HO HO HOS!

(this blog post gets appended for the various holiday 'moments' that i'll find myself in. Season's greetings!)

3. The Godfather

Quito hosted lunch last Tuesday and brought his mom and my godson Maqui along. I got to the restaurant earlier, hence I was already seated comfortably when they walked in.

Maqui comes running to me.

"Ninong Stiff!!"
I stand up and extend my hand. "Oy Mak... Merry Christmas! Bless?"
Maqui takes my hand to do the mano gesture.

"Ninong Stiff, exchange gift tayo!"
"Huh? You have gift for me?" Maqui's five years old.
"Yes, I have a gift for you! Di ba Papa Quito?"
"Yeah man. Maqui's been excited the whole morning... he's been counting the days when we'll get to meet para makapag-exchange gift daw siya sa 'yo."

Mrs. S leans towards me for a kiss on the cheek. "Oh yes, Stiff. Maqui's been busy the last two days for your gift. I think ikaw lang yung ninong who's getting a gift from him."

....
...
..


2. Delivering Chrismas Presents

I did my milk-run of Christmas gift deliveries for my parents earlier this week. Had to go through Alabang Hills, PhilAm Las Pinas, Villamor Air Base, Palanan in Makati and then head north to Valle Verda V and Wilson in Greenhills. Mom made her traditional rellenong manok and leche flan, complete with storage and serving instructions, as her gifts to family friends.

At every stop, I had to get off my car and walk up to their respective gates. In almost all of the houses that I stopped, I got invited in by my parents' friends for snacks or coffee at their gardens or salas or kitchens.

My parents' friends meet up more frequently than I do with my college friends, so there's none of the usual "how's your mom/dad?" interview. Instead, I got interviewed! Some of them haven't seen me for 4 years. They would give me their own snippets of what it is that they best remember me for. I liked Tita Jing's story best -- of how she and my mom connived to set me up with her daughter when I was about to graduate from college (hahaha!).

I'm so glad to do this errand for my parents. Got to re-connect with some family acquaintances. One of my dad's friends even gave me a 500-peso pamasko (he insisted!).

1. HO-HO-HO BQ 25 Christmas Dinner HO-HO-HO
It’s been a while since I’ve hosted a big dinner. All my past dinners were limited to at most 10 people. Having more than 10 people is a bit difficult hosting-wise --- the food, the utensils, table settings, etc.

Now, Christmas is just around the corner, but I haven’t heard of any parties for the bachelors’ group at our workplace. Planning for that is a major time-drain and will require significant time and resources to prepare for it.

So, I compromised a bit.

I hosted Christmas dinner for my housemates and some choice friends, even though if it meant planning it for more than 10 people. There’s the food to prepare, setting up the tree and holiday decors, sending out invitations and of course… the gifts!

I didn’t need to prepare any games.
Nor did I have a difficult time managing everyone that I invited (that’s one of the challenges of being a host --- making sure everyone’s comfortable).
And I did manage to enjoy the party myself despite being the host.

Almost everything about the Christmas dinner turned out well (one invitee decided not to go though) --- lots of food, hearty conversations, wine (*no beer!*) and plenty of laughter. One of my friends commented that he found the party relaxing and reminiscent of how their generation used to have bachelors’ nights.

Ho ho ho ho!

The Circle of Life's Successes

“At age 1, success means being able to stand up by yourself.
At age 6, it’s being able to use the toilet on your own.
At age 7, success is being able to ride a bike.
At age 17, it’s getting your driver’s license and driving your own car.
At age 20, success is having been able to make love, or get laid.
At age 25, it’s landing your first job and being financially independent.
At age 35, success is having a loving family and looking after their well-beings.

At age 60, success is still having a loving family with everyone’s well-being in a good state.
At age 65, success is leaving your last job financially independent and secure.
At age 70, success is still being able to make love and/or still be able to get laid.
At age 75, success is still being able to drive a car and ride a bike on your own.
At age 80, success is still being able to use the toilet on your own.
At age 90, success is being able to stand up by yourself.”

