Thursday, February 25, 2010

thursday tattles: innova, pirates, 34, blogs

My (supposed-to-be) income-generating blogsite is in a hiatus. I guess I have to get back to working on that soon as it has to start generating income or otherwise there'll be no point in renewing its domain when it expires later this year.

I am again thinking of tinkering with it -- the design, specifically. I already downloaded a new template for use but then again it means I'll need to redo some coding of the template (the site runs on Blogger but using its own "blogspot-free" URL) for the so-called "bells and whistles". But I am still thinking because tinkering it will mean more man-hours working on it -- I am by no means a web designer and have a minuscule knowledge of coding -- so to work the code for me means trial-and-error.

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Starting to scrounge around the internet looking for a second-hand Toyota Innova.

I'm planning to avail of the Desk's car plan benefit (you only pay half the total purchase amount of the wheels) and since the purchase of a new vehicle (one that is credible, no Suzuki's or Chery's, please) is astronomically way beyond the car plan's allowable limit, I am looking for a second-hand one.

Why an Innova? Well, it could've been a Revo for all I care but since they've phased out Revo's in the P.I., the Innova was the next best bet (forgive the Toyota bias -- there are practical and economical reasons for it, the same case that if I had a mountain of gold bars, a Honda or Ford or hi-end Toyota SUV would've topped my option).

Firstly, what is needed is a family vehicle -- one that seats more than four people. With Elvie, Ikai, Issa and two yayas along, a second-hand Vios would not be it.

Secondly, it should have space -- for bags and strollers and more bags and Giraffe (my daughter's rocking horse, este giraffe) even more bags and a styro-foam box (for food stuff like fish and meats bought outs of way).

Thirdly, it should be affordable (take note -- affordable, not cheap) in that it should meet the allowed amount limit for someone in my meager rank.

Fourthly, it should be easy to maintain in terms of repairs and maintenance (Toyota vehicle parts are quite affordable aren't they?).

Fifthly, it should be fuel efficient. No gas-guzzlers. Gas preferred as they say diesel-engined vehicles tend to deteriorate faster.

After careful deliberation of the five factors, sedans were ruled out. SUVs were ruled out. The multi-cab was ruled out. Vans (like Hi-Ace or Urvan) were ruled out. All that was left was that vehicle group that included Hi-Landers, Revos, Innovas, and Adventures. Out of the four, it was a unanimous choice -- the Innova.

So, anyone selling a first-owned, all-power, gas-powered, manual or automatic, casa-maintained, flood free, non-silver gray Innova at a friendship price are welcome to get in touch with me.

Oh, why not a silver gray Innova, you ask? The answer is simple. I don't want to get mixed up when I get out of the office and into the office parking lot filled with silver gray Innovas -- a major bulk of the Desk's vehicle service fleet.

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By the way, I turned 34 years yesterday.

No major celebration, no fancy fireworks to greet the day.

In fact, friends following me on Twitter and Facebook knew that I was up and about the second that February 23 ticked into February 24 at 00:00. I joined Elvie as she went about her graveyard shift and dozed off somewhere around 3AM.

Stayed in bed til mid-morning and then we rushed off to a derma doc to have alien growth checked on myself, Elvie and our little Ikai. A thousand bucks later (to be used on our skin to fight back the aliens), we three had a quick lunch at a pizza parlor and off to bed again when we got home.

The celebration happened at dinner time. And I, the celebrant, was the one who went out to buy the celebratory stuff -- a cake roll and ice cream. Pancit was cooked, Royal True Orange for them and a fiber-enriched fruit juice for me, and that capped my birthday celebration. And oh, Elvie went on graveyard again and I was on "damay" mode until 1AM :)

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Sid Meier's Pirates! conked out on the rig last night while I was in the midst a trip to Campeche. I don't know if it had to do with the laptop not being able to run it or there was something wrong with the game CD.

Yep, I am playing the game again. This time however, I first played it on the PSP a week ago and found out I missed the little bells and whistles on the actual PC game. So, I hauled the old PC game CDs from my chest bin and installed it on the rig.

And lo and behold! With the ATi Radeon 3200 graphics card it looked even way better than before! The graphics were much, much grander and game-play more smoother. The only problem was that the game required the use of a full numeric keypad (the dancing mini-games and the sword fights especially) which unfortunately was unavailable on a lappy. Now, thinking of buying a num-pad just so I can perfect the dance steps and win the heart of a governor's daughter or two. Or three.

Unfortunately the game conked out for no apparent reason last night. Will try to lower the game's settings. Or maybe the lappy's overheating?
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