Power Nap, Power Play

Really got irritated today.

I was fortunate enough to have a three hour break. Though they were not consecutive breaks, I still enjoy the fact that after sometime, I would have one hour to do anything I want. I spend my first break eating lunch. The next was something that I really needed. I started at 8am so I was really drowsy by then, so I took a power nap. I informed my friends to wake me up before the end of my break. 

I plugged my ear phones and dozed off. I nearly dozed off until someone tapped me on the shoulder. I woke up startled and irritated, I haven't even been asleep for 10 minutes.  It was one of my colleagues and she was asking me to wake up to suggest things for supplies for the clinic. It was something that could actually wait. It wasn't really urgent and the moment I was already awake, she was already talking to one of our personnel and seemed to have given a fairly long list.

Aaargh! What the hell did she wake me up for?

Moldy

Every person needs to pause once in a while from all the regular work he or she has been doing. With the week long Halloween break for me, I found it rather depressing.

Every working person would get a hard time cleaning up the house or the room especially if you work 6 days a week and on your days off, you catch up on sleep. That has already been a routine for me. Whatever short one or two hour breaks I get, I spend buffering all the other outside noises to enjoy a little personal space. Thus, you could easily picture out my room, our house to be in complete disarray. (Ok, disarray IS an understatement.) 

So today, a Thursday and the official start of my week-long Halloween break (I did mention week-long right?), I took the task of cleaning up my room (partially cleaning, that is). I have been pushing this task a long time only to regret it later.

Of all parts of the room I was meticulous about, I highly try to keep my books as clean and safe as possible. So, I couldn't forget the horror when I tried to take all the books out of my closet shelf (You couldn't imagine where else I have been putting all my books). Half of the books were wet and moldy. Ants apparently loved the place and the shelf was smelling of fresh mold.

In a sudden rush of mad panic, I immediately took out ALL the books from the shelves and started examining each one. A lot were still soaking wet, several started to have white squishy molds, but over all, the books were still salvageable if I can keep them dry.

That put all the cleaning effort to a halt and the salvaging of books to a start. I began perusing the web for potential book cleaning efforts only to find some really helpful but difficult to do ways to salvage moldy books or paper.

Here are some ways from museum SOS:

1. Find what is causing the mold growth. In my case it's a broken downspout. The water found its way behind my bookshelf. It caused the wood to warp and the books got wet as well
2. Modify the environment so that is no longer conducive to mold growth. The repair of the downspout would have to wait though. In the mean time, I tried keeping the closet open to let the air circulate. I also tried to blast the area with cold air.
3. Implement safety precautions for all the people working on moldy items. The page suggested things that are alien for me. I didn't follow it so I'll suffer the repercussions later. Great job, Worthy!!
4. Isolate the affected items. I immediately separated the bad books from the good ones.
5. Begin to dry the materials. The step suggested putting the books in an airconditioned space. Since I can't go to the nearest convenience store or fast food, to aircondition the books, I placed them outside in the sun where there's enough air circulation. (screw the sun though, it's a cloudy day today). Oh! and the guide also suggested putting the books out of humid places, but this is the Philippines for crying out loud. Humidity is best here.
6. If drying is not possible, freeze them. I had the idea of stuffing all the books inside our refrigerator but I knew someone would kill me when I do that.
7. Clean the affected items. Do not try to clean the active mold (soft and fuzzy) yourself. This got me really surprised. I just tried to remove all the molds by hand before reading this article. So good bye cruel world.
8. Dry and thoroughly clean the room where the mold outbreak occurred. Have I mentioned that cleaning the room went into a halt? Well, it's still on halt.
9. Return the materials to the affected area. I said everything went on HALT! Seriously though, I still couldn't return the books back since the closet and the downspout still is broken.
10. Continue to monitor conditions to prevent mold growth. Whatever.

Hope this really help. Just follow the instructions to avoid being like me.

Basketball Fever

I once quipped during the height of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, that if Filipinos embraced football, we could have been contenders for the World Cup. We could be twice as fast as any World cup players. There's no need to measure height since the height isn't a real big deal in football. If we ever decided to join the World Cup, we could probably be at par with the best teams in the World. We're better off playing football.

