Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The House Where I Grew Up

This is the house where my father was born and where the rest of us his 8 kids grew up.I used to bike around the banister of our house and we always loved to go up and down the stairs- we eight rowdy kids!

This house was built by father's mother who was then (up until the late '60s in the Philippines)  the biggest supplier of rice in the whole province of Cavite. This page is a tribute to my grandma Teodora, also known as "Ti Doray" who lived a peaceful and humble life during her time.
My friend Agnes by the stairs of my fraternal home

Monday, November 26, 2007

Rescued From India

After dealing with a long wait for online chat with Dell Technical Support, finally I got my lifesaver. I got a call at 3:04 AM, yes, from a tech assistant who sounded nice and very helpful. I have beeen up, online and on the phone since 10:20 PM tonight. Can you believe that? This time, it was for the best apart from the third technical agent who connected me to this fourth and final genius- HARRY is the name! I had to do a system restore, and a lot of stuff since then was gone. But at least I have my computer back and my broad band is working! First, to ensure a successful work, he asked me to place the wired connection from my husband's PC to my own PC so he could remotely check and work on the missing broadband wireless network connection in my laptop. And soon enough, I started to see what he was doing by remote which was neat. It's like magic, I tell you. But the problem popped just momentarily: he needed me to give him our network password so he could fix the missing network file in my PC. That was the bummer. I didn't know it so I had no choice but to wake up moi husband in the midst of his slumber. It had to be done as I can't wait for another 5 or 6 hours for tech support. This is it- final and last!

HARRY and I had a conference call with me here in San Francisco and with the Comcast tech support as well somewhere here in the USA while Harry was there in INDIA. Imagine that...just how advance technology is today! If my father were alive, he'd be amazed himself as he loved tech stuff! Finally, Comcast said, "Sorry, we are closed." Just then was when I ran to the bedside of moi sleeping husband to ask for help. "HELP!!! Wake up please!!!!"

He got out of bed and spoke to Harry. Poor husband! He was dazed and drowsy but he did it! Then in a minute, Harry himself found the password from his magic wand. Soon, husband got back to sleep. From that point on, my broadband connection was working but my PC had to be rebooted many times by Harry by remote control in India to the USA! Harry also fixed the audio of my PC (the Sigma C Major) that works on and off at times. It has its moments. Now, the sound is even much better, louder, and clearer! Moreover, he was able to get rid of the start up pop out of the HP printer which is bothersome to me. And now, it does not show up anymore which is good. Lastly, he was able to remove the two notorious softwares in my PC that I could not remove for two years, the CREATE A CARD and PARTY AND CRAFTS CREATOR. With his expertise and skills technically, he was able to boot them out completely. WOW.

Before he bid goodbye, he left me his direct contact number's extension on 1 800 and my case number was given to me for future reference when I might be needing technical support. Should I encounter any problem again, he said that I just need to call him direct or leave a voice mail. Sweet! This way and I need not even bother to go online to chat for the preliminary tech support.

What time is it now? 5:15 AM! Time to sleep!

NOTE: The sad part of doing a SYSTEM RESTORE which I did tonight to rescue my PC is this: I lost all the files and photos I uploaded from my trip to the Philippines last October 31st. And, unlucky me, I already deleted these photos from my digital camera as soon as they were uploaded in my PC. Next time, I should let them stay longer in my camera for security reasons. The only ones left in my camera are the video files of my adorable nieces, and nephews- especially those of Little Katie whom I have not seen for 4 years and 3 months.

Well some memories are meant to be remembered and not to be seen in 2-D. This is one of those things I guess. Ciao.

Technical Support


Have you ever experienced something that completely knocks out your PC that you desperately needed a tech to help you sort out your tech problem? If so, have you tried asking for remote assistance to help you get on with your PC life?
Well, am going through this right now. I have been with one technician for an hour then we got cut off. Bingo! Start over with another one. Yikes! I wonder if this wonder boy from India would do it right this time.

Last July, I went online at DELL's tech support and found it to be amusing, educational and not to forget, interesting. The tech guy was excellent. My audio was lost in my PC and he took over the control of it by remote, in NY! I saw how the arrows moved in my browser under his spell! He opened files so fast, it's like watching an animation in my nown PC! Then, he installed the audio software and that instant, it was done. Just like that!

Tonite, it's nothing easy. I have been online using husband's back up PC for more than 2 hours now and none of the two tech asistants were able to help me. Before I knew it, the session ended. Crap!

Will see how it goes. I am going to try it the third time around and then I'd call if needed. Otherwise, I'd raise hell if nothing goes through tonite. It is now 1 AM for crying out loud!

Friday, November 23, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We have a lot to be thankful for- a beautiful life, good health, wonderful marriage and being in SFO, the best city to live- at North Beach.

