Emil’s Arrival!

Last night, right after work, I headed to McDonald’s just outside Ever Gotesco Commonwealth where I work. This is were Marcia, Dawn and Jamie were waiting. We were all heading for the airport to pick up Emil, Marcia’s younger brother coming from Japan.

In the car, with us was my colleague Bennette who road along up to Philcoa where we then headed home since out way was also his direction home.

It was 9:40pm when we left and the estimated time of arrival of the plane was 10:40. We got there on time since there was no traffic. We first went to the Centennial Airport, and found out we support to be at Ninoy Aquino International Airport since Centennial is for Philippine Airline flights only.

When we got there, Jamie kept going all over the place while we waited for Emil to arrive. We stayed at the waiting area labeled GHIJK which means that is the area where the people arriving with lastnames starting with G, H, I, J and K should go to. When Emil arrived he Marcia to go to section TVU waiting area.

We then all walked to the parking area and headed straight home. Dawn was so tired and sleepy, she was out cold in a few minutes along with Jamie beside her. Me, Marcia and Emil ate some mechado for dinner and had a few chats.

Before I retired to bed, me and Marcia did some few emails to send and receive and Emil got to bed. Emil slept in our room. Me, Marcia, Dawn and Jamie slept in Mama’s room. My Mom slept in my sister’s room with my sister and her kids.

We all woke up about 9am preparing to go to work. I was not able to go to work on time since I remembered I needed to print something for En Blaze, my client and burned a CD, brought the laptop and printer to work so I could do it there in my freetime.

Emil seemed to be preparing all his schedules since the day his foot landed on Philippine soil. He was finding out where places are and how to get there.

My teaching schedule is 9am to 9pm and I am still at work right now, will be back home in 4 hours. And after that me and Marcia will go to Citation to do a few things there before going to bed.

North Olympus House Getting Better!

My day started out with going to Federal Hardware. Marcia bought some cabinet doors again for the new kitchen cabinet where the hood will be. We also checked out Gillamacs to see the airconditioners there. We were not happy with the aircons we saw. They were not brand new, but their price was like a brand new one too.

We then checked out the cement tiles for the back of the house, but decided to get from ET Pineda Enterprises. Their prices are the same all over, so we decided to get from the people we know, and ET Pineda Enterprises is also Popo Pineda’s Family business. It mainly his parents’ business, but since we know him, we might as well talk to him on the tiles. Popo is also the drummer of the band MoonStar88.

I then brought Marcia to work and headed towards North Olympus to check out the house. The skeleton of the door roof was taking shape and looked good. I worked on the TV Rack Entertainment Center and installed the glass doors on it.

After that I headed for a car wash. And I went to the car wash again, owned by Popo Pineda. And then I brought Dawn to her UPCAT review. Printed some billing statements of YDS Web Solution and headed for work at Informatics.

Schedules got jumbled since my XP2WP (Internet & Email, MS Outlook) WF 2pm to 5pm class was replaced with Flash – Fun Animation at the same schedule. Then the old XP2WP was moved to a new time slot. Classes were interrupted when Sir Anthony Maribay came, he requested a meeting for all lecturers. He taught us the basic stuff we should know that we already know. *Ehem* But it was still a good reminder,… *ehem* *gwrraaacck* *sniff* …since we do forget basic stuff. AutoCAD was exercise as usual, drawing the classroom with all the details in it, drawn to scale.

At home, I was a bit tired, so I did not do much and went to sleep early.

Back to work…

Yesterday Morning, I was not able to wake up early even if Marcia kept waking me up and when I woke up, she no longer had time to pass by Federal Hardware. So we both went straight to work. Our plan for the day was to go to PNB Escolta at around lunch time, just after my 9am to 12pm class, and come back just in time for my 6pm to 9pm class. Unfortunately, Marcia was not able to get out of work. So what I did instead was to pass by Ever Gotesco HomeWorks as recommended by Marcia for me to pass by and get the glass windows for the entertainment center furniture that we did not get when we bought it. I did not have any problems at all, as Ter, the guy at HomeWorks, simply got the glass and handed it over. At Informatics, Bennette was fixing all the wirings of the server putting the UPS plugs in the right places, and I was installing a new hard disk on one of the PCs.

Sir Dan talked to me about my lates and absences, and all he said is whatever my plans are, give them a notice and tell them right away so they can prepare. It was also Tiney’s birthday that day, happy birthday Tiney! And she got Greenwich Pizza for everyone and also gave us a Big-O(That’s Zest-O Big 250)!

For my XP2PC classes, boy they didn’t come again! So there is still no classes. But still decided to stay at the center since I was not finished working on the computer I was installing the new hard disk.

