The Inevitable Trip (Continuation)

Even if I prayed hard that the Australian Embassy disapprove my VISA, here I am in the cold country / continent down under.  Instead of an all-women team, Ma'am Flor, Sir Bry and I braved the cold weather of Australia, Christie had to decline because of personal reasons.  The 3 of us attended CCNP Switch last week, and are attending CCNP route this wee at Box Hill Institute, here in Melbourne.  I also love the school where the training is being held, the equipment are in tip top shape. =)

I have to say, this really is a first - world country.  Transportation are at its best, facilities are complete and the Internet connection is extremely fast!  

This was taken last Saturday, my teammates are working hard on their labs.  That's our professor discussing the labs with Ma'am Flor. =)

Except for the weather (and the cost of living), I really like it here in Australia! One thing that went beyond my expectations are the people in general.  All of the people I've met here are so nice! I can't wait to come back! =)

The Inevitable Trip

Early this year, I've set my eyes on watching Harry Potter 7 Part 2 at the Director's Club in Mall of Asia.  My office mate Nalen and I made initial talks about having the cinema closed for private viewing.  To my surprise, I might not be able to do that at all.

I already knew that I will have to undergo CCNP training this year, but I was conditioned that the training will be held HERE, in the PHILIPPINES, with my "home court" advantage, in my school, where my classmates will be my friends and peers. But no, I was mistaken! SORELY MISTAKEN!

I never thought that we would have to fly abroad to get the training.  I thought it will be within my comfort zone (SINGAPORE), but I guess I was wrong again because we have to fly to AUSTRALIA, 8 hours away from my beloved Philippines.  And so, this July, the all-female team will be flying to Melbourne, Australia to attend the CCNP Instructors' training on Routing and Switching at Boxhill Institute.

I'll be gone for two weeks for the training. The very week that HP7P2 will be shown in the Philippines will be my first week in Australia.  I have no choice but to give up my seat for the viewing.  The only chance to see the movie here is if my VISA won't get approved by the Australian Embassy.  Tough luck.  Hay!

So now, I am preparing all the requirements needed for the VISA, with a heavy heart.  All that's left in my checklist is the 2x2 picture and the certificate of employment.  Plus, I'm preparing for the training as well, so many modules to study, so many labs to perform! The only consolation is, I AM LEARNING A LOT AND I AM GOING TO AUSTRALIA. =)

Family Trips = Family Pictures

One of my faith goals last year is to bring my family on a trip abroad.  With the help of my siblings, we were able to fund this trip to Singapore to celebrate my father's 60th birthday!  Needless to say, Papa enjoyed our trip so much, for the very reason he wanted to go to Universal Studios! Here's our family picture at the Universal Studios globe.

Since we celebrated his birthday there, we decided to throw a birthday bash for him. Though his guests were not his friends, I guess Papa still enjoyed the bash because 1) Mama cooked a sumptuous meal for all of us; 2) we were complete (together with Angel's fiance); and 3) my friends and Angel's friends were there to celebrate his birthday with us.  Family picture right after he blew his candle. (Carlo, Angel's fiance, joined the picture, because he is going to be part of the family this December.. hehehe...) =)

For Angel's last birthday as a single girl, we decided to go on vacation in the beautiful island of Boracay.  We took these pictures before we dove for reef walking and when we were swimming at Station 2.  It was my parents' and Angel's first time in Boracay, so I'm very sure that they had so much fun. =)

As my sister put it, our family is so dysfunctional. But no matter how dysfunctional we are, we are still a FAMILY. =)

Wedding Coordinator Staff??

Naks!

Come May 21, I will join the "Wedding Engineers" as a staff and actually help with a wedding.  I am not getting paid (at least that's what I told them), I just want to get a hands-on experience on how weddings coordinations are now being handled.

I am truly honored that my friend Marvin asked me to help with the wedding of a cousin - in - law.  And I will be assisting them during the on - the - day coordination.

I am truly praying for a successful event.  I really would like to work with them in future weddings and parties as well. =)

Youtube Sensations!

I found myself spending half a day on watching youtube videos yesterday.  I had to entertain myself because I've been swimming with so much work since the term started.  Here are three personas that I like the most on youtube.  Common denominator: THEY ARE ALL FILIPINOs.

Some people (Filipinos) may have been offended by their videos, but people, take it with a grain of salt.  They do it for entertainment purposes. I like what Mikey Bustos said, they way we pronounce words does not equate our intelligence.  Don't take it too seriously, just have fun!

