The “em dash” (—)

This info really struck a cord in me because I always use triple dots, double dash or parenthesis in place of the em dash. I guess I need to slowly change that, at least in formal writing if I ever have to.

This is a tip from Daily Writing Tips.

Toinks - today’s blooper

It took me 8 hours to finally give up and ask assistance from my brother for a problem that I have been struggling to figure out. This story of one of the reasons why using framework isn’t always good

I was recreating a facebook app made from cakephp to a bare php coded version. It is a very simple form that saves the data and then proceeds to step 2 and 3. Nothing complex. When it was time to test it in facebook, the form isn’t submitting! The $_POST variable is always blank. Ofcourse, the first intuition is to check why facebook isn’t saving the data to the global variable. I tried to rewrite the app and use both FBML and IFrame! At the end of my day last Friday, I just gave up and took a nap. Today, I revisited again and tried a new approach - ajax call. When I had to test it locally, the $_POST was still empty no matter what I do. I uploaded it to the dev server and still got the same results. I couldn’t find anything unusual in my code - it is just a simple form. Right at that moment I decided that I already have to bug someone to review my code (I try not to as much as I can). Just a few minutes after, I was told that my form action url must end atleast with a slash (/). Just that, a slash! OMG! (then make batok sa sarili - lol) Since I already got used to cakephp and the HTML and FORM helpers, this hasn’t become a problem.

Moral of the story? Ask earlier, I guess? Hehe. The other one is, not to rely too much on a framework! (but probably I still will)

SEO in Plain English

Recently, I joined the 30day Challenge which for me taught me the basics of SEO. The following video summarizes what I learned in the 30day challenge.

The 30day challenge really touched those areas. If you want to dig deeper, I recommend you register for the challenge (I think it is still open).

Study in UK for FREE!

How cool is that? Actually that is possible. There are a lot of scholarship programs available for post grad students. One of them is the Chevening Scholarship program that allows you to select a 1-year master’s degree.

The minimum qualifications are based on their website:

• an applicant is a Filipino, Marshallese, Micronesian, or Palauan national
• has attained a local/international degree
• has two years work experience in your chosen career
• applicant should also be committed to returning to the applicant’s home country after the period of study

I guess the more experience you have, the more qualified you are. The best thing with Chevening is that the scholarship covers all the costs of the period of study. This includes academic fees, monthly stipend and airfares to and from the UK. It ain’t cool right? It’s SUPER cool.

Check out more information here. Take note though that applications must be submitted before 15 October 2009.

Tax for Freelancers in Philippines

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uhm., there is really nothing to say except that Freelancers in Philippines are exempted! Heard that correctly — we really don’t need to pay anything. This is according to a personnel in the BIR office in San Fernando City, Pampanga(I visited their office just this August 2009). That person pointed out that if we are not an employee of a legitimate company nor do we have business permit approved by DTI then we don’t have to pay anything. So I guess I should not be guilty of not paying at all. Works for me!

Some people asks me why the hell do I want to pay my tax?? I guess for dumb reason that I want to contribute to the government so some government officials can buy new clothes, houses and cars for their own profit AND to get a proof that I am a good paying citizen. I know, crazy reason but atleast it was already confirmed that I am not oblige of anything and nor any freelancers out there. Ain’t that cool??

PHP Roadshow visits St. Paul QC

Another successful PHP Roadshow was held last August 1 in St. Paul QC. The usual gang are present which makes the roadshow more enjoyable. I discussed my usual stuff, my undying love for cakephp! (wahaha drama). This one I guess was the happiest leg so far (I have only attended 3 legs) because the students were so participative and I had so much fun with the jokes and tease to Mr. Landline and ofcourse the FREE Tarot Reading from Sir Jeff and his GF. I hope next time I can join again. For the meantime, here are some pictures I got from Ridvan.

Topics from the Gang:
Introduction to the PHP Roadshow and PHP User Group Philippines (Jeffrey R. Seracarpio)
Introduction to PHP (Ridvan Baluyos)
Introduction to MySQL (Chean Domingo)
Introduction to CakePHP (Rachel Jaro - ME)
CMS / Joomla (Eric Bangug)
Careers in IT (Jonathan Yap)

PHP Roadshow is an outreach to college students with the goal of reaching the same level of programming competency of our counterparts (Filipino and non-Filipino) outside of the country (including standardizations and value of work).

This is an initiated project of PHP User Group Philippines, Inc. (PHPUGPH), in support of the organization’s mission of advocating and disseminating the use of PHP (Hypertext Pre-processor) as well as Open Source technologies in schools and companies in the Philippines.

