Hooray!

Hey, I passed my test. Sorry for the 1-wk. delay of my post. I was trying to recover from my lack of sleep due to preparation for the exam. Now that it's over, I can go on and live life normally again. I really have a lot of catching up to do and sleep is on the very top of the list.

I will set up my recording kit down at the basement and start recording songs again. I haven't played my guitar for more than a month now and the callouses are starting to wear thin. I'll take a picture once I'm done setting it up.

Get Wired

I've been studying for my A+ OS exam for the past two weeks and let me tell you, I just can't wait for this to be over with. I'm scheduled to take the test this Thursday, 02.16 @ 9:oo a.m and there's only a 2-hr. time limit to complete it. I passed the Hardware part a few weeks back and as soon as I pass the OS... drum roll please... I'M A+ CERTIFIED!

What is A+ certification you may ask? Just Google it. I don't have time to explain because I'm ready to crash into bed after 5.5 hrs. of studying. Not to mention I have to wake up @ 6:30 to get ready for work. I will definitely be substituting caffeine in place of water throughout the day today.

Podcasting

If you don't have a clue what a podcast is, I suggest you step out of the cave you've been living in and start exploring this wonderful world of free, downloadable Internet audio. Who needs radio when you can download your favorite show and listen to it whenever and wherever.

Check out Wikipeda's definition of podcasting.

Here's a sample of the many podcasts that I listen to:

1. Making Much of Jesus
2. Geek News Central
3. TWIT - This Week In Tech
4. Security Now! With Steve Gibson
5. Josh in Japan
6. Tech Renegades
7. Herro Flom Japan

How to find these podcasts and many more? Here's a list of the podcatchers per OS.

Til' next time. Sayonara.

Happy New Year! (better late than never)

Okay. I'm back in business. Once again, sorry for the almost 2-month long break. As a way to make it up to my faithful readers, I've posted this humiliating picture of mine for your viewing enjoyment.

Christmas season is way over and I'm still trying to lose those extra pounds. Looking forward to a great year and I'm planning on posting short-clip videos to my blog as soon as I get my hands on a cool MiniDV Camcorder. The project that I mentioned a few posts back is still up in the air. Will keep you posted as soon as it's ready for prime time.

Taking a survey

Please pardon my brief hiatus. Didn't mean to disappoint my loyal readers (you know who you are :-> ).

Nate is filling out a survey from Luvs diapers regarding diaper leaks. He's not very satisfied with the one he's using because it fills up quickly. I think this is a user issue, not the product.

Spam Collection Update

My spam collection is growing at a surprisingly slower rate than expected. When I started this non-sense project last 10/24, I had 221. Now 24 days later, it went up by 192. That's an average of 8 spam emails a day. My goal is to reach 1000 by the end of the year. There's only 44 days left in the year and that's 352 more spams if it stays the rate of 8 per day. That means I will only have 765 by the end of 2005. C'mon spammers, get to work! Chop, chop.

You're getting very sleepy...

I think it's time for me to hit the bed. Just finished working on my sister's laptop. It's been an OK week for me. It's nice to know that the weekend's almost here. Looking forward to picking up my iPod nano at C/C this Saturday. I originally bought a 6GB Zen Micro but I didn't like it a bit. The touchpad is soooo messed up and the interface is complicated. I used to own an iPod mini and that is why I'm so used to the click wheel.

Ok. I'm getting really sleepy now. This is how it looks like when I stare at Nate's picture at this time of the morning. Good night. Good morning. Whatever!

Happy Birthday

Nathan turned 2 today. It was a fun filled day. First, we took him to Toys R' Us then to the mall and our last stop was at WalMart. I hate shopping. I can't stand being in a department store for more than 20 minutes. It gives me headache. Well, this day is an exception. Luckily my wife is very patient and keeps a cool head during my ordeal, otherwise...

After supper, Nate blew the candle on his cake more than a dozen times for a couple of reasons - first, he loves doing it, second just so daddy could get that perfect shot.

Will post more if not tomorrow, Saturday. That's all folks!

Me @ work

This is how I would normally look like on a typical work day. I had to wear a mask to protect my identity especially when I'm bidding on Ebay during work hours :-0



My computer froze... AARGH!

Little Stinker

Have you ever seen a skunk riding a bicycle? Believe it or not, I had an encounter with this little stinker earlier this afternoon. He almost ran me over. I think skunks are getting more and more sophisticated as far as their spraying skills are concerned nowadays. Yes, what a clever idea - spray and pedal away.

