On The Verge Of Happiness

Bye, bye, Blogspot

2008-05-08T10:46:00.001+08:00

Now blogging at http://imoxyz.livejournal.com.

I want to be able to lock entries if needed.

Gobbledygook

2007-10-19T14:15:00.000+08:00

We are going to be supporting the customer service for a certain game in Spain (I won't say the game name because it isn't in full effect yet, maybe, so confidentiality issues and all that).

Consequently, my company has hired 15 Spanish-speaking agents. Interestingly, some of them are not very fluent in English or Filipino.

So they all sit around gabbling to each other in rapid-fire Spanish, with the slurring and words tumbling over each other that you hear from people speaking in their native tongue.

Ugh.

I'm not even sure whether to say, "Excuse me," when I squeeze past them in the aisle, or perhaps some bastardized version of that in Spanish.

Pardonez-moi, as my friend used to say. Oh, wait, that's pidgin French.

Puppies

My landlady's annoying yap-at-five-AM-daily dogs have had puppies.

They're actually not pretty puppies, since you can tell they're going to be ugly long-snouted nondescript mongrels like their parents when they grow up.

But right now, they're round-bellied and waddle around sniffing at my toes, wagging their stubby tails. Pretty cute.

Pity they can't stay that way.

Old Internet Problems

2007-10-16T13:03:00.000+08:00

Office memo:

This is to inform everyone that we are experiencing slow internet connection here, specifically web browsing like reaching yahoo.com, google.com and other international websites. I already informed our Internet Provider since last night and I am still checking if there were changes done on their end. From our network side, there were no changes done on our routers. The problem lies on our International Gateway routing on PLDT side. I’ve made several testing and I forwarded it already to PLDT and I’m waiting for their reports. I will do necessary follow up and coordination in order to solve this issue as soon as possible.

With this problem, our international players are affected. They will experience slow request connecting to our servers and most of the time they will receive connection timed out. However the local players won’t be affected. Smooth game time will be observed as they are connected to our local peering.

Right now our office internet seems to have finally gotten back to normal, after three days of sluggish speed (like 10 times slower than dial-up, seriously) and intermittent disconnections.

There is nothing worse than having terrible/ no internet, really. I mean, what else is there to do when you can't work? Play solitaire?

Incidentally, our system administrator head (some guy from the States) trotted himself over to PLDT (our ISP) to actually help them resolve the problem. I wonder what the PLDT people thought of that.

Resume

Yahoo decided to disable my account where I'd stored my resumes and portfolio, and of course I was stupid enough to just keep copies in that one account.

So I'm starting from scratch, trying to churn out a nice resume by tomorrow.

It goes without saying that I'm scrabbling around for all the resume-writing guides I can find online.

Check this out. There are actually words you're supposed to use in your resume! And not just any old words. Power Words.

The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.
- Edith Wharton

Books!

2007-10-11T16:04:00.000+08:00

Looky, looky!

I found this interesting site. (Actually, my friend invited me, but it sounds more enterprising if I pretend I found it myself.) You basically get a virtual bookshelf of your own and add books to it that you like, and you get to look at your friends' bookshelves, too.

And of course, if you click on the books, you'll get to see (and write, if you want) reviews of the books by other members. It looks pretty fun, anyway.

Here's my shelf:

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

* * *

I went crazy and bid on a ton of books in Ebay, at about P50 - P100 each (P50 = 1 USD). Hey, they were cheap! I've bid on too many, of course, but I will have a satisfying reading orgy when they arrive (I think I have, um, 18 books to be delivered).

Outcasts

2007-10-11T14:16:00.000+08:00

I feel sorry for this guy in my guild in WoW.

He's a braggart and something of an ass, and has an annoying voice to boot (although this isn't really his fault, but just adds to his annoyance factor).

Nobody likes him, but he doesn't seem to know.

I've met various people like that. They're always the outcasts that nobody likes--who don't get invited to parties, have no one to study with for tests, who have no one to sit with in class, who don't get any response when they call out for a partner for a project. Etc.

But they keep trying. They don't stop looking publicly for someone to help them out with whatever it is they're trying to do, regardless of the shame of dead silence following.

Does it mean they're oblivious? Or just extraordinarily brave? Or tough and used to it?

I have to admire them, in a way. It takes guts to keep setting yourself up for a fall, on the off chance someone will catch you, one time.

And I suppose, what else can they do? If they were created that way? We can't all have been made to be likeable people. There must be some pissants somewhere.

So I feel pity, dislike, and admiration for this guy, and all the others like him.

