Magic 89.9 Reminiscing

It's been more than a decade since I became addicted to Magic 89.9 (radio station), it was my summer vacation from my first year in college and I had nothing to do at home so decided to tune in to Magic.

I was a fan of Cadillac Jack (DJ) whose shift starts at 9PM and ends at 12MN. Aside from the usual music he plays during the night there were topics where we can share our two cents and this is where I would usually call and share my rants and raves.

Also, aside from tuning in to CJ (this is what I call him) I also make it a point to join different contests, where I won several tickets to movies and even a trip for two to a beach resort in Batangas (I forgot the name), since the only mode of communication back then is the telephone I'd usually keep our landline in my room so I could call them anytime there's a contest.

It was a great experience knowing the DJs of Magic, aside from CJ I've also met a few that I became friends with. Apparently I became so busy with school and new friends that somehow I lost touch with my Magic friends but I still make it a point to listen to them once in a while.

Now that I'm working from home and usually left here in the office without TV or radio every night (I work on a night shift), I decided to check out Magic's site and alas I found out that they already have their own radio portal, just click this link to listen live. I guess this is their way to reach other Magic listeners all over the globe. Enjoy.

Welcome Home MJ

MJ who? That's our new baby, our very own ride. I know I know she's just a second hand owner type jeep, but still, she's our very own first ride. She's one of the dearest possession we have right now and we promise to take care of her, very well.

We got her through Jeff's cousin who knew someone selling it. Since they're pretty much friends, the owner decided to give the jeep to us, though it's just 1/3 of the way of being paid. We bought her battery and gas and we're just trying to fix the documents, come Monday, it'll be registered to Jeff's name.

We already tried it yesterday, he drove me to the clubhouse to pay our water bill and the monthly home owner's dues. Though I know Jeff is still nervous about driving, heck, this is his time to shine and practice really well in driving, who knows we might be able to go to Baclaran come August or September.

Anyway, here are some of his pictures with MJ, by the way, we named her MJ to remember the Michael Jackson's death, same day we got MJ.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

We went to MOA earlier today to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen through IMAX. It was uber expensive for P400, I'm not really used to paying that much for movies.

Anyway, the theater was great, they offered 2D (wide screen) of the film and it was well worth it. I find the movie overflowing with new characters and still great moves from the autobots.

We were nearly late because the movie starts at 10:15AM and we got there 10:12AM. Only 3 minutes to purchase our tickets, but the queue lasted longer than they expected so they had to adjust the time to 10:30AM, just right on time when we reached our seats, it started to play.

It was overwhelming but I still have so many questions. Though I wouldn't want to be the spoiler here, trust me, it's worth your hard earned money.

Dance With My Father

This is somehow a late post for Father's Day last Sunday. However, I felt like I really have to.

It had been a roller coaster life with my family. There were fights between my father and mother that I wished I never witnessed, so many tears were shed when I was little, which made me stronger, apparently a heart of stone for both of them.

Slowly I realized how wonderful it is to have them both while I try to build my own family with Jeff.

Though this year was traumatic, finding out Papa's condition with his gall bladder, which was removed months ago through surgery, now, he's facing yet another problem with his kidney stones. I wish he's here so we could get him to the hospital again and be checked, I wish we could do something for him to ease his pain.

I don't want to wake up finding out we're too late in showing him how we love him and how we care for him. For Papa, I miss you so much and please have yourself checked or go home again and we'd take care of you. I love you.

Just one last thing, I saw this video on youtube and I'd like to share this with you. Happy Father's Day to all fathers in the world.

HouseHelp

Finally, after months of patiently waiting for a much needed house help, she's finally here. Thanks to my ever reliable mother in law, she got Mylene to work for us. She's from Quezon (province) and same as my age and I'm hoping things are gonna be better with her working for us. I've been having troubles with household chores since I became very busy working (from home). Now, I hope she can really do the job I'd love to do but can't afford to.

I'll start briefing her tomorrow morning. I'm crossing my fingers for a good relationship with her, see, it's my first time to ever get a house help, all of us in the family are trained to work the household chores, but with all my tasks at hand I doubt if I can still handle doing the chores. Anyway, I'd work very hard to pay for her salary.

Ungrateful - Random Rants

I was keeping my cool for a couple of days now since "the incident" happened. I don't want to go deeper and I won't name names but honestly, I'm fuming with anger as I type this blog.

First of, when a task is given to you, it means you have to work hard and be determined to prove that you're worthy of the work entrusted to you. You were given the luxury to use your cellphone in between work and maybe chat a little "while" working, all we're asking is that "you" get it done correctly.

Next, it was "you" who came to us asking for help, not the other way around and you don't even have the courtesy to thank "us" who gave you what you needed.

