Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I was choosing a birthday card for Randy when this song, You're My World by Helen Reddy kept sticking on my mind, with accompanied music.

So, my daughter provided me the above youtube video... and, I lovingly dedicate this song to my dearest Randy. Happy 52nd birthday, Randy!

Youre My World (Lyrics)
Artist: Helen Reddy
Album: Youre My World

You're my world, you're every breath I take
You're my world, you're every move I make
Other eyes see the stars up in the sky
But for me they shine within your eyes

As the trees reach for the sun above
So my arms reach out to you for love
With your hand resting in mine
I feel a power so divine

You're my world, you are my night and day
You're my world, you're every prayer I pray
If our love ceases to be
That is the end of my world for me

With your hand resting in mine
I feel a power so divine

You're my world, you are my night and day
You're my world, you're every prayer I pray
If our love ceases to be
That is the end of my world...
End of my world
End of my world
End of my world for me

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I reset my DP early this afternoon to accompany my son, Paul Denise, to the dentist.

Pearl and Shiela were with us when we went to Queen Mary Holistic Center located at Medical Plaza. Dr. Chavez is still in Canada so her assistant was the one who treated my son's dental concern. They explained to me the difference between Dental Treatment Plan A and B. So, I choose Treatment Plan A, for practical reasons: root canal treatment wouldn't last because my son is a smoker! I only gave partial deposit in the amount of Php 10,000. Next appointment will be on Nov. 3, at 2 pm

It was past 6 pm when we left from the clinic. Pearl and Shiela picked us up so we went home altogether. We're supposed to do some grocery shopping but since my son wants to rest, we went home after buying the prescribed medicines. At Mercury Drug Store, it took us about 30 mins before we were accomodated because many people were in line buying the medicines. Guess so many people are ill these days...

We've made it home finally, before Randy comes back online. I forgot to run Skype and I found out only he was online when I checked OP. He was upset he couldn't login to Tribal Wars so I activated Account Sitting request he made few days back. I was able to login to his account and researched wood, clay, and iron. The game wouldn't let me logout but fortunately, I remained logged on in my actual account.

Anyway, am relieved my son finally have time for dental treatment. He always set aside appointments before but since he has to undergo full medical checkup, he realized it's about time...

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Although I was not fully recovered from stomach upset, Pearl, Shiela, and I went to Chinese General Hospital to visit my favorite niece, Trixia, when Randy logged out to bed.

Trixia was admitted yesterday after spending a day waiting at the ER, under observation. She has stage II Dengue. They kept monitoring her tempearture, blood platelets count, and BP. The lowest platelet count was 117 and highest BP was 100 / 80. Normal platelet count should be between 150-450.

We stayed there for about 2 hours with Egay's wife, Ana. Ana was happy when she saw her daughter, Trixia, had fun playing Deal or No Deal game on Nintendo DS Lite Pearl brought with her. Pearl went out to buy some food from Chow King and I fed Trixia. Both of her hands have IV needle so she couldn't hold anything.

Time ran so fast though... we had to leave so Trixia can rest.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Pacette picked up the three (3) annotated copies of my live birth from NSO - East Avenue, with the following remarks:

"Pursuant to the Decision dated March 13, 2007 rendered by Judge T of the Regional Trial Court, National Capital Region, Branch XXX, Metro Manila, under SPE. PRO. NO Q-06-XXXXX, the date of birth of the child is hereby ordered corrected from May 26, 1960 to June 6, 1960."

Certified Correct by Lenna L. Bosito (Archivist)

We're done with two cases and I am looking forward to Case III's last hearing on November 12th... many thanks to Randy for making these things possible.

Speaking of Randy, it's the fourth day he does not go to work. All classes are suspended due to wildfires in San Diego. It's unfortunate that another Sta. Ana winds is forecast on Sunday, which might make the wildfires worse.

I have stomach problems and suffering from diarrhea... I slept the whole day but the Skype was on and Randy talked to me from time to time updating me about what's going on. I couldn't talk much because I feel vomiting. I was able to eat something only at past 9 pm.

Arroyo grants pardon to former President Joseph Ejercito after 43 days the Guilty Verdict on plunder had been given.

Moral-Majority believes this is a political ploy intended to shift the focus of public debate away from the ZTE scandal and palace payoffs towards this potentially divisive issue. "We [Moral-Majority] are not against pardon per se, especially if it is granted for humanitarian reasons. What we oppose is the timing and the motives behind it." (Ref: [Moral-Majority] Digest Number 44).

State prosecutor questions legality of Estrada pardon but, it is just fair to release Estrada after 6 long years of sufferings under the hands of the country's political ruling class...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

My daughter and I were curious to know the size of San Diego Wildfire and the only way to find out is find the map of the Philippines.

