The Geek Brewery

The recently-installed Internet access in the dorm has brought much fun and comfort for all of us. Before, we had to go to the University Computer Center to access the Internet. Worse, it was not available on Sundays, and was only accessible till 7pm for the rest of the week.

This evening, Jeff of the adjacent room tried to google my given name, Conrad Miguel. The results page was filled by pages and profiles made by me. I got excited when he told me about an article by someone with my name on it.

I am Now a Web Celebrity

It was a blog post from my blockmate Nathan, titled “Kakalase ko si CatWoman, si Conrad Miguel (the Web Celeb), nakita na namin si “Sarah”, at naligaw ako sa CS subject ko” posted last June 14, 2008, start of the school year. It shared Nathan’s experiences in his first days in college. Here’s an excerpt from his blog:

Kaklase ko rin si Conrad Miguel. Well, di siya artista, cguro di nio xa kilala, ako, di ko xa kilala dati, pero nung sinabi ng prof namin na blogger xa, at nalaman kay michelle na WEB CELEB xa, nagulat ako. He pays his own fees sa server nia, and ang laptop nia, SWIVEL lang naman.

I did not expect that someone would actually blog that I was his classmate. Moreover, I wasn’t expecting that there were people who considered me as a Web Celebrity – but they did. This reminds me of my first day in CS11 (my major class) when my CS11 instructor recognized me right before I introduced myself to the class. Pretty cool, eh.

Reading the article drove me to look for more articles. Here’s another interesting one.

This Blog has a WikiPilipinas Article

Cool! WikiPilipinas is a Philippine-centric encyclopedia in wiki format.

Who would expect that my website would have an article there? Most of the contents of the article, though, came from my very own about page. It’s sort of outdated ’cause according to the article I am still an incoming freshie in UP Diliman.

I’m tempted to share more, but I guess I have to limit it. Here’s the last one.

People talked about me on forums, at least once.

Honestly, this one was caught my attention the most. One blockmate of mine and other members of the CandyMag forum talked about me and my attendance in class. My blockmate was sharing on how stubborn I was back then; on skipping my Math class and on how late I entered the same class (entering a 10:00 to 11:15 class 15 minutes before dismissal). Some people even asked if I passed the subject which I did.

Just a defense, despite my stubborneity (for sure, such word doesn’t exist but I know you know what I mean), I still manage to get concerned on my grades.

Conclusion

And that’s me on the World Wide Web. Have a nice week!

Hi fellows human beings! (cause I know spambots can’t comprehend this)

2008 : The Year of Milestones

2008 was such a great year for some of us. For me, it is one of my most treasured years. It was a year of milestones. To name a few, it was the year when:

1. I got a Pagerank of 3 for this blog which I later on lost.
2. I passed UPCAT.
3. I joined my first free food trip.
4. I had my childish anti-McDonald’s campaign (I also filed a complaint on McDonald’s 8McDo division).
5. I finished high school.
6. I earned an all-time high daily blog earning (which was three-digit dollars big).
7. I had a laptop.
8. I entered the University.
9. I had my first typhoon experience with Bagyong Frank.
10. I ran and lost for an elected position for the first time.
11. I won my first elected position.
12. I finally migrated to Linux.
13. I first delivered an informative shout-out (not a miting de avance) to a crowd during the 2nd Mindanao Blogger Summit.

2009, go go go!!

Whew. That was long list. Let’s leave 2008 behind and greet 2009 with a lively hello.

For sure, 2009 will be a more productive year for me as a student and a blogger (someone over the blogosphere is doubting if I’m rightful to be called a student blogger [which I think I am]). I didn’t give myself a New Year’s Resolution ’cause I kept on breaking them for the last few years. Instead, I will be imposing myself a goal to for me to accomplish for this year of the ox.

Goals for 2009

• Audit my finances as much as possible. I have downloaded numerous finance-related software such as GNUCash and KMyMoney. Paramter: uhm, I don’t know.
• Save more. I’ll be reading blogs on eliminating spending on non-essentials. For now, only one blog has reached my list, which is Get Rich Slowly. Parameter: a five-digit (in Philippine peso) savings by the end of the year.
• Eat less at fastfood. Last year, I ate fastfood food more often than I should. They ate a big chunk of my expenses. Amf. Parameter: could you suggest one?
• More bans. I think I used the wrong term, but hey, I mean it. More bans. Last year, I kept on imposing bans on myself — and they were all successful. To name them are; my two-month softdrinks ban, my one-month Nestea iced tea ban and more recently my one-month junkfood ban which is now on it’s second month. They are not only beneficial to my health, but my finances, too. Parameter: launched three bans last year, so I guess more than three is enough.
• Walk more, ride less; in the University at least. Hey, I’m not stupid enough to walk from General Santos City to Quezon City (which is more than a thousands kilometers away). Parameter: an average weekly intra-University fare expenses of less than PhP 35.00.
• Have a 7.5% monthly growth rate of feed subscribers. That would be 1.075¹² times my feed subscriber count yesterday [01/01/09] (which is approximately 200) subscribers by the end of the year. Parameter: 200 subscribers * 1.075¹² = 476 subscribers by December 31, 2009.

