Silicon Leather [TechRep]

I couldn't edit our samba configs as some of our developers are complaining of not being able to connect ... we don't have a test server yet so I couldn't do enough to make my tasks work. Our 'Roaming Profile' setup & automounts will not be deployed for awhile.

Anyway, I Just read the foreword by Kasper Skarhoj (creator of Typo3) from the book "Typo3, Enterprise Content Mangement" which was bought by one of our Denmark bosses for us (Amazon.com) $59.99 US (yeoch!) ... During his early years he loved art and hated programming ... but eventually loved programming thinking of it as an artform itself =) He is also religious, I guess that explains the picture of Christ on one of the config pages of typo3, he used it as a test image for graphic rendering.

Believing in Jesus also made him share his code to the opensource community, "you got it for nothing, give it for nothing", "feed the hungry", "love your neighbor". "Goodbye World, Hello GPL". He would've earned lots of EUROs selling them to companies but he shared it anyway.

Life in the Bazaar led to annual snowboarding events for those friends he acquired after sharing typo3.

Y'know I'm beginning to like typo3 ... sure it's powerful but ... it's complexity is kinda overwhelming (development side) ... it's like re-learning an ever more cryptic Perl language, probably even more complex than that in my experience ... it's fun learning new things anyway, and it's probably rewarding seeing what magic it could do. Arrgh! those templates & Typoscript @_@ ... for a professional/enterprise level cms, all this headache better pay off soon ...

Edit: Hey!! it's tops in the user ratings http://opensourcecms.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=388&Itemid=143

Edit: Today I bought the girls at the office two packs of chocolate mallows :P

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The bathroom & kitchen from my dorm house is being renovated ... I won't be able to use it for three days I'm told ... oh well, they allowed me to use the owner's private bathrooms anyway. Having a shared bathroom ain't that bad ... I never have to clean it ;-) it's my most hated chore, the maid cleans it up for us every week. Buuut ... there are times having no private bathroom can be quite a hassle, just today I came up to the bathroom twice just to find someone else using it. I hope those renovated bathroom tiles gets to dry soon ...

My laundry is at the cleaners, 25php per kilo. I could only pick it up wednesday evening :-( I guess I'm stuck with my least favorite clothes. Sometimes I had to do my own laundry, scrubbing soap with a pail & 'all ... I have no washing machine. Why do I have to do that? Our main cleaners' office is getting renovated too :-\ ... it's a nice month to renovate I guess ...

Pic: I just bought my own air-bed ... the foldable bed + 5 pillows can't provide enough lumbar support ... my back hurts every morning with it. The air bed is fine now ... cheap 600php from Market2x. You'll notice I frequent Market2x than other malls ne? their parking is cheaper, 10php for the whole day. Minimum for Glorietta is 25php, no thanks, I'm under budget here. Anyways my back doesn't hurt anymore. The only problem I had with it is the air pump, it's built in the bed itself ... a pain to inflate. And since that bed is made of that rubbery thing, it makes squeeky noises whenever I try to make a move. But that's fine, it's the only air-bed small enough to fit my quarters.

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Good dreams, bad dreams ... I always get one when I sleep face-up & arms around my head. The last few days I had 3 consecutive bad dreams ... no they're not nightmares, thinking about it ... hardly anything scares me anymore ... hmmm ... when I was a kid I had plenty to worry about.

First bad dream is about me doing some kind of escort service in a ... tryke ... ugh. A motorcycle with a sidecar crap ... after delivery I fell out of a volcano that popped out of nowhere ... "...." what the hell was that all about ... @__@

Second bad dream is me going back in school ... (horrors!) .. I failed to submit some kind of paper requirement and failed class ... the next morning I thought for a second if I'm still in school or not .. hmm :P ok, I'm not anymore .. thank goodness ...

The last one was bizzarrrre, I'm in some kind of third dimension ... everthing is dark, then later I find myself in a room with this weird looking black jellyfish with rusty black flexible-spikes as it's tentacles, rusty chains & all ... of course the end had to be those spikes piercing me, no biggie. Not a sweat or anything after waking up ... but my back hurts...

Before buying that air-bed I've been having bad dreams .... probably cause of that 5-pillow + portable *hard* bed mixture. I needed good comfort if I wanted some pleasant dreams.

Last night I had a good dream .. but ... darnit, I forgot what it was ... @__@ it's easy to remember bad dreams neh?

Pic: The belair cross ... that's the house I dorm in, and right behind it is the Church. It's comforting to see that glowing blue cross everytime I get home ... It's a great reminder to spend some time thinking of more important things than the busy city life ... too many distractions can leave you empty real quick.

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Pic(12).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I don't believe this ... wait ... I do!. The workers cancelled the supposed ceiling repair and decided to do it TODAY! that's so annoying ... I would've wanted to keep watch of my stuff while they wreck up the ceiling plywoods and put in a new one.

Awhile ago after lunch I visited my room again, the plywoods are there ... all new and all. But it's not painted yet. They will be painting it sometime this week. I asked "Why not now??", they wanted to paint up everything 'till all the ceiling work around the house is done. Darn it. My room is open to those workers ... the same workers that asked the landlady to buy up 24 more floor tiles when it only needs 8. It's like the same guy who asked me to buy up a whole box of wires for the submeter where it only needed a few meters.

The landlady is furious about this, so am I ... all this renovations is keeping my room wide-open to those opportunists. I brought all my valuables here with me in my office just to be safe. My pc and all other stuff are protected by a thin layer of newspapers ... what criminal mind could penetrate this fortress of security ... newspapers ... bah!.

Pic: Part of our office ... I think it looks nice with that Christmas tree on the right.

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seinfeld-cast
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Spent some time watching downloaded stand-up comedy mp3's & videos last night. Funny stuff, but some are just too dumb and I must not be the target audience. The time I hear "sh*t", "f**k", "black people", "racism", "sex/dirty jokes", "religous insults", "a**ho*e's" and piles of cr*p, plus a variety of cheap shots in a stand-up comedy ... it's as good as deleted.

I prefer the more wholesome, well thought-out materials for comedy. Ones that sometimes require you to use your brain a little, or ones for the refined crowd. Not one of those cheap humor with all that screaming and acting stupid on stage ... I dunno why the heck the audience is laughing with that one ... c'mon, what's up with niggers, blacks, whites ... show me something more creative than insulting another race. And cursing out loud in front of a live audience is NOT funny, I was just sitting last night figuring out what made that one funny.

Seinfeld is a good one, nice show on tv too ... he's one of my favorites ... Also Stephen Lynch & Mitch Hedberg I just downloaded this week. Lynch mixed in guitar playing + singing with humor. Mitch feels like a regular comic but there's something about that 'cool' casual style of talking on stage, add some of that coolness with those glasses & long hair. Lesse what more they have to offer the next few downloads ...

Edit: Shoot, Lynch has some stupid shots. Sex-related jokes, that spanish curse word tutorial. *Deleted*, what a waste of talent on dirty humor.

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Pic(2)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

The fort area ... I can't believe most of my close calls happen near the Fort ... probably all those intersections.

