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Monday, August 28, 2017

BACK TO HALCYON



Within a short time , UPL has accepted my application and has endorsed me on its principal "Shell". It didn’t took long that they accepted and I was quickly told via SMS that I should report back to UPL office to get my medical referral slip for the job.

When i reported in the office a couple of days later., I was surprised to see that the medical clinic I will be having for my medical was "Halcyon". The same clinic that I had a hard time with more than 2 years ago. Basically "Halcyon" medical clinic was a scam to begin with and frankly their medical test only cover the initial test ., any succeeding medical test (or test that needs to be repeated) have to be paid by the patient (seafarer). So as a result Halcyon probably flunks most of its patients to squeeze much money as they can. So for people taking medical exam on halcyon , better gets their wallets prepared for the rip off .

If I recall correct the problems I had two years ago on halcyon were these.

Urinalysis
Psycho / IQ exam
ECG
Dental

Now my main problem when I face Halcyon medical clinic will be the urinalysis and ECG (which is expensive) ., which I will counter by already stopped drinking soft drinks and any other carbonated drinks a few days ago - and drank only water.

For the IQ test there's no exact remedy for it, just probably take my time in answering all the question and see how it works ., as for the dental I'm not sure if there's any problems at all but as far as I recall all dental problems had been fixed since last March 2017.  

Most likely it will take me at least three days to normally clear a medical exam., with the assumption that no failed medical test will occur for me. But of Halcyon ., I'd say probably for a month.

Monday, August 21, 2017

SUPRISING TURN OF EVENTS



Things have turned out for the worst for me, not only that I'm stuck here in the Philippines for months now - but my only chances of returning and going back as a sailor have turned me down. So practically I'm unemployed right now. As of now I'm trying my best in finding work.

Recently things had a surprising turn of events ., UPL Shipping Lines (Earlier I thought that they're not interested in me). Suddenly dropped me a call and said I should report on their office for initial interview, So I went and as it goes by - the situation got dragged along with a couple of interview with the company and later on the principal representative. Up to the point that they had collected my documents.

For now they said that I should wait for further announcement from "Shell" principal on what I should do next. It's an advantage that I had to wait to this as a "breather" and prepare on what will be next. The latest word I heard from "sally" in UPL is that its possible that I should take an BTLNG training seminar (Basic Training of Liquefied Gas Tanker seminar)  of some sort , as its possible that I might be assigned to an LNG type of tanker ship.

For the moment my overall impression with UPL is Generally positive, Most of the HR staff in Shell principal is welcoming along with "Jeremy Francisco" on the Passenger HR as well. The only exception was the female head manager (sort of) on the shell principal in which I view as an intimidating and vicious little bitch. Her interview is more like a threat rather than a typical job interview. Can't imagine she was threatening me by saying that job promotions on this shipping company would be very stiff and she implied that on my case ., I have to have at least 4 contracts with them (minimum) for them to just even consider being promoted.

They reason out a ridiculous answer that they wanted a more stable crew workforce and frown on crewmembers who will ditch them out if things went sour. Not realizing that if they wanted a crew member to stay they should "throw in" some perks to make the stay worthwhile (like call center companies do)  

Friday, July 28, 2017

REJECTION



Given with the situation that I'm already months without work, I had decided to go ahead and reapply again back to Career Ship Management - just to be sure. However despite my efforts and credentials (plus work experience that I'm their former employee). My application was turned down and they just simply said "they'd call back" which meant in general that they're simply not interested ., and they just simply had me write my number in their "census" survey form.

It bothers me that my reapply was rejected given that chances of former crew members being rehired is much higher compared to new applicants - especially on my job position being on the "experienced" category. I am thinking something must have went wrong ., What I did witness was that the new guy ., looked into my seaman's book and after looking on it thoroughly he went to Mr. "nidoy's" office and remained there for a couple of minutes. Its likely that they searched on the records and something must have been written on it on my records there ., after a few minutes the called me back and said that they'd just call me back . Which I do know clearly what it meant.

Nevertheless given the results on what happened., it only showed that employment for seaman in the Philippines is notoriously difficult even for sailors (O.S. Rank) who already have 5 years of experience. Almost everyone in this job is considered expendable.

