Philippines

I’ve been in the homeland for a week now. I’ve worked out a nice nest here. Uncomfortable mattress supplemented by three soft pillows and a sheet. Bought two 15 meter cat-5 ethernet cables for 120 pesos each (USD:PHP::01:45), and ran them through windows and hung up across wooden rafters. This way I can get internet from my aunt’s adjacent house into this one. It’s a newly constructed home attached to my grandmother’s house; it’s narrow, but it has two bathrooms, two rooms, a kitchen, and an office. I’m in the office right now; it’s newly painted, the air conditioning unit has yet to be air sealed around the edges but the unit works. The windows are open a crack to allow for the ethernet cables but it stays cool in here. It rained a lot yesterday and a bit today, so the temperature is alright here.

As of yesterday Opera Unite launched, a new technology mixing up the client-server model of the internet. With an alpha build of the Opera 10 web browser, click on the bottom left icon on its window to sign up for an Opera Acount, and easily share your music, photos, files, host a chatroom and post board, and even host your own web page locally. My username on my.opera is biyabo; just ask me for the password to access any of my stuff. Thus far, others can only access your Unite shares if you are online, although I believe that will change soon. Anybody who has been watching my Twitter knows I’ve been raving about Opera Unite nonstop since it’s reveal.

Also, by the way, I have signed up for Disqus and installed a comment system onto my Tumblr blog. I haven’t gotten any comments save one, although it’s probably because nobody reads my blog. Anyway, I’ve changed the link to say “comment” below posts, so that you can see it (before it was a tilde). Also, you can click on the title of posts in order to get a comment box below this text.

Anyway, while here, I haven’t been able to come up with any good designs or writings. It’s really bumming me out. I’ve passed the time playing video games or editing pictures instead. My sister has taken a bunch of photos and videos already, and I am processing them and compressing them to upload if she wishes. They’ll be ready by tonight perhaps.

I want to get to Manila already! It’s a miracle that I have internet here, as years before I would be offline for my entire stay. However, a 42kb/s down and 7kb/s up is killing me. Downloading anything is out of the question, as is YouTube, and browsing regularly is difficult as it is. I cannot wait to visit my cousins up in Manila and a certain old friend for her birthday. I haven’t seen her in years, and it will be great to see her smile again.

Surprisingly, the lack of PC video games isn’t driving me as crazy as I thought it would. I’ve been occupying myself pretty well this last week. Opera Unite lauching sure helped distract me for a long while. However I don’t have a car today, so no Robinson’s. Speaking of which, it’s almost lunchtime, and I’m starving. I’ll walk down to the local joint to eat some filipino pizza.