I was just heading straight when this wild jeepney driver crossed the intersection trying to get ahead of another jeepney. I thought he'd slow down because he must've seen me approaching and I had the right of way anyway (he's the one crossing) but NOOO! he still went on racing against that other puj and almost blocked my target road. I had to swerve to the right on the crown of the road to avoid being hit. As I was swerving it felt nothing, my brain took over and made all the necessary decisions & maneuvers ... then after the 'stunt' my feet and hands started to lose feeling, damn it. That was so damn close, I don't even have time to push my horn to express my rage to this guy.

As I went past I looked back and decided to stop and confront the guy ... guess what? he slowed down ... so slow I had no choice but to move on. He doesn't want confrontation. I hate these guys, whenever they do something wrong on the road they pretend nothing happened ... you try to look at them and say something and they look the other way. For once I'd like them to feel a fistful of leather ... in their throat.

I wish all the rich motorcycle owners lend these guys a bike (seriously) ... and let them run down Edsa or the intersections of the Fort and C5 ... no brakes. I'd pay good money to see the looks of their faces facing their own kind, but in a smaller vehicle.

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A link to my tech republic blog ... This'll keep my blog organized, who wants to read techy stuff on a personal blog site anyway ... This blog is also linked there, so that page has both content.

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Pic(10).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

That snooze button! ... I feel like a zombie every morning pressing that snooz button everytime my 2 alarms does it's stuff. "I needed 9 more minutes of sleep .. zzz" *click* . Later I find myself hurrying to get to work ... waking up almost 30 minutes before being late. For this month's salary I got a 1.25 peso deduction for my lates ... I live almost next to work now ;-)

Next few days I won't be having any internet connection ... so I guess the only entertainment I could get are local games & videos from my pc ... of course I could ride around my mc if I feel like it ... I have no plans next few days, probably visit the house in Taytay, manage some of my stuff ...

See you next week.

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Pic(27).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Last Weekend

Birthday of one of our officemates ,.. I saw a beer can in front of me :P ... I didn't finish it, drank only half of it I guess ... Awful taste.

The next day & Sunday I went shopping for groceries & stuff .. Replaced some of my posters with a giant map of manila. I saw the movie Doom, it's pretty good ... The climax turns out to be some realistic doom game demo thing, real nice ... This is probably the first movie I ever saw using third-person perspective ... With a gun. I'm a bit disappointed not being able to see the other doom bad guys ... I remember that giant ball of demon face that fires some stuff ... I wish I could've seen that instead of those ugly mutated humanoids. And why is it the theme of most horror movies nowadays? There's always something about a virus, genetics, etc, bio weapons, blah ... C'mon ... Resident evil? Those zombie movies? And now doom? ... Ah... Yeah ... It's halloween.

Anyways I'm dead tired right now, those groceries are a tad bit heavy. Loading 'em on my motorcycle in a light shower is quite a challenge too.

Oh, well ... I've spent quite a bit this week ... It's time to fast a bit ;-) night, night.

Pic: Ancient Konoha ninja scrolls ... ;-) but it's just wallpaper ... my landlady gave 'em to me ... maybe I could set it up this weekend ...

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Pic(6).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Halloween

I've been thinking ... All the things I've been doing right now are ... Routine ... Nothing different, hardly productive. I've been thinking up new goals or improve the ones I have ...

In my spare time I should read more books about entreneurship, successful businesses, self-employment, open source, etc. Hopefully mixing them up together to form something that will get me to retire before my 30's. Too big a goal ne? When I can't even earn enough each month cause of the rental bills I pay ... I need to tighten up my belt a bit.

At times I feel another form of change, I feel like fasting to recover some spiritual sense in me ... I know I've been losing something very important in my life. I should'nt get too much of a good thing ... Or it'll eat me up and leave me empty. The new man before feels old enough already ... I want to become a 'new' man again. The old one took a nasty detour that doesn't lead to the road of life. I'm not as strong as I though I was, but always trying to be ... And that's good.

I should keep in mind my nightly exercise too ... (I can't exercise in the mornings, too sleepy) ... Feeling tired & sleepy will not be an excuse anymore. Tightening up my belt and putting on my gloves too ...

Pic: Belair2 walk.

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Pic(22).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Catchy Commercials

"Hug-a-Mom-Attack!" ... Nice rythm to it ... It's that Vaseline commercial. It's one of those commercial jingles that keeps popping in your head out of nowhere. It's stuck there somewhat. Hug-a-Mom-Attack~ ... Hugamomattack! Everydaaayy, lalala.

So I bought one yesterday, but there's no music to it ... Awwww :P

Everydaaayyy~ ... Hug-mom-attack~ ^___^ ... Mm... So when will I shut up .. ? :P

Pic: a Honda Super Four I saw on Market Market, hope it's real ... it looks awesome ... *drools*

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Today I went bowling out with my colleagues(sp?) near that Walter Mart place ... Then a movie at Glorietta.

Before getting home I bought some healthy vegetarian dinner at Bodhi's ... Then a short walk around Glorietta.

Earlier I noticed my submeter isn't turning anymore ... I turned on my microwave to make sure and it really is not moving. I'm getting free electricity at this time but that'd be cheating ... And if my landlady noticed my incredibly low electricy use I'd be kicked out of this house. So I contacted my electrician and he said he'll be able to fix it next week ... But 'fixing' it means replacing the faulty submeter ... And that'd cost me a small fortune :-( why can't I save anymore?

After getting home from the walk & bike ride I knocked on my submeter ... And it turned! It's working nicely now ... But my electrician told me then that if that would happen again, I'd really have to replace it.

I thought things would work out fine ... But when I opened up my pc .. I get all gibberish colours & texts on my monitor ... I tried fixing it but .. No go. I dunno if it's the video card or my monitor ... But it's probably my vid card :-( that would cost me a bundle too. Then it rained and got some of my clothes in the hanger wet, I did my laundry this morning myself.

Today I learned a few things ... I'm not good at bowling, I could actually do coding in my cellphone (my boss txted me awhile ago and asked for some sample php code).

Tomorrow I'll try using that wallpaper given to me by the landlady, I hope I know what I'm doing ...

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No, I don't know what I'm doing ... The wallpaper hanging job was terrible! ... It's so tiring to do and the result looks obviously from a novice wallpaper hanger ...

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SMECD029
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Native Americans ... They've started to grow some interest in me ... After hearing some chants & music from that 'Mohicans' CD ... I hear a few chants on Enigma's & Enya's too ...

Looking at those native's pictures, they seem to have a huge amount of dignity & self-respect to themselves ... It's like the japanese samurai who value 'honor'.

"Beautiful Waves in the Sky" ... One of the song titles, I wonder if they ever saw the ocean? I've never seen or heard of native americans being around large bodies of water ...

I could skip the parts where the indians get too violent ... Y'know ... The scalping & all. The rest are cool in my book. They're tough too, my Dad told me a story of a surgeon friend who operated on a native american without anesthetics, they ran out of those pain killers & stuff, but the indian decided to go with it anyway. Yeowch.

Tough & Wise ...

