Aberrational Chromosome

It helps to keep notes.

2010-02-13T20:25:00.002+08:00

Irene and I got into an argument earlier about "The Time Traveler's Wife." I thought we watched it already but she said we didn't.

I knew that I wrote down when I watched and with whom I watched it with so I looked through my old notebooks and found the relevant entry. She was right; we hadn't watched it. But my cousin Warren and I did.

At least now she knows that I really did watch it already and won't give me any more flak for it.

* * *

I took two packets of C4 and I must say that it's never been as good as the batch that Uncle Bong sent me back in July 2008. Either they reduced the amount of caffeine in it or my caffeine tolerance has just increased a lot (which would be weird considering I haven't been taking more than 80 mg per day; 1 pack of C4 = 100 mg of caffeine).

Oh well, at least Red Bull still gives me the same kick. :)

Overconsuming Food and Overdosing on Caffeine ...

2009-02-04T20:07:00.001+08:00

I was caffeine free until 8 PM of January 29, so I could say I had 10 days of being caffeine free. I made a choice to take a pill that contains sugar and caffeine because I was starving and it was what was generously offered to me by Paco.

The full score is that I ate a full meal at 3:30 PM and perhaps due to my blood sugar levels not being regulated properly, I got hungry four hours later (7 PM). Then I got very hungry after five hours (8:30 PM). At the event we attended, the speakers exceeded their time limits (the event was supposed to be from 6 - 8 PM only, but we ended up going home around 9 PM) and there was no break in between. Fortunately, one of the speakers didn't show up so that didn't prolong our agony.

* * *

12 AM of Saturday, after getting out of the office, I demolished a buffet and had 8 glasses of coke (yes, that's eight glasses). Having avoided caffeine for 10 days, I became extra-sensitive to it, so I was awake until 7 AM of Saturday.

* * *

12 AM of Tuesday found me once again at the same buffet. It was my coworker's treat so I chose to eat. To add gasoline to the fire, I stayed up until 5:30 AM.

* * *

I'm not proud of what I've been doing. My only consolation is that I'm able to admit that I know what I did was wrong and it was my choice. I will not stop trying to improve myself though because I'm not a quitter. ;)

8th caffeine free day...

2009-01-27T15:09:00.003+08:00

Caffeine elimination hasn't proven a problem so far as I haven't experienced nasty withdrawal symptoms (just minor headaches, which could have been caused by a lot of other things).

I haven't added sugar to what I've been drinking but I've failed with regards to avoiding ketchup (although I've been able to minimize it to 1 packet).

My oatmeal breakfast has also been sporadic but if I do miss my oatmeal, I make sure I eat at least a banana for its fiber.

* * *

I stayed late in the office (I was there until 12:30 AM) to finish the revision of a functional specification. After that, I went to Alabang and visited Irene during her lunch break (1:30 AM - 2:30 AM).

She offered me some tikoy, which I declined because I don't eat the stuff. I have a bit of Chinese blood in me but I don't speak Chinese or practice any Chinese traditions.

We drove to McDonald's in ATC. They've renovated the place, probably because they've had the same chairs and tables for more than a decade (or two) already, so it looked fresh.

Best thing about eating there is the free parking. Northgate Cyberzone's Food Square (or whatever it's called) has more choices but charges you a parking fee even if you just stay for 15 minutes.

I noticed that, because of the high sodium content of the cheeseburger, I feel bloated after drinking water. I have to avoid high sodium food if I don't want water retention.

We left McDo and got back to her office with plenty of time to spare.

Things I've decided to eliminate from my diet...

2009-01-23T14:57:00.001+08:00

Caffeine
Sugar (adding sugar, at least, I can't realistically avoid all foods with sugar mixed in)
Ketchup

* * *

I managed to eat oatmeal and non-fat milk sans the banana (because there weren't any) for breakfast.

* * *

I'll be adding more to the list of things to eliminate as my control grows stronger.

Caffeine Free for 3 Days

2009-01-22T17:55:00.002+08:00

This is my third day of abstaining from caffeine.

I've been having a headache daily since day 1. Perhaps it can be attributed to caffeine withdrawal. Oh well, it will pass.

