Limited Time Only: Efficient Card Mastery Farming in Marvel War of Heroes

While playing through the Deadpool Raid Event in Marvel WoH, I noticed a simple but effective way of "farming" your cards' mastery.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Fix your ATT and DEF decks. Cards within these decks are the candidates for mastery increase. If an unexpected card gets mastered, check the system's "suggested" decks.
2. Proceed with the latest Raid Event Missions continuously. If you get a Deadpool fight, proceed to step 3.
3. In the Deadpool fight menu, do the following:
1. Use Light attack (1RDS);
2. (Optional)Ask for Support from your team; then
3. Go back to playing the Raid Event Missions, step 2 above.

Marvel WoH: My Page. Click on "Newest Event Mission"

My First Allergy Scare

1. Normal evening. Just looking for some things for my bookbinding project.
2. Yes, I know. It's just a hobby I picked up somewhere. How quaint.
3. Anyway, I finally found the wax, the threads, the crafting needles, and some bookbinding sticky tape. Found them stashed in of 'em plastic stackable cases. I put them away to a container I frequently use, expecting to do them the next time I'm free. I had to go to bed early as I am on shift the next day.
4. In hindsight, those stackable cases were pretty dusty. Note to self: clean them later. Need some goggles and a facemask next time I do any cleaning around the house.
5. As we finished preparing for bed, I turned off the light. It was pitch black all of a sudden. It has to be, so my son can sleep sooner than later.
6. By this time, my nose was beginning to get really stuffy. I thought nothing of it at the time, recounting my dusty encounter with while looking for my things. My wife decided to get me some stuffy nose meds and water to help clear it up.
7. Shortly, my eyes have become unbearably itchy. I went out the room to get the eyedrops we have in the fridge, drop some on my eyes, then returned to bed.
8. It helped, but besides the slight relief, my eyes are still bothering me a lot. I decided I should get another dose of the eye drops.
9. I went to the toilet first though as it I really needed to pee. Turned the lights on, and saw my face. Holey sheet! My eyes were all puffy and swollen! I got the eyedrops again. Then went back.
10. Told and showed my wife, we decided to go to the nearest hospital, NUH.
11. For a while, I had this silly notion that the eyedrops would work just fine, even though my face was really swollen. First time I had that. Denial I guess.
12. My face reminded me of the vampires in Buffy and Angel. You know, the prosthetic makeup / whatever on the forehead and around the eyes of the vampire actors to make them look, you know, vampirey. Hehehe.
13. Decent clothes checked, phone checked, money checked, and so is my IC. (Never forget your IC!) Thankfully, a taxi was just unloading some passengers close by. I had to run there though, before he drives away. We got the cab and we got in.
14. I'm still relaxed for someone in my state, I guess; eyes nearly getting closed, breathing becoming more difficult. The taxi ride was thankfully a short one.
15. By the time we got to the ENI, I was still pretty calm, my mouth was open because my nose already closed up. I can no longer breathe through my nose.
16. The nurse there offerred me a wheelchair but I declined. I can still walk, I just can't breathe. In hindsight, another silly idea on my part. That was my chance to finally sit on a wheelchair! Damn! Missed opportunity again. Hehehe
17. Seriously though, I had to keep my mouth open most of the time. A bit tough for me to talk to the nurses when they examined me. They thought that I got this from taking paracetamol. Good thing the missus was there to check what the nurses were typing in my records.
18. I wonder what would life be like if I actually am allergic to paracetamol? It's the most common meds for the most common ills. With that out of the picture, I wonder what else I could take?
19. Just to backtrack a bit. In the NUH Emergency Room, there are some steps: Step 1: temperature check. Step 2: registration and payment (S$100 standard cost). Step 3: Triage (nurse's initial assessment). Step 4: Consultation with doctor (wait for queue number to be called; waiting time that time was 2 to 3 hours). Step 5: Pharmacy and payment of any remaining balance.
