My Blog

Changes to Blogger FTP Service

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:07:00 +0000

I received the following e-mail earlier today. Since I publish my blog via FTP, I'm affected, so I'll see what options I have available to me. Ideally, my blog will be integrated seamlessly with my website. I'll mention any significant changes in the News section of my home page. If anyone has suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.

Dear FTP user:

You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. We recently announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog), and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement. We will be following up with more information via e-mail in the weeks ahead, and regularly updating a blog dedicated to this service shut-down here: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/.

The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows.

    Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.

    Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users.

    For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

          * We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
          * We will be providing a dedicated blog[5] and help documentation
          * Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.

    We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.

Regards,

Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

[1] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[2] http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/01/blogger-custom-domains.html
[3] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[4] http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
[5] http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/

----
This e-mail is being sent to notify you of important changes to your Blogger account.

Manila: Comments and Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Sitting in the business lounge of Hong Kong International Airport, I can't help but reflect on the time I've spent abroad. My stay in Manila was fun, exciting, challenging, at times frustrating, but also quite productive. I've had a number of experiences and have written a lot during the past three months. Most of my experiences have been good ones (people I've met and befriended; places I've seen) and some not so good (my run-ins with corrupt cab drivers; having my iPhone stolen). Still, I don't regret making the journey, though I'd really like my phone back.

Living in a third world country for a period of time will make you aware of certain things you wouldn't normally hear of or be exposed to. It probably sounds trite, but I have a new-found appreciation for the conveniences of living in New York, though I still intend to move out of the city at some point. Having access to a large variety of good quality food almost 24 hours a day, for example. That's a big one. Being single, I buy a lot of frozen vegetables because otherwise I would throw out a lot of food due to spoilage. When I was in Manila, I was only able to find frozen broccoli once when I went to the supermarket. Frozen. I would think frozen vegetables would be a staple in a place where so much produce need to be shipped from other countries. Some of the frozen foods were rife with frost and had obviously been thawed and refrozen. Needless to say, this was only one of numerous challenges I faced in adjusting to my new environment.

Another adjustment I had to make was in how things were done. There was a lack of urgency almost everywhere I went. This was something to which I, as a native New Yorker--albeit a very laid-back one--was unaccustomed. The one exception seemed to be the guy at the 7-Eleven downstairs from my apartment. That guy hustled.

Then there was my first haircut. I had no complaints with the haircut itself, but I was startled and almost shocked to the point of feeling violated when at the end the barber pushed me forward and started massaging my shoulders and upper back. Apparently, that's customary. That's nice. I think I'll pass. Now, if it was a pretty girl giving me the haircut...

Now for a more detailed experience. This took place early in September:

I stepped into the elevator with this guy I've seen in the gym downstairs on occasion. He's a muscular, bald guy with a goatee. Anyway, we ended up getting off on the same floor and walking down the same hall. We started talking. His name is Alex. He's 45 and living here with his wife, a Filipino woman named Wilma. He met her here 25 years ago. We didn't talk much and then returned to our respective apartments.

Then, a few days later, I ran into him in the gym, and we started talking again. He's Serbian and runs a private bodyguard business in Europe and is trying to extend his business down here. Most of his employees are ex-Israeli soldiers. His wife showed up. I met her, and we all talked for a few minutes, then they had to leave. Up until this point, I hadn't seen anyone in my section of this floor. It was actually a little eerie, and I've already got ideas for some kind of ghost story.

One evening, as I was locking the door of my apartment and getting ready to go to work, I looked up and this security guard dressed in a white uniform stood about twelve feet away from me. I'm usually fairly aware of my surroundings here, but I did just wake up and was running a little late. As far as I knew, the hall had been vacant.

"Good evening, sir," he said in his thick accent.

"Good evening," I replied. It may have been apparent that I was a little startled, but I don't know.

"Can I help you with anything?" I asked. My apartment is at the very end of the hall near the fire exit, and I could see no justifiable reason he should be here at this time.

"No, sir," he said. Then he walked past me, opened the fire exit door, and entered the stairwell.

The incident struck me as beyond odd. It seemed just surreal.

The hallway was hot and humid as usual, and I wore my glasses. I proceeded to the elevator bank and hit the button. Insects buzzed around the light fixtures, but they looked like little stars bouncing around. At first, I didn't realize they were insects at all. At first, I thought someone was playing with a laser pointer.

When the elevator doors opened, I stepped inside, and it was literally frosty. The mirrors in the elevator were fogged up. When I reached the ground floor and left the elevator, of course my glasses fogged up as well.

As they say, it's in the details.

Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana)

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:41:00 +0000

Well, I can't say my time in Manila has been boring. Adjusting to the initial though expected culture shock, my sleep deprivation, and inclement weather has been challenging at times. Overall, it's been a good experience, and I would do it again.

I haven't blogged here in quite some time, and I know a lot of people must be wondering why I didn't blog about the typhoons. The truth is that I didn't have anything significant to report as far as my experience with the storms was concerned. Edgar, the shuttle van driver, had mentioned to me on the way to work that Friday night that a typhoon would hit us, but I didn't know how serious it could be. I worked my shift that night and came home in the rain the next morning, but I so no flooding or damage where I was at the time.

Later that night, I went out with some friends from work to Ascend, a night club at The Fort in Taguig. We saw only light rain, no flooding, nothing like any of the footage that would be broadcast on the news in the days to come. The club was only a fraction as busy as it normally would be, and we were informed it was because of the storm, but still we had no idea. The devastation caused by Ondoy has been compared to hurricane Katrina, but we didn't see any of that devastation in our area.

The next day, I received a number of calls and emails from friends and family back home and had to assure everyone of my safety. After watching the news, I could understand their concern. Many of the areas hit hardest were actually quite close to where I live and work. Fortunately, Rockwell Center, where I'm staying remained virtually unscathed.

Fort Bonafacio in Taguig City, where I work and only minutes away from Ascend wasn't so fortunate, however. Three World Square, the building I work in, is at the bottom of a large hill on Upper McKinley Road. I didn't see any evidence of flooding or damage when I drifted into work at 11 p.m. that night, though. Most of the issues had been resolved by then, but for most of the day there was no power and no phone service. I was grateful power was restored by the time I got into work because it would be brutal trying to work in that building without air conditioning.

