When I heard that they are planning to bowl at SM Mall of Asia, I’m all ears and waiting to be invited. This could be the icebreaker – something that will break the wall between me and the new companions. Although taking some booze during inuman sessions at the staff house already cracked it.

On that night, I nearly thought that it would not push through. But I guess everybody needs relaxation after programming and testing the applications for the past weeks, so the team building continued by hook or by crook.

We ate dinner at Burger King. I digested two burgers and I was set to strike pins. And I was not just full by beef patties but even filled up with latest gossips echoing around the office floor. I belong.

Then, we headed to bowling area where some of the lanes were occupied by other tournament participants. We looked like one team since we’re wearing yellow uniforms. We went to Lanes 3 and 4 and started to rock and roll bowling balls.

It started difficult with me as I struggle for strikes and spares until the fourth frame of the first game. During the initial match, I had sensed that Alma, Eunice and Ching are possibly members of E-Konek Bowling team. They remained consistent with their scores and master Ching emerged the strongest contender among us with a dozen of taken down pins over mine. I scored 125, 108 and 144.

We all enjoyed the night and wanted to have this as a regular and reimbursable team building. I can hardly wait for the Lina Group of Companies tourney. I’ll be prepared. So is Team Kanal.

With all of these fun in bowling, what I am thankful right now is the sense that I belong now. The next day, I learned how childlike these kids are in our daily chat room. It’s always a laugh trip. Amf’s and more lolz’s. I can now throw punchlines safely.

For my second day of bumming (to May’s discontent), I stumbled upon these sites that feature creative arts, photographs and concepts around the www.

Here are the teasers.

Geeky Home Decors

Site: Home Decor for Geeks

How ’bout Unicode-converted curtains?

Is this QWERTY or Dvorak?

A-Maze-ing lock. Secured but takes time to lock and to unlock.

Raster. Render. Pixelated sofa.

Geeky Cake

Site: Geek Cakes

In Java, System.out.println(“I Love U ”);

Nice Shots

Site: (Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos

One of a kind purple night

I tawt I taw a puddy tat!
I did, I did taw a puddy baby too!.

Meow.

Transparent Mac Desktops

Site: Transparent Desktops

Macintosh – just like a Window.

Creative Concepts

Fireproof wood.

I had my merienda breaks and my desserts, had bet on a monopoly game and went to Starbucks last Friday night with only 500 bucks on entire week. That’s a Nazty record since I started earning.

I am staying at a company house where we are sent and fetched to and from office for free. The shuttle service saves P800 at average per week while the free inn costs me only P200 as I check in all the way from Bulacan and check out back home. But the rest of the amenities of the house are free!

I still eat my packed lunch and that adds more to my savings. There’s a free lunch for every employee here so if I sense that the food looks good and delicious, I take one. Meanwhile for others, they will take one of those styropacked meal and if they found it not nice they’ll dial Pizza Hut number which is of course costs more. But I think it’s sulit still since my P100 share to that 3 family size + 3 free boxes of pizza can give me 4 slices.

Last week is indeed very historical as I went back home with loose coins from my P500. Imagine, I thought Ninoy Aquino wouldn’t make him worth living a week.

I even bet P50 for a monopoly game that can possibly bankrupt me. Good thing that monopoly game, with my former colleagues and love triangle Jay, Kido and Jen (in that order), never ended and no winner was declared even that I was the only one who eliminated. In case that Kido or Jay emerge as the Big Winner and there’s no online ATM around, I’ll have my P25 back courtesy from Jen since I offered her one of my two properties in an exchange of half of the bet which irks two much. We celebrated the stalemate ending at Starbucks nearby Jay’s house.

The next day, Saturday, I bought 2-liter Coca-Cola from our own softdrink store which costs loose coins I had from the past weekdays. Sipped Coke, enjoyed the bum weekend and couldn’t wait for the salary that I can withdraw today.

The enterprise software engineer me (or application technologies specialist as they call it here), or simply put as a developer, is working at his almost entirely different cubicle compared with what he had as a SAP Basis administrator. As of now, the obvious spot between the two IT job is that I am not YET bound by a SLA or service level agreement.

Previously, if I commit a mistake because of a single shell command (or even with only three digit difference like what happened to a transport to a different production server client by a former colleague) and the business productivity of the client suffers beyond the allowed period, then we, the company, would be penalized and should pay thousands of dollars to the customer. So it is then very important to keep off that dangerous time and be always reminded of the SLA concept. Others can understand now that it is not fun to be an incident manager even for eight hours because there are critical issues that are needed to be resolved by an hour or worse even less. That’s pressure without mentioning the pain of being slated on a night shift.

