Rubik’s Cube

What is fast becoming as common as potholes on the road, skin heads, motorcycles, street children, unemployed person or grandstanding Philippine politicians? You guessed right, it’s the mind boggling Rubik’s Cube.

Little did I know that this 6-colored-swiveling-cube will once again haunt me at this age, and with guilt, became one of my interests while on a week long wedding anniversary celebration. Ti abi.

I have fond memories of this toy. When we were peskly little kids, our mother used to bring me and my sis to work as it was just a few kilometers away from where we live and during the times when she felt like it we tag along with her. While in the office I get to bug her boss, well, just like any kid. It’s a good thing though that her boss happens to be a relative and somehow bugging him isn’t much of a big thing and besides, he loves to show me how good he is with the then novel Rubik’s Cube – that time, he can do two colors.

My mother later on got to give us our own cube and I got hooked to it since then. Unfortunately, I can only do 1 color at a time. I never got close to 2 just like my uncle does. I’m so proud of him that I always brag, “My tito can do 2 colors!” I’d always tell my grade school classmates. Those whom I’ve seen complete all six (only on TV) were my idol and I consider them a either a hoax or not from this world.

Years passed and I fully forgot my fascination and frustration with this puzzle until the fad returned once again.  At first I just shrug off the urge to buy thinking that I’ve passed that stage already and have surrendered it to be solved by the young geeks. It seems though that my attraction to it cannot be denied. More people seem to have mastered it and every time I see one, I secretly envied them. Enough is enough.

I eventually bought myself another cube and grabbed the opportunity to fill in the gaps during my one week vacation to learn it. I printed tips from colleagues, searched the web for more instructions and like one student trying to make up for bad grades, I spent extra time studying how it really works. Within 3 days, I got it at last! The next days I can do it without looking at the guide and I was timing how long it takes for me to complete it – I may not in the league of the speed cubers, but who cares? A 5-minute average is good for me.

Now I’m very thankful that I did not include acquiring this skill among the 100-things-to-do-before-I-die list or I could be counting down just 99 more. Whew. I never really knew that the day will come, when I’d lift my head high and say, “Tito Joe, who?” Hahahaha.

Taken by my ever supportive wifey. State 2.

 

 

House For Sale?

No I’m not selling our house, yet. Lately though, I’ve been scanning and mentally tagging – with or without approval from my wife - some items that I might sell online.  Signs of the times? Well, it could be, it could be not.  But don’t be alarmed as we’re not at that level of need, at least for now; I’m just following one of my golden rules that say, “Practice makes perfect”. In this case it’s practicing to sell.

And my wife couldn’t agree more with that. In the past I’ve sold items that I know got her disapproval not to mention irritation. A few years back I sold my mountain bike for only PhP 2500 which I initially got for approx PhP 17000 just after 3 years of having it. What followed next was my 1-year old Playstation 2 for only PhP 5000 over the original price of around Php 15000. The last one was our old car. I sold it for only PhP 50000 (in my defense, the Kia’s resale value is really low) just almost after 4 years with us. We got it for PhP 128000.

Frankly speaking I felt a bit sad having to let go of those items. But then, selling and getting a payment every time for each transaction gave me some sense of accomplishment; of course not until I later get to tell my wife about each sale. Every time I tell her, “The buyers were so happy… I had a good deal”, her raised eyebrow tells me she couldn’t agree more – that’s agreeing with the buyers being happy but disagreeing with me having a good deal. I wonder when she’ll get a court hold order for me to stop selling.

In my quest to perfect the trade, I started asking some friends around while embarrassingly telling the stories of my recent non-profitable activities –their shaking head and looks of disbelief and regret (for not buying it instead) confirm my wife’s opinion. I likewise checked the web for some tips and eventually re-activated my ebay account (like a cocked gun ready to be used).  Luckily, I also reached the site www.claimspages.com that has an item depreciation guide which could be a big help to me whenever I decide for an item’s selling price. The list made me realize that not all items have 10% depreciation over a 10 year period. I must have been busy pestering my seat mate during our 4^th year high school accounting class. Ti abi.