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Set639_01
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Mohicans Quotes

DANCING IN YOUR SOUL
"Every one of my thoughts, my smiles & my tears, all my dreams ... Are really mine. The beat of this heart, the sky in my eyes, the rainbow in my words ... Are really mine and only mine. Nobody could steal or buy them and my sould will be their guardian till the end of time."

WORLD INSIDE MY HEART
"You Created rules for a better world, but then you found a way to break them, 'cause they made you suffer. But you keep on being not free but youu still keep on suffering. In our hearts we find our pain, our freedom, our rules. "

BEAUTIFUL WAVES IN THE SKY
"They never stop ... It's constant movement everywhere. If my thoughts were the sky, they would kiss the moon."

RIDING STORM
"Give me a horse for riding and embracing all the hidden wind in the air"

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Set638_01
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Those tiny things ...

Those tiny things I own ... It's all built for a single bachelor like myself. Looks like I'll be creating quite a mess from all that future cooking I plan to do. I could'nt keep up with the expenses from all that 'take-out' from fast food. I just had to cook my own food from now on to save a few pesos.

Even coins I gathered, costed around 800php from all the 5-10peso coins alone, I'll get started with the 1peso coins soon. Why am I doing this ... My bike's electric start is failing again, the problem must've not been the battery ... My submeter is faulty, if my landlady finds out ... Well, I'll need to replace it.

I hate these expenses, I thought I could save again for next month ... But no.

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Pic(5)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Well, you really do get what you pay for ... my 1gig PQI SD card is clunking up, acts weird most of the time. My mouse shifts it's cursor to the extreme left & right ... Killed my character in most of my pc games :-( , created a lot of untitled folders, made a mess of my desktop ... Stupid CDR King mouse.

CDR King's items are cheap, but I the quality is bad. They won't last long, that's why I don't trust our office backups ... Sure I made them, automated each one of 'em via rsync & scp, good enough on it's own at a certain directory ... But with those cheap CDR King cdr's?? I don't trust those things! I'd rather bring my own branded cdr's than use those cheap coasters & cup holders. A lot of those cd's didn't burn right, grrr,..

But sometimes I just can't help myself, I really am in a financial slump these past few weeks. It'll take me about two months to recover from that submeter charge & maintenance repairs for my bike.

Maybe I should return that optical mouse from the office to here and use a track ball mouse there at my cubicle instead...

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Pic(4)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

My mind wanders again ... Maybe it's time to reflect? No. I've done enough of that ... Something's bothering me ... It's probably nothing ...

The ride to home today was crazy ... I was not myself. It's as if it's something inside my head who's doing the driving ... I've got something in mind ... Gum, girls & toothpaste.

what am I saying anyway ...

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This one is a killer, I thought I got it working ... I configured
apache, .htaccess, ext_localconf.php and when I clicked on the
realurl'ed link it went to "Page not Found" ... sheesh. The
Documentation is a mile long, I've read some of it ... and so far I'm
stuck on that realurl'ed link pointing to a non-existing page ... =(

I tried out example configurations from various sites:
http://cvs.cannonbose.com/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/typo3/typo3conf/realurl.php?rev=1.9&view=auto
http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/realurl/Configuration-fce13303eb/#oodoc_part_6589
http://wiki.typo3.org/index.php?title=EXT/realurl/testing&redirect=no#Current_RealURL_config

the first one worked nicely, but the page pointing to it doesn't exist
of course, realurl should translate that 'home.html' page to something
like id=1 or something.

fenrir7
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

fenrir7
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

fenrir7
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Fenrir (or Fenris) is a gigantic and terrible monster in the shape of a wolf. He is the eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. The gods learned of a prophecy which stated that the wolf and his family would one day be responsible for the destruction of the world. They caught the wolf and locked him in a cage. Only the god of war, Tyr, dared to feed and take care of the wolf.

When he was still a pup they had nothing to fear, but when the gods saw one day how he had grown, they decided to render him harmless. However, none of the gods had enough courage to face the gigantic wolf. Instead, they tried to trick him. They said the wolf was weak and could never break free when he was chained. Fenrir accepted the challenge and let the gods chain him. Unfortunately, he was so immensely strong that he managed to break the strongest fetters as if they were cobwebs.

After that, the gods saw only one alternative left: a magic chain. They ordered the dwarves to make something so strong that it could hold the wolf. The result was a soft, thin ribbon: Gleipnir. It was incredibly strong, despite what its size and appearance might suggest. The ribbon was fashioned of six strange elements: the footstep of a cat; the roots of a mountain; a woman's beard; the breath of fishes; the sinews of a bear; and a bird's spittle.

The gods tried to trick the wolf again, only this time Fenrir was less eager to show his strength. He saw how thin the chain was, and said that was no pride in breaking such a weak chain. Eventually, though, he agreed, thinking that otherwise his strength and courage would be doubted. Suspecting treachery however, he in turn asked the gods for a token of good will: one of them had to put a hand between his jaws. The gods were not overly eager to do this, knowing what they could expect. Finally, only Tyr agreed, and the gods chained the wolf with Gleipnir. No matter how hard Fenrir struggled, he could not break free from this thin ribbon. In revenge, he bit off Tyr's hand.

Being very pleased with themselves, the gods carried Fenrir off and chained him to a rock (called Gioll) a mile down into the earth. They put a sword between his jaws to prevent him from biting. On the day of Ragnarok, Fenrir will break his chains and join the giants in their battle against the gods. He will seek out Odin and devour him. Vidar, Odin's son, will avenge his father by killing the wolf.

That was the name of Cloud's bike, from FF7 Advent Children. I don't care for the name, sure it's a stylish name but ... I care more for the bike itself ... it's really the MOST! It's gorgeous, shiny & musculine. I sure wish they had one of these monsters roaming around our fair roads. I'd buy one if I had the money.

But of course ... it's just a fantasy bike ... it ignores most of all natural physics & gravity. Seen the movie? this bike could slide a lot ... it has some really cool bike stand at the bottom that automatically drops down when the rider wants to unmount. I don't care for the sword slots, we'll never use 'em. I simply wish for a similar monster like this, doesn't have to be 1000cc's and up, maybe a 400cc+ will do. Being below that would be a shame, stylish and nowhere to go.

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Pic(3)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Spotted on Market2x ... with a "Club Bandit" sticker at it's tail. I may have read a thread on that Bandit club at the MCP forums ..

A Bandit 400cc is cool, but they say the carbs are sensitive ... I wonder why is that? and how could that affect riding? This thing is loud, I've heard one such monster screaming at the stretch near Katipunan ... *broom!* *broom!* nasty.

Anyway this is my 2nd choice for a big bike, my 1st is a Honda CB400 or Super Four.

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screen_nordictypo
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

This morning it's all Typo3, typo3, typo3 ... there's this one extension(realurl) that almost drove me nuts trying to configure it. I've been reading oodles & oodles of documentation & mailing lists on how to get this plugin working correctly. One comment I've read that most typo3 docs are so un-userfriendly, his face almost turned blue. I think mine almost did.

Took me the whole morning non-stop 'till 3:00pm ... I let out a "...whew" after finally getting it working, It's a job well done today.

Of course I expect Sune & the others to let me configure this thing deep enough, Arrgh!. This is just a basic configuration.

