Sorry if I haven't updated for a very long time. It's just that I'm really getting busy at work. Naks! As if I'm really doing something there! Hehe... I just wasn't able to update because I was too lazy to do so. Since my last update, which I think was last Wednesday, I had to get up early (early for me is around 2:00 in the afternoon) because I have (and I still need) to exchange a check for cash. I was finally able to get my salary but unfortunately, its a paycheck. I had to go to the bank and exchange it for cash. It was my day off on Wednesday and Thursday. Our salaries were released on Thursday so I had to go to the office on that day. And during that day, I wasn't able to get up early so I got my check at around 5:00 PM. Of course, the bank was already closed by that time. Without no money and nothing to do, I just hanged at the office where Karl and Kheiy were. Karl was having trouble with the training so he just decided to waive the remaining days of the training. He made a letter addressed to our trainers saying something about sparing him from the waste of time or pain and anguish or something as dramatic as that, and instead, just give him a failing mark and he'll take his chances. Our trainers took it as a resignation letter so he had to face the head of Operations, Miss Blue. Miss Blue told him that with what he did, he'd given up his privileges (if there is any.) I don't know yet what will to happen to him, but I sure wish both of them, Karl and Kheiy, would get absorbed in the Billing department. I won't be hearing from them until Monday so I'm really aching to know what will happen next. Anyway, the new batch of trainees have started phase 1. Welcome to our own version of air-conditioned hell.
So, how was your week Neil?
After several days of complete whining, I finally learned to love my job. Is really helping me a lot with my 'spokening dollars' skills. Sometimes, I'd still blurt out something grammatically incorrect, but oftentimes, I manage to say things right. I'm actually capable of answering calls right now. In fact, it has only been 2 days and they actually made me responsible for doing most of the callbacks for the voice mails. Yesterday, I took 26 calls. Today, I did 23, which is really not bad for a neophyte. Although I really had a problem with one of my calls this evening - I was asked to configure a Mac OS. And since we live in a world full of IBM clones, I really had a very hard time answering the questions. I had to escalate it to our Tier 2, Teddy. Aside from that, I think my night went well. Some of the clients were really appreciative so they kind of boosted my self-esteem. One of the clients I had kept on saying "You don't know how much you've done for me, thank you very much!" over and over during the duration of the call. Of course, I was like: "Thank you sir! That is why we are here for." It's just really nice when people appreciate the efforts you exert in helping them. It just makes you want to help people more. Naks! This job is really getting through to me.
Sorry if the tone of this entry seems sluggish - I'm really tired right now.
I was supposed to attend Mede's birthday today. But I wasn't able to file a sick leave. I had no choice but to go to work - they'd give me a 'memo to explain' if I went AWOL today. Also, I forgot to confirm my test for Trend Micro again. Well, what the heck! I'm starting to like it here. Besides, I got more than what I expected from my first salary. Hope it stays that way. Also, there are more girls here. Hehe... CHICKS actually! I've heard that there's a 'girl' drought over at Trend Micro. I think I'm better off here. I've been cooped up in an exclusive school for boys for 16 years! I've got a lot of catching up to do! Liza M once told me: 'you don't know how fun it is to be in a co-educational school! It really makes things different.'
Liza A and I had dinner together at the pantry - Liza A already has a BF, mind you, and believe me, you don't want to mess with her. She was able to threaten, in front of several people, the director of NCC who was harassing her. Only a few women can do that. By the way, Corinne, Liza already knows about your Afghanistan and Somalia (or Japan) plans! Hehe... I think it was Ana Kat that told her. And hey, is Anifa really leaving too?
A lot of things happened during the small time that I wasn't able to update my site. Maybe if I'm in the mood, I'd write them all. For the meantime, you have to settle for this. I really need to get some sleep.
So, how was your week?

Ei, Karl! Daan pala ako dyan bukas. Kuhanin ko na sweldo ko SA WAKAS! Ano na balita? Pagmagpapasa ka ng resignation letter mo, sabay na ko. Para may kasama ako pag kausapin ni Blue. Di nalang ako papakita kay Sir Allan R, hiya ako e. I'll resign as early as I can while my friends are still around. I think Corinne will also resign as soon as she gets her passport. Mag-Jajapan na ata yun. Nyahahahaha... loko lang.



