O'Ini Taste of Kapampangan , Kid's Venue and Ryu Ramen and Curry

Well, the title says it all I guess.

February 22, 2014, +maria cessna galecio and I, went up to Antipolo to visit Thirdy. He's been staying at his grandparents' house for the last two weeks.

His yaya, Rona, wanted to go home to Samar and stay there indefinitely. We tried having Tita Fe take care of Thirdy at home by herself, with my parents helping once in a while. Still, Thirdy really is a handful and he needs someone watching him all the time. So after a week, we decided to bring Thirdy to Antipolo and have him stay there for a few weeks.

So on that day, we wanted to check up on Thirdy and spend some quality time with him. We left home before noon, dropped by the Columbarium, and then got hungry by the time we reached Katipunan Avenue.

Chea learned via PopTalk about a new eatery in XavierVille named O'Ini Taste of Kapampangan. It got positive reviews so we decided to give it a try.

It's actually beside the building which housed a spa Chea and I went to before. I forgot the name though.

From the onset, I had problems with O'ini. First of all, it had no parking. The sidewalk in front of it could only afford a single car, parked parallel to the street. And if someone did decide to park in front of it, well, they'd block the entire entrance of the canteen.

So we asked the guard of the building next to O'ini if we can park there for a while to have lunch. Fortunately, he agreed. Probably because it was Chea who asked. And I doubt any guard could say no to a sweet pretty woman like my wife. Which is why I always let my wife do the talking.

The dishes

O'ini is basically divided into two parts. The main area fronting the street is open air, and all of the dishes are there, behind a glass counter. That's where you basically order your food. This is nice, since if you're not dining in, you can just wait there and not take up space in their dining area.

The pretty wifey. Behind her are the seats and tables

The view indoors.

The second area is the dining area with the tables and seats behind a glass partition. I don't remember if there was air conditioning, but it was cool at the time we were eating despite it being the middle of the day.

The soda in cans were sold at 40 pesos. This was at 65. Do the math.

Free soup.

Since the food was already prepared, there wasn't any wait. I ordered the Dinuguan, while Chea ordered Binagoongan.

Dinuguan. Good enough.

The dinuguan was ok. There was a lot of meat and some chunks of coagulated blood. But the pork blood stew was very thin. It was a bit sour than most, but that's ok in my book.

Binagoongan. Very salty.

The Binagoongan was definitely salty. So if you're not into salty dishes, you should consider avoiding this. It's basically meat covered with a lot of bagoong.



Chea and I each had a platter of rice but I found the servings a bit small. Chea had to give part of hers to me as I was still hungry. So if you're a normal rice eater like me, chances are you should be ready to order for another platter. The bad part is that each serving is about 20 pesos. I wanted to actually order another plate of rice even after eating part of Chea's, but I found the 20 peso price tag too much. It's just a matter of principle I guess.

Since both dishes had more meat than there were spoonfuls of rice, we decided to have them packed to go, and eat it when we get to Antipolo.

Another complaint of mine was the price. Each dish cost about 70 - 80 pesos which I found a bit expensive if they're trying to pass off as a canteen-style food establishment. Even the canteens in Ortigas serve dishes anywhere from 40-70 pesos. And even some food establishments in most foodcourts in the malls serve dishes around the 80 peso price tag, that already includes a serving of rice.

With O'ini, it's basically 100 pesos everytime you eat there. It's probably acceptable, given the area. It is of course Xavierville, so 100 pesos is practically change for the people who frequent the area.

After lunch, we went to Antipolo, and arrived at Maia Alta before 1pm. Thirdy was sleeping when we arrived, but half an hour or so, we decided to wake him up so we can spend the afternoon with him awake. We weren't planning to stay overnight. Around 4pm, Chea decided she wanted to take Thirdy out so we cleaned him up and went to SM Masinag, with just the three of us.

I've only been there once, but only to pay some bills so I never got to check out the entire place, so this was the first time I've had a chance.

We looked for an activity play store for Thirdy and found Kid's Venue. Chea was wearing a dress, so she was having second thoughts if she could chase around Thirdy. We decided to just pay for about 15 minutes (60 pesos on a weekend) so there'd be a less likely chance of her having a wardrobe malfunction. Lol. She also had to buy socks from them since she didn't have any on.

Kid's Venue. Where's Thirdy?

The 15 minutes felt long enough, and the place was small enough, that somehow Thirdy spent up most of his stored up energy and Chea didn't have to chase him all around.

The rates. A bit expensive in my opinion.

When they finished, I asked Thirdy if he enjoyed himself and he said "opo" when i prompted him to. When I asked if he still wanted to play, he said "play" too. I told him that we'd come back again next week, and he didn't resist when we started walking away from Kid's Venue.

There's about 2 to 3 employees at any given time. Two at the counter and one inside.