My only rant for this CMS is the documentation I guess ... there's just not enough examples, it totally heads straight through the technical stuff for development. I had to rely on wiki's & mailing lists rather than the official documentation.

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Radeon 9250
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Just replaced my old video card ... it's acting up. There goes my jacket money ... :`-(

I'm almost at the peak of where I could catch up on my savings ... just had to fix up my bike's electricals & buy some spices & stuff for my cooking purposes (yes, I can now cook! (frying only ;-) )).

I thought I had things good to go ... but my boss just told me of a raise next year ... a raise for my tax =( my 301php tax would rise up to 1400+ ... add to that some other deductions like SSS, PhilHealth, etc, *sob*.

My calculated savings each month are now a tiny spec of dust in my financial world. There are just too many expenses to count ... and my assets doesn't give out enough.

I had setup 170php for my everyday meals ... my officemates thought it was too much for just 1 day ... hehe. I'll make it a point from now on to cook everyday, all evenings. The rest are free anyway from the office.

I ran out breakfast today ... what I had is a can of tuna and some Mr. Chips :P

If my calculations are correct in deducting the expenses on meals and replacing it with just cooking my own food from now on ... I'll save a huge bundle. Y'know, just yesterday I cooked some nice tender pork cutlets, marinated in adobo sauce, maggi savor and some salt+pepper ... tastes good =) I'm doing well. Maybe next month I'll try cooking broths & boiling stuff, I only know how to fry at the moment ;-)

I'm out of cooking oil ... hmmm...

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Blinds
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

My officemates & our danish guest all went to a bar at Metrowalk Ortigas. Had a couple of drinks ... They made me order a ladies drink! ... Ugh, had a few shots of whatever & finally a few bottles of that strong ice beer. Every bathroom break I had has it's transitional phase, it's like my vision gets slowed down every visit. After the last few glasses of that strong ice I've felt I had enough ... Any more and I'll be stumbling across the seats. After our lady friends broke a few glasses (that was 3 glasses I think) while being slightly dazed we felt it's time to go home.

I escorted our secretary to her home in marikina. Nearly 200php for a taxi cab =( ... I had to stay at her house cause it's much too late, it's too dangerous out there at that hour.

The next morning I felt hot .. I had a fever after getting home ... Must've been that shower of rain that caught me before getting to the bar. And the after-effects of all that alcohol made me nauseous even in the morning. I simply hated beer ... But I was being pressured there ... I wanted to try out one of those wines but they were a bit too expensive, our danish guy is paying.

Today I'm slowly recovering from that fever ... Thank goodness it's not some flu or something. And why does my neck look reddish?? ... Itchy too.

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Pic(18).jpg
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

[Another Late Post]

So I showed a mini video of my room at Belair to my officemates ... "You live in a box then" humorously blurted by our lead programmer. It's kinda like a basement actually ... I just furnished it a bit with white wallpapers kindly donated by my landlady to me, I setup some white blinds to my only window and a greeny rug on the floor where I sit infront of my computer.

Living in a box is ok, it's fine .. It's just ... Ok. Living independently certainly changes my persona for the better. There are some annoyances though. Like for example my air bed ... It's a steal for only 600+php, but small enough to fit a camper's tent. what's annoying are the noises that it makes. All that rubbery squeaking & rubbery rubbing sounds are enough to keep me awake late at night ... But if I just be careful of my every move it would'nt make a sound, but that's very difficult. The sides of the bed are touching the top & right wall, and the constant rubbing of it whenever the bed is sat on or slept on to will make a sound. A bit of a disturbance but I can be able to forget about especially when I am really tired. I can sleep like a rock & the bed can't complain audibly.

The door ... My only door ... Cannot fully open ... It's crowded enough that my bed is touching it half-open. So the trick here is to open it half-way, walk towards the left side near the fridge and squeeze through, then close it. Behold, welcome to my box. that's all there is to it ... I can only accomodate one guest ... If they fit in the door ...

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Late with movies
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Movies are ok ... Going to the movies with friends ... I've even gone most of the time with myself ... Most people may find that odd for someone going alone in the movies. I've got little problems with it, it can get lonely sometimes. So most often I prefer to catch up on rented videos instead.

Last night I rented that Batman Beyond thing ... Arahan, and a Series of Unfortunate Events. Arahan disappointed me, it feels like some kung-fu version of Sassy girl ... or maybe it's just me ... There's some humorous points at the beginning, and lots of shouting in the end, sheesh. I wish that policeman would've been just an extra in the beginning.

Batman's fine. What I really like is that Unfortunate Events movie. Emily Browning looks very cute in that flick ;-) maybe it's that hairstyle, or those nice full lips, or that dress or something, I wish I could date her. I liked the movie setting too, it's just sooo dark it's tasty. Strangely funny. The production people of that movie is so very imaginative. I like it. I just might buy an original copy of it. That elf from the beginning almost tricked me though, I was like ... "Ugh! Those jerks from video city switched my cd's!". I was sitting with my microwaved popcorn staring at the sickening singing birds & That elf ... As if hypnotized. @__@

Anyways ... Doom and Harry Potter I think was the latest I have watched ... Which was fine too. I just didn't appreciate the wands ...

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Tuesdays with Morrie
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Last night I thought to myself why am I sweating bullets trying to earn more than I have right now ... It's nice to have but ... Maybe something's missing. I needed to renew my goals & direction in life.

The next morning I did all the scheduled tasks that I made on my palm. Did the groceries, bought a new gas stove ... I was looking for some masking tape at the stationery store but they ran out of it ... As I was leaving I spotted this little paperback tagged as "Tuesdays with Morrie" ... hmm ok, I was about to turn around when ... "10% off" hey now ... I've heard so much about this, I said. So I bought it, thinking maybe it could help out on all this uneasiness and the emotional state that I'm in. finished all my business at the mall and went on home.

I cooked the beef the same way for lunch today, fried ... Had some mushrooms on the side ... It was ok. Then later I began to read that book ... After several pages my face looked sad ... This is too dreary, it's all about dying ... It's touching at that ... But it's too much for a couple of minutes of reading ... So decided to take a break, opened up a packet of M&M's(they have a promo, 1st prize is a Honda Jazz!) and played a game of starfighter (linux game). My fighter jet died =( ... the batteries on my palm keyboard died too :-( Maybe I'll read up again sometime ... I'm much too depressed right now.

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Pic was from a couple of weeks ago ... our danish boss went to visit and train us again ... more sessions os grueling typo3 ... The next visitor will be their Sys admin ... I might be his apprentice soon ... lots to learn by then ...

The next few weeks became a bit more busy, but slightly more relaxed now 'cause our main boss isn't around anymore. We all got some gifts from our lady boss I hardly call 'mommy' anymore ... I think it's getting a bit ridiculous now ;-)

Last week I had a zpdee broadband internet installed ... broadband connection nowadays are getting cheaper and cheaper ... the only thing expensive for this connection is the modem rent .... a painful 2k. But they'd return my money anyway when I cancel my account.

I had a few lineup of events this week ... birthday parties, baptismal stuff, drawing of the exchange gift thingy .... hmmm... what else ....

