the smart thing to do ... netphone

I finally caught the bug and jumped on the Android bandwagon.

Good thing Smart has offered a very affordable handset in the Smart Netphone, a Qualcomm-powered, Android 2.2 Froyo-running smartphone. Applied this morning and got the unit the same day at the Smart Wireless Center along Ayala Avenue.

This rather drastic purchase of smartphone now dashes my initial dreams of buying a Samsung Galaxy. The promo for the Netphone was simply irresistible -- at Datalite Plan 800 (yes, I'm back in the world of post-paid after more than 5 years), the unit is yours free although you do have to shell out Php 1,500.00 (so it isn't free at all, I guess). What makes getting the phone attractive is Smart's free-of-charge internet bundle of social networking until December 31, 2011. FB and Twitter to sawa until December.

The advertised features of the Netphone aren't bad and the SmartNet capabilities show some promise albeit it's still in its infancy. Probably when more and more subscribers come onboard, Smart will roll out more apps and programs. Wi-fi -- check! Camera -- check although there's no flash so night-pics might be problematic. FM radio -- check! The Netphone comes packed with a 2GB micro-SD card but if you're a sucker for space, you can upgrade it up to 16GB.

One of the best features of the phone is that it runs on Android. And that means Android Market with gazillions of apps available (okay, I'm exaggerating). Haven't tested installing apps yet.

Unfortunately, my line isn't working yet so I cannot yet enjoy the promised free internet features but I already tested the wi-fi capability of my Netphone and I'm contented.

Late review on the Smart Netphone coming soon.

tuesday tidbits: resurrecting the 6680, abe lincoln is a vampire hunter, freakangels, the bibliophile bug itch

There is this post that I've done last week before I left for Kidapawan about my frustrations here at the Desk. I've debated about posting it for public consumption and finally sealed it as "DEFERRED". My feelings about the issue remain to this day (I am still very much frustrated) but I'm keeping the post in reserve for when I finally have had enough of the stupidity and absurdity of things.

On now to other stuff ...

* * * *

Since it will be some time before I get hold off an Android-powered phone (unless some good soul gifts me with one), I'm resurrecting my Nokia 6680. The main reason why I decided to forego it a whiles back was because of the fast battery drain. Over lunch, I got myself a new battery for it along with a spanking black housing. It still worked! However, after just an hour of use, the battery was already draining and it's supposed to last three days on standby mode.

Remembering how the old battery became discharged and bloated, I did a quick search online with a query of "6680 battery draining fast" on Yahoo Search and I was rewarded with an answer -- battery is draining fast most likely because the phone is "shorting" it. This would be the likely case, says the forum answerer, if your battery looked bloated. Which was exactly what my last battery looked out. The solution was to have the phone checked and the short-circuiting fixed. Otherwise, I'll just end up buying battery after battery.

Hopefully, the local repairmasters here in the P.I. would be able to fix this dilemma so that I can get back to using my trusty 6680. And then I'll likely hand over the SE T303 I'm currently using to my sis-in-law so that she can replace her old 3100.

* * * *

I surprised myself recently by finishing a book in less than a week, more specifically just under five days. This is such a rare feat by yours truly as the last time I've finished a book that quick was in 2005 when I was out of work and staying at home all day long.

The book I'm talking about is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, a mash-up (new term for me too, folks) which I bought last June 29 and finished reading last Saturday afternoon, July 2.

I've seen the book before on previous trips to bookstores I frequently haunt and was always curious what this was all about since the front cover had the portrait of old Abe Lincoln standing all regal and elegant but the back cover had him holding an ax and a severed head of a vampire. I finally bought the book last week because I wanted to satiate my curiousity and that this could be a good reference of sorts for a new personal project I'm working on. I didn't count on the book being a mash-up though.

Have to admit that I'm a sucker for history stuff, even fictional ones (like the chronological listing of events following the War of the Ring that can be found on the back of The Return of the King), thus I guess that's the reason I finished this book in record time. Add to that, Abe Lincoln was probably one of my earliest historic heroes -- I was exposed to the American president's exploits before I even heard of Jose Rizal (unfortunately true, honest). And this is my first vampire book, ever. I've never been fond of vampires and stories about them even though Twilight and Ms Stephanie Meyer made vamps sexy. But the way how the book was written -- ala diary entries of Abe Lincoln about his vampire-hunting days on his "secret journals" -- saved the book for me and I found myself enjoying it.

Will try and do a review of the book soon while the story is still fresh on my mind. Imagine the wickedness of the author to mash up a historic figure such as Abe Lincoln with something extra-ordinary such as vampires and vampire hunting. That's cross-genre, indeed.

* * * *

Like I said earlier, I went to Kidapawan for Desk work.

Didn't get to go around the city as much as there wasn't really much to go around to in the first place. While Kidapawan is categorized as a city, don't expect to find the comforts of city life here. Local shops abound but the only branded establishment that one would recognize would be Jollibee. When people wanted to shop for branded stuff, they took the trip to Davao (4 hours via public commute, 2 hours by private vehicle).

However, the idea that Kidapawan is a dangerous place is, in my opinion, a bit exaggerated. While I didn't stay long (only one night), the city was generally peaceful during my stay. There was a bombing incident that took place earlier last week but our branch personnel said that the incident happened some ways out of the city proper and that the bombers just abandoned their getaway vehicle within the city limits. Nevertheless, our branch personnel weren't taking any chances and they insisted on bringing me to the doors of my hotel when we finished our pre-event meeting at 8pm.

Well, better safe than sorry, I guess.

* * * *

As mentioned on the upper right corner of this blog, I'm currently reading FreakAngels, a free, weekly web-comic written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Paul Duffield.

The web comic follows the lives of the FreakAngels, 11 individuals with telekinetic, teleportation, and psychic powers who caused armaggedon to happen and what happens to them thereafter. According to reports, Ellis got the idea from John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

I'm a fan. If you're not, head on over to FreakAngels.

* * * *

The bibliophile bug is itching.

After finishing Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I found myself at Fully Booked Rockwell last Saturday purchasing a copy of Kevin J. Anderson's The Edge of the World, the first volume in his Terra Incognita series. I had to restrain myself from also buying the sequel.

