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12 November 2009 @ 08:00 pm
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12 November 2009 @ 06:46 pm
the inspiration for my undergraduate thesis was repeated readings of edward said's power, politics, and culture, a book which i bought for i think less than a hundred pesos at bound, and because i heard my philippine institutions (aka rizal) professor mention once that this edward said guy wrote about asians or something.

the book is a collection of interviews; it led me to orientalism and culture and imperialism. i began using the word postcolonialism like i knew shit about it.

said's influences include jacques derrida and michel foucault. i read parts of the will to knowledge in some class; it was required reading. then this one holy week i was bored and there were no more dvds left to watch, so i read the entire thing.

halfway through the use of pleasure, i stopped, and turned to marcuse. i needed an excuse to despise work, marcuse provided it.

i still read derrida, and his translator, gayatri spivak. sometimes i youtube this spivak lecture called the subaltern and the popular. maybe it had a different title, but that was what she was talking about.

one day, i once told myself, i'd be derrida, i'd start this new movement which would shatter human knowledge and blow my readers' minds away. i'd be heidegger and invent continental philosophy, but not continental philosophy because he already did that.

the painful truth is this: last night, i realized, i babytalk.
 
 
Current Location: hmm
Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: the bug's skeng
 
 
12 November 2009 @ 11:42 am
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I love the world of Marcel Wanders, the Dutch industrial designer who's been rocking the design world for a while. A true visionary. Everytime I read something about his work or go into his website, I get lost in it and just soak up whatever I can learn. And IMHO he's so much better than Philippe Starck. Sexier pa. You probably know him for his horse lamp for Moooi. He's done so much for different companies including Bisazza. I wanted his design in my bathroom but figured, the space is so small, I was better of with something more classic. Plus, we couldn't afford him. Hahaha.


My Bisazza bathroom
My not-Marcel Wanders Bisazza bathroom (it looks greenish in photos, but its not. it's more irridescent)


So how pleased was I to find out that Marcel Wanders is doing a line for Target? More like, excited. I posted a quick shout-out in my Facebook and begged any of my US-based friends to check out some products for me. (Note, I've never been to Target. There's no Target in Canada. And whenever we're in New York, no one wants to hit Target).

The ones I really want are of the breakable kind. So I didn't bother any of them to look into the vases, plates, jars...because who will hand-carry them for me? Yikes. But anyway, here are my picks:

Marcel Wanders for Target
Porcelain vase, 29.99 Target


Marcel Wanders for Target
Ornament or place card holders, Target


And my most favourite item in the catalog... his Teddy Bear:

Marcel Wanders for Target
Teddy bear, Target


I'm so happy, my Fairy Godfriend Heidi found me some Marcel Wanders bears. Yippee.






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12 November 2009 @ 12:47 pm
Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 16,879 words. Given today's the 12th, I'm supposed to be at 20,000 words. Despite the more than 3,000 word gap, I'm not feeling all that pressured or daunted. I'm just letting the writing come as it will and trusting that as long as I don't give up and I keep at it, I'll catch up eventually. Of course this also means that I won't post a new Geeky Guide entry today. Or will I?

*launches Blogger*

ANYWAY, time to briefly yet vaguely talk about work. I had two applicants for the open trainer posts we have. The first one was pretty enthusiastic but not quite polished. He had a few grammar slips here and there, but he clearly liked the profession and I bet through sheer effort, he'll get decently far. I'm keeping him on the active file while I work through this batch of applicants - then I should have a better idea of where he stands. The second applicant was a decent facilitator but what really made him stand out was how well he spoke and how he seemed to be a decently intelligent guy. When I say the guy spoke well, I'm not talking call center English here. I mean he really spoke better than the average Filipino and that can only really come from a good English-speaking household or something along those lines. I really liked the guy but his skill set is quite what I need just now, so I he's also been relegated to the active file as I continue to screen this week.

Then there were a bunch of other incidents throughout the day that made things interesting, kept me busy and largely prevented me from working on my novel some more. Boo busy days. I went hope later than I had planned, but that just comes with the territory, so I guess it's okay.