- shared by Boss Andrew this afternoon at our office over chocolates and coffee, right after we commented that his hair is noticeably more gray ever since he got assigned as our facility’s Operations Manager.

Economics

... is defined as the study of how resources, profits and losses are allocated to maximize happiness.

I just completed a regional course on Refinery and Supply Economics; its arguably the best learning course I've gotten so far in my corporate stint.

My favorites:

1) Application of John Nash's "Game Theory" (global optimum is achieved when everyone thinks in their best interests AND the interests of others), and seeing how the default behavior of most economic deals are a result of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" theory ("the best solution is achieved when everyone thinks in their best interests, and an 'invisible hand' takes over to guide them to the optimum solution). John Nash was right, Adam Smith was wrong.

2) Investment economics is loosely based on the story of the bear chasing two men. Don't worry about the bear; worry about being better and faster than the other guy.

3) Risk management is about the rabbit in the middle of the road. If the rabbit stayed in the middle of the road, there's no risk management. If the rabbit chooses whether to stay on the left lane or the right lane of the road because it thinks it won't get roadkilled there, that's risk management.

4) Oil futures and Trading Economics is nothing but a paper market of guarantees. Only smart people can make money using Trading Economics, but engineers can't make sense of how is it possible to make profit out of guarantees. Therefore, engineers aren't smart enough to take Trading as an occupation.

5) Accountants will give you a numerical answer for a "How much is...." question. An economist must give you a counter-question of "Why do you want to know?". The accountant's answer is absolute, the economist's answer is always relative.

It's been great to be in a classroom again.

Ramblings in a Hotel Room with the newest Stephen King book before me

is nike the god of speed? can't really remember.
climb sweet
dream rock
smash quick
dive frisbee.
work.
play.
party.
talk.
swoosh.
fight.
sing.
think.
peace.

id.
in a few days, all these words will mean something. and hopefully more.
thanks.

-------------

I got to meet up with my cousin Pao in Singapore this morning. He was all beaming happy when he got to see me. He's been homesick pretty bad ever since he started working as an OFW two months ago.

Both of us are mama's boys -- we spent an hour talking about our respective moms' dealings-with-life. Then the talk shifted quickly to the fun we had with our batch (we were classmates from 1st grade until senior year). We reminisced the many times he acted as a big bro for me in the classroom or in outings -- always keeping me in check and in line (believe it or not, I am the more "evil" cousin between us two). Too bad Elips or Maloy weren't around because the winning story for the day was reminiscing the time when we got the two of them "introduced" to magic shrooms and its induced euphoria on a rainy summer night on the beach.

In a nutshell, both of us enjoyed the few hours of reunion and wished it were longer ("Pao, baka umiyak ka na naman mamaya... hahaha). There'll be a next time bro, don't worry.

And next time, we'll party. On me. It's my turn to be the big bro.

The Birth of STD Nights

16 pieces of good-sized crabs prepared in 3 ways and shared among 5 guys.

Welcome to the 1st S.T.D. night!

Last week, Jay sent out this photo of a crab dish he craved for to me, Emer, Glenn and Bai. It looked really really mouth-watering on the photo and soon all of us wanted some of it. Too bad that it's a plane flight away just to get that particular crab dish.

So we settled for the next best thing. We cooked our own! Hahaha...

I went to the SEASIDE seafood market last Sunday afternoon to pick out and purchase crabs. Got a really good bargain for it (~240 Php/kilo after some intense negotiation, medium sized, plump crabs).

Brought the crabs to Batangas, cleaned all of them that night, steamed them, chucked them in the ref and had 1 beer after.

