The DJ who's not a DeeJay

I attribute my personal saddest couple of days to be last week because 3 things happened:
1. I got sick with the flu.
2. My website went down and I was too physically weak to even use the computer to fix it.
3. I lost 1 week worth of revenue because of No. 2
4. My loved one was ill too.

Now that I thought of it, it's been 1 1/2 years since I last got sick. And I don't miss it one bit. For someone who's a workaholic and is not content doing nothing, it was such an unbearable and frustrating week for me as I was restricted from doing anything but getting rest so I could get well.

And if that wasn't irritating enough, imagine my frustration that I couldn't even use the computer to go online and fix my website who is still suffering from server migration pains.

My website went down along with me for a week and I fear it sustained some damage in some way. I know it affected my steady visitor count. Also since my website was down, my online store was as well and I couldn't receive any product orders. Lastly, my advertising revenue also screeched to an abrupt halt with no ads being displayed due to the site downtime.

Lastly, the person I wished for additional comfort was in need of comfort as well as she was sick the same time I was too. As much as I wanted to be there for her, I myself was in the same predicament. We were like in a mutual support system where we had to reassure each other everything was going to be fine.

I dread having to go through something like this again. I can handle single blows but if they come in multiples, I may not be able to handle it.

Quoting my friend who texted me last week, "bawal magkasakit."

I was supposed to arrive on time for an event I was supposed to attend to. I had it all planned. I was to leave home and arrive at the Crowne Plaza Galleria exactly at 6pm. I arrived 640pm due to parking.

Robinsons' Galleria is one of those malls with so many people and so little parking space. Well it's not really little. It's just the way the parking was designed, and modified.

I'll give you a backgrounder. Robinsons Galleria was the first place on the spot of that corner on Ortigas and EDSA. It had ample parking. Then came the business building which is attached to the mall. Holiday Inn, was also adjacent with direct access to and from the mall. Few years after, there came the RCBC bldg adjacent to it where an access bridge connected to the mall. And just recently, the newest hotel in the Ortigas center is the 5 star hotel Crowne Plaza Galleria, which is also adjacent to the mall. With all these buildings adjacent and including the mall itself, guess what ? Basement parking was never expanded. And so you have all those wanting to go to any of these buildings parking at the Robinsons Galleria basement parking, which makes parking a living hell.

In addition, this is one of the most confusing parking lots where there's one way narrow roads and a lot of twists and turns. Don't get me started on Basement 3. It looks like a sewer.

I was surprised to find traffic officers actually inside the parking lot directing cars. Is it that bad ?
The only way to get a parking space at peak hours is to WAIT ! So a chunk of your parking fee goes to waiting to get an actual parking space. If I didn't need a car that day, I would've been better off commuting.

Ok... I feel better now that I've ranted.

I was fixing some stuff in my room and throwing away a lot of old brochures and papers when I stumbled across this paper bag which was sealed with a stapler and a receipt. I checked out the receipt and it says I bought this in Dec. 2004.

Curious as what did I buy then but never opened the bag, I discovered that I bought what's shown on the pic, yeah, 4 brand new 2005 mini calendars. This is kinda like a year and a half late. If this was food, this must have had grown fungus for surpassing the expiration date.

It's a good thing they were cheap. They have no value whatsoever now. I can't even sell this on Ebay.

I'm going to leave this somewhere (in a public place) and perhaps someone may be interested enough to actually pick it up and use it (for whatever reason, I couldn't care less).

I graduated from college as being someone proficient with computer software, not hardware, which is why I take pride in having the skills to tweak my own desktop.

From the generic computer, I've transformed my personal computer into one mean machine. If this were a car, I'd like to imagine it'd be one of those competing in those underground races. My basic specs are 1 cd-rom, 1 dvd-writer, 2 hard disks and 2 audio cards running on a Pentium 4 2.4 engine with 256MB RAM.

I set my PC to autoshutdown when temperature reaches 70 degrees celsius. Unfortunately, the room where my computer resides isn't that cool. In fact, it's one of the hottest rooms in the house. And for that reason, my PC autoshuts down regularly.

First, I bought a small electric fan and it's sole purpose was to cool my CPU... not enough. I've then added fans and heat sinks little by little inside my computer's casing.. but my PC just emits a lot of heat.

My last modification was to add a front panel with 3 fans which looks like an air-conditioner. I'm finally happy that my PC can stay on for a straight 24 hours now without autoshutting down. After tweaking my PC, I've noticed that I have a total of 6 fans inside. I've even placed hooks on the front to hang my portable flash drives and memory card devices. I've got a sticker on the side as well.

