Company Outing

Two weeks ago (this entry is way overdue haha) was our ‘company outing’ and I really had a blast.  Just two days before the outing, an e-mail came up on my computer screen signaling the start of ‘The Amazing Race’ to our outing destination.  We had NO idea where we would be going and that’s when our excitement soared to an entirely different level haha.  We just knew that we would be going to Batangas but we hadn’t known the exact place, the exact venue of our outing.  The e-mail said that there’s a jigsaw puzzle piece carefully hidden somewhere in our area.  We have to look for that piece first in our workstation and then search for the correct pieces from the other employees across departments in order to assemble a meaningful image.  The image, as it turned out, was a photo of the person who would be our ‘driver’ for the first leg of the race.  It really got me hyper haha.  I couldn’t wait for the race to begin.  It was a huge carpooling.  All the drivers were our ‘bosses’ simply because they all have cars that were mostly issued by the company.  I could hardly believe that our driver (she therefore occupies a high position in the company) is just within my age bracket! This pretty executive whom I believe makes business plans for a potential Petron station is way beyond my reach haha.  She’s obviously as young as yours truly but you could easily tell that the unseen boundary was there in the way she carried every conversation.  She’s damn reputable and so I behaved myself (not my usual self actually haha).  So anyway, our meeting place was at a 7-eleven store along EDSA Central at 5:15 AM.  We were five in the group including our highly-reputable driver.  The first pit stop was at PEC3, just a huge-ass Petron station along the Expressway.  At PEC3, there was another jigsaw puzzle to be assembled and consequently, our drivers changed.  All of a sudden, the real race began from PEC3.  I began hearing slams of car doors and quickly followed by a chain of swooshes.  After assembling another image of a brand logo which was anything related to Petron at PEC3, series of clues were deliberately distributed at every pit stop.  Every pit stop had a ‘challenge’ waiting for every single member of the group with a distinct strength who was willing to accept it.  We had to complete a certain challenge (mental and physical) that represents our strength before getting the next clue.  It was definitely like The Amazing Race and we all finally deciphered, one clue after another, that the FINAL pit stop would be the place where we would be spending the rest of our weekends.  It was a race towards our outing destination.  We came out 3rd (I think haha) at the final pit stop, our outing destination.  The final pit stop was at the Little Bridge Resort in Taal, Batangas.  It was a Cinderella finish.  Our driver was simply awesome and he deserves to be the boss.  The HR Department definitely deserves major props for making our company outing not only meticulously planned but for also making it more fun and interesting.

Right after reaching our outing venue which was at the Little Bridge Resort in Taal, we played a couple of games on the beach.  I can’t really describe how fun the games really were especially the first game wherein we have to cross ourselves to the other side of the beach just using two folders.  The rule in that particular game was pretty straightforward: Don’t step on the sand.  With just a single rule, strategies came into play and our team won that game.  After the games, I went straight to our room and took a bath.  I felt so clammy.  A hot chocolate spilled over my pants and the lower part of my shirt while we were heading to PEC3.  The resort was so spacious that you could barely notice that we were actually more than 80 who joined the outing.  After taking a bath, I went out for lunch and then took a catnap in our air-conditioned room.  That quick siesta energized me for my favorite activity (for any outing) and that is drinking session haha.  I was gladly invited.  One of the POS guys actually opened a beer for me.  I sat down with a beer on hand and enjoyed little talks with the guys.  I was definitely a newbie in THEIR drinking session as I come from the Finance Department where girls have been abundant and they come mostly from Operations.  But it really doesn’t matter for a guy who has a high tolerance level to alcohol, does it haha?  I really have no idea of the exact number of beers I consumed but I think it went double digit in the whole duration of the outing.  But I didn’t get drunk.  I was sober most of the time as I was still very much aware of what I was doing.  I didn’t send ridiculous text messages to anyone on my phonebook nor did I dance like a macho dancer on the bar table haha.  So I was very much sober.  I was, most of the time, hanging out with the guys, drinking booze with them, and playing basketball with them.  It was quite funny that we could still play basketball while there was already an alcohol in our system haha.  But still I made 4 points, a follow-up and a lay-up respectively.  I wasn’t actually rusty at basketball even if I was a little intoxicated haha.  That was a good discovery.