About half of the analysts didn't make it in that day, so a good portion of our call volume was redirected back to New York, but we still got slammed. I and the other mentors who flew down here to train the first-level analysts even had to jump on the phones and take some calls, something we hadn't had to do since we arrived here.

Thankfully, all the analysts and their families survived, though a good number of them were out for the week. They and their families have had to deal with getting their homes back in order. One of the guys was displaced altogether. He and his family lost everything, and his father lost all the tools he needs for his livelihood. Thomson Reuters, the company we work for, has set up something of a disaster relief fund which he has been able to take advantage of, so hopefully that will be enough to get him and his family back on their feet.

Some have attributed the ferocity of the typhoons to climate change. Personally, I don't doubt it. Ondoy created the heaviest flooding Metro Manila has seen in over 40 years. Is this just the beginning?

Boracay

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:33:00 +0000

So, I finally made it out of Makati. Saturday afternoon, a couple friends from work--Melvin and Duane--and I caught a plane to Boracay. We all work night shift, though I work the latest of the three of us, so we had to wait at least until 8 a.m. Our flight was pushed back from 12:45 to 1:30, which we weren't happy about because we'd already been up all night with no sleep and were due back Monday afternoon.

Our journey was uneventful until we disembarked the plane. We had to fly to Kalibo Airport because Caticlan Airport was closed for renovations until early October. This added an additional 90 minutes to our trip cramped up in a van with five other travelers - an old white man and his young Asian boyfriend; and three guys wearing medical masks who were probably of Middle Eastern descent. This cost us 200 pesos each for the privilege. We weren't told how long the trip would be. We'd spoken to others who'd visited Boracay and were told that the trip consists of a one-hour flight followed by a ten-minute boat ride. It sounded painless. It wasn't.

If Caticlan were open, it probably would have been a smooth trip. Instead, after about 40 minutes of driving in the van and seeing I had no phone service, I began to wonder if we'd been abducted. You really do have to wonder about such things. There are a number of vans waiting to pick people up at the airport, most of them unmarked. Anyone can drive up with their own van, pick up a group of people, and drive them to a remote location with no means of communicating with the outside world. Then what? No wonder there are movies like Touristas and Hostel out there.

We passed four cemeteries that I counted along the way; people burning trash in the fields; skinny children running around barefoot in the streets; dilapidated buildings; and people who looked like they just stepped out of National Geographic.We drove further into the jungle. Only towards the end of the drive when the first glimpses of the ocean appeared through the trees did my sense of unease abate. For photos and video of the trip check out these links:

http://www.youtube.com/kbdunn9
http://picasaweb.google.com/kbdunn/BoracaySept2009#

We finally made it to the boat ride, which was only about ten minutes long. There were additional fees we had to pay before boarding though the boat trip itself was included in the 200 pesos we paid for the van ride.

Another ride in a jeepney lasting about 20 minutes, and we reached the Fairways and Bluewater hotel. The accommodations were phenomenal, though there's room for improvement. I noticed at least three different species of insect in my bathroom as well as a gecko, whose life I decided to spare despite my policy on intruders big and small. I just made sure to close the bathroom door when I wasn't using it. I didn't want the little bastard crawling into my mouth while I slept, though that was no guarantee his brethren or other interlopers hadn't already made their way into my sleeping quarters.

The power failed several times before we hit the town that first night. Of course, my initial reaction was that the hotel was to blame, but later on while walking the beach strip in Boracay the power went out again. Everything but Starbucks went dark. The next day, we ran into a guy named John, who teaches scuba diving here. He's originally from California and taught scuba diving in Hawaii. He moved here and married a Filipino girl a number of years ago. He said Boracay's economy has been booming during the recession since it's beautiful and cheap. The only problem is that now it's developing too fast, which explains why the power went out four times Saturday. Still, there are other parts of the island that remain untouched, so hopefully development of those regions will be kept to a minimum.

There wasn't much for us to do Saturday, getting in so late, so after eating dinner in the hotel restaurant, we cleaned up and headed to D-Mall, the main area where all the action takes place. Boracay has a very active night life, even off season, which it was while we were there. We walked around a bit then found a bar called Summer Place, which was really hopping. We went inside, ordered some drinks, and hung out. We'd walked up and down the beach strip a few times, and this was the most happening place. We'd been told by the people at the front desk of Fairways and Bluewater that Cocomangas was the place to be, but that was on the main road a couple blocks away from the beach. So, we hung out at Summer Place, partied, and had a good time. The music was loud just like ever other club, so I would head outside every so often for some fresh air and quiet. The only problem I had then was dealing with the prostitutes and ladyboys.

"Sir, would you like a massage?"

"No."

"How about a blowjob on the beach with a happy ending?"

I shook my head and kept walking.

One time, a ladyboy--that's what transvestites are referred to here--latched onto my arm.

"Sir, would you like some company," he said in a pseudo-female voice.

I shook him off and kept walking. I was disgusted.

That was it. I was ready to call it a night. We called for the hotel's shuttle van and walked up to the main road to wait for it. We bought a few rolls at 5 pesos a piece at an all night bakery, the most appetizing thing available at that time in my opinion.

We passed Cocomangas on the ride back, and it did seem to be hopping, but one of the prostitutes we'd spoken to earlier said it was a hangout for ladyboys. Whether she lied or not didn't matter. It's location was too inconvenient for us anyway. We just wanted to hang out on the beach, have a few beers, and relax.

The hotel serves a complimentary breakfast from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. We headed down to the hotel restaurant around 9:30 the following morning to get ours. It was a typical buffet with all the usual stuff: fruit, eggs, bacon, rolls, coffee, etc. There were also a few unexpected dishes on hand such as chicken noodle soup and rice. Breakfast was okay but nothing to rave about.

The Mayweather/Marquez fight was on TV live, and we were still lazy from insufficient sleep and the previous day's journey, so we decided to stay and watch while we talked and accessed the complimentary wi-fi on our iPhones. We wanted to order up some mimosas, but that wasn't an option--I assumed they didn't have champagne--so we each ordered other mixed drinks. I don't recall what the other guys had, but I had a pina colada and a sombrero. We had two drinks each, finished watching the fight, then toured the grounds, which were amazing. I would recommend this place for family vacations or anyone who wants to stay in a quiet place with a lot of amenities including a private beach, golf course, and butterfly farm.