1) Happy Slip:
Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HappySlip
Here's my favorite video, it may be old but I never grow tired of her "Mom" persona:

2) Mikey Bustos
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeyBustosVideos
I was laughing so much with this video that my stomach hurt so bad!

3) Petra Mahalimuyak
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ashleyslips
She gave really helpful tips about getting abs without the work out! I was laughing my a$$ out!

A Conversation with Poon

Richard is one of my good friends who is from the "industry", before he is who he is now.  He truly is an inspiration and a living testimony of how great God finds His way to our hearts.  So from time to time, we engage in long talks about life, love and faith over coffee or food, as in "madaling - arawan" (to the wee hours of the morning).  But for the past few months, I've been very busy with work, and I haven't really found the time to meet up with him and our friends.

Last week, I got a surprise text message from him, asking me where he can call me.  Of course I knew that I'd get a bit of scolding from him for being a workaholic of some sort.  As soon as I picked up the office phone, I was ready to accept the scolding.  To my relief, he wanted to talk about something else, whew!  We spoke for a few minutes and just when I thought that I was able to escape the scolding, I offered a small amount of information that may have initiated the scolding.

He told me, "di ko kailangan yang (confidential) mo, ang kailangan ko oras mo."  (If other people heard this, they would have misinterpreted it, BIG TIME!).  I just replied with my usual line, "sorry na, busy lang po".  The "po" irked him some more, and he said, "ngayon pino-'po' mo na ako".  I was just laughing inside because I knew the conversation will become long-winded if I argue with him. So I just agreed, that I was a workaholic.

After a few minutes of playfully arguing with him, he asked me about my (non-existent) love life, and he thought that the reason that I was busy was because I was dating someone.  I strongly denied that I was seeing someone, saying that I didn't have one (love life).  He surely didn't believe me.  And here's one of his lines: "baka nag kikissing kissing ka na dyan ah".  I found it adorable and funny, it felt like having an older brother lecturing me about the birds and the bees.  I forgot to tell him that I was already 31 and I need not be reminded of the things he was trying to imply. hahaha!

I truly miss our conversations.  I'm hoping to find time to have coffee with him and our friends..

Belated Happy 8th Birthday makoolit.blogspot.com!!

You are my first footprint in the world wide web.. My experimental site. I first taught myself html by coding this blog.  And then, I grew tired of it and just used a template. hehehe.. =)

Will try to post more entries and keep this blog up-to-date and relevant! Yey me! =)

Tough Times..

Since yesterday, I've been having bouts with my temper (mainly because I can't control it).  I've picked fights so easily.  Scolded majority of my students.  And was angered by the simplest thing.  It might be the pressure or might be the time of the month, but I don't want to be this monster.  I want to be in control again.  Take charge.

Tomorrow, I WILL TRY my best not to lose my temper.  I may fail, but it's worth the try. hay! Sana wag lang may magpasaway!

Is Confused..

If you'd be totally honest with yourself, can you count your real friends? I mean REAL friends. The ones who will not get annoyed at your idiosyncrasies.  The ones who will be honest with you and tell you what they really feel.

I've asked this question to myself for a few days now, and honestly, I really still do not know the answer.

YOU are nothing but MEAN. And all you're ever gonna be is MEAN.

Lines from Taylor Swift's song "MEAN"

You, with your words like knives

And swords and weapons that you use against me,

You, have knocked me off my feet again,

Got me feeling like I’m nothing.

I bet you got pushed around,

Somebody made you cold.

With that same big loud opinion but,

Nobody’s listening,

Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things.

But all you are is mean,

All you are is mean.

And a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life,

And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean.

And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.

And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.

And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.

*I hope and pray that you will not end up in an "Institution", where you will be treated the way you treat people now.  What's more important is, that you get "healed" from your current ILLNESS. 

You are truly pitiful. Pathetic. And a total waste of space. The last laugh will be OURS.

Good and Bad Days..

I've been having more bad days than good these past few months. All because my career is now my world. Wouldn't it be nice to finally give it all up and just focus on what I really want to do?

But because of my responsibilities at home, what I really want does not really matter.

How does one make the most out of the situation?

Should I consider taking a break?

Today was a bad day. Yesterday was a bad day.  Tomorrow, will not be a work day but I have a feeling that it will be.  Praying for a good day tomorrow. Please God, I can't handle another bad day...

My Not-So-Tragic Tragedy

But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. - Psalm 33: 18 - 22 (NIV)

My problems with my car has never stopped since I had it repainted a year ago.  Come to think of it, I spent almost 100,000 on the endless repairs that the car has to undergo.  For the past 2 months, my car troubles have become frequent. I took the car for a check up last Saturday and scheduled it to be "overhauled" this coming Saturday.

