Dragonlance Bargain Books

In baragin book sales, I almost always end up empty-handed. I guess the books that I'm looking for are either very rare, or not usually listed under the "bargain" (i.e., not easily sold) category.

About a week ago, we went home, with me happily nursing my sore arms -- they're sore because of the tons of books that we bought from Carrefour. :)

Two of those books are from the Dragonlance series. Dragonlance, as Mister Wiki explains, is a large series of fantasy novels consisting of around 190 novels. I've no plans of buying the entire lot; just the mainstream or the "core" novels, although I do buy some of the side novels every now and then; so far, I have the Chronicles trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, Spring Dawning), Legends trilogy (Time of Twins, War of Twins, and Test of Twins) and the Dragons of Summer Flame.

A few years back, I somehow lost interest after reading the Summer Flame book; besides the fact that college time was a busy time, I'm not really a big fan of how some of the heroes ended up dying the way they did and all that. Although I do like the part about the Knights of Takhisis (basically, a group of Knights worshipping the evil goddess Takhisis) and their code. It goes something like: "respect your enemy...so that you will not underestimate him" or something (sorry, I can't remember fully the exact words nor the exact page where I read this). Not a bad idea, if you ask me. :)

Well, enough about that...

So anyway, going back, I bought two books from the next "trilogy", War of Souls; I got Dragons of a Fallen Sun (book 1) and Dragons of a Vanished Moon (book 3). Too bad there were no Dragons of a Lost Star (book 2) anywhere that time. Still, I'm bappy with what I got.

Since it's a Carrefour book sale, each of the books (all of them are brand new, btw) costs only S$5! That is regardless of the size, edition, whatever. As long as it's a book, it's S$5! The Fallen Sun book sold is the paperback edition. The Vanished Moon book is the big hardcover edition -- this happens to be my first hardbound Dragonlance book! So that's S$10, which is not a bad bargain if you ask me; a few years back in Manila, I remember each book (paperback edition) costs between php250 and php350 -- that's around S$8 to S$12 each.

Well, I hope I like this one. I'll look for the other book just to complete the set.

An engineer's struggle with lupus...

The person here, Leslie, is actually one of my former colleagues in my previous job in the Philippines. I think it was about a month after I left for Singapore when I learned that she left that company as well. Before that, though, she was already out on sick leave for a few months. Sadly, it was lupus. :(

She's one of two people who got lupus from that same company. Don't know about you but there's something definitely wrong in this company... Could be the environment, could be the other people, could be the actual work itself. Whatever the case, no one's happy with illnesses that are (most likely) triggered by work stress...

Good luck to you....

http://lupus.ph/stories/pubview.php?id=145

Busy Thursday

I've never been busy like this since I was the duty network engineer for the entire December '07. I've been away my desk for most of the time, much even less time to do the usual blogging and Internet surfing... Oh well, it's one of those days... Or rather, one of those weeks...

Well, it's not like I had a good time during Holy Week last time I was in the Philippines. Holiday or not, as long as it is a day between a Monday and Friday, we go. Here at least, we don't have to go this Good Friday. :)

Particularly busy was this Maundy Thursday. With this being the last day before the upcoming event this Monday -- the campus will be holding a laptop configuration event thingy for all the students; lucky kids! -- everyone was scrambling to get all things ready.

Sadly, though, someone has messed up the configs of some switches (someone deleted the damn VLANs) causing all the test laptops connected to it to be disconnected. Well, at least that was easily resolved once the "damage" was seen from the switch-side. I had to go to the switch, though, which was holed up in a a very small, cramped, and somewhat smelly room.

I wanted to find out what the hell happened that the switches got messed up! Oh well... Too tired to track down the who, the how, or the why of it all.

Earlier...
So let's see... I had to carry a switch from my place to the event site which was about five buildings away. I had to get the keys from the other support center which was another two buildings away. The switch is not that heavy -- just a small 48-port switch... I think it was a Cat3750... Well, doesn't matter.

When we're done with the event, I'll play around with the switch for a little while... Better to experiment and do tests on spare switches than the ones in production.

There were also these three switches in computer laboratory which cannot be accessed remotely via CiscoWorks servers, telnet, or SSH... Well, okay SSH will not work for two of those which are the old Cisco Catalyst 3500XL switches. Still, it's getting in the way of me getting rid of my three-month-old task of upgrading the IOS images of all the hundreds of devices in the network -- did I mention they have hundreds of devices? Hehe...

Hmm, I actually learned a great deal about that... Maybe I'll post it on my other blog.

Blog controversy!

