All fired up!

I am amused at myself. I have never felt this “consumed” with wanting to fulfill a desire or achieve a goal for a long time. It seems that even though I’m still at work and I try to focus on finishing all my tasks before the holiday vaction, there is one thing that keeps pre-empting all other thoughts in my mind: I want to buy a new CPU (or, to be technically correct, a system unit) for my youngest brother!

I’m supposed to be doing my work and after that, doing my exercises due on Friday… but all I really want to do is look at the price list that I’ve  gathered from a few computer store websites and try to see if I can have a complete system unit assembled with the budget I have in mind because… I really, really, really want to buy a new CPU for my youngest brother.

I realized a few days ago that I could not anymore stand hearing my brother beg for a new computer since the one we have right now–a very obsolete Pentium 2–could not run Eclipse.

 Even though my youngest brother and I are different in many ways, somehow I can see my past self in him in terms of the difficulties that he is going through. I remember having to code in pen and paper during my first two years in college because we didn’t have a PC at home. And when my mother bought me a second-hand PC during my third year, it was so slow that I had to wait around a minute before my programs would compile (using an IDE with integrated compiler). Yeah, I had a computer during my last two years in college alright, but coding using my machine turned most of the pleasure and excitement into almost a chore. Now that my brother is into Computer Science himself and he programs as well, I can relate to what he is going through. And now that I can do a little something to help him, I will do it… that is, if my budget permits.

Hmm, I still could not afford a top of the line, eat-your-heart-out-with-envy unit but I think my brother would already be happy with anything that is more than a Pentium 2. Hmmm, a Pentium 4 at least?

Who knows? Maybe we can upgrade next year. I just hope I’ll be able to buy a motherboard that will support later processor models.

God, I really hope I can buy my brother a new CPU.  And I wish I will feel this “consumed” every day… though not necessarily because I want to buy something :)

some pics taken during our project group’s christmas party at Tambuli Resort :)

one of the pools at the resort. this one has a bridge above it. nice!

another one of the pools. based on the map at the resort’s lobby, Tambuli West (where we held our party) has more pools compared to Tambuli East. there is one big pool at the East whereas the West has more pools but the pools are relatively smaller in size.

this is a view of the sea. the resort also provides scuba training for a fee, by the way. but we didn’t get to avail of the lessons, as those are not part of the budget. ) anyway, in my opinion, the water near the shore of the resort is not as nice to swim in compared to the water in the pool. the water in Nalusuan Beach Resort, though, is way better.

picture of the gift i received. the book is entitled The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, author of the best-seller, Sophie’s World. this is exactly what i wanted. thanks to my manito!

there were a number of people in the resort contrary to what the pics seem to show. i just chose to display the pics with less people to emphasize the place most of the guests were Koreans. there were also a few Caucasians. of course, there were also Filipinos. however, i think the foreign guests outnumber the local ones.

so that’s it for our Christmas party it was nice to get away from the office for awhile. it makes us feel aware that there is more to the world than the four blue panels of our cubicle and the computer that we face everyday. not that i don’t love my computer. hehe. absence makes the heart grow fonder.

the song that keeps running on my head after the Nihongo Exam

for (int i = 1; i <= POSITIVE_INFINITY; i++)
{
    cout << “in another lifetime…” <<
                   ”in another set of chances” <<    
                   “i’ll take the ones i’d missed” << 
                   “and make them mine…” << endl;
}