The University of the Philippines is celebrating its 100th year and the celebrations kick off today. It will start with a mass at UP Manila, then a motorcade to UP Diliman, flame passing and cauldron lighting, ceremonies, revelry, a concert, and finally fireworks!!! More info here.
Just before the holidays, the RAID server at the office suddenly died. Not one but two drives failed. The server has RAID Level 5 so the loss of one drive should have been easily recoverable. But no, two drives had to fail. Fortunately, Alex was able to resurrect the two dead drives but it seems there were corrupted files and possible longer term problems so we had to reformat. But first we must back up everything. The next problem then comes up: The external backup drive is also dead! So, we had to use a spare drive. Guess what? The SATA-to-USB adapter was also dead! I had to bring my personal SATA-to-USB adapter so we can backup. And that’s why I’m here at the office with Alex and Aby (misery loves company) on a nice Saturday morning when I should be soundly sleeping in bed. Not looking like a good year. Tsk.
Back to work finally from the quite long vacation. The whole family came to visit for the holidays and we went malling, dining out, playing paintball, playing badminton, swimming at Laguna, etc. (my sister commented why it is that people want to do so many things during vacations). This also meant traveling practically every day from QC to Makati. Then there are the parties and get togethers. I’m not complaining. It was loads of fun, but it really was also quite exhausting. Still, I can’t wait till the next time. Haha.
I haven’t had a New Year resolution since forever. But this year, at Cez‘s suggestion, I have these:
- Reach French level B1 by the end of year. This means I actually have to study!
- Read more books. Specifically literary classics but maybe I’ll throw in a contemporary book. Maybe also one in French.
- Take cooking or dance classes.
- Take advanced photography classes.
- Watch F1 in Singapore on September 26 to 28. Shanghai would probably be nice but I heard it will be way crowded. Singapore will hopefully be less so. Besides, I like F1 more than most Olympic sports.
- Go on a road trip. Maybe Pagudpud. You’ll probably be driving more than you actually staying there but in this is a road trip. It is really about the journey! Question is who shares this philosophy? :))
- Go surfing in Zambales or La Union.
- Go hiking and camping in one trip.
- Resume wargaming whether via paintball or airsoft.
- Be less patient with people. You read that right :D
Plans more than resolutions :P
Went to Anilao with Billie for her annual dive. We got there quite early and had to wait for the divemaster to finish breakfast. When he arrived, it turned out to be Jake, the same divemaster from my previous dive. He asked us where we want to dive and we chose to dive Sombrero and Twin Rocks because he said he saw turtles there on his last dive.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see any turtles. But we did see some dolphins from afar on the way to Sombrero, an octopus (under a rock), a ray (my first sighting of one out in the open), a school of jacks, a school of juvenile barracudas, and of course the clouds of tiny colorful fishes. The last is always a very pretty sight. Who needs an aquarium when the sea is your aquarium, right?
Oh and I didn’t get majorly lost during the drive to and from Aquaventure. And no relying on my GPS unit at that. Just a good old map that I printed from the web. Or maybe it’s just that my co-driver/navigator has improved :))