Renewing your child's LTVP - Dec 2012 Update

My original LTVP renewal post is found here. For the rest o fthe related topics, click on the link above For Pinoys in SG.

Another year rolled in by and you find yourself preparing to extend once again your child's Long Term Visit Pass (LTVP). There have been some changes but otherwise still basically the same as before. Below is the high-level view of the task list.

1. Renew the pass online;
2. Prepare the documents;
3. Payment and e-Appointment;
4. Complete the formalities.

Before you even begin the above steps, you may want to get your kid's picture for the pass. To me, that still remains the most difficult part: coercing your kid to stay still long enough for you to get a decent picture for the ID :)

Just some notes: the "Applicant" will be your child (the one whose LTVP will be extended), while the "Sponsor" will in most cases be the parent (PR with SingPass).

My Last Song Syndrome: Never Never Give Up - Thomas and Friends

My current LSS (last song syndrome) for the past month: Never Never Give Up. Another one of those uplifting songs.

FYI, this song is a throwback to the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends Season 6 back in 2002. Song composed and arranged by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell. The video remake itself is created by TheUnluckyTug02 for YouTube. Footage is from the Hero of the Rails and the later episodes of Thomas and Friends (2011).

Letting go: Life-changing Finding Nemo quote

Just being nostalgic, after watching Finding Nemo last night with the family. :) At the right place at the right time, a quote from a kid's film can change your life...

Post Passport Renewal: Transfer your Re-Entry Permit

This is for the Singapore Permanent Residents (SPRs) who have a new Passport number (either through renewal of Passport, update of Passport, etc). Note that if the SPR leaves Singapore without a valid Re-Entry Permit (REP), the PR status will be cancelled. So better get your documents synced up nice and properly.

Fortunately, all you have to do is the "Transfer of Re-Entry Permit". And, it's fast and (to my big surprise)  doesn't cost a thing.

Here's what you need handy:

• your new passport details (passport number, name, nationality, place of issue, date of issue, date of expiry);
• a good network connection;
• a computer with preferably updated browser and plug-ins;
• access to a printer (optional)

GotMyNerdOn: First Smackdown after Raw 1,000

Off the heels of the controversial Raw 1000, here's a look at Smackdown:

Intercontinental Championship Rematch: The Miz defeats Christian

• The Miz opens Smackdown, with his first speech as the new IC Champ;
• Christian interrupts and says he's invoking the rematch clause right then and there; I guess it's supposed to be sold as a shoot, but no one is really surprised; rematch stated right away;
• the intense match goes back and forth between the two, showcasing the skills of both wrestlers;
• in true awesome heel fashion, with the ref out of position, The Miz thumbs Christian in the eye and then rolls him with his other hand held fast to Christians tights for the win, retaining the IC belt.

The Good: Well fought match, as good, if not better than, their previous bout at Raw 1000; thumb to eyes for the win further enhances The Miz's heel persona.
The Bad: Nothing really bad; maybe the initial cheap promo about this being a shoot, but nothing major.
Rating: A




Ryback defeats Jinder Mahal via Countout

• the two looked good in this smashmouth match, for displaying some decent amount of in-ring ability;
• not the best match, a few botches here and there, but nothing major (just looks silly how they sold the moves at some points);
• looks like Ryback is finally getting into a decent feud with another wrestler;
• Jinder draws heat, by letting himself be counted out for a Ryback win.

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe (SG) giving out iPad! #ShamelessAd

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

If you're in Singapore and if you're good at puzzles, try playing Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe's new Facebook game, Piece IT Challenge. Top three scorers win the following:

1st: The new iPad
2nd: iPod
2rd: $100 Xin Wang Dining Vouchers

Up to 10 levelled puzzles to solve before time runs out. Each puzzle more difficult than the next. The faster you solve the puzzle, the higher your score for that level. Accumulate as much points until you finish all levels or you run out of time. Last day of promo: 16 September 2012.

GotMyNerdOn: Rating Raw 1000

Opening Video: The Unforgettable Moments of the First 999 Episodes

·         features most memorable moments, special guests through the years;

·         features some downlights (Vince on the Montreal Screwjob, Edge and Rick Flair's retirements, Eddie Guerrero);

·         Raw running weekly continuously since January 11, 1993

The Good: good start, pumping adrenaline to the crowd;

The Bad: none

Rating: A

Mr. McMahon starts of the show

·         Mr. McMahon struts down the ring and thanks WWE Universe; WWE Universe responds with chants of "Thank you Vince! Thank you Vince!"

·         Mr. McMahon welcomes the WWE Universe to Monday Night Raw and welcomes DX;

Degeneration X kicks off the Raw 1000; Damien Sandow interrupts DX

·         Shawn and Triple H hits the ring; Shawn cuts short their pyro;

·         Shawn Michaels: "Something's missing..." underwear check, pants check, tshirt check,  glowsticks check, wristbands check...

