Well, something really didn't agree with me. When I mentally go over everything I ate during Tuesday shift, it boils down to my usual Non-Fat Chai Tea Latte and my only meal for the day, which was that kung pao chicken pasta at KFC. I'm not saying that all KFC food is bad, but I have to consider (1) it was the first time I had tried one of their pasta bowls and (2) it was early in the morning so who knows how fresh things were and (3) a few hours later I was already feeling unsettled. Needless to say, I'll probably not venture into KFC's other menu items for a while just to make sure - let's stick to just the basic chicken, shall we? =P It's tempting to take a few days off. Were it not of the major conference call today and other stuff tomorrow, I probably would rather opt to do that in order to get enough rest and such, but then I'm not that lucky I guess. One day is more than enough for this sort of thing - from this point on I have to content myself with Diatabs or something. *rustles through bag of meds* I've finally started writing about some of my more unique experiences while I was in the US starting with my review of Wicked in Los Angeles, which I got to see thanks to Auntie Emma. There are many other things to talk about like my trip to LACMA, comparing the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade to Bonifacio High Street, watching Prince Caspian at the El Capitan Theatre and others. I know, it's several months overdue, but then I've been pretty busy at work, so forgive me! Don't even get me started on local events like the White Party, LOL! The joys of blogging backlog! =P I'm sure by now you've all noticed how warm it is these days - what's up with that? Isn't this supposed to be the rainy season? Why does it feel like summer? Why am I forced to have two electric fans directed towards me just to keep somewhat cool? These are the times that I curse my genetics since I get oily really quickly. Despite having the fans blowing my way, I end up feeling icky-sticky after an hour or so at the computer and thus end up taking extra baths just to keep cool and not feel so obsessively uncomfortable. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Well, I'm going to see if I have time to prepare another LA entry before shift. Fat chance of that, but at least I'll select the photos I plan to use. It's either that or go wasting time on YouTube yet again, LOL.
I love it when people chant the thing they want to remember as they walk.
First, allow me to greet my blogosphere friend, Misterhubs on his birthday today! I already greeted him in a more direct manner, but then it never hurts to document it in an entry, hehe. We so have to meet up for coffee or something again! Work was just nuts over the past two days. Were it not for my sense of propriety when it comes to the office, I'd be spilling my guts out about my recent frustrations. Ah well, I know I'm better than that, haha. Still, some of it is really getting to me and it's only fortunate that I'm pretty good at not getting too emotional about such things and letting all this just blow over while I manage to keep my cool and let all this pass. The whole Diablo II thing is getting pretty obsessive. Brian | ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kitchengod| has managed to craft some seriously powerful weapons for his Assassin and he is majorly kicking ass. All I can do in the background with my Amazon is just pepper the hordes with arrows and manage to do some damage in order to share in the experience points. I need to figure out what I need to make her really kick butt, which isn't that easy given she uses a bow. Apparently most of the kick-ass rune words tend to apply to melee weapons more. Bugger. Oh, and I'm staying home today. Just not one of those days, I guess. Now I'm hungry.
There's bound to be a shop for everything...
First, a very Happy Birthday to fellow geek, Alec! It's a shame I'm always too busy to attend any of the major geek events as of late. Oh bugger. Today's work shift hell. On top of the general call center issue that comes with Mondays - lack of sleep due to a change in sleeping patterns, there were just some really weird client issues that kept popping up here and there. If this was any sign of how the rest of the week might go, then I'm not exactly optimistic about our chances of making it to Friday sane, haha. Pardon me - I jest, but you know what I mean, right? Totally random bit - I'm watching a clip of Gumby on YouTube. Don't ask me why - I've no real idea. All I know is that he's trying to go to the moon right now. Brian | kitchengod| and I were supposed to join Chris and Chase today for some market time, but then it's clear that he's not getting up anytime soon. If I stayed up a lot, he still stayed up a bit more, so I suppose that made his day even more draining than mine. I'm not going to force the issue at this point - he needs his rest. Yes, yes, I'll go to sleep soon enough. Lastly, what's all the Muppets on YouTube these days?
Oh yes, there's nothing quite as romantic as shared flatulence. =P
If you've been following my blog long enough, you should know by now that when I don't get to post an update for a day, it normally means one of three things: (1) I'm out of town without access to the internet, (2) I'm with my family back home, which is almost like #1 or (3) I'm have a really good and busy day and I'll try to make up for things eventually. Yes, my weekend was definitely #3. Things started late Saturday night when Brian | kitchengod| woke me up at around 10:00pm and I eventually got out of bed close to 11:00pm. We settled down for more computer time, which eventually means more time playing Diablo II together. It eventually became a major project for the evening to seriously level up our characters and acquire better items - so much so that we pretty much didn't do anything else all evening and made a lot of progress in terms of both of our characters. During the evening, we managed to make reservations to see The Dark Knight come Sunday evening, ordered Goodah to satisfy our hunger in the wee hours of the night and eventually got a call from LBC in the morning to confirm they were delivering my balikbayan box in the afternoon. So in the meantime it meant more playing Diablo II well past sunrise. Oh what fun. So the good news is that we were finally home at the same time they tried to deliver the box, and thus I finally have all my stuff back. My books made it intact and the Wicked glitter globes also seem to be in order, which is great. The bad news is that I made a serious mistake in thinking (1) LBC would handle the box with care and respect which side was up, (2) factor in how easily Lindt Chocolate Truffles melt and (3) how weak their seals are when faced with books, glitter globes and other items getting jostled around in a box. Thus when we opened the box the books that were previously at the bottom were on top (but again, thankfully intact) and everything else had a slightly oily feel due to the chocolate that had burst out of its packaging and managed to get onto most of the other items. The other chocolates apart from the Lindt Truffles and the Milky Way Midnights managed to survive more or less okay and we quickly tossed all of them into the fridge while the Twinkies continued to demonstrate their staying power even if they were slightly smoshed and their boxes ruined. Oh dear. I'm still trying to determine what we can and can no longer give to friends as originally intended given the minor accident that was revealed upon breaking the seals on the box. Sunday night we ran out to catch The Dark Knight and it was just FUCKING AMAZING. In the words of Kung-fu Panda, it was most definitely AWESOME. Words fail me but then I did my best to put together a review for the Geeky Guide. After that 2 hour plus adrenaline rush, we met up with some of the FabPoT folk for a Welcome Home sit down with Chin over multi-colored nachos at NSG and eventually coffee at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. By then I had been up for more than 24 hours and with me not (a) watching one of the most amazing films ever or (2) in front of the computer, I eventually started to doze off and fell asleep sitting up while everyone was talking, laughing and taking silly photos of one another. Ugh, minus 20 points rOckY. Either way, it was a good weekend. Now I want to play a bit more Diablo II before work, LOL!