What's more interesting to discuss was this morning's cooking attempt - chop suey! I had never made the dish before and so it was an adventure in its own right. Tobie and I had gone nuts on the veggies last Tuesday during the grocery run (fresh produce 10% off!) and I finally tried to put everything together this morning before waking him up. As I started to follow a Filipino version of he recipe I had found online, I started to realize that I may have made a few errors here and there as I tried to indulge in terms of what I wanted to add. The key lessons were:
  1. I probably should have cooked the giblets more...
  2. Heck, I should have used less giblets.
  3. I also should have fried the tofu longer...
  4. ...and I should have followed the Chinese style of cooking tofu and not the Filipino style.
  5. I forgot to add in the asparagus and the carrots...
  6. ...which was probably a good thing since I had used a bit too much of all the other ingredients.

Despite all those regrets and little considerations in my head, it turned out decently enough and was still edible. It still tasted like the Filipino version of chop suey, which meant it was a bit soupy and not really stir fry. I'll probably invest time in researching the Chinese recipe more and see how that goes.

And we should probably get a wok - the pot worked decently enough, but it still wasn't the same.

Ah, the joys of kitchen chemistry experiments!



Basic Instructions: November 11, 2009
Geek level up for a reference to "The Prisoner"!!!
 
 
Current Location: Sietch Creare
Current Mood: good
Current Music: The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go
 
 
12 November 2009 @ 12:03 pm


Beat that, Starbucks and all overpriced coffee.
Tags:
 
 
Current Mood: working
Current Music: bring it back - Kris Allen
 
 
On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.
 
 
11 November 2009 @ 08:50 pm
new episode this week! can't wait!
 
 
Current Location: home
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Defying Gravity"
 
 
11 November 2009 @ 08:00 pm
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11 November 2009 @ 02:17 pm
Mom found the rubber stopper to my lappy. It came off my lappy and has been missing for more than a month. I don't bother to look for it anymore because I was sure that it was on its way to the dumpsite. It was surprising and amazing when Mom handed me the stopper this morning.

Mom: I've swept the floor a lot of times already!
Me: Don't go looking for it, because sooner or later it'll come running back to you!
Mom: So, ano yon, parang boyfriend?

(pause)

(snorts)

Oh, Ma. =))
 
 
Current Mood: productive
 
 
First up, a very Happy Birthday to dear friend of mine who goes all the way back to elementary school! A very Happy Birthday to you, David! Keep up the good fight and good luck in all of your endeavors!

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 16,233 words. I know I keep saying that it's a long way from my goal and the whole thing still needs work, but I have to admit there's still a significant sense of satisfaction one gets from achieving one goal or another, even the small personal ones. In truth, I need over 2,000 words before I can even just catch up to where I need to be in terms of my daily goal, but the true achievement is me finishing the second chapter of the story with a certain level of satisfaction. I know I'm not very good with the whole bulk writing as fast as one can and I still take some time to think about things and edit to some degree, but at least I'm still pushing forward! And it's a total wow for me - over 16,000 words is nothing to sneeze at, and we're not even at the half way point for the month!

Go, go, go NaNoWriMo!!! LOL

I'm trying to think of a slightly new direction for the Geeky Guide. While it's good that I've pretty much figured out my posting schedules and I'm able to continually read or watch things of geeky interest in order to generate content for the site, but beyond the reviews, there's not much else to it. I'm hoping to flesh out the Geeky Guide with feature articles and not just rebroadcasting news or something. I'm not quite sure to start so today I ended up posting a boring yet informative differentiation between Google AdWords, AdSense and Analytics. It's nothing new for people who know about Google or actually use these features / tools, but it's a decent start.

Overall, I'm still trying to think of other forms of content that I can come up with to keep things interesting. Plus the readers are simply out there for the taking and so I need to figure out how best to position the Geeky Guide in order to get a slice of the market just for me. It's a lofty goal, one that I don't necessarily have a time for this month because of NaNoWriMo on-going and eating up most of my creative time and energies. But it doesn't mean I can't think about it and try to conceptualize new article styles.

If any of you dear friends and other such readers have an idea, feel free to suggest possible alternatives!

In the meantime, I think I may need to lie down in order to wake up early enough later to prepare dinner AND get some writing done. Addict much? LOL



Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: November 10, 2009
Damn, dirty evolutionists! ROFL
 
 
Current Location: Sietch Creare
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips
 
 
11 November 2009 @ 09:02 am
I downloaded a demo version of Torchlight from Steam two nights ago and was able to play it for around two hours last night.

So, yes, it is a Diablo II-lite action-RPG loot-intensive game with World of Warcraft ambiance, which is not surprising given that the creators were originally from Blizzard. And just as everyone has been saying regarding this game, it scratched the loot-whore itch I thought I didn't have.

