Coming Home (a year later)

Wow. Talk about a waste of space. It's been a WHOLE YEAR since my last post here? Tsk. I just think about the time I spent customizing this template and I get disappointed that I don't blog here often enough. 


Oh well. Guess what? I still don't drive!


And since the last post, I've launched two new blogs: The Newbie Photographer, and Between the Covers. Unlike all my previous blogs, these two are more targeted in the sense that they have themes. The first one, obviously, is for newbie photographers. The second, is where my book reviews are at. However, I did share my DC Ranch Scottsdale fantasy on Between the Covers recently too. Hehe.


So what have you been up to? 

My Own Car

I wonder when will this happen? When will I ever get my very own car?

Last week on Executive Class, a TV show on ANC, they featured the Toyota Hybrid Prius among other high end cars. My dad and I watched closely and he started talking about how the Prius would be perfect for me. Yes, I agree. Until we heard the price tag - 2M pesos. No way.

One would think that being eco-friendly, such cars like the Hybrid Prius should be more affordable. Unfortunately, the car importers don't get any tax incentive for bringing in cars like these so it's very very expensive.

Then we talked about other small cars that may fit my budget more. Still, I don't think I can afford a car with my lifestyle. I'd have to do a lot of scrimping to make the monthly payments. Hehe.

Lately, my brother and my dad have been discussing getting another second hand car. This time they're interested in finding an SUV/AUV. I don't know if they will actually get one, but it won't be a third car so that their current used cars would go to me (like I'm next in line, haha). I think it will be bought to replace one of theirs, and then they'd sell one of the Toyotas.

So, no hand-me-down car for poor old me. Haha!

Setting up new blog?

I am thinking of building another blog (I know, don't I have enough). But I really feel strongly about setting up two additional blogs. Those two would be niche blogs, as in I will only be speaking of something specific rather than the mixed bag I have in my other sites.

Before I set them up though, I must consider a couple of things. Do I self host them? If so, I need to check out good webhosting plans and also decide if I'd sign up for a new one, or just add on to the existing one I have for my other sites. I'm even thinking of setting it up in Blogger and just signing up for a domain name.

There are really a lot of things to consider before setting up a blog or a website and deciding on webhosting is definitely one of the most important steps, next to picking out domain names.

Nikon dreams

I called Columbia, Nikon's authorized dealer in the country.  The D5000 isn't expected to arrive in the country until the last week of May, or the first week of June. And they don't have info on the prize yet.

Their D80 kit costs too much for me. :(

So do I buy a brand new D60 kit somewhere else, or do I wait for the D5000 though I don't know how much it's going to cost me?

Nice chair!

I'm trying to finish my part for the documentation of the proceedings of the Youth Camp I attended last week.  I'm making progress, but I find my mind drifting elsewhere.  I guess that's entirely my fault because I have so many other windows open - temptation each and every one of them! :)

I was looking through the photos I took of that weekend because I wanted to showcase the chairs at the dining hall of Forest Club. They were quite comfortable, yet very simple.  Made of hard wood, I think.  Rustic, western furniture that can withstand time.

With all the photos I took, I couldn't find a good one that includes one of those chairs! But here's one I found on the 'Net that is a close enough match:

This one has a high back while the one I'm looking for doesn't.  But I think the overall feel would be the same. Cool. I mean wood normally lets you feel cool in a warm sunny day right? That's what such a chair means to me at least :)  And the grooved seat is guaranteed to make you feel comfortable.

Credit Card Deals

I received this brochure in the mail today - showing me the discounts available for hotels across the country if I use my credit card this summer.  These promos are awesome and total buck busters, but one has got to be careful too.  Having discounts doesn't mean you should use your card incessantly, you still have to consider how much you'll be able to pay on your next due date.

Personally, I think I signed up with a good credit card company but I know many out there who are starting to think that signing up for their cards was a bad deal.  These are people who rushed the signup, not really pausing to think the pros and cons of having a credit card, or not comparing the different rates and perks offered by different companies.

