Whats up? wazzup..wazzup

It’s been sometimes, to be exact 13 days ago, since I updated this blog. What else there is? apart from excuses, hehehe. I have been terribly busy – meetings, data encoding, analyzing, and report writing. I also recently received a new set of SCUBA gears worth 160K pesoses – which of course is something to be happy about.

Anyway, I am also busy with my forex trading “hobby”. Profits are coming in steadily……which made me decide to shorten my work contract here until, maybe, April or May, this year, at the latest. My plan is: I will go home, settle down in my small island in the central Philippines; and just trade….I realized that with a fairly good capital, and trading really carefully, and waiting for right set-ups; it is possible to earn, perhaps, at least 100 to 200 dollars a day. Right in front of my computer monitor!

So, do I have the courage to be my own Boss? Lets…see…

I have been; actually, encourage getting the ball rolling on my trading plans…based on this particlar post in the Oanda Forum by Orlando Flyboy, whoever he maybe. Let me quote him:

“ Yes - that is true. Although, I think that many read the forum. Occasionally you will see someone with a low member # jump into a thread to say something - which makes me think they are reading some threads (only the interesting ones - others they skip as irrelevant to Forex - TIME WASTERS).

Maybe they don't have the time, because they are always busy - making sure their Yacht is serviced and ready to go, making travel arrangements (you really have to make sure the Lear is ready to go), and checking on the re-painting of the mansion down in West Palm Beach is on schedule, and THEN someone calls you to apologize that some ****** Rock Band has trashed the Penthouse Suite that you had for next weekend and wants to know if it is OK to change you the Penthouse Suite in their other Hotel, and you have to call everyone and tell them of the change.

So, they are too busy to post. Um, as you see, I post a lot - so, you can see that I certainly don't have any of those kind of nasty distractions to take up my time (yet).”

So what is up for me?

Let us see…hirap mag desisyon eh. Hehehe.

Its my life, its now or never…this is what I am listening to..now. hehehehe

Predator – Prey on the road.

We went to the field again yesterday. There were four of us including the Saudi driver who was in the wheel. What I noticed was his driving style; he was cruising at a minimum speed of 130 km/hr, and at the most 160 km/hour. All I can say to my self during the 1 hour and 30 minutes drive was….whew…were flying! We passed over a hundred cars in the first 45 minutes, and I can tell my BP was up for a few Hg during the whole drive. I was shy to tell the driver "suway suway" (trans: slowly), because I don’t want him to be upset and distracted. All I can do was buckle up…my o my.

He would try closing in at around three to two meters behind a car, if the guy in front of us wouldn't budge to the second lane. And once the car moved, he would laugh maniacally which would make me and the rest of us laugh as well. The episode, believe me, was infectious, but my laugh was tinged with fear. All, I can say was WTF, hehehehe. All this was at a speed of 130 km. It was a classic Predator – Prey on the road.

But that is not all; you think we were driving crazy? We served Prey to some cars driving much crazier than us, a few times. That is how driving is done here.

Our driver actually can tell what nationality is on the wheel of the cars, from a distance. The safest and most defensive drivers here are the Pinoys. The stupid ones are those that quack like something, and the craziest are the Saudis.

On the roads here, the Saudis are the predator and favored by law, while the other nationalities are the prey …well….of course, of course, what do you expect?

Concom Report: Ano ba yan

My few points why I don’t like it:

The concom members accorded the President the privilege to appoint 30 members to the parliament including the members of concom – and only for those members who approved no-el provisions. Kapal no?

It bribes incumbent officials with three years extension of their terms – alang eleksyon – kapal talaga!

Last time I heard is that democracy is by the people.

It seems these concom members and tentacles of GMA are legislating to:

1. accord themselves positions,

2. bribe themselves, their wives and relatives (example: Sergio Apostol*, who moved for reconsideration when no-el was voted NO by the commission, but with promised seat on the Parliament, changed vote to YES! ) three year terms without election,

3. rob the people their right to choose their leaders.

Now, what? Are they going to submit it to us for a referendum to validate and approved their blatant greed? To approve their perpetuation in power for life?

Damn!

=====

Sergio Apostol, member of concom will be appointed as assemblyman for his concom no-el vote. His wife who is current congresswoman for 2nd district Leyte - will gain another term without election. Their daughter, who is a Mayor – will also gain another term for free! Now this is democrazy in action!