Arrggghhh... it's like 5-6 times the size of Metro Manila!

Anyway, I was mad early this evening because I didn't have Bayantel DSL connetion for almost an hour. I called several times but no one's answering.

When DSL was restored, I couldn't do anything either. I had Bicol Express for lunch and since then, I feel like vomitting. When Randy comes back online I was still chilling, I couldn't find any reason why I had a fever.

Randy sounds sick as well and been coughing. After we recited the rosary, I logged out so both of us can rest. The air quality in San Diego is getting worse.

Randy told me the authorities are doing their best to handle the situation. Half a million residents evacuated already and hotlines 211 for fire info; 511 for traffic and road closures; aside from 911 emergencies, are on standby to those who remain at home.

Firefighters get break from winds, aircraft and chopper attack the flames with water, calming the tail of Harris Fire on advancing near Randy's area. I could hear most of nbcsandiego live news feed via Skype while Randy and I are playing uc.

On the lighter side, Randy's daughter, Judy, bought me some game points in Tribal Wars - World 10. I started playing it two nights ago while busy monitoring the situation in San Diego's website while Randy was at work.

It is past 11 pm on Randy's side, he said the fire near his area was put out, no orange skies but, no one knows what comes next, when everyone is asleep....

I hurriedly logged online as soon as I woke up and found Randy still at home...

Randy has been watching news all day. He said that it is the biggest catastrophe in San Diego's Fire History. Sta. Ana winds started last Monday (Sunday in San Diego) and will last for some time.

The Qualcomm Stadium where the Chargers play is the new and biggest evacuation center at the moment, after Ramona Fire spreads out to the previous evacuation centers. Civility reigns at San Diego Stadium, evacuees enjoy live band and lavish gourmet buffets. Donations flooded evacuations centers...

I will blog more later... my entry kept disappearing... will check with Ploghost, my webhosting provider about this...

Randy and I had been monitoring the whole day the wildfires in San Diego County.

In fact, Randy was sent home from work so he can monitor the safety of his household. Based on the above map, an evacuation might be possible, depending on latest advisory prior to movement of fire. All major highways are closed to traffic, air quality is real bad, and everyone is advised to stay indoors. Cases of looting had been reported by homeowners who abandoned their homes.

It's hard for me to accept that this is happening in Randy's place... I hope, as I wake up tomorrow, he's still there at home, safe, and waiting for me to come online...

Monday, October 22, 2007

I'm very much worried about Randy's situation. Harris fire is just few miles away from his area...

Thousands of people living in affected areas were evacuated for their safety. At past 3 pm when Randy went to bed, there were two fires only: Witch Creek and Malibu Fires.

At 4 pm, my daughter and I did some grocery shopping and we hurriedly came back home to monitor the latest news in San Diego. I couldn't watch the live news feed from San Diego due to lousy Bayantel DSL connection, so, I cooked Pork Sinigang for dinner.

When Randy came back online at 9 pm, I found out from him that 6 more fires were reported. I checked nbcsandiego.com earlier but overlooked the new reported fires. Several new fires sprouted and continued to rage overnight (pls see 2007 Firestorm Image Gallery):

• Malibu
• Agua Dulce, Canyon Country
• Lake Arrowhead
• Orange County
• Castaic
• Porter Ranch
• Witch Creek Fire Merges With San Pasqual Valley Fire
• Aguanga
• Portrero

Our local news says, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties."

Randy left to work but, I told him to call me by phone if they are sent home, in case of emergency... I just wish everything will be fine soon... :-(

Friday, October 19, 2007

Joel Sugay aka Honorbound in UC game Randy and I are playing everyday, called me up by phone this afternoon.

He told me not to allow anyone of my kids to go malling as he heard over TV News Alert that there was a bomb explosion at Glorietta 2 Mall in Makati early this afternoon, killing eight people and wounded around 129 more...

I've waited for the 24 Oras Evening News on channel 7 to know more about he explosion and captured some shots so Randy will see the extent of damages inside the mall:

Many Filipinos believe that the Arroyo government faked the Glorietta blast as a diversionary tactic to declare Martial Law... on Oct 12th, Palace denies bribing solons to 'kill' Arroyo impeachment bid; on Oct. 18th, Solon hits Palace over COA 2006 report; and, today, Palace defiant amid renewed calls for Arroyo resignation...

RED ALERT status has been declared in Metro Manila...