And you can't help wondering...what if, you're him and you don't know it? People secretly dislike you and haven't told you? And all those little things that you brushed off really mean something? How would you know?

Rant

2007-10-09T10:05:00.000+08:00

Ok, I just have to get this off my chest.

Will the frigging ebook sellers get the hell off Ebay?

Ebay.ph is pretty sloppy in that it doesn't have a separate category for ebooks and books, so whenever you try to look at books, there are millions of ebooks smack in there, cluttering up the pages. (Plus they raise my hopes when I see a book priced at P20--what was that? Oh, bah, it's an ebook.)

Get real. Nobody is going to buy your ebooks, especially in the Philippines.

Hello? We're one of the foremost countries in piracy, and you actually think people are going to shell out cash for something they can download for free with exactly the same quality?

Now get the hell off Ebay so I can see the real books.

Carpal Tunnel

2007-10-08T12:12:00.000+08:00

I think I have carpal tunnel syndrome, or am about to get it.

Or maybe I'm a hypochondriac, which roughly amounts to the same thing.

So I've been surreptitiously trying to do these little exercises.

They're kind of hard to do inconspicuously, really, due to the volume of nosy people passing back and forth.

But, hey, my wrists are tingling now. That has to mean something.

Crepe Epiphany

2007-10-02T12:06:00.001+08:00

I discovered something earlier.

We have eaten at Crepes 'n Cream several times before. (Yes, the restaurant is exactly as its name sounds like.)

I wondered why, even though the crepe wasn't huge, I'd always be full by the time I had eaten just half of it.

Now I know.

I ordered a corned beef crepe earlier, which the attendant told me was filled with corned beef and Japanese mayonnaise (which, by the way, tasted just like good old local mayonnaise).

While I was eating it, I found it had corned beef and Japanese mayo, and cheese as well. But the big factor was...bread cubes!

Cubes of white bread stuffed here and there inside the crepe. Cheap, unnoticeable, and extremely filling.

So that by the time you finish your crepe, you feel like barfing from being so full.

This was a very interesting concept, to say the least. How ingenious, really, to make it so your customers feel extremely full, and therefore believe they received more than their money's worth.

Curiouser and Curiouser

2007-09-27T13:36:00.000+08:00

Strange things have been going on.

First, a rumor went around, with its tentacles tentatively rooted in truth, that our client was coming to pirate us away from our company.

Then our client decided not to fly overseas to visit us here after all, when our company president went to visit them instead.

Then, instead of the raise we had asked for, and which our supe had obligingly lobbied hard for on our behalf, we received a bonus. A huge one. P50,000. (And no, I'm not treating. Miiiiiiiiine.)

The catch is, we get only P10,000 this month. The rest will be received on December 15.

We discussed this with our supe, and she hinted very strongly that our suspicions were correct. It was, indeed, to keep us here--at least till December--in the event our client tried to pirate us away.

Interestingly, our client has plans for October. But they haven't said what.

Hmmmmm.

* * *

I'm not sure exactly what I think of this yet.

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Books

2007-09-11T16:58:00.000+08:00

This looks extremely interesting, as there are a lot of books I can't get hold of.

I wonder how feasible it will be though, since shipping is expensive.

Bonsai Kittens

2007-09-07T17:39:00.000+08:00

I actually thought it was real, too, when I received the email a long while back.

A Lot Of Entertaining Reading (if you have nothing to do anyway)

The Condensed Version

Cruelty is a part of nature, at least of human nature, but it is the one thing that seems unnatural to us.
- Robinson Jeffers

Food, Food

2007-09-06T13:36:00.001+08:00

Craving fooooood.

1. Aysee's: sisig

There's a little hole-in-the-wall kind of place called Aysee's along Ultra that's pretty famous for their sisig. The place is small and stuffy and doesn't have enough windows, and has no air conditioning; but it's always full because the food is great. The servings come in generous helpings, and are quite affordable (I think it was around P75 or so for a sizzling sisig plate.)

(Go to Google and do a search for Aysee sisig and see all the testimonials.)

2. Yellow Cab : garlic-and-shrimp pizza

3. The Soup Kitchen: clam chowder + brown bread (I love the bread)

Maybe I'll add more when I think of them.

*edit: This forum makes me hungry, too.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.
- George Bernard Shaw

/Eyeroll

2007-09-04T14:51:00.000+08:00

In the ask-the-team-anything section of a professional gaming Counter-strike team website (Russian team, by the way):

Question to: hooch by sabre

Question: hello hooch, you are known as one of the best players in the world, you have an amazing aim and you are amazing in clutch situations but whats the color of your boxershort?