I think before the week is out, I might end up buying another book or two. And just to satisfy the craving while keeping within means, I think a trip to Booksale is in order.

wednesday warbles: hk, website stuff, comics, freedom fighter,

If I have been quiet of late (again), it's mainly because my online attention has been ensuring PinoyHomes4You.com is running smoothly. And I'm still in the midst of adding more content, not to mention, bells and whistles to the site to make it more attractive.

This project is a joint project between me and my wife for purposes of additional financial rewards. Mind you, I am no web designer ... this website runs on Blogger and is basically a blog running a custom domain. Of course, the finality needed a little adjustment (and probably more tweaking in the future) of the HTML code but this is basically a blog template enhanced.

It's like this blog you're reading ... much of the work is done by Blogger's great blogging CMS-styled software ... being able to edit the HTML was a welcome bonus.

What follows next would be to apply all the learnings I've gained from almost five years of online marketing into the site to make it a success. That would be the harder part!

* * * *

The image on the left is a shot of the Bank of China Tower (left) and the Cheung Kong Center shot in Central in Hong Kong Island during last month's trip.

I'll be uploading more photos of our trip to HK on my Facebook, photos that were not posted by my sister in hopes of adding variety to the trip.

Even though it's been over a month since the HK trip, I've still got HK on my mind and Elvie and I hope to go there again, next year, time and budget permitting.

The place where we stayed, Lee Garden House along Cameron Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon was a great location -- nearby Nathan Road and an MTR, a few blocks from the bargain "bangketa" shops, and a little further would the more upscale shops (with nooks and crannies filled with eateries, trinket shops, money exchange shops, etc.). The staff, including a couple of Pinays, were quite friendly and they helped us secure tickets to Disneyland HK.

Like most hostels, the rooms were small but comfortable. In any case, you won't be staying for extending periods of time in your room as there are a lot of places to go to in HK. And what's great about Lee Garden was the free wi-fi. You just had to get the password from Mr. Chan and you're off to cyberspace (however, I was out of the hostel for most of the time or otherwise babysitting, hence the lack of updates while in HK).

Still a lot of places to go to and surprises to unravel the next time we hit HK. Next time, we'll be better prepared :)

* * * *

While my rummaging through my CD and DVD piles last weekend, I espied my copy of the turn-of-the-century game, Freedom Fighter.

I had been looking for the game for a couple of years now (trigger-finger itch) and when I found it amidst the cases of my music CDs, I was ecstatic.

The last time I played Freedom Fighter was about five years ago on my old P4 rig. Back then, while the game played well on P4 and Nvidia, there were times it dragged. On my CQ40, it runs smoothly!!!

I've already finished this game once but re-playing it would be fun ... an action-filled distraction from all the FB games I've been playing of late. Will be enjoying this game for quite some time, for sure.

* * * *

Been feasting on comics and graphic novels lately ... just re-read Identity Crisis, Kick Ass, Kingdom Come, and Watchmen. Also devoured Underpass, the Summit Media comics anthology, and a few more comics I've bought recently from the sale bins of Filbar's and Planet X.

Will likely be reading tons more as I've still got several stuff stowed away including Tom Strong, Battle for the Cowl, Civil War, Final Crisis, the Ultimates, Losers, and several Batman and Superman novels like Red Son, Batman: Year One, War of the Supermen, and Frank Miller's Dark Knight novels. I've just started reading Transmetropolitan as well.

And I will be re-reading Blackest Night as well, just to make sure I digested everything.

Noticed how biased I am to DC comics?

* * * *

I will be uploading sketches soon, promise!

* * * *

Sheesh, 12:24am ... what was supposed to be a Tuesday Tidbits now turns into Wednesday Warbles ... time to sleep, good day, folks!

online musings

In two hours time, I will have successfully stayed away from Facebook for one entire day. Apologies to all who may have sent messages or posted stuff that needed my attention but I was in experiment mode when I woke up this morning and asked myself -- "Can I survive without Facebook for a day?"

So, challenging myself as I got myself ready for work, I did stay away from FB for the entire duration at the Desk.

And to be honest, I did not miss FB at all.

* * * *

And while FB was out of today's online menu, I was still very much active online today on Twitter. I think, today was the first time I tweeted more than two tweets in a day. With my tweet an hour ago, that made it five tweets today and the bigger number is that that was my 500th tweet!

* * * *

Foursquare.com looks interesting. However, I just don't know if it will be worth my while as I am no user of an iPhone, a Google Android, a Blackberry, nor a Palm. The alternative, according to Foursquare is to access their mobile site but to do so might be cost-prohibitive what with the rate of mobile internet usage.

monday mumblings: usok, weddings, blogs, bookpile

Finally, the internet connection at home is back but only the internet -- not the telephone. Well, I guess that's one thing I should be thankful for because now, online plans and programs I've set in motion a few months back can now be commenced.

First off are my income-generating blogs which I think should be started sometime next month as it's already a bit late to start it off this late in the month. That should be a good Christmas endeavor for myself.

I now should also be able to update my other blogs more frequently including this one, the Diabetic Daddy, and Ikai's Crib.

But I'm keeping my Smart Bro prepaid internet, and since I've technically paid for it, also the Globe Tattoo. But it's going to be the Smart one that's going to be my main mobile internet. The Tattoo I'll keep for the novelty of it.

* * * *

The picture on the left is my book pile, taken sometime last month. Believe it or not but the pile has become worst, despite the best efforts of our house-help to make some sense of the pile.

I've added several books and magazines since the picture was taken and the current state of the book pile strongly suggests that some sort of contraption is needed -- a contraption called a bookshelf (actually, what's needed is more than a shelf but several shelves, similar to that in the case of a bookcase).

I'm seriously hoping for some extra moolah this holiday season (extra because we're seriously making sure that we've got more than enough for the birth of our daughter next month) so that I can finally head off to Paco and find myself a rightly-sized bookshelf that'll occupy a bit of space in the bedroom.

* * * *

A good old friend and former colleague, Joan Pimentel, recently decided to change her surname and in the process married her long-time beau, Joey.

To the new Mr. and Mrs. Joey and Joe League, a big congratulations!!! I was beginning to wonder (along with about a million of our friends and acquaintances) when the two of you would be tying the knot.