I hope I can continue with this for at least 21 more days.

Starting tomorrow, I'm planning to have old fashioned oatmeal mixed with non-fat milk and a yellow banana for breakfast to help increase my fiber intake.

Paco, Samsung Omnia and Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-12T11:46:00.003+08:00

Paco and I met up last Saturday.

He showed me his new phone, a Samsung Omnia, which had a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Aside from having a touch screen interface like the iPod, it had a smart reader that can grab the details off a business card, a smile detector that automatically takes pictures and because it's running Windows mobile, we can actually make apps for it. :)

We went to PC Express because he wanted to buy a new hard drive for his PC to install Windows 7 Beta. So, we walked from Las Piñas to Alabang (and back). It was faster this way as traffic around that time in AZR was hell. The 500 GB drive was unavailable so he settled for 320 GB.

Our meet ups won't be complete without Sonic Blast Man (arcade machine with a punching mitt) demolition so before going home we had a couple of rounds with it. For the first time, we tried to cheat (holding the punching wrist with the other hand) but we didn't know the technique so it didn't do much for our scores. Paco topped out at 146 and I had 142.

And that's that. ;)

Visual Studio is more than just "dead weight."

2009-01-07T02:32:00.002+08:00

A coworker of mine uninstalled VS from his computer because he thought it just slowed things down during start up. He never had to use it for his projects anyway because they were always in PHP.

Today, however, he had to work with ASP .NET and DotNetNuke. He was using notepad to attempt to debug the web application and was getting nowhere fast. So, I decided to intervene and stop the pain by installing VS on his computer and showing him Intellisense, Dynamic Help and VS's debugging tools (breakpoints, tracepoints, etc.).

So at the end of the lesson, he learned that VS is more than just "dead weight."

A Lesson in Project Planning...

2009-01-06T01:00:00.002+08:00

Erwin P, my new project manager, helped the development team replan our project.

I learned from him a very important thing: Always represent the client's tasks and deliverables in the project plan.

Why is this important? It is so because the team's tasks that DEPEND on feedback from the client cannot proceed until the client does its part. This way, if the project gets delayed because of a lack of feedback from the client, it protects us from getting the heat for something we don't have control over (read: it covers our collective asses). It also allows us to adjust the project plan accordingly.

Office Christmas Party...

2008-12-20T01:00:00.005+08:00

Finding Stephenie Meyer's New Moon was next to impossible. In all the bookstores in the eight malls I went to, it was always sold out. Fortunately, I found a good alternative in Powerbooks in Festival Mall and that's what I gave to Charisse (my 'baby' in my office's exchange gift program).

The last minute Christmas shopping caused me to get to work notoriously late. But I was nevertheless still able to put in 4 hours of work. Most of the latter was spent assisting Federico and Aethen with DNN and IIS.

My sister rode with me because she had a nearby get together with her co-TOSP alumni in Tiendesita's so I had someone to talk to while negotiating heavy traffic.

The party was supposed to start at 6 PM but being stubborn workaholics, most of us stayed in our terminals until 8 PM. Actually, Flong, Dexter, Rod and the maintenance guys were almost forcing us out of our seats at 8 so we had no choice.

First thing was the "Ang Pao" packets. The tiny red envelopes contained money and a colored dot. I got a huge sum of money (20 pesos) and an orange colored dot that I had to stick to my shirt. Dexter said that I'm in the orange team.

Because Federico and Erwin failed to buy exchange gifts and because my sister needed a pair of flip flops to walk comfortably to Tiendesita's (she was wearing uncomfortable heels), the three of us ran to SM Pasig.

I bought two pairs of slippers, one for my sister and one for my girlfriend and Federico and Erwin both bought shirts. We ran back and made it (with lots of time to spare).

First game I was able to participate in was the pinaka game. Pinaka translates roughly to the analytical morpheme 'most' in English but some of the words it forms translate into the inflectional morpheme '-est.' If I lost you there, that means you're normal. The next paragraph should clear things up.