Wow! I guess I've not been around for a long while that I missed this big blog controversy here, involving an Aussie guy and an alleged Pinoy scammer.

The gist: the Australian Brian Gorrell is accusing Pinoy Delfin Justiniano "DJ" Montano of swindling him of AUD70,000! And Mr. Gorrell wants it back!

Filipinos are no stranger to high-profile controversies. But verbal battles over the radio and/or the TV is one thing. Going online is taking it to another level! With the Australian "attacking" several other well-known personalities associated with Mr. DJ., you can expect hell breaking lose sooner than later.

Don't want to dwell on this topic too much. It's too frustrating. It's sad when the Philippines becomes involved with international disputes like this. If the high-profile Pinoys involved are really guilty, nakakahiya!

It's news like these that make you think, "Do I really want to go back to the Philippines?" Whether this is true or not, Pinoys all around the world are reminded of how corrupt the Philippines truly is. And it is these corrupt Pinoys who have money and power who perpetuate this cycle of corruption. Whether this particular accused is included, there really ARE Pinoys who can and will use their influence to get what they want, when they want. Government officials and their lackeys, the media, the "elite" groups, people who flash their DILG ID in their cars, police seargeants and colonels who feel that they own the roads and nobody gets to speed there but them... They're there.. So, are you still as enthusiastic about answering the question "do you really want to go back to the Philippines"? Is this what's waiting for you when you get home?

If the accusations are not true (which, personally, I sincerely doubt), let's hope this blows over and hope Pinoys around the world are not frowned at. If the accusations are true, then let them have it! It's about time that somebody stood up against the "elite" crackheads and are made an example of -- and hope that Pinoys around the world are not frowned at as well.

BTW, some links below:

http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gucci_Gang_controversy - possibly removed within a few days
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view/20080317-125117/Brian-steps-out-of-his-blog-

Got my mornin' groove back...

It's been almost two weeks since my morning rituals have been whacked out: ignoring the two alarm clocks, waking up unusually late (well, late from what I'm used to), then getting up that much later, taking a bath at a snail's pace, walking a little slower than usual, and ultimately arriving late in the office.

Dunno what happened... I just feel weak and not eager to move.

That was until today. Today, I think my body clock's finally back on track and I'm back to my usual morning self; I get up immediately after the alarm clock rings and within twenty minutes or so doing my usual routine, I'm off to the office!

Well, I never imagined that I would miss getting into the MRT station and getting a free copy of Today. Well, I don't actually read it from cover to cover; just the thought of getting it lets me know, hey, I'm early again!

Oh well, what useless entry this is.. Hahahaha... :)

Time to get back and read the news.....

Beauty and uhm...brains?

Q and A for Binibining Pilipinas (Miss Philippines) 2008 contestant Janina San Miguel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKwmseoKFCo

To her credit, she did win the "Best in Long Gown" and the "Best in Swimsuit" awards. That takes care of the beauty part.

Brains? Well, the "they was" to "my pamili" to "hoh my gahd" to "eto.. wait" to "taf (tough?) ten"... not a very stellar performance. Well... Look, maybe she's just really nerbiyus because, you know, she's just 17. She's a mass comm graduate, after all. So maybe she really did just lose it on stage.

But then again, others would argue that, as Bb. Pilipinas, she can't lose it. She's a beauty queen who will represent the Philippines for crying out loud! Poor grammar is permissible (some contestants in Miss World and Miss U don't speak English at all), but she did not make any sense! She did not even answer the friggin' question.

Worse still, the bulk of what she said, aside from the screwed up grammatical nonsense, was the pointless apology. When you made a mistake, lessen the emphasis on that one then just move on! Don't dawdle on your error, just say your piece and make a point! She didn't do that; hence, people only remember her screwed up Q and A.

And yet she still won the crown!

Like it or not, she did one thing that may have helped her: she stood out. Answering as best as she could would probably just make her blend in with the rest who did just that. Intentionally or not, by screwing up the interview, she stood out; everybody remembers how she miserably bumbled answeriung the question... and she got the win!

Hoh my gahd! Robert Greene was right!!!

If she intentionally screwed that up, that was big and gutsy move on her part. A very big gamble that really paid off. If she didn't intentionally screw up, well, just the same; she won. Let's just hope she learns her lesson well and don't get trapped in the same pitfall again in her next level. (Then again, if she won by screwing up, she may want to do the same. Although, unlike the Pinoy judges, I don't think foreign judges would like that.)

Of course, there's always a possibility that at least some of the judges were biased and wanted her to win no matter what. With corruption being a norm in the Philippines, that's always a big possibility. Well, you know how I feel about this corruption thing so let's just move on, okay?:))

I guess in the end, that's all that matters. You stand out and you win. She is not, as Simon Cowell of American Idol says, "forgettable".

