I Made It At The First Ever Bloggers Buffet At Carol's Texan 5! :D

Oh yes! I was so happy when I saw my name on the official list of bloggers invited for the first ever Bloggers Buffet at Carol's Texan 5.

So when the day finally arrived, Au and I braved the strong winds and the ankle-deep flood courtesy of Falcon. (I even ignored my mother's text message telling me to just go home already. :p Soreee..)

And because of our very good orienteering skills, we just followed the incessant 'walk straight ahead' instruction from every person we asked directions from. As a result, we traveled for, I think, twice the actual distance one would cover to get to the place. (~.~)

The seemingly elusive J.A. Santos Street corner Wilson Street signs. :D

Nevertheless, it was worth it.  Really worth it.

Bo's Coffee 15 and 50 Promo! :D

 

I just enjoyed a Bo's Coffee Frappuccino in Mocha flavor for only 50Php.(Sorry na sa picture. Wala ng laman. Haha. Ang sarap eh, inubos ko na agad.) This is courtesy of Bo's Coffee 15 and 50 Promo! Thanks Bo's Cafe! :D

James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing

James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing by G. Norman Lippert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As a whole, the story's plot is wonderful. But I really feel uncomfortable with the existence of Benjamin Franklyn and Merlinus Ambrosius. XD



View all my reviews

Arcade At Tom's World

Weee~ I got this from playing at Tom's World. It's a letter A eraser. :D Au, Guillard, and I played for about 30 minutes to 1 hour and we got 85 tickets. Haha.

NSO Birth Certificate Delivery

 

I just got my birth certificate delivered. :D

I decided I needed another original copy of my birth certificate because I heard that you need to submit one when applying for your passport. Yes, I am thinking of getting one. Good thing NSO birth certificates can now be delivered.

You can either call or chat with them.  Of course, I chose the latter. Hehe. You will then need to fill up the required fields. After that, an agent will begin chatting with you. He/she will confirm as to who will be getting the birth certificate from the delivery man, as to how many copies do you want, etc.  Then if all is settled, he/she will ask you to click an 'accept' button.

Instructions on how you can pay will then be provided. Take note of them.

I paid 330Php for one copy. And true enough, exactly two days after my payment, my birth certificate appeared at our doorstep! :D

There are two slightly annoying things, though.  

One is, when you state that the reason why you want a copy of your birth certificate is for passport application, you will be required to input a destination country. I think, they should leave that optional.  Not everyone who gets a passport already has a destination country in mind - like me. Hahaha. So what I did was to simply put a dash (-). Hihi. As a programmer, I know that the system might only be checking the length of the string that I typed. When the length is greater than zero, you pass. Haha.

Lastly, in the chat part, I thought for a moment that the connection may be broken because the text that I typed will only appear after perhaps 6 seconds. But I got used to it eventually. :D

I Never Thought I’d Become A Programmer

And when I was so much younger, I never even knew that such an occupation exists. :p

Usually kapag bata, ang sinasabi:

Gusto ko maging teacher. (Isa ako sa mga nagsabi nito. :p)

Gusto ko maging doktor.

Gusto ko maging abogado.

Gusto ko maging artista. Nyaha. :p

I still want to become a teacher, though. But I think, unless makapasok ako sa international school, mas pipiliin ko pa rin ang maging programmer. Kasi siyempre, mas malaki sahod. And I need money. :p

Pero isa rin naman sa choices ko ang computer science nang nag-fill up ako ng UPCAT form. (You're partly the reason.)

Fascinated din naman kasi talaga ako noon sa mga nagagawa ng mga computer science graduates. It seems, they set the trend in technology.  And habang tumatagal mas nadagdagan ‘yung desire ko na maging part ng ganoong klaseng industry.

Tapos, masaya pa kasi napag-merge ko ang programming at ang interest ko sa education nang ginawa na namin ang undergrad thesis namin. :)

And so, eto na nga at programmer na ako.

One year na akong nagwowork sa Asia United Bank. In-house kasi ang lahat ng systems ng bangko kaya may sariling pool ng mga programmers. :D

Situated ang Information Technology department sa 31st floor. (Ewan ko kung saan napunta 'yung letter 'L'. :p)

My work area. :D

Noong na-assign na sa akin ang una kong project, nakaka-overwhelm. I need to migrate from one database server to another, so I need to convert ang mga sandamakmak na SQL scripts.  I was like, ‘For real na ito, hindi na quiz, hindi na exam, hindi na thesis. ‘Yung mga scripts na gagawin ko, gagamitin na sa real world’. :p

Haha.

