Happy Holidays!

I know I've been out of my blog for too long and it's not even funny--such a shame. But I'll try to get back to regular programming--or blogging--real soon. I know I ain't no writer but that doesn't discount the possibility that I *might have* (or may have) suffered from the so-called writer's block.

Anyway, just dropping by, real quick, to greet everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous '09! I'll be working on both Christmas eve and day but I'll be off on New Year's eve and enjoy the countdown. Enjoy the long holiday week everyone!

Be sure to take out some cash from the bank as ATMs easily run out bills...

To Blog Again

I've been busy, busy, busy. But I'm back and I'll be working on a major make-over... I hope to get that done by next week. So many things have gone on while I was off-camera and etc. And yeah, I want to take photos now (I'll blog about that later on too!). The NEW MacBooks are out and they look so kewl and everything. The new iPods have gone out too. Basically a lot of stuff have come out and I wasn't able to talk about them. Too much work for me at work (where else?)!

PS. I just got that photo off the web and I found it to be pretty amazing and very, very creative. It's called "hands with a face."

Yikes! iPhone 2.0.2 is not secure.

Password-protect your iPhone 2.0.2... and you end up exposing information coming from your Mail, SMS, and Contacts. Plus a web-browsing freebie via Safari. It turns out sliding the unlock key, even if you password protect it, will really "unlock" the iPhone.

I am just not sure if the engineers at Cupertino missed this or this was according to the phone's design (?). I don't know. Who knows? One thing I'm sure of, 2.0.3's coming will arrive ahead of schedule. Read the full story over at Gizmodo.

Nuffnang. Weird sound of money.

Nuffnang, Asia's First Blog Advertising Community, is already here! I heard about this from a blogger friend so I immediately signed up just so I could read more about it. And here's what I found out from their website:

After its massive success in Malaysia and Singapore with over 45,000 bloggers signing up in which most of them are enjoying the perks of serving ads to multinational companies like Nike, Citibank, Honda, Nokia, F&N, AirAsia and many more, Nuffnang.com.ph is officially online!

I think Nuffnang's kewl! Don't you think so? I guess I would need to up my posts a bit so I can get me some Nike ads. That's just my favorite brand of shoes, and always has been synonymous with first-choice... can't wait!

So what has sounded weird just lately? I think it's money and you get to hear the words blog, entre, adsense and (now) nuffnang. And you know what, when I ran a Google search for Nuffnang, I just find it more weird to have even seen a blog with this address: why-nuffnang-will-fail dot blogspot dot com. Weird day for me I guess.

Nuff said, nang it!

US Basketball: Worth A Pair Of Olympic Golds

Spain put on an a good show. But out in the Olympics, good just isn't good enough. Having said that, the US Men's Basketball team dubbed The Redeem Team closed out the 2008 Olympics Basketball tourney with a perfect 8-0 record and held off the Gasol brothers with a 118-107 victory to clinch the gold.

The US Women's Basketball team had also won the gold via a 92-65 beating over Australia yesterday. It's been said, and I'll say it again, the US Basketball Team is worth a pair of golds. 

For the full stories, you can head on over to NBA.com.

Know When Your Time Is Up

While scour-ing today for some random things, I came across this sort of calculator (or meter) that measures the approximate date when the Grim Reaper would have to ask you out. All you've got to do is head over to this site, provide answers to a few personal questions. When you're done, the table gets turned, and the answer to your question (take note: you must ask yourself first before you ever try this!) will be provided.

If you want to know when my time is up, this was what I got:

6/22/2053. On a Sunday? Yikes! I'd die unhappy if I ever live long enough to reach that. I would be over 70 by then. I would never wanna see me with my skin all loosed up. I don't know. Well at least the link made me wonder... and laugh.

How about you? When do you think the guy with the scythe would come to see you?

US vs. Spain and Australia

Two countries would have to bring their A+ games to beat the US basketball teams. It all begins tonight at 10:00PM (GMT +8:00) when the 2008 Olympics Women's Basketball gold medal will be settled by a game between Australia and the US. Since I don't pay attention to anything WNBA, I have no idea who the other stars are on the US Women's Basketball team other than Lisa Leslie. I'm not even sure if she's on the team this time. Well I just hope they win to hype up the men's team.

Tomorrow afternoon, 2:30PM (GMT +8:00), the US Men's Basketball team will play Spain. Again. This time, and as hinted, it will be about nothing else but for the gold medal. Spain lost to the US when they first met during group elimination play. I think it was a blow out.

Having said that, I think it's going to be easy for Lebron, Kobe and company--unless of course if Pau would prove me wrong. Tomorrow. I'll be glued to the tube by then as I'll be off work come jump-ball time.

New iPods. Soon.

I have no idea why I'm starting to title my posts like that. But anyway, that's not what this post is about. Ok so I just stumbled upon news about the next iPods that might come out of Cupertino. And this is how it might look like:

Any comments? Personally, I think it looks more like a cellphone than an iPod. Except for the click-wheel, of course. But I don't know. There's no confirmation yet. But I would think this would come out as close to the real deal as possible. The source of this tidbit? Kevin Rose. I'm guessing he's credible enough. Head on over to his blog for the full story.

Search. Earn. Scour.

I've heard about Scour a long time ago from a pro-blogger friend. It's only today that I decided I need to start working with Scour--dubbed "The Social Search Engine." It's easy. Just search, and you earn points. Earn 6500 of those and you get a $25 PayPal check. Now that's easy.