Kid's Venue at SM Masinag is pretty ok for 4 yr olds and less I think. They have inflatable bouncers that younger kids would like. Unfortunately, they don't have pipes and tunnels they can go through or ropes, ladders and bars that they can climb that the more active and older kids would enjoy. The place is big enough for toddlers to walk around, but small enough for their guardians not to get tired chasing around the kids.

The price is pretty cheap especially if you compare it to the bigger play centers like Active Fun. However, i still find it pretty expensive with an hour costing 180 pesos on a weekend.

After that, we headed back to Antipolo to drop off Thirdy and head back home. During the drive, Thirdy fell asleep at around 8pm and we were told that he actually slept until 8am the next day.

We then drove home and picked up Nina (Cyrus' girlfriend) at the MRT2 Santolan Station. We didn't have dinner yet, so Chea opted to stop over at the UP Diliman Town Center.

Chea wasn't in any particular mood for anything, but I was definitely craving for some noodles, so we decided to try our Ryu Ramen and Curry. It was the first time we were eating there, so we have no idea what to have and what the prices were.

Ramen should be yellow and Curry should be red. Just my opinion.

Since UP Diliman Town Center is small, there were only a few food establishments there, so most of them packs easily. So when we entered Ryu, we had to wait for about about 5 minutes even if it was already 9 pm. We looked at the menu, and most of it were expensive. Most of the ramen dishes were around 300 pesos which is about 100 pesos more than I was willing to pay for noodles.

I whispered that to Chea later and she commented that she ate a 600 pesos ramen in a Makati restaurant. Pricey.

We asked for smaller bowls.

When we were seated, I commented that the servings look big and I don't think we could finish them with one serving each. So Chea opted to just order two, and share it among the three of us. She ordered their bestseller, Tantamen (310 pesos) and some other I can't remember.

We ordered the mild variants as I've mentioned before, Chea and I aren't into spicy food. I think we repeated the word "mild" several times to the waitress to stress that fact.

While looking at the other tables, we saw that the bowls looked big and since Nina just ate, and Chea was still full, Chea thought that we might not even be able to finish two bowls of ramen. So she had the other dish cancelled, and ordered the breaded pork cutlets with curry.

They didn't serve bottomless drinks so I settled for a single glass of iced tea. I found it too strong, so I had to water it down with another glass of water.

Iced tea. Passed on the soda this time.

The Tantamen arrived first. The bowl was big, so I guess it would be enough for a hungry average sized guy. It had about 2 slices of pork in it, and a few slices of hard boiled egg and the ramen. When I looked at it, there were several small circles of red liquids in the soup. Just looking at it made me think it was spicy.

We asked if this was mild before eating it. The waitress affirmed that it was. But I had my doubts.

Does this look like mild to you?

When the bowl was placed in the serving area, it was placed next to a bowl that was for table no 5. The waitress asked where the 2nd bowl (which ended up at ours) was for, the guy in the kitchen said table 5. The waitress had to clear it up with the guy since table 5 had only one more ramen order. There was some hesitation on the part of the cook, and he had to go through the order slips, and later proclaimed it for table 6 (us).

It looked like he misread the order for table 5, and further misread it as the same previous order of table 5, who, I assume, ordered the spicy variant. Because as soon as I sipped on the soup, it burned its way all the way down my throat. I even had to cough several times whenever I sipped on the soup.

Stirred up the bowl a bit to see what's lurking beneath.

I didn't want to start up a fuss on the order. Since it's still edible, I'm not allergic to it and it's not a dish that I'll never ever consider eating, I just let it go. So we just ate the ramen as is, which was pretty hot.

The pork curry arrived later. I ate a small chunk of the pork and it tasted like regular breaded pork, just with some curry on it. I don't remember how much it cost, but it's something I wouldn't pay more than 200 pesos for.

Pork curry.

Aside from the order mix up, another complaint is the water. I asked for a glass of water and even with the glass sitting a few inches in front of me, I could see something floating in it. It looked liked piece of vermicelli a few millimeters long.

I'm not sure if they didn't wash the glass correctly, or the water pitcher, but we asked to have it replaced. I was actually amused to see the waitress get another glass, put some water in it from the same pitcher, and held it up for a while to see if there was anything floating in it, before coming over and handing it over to us.

Honestly, they should have dumped the contents of the pitcher and filled it up again before putting the water into the new glass.

Good thing I'm not as delicate as other customers as I still eat fishballs and other street foods.

After that, we headed to Novaliches, dropped off Nina at her place and headed home.

Of bedtimes and lullabies

Thirdy loves music.

I think that's the reason why he loves watching commercials. Especially the ones with the catchy tunes. Just one perky note, and he goes off with his crazy little dance moves.

So it's no wonder, that it takes music to calm him down.

