It has been a while of anticipation. In a few weeks or so, the first ever baby my me and my wife are to have will be crying out like a happy ending. For such months of pregnancy, I saw how my wife dealed with it all, and now that it’s about to come into it’s new beginning, just imagining watching my baby crying in my hands is the most precious part of it all that makes it worth more than anything that I do.

He shall be called Rain. Rain Orense. Every night before going to sleep, I think of the things I would want to do with my baby as he grows up. Of course, I don’t want to miss nothing to become a part of his development. I even dream about playing with him already, like seeing his face and how he looks like and sounds like. Those dreams are like so real to me that even my wife dreams the same thing. Just can’t imagine how Rain would make things happen for me and my wife once he’s out with us.

It’s now and Forever… Been waiting for it long enough. I’ve been hearing things about how we are to deal with everything everynight. Been listening to advices and reminders from quite a number of people. But now, it’s time to put what we learned from everyone into action.

Oh dera… Hopefully, this won’t be the last blog I’ll write before Rain pours down upon our Hearts…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted something new in this blog of mine. I was into self reflections as the rains pour down in every roof of the metro for over a week. That was the time I have realized so much about myself.

Over the past two months, I made it to a point to go to church every Sunday, not just because I have to, but to give back what is supposedly for God. Of course I go to church on Sundays, but this time, I went back to where I was first called by God and started things back from the start, and this time with my Wife… Truly, it’s so amazing how good things work in our lives if we only see upon ourselves who we are and what our purpose is to one another.

Another so importabt that I was into was restoring my daily devotions in a properly-arranged special part of the day. Back then, I do devotions, but only if I have enough time to spend for it, which later did I know was not in anyhow helping me see what I should receive. The difference is not on how devotions are being done and how often in one day you do it, but in how you want to take a part of the day and make it so special that it would affect others.

I’m up and about with my bible reading, everyday. But now putting more sense into it, not just because I have to, but to appreciate something that brings so much blessings in me. I don’t want to sound much about being old school, but it’s just the way things are.

Some say they don’t want to look like religious when it comes to Faith and God, but the wrong thing is Religion itself means relation, as referring to its original language’s meaning in English. Part of the matters that I realized was to never say or act something you don’t know. Part of it, I learned the hard way.

What started all of this? It’s all about misunderstanding. Misguided into something that I thought was real and blinded with things that I thought was true. Sometimes, the people you would trust the most are those who would cut you so deep that it kills you from the stoning thoughts of other people. I got confident in a fact that something wrong was not going to happen, but people sometimes are way too unexpected, that you’ll never know what they got under their minds. I got a bit careless with my image that I didn’t noticed it was being torn out to pieces behind me. Learning lesson such as this would certainly get anyone back into their senses. Accepting I was wrong to be way confident on something I never expected to happen was a big mistake I still seek forgiveness for.

Over the past months of beating up myself with such burden, God always have answers for everything and anything. The only thing we need to do is Ask. In times we get clouded with so many things that goes around us and miss out a very special sunshine that gives us light in our path.

Upon learning and always being reminded of the past and how God made it happen for me, it’s so clear for me to see that in anything, there is no such thing as hate and unforgiveness as long as you stand alongside God’s Love. And with acceptance and God’s forgiveness, and recognizing Him and His Love in my Life, there nothing that can ever stand in my way.

Two more months from now, our very first baby will be born and to God I owe everything. And my journey for our son’s name is completed. We shall name him Rain.

<form> function() & class logo

A Web Design Conference

on July 10, 2009

at the Asian Institute of Management,

Maka

ti City

As a visually impaired, in order to for me to adapt to information in the computer, I make use of assistive Technologies. It varries in different forms and functionalities. In computing, it goes from magnification software, web accessibility tools, to screen reading applications.

For few days now, I have been using a certain screen reader that I have read about through its promotions from other assistive technology websites. It’s called Thunder and you can read more about it at http://www.sreenreader.net/. Everything from the sofyware itself to the manulas are available there.

This fine application costs free of charge and it will run smoothly with your other voice engines. A good voice engine is a crutial part of a screen reader because it’s what the screen reader use for speech output. Of course a clear voice output means better comprehenssion of the information.

Thunder comes with WebIE, a text-based web browser. This browser is specially-made for the blind computer users that doesn’t want to spend much time going through other web contents, such as images, graphics, flash contents and other media contents. It also rearranges the headings, texts and links so as the user would only use up and down arrow keus and enter keys on it most of the time.