·         Triple H: "Did there used to be more of us?" CROWD GOES NUTS!!!!

·         New Age Outlaws and X-Pac rolls in on the big jeep and joins Shawn and Triple H in the ring;

·         The DX Jeep they rode on is a nod to the DX Invasion of WCW in 27-April-1998, Monday Night Wars;

·         Triple H: "Shawn will lose his smile." Ha!

·         Damien Sandow interrupts DX; gets Sweet Chin Music and Pedigree and taken out like common trash out of the ring

DX reunion

The Good: nostalgic and hilarious antics; good to see them back even for one night only

The Bad: no Chyna (I guess her recent XXX exploits does not fit well with the new PG era)

Rating: A

Travel Wishlist: New parks in #HongKongDisneyland !!!

For Disneyland lovers out there, or those planning to go to HK Disneyland anytime soon, you might want to check out this ad/poster I ran across...

Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land - HongKong Disneyland

Raw1000 Moment - Lita Returns! (Lita vs Heath Slater)

The greatest WWE Diva of all time returns and takes Heath Slaters challenge in a No Disqualification, No Countout match. And she brought with her perhaps the most bad-ass beer-drinking tag team of all time.



Here's a quick rundown:

Lita defeats Heath Slater in a No Disqualification, No Countout match
- Howard Finkel (Special Guest Announcer)
- Heath Slater vs Lita with APA (Bradshaw, Ron Simmons)
- Road Warrior Animal, Vader, Doink the Clown, Sycho Sid, DDP, Sgt Salughter, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bob Backlund, Rikishi.

P'Noy's SONA 2012 - Summary/Highlights

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

P'Noy's SONA 2012 Transcript

This is a very long post. It's the complete transcript of P'Noy's SONA 2012. Planning on dissecting these soon...

So here we go:

[START TRANSCRIPT]

State of the Nation Address
of
His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
To the Congress of the Philippines

[Delivered at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives, Batasan Pambansa Complex, Quezon City, on July 23, 2012]

Maraming salamat po. Maupo po tayong lahat.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte; Bise Presidente Jejomar Binay; mga dating Pangulong Fidel Valdez Ramos at Joseph Ejercito Estrada; ang ating mga kagalang-galang na mahistrado ng Korte Suprema; mga kagalang-galang na kagawad ng kalipunang diplomatiko; mga kagalang-galang na miyembro ng Kamara de Representante at ng Senado; mga pinuno ng pamahalaang lokal; mga miyembro ng ating Gabinete; mga unipormadong kasapi ng militar at kapulisan; mga kapwa kong nagseserbisyo sa taumbayan; at siyempre sa akin pong mga boss, magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat.

Ito po ang aking ikatlong SONA, at parang kailan lang nang nagsimula tayong mangarap. Parang kailan lang nang sabay-sabay tayong nagpasyang tahakin ang tuwid na daan. Parang kailan lang nang sinimulan nating iwaksi ang wang-wang, hindi lamang sa kalsada kundi sa sistemang panlipunan.

GotMyNerdOn: Clash of the Titans makes for poor mythology

By this time, you guys already know about the good and the bad about Clash of the Titans. It's a box office smash, which is why you we had the sequel a few months ago (haven't fully watched it yet; just some vignettes). Regardless, it has its faults, but some are more... unforgivable than others. :)

I got my nerd on -- Greek mythology is one of my favorite subjects since... well ever -- and I just want to speak out on some things that are really wrong about this movie from the literary/geeky/nerdy point of view.

BTW, my knowledge on Greek mythology is largely based on the Mythology by Edith Hamilton. So that's my reference, in case you want to compare notes. (I hear Bullfinch's Mythology is also a great source, but I sadly do not have a copy, so I can't judge how good that is.)

So here we go...

The future of Marvel: Marvel Now! character teasers

In the upcoming aftermath of the Avengers vs X-Men story arc, Marvel will revamp many of it's core titles. And here's one of the first teasers.

Woohoo! Marvel vs Capcom Origins this September!

They're baaaaack! :)

And this is how you light up a barbecue...

Arrive. Light Barbecue. Leave. :D

WWE Pic of the Day: "Falling for me"

Funny 3-Hour Raw Promo on July 23

Cracks me up everytime :)) I think one of the best promos I've seen in a long time

Crazy Smackdown Highlights (Episode June 29, 2012)

One of the best Smackdown episodes I've seen. Well, to be fair, I haven't watched it for quite sometime, but it's probably one that I'm gonna remember for a long time.

NOTE: This is a spoiler, as seen in YouTube. I get it if you'd rather watch it on TV instead of watching or reading the results somewhere else. In case you don't want to read the results for the 29/06/2012 episode here, then just stop reading and move on to other stuff, capice? :D

Phoenix Five! - Avengers vs X-Men

The ongoing Marvel cross-over event culminated with the birth of the Phoenix Five in issue #5.