Whenever I need to put him to sleep, all I have to do is queue his two favorite songs: Moon River by Tanya Donelly and Rainbow Connection by Trespassers William, both from the Sing Me to Sleep - Indie Lullabies album. Crazy right?

You can get the album from Amazon and Itunes

It was Chea's sister who found out that those songs somehow calms him down, way back when he was a few months old.

And now, at 22 months, it's those two songs that still puts him to sleep.

Lately, he's been accustomed to having me carry him, and then sing him those songs. I admit, I'm not the best singer out there, but somehow he likes being sung to.

Here's to the next few years of having someone not complaining of my singing.

The Spectacular Vocabulary of Thirdy

I don't think I get to blog too much about my son, Azriel Manuel Galecio aka Thirdy. I guess it's because most guys my age are too invested in the now. We live it, instead of writing about it.

So when I spend time with my son, it's really about spending it with him. And when I'm not, there are other things that I still do: work, watch the tons of movies and tv shows that I download, read, draw, and eat. There are stuff that I no longer get to do as much as I want to, like photography, develop apps for my own, cook, build things with my own hand, and even blogging. So when I do get to write, it never gets to be about something or someone else but me.

Still, I did start this blog for my son and future children. So they can read about their dear old dad and what it was like for me having them in my life.

Now back to Thirdy. At 19 months, Thirdy's at what I call the Parrot Phase. The reason is that he's repeating basically some of the words that we're telling him. And they're almost clear and complete when he says them.

My adorable son, Thirdy, at 21 months. 

But before I go there, I mentioned about the phases Thirdy's gone through. There was that Sticking Out His Tongue phase, starting when he was about 3 months old. That was due to some of his baby teeth coming out.

There was his Bouncy Phase, when he was almost a year old, when he could stand up by holding the sides of his crib, and then he'd bounce crazily for a few seconds.

There's his Screaming Phase, where he'd scream at the top of his lungs, probably amused with the attention he gets when he does it.

The Walk and Grab Phase, when he'd walk around like a drunk guy and just grab whatever he can lay his hand on, like an old drunk pervert. 

Then there's that Throwing Phase,  where he throws all his toys, which is why we've amassed a ton of plushies.

And now he's at that Parrot Phase, that basically finds Thirdy repeating whatever we said. I guess it started a few months back already, when he was able to enunciate Tatay and Nanay (Chea and I preferred being called this) very clearly. He calls Chea's parents Mama and Papa, while he calls mine, Lolow and Oya (I don't understand why he cant pronounce Lola correctly when he can say Lolo).

Then there's Anchie (Aunt Chie, Chea's sister), Tin (Kuya Justine, his cousin), Rona (his yaya), TaFe (Tita Fe, Chea's aunt).

Then there's Abee/Jabee (Jollibee), Dodo (McDonalds). Right now, he's starting to enunciate some of the words he hears from us correctly, like Promise (He got that from watching Honesto), Morning, Dog, Ming (Cat), Fish (currently his favorite animal. He loves the Kois at Divine Word columbarium, not to mention our stay at H2O hotel in Manila, which I'll blog about soon, and watching Youtube videos with fishes).

Just earlier he repeated the word "apat" when my mom said it while talking to one of my nieces. He still says "Mik" when he wants his milk though. And he says a hard "Kok" whenever he sees me drinking something dark colored.

He knows "moon" and he regularly says it out loud while looking upwards whenever we're outside. He says "Keys" when he sees us getting ready to go out. He says "opis" when he's asked where we are when we're not at home. He really likes his shoes, because when he wears one, it means we're going out, so he often calls out "choos" and starts looking for them.

One of his favorite words is "swim", since he really loves the water.

But even training him to use English, he's still saying a lot of Tagalog words he's picking up whenever people are talking around him like "karga" or "abas" (labas). "Ayaw" is one of the first Tagalog words he learned and keeps on using it. Then there's "indi" (Hindi).

Anyway, it's fun that he's starting to learn to use words. At least we're able to communicate with him especially when he's uncomfortable and he says words like "poopoo". He's even starting to sing with me, when I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to him (whereas he just used to open and close his hands mimicking the actions taught to him at that Music Learning school Chea used to bring him to). Of course, none of the the things that came out from his lips were actual words, but he really likes music (he always dances when he hears them, at least now, he's singing too).

Can't wait to hear him say "I Love you Nanay" and "I Love you Tatay" clearly.

Return to Gilmore (A journey of two laptops)

For those of you who live within Metro Manila, I'm sure you're familiar with places here that are hubs for one thing or another. If you're a gear head, then it's Banawe Ave in QC or Evangelista Street in Makati for you. If it's textiles, it's Divisoria. Flowers? Dangwa. And if you're into computers, there's no better place than Gilmore Avenue in QC.