Answer: i like orange and purple ones

I don't even want to know why they wanted to know the colors.

Small Tragedies

2007-09-03T10:07:00.000+08:00

Things happen to me that I would think were interesting, or even funny, if they happened to someone else. I could view them with the same morbid fascination one is overcome by when watching a car accident happen.

For instance, just a few minutes ago I was attempting to open a bag of Milo. It was being stubborn, and after a few fruitless tugs, I braced myself for a mighty effort to tear it open.

Rrrrrrrrrrrip!

Oh, yes, it opened. It literally exploded, and chocolate powder flew everywhere, covering all objects in close proximity, including me.

I like Milo, but this was more intimacy with chocolate than I was ready for.

On the bright side:

1. I wasn't wet in any way, as I might have been if it had been raining. The powder therefore brushed off easily instead of congealing to me in a solid sticky mess.

2. I'm wearing black, so any remaining chocolate granules I might have missed aren't visible anyway.

3. Nobody was around at the time.

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.
- James Thurber

Dirty Old Man

2007-08-31T11:35:00.000+08:00

Some of the sales/ marketing people work near us.

One of them is a girl I'll call Michelle. She's about 25 or so and has a boyfriend who also works here, though in a different department. She's like an assistant supervisor or something to that effect.

They have a boss whom I'll call Mr. X. He's a shortish guy, late thirties to forties, with a gravelly voice. He likes to strut around importantly behind us, talking loudly on his cellphone. Note that his desk is actually on the other side of the area. And that other people who get phone calls have the courtesy to exit and talk outside in the corridor.

He always gives me the impression that he's a dirty old man, even though he's not that old yet.

I hear him, from time to time, making remarks to Michelle that are, at the very least, quite questionable.

"Sexy girl like you...I'm sure the clients will love that, etc."

"You want to ask me out, don't you? You want to ask me out?"

This guy really thinks a lot of himself, I have to say. With--unfortunately--no probable cause.

Just now he strutted up to Michelle with his bag in tow, kissed the side of her head and said, "Gotta go, baby," and went off.

Ewwww.

That guy makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in revulsion.

Michelle seems to pretend to not notice these little 'flirtatious' gestures on the part of Mr. X. Because of course he's her boss, so it's easier, no doubt, than raising a big fuss. But neither does she return them.

Mr. X needs to go take a cold shower and reread the law on sexual harassment in the workplace.

Of Fairness and Impotence

2007-08-30T15:25:00.000+08:00

This is really bothering me.

One of the games we handle is sort of like Counter-Strike, except that you keep your character and level it up and get it gear. We'll call this Game A.

Obviously, there will be people who set up rooms in which they just go one-on-one with a dummy account and just kill it over and over, leveling themselves up very quickly.

This is, in fact, the usual modus operandi for cheating in one of our other games. We'll call it Game B. When you see one-on-one games in Game B with one side always winning, you can be pretty sure there's cheating going on.

A large number of players have recently been banned in Game A because their game logs showed them playing many one-on-one games and winning continuously.

The problem with this is that the GM who banned all these players is well-versed in Game B, but not in Game A.

It's perfectly possible to play, say, 20 games one-on-one in Counter-Strike (or any FPS--first person shooting game) and win every time. By the same token, it's quite possible that these players were playing legitimate games one-on-one, were winning because they were good, and were unfairly banned.

I know all this because I play Game A quite a lot myself.

The problem is I can't tell the GM who banned them that he might have been wrong. He's quite a high-ranking manager and is very competent at his job in Game B. He's been here longer than I have. It's just that he hasn't played Game A much (if at all) so he thinks the same rules that apply for Game B are for Game A as well.

I can be quite stern or even forbidding with players who write to us, especially if I know they've stolen someone's account, and so on, but I'm finding it hard to swallow when I have to tell them they were definitely cheating and were fairly banned--when I know there's a possibility they were not.

I don't care about being nice, but it matters that I be fair.

Sigh.

* * *

When I was on the other side of the screen and just played games, I always thought that innocence would be your shield against anything bad happening. If you don't do anything to break the rules, you can't be punished. Right?

It is frightening, now that I'm behind the scenes and know what is going on, to know how much we actually trust to intuition.

Is this guy really the owner of this account or is he hacking it? Is it true that the other guy keylogged him and that's why they both have the account information? Which one of them is telling the truth?