We lingered awhile, taking pictures and video, then headed back to our rooms to clean up and head out for the day.

We returned to D-Mall and perused the little shops and restaurants on the way down to the beach. We stopped at a shake shop and bought some mango and fruit shakes which were pretty damned good. The strangest place we came across had to be the Hobbit House, which is a bar run by midgets. Exploitative, I know, but I couldn't help but be amused. I assume that was the purpose. The concept certainly draws attention.

We were hungry again, so we decided to look for a place to eat. We ended up at the Red Coconut hotel's beachside restaurant. I wasn't feeling too adventurous, so I just ordered up a personal pepperoni pizza; Duane had paella, and Melvin had chicken curry. We washed that down with a couple beers, and we were good to go. I can't speak for the other guys, but my pizza was only okay. I'm a little spoiled on New York pizza, so take it for what it is.

Of course, we were still not all that energetic, so we decided to find some lounge chairs on the beach where we could order up some drinks and relax. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the place--blogging was the last thing on my mind at the time--but it wasn't far from the Red Coconut, and such places are plentiful along the beach. While we were there, we met John, who I mentioned earlier, and talked to him awhile.

A heavyset woman carrying what looked like a tackle box offered us pedicures, and Melvin took her up on it while we sipped our drinks. We were having a fairly good day, certainly better than the previous one.

It was late afternoon already, and the sun was setting. We would have done more, but this was only a weekend trip. You need at least three days and a better commute. With enough time, there's a lot more to do: jetskis, sailing, boat rides, snorkling, scuba classes, etc.

Still, we wanted to make the most of the time we had, and aside from being bombarded with illegitimate massage offers from local prostitutes, we'd heard from a number of people that we should take advantage of massages on the beach. We opted to check out a spa along the beach strip instead. Duane and I went for the 1-hour full body massage, which cost 600 pesos; Melvin went for a foot massage to top off the pedicure he had earlier on the beach. We all nodded off to sleep at some point, and when we left we were loose and relaxed.

We were also hungry, and Duane had been scoping out lobsters all day. We stopped at a beachside grill that offered fresh lobster and a buffet. Melvin went for the buffet at only 250 pesos; Duane and I opted for the lobster at a combined cost of 1,600 pesos plus drinks or $16 a lobster. I forget how much they weighed, but they weighed the same. The lobsters were grilled and admittedly not terribly pretty, but they tasted good, and we didn't get sick, so it wasn't a bad experience.

We finished off the night by staying out late at the Summer Place bar again--not a wise idea. We were up until past three and had to be out by 7 a.m. to be able to make our 10:15 flight.

The trip back to Manila went smoothly until we reached the Kalibo Airport. We knew to expect the long van ride, but it was a holiday and traffic was light. We reached the airport on time, but when we arrived the computers were down, so takeoff was delayed. Again, we weren't happy. And now we suffered even deeper fatigue than before. Still, delays and all, we managed to get back to Manila only an hour later than scheduled.

In retrospect, not a bad trip. Initial expenses totaled $248 per person including airfare, hotel accommodations, and taxes for the weekend, and we didn't spend much more than that on additional meals and incidentals. With better planning--especially after the beginning of October when Caticlan Airport's renovations are complete--and a longer stay, it will be a much better overall experience for anyone planning to vacation in Boracay. We may even return there for a longer weekend before heading back to New York. We'll see.

A Day in the Life, Boracay

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Okay, so my experience in Manila has been less than extraordinary so far. I attribute that mostly to the fact that I've been working graveyard shift and having trouble sleeping. Here's a breakdown of a typical working day in my life here:

9:30 p.m. - Wake up, shower, eat.

10:30 p.m. - Shuttle van to work.

11 p.m. - 8 a.m. - Work.

8 a.m. - Catch shuttle van back to Rockwell Center.

8:30 a.m. - Workout or sleep; or eat, sleep, and workout later. It depends on how I feel. Lately, I've been hitting the gym about 9 a.m. every morning right after I get home.

10 a.m. - Shower, breakfast.

10:30 a.m. - 3 or 4 p.m. - Run errands, grocery shopping, etc. On a more relaxed day, I might watch a movie, read, write, or surf the net. Thursdays, my maid cleans my place from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. I can't confirm the latter time since I'm always asleep when she leaves, but my place is clean, so I can't complain. ;-)

I sleep anytime between 3 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. On a bad day, I will nap a little when I get home from work because I'm exhausted then won't be able to sleep until 6 or 6:30 p.m. Sleeping pills require a prescription here, and I'd rather not take them anyway, so I'm taking herbal supplements containing melatonin in staggered doses on alternate days. If I take them daily they become ineffective.

And that's a typical day for me here. I am getting used to it now, after five weeks, but I still feel the need to recharge a bit on the weekends. All of us working here have had the same issues. Getting coordinated hasn't been easy, so mostly it's been going out with friends from work on Saturday nights, and not every Saturday night, either.

Right now, a few guys from work and I am planning a weekend trip to Boracay, an island about 200 miles south of Manila. If all goes well, we'll leave on September 19th. The Wikipedia entry on it says, "Boracay is also known as gateway to paradise due to its natural beauty." It should be a nice trip.

I'm still looking to make at least one other major trip while I'm here--either, the three country trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, or the trip/extended layover in Hong Kong. Ideally, I would do both, but I don't know if that will be possible. We'll see. I have seven weeks left.

Skype and Google Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:50:00 +0000

I haven't written much about my service options in Manila other than the ones provided to me by the local carrier here, Global, so I thought I'd go into the intricacies of my setup now.

Local calls via Global are costly and can burn up a 500 p ($10) phone card in about ten minutes, though all incoming calls and texts are free. Outgoing texts are cheap at about 2 cents a message, so texting is the preferred method of communication here. Wireless Internet access on my phone is cheap at 5 pesos (10 cents) per 15 minutes, but if you get disconnected, which can happen often, you get charged again for a new session. Neither maintaining a constant Internet connection nor an intermittent one is practical or desirable as I discovered one night when I burned up about 200 pesos while my phone was tucked away in my pocket. So, I've disabled Internet access on my phone and will only enable it if I need to access something or if I'm extremely bored and don't have access to a computer.