Yet a few months after, here I am watching old clips from old PBA games particularly the Toyota-Crispa Reunion in 2003 where most of the old guys sweat it out like they were in their mid-20s. It was a fun match full of heart and passion. Those were times when most of the players wore short shorts and could really fly (yes, guys could wear short shorts and get cheered at by beautiful girls). I don't know about now since I never get to watch any of the games.

Moreover, I bought a PSP three weeks ago. I loaded some games. If you'd look at it, you'd definitely laugh. I have two different versions of an NBA game and I get to play those two more than the other games on my device. I just caught myself today, and had a good laugh out of it.

In another note, the book by Rafe Bartholomew is now out in the Philippines. It's called "Pacific Rims." (The author didn't pay me to promote this. I haven't even read the book yet.) As the author put it, this is about the Philippines where basketball is ingrained in every street in each of the 7,107 islands of our country. In an interview, the author even says that the most basic aspects of our society revolves around basketball, politics for one, is also affected by the hard court.

True enough, this country may not boast of tall players, but watching the game of old guys bumping and bruising each other to get an orange ball inside a hoop is exhilarating. Sure, catching the one point lead of one team in football gives you the thrills as well, but the action of basketball seemed to be more appealing to the hearts of every Filipino.

Sure, anyone could enumerate wonderful reasons why Filipinos should take up football instead. Yet once you hear the "swooop" of the ball hitting the net, the reasons fade and the game begins.

Mis mo!

Ode to Light

I'm experiencing a inevitable setback for a few weeks now.

I bought a few books this week to replenish my already dwindling reading list. I was about to start reading one of these books when suddenly someone took my picture. I knew someone did, there was a flash of light. One thought hit me: I HAVE STALKERS IN MY ROOM!!!

Then, it happened again, a flash of light. Then again, and again. Now I felt like my room turned into a dance floor with the flashing lights. These couldn't be stalkers unless they have ultra super fast but super small SLR cameras, which would be very impossible.

The culprit was none other than my reading light. I closed my book and went to sleep. Tomorrow I'll try to find out what's wrong with my light.

That was two weeks ago. My bedroom light had a busted florescent lamp - a 15 Watt lamp. It's still broken. 

When I asked my brother to buy a replacement lamp, he found out that they didn't sell any of those any more. They never ordered one of those for a long time. How convenient! Did I also mention that he tried all of the hardware stores in our vicinity (J.P. Rizal Street in Makati has more or less 10 hardware stores).

What's frustrating is that I could understand why. I received this bedroom reading lamp when I was still in high school. My parents discovered that I was slowly occupying the whole bookshelf with my own books and I was about to exhaust all the books in our school library, so they gave me a reading lamp they won from some promo. I couldn't remember the details. It was that long ago. All I know was that my complaint then was that staying on the lower deck of a double decker, you don't get enough light to read anything.

For the record, the lamp has been replaced less than 5 times in span of almost 9 years. It's that economical. I have used it to read more than a hundred books and has been a great help when I was writing those long articles we used to submit before our journalist teacher. It has seen a lot of action. In fact, it has the battle scars to prove it. It has a busted outlet where I used to plug in my charger. How it got busted was long forgotten.

I like that lamp. I hope to find a replacement lamp or I won't be able to read any book, which is really scary.

Gotta Catch 'Em All Craze

"Largest Collection of Pokemon Memorabilia: 12,113 unique Poke-things make up UK-resident, Lisa Courtney's real life Pokedex." - Guiness World Records for Gamers

I couldn’t believe that someone literally took the initial concept of Pokemon seriously and took it to another level. You can’t blame that person, it might be fun.

I remember myself when the pokemon craze started. I was in highschool back then. 1st year I think. There was a group of us, rather most of the boys in our class, became hooked. We were like some underground organization meeting just before the flag ceremony to talk about our latest catch on our pokemon games. We all had a copy of the game either through emulator or through a real gameboy. Most of us memorized the current 1st generation pokemon. 151 in all including the, then elusive mew and the yet to be revealed Mewtwo.

