January 6

The deadly way

[Note] this post contains a sample of my morbid humor. dont take everything seriously, people get crazy that way. 😀

For the past couple of years it has been a pseudo-habit for my father and my brothers to go on a drinking bout every new year. One perennial topic is the most dangerous song in the land: Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

I find it funny that this crooner ballad has frequently grazed the news when items pertaining to deaths associated with bar/sing-along/videoke deaths. My father has rationalize that because it is easy to sing (minus hitting the correct notes) and famous many people naturally select it if they want to perform in a live audience. Most of the time even if a person has just sung it you will find that the next person holding the microphone will be doing his “own rendition” of the song. This is bad especially if the latest singer has a better rendition and the last one has a short fuse and already had enough alcohol to not think straight. It is a great recipe for disaster (unless you own a nearby funeral home).

With that in mind plus some alcohol to boot, I think I have a perfect hare-brained scheme for instant money, unfortunately it requires you being dead 😀 . Death via suicide is not covered by all insurance companies. However if you get killed by another hand then the insurance policy sticks. All a person dead-set (pun not intended) on leaving this world early but ensuring his loved ones’ welfare needs to do is to get an insurance contract, hang out on videoke bars (the cheaper the better) serving liquors, and keep on belting My Way. It is not fool-proof since that person might just end beaten up. 🙂

I know I will get flak for posting this but readers have already been warned. I dont expect people to take this post seriously, and if suiciders do then adding me to your beneficiaries’ list is thank you enough. 😀

ciao!

Category: Garbage | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 11

Homeward bound!!!

After a 5 1/2 month assignment, I am finally going home tomorrow. I have almost finished packing my things but I might leave something behind due to lack of space. The chocolates and Ikea stuff filled 2 boxes. I think I am in the danger of going aboard the 40 kilo limit. 😀

Looking back the stuff I learned during this trip is rather refreshing. I got to learn about Maven, Test coverage tools and continuous integration, as well as applying them. I hope I would be given the chance to apply them on future projects.

One more night and I am finally saying goodbye to my second country (by default since this is the only other country where I spent more than 1 month 😀 ). I barely understand the language but at least I got to experience a real winter. Two more nights and I am back to Filipino heaven, of Jollibees and baluts and every cholesterol-laden gastronimic wonders.

I think I hear my stomach growling, and my mouth is salivating. 😀

ciao!

Category: Garbage | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 6

Reminds me of a certain experience

In this post Clair touches up on the issue of Internet personas. The cardinal rule with Internet communication is that do not take everything at face value. This is especially true for those who think they can use Internet as another means of hooking up. Internet relationships do happen but they are as rare as love at first sights and long distance romances. But forever Internet cassanova wannabe, there are 3 Internet con artists. 🙂

During my first few years of connectivity (around ’96-’97 I tink), I was enganged in IRC. I was fascinated in how I was able to communicate with people around the country and around the world (those were the days that shaped my current Internet handle because frenzy and ramrod keeps getting registered by somebody else, 😀 ). I never did IRC with the intention of hooking up, I was already smitten with the woman who is now my wife. I just liked being in IRC and letting my Internet persona out into the world. The introvert and meek me had a taste of confidence behind the privacy provided by online communication. Some might call it a cowardice but that is your privilege. 🙂 I hanged out in #manilastars and got acquainted with a few midnight chatters. I felt good hanging out with them electronically, even if I only saw three of them in real life (and that was after I quit IRC, and I met them because of my brother who was still into IRC waaay afterI am done).

Anyway, there was a certain chatter who used the nick ‘jing’ with some numbers that I cant remember now. She said she was from the USA, and she even had a homepage. Come to think of it I tried to create my first website on that same provider and there I found out that I have absolutely no skill for web authoring because I am artistically-handicapped :D. Back to jing, she was a looker but I treated her as an ‘Ate’ because she was half a decade older than me. She confided some things and me and although I have little to confid eI did so from time to time. Being a looker a lot of people tried to hit on her, people who are certified Cassanovas and Romeos… wannabes. It was so pathetic I found it amusing that people would do such acts as if it was taken out of a cheap jokebook of bad come-on liners.

Eventually #manilastars disbanded, and I lost interest in IRC as I was then interested in BBS-ing. One day my brother told me a ‘shocking’ news, somebody tracked ‘jing’ and found out she was a he. Some of the wannabes was said to be very angry for being taken for a fool. I did not care because even if jing was a he, he was a good conversationalist and I will always think of ‘jing’ as an ‘Ate’. I already created a persona behind the nick, and I lose nothing if I continue on with the charade. But that was one of the things that taught me to view things in the Internet with a grain of salt. 🙂

ciao!

