My streaming/podcasting mic, Fifine K670B. Photo CallMeCreation.com
I’ve been playing with this thing the entire night by recording my audio. For less than PHP 2,000 (PHP 1,750 to be exact since I bought this during the 10.10 sale), I was able to score a good USB condenser microphone for my interviews. As I have mentioned before, I will be joining my high school friends in their Youtube series, interviewing people about anything under the sun that interest the kwarentals, or those aged 40 and up. They already ran the teaser last week and then they will interview me next month before my debut in December in time for our high school reunion.
The audio is crisp and picks up my voice really well. There is also a 3.5mm jack at the back of the mic for earphones/headphones monitoring. You know, kinda like what recording artists put on their ears to monitor their own voices so they can easily track if they’re going off-key because the backing music can easily drown out their audio. This is really neat. There is also a converter so I can hook this up to a microphone arm if I don’t want the stand blocking my LED monitors when I’m interviewing or doing podcasts/streams.
The base is heavy and solid so the mic will not topple down. Overall this is value for money.
I’m super tired today, I don’t know why. Anyway, Twitter is all abuzz about politics today.
My favorite news:
The new generation standing up to the Marcoses. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏I love this so much.
And big media is fighting back.
It says: it has formally been announced that the former senator, son of a dictator and a 2016 vice presidential loser, his intention to run for the highest office in the land.
But then, you have curve balls like this:
I cannot fathom Kris Aquino running for VP. Leni should know this is political suicide. Having another Aquino is polarizing and that’s the last thing you want when you want to unite everybody vs Marcos/Duterte.
But I’m hoping this is the truth.
USB condenser microphone. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I ordered two for my girls because the built-in mics of their Tylex bluetooth headsets are wonky. So are the mics of their cameras. They just don’t pair well with Linux. Anyway, these mics are working very well and their voices are now loud and clear enough for online classes. I bought these from Lazada a few days ago and the description says it’s good for vlogging/podcasting.
I’m thinking of getting one myself but maybe I’ll get the Maono brand or Fifine, which are vlogging/podcast condenser mics since I will go on air next month for my Youtube series with my high school friends. But so far my webcam is serving me well and its mic is loud enough.
Filipinos are glued to their free tvs and internet streaming to watch the Olympics. Because we have nothing else to cheer us up during these dark days. We’re facing a hard lockdown in three days and beds are running out in NCR hospitals. We are looking for distractions that could allow us to leave the grim realities, even for a little bit.
We now have three medals in sports that really do not attract a lot of sponsorships (weightlifting and boxing). Our bet in men’s pole vaulting didn’t make the podium but that’s ok; EJ Obiena still ranks 6th in the world and that’s something because we had nothing before. Carlos Yulo, was near podium, finishing fourth overall in men’s gymnastics but that’s still ok; we didn’t have anything before. He came a long way.
Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial are assured of a bronze after shocking the world with their wins to reach the semis/final round. You know, boxing is a sport in the Philippines to get people out of poverty. They’re fighting with all they have because they had nothing to start with so they have nothing to lose. That’s how Manny Pacquiao fought his way out of literal hunger.
I was once interviewed by my journalist cousin who was writing for NBC at that time (or I cannot remember which outfit she was writing for) about Manny Pacquiao’s near-legend status in the Philippines and why his story and his wins resonated with all Filipinos and Southeast Asians. I can no longer find that article online.
Meanwhile, the RAM stick I ordered arrived the other day and added it to the laptop-turned-desktop to make everything faster. My daughter saw me once again operating on that 15.6″ laptop and asked what was I doing? I said, “Saving me at least PHP 500 of labor,” because I can do this simple task on my own.
It’s a Samsung DDR3 stick shipped from China that I bought for about PHP 1,500 on Lazada. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I think this machine will stay with me for a while, even after Windows 11. I think this is the only physical remnant of my relationship with J that is left with me. I still couldn’t bring myself to call it mine and I think I will always refer this to as the laptop that I hijacked from J. I didn’t know why I did what I did even though I knew I could buy my own. Maybe at the back of my mind I wanted a piece of him because I always knew he would leave sooner or later. He already left me twice to go back to his adopted country. He was also trying to get back to Singapore because he was applying for jobs there. It was just a matter of time, it was always weighing on my brain. I don’t know how long I will keep this but based on experience, I can keep machines running until they’re past 7 years old. This Acer Aspire E-573G is already 6 years old (released in August 2015) but is still working well.
Ooh yeah so I needed to upgrade some hardware to be able to cope with Windows 11, which would f*ck me up when I shift to it. Because company IT may ask us to do it sooner or later since support for Win 10 will end 4 years from now. And our entire system is unfriendly to non-Microsoft users. Integration with my Android phone is pretty bad, but it’s worse with Mac OS and iPhone. Linux? Don’t get me started.
Ewwww. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I opened up the Acer gaming laptop I hijacked from J and cleaned its guts. Look at that exhaust fan. Ugh. I used a thin but stiff paintbrush to clean it and all the vents. I used my vacuum cleaner (good thing I bought a rechargeable one and ditched my old clunky one) to clean the rest of my laptop-turned-desktop’s innards.
Then I checked the RAM slot if I can still add. It currently has 8GB, which is decent for Windows 10.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I still can, so I ordered another 8GB DDR3, 1600 Mhz SODIMM RAM stick fron Lazada and I think by next week I can already plug it in that second slot.
