There’s a new process and a new location for passport renewal these days. I heard that it’s a lot easier than before (this is the first time I’m doing the renewal myself) due mainly to having a more streamlined process. It all starts with setting up an appointment at the DFA website. I had a bit of problem setting one up – whenever I selected a date and time it would say that it was already full and I had to select another one; but when I did, the site said I already had too many requests and had to block my IP for a little bit. I suspect it has something to do with going through my work IP. I did get an appointment set up for 2PM last Feb 1.

Image from www.filipinamom.com

I perused this really useful website MetroManilaDirections to give me ideas of what to expect. Since I’m going to a completely new place, I opted to use public transport instead of driving. I left my car at a parking building in McKinley Hill at the Fort at 11:30am and started my adventure.

My husband recommended an FX stop behind Piazza but none passed through while I was waiting there. Rather than waste more time waiting for something that might not arrive, I opted to walk up the hill and ride a jeepney going to MRT Guadalupe (Php13). It was a bit scary since I am not at all familiar with the Guadalupe area, and the jeep let us down at someplace that’s not within site of the MRT station or even EDSA. I just followed the crowd and eventually I was able to get on a southbound train to Taft (Php11).

Image from http://www.urc.ph

From Taft station I got on an ordinary bus with a MIA-611 Tambo signage (Php10). It took me directly to DFA, but I had to cross the very busy street first. I found Gate 2 (or was it Gate 3?) where they checked my bag upon entry. The appointment confirmation booth was right across the entrance – they will check your appointment and put a stamp on your application form. I proceeded to the documents confirmation booth, where there were about 90 people queued in front of 30 stations. I didn’t really have long to wait when it was my turn at a booth.

There was a woman in the booth beside mine who was turned back – she was missing some documents from NSO. I was deathly afraid that I’d be turned back too because 1) I didn’t have any photocopies of my NSO documents, 2) my application form was printed on SHORT bond paper, and 3) I didn’t have photocopies of my government-issued IDs. I didn’t really have to worry, but I had one close call – the clerk didn’t see the photocopy of the last page of my old passport (I did have it though).

My application was approved, and I was given a receipt which I was to take to the cashier and pay the passport fee. Since I was no longer in a hurry, I chose regular and paid Php950 (you’d be paying Php1200 if you wanted express processing). That meant my passport would be released on Feb 23 (if express it would’ve been released Feb 10). I got lost a little after I paid at the cashier, but I was supposed to proceed to a table under the “STEP 3″ sign to get a queue number from a dude manning it. This was the queue for the encoding/picture taking part, and is essentially the last part of the renewal process. I got a number roughly 500 people away from what they were currently serving.

While waiting, I bought a passport delivery service for Php120 where essentially they will claim the passport for you on the day of the scheduled release and deliver it to your preferred address the next day. That let me get my waiting down to 400 people. There were about 70ish stations servicing the encoding/picture taking section, so it really wasn’t that terrible a wait. I found a nice empty seat at about the 350people count – there were lots of seats available for the people waiting their turn at this last stage, but they were nearly all taken. I snoozed a bit and awoke at about 200people count. Finally I got my turn, but strangely enough there was another guy that arrived at the same station. It was a wait of about 5 minutes while that guy was processed, and it took another 5 minutes for my own turn to finish. And that was that! All I need to do now is to wait for Feb 24 for my passport to be delivered.

The trip back was a different path. I took a fiera-type vehicle back to MRT Taft (Php10). After a quick snack at the mall connected to the station, I took a train north and got off at Ayala station (Php10). From there I took a west-bound Fort bus (Php12) and went down at the Victoria stop. I walked back to the 5th Ave-McKinley Rd intersection and took a Gate 3 jeep which let me down at McKinley Hill itself.

What are my takeaways? 1) I could have saved a lot of effort by just driving there. There was an unpaved parking lot just beside DFA, although I didn’t see how much it would cost. 2) Having all documents ready (including photocopies) makes things a lot easier. 3) The longest wait was at the encoding/picture taking. It would be a very difficult endeavor if you have kids with you.

Recently I found myself with the prospect of an increased cellphone usage, specifically calling and texting. In addition, there was this billboard advertisement for Smart’s offer for an android phone on a cheap plan. It seemed like how much I was projecting to spend. And I get a free smartphone? It sounded like I’d be crazy not to avail of it.

