The smoke leaves black soot on the window screens which have to be scrubbed hard with soap and water else no air could get inside during those times when you can open your windows which has been rare this past months.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Year-end spoiler: Mt. Bihonan of Talisay
Spoiling our rest these holidays has been the constant spewing of acrid smoke from a noodle factory in our neighborhood.
The smoke leaves black soot on the window screens which have to be scrubbed hard with soap and water else no air could get inside during those times when you can open your windows which has been rare this past months.
The smoke leaves black soot on the window screens which have to be scrubbed hard with soap and water else no air could get inside during those times when you can open your windows which has been rare this past months.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Best laid plans
Haven't posted here for quite some time because I was busy with my other blog (see here).
But I need to record this.
Beginning of October the family planned to go on vacation. The last one together was years ago.
We decided on a 2-day fling in Panglao, Bohol as the most affordable and convenient for our office and class schedules. Honi will be on sem break from her last year at Don Bosco. Mamay has filed a leave from her audit work. Dodon is out of school (hopefully temporarily) and Nanay is long overdue for a break.
Mamay made reservations with Lost Horizon. We made a down payment of 1K. Our vacation would be October 30 to November 1. I made arrangements with my manager so that she would not go on official trips on those days. Mamay filed a week-long leave.
We mapped out the tours to make the best use of our time. Feeding our dog, Dingky, would have to be arranged with Nanay's sister who is a neighbor.
Then while we were still preparing for breakfast during the Muslim holiday of October 15, the bowels of the earth sent a big tremor upwards on the island of Bohol disfiguring the tour sites we were supposed to see and leaving suffering in much part of the island.
What to do with the leave of absence we had already filed? We decided to go to Camotes instead and made the necessary plans. We picked Bano Beach resort and got in touch with management. Payment of reservation was done through kwarta padala of Lhuillier. Another non-refundable 1K.
All bags were packed in the evening of October 29. By 8AM of October 30 we alighted from a Ceres bus near the Port of Danao only to find a long line of passengers with nowhere to go. The first trip of the vessel turned back when the port on Camotes was already in sight. The waves were too big. All trips on that day were cancelled.
But I need to record this.
Beginning of October the family planned to go on vacation. The last one together was years ago.
We decided on a 2-day fling in Panglao, Bohol as the most affordable and convenient for our office and class schedules. Honi will be on sem break from her last year at Don Bosco. Mamay has filed a leave from her audit work. Dodon is out of school (hopefully temporarily) and Nanay is long overdue for a break.
Mamay made reservations with Lost Horizon. We made a down payment of 1K. Our vacation would be October 30 to November 1. I made arrangements with my manager so that she would not go on official trips on those days. Mamay filed a week-long leave.
We mapped out the tours to make the best use of our time. Feeding our dog, Dingky, would have to be arranged with Nanay's sister who is a neighbor.
Then while we were still preparing for breakfast during the Muslim holiday of October 15, the bowels of the earth sent a big tremor upwards on the island of Bohol disfiguring the tour sites we were supposed to see and leaving suffering in much part of the island.
What to do with the leave of absence we had already filed? We decided to go to Camotes instead and made the necessary plans. We picked Bano Beach resort and got in touch with management. Payment of reservation was done through kwarta padala of Lhuillier. Another non-refundable 1K.
All bags were packed in the evening of October 29. By 8AM of October 30 we alighted from a Ceres bus near the Port of Danao only to find a long line of passengers with nowhere to go. The first trip of the vessel turned back when the port on Camotes was already in sight. The waves were too big. All trips on that day were cancelled.
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
- Robert Burns, 1785
-Robert Burns, 1785
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
115th Independence Day?
It should be July 4, some say, because on June 12 some 115 years ago we were really not yet independent.
My take: it is from the day the last American military force pulled out from the Philippines some 20 years ago. Here's a good piece that I can recommend.
I remember Pres. Cory marching to the Senate on a rainy day just to ask the Philippine Senate not to end the treaty which allowed US military forces on Philippine soil. It was one of the grand moments of the Senate, I must say.
I also remember Richard Gordon, many others, but mostly Gordon, ranting and warning about the end of the Philippines with the departure of the Americans. No such thing happened. In fact Gordon and his volunteers kept Subic floating. Gordon was wrong on that account but he and his volunteers also proved that we do not have to rely on others to prop us up. I salute Gordon and his volunteers for that.
