah well, maybe photofunia can crete more templates for these? So... I started with a picture of Bernice, and I'm ending this edition of fun pictures with a picture of Bernice as well... this simulating those large tiled panel billboard style... or whatever they're called. Still... as I said in the first article about these - such sites and templates help make some otherwise ordinary -looking picture look less ordinary... and in some instances, priceless even.

Lousy Internet Service - part 4

This is just to update my previous entry for the service problem that my family and I were experiencing with Globe’s DSL service.

It’s official – after about five (that I can personally recall) visits from their technical support team who tried to check our signal and the cause for all our service time-outs or inability to connect – specially during the week-ends, the official culprit happens to be their web’s inability to connect constantly with our internet-box (for lack of a more accurate manner of calling it),; be it through wireless means, or through the application of an external antenna to get better feed.

Having discovered that, we tried to see if the service would, at the very least, improve – but apparently, the use of an external antenna did not improve the capturing of any internet signal. As I was watching their technician type out a few DOS commands, and use a speed application - all connected to checking/tracking how strong or how fast the signal was… I noted that there was at least one remote site that was causing the failure.

Now, recalling what I learned about routing technology, I know that if a signal is not able to move one route, it automatically looks for another route – so why did it not happen here? Are we locked in a certain route – and only that route? Is the route that our signal was going to a central repository that could not accommodate us? These were questions I kept mum about, though, as I simply observed how the technician was trying to discover the perplexing problem – and if possible, close the issue.

Unfortunately, after over an hour (maybe even more than two), he had to admit that the problem was indeed related to Globe’s signal – in this case, its inability to receive our packets. Hence we could send, but it was not receiving… but when it sent, we could receive… as evidenced by the speed tests he tried, when the signal was restored (albeit temporarily).

So yesterday, my wife goes to Globe and delivers her request to discontinue Globe’s service to us – based on those findings. And since it wasn’t our fault… a waive of the ‘lock-in period’ – where we would have to use their service for at least a year; as stipulated in our agreement with getting the service, was granted us.

Over-all, it was rather disheartening – especially since I personally saw how Globe’s people were always courteous, accommodating and decisive in helping their subscribers out… a fact borne out of not just my communicating with them, but by observing Barbie’s communications with them by phone as well. I mean, had it not been for the technical issues, I would have been very happy to continue with Globe – who knows, maybe in the future, I will still consider the possibility of having Globe as a service provider for future internet services.

But… with that no longer an option, we now look towards two possibilities – Smart Bro; which is again, another wireless internet service… or maybe consider Sky Internet; which is the internet service provider of Sky Cable – so yes… internet service through cable connection. Since we’re not too convinced with wireless DSL for now, looks like we’re trying the cable option, as I have had at least two confirmations from friends that cable may be more stable than wireless – further corroborated by my brother-in-law, who’s got a relatively high exposure to a lot of computer hardware and set-ups. Of course, if the cable transmission goes down, there goes not just our cable TV viewing, but our internet connection as well. Ah well… then again, maybe not.

Meanwhile, I’m typing this now in my word processor – as opposed to a free form writing directly to the blog site manner… with the hope that when I get a chance to use the internet, be it here – once a new connection is considered, or maybe by way of using an internet kiosk. Either way, I will have this entry ready to be published for this blog, as well as its mirror site.

Why not Smart Bro? Well… to be fair, it is what my in-laws are using in Cavite… and they seem very happy with it’s consistency and speed, but as I said, our experience with Globe’s wireless DSL left us frustrated, and we didn’t want to chance it. After all, it might be connected to the population density of users, and I would guess that Manila has a whole lot more users than Cavite, so success in one site is not an automatic indicator of success in another – possibly more populated area.

When will we be able to experience Sky Internet? Hopefully, within this week.

So once again, here’s hoping that this will be the last of my ‘Lousy Internet’ entries… after all, I don’t want this to be just one more in a series of long rants and raves about the Internet industry – and its inability to offer acceptable quality signal service in particular.

Update on this update(as of February 13, 2009)

It took Sky Internet much longer than the proffered date, and I was getting frustrated with them - after all, they were the ones insisting that I avail of their free trial service.

Over-all, we waited close to two weeks before they finally came. Meanwhile, I was in the middle of negotiations, and my having no internet connections forced me to look for internet cafe - so it was really a great inconvenience. Not a good start, far as I was concerned.

When they finally arrived, I was confused with the need to install another cable line - their explanation was, it had to be separate form the cable TV’s line… okay. Maybe that was the reason the first installation seemed unable to catch some signal… maybe the first newly installed cable had incompatibility issues which they later realized but did not want to announce… lord knows that happens, as I’ve had my share of LAN frustrations before - only to finally track things back to the cable that was, for all intents and purposes - supposedly compatible (weird but true). Still, I was just glad they came - albeit rather late, and even helped by assisting them with menial details like holding the flashlight for better illumination, as they worked with their new cable layout.

Then comes the next frustration - for some reason, the internet was having a limited to no access… and their technician could not make heads or tails about it. It was obviously the first time he’d encountered something like this - and he just could not go around the problem. As it was close to 10pm already, we just agreed to continue this the next day - thinking it was just fatigue keeping us from finding the answer.

Why was this happening? For starters, I suspect it had something to do with either their set-up or my PCs configuration - to test one or the other, we tried the same set-up with Barbie’s laptop… and it did not connect either.

