You're So Special

Mad was right. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed, banks announced bank holdiays, and about 11 million people had dinner by candlelight last night.

What a way to celebrate your birthday!

Since you love the rain so much, nature decided to let everyone in the mainland experience rain. =)

Belated happy birthday greetings, Ube!

What's On My Mind

It's not super-dry beer.

LEADERSHIP vs AUTHORITY

In my mental dictionary, leadership is the quality to influence people's actions, thoughts and behavior towards a set goal or vision. Authority is a power of rank to dictate one's expectations and actions to an individual or group of individuals.

What I look for in my workplace's management team is leadership, not authority. It seems that recently, most of them have lost their sense of leadership because one has decided to exercise authority, in my opinion, frivolously.

Senior colleagues at work whom I looked up to before as role models seems to have lost their balls. Their sense of leadership is only one of the few things that make me look forward to working every day and under current circumstances, it's in dire need of a defibrillator. Or a Doctor Frankenstein.


CAR PROBLEMS

Speaking of Doctor Frankenstein, my car decided to play dead on me last Thursday night. I arrived at a new bar in Batangas (San Mig Station, quite a good place) and as soon as I turned off the engine, there was no juice! No courtesy lights, no cabin lights, no indicator lights at the dashboard. Fortunately, Ferdie and Jun Z. were around and did some tweaking here and there. Soon, we got lights back on the car.

On Friday night while stuck in traffic along EDSA, my car almost stalled on me. Got scared at that point.

On Saturday morning, I stripped off the car battery, cleaned all the contacts and re-installed everything. The cause of my problems: a loose connection on my electrical system's grounding.


PERSONAL TIME
After three weeks of absence from the gym (because of business travel and an injury to my left hand), I dropped by at Ponte Fino on Saturday night. I've gained about 3 pounds from my business travels, so I hit the treadmill and stationary bike for half-an-hour each. After that I did 45 reps each of cruches, leg raises and oblique twists for my midsection and proceeded with 45 reps each for leg curls, dumbbell squats, calf-raises and fisherman's walk.

When I got back to my pad, I rested a bit and decided to take a very long hot shower. Feeling the need for relaxation, I turned off all the lights, lit some candles in my bathroom and turned on my iPod to play acoustic music. For over an hour, I did a body scrub, foot soak, shampooed and conditioned my hair and rinsed.


XBOX 360

To buy or not to buy, that is the question. And the answer is: I'm buying an XBOX-360 next week. Wahooo!

I'm ditching PC-gaming (and probably retire my PS2-gaming) in favor of the XBOX-360 and its LIVE capability. I miss the days when video games had to be played cooperatively or against another human being --- playing with/against the A.I. is too anti-social.

The irony in this is I'm getting an XBOX-360 to socialize my video gaming world at the expense of my social life. =)


...ad infinitum

1) I lost a couple of bets to Rhichie two weeks ago, so I owe him dinner AND a venti coffee frappe. I need to invite another guy or girl for this, lest the two of us might be mistaken for a couple of males on a date.
2) Emer, Jherae, and others (colleagues at work) in their band group will be performing at a local bar here this coming Wednesday.
3) Marijo, Blossom and Kat will be taking up street-dancing lessons next month.
4) Tin and Buddy are attending boxing classes, in preparation for their upcoming wedding (intended for physical fitness and for Tin to be in shape for her wedding dress fitting, but the skills can also be used when they're already married hehe...)
5) Maqui: Happy birthday! Ninong will take you out this Saturday for toy shopping. Then ninong and your dad will go drinking in the evening.
6) Marge is due to give birth on the last week of October.

U'd be happy to know that...

I gave in to my personal whims.

It was raining heavily in Kuala Lumpur tonight when I checked out of the office.
Taxis were scarce.
The hotel where I'm staying at is a 20-minute walk.
I didn't have an umbrella.
So guess what?

I walked in the rain. Dressed in business attire. With an occasional jig here and there. =)

Half an hour later, I was inside the hotel lobby with my shirt all wet.

Happy rainy Thursday!

P.S.

I'd dare you that you the same. =)

Pseudo-SGSI

People here at the Kuala Lumpur office of Shell Global Solutions are saying that if I can survive my two-week stint with them, it would be a great achievement for me.

I flew here last Tuesday to join the project group and assist in making the Basis of Design for one of the project's key areas. You see, we're trying to design a new refinery. Actually, just a preliminary design and scope. In half the time that is normally required.

Normally, a 6-month time frame is needed for the preliminary design of a refinery. But since SGS is a service-provider, and their client wants the preliminary design in 3 months.

This week, I've been pushing 12-14 hours of work. Technical work. Very technical work. Very technical geeky work. The type of work that I need to make use of all sort of charts and graphs and do engineering calculations and triple-check everything. The type of work that requires me to visualize abstract concepts of flow across several piping routes to aid in solving a puzzle of logic. The type of work that requires me to test every sort of permutation in an array of equipment to make sure that it's economical but robust.

UGH!

But hell, I'm enjoying it despite the pain. I must be getting crazy.

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Something of a confidence booster for me (also gives me a good start in the morning):

Wout, the section head of the group I'm assisting, is about 25 years my senior. Every morning since Wednesday, he'd pass by my temporary desk and ask me smiling: "Are you sure you don't want to work for us here at Shell Global Solutions?"

Hahaha... thanks Wout. Now if only my company will release me to SGS...

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Benny, Erick and Ronn tagged me along for lunch at what they call a 'chipipay' food stall. It's a stall in an old building just across Petronas Towers. They serve food carinderia style. Hallelujah, there's pork!

