da tomāto

Sudden blackouts -- Another reason to use a laptop instead of a desktop pc - and I am considering it. While working last night, I heard a loud boom(!) from the street and the power went out! Waah, the machine! Electricity returned 5 minutes later, maybe less. I was too scared to turn the computer on again right away (and frying something inside ) so I turned the AVR off and waited 15 minutes. It booted up OK, no errors or anything. I did not want to keep it on any longer in fear of another blackout so I just shut it down properly and went away. I did what work I could do on my phone (which was not a lot - last night was not a productive night). What was that noise? It sounded like something blew up.

I prep'd for it so I'm going to do it, dammit! I prepared on and off for a week: researched, went through the steps and what to expect in my head, learned possible snags and their fixes (from other people's first-hand accounts), prep'd what I needed to use, backed up drivers and my files, wrote down my key and printed out my step-by-step notes. It took a while but I was ready (and pumped). August 5, 2015: Clean install of Win 8.1 via bootable USB. Success! There were only 2 things that my notes didn't cover: There were multiple one-time boot options on my mobo (press F12 to get to this boot menu on GA-A75M-UD2H). There were 4 choices for USB. Obviously, USB-Zip and USB-CDROM were out. I thought, "Oh, USB-HDD but what is this USB-FDD?" [Six minutes later...] Ok, not FDD. Should've went with my gut and picked HDD the first time but no harm done and lesson learned. Uhm, yeah, pick USB-HDD. NOTE: The bootable USB was easily created with Window

Mango online sale at Zalora PH. Bought a nice Mango dress at 60% off. Purchased Saturday night and delivered Monday morning. Awesome.

7/6/15, Monday A desktop PC user with Win 8.1 will eventually come across an issue when shutting down the machine. That issue is the hybrid shutdown. Apparently, this default setting keeps the power on long enough as it preps for a "fast startup." I only discovered this last night. Two weeks into upgrading the system, I already noticed that when I shut down, the monitor powers off first but the tower will run for more than 10 secs before it then completely powers off. I was OK with that, I could wait. But at last night's shutdown, 5 minutes after the monitor went blank, the power led light and fan were still on. The processing indicator light already stopped blinking and was off. Hesitantly, I had to hold the power button down so it will turn off completely. Now, given my recent computer problem , that was done with a sense of pending anxiety. I looked it up and saw that "shutdown but power still on" was an old issue for desktop PC users with Win 8 (an

Someone took a baking class at the Heny Sison school and came back with these pastries that they (their teacher, actually) made. Thanks and Yum! I liked the biscotti with one end dipped in white and the other in dark chocolate. The lady fingers in the tiramisu were made from scratch and were too sweet. I was not able to taste the madeleines and the pastry on the upper left (I forget what it is called).

June 19, 2015, Friday Short story: Hard shutdown. Overclocking error. Messed up display. Restarts by itself. Bluescreens. Then, PC fan turns on but no beep and no post. No joy. Long story: It was on. I just turned the monitor off and forgot about it. I pressed the power button (quick press) thinking I was turning it on which actually shut it down. I realized my mistake. The power light on the tower was still on so I had to do a hard shutdown/shut-off (hold down the power button) so I can start again. On bootup, It showed the "boot failure because of overclocking" screen. I continued as normal. Related: The only other time I had this "overclocking" screen was last month. I remember that the machine took longer than normal to boot. I did a hard shutdown, powered on, saw the overclocking screen which I took a picture of (see image above), continued as normal and was able to work without a glitch. Back to the long story... PART 1: While working, the displ

I have a new accent pillow. It is a gift. It matches my sheets. I believe it is hand-made. It is so pretty.

I like the coffee with condensed milk at Ya Kun Kaya Toast (NAIA terminal 2, departure area). They did not collect a passenger terminal fee at NAIA Terminal 2, finally! The wheelchairs at the airport are still old with breaks that do not work though. We had to put a bag behind the rear wheels of the wheelchair they gave me so it would not roll away. We went on a mini-vacation last week. We visited Bacolod City. We stayed at a Go Hotel . It was a breezy, scenic 30-minute drive to the hotel from the Bacolod-Silay airport via the airport access road. We stopped at Talisay from the airport to visit family too. I tried to buy a Go Hotel toiletry kit but they were out. The lady at the desk was quick to explain that their current stock was past expiration date and they were waiting for new stock but they do not know when it will be delivered. There used to be a Cafe 21 at the lobby up until last year ( sayang ). There is still a "corner shop" where you can buy coffee --

Well then... Goodbye, Grooveshark.

Went to bed the usual time but could not fall asleep. I might have been hungry. It was like yesterday but not quite when I got up at 10 a.m. to eat. After that, I slept until 4:45 p.m. and had coffee. But yesterday turned out to be a good day. It was 32 light, easy steps to the bathroom with the rollator and someone guarding from the rear. I forgot to count steps after that. The temperature was nice yesterday. I got up to eat at 9 a.m. today when I smelled breakfast cooking. I have been looking at the clock periodically. 5:34 a.m., 7:48 a.m. I have not slept at all. I ate and then read for a while, until maybe 11 a.m. That was when my eyes felt dry. I lied down and fell asleep but a loud, "Whatever!" from outside the window woke me up with a jerk. My body felt heavy. Someone was on their cellphone talking, no, more like yelling enthusiastically. I lied awake for a while until I lost patience and asked them to please talk somewhere else, that I was trying to sleep. They did.

The eggplant/tomato salad was chilled and so good for today's weather. On the right is pininyahang manok from a nearby carinderia . Muggy days are here again. I think my phone captured a nice picture this time.

Waah! Had to install the big G's Chrome browser for quality checks and it ate up a chunk of what little system space I had left. I am seriously thinking about adjusting the sizes of my partitions. Hmmm... most of the mobile visitors are on iOS. Should I get one? It will be for... quality checks.

Late-night snack. Corned beef and orange slices for breakfast. Left-over lettuce wrap filling with fried egg makes a nom-nom meal. That is ground chicken meat. Garbage truck came so it was bye-bye to the bag of trash that occupied this space, at last. You can see my transport wheelchair and rollator over there. Hmmm... my mobility aids need dusting. This reminds me, important things like these must match the person using them. A couple of years ago, I bought a rollator to use abroad, online. Like my trusty one, it was three-wheeled and lightweight but by a different maker called Drive Medical. It looked nice but I could not squeeze the brakes properly -- it was useless to me. We tried adjusting the thing but nothing worked. Such a waste but lesson learned. If I will ever need another rollator, I will stick with Invacare. I will tell the "why we chose a transport wheelchair" story on another post. Holy Week so there was fish. We eat dinner together at the tab

I will make a series. I will call it "Dada's Days in Pictures #" or whatever clever title I'll come up with then. It will be a series of pictures that I will take with my point-and-shoot camera (not phone) for a consecutive number of days or until the battery is drained. I expect it will be dull because I am not able to get up and move (sucks but have to deal { childhood-onset myositis }). There will be food, mostly of my meals which I can comfortably take pictures of sitting down. Let's see what happens.