Now I'm not saying you don't have to use Google anymore, I am just letting you in on an option. It could be a better alternative. Who knows? So start scouring now! There's lots more you could do with Scour. Scour this, scour that. So click THIS and start earning extra dough!

Rogers BlackBerry Bold, Today

If you've been paying attention to the BlackBerry blogosphere, you should be pretty excited about today. It's August 21st, and it's been confirmed that the BlackBerry Bold will be coming out of Rogers... yes, today (am I even right?).

We'll see what we'll find out about the news today as the Canadians should be able to get their hands on a BlackBerry that has been through a lot of delays, after delays, after delays. Stay tuned...

Was Busy Last Week

The last time I made a post on this blog was about a week ago. And all I could say is: yeah, I was busy. Busy with work, busy with family... basically busy with life. I've been on the forums (BlackBerryForums, PhilMUG, MacRumors, CDOCentral) and what not but I've only been lurking mostly and reading some threads of attention without actually replying to any of them.

I guess I was just paying too much attention to the Olympics. But what do you expect? It's supposedly the greatest sporting event every four years. I think Olympics 2K8 will best be remembered for Michael Phelps and how he managed to bag 8 gold medals. That's quite a story right there. The last time 7 gold medals went to an individual was about 4 decades ago (or 36 years to be exact) when fellow American Mark Spitz swam for it at the '72 Munich Games. And here's what Mark had to say when Michael got gold #7 at Beijing:

Epic. It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time. He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet.

For the latest news about the Beijing Olympics, head on over to official website > The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I think China's going to run away with the most golds. But I am not saying anything beyond that though.

UPDATE: Globelines Issues, FIXED!

After calling Globelines' tech support every single day over the last 7 days or so due to my connection issue (read: slow), two guys finally dropped by today, along with their Asus EeePC, to check and validate how real slow my connection really is/was since the day it got installed. Right... they fixed it!

They didn't stay long though BUT they figured the issue was with the Sphairon Turbolink modem. They started their troubleshooting by running speedtests (off speedtest.net) on the small black ultraportable. After failing to at least complete a single speedtest result, they both agreed to try a different modem. Bingo! With the new shiny black Prolink ADSL2+ modem, I got these speeds and it's been pretty consistent eversince.


So thank you Globelines, especially to the two guys who came here earlier (sorry I didn't catch your names) You can now close the third trouble ticket numbered 919792. I can forget about the past, and move on as all I ever wanted to begin with was what had I signed up for and what I will be paying for--broadband Internet. Thanks Globelines. Case closed. More power!!!

A Kagayanon's Journey to Canada

While I was browsing the CDOCentral forums earlier today, I stumbled upon member name kicker and his blog about how he and his wife worked together to get to Canada, the legal way. The exodus story is just inspiring, at least for me. If you read it from the first post up, for sure you would re-realize (you already know this) that nothing in life ever comes easy.

You can go check out his blog at burlingtonjourney.blogspot.com. Learn more about migrating to Canada. And be inspired.

...AND it's ridiculously getting slower

It seems my ordeal with Globe Broadband a.k.a. Globelines isn't just about over yet. My Internet is getting slower each day (it's just been two days). Check the Speedtest result above, my connection is WAY SLOWER than dial-up. Believe it. I've been doing speedtests since I woke up today, hoping to get at least a different result. But they're all the same, the average speed didn't even come close to dial-up! WTF!

I did call the hotline yesterday AM, and two guys from Globelines (entirely different from the install crew who came here last Tuesday afternoon) came over to check the connection and speed later in the afternoon. Yes, all from yesterday Wednesday. And all they ever said was simple and quick: [translated] "Sir, this is r-e-a-l-l-y slow. We'll try to re-set the connection from the main center to fix this." Then they went off, speeding...


Now, a little over 20 hours past and there's no change whatsoever. I am going to give one final call shortly and if this doesn't get fixed at all, it's over. I can't go on being mocked like this at all, it's not funny...


*Photo courtesy of Speedtest.

Globe Telecom & iPhone 3G on August 22nd

So the news is out, Globe Telecom will be releasing the iPhone 3G on August 22nd. That's good news for iPhone fans all over the archipelago. Yup, the Philippines is finally part of something big at least in the tech world scene as the date also marks batch #2 of iPhone releases slated in other countries as well.

Head on over to the Globe iPhone 3G page for more info about the subscription plans and how much they cost. The one thing that I didn't like with all the pricing hoopla was the fact that there wasn't any unlimited data plan at all. Postpaid plans start at 1,599 with these allocations: 100 local minutes, 350 text messages, 20 Wiz Wi-Fi hours (available only in Metro Manila for now, I think) and a measly local mobile internet airtime of only 40 hours--don't forget: there's 720 hours in a month. With that plan, the 8GB variant would cost PhP 16,800 while the 16GB would be at PhP 22,300. You need to be on the 4,999 plan to get the iPhone 3G 8GB for free (PhP 5,500 for the 16GB) and you get 750 minutes, 650 SMS, unlimited Wiz Wi-Fi hours and 100 hours of internet data. The usual 24-month lock-in period applies.


If you find the subscription plans appallingly expensive, you can always get the prepaid kits on installment at 0% interest up to 12 months with most banks' credit cards. With PhP 41,889, you get the 8GB. PhP 48,899 would get you the 16GB model. Now the question is? Am I going to be getting one for myself? Answer: I will just pass for now. I am extremely satisfied with my BlackBerry 8320 along with my current Globe BlackBerry data plan, so that's why. 3G isn't even widespread where I'm at, much less EDGE.


