The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

I just could not hold on to my wallet for the past few days after buying my next batch of hardware, I had a sudden urge to just go buy the next thing I had on my list. While dilly dallying around Bur Dubai, I just wanted to drop by an Asus distributor store and check if they actually did order the Asus S2 or Silent Square. I actually passed by ProX Computers to check if what the manager said was true that stocks were coming. I could actually get mine through special order and it would cost me 250Dhs out straight.
Anyways, I was walking buy when I saw this huge box outside and sure enough, there was the S2. I couldn’t have asked for anything else to fall on my lap that day. Of course, the debate about the Tuniq Tower 120 and the Asus Silent Square was heavy in my mind. But just looking at this beast, immediately pointed out bragging rights. It be good to be the first one to bring it, however, my mind was set on a more realistic level of how well can this beauty do in the real world. Being an owner of the Silent Square will open up many inquiries on its performance. You wouldn’t even considering purchasing this things after seeing a 275Dhs price tag. After bargaining and putting forward to the manager that I was promised a decent discount, so I got it off for 235Dhs which is one for the best deals I could actually get. Unfortunately, there are other Asus products on their line up which are a bit over priced. Anyways, it is a Asus and you can expect quality along with it as well as performance.
The sad thing about it now what I have the cooling system with me is that I will not be able to test the heat sink right now as I have no available computer to test it on. I used to blog on a laptop and now I have had management change my lappie into a desktop PC. It’s funny though how Dell size there desktops to fit office tables, however there isn’t enough clearance for me to even try to put this monstrousity inside. This thing is huge and it is heavy but unlike the Tuniq, it weighs less and has a small frame. Hopefully, I will be able to change the stock 92mm fan to a stronger one but for now, I’m just happy I got it, but why is there a big hole in my wallet now?

Summer’s here and make no mistake about it, it is hot. Not just hot, I mean extreme warmth. Imagine lunch time heat in Manila at around 9AM, this is the heat I am talking about. This is the type of heat where you could actually faint. Well according to the news today, it will be Windy, Hot and Dusty. And for sure, the wind started picking up, thus moving dust up in the air and worse yet, the wind was warm too. It was like a warm sandblaster moving around (hair dryer coughing up sand bits) and targeting you. My hair’s in a mess with granules of sand and my skin prickles a bit at the wind. No wonder Prince of Persia was so pissed off being left outside the Palace. Lucky me I just got into my agencies for a brief cool down and the occasional apple juice offers which I did no deny at all.
It really is a no brainer, during summer, Dubai is on hot mother… and when its winter, it is the extreme opposite. Yes, it gets cold. Studying Geography 101, some of the hottest place in the world actually become one of the coolest or coldest places at night. I’d rather not explain it but believe me, it has something to do with dissipation and clouds.
Another misconception here in Dubai is about job availability during summer. It is already difficult finding a job in summer because of the heat, you actually end up looking like a mop after walking only for 5 minutes. It definitely is not the best time. If you do have an interview, scout the area before hand to know how much time you need… to arrive at your interview and dry up. Another thing is that just because the staff is on leave actually ensures you that there is an opening. Majority of people taking their vacations during this time because of the weather, seeing no one in the office is good for an applicant, unfortunately, it is bad news for you since the staff that went on vacation was the PRO or the person in charge of hiring people.
All I can say is that summer is a bad time to apply, good times to apply for work are on DSF times. As for me, I am feeling the brunt of the heat. I can handle it but my skin can’t. Well, got to buy some Extraderm whitening products and Eskinol.

I actually purchased my speaker set the same time I purchased my keyboard/mouse, so I am sorry for the delay in writing something about. To be honest with you I kinda regret buying the speaker set so early in the game for the following reasons:

1. My room is only a temporary arrangement.
2. I have no receiver or sound card to take advantage of it’s power.
3. I can’t have the volume pumping up more than 60% of the time. Neighbors will kill me.