Apologies for not being there but I'm sure the occasion was extra-special judging from the pictures I've seen on Facebook.

* * * *

Last week was quite a hectic one and I got a bit tired.

I underwent an almost straight 30-hour shift from Tuesday morning until Wednesday afternoon the next day to finish preparations for the entries the Desk needed to submit for a prestigious public relations contest. It was an overnighter punctuated only by a quick dinner with my wife Tuesday evening and a brief respite at 5:30am to 8am when I went home for quick change of clothing and a quick nap. Then it was back to the office to meet the deadline.

I was able to go home at 5pm already -- culminating the 30 hour stretch.

The next day, we were off to San Fernando, Pampanga for a company event. Walang pahinga :) And it was a rather historic branch opening for the Desk as we were able to bring together bitter political rivals known to never appear in public together. Read for it in the papers one of these days as I'm writing the release for it.

* * * *

Usok, the spec-fic webzine from Rocket Kapre has launched!

The first issue of this planned quarterly webzine features five stories by Filipino spec-fic writers Crystal Koo, Chiles Samaniego, Kenneth Yu, Celestine Trinidad and Yvette Tan. Plus, Usok is now open for submissions with the next issue planned for release February next year. Guidelines here.

And the indefatigable Charles Tan reviews Usok here.

friday frolicks: ad congress, globe diss, starbucks, spec-fic news, ikai, isa, psp

Globe has got some serious issues when it comes to fulfilling its promises to its consumers.

After promising to yours truly that the landline and internet connection would be back by November 1, guess what? Still no connection until now. Why am I not surprised.

Their most recent excuse after I visited their Greenbelt business center earlier this week -- their field contractors have revised their earlier deadlines and now our area is set to be serviced on or before the second week of November.

Egad!!! Doesn't the use of "on or before" entail a definite date and not a vague period of time such as "second week"?

My innards were screaming for blood and I wanted to turn the CSA's own innards inside out but I controlled my temper and left the counter without another word. No use in saying thank you, thanks or gracias (although that's impolite, mind you) because I did not receive the expected assistance that had me wait 30 minutes for my number to be called in the first place.

Hay, ang buhay consumer nga naman.

* * * *

And since I've not been blogging or surfing at home for the longest time I've turned my attention to other stuff.

I'm currently in the midst of the winter season in Innocent Life, a PSP game that touts itself as a "futuristic Harvest Moon". For those already scratching their heads and asking what the heck Harvest Moon is, well, it's a game, actually, a series of games released initially for SNES (1996 first release) and subsequently in other consoles such as GameBoy, GBA, PS 1 and 2, Nintendo DS, etc. It's a series of farming simulation games whereby you inherit a farm, grow crops, tend livestock, and a gazillion other tasks including being friendly with neighbors.

Innocent Life is pretty much the same as the earlier Harvest Moon games but flash-forwarded a gazillion years to the future where farming tasks can be automated.

It's not exactly an exciting or engaging game (personally, the Harvest Moon game I played before was more exciting and fulfilling) but since I'm a sucker for RPG simulation games, I'm sticking to it and hoping to finish the main pivotal task (appeasing the Fire Spirit via the Water Spirit thereby preventing the explosion of the volcano that will surely and likely destroy the town where my creator (you play a robot trying to be human) and the friends I will get to know live) within a year and not withing the allowable two years.

The problem with the game is that there tends to be dragging moments when you find yourself with nothing to do -- especially at the start of the seasons when you just finished planting your seedlings for that season. And, the game starts to become boringly predictable and that you can't "speed" up the movement of events because the important events that trigger the chain reaction of events is so time-bound. Like right now, I am just waiting for the 24th day of winter for the next main event to happen even though I've completed the prerequisite tasks for it before autumn ended.

At least in the Harvest Moon I played (Friends of Mineral Town played on PC via emulator), I seemed to have not enough time during the day to do tasks and build up my character. It was exciting but also stressful, in fact. Innocent Life is, let's just say, less stressful and at times, ah, I just plod on until the next main event.

But since there's really nothing better to do during my free times at home, I'm sticking with this PSP game for now.

* * *

What I haven't been doing though during this "downtime" of mine from blogging and surfing is reading.

I've been amassing books and graphic novels and magazines but I haven't been reading them. They're all in the book pile, some with their wrappings still intact. Still waiting to be opened include all the stuff I bought at Komikon along with Martial Law Babies as well as a couple of issues of Entrepreneur Philippines and tons of books. The book I got last week, Firebirds Rising is the latest victim unfortunately.

And there are many books in the pile that remain on the "unfinished-reads" list. I'm guilty of leaving a book I'm reading unfinished and owe much apology to the likes of JRR Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, Terry Pratchett, among others, for letting their works collect dust while I fiddle and diddle and take up another reading material (or the PSP nowadays) and promise to get back to finishing the erstwhile books "one of these days".

* * *

And have I told everyone that Elvie and I are expecting a girl?

She's going to be a Christmas baby (give or take two weeks) and as such, we'll be christening her Risa Kristine. Her aka will Isa (pronounced EE-ZAH and not the Filipino I-SA).

Ikai, our eldest, has now taken to pertaining to herself in the third person as "Ate Ikai". And that's a good sign for us because it's an indicator that she is now prepared mentally and emotionally for the coming of her baby sibling.

Elvie and I are quite excited with the coming of Isa and more comfortable now than before when we were expecting Ikai. That's because, financially, we're secure and emotionally, we know now what to expect. We're just hoping that it's going to be an easy labor (Elaine, how do you do it?) because it seems like this one's going to be a bigger baby to birth than Ikai was three years ago.

* * *

And speaking of Ikai, she's turning three this month on November 18.

We'll be having a small celebration with a few family and friends and Ikai will be hosting a smallish children's party for the neighborhood kids (roughly about 6-10 kids).

Our little baby is growing and she has become quite the talkative type. Her mouth never seems to close and when she's not talking, she would be singing instead and can repeat the songs and dialogues of almost every commercial on the tube.

Here's here photo when she and her cousin, Mark, went trick-or-treating last October 30 at Elvie's office.

You can check out other photos at her own blog where I've uploaded them.

* * * *

Over on the speculative side ...