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I've read Ard's blog about the 'Pangako Sayo' teledrama and I didn't understand some of them because I don't really watch the show. But as I was going to work one evening, it was playing on the bus that I was in and I really couldn't stop myself from laughing. In fact as I heard the name 'Electika Powers', I snorted a little too loud. What were the scriptwriters of the show thinking!? I'll bet sometime later, they'll add a new character named Nucleo Powers, or Melchor-Gaspar Baltazar, or perhaps Maximus Aurellius. Wait, they already have that.. nyiknyiknyik... Seriously, anything is possible in that show.

"Huwag Nucleo! Huwag mong saktan si R2d2! Magagalit ang iyong inang si Amor Powers!"
It's my day-off today. Or is that night off?

I was assigned to handle Arishost calls today because the voice support for Arishost were all unable to report to work due to the heavy rain. Arishost is a newly established web host and domain registrar and it only has a few clients as of the moment. My buddy, Teddy is taking his day-off today so no one was there to look over what I was doing. It was a good thing that Sir Allan R assigned me to Arishost instead of ISP or I'll be destroying a lot of PCs with my wrong answers.
I don't want to be in night shift anymore. Most of the customers are calling this time of the day. The phone calls just keeps on coming in if you're voice support for ISP. But it's a different story when you're on Arishost's voice support. In my opinion, most of the Arishost clients are programmers and I have a theory that most programmers are nocturnal people. So I believe most of them call us late at night (or late in the afternoon here.)
Please don't ring Mr. Callmaster IV, Mr. PBX sir - I don't want to answer any more calls!
Today is my no-friends day. The only person that is online on my buddy list right now is Rye.

I'm really starting to like this! My job, I mean. Perhaps if I should just stop whining and instead try to make the best out of it, then I'll probably live happily ever after.
Its payday on Thursday! I'll get a month's salary on Thursday - yep, salary for a whole month! That is $50,000 in crisp green bills. Hehe... YOU WISH! Anyway, I haven't asked them if I could get my salary in advanced. It's my day off on Thursday so I won't be able to get my money. And I'm already aching to get ahold of it.
The T1 is down at our office for two hours today. The T1 (Internet connection) is the heart of our company. We use VOIP (Voice Over IP), which is basically a phone line that uses the high speed Internet lines as its medium of communication. every time the T1 is out, we have nothing to do - what is a call center for if it can't take calls, right? From 2:00am to 4:00am, we did nothing but talk. I didn't know anyone from the Tech support except for Teddy so I just went to the Billing section - at least Liza A was there. I didn't know that most of the Billing men already resigned. The only people there was Liza, Monina and Rye. They told me that they need more men in Billing. Mark B, Brian, and James already resigned, Ogie is now at Tech, and Josh doesn't count... I don't really know that Josh guy, but he was the butt of most of their conversations. For most of the two hours that I was there, they were talking about Josh being a fairy (figuratively) and his exploits in the office. Now I get it! Iah once called him Josh-lyn. And since then, we always thought that Josh was a girl.
I was really laughing hard when the three girls where talking about Joseph. Liza said that he's cute and that she wants to... uhm... the term was 'lapirutin' and she told us that he looks like he would bounce whenever he is thrown at a hard place. Monina told Liza: 'Naku, kawawa magiging anak mo!" Hehe... Liza has a weird way of describing 'cute.'
I got to answer 3 calls today! Yehey! I made 1 callback to setup Windows XP and I received two calls regarding dial up numbers and the Filter Only service respectively. I was able help them with their problems since Teddy was feeding me the answers. Hehe... Earlier I talked to Sir Allan R regarding my transfer and he told me that in order to do that, I'll have to be working for 6 months at GTS. Its a good thing that Allan R is very approachable. I sure wish that he's the head of Operations, not Blue.
Kheiy saw a ghost at the pantry! Hehehehe... She told me that she saw two people going to the pantry at her peripheral view (the side of the eye.) What was unusual was that the first one closed the door behind her and the other one just went through the closed door. She just ran to Karl who thought that there's some major catastrophe or something. Its really spooky come to think of it. And to think that I usually go to the pantry alone when I don't want to mingle with the Tech people. I told that story to Liza and now she's always with Rye whenever she goes to the pantry.