Flong, the master of ~~comedy~~ ceremonies, picked up small sheets of paper in a box that contain an adjective and a noun and would read the adjective off of it (temporarily keeping the noun a secret). Each team would then pick a representative that best fits the adjective. Only after all the representatives have been picked would he read the noun. Mark got the prize for the 'fittest forehead' (pinakamatikas na noo), Abramson for 'longest eyebrow' (pinakamahabang kilay), Joel A for being the 'fattest lips' (pinakamatabang labi) and the list goes on.

* * *

Aethen and I left the party momentarily to accompany my sister to Tiendesita's. There, we got to see Karen Nomorosa (who had just arrived from the states), Genesis and Riza. Karen looked radiant. We didn't stay long as we still had a party in WP so after exchanging pleasantries , we walked back to the office.

* * *

I was shocked to learn that Joel J won the beer drinking contest, besting all the other drunkards in the office. Most of us never see Joel J drink but he apparently has a huge tolerance for alcohol. :D

The last game played was charades. We had to guess the name of the Filipino or English Christmas song being acted out by either Flong, Mark or Dexter. The orange team (my team) got quite a few points but not enough to bring us up from last place.

Every team got an "Ang Pao" packet with cash inside. Since there were only 5 of us in the orange team, we each got 100 PhP (500 PhP split 5 ways), which is coincidentally the same amount that each member of the team one place ahead of us got because even though they got a little bit more money, they had more members.

There were left over "Ang Pao" packets from the beginning because some of my office mates didn't attend, so it was raffled off with a twist: Henrik picks a number (which maps to our employee number) and that guy gets a packet and gets to pick the next number. I fortunately got called and my packet contained a fifty so my total take home prize money is the exorbitantly large sum of 170.00 PhP

After the games came the gifts. Turns out it was Dennis L who picked my name from the box and from him I got a new 4 GB USB flash drive. This means I've got a new place to stash my downloaded eBooks and software applications. :)

Before the party officially ended, the administration staff distributed company shirts. So I now have a WP shirt. :D

I drove to LPC at around 12 AM with Flong riding shotgun. After dropping off Flong, I went to Laiya in BF at around 1 AM where another Christmas Party was still in session but that's another story... ;)

Nobody can replace her...

2008-11-27T01:02:00.003+08:00

The title of my post is inspired by the propaganda of the administration.

Earlier today, my boss, whom I love and respect, sat down with me, Sam, Aling and Joel for lunch. We talked about Obama first then Philippine politics second.

He said that, although the president is far from perfect, there aren't any suitable replacements. I disagreed.

He dared me to name two candidates whom I would have chosen over Mrs. Arroyo in 2004. I said that I would have picked Rocco for his platform on Education or Lacson for the possibility of a government with very stiff penalties on crime.

He said the other guy is dead and Lacson's background is also shady. So he asked me who would I choose now? I told him I'd pick either Alan Peter Cayetano or Francis Escudero because they're extremely smart and have experience in governance.

Although he wasn't swayed by my arguments, I would like to believe that I was able to make thim think about alternatives to the current system.

It's as simple (but not as easy!) as this: There are millions of creative, well-educated and morally upright Filipinos. If you agree with me on the latter, how can you say that there is nobody qualified to replace Mrs. Arroyo? ;)

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

2008-11-26T17:04:00.001+08:00

DOMS is something I haven't had until this morning.

Despite taking it easy yesterday, my quads are extremely sore today. Even walking hurts. Hopefully, this will be gone tomorrow.

* * *

I just finished creating a video tutorial for a client. Every time I finish making one of these, I get to appreciate the amount of work that goes behind a 10 minute instructional clip. :)

After 2 months of not working out...

2008-11-25T15:05:00.005+08:00

I started again today.

Here's what I did in my home gym:

Warm-up: 5 minute walk around the garden

Barbell Squats
Push-Ups
Deadlifts
Pull-Ups
Calf Raises
Shoulder Presses
Barbell Rows
Standing Backbends

Except for the pull-ups (of which I only did 2 dead-hang reps for each set), I did 2 sets of 15 for each exercise and took a 60 second rest in between.