Just like any juvenile craze, it died down after a year and was replaced by mini-4wds.

At least that’s what I thought.

Come college, I met someone who was also hooked. Although he doesn’t look interested, he asked me to download the latest games on an NDS emulator and he sometimes searches for the action figure of his favorite pokemon. I know he wouldn’t comment on this, it would be very obvious.

I also did the same though. Boys will always be boys.

In defense, there was a thin line of limitation through it all. We never talked about it openly. We never even aimed to collect all of them, just those that looked the coolest or meanest. But 12,113 Poke-things is just over our heads. It’s total addiction. It’s “gotta catch ‘em all” on a higher level.

If anything, I wouldn’t go there at all! I’ll just leave Lisa Courtney be. It’s her passion. In the same way, leave me be, I’m just playing here.

Wanna trade your Munchlax for my Riolu?

The Case of the Smelly Pandan

Two friends messaged me to post another blog. The first one sent the message on facebook. The other one sent it through my nerves. That friend lives between my ears. 

No matter how I try, I seem to find myself starting blogs and losing interest somewhere in the middle. In the end, I don't get any posts done. Don't worry though, it's a different case for eval reports and work related stuff. I also hit the deadlines with church related stuff.

Anyway, these days are really rock. My mind is currently in search for answers. You see, around our house, you could see leaves that look like this:
That's Pandanus or in local terms, pandan. Wikipedia says that it's a genus of monocots with about 600 species. Seriously I didn't know they were this many. The leaves are usually used in weaving mats and the like. Most of us also use pandan to give rice an aroma. Yep, it's that smelly. And of course, who wouldn't know of the all too common buco pandan? It's a delicacy!

So why did we put it around the house? Simple. Someone told us that pandan repels insects especially cockroach. No it doesn't kill roaches, my brother tried hitting the roaches with those leaves and they just scurried away. I didn't know which is really ineffective either the pandan or my brother. I'm betting everything on the latter.

Anyway, so someone did tell us to put pandan in every corner of the house that became home to squatter roaches.
I also placed some in our cabinet where we hang our pants.
Even on my bookshelves.

I was eager to see what would happen after I placed it there. I imagined some aura from the leaves would ward off the cockroaches that seemed to appear at night when our neighbors below us started spraying.

The chance for the pandan to show it's stuff happened last night. Our neighbor sprayed their insecticide in the middle of the night. Two things happened. First, the pandan was able to hold back the roaches from entering our cabinets and corners. Second, since the roaches had nowhere else to go, they went to the sleeping person on the bed which was none other than me!

Conclusion? I had one hell of a night swatting those roaches away. Killed a lot. I learned that pandan works and that my neighbor needed scolding for spraying insecticide in the middle of the night.

Distractions

I was on fire last month. My fingers were blazing hot. My hands won’t stop moving. Words streamed endlessly from my head directly to the computer word processor straight to my blog.

It was a spur of the moment thing. I just went home one day feeling tired of playing the usual computer games or reading other people’s posts and rants. I just felt like typing my heart away on the computer. I found myself there sitting in the quiet of the night my head brimming with endless thoughts about various things. Felt like lightning struck. I never felt this way before.

I was what you would call inspired. By what or who I have no idea, but the thoughts seemed to pour out like rain. No time to dilly dally, no time to spend joking around or watching something. It was as if a deadline was drawing near. I was typing like crazy.

I brought my laptop the whole week just to finish the post. I was so engrossed I used my entire spare time including my lunch breaks just to type everything down.

I ended up posting 1-2 posts a week. Everything was about my recent experiences, observations, and feelings. Everything made a career high of 10-15 visit to my blog in a day. Not that I care about the visits though. The number of posts and the endless stream of words coming out of my head was overwhelming. I was on fire.

It lasted for a month.

I dunno how come it ended too soon. The ideas were still brimming inside my head. I guess it’s already a common occurrence for anyone to get an idea several times a day. I did but I had a hard time putting it down unlike the month before. Whatever happened to me?

I was distracted.

