The Journey. It’s Mine. [Daragang Magayon’s Personal Blog]

Good news. I’ve been online at home since Friday night and my weekend was spent downloading and re-installing stuff in this PC whose Windows OS has been reformatted yet again.

Seems to be working so far. Except that this is back to the original low memory chip. Apparently the new 1Gb RAM that was installed months back was having some incompatibility issues with the motherboard, not to mention some corrupt windows file, virus, etc. Something like that…so my computer guys said.

Well…the whole process cost me some photos I didn’t get to upload in my online albums. Then it was too late before I can think of compact flash disks. But then I should learn to put private folders online, print, and back up. And back up. Did I say back-up?! Gosh I never learn. Hayyy.

Well I’ve got back up in CDs of photos earlier than 2006. Since Raine and I went home? Everything was just either online or in the hard disk. Well…till next time, right?

For three days in a row now I’ve been blogging in the city (Sorsogon City, that is!), my windows PC broke down for the nth time. It’s going to need a replacement soon, but that’s another story.

My brother, a student of a computer school has been fixing it.  He does the best he can and I’m really really thankful for that. I don’t know if he is reading this (maybe he does too), so I just wanna say sorry for being such a pushy Ate. I expect too much sometimes. Besides, the unit has got hardware problems already.

He’s young and pikon. I’m 15 years  older and still pikon too. In that sense, I know I am worse. But…see? We really have the same genes! He he.

Well…it’s gonna be a long weekend. It’s just a lot weirder not being online at home.  He is still at it (brought the CPU when he left this morning)..and we are all crossing our fingers for a temporary solution until we can buy a decent one.

Hmmm…maybe I should have let the CPU wore a religious jewelry? Yes, we need a miracle! Ha ha ha.

Anyways…I’ve got maybe an hour here, tops. Then I’m calling it a week.

For the month of June, this main PC that I use crashed several times. The main reason is that the twins use this as well. Not for internet though, but for the files they have on flask disks, MP3 players, CDs…you name it.

Well of course they download stuff from the internet outside (school, net cafes, friend’s computer) and bring those at home.

So I guess they both should not complain if I nag them to fix the unit ASAP…and until I can buy my own unit (running on windows!), I should stop complaining too. He he.

But now they are using a friend’s laptop for all those music videos they keep watching/listening to for band practice.

Last week, I got a reply from a two-year inquiry of possible internet service in my ‘remote’ location. I’m not going to say what the name of the provider is but it is a satellite internet service. Sounds fine right? Besides we are already on satellite TV. Seems like satellite is the only thing that’s gonna work there.

I haven’t seen how the thing works, maybe they changed their minds for a possible demo. I said the equipment was too expensive and I can afford it.  Well, it definitely isn’t like buying a KVM switch. It’s like buying a high-end laptop — which at the moment I cannot afford.

Sometime. When the price comes down. By then I guess broadband would have reached me. Meanwhile, I remain on 3G GPRS…unless I move to town or the city. Gosh…now I wish I live in a trailer!

Okay, this isn’t as if I am lusting over LCD TV. It’s just that the TVs in this house are almost gone kaput. One’s display picture just went off one time while in the other, the screen we see isn’t centered anymore.

Then my computer’s monitor is still flickering off and on, on its own! I would love a flat screen. But I don’t have money to buy it. Until then, LCD TVs and computer monitors remain a (bad) dream. He he.

It’s been almost two months since I got my hands on an Asus Eee PC and I am definitely loving it. The unit has definitely lived up to its name.

Easy to learn

Indeed it is so00o easy to learn. For somebody who has been using Windows OS for ages, the stripped-down (term borrowed from a friend of mine) Linux preloaded in the Eee is a delightful surprise. First of all, it boots up and shuts down at a very quick pace — favoring the uber-impatient me.

Easy to work

The “big thumbnails” of each application is almost idiot proof. Period. You’ll never gonna get lost! The size of the keyboard nicely fits my fingers. Besides, I have everything I need in there. When I brought it outside and hooked in an internet cafe, I just had to plug-in the LAN cable and I was automatically connected to the net. No configuration, settings necessary!

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I remembered Ruth saying to me early this year that 2008 is a year of new opportunities.

Indeed this is a year of new opportunities for me: new stuff, new friendships, etc. This is only the first two months and it already trumps those lousiest years of my life — generally speaking at least.

New opportunities indeed. It’s just all up to me to either take it all or not. Choices, choices…who doesn’t want to be in the position to choose?!

There has been too many little things (that matter!) already, and then I got me (read: somebody gave me) this new baby: a Nokia 6233. You know… the one which remains Nokia’s cheapest 3G phone.

Even if you are such a control freak, at some point you must realize that there is just no way you can control everything 100% of the time.

Like when I used to do lab work, even if I was working against an important deadline, there’s just no way I can be done when in the middle of analytical frenzy, the machine shuts down or the pipette goes out of calibration. When such things occur,you just have to stop, fix it if you can (as soon as possible!), before you can carry on with the task. Sometimes, that might even mean starting all over again, simply because you are working in vivo.