But we'll see what happens as we move forward as the iPhone is a really great gadget to have. Read the ongoing discussion about this development over at PhilMUG, specifically in this thread. Be informed.


*Photo courtesy of myGlobe iPhone.

Online BUT Stuck!

If you examine the photo above, you should be able to tell that I'm online now. I've got my weather updates in (too bad there's none for CDO) along with my WAN IP as well. The Globelines folks have finally hooked me up at the new apartment late yesterday afternoon. But that's just the good news. News always comes in twos. Now the bad news is--the connection has been so slow ever since! To make matters worse, I only figured that out when the install crew had already left the area.

So did you want to know how slow this thing is? Well, it's way under the considerable speed even for dial-up! You may want to check the image ^^ again, click it. It's really ADSL eh? Take a closer look at the download versus upload speeds, there you go. Now I got those values from Speedtest and from my #1 widget, iStat Pro (get the latest version here). The download speed, the most important, is not even in 3 digits!

I guess it's just not my time these past few days BUT I've got to bounce back. With that said, I already gave the Globelines tech support guys a call early this morning and I got a reference number for the record. They said there could be something wrong with the facility or the main center where my line comes out from. At least he agreed there's something wrong! I just hope they would act on this no sooner than a month! Remember "the wait" I had to burn candles for just for the installation? It now appears the pain wasn't worth it at all.

Stay tuned...

BlackBerry Bold gets some serious competition?

I think I found this out too late: a new smartphone from the Nokia E-series, the E71, is already out in retail stores, at least locally. I was at the mall yesterday afternoon doing some window-shopping when I spotted a BlackBerry-Curve-looking phone in one of the Nokia business centers here. I thought it was one of those usual mess-ups with mobile display galleries but I was wrong. So I checked it out and recognized that it’s the real E71, the upgrade from the notorious E61, E61i and E90 E-Series variants. When I went out to check the web (yup, you guessed it: using my neighbor’s Wi-Fi, thanks to Globelines), this new addition to the business phones from Nokia came out so loud on the blogosphere and in many other forums. It seemed almost everyone over at PhilMUG who had an older E-Series phone wanted to take home an E71 soon after it hit the shelves, check out this thread. I think it hit the stores just last week, on a Friday perhaps? But please read on.

All the hype aside, let’s move on to its specifications. If you go and hit up this page from the Nokia-Asia site, you’ll find out that this phone has got every connectivity option available: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA, HSDPA, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, AND Infrared (yes, Infrared!). It’s also got integrated and assisted GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera. That’s quite a slew of features, I must admit.

I’ve only read two full reviews so far, one from the Boy Genius himself and from allaboutsymbian.com, and it’s clear that this smartphone has gotten nothing but praises due to its super-slim design and functionality. While I was able to play with a demo unit at the mall yesterday, one thing I could remember that I didn’t like though was that the keypads seem so tightly-squeezed into each other, there’s like no air in-between keys. It’s so different from the perfect keypad spacing I have on my BlackBerry Curve.

Right now, I am not sure if the E71 would come in as serious competition for the BlackBerry Bold. We know the BlackBerry’s forte is push-email and top-of-the-line security but if you’ve checked out the specs of the E71, it’s got the Nokia Intellisync feature and some security too. So I’m not sure if that could match up to what the BlackBerry has been doing (and doing perfectly good at that) since 2002. We’ll see for ourselves.

Now let’s all wait until the BlackBerry Bold comes out. It’s been delayed since forever! The latest feed from BlackBerryNews, hints that it may come out from Australia on July 29th and then UK, hopefully. Hopefully…

*Photo courtesy of AllAboutSymbian.com.

Globelines suck!

The story: I submitted my application to get hooked up via Globelines (or Globe Broadband) last June 27th, a Friday. And up until now (running 3++ weeks), I am still Internet-less at the new apartment. I moved in June 25th and, like many other professionals out there, I cannot live without the Internet. Without it, I don't think I feel confident enough to talk to people. I mean what would I talk to them about? News? Local news ain't enough. I need to know what's going on with the world! And I would need the Internet for that, don't you think?

I think I'm gonna have to give them yet another call today and complain this time around. You know I'm the type of person who rarely complains about stuff and services BUT I think this is way over ridiculous right now that it's not even funny. I will update you guys about this whole mess/ordeal. I NEED THE INTERNET!

I got mentioned in a newspaper...

I just found out I got mentioned in an article written by Jose "Butch" Dalisay on The Philippine Star. It came out last June 22nd in the Sunday Gadgets' Section. The online version of the full article can be found here.

Here's the paragraph where I was mentioned:

As a Web browser and mp3 player, the iPhone is “light years ahead” of the BlackBerry, as even local BB guru Ric Pacana acknowledges. The iPhone’s Safari browser is the only real usable phone browser out there that comes close to the desktop experience, and the iPhone’s ability to automatically reorient images (horizontal or vertical) and to resize them with a two-finger “curtain” effect is matchless. However, Ric prefers his BB for its strengths: push email, long battery life, better security, and multitasking.

Butch Dalisay's blog > http://penmanila.net/

Rylee's First Bday in 6hrs

I'm still internet-less here at the new house I rented so I might need to up my blog's post count via BlackBerry for the time being. Nobody from Globelines dropped by today so that's disappointing. Hopefully, someone will be here tomorrow so they can start surveying and would probably get me hooked up in no time. I'm crossing my fingers. I can't wait until next week. I'd be losing a lot of time for sure...