Monday night: Glenn took care of the rice and drinks, Jay did the chopping of the spices to be used, I cooked the crabs and Bai and Emer brought their appetites (hehehe...). After a half-hour of chopping, frying and baking, we had:

* Oriental-Style Fried Crabs
* Baked Chili Crabs
* old-fashioned Steamed Crabs

Spreading all of the cooked crabs on the table was like looking at an oasis in the middle of the desert. We dug in! Sarap!

Until next month's STD night. Hehehe. And we'll have photos of the dishes next time.

Did you know that "crabs" is a term for a particular sexually-transmitted disease? Just in case you haven't figured out yet why last night was the 1st STD night.

Move It

I like to move it, move it...

1.
It felt like I was on Amazing Race again last Saturday. Left Batangas at 10 am, lunch with my cousins at Alabang, sped thru SLEX and C-5 to be at Ateneo by 3pm for my frisbee game, Ortigas at 6 pm, then finally Mall of Asia by 8 pm.

Whew…

2.
I skinned my knee area, right arm and chin on separate goal attempts during my weekend frisbee game with the team. The injuries are not that bad though as compared to Eric’s and Pretty Boy’s (who by the way has earned a new alias --- Iced Tea Boy) who both had longer cuts on their legs. The field was deceivingly dry, packed and hard.

I think I’ve slightly upgraded my passing and catching skills. Hey, I was able to throw an air-bounce during the game. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t intend it to be an air-bounce pass. And all of my backhand passes were good. As for catching, I’ve been able to execute a full sprint-jump-one-handed-catch combo many times over.

3.
Madagascar 2’s a good movie. I used my brother’s last batch of free IMAX tickets to treat the fishyfishy group (plus Emer) for the animation’s IMAX screening. King Julian and Maurice are still funny, but this time around the penguins with the Mafia attitude steal the show --- from launching off their Air Penguin plane to tricking safari tour groups in leaving their vehicles and finally negotiating with monkeys about maternity leaves.

After the movie, we had a couple of sub-zero-degree San Mig Light beers at the San Miguel by the Bay just across Mall of Asia. Having a supercooled beer on a cool evening… woot!

My Name is STIP and I Am Here To Rescue You

A.
Many years back, ALIAS was my favorite TV series. The spy-action plot involving the lead character Sidney working as a double-agent mesmerized me over four seasons.

My favorite episode is when the lead, despite all her martial arts and pistol skills, gets cornered by her enemies and gets imprisoned. The heroine becomes the damsel-in-distress. And so, somebody needed to rescue her.

Back at her agency, the one identified to have the necessary skills for the rescue mission turned out to be their gadget-specialist. They needed someone with the know-how of all the high-tech safeguards which Sidney’s captors are using in their hide-out. The extraction plan was simple: get past through all the security safeguards, blast a hole through Sidney’s cell and extract her. So, Gadget-Specialist Guy gets the job of rescuing her.

Anyway, what made it my favorite episode is because Gadget-Specialist guy (I can’t remember his name) doesn’t have any action scenes throughout the season. He’s usually on his desk, speaking through a headphone set. But in this particular episode, he’s part of the action.

And when he was finally able to blast through the cell of Sidney, he calls out to Sidney, “Hi, my name is XXXXX and I am here to rescue you!”.

That was cool.

-----------------

B.
Last week, I was “nominated” to attend a 5-day Advanced Rescue course conducted by the Philippine National Red Cross. It was a Rope Rescue / Rope Technician Level 1 course.

It’s easy to describe: I got to learn how to rescue someone using rappelling skills.

I’ve done rappelling before back in my Boy Scout / Eagle Scout / Nature Badge days. It’s easy for me to get down on a rope by myself using various rappelling styles, but this course is 100% different from what I’ve been exposed to.

This time around, I need to rescue someone which can be accessed only using ropes, and bring myself and the victim down to a safe place. With NO belayer. The rescuer will have to belay both himself and the victim simultaneously.

Hence, it’s definitely a physically-demanding activity. Not to mention the mental pressure of trying to assure myself that I can do this life-risking activity. Nature also added some sense of realism on the course by striking us with sunny overcast mornings then drenching us with afternoon downpours every day. Rain-or-shine....

