Google Talk and Broken Computers

I feel so weak and lifeless today... I have no idea why. I'm already telling myself I can't stay like this.. I have tons to do this week.

One of my college friends sent me an invite to Google Talk. I wonder what that's all about? But I'll check it out some other time. I think it requires some downloads to be done. And anyway I can't install it here on my office PC.

Speaking of PCs we're having problems with our PC at home. At first my brothers thought it was because of the power supply. But we replaced it yesterday with a new one and it's still not working. Now they think it might be the mother board... If it is, it would mean shelling out big bucks to get a new replacement. And I don't think it's in any of our budgets right now. We might have to do with a busted PC a little while longer... although I think I'm the one who needs it the most.

Nyahahaha....!

...Gyahahaha!...

I am dead... I am SOOOO dead...
I've been slacking off and neglecting my work awfully for the past weeks.
And now it looks that things are finally poised to slam me in the face and bury me six feet under...

Hoooh boy... Next week is gonna be "FUN"..
^^;

Humor me... I want to tell you what I ate today

Today I had:

• a piece of chocolate candy


• 2 pieces of Rafaello (the coconut-themed variety of Ferrero)


• a small pack of Clover chips (barbecue flavor)


• a small pack of chocolate pretzels


• siopao


• 1 can of Coke


• half a cup of rice


• a leg of chicken adobo


• 1 banana

Hmm.. Not the healthiest diet I would say. No wonder I'm still feeling hungry...

I think maybe I changed too much... or maybe not enough.

Looking into Getting a Credit Card

I'm thinking about maybe finally applying again for a credit card. I'm seeing all these online shopping sites with cool stuff in them and I start to think that if I don't get a card it would really suck if something I really wanted popped up. And of course it's high time I build up a proper credit history.

I'm not very scared of overspending and not being able to pay off my bills. I'm more worried about having to pay the monthly membership fees without getting anything out of my card. I'm a chronic non-shopaholic. I almost never impulse buy and there are so few things that really interest me enough to buy them. Plus there's the fact that I'm annoyingly lazy so walking aimlessly around malls usually doesn't hold much attraction for me.

First time I applied for a credit card, though, I got denied. Pffft! Citibank! Don't they know I'm a good payer? Better than the others they awarded credit cards to IMHO!

Lol... I'm a big fat sourgrape! Oh well, maybe I'll start looking into other credit card companies. Anyone care to suggest anything?=)

Letter from Korea

When I went to Japan a few years back to attend some meetings for a project, I became friends with a Korean engineer who was also attending the meetings. He was very nice and friendly, and we often conversed even though he found it difficult to talk in English. He even took me and a friend out to a very nice, traditional Japanese dinner and we talked about all sorts of things about his country and mine.

When I came back to the Philippines we still wrote each other through e-mail. But being the terrible e-mail correspondent that I am, sometimes there'd be months in between our letters ^^;

Last week I decided to write him again and I'm really glad he hasn't forgotten me. He even sent a picture of himself from a vacation with his family on Jeju Island.

It really feels great to reconnect with old friends, especially with ones you don't get to see all the time. I know it was my fault for not being able to keep in touch regularly... and so I'm doubly glad for this chance to say "How have you been?" to him once again =)

Worry, Departures and Good Food... in that Order =)

Lately I've again been hearing comments that I'm losing weight. And incidentally it's always been when I'm wearing this particular white blouse and black pants combination. So it's either these clothes have the amazing power to make me look thin, or the worry and depression I've been having lately are really starting to show...

Paige sent a message to her friends today. She's scheduled to fly to the US this coming Tuesday, the 30th of August. I'm happy for her. Although this is a new and uncharted path she has to tread, the experience I know will really give a boost to her career and enrich her as a person, not to mention the positive effect it will have on her pocket =)

Last night I had dinner with two close friends. Although all of us weren't in the best of moods, we still had some fun fooling around. And the fetuccine carbonara was yummy, too! =) Now I wonder how I could be getting thin with all the good food I've had lately...

Losing Rhythm

Last night I woke up in a deserted living room to the sound of my cellphone ringing. Apparently I had drifted to sleep while watching “Attic Cat” and I was still there snuggled in the same sofa chair at 12midinight. Looked like my body wanted to make up for my lack of sleep Sunday evening because of a 7-hour chat session with my psychiatrist ^^;

So I answered my phone and had another garbled and groggy conversation with my friend. At least this time I didn’t answer in grunts and yawns, like I did last week with the same friend on the phone. Thankfully I was more awake and conscious last night so we were able to have even some small semblance of human communication.

Tonight I’m planning on doing overtime work for my logic narrative. It’s only just starting to shape up and I have to come up with some sort of draft by Friday. Unfortunately, work hasn’t exactly been inspiring lately, so everything’s been slow going. And add to that the other gazillion things that need thinking on and doing and have been piling up because of my ever-worsening lazy sickness the past weeks. I’m really starting to feel pretty useless… pffft..