So they left… leaving me with some frustration. Then after I had taken a shower, and dinner… I tried once again… this time, double checking my PC’s security options. I tweaked things a bit… and suddenly found the internet just working!

Hnh… so what was the problem? I’d say the number one problem was the fact that the technician was not familiar with Vista… but Barbie’s laptop was using Win2K, and yet they were unable to make it run there too. Of course, Barbie’s PC had a lot of security too. So was having too much security a problem? After all, the PC or laptop couldn’t very well be without any security whatsoever.

Point was, by the time the technician finally came, I showed them a working PC - we then tried connecting to the PC downstairs - and once again, they could not find the reaosn for its not cooperating… and this PC had just been reformatted - so no security problems here.

Again, they left… unable to help, but secure with the thought that we had one PC working with their connection… and again, I was left pondering the problem. My brother-in-law, Benedict said it might be that their modem had ways of making usre only one connection was running - even if we tried a router connection… but the router connection was only tried when the first PC was already working, and the second was not… so it wasn’t the router.

When Barbie finally arrived from work, I twreaked her laptop - basically undoing whatever the technicians did - and viola…! Her laptop cold access the internet by wireless connection - so scratch router issue.

I would have thought that the cable might be a possible problem, but ther was limited connection - had it been cable-related, there would have been no connection at all. So having been bouyed by the fact that I had solved 2/3 of our connectivity concern, I again searched for ways and means to connect the PC downstairs with our router.

Things might have been simpler if I had access to the router’s website - but I did not… and thought restarting from scratch was always an option, I did not want to change things in that manner until I was sure I tried everything.

Apparently… just like the first PC, there were conflicting messages between the PC and once I streamlined those security instructions, things started going smoothly.

So now… no thanks to the Sky Broadband tech folks, I was finally able to get my home network running. a sI said in my Facebook shout out, I was glad tht somehow, someway, i retained what I knew about LAN design… though like the technicians, I was also having some adjustment period with Microsoft Vista… though I also have to say that its auto repair optiosn got things running faster - soon as I found possible problems.

So far, its been three days since we had this connection, and I’m glad to say that we’ve not had intermittent problems with the cable internet signal… and hopefully, with fingers crossed and all, I hope this will be my last internet frustration article.

Journeying back… to lesser weight (or trying to reach 10,000 steps)

Last December, I had my annual physical check-up and was really not too keen on knowing how I was – don’t get me wrong, it was not because I felt sick or anything – just more likely, I did not want to confirm the fact that I had most probably gained more weight – and would undoubtedly gain more during the Christmas holidays. I was eating healthy for the most part of the year, and only indulged in social drinking, and no smoking at all. So my intake affecting my health in a negative way was never a question – the quantity of my intake… now that was probable a question. I find myself not really indulging in any food too much – but I guess, with age… and lifestyle, I had to expect my metabolism to slow down.

Age because I’m now in my late 40s – slowly creeping into the ‘50s, and lifestyle because I really had zero exercise time for me since… well, since I can’t recall for how long now (and no… that’s not Alzheimer’s creeping in too). My usual routine would consist of waking up early, getting ready for work, bringing my wife to work first, then going to work myself – which would then consist of normally having training sessions – be they whole day or less, and finally taking breakfast when I get to settle down.

When done, I’d be tired, and would just be waiting in Robinsons’ Boni (the mall where the office I go to is located) until Barbie (my wife) would arrive around 6:30 to 7pm. Then it would home for us – dinner, then rest; catching up with how the kids’ days went, then doing the usual routines before finally sleeping. That was my usual routine for the past three, maybe four years.

Weekends would normally be family-focused week-ends… either just having a simple quiet weekend at home (specially after having a hectic week at work) or occasionally visiting relatives in Cavite (Barbie’s folks), Batangas (my mom) or Paranaque (my dad). More often than not, we’d end up malling (hmm… apparently the word processor does not recognize that last word) and doing our groceries. So unless something else out of the ordinary comes up, I’d say that would be my – and my family’s routine.

Of course, I never mentioned exercise simply because it was not part of my routine… sure, there’d be a few sprinkling of a badminton game – but they were few and far between to count… so I didn’t count them. However, even before my annual physical, I would admin tot feeling sluggish. I was starting to feel tired easily – not obvious to others because I knew how to pace myself, but I knew I was tiring easily – a far cry from my college days for sure, when I’d be actively swimming and doing weights alternately. Still, I was aware that I needed to exercise again – but things kept coming up… and I procrastinated,

Then, come December, I suddenly get all the free time in the world – by way of our training contract suddenly being terminated. Exercise, however, did not jump into our vocabulary at once… guess we were still worried about how not to spend too much during Christmas, and wondering where our next pay would come from, after all… a lot of us were parents or providers for our respective families. So, life threw us a lemon.

After my annual physical – where I learned from my doctor that I had a great and healthy heart, but was just slightly better than an old man – fitness-wise. I made a resolve that I would start exercising – the questions were how, where and when? I told Barbie that after bringing her to her office, I could then go to Greenhills (a shopping center) and join the usual morning crowd of walkers and/or runners who would just go around said shopping center’s premises. That way, I’d get my exercise; then I’d just go home for a much needed bath.