In my previous job, we would sometimes pay bills or buy supplies using my boss' personal credit card.  At the time, we didn't even know that we could have signed up for a business credit card. Seriously, apparently you could get cash backs or deals for using one.  You just have to find the right card that offers such.

Often enough, you will see promotions everywhere about discounts and freebies for credit card users; since the cost of gasoline started to go high, we've seen credit card companies tying up with gas companies to offer rebate options/cash back promos.  One time, while my brother was driving me around, I had asked him if his card was eligible for such offers. Apparently, he has to have his current card converted to a gasoline card so he could benefit from the rebates.  I think he should go ahead and do it, everytime he'd gas up, he can drop his cash on a jar in his car and when it's time to pay his card bill, he can get money from the cash jar to pay it off.  That way, it's still like paying cash for the gasoline while enjoying the rebates that the credit card offers.

Well that's just an idea.

The point is, you not only have to be a responsible credit card owner, but the responsibility starts when you choose the right one for you. 

Domain taken

Bummer. 

I was planning to put up new blog, but as it turns out, the domain was already taken. So maybe I'll setup a free one instead with either WP or Blogger again.

I really wanted that domain. :(

Site downtime - my fault this time

If you were trying to visit my verabear.net and found an error page or something, please do not blame Philhosting. This time, it isn't their fault but mine. I've decided to move my blog to a new server, but the new DNS propagated sooner than I could setup over there, hence the site not rendering.

Yep, totally my fault. I'm working on getting it restored REALLY soon. Fingers crossed.

THanks for having me in your thoughts!

Recovering lost posts

I've decided to give up on Philhosting. I will keep the cheap hosting package indefinitely. I probably won't be setting up verabear.net yet on my new Dreamhost account, I'll need time to think things through properly.

What's getting to me is that I still haven't recovered all the posts I've written from December 7th to around the 28th. I got some from Google's cache, but not everything's showing there anymore. There are blurbs at Technorati, but that only shows the partial posts. Checking my feeds came to me only a few hours ago, and by then it was too late! The feeds have also updated to what's currently available on the server. The lost posts are gone from Feedburner too. Sadly, I don't think that I actually have subscribers whom I can ask to check if they received my posts in their mails. :( I really should have thought about backing up through the feeds as soon as the problem started.

I guess I've learned an important lesson in everything that's happened here. A lesson that I thought I already learned when I lost my first blog a long time ago, that is to have a backup for my posts. I wonder if Windows Live Writer has that functionality, you know, for each post you publish through it?

Anyway, if anyone has any idea what I else I can do to recover the posts I lost, please let me know. I would be very greatful.

I've actually got ideas for several posts, and I've also got photos to put up for Project 365. But this issue with Philhosting has got me so out of the loop that I can't even just move along right away, you know? Argh.

Thank you for nothing, Philhosting

No real fix in sight. 

I do not think Philhosting will ever shape up. Apparently, I wasn't the only one having problems. I read from one blogger that her database was reverted to a December 6 backup, more or less the same time as mine was reverted to.

And support has not emailed me back.

This has truly caused me undue stress. 

The case of the Alabang Boys (who really aren't boys anymore)

I've been telling my brother to switch channels - listening in to the Congressional Hearing is really frustrating me. It's like watching a telenovela, so much drama!

I don't mean to have my non-Filipino readers at a loss as to what this Alabang Boys case is all about, but I don't want to narrate the entire story here. You can checkout some of the links from this search result: http://results.myhpf.co.uk/framedresults.asp?Keyword=alabang+boys+case

Department of Justice officials, specifically the fiscals/state prosecutors, are taking heat for releasing a Resolution just before Christmas, which was in effect dismissing the case. As it appears in the hearing, the tone and language of the resolution was as if it was taking as fact, and siding with, the position of their respondents. In fact, the resolution looks like a case agains the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Err?

