of reasons and rainbows

What is Twitter?

Twitter is the only web application in the world where there is only one question to answer: What are you doing right now?

Why Use Twitter?

You should twit because we do. And because in twitter we can talk about things that we can’t talk about in the world of facebook. And also, because it’s so nice to have twitter on your iphone and in your Mac. Lastly, we need one more member to finally complete the “Sisterhood of the Travelling Phone”. Yes, we’re serious and exclusive. Heller…. To quote Barney, “You’ll thank us later.”

How to Setup Twitter?

1. First, sign up for a twitter account here:

http://twitter.com

2. On google, type these phrase: “tweetie for mac” or coz we’re friends, download the client here:

http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

(see you don’t even have to google. Look for the free download).

3. Install Tweetie in your mac (mac-y) then log in using your username and password fresh from #1.

4. Go to your iPhone’s appstore and search for “twitterfon”. Download and install.

5. Viola, you are now ready to use twitter as much as you want to…

6. Ask Baja about our username. Check out the people that we follow… Then go Twit, twit, twit!

Dear Facebook,

Thank you for making my otherwise monotonous existence a little bit exciting. For me (and my friends) whose work are based far from our family, relatives and loved ones. We had to learn how to exist in our own world, how to cope up with homesickness and  how to take care of ourselves. You made an ordinary day for us virtually fun.

Each morning, I wake up, log in to my laptop and one of the first sites that I visit is facebook. I love seeing how my friends are doing in their day to day life. I like talking to them – through chats, private messaging or through comments posted on their wall. It seems like, somehow, I am back in their lives again and I’m sharing their experiences, pains, emotions,love and everything else that they put out there… at facebook.com. I love looking at the pictures they post and seeing their happy, smiling faces looking at the camera. Their smile reach the other end of the ip connection – I’m almost always smiling back at the pictures I’m browsing. I enjoy seeing their trips and vacations and family and friend’s get together, it makes me share their happiness for the places that they visit and the adventures that they end up with at their chosen destinations. It makes me wish to travel with them someday, and wish that I could be in the pictures with them… sharing those precious moments.I may be shallow and I may sound pathetic talking about these things here… but really, I appreciate these little stuffs.

Thank you for supporting a wide array of cool features. The facebook app in my phone keeps me connected to the virtual world of facebook’s active users on my lists at all times, I do not even need to have my laptop nor connect to the internet via wifi… it’s the power of 3G that keeps it running non-stop. The facebook photo uploader in my mac is definitely a must have. It’s fun to share pics, especially if there’s a very easy way to do so. Before facebook, I did not know that there is such a thing as tagging someone in a picture. Now it’s easy to share shots across multiple users. Amazing. We don’t even have to do the normal route : right click, save image as, upload to my profile if I’m there but I don’t have it…Or the other path: save all the pics in a CD or thumb drive, pass it along everyone in the group and viola, upload one by one. We just have to tag. Whoever thought of this feature is a genius. Thanks for the intelligent programming behind the applications, notes, photos and links. Having the option to choose who you want to share something with is definitely a plus. And thanks for your great system performance management – I never had any trouble logging in or accessing my pages despite the 20Million users that uses the same application all over the world.Users whom I suspect are as addicted as I am if they spend as much time online as I do.

And lastly, my only wish is that facebook remains free and that it keeps on running for a long, long time.

yours truly,

grace (a fanatic, obviously )

P.S. please tell your cousin Friendster that I love him too. It’s just that lately, he had grown to be too big to fit on his pants… and suddenly when I met you, I realized that there are better things in the cyberworld outside the world of friendster. I love you more.

i want to thank someone for being my emotional sponge, live wikipedia and an ever present comforting voice on the other end of the line – all rolled into one. i want you to know that it’s really appreciated. virtual hug.

These are the things that I learned before, during and after our Pulau Ubin trip this morning:

• WIKIPEDia says: Pulau Ubin is a small island (10.19 km²) situated in the north east of Singapore, to the west of Pulau Tekong. Granite quarrying supported a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about a hundred villagers live there today. It is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore.

• Yes, you do have to wake up at 6am especially if you want to take the bus. The MRT with Bus route going to Changi Point Terminal from our place is around 78 mins. It is a good idea to be at the ferry terminal before 8am, otherwise, you have to bear with the glaring sun for the most part of the trip. Eat breakfast.

• Bring a lot of sunblock, a cap, an extra shirt and of course, bring your camera.

• The bike at the starting point costs 8sgd  for the whole day. Request for a lock too because we had to leave our bike at Chek Jawa. It’s worth it. Take the bike ride, enjoy the view and the scenery, test your body’s endurance.

