There’s this hugely popular Nickelodeon show called Avatar: The Last Airbender.  It’s coming to the big screen in 2010.

The show follows the adventures of Aang, a 12-year-old air bender who disappeared 100 years ago in the midst of a war because he is not yet ready to face his destiny as the new Avatar, master of four elements – air, water, earth, fire – and the only hope of mankind against an evil Fire Lord. He is joined by the brother and sister team of Katara and Sokka, descendants of the water people, and together they venture on a quest to help Aang master the other three elements that would enable him to finally face the Fire Lord who wants to rule the earth.

I didn’t know about this show because I didn’t have a cable subscription like Direct TV up until the last couple of months, but I’m sure glad that I was able to watch it anyway. It’s funny and touching in a way that only children’s tales can be. So if you already have Direct Satellite TV, make sure to switch channels to see if you can find this awesome anime, and watch it before the movie is shown in summer of 2010.

Now, this is one great thing about having a Direct TV service. Another good thing is that even if you have to change locations and move to another state, there won’t be a problem with discontinuing your service. For example, you’re moving to the Big Apple, you’ll still have Direct TV in New York. No worries. So look for Avatar and enjoy watching.

I’m sure you have a few funny cab-riding experiences, but I had this one just a few days ago.  I was running late for work, and starting to feel grumpy,  so I decided to take the first cab I saw. By then, however, I decided that I’d just ask for a change in work schedule because I figured I won’t arrive on time anyway, so I got a little bit more relaxed even when the driver suddenly turned for the gas station without warning.  While filling up his car’s gas tank, he asked me: “Are you in a hurry, Ma’am?” I smiled and said, “Not so much.”  He smiled back, “Well, I am.”  I almost laughed at him but decided against it. Having sparked a conversation, he then proceeded to tell me stories as we went along, from his jealous wife, to his ex-girlfriend, to his previous passengers, and later even about affordable term life insurance rates (the amazing thing is, he’s not even an agent). You’d think we were traveling for hours  with the bulk of stories he shared. Truth is, it hardly took 20 minutes. For what it’s worth, I was terribly amused.

I’m on my new host, Lunarpages. Weee! Allow me a few moments to babble on this.

I just said in my previous post that I do learn things by “loitering” in the world wide web. I’m definitely no expert in computers and all of those technical programming language stuff. But I do surprise myself at times by the risk I’m taking just to see if I can make things work even if I don’t truly understand them. By risk, I mean shelling out more than a few bucks for something that may or may not turn out right for me. Specifically for this post, blogging on a personal domain and on a paid host. The first time I set up this blog, it took me more than two weeks of WordPress installation and re-installations before I was able to have a fully functional site. What I learned is that it requires a great deal of perseverance to achieve your goal by trying to do something you are practically ignorant about; you also need to have an ardent desire to go with it. Lucky for me, I relished the trial and error process even if it robbed me of hours and hours of sleep.

I also announced here that I may have to go offline when I change hosts because I’ll have to reassign the domain nameservers and I’m not really sure if the process will be instant. Without dwelling too much on it, it turned out the site stayed online after all. Which made me happy. Actually, that’s all I really want to say. I’m happy because I now have unlimited server space and bandwidth (this one I don’t think I’ll need), at least for the next two years. Brace yourself for unlimited gibberish from yours truly. (Well, at least if you’re still with me by this point.)

I.ph is back online. Last time I checked, not every blog is back up, but mine, fortunately, got to be among the first restored. Now I can move on to manipulating this domain name to point to the new Web host. 

When I first got the domain [blog-of-z (dot) com], I heed the advice of some people in the forums to register the domain in one company and then get the Web hosting space from another. I’m pretty sure this has an advantage (I don’t really have data to back it up right now) but the only thing I regret is that it seems I won’t be able to use the free 1 year domain registration in my new Web host. Not that it isn’t possible. But the process would require me to provide credit card details, including the critical last three numbers on the back of the credit card. I’m not really up for that. It’s more than just me feeling paranoid at the grocery that my items will get swiped twice under the barcode scanner. I just wouldn’t be comfortable giving away that piece of information. I use PayPal as much as possible for online transactions. Not that you won’t give away credit card details on PayPal but I guess that’s another story.

Anyway, I just hope that I’ll do everything right and not mess up this site. Ok, the first part may be too much to ask but I’m sticking with the last.