I was quite pleased indeed with the price I got for this my R501 speakers. It was on sale for 375Dhs from the retailer and I wasn’t really too sure on it since I did find the Logitech X-530 for 345Dhs. Given the choice, any regular enthusiast would actually move to the Logitech since it has been tried and tested. As I mentioned to a friend of mine when we bought his Pro Media Klipsch speakers, I wanted to try to be on the lower half of the sound enthusiast table before moving up. The JBL Xcite was also calling for 800Dhs, but with a price as low as this for a 5.1 setup, I just had to give it a whirl.
The funny thing as always, buying the things is the easiest part and the setting it up is all about following the color codes. I got this unit for 350Dhs, from a different retailer, the original retailer didn’t accept cards and I was just glad that I was referred to the proper store and I was even more surprised that they were selling it at 350Dhs with credit card charges included. It was like as if they wanted to dump the things away already. I even saw a good Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Laser mouse combo, I just began scratching my head for the loss, however, my Genius keyboard still rocks like hell. Oh the agony… Some of the keyboard layout is different but it still manages to get the job done. Only thing about it is the poor software support, it is not as good as what Microsoft or Logitech have to offer, I feel the software was made since the days of Windows 98.
The good thing was that I save around 25Dhs, approximately, 350PhP, only drawback was that this monster weighed in at 17Kgs. The whole set was made of wood and despite saving this much, I decided to go and take the bus. Life wasn’t made easier when I needed to jump from one store to another store to get some work related items. I believe I lost weight that day and my arm, aside from gaining additional bicep muscles seem to have extended a couple of millimeters. Anyways, for the crazy life out of me, I couldn’t understand why I decided to take the bus. It was already 10PM and I was still outside my home with a 17Kg speaker in a 30" x 30" x 30" box. I just guess that 1.80Dhs bus fare is a big deal compared to 25Dhs taxi fare. Of course, people from all walks of life were looking at it in the bus, which I was not particularly fond off since they were like telling me with their looks that I should have taken a cab home and that I was taking up a place for someone to stand into.
I was too exhausted to test it out that evening so I got to test it the following day and initial impressions were not impressive at all. The box did have a lot of things, ranging from cables, heavy speakers and cordless remote which was was very simplistic in design despite being coined as the "God stick" because if you lose the remote, your speakers are as good as gone, thank goodness the retailer sells the remote for an outstanding 75Dhs (1040PhP). Anyways, I am going to have my Imate Jam record the buttons so I have two instead of one remote. I slapped the thing into my DVD player and was surprised that there was unnecessary crackling noise. I just connected it directly to the audio out compartment and into the Front Speakers of the Sub Woofer, I really was depressed at it and i was crying out "Why, oh why, oh why…"
Then it hit me, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the problem was with regards to the signal and that my DVD player wasn’t issuing out a very good signal which gave me a conclusion that the audio out was made specifically for TV and majority of home theaters always come with a receiver. So I plug it in directly to my PC and listen up to the tunes. Though I couldn’t test the 5.1 fully the sub-woofer and individual speakers were working, I don’t know how to test the tweeter though but despite reading reviews about it having small satellite speakers and no tweeter, I believe I got the better part of the deal as the speakers did have a tweeter in each speaker and offered a bigger size. And hence, I played the tunes ranging from Korn’s "Here to Stay," Nelly’s "EI," Felix The Housecat’s "SilverScreen" and to SugarFree’s Eraserheads Rendition of "Tikman." Yes, I am old school, so sue me… =)  And just like that, I wasn’t experiencing musical orgasm yet but I was certainly receiving some foreplay. I can’t wait to pump in the juice with this baby and as for know, all I do know is that with the Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic on its way, the volume knobs on my laptop and in Windows stepped up a notch.

You’d never believe the last minute dilemma I had been facing since the 15th of April and I was completely torn over what hardware device I was going to get. Despite the arrangement of my purchases, things get a little bit hectic specially if the prices are right. I mean I had a chance to get an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card, 1000PhP cheaper here than the Philippines, this basically shuts the claim that everything is cheaper back home. I was also planning to get the 250GB Maxtor Maxline III HDD over the Raptor but things change like the weather for me. So with enough money to boot, I finally just stuck with my original choice and get the Genius TwinTouch Luxemate Pro. The only question was getting it for the cheapest price. Plug-Ins is a great store but looking at the price tag of 245Dhs, I wanted to take my chances somewhere else. Keeping the price in mind, I basically let my self drift into the Logitech G15 gaming keyboard which actually goes at the price range of around 345Dhs. To top it all off, I also went into TPC and went in to envy frenzy with all the gaming mice around and I was aiming for the Logitech G7 mouse. This came as a shocker to me as it costs 375Dhs compared to just 75USD in the US.
To cut the long story short, I was just so confused on what to get I completely forgot about the Genius set I came to look for. The whole search took more than an hour and I was actually lucky to find it in the unlikeliest of places. The store was actually selling expensive laptops and I just couldn’t believe my luck that I did find it.
This baby is a dream, slim like a laptop keyboard but a bit noisy. It is wireless and one of the things that I do enjoy about it is that is slim and smaller than typical keyboards plus it has all sorts of buttons that I can pre-program. With Genius products you can’t go wrong. Though my friend Michael calls it "The Poor Man’s Hardware" and it isn’t your typical bang-for-the-buck type of product, I can safely say that it is one of the most logical, practical and safe products you can purchase. I mean with a well shaped receiver which also serves as a charger for the batteries you need not buy another pair of batteries… ever. Keyboard is so slim, its like having a laptop around, this thing is that handsome indeed. Plus, it isn’t that hard to configure at all, install the software first and just plug it in. The batteries for the mouse and keyboard also go in stand-by mode saving you precious energy. All I can say is that I highly recommend this product. Though the software support is not the best in the world, the keyboard and mouse function as described. For me, this is my type… Till I get some serious gaming gear…

