Hold the Knob, Wear Clean Shoes and Enjoy The Insanity!

1. When you close a door, do you close it quick and just let it slam or do you hold the knob and slowly shut it tight? I hold the knob and slowly shut it right.
2.Train A is moving at 60 miles an hour. Train B is moving at 22 miles an hour. They will pass each other at X time. Now what color shoes are you wearing when train A derails? Blue??
3. What if M&M's grew on trees? What color M&M tree would you have? Yellow, my favorite color.
4. How many petals on a flower does it take to make it the perfect bloom? 27
5. I took you to spend $421.67 on you, what did we spend that money on? NBA or NHL Action Figures, Sports Illustrated magazines, DVDs.
6. If you were a squash, what type of squash would you be? I have no idea.
7. Have you ever gotten a wrong number call and ended up talking to the person for longer than 5 minutes? Nope.
8. Why haven't you joined Berleen & Kimber at Insanity Cafe yet? Do we stink? I have no time. I have been very busy.
9. Now for one of Ber's questions back when TT was brand new... Shampoo bottles say lather, rinse, repeat... do you? No. I don’t even use shampoo. LOL.
10. It's July, the year is half over. Do you see it as "whew that part is over" or best is yet to come? The best is yet to come.
11. Why do you do the Thursday Thunks meme? It is my first time here. My wife says it is fun so I gave it a try.

Party Planning

Every year, we try to have a simple celebration to celebrate the birthday of our dear princess Ysabela. When she was born, she was diagnosed to have a congenital heart disease called Ventricular Septal Defect. But we are lucky since God made a miracle in our life because the hole in my daughter’s heart is now totally close. So we make it a point to celebrate our daughter’s birthday as a thanksgiving for the precious gift that God gave to our life.

I am not sure what my wife is planning for our daughter’s fourth birthday party. I am usually in the sidelines when it comes to party preparations as my wife always took charge here. My only duty is to look for birthday invitations and to drive my wife when she needs to distribute the party invitations to all our guests.

I am sure my wife has something planned already for my daughter’s fourth birthday party. But hope someday soon, the next party that we will be planning is for our second baby’s baby shower. I already know an online supplier where I can order Invitations Baby Shower so we better act soon for our baby number 2. LOL.

5th Wedding Anniversary

In just a few months, my wife and I will be celebrating our fifth anniversary and I want to have a wedding anniversary party to celebrate the occasion. It will not be as big as our wedding. I just want a simple celebration together with our close friends and relatives so they will be our witness again when we renew our vows.

I proposed to my wife for the second time to ask her if she wants to marry me again. After she said yes, I told her to start looking for anniversary party invitations to give to our friends and relatives whom we will be inviting to celebrate with us. My wife was really thrilled upon hearing my plans and I can see how happy and excited she was because she searched right away for sites where we can order our Wedding Anniversary Invitations.

Hope we will be able to push through with our plans and we will have the budget for our simple celebration and then after that I will start saving up for our 50th wedding anniversary.

Commemorative U.S. Quarter Dollars - 8 More Less

After five years of collecting these coins, I’m glad to have collected 48 out of the 50 states. The remaining are the two illusive states of California and Nebraska. Plus 6 more territories which will be release this year namely District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands.

In 2004, Abie and I visited friends in L.A. and invited us to stay in Vegas for two days. While we’re playing the slot machines in Circus Circus, I have won a hundred dollar of quarters. When I’m counting the coins in our room before dinner, I’ve noticed different designs and sorted those and keep them in my bag while the rest I’ve squandered hoping to collect more commemorative quarters.

During my US travels in 2007 and 2008, I have collected several of them. And thanks to our friends Neil and Jacq who even now still sends me my missing ones.

According to Wikipedia, “The 50 State Quarters program became the most successful numismatic program in history, with roughly half of the U.S. population collecting the coins, either in casual manner or as a serious pursuit. The U.S. federal government so far has made a profit of $4.6 billion from collectors taking the coins out of circulation.”

I hope to complete them this year…

HP DL360 G5 SAS Drives 5 & 6 Could Not Enable Problem

After a grueling week of finding an answer to my problem with two DL360 G5s, I think I’ve finally found the solution.

It says that I need another cable to connect the drives 5 and 6 to the backplane for the RAID to include them in the configuration. The part number is 399546-B21 so I have to place an order right away.