My eagerness to start selling some petty items again started when we bought a multi-function printer. This item immediately made our existing scanner obsolete – although it has been rarely used.  Just the perfect reason – an item for disposal which is still too good for freecycle. And so just a couple of days after I posted the item in ebay, I got a deal with someone. He bid for half the price – not bad for electronic gadgets. A few emails and SMS later, I received the payment (thru GCash) and I shipped the scanner in return. It was an exciting experience – my first ebay sale and my first time to receive payment thru GCash. Now, I’m really selling. Happy buyer + Happy seller = Happy wife.

How long will it take me to take our room TV out of its mounting? Now I wonder…

She’s Hot

The anticipation of a storm (Mitag) somehow affected this week’s day-off. I got more bored, got lazier and miss the company of my wife more.

So to compensate for all that negativity and longing, I got out of my normal routine and tried to look for something worthwhile doing.

That’s when I met someone I haven’t seen for a long time, and if I remember it right, I haven’t touched her for years. Well the time and opportunity was perfect -my wife was out, I was alone. And with the eagerness to deviate from something so predictable, I picked her up in excitement. She’s still got the curve and she turned on hot so easily. Great, just my type.

Being separated for quite a while, we got some getting-to-know- each-other moment but fair enough we got along well quickly. As I laid my hands on her, she responded immediately and did what was expected of her. Hana is her name and we miss each other a lot.

We did it three times in a row and the last one was the best. I was getting the hang of it already but then my session with Hana has to end.

Time flies so fast and I didn’t notice that all three shirts are done. And our Hanabishi flatiron has to end its job.

Blame it on the rain as they say. In this case, on the storm that gladly didn’t pass through our place. It is nerve- wracking to wait for the 100kph storm, but looking at the bright side I got to notice Hana who has been collecting dust right under our computer. I just don’t know if when I’ll see Hana again, but it seems that we’ll be frequenting to see each other as I realize that I love the sight of a well-ironed shirt. Ti abi.

To you Hana, Hasta la vista, baby!

Masskara: New Things…Part II

“So many beers, So little time.” – Alcoholics Anonymous

“Kari sa Bacolod, dala maskara.” Masskara Festival quote

I never thought that coming back to Bacolod during the Masskara festival would bring such a new experience even for me. Regardless of our 3-day stay being a bit short and was full of odds (as I’ve mentioned before), the vacation was not only fun but educational as well. Sounds like something from Knowledge TV? Well, sort of.

Some of the new things I learned are:

Upon returning to work after the time-warped vacation, this year’s street parade music kept playing in my mind. LSS (Last song syndrome) or was it forced deeper in my ear canals with the giant speakers (actually, I’ve seen bigger ones before) that surrounded the whole plaza? What’s weird is, this year’s music is in Ilonggo (I got used to hearing foreign festive/pop songs, but then it’s more appropriate) but in modern version. I don’t know the origin of that song but I knew we used to sing that one way back in my Elementary days -“may ga-labaylabay na aso, utot ni Celso (A smoke passed by, it was Celso’s gas)”. Don’t worry, that’s our wrecked lyrics. The original one is decent. By the way, Celso was our classmate.

Masskara is pronounced as MASSkara rather than massKARA. I must have been too focused with getting drunk when I was in college that I failed to learn about this. I never even knew that it was only 28 years ago when the first festival was celebrated. And so it dawned on me that I may have indeed attended the 1st street parade. I still can recall which street I was watching it and what mask my parents bought for me. I was a smiling devil then. Ti abi, a Christian in a Devil’s mask. What could be more ironic than that?

The Club category street parade had several participants with its members on scooters. Gone are the days when BMX and Mountain bikes can be seen parading and performing – or did we miss it? I like what it used to be as the sight of motorized vehicles dominating the parade is not only noisy but polluting as well. Anyway, it’s one of the signs of the times.

