kimi@dreamwidth

belated happy birthday to kuya moxitus!

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laptop = on budget
tito and the gang = subtract increased household bills and groceries to budget
dog bites helper = subtract php 10,000.00 worth of anti-rabies meds to budget

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i found a torrent for Tapestry zomg. DOWNLOAD ET.

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fck firefox 3.

i can't bear the errors i get whenever i access web pages with lots of ads. i can't bear having to restart downloads when i get the stupid errors. i can't bear having to restart downloads because it disabled free download manager and you have to use their download manager. the last straw was when YM links started opening with IE and not firefox.

i'm going back to firefox 2. someone notify me when the above issues are resolved, only then will i upgrade.

i'm looking to buy a laptop which can be used for simple programs and internet.

i used to want a gaming desktop-replacement uber laptop and do away with my big pc, but i figured i would still want a desktop pc that's reliable, and just get a little portable in case of power outages or bad connection at home.

so i think maybe a UMPC (ultra-mobile pc) would be ideal, like maybe an Asus EEE or MSI Wind.

cost is a big factor, of course, because UMPCs would be cheaper. but in the long run, is it worth it to get a UMPC or just go for the big laptop?

and do you guys think it best that i buy a laptop here in the philippines, or get my parents in the US to order one there and just have it shipped here?

any thoughts or comments?

after much thought and consideration regarding those web design classes, i've decided to try and see what i can learn by myself first.

..and it's scaring the living daylights out of me.

a new friend i met over ragnarok online turns out to be a web designer and developer, and she has kindly sent me very comprehensive ebooks on photoshop, html and css. i'm still teary-eyed from all the good information i'm getting. honestly, the web is a good source, but i can't really find good bottom basic tutorials other than a select few.

the internet truly scares me, for some odd reason. i type in a word in google search, and i click on a link, open a link in a new tab, open another link in a new tab, find another topic that seems relevant to my interest, open another, and another, and i suddenly get buried under loads of tabbed windows and have to backtrack into what i really wanted to focus on. ever hear of anyone getting lost in the internet? i can see it truly happening. @__@

..but before my carcass gets dragged to a shrink, seriously.

sometimes looking at these jumbled resources, i really wish i could just take the classes. that's what i'm afraid of, see: my brain gets easily disorganized. i get side-tracked a lot. i can see myself going on an information overload and not really absorbing anything in the end.

but yes, it's true i might be paying a bit too much for the convenience of having to just sit there and being spoon-fed these concepts, which, admittedly, i do know the basics of.

in the end, i might have to learn one other thing before i get myself off the ground: that's to discipline myself, and maybe come up with a scheduled plan - like a teacher, except that i'm also the student.

this is going to be quite the challenge. ~__~ wish me luck.

HELP!!

i need someone with an eBay or paypal account to bid on this.

please, it's only php38.65. T__T

i'll do a bank transfer to your account for even more, just to get this one. i've looked so damn hard for a cable just like this so i can use our lcd tv as my monitor, it's just that my pc doesn't have tv output/s-video output so i need this converter. T_T

and i don't have a credit card. T__T

please, someone. T____T

why is it that i've heard of yahoo 360 only now? ._.

ok, so maybe it's played at the fringes of my consciousness for a while now via little messages at the bottom of my YM window, but it seems it got through only last night. finally made a page today, so yeah, there we go.

..but damn.. another blog/personal webpage. ~_~

*glances at neglected friendster page*

~____~

i noted yahoo 360 can add up to 3 rss feeds. now, i don't know a thing about rss feeds, but from what i understand of yahoo's explanation, i can integrate livejournal (entries?) into the 360 page. thing is, i believe livejournal allows rss only in sponsored and paid accounts - and so we are back to my primary hate for ads in sponsored accounts.

gah. need more info on this.

..i'm really bad at maintaining pages like these. so yeah, why do i create them in the first place? *gets bricked*

i'd like info on rss and such because i'd like to have more or less a single page wherein i can basically dump my stuff, blogs and all. i like that multiply has unlimited storage for photos and videos and the interface is nice, but it's kinda ram-hungry. with my current pc, my browser sometimes hangs when i access it. and i don't know if multiply allows rss. on the other hand, i like the basic simplicity of livejournal, which is why i link all of my personal sites to this one, but a free account pretty much limits features that one can have.

..i'm also iffy about spending money over upgraded accounts and such, because i'd really rather spend on more important stuff. besides, if i ever spend money on this kind of thing, why not just get a goddam domain of my own so that i won't be limited by site protocol? o_O

yeah.

i changed my layout again.

i used art by Luis Royo again because i just love his work. ♥♥ but if you can recommend other great artists, i can check them out, too. i guess i just don't have time to scour DeviantArt for pretty images so recs would be great.

anyway. i messed up edited Luis Royo's work (BLASPHEMY!!) a bit to make a decent header. the layout is best viewed with firefox since an image code that won't work with IE is messing up the header. so what's new with browsers causing me problems. ~_~

(speaking of browsers, i found this interesting article about firefox through vwida.)

regarding layouting my LJ, i can't seem to help myself. of course i want this LJ pretty, but i guess the main motivation is to learn html and css enough to design web pages someday. the goal seems pretty far off since i'm learning via LJ codes and web tutorials, but i know i can do this. *o* i still use templates now and tinker around with them, but i'm hoping to learn how to make them from scratch.

seeing layouts work just gives me this feeling of accomplishment. ang babaw ko talaga. XD

we were finally able to reformat the pc, too. the file manager works fine now. it's great having a network since i didn't have to burn all my important files into a cd, i just dumped them all into the other pc here at home before reformatting and then transferred them back to this pc once the network was up again.