Wisdom is like nachos... - I just loved this line!
As much as each work week feels longer and more tiring the last, there's always the weekend to look forward to. Oh yes, weeks inevitably end. Thank the stars for that, eh? First, some very good news (at least from my perspective. After much research and a few exchanges on Google Groups, I finally got my new domain working. Yes, that's right, the Geeky Guide finally has a home it can call it's own. If you're one of those who take time to visit my other blog, then kindly update your address books to http://www.geeky-guide.com/. Oh, but if you subscribe to the Geeky Guide via an RSS Reader, then no need to worry, my RSS feed will not change thanks to the wonderful folks at FeedBurner. I've also got the whole thing associated with a Google Apps account, so that gives me the option to provide folks with domain-specific email - anyone interested in getting an email address with "@geeky-guide.com" at the end? LOL This weekend is going to be largely domestic. I've called up LBC again and they'll attempt to deliver my balikbayan box tomorrow, which means at least one of us has to be home at all times to ensure we finally get it. I mean seriously, I really want to see if the chocolates are still okay and of course I wanted to ensure my Wicked merchandise is still intact. It's also just a lot cheaper to stay home right now and with my insurance payment coming up, the finances are pretty tight. It's nothing dire, but then we don't have much wiggle room either, so best to keep expenses at a minimum. The only planned expense is taking the time to see The Dark Knight - of course how can we possibly delay things such that we don't take the time to see this movie before the opening weekend ends? As much as reviews are coming out mixed, I think I'm pretty sure that Brian | kitchengod| and I are bound to enjoy it and find more than one thing to like about the movie - I admit Christian Bale is automatically a reason for me. Can you blame me for that? I was born this way! Hehehe... Yes, I'm in pretty good spirits, huh? This weekend is going to be all about Diablo II, working on the Geeky Guide at its new home, watching movies and DVDs and whatever else comes to mind as we spend most of the weekend at Matilda. I like relaxing times like this.
Yes, that sort of thing needs careful calculation and effort.
Well, well, I don't seem to have anyone on my birthday calendar just yet, so I guess I'm not starting with a greeting. Last night's shift was tiring. Most of my work day centered around a particular client initiative that is going out a lot faster than it should, but then such things are unavoidable. The challenges aren't just on our end in terms of meeting the demands and keeping pace with the changes as they come up but actually more on the client end as they try and figure out how to interpret the needs of the various LOBs in line with this one initiative. It doesn't help with you can't get clear direction from your client and this is compounded further when other folks on the vendor side are scrambling to show that they're getting things done without taking time to think about whether or not what's being asked makes sense. Ugh, stress I just don't need given everything else that we're still juggling. Ah, the work fun never stops. After shift today we finally got Brian's | kitchengod| NBI clearance out of the way. At least for him the renewal process was pretty simple - all it required was making our way to the kiosk set up in the mall to get his records checked and the new clearance form processed. I am not so fortunate given the one time I had to get my NBI clearance, it turns out I fall into those category of folks that generates a potential name match in the system and thus I have to get my clearance from the main office. More than likely the only name match out there is my biological father given I'm a "junior" but that's going to get really old, really fast. Of course we couldn't go straight to that task after shift since the NBI kiosk operated on mall hours, which meant starting at 10:00am. Thus instead we walked from our offices to Greenbelt. We opted to have breakfast at M Cafe - the one attached to the Ayala museum - and I immediately regretted not having my camera with me. It just seemed like a nice, quiet morning and having Shane with me would have been perfect. Given the circumstances. I settled for using my mobile phone to snap a few photos here and there to just take in the morning. It was still too early after breakfast and so we had to walk around a bit. Thankfully SM Supermarket was already open, so we managed to get some grocery shopping done while waiting. You know when inflation and all the price increases are really becoming significant when you seriously start reconsidering how your budgeting money and what you choose to spend on. In this case, we only opted for goods deemed essential from a supermarket perspective, leaving the purchasing of fresh produce and meat for the nearby wet market. We got out just before 10:00am and promptly got in line for the NBI kiosk. Once the mall was officially open, Brian suggested that I kill time at the nearby True Value store while he got this particular errand done. You'd be surprised at how much time you can spend in a home improvement store like that - strange but true, especially for a geek like me. By the time Brian had finished, I was ready to walk out of there with a weird little cleaning kit for eyeglasses, a retractable pet brush, a new extension cord and a non-slip mat for the bathroom. Thankfully Brian's NBI clearance was given back without a hitch and I didn't go too overboard shopping at the home improvement store. The morning ended with more Diablo II - what else, right? This seems to be taking up more and more of our time at home and this may also eat up the bulk of our weekend. That may not be such a bad thing - at least it'll be cheaper. I think we really ought to stay home for most of the weekend, if only to try and catch the LBC folks who are still trying to deliver the box of stuff I shipped during my last week in California. Yes, it takes that long for sea cargo but the main challenge is more because they keep trying to deliver the box when we're not home or asleep. This doesn't mean, however, that I'm going to let this weekend go by without me getting to watch the new Dark Knight movie. Last minute item - just got off the phone with my second LBC agent for the day. They've finally taken the time to note my time constraints given my working schedule and are trying to work out a delivery schedule where I'll actually be home. I hope this finally gets things done - I want my stuff!
