My very own Black Hole

My officemate came from Cagayan De Oro, well she bought a little gift for us. It was bread with filling inside, YEMA. It was really delicious and fresh. we talked about how is her experience over there. and so on. When there was one time the topic went on placing the food on the company refrigerator. Some of my officemates mentioned that it is not a good idea. Our refrigerator is like a black hole. Because when you put your food in there the next day it is no longer there. Some other people are eating it.

My stand on that part is that what nerve. hehe. Our office has a friendly environment and a really good place to work at. But to have that mentality that we can not just leave our food on the ref because they would be gone for the next day really destroys the image. I really do not like those kind of people/ghosts. Eat and get what is yours. do not just assume that it is free for the taking.

Our office of course generous. They give free drinks, coffee, tea, and so on. Sometimes free pizza when ordered. but of course there are limit on not getting the things of other people. Well anyway i really do with that the black hole in our ref would be remedied. It can be frustrating and not ethical to take other people's things. hehe.

My Brief Work Experience

Well another exciting day at the office. I am a software developer, specialty on JAVA. I have been doing several projects at a time and a little confusing at times but I love the challenge. Shifting from web applications, to SNMP projects, and diagnostics modules really makes a person dynamic. I am really happy cause I can make design decisions or suggestions on certain projects, specially on SNMP projects. I am new on that field, and just started to explore everything like clearing, traps, walks, agents and a lot of things. I usually don’t read books but was force to read books to have better knowledge and understanding. In the end, it paid off and I learned a lot about this technology in this field in a short period of time, but still aim to learn more.

Few months back then I remember I was having troubles sending snmp traps, then when I started sending traps, I am having troubles in making it 3GPP standard, once they are standardized I am having troubles of clearing, and to further customize the use of HPOV and it keeps on going and going, one at a time I would learn all this one step at a time.

Currently I have two project managers. We are designing our SNMP module, one manager is the reserved and quiet type that cracks jokes to break the ice. The other manager is the hyper active type. That when you talk to him, all time is put into hyper drive. Both of them are good managers. And listens to my comments and suggestions, they knows my schedule and respect my work hours and after work hours. I remember on my previous job that my manager does not even listen to whatever you say. With my current manager, they understand that I have a lot of social things going on after work. And they do not demand that much just right workload for the day, as long as I finish my work I am good to go. Well, with the previous one, Over Time is equals to Productivity. Really don’t understand the logic.

Well on my next entry ill share about my wacky co workers that are worth mentioning hehe. Have a nice day.

My not so good day

Yesterday, it was the first day of the week. I am really not feeling myself. My usual self is calm, fast to grasp the situation, always game to do stuffs. But yesterday I was a little sloppy, cant think straight, and have no appetite. I do not know what made me that way, but thankfully I picked up in the afternoon. Maybe still sleepy and haven’t rev on high gear at work.

Anyway, was planning to go to my friend last night with my hon, however he is not available, so we will go tonight. It turned out that I would just meet up with my hon at SM.. but she is meeting with her friends so I told her I would wait for her, to pass the time. I decided to have my hair cut,

The salon shop, I really hated it. Poor service, and lousy cutters. They use second hand towels. And I told them that I wanted a new one. It really irritates me people do that to their customers. I had my hair spa just to relax and kill the time, well. I really killed time and they left me for a very long long long time. I got uncomfortable, fortunately for me I played games on my Pocket PC, but got bored after waiting for so long. I also had my haircut and it turned out from bad experience to totally worse, I looked like a mushroom. I just told them to cut the sides. In the end, I asked for a second cut because it really looks awful. The final result, my hair is too short. But acceptable compared to the mushroom head. I am also forced to use hair style to at least make my appearance more presentable because its too short.

When I met my hon at SM. Was planning to go to Watsons first to buy gel, well I accidentally bumped into her. And I told her to ill got to Watsons first and spend a little time with her friends and just call me once she is done.

