When I posted my previous blogpost, I was then using my new SmartBro SIM under the 999 unlimited plan of Smart Broadband. But, just after publishing the blogpost, the SmartBro software told me that the SIM has not been detected.

I immediately suspected that the SIM was busted. I just couldn’t figure out the cause of it.

On the next day, I borrowed a SmartBro device. This one is made by Huawei. Mine was made by ZTE. But all are made in China. I tried inserting the SIM but the device could not detect the SIM, still…

On Wednesday evening, I called the SmartBro hotline at *1888 using my mobile phone and asked the assistance of the customer support. After doing the SOP, he then told me to visit the Smart Wireless Center for the SIM replacement. He also created the report.

So, on Thursday,  this morning actually, I went to the Smart Wireless Center in Tacloban City again. Tacloban City is 148 kilometers away from my current location.

At the Wireless Center, the woman who entertained me, named Cathy, checked the SIM. After she verified that it’s not really functioning, she then asked my ID, the number of the SIM and then she let signed a form. I don’t know what are the content of that form. I just did not read it and signed it immediately.

After few minutes, maybe 20 minutes, she give me my new SIM with the same number. I immediately tried it, and yes, it’s functioning but I received immediately an SMS from Smart telling me that the SIM is not yet active and they are still processing my request of the SIM replacement. Miss Cathy told me that the SIM will be active after 30 minutes.

So, I immediately went home. I know the new SIM is good and it really is for I am using it when publishing this blogpost.

Thank you for reading….

Today’s the second birthday anniversary of our son Carl Justine. We don’t have birthday party for him because we can’t afford for it. But just for his birthday memory, we prepared a birthday cake.

The birthday cake was made by Lourdez Eatery here in Hinunangan – Southern Leyte. The same eatery which served us food during our wedding last June 20, 2008. The taste of the cake was not as good as those cake made by Red Ribbon. Not even as good as the cake made by Panny’s Bakeshop in Maasin City. But I was contented with its design.

At the home of my wife’s brother, we took photos of him with the birthday cake, just like what we did when we celebrated his first birthday anniversary last year in our rented apartment unit in Maasin City. And these photos will serve as his memory of his birthdays even if there was no birthday party held for him.

Actually, my wife and I had planned before of having a party for our son at the Jollibee. But just like what I said already, we couldn’t afford it. Besides, we we’re currently experiencing financial problems, especially that we are currently building our home here in Hinunangan.

And talking about the house, it again another gift of Google to us, especially to Carl Justine. The money used in building it is all coming from Google.

Just this month, I posted a blogpost telling you about my encounter with a text-scammer. The SMS scammer was trying to lure me into sending him the prepaid cellphone load credit he’s asking but he failed because I already knew his scheme.

In relation to this, a blog-subscriber send her life-story on how the text message scammer successfully stolen thirty thousand pesos of her daughter from her.

Our Blog-Subscriber’s Experience

One day, I received an email saying, “Hello! Musta kayo dyan? Ito na nga pala ang bagong roaming number ko. Dito na kayo magtext, idelete niyo na yung lumang number ko. Txt back! (Hello! How are you? This is my new roaming number. Kindly delete my old cellphone number and save this number instead.)”

While reading this, I immediately thought of my daughter, Genalyn who was working in Qatar. So, I assumed that it was my daughter who sent that text message to me. So I immediately deleted her old number and replaced it with this new number. And from that day, we exchanged text messages.

The scammer really made me believe that I was texting to my daughter.

After a week, I received a SMS message from the same number I exchanged text messages few days ago saying, “Ma, umuwi yung kasama ko sa trabaho. May sakit daw yung anak niya. Kailangan daw i-admit sa hostpital kaso nagkaproblema sya sa pera. Kung maari, mag-withdraw ka muna ng 10K. May pupunta dyan bukas, pakibigay mo na lang. (Mom, my colleague went home. Her child is sick and needs to be admitted to the hospital. Kindly withdraw ten thousand pesos and give it to her. She will be there to get the money.)”

