rainy days and sardines

it was not that easy getting home this morning.

buses were packed. i was able to find a seat but there was this lady standing in front of me. she has a giant bag and the bag was about an inch from my face, and the bag was almost hitting my face. luckily, it didn't get me. :) the powers of the universe conspired to make the bag NOT hit my face. ;p

fx ride wasn't a giveaway either. there were 2 girls who seemed to be call center agents. why? the accent... the sosy sound... and they were talking loudly. they weren't annoying, though. i actually found them cute and sensible. what's semi-annoying was the traffic along coastal road going to mia road. good thing i was able to involuntarily eavesdrop to the two girls' interesting conversation.

when i got home, as in when i stepped on our doorway, it started to rain. the conspiracy thing is really working my way woohoo!

breakfast was next... mom tried this sardines with spaghetti sauce thing, and i think it's a gorgeous breakfast for a rainy day. conclude it all with a hot mug of chocolate and a morning call from my mikey. purrrrrfect.

sa mga panahong ganito

during the spi era, you'd be one of the blessed kung nagkataong ikaw ay untasked or waiting... you savor every second of it, 'cause an opportunity like that only comes once in a blue moon.

dito sa access, grabe, ganun din. pag andyan ang tasks, di ka na makatayo para makakain or maka-wiwi man lang. pero wag ka... pag naging waiting or untasked ang status mo, mamumuti ang mata mo. lahat na ata ng pwedeng gawin, nagawa ko na. 'di ko ito ginusto. gagawin ko naman ang trabahao KUNG MERON. pero kung wala, wala na talga kong magagawa kundi:

magpacman - nakatop score na ko! pero nabura na ng ibang bihasang manlalaro. :(

maggawa ng groups sa YM - yup, ngayon ko lang natuklasan ang paggawa ng groups sa buddies list ko.

makipagchat sa mga taong online sa ym - marami akong napapala dito dahil nakakapangumusta ako ng mga friends :)

magrename ng mga pangalan ng tao sa YM list ko - mga tipong maricor e ginagawa kong Maricor Naz. para sosyal.

magbasa ng blogs at mag comment na rin. believe me, nakapag blog hop na rin ako, kung san click mo lang yung "next blog" button. it takes me places. promise fun ito.

magbrowse ng friendster - lahat ng friends ko nabrowse ko na. enjoy din ang pagbrowse ng mga popular people sa friendster. maraming artista haha (peke man or hindi).

manood ng stand-up-comedy sa youtube - highly recommended si russell peters (salamat kay diosdaddy); ang bubble gang astig din.

maglinis ng inbox ng yahoo email - di ko 'to masyadong like. nakakatamad.

makipagkwentuhan/chat kay maricor. 'di nauubos ang mga storya namin, promise.

maghanap ng mga holliwood chismis sa defamer.com at jossip.com. sorry tinatamad ako maglagay ng link.

umidlip sandali - dahil 'di naman ako nakakatulog pag 'di nakahiga... at walang kama rito.

masaya naman 'to kung paminsan-minsan lang. pero kung napapadalas, grabe masakit din sa ulo. :( ang sakit na naman ng ulo ko ngayon. wanna go home na :( ...

and i call him tuffy

mom's boss gave my mom a big plastic container. it resembles a drinking glass, about a foot in height and 8 inches in diamter. we couldn't think of any purpose for it so mom bought an oxygen machine and 8 pairs of fishes - 2 pairs of gold, a pair of black, and a pair of bright orange fishy fishes. a makeshift aquarium it is.

we have to get water from this deepwell pump... tubig-poso ba... they'd probably die if we used nawasa water - chlorine thingy. i didn't have to say that... anyway, so the school of fishes was a happy group. i only assumed that. i wouldn't know if they're happy. nobody would. but i just assumed 'cause they're in our home and ours is a happy home.

i'm not a fan of fishy pets. i actually think they're boring! the only time i thought fishes are interesting was during the finding nemo era - 'cause fishes actually talk there! they have emotions! their faces depict joy and fear and sadness. and my favorite fish is dory (not nemo)!

ok back to the aquarium... the weeks passed and one by one, the fishes died. we'd wake up and find one floating, lifeless. at other times, they'd be found dead on the floor. sometimes, they'd mysteriously disappear... one of the unsolved mysteries that nancy drew will surely love to dig into.