No Election is GMA’s downfall

NO- el is bad for democracy, bad for the economy, and bad for the Filipino people.

Ang hula ko…

No- el will be the downfall of GMA. I have asked a few people and most agree that - by the no election proposition of GMA, she is robbing the people of its basic rights – indeed not once but twice. The first one was her alleged cheating during the elections (though I was not convince yet), and the second – is by denying the people the right to choose who should be their leaders! If this succeeds – this confirms, that indeed, magnanakaw sya! Ngayon ay lalabas na ako para mag-rally! Indeed, I will donate a hundred Jollibee pack meals!

No – election? Think twice Madam President.

I blogged, emailed and posted comments to support you during the impeachment period, but I will campaign – in my small way, to remove you from office if you deny the Filipino people their right to choose who their leaders should be!

This will be the rallying point for a People Power 3. Yan ang hula ko!

Sawa na kamo? Not when the issue is so basic - like right to life, right to breath, right to elect our own leaders etc.

Talking with the sea

Its weird, but I did this. I always do some weird things for reasons I myself do not know and for reasons I am not fully aware of, hehehe. I am sure my friends would react, if only they know this blog, and the reactions would be – stupid! Hehehe. This is a blog and I am supposed to be anonymous – so who cares! This is supposed to record certain events of my life, my wishes, my wants, my frustrations, and my idiosyncrasies among others. So here's the story.

During our first survey that happened few days ago, in the late afternoon, after the days work, and while we were on our way to the launching site, the sea was a little bit rough, and so I reach into my pocket for a coin and throw it to the sea, as an offering, and mumble a few words in my mind saying to the effect: thank you for your help spirits of the sea, further protect us, and make our whole survey safe, blah blah. Of course the sea did not calm down after I did this, hehehe, what do you expect? But we reach the launching site, safe and sound. I actually noticed that the waves were not hitting us that strongly any longer, after the offering – but then, maybe it was just me and my hallucinating mind, hello……hehehe.

Anyway, during the second day, everything started smoothly. The engine of our Boston Wheeler boat was humming perfectly and so our team went off to the sea. While on our way to the sampling sites, around 1 km offshore – the engine of the boat stopped. As I was sitting on the front of the boat, I noticed a Cormorant bird swimming, approaching us! The bird kept on swimming around the boat for several minutes. When it was just around three to two meters from us, I started talking with it, but it swam away, and I noticed its head dipped into the water, probably telling us to swim, but then, maybe it was just me and my hallucinating mind, hello……hehehe.

Anyway, we reach the launching site in no time, after almost an hour of paddling. The boat captain was thankful that the engine stopped when we were just a kilometer offshore and not in our sampling site which was several kilometers away. Me?, taking the cue from the Cormorant, I swam the cold waters near the launching site. The water was cold but refreshing and energizing, whatever that means.

When we finished packing our things, and while we were on our cars on the way to Al Khobar – in the back of my mind, I can hear the sea shouting at us: Fools!

Me? I don't know why the sea would be upset and call us fools.

The deed was done. I made my offer. I got a response. And the agreement was done.

I am grateful and thankful.But then, maybe it was just me and my hallucinating mind, hehehe.

Lost at Sea

Today, we went surveying the marine waters in the Arabian Gulf, close to Jubail, for a major project. While at sea, the Boston Wheeler boat that we were using suddenly stopped, probably due to lack of maintenance, hehehehe. So what we did was, we used the paddle - bugsay - bugsay, hehehe. Boston Wheeler is a bigger boat and a little bit difficult to paddle. But we have no choice - none of us had a cell phone with us afraid that it would get wet, to call for a coast guard rescue. Good thing was, we were not so far from the shore - we reach the shore after nearly an hour of paddling. And my arm still hurts.

I also swam the cold waters today, 17 to 18 C, it was OK, although its really cold for a tropical person like me. Trabaho eh...hehehe.

Both these experiences are not new to me. I had several sea problems before - in the Philippines, some were even much worse. Swimming cold waters is also not new to me, I remember the first cold water swim I had was five years ago, in Lake Michigan; right offshore of the Lakeshore Drive, just behind the big aquarium.

