As I am writing this, the usually faint glow of our DSL modem, signifying that I am connected to the internet, is gone. It has been that way for over a week now, I am going crazy and PLDT is definitely not helping.

Their customer service people is a bit helpful now. They do not treat me as an idiot anymore and read their usual script, instead they just go ahead and forward my concern to the technical team. That is another matter though since I have no idea on what is happening behind the scenes, I am left wondering if it is in the process of getting fixed or stuck at the bottom of the queue.

People have been telling me to just switch providers but what are my choices, really? Smart Bro, which is still owned by PLDT, and Globe Wireless Broadband with top speed of only half a megabit. The lack of competition is pathetic considering I live in the middle of the city.

Take away the internet from me and I am almost nothing. Movies and TV shows that I watch, music and podcasts that I listen to are all downloaded off it. The absolute worst of it all is I do not have an excuse to just stay locked-up in my room and actually have to spend time and talk to people. Some of them just drive me nuts. Oh well, that’s me, always the pariah.

Since I arrived here in Manila a couple of months ago, I have had probably gone to more than a dozen job interviews. Some I would kill to be hired and some I’d rather die because the interview is too freakin’ boring. I don’t really get nervous that much and try to have a lively conversation with the interviewer. Although, I do get the jitters every now and then when I feel intimidated by him or her. My interview this morning was one of those.

One factor was probably is it’s in Eastwood City, Libis and I have to be there at 7:30 in the morning which means I have to be up by 4:30. Another is it’s a webcam interview and somewhat uncomfortable for me. So, the interviewer asked me the usual questions and I usually have prepared answers for those. He asked me about my strengths and weaknesses and the weakness part is tricky as you may have known so I usually say, “I’m a perfectionist and I obsessed about every little detail that sometimes I spend too much time on it.” I don’t know what got into my stupid brain, probably because that answer is too ‘normal’ so I said something different. “I tend to jeer away from work and spend countless hours on YouTube.” Seriously, WTF? The moment I said it, I know I screwed up and I cannot think of any company will that answer be regarded as positive. Maybe if the company is YouTube or Vimeo then that’s alright.

So there, I screwed up. I tend to obsess about these things because I always want to please everybody and leave a good impression on someone. I think they don’t want me but that’s alright, I just feel stupid and I know other people have gone through a much dumber or embarrassing situation but I want to write about mine thinking it will somehow make me feel better. It kinda did.

Twitter, the wildly popular micro-blogging platform, has a growing number of Filipino users. As an avid Twitter myself, I can say that Twittering on the web is only half of what is it all about. The other is, of course, sending and receiving tweets on your mobile. Unfortunately for us, enabling this feature costs a lot as we have to send our tweets through a UK number. This workaround will allow you to text your tweets from your mobile for only P2.50 ($0.05).

Get a TwitterMail address
Go to TwitterMail.com and login with your Twitter username and password. You will be given your own TwitterMail e-mail address. Take note of this address as all messages sent to it will be posted as Tweets.

Use Smart’s Text-to-Email Feature
Compose a new message on your mobile phone in this format:
    <TWITTERMAIL ADDRESS> <TWEET POST>
    i.e. abcdefg@twittermail.com My first mobile tweet!
Send this to 200.

You will receive an SMS saying that your message has been received. Save the sender’s number as this will be unique to that address. The next time you tweet, just compose your message without the e-mail address and send it to that number. Each message sent will cost only 2.50 pesos. Pretty cool, right?

Enable Mobile Phone Notifications (optional)
If you want to be able to receive tweets from the persons that you are following, you need to enable phone notifications. Login to your Twitter account and enable mobile phone notifications under the Settings menu option. Send a text message with the code to the number posted on the screen. This will cost you around P15.00 but it will just be a one-time thing, unless you change your mobile number. You won’t be charged anything to receive an international SMS.

Awesome Add-ons
After being an official mobile twitter user, you can now use some of the services that will prove to be extremely useful for that forgetful brain of yours. There’s a full-featured to-do list at RememberTheMilk.com and the Timer Twitter bot. I personally use the Timer bot as it’s extremely simple. You can also check out MySmart and TwitterMail’s how page to find out some even more stuff that you could do on your mobile.

I am pretty sure that there is a Globe alternative to Smart’s text-to-email feature but I’m too lazy to search for it. If you know what it is, leave a comment and I’ll update this blog entry.