From the monthly archives: July 2007
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. And all I could say is Wow. Okay, and what a book. It left me breathless but satisfied at the end. Very worth my Php 1,450 (less 10% because of the promo). Proper post in the next few days as I collect my thoughts, plus so I won’t spoil it for the other people who are still reading it. :)
Now I’m reading The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. And I’m liking it so far. And I still have about 7 books from Doulos and the Book Season last year that I haven’t even cracked open. Good luck to my reading. :P
My computer is empty. It’s hitting me, finally. I know I can rebuild my music collection, much thanks to my friends, and I guess I will rewrite Fall Like Rain if I can’t find a backup copy of it somewhere. I do want to make some changes to that…
Anyway, move on, Tina.
Yes, that’s Harry Potter language. I’m not yet done reading, so DON’T spoil me please.
An update on what happened to Ginger’s HDD — all my files are gone, gone, gone. Hay. Well, searching my old CDs, I do have some kind of backup for my layouts and my writings but it’s last May 2006. So anything in between that and now is gone. Except for those I managed to store and email online (thank you gMail for having so much space) and for Triskal for having my videos and my songs. And Multiply for keeping some of my pictures.
I’ve been trying to make some kind of inventory of the files I have that are either retrievable somewhere, someway and those that are not…and here’s what I came up with so far:
- MP3s – that’s 12GB worth of music. Maaaan. But thank goodness, they’re pretty much replaceable since 7GB of it is in Triskal. Maybe now I can choose which mp3s to store, instead of having a hard time what to delete.
- Photos – No new pics in between the year that I did not upload in Multiply, except maybe for the graduation photos, which are so few. Hmm.
- Videos – now thank God I have these in Triskal…but I did lose my copy of Thr3e and Meet the Robinsons. Plus Joan of Arcadia Season 2 Part 1. Ohwell. Back to torrents.
- Layouts – All the layouts I’ve done for the past year are gone. That’s really, really bad. :( I don’t have a backup copy online too since I deleted them already. That’s just sad. Oh well. I guess I can still reconstruct them when I want to make them again. And make it better this time.
- Old Blog Entries – This is also quite sad. I have about two years’ worth of blog entries stored in Ginger’s MySQL database, which I already deleted online. Goodbye. :,(
- Writings – I’m trying to recall which of the things that I wrote for the past year that were saved online through gMail or whatnot…thankfully, I think I have a full copy of A Page is Turned in my gMail, but I’m not so sure about Fall Like Rain. I might have to start that from scratch (hay), but then I do want to make some changes there, so I guess this is where I should start.
- Chats – Oh well, not such a big loss. I guess.
- Resume – in gMail, retrievable.
- Audiobooks – Oh well. :( Retrievable somewhere, I guess.
That’s all I could think of for now. Jomar put it nicely: refreshingly shocking. Yeah, it is. And a bit freeing too. I don’t know what else I lost, but I bet it will hit me in a few days but I’m ready. So I guess that’s okay.
Right now I don’t want to tinker with it yet because I want to install Service Pack 2 first before connecting online and installing anything else, so I guess Ginger will be quiet until Monday night, when I get home and do the recovery thingie.
Sooo. Back to Harry Potter 7, I guess. I’ll survive.
And yes, I will buy that external HDD. As soon as I get paid. Any suggestions what to get? How much is an external laptop HDD? The 80GB one? Or even 160GB? Is it more than 5k? Or should I just get a normal HDD instead?
No mourning for me, promise. But please do help me let go. Time to start over.
My laptop Ginger decided to act up this morning.
It was working perfectly well last night, but when I turned it on a little while ago, I got a blue screen which said, Unmountable_Boot_Drive. I shrugged it off and restarted but I got the same thing. And again. And again. I can’t even get into the OS.
So I went online on my brother’s computer to check how to fix it…and they said that I should use my XP CD to repair it. I only have my Product Recovery CD from the laptop package so I inserted it, followed a couple of warnings that my hard drive would be erased, thinking that it will ask me once again if it will do just that, then it showed the screen that I always see when I was reformatting.
Uh-oh.
