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My Guitar

When we were kids, my grandfather gave my brother and I a ukelele each. We never got to learn to play those but that didn’t stop us from making like we know how. We even put water-transfer decals on them. That’s how my affair with the guitar family started.

My brother went on to get a series of guitars and learned to play pretty well. I, on the other hand, just borrowed his guitars (and lately, my sister’s 3/4 guitar) and strum a few chords and songs.

But now, I finally go my own guitar! It’s a Karl Hofner HAC 304 Sienna Classical Guitar. It’s an entry-level guitar but it sounds pretty good and the people I consulted about it think so too. It also looks good: clean and no frills. Incidentally, Hofner makes violins too. Is this about as close as I will get to violins? I hope not.

I also got this nifty quick-change capo. At first I thought it’s Kyser capo. But later I realized it was a rip-off called Kayser. So watch out. But then again, it only needs to clamp the strings. How complex can that be? So there shouldn’t be any difference right? At least none that my newbie ears can discern.

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2007 October 14 Paintball at Global Gutz, La Mesa Ecopark, QC

IMGP2474This morning Edong suddenly called up and said paintball was going to push through even though half of the attendees have backed out. Apparently, he had committed to the owner of paintball field who just happens to also be his godfather. So off the four of us remaining players went to the field, a newly opened one within the La Mesa Ecopark.

We played a total of only five games. Each game lasted only about 10 minutes tops but the adrenaline rush made it quite exhausting. There is definitely a rush because I didn’t want to get hit. But majorly hit I got. Three times! First with a stinging hit on the top of my head that made my eyes water. Second on the knuckle of my pinkie that made my hand shake. And finally, a stunning blow on the jaw that dazed me. All the more reason I don’t want to get hit next time around.

During a break from the game, we also tried out some new realistic looking paintball markers. In contrast to standard markers which look like plumbers’ or painters’ tools (they’re actually farmers’ and lumberjacks’ tools), these markers look like your standard military issue M4 complete with magazines instead of hoppers. Of course, they just are not as realistic looking as airsoft guns. But a lot of people (mil sim fans) do not like paintball because of the look of the markers. This could just changed the minds of some of them.

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2007 October 12 Manabu, Sta. Cruz, Batangas

IMGP2439Car invited me to join a climb to Manabu. I was reluctant at first because I have paintball planned for the weekend and I didn’t know if I can handle both in one, albeit long, weekend. But when paintball became uncertain, I decided to go. I met up with Car and Lem at Kamias then proceeded to Taft to meet up with Alex and Julie. Then it was off to Buendia to take a bus to Lipa, Batangas.

At Lipa, we got down at the road to the Fiesta Mall and walked the short distance to the mall. There we hired a tricycle for P120 to Sta. Cruz, the jump-off off point to Manabu. We made a quick stop at the barangay hall to register and pay the P10 per head registration fee then it was hiking time.

We started climbing up around 9AM and we were at the peak by 11:30AM. We had a quick (made quick by a light drizzle) lunch at the peak then hastened down. We were at the bottom by 2PM. The jump-off compound was closed. So we skipped washing up and hired a tricycle for P120 to take us to the Fiesta mall where we finally got to wash and freshen up.

On the way from the Fiesta Mall to the highway, we saw a banana cue stand! I’ve been craving for banana cue for so long and so I immediately got one. Yummy!

At the highway, we caught a bus and headed to Rose and Grace, a supposedly good restaurant known for bulalo. There we had our late lunch/snack/early dinner (depending on who you talk to) of bulalo and steamed tulingan. It was expensive and the bulalo was a bit tough but hey we’re hungry so it was still okay.

After eating, we then caught a bus for the trip to Manila.

It was a pretty easy climb but since it’s my first in a long time it was okay. Besides, the guys were fun to be with. You can’t count the jokes (corny or not). Definitely a the great climb! Thanks guys!

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Ubuntu

I’ve been playing around with Fedora 7 on Selene, my Thinkpad X22, and I must say I was disappointed. Hibernate and standby didn’t work. Not even with Software Suspend 2. I consider those two to be critical features for a notebook so their not working just won’t do. Upon the recommendation of Alex, I installed Ubuntu 7 Feisty Fawn. Well what do you know? Almost everything, including hibernate and standby, “just works” as advertised out of the box. The two things I noticed didn’t work is the sound and the PCMCIA WiFi. Sound is not critical and the PCMCIA WiFi card is a 3rd party device so it’s no big deal. I like Red Hat and Fedora but does Ubuntu rock! I think I’m a convert.

UPDATE: Alex logged on to Selene and fixed the sound and the WiFi. Thanks man!

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Globe Crap

I’ve been receiving these SMS messages from Globe on my phone updating me on my account status. It would have been good to receive it once a month, maybe weekly. But I’m receiving it daily and it was becoming irritating. So one fine day when I was in a foul mood (oh, that would be today), I replied with STOP (there was no instruction on the messages themselves on how to stop receiving them). That didn’t do it so I called up 211, the Globe customer service line to ask that it be disconnected. I told the CSR my predicament. She told me to reply with UNSUBSCRIBE. I was surprised since they should be able to do that on their side. So I asked (nicely) if she can do that. She said they cannot, that they don’t have the capability to subscribe or unsubscribe customers to the service. Then she insinuated that I was the one who subscribed to the service. I took issue with that and I told her so (not so nicely anymore). Eventually she said it can be done, but will take 24 to 48 hours!!! She said it’s because they’re going to manually. What are they gonna do? Solder out some chips or something?!? But anyway, I told her to go do it. At least that’ll give me a reason to call and shout at them if it’s not done in 48 hours. I already have issues with Globe and if they continue like this I just would have to go elsewhere. Grrr.

UPDATE: I was still receiving the messages so I tried UNSUBSCRIBE. It didn’t work! I called Globe again and this time I was answered by someone who was friendly and helpful. So no I didn’t shout at her. She said she will unsubscribe me (yes, apparently they can do that) and the next day there were no more messages. If only every CSR is like her.