weekend ahoy

i know i have plans for the weekend, but i must have misplaced them somewhere because i was busy sleeping ^_^

when the shift changed, i got sick (aha! something that must be considered hehehe) so i went to the doctor, had labs done, went back to work et al.  i admit while i wasn't anxious to go back to the doctor to find out about the results of the labs, i was concerned.  after all, it would mean getting medications (again) and i don't really like taking drugs.  the schedule of taking meds is such a bother to me, who never bother with scheduling stuff as much as possible unless of course it can't really be helped, much like taking trips.  those i like to plan unless i'm just going along and then i leave the planning to whoever organised the whole thing.

so i got diagnosed and it wasn't what it was first thought to be but there's still a hyper in the diagnosis so that meant medication for 2 months then back to the doctor.

i changed my mind.  i'm not that much into flying by the seat of my pants anymore, i want order.

see how changeable i am? ^_^

-o-o-o-

it's funny how the sound of my text tone can make me anxious, since most times, that sound precludes the end of "me" time and the start of "ana" time.  mostly that means no more time for online stuff since that's one of the things that i really like to do, be online but not games though, as i remember with distinct fondness the time that i played Travian... not want to repeat that soon.  it could also mean no more time to just "be" (and no i am not talking about "meron" but it could be related).  it means having to once again bow to the forces outside my ken and play the role of "ana".

-o-o-o-

i like my dividers, they look really nice, don't you think?

-o-o-o-

i bought a couple of books in powerbooks greenbelt the other day.  oh yeah, something happened there that was a bit uncomfortable.  i was already at the cashier and when the girl swiped my credit card, she said the machine was indicating "unresolved".  it would have been embarrassing if i didn't have an alternate means of payign available!  the girl then said that that happens a lot in her terminal, credit cards being rejected or unresolved.  when i called the credit card company, the girl who assisted me with the query said that it could be the terminal and the connecteion it had to the bank that had the problem as she said my card was perfectly sound and it still had funds ready for my use.

maybe powerbooks should check their credit card terminals and see if their connections are sound, and not just let this happen again.  after all, the way the girl at the terminal said it, it sounded as if it was a daily occurence and that shouldn't be the case!  they should take care that their service is impeccable at all times.  not to mention, there didn't seem to be even a hint of remorse from the girl anymore about that happening.  it was like she was sheepish but accepting all the same and the after sales service -- she was busy talking with a colleague after she handed me my receipt, not even handing me the bag with my purchases but leaving it on the counter.  it's not much, but it would be most appreciated if they would hand you the bag of purchases, wouldn't it, just a sign of good service, IMO.

reminds me of the sales clerks in landmark that i see... they're too busy chatting with each other to properly assist the customers.  at the same time, they have sales clerks that are just too eager to assist that they hover over the customers and i can tell that that is very irritating and intimidating i conjure for other people.  me, i just get irritated.

then there are the clerks in the stores in waltermart makati, sometimes they'd look at you from head to toe, inspecting if you're someone with money.  if you are, they'll assist you (even fawn!).  if you're not, they won't approach you and sometimes talk over you if you approach them for help.  is that part of the training regimen that they go through?  how to see if people have money 101.  cos it sucks and it's wrong and it's plain irritating.

i hate irritating people and things.

-o-o-o-

speaking of powerbooks greenbelt, they changed the whole lay-out of the place and when i was there the other day, there were stacks and stacks of books lying about, ready for the shelves and there were still people unpacking boxes and boxes of books!

i wanted to live there, access to all those books... pretty books... lots and lotsa books...

^_^

glorious food

i think i'll try  making rice dumplings.  i think i've got the rice balls style down but i need to practice flattening the dough, putting the right amount of filling in (which is another question) and sealing it up.  cooking is in boiling water and wait until it floats to the top.  the filling.... according to the cooking show i watched yesterday, the fillings could be red bean paste or something else.  after it is cooked, it's served with either a peanut sauce/soup or ginger sauce/soup.  i think this was either a malaysian or singaporean dish, i forgot, but it looked really easy and i want to try!

then again, mochi is always nice and easier when done without the filling, or i think so...