Then when it was time to insert the second disk, I put it in but for some reason, Ginger didn’t read the CD and the process was aborted. I tried restarting it again and now I’m not seeing the blue screen, but a warning that my LAN card wasn’t installed and nothing else.
Uh-oh again.
I have this really bad feeling that I have to reformat Ginger to work again…and yes, she is due for reformat.
But here’s the thing:
I DID NOT BACK UP ANYTHING!
Okay, my last reformat was May 2006, and I do have somes files backed up there…and my iPod has my music and some of my videos. But that’s it! And I did not backup everything because I used my brother’s old iPod to save some of my files, which are all inside Ginger already…plus it’s been a year! My music! My videos! My photos! My just downloaded Joan of Arcadia season 2! My writings! My layouts! Gone!
I’m still stunned. I don’t know what to do. I turned Ginger off already and told myself to work on her tonight, because I’m about to go out and get Harry Potter 7 and go bowling with some officemates…and then I’ll go back to her tonight. I’m still hoping that I could recover the files inside Ginger, even if it’s only my writings and the web stuff I did…but I’m getting myself ready for the fact that I may have lost all my files. :(
Hay. Please say a prayer for Ginger for me?
The first thing I’m going to buy myself when I get my salary is an external HDD!
PLUG: Switchfoot in Manila, September 10, 2007, Cuneta Astrodome. Get your tickets here!
Is it possible to be this happy and love my work when it’s not even a month? Is it possible to finally feel content about where I am and actually see a future for myself here? Is it?
Sometimes I’m afraid that this exciting and thrilled feeling I have about my new work will fade into oblivion after a few weeks of being stressed, that eventually I’ll end up wishing that it’s not Monday yet and want to move out…but somehow, I feel like I won’t feel like that. I feel like I’m finally where I really should be after 10 months of being on trial somewhere else. I feel like finally, things are falling into place, in the way that I want it.
And you know what? I think that God’s also happy because I am happy. Did that make sense? I just feel like He’s smiling with me right now, you know? :)
All morning, we were all on relaxed mode because we had no work requests, the afternoon got us working on some new sites. Then a new request came that frustrated me, but still made me laugh even so. :) The day was capped with the dinner at Dencio’s together with the entire team, our Operations Manager, our boss, the HR recruitment people who hired us and our trainor who has been with us all week. Fun night with lots of food, laughter and a round of beers for the guys. And I look forward to work again tomorrow because…well, just because! Is that even possible?
I’m not complaining, of course. :) I’m thankful, because like I said, finally, things seem to be falling into place.
Now how about a love life, Lord? Haha, kidding! In Your time. :)
A little while earlier, I was doing some Friendster hopping when I chanced upon the profile of an old female colleague. Apparently, she had a major update in her life (kinda like what I mentioned in the last line of the previous paragraph), and the people were commenting on it on her profile. What surprised me was, even one of our business partners knew about it…while, I, the officemate and usual lunchmate who she used to talk to a lot about it before, did not even know.
Come to think of it, I think they all still see each other and not tell me. How sad is that for me?
Then again…I have to admit that I had some kind of…um, issues with some of them earlier this year. I don’t know if I was just imagining those issues or if it is true because I never really found out if it is, and we never talked about it. It’s just sad that things have to be this way, or ended this way. I mean, I know I have friendship issues, I just thought I’m past them ever since college. I have this feeling that little issue kind of scarred me a bit, which makes me afraid of connecting with new people in fear of that happening again.
Maybe the entire environment where I used to be just so (pardon me) screwed up that I just don’t thrive there. At all, no matter how hard I try. Even if I lasted for ten whole months there. Maybe, maybe, as much as I learned there and was put into hot water and developed some kind of discipline that I have yet to see, this just proves that I’m not meant to be there for long.
