LATEST UPDATES ON CONTENT CREATION

 Its been a while again since my last entry and i was pretty much busy establishing and making youtube content on my channel ., and it took me a lot of time to finally had it establish . It was no joke building a youtube channel from the ground up. For now theres still no audience on my youtube channel which suits me fine on the fact that i get conscious if people would see my work . I'm much more confident that nobody see's my work until i guess its the "right time" for it to be shown and , I'd have much more confidence in expressing myself on the video's knowing that its just me doing all the recording. 

Lately as well , i had been making up a list on what i items i would have to buy for my next shipboard work . I know that its too early for now and that my current shipboard work hasn't even started yet officially. But you known the old saying , better be prepared now than later - and besides that a seafarers life is just an endless cycle , until the industry gets fed up with me or i get fed up with industry , either way.  As early as now i have already prepared plans on my equipment schedule , which one's will be improved , which one's to be retired and which one's will be new on my next shipboard work. 

Aside from that i had also been making plans on leaving my current company i had been working at , due to contract disputes, lately the contract they gave me was unfair. As of the moment the only thing i could say for now is that this is my last contract with them. I'm already making surveys and thinking which company i would hang out after this and hopefully id be fully prepared to make the transition. 

For now i guess this is the only thing i can write off for the moment and i had been terribly busy in making you tube content until now . I'm also thinking that i maybe transitioning this blog to a video blog later on., Im not abandoning this traditional blog infavour of the video blogs in youtube - heck infact I'm making this blog strengthen even more as im planning that some of my works should be published here . Infact id probably be at least posting links on my video blogs here .

I guess this is all i  have to write for now.. Peace out  

LAUNCHING A NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL

 

Im currently starting out a youtube channel, its function is to catalogue all the acquired knowledge i made during my seafarering years and maybe perhaps...... my knowledge will help on the next generation of sailors that would be entering the maritime industry  ., I do hope that the knowledge that i will provide would serve useful to them .

Second function of my youtube channel will also act as a form to catalogue my progress in the aviation industry as an aviation student  

Third function of  establishing a youtube channel will serve as a form of "cloud" storage for all the knowledge and data that i will be accumulating later on . \

After the recently Hard ware malfunction of my 4tb hard drive (which destroyed it), its becoming difficult for me to store data given that i have limited capacity for the moment until i find a replacement for the damaged 4tb hard drive.

Fourth and optional function of my youtube channel , is if it will qualify for monetization - I will utilize that function to serve as a fund raiser for my flight school  

for the moment this is my youtube address 

Pilot Terence - YouTube

UPGRADE TO CATALINA

A cracked version of Microsoft office 2016, seems to be a promising as a general all around cross platform word processor. Specifically Microsoft OneNote 2016 program and it synchronizes well thru the OneDrive cloud storage. My blog entries are in sync whether it is in Microsoft Windows operating system or Mac apple OSX operating system , and even in android Operating systems (operating systems typically used by tablets and cellphones). Total synchronization on all multiple devices , and the best part is that i don't have to worry that my entries will be lost on a hard drive , because its stored on a cloud based storage.

 

So right now all is going well for me.,  at least computing equipment wise ... even for my old MacBook is working great in general ., and currently using it in everyday office / professional use. Its amazing on how far a MacBook hardware can go despite being called "antiqued" or obsolete class as what the Apple site tells., and with an age that's already almost 11 years old its still functional and can still keep up in using apps like a current generation notebook laptops out there .  I'm planning to "upgrade" its software to OSX Catalina despite the hardware is supposedly "Unsupported" (apparently theres some sort of patch to make it happen)

 

In other news
 

Finally finished the hard part of my current objectives ., which is to have a tooth extraction on the local dentist. I was worried that the tooth extraction will be painful since i haven't been on that kind of situation on more than a decade (as in way before i became a seafarer). Its relieving that the dentist i very professional on her work when it comes to the tooth business.

 

In other matters

 

Have started in making preparation for flight school next year and I'm already learning a great deal on the aviation industry . As a matter of fact , the whole survey and investigation i went is positive.