I learned about PC Options in Gilmore way back in the late 90s. It was the only computer shop back then. Over the years, several computer shops started their business there and became successful enough to open several branches all over the country. From a single building hosting PC Options, several more sprouted along Gilmore Avenue and even along the other nearby streets that it has become the de facto place for all your computer needs.

So when my mom wanted to have my niece's laptop fixed, the first place that came to my mind was Gilmore. There were a few shops in Gilmore I.T. center that repairs laptops.

The last time I went to Gilmore was sometime last year, when my main desktop PC / HTPC (home theater pc) died and i went to buy a replacement. So my mom, my dad and I headed to Gilmore yesterday (January 18, 2013, after dropping by at Divine Word Columbary first) and I was planning to head straight to Gilmore I.T. center, but even before we got out of the car, there were several guys asking us if we wanted to have our laptops fixed. I guess they saw the two laptops in the backseat (I brought my brother's old powerbook to get a replacement power adapter).


While my dad waited for a parking space, my mom and I decided to follow this guy who offered laptop repair services. We went around the corner back to Aurora boulevard and headed away from Gilmore for about 50 meters. I was surprised to find another building housing several computer shops, but mostly they specialized in repairs rather than sales. Based on the addresses plastered on some of shop signs, the place is called Gilmore Area, Valencia 4.

Digital Workz. The first shop we went to. Should've skipped them.

The guy referred us to a repair shop named Digital Workz. My mom explained that nothing displayed on the laptop screen. They told us that it will take an hour and about 2500 pesos. My mom was surprised at the price, so she agreed to have it fixed there. As per the policy of most of the repair shops, if they can't fix it, we won't have to pay. And if they do managed to fix it, then it's a steal. My niece asked around some of the repair shops she found, and they quoted her about 4,000 pesos and above.

Now, I'm an electronics and communications engineer by education, and I'm a software developer by profession, so I do know a few things around computers more than most people and i found the price and the time to fix it a bit iffy.

I guess they primarily say boastful things to encourage the client to have business with them. So the price is probably the cheapest they'd ask of you, and the hour is the fastest turn around they'd say. But once they get to look at the laptop, that's the only time they'd truly know what the problem is, and how much it would actually cost. And there's a pretty good chance that they're pulling a fast one.

Take my niece's laptop for example. The LCD on it doesn't display anything although the laptop has power, as the led indicators are on. You can't say that it boots up, since there is no display. A computer does not boot up if the processor or motherboard is defective, and sometimes even the memory. Since i can't check the processor or memory as I don't have spares lying around, there's still a chance of checking if it's the LCD. Most laptops have video out connectors (vga/hdmi/etc) to connect to external monitors. If it's a bad lcd screen, inverter, etc, there would still be a display to an external monitor, unless it's a bad video card/chip. And if that's the case, 2500 pesos is already cheap to get those replaced. But back home, I already tested the external display when I connected it to one of our LCD TVs that had a VGA port. So the laptop powers up, it seems to be booting as the indicators were blinking, and there's no display on an external monitor. So it's likely a bad video card/chip or a board level problem.

Which is why it made me think that these guys are trying to hoodwink customers when they quoted a price first. You can get the memory, hard drive, inverter, connectors, other easily replaceable parts, and even the LCD screen for less than 2,500 pesos depending on your laptop. And if you don't know anything about computers, then you probably don't know that most laptops won't boot up if defective hardware like memory and a hard drive could prevent your machine from booting up. And sometimes, when it comes to memory modules, all you have to do is clean the contacts with a plain old pencil eraser. So just imagine, if your main problem was dirty contacts, you'd be paying someone 2,500 pesos to rub a pencil eraser on the memory modules.

I'm even thinking, that once they found out that the problem is with a defective replaceable part, they'd quote a replacement part on top of the 2,500 pesos they've initially asked you for. So if it's a broken memory module, they might ask you to buy a replacement for them and I'm thinking that it's not honestly priced. A 2nd hand 4 gigabyte (standard for current laptops) memory modules can be bought for less than 1,000 pesos. So if they don't even quote that price on top of the 2,500 pesos service fee, that's still at least a 1,500 peso profit.

If you don't know these things, there's a big chance you're getting ripped off.

While waiting I looked around for a replacement charger for my brother's old Apple Powerbook G4.  Now like any smart buyer, I did my research first. It's rare to find any new and original power adapters for sale for a laptop last manufactured on 2006. You can only find replacements and I searched them online. I opted not to buy anything that requires shipping from outside the country or even within. There's a big chance that they're defective, and you can't replace them if they fail within the warranty period without spending for the shipping.

