pandesal breakfast

I treated the coaches... correction, I was forced to treat the coaches this morning. Well, both Coach Ron and I had to treat the coaches. It was part of a deal. Even though I'm still disputing that my Gladiator Flats are not "slippers", but the thong design was the clincher...

Anyhoo, we had corned beef, scrambled eggs, hotdogs, herbed cream cheese and wheat pandesal for breakfast.

Parang dinaanan ng bagyo. I'm glad they liked it. I keep telling them I spiked the food with gayuma... hehe... sige, kain lang kayo, hehe.

Clarity

Had a wake up call today... thanks to my best friends.

I thought that if you start to lose the passion, you need to go and find it somewhere else. Maybe that's true, depends on the situation.

How do you find it?

Start counting your blessings.

Stop, regroup and check your bearings... ACT!

Somehow, God put people on this earth to help you find your direction again.

Just as the old song goes, "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone... It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day!"

It's time to open more doors.

Lunch with Aardvarks

Had my first lunch gimmick with my new team. We ate tons of Japanese food at Yashinoya yday. I'm glad I had a chance to spend time with them and get to know each one a little bit more. After 2 weeks of non-stop hectic work, I really needed a break. We all did.

I waited for them at Powerbooks, they came in just in time. I was on the verge of buying the new Stephanie Meyer book when Gelai called out.

Ano ba ito, pares pares ba? I didn't know we were supposed to come with a partner! Gelai with his boytoy, Jamill with his girlfriend, Mikay brought Neil Chai, Neil! long time no see! Then Berna came with her sister, Nad came late but her girlfriend also joined after a few minutes. And of course the sweetest couple was there, Nina and Nerio were there also.



Ako lang walang bitbit na partner. Good thing Dayrit was there, so kaming dalawang bakla nalang nagpartner. Hehe!


I'm having so much fun with this team coz we all love the same things. We love to take our pictures, mga camera addicts din sila. Most of all, WE LOVE TO EAT!!! I can't wait to go out for our team building.

Thanks Aardvarks! Thanks for ending my stressful week on a high note.

Macky's birthday

Happy Birthday Macky!

It's my best friend's birthday yesterday. Pero since she's 12 hours behind in Eastern Time Zone, I hope this greeting still came on time.

As my birthday gift to you, Macky, I will not reveal your true age when I announce your birthday to the world. Halatang walang budget for a fancy gift to be shipped all the way to Maryland. Hehe!

I wish you all the happiness in the world! Although you're on the opposite side of the world right now, I'm still hoping that you had a wonderful day.

Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!

Lyn's mom

I just read about what happened to QS Lyn's mom from Erisa's post on her blogsite. Her mom suffered another stroke, this is her second one.

Lyn told me that her mom's still in the ICU and they're waiting for her to stabilize.

I hope she gets well soon.

Dream about a tree

I had a dream about an uprooted tree. It crashed into my bedroom window while I was sleeping with Kyle at night. I can't remember which tree, I think it was an Avocado tree. I can still see its roots upheaving as the rest of the branches and leaves filled my room.



I scrambled to save my things and get Kyle out of the room. The first things I saved were my books and CD collection, afraid they might get wet.

What does this dream mean? Anyone care to share their thoughts or interpretations?

Past lives

I remembered what a manghuhula told me years ago...

He was a friend of a friend, back in college. He claimed to be a psychic, can read Tarot cards, NOT gay, can interpret auras, and if he looks hard enough, can tell you your past life, and his name was Richie.

My friends were so enthralled. He said that one of them was a sea witch. The other one was a sea creature, like a dolphin... they actually met in their past life. Another friend was an old soul and she has at least 11 past lives, including a ruler of an ancient land.

He turned to me and started rolling his eyes. With a shake of his shoulder (similar to shaking after one pees) he tried to touch my aura and then blurted out "You have a young soul."

"This is only your third life. Your first life was an african girl, you died young and innocent. Then you were reincarnated into an animal, which was a higher level because animals have basic needs and are closer to God." (whatda?!)