I really thought that it was my daughter who sent the text messages. So on that afternoon, I went to the bank and withdrew ten thousand pesos from our joint savings account. On the next day, a woman went to our home. She said she’s the mother of the child that should be admitted to a hospital. Without a doubt, I gave her the money.

After two days, I received again a SMS from the same number saying, “Ma, ooperahan daw sa kidney yung bata. Dagdagan daw niya ang utang niya. Paki withdraw na lang ng 20K at pakibigay sa kaniya. (Mom, the child needs an operation. Kindly withdraw another twenty thousand and please gave it to her.)”

So, I went to the bank and withdrew twenty thousand pesos. And that afternoon, the woman went to our house and collected the money.

On that night, my daughter called to keep in touch with us. I immediately asked her about the condition of the child. Genalyn was surprised on what she heard from me. She told me that she never sent text message asking me to withdraw money for my colleague. She then asked how it happened, and I told her the details.

That’s the time when I realized that I was already scammed.

I cried and cried thinking that the money that I gave to the scammer was not my money but was part of the savings of my daughter. My daughter forgave me already and she’s always telling me that what was lost is just a money and she can still get that. But I just couldn’t forgive my self. And every time I remember what happened, I really feel sorry for my self.

Last December, I suffered from stroke and my mouth and speech was affected. I think this is the result of that text message scam.

We (My wife, our Son and I) are currently here in San Agustin, Surigao del Sur for a short vacation and and at the same time we’ll be attending the 74th birthday celebration of our mother.

We left Maasin City riding the tricycle that blogging bought for us last Sunday evening and dropped by Malitbog, Southern Leyte just to check how’s the life of our aunts and uncle. Then on Monday morning, we left Malitbog, Southern Leyte. We arrived in Liloan, Southern Leyte after about 3 hours of travel.

We stayed the whole afternoon in the Ferry Terminal (Liloan, Southern Leyte). At 5:45 PM, we’re on board the Maharlika 5 bound to Lipata, Surigao City.

The Maharlika 5 vessel was too slow. The Super Shuttle Ferry which was smaller than the Maharlika 5 and left Liloan Ferry Terminal at 6:30 PM went ahead of us at about 8:00 PM near Pintuyan, Southern Leyte. According to the guard that I talked at the Lipata Ferry Terminal, the Super Shuttle Ferry arrived at around 10:00 PM while we only arrived at 11:30 PM.

My wife and I were both tired at that time. So, we stayed overnight at the Surigao City Gateway Hotel and got rest. The standard room of the hotel cost P1,450 including the free breakfast for two. The room is good and is better than those cheaper hotels and lodging houses in the area.

By morning, after our breakfast at the restaurant of the hotel, we again started riding the “Blogging Juice” tricycle. That was at around 9:30. Then we arrived in Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte at 12:00 noon. We took our lunch and a little rest before starting rolling the highway again.

At 3:45 PM, we arrived in San Francisco, Agusan Del Sur. We shopped fruits for “pasalubong” like Mango, Apple and Lansones. Then after 30 minutes, we’re on our way again to San Agustin, Surigao del sur. We arrived here at 5:30 PM.

Over all, our trip to San Agustin, Surigao del Sur was safe, enjoyable, and exciting. I considered it as one of our great adventures considering that our one year old son was with us riding only a tricycle, and the total distance we traveled was approximately 500 kilometers from Maasin City, Southern Leyte to San Agustin, Surigao Del Sur

We’re also thankful to God for being with us the whole time. We even avoided the apprehension of the Highway Police forces even if  we did not secured a permit travel considering that the tricycle that we’re riding was classified according to its LTO registration as “For Hire Vehicle“.

After attending worship services and performing my duties in the church (Iglesia ni Cristo – my wife being a “Mang-aawit” and I am with the Finance department), we (my wife, our son and I)  immediately went to the “Kinamot sa Abgao” restaurant to celebrate two celebrations: (1) Father’s Day; and (2) our Wedding Anniversary.

