late bloomer sa multiply and it's all good

wow. i started using multiply today. ok naman sya :) nakakatuwa. nakakaaliw. ang tagal na ata ng multiply ngayon ko lang ni-try. maybe because it's a holiday and wlang magawa masyado dito. hahaha.

kulimlim, mukang uulan... dark clouds ahead. windy.

last night, kuya bought his new baby mac. naku! hindi na makausap. and i get to keep the old laptop. i don't really mind. :)

i'm keeping my old lowtech phone - because i can call, i can SMS and it's all good.

i'm keeping my old creative MP3 player - because i can listen to my playlist and it's all good.

i'm keeping kuya's old laptop - because i can chat, i can blog, i can check my email and it's all good.

ummm... hindi naman ako nagsasalita ng tapos... pero i swear, it's all good. hehehe. good luck!

hilaw

i realized just now how i've been a hilaw in every aspect sa aking IT career.

when i started to work on december of 2001, i was hired as a software engineer. i was assigned to an internal team that worked on applications for the department using VB. funny how rico, donna, and i had 3 different versions of the time tracking system 'cause we were just playing around with it while we were waiting for final instructions kung ano talaga ang ipapagawa sa amin. petiks pa kami non.

di pa man nag-iinit ang pwet namin sa team na yun, we had to be deployed to client teams because there were needs for staff. so it turned out: hilaw ako sa VB. donna and i were assigned to work on a team that worked on perl, unix, mainframe.

perl, i semi-like :) walang masyadong ek-ek kasi e.

but for unix and mainframe, it was a struggle. i handled a nightmare unix project. before i even made it work decently, the project ended. saved by the bell? maybe. the little things i learned on MF side were: code a little using PL1 and run autojcls . don't ask me to troubleshoot pag may error sa ni-run. i just can't dig it. and mostly mga 1-line modifications lang ang ni-handle ko noon.

again, oonti pa lang ang project na nahawakan ko nang magkaron ng bagong team: QA team. so hilaw ulit ako sa dev. we volunteered to be a part of the new QA team. masaya ang team. the thing is, all the while i thought we were performing "authentic" qa tasks... hindi pala. we were merely checking output files. syempre nahasa ang pagiging keen kahit papano, pero there are so many things about quality assurance na hindi ko alam... hilaw ulit na QA kse the team was dissolved after more than a year... more than a year of doing what i thought was real QA.

opening ulit sa ibang team, i was deployed as dev ulit. hay hilo na ito. mostly unix na naman umikot ang mundo. takot ako sa mundong ito. for 6 months, i adjusted to new work ulit. pero... di pa nga nakaka-adjust masyado, change of company naman ito. as QA ulit... note: hilaw pa rin akong dev at this point.

hay pagod na ko sa kwento ng career ko. so QA na naman. medyo authentic manual QA work naman for more than a year. pero not so pa rin. nung panahong feeling ko time to move on to another company na ulit, mantakin nyong hanapan ako ng automation skills at experience sa mercury at kung ano anong achuchuchu. marami na palang uso na hindi ko alam. :( and they judged me not qualified - for the longest dragging time because i have no test director skills. dang. hilaw pa rin after all. hay.

and then finally, i got this job. so what do you expect, as of now hilaw pa rin ako. kase i wasn't hired as QA, but as QA support. my first support job. hay... hilaw. so i have no expertise. a little bit of everything doesn't hurt, though. and that's the story of my career. kakaloka.

* saludo ako sa spi for making me aware of CMM processes. :)

* pwede bang maging lover na lang ako? haha. mas masarap mag love kesa mag career! naku!

may ubo, may sipon

friday... nagsimula ang lahat. may kakaibang pakiramdam sa lalamunan. parang makati. kinahapunan, ayan kumakahol na si ate. sa payo ni mommy jen, bumili ako ng robitussin sa guardian. kay mahal. $9++. parang almost 300 na un sa pinas a. vitamins ba ito?

sa office pa lang, nagstart na akong tumira ng robitussin. parang walang effect. in fact, parang lalong naninikip ang dibdib ko. parang pinipigilan nya ang kung ano mang kailangang magpumiglas sa katawan ko.

pagdating ng gabi, parang naka 3 shots na ako ng robitussin. ayos naman nakapaglaba pa ako. mag-isa lang ako kse si kuya nakipag-inuman with friends. pagdating ng mga 12 midnight, ayan na, inatake na ako ng ubo... ay para akong may sanib grabe nakakahiya! hahaha. hanggang mga 3am, para akong dog. susme.

