JP's Space on the Web

6+ months since my last update and we're still in the middle of a pandemic! What have I been doing the past 6 months? Work - I started last November 2nd, so I'm 6+ months in my job. So far, so good. When I joined the company I think it was in the process of expanding already, but I don't think my boss is stopping anytime soon. Which is good for us employees (unless I get fired, then that's not good for me). Pretty inspiring too, since the company was able to expand even during a pandemic, when millions have lost their jobs. Cryptocurrency - I don't even want to say how much I'm risking. It's funny/sad because I was totally against it 7+ years ago, but look where I am now. Oh if only I understood its potential back then. (Or.. if only I drank the cool aid earlier lol) Books - I'm still a fledgling Bookstagrammer (i.e. Instagrammer that focuses on books). I've been doing it for 2+ years but I'm not that consistent. I mean, I am consistent when it c...

  I don't want to let this blog just die so I'll just post an update on stuff. We no longer live at my parents house. They failed to pay for the mortgage so we got kicked out. We moved to my own house around late September 2014. It was a good thing that my mom pushed me to buy (mortgage?) my own house more than 10 years ago, or we would have nowhere to go. I've been buying lots of books since, and my to-read pile is now more than 500. I just need the time to read them all. TV shows and Netflix are taking a lot of my free time away from books, unfortunately. The list of countries I have visited has now expanded to include those that require pre-approved visas: Australia and Japan. I have been to Australia twice, and thrice to Japan. I resigned from my previous work in January 2020. I was there for 10 years, longer than when I was in my job before that, where I lasted for 6 years. I think having the ability to travel made me able to stay at my previous job. We...

It's been almost 6 months since last I posted on my blog, and a lot has happened. This is probably the worst year of my life. When I made my post in January, I didn't know that my life will be changed so much. My mom died. There's a superstition that how you started the year will determine your fortune for the rest of the year. New Year's Day 2013 wasn't exactly a bad one, but it wasn't as exciting as it was before. My mom wasn't feeling too well then. She felt nauseated a lot of times, puking in the bathroom at least once a day. At this point she's lost some weight. I don't know why we never considered it a serious illness. We thought she was just having her usual ulcer attacks. It didn't help that my client was delayed in paying my salary, so I couldn't ask her to go to the hospital to have herself checked. She knew my money situation too, and since I supported my parents since I started working 9 years ago, she probably felt that it wo...

So we're halfway past the first month of 2013, and so far I've been busy with work. At least I am able to squeeze in this blog post. I just want to record here that this has been so far the COLDEST month I remember experiencing. I don't know the official temperature right now, but according to my app it's 23 degrees Celsius. It's 7:35 am, so that temperature is understandable. But it's unusual for us living in a tropical country. It's so cold especially in the early mornings when I work, that I have to wear a jacket inside the house. And when I sleep in the afternoon I don't even have to turn on the fan. I probably would have enjoyed the cold weather more if I don't have a trip coming up this Sunday (January 20). I will be going to Hong Kong to sight see, the second country I will be visiting after my trip in Singapore last September. From my weather app, I am seeing that Hong Kong will be VERY COLD, with temperatures dropping to as low as 12 degrees...

This 4-day Christmas weekend flew by so fast! If it were just a regular 2-day weekend then I would seriously be pissed off. It's like I lost some memory of what happened the past 4 days. Good thing I have my Facebook to check on what I did. Saturday, December 22: I watched - Season 5 Episode 10 of Fringe, The Queen of Versailles (Documentary), and Frankenweenie. I pinned some images to my Dream Home board in Pinterest. Sunday, December 23: I watched - Season 7 of CSI, Upside Down (movie), some YouTube videos. Monday, December 24: Continued watching Season 7 of CSI up to Season 8, then watched the movie "What's Your Number?" while waiting for Noche Buena. Tuesday, December 25: Christmas! Noche Buena, then slept for a few hours, then lunch with relatives while watching an episode of CSI, and episodes 7 and 8 of The Walking Dead, which my cousin hasn't seen yet. Then I was so full that I felt sleepy and I took a nap. The nap turned into a full 8-hour sleep ...

I am usually a positive person, and I want to live an optimistic life with all that positive thinking stuff, but it's hard to do it if a lot of things don't go your way. So yeah, this is one depressing blog post. I don't want to do this, but I am so depressed right now and I want to write it all up and hope that it helps me a bit. I've been sad before, and I know this is just temporary, but thinking about the sadness being temporary doesn't really help at all. I know I am risking that my family see this, but hopefully when they do read this it will be a few months or years into the future and we're all ok and I can just shrug this one off as a temporary thing. My family aren't that tech savvy, and I don't think anyone knows about this blog, so that's a plus point that goes toward to "them not seeing this blog post until a few years later" column. Plus, I've been raised in a family where crying is a big no-no. I can't even talk to ...