Life Long Goal

I am considering pursuing an aviation career in the future. After my Bachelor’s degree, I’m planning to work and save some bucks to go to an aviation school and get my Private Pilot License (PPL), Commercial Pilot License (CPL) and Instrument Flight Rating (IFR) [to date, a PPL + CPL + IFR course costs range from PhP 1M to PhP 4M (Clark Aviation)]. Based on what I read recently, the demand for commercial pilots are increasing due to the increasing number of aircraft orders of airliners.

Happy New Year!

Mikko is back. Mikko, the owner of this blog. Conrad Miguel E. Gozalo’s nickname since birth.

Despite the fact that I regained my laptop and Internet access three days after I posted my Internetless post, it was no enough reason for me to immediately return to blogging. I still had a lot of other things in my priority. And for the first time in my life, I spent more time in my academics more than ever.

Although I get to cut some few classes, my attendance in class is now a lot better than the previous semester. I realized that it’s not as hard as I thought. Last semester, I always pitied those people with 7am class – now I have one every Tuesday and Thursday. It’s the class I never wanted to miss.

Reorganizing my laptop also made me busy. There was this one afternoon that I devoted my time reorganizing the 6 (logical and extended) partitions I have. I reduced it to four – one for my Windows OS, one for Linux, one accessible by both Windows and Linux and finally one for my laptop’s recovery system. It’s a good thing that I have Ubuntu Live CDs, I can edit my partitions using Free and Open Source Software. There was no need for me to download a proprietary software and a keygen to make it work, ilegally.

Not only did I reorganize my partitions, I also reorganized my files. I placed most of my personal documents, photos and videos, installers and music library in my largest partition. It was fun since I rediscovered some long lost files – files I forgot to acknowledge that they existed. One thing I discovered during the cleanup was that I had hundreds of photos of myself in my laptop. It made me remember of the days when I still had moustache slash facial hair as seen above. Months ago, I trimmed them off as a response to my siter’s request. Below are my pictures after I shaved (or shove) them off.

Another thing that bugged me was my attempt to migrate from Photoshop to GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a Free and Open Source Software. It was not easy for me, being a Photoshop user for 5 years. Gladly, my will to go open source helped me a lot in the process. I think of it as wearing a new apparel, of course you don’t expect that the pockets are on the same exact place. They could be on any other place.

Some pictures from the fitting room

Now that I’m back, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. UPCAT Results 2009 is expected to be out this January. I’ve got a lot of optimization to do. I’m also planning of making a new theme for this blog, nah nah. Another thing I learned during my blog hiatus was that it gave me passive income. Not so big, but decent — for doing nothing.

Lately, I’ve been having a hard time getting Internet connectivity. My laptop’s wireless module is some sort of sick for a while, and more recently the whole notebook went brick. I’ve already dropped it off to the HP Service Center at Gil Puyat in Makati for repair, and I they still have to inform me tomorrow on how long my laptop will be staying there.

I don’t really feel using a computer in an Internet cafe for a reason I, too, don’t know. Maybe because of the high cost of renting one, 20 pesos per hour.

I don’t really think Internet connection should cost that much. I’m looking forward for free wireless Internet connectivity here in the Philippines. Our country should exert more effort on making information available to the masses, thus breaking the digital divide.  I believe the idea is still far from reality. Abuse of such free Internet will certainly become an issue, plus the cost. Restrictions on gambling, porn, bandwidth-hog and other non-child-friendly websites should also be imposed if ever the project comes to reality.

The digital divide I am experiencing now has thought me of using the University’s facilities. I have been utilizing the free 20 hours per semester Internet access at the University library – a freebie to victims of the 300% Tuition and Other Fee increase approved last 2006. Last semester, only used less than an hour of it. Too sad the unused hours not cumulative, thus forfeited.

Basically, what I want to tell you is that the reason of my absence in this blog is because I’m Internetless. The good side is I’m going home this 17th back to GenSan. I’ll be active again, reliving the soul of this blog. Woot.

Tomorrow noontime, I’d be leaving Manila en route to General Santos for my semestral break. I’m pretty excited right now, with all those stuff I can do at home.

I’m gonna have nonrestricted Internet (bandwidth-hog websites no longer blocked) spiced up by the one-to-one child-to-laptop/PC ratio. This means no need to compete for a PC. Adding to the excitement is the home-cooked food I surely missed. Not to mention the new motor-vehicles at home, at last my lil bro will teach me how to drive one (but I know the basics of driving a car [he doesn't]).

Before I could leave, I still have to pack my stuff and clean up my mess. It’s quite hard to clean all my mess since I’m occupying three rooms in the dorm – three rooms to clean, amf!

I’ll be flying with Cebu Pacific for the second time. Departure is by 1230 PHT which is scheduled to arrive by 1420 PHT. The flight will be using the controversial newly-opened Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I guess the aerial vehicle to be used is an Airbus 320 Family Member (could be A319).

Exciting!! Weeeee.

For some long span of time, our house did not have an electric fan for our living room except for the small not moving (shall I say static) electric fan I use when using the computer (it recently got broken, sadly); an aircon neither.