It was a good idea – and a whole lot cheaper than paying for a gym membership too… but Barbie also wanted to exercise. So obviously Greenhills was out as an option, since it would not be equally viable for a brisk walk in the evenings (after Barbie’s work was done). Luckily, there was another option available – one where even at night, I noticed people either walking or jogging in a relatively open space – even if there were a lot of people shopping around or coming from / going to dinner. The place happened to be the Bonifacio High Street, located in the Fort (the now commercialized portion of Fort Bonicafio)… a large chunk of land with a whole lot of restaurants, boutiques, parking and more importantly, a fairly decent walkway where people doing their jogging or brisk walking could pass, with a lot of room for shoppers.

I remember seeing these joggers during times when I would meet Barbie in the Fort, especially when we’d meet at the High Street’s Fully Booked – a large (four-storeyed) bookstore where I could leaf through almost any book while waiting for her to arrive. Of course, if I really liked the book and wanted to continue reading what if can offer, then I’d end up buying the book – budget willing of course. Anyway, that’s another story.

As I said, I noticed these joggers – so when Barbie said she wanted to join me, we decided to set the location and time to High Street after work, which would mean around 6pm or later – but hopefully not too late, that we’d end up eating dinner at so late a time – and too close to our usual sleeping period. One advantage of ending up a bit late though would be that we’d encounter less traffic on the way home… completely avoiding the evening rush hour. And just to have a logical start, we decided to do this once 2009 came in. Well, 2009 did come, and true to our commitment, we started doing our brisk walk.

To backtrack a bit, I have a friend who happens to be among many things, a recent Nursing graduate – and during our training days, he would always become the paragon for healthy living, constantly reminding some of my colleagues to consider stopping their smoking habit (or guilty pleasure) while asking me when I would like to come up with an exercise regimen with him – he’s a cool guy named Jingo, and we talked about possibilities of boxing or aikido or any other exercise cum fitness/self-defence training. None of these, though got the green light – but when I broached the plan of the brisk-walking nights, he was happy for me, and immediately set a goal (or target) for me to reach. Where he got it, I don’t really know, but he gave me 10,000 steps as my target. So I thought about that number as I started walking.

First night of our walk, I asked Barbie to count how many steps we would make during our first round around the High Street block’s perimeter, including the parking lots. It so happened that we were able to cover 1,300 steps – after that, we just made the 1,300 as a basis for every round we made… and that night, we finished four rounds before we decided to call it quits. We both felt tired, but invigorated… and the sweat off was a good indicator that our walk was a great low intensity workout. Granted, we just had 5,200 steps… it was a good start.

As the week passed, we initially thought of doing the walk every other day – avoiding Tuesdays due to the local number coding scheme, preventing us form using the car between 7am to 7pm. Somehow, though, we just mutually decided do make the walk an almost daily activity. Backtracking once again, I remember my doctor telling me that if I wanted to lose weight, I had to at least make sure I exercised for 30 minutes a day, everyday (aside from diet)… and if I wanted to at least arrest more weight gain, then I should exercise at least 3 times a week. So… with that in mind, the almost daily routine would help me lose weight… after all, if a daily 30 minute moderate exercise would help me lose weight, then what would a near hour of moderate exercise, even if its done almost everyday (including Saturdays) do for me?

This week happens to be our fourth week of said exercise, and I’ve felt improvements with myself… first of, from 5,200 steps, we’ve moved to another additional round – so tackling around 6,500 per day since last week. Yesterday, I tried to see if I could add one more round and not kill my feet in the process, and I actually got to go six rounds, or 7,800 steps… albeit having some sore portions in my feet – but not as bad as when I first tried walking four rounds almost a month ago – and yes… there were times I felt like taking some over the counter muscle relaxants or pain killers. I’ve avoided doing this though, looking for a natural manner for raising my tolerance to pain and endurance level. Another friend suggested I take some fat-burning medicine… it may be a good idea – but I’m putting that on the back burner… I’d like to see if I can do this in as natural a manner as possible first.

So six rounds or 7.800 steps are my personal best and (hopefully) new average (as opposed to it being an performance outlier) that I shall try to equal later and the days to follow. I’m taking my sweet time in reaching my goal… as I know its just around less than two more rounds to reach such a goal – but as I said, I wouldn’t want to harm my feet in forcing myself to reach said goal. Will I reach 10,000 within the week? I wouldn’t bet on it… how about next week? That can be possible. How about before February ends? Now that would be… very possible. I even joined an online site’s ability to record one’s progress – thanks to another friend to made me aware of it (thanks Charo), and it, surprise, surprise… also had 10,000 steps as part of its name (hence my wondering if Jingo just picked it up or had a medically acceptable reason for citing the number). The site can be found in http://10000steps.org.au/ for anyone interested in looking it up.

All this will be a wasted effort, though, if I can’t get my weight down. How am I doing on that end?

All my effort has made me look slightly thinner and I’d like to think that I did lose weight… my face has certainly started to look less puffy or firmer, and though its probably not as dramatic an effect as I would have if I had been serious with my diet, or taken those fat burners or diet suppressors… but I am losing weight after almost five years of just gaining them, so that accounts for something… specially when you think that I have not used any artificial method. At the very least, I feel that I’ve lost a pound or two. I can’t really answer this because I don’t have access to my actual weight prior to the start of my walk.