Jeff VanderMeer is currently on a suicide mission, este, book tour to promote his new books Finch and Booklife in 14 states for 27 events covering 36 days. So, his blog will be hi-jacked by a slew of guest-bloggers, playing mouse while the be-whiskered cat is away. Enjoy a change of tone for a wee bit until the VanderMeer gets back zombified from his book tour.

Congratulations are in order to Charles Tan, the Bibliophile Stalker, for winning the Last Drink Bird Head Award for International Activism for "his efforts to bring writers from other literary traditions and countries to the attention of readers in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia" as well as to Kenneth Yu of Philippine Genre Stories for winning Fantasy Magazine's flash-fiction-and-graphic contest.

Filipino horror writers you are summoned!!! Estranghero Press's Joey Nacino and horror-guru Karl "M.F." de Mesa are calling for submissions to a new online horror anthology they've entitled "Demons of the New Year: Horror from the Philippines". Guidelines here. Deadline is January 15, 2010 with a target publication at the end of the same month.

Two Filipino authors are included in the latest issue of Expanded Horizons -- Eliza Victoria with her story "I Am the City" and Catherine Batac Walder's "Twin Cities". I've yet to read them but you can check them out in this fine SF webzine. You can even download PDF versions, mind you, if you prefer to read it traditionally. Plus, EH is also now accepting art submission! Check it out.

Rocket Kapre has announced that we only need to sleep five more nights before the launch of its planned quarterly SF webzine, USOK. Paolo Chikiamco promises for USOK's inaugural launch -- five short stories, two quality reprints, three all-new tales -- all for FREE on November 11.

* * *

Anyone going to the Ad Congress later this month?

I won't but a couple of colleagues are and despite the disappointment that it's being moved from Baguio to Subic for all-too-obvious reasons, it looks like it's going to be a great event.

I will most likely be attending next year's event as the Desk where I am now working is quite open to such activities for the development of its workforce. The participation fee is a bit on the expensive side as it costs around P16K per attendee (EXCLUDING hotel, transpo and other expenses which you (or your company) will shoulder) and of course, you will need to bring your own pocket money for those unofficial expenses (the tons of pasalubongs come to mind).

The Direct Marketing Forum organized by DMAP and Salt and Light Ventures seems to have gone unnoticed this year. Have they held it earlier in the year? This is another marketing forum that I would like to attend next year if they hold it again. I've attended the first three that DMAP and SLV did and the learnings from those conferences have helped me in my career as a marketer. I am now a firm believer in direct marketing -- marketing that really works because they elicit a response from the consumer.

I will also look forward to the next Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) events as I am also a practitioner of digital marketing having been an online marketer for the past five years (before my recent incarnation as a brick-and-mortar marketer in the Desk) so I'll be keeping my calendar open for that.

* * *

Speaking of calendars ... I am NOT going to be bitten by Starbucks' Christmas planner promo again. Case in point, the planner I redeemed after consuming P2,000+ worth of Starbucks last year (not helping the D, of course) went to waste neither my wife nor I used it. I already saw SB starting to advertise its Christmas offerings and I'm steering clear of any SB branch for the meantime :)

yehey!!! the darn blog is working at last

After weeks of tweaking and tweaking and further tweaking, my supposed-to-be-income-generating blog (which I will transfer from Wordpress) is now ready. All that's left to do is cosmetics -- meaning the bells and whistles -- and that includes creating some online banners for temporary use to attract potential advertisers.

I also need to generate static content -- I've already created two pages -- About and Events -- but I don't feel satisfied with what I've written so far. So, I'll work on revising the content tomorrow. Plus, I need to up a page that will detail how advertisers can -- advertise, of course :)

Other elements that were in my previous newsblog such as links, a blog visitor counter, Twitter app and web metrics need to be setup as well. However, for the web metrics, I think Google Analytics would be enough.

I will also have to arrange the blog's domain so that although it's hosted on Blogger, it will still have an honest-to-goodness URL. Now, just need to renew the domain before it expires :)

And, of course, I need to start generating content which will hopefully translate into traffic. That means I will be trying to find time to do the actual posts. It will be difficult to sneak that in during the day-job so that means I need to probably put in a couple of hours work before or after office to make this thing work.

And then, I need to give myself time for this venture to bear fruit. I'm not expecting any income real soon but if I were to base it on experience from my previous venture, I was only online for about three months before an inquiry re advertising came through.

And oh, I just finished tweaking the other business blog of mine as well. So, that means I'll need to promote and push two blogs (to two different industries, at that). Good thing the second one won't need a daily looking-after. Just a plug once or twice a week would be ok for that.

I also did some repairs on this personal blog of mine. After Luz pointed out that she wasn't able to post comment yesterday, I switched the comments feature to pop-up rather than the comment-below-post feature. The latter feature is already fixed thanks to an update done by the creator of the Dilectio template I used but will probably stick to the pop-up-comment-box feature for the meantime. I'll also be adding more bells and whistles to this blog including a top navigation which has been absent since I've switched to this template.

Neat stuff, as my former British expat colleagues used to say.

utterly frustrating little project

After three plus days tinkering with the hoping-to-generate-income-blog of mine, I'm still nowhere near completion.

Having problems with templates I planned to use as not one has the complete package. Whereas one would have all the bells and whistles, it lacks the facility to host ads. My latest attempt was to use a clean, white template that had 125 x 125 ads. Unfortunately, there were problems with the posts themselves as they did not show the author or date of the post which are necessary given that this is supposed to be a news-blog in the first place.

Oh well, back to the drawing board. Any ideas on a Blogger XML template I can use?

the switch - blogwise

In terms of personal blogging, 2009 is bound to be the weakest year in terms of number of posts done.

This post you're reading is so far only #29 (when it gets pasted) whereas last year I managed 86 posts and in 2007 I did 45. In 2006, when I first wrote on this blog, I registered 54 posts. While I can blame work for the rather anemic blogging, it certainly isn't just the reason.

2009 kept me busy blogging away on my supposedly income-generating blog (which unfortunately didn't generate any income at all) writing a total of 105 news posts to date. In 2008 when I first started writing that blog - I whipped up 153 news posts and an inquiry on advertising. Sadly, being run on Wordpress.com, it wasn't advertising friendly so the ad deal fell through. It again elicited interest from a potential advertiser but then again, that didn't materialize as well.

