Belated happy birthday, my friend, and I hope to sit down with you for some sugar-free coffee when you do come home for a vacation.
As for maintaining my blog (as it seems to be a source of tsismis for you :P), I'll try and keep you entertained by posting frequently especially when work (and FB games) don't get in the way of the upkeep.
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I just realized that it has been 2 months since my last post. What have I been doing the past 8 weeks that have kept me from blogging?
Well, family stuff mostly demanded my time last month as my sister, Wheng, flew in from Dubai, UAE for her annual vacation and our weekends were spent mostly at our home in San Pedro, Laguna. Being a school month, my sister only got to spend time with her pamangkins on the weekend. So, as soon as school and office were done on Fridays, we got on board the "big red car" (that's what Ikai calls our ride) and sped off to Laguna for the weekend.
And oh, yeah, we went to Hong Kong last month. My parents, Wheng, Elvie and our little ones spent four days and three nights in HK thanks to the discounted airfare we bought way back in April. So, even though things were rather tight on the financial side of things, we pushed through with the trip and enjoyed it actually -- enough to warrant us (me and wifey) to yearn for more as the trip was bitin.
The highlight of the trip was supposed to be Disneyland Hong Kong but it turned out that our visits to The Peak (via the Peak Tram, of course!) and to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum were more enjoyable than the chaos we encountered in Disneyland HK. Even Ikai didn't enjoy the Disney trip as she was made to wait in line for at least 45 minutes before getting to board the 3-minute ride. In 6 hours spent at the amusement park, she only managed to ride 5 rides.
I was amazed with the efficiency of their train system -- their MTR. Using the MTR was a bit intimidating, at first, but you quickly learn to navigate your way around. Every sign was bilingual so you won't really get lost unless you can't read or dyslexic. For a big part of the three days, our mode of transport in HK was mainly the MTR and on every trip, you'll get to appreciate the efficiency of the system. I could only hope that the same thing can be achieved with our own MRT-LRT-PNR rail system.
I did a lot walking while in HK especially during the nights when the weather was cooler (August is summer in HK -- summer with much rain!). When everyone else was tired and was off to bed early, I strolled the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon -- not shopping or eating but just taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of one of the world's most vibrant cities.
I could ramble on and on about our trip but let's leave that for another day. For pictures, my sister Wheng has posted two galleries on her Facebook account (here) so no point in duplicating them here in CFC.
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And while in HK, we celebrated Baby Issa's 8th month!
We didn't go out as everyone was tired and just stayed at the hostel for a Yoshinoya feast. To top it off, we bought a "mango" cake from a popular HK bakeshop.
The photo on the right shows my sister, Wheng, holding Baby Issa along with Ikai who can't wait for the dinner to commence.
Issa is now 9 months old.
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My trusty Nokia 6680 opted for suicide and promptly died on me yesterday. I know I can still get that repaired somehow and a new battery will extend its life some more but as that is unexpected expenditure that I cannot expedite for now, I'm going low-tech with a Nokia 3100 circa 2003.
This 3100 was all-jazzy and hi-tech with its colored screen some seven years ago but in today's standards -- it's simply prehistoric. The 3100 I'm using however is quite well-traveled. This one was the same 3100 my sister, Rochelle, asked me to buy for her in 2003 (under my name as she had no permanent work that time and thus would have slim chances of getting a postpaid line). After the lock-in period lapsed, she had it "unlocked" so that she could use another network's prepaid sim. Then in 2004, it went to the US when my sister went there where it was in use mainly as a roaming phone until my sis settled for a local carrier that had her use Motorola. This 3100 went back to the P.I. last year via padalas and was used by my father as a Globe phone (for playing a text game on Eat Bulaga, of all things) until he realized he was wasting his cellphone load on a game whereby his chances of winning were close to nil. It has then stayed "in the cupboard" until I resurrected it yesterday.
For now, this'll be my main phone until I get the 6680 fixed. My wife has been teasing me to get a new phone and maybe I will. The new Samsung Champ looks attractive enough -- price-wise and feature-wise :)
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My laptop also underwent repairs last month.
A couple of months before the warranty expired, my Compaq CQ40 started exhibiting "flickering" symptoms. I would later find out through online research that the LCD "flickering" problem was a popular one for such units and the best solution would be to have the entire LCD replaced.
I've also read up on problems encountered by Pinoys who have availed of the service at the HP Service Center and when I finally found the time to drop by and get the rig repaired, I was ready for an all-out war (online horror stories about repairs for the CQ40 reported a month-long stay of your unit at the service center among other things). In my case, I was actually surprised that it took no more than a week to get my LCD replaced (it being a hardware problem) and getting the laptop back was a delay on my part as I wasn't able to go to the service center due to conflicting schedules.
It's been one month since I placed the rig under repair and so far it has shown any recurrence of the flickering issue. Kudos to HP Service Center! One satisfied customer here!