Communicating with friends and family back home is another story altogether. As luck would have it, I received an offer from Skype for a free month of their Unlimited World service just before flying to Manila. I had until July 31st to take advantage of it, so I activated it when I arrived on the 23rd and have been using it ever since. Unlimited World allows you to make computer-to-landline calls in over 40 countries worldwide. While I can communicate with almost everyone I know back in the states using Skype's free computer-to-computer service, and do it with video, I wanted to be as accessible as possible. Once my month expired, I signed up for Skype's unlimited US and Canada plan for an additional three months at $2.80 a month. I also rented a Skype phone number local to New York at a price of $12 for three months. And, of course, I can still Skype for free when calling another computer.

Since I suspended my AT&T service, I haven't been able to use the GoVoGo voice mail service I mentioned previously. That's okay. Voice mail is included in my Skype package. Out of curiosity, I called my AT&T cell number and received this message: "The person you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time. Please try your call again later." Cool. So, for three months, anyone trying to call that number will hear that message. Anyone who needs to get in touch with me already knows I'm out of the country, and they know how to reach me, so I'm not concerned. By the time I get back to New York, a lot of the undesirables, such as telemarketers, will have written me off and stopped trying to call me.

Enter Google Voice. The thing that appeals to me about this free service is that you have a lot more control over how your calls are managed. It has a lot of cool features I'm not going to get into here. You can check out the link above if you're interested. So, after reading a little about it, I was sold. I requested an invitation to the service.

A few days after I made my request, I received an invite. I clicked on the link Google sent me and it sent me to a page telling me Google Voice isn't available in my country, only the US at this time. It would have been nice if I had received the invitation before I flew to Manila, but what could I do? I really wanted to activate my account because I didn't want to risk the chance of it expiring before I get back home, if it expires. I didn't want to have to wait for another invite. It turned out that my company, in addition to providing me with a laptop for work, also provided me with VPN access to their network in New York. I logged into the New York network--problem solved. Google Voice now saw me coming to their site from a New York IP address and allowed me to log in, choose my new phone number, and access all the features of the site. Once registered and set up, I was able to access the site even when not logged into VPN.

I still wanted to make use of the service, though, and Google Voice won't forward to international numbers yet. Since I'm not using my AT&T account here, that wasn't an option. But since I purchased a New York number from Skype, I was able to set Google Voice to forward to that number. Now, I can get both Google Voice and Skype on my iPhone, so I'm pretty happy.

Work, Insomnia, Challenges

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:25:00 +0000

The photo you're looking at is from day 1 when the Manila call center went live. That was three weeks ago. We started taking twenty percent of the total call volume that week. This week, we were at fifty percent and seemed to handle it. Earlier in the week we certainly noticed the bump. The shuttle van got me into work a half hour early, and the CSEs bombarded me with questions as usual before I had a chance to boot up my laptop. We had an outage one night after 5 a.m. when I was the only mentor available, and five or six CSEs came up to me asking me questions all at once. Bry, one of the analysts we're training, laughed and said, "Wow. You're queuing, man."

"Yeah," I said. "I am."

I was tired, but the humor wasn't lost on me, and these guys have it in abundance.

Working down here hasn't been without its challenges. Readers of my blog are well aware of my sleeping and commuting issues. The shuttle service we use changed van drivers this week as well as the schedule, which I'd thought we'd had squared away. Edgar, the previous driver, picked me up at Rockwell at 10:30 p.m. and Three World Square at 8:00 a.m. I was getting the service I expected, and I was happy. Then Zek, Edgar's brother, who also happened to be taking over his shift, informed me the other night that there was also an impending schedule change. They were to start picking people up at Rockwell at 8:15 a.m. because of heavy traffic, meaning they wouldn't pick me up until 8:30 or 8:40. I wasn't happy at all. I have to work an extra hour a day more than I did in New York, so being inconvenienced with my commute is not something I'm going to accept in silence. When I got into work that night, I was somewhat irritated, but I kept my cool and approached Mike Peterson, the Global Technical Support Manager for the Manila office. He was sympathetic to my dilemma, which I appreciated because he's a guy who knows how to get things done. He spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone straightening things out, and once again the van is picking me up at 8:00 a.m. Thanks again, Mike!

While my commuting problems seem to have been resolved, my insomnia has actually gotten worse. This past week, I haven't been able to get more than two to four hours sleep per night. I can't explain it other than my body is naturally inclined to stay awake during the day. I've been taking melatonin, but I need something stronger. I went to the drug store in the mall and asked if they had any heavy duty sleeping pills, but I couldn't get anything heavier than melatonin and herbal extracts without a prescription. This is a real problem that is self-perpetuating. Because I'm so sleep deprived, I don't have a lot of energy to do much in my free time, and I haven't worked out since Monday. The exercise would do me good and help me regulate my sleep. I finally received my membership card to the Rockwell Club. It only took them a month to get it to me. Now, I consider myself pretty laid back for a native New Yorker, but that is just unacceptable. In New York, I would have had the card the same day. Now that I finally have it, I have access to the workout facilities without having to get a guest pass every few days. There have been days I blew off my workout just because I was tired and didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting the pass again. Now I have no excuse, so hopefully that will help a lot.

I haven't really done any traveling since I arrived other than what I've already mentioned in my previous posts, but I heard of a three-country trip between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I may go with a couple guys from the company sometime in September. That should be a fun trip. I also want to look into extending my layover in Hong Kong a few days on the way back to New York, but I'm not sure what I'm doing regarding that yet.

How I'm Using My iPhone Abroad (Follow-Up)

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:37:00 +0000

This is for all those geeks out there who are fascinated with this kind of stuff as well as anyone traveling in the Philippines who wants to get Internet access on the iPhone.

Since I've been in Manila, I haven't had the constant 3G Internet access I had in New York, which is crippling for an iPhone, as any iPhone owner will attest to. So, I finally decided to look into the options Globe, my prepaid cell phone provider in Manila, offered. I was pleased to find that mobile Internet access was available, and it was cheap, too--20 pesos an hour or just over 40 cents. Great. Now, I just had to figure out how to enable it.