Well the bottom line, I wont go back to salons again and would just trust the trusty old barber to have my hair cut. And of course wont go back to that salon shop. Forgot the name already. But it is along Tayuman Street really frustrating.

Well that is my day but when my hon and I are together, we went to starbucks to drink and spend time together. Well, didn’t shared much. I shared just all my frustrations with that salon. But in the end enjoyed time with her. We went home early and spend a little time in her house. Chit chat and when it was late I went home. Just a short time spent with my hon made my day really happy. J

My Sunday Date

Me and my hon watched a movie yesterday at SM Lazaro. We watched the movie, Jumper, overall it is not that impressive and well, not a good movie to watch. The story is lousy and really has no sense. Its cool though if you have that kind of power where you can go to any place you want to go.

After the film, we ate dinner, usually we have problem picking a place to eat but the craving is strong for Super Bowl. So we ate at super bowl. We browse the menu, and the waiter is standing in front of us, well I was uneasy and I asked the waiter that we will call them once we are ready. Ordering food took us some times, I want to eat a lot while my hon wants to eat a simple meal. We keep on changing orders. At first I thought I was going to go nuts with the changes, but I calmly said, “Ok, what is our final menu” In the end, she ordered the lemon chicken meal with ice tea, while I ordered the Dimsum Platter with two siopao.

While eating she popped out the question that what have I been doing before that I am doing less right now once we are a couple. Well, my first answer is we seldom have our serious talks. We are always together going out, eating, and shopping. And when we are at her house, we can not talk privately. Before we always talk on the phone, but now, well we meet in person.

That is exactly what is on her mind. And I really admit it that I miss those times, but on that time we talked seriously and talked a lot of things. Well, I wish we could always have that time that we could spend some quality time together.

Through the talks we have we get to know each other. We get to know our disagreements, our convictions, strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I think, do I need to give 100% effort, or an effort that is 100% consistent? Of course being dynamic relationship is healthy in a relationship compared to being a constant boring relationship. Hope I can mix the best of both worlds. Well hope in the months and years to come I would be the person that she would be proud to be with, because I will do my best to be the perfect “complement partner” for her. Everyone is not perfect but aiming to be one would be the ideal thing.

My YPF Valentines Party

Last Night, we had our Valentines Party for Young Professionals at Grace Christian Church. It was a really fun experience, but before me and my honey went their, I passed by her house, to pick her up and rest a little. We are also preparing because we are going to share our love story in the fellowship.

Three couples are going to share their testimony. And we are the only couple who are not yet married. Wah… Well, we entered the room and Sign on the registration. And the tables are separated by girls and boys / ladies and gents. I said to myself I wish that I could sit with her tonight. But it was immediately answered, the “SPEAKERS” have a special seat and in the end we are escorted to the special seat so I can sit right beside her.

There are a lot of singing and trivia and so on. Our time has come when we are called to share our testimony. I was the first one who spoke then she came second. But I will not divulge our story over the net, maybe some other time ;)

I was really blessed because many people appreciated our story, they said some words like very inspiring, great, beautiful, “kulit”, and so on. Before we spoke I told her that we should pray and pray that our story can be used to inspire other people. Well it was an answered prayer and a lot of them gave many feedbacks.

However we are still a young couple we have lots of roads to pass and travel. Our journey is just beginning and I am looking forward on experiencing a lot of things with her, whether it may be hardships, trials, fun, and joy. I know everything would be alright as long as the Lord God Almighty is in the center of our relationship.

My Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day is not of the ordinary day. It was suppose to be the day where we enjoy with our love ones. Unfortunately for my friend, whose brother died, we went to a funeral service with my honey :). we comforted our friend.

But before we went to the funeral service, well. we enjoyed a little bit, we ordered pizza. with sausage stuff crust from Pizza hut. Then well, we kinda over ate cause its so yummy. Anyway after the service, we went to jolibee to have a short "date". with the choco shake or something. taste good but the brain freeze really hurts.