Then, when we tell you that you made a mistake, don't take it personally. Instead of being defensive, why not ask us what you did wrong and try to make up for it. Don't act as if it's our freaking responsibility to constantly tell you what to do when you're already trained for the task. As you have always narrated to us, you're not a f*cking kid anymore.

Our clients didn't even know that we pass our jobs to you, so it's you're responsibility to take care of it and ask us if you think you're not doing it correctly. Again, you asked for help and we gave you what you need.

When you were told that there were a lot of mistakes in the document you made, you were so all out defensive and even had the guts to shout, whoa, that's very responsible of you. I think you even heard that what you did made us lose that client and you have no remorse, you just kept chatting and doing God knows what.

Next, when you left that morning without telling us, didn't you even realize that you left the door open? Who knows what could have happened to us the time you left. That's very irresponsible of you, don't you think?

Our life is no fairytale, we work our ass off to get food to our table, to feed you during your 1 month stay, to pay the bills and get our savings back up and running again. We don't stay at home just to log in to friendster or facebook or even chat with our friends, because almost all the time, we try to keep our life afloat by getting more jobs, this is no joke.

You're not a kid anymore, you can even start a family of your own but you won't take responsibility for your own life.

Today, Jeff was there at your home and you didn't even say sorry, does the freaking word scare the hell out of you huh?

And somebody even had the guts to brand Jeff as "Engot" for giving the job to you, whoa, so, it's our fault now that we tried to trust you with our work? And you are all blaming us for helping you, wow, what an inconsiderate act.

It's so sad that the guy all of you are belittling is my husband, because it's not acceptable. You never have shown remorse, never said sorry and all. If you had been my brother and you did that to me infront of my husband I would have slapped you so hard that you'll forget where you are. I think you should be thankful Jeff is kind enough not to throw you away that night because if I were him, the minute you shouted at me would be the minute your clothes and stuff is at the garage burning.

I'll only tell you this once, I never wanted to see your freaking face ever again. Jeff could forgive you, yes, because he has a good heart but never again that you'll step into this house, you ingrate. You're the most ungrateful person I've ever met in my entire life.

Kitchen Nightmares by Gordon Ramsay

I've just recently discovered a show that brings a capital F to *uck. It's the first time I've seen this show, probably because for the past months that we moved here we don't have our own cable subscription due to village restrictions, and unfortunately we don't have P6000 to have our own satellite cable (damn those satellites).

The show is all about the reality of life when establishing your own restaurant. Aside from the normal flaw of relationships between owner and staff, this show uncovers the truth on how our succulent food is prepared. It also reflects the sad facts that restaurants are shutting down not just the general fact that their food's taste is not even close to that of McDonalds, but because of bad management from the owners.

I'm beginning to get addicted that I'm beginning to really show passion for food and how it's prepared. This show really helps a lot of hungry young businessmen with how to properly manage a good restaurant, not just managerial wise but also with the quality of food they serve.

Have a look of this video I got from youtube, this is one of my favorites.

Repost from Bang's Blog

Early today I had the urge to check my other email account and found out that Bang (a friend and a colleague from Dell) created this blog and it had my name on it, oh well, I'll repost it here.

hi-five

June 17th, 2009 by bangreyes

It just hit me last night how lucky I am that I work from home, maybe because it was raining so hard and thinking I don’t have go out and hail for a cab to go to work.As I look back to the days when I was still a corporate slave you will always hear me say..”Can I just go home and still get my pay” funny it is but who would think this would happen for me.. I guess everything starts with a dream or in my case, whining (lol).It all started last year when my teammate Joan (“jown” – hi gel!) told me what she read on a forum about a home-based work. I was skeptical at first thinking is it possible? Questions starts to rumble in my head coz I know I want it but will it be worth it? As I kept on debating with my thoughts Joan learned about the glorified job and began working with some projects. Everyday I see her come to work looking wasted but was excited of how she’s doing so far with her odd job(not so odd for me now huh).Then one day she told me she was resigning.. Inggitera that I am applied for a dsl line and baam!… Im there. I cant say I enjoy having just a few hours of sleep but I know one day everything will pay off and true enough it did I resigned a few months ago. Now, I enjoy working while I laze around my couch lol watching tv and most of all I can stop if I want to. I thank God the most for not letting cynicism ruin my dreams I thought it was all a “moo point” but now its all worth it. Whoever is interested to be part of my funky work-world (if there’s such a word) just let me know and ill help you guys out.. hi-five! tata!

for a start check out these sites…

www.odesk.com

www.getafreelancer.com

goodluck!

