da tomāto

7/15 Tue Typhoon Glenda came here early evening. Strong winds followed. Howling winds. 7/16 Wed 2am Power flickered twice. Restarted desktop to properly shut it down, fingers crossed power keeps steady till it finishes. Gone to bed. Howling wind. Power went out around 4am. Weather was OK by mid-morning. No running water. Power restored 8 pm. 7/17 Thu Power gone a couple of hours before dawn. Gone again before noon until 4 pm. Still no water. Started raining early afternoon. Little to no water by early evening. 7/18 Fri No scheduled power outage today - thank goodness (Meralco started rotating power shutdown yesterday due to low generation daw ). Trickles to no running water. Globe cell reception still iffy since Glenda hit. Electricity situation desperate in areas where strong winds took down poles and damaged power lines. Overheard: some people out there taking advantage, offering to charge devices for a fee. Sad.

Search the words - dada blog - on the big G and there I am, on page 1 (with the movement/philosophy, a music band, a dad blogger, doctor...). Then last month, I am still on the prime numero uno page but the bottom half, and sometimes on page 2... kicked off by a nice craft blogger. Where was she all this time? We started blogging about the same time but I did not notice her till she shot up to number 1 of page 1. I'm glad she caught up, she has a business and a niche -- hers is an income source. Mine is not even close, just a personal journal with one google ad running on a small box in case a visitor decides to click on it which sends a few cents my way. Why do I want my blog to be on page 1 for anyway? I want to find it quickly, I back-read. Have you heard about bookmarks? Pfft! Seeing myself on top of SERP is awesome! Who the heck searches for "dada blog" anyway? ME!

... because I had to. Someone said our custom-built desktop computer's hardware and parts have a useful life of four to six years, and then, you'll either have to upgrade or replace something. That was six years ago (2008). He was right. The motherboard died last year . Useful life: five years. We replaced it with Gigabyte A75M-UD2H and upgraded the memory and processor. Last week, on June 26, the bottom display of the AOC 16" widescreen monitor went bad. The bottom 1/3 of the display was covered with a white, not-totally opaque row where image changes rendered in slow motion. Did it look like that at startup? Yes. Take a screenshot (print screen button) and paste it on Paint, is it still there? No. Definitive test: We hooked it up to another machine and the white row did not disappear -- the monitor is shot. Useful life: 6 years. Go and buy a new one. The recommendation? HDMI for higher resolution (min. 1080p) AND buy an HDMI cable too because it doesn

Score! Vintage Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses from the 70s. Hand-me-down from the old man. One nose pad has broken off and it is really too wide for my face (bumblebee-zilla). But I don't care. I will get the nose pads replaced and wear... err... put them in my bag as backup if my current sunglasses break.

6/4/14 WED *Morning - Lost Internet connection, again!!! Power-cycled. DSL light on modem did not turn on. *Noon - Power-cycled. Same result. Called PLDT 172. Told Customer Rep what I wrote above. He tested their server. Can I hold? Sure. Dumdeedum... Yup, the server is not communicating with our modem daw. He wrote a job order (asked me to write down the ref number). He said someone will come down to check the service cabinet. I was told to keep the modem on so they can continue remote testing. *10 p.m. - Power-cycled. DSL light is now blinking. It should be steady so, no joy. 6/5/14 THU *11a.m. - Mister PLDT service man called. Same person as last time, from his voice. Mister Pldt: Let's replace the modem. Did they tell you it will be P1,200? Me: Um, we have an extra modem from when we changed subscriptions. Mister Pldt: Oh, OK. Can you attach that now? Can you do it yourself? Me: Oo naman. He said he will give me time to do that and he will call right back. I took

Twice, it happened this month, more than 48 hours each time: May 12 (early a.m.) - May 14 (afternoon), and May 24 (early evening) - May 26 (mid-morning). We called pldt 172. I have three reference numbers on file. We could not connect. Power cycled now and again within those periods of "limited or no connectivity." We couldn't get it back. The DSL light on the modem just kept blinking. During May 12-14, I was told a few different things after calling 172. First, there was no reported issue in my area and of course, they would file a report - I noted down my first reference number. Next, there was ongoing maintenance for accounts under our subscription plan, was told to keep the modem on for remote testing, and was given a new reference number. Next, they were going to assign a technician to come. The tech would call before coming. A technician neither called nor visited. I was told our connection was restored the afternoon of the 14th when I was out of town. May 24-

My breakfast at Highway 21 Hotel. Room service was quick but food slightly cold. The staff were so nice. Asked for a rectangular tray so I can eat in bed and got it. Went to Iloilo last week. Stayed two nights at Highway 21 Hotel (in building/wing with elevator) on Gen. Luna St. beside Sarabia Manor. Highway 21's airport pick-up and drop-off were efficient. We paid P700 each way. The vacation was short but sweet. We met relatives, shopped and ate. We slept at Highway 21 and had dinners next door at Sarabia's restaurants. Aldente's was delicious but the Margherita pizzas they served us had green tomato slices. At Suehiro's, the server insisted on the buffet, ala carte would take too long daw because they were covering too many in-house orders. Sarap ng aircon. Had rain on our first night, earthquake on our second night, and rain, thunder, lightning and power outages at Iloilo airport on our last day. But our PAL flight was on time and we landed safely in Manila

"Sauna" weather nanaman tayo dito sa Pinas, yung mainit at malagkit. Ang bilis mabasa ng damit. Pag-gising, basa ng pawis ang sheets. Pagtapos maligo, pagtapos magpunas, ayan may pawis na ulit.  Nakakasakit ng ulo, andaming nilalagnat, sinisipon at inuubo. Kung hindi mahal ang kuryente, nagbukas na kami ng aircon. Kahapon ba yun o nung isang araw, umulan dito. Saglit lang siya, malakas pero walang hangin.

Naghahanap ako ng mabibilhan ng bagong router online, pang-backup kung bumigay na yung luma (wrt54g). Anim na taon na siyang sumeserbisyo, baka malapit nang ma-dedo. Payo sakin kunin ko ay N para mas mabilis at dapat may external antenna. Meron na akong minamata (buffalo airstation n150) pero ang problema, deadma ang nagbebenta. Weemall, gising. Ok sana Weemall kasi nakabili nako dun dati , ay, 2011 pa pala yun. So, ano? Pinabayaan na weemall[dot]com? Mukha nga. Sige na nga, hanap nalang ng iba. Eto, si villman[dot]com at si asianic[dotcomdotph]. Naku, matagal ko na nakikita ang mga to. Sila talaga walang sagot kahit kelan. Wag na sana nilang lagyan ng online store ang website nila. Nakakaloko na, nakakasayang ng oras.