A Reboot of Sorts

Another hiatus, another lame entry here. Must be age catching up with me. Or just the need to try how easy (or hard) it is to do this in iPad.

Regardless, it now feels alien to me. Even if I had gone through a post graduate degree writing more formal papers or almost a decade addressing people using formal written communication, doing this after the longest hiatus is just uneasy.

I just might do this more often now. This device affords me the ease of doing so unlike having to set a notebook up and sit for a couple of minutes when I’m already dead tired from a weekday’s work most of the time.

Now if only I knew what would be worthwhile to put here.

So what’s up

I remember how Lei told me to just write up what’s in my mind. If not, the piece would become “stale”.

I guess she’s right there. So in no particular order, here’s an update of me since the previous hiatus in no order of significance:

1. Another baby girl to keep me awake late at night.
2. Now working for a mobile software company using Java.
3. Finished that MIS degree from UPOU.
4. Contracted chicken pox “finally”
5. Met dad again in person after 16 years.
6. Met an accident in C5 which almost smashed my skull. The taxi driver fell asleep as we headed up straight to the rear of a truck. He hit the brakes just in time for the bumper to break into the windshield and stop within about a foot from our faces.

Tying the Knot

Because I would be among the last ones to come to mind when it comes to public speech, pulling off one in front of more than ten qualifies as an “achievement” for me.

Strange as it seems, I find it easier to go more than 48 hours straight pressing my gray matter in analytical work, (read Software Development,) rather than get my act together for at most 5 minutes talking to an audience. For all the Speech Communication’s worth of pointers from High School and College, the thought of doing it still remains my greatest Waterloo.

When the time came to give one for my brother’s wedding last Saturday though, I had to literally “face my fear” and give it my best shot. With a few hours of preparations the early hours of Friday afforded me, the following was what I came up with:

Good evening everyone. Thank you for your presence in this very special day for PJ and Nikki.

While it is customary to enumerate dos and don’ts for wedding speeches, I don’t think I would go there. Mainly because I have miles to go with my own marriage and partly because I honestly think there’s no hard and fast list of specifics that would fit every couple’s story.

Given that, though, there still remains that one thing which holds for all marriages. And that is that God should remain at the center of the relationship.

We have been thoughtfully reminded earlier that no marriage is perfect. Given this, His guidance is definitely important should the times get hard and the trials become even harder.

So in behalf of the family, I would like to wish you—-PJ and Nikki—-the best of luck as you begin a new chapter in your lives. We are happy for the both of you and may the Lord be with you all throughout your marriage. It is my earnest hope that everyone here will get the chance to hear in the future what you will have to say about your wonderful memories together.

To PJ, you’ve grown up to be that ambitious and responsible young man ready for married life—-all the way from that rash and impatient boy I grew up with. I ask the Lord to guide you in all your endeavors as you venture on to become a family man.

To Nikki, welcome to the family and thank you for making my brother the happiest man in the world tonight.

Thank you once again to everyone here and a wonderful evening to all.

Of course it looks more wonderful in print than when I actually delivered it. And it was the delivery which almost doomed me. My wife and relatives told me my nervousness was noticeable, although she also said I was already fine in the end. It felt wonderful that a number there said the message was beautiful though.

So I’m taking that as a good start in the public speech area with the lapses as pointers charged to experience.

Going Google Chrome (1 of 2)

Doing this post reminds me of the time when I had to write about moving from Firefox to Opera. Back then, it was primarily about issues with Firefox 3.0. This time it’s about the “This is embarassing” issue with Firefox 3.5 getting more and more frequent. While the way Firefox handles its mess is commendable and somewhat funny, it becomes more and more irritating as it happens more and more frequently.

Sure it might not be the core developers’ fault there. This time, however, I don’t have any plugins so getting burned browsing isn’t exactly encouraging to me. So instead of sticking it out and maybe trying to find what’s causing some 10 or 20-something tabbed session go caput…

Enter Google Chrome

While it was not exactly the first time I used the browser, the previous weeks found me taking a long and extensive look at what the internet giant has to offer. I have used the browser for testing a proxy project for school recently so it was all a matter of some bits of tweaking before I had things going for me.

