Monday, January 12, 2004
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Sunday, January 04, 2004
A supposed upgrade...not!!!
Well, I decided to stop beating around the bush, and decidyed to get an upgrade for my main unit in the house. It's the unit I use for most photography processing work since I've invested quite a sum in making a hefty machine. I was dandy enough to buy another set of RAM to be inserted in the last RAM slot I have in the machine. Then I just found out that I can't upgrade the damn thing because of some design limitations. I really frustrates me at this point not being able to utilize that extra stick of RAM. I've been preparing for this upgrade for about 2 weeks now, constantly backing up data and shaving down the list of applications I would need to re-install on the machine. If there was any consolation about this, it got my butt moving and started work on making CD backups of my photography work. When your HD is already reporting weird memory sizes, there's a good chance that it might be at the brink of death...like what just happened to one of the drives of my main unit. Thank god for backups.
Had a nice dinner date with Rachel in Kitchen the other night. Treated her to a new hairdo in a salon somewhere in Greenbelt 3. It was kind of weird though going to a nice date having to bring the family car, since mine had the case of dead batteries. Did a little belated Christmas shopping, and got Rachel's sister a bar of soap from Lush. Smells good actually; reminds you of bubblegum.
Well, I decided to stop beating around the bush, and decidyed to get an upgrade for my main unit in the house. It's the unit I use for most photography processing work since I've invested quite a sum in making a hefty machine. I was dandy enough to buy another set of RAM to be inserted in the last RAM slot I have in the machine. Then I just found out that I can't upgrade the damn thing because of some design limitations. I really frustrates me at this point not being able to utilize that extra stick of RAM. I've been preparing for this upgrade for about 2 weeks now, constantly backing up data and shaving down the list of applications I would need to re-install on the machine. If there was any consolation about this, it got my butt moving and started work on making CD backups of my photography work. When your HD is already reporting weird memory sizes, there's a good chance that it might be at the brink of death...like what just happened to one of the drives of my main unit. Thank god for backups.
Had a nice dinner date with Rachel in Kitchen the other night. Treated her to a new hairdo in a salon somewhere in Greenbelt 3. It was kind of weird though going to a nice date having to bring the family car, since mine had the case of dead batteries. Did a little belated Christmas shopping, and got Rachel's sister a bar of soap from Lush. Smells good actually; reminds you of bubblegum.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Starting the New Year Productively
What am I doing on New Year's Eve? Well, I'm in the house right now with the windows all shut, in anticipation of all the smog produced with the fireworks later at 12. I wouldn't even imagine myself holding a firecracker, since most of my work depends on my fingers. Having to see all those horror stories of people blowing their hands off because of mishandling them has already got me jittered. I'm trying to fight procrastination or perhaps work compulsiveness. I mean, I want to reformat my unit tonight and make necessary repairs, but simply thinking about all the hassles I have to go through just makes me want to sit around and have another DVD marathon until the wee hours of the morning. I spent this afternoon at John's house watching him play Final Fantasy X-2, much to my delight. I mean, I'm just in the game for the sake of the story really. The gameplay is starting to frustrate me a little since I'm not that adept in the "active mode" style of playing the game. Ramon dropped by as well, and had me help him out with some Outlook Q&A. Had to leave around 5 though to make it to the annual merienda at my grandmother's house.
Are there things to look forward to in 2004? Well, I'm not really so sure. I hope the good things would never change the bad things would just go away. My folks are into this aroma therapy kind of thing, so they habitually light up glass burners in the house with scents ranging from eucalyptus to apples. It's been driving me insane. I'm not really the kind to complain about it to them, but I just hope they would just keep the smells within the confines of their own room? The only therapy I'm getting out of it is a low-grade migrane. I'm not the type to make resolutions during New Year, since I don't get to do them anyway, so why bother make one? If there was any, I guess is to break this habit of procrastinating.