There a number of irregularities with this case, and I am in no mind to list them all. But had I been sitting in that hearing, here are some questions I would have asked:

• Since Atty. Verano (representing the respondents) claims that he had no prior discussion with Usec. Blancaflor regarding the case, why did he have the Order sent through his office? He had his office messenger bring the document to Blancaflor's office, why not just messenger it straight to the office of the Department Secretary?
• Claiming that he did not want anything to do with the document, why did Blancaflor allow his secretary to take the document to the office of the Secretary of Justice? Would it not be construed that he is endorsing the document? Shouldn't he have just outrightly refused to do anything in behalf of his fraternity brother?
• Why did the office of the chief state prosecutor release the resolution to the public, without clearing it with the DOJ secretary, given that they have a memo circular mandating a review of all cases of this nature that are for dismissal?
• In Fiscal Rasado's case, why didn't he inhibit himself from reviewing the case, when he already knew that the defense lawyer was his law school professor? He is in charge of looking into the merits of the case and recommend it for filing, or for dismissal. At that stage in the case, he was like a judge who must assume impartiality. Although if I was in his place, I wouldn't personally be affected if my college professors were part of a case where I need to make an important discernment, I would think it would still be the better thing to do, in the interest of fairness to both parties, to request that the case be assigned to a different fiscal. KWIM?
• Shouldn't be the DOJ be working in partnership with the PDEA? Shouldn't they be actually helping PDEA build solid, air-tight cases about drug pushers/traffickers? They should be represented in the PDEA team! It appears that they have no measures for coordination here. PDEA does its job, and then DOJ may or may not let the case reach the courts? How does that help the campaign against drugs?

Goodbye 2008

Yesterday, before I even posted my Project 365 photos, I sat down and prepared to write an ode to 2008, a thank you post really, just like the one I did for 2007. I don't know why, but nothing came out. I'm sure it isn't because there's nothing to be thankful for the past year. Really, there are so many things I can't even begin to count them...

I had the grandest time in Bohol in September. This was only the second time that Alfred and I had been away on our own. It was a super fun and a real vacation. We almost wished it not to end. 

At work, I was thankful for the chance to move back to my email support family in March and it was the smoothest transition ever. I had the most relaxing eight months of my work life! Truth be told, being there was bliss. I thought it would never end. But it did.

Moving to the console family in November, I had mixed emotions. Mostly, it's been marked by unwarranted stress. Partly because I wasn't sure what I was getting into, and also because I had no proficiency of the support to boast of. I knew it would be an uphill climb - it still is.  It is challenging but I am hanging on. Thank you for the challenge.

My family is well and healthy, no one has had any serious illness. One of my cousins had an operation to remove cysts from her ovary, but all's been cleared. I am especially thankful that my grandpa is still going strong. My nieces and nephews common kids sickness throughout the year, but they've all mostly been well too. Everyone's still in school, and that will always be considered a blessing. 

This year, my dad has decided to finally put our rusty treadmill to regular use. In fact, they had even bought a stationary bike and a Nautilus machine to round off their daily fitness regimen. Cheers to health and fitness for the entire family!

I had purchased a domain and a hosting package and things were going smoothly until this recent glitch. Still, I am thankful for the venue to express myself, and earn a little more money on the side. I also want to thank everyone I've met through my blogs. And the many personalities I've met through their blogs.

There are so many more things to be thankful for the past year, and I can only look forward to what 2009 is sure to bring. To everyone who comes through here, I wish you a prosperous new year!

Alfred's home!

*If you arrived here expecting ::where the moon shines::, you have been redirected to my Blogger blog temporarily. My site is experiencing server issues and my host, unfortunately, is out for the holidays. :(

Last night, as I was getting ready for work, I looked at my pink polo shirt and immediately wished that Alfred won't be wearing his pink polo shirt to work too. We would look so silly! To be honest though, I secretly wished he would too. Because, wouldn't it be sweet? Haha!