Disk space is one of the important factors in creating a PC, as for me, it isn’t. I just don’t know why but I have a lot of faith on my optical writers. So the next ones on my list is the Wireless keyboard and the hard drive. Yes, just one and of course you’d go scratching your head. (This guy is making his uber rig and he is settling for a 36GB Raptor on a non-RAID configuration) I mean capacity is not a big deal for me at all, and I have selected this drive in particular just to speed up the boot up process and other stuff. Speed and performance is what I am after really, unfortunately, these always come at a price and so I did find them Raptors and I am regretting why I want to get them. First, the 36GB drives are no longer available. Second, the 74GB Raptors are over priced with a minimum 660Dhs, 750Dhs for a Raptor X. Just learning these prices sent me back to earth and I am having second thoughts if I am going for prestige over practicality. To make the long story short, I have a 40GB Hitatchi 2.5" HDD and just recently purchased a Pretec 256MB Flash Disk for 45Dhs (It was a steal of a deal). At the same time, my dad brought over my "defective" 40GB hard disk which was not working in the Philippines. I just felt lucky to get it working and finally came to a conclusion that my 350W PSU could no longer supply the power. Unfortunately, it seems that the Seagate Hard Drive was showing 4KB of bad sectors which for me is always a bad thing. No matter how big the drive, having bad sectors hurt. It’s like having your favorite shirt stained and cannot be removed. Well, spent at least a day doing diagnostics and zero-fill formatting and what do you know, it is up and running without any problems. I just hope it stays that way. Anyways, my main problem now is that I want to use SATA I/II, unfortunately, I ended up with a PATA drive, it may not be SATA and may not be the fastest but at least I have my MP3s back and a place to take a dump. =)

My wife always tells me what a pessimist I am and that is so true. Majority of you that have read on my articles have always mentioned warnings, DOs and DON’Ts and a whole lot of things that you think will never happen. Well, with a little bit of luck and prayer, they shouldn’t but you mustn’t take for granted the wisdom that I share for one day it may be you or your friends and since you are not in the land you call home, it will be a test of how your guts can handle it.
Aside from this, you know how critical I am about Pinoy movies, particularly movies made about Dubai and the Filipino expats. Yes, life is better here than compared to Saudi Arabia but that doesn’t mean that this place is a goldmine. The movie I am referring to is "Dubai." Majority of the people here use this place as a stepping stone to move forward and succeed but the reality is, not all you see will happen. I personally haven’t seen the movie and it would be unfair for me to attack the movie but I just want to do my part in sharing what I can about it, besides its freedom of speech. What John Lloyd or Aga have in Dubai do not come by easy, whether having a good salary or desert safari, these are things which don’t come to you the minute you arrive. These are things I doubt a common Pinoy can afford. Whether you’ve seen Friendster pictures about some of your friends being in a Desert Safari or to Ski Dubai, no one can easily afford going there unless its a company outing or you got someone inside that can give you a discounted price. Don’t be so gullible thinking that these will come to you easy, so the most important thing you have here in Dubai is being able to communicate and bond with the people around you. They may smell and talk funny, whether Kabayan or whatever you call ‘em, having contacts and learning the ways to manipulate them as well as getting yourselves manipulated properly, you can get around.
Anyways, back to the film, majority of the film will show them having a good time, of course this is how the plot of the story goes. Even on other films, of course they show the good things before they get to the conflict of the story. Th bottom line is, there is no gold at the end of the rainbow and what the film says about Dubai is not always true. You make your own fortune but you always need to have luck and prayer by your side. You should also remember your true purpose here, without purpose you have no objective and though I hate to say it, you will have to sacrifice personal happiness to get where you want to go, nothing is as easy as it seems. Below is a recent article in Gulf News on how "Dubai" has affected immigrant workers moving here… Post your personal feed back about it…

