I need more content

Is it just me or are we getting too bombarded with too much "sharing"?

Before, the only time I get to see pictures of food is when I view magazines and newspapers featuring a particular restaurant. Today, open your social website and you'll sure see what people ate/drank/half eaten/vomited throughout their day.

There was a time that if you wanted to share photos of your trip, you literally have to meet that person to view their albums. The time came when film slowly became obsolete and memory cards became the next big thing, people took photos only when the moment was truly special. Now in almost any angle, any moment, anywhere, any time, styled or not, ready or not, there are selfies everywhere?!

We have reached a pedestal wherein smartphones are aplenty and wifi has gotten so cheap already and we have this enormous amount of content we all wish to share. However, I am desperately needing for serious content. Until now, I really can't tell the difference between a chat log and a tweet especially when the latter I find to hard to catch up and read? Some users have already given up blogging altogether and decided to tweet it instead. Gone are the times when one really had to sit down and think and compose his thoughts not paying much attention to character usage. It feels to me that ideas have become volatile, I have to share it, it's out there, who cares what happens afterwards. 

In addition, it also came to a point where I see and hear of horrible things happening to the world that I can't do anything about. What does a like and a comment got to do with a praise/salute/ignore or whatever arbitrary value people tend to make on what they post at all?

I try my best to get back into books, focus into language, and perhaps find more fellow bloggers to follow and even websites with insightful articles and videos, very much worth paying attention to.

Treasure

The last time I heard Maricar Reyes' name was when she was involved in a string of sex scandals by Hayden Kho before. Now, she's married to singer Richard Poon.

This just comes to show, no matter how crappy some people might have treated you in the past, someone somewhere will be willing to commit and take care of you

and you both shall live happily ever after :)

SmartBro's FUP

It was supposed to be just a normal weekend, spending time at home, doing chores, watching movies while eating, the works. Until I have observed however that my connection speed has gone significantly slow and until I ran a test did I measure just how slow it is:

I work for a US Telco account, so my initial instinct would be to call customer care. It was then that while the CSR did ran his tests (I use the same stalling alibi believe me) was I told that I have exceeded the bandwidth for the month and that they recently implemented a "fair usage policy". Ok, well, thing is I have not been informed about this prior nor was I given any satisfactory answers. My subscription is at fixed speeds (max 1mbps) and UNLIMITED at 999 per month. Now, they have capped to only 15GB and beyond that, your speed would dwindle to a mere 20kbps as shown above, and it will persist for the rest of the month. Only consolation is, your connection would not be interrupted, only slowed down. Deliberately. In addition to adding more insult to injury, the CSR attempted to upsell to a higher plan which costs twice as much and had to be bundled with a landline.

About myBro’s Fair Usage Policy. myBro understands your need for fast and reliable connectivity, and is obligated to efficiently manage the network to guarantee that all subscribers have fair access to network resources. myBro has adopted a Fair Usage Policy to provide the best fixed wireless internet experience to all subscribers.

Conditions Covering Fair Usage Policy. Certain peer-to-peer and machine-to machine software/applications are used by customers to send and receive files containing very large amounts of data. These activities may cause network congestion and can negatively impact the quality of service that other subscribers will experience. myBro fulfils a service level that is based on equitable share of network resources among all of its customers. Thus, the service level and/or connectivity to users of peer-to-peer and machine-to-machine software/applications is modulated to ensure that all customers get the best fixed wireless Internet experience.

Upon reaching the optimum volume allocation for a single user, the subscriber will still be able to enjoy unlimited access to the Internet, but at a lower speed. This was implemented to manage overall internet usage and to ensure that all myBro subscribers can enjoy satisfactory internet service.

Ensuring Fair Usage For All. myBro intends to preserve the integrity of the network in order to provide all customers with high quality fixed wireless Internet services.   myBro reserves the right to suspend or terminate service to customers whose practices or use of the internet far exceeds that of a personal consumer and, as a result, impairs the quality of service that other customers experience. myBro also reserves the right to modify the Fair Usage Policy without immediate notice in order to maintain the integrity of its network services.

I tried to research further on this and found more people under the same predicament. While others were able to suggest different workarounds, which did prove effective for a time, a complaint is still being over social media sites.

If it were only clearly described as such, I believe people would be able to make a more informed decision in choosing their provider. To quote a fellow complainant:  "Yes, MyBro is a wireless connection. However, please do check that most U.S. carriers have both capped and unlimited packages. Basically, they have a DATA plan & an unlimited plan. What Smart/PLDT is marketing is unlimited, but they will cap your bandwidth. Although throttled down, this is still considered Deprivation of services paid for, which is against the Philippine Consumer Act."

How all of this would turn out, I do not know, but definitely I will not bow down to it.

Irritatingly Fragile

I soooo love this pen but it is so freakin' fragile that it is as good as gone when I drop it on the floor.

I've already bought five this month alone.

Shutangina.

Premium Partner?

i wonder why most prefer to sink their teeth on "hipons" when they can take a bite off a premium wagyu beef... like me...

Being single is getting old..

feels great to have everything i need... but my life would be alot better if had everything i deserved... =(

*sigh*

I feel sorry for this guy on FB who keeps on posting such rants over and over again. I happened to meet him in the most primitive of ways.... read IRC, and was able to befriend him actually. I saw him running along Ayala avenue one time and thought he was nice to stop by and smile. But how come it has taken this long and he hasn't met his person yet?

I barely know him personally. But from what I have been observing: he probably has a high paying job in which he can splurge on gear and gadgets for running, not to mention participating in almost every single marathon there is, and that he fancies guys who work out. Only guys who work out. One little flab out of place and he'd probably drop you like a hot potato. Flat ripped abs seems to be the best qualifier.