Found myself with my hubby at a Smart business center. I asked about the offer they had and was given more info about the plan. It was…horrible. An all-text, in-network only plan, any call would be charged on top of the base monthly as well as any out-of-network texts. The compensation is free access to a couple of social networks. Right.

Out of curiosity we checked out the competition. Lo and behold, they were offering the same phone free under a relatively more expensive plan, but still within range of my expected usage. But! It was a completely consumable plan, for calls, texts, and surfing. That was already strictly better than smart. Then there’s the freebies: I got the free in-network texts (lots of them!) Which almost doubled the value of the plan! And the clincher, my contact list consists of a large majority of Globe users. How can I say no to that? Would I let my desire to preserve my first cellphone number get in the way of this amazing deal?

You bet I didn’t. I signed myself up for two years service with Globe and took home my first android phone. I love the phone and I love the service so far. It makes me feel very foolish not switching to Globe earlier than this. I could see some additional benefits as well in having an android phone. Increased productivity for one, bonus leisure activities for another. And, I’m finally able to have the ebook reader I’ve been looking for, although with a tiny tiny reading area.

Yup, I’m one happy camper.

Disclaimer: This post is not paid for by any of the companies mentioned here.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

I have been wanting to read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins for the longest time. There have been countless good reviews out there in the internet wilds, and doubtless I don’t really need to add to it. I am just putting my thoughts into writing as a record and as a future reference to anything I might review. I will try my best to avoid spoilers, of course. I wanted to get this out of the way before the movie comes out. Yes, they’re making a live-action movie out of it, and is set to show in theaters on 2012.

Let me just start by describing this novel. The Hunger Games is the first of three books of a series set in the post-apocalyptic stage of Panem. It is centered around this yearly event called (predictably) the Hunger Games, and it basically tells of the adventure of two young teens through this event. The main character is a girl called Katniss Everdeen and the main supporting character is a boy named Peeta Mellark. But this is all I’m telling you about the novel. I urge you to go and get a copy to read for yourself and I guarantee that you will enjoy it. I’ll separate my comments on this book by sections.

Setting – A delicious post-apocalyptic land of what is left of the United States. I adore post-apocalyptic novels, and this seems to be one of the better thought-out ones. I can’t really rightly remember what the catastrophic event was, but basically all of North America has been reduced to about thirteen districts and a central capital. The world is described so vividly that I can imagine each scene perfectly, but it’s not too wordy as to become boring.

Plot – The event Hunger Games is central to the plot – it is a political tool that the leaders of Panem use to keep its citizens under control. In the course of reading the book we discover as readers what this is all about, and how this affects the characters. While the concept of children killing each other for various reasons is not really new (see Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale), this one is written well enough not to be easily dismissed. Unfortunately the ending is somewhat predictable, although it still had me reading until the very end.

Characters – This is where the novel shines. The main character Katniss Everdeen is a very strong character; she has healthy self-awareness and conviction and is definitely no pushover. She comes from a tough background and events in her past molded her into one of the best female protagonists I’ve seen in fiction. I like how the book shows how she discovers and explores her feelings throughout the events. The leading man Peeta Mellark is not your typical strong guy either. The way that the book addresses gender expectations is lovely, and makes for a good book for teens of all genders to read.

Writing – I like that this is written in first person present tense. There aren’t really a lot of books in this style, which makes for a refreshing read. I really feel like I’m inside Katniss’ head while she goes through her experiences, and makes me feel really close to her after I’m done with the book. I know how difficult it must have been to write in this style, since everything is written from the main character’s perspective. No omnipotent events, no extraneous information, just everything as how she sees and thinks it.

I’m looking forward to reading the next book, Catching Fire.

Here’s our pet turtle trying to get back into his basin.

Another issue was the really untidy wiring we had under the desktop. I thought it would save effort if I do the rewire along with the setup of the new router. With the help of my husband, I finished the rewiring then moved on with the setup. I thought of writing the steps I went through as a sort of guide for others and myself in the future.

For the purposes of this guide, I am discussing how to setup a standard router (in this case a Linksys E1000) with a standard DSL modem (in this case a Zyxel modem provided by PLDT) and how to connect a desktop via a wired connection and a couple of laptops via wireless. I’ll present it in exactly the steps I used. I’ll assume that we’re starting from scratch, no connections yet of anything to anywhere. I’m also assuming that the internet is perfectly working when wired directly to the modem. Lastly, I’m assuming that we are working with a Windows system.