I was clearly taken off track by several things that came all at once. It was like getting the whole basketball team to steal the precious ball away from you. There were so many things that came that I simply lost the time to write down the simplest thoughts that could blossom into inspiration. I found myself at a loss for words.

First came the game. I had that tendency to get hooked in video games. It’s an Achilles heel of some sort. That was the reason why I didn’t dare play on facebook. However, it was some evil wind that brought me to possess an NBA Live Game. Until now, it kept on taking away most of my time that instead of tapping away on the word processor,  I was tapping my way to the playoffs.

Next came the manga. It was also my downfall. I kept on reading manga which actually sparked my hunger for sports games. I thought I was already finished until the idea came back to reread some of them. So if I was not playing games, I was reading manga on my computer.

With these two distracters, I have totally forgotten to mind my blogs or even share the wonderful wisdom given to me. However, I seem to be reviving a bit after finding out that I could squeeze some time to write like this one. I hope I could post more in the following days until the holiday break ends.

 

 

Some Things I Wanted To See

I come now to a long period of rest from any activity. I find myself sitting on my bed with a laptop and a cell phone at my disposal with no one to text, call or even chat with. It has been almost a year since I last had this kind of moment. I feel like I could do anything with all the time at my disposal. I could watch anything I’ve missed watching.

Then again, I don’t think I can do that just yet. After all, not all of them are TV programs or movies. So after gathering all of my thoughts and pondering over such things, I have made a list of 10 things that I would really love to see and watch in no particular order. (I have long planned for this post and this is the perfect moment to do this.)

Stage Play – After participating in 4 stage plays (ESTRAGEL 1-4) and watching several others, I find myself missing those moments of practices as well as

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BREAK!!!

yey! after several days of waiting, the break I have been waiting for has finally arrived and what better way to greet a well deserved break than by posting one of many blogs to come?

For today, I have finally slept long and deep. Something like 10 or 11 hours of sleep. Now that's really long. I don't know why I was able to rest that long but I did. I wasn't tired or anything.
Sabbaths don't tire you out after all. In fact, you get to stay up from 8am to 7 or 8pm in bonding and fellowship with God and other believers.

Others who never had that chance misses more than half of their lives. But that's really what happens every sabbath. We start off at 8am and end by around 8pm. Of course, that's not pure worship service, there's eating, laughing and goofing around in between and sometimes the goofing part takes up most of the day. It's really a good way to start the break. So much for the sabbath.

So saturday night, I slept soundly and woke up the next day at 10am. Really late than my usual 6am. It's really one long slumber. I really appreciated it. So here's to that great rest!!

I just hope that I wont do that for the next two weeks. That's bound to be one great head ache if it did!

Taking It Further

I found several sheets of paper on the front desk of our clinic last week. On it were the names of all therapists with 3 blanks underneath. On the heading of the first sheet was marked “WISH LIST.” I didn’t know if I should jump for adulation or slump back in worry. Actually the feeling was something I felt whenever I go to buy my own shoes or clothes – clueless.

For a week now, it was a question that really bugged me. What do I really like? What do I wish for? Is world peace an option? How about love?  Or happiness? Or a house and lot and 7 boxing championship belts?

For a limited budget, those things are hard to find. Kidding aside, the more I think about it, the more I’ve realized that a person’s preferences changes over time. Whether it be something abstract as love, friendship or happiness to something more concrete and material as gadgets, cars and houses. Maybe it’s because people tend to get no satisfaction at all. Maybe not. I’m no expert so I can only answer for myself.

So after putting up my wish list for our clinic’s Christmas party, I have decided to take it further and find out what I really wanted. I know it may seem like I’m swinging for the fence, so what if I do? We all get a chance at bat anyway, so just give me my chance to swing for the fence, maybe lady luck would give me a homerun. Here are some of the more tangible items that I wished for in any order:

1.       Book  Collection – I’m starting to build up a collection of books by Robert Fulghum from your friendly neighborhood BOOKSALE. Yet this collection has lots of volumes missing. These don’t cost much, somewhere between 100-500 pesos, if bought from booksale. But that’s not all, I also wanted to build up my own Arnold Arre graphic novel collection priced at around 500 per book, my own CS Lewis Christian volumes collection (500 per book) among others.