I was frequently absent in most photos of the Finance people.  They were actually dismayed by my lack of appearance as I was hanging out with different people haha.  But I think there’s nothing wrong about stepping out of my shell while they were just staying inside their comfort zone.  But of course, I made a conscious effort to finally be with the Finance team in the swimming pool.  You still have to love your own haha.  I enjoyed swimming with them but technically speaking, I really don’t know how to swim haha.  I was actually a laughing stock during swimming lessons in my 4th year high school.  My Finance pal taught me how and I was a fast learner.  I just have to employ effective breathing techniques.  I was sporty back in the day but swimming isn’t simply my thing.  I believe I have to be tossed into an open sea so that I could learn how to swim.  I think my brilliant athleticism will come out under an unforgiving predicament haha.

After dipping myself into the swimming pool for just a short time, we ate our dinner.  Shortly after eating dinner, my Finance pal and I went to the videoke area.  For me, an outing without a videoke is a terrible outing haha.  It’s like a cone without the ice cream.  Videoke, therefore, is logically the Cookies ‘n Cream haha.  Personally, it’s still the most enjoyable thing to do because I love singing.  I was quite surprised when my Finance pal and I arrived at an almost DESERTED videoke area.  Almost all people were on the swimming pool and some were probably in their rooms having bondings.  My friend and I just spotted two people at the videoke area.  One is our Marketing Manager and the other is his very captivating Marketing Assistant.  Believe me, that chick, the Marketing Assistant, is a topnotch.  She’s a Serendra Mall type of beauty who usually strolls on a Saturday with a poodle haha.  If given a chance (which probably won’t arrive haha), I will not only seize the stars for her, I will also give her my cute pitbull (no pun intended).  Yes, I didn’t get the chance to seize the stars for her nor did I even loosen the leash on my pitbull’s neck but when “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang” splashed on the videoke screen, I asked her if that’s her song.  She said it’s not hers.  And then I asked her if we could sing it together since that song is a duet.  I was quite surprised when she consented haha.  I really could not believe why and how I did it especially in the presence of her manager haha.  Perhaps, the alcohol in my body had already taken effect.  Or perhaps, I was just depressed that night.  I’d like to believe that it wasn’t really the alchohol that made me confident to ask her if we could sing that song together.  It was mostly my love for singing.  And besides, I already had experienced singing in duets before.  And so we sang together and boy was I amazed by her pleasant voice.  It was a cool duet song and she knew how to blend.  I was blown away haha.  Eventually, more people arrived at the videoke area.  I sang three more songs and yes, I felt their love haha.  People from the swimming pool even clapped their hands after I had sung a Stevie Wonder hit haha.  I also saw the pretty Marketing Assistant clapping her hands while she was browsing songs on the song book.  After the outing, I was teased profusely by my officemates if I could sing another song haha.  At the washroom in the office, I bumped into my Finance Manager and he said that I’m such a singer haha.  Then I replied, “Really sir?  Am I?” Then he answered, “You were probably too drunk to remember.” Hahaha.  Thanks really for appreciating my little talent.  I’m so grateful, you may not have an idea.  But seriously, I’m not that exceptional haha.  Sometimes, I tend to pick songs NOT right for me and as a result, I sing poorly at times.  But most of the time, I know what song is right for me haha.

Overall, our company outing was a blast.  I even forgot that I was down on those days.  It was rightly timed.  It was an infinitesimal part of His plan.

Prayer for a Weary Heart

Dear God,

Please help me rise above the pain that’s been stinging in my heart.  My heart has been running tirelessly for many years now, hoping to find the right one who would keep it with the greatest care it can ever experience.  Everytime it is about to jump high with utmost joy, it would instantly fall back and hard to its usual dwelling called Sorrow.  It’s been crushed enough to be SO vulnerable to another aching.  It’s defenseless.  It’s never been a good feeling.  So painful that it has relegated my self-worth to its all-time low.