other than that, nothing much has happened to me lately. been very busy with work since the volume is increasing. but then, more work = more pay = more toys for kaida. LOL.

it's not a groundbreakingly amazing thing, but after around 5 days (yes, between working and playing and taking care of the family, it took me that long) of flopping about, i was able to piece together a fairly simple yet presentable layout without having to switch to a plus account. see!

i like the customizable layouts in premade_ljs because it gives me room to personalize my LJ. searching for customizations also brought me to the everything_lj community, which helped me a lot.

and slaves, look! i was finally able to make customized mood icons using RO emoticons. XD many thanks to chicharon for the info regarding custom mood icons and also to yawn_kun and charsequil for most of the emoticons. :D (i took them from the KT boards, sshhhh! XD)

browsing through all these graphic and technological stuff had me in awe of the talent a lot of people have with website design and graphic art. don't give me that look, if you can do something that i can't do then i'm impressed, i'm that kind of person. XD

i was reminded of the time when i was about to fill up my application for UP, and my mom refused to make me write down anything from the college of fine arts as my course, even as a second choice. the usual line of "walang pera sa fine arts" made me grit my teeth then, and now i just want to show her the numerous jobs that await graduates of fine arts.

haha, i guess i'm just frustrated. i can learn most of these things online and on my own i should think, but it would take me time. i can live with my LJ looking like this for the time being, maybe i'll add a background image or change colors or change fonts or add images or whatever i feel like doing in the future.

next item on the to-do list: upload pics from the l'arc~con event!

i can almost imagine a big blue E looming up before me and screaming, "i will not be ignored!!"

gawd.

i can't access my company's website using firefox. it has to be accessed using internet explorer. and firefox has this thing when downloading: a file becomes cut when it has a space in the filename. what is up with that?! i wasted time downloading huge audio files only to find out it won't play because the filename got cut with a space bar.

and here i thought firefox was shiny and perfect. now i have to place an IE link on my quick launch bar again, right next to its rival. it's irritating having to use two browsers.

yeah, i'm quirky like that.


..oh, and a lot of people seem to be asking what kind of work i do. i attract those questions because i'm working from home, which is an absolutely wonderful privilege for many people (including me and my baby, of course).

well, i'm a medical transcriptionist. i download audio dictations of doctors via the internet, transcribe them to medical documents, and submit them back. yes, i finally found a use for my bs biology background.

anyway. it's a job with a lot of trust involved, since we are dealing with confidential medical records. leaks can result to lawsuits and a helluva lot of trouble, so it was fortunate that i gained a trustworthy reputation right from the start, so that i never even had to set foot inside an office.

oh, they can trust me. i'm a scorpio. LOL.

i also do some business and legal transcription sometimes, and i also hear about entertainment transcription (though i have no idea what they transcribe), but i focus more on the medical. it challenges my intellect while satisfying my internet and computer addiction at the same time. XD

in any case, my job would also be easier if i understood a lot of technological stuff a bit better. unfortunately, i lack the time and resources for further learning. ~_~ must find a way. *o*

broadband has arrived!

we oohed and aahed over the speed of web pages appearing like ting! but we do get nasty lag spikes.

yeah ok, i knew it wasn't going to be perfect, what with our location being so far from the main ports, but there's this weird thing i don't get with our connection.

the lineman didn't set up a dialer for the username and password. first thing he did was install the modem and all, but then he said we weren't getting a connection because some of the modem light indicators remained off. so he said he was going back to their office to switch us to another port. he called us a few hours later and asked if all of the lights in the modem were turned on now and they were, so then he asked us to open internet explorer and then type in the username and password into a dialog box that automatically popped up. i told him we used firefox and that no dialog box asking for the username and password appeared. he then directed us to a pldt website and told us the log in there, and the dsl worked.

thing is, now we always have to go to that same website to log in, and make sure we don't close that window because we might get logged out. that site will always show our status whether we are connected or not.

i don't know.. it's very inconvenient. i much prefer the old system wherein you connect to broadband the same way you connect to dial-up: using the network connections in windows xp.

is there any way around this new system, i wonder. i just don't like it at all.

but i guess i should be thankful we have broadband at all, even if it is a rather choppy connection and YM is starting to bitch on me, the way it does with most broadband connections.


edit:

and oh right, for those who were trying to reach us through our landline: the phone died and so did we.

last june 6, our phone line went dead. remembering an incident like this before, i called our landline using my mobile, because last time, an incoming call jumpstarted our landline into having a dial tone again. the phone was ringing on my mobile, but our landline wasn't. then somebody answered. i was staring dumbfounded at our landline, my brain trying to figure out how somebody could answer our number when i was standing right in front of our phone, and i was sure as hell that nobody was there to answer it.

by this time, the person on the other line had said "hello" for the third time, so i asked what number this was, and she gave a different number. apparently our number was crossed with someone else's, so that when we dialled our number, we were directed to another house, and vice versa.

and get this, the number we got crossed with was effin' prepaid. we couldn't use their number to make outgoing calls or even to use the net because they were out of effin' credits. once we get our phone bill, if i see any long-distance calls between june 6 and june 21, i will not pay. damn that other house, they might have exploited usage of our line.

of all the effin' coincidences. telesulit, my effin' ass.

anyway, pldt finally fixed it today, along with the installation of the dsl. after two effin' weeks. after half an effin' month. should i even pay our bill this month? shouldn't i get a 50% discount at least? pldt claimed they were having trouble with the squatters in the area who were stealing their equipment and messing with their cabinets, which was why the problem started with the phone lines. no excuse!! two effin' weeks without internet. we positively died. lol.

another weird fact, my dad lost his mobile phone also last june 6.

june 6, 2006: the omen - the end of all telephonekind. o_O