An officemate of mine told me that Google Chrome was the fastest around when he did benchmarks of different browsers for school work as well. (It isn’t hard to guess which one came in last.) I wasn’t that much surprised because the guys from Google were just living up to one of their promises in reinventing the browser.

So Far…

…I’m liking the experience. Pretty much to have me set it as my default at least for the time being.

Apart from the often-noted gains on speed, Google Chrome dares to do things differently so I guess one downside to adopting it for one’s internet pleasure would be the need to take time to get used to how it does things. For one so used to seeing the usual window bar then menu then tabs layout when browsing, getting something without the first two parts can slow you down at first.

Google Chrome Layout

One thing noteworthy here is in how the decision to strike a balance between functionality and simplicity was achieved.

And for Tweaks and Peaks…

…there’s the Developer Tools from Google. I’ve pretty much missed what Google has to offer in this respect when doing my Client-Server term project so finding it out these past few days raised my delights on the browser to say the least.

First there’s the Developer-Elements treat for the web developer wanting to skim across piles of DOM material of the current page.

The Developer-Elements Functionality

Then there’s the Developer-Javascript tool to those who want to get dirty with Javascript. It is worth noting that the browser chooses to implement Javascript rendition differently from other browsers as anyone who understands their comic would.

Developer-Javascript Console Functionality

And finally, the multi-process nature of sessions in Chrome obviously requires some means of allowing users to manage the processes. This is where the Task Manager familiar to Windows users comes in.

Google Chrome Task Manager

New Tabs

Opening a new tab brings up the most visited pages in thumbnail format by default. The said layout reminds me of Opera’s Speed Dial functionality really:

New Tab - By Thumbnails

Of course there’s the list-format setting for those who prefer to run down through lists:

New Tab - By List

Treat Time

Just another busy day in the largest mall in the country

Yesterday got me and the family at SM North the whole day. It was when I woke up that my wife told me of the plan to spend the day there. We geared up and after spending nearly 2 hours in the busy traffic along the way, we got there.

And it was really busy there yesterday.

I was supposed to find a mouse to replace the one I’m using for nearly a couple of years now. And maybe a little something for myself as I bid the twenty-something years good riddance.

Instead I didn’t get anything for myself. They did however.

For Her – I

For my wife it was a new Samsung S3500. It was no beast like the U900 it was often compared to (and to which it shared a lot of comparisons) but compared to my recently fixed U600, there are some things review material really.

The Samsung S3500

Here are some impressions so far without turning this into a full blown review.

The S3500 scores against the U600 with long battery life. My phone lasts barely for 2 days when I use its music player on my way to work. All the music tests we did on hers just manage to dent about a third of the phone’s entire battery life.

Camera features favor the U600 mostly with its 3.1MP with flash. The S3500 however has a 2.0MP without the flash to show. To the latter’s credit however, it takes pictures faster with the former having the annoying 5-second wait time before the picture is actually taken.

The S3500 is also more customizable with the presence of more themes and profiles. I would also give it a slight edge on the quality of sound over the U600. However I’d give the U600 an advantage on the fluidity and quality of display. The S3500 doesn’t have the document viewer for pdf, doc and xls files the U600 affords me though.

Both have a lot of similar functions. Both are expandable and have essentially similar phone book, bluetooth, organizer, alarms, calculator, file viewer and other functionalities.

The cost is where the S3500 pleads its case convincingly. Its cost is less than twice the amount of the U600 I got nearly two years ago. This gives an idea of the rate at which rabid competition in mobile technology lowers down technology costs in favor of the consumer.

For Her – II

The Nintendo DS

Her long overdue Nintendo DS… something we’ve been longing to give her but somehow didn’t manage to find the time to do so. Not even after her birthday on the 3rd of this month due to a lot of typhoon-related concerns still around then.

It was nice to see her appreciate her new article. She’s been going at it while having dinner last night.

She’s still going as I write this beside her. I guess it’s going to be a while before the next lengthy father-and-daughter conversation takes place.

For Me

Just a splendid time, a much welcome reprieve from what has happened since Typhoon Ondoy struck really.

