Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Hmmm... it seems like mishaps happen to me a lot on Tuesdays. I'm quite sure of this because it's the same night as our worship team practice. Anyway, this week isn't car related like other times, but computer related.
On my way to practice, my brother called me up and said, "I think something blew up on your computer." To this I replied, "What do you mean?" He said that when he turned it on, there was a zapping sound and a flash of light that came from the computer. Ok, so when I got home and opened up the computer case, the first thing I noticed was this strong smell of burnt plastic. Looking through the power supply's vents, I could see all this melted plastic all over the place, as if something did explode in there. It must have have blown a capacitor or something. Oh well. I think I have a spare power supply unit somewhere, but I don't know if it will provide sufficient wattage. This AV editing machine probably is the most demanding of all the computers in the house.
It's a good thing I just finished this music video that will be shown at this conference up in Fresno that our youth group is going to this weekend. The last thing my computer did before the power supply died is burn the music video to a DVD this afternoon. Music videos are really fun to make, but they're probably some of the hardest videos to edit in terms of technical difficulty.
In case your wondering, I'm writing this blog entry on a backup Linux computer made from five or six year old leftover computer parts.
On my way to practice, my brother called me up and said, "I think something blew up on your computer." To this I replied, "What do you mean?" He said that when he turned it on, there was a zapping sound and a flash of light that came from the computer. Ok, so when I got home and opened up the computer case, the first thing I noticed was this strong smell of burnt plastic. Looking through the power supply's vents, I could see all this melted plastic all over the place, as if something did explode in there. It must have have blown a capacitor or something. Oh well. I think I have a spare power supply unit somewhere, but I don't know if it will provide sufficient wattage. This AV editing machine probably is the most demanding of all the computers in the house.
It's a good thing I just finished this music video that will be shown at this conference up in Fresno that our youth group is going to this weekend. The last thing my computer did before the power supply died is burn the music video to a DVD this afternoon. Music videos are really fun to make, but they're probably some of the hardest videos to edit in terms of technical difficulty.
In case your wondering, I'm writing this blog entry on a backup Linux computer made from five or six year old leftover computer parts.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
After the car battery was replaced early this morning, a couple of test starts were done, and car started fine. However, a few hours later, when I was about to leave for church, the car wouldn't start at all again. So after church, my dad and I took battery to an auto parts shop to be tested. I guess the battery did charge last night, but it was no longer capable of being charged to full capacity nor was it capable of holding its existing charge for long. It's understandable, I suppose. I bought my car used about three years ago, but it looks like the battery hasn't been changed from the original one installed at the factory back in 1998.
Oh, I was watching the NBA Finals with some people from church today. Around the 2nd quarter, they started listing all 100+ languages that the game was being aired in. Being the majority of the people in the room were Filipino, we started cheering when Tagalog came up. O_o;; Then, even more unexpectedly, they showed a couple of Filipino announcers on camera. Then, even much more unexpectedly, those guys were doing play-by-plays in Tagalog for about 2 or 3 minutes. It took us a few seconds to realize that what was coming out of the tv wasn't English anymore. Sure, it's wasn't pure Tagalog... more like Taglish, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. But hey, Taglish is probably the form of Tagalog I end up using anyway.
Oh, I was watching the NBA Finals with some people from church today. Around the 2nd quarter, they started listing all 100+ languages that the game was being aired in. Being the majority of the people in the room were Filipino, we started cheering when Tagalog came up. O_o;; Then, even more unexpectedly, they showed a couple of Filipino announcers on camera. Then, even much more unexpectedly, those guys were doing play-by-plays in Tagalog for about 2 or 3 minutes. It took us a few seconds to realize that what was coming out of the tv wasn't English anymore. Sure, it's wasn't pure Tagalog... more like Taglish, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. But hey, Taglish is probably the form of Tagalog I end up using anyway.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Aside from some six inch long scratches in the corner, the bumper seems okay. No dents. It looked worse than it was at first because a lot of it was actually paint from the dumpster. It didn't help that both my car and the dumpster are colored green, just of different shades.
But, if it's not one thing, it's another. *sigh* I was about to go to my brother's house tonight, and my car wouldn't start properly. The engine cranked a little but couldn't get going. On my second attempt, the engine wouldn't crank at all. I went through all the checks. Lights were working. Transmission was on P. But no go. It looks like the battery's dead. I took it out to charge it overnight. The battery charger does indicate that the battery isn't fully charged, so I hope that's what it is. I did find out that some '98 Civics (including mine) has a recall on the starter switch. Well, I'll find out tomorrow if charging the battery works.
