Lukewarm

Kahapon ay tinalakay ni Pastor "Dingdong" ang tungkol sa pagiging connected kay God. Tinamaan ako doon sa mensahe kasi alam ko sa kaloob-looban ko na isa akong hamak na lukewarm Christian. Though I am not baptized (with the church) I make it a point to attend Sunday service. Buti nga at may weekend off ako rito sa bago kong trabaho kaya nagagawa kong pumunta sa worship.

Going back, lahat ng mga pinunto ni pastor ay swak na swak sa akin. I am Christian in my head but in my heart I am always struggling to fight off temptations like the simple saying of "no" when an old friend asks me out for a couple of beers that would eventually turn out to be a case of beer. Ang hirap kasi sa akin, at aminin niyo na ay sa inyo rin, eh gusto natin "IN" tayo sa grupo. Ayaw natin na napag-iiwanan ng barkada. Ang gusto natin may mai-share man lang sa maboteng usapan ng barkada. Sabi nga ni pastor, iwas KJ o kill joy. Sa kasamaang palad, hindi pala nakakabuti para sa atin ang pagiging "IN" sa barkada lalo na kung ang gawain ay "naturally bad".

Sa ngayon ay nahihirapan pa rin akong alamin ang mga tamang gawin kapag nahaharap sa mala-crossroad na stiwasyon kung saan ay mamimili ako kung sasama ba ako sa kanila at magiging "IN" o hindi nalang at magiging "KJ".

Gusto kong magpakasaya habang singular pa ako kasi panigurado pag umabot ako sa pagiging plural eh bawal na rin maging KJ sa pamilya, at tiyak mas mahirap ang ganun. Hay naku, ipagdasal ko nalang ito at baka malaman ko ang sagot sa isa sa mga panaginip ko.

On the NBA Lockout

Naiintindihan ko naman sina Kevin Garnett, Derek Fisher, at iba pang mga player na hindi lang basketball ang NBA kundi kabuhayan din ito pero naman mga idol, kung kailan nakakabawi na ang NBA in terms of audience eh nagkaroon naman ng lockout. Syet naman!

Bakit dati naman walang nagrereklamo kung magkano ang shares sa revenue ng liga? Bakit dati, kahit na maliit ang sweldo ng mga player eh hindi nauuwi sa lockout?

Sabi nga nung isang matandang taga Boston celtics (sorry nalimutan kong i-note yung name niya), it did not matter how much we were taking home or when we receive late payments from the team owners, what mattered was we were playing the game that we love. Grabe, nung narining ko yun eh sabi ko nasaan na nga ba yung kasabihang "for the love of the game"? Masyado na yatang lumaki ang ulo ng mga player at nakalimutan nilang kaya sila naglalaro in the first place eh kasi gusto nila rather than kailangan nila.

Hindi ko naman masisisi ang mga team owner kung ayaw nilang bumigay sa kagustuhan ng mga player, kasi kung tutuusin, isa lang ang NBA sa marami nilang mga negosyo. Mawalan man sila ng media exposure dahil sa kawalan ng NBA, eh panigurado namang mas nakakatipid sila ngayon dahil wala silang billion dollr payroll na iniintindi kada kinsenas.

Basically, the players need to have some soul-searching here. I think that the basketball never stops movement is only a marketing ploy (panama lang ito sa NBA sa tingin ko) to rally the fans for support in the hopes that the owners would budge and give in. But guess what, the players are in the losing end of the battle here. The longer this lockout runs, the longer the players will miss their paychecks.

(On the other hand, if the lockout does persist for the whole season, that just means that Javale McGee can be tapped to play for Smart Gilas 2.0. Hehe)

From the concrete jungle of New York (Cubao) to the real jungle of Leyte...