What else is out of control? Too many in life I think. Like when your cell phone signal turns off automatically in the middle of a very-important-matter-of-life-and-death-your-future-depends-on-it kind of phone call.

That just sucks right? Especially if you cannot do anything about it.

Is tinkering with your cellphone the last thing you do before going to sleep? I am worse because I most often sleep with my cellphone under my pillow (under the pillow’s edge).

That’s actually a bad habit, as reported by The Mobile Technology Weblog.

If the last thing you do before going to sleep is play with your mobile phone, you might need to change that habit.

According to a study sponsored by Mobile Manufacturers Forum, radiation emitted by mobile phones can cause headaches and damage sleep.

Even before my pre-mobile phone days, I always have a headache at the end of the anyway. That headache will actually put me to sleep early. He he.

I can attest to the power of the internet. But we all should it well. If used well, the internet can actually make our lives better.

Aside from blogging, earning money online, i love the internet because (most of all) I can do online banking. You wouldn’t want to go personally to the bank (to deposit funds to somebody or pay your bills) in my part of the world where queues are toxic.

That been said, online banking to me is heaven.

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I thought I received a Hallmark e-card from somebody this morning.

When I clicked the link to claim the card, it turned out to be an automatic download of some application - that when I opened is loaded with viruses.

Thank God my PC automatically blocked it.

Darn, I thought I was sent an e-card! So be careful before clicking any link.

Make sure that your anti-virus is updated and fully functional.

I have always suspected that mine is running below 230.4 kbps as it appears in my internet connection speed monitor.

Thanks to speedtest.net my suspicion was confirmed.

At the moment, there is no better alternative in my home location, so i have to make do with the above specs for an average of 5K PHP per month. I know that this really sucks while I am not getting a nice deal for my money. So if you know of a better (not to mention cheaper) alternative, please let me know the moment it becomes available.

Thanks to Rico for the link.

Update, September 12:

I found a spot where there is the best reception fro my cellphone’s signal and have been working on that spot since then.

There was a time in my life when I knew all the lyrics of songs and which songs are playing and most requested on the radio. Yes, there was once a time that I listened to the radio 24/7.

You know, long before videoke became the “in” thing in singing and jamming. Long before music videos came about, there were 1001 song books and guitar playing. That was how we learned to sing songs and memorize lyrics of the songs. That was good old ‘jammin’ man and you learn to pluck the guitar by looking at the chord charts at the back of the 1001 song book!

When Raine was born, music and singing are some of the things I lost. I had better things to do I guess. He he. Motherhood does that: better things to do and more important things to put your money into. Thus, goodbye audio CDs. Heck, I can’t even remember what audio CD I bought last.

Anyway, fast forward to today…I’ve yet to discover MP3s and iTunes. Where’d the time go? Now, you can just download your favorite song and watch the video on YouTube.

Today I’ve been cleaning the hard drive of my PC. Guess what I found?! Tons of MP3s that the twins got somewhere and saved in my PC.  So I looked and listened…and saved some that I like into my cellphone. Gosh, I feel so ancient! 

This is my new favorite. (can somebody please tell why I still can’t embed a YouTube video in this blog?)

Well, if Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore can pull a nice duet, then that must be one darn good use of technology. Har har har.

…may kaagaw na ako sa PC! And this little man is so very hard to say no to.

Look at him, he looks like he has been doing this all his life!

It is truly amazing - kids - you thought you’ll be “safe” at their young age so you don’t teach them with button to push to turn off the computer, or how to navigate into the TV’s remote or how to use the mouse. But they just know, like they were born with it. So don’t you get surprised when you call my cell and Raine picks it up! Because he has figured out the cellphone a long time ago.

Hayy, it won’t be long , then he’ll be asking for gadgets I never dreamed of using myself. Ha ha.

For almost 2 months now I have been working at home with just my Motorola RAZR V3x as a modem to access the internet. The connection I am getting at 2.5G isn’t perfect: it says 230.4 kbps but in reality I think it is even less than half of that.

But if that’s what I have right now for an internet connection that allows me to work at home, pinagtatiyagaan ko na. Looking back on what I had to go through in the past year just to get online…I will not trade this for a broadband in town. At least for now…he he!

Satellite broadband is still to die for though and I am still in search of that (more story on this later).

Let me first apologize to my Moto…it isn’t my first choice of a 3G phone. I’ve always been loyal to Nokia phones and the only reasons i opted for the moto are 1) it was the cheapest 3G phone I can get around here (in a couple of stores selling original cellphone units), more than a couple thousand pesos cheaper than the highly recommended Nokia 6233 and mostly because 2) it also comes in pumpkin orange color (which i eventually didn’t get because the store turned out to have only boring black in stock!).
So I underestimated it…but it delivered more than I needed it for and I am grateful.

Hopefully one day, broadband internet will grace our remote-but-not-getting-so-remote home location. That, and my ultimate Nokia phone: the Nokia E61i (The SmartPDA has a review).

Once I get my hands on broadband internet, i will have no need to upgrade on a cellphone for a long time.

Then maybe I can finally save up on a nice PC notebook!

[The list never seem to end, maybe I shouldn’t have started blogging at all! And I used to be too happy with my good old Nokia 3315. He he. ;-)]