The steady rhythm of my life has been missing for quite a while now… and I think I should find it again soon… I’m starting to miss it.

This morning not good...

I am soooo feeling weird this morning... I wish I could just slump on my desk and stay immobile for the rest of the day. It feels like there's something going to happen... and I don't know if it's anything good.

Oh.. yeah.. bowling last night was fun, even though I *did* manage to score the lowest. Dinner was fine and my solo trip to Power Books afterwards felt long overdue.

~Sigh~ I... need... energy...

Delinquent Shopping

Up to now I can’t seem to make heads nor tails of this logic narrative that I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve been staring at this sample from a previous project since yesterday and I still can’t figure out how to start. Maybe I should have just taken the day off like one of my officemates said. Looks like I won’t be doing anything productive in the office today anyway. The only consolation I have is that I’m getting paid to be unproductive, so yeah I guess that beats being unproductive in the dorm.

Timed into the office at 11:40am today. The water pump at the dorm broke down so we couldn’t take a bath this morning. For a change, I didn’t fume about being late again, even considering that this will have been my fourth and so I should be expecting to get *another* memo soon. After I got tired of sleeping mouth open in the living room (please restrain yourselves from laughing when you imagine that), I decided to load and watch episode 10 of Beautiful Days while waiting for the water supply to return. It did around 30 minutes later so we were finally able to take our baths and get ready for the office.

My dormmates and I, seeing it was almost lunchtime anyway, decided to grab a bite to eat at Jollibee before going on to Southmall to do some delinquent shopping. I call it delinquent because we were obviously supposed to be at the office working.

Anyway, so the three of us twenty-something delinquents decided we could skip work for another hour or so and go to the department store to look for a concert outfit for our dormmate (also one of the delinquents ^^). I’m not a shopper myself but it was fun when we all tried on the same outfit just for kicks. Flimsy and airy is what I’d call it… We’d likely catch pneumonia if we wore it outside… but it *was* cute =)

After a while, my dormmate finally settled on something (actually I think she was forced to hehehe) and decided to go with that. Tomorrow night is gonna be fun!... I can’t wait to see her wear it during her performance tomorrow ^__^

We did a little more minor shopping after the outfit hunt, then reluctantly dragged our heels back to the office. One of us, though, decided to just take the whole day off so we left her at the department store. Now I’m thinking she had the most sense… she’s probably at the dorm right now lying on her back enjoying a movie or two. Oh well, I’ll just look forward to the probability of me having fun when we go to bowling and dinner tonight. At the least it’ll be free =)

iStampede?

I know I want a laptop, too... but this is ridiculous unfair. I should have been there, too ^^.

Deliverables and Outputs

I spent the whole morning trying to make excuses for mistakes I made in a previously submitted output. And oh man... did I wrack my brain to make them sound plausible and valid. This definitely brings to stark relief the concept of "being responsible for your own output". And gives me at least one reason to be thankful for jobs of the same level as line indexing hehehe...

Tomorrow our project team is going out for some food and bowling to celebrate a job well done on one of our deliverables. This morning I was starting to consider somehow ending up not going, but one of the managers managed to corner me and ask me directly if I was showing up or not... well who could think up an excuse in that situation? I had no choice but to confirm my attendance. Oh well, who knows, I might end up having fun after all ~shrug~

Tracking Mails

I'm simply dreadful at keeping and maintaining correspondences. I'm again reminded of that fact as I was sifting through my e-mails this afternoon.

I suddenly feel guilty for still not being able to reply to mails from friends sent ages ago. This is one of the disadvantages of keeping too many mail accounts. It becomes cumbersome logging in to each one and then sorting through the inbox. Tendency is to keep putting it off, until eventually the e-mail backlog becomes unmanageable and it becomes more difficult to draft and send out replies.

I really should make a habit of checking each of my accounts at least once a week. And make it a policy to immediately reply to mails received. Easier said than done, though.

I apologize to all the people who may have been waiting eons for replies to their e-mails. I assure you I am not ignoring your messages. It's just that I don't check for new mail regularly and I have a very bad system of keeping track of each one of my accounts. Gomen ne. ^^;

Geeky Weekend

Last Saturday I was able to try my hand at terminating some UTP cable with an RJ-45 jack. It was a fairly interesting experience and, though it was really just a simple task, I felt really accomplished and geeky being able to do something like it. The evil person in me is imagining cutting off all the cable connections to RJ-45 wall jacks in the office and then fixing them up again myself... Lol.. although of course I don't think I'll be able to pull off that plan with my hide intact, as I'm sure the people at the office will skin me alive... hahaha.