one by one they passed away, until there was only one left - one of the bright orange fishes. it's been months now... and it's clear that she's the toughest of them all. i don't even know if it's a she or a he, but i prefer to refer to it as a she simply because she's the survivor hehe. she's not a weakling ba.

i'm not endeared to her. i don't even feed her. mom does. but it lightens me everyday to see her swimming, living her life to the fullest, and simply surviving - without complaining. heck, that would be lonely: living alone, restricted in a small "cage"... no one to talk to, no one to hug, no one to love, no one to smile to, no one to turn to. but she doesn't complain! if only she could...

simply put, she's my inspiration... and i call her tuffy.

teka... malabo ata, natabunan ng bubbles si tuffy... wait...


yung naka X, di si tuffy yun, some ceramic dumb fish... the orange fish, encircled in yellow is THE REAL TUFFY! go, tuffy! you rule! woohoo!

ang muling pagtatagpo

servisoft, a couple of years ago, was this really cool business unit. i say cool 'cause the creatures thriving inside the servisoft walls are friendly and cool and a big happy family. everybody was friends with everybody and you wouldn't think twice about somebody's name because... you simply know who everybody is! and by know, i mean... really know K-N-O-W! get what i mean? i don't.

anyway, people changed. people left for a couple of reasons. by leave, i mean... leave by the dozen! sheesh... i know in everybody's heart was a worried, "i don't wanna be the last man standing here" (with matching ym worried emoticon). just before i left, the place was invaded by the new servisoft babies. i don't even know all their names... i mean, i wanted to! but there's just no way of penetrating a group this big. they remind me of a college block, so tightly knit, so happy, so young. thankful that the team of babies i worked with was a cool and sweet bunch. :) for the others, i don't have an idea and i missed the opportunity of getting to know them.

anyway again, the oldies had this dilemma of simply looking for a lunch buddy! if i couldn't find one, i'd head home for lunch. pathetic. :( i'm not the type who would eat alone. i'd probably cry.

ok... so everybody struggled to look for another company - another home. :( sad but that's the way life has to be. you say good bye and you say hello. to date, servisoft people are everywhere... scattered, ya know ;p. and it just lifts me up when i see someone i know from servisoft.

so this is the real score: last wednesday, there was a mini reunion for the makati chapter servisoft people (night shift)... you see, there's also the makati chapter regular shift and second shift. most of the attendees were from companies in RCBC plaza, nins and joy from PBCOM(?). there was a slight debate as to whether jollibee convergys is indeed halfway for PBCOM and RCBC... but yeah... it probably is and the dinner pushed through anyway. donnie was incidentally there and he completed the pack. :)

wala raw kaming sense (warning: senseless ang post na ito, coming from a senseless person)

"hihi... ano ba yan, bangag na tayo wala na tayong sense."
"lagi naman eh. kelan ba kayo nagka-sense?"

ay... foul hirit... lemmesee... lemmesee...

if sense is something you put on your mouth everyday, no, thanks! i'd rather not have sense at all than have all sarcasm and bitterness uttered out of my lips. i'd rather say something "senseless", as you say, but positive and full of laughter than your so-called intelligent but negative and rotten remarks.

if sense is the frown you wear on your face from the moment you get here to the time you leave, no thanks! i'd rahter not have sense at all. i'd rather give out all smiles to the people around me... annoying or not. after all they're people who know how to act like people. unlike some i know.

if sense is the know-it-all attitude you project, no, thanks! i'd rather have an honest "i didn't know that. now i know :) hope i remember it" than to project that i'm cum-laude material... "sabi sayo eh" "i know that 'cause i watch national geographic"... so? as if i care. i'm no cum-laude... but does that make me less of a person than you are? ask them... let's see what they say.

if sense is the perfume you wear, no, thanks. i'd rather not comment on that... iyo na ang sense mo. i have my own. i love my own.

sense? what is sense after all? hija, iyo na sense mo ha? sorry, i sound angry. epekto ng beer? i'm non-sense and i'm proud and i'm happy about it. are you reading this? oh, i'm scared... i bet you can decipher it's you... 'cause you're smart and soooo sensible! it makes your momma proud! ooh! so?

not-so-hidden mickeys

mickeys - they're everywhere. i don't know if the philippines (or our home, on a more local scale) is that unsanitary for mickeys of all sizes to actually live and literally mingle with people. they run around the house like little kids at play. good thing they don't destroy our things here at home... maybe they're just after food.