Overall I'm not bitter that Career Ship Management rejected me on my reapply to them., I do know very well that the consequences in leaving Career from the start would mean being not able to rejoin that company ever again and I blame CF Sharp for luring me out on that safe hole which greatly meant my job posting would utterly be destroyed.  It was a poor decision I had made a year back.

Anyway I wont be returning back to Career ever again ., probably because i guess its time to move on and start something fresh.

    

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Saturday, July 15, 2017

MISCHIEVOUS PLANS

There has been so much time I had on plotting against Nelson Ramirez and his Mafia organization "United Filipino Seafarers" that I had been writing tirelessly now for days. Most  bunch of my time is spent write on how to defunct the misleading propaganda that the UFS organization is feeding the public. Obviously I'm trying as much as I can to vilify him on my blog., For now I haven't publicly released my write ups until such proper time - I'm still thinking ironing out some scenario's 

For the moment , I am writing an article about Nelson Ramirez Academic credibility - on how questionable it is, plus if I have the time , I will write on how UFS was founded and the Bias propaganda surrounding it. Once I had finished it ., I will immediately publish it. Honestly there is so much information about this that I had to write about UFS that I could make an entire life work out of it. Anyway its very demanding task because obviously I'm the only one (as far as I know) working on it,  and working as lone wolf means that I had to carefully plan everything including small details.

Now if I do finished those write-ups and article ., my next problem task is how to passively pass this information to the public., obviously facebook is a big no - no., on me to pass the information because Facebook is very unreliable. ( Blocking accounts that are not violators., and refusing to block accounts that are clearly violators ) . In any case even if the "dummy" Facebook account is reported and destroyed , the blog will still be online and if by some chance be taken down , there is another back up on that blog - so pretty much its very secure.

As for me I don’t have to worry about my personal safety on the fact that I'm using a dummy account and no personal information is put on that Fake FB account . Social Media encourages people to put in their real names as much as possible but ignores the fact(or being ignorant) on how dangerous it is nowadays in cyber space.

Whether I continue my works in vilifying Nelson Ramirez or not, I'm pretty much satisfied that he's already been seen in a negative way in the philippine maritime community on the social media ever since the December 2016 incident. As a matter of fact He himself is unwittingly contributing on his negative image by being hostile to netizen. Those blocking and kicking out of FB Users on his Facebook group adds more to the existing numbers who hate him. Anyway as long as he does that then it’s a slow but sure victory for me as many more people get persuaded by agenda's

In other news

Up to now I'm still thinking whether or not buying a "Nintendo Switch" gaming console is a good investing at all for my entertainment idea. Honestly I'm having doubts on why the hell I did buy this thing anyway and not opted to the PS VITA instead.

Its already been almost near four months since I bought this device and yet ., they haven't offered yet any new exclusive games - the only one's they're offering right now are not exactly "new" games at all but old games that are ported on different gaming consoles a few years back. Frankly buying a Nintendo switch for now is more like buying a brand new gaming system to play old / ancient games.

Another thing that's hurting this gaming system (aside from the high price) ., is the lack of third party support - because of the lack of graphics power., as most new games now require a higher graphics to play it. End result is limited games on its library.

Seriously I'm starting to think now that maybe buying an obsolete PS Vita would have been better as it is more cheaper and has lots more third party support ., even though its already reached Sony's limited support.

Speaking of gaming devices….

Looks like my gaming laptop is already near it lifespan. Honestly the gaming laptop I have at the moment (HP envy 6) is having multiple hardware failures - and the latest problems now is that the battery has become so unstable enough that it's difficult to play even a simple movie without it suddenly switching off. From my observation., replacing the gaming laptop would be much more easier than sending it to a repair shop.

Plus it's too risky in the Philippines to put gadgets or electronics at any repair center as there is a possibility that electronic would be cannibalized for parts .,

So basically my "HP envy 6" gaming laptop will be finally put to rest on the house permanently. It's already unfit to be carried for travel and even unfit in being maintained for home use. Now having a replacement for my gaming laptop is one of my top priorities for me as soon as I get the opportunity to work again overseas.