So I looked diligently for Philippine sellers that were willing to meet up or pick the item up at their place. My condition was that we should be able to test the power adapter with the laptop. The cheapest I could find was 1,500 pesos and was willing to meet anytime. I agreed to buy the power adapter, and we decided to meet at Trinoma at around 6pm, in a Starbucks where they have power outlets.

While looking around, I found a couple of shops that had 2nd hand adapters, only, they sold it for upwards of 1,800 pesos. Of course i found it incredulous so I declined.

I went back to Digital Workz where my mom was waiting, and asked if they had a powerbook G4 adapter to test if the laptop would turn on as I wasn't sure that it was the only problem. They said yes, so I went back to the car to get the powerbook.

When I found my dad I asked him if he wanted anything to eat as it was about 4pm, and he's used to taking merienda during that time. Shakey's was no longer at the Gilmore I.T. center, replaced by the new convenience store The Family Mart, which seems to be popping up everywhere (there's quite a few already in Ortigas). Even the big PC Express store was replaced by a Mini Stop and a drug store I think.

There's a chinese deli around the side of Gilmore IT center, so I brought my dad there. He settled for a meat bun, so we went back to the car where he ate his merienda, and I picked up the laptop. On the way back, several guys were again hustling me (which i think is the correct term at that time, instead of being hassled) for laptop repairs. I tried to ignore them, but then there was this guy who stuck to me all the time, and he introduced himself as the one who brought us to the repair shop earlier. I tried to ignore him, as I already knew where to go, and it irked me that he needed to escort me all the way back. It seems to me that he's earning for every client he walks to the repair shop. It irritated me because he had nothing to do with what I was planning this time around. I know that he's just trying to earn money, but you have to remember, whatever the repair shops are paying him, is mostly likely being taken from you.

When I got back to the shop, the guy then acted like he was again referring me to the same shop. Turns out that they didn't have the correct power adapter, as they only had the magsafe adapters for the newer apple laptops.

A little bit later, my concerns were affirmed. They could not repair my niece's laptop, so they referred it to the adjacent shop. It seems that their method of repairing, is replacing all of the replaceable parts and checking if that worked. So imagine that, 2500 pesos for troubleshooting, and if they lucked into a bad replaceable part, they'll just replace that and ask you to pay 2500 (for a part that most likely sells for less than 1,000 pesos) or more, if they can convince you that the part is more than 2500. This is likely, because we were never told that if a part needed to be replaced, that the 2500 was not enough to cover it.

Motherboard repair. Looks promising.

The next shop over looked like they could do a board level repair (like replacing chips on the motherboard as well as reballing for ball grid connections) since they have a few equipment there, not to mention that I saw this guy soldering something on a laptop's main board. So this one shop made me ease up a bit, since it looks like they know what they're doing.

The hustler then spoke with guys at the other shop (PBM Computer Repair Center, I think), and I overheard the hustler saying Digital Workz couldn't fix it, explained the problem, and then said that the agreed price was 2500. So the guys at PBM  took the laptop, but had to put it aside first as they were still working on a couple of laptops.

The hustler, again asked me to have the powerbook looked at by the PBM guys. I then explained to him that I just wanted to check if the powerbook was still working by testing it with a power adapter. If it wasn't I'm willing to have it checked, but not agreeing to have it repaired. Apple laptops are notorious for expensive and hard-to-source parts and I'm not willing to spend more for an old laptop than the power adapter. PBM did have the correct power adapter, and the powerbook turned on a few seconds after it was connected to a power source.

The hustler then pestered me for a few minutes trying to convince me to buy the adapter for 1,800. I told him that I already had a seller I was meeting later, and I was getting it for 1,500 pesos. He then asked the shop owner if they could sell the adapter to me for 1500, to which he reluctantly agreed. Again, the hustler kept trying to convince me to get the adapter already, saying we're already there, and the warranty's good for a few months (I was barely listening) and they'd replace it if it failed within the period. He seriously ticked me off, and I felt harassed. I then spoke in a strong voice that I had already made a promise to buy from the other seller. Just to get him off my back, I gave him the smallest bill on me (50 pesos) and told him it was for testing the laptop using their adapter. He took it and left.

The other laptop repair shops.

It was already 5 pm that time so I texted the seller of the power adapter that I might not make the 7 pm meet up. Around 6 pm, it was the seller's delivery guy who texted me and we agreed to move the schedule, to about 8 pm.

By that time, my mom had a chance to chat with some of the employees of one of the shops. I won't mention which one. We then got a clearer picture of how things worked around there.

The non-technician employees were mostly helpers. They're the ones who got ordered around to pick up supplies and whatnot. They get paid about 300-350 pesos a day, with free lunch.

Now the hustlers, they were different. They were paid 400 pesos a day to loiter along Gilmore Avenue to look for potential customers. They also get paid for every successful referral to a shop. The pay is different depending on how much the shop earns from servicing the laptop. So that 2500 we were supposed to pay? At least 500 of it goes to the hustler.