Hey guess what, that speedin' stinker is Nathan James Aranda. Here's a picture of him with his Afro-sportin' grandpa. Another Ripley's Believe it or Not moment here - Grandpa used Chia pet seeds to grow his 'fro. He later complained of burning sensation on his scalp and mild headache. We told him to use a regular hair spray instead of Miracle Gro to help ease the discomfort.

Don't Stop Believin'... Cubs

Just finished watching the White Sox clinch their first World Series title since 1917 about two hours ago and all I can say is thank God it didn't last 14 innings. As you may well know, the third game of the 2005 W/S lasted for more than 5 hours and went into the record book as the longest game ever played in a W/S. Believe it or not, my wife and I stayed until the end of that grueling and exhausting game. It was all worth it when the Sox won the game.

I'm not a White Sox fan and I didn't jump into the Sox bandwagon just because they're the most popular team in the present time. I'm still swearing my allegiance to the Cubs. Yes, you read it correctly, to the Cubs. People say that they reek, but I don't really care. The team is improving bit by bit and I think that a W/S title for the Cubs is just right around the corner. If not, we Cubs fans can always say, "There's always next year."


Good night and good morning.

Spam Collection

I hate spam! No, not the canned food. We all get bombarded by spam emails from Viagra, hair growth products, porn sites, companies telling you that you've won $1M, etc. I'm telling you, some of these companies are so desperate for your business that they will do anything to bypass the spam filters so they can penetrate your inbox.

I've been using a Yahoo! email account for quite some time now. One good thing I like about it is that it separates (or at least it tries to) the spam emails from the ones you really want to receive and places it on the Bulk folder. Occasionally, a spam email could sneak in and that not really bad.

As much as I hate receiving them, I've decided to collect spam emails to find out how long it will take to get 1,000 spams. So far, I've collected 221 and I started on Oct. 7. I don't think it'll reach a thousand by the end of this year. Who knows, maybe the upcoming holidays will boost the numbers.

I hope there's a company that will pay you money for every spam you collect, just like collecting those pesky soda can tabs for cash. Will keep you posted on this non-sense project.

Barney or Basketball

Given a choice between watching that crazy purple dinosaur and basketball, Nathan goes for basketball. Shoot that ball, son. Make daddy proud.

Filler

Nothing exciting to post tonight. Thought you'd like this pix. I just have a passion for b/w images.

Video iPod

You probably have seen the commercial to Apple's new video iPod. Though I still have the "phased-out" mini in my posession, I'm already drooling over this new gizmo. According to Apple, this device supports up to 150 hours of video and will allow you to download TV shows through iTunes for $1.99 per episode. I only use iTunes to download podcasts, though I sometimes use iPodder Lemon. Where I get my songs is a totally different story.

I heard the new video iPod will not support DivX, however I believe it won't take long for the hacker community to come up with a hack for this. Just look what happened to PSP. Speaking of video, I believe IPTV is a sleeping giant that will soon wake up and put to sleep cable and dish network providers. Microsoft and a handful of companies are already making plans to get the ball rolling on this one.

One last note - I think I know what I want for Christmas this year. (hint, hint!)

A quick announcement

Hello all! I know I haven't been consistent as far as updating my blog is concerned. I will try to post at least twice a week. Though majority of the pictures posted so far are about my son, this blog is about my collection of pictures that I think deserve a place in the "blogosphere". Within the next few weeks, I will be busy working on mini-projects that will allow me to share with you my thoughts as well as pictures to go along with it. Come back soon!

Video Games

I just had to take this picture. My firstborn son being introduced into the world of handheld video games. It seems like he knows what he's doing. I think he's having a level-1 moment here. Notice the piece of plastic stuck on his right foot. Also, time to change that diaper!

Lizard in the toy chest

Be careful when reaching inside your child's toy chest. Some things in there can be very deadly and dangerous.

Top O' The Mornin'

Top o' the mornin' Maam!.My name is Nathan and I'm here to serve you with our donuts that's packed with 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (four of them saturated), 13 grams of sugar, and no fiber. How many would you like today?

Oatmeal Blues

Where's my oatmeal? No doubt, oatmeal is Nathan's favorite breakfast meal. You better give him his oatmeal in the morning or else...