Web Search

I tried searching for my name on the web today and found out that I can be loooked up if you know the right search term. Christian San Juan is just to popular of a name so don't expect to have search engines churn out my blog or specifics about me when you ask them to. Unless... christian san juan bahrain christian san juan webby Christian san juan designer christian san juan flash and I was even surprised to know that if you type in "xtian001" in google search, I have the number one spot! Cool! XXX

We need Cool Air!!!

We spent the whole day baking in the office yesterday. What I meant was, we were the ones being baked as the airconditioning system of the whole building suddenly stopped. Imagine being trapped in a box and left to dry in the middle of the desert. We are in Bahrain......Middle East..... where temperatures could go as high as 54 deg. celcius and a minimum of about 34. We were sweating. And time was becoming slower every minute.We opened the windows just to let cool air come in but it wasn't enough. When evening came, it became humid! Argghhhhhhh..... I was so happy to get out of the elevator and walk to my car when I found out from an HR staff that this problem could last till the end of the week!

Work! Work! Work!

I'm just too busy!!! Been spending the whole of yesterday updating the highlights of the company page for next month. And I'm not finished yet. Although I have someone else to help me out, processing about 600+ images takes a lot of time and strain. Carpal tunnel syndrome alert!!! How I wish Photoshop is smart enough to analyze a photo and choose best compression for that specific photo. You can create an action or a script to open, resize, and save the photo to your desired compression and format but getting the most of compression and for it to actually look good on the web is another thing. You need a human to do this. But let's see, Photoshop CS2 is on the way. Anyway, I've also been trying to update http://www.ricardoguzman.com/. My name now appears on the credited organization box at the WebbyAwards site. Great!

By the way, Mavis and I went to a tailor last Saturday. We were in Seef Mall that morning and got to see some coats that are ready-to-wear. They were of good quality but I thought of going to the tailor so at least the suit I'm going to buy would fit me well. So off we went that night and found a tailor for such near our flat. I tried some ready-to-wear Italian suits but the cut was too long for me. This was maybe because Europeans are taller than Filipinos. So I just asked them to get my size and make me one. This would cost me 100BD. Well, it is more expensive than the ones we saw at the mall but still cheaper than if you have it done in the Philippines, I guess. And the cloth, Italian. Mavis was even suggesting that I have one made every year. Now I have to find out how to use a tie... And I still haven't told you about the deal that I'm working on. It might be life changing. Will tell you more by next week or maybe after everything pushes through. Decision-making time again...

The Webby Awards!

I just received news that the site I developed (www.ricardoguzman.com) was nominated at the Webby Awards for the Best Personal Site Category. WOW! To think that the Webby Awards is considered as the most prestigious award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality, being nominated as one of the best among 4000+ entries is unbelievable. The site was developed for Ricardo Guzman (Mexican - American) as his personal online presence as well as to be part of his application to a Film school in the U.S. I started working on the project late August 2004. He was already trying to complete the designs for each page and section for months but wasn't too sure of what he wanted to actually show. At first, it was supposed to be a plain HTML site as he was consulting another designer to do it for him since I was to busy with personal stuff. But looking at the designs, I was insistent on developing the site in Flash as I thought that it would really showcase the designs that he did and would attract more visitors to his site rather than a plain static site. So we met one afternoon to discuss the merits of the site and how he envisioned it to be. Eventually, he agreed to do the site in Flash as I explained that we'd be doing one project that is a website and could also be distributed as a stand- alone multimedia presentation as well. I grabbed the sitemap and started planning how to do everything in Flash; loading of movies, dynamic updates, navigation scripts, etc. The basic script was done in about 3-4 days. The next week, I was pushing Rico to finalize the designs as the structure was ready. We spent about 2-3 months doing the whole thing after work.

I wonder if Ricardo is going to keep his promise of sending me to New york if he ever wins? Well, we have to see first if the site really wins! So cast your vote at http://pv.webbyawards.com and vote for the site Pirates, Poets and Passion (www.ricardoguzman.com) under the Personal Category so we could at least win the People's Voice Award.