Oh yes, I finally relented and added xkcd.com to my Google Reader feeds. They're just too funny!
First, birthday greetings go out to my cousin JR, currently exploring the world of music in a different way. Happy Birthday, JR! Brian | kitchengod| and I just finished watching a DVD copy of Disney's Enchanted, a movie that never fails to make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy. It's one of those ultimate Disney movies - as much as it may be a parody of sorts, it also acts as a tribute and a celebration of everything that makes Disney movies so memorable. It generates odd feelings for me since this particular DVD was something Ron left behind when he left for the US shortly before I left for Los Angeles. I haven't really blogged about it, but apparently not talking anymore and I don't know why. Thus despite my love of musicals, thinking of New York pulls in different directions. Hey, I'll get over it of course - it doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it either. Sometimes you just can't tell how friendships will go, huh? Work is as busy as ever. I feel like I need to take a leave soon. The CCAP conference is next week and I'm pretty sure I'm not going as a representative of the company. Again. So what else is new there, right? For the past two years, I've attended only as a member of my mother's entourage of sorts, since she's been invited as a speaker twice now. I'm not sure if she's talking this year - if she is I definitely wouldn't mind spending the day, I suppose. I think I need the break from the office routine soon. Perhaps a vacation day is in order. People generally don't seem to be in the best of moods as of late - perhaps it's because of the weather or something. Things just aren't going as well as we'd like them to and somehow everyone's moods are beginning to reflect how dark, dank and dreary things are. Of course, there are some pretty challenging situations facing folks here and there but then it's at these times that we need to hold stronger than ever and not give in to the negativity around us. Call me an optimist if you wish, but then I know my head is pretty even keel for the most part. I know how to be practical and I respect logic more than most, but I also understand its limitations and how it cannot answer everything. Logic is often used as a crutch, an excuse to escape the realities we face and use it to justify our expecting the worst and no longer hoping. The world is not logical - it's built out of chaos and that's what really drives things at times. Chaos is not bad per se - it's just a force we can't understand fully nor control, and that lack of control is what bothers us and what makes us treat it thus - as a bad thing. But chaos also bring with it passion and drive, enthusiasm and excitement and dynamic new things. It's a challenge to deal with chaos as it comes into our lives and we just can't force it the way we want to - we need to ride with it and go with the flow of fire. That's the trick, really. It also means expanding your view of the world and learning to accept the path you end up on and how this is precisely where you're meant to be and that you should make the most of it. We waste time and energy complaining about our lot in life - if it's really that bad, then it's time to move on and do something about it, all the while keeping hopeful and banking on better things to come. People expect the worst and hope for the best. I plan for the worst, that is true, but then I believe in hope and I know the best is yet to come. We just have to keep focused and it'll be ours for the taking soon enough. Now that's some modern Disney tripe for you, huh?
I never feel comfy smiling - it always feels so fake.
Of course, birthdays come first because people are important, and today I have some very special greetings. First goes to one of my dearer friends, the incredibly gifted and talent Joseph | squishtoy|, whose photography continues to amaze me and who is just one of the most stellar people that I know. Today is also the birthday of fellow geek, Meann, who helps keep the NWA website up-to-date along with taking the time to include some of the stuff I write for The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything. A very Happy Birthday to both of you! =D I do believe the weather is conspiring against me. I mean, how else can you explain this nearly perfect bed weather we've been having the past few days? No matter how "on-time" I sleep, I can never seem to get up as early as I want to in order to blog more or perhaps get more Diablo II playing in. The bed's ability to provide comfort has been increased tenfold in these conditions and there's something dangerous about how nice it feels to lie down and to remain in an unconscious state. Despite my multiple alarms set up in an hourly cascade with different songs playing at the maximum volume, the end result is the same every time - getting up precisely at around 07:00pm. It gives me enough time for coffee, checking mail and such and perhaps a quick entry like this and then that's it. Oh woe, the best-laid plans are for naught with such weather. Even now I feel the siren's call of the bed, telling me it's okay not to go to work and that everyone deserves a day off. Buggerit millennium hand and shrimp! And work hasn't been 100% - then again, when exactly is that the case? I mean, there's just so much going on and it's not the new initiatives that bother me. Work is always about people and it's the people that can make the days feel longer or shorter, depending on the circumstances. In this case, there are definitely reasons for my days to feel longer given the concerns we're facing as a team and it's always slightly disheartening to learn new things about people and become somewhat disappointed because of these realizations. Just when you think you know someone and are more or less confident in their abilities, something has to come along and wake you up with a hard slap of reality and this leaves you slightly in pain, somewhat numb and forced to change your plans and adapt to the new circumstances accordingly. Carrots are better than sticks, in the motivation / punishment cycle of things and I'm a big believer in trying to figure out what motivates and drives someone as opposed to forcing productivity out of them by using consequences and threats. Then again, I'm not a naive enough manager to believe that I'll never need my stick in managing people. There are punishments and then again there are consequences and that doesn't make them the same thing, exactly. Punishments are somewhat effective, but not necessarily linger and they leave a bad taste in your mouth after implementing them. Consequences are longer term effects and sometimes the more effect punishment is making that person live those consequences fully and remind them that this was their own doing. It's times like this that I feel more Bene Gesserit than ever, and I hope we all come out better for this. I don't like this side of the management game, but of course it has to be done. Ugh, as happy as the birthday portion of this entry is, I'm worried this brief work discussion may have soured things. I just had to get that out. Maybe it's the weather or something. Yeah right, rOckY, blame the weather. Like I really believe that's the reason for all this.