God, You know, I can’t do this all alone.  At this very point when I’m at my lowest, I’m humbly seeking for Your guidance.  I badly need Your help.  Please guide me to Your way.  My heart has grown really tired and I guess it severely needs a refreshing shower of Your love and grace.  It now wants to rest with You.  I know You are just there listening to this prayer.  Yes, my heart has become too tired that it now wants to rest with You.  With sheer anticipation, I believe it would wake up to a new morning with vigor and life.

God, if the sorrow I’m experiencing today is just Your sign of the greater things that would come tomorrow, then I would put all my trust in You.  I would surrender myself to You.  I am all Yours now.  That’s who I am.

Choice

Just a few months back, I had a very interesting conversation over bottles of beer with an officemate from the Operations Department.  Yes, HE is from the Operations Department ’cause really, guys are scarce in our Finance Department.  The Finance Department is virtually filled with girls whom I can hardly invite for even a rootbeer.  Plus, I’m certainly not used to being around girls.  I generally regard girls at the office as ‘teammates’ in which there are certain corporate objectives that only a motivated team can well achieve.  Well, as of this time of writing, they are STILL my teammates haha.  Even when I was still in College taking up Accountancy, gals have outnumbered guys by a significantly huge margin.  This only has supported my simple belief that guys, in general, are not attentive to details.  And as we all know it, Accounting is PLEASANTLY detailed.  And I wasn’t even sarcastic saying that haha.  Well anyway, so I had this very interesting conversation with my officemate from Operations.  Our conversation revolved mostly about girls.  It’s interesting, isn’t it haha?  What can you expect?  We are guys!  Talking about girls among men wouldn’t be a big surprise after all, would it?  I could say that this officemate of mine is a philosopher or a guru when it comes to pulling girls towards him.  He’s like a freakin’ gravity.  He’s not that handsome but he has a way with words and a pretty decent build.  The reason why he can attract girls in an instant.  I was pretty amazed at how he has carried out such an enormous feat.  And simply because I haven’t had a girlfriend in my entire life, I almost considered him as an ICON.  It really was the right time ’cause I was salivating for answers to my seemingly endless despair about girls.  When I told him that I haven’t had a girlfriend ever since I was born, he was shocked.  He said to me (not in English), “You’re a pretty boy bro, go chase!” I was really laughing the whole time not only because he kept on repeating the words “Pretty Boy” but because I don’t honestly think I’m as handsome as he thinks I am haha.  He also encouraged me to pursue the cute girl from his department and he added that if I do pursue her, she would quiver.  That was the punchline hahaha.

It’s really not surprising to me that this kind of motivation usually comes from a kind of guy who enjoys collecting girlfriends like NBA cards.  For the record, I don’t mean it though in a negative way.  This guy from the Operations ‘perhaps’ has been truthful in all the relationships he entered into regardless of the number.  He was actually very helpful to me.  He was even advising me not to be serious all the time.  And I became, all of a sudden, enlightened.  I began asking myself, “Have I really been TOO serious in my approach to get the girl I like?” In these modern times, do nice and SERIOUS guys still finish last?  Do I have to be a little lighter by asking the girl I like after just a couple of dates, “Can we be boyfriend-girlfriend?” Haha.  Damn, I don’t know if I can be that light.

The approach to attract girls highly depends on the guy’s personality.  It also depends on history, well to a certain degree.  The guy would most probably rely on the same old ploy that effectively worked for him in the past.  But the problem on this premise is that girls are also different from one another.  But the approach, at the end of the day, would not matter so long as it is sincere.  If the gal likes the guy so much, I think in these modern times, it’s been so prevalent to bypass the mushy courtship segment and just get into it right away.  But this is way too risky.  Life is too damn short to make such a costly mistake.  Courtship is the getting-to-know stage and bypassing it seems to be a foolish move.  It sounds a little desperate to me haha.  At the end of the day, it’s still our CHOICE that would greatly matter.  For the guy to choose the approach he believes would work and for the girl to choose the guy she believes is genuine.