So if you're like me (or my mom who's the one footing the bill) who works hard for every centavo, that 500 peso commission is just too much.

I will pay for the cost of the replacement part, I am more than willing to pay the services of the technician, and I am willing to pay a little money as profit for the owner, but I'm never one who likes to overpay, especially for a service I've never asked for in the first place. Now, if you're reading this, and you want to get your laptop repaired, just ignore everyone and head straight to a repair shop.

Around 6:30 pm, the PBM tech still couldn't fix the laptop (I saw the guy replacing the processor with another one and it still won't display anything), so we agreed to be back for it on Monday. So we headed back to the car where my dad was waiting.

When we got there, my dad started telling us what happened to him while he waited in the car. He said he was inside the car eating his meat bun, when he felt that the car rocked a bit. He looked to the passenger side of the car, and saw a car with its door open with an old lady getting out, while clutching a baby. It seemed that the old lady was too concerned with the child that she didn't realize she bumped my dad's car with their door.

My dad got off, concerned that the lady was having a hard time getting out that she'd hit the car again with their door. My dad approached the driver, who seemed to be her son, and told him that it looked like their door's edge, hit my dad's car and there were a couple of small dents. The guy grumbled that it couldn't have been his door, since that it would mean that his door's edge should have gotten dented as well. Which is pure BS of course, since that part of the door is the sturdiest.

Now my dad is a pacifist, he doesn't like confrontation. So he didn't say anything more, but the old lady started yelling and badgering my dad, saying all sorts of things, like maybe my dad rocked his car on his own. The old lady kept at it for a while, and his son left to whatever shop he was going to. My dad just moved away from the old lady who still kept at it.

By the time we had arrived, they were already gone. The other people who was hanging around the area, spoke up and told us that they saw the whole thing and they said it was really the other party's fault, and they did hit my dad's car with their door. My mom told my dad that it was fortunate that she wasn't there or there'd be a bigger commotion.

I don't like confrontation as well, and I get that from my Dad. That's because I'm hot headed, and I have a short fuse when it comes to family, which I got from my Mom. So I try to avoid confrontation as much as I can. Just thinking of it really pisses me off. My dad's 68 yrs old, from his account, the old lady was around her 50s, and her son mostly likely in his late 20s or early 30s. Now to gang up on a near 70 year old guy who was by himself, who wasn't looking for a fight and was just trying to prevent getting his car hit again, is extremely low. I'll leave you guys to whatever karmaic system your religion has, if you actually practice a religion to begin with.

We then headed to Trinoma to buy the power adapter. I was asked to meet at a Starbucks near J CO Donuts and Mang Inasal. But when we got there, there was no available wall socket to test with. I found one outside of Mang Inasal so we tested there. The laptop turned on, so I paid the guy and then went back to the car.

Liempo!

I think this was a buco pandan drink

We decided to have dinner at Trinoma and headed to the LandMark food court. We ate at Chuck's Steaks ( I actually ate here a few weeks back, it was the weekend before January 8, as I was looking for a gift for my wife, I'll blog about it another time). I ordered Liempo with Java Rice, since I ate the Porkchop with Egg previously. My dad ordered the T-bone (he just loves those), while my mother ordered Chicken from Jollibee.

After the meal, it was already past 8pm, so we headed back to the car and went home.

Update:

The repair shop couldn't fix the laptop either. It's a graphics chip problem and they can't source it from their suppliers. So I guess that laptop's just good for scraps then. Oh well.

The Long Search for a Sound bar - Part IV (JBL wins)

For the past several months (heck, years even), I've been looking for a sound bar for my htpc (Home theather PC, which is basically a personal computer attached to a television).

My old htpc / fileserver used an HDMI cable to output video to my tv. It was able to pass through audio using the same cable as well. The problem was that the tv speakers left much to be desired. You had to crank it all the way up, and still at times couldn't hear the dialogue from some movies. Music never sounded full enough, without that bass.

When that pc broke down, I assembled another, this time with a system unit running on just 50 watts. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same pass through technology on my old unit. So in order to listen to music and watch movies, I just used an old pair of desktop speakers.

Using speakers, I could now listen to music even without the tv on. Unfortunately, the speakers were tinny, so everything sounded bad. It was tolerable to some degree, but again, it didn't have the power to fill up a small living room like ours.

There was always an option of getting better computer speakers. I could even get a decent home theater speaker set up. But i dont have the space for big home theater speakers, and the patience for cluttered cables even from small PC speakers. So the best option for me was a sound bar. A definite upgrade from TV speakers, less the clutter.

