a blog a day keeps the bugs away!!!

Reunion at Riseros

2008-04-01T20:31:00.008+08:00

Sequel to Jam Sabido's cemetery encounter with a beautiful girl and the all time famous science teacher Nick Acosta Sr?

"Bambi" as he is fondly called during our elementary years, has had a lot of fond memories in my childhood. It was Bambi who taught me how to get home all wet with mud because his bike was too big for me to maneuver, lent me a pair of gala pants when we were not allowed to enter NPS without the gala uniform.

Yahoo messenger did it again! 3 months after the Migz Zubiri encounter here comes another reunion with a long time friend(we obviously were good friends since elementary). Nick Acosta Jr. invited me to check out their place, Riseros Dive Resort at Puerto Galera.(http://www.riserosdiveresort.com/) Taking advantage of the holy week break we decided to give it a try. keeping my fingers crossed that i wont go home all wet with mud again. The place was cool and being a dive resort i felt like i was in a foreign country, there were foreigners practically everywhere. Nick's gorgeous wife manages the place while nick helps out to maintain the place. Move over jam sabido, at least I get to meet the pre-eminent character(thanks ma'am florece for the term) in my story. Nick is extending his invitation to our batchmates to stay at their place. I didn't get to bring home chocolate goodies or 50 dollars this time, but I got more than that, thanks Bambi for the "discount".

sing baby sing

2008-03-07T20:09:00.004+08:00

lovable and cuddly Adrian paid us a visit on February 10 (his dad's birthday) and we were just too willing to have him sleep over and play surrogate parents for a day or two. The DB family being a musically inclined bunch(note the bass guitar as template) would very much welcome Adrian to the music fold.

proxy for smartbro to increase browsing and download speed

2008-01-31T08:45:00.000+08:00

I have been using smartbro for 2 years now and for 2 years, smartbro's speed has always been erratic so i tried some of these proxies. some of these work so you may want to try it out.

For Internet Explorer:

Just Go to Tools - Internet Options - Connections - lan settings - Use Proxy Server

For Mozilla FireFox:

Just Go to Tools - Option - Advance - Network - Settings - Use Manual Proxy Configuration

For Address, Try any of the following:

proxy.smartwifi.com.ph
proxy.smartbro.net
proxy.meridian.ph
121.1.47.46
121.1.3.194
121.1.3.200
203.84.191.215

use port 8080 on all proxies..

PSP GAMES

2008-01-25T11:04:00.000+08:00

Donkey Xote
Brother in arms D Day
Alien vs Predator Requiem
DAXTER
syphonfilter logans shadow
Free Running
Pro Cycling 07
Patapon
Warhammer 40k Squad Command
AfterBurnerBlackFalcon
Dave Mirra BMX Challenge
B boy
Heatseeker
Pocket Pool USA
pursuit force
Field Commander
Silent_Hill_Origins_USA
Thrillville Off the Rails
need for speed carb
Dead to Rights Reckoning

These are my psp games.
best of all these games for me is pursuit force. the game has excellent graphics and this is an action packed game.

Havaianas And more Havaianas...