It’s our sheer freedom to choose that separates us from the brutes.  We must choose the right person whom we think is suitable for us, for a long-term.  We always have to be a hundred percent on all the decisions we try to make.  Yes, we are free to make our choices but we are not free to choose the consequences

Attraction

Yesteday, ok it’s already Sunday, so last Friday, one of my best buddies and I went to Glorietta to have some food trip.  We ate our hearts out at my favorite burger fast food chain, Burger King.  We also laughed our hearts out haha.  I mean, really, I had never had that quality of laugh for a long time that almost choked me to death until last Friday.  I really had a bad morning last Friday.  I brought a busted umbrella and just chucked it all away while I was riding on a tricycle on my way to the office and on a violent rainy day.  And then I hadn’t known that my contact lens was already torn up even before I slid it into my eye (must’ve been my nail).  That was the reason why my left eye was experiencing a sporadic discomfort throughout my commute.  I removed my torn up contact lens at the MRT station and I felt so bad ’cause that costed me a lot of money.  2k is really a LOT to me.  Good thing my best pal and I went out for a hearty food trip last Friday night.  To my surprise, he called me up at my office past 5 and sounded so bored haha.

While we were eating, we mainly talked about a girl at his office he’s so presently into.  I intently listened to his stories about his girl.  You know what?  When it comes to love matters, I’d just listen to you most of the time.  Don’t really expect me to give you precious tips on love.  ‘Cause, come on, how can you possibly believe in a guy who really sucks at it BIG TIME no matter how wordy he has been?!  So I was just telling him to go pursue that girl ’cause really, she’s so damn fine and when I saw THEIR photo, I honestly thought that they look good together haha.  I just kept on telling him to go for her ’cause I could barely give even a single valuable advice on anything related to that potential heartbreaker called love.  But as you already know, RC is a totally different person as a blogger or writer in general haha.  In person, I’m also talkative but I can be contended just listening to you especially when love is the topic.  Love, after all, has been the most desired topic of all time.   I could hardly argue with that.  So let me try to talk about love in a less sentimental form (’cause it can’t be fully rationalized) until my nose bleeds haha.  This would really take a lot out of me.  Good luck haha.

I’d like to believe what most people believe that love starts with that mystery called attraction.  Attraction is such a mystery that even gays can be attracted to me, seriously!  I really don’t have an idea what particular body part of mine they’re after.  I mean, come on, I’m not really that good-looking.  I just look like Johnny Depp, that’s all.  Well seriously now, how mysterious attraction can be?  You can be attracted to a person you hardly know OR you can be attracted to a person you had not initially known you can be attracted to until that person said the words or did something that swept you off your feet.  It’s really difficult for me to say this but let me say anyway that without attraction, love is impossible.  No matter how deep you are, attraction always starts with the physical aspect.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that’s why every single person has a DISTINCT taste on what is beautiful or handsome.  For instance, in China, a tan or a brown color is considered unattractive, if not ugly.  No matter how good-looking you truly are with that perfect nose and cute lips, but if you have a brown skin, that can be considered unattractive to some.  It sounds a little racist, but that could qualify as the synopsis of attraction.  I still remember the time when arguably the prettiest girl in my Elementary years told me that I’m handsome but I have a brown skin.  That was totally SOUR!  Unbelievable.  From that moment, I began whitening my skin by any means possible but to no avail.

As a guy, it’s so hard for me to say if the girl I like likes me too.  As I said in my previous entry, I’m generally unassuming when it comes to girls and in the first place, how could I know?  I’m not just speaking to myself but to the guys as a whole.  Never ever assume so never ever expect!  ‘Cause you know what?  Girls would still be girls.  They would never, as much as possible, express their feelings to a guy clear enough to be noticed.  In other words, the first move is not theirs.  And if that’s the case, the girl would feel forever damned while the guy she likes continues to chase other girls ’cause guys could hardly read a gesture.