What am I doing on New Year's Eve? Well, I'm in the house right now with the windows all shut, in anticipation of all the smog produced with the fireworks later at 12. I wouldn't even imagine myself holding a firecracker, since most of my work depends on my fingers. Having to see all those horror stories of people blowing their hands off because of mishandling them has already got me jittered. I'm trying to fight procrastination or perhaps work compulsiveness. I mean, I want to reformat my unit tonight and make necessary repairs, but simply thinking about all the hassles I have to go through just makes me want to sit around and have another DVD marathon until the wee hours of the morning. I spent this afternoon at John's house watching him play Final Fantasy X-2, much to my delight. I mean, I'm just in the game for the sake of the story really. The gameplay is starting to frustrate me a little since I'm not that adept in the "active mode" style of playing the game. Ramon dropped by as well, and had me help him out with some Outlook Q&A. Had to leave around 5 though to make it to the annual merienda at my grandmother's house.
Are there things to look forward to in 2004? Well, I'm not really so sure. I hope the good things would never change the bad things would just go away. My folks are into this aroma therapy kind of thing, so they habitually light up glass burners in the house with scents ranging from eucalyptus to apples. It's been driving me insane. I'm not really the kind to complain about it to them, but I just hope they would just keep the smells within the confines of their own room? The only therapy I'm getting out of it is a low-grade migrane. I'm not the type to make resolutions during New Year, since I don't get to do them anyway, so why bother make one? If there was any, I guess is to break this habit of procrastinating.
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Living a Pathetic Saturday Night Life
Where in the world is everybody? I mean, I was supposed to go out tonight with a couple of old friends and have a drink, but unfortunately plans didn't turn out the way I wanted them to be. Most of them already got other places to go, and I though last-minute partying is the way to go, not last-last-minute change of plans. What am I doing tonight? Well, asides from blogging, I'm keeping house in the home network right now and fixing up my HDs, or at least taking out the useless clutter and being obssessive compulsive about things. I think I might reformat the main unit some time tomorrow, when things settle down with the mess. Windows has been acting up strangely for the past few months, and it just got worse recently when the unit would just restart coincidently when I'm editing some huge image in PhotoShop. Speaking of which, just got myself a copy of the Adobe Creative Suite, which is totally amazing. I might pay another visit in Greenhills tomorrow and look for more software. I was going through my stuff and I saw this old Word doc labled, "Seattle Adventure". Lo and behold, it was my journal about the MVP Summit early this year. Amazingly, all 7 pages were literally hand-written on a small screen from a Pocket PC. Would be posting the entire thing on my new website due this coming new year.
Did I tell you I'm addicted to Final Fantasy X-2? Well, been playing it ever since it arrived at John's house early this week. Too bad I was only able to stay overnight because of family events. I don't have a PS2, so having to stay at John's was my only way to play the game. I'm just disppointed though that there's no XBOX version for Final Fantasy... Asides from living a pathetic life tonight, I was able to create a new homebrew coffee mixture from the usual ones I have. I remembered buying chocolate syrup a month back for Rachel's surprise dessert, so I used that as substitute for sugar. Didn't taste quite as sweet as I hoped it would be, but I guess it's enough to give me that mocha-ish flavor. There isn't anything that could be considered evening-edible tonight, and the only viable thing I saw is pandesal (round bread), which is already semi-stiff because of the weather. Pandesal I think should always be kept in warm weather to retain its softness, or does the flour play a big role in it? Oh well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm just making do with semi-stiff pandesal and experimental mocha. Anything else for my evening? Well, nothing really asides from the PC chores I have to finish. Hope you guys enjoy the new year, with all of your fingers intact.
Where in the world is everybody? I mean, I was supposed to go out tonight with a couple of old friends and have a drink, but unfortunately plans didn't turn out the way I wanted them to be. Most of them already got other places to go, and I though last-minute partying is the way to go, not last-last-minute change of plans. What am I doing tonight? Well, asides from blogging, I'm keeping house in the home network right now and fixing up my HDs, or at least taking out the useless clutter and being obssessive compulsive about things. I think I might reformat the main unit some time tomorrow, when things settle down with the mess. Windows has been acting up strangely for the past few months, and it just got worse recently when the unit would just restart coincidently when I'm editing some huge image in PhotoShop. Speaking of which, just got myself a copy of the Adobe Creative Suite, which is totally amazing. I might pay another visit in Greenhills tomorrow and look for more software. I was going through my stuff and I saw this old Word doc labled, "Seattle Adventure". Lo and behold, it was my journal about the MVP Summit early this year. Amazingly, all 7 pages were literally hand-written on a small screen from a Pocket PC. Would be posting the entire thing on my new website due this coming new year.