2.       Notebook PC– Ok, so I already have a laptop. I even brogged (brag blog? bwahaha) about it last year. But laptops have a short lifespan and with the way I am carrying it, it’s lifetime would most likely be shorter. How did I know? I don’t know but I can feel it. I’m not after the classy notebooks something around PhP 15, 000 is enough for my needs.

3.       Handheld Console – I’m still undecided if it would be a PSP or a NDS. I have tried both and I liked both, but I can’t get both. I like PSP since it’s more cool looking especially the 3D effects. However, it’s bulkier than an NDS. An NDS on the other hand, aside being the only console among the 2 to play Pokemon Diamond, I liked its compact and game boy-like design and the prospect of having dual screens with a touch screen are cool. However, most games look like spawns from cartoons. Both consoles are as much as PhP 10, 000.




4.       Ipod Touch – Maricon, my friend bought one and I found it cool and useful, but her 32GB might be too much for me, 8GB might do the trick. I really have a hard time saving up the 5, 000 to 10, 000 peso Ipod. What really makes me want to get this is it’s wide collection of applications and wifi accessibility which means internet all the time. And from what I heard, it has an application that plays SNES games. woohoo!!





5.       Camera – I used to think that I really didn’t want a DSLR since it’s too bulky or too bothersome for me. Yet after hanging out with the Backlitas (church photogs) I seem to get the photography madness this trio brings to everyone. After some consultation, I found the right tool for me, a canon G10. It’s doesn’t require those expensive lenses but they say it produces great raw shots perfect for a blogger’s use. However, this really means swinging for the fence, it’s price is almost like any SLR at 25, 000 minimum.




6.       House – This is one big dream. And I mean BIG! I have no idea about the location or the prices. I never bothered to look. I just wanted to have one that’s all. It would be cool to own your own house no matter where it is. Personally, I’d still prefer the provincial setting on top of the mountain overlooking the sea. Just a small bungalow would suffice, I guess. If I get to own my house, the next wish will surely follow.




7.       Car – Again another gargantuan dream. Forget about the soaring gas prices, I still think that owning your own vehicle is way too cool. I need something simple and small, something perfect for my needs. I’m not sure what kind though and this is only wishful thinking since I really don’t find it practical. But wait, have I written anything practical on this list so far? I don’t think so.

Boy, this really needs careful planning.But as I said, this is a wish list. Now I could take action and make this a reality or just leave it as a wish. It's all on me. Unless anyone reading this would take pity and give me any one of these.


 

It Doesn't Matter

If someone asked you, “how old are you?” How would you respond?

In my current world of yuppies, fancy coffee shops and gadgets, I have often met people who answered that question with a gaze that seemed to say, “Is that even a question?” It’s true. Once a girl I met just stared at me when I asked that question. Another guy guffawed with gusto when I asked his age.

I really couldn’t help but wonder why they tried to avoid such a question as simple as how many earth rotations around the sun you have experienced. Why do people hide their age?

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My Futile Attempts.

Oh how much I've struggled.

I've tried everything to get to know you more. I tried looking around. I tried asking around. I tried keeping track of you. I kept my eyes and ears open. I kept my mind open as well.

Remember how I've poured out my all. All my frustrations, my rants and my aspirations. You became a witness to it all. I could only repay you by looking out at you. Struggling to keep you updated.

And you know, I never gave up on you. Even though it's hard and the times were though, I still kept you in my mind and hoped that one of these days I could visit you. I still longed to pour it all out.

How long has it been? I could not even remember. Yet my attempts were still futile. My ideas were still limited. My powers to keep you and bring you to the pinnacle of success were set back by mediocrity, lack of talent and technical know how.

I know, my attempts were futile.

I got frustrated.

But that won't stop me from going on. That won't hinder me from learning more and pouring out all my energies.

It's hard I know. There's a lot of things to know.

Yet I will do it all. You just wait. You'll be like others like you.

One of these days, I will know how to manage my wordpress blogs properly and learn what makes you tick. You just wait blog, I'll make you visually entertaining! :-P

What exactly were you thinking? This is about my other blog.