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Pic(13)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I did it! I boiled some stuff =) This is from a friend's own recipe of spicy sinigang, it's my favorite and from what I made yesterday ... it's very good =) it only needs a bit more okra to add some more thickness in the broth.

Recipe:
1/4kl pork cuts, cubed
7 pieces of gabi
1 fish sauce(patis)
1 piece tomato (cut into pieces)
3 pcs. okra (or more, I could've added more on this one, oh well, next time)
2 pieces sili sinigang (I think 1 will do, just chop it down to pieces)
1 small pack tamarind soup base (sampaloc mix)
1 pechay (or kangkong?)

Steps:
1. Boil water in pot
2. put in pork to make it soft
3. put some gabi, then a piece of tomato
4. if the pork is soft enough, add some okra
6. mix, put in some fish sauce (2 tbsp.) and sampaloc mix (just half a pouch)
7. put in some pechay or kangkong
8. eat =)

Then came Saturday evening I visited a Christmas B-day party of a college mate who's also into biking. I didn't take my mc to get there, the service road there is enough to wear me down ... to think I have another appointment early next morning.

Today is Sunday, noontime ... I just finished attending that 'binyag' at San Antonio Church at that Forbes place ... just a quicky session of baptism for my cousin's baby girl. They wanted me to join in for lunch but ... I could'nt, my electric submeter just quitted on me... and the only available time of my electrician is this noontime. I'm waiting for him now ... got everything ready ... the new submeter here costed me another 840php =(

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Pic(12)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Been wrapping up gifts this season ... a few for my lady friends at the office, 2 for my parents ... one for our office exchange gift and the last for a bday gift.

What I find annoying in wrapping up is taking off the price tag stickers ... they just won't come off! if they do they rip up half of the sticker and I had to use my nails to pull them off. SM is notorious for making super sticky stickers, arrgh.

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Pic(4)_3
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

The two lady friends will receive a sad puppy dog plushie and a penguin puppet that has a little dog inside heehee, the penguin gave birth to an ugly dog. I wanna see the look of our secretary's face when she sees this. The pup is for my lady boss, I always go like *sad puppy look* at her ym =)

A motorcycle Ducati999 model for my friend's birthday ... I've seen another model which is bigger ... that's a Suzuki Hayabuza 1200cc I think ... so ... very ... tempting ... took me 15 minutes staring at the fully detailed model of a big bike ... I finally came to my senses and bought just one for the gift instead, none for me =)

The rest of the gifts are chocolates =)

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Pic(10)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Almost Christmas time ... I've posted like 3 blogs today ... just making use of my unlimited connection =)

Pic: A side shot with my helm on Marketx2 parking lot, I was about to leave then. Hmmm... that was the time I bought those gifts I guess ... or was that groceries? ... maybe the submeter ... ? I forgot.

The submeter is finally installed now. It's faster than ever ... yikes. But that's better than the last one ... it simply stopped and moved strangely slow ... if the landlady ever finds out about that with me not replacing it, I'm in for a series of sermons and probably get kicked out of the house.

The landlady is kind enough sometimes, she gave me a girbaud wallet for this Christmas =) but can be a bit harsh ... especially on the maid here, sometimes I caught her crying with her eyes red and all. The rest of the dormers notice that too. She's bossy sometimes and once I've been called out "Hoy" ... I simply didn't appreciate that call. But ... well, she owns the place ... she has every right to throw some weight around here. I will not complain.

Next week my bike is up for another session of repairs ... this time I pinpointed the problem to the electricals of the bike, not the battery ... maybe the battery was alright in the first place! tsk, wasted 1.4k on that one. Maybe a tune-up and oil change can be done as well ...

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Pic(8)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Well, tomorrow's our little Christmas party .. it ends most of my gift giving frenzy. I don't know exactly how much I've spent on gifts ... so now I have no cash left ... I was expecting some spending cash but ... that @%@@#^* submeter just quit on me, I had to pay our electrician some bits too. That leaves me with nothing but canned goods and frozen pork cutlets on the fridge.

My bike is hardly used now ... gasoline costs, I could just walk to our office. I only use it now for groceries & stuff. It's battery is like drained up ... I don't believe this ... it's as if it's not a battery problem after all. Something must've been grounded or something in it's electrics. With the financial situation that I'm in today I don't think I'll be able to repair this thing 'till next year ... I could kickstart it but.. damn, it's too rough. I miss my electric start.

Pic: Our little Christmas bonus ... wish it would've been just cash. It's a pack of groceries with a note "Salary Deduction 1k" hehehe, they always kid around with a salary deduction threat, those guys ;-) We also received a large sack of rice! @_@ my goodness, how can I carry that?!. That sack will probably last me half a year or so.

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Pic(16)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Our Christmas office party ended with a few shots of vodka, wine & beer ... our lead programmer just loves getting drunk ... If you ask me I don't know why people would get much too drunk. I got a little hazy for awhile, I didn't like one bit of it. The beer and vodka wasn't that tolerable, it hits pretty hard. The white wine was ok, pretty tasty, it's peach flavoured I think. I should buy one of those bottles. If I had some money with me I might try some of those Bailey's stuff.

The next few hours I feel itchy again ... one of those drinks may have been causing me some allergic reaction ... bah. Getting drunk is not my idea of a good party, some light wine is fine enough, you don't have to get drunk to enjoy yourself.

Just a few more hours and it's Christmas again ... didn't I just say I loved Christmas? ... this year it's strange ... I'm not one bit in a christmassy glow. I'm not even going home to Taytay cause we never had one of those 'Noche Buena' anymore ... it's been a long time since we had one. We stopped a few years ago, my family isn't really a family anymore ... my Mom lives in Antipolo now. We could only communicate via cellphone.

I'm not myself today ...

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Pic(2)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

This is an unusual Christmas ... just this morning as I was riding across the fort area to get to Taytay my bike's clutch cable snapped!! that leaves me stuck there as the traffic light went green, I quickly switched to neutral forcefully and tried to push my bike out of the way. I tried to fix it but I couldn't, I've thought of workarounds but it's too risky. So I spent the rest of my Christmas morning pushing my bike along Fort looking for some police person or a gas station. A few blocks later I found a Shell gas station .... the guard there noticed my bad luck and cheerfully greeted me with a merry Christmas. I just nodded and tried asking for an overnight stay for my bike there, they agreed anyway ... so it looks like I'll have to be back there tomorrow with my mechanic, this sucks.

I brought my laundry then too, about 7 kilos of baggage, luckily I spotted a taxi to ferry me back to Belair and unload. I was planning to use the washing machine at Taytay today, arrgh. I'll have nothing to wear at the office next week.

To end my bad luck I had to ride yet another expensive taxi to Shaw Boulevard to ride an fx and it was HOT!, the air conditioning wasn't functioning properly ... Of course something else should happen to make things interesting ... like heavy traffic. I don't believe this ... last Christmas there wasn't much traffic around, and people are gathered almost every waiting shed looking for a taxi.

I arrived finally and gave the last batch of my gifts. I had to fix my Dad's cellphone later on, he doesn't know how to use it too so I had to teach him.

All day long I was scratching like crazy cause of that allergic reaction to some alcholic drink!

bah, humbug!