20. In my case, though, I didn't have to wait for my queue number to be called in Step 4. I guess they figured this was already an emergency. They said my BP is quite high. 195/105 or something. I guess that's one effect of not being able to breathe! So from Triage, I went straight to what looks like an ER. Lots of nurses and patients in varying ages, shapes, and conditions.
21. The nurses back in Triage offered me to sit on the wheelchair but I declined again! Oh well, I'll never get to sit on a wheelchair this round I think.
22. Back to the story: in that ER, I lied down on one of them fancy hospital beds. It was getting cold so the sheets were a welcome sight.
23. Nurse gave me six tablets. No idea what they were, they just told me antidote to the swelling and allergies. I'm guessing it's some form of antihistamine. (Thank you, Dr. House! Hehe)
24. I felt the immediate effect of the tablets. The itch around the eyes disappeared. And my nasal passages have opened up a bit. Big relief!
25. Shortly, they told me they will give me a big dose of anti-allergy meds via injection. They said it will be extremely painful so it had to be done on the bigger muscles: the thighs.
26. It's been a while since I got pierced with a needle. First thing that popped in my mind was when I gave a bag of blood for my mother almost a decade ago. The next one that I remember were a series of vaccine shots I got from the local clinic. I was jobless at that time, so I figured it was a good time as any to get myself some shots. Yep, never been vaccinated before. That was my first time. Hehe. All of my previous needles were on the arms or shoulders. Never on the thighs. I wonder what it would be like...
27. Okay needle's in. I've had bigger needles stuck on me. It was fine. But when the nurse pressed the meds in. Ooooh... It's like acid eating away your flesh from the inside. Yeowchies! Well, they did say it was painful...
28. Besides the irritating pain on my leg, I feel a lot better. I can now close my mouth as I can now breathe again through my nose. No more itchy eyes. And the swelling has hone down a bit. I was taken to some kind of recovery room. Recovery room had 10 slots, I was in number 5. Doctor told me to rest there until morning, as the antidote I took has that lovely drowsiness effect. Not sure what they were talking about. I was up and lively.
29. Then again, it just might be the fact that I haven't peed yet for the last few hours. Missed my chance at #9 above.
30. Good. Peed my worries away. The bed feels a lot softer and more comfortable afterwards. Still not sleepy though. I brought out my phone and used up all my energy in Marvel WoH and I started blogging about this rather fascinating experience.
31. And just like that it was morning. 6:30. I must have dozed off into a deep, dreamless sleep. I remembered I'm supposed to go to work today. Sent SMS to my boss and to my shift partner, then emailed the rest of the team regarding my MC.Thank God for Mobile Technology!
32. I was discharged shortly. They gave me a one-day MC, a referral letter to the NUH Dermatology Clinic for follow-up (this seems to be a common practice here), and a prescription slip which I am to take to the Pharmacy (aka Step 5). I hauled my butt off of bed and went straight there. A little anxious as it's really cold and it's raining really hard outside.
33. Got my medicine from pharmacy. Got 42 tablets of prednisolone (looks like the same one I got earlier in #23) and 10 tablets of loratadine. A quick wiki search says they're anti-inflammatory steroids (yikes) and antihistamine for the allergies, respectively. I have to take 1loratadine and 6 prednisolone in the morning after meal.
34. I was quickly on my way to the Kent Ridge MRT. I could have been there sooner if I didn't get lost! :)) It was my first time through the NUH grounds so I got to see a lot of eating places before I got to the taxi stand and the MRT.
35. Got home quickly and nicely. Once I'm in bed I dozed off immediately. I woke up past 12 noon.
36. A lot of things happened after that, but that is a story for another time. :)