It was a busy weekend for me with a photo shoot yesterday and family day today though I have some errand in Makati. But last week has been an exhausting week configuring G5s. It consumed most of my brain muscles looking for ways to resolve the problem only to find out that a cable is originally not included.

DL360 G5s has six bays available so I inserted 6 pcs. of mini SAS but only drives 1 to 4 were recognized when I’m doing the RAID. I thought it was a firmware issue so I downloaded the firmware maintenance CD which is about 400 MB but still not recognized so I reinstalled again but still fails. Tried using different HP SmartStart versions but still fails, tried installing the OS and hoping to make it enable thru online maintenance but got second thoughts so I stopped the idea.

But today I finally got some pretty good answers from Google. Here are the possible solutions:

Solution 1
Solution 2

The Martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal - Manila

If I’m exhausted from a long day of work, I’d just go down at exactly 4:30 to the parking lot in Army Navy Club to change clothes and go jogging around Luneta before my wife arrives from Makati at past five in the afternoon.

Sometimes I’d stopped at the bust sculptures of our heroes and read their tale thru the inscriptions written. Their epitaph would normally tell their role in making our motherland a free nation, their province of origin and basically how trivial their own lives were when freedom and the good of all of us are at stake. But there’s one corner I’d wanted to visit but never got the chance since the night is setting in and you have to spend a little more than few minutes to gaze the area.

On a Sunday, just two days before Rizal’s 112th death anniversary, I’ve drove my wife to office for some overtime work and before heading home while passing Roxas Blvd., I witness a great morning and decided to drop by the park and visit the life size statues of the “The Martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal”.

Above are some of my photos. According to the attendant, there is a light and sound presentation of the scenes of Rizal’s last few days from his court trial to writing of Mi Ultimo Adios up to his death but can only be seen during scheduled tours or events.

Rizal’s number one fan is Andres Bonifacio and you can see also his translation of Rizal’s farewell poem in Tagalog entitled “Pahimakas ni Dr. Jose P. Rizal” and which both icons are my hero in their fidelity to our beautiful country though what we’ve become are not within their expectations. But I’m always hopeful that our nation will be a great country again and our people will be industrious again, environment-caring again, law-abiding citizens again, well-mannered youth again, respectable parents again, independent, intelligent, loyal, honest and God fearing people...

And when my grave by all is no more remembered,
With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,
Let it be plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered
And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,
Let them turn to dust to cover your earthly space.

Then it doesn't matter that you should forget me:
Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I'll sweep;
Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be:
Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,
Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.

My idolized Country, for whom I most gravely pine,
Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, harken
There I leave all: my parents, loves of mine,
I'll go where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.

Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest...

Happy Howie - Living A Positive Life

Getting to really know myself for over three decades is a very long journey but I have no regrets because I have seen so many signs and experienced so many things that says “And So I Am is A Happy Man and Will Be More Happier.”

I have projected that I’m no longer a career man firsthand but a journeyman gearing towards independence. Three years ago on my 30th birthday, I said to my wife that I’m retiring from office work at the age 40 and you can see how worried she was and until now when I brought that issue. But I believe if I work hard enough to achieve self sufficiency that will someday change the mood. Even I was afraid of letting go of my career in an early stage and while I’m almost at the top but I am determined to achieve my goal even before I reached that age. But definitely a good paying job is an added advantage, so we’ve agreed that I can achieve my objectives and still can count on my paychecks.

Three years ago, we’ve acquired an asset where its income and a little from our salary goes to the bank for three straight years but now paying for our other expenses. We planned to acquire another one this year so it’s a hunting year for us.

Four years ago, we’ve purchased a big lot with a house but we haven’t really developed it yet though we have a little money coming from a small venture we have there, we planned to develop it into a private resort next year (the way I see it) that can provide us more help paying our expenses.

My goal for my family is to have our expenses be taken cared of by whatever assets we have and the other income that we can get will make our savings. It’s not easy dealing with payables; it’s full of sacrifices and hard work but when you see your balance sheets having more income than liabilities, what a nice thing to whisper to your wife, “Will you marry me again? Pick a hotel, make arrangements and let’s celebrate our happiness.”

If you see me doing other things in my free time, studying, listening, making business, making profits and yet still taking the jeepney ride, it means I’m not rich or wealthy, I’m just happy…