All was not a loss though, I shouldn't forget what made this day "Christ"mas. I may not be as religiously inclined anymore, but always trying to.

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eriavy2
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Replaced our old Fedora linux OS to CentOS ... I don't really approve of it but ... what the heck, it's what they wanted, I've never tried this thing anyway ...

The clutch cable for my bike has been replaced, it snapped right near the clutch lever. I had to ferry my mechanic to and from Kymco branches looking for a clutch cable, cause their own branch is always out of it. Can't find good parts for my pulsar anymore ... The Dink model is more popular. I really don't like that name ... 'dink' ... ugh.

Here's a pic of some japanese maid being humorously abused. Gif file.

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Last night I'm all by my lonesome in this tiny little room, my family isn't such a normal 'family' to even celebrate any form of holiday anymore. So I only visited home before New Year's eve. It was midnight and everyone was lighting up their firecrackers ... I didn't bother to watch the display I've seen 'em before, what I hate about the traditional new years celebration is the using of cheap firecrackers ... they're all over the place, everyone's buying and using them ... which means by midnight the streets become fogged up with smoke from those cheapies. I only wish for a normal new year where the only firecrackers allowed are those that can only reach the sky. I worry for my Dad 'cause he's asthmatic.

Last night I had a dream, like being back in time I saw my old classmates again from highschool. Guess who's also there? the very same girl I admired for years. The rest of the dream were just fillers of weird stuff, I forgot what they were ... in the end, having sick of regrets I approached her and tried asking her out. She said no. Is that your final answer? I asked again ... She said yes. Then tears fell out of her eyes ... I wanted to cry too ... Then I woke up, it was raining ...

Only in dreams stuff like this could happen ... in reality all is just rotten fruitcake. But that's just how we make it I guess ... and even in dreams you can't change anything ... This year my resolution is time management, I'll do my best squeezing up all that is productive. I'll take up gym and pursue career some more.

Last year was the time I bought myself some freedom, that was a rebellious year ... this time the keyword is learning ... and searching. Stuff about myself I didn't really understand, I'm pursuing my own meaning ... I'm changing goals for new ones. A lot more maturity will have to set in ... and yeah, I'll have to kill my demons now ...

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qemu_winmeinstalled
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Techblog, I'm not sure I liked techrepublic's blog posting ... I'm more comfortable posting here at flickr / blogger.

The screen is from an ubuntu breezy install, common stuff like gkrellm on the right ... xterm on the left, firefox on the background ... what's in the middle is qemu hosting a windows ME install. I just figured it out a few hours ago.

Some of the programmers who use linux wanted to use Internet Explorer of Windows to test their design if it works well on IE. For some reason what looks good on mozilla or firefox looks bad on Internet Explorer and vise versa. And so the need for IE keeps bumping up my todo list.

First choice was Vmware, a commercial product ... I managed to run a Unix variant called 'minix' from it ... but for working on windows I had to purchase a copy. Win4lin, I didn't get anywhere with this one ... I signed up for an evaluation version but didn't really get an email reply. Bochs, forget this one, it's much too difficult and time consuming to configure. Finally I found qemu and a guide on how to use it, it's pretty simple. You just need to setup a harddisk image and install whatever OS from there, after completing the install you may want to bridge the network from the host linux box to windows.

http://applications.linux.com/applications/05/10/24/1845248.shtml?tid=13

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Pic(24)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Today I just lost my respect to some of my officemates for me refusing to take on a drink. I don't want a damn beer, it makes me sick even just looking at it. Looks like I've become allergic to some alcoholic drinks too.

The next few days I won't be very pleasant. I only want respect for my preferences. I don't give a damn how they look at me now ...

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Pic(24)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I'm running out of things to post ... hmm... anyways, like the title says, I've just signed up for gym training =) I'll be working out more often.

Lucky me to spot this one, it's near JP Rizal, not too crowded, has it's own shower, sauna ... jacuzzi isn't working but that's fine ... 50php for just one session, 700php for a whole month. The price is fine I guess ...

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screenUrdr030
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I am doing well ... got a fine job, learning & livin' it. I been trying to live healthier now, taking up gym, walking to and from the office ... with my poor bike in storage =( It's 'rectifier' or something is not performing very well. I'd like a second opinion on that one. It's not a battery problem after all. Tsk, wasted 1.4k on that one.

Bike stats: for 1 1/2 year of riding I got a broken clutch cable and a weird rectifier.

RO: I won an event for the first time around, won 30m zennies, 30opb and 30 candies. Went right to prontera for some shopping ^-^

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Pic(10)_2
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Sometimes whenever I get in a such a mood I say things I never thought I'd say ... I've just cleaned up a few blog posts that I thought were not really 'me'. I was like "why the @#$ did I say that? " ... Edited.

But then again things change ... my beliefs, including myself ... I'd might as well delete my entire blog If I don't even agree with myself. Hayyz ...

More blogging ... I'm looking into some free hosting to put up my new typo3 site ... I could just setup a news plugin for my blogs, upload my notes of work.... mmm... the possibilities ... some ads would be fine for a free site I guess.

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Really really old music ...
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Music of my Dad's generation ... it's their giant Cd's called vinyl records that plays by scratching some diamond tipped arm of the hifi my Dad owns.

It's still there, barely worked when I last heard it. Years before he simply loved playing really old records like "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", "Kingston Town" and "It all seems to fall into line" by Perry Como, Orlando Tony, etc ...

Those old hits seem to have hit my head and echoed some age old music syndrome and decided to reminisce (I'm not sure this last sentence makes sense).

After hearing it over and over and over it began to grow on me ... I've decided to download some mp3's for it ... just what I could remember.

Here is a little lyric from Kingston Town, a favorite of mine when I was a kid, sigh memories:

Down the way, where the nights are gay,
and the sun shines daily on the mountain top,
I took a trip on a sailing ship,
nd when I reach Jamaica I made a stop.

But I'm sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day.
My heart is down,
my head is turning around,
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.

Sounds of laughter everywhere,
and the dancing girls swing to and through.
I must declare my heart is there,
thou I've been from Maine to Mexico.

But I'm sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day.
My heart is down,
my head is turning around,
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.

At the market you can hear,
ladies cry out while on their heads they bear,
acky rice, salt, fish are nice
and the rum is fine any time a year.

But I'm sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day.
My heart is down,
my head is turning around,
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.

Down the way, where the nights are gay,
and the sun shines daily on the mountain top,
I took a trip on a sailing ship,
and when I reach Jamaica I made a stop.

But I'm sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day.
My heart is down,
my head is turning around,
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.

Sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day.
My heart is down,
my head is turning around,
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.

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Pic(24)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Just checked out itzamatch again, what in holy h@#l!~ 4 males have visited my profile, get outta there you!!! checked out other profiles too, few are scary, a few I liked ... winked and messaged them but were ignored.

It's tough finding a girl with similar preferences, I'm not that typical guy next door ... I could be sporty and sometimes geeky, I like technology & sports at the same time, quiet & talkative ... maybe I'm still confused. Buying that motorcycle may not just be for that depressing day, I do remember doing something to clear out all that fog in my brain, yet still confused. Lots of reasons popping up and I can't decide.

