Tablet

This tablet was given to me by phone and internet provider when I upgraded my plan, more than a year now. It is on its stand most of the time. I use it as a speaker phone, instead of picking up my phone handset when calling out or answering calls. I did not pay much attention to it until yesterday.

While my washing machine was working on my laundry I fiddled with it and was able to install some online shopping apps and UBER apps. I took some photos too! Come to think of it. I ignored this gadget for so long!

Language Barrier

The other day I had an old Japanese gentleman customer saying he cannot view his bill online. He has been at our website accordingly for several hours and he said the webpage is loading and loading.. and loading..  He has Windows 8 laptop connected to internet through WIFI. We were both struggling as he speaks little English. He agreed we do a screen sharing for me to know the cause of the trouble. 

OMG! I logged in to his computer and found out it was in Japanese language! I managed to explain we download Chrome as IE was causing the trouble. He struggled translating to me some of the dialog box on his computer from Japanese to English. True enough, after downloading Chrome, he was able to log in to our website and viewed his online bills.

He apologized for him not thinking straight as he had a bad day. I said not his fault but it was the browser, and that, he is smart as despite our language barrier he was able to guide me to resolve his trouble. I do hope I made him feel good by saying that, in addition to resolving the issue he called about.

We may have language barrier but the most important is we can communicate and be understood. If there is something I like in my job. Helping and sharing with customers what I knew. I may not see the happy expression on their faces. Yet the tone of the voice is enough to say I made a difference, even for just a brief moment in their lives. 

Hello WWW!

It has been almost a month I have not posted anything on my blog folks. I am okay,  just busy at work. My three in the morning schedule is also a bit of a challenge.

Few weeks after my internet and optic television training I mentioned to my team captain I am getting only few internet and optic television calls.  Internet covers broad range of issues. The two weeks training is not enough to be in the know of the intricacy of the job. Besides, I did not take computer course in my college years. Neither a computer subject was into my business course. I was under the old curriculum of the Philippine educational system when I was in college.

Thankful indeed, towards the end of July and the whole month of August I have been into internet and optic tv calls. I received few phone and satellite tv calls. It made me happy but into deep analysis on every call I get. I know it would take a while before I get familiarize with the internet issues. Optic tv is a bit easier than internet issues.  As mentioned in my previous post, my internet training was beginning of June for two weeks. Optic tv training was beginning of July for a week.

It would take at least six months or so of taking internet calls before I could adjust fully. No quitting, learning is fun, folks!

Optic Television Training

I survived a day shift that was from 8am to 5pm in view of our optic television training. For several years I have been on night shift or early morning shift at work.  Day shift to me is a bit of challenge. My place of work is not far from where I live but the traffic jam and the wait to get a ride is not easy. 

I take public transportation going to work, a jeep and a sixteen seater van.  I cannot afford a car which is good. I do not have to worry paying for a parking space where I live.  I do not have to worry about the car maintenance. Most of all I can take a nap on my way home on days when traffic jam is pretty bad.

Middle of June my team mates and I were on internet training. The optic tv training followed shortly. Optic tv training lasted for about a week the 6^th of July until the 10^th. It was classroom training, call listening, and we got to see some equipment like the set up box, gateway WIFI extenders, etc.  The most exciting part was passing the exam after the training. 

A Call to Remember

 We enjoyed pizza, break time from the training.. 

Our classroom training for ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) is done. ADSL training in layman’s lingo is simply internet training. My team mates and I underwent two weeks classroom training for us to be able to handle calls from customers having trouble with their internet. Before the training we support residential home phones and satellite televisions. We make sure to trouble shoot with customers before dispatching a tech. This is to avoid possible charges in case the trouble is on the equipment of the customer or an overlooked inside wiring issue. We work for a Canadian company, technicians charge hefty sum of one hundred dollars.