I started this as a Facebook status, but then realized I have a lot to say, so I just made this blog post instead. I checked my Goodreads account and found out that I finished 7 books in the last 3 months. It's probably the fastest I've read since a long time ago, but somehow my to-read pile is still growing. I'm now at 46 books, and 2 more are coming. I blame James Patterson and his insanely fast book releases. I think he has a new book every month now. I still remember when I first discovered him when I was still a college student (11 years ago!). I vowed to buy all his books and collect them. Back then he releases once a year. When I graduated and found a job, my salary wasn't that much but I started saving up money to be able to buy his books. It was probably around this time (2004?) that he started to release 2 books in a year. I think I was able to catch up to him, having almost all his books. But then around 2010 he became crazy and started releasing books like...

In my previous post I said I would have to buy a new laptop, but since then I discovered a phone that I should get my hands on: the Nokia Lumia 800. I was intrigued with its operating system, it was new and something I haven't seen before. Also, it looks like it's integrated with Facebook. I have an iPad so I am already used to how iOS works, and my sister, and recently my father, have Android-powered smartphones, so I know how they look like and how they work. (I wasn't impressed). So the obvious step for someone like me who doesn't always go with the flow (yay Aquarius!) is to buy something new and unique. I did some research on the Lumia 800, and even with the cons of buying this Windows phone, I am impressed with the pros that I told myself I will buy this phone, as soon as I get my credit card. Ha! So I got my credit card a couple of days ago (June 2), and went to SM Bacoor to buy a phone, and later to watch the Snow White movie (short review: it was boring). I w...

So my Samsung laptop's battery seems to be dying. Windows 7 warns me that it needs replacement. It's a great new feature of Windows 7 but can't say I trust what it's saying 100%. I Googled about it and I learned that most laptop battery's life lasts only a year, so I think that confirms I need to get my battery replaced. Does anyone know how much a laptop battery is? I'm disappointed that it didn't even last 2 years. My old Philippine-made Neo laptop didn't start having problems until a few months after turning 2 years old. :p I was already considering buying a new laptop (or maybe a Mac Mini), but can't really commit to it because of future travel plans that I need to set aside budget for. But this problem may change some of my priorities. *sigh* What's your laptop? How long have you been using it before it started showing problems?

Wow, it's ALMOST a year since I last posted in here. I guess I've been a lazy person when it comes to blogging. Very lazy. Anyway, since my last update I have been to a few more places, all of which are inside the country. My plan to go to South Korea didn't materialize, because my friend (who has a sister in SK) was not successful in getting a tourist visa, so I didn't bother getting a visa either. I've been to El Nido and Boracay though, and I can say both are spectacular, and it makes up for the missed international trip. I have tickets booked for 3 more trips in the next 12 months: Legazpi, Albay (July) Coron, Palawan (November) Hong Kong (January 2013) A friend of mine is badgering me to book tickets for Singapore for September, but I'm still waiting for those promo fares. We're targeting a total ticket cost of at most 4,000 pesos per person, and I am just finding out that it's hard to do especially if the country you're visiting is a po...

A couple of months ago my father, mother, younger sister, and I decided to apply for a Philippine passport. Before, you had to fall in line in front of their office in order to apply for a passport, but now the process is "faster". The first step is to schedule for an appearance on the DFA office. You can schedule it at their online DFA Appointment System . Mind you, we scheduled ourselves on February and the next available slot for us was on April (2 months!). However, sometimes some slots open if you keep refreshing the page. I saw a slot for March after I signed up for my schedule. We decided to stick with April 19 since we have other requirements we had to get and take care of. Me and my parents were scheduled on April 19 at 8 am, while my sister was scheduled on the same day but at an earlier time of 7:30 am. Each of us received an email confirming our schedule and asking us to print it, so we did. The next step was to gather all the document requirements . Below are t...

Last weekend I finally gave in to temptation and got myself an LED TV. It's the TCL LED32P11, a 32" LED TV. If you don't know much about electronics, TCL produces cheap electronics compared to branded ones like Samsung, Sony, etc. It doesn't mean the quality is bad though. Our two "normal" TVs are TCL, and one is about 5 years old and still working, so my family trust them a bit. And since it is my first HDTV, it would seem wiser to buy something that is not that expensive, so that if I am disappointed it wouldn't hurt much. One of the main features I liked about the TCL LED TV is that it can read movies/videos off of my USB. It recognizes a lot of format, including MKV files. No need to buy another media player just to play those kind of files. Another factor I considered was that it has an HDMI port (2 actually) which I can use to connect my laptop to. Right now I don't have an HDMI cable yet and haven't really tried if it will work, but I am ...