^_^

team medical dragon

admittedly i just started reading this manga and i do have some background with the jargon but man, i would have loved to have been reading this during training.  medical procedures, operations, the eye candy (must not forget that), all intertwined in the drama and powerplay in the medical profession.  they might not have mcdreamy and the mcdreaminess of grey's but i think i like this better.

i've gotten to the end of yakitate! japan but of cours it's not finished yet.  it veered towards fantasy as the series went on.  i have to admit that i like the ending in the anime better as there was some resolution.  i was perturbed in the manga regarding kawachi's reactions - he's tororo!

ack! it's time, have to go, will be back in a bit!

^_^

oh dango dango

i made dango!  sort of successful, seeing as i didn't grill it but overall it was yummy all the same.

i really should go to sleep and i will after this, promise.

i do have to uphold the promise to myself that i would be an online citizen once again.  ergo, here i am blogging.

i think for my next culinary project, i will make hand-made noodles.  not too sure how to go about it at the moment but i will do my research.  i'm thinking, simple... udon?

seeing as i didn't have any interruptions at work, i have no -isms to share.  sad.

but i do have an old one but from a different person.  she said, "Person X will be doing something else starting today 16 March until end of April, for one month."

think about it.

^_^

work

i am seriously thinking about changing jobs... well, sort of.

i was reading this and it got me thinking, maybe i should give home-based a try.  the pros are there and the main one is that i don't have to worry about outfits et al and transportation to go to the office (which has always been a bother to me ever since they told i had to look office-y, ergo no jeans except for fridays).  i don't have to deal with that stupid person again, which again is a major pro in my book.

then again, the cons... you have to work for your pay.  not that you don't do that when you go to the office but there's no set monthly amount for home-based subcons but i think i can handle that.  i mean, i don't get that much of that work done in the office anyway because of other duties which frankly, these other duties are starting to scare the living daylights out of me whenever i think about it no matter how confident i am that i can do those other duties mainly because it means i have to deal with more people and there are times when i really really don't like people.

can you see where i'm going with this?

if not home-based, i'm in the market for going abroad for jobs that match my skill.  i've found a few but they're to a not so safe place so i'm quite leery of that, considering also that i am female and those places are notorious for not really being nice to females at times.  then again, there's always that risk when leaving your country to work in another.

which reminds me.  i was reading through my plurk and an entry caught my attention, which led me to this article and i found myself laughing and wondering if i was ever that... idealistic when i graduated from university.  it's amazing really, when you think about it.  all your academic life -- gradeschool, highschool, college -- you're coddled and protected and then when you enter the REAL world -- not the real world c/o OJTs my friend -- you get a real SHOCK that dang, i didn't realise the big bad world can and will eat me up for breakfast and forget abouit my by lunch.

but there are questions in that article that i would like to answer:
1.  What awaits you in the real world?
a lot of heartaches, triumphs come few and far between, but when you're lucky, there's a break to be had and you can be content.  hard work.
2.  Have you ever thought of leaving the country for greener pastures?
yes.  there will always be that thought in my head.  the call of the almight foreign currencies is loud.
3.  What's your expected salary in your first job?
my first job paid 13K.  my second job got a bit better and from then on i got promoted and thus got a higher paygrade which meant larger taxes to pay *sniffles*.  i'm somewhat resigned to this higher taxes that go with the higher paygrade but that doesn't stop me from bi***ing about it.
4.  Would you consider a job that is not related to your course?
yes.  my course has nothing to do with what i'm doing now.  if i was really selective and just looked for jobs related to my course, i'd be a pauper!  not that my course in university is useless in the workforce, but it's in a field that i needs a bit more training (grad school) on to be more effective and that training usually doesn't pay a lot so if i wanted to pursue that (and believe me i want to) i need to save money, which means getting a job that is not necessarily in line with my course.

haha dire and preaching of doom?  suck it up.  it's for real.

in my reading of the article, mind you, they're all cum laude or magna cum laude graduates from a host of universities, my impression is that those from the more upscale universities have almost similar expectations, in that the workforce will welcom them with open arms and hefty salaries (unless of course, the workforce you are entering is your family business) while those from the not so upscale universities have a more realistic view in what they will be entering into.

i'm not dissing anyone, far from it.  that was just my impression upon reading the article and their responses to the above questions.  there is a fifth question, Why do you deserve your award?, but i can't answer that because i didn't graduate cum laude or magna cum laude.  i just graduated!