I kind of got dizzy trying to decipher all those initials and tech terminologies yet my confidence I would say is above and beyond. Some of these tech terminologies are DSLAM, HDM, DNS, IMAP, SMTP, MAC address, IP address, attenuation and many more. Not to mention the different brands of computers, operating systems, gateways and modems. I do not have a formal education in computer. Thanks to my youngest brother and his wife for pushing me to learn this machine. I was able to get the hang of the machine by learning on my own.  Now, I am a tech support for internet. Great!   

  

Day Off

Once, I was asked by an office mate what kept me busy during my day off? Well, first thing, keeping my home in order to make it a cool place to stay. Living in a small home, I have to make things organize. I have lots of things in my home. I tried to keep them in order to give room for space. There are pros and cons living in small home.  It is easy to clean and maintain, due to small space. Organizing is a bit of a challenge.  

Emptying the laundry basket is another activity that kept me busy on day off. I do not want to go laundry shop.  I have some friends who complained about declining the number of their clothes.  My clothes are not designers’ clothing but are precious to me. I do not want to give them away unless I am giving to charity.

Best of all, my day off is time for my computer and my television.  I thank my youngest bro and sister in law, for pushing me to learn computer.  I learned it on my own. I did not have formal education in a computer school.  When I learned it, I simply could not get this machine off my hobby.  My computer paved the way of getting me a job.  Internet is add-on to my computer knowledge.  It is my window to the world.

Telpad

If you get a call on your home phone and caller will offer you a deal, will you be interested entertaining the call? You probably will listen for a while as a courtesy to the caller. There are a number of telemarketers bugging subscribers selling all sorts of items or offering services. Be careful, some of them are bogus, in other words scam. I intentionally did not have my home phone listed on the directory for this reason. Those who knew my number are my provider, my bank and few relatives. Likewise some pizza stores or food chains who might have saved my number when my niece order s online. These pizza stores needed a phone to call, to verify the existence of the buyer.

I got two calls from my service provider offering me a package that would convert my television to internet television.  I am aware of the plan as they had advertised the product and services. I forgo the offer.  I have and old model television. I do not have an HDMI port on my television. An officemate told me I could buy an extension cord I could use for the television. The cord has both component and HDMI plug in.  I had been busy or possibly a bit lazy to go around for the extension cord.  I put the idea on hold for a while. The package is actually cheaper than subscribing to a cable company. 

Network Issue

After about almost two weeks of being out of phone and internet service my provider finally fixed their network problem. After our election day for senatorial, congressional seats and local officials was held, 13^th of May, my phone went out. It did not bother me as I do not use the phone very often.  I still had the internet service. I thought of reporting the phone possibly on my free time from work. I would admit I have some habit of procrastination on things I do not need much. My phone is use to order food when my niece wants to spare me from cooking. It is fine with me as I use electric stove.  Cell phones are good substitute for landline phones.  It is why I do not miss my landline phone that much. 

After a week my phone had been out of service, my internet followed. I need to take action. Internet is more important than my phone.  I called my nephew to report the trouble, as the service is in his name. He also has the same provider for their phone and internet service. When he decided to stay in my apartment for the time being, I requested him to subscribe the service for me, for easy approval. The guy is just busy as a bee. He could not report the out of service phone and internet.  I decided to take over my assignment to him and use my cell phone, called the provider.

Nine, Twenty Three, Twenty Eleven

After three months of my request for the transfer of service for my phone and internet. My service got transferred, finally. When was the date of transfer? Take a guess. But the phone had no dial tone for almost two weeks.

In my previous blog, I mentioned about subscribing to my previous internet provider. That one I had when I was in Makati City. I had a second thought, in view of too many months of service disconnects. When I transferred to Pasig City, I subscribed to Philippines main phone and internet provider PLDT. I requested to transfer the service in July to the new apartment, I am renting now. I was denied transfer for the reason the connection will be passing through private properties. PLDT was referring to the other apartment units.

