I could have posted my US immigration experience last Saturday, but I thought it wouldn't do me any good thinking about something as annoying as that. So I'll just give you some of the things that we did for a week in this foreign city. Eto na!

- Hindi namin alam kung pano gumamit ng dishwasher, so we had to try it out. Inilagay namin lahat ng utensils and wares and after an hour, natapos din. When we checked our kitchen, bumaha na pala sa sahig.

- Of course we have to get some grocery items, e hindi namin alam kung san yung pinakamalapit kaya naghanap kami sa internet. Ayun, we walked to a supermarket 2 miles away from our apartment! Kakakagod, more than 30 mins kaming naglakad haha.

- Now the problem is how to get back to our apartment with all those plastic bags full of groceries. Tumawag kami ng taxi, sabi 10mins andyan na daw. Good. After 40mins of waiting for the stupid yellow cab, naglakad kami papunta sa nearest bus stop, which is about a mile from the supermarket. Pinagtitinginan kami ng mga tao.. nagtataka sila kung bakit merong isang group ng mga bulinggit na naglalakad sa highway at madaming dalang plastic bags. Weird.

- Pano ba bumaba ng bus? Kakatok ka sa bintana or sasabihin mo Para po!? Hindi namin alam kung papano, so nung malapit na sa apartment namin, we all stood up thinking the driver would realize that we want to get off. Deadma. After namin lumagpas ng isang street nakita namin may kelangan palang hilahin na string para mag-signal sa driver.

- Almost everything here is automatic, from the doors to the washers. Pero hindi ang drinking fountain. Akala ni Carmi high-tech din yun that she just have to put her face near the faucet, pero after a few seconds na nakatapat yung bibig nya sa "sensor", wala pa din lumalabas. E wala naman palang sensor haha.

- Galing akong airport, kinuha ko passport ko (Thanks for keeping it, Mr. Immigration Officer! Argh!). Sumakay ako ng bus na sa tingin ko dadaan sa downtown St. Paul, where our office is at. Merong sumakay na 3 drunkards and they started to create a scene sa loob ng bus. Hina-harass nila yung mga girls! Ako naman kinabahan kasi baka mapagdiskitahan din ako kasi iba itsura ko or baka kunin yung laptop ko. Nyay! Buti na lang merong isang malaking mama na ni-grab yung mga drunkards and forced them to get off the bus. Ang saya magbus sa Minnesota! :P

- Our manager got concerned when he learned na hindi kami makakita ng mga veggies at condiments na lasang pinoy. So he volunteered to drive us to some asian supermarkets ng lunch break. Nice! Inihatid din nya kami sa apartment namin kasi baka masira yung ibang items kung hindi agad mailagay sa freezer. To his surprise, umuwi siya sa kanila na walang laman yung compartment ng car nya. Naiuwi pala namin yung mga buko niya haha! Is that how you thank me, you coconut-stealing pinoys? Wala lang, naisip namin baka ganyan sinasabi nya sa isip nya haha.

- Si jerome bibili sana ng beer para meron kaming dalhin pagpunta namin sa Galtier (apartment na pinag-stayan nung iba samin), pero ayaw siya bigyan kasi wala siya dalang ID. Bumalik sya sa apartment pero tinamad kunin sa luggage nya passport, kaya sinamahan ko na lang siya bumili, with my passport of course. We're not allowed to do that, you know? You're just buying those beers for him (Jerome) coz he came here a while ago and he doesn't have an ID! I know that's for him! Anak ng tinapa napagkamalan pa atang isinama ni brad yung kuya nya para ibili siya ng beer! After our third try, binigyan na din kami hehe.

you'll always be a part of me... i'm a part of you indefinitely...

i've been listening to this song since friday night up to this time, hindi ko alam kung bakit. i didn't really like this song when it was mariah's, and i don't know david cook because i am not an Idol fan. but when i heard his version (i didn't know that it was he then) hehe parang lagi ko nang naririnig kahit wala naman.

i am not in love. i definitely could not relate to its lyrics, but still i find this song very very relaxing: ito na bago kong pampatulog! hahaha.

Since almost everyone has his/her own digital cameras, i just thought that sharing this would somehow help. Most owners do not know that digicams (especially the lenses) are very sensitive to humidity and molds, and that these can cause their cameras to deteriorate. To solve this, we need to store our investments in a drybox, basically a storage box with controlled humidity, so as not to allow molds to grow. A commercial drybox will cost you about P10,000 - P15,000, very very pricey!

So, the cheapskate that i am found a tip from my fellow tipid-pcers on how to create a homemade drybox, and here's how:

You need:
1 Air-tight container for your digicam (i used Lock&Lock)
1 Hygrometer (get an analog one at Blade or DIY shop) to measure the humidity inside the box
~ Silica Gel (available at Konica Glorietta 4)

Assembly (this could be tricky, so read carefully):
1. Open your Lock&Lock container
2. Place your Hygrometer in a way that you can easily see its face(s)
3. Put the Silica Get inside the container
4. Put your digicam, batteries, lenses, etc. inside
5. You're done!