• If you are a frequent gym visitor or if you work out or jog a lot or in some cases if you dance or hoola hoop for an hour as an exercise, then you are good to go.You will definite enjoy your way through the island’s forest like roads.

• If you are shaking your head at #4 or telling yourself “but what if I’m not?”, the bike route is still worth trying. Be warned though, it’s not for the faint of heart.

• During the first part of our trip, it was looking as if it’s gonna rain. Not a nice idea cause we’re biking. So we did the rain dance and it worked! The weather cooperated! hahaha. We had to teach adriana how to do it too. Too bad I did not capture that moment on video. Good stuff for blackmailing. Kidding!

• The bike trail is very nice and has a lot of various trail …wait, how do you call it, trail elements?. There are cemented paths (easy), downhill curves (easier), uphill curves (not so easy), rough road, wet lands, floods, rocky uphill curves (definitely hard!).

• Someone in your group must know how to read a map. If you don’t know what’s the difference between right and left, be sure to position yourself at the back.

• The inner part of the island reminds me of where I grew up. It looks so much like our place in Batangas. The woods and the roads with the rambutan trees can litterally be our backyard. And the dirt road and the flood are so much like our roads when it’s rainy season. I suddenly felt a pang of home sickness.

• Bring food! There are no food stalls, coffee shop or restaurant anywhere in the vicinity of the island other than the one at the starting point. Bring a chocolate bar and bottled water. Luckily, there are vending machines situated in some areas in the island where you can get a bottled water or a coke if you run out of it.

• There are houses along the way, but it seems like most of them had been vacated. Out of curiousity I did a little goole and found out that: “The population of Pulau Ubin was 2,028 in the 1970 census, 1,242 in 1980 and an estimated 500 in 1993, comprising about 200 families of which two thirds are Chinese (Teochew) and one third Malay. Since that time it has probably halved again.”

• Chek Jawa Island is actually not a part of Malaysia. It is a part of Singapore (so bikemates, that’s why there are no immigration officer in the middle of the island. )  Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chek_Jawa

• So how did we came up with the idea that Chek Jawa is in Malaysia? At the middle of our journey, we suddenly lost our Singtel Signal and received sms notifications from Maxis (a Malaysian telco) welcoming us to Malaysia.

• Climb the 6 storey high wooden tower with a roof at the top (i don’t know how to call it, and that’s my best shot to give it a name). (Update: it’s called Observation Deck) The view at the top is breath taking. Take a rest because at this point, you’re probably tired from biking. The wind is also very refreshing.

• The boardwalk leading to the coast of the island is a must see. Look down on your way and you will see a lot of sea creatures. If you love nature tripping, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet then I’m sure you’ll have a grand time looking around. Look for the Fidler Crabs (little crabs with 1 giant claws) and the magroves (the small wood-like plant that seem to be sprawling everywhere underneath the bridge are actually mangrove roots (thanks, cheche for the quick mangrove 101 lesson).

• There are rumors of wild boar sightings and the source of the rumor is Vinkie. I didn’t believe it at first since I did not see it for myself, I really thought she was kidding. And to be honest, I have to search online to know how a wild boar look like. But apparently, they are indeed roaming the island. How cool is that!

• Walking on the boardwalk is really, really nice. The first half of our way, the sun was hot and the air was very humid. But halfway through, the wind became more favorable. I was looking a big black rocks (why? get the hint.) and for a while, I was dozing off and letting this nature’s wonder take it’s toll. It’s too wonderful to actually be there so near where everything is soooh city-life-living.

• The boardwalk is also a picture perfect spot with the coast and the sea at the background.

• There is only one house located in Chek Jawa. According to web sources, it used to be a holiday retreat in the past but now it was turned into a museum. This house is also a picture perfect area. Walk a little farther and there’s another boardwalk. I did not go there because i had cramps in both my legs and I was finding it hard to walk (yeah, yeah… I don’t go to the gym and I have no time for work out).

• Because of the cramps, I was not able to join my friends on the return trail at the bike. Vinkie and I took a van to take us back to our starting point. The van driver is a very kind 60 something guy. He gave Vinkie his number and after a phone call, he picked us up at a waiting shed. The van trip with me, Vinkie and my bike as the only passengers costs just 12sgd. It felt quite good to be sitting at the van while checking out the rest of the trail – and another swamp along the way – after all the biking, breathlessness, exhaustion, sweating and all the cramps.

• But I really wish I had the strength to bike all the way back too. Because I was planning to post a stat saying something like (I am proud to say that I had completed the bike route in Pulau Ubin). Now if I say that, it would only be half true.

• There are a lot of Rambutan trees in the Pulau Ubin Island. And you can buy a kilo of rambutan for 3sgd outside the ferry terminal going back. Just make sure to ask the vendor how much it is and make sure that the guy you ask is indeed the vendor. Otherwise, you might end up getting shouted at (in Chinese) not knowing why. I got some rambutan for free in exchange of the meaningless (for me) shouts though. Not so bad after all.