So I Sit Here... Alone

I'm currently sitting alone in a shop some kilometers from home.

Not that the distance matters. Actually, I kinda enjoy being away from home for a day. Most times, I don't sit down. I walk

I love walking the same way some people I know loved to run or hike. I love walking along the busy streets of Manila. It shows life at its peak. You hear the buzzing of people, and the loud sounds of the shops nearby. Once in a while, a passing car would amaze you or a store would entice you to come in and check its wares.

Walking gives me the pleasure of thought. It allows me to recollect what has happened during the day and how it created an impact in my life.

Today though, I sat down. I hope I didn't. I didn't know that from where I was sitting, a band would be playing a few meters from me. A full band with drums and all. The lead vocals wasn't that good. The song wasn't even familiar and the people weren't even shouting in joy.

I tried walking for 4 hours already while waiting for some people I was supposed to meet. I sat down inside a coffee shop near the entrance of the mall. Apparently they weren't coming. Oh well!

Current Location: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, SM North EDSA
Currently Listening: Some freaking band sprouting out noise.

Need Cleaning ASAP

Finally, my disorganization has caught up with me.

I hated it.

My music player broke down. It was a minor problem, really, but once under warranty, you'd think twice before opening and tinkering with it. So down to the service center I went.

It was minor alright, but worse part of it was I couldn't find my receipt. I knew I stashed it somewhere safe. I guess I was too careful. It was so safe, even I had trouble remembering where it was.

So as of this writing, my bed is cluttered with dozens of books accumulated within 6 months time. Various papers, pamphlets and handouts of bygone days when studying was a habit and receiving condo unit brochures were common, are scattered around my bed and under it. Boxes big and small are open with its contents all over the floor. 

I realized how messy my room was at the moment. Everything was out of place. Add to the fact that some places it's moist and damp probably from the previous storms. Hope cockroaches haven't moved in yet. I'd get all the fun exterminating them soon.

So just bear with the short post. I just wanted release.

I actually couldn't imagine how one person such as me could make a really huge disaster in a single place. In no more than a few feet, I have wrought havoc over all things I have. Just think, I haven't thrown my clothes all over the place yet, so you could only imagine what one of me could do to a small space as my room. And I am just one person. One entity. A puny human.

Not to horde all the glory of the spoils, but I think there's more than a billion people in the world who are probably better or worse than me. Give or take. Better or worse than me, they too could do a certain degree of disarray in their rooms. They too could cause enough CFCs to float in the air or enough garbage to cover the whole world twice over.

Imagine what little damage a few billion of us could do to a small speck in the Milky Way called Earth.

Maybe it's time we cleaned up our room.

Currently: Searching for missing receipt
Currently listening: music of the rusted electric fan
Location: My room

The Videoke Mania

I am incline to think (which is a very dangerous thing to do) that videoke machines should be placed as one of the items on the prohibited lists.

This ingenious invention was observed to be very addicting. It perfectly fits along the lines of drug abuse, alcohol, smoking, games on facebook, as well as the most highly addictive ones among children such as Spongebob, Barney, Dora and Thomas the Train. Mixing the act of singing in videoke and anyone of these addictive substances and acts could be tantamount to world-wide chaos second only to the Armageddon itself. It’s that devastating.

Speaking from experience, Family KTVs (which rarely contains a family in some areas) or Videoke booths set up within Malls inside video arcades, are similar to the opium dens of the 17^th or 19^th Century. However, what’s different about it, and probably comforting, is the fact that only a select and trusted few are allowed to take part in the session thus casualties are minimal. Most times, among those people within the confines of the said booth, extreme enjoyment and nausea were noted.

Read more.

blog here. not there.

I have been a member of facebook for several months now. I found out that so many people have made it their habit to waste time in front of the screen and play computer games.

I don't do that.
Okay at least not online.

But that what makes facebook so loved by a lot of people. It rolled everything from social interaction to personality quizzes to gaming. It seemed to be the fab right now. Everyone seemed to go gaga over it.

But I just keep coming back to multiply or wordpress.

