Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A Year Older, A Year Wiser

...or maybe not...

Jasmine, together with some of my friends in NSP prepared a surprise dinner for my birthday at Krocodile Grill. It was really nice of them to throw a party for me. I was really touched. T_T

A few weeks ago, Jas told me to reserve October 26. I asked her why, and she couldn't tell me why, after a minute of persuasion, she told me that her friend is going to be engaged. I knew there was something fishy, plus the fact that she's not good in lying.

After a couple of days, I forgot that event and believed that there is really going to be an engagement party. I even wore a polo for the occasion. I couldn't believe that I've fallen for it. :P

Anyhow, it was nice seeing some familiar faces again. I even got a new Gundam kit to add to my collection, and a bundle of messages from my NSP family.

To Jasmine, Bert, Rajah, Ria, Sheila, Cheann, Erik, Nelson, Renan, Roel, Harmy, Mabel, and those who've wrote a message for me...

Thank you! I appreciate the treat, the gift, and the messages. :)

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Conspiracy Theories

False Sense of Security

For a few weeks now, I've been planning to post something about the worthless yet annoying security procedures in LRT, MRT stations and all of the shopping malls.

Recently, several walk in metal detectors were installed in Glorietta. Amusingly enough, the metal detectors were beeping almost all the time, to the point that the security guards are just ignoring them. Not to mention the improper use of those hand-held metal detectors. Most security personnel use them as a stick to poke through bags. What an expensive BBQ stick.

Well, just poking through someone's bag doesn't really work at all. I don't think they even have any idea what they are trying to look for. It only causes unnecessary delay and extreme annoyance to most passengers or shoppers. Plus the fact that bombs are not made out of metals.

False sense of security, as I call it.

Until now, I still could not believe that a bomb did explode yesterday despite of all the attempts to establish this false sense of security. This should be an eye-opener for the mall owners, our police force and normal people as well.

Conspiracy Theories

Upon learning that there's a possibility that it was a bomb. I immediately thought of theories behind this gruesome event. If this was done by real terrorists, they would have chosen a better target, Glorietta 4 perhaps, where most people would be having their lunch. Or maybe they just didn't want to kill too many people.

Like some people would think, this event might just be a diversionary tactic of the current administration, to shift the issues from "Malacañang Cash Gifts" and impeachment to something more serious like national security or terrorism.

Another one would be, this might have been planned by anti-administration groups to destabilize the government. Very similar to the Rizal Day bombings during Erap's administration, which ultimately lead to the fall of Erap's presidency. Some groups have claimed that it was orchestrated by GMA's camp. And a little over a decade ago, FVR used the same methods to control Cory's administration as well.

Whoever did this and for whatever reason, we will probably know in the coming days or in the coming months. Who knows, we might already be seeing the face of the mastermind on the news.

Laziness Always Pays Off Now

Yesterday, an explosion occured in Glorietta 2 instantly killing several people and injured several hundreds more. Earlier that day I was planning to have lunch at Yoshinoya, pay my credit card bill, then go to Park Square to buy some PC component.

An hour before lunch, Jasmine decided to have lunch with me instead of her officemates. Cheann also decided to join us for lunch, and tagged Erik along. Because Glorietta is to far from their office, we opted to have lunch near their office, World Topps.

The service at World Topps was unusually slow that time, we waited for more than 20 minutes before they served our orders. By the time we're done eating, it was way past 1PM.

I started walking towards Glorietta then Park Square to get the component. But then I got a bit lazy of the long walk (From PBCOM to Park Square) so decided to return to the condo instead. A few minutes later, I got a text message from Jas telling me not to proceed to Glorietta because there was an explosion.

A few minutes more, Rajah came. His hair was white due to the debris from the explosion. He was at the 3rd floor of Glorietta 2 when the explosion occurred. He's lucky he wasn't harmed.

I'm also lucky enough not to be there that time. I can't imagine what could have happened if I didn't have lunch with Jas, or the food came a few minutes earlier, or I didn't get lazy.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Little Dose of Demotivation

I came across this item while browsing at ThinkGeek. It's a poster containing a quote about procrastination.



"Hard Work Often Pays Off After Time, but Laziness Always Pays Off Now."

I find it funny and interesting so I did some research which brought me to the website of Despair, Inc. They're offering posters, shirts, calendars and other souvenir items that satirize motivational doctrines. They sell items which parody the motivational products produced by Successories.

They even produced a book called "The Art of Demotivation: The Doctor is out of Patience". I'm amused of their approach in problems of employee productivity, loyalty and self-esteem. If there's a chance I'm going to get myself a copy of this book.

Here are some of the quotes which I find rather interesting...

Apathy: If we don't take care of the customer,maybe they'll stop bugging us.

Blame: The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.

Compromise: Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

Consulting: If you're not a part of the solution,there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

Demotivation: Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.

Hazards: There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty. Miss that, though, and you're pretty much doomed.

Indifference: It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Quality: The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march.

Underachievement: The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower.

Worth: Just because you're necessary doesn't mean you're important

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Tech Support Mode

Nothing beats a series of network problems in the middle of the night. Imagine the pressure that you have to endure, just to make sure that everything will be operational before tomorrow's work starts.

I'm lucky that I no longer have to be that guy. I can just stay on the sidelines, giving technical support and advice over the phone, while still doing what I enjoy most. Figuring out problems and thinking of solutions and making them work.

It would be much easier though, if I had remote access to the servers. I like dealing with problems hands-on. For now, I'll have to settle with just imagining my interaction with the Linux terminal and let the guy on the other line do his job.

After nearly 2 hours, most of the major problems were fixed. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal tomorrow like nothing happened tonight.

It was tiring, not only for me. But it was worth the time and effort.
Experience would still be your best teacher.

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Just because you're necessary doesn't mean you're important - http://www.despair.com

Monday, October 01, 2007

Farewell Message: Continuation

First of all, I would like to apologize to those people whom I wasn't able to formally say goodbye to before I left two weeks ago. I guess I was forcing myself to be busy with work so I won't feel sad about my departure.

As a consequence, I never had a chance to prepare a good speech, and probably have forgotten to mention some of the important people in the office. But what really bothers me is that I wasn't able to talk to some people even at my last day of work.

As a continuation of my speech...

I would like to mention a few names of people who have made an influence in me during my stay in NSP. In no particular order... :P

Jas, Dennis, Niña, Matt, Marben, Gloi, Donna, Melissa, Ben, Bert, Roel, Renan, Nelson, Ria Mae, Metz, Jemma, Dino, Tanaka sensei, Tanaka san, Miss Nene, Jaja, Troy, Ate May, Sir Jay, Sir Gonz, Jecal, Henrison, Sir Mike, Roovin, Mark Lim, Rinnel, Mike B, Robii, Dino, Jenny, Mang Jerry, Mang Dennis...

I was planning to give a dedicated message for each of them, but it would probably make this post very long. Too keep it short. I would just like to let them know that I'm really honored and thankful to have shared my time with them.

Goodbye... for now. But I'm still looking forward to seeing them again.

Thanks again and good luck to all.

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P.S. I guess this is the closing of this chapter of my life.