Coolest Designer Cake!

CJ and I were on our way to CCF - we were wandering over at Megamall. While walking, I had to do a double-take on this really cool cake because I thought it was a real, authentic LV bag!



I immediately thought of my friend Trish, and how much she'll love this kind of cake. Would you even cut this one?

<3

Aussie Dollars

My sister has been planning for her trip to Australia since the year started. The day before, she was packing up her stuff, she exchanged her money to Aussie Dollars. It was the first time I saw it and took some pics:



And here's another one:



Wala lang, thought I'd share.

Weekends

I was born and raised in Pampanga. Don't laugh, but I don't know how to speak Kapampangan. My tatay's an artist and the reason why we're in Pampanga is because he worked in a gallery and painted for his employer. Eventually, my parents built their own business by setting up our own gallery.

So our house is connected to the gallery. This means, our parents were stay at home parents because, simply, they run the business from home. Interesting, huh?

Me and my siblings all work here in Manila. So oftentimes, when we're not too busy, we go home to Pampanga and stay there over the weekend. Most of the time, we'd hitch a ride with Wenna.



Always, it felt like we are going on a long road trip, LOL. We would prepare our clothes, and even go to our favorite stop over - Burger King! We'd buy Mocha Joe(s) and Onion Rings. If we haven't eaten yet, we'd throw in a burger. Yum!



I probably just miss home. We didn't go home this weekend because we had to bring Wenna to the NAIA for her 2-week trip to Australia.

Sigh. I miss my bed. And cable {yup, we don't have cable here!}. And home-cooked meals.

Numbness and Pain .. Part 1

I just finished reading Breaking Dawn last weekend and had nothing else to read so, I am currently reading this book by Philip Yancey: "Where is God When it Hurts?". Sounds emotional, eh? Just borrowed it from one of my officemates/dgroup sisters, Kate. It's a bit a heavy read because you have to be really alert and awake when reading this.

Being the nerd that I am, I like how the facts were well investigated/researched. On the first part of the book, it talked about how we should be grateful that we can experience pain. Physically, this is the time when our body's screaming at you and telling you to STOP and take a rest. Or change something about your lifestyle. Like when we feel headaches or when we have sudden stomach pains - this should be a wake up call for you, to have yourself checked and see what's actually wrong with your body.

On this book, he also mentioned that some diseases (that I never knew about until I read this book!), the people inflicted by it, never ever experience or feel any pain. Limbs literally fall off because they don't feel that something's wrong with that part of their body and that it's too late for them to have it fixed. It was striking to know too that some become blind because they cannot feel the water that they use when they wash their faces, that there are times when, the water's too hot and they use it to wash their faces. Since they can't feel anything, they don't see the need to close their eyes while waching their faces with scalding water!

It was horrible learning about this - horrible to learn tha this is what our brothers and sisters experience, the ones inflicted with Leprosy. I have always thought that this disease was never about being numb -- what I knew as that, it was CONTAGIOUS. I'm not sure where I got that - I think it came more from the movies/tv shows that I watched when I was a kid.

What do you think about this:

To be able to feel pain, or to be too numb to feel it?

There are still a lot of good stuff in this book that I'm reading, and most definitely, I'll be sharing it with you.

When I run into some really good stuff, I'll just post it here.

See ya!

<3

Humor Me ... GOOGLE me!

I think it was just a week ago when I learned about some message board where my name was FULLY printed, some person who "flamed" about me. Really, I didn't know how to react, but, at some point, it kinda makes you think that there will always be people who wants to take you down. They don't realize that with that kind of attitude, they will never be successful in any call centers.

Go ahead, look for my name, see how many ungrateful agents we have in our account --

Whine, whine, whine. Complain, complain, complain.

"managing" stress

As I was reading through my emails, I saw one email about assessing your stress level. I went thru the assessment and after reading through the results, I realized, that I really spend a lot of time meeting other people's priorities and expectations. Here's my results:



And just because this is what's expected of us, managers. I remember from another email sent to me that one of the top reasons why people leave the company is because of their direct supervisors/managers.

If you connect both facts -- the boss(es) are the ones who are giving us all these stuff to do and setting up expectations that are really stunting our (career) growth. Hmmm. What do you think?

Comment naman kayo!

Random Thoughts on a Saturday Nite

It's a Saturday....

...and I'm here at work. I got used to going home on Saturday mornings and then sleeping and lazing around all day that I'm longing for it. Not that I can't do that anymore when I go home, hehe. Just that -- there aren't any people here! There's no one to support, plus, I'm almost done with my deliverables. Hmm.

It was, however, a very productive week. I was working almost 10-13 hours here at the office (no OT!), just trying to catch up with my deliverables. I've caught up. And have juggled other stuff at the same time. Sometimes, I think about what I'm doing and think if this is what I really want to do. I like being busy, I guess.

I have been trying to log in to our remote server for almost 2 hours now -- ARGGGGGHHH!!! And to add to that, my system so slow! Hay naku. Lemme get some coffee na nga muna!!

GRRRRR.

adik.

i have been awake since... well, yesterday. i don't remember drinking any coffee. or munching anything with caffeine. nagulat nalang ako, 11:30AM na halos. why am I still awake?

was away from the office for almost a week and i guess after all that katamaran that I did:


1. watched TV literally ALL day;
2. while watching tv all day, i'm lying on our very comfy sofa
3. while watching tv all day, i'm lying on our very comfy sofa, i sometimes fall asleep and so I finally take short naps.


i did that the whole day of Sunday. i even saw the commercial on ABS-CBN that they'll be showing "Kidnap" the documentary about Ces Drilon's kidnapping. It was after TV Patrol and just imagine how late that was. By time they were talking about world news, my eyes were drooping and I was ready to sleep -- AGAIN!

and so that's how i spent my weekend. by Tuesday, i already missed the office and was ready to finish the stuff I needed to do. i guess that's what I needed -- just time off from work and i'm back with a bit of a spring on my step.

hmmm. i even told my manager that i might just stay til the end of the year. i told her, "Ask me again by January." (she was asking if I was still thinking of leaving IBM).

after that, i was on a roll, doing my stuff, finishing a lot of things. PRODUCTIVE. wow. I'm usually just productive at the end of the month, hehe. guess i'm back. i hope this isn't just a phase.

so there. matutulog na ako dahil may pasok pa ako ng 8pm.

Zzzzzz...

postscript: i will definitely ask the girls to watch Mama Mia this weekend!



07/25/2008
6:30AM

Just thought I'd talk about Mama Mia (really quickly!) and rave about it -- I LOVE IT! Bring your mom when you watch it -- if you can't, bring your girlfriends with you. You'll find yourself singing "Thank you for the Music" or "Dancing Queen" or simply be amazed with Merryll Streep as she's so youthful and beautiful! Pierce Brosnan is still as handsome and charming too!

I love the part when Merryl sang: "Winner Takes It All..." -- whew! Mindblowing!

WATCH IT!!