"What? What animal?", I asked.

"As an animal, you bit someone and then after dying your punishment was to become a human again."

"Ano nga?!"

" A bulldog."

Ang manghuhula... translated in English - the "Guesser".

Playing with Geena's camera

I've been testing Geena's camera feature for the past week. She comes with a 5.0 megapixel camera that rivals my old Cybershot T5. In daylight, she takes clear pictures without the flash. The focus was a little off coz I took this shot while in a moving van. So far the details are crisp.

Though I still need to practise taking pictures at arms length. Some people I know, like my best friend's sister, Lynne, can take pictures of herself perfectly centered using her cameraphone. In this one, I forgot that the light was behind us... hehe! Amateur!

Then I tested her torch light. Kyle was not very happy coz he hates the flash. In fairness, I tried it on myself and I started seeing black spots for over a minute after taking the picture.

When I reviewed the images in the phone, the colors were not so bright. I expected the red hues to jump out. Maybe it's the gray skies or the lack of light that caused it. But when I transfered it to the computer, the colors were better. Hmmm, not really wild about that.

I fiddled with Geena's camera at night, and so far I'm kinda disappointed coz the images are blurry and the torch is really blinding me. After pressing the shutter button, she takes 3 secs to focus and shoot.

Overall, Geena's camera is not bad, but it doesn't stand out either. The entire experience is FIDGETY.

Maybe I just need to play around and be more familiar with her. Get to know her better.

numb

___***___

What do you do when you can't feel the passion anymore?

___***___

Birthday at Superbowl

The MV1 choir met up at Superbowl in Trinoma yesterday to celebrate the 21st birthday of our newest member, Edaine. A few peeps couldn't come but we still had a great, and noisy, time at lunch.

We had a lot to eat, pancit, beef with oyster sauce, variety of dimsum, fried rice and shrimps. Yum!

We talked about my theory of "The Tunnel Curse" which seems like Edaine is the newest victim. Hay naku, we really need to get that "blockage" cleared out. Apple wants to test the theory by leaving the choir... ganun!

Anyway, we had Dairy Queen for dessert afterwards. Everyone ordered blizzards! Which is exactly what we SHOULDN'T be eating before singing at Mass at 6pm later. Mga pasaway talaga!

Had a great time bingeing with the choir again! Thanks Edaine for the wonderful lunch!

Happy Birthday Edaine!

Geena

Meet Geena. I hope she won't be as tempermental as my last phone.

Congrats to my gerls!

I'm so proud of these two girls!

Congratulations BRYCE!

How many times have I said those two words? Last January, you won AGENT OF THE YEAR!

Now, I heard that you passed the BEAT Assessment. I had no doubts at all that you'll ace that. You're on your way to becoming a trainer or coach. Stay focused and keep up the good work!

Congratulations LUI!

You really deserve to get the Product Specialist position. All that hard work and determination finally paid off. Not to mention the sacrifice of getting low scores as an L5 (and all the petiks time) were all worth it. I'm very confident that you'll be a good and effective PS for your team, wag ka lang nila gugutumin. Wahehehe!


These pictures really show your real personalities.

All of Bryce's pictures, you can see (be blinded by) her forehead first, then you'll see her fingers do the peace sign... in every single picture!

Si Lui naman, people would not be fooled anymore, mas malupet pa sakin kumain yan! She's in her element in this picture, with food!

Big Mama proud, very proud of my gerls!

Sad Day

It's a sad day in the office today.

Only because of a simple mistake in judgement, it made a HUGE impact on a lot of things...

One of them is losing 2 very good friends.

I understand what happened and why it had to happen.

I'm still sad.

Havin' Fun in the office

I'm back in the night shift. It's noisier, busier, more chaotic and on certain days, more fun! Just like last night, we had a contest on designing our own headsets.

I put fake hair on my headset, with a magnetized Shamu whale sticking to it.

I don't know who won, but we sure had fun!

Coach Neil, bagay sa yo! Wahehehe!

