Tagged

Well, while waiting for my site to load (as in super slow!!!)

Tagged by: JOEMZ


Rules of the game:

A) People who have been tagged must write
their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike
with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag eight
people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These
people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person
whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other
people.


1. What are your reasons for having an LJ? I don't have an LJ account.

2. What do you do before bedtime? Have a phone conversation with my hubby.

3. What will your dream wedding be like? I'm married. :P

4. What is the city of your dreams and why? Paris, France and Venice, Italy. For the reason, it's very obvious.

5. Is there a special song out there that inexplicably describes your life/love life/hate life? Explain.
Right now, it's "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. 'Coz right now, I'm just holding on.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone? Both!!!

7. Do you trust easily? Nope.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do? No comment about this, I was the one who was attached, not him. hehehe

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? A lot of things, actually. My job, my current situation, and sister's situation, and my brother's health.

10. What is your best quality? What shall it be? hmmmm...easy to adapt?

11. How easily do you forgive? It takes a lot of courage for me to forgive. (it is THAT hard)

12. How well do you know your loved ones? Enough to know how to interact with them, and move in a way that won't hurt them

13. Of all places in the world, real or imaginary, where do you feel like you belong? Home.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? Tech addict!!! But he's claiming he minimizes it na, maybe.. (^_^)

15. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor? Married and happy ... hehehe

16. Do you cook? What's the most memorable thing you have ever cooked or bake? Not really. Another thing, at home, we don't name our food (viands).

17. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them? All the time.

18. What kind of sounds are the most annoying? My younger sister's pag-iinarte.

19. Are you happy with your current job? Not really.

20. What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite sex? I have no idea. hehe

Tagging: (hope everyone will participate. hehehe) Alain, Niña, Dirk (ikaw Tiu..hehe), RJ, Big Bro, Cecil, MJ, Barbie

Don't Complain

My Ate complains so much. Not that she complains on me, but her husband does. This month, I've received text messages from him, saying that my sister doesn't love him anymore, or since the day they got married, her love fled (I don't actually know to where, but I'm certain it's not to whom). They were married for five years now, but this dilemma in their relationship just came recently.

Sometimes, I'd wake up to my brother-in-law's text message, asking me what was happening to my sister. She won't talk to him and kept in ignoring him. Then I'd reply, "Kulang lang na ug laag si Ate" (She just lacks strolling). When she was still pregnant with their second baby, her husband would text me, is she always like that? Having tantrums, he meant. I told him it's just mood swings, after all, she was pregnant. The last time he texted, he told me there she goes again. Everytime she's not in the mood, she'd tell him she doesn't love him anymore. I was thinking, "Come on! Is she following our sister-in-law's footsteps???". I mean, my brother's life IS complicated, and her life is really nothing compared to it. I'd accept if my brother will always feel helpless, but not her. Anyway, I just told my brother-in-law that he needs to talk to her. They need communication. I mean, my husband and I have been there before (not as husband and wife, though), but I do know how my brother-in-law feels.

She has actually no reason to complain about her current status. She has a very loving and kind husband, a healthy and wealthy living, a house, and her husband has a business. Compared to our brother and myself, she's the luckiest. Our brother's family is broken, he works away from us, and I know, he doesn't have that much money. My life, on the other hand, is not as complicated as his, but not that fortunate as her, too. I have a one-year old son, and yet, I'm almost 6 months pregnant, my husband is far from us and his job is just enough to support our son, my job is just enough to support myself and this second child (so if I stop working, it will be very hard for us), I'm living with my mother-in-law on weekdays, then with my parents on weekends and my mother want's me to stop working after delivery (that's the time everything will be harder). So my sister is waaaayyyyy better off than us. But do we complain? Well, maybe our brother does, but I don't. I feel lonely, and down, but I don't complain. Complaining means accepting that in this game of life, you already lose. Have I lost? Not yet, because I'm still young.

There are more people in this world that are much less fortunate than us, but some of them still face life with a smile, and still thank God for having a life. The secret to this game is contentment. My sister is not contented with what she has, at least it's how I interpret my brother-in-law's text messages. But we don't have the right to complain about everything. We are alive, and that's enough reason to not complain. I wish my sister will realize that.

Just For Laughs

Found this thread in Istorya.net's forum. It's entitled "Hacking through the Jargon Jungle". One reaction, though. I'm not a nerd. hehehe...Enjoy reading.

When I went to college in the 1970's, I heard a lot of words like "data
input" and "beta version." They confused me. I wanted desperately to
know what people were talking about, what Big Secret resided in the
computer industry.