2008-01-08T04:00:00.000+08:00

"Rosey" my lovely wife, (this is actually the first time I am calling her that name coz today is actually our 11th wedding anniversary) along with probably most women are into this "Havaiana Fever". I would not dare stop her from collecting Havaianas. First, because I don't get to pay every time she checks out and buys new designs and second, she is a fashionista, not in the vain sense of being a fashionista, neither because the "havis" would compensate for her lack of beauty because in all humility she is beautiful. She even actually bought me a pair and tried parading my pair when we went to church. Comfort and quality wise I would give the "havis" an 8 out of 10. In terms of fashionability, I think I would say the designs are quite fashionable too. I remember Rodel Ortanez, a math professor from Universidad de Santa Isabel in Naga sharing his experience with his wife and kids re the "havis fever", and he goes: "my wife and kids do not realize the value of money that is why they would buy expensive stuffs like the havaianas". True enough these pair of slippers are quite expensive, though some would attribute the "exorbitant price" to the fact that these slippers are imported from Brazil, but hey! a pair of slippers for a thousand? Try going to the malls and check out what the ladies are wearing, and mind you, I even chanced upon a "lolo" buying three pairs at flip flops. So, what is it with these pair of slippers? I myself parading it on a Sunday? We Filipino's are known for wearing new clothes, jewelries whenever we attend Sunday services. Why? Some would say, so that "it" gets blessed and many would agree with me in saying that we have this showing off attitude. And talking about showing off, check out KATHY GRIFFIN'S HATE SPEECH ABOUT JESUS AT THE EMMY'S: "At the Emmy awards, Kathy Griffin's acceptance speech said, 'A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus.' She went on to say, 'Suck it, Jesus. This is my God now!' referring to the Emmy. Filipinos asking for a blessing for a pair of slippers and here goes an Emmy awardee showing off and instead of taking the award as a blessing, uttering words unbecoming of a professional artist. Be that as it may, I admire my wife for having to buy a few more pairs of havianas but never having to say no one had less to do with these pair of slippers than Jesus... HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MY ROSEY, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

godiva chocolates and 50 dollars? not bad for a high school reunion...

2008-01-08T03:35:00.000+08:00

Migz Zubiri and JDB? Congressmen reunited??? Jojo dela Cruz aka Migz Zubiri and JDB definitely not Jose de Benecia but Jung del Barrio reunited after 23 years…

It was March of 1985 when I parted with this guy, not that his name is Guy coz that’s actually his brother’s name. That fateful day when my Class adviser took three times to actually read my name correctly after 10 months of painstakingly checking my quizzes, test papers in mathematics. The only time that my adviser took notice of me was when he read in class my reflection about a question he asked us to answer during our homeroom period. I admire this person, not that I love mathematics but because he has a way of making sure that you don’t get to forget him during special occasions like your high school graduation. Sir Elmer Orbita, thanks for the mathematical equations!

March 1985 to January 1, 2008 – that’s about 23 years ago since I last saw Leoncio “Jojo” dela Cruz, now a Congressman Migz Zubiri look alike (see attached picture). I used to ask him a lot about my problems in mathematics when we were in high school (mind you, even during exams). A few months ago I chanced upon Jojo on the net via yahoo messenger and from time to time we would exchange jokes about our high school life, in fact almost every time that we get to chat we would use the vernacular and it was like we would challenge each other to who would get to say the most uncommon Bicol term. At one time, he asked about the political situation in the country because he said he has a doctor friend who is planning to come to the Philippines and run for senator, so it was again, in jest, a discussion about politics. Jojo, a registered nurse who is married to a pediatrician and blessed with a 19month old cute son texted me and asked me if we could meet at the lobby of the Shangri-La Makati, I consented and there we met and it was like whew! 23 long years! He showed me their room and the reason why he had the room reserved six months before. The view was just perfect for the New Year celebration at Ayala. Jojo looked healthy albeit he has to go to the bathroom from time to time to blow his nose, he said his son also had fever and that they didn’t have to have the kid confined since his wife is a practicing Pediatrician in the US and he himself is a nurse. He invited me to the 24^th floor were we had a sumptuous meal, being ignorant that I was of living a good life, not to mention eating in a posh hotel like Shangri-La I would ask him what those food on the table were and he would ask me, what would you like to have, “sinanglag”? After the meal we went back to their room and he introduced me to his doctor wife and the bouncing cute kid who had a temperature of 41% the day before. We had our picture taken and then we went off to check out the bars in Makati. We decided to stay at Hardrock café, had a couple of beers then he suggested that we just have red wine because as he said it’s good for the heart. Ignorant as I may have been of red wines I took the opportunity to bond more by having a taste of Jojo’s usual imported red wine. After emptying the red wine he said he would want to bar hop, I readily said ok am not paying anyway, and so we headed to Strumms to take a breather from the eardrum shattering rnb band at Hardrock’s. It was New Year’s Day so Strumm’s unfortunately was closed so we just decided to do videoke at music 21. After a couple of more beers and singing the last song, my way, we decided to call it a day, he took 50 dollars from his wallet and handed it to me telling me that it was a present for my son. A plastic bag of Godiva chocolates in tow and 50 dollars, not bad for a high school reunion…

