Yikes I forgot about my blog!!!

I completely forgot about my blog!

Here are some updates.  I created a new for myself Ryan Ilagan which is just a list of my work.  One of my newest apps is called ChiCameras (thats just the website) which is an iOS app.  I'll post a link to the app once its in the app store.  Basically its a navigation app, but it doesn't give you directions, but verbally warns a user if there is a red/speed camera at an intersection while you drive.  Once I show people it they get really excited since most people hate red light cameras.

Other news... Well its been so long since I've posted I'm not sure where to start.  Looking back, the last time I posted my sister had a kid (who is now 5), and she has another one who is 3.

Professionally I'm still working at Orbitz.com, but now I'm doing objective c.  I work on the ipad/iphone app and thats pretty fun.  I also work on the back end system which is a jruby app.  I guess its hard to figure out what to write since its been so long since I've posted anything so I'll just end there and just make sure to post more often.  (at least once a month).

Wow it's been more than a year since I've last posted something on this blog. I can't remember all the things that have happened over the last year so I'll skip the last year and just go on from here. So what's new. My site is doing "better" I've had sales, my wife and I are doing well. We are actually starting the process of finding a new place to live. I'll have to admit that it's been pretty slow though. We have so much junk at our place that needs to be cleaned out. Oh the biggest news is that my sister had a baby back in Feb 2009, it's been over a year and she is about to have another child due in Oct. That's as much as I can think of as big news, so I'll try and post more often so I can have more updates.

I launched a personal wedding website call thebridalbell.com back in Feb. It's been an interesting few months trying to bring in sales and get traffic to the site. It's hard to convince a stranger over the internet without ever talking to them that it is a legit site. The site is of course complete and mostly needs a few new features. I want to be able to add music, have more templates and well I'll stop there since I don't want to give away secrets. Lets just say that no wedding website will have this feature. Thats it for me now.

Wow Michael Jackson died today. Crazy, its all over my facebook account, interesting that Farrah Fawcett didn't get that many posts in my fb account (must be my age). There are a lot of people that didn't like Michael (one post said let him die, and then was edited a min later), I on the other hand thought he was great. I have to admit I was pretty disturbed when the first allegations came out, and frustrated the second time around. However was hoping that his tour would help bring about a change to his name and up lift his image. I'm worried when I get home and watch TV that all I see was that he was great and that he was crazy. Wacko Jackco, I hated that name. No matter what was printed thats the way he was described. I'm not sure why we love when our heros fall.

Hey Micheal, I'll be listening to you on my iPod. Thanks you're the best!

I almost forgot, so after the wife and I got married we had to start combining our stuff. First of course was getting rid of one of our condos. With such a bad recession going on the only choice we had was to rent it out. We went from knowing nothing to be landlords in about 2 months, thanks to some of our good friends and family for guiding the way. The couple thats moving is (June 1) seem very nice so I hope things go well. I think we got really lucky finding this couple.

Speaking of recessions, its been pretty hard on both myself and the wife, but have been very lucky. Both our companies have gone through layoffs, mine twice, but luckily we've both survived. After paying off the wedding and having to two mortgages we were pretty worried. We've been fortunate and I thank God.

Wow its been a while since I've posted anything here. A lot as happened since Sept 2008. Too bad I can't remember much of it. I guess on top of my mind is my new personal wedding website http://www.thebridalbell.com, basically is my version of a templated wedding website that people can buy. I got the idea after creating our website and realizing that there are no contemporary wedding websites out there. The site launched in Feb and I've been working on getting issues fixed. I've had a few beta customers but thats about it. Hopefully this idea does well, I really think that I'm offering something that no one else has, so wish me luck.

Northwest Airlines customer service is the worst service that I've ever encountered. I hope no one not even my worst enemy should ever have to go and deal with the customer service at Northwest Airlines. First of all there phone number is impossible to find on the web site, and if you are the few lucky to find it, well good luck. The way their phone system works is if you have an issue that doesn't fit into their options 1-4 then you are told to go to their customer service (huh, you thought the number you called was customer service nope). Their service number has options 1-4 and in each option they just give you a number to call. Couldn't they have just automatically forwarded you to the number? Well luckily their customer service representatives will for you, but they'll do it even before you are done talking. For example they'll say "Sorry I can't help you.. ring.. ring.." and now you are talking to the automated service. Don't ask to talk to a manager, because they manager is even more useless. They'll just point you to this number 701 420 6282, which is the their customer service number (the one with the 4 options that provides a bunch of numbers). Or they will point you to their website so maybe you could find your answer there. Seeing as you called them, because you are having problems, maybe the website with no answers can help you. I've dealt with bad customer service, those generally have been some company that has indian offshore people that don't know what they are doing and can't do anything for you, but that is miles better than Northwest Airlines. Northwest Airlines has people that don't seem even to try, and the more you have an issue the more they want to pass you off to someone else, or their answering machine that gives you 4 phone numbers. I have to wonder if Northwest Airlines believes the best way to handle a person with an issue is to piss them off so much that that person will just get so frustrated with them that they will stop calling. Northwest Airlines contact number is 800-225-2525 and their reservation specialist are the worst customer service people in the world.