This is meant ot be a very fast post. See, when there’s an internet connection there’s always the urge to post, but when the itch not to itch gets to me, it’s back to dust. In short, pag tinamad.So I have the biggest dilemma for the day: see, I’m at my parents’ house in Cavite, and since it was sunny this morning, I wore shorts in all my usual pambahay fashion, brought my huge headphones that make me look like an elf and used my new phone-3.5mm converter–okay na sana, but we have an appointment with Cha (who’d be in the Phils for a few weeks) and it’s raining. Scrap that, POURING. I don’t have an umbrella, and their wired plastics are like lola payongs that you’d be embarassed to bring them. Para kang nagpunta sa beach.

Need I be surprised that my office life needs an overhaul right now?

I have, for the past weeks, been working more than my usual 9 hour shifts. I get a guilty feeling if I leave the office promptly and I even get a guilty feeling just having lunch. I go on projects that are maybe not needed but for the sake of better analyzing reports, I do them anyway. I go on Fridays and extend my time even if it’s 5 hours past log out because somehow I’m needed on the floor.

Then, I go out, and realize there’s nothing to do on weekends because it seemed unnatural that I’m not at work. THEN, come Sunday, I feel burned out because THEN I get to start another week at work.

How stupid is that.

Anyhoo, I got into this another list on my mind, something that I came up with after some trips back to Powerbooks over the week end. I need to have this done just before my birthday:

- Overhaul my site
- Pay for my site AND feel the worth that I’m paying for
- Start blogging again
- Start applying for an internet connection at the unit to start cutting the trips to the internet shop downstairs.
- Go on another date with my mum
- Go on another date with my mum AND dad
- Drive again
- Buy Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes. Powerbooks Greenbelt ran out of stock
- Finish Nica’s Kite Runner and Blink
- Finish Len’s Sputnik Sweetheart
- Buy another David Sedaris book
- Go on one straight week logging out early. That means just one hour adjustment after work. (Done. Ger preassured me into this. Hehe)
- Stop thinking about unnecessary things.
- Stop thinking about PSP.
- Scout for Ger’s new phone
- Go on extra curricular activities again. That doesn’t mean drinking beer.
- Meet beloved friends.
- Meet beloved friends sober.
- MEET TINA – HIGH PRIORITY ON THE LIST
- Meet Tina and bash her d(eee)vil pc on the wall because it makes her cute and look less sarcastic.
- Take up tennis This is godfrigging ridiculous I don’t have time
- Clean up Ichijiteki Doki, restart, update, and load more programs and games
- Blog hop
- Read email (this is seriously pathetic)

Two years ago, I did the same list which included Mountain climbing, reading more books, kicking some stupid-looking co-worker. I was able to do all three without breaking a sweat. Now I’m challenging myself by listing down unachievable goals.
(god, this is stupid)

Some weird snippet of yesterday morning’s talk:

GER: (after my showing her this dubious hair straightening product at Watson’s) Bakit ba pinipilit mo? Why can’t you just accept the fact that your hair’s gay?!
*cackles*

Everyone, this is Yuoseff. Sounds Chinese when called Yuo; sounds Aussie with the Sef, and altogether sounds like an Afghan refugee. Gotta love this guy apart from his vanity though. He’s the assigned trainer of Batch 6B, same batch we trained with, and same batch he’s kinda toying with when he’s in a foul mood. Ika nga ni Ger, minsan, galit siya sa tanga.

Not to say 6B is a room full of dummies. It’s just that his temper control fluctuates, and the nearest target may just be dead instead than face the wrath. Haha. Otherwise, he’s your ordinary mapamintas gay guy. And he’s lovable.