Then I just realized ... Damn ! I've built a refrigerator complete with door decorations !
All I need now is to install a water dispenser. hahahahaha !

I admit that when it comes to legal documents, legal terms, legal issues and anything else might having a tad bit of legalese aspect with it, my brain suddenly drops to a crawling IQ.

I had such trivial questions that I'm not quite certain if they merit any right to be asked. But I really had to ask cause I'm such a dodo with these stuff.

Here's an example. Should you staple or paper clip legal documents ? My reason for asking is that may be the document might be considered null and void if it had two holes in it (assuming you removed the staple wire leaving marks on the paper). I also had this pondering question of whether to sign all copies of a document or just sign one and photocopy the rest. Will they both be deemed legal ?

The last trivial question I had was with paper size. Is legal size the same as long bond paper ? Is A4 legal ? How come I see long bond papers in 8.5 x 13" and 8.5 x 14" ? Is the latter one called longer bond paper ? Is there a standard place to put the page number in legal documents ? On top ? Below ? Center ? Right justified ? Can I write the popular computer format of Page 2 of 3 ? Or 2/3 ? Or just Page 2 ? Or omit the Page and just write 2 ?

Arrghhh all these questions led me to the conclusion that I am better sticking to what I know best, computers.

I recently learned that there will be 2 wrestling events coming to the Philippines, one with the oldies like Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Iron Shiek and other 80's superstars, and the more exciting and antipicated one being WWE Smackdown.

It's set for October 21 and 22, 2006 at the Araneta Coliseum. I was able to watch both WWE Raw Live in Manila events last Feb. and I learned from my mistake back then: "don't wait for the last minute to buy your tickets". I almost wasn't able to buy the tickets I wanted. I was actually waiting for confirmation from friends that wanted to watch. I wanted to know what tickets they'd buy so I we can all be together.

Therefore I will do 2 things which will benefit me.
First, I will coordinate much earlier with my friends. My friend Quen, her daughter and my former officemates are kinda psyched up about it. Quen & I get excited just talking about the upcoming event and planning for it. :)

Second, I will create a fund for my ticket source. I'm definitely going. It's just when and what section I need to know. I just donated a P1,000. bill in an envelope labelled "WWE Smackdown Fund".

(Update: I removed the bill cause I needed to deposit it in the bank and replaced it with a P100. bill.)

ako
Yesterday, I saw this sign in front of a local restaurant:
"Drink and pay moderately".

I just had to think about it. Are they really concerned with their customer's spending habits in correlation to their drinking habits ? Now why would they want customers to pay moderately ? If I were the manager, I'd want my customers to spend lavishly.

I thought of it as a joke and just had to share this.
Blog and post moderately.

Before anything else, I just want to apologize for the huge interval between my last post. Been extremely busy. Now back to our regular blog programming...

Yesterday was banking day and I had to go to 4 different banks, to perform various transactions: check deposit, cash deposit, credit card payment and ATM widthrawal. 2 of the 4 banks I went to had long lines. I was the 20th person in line and there were only 2 tellers open. It took me a whopping 45 minutes before I got to the front. I had some gadgets with me just in case I would take this long. I had my celphone but unfortunately, the bank didn't allow celphones to be used while inside. I had my mp4 player where I could listen to some podcasts I downloaded. Problem was I forgot to bring my earphones and the external speakers would be much too distracting to the others. I could hold it up my ear but that would look like I was using a celphone. So my last resort was going back to basics. I had a book with me and was able to finish 1 chapter within the time I was in line.

While in line, I was thinking. "What if the line was on a conveyor belt with seats lined up so everybody would be seated down and in line. Sort of the Haunted House or Pirates of the Carribean in Disneyland where you sit and enjoy the ride. That would make lining up so much enjoyable. Oh well, back to reality.

I just fed our 3 dogs their dinner when I noticed these 2 flies on top of the hood of our car not moving at all. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were mating. Since they didn't fly away by my presence, even though I was accidentally close to the car, I thought of taking a pic of this rare scene.

I rushed inside the house and got my digital camera and tried to take some macro shots of them. It was hard cause my camera kept on autofocusing on the hood than them, being very minute creatures.

Finally, after around 30 shots, I got some very good and detailed shots of their copulation. On one hand, a fascination led me to think that this is how National Geographic makes documentaries. On the other (and sleazy) hand, I immediately felt like filming a porn movie for insects. I bet that those 2 flies were cursing me for watching them and even taking photos of them.