Did I tell you I'm addicted to Final Fantasy X-2? Well, been playing it ever since it arrived at John's house early this week. Too bad I was only able to stay overnight because of family events. I don't have a PS2, so having to stay at John's was my only way to play the game. I'm just disppointed though that there's no XBOX version for Final Fantasy... Asides from living a pathetic life tonight, I was able to create a new homebrew coffee mixture from the usual ones I have. I remembered buying chocolate syrup a month back for Rachel's surprise dessert, so I used that as substitute for sugar. Didn't taste quite as sweet as I hoped it would be, but I guess it's enough to give me that mocha-ish flavor. There isn't anything that could be considered evening-edible tonight, and the only viable thing I saw is pandesal (round bread), which is already semi-stiff because of the weather. Pandesal I think should always be kept in warm weather to retain its softness, or does the flour play a big role in it? Oh well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm just making do with semi-stiff pandesal and experimental mocha. Anything else for my evening? Well, nothing really asides from the PC chores I have to finish. Hope you guys enjoy the new year, with all of your fingers intact.
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Christmas Blues
You know you're too old for christmas when you start giving presents instead of receiving them. Coming from personal experience, it does sound a little selfishly disappointing. We had our usual family reunion last night at my grandparent's house. It was somehow the same old celebration, except for having more kids now (nieces and nephews), and a nostalgic air of what was Christmas in our family. It was kind of different not having Mama Dely around to join in, despite the fact that she has been spending less and less time downstairs in the festivities as the years went by. This year though, she wasn't around to go down at all. We all remembered her, along with Tito Junior and Tita Edith, both who passed away a couple of years before Mama did. I had mixed feelings that night about spending Christmas. It sure wasn't like the old days, when Iya and I were considered the youngest ones in the family; well not until Gaby, and Andrea really made their presence felt through the years. Somehow you get to muster a meloncholic smile, and relive those moments through the new kids in the family. There's quite a multitude now, with my older cousins starting their own families. It's quite amusing how all of them would play and argue over a game of twister later that night. If there was something different this year, most of us didn't receive Christmas money anymore. I'm sourgraping over that fact, but somehow it kind of makes me think of how times passes and eventually good things would have an end. Well, I sure did enjoy it while it lasted, and I guess it's the younger generation who now have their turn in enjoying Christmas almost the same way we did.
You know you're too old for christmas when you start giving presents instead of receiving them. Coming from personal experience, it does sound a little selfishly disappointing. We had our usual family reunion last night at my grandparent's house. It was somehow the same old celebration, except for having more kids now (nieces and nephews), and a nostalgic air of what was Christmas in our family. It was kind of different not having Mama Dely around to join in, despite the fact that she has been spending less and less time downstairs in the festivities as the years went by. This year though, she wasn't around to go down at all. We all remembered her, along with Tito Junior and Tita Edith, both who passed away a couple of years before Mama did. I had mixed feelings that night about spending Christmas. It sure wasn't like the old days, when Iya and I were considered the youngest ones in the family; well not until Gaby, and Andrea really made their presence felt through the years. Somehow you get to muster a meloncholic smile, and relive those moments through the new kids in the family. There's quite a multitude now, with my older cousins starting their own families. It's quite amusing how all of them would play and argue over a game of twister later that night. If there was something different this year, most of us didn't receive Christmas money anymore. I'm sourgraping over that fact, but somehow it kind of makes me think of how times passes and eventually good things would have an end. Well, I sure did enjoy it while it lasted, and I guess it's the younger generation who now have their turn in enjoying Christmas almost the same way we did.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Actually feeling some christmas spirit
It is the season when it's okay for people to just call you up in the middle of the night, and suddenly plan a roadtrip. I came from a shoot last Saturday, only to find myself snoozing the entire afternoon. On the good side though, Emilio dropped by the studio that day and helped me out with the product photography. I have to admit though, that's my weak point when in came to this line of job. I usually work with people, and shooting inanimate stuff just leaves me dumbfounded. Well, I got through it that afternoon and was able to send work to my client within the day. Next thing I knew, I was as good as knocked out when I got home. It gets pretty disorienting having to sleep during the evening, and waking up still seeing darkness. Doesn't do the body clock good.