STILL SEEKING SOLUTIONS

A few more days and the year 2020 is over , and on my end what I'm doing currently is doing more investigation and gathering more info on how to become an airline pilot in the Philippines. For now still gathering more information about it and the info that i gathered looks more positive or at least as what i call it "feasible". PPL which is the first Phase (out of three) in reachable when it cost to cost and could be completed based on my current income on only a year , if no set back or financial incidents would occur and what's more that i found out is that studying as a pilot is not full time like maritime students , and payment on schooling CAN BE INSTALLMENT or from paid by parts which meant for me that i don't have to spend at least half a decade in saving up just to study as a pilot. Think of it like as more of a "per subject" or units in college.

 

My information gathering will still continue., until I'm full prep  to take on studying as an airline pilot. At least in the airline industry people are not scamming each other compared to the maritime industry .

 

From earlier perspective  people here seemed to be good mannered and civilized compared to folks in the seafaring industry.

 

A lot of people might wonder why , i suddenly thought of changing careers after spending decades., The answer to that is simply that seafaring career in the Philippines is basically a dead end job and I'm basically near on the dead end of my career , at the same time disenfranchisement is adding as well. Some how seafaring career is not all as what they promised or said in their propaganda and that the only reason why people choose this course was because seaman "college" course education is very cheap. Little do people know that the rising cost of education of being a sailor is already as coming close as studying as a commercial airline pilot .  Probably if this trend keeps on going for the decades to come ., there might be a possibility that one day the cost of education on both professions will be almost exactly the same.

 

I'm still currently doing a lot of "surveying" and gathering information , and for now the source of information I'm getting is from YouTube , apparently there's some Filipino people here who are chronicling their exploits in becoming a commercial airline pilot.,

IDEAS FOR A VLOG

Within a few months time 2020 will be gone on the calendar  and a brand new year will be going  on the calendar again.

 

After thinking for some time , I have decided that i will be establishing a YouTube Channel quite similar on format on how the way "Templin Institute" does in delivering videos on their "YouTube" channel. Its not exactly a "Copy" in terms of delivering video's but i would call it more like "Heavily Inspired" on their art style. I even named my Youtube Channel "The Marquina Institute" as paying homage for inspiring me on the art style.

 

Reasons that i decided to start up a channel is maybe that i could share all the collected knowledge i gathered thru the years to help out (at least) in general people or ordinary folks who would start up working in the maritime., Sharing and giving information on the practical side of things - which i think basically matters most . There's already a ton of videos out there in YouTube about topics in the maritime , both local Philippines and foreign made but i guess none of them created a video that serves more to be practical and useful , Most videos i saw in YouTube are usually viewed on officer's point of view rather than a ratings point of perspective. Which i think is too convoluted to follow and basically nothing really important happens.

 

For now this has been my interest lately and i have been occupied on the most of the days thinking and planning on what videos id come up next., and video editing. By the way I'm not a professional video editor when it comes to videos and my editing as of the moment is too amateur at the moment ., Currently I'm having problems and issues about the editing software i had at my disposal and had to work with the only limited resources available . oh and I found out lately that professional video editing software cost a fortune and that I'm stuck working with mostly trial and open source video editing programs , although however I'm relived to hear that there are a number (as in a lot) of video editing software's out there in the market and that the only issue i have for the moment is the price on purchasing. Currently I'm still trying to acquire a good video editing software and probably an audio editor as well to create a female voice ., which will probably serve as a "female anchor" ., of course its still an intendent plan and will solely depend on when i will acquire those equipment later on.

 

So for now here's the introduction video i made using the video editing software

THE OVERLORD CALLS

Two months have already went by since i came here from work and it went very fast and now as of yesterday i received an SMS message to my "overlord employer" asking about my readiness in being deployed on work to a ship by January and they also asked the status of my PSCRB certificate.

 

I havent made a reply yet and i still have to tell them that I'm not considering to back to the "Hartree" principal ., however i will tell them later on and id be direct and frank about it. 

 

I had already made up my mind a long time ago that i will not sail with that company over issues of unfair treatment and MLC violations ., aside from that i dont want to sail on a company that pays their sailors cheaply. Above the main reason i cant risk encountering my enemies again on that principal - As long as I'm working on that principal , a safety working environment cannot be 100 percent guaranteed

 

 

MY REPLY......

 

 

I said what i had to say to the company , its up to them on how they will accept or come to it. On the afternoon of my last entry , i said to the crewing manager via sms, if there's a possibility that i could go back to my previous principal. To my astonishment a few hours later he replied that its not possible anymore. Irregardless of the case , i still told him that i will still pursue to change principals...