What's the big deal Mrs. President?

This morning, I had a glimpse of this TVC flaunting the accomplishments of the outgoing Philippine President on infrastructure.  What irritated me was this line, "PGMA BUILT MORE INFRASTRUCTURE THAN THE PAST 3 PRESIDENTS COMBINED!".  What the heck!?! Of course, with today's technology, more roads, bridges and airports can be built, it only takes 2 months to build a house, and with the budget that's been pouring in these projects?!  This President is taking advantage of how little people know about MOORE'S LAW (Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware, in which the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years).  I, as an ENGINEER, am not falling for this crap.

Take for example, the ever useful cellular phone.  In 1998, my dad got me a subscription to a paging company, so I had a beeper/pager.  But in 1999, most of my classmates in college were already using cellular phones.  All of which had monotones and black and white displays but can send text messages.  Come year 2000, some mobile phones were already using polyphonic tones, still with black and white displays. In 2002, the cost of a Nokia 6600 (color display, VGA camera, MP3 player, polyphonic and WAV ringtones) was Php27000 in April, but went down to Php 24000 in May. The following year, a parade of mobile phones with a whole new set of features was launched and it never stopped.  Today, we are in the midst of 4th generation wireless technology.  Who would have thought (back in 1986, when we fought for our freedom with a bloodless revolution) that this poor country of ours will be this technologically advanced and was once hailed as the text capital of the world?! 

And so Mrs. President, what's the big deal?  You have the luxury of technology.  You have the luxury that the past 3 presidents didn't have. In the first place, it is your job to provide us with these infrastructure. Some of which were overpriced.  And guess what, the money you paid for these projects, did not come from your wallet, it came from every law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying Filipinos.  So what's the big deal Mrs. President?! Waiting for a pat on the back?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjBhlm7OPrs

(I posted this image because I want to see if my comment will be deleted.  It seems that the comments on this page are all positive.  Maybe he is a PGMA supporter.)

Here are realizable goals I've made for this year. I'll bookmark it to serve as a constant reminder that I have these goals to accomplish.

1. Conquer 170 by the end of January. Subtract 10 every month after. Until 130. (Of course everybody knows what I am talking about. HAHA!)
2. Make home improvements. As my brother put it: Make the house visitor - friendly. Accomplish before Angel comes home.
3. Be totally liquid. Accomplish before the year ends. Deduct 10 percent of net pay for savings.
4. Say goodbye to hoarseness. Finally take those lessons. Accomplish before 3rd Quarter of this year.

I do hope these are realizable goals. And I will take note of any progress in any one of my goals. (",)

I am once again a Manila girl.

I tried living independently when I was still taking my Masteral studies, and when I graduated, I was "forced" to live in my beloved Cavite again. So for 6 years, I endured the everyday hassle of heavy traffic, waiting for the car before me to move, or sleeping in buses when I didn't have the strength to drive. Talk about stress.

And so when I had the opportunity to live back here in Manila, I grabbed it, without talking it over with my parents (I didn't feel the need to talk it over with them! Come on, I am almost 30 for heaven's sake!). I've been living independently for a week now, and I am loving it. No more morning stress for me, and my voice started to go back to its normal state! So it was the stress that was causing my "hoarseness".

Experiencing it once more, made me think about the PROs and CONs of independent living. Let me break it down...

PROs:
1. No more curfew. Papa doesn't really need to know what time I turn in. hahaha!
2. No more waking up early! If my classes start at 7:30am, I wake up at 6:30! wooo!
3. No more traffic! I walk to school from my building!
4. No more toll fees, never-ending gas fees and parking fees!

CONs:
1. Independent living means paying for my own place and utilities: electricity, water and laundry!
2. Independent living means I do my own laundry if I won't pay for laundry services.
3. Independent living means I need to do all the chores that I normally rely on Yaya.
4. And now I am sick, independent living means that I have to take care of myself. Buy my own food and medicine. hay!

Overall, I am happy. Being independent means so much responsibility. Now I feel really responsible. (",)

I've been feeling very tired for at least a month now. Today, I stopped and "evaluated" what have I been doing lately. I realized I've been spreading myself to little to many activities.

