My Sony Ericsson P1i

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Anyone of you people who's ever read my previous post, I usually rant about my being a gadget freak and when it comes to mobile phones, I'm a freak. Well, last years holidays I bought a replacement phone as a gift to myself while my Motorola was still (and is still in a state of disrepair now) in the service center for repairs. I constantly badgered my fiancé (and yes, I already proposed to her hand in marriage this 2008....hehehehehe) about buying a new cellphone until she cracked.

I already made three choices in my head at that time on what to buy and mainly 2 factors have urged me to choose them, firstly, budgetary constraints of which being around P10k to P14k max, secondly, I have to have a smartphone (Symbian S60, UIQ3 or Windows Mobile which I’m eager to get my hands on and try but due to its models coming out with a hefty price tag that hampered me on buying one) this time because mainly I miss having one. I ended up choosing between Nokia E61i and Sony Ericsson P990i and P1i and O2 XDA Mini II. I kinda narrowed it down to E61i and P1i because P990i was too bulky and getting too common and O2 XDA Mini II was already too outdated but still cool looking. I was ready to buy the E61i if not for my GF who told me to buy P1i instead because she don’t like it, that it was too broad and calculator like, while the P1i was cooler more hip like. I still would’ve liked the E61i though but she has the final say. Hands down.

Well, I’m terribly enjoying the user experience with the P1i day by day. It’s a cool phone to have and I’ve already soft modified it to my needs (change the short cut icons, made a theme or two and updated its firmware), installed applications and games and stuff. I’ve even upgraded its firmware twice now from their website and much has improved over the daily usability of the phone. It can be a camera at one time and a PDA the next and a phone at once and it can even be an mp3 and video player and mini gaming machine to boot. Hell yeah. But there is no such things a perfect gadget, not in my lifetime I guess. So, there are minor quirks that I can point out. Wifi connection can be a pain to configure, at least to my office connection that is. I can’t seem to get it to surf the damn world wide web even if the prompt on the phone told me that its already paired up with the office WLAN. And also, even now I am unable to send MMS even if I already configured it to do such, maybe it’s a network issue but I haven’t had the time to go to the nearest Globe outlet and have them figure it out for me. 3G usage I also haven’t; had the opportunity to test with due to the latter gripe. These are all minor quirks (and there’s some others too) that I don’t mind having as of this time. Well, one can’t have everything. Nuff said.

2008: a bad start

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A lot of s@#$ has happened this two weeks passed and let me just site some of them for laughs here and at the time of this writing, my downward spiral has not been alleviated yet. I’m pissed and messed up in 2008, hooray! F@## off.

Band and s@#$, me and the boys were pumped up last night during the CEMP: Screams of Anguish gig @ the ZZubu Rock Bar with the usual metalheads and the bands from Dumaguete and Bacolod, it was one cool Sinulog gig event and we were really aching to play last night even though I had an on going battle with my freaking gum pains that started two weeks back and Its been festering me until now and that didn’t even stop me from performing our to be set even if it stings me whenever I bark my song to the crowd. Imagine this, try singing (or barking for the death metallist) with inflamed gums and teeth that’s sensitive to touch, that’s what I was going through the whole time thankfully hampered a little by the medicine that I took. But enough of that, the point is, I was being professional and made a point that no matter what the show must go on and we were going to play to the Cebuano metal heads (also it was Sinulog festival happening all over town and it would’ve been nice to make it memorable and played a gig or so) and all of the bands effort was brought to a halt because our drummer was so dead drunk by nightfall that it was next to impossible for him to even lift his drum sticks and play. So, me and the rest of the crew were so bummed. To all metalheads we again apologize for not being able to play last nights gig. It was a cool show, many of the bands lashed out there best and were in a very festive mood and me and the band were having one f#@$ dismal day. I cant blame my drummer if he was enjoying the festivities beforehand and drink to his hearts delight. Its his call.

