picking up pieces of your life

hey!

i know… 3 years, eh? 3 years since i was last here… and i never missed you… not one bit… you see, with all the new bloggers out there out to prove themselves to their readers, they forgot one thing: putting their hearts to whatever they write. i was the same as them at one time, and that is why i decided to just up and leave blogging altogether.

the commercialism, the hunt for freebies (free donuts from the biggest donut chain even delivered at home, free movie tickets from a Makati mall delivered at the office, free cellphones, and other tech stuff that i never really had a need for), the hunt for fame (the 1st and only Blog Awards, i think), etc etc… i hated it… for me, blogging was supposed to have been a simple journal of my daily grind. but enough about that. now, i am back, and doing what i loved most: talking about what really interest me, without all the fame and money attached to it…

well, where was i the past 3 years?

been working, of course… worked with an international school (no, not the International School, doofus), and then moved on a big BPO-cum-consulting company for about 6 months… jobless since late March this year… also, during those times, played about 2 MMORPGs, renewed my love for coffee with a big coffee house which will remain nameless, made some lifelong friends, got Dagul, my big black Mitsubishi Strada, had another child October of last year, and now, estranged (separated, whatever) with my wife of 5 years… that’s about it…

and now, am still trying to find a job… so, where am i at now?

• trying my hand again at amateur photography. contacted a photographer-friend from a previous work and asked if i could come along during one of his shoots… unfortunately, his specialty are weddings which isnt really my style… but i’d go along for the experience… another friend and i talked about something that isn’t yet popular here in the PHL but is in other countries. will tell you more once it is off the ground…
• been (re)teaching myself Linux again, since i went to the dark side during those 3 years… not that i totally distanced myself from it, but i worked using MS more than Linux. now that i am back to consulting (more about that later), i will feel better equipped if i re-learn it once more. i know the learning curve wouldn’t be that steep, so i am immersing myself into it…
• another colleague from way back has offered me a consulting job with their company on a per-project basis… and he is now currently finalizing talks with a potential client before i come in…

i still have about 2 or 3 more things i’d like to talk about in here, but i feel that if i do, it will just complicate matters more… they are complicated enough as it is… once these 3 are kind of solved already, i will tell you about them… but for now, that is it…

i may not be able to do this on a per-day basis… but tell you what: i have this little project in mind that will let me see you at least once a day… again, i will tell you about that once i got all the kinks out…

what else? nada más (that is ‘nothing else’ in Spanish )

oh wait, i will be putting my own bucket list here very soon… watch out for that

ciao…

idealism has no spot in the workplace

(c)

as a child, i have no worries except where to play, when my next meal will be, and what time i have to go home to sleep, no worries for the next day, except more of the same… mundane? yes… simple? at the time? no…

as a teenager, my worries grew to such proportions that i found myself worrying not only for myself, but also for others… i was already working at an early age, i already have scores of responsibility, and i already answer to a lot of people… this went on until college, when i have to work on 2 jobs, go to school, and manage a school paper all at the same time…

and through all these, the only thing that does not change was my idealism… that i will not forsake what i believe in, simply to earn money, or to make friends, or to be liked… that i will not stoop to what i know was wrong, simply to make my betters feel happy about me… i wasn’t an ass-kisser… never was, and never will…

or so i thought…

now that i am a little more older and, i hope, wiser, i was forced to stoop to people who know nothing but to push pencils around as well as push people around… i am being regulated by a lot of corporate shit that i am already up to my neck in it… it wouldn’t have been worse if i really don’t know better, but the fact remains that their solution is far more expensive [and much harder to implement] than mine… but who am i, eh?

i have had encounters before with bosses who don’t know anything, and yet maintain that they need to control me… control my budget? no… more like control what i do… i have proven in the past that my solutions far outweight theirs, but because of “nakasanayan na yan e” attitude (“that is how it was done before“)… and now, i am stuck in this job that allows me only a liitle bit of freedom, gets the most out of me, and leaves me wanting to kill myself at the end of the day…

but do i have to take these sitting down??

no… i can do several things, really…

one is to show them that I can do what i was hired to do… they hired me to do a particular job, then they must trust that i will do it to the best of my ability… the problem is, someone looks over my shoulders everytime i make a move, and that makes it doubly harder, since i feel like i am under a microscope… haayysss

second, i can look for another job… i know, easier said than done… but what can i do?? except…

third, take all of these sitting down… i can just simply go along with the flow, not really caring whether the project is doable or not, whether the things they are doing are correct or not… i will just be manager by name…

now, question is: what shall i do??

what do you think??