Rylee's First Bday is almost here with just under six hours left. He's on a late afternoon powernap right beside me on the king-sized airbed I bought as our temporary bed. He's healthy, as always, and will transition to a "higher" formula beginning tomorrow. The milk brand or make is called Gain Plus. I just wonder why milk for 1 year olds are a lot cheaper than milk for 6-months and up. Any ideas?

Anyhow, as you can see on the right side, I haven't been updating my Twitter a lot lately. Twitter via GTalk still doesn't work for me. I think I really need to use the real GTalk client for it to sync. I should be able to use JiveTalk on my BlackBerry by then. We'll see what happens later this week.

One cool thing I found out today was plurk over at plurk.com. Some people said it's way better than Twitter so I gave it a shot... AND boy were they right! It just looks like fun over there! I will probably add a widget on here later so I could link my plurk updates. I love plurk's timeline feature and the karma system, too.

More updates later...

Pac-Man Wins, TKO in 9

Great game. After nursing a big cut up his right eyebrow since Round 4, David Diaz finally dropped like a body bag with under 40 seconds left in Round 9. Classic finish in Pacquiao-esque fashion. w00t!

Go Manny Pacquiao!

End of Round 4

I saw blood on Diaz's right forehead or eyebrows, whatever you may call it. I think Pacquiao is going to win this!

Stay tuned!

------------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry

Pacquiao vs. Diaz

The game is on! Another big fight in the works.. Stay tuned. Go Manny! I wanna see your new Nikes!

------------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry

Rylee's First Bday Coming Up!

Baby boy Rylee's first birthday is just around the corner! w00t! Can't wait for it. He will be a happy 1-year old on Tuesday, July 1st. MJ and I are still trying to decide where we're going to celebrate his birthday. It won't be all about kids for now as he still doesn't have any friends yet--although he enjoys watching and interacting with them whenever he sees some play around.

Above: photo taken during Rylee's post-baptism photo session. He used to be small... but he's all big now and can actually walk! He can only say a few words for now though especially the local translation for milk, "dede" and I think that's cute. Babies are just awesome and they provide so much fun. They can help you de-stress but only sometimes.

There will be more updates as we progress towards his first big day!

BlackBerry Updates

The BlackBerry universe has been so loud lately. First, there's news about the coming of the BlackBerry 9000 a.k.a. BlackBerry Bold. Then there was the big BIS upgrade to BIS 2.5 which now supports HTML email, Hotmail integration and etc. This was rolled out in Asia Pacific first on the first weekend of June. Please check the thread I started on BlackBerryForums about BIS 2.5. The Americas will be getting their BIS upgraded next weekend as well. Aside from that, leaked pictures of the BlackBerry Javelin also started to come out on the web last week. Just today, Jibi from BlackBerryForums wrote an article on BlackBerryNews that the BlackBerry Javelin will have the BlackBerry 9300 as its model number. And it will come out stocked with handheld OS version 4.6!

Software-wise, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager version 4.5 has also come out. Read more of it here, courtesy of JSanders. It is confirmed that this version of DM is clean, good and should be issue-free as compared to 4.3. An ongoing discussion about this software can be found here as well.

The June-July period will see a lot of news and updates for the BlackBerry line. And it's all about the number 5! Why? Remember the BIS upgrade to 2.5? Then there's Desktop Manager 4.5. So the only missing piece then would be the device software version 4.5. Everything else would then be covered. I guess 5 is the new 8.

Stay tuned...

Twittering via IM

It's a rainy Friday out here. It's been pouring down since early AM. I'm just too preoccupied right now updating this page's layout, fixing widgets' locations and how they appear plus there's twitter. And I think it's fun. The only issue I have right now is I can't seem to get through twittering from my GTalk IM account just yet. GTalk on my iChat is still stuck at "waiting for authorization." I guess I would have to use my brother's PC later on today just so I could isolate if it's a Mac thing that's holding me back twittering via IM. I couldn't wait as it's pretty much like blogging on Blogger via email...

I just signed up on Twitter!

Okay so I just took the plunge and signed up for Twitter. Thanks to mi amigo JayPads for the suggestion so I should now be able to begin twitter-ing in no time! Just so you'd know, all my twitters should be available over at twitter.com/ricpac. Go check that out will ya?

Now twit me, and I'll twit you back--no big deal, right?

Celtics In Six (Period)

Sorry I forgot to follow-through as I just couldn't believe the Lakers lost. I was rooting for them. My prediction was even simple: Lakers in Six. I guess I just believed too much in the triangle. Anyway, I'm glad the Celtics got it over with at home. It was murder out there. It's like every shot the Celts made in the fourth quarter was much like adding insult to injury or more fuel to the fire. So the final score was Celtics 131, Lakers 92. It was the most lopsided closeout win in NBA Finals history. I thought I saw the Celts had scored more points in the fourth quarter than the Lakers so, that about says it all for the contest. BTW, it's Paul Pierce who ran away with the Final MVP trophy. That's him and the coach, Doc Rivers, on photo above.

With the NBA Finals over, I guess we can all look forward to the Beijing 2008 Olympics in August. I'd be all glued to the basketball games by then in anticipation of some great games involving the United States. See you then.


*Photo courtesy of the NBA.

Lakers 77, Celtics 113

Looks like the Lakers are giving up now while the Celtics are going to bring home the bacon tonight. So who's going to be the Finals MVP? KG? PP or RA? I have no idea. I am sure, it's not going to be Kobe.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Lakers, Done In Six?