Yesterday afternoon, the topic on electric fans broke out not because of the climate (it was drizzling that time) but when each of us was getting bitten by huge mosquitoes. The discussion’s resolution was to buy a new electric fan for our poor living room deprived of its right to have the said technological gadget. And so we swiftly took our bath and dressed on our best clothes for our quest for the new electric fan.

Our first stop in the mall was the mall’s appliance center where we inspected each and every fan. We had like four finalists who passed the first screening. We then carefully inspected the finalists’ performance and aesthetics. It took us a very long time to decide on an electric fan that we our stomachs were already growling out loud despite the fact that we ate a heavy snacks before we left for the mall. (more…)

Hey you guys, I’m back to General Santos!

At last; I could have a stable internet connection, my “own” (not my own, okay) computer and all the softwares I need. I felt like being deprived of my geeky routines; surf the internet, program, surf, make the documentation and a lot of stuff. Now that I’m here, I need to do a lot of catching up to the “real” world.

Got to see you in the next few days. I’d be working on something very important on my first few hours. Sorry for all disappointments and late deadlines. I’m a (more…)

Hello guys out there.

I had a lot to share on my first three days here in Metro Manila. I’m lucky that a lot of blogger’s events got lined up just in time for my arrival.

Nothing so significant on my first day. I only queued up for about 30 minutes for my dorm billing form. Oh, I also had the chance to visit Trinoma that day.

Then the second day is the real treat. It was the spot.ph Exclusive Bloggers’ Tour. It was actually the first day, so we had it in the different levels of Trinoma. To give you an idea, spot.ph is a website which caters reviews of establishments around the city. I’ll be posting another one for this.

The third day was the iBlog 4 : The 4th Philippine Blogging Summit. I get to see bloggers which I only knew online. And of course, the Davao people were there (Ate Ria, Kuya Andrew, Kuya Blogie, Kuya Migs, Kuya Winston). After the summit was the 88db.com Party at Katip’s Bar. It was fun; we only had no seat to sit on. We (me and my sister) finished the human bingo — so we got the loot bags and our personalized business cards.

I’m posting more of each activity later. This is just an overview of my (more…)

Weeeeeee. Okay, I am not referring to my age (16) but to the other people of my age.

Last March 19, 2008, I posted a news in this blog regarding the release of the 2008 DOST SEI Undergraduate Scholarship results. To date, I have 45 comments for the post; the most in a post I had in this blog.

I think there is something wrong with them! Some of they’re comments are pissing me off. Why?

1. They love using shortcuts; even in the Internet. I can accept these shortcuts if it were a text message; but not for a comment most-probably made using a computer with a QWERTY keyboard! (comment #s 3, 10, 17, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39 and 44)
2. They don’t follow the use proper of caps. Some of them wrote their comments in plain lower-caps while some alternated it like tHiS oNe. Amf! (comment # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44 and 45 OR all comments except 1, 2 and 41!)
3. They don’t put a single space after a punctuation. Yes,like this one.Annoying,right? (comment # 12, 16, 19, 35, 37, 38)
4. They ask me to send them the results thru their e-mail, mobile phones. It’s acceptable as long as they request it in a nice way. Another thing, I don’t even own a mobile phone to notify them.
5. One even asked me to send his scholarship award to their doorstep. Waaaaa, I’m not DOST okay!

Now, I’m planning to recompile the results in an excel file and send it to all of them in bulk.

What’s wrong with them? I think they’re uber-influenced by text messaging! Bad!

Busy. Uhm, it’s quite hard to describe it as it is subjective. It may be true to me; but not to you. It could also be true to both of us. Yeah yeah, enough of this crap introduction.

So how do I define busy? Uhm, right now I’m busy. I’m writing this cause temptation is seeking for attention so here I am entertaining my entertaining temptation, writing a blog entry.

Woah, if you have reached this far then you must be really bored I bet. How do I define busy?

As I said, I’m busy right now so I think I’ll just gonna enumerate my state now.

First of all, I have 26 items on my taskbar. No its not full of instant message windows; but of development tools and nerdy tools. The nerdest of them all is MPLab IDE. It’s an IDE for programming microcontrollers. Next nerdiest item is ISIS Professional. It’s a circuit design and simulation software. Then, the rest is web developer tools such as FTP client, Macromedia Dreamweaver and the likes.

I’m half-naked. Hahaha, you may ask which half; the upper half. I’m sweating too much. Attributable to the heavy brain and physical activity. Another factor could be the wreckage of my favorite small-scale industrial fan. I attempted to turn it on but I keep on backing-out; the smoke coming from the inside is freaking me out.

Ideas spontaneously flow out of my mind. Not only ideas; my writing style, too, is affected. Waaaaaa. I love this. I love this extreme busy-ness.

For the mean time, that’s all. Our research gadget is yelling for me; asking me to finish him up. Go go go.

Last thing, I’d like to summarize my post. I’m busy when I have 26 items on my taskbar, when I’m half-naked and when ideas spontaneously flow out of my mind! Crazy Mikko.