Having said that, I am now trying a few more things to help with the weight loss effort like trying… and the key word here is ‘trying’ not to eat rice in my evening meal, and possibly replacing it with more greens… using a jacket to keep me sweating, rather than losing sweat opportunities due to the cold winds in the Fort and wearing a sauna strap around my stomach… both to induce more sweat and to support my stomach whenever I feel like jogging a bit. Yes, once in a while, I decide to jog – though I still feel a bit heavy for this. I’d like to hope that this exercise will eventually make me able to jog for longer than a few minutes, but I’m not putting that as a must do right now. And while I’m in the subject of exercise, I keep Sunday as a rest day – just out of necessity, no real religious practice here… while I have at one time or another, together with Barbie and my brother-in-law Ben, started to do some aerobic exercises with a DVD of “Shawn T’s Hip Hop Abs”… as yeah, I’m learning a few dance moves too.

But my main target will still be the 10,000 steps. In line with this, I wear ankle and knee support when I do my walks because I just want to be safe. Barbie said I looked like I had a lot of gadgets… well technically, I just have my iPod and cellular phone as gadgets… the rest are support (knee and ankle) and sweat inducers (jacket and sauna strap), that’s it. What about other problems that have crop up while walking? Thirst is not really an issue, we bring water and leave it in the car for after exercise drinks – but if we really need to drink, its available. Another problem I’ve been experiencing recently? Rashes in my thighs due to all the sweat, and its not purely sweat-related too… apparently my shorts’ fabric can continuously scrape against my thigh skin, and it can build up friction – nothing that some powder can’t solve, though. Guess my sweat’s a bit acidic… but then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. One other problem was felt in my early days exercising was that in one evening, I felt a strong head ache… don’t know if it’s blood pressure related, so I just decided to walk slowly – and if I got dizzy, then I would have stopped. Lucky for me, I was able to set the ache aside, go slow and just take it one step at a time until I finished my four rounds.

My real worry? If I eventually get work that may eat up on my exercise time, will I be able to find the time to continue doing this? Maybe this is why I needed to have this long break from work… it was God’s way of saying, “Butch, you need a break so you can focus on getting healthier.” There is a saying I am reminded of, “For something to become a habit – it needs to be done for at least 30 days.” I’m close to my 30 days of brisk walking, so it’s hopefully getting to be a habit – one that I will ably sustain, come ‘hell or high water’, even during heavy work weeks.

Okay. Some updates… (as of February 12, 2009)
The above article was written during that time when I had not yet had any access to the Internet – though as you can see, it did not stop me form writing. But that isn’t what I wanted to say in this update.

Remember when I said some paragraphs above that we had 1.300 steps per round? Well, first, let me mention that I proceeded to reach that mythical 10.000 steps by going not just seven… but eight rounds… I mean, simple math right? If four rounds would give me a total of 5,400 – then it would simply mean that seven would give me 9.100 – and I thought… c’mon, why stop 900 steps shy? But I did not want to do the numbers while walking, so I just did the ‘one more round’. Besides, I needed to do some catching up, since we had not walked for a few days, as Barbie was caught up in some out of town work.

Well, this particular night was also a night that Barbie would arrive later than our usual time, and since Jingo was also with me 0 we decided to walk on ahead… after all, Ben (my brother-in-law who is also turning into a regular for this nightly exercise) could wait for Barbie, and I wanted to put in some extra rounds – I had a goal to achieve and I did not think Barbie was willing to take the extra strides with me. Not that she needed them.

Apparently, I may have been mistaken in my calculations.

See, as I triumphantly finished my eighth round… I was about to tell Barbie and Ben about my breaking the 10,000th mark by starting with the basic calculations. I said ‘with every round consisting of 1,300 steps…’ to which Barbie automatically interjects with ‘1,600!’ (remember, she did the counting on our first day – so I guess, shed remember it more)

I was momentarily taken aback. I simply said ‘not 1,300?’ and she simply repeated her correction. It was then and there I did some mental calculations. Four rounds were not 5,200 steps as I had thought, but 6,400. Five rounds? 8,000… and to reach 10,000? A little over six rounds… and it was then that I vaguely remembered Jingo also saying something about 7 rounds being a target – but had thought I might have heard wrong in lieu of my calculations. So enough with the suspense… how many steps had I done that night? Simple…a measly 12,800 steps. I did not just reach 10K steps, but went way beyond the actual target.

I felt both stupid (for the math error) and proud (for accidentally exceeding my goal). I posted the numbers in Facebook via my status update – and Mon Villar asked me about it. I confided in him my mistake leading to my exceeding the target by more than 3K, and he laughed at me. He than asked why I did not use a pedometer… which would surely have helped me count my steps in the first place – and I simply said I had not seen one yet. He said he might be able to help me with that.

Last Monday, as Mon and I were together for a training, he informs he has something for me, reaches into his bag and brings out a small pedometer. I thanked him for it – and now, no matter where I go to walk, I can have a more accurate estimate of the steps I will be taking. Though it’s a very simple pedometer – with a limit of up to 9,999 in its display, this little gadget will serve its purpose… after all, my goal is 10K, so if I glance at the pedometer and it says 9,999 – well… what’s one step short of being recorded?

I have to confess to having possibly over stretched my foot muscle though… hence me need to take things slightly easy these past few days… and with work somewhat intruding into the walking regimen, I just take the time to relax my feet. I did walk again after that extraordinary 12K steps… but I just went 5 rounds – not wanting to injure myself.

