Tuesday's Post
Work again (as usual) at 8AM. Got busy as more loads of work are given to us. My boss asked us to do overtime in the afternoon, but because of yesterday's half-day work, I thought it would be a trend for the week and so I committed myself to watching a movie with Rouselle at 11. And so I just promised my boss to return to work at 3:00. So instead of 1:00 to 5:00, I worked from 3 to 7, just in time for the video conference at 7:30 with our Lexmark counterparts in the U.S.

And so at 11:30, I rushed from the office to the just-nearby Ayala Center. Was kinda late (sorry Selle) 'coz I had to talk to my boss, who was kind enough to allow me to have an extra long lunch break. 'Twas a good thing my request could be accomodated on short notice since my boss who is a SHE also had other engagements for the afternoon, and since she didn't have much work for us in the afternoon and since afternoon work is overtime work (thus not obligatory), I was able to extend it till 3PM.

Love Actually was a nice movie. Love actually is everywhere... hmmm... 'Twas a British movie so I definitely loved the dialogues in British accent! And with British accent comes actors like Hugh Grant and what's his name... forgot. They could have also put Hugh Jackman to be part of the cast... but well, at least they placed Rowan Atkinson there... who showed his face for barely 10 minutes of film... hehe. My jaw went wide open at the character Juliet... I think the actress' name is Keira Knightley... she's so pretty! Newest IDOL!!! The film is one that I would call a Happy Film. Happy films are those that give you happy thoughts and make you feel good and feel as if the world is still perfect as you exit the movie house... kinda like adding endorphins directly to your brain... hehe

It was a nice movie experience with my movie mate Rouselle. During the movie, the scenes of London by Christmas made us talk about her would-be migration to the US in a year's time... unless of course she gets to find a reason to stay in this God-forsaken land where movie actors get to be elected president. Hahaha!... no pun intended. Maybe after graduation and if Lexmark would absorb me to their workforce then perhaps we could meet again in the U.S. during our Lexmark Training at Lexington, Kentucky... hmmm. I could probably not return here and instead work at the Lexmark Headquarters in Lexington. That would be a nice plan for the year to come... I guess that could clear my confusion as to what to do or to be after graduation. No more teaching for me... masters program could be "care-of-company expense" and as to the rest, what could the dollar not pay for... right? Hmmm... Chicago and Kentucky couldn't be that far... I guess.

Wednesday's Post
I was out from work at 5PM. Had to do overtime to keep work from piling up. Wasn't able to attend Marie's birthday treat at La Mare and bowling at Bowlingplex at 3, 'coz naturally I was busy enjoying my work. So at 5, I went to the mall to buy Marie a bag at Girbaud, the cost of which was split by all the guys in the barkada. Hehe... sorry but during summer vacation, budget is rather tight. We then had dinner at Roma Mia Pizza at Ayala, Jed's treat. Jed's birthday is today April 29 and Marie's will be tomorrow. They sorta did a double birthday bash. Lendel attemted did a practical joke which wasn really funny to us but not to Adrian. He tried to bump Adrian who was in the way of the parking spot. Bump a little supposed to be, but the LITTLE bump turned to a "ran over" when Lendel was unable to control the automatic-shift Pajero... resulting in the front wheel sideswiping Adrian's left leg... causing him to limp the whole time... from the bowling activity to dinner to our hangout at Bo's Banilad. Hahaha! A ran-over rat! I dunno if it's something to laugh at, but I just can't help laugh at the stupid bloopers some people could make themselves do.

I'll post something later after office time, since my short break is now up.

Half day work today since there were new OJT applicants, so our superiors needed to concentrate training them, so they let us have the afternoon off... of course no work, no pay for us... hehe... oh well, I spent the afternoon at SM canvassing for a new PC. No good deals there, got the best deal at TCA in Ayala... hehe.

Tomorrow, we'll be attending a video conference with our firmware development counterparts in Lexington, Kentucky at around 7:30PM. So I guess I have to sleep now so that I won't be so drained by the time the clock strikes 7:30 tomorrow night.