Meanwhile, on this whole new world I’m living now, deadlines are still drawn on developing projects. Although as of now, I haven’t received major assignments on my desk. My colleagues cheered me on the timing of my arrival – today’s when everything seems to be fine and everyone seems to be fine too. Lie low, low, low, low. They are actually missing their overnights … with Pay. Take note of the emphasis on P = Pesos, dude! A single line in the source code which I played earlier caused me half of my day to debug, to tweak and to pay attention on the System.out.println(“Here!”); and System.out.println(“Argh!!! Why?!); outputs on the screen. If such case and not out of sh*t or carelessness, then if my next project required me to do work beyond the normal hours because of its complexity, it is quite ok because I’ll be paid. SLA or the deadline is still present and working like a convenience store, Gising 24 Oras, degrades the quality of service. But on the lighter side, you get some benefits out of it, some bucks out of it.

I don’t know how to wrap up this post. It will end this way.

P.S. I’m still SAP Basis Administrator with 20% of my FTE. That would be another story to tell.

The second quarter is a transition period for me. After I crossed the bridge to my present company, adjustments make me uber-busy (but in the same time fun and enjoyable)! So the present quarter is pretty “continuing what I’ve started”-type in achieving my goals.

Here’s the review of my first quarter goals.

Work

• Do actual work 8 hours per weekday leaving the office when clock strikes 5 pm. In case of undertime or overtime, I will work at home. This held true during the last weeks of my HP stay. No overtime. Presently, I’m still enjoying the number of work hours here.
• Take lunch, brunch, merienda, dinner in a total of at most one hour per day Failed. Wahaha. Since it was my last hours at HP, more moments to talk. 2Q Goal: Eat on time.
• Fill up OMEGA weekly on Fridays. List down everyday the actual work and timings rendered. Achieved! 2Q Goal: Accomplish Daily Time Record forms
• Transition E8, E9 system ownership and security repetitive tasks. Achieved!
• Synchronize calendar to mobile phone everyday. Achieved! I don’t have a “phone” as of the moment.

Money

• Save 10 percent of the net pay I earned per month. Achieved! But when April came, I stood broke!
• To spend for an electronic gadget, allocate an amount per month equivalent to the gadget divided by four. I should only buy my next electronic gadget after four months. I should never use my credit card. Mathematics of this does not applied. But it was only after four months when I bought my PSP.
• Spend money for a Starbucks coffee and other drinks alike only once a month. Failed. 2Q Goal: Pretty easy task since there’s no Starby around Marina.
• Do not take lunch (or dinner) outside office when I have packed lunch (or dinner). Desserts however are allowed. Achieved. 2Q Goal: Pretty easy too.
• Allocate immediately for house utility bills. Achieved.
• Reimburse not later than a day as I received Globe bills. Pay these bills during payday using credit card which is one week after the stated due date. I failed to zero out my credit last April.
• Put loose coins in the coin bank setting aside P15.00 for the next day’s tricycle fare. Failed. Not applicable on 2Q.
• Use MRT. Achieved. This 2Q, add LRT-1 and LRT-3
• Spend at most one thousand pesos on clothing per month. Mix and match clothes. Successful last 1Q. Failed, absolutely failed this 2Q. I just spent almost P20,000.

Attitude

• Try to be as patient as possible all the times. Failed. There’s 2Q to try again.
• Never discuss or speak anything related with Pinoy Big Bother. It is now formally closed. But I can create another similar one. Failed. I was just evicted. Latest evictee always got interviewed.
• Delete unnecessary SMS messages in inbox (like EGN pages) immediately after receiving. Achieved.
• Watch more NA and EMEA shows. (Something I got from Hannah’s resolutions.) Successful. Watched Heroes Season 01 and Season 02 up to Episode 10 to this date.
• 2Q Goal: Talk with the new crowd.

Blogging

• Blog at least 5 posts per week. Practice niche blogging bimonthly. Failed.
• Twitter every day. Failed.
• Reach 200 mark for ambigram count in the end of the first quarter. Did I mentioned this? Weird goal!
• Visit five websites from Stumble Upon and ten blogs from Pinoy Blogosphere. Comment as I like. Failed.
• Capture moments with my camera. One album per month. Successful
• Poke at Facebook weekly. Failed recently.

