My Bro Is Coming

What makes me so excited these days? We got confirmation that my brother in the Philippines will visit us here again in Las Vegas. This will be his second time to travel to America. The first time he was here was in 2009 with his own family. They ran out of luck during their visit because he had some medical emergency and ended up in the hospital. Eventually they cut short their visit and went back to the Philippines after just a month of stay with us. As you all know and as in my previous postings, my brother just had his kidney transplant in 2010. He can now travel after a year of the transplant. He will be travelling alone this coming August to attend our mom's 80Th birthday. His son and wife will not be coming with him because of the kid's school. We promised my nephew that we will let him come over and spend his summer vacation in Las Vegas after his elementary graduation, which is two years from now.

I am planning a road trip to San Francisco this coming August and maybe celebrate my mom's birthday in there. San Francisco was one of our destinations to visit the last time my brother was here but since his stay was cut short, we did not have the chance to travel to that city. This time around I want to make it memorable for him. I started searching online what to do while in San Francisco. I came across 49 points of interests within the city and the Bay area alone. This must be interesting. I am planning to have at least 10 days off from work so that we could visit other interesting places along the way to San Francisco.

Any suggestions as to things & places to see in this famous city are welcome. Just drop a note or two in the comments section. Thanks in advance.

Bonding with Mom

Fortunately Mother's Day always falls on a Sunday which is my off day from work. I could spend time with my mom and make it a little special for her. My whole family is not here with us in America since my brother and his own family are still back in the Philippines. Nevertheless I always make it a point to spend time with my mom together with my dad of course. This year's Mother's Day, we had lunch at the Wicked Spoon Buffet inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. In my previous post, I have mentioned about my first visit to this restaurant. I was impressed with their food choices and their wide array of desserts. True enough, my parents were equally impressed with their food choices. This visit was quite expensive than my first try most likely because it was a special day. There was a long line at the entrance and we waited for our turn to be seated for almost an hour. It was not a good scenario if you were very hungry. well I was hungry at that time. I purposely did not eat much on my lunch break at work the night before because I knew that I need more space in my stomach to accommodate more food that day.

After lunch, we walked around the property because my parents did not have the chance to see the place when we were there last February on my birthday party. We were done almost 5pm and I did not feel sleepy at all, but when we reached home my body was already craving for the comfort of my bed.

Remembering the Typewriter

Today is one of my lazy days. I went to the gym in the morning and now just chilling at home. My only refuge is my laptop computer. Browsing through my Facebook pages as well as my Twitter account to check on what's happening with the people that I've been following. Gosh, I felt I'm a stalker now. Anyway, browsing though my Twitter, I found a link to a CBS News picture gallery about the ever reliable typewriter. Scanning though the pictures I did remember how the typewriter helped me through my student days specially in college and beyond.

It was my father who first introduced me to the typewriter. He borrowed a portable typewriter from his office and brought it home. I began playing with it but my father taught me the proper placement of my fingers on the keyboard or the key assignments on each finger. I never had a formal training in using the typewriter and I don't know what is my typing speed but my dad gave me the sentence that was being used to practice one's skills on the typewriter keyboard: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is found in Wikipedia and defined as "an English-language pangram, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet. It has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards, and in other applications involving all of the letters in the English alphabet".

I owe a lot to the typewriter. I used it on my thesis as a requirement for graduation. I typed my first job application letter and several letters thereafter. I used it to update my bio-data as a supplement to my application letters. When I got my first job, I underwent a job training on how to basically use a computer keyboard and I easily passed through that. In the office I encountered the electric typewriter or commonly called the IBM golf ball electric typewriter. This time there was no changing of ribbons but you just have to replace the "golf ball" depending on the resulting font style of the characters or letters that you wanted. Eventually our office became more automated and each one of us were assigned to a desktop computer. This was where we wrote our reports, letters and memos instead of giving them to our secretaries or office clerks. Our secretaries' office were eventually transformed from the typewriters on their tables to computer keyboards and screens.

The introduction of the computers basically brought the demise of the old typewriter and also to mention other office equipments that were eventually phased out to give way to the development of a modern office.