da tomāto

Tested anti-theft feature on phone. The claim is that if someone tries to use it with an untrusted sim card, i would get an sms alert to this other number that i've assigned. So, off with the trusted sim and in with the untrusted one. NO SMS ALERT RECEIVED. Fudge. And then I realized that that sim card was prepaid and it didn't have any credits in it. DOH! I felt stoo-pid. Then again, am dreading to learn that maybe, the anti-theft thing on my phone doesn't really work. Eek.

thunder and lightning very, very frightening ... galileo, galileo!

bad weather = hot + humid = can't get comfy = can't sleep. You start to doze off but get taken off it so quickly you wail. No sleep, can't sleep. Got up at 5:30 AM hungry. Ate. Slept. Woke up mid-afternoon. No food. Cranky. Nibbled on fruit loops. Another 10 minutes on the adobo. Head started to spin. Adobo cooked. Ate. All's well.

opera mini down! opera mini server down! This has been happening a lot lately. I really don't like using my phone's default browser.

Need to get eyes checked, have new prescription glasses made. Will move closer to tv screen and nibble on red chippy chips. Ball game's on. Stop trying 3-pointers, atkins. Sheesh.

How good are these sweet sausages... ... and these fried, salty, dried fish for breakfast? They're soooo good!

Decided against posting my 9pm cookie. It was fudgy, did not picture well. Got worked up about making a call earlier. Something needed additional verification daw. Turned out I was worried about nothing. Me thinks they only wanted to make sure I was human. Funny.

... make for an itchy forehead. I hear thunder. I smell rain. I want to try Banapple's salpicao & banoffee pie. There's a room in this house where tv's don't last very long. It's a mystery (not really but it's nicer to say so). Tv's are banned there from now on. No rain yet. Tease.

store-bought sushi rolls - 6 pieces for Php55. someone ate 2 before giving this to me. since my max threshold for sushi before i get sick of it is 3 pieces, 4 left-over rolls are more than enough for me.

Resist the urge to complain on blog about personal chu-chu. Why? You're setting yourself up to get re-upset when you go back & read it. It's embarrassing and stupid. It's silly. It's a potential "link not found" because you'll probably remove it eventually, messing up your crawl reports. It's more satisfying to rant with a pen and paper, and tearing it up afterwards. Just get over it quickly 'cause it is stupid.

i may have heard someone say, "lechon." this was some hours ago. i don't think i imagined it. someone did just fly in from cebu so lechon in the house is possible. i wasn't paying attention then. happy thursday!

Hello. Been eyeing human heart nature 's all-natural citronella bug spray. Have complained about mosquitoes a lot already. Wanted to try something other than Off! Got most of the facts down based on reviews before buying it: that it's an effective mosquito/bug repellent, it's a serum and the bottle head's a pump - not a spray (the product name needs to be changed, no?), it moisturizes, might need to get used to its smell at first, what else? Oh yes, they deliver. Wonderful! Ordered online and paid-for Sunday night . Received email that order was shipped Tuesday afternoon . And today (Thursday) ... [insert voila sound] I decided to stock up. LOL Very affordable too. They use table rates for shipping. These 4, 50 ml babies cost me a total of 394 pesos (including 49.11 for shipping). Sweet. I'd buy from human heart nature [dot] com again. Yes, I would.

... am looking forward to breakfast. ... might need sleep aid if this goes on any longer. On a different note, it's raining. Been raining all night.

Someone bought a pad of stick-on tats. Goofed around. This one's already peeling off.

shakey's delivery. basket of belgian fries and solo spicy buffalo wings. what you see here is 1/3 of everything. just 1/3. oh yeah!!! of course, i shared. buffalo wings (the solo pack) has 6 pieces and dip. the basket of belgian fries... box was filled with it! has two containers of dip too. there was a lot of potato, very good! the person who took my call was confused. i was going to have the fries for the first time kasi so asked if it came with dip. Parang-ganito-ang-usap-di-word-for-word script: Me: Ung belgian fries, may kasama syang dip? Rep: Wala po. [ nag- hesitate ng konti ] Me: Ah, so ako nang bahala kung gusto kong i-ketchup o anuman ung fries? Rep: Yes. Me: Pero may lasa na sya? Rep: Yes. Me: Ah, OK. toinks! LOL If the fries were seasoned, i didn't taste it. It needed dip, and it came with dip. It wasn't like the mojos that could do without it. Shakey's basket of belgian fries + solo spicy buffalo wings + 1.5L Coke zero = 417 pesos.