Health

• Eat sisig at most once in a month. Successful. 2Q: Less processed meat. Once a month only.
• Take vitamins everyday. I missed some days.
• Kill the Odd Table habit. Successful.
• Gain weight. (Something I got from Hannah’s resolutions.) Gained some pounds. 2Q: From 111 lbs to 121 lbs.

Friends

• Organize a high school reunion. OK.
• Organize a Kapuwersa reunion. Not OK.
• Organize a Shububu reunion. As always.

Brain

• Spend at least 30 minutes per day reading blog feeds. Failed.
• Read two chapters on SAP Basis Administration a week. Failed. 2Q: Not applicable.

Love

• Love at my own risk. Oh yeah. Moving on.

Noong nakaraang Mayo 9, akin nang iniakda sa aking talaarawan ang isang pangyayaring susubok muli sa aking pagkatao. Hindi na lilisan ang alaalang muling naglaho ang aking telepono. Muli na namang tumatak sa aking isipan na ang mga bagay sa mundo ay panandalian lamang. Sumagi rin ang katotohonan na may mga pagkakataong ako’y nagiging mangmang.

Wahaha… Lalim! Ako ay naaliw lamang ngunit mula sa isang malungkot na pangyayari. Ito ay sa kadahilanan na nagpaalam sa aking kaibigan ang kanyang telepono. Narito po ang kanyang maikling mensahe.

Paalam telepono

Sa isang di inaasahang pangyayari ay sapilitan ng nagpaalam sa akin ang aking telepono. Kung mayroon man kayong matanggap na mensahe na pangalan ko ang nakalagay at gusto kayong maging ka-textmate o humihingi sa inyo ng load, dedmahin niyo na lang. Maliban na lang pala kung nais niyang isauli ang telepono. Pasensya na po sa abala.

Kung may importanteng kayong nais sabihin tawagan niyo na lang ako sa bahay o kaya sa opisina dahil wala pa akong ibang ‘cellphone’. Hindi ko pa siya kayang ipagpalit dahil wala pa akong pera. Ehehehe..
Mahirap kasi buhay ngayon.

Sa kabutihang palad ang aking linya mula sa Globe ay ‘postpaid’. Kung sino man ang nakatangan ng aking telephone ay hindi na niya magagamit ang aking ‘SIM’. Subalit tulad ng aking kaibigan, hindi ko pa siya kayang ipagpalit dahil wala pa akong pera

Since I can’t get enough of The Singing Bee of ABS-CBN 2, I present you what could a contestant sing in that game show. Laugh trip! Updated from the original article “Cheap Song Hits”.

Newest Addition

Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler
We’re living in a pyrotech and givin off sparks.
We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.

You Give Love A Bad Name by Bon Jovi
You Give Love a Brand Name
You Give Love A Bad Name

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Scallaboosh, Scallaboosh, will you do the banned tango?
Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

Classic

Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You by Glenn Medeiros

Nothing’s gonna change my love for you… You know naman my love how much I love you…
[or]
Nothing’s gonna change my love for you… Auto-load my love how much I love you…
Nothing’s gonna change my love for you… You ought know by now how much I love you…

Thumbthumping by Chumbawumba

I get knocked down by an elephant, my mommas’s gonna bring me down…
[or]
I get no thumb, but it grew up again…
I get knocked down, but I get up again…

Original Post

Superman by Five for Fighting

Understand to fly… I’m not denying…
I can’t stand to fly… I’m not that naive

Cruisin’ by Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis

Let the music stay confined… then release and you’ll be fine…
Let the music take your mind… just release and you will find

Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston

I decided long ago, never to walk with Edu Manzano….
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadow

Cry by Mandy Moore

A walk to remember, it was late afternoon!
I’ll always remember, it was late afternoon

All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo

Supposed to be you’re like my mother, supposed to be you’re like my sister
Close to me you’re like my mother… close to me you’re like my sister

Where’s The Love by Black Eyed Peas

People killing, people flying, children hurt a living, crying…
People killing, people dying; children hurt and you hear them crying

Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver

So kiss me and smaffle me…
So kiss me and smile for me…

My Boo by Usher & Alicia’s

It started when we were younger you were nine…
It started when we were younger you were mine

If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys

Some people want tambourines…
Diamond rings!

Baby One More Time by Britney Spears

My only nest is killing me… and I…
My loneliness…

Crush by Jennifer Paige

I-splash, a little crush…
It’s just… a little crush…

Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Viva Californication… .
Dream of Californication…

No Scrubs by TLC

A scrub is a guy who thinks he’s fine but is also known as a bus stop
Buster!