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

i was raped… thrice…

(c)

well, i have news first… i have now a new job as a janitor of one of the biggest consulting firms in the Philippines, literally… janitor? well, yeah, for me it is… but, really, my current position is Manager of IT Operations, and my job is to clean up the mess of the previous occupants of my position… messes like spaghetti in the data room [literally!!] and the spaghetti-like cables of the PABX and the data cables… like cleaning the ranks of the IT Ops of people who cannot cope with the rigors of the job… like cleaning the servers [again, both literally and figuratively] like, there are about 79 servers [both clones and branded] half of which are not working right, while half of the remaining are redundant servers of the other fourth… haaysss… ergo, janitor…

anyway, as part of the requirement of the job, i need to have myself checked up, and so, this morning, i went to the clinic and gave my papers to the nurse-aide in the counter… i was made to fill up forms, and made to wait a few minutes… the next hour saw me in a whirlwind of activity, from blood check, to xray, to blood pressure check, and finally, to the eye check… and this was where my nightmare early in the morning started…

rape number 1

i was waiting for my drug test [di ako nag-rebyu!!] when my name was called from about 10 meters away… so, i left the line and went to the counter where i was told that they will do my dental check, instead…

now, if you know me, you’d know that i have really terrible teeth, yellowed due to almost 25 years of smoking, with gaps and broken crowns… and so, i was made to sit in the dental chair, my mouth opened wide, while the lady dentist prodded that thing with the mirror at the end around my mouth, doing this and that [all the while telling me not to breath through my mouth as my breath is foggying up the mirror] and writing on my chart… at the end of that harrowing experience, i felt my insides turned out, and one that i would not want to experience again for a long time…

rape number 2

after the dental exam, i was made to wait for just a short while, and then, off to Consultation Room 2, where there was a small bed and a lab gown… i was told to strip to the skin, put on the lab gown, and told to wait… i am not a complete stranger to physical check ups… in fact, i have had several over the years as part of my physical regimen… but today, it was totally different…

so, i was there all in the nude with only a flimsy lab gown over me, and waiting for my doctor… while waiting, my eyes took in the room, the chair, the small bed, and that lady doctor’s frock… errrr… what??? a lady doctor’s frock… suddenly, my heart beat faster and i felt like it was trying to leap out of my body and through my mouth… all saliva just immediately evaporated that my mouth felt like it was full of grit, and i was just so suddenly afraid…

and just then, the object of my desire fear came into the room… a somewhat young doctor, she just smiled at me, and asked me several questions about my condition [which was, at that point, really bad and not getting better]… after the questions, she made me lie down on the small bed, pressed her fingers on my abdomen and asking me if it hurt… just then, she made me stand, turn around, and she just took hold of the hem of the lab gown i was wearing, pulled it up, made me hold my butt cheeks, and i was made to spread!!! goodness!! that was 1 point for her, and zero for me… but it didn’t end there!!

i was made to face her again, and again, taking hold of my lab gown, she opened them, exposing myself to her!! my poor penis just suddenly wilted!! she took hold of my balls and i was made to cough 3 times, released them, and i immediately closed my gown… sheessshhh!! that was so, uhhh, embarrasing… i lost miserably, 2-0…

to her credit, she was all clinical, professional, and impersonal… but to me, it was all too personal… i have gone through the same procedure many times before, but always with a male doctor… i believe, the last time i disrobed in front of a woman without making love to her was when i was still a baby!!

next time, before going through that, i will ask first if my doctor will be male or female… tsk tsk tsk…

rape number 3

and when i thought the worst was over, i was made to fall in line for the drug testing [again, i never studied for this test, so i just might fail this one... ]

each person undergoing this test goes into a room, stays for about 20-25 minutes each time, then goes out… we were standing outside the testing room, so i don’t really know what was happening behind those doors… and so, we just waited until our turn comes… one incident outside: a lady came out of the room all puffed up and looking mad which made us all wonder why… anyway…

when it was my turn, i was just so eager to go through with it so that i can get home already… i went inside, made to fill up several forms [i wonder why they just didn't give out the forms outside for us to fill up while waiting??]… then, an interview followed, asking me the same questions as the forms [my full name, age, sex(??), marital status, and so on...]… then, the guy [!!] doing the interview handed me a bottle and was told to fill it up with pee… again, no biggie, so i stood up, looked around for some privacy, and when finding none, i asked the guy where was the little boy’s room so that i can do the deed… the guy just looked at me blandly, and told me to do it right in front of him!! what??? yes, you read it right… i have to do it in front of him!! so, without further ado, i took my penis out in front of him [was he gay? i was wondering], peed into that empty bottle [the mouth of the bottle is just so small for the head of my penis... really small...], capped it up, and gave it back to the guy…

now i understood why that lady in front of me was so mad coming out of the room!!

