Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Bomb Scare

My sister and I went to the supermarket yesterday and we're still both kinda paranoid  of the bomb explosion that happened in Glorietta last week. I'm a bit scared to go out these days you'll never know what's gonna happen anytime. There's no safe place really. 

I have shift tonight but we're not dressed down. The only consolation I get is that I'm back to the normal schedule. I was on 4 by 11 (4 days a week, 11 hours a day) previously. My elder sister and her pet "Jack" left for Baguio on Sunday to spend sembreak there how I wish I can come but I'm saving my leave credits for the holidays. 

I guess I won't be able to visit our dead relatives this All Soul's Day unlike when we were kids. I have shift as usual but they are always on my prayers.


Friday, October 26, 2007

Normalcy

I finally had Norton Anti-Virus uninstalled by running the Norton removal tool. I tried uninstalling the software but I always get the message that I need to update Windows' installer. I decided to "Google it," read some forums and that's where I found the answer. Some suggested to download the Norton removal tool. To cut it short, Norton removal tool solved the problem. 

I read good reviews about another AV software called Kaspersky Internet Security so I decided to download it immediately sine I no longer have Norton to keep my computer system protected. I'm getting a little upset lately because my laptop is becoming slow I though maybe it's really about time for some memory upgrade. 


My sister accompanied me to Kalentong earlier to check out some ukay ukay. I bought 2 blouses and a pink polo shirt for Php80 each.  They don't give discounts there even if those are not new arrivals but I just let it go, what I got aren't so bad anyway. My 4 by 11 (4 days a week, 11 hours a day) shift is about to end I'm happy about it somehow because I get to go back to my normal life again. Seriously, it's such a pain having to stay in the office for 11 hours! Come next week I'm back on the 5 by 8 (5 days a week, 8 hours a day) schedule, yay!




Monday, October 22, 2007

Problem Solved

My CD-R USB (universal serial bus) Bluetooth dongle is finally working. 

I downloaded Bluesoleil, a software that allows you to transfer files or connect from any bluetooth enabled device. It's a package deal. It has all the necessary drivers for the dongle to work, it's absolutely hassle free. Good Lord, I've been working on this problem for days. I got the driver from CD-R's website but the dongle still refused to work. Call me OC but I reinstalled the driver over and over again until I finally gave up when I checked on Windows' Device Manager it still says there that it's "not configured properly." 

My gosh, I think CD-R's website is "extremely helpful" (with so much sarcasm). Imagine this, they sell products with drivers but won't tell you that you'll need a software like Bluesoleil to make it work so if you're the kind of person who just buy stuff and expect them to work right away, you're dead. It's best to do a little research first or you'll end up going back to their store without helpful answers. Of course it will work while in their store but wait till you get home. Sadly, most CD-R salesperson have a little knowledge of their products. Thank God I found "Bluesoleil" it got my dongle working perfectly. I already saw a link to Bluesoleil while I'm in the process of downloading the USB's driver but I didn't pay much attention to it, if only I did I wouldn't have wasted my time worrying too much. Good job to me at least I fixed the problem this thing will not be put to waste.


Saturday, October 20, 2007

Ramblings

Two days in production but to me it's like I've been woking for a week. I've never been in a 4x11 schedule before I wouldn't want one given a choice. I mean seriously? 8 hours of work is enough to kill me so 11 hours of work in a day is definitely a suicide. The only consolation I get is the 3-days off but I'd still prefer a normal schedule I'm being paid just the same so why exhaust myself. 

Enough of my rantings I can't do anything anyway. So, I bought a cheap bluetooth dongle from CD-R King and downloaded the driver from their site but for some reason the error still says that it's "not configured properly." I tried reinstalling the driver many times but to no avail. I don't know what to do from here to be honest. I read online forums but I didn't find any useful information yet I guess I'll figure it out on my own. I bought this dongle so I can connect my laptop wirelessly everytime I come over to Antipolo because I have no Internet access there anymore after I cancelled our dial-up Internet service since the connection was so awful but my sister have DSL Internet there now too. My niece needs it for school, you know kids nowadays can't live without Internet access anymore. I don't want to buy a router because I know how those things work. It'll work perfectly fine then for some reason it'll quit. I don't want to screw up their Internet set-up so I'll leave everything as it is. 

I finished downloading Ghost Whisperer Season 2 it has 22 episodes and all of episodes are pretty good and worth watching. I kinda like the OBB (opening billboard) a lot it's like a dream where everything is so surreal. Believe it or not it took me 2 months to download the file in Utorrent but I don't blame my Internet provider alone I'm well aware that my laptop doesn't have enough RAM (memory) that's why I'm planning to upgrade soon. 

I still have shift tonight. Darn it.




Monday, October 15, 2007

Portable Closet

Not the actual one we bought
I bought a big portable closet, the old one won't zip up anymore. The zipper's broken, we can't close it. It took me three hours to assemble the new one. The instructions that came with it on that piece of paper is just so crappy. I'm not sure how durable this is hopefully it'll make it at least 6 months or longer. 