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I have two good news today, first one is... Pacette claimed in my behalf three (3) NSO SECPA copies of void Marriage Contract (Case I), from NSO Releasing2 Section, East Avenue this afternoon, with the following remarks:

"Pursuant to the Decision dated January 25, 2007 rendered by Judge T. of Regional Trial Court, National Capital Judical Region, Branch XX, Metro Manila under Civil Case No. Q-06-XXXXX, the marriage between me and Abdulelah is hereby declared void from the beginning."

Certified Correct by Adoracion M. Valenzuela (Archivist)

Pacette failed to pickup the three (3) NSO SECPA copies of corrected live birth certificate (Case II) because NSO didn't add the remarks made in 2003. This is the second time they made a mistake. First one was last year which Pacette corrected with Legal Instrument. Pacette had to go to Vibal Bldg and secure the copy they corrected last year. My sister got the corrected copy and submitted it to NSO East Avenue for correction. She has to come back on the 25th this month to claim it.

Errr... that's not the second good news, though, which I want to blog about...

The second good news is that... Randy purchased a round trip ticket SFO-MNL-SFO via Philippine Air Lines departing San Diego on Friday, Dec 21 at 09:05 PM and will arrive Manila on Sunday, Dec 23 at 05:40 AM. I set my count-down timer on: 65 days to go before Randy's next visit...

Anyway, am happy we're done with Case I and if Pacette will pickup on the 25th the NSO corrected live birth certificate, that means we're done also with Case II. One more hearing on Case III to take good care of on November 12th, and we will be waiting for its decision and finality before verification, which will take us also several months.

Aw... am getting older, though, why the Philippine government does not consider Divorce Bill Law, so the men in my country don't get away from their duties and responsibilities... and, stop their double-standard marriages. It took Randy and Rose to finalize their divorce in just 6 months (USA). Why spoil the fun and happiness of older folks like me and Randy going through all these difficulties of setting me free from the marriages I had only in papers???

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Randy is back in San Diego at 11:01 pm his time (2:01 pm in Manila), two hours earlier than his scheduled arrival. In spite of bumpy flight, glad he arrived home safely.

We're waiting for him to log in to Unification Wars so he can reset his DP before going to bed. Since Randy and I started playing UC, no one among us go on Vacation Mode (VM) even if he's travelling for over 20 hours. Even if his Firefox browser was acting up, he managed to reinstall it and played the game at a faster DSL connection. I know my Bayantel DSL sucks while he was here in Manila.

On the lighter side, Randy was pleased at how Judy and Carlos maintained the house while he was away.

In the evening, Randy woke up early and we prayed the rosary before he left for work.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Friday, October 05, 2007

I found something interesting on the Bayan Supports NTC’s (National Telecommunications Commission’s mandate under E.O. 546, Act 3846, E.O 436, R.A. 7925) Consumer Protection Guidelines article, it says, "In the Bayan rebate program, if a Bayan landline remains un-repaired for more than 24-hours, P100 will be given for every day the problem stays unsolved. For bayanDSL, a rebate of P500/day is given."

Duh?!? Since two months ago, I had been suffering from slow bandwidth connection and two days I had zero internet but I never received any rebates, not a single cent, from BayanDSL!

Today marks the 10th day of BayanDSL nightmare: I called Bayantel hotline 4112000 and Tanny Joy Tamondong told me someone came over at our place at 9 am this morning and according to the report, we refused them to repair our DSL connection and they closed Complaint Ticket # 1016233.

Both Randy and I were shocked because we're eating breakfast with Junjun and Tintin from 8:55 am until 9:30 am! No one dings our buzzer nor call us by phone!

I tried to get the name of the lineman who lodged the refusal report but she doesn't want to tell me. So, what is this statement all about: "Each customer is our priority client. We understand that staying loyal is completely their choice. But the difference is that we will make it our business to make sure we stay loyal to them,” says Chief Executive Consultant for Bayan Telecommunications, Tunde Fafunwa."

I am BayanDSL NetBasic Plan subscriber paying Php 3,360 monthly for a business plan in a residential area so I could get a guaranteed 1 mbps continuous bandwidth speed but, unfortunately, I kept getting poor bandwidth speed between 4 kbps and 135 kbps everyday. In short, BayanDSL is providing me a 384 Kbps bandwidth speed available to Plan 899 subscribers only!

After the linemen left, I checked my bandwidth and I got this ready: "Your current bandwidth reading is: 77.66240 kbps, which means you can download at 9.71000 KB/sec."

What a ripped off...

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Randy and I didn't go anywhere today.

A Bayantel lineman came over in the morning and tested our connection using their bandwidth checker that doesn't tell the actual bandwidth speed: "Your download speed is: 988.49 kbps." Huh? If that is my actual bandwidth speed, how come I cannot open any sites, and most of the time, pages were timing out?