Phoenix Five rises...

The Phoenix Five: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus.

My Renewed Interest in WWE...

I started losing interest with WWE and wrestling as a whole by the time the Austin 3:16 era ended about a decade ago. I tune in and/or check the website only during Wrestlemania season beginning with the Royal Rumble. That's where I usually get my updates on the WWE superstars; outside of Wrestlemania season, I didn't really care.

A few weeks ago though, I just stumbled by a video in YouTube that just got viral, and I just got hooked again:

NASA's video of the Venus transit 2012

Still amazed at this video everytime I look at it....

PC Show Loot: Mini Sun Power Saver and Stabilizer

I got this Mini Sun power saver at the PC Show 2012 Day 1 at Suntec.

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"Less 30% electric bill? We'll see in a few months..."

Got a free eBook on KFC's Col. Sanders

We got Col. Sander's Autobiography for free! Thanks to #KFCPhilippines in Facebook.


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Haven't really had any interest in it, but hey! It's free! And it's just a few clicks anyway! :)

A Dragonlance Quote about Respect

Here's a quote from Dragonlance quote about respect. In my opinion, something we could apply in our daily lives....

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"A #dragonlance #quote about #respect"

Taken from Dragons of Summer Flame. :)

About Prophecy and the Future...

Just came across this Mizuno ad. Interesting concept... Something to reflect upon...

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"A quote about future to think about..."

Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Trailer

I guess I've been really holed up for a really long time. I just heard of the live action Rurouni Kenshin a few days ago. I'm shamed! :) But happy as well. It's about time that they made a movie.

Our Chance Encounter of the Port of Lost Wonder

Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) - Singapore's First Kids' Club by the Beach. It's one of the newest attractions in Sentosa, specifically intended for kids! :) It's a pirate-themed swimming resort that offers a lot of attractions and facilities for the whole family.

Last week, we had no intention of going here. We originally planned to take the cable car and get off at Beach station, then walk towards the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia to have our picnic there. Along the way past the carpark building, we got a glimpse of this huge pirate ship and right then and there we decided to go in and have our picnic there.

Obviously, that was a good call. :)

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TIP: POLW is the first stop of the Palawan-Tanjong Beach tram from Beach Station. Can't miss it.

Have you switched off?

Just sharing a friendly post-Earth Day reminder from WWF.

The BIG difference 50 cents make.

The iRemit branch in Lucky Plaza in Orchard Road is offering a special Easter promo. 

(Long queues at iRemit @Lucky Plaza)

First is the extra 50cents. All the other remitting companies are at 34.10.

Next one is the service charge. Service charges for any transaction type is now at SGD1.00 only.
Everyone in Singapore probably know rhis already. :) Just posting for the sake of posterity. :)

And a reminder for Easter next year. :)

Sent from my iPhone

UMVC3 Heroes and Heralds Casual Deck - Mephisto

First of all, I'm just an Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 player, so don't expect any expert opinion here. I'm just sharing the fun stuff I've learned while playing the Heroes and Heralds mode. :)

For now, I'm sticking with the Mephisto-themed decks, as it has served me fine so far, since it fits perfectly with my own playing style in UMVC3, which is basically flinging Hyper Combos as much as I can.

BTW, in case you're not aware: levelled card effects have at most 4 levels; levelled card effects can be stacked if multiple cards have the same effect. So an effect with [Lv.MAX] – aka [Lv.4] -- can be just from one card, two cards (Lv.2+Lv.2), or all three cards (Lv.2 + Lv.2 + Lv.1).

Also, there is only one main card per deck. The main card uses the Primary/Main effects, while the other two cards use their respective Secondary effects.

So without further ado, here's the Mephisto card itself:

Mephisto

Mephisto - Rank A, Marvel Primary Effects: Increases HC Gauge at start of the match [Lv.3] HC Gauge refills automatically [Lv.2] Secondary Effects: The length of instant attacks will be increased [Lv.1] Increases HC Gauge at start of the match [Lv.2]

As you can tell, decks using Mephisto are focused on one thing: maximizing the HC Gauge. Not saying that this is the de facto card for this type of deck, but it is at the very least a good starting point. And you can get this card pretty early on – at least I did, so I was able to play with it quite extensively.

So here are some decks based on Mephisto as the main card.

Running through Disneyland Adventures on the XBox!

The Breakdown: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Disneyland Adventures is one of our IT Show 2012 loot that we have played quite extensively for the past few weeks now. In the It's a freebie we got from the IT Show -- thank you DBS/POSB!

In addition to the game, you also get a redemption code for 160 Microsoft Points (MSP). Not sure if that's standard issue for all Disneyland Adventures game, or if it's just an IT Show promo, or if it's a regional thing only. At any rate, free game + free MSP was enough reason for us to say "nice deal!"