All this from Dogbert hitting Dilbert with some rocks (deliberately)? Woe betide the world!
Ah, there's nothing quite like sense of mixed excitement, contentment, fulfillment and release that you get from a pretty good Diablo II session with your partner. Okay, so maybe that's a pretty limited experience that not everyone may get a chance to have (or even want to have), but it's still a good feeling. Everyone has that one unique activity that they share with their loved ones, that quirky activity that usually they didn't realize they would enjoy doing together and just one day found it to be so. YES - THAT kind of a sense of giddy shared happiness. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm sure there will be other things we'll both enjoy together, but for now this is one of the more interesting ones to come along.
Work was just work today. Nothing amazing extraordinary and nothing really worth discussing - at least not without breaking privacy rules or something like that. Let's just leaves things that, I suppose.
Today I finally resisted the inevitable and bought a domain for the Geeky Guide - I'm keeping it somewhat under wraps until the domain officially goes live within the next 24-72 hours (as far as Blogger is concerned). I'm not going to get into heavy hosting options or anything like that - I bought the domain through Blogger and will continue to use that as my blogging platform. Since I signed up through Google, they automatically activated a Google Apps account for me, which means I now have domain-specific email along with a host of other Google products. All that and I don't even have an official logo for my blog, LOL. Decisions, decisions...
Don't worry, I've not gone over the deep end just yet and I plan on keeping my blogging as a secondary activity still and not something about to take over my life. At least that's the plan, right? As much as I enjoy blogging, I enjoy living life a lot more, haha.
I should probably go to sleep, but I'm trying to wait up in case LBC arrives today with my balikbayan box. It's long overdue, but not because of delays on LBC's end, but more because we're always either asleep or out of the house during the three or more times they attempted to deliver it - at least that's according to the LBC agent I spoke to over the phone. This issue was coupled with our doorbell not working, which I managed to get addressed today when I paid the rent for the month. It's nice to get perks as the oldest tenants in the building such as speedy response time to reported issues and perhaps a free drink when you visit the office to pay your dues.
I will write a Sex is Chocolate post soon, I promise! Hahaha, like any of you care, right?
Well that's certainly a unique happy place. What's yours?
The 2008 Miss Universe Pageant is due to start in a few hours and one can practically feel the entire queer population quiver in anticipation. Sure, not everyone is necessarily into the whole pageant scene in the same way not every gay man loves musicals, but still it's become a stereotype for a reason. I know a number of good friends with Brian | kitchengod| as well waiting for 08:30am to come along and for the pageant-related programming to start. The gay population around the world will diminish in productivity at that time and eyes will be glued to their TV sets. It's a fun occurrence to observe at this point. I just can't seem to really get into it that much - I'm just happy hearing about who won in the end. After some more Diablo II playing and pretty much spending the day waiting for all the photos to upload to Multiply, I finally slept after lunch only to wake up at pretty much 08:00pm, in time to finalize plans of watching Mamma Mia! at Greenbelt. Karen | justkakers| joined us for the evening and we all had a campy evening together. I have to admit that I really liked the movie, although I can see how many people might not immediately appreciate it. It takes a certain fondness for ABBA and just how campy and ludicrous their entire act seemed to be in order to fully enjoy the movie. Knowing the songs helps too since you'll be more genuinely interested and surprised at how they're inserted into the story and where they pop up. Otherwise, it'll seem like a weird musical that rates extremely high on the kitschiness scale, if there were such a thing. Still, what matters at this point is that we really enjoyed the movie and I'm sure other ABBA fans or even Meryl Streep fans are sure to find something to like in the movie as well. I'm seriously thinking of reviving my Sex is Chocolate entries, where I chose to talk about my thoughts on sex and such. I still have a few of you signed up to be able to see the posts when they appear so I wanted to check with everyone (1) if you still want to be on that list of folks who receive the updates and (2) if you aren't on the list and were morbidly curious to see what exactly I plan on writing there. It's just a thing.
I have to admit there are times I feel like this, then I remember that it's just a blog. Life moves on.