It looks like the Celtics are going to wrap things up tonight especially with a commanding 30-point lead with just under 3 minutes to go in the 3d quarter.

I think that's just too much for the Lakers to overcome. Stay tuned though...

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Tuesday Jitters

It's one of those Tuesdays, I guess. There's not much to talk about as not a lot of stuff happened. I just went to work early. Got back home to pick up gf and went to Body 'n Sole for a massage. She got for herself a full one while I only went for foot reflexology. It did hurt but it wasn't much like the first time.

As I was out on the road with her, I thought global warming was starting to get real ugly. I mean it was so hot around here as early as 9AM--ran through noon time and temperature (+humidity) only dwindled down around 2:25PM when it started to rain. Man, if I was on the field the whole time today I would've gotten sick, that's guaranteed. Imagine what I would've to go through if I was a field worker. I would have worked through sweat only to get wet under these crazy little mid-afternoon showers. I know it's not good news but I had to share it.

Anyway, more to the tech side now, OK so I actually resetted my MacBook Pro's SMC today. Thanks to this tip from Apple. I hope doing that would at least fix the screen issue I have experienced since I updated to 10.5.3. My brother even saw the phenomenon for himself when he tried to use the Mac late last night--that's after he woke it up by opening the lid. Oh BTW, I got the idea about resetting the SMC from Apple discussions specifically in this thread. It is very clear that I am not the only dude who has a Mac with this mess. At least I know I'm not special.

Sports-wise, I could only wish the Lakers are going to win Game 6 in Boston to push the Finals to a dead-end. That would be fun rather than tuning in to Game 6. But with the Celtics having their crowd behind, I guess it won't be that difficult to stuff the trophy in the bag. And KG would be all smiles for sure.

Updates from the BlackBerry world? Sure. Here it is--photos about the demo unit of the Javelin (the 3G-less BlackBerry Bold variant) have surfaced online. Check this feed from BlackBerryNews.com and enjoy reading.

Experiencing some local issues with my laptop

So I have had this baseline MacBook Pro for over a month now and have had no issues until I updated my OS X to 10.5.3 when it became available via software update. You know Macs are never meant to be shut down, you just let them sleep, wake them up and they're back in action--exactly as you've left them.

Now here's the story: there was that one morning in May I'll never forget. What happened was... I just let it sleep the night before some disaster happened. I just closed the lid and let it snore. I woke up early the next day and thought I'd get online first before the usual morning rituals. And then I saw this after I opened the darn thing (BTW I call this a post-sleep nightmare):

I took that photo just for documentation purposes. Ok, so then I forced reboot it and that somehow seemed to have fixed that issue. So I posted this experience on the two Mac forums I know and frequent - PhilMUG and MacRumors. I then found out I wasn't the only one who has experienced this ugly phenomenon. Some have commented it most likely is a video card or worse, a logic board issue and that I needed to have that replaced, much less checked up on by a certified Apple service guru ASAP. The problem I have now is that there's only one authorized Apple Reseller and Service Center in the city--Lifestyle Quality Appliances. I doubt their technician could even handle this thing but I am going to give it a shot no less especially that it happened again last night! Check the photo below:

I just woke it up after moving it from the living room to the bedroom. What triggered it this time though was when I opened PhotoBooth to take photos of my baby boy. And boom it happened again! The only line that crossed my mind when that happened was this: "If it happened two times, then a third time is absolutely guaranteed!" Now that just doesn't sound right. I guess I really have to start thinking about bringing this in and have it checked up on. All I've got to do now is back-up and make a few phone calls before actually visiting the service center myself. Good luck to me and I hope I can have this covered soon.

BloggerMail Test

This a test message to check if my bloggermail is working. No intervention needed. This will automatically get published on my blog. Talk to you soon.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

So I've finally decided..

In the last few days or so, I was all trying to figure out which site I would choose to blog on to. It was just between Blogger and WordPress. There's just two choices. You know I have actually started with Blogger around May 31st and posted a few. Then I deleted everything I wrote a little after I imported all of them over to WordPress. The "Magic Button" was just tempting. It was that quick! But now I'm back to Blogger. At least I was able to figure out the differences.

Both are really fairly simple to work with. Here are the items that have helped me decide between the two top-notch blog sites:

1. You can control your blog's text font on Blogger, at least it's readily available on the post box. This is not available on WordPress. You would have to edit the HTML tags for that or change the template/theme.

2. Upload space-wise: WordPress readily provides 3GB. All I know about Blogger's is that you only get 1GB of space for photos due to its integration with Picasa. Although there is a workaround to this by uploading your photos somewhere, i.e., Photobucket or Flickr, and then link them into your blog, it is clear that WordPress has this feature in the bag.

3. There's lots of widgets available on Blogger and that's good. There's even the nice newsreel feature that lets your visitors read the latest news articles for a particular subject or topic listed on the sidebar. They just have to click the topic of interest and they get the news. WordPress I think doesn't have that.

4. And this last feature, amongst a slew of other useful features readily available on Blogger, is the capability to blog from a mobile device. They call this mobile-blogging or blogging-to-go. This is perfect for me as I am out and about most of the time. All I've got to do is just send an email to the address I have nominated, and boom--the email gets published as a new article. I think I have mentioned this before that Blogger and BlackBerry are made for each other.