The lineman hooked up directly the dsl cable unto his laptop but just the same, he got poor bandwidth reading. He was not done yet pinging the network when his laptop battery went dead. He wanted to use Randy's laptop to continue the test but I told him several times the physical connections had been checked and it turned okay. Either the problem was from their cabinet or network port.

The BayanDSL box where my DSL cable was hooked up has a pending legal case VS a homeowner who filed charges against BayanDSL for failure to comply with the agreement. BayanDSL pays millions in pesos to property owners who entered into agreement with the ISP to build their cabinet inside their property line. When another cabinet was added, on top of the first cabinet, the homeowner filed a complaint and sue BayanDSL in court, and that's how my internet nightmares started.

Legal cases in the Philippines takes several years before it will be resolved. Being a BayanDSL Net Basic business plan subscriber, why nvolved me and the rest of the subscribers in that legal case by keeping my internet connection hooked up in that questionable cabinet? I subscribed to a stable 1 mbps plan at Php 3,360 monthly rate... why give me a bandwidth speed ideal for 384 kbps subscribers only, who pays Php 899 a month?

Earlier, I had this reading: "Your current bandwidth reading is: 19.11840 kbps, which means you can download at 2.39000 KB/sec." My God, this is worst than dial-up!

Randy is pissed off with my internet connection and I am fed up calling BayanDSL hotline 4112000 to remind them I am subscribed to a business plan in a residential area... thankfully, I didn't have a cyber cafe business, otherwise, I will be out of business...

Today is the 9th day of my BayanDSL nightmare, NTC, please help meeeeee!!!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Pacette came back from NSO and failed to submit the docs when this stupid lady refused to honor the documents furnished to me by Civil Registry - Legal from Metro Manila. She said we must submit original documents duly certified by both court and civil records.

Furious, Randy and I hurriedly went to Civil Registry Records at City Hall. Mr. Matabang was in a meeting but his secretary told us to talk to Mrs. Reyes. Upon checking our documents, we were referred to Mr. Salvador Cariño, Jr. They were surprised that my documents were separated by the above stupid lady and he rearranged them in order again. He advised us to look for the supervisor to accept our docs and don't talk with that noob as she does not understand the difference between certified true copy (stamped from the court) and certified true copy of xerox copy (stamped from Civil Registry).

At NSO - East Avenue Legal Instrument Screening Section, Pacette pointed to me the stupid clerk and I took the above picture. Then I talked to the male clerk and questioned the stupid actions of the above noob. I asked for the supervisor when the male clerk seemed didn't know how to recognize original documents from xerox.

We talked to a senior female clerk who was wearing a uniform. I realized the first two on her right side were hired apprentice to screen documents. NSO offices are always full of people seeking copies of their birth records or marriage contracts. Some of these people came from far provinces and I feel sorry for them if this noob clerk asked them to submit original copy of document. What if they have exact transportation allowance? What if they have to travel back to the province without their document? I was so furious that I almost throw the document on her face. I had been so careful not to leave a mark or deface my documents, and here comes this noob lady removing the staples off my documents and stapled them anew leaving lots of dotted holes.

The security guard was standing behind us and I stared at him and warned him he's not needed there. Randy was a bit annoyed because the guard never leave us and kept listening to all my rantings. I was upset at how government employees are not well informed of their duties and they didn't even know where is NSO - Main.

Anyway, after several minutes of explanation that the documents from Manila was the most valid copy with annotation on marriage contract, the clerk accepted my documents with a note: "return excess copy" so, I will have my own copy when I claim the corrected birth certificate and nullified marriage contract on October 18.

After we're done at NSO, we had Wanton Soup and Fried Noodles with Beef and Veggies at Mongkok Dimsum, Cyberzone. Then, we went to Hypermart for some grocery shopping. Randy liikes the place because it was spacious than the grocery we used to do our shopping.

At home, Randy cooked Spanish Rice while I cooked Broccoli and Beef Tenderloin Tips. We had our dinner a bit late waiting for daughter to eat with us. We had dinner, anyway, without Pearl but she made it when we're almost done eating.

We had ice cream while she's fixing the connection of WOW Magic Sing Videoke Microphone. I was scared to do the connection myself because I was lazy to read the manual. She hooked up the microphone to Sansui's amplifier. My stereo component is 3 years younger than my daughter. Pearl is independent since 6 months ago. She will be 24 in December and currently working in a Call Center.

My daughter's visit made me forget the annoying experience I had earlier this morning. Randy and I are looking forward to Case III's last hearing which will be held on November 12, 2007 at 10:30 am.