So again, thank You. Because without You, none of this would’ve been possible. :)
Okay, last thing before I go to bed. Hi to my teammates who will be reading this tomorrow. Haha. And advance happy birthday to our youngest team member, you know who you are. :)
Bed time! I need to be at work early because I have a Switchfoot Street Team meeting tomorrow at 6pm, so I need to be out early. You can get your Switchfoot tickets here, by the way. :)
There is this one commercial for a local credit card which shows a rocker chick who is also a bookworm, a dedicated mom who is also a boxer, and the like. The commercial stresses that the company knows their clients personally, based on the purchases they made with the credit card. It’s cool how this personalization is done for most of the things we use right now, like the way Thoof delivers personalized news. Unlike other Web 2.0 applications, Thoof does not ask the members to rate the articles they read if it is good or not. Once an article is clicked, Thoof takes note of the clicked article, putting it as a part of your profile. If you think the article is not interesting, you can click on the “not interesting” link and it disappears from your profile. You may also add articles, share articles through email, edit some posts and vote if the changes done to other posts are correct. You may also choose to hide some articles instead of reading them and marking it not interesting.
I think Thoof is a cool way to personalize the news that you read, so you’ll only read things that are of your interest. Personalization at its best. :)
This is a sponsored post.
Liz talked about it, and Joni asked the question: how much do I save every payday?
Aha. It’s timely to talk about this, now that I’m low on fund and about to get my first pay from my new employer. Now, from my old employer, my salary wasn’t that high ((Oh, give me a break; it’s a record low for someone in my field!)), so for the first months, I had a hard time saving. True, most of my money goes to my own expenses, like food…um, books. And whatnot. I especially started running low on funds after Christmas, when I got my entire family gifts. Not that I mind, because it felt nice to give presents that I bought with my own money.
But after Christmas, I knew I should start saving. Not because I wanted to go somewhere, but because I know I should start learning to save. But it’s hard. Most of the times I end up wondering where the money went, when I don’t really buy clothes, shoes or bags. Most of them goes to food, to books, transportation. The others go to my cellphone bill, while a portion goes to my mom and others are to pay off some debts. After paying all the latter, I find myself tightening my belt and praying that the next payday comes soon.
GRAR, why does money go away so fast?!
Sometime around May, Jomar taught me this really cool and practical way to divide whatever money I receive to make sure I have enough for myself, my expenses, my savings and even to give. I’m not sure if he blogged about this already, but let me share it with you anyway.
So, everytime you receive some cash, divide it this way and in this order:
- 10% for Financial Freedom – This division is the one that you should never EVER touch, not until you are ready to invest in a business, or anything else that would make the money you saved here grow.
- 5-10% for Giving – This division is for giving/charity. To church, to whatever charity you are supporting. Yes, this is also important. It’s true that the more you give, the more it comes back to you.
- 10% for Education – This is for anything that you can spend for you to learn something. Jomar’s main suggestion was for learning how to invest in businesses, or how to earn, etc. But I think it could be for other things too, as long as you will be learning from it. Like, say, registering for a dance lesson, or a writing class. Or buying a book about cooking. If you’re taking up a postgraduate class, it could be saved as part of your tuition or for your books. Things like that. Although I think the education part has to be related to the business you have in mind. :D
- 10% for Play – This is important and you should not miss this one. The Play account is where you reward yourself. This is the money you use to buy yourself a book, or clothes, or treat yourself out and such. This has to be spent within three months — so say, you save around P500 every month for play, and you want to have a whole body massage and spa that costs P1500, you save your play account for three months and get that massage. If the thing you want to get costs more than three months of your Play, then it goes to…
- 10% for Long Term Investment – This is for things you want to buy that could not be saved up in three months with the play account. For example, you want to buy a new laptop, you get the money to spend it on the Long Term Investment division. Or like me, for the Sydney trip next year. Note that you don’t save for something you would pay for a credit card. The idea here is what you save for, you pay for it in cash (now that would probably feel so good!).
- And finally, 50-55% for your Expenses – This includes food, transportation, cellphone load/bills, credit card bills, etc. Anything for your expenses that does not fall into any of those up there, it goes here.
So for example, I get Php 1000. I save P100 each for Financial Freedom, Giving, Education, Play and Long Term (that’s P500) and the remaining P500 will be for my other expenses. Get it?