1.  Connect the phone cable (on my system it came from a splitter, possibly even a DSL filter) to the phone port of the DSL modem. (A)

2.  Connect one end of an ethernet cable into the internet port of the DSL modem (B) and the other end to the internet port of the router (C).

3. Since this is a cold install and the router settings have not been set, connect one end of another ethernet cable to one of the ethernet ports of the router (D) and the other end to the ethernet port of a computer. In this case, I plugged it into my laptop as it made things easier to access. I actually have yet a third ethernet cable attached between my desktop computer and one of the other ethernet ports of the router.

4. Connect the respective power cables of the DSL modem (E) and the router (F). Turn the devices on. Wait until the lights on both devices are more or less stable.

5.  Pull up a browser on the computer. In this case I used Chrome. It will probably give an error message since we aren’t connected to the internet yet. Type 192.168.1.1 in the address bar. Note: This address will work with most Linksys routers. Other routers might use a different address (see note below). For Linksys routers, this will pull up a dialog box asking for a username and password. Leave the username blank, and type admin for the password. The GUI for the router will be displayed.

6. For Linksys routers, the basic setup will be first displayed. On this page, make sure to specify what the DSL’s connection type is. In this case, PLDT requires a DHCP connection (which is the default on the E1000). If your internet usually requires a username and password when connecting through the modem itself, that means it’ll require a PPPOE connection. Select this in the basic setup screen and type in your username and password. Save the settings. At this point you can actually pull up another tab on your browser and you should be able to surf.

7. Since we also want to setup the wireless connections, click the Wireless tab on the router GUI. In the basic wireless settings, name your wireless network (SSID). Use Mixed for wireless network mode; specify your channel – it doesn’t really matter which; and enable the wireless SSID broadcast. Again save the settings.

8. Click on the Wireless security tab (still in the Wireless tab of the router GUI). Here is where the password to the wireless network is set. Use the security mode WEP, and input the desired password in Key 1. Save the settings.

9. If things went as planned, you can now try connecting to your wireless network with your devices. Just make sure to select the network named with the SSID name specified, and enter the password saved in Key 1.

Notes:

To determine your router’s IP address (used in step 5 above): 1.  Windows Start Button -> Run -> Type cmd and press Enter. 2. In the command prompt, type ipconfig and press Enter. 3. Find the numbers beside the default gateway of the Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection. This will be your router’s IP address, unless it’s something like a 169.x.x.x in which case there is something wrong with your physical connections.

I’ve been deliberately vague on connecting via wireless. I’m assuming that most people know how to connect their computers to a new wireless network, which is basically just detecting the network, connecting, then inputting the password.

My husband and I decided to undergo a series of experiments to determine what was wrong with it. First, we tried changing the freezer and fridge thermostats to different setting combinations, but stuff kept freezing randomly still. It needs to be noted here that the thermostat dial of the fridge was a bit stuck.

At this point we were thinking that it was the dial’s fault that it was too cold in the fridge. Perhaps the dial itself was frozen? I scheduled a defrost on my next rest day. I borrowed my mother-in-law’s big coleman cooler and put all the perishables there. Unplugged the whole thing from the socket, then removed all of the trays and stuff and washed them thoroughly. With a little help I gave the inside body a good washing as well, and newspapers caught all the stray water falling to the floor. Once everything was dry, I put everything back and plugged the fridge back on. Waited tensely and the result: still frozen fridge.

We decided that things were beyond our control, so we called in a repairman. The strange thing here is for some reason, we called in an LG repairman, but the fridge was actually Samsung. I think we had assumed that it was LG because the TV was LG. Anyway the dude basically de-iced the ref (I guess it’s a more involved defrosting?) and said that it was clogging the fridge thermostat. It was still freezing after he left, so we called him back in for another session. This time, he recommended replacing some part; we agreed and had it replaced. The result? The freezer was now incapable of freezing more than a couple of bags of meat, although the fridge wasn’t freezing anymore. We called the repairman back one more time, and this time he said that the fridge was old (not really, it was only 5 years old) and that it needs freon. Freon?! A few visits ago the entire fridge was freezing, and now it needs freon?

It was at this point that I was afraid we needed a new fridge. However, my husband said to try calling Samsung itself and request for a repair. We gave it a try. I’m not actually sure what happened, but in the end this new repairman ended up putting the old part back. And what do you know? The freezer is freezing properly, without freezing the fridge as well!

The fridge is back in business so I can go back to cooking!