Category: Garbage | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 1

In the beginning (of eating)

-Author Unknown-

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God’s great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, “You want chocolate with that?” And Man said, “Yes!” and Woman said, “and as long as you’re at it, add some sprinkles.” And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, “Try my fresh green salad.” And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, “I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in Which to cook them?” And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light fluffy white cake and named it “Angel Food Cake” And said, “It is good.” Satan then created
chocolate cake and named it “Devil’s Food.”

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy Center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald’s and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then Satan said, “You want fries with that?” And Man replied, “Yes,! And super size them!” And Satan said, “It is good.” And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery. Then Satan created HMOs.

Thought for the day ….

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer’s research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

Category: Hmmnnn, Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 29

One liner: get the last field

Problem: I need to get a list of all java libraries in our repository so I can create a matrix of when they are being used and what is type of license they are using. I tried using a pure Windows approach but it is taking too much time so I used Cygwin instead. Getting all JAR files is easy with find but I am having difficulty brewing the correct regexp syntax so why prolong the agony and not switch to another tool instead: awk!

find . -name *.jar | awk -F/ ´{$NF}' | sort | uniq

where:

– find searches recursively from the current directly for all files that end with ‘.jar’
– all resulting file paths are piped to awk which, using the forward slash as the column delimiter, prints out the last column
– and finally the list of JAR files are sorted alphabetically and duplicates are removed.

This could probably be done in a whole lot of ways (perl, python, sed, etc.) but the beauty of FLOSS is we can use whatever we can to get the same result. 😀

ciao!

Category: FLOSS, Laboratory | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 19

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The unthinkable happened, the redundant storage that holds my site failed and I lost 2 months of blogs. That is around 25 blog posts and I dont remember even half of them. I could get mad at my service provider but I won’t since they had no control on it. It is just my bad luck that I was one of those whose backups were corrupted by the failure.

They wont get a final say from Dell (their contractor) but I am writing those posts off. It is going to be my penance for not finalizing the process for automatically downloading the backup of the databases on my site. I was lulled by the fact that the provider was creating automatic backups but I did not realize that only copies of the 60th day backup is transferred to a different server.

It sucks but you have to go with the flow. In this day of doom I have am clinging to two adages that should give me strength: that which does not kill me only makes me stronger, and it could have been worse. Either way I am not going to write anything up until monday since they might be able to salvage some data up.

ciao!

Category: Garbage | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 9

Associating songs with memories

I am a text-book Virgo especially when it comes to the arts. Many people think I am joking whenever I say that I am ‘artistically-challenged’ but that is the truth. I enjoy and appreciate works of arts but I can never participate in them actively.

Many people have proclaimed that songs can tame the beast inside men. Aside from psychologists, many people would regard the theory of that power as romatic mumbo-jumbo. Today I got a sampling of that power. I was listening to a pinoy internet radio station and it played an old OPM song. It was a cheesy song that gained a short popularity. The song goes something like

             Bakit si tisoy, pacute-cute lang...
             Ipinagpalit mo na ako sa kanya...
             ......
             Di ba non ay simple ka lang,
             Tayo ay padyip-dyip lang...

The moment those waves was decoded by my brain something magical happened. I was transferred to my college days, hanging out on the UST pavillion with some of my friends. We were chiding a friend and I can feel the shade provided by the gazebo and smell the grass on the soccer field. I dont know if it sounds crazy but I was filled with a sense of carefree-ness, something that was abundant during my college days.

That is not the only song that triggers such powerful memories in me. RHCP’s “The Zephyr Song” never fails to bring chills to my spine because I always associate it with dark cold winter. The reason is it was always blaring at MTV during my first stay in Helsinki, when the sun goes up at 9AM and comes down at 3PM, usually with temperature below -14 degrees celsius. Madonna’s James Bond song also has the same effect but to a much lower degree. Certain pinoy alternative songs also bring me back as far as high school days. Sadly I cant think of any song that will bring me back much further. 🙁

Songs are really powerful, but only if you have a strong memory associated with it. Many people are familiar with this which explains why they ask for the ‘song that moves you’. Most only associate with love songs but other genres can offer a much more diverse possibility.

ciao!