Aside from the news on my gaming equipment., lately I had been experimenting a method that might get some of my precious media files back. Method is doesn’t guarantee anything but its worth trying out as options in repairing my 4TB Seagate hard drive back are not going to be available anytime soon and there's a possibility that the whole Hard drive was totally destroyed from the previous ant infestation that occurred a month ago. It’s possible that the whole data inside my 4TB hard drive is totally lost ., and years of collecting media files just went down the drain because of it. 

The method I had in mind involves the previous 2TB hard drive I use and im going to use a recovery program to get all the video files back ., since the 2TB Hard drive was the previous storage medium I use before in bought the 4Tb ., there's a slight possibility that "residue" files are still there and can be recovered (despite the fact that almost all of its contents has been deleted ) using the program.

For now the process is still ongoing and took more than a whole day for it to scan the whole memory of the 2TB hard drive.

I will update the results of my experimental method on my next journal entry.



In other news …

Being trapped in the house for so long has become tedious and stressing for me., tedious in the sense that I have to check , recheck and redesign the equipment's that I had to bring over and over again. The task seems to be endless in refining all the equipment I had to bring, and it’s a looping work . I had to plan and re-plan and do it all over again like NASA does on its astronauts on its space program.

I guess there's no solution on that situation given that being a sailor is a work that heavily bases on what equipment is at the disposal and not on the knowledge a person has.

For the moment (and for months), I had been trying to solve the luggage weight problem. My main goal on solving it is packing as much as equipment I can cram without stressing the 20 Kilogram limit. It's very tricky to do especially I had already selected the equipment I would be bringing along.

I had finally decided to look for work again., I had already been trapped here on my house for quite some time now and things are starting to strain for me. My supplies have been fully exhausted along with the rest of my remaining money., I am now just depending on my sister for financial help and beyond that there is nothing else. So basically one way or the other ., I have to look for work now given on my situation.

For the moment I'm making preparations in finding work and had been washing my clothes for a few days now. Along with that I'm constant checks on my equipment as I usually do - making sure that I'd be prepared when I leave the Philippines again for one more time.           

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

CONTINUATION OF VENGENCE

Just to have a change of pace from my monotonous routine., I will be continuing my online blog for the Maritime community in the Philippines and will continually publish it on Filipino seaman groups using an anonymous account for protection. normally I would had stopped writing altogether and move on with life, after all the worst is already behind me from my recent entanglement with CF Sharp, there is no danger anymore for me.  I would have normally just walked away and turned my back over it but thinking about it , My problems were not exactly solved . The person who is responsible and the one who betrayed my identity to the CF is still around and is still up to his old tricks - Certainly I shouldn’t shrug this off knowing Nelson Ramirez is still around and still victimizing fellow Filipino sailors with all his lies and extortion activities. Most Filipino sailors are still unaware on how vile and vicious he is on the maritime community in the Philippines. Only his elimination and total destruction will make the maritime community in the Philippines a safer place.

Personally I guess ., it's just my personal vendetta on why I'm still continuing my blog. My very own personal Cyber Guerilla warfare against the UFS and Nelson Ramirez. So why did I choose to use a blog instead of other social media channel like Facebook ? ., first off having a blog has much more freedom than Facebook ., nowadays even Facebook suffers a lot of censorship when it comes to freedom of speech and commentary., from what I'm seeing personally Facebook nowadays is contradictory on what it was originally intended for ., it has now become a dangerous site in cyber space were personal information should not be given in any way possible as it can be used against me. To add also ., posting personal commentaries always end up getting contradicted and not only that but the FB account I use as well ended up being blocked  (plus all the previous post I had made on that account will be deleted too). So as an anti-blocking measure social media sites outside Facebook is my main choice ,as most Filipino's don’t exactly know how to suspend or block this plus the severity of removing the publish is lenient.   