Anyway, I went straight to the clinic as soon as arrived at the office. You see, coming back from the vet's yesterday, my eyes were so irritated and they were soooo itchy, and there was stabbing pain all over. I lay down covered my eyes and wished it would go away. The pain went away but my eyes were still very watery and quite itchy. When I woke up last night, my eyes were covered with extra layers of muta - or morning stars as they are sometimes called too - on my eyes. My eyes were also itchy, and the lids were feeling quite hot. I knew then this wasn't a simple eye irritation.

The doc sent me home to avoid spreading pink eye around. I wasn't sure if I welcomed the extra day off or not. You see it's the last day of the fiscal week (Friday) and I have uploads due. It's crunch time for me. I also had agents scheduled for coaching last night.

Anyway, go home I must. I still stayed in the office until 1AM though, prepping stuff to take home with me so I could work a bit from here (technically I shouldn't because staring at a computer monitor will tire out my eyes). I also had to talk to one my agents who rendered his resignation :(

Back to Alfred. Since the clinic was on Alfred's floor (and very near my old beloved station), I passed by him before going down to our floor. And there he was wearing his pink polo shirt! Haha.

I saw him again just before I went home, and now he's here snoring away. I don't think I'll be letting him go home to his parents anytime soon. I think he wouldn't want to either. Not for my sake though, but for Zune. He's bent on disinfecting the entire compound, if he can, just to be sure that the parvo virus is killed. I'm afraid about the outside though. The street is littered with dog feces and last night when I came back from work, there were three neighborhood dogs scavenging for food in our trash bins! I'm not sure if they are strays or if they do have owners, but more than the inconvenience they cause us, what if they pick up the virus too? What if they're the ones spreading it around? Oh well.

Happy New Year!

Sadly, New Year's in the office was just like any other work day. My agents and I looked out the window at the stroke of midnight, watching all the fireworks light up the sky. I looked at the direction of our home, and picked the fireworks that I thought were the ones they had lit up - my Dad SMSd me to say that they were firing them already.

I had planned to leave the office by 7am on the dot. No go. I left about an hour and a half later. I found my cousins Freedah and Candy still up and singing. They've always been my buddies for all nighters. So I didn't totally miss out on videoke - I had breakfast, changed clothes, and ran down to sing with the rest of them until an hour or so ago. :)

Alfred's still in Bicol, probably flat out from drinking too much. Last night he mentioned trying to hitch a ride with his cousins who'll be heading home today. If he doesn't fit in their car/s, he'll ride with his brothers tomorrow. I really do miss him. 

I disabled my blog's redirect earlier, just to check if it was finally working. Just in case, I thought. But no. Everyone at the web host are really on holidays, such lousy customer service. I wonder if I'm the only Philhosting client whose having these problems? The thing is, I can access my Cpanel, but nothing for my Wordpress is accessible.

As a result, I've had to contact Entrecard support and they'll be disabling my EC. I had advertisers lined for the next couple of days, EC will manually return the credits they've paid to me. :(

Oh well, I am falling asleep on the keyboards already, better get on and have some sleep. 

Happy New Year everyone! Be safe and be blessed!

Another random post before the year closes...

*If you arrived here expecting ::where the moon shines::, you have been redirected to my Blogger blog temporarily. My site is experiencing server issues and my host, unfortunately, is out for the holidays. :(

After taking a shower this morning, I went ahead and tried to use mom's hair dryer and see if drying my hair would prevent it from curling up and have more of a finished, salon look. 

It wasn't effective. Either my hair is just so stubborn or I totally don't know how to blow dry my hair! It's probably the latter.

I had no intentions to go out this morning, in fact, I just donned another sun dress (also read nightgown :) ) after showering. I just wanted to time how long blow drying my short hair would take, so I know what to expect if I were to do it before work. So scrap that idea. It won't really do anything different. 

I will test how long it would take to iron my hair tonight. That shouldn't take longer than the blowdry did - under 10 minutes.

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It's probably not a good idea to have this next photo in the same post that I show off my short hair, but what the heck. Haha!