A question about sickness and death

My uncle Bert, Roberto David, died last March 9, 2009 due to diabetes, cancer and more complications I do not know. We are not close but their family is a role model to us. They are a rugs to riches story and they raised their children very well, very down to earth and respectful children. One unforgettable moment during the wake was when his youngest son told the story of how he died.

For more than 13 years, my uncle Bert suffered from diabetes and then his kidney was attacked. He lost 2 legs. They spent millions due to his illness. They have to sell most of their properties and they have to work harder. Their family was even more tested. We have always thought that he cannot accept what had happened to him that’s why he waited this long. But we’ve thought it wrong. All those years, he was doing it for his children. He was holding on just to be able to watch over his children. He was silently fighting the pain and hardship so not to make his family worry about him to much. This is what his children found out during his last 2 days. No one accepted of their father’s faith until then. He died 3 times that day for only a couple of hours and finally they accepted and hopefully my uncle also did.

From this story it made me think. At times like that it is really hard to judge people on what actions they will take. My mother and I had a discussion that if we ever faced the same situation, we will opt for the easy death, no more long suffering. But in times that you think you or your family have not yet accepted the fact, how can we tell which decision is better? Which one would you prefer: Fight and suffer for some reasons or rest in peace quickly?

Birthday Celebration - Part 2 in Boracay

So, we only had a day to make things really memorable.

We woke up early to start the day beautiful. We were a little worried that rain will ruin the day since it’s a little gloomy and windy. But that didn’t stopped us to enjoy the day. Right after breakfast we went to Puka beach. Our landlord said it is one of the tourist spots of Boracay. We had to take a 15-min ride to get there. There were only a few people present. I can say the place was more suitable for sporty events rather than a family area. We were like swimming in an abandoned island — dramatic. hehe. We really did enjoy the water.

Look, who is the star of the whole day?	Don’t mind this *grin*

Upon deciding to go home, I was bewitched by all the vendors! Haha! It wasn’t really funny because my pocket really got empty. Thank god they were not accepting credit cards! I wonder if they got voodoo dolls in their tents. There are a couple of beautiful accessories that we found. We really took advantage because we really got the best offers since their sales are almost zero. We finished all our negotiations with the vendors around 11am already so we decided to get something to eat. We found a restaurant near the beach. It was more like in a residential area so I did not find out the name of the place but the food was so good that even kapampangan tongues* were pleased. I love their fish dishes, specially the tanigue and sinigang. It was very different from my mom’s dish. Overall, the food is 5 star.

This is not the restaurant I was talking about, I just love that shot.	eek, can you even see my family??

After we satisfied our stomachs, we went straight to our mini island hopping. The island hopping only cost us P1,500 for 6 people. In this season, you can really get the best deals. According to the locals, prices starts to get higher as early as February. At March, everything in the island starts to turn to gold. The island hopping would normally cost P2,000 for 2 people and could go up to P5,000! Actually that was their little sales pitch so I was pumped up even more to try it out and that is how they got me. I guess they were very good eh? Probably works of the voodoo dolls again.

i love the flag

It ends up though that I wouldn’t trade anything else for that experience! And I even got it cheaper! Yey! We had snorkling, more snorkling and another snorkling. I also tried the helmet dive, also known as reef walking or undersea walk. They are going to make you wear a gazillion kilos of helmet and then make you walk 7-feet under the water. In order to attract fishes, they would give you a piece of bread, an ordinary bread, and fishes will start to come at you. The fishes really love them. Maybe they were trained to do that in order to please tourist.. don’t you think? *grin* Anyway, it was still really a very beautiful experience. And we had a little bit of action which made the experience more exciting! I saw a snake on Gerold’s path (Gerold and I were the only brave pipz who tried it) and I was pointing like crazy to the tourist guide about the snake. Then the guide tried to stop the snake, grabbed his head and they rolled and rolled underwater! Actually, that was just a made up story. hehe. The truth is, the guide panic a few seconds or maybe milliseconds and tried to keep gerold away from the snake’s path. Thankfully they both coordinated well and we were back to feeding the little, colorful and fashionable fishes. I even tried to touch plants that hide when you try to touch them. They are probably the “makahiya” version underwater. Since it was unexpected, we weren’t able to prepare the camera for an underwater experience. Poor camera it could not make it. The guide tried to sell us another service though, P500.00 for a few clicks underwater! I just said no and to think I can photoshop myself and would cost me less than 500 (I guess he was just not a good seller :p).