Altho the Americans gave us "independence", it came with many pre-conditions. See this article in Wikipedia for the many "strings attached".
So, we have only been independent for 20 years yet. We have done a lot in those years. We can do more in the next. Looking forward to it.
Until then let's sing the Philippine National Anthem:
My take: it is from the day the last American military force pulled out from the Philippines some 20 years ago. Here's a good piece that I can recommend.
I remember Pres. Cory marching to the Senate on a rainy day just to ask the Philippine Senate not to end the treaty which allowed US military forces on Philippine soil. It was one of the grand moments of the Senate, I must say.
I also remember Richard Gordon, many others, but mostly Gordon, ranting and warning about the end of the Philippines with the departure of the Americans. No such thing happened. In fact Gordon and his volunteers kept Subic floating. Gordon was wrong on that account but he and his volunteers also proved that we do not have to rely on others to prop us up. I salute Gordon and his volunteers for that.
Altho the Americans gave us "independence", it came with many pre-conditions. See this article in Wikipedia for the many "strings attached".
So, we have only been independent for 20 years yet. We have done a lot in those years. We can do more in the next. Looking forward to it.
Until then let's sing the Philippine National Anthem:
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Ipad stylus for sale
When my brod sent me an Ipad (the first generation) for my law study, I had him load it with Notetaker, NotesPlus, Noteshelf, etc. I thought I would be jotting down class notes. I scrambled for a stylus to use along with the notetaking apps.
I got the iStroke for around P1,500. But after a year or so of use it won't work anymore. And I found out that I rarely used them for notetaking in classes. Typing on a real keyboard was faster. The IPad became just a bookreader.
And styli from China now come in all sized just cost P30 at CDRKing. Here they are side by side.
I got the iStroke for around P1,500. But after a year or so of use it won't work anymore. And I found out that I rarely used them for notetaking in classes. Typing on a real keyboard was faster. The IPad became just a bookreader.
And styli from China now come in all sized just cost P30 at CDRKing. Here they are side by side.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Living in the past: the North Borneo claim
There are a lot of discussions again about the Philippine claim over North Borneo. The latest resulted from the furor caused by a group of Tausogs, followers of Sultan Kiram, holing themselves up somewhere in North Borneo to press their claim of sovereignty, actually for rentals.
Prof. Solita Monsod in her column in the Philippine Inquirer said that the Sultanate of Sulu has historical rights over North Borneo because in 1685 the Sultan of Brunei awarded it to the Sultan of Sulu for helping him defeat Brunei rebels. Then she proceeded to criticize the way Spain ceded the Philippines to the USA without, in effect, asking the Filipinos.
If it was wrong for Spain to cede the Philippines to the U.S., without a by-your-leave, was it not wrong for the Sultan of Brunei to cede North Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu.
But these things was par for the course in the ancient past. Lands and territories were passed from one potentate to another to the detriment of the inhabitants. Land and people were treated like ranches and cattle.
That was wrong and so were the subsequent acts arising from it such as the rental claimed by the Sultan of Sulu about which the recent furor is all about.
This is the internet age; let's stop reliving the past.
Prof. Solita Monsod in her column in the Philippine Inquirer said that the Sultanate of Sulu has historical rights over North Borneo because in 1685 the Sultan of Brunei awarded it to the Sultan of Sulu for helping him defeat Brunei rebels. Then she proceeded to criticize the way Spain ceded the Philippines to the USA without, in effect, asking the Filipinos.
If it was wrong for Spain to cede the Philippines to the U.S., without a by-your-leave, was it not wrong for the Sultan of Brunei to cede North Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu.
But these things was par for the course in the ancient past. Lands and territories were passed from one potentate to another to the detriment of the inhabitants. Land and people were treated like ranches and cattle.
That was wrong and so were the subsequent acts arising from it such as the rental claimed by the Sultan of Sulu about which the recent furor is all about.
This is the internet age; let's stop reliving the past.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Travails of a desktop PC buyer
Our 5-year old desktop PC finally bowed out of service after Christmas. It was powered by a Core 2 Duo processor and a 512MB Inno 3D video card. The rig was not the fastest when I bought it because it was what my budget could afford. But it's 150GB hard disk was considered big then. When the hard disk conked out in 2011, its replacement with 1 terabyte capacity was just considered a medium one.
I think the processor simply gave up when it was subjected by my son to his Starcraft game, so I begun looking for a new unit. The monitor, keyboard, and mouse are still working well, so we decided to get only a new CPU.