Sure. They've merged everything. Everything that is except blogging.

I have recently found out that you can actually post some write-ups on facebook via notes. and tag it to those who could read.

Yet the difference is a great leap from multiply. Facebook notes just offers a plain white background view of your blog which could be summed up in one word: boring.

So here I am still at multiply. I don't mind if I get few readers or even if michi's the only one who bothers to comment.

Let's just stick to our preferences shall we?

Something I Neglected.

This is somewhat a part two of How I Got the Laptop All to Myself Once Again.

Right now, I had the chance to use the new desktop. I actually thought that everything was going fine with it. There were some problems which still left me clueless. One thing in particular is the sound driver for the motherboard's built-in sound. Since it's a new system, the old one I have downloaded seemed incompatible with the new motherboard. But I'm working on that right now after doing that same driver search countless times before.

Another one is the ethernet adapter problem. It seemed that the built-in one doesn't work that well. However, since the old motherboard doesn't have a built-in device, we were able to purchase a peripheral device. Later on, during my search for the sound driver, I learned that the ethernet adapter problem could also be relate to a missing or out of date driver. Hence, it could be easily resolved through the internet.

Apart from those problems, there was one bigger thing that I have neglected for weeks since purchasing and fixing the desktop. You see, we bought only the motherboard and left everything else intact such as the monitor and the keyboard and mouse. I have known a long time ago that the monitor was somewhat acting out its age. It occasionally blinks or the screen gets dark eventually. It was nothing a smart tap on the monitor couldn't fix. Besides, I plan to save up for an LCD screen for the desktop, so I'll let my siblings endure it for a moment more.

What was really irksome was when I tried sending an email message using the desktop. I found out the biggest and most annoying of all errors: I forgot to check on the condition of the keyboard and mouse. Now, I feel like I'm reaping the consequences of my neglect. The main QWERTY keys work well except for the letter D-button which needs an extra push to work. The worse thing was that all the number and symbol keys as well as the function keys from F1 to F12 were all not working. That's like a handful of keys were working while the rest were broken. The mouse was also acting up. It seemed to refuse to work on certain times or sometimes it would move on its own. Something really is wrong and there's only one way to fix it: replacement.

Replacing would mean buying and I don't have any money at the moment. Oh bummer!!

How I Got the Laptop All to Myself Once Again

I haven't posted a thing for a while. I dunno why. The laptop's virtually mine now. How did that happen?

One sunday, two or three weeks ago, I went home from work (one patient) with plans to sit down post some blogs or just play on the computer. All of a sudden, I saw this screen from across the room. It was black and small, 14 inches. It was an alien contraption in our house. That was the first time I have seen  such a thing in two years. I didn't mean I was deprived by its absence, yet its presence was somewhat surprising considering that we've lived that long without getting even one glimpse from that contraption, the one that you all call television or t-EE-v-EE. I tried to turn it on, but to no avail. It was broken.

Just then, Papa came in the house. He told me his newly bought TV and that it was broken already. He asked me to help him have it replaced. Since I was still wearing my work clothes, I consented. We went to Kalentong. It was the first time I was actually aware of going to that place. I remembered passing it once or twice going to PUP to take their exams back in high school or did I?

Anyway, we tried to get it replaced with the same model. Apparently, the shop owners told us to wait a while since they were observing the unit if it really was broken. So, Papa told me to go to gilmore to check on some computers there. I intended to just survey there since I really didn't brought enough for a computer.

There were a lot of hilarious things that happened when we went there. I was oblivious to our destination, so on one jeepney ride, Papa fell asleep (I'm beginning to think this is a family thing). Since I didn't know where we were going to stop, we missed it by several kilometers that we had to ride the train going back.

Once there, the usual sights and sounds of the computer mecca of Manila greeted me. Affordable laptops and desktops and other computer paraphernalia were there. The whole block was teeming with crowds of geeky and techie-looking people (apparently, including me) going in and out of the shops. We went to one familiar shop and asked for the prices. Some were affordable, others were surplus.