Work again tomorrow morning at 8. Then in the afternoon, I'll have to shop for Jed's and Marie's gift for their double celebration party this coming Wednesday. Hmmm... lot's of gift buying this month... hope my salary can keep up with it... hehe. Gonna be watching Love Actually with Rouselle tomorrow, maybe she could help me shop for Marie's gift... hmmm... Tama na, sleep na ko. Till here.

It's a long blog worth 8 days k?... read at your own... willingness to read... that's if there's still someone who reads this cobwebby site.

It's been one week since I logged something here. I've been really busy with my OJT. It practically consumes my entire day. Had to wake up at around 6AM everyday to attend training as early as 7AM till 5PM. The company gives us allowance plus pay at a rate that I'm so happy about... too bad we spend some of it on snacks sold outside the office... masarap kasi ang siomai! hehehe... In the office, I enjoy a lot, especially the company of my fellow OJTs. We practically never run out of bloopers and jokes. For example, my nickname in the office is "Static". Wanna know why... well during day one, I attempted to close a window in the conference room which has been causing disruptions since we the open window makes car noises outside audible. As I tried to hold the window's lock, a huge static current zinged through my fingertips causing a rather painful jolt plus an accompanying snapping sound. It hurt a lot and my shocked reaction added comedy to our already-coemedic training session. Around day three, I got static shock again as I touched the metal dividers in the office. Static was now caused by the carpet and the upholstered "pang-CEO" chairs we sit on our office space. And thus my name Static!

The office is really cold as in freezing cold... we wear jackets inside as though we're in some office in the Antarctic regions. Soon I'll be caught wearing earmuffs... hehe. This week they just put up a water dispenser for us. Hopefully next week they'll transfer the cofeemaker and microwave oven in the 8th floor pantry to our office... soon there will be a stove, then beds and then later a home entertainment system... if we get lucky, even a swimming pool... hahaha! dream on!

As to the rest of my days, nothing much happened. Jaymes and my Aunt Eya left yesterday afternoon. Didn't get to be part of the sending away team to the airport since their flight was 5:30 and it still was office hours for me. Didn't want to go either since there'd be a lot of weeping there in the airport. And there surely was A LOT!!! I'm never good with handling goodbye's and so I opted to keep my day happy by working... at least I get to maintain a happy mood plus I get to be paid too... hehehe.

Today, I went to school to start working on our project for the contest in Manila. Didn't accomplish much today 'coz Sir Brian had to attend a teaching demo conducted by a few incoming CompE instructors. New teachers again??? I think I've had enough woes with new teachers! Hehe... so while waiting for Brian, I was just playing Worms at DML with Ma'am Bandalan's kids... they kept on asking my name and somehow they made me feel like I'm a kuya of sorts... hmmm... never had sisters before... actually I have none and there never will be... period!

Today was also Raine's birthday! Happy Birthday Raine! She treated us to Pizza Hut and that was some lunch! Meatlover's and Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza! Among present were Boogie, Jed and Adrian. We then went bowling at City Sports afterwards and then split up. I went back to the mall to canvas on a new PC. Mom's buying me a new one! Finally I could breathe better with a Pentium 4 Prescott, 256 MB RAM and some GeForce4 video accelerator cards!!! This Pentium II of mine has been with me for 5 years and since then I haven't tried playing those 3D games. Now I finally can! hahahaha! Time to raid CD Network!

Now, I'm thinking, confused and seem not to know what to do. 'Coz I simply am confused of what I really want. Life is not black and white... it's in color!

I had a long day... Today's a day where patience is tested. Practically it was one day of queueing up for requirements. Lining up at NBI and getting Certificates from the registrar... hehe.

Earlier, we had dispidida for my best friend Walter at Oh Georg! He'll be leaving for Manila to work for Convergys at The Enterprise Tower in Makati... so lucky of him to be finally out of school! As for me, I'm confused now. I want to work, at the same time teach, at the same time study masters in DLSU, at the same time study Mandarin in China (as in deep Mandarin where I get to appreciate those nice Chinese songs and plays over TV like my Lola can)... hmmmm... I might as well develop a cloning device that splits me to 4 different John Lims. Hmmm... nice topic for thesis... Okay, I'm whacked out already... symptoms of lack of sleep. Nyt!