Nobody saw this coming except for myself syempre. I was in Manila enjoying the urban lifestyle (lalo na yung mga mall kasi pwedeng tumambay na parang nasa park lang kaso ang diperensya magbabayad ka ng mas malaki para sa aircon at ilang sulyap sa chix) while taking up my Masters degree in Metallurgical Engineering. I had a good life back in the Metro pero bakit ko nga ba naisipang mag-empake ng mga gamit at mamundok sa liblib na parteng ito ng Pilipinas? Ayun ang critical term doon eh, "good life". Kahit sabihin na nating na-apply ko naman ang pinag-aralan ko ng anim na taon sa UP (naming mahal..) eh dumating ako sa puntong pakiramdam ko ay hindi naman ako talaga kumikita ng pera. By kumikita, i mean, having extra money in my pocket after receiving my salary and deducting all of my expenses. Unfortunately, kahit na relatively competitive sa ibang mga kumpanya sa Maynila yung sahod ko eh kinakapos pa rin ang budget ko. Umabot nga ako sa puntong parang nasa high school nanaman ako dahil nagbabaon ako ulit para makatipid sa mga gastusin. Should I live like this even though I graduated as a freaking engineer and passing the boards too? Ang sagot ko syempre hindi kasi nga napadpad ako rito sa malayong kabundukan ng Leyte.

Pero syempre hindi lang naman ako mukhang pera, este hindi lang naman pera ang dahilan ng paglipat ko ng kumpanya. Andun na rin ang dahilan na hindi na ako masaya sa pamamalakad ng management ng dati kong kumpanya. Ang ganda sana ng balak sa kumpanyang iyon kaso dahil sa ilang mga makikitid na utak talangkang manager eh mapupunta lang sa wala ang lahat. Ika nga nila, isa nanamang malaking DRAWING!

At bilang tumatanda na rin tayo, tinaningan ko ang sarili ko na dapat in 5 years time ay nakapagpundar na ako bahay at lupa, na sa tingin ko ay hindi ko magagawa sa dati kong kumpanya. Kung noon ay wala akong maipon at minsa'y nangungutang pa para lang makapasok sa trabaho, ngayon ay may ipon na ako at may sobra pa. Mas mura ang pagkain, mas malayo sa mga luho, mas simple ang pamumuhay, mas may ipon.

Hindi madali ang humiwalay sa mga kinagisnang bagay pero minsan darating tayo sa puntong kailangan nating mamili para na rin sa ating kinabukasan. (Syet ang seryoso ng mood nitong ending). Bow!

Symbiosis???

am i meant to live with someone who would understand and be patient with my needs? ika nga sa mga babae, high maintenance yata ako pagdating sa pagkakaroon ng relationship.

i see things differently than most people do (feeling ko lang naman) and this has helped and destroyed me. whenever someone needs an advice, i think, i am a sound adviser because i sort of go out of the box, thinking and analyzing within and beyond the norm. however, this approach has also defied me since when i apply it to myself i tend to forget that i may not be understood clearly by other people.

what to do then? well, i have been a convert from a dictatorship to a democracy. i was the possessive king before. i demanded everything and did not listen to others. it was working good for me for quite some time but through time i realized that i was deteriorating. that then triggered me to somehow look for a better perspective, for a change.

not so long ago, i was introduced to the concept of compromise. the way the instructor taught it was so touching that i immediately embraced it. he was right on the money when he said that i needed to work things out to be able to have a harmonious relationship. so here i am still trying to figure out the wonders of this concept. it's a shoot and miss situation right now but eventually hopefully i would be able to outgrow the old me.

P.S.
for your understanding and patience please...

Two Headed Monsterrr Sequel

What is wrong with liking other people? It is like FB where you can like almost everything. I mean, come on guys, i don't think that commitment requires one to be a monotonous person that borders being a robot.

Liking is no way synonymous to loving but i agree that it is a prerequisite. What i don't get is the fact that when you have said that you belong to one person, it does not necessarily imply that you become his or her possession. I don't impose this kind of possessiveness to my partner because she is no object.

