Last week, I’ve been getting news that Charice (Pempengco) will be releasing her first single entitled “Note to God”. It was released Monday evening in Oprah, and boy, “AMAZING” (with caps) is an understatement. I mean, I’m not much a fan of Gospel music (it’s like good music thrown all over the place), but this one was well-structured, words aren’t too cheesy, and yet it will move you in things you can never imagine. I myself who’s a usual cynic was so moved by the words, the song’s impact as it evolved, and the power that was Charice’s voice. Clearly, there’s no other artist that would come in mind to sing this.

And since I also received the news that “Note to God” is available in iTunes, I checked out iTunes, and to my surprise, after just 1.5 days, Charice’s power inspirational song climbed to #4 as of this writing. I’m wondering how it’s doing in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Here’s the pic that I checked a while ago:

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Prologue

Of course you know by now that we won our very first episode and lost on the second. And even though we didn’t enjoy our losing the game, we did enjoy the entire experience as a whole, thanks for the wonderful staff of Pilipinas, Game KNB? namely Ms. Aida B. Gonzales, Ms. Melanie Navarro, Ms. Beautiful (the happy and gay staffer who entertained us a lot), Ser Pogi (I guess he was Floor Manager, other than Sir Mel Feliciano), Mr. Mel Feliciano (sorry for that crazy line I blurted out… it’s just that I am genuinely a fan of Ms. Anna), Mr. Headwriter, and most importantly, Cairman Edu Manzano.

I’ve been an avid viewer of Pilipinas, Game KNB? even when Ms. Kris Aquino was still hosting the show. It was the only trivia show I can consider which rivals the now defunct Digital LG Quiz and my childhood fave Battle of the Brains. Plus, they added the entertainment bit through interviews and bloopers, and by far my most fave show in Philippine TV (even before I competed in the show). Me and my family, whenever we get together, always always (note: two “always’s”) watch the show and compete with each other, see who gets the highest score. My being a loyal viewer of PGKNB trained me for last week’s episode.

“What? Companions?”

March 17, 2009, 12:28PM. I was texted and saw “Hi, this is Melanie Navarro…” from my iPhone. I thought she’s just another spammer, and then I opened it, saw that it was a huge text. It said that I was pre-selected thru electronic raffle for Game KNB. Of course I got delighted ‘coz I’m a real fan of the show, but then I saw this part of the message: “Pls bring with you 2 Companions/Teammates of ur choice” and so I asked myself, if this were a scam, and if the texter was a scammer, then she should’ve told me I should go alone to some remote place. Then I realized, “teammates”? “Companions”? That time it was Tuesday and he wants me to have teammates on the next day, so I scrambled and looked for teammates. That time, Marte was working in the office, so I asked him if he could join me. I expected him to say no, maybe because it wasn’t his thing, but then again, he will be a good asset to the team. To my surprise, he said “Yes”, and we started hunting for another teammate.

Later, Wali came by our office, doing his usual “visits”. Then I thought, why not include a Masters Degree student in the team? Again, I was expecting him to say no because he has work, and he’s pretty devoted to it, but again, I was surprised for him saying “Yes” to the stint. The next day, we decided to go to the auditions.

“Dammit! We will be late!”

After waking up around 10AM, and 1 full hour of lunch (I eat real slow), me and the gang met up in UP, knowing we might be late for the audition. When we got to the ABS-CBN compound, we had no idea where to go or where to park. With that, we went to the actual contestants’ waiting place around 30 minutes late. Good thing the auditions didn’t start yet. Big sigh of relief!

Tired and Groggy, but Energetic at the End

When we finally lined up for the auditions, we were already tired and groggy. We haven’t experienced any audition this big (I auditioned before for the defunct MTB for Pls. Konek segment) so we got tired without any reasons for being tired. The staff were accommodating and very patient for “stray” contestants (it’s easy to get lost inside the compound).