I got nothing for myself. I guess it’s really part of getting old (and wiser) to appreciate those times becoming rarer and rarer over those stuff you get for your day which often end up room clutter after a while.

Still Going

Just when I thought my Samsung U600 was already a goner, it turned out that the phone still had a few miles to go.

As I’m so accustomed to do, I did a few web searches and found out similar problems encountered by other users. It turned out it was quite frequent after all. Some happened well over a year after the owners acquiring them. This was worse than my experience which was almost 2 years after my purchase.

Turns out that the culprit is the ribbbon flex which frequently gets the hit in terms of wear and tear in the slider phone.

It's the imp's fault

And since the wear’s not visible there, here’s a clearer shot at the culprit.

The Worn-Down Flex Ribbon

Good thing the Samsung repair guys had my old pal going. The last thing I want this time of the year is an unplanned cost for a mobile phone when I have one which has pretty much a lot of the things I need in my phone.

With that I’m taking unplanned 1,500 bucks that goes with it.

No Dunking…

So months after MJ was inducted into the hall of fame, here are a couple of videos that might have been drowned out of the best moments avalanche of Jordan staples that time.

The first is this classic McDonald’s advertisement with Larry Bird in the 90’s:

One of those one on ones MJ does for fun this time. Here’s WSJ CEO John Rogers:

Nothing greatest moments material really. Just some of those which characterized the guy as the endorser and personality during his time.

Stemming the Tide

With all the accounts of Phishing horrors and IT security advisories warning against it, FBI’s breakthrough against a US-Egypt Phishing scam is definitely a welcome in the war against identity theft.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said 33 people were arrested across the United States early Wednesday while authorities in Egypt charged 47 more people linked to the scam.

A total of 53 suspects were named in connection with the scam in a federal grand jury indictment, the FBI said.

Authorities said the sophisticated identity theft network had gathered information from thousands of victims which was used to defraud American banks.

While there are a lot that remains to be done, the headway provides at least some sense of justice to those paranoid about their privacy and financial information in a world becoming more and more interconnected everyday.

The Long Walk Home (3 of 3)

Indeed the immediate area near our place was pitch black with occasional candles lit. What was surprising was the activeness of a lot of people past that time of the night. Something definitely wasn’t right. And I’m not yet talking of the knee-length water on the streets yet.

Why did things have to be hard for the past 24 hours?

Warm Coffee, Please

My wrist watch read some minutes before 2 AM when I reached home and found my wife scooping out water using a dustpan. Water in the streets were starting to rise. They said that with the dams releasing water to ease out the pressure within its walls, it was only a matter of time before water would enter the houses.

In the midst of the frustration, all I wanted was just a nice hot cup of coffee. I was cold and wet from the experience starting from the morning that I just needed to warm a bit.

Lo and behold, there was no cooking gas! Thankfully a well-meaning neighbor offered a cup of hot water or I would have blown to bits then. A few sips of coffee was all I needed to break off from the mounting chaos.

Who Needed Weights Anyway?

Then it was on to lifting stuff. My wife understandably could only do so much in carrying up stuff to the second floor of the place. Important documents, food, medicine and other such lighter articles. All while checking on the kids and the water level outside from time to time.

Thankfully I reached home with just the right amount of time to allow me to move the heavier ones to higher ground. So while she was scooping water and all, I was moving appliances– TV, washing machine, dryer, ref, microwave– to the second floor. The situation didn’t afford me to take my time doing so because water was rising fast outside. I had to help my wife then.

A few minutes later, I relieved her from the chore as she made a last swoop of things to move upstairs in preparation for water coming in. It was only a few inches before the waters outside breached the level of the apartment entrance outside. It was routinary in the first minutes then tiring the next minutes that followed. Neighbors from nearby households were doing the same just to keep the water from filling their places.

It looked like fighting a losing battle when the rise of water outside went on. It was one thing to keep seeping water from accumulating; it was another to have water gushing inwards.

Here it comes

A few minutes before 3 AM when water broke through. We left the scooping chore when it happened. It covered the floors at first before rising slowly. It turned from a question of whether water would get in to how much we’ll get inundated.