It was a choice of going to Nutech or PC Quickbuys. I bought a few items before from Nutech and I was pleased with their service and prices. I was also a customer of Thinking Tools, the owner of PC Quickbuys, for years and had no problem with them.
In all this, I forgot about PCExpress where I got my original rig. They were pleasant to deal with when I bought my old desktop and when its video card was replaced later. And I now think that is when my trouble started.
As much as possible, I prefer getting equipment that needs heavy lifting from a roadside outlet. It's much of a hassle lugging a desktop out of a mall after buying and back into the mall to get it repaired. But it was already Sunday, January 6, when I finished picking from the price list of PC Quickbuys the components that should go into our new desktop. The PC Quickbuys store across the street from UC is closed on Sundays, so SM was the place to go.
Our first configuration consisted of:
Plan B, just in case we'd be tempted by a higher processor, was
We immediately reformatted the hard disk as suggested but the OS wouldn't install. We decided to do a clean format of the disk by attaching it to a notebook. When it was replaced in the CPU, still the OS would not install but instead the monitor went blue with lines of error text on it.
On Friday evening, January 11, Dodon (my son) was full of suggestions he got from googling. He was adamant on getting online. We tried the suggestions and finally got the OS installed and the desktop was up and running by midnight. It appeared that the technician hooked up the SATA cable to the SATA 3.0 Gb/s connector on the motherboard. When it was hooked up that way, the SATA configuration on the BIOS should be set to IDE Mode instead of the AHCI Mode in order for the motherboard to recognize the hard disk. The AHCI mode was the proper mode if the hard disk was connected to the 6 Gb/s connector which it was not.
Finally I can update my lawblog. I still prefer the big keyboard over those of the notebooks at home. Thanks but no thanks to PC Quickbuys.
I think the processor simply gave up when it was subjected by my son to his Starcraft game, so I begun looking for a new unit. The monitor, keyboard, and mouse are still working well, so we decided to get only a new CPU.
It was a choice of going to Nutech or PC Quickbuys. I bought a few items before from Nutech and I was pleased with their service and prices. I was also a customer of Thinking Tools, the owner of PC Quickbuys, for years and had no problem with them.
In all this, I forgot about PCExpress where I got my original rig. They were pleasant to deal with when I bought my old desktop and when its video card was replaced later. And I now think that is when my trouble started.
As much as possible, I prefer getting equipment that needs heavy lifting from a roadside outlet. It's much of a hassle lugging a desktop out of a mall after buying and back into the mall to get it repaired. But it was already Sunday, January 6, when I finished picking from the price list of PC Quickbuys the components that should go into our new desktop. The PC Quickbuys store across the street from UC is closed on Sundays, so SM was the place to go.
Our first configuration consisted of:
- Processor - i5-3570
- Motherboard - Asus P8B75-M LE
- Video card - Asus EAH6570
- Memory - Kingston 4G, 2 pcs
- casing and power supply with enough
Plan B, just in case we'd be tempted by a higher processor, was
- Processor - i7-3770, other items unchanged or
- i5-3470 , cheaper but lower in power
- motherboard - Asus P8Z77 (more expensive)
- video card - Sapphire Radeon HD6570
- memory - Kingston 8GB. I preferred to use 2 pcs of 4Gb to utilize the dual channel feature of the motherboard.
We immediately reformatted the hard disk as suggested but the OS wouldn't install. We decided to do a clean format of the disk by attaching it to a notebook. When it was replaced in the CPU, still the OS would not install but instead the monitor went blue with lines of error text on it.
On Friday evening, January 11, Dodon (my son) was full of suggestions he got from googling. He was adamant on getting online. We tried the suggestions and finally got the OS installed and the desktop was up and running by midnight. It appeared that the technician hooked up the SATA cable to the SATA 3.0 Gb/s connector on the motherboard. When it was hooked up that way, the SATA configuration on the BIOS should be set to IDE Mode instead of the AHCI Mode in order for the motherboard to recognize the hard disk. The AHCI mode was the proper mode if the hard disk was connected to the 6 Gb/s connector which it was not.
Finally I can update my lawblog. I still prefer the big keyboard over those of the notebooks at home. Thanks but no thanks to PC Quickbuys.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
First hand experience with doomsday
December 21, 2012 has come and gone. And we are still around. The Mayans, if they were that great at predictions, should be the dominant race by now.