To Saudi and Back

We woke up early yesterday to try and complete the papers need for the importation of my car to Bahrain. Since I bought the car from Saudi and eventually moved to Bahrain, I needed to have the car registered in Bahrain. I have ben trying to do this for about a month or so but the guys in Saudi seems incompetent with regards to the actual paper work needed. What a day to spend the weekend! I was standing most of the morning and afternoon, going to and from offices and buildings. It is a chaos to have papers/documents done in Saudi. Imagine being in a market; no lines, no queues, no detailed instructions, and no one speaks english! We were in Saudi at 8:20 a.m. yet we only finished the papers and changing of car plates (Saudi side) at about 2:30. I can't complain about my (previous) company, GulfNet Solutions (GNS). Although I've actually resigned since February, they're still helping me out with stuff that I need. Well, they're still holding my money too! But that, I can understand. They need to be sure that I exit properly as they would be penalized if I don't. Anyway, everything is good between me and GNS. I still haven't finished the registration of my car as I need to go to the Traffic Directorate in Isa town, Bahrain and I don't know how to get there. I'm asking my current company to help me out and have already talked to our driver to help me out tomorrow morning. But the HR called me up just a while ago to inform me that the driver can't help me as he needs to do an important thing tomorrow morning. Hey, I'm paying 1.5 dinars per day as rent to the plates they lent me! Arggghhhhh!!!!!

Taj Palace it is...

Remember what I told you about finding a Health Club that we can join? Well, we actually found one which is just a stone's throw away from our flat. Taj Palace Hotel. We went to see the Health Club of Hilton Hotel and fund out that it is not really that good. Mavis even commented that Paris Hilton should be ashamed of being associated with that hotel. So we moved to the Diplomat Radisson-SAS Hotel and looked at their Health Club. It was good. They have Squash Courts, a sauna, Gym for ladies and men, a swimming pool, etc. So were decided to join the following day. While leaving the premises, we were already thinking on how to schedule our health club activities especially that someone needs to take care of Xiane. Diplomat is about a 5-10 minute drive and if Mavis attends aerobics classes every other day, I have to drop her off the hotel with Xiane, which is really not a good idea. Hmmmmm.... So Mavis thought of going to Taj Palace Hotel, which was just about a 3 minute walk from our flat. It was never on out list just because we were thinking that they wouldn't have a good health club. The hotels' facade was actually good and the location was just perfect. They have a semi-indoor temperature controlled pool for adults and a small pool for kids, a steam room and sauna, and a gym. Mavis can do her gym every morning before Xiane wakes up and the three (3) of us can go swimming after work. Since it's just a 3 minute walk, we could go there anytime we want to without the inconvinience of needing you to drive to actually do your thing. We already went there to swim twice since we joined the other week. Xiane is enjoying every minute swimming. Mavis has also started going to the gym this morning. Although Gulf Hotel's Health Club is fabulous, practicality weighs so much more.

KSA on Saturday

We woke up at 5:45 a.m. yesterday to get ready for our cross country trip to the land of Oil, Saudi Arabia. I was supposed to get government papers from the Directorate of Traffic so I could export my car to Bahrain. For the nth time, we were not able to complete it because the plate wasn't available in Khobar. I have to go back again next Saturday and go with the Company's Liason Officer to Dammam where they're supposed to have it. I hope. And why didn't we do it yesterday? Well, that's how the Saudi system works. They spend half of the morning working, close before lunch, and start working again by 4 p.m., only to finish by 7p.m. Or even worse, they set things to process in the morning and in the evening i.e. you can have them process your Visas in the morning but not in the afternoon. Argghhhhh! But knowing how things work, Mavis and I already had plan B. Plan B is basically do the car papers in the morning and if it can't be completed, we'll just spend the day with our friends in Dammam and go home in the evening. So that is what we did. Xianelle was able to play with Enzo, I got some ZZZZ's, and Mavis spent the day chatting. We left Dammam at about 6:30 p.m. and had to run to Panda Stores in Dhahran to buy rock salt. We had been trying to buy rock salt but all the groceries and shops we've been to were only selling refined/iodized salt. If we were only in the Philippines...Anyway, we knew Panda Stores were selling Rock Salt by the bag. A 2 kilo bag costs 1.5 Rials (about 20-25 PHP). Why Rock Salt? We're planning to make Salted Eggs! We saw these ducks' eggs in the Market which were gigantic! Really! They're about thrice the size of your ordinary ducks' egg. We got home to Bahrain at about 10:45 p.m. just in time to catch the WTA Nasdaq 100 finals match of Russian Sharapova and Belgian Clijsters. We were rooting for Sharapova but she eventually lost to Clijsters. Who could beat someone who has legs as big as those? Andre Agassi also lost his match against Roger Federer yesterday. We're for Agassi but Federer is quite unstoppable. He's just to quick and runs the court like mad. I would have wanted a Safin-Federer finals as I'm sure Nadal won't have a chance against Federer. But let's see, we might see another upset. I doubt. Tired and all, we got to sleeping at 1:00. Mavis and Xiane slept a bit earlier. But all in all, it was a fun and fruitful Saturday.