‘Prayers sustained me during captivity’ By Milet B. Mendoza

My Aunt Milet Mendoza was kidnapped on September 15, 2008 together with other humanitarian workers Esperancita Hupida, Ludovina Borja-Dekit, driver Dionisio Estandante and their companions Romeo delos Reyes and Sahida Alasa. She however was released after a grueling 61 days. I have featured her in my site a couple of times here, here and here.

Our family were worried souls when this happened. I just can't describe how ecstatic we were when she was released after 2 months. Now in this article she recounts her experience in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf. I hope victims and families would be able to learn something from her experience. This came straight from the kidnap victim so if there would be someone to tell us how it is, as is... check out her story here:

CLICK THIS FOR THE INQUIRER ARTICLE

We all ask things from God, be thankful for the little things he gives you. For the millions of people that ask from him, at least he gave a little more time on you.

The Genuine Article

I'm trying to put my room together and I need a couple of things to organize my space. It's not that big though but I've thought about a theme. I have pieces passed on from my folks and I would probably use those existing ones and purchase additional furniture that would be able to complement what I already have.

I was not taking it lightly because I even watched a couple of designer shows over at the DIY channel. I know the concept of shabby chic but I think that was a little to feminine for my taste. However I really love the wood work that came with that, so I made an effort to make the hand me down furniture look new by sanding them off and putting in new coats of lacquer stain. Now it looks aged and I purposely put scratches on some of them too. With that in mind I also checked out the wood furniture over the Internet and see what else I could purchase on line. Taking that inspiration from my loft I saw the ones at Scenic Furniture and saw the ones they have that looked like natural wood. I love the raw lumber look and the mere color of it. I'm considering getting a piece but I need to probably do favors with my folks for quite a while before I can get it. Ha-ha!

Pistachio Crisis is My Crisis

It's my favorite nut of all time, I even eat this flavor of ice cream and cakes for cryin out loud.There is a huge problem with it now because of salmonella, which they say is laced about it.

The result for the food tests in pistachio products will be released anytime next week. BFAD has been heading this endeavor and I will be one of them guys craving for it now so it is a huge thing for me.

Up unitl now, the recall for products with this ingredient specifically Setton pistachio of Terra Bella from the US is being held for the same reason. I wonder if the middle eastern ones have them too.Health Secretary Francisco Duque said he has made his people in BFAD go overtime for testing local brands of pistachio products since monday where there would be a 6 day incubation period needed to test if this has affected our supply.

He strongly suggested not to eat it for the meantime. This is just making me suffer a lot! AW!

Working with Fiber Optic Cables

I've been slaving these past few years configuring Cable and DSL Internet connections for home and small business offices in the US and elsewhere in the globe. There are also other types I configure for common users such as satellite connections, microwave and fiber optic modules that would make ordinary people squirm a little every time the geek in me utter technical jargon for breakfast. I know how it feels and difficult it was when most switches, L1 and L2 Routers do not work as advertised and only to find out that the problems would be traced with the fiber optic cables that have breakages. It just would be arduous to check the line manually like the last time I did it for a multinational company. It would have been easier to just have it replaced immediately but thinking about the cost per feet of this material it would not be economically appropriate. The GBIC devices used to connect these switches to other SOHO and Network devices are also pricey so if there are times that it could not be replaced anymore because the warranty expired, most consumers would not dish out money for it and rather buy a new "more advanced one" instead.


I also had to work the 50 meter LC to lc multimode Duplex Patch Cable they bought for another site and have the logistics set up for that. I'm confident that I could get that to work if they had the right firmware but the one I sent them previously seem to have bounced the initial electronic mail address they gave me. The secondary one went through so we had the manageable switches updated then POOF! We have network and Internet connection working smoothly. I have not checked the status of that since I'm in a different department now, but I'm glad that worked in spite of using other brands in the network. I was afraid it would not be able to do it since the design on the GBIC connectors is proprietary with ours.

I wonder if I could take a peek at that case number I have in my notepad with the help of some of my peers who still are in that account. I fervently hope he did not have problems anymore because that was really a hard one to resolve. Lucky me they bought TCA Fiber Optic, CAT5 and CAT6 Network Cables. The mileage would definitely tell us what its worth.