In the early 70's I was teaching fisheries and general science in the Dinagat Fishery High School. I was 19 when I first taught and left after two years. See here for the reason I quit.
I was living with Mano Boning and Nang Tolang and their twin children; an older son was studying in college somewhere I cannot remember now but probably Cebu City. Manong Boning was a utility man of the school while the wife was an elementary school principal.
One evening the couple asked me to go with them and the twins to the big house of Mayor Ecleo. They said that a big earthquake would happen that night and the only safe place would be the home of the Mayor which was then newly finished and located on a ridge of a hill which had a good view of the Dinagat harbor.
Out of courtesy to my hosts, who treated me like a son, I went. At any rate, I was also curious to see the interior of the mansion. I found assembled there the top aides of the Mayor and other government officials including the DepEd school supervisor. I asked him, in amusement, what the heck the two of us were doing there as we were not members of the sect founded by the Mayor. And, by all means, we did not believe that doomsday was indeed coming.
After midnight we were told that it was already safe to go home. Somehow the calamity was abated.
Surmising now, I think the supervisor was just there to show his support for the Mayor as I was just for Mano Boning and family. But I was pretty sure then that there was no great calamity coming because it was still to be in 1975 as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, the leader of the Worldwide Church of God to which I belonged.
Armstrong had this booklet 1975 in Prophecy which shaped the thinking of church members about doomsday. It was the reason that in 1968 I chose to study fisheries in Zamboanga City instead of accepting the offer of my father to send me to FEATI (then one of the better technological schools) to take up electronics engineering. 1975 was coming and the world - society, not the earth - was coming to its end. I took the two and half year fishery curriculum which would give me ample time to prepare before 1975 came. All members of the Worldwide Church of God were supposed to become rulers in the world tomorrow after the crisis of 1975 and should be prepared to be leaders. Whew!
The Armstrong church has since split into many branches. I left the church, a few years after the death of Armstrong, having learned of its cultic nature first here and in many other places. This site is highly recommended for an in-depth knowledge of the cultic practices of the original Armstrong group.
I forsook religion altogether and its many doomsday predictions. And what a relief it has been ever since. Alas, the 1975 booklet is still reproduced here. This is one of the typical illustrations from the booklet:
Been there, done that!
In the early 70's I was teaching fisheries and general science in the Dinagat Fishery High School. I was 19 when I first taught and left after two years. See here for the reason I quit.
I was living with Mano Boning and Nang Tolang and their twin children; an older son was studying in college somewhere I cannot remember now but probably Cebu City. Manong Boning was a utility man of the school while the wife was an elementary school principal.
One evening the couple asked me to go with them and the twins to the big house of Mayor Ecleo. They said that a big earthquake would happen that night and the only safe place would be the home of the Mayor which was then newly finished and located on a ridge of a hill which had a good view of the Dinagat harbor.
Out of courtesy to my hosts, who treated me like a son, I went. At any rate, I was also curious to see the interior of the mansion. I found assembled there the top aides of the Mayor and other government officials including the DepEd school supervisor. I asked him, in amusement, what the heck the two of us were doing there as we were not members of the sect founded by the Mayor. And, by all means, we did not believe that doomsday was indeed coming.
After midnight we were told that it was already safe to go home. Somehow the calamity was abated.
Surmising now, I think the supervisor was just there to show his support for the Mayor as I was just for Mano Boning and family. But I was pretty sure then that there was no great calamity coming because it was still to be in 1975 as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, the leader of the Worldwide Church of God to which I belonged.
Armstrong had this booklet 1975 in Prophecy which shaped the thinking of church members about doomsday. It was the reason that in 1968 I chose to study fisheries in Zamboanga City instead of accepting the offer of my father to send me to FEATI (then one of the better technological schools) to take up electronics engineering. 1975 was coming and the world - society, not the earth - was coming to its end. I took the two and half year fishery curriculum which would give me ample time to prepare before 1975 came. All members of the Worldwide Church of God were supposed to become rulers in the world tomorrow after the crisis of 1975 and should be prepared to be leaders. Whew!
The Armstrong church has since split into many branches. I left the church, a few years after the death of Armstrong, having learned of its cultic nature first here and in many other places. This site is highly recommended for an in-depth knowledge of the cultic practices of the original Armstrong group.
I forsook religion altogether and its many doomsday predictions. And what a relief it has been ever since. Alas, the 1975 booklet is still reproduced here. This is one of the typical illustrations from the booklet:
Been there, done that!
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