Waterfalls by TLC

Don’t go Jason waterfalls…
Chasin’…

Your Body is a Wonderland by John Mayer

You’re Alice in Wonderland… You’re Alice in Wonderland
Your body is a Wonderland…

Baa Baa Black Sheep, the nursery rhyme

Baa baa black sheep, heavy on the road…
Have you any wool?

With A Smile by Eraserheads

Lift your hand… baby don’t be scared…
Lift your head…

Wag Na Wag Mong Sasabihin by Kitchie Nadal

Maaaaaaaaaag… Magdamag mong sasabihin…
Wag na wag mong sasabihin…

On Bended Knees by Boyz II Men

Oh God give me the reason, I’m down… Abandon me…
I’m down on bended knees

I don’t have a second valid ID – an identification card with my picture and signature. I can’t open a payroll account with this deficiency. Even though I presented several proofs that I am Jonas Fabian Roque such as an old university ID, credit cards, NBI clearance, barangay clearance, (for which the latter two are considered valid supporting documents), this BPI branch at the Kabihasnan Sucat wouldn’t allow me. I came back and forth to the said but no success. Unfortunately, my company cannot release my ID with their logo and so because the machine is not operational. So the task is to apply for a second ID instead.

SSS. Since the start of this year, the government agency decided not to issue ID cards. Issuance will resume probably on August, some months after I supposed to earn my first salary.

BIR Tin. I already have my TIN number which I got effortlessly from my previous employer. What I need now is the laminated ID card. I went to the branch which is nearest to my home address assuming that it’s the same process before. Misfortune again and I should pick up the ID at branch where my previous employer is located. So I went to Atrium at Makati where BIR is located, but the only step I successfully finished is obtaining a claim stub. I have to wait again for a week!

Passport. Not good idea. The prerequisite is also to bring two valid ID’s. Furthermore, the processing will take one month at the earliest.

Postal ID. The bank recommended to apply for this one since amongst others, the process is quickest. I am currently staying in the staff house somewhere at Manila so I have to come back home to have my postal ID. Early next morning, I went to the municipal hall and learned that I have to bring barangay clearance, pictures and birth certificate. I went back to barangay hall and obtain barangay clearance. When I submitted such documents, another form was handed over to me asking our barangay captain to witness that I really reside at the said postal address. So I travelled back to the barangay hall ill-headed and secured the captain’s signature. I returned the postal ID form and paid the fee of P275 and P25 worth of postal stamps when the cashier couldn’t give me the latter amount as change. By the way, I needed to convince them that I am that person in the Polaroid picture with long hair. ‘I got my hair trimmed a week ago!’

Finally, I have my second ID. I was smiling while submitting the requirements to the bank because I was confident that time that I can open an account. Yeah, I got my new payroll account. Of course, that’s after some minutes of discussion between the teller and the branch manager.

The teller went back and informed me that I can have my ATM card once I presented the company ID.

B*S*! Fuc*!

I see myself in Shy, one of the so-called ‘house players ng bayan’ who recently stepped inside Pinoy Big Brother. Her presence surprised the boarders that made herself the ‘talk-of-the-house’. The common thing between Shy and I is like what transferee students feel on their ‘First Day High’ at their new university – at their new environment.

It is indeed a difficult situation of having folks that co-exist as one group before a new species was introduced. I’m coping. I’m adjusting. It will take time. I have no problems with these friendly guys and girls. They’re fun and funny. They’re so close to Shububu in terms of kalokohan. So close to my personality. Yet, it’s much easier to laugh at their jokes than to crack a joke before them. All of these will take time.

I’ve been in the new environment for almost three weeks and I’ve only spoken less than 200 words. Not very me! I’m not shy. Hehehe.

But the rest of everything is fine. Almost everything makes me happier.

What I have now is the extreme opposite of what I used to have.

Until now, I haven’t supplied myself of caffeine. No Starbucks and Krispy Kreme nearby. On the bright side, it means simple lifestyle. More savings.

I’m staying at the company’s staff house during weekdays which means after seven years of commuting everyday will be a history. Because I can get hold of my time, I’ll be taking masters of science in computer science which has been one of my goals while I’m working. In cases where business requires us to work overtime, hey, we’re paid here – compensated here apart from the offsetting scheme!

And… I have my own cubicle!

Blending with the surroundings is an easier task as compared to the challenge of proving that I have made the right decision in taking good care of my career. Call me a fish that swum on a smaller pond. Soon, I’ll be a bigger on a bigger pond. And that’s big time!

For now, it’s swimming time with other fishes here.

When the sun shines, we’ll resign este shine together…

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