You know what Giles, maybe you're right. I just said all those things about my job because I didn't see the beauty of it. Maybe I was just a little nervous about it so I kept on making excuses not to confront it. It's just the fact that I'm really not good in English makes me want to avoid going to work. Now I know better. But still! Hehe... I'm still thinking of resigning. I'll just enjoy my job while it lasts.
I thought I was going to save lots of money today. I'm at night shift so I get to bring 'baon' because by the time we have our break, most of the stores at Pearl Drive are already closed. Yesterday, I did just that. I took some food from our house and brought it to the office. I saved 90% of my allowance that day. Today, I made a mistake. The only food available at our house was the 'sour' spaghetti - or the Futanesca or whatever it is called. I don't like it at all. I think its sauce is made from real fresh tomatoes that is why it is sour. I don't like it so I didn't brought any to the office. And that was my mistake. At 2:00 this morning, my stomach was already grumbling in protest. Teddy had some Oreos but my face just wasn't that thick for me to eat plenty of it. I was really hungry so I had to eat something but not Oreos (they can cause sugar rush.) It was a good thing that there were also two hungry souls on the floor. Chris (little Chris Gwin) and Teddy. We thought of ordering but since its a Sunday night, most restaurants don't have any delivery staff to bring us the food. Our last choice was to order from Wendy's or to go down Pearl Drive and wish that at least one store is still open. We decided to just go down and we saw that Hotshots was still open. It's the only restaurant with its lights on so we had no other choice. And knowing Hotshots, I had to bring out a sack of dough to buy decent food. In short, instead of saving 90% of my allowance, I spent 90% of it on food alone. Now I know better. But still! I won't eat sour spaghetti.
If you want to see something funny, use WHOIS on Microsoft.com.

Its really not the office environment anymore - something else is bothering me now. I'm the kind of person that can blend in anytime I want because in case you didn't know, I am the greatest pretender. In fact, I've made new friends already at the tech department. Of course it is still hard to mingle with the 'veterans' so I just stick with the semi-neophytes. For the tech, there's Jeff. For Billing, there's the two Lizas. Jeff has been around for a month already so he knows almost everyone there. But still, he's not the talkative type so it's a little less awkward when I'm around him. When I'm hanging out with Gerald, my other buddy who talks a lot with other people often, I feel uncomfortable because I always get left out of their conversations. Jeff's right, during my first week, I'll have the feeling that I'm an 'extra' - following people around, trying to set an identity. And even more unfortunately for me, most of the people I know are on a different shift, including Jeff. But who cares. Mingling with other people is really not that important to me. I'll get to see my COEB friends again this Saturday anyway. Hey Corinne, there's really something wrong with that ****** girl... hehe...
I met Teddy last night. And I don't like him as my buddy. Don't get me wrong... he's nice and intelligent and all, but he's very busy. He's answering calls almost every time and he leaves me struggling to match his pace. And I barely get to ask him questions. He's a Tier 2 (tech support guru) so almost everyone on the floor is asking him questions too. I'm really having a hard time because he's not giving me the proper introduction. And being the fast learner that I am (naks!), I'm still struggling in the dark. I don't even know how to use the basic tools! I don't know how to gain access to our UNIX shell using our thin clients, I don't know the databases that we use, and I don't even have a certibiz (our logs) account! And he expects me to take my first call tonight! It's only my second day!
As I've said, it is not the office environment anymore. It's the job itself. I'm very uneasy every time I go to work. I'm always nervous when I'm pressured to do something I'm not good at. In this case, speaking English with an accent. Heck! I can program a password authentication software using any language in just 10 minutes but when it comes to this... Its a little way off of my skills.
Sabi nga nila, sayang naman yung kakayahan ko kung ganto lang gagawin ko. Instead of focusing on technical knowledge, I have to focus instead on what? English accent? And the fact that I get nervous everyday because of this also doesn't help.
Next Monday, I'll be having a second chance at Trend. I didn't get to take the test before because I had to study for our stupid training. I should have followed Marcos' advise then. That test was more important than our training. Look at him now, he's earning 15K at Ambergis because he chose to fail our stupid training.
ANG TAGAL NG 15! Ang tagal pa ng sweldo ko! 6:00pm naaaaaaa papasok nanaman akooooo. LINTEK!