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).

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)

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. :)

See full Image

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

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.

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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.

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



One Year Later: Renewing your Child's LTVP

Shortly after your son's or daughter's first birthday celebration, chances are you need to work on his/her LTVP renewal which only has one year validity.

 

Just in case you're in the same spot we were, here's what we did to renew my son's LTVP.  Basically, three main parts, namely:

1.  Renew application online.
2.  Prepare requirements.
3.  Complete formalities (if approved).

BTW, as I was looking for the easiest way of renewing the pass, this post is intended for those who are eligible to renwe online. Those who aren't eligible have to personally report to ICA -- as far as I know.

 

 

PART I: RENEW APPLICATION ONLINE

 

For this part, I'm not going to discuss one by one how to renew online, as it is pretty straight-forward. All you need is the link to "e-VP Electronic Visit Pass (Longterm) System", which is:

 

https://ltpass.ica.gov.sg/eltsvp/main.do

 

Instead, I've listed below the factors that you need to consider BEFORE you renew your child's LTVP.

 

Timing of Online Renewal:

First thing to consider is WHEN should you apply online. From what I can gather online, the applicant (ie, your child) is allowed to renew online IF the pass is still valid for 10 days at the time of application.

It should be noted that the actual processing of renewals -- as per the online FAQ and our own experience -- takes around two weeks, which would probably explain the ten day limit -- must be ten working days, which spans two weeks.

 

At any rate, I think that if you're targetting as close as possible to the 10 day limit, it's cutting it too close -- and not worth the extra hassle. Us, we just submitted about four weeks before the expiry date. More time to maneuver, more time to prepare, more time to plan ahead.
 
Requirements for Online Renewal:

Go through the list in the "Important Notes" part of the link and make sure you have everything. Nothing worse than nearly completing everything only to fail because your laptop/PC cannot support your transaction.

•  SingPass account
•  Financial: AMEX, Visa, Mastercard, or Internet Banking
•  Supported browsers + plugins.

Most of these you should already have, since this is a renewal. The only potential problems are forgotten pins and/or passwords, and if you're using a new/reformatted PC/laptop.
If it's the latter one (PC/laptop), I suggest going through the online renewal process until you reach the part where it's asking you to choose your payment method. If you reach this point and can select whatever method, then you're good to go. :)

 

Oh, on the financial side, whatever method you use, be sure that you can pay SGD30.00. That's the processing fee.
 
Doing the Online Renewal:

Once you decide on the date to renew the application, just go to the link and enter whatever information is necessary. Since this is renewal, most of the information is already there, so you just need to enter a few more.

Once submitted, check the inbox of your email. You should have received a notification email about the submission. Expect the next email in two weeks. For the meantime, this would be a great time to prepare the requirements.

 

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PART II: PREPARE REQUIREMENTS

Below is the list of required documents to be submitted in Part III. Note that "applicant" refers to your child and "sponsor" refers to you or your spouse, or whoever was the sponsor indicated in the renewal.

• Approval Notice (available once approved)
• Completed Form 14 (available once approved)
• Terms and Conditions of Issue for Long Term Pass Card (available once approved)
• Applicant's current Visit Pass
• Applicant's Passport + photocopy of applicant's passport particulars
• Applicant's birth certificate (original + photocopy)
• Sponsor's marriage certificate (original + photocopy)
• Sponsor's divorce certificate, if applicable (original + photocopy)
• Sponsor's spouse's death certificate, if applicable (original + photocopy)
• Applicant's recent passport-sized photograph (within 3 months, colored, white background, matt finish, full face shown).

The first three are available once approved; just need to print them out and sign afterwards. The others should readily be available, as they are most likely have been submitted in the original application. Only the photograph needs to be done, and the most difficult to get. If you have your own camera, that makes it a little better, maybe. But the most difficult part is "coercing" your child to stay still, and have his/her picture taken against a white background.

 

Just some pointers:

• For kids under 5, photo restrictions are relaxed:
• picture should be a good likeness of the baby;
• neutral expression not required;
• head does not need to be straight;
• eyes do not need to look straight in the camera; and
• eyecolor should be visible.
• Passport-sized photos are 35mm x 45mm or 400 x 514 pixels. Resize and/or crop as necessary.
• If your child is using a high-chair, use that and simply find a way to hang a white cloth behind. The stage is now set, making it easier to take pictures of your child.
• Background will not be perfectly white. Adjust as necessary with Photoshop or even with just MS Paint -- picture is small enough, that changes via Paint will not be visible if you are patient enough to do it.

For more information, checkout the links below:
  http://www3.ica.gov.sg/apples/faq/photo_image.html

  http://www.kodakexpresscamden.com/Passport-Baby.html

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PART III: COMPLETE FORMALITIES

You should get an email informing you of the approval. Your child has been given Short-Term Visit Pass and the In-Principle Approval. As soon as you get this email, be sure to follow-through right away so you can make an appointment. Appointment slots are limited per day and if you wait too long, you might not find the date/time that you prefer.

Just follow the instructions in the email. You should be taken to the eVP site again, then just click on Enquire Status/Make Payment.

You will need to do the following:

• Print the Approval Notice (link provided)
• Print the Completed Form 14 (link provided)
• Print the Terms and Conditions of Issue for Long Term Pass Card (link provided)
• SGD 90.00 ready "online" (SGD60 Issuance Fee + SGD30 Visa Fee); you'll need to pay at some point when making the application.