After the helmet dive, we went to a protected area in the sea to see more fishes and a lot of corals. Unfortunately, storm Frank really destroyed the place. According to the locals, it will take another 10 years for the place to come back to it’s old beautiful self. There were still fishes and I was happy to find people who takes care and not destroy of our nature. And who also would have taught that you can have buko juice in the middle of the sea? Haha! Very creative people, there were two small bangka who were selling fresh buko juice! And it was very affordable. That was another something new for the day.

Lastly, we had some timeout by shopping in d’talipapa. Errr.. shopping again? I just tried to stay away from it the very best I can and I was successful! Woot! But then I was already hungry and a unique restaurant offering cooking service caught our attention. This is in d’talipapa and their scheme is that you buy your ingredients in the nearby wet market, a couple of feet away, and they will cook it for you. The service range from 100-300 pesos for a kilo, depending on the kind of food you want. They already have a menu so you just have to select and no, you cannot tell them to cook something they do not know and do not offer. So we bought a blue marlin, prawn (I was eyeing for the lobster but it was already out of budget) and tanigue. If you do not care about the place, this one is for you. Why did I say that? Because as I said earlier, the wet market is just a couple of feet away from the restaurant and it is an open area so you can smell something fishy nearby and I mean really fishy. hehe. But this is a must try in Boracay.

this is the cooking service restaurant, don’t mind the place, just eat the food

So here is the summary for those people who just wish to know where to go instead of reading my novel:

• Helmet dive - P600.00 per person
• Island hopping - P1,500 - P5,000
• D’talipapa
• D’mall
• Puka beach which is at the other end of station 1, 2 and 3
• Restaurants offering cooking service in D’talipapa

—
* I just made this up but anyway, in Philippines, Kapampangans are people from Pampanga and our province is tag as the culinary center of the philippines so you get the point?

Birthday Celebration in Iloilo

I am a year older again! Yikes! Time is running out, my bungalow house has not been started yet and my yacht has not arrived. I need to swim more and dig more. Well, I did the swimming more but less the digging because my last birthday celebration required me to do so.

My family and I went to Iloilo last November 7 and the next day we celebrated my 18^th birthday in Shamrock beach resort with my boyfriend’s family and relatives. Joan (a friend) was teasing me in SMS that I was namamanhikan (entreat) which I think was partly true, haha! I again met his family and his most beloved lola who is 94 years old and I was so surprised and impressed that she was able to travel for 2 hours to get to the destination and still swam in the beach later that afternoon. The weather was cold because it was raining a little. My lola at 70+ barely moved at her time. The most who enjoyed is my nephew who refused a couple of times to get out of the water even with the weather. The best part is that everybody enjoyed and that made me happier. I just only wish I had a cake! (no sweets for me *snip*)

The next day was the Boracay day. We left Iloilo terminal at 6am because it was the earliest schedule in the nearest bus terminal. We travelled 6 hours from Iloilo to Caticlan and thank goodness Ceres bus was comfy. It was still the longest travel ever but I got to see Aklan and Capiz. At the last mountain route, I already felt dizzy. The curves are worst than Baguio and because of my starving little stomach, dizziness attacked me which is really very rare for me. Although I must admit that even at that state I liked what I was seeing, the surrounding place was beautiful and my mom got already excited (and me too!) seeing the Boracay island (it’s her first time).

Arriving at the hotel past 1pm, we were all starving so right after getting our bags in the room, we went straight to Mang Inasal. The bad thing is that since we were so hungry I forgot to take some pictures :(. But the worst experience you can probably have at that time and I think a little funny is that right after we ordered and sat at the table, Lhex (my nephew) started to mumble to his father “uu.. uu..” (means nature is calling ASAP!) and my poor brother left immediately without asking us the direction of the hotel nor did he brought any mobile phone and as expected he was lost. He came back after an hour and was starving to death. Morale lesson: bring a cellphone ALWAYS!

To give a little excitement to my narrative, I’m going to divide it into 2-part story. I’m getting dramatic lately. haha. Actually, the next 2 nights in the island are really exciting (for me) so a single post could make this one a novela. So see you next time!

**UPdate: Here is the part 2 in Boracay

Tag! You’re My Friend!

This is a “FRIENDSHIP OFFERING” with someone whom you know, would like to know and would like to be friend with.

The mechanics of this is to copy and paste the image in your blog, link back the person who tag you and share or spread this friendship badge to 7 or more bloggers that you knew or think you are friends with.

This was actually a birthday gift from neri — a friendship tag! naks! I’m touched pero kuripot p rin. hihihi..

I am giving this tag to some of my online and offline friends namely: Neri (hahaha di nmn bawal magbalik eh), Junelle, Donna, Hannah, Cyrose, Munis and Phpcurious.