Should we unban this guy? Will he go on to spread more mischief among other players, or will he behave as he promises?

Is this guy cheating or not? Is he losing on purpose?

In my hands I hold the keys to a million headaches.

* * *

Dust In The Wind never fails to put me in a melancholic mood.

* * *

I have a cavity in my far right tooth (I think it's a molar). It hurts like hell. Boo.

Blinky Light

2007-08-28T12:32:00.000+08:00

I tell my supervisor that there is a light bulb that's been acting like a disco light for the past few days and hurting our eyes. It blinks on and off for a while after you turn on all the lights (one switch for many), and it just dies after a while.

So my supervisor comes towing a maintenance guy with her. They ask me which one and I point. It sits there looking dead and harmless.

"It goes like a disco when you first turn it on," I assure them.

They turn off the lights, then turn them on. The miscreant light bulb stubbornly remains dark and most undisturbing. Definitely not the "disco" I'd described.

Of course it decides to stop misbehaving when I finally get around to reporting it.

On the up side, they are replacing it anyway.

Under The Sea

2007-08-22T11:43:00.000+08:00

I feel boring today. Ugh.

Nooooo energy.

* * *

Friday we were sent home two hours early in anticipation of a huge typhoon about to break.

(It was indeed huge, and I was glad I did go home early and shut myself in.)

Monday we had no work, due to some holiday, and I went home to my real home (as opposed to my rented room) and lolled about and watched Dr. House DVDs.

Tuesday I had bad dysmenorrhea (I hate that) and called in sick.

Today I'm here.

* * *

Company memo:

It is our understanding that there is a undersea fiber cable problem.
PLDT, Globe/Quest/Innove and SkyInternet (ZPDnet) are all effected.
Their failover (alternate route) to the rest of the world is via
AsiaNetCom. The problem is that AsiaNetCom can't handle all the
traffic thus we are experiencing a lot of packet loss and latency as
these providers try to route around the fiber break.

We have no updates as to when the fiber will be repaired.

Apparently quite a few companies are experiencing internet connection issues.

In short, everybody who uses those ISPs are experiencing lag or are being disconnected while happily surfing (or trying to work) because of some broken cable under the sea.

And they don't know when it will be fixed.

Send in the divers, come on.

Whoops

I had been discussing possible ISPs with someone on YM, as he's apparently going to use Smart Bro, and I'd been checking up on ISPs.

I'd linked him to this, and then forgotten to reply.

When I remembered, I brought up his message window and typed in, "Nakita mo yung site na linink ko? Dun ako nawawalan ng gana sa PLDT eh," and added a little frowny face for good measure.

I minimized the window, and it immediately started blinking with a reply. "WHAT???"

I'd accidentally sent my message to one of our counterparts in Korea.

"Whoops," I told him. "That was nothing, sorry."

* * *

Foreigner attempting to greet a Filipino in his native language in one of our online games (international, of course).

Foreigner: Kamasto ka?
Filipino: (slight pause) Mabuta naman. Hahaha!

The Internet is full. Go away.
- Networld/ Interop '95 T-shirt slogan

Rain, Rain, Rain

2007-08-17T09:50:00.000+08:00

It's been pouring endlessly for the past few days. Small spots of sunshine, then the drizzle starts again.

Then it gets really fun when the wind picks up hard enough to carry you along a few feet (I kid you not), and the rain turns into sheets of opaque grayness just hammering shower needles down on you, while the wind turns your umbrella inside out.

And you can't go back and wait in the office because it might very well continue past midnight, and you do have work the next day.

So you slog on (or are blown along) and wait in the rain for a ride, struggle home, and go to work the next day for more of the same.

Nothing but fun.

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
(Gen 7:12 KJV)

Shhh

2007-08-16T13:18:00.000+08:00

We talked with some people today, my colleague and I.

And found out a great many things.

Suffice to say, if our MSN conversations were ever made public, the egg would hit the fan.

We then talked to our client.

We want to continue working for our client, and they want to keep us.

They're holding a meeting right now to decide what to do.

Cross your fingers.

"How do you know that the sky is falling, Chicken Little?" asked Henny Penny.

"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.

- The Sky Is Falling (a Bulrovian fairy tale adapted by Rick Walton)

Salamat

2007-08-13T16:05:00.000+08:00

There are some Germans working in the row behind me at the office.

One time, one of them was trying to get in, but did not have his thumb print registered in the system (we use a finger-scanning thing to open the door and let you in).

He gripped the door handle and said to the guard with a huge smile and an extremely heavy accent, "Salamat."