While I was taking my last few pics, a third fly approached them. The 2 flies suddenly stopped and froze as if the 3rd fly couldn't see them. It was witnessing animal behavior at its finest and very educational I might add. And of course my other evil half of me was thinking that this fly wanted to join in for a threesome but got the cold shoulder.




Oh well, it's still an amazing experience and I did get a chance to try shooting a little creature in macro mode. If you'll notice the picture of the flies, there are actually hairs seen sticking out of their bodies. Way cool !

Porn errr... I mean the animal kingdom rocks !

I was just told by a client to renew their expiring corporate domain and so I did.

Not really thinking about searching around after renewing their domain, I checked my name and was surprised to learn that it's available ! I remember not seriously checking for my name's availability on the net and it was taken.

It took me around 5 minutes to finally decide that it's such a good opportunity to miss. And so I have a new domain: http://www.jaydejesus.com

I kinda have an idea of what I want to put there. But for now, I'm just placing my online resume just so there would be something to see if you visit.

Now I'm pondering on the idea of switching my primary emails to this. Hmmmmm....

Earlier today, my colleague in the media Dennise, told me that she met someone yesterday who knows me.
I asked who and how. She was in Philcoa getting an ID, which took longer than expected. She was beside this guy and they started chatting. They talked about the education system cause he's currently doing a paper on that and Dennise could relate cause she handles biddings for textbooks in public schools.

Anyway, as they conversed more, she told him she works for a music magazine. And that's when the guy told her that he had a student who put up a music website. Since Dennise knows me and my website, she mentioned my website to him and he immediately mentioned my name to her. She was surprised to know that he knew me.

Okey, to cut the suspense short, the guy is Mr. James Esguerra, my former Electronics teacher in college.

It's such a pleasant surprise to hear about these kinds of stories and more pleasant to know that your teacher still remembers you. It feels like he's proud to have had me under his tutelage. It makes me proud to have stood out enough for him to remember me.

Thanks Dennise for making my day and to Mr. Esguerra for remembering me. :)

Last May 21, 2006 was the opening day of the SM Mall Of Asia, one giant mall divided into 4 buildings with lots of everything... food stores, clothing, entertainment, you name it, they got it.

My folks and I decided to visit the mall. It's the first time I've visited a mall on its first day and I tell you, it's hell ! Of course everything is new so it's a new experience. But that's not really a plus. People didn't know which was where and how to get from point A to point B. We got lost inside and went in circles. You couldn't rely much on the janitors to direct you much less the other people since it was everybody's first day. I couldn't figure out their cryptic map of the mall either.

To make matters worse, every restaurant and fastfood joint was jampacked due to the tremendous surge of people wanting to see the new mall for the very first time. This translated to long lines of hungry people. And to top it all, electricity fluctuated around this time forcing these restaurants to close and not accept people inside. That was a real bummer. This left a lot of hungry people angry and frustrated. I guess the mall didn't go through an trial or demo stage to simulate if the mall could handle the enormous demand for electricity.

So we finally found a restaurant which did allow customers despite havin no electricity and so we ate in an unlit restaurant with the heat slowly picking up.

Lastly, I hated their parking structure. You have 6 levels of parking for a 2 storey mall and so you need to go down from the parking to get to the mall. There are three elevators but it would take you years before you could get on one. Most of the people took the stairs but I should point out that this is torture for the unphysically fit and elderly.

There were still lots of activities lined up for the day in the mall but we decided to call it a day at around mid afternoon and go home. We were so tired from walking in that huge mall. Everything is so far from one another. I don't think big is best.

Okey... I modified a phrase I borrowed from a muppet character named Gary Gnu from The Great Space Coaster. Remember him ? If you've watched him say this at the end of every news flash he reports, you know how he says it. *wink*

Anyway, it's really about me buying a newspaper on a Monday or Wednesday morning but actually get to read it 1 to 3 days after. I do have the utmost intention of reading it on the day it was bought. After all, that's when the news is still fresh and new. However, due to the myriad of things listed in my "to-do" list, reading the newspaper gets a backseat and my only incentive then for reading the 2-day old paper is that I want to buy another newspaper and I can't afford to have them pile up (although this did happen before).

Trivia: At the earliest, I usually read the daily paper after dinner.

I've been upgrading some PC parts and gadgets that I happen to have some of them left unused after taken out or placed on a forced retirement plan.

I've made a simply inventory and it seems I have the following gadgets which work but I don't use anymore: 64MB MP3 player, CD Writer, 2.5" Hard Disk Portable Storage Device/Card Reader, and some spare xD memory cards.