 

after that, no reply was given which made me think that i might be in for the worse and immediately i sprang up with the plan that if no solution offers itself via january or february next year , then id be forced to act to abandon OSM altogether, should it be the worse case scenario.

 

 Now the question is , what will i do if ever i boils on that kind of option. The most likely scenario for me is find another company that doesn't make "age limit" a big deal ., I already come out with two prospects ., PTC and Knutzen ., but of course this is only leads no concrete proof nor assuarance that things will go out fine for me there.

 

For the moment before i think about that , i have first to fix all the needed agenda's i have to do , and first of it is fix my teeth then followed with the law enforcement clearance and than the renewal of PSCRB . Frankly i could have finished this in less than a month , if it weren't my sister borrowing 80k from me which severly depleted my money. but even that , i still have enough money to at least finish at least the important parts. The crippling blow came when i made a poor choice on my sexcapades which had me spent thousands of pesos without any good results  on a single person. Moral lesson i learned on that is never spent a single cent on a person no matter how much they beg and want something from you , I have to be ruthless next time and make sure that before they demand something , there should be a fair exchange first ., No exchange simply means no money to get (in fact there should be zero money to be involve) . Overall that mistake costed my almost 5k Php which i think personally i very costly and the costliest mistake i made on my sexcapades.

 

For now Im back again on the drawing board and looking on to it on how to resolve my current situation.

 

In other news ....

 

For now I'm still continuing my research about my "Next Evolution" project ., which is basically transitioning from maritime transportation to air transportation ., or to simply put it its the transition from being a seafarer to a commercial airline pilot , or to the least be a flight instructor.

 

I already got the information i needed to start up and the only limiting factor that i haven't started yet is because of the amount of money it takes to get things started and finish the said course. Thankfully being in the aviation industry is not that hard as it is in the maritime ., and if i played my cards right , its not a slow agonizing soul sucking job.

 

For now I'm trying to reach Philippine state college of aeronautics and inquire about the cost of their pilot programs (PPL , CPL ,) but unfortunately their contact numbers seems to be unreachable . I'd try to contact them using other mediums or social media to inquire about this. Overall this investigation of mine will probably take years before it actually materializes and the main candidate and cost efficient option i have is to study at the PSCA. After all as what my old friend told me that this is only education and training , There is still no guarantee that employment will come soon after this is complete and probably could take a few more years before any actual employment will  ever took place - If any at all . The fact is that there is still a doubt that after spending tremendous amounts of money , on training and education - there is still a possibility that it will fall to the same mistakes i did in the maritime and that they might go to the same category of falling to the "age limit" loop hole.

 

From a typical seafarers point of view the cost of training of one aviation pilots is still on the astronomical scale. Averaging from somewhere in the 2 Mil PHP scale - all the way up to as far as 10 Mil PHP. Probably the same cost as going to the medical doctor thing in a short amount of time.

 

 

 

RECENT FINANCIAL MISTAKES

Things are looking well for me on my usual routines , and my preparations for my next ship assignment have been ok (at least on the equipment i had to bring ) with a few notable exceptions.

 

I'm quite worried that some supplies needed wont be bought in time , like for my work clothes and medicines , not to mention some other equipment's that are being "on pending" status yearly because of budget concerns., to add more this includes long term projects.

 

To be direct the primary cause why I'm having this budget issues is because of my sister. Apparently she has been borrowing  much money from me and this year alone and she's borrowing too much. As in around 80k Php this year alone, which is horrifying on my wallet and budget and , 100 percent straining on my financial capabilities. To make matters worse there is no absolute guarantee that this large amount will be brought back , and I'm only relaying on the part "In good faith" which isn't exactly reliable to begin with . Gambling with 80k to begin with is a very risky and if something goes wrong my whole stay (and vacation here) would be disastrous ., there's a possibility that i might be stuck here for a long time because that

 

In any case , it is very foolish of me to be even trusting that huge amount in the first place - even on logical reasoning, hopefully i could walk out of this mess again like any other mess i went thru before. If this happens again by next year , I'd definitely protest and will not cooperate. This cannot continue and I don't want anymore wastefulness when it comes to money. 