Bacolod at last has its own SM mall. Just barely a year old and built in the reclamation area, it is now home not only to mall goers but of course a job source for almost 6000 employees. This is only one of several new companies (another famous one is Teletech, a BPO company) that started doing business there. Hopefully other Manufacturing corporation gets enticed as well. I might consider working there if that happens.

Lastly, I learned that I can now enjoy a shower at home without having to fetch water - which before won’t even get me to use the shower head. Kabo lang (water scoop only). Since we transferred there (1980s), on good days I’ll be pumping water from our well, on bad days though I would have to fetch a couple of blocks from home (from our neighbor’s). And that is done daily. No Ifs or Buts. That went on even until my last year – i.e., before I left to look for work. So before we left home for our trip back to Cavite, I enjoyed my shower just like those in soap commercials. Sorry Greenpeace, I really have to enjoy it.

So now, although I’m back working, back to reality, I’m now looking forward to being in Bacolod again for the Christmas season. I’m just really hoping that next time my on-line reservations will be better, weather will be great, more polite taxi drivers, fewer litterbugs and that Cebu Pacific’s baggage receiving area will at least have a conveyor belt – automated or not, it would be a big improvement from their current system. Ti abi.

Internet for Oldies

This year’s Christmas vacation, we’re introducing (if not intimidating) our parents to the modern world of computers. It has been a week already and most of it were spent on buying a new pc, setting it up for internet use and an almost never ending tutorial for our mother on how it will be used to connect to the internet.

I can still remember that more than a couple of years ago, my wife and I gave my mother a cellphone for her to join the SMS generation. I can still picture her laughing out loud upon discovering that she had just sent a text message to herself. Luckily after some patient sessions with my wife (with the unnecessary texting even when they are a couple of feet apart) she learned the basics slowly and was able to send us messages while we are at the airport on our way back by the end of our holiday vacation.

Now is her time to transition to the more complex world wide web.

Fortunately with some organizational and training skills I acquired from work, I got to somehow manage and make the sessions less stressful by labeling almost every wires on the back panel, capturing actual hardware pictures and screenshots. All of which were then transferred to a Word document as a training material, printed and had it available for her to refer from it while doing the start-up from the very beginning - from plugging the AC cord, powering up the UPS, powering the CPU, logging into Windows XP and then connecting to the internet via dial up.

And it doesn’t stop there yet. Once connected, more questions poured in. “What is an icon? What’s a double click? Why double click on some and single click on the others? What’s a domain? Why’s there an @ character? What’s a shortcut? Why’s the Window’s Start button got the Turn Off computer option? Why did the message turned to Read (status) when she hasn’t even finished reading it?”. And these, are just a few of the long list of “WH” and “How” questions that I never knew would come.

Despite all that, I think my patience is paying off. She’s already sent a couple of emails to my sister abroad and some to a family friend. She’s already started surfing the web and had already filed some of her Favorites which she checked a couple of times if it is still there. Just to make sure, I guess. I think my “relocating building” analogy is a bad one.

Though seeing the progress happening, today I checked some books in our local bookstore expecting to see some computer self-help book applicable for people like my mother. Well I saw Basic C++, How to Upgrade your PC, Do-It-Yourself: Fixing a PC and other books with Fundamentals written on it which when I opened contained a lot of computer jargons that would only reassure me that the new PC at home will never be opened again once we leave home back to work.

I come near a book from local authors “Internet Fundamentals” but lacked the basics on the PC’s operation. If I would have expanded my self-authored material, I could have made some bucks out of it. It’s so frustrating, but so far I haven’t seen a book with a direct approach to Internet for Oldies. Hopefully, I’ll chance upon on it at Powerbooks once I get back to Manila.

I’ve got few more days here in Bacolod. Tomorrow I’ll be teaching my father. Fingers crossed.