I broke down in number of hours all the things/activities I've been doing in a day or in some days:
1. Work: Basically consumes 12 to 13.5 hours. (Kasama na ang raket dito. hehehe!)
2. Facebook Games: Consumes at least half an hour, actually, sinasabay ko ang pag fefacebook kapag may activity na ginagawa ang mga students ko.
3. Daily commute: It takes about 1 to 1.5 hours from my house to work, and about 1 hour from my work back to our house in Cavite. I make it a point that I leave at 9pm so I won't have to spend so much time waiting for the traffic to move. Nakakapagod din mag shift ng gear ng madalas ah!
4. Consulting: medyo mahaba ito, especially kung may meeting. pero di naman daily. It can range from 3 hours to 5 hours. Isama na natin dito ang site maintenance which takes 10 to 30 minutes of my time in a day.
5. Bonding time: almost daily. Depende kung sino kasama ko. Pag office people, roughly 2 hours a day. Pag outside of the office 3 to 6 hours.
6. Gym: 1 to 2 hours. pero hindi daily. kaya nga mataba ako ngayon di ba?
7. Personal: 1 hour on grooming, conversations with God, email, calls and texting..

Let me sum it up: 13.5 hours (Work) + 0.5 hour (FB) + 2.5 hours (Commute) + 2 hours (Bonding time)+ 1 hour (Personal). So dapat may 4.5 hours pa ako for sleep! But I normally need 7 hours!!!

Kaya pala! Namimiss ko na manood ng TV.. PAGOD NA AKO!

Social Networking Sites: Which ones do you have?

The world just got smaller since the birth of FRIENDSTER, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, MULTIPLY, MYSPACE and other social networking sites that connected families, classmates, former lovers and friends. And in an effort to catch up with all these important people in my life, I first befriended Friendster, then I got an invite to Multiply, then showed my face in Facebook and the latest addition, tweeted my life on Twitter. Allow me to share with you what I really think about these sites.

Let's begin with FRIENDSTER. I got a ton of invites to connect with friends on Friendster. My former students were sending me invites everyday until one day, I signed up for an account. What I like Friendster at first is that it is was like an online resume. I got to see who was visiting my profile, connect with 500 friends (which was later increased, darn it, I had to create a new account 'cause I thought I reached the limit), showcase my pictures on a single album (later improved to have more than one album), customize my profile page with music, video, change the background and colors with CSS and feature my friends on a single page. Too bad, the improvements were slow, people got bored and so people started to move to other SNS.

Enter FACEBOOK. Facebook is very similar to Friendster. Only better. The interface is easier to understand, the layout is easy on the eyes, adding up friends was easier, online chatting, supported more applications, requests are summarized which can be customized and of course, the never-ending games, quizzes and newsfeeds! I love the photo-tagging feature, that by tagging a photo, it automatically appears on the tagged-person's album, no more reuploading! Although there was a major thumbs - down on their policy on photos, but I think they were able to solve it already (I hope, but still, I don't really trust fineprints so most of my photos are still hosted in other sites.) Aside from Facebook's photo policy, what I don't really like is that my profile page isn't customizable. It's the same as everyone else's. I can't express my individuality (well maybe in pictures na lang). Although almost everybody is in Facebook, I still maintain one more site for everything that I want to share the world.

Go and MULTIPLY! This by far is my favorite of the Social Networking Sites. Why you ask? First, it is fully customizable, although the Multiply logo may appear on all sites, but the banner, the arrangement of the boxes and the text colors are fully customizable. It may pass as a personal website if I may say. Second, it allows you to sell stuff. Online shopping has never been more alive! Better than e-bay! Third, music, photos and videos can also be posted or embeded and not necessarily be hosted in Multiply. Sharing can be done on a different levels of relationship; sharing can be limited to colleagues, friends, family, specific individuals or share it with everybody, even people not on multiply! Entries on Multiply can also be posted/linked on Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! If not for Multiply 4.0, this site would have been enough for me, but since its deployment, I found it slow and a little bit more difficult in the eyes. The interface got a little confusing. haha! I also do not understand the Media Locker and Autouploader features. Maybe I'm just too lazy to read on about this feature so I opted not to use 'em at all! hahaha!

Tweeeeeeting on Twitter!!!!! Twitter is the ultimate stalker/conceited-friendly site! You get to choose who you follow, and if people found you interesting, they'll start following you. You get to inform other people what you are currently doing, will be doing or have done. If you are basically uninterested in other people's business, I advise you not to sign up with this site. It allows you to tweet messages 140 characters long so if you're going to share a video, photo, blog or any other site, use URL shorteners such as bit.ly or tinyurl.com. If you want to be entertained, follow people who are friends even outside of twitter, their tweets are really interesting even funny at times. But that's all you get from Twitter, short messages of what's going on with their lives, another site will still be needed to host photos, music, video, blogs and the like.