the next time i have to go through all of those again, i have to ask questions first… kainis…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

here i go again…

(c)

haaayyysssss….

here i go again… i have been doing so many things that i have been forgetting to post in here again… anyway, several news first:

• Clan Heritage now have a new blog [the link is up on the headers] and forum site… if you are a Clan Heritage member and don’t know those sites yet, i suggest go to them now…
• with the race to get to level 100 heating up, i have been spending most of my time in-game than anything else… dami prizes!!
• i still have no steady job yet, but still looking for one… so, if any of you know of something, can you please drop me a line?
• it will be Christmas soon… i wonder what i can give my wife?? (what do you want sweetie? hehehe)

anyway, i came from a job interview yesterday [one of soooo many already] and i must say i was amazed at the way that interview went…

first, i was made to take an exam [an exam!! and for a managerial position yet!! LOL] which was, in itself, kinda easy since i used to teach C and most of the questions were in C… but my question is: what do they [the company] hope to achieve in giving exams?? to gauge a persons technical knowledge? for me, i really don’t believe in exams… for one, you are only given a certain amount of time to finish that exam, and the pressure of not going over that time will reflect on the outcome… second, exams does not really show a person’s technical knowldge… i would rather give the person a chance at work and show me what the person can really do…

second, the IT Manager and the CTO interviewed me, which took up to 1 1/2 hours each [looonnngggg] that i thought they will soon invite me to dinner… heheheh i just hope that they are an equal opportunity employer, is all…

there was supposed to be a 3rd interview using conference call, but they cannot establish a connection with the other person, that they decided to re-schedule that…

all in all, the interview was very nice, and i am crossing my fingers that it will turn out positively for me… can you please cross your fingers for me, too?? thanks!! LOL

that’s all for now, folks… my next post my be next year already… i have almost given up on this since i dont have much time for posting anymore… but i am still holding on…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

(i) aside: are you one of those looking for property in Singapore?? then look no further!! go to HDB, now!! You can use it to find great bargains and investments on a vast majority of Singaporean property listings.

new work, and my son being so “Wyse”…

(c)

ok, i am now settling very gently in my new job… i am a project manager for a company in Libis, QC, and i must say that the usual honeymoon period between PM and programmers [which usually last from a week to about 2, and not a month!!] didn’t happen in my case… after that 1st day of orienting myself with the operations of the company, and the individuals behind them, i went on ahead and started really working after that 1st day… i was barraged by work from then on, and that’s what’s keeping me busy nowadays… well, aside from PW, of course…

i am not complaining, though… far from it, in fact… i love my new job!! i get to play around with technology [Windows Vista really suck when your PCs RAM is only 512MB, tsk tsk tsk], and i get to manage a nice bunch of young people [am not the oldest at 39 with the youngest at 21], and i get to regularly talk to with my counterpart abroad… ti’s really a nice job so far… really… hehehe…

at the homefront, it really is nice to find out that your 1-year old son is following in your footsteps… the other day, while i was at my keyboard, he came near, and push my keyboard away from me, sat on my lap and said nonsense to me [like how 1 year olds do], pointed to my PC, and said “‘puter” indicating that he is telling me something about my computer… the wife remarked, “uh oh, even this early, i think i know what he will be when he grow up…” all the while tsking… and even before he was able to say “mommy!!“… he can now say “di” to call me, “ter” for water, and other gobbledy-gook which i can only call normal for his age… i can’t wait for him to close my monitor while i was working!!

makes you feel good knowing that your son is being brought up nice, eh?

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

[techtags: work, parenting]

(i) aside: want to be a part of a Philippines Chat Room where you can express your thoughts and ideas on a variety of subjects?? well, there’s Kuro.ph, a message board which talks about parenting, photography, politics, love and courtship to marriage all in one breath… you don’t have to join those specialized boards anymore as there is one which basically talks about almost all a Pinoy here and abroad will encounter… so, why not try them out??