In a more personal note, I don’t know a thing about attraction or even love until it hits me.  It has to be felt.  There’s really no need to explain it.  And if the person I like doesn’t feel the same way, then everything becomes a misery.  There’s no more reason for me to stay put or linger, I have to stay out of the thing that’s slowly killing me.  There’s one thing I know about love though that I’d just like to share: Love isn’t about pure chance or pure destiny, it’s more about bridging yourself to the one you love like simply showing up in the right place where you can possibly meet him or her and it also has to be rightly timed.  Attraction is a pleasant feeling and love is the greatest thing this world has to offer.  So it’s safe to say that this thing can’t be offered to the one who bums around

Chances

First of all, I’d just like to say that Kenny G’s Forever In Love is damn psychedelic.  It’s DOPE!  I keep on repeating this track.  If you don’t want to lose your concentration on what you’re currently doing, then I don’t recommend this song.  I really feel like I’m flying like a free eagle whenever I listen to this melodious jazz music aside from sweetly dancing with my classy-looking high school crush who just graduated from UP Diliman with an Architecture degree.  Well, congratulations to her.  Sadly, we have NOT really kept in touch to each other since I was in my 2nd year college.  It’s been a long time, I know.  I don’t have her contact details anymore (I suppose she already changed her number) and I just found out that she already graduated through her Multiply account.  It’s really a long and winding story why I decided not to give her a private message or even a single comment on her Multiply.  But in a nutshell, I had my chance, I just didn’t take it.  Most probably, she wouldn’t like it when, all of a sudden, I surface again into her life like an annoying porn pop-up that appears on a computer screen whenever I surf the Net.  Ooops.

Many people say that second chances in life are rare but for me, they don’t exist at all or do they haha?  Now that I let that out of my system, it’s blogging time haha.  I’d really love to tell a more detailed story about her but she might discover my blog.  I mean, after all, I found out her Multiply account through Google and she might do the same thing to me haha.  No one knows right haha?  But let me go back to that seemingly confident statement when I said that I had my chance but I just didn’t take it.  I mean, come on, did I really have a CHANCE with her?  That’s actually the big question haha.  To begin with, what’s the real meaning of chance?  It certainly does NOT mean that if I did take it, then we could’ve been together.  I honestly don’t mean that way.  It’s not the real meaning of chance, it’s absolute cockiness.  I may be smug most of the time but when it comes to girls, I’m unassuming haha.

Perhaps, many girls would say that if they had a choice, they would have chosen to be born a guy than to be a gal.  Simply because, at the outset, it’s way easier to be a guy than to be a gal in almost every aspect.  To be completely honest, I find it hard to believe especially in the aspect of courtship haha.  I believe that God created a man and a woman equally.  So it’s not fair to even compare a man and a woman ’cause God has always been fair.  A guy’s natural role is equally laborious.

One of the universal truths is that a single guy is on a thrilling and seemingly endless chase until he finds the suitable one.  The one who could fill his emptiness inside.  By the way, was that a song?  Anyway, I find it quite funny when girls view this damn guy’s chase as a bad thing haha.  I have to say that it is MORE than just a pursuit driven by sexual appetite.  It’s ordinarily a guy’s role.  It’s a guy’s role to chase or to take his chances, definitely considering the sacrifices involved, until he finds the right gal for him.  It’s just like a guy was given money in perpetuity solely to buy lottery tickets assuring that one day he’ll hit the biggest jackpot of his life.  Well, in my modest opinion, that’s the real meaning of chance.  It certainly does NOT mean that if I buy one lottery ticket, I will hit the jackpot right away.  I honestly don’t mean that way.  There is nothing to lose, it is just for a meager sum, a meager sacrifice.  But if the losses are accumulated, it could really be frustrating.  With the almost ideal girl I was talking about, the combination had long been drawn and I was too damn cynical to even line up at the ticket booth. One very lucky guy, perhaps, already won her.