Our building at night. Ang liwanag, ang dami ilaw. :))

Sa loob ng one year,

Maraming mga bagay rin na ngayon ko lang natutunan.

Maraming mga bagay rin na ngayon ko lang naranasan.

Maraming mga bagay rin na ngayon ko lang nabili. :p

I Never Thought I’d Become A Programmer : As For The Things I Experienced

During my one year bilang programmer (at employee, in general), eto naman ang ilan sa mga na-experience ko.

·         Sa mga unang beses na deployment ng project ko, hindi ako makatulog.

·         Matulala dahil hindi ko maipaliwanag ang error na nagaganap sa system. Tapos magically, maayos na lang siya bigla.

·         Company outings! :D

·         Mga pakaen:

o    First blood. Tradition ito sa department na magpapakain ka kapag dumating na ang kauna-unahan mong sahod. :p

o    Birthday celebrants: Kapag merong may birthdays, magpapakain din. Whether boss or rank and file ka. :p

o    Team Lunch Out/Dinner: Minsan, may sariling celebration pa ang team mo kapag birthday ng isa sa inyo. :p

o    Party: Siyempre kapag may Christmas party, may pagkaen. Merong company Christmas party at department Christmas party. :p

o    Pasalubong: Kapag may isang employee na nagbakasyon somewhere at trip niya magpasalubong. :p

·         Kaugnay ng kababanggit lang, naranasan ko rin na biglang magsikipan bigla ang mga damit ko. Sapagkat sa wakas umabot ng three digits ang timbang ko. Sakto 100. Haha.

·         Makapag-uwi ng pasalubong sabahay kapag sahod.

·         Pumanaog mula sa 31^st floor hanggang ground floor dahil may fire drill. Malaking pasasalamat naming na walang 13^th, 4^th, at isa pang floor number na hindi ko maalala.

·         Pumila sa sakayan ng shuttle. Ang amusing ng feeling kasi lahat ng mga kasabay mo sa umaga eh mga employee na todo formal attire. :D Eh noong nagaaral pa lang ako, ang mga kasabay ko sa pila ng UP Katipunan jeep ay mga estudyante at mga nakapambahay lang ‘yung iba sa kanila. Haha.

·         Magkaroon ng bank account. Hehe.

·         Maglakad nang naka-heels. Pero ngayon, sa office ko na lang ito ginagawa. Masakit eh.

·         Magsuot ng dress/swimsuit. >.<

·         Sumayaw. Sort of required din kasi ang mga newly hired employees na mag-perform sa Christmas party. Nanalo kami - second place. :D

·         Sobrang late na paguwi dahil kailangan ireconcile ang mga values sa report na isa-submit sa BSP kinabukasan.

·         Magaral at makatapos ng isang project na written entirely sa language na hindi ko ever nakilala. Web application pa. Sobrang wala rin akong experience doon. So sobrang happy ko rin na natapos ko siya. :D

·         Magkaroon ng presentation ng mga pinaggagawa namin sa buhay sa harap ng president ng kumpanya.  Grabe, nakakaubos ng English.  At kita mo na sobrang nakikinig talaga sa’yo ang presidente dahil mahabang diskusyunan ang nagaganap sa bawat isang nagpepresent.

·         Ang masarap na pakiramdam kapag walang pasok dahil holiday. O dahil nakapag-file ka ng leave. Hehe.

·         Ang pumasok kahit wala dapat pasok. Sapagkat kailangang ayusin ang isang bug sa system. XD Hindi bale, may OT pay naman. At meal allowance. :D

 

Ano pa kayang mga maeexperience ko?Sana marami pang magaganda. :D

I Never Thought I’d Become A Programmer : As For The Things (italicized) I Just Learned (/italicized) :p

During my one year bilang programmer, siyempre ang una kong natutunan ay kung gaano kalaki ang epekto ng source code sa industry. Kaya dapat pag-ingatan at pakitaan mo naman ng pagmamahal. Hindi ‘yung basta gawa lang nang gawa. Kawawa ang pagpapasahan mong programmer kung sabog ang code. :D

Pangalawa, na medyo mahirap makasundo si Crystal Reports. May mga sarili siyang paniniwala sa buhay. :p

Pangatlo, natutunan ko na ang gamit ng Administrative Tools sa Control Panel ng PC. Panggawa pala siya ng mga data source names (DSN). Very useful sa pag-connect sa database. :D Ewan ko lang kung may iba pa siyang use.