Another thing with my first two 2008 weeks that’s been like hell was, as hinted above, I had an on going dental problem. My gums all whacked out and inflamed for two weeks now and I had a horrible time with the dentist last Jan. 17 like an ordinary check up gone bad because she made a dental cleaning even if my gums were all swollen and sensitive and the whole cleaning process was a complete agony and pain and it was even my birthday, geez, which eventually made me to decide not to celebrate it and just stay home and let the horrible dental experience subside. The day after that I had my panoramic dental xray and took the results to my dentist and her diagnosis was not at all uplifting which gave me a bleak choice between having my teeth (4 down and 4 up) removed and have dentures or do a major surgical cleaning and reinforced my now degraded bone tissue which cost very steeply. I still hoping for a miracle that maybe, somehow, maybe this problem be solved at a most practical and docile fashion.

With all the s@#$ that’s happened to me as stated above coupled with my usual life downers like not having the motivation to really work and still clueless to what my life should be or am I controlling my life or am I being controlled like a sheep to the slaughter house. I think I’m beginning to feel my age, I feel older now, not in a mature kinda way but old as in tired, of things around me. Maybe I’m just jaded. Hope all of this alleviates soon.

What a damn way to start the year.

A Recap of Sorts : 2007 and beyond

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As usual, I've been too lazy or too busy with the holidays that I haven't had the time or the inclination to post something interesting here within the last couple of weeks that went by.

Just arrived today from Maramag, Bukidnon to celebrate the New Year there (my GFs hometown, we have this agreement that come Christmas the celebration will be held at my discretion and on New Years’ will be held at her discretion and so on and so forth) and all throughout the day I was back to the grind doing the usual boring work, work and work. No rest for the wicked so to speak.

A lot of things went down during the holidays that was quite eventful and I never had the chance to post it here due to reasons laid out in paragraph one. I shall start with the most notable one, which was made just last December 30, 2007. We both formally asked her parents for their blessings regarding our plan to tie the knot and it went well I guess, in a blitzkrieg kinda way. Just a formal talk which was then sealed with a glass of wine for everyone present.

Relative to the above, I gave my fiancé an engagement ring as a gift this Christmas past that made her holidays more memorable and worthwhile (a long time coming actually) and yeah, I bought a replacement cellphone, a Sony Ericsson P1i, as a gift to myself (the eventual begging finally gave in). The cellphone I mentioned from previous the blogs is still in the state of disrepair, I got tired of waiting. Hehehe.

My day job last 2007 was kinda hectic and full of changes. I’ve been reassigned to another audit team and that was kinda stressful plus the usual work related travels that can’t be left out, been touring to Cebu provinces (Samboan, Toledo, Malabuyoc, Bantayan Island), to Bohol provinces (Dauis, Tagbilaran, Cortes, Balilihan and Inabanga), to Negros Oriental provinces (Dumaguete, Bayawan, Canlaon and Bais) and to Siquijor province (Larena and Siquijor). The sad part of going to these places aside from the work and the little time we have in somehow completing the task was that I never had the time to smell the roses of these places, so to speak. Well, that’s life and stuff (well, the work part that is).

As for my band last 2007, it was on the go go still. We had a couple of gigs here and there (read my previous post) and the highlight would be the CEMP: The Reckoning Compilation CD which we contributed a song and took part in the launching gig which was a killer. We had a couple of gigs that we weren’t able to take part due to our unstable drum helm which we hope to rectify come Sinulog 2008 gig, hopefully. Agnas was on the up and up last 2007 and will still be this 2008. Bang your heads people!

Just as with the band, my comicbook project is part of my R & R that keeps me sane to balance my work and life. Sadly, Nightscourge project is on a stand still but I’m sure we could wrap it up and print it (soft and hard copy) this 2008. 2007 was a brainstorming and finalization of ideas for the character and it was exhilarating and refreshing for me and my buddy and only hampered because both of us have day jobs and families to prioritize with but were still positive about it.

To wrap things up, 2007 was a turning point of sorts with a lot of changes for the better or be it for the worst for me. Lots of interesting things happening though be it stressful kinda. I can safely say it was a good year in a good kinda way (?) and eventually hoping this 2008 would be killer than 2007. Nuff said.