I hate the printer

I'm getting a lot of exercise in the night shift. My new station is on the exact opposite side of the building from the one and only printer in the office!!!

I had to walk around 60 meters to the printer, and I went there more than 5 times today.

If I don't lose weight doing this, I don't know what else will!

I hate going to the printer area now...

Team Aardvarks!

I met my new team today. The Aardvarks! I'm sure I'll have so much fun working with this bunch.

I'm so excited to be a part of this reknowned team. We have one thing in common, we all love to go on team building outings!

Remember the following things:

• Teamwork - work as one, support each other.
• Work Excellence - do the best you can on every call
• Respect - be professional, be there!
• Find your Passion - find what motivates you
• Have Fun! - smile!

Let's bring back the Glory Days! I know you can do it!

parting gifts

It's Sunday morning, I just finished watching the movie, 'Oscar'. Now I'm vegging out in front of the computer listening to Jack Johnson's 'Banana Pancakes' - gifts from Tay Rael and Mar.

Tay, thanks so much for giving me this movie. I've been trying to look for this forever! You're the best pirate ever!

Mar, thanks for the cd! I love Jack Johnson, and this is my favorite among his albums. It definitely goes into my collection!

Thanks for the parting gifts, boys! I love them!

Big Mama happy!

Huling Hirit

Huling hirit na. This is my last drinking stint with the scorpions as their coach. It was my first time to go to Tiendesitas (pathetic no?). Leche walang parking!

Thanks Coach Ron for joining us. Lupet mo pare, 3 different teams, 12 hours of drinking!

We just had 2 buckets of SML and 8 platters of deep fried pulutan. Hina high blood na kami ni Tay, namumula naman sila Jerome and Mar.

Sayang, di nakasama yung iba. We still had a good time though!

Nano colors

The new iPod Nano-chromatic.

Now in rockin' rainbow colors!
With more storage 8GB ($149.00) and 16GB ($199.00)

Now I know what I want for Christmas!

last day on day shift

goodbye daylight, goodbye morning traffic,
farewell to blogging and to piracy,
goodbye to my morning tropa, coach she, coach ron, coach jezer and coach zweet
goodbye to the cocks and crows.
i'll say goodbye to the sound of Lee's shouting and yelling.
goodbye morning shift... sniff!... i'll miss you.

jerome, i'll miss your noise
ge, i'll miss your questions
tay, i'll miss your mahiwagang bigote
rod, i'll miss your daily pizza request
mar, i'll miss your fossil watch (pwedeng arbor, remembrance?)
caz, i'll miss our comics conversation
elmer, i'll miss your spelling... quicking sound and hippotaus
julz, i'll miss your blog tutorials.
jovs, i'll miss your cool and calm advices.

i won't miss you guys punching my arm, though.

so long scorpions! it was a blast! you guys are the best!

Whew!

I came in at 10am so that I can catch up on my work.

I started reading my emails and I only finished reading them at 2:00pm!

This is definitely NOT an ordinary day in the office.

Remember

Remembering 9/11

Enlarged liver (and everything else)

After 2 days of constant stomach aches, 2 ultrasounds, tests on my body fluids and several poking (the doctor literally poked me in the stomache), the doctors finally have a diagnosis... well sort of.

They found out I have an enlarged liver. Well, I don't think that's the only part of my body that's "enlarged", so what's the big deal?

The pain might be caused by Acid Related Disease or the tenderness of the enlarged liver. But I'm still not done. They need to test my blood chemistry for the cause.

Anyway, the good news is I'm feeling better now. Not good as new, but better than 2 days before.

I'm off to work! Woohoo!

Frigid Freakin Zone

Last Sunday, I drove my Mom to her mahjong session in Cainta. Along Katipunan Ave, I heard a fizzling sound from the van's motor. Then slowly the aircon blower started warming up. I thought the compressor's fanbelt broke. We felt like being inside a moving sauna.