The piggy on the left is a cellphone holder - the only Christmas present I received on the 24th. Esban gave it to me. The piggy on the left, with a purple snout, is a wrist rest that one can use for the hand holding your mouse when you're on your computer. I got one like it, a blue bear, last Christmas from Nonoy (my boss). This one I bought for myself for use here at home. I brought home the blue bear a few weeks ago because I wanted to use one at home. Now I can bring blue bear back to work with me.

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Rather than just becoming hung up on the fact that my blog is down, I've been bloghopping through EC and also through my Digital Scrapbooking links (which reminds me, Blogrolling still doesn't seem to be 100% back up). There are so many wonderful freebies out there and I know missed so much more in the month or two that I've been laying low on the scrapbooking stuff.

I started downloading some freebie kits from BooLand Designs and my favorite Vicki Parker. And then I suddenly realized I still haven't gotten myself an online backup solution. So now I'm in the process of downloading Carbonite. I'll be using their free trial. If it works efficiently, I'll go ahead and purchase a year's subscription.

I first heard of Carbonite from Ro of Scrap Girls, through their newsletters. It sounded like a good idea, plus it would take out the effort from having to manually back up every once in a while - what if you forget? And I always forget.

Plus I always have computer problems every couple of months (though I hope it takes another 6 months before I have any issues again) and it takes time to back up, format, and then restore files. That has caused my files to be more disorganized every time we have to do it. With Carbonite, restoring files might just be a little more simple. Hopefully.

I hope my Internet connection supports this automatic back up well. We'll see how it goes. 

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Here's another photo I'd like to share, taken a week or so back. My Zune, with his girlfriend Sharpay:

This was a rare shot because they're usually at each other whenever they're together. Or Sharpay will be eating off Zune's bowl! Haha. I think Esban took this shot - he's way better at shots like these than I am.

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Mom did a lot of cleaning in the past 24 hours and she unearthed some of the photos we've had lying around here. This has prompted my dad to go over our old pictures and take them off the albums to be scanned at a later time. He intends to put them on picture frames too. So 2009 will probably start off with me posting photos from years ago. 

You're not lost...

Well hello there! I had my http://verabear.net redirect to this blog for the time being. My Wordpress site is down due to a database error on the server side. And since I found out that my hosting service is on holidays until the 5th, I figured I'd post here or at Bravejournal, and redirect my site's hits here too.

I don't want this post to be about how I hate Philhosting right now, that's what I already did in this post.

So what's up for the last day of the year 2008? Not much for me. I'd probably sit in front of my PC until it's time to sleep again. I had one day off (last night) and I'm due back at work tonight. Uhm-hmm, just when everyone would be enveloped in smoke, watching all the fireworks, and singing the Auld Lang Syne come midnight tonight, I'll be at the office. The next off I'm getting, isn't until Saturday. Argh.

But spending New Year's Eve in the office shouldn't be all that bad right? I mean, we'd be on the 6th floor and that should be a good vantage point to see fireworks from different parts of the city. We could probably even try and get to the rooftop, for an even better view.

I guess the only negative thing about having to be at work tonight is that this will be the first time ever that I wouldn't be spending New Year's at home, with all of my family around me. I did request to have tonight off (and originally, my offs are supposed to be tue-wed nights) but they decided to have half of us off on Christmas and I got that. Christmases are fun of course, but welcoming the New Year has just been more fun, you know? 

I wonder how the kids are going to be celebrating tonight? Ton's around to facilitate the games anyway. Hay, no more all night videoke singing from me. At least they'll be relieved I'm not around to hog the mics all night long. Haha :)

New blog: http://verabear.net

Earlier today I pulbished my new blog http://verabear.net/

I have decided to use that as my everyday blog and I hope you'd come over and visit me there too. Soon I will hide my posts here, but keep links to my archives/categories, which are all hosted on my new blog too.