Make sure that you obtain +- 40% on your Hygrometer, as that is the safe value of relative humidity. Do this by either adding or "charging" your Silica Gel.

I built mine last December 2006, here's how it looks like:
You can also use this as a CD/DVD container, since these media disks are as sensitive to humid as you digicams.

Good luck!

After 3 days of trying to unlearn what I know so far about COBOL and structured programming, and at the same time struggling to learn Java, I feel like I am not getting anywhere. The words from our instructor's mouth is similar to the java classes: sobrang dami, sobrang gulo, wala akong maintindihan!
And to think that I need to learn as quickly as possible since by June I am expected to do Java work! Bakit nga ba ulit ako nagvolunteer dito?

Wtf. I really hope matuto ako hehe.

For those who have been asking me on how we went to Sagada and what we did there, here's a summary of our trip (I've long wanted to write about it and get out of my laziness, and this is the best try so far):

Day 0
9:00PM - 3:15AM ~ Trip from Manila to Baguio. Took us around 6 hours. In my opinion, it is best to get a bus from Victory Liner Pasay since they have trips every hour.
* Fare will cost you P395.00.
* Two stop-overs.

Day 1
3:15AM ~ Arrival to Baguio. From Victory Liner Baguio, we took a cab to Dangwa Station, where Lizardo Bus Lines is located. Their buses will take us to Sagada.
* Taxi fare would be around P35.00 - P40.00.

6:00AM - 12:30PM ~ Trip from Baguio to Sagada. Took us another 6 hours. It is best to get to Dangwa at around 5:00am to make sure that you get the first trip.
* Fare will cost you P220.00, all buses do not have aircons.
* First trip leaves at 6:00am, last trip leaves at 1:00pm.
* Some roads are rough, better take anti-motion sickness pills
* Two stop-overs.

12:30PM ~ Arrival to Sagada.
* It is required for all tourists to register at the municipal hall first.
* Rates for inns, lodges, transients, tour guides, van rentals, etc are available at the municipal hall
* It is required to hire tour guides in almost all of the tourist spots

Around 3:ooPM ~ Burial Cave Trek

Around 5:00PM - 7:30PM ~ Sumaging Cave Trek
* Wear something comfortable
* You may also want to get yourself wet inside the cave
* Bring drinking water
* For these 2 trips, you may not rent a van yet since these sites are close to the municipal hall (provided you are staying near it)

Day 2
Around 9:00AM - 2:00PM ~ Trek to Big Falls, Rice Terraces
* Wear swim suits, boardshorts!
* Bring lots of drinking water and packed lunch if you want
* You may want to wear shoes, since this trek will take you around 3 hours to and from

Around 3:00PM ~ Trips to Echo Valley, Sagada Weaving, etc.
* These are trips not as tiring as that of going to the Big Falls
* Make sure that you rent a van (will cost you about P1400.00 for the whole day, plus the tour guide fee of P1200.00)
* Make sure you do these and the Sumaging Cave trek on different days, just as we did

Day 3
Around 7:30AM ~ Casual Walk around Sagada
* While waiting for the 9:00am bus ride back to Baguio (the first bus leaves at 7:00am)
* Walk to the church, the hospital, view some cliffs, etc.

Some more tips:
* Bring medicines, iodine solutions, bandage, etc. just in case. ^^
* Drink Vitamin C, to increase your resistance to colds, cough, etc. since it' very cold in Sagada.
* Better bring liters of water, then just transfer it to smaller bottles during trips, as bottled water in Sagada can be a bit pricey.
* Make a reservation to inns in advance. We didn't do this, and we five end up staying at a more costly room only good for three.
* Do some stretching before the trek, as it can be very very tiring. A few jogs in the morning won't hurt. ^^
* Read and do some reseacrh on Sagada first, as this trip may not be enjoyable to some people. You may want to browse Visit Sagada, most of the info we had came from it.

This is all for now. I know I have missed something, do if you have more questions, feel free to post. :P

These past few weeks I always make sure to include Daughtry's music on my playlists. Be it on my workstation at the office, my desktop at home, or my PSP. My most fave right now is Over You, a single from their debut album. Just as when I am listening to it, I learned from a YM status message of one of my friends that Daughtry will be here live July 28, 2008 at the Eastwood Central Plaza. I didn't know that they will be performing here, since I lost my interest in browsing TicketNet's site after missing Maroon 5's and Incubus' concerts.

Just as I want to see them perform live, I think I may not be able to watch their concert due to the following reasons (a.k.a. alibis): 1) It will be at Eastwood City, which is far from where I work and where I live; 2) I get frustrated when concerts are held in an open field; 3) I may not have the funds for it (it's a bit costly) since I've some anime figures on pre-order; and lastly, 4) My friends are not fans of Daughtry; I can hear them saying that they'd rather watch the band play on MTV.

So, if you have extra tickets (and you're willing to give them away hehe) please please let me know hehe. Make them too so I can bring a date. :P In case you don't have any yet, try to get some tix here.

Enjoy! :D