This is a DigitalFilipino.com Club-sponsored post

back to blogging again… i hope…

(c)

ok, i know i have been too remiss in my posts this past month… i actually have several in my plate right now, and i am having a hard time dealing with them… but slowly and surely, they’re all going away one at a time, and i hope to be back regularly posting in the next week or so…

to give all of you a rundown:

have you ever been fired from the company you were working from?? if you were and you want to get back, then, your bestfriend will be the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)… if you really have a valid claim, then go to the NLRC along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City, file a simple form detailing the owner/general manager of the company you are filing a claim against, then have your claim raffled off to an arbiter… the arbiter will then set a date for a conference between you and the company or its representative at a later date…

if, during or after the conference, which is set for 2 days, you or the company representative do not agree on a settlement and decided to bring this to court, you have 2 choices: either 1) you get a lawyer to create and file a position paper for you; or 2) you can drop your claim if you think you don’t have the time or resources to go through with your suit…

me? i decided to go through with it since i know i have a very strong and very valid case… or at least, that’s what my lawyer was telling…. LOL

———–

i will be going to several blogging activities during this month… two of which will be A Taste of Asia at the Mall of Asia [July 3] and a food writing workshop [July 14]… last Tuesday [June 26], we also went to the opening of the Krispy Kreme DriveThrough in Greenhills, the 1st ever in Asia and the Philippines… we got to bring home to big boxes of their very tasty [but very fattening] donuts for free!! weeee….

we will now become regulars of the blogger badminton every Thursdays which include the likes of Abe, Gail with husband Marc, Bimbo and wife Des, and others… Abe invited us specifically to challenge the husband and wife teamup of Bimbo and Des… hehehe…

———–

i am now an avid player of PerfectWorld from LevelUp… you’ll be able to read a very extensive review of the game [at least from my point of view] from my game site…

a softlaunch of the game was held July 1 at the Robinson’s in Malate and i was able to get a set of installer CDs for the open beta which will start on the 18th…. but again, that news is not meant for this… watch out for that in my game site…

———–

it was a very good thing that i wasn’t very active in any activities, if there, where i need to take pictures, since i don’t have my Pentax with me… i have to bring it back to where i bought it from, and they, in turn, have to send it back to Japan, for repairs on the built-in flash… this i did last May 6, and only got my camera back last Friday, June 29, in time for the softlaunch yesterday afternoon…

———–
and finally, i have a new job… it is a project management job, and the guys i work with are all very good at what they do… as far as relationships go, i still am very new at the company, and will find out about that in the coming weeks and months… but we came off a good start, at least… so i am keeping my fingers crossed…

that’s it?? that’s it!! for now…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

if i were a senator…

(c)

let’s play a little game of “If I Were A Senator…” the object of the game is to list down all the things that you will do if you were elected to the Senate of the Philippines… since i started this game, let me go first:

– i’d make a law prohibiting any politician from putting their names in projects done using the people’s money… case in point are those schools in Batangas named Sen Ralph G Recto Type School Building and Mayor V S Recto Type School Building… these schools were provided for by the pork barrel given to Recto, and this came from the people’s hard earned taxes… or on those roads where the billboard says Brought to you by Mayor So and So… again, not theirs… not even their money was used to put these projects up… i know, they’re doing this for immediate name recall… but this is just not right…

– i’d pass a law which will make political dynasties a crime… i don’t care if they are doing good to the people… but if they are, these are just isolated cases… more often than not, this is detrimental to the growth of the dynasty’s constituents… one person from each family in government, ONLY!!

– i’d pass a law directing the MMDA to study the possibility of limiting the number of buses plying EDSA and jeepneys plying the city streets… or having a regular time for departure and arrival… this way, we decongest our streets, and people get to their destinations on time, without limiting access to public transport…

– i’d pass a law banning prayers of any sect/religion from all public functions… enough said…

you?? what are your take on this??

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

[techtags: Philippine Senate, laws]

the best company to work for

(c)

what are your standards that make for the best company to work for? free food, breakfast, lunch, or dinner? hmmm, i know at least a few of those… easy atmosphere to work in? that may be harder to find than the free food… other things that make the life of a worker bee easier like a free haircut, a free laundry service, a free day care service, a free sports center, or a free massage, even??

know of a Philippine company who has all of these? no? ok, so maybe a company offering free lunch or a free breakfast, yeah, i know at least one of those… i also know one other company who has an easy atmosphere to work in… but the others?? naaahhh… i still have to find one here…

but imagine if you can have all of the above in one company!! wouldn’t working for that company be just so good??

in CNNMoney.com‘s 100 Best Companies To Work For 2007 Edition, one of the companies that offers all of the above [and more] is Google… this Mountain View, California company started out in a garage where they stayed for about 5 months, raised a million dollars a few months later, and is now a $150 billion company… this is really a company of choice to work for…

they have a lap pool, pool tables, mini kitchens throughout the sprawling college-like “campus” where you can get a bite to eat whenever you want to, there’s a dry-cleaning and laundry facility, and dogs are not an unusual sight at the office-cum-campus… and best of all?? they have 11 gourmet facilities all throughout serving breakfast, lunch and dinner on company expense!!