Anyway aside from reviving that blog , my first phase of the plan is that my dummy FB account would infiltrate some seaman Facebook groups and remain a "sleeper cell" until such time (and situation arises) that it would be awaken and publish the location of my blog. Naturally once my dummy FB account published the location of my blog ., UFS fanatics will feverishly try as much as they can to disable and destroy the FB DUMMY account ., and will succeed . However the main purpose of that DUMMY account is that it's just a relay and the main content is still in the blog., Even if the DUMMY FB account is destroyed - it doesn't mean that the blog is destroyed as well .,

Obviously UFS and its minions will try also to destroy the blog., but from my perspective in social media - it will take them sometime before they actually disable the blog and fortunately Google reviews complaints very well on blogs compared to Facebook and as a plus Google has quick blog recovery features that only takes literary seconds.  It will take them a will to fully shut down,

As a passive protection as well ., dummy accounts will be used and there is no possible way that they could connect me to that blog and my identity. Besides in real life there is no rule on what a person can or cannot do to harm another ., Nelson Ramirez should know better. Sooner or later vengeance will come for him and it's going to crash hard.

Anyway with or without my blog .,Nelson Ramirez will still make a lot of enemies on his hostility towards Netizens. It's only a matter of time on how fast the public will realize on how evil he is. 

Sunday, June 11, 2017

INFESTATION

Never occurred to me that I'd be here in the Philippines this long., but then again maybe it is a blessing that I'm here after all. For now while writing this I will be going in on my fourth month here in the Philippines.

I would have been searching for a job right now but I was lately been set back because I suffered another illness (and the reason why I haven't wrote on my blog lately) with eczema ., the skin infection got worst and by the time I sought help on the hospital - I could even barely walk from the severity. Good thing the doctors on Marikina Valley hospital was kind enough to accommodate and entertain my query about my health. They said that my eczema has gotten worst and baldy infected that they have to put me on multiple antibiotic meds and in combination with topical steroids.

Within a short span of two days , both my feet healed and the bleeding stopped (which plagued my for two weeks) . Thanks to the violet colored liquid they gave me and I had to put in the bucket and soak my feet with it for twice a day. Also there have been no skin blisters appearing when I started the treatment., (before my lesions started becoming lesion a small skin blisters usually appear). To simply say it - my health was recovering when I started the treatment.

Back in the old days ., I used to treat my eczema attacks with the usual table salt. I just sprinkled the salt on the affected area and bandage it for a couple of days and let it heal . However on this recent outbreak ., it looks like salt was ineffective in controlling it and mad it more worst to the point that bleeding on my lesion didn’t stop and most of the time I had to change bandages once a day because it was soaking wet with blood serum. The wound never healed at all.

After a week of antibiotic treatment., I would go back again to the dermatologist and they would check if my condition has improved or if I needed another extra shot of something




In other news …

Recently I had experimented on ordering online for supplies and see for myself if this "lazada" (like ebay version of the philippines) does really work went it comes to online shopping. I had tested the "Cat ears" hat which they had been selling., and after a few days putting my order online - I eventually came and I was thrilled to have it around. In other words it was a success ordering stuff online at lazada. Given with these success ., I'm planning to order more stuff in the future given that there are some rare hard to find items that can only be found on the online store in lazada. Perhaps I'm planning to get my work related equipment on that store, rather than search aimless on item that are hard to find in actual store to store search



In other equipment news ….

Given on my previous entanglements on my previous ship. I will be making changes on the overall electronic equipment I'd be bringing (if ever ) once I get back onboard. The changes will include that all my gadgets should be battery operated., from what I learned is that ship electric supply is not exactly stable not even guaranteed to be always there on the time and there's a possibility (thought very small) that It would damage electronic equipment. Such as the case I had encountered on MT Eagle Boston. So to make things safe for me all the gadgets that I would be bringing along would have to be battery operated and the only thing that I will need the main socket supply is use for recharging this gadgets. Whether it will be a laptop or as simple as a cellphone ., every gadget I should bring should be a battery operated one

In other news related to this …

Recently my 4TB hard drive broke down - now the reason why it broke down was it was due to ants attacking the power cord , yes believe it or not its ants - the tiny little creatures who we always typically see in the kitchen. Now I'm not exactly sure why those ants decided to attack my hard drive ., given that its non-organic at all to begin with. I had done some research on the net and see why do these critters attack electronic gadgets and here's what I found out.

*ants are somehow attracted to EM fields emitted by gadgets and they do sense it.

*it is not clearly known even to scientist why ants attack electronic gadgets , but they do speculate that while they forage and wander off inside gadgets , they get electrocuted by the circuitry and as they get zapped they send out pheromones which meant that they are being "attacked and need help" thus the smell attract more ants to help them out and as a result it swarms the harmless electronic device and mistake it as an "enemy" eventually as the device gets flooded with ants ., it short circuits because the bodies of dead ants that got electrocuted still conducts electricity.