A rundown of the things unique to rope-rescue (and be able to be certified for it):

1) Be able to neatly tie 15 different kinds of knots and combinations of them with bulky leather gloves on. And that you have 15 seconds to tie each of those knots neatly.

2) Laying out your own rope and anchoring them securely by yourself.

3) “On-rope….rappelling!!!”. And performing your own test-jumps.

4) “Locking-up” – the skill of securing yourself on your own line by maneuvering your rope to lock itself on your descender. Requires split-second timing and hand+body coordination. Allows you to free both of your hands for other uses, such as trying to rescue someone else. If done wrong, either two things can happen: either the rescuer falls to the ground OR you end up with an injured hand because it got caught in the rope. (Note: one guy in our class ended up with his thumbnail torn off despite the leather glove protection). This is the skill which I had the hardest time figuring out how to execute it.

5) Making rope hitches and emergency harnesses, and using them as your leverage control when doing ascending. Ascending skills will demand good upper, lower and core body strength on the rescuer, not to mention flexibility.

6) “Unlock” – the opposite of “locking up”. Has the same consequences as “Locking-up” if done incorrectly.

7) Buddy checks are a requirement --- have at least two other people check your straps, carabiner gates, rescue-8 rings and harnesses.

8) Accident recovery --- Recover to the rappeller’s neutral position in case he finds himself face flat on the wall or hanging upside down.

9) Transfer – You’re currently rappelling on rope A. However, you need to go to rope B which is alongside rope A. How do you disengage yourself from rope A and secure yourself in rope B at a height of 25 meters with no belayers?

10) Evolution. Combining items 1 through 9 in order to perform the last required skill for certification.

11) Victim Rescue --- Recover a victim from an area accessible only by ropes. Don a harness on the victim. Secure victim onto your rope. Bring victim down to safe area. Note: You’re doing all of these by yourself, so you should be capable of rappelling both yourself and the victim at the same time.

During my “graduation exam” wherein I had to perform 3 victim rescues, I psyched myself by calling out to the victim before allowing direct contact between us: “Hi, my name is Stip and I am here to rescue you.”

Hahaha… it sounded as cool as how I remember it when I was watching ALIAS.

Lastly, a photo of our class, now officially my workplace's elite pool of rope rescuers.

On Being Poor, My Parents and the Outdoors

1.
sigh...

It's already November. It's the start of my monthly amortization.
I'm officially POOR.

Have to subsist on my salary for the next six months. My passive income all goes towards what I would like to think of as a "good investment".

I'm back in the rat race.

2.
My parents decided to stay this weekend with me at Batangas so I wasn't able to go anywhere else. It was a great, quiet weekend for us.

My mom cooked all my favorite foods (paksiw na lechon, menudo, bulalo, pork steak, monggo with shrimp, beef tapa) for the last two days with me, of course, as her kitchen assistant. She even brought her charcoal stove so that the bulalo flavor would be at its best. Hahaha. By the way, last Friday night, Bai, Chewy and Jay talked my mom into "adopting" them for dinner (menudo, fried tilapia, ginisang pechay with shrimps).

After dinner, my dad would have his customary drink (I keep a bottle of Chivas on-stock always) and chat with me about current events (this time around, his favorite topic is the Obama presidency).

My parents also got me a gift. Hahahaha. It was a remote-controlled dragonfly! When was the last time your parents ever got you a toy? I spent a couple of hours this afternoon figuring out how to operate the dragonfly. =)


3.
Finally, I found a group who's interested in climbing Mt. Kinabalu! Wahoo! We're gonna do it next year! I'm excited about the whole trip. It'll be my first climb outside of the country, and what makes it better is that we're climbing the tallest mountain in the region. Whoop! It's a 6-day climb!

A couple of my colleagues are still "encouraging" me to take up diving. My problem is I can't fit those diving lessons into my schedule (specially with Christmas season fast approaching).

