Karaoke time

Filipinos indeed have a unique way of seizing the day. We like to have fun and create lasting memories.  A simple gathering for other nationalities would probably do with a little finger foods, bottle of beers or whine and few chitchats. Whereas we pinoys thinks party as incomplete without sumptuous food set on the table, non-stop talks and a karaoke. The life of the party begins upon turning on the magic sing, bisan mabilin pa ang pagkaon indi lng ang mic. 

Friends went to visit us in our humble abode last Sunday. They echoed their beautiful voices that suspiciously intrigued our Thai neighbors.  They thought we were having a concert performer as our guest :þ si Joy diay to…hehehe

Karaoke time with Joy, Janzen, Jeanette and Jun. Afterwhich, followed by gabfest in AIT Vietnamese restaurant

somtam (Papaya Salad), fish soup in clear water (Tom Yum Pla nam sai) and fried fish with garlic.

fortunes and misfortunes with Harry Potter

Couldn’t stand thinking of my first ever hardbound HP book and the realization it has lead me to. I bought it for 896 baht in Asia Bookstore with a free hologram notebook worth 255 baht last 21st of July.  Later I checked out in another bookstore which is also in Emporium and found out that it’s just 790 baht  in Kinokuniya  bookstore!  *sigh* Oh well, I still can’t get over with my Achilles heal for being an impulse buyer.  Of buying things instantly out of excitement and satisfaction without considering practicality. Oftentimes regret comes too late but I still chose to feel optimistic with my decision. Anyway, the notebook will  definitely be useful and will be selling the book in a cheap price after all.

Purchasing it was obviously a big deal for me, it took a moment to stare in store’s bookshelf and told myself, "I’ve got to have one." Unfortunately I must leave it on the shelf for most of the time.  And its not because I’ve finished reading it but because of an eye dilemma.  My vision is a bit blurry this days.  Maybe caused by too much exposure with computers or maybe spending long hours reading which resulted to swollen eyelid, tearing and light sensitivity.  I’m halfway to finish. Need to take it easy, refrain from reading more than four hours and have enough sleep.

*** three days after***

Feelin’ great with my accomplishment.  For my quest in finishing the final chapter of the most wanted Harry Potter.  Also thrilled with its splendid ending, utterly satisfied with the outcome of the incredible story. Sorry not to spare you a bit of idea, for sure it might ruin your chances to experience the action, the suspense, the drama and the fun! as far as your imagination leads you. I swear the last episode is a must read book for HP enthusiasts and the rumor is not at all true.  That’s up for me to know and for you to find out.

There’s a sudden change to announce,  I’m not to selling this book anymore. Rather to keep it and reserve for my future offspring.  With J.K. Rowling’s works I have found my fortune. 

HP7- Deathly Hallows

The last episode of Harry Potter is now out in the market! A great treat for an early birthday present, huh. What do you think? Yup, I can’t help to stare that long on the book shelf as it was displayed in Emporium during its grand release last 21 July 2007. It didn’t took a minute to convince myself to have one with the rush of excitement to finally read the real story of Deathly Hallows. 

Life size memorabilia were found around the corners of the mall.  I saw people dressed up in witch costumes, so cute. There was the train in Platform 9 3/4, Flourish and Blotts, Hogwarts School of Wizardry, Diagon Alley etc. I was blessed not to miss this once in a lifetime event.

to be continued…
Next story- fortunes and misfortunes

family of bloggers

Getting hooked to any type of media is pretty normal this days. The channels of communication has become more diverse wherein simple individuals like me can’t help but adapt its complexities and opportunities or else my knowledge is doomed to become obsolete. 

One form of which I’m dealing with much of my time lately is the blogosphere.  This has been my latest craze so far, righ after my  MIRC era wayback 90’s. Communicating with family and friends in different parts of the globe has become pretty convenient using the world wide web. And fortunately knowing their thoughts and present activities to date had become interesting than ever.  With photos and videos to document and freeze moments. 

Like my family, we maintain our own sites either using built in templates or customized designs.  Let me introduce you to them. 
Meet Daisy, she’s a full time blogger, model earner and soon to be Mom. She maintains four different sites at the same time blueapron, parenting, daisy writes and rainydazeee. How I wish I could do the same. 

Together with her husband Mart whom she referred to a computer geek who shares some of his knowledge in ja cmoud.
Next is Ate Carey who blogs her way to riches through ideasnpink, tidbits and wacc.
Then Mama Romy who loves inspiring her circle of influence and stalkers of greatordinaryhappenings site.
And last but not the least my Tony who’s very flexible in technical aspects as reflected in his techxplore. Others are soon to join the bandwagon, for now they’re just learning the ropes and use their sites for updates and downloads.

Or should I say, the family that blogs together stays together? hehehe…i’ll leave this thought with you.

heartwarming

as what my pinoy friend fondly said…"life is like a balikbayan box, (you’ll never know what/when you’ll gonna get…)" of course this is just an understatement, but true to most of my kababayans…entering to marriage life is not an easy task, only in God’s grace that we’ll  be able to surpass the hurdles that comes along the way, our differences, our beliefs and understandings…. and life has never been better until i’ve learned to love and serve others…

loving life….

celebrating LIFE!