The laptop runs on Core i5 5th gen (we’re already on the 11th gen; my new laptop is 10th gen) but I think it will still be all right. When Microsoft says min specs should be 4GB, that means you have to have 8GB of RAM for your computer to be serviceable, 16GB for it to be comfortable. I remember they said minimum for Windows 8.1 was 2GB and my hybrid tablet only had that and was running on Intel Atom. It was killing me. I had to run Outlook on it and MS Teams and it was freezing. All. The. Time. I only bought that thing as a backup to my Asus when I worked in Japan for two weeks in 2017. Which was wise of me because my Asus became temperamental during the most critical time.
Anyway, I spent majority of my Sunday (yesterday) poking into laptops. I just installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu in another laptop that my househelp uses for her online school.
Then the rest of yesterday was spent on revenge shopping. So don’t ask me how I ended up buying a new area rug and new pillows. 🤦🏻♀️ I only intended to buy a gas regulator for my LPG tank.
At least now the bigger rug will not roll and unroll and get displaced all the time because the wheels would no longer catch the edge of the rug. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Speaking of which, I thought it was my regulator that’s problematic. It turns out it’s my stove! It’s a Rinnai stove, by that Japanese MNC whose gas stoves are so ubiquitous in Japan. But then that stove suffered so much abuse that it’s about time that I retire it.
I am now eyeing this model that is common in Japanese kitchens, the one with an oven to cook fish and a grill on top.
I no longer have to grill skewered meat outside. Or yakitori. Or dried squid. But then no one is eating dried squid here anymore… So dried fish is it then; I could shred and make an olive oil-based pasta dish.
So it looks like the rains will continue for the rest of the week, if the cloud system hanging over most of Luzon remains like that. Highly probable as the typhoon up north and the one forming in northeast continues to pull up the southwest monsoon.
The leaking stopped in the laundry area as my landlady’s worker cleaned the rain gutters of debris (mostly leaves from the mango tree in front of the apartment). Hard to dry clothes and bed sheets still.
Because I’m too lazy still (Metro Manila is flooded!) to go to the hardware store to buy paint and a gas regulator for my LPG tank, I busied myself this morning with experimenting with my new Linux distro, Fedora.
It’s basically the same as Ubuntu but the command line on terminal is a bit different. Instead of using # apt-get, you use # dnf (formerly # yum). Therefore, I have to master some basic command lines because I find using command lines easier when tweaking and installing drivers and programs on Linux compared to GUIs.
My girls are very comfortable using Linux, whatever distro, as I started them on this OS. That’s good since this means I don’t have to pay for expensive OS and hardware whenever Microsoft or Apple forces people to upgrade and find that their hardware cannot cope with the system requirements. And yes, I’m talking about Microsoft releasing Windows 11 this October and supporting Win 10 only until 2025. I just bought a new laptop, for crying out loud!
I was only forced to use Windows again because my company is unfriendly to non-Windows users. Even Mac people complained. I used to work exclusively on Linux and our IT guys were surprised that I was using it, the only one they encountered using it for whole of Asia Pacific. Because of this, they couldn’t help me with workarounds to specific backend problems. Why would they study troubleshooting Linux-company system problems just for one nerd in the company? So I had to switch to Windows 🙄
Since we’re dealing with biblical calamities all at the same time (pestilence, flood, earthquakes, volcanic eruption) it’s high time that I reorganize our emergency bags again. You’ll never know when you needed to evacuate. One bag for each of us containing basic necessities like flashlights with whistles, clothes, toiletries, biscuits or crackers, medicines, and water bottles. These bags should be ones that you can easily grab and go. Then another bigger container, if you have time to grab, are stuff for longer term evacuation like tent, sleeping bags, portable stove, canned goods, water purifier, and solar lamps. I already have all of these except for the plastic container to hold the tents and sleeping bag. I need to buy more sleeping bags.
I once told J that if he wants to survive Armageddon, he should stick to a Filipino since more or less we are used to Armageddon regularly so we know how to go about it. We’re like cockroaches, we can survive disasters. This is also one of the reasons why I drive manual transmission vehicles; mechanics on roadsides in all provinces know how to deal with manual cars. Automatic transmission cars are good as dead, especially if computer boxes get wet.
I am talking from experience; I was in the middle of Pasig-Cainta when Tropical Storm Ondoy submerged Metro Manila underwater for weeks in 2009. After a month of the disaster, I saw a lot of new AT cars dumped on roadsides of Manggahan Floodway ready for scrap recovery because they were already useless. For MT cars, you just push it through flood while the driver revs the gas pedal on first gear until you get to dry land. That’s what we did to our cars to get out of Pasig-Cainta when that area was like Waterworld. This is also the reason why I don’t want to buy sedans, if I can help it. If it’s already the end of the world, you may at least want your getaway car to be able to cross flooded areas. That’s why I am still not letting go of my old Isuzu Crosswind; I was able to drive through Super Typhoon Haiyan ground zero with that, about 2000 km to and from Samar-Leyte. Plus you can sleep at the back of the car if I just push the passenger seat further up against the back of the driver’s seat.
Ok, I must go out today to buy: 1) butane bottles for the portable stove; gas regulator for my regular LPG stove; one or two emergency lamps; rain boots (I don’t want leptospirosis adding to our worries) and wall shelves. Because I’m bored and I want to add shelves in the cooking area. And hanging plants.
Speaking of boredom, my girls are reading again. Yey.
Their reading positions are bad though. They often catch me in this position as well. 🤷🏻♀️ Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Daughters were craving for junkfood. So I made junkfood. Home-made hamburgers.
I just bought the Angus beef Highlands burger patties and Gardenia burger buns. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Veggies and Kewpie mayonaise. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