Another Ear Infection

I started having ear infection back in my high school days. I've got this addiction of cleaning my ear on a daily basis, whenever I get stressed or irritated I pamper myself through cleaning my ears, I dunno why. I find myself getting relaxed when I do this.

Anyway, one time when I was trying to sleep I then felt pain inside my ear on the jaw line. It was so painful that my mom had to bring me to a hospital to be checked. We found out that it's an ear infection due to massive cleaning of the inner core. It took me a good 2 weeks to finally heal and several weeks after I tried to avoid my addiction.

Back in college I've had it again, every time it happens I always get scolded by the doctor that I must not clean the inside core, and never on a daily basis. I guess I'm not over the addiction because until now, I think on a yearly basis, it still hurts. Now, I'm beginning to hate cotton buds and I'm planning to throw them all away.

When it hurts I love to pound my head on the wall just to ease the pain, sometimes I can't sleep because of it. I'm just thankful my right ear is still okay. And one more thing, the liquid that I pour on my ear, it's even painful than the pain caused by the infection.

So, I'm hoping to get rid of this infection soon, before it's too late...

Why BF?

This is more of a politically inclined post, as we all know election is just around the corner and is coming pretty fast and many have shown interest in running for the highest position, as the presidential seat is up for grabs (hopefully before CON-ASS succeeds).

I've never been so interested with politics, probably because I give no damn with speeches that has zero action, because I do know everyone in the government is corrupt, because I've heard and experienced a lot to support my non-government connection goal.

Though I was forced to vote like 5 years ago, it didn't really sink in that it was a responsibility, it was more of a right. You're given the right to vote and the right to choose not to. However, as I probably have mentioned before to some of my friends, if ever BF (Bayani Fernando) would run for the president's seat then I'll probably give him a chance.

So, my friends would ask, why him? Is is because of the pink fences (I'm so in love with pink btw)? Some would say he's corrupt too, then I'd ask, who's not?

I mean, everyone in the government is corrupt, they just vary in the complexity of their corruption. I've heard numerous scandalous transactions regarding the government and their mini projects. Would turn out that they're spending millions just to put up a 4-storey building for a public school, where in reality, it just worth hundred thousands.

So, going back to the BF thing, him being a GMA follower doesn't change my ideas of him, that's his perception. Okay, he's trying to change the world, that's what I see in him. He probably saw a chance for Filipinos to change, things that I could not see anymore, probably trying to bring back the discipline we lost since we ousted Ex-President Marcos (I'm not Pro-Marcos, I'm just pointing out that somehow that Martial Law brought the disciplined Filipinos and went astray with Ex-President Aquino's regime).

It's not just about the pink fences, the foot bridge (which I think is a really good idea, especially in Edsa, I've seen a huge change since I started commuting from Valenzuela to Pasig in 2002), the MMDAs (though there are still good for nothing MMDAs) and clearing operation in bangketas' (supposedly for pedestrians but they turned out to be a selling venue for unregistered vendors before Bayani came).

He's trying to change the world by simply not going with the flow, no one has ever done things he did, nobody tried because they're afraid of what people would say, in return, people won't vote. know he's not gonna win, I don't think people in the squatters area would give a single vote for him because they don't understand that he's doing his job and they should do theirs so they don't have to squat. I know people in the province wouldn't know what he's trying to do in the Metro but they're still capable of voting, but then again, if ever I'll vote this coming election I wouldn't waste my time, money for transporation and my one single vote to someone I think is not worth my 6 years of waiting for some action (hate speeches).

So there, BF may not seem the superhero type, he's probably using us as labrats for all the rules and regulations he wants to implement, but I would love it that way than these good for nothing politicians leaving us dying and waiting after getting the presidential seat.

Go BF! You're my BF!

I hate Digitel (Digit-Hell)

We had our early dinner last night, since my brother-in-law was not here we opted to just eat out to the nearest Karinderia. After a massive dinner of my favorite chicken-barbeque we headed home, I just spent a few minutes preparing my dogs' dinner and took a bath to ready myself for the night's work.

As soon as I reach my computer, voila, my PC has no connection. Thinking that it was my fault because I didn't turn off my PC for over 24 hours, I did the necessary troubleshooting, uninstalling unnecessary games (online), connecting and disconnecting cables, and still no internet waaaaaahhhh... I was trying to get hold of Digitel's hotline (they don't have direct line to tech support) however I can't connect. So, while waiting for Jeff (he's playing NBA on his PC) to call them I just read a magazine and watched some TV shows.

After sometime, Jeff was able to get hold of an Agent, his name is Mike Dela Cruz, who said that there's a network problem and it will be corrected before midnight. Since it was just around 8:30 PM we decided to spend quality time through playing Monopoly.