As always, greetings come first. Today is the birth of the ever alluring Jon. Happy Birthday! I'm sorry I couldn't think of a better adjective, hehe. It's been a long day and I didn't even have time to post a proper entry for Saturday. I should probably get some sleep, but then I'm just not quite there yet - being online or at the computer in general always seems to be a sure way for me to stay awake and beat any urge to sleep. That doesn't sound very healthy, does it? I don't suppose it is, but that's the general truth of the matter. Friday night was boring as heck. At least I got a decent amount of chores done like tidying up here and there, sorting the laundry bags and tending to the cats. I also made sure to bring the trash out and then spent the rest of the night online, blogging a wee bit, chatting with some friends online and trying a few rounds of Diablo II. After playing multiplayer games again, playing the game alone just isn't as fun. Still, I got some decent experimentation time in while waiting for the night alone to end. I also made an attempt to watch the movie version of Cabaret with Liza Minelli, but I wasn't able to finish it quite yet. It felt a bit too much like A Clockwork Orange and the Bob Fosse-ness of it all was sorta weird this time around. Come Saturday morning it was time for a Dampa session with the wonderful crazy folks that make up FabPoT. It's always quite a trip to go out with the group and while I still can't really ride along with a lot of the jokes or the conversation, but then I'm just happy to be along for the ride, as it were. There were quite a number of us that morning so it became a pseudo-reunion - pretty impressive considering the entire affair had been arranged only the day before, largely through Plurk, of all things. I suppose that particular micro-blogging service is certainly making some headway. I'm still trying to upload all the photos I took right now. The challenge of higher resolution photos is larger file sizes and thus longer upload times as well. I managed to snag some sleep after another Diablo II session with Brian | kitchengod| but barely woke up in time to get dressed for work. I missed the car at the office and had to intercept it further along the "route" at one of the client's hotels. It was a madcap dash of sorts, but I made it. We passed by the Krispy Kreme at Greenhills for some donuts and a Brew Box, and eventually made it way early for our Saturday class for the supervisors. It was a tiring yet fulfilling session and as much as we revealed a lot of opportunities in their coaching skills (and perhaps the lack thereof), we also got a lot done and I think we made some impact on them. Then we a few of the trainers went along to have drinks with our clients, Pat and Rich, and it was a pretty fun and silly session. I mean come on, mix in several buckets of beer, a lot of food and really bad jokes that perhaps only trainers will really come to appreciate and that's pretty much how the morning went. I hate going home with a beer buzz when the sun's high up in the sky, but what else can you do, right? I crashed for more Diablo II time and had to endure a brief internet outage. Bugger. Were it not for that, the photos would have been uploaded by now. Tonight we're making plans to watch Mamma Mia! and perhaps to have a few drinks with more FabPoT friends. Let's see how the evening unfolds - I feel like playing more Diablo II while waiting for the photos to upload, hehe.
As tired as I am, this statement is definitely true. And I'm happy about it.
Well, like I mentioned previously, I'm home tonight in lieu of my special shift tomorrow. The client has a session with the supervisors tomorrow and we expect it to last about 4-5 hours, so if I'm lucky I'll be done with work by around 03:00pm at the most. From there I'm free to go out, although my challenge is going to be how to make any evening plans considering I'll be coming all the way from our QC site. Matilda is all quiet for now apart from the random noises of the neighbors here and there and of course Winamp blasting tunes from Dizzy's built-in Altec Lansing speakers. I'm not quite sure of my exact itinerary for the evening, but of course I have to stay away since I'm periodically checking my work email for updates and I also don't want to screw up my body clock for tomorrow. Things have started light with me just working on some routine maintenance stuff like changing all my account passwords for the month, a small task that's become way overdue since I should have done this last May and June. I'm trying to choose a new theme for my Multiply account as well, but there's just so much crap floating around out there that it's hard to weed through everything to find an alternative. For now I've settled for a decent-looking Kingdom Hears Sora theme. Apart from that, I only really plan to organize all the clothes that remain in various partially-filled plastic bags from the laundry shop, tidy up a bit more and then settle down to blog and play Diablo II alternately. I've used a trainer program to shift my skills around according to better builds I've researched on the web and the results seem promising. I don't use the program to give myself unrealistic stats or anything - just as a way to undo past skill errors as opposed to starting a new character from scratch. Do I sound like I'm trying to justify this a bit too much? LOL With this extra shift, any real weekend plans end up getting disrupted. I'm determined to ensure we make time to go see Mamma Mia! - what kind of an ABBA fan would I be if I failed that, right? We also need to hit the grocery for non-market supplies like coffee beans and dish washing liquid, but apart from that I'm not quite sure what we'll have time to do. Evenings home alone like this are never really fun. I always end up getting overly bored or getting a bit too desperate to find something to do. I guess that's what you get for living with someone for so long - it doesn't seem to make all that sense to have too much fun alone. Nothing quite beats being able to do things together since it adds a completely new dimension of fun and fulfillment. Oh, and nights alone like this usually leave me too much time too over think things. Go figure.
Oh yeah cat, you show them who's boss! LOL!