But yeah… at least I know it just takes a little over six rounds – not eight… and I’ve a pedometer to keep me aware. I tried to walk yesterday, but plans changed since I had to wait for Bernice and fetch her from school – thus not allowing me to walk, and tonight I’ve got work to do… so looks like Friday (after almost a week’s hiatus) will be my first walk for the week. I’ll take it slow of course… after all, my metrics don’t seem to be as intimidating as I though – or as many as I need. Besides, I want to try my new gadget… plus get to use my new exercise clothing (I bought new shorts and a shirt for the near nightly exercise).

So yeah… the story continues – albeit with a few pauses and surprises along the way.

Starting the year right!

Its 2009!... okay, it has been 2009 for three weeks now as of this writing, but I never had the opportunity to share this experience until now. You see, on the second of January - which was basically the first Friday of the month, and the new year, I found myself with my family, in Festival Mall, Alabang.

Now, first of all, I have not been to said mall in a long time, as it happens to be far from my usual stomping grounds in either Mandaluyong, Taguig or Makati - in other words, its out of the usual routes I would normally be going to. So what made me go there? Bryce did. He had a 'date' with his girl friend - and yes, even if there's such a word as girlfriend, I just had to emphasize the separation - not out of a sense of denial for having a teenage son who's dating, but the fact that I know this dating is far from becoming a serious commitment...yet. Far as they are concerned, they're close friends, with mutual understandings. But back to the story.

Bryce had asked if we could go to Festival mall, which would give him an opportunity to spend some post-Christmas time with Sharmaine, his friend. And since we really had no plans for that day - owing to our wanting to rest from a very busy holiday season, we kept outings to a minimum... so here was a free day, and Bryce asking to go to Festival mall. Well, we did - and Bryce got to spend the afternoon with Sharmaine... but that is not the story. What they did while spending time in Festival mall, only they can talk about... after all, we... that is Barbie, Bernice and I decided to explore the mall... basically kill time while Bryce had his afternoon.

Well to my pleasant serendipitous moment, I found the comic store I knew was there - namely Comic Quest. Now... I know Comic Quest because 1) I collect comics, so I make it a point to know where to get comics; and 2) I did frequent a Comic Quest store - though not the one in Alabang.

So I entered, perused and chose two comics to get. The total amount for my comics reached Php350, and since I paid with a Php500 bill, well... its just as simple as 500 - 350, and you get the difference which should be my change, right?

Don't worry, this is not a mathematical post... though the computation is at the heart of this story.

So answering the above question, the store sales lady would have given me a change of Php150 - right? Nope...

I normally am in automatic mode - you know, wherein one does not really check for change when given to you... I know, that may be risky... but heck, this was a simple comic sale transaction, and there was nothing complicated with the computation. Ah... but the computation was not the issue, either... you see, I' sure she was doing her mental math - but she got her wires crossed somewhere - thus giving me a Php350 change. I, on the other hand, just got the proffered change and the purchased stuff of course.

As I was leaving the store with my family in tow, and as I was about to pocket my change, I realized something was wrong... I seemed to have too much change. I told Barbie and Bernice to wait as I returned quickly to the store - approached the sales lady once again, and did the math with her, while showing her the change she gave me.

To her surprise, she realized her error and I gave her the extra Php200 she had given me. That settled, I left the store. Barbie asked me what was wrong, and I told her the story. She jokingly made the comment that had that been her, she would have kept mum about it... and i jokingly told her "Bad...". Bernice, who was listening the whole time, smiled at the whole discussion.

So why did I do it? Why did I return the extra change given me? Take, note... i had nothing to lose... as this visit to Festival mall was, in my mind, a fluke. Something that won't be repeated again.

Sometimes I'd think, maybe because it was the start of a new year, and I didn't want to start he new year on the wrong foot.

Maybe I was thinking of the sales lady and how she'd have to try and explain the shortage of cash in the cash register, and how she could lose her job in a time of global economic turmoil... and felt a pang of responsibility should that happen.

Or maybe it was because I was still fresh from reading a book called 'The Shack', and was still filled with residual appreciation of God's love.

Maybe I wanted to set an example for Bernice - that honesty is still the best policy.

Maybe i felt that I did not need the bad karma during a trying time in my life... as far as my career is concerned.

Maybe its because I do know the store proprietor - and though he is nto a close friend, he has always been friendly and cordial to me.

Heck, maybe its all those hours teaching Accenture's core values - telling their new hires that they should live their core values... one of which is 'Integrity'... and without realizing it, I was conditioning myself too - into a sense of 'Walk the Talk' manner.

It could have been any one - or all of these thoughts influencing me that particular moment, but as I said, once i realized that something was wrong, I went back... no pause, no thinking if I should or should not. So if it was any of these, it was happening in my subconscious. Point was, I did it and it was that.

I did not do it to make a lasting impression - as I said, I had no plans to return to Festival mall on a regular basis, so this store was just an isolated convenience.

Well, life (or God) has a funny way of proving me wrong with certain assumptions - because the Saturday after that weekend... which was January the 10th, we were once again in Festival mall... for the same reason - Bryce and his date... and I, once again, had the chance to purchase another comic in Comic Quest... and 8 days later, I did not even remember the sales lady's face... and since there were several of them, I wouldn't know who among them I was honest enough to return the excess change to.

