da tomāto

Here's brunch... Our pldt dsl connection went back to its should-be state just yesterday. It was terribly unstable since the 24th, Thursday and I reported it straight away - okay, not quite. I waited a few hours before phoning customer service thinking that it was one of those hour-long "no traffic for you" situations that we've been having since June. After waiting three hours, I realized that it wasn't. Then, typhoon Ondoy hit. We only suffered service interruptions and street flood that went up to just below the knee, or so I've been told since I did not go out to look. In other cities (Marikina, Pasig, etc.), it was considerably serious with people having to go up to their roofs 'cause of high waters in the streets, waiting for rescue. And cars were being carried off by strong currents. We had the radio on constantly. The rains stopped later in the day on Sunday. Was able to watch the news on Monday when our cable was restored. Oh, the images! PAGASA

I mentioned being stuck on a page for a project last time. Turns out, I needed to sleep and to let it "marinate" overnight 'cause looking at it with fresh eyes helped things move along. Very excited about this one. Notice when veins in your head plump up a bit and they hurt? Gives you a localized headache, just above an eye? My particular throbbing vein is on the right side of my forehead -- always has been on that side. Curiously, the left-side vein throbbed yesterday. But then, it went away quickly. Must've been jealous 'cause the other vein has been getting all the action.

I have a project. It is exciting. It started off shaky with bumps and holes along the way. There is a learning curve - though I don't know where I am on my "curve". In fact, I've forgotten how to read a learning curve. Maybe I should look that up later. I just finished the first page draft and now, looking at a blank and margin-ed page two on my screen, I am stuck. I look over the printout of the first page draft and discover that it came out with an extra quarter of an inch space from my intended margins. Hmmm... I already adjusted it once when I made a new front page with 300 ppi because the first one I did was 150 that may not print so well. Should I go back to tweaking the front page again? Nah, I'll keep this one. No point in delaying work on page two... Oh right, I'm stuck.

... whole wheat bread + blueberry jam. 'Twas good even if one toast was slightly burnt. Have to like the finger indentation from when this sandwich was cut, made me think that people do care -- I'm not being sarcastic. Could have raisin-dotted whole wheat bread and blueberry jam a lot and I wouldn't get tired of it.

Hello. Went outside and was welcomed by this sight. Neighbors did some gardening, I assume. I wonder when the garbage truck will come by to pick that mess up. Obviously, it rained before I took this. Was expecting to see a bit of flood out there but I suppose the gutters aren't clogged up even if it has been raining for a couple of weeks already. Well if that mess outside isn't sorted out before the heavy rains start again I would see some flood, surely.

Looking over my amazon GC balance, I'm considering the possibility of purchasing "friction, baby" by BTE before the year ends and yes, have it sent here to the Philippines. It is tempting but the $17.98 international expedited, shipping+handling charge does (and should) hold me back. Nonetheless, I don't have to worry about it not arriving here safe and sound because I know that it will arrive safe and sound -- based on first-hand experience . It's just that I don't think I'd have enough for Christmas this year if I do go ahead with it since I am only "mturking" on the side. Unfortunately, other mturkers on the third-party mturk forum have confirmed the same observations that I've been noticing that there is a growing number of iffy requesters there as of late. Thus, the call for further restraint and having a healthy dose of suspicion come into play. And as a result, there is lesser earnings for amazon gift certificates - in my case. On the

It's a few minutes past 7pm now. - Watched basketball on TV -- my team lost. - Ate a burger from jollibee, a "jolly yum?" but I may have eaten it too fast 'cause my head hurts and my gut feels uncomfortably full. - We ran out of decaf and the corner store doesn't have it in stock - and I want a hot cup of it now. - Weather's cool which is nice. That's all.

No more Deezer for the world, I suppose, and it makes me wish I were in France 'cause it seems to only work for users there now. Namechecking the music-streaming site over several months on this blog, I think it has finally succumbed to labels and lawyers which bullied it into observing their imposed territory limitations that snub every other country on the planet. Such a shame. I will miss using its wonderful, classy interface. It is a fact that most music that I've listened to on Deezer eventually led to proper purchases of digital downloads and CDs. These are music that I would not have discovered and enjoyed and wanted to buy if not for Deezer. For what it's worth, it was wonderful having a beautiful on-demand music streaming site for anyone, anywhere in the world - even if it's just a short while. But I hope that in the future, I'd be talking about "deezer resurrected" or something like it after this eulogy of sorts. Sayang talaga .

Sick but will soldier on 'cause it's not too bad, really. Very happy that I don't share toilets with a room-full of people -- a WAH perk, obviously. There's not a lot of "work from home perks" to speak of but this one is arguably the best part about it. Nothing much I can do but to let it run its course, unfortunately. And if I could just keep my head still, it should stop spinning.