... in sweet and sour sauce earlier. Pineapple and carrot bits. Y-U-M.

i've bookmarked downforeveryoneorjustme.com , this isn't a good sign. It's stressful. When someone pays for an online product, you expect that the provider's looking out for it. But when its server is down a week, you sweat. It's out of your hands, apart from emailing support - nada, zip, nothing you can do. Oh, you can pray they get it fixed on their side soon too; i can do that. Anything to keep checking it on 'downforeveryone...'

Been slow for mturk-ing. My preferred requesters haven't placed many hits up for the past 2 weeks - uncharacteristic compared to the previous months. Amazon's Mturk has been putting itself out there (they've got their own twitter, finally) and gathering more requesters. Still, there are many that are scammers - same story. [Sigh] Minefield. I have mentioned this before but, again, if you're doing mturk use the third-party forum, turker nation as a guide. As for my mturk rewards (gift certificate balance), it's down -- mostly used up last month when someone from the US said that they'll be coming to the PH for vacation. I went loco and shopped till my gc balance was single digit. I went for a few small things till I got my total purchases up (way over, actually) to get free shipping. Finally have the stuff on my wish-list. Nice.

i'm confused. If someone asks, which is the better/simplest answer to mean an adult who's had myositis since she was a kid? * juvenile-onset myositis ; childhood-onset myositis* Last major flare up was 10 years ago. Second to the last major one was at time of diagnosis (but I had symptoms years before the diagnosis so I couldn't remember exactly when it started). Hopefully, i haven't given away my age, tee-hee! Notably, it's moving past the coincidental 10-years-in-between-terrible-flare-ups period and... nothing. I feel like celebrating. I braced myself, been extra careful too... Still am. Shouldn't get too excited. Last time i checked it's still an idiot... Err, i mean, it's 'idiopathic.' Small consolation is that most probably, I wouldn't die because of it, just with it. Right, woop-dee-doo! *updated 15-Feb-2013

It's been raining since morning. It's nice and cool. I slept in, woke up under a pillow and blanket. Feels great. Someone told me they went in to check if i was okay (still alive, i thought). They saw the pillow move, that i was still breathing and left me alone to sleep some more. I slept so well this time. Ah, this is so nice. Feels great.

A few months ago, i bought a tp-link wifi dongle for the desktop 'cause i planned to move it, far from the router, so far that the ethernet cable isn't long enough to reach it. But we couldn't get the computer table out the door so, no-go on that. Now, i have a wifi usb dongle that i don't need and it's a good-quality piece too. Heck, it's not going to go bad and i don't regret buying it because... It came with a 3-foot usb extension cable that i needed (and have been looking for for two years)! I didn't know that it came with the package while i was shopping for the dongle. Was wonderfully strange how that worked out. No more stooping to the side of the cpu to plug in usb's, for me.

Capped off tonight's dinner with coffee-mocha Arce "cappuccino lite" ice cream. It's melting! It's melting!

it just came to my attention... I don't own a pair of shades. Never really owned a pair, yup, never. If i had ever needed to wear 'em in the past, i'd borrow my mom's old plastic pair with brown, leopard print, cat eye frames that never did fit me well. Should i get myself one then? I'd rarely use them since i hardly go out during the day but you'll never know, I might go out and have the harsh, blinding rays of the sun on me, impairing my vision. It could happen. Unlikely but it might happen.

eggs two ways: sunny side up and crab meat omelet. yummy w/ ketchup. I like ufc banana ketchup but they must've changed their recipe 'cause i haven't been getting the 'turns my lips red', tasty heat that i was used to. I vaguely recall being told that ufc thought to make it milder and just went with it. Bad choice, bad for me, i liked it the way it was. At least there's heinz. Close second.

Oh the weather. During the day, we suffer temps from mid to high 30's (centigrade). What's worse is the humidity - sticky, stifling, thick. It rained for a short while in the evenings the past few days, but it never cooled inspite of it. That was peculiar. But i'm sure i've experienced this kind of thing before. It's just worth noting whenever it happens. The news said a typhoon is on its way, it may come this week. If it'll affect us, i don't know.