When you fork out that cash to pay someone, have you ever wondered where it will end up next? Will it be passed on to another customer, or will they be used to purchase other stuff? I was counting my savings and was wondering where I spend my money, and that's when the idea hit me: create a way to track it. And by track, I mean follow its movement across the Philippines. Not how I'm spending it lol. PisoTracker.com is the answer. To everyone who is interested in knowing where things are, PisoTracker is a great way to find out where your money is right now. Wait, is it still "your money"? Or is it "theirs" now? Anyway, by entering the serial number of your Philippine peso bill, you will be able to find out if somebody out there got hold of your money and entered its serial number to the site. You will see the date they entered it, as well as the location. It's pretty neat, don't you think? Before I created the website, I did some research and fou...

What are your thoughts on making money? For me, I want to make money so that I don't have to worry about paying the bills. It's not about living luxuriously, although I dream about it constantly. I just want to not worry about where I will get the money to pay so and so. I joined a networking business called USANA to try my hand on multilevel marketing. It has always been looked at as "bad" by others, but by joining  USANA, I found out that it's not true. The technique may be used by bad and greedy people but if used honestly, it's one of the most effective ways to build your own business. Also, it always take a lot of hard work in order to make your business successful. And it takes a lot of guts. Right now I am also working on several personal websites that hopefully provide some income through adsense. These are projects that I hope to finish before 2010 ends. I've already started my own TV blog , and I hope to create more blogs under my domain so ...

I have not forgotten this blog. It's just that I don't feel like posting anything at all. My life is actually kind of interesting lately, but if I want to post something about it, I do it in Facebook. I think blogging is slowly going the way of the radio, not really dead but getting older anyway. Facebook and Twitter is the in thing now. I have accounts on both, but I don't use my Twitter account, lest I figure out how to post updates on there through my cellphone. Heh. I already left my job of almost 6 years. My last official day of work in that company was January 22nd, 2010. Hmmm... maybe I should start a blog about my hobbies, not about my daily life, which I think is too personal and too narcissistic. I mean, who would be interested in what happens in my life? I am no celebrity. I can also re-start my movie blog. That is a lot of work though, because I research articles before I post them. Then again, so is posting this update. I mean I don't research this but it t...

It's Christmas morning here and I'm feeling calm and content, listening to Ray Conniff's We Wish You A Merry Christmas album. It's my favorite Christmas album which, whenever I listen to it, never fails to bring me that delightful, nostalgic mood that we always look for in the holiday season. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don't get around to updating this blog. May you all have a peaceful and meaningful holiday and I wish everyone the best, in their health, their careers, their love life, their hobbies, the best of everything you want! And don't forget, tonight, if you can't sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep. :)

Well, they're not really new, but I bought 4 books for me to read. They're all from my favorite authors so I am quite excited. I bid and won on eBay The Twelfth Card by Jeffery Deaver and 4th of July by James Patterson. I met up with the seller last night, and since I still had time to kill before I report to work, I went to Booksale and browsed for books. Good thing I did because I found State of Fear by Michael Crichton, and only PhP95! I also bought The Street Lawyer by John Grisham. After months of not reading anything new, I suddenly have 4 to finish. It might take me a while, but these are from my fave authors so I might finish all of them in a month or 2. :)

I was on my way home when I saw this wedding sign on the road. It's not who's going to get married that caught my eye, but the date. I was reminded that today is a special day. They say that today is/should be the luckiest day in the calendar! ;) 777. Get it? So I thought this will be a good day to update my blog(s), which is/are gathering dust as we speak. So let's pretend you're reading this and you're really interested to know what happened during the past year (if you noticed, I last updated my blog about a year ago!). I don't have a great memory so I'll probably just gloss over some things and post what I remember LOL. October 26, 2006 - This was the day that I became an uncle. My brother and his wife had a baby girl and decided to name her Jacobe Mae. My niece is also my first goddaughter/godchild. :) Yes, she's cute!!! I think that's the only significant date during the past year. LOL. But that's not the only interesting/happy thing that...

My life's getting boring. LOL. Anyway, still in the same job. I got longer hair, I plan on not visiting our friendly neighborhood barber for one more month at least. Today's weather totally reminded me why I hate going out in the rain. It's so frustrating when every road you're going to walk on is flooded. Don't you hate the feeling of wet socks on your feet? I need to take up a new hobby. I love the Internet, but I feel that I'm betraying my other hobbies. I haven't picked up and played (or tried to) my guitar since ... 3 weeks ago? I am still reading Oliver Twist which I have started a month ago. I should have finished it but I'm a slow reader nowadays. I told myself I'm going to self-learn Java (borrowed a book from someone) but ... ding ding ding ... correct, I haven't started yet. I totally skipped Superman Returns on theaters. I just feel "meh" about it. At least the last movie I watched was X-Men 3. I need to stock up on books to...