And as most of my plans go, I wasn't able to do overtime work today, as I had originally wanted, since I was very busy with other preoccupations. My tired muscles and aching shoulders affirm that I probably made the right decision... but the unfinished line index sitting on my desk would probably attest otherwise. Oh well, I'll worry about it tomorrow, Monday, the dreaded day, the day when the gravitational pull of my bed seems to be at its strongest. ~Sigh~ And to think I can't be late this month anymore... I've used up all 3 LAs allowed for each employee, so that's a problem ^^;

I'm sure I'm forgetting something else I should have done this weekend. But it's late so I won't think about them anymore and just go to sleep.

Stressful Morning

This has been nothing but a loooong morning... and to think I wasn't able to get anything done on my line index. I've had to decide on a big issue made even more difficult because they wanted my answer this morning. I didn't have much chance to discuss and consult with people. But when I think about it I guess it *was* a pretty simple matter to settle, the only thing which could really tip the scales being the amount of risk that came with each choice.

Oh well, the decision's been made so there's nothing really left to do but to deal with the consequences. And before you have to ask, no, this is not about getting a new job.

Here's to Free Booze!

At least three people have invited me on drinking sprees. Although I don’t know how many of them will actually push through, I’m sure to have at least one night of drunken senselessness. I just hope it doesn’t come with a stomach-wrenching, head-splitting hangover. I must keep away from beer.

Shopping for Socks

Slept at 3 in the morning but quite satisfied since I was able to finish two episodes of Beautiful Days. Now that's the best progress I've made on my VCD/DVD backlog for a while.

But now the weather's so bad and I'm suffering from lack of sleep... so the combination is not so good.

Anyway... was thinking of maybe doing some shopping tonight. I've tried putting off buying a new set of socks but it seems I might have to. Wearing my slip-on sandals all the time (because I forgot to launder my socks and now I have no clean ones left) isn't helping my foot, which I kind of semi-twisted some weeks back. It still bothers me sometimes, making me think I should go see a doctor about it. Anyway if ever I do get around to do some shopping tonight it might help make me feel better.

I really hate stormy days +_+

Wonka, Sleep and Me

It's annoying to feel sleepy all the time. I'm sleepy when I don't get enough sleep. I'm sleepy when I had a good night's sleep. Crap! I'm tired of feeling tired... hehehe... I think what this tells me is that I need some exercise. But I'm too lazy to do that. Oh well...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night was fun. And what I learned from it is that Willie Wonka and I have the same sarcastic sense of humor ^^; It was my friend who first commented on it. And after listening to Wonka more, I had to agree... his lines sounded like things that *I* would say... Lol... Now that's amusing.. I just knew I was crazy hehehe.

So cleaning the dorm got bumped off again to today on my schedule. I fell asleep last night and was unable to do it. And I also have to do some minor grocery shopping tonight. I've run out on some important items I need at the dorm.

I'm making negligible progress on my line indexing, which incidentally is the most boringest job ever, and which fact doesn't help me considering that our schedule is a bit tight. Hell anyway even with all my complaining all I can do is trudge along with it anyway... slowly but surely... slooowwlly... surely sloooowwwly....

Crap! I'm a sleepy crazy bored person with Wonka's sense of humor! And I'm gibbering rubbish... I think I should stop now.

O-tsumami

A colleague was asking what those snacks served in JAL flights were called, each bite of a different Japanese flavor, some even wrapped in dried seaweed. I remember they were called o-tsumami, at least that was what was written in hiragana on the packaging. We liked them so much we would sometimes hoard one or two packets in our bags for future munching or even as o-miyage to friends. The flight attendants were none the wiser… lol.

I was curious what the name o-tsumami meant so I took the time to look it up in the Japanese dictionary I have on my PC. Curious, it means simply “snack” in English. So, it’s a generic name for munchies and somehow we’ve ended up translating it as that mixed Japanese snack. There goes one other useless piece of information to tuck somewhere in my brain.

Late Again and the Chocolate Factory

Haha! Got to cross out more than 3/4 of the items on my to-do list. An amazing feat for me therefore I am a happy girl =) Except for the "clean the dormitory" part that is ^^; Well my roommate and I needed to talk about certain things so that got bumped off to today.

And because of that late-night talk, which in actuality lasted until early this morning, both of us were late for work! Ha-ha-ha! Scrambling out of bed at 7:15 in the morning on a workday is the best adrenaline injector ever! But then all that energy dissipated quickly too and has now left me groggy and unable to comprehend the line index I'm doing. =D

Later today a friend and I are going to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Really looking forward to this movie. It appeals to my inner childish crazy person... and then of course there's Johnny Depp ^_^

I must remember to withdraw some money, though. I'm a total bird brain when it comes to keeping track of how much is in my wallet. I've only got.. uh... like 25 cents in there right now I think and I've even had to borrow jeepney fare from my roommate this morning. Hahaha.. real pathetic I know.