Well my valentines day was not that romantic one, but at the very least i really enjoyed it with my hon. We spent and used a lot of emotions. Sadness, comfort, gluttony, happiness, fun, sleepiness, and love! Happy valentines day!

My First Proud Blog

Just Browsing over the internet, and just decided to start out a blog. Hehe. For the first entry, I saw this site.

http://raffysaldana.blogspot.com/2008/01/pcsc-2008-list-of-conditionally.html

This site is a Philippine Computing Science Congress. And I saw my name there hehe. Cool. It was our thesis project back then when I was in College-DLSU. Well, this is just a copy+paste hehe, but there is a reference naman eh here it goes. We are number 4 on the LIST!!! La lang. Happy Valentine’s Day!

PCSC 2008: List of Accepted Contributed Papers

8th Philippine Computing Science Congress (PCSC 2008)
Organized by the Computing Society of the Philippines (CSP)
February 23 - 24, 2008
University of the Philippines - Diliman
Telephones: (02) 4266125, (02) 7090907
Mobile: 0928-5043121
E-mail: computingsoc@gmail.com
Website: http://www.csp.org.ph

ANNOUNCEMENT:

After a peer-review process, the following contributed papers are deemed ACCEPTED by the PCSC 2008 Scientific Program Committee for oral presentation in PCSC 2008 and for publication in the Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Science Congress (subject to submission of camera-ready papers and registration payment):

List of ACCEPTED contributed papers:

1. Characteristics and Collection of Information from Heterogeneous Multimedia Sources with User's Parameter for Decision Support. Author: Robert Charles, LORIA Campus Scientifique, France

2. University Class Timetabling Simulation by Discrete Multi-valued Particle Swarm Optimization. Author: Kei Wai Cecilia Hung, Ateneo de Manila University

3. A Pi-Calculus Model of the CD95 Receptor Medicated Pathway of Apoptosis. Author: Jan Michael Yap, University of the Philippines-Diliman

4. Design and Implementation of a Vision-Based Hand Mimicking System. Authors: Joel Ilao, Eugene Angelo Fabian, Ivan Or, Lutherford Sosuan, and Glenn Uy -- De La Salle University

5. Sonar Beamforming Authors: Clement Ong, Bernice Ceara Go, Marc Jason Keng, and John Paul Yao -- De La Salle University

6. Characterization of Hand Glove Data for Letter Sign Language Translations. Authors: Veronica Aguilos, Clinton Jacob Mariano, Erika Bianca Mendoza, John Peter Orense, and Clement Ong -- De La Salle University

7. A Computational Study on Oil Spill Dynamics Using Cellular Automata. Authors: Patricia Ann Lorenzo, Rhena Lelleen Plagata, Paolo Nicolo Santos, William Emmanuel Yu, Rafael Saldaña -- Ateneo de Manila University

8. Improving Spam Detection Using Text Mining and Various Predictive Statistical Classification Methods. Author: Ariel Maguyon, Ateneo de Manila University

9. Serial and Parallel Implementation of Benford's Law for Fraud Detection. Authors: Ma. Daphne Regina Toledo, Jonalyn Valencia, William Emmanuel Yu, and Felix Muga II -- Ateneo de Manila University

10. Towards XML, Template-Based GUI Code Generation for Mobile Applications. Authors: Maria Donna Enriquez, Alfred Timothy Lotho, and Jeffrey Jongko -- Ateneo de Manila University

11. Landslide Dynamics in the Philippines: A Computational Study Using Cellular Automata and the Minimization Algorithm. Authors: Timothy James Yusun and Rafael Saldaña, Ateneo de Manila University

12. Competitive Online Scheduling with Fixed Number of Queues. Authors: Richard Bryann Chua (University of the Philippines -Manila) and Jaime Caro (University of the Philippines- Diliman)

13. Epsilon: Information Security Laboratory using Virtualization Technology. Authors: Alexis Pantola, Miguel Alberto Gomez, and Solomon Wong -- De La Salle University