I know I said I’m going offline. But my other blog is down since yesterday and I want to have at least one of these thingamajigs visible. For myself. Because I like myself too much.

Just kidding. I like myself just the right amount.

Some time between today and Friday, I’ll be completely transferring this blog to another Web host. That means a downtime of possibly 48 to 72 hours. I’ve been tinkering with the files and databases and have transferred most of them. It looks OK for now (although I’m not yet sure if I’ll have everything that’s showing here: comments, widgets, links, etc.) but I’m a little worried that transferring the domain will mess everything up. We’ll see. Ta-ta for now.

In the meantime, you can find me here.

Broadway Asia’s Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s Cinderella will have the final leg of its tour in Singapore on January 2 to 22. This makes me want to pack my bags and start my year by rewatching this musical. My bestfriend, who’s working as a veterinarian in Singapore, has been inviting me to come over and this seems to be the perfect time to do so. I was promised free board and lodging, where else can I get a travel deal like that, right? I don’t know, I’m still a bit shy to impose and it’s not as if I’ll apply for payday loans just to realize my travel aspirations.

But if you’re in Singapore anytime in those dates, be sure to check out the musical.

I don’t think I have to spell out how and why owning a credit card (or credit cards) can be a cause of real trouble. The temptation to purchase things you don’t really need for amounts you can’t really pay in a credit cycle can sometimes be just too much to fight against. First, you’ll get excited with the notion that because you’ve been approved by a credit card company and they provided you with a decent credit limit, you’re somewhat a little more special now. Now you have privileges not all people are lucky to have. You’ll look at the things you’ve always been wanting to have but you previously felt to be mere luxuries more than necessities, and then think again. You buy through credits, then you pay on time. Because you’re such a reliable borrower, the credit card company increases your spending limit. You’ll get giddy all over again and might become more bold in purchasing more extravagant things. The next thing you know, your bills are piling up and you find your self neck-deep in debt. Month after month, you pay the minimum amount for credit card balances that sometimes is almost as much as your finance charges. In short, your credit card balance decreases slower than an ant can travel from the Philippines to Singapore. That is, if you’re able to pay any amount at all. To do some credit repair, you might think of applying for a bank loan with advertised lower rates, thinking the installment scheme is a smarter way to improve credit. But that may work but only if you cut the source of your woes, bad credit cards, in the first place. You cannot improve credit score otherwise. The rule here, as anywhere, is, when you get a second chance, don’t mess it up. It’s bad enough to spend all your hard-earned money paying loans; settling credit dispute is a potentially messier and very unattractive prospect.

When my sisters and I watched Lea Salonga’s concert My Life On Stage at the PICC a few months ago, I was so fascinated by the lights on the ceiling of the lobby. I don’t know if it’s just because it was so dark outside and we just came from a really great show that I was just too happy to take pictures of the ceiling light fixtures there. It was so grand and rather dramatic. I’ll post some pictures here later.

I imagine such light fixtures on a really large venue will take long to install. It must cost a fortune, too. Home lighting may be easier to find, especially if you’re not really into chandeliers and other extravagant stuff. You can even buy such things online. Well, I really need just one energy-saving lamp for my room. The one I have now, I bought two years ago and is still working fine. I wish I have a bedside lamp, though, for use at night.

Whenever I get home late from work, which means 2 a.m. and beyond, I always make it a point to call for a taxi service. It may not sound so impractical if I don’t live about 20 minutes from our office; however, I’d shell out extra cash everytime than to risk rubbing elbows with the bad elements out there prying on the night-wandering public.   

Actually, I also feel entitled to it. After working too many overtime hours,  I am just too tired and too cowardly to commute. Last Friday, I was able to finish my work at about 3am and called the cab company I usually depend on for this but found out that their numbers have all been disconnected. Thankfully, I was able to contact another taxi service. During the drive home, I learned from the driver that the owner of the first company I called is now selling his car units because the drivers went on strike and they were not able to reach a deal. Too bad. For the owner, the drivers, and the clients/public.

The next day, a car on the side of the road with a “For Sale” tag caught my eye. I thought it still looks great for its price (Php160k); I would have been more than interested if I know I can afford it. Just the figures in auto insurance quotes online are enough to take away any excitement I may have felt.