I spent Monday going around Quiapo to get myself some nice stuff, with the funds Dad gave me. I was able to get a deal from one of the shops over a nifty digital camera for about P 16,500. Comes along with a printer and paper too. Although I'm not really after the printer and paper, I just thought it's quite a bargain. It was also my sister's oath taking in Manila Hotel, so I had to hitch a ride with them to make it Quiapo. I also got dad a Lord of the Rings: Return of the King DVD (pirated of course), for him to watch that evening. Rachel called up later that night and asked if I wanted to go see the carnival with her mom. Well, I couldn't resist nor refuse the offer, so next thing I know, I was already on my way to her apartment. The nearby carnival was called, "Paskong Pasiklab" which was sponsored by ABS-CBN. Honestly, I haven't been to carnivals for such a long time, and the last one I visited was more than 10 years ago when we used to have reunions with my mom's friends in Alabang. The carnival there was called "Big Bang sa Alabang". I'm not so sure if that place still exists until now though. Anyway, we just spent the night walking around the place, and did not dare to take the usual rides.
I guess everything is affected by inflation and a bad economy, which just makes the price of having fun a little more expensive than before. Chits and tickets already given up in exchange for hard cash right from the booth. If the the lack of health insurance is one thing, the cost of riding them are another. Rachel and I decided to ride the carting track, which damaged us around P100.00 each. If that didn't discourage us, just getting a kick out of the so-called labyrinth cost around P60.00. The remainder the place was just spent on walking and gawking at people. If some things haven't changed, it's those freak shows they still hold. I know they're a complete hoax, but some still get the thrill of watching something out of the ordinary. Maybe perhaps to kids. I honestly didn't buy those stuff when I younger.
I'm at John's right now, spending a nice afternoon playing Final Fantasy X-2. Whatta Christmas...wallowing in geekhood. Too bad there's no XBOX edition for the Final Fantasy series...Sounds a little depressing. Merry Christmas guys!
It is the season when it's okay for people to just call you up in the middle of the night, and suddenly plan a roadtrip. I came from a shoot last Saturday, only to find myself snoozing the entire afternoon. On the good side though, Emilio dropped by the studio that day and helped me out with the product photography. I have to admit though, that's my weak point when in came to this line of job. I usually work with people, and shooting inanimate stuff just leaves me dumbfounded. Well, I got through it that afternoon and was able to send work to my client within the day. Next thing I knew, I was as good as knocked out when I got home. It gets pretty disorienting having to sleep during the evening, and waking up still seeing darkness. Doesn't do the body clock good.
I spent Monday going around Quiapo to get myself some nice stuff, with the funds Dad gave me. I was able to get a deal from one of the shops over a nifty digital camera for about P 16,500. Comes along with a printer and paper too. Although I'm not really after the printer and paper, I just thought it's quite a bargain. It was also my sister's oath taking in Manila Hotel, so I had to hitch a ride with them to make it Quiapo. I also got dad a Lord of the Rings: Return of the King DVD (pirated of course), for him to watch that evening. Rachel called up later that night and asked if I wanted to go see the carnival with her mom. Well, I couldn't resist nor refuse the offer, so next thing I know, I was already on my way to her apartment. The nearby carnival was called, "Paskong Pasiklab" which was sponsored by ABS-CBN. Honestly, I haven't been to carnivals for such a long time, and the last one I visited was more than 10 years ago when we used to have reunions with my mom's friends in Alabang. The carnival there was called "Big Bang sa Alabang". I'm not so sure if that place still exists until now though. Anyway, we just spent the night walking around the place, and did not dare to take the usual rides.