Hmmm... maybe next year na rin?

When Angels and Demons Have Fun

Who: The Team

Venue: at some particular hotel suite in Ortigas

Date: on some particular day of October 2008

Why: October/November celebrants party + Halloween(?) party




After a hot afternoon game, around 30 people, including myself, partied in a hotel suite in Ortigas this month with an “Angels and Demons” theme. Initially, I thought they were kidding on being in costume. But they weren’t.


Good thing that Joc had the foresight to buy some extra “props”, in case some of the guys (like me) doesn’t show up with an Angel/Demon costume or accessory. Thanks for the angel wings, Joc!

A rundown of the night’s events, based on what I remember:

1. Hands down, the most exciting game for the night was Bato-Bato-Pik. The whole room was shouting at the outcome of the Bato-Bato-Pik challenge.

2. Best costume was Vern’s, who came as Sweeney Todd. Chew in a Japanese school girl outfit with a halo and JP arriving as George Michael with fairy wings probably battled it out for the second best costume.


3. Ron calling me “dude”, and me calling him “dude” as well because neither of us have been introduced to each other, until somebody else pointed out that we “stop calling each other dude”.

4. A certain Chinese girl was so tipsy after one shot of Rhum coke. But I give her credit for trying hard to still be “lively” throughout the party.

5. I’VE NEVER game statement: “I’ve never given a woman 3 O’s in one minute.” And somebody drank up. HE THE MAN!

6. Marlon and Rodney as booze runners --- the two of them combined, they gave me (this is the sequence as I remember it) 3 shots of vodka, 2 servings of rhum coke, 3 shots of ginebra+lime, 3 ½ shots of tequila, 2 shots of Jag, 1 glass of Jag later on, and 2 shots of schnappes. That last shot of schnappes sent me running to the toilet for a… uhm…period of reflection.

7. Playing Dance-Dance Revolution on Wii is twice the fun if you’re drunk.

8. The girls lining up for a group shot.

9. By 2 am, only 3 people were left sober.

10. Had to use my first aid rescue/transfer skills on soemone; he was too drunk to stand up, and was becoming a hazard to the rest of the party.

11. Party was still going on at 6 am!

12. Taking photos, and half of them are ones that you don’t remember taking. Hahaha.

13. [Stage whisper]: “Shhhhhhhh….. that’s supposed to be a secret!”


By the way, on record the Angels group won the night’s games. But who cared? =)

Until the next party! Oh, and lest that I forget, happy birthday to the celebrants!

Somebody floated the idea of a “Merry XXXmas and NAUGHTY New Year” party.

Friday, 1600H

At last. Pwede ng umuwi, tapos na duty ko.
Yahoo!

I haven't gotten used to it yet, but here's an attempt for having a bit of weekend team-spirit:

BOOM.

Laying Down my Domino Piece on Black Friday

The newspaper headlines last Friday hit me hard. It got me worried.

”Massive sell-offs on world stocks: Nikkei, Dow Jones plunges”

I’ve got a small portfolio on stocks, about 9000 USD in worth as of end September. My net gain so far is about 14%. Some of my stocks were gifts from my parents and a godfather, but more than two-thirds of these I’ve accumulated slowly over the last five years.

Ever since I’ve gotten my first stocks certificate (25 shares on Intel), I haven’t sold any of them. Until last Monday though.

I sold about half of my portfolio value in order to raise enough money for a cash downpayment on a condo unit I’m keen on buying this month. I’ve been poring over it for weeks, analyzing my financial situation and cash flow. After consulting my status with a couple of financial experts, I’m convinced that I can manage this project.

Now here’s the thing: After reading the headlines last Friday, did I somehow contribute to the sharp decline on stocks values all over the world? I felt that my action there was like laying down my personal domino piece on the event leading to last Friday’s world headlines. I’m wondering if my stocks selling was part (even a tiny bit) of the “massive sell-offs” being acknowledged around the globe?