Pang-apat, minsan ang GROUP BY clause sa SQL statement ay pasaway. Kapag kasi ‘di ba, gumamit ka ng aggregate functions, lahat ng columns na kasama niya sa SELECT, kailangan nasa GROUP BY. Eh minsan hindi dapat lalo na kung SUM ang ginamit mo at pangarap mong mag-add ang dalawang kaso ayaw dahil may values sa isang column na magkaiba sila. =p

Work around ko minsan ang paggamit ng inline views.

Pang-lima, nakakaamaze ang TRUNCATE TABLE [tablename]. Kinabog niya si DELETE FROM [tablename].  May isang beses kasi na like 15++ minutes na akong nagra-run ng DELETE FROM [tablename] samantalang si TRUNCATE TABLE [tablename], isang segundo lang. Haha.

Pang-anim, keri i-load ang data nang maramihan (in bulk) gamit ang BCP shell command. Mas mabilis kesa isa-isang INSERT statements. Ang laki ng naitutulong nito sa pagkabawas ng mga linya code. Be careful lang sa paggamit ng Shell command sa VB kasi kahit hindi pa tapos ang process, tutuloy na siya. So, in line with this, natutunan ko ring halungkatin si google para lang malaman ano ba dapat gawin para mahintay ang isang process na pinatakbo gamit ang Shell command bago tumuloy sa next. :D

Pang-pito, parang nagiging open source din ang Visual Basic dahil sa freevbcode.com. :D

Pang-walo, mag-insert ng records from a table/view to another table residing in a different server with just one SQL statement. Ang saya ko nang malaman kong may ganito pala. At ang bilis lang din ah. Pero depende pa rin siguro sa dami ng data.  Kaya namaalam na ako sa nakakainis na loop. :D

Pang-siyam, ang paggamit ng designer component sa VB. :p

Pang-sampu, kapag pala sa code ay nagsimula na ang transaction mo sa DB via .BeginTrans, hindi ka na makaka-query unless lagyan mo ng (NOLOCK) beside the table name. Haha.

Marami pa ‘yan, pero as of this writing, yan pa lang naalala ko. Haha. :D

Carol's Texan 5 Spells Appetizing. :D

I stumbled upon this menu. And my eyes were suddenly feasting on the pictures. And if I were to choose only one, it would be an absolute dilemma!
 

I NEED to taste them all! :D

This very appealing menu is from Carol's Texan 5. Carol's Texan 5 offers the best chicken and ribs this side of Manila. *drool*

For Carol's Texan 5 contact details and address:        

               
            Delivery: (02) 727.3843 / 0922.485.0154
           Address: Carol’s Texan 5, 2F 713 J. Abad Santos St., Little Baguio, San Juan

It offers the following services:

       • Dine-in (Enjoy your best chicken and ribs at Carol's Texan 5!)
       • Delivery (They deliver to San Juan, Mandaluyong, Ortigas and Pioneer only.)
• Event Food Booths (Got an event? Carol's Texan 5 booths are available for hire.)
• Party Trays (Order trays of your favorite Carol's Texan 5 dishes for special occasions.)
• Functions (Hold events at Carol's Texan 5.)
• Kiddie Meal Sets (Order meal sets for your office and kids parties.)

 Pretty flexible, huh? :D

What's more is that they will be part of the first ever Blogger's Buffet! Thanks to the following for making this happen.

           1. Carol's Texan 5
                       Website: http://www.texan5.com
                       Fan Page: http:/www.facebook.com/texan5

           2. TenMinutesTops! Website: http://www.tenminutestops.com

           3. ClubTravelNOW.org Website: http://www.clubtravelnow.org

Of course, I want to be part of it. This is my chance to have a bite of each food in their menu. :D Plus, I get to meet other bloggers. I might even make new friends! Who knows, maybe Carol will be around too! :D 

*Excited and hopeful*

Sketches Saved From Ondoy

I finally scanned those few sketches I made ages ago.
But only after Ondoy almost drowned my sketchbook. =/
Pero buti na rin na nailigtas ko sila. :D


Drawing ang isang hobby na malapit ko na yatang makalimutan. :( Palagi na kasi akong walang extra time.
Nakakapag-drawing lang din ako kapag may kopyahan. :D

This is my favorite. :)

(Insert Guitar Name Here)

I've been self-studying on how to play the guitar. One month na yata.

And up to now, wala pa ring tugtog ang gitara ko. :p

Hindi pa rin kasi ako marunong mag-strum. :p

Konti pa lang din ang natutunan kong chords - C, D, A, G, Am, Em. And I am still struggling with F. :p 

This is my C chord. :)

Wala pa rin nga akong maisip na pangalan ng gitara ko eh. Hopefully, magkaroon ako ng progress. :D

It Felt Like Everything Didn't Matter

Good.