Work dominates my time these days, way more than I'm comfortable with. It's just one of those weeks I suppose...or should I say one of those months? Quarters? Damn. All I know for sure is that things are far too busy for comfort and after the longest time, I find myself adjusting my schedule to cope with a Saturday shift. Yes, going to work on a SATURDAY. Buggerit millennium hand and shrimp! At the very least, I won't have to go to work on Friday night as a sort of replacement for that missing day. So obviously that means no going out on Saturday night for me. That's not necessarily a bad thing. =P There are things I want to do this weekend for sure. Beyond even more time spent playing Diablo II with Brian | kitchengod|, of course I want to make time to watch the ABBA-inspired musical movie, Mamma Mia! since (1) I love ABBA's music and (2) I love Meryl Streep. Squee. We also need to make a trip to the grocery to pick up much needed supplies but beyond that, I'm not quite sure what else needs to get done. I mean there's weekly cat maintenance in terms of cleaning up the rumpus room where we have the cats isolated and putting things in order, putting away all the clothes that are still in the plastic bags from the laundry shop and so on and so forth. So it appears all I want to get done is to watch a movie and then get chores done, LOL. What an exciting domesticated life I lead! =D Someone tell the world to stop spinning - can we just stop the ride and let me get off? There are sooo many things we'd all rather be doing, I'm sure. Why is it always so hard to actually get to do them? The world is built funnily that way - all this need for effort and perseverance and even then you still might not immediately get what you want. Sometimes, the hope of the alternative is not enough to get you there, but more often than not were are told to bank on hope and let the rest of it fall into place somehow. Gah - I'm not making sense in this paragraph. I'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get it next time.
I can think of people the world would be better without. =D
Yesterday was tiring. Then again, what else is to be expected, right? I had another class of supervisors to handle for this new initiative and of course that's just a totally different experience compared to just an agent class. Throw in clients still on-site observing and such and that's another level of pressure entirely, to some extent. I guess it's always a good thing to fall back on that at least I have a pretty good personal relationship with them so that makes the job just that much easier. At least. This month seems to be proving to be a very challenging one in terms of work and the new things to think about and worry about never seem to end. In fact, new dimensions of difficulty and challenge seem to be popping up with every passing day. It's like you're at the cafeteria from Heck and as you want to turn away from the queue since your plate is clearly overflowing with gunk and nasty wriggling stuff, the server just keeps piling on more of the noxious stuff. Well, Garfield once said that the good gourmet never shies away from a new taste treat, so I suppose I ought to steel my nerves and just cry, "Bring it on!" I know, that was a weird analogy - blame my training side for that. I come up with the strangest stuff sometimes, I have no idea where it all comes from. Mornings at Matilda, provided we have the time, are Diablo II mornings. We try to invest an hour or two (or more) into leveling our characters, getting further into the game, etc. and of course that's never something that's negative to experience. My Necromancer is focused on summoning skills and I'm pretty proud of how far my character has gotten. While it's always weird from a Diablo-perspective not to be in the thick of things hacking and slashing, but then I have to just accept that it's enough to be on the sidelines directing my skeletal minions and the token golem I have for the heck of things. Brian's Paladin is more and more geared towards assisting my troops and making sure they get additional support in terms of his auras and the like. It certainly helps things along and makes things easier for the undead that I summon to fight through the hordes of Prime Evils, as they are referred to in the game. Ah gaming geekdom with your partner is bliss.
Man, I wonder why Alice has never tried hitting Dogbert.
As always, birthday greetings come first (if any at that). A very Happy Birthday to my online LJ buddy Arvin | benitobeybi|! So are we drinking or what? LOL Next, I need to give special thanks to dingdong96 for helping me download a copy of the 2-disc soundtrack of the amazing Tony Award winning Broadway musical In the Heights! Man, I've been dying to get my virtual hands on this soundtrack ever since Brian | kitchengod| and I watched this year's Tony Awards. Let's face it - Lin-Manuel Miranda is just brilliant for coming up with this diverse and intricately interwoven masterpiece of music. Seriously, I am majorly obsessing about musicals these days for some reason. I guess I just have New York in my mind, huh? Work was not overly tiring, but no less draining. As I tried to focus my day on just getting all the mid-year appraisals / performance reviews done, there were just so many email exchanges flying around and it's next to impossible to just watch all these fires form right before you, as revealed in the shattered glimpses of email trails growing longer and longer and more and more convoluted. As much as such events provide a lot of opportunities to shine, in a way, and of course new challenges to face, I really wish we weren't creating our own messes on this side of the fence. It's a lot more interesting when the issues are just on the client end and we as the vendor partner get to come and save the day gallantly. I still got a fair amount done, at least, but still I know there's even more to deal with later. I have to go to work pretty early again - it's another QC day and I have a class, and thus there's really no escaping things. It means a very long day and a tiring one to boot. Oy vei. If only...
Man, I don't think I can manage that either. Boo unfreezing heart!
First off, greetings. Allow me to send out a very Happy Birthday to my high school classmate, Joey! As these heavy birthday months continue on, more and more I'm just reminded of how infrequently I see my high school friends. Ugh - why is life so demanding? I'm up early today since (1) Brian | kitchengod| has to go to work early and I had set my phone to alarm pretty loudly, (2) I might go to the office early myself and of course, (3) I wanted to get an entry in for the day. This is a somewhat ironic statement given (1) I had been posting a lot of updates to The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything and I still didn't take time for LJ just quite yet. Perhaps I should play the hours and hours spent playing Diablo II again? Or I can cite the two hours I spent watching my downloaded copy of Legally Blonde: The Musical, which was campily fun. It's another work week ahead and like all other drones of the corporate world, I'm not looking forward to it. Man, if only there were a simpler, more enjoyable way to make a living, but then life simply isn't built that way. I suppose things would not be as fulfilling if we didn't have to at least put some effort into it. Still, I could use a ridiculous amount of lottery money right around now, LOL. I'm feeling very musical these days - but I mean this in a Broadway show tunes sense and not so much a generic longing for music and song. I've been downloading movie adaptations of class plays like A Chorus Line, Caberet and Gypsy while also trying to download the soundtracks and albums at the same time. It seems with every song I listen to, every recording of a live stage performance I watch and just every story put to song that I get lost in, I feel more and more that I want to live in New York, catch shows with Brian in the evenings and go to bed with the songs of Broadway in my head. I can't quite explain why I'm feeling this way and why my thoughts are continually drawn to thoughts of the big Apple, but then it's pretty much there and is mostly what I can think about at this point. The thoughts of migration and the logistics and mechanics of such a move are pretty baffling at times and whenever I get it into my head that it's something that I want to try, I see everything that needs to get done and more and more I think it's not all that possible. Then again, I look at the few social network sites that I have like Facebook and see how many of my high school batch mates now call other countries home and I've no idea if this is a permanent thing or it's just in line with expanding their studies and such. Still, why is it everyone else seems to have an easier time crossing the ocean while we're all left back here? Ah well, I'm not making much sense right now - I suppose I should have slept more and of course these are just idle thoughts that really strike you hard upon waking. Still, we can all dream, right?