Had the van checked out the next day at Frigid Zone near our place. They dismantled the compressor and found that all the bearings were shot and the whole compressor has already been damaged. The coils have overheated and it pretty much needs replacement now.


Replacing it with a brand new compatible compressor would cost P35,000!!!

WHATDAFA?!?!?!?! Is that for real?

Apparently so. The part alone costs P32,000 and labor costs P2,500, plus cleaning, freon, and so many aircon jargon that wooshed over my head.

This is when haggling really proved its usefulness. I haggled and begged and negotiated and pleaded till their owner got irritated. They finally agreed with P25,000 all-in.

Ka-ching!

It was still a hefty amount of money, but hey, I had no other choice.


They fixed it up overnight, and now the aircon is back, cooler than ever. It still smells of grease and oil, but at least it's working now.

There goes my budget for a new gadget... :(

I heard you were leaving

Even though I'm stuck at home struck down by fever... I still heard the news.

I heard you were leaving. Shaks, the dreaded day has finally arrived. We're crossing the bridge now... what are we going to do without you?

I heard you'll just be moving to the next building, where you'll work with new people.

Lucky bastards!

I'm not really sure if I'm happy or sad today. Happy that you finally got the job you wanted. Sad that you're leaving your Sony family.

One thing is for sure... We'll all miss you Sir Johnny!!!

Good luck! Congratulations!

Sick

I'm sick today.

I hate being sick.

Oktoberfest Tragedy

I was cursing the Oktoberfest party last Friday night for causing such heavy traffic in the area. From the office window, we could see the erected tents along the corner of Julia Vargas and San Miguel ave which pretty much blocked all incoming traffic into the area.


I heard that many people were either late for work that night (call centers operate at night) or didn't come to work at all (maybe that's them under the tents).

My usual 40 min trip home extended to 1 hour 20mins. Grrr!

Today my mom told me that there was an incident during the Oktoberfest event. There was 1 dead and 20 others electrocuted after dismantling the tents after the Oktoberfest Party in Ortigas.

Read full story here.

I realize now that the cursing might have been too harsh...

O2

Normally, people would be concerned, but I had a great time in the office clinic today. I got to try on a new "gadget".

They (powers that be) turn off the aircon every Saturday in the office. The sudden change in temperature and the dank, stale air felt very heavy. I started feeling pain in my chest, but no feeling at all on my left arm.

It must have been the eggs I ate for lunch. Or the strong Benguet coffee I had for breakfast. Whichever it was, I started to feel very woozy.

The nurse took my blood pressure through my wrist. The BP app's velcro couldn't fit my arms. But she still managed to get an accurate reading. 150/90. Shoot!

I took a pill and rested a bit. Then she hooked me up to the Oxygen tank, put a mask on my face and told me to sit still.

Cool!

I thought, hey, don't they have one of these in some hip L.A. club?


The oxygen smelled clean and fresh, with a tint of sweetness. It was my first time to try one of these medical gadgets. Again, cool!

The hissing sound of my breath was oddly familiar. I was instinctively expecting the gurgling sound of my exhale, looking for bubbles around my mask. It was similar to SCUBA diving, except that I was surrounded by white walls instead of coral ones.

After 20 mins of being hooked up to the tank, my head started to clear and I was feeling better. My arms were back and my blood pressures normal. That was fast!

Now that I think about it, was it really the oxygen, or was it the forced relaxed breathing that cured me? Hmmm...

Envy

The agents nowadays are SOOO lucky! Nakakaingget.

When I was an agent, the only prizes and incentives we received were star-shaped plastic trophies with our names printed with typos in front or gift certificates from Sodexo worth 500 bucks. Sheesh!

In the last year alone, the agents received digicams, Bravia tvs, PSPs, boomboxes, Walkmans, Nike bags, Fossil watches, Lacoste shoes, and recently a laptop! For October, their incentive are 2 Sony Ericsson K770i cellphones.

Some agents even have the gall to complain that they're not "appreciated" for their work. Some would say that they're not compensated well.

Excuse me!

My gulay! If only they know how lucky they are!