Well, like it or not, she's going to the Miss World and she'll represent the Philippines. Who knows? Maybe she'll get lucky again. I think Philippines has a good shot this time; she won the long gown and swimsuit awards, and she stood out in the Q and A. She's got beauty and, uhm, young brains. :)

Blasted Notebook!

My office notebook/laptop is broken. The blasted thing can't get any power; I removed the battery then connected the power supply -- no good. I used the power supply of one of my colleagues here -- still no good. We know that it's not a problem on the two power supplies since we can use either on other laptops (same model and brand of course).

Good thing I at least managed to backup all of my work into a portable hard drive before the laptop lost all power. It was actually quite a race; I had to backup almost a gigabyte of data, while I'm seeing the bloody "empty battery" indicator flashing in the corner. I managed to save it before the battery was totally drained. Note: at full capacity, even if the battery/power indicator says it can survive for 4 hours, it can actually only just last about an hour... I guess that comes with the age; the laptop the company provided me is several years old.

We're pretty sure it's a power connector issue or something on the laptop. I checked with our service hotline who then contacted the laptop vendor since it's still under warranty. Then, the vendors called me up saying that since no replacement parts are available, they had to order it overseas and it will arrive in about 2 to 3 weeks!

If only I could wait that long. Oh well... I verified with them if they can just loan me another laptop, transfer my harddisk there, then use it until my laptop is fixed. I'll follow up with them tomorrow...

So in the meantime, I had more than enough time to fix my workplace; cleaned out the drawers, organized the shelves, even fastened loose notes into a single bundle. I also managed to find an old and unused 2007 organizer underneath the tons of debris. not much use in organizing since it's about a year too late, although now I at least have a decent-looking writing pad whenever I attend meetings. :) Hehe

Hopefully, I can get another laptop soon; I still have about a dozen tasks to do and no laptop to use. :(

TV almost like home...

It's no mystery that, as a person who literally grew up watching TV, I had to adjust after moving here in Singapore. I had to accept the fact that I won't be watching as much TV for as long as I'm here.

Things changed for the better (at least in this aspect) about a week ago. Our housemates (Neil and Cel, salamat!) decided to subscribe to StarHub for the cable TV and internet connection (a common deal offered here). Since then, I must admit that I'm much happier now to stay home than before! Well, they don't have the exact same set of shows that I want, but hey, I'm not complaining! It's better than nothin'. :)

Now, I'm getting my weekly dose of CSI from AXN, wrestling from SuperSports, and, of course, tons of shows from Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, HBO and Star Movies.

I'm just not able to watch other favorites such as the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", although I'm watching the schedules of the CNBC, which is actually the "home" network company of the show. I just missed the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, so Conan's show should not be that far behind.

Freaky Economics Book!

Wow! There are relatively very few books which deals with ideas, which people would consider unconventional or unorthodox. Things most people would feel uncomfortable with.

Well, unlike the other unorthodox books that I like, this one does not deal with religion or morality -- such as the trilogy of Robert Greene, and books dealing with the Gospel of Judas, Mary Magdalene and the like -- this one deals with the world economy. The topic is "closer" to the real world so it should appeal to more people, unlike the books dealing with the topics stated above.

Freaknomics (by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner) is a great read for people who want to explore the world from a different angle or point of view. Many of the questions asked here are radical questions; those which a typical person would not normally think of asking. But once you get down to it, these questions make a really good sense and forces you to think of the world in a different light.

Here's a simple question asked in the first chapter of the book: What do school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common? Would you believe that the answer is..... CHEATING??? Yeah well, that got me stumped the first time I read it, so don't be surprised if you're stumped as well. The chapter discusses about "incentives"; what makes people do or not do something; what keeps people to be honest; what forces people to cheat. Ahh...now your brain is now processing this info... now we're getting somewhere... :)

If you decide to read it and you are inclined towards the subject, have a great fun reading it! I'm down to chapter 4 within the first two days I started reading it!

IT Expo again!

Once again, there was another IT Expo in Singapore, this time in Suntec City Convention Center. This time, the expo was much larger in every sense of the word -- bigger venue, more vendors, more gadgets, larger crowds!

Anyway, we didn't go to every booth in the expo because (1) we were looking for something specific, and (2) I'm flat-footed. :D

We got our friend the white Sony T2 (same as our digicam), with lots of freebies (as expected). She originally wanted the blue one but this time, the Sony only included the black and the white T2 in the Expo, so she had to settle for the white one.