• There are restaurants and food places at the starting point, but we chose to go to Changi Village instead.

• The ferry ride back is around 15 minutes and costs 2.50sgd. The boat crew will collect the money before landing on the shore, I think to make sure that no one takes off without paying. lol.

• Changi Village is a 10 minute walk place from the ferry terminal. This is a good place to eat lunch after a full day of adventure. We were so hungry at this point no one was talking while eating (no one but me).

If you’re reading my post up until this point, you’re probably thinking that I had a great time in Pulau Ubin. Yes, you’re right. We had a blast.See our pictures if you want proofs.

Im a workaholic ever since i started working at citi and going home at 1am just to finish a patch release. I don’t mind working long hours and forgetting everything else as long as that means getting all tasks done at the end of my day. My managers usually mind, though. I am always reminded to ensure that i take care of my health and to keep a work life balance. And I always have to say that there’s nothing to worry about, i just want to make sure that i do my best to finish any tasks at hand.

Here in Singapore, the old habit is back . But now, I have more reasons to focus my thoughts at work than ever before. Since i’m away from my family and from jun, I really have nothing to look forward to at home after another day at work – no dates nor home-cooked meals. There’s just a quiet empty house that awaits me. Who would want to go home early and face complete silence when i can be at the office verifying bugs? Right?

Anyway, I think the busyness of my work life has its pros and cons:

1. I forgot about self pity and depressing thoughts that i had been ranting about lately. There’s too much in my mind that I don’t have enough space to worry about lonesome realities.

2. Time pass by and I don’t even notice it. I don’t watch tv at home. I usually stay at home after office and during weekends as long as i can endure it. Imagine how boring that can be? Now Im not even realizing how monotonous and still my life had become. I just work my ass off.

3. There’s really something about ending my day exhausted but feeling accomplished and fulfilled. And in my current job, i feel that hint of satisfaction.

4. I sometimes forget to check my phone for messages and new emails. Most of the time, I don’t have time to reply.

5. Jun is complaining about me not having time to talk to him anymore.:((

6. I am not able to read news on my phone let alone books.

7. I was not able watch transformers, ice age, wolverine.

8. Time flies! I cant believe we’re midway in July and its almost Christmas again. It’s almost time fora 3-week off and to be home again.

9. It’s keeping my budget low-cost. I don’t have the time and energy to shop on weekdays after office, and on weekends all i want to do is sleep and rest. Subway is becoming a favorite lunchtime companion – they make the sandwiches there fast! There’s so much to think about at work that I dont have time to think about what I want to buy next or where to go to. And I’m missing out on get togethers except with the people that I work with.

10. I actually think that I’m losing weight. Be it because of early morning wake up calls, late night series marathon and chatting with jun in between, quick lunch or simply because of stress, I don’t care. This is actually better than my gym plan last month (which of course had temporarily been put on hold indefinitely. Reason: i don’t have time to keep it).

So what have I been up to the past week? Work. There’s no other word to describe it, I’m full of shit, este, full of work these days.

Next week, we would have our UAT for a release that we are working on. The scope of our project had significantly increased over the last couple of months so this week’s testing includes a lot things happening for the first time. In effect, it’s taking long hours and a lot of effort to be able to complete everything. Not that I’m complaining. Because of how busy my work life had been, I had set aside all of my depressing thoughts from the past. I forgot about all of them, I’m too busy thinking about more important stuffs. How to test bugs, how to complete reports and how to come up with accurate metrics.

And time seems to past these days as if the hours are not really enought. You know what I mean? I’m tired. But a the end of the day, I feel like I had accomplished a lot. At the back of my mind, I’m scared to commit mistakes and blow things up. I’m praying that it won’t happen. Crossing my fingers.

After a week with macoy jr…

1. I still can’t believe how amazing nvidia is. It’s like looking at an slr camera after thinking all along that digicams are way better than classic negatives and films. It’s like looking at a plasma tv at the store for the first time and wondering where all the colors are coming from.
2. A restart takes 10 seconds.
3. The trackpad had never been more useful. You don’t even need to click on this thing as there is such a thing as tap to click. Everything I hold on to for a second longer moves be it files, links, labels, icons…
4. I am still in the process of migrating songs from my iphone to macoy jr.’s hd. I don’t want to create a music library cluttered with songs not even in my playlist so I chose not to just drag and drop from iTunes library.
5. I spent approximately 8 hours before I got every app that I need and copying all the files that I want on my local drive. That’s pretty fast considering that I had to download a lot of stuffs and apps from apple.com since I don’t keep apps’ installer. I do now.
6. My dashboard looks cleaner, I only have the widgets that I want and the layout is now so much better.
7. The battery could last from 7 to 8 hours before it needs to be recharged.
8. I still don’t know what the free usb cooling fan is for.
9. Did I mention about the power of Nvidia? Can I mention it again?
10. I have not cleared my old mac’s disk with unnecessary apps and files so that I could turn them over to it’s new owner – She.
11. I had discovered a new feature in Safari – Top Sites. And it’s sooooooh cool.
12. It really helps to be able to copy files over the network.
13. Is it really worth it? Considering that my laptop is the first thing that I face in each morning, and the only thing that I have to keep me company after office and during lazy weekends, I think this purchase is well worth it.