sabado, dito lang ako sa bahay baldado. cancel ang lakad with liza at janise. :(

linggo, todo na sa kasamaan ang pakiramdam ko. uminom ako ng decolgen sa payo ni donna. sabi nya, nakakasama raw lalo ang cough syrup. ok. mukang nakatulong ang decolgen. although sunday lang ako uminom, lumalabas na ang sipon ko today :) feeling ko pag naubos sya, magaling na ko. at malapit na yun! yehey!

kanina, naka 5 baso ata ako ng tea. hahaha adik sa tea. pero nakatulong sya! magaling magaling magaling! :)

people

Sa 3 linggong inilagi ko dito, hindi pa pala ako nakapagkwento about the friends, acquaintances I've met here so far. When you're far away from home, every old friend or acquaintance you meet is a family.

Dunno if these are all.. I may have missed anything but here they go:

Guen - we didn't know we're working for the same company. We only knew when I arrived yata. Too bad we're on different locations. On my first week, we were reporting on their location for training. The meeting was very unexpected. She didn't even know I was there. She was coming out of the rest room, and wapak.. Para na kaming kiti-kiti. Hehehe. Si guen super excited makakita ng pinoy. And I was as excited. :) we had lunch with my sort-of batchmates. Very brief yet very happy ang moment.

Donna - I met her once sa ikea. Super brief… and we figured we needed a follow-up (ano itu, check-up?). It was supposed to be a meeting with guen and dacks, pero hindi natuloy ang the guen and the dacks. Hehe so it was a donna-caths date. She gave me these cool nets that I could use for undies sa washing machine. Then pasyal pasyal, bought twin sandals (ibang kulay), shopped (sa sale lang ha), made picture picture sa esplanade (chimni), then ate at a thai restaurant (salamat sa treat!), grocery and libot-libot onti (muntik mapaaway sa pila ng donut). Hehehe. Blast!

Noel and Cesz - lovelives. It was a lunch date with the two lovebirds. It was my first time to eat pineapple rice. Yumyum. I learned a lot of new terms na imbento lang naman nila pero it would work! Hehe. Nice to see them again. Pinaka sweet na couple ata itong nakilala ko e. :) I introduced them to Donna… ya know, lahat ng pdeng maging kapamilya, gawing kapamilya!

April - was a batchmate from college. I've seen her twice sa suntech… on her way home probably… :) we're not close pero it was good to see her. Kahit na wave hi and bye lang.

Liza - daming plans… wala pa masyadong natutuloy hehe. There's a day-out, dinner, night-out, bintan, swimming, biking, tennis, jogging, clubbing. Hehe. At last, we saw each other when Liza (along with James) dropped by our house last late night Saturday. It was good to see her. The last time I saw her was a sort of reunion with the college pals. Liza, Saturday tuloy natin ang flan ha. Hihihi!

James - dropped by our house (along with Liza) last late night Saturday. Daming kwento ni James hehehe… amusing stories pero… he saw my housemate's (Sonny) basketball shoes and he ended up persuading, courting (hehe) Sonny to join the Pinoy basketball team. This lasted for an hour? Hehe joke. Sonny didn't go to the try-out. Masakit ang katawan kakajog hahaha… James, try ulit next time hehehe!

RH - RH was a college classmate. She was this boyish girl. Ngayon, she's this pretty girl! Woohoo! She's changed a lot grabe! She looks great! Saw her sa starbucks lapit sa city hall ata. She approached me and asked me "excuse me, are you filipina?" hehe. Sagot ako… "HR?" toinks.. Mali pa! kse RH ang pangalan nya hahaha. She said I looked familiar and that's because we were college classmates :)

Noemi - Noemi is merely a character from stories I hear from Donna and Kuya. All I know is she's Donna's college pal. And she's kuya officemate back in Pinas. I finally saw her! Hehe sa MRT when kuya and I are on our way to jologs ata? Now there's a face to the name! hihihi.

learning the art of...

breathing using your mouth is essential to survive. promise.

sa mrt, si manong katabi ko. papasok ako. sa gitna banda nakatayo kami. nakasandal sya sa mga steel hawakan. ako nakahawak sa hawakan. ay!!! may I raise my hands and arms si manong. yung parang pormang nakahiga ka tapos yung kamay mo nilalagay mo sa ilalim ng ulo mo relax na relax… pero nakatayo sya. ganun. ganito:

manong, tao lang po. wawa...

test

gympurnada

sa pinas, i never went to the gym. unang-una, i'm not that interested in making buhat chuva. or making pawis. or making takbo. na may makakakitang tao sa akin. i never went to trial sessions 'cause i know i'd never enroll anyway.