On Plans

I could vividly recall the time when I was around 5 years old when some unknown guests, who were smartly dressed, dropped by our house to give something that I still hadn’t known until they left.  And right after they left, we opened the box that these guests had just given.  Much to my excitement, I saw two sets of encyclopedia for kids!  One set was Sesame Street-themed and the other one was way too “serious.”  I think only a few kids could enjoy reading that “serious” set and I don’t know if I’d be proud to share that I was one of the few kids who truly enjoyed reading that “serious” set.  After all, I’m trying as much as I could NOT to share the deep origins of my dorky personality because as of now, I’m trying to be cool, if not cooler.  But please don’t get me wrong, this set could still be understood by a skilled 5 year-old kid (ehermm).  It’s definitely a way lighter version of Britannica yet I think this, still, could not be enjoyed especially if there’s another enticing set in which Big Bird from Sesame Street graces most of the covers and Oscar the Grouch graces a trash can.  But what weirdly fascinated me MOST came from a single page of that serious encyclopedia set in which there was a picture of a man working on top of a building that’s still under construction and the caption says beneath, “Civil Engineer.”  While looking at that picture, I envisioned myself being a Civil Engineer despite the fact that I had no idea that there was such a thing called Math to ultimately get that title.  I’d like to believe though that even at that very young age, I unknowingly learned the first step on how to PLAN.  Besides, it’s virtually impossible to plan without using first one’s imagination.  Simply put, vision first then plan.  Of course, as I continuously grow up (not literally, sad to say), so does knowledge.  As we grow up, things seemingly get more complicated.  We continuously learn new things, develop passion on some of them, and envision ourselves enjoying a fruitful career in what started out as a simple passion, more like of a fulfilling hobby if you want to know my modest opinion.  And since things are starting to get more complicated before our very eyes, we keep pace by planning more systematically.  BUT believe me when I say that planning, in its most strict sense, doesn’t always work the way we want it to.  The future, after all, is like a woman, almost unpredicatable.  No offense to all women out there, but I think I’ve just told a pill of truth that is hard to swallow haha.

I used to be fascinated with computers back when I was in 2nd year HS, particularly computer programming.  So fascinated that I wrote a computer program that basically tests the user of his/her fundamental Math skills in the same year when Y2K was laughably the scare of the era.  I also started to be damn fascinated with writing that I still continue until now.  When my father was preparing for his Bar Exams when I was in 3rd year HS, I became fascinated with Law that somehow sharpened my logical thinking and at the same time, my communication skills.  THESE all started out as simple passions and then very soon enough, I somehow planned systematically to make them as plausible long-term careers.  But look at me now, did I become a computer programmer?  Did I even become an editor-in-chief of our school paper?  The answer to both questions is I DID NOT.  And currently, I don’t have plans to take up Law!  As you’ve already known, I’m practicing a career which I didn’t even plan to take in the first place.  So what’s now my point aside from not thinking too much about the unknown future and fully living life in the present?

The popular boxer, Mike Tyson, has been credited for quoting this up in spite of his crazy tirade after dominating one fight that he wants to eat your children: Everybody’s got plans… until they get hit.  Finally, Iron Mike made sense on this one.  More recently, the devastating defeat of England’s Ricky Hatton to the feisty fists of our very own, Manny Pacquiao might put a period to the Hitman’s great career in boxing.  And don’t tell me that Hatton, before the fight, had no gameplan.  As you’ve already known, it only took one thunderous left cross to shock the boxing world.  It definitely came as a big surprise to those who witnessed it live.

This actually is one of the striking things I’ve learned from life that I just want to share: Don’t plan too much.  Just plan to be surprised.

Dishonesty?