I Said a Special Prayer for You

I said a birthday prayer for you
and I asked the Lord above
To keep you safely in His care
and enfold you in His love.
I did not ask for fortune,
for riches or for fame—
I only asked for blessings
in the Saviour’s holy name—
Blessings to surround you
in times of trial and stress,
And inner joy to fill your heart
with peace and happiness.

Love you Lannga!

May the Lord give strength to His people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
Psalm 29:11

6 FVS- Frequently Visited Sites

The web has already become my way of life. Without it, I can never be efficient with work as it’s the fastest way to access my job assignments and communicate with colleagues, friends and family back home.  At the start of the day I immediately click away my Mozilla Firefox and instantly opens six tabs such as :

1. Yahoo mail for personal emails
2. AIT mail for office current mails
3. Google mail as my secondary storage for work mails
4. Multiply.com to check on my blog buddies
5. Answers.com if confusion suddenly arises and
6. Simplepleasures for what my & Tony’s beautiful mind is up to lately.

Daisy and Carey had come up with their lists too. Wanna know?

gone with the Maker

A bit down today, saddened by the sudden loss of one of my talented multiply buddy.  Hail to the great Ana Escalante-Neri.  Thank you for sharing with us your vivid images of your underwater escapades, great smiles and articulate words as the young and eloquent barefoot traveler.

(1978-2007 )
Photo grabbed from Ana’s old site

To quote from Patricia’s site, "Death, whether by old age, accident or sickness, is not meant to be a thief, but rather a divine invitation to eternity. Death therefore is a friend who will accompany us into the loving embrace of the God we worship, serve and love." Rest in peace finned traveler.

Accessing my office computer from home (part 2)

I have lot's of work at the office lately. I think working at home after dinner would be fine and that would require remote access of my office computer. 

I read some of the instructions on how to run remotepc. What I understand is that I need to download a RemotePC Host program and install it in my office computer. Next I will have to download RemotePC Viewer and install it in my home computer.

So, I downloaded the RemotePC Host software then installed it in my office computer. Installation is quite easy.   After installing a dialogue box popped up prompting me to login. Since, I don't have an account with RemotePC I need to sign up first. The normal lengthy questions to filled up was there but in the end part to my surprise I need to enter credit card information. I thought this was a FREE 30 day trial software. Anyway they have their own reason for asking this information as it's needed for them to AUTOMATICALLY upgrade the service to a premium one after the 30 day trial expires. Yikeeesss ! 

I don't have this credit card information they need so after pondering a bit about this.. I just decided not to try the software. Anyway the VPN client was set already on our home computer so I just click on that to connect to the AIT network then used the WinXP Remote Desktop client to connect to my office pc. 

In the end VPN & Microsoft Remote Desktop works just fine. The good thing is I don't need to pay for using it every month to connect to my office pc.

Catholympics 2007

The AIT’s Catholic community’s most awaited sports event of the year was held last July 1, 2007.  It started with a mass at 7:30 AM, an hour earlier that our regular schedule every Sunday.  Right after we had our parade of banners proceeding to the football field beside Administrative Building were the cheering competition will take place.  Before that each group were presented along with their banner name and a bit of explanation for judging purposes.  There were three teams for this event, we have RED, YELLOW and GREEN.  Each team has selected there group name, relevant to its respective colors and meaningfully biblical as well.  Red team were the "Flame of the Holy Spirit or Red Flames", Yellow Team are the "Yellow Anchors" and Green team as "Green Eagles."

The final activity commenced with the cheering competition where the RED FLAMES took the first place.  Followed by the heart pumping Soccer Baseball/ Kick the Ball group game.  Red team still outscored the leading Green team due to Tony and Manang Aida’s relentless cheering in the history of AITCC Catholympics.

It was truly an amazing event and everybody shared our own success.  This is what means to have a balance life, we made new friends, learn new talents and ideas, shared precious moments with community members and  serve the Lord in our own little way.

God bless this community!

 more photos can be viewed in my simplepleasures flickr site

Accessing my office computer from home (part 1)

Reading blogs of my friend and family is what I do when I need to relax a bit from my days work.  I came across with a posting from http://ideasnpink.i.ph/ about remotely accessing a computer which reminds me of what my Tony does. Accessing the office PC from at home. His work requires him to do things even while he's off the office.  

Normally what he's done is like a magic for me. I remember him to connect first with the VPN client to the networks that we have in AIT. He needs to configure VPN client software based on instructions by the network admin in the office before he can use it.  After connecting to the remote network he uses the  Microsoft Remote Desktop to actually connect to his office pc by typing some number which I guess he calls IP address.

Everything is quite too much for an ordinary office person to follow like me. The posting from http://ideasnpink.i.ph/  about RemotePC gives me the idea that for me to do what my Tony does I don't need to do a lot of those techie stuff. I will just need RemotePC and I can access immediately my office computer.

I cross my fingers that I can follow the simple checks needed before connecting to my office pc using RemotePC.

Wish me luck.