I know I’ve been putting off reformatting both my work laptop and my home laptop, but it seems that my home laptop is giving me warnings. Last night, it refused to read my archive DVDs and even plain old CDs. I was looking for a copy of Star Trek Voyager’s last episode. I knew I had one on DVD, it was just under a big stack of other videos. After a few minutes of sorting through the stack that was labeled as TV series (I really should make more specific labels), I found it.
Tried to play it on my home laptop, after it finished burning off some more stuff, but it wouldn’t. Tried a random DVD and still it wouldn’t! Nearly fainted at the idea of replacing my DVD drive. A replacement was not listed in the budget since I’m saving up for a new HDD. Yikes. While I was sorting through options, I restarted my home laptop. Lo and behold, the drive worked again.
Dunno if it was a windows glitch or anything like that, but it at least it worked again. It was scarier than any movie I’ve ever seen.
Supposed to be working from home today, but working at a coffee shop. Productivity is slightly higher here only because there are a few neighbors up with their hammers doing renovation work.Most of the coffee shops here now have a disclaimer on their counters relating to the Melamine news. Even with a minimum purchase to get internet access, this shop still has around 4-5 people online at a time. Interesting combination. Considering the economy and the scary milk news.
After working for non-stop for a while, decided to take a break and update a few posts on various sites I maintain. Note that maintain here means that content doesn’t come from me, but from a pool of writers and update means sanitize, arrange and reformat the content so that it looks and sounds good enough to be posted. Some of the content still isn’t fit to be posted, I’ll get back to them on another break.
Good thing I’m almost done with the school requirements for this semester, just a few more days and we get to the semestral break. Yey!
Work-side, I’ve been tinkering with a few opensource software like PhpBB. It’s been a while since I touched a forum and administered one. Now, I have to build one from the ground up with several mods. I’m planning to integrate PhpBB with a few Google Apps. Maybe I’ll post a how-to here once I’m done.
I’m also tinkering with Word a lot these days to shorten the time I use to format things for the office. Formatting has been speedier with the templating engine we use, but when the content comes from different sources, sanitation becomes quite a task.
I’ve been working at this Starbucks branch in an upscale mall near my home for the past few days, taking advantage of the wifi and the constant smell of coffee. They say that the world economies are slowing down, but I can notice here that the consumeristic attitude has not slowed one bit. I haven’t been keeping actual count, but it looks like at least one customer walks away with something worth Php 100+ every 2 minutes. A cup of coffee here averages Php 90, while most cold drinks go for Php 110-150 and even more, depending on the size.
A bunch of kids (about 4 or 5 pre-teens) just walked away with large or in Starbucks lingo ‘Grande Frappucinos.’ I am writing this draft on a Friday afternoon and these kids are out in the malls just a few minutes after classes were dismissed. Note that the closest high school is just across the street.
You’d think the wired world would pull you away from real life. On the contrary, as a mobile worker, we meet many more people in coffee shops, interact with fellow mobile workers and coffee aficionados — unless you put on your do-not-disturb face. Just now, in the span of 20 minutes, two others have asked if they could sit with me. I’m in a Starbucks location about 10-15 minutes from home in an upscale shopping mall. I was seated alone in a huddle of four single sofas.
The only downside I encounter is the constant need to have a companion or at least find a trusted shop you can go to so that you can leave your stuff for washroom breaks. Even if I could bolt down my laptop, I sometimes have another bag with me for other stuff which I cannot secure to the coffee tables.
A friend is selling her Nintendo Game Cube (US). It’s silver and in excellent condition. Selling price is Php 8000.
Including:
- 1 controller
- 7 Games
- 1 memory card
Games:
- Animal Crossing (Simulation) **BEST SELLING GAME**
- Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (Simulation) **BEST SELLING GAME**
- Baten Kaitos (2 disk RPG)
- True Crime: New York City (Action)
- Mortal Combat: Annihilation (Action)
- Legend of Zelda: 4 Swords
Console and games can also be bought separately.
Please call 8138412 and ask for Maribel.