So, rather than waste my time on that blog, my options are a) transfer it to Blogger.com (which is more friendlier to advertisements, banners, and the like) or, b) create an actual website for that.

After the walk home yesterday, I've decided on Option A which I think is more cost-effective. Option B can be considered once that blog of mine starts generating income (as the blog is supposed to be doing when I first conceptualized it). Option A is also a more amiable solution given that I already have an existing Blogger blog of the same nature (so it's basically re-activating the Blogger account and redirecting old viewers to the new) and Blogger allows you to use your own domain for your blog (which is great because I also have already bought the same domain sans the ".blogspot") thereby making life easier as I am no web designer and totally idiotic when it comes to coding.

Next steps right now are to find the right design and start writing and generating visitors. The latter is actually the easier of the two next steps. Last night, I've been ogling Blogger template sites and by trial and error trying on templates with the blog. The problem arises in that there doesn't seem to be that many Blogger templates around as compared to Wordpress templates.

Nevertheless, I might be settling on either this, or this, or this (thanks to eblogtemplates and Falcon Hive) largely because I want to adopt a magazine-newspaper style for my blog and the ability to host ads (which is a big consideration why I'm switching from WP to Blogger in the first place).

I hope to launch the new blog site by early next week and then move on to two other online blog sites that I hope will also be causes for financial joy. Until then, I've got to work on the bells and whistles.

surf's up -- a list of sites frequently visited

In the daily course of your internet life, whether you're sneaking personal surfing during office hours or leisurely abusing your unlimited internet connection at home, there are some sure sites you're bound to visit regularly. Obviously, the website lists on the right side of this blog indicates mine but let me go deeper as to why they're there as my top sites to visit. Please note, that this listing is in no particular order, weight or preference although I will state most likely what sites I devotedly visit.

Inquirer.net (www.inquirer.net)
Inquirer.net is the number one Filipino website when it comes to news and it remains to this day that. So, it's only normal that this becomes a daily habit with me. It's much more comprehensive than the print version (thanks largely because the press and photo releases don't get published anymore) but like its mundane form, is cluttered with ads. However, like the printed form, you can choose to ignore the ads (hopefully they're not intrusive like those new rich media types offered nowadays).

Yahoo Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/)
It has become a habit for me to check the latest sports news via Yahoo's sports pages (normally NFL, NBA, boxing (if Manny Pacquiao is fighting), and tennis; and on occasion F1 and horse racing as well) since I first worked for a sports betting company way back in 2005. That was the first time work required me to online for all the ten hours I was at the office and part of the work required that I routinely check what's happening in sports-dom. That habit has stuck until now.

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org)
The true encyclopedia online, I wouldn't be surprised if this website was single-handle reason for why many roving encyclopedia salesmen lost their jobs. While there are still questions and critics regarding Wikipedia's open-to-all writing and editing policies, it has fast become a popular (albeit not always reliable or credible) source of information. I first encountered Wikipedia during my first online marketing work and it since then become an indispensable go-to site for quick information. For me, it's also a great way to pass the time as you learn a lot and you just find yourself browsing topic after topic. You start off looking and reading one topic and then some eons later, you find yourself a zillion topics hence.

Facebook (www.facebook.com)
There's no doubt that Facebook nowadays occupy a big chunk of my internet time. There's just so many things to do on that social networking site that I've virtually abandoned my Friendster account already and devoted whatever online time I have to FB. Chat, email, play games, send virtual gifts, join causes, connect with long-lost friends -- the list of things that can be done on FB is outstanding that in my opinion, it easily outruns MySpace in terms of activity. My fave things to do on FB currently? Farm Town, FarmVille, and Mafia Wars.

Penmanila (www.penmanila.net)
If you simply admire writers and authors who can write eloquent English but who can still be so Filipino then Penmanila might be worth your while (it is for me). Penmanila is the website and blog of Jose "Butch" Dalisay, one of today's more prolific Filipino writers and academician and in it, you can read about things and issues that are close to Sir Butch (yes, he was a professor of mine back in college for one CW subject) including literature, the English language, travel, politics, writing, the academe (and teaching), fiction and his love of fountain pens. Updated weekly so this doesn't qualify (technically) under my daily web surf but it has become so much of a habit that it deserves to be put in here.

Komikero Journal (http://gerry.alanguilan.com/)
Accessible via Komikero.com, this is the blog of comic book writer and artist (and video-blogger and podcaster) Gerry Alanguilan whose credits include Wasted, Timawa, and more recently, Elmer. He is also well-known in the comic-dom for his work with DC and Marvel titles including Superman, Batman, New X-Men and Wolverine. Through his blog, find out how he lives his life as a comic book artist making ends meet, his chronicling of Philippine komiks, and his advocacy of uplifting the local comic book industry. His latest adventure has taken him taking a stance that Carlo J. Caparas is not qualified as a National Artist for Visual Arts (find out more through his blog posts and you'll be enlightened!).

Notes from the Peanuts Gallery (www.deanalfar.blogspot.com)
As a budding writer for the fantastic, it's only natural that I try and find out as much as I can about the local science-fiction and fantasy scene here in the Philippines. Stumbling upon the blog of businessman and writer Dean Francis Alfar instead introduced me to Filipino speculative fiction. Dean is one of the more stalwart advocates of Filipino spec-fic and has championed its cause by winning numerous awards for his spec-fic works. His (and his wife Nikki Alfar's) annual anthology of speculative fiction by Filipino writers is a much-awaited release. Unfortunately, Dean hasn't been active of late with his blogs as his other interests (I think) are demanding more of his time.

Twitter (www.twitter.com)
Do you tweet? I do. So, it's only natural that I visit Twitter daily to tweet. And I've linked my Twitter and FB accounts so that whatever I tweet also gets pasted as my shout-out on FB. They call Twitter micro-blogging and indeed it is. It's a fast way of updating your readers and followers on what you're doing, what's occupying your time, and whatever (mis)adventures you're undertaking. Blog posts like this one takes time so Twitter is a life-saver. And I think we Filipinos will have no probs with using Twitter because it's exactly like texting -- your message in just 160 characters. If you want to follow me, just hit the "Follow Me on Twitter" on the upper right corner of this blog-site.