Having said all those things, I guess I'm staying with Blogger even if I had deleted the initial page I have created last May 31st (sorry!). At least I'm back now and I should be better than I used to be a few weeks ago. There's going to be more updates soon as I will be working on this full-time now. With Blogger and as I have said, I can even post from my BlackBerry and send it from there. So much for push-button publishing and mobile-blogging.

White Water Rafting

Have you guys ever gone white water rafting? If so, then I guess you’re familiar with those classes of rapids everyone talks about whenever they get past all of them on any given course. We’re talking about the more difficult class 3-4 rapids… Are we? Well I guess if you haven’t tried the advanced course YET then you have a lot to read about on here.


Just fyi, I’ve actually (and successfully) just gone on my first rafting adventure last May 15th, on a Thursday if it matters. And yeah, I pushed the limit (along with my cousins) and signed up to go advanced. That trip covers around 30 or so rapids ranging from class 1-2 to the more adrenaline-pumping and exhilarating class 3-4s. The duration: 6-7 hours of nonstop white-water wet-glory… All I could say is that it was so fun and you’ve got to love every minute out there especially when you’re like risking your life in exchange for one hell of an experience. No pain, no gain. Now how’s that for a late summer thrill? I love outdoors!


The whole time I was out there, I was feeling safe even with the odds that we had to go through which I had no idea what they were going to be like (remember: it’s first time). Good thing the word safety came in and was introduced even before pre-raft because we chose to raft with the Kagay guys who have such an established resume in the rafting business in Cagayan de Oro and in the rafting world, in general. So if you plan on going rafting sometime later, I would consider going out there with them. I’ll be going rafting again soon especially after a day or two’s worth of rain would hit the city — that would surely bring up the “danger” (and fear!) factor. It would be all perfect to blog about by then.

Just drive, don’t text

I couldn’t believe I’ve been through a car accident and survived to blog about it — the photo above should help me put everything into words. That all happened about 23 months or so ago, July of ‘06. I wrote about it on my old message board and here’s what the whole drama was:

i survived a rather really ugly car crash. that was back on the 17th of jul 06. oh yeah, everything happened like in a blink of an eye. i was driving on my way to work and it just happened. in full detail, i woke up early - the usual routine. drove my pops to the airport before i was gonna get to work. then downhill, i was checking the mirrors, applying not too hard on the brake pads. the last thing i remember was when i was trying to change a song on my iPod mini - which of course is what i use to serve as the car accessory - then boom it just happened. i hit something. “houston, we’ve got a problem.” i am so sure i never spent like a great deal of 2 seconds looking at the iPod mini screen. if that was my fault, i for sure have learned from it the hard way. check out the photo of the sentra above. it should at least tell you what i’ve been through. when i got the hit, all i heard was silence. all i’ve thought of was home - what have i done? good news is that i’m still alive. i always put my seatbelts on when driving. i made a couple of phone calls - good thing i had full charge. t’was a shocker. of all people, why did it have to be me? i guess i had to learn stuff about driving the hard way. after i got cleared by traffic authority and was driving it home, the only line that ran through my mind was this: “driving is a privilege, not a right.” that said, i guess my driving days are doomed. i was so scared. good news is that i was able to get through it. learned a lot. never text while driving. i never texted that day though, i was switching songs on the iPod mini for like under 2 seconds and i crashed. i had better texted that day. even if the result was still the same. well i think i did text someone just right before it happened. so there. there’s a lot to learn. at least, we should learn from the mistakes of others for we cannot live long enough to make ‘em all our own.

So that was it. All I’ve got to say now is this–don’t ever forget about the title I tagged this old update with: just drive, don’t text. If you do otherwise, you would ultimately become a liability on the road and might tremendously affect the lives of others, along with your own. Think about the risk.

CELTICS 3, LAKERS 1

In one of the biggest upsets in NBA Finals history (at least in recent memory), the CELTICS trounced the LAKERS on their own floor with a remarkable 97-91 come-from-behind victory. It was all LAKERS from the first half up until late third quarter when the CELTICS were finally able to start answering back. All that and the LAKERS squandered their lead (as much as 24 points) during crunch time. I guess it really isn’t over when it’s over.

I wrote off the CELTICS as early as the start of the third quarter but boy was I wrong. Who would’ve thought the LAKERS would lose that game? That for sure would be a heartbreaker for them. But that’s basketball and it was the CELTICS who came out BIG when it mattered the most. With under 40 seconds left, Ray Allen’s breakaway lay-up was the haymaker. That was just the highlight to the LAKER’s defensive breakdown in the second half. Sasha Vujajic probably gave up on that play thinking someone was going to cover for him from the weak side. Nobody did. And that was the game’s turning point from my perspective.

I would think it’s now safe to say that the CELTICS are going to win this series. And Ray, Paul Pierce and KG would be getting a truck load of bonuses plus the rings! Stay tuned.

*Photo courtesy of the NBA.

BlackBerry Bold to come out of Rogers first?

According to the BlackBerryNews feed, HorizonWirelessOnline has posted up on their website that the BlackBerry Bold may finally be coming out this month. The big BUT is that it would have to come out of Rogers wireless. Target release date: June 25th. It will supposedly come with HH OS 4.6, 4.6.0.60 to be exact.

And while it may not come as good news to some BlackBerry addicts like me, that shouldn’t come surprising enough at all. I mean with RIM based in Canada, I think it’s only fitting that the Canadians would get their hands on them first before the rest of the world does.

So I am really, really excited now.

*Photo courtesy of BlackBerryNews.