Since my last search for a sound bar speaker last October, I've decided to put it off for a while and wait what Thanksgiving sale in the U.S. could offer me. I've been doing online shopping for years and having it shipped here to the Philippines. And for the last four years, I've been buying items at heavily discounted prices during Thanksgiving sale via Amazon. I'll blog about that on another time.

I waited until a few days before Thanksgiving and started to look around Amazon for a good deal. I also checked out Slickdeals a couple of weeks leading to the holiday.

I managed to find a few decent sound bars at roughly 99usd. There were a few well known brands around that range, give or take a few dollars. There were several less popular brands at even half the price, especially when Black Friday came around.

At about 100 - 150 usd, you can even get more than the entry level models that came with subwoofers, wired or otherwise. Some even came with bluetooth. For 6,600 pesos, those are definitely a steal, especially when the basic system here already sells for about 5,000 pesos.

There were models from Philips, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sony being sold at half their price which when bought here, would actually cost thrice or even up to 5 times as much.

JBL for the win, baby!

While browsing slickdeals for soundbars a day or two before Black Friday, I saw an entry about JBL sound bars. It seems that some of them were already being sold at Brick and Mortar stores (term to refer to actual physical stores to differentiate them from their online counterparts). The entry level version, SB100, was being sold for 99 us dollars.

I checked via Amazon, and it was still going for about 150 US dollars, although the item page listed a discount of 89 dollars (down from SRP 239 usd).

I've seen that particular model being sold in the Philippines via some online websites for about 11,000 pesos which was the cheapest. I saw one at S&R being demoed and it sounded spectacular. I wasn't going to buy one for that price, but at 150usd (around 6,600 pesos), it was a steal. But if you factor the shipping price (based on the box dimensions, I was thinking about roughly 4,000 pesos), you'd be better off buying it here, save on the wait, and you could still get warranty and services support.

So i just placed the item in my online shopping cart, and hoped that it go down to 100 usd. If you factor in the shipping, it would probably total to around 8,000 pesos, which would be 3,000 less than the cheapest one you could find locally.

Still, there was an LG sound bar being sold already locally for 5,500 pesos. The next cheapest sound bar was around 8,000 as well. I was thinking I could get one already sans the months of waiting. If I ordered online, since it was near Christmas, I was thinking I'd likely get it by the middle of January.

A better option was to get the other models with the subwoofers being sold at 100-120 us dollars. But with the additional size of the subwoofer, the shipping cost would raise the costs beyond what I'm willing to pay for a subwoofer.

I was originally eyeing the cheap 3 thousand something sound bar from Philips, but which required me to buy a DAC for 800 pesos. So that would end up costing me 4,000 pesos already. Or the 5,500 sound bar from LG, which had the RCA inputs, but was readily available. I was thinking if the additional 2 - 3 thousand pesos would be worth it. Based on what I've heard during the demo, it definitely was.

So I decided to wait. If at any time it went down to 100 dollars, then i'll go for it. If not, I'll just go for the other ones that do. I'll look for better options than the one being sold for 5,500. Worst case scenario, I'll just go back to Robinson's Galleria and buy the one I've eyed there.

JBL SB100. Fresh from the box.

I didn't have to wait too long though, as a few hours before Black Friday started, the JBL SB100 went on sale for 99.95 usd (roughly 5,000 pesos with sales tax and shipping to my courier, who would in turn ship it to me here in the Philippines which I would have to pay for). As these sales were unpredictable (due to availability of stock) I immediately checked out the item for payment. In as short as 5 minutes, I already paid for it, and just waited for the confirmation email.

The rest of the 2013 Black Friday sale saw other sound bars (not JBL makes though) being sold at roughly the same price. Some had the subs, but I never felt the need for it as im not a heavy bass type of guy. Still, I felt the JBL was worth the price of 8,000 including shipping here to the Philippines).

I also took the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday to snatch a few more things on discount, unfortunately, I missed out on the 99usd xbox 360 sale (these are still being sold for about 12,000 pesos in the Philippines for crying out loud).

I did manage to buy 2 sets of Calvin Klein clothes, a Nautica shirt and a Micros short for Thirdy, a logitech wireless keyboard for myself, a Kenneth Cole leather wallet for Chea, 4 PS3 games for a co-worker of mine and a Rubbermaid closet kit that I've been eyeing for several months now (unfortunately, it wasn't on sale at the time, but they're not available locally anyway).

The reason I ordered the other smaller items, since they were on sale, any savings I got, went to the shipping. So even if the shipping costs me about 3,000 pesos, it practically paid for itself as the other items would be put in the same box as the sound bar for shipping. The Kenneth Cole wallet only cost about 1,300 pesos. If i bought it locally (if it was available), would probably be sold at 2,000 pesos at the cheapest. So with that savings, it means I have 700 pesos that can now go to the shipping. The CK apparel set for Thirdy cost about 700 pesos each. Locally, that would only buy you the pants.