Ebay to the rescue ! I haven't sold anything on Ebay for the past 3 years. So the thrill of selling again came to me like a newbie once again. It's exciting to see people bid (and sometimes declare war on other bidders which is good for me) on my items up for auction.

With the money I'll be getting from selling these gadgets though, I may end up buying a newer (and better) gadget and may repeat the cycle of selling newly retired gadgets.

I was in a terrible traffic jam due to the unexpected sudden heavy rains. The first typhoon of the year (named Kaloy) is here and I'm not missing it one bit. I got stuck in traffic for almost 3 hours and the rains caused it. I exhausted my mp4 player... listened to 2 1-hour podcasts, all of my remaining mp3 songs until my player displayed the low batt icon. I tried stretching and turning from side to side while in the car to stretch and relieve my sore butt from sitting. Good thing I had a hunch I'd be stuck in traffic and passed by Caltex's Starmart convenience store to get an instant Nescafe Capucchino and some bread. I got to eat that plus an additional bottle of mineral water while in traffic as well. Good thing I didn't have to deal with any flooded roads.

Looks like the rainy season is here to stay... and the only thing I like about it is that it's not that damn hot anymore... but that's just about it.

I had to go to Manila this morning for business, and from our place, that's a 1 hour drive. I didn't want to choose between the regular breakfast joints such as Jollibee, Burger King, Chowking or McDonalds. So I cruised the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) area and discovered this new place called Harbour Square. It's right beside the place where you book for Corregidor Tours.

Upon checking out the places to eat at that early in the morning, I found Tapa King, Starbucks and Pancake House. Of the three, it was Pancake House that had the best view of the Bay.

It was a pleasurable and calming experience to have breakfast by the bay. I got to see the Manila Yacht Club, some Philippine Navy ships, people exercising along the bay stretch, the rowing team and the Corregidor Sun Cruiser leaving for their daily trips to the historic Corregidor in Bataan, while enjoying a continental breakfast consisting of sausages, eggs, hash browns and toast. For a change, I chose to have tea instead of coffee.

Sad to say this was the highest point of my day as everything afterwards went downhill. But this particular trip to Manila was worth taking, even if it was just for breakfast.

We have 3 lovable but terrible terriers, namely, Yoda, Potter and Dixie. Dixie is the girl among the 3.

Dixie is now on her way to motherhood and we have no idea who the father is.

If it's Yoda, then we have a master jedi dog in the making. If it's Potter, then we have a master magician to arise.

Oh, these three dogs eat and munch on anything, from leaves to our Toyota Corolla, that's why they're terrible. But they all will give you a good licking of loyalty.

I was at SM North EDSA yesterday and had no intention of spending much when suddenly, I happened to pass by Comic Quest and I realized that I hadn't been updated in my Transformers Comics collection since February 2006.

I was surprised to learn that there were new series, issues and reissues that I didn't have yet.

I ended up buying 4 out of 6 comic books I didn't have yet. I would've bought 6 but my budget didn't allow me to. Actually, it's not a matter of whether I'd buy or not... it's a matter of how much I'd have at hand and what could I buy with that. LOL!

I got Transformers vs GI Joe new series and 2 reissues from 1986.
Now I'm happily broke. hehehe !

If you know who Doogie Howser is, then chances are we're just about the same age. :)

For those who have no idea who he is, he was the character in the 90's tv series Doogie Howser MD, a genius doctor at the early age of 16 I think.

He had a computer journal which was the highlight and ending of each episode. It was a simple text journal on a blue screen background.

I was inspired by this at the time that I created a program that would simulate this. I even placed an authentication system so secure that even I eventually couldn't get it. I remember I maintained this for more than a year. However, it's gone forever... trapped forever in a 5.25 floppy diskette which got filled with molds due to old age. I do remember that unlike the genius doctor Doogie, I on the other hand placed very simple entries, most of them being about a crush I had from another school at that time.

If Doogie were still around now, his "then" journal wouldn't be that spectacular, as blogs are everywhere on the net now.

And so, to pay tribute to my old journal 15 years ago, I present my online blog.
And by the way, I can also be an MD - Mr. DeJesus for that matter. ;)

Upon pondering on the concept of habits, I realized that a bad habit is formed by repeatedly doing something wrong. It's either break the bad habit or change it with a good habit.

One of my bad habits is staying in front of the computer in a pitch dark room with only the monitor glare lighting up my face. I'm lucky to have 20/20 vision and not wear glasses even though I've been using the computer for the past 15 years. I do hope it doesn't take its toll on my eyes though.

Good thing I'm far sighted and my face is at least 2 feet away from the computer. :)