Note that the Appointment date will be the Issuance Date in your child's LTVP; the old and new LTVP cards have no dependence on each other. That is, if your child's old LTVP had an Issue and Expiry Date set to November 30th, then you set your appointment to November 15th, then the new LTVP card will have the Issue and Expiry Dates set to November 15th.

Just be punctual for the appointment and have all of the above documents ready and sorted out. Go to the ICA Building 4th Floor at the Visitor's Centre, go to Kiosk 3, scan the barcode on the "Approval Notice", and get queue ticket. Wait for your turn. It should be finished in under an hour.

Lastly, note that the old LTVP card will be collected. So if you are the sentimental type, be sure to make digital copies of your child's old LTVP card; you will not see it again once the new one is issued.

Baptism Ideas for your Baby Born Abroad

Happy New Year!

After completing your "quest" to get a valid pass for child -- and you're Roman Catholic -- it's only natural that you arrange for your newborn to be baptised. For most Filipino Catholics here, you either have your child baptised where you are, or back to the Philippines where most of your relatives and friends are.

We went for the Philippine route. So anyway, if you're interested, here are some firsthand tips from us.

• Prepare the documents. Namely, the child's Birth Certificate and the parrent's Marriage Certificate. Prepare some photocopies as well. If you don't have this, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble.
• Contact your Church. You should have done this waaaay ahead of your target date of baptism --even way ahead of your flight back to Philippines. Ask for the requirements (i.e. above documents, seminar for parents and godparents, etc.), whether they offer "special" (i.e. solo) baptism or only mass baptism, available schedule, and what fees are required, if any. Most parishes have websites nowadays, so you should check them out online.
• Contact your local contact. To make things even easier for you, you need someone "onsite" -- could be a relative or a close friend -- to actually help smoothen things out even before you arrive. They should be able to help out arranging with the church/parish, talk with caterers, prepare your place, etc.
• Prepare the budget. Can't be stressed enough. A well-planned budget goes a long way. This will help you plan ahead with the event.
• Prepare the Guestlist. With the budget on hand, you should be able to make a list of the people you want to invite. Usually, this should always include your immediate family, close friends, and godparents. This is a bit trickier than what you may think. So plan ahead.
• Consider your luggage when booking a flight. Expecially if it's your baby's first-time to travel, you should consider the amount of luggage. You'd be surprised that the large bulk of your total check-in baggage is your kid's. So you may want to consider carefully before going for the cheaper airline's 15kg check-in limit or the more expensive one with a slightly more 20kg check-in.
• Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! If you're like us, you'd probably want to take pictures of your newborn everyday if you could. Save, collect, and collate. It may not seem much now, but you should organize the pictures before the total number is way too much to handle -- you'd be surprised that you may end up with hundreds of pictures in one month alone. Anyway, where are you going to use this pictures? Well, in case you have absolutely no idea, here are some hints for you:
• invitations
• sourvenirs
• tarpoulins
• guest book
• Hire some Help. Might be a bit costly and some may think even unnecessary. However, you need some people to take care of stuff -- food, pictures, video, whatever -- so that  you can have the time to concentrate on the things that are more important. You don't need to hire someone for everything, but you should consider hiring for the "big stuff" that you should not be worrying about like caterers and a photographer.
• DIY Stuff. There are some stuff that you can do yourself, provided, you have the time, energy, and resources. Example: for us, since we have photoshop, tons of pictures, and a decent printer, we did the invitations ourselves.

Guess that's it. There are still many other considerations but this list, based from our personal experience, tops them all off. Good luck! :)

How to Link your Blog to Facebook via Notes

Just in case anyone is interested, here are the steps in linking your blog to your Facebook. The changes in Facebook's look-and-feel a few weeks back changed the way some of the applications are configured, such as Notes. Here's the way I found on how to do this easily and quickly:


1. Search for "Notes"

How to Link your Blogger to your Twitter via Feedburner

In case you want to automatically publicize your "Blogger" or "Blogspot" blog via Twitter, here's one way how you could do it, using Feedburner.

PART 1: Setup Feedburner Account / Feed for your Blog
1. Go to www.feedburner.com and login using your Google Account (yep, it's part of Google now).

2. On the space provided, enter your blog's URL then click Next.
3. Depending on your blog, you may or may not have an already existing feed and would be asked to select which feed to use (Atom or RSS). If unsure, just select any of the choices (or the default one) then click Next.

Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now What? - Summary

We finally completed our baby's papers here. I just thought this summary might come in handy for other Filipinos in Singapore who have a child born here. Here's a list of your to-do's in order to ensure that your child has the papers to have a valid stay in Singapore -- i.e., so your child is not an illegal alien, a TNT here.

This is divided into three main posts, as there is a waiting time in between each.

Part One: From Birth to Passport Application
The initial part consists of the following steps:

• Birth Registration
• Philippine Passport Application
• Extension of 42-Day Limit

Completing your Baby's LTVP Formalities (Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now what? - Part 3)

This is the last post regarding of the "Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now what?" articles.

At last, this is the homestretch. Weeks of patience and hardwork now pays off as your child finally gets his new Long Term Visit Pass (LTVP).

That is, of course, assuming your application was approved.

While waiting for the approval...
The review of your child's LTVP application usually takes between two to three (2-3) weeks. During this waiting period, it is best to get the following ready to avoid the cramming:

Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now what? - Part 2

This is the continuation of my previous post regarding the papers you need to do for your newborn kid in Singapore. http://raabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/newborn-filipinos-in-singapore-now-what.html

Reminder: This post is based from our experience back in November 2010. Some details might have changed since then.

Philippine Passport Collection

Although you generally have to arrive early at the Philippine Embassy to accomplish things faster, for passport collection you actually have a bit of a leeway. No need to be at the gates before 7:00 AM. I was there around 10:40 AM (I got queue number 49; the number being served at that time was 26). I was finished by 11:15 AM.

And -- perhaps more importantly -- there is NO NEED TO BRING THE BABY WITH YOU!!! Yep. There's absolutely no need. Dads can do this on their own, without tagging along the entire baby crew. Means you can move faster and you don't have to worry about your baby getting irritated with all the noise and the weather. Yipee for baby! :)

So here's what you bring along:

Newborn Filipinos in Singapore... Now what?

Being in another country, Filipinos should take note of the things that must be done to fix the papers of their newborns. Particularly in this country, you should try to accomplish the to-do list so you want have to cram it all on the last few days.

Remember, once the baby is born, your baby has a 42-day Social Visit Pass to stay in Singapore. You need to get it extended or have a valid pass (PR, dependent, etc.) before the 42-day limit expires.

The child's mother will most likely not be able to do this -- or rather would not be able to do anything at this point -- so this is especially for dads out there.

Before you continue, please note that the information below is true as of the first week of September 2010 -- the week when we applied for this as well. Some of the requirements and/or steps below may -- or probably will -- change later on. So please don't complain to me if the information below is no longer true; let me know the details of the changes and I'll change this accordingly.

Anyway, first things first. Once the baby is born, you have to file his/her birth registration right away.


Birth Registration

As per Singapore Law, you have 14 days to register the baby's birth to ICA. This is different from the 42-day limit stated above. Birth registration should be done within 14 days. The immigration status (i.e. Social Visit, Singapore PR, Dependent Pass, etc.) should be done within 42 days.

There are a few things you need to prepare in order to file the baby's Birth Registration:

• Identity card (NRIC, FIN, E-Pass, etc) of both parents;
• Original Copy of the Marriage Certificate, if applicable;
• Notification of Live-Birth - this is the Red duplicate form you get from the hospital/nurse station;
• Registration of Birth Form - to be filled up by YOU; most of the details should be found in all of the three (3) above documents;
• Fee. I forgot exactly how much I paid, but should not exceed SGD 50: ICA fee of SGD 18 + hospital administrative fee, if you registered at one of the hospitals below.

Hospitals where you can register your child's birth include the following:

• East Shore Hospital
• Gleneagles Hospital
• Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital
• Mount Alvernia Hospital
• Mount Elizabeth Hospital
• National University Hospital
• Raffles Hospital
• Singapore General Hospital
• Thomson Medical Centre

You should check out the reverse side of the Notification of Live Birth form for the above information.

After you have successfully registered, you should get the following:

• Notification of Live Birth - updated with the Birth Registration Number;
• Certificate of Registration of Birth (laminated);
• Disembarkation Card (aka White Card) - usually attached with a notice from ICA "Regularisation of the Immigration Status of a Foreign Child Born in Singapore".

The actual processing takes no more than 20 minutes. The waiting time might be longer or shorter, depending on how lucky you are. Anyway, this makes it the easiest step.

