Buy Then, Pay Now

<sarcasm>Don't you just love it when the bills arrive</sarcasm>

Bills, bills, bills. Big ones, little ones...

And yet, I just ordered Seasons 2,3, and 4 of Futurama, along with a good deal on Sealab 2021, season one from Amazon. It's scheduled to ship early-mid October, just around the time I need to pay for it.

Spending money you haven't gotten yet. Bad, bad, bad.

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Current events. I'd like for Myanmar to get rid of their military rulers and try democracy, all for the selfish reason that I want to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda at some point in my life. Almost anybody can actually visit it anytime they want. But I personally don't want to go under this shroud of fear, and the idea of spending my hard-earned cash to support the junta.

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One of the things that crossed my mind a few days ago, is thinking of the possibility of this life/work setup: Work for nine months of the year, Holiday/Study/Travel for the remaining three months. Sounds interesting, right? I haven't quite figured out how to pull off such a thing. Of course, you'd have to be earning a lot, and work on a contractual basis. The three months doesn't have to be all bumming around and doing nothing. I'd imagine, you can get special training, go back to school to teach and/or learn, set up a business, work a different type of job.

But let me think about it some more.

Aftershocks

Talking to a friend early in the morning:

Tonton (9/13/2007 7:53:16 AM): sheesh, lumilindol ata
Tonton (9/13/2007 7:57:09 AM): lumilindol nga, tagal din

If some experts are to be believed. There may yet be another big one coming.

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It's been a lazy weekend that's always almost over too soon. I can't really say I haven't achieved anything this past two days even if I mostly just slept it off.

I got new glasses this week, after thinking it's the solution to my headache problems. Worked well anyway. I bought one with transition lenses, and I collected it a day later. I know I should have my eyes checked every year. This one's more than a half year due. So that's done.

As for the weekend itself, I was able to do way overdue house stuff. Washing/changing the bedsheets is one. Rearranging the bedroom is two. Bringing old stuff out is three.

The second one included printing out a lot of pictures to hang on the wall and to put in albums. Good memories. I'll print some in Manila to leave in an album there somewhere.

On that last one, I plan to send a big ol' box of junk home for them to give away or recycle or whatever. Junk would include clothes and shoes and whatever else I don't need.

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Speaking of home, I made flight reservations to go home to Manila for Christmas and New Year. As usual, they've jacked up the prices for the holiday season. It's almost twice than what I would normally pay to fly back. Besides, I haven't gone back since January. My mom made me promise to go home, so there. They'll be back from the U.S. in late November, early December. I'll be there from December 21 to early January 2. I'm already planning side trips in Tagaytay and Subic. I hope Greenhills will already have iPod Touch units by that time.

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Recently, I also realized that not only do I like Futurama, I love it! The problem is I only have season one and there aren't any DVDs of it in Singapore (as of time of writing). I've heard that they show it in Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, but I don't have the schedule.

SO. I'm seriously considering ordering seasons 2,3 and 4 online. Singapore Post has this thing called vPost, that allows you to order from U.S. online shops, have them deliver it at an address in the U.S., then have them ship it here for an extra fee.

As an added incentive, I think Amazon.com dipped down the prices for Futurama to about 40+% off retail prices. Think, think, think...

Sorry, I couldn't resist

*Disclaimer: I have friends and relatives who are De La Salle University Alumni including my sister.

You know, most of the people out there will never, ever understand the rivalry that exists between Ateneo and La Salle. So, not a lot of people will get why I find this extremely funny. But I just had to share.



It works on so many levels!

Jetlagged, so I might as well post something

So...

I arrived at two in the morning yesterday with one luggage more than when I left. The flight back was not so uneventful, but not too alarming either. It was bumpy going to and coming from Tokyo-Narita. I think there was also one passenger who fainted or something, which prompted the pilot to ask if there were any doctors on the plane. I just slept them off or ignored them totally while watching Ocean's Thirteen and Surf's Up.



I immediately went back to work a couple of hours later. The people in the office seem to like the 150 pieces of chocolates that I brought. And they have the impression that I just went to Las Vegas. I can't really imagine how you can spend more than a few days there.

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Dear Ninong,

Thank you so much for flying over to see me and be my ninong.

...

See that? Not even a year old and she can write already. Just kidding. But I am looking forward to see her again next year, Christmas time. We're planning to have a Mickey Mouse Christmas.

This is a picture of me not knowing how to hold a two-month old baby:

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The US 2007 photo collection is complete. I took pictures almost every day of nothing and everything. I should do a blog post on each set because I've got so much to say. I can do that this weekend, hopefully, unless my lazy old self takes over.



You might see some pictures there which are strange to the eyes, like Jollibee in one set. All will be explained in further detail soon.

Whoa-hoa

Hey, that was fast!

I'm off to the airport to fly back to Singapore.

I get to sleep a few hours after arriving home before bravely going back to work, jetlag and all.

So see you from Singapore, where I get to post more stuff like the trip to Yosemite Park.

It's been a great three week vacation! :D

Up to Speed

While I have all the time to go around, buy stuff, and do all the things that I want to do, what I don't have is the time to blog.

You can just about see what my camera sees, though, via flickr.

The last post in this blog was back in San Francisco, the second day I arrived. Since then, I've gone around San Francisco, touring the sights of the city and around it.

I also made a trip to various outlet stores. It's what makes the US so great to shop in, except that you have to travel a long (and expensive) way here to get to them.


And then there was the point of the entire trip, which was to be a ninong.

After that, it was off to scorching Las Vegas for a short two day getaway. I got to watch one of the Cirque du Soleil shows, Mystere in Treasure Island. I could've enjoyed it a lot more without the prevailing jetlag. Nonetheless, it was a trip to remember. And I'd gladly go back, maybe even if just to have fun and win some money. (I didn't get to gamble this time)

I had to shortly go back to San Francisco in order to fly out to New York because that's the way I arranged the trip. Las Vegas being a relatively last-minute decision.

And so, I am here in the Bronx, in the Hernandez household. Since I've been here, I somewhat went around Manhattan and had dinner with friends. The also gone around the uber-excellent American Museum of Natural History. Great stuff.

Another first for me is to be able to drive in this country. I drove some seventy-plus miles to Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey. Also thanks to Noel for letting me borrow his brand new (just a 600 miler) Toyota Matrix. No problem with driving, just a little more alert with speed limits, stop signs, and merging lanes. That was a fun Six Flags day. We managed to ride on all the major thrill rides and get a sunburn as well.

And for those who see me online in Yahoo Messenger, you've probably seen me showing off my Homer plush toy, which I won in one of those water-shooting games. Woo-hoo!

If you haven't seen it, let me show it off one more time.