The heat is killing me and yet…

Posted by Alma on 11 Apr 2009 in Children, Family, Life Speak, Rural Life | 3 comments

It was just so freakin hot where we’re at.  The weather was hot and balmy.  It’s was just like inside a steamy sauna room.  I remembered my first sauna experience at Fitness First years ago and I almost died inside.  It was just so balmy– I mean, that was what the sauna was about.  But I swear, I couldn’t breathe inside the room, and I was getting lightheaded even.

I thought the 10 minute sauna would kill me… it didn’t.  Anyway, the heat here was tolerable and the children were enjoying their day outside with the neighbor’s children.  I heard their merriment as they told me their first attempt to fly a kite.  Boy I have never flown a kite before.

They were just so happy.  One of the older girls made a simple kite for my daughters. It was just one of those ones made of bamboo strips and simple chinese paper and nylon.  It was a joy watching my children play on the vacant lot near our house.  Hearing their peels of laughter was music to my ears.

How about you?  How was your day?  I sure hope it was as good as mine…

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Who needs the TV when you have YouTube?

Posted by Alma on 8 Apr 2009 in Family, Rural Life, Technology | 1 comment

We do not have a television.  I have thought of buying one, but decided on buying a PC instead.  The children obviously liked the PC as I bought it fully-loaded with games.  Not only that, since I got Globe Broadband, our internet life has never been this good.  Now, I can work full time as a freelance webworker in oDesk and we also have loads of information at the tip of our fingers– oh, the advantages of the internet is countless.

I read my news, blogs using NewsNetWire.  I keep track of over 300 RSS feeds daily, and I fire it up as a rule only twice a day.

Tyrell my 3 year old can watch all the Spiderman cartoons that he like and my daughters can play all the dress-up games in Y8.  Not only that, they can watch their movies and reruns– all in YouTube.

Bayantel Cares !

Posted by Alma on 17 Feb 2009 in Internet, Life Speak, Rural Life | 0 comments

The connectors of my cable to the antenna of my Bayantel Wireless fell apart. The connectors broke and this meant no connection for me both landline and internet. I am still reeling with the fact that Smart Bro has turned down my location saying they couldn’t simply get any signal to my house. This irked me because a few house down, a neighbor has their very own Smart Bro. So, what gives?

Anyway, I called the Bayantel Hotline (171) yesterday and they said they will be sending a technician down tomorrow. I followed up early today and I managed to catch the technician and I told him what exactly happened. I asked if he could bring a couple of connectors for me so the problem can be fixed right away. Not only that, I reminded him to bring his own tools and I mentioned that I do not want technicians borrowing my own tools.

I have not even blinked and I was expecting the guy to come later in the afternoon and there he was! He went to work right away. Fixed the connectors using the connectors he bought at the local hardware shop along the way (which I refunded). After 15 minutes of tinkering with the connector and using his solder to fix the wiring, the connection to the phone to the antenna was fixed! When he was done, I asked him to check my connection up in the roof and he climbed up and told me the connection there was busted too. I think the heavy rains that caused floods in the area the past few days has damaged my connection and I thanked God I had asked him to buy 2 connectors! He fixed the connectors, went down to solder again and climbed up and asked me to peer inside and check the signal bar and alas! For the first time in 6 months– I have a full bar! I checked the internet connection and was connected fast. The downloading was also quick! Hurray, even for dial-up!

I would like to thank Bayantel- Cagayan de Oro Team for the apt quick response. Thank you to Ivan Francis for the repair. He was courteous and he definitely knows his job! He even promised to confirm the news that Bayantel DSL can actually tap on Misortel telephone line so consumers can enjoy DSL connection. I hope he can get a better response and explanation regarding this since I was informed before by Misortel that their lines in my area is not fiber optic and not DSL ready. Let’s see what happens to that… And, thanks to Chona of Customer Support personnel for taking my call.

Flash Flood

Posted by Alma on 21 Jan 2009 in Being Alive, Climate Change, Health, Life Speak, Northern Mindanao, Rural Life | 2 comments

It was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I woke up with a wet floor. I went to the kitchen and found my floor was flooded with 2 inch water. I was shocked to discover that the flood water has gone inside the third room of the house. I quickly ran outside to check and found that the rain that started at dawn has not stopped. Since the kitchen was wet, I quickly boiled some eggs for the children since I did not want them to go outside of the room because the kitchen and dining area was wet with rain water. That was at 6am.

Thirty minutes after, I walked out of the house and went three houses down and bought some canned goods from my friend’s sari-sari store. I found the husband of my neighbor cleaning out the canal outside of our houses. He asked me if water has gone inside my house, and I said yes. He told me his wife is coming over to help me. An hour after, Mylene, my neighbor’s wife came in and told me she’s going to help me. Apparently, it has been 4 years since the last flash flood in the area. This small information dismayed me since the likelihood of recurrence is definitely higher. Mylene and her daughter lifted my double bed and elevated it on the single wooden bed in my second room as they fear my bed will get soaked in the flood water. Since my second room has 2 single wooden beds, my console table from Mandaue Foam was raised on top of the bed and important books were moved on top of it.