^_^

weekend vs wick-end

i just remembered a friend's comment on a local commercial, if one of the actors in the commercial said "wick-end" in place of "weekend" and i've been trying to say both words out loud and now i can't distinguish which is which haha

seriously though, from what i can hear from myself, "wick-end" has a slightly longer pause in between syllables compared to "weekend" which I usually say as almost one word.

oh yeah, i wrote a haiku(-wannabe) for my boss's newborn son and it goes like this:

as day grows to light
hark! a cry through the heavens
a new baby boy

i don't know if it's any good since this is the first time in a long while that i've written any poetry.  i do have poetry though but they're all dark and angsty.  it used to be up in my site in yahoo but that site's already down.  which reminds me, i have to see if i still have the wherewithal to maintain a site for my stuff -- stories, poetry, pictures, drawings, fanfics.  that sort of thing,  the last site i had, i got bored with the maintenance and the upgrading and i found i didn't have time to produce more work (naks! as if!)

and that was when i didn't have a full-time job!  now that i am part of the workforce...  see where this is going?

then again, time management is an important aspect of being in the workforce and as such should be utilised for this endeavor.  hah!  if and when i can have inspiration to do it.  as it is i can't even finish Illusion and i have a number of revisions i have to get done.  but then again i get hit with tamari-its and poof, nothing gets done... aside from sleeping and reading manga online hehehe

i think i need to find actual friends, as opposed to the virtual relationship i have with the computer et al, but at the same time i have to maintain a virtual presence so i won't be too bored and destructive *evil*  problem is... i don't get along that well with many people and the ones that i do get along with are not here at the moment.  making new friends is a bothersome thing.  i can't rightly hang out with the people at work as hey, that's work and hanging out with them would be too much time already spent with them seeing as we work together already and my team... i'm their supervisor so that can get awkward, as they can't really hang out with me and let loose since "i'm the boss" and i don't really want to hamper their enjoyment of time spent with each other.  at the same time i can't really let loose with them as well as "i'm the boss" and i might loose their respect.

so that leaves who?

you?

^_^

sorry to the ants

is it too elitist to say that i cannot truly and honestly fathom how someone with the IQ of an ant continue to survive and let alone be a functioning member of society?

then again i really should apologise to the ants, as they more often than not, exhibit a lot more sense than this person.

there goes my firm belief in myself that i was a patient and understanding person because honestly, i really wanted to scream that time.  just scream and scream and scream.  it's really frustrating when you believe that people have brains and OMG they use their brains too! and then discover that yes they may have brains but they're a malfunctioning piece of trash.

how hard is it to understand this instruction:  when you check your work against the final transcript and you see errors, please report this to the shift supervisor or the production manager.

what would you do?  how do you understand this?

honestly, i want your views.

but let me tell you what she did.  for every single one error she saw in a single transcript, she would tell me the error.  just the error.  and then say, just for confirmation, shouldn't this be like this and like that?

*screams*

and then she tells me, sorry but as i told you before, i have trouble understanding instructions...

*screams*

then what the hell are you doing working in a job that necessitates (strict) compliance with given instructions?  for crying out loud!

i think i'll post a note to myself:  "all instructions in step by step single syllable (if possible) simple words (Kinder level) only please."  so i won't forget that i have an idiot in my team.

i need to de-stress.  screaming hurts my throat but shopping hurts my wallet and at this point in time i can't really afford to hurt my wallet, so i guess it's time to grab a pillow and just scream.

*screams*

the month of ah

reading blogs... and thinking about what to write, cos honestly, what do i write about that could possibly be as interesting as say, those adorable celebrity babies?  weird?  yes it is.  so what do i do?  i tweak the settings of my blog, just a touch, nothing too dramatic.

see, i really have to have a goal.  i can't just ramble on about whatever comes to mind, because let's face it, i want this blog to be coherent enough that everyone can understand it, assuming that there are of course, people who are reading this!

