MacBirthday

After weeks of my notebook's (Dell 510M) failing keyboard saga, 

I courted my wife, Grace, for a notebook upgrade. Finally !!!  I got 

my first MacBirthday ( Will there be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc... 

wondering ?... ). She took a big chunk from our savings.  We have 

a house government,  if I'm the president, Grace is the treasurer or 

budget officer. No funding  for the president without going through 

the approval of the budget  officer, hehehe... Another thing, I really

need to ask for her permission  because we're spending the 

holiday season in the Philippines and we're  shelling out a huge 

amount from our savings for our airfares and  allowances while 

we're in the Philippines. I can't blame her for her hesitations on a 

notebook upgrade, because it's a bit pricey. I respect all her 

decisions.  But I don't know what made her changed her mind with 

this one. Maybe it  was the "don't spend money on expensive parts 

then later fix it again, instead buy a new one" tactic, or the pathetic 

look on my face while using the notebook with exposed internals, 

hehehe...

The failing keyboard wasn't actually a plot and I thought it was really 

failing. I even thought of buying an expensive replacement built-in 

keyboard from Dell or from used components shops in Akihabara. 

The keyboard problem was really annoying and it even caused 

dropped frames and skipped audio packets while recording the 

Sunday service in the church in my notebook. 

While reseating the keyboard connector, I noticed that when the bottom

of the keyboard unit hits the metallic case of the internal optical drive, 

it would signal key pressed events. A simple DIY (do-it-yoursel) fix is 

what revived the 4.5 year old notebook. I just covered some areas of 

the bottom of the keyboard unit that hits metal parts, with thin layer of

electrical tape, to act as an insulator. It was a "quick and dirty" fix, but

it seems stable and working well. This fix looks like it will give the 

notebook another 3-4 years of service. ;-)

One time I went to an electronic store and I saw the aluminum

Macbook for the first time. I was totally impressed with the sleek

aluminum unibody, the LED backlit glossy display, and the glass

multi-touch trackpad. I showed my wife the reason why Macbook

is the top candidate for my notebook upgrade. The new Macbook

is one of the sturdiest notebook out in the market today, because 

of its aluminum unibody. The NVIDIA chipset is also a good addition

to the hardware update, giving the Macbook more graphic processing

muscle compared to the previous chipset. The only thing I hate with

this machine is the missing firewire port (IEEE 1394) which render

my HDV cam useless on this machine. However, I was able to fix 

my other notebook for HD video streaming tasks.

The unibody Macs are a bit pricey compared to the previous

polycarbonate Intel Macs. But if you bump up a similarly or 

slightly higher specd Dell systems with a LED backlit display,

internal bluetooth and type N wireless, it would also jack up

the price almost similar to the price of an aluminum Mac and

loosing the prestige and benefit of using the glamorous

Mac OS-X. 

One thing I really like with current Macs is the capability to boot

Windows, thanks to Bootcamp. There are times I'm really required

to use Windows XP, particularly MS development tools, some

devices and applications that only work on Windows. Being a

PC user, I find OS-X  is easier  than XP, and miles away better

than Vista (I hate Vista's interface ;-) ). The OS-X graphical 

interface is more similar to KDE and the console to that of a UNIX

systems, since it has UNIX ancestry. OS-X is quite sluggy on 

some applications but I still find OS-X way better and stable than

the current Microsoft's offering Vista. I'm not being biased, but I

really find Vista's system and interface a bit bloated. I'm not seeing

myself loading Vista on this machine in the near  future, not  until

Microsoft fixes Vista or optimizes whatever the next Windows

release will be. I'm still satisfied with XP, hehehe ...

Pictures to show why the new Macbook is indeed the perfect

upgrade for me ... ;-)





I won't go into detailed benchmark with the CPU and graphic

performance, I can just leave that to Engadget and other sites,

you can just google for those sites and see how the current

Macbook performs. As for me, I find the unibody aluminum 

Macbook a perfect upgrade, software and hardware wise.

And lastly, a blessing and a wonderful birthday present from

my loving wife ...

Extended Family

Another definition of church is "family" this is the one thing I have taken so lightly. Its difficult to explain but I could feel the love and care for one another at New Hope Yokohama. Last Sunday we had a Thanksgiving Party and citizens from their respective country presented something. Everybody was encouraged to say something about their country through dance, music, games, drama etc. For us, my Filipino friends made a powerpoint presentation about the Philippines and sang a song of confession titled " The Philippines is for Christ".

There was only one service that day and after that the party began, It was a very joyful party. It was like a big family reunion.
Kei the bassist observing a booth hmmmm...
The Filipino family, Mabuhay!
Variety of delicious food from all over the globe
My wife`s maja blanka sold out !
Tan tan the pastor and Jason the half Filipino half Hawaiian funny huh
Kazuya the beat boxer yeah!
Me doing some rounds, tried a Japanese wig.
Yuuichiro the sound man with Hiroshi funny guys!
Japan presentation
Jowelle at the Tech booth
Grace with our Toru the pastor
Family picture
Jireh and Koa

Tambourine

Today I was at the frontline again and the new thing is, for the first time I played with the tambourine and it was great. All glory belongs to God.
Only one week before my two sweethearts go to a long vacation in the Philippines...sad but not for long anyway. Christmas is just around the corner but before that New Hope Yokohama will have an International Festival yahoo! cant wait for that. We will be having a presentation about the good side of our country. Got to take a lot of pictures!

Worship Lead

Last Sunday I was assigned to lead one song for the first time . I was nervous and felt humbled to lead, it was a privelege for me. I practiced the whole week and the difference when your in front is that you are not just singing to the King of Kings but worshipping together with the church. Worship is not just the skills or talent but God looks at the heart. I made it through the two services by God`s grace. All glory belong to Him.

MTB and Family

Who says you cant mix family and MT biking? last weekend I had a great time with my family, my I used my wife`s granny bike and she took care of Xam for me. FYI my wife was the first person to tumble down with Xam. Anyway we went to Minami Osawa just to window shop and also have family bonding. We passed along the park at the back of Machida Technopark so we could have a good view of Sagamihara City. Erika was very thrilled to ride with me, since I was the one using the customized "Granny with child seat" bike I rode like it was a roller coaster ride for her. After an hour of riding we arrived at Minami Osawa, we rested for a while and strolled around the area for some good buys or just plain window shopping. For me it was quality time for my wife and daughter because I am not available during week days.
Me...
Peewee with Xam...Im nervous!
Erika rides with me at first class

After a long ride we enjoyed ramen at Taishouken.

After a few days, Jowelle also bought Grace an new Granny Bike so we could all ride together. Riding in Convoy is fun. From our home we went to Kobuchi Hard off looking for another good buy. I was looking for a guitar amp and acoustic processor for my Martin alternative X guitar, instead my wife got lots of good stuff. Grace and Jowelle bought some stuff too.
Outside hard off...Erika at first class seat and Andre at the economy seat..Grace rides with Jmee

Riding and Shopping could be tiring so we took a stop over at Big Boy and ate our dinner there.
The Pinlac family

The Lagadon Family

We ordered hamburger steak and the delicious eat all you can salad and soup bar.

Riding with our family is worth more than the nice trails we could ever imagine.

The bargains my wife bought...good stuff from hard off...
Whatever life would bring I know one thing just enjoy the ride of your life!