against the flow

Can't believe I havent visited this blog in weeks. Lovely.

Christmas was very predictable but quite enjoyable especially with our new found game Cranium at hand, it rocked our Christmas just a bit more.

New Year's Eve was.. let's just say, different and magical. I got to party with my friends and watch the first sunrise of 2009 from the balcony of a club. Looking forward to this year.. so far, so good!

I must say I got everything I've ever dreamed of last 2008, it's quite amazing looking back at things, God has truly been gracious. Seriously. To prove how great He's been let me count some of the blessings I've gotten in the past year:

Passing college with flying colors! Getting an awesome Thesis grade and beating them smart ass-too confident friends.

My small and yet lucrative jewelry business online

Getting my dream job. Yes, being a radio DJ, how awesome can that get? I dont need to work in a 9-5 job. wuhoo!

Meeting new and amazing people, from international rock bands to the average joes that made a difference

Getting to teach teens about God every Sunday

Materially? Getting that iPod Nano and Blackberry. Ohhh. How I love.

Providing financially. I didnt get paid back then, and somehow, I managed to still go out and party and enjoy life, it's unbelievable!

Those are the very few things I'm thankful for. I honestly can't wait for what's coming this year.

Happy New Year fellas! Cheers!

tabulas

For patron accounts, I've added one new feature: linkbacks. Any time a Tabulas user posts an entry that links to a particular entry of yours, you'll see it appear in the comment view of a page. This will help you discover who's talking about your entries on Tabulas, and it is a way to encourage you to link to other's posts as well!

I've also started processing Tabulas entries for the "Related" entries feature - for those of you who don't know, this is a magical feature which will try to find "related" entries that you've written. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes it's not. But it's fun to see what entries will show up

Related entries are processed nightly, so you may have to wait a bit to get related entries. All patron account should have had their entries processed, though.

iwalkalone

in relation to my friend uzzi's recent blog entry about security guards, i also recently had chance to interact with another area of the blue-collar workforce, namely the electricians, plumbers and construction workers. and so here is my story and my tribute to these hardworking people.

there are just days when everything goes wrong from get go, as if you were playing basketball and you get thrown off via a 20-0 run by your opponent.  there are times when you get so aggrevated that you think someone is picking on you. when you get caught with this situation, there is a point when you've had enough that you sit down, pause with a sigh and ask yourself, "why (the f***, well for those who just cant help but curse) is this happening to me?"

but sometimes, these "bad days" turn out not that bad at all. they also end up giving you a great lesson and open your eyes to certain things that youencounter everyday yet never see clearly before. december 29 was one of those days for me.

it was about 6 am when my mom woke me up and told me that half of the outlets we have in the house were not working. she said she heard something boom and then when she opened some appliances they wouldnt turn on. she checked the other outlets if they worked and thus found out that only a few were working. i was half-awake when i was trying to fathom what she was saying so i was back to sleep in jiffy when she was done. it was 6 am in the morning after all. then she had to leave at around 7am because she had work (yes she had to go to work).

a few minutes after she left, i was awakened by strange water sounds that seemed seeping out of somewhere. so got up and searched for that sound. it was water after all so i headed for the faucet in the kitchen. i was surprised to find a small puddle already built up on the floor. so looked for the source and alas, it did come from underneath the faucet. there was a knob underneath where the water was coming from so i tried to turn it like a normal person would do. the next thing that happened looked like a scene straight from a cartoon.

as i was turning the knob to tighten it up, it suddenly broke. i looked at the knob sitting at the palm of my hand and in my head i said, "oh shit." half a second later water from that pipe where the knob had been suddenly exploded continuously and the flow was like straight from a fireman's hose. i have to admit that i panicked and like an idiot would do, i tried to put the knob back hoping that it would work. of course it didn't. panic-striken by the flood that was consuming the house and the frightening sound that it made like there was a huge storm pouring on your roof, i stood there thinking of what to do with my face dazed. i attempted to put pails underneath the leak but that didn't work. i realized i had to shut the water off so i ran outside and went to the main switch of the water supply and pulled the lever up and a second later the water sounds were gone. but as you would have guessed, the damage was done. the house was now like a swimming pool. i sat on the sofa, all wet, water on my feet, having only a few hours of sleep (remember it was 7am), in a house with no electricity and unusable faucets. i paused, sighed, and told myself "why is this happening to me?"

i called my mom and told her what had happened and she was not that far away yet so she was home in a few minutes. she decided not to go to work anymore as she helped me mop up the floor. of course now we had to fix everything that was broken and thank God we have friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable neighbors. my mom called mang melencio from a few houses away who was an electrician and a plumber too. mang boy, another neighbor, also arrived and also held a hand. they happily loaned their help with our problems and started investigating what went wrong.