*crickets*

yep, as i thought.

must advertise!  read me, read my blog!  topics are all over the place!

excet for religion and politics.

i've always been told that those two are the big NO-NOs of topics, unless of course you're participating in a religious or political debate with learned members of the community that won't all of sudden pull out weapons of mass destruction -- or just a teeny tiny weapon of you-only destruction -- and then they're acceptable topics.

then of course there's the song My Way (by Frank Sinatra) that, if you're ever in a karaoke or videoke bar (why are you there anyway), you must not sing... badly.  i've heard of people coming to blows and even people getting seriously hurt because of this, the other singer sang it badly, etc etc etc.  fortunately for me, i don't sing in public places *evil* much ^_^ but i do know the song because my father knew this song.  he used to sing that in the mornings and sometimes in the afternoons when he's not doing anything, and yes with the mic and swelling music in the background.  he was kinda good too.

what i do sing -- in the privacy of my room or in the privacy of my personal space ^_^ -- are usually japanese songs interspersed with korean and english songs.  here's the j-rock/pop girl emerging... dude, like she was ever refused entry into the real world, come on.

the funny thing about this though is that sometimes i can follow the japanese and korean songs better when i sing along to the songs than when english songs are playing.

SLAINTE baby!

so bad of me but i can't help it

is it so bad, really, to collate and collect all the random stupidity that i encounter every day?  be it at work, on the road, at home, we all encounter those scratch-your-head-clear-your-ears-are-they-for-real moments that ack really should be common sense but then the people who do them apparently have no sense at all?

i've been victim of this for a long, long, long time now and after that long, long, long time, i've finally come to the point that i just have to laugh it off and not get pissed at it anymore, cos really, if they haven't developed common sense before i met them, during their formative years, what hope do i have that they'll suddenly develop common sense?  really, sometimes, i just want to bash their heads in and "for crying out loud, the answer to your question is in the question itself, why can't you see it?!"

i admit, i'm a late bloomer in being understanding and patient in this instance, but i'd like to believe that i am patient and understanding now with this and that i am a patient and understanding person overall.

though admittedly, to have a collection of such, i must remember to WRITE THEM DOWN somewhere and then transfer them to a document of sorts haha ^_^ it's almost instinctive for me to delete st**** questions ASAP but i will make an effort to remember those past encounters and collate them and then who knows, maybe make a book out of it!  now ain't that a grand idea?

i am alive! sort of

OMFG it's been almost a year since I last blogged! HAHA i guess that just means i'm either having a very uninteresting run in life or i'm just lazy.

i vote for the latter, personally.

it's summer again! and thus, my birthday is near! i want gifts! cheques will do nicely too ^_^ totally merciless.

work is... well, i would say frenetic, and let's leave it at that. the whole thing would need a whole other post to explain.

on another note, my nephew is going to compete in an archery tournament *yay!* and i get to attend haha and it's in Cebu, so it's going to be my first time to go there. which i am really excited about. i'm going to do a bit of research on places to visit and places to eat! very important! and omg i have to get my camera fixed. actually my brother's camera that he lent me when i went to HK - a long time ago - and that camera actually won't work in high altitude places, which sucks, coz it's be stuck in video mode when i want to take pictures and stuck on camera mode when i want to take videos! then again i can just go with what i have ne? and use it as is, which i can do! solution!

am currently reading Yakitate!! Japan. the anime's already finished, i know, but it's way different reading the manga as compared to watching the anime. this is of course so i don't get bored waiting for the latest Bleach and Naruto to come out! hahah and yes i've managed to catch up with the lates Bleach chapter and i am totally loving Byakuya and Ukitake ^_^ kakkoii!! ergo, i'm on the hunt for Bleach episodes!

book-wise, i need to finish the Labor Code of the Philippines ^_^

ciao!

and i promise, like my plurk, i will endeavor for a daily blog and post!