I updated some test cases and test scripts today and last night using our company’s remote access. I had been a frequent user of the Remote Desktop connection ever since I started working for my current project . Initially, it was just to check if a meeting was cancelled. But as we grew more and more involved with the applications development team, I started watching out for mail replies to the emails that I sent the previous days. This proved to be useful for quick turnarounds. If I don’t do it, then I would need to wait for the next day before a reply could be expected back. Something like that.

But anyway, I spent the first part of my Saturday working from home. I just want to be ready with defects on Monday so that I could send a list at EOD and SFO will have more time to fix.

Ok, enought with the work stuffs.

what’s with me and macbooks? Have i turned into a big hard core apple fan that i always get agitated over my gadgets? remember the time i bought macoy in san francisco? it was last year, my first day in san francisco and i did not even bother to have my  jet lag settle before i thought of doing it.the moment i stepped into our apartment, i jumped on a cab and headed to the apple store. i didn’t even know where the store was.. and i before i knew it, i had made my first big purchase in my bgi life.

and now i did it again.two weeks ago, i was set on buying a netbook for my brothers in the u.s.. after canvassing in amazon.com, i had trimmed down my option to an acer one mini.and i was all set to buy it. then i talked to jun and he said that if it was him buying a laptop, he’d still get a regular laptop over the mini / netbook. at first i was a little annoyed, because i want the cheaper one and he is putting my choice down. but then, i think he brought up a very good point. i got so used to using a mac that I did not realized the fact that in windows, most of the softwares that you need to install comes in a cd installer. i also remembered that owie’s unix terminal emulator boots up from a cd. so i got worried that it might not be a good choice to buy a netbook after all. i called owie and confirmed with him if that is really the case. two days later, he said that a netbook has limited usability as compared to a laptop, citing the reasons that jun had mentioned.

so i resolved to find a new unit that i would buy for my brothers. i thought that i could canvass at amazon again and come up with a new unit that i’d buy. but alas, while thinking about it yesterday, i happen to pass by apple.com. and i was surprised to see that a 13in macbook pro now costs cheaper than the macbook aluminum. wow! right then and there, i started thinking if i should upgrade my macbook instead. i mean, i had been planning on getting one this november anyway, why not get it instead of waiting and instead of buying the laptop for allan and owie? it make sense…. please bear with me. i told you i get crazy over these things.

and that was why at 1130 this morning, i headed to suntec and bought a new macbook pro. it is amazing! im an so happy when i finally got it and i am so amazed – its looks and features and speed – all fantastic. i fell in love with it right away. but of course like most of the things that i buy for this much and for myself, i felt a little guilt about spending so much money on a new notebook when i have a perfectly good one working. but then i tought to myself that i must think with the end in mind. owie and allan will now have she’s acer laptop. she will get macoy and i am left happy with my new macbook pro. omg! i really bought it without much ado! hahaha. jun was speechless and started lecturing me about irresponsible spending.

in my defense, come to think of it. i am not a high maintenance person. i don’t shop a lot. i am contented with my clothes, i only buy new clothes when i absolutely have to. i am not into jewelries or make up. i don’t play games such as xbox, not into wii or psp, and i don’t have to have the latest designer bag like my officemates do. this is my thing. i want an aluminum mac ever since it was released and you would see me staring longingly at cheche’s and cathy’s machine. now i have it and for a little while, i really felt genuine happiness that i could afford such a compulsive purchase. for a little while. because after spending 9 hours setting it up, i realized that no matter how fancy the lighted up keyboard and the hi resolution videos are, i am still alone in my room, typing in the dark with nothing but a laptop to keep me company day after day and night after night. can you blame me for being meticoulous about my lappy?

oh, well. that’s life.

I just finished a 35 minutes conversation with my lola and now im crying. i miss her. i miss my mom. my sister. my boyfriend.

i never imagined that there will come a time when i would only be able to be with the people i love through the phone. i just hear their voices. or in jun and my sister’s case, read their im messages.

i can never hug them. see them. talk to them in person. visit them.

it’s painful.