Reunions in Bacolod

“In vino veritas” - anonymous

Last time, I wrote about the degrading condition of Bacolod city with regards to some taxi drivers’ misdemeanor, street cleanliness, traffic congestion and concrete roads that seems to get back to the ages where ruts are a norm due to the number of carriages that passes through it. Well, all still seems to be true in every place I’ve been lately. And this is just within the confines of the city where I live in.

I’ve come realize though that these are not the reasons why I still like to come here as often as time and money would permit – normally both happens every December. Well, I kept on coming back for the people I’ve known for years. I’ve kept coming back for my parents and family, for my classmates and friends – whoever is still here and haven’t left Bacolod to work (some left to permanently stay abroad for good).

From the time we arrived from Manila and within just one week, the calls for reunion – or more likely called, an invitation to drink - poured in through SMS.

The first one was with my IP brods. These are classmates and friends in college. I was one of the founding members of this informal group. IP stands for Iota Pi or International Playboy. I was clueless though where we got this name. Or just like any rock bands today, it was taken on the spur of the moment from one of our drunken misadventures with the aide of Red Horse or San Miguel beers, Toska Vodkas, Ginebra Gin or a mixture of all of the above.

Unlike our college years, this time we just now drank in moderation (ahem). We are just happy enough to spend some time reminiscing and checking what everyone’s been doing lately. Surprisingly, we ended the session early. If this was done more than 10 years ago, it would have been over by the wee hours of the morning and we would be going home reeking of alcohol and some other smell that we might have got in the process.

The second reunion was with my high school peers (batch ’90 SJHS). I’ve never expected that this year I’ll be attending a General Homecoming instead of the usual annual batch reunion. With Melvin and his wife, we arrived at St. Joseph’s High School – La Salle - it used to be just SJHS. No La-Salle - by 2pm despite the heavy downpour (it’s been raining for days since we’ve arrived). From the moment we entered the gate, the familiar faces bring back memories and stirred some confusion. I know some names but forgot the face (due to change in appearance) and some is the other way around - knew the face but forgot the name.

Registration was a breeze. So right after it, we wasted no time and went to tour the school’s ground. Most of the buildings are still there. Some of our 2nd and 4th year classrooms have been changed to a school chapel. The pavilion and former canteen is now nowhere to be found as it has been merged into a bigger activity center (Oscar Hilado Civic Center). Part of the football field has been consumed by this new building too.

At the rear part of the campus, our Library, Practical Arts Room (San Lorenzo Ruiz Building), and Home Economics building still stands. Some new structures already annexed the area beside the periphery fence.

Just like a trained bloodhound, I was so delighted to see the familiar beer bottle. Right behind the civic center is the new canteen where just for this event beers are sold. Some guys from the batches ahead of us were already drinking. At last, after 20 years, this is my first time to drink booze legally inside the SJHS campus – we used to smuggle alcohol before to satisfy our curiosity. Ti abi. Were we alcoholics in the making then?

Our batch’s attendance reached to almost 20 by the time dinner was served. Our allocated table was filled with smiling faces, exchanging news and pleasantries most of the time. The free dinner (supposedly for a fee during registration) was fairly good. It is also worth noting that most of our teachers are still there (some just paid a visit).

There’s Mr. Leon Sales whom I won’t forget for it is through him that I learned to touch-type fast enough (to the surprise of most people). There’s Mr. Baldomero who was our 1st year moderator and who introduced us the native yoyo called “El Diablo” (I don’t know if this is the real name) where an hour glass-type carved wood is balanced between a string held by both hands. Ms. Logrunio, Ms. Lupo, Mr. Lariza and our “psychic” Filipino teacher, Mr. Mahigne were also there. Then there’s Mr. Dante Amaguin who arrived late but nonetheless still got our attention with his magic tricks. He was our 4th year class adviser.

The enjoyable night was interrupted due to a problem of one of batchmate’s car. But that’s another story. I might write about it once I got time to kill.