It is still a work in progress, and I am using a pre-made free template rather than one I had hoped to have designed on my own.

See you there!

First Computerized Gov't Elections in the Philippines

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No Layout - Scrapbook Saturday - for the newbie digiscrapper

No layout for Scrapbook Saturday this week. I had it in my mind to feature some digiscrapping celebrity (not that I am close to any one of them) or to post something that will really help out those who are new to digital scrapbooking. I didn't have time for proper research though so I'm ending up with nothing. But please do visit the SS Headquarters, starting with Dette, and visit other SS participants.

I ran a search for verabear and digital scrapbooking and one of the results led me to my journal archives. This post actually was written when I first found Susan of Raspberry Road. Though Shabby Princess was the first ever designer I downloaded a freebie from, it was actually Susan's kit that I first used for an actual layout (the one I shared on the first Scrapbook Saturday).

Now, Susan sells her designs on her blog but she still continues to give full kit freebies to her loyal blog readers. And I still go there to visit. Believe it or not, I don't just go for the freebies, I actually go to oogle over the beautiful designs and layout created by others.

Over on my sidebar is a very long Digiscrapping blogroll. Yesterday I thought that since Maria of Digifree does a very good job in her automated process of posting freebies from other blogs; and Ikeagoddess also has huge helpings of yummy freebie previews she's collected, I don't really need my own blogroll just to get my own fill of freebie kits. But I realized that I'm not just doing it for the freebies now. I actually visit their blogs to read their posts! I also enjoy and take inspiration from layouts that are posted in those blogs.

There are plenty of sites offering tutorials (free or otherwise) to get you along in creating your very first layout. I think that this freebie from Scrap Girls is one of those things that really gave me the nudge to get started. They also have a huge freebie kit for download that can very well be the newbie digiscrapper's tool kit.

On a different note, I am looking forward to a packed weekend.
Sunday afternoon I'll be seeing girlfriends.
Monday, Alfred and I will be going out to see a movie.
In both days, I will be making truffles like crazy because I haven't made any in the past two weeks. I've offered a special discounted price to my ever loyal fans.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to squeeze in time for bag organizer project. I really want to do that as soon as possible.

Saturday just flew right by me! I was looking forward to getting home earlier than usual for a Saturday but we were slapped with unplanned outages starting at 5PM and I had to be the one in charge at the time it happened. Hehe. It was a fun day at work though, surprisingly.

Anyways, a happy weekend to everyone!

Diverse interests

This seems to be a week of discoveries.

My colleague, who runs Pasaway.org and Pinoy Downloads, introduced me to a service that allows me to earn money (in British Pounds) just by using my alloted homepage as my default search engine. Granted, you'll have to search many many times before you really see money pour in, but you don't lose anything either. Check it out my homepage or sign up as my friend, here.

I also learned of of Xylia, and met the Sore Thumbs gang at the start of this week.

Through Blog Explosion, I had also browsed through interesting blogs that I've bookmarked and will visit again soon.

I also got freaked out and have had lots of laughs this week, courtesy of Peter.

There are new additions to my Digiscrapping Blogroll as I visited designers and admired they work for the first time. Sorry, I can't link them in this post because I didn't keep track of the newest links.

But I've also realized, through the many new things I found interesting this week, is that I am interested in many things. This is good. But it also has a negative side. I find that my mind is scattered - I have so many concerns throughout the day, so much that I want to spend my time on. I want to read and finish the book I picked up last week. I want to organize my digi stash and make layouts. I want to blog. I want to learn to make Wordpress themes from scratch. I want to earn money online.

My baking/truffle-making isn't even on that list yet. And then there's still the official work that I have to do.

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Have you seen pictures of the 2008 Beijing Olympics? I didn't see the Opening Ceremony (I'll look for reruns during the weekend) but I have been browsing this gallery. I am awed by the colors, the pageantry and the spectacle of it all. I know there is politics associated with China hosting the Olympics this year, but that aside, it would have been something to be a performer in any one of those numbers!