Please try to picture this simple scenario out and this has already happened to you at one point in your commuting life, well I just assume:

You were on a jeep and after getting your change from the driver, you noticed that the change given to you was over by a certain amount.  Eventually, you just kept the whole change.  Was that a form of dishonesty to you?  At the outset, it’s definitely a form of dishonesty, isn’t it?  But as we all know it, the study of ethics has been further complicated by various circumstances especially in this changing world.  So allow me to complicate the same scenario a little.  Right after you had noticed that you were given an extra change, you began asking some passengers on the jeepney about why you were given a “fare treat” and most of them said that the price of oil has steadily decreased by a huge margin.  You were, of course, pleased by that good news.  So you just shrugged it all off and kept the whole change.  But as it turned out, there was really no oil price decrease.  Now, was that still a form of dishonesty to you despite the fact that you didn’t totally remain silent about your extra change by asking some passengers?  Dear readers, I would greatly appreciate your comments.  But for the meantime, read my point of view on the jump

Finest Moment

So it’s quite obvious that I transferred from my longtime blogging platform (Tabulas) to here, Blogetery wordpress.com.  Tabulas and I had a little misunderstanding and thus I ran away from a relatively secluded free blog host that still houses my 148 entries published since 2004.  All of a sudden, Tabulas seems to stop hosting the images that I inserted into some of my entries and as a result, those images now don’t show up!  I mean, what the hell is wrong with them?  I was just too damn tired to think and that’s why I simply decided to pack up.  It was difficult to abandon the place but what can I do?  Sometimes in life, we just have to move on.  But does it matter now?  Come on dear readers, the most important thing now is that I’m back in blogging business (non-profit though).  And I’ve heard someone said, “Yeah!”  And I’ve even heard a smack, haven’t I?  Well anyway, let’s start with the usual how I’ve been.  Well, I’m doing fine!  And that was just lame.  Because  I’ve been doing spectacular!  As a practicing CPA (ehermm) and a guy who once vehemently chucked even the idea of taking up Accountancy in college, doing spectacular at work in the geeky ambiance of the finance department could be the most rare scenario that you could ever catch me doing.  Well, aside from that scenario wherein you will bump into me along one of the streets in our subdivision after spotting me trying so hard to glorify myself by flexing my biceps with my favorite black sando on.  Because as you’ve already known, I’ve been ‘dorky’ weird my whole life.  But seriously now, I just want to share that in the beginning, I was honestly on the verge of quitting my job due to a really, really BAD turn-over and the boxes of backlogs that seemed, at the outset, SO impossible to process without hitting the deadline.  The deadline, let me tell you, was literally a FATAL line because failure to process ALL the backlogs could basically lead to a significant loss of cash.  And there’s really no need to explain how important cash is for a company as well as any government.  But thank God, my positive attitude towards adversity helped me save millions of pesos for the company, a huge amount I’ve decided not to disclose accurately   In other words, I had successfully processed them all before the deadline came.  I even filed a leave for one day, just a day before the deadline to attend my cousin’s wedding.  Ok, although I’m a gentle smug most of the time, I didn’t share this to you just for the sake of another ego tripping.  I shared this to you because once again, a simple lesson can be learned and here it is: Job turn-over is essential! Our attitudes differ and even though they materially don’t, they could be of different magnitude.  And when work backlogs are turned over to you without getting a good explanation even about the process overview, your attitude, no matter what it is, can have an influence on the outcome.  I couldn’t expect anyone to turn over an immaculately systematic job.  There’s no such thing.  All that I want to expect from anyone is at least a decent and complete discussion of the job’s overview.  In my case, I wasn’t lucky to get that because I’ve been learning SAP even without a single input from the person I replaced that could’ve really been a great foundation.  I even found his approach ridiculously inefficient.  But of course, I didn’t spend many days just fuming at all these.  I just worked and worked in a very calculated pace while struggling to learn along the way.  And now I feel like I’m a prized employee of the company who has radically infused change into the whole process in just a short span of time haha.  From the way I solve technical problems that’s never been done before to the way I handle some people (especially those people I highly require diligence from as they really could affect the books as a whole), that’s the kind of change which I believe President Obama has been trying to instill among us.  All I wanted to impart all along is that your darkest hour could be your finest moment.  I’ve just got this from Tope’s Friendster shout-out.  Well what can you expect?  I’m a plagiarist.  But seriously guys, it’s really fun if you can perceive problems as opportunities.  Try it sometimes.  And by the way, welcome to the new Slacker’s Nook