Occasional Ramblings

I like to monitor these room temperature and humidity sensors I placed around the house. Photos by Flickr/Jep It was the Lenten season last week, and it would seem that traditional wisdom holds true for being regarded as the warmest time of the year in the Philippines. True enough, temperatures in Iloilo have been soaring to as high as 35 degrees Celsius in the afternoon over the past few weeks - and forecasts predict this trend will persist for the rest of this week. The city government has even made an announcement of a preemptive suspension of classes if the heat index reaches a certain threshold. The air-conditioner at home cannot cope with the heat, so I'm forced to hang out in nearby cafes to enjoy coffee while leeching off the shop's air-conditioning. I think there's something wrong with the unit. Luckily, it is still under warranty, but I need to figure out how to have it serviced. My overworked air-conditioning unit. Photos by Flickr/Jep Even the...

Oktoberfest hic (excuse me) and balloon animals

Every October for the past 5 years or so, a german colleague hosts a beer drinking fest for the rest of the employees. We had this year's activity a few days ago which also coincided with our colleague's send off party (he's off to greener pastures so to speak). Lots of german sausages, sauerkraut, pretzels, cheeses and other dishes with weird sounding names. And of course, free flowing beer!... :) There were also a lot of activities. Beer drinking contest, armwrestling, a contest on who could pound a 6" nail on a piece of lumber the fastest (I joined this event and lost. I'm still convinced that the lumber was harder on my end that's why I lost.), and lumber sawing. To tell you the truth I was a bit skeptical with the authenticity of these games. I suspected that these games weren't really traditional games in Germany and that somehow our german host was just having a private joke at our expense. I wasn't too concerned however since it was all in go...

Nifty feature or stalking tool?

Can you imagine yourself going back to the lifestyle you had when you didn't own a mobile phone? For most of us, I think not. Cell phones have become a necessary part of our daily lives and it's among the things you check you have with you when you leave the house together with the house keys and your wallet. Coverage has also improved quite a lot since several years back with the addition of more and more cell sites. You don't hear about dead spots anymore even in basement parking lots in malls thanks to mini cell sites that they install in big buildings. Interestingly, the 2 big mobile networks (GSM networks) here where I live just launched their new value-added service wherein you can now "track" your loved ones wherever they are. The service isn't as accurate as a GPS device but it will do. It is more accurate in places where they have a lot of cell sites like in the big cities (the service can tell you in which particular building somebody is) and in the...

Finally! A cat's blog

I am pleased to announce that Brat's blog is finally up. I have been snapping at his tail for a long time to finish it but he refused to release it untill he was fully satisfied with the overall look and feel of the site. He could have just chose a standard blog template just like what I did but noooo... he just had to have a custom built design. Oh well, cats are naturally picky I suppose. View Brat's blog at bratkun.blogspot.com . I have also conveniently placed a quick link to his website in the sidebar. For you cat lovers out there, you might also want to check out his online photo gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bratkun/ to see pictures of Brat with his friends. Want to know more? If you have a friendster account, check out Brat's profile there under bratkun@hellokitty.com and get to know his online kitty friends. I have been convincing 2 other friends to start their blogs. They haven't started because of something or the other. Excuses, excuses...

Holiday ranting and some car trouble

I'm glad the year is over! Things weren't going very well for me last December. There were a total of 4 non-working holidays that was on a weekday for the second half of December last year. Plus the weekends, that's just 8 days total until the new year. I should have been at home enjoying the time off from work. Instead, I was on duty at the office during most of the holidays. Bummer! Being on duty doesn't mean I have to report for work the entire day, although it meant waking up very early in the morning to attend a meeting at 7am in the morning. That's everyday. It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or a weekend, a public holiday, or even Christmas, you still have to attend that meeting which goes on for about 1 and a half hours. Working for a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year manufacturing plant meant there should always be somebody on-call 24 hours a day. It's acually composed of a team, each with their own area to look into. If the pla...