I just wish that somehow, he'd give up his ideals.

Maybe he'd truly be happy. Flabs and all.

So you wanna tie the knot....

So I've been seeing a lot of this everywhere and a lot of people are pushing through for gay marriage.

Okay....

So given we were given an equal opportunity, what's next?

I wish to hear answers related to social responsibility.



One word. Parenthood.



I expect a little give and take. Not so that just some can have their ceremony.

Dents and Vets

I am still recovering from a roughly 10 hour cumulative time spent on a dentist chair. This was actually spread over three sessions in two consecutive days. It sounds that bad huh? Well, it was not intended to be that way really. I finally managed to find a professional who actually cares for me.

I have this molar at the upper right corner of my mouth where food kept getting stuck. Pain. Excruciating pain every time a piece of meat or vegetable gets lodged in it and every single chewing motion I made pushed it further until it bled. It would not be exaggerating to say that I've been to five different clinics, some covered by insurance, some I paid in cash, but nonetheless, the "work" only lasted for about a week to a maximum of three months. At one point in time, either the filling would simply fall off while I am eating or more often, I tug upon it while flossing and there goes my money down the drain.

It came to me, just how impossible is it to fix the damn tooth? Or why don't I simply get rid of the damn thing so I don't have to keep spending on it? Why can't any of these dentists be honest enough to tell me what would be the best thing to do instead of bleeding me all this money? 

Jargon. I'm not entirely oblivious to medical terminology given that I have a Nursing degree. I just hope that long before, I should've kept my own little notebook to keep as a record of what was done, who did it, the contact info, so I don't have to keep recalling the procedure and I really don't have much of a clue what was done by the last guy anyway? DMD one meet DMD two. Your work sucks, fight! Damn I miss Tekken.

So I finally meet this old lady, not entirely a stranger to me, she's Munchkin's mom :) What I thought would be yet another palliative filling, ended up with a full cavity overhaul. It wasn't new to me that the past dentist's even if they hide behind masks I could see the squirm in their eyes when they see something unpleasant. Well, I happen to be someone with cash to spend and time is not a problem. Do what needs to be done. A couple of thousands after, I am spending time on the damn chair once more despite my own efforts to maintain whatever good is left of my smile. What was the difference this time? She didn't charge me a cent. I stayed on their house, fed me, kept me comfortable, and she blessed our relationship. What more can I ask for?

There were no fancy products, no expensive drugs, no freebies either. She just told me to  brush after drinking tea because it does stain the teeth and stop eating hard foods. Take hot and cold foods with caution and gargle with salt water solution.

I have faith that maybe this time, her work and my efforts put together, I might not need to spend that much time on a chair in the future.

We'll see.

Veterinarians seem to be no different, or perhaps I am yet again at the wrong place. I've never really thought of the need to see one since I had this concept that Donut, a mongrel, was actually more resilient towards diseases that her pure bred kin. After two puppies, I made it a point to try to abide by the vaccination schedule. Oh I was in for yet another set of hurdles.

Porky, on his third month passed out noodle like worms and became lethargic. So we went to the Vet, they gave him anti-helminthics and in two days he was as energetic as ever. After a week, he showed signs of lethargy again and I was very much worried if I had to deal with Parvo once more. 

The vet inserted a cotton tip at the anus and found blood. She was considering two diagnoses: Parvo or worms.

Me: ok, so how do we differentiate between the two?
Vet: we have to perform a Parvo screening test, it would cost you 500 pesos.
Me: ok, let's do it then. Porky needs to be treated

The Parvo test looked similar to an HIV screening kit. They took a swab from the anus, dipped it on a reagent, placed a couple of drops on the kit and waited for the lines to appear.

Me: so how do we read the results?
Vet: one line means negative, two or three means positive.

(15 mins after)

Vet: only one red line appeared so this means negative, however, I am seeing a very faint line so there may still be a possibility that he does have Parvo or may get it in the future.
Me: (confused and irritated)

Me: okaaaay... I am not seeing a second red line at all. There is proper lighting in this room and I don't need a magnifying lens to tell there is only a single red line on the indicator.

Vet: what I am saying is that there is only a possibility...

Me: what possibility?! I thought this was a screening test? Do we need to perform a confirmatory test? Did we test too early? Are these results not conclusive at all?

Vet: conclusive naman po, so ang chances are meron pa rin siyang worms.

Me: (murmuring to myself) fuck. I feel like I am being ripped off here. No need to test for worms since there has been a positive history in the first place.

At the end of the day, the dog was prescribed antibiotics and was well in two days.

We followed the schedule for the rest of the vaccines, until one day:

Vet: sir, i think it is time we also check for heartworms

Me: (looked at the energetic and noisy puppy) mukha namang wala.

Vet: he's also going to need shots for fungal and kennel cough.

Me: how much would those cost?

Vet: 500 and 300 pesos.

Me: which one is more prevalent and would kill him faster?

Vet: the kennel cough. In fact, notice he is coughing now

Me: (looked at the energetic and noisy puppy again) He's tugging on the leash. He wasn't coughing an hour ago since we got here.

Vet: (nga nga)

Soon we got another puppy named Dara, a cross between Shitzu and Mini Pin, we brought her in with Porky who was scheduled for the final booster of 5 in 1.

Me: Dara is two months old, we wish to start her vaccines asap too.

Vet: How long have you had her?

Me: less than a week, why?

Vet: we need to observe her for a week first, then start by checking her for worms, deworming then her shot of 5 in 1 a week after that

Me: okaaay... so if why do we need to check her for worms if she'd be given a deworming dose anyway? Wouldn't it cost me more?

Vet: (nga nga)


Seriously. This all feels like highway robbery.