I guess everything is affected by inflation and a bad economy, which just makes the price of having fun a little more expensive than before. Chits and tickets already given up in exchange for hard cash right from the booth. If the the lack of health insurance is one thing, the cost of riding them are another. Rachel and I decided to ride the carting track, which damaged us around P100.00 each. If that didn't discourage us, just getting a kick out of the so-called labyrinth cost around P60.00. The remainder the place was just spent on walking and gawking at people. If some things haven't changed, it's those freak shows they still hold. I know they're a complete hoax, but some still get the thrill of watching something out of the ordinary. Maybe perhaps to kids. I honestly didn't buy those stuff when I younger.
I'm at John's right now, spending a nice afternoon playing Final Fantasy X-2. Whatta Christmas...wallowing in geekhood. Too bad there's no XBOX edition for the Final Fantasy series...Sounds a little depressing. Merry Christmas guys!
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Back to the 80s
I really don't know what bit me last night, but I suddenly had this nostalgic search for some 80s music. Yeah, I know for alot of people, and even some sectors of the music industry, the 80s were a strange moment in music history. I mean, these were the times when hairbands were the in things; all you could hear are cheesy electronica-laid pop-rock, Jane Fonda-ish tights are the hip fashion statements and Kyle Minogue was still dancing the locomotion. Well for me, I got the sort of unconscious icon; most of us know his songs, but didn't bother to know who he was: Rick Astley. Yeah, I was searching for him in the Kazaa network the other night. Luckily though, I did land with some of the popular songs he had back in the late 80s. I'm not really sure what circa of the 80s was his time, but he was quite influential to those people's hayday.
I really don't know what bit me last night, but I suddenly had this nostalgic search for some 80s music. Yeah, I know for alot of people, and even some sectors of the music industry, the 80s were a strange moment in music history. I mean, these were the times when hairbands were the in things; all you could hear are cheesy electronica-laid pop-rock, Jane Fonda-ish tights are the hip fashion statements and Kyle Minogue was still dancing the locomotion. Well for me, I got the sort of unconscious icon; most of us know his songs, but didn't bother to know who he was: Rick Astley. Yeah, I was searching for him in the Kazaa network the other night. Luckily though, I did land with some of the popular songs he had back in the late 80s. I'm not really sure what circa of the 80s was his time, but he was quite influential to those people's hayday.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
The real deal with Nintendo
Been trying to convince myself out of procrastination and write something in my blog. Quite a bit of things happened within 6 days of not writing. Well, I was supposed to start things off with a comment on a recent Time article I read about Nintendo almost at the end of their rope battling it off in the console wars between Microsoft and Sony. The article went on saying that Nintendo is pretty much the underdog among the three, while they struggle with Microsoft for the #2 spot in the video game industry. Unfortunately, going head-to-head with Sony is the definite no-no; the consumer giant has a griplock of 74% with the PS2, while Microsoft and Nintendo half the rest in between with 13% each. Nintendo has been banking pretty much on the younger generation with their long-running titles of Mario, Pokemon and Zelda. Unfortunately, such franchises can't last for that long, despite the fact that it has worked for Nintendo for almost 2 decades. They once ruled the market with Sega (who eventually discontinued their console development with the Dreamcast), but tides seem to be against them unless they could come up with something great. Production was stopped for the Gamecube because of their production glut, and had to make drastic price slashes in order to jack up sales over this holiday season. Despite their longetivity in the market, their size isn't match for Microsoft and Sony who could take a good whipping in the financial red first before seeing the daylight of profits. On the brighter side, Nintendo does currently rule the handhelds with Gameboy Advance despite upcoming threats from mobile phone manufacturers turning their phones into gaming consoles as well, instantly converting users. I find that unlikely though, since most of the games embedded into the phone. Although defined the same way as games, the format doesn't seem to match the one the video game industry is patterned after. Mobile phone companies would have to reformat the way they push for game development for their phones if they would want a piece of the handheld market. As far as I could see, they don't really have strong push for 3rd party developers to actually write deep games for their phones. Unlike you'd really want to see a small-screen version of Finaly Fantasy Tactics.