Now before you can get to ICA to apply for your child's PR, Dependent Pass, or whatever, he/she needs a valid travel document, i.e., a passport. So our next step is to get...


Philippine Passport
The actual processing is fast. In our case, we finished within 40 minutes -- includes submission of forms, picture-taking, and payments. Of course, in order to achieve that, we had to get an early queue number. Meaning you have to be at the Philippine Embassy before it opens at 9:00 AM. There's just too many people applying for the new passport.

Also, as of this writing, the babies are required to be physically present in the embassy, as their photographs will be taken there as well.

Just some tips that should help:

• Complete all forms and photocopy the required number of copies beforehand. Saves time and money. (Not sure how much the photocopier in the embassy is charging, but I bet it's slightly higher than usual.) Check out the list below.
• Avoid going there on Thursday and Sunday (the end and start of week, respectively) as well as days immediately before and after a public holiday/long weekend. There's even more people there!
• One person (usually the dad) has to be there really early. The baby can arrive later at 9:00 AM when the embassy officially opens. I was there at 7:15, but there was already a queue! Luckily, I was number 4. Within the next half hour or so, there were 10 people behind me.
• Prepare for a long wait. It's up to you how to deal with long waiting times (around 2 hours). Bring something to read, something to play, something to listen to, or something to eat, whatever to keep you sane while you're waiting. The words "painfully slow" come to mind, so watch out! (Of course, if you're happy with just the chit-chats and gossips, just talk with the people in the queue.)
• Once inside, while you process the papers outside, the baby can stay inside the air-conditioned halls of the embassy.
• The windows to look out for are Window 6 (where you submit everything), Window 1 (where the baby's photos are taken), and Window 9 (where you pay). Best to know where they are, as it can be very chaotic when the waiting area is filled up with tons of people.

So what documents do you need exactly? Here's the list:

• Passport Application Form - get form from the Philippine Embassy website;
• Report of Birth - get form from the Philippine Embassy website; submit the form along with 5 photocopies;
• Certificate of Registration of Birth - original for show, 5 photocopies for submission;
• Passports of both parents - original for show, 5 photocopies (of the data pages) for submission;
• Marriage Certificate of parents - original for show, 5 photocopies for submission, if applicable;

Not sure if this is applicable to all, but Report of Birth and all the 5 photocopies should have the left and right footprints of the child on the reverse side of the forms. In our case, the lady on Window 6 asked us to have the footprints imprinted on the forms. They provided us with the inkpad so that's one less thing to worry about.


After the initial submission of the paperwork on Window 6, everything should go on smoothly. The digital passport photo will be taken at the room beside Window 1. After that, you will be provided a letter to be given to ICA (details below). Then, it's off to Window 9 for payment.
 
You should end up with the following:

• Claim stub for the passport. This should also serve as your official receipt with the breakdown of fees. Take note of the Collection Date (approximately 6 weeks from the date of application).
• Certification from Philippine Embassy regarding the Passport processing - as the 6 weeks will most likely eat up the 42-day limit, you will need to submit this to extend your baby's stay in Singapore.

Extension of the 42-Day Limit
Due to the 6 weeks required processing time for your baby's passport, you can apply for an extension of his/her Social Visit Pass. This should give you some more breathing room to process everything.

Here's what you need:

• Certification from Philippine Embassy regarding the Passport processing. See previous section.
• Disembarkation Card (aka white DE Card);
• Certificate of Registration of Birth - original for show, 1 photocopy for submission;
• Passports of both parents - original for show, 1 photocopy (for the data pages) for submission;
• Marriage Certificate of parents - original for show, 1 photocopy for submission;

In order to maximize your baby's stay, wait for the week when the 42 days will lapse before you apply for the extension. We tried applying for the extension a day after submitting the passport requirements. We were advised by the immigration officer in Counter 4 that the extension will overlap with the 42 days; they clarified that the extension will start from the day you applied for it, not on the day after the 42 days have lapsed. So she advised us to just return later when the limit is about to expire before we apply for an extension.


This is as far as we have gone, so far. I'll do another post once we have the passport and applied for the passes in October.


::UPDATE::
Got some new updates, but they're quite long. So, please check my next post on this topic here. For the complete list of posts on this series, please check here.

