General

NBI Clearance

By on Monday, October 6, 2008

So the company suddenly decided to ask me for an NBI clearance. No sweat, right? NOT! The way things work is that you apply for a clearance, they get your personal details, fingerprint you, then run you through their database, and if your name matches a known person with a “derogatory record” you get a “hit” and getting a clearance is suddenly so much less straightforward.

Wait a minute, name match? Yup, you got that right! If your name say matches that of a known criminal, then your clearance gets delayed from quite some time as they check you further. This can vary from a few days to a month or two. You can just imagine the grief of people with pretty common names.

But why name? Don’t they have a more unique way of identifying people? Like maybe fingerprints?!? I mean that’s why they fingerprint you, right? If there’s a name match, you would think the next thing they’d do is compare fingerprints, right? But apparently that’s still not the case because why would they already call a “hit” on just a name match? Why do they still bother interviewing you and having you  sign a written and notarized denial?

Fifteen(!) years ago, I worked with DOST and NBI at preliminary efforts towards an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS). Guess nothing has changed since. Sadness.

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General

Sennheiser MX-160 Earphones

By on Friday, October 3, 2008

A few months ago, I got myself a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. However, I haven’t been playing music on it much. One of the reasons is because I didn’t like the look of Nokia earphones that came with it. Maybe it goes well with the original editions of the phone but definitely not my all-black edition.

And then I saw the plain and simple all-black Sennheiser MX-160 hanging on the store shelf for P550. Not bad for a respected audio brand. I bought it without even testing.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Remember, this is Sennheiser’s entry-level earphone so you can’t possibly expect mind-blowing bass and spine-tingling clarity like those high-end in-ear earphones. But audio quality is quite obviously better than my Nokia earphones. Sound is reasonably crisp, clear, and very audible. Definitely a good deal.

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General

Savings At The Point-of-Sale

By on Monday, September 29, 2008

They did it again. The same fast food joint almost shortchanged me for the third time (that I know). They did it before twice, shortchanging me about 20 centavos. Good thing I noticed while I was still inside the store and I was able to go back to the counter and ask for the missing amount. Today they shortchanged me 93 centavos. But this time I was ready, I asked for the missing amount right away and, as usual, they gave it to me right away. Imagine if on the average each customers get shortchanged 50 centavos. It can add up pretty quick.

Then there is the deferred change when the cashier doesn’t give you your change right away (mainly because of the coin crisis, but that’s another story). Sometimes you forget and when you finally remember, you are already too far away and you decide it’s too small to bother going back for. But it can add up pretty quick.

Finally, there’s there’s the combo savings when you order several items and there’s a combo package of items that’s exactly the same but is priced quite a bit lower (in my case P10). The cashier usually don’t tell you about the savings. Probably because of way too many combo packages available to begin with. Again, it can add up pretty quick.

The savings may be small, but they can easily become a quite significant amount. At times of economic hardship like these, that’s quite important.

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General

Silly People’s Improv Theater aka SPIT

By on Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Val mentioned SPIT to me quite a long time ago but I never got to watch it until tonight with Michelle. SPIT does improvisational theater or improv. Basically, they do an impromptu show often involving the audience along the way. It’s hard to describe or imagine but it’s pretty enjoyable. It’s a welcome deviation from all those comedy bars hosted by gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that per se) comedians whose brand of humor is ummmm jologs. Granted, SPIT drifted towards genitalia jokes once or twice during the evening. But by and large, their humor is intelligent, witty, and almost always genuinely funny. Definitely a good watch. You can usually catch them Tuesdays at the Mag:net cafe High Street and Thursdays at the Mag:net cafe Katipunan.

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General

Tortellini Bolognese

By on Monday, September 22, 2008

Michelle and I have been planning to cook a pack of tortellini we bought at Santi’s a few weeks back. Tonight, we finally cooked it and topped it with ragu based on Mario Batali’s recipe.

1 pack tortellini
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 carrot, finely diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 rib celery, finely diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
¼ kilo pork, ground
¼ kilo beef, ground
1 can pureed tomato
1 can peeled tomato
1 cup red wine
1 cup milk
salt and ground black pepper
cheese, for grating

In pot, boil water. Once boiling, add tortellini and let cook for 10 minutes or so. Drain and put in a plate.

In a pan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the carrots, onions, celery, and garlic and sweat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the beef and pork over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned. Add the tomato, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.

Pour sauce over tortellini and top with grated cheese.

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