After 2 weeks, the bathroom sink's faucet is finally fixed. Well, it was taken out and they put in a new fixture. Hurrah! Thank you, jack of all trades! I wonder how much a faucet costs, a thousand or two (pesos)? It was strange how the old faucet gave out at the worst time, just when you need everything working properly. I was half expecting the a/c to conk out then too, thank goodness that didn't happen.

Dinner at Le Garden restaurant in Carmona, Cavite. Carving/preparing the Peking duck, here... Here's the rest of our grub for that evening. The crispy duck skin was wrapped with sauce and veggies. That's it, in this shot at 3 o'clock. The duck meat was chopped, cooked more and was served minutes later with a side of iceberg lettuce leaves (for lettuce wraps, sorry, no picture). The service was wonderful. The food was good too except for the Angus beef with garlic. My faves were the fried rice (yang chow?), wrapped duck skin and broccoli with garlic. That broccoli was surprisingly tasty and not at all overcooked - very good! I left that table quite full. Nice evening, nice dinner. I liked it.

Wait, it stopped raining. It rained yesterday (Sunday) and it went on until... Just now. I hope it doesn't rain today because some lovely peeps are supposed to come over. Broken, broken, broken: a fridge, a tv - and just the other day - a faucet. Timing sucks cuz we have guests. I don't mind the broken tv or fridge (don't watch tv much & there's still a working fridge in the house though it's inconvenient to get to) but the bathroom faucet -- no! That one has to be worked on, fixed, replaced ASAP!

i smell like puppy. cuddled our almost-3-week-old pup earlier. too cute. i said i'd smother him with affection as long as he's this small (when i could still hold him). i still don't know how to pronounce his name. my toddler niece decided to give him a rather uncommon one. we asked her to name the pup and told her it was a boy. i think she blurted out the first boy name that popped in her head. after a quick inquiry, we found out it was the same name as one of her friends from school. all right then - too funny!

noticing a sign of wear & tear. the power button on the desktop pc isn't sticking like it should. have to press it just right to power up. i expected something like this would come up, it is over two years old and harsh humidity doesn't do any good. then again, a short spray of "something you shouldn't spray on it but it will make it stick like new" would fix it, but for the life of me i can't remember what it's called. what i can do at least is to be extra careful and be patient. the last thing i want is to lose my cool and press it too hard - that'll muck it up for sure!

Tocilog ! Tocilog after a long while. LOL Obviously, one shot isn't enough...

Here's some grilled fish (poorly scraped from its burnt skin - that meat just won't come off) and bihon guisado . Not my typical brunch but I've been told that we have more fish in the freezer than normal so we have to cook them or else they'll start to go bad. Looks like fish-only dishes will continue in this house even after holy week -- not really looking forward to fish, fish, and more fish.

Everybody has bad days. I've just my second bad one since yesterday. Yesterday, my eyeballs felt warm and the back of my neck hurt. Today, i woke up fine and even had a nice lunch with visitors, but i did notice that i wasn't tasting food right. I couldn't taste much really. Oh, and now, my belly hurts probably from indigestion. Complaints, complaints. Quite possible that "aunt flo's" on her way. I want chocolates.

Received unsorted docs for a tax report i should send out before the week is over. Normally, i get these all organized in folders but this is the busy revenue season so... I don't mind the extra work. It's not a lot really. I could easily handle the 'sorting & copying things by hand to a cash book' after the report is done. Regular bookkeeping will be pushed back, of course. I don't like that that's falling behind but, well, it can't be helped.

Ever had those instances when you feel or know that the weather has changed? I might have. It was yesterday. Hello summer.

Strange-looking scrambled eggs. Tasted good though, plenty of sweet tomatoes - that we grew right here, yeah!

select goo goo dolls tunes in playlist, only 4 songs though. Vocals by Rzeznik, of course. Fun. College rock? Got the "clean" Sympathy, much better than the other one, i think. Where's our guitar? Am storing ripped music cd's into cloud - disaster recovery and all that. Zipping is a timesaver, lifesaver, saver... Plus point for xp for i thought i'd never use it. Glad to be wrong about thinking so.

Someone has a birthday this week. We've been having ice cream and cake since yesterday.