As for us, we were looking for external hard drives. We went for the largest and cheapest one we could find: Western Digital's MyBook Essential Edition with 1 terrabyte disk space. We initially wanted just the portable USB-powered hard disk with the largest capacity available, but we decided that the 1TB hard drive (sold at a discounted price) is simply to good to pass up. Besides, we already have 2 portable hard drives; not very large but they serve their purpose just fine. :)
Why Western Digital, you ask? Well, during the time that we were there, it was the cheapest 1Tb disk sold. We saved around S$100, so that's good enough for us.

Check out the pictures of the above in Che's post here.

Another good buy, we think, is the Olympus camera. The freebie included is an 80GB Seagate portable hard disk. Not bad for someone who wants both a digital camera AND a portable disk. I just forgot which model it was. Tin, anong model ba yun? :)

Pacham Cantonment!

That's Che's latest recipe! The Pacham(ba-chamba) Pansit Canton! Hehehe :))

We've stocked tons of food since we returned a few weeks back. Unfortunately, many of our stocks are going to expire by April and May. Unless we are willing to eat the same thing everyday before then, we will just end up throwing everything away.

In light of this situation and the fact that we wanted to reduce our daily rice intake (yeah, you read it right; we're on a not-so-tight diet!), we decided to have a rice-less dinner!

Options are quite few, so we ended up with th LM! Pansit Canton (more than a dozen packs are there). Che, wanting to give it a little more flavor, took out some other ingredients to experiment on. Good thing, nakachamba sya, and we had a great Pacham Pansit Canton!

Pacham Pansit Canton

• 4 packs LM! Pansit Canton (original flavor)
• 12 large shrimps
• 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 stalk of brocolli, sliced
• 1/2 cup carrots, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 small onion, diced

Cooking Instructions:

1. Drop noodles in boiling water for three minutes then drain the water then set aside. (as per instruction at the back of the LM! Pansit Canton pack)
2. Mix the all the flavorings (the packed ingredients that came with the noodles) into a cup.
3. Saute the garlic and onions in oil, then add carrots, brocolli, cabbage, the flavoring mixture, and the shrimps (and, of course, cook until shrimps change color).
4. Add the noodles that were set aside earlier. Mix well.

Voila! Serve while hot! Enjoy!

Sleepy, rainy week...

It's been raining everyday for almost a week now. Since then, I've always been late. Most of the times, it's just below the five-minute mark. There are times, though, when I was late for almost 15 minutes. I usually arrive before my boss does, but when you're 15 minutes late, well, you really can't expect your boss not to be there (he's not the type who arrives an hour late then leaves an hour early).

Anyway, I guess it's not that much, but for someone like me who has incurred less than 5 instances of tardiness in my entire five-year-stay in my last job, this is a gargantuan leap.

I guess it's my fault anyway, since I always stay up past 12 midnight everyday. And the temperature brought about by the cold, rainy weather is not helping me to wake up sooner as well!

Anyway, since I don't wake up early enough, I no longer get my free copy of Today in the MRT station! I don't get to have my daily dose of news. Oh well...

If only I could sleep in the office. It's very conducive to sleep, with the aircon set to around 24 degrees C. Not sure, though, if it's colder here in the office or outside; it's raining like a cold day in hell now.

Maybe I'll just get some shut-eye immediately after I get home today. Assuming I get home early that is. :) For the meantime, I think I'll just continue with my work as best as I can, *yawn* or blog away, or just chat, *yawn* or email, whatever to keep me awake.....*zzzzzzzzzzzz*

My new project blog

I just launched a project blog that I've been wanting to put up for a long time now. You can find it here:

Networking Stacked Knowledge

This will serve as a quick reference for me, as well as a sharing blog for everything IT networking.

Please feel free to send me comments, suggestions, requests, questions or whatever regarding this blog.

Thanks!

Information overload!!!!

So many projects, so few people, so little time... Damn!

We have just finished our training earlier for setting up student notebooks / laptops for the upcoming school year. Just when I thought I have everything set, the big boss sends a message saying that I will be involved in another project!

Oh well, I'll know more when I meet with him tomorrow...

I feel like I'm starting to forget everything that I've learned. Sure, it took me about two months to forget everything I learned in colleage (LOL!), but I have no desire to lose everything I learned from my previous company! That's almost five years worth of knowledge and experience...

In light of this dilemma, I'm thinking of maybe logging online anything I can remember from my last jobs as well as everything I learn from my current one. Maybe another blog or something. I think I just need a name and know which publisher I should use.

Any ideas? I'd really appreciate your help! Thanks!