R4DS Initial Setup - UPDATED

The initial setup of the R4DS has been posted in one of my earlier posts here.
However, thanks to an anonymous reader who left a comment, it has come to my attention that some of the required files that are supposed to be downloaded from specific sites are no longer available.

Hence, for the convenience of everyone, this post serves as (1) a guide to properly install the R4DS from scratch; and (2) as a "proxy" for downloading the required files.

Required Files:
Before proceeding any further, please download the files listed below:

Hotfile Links:

• English-1.18.rar
• moonshell171p1_with_dpgtools131.zip
• DSOrganize_3_2.zip
• es_r4m3.zip

MediaFire Links:

• English-1.18.rar
• moonshell171p1_with_dpgtools131.zip
• DSOrganize_3_2.zip
• es_r4m3.zip

Required Hardware:
Well, there's no point reading this if you don't have these things with you.

• Revolution for DS (R4DS);
• Your microSD - 2GB or below; received news that 4GB may not work (haven't tested though, since I don't have one yet; sorry);
• USB reader for the microSD (either using the mirco-SD to SD adapter and USB card reader or the MicroSD USB reader would do).

Ensure that the microSD is empty and that you have backed up everything first before proceeding further.


Procedure

1. Install the R4DS kernel file.
Either download the kernel file from above English-1.18.rar, or the latest one from http://www.r4ds.com/, if it's up already (it's been down for quite a while now).
• Unzip the contents of the kernel file. You should end up with _system_ folder/directory, _DS_MENU.DAT, and _DS_MSHL.NDS.
• Connect your R4DS into your PC via your card reader.
• Copy all of the files, into the microSD.
2. Update Moonshell
You'll be using the moonshell171p1_with_dpgtools131.zip file (or get latest version from http://mdxonlinemirror.dyndns.org/moonshell/files/) to update the moonshell. Do the following:
• Ensure that the microSD is plugged in to your PC;
• Unzip the moonshell zip file into a temporary directory;
• Run setup.exe in that temporary directory; it would automatically detect the drive assigned to your microSD
• Click OK
• Configure the moonshell as follows:
  
  • Configuration files: Select moonshl.ini (full) is copied.
  • ROM Files: Select R4TF R4(DS) - Revolution for DS only.
  • Other configs: this is up to you :)
• Click OK then wait for the setup to Finish
• Verify that the microSD has the MoonShell_R4TF_M3Simply-R4DS (MicroSD Card).nds and moonshl folder/directory.
3. Copy the NDS Game Roms
I would suggest that you create a new folder/subdirectory, say, named Games and then each ROM would have its own directory. This is entirely up to you. I suggest the above just for easier organization.
4. Install DSOrganize
DSOrganize is one of the most popular homebrew organizer application for the Nintendo DS. It provides a calendar, drawing pad, todo list, address book, and web browser. Almost like a PDA, but not quite. You will need the DSOrganize file and the custom exec_stub.bin file. You can download both from http://www.dragonminded.com/?loc=ndsdev/DSOrganize or you can use the DSOrganize_3_2.zip and es_r4m3.zip above.
• Unzip the DSOrganize zip file into your hard drive;
• Unzip the exec_stub.bin file from es_r4m3.zip.
• Replace the exec_stub.bin file in the DSOrganize/RESOURCES directory.
• Copy the entire DSOrganize folder and DSOrganize.nds file into the root directory of the microSD.
And that's it. I had no time to play with the DSOrganize plugins, though, so I can't comment on them yet.
5. OPTIONAL: Customize Theme
First, it is important to know how the images in the NDS are mapped to which files first. So here's the rough description:
• logo.bmp - Bootup top screen image;
• icons.bmp - Bootup bottom/touchscreen image (i.e., "Play", "Media", or "Slot2");
• bckgrd_1.bmp - the browser top screen background image;
• bckgrd_2.bmp - the browser bottom/touchscreen background image;
• gbaframe.bmp - the border used for GameBoy Advanced (GBA) games (slot 2).
Hence, when using a theme, you need to rename the images to their corresponding filenames above. (You wouldn't want the top and bottom screen images on the wrong screen, would you?) Here are some important notes to remember:
• The files should be copied into the _system_ folder;
• The image size should be 256x192;
• The file format should be a 24bit Bitmap (BMP).
If you prefer downloading instead of creating your own, search the web. I suggest the site http://www.ndsthemes.com/, which, thankfully, is still up and running.

I hope this updated guide is useful.

Thanks for reading!