I gave up and had to lie down somewhere upstairs. Water was rising anyway and there’s nothing much we can do for now. My wife took watch downstairs as I rested while waiting for the water level outside to recede. Then there will be clean up.

As I was lying, I recalled how lucky I was to be there. It definitely wasn’t a joke but it wasn’t that hard to figure out in some sort of a mishap in that day’s worth of hardships either.

My sister-in-law arrived with her daughters by the time I was getting sleepy. It was waist-deep in their house when they left from what I heard. She and my wife was talking about stuff when I actually fell asleep.

The next thing I knew it was already morning. It was a gloomy but definitely a welcome for one who had to spent that night awake. My wife told me that it went up to knee-level inside the house before the waters stopped rising outside.

The Aftermath

It was clean-up that morning. Scooping out water, washing and disinfecting stuff and scrubbing, disinfecting floors and placing back moved appliances were in fashion among households then. We had the place clean by afternoon.

We were not without damages. Luckily ours were relatively minor ones. Apart from our water pump, we saw a TV rack, a corner cabinet and some minor articles thrown away.

We had to wait until Monday afternoon for electricity though. Prior to it being restored, I had to actually content myself with reading (and actually finishing) Freakonomics and cigarettes.

It was so much a welcome to have electricity back as my daughter needed to be nebulized regularly because of asthmatic attacks starting from that Sunday. And there was definitely so much the lack of electricity hampers. It was only then that I got to inform people elsewhere that we were alright here. It was the signal to have us organize the smaller stuff around the house. It was also only then that we got to see TV news coverages of the extent of damage the typhoon brought.

Despite what I had to go through, it would be modest to say I’m still lucky. It was all over for us in a matter of hours but not so for other people even after some days. We were affected, yes, but a lot of other people were even more devastated. Among others, we had water inside the house but a lot of other people had to deal with mud. We didn’t have to deal with more than knee-length flooding inside the house. We didn’t have to wait for more than around 2 days to get electricity back.

I’m quite sure my story doesn’t even register a blink among the rough snapshots others had that fateful day.

The whole ordeal had me missing work for 2 working days in the week that followed. That was all the time I needed to get myself back in condition.

The Long Walk Home (2 of 3)

If memory serves me right, it was before 7 in the evening when I made my push to Monumento. Yes it was quite early but the terrible weather made it look discouraging to take the option. I was getting more and more worried. The stillness of traffic along with the gusts of the wind and bursts of the rain made it all the more difficult for me to stay put. My daughter, wife and her niece were the only ones at home and should the weather get worse, it was certain they would be needing the extra hand to keep the situation at bay.

So I joined the flock who were making their way along EDSA by foot. My umbrella sported a broken rib by then but it had to do against the rain. It wasn’t as exhausting as I thought anyway. With a great number of stranded souls doing the same, I had nothing to lose with the decision anyway. I passed through Project 7 then Munoz within minutes. Remaining flood waters along the way were the least of my worries as the one thing I had my mind focused on was to get home.

Same with the sight of those who decided to climb the abandoned scaffolds of the MRT under construction to buy themselves some leverage over the floods along the way. It was somewhat scary and had me thinking how fragile we all were right there.

But came the Ford building past Monumento.

I wondered what’s with the hesitation of those who went for the trek right there. It then became apparent that past the landmark was still a flood basin still somewhere around waist-level when I got there. It was hard for me to recognize what lay waiting farther because it was dark already. So I had to stop and eat a cracker.

And wait.

It was there that I overheard a woman who came from Monumento tell her tale to her friend. She told her horrible ordeal to get past the Balintawak area just before the fork to the North Diversion Road. It was waist-deep she said and she had to hold on to a rope somewhere along the stretch as the flood waters carried beneath them strong currents from the then-overflowing creeks. And she tried her best to discourage people like me from pushing on.

At least not yet.

Moving On

It was past 8 when I decided to push onwards. A lot of those people who chose to wait, after all, were starting to push forward again. Bigger vehicles deciding to move might have provided just enough encouragement then.

It was still knee-deep as I got to realize later. The water rose to at least a few inches at times but it was generally within knee-level. One thing going the way of those who braved the waters like me was that we had the freedom to easily switch to the southbound stretch of EDSA. Unfortunately that meant our feet were vulnerable to the fallen MMDA fences and construction debris submerged in the waters.