Coming from Diablo II as my definitive single-player loot-whore game, Torchlight has added a lot of features which has made the baseline gameplay much more palatable. Bags getting full? Send your pet back to town to sell them for you. Tired of picking up every single coin from corpses? Just walk over them. Useless magical loot? Turn them into the more valuable gems.

If this is an indication of what Diablo 3 would be like when it comes out (in 2015!) then I'm sold already.

Of course I have some minor gripes. Targeting enemies is a bit clunky; my character sometimes just walks to where I clicked my mouse instead of attacking my designated target. Potion hotkeys don't respond at times. I'm not sure if there is a cooldown of sorts, but if there was, no visual indication was apparent. Getting loot is also frustrating when you can't get an item at times just by one click. I'm not sure if the fault is with the game itself, though, or with my pathetic laptop.

Unfortunately, my pathetic laptop slows the game down to unplayable levels after some minutes of play. Thankfully, this has kept me from purchasing the game outright last night despite its cheap $20 price tag. I will try the netbook mode later and see if it makes things more bearable for me.
 
 
Current Mood: sick
 
 
10 November 2009 @ 09:35 pm
Gasp  
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It's mid week and I'm drowning. Literally. I can't breathe.


  • It could have something to do with my new exercise routine. It's a lot of retraining of the body - to zip up your gut, squeeze your butt, drop your shoulders and pull your neck up. I haven't seen any results yet but I am feeling different. I feel like I walk taller and stand straighter. Or maybe I just tell myself that because the one-on-one sessions are so bloody expensive. And I just signed up for another 16 sessions. I better be able to do a bikini photo shoot after this. Joke.
  • Last week my instructor told me, "Next time, no more loose T-shirts." I went into these lessons with an open mind, ready for a new change. But because I wasn't sure I could commit - schedule-wise and will-wise - I didn't buy new exercise clothing. So I went in with ratty old T-shirts and track pants. This week, I'm in exercise gear and I feel naked. Ugh. I can hear my instructor going, "all the better to see your flabby gut. Now, work it!!"
  • Tomorrow, I give a long talk to around 50 corporate women. About my little "success story." I promised some visuals. It's almost 10pm and I haven't got a clue what to put on the presentation. I don't even know what to say. What can I say that could encourage empowerment? And I have stage fright. LOL
  • This afternoon my husband told me that the door of our new van broke. I didn't know that was possible. He showed me. There was a cracking sound (something that sounded like it was being dragged) every time he slid the door open. He did it about five times, then the cracking stopped completely. I don't really care about cars at all. But it makes me cringe when something new breaks for unknown reasons. I said, "Whatever, I'm sure the car company can fix it. It's still under warranty." Tonight a lightbulb went 'ting.'  I told him, "I don't think the door is broken or misaligned. I think something was stuck in the door and you forced it open. And I think it was the remote control of the friggin dvd." Now what?
  • There's a gas problem in the Philippines? Gas stations are closing shop temporarily? Should we panic?
  • It's Lily's turn to be a flower girl this weekend. My cousin's wedding. I'm more nervous than she is. I get all teary eyed during milestones like these. My baby's growing up so fast.
  • I'm taking bold steps to move certain projects. I had no idea these baby steps could cost so much. Time to beg for investors?
  • Are there only 44 days left before Christmas?

Now, I've got to start working on that presentation.





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10 November 2009 @ 08:50 pm
too many meetings, too many early mornings--is it really only tuesday?

i've gotten caught up in updating my horror stories blog lately. on one hand, it's my respite from work. where i get to access the one part of my brain that i really do not get to use at work. and on the other hand, i just really want a place online where i can read horror stories based in the philippines.

yes, i read my own work. i am a little vain, i never denied that.

i have work this weekend. and that's pretty much all i have definite for this week. unlike next week wherein i know all the days i have to go to work. and when i can sneak in some alone time, some family time--and maybe some friends time.
 