Sydney Trip Diaries: Sydney Leg, Chilly Mornings

The business seats on the flight to Sydney was much nicer. My seat was on the second floor on the first row just at the back of the cockpit which is cool because of two things: You get to catch glimpses of what they do in there whenever a crewmember would speak to the pilots (I could actually hear some of the navigation instruments when we were landing - it was a digital voice counting down presumably the altitude reading) and more importantly you get to be served first - haha! I watched a couple of movies before sleep overcame me (I haven't had much sleep the previous night). Oh and I have this neighbor who drinks a lot of Shiraz during the flight and kept on glancing on my LCD screen. The flight attendant asked her twice if she needed help but she just asked for more wine. The flight attendant even made a mistake and called her Ms. ****** --> my family name. I found this mildly amusing and I told the flight attendant jokingly that no we are not married. My neighbor didn't...

Longing and sadness, uncertainty and regret.

I am very sorry that I haven't been updating my blog regularly these past few weeks. Truth be told, I was a bit distracted. It's just that something has been preoccupying me all this time and now that it's over I feel a bit depressed. It is really hard to let go when something that has been a very close part of your daily life is finally over. The funny thing is that I would sometimes catch myself thinking about the way it used to be... remembering the good times... reminiscing on the past... the places we went to... the different people we met along the way. *sigh* It's true what they say that you never truly appreciate something until it is already gone. And with this feeling of longing and sadness also comes uncertainty and regret. Perhaps I should have done things differently? I was so new to all of this that I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Sure, it's my first time but is that a good excuse? As the wise will say, it is very easy to make the right decis...

Wild Penguin

Swimming Penguin Originally uploaded by Jepster . A friend of mine was asking for more "wild animals" posts. I do not exactly understand what he meant by "wild animals" so I just searched my photo archive and this is the best I could come up with. The penguin was not photographed in the wild (this particular shot was taken from the Singapore Zoo I think) nor is it particularly vicious. He was however flapping wildly about in the pond when I got this picture so you can say that he's somewhat "wild" in that respect. Sorry this is as wild as it gets. I seem to remember having some pictures of panthers and tigers but I can't find them. Hmm... I'll post those pics when I see them. Penguins are a bit troublesome to photograph. Not only would they not stay still, most of the time they are underwater so that you can't get a decent composition. If you want something easier, try taking a picture of a cookabura. Now that's a bird that'...

Hot summers in the Philippines

The week of lent is oftentimes regarded as the warmest time of the year in the Philippines (at least according to traditional wisdom). Sure enough, temperatures in Iloilo has been getting as high as 36 degrees C in the afternoon for the past few days (and for the rest of the week according to forecasts). I have been vacationing in Iloilo since early last week and on a whim, I have decided to bring my portable room thermometer/hygrometer to Iloilo. Perhaps it is my obsessive nature that makes me want to know the inside and outside temperature and humidity levels of the house, or maybe it is my process control engineer background that delights in looking at instrumentation readings. Whatever the case may be, I think it is driving the people in the house nuts. Telling people nonchalantly the temperature and relative humidity in casual conversation gets old very fast and it doesn't help that it is oftentimes followed by complaining that the air conditioning unit needs to be fixed. Or ...

Road Trip! Leg 1: a boat ride with noisy kids from hell

An image of a ferry with cars being transported. Image generated using Opera's Aria AI. In Cat Carrier Originally uploaded by Jepster . The first part of the trip went on smoothly. I took a half day's leave so that we could leave earlier. The starting port is just a few minutes away from the office but our travel agent booked us an earlier trip for the first boat ride so that we would not be in a hurry to catch the next ferry. We left after lunch and arrived at the port 10 minutes later. After processing all the required formalities, (we needed a permit from the coastguard, a quarantine document for Brat where he was classified as a "Breeder Cat" -- haha yeah right...), we placed stickers on our clothes that identified us as part of a tour group then proceeded to board the ferry. We were one of the earlier cars to arrive so we were ushered to the back of the vessel to park the car. The cargo hold where the cars are parked is located at the lower portion of the ship w...

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