Right then, Papa shoved something to me that looked like a square object wrapped in paper. I opened it and saw that he brought along the processor of our old computer. I understood what he meant. So we asked if there were any available motherboards for that processor. Surprisingly they have one in stock and at a price that suited my pockets. We decided that if it worked, then we'll take it. A few minutes wait and we learned that it was still in good condition. The technician even added that processors could take more than 7 or 8 years before it breaks down.

With that, we immediately purchased the motherboard plus several other things, and went back to pick up the TV. Then, I spent the rest of the day, tinkering with the new motherboard to its new home.

It's been two weeks since the desktop is running. Now I have the laptop all to myself.

Howl's In Two Days

I borrowed Michi's Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones last thursday. Well, actually she lent it to me while waiting for our friends when we went out on my birthday. That was last week.

For those who seem to have heard the title before, it is where the multi-awarded animated film by Hayao Miyazaki of the same title was based. The one that was nominated in the Academy Awards and won several others in Europe and America. It was that famous.

I managed to get hold of the book after aiding Michi to find the it. It took months but I didn't mind at all. I have a long reading list anyway.

I was excited to read about it. I even planned to read it the next day when I called in sick from work. Apparently, I didn't read it for almost a week. I even brought it to work thinking that maybe I would find time when one of my kids couldn't come in. It turned out that some kids didn't come in, but I completely forgot about the book. I even forgot that I brought it until I came home.

Yesterday, I was too lazy to stand up and manipulate anything digital before going to work. I was up early and didn't want to fall asleep again. I grabbed anything that I thought I could do and that was when I came upon the book again. Why not? I thought to myself. I still have five hours till work.

I read the first few pages only to find out that I made it to the middle of the book and that there was still time. When it was time to go to work, I immediately packed it with me. I had the break that I needed and for two hours I was adrift with Howl and Sophie.

After work, I was not looking forward to the mall and instead went straight home. Although it took quite some time because of the torrential rain, I managed to get home earlier than usual where I resumed reading the book.

Funny but the pages seemed to thin out evey minute or so and the adventure seemed to be more exciting. I only realized that I was through with the book this morning when I got the chance to continue reading it till the end. It was fun till it lasted.

Review of the book will be posted sometime.

Old School

I bought an MP4 player last month. It was one of those impulsive buying that racks me up sometimes. But the deed was done, there was no turning back.

Apparently, I did not regret buying it. It saved me from boring-patient-less days or during long trips or during the many occasions I wanted to shut my self from the world. It really replaced my Motorola phone, which was stolen the month before I bought it. It was that incident that triggered the need for an MP4 player.

The player's features were simple. Of course, it can play music and some videos (actually, I was able to load 5 movies in it, hahaha). It also has a camera. It's not really a decent camera, but it can take pictures and record videos, so I'll just leave it at that. It also has an FM radio that I really don't care about. I was never a radio fan. It also has a voice record function that could really be handy if you're an SP. You don't need to take down notes when taking articulation or language samples.

Another feature that really caught me breathless was a working e-book reader. Now, I have an super extra overly extended reading list (notice the superlatives)!! The last few players I got my hands into can't even process e-books. So I was able to load those Maurice LeBlanc novels, ancient legends and tales I downloaded years ago but could not read since my eyes get computer sore with novels. I feel like partying!!

But the really awesome stuff didn't end there. I learned that I could load NES games on the player. Now that's a bargain I wouldn't dare miss.

I remembered when I would only look at a NES and watch other kids play and when I got my first family computer (didn't buy it long story), it was the advent of the gameboy, so I got outdated games.

A month after buying the MP4 player, things seemed to enter a rennaissance era. I rediscoverd Punch Out, Hoops, Super Contra, Final Fantasy (the first one), Megaman (part 1 to 6) and the classic Mario Brothers. My ROM and game finding skills since Pokemon in HS were updated and put into use when I was able to find all those old school games I have never played or heard off. Some seem vaguely familiar. Others were simply original versions of the current games found in your Wii or PSP.

Looking back at those old games, I found myself looking at an era where fun is at its simplest. You don't have to bother with stylish graphics or amazing gameplay, its just shoot and beat em no brainers that really brings the fun out of gaming.