Bibliophile Stalker (http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/)
Another daily source for anything spec-fic, fantastic or science-fiction(istic), writer Charles Tan's website directs you to lots of links related to subject, and also contains interviews, book and magazine reviews, and his personal thoughts on relevant matters. It's a daily, Monday to Friday, compilation of the latest news, views and issues related to the speculative fiction realm and has been cited by even American author and editor Jeff VanderMeer to be a daily resource of his as well.

Other sites that I frequent although not on a regular (as in day-to-day) basis include:

Jeff VanderMeer's Ecstatic Days
For the entrepreneur-to-be-in-me: Entrepreneur
Adobo Magazine Online -- the local ad industry's magazine
BoardGame Geek - all about playing games unplugged
Gamespot - counterpart of BGG, this one is all about video games
Concept Ships - for fantastic drawings and designs of airplanes, spaceships and just about anything that can fly or has a rocket engine
Mental Floss - for the knowledge junkie in you and me
DC Comics - always been a DC fan so out of nostalgia I chance upon this site every now and then

I also am a regular visitor to online bookstores like Fully Booked, Powerbooks, and National Bookstore as well as international bookstore site Borders (which is incidentally also a fan page of mine on FB). I also frequent PC retail sites especially when I was still agonizing whether to upgrade my busted desktop or buy a laptop (and before I bought my latest rig) like PC Corner, PC Express, and TipidPC to check out prevailing prices. And oh yes, I also frequent CDR-King's website as well.

Ikaw, what sites are your regular haunts?

monday mumblings: new work, new rig, new gadgets, new possible writing submission

My apologies for being away for quite some time and not updating my blog.

This has been the same story for my other blogs, namely The Diabetic Daddy and my income-generating one (supposed to be generating anyway). My marketing and advertising blog, Pinoy Marketer Observer, hasn't received an update for over a year now so I'm not including that one in the list of blogs that need updating.

I have been quite busy lately ... busy adjusting to the new work and the culture shock that came with. It's a welcome culture actually. From the fast and frentic pace at the old work, the new work is a bit relaxed and laid back, harkening back to the earlier days at PJ Lhuillier when I was a pioneer at the company's marketing team.

I'm still in the midst of trying to understand how they do business in the new office. Obviously, being corporately stiff to the bone, there's a lot of paperwork that need to be done to get things done and to get people to move. And I'm still busy learning the system. But I'm getting there.

It can get frustrating at times especially since for the last three years I've been used to getting things done right away. Now, when I send out my request, I just need to sit back a bit and wait and hope that in three days or so, my request will somehow get signed off (first) by the approving body before it gets passed on to the actual fellow who'll be doing the actual work.

In any case, it's been fun so far. Re-learning stuff and re-orienting myself to the structure of the new company is quite a challenge. I really have to exercise my patience here because getting frustrated will only affect me. Like I said, the mantra in the new company is sit back and relax. Chill out a bit.

* * * *

As my Facebook and Twitter friends will have known, I've not been with the company for a month yet and I've already made my first out-of-town business trip. Just a couple of weeks back, I was in Dagupan City in the north to handle some branch marketing stuff. It's great to be travelling again even if it's for work. The last time I travelled was way back in 2005 when I was still with the Lhuillier Group and we attended the 2005 Sinulog in Cebu.

The new work entails a lot of travelling aside from the regular desk work. From the past meetings I've had, probable travel itenararies for the coming weeks include Cabanatuan, Lucena, Antipolo, Pagadian, Tagbilaran, Cebu, and San Fernando. And that's only for this year. With about 15 branches to open this year and several branches to re-locate in the provinces, I'll probably need to ensure my travel bag is always packed.

* * * *

So, what have I been doing so far, you may ask.

Well, my new boss and colleagues still have to figure out how to maximize me and my skills, my experience and my talents given my mixed marketing exposure.

For the meantime, while I still try and gauge how the business is being done in the company, I am tasked with ensuring our website and our intranet portal are updated and upgraded. The website has last seen a major upgrade way back 2005, and the update at least a couple of months back. In fact, a total rehaul is in the offing and I will be commencing work on that one soon as I've just about finished the back-work needed.

The intranet was launched this month, same day as I first reported for work. Since not everyone in the office had internet access (as I'm told, only assistant managers up are plugged to the 'net), the intranet portal is the employee's link to what's happening in the company. And at this early, the proponents of the project would like to see changes and I will be on hand to ensure they happen.

I'll also be engaging myself in the first online marketing foray of the company as it will promote a product online. Not purely online though, but an integrated one. However, the online marketing component will be key so this is my first chance at proving to them I'm worth the salary I'm being paid. Wish me luck.

Aside from that, I'll be busying myself getting involved as much as possible with ongoing projects and projects assigned to us as a team. I'll let my other colleagues take a lead on those as they've been doing them for quite some time now but I'll make sure to be a solid contributor on all fronts.

* * * *

Last week, I've finally bought my new rig.

After months of agonizing whether to upgrade my P4 or buy a laptop, I've decided on the latter and purchased a Compaq Presario CQ40 AMD Turion X2 from the CoolTOYZ branch in Dasma, Makati (the shop is at the Petron station on the corner of EDSA and Pasay Road).

Why buy a laptop and AMD at that when I've been Intel for the last so many years? Basically, the sales pitch, the price, the service at CoolToyz (thanks to Merwin) got into me. Read all about this laptop and its specs here and see if you don't get attracted to purchase one as well.

As can be seen from the photo, the 2.2 kilogram laptop is quite handy. It's not so bulky nor too heavy to lug around. And as I intend to bring it along with me in my travels, the weight and dimensions factors come into play beneficially.

It also features a 75% dedicated graphic card, with the remaining 25% graphics capability working in tandem with the processor. Since AMD and ATi are essentially one and the same company, this laptop features a seamless graphics interface that according to CoolTOYZ's Merwin will enable it to run the latest Crysis videogame (at low-medium GFX quality). So, that means, the Sims 2 will run seamlessly here. I have yet to install Sims 2 but when I tested GTA III (circa 2002) which already called for a powerful graphics, it ran well with no problems. I intend to test this machina with Photoshop and CorelDRAW soon.