I’m just now glad to be part of this series of reunions. It is always nice to see friends still in good condition, good health, successful in their respective careers or just plainly contented to just be still here in our hometown and yet survive (I actually find them lucky. I even envy them).

Time always flies. So before I know it, I will be here again back for another Reunion in Bacolod.

Home in Bacolod on the 25th…(and some of the Booboo’s)

After spending our Christmas Eve in Batangas with my wife’s family, we woke up by 4am the next morning and had to go straight to Park and Fly to leave our car while we are in Bacolod. From there we were whisked to the Manila Domestic Airport through their shuttle service.

We were on queue earlier than our 2-hour check-in time. Even then, the lines of travelers going to different destinations were already jam packed. Some lines even crisscrossed each other to the frustration of most people including myself. One of the noticeable things is the number of foreign visitors (British, Americans, and other Asians) going to places such as Kalibo, Cebu and Palawan. When I checked there’s no one in Bacolod’s queue. I’m wondering why.

The 845am flight was delayed for more than an hour. If not for the Delifrance’s Christmas Ham Clubhouse sandwich (surprisingly, it’s one of the best sandwich I had tasted) that I was eating for breakfast, I would have been grouchy as I always am given the situation.

Boarding time came. To my wife’s dismay we had to walk from the departure area to our designated plane. It used to be a short one. Now it’s some 300 meters walk and longer exposure (this is what she actually hates) to the glaring morning sun as the plane themselves (also to other domestic places) were also on parallel queue. One can just imagine how many people are traveling even on this Christmas day.

Except for being not on the window seat, the flight was smooth as usual. The on board “bring me” games was held just like every Cebu Pacific flight. This time though my wife was too tired to actively participate. The addition of tokens and corporate items for sale (nice gifts for those you realized you forgot), made it even more interesting. And of course, the beautiful flight stewardesses are still there.

Landing wasn’t bad either. I was at this point thinking that we can leave the airport in a jiffy after alighting from the plane. But that just isn’t going to happen. The “new and improved” arrival area and baggage claim answered (just maybe one of the reasons why) the question why we haven’t got any foreigners on board. In these times of high-tech, innovative and “whatever-you-call-it” technology, one would be shocked to see how the bags are handled. After manually unloading the bags from the cart, these were just either dragged or tossed on a metal barricaded floor where you can easily claim it if you’re lucky to get the attention of porters handling it. Damn, I should stop watching the Discovery channel.

After some frustrating time, I was able to claim our bags. These is one of the times I’ll recite in my mind “Good things come those who wait” as a mantra.

As it has been our practice to avoid the taxis right outside the airport terminal as they would normally overcharge, we walked out of the airport vicinity to flag down an empty taxi just along the road. Unfortunately, two consecutive cabs I got were Grinches (or they could have thought of me just the same). I find it so shameful when I am being swindled by someone who’s a kababayan (town-mate for this matter) just because I got bags (obviously coming from the airport). I can just imagine if it were especially Caucasians. It’s now reason # 2 why the foreigners aren’t queuing for Bacolod?

I gave up hailing a cab right in front of the airport. We decided to board a jeepney instead that would take us to downtown. Along the way though I couldn’t help but notice the scattered garbage, uncut grasses in the city plaza & the stagnant sidewalk canals. This is not the Bacolod I used to know for years. What an un-welcoming sight. Reason # 3.

From downtown, we were lucky enough to get an honest taxi driver as I’ve observed that there were only a few of them (pun intended) on duty on this Christmas day as the streets are somewhat empty than usual. Well, at least my resolution (for some years already) of not generalizing anything or anyone will still work. At least just SOME of them are bad. NOT ALL.

Eventually, we got home. My tatay and nanay were there with some of my siblings. It was almost 11am. And as expected a good lunch of seafoods were served. Tatay cooked sweet and sour fish, tanigue kinilaw (both which are his specialty) and with some fruits for dessert. It was another hearty lunch.

Thankfully we are home. Home sweet Home. And it’s still Christmas day.