The next flood basin after that was even deeper. Waist-deep if I remember it right.

There was no turning back at that point though. Amidst women screaming because they nearly slipped, hapless parents carrying children and scores of others treading the floods, I had to move on.

Thank God it was a pretty straightforward walk after those two flooded areas of the highway.

The Lesser Evil

I was at Monumento around 9. It’s funny how worrying how to actually get there took more time than actually getting there. Yup, I was a mess to understate things but I was there at last. That’s all that mattered. It was a strategic starting point for me homebound if I were to actually get home that night.

Ironically I had to wait again for another couple of hours. I recall having barkers tell me how impossible it is for transportation to pass through then chest-deep roads leading to our place. Hence the utter absence of jeepneys.

I had a choice of two poisons really. One is the usual jeepney I take but will only get me as far as Francis. Or the then rarer Letre jeepneys which gets me somewhere guaranteed to be flooded even during just weak typhoons or substantially lengthy rains.

I don’t know what made me choose the latter. It was not the easier jeep to take for sure but something told me to take that one. Looking back, I know I made the right choice as I overheard people who chose the first recount how a lot of them got stuck there. The contrarian insight did pay off I guess.

But it wasn’t really exactly easy at Letre too.

Stuck in an Island

I got to Letre past 11 after I got to take a jeepney there. The place was a mirror image of the Ford stake-out. Only this time, things looked bleaker.

I saw a lot of people try to make way through the higher floods there. Something told me to wait again however. Maybe it was the fact that I can’t see farther into the bridge over the river that got me hesitant. That and the fact that even busses and fuel trucks found it hard to pass through that stretch.

People around me were just as tired and restless. I can overhear parents this time talk to someone else about how they and their children still haven’t had dinner because of all the trouble Ondoy brought. I can hear teens and workers grumble about their own difficulties. I can hear a mother tell her son to wear the slippers because they were going to brave the floods to get home.

So again I waited. My feet were tired so I had sit in the middle of the island far from the flood’s reaches. I ate another cracker just as I was holding my umbrella which, this time, had two ribs give up already.

Then the wait again.

My watch told me it was already midnight there before I unconsciously napped while holding up my umbrella. I guess I can’t hold back the exhaustion of the entire day anymore.

Homebound

It was 1 AM when municipal rescue workers came up with a truck to take stranded commuters to the municipality. At last. Somewhere nearer.

I heaved a sigh of relief when the behemoth went on its way.

Even with the truck’s height–each of us had to be hoisted up to be able to board its back–it’s muffler wasn’t spared by the waters. It was indeed chest-deep from what I saw from those who waded through it. Something tells me the river had something to do with the water level but it was too dark for me to see if the water beneath the bridge was overflowing towards Letre’s direction then.

When I reached the municipality of Malabon, there were tricycles waiting for stranded commuters.

On my last leg on my way home, I thought of having a nice cup of coffee to get myself to calm down. And maybe to have my drenched feet in hot water to ease them from the past hours’ worth of torture. Even sitting it out for a while before having a nice sleep seemed inviting then.

As I neared our place though, something about the absence of lights guaranteed that things won’t become easier any sooner.

The Long Walk Home (1 of 3)

I guess the price I have to pay for aiming a notch higher career-wise would be abandoning writing here for most of the time I’m doing post-grad studies. Countless events and issues passed yet my busy everydays kept me from revisiting my turf in cyberspace. That in spite of promising myself (at least twice if I remember it right) to devote an ample amount of time here.

An important reason for doing so is the relative ease and speed in the realm of paperworks both at work and school surprisingly afforded to me by blogging here. That and the attachment to content here more than 5 years old now. Or maybe old habits are just hard to give up.

How’s it been?

Not much really. And there would have been nothing worthwhile to push older stuff down here except for my Ondoy experience last week. Dated, yes. But what can I do? I just find it ironic that keeping watch over our place in the midst of another typhoon affords me to recount just now how I found the last week worrisome and wearysome.

