Jay Lagare – Page 118

Huawei E5 (Globe Tattoo Superstick)

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, May 22, 2011

I finally got fed up with the recent erratic behavior of my Sun wireless broadband connection and decided to disconnect it. To replace it, I got the Globe Tattoo Superstick. It is essentially a rebranded Huawei E5 packaged with a Globe Tattoo subscription. The rebrand involves the firmware and a hideous Tattoo sticker that I promptly removed.

The E5 is a mobile 3G modem, router, and wireless access point. As a 3G modem, it connects to your 3G network provider (in this case Globe). As a wireless access point, it serves up to 5 wireless clients which can then connect via the router to the 3G modem, and then to the Internet. It has a battery that lasts at around 2-3 hours with one charge. A bit short but can be longer since you can charge it via USB from your laptop (now that’s a mutualism relationship!).

General

Fast Five

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Fast and the Furious series keep going. This afternoon, Jeanne, Michelle, and I caught a screening of Fast Five. It’s now a heist movie with cars. Think The Italian Job but with American and Japanese muscle cars instead of those dinky little Minis. The gang gets together for a job to steal the money of the biggest drug lord in Rio de Janiero. Assembling the crew for the job became a family reunion of sorts with practically everyone from the previous installments showing up. There is even an attempt to focus on the characters, e.g. someone’s pregnant.

But who am I kidding? It doesn’t matter where they are, what they’re doing, and what the human drama is. The whole point are the cars. And cars are still the best thing about the series and this movie. There are cars aplenty: Italian cars, German cars, Japanese cars, and, of course, American cars (but no Korean?). The stunts are over the top and I sometimes chuckled about the ridiculousness of it all. But by the end of the movie there’s no denying I had fun.

General

Overheat

By Jay Lagare on Thursday, May 19, 2011

Just after lunch yesterday, Michelle called that the Sentra’s engine was smoking and it stank. Signs of an overheat. Good thing she had already stopped the car. So I just asked her to let the engine cool, replenish the water in the coolant reservoir, and proceed to the parking.

Some helpful passersby also advised her to pour water over the radiator but I’m not too sure that helped much. Since the engine is off, coolant (if there is any left) is not circulating and that would mainly cool down the radiator and not the engine.

General

Work-Life Balance

By Jay Lagare on Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Some people would call it Life-Work Balance but does the order really matter? It’s a balance after all :P

There was a time when I spent a lot of time at work. Even overnights. And there was a time, when I expect people to spend a lot of time at work. Even overnights.

Not anymore. When Jeanne was born my perspective changed. These days my ideal day would be:

6 hours – sleep
1 hour – prepare for work
1 hour – go to work
9 hours – work + coffee breaks + lunch
1 hour – go home
6 hours – remainder

Work and work-related time is 60 hours per week. Which leaves, not counting sleep, 66 hours per week for yourself: sports/hobbies, spending time with family and friends, etc. That seems balanced enough. But really it’s still not.

General

Bonding

By Jay Lagare on Tuesday, May 17, 2011

I was out sick yesterday, so I was down and in bed for most of the day. Not that I was able to sleep or rest much because Jeanne, when she’s not playing with Steph, would come around and play with me. But no, I’m not complaining.

Later in the afternoon, I took her with me for a quick foray into the grocery. I wasn’t able to buy everything I needed because she got bored sitting on the cart and wanted to walk around. She even helped push the cart. It was slow going so I decided to cut short the trip as I still wasn’t feeling too well.