The upside of the whole thing is that if I didn’t sell my stocks last Monday, I would have lost about 400$ in value today (talk about a bearish sale!). It’s a measly sum compared to the 1 TRILLION DOLLARS reported be lost in the global stocks market plunge last Friday but 400$ is a lot of money for someone who works in a country with an average annual per capita income of around 800$.

I do hope that the country won’t fall into the same mortgage crisis as to what happened in the US. Otherwise, I’d really be in deep kimchi 4 or 5 years from now. (Fingers crossed…)

--------------------------------

Just an update on my frisbee playing: our team lost 8-6 last weekend. It was, again, a Spartan effort for us. I scored 3 goals, had a couple of picture-perfect catches (but no photos of it, darn!), overstretched my left arm/shoulder (now I understand why some of the guys have medical tape on their upper arms) and cramped my right hamstring again. It was tiring but fun.

--------------------------------

Get a copy of Wedding Essentials 2008, and look for the feature article on Glenn and Janice's wedding. =) I tried looking for a copy at ATC last weekend, but no success so far though.

It was raining heavily. Visibility was down to about 40 feet. We were down 12-8 on goals.

At the end line, all of us were already weary. We were only five, against the other team’s ten. We’ve been throwing, catching and running like hellhounds for the last sixty minutes. No substitutions, no chance to catch our breaths or rest our cramped limbs.

In the rain, I can see my teammates’ resolve to push on for the remaining ten minutes of the match. Water streaming down our faces, we gave each other whispered words of encouragement.

“We can still do this.”

“The next goal is ours!”

I just nodded. I’m conserving what remaining energy I have for a burst sprint that will most probably be needed from me in a few minutes.

Rod threw the disc for the pull. We were playing defense for this next goal.

We ran, taking up a man from the opponent’s team and marked each of them. I can vaguely hear the cheers coming from the grandstand, drowned out by the water splashes made by our cleated shoes pounding on the rain-soaked playing field.

I and my teammates were already at the limits of our endurance. Running and defending against our opponents, hoping for a possible interception and turnover. I can sense that all of us were already slowing down.

And then luck smiled upon us. An opponent fumbled on one of the passes and failed to catch the disc. It was a turnover. The rain receded slightly.

We seized the opportunity.

By some mental connection, all of us knew where to go and what to do.

Vern, at midfield, threw the disc to Rod. JP and I were sprinting towards our goalzone. The disc's flight was arced, but Rod caught it while running.

Rod held the disc for a few seconds longer, waiting for JP to establish his position at the quarterfield.

I kept on running towards the goalzone. I glanced back, and saw Rod threw the disc backhanded to JP.

Two defenders were going towards JP. While running, I gave JP the nod to throw the disc.

He threw it. Forehand throw. High. The disc gained elevation momentarily.

And I ran like hell after it, feeling the rain streaming down my face. I could hear the cheers coming from the grandstand.

I was almost near the end of the goalzone, but the disc is still 6 feet above and away from me.

I jumped, my left arm stretched upwards, my momentum bringing me directly under the disc.

I felt my fingers connect with the disc.

I finger-clawed the disc.
….
…
..
.

“AAAAOOOOWWWW…”, the crowd cried unhappily.

The disc slid by my fingers. It flew on, outside the goal zone.

I landed on the wet ground, frustrated, and collapsed my whole body on the grass.
I was panting.
The puddle I was lying on comforted me.

------------------------

Our team lost eventually, 13-8.

We were tired and wet. We huddled underneath a tree. Our white jerseys were now brown, soiled with mud. We clapped each other’s back for the hard-fought battle earlier.

But many people, including our opponents, came up to us and congratulated us for a great game, despite our numbers being few. Some of the viewers from the grandstand even told us that they've become our “fans” while watching the game.

One guy, in particular, summarized everything neatly. "You guys have great hearts."

Until the next game.