Who Can Ever Forget

2008-01-08T03:18:00.000+08:00

Who Can Ever Forget
by Jung Del Barrio

Who can ever forget Fr. Jerome Calcagno... He was our (Special Class) English/Religion teacher during my first year at SVS. Talking about fond memories, i have both bad and good ones. I'd start off with the bad then.

Remember Ronald "Bagyo" Bona? The monicker bagyo was actually for the volleyball serves Ronald had in his arsenal of volley skills which almost ended up in a fight during an inter seminary sportsfest. No libero would dare accept Ronald's serves. hehehe!

Anyway, Ronald then had a wound on his left leg which grew to around 50x when he had it topped with penicillin. He was seated in front of me during one of Fr. Jerome's lectures when, accidentally, I nudged "the wound". Ronald then erupted into a scream which also resulted into a scream from Fr. Jerome. Ronald tried to explain but to no avail so we were both sent out of the room. I also tried to, since I was the culprit but Fr. Jerome was too insistent. After a mouthful of prudent "what-nots" we decided to leave the room. Ronald went out first but when I started to turn my back I was again given a mouthful, telling me that i am very disrespectful. He said that I wasn't suppose to turn my back while I am being given those mouthfuls. Being the promdi and the fact that I was not able to speak for what I thought should be shrugged off since it was an accident, I cried... This was one of the many times that I used the chapel as my refuge whenever I succumbed to the usual homesickness of the newbies in the seminary.

Tough as he may have appeared to me, I learned something about Americans. They have to stand firm to what they believe is the right way to form a seminarian. Pinoys will always be pinoys. We sometimes get to be guilty even if we know for a fact that we are not. In short we visited Fr. Jerome in his room. Thankfully, we were able to deliver our prepared speech of apology. Apologies accepted. End of story. We got to see again the smile on Fr. Jerome's face whenever we see him in class.

The good one was when we were asked to memorize the poem "Who is Jesus Christ?" ..and mind you, we were also asked to recite that poem in front of the class... and you know what? To this day I can still recite the poem. It really pays when you memorize a poem by heart. and to top it all, to get even, I now ask my students to recite the same poem. During the time that I was reciting the poem I have always asked myself: "What good would this poem do to me?" ..except of course for the fact that we were taught the proper (American) pronunciation of every word not to mention the pauses and the breathing...

Fr Jerome, wherever you are, you are part of the foundation of every Special Class student you handled. You taught me a lot of things which a Pinoy formator can never teach. This may be too late but I really would like to thank you for sharing the gift of wisdom, the smile which launched 999 ships (second only to Manong Leva).. The same smile which pushed and will continue to push me to follow the footsteps of Lolo Enteng in my chosen vocation...

let it be...