pangalawa, di kalakihan ang sweldo ko. i only have enough to share sa house, to pay the bills. konting luho, ganun. sometimes, negative pa. so i never spent for something that i'm not really crazy about.

ikatlo, payat ako. i don't have a crazy appetite. kung mag engage pa ako sa too much cardio activities, baka lalong maging patpat ako. it's just my theory... what do i know about it? hehe.

my long-time dream and love is swimming... i thought a few laps a day would be good! i always wanted to swim but i never found the time to do so. there's a pool here just outside our door but i haven't tried because i don't have anybody to go and swim with me... and i'm not an all-by-myself person. hehe

this afternoon, kuya invited me to this gym near our office. he said i could bring my officemates along. the gym has this promo of $57 a month, no membership fee. i'm not interested but i went anyway. my officemates are interested. for less than P2k, i thought it's not that bad. kung di ko talga trip mag gym, stop. hehe

we saw the equipments, the classes are good, oh they also have a pool! a tennis court, the bathroom is great... in short, i was convinced to enroll. there were six of us: kuya + officemates. so manong gym instructor's eyes are now $$$$$$ hehehe... we all decided to sign in... signing the docs... manong jotted the amount to $1380. woah! where did that come from? whatever happened to $57? it turned out we had to pay for the 2 years but we could always get a refund in case we decide to terminate the contract. ah eh... red lights flashing. manong, we can't! mga bagong ofw pa lang kami and we can't afford to throw in that amount biglaan. manong's last bargain was... pay half and pay the next half after 2 months.

and then i thought... do i really want this? do i really need this? so he gave us until friday to think things over. baka naman mamaya, ningas kugon lang ako? haay... oh well, i could always go back to swimming. ;) malaman sa byernes.

a typical saturday

saturday mornings, i wake up at around 11am. i go down, have rice for breakfast, switch the tv on. if mom's not busy with the tapsi business, we chat like crazy. chat about anything and everything. magchichismisan like teenagers.

in terms of love life hehehe... mikey would sometimes just hang out with me and watch tv (yes, minsan nanonood lang sya ng tv. di nya ko kinakausap. mas lab nya ang tv kesa sakin. hmp!), or we go out and watchamovie. eat out. walk.

kung walang lakad, nakikigulo sa tapsihan. hehe. nilalanghap ang amoy ng pares. ulk nakakasawa hahaha. nakikipagkulitan kay wawin. meet with friends.

these are what i miss badly... :(

pangalawang...

taon na namin ni mikey. yun nga lang 'di kami magkasama ngayon. 'di kami magkikita bukas. 'di rin kami magkikita sa linggo. sa susunod na linggo, imposible ring magkita kami. mukang sa june 29 pwede, pero sana nga pwede talaga.

dati-rati, sinusubukan talaga naming magkita tuwing tuesday at thursday at syempre pa pag weekends. pero ngayon, olats. dyan-ka-dito-ako muna ang drama namin. at maraming maraming dasal na sana 'di maulit ang mga 'di na dapat maulit.

mahirap maghanap ng kamay na gusto mong hawakan. kasi wala naman talaga akong makikitang ibang kamay. kung iba yun, 'di na kamay ni mikey yun. ayoko yun. hay. mahirap din maghanap ng ibang bilbil na makukurot. mahirap maghanap ng hindi mo mahahanap... or alam mong hindi mo makikita.

haay. pare, happy anniv na lang. yung kiss, pag nagkita na lang tayo. hehehe. ok? wag ka magkiss ng iba. di rin ako. pramis. hehe. see you on june 29.

ala sais ng hapon sa kwartong ito

i'm in a new world. in addition to my hurting feet (which aren't that bad now because i wore sandals today woohoo!), i now share a room with my big brother (aka kuya hehe). so much has happened for the past month and everything happened so fast. for a while i thought i was just imagining things... that i'm really here - and not there. that i am away from home, i am away from my mom, from wawin, from mikey, from my humble room, from my humble country. hehe...

pero dizizit na talaga. i'm a bit nervous about the work. i hope i can do well 'cause pare, sobrang ibang-iba sa lahat ng work na nagawa ko. betchaby. medyo nerbyosa pa naman ako haha mana sa lola ko.

i'm a bit bored over the weekends. i asked kuya, "ganito lang talga kayo pag weekends?" hehe... but i realized there has been no change in my weekend activities. nood tv lang and tunganga. maybe it's just because i am away from home - away from those i dearly love. it hurts but at the same time i know i'm doing it because i have to. and it helped me a lot that kuya is here by my side. :)

cooking dinner... oh, i miss cecil too.