I Slept the Whole Day!

I had a total of 2 hours sleep since yesterday, I was sleepy the whole day. I literally slept through the whole day. After bringing Marcia to work, it was my day off, I slept. I woke up to bring Dawn to her UPCAT review. Then I slept. I forced myself to wake up to go to North Olympus to bring the doorbell switch, then got home and ate lunch. I supposed to pass by Briones Glass and Aluminum Supply to inquire about the mirrors that we wanted to be installed at the house, but it was already past 3pm and the car was already under the coding scheme and was not allowed to go out on Mondays from 3pm to 7pm. I slept again. Marcia got home and was constantly waking me up, but I was so sleepy and dizzy, and didn’t get to wake up. I then woke up at 7:30pm, but Marcia just got mad a lot more, since she was waking me up to go to Federal Hardware, and Federal closes at 7:30pm. I promised to bring her to Federal in the morning before going to work. After dinner, I didn’t work at all and just went straight to bed, but only got to sleep when Jamie feel asleep too.

Kuya Gerry’s Arrival at the Philippines

Yesterday, I supposed to be at work at 9am for my ST109B class (CorelDraw, PhotoShop). But I needed to give some print jobs to En Blaze, and the printer ran out of ink. I had to wait till 10am to get ink at SM. I finished my printing at 11:30am and decided not to go to work anymore since my first class is up to 12pm. And I totally forgot about my 1 to 5 class, XP2PP (PowerPoint). It was a good thing my students were the security trainors of En Blaze. So I did hope they understand why I could not make the class, since I was working on their company’s corporate folder.

That day, I also had to pick up Kuya Gerry, Marcia’s brother, at the airport coming from Australia who arrives at Manila at 4pm. At the airport, the Almeda Family was there minus Kuya Louie. Harry and Janet were there. Me, Marcia, Dawn and Jamie were present too.

When we got there, Jamie was so happy pointing at all the airplanes she sees starting to fly and leave the airport. Once Kuya Gerry arrived, and everyone was in their respective vehicles, we headed towards Marina, a restaurant at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Buendia, near Philippine Trade and Training Center. This restaurant had a look and feel as if you are on an old sailing ship made of wood. There were outdoor areas, and indoor air-conditioned areas, but always felt outdoor since the glass windows were so big, you never feel you are in the indoor area. There was an aquarium that seem to have salt water fishes in it. And I have heard that salt water fishes are more colorful that fresh water fishes. And those fishes were definitely colorful. And the famous “Finding Nemo” star, the clown fish was also present, further confirming that salt water fishes were in the tank. I am not sure if I am correct, but I think salt water aquarium-selling is being regulated by law, since it is now illegal to sell corals since our coral reefs have been depleting in the Philippines. But I looked closely at the aquarium at Marina and they did not have any corals there. Just a big rock. One thing I also noticed was the UV (ultraviolet) light they had. Actually there are three frequency ranges of UV light simply nicknamed UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. Where UV-A is not harmful. UV-B and UV-C is harmful to the skin which could give rise to free-radicals (unpaired electrons) causing skin cancer which basically comes from the sun. The UV light at the aquarium was for sure to be a UV-A light and it’s effect on surfaces is it gives white colors a bright neon like effect that is slightly violet, but still predominantly white. So the fishes in the aquarium with light colors seemed to light up a bit, but most people looking at the fishes didn’t know about it.

When we ordered what to eat, we ordered a lot, Crispy Pata, Roasted Tuna (katawan), Kare-Kare, Pork Sisig, Pancit Bihon, Pancit Canton, Chopseuy, Lechon Manok, Sinigang na Tuna (Ulo). As desert, we had ice cream and Main Con Yelo. The food was ok, I ate mainly the food that I do not get to eat at home that much, so I went for the Sisig and Roasted Tuna and Chopseuy.

Before eating, the kids kept running here and there and Kuya Gerry told me to take pictures of them, so I did. Jude Loi kept wearing his vampire mask trying to scare everyone. When it was eating time, Jamie couldn’t be kept in one place, while I was eating, Marcia was with Jamie, and when I was done, I was with Jamie so Marcia could eat.

We went home on a full stomach, thanks again to Kuya Gerry. We then proceeded to Dapitan, to bring Ate Ning home, and Janet and Harry as well at Quintos. Then we all proceeded to our house.

Our (Me and Marcia) house, fresh from painting, and construction of the interior, has never been slept in after the renovation done. There is also minimal furniture inside. We got our mattress from home and a few cushions for us to sleep on at the living room. After all the ‘pasalubong’ giving (thanks again Kuya Gerry), Kuya Gerry went straight to bed. Everyone else Went to Burger Machine and get something to eat. When everyone else went to sleep as well, me, Madelaine and Dawn were still awake playing cards. I taught them a few card games, like Speed, Bluff and Crazy 8. As we were still awake, Jamie was awake too and did not stop from going up and down the lower steps of the stairs. We slept at 3am.