Hi me, DO NOT roll back windows media player from version 10 to 9. Otherwise, WMP won't open anymore and will show "internal error" instead. WMP10 suddenly quit recognizing my old licensed .wma files -- even when I've got the licenses backed up! It just happened, poof. Troubleshooting headache. Heck, leave it alone. One more reason to dislike updates. Newer isn't always better. Thank goodness for system restore.

i'm beginning to dislike these words - 'musings' and 'mode'. I'm not taking the barrage of technological updates so well. Browser updates, for example, are a bother when one has scripts and apps that have to catch up in compatibility before one can upgrade. Needless to say, i must only manually update them after a very long while. Case in point, my friend has an ipod touch that can't play any of the new apps from itunes because they're 'not compatible' with her device. It's the gen thing that pisses her off. They should at least be backwards compatible, we think. And if she'd waited a few months before buying her 32-gig touch, she would've gotten one with a camera on it. Dang. Lent 'the hobbit' out to someone dear. I hope they like reading it. Heard that they're filming the movie currently. It's something to look forward to, i guess. Then again, it's not like i can just get up and go watch it when it comes ou

Here's some yummy menudo I had the other day. Been purging papers here. I've gotten rid of receipts and other docs from '06, goodness knows I need the space. Still, ripping papers by hand is a chore and all the while I was wishing I had a shredder. All in all, I managed to fill three medium-size garbage bags with all that trash. But with all that work, my room doesn't look any different. Oh crap.

updated symbian device from opera mini 5 to mini 6 and, wow! Nice improvements - loads faster, contents wrap better to screen size, etc. Old feeds are gone though, will have to subscribe to them again, but otherwise, it's all good.

Thank you, rsun[dot]com[dot]ph ! Online transaction was quick. No-muss, no-fuss. Here are the details: 1 - Registered and placed online order Tuesday night - for delivery, payment via weepay. 2 - Received confirmation that item's available with weepay link (that included shipping fee) 15 minutes later (still Tuesday night). That's what I call having a dedicated team manning their online store, bravo! 3 - Paid for it online Wednesday night . Got a couple of confirmation emails immediately after that. They have a diligent system in place, to say the least = builds buyer confidence, well, it built my confidence! 4 - Received shipping info Thursday afternoon . 5 - Finally, item received Friday morning . Dun, dun, dun.... period. RSun puts that other weepay merchant to shame! That other store, I've written down my disappointment about it all in a previous post (just this February). Very glad that RSun (dot com dot ph) is around. [ UPDATE: They're not aroun

It is cold tonight. Been breaking in a new pair of MSE (Marikina Shoe Exchange) slippers. Its straps are not as snug on my feet as I would have liked but I'll get used to them, eventually. My current pair is also from MSE, bought back in 2007. They're still sturdy as can be but I figured I'd buy a spare just in case. Shame they don't sell the style of my old slippers anymore. If I knew they'd phase it out, I would've bought two pairs back in '07 -- seriously, I think these old ones will hold out for another four years or longer! Well, I hope so. [smiles]

Today's brunch. I had a dream about tocino the other night. The dream was that I was thinking of buying a pack, guessing its cost, and figuring out where to buy some. So, you can imagine how nice (surprising!) it was to see that someone cooked pork tocino earlier and thoughtfully saved me a few slices.

Taho tastes good, hot or cold.

looking forward to eating taho later! but it will be cold. i can't remember if i like it cold though. hmmm. it could be very yummy or not so much. will know later, i just hope they don't forget to buy me a glass.

beats writing down what i eat for the nutritionist. that is if i have one.

w/flash today, ankle's sore and dinner was stolen by cats. these made me want pizza. who knew shakey's phased out thick crust pies? i didn't, until tonight. they have thin crust and hand-tossed pizzas now. took my pizzanatic card out and called for delivery. 1 large hand-tossed shakey's special + 1.5L coke zero = 514.00 pesos + 1 free large hand-tossed hawaiian delight. i thought i got lucky when we saw that the free pizza was also hand-tossed. we half-expected the delivery guy to come back and tell us he'd handed us the wrong box. after checking the receipt again, there was no mistake. cool. shakey's hand-tossed pizzas are chewy and heavy. my tummy can only take two slices, max. wished the free pie was thin-crust though, digging into a crunchy slice after a chewy one would've been nice. night mode, no flash