The guard, puzzled at seeing someone march up and thank him for no reason, eyed him with the same wariness you would extend someone strolling around on the street in pajamas.

The German gripped the door even more firmly and repeated expectantly, "Salamat."

Finally, someone who overheard the exchange told the guard, "Gusto niya yata pumasok, kuya (I think he wants to enter)," and the guard obligingly opened the door, mystery cleared up.

And the German entered, slightly bewildered at the delay, but pleased.

I do believe he thinks salamat means "Open sesame" or some such phrase.

* * *

There's also an American girl working with them.

She says they love working in the Philippines because the working environment is fun. (It probably is, until you see your paycheck.)

In fact, she likes it here so much she has a map of the Philippines tattooed on her back.

I think that's going a little too far, but as long as she's happy...

One arrives, one is a foreigner, a tourist. And there are smiles, people who tighten the hand, it is very pleasant.
- Yannick Noah

Machinima

2007-08-10T10:53:00.000+08:00

A treat!

Put on your headset and watch these short (about 3 or 4 minutes each) little films. Blizzard has been holding some movie-making contests for World of Warcraft, and there's this brilliant guy that's been consistently winning the Action/ Adventure category, along with Best in Show.

Even if you don't play WoW, you'll enjoy them. Really.

Snacky's Journal - Episode 1: Mad About Murlocs

Snacky's Journal - Episode 2: Worried About Weight

Snacky's Journal - Episode 3: Freaked Out Over Fishing

And this one won the music video contest, also held by Blizzard. For this one, it may help if you know a few gaming terms, like the fact that 'noob' means newbie.

The Ballad of the Noob

For this one, listen to the sound track.

/dance

The guy wrote and performed the song himself.

It gets depressing when you see how much other people can do.

Wit is educated insolence.
- Aristotle

Bah

2007-08-09T10:22:00.000+08:00

It's been raining continuously the past few days.

Yesterday was actually a monsoon, according to weather reports.

* * *

Today is going to be a real pisser, I can tell.

Just as I get off the jeepney, it starts drizzling.

And my umbrella is broken.

Later on I go to McDonald's real quick to buy breakfast franks and take them back to the office.

Ten minutes, they tell me.

The ten minutes turns into twenty, and when I finally follow it up, it appears the food preparation staff hadn't taken note of my order when the cashier called it out.

Nothing, nothing pisses me off more than waiting endlessly for nothing.

* * *

Lunch time.

I ordered pork adobo, and got chicken livers.

And I'd already opened it, and the delivery guy had gone before I discovered it.

Just grrr.

Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
- Murphy's Law

Rotten Apples In The Barrel

2007-08-07T11:37:00.000+08:00

So a few months ago a friend and I sent in our applications for a credit card to Metrobank.

Metrobank, they said, was affiliated (or had some sort of relationship anyway) with our company, so we'd be approved with no problem, and did not need to send in any documents.

Our applications, to all extents and purposes, disappeared into the blue without any smoke signals to show they were ever received.

I've just recently learned the reason, by way of the grapevine.

Apparently quite a few employees here at this company have run up horrendous bills on their credit card, and have not paid them. They hide from the phone calls regarding their bills, and go gaily on their way.

So it appears Metrobank is now leery of giving credit cards to any more employees here.

They believe all people who work at the same company must all be tarred with the same brush.

And obviously they didn't feel the need to send us at least a rejection letter, or an explanation. Better to leave everyone waiting forever.

Words fail me.

All good things arrive unto them that wait--and don't die in the meantime.
-Mark Twain

Monday--Boo!

2007-08-06T17:21:00.000+08:00

I hate Mondays.

My colleague (there are only two of us in this particular project) has Sundays and Mondays off, so on Mondays I handle all the work alone. Her load, and mine.

So tiring.

* * *

There are some Danish people working in the row of cubicles behind us. They were brought in for some project. They have interesting accents and speak English with a funny lilt (kind of singing it).

There was just one guy at first, and they slowly increased to four, in addition to some local people working with them. Also an American girl with them.

I wonder how they're finding the Philippines in comparison to Denmark.

I've never spoken to them, really--not sure why.

Interestingly, they tend to stick to the American girl and vice-versa. Even though they're really from different countries and continents, even.

Is it because they're all outsiders in a strange land?

Being a foreigner is not a disease.
- Alden Nowlan

All Sound And Fury

2007-08-03T12:27:00.000+08:00

I wonder why it is that when you catch people with their pants down, figuratively speaking, their first reaction is fury.