I can't sleep!!! It's nearly 3AM here and I really need to sleep. I have to wake up as early as 7AM to queue up for lots of documents (certificates and clearances) needed for my OJT. They just informed us of the requirements like police clearance, etc. today and expect us to complete them by Monday...

I've been tossing and turning in bed for nearly 3 hours and I can't sleep, so I'm trying to wear myself off by reading some stuff Sir Maja gave us for our contest in Manila. It's rather interesting... something about image processing.. converting RedGreenBlue (RGB) to grayscale... fun! So now I know how they those tools in Adobe Photoshop were made.

Till here...

I had a rather fruitful day. I went this morning to Lexmark to get my final papers done. I had fun there talking with some of my batchmates. One was given a prescription for antiox. He just realized that he's been feeding some "foreigners" in his stomach. hahaha! And then one of them was asked to have a dental check up and guess what his reaction was... same as anyone would... he started licking 'em teeth...hahaha! I dunno why we get this feeling that we should brush before meeting the dentist. Isn't he the one supposed to do the cleaning instead??? hehehe... Enough of that. Finally, we get to start Monday! yipee... After that I went home to have lunch and then went to Irie to have the interview with Mickie. It was a nice interview and it was a pleasure doing it. Pandi was there and yeah... still the same Pandi alright! Good luck Mick with getting more respondents. Aftwerwards, I went to Northgate Center to have a meeting with Tita Ingrid Militante, mom's insurance agent at Prumerica. I learned a lot about insurance policies today. Now I know what the term LIQUIDITY means in accounting. College Algebra sure served its purpose. Afterwards, I went to Ayala to just roam around. 50 First dates is now showing. I hope I can watch it with friends this Saturday. Till here, 'coz my Aunt Eya's gourmet risotto will be done in a while... don't wanna be the last one to get his share of it.

My cousin Jaymes and Aunt Eya from Australia are here!!! They arrived last Friday night. I've been a couch potato for the past few days... just playing with the PC and now the Playstation with my cousin. Just waiting from a call from Lexmark to start OJT and also waiting for Sir Brian's go signal to start working on our microcontroller project. That'll surely turn this couch potato into french fries! hehehe Till here.

Holy Week... a time to recall the wrongs we've done, a time to forgive those who've wronged us, a time to repent and change, a time to find peace in this world, a time to BE at peace with the world, a time to be NICER to people, a time to know that words can hurt and choosing the right ones can indeed make that big a difference!

For a while there I forgot that I have a blog to update... hehe.

Arrived from our edtour Sunday night. I felt so drained after the trip home that I hit the sack and just unpacked my baggages the next morning. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get the 2 rolls of film developed.

I got to post something in my blog while in Manila... it just didn't publish... dunno why... I really took time to blog something at a cafe inear our company visit, but... ayaw yata magpost eh... hehehe.

Our tour started with a SuperFerry 15 boat trip leaving Cebu at 10AM (suppposed to be 8:45AM.. got delayed kasi) of March 28. It was my first boat trip aboard a cruiser... you guys should see me boarding that ship... my eyes were wandering left and right to see what's in the carrier... *ignoramus. We took several photos in the boat... group pictures mostly and a few shots during the wonderful sunset on purely open sea.

We arrived Manila 22 hours after departure from Cebu's Pier 6 and from then on began our landtrip... checked in at Century Park Sheraton already late at 6PM 'coz we had companies to visit ASAP due to the disrupted schedule as a result from the SuperFerry delay. To summarize our 5 day Manila tour, we visited companies like AMA University at QC, Accenture and CISCO at Makati, Bayantel and Traffic Eng'g (MMDA) both at QC, Laguna Electronics at Laguna (obviously), MAXIM chip factory at Cavite. We then took a sidetrip to Tagaytay to eat at a park overlooking Taal... super nice view... I'll post the photo soon... I hope the volcano is visible 'coz when we went there, the place was all misty.