 

Since mostly I'm just around the house - i mostly just go thru on the work testing my equipment or in someway improve or refine my equipment. Lately i had been fiddling around with my mac computer , and see how far can this old computer can go after being around for at least ten years., I had been also searching online for replaceable parts of this computer such as batteries ., Fortunately parts on this old mac are not that hard to find and i easily found possible battery replacements in a click of a button

 

"NEXT EVOLUTION" PROJECT

For now my career as a seafarer , is pretty stable and at now its height - Now the big question remains on how long will I be at the height of my career. Surely from my logical thinking the universal law of atrophy applies to all and that it's possible that one day my career as a seafarer will end ., On what date and time will it end is still up to be seen.

For now , like I said I'm pretty much stable on the job position and possibly I could still be around a couple of more years , but then after that will be a big problem for me . Sadly "Ratings" category on being a seafarer has an age limit meaning that the inevitable that I became too old for them (and probably out lived my usefulness) , I will be discarded just like any other seaman that got too old to work., and this is the reason why now I'm writing - what will be my next step after being a seafarer., 

One plan that I had been coming up ( out of the many possible plans ) lately is to start all over on another career. Probably jump to the aeronautical profession ., I have done a preliminary investigation (and more will be done ) on "how to be become an airline pilot" and found out recently that , it's not that difficult to be a pilot compared to being a seafarer in the Philippines. With the rising cost of education and training on seafarer's plus the limited employment opportunities offered where almost more than half of the class will not be employed anytime soon ., a student would start to think that being a airline pilot would be more than pragmatic.

Now being an airline pilot has its own share of problems ., first and foremost (and the biggest blockade) the number one reason why there aren't so many airline (Filipino) pilots to begin with is the cost of the education and training fee which is a staggering 2.6 Million Pesos to somewhere around 4.1 Million ., ( or in between that which depends on the school ) . Definitely the price tag of the training and education is NOT FOR A COMMONAIRE ., any student being educated on this type of programs should have a large pool of money to back up there education . To make it worst , the education in becoming an Airline Pilot is not on installment basis payment ., meaning a student has to pay in full the fee's for training and education. So the student should be prepared to basically drill a huge hole on they're wallets. 

The good side in being an airline pilot, is that basically anybody can be an airline pilot given that he / she completes the training education and licenses., the pre requisites are not that strict (at least on the Philippines) and rules are not that dogmatic., and to top it off , the employment opportunities are not that bleak as compared to being a seafarer.. 

My early inquires on aeronautical schools reveal that airline pilots education and training are in four stages ., two are compulsory and the other two are optional.  First is PPL (private pilot license) which is equivalent like a "student license" in driving a car., Second is CPL ( Commercial Pilot license) which is equivalent to "professional driver's license" ., These two are compulsory and imperative to be taken ., 

The other two license are optional and these are ATPL (airline transport pilot license) , basically I have no information about this yet but I do know it’s a "hardcore" mode of sorts . Flight instructor license , which practically means you're a teacher in a aeronautical school and building up flight hours experience. 

Anyway on my case….. 

Probably I should have started preparing on this project years ago., in fact I should have started on this year's back and possibly a decade back when I was still a rookie seafarer and should have been one of the "Back up" professions incase my career as a seafarer would not materialize (or materialize) or met some disastrous event. Targeting 4.1 Million pesos is a tall order and therefore will take time to accomplish, even my rough current estimates would take me at least half a decade to accomplish ., let alone the time it takes for the implementation of the training.

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

 Continuing on the work i left off on my last entry on this journal, I have already finishing updating some software apps on my Dell gaming computer and have already added a few games from the steam library.  So basically the only left work for me there is to do a few minor cosmetic clean up the dell laptop and it will be packed back to my luggage. 

(Due to budget constrictions ., I can only produce 2 MGP units , ("mobile gadgets platform") out of three intended for my electronic equipment. )

Another thing I had to update is my Nintendo Switch gaming console ., I added a couple more games that Nintendo offers for free . Unfortunately for me expanding my library games on Nintendo switch is limited due to two reasons , One is the cost of each Nintendo games purchased is expensive and can only buy a few games once in a while, Second reason is the limited memory I have on my gaming console which up to now I'm still having problems buying a bigger SD cards due to availability. Probably updating my Nintendo Switch will be finished sometime today.  