We have caught numerous players using hack programs to raise their exp, to fly when no characters are meant to fly, to turn invisible, and so on.

Always, when they are banned, they write belligerent letters expressing outrage and threatening to sue us.

(Yes, I'm sure the International Court would be really interested in the case of a game account banned for hacking.)

The younger kids run to Mommy or Daddy, and whine to them, and the enraged mama bear/ papa bear calls us up.

There was actually a case where a father called the Korean headquarters (overseas call) and demanded evidence. The Korean GMs accordingly gave the proper evidence that his soon had indeed hacked. The son broke down crying.

I find them interesting.

Do they really think they are above the law? But they bring in the law, and threaten us with lawsuits for daring to punish them for breaking the rules.

Or they think they are invincible or incredibly subtle and clever, and no one will ever catch them hacking. But they do obvious things, like fly or summon734,891 creatures, or attack with the speed of light. Did they really expect that to go unnoticed?

I wonder, really, what makes them tick.

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Age of Grief

2007-08-01T15:01:00.000+08:00

Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres, wrote a short novel called The Age of Grief.

It is the story of a man who knows his wife loves another, but he goes on day by day, desperately trying to pretend all is well. Because if he speaks, he will lose her for certain. And he loves her.

I am thirty-five years old, and it seems to me that I have arrived at the age of grief. Others arrive there sooner. Almost no one arrives much later. I don't think it is years themselves, or the disintegration of the body. Most of our bodies are better taken care of and better-looking than ever. What it is, is what we know, now that in spite of ourselves we have stopped to think about it. It is not only that we nkow that love ends, children are stolen, parents die feeling that their lives have been meaningless. It is not only that, by this time, a lot of acquaintances and friends have died and all the others are getting ready to sooner or later. It is more that the barriers between the circumstances of oneself and of the rest of the world have broken down, after all--after all that schooling, all that care. Lord, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. But when you are thirty-three, or thirty-five, the cup must come around, cannot pass from you, and it is the same cup of pain that every mortal drinks from. Dana cried over Mrs. Hilton. My eyes filled during the nightly news. Obviously we were grieving for ourselves, but we were also thinking that if they were feeling what we were feeling, how could they stand it? We were grieving for them, too. I understand that later you come to an age of hope, or at least resignation. I suspect it takes a long time to get there.

And I understand now. I understand.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Beauty And Boldness

2007-07-31T11:34:00.000+08:00

My new love.

Isn't it beautiful?

Quite a few WoW players use it instead of just a keyboard and mouse, and they say that it speeds up their response time and makes things so much more convenient.

Seriously thinking about getting it. But it's such a frivolous expense...

Porn

There was a time when my blog URL was taken over by a porn blog. My friends unsuspectingly visited it and were shocked. ("Oh my God, Imo, what happened to your blog?")

I actually forget what happened--I think I checked on the URL a bit later and found it unused, and got it back.

But for old times' sake, let's have some porn.

1. Man with huge cock

2. Girl with enormous pussy

3. Cute underaged chick with hairy pussy

No, really. Click on them.

Trust me.

See, aren't you glad you did?

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
- John Keats

Dirt Under The Carpet

2007-07-30T10:31:00.000+08:00

The company I work for is dirty.

Really dirty.

If anyone took them to court, they would be crucified if enough people testified.

Unfortunately, we all know how the legal system works here--dragging on for years and years, with bribes slipped by wealthy defendants to the judges, until the plaintiffs run out of money and patience and the defendants are acquitted.

* * *

They decided a few weeks ago that they had to start cost-cutting, so they fired a few people working in a project team I'll call Project X.

Project X, you see, was outsourced to an overseas client. The client paid $15,000 a month for 10 people in Project X to handle their customer support.

This company then abruptly fired 2 people from Project X, creating some lame excuses about how they had been "staying after work" to surf websites. This was quite laughable, seeing as how most of the employees do stay after work to surf a bit or play, and no one cares.

They then tried to manufacture another excuse, saying how there was no room for employees who were "not outstanding" (hindi magaling was the precise wording). I never knew mediocrity was a valid basis for taking away people's livelihoods now.

They told the two to just not bother showing up anymore.

The interesting part is, they continued charging the overseas client for 10 team members, while only 8 were actually here working.

* * *

Fast-forward to the present.

The client for Project X was apparently not happy with this company (although he still has no idea about the '1o' team members). He started making noises about taking his business elsewhere.