At 4am, Marcia woke me up to bring Kuya Gerry to the Airport for his 7am flight on his way home to Bicol. The kids came with us and after bringing Kuya Gerry to the airport, we all headed to Dapitan to bring the kids there. Had a little chit-chat and I then headed home and slept another 1 hour before I went to work.

Dawn’s UPCAT Review, The House, En Blaze, Informatics, Funtastic

After waking up, I decided not to prepare to go to work yet and do a lot of other important things that needed to be addressed.

Gas was going down on my car and I had it filled up with P160. Because that was all we got. I got P60, Marcia gave me P100. I chose to fill up at Petron Fairview near SSS Housing, because by experience, them seem to be filling up more than other stations.

Then I brought Marcia to work and went to the new house. I tested the LAN and it was not working well. I got the other receipts of what we owe to Ramos Hardware and brought the Aircon box which was a lot bigger than the hole in the wall! I decided to come back in the evening to test the LAN.

I then brought Dawn to Robinson’s for an ID picture that she might need at the UPCAT review, took a bath and brought Dawn to Our Lady of Lourdes School of Novaliches for the UPCAT Review.

I rushed home and took a quick lunch and headed for work. At work I started on with my XP2OP class where I basically teach MS Outlook and the basics of using the Internet. It was nearly no rest period, after modeling my blog template a bit, my XP4A1 class started. This is AutoCAD Module 1 and gave them an exercise while I work on with Funtastic again.

I was able to talk to En Blaze and passed the message that printing with the short notice was not possible, but I could come up with alternative ideas just for their presentation on Monday with some big company. They might have an NDA so I would not say the company.

After this class, I will then continue on with Funtastic.

Election Results, My Projects and Other work.

I remember just before I slept in the morning, FPJ was leading in ABS-CBNs quick count by about 15,000 votes, but now GMA is starting to pull away.

ABS-CBN Unofficial Quick Count Results as of 7:17AM on Tuesday, May 11, 2004.

Candidate Votes
GMA 587,027
FPJ 562,976

INQ7 / AMA Quick Count as of 8:40PM on Monday, May 10, 2004.

Candidate Votes
GMA 109,134
FPJ 108,642

I hope the result stay that way.

Now is my break time at Informatics and I get to work on other stuff so I am now working on the Funtastic website again which is now on it’s 3rd layout.

Check out how it is doing:

Funtastic Stuff Sample Sites

Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3

My morning 9am to 12pm class ended already and my next class is at 6pm and I am making the most of my time working on this site.

Still no Sleep and Work not yet done.

I haven’t slept since last night and did nothing but solve the problem of PhotoShop running on my computer. Up to now I haven’t solved it but I least I got a lower version up and running to just get me through this job. Funtastic’s deadline is yesterday and I am working double-time to get this up and running. So far I have uploaded the third sample already but there is still a lot to be worked on from there. But of course that is no good reason for a job not done. Classes today start at 9am and finish at 12pm, then I have another class at 6pm to 9pm. So about after lunch, I will update the client database, so once I get home, it is mostly coding. Many thanks to Mike and Eric that made everything run a lot more easier that saved me a lot of time. But if I feel so sleepy tomorrow, maybe I’ll just sleep through work then work on this site again in the evening.

Presidential Election Day, Belated Mother’s Day Celebration and Murphy’s Doing it again!

Today is presidential election day in the Philippines. But as usual I did not vote because I can’t, since I am not a Filipino citizen. Elections in the Philippines are sometimes violent, but so far, thank God this year seems to be a lot more peaceful.

I started out my day working on the Funtastic website that should be online today. Then everyone at home at lunch at Dory’s for a post-mother’s day celebration. At least Mom was able to rest from cooking. I had no money that day so Ats and Marcia paid for everything. It was also nice to have Allan Go around.

We then went out to buy a few stuff for the house, but we ended up just buying a clock. Once we got home I went on working the Funtastic site again and for some mysterious reason, Murphy has been playing around with PhotoShop and made it not run. Just when I really needed this online. I tried installing it again, it didn’t work. I tried uninstalling GrandVision DVII, since it was the last thing I installed, as well as DirectX 8.0. Still did not work. I am now downloading DirectX 9.0b, as well as a new driver for GrandVision DVII, they may be causing conflicts with PhotoShop. I have been downloading DirectX for the last 45 minutes, and I still have more than an hour left. The DVII driver is also taking some time. Will login again later for other updates.