Pinoy in Singapore

I would have bought another Gumdrop Droptech series iPad2 had it not been out of stock at Amazon.com so for our iPad2, (we have 2, my son has his own and Mr Tsiken and I share another one. We had to buy another one because we couldn’t get iPad time with the first one.) I decided to get the Otterbox Reflex Series Hybrid Case for iPad 2.

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I bought the Gumdrop Military Edition Droptech Series case for iPad 2 during the black friday sale at Amazon.com and had to wait a few weeks for this item because the seller had some problems with their inventory. I basically bought something that was out of stock so I had to wait for them to replenish their stock.

But I have to say that this case is worth the wait. [Read more →]

As of 19 December 2011, the death toll for Typhoon Sendong has been placed at 823 surpassing that of Typhoon Ondoy.

photo credit not mine

Pinoys in Singapore, or anyone from Singapore for that matter can help victims of Typhoon Sendong in the Philippines.

Simply drop your donations at LBC AirCargo #04-077 Lucky Plaza, Orchard Road.

Alternatively, we can also send donations through:

Philippine Red Cross – They accept cash, check, credit card, G-Cash, or through SMS. Just click on the link for details.

‘Tis the season of giving and there’s no better time than now to share our blessings with the less fortunate victims of Typhoon Sendong who will be spending Christmas mourning for their loss. May God bless them and give them strength, and may God bless those who extend their helping hand.

I want to share the solution to this problem that has been bugging me for a while.  I have searched for the solution but it was not readily available so I hope I can help other people having the same problem. 

The Problem:  Despite making sure that my page settings in Excel is A4 and the printing preference in Acrobat is set to A4, my output pdf is still letter size.  This only happens with Excel but works fine in Word. 

It’s not really a critical problem but it’s one of those annoying problems that constantly pick on your subconscious.

The Solution:

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By now, we are all aware of what happened to Japan.  The recent series of events are eerily too similar to an over the top apocalypse movie.  First, was an earthquake of almost 9 magnitude – the strongest ever recorded to hit Japan.  Then it was followed by a huge tsunami that wiped out the coastal areas of Japan.  Now, there’s the nuclear reactor that’s in danger of a meltdown. 

All these, while people affected are still probably trying to get a grip of what’s happening, or trying to find their loved ones. 

As of the last news I’ve read some 4000 people have been declared as casualties and some 6000 more are missing. 

People are running out of food, warmth, electricity, fuel.  Japan’s economy is taking a dive and to top it all off, there are still warnings of possible strong after shocks. 

My heart goes out to everyone who are affected. 

I am just so grateful that me and my family are safe home.  These disasters can strike anywhere and I can’t even begin to imagine how I would feel if this happened to me. 

I sincerely want to help in whatever way I can.  I’m amazed to think that considering everything that has happened, there are no reports of chaos, or riots, or pilferage going on.   These things I would imagine are inevitable in situations like these.  That’s why it makes it even more surreal for me. 

I have seen a lot of posts on ways to help from other countries, but not much on how to help from Singapore.   

I think the best help right now besides prayers would be monetary donations to moblize trained groups go to Japan and do their calling.  And to maximize your donation, it’s best to make a donation to an organization that accepts your local currency.

Here are some of the ways one can make a donation through:

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It’s great that so many Filipino talents are being noticed these days. We all know Charice’s success story and now here is even younger 10-yr old Canadian born Maria Aragon who also got noticed through youtube thanks to Perez Hilton. She also performed at Ellen Degeneres’ show and in the video below, she’s performing with Lady Gaga.

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Last Sunday, I went to the embassy for renewal of passport.  But before I write about my experience, I want to write first about why I had to go for a renewal in the first place.

My passport is due to expire on Feb 2011 and I only realized this month that my passport was only valid for less than 6 months.   But we were scheduled to go to Manila on Jan 2011 and if my passport wasn’t more than 6 months valid I wouldn’t be able to exit Philippines.