The next day, Cris tagged me there for lunch. Hahaha... I don't mind.

Thursday night was dinner at Benny's place with Ronn and Lorelei, Erick and Cong, and Sam. Dyaske, andito lang din pala sa KL si Sam, hindi ko man lang alam. As usual, we talked about the inadequacies of Tabangao in terms of management and training. What's mentioned at that dinner table is best left there. Ngapala, Benny's pork binagoongan was good! After dinner we went to Hard Rock to escort Sam buy a Hard Rock shirt, and had a round of beer.

Friday, Cris and I were last to leave the office (Friday night, and we're still working). Cris suggested a break at around 730pm and have a quick bite to eat. We had dinner at a cafe outside of the building, and a 'kabayan' was our waiter. Very friendly and professional, but he knows when to be personal to us. Good food, good service, and a hearty discussion with Taga regarding the project and the career.

Much as I wouldn't like to admit it, I've enjoyed Cris' company and his mentorship. I wouldn't have thought of that situation years back when he was still with us in Tabangao. Benny's a superb mentor and great company too. But they are as different as a good book and a pistol, yet I enjoy both.

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If this is life as SGSI, despite the hard stuff, I'm confident I can conquer AND enjoy it.

Need a Laugh?

The following in their virgin form (not corrected for grammar or spell-checked) are scribbled on the whiteboard at Julie and Maimai's office:

Yellow rule: Do not do unto others what you can't do.
Red rule: Do unto others, before they do it unto you.
Blue rule: You do not need to do unto others what they can do to themselves.

If things get tight, kelangan mo nang mag-diet.
..... If things get tight, sit next to a fatter ass and feel sexy.

If others can do it, don't help.

Ang ilog na tahimik ay malalim, ang ilog na maingay may naglalaba.

Oilyness is next to ugliness.

Kung maigsi ang kumot, punda yun.

What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger. RAAR!

Pag nahuli, wag aamin. Pag huling-huli na, mandamay.

J1: Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
...... J2: BADING! Anong dancing?? Di ka marunong sumayaw!!
..........J3: Bakit ako ba ang tinutukoy ko? Baka ikaw ang bading? Iyakin pa!!!

Ahihihihi... I think there's a case of craziness inflicting my workplace. =)

Saturday Socials

The nature of my current work has deprived me substantially of socializing with my peers outside of the workplace. The last time I played airsoft was sometime in March, I think, at the Steel Mill. The last time I climbed at Power-up Pasig was October last year! My present life priorities are skewed and needs normalization. It's work first, followed by family, church, personal health, and lastly friends and leisure.

Despite my very tight schedule, I decided to make a day-trip to Manila (yiiii...me talking about 'day trips' to Manila is so low for me).

A. Climb at Power-up

Blossom and Kat gave me a default invitation to join them in their wall-climbing training for the month of September. I joined them yesterday and found myself a bit overwhelmed by Power-up Pasig. It's been almost a year since my last visit there. Kat tagged along her pamangkins and guy named Sam.

Dong was there too. Ha, he still remembers me from the days when I join up with Chie and Mad for the regular Tuesday climbs a year ago.

Anyway, I climbed walls 3 and 4 flawlessly, had a bit of difficulty at wall 5 (my pinky finger is still giving me grip problems), and traversed the whole length of the wall including the bouldering section. And I thought I wouldn't finish it, because my arms were already pumped towards the end of the afternoon.

Kat's endurance has very much improved, and her techniques have upped a level. Blos has also shown improvement but needs to focus more on twisting and weight shifting (or lose some weight hahaha -- just kidding, Blos).

B. Starbucks at Power Plant Mall

Blossom hitched a ride with me going to Power Plant Mall (well, I had to get a haircut at Bruno's Barbers anyway). She invited me to have coffee with her and I agreed.

We talked about furnishing her pad, Marijo's sluggish lovelife, siblings Chard and Mond, and her and Kat's plans to study street dancing versus Marijo's preference for ballroom dancing.

We parted after our coffee socials. On my way to Bruno's, I met Tito Gabs (Papa Hondo) of RBG at the escalator. We exchanged warm handshakes when we were both level at our opposite escalators. RBG was having a team dinner at Dencio's.

C. TMS Dinner at Saisaki

The most 'cozy' team dinner I've attended, it was a night of revelations. Hahaha.

It was just Nikko, Dee, Kara and Mikko at Saisaki G3 when I arrived. And I was 40 minutes late even!

I haven't seen Kara since our team's Christmas party at their residence. She's still the same bad-ass girl I know, sporting her trademark Gothic fashion. She's the only girl I know personally who's comfortable with the Gothic look, and has the attitude to look good in it (probably I've been watching too much anime lately hahaha).

Nikko and Dee are looking more and more as a couple. Blooming people. Niks needs to go on a diet really soon; their wedding date is near already and the pictures won't look that great if his tummy shows. =D

Mikko is still the funny man. As usual, he's got plenty of stories to tell. He's so good at telling stories that sometimes I find myself at a doubt -- whether or not to believe his narrative -- when he's telling something serious.

And the revelations? I'll have to be cryptic about it. Hehehe.

1) "It's because our schedules won't match."
2) "The 'It's not you, it's me' speech is actually good, but because of the movies it now seems lame."
3) "Number two."
4) "Custody-battle for a 10-month old..."
5) "May sinapak akong lalake..."



Tin and Buddy joined us late in the night.
Anyway, hanging out with TMS was a welcome thing for me. Sa uulitin.