Just opening up Safari or email wasn't enough. I fished around Globe's website some more and found a 24-hour support line. I called it and spoke to a woman who told me that while they do have Internet access for iPhones, since I didn't buy mine here it wasn't supported and they couldn't guarantee I'd be able to use it.

"Okay," I said. "So, how do I get Internet access then?"

"Sir," she said, "you need to change the APN settings in the phone, but I can't assure you it will work."

"All right, so what are the settings?"

"You need to download them via a wi-fi connection onto your iPhone. Do you have a pen?"

"Yes, go ahead."

"You need to go to https://iphone.com.ph/config."

I entered the settings in my web browser. The page timed out.

"Thanks," I said and hung up. She didn't seem too helpful or willing to help, but she was actually more helpful than I thought at first.

I typed the following into Google: iphone apn settings for globe in manila.

After clicking on a couple links, I found this site: http://philmug.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=24153. The correct url the customer service rep should have given me--https://iphone.globe.com.ph/config--was there. You would think she would know the correct address. It didn't matter anymore. I clicked on the link, and it downloaded a file of an unknown type named "config." I opened it with Notepad just to see what was in it. Just a bunch of code and some references to xml and Globe Telecom. I looked back to the site where I found the link. There were instructions for changing the APN settings. I checked my phone. I assumed iPhones that hadn't been unlocked or jailbroken wouldn't have this feature available but that I might. Yes. It was there a couple levels down under settings. I clicked on Settings, General, Network, and Cellular Data Network. There were fields for APN settings for Cellular Data and MMS as well as login fields. Since I'd used MMS successfully on this phone already and there weren't any login settings entered there, I figured I'd try changing the APN settings for Cellular Data and see what happened. I changed internet.globe.com.ph (postpaid) to http.globe.com.ph (prepaid) then restarted my phone for good measure and gave it a try. Bingo! Online again. I don't know why I didn't look into doing this sooner.

Taxi Driver

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:30:00 +0000

I guess it was bound to happen. Working from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. the past couple days has been challenging enough since I've had to readjust my sleep schedule again. Yesterday, I came home, ate breakfast, then slept from around 10 to 12, watched Eastern Promises (good movie by the way), worked out, then slept again from 7 to 10, and headed into work. It would be nice to get some solid, unbroken sleep.

Anyway, by the end of my shift I was exhausted and looking forward to going home and getting some rest. The shuttle van my company provides was supposed to pick me up at 8:30, so I had to wait 30 minutes. Okay, I wasn't thrilled about that, but I waited anyway. By 8:45 I'd given up waiting since I was nodding to sleep on the sidewalk in front of work. I stood up, stepped out into the street and the rain, and hailed a taxi. The ride itself was smooth, and the driver didn't ostensibly try to rip me off. The problem came when we entered Rockwell. The smallest bill I had on me was 1000 pesos ($20 US), and the driver didn't have change.

"All right," I said. "You don't have change?" I looked over the seat at the meter. It read 80 pesos. "Okay. Eighty pesos," I said. "I'll be right back."

I ran into the 7-Eleven at my building and asked for change, but they didn't have it. I ran across the street to Figaro. Same problem. When I came back out into the rain, the driver had pulled up in front of the coffee shop. Apparently, he was afraid I was going to stiff him. I got back in.

"Drive up the block," I said. "There's a bank around the corner."

He drove me to the bank. I looked over the seat. The meter was still running. Scum.

We pulled up in front of the bank, and I ran up to the ATM. I didn't want to take money out because of international service fees, but I was wiped out and wanted to go home, so I did it. I took out 4oo pesos, expecting four 100 peso bills. Instead, the ATM spat out two 200 peso bills. Nice. To hell with it. I walked back down to the cab and opened the door. I held out the bill.

"Do you have change for this?" I snapped. Yes. It was a rhetorical question.

He pulled out a 100 peso bill. The meter read 90 now. He also held a twenty and smaller bills in his other hand. Nice. He was giving himself a tip. A whopping 40 cents.

"Choke on it," I barked.

I snatched the hundred out of his hand, tossed the 200 at him, and slammed the door. I'd actually planned on giving him a hundred anyway since he hadn't tried to screw me until it came time to pay, but now I was pissed. It was a two dollar cab ride with the tip, so the money was never the issue; the attitude was; the sense of entitlement, of getting over. Are you telling me no one in this damned city has change for twenty bucks?!?! I'm sure the stores didn't want to give it to me because I wasn't patronizing them at the time even though I'd been to both places several times before.

I'm still disgusted. I could take nine cab rides here for the price of one in New York, and that's not including the New York tip. I'm still floored at how these bastards are scrounging for pennies. It creates a lot of unnecessary aggravation for me and every other foreigner of whom they try to take advantage. I actually sympathize with their plight, but they're not dealing with it the right way. I guess they figure they'll never see the passenger again anyway, so get what you can from them while they're there. It's just sleazy.

How I'm Using My iPhone Abroad

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:32:00 +0000

As you know from my previous post about this, I was able to have AT&T suspend my service while I'm out of the country for $1o a month. So, where does that leave me then? The iPhone is little more than a glorified mp3 player without phone and data access. The solution was to jailbreak my iPhone and swap out the SIM card with the one from the cell phone my company provided me. (For information on jailbreaking your iPhone visit http://blog.iphone-dev.org/.) Everyone here uses prepaid phone cards to load their phones, and text messaging with these services is cheap--about two cents a message outgoing and free incoming. And those rates are across the board for international texting, too. You can't beat that. I even was able to send MMS (pictures) messages internationally, a service AT&T won't provide until after summer.

Calling is a different story. Assuming you load your phone with 500 pesos ($10 US), a ten minute call will burn that up. So, I can make and receive calls on my iPhone now, but I do a lot more texting, and texting is a hell of a lot more enjoyable on the iPhone than that Nokia piece of crap I'll get charged $250 for if I lose it.

