Monday, November 26

Technology

I just noticed that people here in Dubai are holding two phones. A long, long time ago, people don't even have mobile phones! Previously, it was only certified businessmen who carry phones so that they will be reachable to their clients. 

I think it was in the 90s when slowly the work force started having access to mobile phones. I remember my parents brought one at home and we (my siblings and I) were amazed. We wanted to get a hold of the device. We took turns in calling our friends that I remember when the monthly bill came, my mom freaked out! The bill was humongous!! 

Fast forward to today, you go for a stroll and you would see kids holding 2 different devices - an iPhone and Blackberry or a Blackberry and a Samsung. It is as if having one phone is not sufficient. I am pretty sure that the contacts are both in their two phones! 

(photo from apple.com)


(photo from us.blackberry.com)

I have to admit I am also guilty in having two phones - I have a work and personal phone, an HTC windows phone and Blackberry respectively. To be honest, I didn't have a choice, people in our office / company needs to get hold of me being part of the Procurement Department. I also need to follow up on suppliers, etc and I don't think I am going to be doing all that on my personal phone!

(photo from stuffmideast.com)


I did ask a few people about having two sets of personal phones and most of the comment I receive is because their phones perform different tasks. An iPhone can be used for browsing, updating your social status, watching videos and capturing pictures. Their Blackberries will be used more for communication  - BBMing with friends! 

Truth be told, technology has come a long way and it's not only the businessman who needs these devices but it seems everybody needs and wants to get hold of it!! 

I wonder... will we all end up having 3 or 4 phones in hand to communicate when all we really need / want is to talk in person?

Saturday, November 24

Book Review (I think) Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes

I haven't really tried doing a proper book review. I did a book report back in school (and I am sure you did one or two a long, long time ago) so that's how I'm going to do this book review of

Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes 

I was intrigued on the first few pages of the book... It started off with the love story between Anna and Aidan (the usual plot of how they meet, when they started dating, the time they hooked up). I like the way Marian tried to bring back the past and then fast forward to the present. It is something (which I think) that is a bit difficult to do because you (as a writer) can be lost in your own story. 

The twist was there and I also held my breath a couple of times while reading because of the "almost" scenarios! 

I like the way people, situations and places were described. It seems like I was transported to Anna's place in Ireland and their nest home in New York. 

The book made me understand how to deal with situations. About an unfinished business, bringing in new life, accepting one's loss and having a support group. 

The book showed me that even if we form part of different cultures and from different countries, we still have a set of values when it comes to family - how we show support for our family members through their highs and lows. 

After the realization, I think the book kind of rushed the ending. I was expecting more (I guess) or maybe it was Marian's way of letting us, the readers decide what we think can be a good ending for this. 

Overall, the book was well-written and I enjoyed it. 

Rating: 5/10 (it took 2 weeks to finish the book)

Ta!

Sunday, November 18

Quiet weekend ...

Last Thursday was the beginning of the long weekend here in Dubai. Of course, for these type of once in a life time holidays, people usually take advantage of it by going to the beach or park, exploring the other emirates or for some just do the usual which is mall hopping.

Funny enough, I did not do any of this.

R (my hubby) and I just stayed at home. It was just a typical weekend but it was filled with lots of Q time with each other.

We kind of bummed up to be honest. Stayed at home, eat, watch TV, listen to some music, watch TV, surf the net, read an ebook, sleep and the routine goes back to the start. It was good because it allowed me to rest fully ( I had the worst case of cold and cough that would not go away) and regained my energy. For R, it was a quiet one for him because I did not pester him to go to the mall.

You see even with the long weekend, R still has to work the night shifts (boo!) and I think that is one of the reasons why we didn't go out.

Now the weekend is about to end in a few hours and I can see people posting their pictures of the weekend that was. Overall, everybody had fun on this long weekend... The next long weekend will be during the 2nd of December wherein the UAE will be celebrating their 41st National Day. I am pretty sure people will be on the streets that time especially the locals.

Hmmm.... I wonder where we will be.... till the next holiday!

(from my Instagram account) 

Thursday, November 15

Woman robbed and raped!

I was browsing through the web (actually more of moving my blog reads from Wordpress to this one) when I decided to take a break and read through my tweets and saw this tweet from KatDeCastro

KatDeCastro
Grabe. Crowded pa that area ha. "@ANCALERTS: Woman robbed, raped near Guadalupe MRT station http://t.co/lepw9eij"
11/15/12 7:11 PM
 I just had to read the news article (click here) about it. While reading through, the police officers admits that this is a modus operandi by the suspect and know that the reason behind it is because people going off the metro station to the nearest jeepney terminal will need to pass through a dark alley.

The police's action: they are now managing the situation.

I think the resolution is to light up the area (Good that they have requested this from the MMDA...how long before it will be installed? We will never know. Paging MMDA). They probably need to put a police post where an actual policeman will monitor the area (hopefully, the bystanders will not use it for their drinking sessions).

Imagine, according to the suspect himself, this is not his first victim. Someone must have reported it before... (ding!ding!ding!) Luckily, this story got picked up by a news agency or else nothing will be done with it?

I will leave this open-ended because I cannot comment about this incident anymore. I think what has happen speaks volume of what needs to be done.

Picasa or Flickr?

One of the reasons of doing the "move" is because my actions are very limited in Wordpress (sorry!).

I was able to post my pictures but after sometime, my blog always gets the X mark which means, either I lost the link from the website or to be honest, I am not sure (blame Photobucket!).

Looking at other people's blogs, I have noticed that most of them uses Flickr.

I am also considering Picasa because it's already part of Google's services and seems Google has already had me sold, I thought why not use their online photo sharing as well.

Previously, I have used Photobucket but not using it for the past years (like 5 years!)... and well I forgot I have it to be honest :p

Now seems to be the best time for me to look for which platform to choose.

Decisions... decisions... will blog about it when I make up my mind :)

Later!

Tuesday, November 13

Difficult

I have thought about this long and hard...

should I change blogs? why? is my wordpress not enough?
To be honest, I do not really want the pain of having to set up my blog again and you know go through the start up


  • Blog name 
  • Blog addy  (blog address for some)
  • Customizing the template 
  • Organizing what the blog should look like
However, despite all of this, I still changed my blog for the nth time.

why?
To be able to store more pictures... to have more flexibility in my blog (sorry Wordpress!) and... well, I think that's about it really.

Now, I am not going to put my previous blog posts in this blog... okay, I take it back... maybe some if it relates to a topic...

Let's see how this goes... hopefully, I don't change blogs and will stick with this for the longest time!

Ciao!