Of Camels and Thanksgiving

I'm reminded of a quote (ok, it's more of a curse) that I read/or saw in a movie a long time ago. God knows I enjoy watching movies as much as the next person and have read waaay too many books so forgive me if I can't remember where I got it. hehe Anyway here it goes "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits/crotch of your enemy". I try not to curse at all but that's exactly how I feel towards the person/people who broke into our apartment last weekend. ;p

Nope, I'm not kidding. Someone broke into our apartment at around 3:00 early last weekend and got my sister's cellphone and MY stash of money that should have lasted me 'til the end of the month. Yish. Of all the days that it had to happen; it JUST had to happen on the month of my birthday! It's one thing to steal from the rich (do i hear the Merry Men singing?) but man does it suck if your budget for the month gets swiped. Aaaarggghh

At times like this; I really wish there were Camels in the Philippines! It's hot enough here isn't it? Haaay The people from the Barangay do have their usual suspects but so far nothing's turned up. Well except that they mentioned that the robber/s probably live nearby. Great. Really great. So now we've intstalled a bolt and lock in our door. AND we're having a deadbolt lock installed too (that is as soon as our landlady shapens up and gets the carpenter to drop by). Naman O!!

I guess I do have a couple of things to be grateful for despite everything:
1. We weren't harmed physically when this happened.
2. I had to reconsider how I budget my money and find out that I could actually live with less. (Yey!)
3. FINALLY be able to trim down as I'll be on "diet" mode. (Sana totoo 'to ;p)
4. I blogged about something after a long long time hehe :D

Now, all I have to do is stop myself from suspecting every other shady person who hangs out near our place. ;p

Keep safe everyone :D

Simply Amazing

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

I'm Hooked

I heard this in a bus a couple of months ago. But I haven't manage to check out the vid until last week. Mostly 'coz of sheer laziness. haha Kapuy man gud haha Or as Mites says I'm "sadot". ;p Listen to it if you have the time, it's Jason Mraz's single "I'm Yours". As of this post; the hits in YouTube for this vid is 16,882,330!



Oh, I shared this vid with my mom(yup ka YM ko sya! haha) and she went ballistic! Seems she heard the song during a wedding and was searching it for months! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree - uh how does it go again? haha Enjoy!

MRT

MRT - the mere mention of it evokes horrors beyond human imagination - okay so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. Images of tightly packed, sweat drenched people come into mind whenever I consider riding it.

While this scene usually plays out during rush hours; commuters might be in for a nasty surprise these days. With oil prices soaring high, it isn't a wonder people choose the cheap and relatively fast train to get around.

I made the mistake of riding the MRT at 5:30 in the afternoon (rush hour kaya ano ba?!) at Ayala Station (what was I thinking??). I was in a hurry and needed to be at the North EDSA Station - shouldn't we call it Trinoma station instead? I had a prepaid card and I was pretty confident I'd be able to ride easily.

If I only knew - rats. haaay. jeeeez. bummer. kainis. bad trip. putik na malagkit! There was barely a line at the ticket booths, but man was that bag "inspection" line horribly loooooong. I haven't seen a line like that since college registration! Patience is a virtue; but it definitely isn’t mine!

If you've ever been at Ayala Station try to imagine this: when you get up from the escalator - which was not working by the way - you'll have to turn right, pass the ticket booths, pass Mcdonalds (uy dapat me comission ako dito ah haha), and mercifully before you reach the corner that goes to SM the line ends.

From there you could see the line in it's awesome greatness :p As you move along the line, you reach the ticket booths. Does the line turn right towards the entrance? Wish ko lang! Instead it makes a WIDE arch that takes you to the other side of the bloody building! Now the line crawls AWAY from the freakin' entrance! It snakes it's way near the end of that corridor (near KFC if I'm not mistaken) then makes a U-Turn and you're finally pointed at the right direction. Yish!

I finally make it inside the station - time check: 5:56 - bloody hell! 26 minutes just to get inside the station?? That's just great. I make my way to the northbound platform and see massive crowds waiting for the train. I wasn't too worried, being the 3rd station people could still get in the trains. People got in when the train arrived alright - about two or three of them per door! The next train was the same story. Pambihira namn o! Nakakainis na ha!! Gusto mo ng away? - oops hahaha.

6:02 - I finally make a good decision and crossed over to the other platform bound for Taft station. I rode the first train that came and chose the 2nd car - this is important if you're a guy and you're planning to make a round trip. Why? Figure it out haha. I was able to sit down at Taft station. Whew! It only took 12 minutes for the train to travel to Taft then back to Ayala. I'd rather take the extra 12 minutes than face a shoving crowd to get inside a train and stand. Hell you won't have to grab a rail for balance. You're so squeezed in there you wouldn’t fall even if you wanted to!

Do I still ride the MRT? Of course I do. hehe It IS really cheaper than riding a bus. I just make sure that I avoid it during rush hours. With my work schedule I doubt if I’ll experience that any time soon. And I’m not sure if that’s something to be glad about. ;p haha

AB Normal

I never thought I’d say it, but college was FUN. Oh well.

Entering a convenience store I grabbed a hotdog sandwich and a cold can of coffee (yes COLD coffee) for believe it or not, my ‘breakfast’; or lunch for those blessed enough to live normal lives. Tsk. With about 10 mins to spare I enter our office and headed for the pantry[i] where I’m greeted by a chorus of:

“Ey dude! What’s up?” “Yo Daryo!”

“Good morning!!”

“Kakagising mo lang noh?”

“RalphMan! Musta?”