No matter what is the clear reason why ants attacked my hard drive ., fact is that my external hard drive is unusable at the moment and I had to find an electric adaptor replacement for it. Plus on the fact that I can't access data inside my hard drive without the electric supply. All those media data I had accumulated within those years have been gone to waste because of that insect attack. The remedy I could only think of for now is to have the A/C adaptor replaced.



Thursday, May 11, 2017

SIRB 2017




After numerous delays ., I am now finally able to go to the task of renewing my Seaman book. Took me a while but definitely I had reached it.

makeshift desk of marina booth in POEA
Normally I would settled to go MARINA office to have my SIRB renewed , but government services there are not really that good for numerous reason. One of these is the fact that they don’t accept personal appearance and I had to login on their website to schedule an appointment - problem is that the appointment schedule they give is at least two weeks away to more than a month which is not good that I had to wait for a couple weeks just to renew and would take another couple of weeks more to process and release an SIRB. Overall it takes at least a month of waiting - very inefficient. Another thing that was worst in marina is that they are overcharging seafarers in "speeding UP" processing which they call "expedite" ., Despite paying more money to them (which cost is doubled, 1500 PHP) ., they will still release SIRB on the same processing days as normal time. Imagine paying more on something that is just basically the same. Talk about scamming seafarers

So due to these hindrances I had to settle for option number 02 , renew my SIRB in POEA.

Several years back ., there really was once a "MARINA" booth in POEA building ., that lets seafarers renew their SIRB in haste. But these kind of services was discontinued for a couple of years then now again it is reopened ., I was still a witness back then that services in renewal was superb back when it was still opened

Anyway now that "Marina" booth in POEA is opened once again after nearly a decade of haitus ., I didn’t let the opportunity slip by in renewing my SIRB ., especially now that MARINA service in Kalaw street area are pathetic and poor. Honestly It was a good decision for me to renew my SIRB papers there in POEA and that I finished the whole agenda in renewing SIRB in less than 30 minutes ., probably even perhaps less than 15 minutes if it weren't for the damn photocopy machine nearby didn’t broke down. It will only take them a day to finish my SIRB processing (compared to the main marina office which will take weeks) and I'd be getting it on the following day.

So far since the marina booth in POEA is still a few months being opened ., their facilities there is still somewhat in makeshift. Which I can understand - given that there's no exact guarantee if the MARINA booth will be in permanent stay there or just for the time being until a new Philippine President comes by (or new administration) and decides later that they will discontinue such services

Traffic in EDSA is a pain as usual

to kill time while waiting ., i had packed snacks and of course my very own nintendo switch ., however since the service was fast , i didnt  need this and just went to the local mall nearby to pass time

    

Monday, May 8, 2017

LITTLE BY LITTLE

Getting an NBI law enforcement clearance could be a bit more complicated because of internet connection

Little by little ., I had begun the work of returning back again in working to a ship and had been doing steps on renewing my working papers ., My first step will be getting the NBI law enforcement clearance certificate.


Its been almost a year since I got one and getting an NBI certificated has changed little since I last got one. First off getting an NBI is still via online appointment and applicants have to pay the fee via local payment centers. Good thing making an appointment is not that hard for NBI - well at least compared to 'other' government offices.

My user name in NBI is still active and I just simply updated my profile data ., then put on the option "Visa Seaman" ., then choose a schedule on which date on an appointment and that's how easy it is . I choose the appointment in getting an NBI the other day and paying it the day before my appointment

Earlier I had problems., First was that when I choose the payment center to be "7-11" ., it did not occur to me that 7-11 store in the Philippines had always have a problems with online payments . Thankfully a good Samaritan told me at a payment center that I should book another appointment and this time make the payment go directly to "BAYAD CENTER". It was a good info and "BAYAD CENTER" never let me done when it comes to transaction payments.

Now that payment for NBI Clearance was arranged ., yet again it was stalled for another two days because of some internet connectivity issues (again). This time the problem is the connection of the data base from the NBI branch. Well no matter what the problem is its understandable given that internet connection on the Philippines is one of the slowest in the planet (seriously).