I keep an XBOX in the house for most of my gaming leisure. Why? For one, it's Microsoft. One way or the other, I have been influenced with my experience as an MVP and in Academic .NET (see Stan! I added a space!). And it's a nice platform to work in. Imagine, just having Direct X and Visual Studio, and you're all set to make games!
Saddam Captured
Well, I thought Nintendo's woes were my personal headlines of the evening, until I watched BBC in Rachel's apartment the other night. It was quite a shocker for the world to see Saddam all bearded and dirty while he was being examined by a US military doctor. I really don't hold much opinion against / for this issue, I guess it's just a thing to reflect on America's role as the world's police against terrorism. It is a good reason to celebrate this time around and rally around this capture, but all this media hype makes us forget that the one reason why they invaded Iraq was to look for weapons of mass destruction, only to find nothing. Then the rhetoric went on saying that it's for the liberation of Iraq against the regime of Saddam Hussein for what? Perhaps to cover up the blunder they assumed in the first place. I'm not against this entire thing actually. I'm not a big fan of Saddam, if you ask me, but whether the ends of such issues are right, we just have to place ourselves within right bounds. I wonder how willl the aftermath of this capture would turn out... for or against the US?
Been trying to convince myself out of procrastination and write something in my blog. Quite a bit of things happened within 6 days of not writing. Well, I was supposed to start things off with a comment on a recent Time article I read about Nintendo almost at the end of their rope battling it off in the console wars between Microsoft and Sony. The article went on saying that Nintendo is pretty much the underdog among the three, while they struggle with Microsoft for the #2 spot in the video game industry. Unfortunately, going head-to-head with Sony is the definite no-no; the consumer giant has a griplock of 74% with the PS2, while Microsoft and Nintendo half the rest in between with 13% each. Nintendo has been banking pretty much on the younger generation with their long-running titles of Mario, Pokemon and Zelda. Unfortunately, such franchises can't last for that long, despite the fact that it has worked for Nintendo for almost 2 decades. They once ruled the market with Sega (who eventually discontinued their console development with the Dreamcast), but tides seem to be against them unless they could come up with something great. Production was stopped for the Gamecube because of their production glut, and had to make drastic price slashes in order to jack up sales over this holiday season. Despite their longetivity in the market, their size isn't match for Microsoft and Sony who could take a good whipping in the financial red first before seeing the daylight of profits. On the brighter side, Nintendo does currently rule the handhelds with Gameboy Advance despite upcoming threats from mobile phone manufacturers turning their phones into gaming consoles as well, instantly converting users. I find that unlikely though, since most of the games embedded into the phone. Although defined the same way as games, the format doesn't seem to match the one the video game industry is patterned after. Mobile phone companies would have to reformat the way they push for game development for their phones if they would want a piece of the handheld market. As far as I could see, they don't really have strong push for 3rd party developers to actually write deep games for their phones. Unlike you'd really want to see a small-screen version of Finaly Fantasy Tactics.
I keep an XBOX in the house for most of my gaming leisure. Why? For one, it's Microsoft. One way or the other, I have been influenced with my experience as an MVP and in Academic .NET (see Stan! I added a space!). And it's a nice platform to work in. Imagine, just having Direct X and Visual Studio, and you're all set to make games!
Saddam Captured
Well, I thought Nintendo's woes were my personal headlines of the evening, until I watched BBC in Rachel's apartment the other night. It was quite a shocker for the world to see Saddam all bearded and dirty while he was being examined by a US military doctor. I really don't hold much opinion against / for this issue, I guess it's just a thing to reflect on America's role as the world's police against terrorism. It is a good reason to celebrate this time around and rally around this capture, but all this media hype makes us forget that the one reason why they invaded Iraq was to look for weapons of mass destruction, only to find nothing. Then the rhetoric went on saying that it's for the liberation of Iraq against the regime of Saddam Hussein for what? Perhaps to cover up the blunder they assumed in the first place. I'm not against this entire thing actually. I'm not a big fan of Saddam, if you ask me, but whether the ends of such issues are right, we just have to place ourselves within right bounds. I wonder how willl the aftermath of this capture would turn out... for or against the US?