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The desk has blocked access to all forms of social networking -- FB, Twitter, Foursquare -- and even access to blogging has been blocked. That alone has hampered my ability to be more frequent in my posting.
When I come home after work, of course, one has to spend time with family. After 8 or so hours away, who would not want to be loved ones, right? And I've made it a point to spend time with Ikai and help her with her assignments (especially with Elvie doing the shifting schedule once in a while). And while Ikai is makulit and I find myself sometimes raising my voice to curb her naughtiness and focus on studying and finishing her homework, I do enjoy my time with my daughter as we tackle her schoolwork.
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Remember me blogging about the need to cough up a bookcase so that my books won't be cluttering the apartment?
Well, the bookcase has been bought and now is part of our bedroom's furniture. It stands right next to the TV stand and is need, one of these days, of a serious re-arrangement as books, magazines and other bits and ends like photo albums, school supplies, tin can (containing mementos), coloring books (Ikai's), etc. have been placed haphazardly.
This bookcase was a 4-level D-I-Y from Shopwise which I assembled in under an hour. To prevent it from warping (especially the first three shelves from the bottom), you had to make sure the bottom portions were filled to the brim with books. You had wedge books so that the shelves maintained their levels. The heaviest and widest stuff were at the bottom -- large books, magazines (my Entrepreneur, FHM, Heavy Metal, and Dragon issues). The next level contained special edition sized or UK-sized or special soft-cover books. These books were joined by several stacks of conventionally-sized pocketbooks. The third level was for pocketbooks. The last level had photo albums, my comics and graphic novels, Ikai's books, and a few more odds and ends.
As expected, the bookcase couldn't contain all my books. There are probably about a dozen or so books still scattered all over the apartment (and a couple more stacks left at Laguna) so another bookcase is needed but that will have to wait until we get a bigger abode.
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Speaking of abode ... we will be moving again next year as soon as school is out.
The new owner of the apartment row where we currently reside has decided to increase the rent by more than 20% and we just feel the new rental amount isn't practical. For the increased rental amount you can get a bigger space somewhere and that's what we intend to find out.
We've already given notice and by early next year we would have to start looking around. We're hoping to be able to find a reasonably-priced place still within Makati as this is the most practical for us. My wife and I are both working in Makati while Ikai and her cousin, Mark (who is living with us), both have their schools here. While we're planning to move Ikai to a bigger school next year, our target school is still located within Makati.
Any suggestions? Preferably somewhere in the vicinity of Guadalupe Viejo-Poblacion-Olympia and where it doesn't flood. Around the same time last year, the apartment was inundated. Good thing we had a second floor.
The apartment or house for rent has to be a couple of stories with at least 2 bedrooms (three would be much better) and public transport is accessible. We're looking for one that has its own garage and its own electric and water meters.
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Oh, I've been sketching again ... a lot ... mostly on scratch papers when I'm thinking or talking to someone on the phone in the office. That's the only time I get to doodle hence a lot of my drawings are mostly half-baked stuff on the margins of documents, or, like I said, the back of scratch papers.
Will post them one of these days. Need to get photos of them first.
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One of my website domains is expiring soon and I don't have enough moolah yet to renew it! Aaarghhh!!! I'll need to tighten the spending a bit as I really need to renew the domain and not let it go to waste.
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Got lots of cartoons to watch! I've managed to secure copies of several DC Animated Universe direct-to-video films such as Green Lantern: First Flight, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Batman: Gotham Knight, and Superman/Batman:Apocalypse.
Now, I just need time to enjoy, savor and cherish these. Hay!
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That should be enough for now, folks. I'll try to post more frequently, promise :)
WEDNESDAY: On Day 3, I tried sketching women. Cameron Stewart is great with women and so are the sketches of David Reddick. I drew several women but this character, "Cyguar" was the best I could come up with. Drawing women, even then, is quite a task for me. But I've realized they're fun to draw so practice, practice, practice.
THURSDAY: Another superhero character I've created in youth was the subject of Day 4's S.A.D., of course, cartooned. I introduce H.A.U.M. -- He's An Ultimate Man. Cheesy name for a supe, I know, but hey, I was something like seven when I first conceptualized him. In my older years I've renamed him Ultiman or Ultimate Man or Ultimate (pending possible legal sanctions by other creators) but for the webcomic, I'm taking him back to his roots.
FRIDAY: Super-villains abounded on Day 5's S.A.D. In this collage of sketches are supervillains I've dreamed up with and used in previous home-made comics I've done. Included here are The Demolisher, a galactic tyrant with a penchant for invading planets; Silver Sable, a maniacal schemer; Domino, an android with the ability to duplicate itself based on domino numbers that come up when he presses the domino insignia on his chest; and Gasser, a gas-releasing chem-villain type. 