I did a check up on my old computer which now belongs to my niece because I noticed that it's running slow. I uninstalled AVG (Anti-Virus) and downloaded a 30-day trial version of NOD32. I also downloaded a registry cleaner and run it. It says 700+ errors were found on the system but it can't be repaired unless I register for a fee. I thought this was some crappy cleaner making me believe that there are are way too many errors on my pc just to make me buy their product. No way.

I had a long weekend thanks to our national holiday plus my interim off.  Our class will be going on production this week I'm just not sure if I'm gonna be happy with my schedule it's like 4 by 11. I never had that kind of schedule in my previous account. 

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Going Ons

I finally passed AQS with a little help from our friend so I can relax a bit now and not worry about not being able to follow the script in verbatim. Sucks, I hate sounding like an automated system. I had 20 calls today I bet my AHT (average handling time) is low, at least there's improvement I enjoy "nesting" a lot I almost forgot that I'm not supposed to have high aht anymore I've no excuse since I've been doing this for the longest time. 

I had Tropical Hut's "Cornsilog" (corned beef, sinangag, itlog) for breakfast and as usual I shared it with Jack, our pet I guess he liked it so much he can't get enough of everything, even the styrofoam! Poor dog, he only gets to eat table food once a day in two or thrice a week. He's still lucky, we always tell him that there are millions of dogs out there who have nothing to eat and feed on leftover garbage. I guess he looks at me but no idea of what I'm talking about. 

I finally got my Swiss bag with the our company's logo of course. It's really with lots of inside pockets. This is just perfect for me since I'm so fond of bags with lots of pockets. I also like its color, maybe I'm just really lucky because brown is one of my favorite colors. My laptop is running out of space maybe it's really about time for me to buy a portable hard drive I thought I saw one at Villman.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Catching Up

I just came home from Antipolo to check if my room is still okay so far my stuff are still there but the floor was quite a mess I think a flood came by last week. 

My parents fetched me after my shift last Saturday. We had breakfast together so I was able to save money for fare and food. I watched TV the whole day. Come dinner time, my sister cooked "sinigang." It was almost we have a feast because mom also brought her specialty viand made up of mixed vegetable and coconut milk or ginataag gulay in Tagalog. I haven't eaten real food in a long time. 

I had my nails done yesterday, then watched TV the whole day again. Obviously I have nothing else to do. I didn't bring my laptop with me to Antipolo, we don't have Internet connection there anymore. 

I went to Villman earlier to check out how much a portable hard drive would cost these days. The salesman offered me a 250GB for Php800+ which is not bad. I might go back by the end of the week to buy that.

Friday, October 05, 2007

I Want More

I haven't passed AQS yet but that's okay I'm not in a hurry to go to production yet anyway, I hate pressure. While in nesting it's understood if your AHT is high or your POSE (surveys) suck since you're still in the process of getting used to everything but as soon as you graduate you have no choice but keep up with the pressure of being able to all hit the metrics especially if you're aiming for P4P, hardwork is a must.  

I used to get p4p in my previous center and coming to work everyday played a huge part. Hopefully I can work it here too once I graduate from nesting. I won't feel bad if I'm not the first one to pass AQS like I did in my previous account without realizing that it was such a big deal. I'm like "whatever." 

I'm addicted to downloading movies and TV series lately that's why I've been planning to buy an external hard drive so I can store some more files. I just want to maximize the use of our DSL Internet. Php1,000 a month is not just for checking emails and Friendster. Before I forgot,  PLDT already replied to my letter regarding the cancellation of our Vibe plan and informed me that it's effectivity will be on Sept.17 or maybe they meant Oct.17? I sent the letter this week, so I'm like "duh?" What's wrong with these people? They even addressed me as Ms. Mille, hey that's not my lastname! They mistaken the signature on my email which is "Grazie Mille" which is "thank you very much" in Italian as my first and lastname but if read carefully my nickname is written after that then followed by my full name. I thought whoever replied to my email must be sleepy or something.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Tracy Bonham Rocks

I am so into Tracy Bonham lately. After seeing her music videos on Youtube and her live performance of "Mother, Mother" at the 3rd and Lindley,  I was addicted to her music. I didn't know of any other song from her. I wouldn't have known that she exist hadn't NU107 played her song. NU107 is the only radio station that play songs from indie musicians back then. I'm also not aware that Tracy Bonham plays the violin. I enjoy listening to her music, her songwriting is straightforward and honest. Female musicians like Ani Difranco, Poe, Meryn Cadell and Lisa Loeb fascinates me. Her bio says she started singing at the age of 5. Started playing the violin at 9 and the piano at age 14. Tracy gave up her full violin scholarship at the University of Southern California to study voice at the Berklee College of Music and that's when she started writing her own songs on the guitar. Her first major label debut album "Burdens of Being Upright" released in 1996 went gold. The track "Mother, Mother" was a big part of it's success. 


Music is definitely her passion, I thought it was mine too because when I was younger I thought about taking up music college, believe it or not I changed my mind I realized it's not for me.


For more of Tracy Bonham's music, visit her official website @ www.tracybonham.com

Back at It: A Long Overdue Update

It's been three months since I last sat down to write, and I've missed this more than I can express. Life has a way of throwing unex...