Real sleepy... real sleepy... the surface of my desk looks so comfortable right now...

A Trip to Fully Booked

A whopping 9.6 kbps... crappy excuse for an Internet connection! [sarcasm]It just blows my mind away sometimes.[end sarcasm]

Anyway, frustrations on internet connectivity aside, last night I was at the Power Plant mall with a friend and found out that the Fully Booked store had been moved to the third level. It seems they've opted for a smaller store floor area, maybe because the stall rent was becoming prohibitive. When we went there there were still boxes and boxes of books stacked beside the shelves, still waiting to be organized and sorted. Despite the still malfunctioning airconditioning, however, it felt nice to be in a place with rows and rows of books, the shelves filled to overflowing. Even the boxes scattered all over the shop gave the place a more comfortable, "bookworm-homey" feeling ^^

Came across several Richard Feynman books. Although wasn't able to browse through them much... they looked interesting and I think deserve a second look, if I ever remember to. My friend bought "Hyperion". Quite a thick book. I don't know if I'll be able to borrow THAT...lol.

~Sigh~ Better get back to my real work stuff. It'll be Monday again in 5 hours ~_~

Something tells me it's time to push the panic button...

Ack!... my deadline for the cause and effect chart I'm working on just got moved to a week earlier... like TODAY!!! Actually there's still Saturday and Sunday to spare, but I ain't planning to go to the office on a weekend, so I'm stuck having to finish it today.

To top it all off I have to conduct a discussion on my analysis of the control system I gleaned from working on these charts at a meeting later this afternoon... made more difficult by the fact that I haven't been able to glean *anything* significant and worth discussing so far...!!

So now I'm cramming trying to understand the whole (or at least part) of this control system. I'll just cross my fingers and hope I don't say anything stupid that will leave my teammates' mouths hanging open astounded by my utter lack of process engineering sense, or closed tight shut trying hard to keep themselves from laughing, whichever the case may be. ~Sigh~ Ganbatte ne!

And I still have to get my clothes from the laundromat... and cram some reading tonight... and... and...

Okay, okay... I'm taking deep breaths now...

Remembering Friends

A silver necklace forgotten in my office desk drawer… I found it today while looking for my missing eraser.

A Christmas present from my friends… a long time ago. And now I suddenly miss them, and remember the awfully hilarious times we spent together. Funny how time can pull people apart.

…So now I have a silver necklace hanging around my neck… and almost-forgotten memories playing around in my head.

Ohayooooo

This morning was pretty productive. I was able to deliver my dirty clothes to the laundromat before going to the office. I was even in a good enough mood to decide to walk from there to the office. Good exercise I was thinking =)

And my work morning was also spent not chatting on e-mail as I usually do (hehehe... so sue me.. ^^), I was able to finish a decent amount of work, although I still wasn't able to achieve my target.

Lunchtime spent on downloading some stuff that need to be read by Friday, checking on my webmail inboxes and, of course, updating this blog =)

I really hope the rest of my day continues like this. Amazingly this is one of the days I'm in a really good and energetic mood. Seven hours of sleep really does its wonders ^__^

Life to the Fullest

It's amazing how some people can seem to squeeze so many things into their day, making you feel that no minute is ever wasted. I think that these people consciously strive to live by the code of living life to the fullest... not wanting to look back on their lives and finding out that they've wasted so much and failed to experience everything the world has to offer them.

I often envy these people. They seem to be possessed of so much energy, spirit and determination that their enthusiasm for life never seems to flag. They meet new people, are not so hesitant to try new things, get involved in all sorts of activities it makes my head spin just thinking about all the things they have to keep track of.

And usually these people have well thought-out goals, have clear images of who they are and thus are guided on the roles they are meant to fill and the directions their lives are meant to take.

I really wish I could say the same of myself. But all I can do right now is admire and try to emulate them... nd hope that I'm living MY life to the fullest that I can.

Nonsense on Company Time

Last night I inadvertently fell asleep AGAIN. It’s been happening for several consecutive days now, me just dozing off without realizing it. Must have been because Sunday night (or, I guess, Monday morning) I slept at 3 in the morning doing some miscellaneous stuff. I swear my scheduler is fast becoming a useless piece of stationery in my bag the way I keep procrastinating on my to-do items anyway ^^;

Today I have several items I have listed down in my scheduler again, and I sure as hell hope I get even ¾ of them done. I’ll just be crossing my fingers on that…

Nothing even remotely amusing happening today yet… and I think this is God’s way of telling me to get down and grind away on that cause and effect chart I need to finish before the end of this week. Well okay… I have no choice anyway.

But I’m really hungry right now… wish I could stare down the clock to chime 11am in the next minute… my stomach is already growling for lunch! @_@