Tired and groggy, we still lined up and finally, we went inside the GKNB studio, with the old format’s set back then, seggregated us from “texters” and “companions”, texters in the lower level of the set, companions on the higher podiums. We had an exam (won’t give full details about this) but I have to say we kicked ass in the exams, except for the part when I answered “Pacers” for a baseball team and they answered “San Jose” for Jamaica’s capital.

After the exam, they told us that the teams they will be calling will “go home” and should text more to be accommodated for next auditions. These teams failed to make it for the next audition (which is the interview part). Holding our breath, we hoped there’d be no “Jofell” mentioned in the team members who failed. Until the last team was announced was when we sighed relief and exclaimed joy.

“Celibacy is the Best Policy”

And then, the texters were reunited with the companions.

The “hosts” of the auditions were really funny and energetic. They started calling out names in order of descending cumulative scores. We were in the top ten (and I guess that time I had the top grin). Each team called (and there were like 60 teams of 3’s in the studio) will have to introduce themselves and provide conversations with the “hosts” so they would know each team’s personality, whether they see us as interesting teams, and maybe put us up for casting on the first few episodes.

I say we made a mark that time ‘coz I genuinely heard people laughing, listening on our stories. I remember I said we were roommates, and we sleep together in one foam bed, and others laughed. I said we had a motto and it’s “Celibacy is the Best Policy” and everyone, sans the hosts who didn’t hear it, were laughing. The hosts asked us to spell “Celibacy” and I blurted out “S-E-A-L-…” and I stopped. One of the hosts, IMO the cutest one, Miss Navarro told us she’ll remember us, that they won’t forget us.

After the auditions, we went home, with high spirits and expectations.

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Recently, I moved to Quezon City (home of the no-redipping-of-fishballs stands, and the very famous Oblation Run), in a small room-for-rent in Krus na Ligas. I feel like college these days… (also felt like online casinos to me – risky but well worth the cold sweat, if you know what I mean)

Anyway, along with the moving in comes with it the problems of finding food places (BIG PROBLEM!), and, being the techie that I am (or so I thought), unlimited connectivity. My old senior project-mate Alvin had to install lines for his Bayantel connection. Bayantel has a fair connectivity service, but it’s just too expensive, I can’t describe how sucky I felt acquiring such service. So, I turned to 3G wifi. I looked at Smart Bro and (the now defunct) Globe Visibility, and they seem pretty expensive as they charge a hefty amount per minute. Then James, a friend of mine, received this SMS announcing Sun Cellular’s Easy Broadband Plan. I checked it out, asked around, and settled to getting this service (because it’s cheap).

Lo and behold!

Yeah! You saw it right. Mind you, I wasn’t paid to post this b*sh*t here (as for most of my posts are b*sh*t), but this is some sweet sh*t! Just now, it hit 278 KBps! It’s even better than my old Php ~3k Bayantel net connection.

To learn more about Sun Cellular’s Easy Broadband Service, go to their website and choose whichever fits your pocket. Php 800 worth of 1 month unlimited connectivity, virtually anywhere in Metro Manila (it’s a shame Taguig wasn’t included).

This post is to help out as testimonial of a very satisfied customer .

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Something’s cooking at PiKitchen! Check out their latest app, Flash Me!

According to the Flash Me Website, Flash Me helps iPhone users share their numbers, email addresses and phone numbers in a more intuitive way. Terence, my “old” boss (or colleague, ‘coz he doesn’t really want the idea of us calling him “boss”). I saw this app myself (still under development and under progress).

Update: To purchase the new app, go to Flash Me’s iTunes Home Page.

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Kirei feels threatened! Kirei feels threatened!

Globe has recently announced its pricing plans for the iPhone 3G package. Here are some screenshots from the website itself.

I think I can get the Plan 2199 one. If I have enough money, maybe I’ll get the 16GB one. But there’ve been a bunch of heat problems posted in the internet lately, like this one.

Should Kirei be threatened then? Errr… not really. I still need her for my “Prepaid Ventures”.

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You guessed right! It’s going to be in the Philippines! Hip hip, hoooray!