I'm sure Zeus: Master of Olympus (circa 1999) will run so smoothly on this rig :)

At around Php 26K, this laptop (given its features, specs and graphics capability) is a bargain. As I intend to use this not only for play but also for my sidelines (designing and writing), if it proves to be as powerful as it is supposed to be, this'll last me for the next three years most.

How about the old P4 rig? As soon as I get my bonus, I'll upgrade that one as well (motherboard, memory and HDDs) and still use it for my personal works.

* * * *

Speaking of gadgets ...

My father recently surrendered to me my sister's PSP. He reasoned that his eyes hurt after he plays it but I'm guessing it's more because he's getting tired of playing Luxor over and over again.

With just a 2GB mem-stick, this PSP unit needs a serious upgrade. Aside from the mem upgrade (how much is an 8GB memory stick PRO duo anyway nowadays?), the firmware needs to be upgraded to be able to play all those ISOs and CSOs that I've managed to download. I guess this calls for a trip one of these days to Edmon the hacker for his PSP services.

In other notes, my sister's old Ipod is now officially dead. She bequethed the Ipod last summer during her last vacation and the old thingy ran well for the next several months. About two months ago, it started acting up -- freezing actually, and when it ran, it garbled the songs. I tried restoring and restarting it (relying on online instructions on how to do those two acts) but failed.

So, about a week ago, I took it down to a repair booth but even there, the technicians (whose skills I seriously doubted) failed to repair it (even with their bravado that they can fix everything). First, they spent 3 hours trying to restore it. Then, I had to return the next day because they reasoned they had to jumpstart it from inside. Then, they reasoned they had to send it to their main repair office since the problem was internal. After allowing them four days to try and salvage the Ipod, they returned it to me and said it could not be fixed.

Ah, well.

* * * *

Now that the work pressure is lessened (and with a new rig available), I hope to get some creative writing done. Calls for submissions are aplenty and one particular interesting opportunity would be to submit a story to our very own Filipino speculative anthology -- Dean and Nikki Alfar's (and co-editing for the upcoming anthology is Vin Simbulan) annual Philippine Speculative Fiction.

Deadline is in October 15 for a February 2010 publication date. Guidelines here.

monday mumblings: biotronic, diabetic daddy, fb apps, moving on

biotronic addict
While my wife, her sister, my daughter's yaya, and my daughter herself, got themselves hooked on Boys Over Flowers this past weekend, I myself got hooked to an addiction -- Biotronic on FaceBook.

While it was a busy weekend with a Saturday trip to the doctor for my wife's monthly check-up and a Sunday worship and me running errands (and walk-xercising to boot), the weekend afternoons meant indulgences -- them with Jan Di and Jun Pyo and a marathon of the series (in subtitles, no less) and I with Biotronic.

The FB game app is by no means original. It's the usual mix-three-explode-mix-four-bigger-explode-fill-the-meter run-of-mill game (much like Bejeweled or Chuzzles) but I guess part of the appeal is that it's fresh (new elements that you need to mix and match -- not jewels or chuckling, furry heads), new twists (mix-four and get a single-color bomb, get 5 or more and get a multi-colored bomb that can eliminate all the same shapes on-screen at the same time) and the fact that you always race against time, all the time. The trick is to always find the best combo -- the fours or fives -- as the three-combo only give you only additional micro-seconds. The bigger the explosion you make (with 4-5 the combos), the longer time you gain. But then again, the longer time you spend at a level, the smaller the score. So, you have to analyze the pattern of elements as soon as they appear and look for the killer-combos right away. Otherwise, your effort will just be a race against the seeming unfair clock.

Part of the addiction I've experienced with Biotronic is that fellow FBer Rastle, the notorious little lady who offices a block away at an online media company, has bested my score last Saturday evening! For approximately four days I've topped the scoreboard then out-of-nowhere, she comes and trumps my 69,470 with 69,940!

Played Biotronic last Saturday from 4pm to 10pm and then again the next day from 3pm to 8pm. Now, my right arm and wrist are sore from all that clicking and mouse manipulation. Talk about addiction :)


other fb addictions
Aside from Biotronic, other addictive game apps I'm currently hooked on include FarmTown, FarmVille and Restaurant City. I still play Pet Society every now and then just to make sure that my pet stays healthy as well continue my other farm over at Barn Buddy but my extra times are spent on the three game apps first mentioned!

Up and coming addiction includes Mafia Wars (yes, I'm a late bloomer) and there's a new farm app called myFarm. Still trying it out but it's not excitingly different from FarmTown or FarmVille so not sure if I'll stick with that game.


new blog up
I've just started a new blog -- The Diabetic Daddy -- a blog chronicling my now-forever battle with the big D. In it, I hope to daily post how I'm managing my diabetes as well as my weight management.

I also plan it as a rough guide to living the diabetic lifestyle which include calorie and sugar-counting on all food intake and reviewing foodstuff considered friendly for diabetics including all those items on the grocery shelves tacked and labeled with "fat-free", "sugar-free", "low-fat", "high-fiber" and "n% less sugar".

It features a newsreel for all matters pertaining to diabetes and I will add more features to it as I find time.

Why create it? To keep reminding myself that this is a battle I need to take seriously as well as to help other like myself who are struggling with the need to change the lifestyle. Information and education are key objectives for that new blog.

There's a likelihood that there'll crossovers between The Coffee House Chronicles and The Diabetic Daddy but I hope you guys also bookmark that one as well.


july is moving on month
This month, July, marks my last month with the company I currently am employed with.

Yes, folks, I'm moving on and in exactly 28 days I'll be rewriting my professional career at a new desk and a new office with a new set of colleagues and it's actually pretty exciting. The decision to move on has been a long time coming but the stars and the planets have finally aligned and they have, through various auguries, informed me that now is the time to move.

While I've made no secret of my intent, I've not broadcasted it widely either (except to a select few) until now.

For sure, the news has already circulated around the office and before you hear rumors that I will be moving to another gaming company let me say that I'm not transferring to a rival gaming company. I'm not even moving to the other online gaming type of company (MMORPG and casual games).

I'm moving to another industry and my FB and Twitter friends will know, come August 3, what industry and what company that will be. I'm going mainstream and my whole family is excited with that prospect.

And why move when I am already in possession of a stable, nurturing and developmental job that promises career development and a chance to scale the corporate ladder, you ask?