Category: Garbage, Rubbish, Top of my head | 1 Comment on Associating songs with memories
September 8

Idealism vs Realism, when taken as crap

Today was the last day of Hiram, a very *idealistic* friend, in the company. Being gifted with the flair for the pen, he has made an impressive farewell email showing his views. Unfortunately a lot of people were in the recipient list so I cannot post my replies there so I will do it here. For security and ethical purposes, the name of the company will not be posted here but I will be referring to is as the “firm” if I need to. I don’t have permission to post the whole email so I would comment on the parts I want…

But first, break a leg on your journey. My advice to you is to tone down your idealism. Just like what a comic said, the key to living life happily is lowered expectations. Idealism is good but you have to be realistic as well. Both are on the opposing sides of the arena that a person needs to precariously balance in order to find his happiness. Both are like powerful medicines which when taken too much will do you more harm than good.

Note that while I may be commenting on Hiram’s opinions my answers need not necessarily be aimed at him. I respect his opinions and what I put forth are my own views and opinions. The cliche goes that opinions are like assholes, everybody has them. None are absolutely correct or absolutely wrong. You were given a mind to digest things through.

Re the low salary, the correct term is “competitive salary.” The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. At least on the side of fence that we wish to see. An employee’s salary is not guaranteed to give you satisfaction, and most of the time it never will. We are always striving to get a higher compensation, always looking for the next fat increase. Unfortunately the business model can only take so much. You have economics to blame for that. Economics belongs to the realm of reality while fatter checks belong to the ideals. Make them play ball nicely with each other and you are set. Besides you still have to take into consideration other stuff like personal growth, job stability, etc.

Re health over time, I agree that on most occasions we, the staff, get the shorter end of the stick. Or so we thought. Unfortunately we only see our side of the story. Being the geek that I am, I don’t like managing other people because I prefer being a lone wolf. However I am not stupid not to observe how management works because sooner or later I have to deal with that both in the corporate world and in my personal life. If solving the next delivery/logic problem is already mentally and physically exhausting, I wonder how much more would managing a team? You think we are working long hours? Most management people that I know are working 24×7. Imagine how much exhaustion they have to bear with that kind of strain.

Time management is one skill that I wish to perfect because like you I am biting more than I can chew. Prioritization is one more skill that I need to master and hopefully I will get there someday. Part-time job? You are not allowed to do those and you explicitly agreed when you signed your contract. Don’t bitch for something you willfully tackled head-on. We make choices and we have to live with the repercussions, either good or bad.

Re slave-master relationship, that is your perception. I also cuss when I have to stay late but I don’t take it personally with my superiors. They have their own jobs to do and I have mine. Before you condemn somebody you first have to walk on their shoes. If you think you can do better then prove it with actions rather than words. Politics is something that you can never avoid, especially in the corporate environment. I have been employed in companies wherein the politicking is much, much worse. We could play indifferent to these but sooner or later it will suck us into the mire. I think politics is already embedded into the human culture. You can keep putting your finger in your ears and humming loudly but that does not mean that it is not there. Oh before I forget, sitting on the fence does not mean you are not participating in politics. You are only passively participating in it by letting both sides duke it out. 😀

Re crap. Hiram is right that crap is good. Come to think of it crap is life. Hiram might not be able to stomach the corporate crap but we will always take crap from somebody else. Look at you for instance, you are already reading my crap. 😀 . Some might think that starting a business means you don’t have to deal with (corporate) crap but they are dead wrong. Being self-employed only means that you will take crap from people from more than one organization. You may end up taking up more crap than before, but hey choose your own supplier. 😀 Eventually we all will turn to crap. The bible says that we will go “from dust to dust” (no, there is no “ashes to ashes”), but we will be crap in between regardless if you were cremated or dumped in the Pasig river. 🙂

So handing out crap is good? I did not say that. Avoiding handing them out might not be totally feasible but we could work on minimizing the amount we hand out to others. Stop hoping to change the world because that is too big a goal. Work on changing the persons around you as that is more achievable. Shield others from the unnecessary crap and they might hopefully do the same when their turn comes.

Whew, this one is longer than I expected. I could go on further but I need to sleep since I need to go to work tomorrow (yeah, I need the money too). To wrap things up

– Idealism with realism goes hand in hand. The right balance between the two will greatly help us find satisfaction.
– Time management and prioritization is good but difficult to master.
– Everything is relative based on our perception.
– Crap is good. Embrace crap. Life is crap but crap is life.

ciao!

Category: Garbage, Rubbish | LEAVE A COMMENT