The important parts here are the first and the last one; the four in between can be switched orders. Never forget to save 10% for the Financial Freedom, and save Expenses for last. The important thing is you set aside a part of your earnings for your savings. :) Which is really the point, right? And you must do this for every money that you get, as in every little amount. As what Jomar said, it’s the habit of saving that needs to be developed here. :D
Have I tried this yet? I did, starting May. Although the thing is, I ended up spending the money I saved because of the resignation and the late salary and that I had to shoulder some of the expenses at home ever since my mom flew to Saipan.
Will I follow this again? I will, because it’s an organized way to be able to save money. You know how I like things organized. ;) And I have a pretty good feeling this would really work for me.
Okay, now I can’t wait for payday. Please come soon! How about you? How do you make your savings?
I just spent a totally lazy day inside the house, doing nothing except watch TV, fix the layout of the site and the content and tweak Mission: Sydney. Now it’s already past seven, and I’m still here, in front of the computer and the TV.
Hmm, something’s wrong here.
Well, the reason why I’m stuck here at home is mainly because I’m broke. My salary is not here yet since I didn’t make it to the cut off for the salary to come last Friday. I have some money leftover from my last salary, but it’s got to last me until payday. Plus the fact that I slept off the afternoon because I slept late again last night waiting for my brother.
To be totally honest, I was supposed to be somewhere earlier this afternoon, but I was hit by my being antisocial and katam ((katamaran, or laziness :p)) so I sat it out. With a teeny “lie”.
After a long short while of preparations, I actually made it on time to launch this newest blog in the Refine Me family. Friends, I welcome you to my yearlong mission, my first ever travel escapade that I will save up for with my own money, plan for and will make sure it comes true:
A Pilgrim’s Dream to visit the Harbour City and join WYD 2008.
It’s exactly one year before the WYD 2008 in Sydney, and I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before: I’m going to Sydney in 2008 to be a part of this event, and visit Hillsong Church on the side. :) Itaga sa bato!
And just like the geek blogger I am, I just had to document this journey. So hello, Mission: Sydney, my blog to share with the entire blogosphere all about my pre-, during and post-WYD2008 adventures (yes, even if I have not yet saved and have not yet registered, I’m claiming that I will be able to go there. :D Wohoo!). :)
So all Sydney/WYD2008 related posts will be in Mission: Sydney, starting now. I’ve got a year to get ready for this, and if you want to join me in this adventure, let me know so we can plan together!
This is the great adventure! Off we go!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. Just seven more days as of this posting! Wohoo! This is the first time I reserved a Harry Potter book, as I mentioned 160 days before this post (Wow it’s been that long since I posted that). I reserved my copy at NBS Bestsellers in Galleria (that new, Powerbooks-like National Bookstore subsidiary, top floor of Galleria), and I will pick that up together with my Laking National card and a paperback copy of The Fourth Bear
I feel kind of sad that the entire series is ending by Saturday next week, but that’s the way it is. It’s the same way I felt when I read the last Animorphs book — everything must come to an end. So does this. I bet I’ll shed some tears with this. I may not be a complete Potterhead like the others, but I love this series, and finishing it off feels like saying goodbye to a friend. Sigh.
Oh yeah, I haven’t watched the movie yet. Oops!
Don Moen in Manila. I was looking at House of Praise when I saw the poster of Don Moen’s Manila tour. Yes, he’s coming here (again, I think). To those who don’t know who Don Moen is, he’s one of the pillars of worship music, with popular songs Give Thanks, God Will Make a Way and God is Good under his belt. His show dates are:
- July 27, 2007 – The Pacific Grand Ballroom at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, 8:00pm
- July 28, 2007 – Araneta Coliseum, 4:00pm and 8:00pm
- July 29, 2007 – Freedom Ring Ampitheater at Clark Expo, Pampanga, 5:00pm
- July 31, 2007 – The Summit Center, Zamboanga City, 7:00pm
Tickets for this event are available at all SM Ticketnet outlets (911-5555). For more information, call Maximedia at 551-7777.