I really felt my quads burn during the leg exercises and can feel the stiffness right now if I contract them while I'm seated. This should make for a fun day tomorrow. :D

After 2 years and 2 months

2008-11-25T00:41:00.005+08:00

I'm posting again.

Why? Because I got inspired by Tet's blog to write, even if I may not be much of a writer.

Anyway, on to my post.

- STUFF -

This Sunday, I bought 4 cheap DVDs at the Good Shepherd Bazaar (aka "Ruins in BF"). They were not so recently released movies so they were all of very good quality. The complete list is: "My Big Love," "Kung Fu Panda," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" and "Make it Happen."

I also got myself 2 PC Games (after 4 years of not buying any) - "Command and Conquer Red Alert 3" and "Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition." Both of them are sequels of games I have.

- WORK -

Got to the office in record time because I drove my truck today (I'm considering driving more because diesel has gone down 20 pesos per liter since it hit a high of 56 pesos this year). Federico cracked me up within 5 minutes of my arrival because he copied the way I talked and did a pretty good job.

Samuel said we were going to have a project meeting. When I asked him what time, he said after he eats lunch. Once he was done eating, Joel and I sat down with him. He said Joel is to continue developing the administration part and that I'm going to take over his work on Thursday because he has to work on another project. So, I'll get to study some advanced and extremely complicated C# code later. :)

Aethen, one of my company's new recruits, joined Federico and I for our midday snack. He seemed pretty tense and excited about developing extensions for Joomla. I think that he's going to do fine, afterall, he wouldn't have made it to the finals of TOSP 2008 if he wasn't smart and hardworking.

My day consisted of writing stored procedures in T-SQL and programming in C#. I hit a wall at around 8 PM; there was a problem I had been working on for four hours that I just couldn't solve. So, I asked Samuel for help and 10 minutes later, he nailed it.

Samuel helps out his co-workers on a regular basis because he's got 15 years of experience in software development and is extremely smart (he was able to solve a tough Mensa test in just a few minutes). Thank God he's there to save young, inexperienced programmers like me.

- GAMES -

Mob Wars on Facebook entertained me for a while - I fought other mobsters, did dirty jobs, bought properties and sent invites to people who might want to be part of my mob.

Earlier, I played Chessmaster GE and went through Josh's Art of Learning, which I found pretty informative (there's a lot of stuff on chess theory) and inspiring (he talks about his biggest losses and how he's utilized them to bounce back).

- REALIZATIONS -

Being focused and hardworking is good but being playful is great. I believe I was focused and worked hard today, but in retrospect, I think I could have solved my problem sooner if had I tried to play around with the commands just like Samuel.

So what did I learn? I must never underestimate playing around\trial and error\"brute force" because I might just uncover a solution that I normally wouldn't.

- QUOTE FOR THE DAY -

"A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work." ~Steve McConnell

Getting Used to It...

2006-08-30T02:14:00.000+08:00

This year, I've been working for roughly five months as a tutor. Although I admittedly have a lot of things to improve on, I can say I'm getting the hang of it. :)

Projects I Need to Get Done

2006-04-10T16:21:00.000+08:00

LAN Proposal
Communication Electronics Module
On-line Home Health Remedies

Time to get off my ass and start working. ;)

A Miracle

2006-04-04T01:13:00.000+08:00

Mr. D just allowed us to present on the 7th without getting any penalties.

Good times. :)

Group Projects...

2006-04-02T20:25:00.000+08:00

Ryan, being the leader, delegated tasks two weeks ago.

Thanks to the incompetence of a few members, the project cannot be completed. This reaffirms my belief that I should do something when I can do it myself. Now, I have to do everything myself in a shorter span of time. Good times.

I hope Mr. D will allow me and Ryan to present on the fifth.

Users/Takers

2006-04-02T15:06:00.000+08:00

I am both happy and sad that Jose realized that he's been getting used.

I'm happy because now he knows that Kebab and Fatty only speak to him when they need something from him (i.e. when they ask him for hardware advice, when they want to borrow his laptop, etc.).

I'm sad because I'm sure that this realization comes with an emotional toll.

Thank goodness there's karma. I can let it take care of the matters that need to be taken care of.