2008-01-08T03:07:00.000+08:00

a buzz on my n1600 brought me to complete consciousness. i checked on the message and it was from april(a co-trainee @tp) just a happy father's day greeting. i checked on the time, 6:09am. i felt my bladder churning so i hurried to the john. prepared coffee and decided to check out what's new on the net. it has been 2 months since i have this job in a call center and a lot of things happened already. being new to the call center set up it was like i was transported to a different portal, a whole new world... pressure, info overload, personality clashes, new acquaintances. sometimes i would feel nauseated with the stress, lack of sleep and quite a number of issues at home that i have not yet resolved. its a good thing that i have already learned to love and enjoy teaching that i get to syphon strenght and motivation from the rowdiness and youthfullness of my students. not to mention the love and attention of my gorgeous wife! otherwise i would have been lost into oblivion... my mind has had a lot of innuendos, procrastinations, projections, backtracks and who knows what... it just wont or if i may say cant pick up a specific line of thought, evaluate, plan and bring the idea into reality. things just gets piled up on my mind that many times i would just take to humming the song "let it be"... but i know for a fact that i have to take control of my thoughts, specially of my actions, take absolute control of my life so to say. if i may borrow a phrase from a tp co-trainee: "life is beautiful" and for me to see that i have to think of "tabula rasa" assess, focus and actualize. a good jumpstart right??? and its on a father's day...

"WHO DARES WINS"!!!

2008-01-08T02:56:00.000+08:00

November 14, 2007 4:30am
n73 vibrating under my pillow awakened me from a not so blissful night's sleep. The previous day was such a long day... having to get through the day with tons of what ifs in mind... scheduled meeting at 3:00pm which actually started at 4, turned between consenting to help out the University come December 3-8 in its effort to host students from De Paul University, Chicago, Illinois re their research on poverty reduction and continue sulking, preparing for a worst case scenario pending a "conference" scheduled November 15 at exactly 9:30 am. Reality check! It is November 14, 8:39pm... Still going through the text messages of tolits... Tolits, a mammoth of a man, a strong willed, prudent, not to mention possessing an innate piety, pouring out hopeless if not helpless sentiments... unusual but real... an officemate intellectual/mongoloid heir apparent of the retired prophet of doom chided yesterday: "life has always been unfair". Through this confusion it only leaves a person a choice... to face life head on or to succumb to self pity, depression, not to mention invoking viruses(spywares-if possible) to "hijack" one's body and who knows whatnot...despair gets the better of a person no matter how strong one seemed to be... "WHO DARES WINS"!!! "ACTA EST FABULA ET NUNC CAPTATIO BENEVOLENTIAE"...

ADRIAN, AARON AND ALLEN...

2008-01-06T23:33:00.000+08:00

ADRIAN, AARON AND ALLEN...
Non is my younger brother whom I am always in close correspondence via yahoo messenger. His used to be youngest Aaron would be kind of like our adopted son because I would "borrow" Aaron and play with him. Kid is a jumpy, restless cute one, I would play with him till after he gets tired and I'd be obliged to carry him, dance till he gets to sleep soundly. The only problem is, everytime I would lay him down to bed he would wake up and cry. Guess my training 10 years ago did not pay off... Aaron grew up to be a Daddy's kid, he just couldn't stand being away from his Dad. He would shout out loud "Daddy"!!! whenever he realizes that he has been like about 5 minutes away from his Dad. Allen on the other hand is the smartest, smart to the point that she used to throw away my brand new cellphone. Kidding aside, Allen is doing well in school, she would chat with me via yahoo messenger and tell me that she got perfect in all of her exams. She even got a present from her Mom and Dad when she topped her class, mind you a DVD player worth almost 20k. Well, she deserves it. She gets to watch a lot of DVD's and would still excel in her studies. Allen loves her two siblings so much that even if Aaron would quarrel, if not hurt her, she wouldn't want him to be left behind. Adrian, the new addition to the family, the cutest and now my wifey's fave is a combination of the two. Adrian, looks witty cute. His long hair would not deter him from playing and crawling around. The kid smiles a whole lot and used to be well behaved, but growing up takes that cool for a kid behavior off. He is now trying to explore and realizes that he actually has a wider world to explore. Adrian's smile would take away whatever worries you may have.

free internet connection in cafes???