Just to reiterate my point, I may like a lot of other women but I know that I LOVE ONLY ONE WOMAN! My heart only belongs to one girl, only to her. However, that one girl that i love seems to have doubted me after reading this blog of mine. I am not taking back anything that i have written, nor am i going to write something gibberish just to cover something that people thinks should have not been said. This is me, this is who i am. It's either you hate me or you like me, no gray areas please. LOL

Career decision

When was the last time you had to make a big decision in your life? Parang ang daling sagutin pero hindi pala. You have to think over and over again and still may come up with several answers, most of which are pegged on the emotional or social aspect of our lives. But hey, haven't you thought of your career as a professional? Diba dapat pinagtutuunan din yun ng pansin. I mean, it will be the anchor of how you want to project yourself several years into the future.

I thought planning for my life was a forte of mine, but it seems that i have been more like a state function who doesn't take into consideration what path to take but still gets to my goal. I thought that my approach was okay since I have been able to achieve my small goals but come to think of it i still haven't fulfilled my big time goals such as to have my own home and car.

In the three years that i have been working as an engineer for two companies, i think i was just able to quench my thirst for the small time goals such as goals such as gadgets and shoes. Doon palang ubos na ang pera ko. And take note wala pa akong savings na maituturing. Then on i tried to save but months later i was back to zero since i was out of control in spending for me and my girl. I was not thinking so much of the future.

And now reality has finally bitten me.

It's almost a year now that my mom passed away and here i am still sticking my ass with a company that hasn't lived up to its potential and its promises to us. I've become short tempered with how the top management has handled our situation and i am not alone in this boat, three colleagues have already jumped off the boat and left us for a better ship and a better captain. That gave me the stimulus to test the waters myself. I am not getting any younger and i really must start saving for me and my soon to be family's future. If the management has been able to fulfill its promises, may have reconsidered the situation but unfortunately they haven't. And now i am here somewhere south of the archipelago trying to test my luck in a company that has been a pillar of the Philippine economy. I just hope that everything will work out just fine and that i would be able to finally start saving.

Two Headed Monsterrrrrr!

They say that men are polygamous by nature and i somehow agree. I agree in the sense that when a man is to be shaved down to his very primitive self, he is expected to reproduce and by that he needs to look for several mates. I believe there are only a few in the kingdom animalia that shows pure loyalty to its partner.
Well, going back to humans and to reality, i hate it when people preach to me to love just one girl. And i do. I love my girl and she's the only one who owns my heart. However, sometimes the primitive me kicks in and i become a two headed monster. take note, two headed and not two hearted monster. Confusing??? Well, i am not. I like a ton of girls aside from my girl and i believe she knows and feels it. But, this i know for a fact that even though i look at other girls, my heart will always belong to my girl.
Criticize that all you want, i don't care. Sad thing though, this behavior of mine is not accepted by the norm and i will most likely get tagged as a playboy or whatnot. Well, if that makes everyone happy then i'm fine with the tagging.. hahaha.. I get to look at girls and you get to criticize my every move.. Saya, parang everybody happy lang.. LOL

Necessary CHANGE


Plants and animals survive in nature due to one ability and that is adaptation.
Blending in with nature, and the numerous amount of changes that accompany it, is what is keeping us from not succumbing to death.

With this in mind, I now present my case...

I have been with the UP MSS for 3 years as an undergrad and barely 2 years into my graduate program and I have seen slight changes. Yes, only slight changes. And obviously a major constituent of that are the members which come and go as the years go by. Members that have been evolving from lazy ass bitches like ours to them geeks and gleeks right now.

What the hell is wrong with getting academically upright? Well, strictly speaking there should be none. But that is if you are no member of the organization (which I'd like to remind you, is still pegging on those promises that you once swore upon yourselves before getting into this goddamn mess of an organization). And, unfortunately, you are.

See me through this my friends, colleagues and more importantly ORGmates, there should be some sense of balance between being a member of the org and a scholar of UP. Being a member gives you the responsibility to promote the org. Promote not just for membership's sake, but for prestige (if i may use that term). Why prestige? Simply because our organization has been producing a serious number, well actually the bulk, of the laudes that our department are proud of bragging. Moreover, our members have been constantly passing the Board exams for MetE and that's a big deal since THEY have been producing take two's!

Having known this, why are we not taking pride in what we have? Have we been recruiting just for membership's sake so as to extend our org's life? Case in point, no org shall survive with no members. But hey should we be desperate to the point that we should copy THEM and ask our alumni, who are faculty members, to give +.25 to whoever applies for us?