February, would've been ideal to get a girlfriend ... I'm not taking girls up on a pedestal anymore, I'm willing to find ones that could be just like a 'bestfriend' and much more. If I finally setup that business she'd be there with me, not just helping but alongside ... like in war she'd be a comrade, the closest the ties so noone/nothing could break it, not even ourselves. I big whoop at the office, some misunderstandings, I just lost respect to our lead programmer and stuff have quieted down instead of the usual lively one. These kinds of social things I'm not a major in, hoping that the very relationship to come would not come to this. I am very careful now.

Motorcycling didn't cure me, the rush of almost getting bumped by tailgaters didn't help. I can't find myself.

There's that walk again near the house I'm boarding in, I've taken up jogging =) I plan to sign up for gym only on weekends, saturday mornings only. On Sundays they're closed. I only jog in the evenings, it's quieter and cooler. The village is well lighted too, very well safe. Junk foods are now taken lightly, fruits & veggies have filled my fridge.

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Pic(1)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Or was it thai?? I'm not sure what my landlady told me where she was ... I think it's Korea where she bought these candies ... She has travelled to lots of countries now I think, last time was in Thailand where she got that elephant & tiger pic. Now she gets to take home these candies (tastes very much like our local cloud9 chocolates).

After tasting those candies makes me feel I've never missed a thing :P

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Pic(5)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Quite a times I see businesses, shops and thought to myself "Hey, that was my idea before..." ... and it's not doing very well. That's good! I didn't have to go through all that trouble to see if it will work or not! Nyahhahahha.

But that's also bad 'cause ... that's one more experience I lack. That's also understandable 'cause ... I don't have the funds yet. Oh well.

Here's a pic of a lamppost(sp?), newly installed by the generous belair management. I still don't like the guards though, they still don't know me ... I've been here for months now and they still ask me who I am ... everyone is paranoid here.

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Pic(4)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

My spellings, grammar and my usual blog schedule ... I've been neglecting. Before I check twice before posting. Now I lack something to even care about it. I haven't been taking much pictures too. Things have slowed.

I was thinking that a new change in behavior could somehow mess up my habits ... those little things like regular backups of my files, writing down every little thought & idea to my palm ... have all been ... what's that word? tsk, even looking up a dictionary ... well, whatever comes to mind I could post up here ... this poor blog.

Pic, another lamp post ... it's valentines and I have no date. Even my lady boss jokingly asks me out.... I told her to meet me at the fishball stand.

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Pic(3)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Another movie with 2 friends. Watched 'Firewall' ... it was ok, no comment about how they hacked into stuff ... some attempts too unbelievable, but good anyway.

Before getting there I felt a bit paranoid by this Australian-Indian-Arab whatever kind of guy that keeps on following me, I think he's gay. I took a right turn to wherever just to get off the scent. Sheesh. Ugh.

Common talks on dating & girls & stuff ... while I'm still enjoying this single life, it gives me this kind of ... 'yearning'? or ... 'wanting'? some kind of female partner. I wanna ask someone out again ...

On another topic, I'm selling my bike. Can't get enough use for it anymore .. only for getting groceries & that's it. Today I rode off to Glorietta but the main intention was to find a repair shop to take care of whatever things that need fixing... then sell it. I was hoping to get enough to buy a laptop but ... hmm.... I dunno, can't buy good quality laptops for just one bike. Maybe I'll hold the money for awhile & maybe it'll help setup my dream business.

Goodnight.

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forsale
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Last few rides from Makati to the 'pleasant-enough' Taytay country side makes it something like my bike's 'last meal' as it's original owner (myself) will finally sell.

I rode off from Belair with my jacket sides flapping happily against the wind up front. The wind whistle sounds the same, but feels slightly stronger than before. My leathery grip to the handlebars makes me feel more 'buffed' up, a feeling like 'superman' gets whilst flying against the wind. Up, up, horizontalllyyyy. No we don't want to fly here right now. A flying motorcycle creates a horrible image when someone imagines how it lands.

I've parked my mc to my home base at Taytay. Awaiting repairs to the former guys who sold it to me.

I'm still planning of ways of what to do with the money, maybe a small entrepreneurial job to setup ... The rest I treat myself to a low-end laptop, or a phone/pda replacement.

Wow. After that bike wash it still looks new...

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forsale
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

Just setted up the ad at motorcyclephilippines dot com. It's a really nice bike ... the looks & style of it is as gorgeous as always. And it still looks brand new ... mm... I took good care of it. But this machine hasn't been used for quite awhile now ... I live really close to work & have only been using it on grocery shopping. And that happens just once a month.

I've been re-thinking of upgrading to a big bike too ... but ... I dunno, will it stay in the garage again? it's great on utility but it'd only break down & rust when not used too often .. A laptop is a fine choice too .. but the prices of high end laptops are still too pricey ...

I'll set all this bike sale thinking aside for awhile. *shove*

Yesterday it took everyone by surprise when GMA announced that emergency thing on tv. Supposed to be some pre-emptive move. Well, ok.

Hopefully everything will be in order after all this ... why is it that I get this weird feeling that those who protested & joined in on that Edsa march could have just been paid to be there? Look at those people, they are @#%! smiling & laughing whilst running away from law enforcements. Is this a game? are they enjoying a game of tag with the police? they throw rocks & stuff afterwards. This is sick. I really hate it ... this weird notion that those people were just being used, I'd love to get their names, I mean those who are really behind it.

Last night while walking to get my laundry I saw this cute dog walking around with a protester's sign on it's neck. I didn't have the time to read what it says, but it's cute anyway. The guy right behind the mutt looks just like those who were on tv at Edsa. This guy, ... looks mindless, glittered with political designs & anti-government stuff, and yet there's not a single spark of enthusiasm on his face. Binayaran ka ba?? (Are you being paid to do this?). I mean real people who complain & had the guts to march towards Edsa should be with great vigor & high spirits for what they believe in ...

Something is really wrong here ...

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Pic(2)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I've been posting about guitars before ... that was some Yamaha midi guitar I think that I couldn't get ... This year, while seeing how much I've saved up in the bank ... I've treated myself to a new hobby. Guitar & Harp playing. Hopefully, within the year(or two) I could be able to solo the guitar & my harmonica. I love blues & country, I just might be playing those genres most often. I like rock too ... buuut, maybe I'll just let my mp3/ogg player do that job, I don't intend to join a band. Just the ol' lonewolf.

It's an electric guitar ... rather than an acoustic. They say, an acoustic is most ideal for a beginner, but a bit difficult cause you really had to press hard on those frets(?). It's easier on an electric. I've been thinking of getting that acoustic effect too on my behringer, but that little gadget could cost 1.8k, add to that another cord for 699php. I was adviced to wait for the free gift cheque that I might receive for purchasing Yupangco's guitars. Yep, it's that building right beside us =) maybe I could try & sign up for tutorial sessions too ... I wonder how much that costs... maybe I'll teach myself for awhile, there are a lot of resources out there on the net. I mean here.