Now that I've worked with computers for the last few years, I've gained
an insider's perspective. I decided to share my knowledge with the
uninitiated by creating the following brief, handy glossary:

ALPHA: Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in getting user feedback. Alpha is Latin for "doesn't work."

BETA: Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work."

COMPUTER: Instrument of torture. The first computer was invented by
Roger "Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist. In a plot to overthrow
Adolf Hitler, Duffy disguised himself as a German ally and offered his
invention as a gift to the surly dictator. The plot worked. On April 8,
1945, Adolf became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format" error
message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after Hitler's death,
and Duffy began working for IBM.

CPU: Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's engine. It consists of a hard drive, an interface card and a tiny spinning wheel that's powered by a running rodent - a gerbil if the machine is a 386, a
ferret if it's a 486 and a ferret on speed if it's a Pentium.

DEFAULT DIRECTORY: Black hole. Default directory is where all files that you need disappear.

ERROR MESSAGE: Terse, baffling remark used by programmers to place blame on users for the program's shortcomings.

FILE: A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable name. It
helps to think of a file as something stored in a file cabinet - except
when you try to remove the file, the cabinet gives you an electric
shock and tells you the file format is unknown.

HARDWARE: Collective term for any computer-related object that can be kicked or battered.

HELP: The feature that assists in generating more questions. When the
help feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a
series of Help screens and end up where they started from without
learning anything.

INPUT/OUTPUT: Information is input from the keyboard as intelligible data and output to the printer as unrecognizable junk.

INTERIM RELEASE: A programmer's feeble attempt at repentance.

MEMORY: Of computer components, the most generous in terms of variety, and the skimpiest in terms of quantity.

PRINTER: A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three main
parts...the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

PROGRAMMERS: Computer avengers. Once members of that group of high school nerds who wore tape on their glasses, played Dungeons and
Dragons, and memorized Star Trek episodes; now millionaires who create "user-friendly" software to get revenge on whoever gave them noogies.

REFERENCE MANUAL: Object that raises the monitor to eye level. Also used to compensate for that short table leg.

SCHEDULED RELEASE DATE: A carefully calculated date determined by
estimating the actual shipping date and subtracting six months from it.

USER-FRIENDLY: Of or pertaining to any feature, device or concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer.

USERS: Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor.

Users are divided into three types: novice, intermediate and expert.
NOVICE USERS. People who are afraid that simply pressing a key might break their computer.
INTERMEDIATE USERS. People who don't know how to fix their computer after they've just pressed a key that broke it.
EXPERT USERS. People who break other people's computers.

You Are Not Alone

I've read this in Friendster bulletin board, and decided not to re-post this, but put this in my blog instead. Posts in the bulletin board can be forgotten, but in this blog, I have an archive that I can read everytime I want to.

Love vs. Sex

A teenage girl about 17 had gone to visit some friends one evening and time passed quickly as each shared their various experiences of the past year. She ended up staying longer than planned, and had to walk home alone. She wasn't afraid because it was a small town and she lived only a few blocks away.

As she walked along under the tall elm trees, Diane asked God to keep her safe from harm and danger.

When she reached the alley, which was a short cut to her house, she decided to take it. However, halfway down the alley she noticed a man standing at the end as though he were waiting for her. She became uneasy and began to pray, asking for God's protection. Instantly a comforting feeling of quietness and security wrapped round her, she felt as though someone was walking with her. When she reached the end of the alley, she walked right past the man and arrived home safely. The following day, she read in the newspaper that a young girl had been raped in the same alley just twenty minutes after she had been there. Feeling overwhelmed by this tragedy and the fact that it could have been her, she began to weep.

Thanking the Lord for her safety and to help this young woman, she decided to go to the police station.

She felt she could recognize the man, so she told them her story. The police asked her if she would be

willing to look at a lineup to see if she could identify him. She agreed and immediately pointed out the

man she had seen in the alley the night before. When the man was told he had been identified, he

immediately broke down and confessed. The officer thanked Diane for her bravery and asked if there was anything they could do for her. She asked if they would ask the man one question. Diane was curious as to why he had not attacked her.

When the policeman asked him, he answered, "Because she wasn't alone. She had two tall men walking on either side of her."

Amazingly, whether you believe or not, you're never alone. Did you know that 98% of teenagers will not stand up for God? Repost this as Love vs. Sex if you truly believe in God..,

PS: God is always there in your heart and loves you no matter what.....and if you stand up 4 him he will stand up for you. I bet 93% of you people dat read this wont repost...