Now that my NBI Clearance has been acquired., I can now proceed to the next phase - Renewing a Seaman's book

Saturday, April 29, 2017

NINTENDO SWITCH REVIEW





While the Nintendo Switch game console is already out over a month now ., it is still yet to be tested if this game console product is really worth owning by any console gamer., As of the moment while I am writing on my personal journal , The Nintendo switch still has a weak line up of third party games and still struggling for attention on third party video game maker since after its launch last march 03. Not to mention it came out on pretty much on bare bone basic functions for a handheld videogames consoles.

For the moment Nintendo Switch owners are kept busy playing "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" game that was bundled with the N.S. upon purchase on its launch date . but for how long ??? Now I do admit Zelda game is one of the best RPG's ever made this year (even perhaps on the whole history as of the moment) however despite the games success., it does not alone determine if the nintendo switch will be in the winning streak .,

If there is a third party game support ., it is a very weak line up of retro games which basically has any gamer scratching on the fact that they had already own some of these games in the past and yet they are being resold again ., Such example is SNK classic games like king of fighters., metal slug etc. . To simply say it’s a new game console that’s playing old games.

Surprisingly third party retro games are in support but first party retro games is still a no show and to make it worst Nintendo switch has no "backward compatibility" function which meant it’s a brand new slate and back again to zero on the gaming library. Despite this setback.,. NS owners are hoping or expecting that a "virtual Console" will be released for Nintendo switch soon that would allow them to play past Nintendo games for the switch., ( For the moment this virtual console is still in speculation )

Another notable function of Nintendo switch is that it supports "amiibo" NFC functions. Basically "amiibo" is a plastic action figurine that has an electronic swipe function that unlocks restricted game content by simply putting the action figure near the device to read it electronically.

It may sound cute that nintendo sponsored intellectual property action figures can be actually used on a videogame to give exclusive in game content to gamers but on a typical casual gamers opinion - this is simply gimmicky in nature on which Nintendo milks more money on a content that is already there inside the game and to add note amiibo action figures are quiet expensive. If ever Amiibo gets to be marketed out., it is purely for hardcore Nintendo fans and not for typical casual gamers.  

Another thing that plagues Nintendo Switch .,(and why third party game developers are still skeptical on supporting this game console as of now) is that it underpowered ., basically a Nintendo switch is powered by a custom tegra chip which from a normal persons (limited) understanding is the same chip on which powers android mobile devices., It may be formidable for a mobile device specs but for a home game console its obviously underpowered compared to the likes of Sony Play Station 4 or Microsoft X-box. Basically AAA Games nowadays require a lot of hardware firepower to run games., A fact that Nintendo switch console lacks.,


Despite lots of negative facts about nintendo switch raging from struggling to get attention on game publishers, underpowered hardware and all the way down to the use of the gimmicky amiibo. It does have some selling points. Once such is its portability ., basically / Literary games on the go., Nintendo switch handheld mode can be played on almost anywhere., just pull out the tablet console on its dock and the device will automatically be shifted to handheld gaming device . Now knowing that most gamers today don’t have enough time to stay on their homes just to play videogames - it isn't bad to take the games with you and play it outside ., and that the video game audience is not only limited to kids these days., even elderly people (above 40's) also play videogames. The retails price (300 U.S.D.) is also a selling point of the game console.


So here's the recap of Nintendo Switch


CONS
-Lack of third party support and limited games (as of the moment)
-No Backward compatibility,
-Expensive games., and hardware support equipment like Amiibo's etc.
-Lack of Software apps (as of the moment). And bare bones feature.
-Console is Underpowered ., Graphics is just somewhere in between PS 3 to PS4


PRO'S
-Very portable ., and can be played almost anywhere because of its "transformer" feature.
-Low price (only around 300 U.S.D.) on the Game Unit itself.

SHOULD I BUY THE NINTENDO SWITCH?

*Final word for video gamers is that WAIT FOR A YEAR AND SIT THIS ONE OUT UNTIL NINTENDO SWITCH's GAME LIBRARY AND SOFTWARE APP FEATURES IMPROVE. For now hype about Nintendo switch system is that it's not as competitive compared to PS4 or X-box ONE.