Switchfoot in Manila! After so many delays, Switchfoot is finally coming to Manila! If you’re a Switchfoot fan, you must not miss this! If you’re not, well, you shouldn’t miss this either since it’s a once in a lifetime event! They’ll be here on September 10, 2007, 7:30pm at the Cuneta Astrodome. Ticket prices are Php 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 and 250. More info on this in the coming days, but again I say, don’t miss this event! This concert is for the benefit of International Justice Mission. Oh, and one of their band members, Jerome Fontamillas is a Filipino, so this is a definite event to watch. :) I’m selling tickets, so if you’re interested, post a comment here, or email me with the subject, Switchfoot. You may also visit the Switchfoot in Manila blog -> switchfootmanila.blogspot.com.
There are also other events to watch out for, especially in September: Fall Out Boy and Elliott Yamin, I hear? I’m not a fan, but some of you might be, so go clicky. :)
It’s the first official Friday at my new work, since I didn’t spend my last one at work because of the break our boss gave us to fix our requirements. Can I just say? I love that we are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays. Wohoo. I missed being able to do that! Now it’s an excuse to get myself a new pair of jeans and wear my sneaks again! Wohoo!
So I haven’t been blogging as much because I wanted to blog again with a new layout (which is what you are seeing right now). So here. Oh, and I also love it that I can do some designing on the side at work especially when there are no pending work requests. I am now a web content developer by profession, but I still do designing on the side since we don’t get to design as much right now. And I love it that I have enough time to tap into this hobby because we only work for 8 hours. Yes, it’s only my second week, but I really love it there already. Thank You Lord.
Tonight was supposed to be a night of gimmicks, with Mito’s birthday party and the impromptu bonding session of our team together with our trainor, but I obviously have to miss both because my brother felt feverish this morning (which made him miss work), so I have to be around in case he needs help. Plus I need to do some grocery shopping since we’re running out of food. I feel kind of bad missing out on these parties, especially the one with my new teammates, but then again I am also broke since we won’t get paid until the 24th, so once we get paid, that’s when our team would have a “celebration.” Yes, I’ll be there, promise!
And speaking of more adventures in work…I suddenly found myself joining the bowling team of our account for the upcoming sportsfest. To those who know me in real life, I’m not the sporty type. Yeah, I could play decent table tennis, do some ice skating and probably run good enough for track and swim some laps but I’m not really the sports playing type. Like what our team leader said when he first asked us if we could play, I’d rather write about it than actually play. :P But for some weird reason, I got sucked into being a part of the bowling team. I know how to do the basic moves in bowling I think, much thanks to the one time I played with my YFC upper household…but play it competitively? No way.
So what made me sign up? Besides the lack of people around, and the persuasiveness of the girl who was asking us to sign up and I guess there’s this interest of doing something new. Maybe it’s also because I have more time on my hands, and I don’t mind making fun of myself as long as I meet new people and enjoy, too? Haha, I don’t know. But I’m pretty excited, and I hope I won’t get hit by laziness and want to back out. It’s just for fun, and it wouldn’t hurt to try something new. :)
Ah, I’ve never been so contented for the past year! I am truly, truly happy for this new job, and I could not thank Him enough for giving this to me after making me wait. :) The wait just made things sweeter, in my opinion.
Which brings us to this layout. One morning before my final interview at my current employer, I was at Starbucks, drinking (an expensive) morning coffee while praying. I had Triskal on shuffle with my prayer time playlist, and then this song played. I’ve had that song on my player since March 2006, so it’s not new to me but at that moment, the song spoke volumes into my heart, and I knew then that God was with me inside that coffee shop. And I knew, no matter how unsure I was of everything, that God has it in His hands and everything will be okay. :)
Thus the new layout, because every moment that I live and breathe is truly a moment made for worshipping. :) (Lyrics and streaming audio after the cut!)
So I present to you Refine Me’s 16th version, based on Steven Curtis Chapman‘s Moment Made for Worshipping from the All About Love album. :) I’m sure there are bugs (especially in IE), so if you see them, please do tell me about it by posting a comment to this entry or by emailing me so I can fix it ASAP. Pages are yet to be updated, so some of them are definitely old. :P
Off I go! Here is the song I based the layout on and the lyrics for your listening pleasure (streaming only, not for download!). Happy weekend everyone. :)