To call it such is pretty much an understatement really. That’s not to attempt, however, to rank my efforts against the tides then among the saddest scenes presented in TV news coverages elsewhere in Metro Manila and Rizal. I still find myself rattled from the experience somewhat even though life’s pretty much back to normal.

It’s just pretty much one of the many stories you’ll get to hear about the disaster really.

How it was?

I was actually at UPD taking my IS 272 finals. Sure I was on my way to the venue when the rains started pouring but that didn’t give me much of a concern that instant. I was actually midway in the exam when I noticed that the rate at which the heavens was pouring was somewhat constant. If it did change, it was only for the worse.

It was raining hard mostly. Then harder. Then just hard after sometime.

I was never one to worry about rains since I was so used to such situations having been a commuter since high school. That time was different however. I forgot my cellphone and it figured out to be the most costly oversight that day. Apart from having to post something bland because of the absence of pics from that weekend, I had to station myself near the payphone at Vinzon’s after the exam to get access to communication to my family I was starting to get worried about.

Since I was practically stuck, it was planned that my brother was to fetch me since 2 hours passed and the rain was still pouring hard in the campus. Public transportation was thinning out as commuters were filling up the waiting sheds so things were indeed turning sour for me. My hunger wasn’t even the first of my concerns then inspite of me having practically no food since I woke up that morning. Nor was it the fact that I needed to doze off in bed since I had to stay up until 3am that morning for review.

It was my concern for my family that had me restless and worried from where I stood. It was practically frustrating to be left nearly helpless from there. Another hour passed and after a couple of calls more, my brother relayed that he was still stuck far south of Metro Manila because vehicles were already stuck in the streets and highways. There was nowhere else to go and nothing much he can do then.

I had to make the push that time. A few more minutes of waiting got me in a jeepney to Philcoa from where I ate a long due brunch. A meal to catch up on missed meals and more importantly to prepare me for the worst just in case.

Stalemate

It was a stalemate along Commonwealth that time in both directions practically. Actually the directions weren’t there anymore as counterflows to avoid high water rendered either side of the island free game. Same goes for the Elliptical Road which saw the counterflows more constricting to traffic. Floodwater held the Philcoa side to University Avenue impassable to vehicles.

It was a stalemate among commuters too. At least among a lot of us for nearly two hours after I arrived there. I found it difficult to find a place to eat as a lot of persons were also helping themselves for the long journey ahead. Outside from where I ate, there stood a lot more of stranded souls waiting for the weather to lighten or the waters to recede to give some semblance of safety for at least a little while.

It was a procession for those who dared brave the waters though. Judging from the numbers of those who did so, it seemed that the flood has been there for so long that they had been forced to march along that submerged portion of Commonwealth in an attempt to push through to their destinations.

I was to go to the opposite direction however and I had to wait until at least I could get to the pedestrian overpass. That is, I had to hike towards the direction of SM North. I had to make the decision and brace myself for the worse because the scenes I had for the day until then was only getting worse.

SM

I made the push when the waters receded a little bit.

It was around 4:30 in the afternoon already if I remember it right. It was quite surprising that I made it to North Avenue from Philcoa in less than 30 minutes. I took the jeepney towards SM North from there as the gridlocked elliptical road prevented them from wandering far into the loop. The wait for other passengers and the time it took for us to get to the mall had me making the most out of my remaining cash for supplies– some crackers and mineral water for an uncertain but definitely time-consuming travel home. BPI ATMs already offline that time and stores closed by the time I got there didn’t look exactly comforting to someone having to literally inch his way closer to home that time.

I was keeping my fingers crossed because the last time I heard of EDSA that day, vehicles there were non-moving since that afternoon. It would be sensible to anticipate a possibility of a walk until Monumento with the way the afternoon panned out.

That would be the worst case decision then. It would still be sensible to wait if things turned out better– that I would be able to get inside a bus that would somehow at least crawl its way towards the next destination point on my map.

While there were people already braving the long walk northbound, there were still some people staying along the covered premises of the mall. Maybe I could give waiting a few minutes to see if things might turn out fine. It never hurts to hope in such times anyway.

It sure did hurt much to be well on your way to do the worst case however.