Immigration & Visas

Movie cited as factor in increasing visit visa violations

Dubai: There is a rise in the number of Filipino job-seekers working illegally in the UAE on visit visas to achieve the easy life portrayed in last year’s Filipino movie Dubai.
Dubai, the movie, opened late last year to audiences in the Philippines and other countries, including the UAE. Many have criticised the movie as painting an unrealistically rosy picture of life for the average Filipino worker.
Rafael Palencia, an officer in charge of assisting Philippine nationals, told Gulf News that an estimated 600 to 700 Filipinos are now entering the UAE daily, most of whom seek jobs. He said last year’s figures were between 400 and 500 people daily. "The movie had something to do with that," he said.
He added that the consulate’s workload in dealing with visit visa violations and problems associated with it has doubled as a result. Up to seven Philippine visit visa violators have also been deported in two weeks.
Some are "willing victims" while others are victimised by unscrupulous employers, who tell the Filipinos to work on their visit visa during the probationary period, Palencia said. The increase in arrivals and visit visa violations has prompted the consulate to renew their warning to travel agents in Manila to remind visit visa holders that they were not allowed to work on the visa.
Filipino social organisations said although the movie was not totally to blame, when coupled with unscrupulous travel agents and high unemployment rate, it has turned Dubai into "the promised land" for many Filipinos.
Yankee Mellijor, president of the Bisdak Association which helps visit visa holders find legitimate work in the UAE, told Gulf News that many agents and recruiters cite the movie when selling visit visas to Filipino job-seekers.
"I have spoken to a few people who said the agents told them how nice Dubai was, how easy it was to find a job, how much money they can make just like in the movie," he said.
He added that not many Filipinos would find the job that would give them the lifestyle they see in the movie.

It’s funny how supportive we are about Eddie Garcia. He portray his roles very well and is a very good actor and comedian. Nothing exemplifies the Filipino male than the man Eddie Garcia, also known as Manoy. His punch lines are great and the way he goes with women is something most of us wish we have. For those late in his generation, one of the true things about Eddie Garcia before he moved to telenovela was his womanizing ways in films. Although most of the viewers know what he is doing is wrong, he always gets his lovin’ from his wife and his mistresses. Whether he be a crook or hero, it is up to you to judge. Of course you can always look up Joey Marquez and he also has mastered the art.
Though my post has really no relation to Eddie G. It does have a relation to womanizing. As you can see below, I just picked up an article from Gulf News and people don’t seem to get the idea about the rules and regulations in Dubai when it comes to relationships. I know it is unfair for me to judge character over this but let me justify the damage being done, for what I say is true. I don’t want to sound righteous but sometimes, I feel bad for the woman, since she just lost an opportunity for a better life. I was just wondering why this man did not do the right thing, either marry the lady before she gave birth or send her home, of course there is always worse news that she is married to someone in the Philippines and basically has no way out. Now, they are on a FREE honey moon one-way trip back to Manila. Read the article below:

Police and The Courts

Child born out of wedlock lands couple behind bars

Dubai: A child, born out of an extra-marital relationship, has landed a Filipino couple behind bars.
The Dubai Public Prosecution had charged the man, identified as J.R., and his mistress, identified as L.N., with having an illicit relationship. The woman was also charged with consuming liquor.
The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced each of them to a month in jail on Monday. The woman was also fined Dh2,000 for taking liquor. They will be deported after serving their prison terms.
Police heard that the couple were having an illicit relationship and after the woman gave birth, the medical reports proved that J.R. was the father. They were taken in for questioning.
In their statement to the police and public prosecution, the couple confessed to the charges.

Yes, it is lonely here in Dubai sometimes but this is not your Philippine stomping ground. You can have your way with women but be responsible enough when the time calls for it. Your purpose here is basic, to earn enough money to secure yourself or support your love ones back home. However, if you get into a situation as mentioned in the article, you should act fast. It is not the end of the world if you move quickly. You are not only screwing your life but the life of the other person who the first place wanted to come here and do the same. In the Philippines, the guy always has an easy way out, but here, you have the chance of getting back to Manila free of charge, of course you have to end up in jail first and never be able to come back to Dubai. So guys, let me warn you, you can be macho and you can get laid but time it properly and take responsibility, because you can screw two other lives and more as well as yours. And as for the ladies, if you are married, know you vows, try to live by it or at least if you want to get sexual and all, get protected.

It seems pretty lame when the childhood memories I have had with my brother is when the two of us where "nagsusubuan" ng cheese puffs back then. It wasn’t just lame, it seemed pretty gay to my uncle. My brother is the longest breastfed baby in my family, I think three years and my mom as well as my sisters hate his guts, sometimes. He fixes his hair more often than 5 people combined and is the so called heart throb… Yes, being a Martinez carries the "handsome gene." He is the "official" engineer of the family and will carry the Martinez legacy forward. Although we have had our share of sibling rivalries, it doesn’t matter. Specially when you are away from family, you tend to forget all the wrongs done to you back then and think more of how exciting it will be once your brothers comes to Dubai. To you bro… Happy Birthday. We love yah…