started as a blog as an ode to my lappie Delta, now has become part of my usual weekly activity.




Thursday, April 26, 2007

McDo Milkshake Rules!

[Mood] :) (Yummy!)

I was kinda frustrated with work kanina. So I decided not to have dinner (since I'm trying to be on a diet to compliment gym) and instead, take a mall break. So I headed to Megamall at around 7:30pm and went around. bought an orange shirt at Bench and this pair of undies. you better see it, it's funky! hahaha. Anyway, I also saw that Dockers and Levis both had a sale. So I browsed what was on sale on Levis, and found a nice blue shirt on sale for half the price of the original. *Caching* swipe nanaman ito sa CC. Haaayyyy... I swear, this credit card has made me shop even more ever since I got it. Although I did promise myself that I would only splurge until the next month, then todo tipid na para makaipon for a tsikot. And don't worry, I pay in full every end of the month to not incur interest.

Anyway, so masaya na. So I headed back to the office to continue coding the stuff I left. Some debugging too. Eh alas, hindi talaga kaya ng powers ng shopping ang gutom. Nagugutom na talaga ako by 10pm, and I couldn't think straight. So I decided to go down and grab a bite. Saan naman ako kakain? Lakad-lakad along emerald. I had Jollibee yesterday dinner... so pass na muna ako. Starbucks aint gonna fill my tummy (plus, kailangan cheap dinner kasi nag-shop ako). Figaro was an option, pero when I saw McDo's sign, I suddenly had the urge for fries. yeah, the grease and all! yum! Bawi nalang sa gym bukas. Anyway, my feet brought me in front of McDo. So I was browsing for something to order. And decided to get my default meal: 5-piece chicken nuggets with fries and a drink... but wait, there's something new: McDo Milkshake in Chocolate, Stawberry and Vanilla! Wow! Yun nga lang, the 12oz is 39 bucks and the 16oz is 49 yata. So I asked, "Pwede bang mag-upgrade ng drink to a milkshake?", eh pwede. So I paid an additional 25 bucks to haave my regular coke changed to a 12oz Strawberry Milkshake.



Ok, so you can't see the milkshake itslef 'coz it's inside the cup. But anyway, so what can I say about the Milkshake? Imagine strawberry syrup blended with Ice cream... That's what you get. Totally yummy and fattening and all that sinful way. Leche kang McDo ka! Pero I so love strawberries eh lalo na kapag shake! Arggghhh... baka araw-arawin ko yan. Smooth kasi yung milkshake nila. Jollibee had a strawberry shake like that too before. yun nga lang, mejo lumpy. ito, sobrang fine. Yung bagong shake ng jollibee, oks na rin. Pero mas OK yung sa mcdo! As in! try it! Something to perk you up in the heat of the summer.






Though Chain: Eto isa pang likha ng demonyo: Crema de Fruita ice cream and Strawberries and Cream in ONE ice cream tub! Leche kang Selecta ka! Two of the most delectable flavors in one tub! Fucking evil! Sinful! And they sell it in the 7-11 next to my office building! Arggghhhh!!!! Kung mag-istanbay ako sa gym buong hapon bukas, pwede ko na bang kainin yung buong tub nun? hahaha!




Sunday, April 22, 2007

Tapestry 5 is Starting to be a Pain in the Ass!

[Mood] >( (Pain in the Ass!)



I started using Tapestry alomost a year ago with Tapestry 3. Learning the framework was a bit of a pain (it was a steep learning experience for me), but I was still able to generate pages and a site for a project. I like the idea of Tapestry having its presentation layer in plain HTML with with additions of custom tags from their tag libraries to implement loops, output data and alot of other stuff. I was already accustomed to how T3 worked. Then I stopped developing in T3. And now, enters Tapestry 5. It's a big big difference from T3. Alot of the old implementation has been modified. And what little Tutorials they had for T3, they now have less for T5. I'm pretty damn lost in T5. It's hard to unlearn what you got used to in T3. what sucks even more is that the official tutorial doesn't work anymore since they made code changes again in the snapshot build (where the tutorial relies). Arggghhhh!!! Now, I've been thinking if it's even worth it to learn T5 or just go RoR since I've started learning parts of it.