FYI, if you had a passport that was valid for less than 6 months, you can still fly back to your home country but you won’t be able to fly out.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101012/bs_yblog_upshot/mcdonalds-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-for-six-months

I keep seeing this topic in the newspapers and internet here in Singapore and honestly I don’t see what the fuzz is about.  Yes it’s interesting but wasn’t there a same experiment that was featured in the movie “Supersize Me” – a documentary released six years ago. 

So artwise, it’s not that original (unless it’s the same experiment – which I doubt because this one’s recent).  I’m surprised people are actually shocked to hear that their Happy Meal lasts forever.  I’ve always considered Mc Donald’s as junk food.  I still eat it though but I eat knowing I shouldn’t expect much nutrients from it.  It allows me to look forward to the high sodium and high fat content.

Addendum:
It seems it wasn’t from the movie Supersize Me that I encountered this experiment before but from this article instead.

I’m sure most Filipinos have watched Charice’s Glee episode by now. Even if Charice is really not your cup of tea, it’s hard to ignore her. She’s putting the Philippines in a good light and she deserves kudos for that.

Here’s a video compilation of her feats worldwide.

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I heard there were mixed reactions about Cebu Pacific flight attendants dancing during the safety demonstration. 

I think it’s it a brilliant idea!  Now, passengers actually watch the demo!  Heck, with their video going viral, now even non passengers watch the demo. 

We have been planning for some time now to replace our Sony Cybershot point and shoot since we bought it 2 years ago.  That Cybershot was one of my few bad buys because we bought it on impulse during one of the PC/IT shows here in Singapore. 

I never was satisfied with the pictures from that camera.  I don’t think I ever got a single print quality picture because it was always grainy even under well lit scenes.  I always had to reduce the image sizes to look acceptable which makes it good only for online pics.  But then, my camera phones can do a better job.  Heck, my first ever point and shoot – the Canon S20 can do a better job!

After our Cybershot experience, I’m even more convinced now to just stick to Canon.  What I really wanted was a Canon G11 but the price is a little too steep for our budget.  But a Canon show last week, we got to check out the Canon Ixus 300 HS.   It’s perfect for hubby’s picture taking skills and requirements.  He wanted a camera that can capture his golf swing and true enough this camera can pictures of fast actions and the pictures look clear. 

It also has a miniature effect setting that hubby got so fascinated with, he got a little carried away and takes all pictures in this setting that I had to stop him.  It’s really perfect for those who just literally want to point and shoot. 

The quality of the video is not bad at all at 720p HD.  It even has slow motion movie capture. 

I haven’t explored the other settings yet but it’s supposed to have a face detect feature that allows it to take a picture when it detects a smile or a wink. 

We got it for S$549 from the usual retail price of S$599.  But you know how cameras go – by next week they’d be half the price.  That’s why it’s important to get one that won’t make you regret you bought it. 

Here are some test shots from our new Canon Ixus 300 HS using the miniature effect:

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Hi readers!  If anyone has noticed I haven’t had a chance to blog in a while.  That’s because I found a normal corporate job and it turns out I had to come out of my early retirement. 

It sucks that I haven’t been able to share my Singapore experience but I hope to do so again soon. 

It was pretty good timing.  I kinda predicted that it would be easier to find work once the economy has started to recover and so it seemed I was right. 

I bought my husband a 47” FULL HD LCD TV with my first paycheck during the last computer expo.  It was good value for money.  And till now I find it awesome to watch HD movies in. 

The brand is a local one from Singapore called Palladine but they say that the LCD panel is the same as LGs. 

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I’ve known about Tekka Market for some years now but I’ve only come to check it out recently.  Now, I ask myself why I haven’t done so sooner. 

I’ve found a lot of stuff I’ve been looking for at Tekka – like fresh beef!  Prior to Tekka market, I bought frozen beef at either Cold Storage or Carrefour.  Fresh beef at these places were expensive but I was never really satisfied with frozen beef because even after an hour of pressure cooking, it was still tough. 

The beef I buy at Tekka Market is fresh and is priced fairly the same as the beef we buy in Manila.  It’s tender too.  I’m so happy that I can have tapa now whenever I want it.  What’s great is at the place I buy my beef from, you can just tell them whether you want tapa, nilaga, bulalo, sinigang, etc. 