I simply focused on the purchase, paid and got my comic plus the change... and the sales lady, from out of the blue made a side comment that 'Ayan, tama na nag sukli ko' - which translates to 'There, my change is correct now'. Realizing that she was the one, and that she remembered me, I said smiled and said 'buti naman' which loosely means 'that's good' or 'good for you'. And as I was leaving, she called the attention of the other sales lady telling her companion, 'Kita mo yan? siya yung sinasabi ko'ng customer na nag balik nang...' again, loosely translated to 'See that (or him)? He was the person who was my customer - the one that returned...'

I know, I did not finish the sentence, but that's because I did not stay long enough to hear her finish the sentence.

But I was glad she knew - and though we never exchanged names, I'm relatively certain she'll continue to remember me... basically because I did something unexpected... which was being honest enough to return the excess change.

But... I can tell you, I felt good as I left that store - more so than the week before - and I realized, if I had kept the money, she might or might not remember me, and I might even be reluctant to buy there again... even if conveniently located to my current trip there that day. but leaving... and hearing her share the story with someone, and confirming with that someone that I was the person she was obviously talking about... that was - for some strange reason, fulfilling and reward enough... maybe more so than the Php200 I would have had the chance to pocket.

Now... I'd like to think that whenever I enter that particular store, and whenever she sees me, I'll be having good service offered to me - not because she must treat her customers right and friendly, but because she wants to treat me kindly - out of some sense of gratitude. Expected? Not really, like I said, I had nothing to invest in that store... but as I said before, life, fate, karma or the Lord had another plans.

But wait... there's more...!

Yesterday... I unexpectedly found myself in Festival mall again. you see my son had another date, but the plan was to meet in Mega mall instead (where the other Comic Quest branch - the one I frequent more often than not) was, and I was planning to look for a certain issue or two once we got there.

Well guess what, Sharmaine calls and for whatever reason, tells Bryce that she can't make to Mega mall. This derailed some plans, and Barbie was slightly pissed - but I decided to let Bryce go - though not without a reprimand that situations like this will not be tolerated again... and next time it does, we'd rather he cancel the date than put us in an inconvenient situation.

Yes, that's three straight weekends now... and once again, I went to Comic Quest... this time, we (the sales lady and I) recognized each other. I asked to see some comics, she services me as she normally would others - but we now seem to have this running joke, that whenever I pay, she would comment about not making another mistake of giving me too much change... not that she would have that day though, since I only bought one comic worth Php200 - and paid with a Php200 bill - so no change, but the humor was there. And to my surprise, the other sales lady also joined the 'running joke' bandwagon.

I again left the shop slightly uplifted, knowing I probably gained someone's trust - even if we still did not introduce ourselves to each other.


Oh yeah... two another ways that I've, or we've - as a family, started the year right...

1) more exercise - from a zero regimen in the past years, I am now slowly getting into the brisk walking groove, meeting Barbie in Bonifacio High Street and we'd be walking around the High Street block for close to an hour fro almost every night.

Yesterday, I once again tried the facilities of Slimmer's World after more than a decade of not going... I hope to make it part of my regimen somehow, and lastly... I've unearthed the - ahem... exercise moves of a certain Shawn T.'s video, from my video collections. Ben, Barbie and i tried it out and it still works wonderfully. So I will likewise use the video more often.

2) spiritual renewal - we've taken the step to attend mass regularly - and we do this by catching the 10am mass in Greenhills. It may be difficult at times - specially if I had a wild drinking night the Saturday eve prior to said Sunday... but we will continue to attend regular Sunday mass.

I did not make any of these as a New Year's goal or resolution. As the Nike commercial goes... I'm just doing it - and hope I can continue to sustain the momentum.

Fun pictures

Its amazing how certain software can enhance one's creativity, while others add to the fun factor. Some seem to cross the line and cover the two characteristics... take face recognition software partnered with preset templates of fun situations, and what can normally come off as uninspiring pictures can be looked at with a new vein of interest. Case in point, here's a picture of me in one of my serious modes - though in this case, I come across as possibly too dour to share such a photo in, say Facebook or Friendster (my opinion, of course). But... add the template I chose and viola... suddenly, a boring picture looks - well, less boring, to say the least don't you think? Granted, that the template is in monotones - now the picture will be give a second glance, and people may wonder... when did this happen?

The template is care of Photofunia - with the same site address, just add a '.com' at the end of it, and you're on your way to having fun, Though at times, the template combined with the face may look awkward, and this is where the added creativity comes in... combining the right picture with the right template. Some people have the natural eye for this - others need to do lots of trial and error. I humbly agree to being a little of both, and as you can see... some of my experiments bore fruit. This of course, considers the fact that I'm pulling from a library of existing pictures and not creating pictures that are tailor fit for these templates. Take for example this next picture of what seems to be a shopping mall's walkway with all those fashion posters... well if you look closely to those posters, that's a picture of Barbie with the Subic Yacht club's harbor view at the background. I tried thinking what would look natural with the template, and this picture seemed to fit the bill - as was my dour expression in the black and white television, which comes across as a person being interviewed or being grilled (or doing the grilling).

Here's another picture that I thought was going to be an easy mix - unfortunately, whenever I tried using this picture of Bryce holding a gun; just a replica, mind you... but the picture does not show this - I was having difficulty with it coming across as fun with just any template. For some reason, it just looked wrong.