So there. I don't have a Myspace account so I really can't say anything about it. All I have are these four. Take your pick. Add me up. Social networking sites are here to stay. Let's wait for the next fad and who knows, the next one may combine all the good qualities of the aforementioned sites. Go ahead, be a FRIENDSTER, add up and MULTIPLY, paste your face on FACEBOOK and tweet on Twitter! The world just became smaller!

It's Been A Week of Searching

Kuya Don (Yumang) once criticized me, for a person who loves taking pictures, I don't have a camera of my own. NOT EVEN A POINT AND SHOOT CAMERA. How come I have so many pictures in my albums???? One, I use my trusty Sony Ericsson K800i camera phone. Two, I borrow my brother's Olympus FE-350 8MP Point and Shoot Camera. And most recently, three, I borrow my sister's Sony Cybershot 8MP Point and Shoot Camera. Hahahaha!!!! That's how pathetic I am. No camera listed to my name.

So in response to all the nagging, I finally took the initiative to look for a camera, a DSLR. Been studying which camera to buy and I'm leaning towards Canon's EOS 450D, and as advised by most of my friends. But before diving into the DSLR world, I felt the need to read on what I need to know about these cameras, I didn't want my hard earned moolah to go to waste just because I went out on a whim and bought the first DSLR I could get my hands on. I found helpful websites that helped me determine what I want in my DSLR, and what I could do with it. Now, I want more! I don't think I'll be satisfied with the kit lens of the EOS 450D! And what I want is a lot more expensive!!! I hate it! Now I think I'll have to settle for a point and shoot camera. hahaha!

Here are some of the sites that I found really helpful for someone like me who's totally a newbie:

http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/how-to-pick-a-digital-slr-camera.html

http://www.budget-gadgets.com/2009/01/canon-dslr-camera-prices-in-hidalgo

http://digitalprinting.multiply.com/photos/album/66/Canon_Products#11

Also big thanks to my anak Ronald and Louie for helping me figure out the things I could barely understand with all these DSLR jargon.. Now, what to do?? Off to Hidalgo I go??? hahaha!

RECOGNITION FOR MY CISCO BOYS AND GIRL

http://www.mapua.edu.ph/News/News.aspx?newsID=421

Mapúa Sweeps CISCO Tilt ‘09

Consistent with its 84th year history of excellence, Mapúa Institute of Technology has again showed academic prowess when it emerged triumphant in the highly-coveted 4th Cisco Networking Academy National Skills Competition. In competition with more than 10 premier universities/institutes representing various clusters from all over the Philippines, Mapua grabbed two major group awards and three major individual awards in the competition held last March 26, 2009 at Holy Angel University, Pampanga.

Mapúa’s School of EECE students Melissa Mae Pasquin, John Millie Dingle, Jonathan Eric Defante and Edmund Ray Milanes were proclaimed as the National Champion in the Basic Category. The team received P15,000 cash prize plus Linksys Wireless Routers for each member. Another group from Mapua composed of Angelito Carpio, John Mark Cornilla, Lorenzo Raralio and Kenneth Garcia were the 1st Runner-up in the Advanced Category. The team received a P20,000 cash prize.

Engr. Wilheim John Sy mentored the Basic team while Engr. Emma Ruth Tiong mentored the Advanced team.

Furthermore, John Mark Cornilla, Kenneth Garcia and Edmund Ray Milanes received the following individual awards, respectively: Highest in Written Exam (Advanced), Runner-up in Written Exam (Advanced) and Runner-up in Written Exam (Basic). Melissa Mae Pasquin was also awarded the second Runner up in the Basic Written Category.

The annual Cisco Skills Competition is organized by the Cisco Networking Academy Core Council of the Philippines. It aims to promote, gauge, and improve the networking skills of Filipino networking students and enthusiasts. The Cisco Networking Academy is an internationally recognized IT educational initiative to develop graduates with networking and Internet skills and prepares its students for globally recognized industry standard certifications.

Yey!! Ok na ako sa Second Place, at least we are consistent!!! Hehehe.. There's no way to go but up di ba! SAYA! Icing on top, I was awarded Model Instructor. hahaha.. di ko akalain! waaah!

MEEE!!! Ngarag, kakatapos lang magdinner, kakadating lang
from the Skills Competition in HAU

Kenneth Garcia: Model Student

Angelito Carpio: Fourth Highest Individual Scorer (wala lang recognition)

Kenneth Garcia: Second Highest Individual Scorer

John Mark Cornilla: Highest Individual Scorer