14. Automated Behavior Analysis of Organisms Using Computer Vision. Authors: Jeremiah Pascual and Vladimir Mariano, University of the Philippines-Los Baños

15. ESP (Expert System for Poisoning): A Clinical Decision Support System for the Diagnosis and Management of Poisoning. Authors: Diana Bandojo, Ma. Jaymee Krisette Gatapia, Reggie Nicolo Santos, Riza Theresa Batista, and Prospero Naval -- University of the Philippines-Diliman; and Alvin Marcelo, University of the Philippines-Manila

16. Hypercube Peer-to-Peer for Resource Location on WiMax. Author: Rhia Trogo, De La Salle Univesity

17. Applying Latent Semantic Analysis to Classifying Relevance of Forum Messages Using Small-Sized Corpora. Authors: Rodolfo Raga (Jose Rizal University) and Raymund Sison (De La Salle University)

18. Identifying At-Risk Novice Java Programmers Through the Analysis of Online Protocols. Authors: Emily Tabanao and Ma. Mercedes Rodrigo, Ateneo de Manila University; and Matthew Jadud, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, USA

19. Extending Shape-based Similarity Measures for 3DModels. Authors: Conrado Ruiz, Jr. and Rafael Cabredo, De La Salle University; Levi Jones Monteverde, Citibank Intl Technology Organization (Singapore); and Huang Zhiyong, Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R),A*(STAR), Singapore

20. Grain Classification and Grading Based on Fourier Descriptor. Authors: Faye Moncada and Vladimir Mariano, Universityof the Philippines-Los Baños

21. An Adaptive Compression Technique. Authors: Jose Ronello Bartolome, Nonoy Go, Nathaniel Aaron, Mary Ann Ngo, and Dan Adrian Nelson Pamparo --De La Salle University

22. Design and Engineering of a Supply Chain Management System for Drug Delivery Applications. Authors: Allan Espinosa, Nathaniel Libatique, and Gregory Tangonan -- Ateneo de Manila University

23. A Multi-Feature Approach to Smoke Detection. Authors: Maria Charmaine Templado and Vladimir Mariano, University of the Philippines-Los Baños

24. Modeling FLASH Participation in CD95-mediated Apoptosis Using Pi-Calculus. Authors: Stephanie Catabul, Elaine Joy Coloma, and Irene Celeste Dare -- University of the Philippines-Diliman

25. Design and Use of an Open Individual and Group Student Model for Learning Object-Oriented Design Using UML. Authors: Miguel Paolo Arellano, Beatriz Tabunar, Reselyn Ann Tan, Enrico Alejandro Tuason, and Merlin Teodosia Suarez -- De La Salle University

26. Using Simulation to Update Poverty Maps. Author: Rigan Ap-apid, De La Salle University

27. Building and Benchmarking a New Beowulf Cluster for Grid Computing and Other Applications. Authors: Allan Espinosa and Rafael Saldaña, Ateneo de Manila University

28. Schutzenberger's Guessing Game on a Kolakoski Finite Subsequence. Authors: Marlo de Guzman, Joseph Pasia, and Henry Adorna -- University of the Philippines-Diliman

29. On Unambigous Nondeterministic Finite Automata and the Strict Tree Property. Authors: Henry Adorna, Nestine Hope Hernandez, and Rex David Lorenzo -- University of the Philippines-Diliman

NOTES:

a. Authors/Presentors of (conditionally) accepted papers are advised to contact Dr. Rafael Saldaña, PCSC2008 Program Chair, E-mail: raffysaldana@gmail.com, Mobile: 0928-5043121, Telephones: (02) 42661215 and(02) 7090907 for further details.

b. The deadline for submission of camera-ready papers is on February 8, 2008.

c. To be accepted for oral presentation and for publication in the Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Science Congress (PCSC 2008), each paper should be pre-registered (including payment of registration fee for at least one author) on or before February 16, 2008.

From,

Dr. Rafael P. Saldaña
Chair, Program Committee, PCSC 2008
January 26, 2008