I was having problems with the 'gun' being too serious... unless there was a template of an action movie. So if the gun was coming across as too strong, how would I soften it? Well, how about the cat? its a good contrast to the picture, and Bryce's leaning a bit on the right was perfect... as if he was avoiding the cat's paw... and some might even interpret the picture as him being ready to shoot the cat - I hope not. After all, as this template shows - he is not real here, but a computer wallpaper... and the cat is just on top of the monitor. So yeah... the cat softened the overall look of the picture.

Another template that is print advertizing inspired is this picture of Jogie that I took, holding a rubber shoe - it just seemed to fit the theme. A little background on the picture, we saw the shoe and wanted to let Ben (my brother-in-law) know about it, as it looked like a perfect match to a certain colored denim he had. Since Ben was not with us, we decided to take the shoe's picture, so he could see it. Hence Jogie holding the shoe to the camera - who'd a thought it would come across as a viable shoe ad? I didn't, at least, until I saw this template and tried combining both.

Then there's Bernice as a subject in a photo gallery - simple and cute... no other need for describing it in any other manner... and yes, thanks again to fun software like Photofunia without which, fun pictures like these would just be left to the imagination. I've others... and I'll share them at another post - right now, I've other things to do. So until next time... enjoy these pictures, and by all means, try out Photofunia when you get the time - and pictures to play with.

We Live in Interesting Times

There is a Chinese saying – some say a curse that goes this way… may you live in interesting times. Now that got my head scratching, until I thought that some aspects in life that a Chinese person would want would have to be consistency, dependability and of course stability – so… being a diplomatic bunch, their polite way of saying ‘interesting times’ would downplay the ‘hopeful’ lack of these three… in other words, inconsistency, non-dependability (as opposed to independent) and yes… instability.

Well if there is anything that might describe how I’m feeling right now, it could very well be those three traits – no consistency as to where the next pay-check will be coming from, non-dependability of my current employ – I mean, they’re trying to stabilize a contract which they prematurely lost last December, and barring that, see if they can win a new contract, and I try not to worry, but yeah… you could describe my position right now as unstable (or a lack of stability). My family is not able to rely too much on me these days as opposed to… say… just a few months ago, and we did have a little lunchtime chat about it – bless the kids, they seem to understand that possible sacrifices may be necessary – until I get a new line of work.

Am I supposed to feel better knowing that I’m not alone? After all, the reasons could very well be traced back to the global financial crisis felt in the U.S., which affected many top banks and credit lines to top businesses… which has affected a lot of folks – some seeing their hard earned pensions wiped out… and I agree, they may well be worse of than me; or the person who’s been living heavily on credit and now sees their credit being yanked from under them… man that would hurt too.

But – not to sound insensitive, I don’t know these people, so I can’t really feel for them – my friends, and me… that I understand. Right now, we need to find ways to help each other out - after all, corny as it may sound, we're capable of doing more in a combined manner than just addressing things individually.

Who’s fault is this? How did this come to pass? Some would go far as to lay the current crisis on U.S.President Bush’s lap… him and his economic policies with little checks and balances... kanda simplistic an answer. See, they thought they had a good idea and trusted in the inherent goodness of everyone else not to abuse these easier to afford measures – specially in housing. Bush wanted his legacy to be a house for every American - so he wanted restrictions relaxed so the average joe would and could afford getting his very own house.

So what happened to make the bubble burst? Interests went high… possibly due to higher fossil fuel costs (but again, that's too simplistic an answer), then many middle class people just defaulted in their properties – unable to pay for the fees. Banks were left with illiquid assets… possibly lots of them. Since no one could buy, they couldn’t sell. So in this instance, innocent people got trapped into having to give up an investment they now could not afford - and their money is washed down the drain with the return of said property. Banks that should have known better than to allow for the risky credit had their hands tied 'for patriotic reasons'. Ouch...

Meanwhile other inappropriate practices were unearthed, people discovered the loss of many money on poor investments. Others had unknowingly invested on 'get rich quick' schemes… or should I call it scams? With some silver-tongued devil trying to get in and out real quick with all the money they got. Others misrepresented (i.e. hid) their losses, hoping it would just be kept under a rug of forgetfulness – only to have to confess to the losses, when discovery seemed inevitable. All these were happening - albeit, independently form each other - yet all seemed ready to burst at the same time.

Suddenly the U.S. financial system seemed to fall like a stack of cards… and a very tightly connected global economy got dragged along. End result? World-wide worry in an economic scale that would certainly make any economic saboteur proud – had this been sabotage, that is. I'm sure a lot of novelists will have a field day spinning all these into techno or mystery thrillers.

How did this affect me and a lot of my colleagues? Simple – our client, which happens to be a highly recognized Information and Communication Technology consulting company happened to see their top clients, suddenly panicking – pulling the plug on certain projects... ones they were preparing for by building up the necessary head count. Suddenly, less money was coming in.

Less profits were coming in, and all the while expenses were continuing - clearly, things needed to be plugged. Now, since we’re a training service oriented business – we just happened to be one of the easy-to-get –rid–of expense lines in their accounting books (ironic since this is the same company that came up with a study that came up with findings that training does has an average R.O.L. (return on learning) of 5:1 - meaning for every dollar spent on training, the returns average to about 5 times more than what was spent. I guess, they don’t bother listening to their own statistics when they are likewise in 'pull-the-plug on expenses' mode.