And another thing I had been up to, is to reuse again my old HP gaming laptop which I bought way back 2013. Strangely to my surprise this old laptop functions well for its age and still performs good. Although I still haven't tested this old computer yet for playing games on steam and if it still can perform like an old gaming laptop years back. I remember I stopped using this computer years back when its power systems started to fail for some reason and upon further checking I found out that the root of the problem was the battery , and to complicate the problem further is that this HP's computer battery was internal and not external . Meaning it cannot be removed without opening the casing of this computer and taking a look inside. I stopped using this computer sometime in 2016 and it was "on the box" for some years up until now when I finally figured out on how to remove the internal battery of the computer (or got an idea on how to exactly remove it). As soon the battery was removed ., I factory reset the computer back to its  windows 8 operating system state and started working there . 

Another thing that I had updated recently , is this journal and for the first time ever I might be entirely relaying on a cloud service (courtesy of Microsoft Onedrive ) to integrate and centralize my entries on this blog. Basically all my notes on all my devices ., no central or main hard drives to work with , just some storage up in the internet . Therefore , my entries here will be similar to all my numerous devices as long as it is connected and on sync in a Microsoft user account . All my notes and entries will be the same regardless of what kind of platform or device I will be using.  

Of course having an offline journal doesn’t mean its going to be obsolete , I'm still keeping an offline journal on my hard drives as a redundant form of journaling incase being online and sync  will be limited (as such on my case being a seafarer were internet connection would be scarce) . 

MGP Project

In a couple of past few days i was busy on a lot of things ., mostly stuff related to my work . I'm not exactly on work right now but I'm mostly developing equipment that might be of use on my next ship assigned , which includes both software and hardware type of equipment.

 

One such project i had been working out is a "Mobile Gadgets Platform" ., which is more like a fancy name for a foldable laptop desk. Basically my idea is more like having my electronic gadgets be put up on a small portable (and foldable) desk for a laptop. Anyway for now i cant really give much detail about this since its in the "prototype" phase and will have to do some more refining and test . Its final trial (if this project ever makes it) will be the actual usage when i'm working onboard on a ship.

 

another thing i had been working on is upgrading of the vintage MacBook i got on an online buy and sell site. The MacBook i bought is apparently vintage and obsolete now in todays MacBook's standards and yet surprisingly it still works fine (software wise) despite being around for at least over a decade. I tried to upgrade this Mac on the software and at least put it on the nearest usable operating system it has to offer. "El Capitan" Operating System is the nearest i could upgrade without hacking the system ., I'm worried that if i hacked on the system and upgraded it to the latest O.S. (High Sierra or Catalina) , there would be some functions on its hardware that would be unusable like for example its "trackpad" or the "WIFI device". Apparently this was mentioned by the hacker i saw on YouTube when he showed it in his channel. He explained that it has something to do with the hardware and that Mac's have problems when it comes to backward compatibility issue when it comes to hardware unlike Microsoft windows.

 

In any case i didn't bother to upgrade the mac any further than "El Capitan" ., I figured that its too much of a hassle (and risk) in sacrificing a trackpad or the WIFI device - it will be better off when i buy a much more better Mac next year and that i only bought a MacBook for the reasons of being familiar with the in's and out of using apple software.  Speaking of software upgrades ., I did purchase an app in the apps store in Mac unfortunately when the time came to "activate" the app ., it simply ceased to function and a pop message keeps coming up telling me to "purchase" the app. hmpf ., i have already purchased the app and the only thing I'm wondering is why this app hasn't been activated yet ??? i already wrote a number of emails on the developer of the app and i didn't get a single reply. Really serves me a lesson on not to trust apps and hand out my credit card details because of this ., totally a waste of money.

 

In other news ...

 

I'm also into upgrading a few software's on my regular windows 10 device ., one of these upgrades that i had been doing is also expanding my steam games library by purchasing a few new games ., Thankfully steam platform always offers discounted games or promo sales which make buying of video games a lot less costly. Aside from that I had also upgrades some few games on my Nintendo switch , although to be frank games in Nintendo switch are expensive which results of me buying a few games on that console.

 

In other news ....

 

Aside from my task of a ton of upgrades and maintenance work on my electronic equipment ., I have also unpacked the stuff i have ordered from shopee online store months ago when i was still onboard. Materials and equipment related specifically for my work as a seafarer involved in maintenance. I unpacked a lot of equipment just stored on my closet,  There's a ton of set of tools i bought and even a whole gas mask set (3m 6800 gas mask) for use in work especially nowadays when there's a pandemic around which probably will last a year or two. I also included  to upgrade my the med kit i have and bought a whole new set for replacement.