When it comes to typing, Thunder uses the caps key for its functions, so if ont is using a word processor, they have to go first to its format menu and look for the case menu. This feature is a bit of a drag for this software since keys used for typing really should be used for typing. But it just takes some time of getting more used to it, and you will be on it in no tiem.

Lastly, its memory consumption and disk usage is a lot lesser than the more common screnn reading brand out in the market. This means it loads faster and you could do things faster. You get to save more space for more storage and memory for more tasks.

As a conclusion, Thunder is a great screen reader for those wh are just begining to learn computer manipulation and basic internet browsing. It may not have the more advace functionalities as a well-knwn brand has, but its capable enouh to read everything  in common windows and applications, browse the internet and send emails, and a sound of thunder at startup of your login windows.

WHAT:

<form> function() & .class Mini Web Design Conference

(It’s BarCamp style, meaning anybody who wants to talk can talk. And it’s really casual. For us, by us.)

WHEN:
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 8:00pm
(Please come on time.)

WHERE:
G2VC TechBar, Exist, 5/F Orient Square, F. Ortigas Jr. Ave. (formerly Emerald Ave.), Ortigas Center
(View in Google Maps: http://tr.im/orientsquare)

HOW MUCH:
Free!

===============

SPEAKERS:

Feel free to volunteer! Note: Talks should take up to 15 minutes only. Oh, and please be ready with a short intro/background about yourself. Feel free to plug your website(s)/company/projects!

Web Accessibility with Assistive Technology
Rene Orense
Project Officer, Web Developer
http://www.atriev.org.ph

Finding Your Soul Mate!
Luis Buenaventura
Software Architect
http://syndeolabs.com

Regnard Raquedan
Consultant
http://www.raquedan.com

Branding and Design
Elymar Apao
USAP Philippines
http://www.jozzua.com

Web Standards (specifics TBD)
Aja Lorenzo Lapus
Student at University of Santo Tomas
http://www.ajalapus.com/

Marco Palinar
http://site-guy.com
Leveling Up Your Photoshop Skillz

===============

SPONSORS:
Interested in being a sponsor? Contact us! (info@webdesignph.org)
Ely Apao
http://www.jozzua.com/
Marc Villanueva
Sheero Media Solutions
http://sheeromedia.com/
Flash/Dreamweaver Book to be raffled off!
courtesy of Regnard Raquedan/AUGPhil
http://www.raquedan.com/
http://www.augphil.org/

===============

NOTE!
Check this page for updates. Be sure to bring a valid ID just in case.

===============

Guest List: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEhcf7WfCqTR9taRv12mSfg

Link to this form: http://tr.im/miniwebdesignconf4

Afternoons of Summer are so freakingly Hot… I can’t bearly breathe  when the heat gets down from the roof and covers the entire house with its irritatatingly, staggering feeling of hot and indiscernible temperature. You are like being boiled in a pressure cooker to an extent that your sweat gets all over the chairs you sit into, the clothes you wear, and everywhere you stick your body into.

There is this time in a day wherein you get out in the streets and no one is around. It’s like a dead land in those old cowboy movie films way back then. It’s like you walk in this silent hill town and dust flew in the air, everything is so quite, so peaceful and the sun is the only thing that creates a noise. A noise so loud that comes from within the people who shouts out for a bit coolness so releasethem from the heat that captures their bodies and burn their insides that makes them sweat like forever.

We all know that it’s so common nowadays we take for granted of all these nature stuff the Earth had been given us. It is so not proper we almost every minute polute its waters with junk, but we still do it. We are making a Trash Can out of this world. Then a few years more, our sons and daughters will suffer even worse than what we are going through right now.

I’m not to be a counsel on this, but I just feel that it is so affecting us now. We can’t go anywhere but the beaches. Say Boracay, do we know how many tons of garbage we put in that place in order to have us fun and pleasure? We never bother to know as long as we have ourselves a fun in our lifetime, everything else could go in its own way, and so it is.

People with properties, kids, little girls and families lose their lives in a flush floods somwhere else. We say it is lucky for us that we didn’t suffer the way they did, but it is actually what we do makes them suffer. The tree we cut down, the people we take houses from and livelyhood in order for us to build our industries to give us these pleasures we wish to make us more comfortable in our current situation.

But we Don’t Care Anythings about this Aren’t we..?