I just wonder, wehre does reality end and fearful speculation start? Because I feel that there are some negative - sometimes, near panicky reactions to this financial crisis. Anyway, regardless of what those ansers will turn out to be, here I am, wondering what to do next… but not wondering in a frozen manner, mind you.

I’ve still a few prospects to follow up. Maybe farm my updated CV to friends and relations, once again. See what may come up. Now, I can’t just wait for PrimaryEdge to resolve things... and while waiting, I intend to read and learn – better my current knowledge (and possibly skills), be more marketable – but mostly, somehow prioritize in marketing myself better.

Interesting times, indeed… but I’m not one to just wail “who moved my cheese”, I need to search for new cheese. I know that nothing will come out of worrying too much - so I won't even waste the energy.

This New Year may still prove to be prosperous… after all, we’ve got about 360 more days to do something about it... and Barbie isn't taking anything to chance either - she just got me a Chinese counter to an otherwise, lousy year - if Chinese astrology is to be believed, said counter ably countering any bad vibes that would somehoe find itself to me this coming Chinese new year.

Lousy Internet Service part 3

The last thing I thought of before, was to see this write up in three parts - alas, fate dealt a different blow, and I'm forced to share, once again, my frustrations with the Internet service... or to be clearer, non-service might be a better word. that we - as in my family and i, were experiencing.

Last time, I wrote about how frustrated we were with PLDT's DSL service being intermittent... and as the holiday came - non-existent. Well, this made us decide to shift from PLDT to Globe - after all, we were hearing good comments from people we knew about how stable their Globe internet was - so we did just that. We got ourselves a Globe wireless DSL, complete with a phone... and the first few months were heaven.

Service was fast, and consistent. I thought that was it for this article... in fact, I think I wrote part two of this as a form of closure... just to let others know how much better my internet service was those days.

I guess good things don't last... and now I'm writing this in reaction to once again not having any internet service at all during the holidays... zip... nada... nothing. unless you accept the fact that we'd get about 5 minutes worth of service - then two hours of no service... I mean, c'mon... 5 minutes, at the speed i was getting, wasn't even enough to update a Facebook status... let alone, read and answer email from friends. So yeah... I'd say, there was no decent internet service available to our household during December.

To Globe's credit though, their customer service was way better than what we experienced with PLDT - they were kind and responsive... we had people come in to check our hardware (checked out okay), they suggested we had an external antenna connected - just in case it was all these concrete walls in close proximity limiting the search and acquisition of their signal; and their technician came after a few days to do just that.

So here we were, with a hot spanking new external antenna - and we still could not receive consistent internet signals. To make sure, the technician double-checked our modem and PC... no problem there... so that left us with one possible problem... the transmitter.

Now I won't pretend to know the details of how wireless internet connection works exactly, but I have this sneaky feeling that there is a pool of available signals up for grabs - and to ensure that services are not poor, there would - in my opinion, have to be a ceiling to be followed as to how many people should share said signal. Go beyond that and we start feeling degradation of said signal. I mean, that seems to be the way in wired networks - so I think wireless would have the same headaches.

At first, our wonderful internet service was starting show stressful moments during week-ends, meaning there seemed to be difficulty at our getting any connection starting Friday evenings, and that would last until Sunday... which led me to think that the shared pool considered the possibility that not everyone would use the maximum capacity all the time, since most would be in school or at work... great business sense - if you can get away with it. But the service we signed up for was supposed to be unlimited, meaning it should be available 24/7 - which was clearly not the case. Now I don't know if people pretended not to know - which would mean they were trying to get away with the capacity load problem, or worse... were really inept at ensuring service was being given... but whichever the case may be, the end result was lousy internet service.

Like I said - hats off to the customer service pool, all the way to the responsive technicians... but what happens when the problem is more infrastructure? I heard that there was a hardware change - from Nokia transmitters to another brand... Erickson, I think, which might explain part of the reason for the degrading of signal sometime December, but after that had been properly installed and working, shouldn't the service (and signal) be better? I mean, wouldn't that be the idea?

It looks like a classical case of 'Sales' over-selling the available service - either ignorant of... or just ignoring any performance ceiling... and 'technical' getting stuck with the 'overstretched coverage' or 'spread out too thin signal' to meet customers' demands problem in this one... but the bottom line is, we... the paying consumers, get left in the poor service rut, and we don't really care which department is at fault.

Sure... Globe may be willing to talk about rebates or write-offs for services undelivered... but how do you equate the inability to connect to friends and loved ones during these past holidays? Now these may not have been transactions worth millions - but they were lost cherished moments, nonetheless.

Aside from that... it can simply be frustrating when for all your efforts in trying to do some possible repairs to get the system running, all I get from Windows is the diagnostic message: There may be a problem with your Domain Name Server (DNS) configuration. Windows failed to fins a well known host "www.microsoft.com" using the DNS. The server may be down.

As it is, we're thinking of switching to another provider - sure, there's a lock-down on the service, but if one party can't seem to deliver what was the agreed upon service, isn't the other party within their right to dissolve the contract? After all, we were never delinquent with our payments.

The big question though, is... if the two biggest Telecom service providers in the Philippines can't deliver internet service that is both responsive and really available 24/7 - specially during weekends, then who do we turn to?

A friend mentioned cable... and we already do have cable TV, so maybe... just maybe... that would be worth a try. So definitely, I'll have a part four for this... and hopefully... it will be a real closure to this problem.