the work is intense, yes, but what company isn’t?? and best of all, you can use all your brain power and the company will surely be rewarding you for it… it is a place where nerds and geeks are as common as they are on college campuses… shabilly-dressing is the norm…

so, want to work for Google?? then you’d better send in your resume today as they have a little under 1.2 million resumes to look into… they actually get a resume every 25 seconds!! yours might be one of the lucky ones… i sure wish i can work for a company like this if not for Google itself…

me? i wouldn’t mind getting a lower salary in exchange for all those amenities that Google offers… in a snap…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

[techtags: Google, work]

secrets i am learning regarding the use of AdSense

(c)

secrets for me, at least, since i am getting to know them just know… already know this?? then, move on as this is not for you… not yet?? read on, as this will teach you a few things known only to probloggers…

– using borders around your ads?? take them out and make your ads look like they are part of a post… nothing shouts “ADS!” than borders

– if you are a very artsy-fartsy colorful person, follow the color schemes you are using in your blog for Adsense… Google offers a wide variety of colors in its palette that you can use to configure your AdSense colors… use it!!

– best ad format to use?? forget about the 468×60 ad blocks, and use instead the 336×280 [large rectangle] or the second best 300×250 [medium rectangle]… you don’t want your ad to look like an ad, do you?? *wink*

– in your posts, where is the best place to put an ad?? one general rule on the Internet is that people spend most of their time on a site “above the fold,” said Joel “Dr AdSense” Comm… “above the fold” is the part of the page people can see without scrolling… and that is where you want your ads to be…

– only 3 ad blocks are allowed by Google on the same page…

will add to this as i learn more in the following days… hehehe…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

[techtags: Google AdSense, ad blocks]

a bad experience over at Gerry’s Grill

(c)

[reprinted from Kubiertos]

our HR manager last week decided to take us other managers out for lunch today… we decided to eat at Gerry’s Grill in Libis… and so, at about 11:30 today, all 4 of us bundled ourselves in a car and headed out for Libis… little did we know that this will be the biggest error we will do today…

anyway, after getting there, we found a nice parking slot, a nice location inside where it was cool, we ordered Pork and Tuna Sisig, Crispy Pata, Laing, rice, and drinks all around… the drinks came first, as usual, and we settled down and waited for the rest of the food to come… a little later, a group of 5 women came in, ordered, and similarly waited for their food… and so, we talked about everything and anything, until the conversation turned to food and restaurants… about 20 minutes into the conversation, i suddenly realized that the women already had their table set and were starting to eat… i looked over and saw that they ordered the same things we did, sisig and crispy pata, and that’s when i remarked “naku, if i ever find out that they forgot about my order, i’ll just up and leave without paying for anything…” and that’s when the HR manager decided to confront the waiters of the restaurant…

they told us that, because their printer allegedly was broken, they got the orders mixed up, and OUR orders are now lost… uh, again?? what do you mean lost?? you mean, we need to order and go through the whole process again?? at that, we got out of our seats and left the establishement without paying for our drinks [at my recommendation, the drinks costing about P200]…

it is very easy to blame technology, but in the end, it is still the users of these systems who need to be responsible for their output… they could have just used pen and paper [which they did] and bring the list to the kitchen without bothering to use any kind of printer… if they simply told us that “they’re very sorry it has to happen to us” plus, probably, a free something to go along with it to show that they were really contrite, we could’ve waited… but as it was, all we got were bad looks from the waiters when we got up to leave…

and since we were still totally famished by then, we decided to just go to Pier1 in J. Vargas in Ortigas, where we ordered the same food we wanted over at Gerry’s at less time [10 minutes], and a much colder environment [i can smoke inside, which is a very big plus for them]… at the end, we paid about P1, 400 inclusive of service charge and other taxes, which is P1,400 less from what Gerry’s Grill was supposed to report at the end of the day… it was totally their loss, not ours…

and because we were all famished by then, i wasn’t able to take pictures of the sisigs by the time they were brought to our table… all i was able to take a picture of were the extra garlic rice, laing, and some of the crispy pata…

i wouldn’t be caught dead in that branch of Gerry’s after this experience…

Ciao, sweetie… 8)

aside: want to relax and let the stress of the week melt away? why not experience San Diego day spas?? pamper yourself in preparation for the weeks ahead…

[techtags: Gerry's Grill, dining out]