So the savings I get from buying the smaller items, are actually paying off the shipping costs from the US to the Philippines.

Now, the hard part is the waiting. Usually, it takes a few days to have the items sent out by Amazon to the courier that I use. But since it was a record breaking Thanksgiving sale that year, I was expecting it to be delayed a bit. Then you have to wait for the courier to receive all the item, pack it in boxes, and then ship it here to the Philippines. Usually that would take another 4 weeks, and if you get lucky (I'm being sarcastic here), your package gets held up at the US customs for checking, and/or get held up again at the Philippine customs.

Anyway, at about 10 am on February 1, 2014, I received all of my Amazon ordered items at home. This was the first time I had packages shipped directly to my house. I used to have these things delivered at work. But I ordered big items that I didn't think would fit in the backseat of our car. So i opted to have them delivered to our house in QC. It was good that I did too as the boxes were big (two of them) and were heavy (especially the closet kit). Not to mention, I was able to receive it on a Sunday as they received the items in their warehouse on a Saturday. I didn't have to wait a day or two.

My two packages. The box lying flat on the ground contains the speaker.

Since it was my first time having it delivered to my home, I was worried they wouldn't be able to find my address. But the delivery guys managed to do so on the first try, and they didn't even need to call me. Some times, they don't get to deliver the packages on the first attempt, so they'd go back to their warehouse and try again the next day or so. And since I saw on Saturday night that the boxes were unloaded in their warehouse, I was hoping they'd deliver it the next day that I decided to stay in for the day. Fortunately, they did deliver it and I was at home to receive the packages.

The main box taken out of the shipping box.

A remote control and a 3.5mm to RCA cable.

TOSLink cable for optical in/out

Manual. There's a PDF version online if you ever lose this one.

After signing and taking pictures (as evidence that I received the boxes), I started unpacking things (took a video of it too to make sure that I received everything in the box, which I did).

The soundbar with its packing materials

The sound bar was inside a bigger box, along with the smaller items. I originally wanted the courier to pack everything inside the sound bar box itself and remove some of the packaging inside. But I guess they decided against it, fearing it would break the sound bar without the packing materials inside.

The sound bar itself.

As it turns out, the sound bar didn't use RCA ports but rather a 3.5mm jack as a line in port. The 3.5mm to RCA cables included was for attaching the cable to RCA jacks on your tv. Since my htpc didn't have RCA plugs, I had to rush to the nearest hardware store (Ace Hardware in SM Novaliches), to buy a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack.

Bracket if you ever need to mount it on a wall.

Bottom of the sound bar.

I tried it in, but couldn't get it to work with my htpc's rear audio panel, whereas the front panel worked immediately. Playing some songs, it sounded absolutely wonderful, especially coming from a pair of plastic desktop speakers.

A closer look of the connections. The power switch and plugs are on the left. On the right, you have a 3.5mm jack, a mono plug for an optional subwoofer, and the optical output.

It took me a while to configure things on my htpc, so I could get audio from the rear panel (I wanted the cables tucked away discreetly).

After that, I tried out a few songs and a couple movies, and I just fell in love with what was coming out of the sound bar. Everything was clear, especially some ambient noises with movies. There was enough bass especially for music. I haven't tried to crank it all the way up, so  I don't know how loud the sound bar could go, but I was able to turn it up to the level I wanted.

The only complaint I could think of was there wasn't a display that would show if I had turned up the volume to the maximum already. Looking at the manual, there isn't anything in there addressing the same thing. I was at least hoping that the volume buttons on the sound bar would turn a certain color if it reached the maximum or minimum settings. No such luck.

The 32 inch long sound bar speaker against my 37 inch LCD Tv

Anyway, the JBL SB100 sound bar sounds great. It's definitely an improvement on the TV's built-in speakers. It only has two connections (analog line in and an optical in) so that's a negative somewhat. But then again, a sound bar really is just designed to be connected to a single source, most of the time a television. If you have an AV component, this isn't the speakers you'd attach them to. With the additional audio in, you have an option for another video source like a blu ray player, a game console, or in my case, an htpc.

Another con would be the price. It's pretty hefty at 8,000 pesos (including shipping). But if you buy it locally at about 11,000 pesos, then it becomes impractical. You could get a 5.1 or 7.1 system for the same price or less on a basic home theater system (the ones that come with a cd, dvd or bluray player) or a somewhat premium PC speaker system.

But since I got it practically at 5,000 pesos (with the shipping cost covered by the savings I had with the other items), it's worth every peso. The sound is absolutely wonderful, and everytime I listen to anything come out of it, I am just amazed at the premium quality of the audio.

Hopefully, this will last me a few years. By that time, I might be thinking of getting a better home audio setup so I could listen to music stored on my htpc anywhere in the house.