the most severe case i've heard was from my cousin: she was sleeping in her room (she lives in pasay, not in our house, thank goodness) and a big mickey bit her lip! on other times, it bit her daughter's nose! how severe could that sound! my goodness! and they actually saw the big mickey run away! i bet with a big evil grin on her face! syet.

it's not like we don't do anything to stunt the rising number of mickeys. here are some of the desperate and not-so-desperate moves we've tried so far:

wooden cage trap - way back my lolo's days, i remember he used to make these wooden trap boxes with tin doors. mickey goes inside the vault, eats the food (container = takip ng chizwiz), and the door shuts when the thread that holds the door loosens up. once trapped, we (make that my lolo) get a sack of some sort and carefully open the door to transfer mickey from the trap to the sack. after this, hampas-hambalos galore. poor mickey. if it doesn't kill him, i don't know what else will. i remember many years ago when it was hampas-hambalos time for a certain mickey, my lolo was all poised to transfer him and i was all poised too to witness the execution. sack positioned, door opens, and mickey escapes! i wailed and jumped wildly and one fatal jump killed poor mickey. asintado ang talon ko. syet na-trauma ako nun. i just killed a mickey.

classic mouse trap - we also resorted to these nifty wooden mouse traps. the ones with deadly metal that you have to pull back. a spring releases the metal thingy once motion is detected in any way. the drawback is, once a mickey dies on a trap, the others seem to somehow sense that a brother mickey lost his life on this thing and that this tool is not something that they should toy with... and the whole purpose of trapping mickeys is defeated. some even say that when you pour boiling water, the scent of death is removed... i say it's all too much hassle (or tamad lang ako).

fly trap - oh! this, i think, is an effective trap. the paper thingy with super sticky substance that traps baby mickeys - of course you have to lure them with food. sometimes a single trap could get around 3 baby mickeys. the only thing is... it's such a horrible sight to see (and hear) a baby mickey struggle to get out... with all the hair sticking to the glue, it's just so yucky and morbid. there was a time we forgot we had a trap and when we remembered, the mickey was all skeleton and decayed. yuck. and at other times, big momma mickey types get trapped but they bring the trap along and it's all gone. stupid momma mickey, running around with a fly trap on her belly.

rat poision - dora or racumin are the popular brands. no sweat - just put some on a piece of paper, mickey devours on the so-called feast and dies shortly. the drawback is, if they don't make it to the light, they die in the darnest corners of the house... the ones you can't see... and they would rot and smell like hell for days or weeks and would turn your tummy upside down. plus, they also sense at certain times that this is not food stuff and they ignore it just the same. there was a time when a big momma mickey is all dazed and is ready to accept her death. she came out and was just still. we didn't want to hampas her for she might run and hide and smell so we just covered her with this pail until she died. the disposal was the hardest thing to do. just imagine how you will get that creature into a plastic bag...

pet a kitty - a neighbor gave us a baby kitty some time ago. on the first day, we were brainwashing the kitty, "grow up to be strong and sturdy, little kitty... and go get 'em all, kitty!". and she was nodding like crazy like, "yeah, momma! i'm gonna get 'em all!". the next morning, kitty was missing with blood trails on the floor. we concluded that a big momma mickey, strong and sturdy and mighty, got our baby girl. poor kitty, we loved her for a day. she was our only hope. and she was ambushed by a mickey. how ironic. ugh.

claygo - clean as you go. we leave the house spic and span, thanks to cecil. counters wiped, floor all shiny and new, table-tops wiped clean, all food items kept out of mickey's reach. wa epek. they're like "heya! i'm here! watchadoin?" and run around the house like crazy! stupid pests.

to hell with mickeys... to hell with you all. hehe may galit.

feasts

this weekend has been food-ful. i've never eaten that much food for a long time. i'm the type who would take a little of everything and then i get full easily. and then after just a few hours, i would get hungry again and if i don't put in food in that little tummy, i get disoriented and even tremble a little if worse comes to worst.

last friday, we were in a festive mood at the office - maybe because it's a payday (make that a paynight). we had wendy's food delivered to the office. i had bacon mushroom melt, large fries, large iced tea, and salad sampler. that may be a regular meal for a regular person, but that amount is too much for me. it sustained me for the whole night. i swear.

on saturday after work, maria and i went to the mall of asia for the bayo sale. nothing fancy there, but we both bought a pair of pants for 50% off. good buy. and had lunch at the super bowl. not too much of a feast but enough to tame the growling monsters in my tummy at that time.