It's a package set for beginners, it's actually the cheapest one they had ... I've been meaning for a Squier or an Ibanez starter pack but ... the Squier costs 10k (it's even on sale), Ibanez is not available right now.
I've researched this behringer, they say the guitar is crap, but the amp is awesome. I dunno about the reviews ... some are good, then bad ... but most are rating 7.8-8.5. Compared to my 2nd choice, an acoustic Squier starter pack 1k less cheaper than Behringer... but it's an acoustic. I wanted a guitar that could play lots of sounds, I don't want to get stuck with acoustic forever. I don't plan to buy lots of guitars either. This is not my career.

The guy salesman tested it for me, man ... he's really good at playing. Said he started playing at 14 or 16(?) up 'till now, 30's?? ... At least I now know what I could sound like with this guitar, it's pretty damn good!. It makes me even feel I don't even need that effect pedal. But that guy is a little strange ... his hands are shaky, a bit nervous-y ... other salesmen watched too. Instead of me trying to analyze the sounds whether the guitar is right for me ... I'm actually a bit nervous for the guy. I don't know why, his jerkiness is contagious.

Last thing to figure out right now, find a way to plug this baby onto my sound card & yes, my headphones ... I'd get kicked out of this house by the landlady if ever I get into such a state of making too much noise (or music).

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Pic(3)
Originally uploaded by Elijah_A.

I kept hearing / reading that term on those guitar sites ... Gear Aquisition Syndrome, or Guitar Aquisition Syndrome. Very common sickness for guitarists. Also a very expensive sickness /swt , I got hit by this and made me purchase the behringer. It's such a shiny & cool sounding guitar ...

Probably because when someone gets tired of the same ol' sound, they wanted to sound like someone else, or create their own sound but with different gear. Hence, they buy more.

I read a very good article on suppressing this erm, syndrome at guitarnoise.com , it really doesn't matter if you've got the crappiest gear you can afford, it really relies on the player skilled enough for it. Give a different guitar to the same guitarist and it'll still sound like one of his own.

This made me think to prioritize learning & improve my skills first before purchasing new gear like that acoustic effect pedal, and sound card attachments.

I heard Yupangco & Yamaha has that course on guitar playing ... maybe I'll devote my weekends on lessons & tutorials. I'm wondering how much that could cost me ... Those online tutorials & even the beginners pamphlet I acquired from the purchase doesn't teach me much.

Oh well, at least today I figured out how to use the knobs & switches on my amp & guitar. Neat.

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Salary Increase! yey, I've been waiting for this after the 6 month period, I think they're late for like a month or two ... or three. I deserved it anyway, just the last few weeks I've noticed a surge of too many technical support requests, especially from our new project manager who is just fresh from Windows to Linux.

It's not like I could'nt keep up with that many requests & side tasks, I mean I'm being paid extra for it. But having that much requests & implementing new server features for like 15 people in the company could very much delay my main tasks a bit. I had to train a few people too, then there's ym of other people asking for some linux support too. Busy, busy, busy, if you see me at the office I'm the one who's always walking around being called on to for help (it's exercise anyway) ... The new increase could boost up my morale a bit.

I've switched hosts again for my new site, I'm not fond of that posting for hosting scheme ... exec() for my imagemagick is disabled too. At the time I don't have much time to squeeze up for personal site making... I don't even have much time to practice with my new guitar! sheesh, I really needed to buy up some lessons instead... I don't think online lessons are helping ...

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Friday, another free dinner from one of our Danish clients, had a very good dinner ... one thick slice of beef roast, veggies, a chop of lamb ... and some very nice char broiled lobster. MMmmmMMM.

Satuday, just had a date with someone, the longest one I've had ... we talked the whole day, whew. One hot date.

Sunday, got to go to Taytay again, just got a note that someone's interested in my bike ... but is offering a much lower price than I posted ... darnit, I needed the money to purchase a laptop so ... I just might sell it to that guy. If we could meet today, he's supposed to be there lunchtime.

My new host: I've got zoomcities for hosting my new typo3 site, not much storage 50mb but just enough. It's got imagemagick but I'm still waiting for the official 4.0 release of typo3. It looks real cool from what I've tested so far.

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Something's eating me up inside ... I know having relationships with a girl can be quite nice and all but ... you get your own share of problems too. I had a bad start with her brother .. and other issues I'd like to close down quick.

I need a break, it's only been almost 2 weeks now ... why is it that I get tired so quickly? ... I know how I handle these things ... I get depleted so soon. Introversion was my gift. I've been shifting in-between, it doesn't feel healthy to me...

In other news ... I'm still in this blog ... the new host is giving me new problems .. I'll stick here for awhile & build up that site some other time ... elijah.hostcubix.com/ my last host... the site's been built with a simple template I downloaded somewhere... it's free & quick to setup, I just don't have the time right now to build my own designs. Maybe later.

Office relations are good, but they've all noticed a big change in me. I've matured in a big way.

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Sorry, I had to step back. The relationship has been a great experience for both of us but in the end some spark had to flicker out on my side. It was before that I started to like her, she's been so nice to me ( I mean very ). It's been 'us' before we knew it, I gave it a try anyway to see how it goes ... it didn't go well in the end. I may have some faults in the first place, maybe I felt pressured. Or maybe I was just confused with my feelings, everything's not 100%. She apologized to me too.

The story here isn't full, it's a bit complicated to think about. And I hate complicated relationships, to think this isn't my level of expertise. What's menacing are the courses that change in the middle of it ... cool. We had a great time.

We're just friends now. But we still meet. The next day we had a little movie marathon, watched the Sentinel & Silent Hill =) both are very nice (loved that pyramid head). We still go to church together like we used to. We could watch MI:3 next, but she didn't like Tom Cruise for some reason.

Edit: Ow! she bit me!

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The bookmarks on my firefox browser contains links to sites on server stuff, I open one everyday to implement 'em, as per request. Last week I've just implemented a jabber server (ejabberd) for our local IM (think yahoo messenger). I've chosen Coccinella as client of choice, works on both windows & linux ... It's an awesome app, had a few uncaught bugs & weird issues but it works great. The best feature our project manager could use is the whiteboard feature. She could just send out whiteboards to everyone with scribbles & all, think ms paint being sent via ym in real-time. It's been a rave at the office for awhile, it also had a chess game & cards feature we played around in.

Not all server features are being taken that seriously, my boss wanted this feature & that... but when it's finally implemented he hardly uses it. I don't have that much of a voice & weight to carry around so actually telling everyone to use this application from now on is kinda difficult. It's a bit annoying but, what they hey... everything I've done here is documented, noted in my palm for future use. They'd look great in my future resume.

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I didn't expect us to be together again, I guess somehow both of us got jealous seeing each other with other ppl. I'm not single again :-)

Well, I'm here at the office now, it's back to work again. No new projects lined up today so I guess I'll spend the rest of the day browsing the internet, maybe implement a few server stuff & tech support.

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Finished, ... well, almost. All that's left are the content, news, blog & tutorial extensions (hopefully at least one).

http://penguin.zoomcities.com/main

edit: Yikes, forgot about Internet Explorer ... I wonder what it looks like with it.... and yeah, it looks weird on resolutons higher than 1024x768. For now I can't do anything, no time... no time... later.

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