Another news is, I am expecting to recieve a new set of SCUBA gears next week. I calculated the cost of the set in riyals and coverted it to peso - and its worth like 160K pesoses. However, with the diving and all, at this time of the year - I am not really excited with it, hehehe.

By the way, I noticed that the winter here this year is not really cold - I saw many people not wearing jackets! Is this global warming in action?

Shooting our foot again - yan ang hula ko for 2006

Early last year the government was talking about fiscal crisis...some even were talking about the doom of the Philippine economy given the massive debts that we have. Some respected economists even projected a default! And debt ratings were negative. But with prudent financial management, and efforts to reduce the budget deficit, and passing the EVAT...most people are now talking about "take offs". Ang bilis naman magbago ng hanginan!

The peso is now at 52 something to the dollar. I cannot say this is good or bad. For me, because I am an OFW, it is bad. For a year, if this current rate prevails, or if it goes down to 50 to the dollar, with my projected savings of at least 10,000 dollars a year...I would lose something like...10,000 x 6 pesos = 60,000 pesoses on exchange rate. Diba malaki ito?

Pero, cge lang...anyway I am happy to know that the country's economy is improving or is it? At saka, hehehehe, what can I do if the peso moves to 50? Wala diba?

Anyway, ano hula ko?

But, as always, the country's politicians would not let good events continue, would they? They know that they will only thrive during scandals, bad economy, and when people wallow in poverty. The perverts would need to be in the media and on camera again! And they will try to do anything to achieve that. Or else their career and businesses would collapse, hehehe. So ang hula ko....we will shoot our foot, again, hehehe.

The trapos will drag the country again down to its knees. As always, sisimulan na naman through tsismis and disinformation. Mahilig kasi ang mga Pinoy sa tsismis eh... hehehe. Another big scandal..... and in a few months, the country will be back in turmoil again - courtesy of our greedy politicians. Politicians who sworned to serve our people!

These events will be aided and facilitated by media, especially ABS-CBN because it needs to recover its loses in viewership with GMA-7. Besides, the Philippine media profits and thrive with tsismis and scandals, diba? So....there....that woman again, hehehe...the Doris Bigornia...will try to irate people again....and of course I'll ready the Potters wand para matubuan ng pangil o kaya buntot ang babaeng yan, hehehe.

So, just stay cool, keep your dollars, as it would be back to 56, even to 60 again, soon.

Let's see.

Pinoy R and D in Al Khobar

For lack of nothing to do, my friends and I enrolled for a PC assembly class sponsored by one of the Filipino Organization in Al Khobar. The course cost 400 SAR. So...ang mga matatanda will go to school again, hehehehe. I joined this class so I can upgrade my PC when I go for vacation in the Philippines, by myself, without hiring any technician. If the course outline is to be believed, I think it is so simple that it would really be good to make it part/requisite for every High School in the Philippines as part of Practical Arts subject. Meron pa bang Practical Arts ngayon? It would be nice to know that every high school graduate in the country knows how to assemble and upgrade a PC diba?

Anyway, we will continue our education. We will also enroll for PC trouble shooting and networking. My friend even wants to go as far as programming, hehehehe, ano ba to...kong kailan tumanda, tsaka mag-aaral, hehehe.

Anyway, (again, hehe) this Filipino organization is really interesting...they have an R and D program, and they are developing technologies. The instructor even said that, they have some thirty technologies that are being developed at the moment...just by their group, wow! I saw one of their demo on power generation. It was made of PVC pipes filled with water with chlorox; and some wires, and when tested; it generated around 18 volts of electricity. Note that I saw it with my own eyes, i.e. the assembly of that thing from simple PVC pipes, to the attachment of wires, and to the filling of water - and I can tell if tricks were involved! Although I am skeptical because I remembered Dingle.....but after some explanation ...it was for real...and really works.

Now that's something...power generation using water!

Now before you flame me with anything.. hoax whatever,....... all I can say is.. I saw it myself - and it was for real! The downside I think was that...what can we do with just 18 volts? I also don't know if that thing needs water replacement every minute, hehehe. Or it has to have some cholorox every hour - which would make our laundry woman mad, hehehe. I am not an engineer, and I dont know anything much about that stuff, so....ewan ko.

Anyway, what I am interested about...is the PC thing, hehehehe.