 
Current Location: home
Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: "Proud Mary"
 
 
10 November 2009 @ 08:00 pm
  • 20:59 Hello. Good night. (sleeping) plurk.com/p/2kfvuh #
  • 08:02 Good morning, Friday! Whut, it's not Friday yet? Demmit! plurk.com/p/2km7kp #
  • 08:37 Photo: derangedwriter: Auto-reblog because it’s Coca-FUCKING-Cola. I have these miniatures hidden on a... tumblr.com/xcm3y198s #
  • 08:39 Photo: lordartworks: Totally LOL-ing, my friend has a Douchebag Neck shirt. It’s a hipster thing =)) LOL, I... tumblr.com/xcm3y1b3u #
  • 08:40 Reblog with the name of your iPod - lordartworks: pansy MAAURRRCEEEEEEEEEE LEROOOYYY PodPod Catt’s Vagina... tumblr.com/xcm3y1bq7 #
  • 08:42 Vote Efren Penaflorida as CNN Hero of 2009! cnn.com/heroes #
  • 08:43 Flying high literally. And figuratively. tumblr.com/xcm3y1dvo #
  • 08:49 Photo: derangedwriter: Yes, please do. tumblr.com/xcm3y1hu4 #
  • 08:51 Photo: junkyardkid: And I like both. But not enough to spend monies to buy. But if anyone will give me a bag... tumblr.com/xcm3y1iua #
  • 08:54 Photo: noisyman: Kaya siguro naospital yung apo nyan. tumblr.com/xcm3y1lhp #
  • 10:11 @thenomad Use a condom! =P #
  • 10:13 Photo: (via thebadmonkey) Someone’s having loads of free time. tumblr.com/xcm3y375s #
  • 11:23 Photo: marklim: Those are marks left by a kid using a marker. tumblr.com/xcm3y4ob5 #
  • 11:54 “before you go out there and meet other people, pay some more attention to urself” Pag sinabihan ka ng... tumblr.com/xcm3y59up #
  • 11:56 Photo: interrobangag: Hmmm….. good idea for a Web site…… tumblr.com/xcm3y5b4n #
  • 12:14 So what is this Google Wave? I do not understand. - (via junkyardkid) It’s email, IM, collaboration, and... tumblr.com/xcm3y5mzp #
  • 12:21 So what is this Google Wave? I do not understand. - junkyardkid: So, it’s like a better Gmail? Well, no email... tumblr.com/xcm3y5rq7 #
  • 12:33 So what is this Google Wave? I do not understand. - junkyardkid: So, it’s like a better Gmail? Well, no email... tumblr.com/xcm3y5zsd #
  • 13:16 @torresclaren Malakas ka raw mag Tumblr. #
  • 13:20 @torresclaren Sa kin nga 2xx na tapos POOF 75 na lang. #
  • 14:05 SARCASM WITH CLASS - “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play. Bring a friend, if you... tumblr.com/xcm3y7m9z #
  • 14:11 A fool-proof way to fix the Philippines' basic services. - I said it casually to my husband in the car a few... tumblr.com/xcm3y7pxe #
  • 14:16 Photo: noisyman: There’s a toilet nearby, just in case. Too bad there’s no pay toilet at SM Megamall. tumblr.com/xcm3y7tf3 #
  • 14:38 (headspin) back to the do-nothing days. plurk.com/p/2kqopr #
  • 14:43 Take me out on a date? #
  • 15:04 Link: Ask me a question! - Hah, riding the bandwagon eh? Anyway, this is your chance to ask me a question!... tumblr.com/xcm3y8kgc #
  • 15:24 Photo: noisyman: *slow clap* tumblr.com/xcm3y8v78 #
  • 15:33 Photo: (via noisyman) Why geeks don’t have a lovelife. tumblr.com/xcm3y8zta #
  • 16:25 (wave) plurk.com/p/2krvm0 #
  • 19:08 Photo: (via noisyman) Picard to Pedobear: Make it so. tumblr.com/xcm3ybio4 #
  • 19:08 At the rate things are going, I should learn how to ride a bike. plurk.com/p/2ku48l #
  • 19:22 Hay, I have to save to replace the LCD of this laptop. So many dead pixels! plurk.com/p/2kubtb #
  • 19:23 Photo: interrobangag: Looks like you’d go to hell when you eat one. tumblr.com/xcm3ybpil #
  • 19:25 Photo: interrobangag: Looks like you’d go to hell when you eat one. Heaven and hell both, actually. Hehe... tumblr.com/xcm3ybqjm #
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10 November 2009 @ 02:45 pm
Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 14,001 words exactly! I'm still about 2,600 words short of my daily target, but I'm still overwhelmed with how much I've accomplished thus far. I just need to tie up this chapter so I can move on to the next story segment. As always, the morbidly curious can check out my work-in-progress at The Gossamer Tower.