Now this one’s Hanesee. This one’s pretty lovable with her own sweet charm, kaso minsan nahahawa sa kabangagan ni Clarice. Nyaharhar. Bangag kasi lagi si Clarice, e. Or maybe it’s a UK trait, the department both Hanesee and Clarice came from, I dunno. Or baka dahil nanghihigop ako ng energy pag nangungulit ako sa kanya, I dunno as well. Kasi it’s a little hard to stop; it’s an itch that’s way too effing hard to ignore: you just gotta cuddle up to her. Kinakabahan nga ako dahil baka hindi siya sanay sa pangungulit ko, bigla akong kasuhan ng sexual harassment. Haha.

Anyway. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of Lance, and I know it’s kind of unfair considering he’s ALWAYS with me, or vice versa—he’s the ever reliable guy who has this scary persona kasi ang laki ng boses, pero pag nangulit, ang kulit talaga. Tinuturuan nga naming maging bakla. Eh ang laki-laki nya, then with that huge voice, he’d go, “churva.” ^_^

Right now, bading na naman ako. It goes with the influence—80% of the training management (that being Boo, the head trainer; Liz, Kaye and Yuoseff doing the department specifics; Jonathan, Jinky, Guill and Richard doing QA; Clarice, Hanesee, Lance and I as the batch supervisors) is gay: which roughly translates to 3 straight acting people (Kaye, Guill, Richard); 2 lovable men loving males (I’m being politically correct for Jonathan’s case as his significant other Aldrin might just kill me, although Yuoseff would admit to be a straight-looking fag [ “ sampalin kita ng bonggang bonga.” – Sef ]); Five gay identified females (Boo, Liz, Jinky, Clarice and Hanesee); and one very tolerant mafia boss (Lance). Ask me who wouldn’t want to go to work—although of course, the pressure for better scores is there, and sooner than later the score tracking will be around, and we’d be cut short on the laughing and joshing and be replaced by full-time worries, But hey, at least I have reasons to go to work with a skip which I’d exploit till it lasts.

And. The class has its charming points. A lot of them are gay-identified as well, and their humor can be sarcastic sometimes too, and though they’re not perfect, for now, I’m proud. I’m part of their success if ever, and hopefully we have taught them whatever they need to get around. By next week, I might not train with them anymore—I might already follow a different schedule, and life as the hardcore team leader should kick in. I got only one more day. Afterwards, I might just be a zombie like the rest.

But. Not complaining. Tuloy ang buhay, bekla. Mananampal na lang rin ako ng bonggang bongga.

February 18, 2008
part 1: If leading meant good role models, then I’m screwed.

Gooooooood morning, happy people of the internet. Let me start off by saying I am so sorry if I can’t either post, comment or visit any of your updates, and if it might just last for a couple of weeks. Updates, I can try, but blog hop, I just might not. I can’t even do a quick answer to Jhed’s comment on my topic below because I can’t do things at liberty right now. See, I am positioned beside a new hire at work, and we don’t really wanna be corrupting fresh new minds at such an early time, do we? No, because we are the role models of the company, we are to be straight-doing and peace loving folks up until such time that you realize that none of them really is and maybe it’s okay to go around and show how such a bad ass we really are.

So. The truth is, I didn’t really wanna post anything other than diversions such as gig schedules and gay film reviews. I’m not picky, just that the past days (weeks, even), I could hardly talk without hoping I’m not jinxing anything by talking about not talking about what I should or shouldn’t be talking about. You know, usual corporate stuff. Like me being promoted as one of the five new supervisors.

Oh yes. You read that right.

So I started this Monday, although according to the papers I have been on the position since the 8th—yes, my mum’s birthday was too lucky, it spread its glittering luck even to the wind giving me the push. The funny story there is that we weren’t supposed to know about it, except our Assistant Program Manager (my team’s former gwapo Chinese supervisor before Ger) sent a cc requesting for supervisor access to one of the promoted supervisors as well–except the email was spotted by our ever boisterous gossip machine, Eman, and started his own raw news spreading brigade which of course, began with Ger. Except he kinda said that out loud that–out of sheer disbelief of the preposterousness of how one sleuth email was known across the floor in a matter of seconds—our APM stood up (eh ang tangkad pa naman nun, 6’+ ata), snapped his head towards Eman’s direction, and gave him an uber icy stare that scared the hell out of everyone else in the floor (eh singkit pa naman). Oh yeah. Priceless.