Top Blogs in the Philippines

I just found out about this while heading over to read some tech news and reviews on the YugaTech blog. Apparently, the country’s top blog spot belongs to someone who offers some really cool and nifty friendster layout designs. You can find the running list over at TopBlogs. I am just unsure if they update that real-time or daily. I could only guess but I think they have set a default minimum delay, like 60 sec. I can only be certain about one thing though — a lot of our folks around here really visit Friendster a lot too often. Now, whether that gets a lot more hits coming from the Philippines than hits to Google coming from everywhere else, could be anyone’s guess at this point.

So I’ll let you in on a secret: this blog’s objective will be to get on that list soon. Hopefully. But I would need an audience first and would need more work to get it done. No pain, no gain. So good luck to me.

Hello from WordPress!

So I’m welcoming myself to WordPress.com. I just tried importing my other recently-launched blog on blogger.com and t’was too easy. All I did was just hit the Magic Button and that was it. I hope the photos came with the posts too. Now I really have no clue which service is better or not but one thing’s for sure, blogger is part of Google so that should matter a lot. But here I am on WordPress and I think it looks clean. Plus, there’s like 60 other template designs that I could choose from. I think that’s a lot. So let me try to remind myself to be here often. I also hope I can finally get that ricpac.net domain, soon.

New iPhone in the news!

Let’s start with the old news first, so here it is… I am not sure if you guys have heard but the iPhone will finally be coming to the Philippines sometime this year. Although it’s still unconfirmed if it’ll actually be here come Q3, one thing’s certain–it’ll be here in the second semester! And guess which carrier is going to carry it? It’s going to be none other than my favorite, Globe Telecom. Please read this link for the official Apple News article re: the deal that sealed Globe Telecom to deliver, release and support the 3G iPhone > Globe Telecom and Apple Bring iPhone 3G to the Philippines

And this just in! Apple just announced today that the new 3G iPhones will be released on July 11th–that’s a week after the US Independence Day. It’ll have the same features as with the first iPhone and more–like built-in GPS, 3G and would now include support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That only means the iPhone will be competing with the BlackBerry in the push-email category! There’s also real-time contacts and calendar sync OTA. And what also makes it a great buy (at least for me) is that it’ll be sold starting at $199! So that’s twice as fast for half the price. Plus it now comes in either black or white versions and will be available in 22 countries on it’s initial release in July. Read more here > Apple Press Info

While I am eagerly waiting for the release of the BlackBerry Bold, I certainly can’t just let this 3G iPhone pass. I will most definitely get it.

Love is a temporary madness

Check out what I had written before about love being a temporary madness. I think I wrote this circa-2005 and this was on my old tripod page as well.

Love: temporary madness > love is a temporary madness. When you fall in love, it erupts like a volcano, then it subsides. When it subsides, you have to make a decision, you have to work out whether your roots have become so intertwined together that it is so inconceivable that you should have to part from it. Love is not breathlessness, it is not a desire to make every second of your lying moments of the day imagining she is kissing every part of your body. Love is just being in love which any of us can convince we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has been burned away. Love is love after all the excitement, the fun and everything. Doesn’t seem interesting, does it? But it is the truth.

Work, work, work...

Work’s been ugly these past few days. That’s because something was up with the numbers and they were nowhere close to the desired levels. I just got off from work today after spending way too much time analyzing the trend that involved a dip in a very important metric that defines cost. But oh well, work pays the bills so I’ve got to deliver and make some adjustments in the other life.

I’m almost going into my rest days so I should be able to continue moving the old stuff to here by then and delete the webpage I had created a few years back. Once I have moved all that’s needed to be moved, I should be able to keep up with the updates to this blog whenever I can. So until then…

Getting some good progress...

I think I’m on a roll. That’s like 3 posts in the same day? This will make it the 4th. Not trying to kiss-ass or anything but yup, blogging on blogger is pretty easy. It’s like sending an email or an SMS. Totally effortless. I think I’m going to be addicted to this especially that you can add a new post just by sending an email. I guess Blogger and the BlackBerry are made for each other.

Anyway, I will continue to move things from the old page to here before I will completely rest it in peace. Now I just have to rework some lines and retouch some of the photos before I could post ‘em all here. Next up: SFO. I just love that place.

Stay tuned…

More Photos from Tokyo

That’s got to be me along with the MTVAsia VJs Asha and Utt right out on the venue’s backstage. I think I enjoyed the VIP access the whole time I was at the VMAJs (Video Music Awards Japan).


That’s the venue and it’s called the Tokyo Bay NK Hall. The place was packed as there was also a dry concert outside–part of the pre-show festivities.


These were the folks from MTVAsia SG who took care of us during the whole trip. I wish I could remember their names right now. I’m pretty sure the girl with the pink top is Charmayne Yap and she’s the boss.


That’s me right there along with the band. I am not sure if they’re a big hit on the international music scene but I am absolutely positive that they’re a hit in Europe or in the UK at least.



And that’s the airplane that took me to Tokyo and probably back to MNL. I thought I was getting on first class but it’s no big deal to be in economy so long as it’s all free.

My Tokyo Trek

Let me share with you my little adventure back in ‘04 just a few days after graduation. I posted this on my old tripod.com page and I thought I needed to keep it intact. It’s too bad, the link to my winning poem over at the MTVAsia page is no longer working. And I have already forgotten about the winning words I gave to my winning poem. So please read the story below. Take note that everything is untouched — I can’t believe I wrote this way back then. I’ll eventually figure out how to add photos in-line.