We just ordered our favorite foods such as “Kinilaw” (Raw Fish in fillet), calamares and Lechon Kawali.

After eating our lunch, we stayed there for hours enjoying the cold sea breeze.

And as of writing this post, we’re already ready to start our trip to San Agustin, Surigao del Sur.

I called my son, Carl Justine, as the future kid blogger in my previous post. But I just don’t want him to be a blogger, I want him to be an Online Money Maker as well (in the future).

So, in this post, I will call him the “Future Online Money Maker“.

And did you know what was this “future online money maker” doing last Saturday?

I don’t know if he knew what he was doing because he was just a 10 month old baby, but what I was sure is that he was seriously watching Jackie Chen’s movie, “The Spy Next Door“.

I took several photos of him while watching the movie. And few of these are:

To enlarge the thumbnails, just click on them.

About the Spy Next Door Movie

Regarding the movie, Spy Next Door, that Carl Justine had watched, here’s the description provided by the Amazon:

Spy missions for the CIA may be difficult and dangerous, but they’re nothing compared to the challenges of raising a family. Bob Ho (Jackie Chan) is a Chinese spy on loan to the CIA, but to Gillian (Amber Valletta) and her kids Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley), and Nora (Alina Foley), he’s just a neighbor and pen salesman. Gillian and Bob are attracted to one another, and Bob is ready to tell Gillian what he really does for a living. He’s prepared to retire from his career in espionage so they can take their relationship to the next level. Unfortunately for Bob, Gillian’s kids are less than impressed with their nerdy neighbor, and that means his relationship with Gillian can’t move forward. When Gillian has to leave town suddenly, Bob volunteers to take care of the children in hopes of “making them” like him. Ian inadvertently downloads a secret file from Bob’s computer, and suddenly the Russian terrorist Poldark (Magnus Sheving) is bent on destroying Bob and the children. As if Bob weren’t having enough trouble negotiating the daily duties of making the children’s breakfast, getting them to school, and keeping track of young Nora in the local mall, he unexpectedly discovers that one of his CIA coworkers is working for the Russians (George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus play Bob’s colleagues). Bob finds himself alone in the fight of a lifetime as he battles to keep the children safe from the violent Russian and his associates. The Spy Next Door is full of action-packed martial arts scenes that highlight Jackie Chan’s prowess and will inspire much mock fighting and begging for lessons by school-age children, but it’s also a funny take on the very real difficulties of dating and parenting that adults will readily relate to. While there is a fair amount of fighting in the film, it is tastefully rendered and won’t upset most children ages 7 and older. –Tami Horiuchi

For 3 weeks straight, I was suffering from fever. At day time, my fever was only at 28 degree Celsius but my body temperature went up at 40 degree Celsius during night time.

I first noticed my fever on the second week after my upper left wisdom tooth burst my gum. During that time, the gum was swollen. So I thought that the fever was just the symptom of the gum infection.

I went to the dentist and let him checked my wisdom tooth. He said that the tooth seems in the normal position just like the other 3 wisdom teeth that I have. So, he advised me to wait for the tooth to finally emerge. He gave me 15 capsules of Mefenamic Acid which should be taken 3 times a day for 5 days.

The dentist did not explain to me what this medicine was for. And I did not bother asking him too.

On the eighth day, I was already wondering why I was still having fever when in fact I already consumed the medicine. I immediately went to a medical doctor. He asked me a lot of things including my bowel movement. I told the doctor that everything was fine except my gums. So, he checked my gums and told me that my gums developed puss already. Then the doctor told me to take 1 Augmentine 625mg tablet for 3 times a day.

After 3 days of taking this medicine, I experienced nausea. I thought it was just the side effect of the medicine.

But I was weakened after vomiting for more than 20 times in just a day. So, I decided to go to the hospital. My plan was just to stay in the emergency room over night while taking few liters of dextrose. But my aunt insisted that it would be better if I would be admitted and that was what actually happened.