And here is the so-called proof from Youtube:

If you’re reading my blog (oh I wish!), sir David Cook, I’m a fan of yours, and you rock the hell out of my roommates here in our apartment! If you come here to the Philippines now, you’ll always hear “Always Be My Baby” in radio stations, like every frickin’ day! Interestingly enough, Filipinos don’t get tired of listening to your songs.

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Finally, after three years of completion and thinking things over, I finally finished the first 10 chapters of my very first, multi-chapter novel! Haha! I’m telling the world about it.

I’ll be publishing the first 10 chapters in the internet, but the rest…. hmm… I’m gonna finish it, might not be publishing it in public (emphasis on “might not”), until something really unplanned happens.

In the meantime, I’ll be having it as an attachment here. Also, I will post the new chapters in novels.jofell.com. Hope you all enjoy this.

P.S. It’s in Taglish, you’ve been warned. Also, comments on each chapter is allowed, so please do peer review for me.

Technorati Tags: novel, 100 Days

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This is pretty awkward (because this is yet another promotion blog, though I’m not getting any from this), but from now on, I’m moving all my blog-writing to ecto. I find using ecto a lot easier, more organized, and more lightweight than using ScribeFire. I mean, ScribeFire is good, and does the job I want, but having Firefox carry the burden of its heavyweight javascript mechanisms is something I really disliked.

Not to mention it just works! Hehe. I would like to thank VT for helping me buy this great tool!

Technorati Tags: blogging, ecto, mac os x, software, tool

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Server LeSabre Being Failed Over

I dunno good French but seeing my dreamhost machine’s name with caps on gave me the idea of what the server name really means: The Sword. This day is one of those unlucky / lucky days of my hosting life. Unlucky in a way that my site went down for 12 hours due to hardware problems (they don’t really have control over that, though). Lucky in a way that LeSabre finally has new hardware to run on, which is good news for my sites.

Anyway, at first I got worried because I was one of those guys who first saw the GMail IMAP thing. I posted the news even before Slashdot has posted it. When the problem lasted for almost 12 hours I got more worried and tried to contact support. Gladly, Dreamhost’s support is one of the best in the world (am really planning on sticking to DH).

Back to my regular programming (like coding stuff).

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I know, it’s killing me not to blog about anything at least once a week. But lately, I’ve been busy brewing a new product for Xackup. Well, actually it’s not that new at all, and it’s called iTenna and yup, I coined the name, as for Bandwagon and Maildrive. Terence even told me that I should be putting up my own advertising firm to give names for products.

Anyway, if you were subscribing to my blog, you might’ve noticed the leaked news I posted here. I’m now pretty confident to tell you guys that yeah, I’ve got me an iPhone. Hehe. It really feels good to tell it now, without the thought of people thinking as if I’m bragging my gadgets. I only had him for almost two weeks, but I’m so loving it, I named it “Kirei”, which means pretty or lovely in Japanese. The moment I first laid eyes on it, for a second, I thought I forgot beautiful Wonderwoman (it’s her alias). Of course, I have no right to really really brag about it, even if it’s the most beautiful gadget I’ve ever seen and owned, because: (1) it was only a gift from a very good friend; and (2) I honestly hate people who brag about material stuff, or any stuff at all.

I sleep with Kirei every night, even if I am at home or in the office. I never had a night without her small pair of lips in my ears. She’s really a beauty. I even hear her in my dreams as if giving soundtracks for every soap opera I have inside my head. I can’t stand taking my eyes off of her for more than 2 hours. I always have this instinct to always check on her, especially when she’s very quiet. I always turn her on, and she, in return, gives me the groovin’! I’m like a silly nerd dancing to the tune of “Livin’ La Vida Loca” every time I hear Ne-Yo’s “Because of You”. It’s just… crazy! Crazily falling in love with a… thing!

I can’t believe I just wrote a nerd blog.

Nielo and Kirei in her box

Setting her free

I can’t sleep the moment she came

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