(start) so many things to do things to do, so many things to say, so many things to write, so little time. our education delays our lives, or at least that’s true. no, not because everyone else agrees. but because i said so. we ought to study, learn, pass, graduate, march, and start our lives after everything else that’s school. but there always has to be that fun part. you don’t need to have fun look after you, you have to look for fun yourself. and that’s what has happened to me all this year, thus far. so here goes my story that i want to be heard and known. and remembered.

i graduated last march after a gruelling wait in one of my most difficult and demanding subjects. the teacher did some adjustments and it worked, not only for me but for some other bunch of guys except one. so then i had fun. then sometime in summer, i bought a very expensive piece of equipment. damn if you’d compare it with the size it has with the price it’s tagged with, you’d probably think i was the most “techno-geeked,” dumbass like what my girl MJ kept complaining about way back. t’was so difficult to get my ‘rents convinced that i should buy that stuff. t’was on sale, remember that. and still cost more than the cheapest cellphone in the market. what that was? t’was nothing but a removable, ultra-portable hard disk drive. for it’s equivalent 80+ US, it offers handy 256MB of storage. yes that was 4,000+ PhPs last may. so i had fun. i had the most fun getting music from internet cafes all around the city. i was DSL hungry, i was soo after soo much speed. i got all the music i ever wanted to listen. i went to the MTV website so i could see the newest tracks both in the US and in the local SEA region. i joined contests, i took part in surveys. i was virtually everywhere. so i had fun wheresoever i was going whenever, when i am only at my hometown. couldn’t be any fun-filled than that. along came with the receipt of the gadget that i bought were raffle ticks since, yes, cos i bought it when t’was on sale so there should be that mall-wide sale that was on-going as well, at that time of course. the next day after that, i got calls from friends and family informing me that i won an AC unit from that same sale frenzy, remember the ticks i raffled? so i had fun. i was feeling so lucky that, yep, i joined contests on MTV. and two weeks after, while i was trying to please myself with someone else, i got an out-of-this-world call from a local MTV rep informing me that i won The Darkness contest and that i had to do some preps cos im gonna have to fly to Japan to see ‘em perform the opening act on the Video Music Awards Japan 2004. now are you getting the picture? i hope you do.

i spent the next week in MNL to see people both from Warner Music and from MTVAsia. they gave me all there was that i needed to get my Japan visa. and i got it in 3 days. i had so much fun in the end cos time when i was in the embassy to submit all my docs, i was told by the consular officer that my birth certificate was outdated and that i had to get a new one at the NSO. i did smell trouble and disaster felt like t’was ready to strike anytime. but i kept all that at bay. i had to line up for 3 hrs. so many people were piling up lines and lines everywhere in the office during that time. when my turn came, i was told that i could only get my authenticated birth certificate in the next 24 hrs. did i get pissed? of course, what could anyone have expected? but i never got my nerves total control. i just kept my cool and begged the in-charge that time is of the essence since the scheduled concert comes in on the at-the-corner-already weekend. and GOD was so great that he slapped that guy and told me to come back in the PM on that same day to get my ABC, authenticated birth certificate that is. angels were everywhere that i even lost count how many there were. i never even knew which one was my guardian angel.

well OK, i went back to the embassy early next day and then was advised to come back 2 days after to get the news. i went homebound in the PM. then watched Troy with my MJ in the evening. then i flew back to MNL again late afternoon the next day. then friday came. i was like up all night, but not really up, only something in me was up. cos i bought fhm when i got to my airport of destination, MNL that was. how sick is that? then friday came, again. early morning i was there in the embassy already, lining up with some oldies and really hot women, talent women i should say. what were you thinking? then by almost-lunchtime, i got my VISA with all the smiles i could show the whole world. then off i flew to Tokyo, Japan the day after tomorrow by JAL courtesy of Warner and MTV. and the pictures will help me do the talking.

The Darkness rock! the Osbournes were also there at the VMAJ 04. Janet Jackson, Good Charlotte, Outkast, N.E.R.D., Missy Elliott, and so many more plus some real GREAT Japanese personalities! see the links below to the article i wrote for MTV about the whole experience. i had so much fun. (end)

Now that up there is one long and boring post… but I wrote that before!

Moving Stuff Around...

I have this really old page on tripod.com that I need to move. I have had it since ‘04 or ‘05 I think, I don’t know. I just forgot. One thing’s for sure, I have not touched nor edited it in years. I did spend a fair amount of time doing it but I just got lost in translation all along. I had to have a life I ought to live, that’s why…

So the deal right now is, I will be moving all the stuff I discussed there. Move it either here or on my .Mac page (which BTW would cost some $ to maintain for a good year). I am still undecided if I need to carry on with the .Mac subscription (I am still on the trial version and I have about 57 days left). So you must have figured out I have a Mac and it’s really very easy to do web pages and everything else with the integration of iWeb (the app) and .Mac (the service). But I think I can publish my own serious site employing .Mac and then I would just blog on here –anyway, Blogger offers push-button publishing and it’s FREE.

I think I need to start moving the things that are supposed to be moved. I am on rest day but time flies and I could now smell the fragrance of work. We’ll see what happens. So later…

My First Post

I'm pretty much new to blogging although I sure have heard about it a long, long time ago. It's just that I haven't had the time nor funds to get me a laptop I could call my own. Now since I have that covered and everything else, I think I should be able to do a lot more personal stuff on it and probably have more time to blog and just update whatever I could on here. So I'd have to say welcome to myself and I hope I could keep this blog alive and kicking in the days to come!

More later...