beach bbq at jericho, that was the invite and so i happily obliged. we brought food and drinks and played frisbee till the clouds ate the sun away in one big bite. it was cold again too soon. if only i could tuck a piece of sunshine into my pocket then i would have enough to keep me warm.

after the picnic, we proceeded to y's hideout at the lions. it has a great view of the city by the sea, made me miss my pad in makati. but that's a thousand miles away and a thousand times sadder than this place, so i guess there's no point in comparing. we watched a few japanese movies to immerse the two others who were leaving for nihon late this month.

the people here are lucky, they don't need a visa to travel around, they don't care about money they spend in transit or work they'll miss if they go. very much like those i've met in the land of the rising sun who can easily fly out on a euro tour for the golden week. such a big contrast to those left in the southeast who are out lining up for rice and eating salt for lunch. makes me see firsthand how the wealth of the world is so unevenly distributed.

if only i can see beyond my own selfishness and do something more other than whine, i know i can still make a difference.

ski and snowboard fest was the main event at whistler for the past two weeks and we all drove up just in time to catch some of it last friday. sleet followed us as we escaped the city limits but good thing it stopped when we finally reached the mountains. we stayed at the fairmont and explored the village while the rest of the more athletic and cold resistant people went on their ways to catch a few jumps and drops - probably one of their lasts before winter finally bids goodbye. saturday midnight found me taking the greyhound back to the mainland, just in time for another sunday roadtrip.

it seems like almost every weekend is spent driving south and running away from safety. i can't help it, i feel better when i'm on the road, moving, walking, hiking.. i get nauseated when i'm stuck in one place with the same monotonous background and people around me, i need to find clarity.

why this restless heart? to escape boredom? to not fall into the trap and break my walls? i don't want to think too much, all i know is i want to run as far away as i can and never look back.

weekends end too soon, whoever decided that there should be 5 work days and only 2 days for fun and relaxation is a saddist. but hey maybe it was meant to be this way so that we could appreciate it more. some people tend to put more value on things that don't last, that's the law of supply and demand right there. so they cram all activities they can fit in those 48 hours then spend the next hundred and twenty wishing it was shumatsu once again.

tulip town - that was our itinerary for saturday, and we got lost in skagit looking for this quaint place. we were almost on the verge of giving up after going around in circles for the nth time but luckily or rather magically, we found our way and feasted our eyes on the endless rows of petals struggling to come out from the ground. the sun was high up in the sky and people were flying kites, truly spring is in the air. and we don't even have to drive all the way down to washington just to feel it, the sakura that greets me when i disembark at burrard reminds me of hanami at osaka jo, raincouver is actually a nice place to be when it's not all gray and gloomy.

sunday was spent biking along the seawall of stanley park and crusing along english bay. finally after countless weeks in this city, i was able to take off my jacket and shoes and walk barefoot on the sand. it's still blech compared to the beaches i've been to back home but it's all good, every place offers its own gift, sometimes you just have to look for it in other corners.

it's always the beautiful days like these that i fear the most. they kill words, because beauty is a reason unto itself.

0700: wake up, shower
0800: meeting to discuss hlr parameters for prepaid mas migration
0900: discuss code changes for pmm
0930: read emails
1000: follow up opm synch with engineering
1002: explain opm synch to new dev
1007: check some numbers for opm synch in staging, prod, opm gui
1010: play around with smp4 install on pantha
1020: reboot machine
1030: start weblogic 9.2, open eclipse, hermes, drop messages, debug
1045: reply to email about hlr meeting minutes
1050: review ppm rfcs
1120: review rfc 73589 for april release
1130: follow up return ticket with TIP
1132: read up on wl92 deployment descriptor errors
1140: continue bssadapter debug
1200: lunch
1300: weekly provisioning meeting
debug bssadapter
1430: follow up on prepaid su07 upgrade specs
1435: check jmstools.jar, decompile and test
1500: read emails
1510: reinstall wlsprov domain, debug bssadapter
1545: break
1600: check errors in d3, out of disk space, need to delete logs
1610: debug bssadapter, hopeless case
1830: giving up, going to the gym
2000: dinner with workmates
2145: home
2200: reprimanded at home
2215: check personal emails, research for work
2230: receive phone call, surf the net
2330: receive phone call from home, home sick

04/10/2008

0100: sleep
0700: woke up sick, back to bed
0900: shower, prepare for work, vpn
0930: walk to work
0945: check emails
1000: check april rfc
1010: rebuild samp jar
1020: continue debug
1100: label samp
1105: debug )*&(^#)*&%^%&^$_*%
1200: lunch
1300: rebuild ea jars
1310: DEBUG !%*@%^&%#(^&%@$#*&^$
1400: label ea jars
1405: DEBUG !%*@%^&%#(^&%@$#*&^$
14:50 review assigned april rfc
1500: revise april rfc
1510: crank up my ipod and RANT!!!!!!!!!!

DAMN IT, I DON'T WANT ANOTHER DEBUG ENTRY. I QUIT.

- is the magic number. that's how many we were at the lower mainland roadtrip last saturday.

it was 630am, when the 3 mini vans converged at tim horton's, 3 dozen donuts and a dozen coffee orders later, we were all set to conquer the peace arch, aldergrove, cloverdale, lynn valley, burnaby mountain, cleveland dam and stanley park. i've been to most of these places but for me, it's not really the destination that counts but the journey and the people you're with that matters. in this case, i wouldn't want to miss the company of new and old friends shouting at each other over missed stop lights and u turns haha

well, it was definitely worth it, wouldn't miss it for the world.. ahhh, the comfort of friendship, where you expect nothing and nothing is expected of you, where you can leave your scripts at home and just be yourself, what a fresh break from the toxic fumes of everyday living..

i. use any iphone with any firmware, upgrade to fw 1.1.4 through itunes

ii. download iplus 2.0, open command prompt and type iplus -u

credits

just when i thought i have nothing else to buy, there goes this need to declutter my hd and put everything in some secondary storage, the solution? a 1tb wd mybook. i don't really think i have that much data to put into this drive but you can't have too much hard disk space right?

for now, i'm putting my photo, video and music collection in it. hopefully it doesnt' break though, or else i just invested in an expensive trash can.