But, I wasn’t there when that happened. So naturally, I was roused from my sleep by one middle-of-the-night phone call courtesy of Ger. And later on from Eman himself, nearly crying on the phone because of fear for his life and job. Mwahaha.

So there. I’m starting with a queue entirely different from mine and maybe even the worst right now on the floor—worst being the hardest in terms of stats, chats, and customer satisfaction reviews. Yes, also made me wonder why I left my haven of a queue for this. But as our Operations Manager said, this is career development. And so I say, let’s bring on the shit.

Ooh, my bad. Yes, from now on, I ought to be an angel of a person to be able to influence lest I start strangling necks. How I’m gonna do that, I’m not sure, but I already started with a fluffy faux fur jacket. I can’t have wings but I got fur. I looked russian, though, with all their furry jackets and stuff.

Well, it’s cold in the training room. I gotta start being warm first before I become an angel.

Anyway. Right now the whole class is going through basic training. Lance (another new supervisor) and I are breezing through this one as we already went through this back when we had our own training. The hard knowledge comes next week—which is funny, because our Monday starts with a holiday off. Almost saying that we ought to rest a day and ready ourselves for something overflowing. Hoo, boy. Somehow, we gotta help keep the balance, as half of the class are newbies and half of them were transferred from a different account which happened for the third time, so they’re pretty jaded. Well, we are too, but we can’t show them that, can we? We are after all, gonna be role models for the next weeks and maybe up until we’re in this career development curve.

So. There, I’ve finally blogged about it. Wish me luck, eh?

February 22, 2008
Part two: it’s cold when frost touches you

It’s somewhere in between the trip to the loo and wearing rubber shoes on a weekday that I got my first reality check: while I was simply aiming for a nod or two as a recognition, he smiled widely and called me, “ma’am.”

This is it. No turning back now.

For the past days I’ve been simply considering myself lucky: going through the training like just another compulsory training we already know; showing a lax attitude on wearing comfortable casual clothes on the training floor when we’re supposed to be wearing business casuals. Hey, it’s training, I’d say to myself. Cut me some slack here. I feel like I’m simply a giddy student, going around and silently breaking the rules.

Of course it was a surprise—no, it was a mild shock, to be reminded of my duty. Of the new responsibility I should be owning up to and still carelessly going about. While some people were laughing about some other new supervisors taking it to their head from the first minute, I claimed I won’t be doing such; now overdoing it by almost shrugging it all off. This, is definitely not the attitude I should really be showing, but I did.

I really ought to shape up if I want them to start perceiving me as their leader. This is not a game anymore, I guess.

March 06, 2008
Part three: frost bites and bites hard

The class kind of got into our last straw of patience: Lance, my class buddy and the other co-supervisor in training, bellowed in the middle of discussion and requested to have all computer monitors closed, as someone was surfing friendster through lectures. On a separate occasion, someone even had the nerve to sleep through a visiting QA’s discourses. I mean, how screwed up is that? We couldn’t believe that one wouldn’t show the enthusiasm in the class is they even meant to stay in the program, or at least some respect. Later on, Lance and I talked to the class after we requested the trainer to leave for a few minutes. We were trying to be lax, blending in, minimizing the shoutings and trying to keep things at a more comfortable pace. I guess it was too soft.

I suppose some things really come through hard. It just had to sort of shake us up. I know Lance is silently trying to keep the enforcements at bay, but he did arouse the required superiority in me to oversee these guys. I know I have to one of these days shake off the idea of staying in my comfort zone and be stricter.

We know it’ll be harder to tame them as soon as they start at the floor, so I suppose we have to nip them in the bud.