I am Moving Again

Folks, I may not be online for a week or two. I am moving again. This time it will be a bigger place compared to my present home. I promise to post some photos soon as I get settled. I will have my phone and DSL transferred. I was advised by my phone and internet provider it would take a week or two depending on the location I am transferring to. Likewise they would take into consideration if the house is blacklisted or has available facilities already. Hopefully, it will be transferred soon. I have no time to go to internet café to post and visit blogs.

I am not happy my current landlord and landlady, they are spouses, did not deliver what they  promised me, especially the sub-meters for electricity and water. When I moved to their apartment 1st of February 2011, I repeatedly asked if I will have my own utility meters. I was assured I will have. Later, my electricity service was disconnected. I had to pay for the usage of the other tenants just so I will have the service back. Being out of electricity service in the warm weather in Manila is no joke.

Glad to be Back After a Long Absence

Hey folks, I had missed you guys. I was so excited when finally, after almost three weeks of waiting my internet is up and running. I disconnected my previous internet service provider to give way to the request of my nephew. We subscribed to another provider for faster internet connection. My nephew had facilitated the filing of application. That means our phone and internet is in his name. A tech accordingly called my nephew after three days of the application. The tech must have dialed a different cell phone number. After a week of waiting my nephew made a follow up. The tedious part was the waiting time for rescheduling of service order. Patience as they say is virtue.

Here is a photo I took from the small living room. Transferring to a new home is not easy especially if you have a limited budget. I am happy though I was able to get a place that is accessible to almost everywhere in Manila area. Neighbors are good. Except for the loud speaker of the karaoke and yelping of puppies, the place is quiet. I have new neighbors too, same area where the house we are renting is located. Except for one more wardrobe and automatic washing machine, I am pretty much complete with furniture and appliances we are to use. I type we for the benefits my new blog visitors.  I will share the house with my nephew and my niece. 

A Matter of Concern

Blogger friends, I am having issues with my internet connection lately Please bear with me if I had slackened visiting your blogs. I would normally visit several blogs coming home from work in the morning. However, lately I had been having difficulties opening some of your blogs. To some, I could view your blog but unable to write comments. The comment portion of the blog would not load fully. I am not sure if it is because of my slow broadband connection, my browser or the website itself. If I am able to write comments to some blogs I am visiting. It takes a while before I could.
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I thought you are likewise encountering same difficulty visiting my blog. You probably noticed I kept rearranging my blog widgets. I am experimenting on them. I am putting all those that load slowly at the bottom. In this way you could read my post even before the whole page loads. If you are unable to see some of my widgets, it would be helpful to reinstall flash player. You could search for the link by simply typing flash player. My desktop is set of auto update. There is a dialog box that would prompt if I need to update or reinstall an application.

Soon as everything is back to normal expect me as your regular blog visitor again. Thank you for the blog visit and comment. Happy blogging everyone.

Typhoon Hit Manila Philippines

Manila, Philippines was hit by typhoon, Tuesday night, 13^th of July international code name Conson. It was signal no. 2 in Manila area but wind was very strong. Some areas in Manila do not have electricity as of yet and no internet connection. The power was shut down to avoid accidents or further accidents. I am glad however that at home, waking up at 3pm  14^th of July, Philippines time, our electricity service was back on. My internet connection is also working as if nothing happens.

I was at work last night and hardly felt the strong wind. The building where our office is housed is quite sturdy. I did not even feel what happened in the entire Metropolis. It was in the morning coming home from work when reality bites. Our neighbor advised me she was so scared and could not sleep keeping close watch at their roof that might be blown off. Thanks goodness the roofing was intact sparing them from major repairs. The rain was not that much. It was that wind apparently that was so scary.

At home except from missing cold water to drink everything seemed alright. I missed the electricity for a while. I slept after drying my hair with a hand fan after I had taken my shower. I just turned on my electric fan at its lowest. I woke up at the cool brush of air from my osciliating electric fan. I checked on my internet connection, typed this short post to let you know folks your Jolly Princess is still smiling.  ☺