A simple planting of trees does a whole lot difference in all of this. Read about it, research and Let’s all LEARN…

A VOTE FOR ATRIEV IS A VOTE OF HOPE FOR THE     FILIPINO BLIND!!!

Nothing's gonna Stop this two Love Fools...

It’s February 14 of the year again. What exactly makes such day so important for people?  Pathetic question isn’t it? Just so most of us would really have an idea how this day is being commemorated before, here’s a reference: http://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theholidayspot.com%2Fvalentine%2Fhistory_of_valentine.htm&ei=_biWSa73KZiq6wPElL22Dg&usg=AFQjCNFGe6bY0vBcJ0_b1-rNkW3AXKkT0w&sig2=r33lLx1ZbiEE95D39L0zQA

I say it really is worth celebrating. Nowadays it’s more into that sweet-sweet, romance thingy we all are so used to. Everyone are into their Love-Mode stage. Solemn places, flower gardens, restaurants, and motels are swarmed by people in pairs: Boys and Girls, Girls and Girls, Boys and Boys and a whole lot of other stranger pairs we only could imagine. So long as love comes between two creatures the world is on its part to accommodate, thus such exploitations of people occurs (Homos, prostitutions, and a lot other weird verbs for it).

Nothing of course beat a Real Love story. For most of us people, we always love to hear or see beautiful, sweet, heart-melting, soul-warming, tear-dropping, self-humbling, and everything with good INGs on it that makes our hearts beat the loveliest possible that it would drag us down into our knees and leave us craving for more. Of course, who could blame us? We are made to be all Love Fools, and all we are but fools for it.

As for me, I got my share of being a fool for Love myself and that’s what drove me into where I am in my Life right now. Happy as ever, I — as with others who are in the situation as I am now — never thought that I would be in this kind of feeling before. It all started in what we all call as “Magic Moment…” — Be posting all bout it soon…–

Quite unbelievable, things had never been the same since Ferlin came into my life and took over my Heart. The person who got me into praying to God to make her mine, and to be with forever. True enough, there will come a person that will drive you into madness, such madness that would get you into thinking of forever. For my part, nothing was ever the same since the said day came and spoil every part in me.

Since then, I declare my February 14s Ferlin and My day… I Thanks God for every little moment and everything she came and conquer all of me.

Happy Rene and Ferlin Orense’s Day to all…

Are you BLIND or VISUALLY IMPAIRED?
Do you want to learn how to use the computer?

ATRIEV, a computer school for the blind and visually impaired, will conduct the following computer training courses in the first half of 2009:

PC Operations with Access Technology (Low Vision): Trains students in basic computer literacy, especially in the use of a screen magnification software in tandem with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus Internet, email, instant messaging and basic trouble shooting. The course also includes competencies in work ethics and quality standards.
Class schedule: 15 April to 30 May 2009
Monday to Saturday; 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

PC Operations with Access Technology (Summer): Trains students in basic computer literacy, especially in the use of a screen reader or screen magnification software in tandem with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus Internet, email, instant messaging and basic trouble shooting. The course also includes competencies in work ethics and quality standards.
Class schedule: 15 April to 30 May 2009
Monday to Saturday; 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Digital Early Intervention Training for Kids: Teaches blind and visually impaired kids grades IV to Vi the Windows environment and Word Processing software in tandem with a screen reader or screen magnification software.
Class Schedule: 04 to 29 May 2009
Mondays-Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Who can join?

* Must be visually impaired
* Must be highly motivated and willing to learn

REQUIREMENTS:

* Completely filled up Application Form available for download or at the ATRIEV office
* 2 pieces (1-by-1) ID photo
* Personal interview by a member of the ATRIEV training team
* Photocopy of diploma / certificates (whichever is applicable)
* Photocopy of report card or transcript of records (whichever is applicable)
* Consent of parent or guardian (for minors and those supported by parents)
* Medical certificate for visual acuity

Registration fee: Php200.00 only

REGISTER NOW!
TUITION FEE SPONSORSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE.
Limited slots only!

For more list of courses and its schedules and duration, please visit our 2009 Training Schedule page.

This was the Day...

The Day was December 07, 2008. It was one very memorable day in the Philippines. Why? Paquio won… As Always…

Anyways, as how the said day came about, My wife (Girlfriend back then) and I were planning about such event a year ago. It was way back December. 2007 when we made an agreement to do it a year after. And so we stick to our plans.

How our Love story came about? I shall post about it on Valentine’s day. It’s about a Long-time waiting and an answered prayer that took place and things were never been the same…