It's fun when work throws an interesting problem your way - the kind that really makes you think about how to solve it for practically the rest of your work shift. Last night was one of those days and I still find myself thinking about it. Call centers and other BPO companies are all about mass production - we aim to train agents to do the same job with relatively the same level of skill. If they fail to attain this, we try to coach and train them some more until there's no chances for improvement left. Then we let them go and hope they find a job that better suits their abilities. This particular challenge requires me to figure out a way to totally upgrade a particular group of agents to be totally different than how they started in terms of a job redefinition that we still need to come up with. When you decide to raise the bar, the trick is trying to define just what constitutes that higher level and what are the behaviors that will act as indicators that the desired change has happened. All that while still remaining profitable and working within what limited guidelines the client has provided.

Gods, I love working with really, really intelligent people. Even when they don't quite know how to express what they want.

Anyway, the training professional in me is joining forces with my tinker side and my problem solving side and my trying-to-think-outside-the-box-without-really-leaving-it side. The result is a LOT of interesting ideas and potential paths to take and I'll just have to figure out what to do in time.

Tobie and I did our weekly grocery run today and were shocked at how expensive shrimp is. I guess that just really goes to show what makes it such a special treat. We wanted to try something different this week and the dish that we have in mind is chop suey, or some other variation of stir fried vegetables. We bought a bunch of ingredients for it (thank you 10% off fresh produce Tuesdays!) and hopefully we'll get to run the experiment tonight or some other day this week. I also made sure to have ingredients of sinigang na bangus and of course the pork chops that have become our stable back-up food. Yay for food!

I've kinda forced Tobie to go through the Community episodes rather quickly. I say forced not because he doesn't like the show or anything, but more because he's still a bit shocked at the rate we're watching them. I tend to like finishing things in one go, especially when they come in 22 minute bite-sized chunks whereas he likes to take things a bit slower, giving time to savor whatever it is we're enjoying. Well, almost everything - ice cream melts and floats tend to bubble over, after all. We only started watching the show last Sunday and despite rationing, we're already finished with the 5th episode. Whee! Joel McHale is fun!



Pearls Before Swine: November 9, 2009
Don't underestimate cows!
 
 
Current Location: Sietch Creare
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: (500) Days of Summer - Us
 
 
10 November 2009 @ 11:24 am
It's Written All Over My Face; Looks like Kris' Album will be on loop for a Lifetime. Yes, it's Alright with Me! I Can't Stay Away from it. I Need to Know, Is It Over? Don't be Heartless, Bring It Back and sing with your Red Guitar!

Lovin' the album! Yeah, yeah, yeah! L-O-V-E!
Tags: ,
 
 
Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: alright with me - kris allen
 
 
10 November 2009 @ 04:18 am
-






Ayos 'tong album na to:

http://kenpun.multiply.com/photos/album/325/BOYSTOWN_PR_PHOTOS#photo=1


Sa sobrang close to perfect ng proportions ng face ni Salt of the Earth, the subtle imperfections sa proportions ng faces of the other boys become more noticeable after mo makita ang photo nya.







Next to R0bi, I think si Din0 imperia| ang susunod na may ok facial proportions. Pero malayo na ang pagitan nila.

:)




-
 
 
 
10 November 2009 @ 01:30 am


thanks to this ticker tape news in yahoo, i have discovered and have become obsessed with yemen. it started with this unusual photo of weird trees that i got fascinated with. trees that looked like drawings from a cartoon, or trees told in fantasy literature.

these trees can be found in socotra, an island off yemen. i mean, look at them, it's so beautiful and weird.



the place is so rich in biodiversity that a number of species of plants and animals can only be found in this island -- which would probably feel like you're in some other world!

so after socotra, i couldn't stop but google more parts of yemen. and omg. it's so beautiful! i mean, i think jordan or egypt would be equally, or if not, more rich and beautiful, but yemen being a not so popular destination excites me more!

there are more beautiful cities such as Sana'a



which has become a UNESCO world heritage site.



and then there's the walled city of shibam-hadramaut.



and there's zabid:



plus tons and tons of architecture, cities and places that's yet to be discovered. i mean, look at these structures:





aren't they amazing?

it's just sad that when you wikipedia yemen, a big warning sign pops up, discouraging tourists to visit, thanks to the terrorist stuff happening. its so sad. i mean, i know my myanmar plan is some kind of a death wish, but yemen would probably take it a notch higher!

i wonder when i could visit this beautiful place? i mean, i don't mind lonely planet sending me there. :P





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Current Location: balay
Current Mood: hopeful
 
 
09 November 2009 @ 08:00 pm
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