We had a quiet celebration at home. We are both under the weather. I pushed myself to do some marketing at noontime today so we'd have some food on the table this thanksgiving day. We had clams with melted butter, lemon and tabasco, shrimp served the same way, green salad in red wine vinegar and lots of sunflower seeds plus pork barbeque in plain kosher salt. This was served with steamed rice. For dessert, I baked cherry pie. Despite my not feeling well, our dinner was wonderful. We had Chardonnay that blended well with our meal.

Will write more later. It's past midnight after thanksgiving. Just want you all to be abreast from my end. I arrived from MNL last week on Thursday, November 15th. Cheers!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Of Mourning And Moving On

I left MNL on the same day I arrived in SFO on November 15th. It was raining there at past noontime.

OCTOBER 31st

I was home in the Philippines for 16 days. I went through the process of grieving after my mother had passed away last October 30th. We all go through this, encountering death in the family, and facing up with the truth of seeing your loved one all made up and boxed inside a casket. It's a vague feeling of sorrow seeing your parent gone forever yet this welcomed me upon my arrival from the airport. It pricked my heart. It brought tears into my eyes. My body was shaking as my brother embraced me in his arms to welcome me back in the home where we both grew up and learned to do many things together. The scenario digs in a congress of feelings that paints an obliterated and endless feeling of despair. It was sad.

NOVEMBER 15th

At the Philippine airport my large Samsonite suitcase fell off the gutter filled with filthy water. Jumbo, our family driver of many years, was kind enough to help me with it. My siblings Balloon and Phie plus his wife Mel were with me for the last time ever, to see me before I boarded my plane for San Francisco.

Earlier, we were coiled at Balloon's van that enabled us to pass through the honking traffic of old Manila as hundreds of people inside their varying types of vehicles braved the opposing winds and rains of the city.

At the airport the scene was hazy. Hundreds of people paced the hour trying to get a fix of their flight details at the last minute. It took ages before I reached the customs area and unfortunately, the A/C did not seem to work. I was sweating like an Olympian trying to win her garland of olives at the marathon. Finally, I was off the check out counter that mimics the anti-terrorist squad in Iraq. I hate this part of the airport scene any where else in this planet. At Ninoy Aquino International Airport, an old woman was swealtering her way at the customs and mumbled, "Check her out the one with the red bag." Well, that was me she was referring to. Nevertheless, I opted to withold her warning signs and walked past through security. Bitchy me. I was off my cocoon and ready to explode. If I had wings, I would fly. I had none so I just glided. Later, I decided to go to the perfumery section as if nothing was forthcoming on my end. I won it over and found my boundaries elsewhere where name brands of perfumes screamed in brilliant colors of ads pasted upon the walls and ceilings of the airport. After a few minutes, I walked through the gate of my aircraft and waited there. An hour more then I was at last inside my aircraft.

Inside, the China Airlines stewardess was nasty towards me. She stood over my isle seat and did not leave me until I turned off my brand new third-generation Nokia 70 phone. All I did was glance at the files of photographs in it. And she thought I was making a call. I explained but she was deaf with madness. The moron did not comprehend it right. Okay, to keep peace within, I gave in and turned off my phone. Inside, I was ravaging with fury if I were going to hit her off with my hand or spit out some stinking words in English for which I thought would be good enough to boot out her adrenalin from her system. On second thought, I opted to remain calm and just be the seemingly decent passenger she thought I was. In truth, I was ready to mutilate this chinky eyed bitch!

My connecting flight from Manila to SFO was in Taipei. Having laid over there for four hours was tolerable since there was internet access in most waiting areas. Relatively, this was quite consoling for me knowing that I could connect online half way around the globe, without having to pay a dime, to email my husband in San Francisco, who is dying to hear how I survived the travails I left back home in Manila.

At the airport in Taipei, I lost track of my gate number thinking it was D10 only to realize I supposedly was meant to be at D1. While there, I discovered a prayer room that found me in good grace to kneel down and pray, cry my heart out and listen to what the angels had wanted me to hear.

Inside was a bible with bright red color that accented the side of the pages. The cover is black like the color of mourning, like the color of the long sleeved shirt and slacks I was wearing. The red portion of the bible reminded me strongly of my mother whose favorite color was red. On the wall inside the chapel was the colored photograph of Our Lady Of Mt. Carmel. This alone made me think that I was inside a Catholic chapel and there, synergy triggered my frame of mind. I was there for a good one hour- thinking and retrospecting about my life for the past two weeks and two days I was home for the funeral of my mother.

OCTOBER 31st

Many things transpired. Old issues flamed up again. Connection, re-connection, resolution, amicable settlements of old forgotten conflicts came through like a homecoming. Old wounds bled; old stories re-told; there were familiar silhouettes of people I saw once and for all. And as always, a number of them irked me with their ever tactless remark of just about anything under the sun. Coming home was not easy, indeed. Yet, it had to happen for my peace, for my own confrontation of my moving on with my life.

NOVEMBER 19th

Alas, at last, it was over. And I am here where my heart is- in the arms of the man I call my husband.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Blogging From MNL

Been here since October 31st. Will be back to North Beach on November 15th. Until then, hang on folks.