The Flaws: Sensor Unsensing

Now the game. It's a Kinect game, so it pretty much has the same benefits and/or issues with any other Kinect game. However, this game has particularly annoying sensor issues. Even compared with the other Kinect games -- e.g. Kinect Adventures or Fruit Ninja -- the game has a hard time interpreting my moves. It can hardly distinguish me raising my hand for high fives with the characters (more on this later). Apparently, this has been seen by other players as well -- some have complained about this a lot in some of the forums I've checked.

In addition, there is some noticeable lag on specific games/areas. For example in the last leg of the Pirates of the Carribbean attraction where you have to swat away the bombs/grenades thrown at you, my avatar swats the bomb about a second too late so I often get, uhm, bombed away. This lag takes a little bit of getting used to.

One workaround I found to help was to re-calibrate the Kinect sensor after you have loaded the disc.

---

UPDATED: Philippine Passport Renewal and Ad-Hoc Validity Extension in Singapore

Just sharing our experience with the on renewal and validity extension of our passports in the embassy. Hopefully these info will help some people out there.

NOTE: These are our experiences in March 2011. Whether the process will change in the future, we don't know yet.

UPDATE: Just updated this port on 2012-05-05, with some new information that I've got, all in RED.

Just a background: our passports will expire in June 2012, but already had plans to go back to Philippines in May. As commonly known, persons with phil passports with less than six months validity cannot go out of the country. So we either had to renew our passports or extend our passports validity. Since me and my wife had differing work schedules, we got to try two methods of renewing our passports.

Extending Validity Only (aka the Ad-Hoc Method)
 

As I found out sooner, this is not an option. Well, not exactly. They don't extend the validity of passport without an existing renewal appointment. (UPDATE 2012-05-05: I haven't been able to confirm if this has changed yet. For the rest of this post, I'm working on the assumption that you still need an existing renewal appointment.) You will end up renewing your passport right then and there. Be that as it may, it does have some advantages.

IT Show 2012 Day 2

I tried my best to get as much pictures as possible. :)

BULALO! Oh Bulalo!

Every now and then, we want a taste of home and have one of our favorite delicacies. It's pretty rare that we look specifically for bulalo, but when we do, we always end up disappointed: Meat was not tender; wrong type of meat; wrong type of bone; not enough meat; you name it. I think we've been served every type of disappointment in the bulalo department for the last five years we've been in SG.

That changed tonight.

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"BULALO! Oh Bulalo! Where have you been all this time?! ;))"
(taken at Lucky Plaza)

Homemade Valentine's Day Dinner

Wifey went home early to prepare this meal for us. :)

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Meal consists of medium-well steak-ala-pobre (or as we call it, the Poor-Man's Steak), tuna spaghetti, and choose-your-own-dressing salad.

Pork Ribs Sinigang for Lunch

It's been a while since I cooked food for the folks. This is one of my favorites! I didn't have all the ingredients here, though, so I had to make do with what I had.

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Puppy Conan

Aired on the February 9th edition of Conan:



Some soon-to-be memorable quotes:

"Justin Bieber just popped up between my legs."

"TNT's going to run with that quote."

Our 4D3N Itinerary Around Bangkok

Just sharing some ideas on how to spend 4 days and 3 nights in Bangkok. For our trip, we arrived on the Saturday, during the long Chinese New Year weekend.

One important thing to note for our itinerary: it's 50% sight-seeing and 50% shopping. You've been warned. :) Also, some of the originally planned trips did not go as planned so we had to improvise on the fly. Some improvised trips are indicated below.


Day 1 (Saturday, January 21, 2012)

Arrived at the Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport before lunchtime. Hired a taxi straight to Banyan Tree Hotel Bangkok. After checking in, went straight to our first stop: Chatuchak Weekend Market.

Spent most of the afternoon in the first day here. Good prices (always start bargaining below half the tag price), tasty treats (try the garlic pork with rice at Section 23 and the coconut ice cream). A real shopper's delight.

After hours of wandering around and bargaining everywhere, we went back to the hotel to drop off all the shopping bags and rest for a while. Then, we're off to Yaowarat (Chinatown). It is Chinese New Year weekend afterall.

The streets are alive that night. Many choices for dinner. We settled with one of the restaurants which expanded into the sidewalks: T&K Seafood restaurant. After dinner, we just walked down the street along with other hundreds of people who are still doing their late-night shopping for the CNY. It was agreat night; lot's of things to see.



Yaowarat (Chinatown) - Sidewalk extension of the T&K Seafood restaurant



Wikipedia's blackout protest

Although Wikipedia is far from the most reliable source of information out there, it still has some useful information. Just noticed how much I was relying on this thing when they were out for a whole twenty four hours.

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"Wikipedia's out!"