There are personal reasons and there are other reasons but primarily, I've got my family's future in mind when I finally made that decision to accept the offer from this other company. This move is actually a step-back in terms of career growth from my point-of-view but it's a necessary sacrifice that I need to make to ensure that years from now, my family will be taken cared of and I will still have a career to make of.

There's still a chance to scale the corporate ladder with the new company and who knows, maybe I can still make CMO one of these days.

So, this month is basically about wrapping up things in the old office and prepping for the new one. Papers accumulated for the past three years are being sorted out, odd jobs and responsibilities being relinquished to colleagues, and come last week of July, I'll be saying my goodbyes and relishing the 43rd floor cityscape view from the relatively new office space I have.

Blog Design Update

Decided to stick with the old Dilectio design but this version should now be able to handle photos and text and text wrapping more properly -- something that the old template overlooked probably.

However, since I've been caught up with work, I haven't really finished with the cosmetic stuff of things ... just laid out all the elements and scripts and codes (the whistles). Other stuff that used to be here like the digital clock and Today in History bit are still missing and will be put there time permitting.

And unfortunately, the same freaking reason has just made it quite impossible to publish a new post. So, until such time that work slackens or I resign for work, updating this blog would be something akin to impossibility.

thursday tidbits: hunt for precious, turin book, w3888, write stuff, free coffee

hobbit appetizer: hunt for gollum
Excitement over the forthcoming "Hobbit" is starting to gain momentum and if you can't contain your excitement, head on over to the Hunt for Gollum website for some appetizer.

The site is a movie site "made by fans for fans" and the idea behind the site is a creation of a movie (for online release only) that will last about 45 minutes. The movie will revolve around that chapter in Tolkien's Middle-Earth between "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" storyline, specifically Aragorn's search for the creature Gollum. Low-budget yet quite interesting, this should be a good enough filler until the Guillermo del Toro-helmed Tolkien flick comes to town next year.

The site has got a full trailer and a couple of teasers online so head on over there.


sleeping with turin turambar
Before taking 40 winks for the past few nights alongside my cute but uberly kulit daughter (her mama has been on graveyard duties the past couple of weeks), I've had a chance to re-do a habit of mine -- reading to sleep. Although the problem is that instead of being lulled to sleep, my mind and imagination is awakened with the book I am reading -- The Children of Hurin.

The book, a hardcover US edition, is a personal gift of my sister, Rochelle, and was part of the balikbayan package she sent last month (along with a couple of cook books for diabetics). For non-Tolkien fanatics, the books is not your Lord of the Rings type -- it's more likened to reading Homer's Iliad or Odyssey (or critics likened it to Finnish folklore legend/hero Sigmund) so it's not that easy a read. Think of it along the lines of our own Filipino legends -- Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura -- but in the case of The Children of Hurin, it's a tragedy (like Oedipus Rex). Unlike Ibong Adarna or Florante at Laura, the book ends in sadness.

The book harkens back to the earlier Ages of Middle-Earth, some 6,000 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, back when Men were just newly-awakened and the Elves were the dominant race. Sauron was just a henchman of the original Lord of Darkness Melkor aka Morgoth.

If you've read The Silmarillion and liked the book, then you'll like The Children of Hurin. If you didn't like it, maybe wait for the movie version because I've heard and read that there are plans of turning it into a movie as well one of these years.


w388
I've switched phones.

But don't get me wrong -- I remain loyal and very much attached to my Nokia 6680 and in all likelihood I will return to using that phone as soon as my "trial" period with this Motorola W388 is over.

Rather than let it rot in the corner of my drawer, I'm temporarily using this Motorola W388 unit which I won from the company Christmas Party last December. And after more than a month in repair (it had an LCD problem), I finally got it back late February and have been using it as my main phone for about two weeks now. Incidentally, my 6680 is the one currently rotting in the aforementioned drawer.

After sporting the gadget for the said period, I am now ready to assess it -- I'm sticking with my ole trusty Nokia but keep this one as a back-up.

The only good mark on the W388 on my personal benchmark is its music -- it is after all, a music phone. Great speakers and an FM radio are the plus marks it gets. But then again, I want more out of my phone than an FM radio. I miss the Bluetooth capability, there's no video or voice recording on this one, no notes, and the camera sucks at a dismal 640x320 pixels and that's already high!

Texting is also another matter because the response time of the phone is slower and erratic. Hitting the key twice to generate the needed letter or punctuation is not guarantee you'll get the correct one. This makes texting on the W388 twice as long.

But this one will serve well as a back-up and can be used as an entertainment device when doing my "walk"-xercise. Who needs an MP3 player or an iPod when I have this on hand? And anyway, it's quite norm nowadays to carry at least two phones (to compliment your netbook, iPod, PDA, and nifty lazer gun).


writing venues
Thanks to Bibliophile Stalker and Philippine Genre Stories, new writing venues have been discovered:

Crossed Genres - now accepting Western-themed SF; but with a March 31st deadline it looks like I'm going to miss this one especially since I've learned about it only today. If you think you can beat the deadline, read the guidelines here.

Here's one with a longer deadline:

Catastrophia, a planned anthology - open call for submissions (started September 9th last year) for catastrophe and disaster short stories. Think War of the Worlds, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, Jericho (TV Series), and now condense them into at most 8,000 words. Deadline is on May 31. Rules can be found here.

Plus, be reminded of other calls for submissions -- Farthest Shore on April 15 (to get some out-of-this-world spec fic done during the Holy Week alongside religious obligations, of course), and Destination: Future on June 30 for SF writers out there.


free starbucks
Ever had a free Starbucks beverage before?

I had one last December and another due soon just as soon as I step inside a Starbucks outlet.

And all it takes is just a series of clicks, and, oh yes, internet connection.

Starbucks it seems is still doing a global customer satisfaction survey and if you’re a lucky SB addict, the receipt you get from your latest purchase of a frap or hot coffee might be one that asks you to take their online survey over at www.MyStarbucksVisit-ph.com. If you complete the survey, you get a Beverage ID and you use this ID (along with the complete receipt, of course) to claim a free drink!

Here’s a screenshot I took of the complimentary beverage ID I received just about after I completed the survey. Just so nobody claims my free SB, I blotted out the actual ID number :P.