the water problem was easily fixed as we just had to replace the parts and it was done in a few minutes. the outlets though was a different story. it took hours before mang melencio discovered what the problem was as it was rare. to give you a hint on how dumbfounding it was, the main switch was already turned off and there was still electricity coming out of one of the outlets (magic eh, may powers ata ako). he had to check every socket with his tester thingy and he even had to go up the ceiling to check on the wirings there. i swear to God while he was checking the outlets, i saw sparks every time a couple of them were really huge ones and if i was in his position when that happened, you would have seen me run away as fast as the flash. but he was very calm and he was a pro after all. i remembered my high school physics teacher said that when a person starts getting electrocuted, you should give him a flying kick to separate him from the source and since we were working with electricity here, i was prepared to that to mang melencio if ever it occurred. thank God again we didn't come to that. he wasn't able to solve the problem but he had a temporary solution for it so that we could still use electricity in our home.

so that was the story, after a crisis, our helpful and handymen neighbors helped us out. i never really appreciated people like them until now and i thank God for them. know everytime i see "tubero" ad outside and a meralco guy on top of an electric post, i would now see them differently. it is a true and tough profession that needs great knowledge and skills that i now honestly wish i had. my mom handed mang melencio reasonable amount of money and the guy wouldnt even accept it (but of course we forced him to). that's humility and nobility for you.  he deserved more i felt, after all the work he had done. these people can proudly shout their profession when leonidas asks them "you, what is your profession?"

other lessons:

-we also have another guy come to our house once in a while, a construction worker named mang lito who fixes leaks on our roof, paints our stuff, and sometimes does gardening as well. one time we called him up to work for us again but said he couldn't come. the poor guy got his leg broken as he fell while working for another client. he couldn't walk for months. again, this is another profession that i realized is not an easy thing as there are a lot of risks involved. it also takes skill and knowledge to do this. it is sad that these types of jobs are under appreciated here than it should be unlike in other countries. this blog entry is also a tribute to construction workers.

-i also thank God for allowing these things to happen the right way. how you ask? well, imagine if the leak happened if there was no one in the house and we still had electricity. when we arrive, our whole subdivision would be flooded and once i enter the home, i'll be a dead man since i'll get electrocuted. also, when i was mopping the floor, i saw my recently bought lcd monitor on the floor that i hadn't set up yet and luckily it didn't get wet. the water seemed to stop only a few inches away from it. call it coincedence but it does make you think that indeed, someone is watching over us. also you can look at them as blessings in disguise as they say. finally, i also had to mop the floor anyway since it was already dirty and dusty and the with the water already being on the floor, the task was easier. so again, a blessing in disguise.

One of the bigger complaints I've gotten about the control panel redesign is the lack of accurate hit logging. To that end, I've added back one of the more popular features for patron accounts: viewing your recent visitor traffic logs.

Because of server limitations, you can only view your last 72 hours worth of data, but the data it provides should give you a better idea of where your traffic is coming from.

Check it out in your control panel.

celebration by ~ian27 on deviantART

This entry contained scripting, which has been removed for your safety. Click here to see the entry in its entirety.

iwalkalone

this is part 2 of my sports blog. today, i will talk about the recent events in the wwe. (woooooooh!) the wwe is known as "sports entertainment" so it still falls under the category of sports. so, here we go!

RAW

so the champion in this show is john cena who recently defeated chris jericho for that world heavyweight championship. im not surprised that cena won the championship on his first match back since his return to the ring was so hyped by the wwe, showing video packages about him, and the pay-per-view event was in his home town. now, im not really a cena fan but he has always been a great champ for the show. y2j meanwhile has done a fantastic job holding the title as heel and i hope he gets another chance down the road.

speaking of former title holders, i am so pissed about the other two guys who held the title recently, namely batista and cm punk. batista's reign was so short that what was the point of giving him the title in the first place? sorry for being biased because i am a batista fan but you have to agree with me on this. as for cm punk, his whole reign as champion is disrespectful to him and the title itself. why? even though he was the champion, he was made to look weak. as if giving him the title was mistake for the people behind the scenes. and then, the way he lost the title, he didn't even get a chance to defend it in a match. he lost it because he could not compete? cmon they can do better than that. he is so over with the fans, just like a jeff hardy of smackdown!, so why do those things to him. the championship represents a lot of things but being weak isnt one of them. i hope cm gets a chance again in the future.

on other things on raw, i am excited about this faction of randy orton composing of second/third generation superstars. ive always loved factions as they add a great twist to the show. one of the guys that has been missing is rey mysterio. he doesnt seem to fit in raw. maybe he should go to ecw and give that show the star power (more on this later). also, i wish cryme tyme become the tag champs soon because they are so cool (money, money, yeah yeah!).

future star from raw: kofi kingston

deserves a push: cm punk

does not deserve a push: jbl

is better someplace else: rey mysterio

someone raw should get: a new gm

funniest character: santino

this guy's still on the roster?!: hardcore holly and val veni

hottest diva: kelly kelly (but only by a hair since they are all hot!)