As much as this is an extreme situation, you have to admit we text way too much.
Okay, so it was the big anniversary and perhaps some of you (more like one or two of you) are wondering what we did for this special day, right? Well, the answers may surprise you given things have been rather atypical. Then again, since when were we ever ones to simply follow convention, right? First off, I made sure I'd get out of work early on time (which means on time) despite my working in QC so that required a fair amount of juggling and maneuvering. I got that managed only to find out that Brian | kitchengod| would be late for a change, so there went that idea. Thus I ended up spending most of the morning alone at Matilda surfing around and eventually watching my downloaded copy of A Chorus Line. On a side note, that movie wasn't very good at all - it's sad how some Broadway-to-film conversions just don't work. Eventually Brian got home just before lunch with food in tow and given my disappointment with A Chorus Line, I felt like being campy and popped in Connie and Carla into the DVD player as we ate. As always it was a somewhat stupid film, but still really fun. It's not meant as a serious film after all but as an odd celebration of the campier side of the queer community. I don't know if this is the kind of movie you should be watching on your anniversary, but I wasn't about to put on the Lake House or anything stupid like that. =P The rest of the day spent with us pretty much playing Diablo II with us only taking some time out to catch the Serena sisters duke it out in a pretty exciting Wimbledon Ladies Final. I mean seriously, did you catch that really long game in the second set? That one just took FOREVER to finish! Let me talk about Diablo II for at least a paragraph. If you've never played the game before, just skip ahead. In terms of Diablo, I've created a Necromancer that I've aptly named Skeletor since I'm trying to get a purely skeleton-summoning Necromancer build to work. It's a pretty tall task, but I think I can manage it if I work at it enough. Don't worry, I'll back it up with Revives. For Brian, he's using a very helpful Paladin, whose auras naturally benefit my little skeleton army. When I checked the archives, it seems in my frustration in the past I opted to delete my other characters that I no longer found useful like my original Assassin. Now all I have left is a pretty decent elemental Druid, a Bowazon and a confused Assassin. Brian has some serious characters left since he was playing a lot of single player games when I had moved on to heavy-duty blogging. Other than ordering a Yellow Cab feast in the evening to help satisfy our hunger, it was a pretty normal day with us just staying home. The morning consisted of even more Diablo II playing, a side trip to the public market for some much-needed grocery shopping then back to Diablo II. It's strange how this somewhat older school game has become an interesting yet geeky social activity for the two of us. Hey, as long as it works, right? Anyone else out there on the version 1.12 patch that wants to join our Diablo games? =D
Oh Pig, you stupid little sweet thing you!
This is a Tri-Blog post that will appear on all three of my blogs Beyond Dinobot Island, The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything and Moonbase 8.
One, two, anniversary, anniversary again, Fünf, Roku, Se7en. Man, I'm going to run out of creative ways to count. Seven is a significant number in many cultures for some reasons. It's considered lucky by many people and it seems to be a good number for samurais, cowboys and effective habits - at least before they needed a new book and an 8th one. They also say there's an itch associated with seven years and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to scratch, right? Seven years. Man. Where do I begin. More than my birthday or any holiday, this day has become amazingly important to me. It's one of those days that I can't forgive myself if I forget it. I mean seriously - when you reach this point, you just can't let this day slide easily. Thus this day truly becomes the way we measure time and how we evaluate the time before. Sure, there's always New Year's Eve for the usual reflection and such, but then for some reason this day has become a far greater measure of our successes and failures in the time before. In thinking of what to say in this entry, which in recent years has become a major undertaking in terms of my writing, I tried going back to the previous years to see what I had said before. In my transition from almost forgetting about this special day to linking my OCD tendencies and my science fiction interests to my love for Brian | kitchengod|, I think I've gone through a lot of complicated ways to say "I love you." Perhaps I should try a different tack. I love you because you make me smile no matter how grumpy I get or how bad my day is. I love you because you make some of the most amazing food I've ever had in my life within the confines of our home. I love just snuggling on the couch with you. I love how you let me get lost in my computer activities even though I know it annoys you when I don't respond. I love you for watching movies with me and liking a lot of the things that I like. I love you for sharing my love of musicals and show tunes. I love you for tolerating Smoke no matter what kind of messes he makes. I love you since I can hug you while you sleep and you won't push me away (unlike what I do sometimes =P). I love you for taking me to new places to see and experience new things I would never have dared on my own. I love you for our quiet times when we just lie in bed reading and simply being together. I love you for playing Diablo II with me. I love you for tolerating my splurge moments when I absolutely need to get a particular book. I love you for telling me to be careful when I forget myself. I love you for waking me up no matter how sleepy I am. I love you in so many ways that it boggles even my OCD mind to list them all. I love you for making me more than the person I used to be. I know I will never be the same person again and I don't regret that one bit. If I had a chance to do things over again, I'd like to have met your earlier (if that was even possible) but then life is what it is and we just roll with that. I love you, Brian, for loving me.