Now I can make calls and text, but what about Internet access, email, and other web-based services? I have Internet access in my apartment, but it wasn't wireless, so I went out and bought a cheap Belkin wireless router for 2500 pesos ($50 US). Now I can check email and do everything else while I'm in my apartment from the comfort of my bed if I so desire, and I do. I can do the same outside if I can find a hotspot, but they aren't as plentiful here as they are in NYC. Still, the texting keeps me as connected as I really need to be. I'm here on a work assignment, so I have almost constant access to a computer and the Internet. GPS still works, but it works a lot better with a data plan and plentiful hotspots. Also, there's no voice mail service with the prepaid phone card. That's not really a big issue. Most of the calls I make are international via Skype anyway, and if someone really needs to get in touch with you there are plenty of alternatives. By the way, Skype has unlimited calling plans to landlines for as little as $5.95/mo for calls to the US and $12.95/mo worldwide. Computer to computer is always free.

I also like using the prepaid phone card. It's a little inconvenient to have to buy one every so often, but they have other alternatives for adding a load to your phone. I like being able to ration out the pesos. In some ways it's easier to keep track of my spending. It's a hell of a lot better than getting raped by the big T for international roaming charges. I've heard horror stories of $30,000 phone bills, and no, that's not a typo. No thanks, AT&T. I'm happy with your service, but your billing sucks.

Insomnia, Work, Adjustment

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:24:00 +0000

So, I've been here over a week now, and my sleep is still off. I would say I'm dealing mostly with insomnia at this point. I start working my new permanent Manila shift tomorrow. I'll be working from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. The anticipation of the new shift is probably at least partly responsible for my sleep issues. Tomorrow--or I should say Tuesday--will be a long day for me.

My coworkers who came down from New York with me went out the first night and partied. I don't know how they did it. I only managed to sleep a couple hours during the 20-hour flight here, so I crashed and burned once I checked into my room. They had a great time, and I wish I could have gone with them but I just couldn't make it. That's how it was for a good part of the first week. I allowed myself to sleep whenever I felt like it in an effort to catch up, though I've read you can never really catch up on sleep. I think I would disagree, though.

I felt rested enough the next day to head out with everyone to a club and meet up with the new analysts we would be training. We reserved a VIP room and drank beer, played pool, and sang karaoke. The new analysts, known to us as CSEs, are a good-natured, fun-loving group of people, and I think meeting them in such an informal setting for the first time was an excellent idea. I'm not a big fan of the stuffy corporate atmosphere, and I think it's good for us all to feel comfortable with each other since we'll be spending a lot of time together. I think the work experience will be just as rewarding as the travel experience.

I spent that weekend hanging out with my coworkers from the New York office, mostly shopping for essentials like food and clothes, dining out, and trying to get my sleep cycle in some kind of order.

Monday, we met at the Joya building in Rockwell Center around 2:30 p.m. to catch the shuttle van that takes us to work at Three World Square in downtown Makati City. Traffic wasn't bad at that time, and we made it in about twenty minutes. Work was light this week, mostly spent getting our laptops setup, our VPN access to New York, and ironing out a few issues before going live on the third.

There's a lot of construction going on by the Manila office but not a lot of options as far as eating out is concerned. There's McDonald's, Chinese, Japanese, a pancake house, a sandwich shop, Starbucks, a chicken joint, and a pizza place. I probably sound spoiled, and maybe I am, but it will be challenging for me to eat healthful meals at most of these places, especially since most of them will probably be closed during the hours I work. I'll have to see as the week progresses how things pan out. I'll certainly want to bring my own lunch if I can.

By the way, some observations about the food here: I still haven't tried Filipino food yet, and to be honest I'm in no rush to do so. After trying guinea pig in Peru, I think I've pretty much had it with being adventurous about what I put into my body. I know what I like and what I don't like, and I'm cool with that. I'm sure I'll try new things that intrigue me, but I won't go crazy. That being said, I've noticed that generally the portions are smaller here than in the US--no big surprise. That's no doubt a contributing factor to why most Americans are fat. Even the portions in McDonald's are smaller with the exception of the burgers and the Chicken McNuggets.

And speaking of chicken, apparently, unless you specify otherwise, all chicken served in restaurants here still has the skin on it. We even went to Teriyaki Boy the other night where I ordered a chicken teriyaki bento box, and though the menu clearly stated in no uncertain language that the chicken was skinless, it had skin on it.

There were a few other hitches in my week. Though I was able to get a temporary pass to the Rockwell Club which gives me access to the workout facilities, I still hadn't received my permanent ID by the time the temporary one expired Wednesday, so I had to head down to the club's office yesterday and get another temporary ID since the permanent one still wasn't ready. I lost Internet access sometime after midnight on Thursday, and called down to the front desk a couple times but still had no Internet at 9 a.m., so I headed down there in person to see what the story was. The guy at the front desk was clueless and put me on the phone with the cable company. After being transferred a couple times, I was informed there was an outage and that they were working on it. They suggested pulling the power and coax cables and jacking them back in. I had done that already, so all I could do was wait. I headed over to Figaro, a small coffee shop around the corner and had a small gourmet breakfast of honey glazed bacon and eggs over ciabatta bread and coffee--a nice little breakfast for 199 pesos or roughly $4.oo.

To further complicate things, my company had us attend a cultural awareness class Thursday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. A great idea, but the timing sucked, and the class ran over twenty minutes. Afterward, we were hungry, so we ate at the McDonald's up the street, that being the only thing open at that time. Another night's sleep screwed up.

We did evaluations of the CSEs Friday, and I wish I could say things went smoother, but there were a few rough spots. I had to sit in the room with them and watch how they handled the calls. Basically, I had to watch to see if they opened all the correct databases, followed procedures, etc., while their team lead role played as the end user on the phone. I think I would attribute some of the problems to nervousness and others to spending way too much time documenting the calls when they should have been trying to resolve the issue at hand--an easy problem to correct. We'll see how things go tomorrow. The Manila office is supposed to get about twenty percent of the total call volume, so I don't think it will be too bad, and the CSEs will really learn the job best by doing it.

The evaluations done, there really wasn't anything else for us to do, so we left work early and ate at the aforementioned Teriyaki Boy. Aside from the skin on the chicken, the meal was good and uneventful.

After dinner, we walked around a little and explored the local shops of Market Market and Fort Bonifacio, then we decided to call it a night. We grabbed a taxi and headed back to Rockwell, and that's when the real adventure began. The driver took it upon himself to make a detour through a seedy neighborhood under the pretense of getting around the heavy traffic. At first, we thought he was doing right by us since the van had taken a similar detour earlier that day, but instead of circumventing the traffic and abbreviating our commute, it prolonged it by taking us straight into a blocked off street.