I stayed in the hospital for two days. But I was dismayed when I realized that the doctor attending me was just trying to treat my hyperacidity. I actually wanted him to suggest any laboratory test to identify the real cause of the fever but he didn’t. So, I decided to check out from the hospital.

On the next day, I went to another doctor. I immediately told him that I was having fever for 2 weeks already. The doctor immediately told me to have the Complete Blood Count (CBC) and Typhoid Fever Test. I immediately underwent the lab tests and the result was that I was positive of the Salmonella Anti-Bodies which means I was actually suffering from the Typhoid Fever.

The doctor told me to take Ciprofloxacin 500mg twice a day for seven days.

And now, I think, the Salmonella in my body is already dead. I’m getting well and am currently recovering my strength.

I will not write anything… just look at the photo below… of course that’s my son…

What can you say?

I made a video (should I say photo slide?) out of the photos of CJ that my wife and I took. It was recorded (burned) into a video CD and should be distributed to our loveones. But we can’t send them all a copy of it, so I decided to upload it to Youtube.

• Title: Carl Justine “CJ” Malot Laplana, The Chronicle – Chapter 1
  
• Title: Carl Justine “CJ” Malot Laplana, The Chrinocle – Chapter 2
  

Note: If you’re reading this at your email, kindly visit the live version of it or go directly to it’s youtube location for you to be able to watch the videos.

A subscriber of our blog sent me this comment and question:

Brother, Thank you for writing article that contains good advices.  I agree that we should follow the will of God because He is the founder of marriage.

“‘Til death do us part”. I really agree with that.

But friend, we are human and we are not perfect. Life is like a race and there would winners and there would be losers too.

My question is: If your partner in life (wife) has engaged with extra-marital affair  and you forgive her many times for the sake of the children, but still she couldn’t change. Should you leave her and marry again?

I don’t know if what he told us on this email is based on his experience or is he just making a scenario just to hear our thoughts about the problem. But whatever is true, here’s my thought about it:

Be Truthful

My wife and I had agreed a lot of things even before we get married. And one of our agreements is that we should be truthful to each other. Being truthful doesn’t mean that we should devout our selves to each other.

When we say truthful, it means that we should tell each other what we feel and what we think about our relationship. If one of us felt that he or she need to stop the relationship because his or her love is already with the third party, then he or she should tell his or her partner about this for them to decide whether to continue the relationship or to break it off.

In our 4 and 1/2 years (Today, December 24, 2008 is our relationship’s 5th year anniversary) of engaging with long distance relationship, we followed what we had agreed.

When I learned that my gf accepted new suitor, I immediately talked to her and told her that it was the right time to stop our relationship. I told her that what she did simply told me that she’s not already contented with our relationship and that sh’e already looking for someone other then me.

However, she told me that she’s sorry for what she did and that she’d never do that again. So, I forgave her and went on with our relationship.

Avoid the Entrance of the Third Party

Usually, a relationship breaks because of the third party. I meet lots of people and talk to them about their relationship and most of them agreed with that.

It might be true that the husband made a lot of failures in his life but this failures actually can’t break a marriage as long as each of the couple avoided the entrance of the third party into their relationship. Once the wife or the husband allowed the entrance of the third party into their relationship, then that will be the time that their marriage will start to be ruined.

Please read my article, “How to avoid the entrance of the third party into your relationship.”

The Third Party is IN Already?

Now, you already missed something and the third party is in your relationship already. So, what should you do?

Okay. You need to talk. If your wife is responsible in letting the third party in then ask her if she’s still interested to continue your relationship. If she really wants to go with the third party then let her be. Your family will suffer the misery that will be brought into by the relationship of your wife to the third party.

However, you need to tell her that your family really needs her as the mother of your children and as your wife. If you’ve done things that led her to what she’s in now, then you still have the chance to change, promised her that you’ll change, and show her that you are changing.

Should I Marry Again?

I know that you are Christian. So instead of directly answering this question with my thoughts, I rather share you the advice of Apostle Paul:

10 Now to the Married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband.

11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife. (I Corinthians 7:10-11, New Kings James Version)