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I’m so used to checking what’s new on the US MSN website that I am just so frustrated with this local Singapore MSN website called XinMsn I’m close to pulling my hair out. 

It all started with the localized Singapore MSN website.  It looked like the US MSN site except the news is more about the local Singapore scene.  Everytime I went to MSN site, a pop-up would appear asking me if I wanted to go to the local MSN site instead.  I never said yes because the local site is full of celebrity news from the local show business which I don’t even follow.  I don’t know a single Singapore celebrity and I’m not really interested.  Plus I don’t like the writing style of some local articles, it’s like reading a tabloid even when I’m supposed to be reading current events.

Eventually, I noticed the pop-up was no longer appearing and it was automatically taking me to the Singapore MSN.  I didn’t mind much then since there was a link that says “take me to the US website”. 

But now since the merge of MSN and MediaCorp I’m constantly being brought to XinMsn.com and there seems to be no override.  I hate that it presumes to know better than I do. 

Now it’s loaded with even more local celebrity crap which I just hate because I don’t even watch the local channels and they don’t even have an equivalent of MSN money!  It happens on both my desktop and my mac.  But hubby’s laptop still shows the US MSN site except I don’t like using hubby’s laptop because I find it slow.  There has to be an override or is there no longer a democracy on the internet?

I’ve tried clearing the history, the cookies, and even private browsing but that annoying website is still there.  Help!

Hubby has been itching to buy either a PS3 or an HD player and I’ve been trying to delay him for some time now. 

But last week at the IT show, I finally relented when we saw a promising looking HD Player selling for just S$129.00 

What I liked most about it is its portable size.  It’s slightly smaller than my external hard drive so it can easily fit in my handbag which is good because we can bring it with us anywhere during travel.

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It seems I was on to something when I blogged about my problem with the strengthening peso last month. 

According to this article in the Inquirer: The Philippines may now be afflicted with the Dutch Disease.  

What is the Dutch disease, you ask? 

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Here’s good news for the foodies out there. 

From Monday the 22nd till Sunday the 28th of March high quality restaurants will serve a special three course dinner for a fixed price of

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In probably one of the least exciting fights by Manny Pacquiao, Pacquiao won by unanimous decision with a scores of: 120-108, 119-109, 119-109.

It turns out Manny was better off practicing his song number for his after fight party during his final workout.

Clottey was fighting not to be knocked out instead of fighting to win.

On a survey done by an HSBC bank, Singapore came second to Australia on a survey of the best places to raise expat kids.

What immediately comes to my mind is what is their definition of expat?

If you look it up at www.businessdictionary.com, expat is defined as:

A person who has citizenship in at least one country, but who is living in another country. Most expatriates only stay in the foreign country for a certain period of time, and plan to return to their home country eventually, although there are some who never return to their country of citizenship.

Based on this definition, a lot of people in Singapore would be considered an expat even if you exclude the low wage foreign laborers who are obviously not included in the context.

There is what you call an expat package that not all foreign professionals get.  But if you do get this package, then it is certainly easy to raise kids anywhere when the mere tissue paper that you use to wipe your butt is paid for by the company under living allowance and you can send your kids to any international school of your choice courtesy of the company.  Singapore then would likely be a nice place to raise your expat kids.

With the anti-foreign talent sentiments lately, I wonder if the survey holds true for those that fall under the dictionary definition of expat but do not have the expat package.

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Here’s a must-read well written profile about Manny Pacquiao by Andrew Corsello for GQ Magazine.

It’s so interesting that I got through all 7 pages without getting one bit bored. This piece to me is like watching an Al Pacino / Robert de Niro fictional movie directed by Guy Ritchie. Strange, ruthless, ironic and humorous.

It’s a nice insight to the crazy (or strange is the word the author used) world of Manny Pacquiao and his entourage. Though I only know Manny from watching his fights I would tend to believe this article is spot on.

Team Manny!

Read it here.

PS. Only after reading this article did I find out what ultimately happened to that guy Chavit Singson caught in bed with his wife. He should have know better than to mess with Chavit.