SMACKDOWN!

ive always believed that smackdown is best show from the 3 wwe programs. yes, better than raw and yes, even after the wwe draft and all the roster changes recently. raw has the most superstars but smackdown always had the better storylines. the show never needed the superstar power that raw always had and kudos to the writers for making smackdown a great show that it is today.

as for the show at present, i am very very extremely happy that jeff hardy is now the wwe champion!. wow. this guy has deserved a title run for a long time and if not for his screw ups in the past, we could have seen this earlier. i actually have been a fan of him and his brother matt and recently. jeff's character has been dark and had a devil-may-care persona (it always has been actually) that i liked him even more. i hope he does well as the champ and holds on to it for a long time, unlike cm punk.

i think triple h held on to the title a little too long and it was sometimes tiring to see it with him so i guess the loss he had, he had it coming. again the ultimate oppurtunist edge got another title and it was not surprising that this happened. and it was a good thing since eventually it led to jeff hardy being crowned. ive always loved the vickie-edge pair up as ive always been a fan of a storyline that has an abusive boss who is biased towards the heels and then the lone good beats them (eg. stone cold, batista etc)

on other news, us champ shelton benjamin has been great too though he lacks a huge storyline to improve is character even more. the tag champs carlito and primo are good as well though they were just thrown in the mix out of nowhere.  im also hoping mr.kennedy gets another push while about kozlov and his push, all i can say is wtf.

future star from smackdown: mr. kennedy

deserves a push: mr. kennedy

does not deserve a push: vladimir kozlov

is better someplace else: vladimir kozlov

someone smackdown should get: maybe batista (another guy who seems lost in raw)

funniest character: kung fu naki

who the f*** is this guy?!: scotty goldman

hottest diva: maria (again, just by a slim margin since they are all hot anyway)

ECW

so i never really get to watch this show and i find out what's going on with it only through the internet. now, i also never saw the old ecw when it wasnt under the wwe yet but, i do know even without witnessing it that much, that that show was far more better than what it is today. wwe has smeared its legacy and the old ecw originals like heyman, sabu, sandman etc must be really pissed. this show is completely crap and it deserves better. well, after the wwe brought it back, it was only a matter of time before they removed the ecw origs (bring back balls mahoney!) and "wwe-ize" it. even the belt was changed.

maybe adding the old "extreme rules" match every episode would be good. oh, and it also needs star power so that it would be worth watching. though there are great new wrestlers in it but they are unknown and people easily lose interest. hopefully it gets better next year.

future star from ecw: evan bourne

deserves a push: chavo guerrero

does not deserve a push: who are they pushing anyway?

is better someplace else: none

someone ecw should get: stars from the other shows!

funniest character: hornswoggle

who the f*** is this guy?!: everyone on the freakin roster!

hottest diva: tiffany (the only woman in the roster)

iwalkalone

Our Savior is born, rejoice! May you be my close friend, friend, not-so-close-friend, even enemy or a stranger, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, Merry merry merry Christmas. 

Hinay-hinay lang sa pagkain haha! And since this is a very special day, and in the spirit of giving, I have a very special gift for you! And here it is, enjoy it, minsan lang ako magbigay niyan hahaha!


(Huuuuuuuugggggggggggzzzzzzzmwaaaaaah!!!)

Once again, Merry Christmas to you and your family!

                                                                                                
Your friendly friend,
      JA

stacatto

Am watching GG when inspiration suddenly struck!

Three words. I-LOVE-YOU.

You have to get past the "I" aspect to get to the LOVE and the YOU aspect. And then you have to learn about the LOVE part before you think of the I and the YOU together.

lol, im tryna be witty. because it's raining and im hella excited for the pig roast tomorrow. Lechon for noche buena. yum yum! <3. and GG is giving me the happy vibes lol.

I'll see my cousins again, and we'll all be young for the last time. Next year, I'm gonna be "included" with the adults. EHK.

And apparently, will have to be the one giving gifts na. hahaha. Time for everything it seems.

In a semi sour mood because i have a commander right here at home who acts like a drill sergeant and inspects everything i do, from the cooking, to the dishes, to the laundry. And finds me totally incapable of driving. My goodness! I've been driving since i was 17, that's 3 years and yes, it's not a lifetime. But give me a little breathing space please.

And yeah, Art is not a good release right now. Because I'm messing up my colors because i want to stick to blues and blacks. So i need to move up and play one of the sports just to get things out of my system.