Give Us The Truth

This is in connection with the news I've just read about the incident with MV Princess of the Stars. It states that the Manila RTC dismissed the petition filed by Sulpicio Lines Inc. "to stop the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) from investigating the sinking" of the said vessel. Well, the RTC Judge who junked the petition said there was lack of merit (what ever that means..hehehe).

Anyway, included in the new was the information that Sulpicio Lines, Inc. filed criminal charges to PAGASA and Del Monte Philippines, Inc. They were blaming PAGASA for not informing the crew about the Typhoon, and Del Monte for not informing them that the pesticides are toxic. Well, I won't react that much with their suit to PAGASA. I've heard people saying that PAGASA's equipments are already obsolete, and won't be reliable enough by now. I've also heard that PAGASA was saying Frank's movements were inconsistent, and that they were not expecting the typhoon's course of direction to change, resulting to the incident. But whatever really happened, a typhoon is a typhoon, nature's doing. So we're not really sure who's at fault.

But for Sulpicio sue Del Monte, come on! It's common sense. Pesticides are really toxic, and should be taken cared of cautiously. Do they really have to sue the company for that reason? Makes me think, are they making PAGASA and Del Monte their escape goats so that they will be freed from responsibility? If they are not guilty of something, why would they want to stop BMI from doing their investigations? They can say that the people there are bias, but the evidence that BMI may collect are not bias. Are they afraid that BMI will discover something, that they can't point to anyone anymore? Give us the truth. That's what the victims and their families need.

Resizing Images

Just trying something out. I've used this code to resize my image in a project. hehehehe

protected System.Drawing.Image resizeImage(System.Drawing.Image imgToResize, Size size)
{
int sourceWidth = imgToResize.Width;
int sourceHeight = imgToResize.Height;

float nPercent = 0;
float nPercentW = 0;
float nPercentH = 0;

nPercentW = ((float)size.Width / (float)sourceWidth);
nPercentH = ((float)size.Height / (float)sourceHeight);

if (nPercentH < nPercentW)
nPercent = nPercentH;
else
nPercent = nPercentW;

int destWidth = (int)(sourceWidth * nPercent);
int destHeight = (int)(sourceHeight * nPercent);

Bitmap b = new Bitmap(destWidth, destHeight);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage((System.Drawing.Image)b);
g.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;

g.DrawImage(imgToResize, 0, 0, destWidth, destHeight);
g.Dispose();
imgToResize.Dispose();

return (System.Drawing.Image)b;
}

Fares

Well, as we all know, fares will go up again tomorrow. This is due to the increasing cost of petroleum. So starting tomorrow, from PhP 7.50 (jeepney fare, which just increased recently), the fare will be of minimum PhP 8.50. This will be effective tomorrow, but LTFRB said that jeepney drivers must post the fare matrix on the vehicles.

I wonder if this will be followed. I mean, my father said the drivers must also buy these fare matrices. We discussed this before when I said I won't be paying the increased fare if I won't find a fare matrix in the vehicle. And he said, we just have to be considerate since these matrices are costly and it's also troublesome for the drivers to buy. But I was thinking, a rule is a rule.

Anyway, with or without fare matrices, the point is, fares will increase again. This morning, I rode a taxi and asked him when will they increase. He said they will also increase together with the jeepney drivers. They will increase to an additional of PhP 10.00 in their meter (it was an air-conditioned taxi, by the way).

I was thinking, Gosh! They're ripping the wage-earners their living...and big time! With petroleum going up again, but wages are still the same, it will really be difficult for us, especially the bread-winners.

Symptoms of a Certified Single/Taken

Got this from Istorya:

Symptoms of a CERTIFIED SINGLE:

• Mahilig kumain.

• Panalo ang social life. Alam lahat ng gimikan at mall sale.

• Hayok sa tulog.

• Gadget-addict.

• Sa cellphone, group message nang group message ng quotes.

• Ngumingiti kahit nag-iisa.

• Tumataba.

• Porma to the max.

• Mukhang happy kahit hindi naman talaga.

Symptoms of CERTIFIED TAKEN:

• Walang pera.

• Mukhang ngarag at laspag.

• Kuripot.

• Blooming, kasi, kailangan para hindi iwan.

• Walang social life kundi dyowa niya.

• Boring kausap.

ScribeFire; Rough Day

Well, I'm suppose to blog about this yesterday, but I was bombarded with multiple tasks so I wasn't able to browse any other links aside from my localhost, staging site of the project I'm currently doing, and the storefront manual. Having a chance today, I grab it quickly.