Today is the 4th of July - US Independence Day. In theory I could have taken the night off or at least had an additional rest day anytime this week. However given how things have developed this week, I'm simply incapable of skipping work right now. Ironically, it's because of all the tasks that I'm busy with that I'm feeling pretty tired and that I probably do need some time off. Oh well, duty calls. The client is rolling out a major initiative that is pretty much changing the way they do business and a lot is riding on this. I can understand the pressure the client trainers are under to get this work not just because of the scale but also because of the personal relationship I've established with them. I guess that only works to their advantage as I strive harder for them to make this work and constantly be available to them as a resource. At the same time there's just so much to address on the home front in terms of work like the reviews that I need to finish and other process related activities as well. Man, I'm feeling pretty tired right now. Still, at least it's the last day of the week and that definitely has to be something to look forward to. On a lighter note, Brian | kitchengod| and I have taken to regularly playing Diablo II at home, sort of in anticipation of the eventual release of Diablo III. I started a new character - a Necromancer - toying around with the idea of making one who only raises skeletons. It'll be interesting to try and get the concept to work since it means I won't be able to consider directly damaging opponents but instead I'll just be focusing on improving my skeletons and making sure they can serious kick some demonic butt. Brian has created a Paladin and this really works well in terms of us supporting one another. So far, I'm trying to keep my skeleton army small but beefing them up so the few ones I have are serious contenders. It's fun to be playing games again, more so in multiplayer fashion with Brian in tow. I've always enjoyed the LAN gaming experience ever since the Compuworks days - the time when we owned a computer shop on Katipunan. Those were really fun times and most of my gaming prowess was truly developed there. It also helped that some really good games were released during those years like Red Alert, Diablo II and of course StarCraft. Thus the impending sequels for games like StarCraft and Diablo really get me excited, an emotion partly driven by nostalgia. Tomorrow's our anniversary and we're probably going to stay home because it's a nice idea and also there's the Wimbledon Ladies final. We're probably going to play Diablo II over the weekend as well, haha.
We could start a whole line of What Would Alice Do?
Two more days left in the work week - man I feel tired. I'm considering taking a day off in lieu of the 4th of July holiday, but that's only if I can decently manage with everything going on at the office. Hmmm. As much as yesterday's post was about thinking about how much I enjoy my job and the particular nature of my role, I thought it might be interesting to think beyond that. No, I'm not thinking of resigning or anything, but of course haven't we all considered what we really want to do in the long run? As much as I love training, is this what I really want to do until my dying days? Or is there something else? That's really the question I'm contemplating for the heck of it. If I had the money for it, I would definitely like to get into a business that would allow me to embrace my interests. I'd also like to do something together with Brian | kitchengod| in terms of a long-term business. I don't want something overly tiring or stressful - just something that will help pay for the bills as we move into our happy retirement one day as we finally leave the corporate world - I do see this happening one day. Given our diverse interests, I doubt we'll be able to think of something that perfectly matches what we both like, but there can be some compromises. For one, I'm pretty sure we'll end up with some sort of a cafe or coffee shop. I don't want a full-blown restaurant - something simple and poignant where we can focus on what we like and not deal with volume and large crowds. Coffee has to be involved somehow given how much we both love the stuff thus the cafe idea appeals to me. I was toying with throwing in computers, but then when I think back to handling a computer shop / internet cafe, it just gets so stressful. Plus throw in the presence of food and drinks and that's a lot of potential damage for your machines. I think books seem safe, although it'll hurt me if they don't take good care of our items whether in a library sense or if we just let people read within the store / shop. The key to such a place succeeding lies in two major factors - concept and location. People have to "get" the rationale behind the establishment and of course it needs to be in a place that is accessible to our target market without too much competition. Clearly it's going to be a niche market and that is always hard to start. We can probably partner with other folks to sell their products like cakes and pastries or even use it as photography / art exhibit space for budding creative minds who need a place for their items to be seen. I know, I know, a lot of this sounds like things done before but just let me "think out loud" as it were - it's a fun exercise. So we have the food idea with the possibility of books thrown in and maybe some artsy stuff. It makes it a nice venue for poetry readings, book clubs, scrapping clubs and maybe book launches for modest artists groups. I'd like the place to be small enough for us to be able to close it for a day to celebrate little events like birthdays or anniversaries, but usually on a personal level amongst friends. Hmmm, I'm still toying with the computers idea. Maybe just one or two machines. No gaming for sure. I don't want to venture into alcohol - that creates a tricky crowd to manage and getting liquor licenses is a pain. I don't know if I want to deal with a smoking area, but then again given how many of our friends smoke including Brian as well, I suppose it's not something we can get away from. I'd like good music playing, of course, and I'd use it as an excuse to play show tunes most of the time with some chill-out tunes or dance beats coming along here and there. Oh, and there has to be a really comfy couch. The kind that swallows you up. What do you think? What would you add to this kind of an idea?
Oh man, I sooo get into situations like this!
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