This company then has the brilliant idea of holding a meeting for the 8 team members of Project X, and making them sign a piece of paper saying they'd been hired on a contractual basis all along, and that when the project closed, they would all be unemployed.

This was, frankly, illegal, since they'd been hired with the understanding that they would be on the customary probationary status for the first 6 months, after which they would, by law, be made regular employees. Even one of the supervisors admitted to the team members that it was illegal, but that they'd bamboozled the eight into signing in a hurry, so that they would have no time to discuss or think about it.

Tomorrow, they meet to discuss the fate of Project X. Apparently the CEO of this company is thinking about beating the client to it and just closing the project altogether, since he said it's not that profitable anyway.

* * *

That is just one group of people that the company is screwing over. There are so many, many more.

Why do I continue working here?

Why does anyone?

Quite a lot of old veteran employees have been resigning lately, actually.

Me?

I have it planned out. I'm going to stay for at least one more year, so that I can put at least two years of game mastering experience in my resume when I finally migrate overseas. From what I've seen in job openings for this field, two years is the minimum experience they require you to have (for jobs that are actually worth something).

I am, ironically, considered to have one of the most stable jobs here at present, even while heads are rolling under their 'cost-cutting' axe. My colleague and I are outsourced to a nice, successful Korean gaming company as game masters for their international online games. Our client is quite happy with us, so the company wants to keep us.

The others who stay on at this company are, I suppose, like us (my colleague and I). We turn a blind eye and hang on, just hoping to last until the end we have decided on has come.

Because it is so very hard to find a job here if you do not wish to spend your years sleeping during the day, and working at unearthly hours of the night with people screaming into your ears through a headset, while you absorb their rage and frustration and continually try to remember that the customer is always right.

I love my client. I despise this company and their obscene lack of regard for employees who have faithfully served them for so long.

So I stay, and I work for my client, and I hope to last another year.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

- Martin Niemöller

Pretending To Be Nice

2007-07-27T17:03:00.000+08:00

We've just finished an event, and I am tired.

* * *

There is a song I like from that admittedly chick-flicky movie, Josie and the Pussycats. The tune is quite catchy, and I am somewhat surprised to find that it has mysteriously disappeared from Radio Blog Club, since I intended to link it for people to listen to.

Oh, well.

It's called "Pretend To Be Nice", and I am strongly reminded of it every time we hold an event for our players.

The problem with using a GM (game master, a.k.a. administrator) account is that you represent the company. So you have to always, always be nice, no matter what.

To be honest, I sometimes feel like a babysitter or perhaps a teacher with a class full of unruly charges, all of whom feel quite free to whine at me about all they don't like about the game, ask for free items, complain about this and that, and so on.

So I make little smiley faces in the chat box, and act terribly nice and attentive, and remember their names, and they feel satisfied that they have been heard by the company.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
- Kurt Vonnegut

Game Master

2007-07-27T09:11:00.001+08:00

Whenever people ask me what work it is I do, I remember Robert Fulghum's similar predicament. He is a minister, but he says he is also a painter, a cleaner, and everything else it is that he does while going through the daily motions of living.

People, he says, ask the what-do-you-do question so they can neatly catalogue you in their minds as to your social standing, and treat you accordingly. A man wearing overalls at a party, for instance, would be seen as perhaps poor and shabbily dressed if he were a plumber by trade; but would be excused as being merely eccentric if he were a doctor, or absent-minded if he were a professor.

* * *

This leads to some difficulties when I tell them I'm a game master.

"A what?"

"Game master."

"Oh, so you play games all day?" This is said with a knowing, sneering kind of look, directed at the lucky bum who plays games all day while other people actually work for a living.

This is where I say, "Yeah, so here's a game for you--I smack you and you shut up."

No, of course I don't. That would be entertaining, no doubt, but I'd have a problem if they started smacking me back.

So I usually give them a synthetic smile, full of teeth, and say, "No," and turn away.

* * *

Yes, of course all these thriving gaming companies pay hordes of people to sit around their offices and play all day. They can't stand it that all these consumers are paying them to play their games, so they have to siphon the money somewhere--so ding! why not pay some worthless bums to play their games?

And the game servers magically keep running, events create themselves and host themselves, technical difficulties are resolved by little elves, stolen/lost accounts and items fly back to their owners of their own accord, old maps and game items and characters procreate to produce new ones, the Tooth Fairy upholds the game policies and addresses customer concerns, the games march around marketing themselves to the public, and hack programs are just taken away and patched by Santa Claus.

Yeah.

Any idiot knows that.