But, if it's not one thing, it's another. *sigh* I was about to go to my brother's house tonight, and my car wouldn't start properly. The engine cranked a little but couldn't get going. On my second attempt, the engine wouldn't crank at all. I went through all the checks. Lights were working. Transmission was on P. But no go. It looks like the battery's dead. I took it out to charge it overnight. The battery charger does indicate that the battery isn't fully charged, so I hope that's what it is. I did find out that some '98 Civics (including mine) has a recall on the starter switch. Well, I'll find out tomorrow if charging the battery works.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Ok, we haven't had one of these for a while so here's another car catastrophe story. Tonight, I was about to leave church after bible study. So I got in my car and started the engine. I saw that the rear window was fogged up so I turned on the defroster. Maybe I should have waited a little bit longer before I started backing up my car. The next thing I knew, I ended up hitting a dumpster behind me. I'm not sure how hard I hit it, but it was strong enough cause the (apparently empty) dumpster to roll away until a wire fence stopped it in its tracks. Aside from a few scratches, it didn't look like my rear bumper was damaged much. It was still in its original shape. Then again, it's too dark to see much of anything right now.
Anyway, I guess I'm still kinda used to how people drive in the Philippines. Over there the traffic laws are more like traffic guidelines. Two lanes become five, right-of-way belongs to the most aggressive, etc. From what I've heard, it's that way in a lot of other countries around the world. Factor in the fact that on-the-road driving tests are not mandatory for non-professional licenses. You only need to take a written test. Even if you fail the written test, corruption is sadly so blatant and widespread that bribery is a way of life for a lot of people. Some just pay their way to get a driver's license. That leads to a lot of people on the road that shouldn't even be driving in the first place. So all that put together is a recipe for some crazy Filipino driving.
At first, I was surprised that there weren't more accidents. However, there's so much traffic that the accidents are more like glancing hits instead of the multiple vehicle pileups that we see on the freeway over here. One time, though, I was riding in a tricycle on the way back home. (A tricycle is a common form of public transportation in the Philippines. It is essentially a light motorcycle with a sidecar. Hence, a tricycle.) Anyway, all of a sudden, a passenger got off the tricycle in front of us right in the middle of the road. In order to avoid hitting her, our tricycle driver suddenly stopped our vehicle. But then, we were rear ended by the tricycle behind us. It seems the rear tricycle was tailgating a wee bit. Our driver turned around an yelled, "Ano ba?!" meaning "What the [insert whatever word comes to mind here]?!" The guy in the back just smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulder. Then we all went on and continued as if nothing happened. No pulling over to the shoulder. No exchanging license and insurance information. Just keep driving. I guess everyone's so used to it that it's not that big of a deal anymore.
Anyway, I guess I'm still kinda used to how people drive in the Philippines. Over there the traffic laws are more like traffic guidelines. Two lanes become five, right-of-way belongs to the most aggressive, etc. From what I've heard, it's that way in a lot of other countries around the world. Factor in the fact that on-the-road driving tests are not mandatory for non-professional licenses. You only need to take a written test. Even if you fail the written test, corruption is sadly so blatant and widespread that bribery is a way of life for a lot of people. Some just pay their way to get a driver's license. That leads to a lot of people on the road that shouldn't even be driving in the first place. So all that put together is a recipe for some crazy Filipino driving.
At first, I was surprised that there weren't more accidents. However, there's so much traffic that the accidents are more like glancing hits instead of the multiple vehicle pileups that we see on the freeway over here. One time, though, I was riding in a tricycle on the way back home. (A tricycle is a common form of public transportation in the Philippines. It is essentially a light motorcycle with a sidecar. Hence, a tricycle.) Anyway, all of a sudden, a passenger got off the tricycle in front of us right in the middle of the road. In order to avoid hitting her, our tricycle driver suddenly stopped our vehicle. But then, we were rear ended by the tricycle behind us. It seems the rear tricycle was tailgating a wee bit. Our driver turned around an yelled, "Ano ba?!" meaning "What the [insert whatever word comes to mind here]?!" The guy in the back just smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulder. Then we all went on and continued as if nothing happened. No pulling over to the shoulder. No exchanging license and insurance information. Just keep driving. I guess everyone's so used to it that it's not that big of a deal anymore.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
I put up a lot of pictures from the Philippines (at least, as much as I can) on http://photos.yahoo.com/rommel4321. I guess I'll sort them out and add captions later.