saturday night, the whole gang at home (plus aira and mikey) went out for dinner for kuya's bday. we dined at friday's and i had baby back ribs. the others had their own versions of feasts. arrrgh... grabe! i was so full!!! to think the wendy's and super bowl stuff are still in my body... swimming in here somewhere! waaaah! i'm soooo full!

today's a sunday and breakfast was a feast as well. an addition to the stuff lingering (for too long) in my body now are: tuna, scrambled egg, rice, lucky me beef mami, ovaltine. arrrgh... they're all STILL here! SSSTTTIIILLL... gidiyap

tanong tanong

sa mahigit-kumulang na 8 buwan ko nang nag co-commute papasok at pauwi, may isa lang akong tanong regarding fx passengers. bakit kapag yung pasahero, nakaupo sa likod ng driver ng fx, yung sa apatan, yung nasa far left, tapos bababa na sya at puno yung apatan at wala syang choice kundi sa left side (or danger side) bumaba, nagtatanong ng isang mahiwagang tanong sa driver... at ang tanong ay:

"manong, pwede dito?"

at ang tanong na ito, nagsasanga-sanga tuloy sa iba pang tanong.naisip ko lang...

pag sumagot ba nang "hindi" yung driver, anong mangyayari? pabababain muna nya lahat yung nasa kanan nya?

pano naman kung NR yung driver? hindi na rin ba bababa yung pasahero?

bakit minsan, nagagalit si manong kapag dito bababa yung pasahero. tapos magdadabog pa ito. nevertheless, bababa rin si manong driver at bubuksan ang pinto for the passenger? ano ito? special? may taga-bukas pa.

hindi naman ako nag FX nung nasa spi pa ko. pero nung nagstart ako mag FX, guess what? tinatanong ko na rin yan kay manong, "manong, pwede dito?" mahirap na... baka yan ang uso or yan ay isa sa mga hidden communication between pasahero and manong, at baka magalit si manong pag di ka nagtanong. pero bakit?

i might have scared Mr. X

characters:
caths = me! the QA girl
Mr. X = the programmer boy from FL

setting:
caths and Mr. X are discussing this crazy report that Mr. X developed and caths is testing.
caths is having a hard time understanding the relationship between tables because of the crazy naming convention. caths has never seen anything like these out-of-this-world names!
actually Mr. X is aso having a hard time getting to know how the tables work!

note: actual table names changed. i don't want to have anything used against me at any point.

... and the chat goes ...

[03:33] caths says:

2 thoughts actually...

[03:33] caths says:

1) if LAVTED table is like peop_char, how do we know it belongs to that particular call in CMACTBL (phn_line)... for example, we have 2 valid records from CMACTBL, are we going to create all LAVTED records for each of these 2 phn_line records?

[03:33] caths says:

2) in the 2nd table on my email, you said we're including recs even if NANO <> 'FLAT'... i don't think we can build an output for CHEMDATA (rec 1) because there's no value in STDATA

[03:34] Mr. X says:

ahhhh you're making my head hurt

[03:34] Mr. X says:

you're assuming I know these tables

[03:34] Mr. X says:

my meeting was canceled by the way

[03:35] caths says:

sorry... my head is aching too... my ears are bleeding, btw

[03:35] caths says:

hehe

[03:35] Mr. X says:

yikes

[03:35] Mr. X says:

um, you should have that checked out

[03:35] caths says:

jk

[03:35] caths says:

;p

[03:35] Mr. X says:

phew

[03:35] caths says:

my ears aren't bleeding... only my nose

[03:36] caths says:

haha

[03:36] Mr. X says:

you have a crazy sense of humor

* scared him, didn't i? :)

the absence of the sun

the sun's been sober for a couple of days now. that should be a good news for a vampire like me. days are cooler... and though the sun peeps every now and then, days ARE INDEED cooler than those during the summer time - which is only a few weeks ago.

i've always been a sucker for the sun. i dunno how it could somehow affect my mood. like the moon affects lunatics? maybe.

sunny days = happy days... therefore, rainy days = sad days. and i've been down for the past few days. i've been the most senseless thinker - make that worrier.

i'm worrying about the wrong things. though i am very thankful for all my blessings, and for the fact that my family and i are not experiencing any hindrances to being happy and content, something's bugging me. those are probably coming from the deep crevices of my brain... you know, the corners where the worries and paranoias are situated... the corners i dare not visit. but i do go there with or without my intent... and the worse thing is... i linger there.