Randy knew the area better than the rest of us who'd just arrived, so he started giving the driver orders which the driver ignored. My thoughts at the time were that the driver was trying to jack up the fare or he was just incompetent or he was setting us up to be robbed by his buddies. Think about it: four Americans with new laptops in a bad neighborhood of an unfamiliar country--not good.

Eventually, we got back to the main thoroughfare and made it back safely to Rockwell, but Randy wasn't kidding about these cab drivers. My final opinion on the incident is that the driver knew exactly what he was doing. This is his country, and his job is driving people around the city. He wanted to jack up his price. The money means a lot less to us than it does to him. An extra 75 pesos ($1.50)? If he wasn't trying to screw us maybe he would have received a bigger tip. The only reason he received a tip at all was because it was easier for us to give him 100 peso bills than wait for change. I understand that 95 percent of the people in this country are poor, but it's really ashame that people like this driver haven't enough respect for us or themselves to do their jobs fairly and with a modicum of pride. I think it takes a lot of nerve to attempt to take advantage of someone like that.

Finally, yesterday, the four of us decided to take a trip to the Greenhills Shopping Center just east of San Juan. It's basically a huge flea market and haggling is not only commonplace but expected. A lot, if not most, of the merchandise on sale consists of knock-offs, bootlegs, black- and gray-market items. I picked up a couple Lacoste polo shirts for $12 US, but that was it. I personally didn't need and wasn't interested in anything else the merchants were selling. It took some getting used to hearing them constantly calling to us from their booths:

"Sir, do you need a wallet?"

"Sir, do you want a watch?"

"Sir, do you want a bag for your wife or girlfriend?"

It was that and the fact that everyone was staring at us, and why wouldn't they? Three black guys, one of which towered over everyone else at 6'5", and a white guy walking around an almost exclusively Asian marketplace. The attention hasn't been a negative thing, though, except maybe for some of the cab drivers looking to take advantage of us.

Tomorrow the call center goes live. Hopefully, it will go smoothly.

Manila - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Well, after much anticipation, I'm here. The flight was long and taxing, but it was the most pleasant one I've had yet. Wednesday morning, the car service I booked online picked me up promptly at 7:30 a.m. and took me to JFK. I met up with one of my coworkers, who's also on the same assignment, and we hung out in the first class lounge for British Airways courtesy of Cathay Pacific Airlines.

We boarded about 9:45 and took off on time at 10:10. Pretty Asian flight attendants served a number of Chinese and gourmet meals and snacks. When I wasn't busy stuffing myself, I watched a couple of the latest movies on the pull out 18 inch flat panel monitors with which every seat was equipped. My seat had the ability to recline completely, but I didn't make much use of that feature though I did fall asleep several times. In any case, by the time I arrived in Manila I was very sleep deprived.

We had a layover in Hong Kong for about two and a half hours. After getting the wrong directions to the business lounge a couple times, we passed through another security check. They confiscated the bottled water I received on my first flight for some reason, and of course I was thirsty now. It was a little unsettling to see some people walking around wearing face masks—mostly flight attendants—but I suppose I can't blame them. I'm not too concerned about a virus killing me, but I hate getting sick.

Hong Kong looks very impressive from the air, by the way. I would definitely like to spend some time there while I'm in this region of the world. Who knows when I'll get the opportunity to visit it again?

The second leg of my trip was brief—only about 90 minutes—but I fell asleep for a few minutes during that flight as well. By the time we landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, I was a bit haggard. Immigration was smooth, but there was some confusion with the luggage I had checked. That kept us delayed at the airport longer than we should have been, but one of the porters managed to locate it for me, so it was only a minor snag. Customs was quick, and we were on our way.

We had instructions to proceed to the AVIS counter located just outside the airport exit where we would be transported to the Rockwell Center. The nature of these instructions was a little vague. I naturally assumed we would be driven, but that wasn't explicitly stated, and it's been my experience that assumptions aren't always accurate. But when we approached the counter, the girl behind the Plexiglas looked at me and said, “Mr. Dunn?” Was it that obvious? They were expecting us, of course. That was great because I was way too tired to have to do much thinking.

Our driver's name was Jhun, and he was friendly and courteous. He was apologetic about the fact that it was rush hour and traffic was heavy. Still, we made it to Rockwell in about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Jhun dropped me off at Manansala Tower, and I approached the front desk, which was manned by two security guards. They were absolutely clueless as to the whereabouts of the keys to my apartment even though they had my name and room number clearly written down in a ledger.

“Is there a problem?” I asked, cranky and somewhat annoyed.

“The receptionist is on break, sir,” one of the men said as they both continued rifling through drawers and folders for my keys.

I rolled my eyes and looked around, taking in my surroundings. About ten minutes later, a pretty Filipino girl appeared. She greeted me with a smile, verified my name, and pulled out a bag with my information packet and keys with an ease that made the guards look clueless. I'll cut them some slack, though. It's not their job to check people in, just check people. The bellhop took my bags, showed me up to my room, and left before giving me a chance to tip him.
I settled in, took a shower, and called Randy, who I mentioned in a previous post. He was working and would be off at midnight. He suggested a bunch of us get together for drinks. I was all for it, but when midnight came I was too tired and had to cancel.

I fell asleep around 12:30 then woke just before 4 a.m. That was it. I couldn't get back to sleep. I got online and called my family via Skype. I have a free month of Skype to land-line calls, and it works pretty well.

After awhile of lounging around the apartment and eating the food from the fruit basket that awaited me when I arrived, I decided to venture outside and get a sense of what things were like here. I walked out in shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt. I figured I'd just get some necessities and maybe a bite to eat. Most of the people I encountered wished me a good morning. Native New Yorkers aren't accustomed to strangers bidding them “good morning.”

I walked around a bit and realized I have no idea where I'm going. It was very hot and humid. I found a Starbucks about two blocks away. A security guard or cop—I didn't have the presence of mind to determine which—opened the door for me. I ordered a venti mocha Frappuccino and a bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese. Total cost: 245 pesos or $5.11 US. The drink was as I had expected it, but the bacon on the sandwich was tough and chewy and not what I would consider good.