We visited Enchanted Kingdom in one of our afternoon trips. Spent 4 hours there. First ride we took was the scariest ride... the Carousel... you know those fixed horses that go up and down in a merry go round... hahaha! jokjokjok. Pasensya na po... nalisuan na jud ni among utok sa ka jokjokjok... hehe. We then rode on... now the scariest ride... the Space Shuttle... kapoy explain sa ride... it's super FUN... Ma'am Mari was my seatmate and she was shouting the whole time... I think my eardrums were more scared than my heart was. We then rode on the bumper cars... Ma'am Mari and Ma'am Bandalan were with us... and guess what... IT'S PAYBACK TIME!!! All 12 of us had our cars fixed at bumping our two teachers' cars... hahaha! You could see Ma'am Mari actively evading each one of us... hahaha! She wanted revenge, so all of us lined up again for a second round... still she was eyed on and got bumped even more times... haha! What a bonding that was! We rode on the Rio Grande Rapids... this is one ride that gets you wet... not just wet, really soaked and drenched down to your undies. Vincent Basa got "basa" the most... it had to do with his family name for sure... hehehe. Our teeth were all chattering when we boarded the bus back to the hotel.

Last Friday, we left Manila for Subic and we visited Wistron (ACER) at the Subic Bay Freeport... the place is nice... more like little America to me... lots of vacant military quarters and the area looks very well in order and very clean. We did some shopping at the Duty Free... bought chocolates and chips mostly... hehe... very cheap and affordable.

We then left for Baguio... took us a looooong trip... 10 hours just sitting in the bus... We reached Baguio by night and what struck me most was that upon disembarking from the airconditioned bus, an even colder aircondition greeted us outside. The cool Baguio air can give you frostbite. The hotel we stayed in didn't have an aircon 'coz the place really didn;t need one. I even requested for an electric fan to make me sleep since I felt that it was rather warm... when I woke up, I could barely move... it was like a thousand knives piercing through my body, even if I had a shirt and shorts on... took me around 5 minutes to get to the bathroom. And when I turned on the faucet, the water coming out was ice cold! SOmehow, I got to the bus and joined the tour for University of Baguio... nothing much,,, USC still has BETTER... a lot, lot BETTER facilities. Bought strawberries on the way. We also took several snapshots when we visited PMA... I could still remember how much fun we had in PMA... our group went marching inside the PMA and pretended to be cadets... People were looking at us. It was so shameful, but when you're ding it together as a group, it sure is FUN!!! We also went to the Mansion. Took some photos and posed as if it was our home... hahaha! FUN! And upon reaching Mines View Park, we scrambled to buy stuffs at the market nearby... from silverware to strawberry jams and peanut brittles... wallet was screaming!

Yesterday also we went to Maribago Bluewater to have an overnight stay courtesy of my Uncle Henry. It seems like I wasn't making full use of the beach stay, since all I did was sleep, sleep and sleep... hehe... I'm still very tired from our edtour trip. Our edtour was too enjoyable for my body to handle... laughed a lot from our bloopers at the bus... people can sometimes be so "kalog" that you just get pulled on to it and make a clown of yourself... hahahaha! Imagine, they made me sing DJ Sammy's Heaven in one of our karaoke sessions inside the bus. I kept on pushing the mic away, but when 39 chanting mouths are pressuring you, you just can't say no. Uhh... no comment. Just fill in the blanks as to what happened next. Our room was a bar by night... I dunno, but it surely brought more fun into our already fun-filled tour. During the drinking sessions my roomies had almost every night at our room, it was fun seeing how my batchmates got drunk... some of them can say the darnest of things and some can go plain W-E-I-R-D...wtf!... my roomies are so kewl!

So now I'm back from Maribago... In the next few days, I'll be busy again. I just got accepted into the Lexmark OJT program. I'm so happy. I just tooke my medical check exam today and I'll be waiting for the HR's call within this week. Enjoy your Holy Week peeps! I'll hit the sack again... I still have to reacquaint myself back to Cebu life. Manila sure has its way of bringing out the party animal in me.