At 8am, the water has reached my ankles and I called my sister in law in the city to arrange a vehicle for us. She quickly responded that the rains in Cagayan de Oro was also very strong. I called my aunt who lives a few meters away from us and she said the water is building up in her place and she said she is busy clearing up their things from the 1st floor and Basement to bring on the 2nd floor. She asked me if my things were raised already and I said yes. She told me to stand by and wait for the weather to improve.

At 10, the water has climbed to my calf. I started to worry so I texted my husband and told him we were in a flash flood and we are going to move to higher grounds. I did not get any response from him.

At 10:30am, my neighbor Emma and her husband came and told me to move to their house– they have a second floor. I told her to take the my older children first and I want to wait in the house and see what happens. At this point the water inside my house has reached my knees. I quickly packed clothes for myself and the children and took my important documents like passbooks, passports with me. Some of my important documents were bagged up and we lifted them and putted them on the highest part of our heaviest cabinet in the room.

11am. I sighed and decided to leave my house for higher grounds. My PC, printers and other important items in the house were all moved on top of the dining table. My sofa was also raised. This was also the time when my fridge fell and floated on the flood water… Emma, grabbed my Whirlpool fridge and with sheer power, she lifted and dragged it to the corner of the dining area and used my dining table to pin the fridge on the corner.

The sight outside was unbearable. The water has almost reached my waist. I walked through the muddy flood water with Ia on my hip. I couldn’t find my slipper inside my already flooded house and decided to walk through the water barefooted. The men in my street were busy carrying their belongings to higher ground. TVs, washing machines and the like. Some were carrying their children and some were busy taking their cows from the field to safety. I walked to Emma’s house which was only three houses away from mine and I saw their vehicle in flood water.

My children and some of the neighbors children were inside Emma’s house. As children, they did not understand the seriousness of the situation and they were playing around the flood water. I told my children to get off the water and I cringed and almost cried just thinking about the bacteria, and other nasty stuff in the water.

At 2pm, Emma and her husband decided to return to my house for my PC and printer. At this point the water inside my house has almost reached the dining table. The rain has not stopped at this point and I told them not to worry about the other things anymore. The important thing is the fact that the children and I are safe.

Search for that Elusive Broadband Juice

Posted by Alma on 7 Jan 2009 in Internet, Rural Life, Technology | 2 comments

It rained the entire weekend. The torrential rains made my internet connection impossibly slower than ever. Not only that, I missed an interview for freelance work because of the unavailable connection. Darn. Lost opportunity, that’s what it is.

I am still planning my antenna that hopefully would be long enough to get that elusive Smart Bro-ken juice. I have checked our local telecommunication company here in the boondocks and they said they did not have the infrastructure for DSL. There goes my plan for a Bayantel DSL.

Strangely, the town close to my small barangay is offering Globe Broadband. But all the bad Globe reviews is scaring the shit out of me. I seem to have very limited choice. The only available connection here is Smart and Smart has already turned down my place because they claim they cannot get enough signal… I really hated to hear and accept that because a few feet from my house is another Smart Bro subscriber. The only difference is that their house has a second storey and their tower is so high. They actually offer internet use in their place for 15/hour and I was so darn envious of the speed. It was fast. I have a cousin whose house is 10 minutes away from my house and they said that there simply is no connection every Sunday somehow. Ano yon? Scheduled ang downtime?

Anyway, I am currently planning on building my own tower. I am consulting Smart with this para sigurado. I am also seeking the help of my aunt who has the people who can help me make this tower a reality. I have waited for 6 months for another broadband deal to come in the boondocks. Nada. After 6 long months, I am still on dial up…

Trying out Qumana

Posted by Alma on 24 Nov 2008 in Blogging, Internet, Rural Life, Technology | 1 comment

Something happened to my Zoundry Raven blog editor.  I have restarted my PC several times today but I still cannot get my offline blog editor to work.  Whoever used the PC yesterday must have spoiled my program.  At any rate, this gave me the opportunity to check out other blog editors. 

My requirement?

Offline Editing Availability because I am still in an obsolete town where there is only one DSL provider.  But alas, my house just happened to be a dead spot.  No signal, whatsoever and still using dial-up.

WYSIWYG (for HTML losers like me). 

I googled and found another offline editor called Qumana.  Like Zoundry, it is free and can be used offline– meaning it is not browser dependent.  Qumana, I later found out has Insert Ad advantage.  If you are affiliated with google adwords, putting ads to your entries is easier than 1-2-3.

The only initial disappointment with Qumana is set up because it took me several tries just to configure my blogs into the system.  Somehow, I was getting the bad login or missing endpoint kind of error messages.  Up to this point, my other blog, Frugal Living Pinoy Style is not in the system, including Pinoy Travel Blog. 

I wonder what’s up with that?

If Qumana doesn’t stand up to its promise, I will download Zoundry Again and adios to Qumana…

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