After breakfast, I started back to the apartment since the sandals were hurting my feet. I stopped off at a gourmet deli on the way and bought a couple bottles of water, totaling 50 pesos or $1.04 US. Not bad. It would seem everything here is roughly half price.

That's it for now. I'm going to get ready to head out with my work buddies in a little while. It should be quite interesting. I'm glad I know a few people here already who can show me around.

International Suspend and GoVoGo

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:53:00 +0000

As I mentioned previously, my coworker, David Curre, told me AT&T has a service called International Suspend which will suspend my cell phone service at a rate of $10 per month. I wasn't sure about this since I had tried it before and was told it couldn't be done. Apparently, I called the wrong number. The correct number is 866-248-4852. I told the representative I'm leaving on business for three months and that I want to have International Suspend enabled until I return. The whole process took less than five minutes. When I want to reactivate my phone all I need to do is call 611 from my cell phone even though it's deactivated, and I will be able to activate my phone again.

In the meantime, I'll be primarily using email and Skype. I'm also using a free voice mail service called GoVoGo. I've been using the service for the past month or so, and it works fine. I get email notifications and can play voice mails directly from my inbox. I also have a private voice mail number. I highly recommend it if you're traveling overseas for any length of time.

Manila Preparations.

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:52:00 +0000

I leave for Manila in a week, and I can tell you preparing for this trip has been something of an ordeal. Most of the details have been left up to me, and I feel I've been left in the dark about a few things, but it looks like the worst is behind me now.

I've had all my vaccinations, malaria tablets, and Cipro...just in case. I plan on keeping in touch with friends and relatives primarily via email and Skype, since international phone charges would be exorbitant. I was told by a coworker who has a friend at ATT that I can switch over to a $10/month maintenance plan while I'm away, so I have to look into that. I don't know if that's actually the case, since I saw online they only do that sort of thing for military personnel who are out of the country for extended periods of time. I will miss having full functionality of my iPhone. I'll continue paying rent in New York but won't pay for utilities, so I'll actually save a little more money than I would otherwise. All my expenses in Manila will be taken care of by my company.

I've heard a number of caveats from my coworker, Randy, who's been in Makati City for almost two months. You can read his blog as well as view his exceptional photos by visiting http://randyinmakati.blogspot.com. I'll certainly be on the lookout for the taxi drivers, beggars, and shady looking characters lurking by revolving doors.

I'll update this blog as frequently as possible during my trip. You can also follow me on Twitter for shorter, more frequent updates by visiting http://twitter.com/kbdunn.

Watch Trent Reznor’s Shocking Fur Video

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Find out more about Trent Reznor at peta2.com.

Bad Men, Manila

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:46:00 +0000

I recently finished writing the first draft of my second novel, Bad Men. It's pretty wild. If you can imagine a cross between A Clockwork Orange, Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction, you'll have a good idea what it's like. The story takes place in New York City, sprawling across four of the five boroughs. Those of you out there who have read excerpts seem to like it so far. Thanks for the encouragement.

The other major event that's going on in my life now is I'll be flying down to Manila toward the end of July on a three-month business trip. What? My company wants to fly me business class to the other side of the world all expenses paid? I'm in. I'll blog about my experiences here.

Until next time...

PETA

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Salem, "Irving," Tales of Woe

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:25:00 +0000

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog, but I've been a little busy. The book signing at Cornerstone Books in Salem went well with a moderate turnout. I was a bit disappointed with how commercialized everything was there, but I guess nowadays you have to do whatever you can to make a buck.

I just completed a short story--a novella, really--entitled "Irving." It's a dark humor piece which I'm adding to a short story collection I plan to have published under the title Tales of Woe. The collection will include all the short fiction on my website as well as "Walter Miserable" and about fifteen other stories. Tales of Woe will contain horror and dark humor fiction. I'll post an announcement when it's ready for purchase.

New Domain Acquired

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:46:00 +0000

I just picked up www.kevindunn.org. Until I decide otherwise, this will be the main domain for my website. I will still hold onto www.kevindunnonline.com...at least for now.

Listen to me read from The Necromancer.

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:49:00 +0000

I just uploaded an mp3 of me reading Chapter 14 - Resurrection. I recorded it for the radio show I'll be on next week.

Here are the details once again:

Sunday, August 17, 2008
9:00pm - 11:00pm
http://www.beastradio.com

The excerpt is 17.2 MB and about 18 minutes long. I didn't post the link on my site yet, but here it is for anyone who's interested:

http://kevindunn.thenecromancer.com/resurrection.mp3

Enjoy!

Kevin

Lights Out Radio Show - "Warm Witchy Nights"

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:13:00 +0000

I invite you to tune in to www.beastradio.com for the Lights Out Radio Show. I will read a chapter from my novel, The Necromancer, and be interviewed afterward. I hope you can make it. Here's the info:

Date: August 17, 2008
Time: 9:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Location:
www.beastradio.com

October Book Signing at Cornerstone Books in Salem, MA

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:33:00 +0000

I landed a book signing in Salem, Massachusetts for late October. I'm pretty happy to have this opportunity to further promote The Necromancer. I hope to see you there. Here's the info:

Date: October 25, 2008
Time: 3:00 p.m.

Location:
Cornerstone Books
45 Lafayette Street
Salem, Massachusetts 01970

Domains

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:13:00 +0000

As of August 28, 2008, www.kbdunn.com will expire and I will not be renewing it. I've already allowed www.thenecromancer.net to expire.

Only www.thenecromancer.com and www.kevindunnonline.com will remain active domains for me, so if you're using the others to visit my sites please save the latter two domains to your favorites.

Word of mouth

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:39:00 +0000

My coworker, Empiri, told me he saw a woman reading my book on the train the other day, and he started talking to her about it. It turned out a friend of hers said she had to read it because he loved it. That's awesome. Spread the word, people. I'll continue to write as long as I have the encouragement of an audience, and if I become successful enough to quit my day job, I'll produce more work faster.

Thanks to everyone who bought a copy of The Necromancer and spread the word. Your support is much appreciated.

Site update.

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:25:00 +0000

Added a couple essays in the Non-Fiction section. I also changed the theme on my MySpace page. I created another MySpace page for The Necromancer. You will find the old theme there.