What to do then? Need I say CHANGE? Not just some petty change but an overhaul of our system, more so our culture.

I guess we badly need to improve our recruitment style so as to easily encourage unaffiliated students of our department to become one with our family. We need to put strategies which would enable us to counter, positively, the desperate measure of our rival org. Strategies like bringing back the study sessions of the former EdRest (i guess this flourished back in JP Agcamaran's time) and social nights like bowling, billiards, and videoke (pwede na rin inom basta hindi sagasa sa studies). We also need to determine who our alumni are and try to communicate with them for possible professional hook-ups. In short, we need to PACKAGE and MARKET ourselves in such a way that we are no longer ALTERNATIVES but rather, we should be seen as STIFF COMPETITION.

But that does not stop there. Recruitment is just the start, the real problem comes right after. How the hell are we going to maintain that fire that once was there when we were just applying (this may not be necessarily applicable to all members)? How are we going to make our members stay committed to their promises?

Legally speaking, now (i think), verbal agreements are of weight or substance and could be used as evidence for breach of contract. Now now, we're not yet at that point and we should not be tinkering about that gay ass move. I think what we need is some sense of pride in each of ourselves. Some sense of professionalism. Some sense of love. Some sense of passion. We need some sense of urgency that is deep rooted to the very core of our organization which is to promote oneness and camaraderie. With this in mind, we should and we could not go blaming THEM for our own shortcomings (although it is easy to see there faults kasi.. sarap pa naman manlait).


I hope this short message reaches you deep down to your core and that it would start something positive for us and for our UP MSS family.

ONE LOVE <3

Level Playing Field

Nakakaburat yung mga pagkakataon na kung saan ay leche ang pagka-imba ng mga bagay-bagay..

Sina LBJ at CB ay sumama sa South Beach diet ng idol kong si Dwyane Wade kaya ayun tatlo silang nagbabwakawan sa bola. Diba imba-lance talaga?! Pero as of late, spoken as an Englishman, eh mukhang nakapag-adjust na ang tiyan ng Miami Heat sa mistulang higanteng pagpapala ni Lord God sa kanila at they are living up to expectations na talaga.

(Ito ang totoong punto ng blog na ito. Pampaganang malupet sana yung umpisa)

Hindi ko talaga ma-gets kung bakit kinakailangan pang maki-extra ng mga prof sa business ng mga mag-aaral. Kesyo ba alumni ka eh pwede mo nang gamitin ang posisyon mo para lang mai-promote ang pinanggalingan mong organisasyon? Huwag ka namang imba ma'am/sir (pronounced as mamster!, rawr!) kasi yung mga mas batang organisasyon ay wala talagang binatbat sa tanda mo! Hands down favorite naman talaga kayo sa patandaan ng mga miyembro dahil nung panahon pa yata kayo ni kopong-kopong binuo na kung saan barbaric pa ang tinatawag na applix. Bukod pa riyan ay literal na matatanda ang mga miyembro ninyo kasi MRR na ang karamihan sa kanila. Diba nga umabot pa sa puntong halos wala ng galing sa kagawaran ng minahan, pagpoproseso ng metal, at materyales ng kolehiyo ng inhinyeriya ang inyong grupo dahil sa puro bagsak at napilitang lumipat doon sa instituto ng library science (so ironic daba? tamad nga mag-aral tapos sa library pa napunta?! astonishing!).

Going back to the point of argument, hindi ka dapat nagpopromote ng org mo, period! Pero dahil nga may sayad kayo sa utak ay namimigay pa kayo ng karagdagang grado sa mga mag-aaral na sasali sa inyong organisasyon. Ano bear?! Can't your current members shoulder the burden of looking for applicants who can and will continue the life of your organization without saying that they have the majority share of the senior faculty from our department?

All i want to see is a level playing field here, NO PLUS 0.25 on them grades, NO UNFAIR TREATMENTS, just a playing field. And this i'm quite sure of, we will certainly almost always kick them asses of yours!