2. DLSR Camera. I own a Nikon D40X, has a Speedlight external flash and an extra lens. Having a DSLR somehow gives you a right to shoot at your preferred angle. This is so unlike people who use a camera phone or point-and-shoot, who will just stay at wherever they are standing at to take pictures. Also, it has happened multiple times when I was thought of a commercial photographer (like the ones you see in Luneta). I am always asked “Magkano pa-picture?” during my nieces’ and newphews’ graduation or field day demonstration.

3. Designer Coffee. You can count the number of times that I bought or took coffee from Starbucks. I was never a fan of coffee. In a month, I could have sipped coffee maybe twice or thrice. I’d rather drink tap water.

4. Ipod. I don’t own an iPod, but I have it’s Microsoft counterpart – Zune. But I might purchase one…

5. Travels. Some of my officemates now file their vacation leaves early in order to travel. Up to now, I still wonder what caused this fad of going around the country. I have theories – cheap air fare, too stressed in work, or you just have the money for it.

6. Social Networking. Centuries ago, there was Friendster. Now, you have Facebook. I don’t think not having a Facebook account makes you lesser of a person. It only means you have other priorities other than posting status updates.

7. Teeth Braces. I never had one.

8. Cars

9. Laptops

10. Cellphones. Am planning to upgrade to a touchscreen.

Contact center spices up food service
By Linda B. Bolido
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Read the story here.

First thing that you would notice with this 3.5 by 5.5 inches device is its weight. It is very light, it’’s even lighter than my point and shoot camera. Included in the package are the device itself, RCA cable, power adaptor, and manuals. There are buttons on top of the device, which pretty much is not in use because you have the remote control.

There are two input ports – a standard USB port and a SD card reader. I filled a 4 gig thumbdrive with files of different formats. The system will recognize the type of media you put in, either it’’s a USB or SD card. Five options appear – Picture, Music, Movie, Text and File. Aside from the left/right audio ports and the video port, it has two other ports for color separation. Even without plugging in your cables into these two port, picture quality is still okay.

File shows the files included in other catergories. Picture shows thumbnails of, well, pictures, in a five by three list. To go the next page, you have to press the down button. The picture quality is okay, but this of course depends on the TV. In my case, it’’s a Samsung 22 inches LCD. There’’s an Slideshow option in the RC which i find difficult to control. Even if you want to fast forward to the next picture, there’’s a delay of maybe five seconds. I even set the slideshow to transition in just a second, but I don”t think it’’s only a second, more like three. Music will only show the first few characters of the file name. Nbox can play MP3, wma and wav files.

The Text option is something I can”t understand. I saved Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF and text files, and none of them are recognized (I could understand the first four file types not being recognized, but the last one?!).

Let’’s go to the Movies. According to the box AVI, mov, mp4, vob, dat, mpeg, rm and rmvb files. I copied AVI, mp4, flv and mov files in the thumbdrive. Unfortunately, only the 640 by 352 movie was recognized. When I try to play the other formats, I get the message “Nonsupport file format.” I don”t think it has something to with the resolution because the other files are below the maximum dimensions. By the way, NBox can also play subtitles.

Overall, NBox is a good media player. It does not have its own storage drive. I also wished it had HDMI to make the cabling system more manageable.But then what can you expect for a player which retails at less than a thousand pesos. This player was purchased from a TPC user in Cainta.

1. Don”t ever think that you”ve had the most difficult ticket. There are far too many people in the world who’’s problem are a lot worst than you.
2. Let go of the caller if you can”t handle them. Whether if the issue has to be escalated, dispatched, or simply ignored, time will come that you”ll realize that you”re just wasting each others time.
3. Don”t grab other people’’s ticket. Ang kay Pedro ay kay Pedro. Ang kay Juan ay kay Juan.
4. Sometimes, it’’s better to admit that you don”t know the answer rather than pretending to know something.
5. Don”t talk too much. Keep it short and simple.

Do you know what’s worth fighting for?
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

When you’re at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul

Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn’t pass
Nothing’s ever built to last
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?

When it’s time to live and let die
And you can’t get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

1. You lose sleep over Facebook

Technically, I don’t sleep over Facebook, but I leave my netbook until it drains its battery when I go to sleep. I do chatting over Facebook instead of Yahoo Messenger or AOL IM.

2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook

What can you expect if you constantly have Internet connection? If your job requires you to communicate over the Internet, and since the opportunity is there, then I login to Facebook.

3. You become obsessed with old loves

Until now, I’ve been trying to remember the names of my elementary school classmates.

4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook

Well, sometimes.

5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

Maybe I should try not to login to Facebook at least for a day.

So to all my inaanaks, I’m tightfisted this Christmas. But we’ll have lots of food in our house.