so much to read…so much to review & study…so much to memorize. is 1 month enough? ^^ i hate math… >_<

March 18….. @_@

It is of great shock and disbelief to find out this morning that the Chief of Apple computers, Steve Jobs finally ended his battle with cancer.

Steve has greatly contributed to the computer industry, has influenced a lot of people and was considered a great mentor by many.

The highlights of Jobs’s career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents’ garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.

In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.

In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.

I wonder if Apple could ever replace Steve Jobs and find someone of same caliber or even better?

What will happen to Apple? Will it deteriorate?

Will Jobs’ children or wife take over in the future?

This tragic news only proves that even if you have billions worth of money and everything, even when you have the greatest technology within your grasp, but when your time is up…there’s nothing you could do but succumb.

R.I.P. Mr. Steve Jobs…

Finally, after almost a year, my google adsense pin as arrived! lol ^_^

This afternoon, my dad has finally decided to purchase a Globe Tattoo Superstick and to subscribe to an unlimited internet connection with a speed of up to 7mbps for Php 1,299 every month.

Aside from that, we get to have 200 FREE Text every month and 1 month FREE McAfee Anti-Virus.

We can connect to a wireless internet network via HSDPA, 3G/UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, or GSM.

My only concern is, will the speed be consistent, and for how long? Usually, with our previous and current internet connection, the good speed only lasted for a few months. After that, the speed completely deteriorated. Aside from that, I am also concerned with the “Fair Usage Policy” where the internet connection/ bandwidth is being capped when the user/subscriber reached their maximum allowable download limit. This means slower connection.

For a monthly bill of 1,299 and with a lock-in period of 24 months, I expect to have NO capping and not be included in the FUP.

And as their slogan goes: “That’s Internet with NO LIMITS. Only from Tattoo.”

I expect/treat the meaning of those words literally!!!

I never thought we would experience this during our lifetime. Before, we only see or hear about it in the news, but approximately 2 nights ago between 2-4am, I was awoken by distant noises apparently coming either from the now half demolished informal settlers of Damayan Alley or their neighboring informal settlers being re-settled from the Madrigal property along Commonwealth Ave.

Half awake, I can hear shouting and other noises like it was coming from a rally or some sort of gang party. After a few minutes, I heard gunshots—several gunshots. It seems far from us but it was loud enough for anyone awake to hear it. Being paranoid, I moved closer towards the wall beside me and away from the huge window above me. I was worried of stray bullets entering from the window. Our house has concrete ceilings, so it’s safe. But not my grandmas house which is adjacent from ours.

After a few minutes I heard a loud clank, then another, and another. I think I heard a total of 3 loud clanks. I figured it was bullets hitting a “Yero” (Galvanized Corrugated Metal Roofing). I got worried but since I was too sleepy I just calmed myself by thinking: “Maybe it’s just dried fruits falling from the tree”.

But I was right! The next day, my grandma’s house help found a piece of bullet from the garage and according to her, she heard the gunshots, too. My uncle’s room was next to the garage. He was lucky! I wonder where the other bullets landed.

We are fortunate that nobody from our family got hurt.

Whoever fired those shots, I hope you lose your fingers! I hope you lose both of your hands! You, imbecile!

Before the Ghost Month ends, I finally decided to do something unorthodox within our oriental family. I have decided to burn Joss paper (Ghost money) as a form of offering to our ancestors.

Growing up from a Catholic turned Born Again/Evangelical Christian family, we have never embraced most of our Chinese traditions. As a child, during the Lenten season, I usually see other Chinese family burn papers at the cemetery. I was told that it is a representation of money that is being burned as an offering for:

The departed loved ones (so they will have wealth in the after life), to the Chinese gods or as a bribe money to save the souls of the dead from the clutches of hell.

Aside from that, during burials, the family of the departed usually—also burns paper houses, cars, clothes, etc.

But for me, I just wanted to quench my urge to send something to my late grand parents and great grand parents. I have also decided to try folding the papers to from gold ingots. My dad (having experienced this as a child during his mom’s burial) showed me how to make an easy one just by rolling the paper and folding each end. I found it cheap and much harder to do (seriously)

But after checking some old origami books, I found another way of folding.

First (since my Joss papers were to big) I folded each in two sides to from a smaller rectangle but keeping the gold design intact.

Then (the gold design facing you), I fold each corners to form a puppy ear.

After that, fold the paper in half backwards to form some sort of mountain on both sides. Looks kind of tricky but it’s really easy.

After doing so, tuck each pointed side—inside the puppy ears.

You will be forming something that resembles a boat.

After that, open the bottom part then press the top (the gold) to form a replica of an ingot.

After several failed attempts, I finally did it! So can you!

But since I have like over 100 pieces of Joss paper, I’ve decided to burn them just as they were. Nobody wanted to help me so I let my laziness kick in. ^_^

Hopefully, I made our ancestors happy and quite rich ^_^ Wherever they are.

It’s been all over the news for the past few weeks. The number of cases are increasing at an alarming rate. Every year this is one of our country’s biggest problems. DENGUE VIRUS!

The season/weather isn’t even helping. With the constant rain, stagnant water can be found all over, and those are only the visible ones, there are also the hidden stagnant waters where more and more Dengue carrying mosquitoes are propagating.

There is only so much that we could do to stop the Dengue cases from increasing. At home we’ve started burning dead leaves, and wood to produce smoke that hopefully would drive the Dengue Mosquito a.k.a. the Aedes Aegypti away. But no matter how much smoke we make, we still find those pests inside our home and in our bedrooms.

(picture from Stanford.edu)

Inspired by Korea Environmental Technology and Industry Institute, I started to do a little research and discovered an environment friendly way of eliminating these pesky little blood suckers. I found instructions on how to make a home made mosquito trap by using empty plastic bottles, sugar, water and yeast.

With this—if the experiment is true—hopefully it would attract the mosquitoes by producing Carbon Dioxide and trap and drown them inside the bottles.

I’ve created two of these contraptions. I placed one in the dining area and one outside the bedrooms (hallway).

How to build a Mosquito trap?

Materials Needed:

Large soda bottle

50 gram brown sugar (5 grams = 1 tsp)

1 gram live yeast

Thermometer

Measuring bottle/cup

200ml hot water

Scissors/ cutting knife

Newspaper

Sticky tape

1. First you must cut the top of the bottle (try to measure it so it would fit upside down inside the bottle)

2. Mix/dilute the 200ml hot water in the measuring cup/bottle with the 50gram brown sugar. Before adding the Yeast, make sure that the water is warm and will not exceed 40 degrees Celsius (use the Thermometer). Otherwise it might kill the Yeast. What I did was to blow on it (it was easy because 200ml was less than a cup of water) then tested the water 5 times.

3. When you reach the desired temperature you can now add in the Yeast (no need to mix/stir). Then pour the solution inside the plastic bottle. Cover it with the top (upside down).

*** When yeast ferments, it will create Carbon Dioxide that will attract mosquitoes.

Carbon dioxide will be released from the small opening of the bottle. Mosquitoes will enter and get trapped inside and hopefully drown in the sticky substance.

4. Mosquitoes love dark places, so it would be best to cover the bottle with any dark colored paper. If you don’t have black you can use two layers of news paper just like what I did. Then place the trap somewhere dark like the corners of your house.

*** You’ll have to replace the liquid solution/formula every 2 weeks. Hopefully, Ants won’t infest it.

Good luck and keep safe.

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