Work, Work

My younger sister started working about three or four months ago.

Sad to say, she earns more money than I do.

Her work consists of dealing with those those long, boring forms you have to fill out whenever you apply for a credit card. (I believe she's called a data encoder--or maybe I made it up and fooled myself into thinking it's actually a term. Whatever.)

She and her fellow encoders type in all that information into their efficient computers, and send them off tidily to the next person in the credit card assembly line.

(Yes, someone actually has to try to read those figures you scratched in, crossed out, rewrote, crossed out, underlined, and inserted. Read, and curse, and rub their eyes, and cry.)

They work at night, like vampires or perhaps a dedicated species of fruit bats, and the accumulated night differential pay + allowance + salary brings her monthly pay to P20,000 after taxes.

Not bad when you consider I get P16,000 before taxes (I won't tell you how much it is after--I might start crying), and my pay is actually considered pretty good in most industries. (As an example, a bottom-level bank clerk might earn around P8,000 as a starting salary, before taxes as well.

I think, though, that I am happy with my work.

Funny when you consider it was initially only a second choice to advertising. I wouldn't go back to advertising now for anything.

World of Warcraft

No, this is not the game I handle in my work, but I play it in my spare time. It is, quite simply, the game to end all games.

And to be honest, the intro movies for the game still blow me away, even though I've watched them about 135,237 times.

Links

I've started visiting my old blogging friends again (using the connect-the-dots method, basically bouncing from site to site through links and URLs that I vaguely remember).

My links list, as you can see, is pretty bare (I actually haven't customized this template much at all, which is a far cry from my overloaded gaudy blog template years back). Don't be offended if you aren't on the links list yet--still feeling my way around.

Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.
- Elbert Hubbard

Of Old Things in Younger Times

2007-07-26T12:48:00.000+08:00

I used to blog a lot back in college. I don't even remember how long it was, but it was more than a year, two years.

I remember going to the college computer lab, queuing up to use a computer for two hours. I remember the warm tautness coiled in my chest as I opened my blog and read the comments of friends and strangers who had taken a few minutes out of their day to read whatever I had written, and respond.

I remember, and I miss the feeling of being heard.

I think, really, that that is all that anyone who writes, asks for. The knowledge that someone has seen your heart's thoughts, and understands--or at least, is not repulsed.

* * *

I haven't put words to paper for about two years, I think. I'm terribly rusty.

All I've done lately is write daily reports, business letters, and so on. Nothing really, that comes from me.

Work does tend to get in life's way.

I went over this blog and converted all published posts to drafts, as I wanted to start over without actually deleting past posts.

It surprised me that some people had actually read one of the posts, and, with the kindness of strangers, commented on it.

It touched me, and rereading that post made me realize, over again, what I hadn't realized lately. So I left that single post up, untouched.

Nom de Plume

I actually had to change my blog's URL, as well as my byline, before. This was when I was interning at an ad agency, and a big cheese (I was never really sure what her position was) came across my blog, read it all, and wanted me to take out the names of the clients mentioned in the blog, for confidentiality purposes.

This was, to me, the height of sneakiness and presumption.

For some reason, I don't mind perfect strangers and dear friends reading through my blog, but it feels funny when passing acquaintances do, uninvited. (Yes, I know it's unreasonable, but I never claimed to be in my right mind.)

Perhaps it is because friends already know your flaws and love you anyway, strangers won't care, but acquaintances will hold forever that first skewed view into you that they were inadvertently given.

So it really, really irritated me that this person would read my private thoughts (which, by the way, only mentioned first names and initials without ever being explicit) and use her authority to order me to censor them.

I think I ended up deleting the post, moving my blog to a new URL, and changing my byline. So there, you spying old fart.

(This reminds me of my friend (before she abandoned her blog) who wrote down impressions of her new professors when we were in college. She said Mr. X was "so-so". The next day Mr. X emailed her saying how he was rather hurt--and sounded offended, in fact--that she considered him "so-so". Apparently he liked to sit around Googling himself, and see what tidbits came up.)

* * *

But now... I honestly don't care anymore.

Using my real name and writing what I think. My blog, after all.

Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.
- Kevin Arnold

Thoughts Again

2006-05-18T14:13:00.000+08:00

At the risk of sounding like one of those painfully mushy posts that used to make me wince, I'm going to post something that has been going through my mind at night lately.

There is nothing more frightening than to know you are truly loved.

It is wonderful, but it is terrifying to know you hold in your clumsy human hands the power to break someone's heart.

By this I am awed.