So what is ScribeFire? I'm actually trying it out right now. I'm using this Firefox addon to post this blog (well, later, since I'm still writing this entry. hehehe). ScribeFire Blog Editor is a Firefox addon that helps us update our blog easily. Well, that says it all. After installation, Firefox restarts, and open a new tab about instructions on getting started with this feature. Looks easy, so I'm trying it now. I wonder what will happen after I press Publish. hehehe

Anyway, so I have a rough day yesterday. As aforementioned, I was bombarded with multiple tasks. Added to that, a conference chat with a project. Well, it didn't end well. Our RSCO and my iBoss had a "misunderstanding". That's how our RSCO called that, a "misunderstanding". So I assume I also "misunderstood" their intentions. Anyway, so the ending was, we, the developers, were left dumbfounded and didn't know what to do next. In the other window, my colleague pm'ed me, asking "Unsa daw to???" (What was it, again?). I just replied, "Ambot ana nila." (I don't know about them). And aside from that ending, the conference ended up as if our RSCO is a little child who wasn't able to get what he wanted.

So there, I was so stressed out with just that. My mind was so filled up with that problem because they're going to hand the project over to me, and I don't know a thing. My mind was so occupied that I didn't realize I was already pushing myself to the limit of doing the tasks that was given to me at the beginning of the day. In the end, around 7pm, I was having an abdomenal pain (if that's what they call it). I mean, my uterus was already aching. So right after I uploaded my work for yesterday, I immediately turned off my pc, and went home.

I needed rest. And something to divert my attention from the stress in the office. I was thinking, if my son was just by my side, I won't have any problems diverting. Anyway, I had a hard time trying to sleep. I can't sleep because of anger. *sigh

FTP Upload in C# .NET

This is my first time to post a code. Well, I'm just so happy that if finally worked after a series of errors. So I want to share this code taken from a reference (ASP Alliance). We can find a lot of similar codes but I chose this reference because this was my starting point (recommended by my Project Manager).

private string ftpUsername; //username
private string ftpPassword; //password

private void UploadImage(string filename)
{
FileInfo fileInf = new FileInfo(filename);
string uri = "ftp://" + ftpAddress + "/" + fileInf.Name;
FtpWebRequest reqFTP;

reqFTP = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(new Uri("ftp://" + ftpAddress + "/" + fileInf.Name));
reqFTP.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(ftpUsername, ftpPassword);
reqFTP.Timeout = 1000000000; //set to very high value
reqFTP.KeepAlive = false;
reqFTP.ReadWriteTimeout = 1000000000; //set to very high value
reqFTP.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;
reqFTP.UseBinary = true;
reqFTP.UsePassive = false; //my own addition
reqFTP.ContentLength = fileInf.Length;
int buffLength = 2048; //set to 2kb
byte[] buff = new byte[buffLength];
int contentLen;

FileStream fs = fileInf.OpenRead();

try
{
Stream strm = reqFTP.GetRequestStream();
contentLen = fs.Read(buff, 0, buffLength);
while (contentLen != 0)
{
strm.Write(buff, 0, contentLen);
contentLen = fs.Read(buff, 0, buffLength);
}
strm.Close();
fs.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex) {
throw new ApplicationException(ex.Message);
}
}

So there it is. I added some modifications like reqFTP.UsePassive = false; since I kept getting a "227" error. Found a forum that answers the same error, and suggested to include the said code. And after that, all worked perfectly. Kudos!

Codes in Post; It's July!!!

First off, I want to share this funny thing about cross-posting. I enabled my cross-posting in multiply, so that whenever I post a new entry here in blogger, it will automatically be added up in my multiply account. Well, it all went well until my prior post "Why do boys fall in love with girls".

I enclosed the article in a block quote here in blogger. The publish post, as usual. But later in the afternoon, my hubby pm'ed me, said that my post looks funny. I checked my post in blogger, but didn't see anything wrong. I assumed it would be the same with my multiply blog, since I've been blogging for a while now. Besides, I can't check my multiply blog since it's URL is blocked here in the office. So I asked my hubby, what's wrong with my post?

Then he replied, I included a series of codes after each item in the article. I asked again, where? Then he checked my blogger account, and said, the funny codes don't show here in blogger. I was curious so I checked my multiply account, and there it is, a series of codes, as he described them. hehehe...anyway, I didn't make any changes on the post anymore. It's for my readers to understand it's not part of the original post. hehehe

Second is, it's July! Weeeeeeeeee...my month. hehehe. It's still July 1, but I'm already excited about what will happen at the end of the month. For one, my hubby's coming home. And next, I'm turning 23. I'm getting older. But it doesn't matter, I still feel young. hehehe.

So my official countdown has started. I'm really really excited, I don't understand why. Anyway, I'm really looking forward for July 30. =P