Stupid @#$%^&*...

For a while there I kidded myself that I could get away with it. I was downloading this piece of software a while ago. I kinda got nervous when after an hour the download window said it was 40% finished. Blame it on the dial-up speed. I continued though, and half-slept through the process. Its my day off and its 3 am in the morning. What else would you have me do? Another classic situation where the I-can't-leave-this-until-its-done syndrome surfaced. The impermeable bubble was there once more, half-awake as I was.

Well, while dozing off my connection got cut. I woke up to the sound of the modem dialing up again. I could not recover what I have downloaded so far. As far as I can tell, it stopped somewhere between 80 and 90%. All those hours patiently waiting, wasted. All for what? Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh! I hate dial-up! What I hate more is the fact that I have no choice. Dial up is the only choice I have. Double aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

The Sorry State We Are In

I read this opinion article the morning after I heard about this from my mother. She recounted the news story from ABS-CBN about this scavenger who brought home lechon and fed it to his family only to loose two of his children to food poisoning.

While there were a lot of people willing to help the man after the tragedy that befell his family, there were no helping hands when he had nothing to feed his children. How eager we are to help those befallen with tragedy when we always turn our backs to the very same people if they ask us for help. Tell me, how much more cruel can we get?

Some Things Never Change

There are some things that one can never really change. Say who we are or how we react to other people. We will always have a certain manner of reacting to certain types of people.

Take me for instance. I got in a row with the missus a few mornings ago. I had gone with a friend (after work) to help her install a cd-rom drive into her computer. I texted the missus to tell her I won't take long. Problem is it took me a while to open the case. It was one of those branded old Pentium II pc's from HP. It took me a while to figure out how to open the darned thing. It didn't have any screws and the locks were pretty well hidden. Anyway, it took me some time. When I finally opened the case, it took some more tinkering to install the drive in the case. Several boots later, the drive couldn't be "seen" by Windows '98. I called my unofficial tech guru friend and asked for his opinion. He said check the hardware. I eventually found out that the cd-rom had a bent connector. We took it to the vendor. It was a replacement unit bought second-hand, but still under the one-year warranty. They replaaced the connector, no prob. Only it took them the better part of an hour to test the darned thing. I got an angry call from the missus by that time asking me where I was and why I wasn't home yet.

I have always had this problem. When I'm doing something, I can't leave it. I have to finish it, otherwise I'll be racking my head the whole day thinking about it. I need to finish it or else. That bothers my wife. It seems I'm in an impermeable bubble when that happens. Nothing gets to me. Time seems to rush by and I don't even notice.

And so my saga continued. I installed and tested the darned thing thing in under 20 minutes. The ride home wasn't as enjoyable. By that time, I was already smelled a lot. I still hadn't had the chance to shower yet and I was really hungry. The trip home took too long. I tried to bear with my smell and my hunger. Plus the fact that I was really realy sleepy already. All that to prove I could be a geek. Wait. Correction...A wannabe-geek.

When I got home, the wife wasn't talking to me. I let her be. I knew any mention of what had happened (even an explanation) would be risking a direct confrontation. I just offered to do the errand she was supposed to do that afternoon. That's it. As always, I didn't get any thank you's anymore. I have come to expect that. I mean I have conditioned my mind not to expect any thank you's anymore. It's better that way. If I don't expect I don't get disappointed anymore. It seems that in today's world, the phrase "thank you" has lost its place.

Get Firefox!

In celebration of my new-found freedom in computing I am adding this link to my sidebar...




Want to find out what it's all about? Click on the link, folks. I'm enjoying Firefox, right now.

First post from my brand new rig...

After testing the computer offline for a few days, I finally decided it was ready to be connected. I worked out most of the minor kinks after having an officemate come over and have a look at it. He didn't actually fix anything but gave me hints as to what could be wrong. He knew I wanted to make this a learning experience so he limited his comments to that. He even commended my efforts, saying it wasn't half-bad for a first try. I'm now posting from a "rig" I built myself. It makes me feel sooooooooo manly just saying that. Joke!

Have to go....Be back in a bit. Still half-testing-half-exploring a lot of stuff over here. Thank God i got this machine to work!

I Miss My Blog...

For the past 3 odd weeks, I've been busy making extra money from OT. I even filed for a company loan. My ultimate goal is almost at hand -- my very own self-built PC!

Took me ages to get the parts together. The better part of the last 2 weeks. I spent the proceeds from loan to buy a motherboard, chip and memory. These are things you wouldn't want to go a long way to return to a store. I bought a case to hold all the innards just yesterday. Nothing substantially equipped with fans was available, till yesterday. Last night I came in early so I could file a leave for tomorrow (we have this 48-hour notice policy). After working tonight, I'm going straight to Manila tomorrow. What for? None of the local shops here accept credit cards. I even scoured SM Pampanga's 2nd floor tech lane. There I found older versions of the parts I needed at 500 pesos higher (apiece!). I'm short on cash and I know that if I stop now, I won't be able to build this thing anytime soon. I decided to go to Manila. Cheaper too! I just hope I don't have to return anything I'll buy. I'll be one gigantic hassle if that happens. I pray to the Lord for guidance and success!

I'm all set! Wish me luck folks!

The Sorry State That We Are In (update)...

I heard from my mother that the man who has been the subject of so much sympathy during the last week was given a job by National Bookstore. I also heard that there are many people abroad who are contributing money for his 8 children. That sounds great. But that also raises the question again. Must a tragedy happen before we are moved into action?

Many still suffer in the streets, most vulnerable of them are children. And there's a lot we can do with whatever meager resources we have. We can support organizations like Child Hope Asia or the Philippine Children's Fund of America. We can help any of the hundreds of organizations that work children's causes all over the country. We can make a better impact donating our hard-earned money to causes rather than individuals. The more people we help, the better this country will get. It's time to make a positive change. We can shape the leaders of tomorrow by helping out today. Even a simple act as buying a Christmas card will do a lot to give street children the power to take control of their lives, and eventually, this country's future.