Okay, here's the plan... I'll sneak in, get the money and I'll run the hell out of there and never look back. Or, I could just go to work and try to live an ordinary life. Hmmm...
I'm in between dilemmas. As if one is not enough, I have to suffer multiple nested dilemmas, where one dilemma is within another dilemma. I'm thinking whether I should stay with or leave my job. If I stayed, should I transfer to another department, or should I just remain (unhappy) on my current status? If I left, should I help in our family business, or should I focus on other jobs? Well, as a basis for my decision, I chose to consult my ever reliable horoscope. It said something like, ‘the easy way is not the right path to growth.’ Yep, my horoscope said that. Check it out yourself. Its on Philippine Star, August 9, 2002, Capricorn.
Some help! If I took the really hard road, I'll be making the wrong decision and I'll be wasting my life trying to know what growth means! Here’s what I say: choose the happy road and you won't grow ugly. You'll be enjoying what you do and you'll get to sleep 8 hours a day - at the right time.
Tomorrow, I'll ask my supervisor to let me transfer to another department. They said that Web Dev will be having an opening soon. Yehey! For the meantime, I'll settle for the Associate for System Administration position, that is if my supervisor will let me transfer, of course. If she won't let me (my supervisor is a powerpuff, I've heard), then, I'll just resign. It's their loss. Mawawalan ng matalino sa GTS... ay... mali... madaming magagalit... hehe... mawawalan nalang ng, uhm, matangkad sa GTS.
Kheiy said that its because its my first job why I'm acting this way. She told me that as time passes by, I won't care whether I'm friends with my co-workers. When I get exposed more, I'll barely notice the people around me and all that is important is that I'm getting paid. Liza told me that I'm weird because I'm the one who passed the tech training and I'm the one threatening to resign. Karl on the other hand, said: "Nagpapakahirap ako para sa walang kwenta." And on that one, I'll have to agree with him. Although the context is very different (he's still training), I still believe that it is applicable to my situation. Why would I pressure myself in something I'm not happy with. I should be pressuring myself in doing something I like! Like sleeping. Uy, Corinne, what is the job description for the porn site blockers... I want to go there instead. Hehe... I envy those people, they are getting paid to browse porn sites.
Anyway, as you can see, I now have the time to update my site again. That is because I called in sick today. I'm not in the mood for meeting new people today.

It's been a while... since I have... hold my head up high... *naks*. Anyway, it's really been a while since I've written something here on my supposedly daily 'dear diary.' Hehe... I've been incredibly busy passing my training here with, you know, like, spokening dollars, you know (huwag nyo ko sumbong ha!) At last! After my three weeks of torture, I finally passed my training. Thanks Gene, Liza M, Liza 2, Marcos, Kheiy, Karl, Sarah, Ogie, James and most of all to you the Almighty One! (Para akong nanalo ng award a!) Okay, that's enough.
I've already started my buddy system training today. It's not actually a training, I just get to have a buddy who'll introduce me to my job. So far, I haven't met my real buddy yet. Allan R, our help desk officer, was the one who gave me a tour yesterday, then he later assigned me to Gerald, who gave me a few more pointers this morning. In our buddy system, I get to listen to some of the calls my buddy is taking. After a week of that, I'll be answering calls on my own. As of the moment, I haven't heard any calls that I can answer on my own. My mind still won't process as fast as I expect it to be. I tried thinking of the solution to some of the problems I heard this morning and all my mind could think of was: 'anong gagawin ko? anong gagawin ko? anong gagawin ko? anong gagawin ko?' And when I heard the solution that my buddy gave, that's the only time something would register on my mind. "I knew that. That's really simple." Oh yeah? So why didn't you think of that you big lousy dumbass?
I'm planning to resign after my first payday. I just don't see myself as a customer support engineer. For crying out loud! I barely even use our home phone and I simply just don't see myself as a phone person. Besides, a have a terrible phone voice! I just might scare our clients away.



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"Ok sir, I want you to go to your desktop and click on My Computer, then on Control Panel, and then on..."
"What desktop? What should I click? I'm sorry, you lost me, I'm really not into computers so..."
"Do you see an icon on your screen that says 'My Computer'?"
"Icon? I'm infront of my computer."

Yep, I've heard clients that don't even know what 'right click' is. If you think that is hard, try telling them to reconfigure their DNS settings. (huh?)


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LIZAAAAAAA! Babaeng walang asal! Ganyan ka, nang-iiwan ka! WAAAA! Hehe... Ang tagal ni Kheiy at ni Karl e! (Kayo na ba?) I won't be seeing you starting tomorrow. I'm scheduled for 9 to 6. I still don't have friends at Tech! The other new guy, Jeff, seems well acquainted with almost everyone - which leaves me the odd man out. Sabi nga ni Jeff, "Nakakakakapagod dito... kahit nakatunganga lang ako."


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Hoy blue ards! you're getting bolder by the minute sa blogs mo a! o baka dahil tagal na tayo d nagkita... hehe... grabe, kakagulat ka!


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PS: sorry for the Tagalog words, tinatamad na ko mag-ingles. No ingles, no ingles, nooo!