Here's what I like about Tapestry that still wants me to continue learning the new implem:

* HTML frontend (almost seperates entirely the presentation from the logic. a true view-controller division)
* A J2EE framework (at least I wouldn't need to learn a new language)
* Since it's Java based, alot of ready options are available for connectivity, AJAX, image handling, XML parsing, etc...
* I'm not a benchmarker, but i'd say my experience with Tapestry proves it's a reliable framework
* I like thee idea of less XML compared to other frameworks

What I don't like:

* Too many dependencies
* We all know that Java is beginning to bloat. It's a heavy weight. Some say, it's beginning to be outdated.
* Many new things to unlearn and learn



Here's what I like about RoR and why I'd like to learn more:

* Ruby is an interesting language. new and promising. It features duck typing, something weird and fun at the same time.
* RoR promises fast development
* I've been using RoR at work (forced to do so), but primarily on the presentation layer only. sometimes, I tinker with the controllers. hahaha.
* Hence, would help me be more efficient at work.
* Core Ruby code is purportedly lightweight
* I've read that J2EE developers are shifting gear to RoR. Could just be novelty.

What I don't like:

* Group base is still not that big. support may be hard
* the presentation layer is in RHTML and reminds me of JSP implementation. Code snippets all around the HTML code. and partials tend to be misused and abused.


RANT SEGWAY MUNA AKO:

I stumbled on http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/06/ruby_on_rails_a.html, and found that people tend to expect too much from their designers. If you want them to be super designers, better get out of your programming job and let them take your place. FYI, changing mindset from presentation to logic isn't easy. Code-in-HTML is a pretty crappy process. when your application bloats, it tends to become a mess in your presentation layer. Not a pain in the ass for the programmer but for the UI person. What every developer must understand is that presentation is not as easy as everybody thinks. The complexity of managing HTML code with scripting language code with Javascript with Flash and other media and CSS isn't very elementary. Take note, I'm just implying that both business logic and presntation layer development is challenging. Please don't undermine the work we do. Trust me, you don't know much of what we do.



BACK TO THE TOPIC:

Anyway, so I'm faced with this problem. So if I can't learn T5 by tonight, I'm shifting to RoR even though it hurts the web designer in me. hahaha. Atleast it will help me in the job.



Though Chain: Is there an RoR presentation layer framework that does things like T5?




Saturday, April 21, 2007

New Website... and blog too...

[Mood] :) (...)

I'm in the process of deploying my new website. hopefully in a week's time, it'll be up. ;)




Though Chain: U-Thought




Friday, April 13, 2007

More than a woman...

[Mood] :) (I am truly blessed.)



If i could narrate the story of my life, it would be as colorful as the pages of a child's book -- only not as gleeful.

We've experienced poverty when my dad died of cancer 21 years ago (the illness drained up all our resources, sold the business, and all property). My mom after being asked by my dad when they got married to stay at home, had to go back and find work after more than 10 years of being a housewife. She was already 40 then. How could she start her career again? How would she be able to bring up her family with four children?

Apparently, with her dedication, her love and her self-sacrifice, she was able to do it. Working as a teacher in the morning, and turoring kids in the afternoon 'til evening. She would come home at 10pm and still be able to prepare dinner for her children, teach them their lessons, and wake up at 4am the next day without fail. She never gave up on our education even though it was expensive to put four children to a private catholic school. She believed, as herself being a teacher, that good education was worth the investment. After 21 years, she has made 3 UP diliman graduates, and soon to be four this summer. :) She never failed to remember our birthdays to make it special. A small cake, some pasta and maybe ice cream was always to be expected no matter how hard it was to earn money. She always made Christmas memorable. Gifts were always part of what she saved up for the month, and when our old christmas tree gave in, she tried making a cutout tree from gold paper to put on the wall.

Memories of how we struggled life as a family, and how my mom was there to fight for a better future for us just makes me proud at how I have such a mother in my life. When I was young I would accompany my mom at times to her tutorial sessions. We would walk from our village to the next (to save up on fare) and she would buy me 2 pesos woth of mints or candies to make time pass while she taught. I remembered one time, while walking on that particular sunny afternoon her words... "One day, you'll look back at this time, and you'll be successful. And all of this will just be a memory we shared." Well, I'm not yet successful, but I'd like to think that I'm starting my few steps going there. And yes, it's a memory, not so distant, and it's something I will always carry in my heart as a mark of how you truly loved us.

So in this day that the Lord gave breath of life to you, I thank Him for blessing me with you... to the hero of my life, Happy Birthday Mama! I wish I could give you the world for you have given up your own to make my own.




Though Chain: She just turned 61.