“Pare simula pa lang inaantok ka na! ”

“Natulog ka ba?”

“Magsuklay ka naman!”

“Hi honey!!” (nah asa pako? Gud lak haha)

I manage to reply with a somewhat raspy and drawled “ey”; but it’s really an improvement since most of the time I just smile, nod, shrug, grunt or raise a hand in response. Ok, so my interpersonal skills are a bit rusty but there’s just something about work that drains my energy. Besides, wolfing down breakfast and guzzling down coffee (kinda explains why I prefer it cold huh?) requires my full attention.

“We have our break skeds[ii] already?” “Yup”, came the quick reply “we have our normal breaks.” Normal? I can’t even relate to people who complain of having a boring “8-5” job. Starting work at 3:15 in the afternoon isn’t something I’d call “normal”. Then again there isn’t anything normal about my job anyway. Taking a peek at the sheet that holds our breaks I see:

strt brk1 brk2 brk3 end

Ralph M.* 00:15 2:15 4:45 7:45 09:15

Not bad. At least the breaks are evened out. I’ll even have a short last stretch, cool. But before I could fully appreciate that last fact we’re rushing to get stations; plugging my headset into the avaya and logging in the computer I give a sigh like I did yesterday and the day before that AND the day before that. Hearing the beep, I take a deep breath and with my best affected accent belt out:

“Welcome to *******. How can I help you?”

“Good morning! I was wondering if you could find a number for me?”

“Certainly, what are you looking for?”

There isn’t much to talk about regarding my job. I do the same thing, rain or shine, earthquakes or storms, day or night, freaking strikes or not, in sickness or in health ‘til death- (teka mali ata haha), HOLIDAYS or not, as long as I have a shift I go to work, and do the same thing, over and over again and again and- get the point?! You think you get bored? Man I’ve been there, done that, doing it again next week arghh. It’s a really bad sign when you drag yourself to work; its worse when your first thought when waking is “may pasok nanaman ako!” (this in a very negative and vulgar manner), but it’s a nightmare when you start dreaming about work! I mean, come on! How would you like to wake up and the first thing you say is:

“In what town again please?”

“It’s in Mansfield.”

I’m not saying that my work isn’t challenging. In fact it’s the exact opposite, especially when you’re just starting. First of you have to get used to the program/system that your using, then you have to do the tedious task of learning, memorizing and yes, hating at times the company’s SOPs and protocols which would gauge your performance in QA[iii]. And just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, you’re sent to the floor[iv] where your most immediate and usual problem is trying to decipher what your caller is actually saying; no kidding, I encounter at least 5 different accents in any given day (not that I’m complaining mind you!). Finally, it would never be fun if you didn’t learn the accent of the customers; it makes life way easier for you and the customers, AND it’s the mark of any true blooded CSR[v].

“And you mentioned the garage was on Littlebrook Crescent?”

“Yes, although it could be on a different road. I’m not entirely sure of it.”

Now, I know it may seem that I am not thankful for my job but I am. My colleagues and I happen to be very grateful, really. We say ‘thank you’ at least 400 times a day. Beat that. But why endure all of these? As my boss conveniently summarizes it “It puts food on the table”. I couldn’t agree more. Heck it does more than that! It puts bacon mushroom melt or zinger burgers along with humongous fries into ones diet. Add to that splurges in Pizza hut, Yellow Cab, Sbarro, Don Henrico’s and Burgoos! My point? Pizza rules! yeba!

“One moment please.”

Seriously though; no matter how tired, upset or bored I get of my job, one thing I’m sure of; it’s a decent job. Sure it isn’t my dream job, but it sure is a lot better than others who also require employees to have night shifts and work during holidays. I’m not exactly proud of working here, but it ticks me off whenever someone calls it a ‘stupid’ “profession”. I just wonder how they see those who work as security guards, gasoline station workers or those who serve in 24-hour convenience stores and fast-food chains. But I’m ranting now, shouldn’t be doing that. tsk Oh yeah I don’t intend to stay for long here either! But in the meanwhile...

“I have the number now for Robinson’s Garage. Shall I connect you to it?”

“You sure you can do mate. Cheers!”

“Thank You!”

---

[i] Pantry – simply put: kainan at tambayan.

[ii] Break skeds - this is high school all over again where everyone’s favorite part of the day are the breaks. One could also define it as ‘taking a breather’, and that in its most literal sense.

[iii] QA - Quality Assurance, as bonuses are based on this, people develop a love and hate relationship with it. You’ll love it when you pass, and you’ll hate it (hate being an understatement) when you fail.

[iv] Floor – defined as the designated area as to where CSRs take calls.

[v] CSR-Customer Service Representative, the ‘elite’ thousands who make a living by talking all day, they also happen to define lunch as their hour long break no matter what time of the day it lands on.

*Ralph- a queer, autistic, cynical, insomniac, demented freak who inhabits a significant part of my brain.

Beginnings

It's been ages since I've written anything not work related. Now that I have so much time in my hands, it just might be a good idea to change that.

I find myself in a state of "in between" starting with the proverbial new chapter in my life. The problem? I'm staring at a page filled with scribbles and drawings with no idea how the next pages will look like. Rats. Well, enough of that.

Since I've got nothing better to do, creating a blog rather than reviving my old one seems a good idea. Unfortunately, my creative juices are currently failing me; and not for the first time. No light bulbs popping above my head nor eurekas.

So I'll be posting a blog from my old site. hehe Maybe I'll think of something to write about later. Or next week, month, whenever. haha c",)