A New Residence

In the past twenty years, this would be our seventh residence. But it would be more from scratch than ever before.

My brother bought the house last time he was in town. It was a three-door apartment at that time. And what he planned was for me, my siblings and Mama and Tatay to live there. My family would be living on the second storey, my sister and her family on one of the ground floor apartments and my parents and brother in the other one. Several months down, this is just about to come true. Me and my family is moving in. The rest will follow as events have overtaken the plans.

The original plans included some renovation to the structure: raising the first floor roof and ceiling; adding a veranda on the second floor; increasing the area of the second floor; minor plumbing repairs; electrical rewiring; repairing some of the walls; etc. Not much really but it does sound like a lot.

Instead of all of those things, we're moving in with practically just a more livable improvement. We had the second storey floor repaired. It does need a flooring surface, like linoleum or vinyl tiles. The bedroom doors have to be replaced. Currently these have been removed. The rear wall needs to be replaced. hmmmm And the front door, which looks like a gate, should look like a front door.

But it is livable. It is a viable residence. Something we could repair and renovate as we live in it.

We can't bring everything with us. The china cabinet for one. And I'm not sure at all if we need all the cabinets. Or if we have space for them. The computer would most probably be placed beside the TV and beside the sofa. Which is just beside the dining table. hehehe

No, I am not complaining. I am actually and truly grateful and enjoying myself. For all the right reasons. This will be home. As did all the prior six residences.

--Andoy
26 April 2008

NBA Finals. The possibility exists...

At this point where there's a lot of popular players across a lot of teams, and there is no single team with a conceded advantage, anything can happen, and any team has a chance to win the NBA Finals.  However, after having said that, it is a wonder that nobody has talked about the possibility of the top two teams after the regular season fighting it out for the Finals.  Against all historical data, nobody is talking as yet of a Celtics-Lakers (or Lakers-Celtics) Finals.

The thought that this is being pushed out of the collective consciousness is a wonder.  It can be explained by the simple fact of popularity.  There are other teams which are more popular.  And these two teams have not been heavy contenders for some time now.  But not this year.  Start of the year brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to the Boston.  They have been looking tough since the start of the season.  

And just when the trade deadline was coming along, Los Angeles got Pau Gasol into the fold.  This was supposed to be a project which might bear fruit in the near future.  Looks like the future came a little early.

Celtics-Lakers.  The continuing rivalry which by the looks of it will continue for at least another three years or until the contracts of the stars run out and comes time to rebuild again.  Something to look forward to.

I'm a Lakers fan, but if the above match up does happen, Lakers in six games.  Or Celtics in seven.  I really doubt anyone can win against the Celtics on a seventh game this year.

-- andoy

25 April 2008

Kenneth and Darwi, updates

Kenneth has decided to go to St. Scholastica's college to take a up Fine Arts.  He informed me about this during the weekend.  This is good news, I guess.  That ends the speculation as to course and school.  He was accepted to Music Education at St. Scholastica's as well as Computer Science to FEU-East Asia College and at Mapua (Makati Campus).

Darwi's birthday today.  Happy Birthday!  She's sixteen.  I'll be posting new pictures of her soon.  She'll be in her senior year in high school and should be taking college entrance exams soon.

--andoy

14 April 2008 

Another page layout edit

wala lang. hehehe I just thought I'd shake things up a bit. But not too much.

--andoy
12 April 2008

Not Dead Yet

The phone's demise was badly reported.  It's back and working.  Only yesterday did I find out that it does not charge through the USB if the connection is also being used to transfer data to and from the computer.  In fact, it seems that the phone is using up its own power when connected as a USB flash drive, it does not draw power from the computer.

So there.  I tried my luck in connecting the phone, again, and for the nth time to the PC hoping it would get recharged.  It did.  And it's working fine.

Now to keep in mind to keep it charged.

--andoy

10 April 2008

Dead Phone

My phone died.  Or maybe not yet dead.  Just that I can't charge the batteries.  First the charger died a week ago.  I was forced to borrow Darwi's phone.  She's got a charger, whereas I would be forced to charge my phone via a USB connection on a computer.  I intend to get a new charger, but wasn't able to get around to it last Saturday, being too tired from work deploying terminals to Zambales.

Now after several days of charging via the USB, the phone dies.  I am not sure why but it might be related to USB problems on some PCs.  There are some motherboards which USB power have destroyed USB devices.  I should know.  I had a USB flash disk fried because of such a USB connection.

Strategy now is to try other computers and see if the phone would charge.  Would have to go buy a new charger soon.  Soonest being Saturday.  Or when I can spare the money.

Meantime, I can receive text messages and calls (I think) using the office-issue phone, but I can't use it to make a call or send SMS.

Communication wise, I am isolated. Not good.

--andoy

The Mt. Samat Adventure

When I was growing up, Mt. Samat was the venue for the annual celebration of Araw ng Kagitingan, formerly Bataan Day, commemorating the day Bataan fell to the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.  The Mt. Samat Memorial shrine was built in the late 1960's.

I was within the area about two weeks ago and just had to make a quick trip to the site.  I was with a team deploying EFT POS to a chain of LPG stores in the Bataan area, and we were within an hour's drive of the memorial.  We left the store at Orini just past 4:00pm, went to Balanga to withdraw money from the ATM (it being the only place in the area where there's an BPI or Landbank ATM.  And were at the highway crossroad to Morong by 5:00pm.  I was with Tony, the technical guy and Mang Louie.  And while on the way, we were also trying to search for a convenience store or sari-sari store where we can buy some bottled water.  Mang Louie noticed a fruit stand offering buco juice.   We had fresh buco juice, straight from the buco.  We left the roadside stand around 5:30 or thereabouts.

Off we went to the shrine.  Not getting lost as there were landmarks all the way to the intersection, With the van climbing, we noticed that there were no traffic on the road up the mountain.  We only saw one group of hiders going down, a couple on a motorbike also going down and a road crew painting lanes.  It was already 6:00pm when we got to the gate where a big sign said "Touring hours from 8:00am to 5:00pm."  Only thing to do was to turn around and take some pictures along the way.

Obviously, that was the first time any of us had ever gone to the shrine.  hehe  All in all, it was fun.  Didn't get to see much of the shrine, but the road trip was great.

--andoy
8 April 2008