2008-01-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

Before the Christmas break I decided to buy my first ever laptop. Being techy as I have been, I had my RAM maxed so I'd get to play games on my laptop. The Christmas break gave me more than enough time to play games on my laptop and download movies. I get to download at least one movie a day so I can watch the movie with my wife and my son before we go to bed. Two years as a smartbro subscriber, I can say I am satisfied with their service. A download speed of about 50-60 kbps is good enough. I can say our combined family income would put us to below average if not average, so I also get to have a taste of Starbucks coffee from time to time. And in the few visits I had at Starbucks, I see the "well off" tinkering with their laptops, many of whom are surfing the net taking advantage of the free wifi connection the cafe provides. "Well off" or not, that gave me an idea, and I presumed that, since the cafe is catering to the "well off" then maybe, just maybe the connection would be super fast. Laptop in tow, I headed to Starbucks market market branch at Fort Bonifacio, making sure that I have just enough money to buy one tall size cafe mocha and chocolate belgian waffle for my son. After a few tries, like maybe around thirty minutes of trying to connect to the cafe's wifi I decided to ask the crew coz whenever I try to connect, I would be directed to a site(globe broadband) and the site is asking for a user name and a password. I learned from the crew that the provider did not the deliver the card which they have to enter into the site for the internet to be connected. Good thing I am techy, I would not want to leave starbucks without having to surf the net so I did not have any choice but connect to the internet using my cellphone. Then I remembered that there is another Starbucks just nearby, I was trying to recall whether It is on the second or third floor of a four storey bookstore named fully booked. So off we went to Serendra and my memory served me right, indeed there it was, on the third floor of fully booked, Starbucks. The store is packed with the well to do intellectuals or may be "wanna be intellectuals", good thing am neither of the two, since I am there for the "super fast" internet connection. When we reached the third floor, all hopes went astray since the cafe is also fully booked, so we decided just to idle around the bookstore, checked out the bookshelves for anything interesting. And since we were just in front of the cafe I decided to sit on one of the comfortable couch provided for the "readers" and checked if I can get a wifi signal, and voila! I actually got two wireless connections. I checked on the globe connection since I know now that Starbucks probably had a contract with globe so they are using globe broadband. I was able to connect but noticed that the connection is quite slow. far slower than a dial up connection so i went back to the connection menu and tried out the other wireless connection, and there it was, the super fast connection I have always thought of, which I know for sure is not from the cafe. I tried checking the download speed and boom! it reached up to 2345 kbps. That was fast! My smartbro connection at home maxed to only about 520 kbps so that is about 4 times faster. Then I told myself, I am definitely coming back to do my movie/game downloads. A few days later I went back and since all laptops only have a maximum battery life of about 3 hours with of course minimum application usage, I always have with me the laptop's DC plug. I positioned myself just beside the counter and leaned on the wall where an electric socket is located. I started downloading and there I was about half way of the downloads I noticed the laptop's battery sounding off an alarm so I readily took the DC plug and connected it to the electric socket. A couple of minutes gone by and here comes the bookstore personnel telling me politely that plugging in laptops are a no no, as polite as he was, I replied and apologized and immediately unplugged the laptop. Downloads lost, so I decided to go back to Starbucks since there are still available seats and that of course, cafe patrons are allowed to plug in their laptops. But since previously I knew that the connection is erratic and at the same time too slow we decided to check out Krispy Kreme since we saw an ad on the establishment's door saying free wifi. Down at Krispy Kreme we had our taste of the free donuts that the crews were serving every time we fall in line and then I checked out the connection, it is a security enabled connection so I had to ask a crew to help me out and connected I was. I checked out the speed and it was almost as fast as that of fully booked so I decided to download but then again the batteries did its familiar beeps. Lucky enough I was able to download 3 out of 4 parts of the movie before the battery totally ran out. Lessons learned??? First, have an extra battery handy specially if you will be using the wifi connection at Krispy Kreme since they do not have electric sockets. Second, thou shall not go to Starbucks if you are expecting a fast internet connection. Third??? If you want to have a taste of the good life or just to be in the place were the rich people converge, check out Serendra, just in front of market market.
PS: password for wireless connection at Krispy Kreme is candycane.