Around 11:30PM before heading to bed, we decided to call back to check the exact status of the problem. Alas, we still cannot get online and the worse, this Agent, Yvan Dionisio expected that we will troubleshoot with him. I took the phone from Jeff and confronted that no good agent and demanded a supervisor, he mentioned that all supervisors are engaged in a call and that he cannot do any transfers to a supervisor. All lies Yvan, all lies, I've been calling Digitel since it was installed and there's no instance that I was deprived of a supervisor. Until finally, he probably realized that I'm not gonna quit soon, he then said that he'll transfer me to a supervisor.

I spoke with Kat Arquero, who, for 3 hours, I thought was the supervisor. All she said and kept saying during the conversation was, there was a network problem from 8 PM and was restored at 9:45 PM, incidentally, they have a "system enhancement" that started from 11 PM till 7:30 AM, which is 30 minutes after her shift, how convenient for her. And come 7:30 AM, that's the only time they'll get our details from their "system" and that's the time they'll help us. Also, this supposed supervisor I was speaking to is not at all a sup, she's just an OIC, a good for nothing OIC.

If I would've been my old self I would stay with her on the phone until 7:30 AM, because she sarcastically mentioned "Sige po, mag-antay po tayo sa phone till 7:30 AM". But the bed is slowly calling me because of a restless day so I just gave in. I did try sleeping soundly, but I can't help but think, what if the connection's still bad tomorrow, what will happen to my projects?

So, came 6:30 AM, Jeff again called Digit-Hell and voila, he spoke with Kat (biatch), who, again, is the OIC till I guess 8AM and to no avail. Sometime at 8 AM I decided to take matters into my own hands. I'll not take these things quietly, I gave them war. I got hold of Pam, I reiterated what I wanted, I want to know when are they gonna restore my connection. She didn't know a thing so I had her transfer the call to her sup, which I forgot the name.

What's irritating about this sup-gay is each and everytime he'll place me on hold he would always give me the run around, he love to use the word "Coordinate". Around 10AM, two hours after I got hold of him, and after a gazillion coordination, I asked him, what kind of coordination are you doing? Are you sending email, are you calling them? What exactly are we waiting for? These are the things I'd like to be informed of. I don't need to know that you're coordinating, I want to know the details.

Imagine yourself being in my situation, missing nearly 24 hours of supposed working hours, and after nearly 5 hours of being on hold, they'll tell you that they can't do anything until tomorrow morning, which in my calculation would be a day and a half without a connection. I honestly couldn't live that long, I mean this is our only bread and butter, this is the reason why we can pay the bills, without it, I'm not sure if I can settle with SmartBro again.

So, after staying 7 hours on the phone and doing nothing, somebody came to check the connection, imagine that, I had to turn myself into a monster just so they can fix this problem. If I didn't do it, probably, it would've taken days to get this thing fixed. Also, just a comment, they call this guy a technician, who is even at a loss. I don't about you, but techs are supposed to know their craft but this guy, I doubt.

So, that's my story, that's how inefficient and unreliable Digit-Hell is, that's also how incompetent their technical department and their hotline is. Having a system enhancement for 8 and a half hours is unacceptable, scheduling it right after a supposed Network Outage is never acceptable in my book. That's how rotten their system is and any enhancement's not gonna change it.

Susan Boyle's Final Performance (Runner Up)

I just found out last night from the news that Susan Boyle lost in the Britain's Got Talent competition. It's sad but it's heart warming that whatever happened to her, whatever fame has made to her to be, she's still the sweet and charming Susan Boyle we've come to know.

Here is the video of her final performance.

Life After Call Center

It's been a roller coaster ride for years now.

My life had been nowhere in the call center industry, I initially thought I'd make it big, but I didn't. Many did say that I'm good at what I do, I personally believe that, but when I start taking my chances in moving to another position, I'd lose it, they'd say that I'm not good enough or I'm not ready to be promoted. When these depressive moments strike I'd usually give up, moving on to a new center is my next option, which in my opinion had never resolved my issues. It's been a vicious cycle, striving to be promoted, failing and falling apart, move on again to another center.

Until, I made a choice of working from home and chilling from home, I first thought I wouldn't make it, I'll get bored doing the things I never thought I'd do, but I was wrong, this online industry saved me from my call center addiction. True to my cyber friends' words, working from home does make a difference, financially and emotionally. It's draining because you have to keep up above the rest who does the same, you have to upgrade your skills once in a while but you do all of these while at the comfort of my own home, so why not right?

So, this is my story, from an addicting life in the call center to a fulfilled journey towards happiness in working from home. Indeed, there are choices outside the industry I used to love, there is life after call center.