The Kengpin

Anybody among you who has asked him or herself what’s the best way to start a new month? New work-out routine perhaps, travel to somewhere outside the city, or proobably the safest bet would be to go shopping. In my case, I didn’t get the opportunity to accomplish any of those. Guess what I got on the 1st day of July? An interview. Simple and lame as it may seem, as you probably thought of something better or crazier than usual.

What made it special for me though is that I was able to get the interview from the department that I always wanted to work with. An ambush interview for that matter. No notice was made, even to my Team Leader so he was quite surprised as well when I told him I was already interviewed. Good thing though, my confidence level was high enough to push myself into the line of fire.

I did the best I could and hopefully it will be satisfactory enough to get me the position. Two crucial opportunities have been wasted before by myself because of lack of concentration and drive to beat the competition. But now, having the chance to apply and be interviewed for the job I most wanted in this industry, somehow gives me a feeling of joy.

Results are going to be out this week and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

As usual, I am a little bit late with this “in” thing in terms of website/blog promotion but I am willing to learn, especially now that I have decided to start being serious regarding my goal to make additional income from advertisements and traffic from the world wide web. I haven’t really pondered on the idea that I will be studying SEO in order to make my website more successful because I was one of those skeptics who believed that it really didn’t matter. But hey, I am just another guy who wants to make easy money using the internet and I’ll give it a shot.

I maybe dishing out some tips and tricks that I will be learning along the way so stay tuned.

For a guy who has used up all but two of his vacation leaves before the end of march, unpaid leaves are saving me from work insanity. Better known as UL’s in our company, it has been one big factor why I am keeping a zealous spirit in our fast-paced call centre environment.

So I turned two years at the company, and as a display of their gratitude for my loyalty, I will now be receiving an additional Php 500 rice subsidy every payday! Wow! I feel so much elated that after 2 years of taking 600 calls a day, I’ll get 500 big bucks! Well anyway, this is not about that.

This is about myself having approved unpaid leaves for three consecutive weeks. All fridays. All connected to my rest days. Wow. What’s with the amazement? If you are employed in a Call Center that considers an absence as absolutely unacceptable and leaves filed 3 months prior being denied, you’ll be very thankful to snatch a UL slot. I am lucky that I was one of those who were picked to be pioneers of the UK-Irish team which had less people compared to the all-UK account.

Having to rest 3 days in a row for the past three weeks is superb. I am looking forward to a great time at work tomorrow morning. I am much more relaxed and ready to be interviewed for a possible promotion. If they are to push through this week, that is.

I define sleeplessness as having less than 8 hours of sleep. I am a growing child and I need sleep to grow up.

Seriously, I have been busy trying to set-up my my new weblog and for the past 7 hours that I have been sitting in front of this computer, I have only managed to write 1 article. Very unacceptable.

It’s 10 pm now, and I’ll be going to bed in a couple of minutes just to wake up again at 3 am to prepare for work. On with the vicious cycle I have to forcibly follow to feed myself and family, and to pay for the internet and electricity so I could blog. My mind is tired and I don’t think I am making sense. The End.

Bilang ng buwan kung gaano kami katagal hindi nakapasok ng sinehan. Baka itanong nyo kung bakit tumagal ng ganito, ang sagot e isang makulit na bata pa rin. Hehe. Hindi kasi ako nanonood mag isa at sinisiguro kong kasama ko lagi si Pau.

Excuse me po. Sa totoo lang hirap na hirap ako magsulat sa tagalog kaya pagpasensyahan nyo na kung minsan e napaka pormal at parang walang kabuhay buhay ang salaysay. Nyahahahaha.

Anyway, we just watched Kung Fu Panda and it was a good feeling to be back to big screen viewing! But wait, there’s more! The day was made much more special because it was also Zeph’s first silver-screen experience! Nakakatuwa sobra. Nung una hirit ng hirit ng “Mommy go home” sa pagkadami daming previews ng ibang pelikula. Pero nung nag umpisa na yung mismong Kung Fu Panda, natuwa ang bata at nakatutok na sa “big TV” daw.

Pero ang favorite moment namin ni Pau ay nung nasa training na si Poe (Jack Black) at biglang hirit ni Zeph ng “There’s Tito JR”. Mwahahahahaha. Natawa kami sobra. At siguradong matatawa yung bayaw ko pag nabasa nya to. Kaya kuya J, paliit na tayo ng tiyan!

Yun lang.

Mga 5 minuto pa lang ang nakalipas bago ko simulan tong post na to, nanonood ako ng American Gladiators. Mga 3/4 na siguro ang natatapos ko nang biglang humirit ang anak ko ng “Mommy, see Daddy watching bad people”. Sa mga hindi nakakakilala sa show na yun, sobrang pisikal ang mga challenges at para nga naman sa bata e “bad” pa yung dating kasi mukhang nagsasakitan yung mga tao.

At syempre bilang tatay, tinigil ko agad yung windows media player ko para hindi na nya makita. E di sabi ni Mommy nya, “Daddy’s no longer watching bad people”. Alam nyo ang sinagot? “See Mickey Mouse Mommy”… Mwahahahahaha… Mautak na bata, kunwari pang bad people daw pinapanood ko e gusto lang pala manood ng Mickey Moucse Clubhouse. Hehe. Yun lang.

…kailangan mong paluin ang bata para matuto. Usapan kasi namin mag asawa na we’ll try our best not to spank Zeph and train him to learn what is right from what is wrong thorugh positive verbal feedback. Kaso minsan matigas talaga ang ulo at hindi mo mapagsabihan, kailangan makaramdam ng sakit bago makinig. Kasi naman sinusuntok ang Tito nya, tapos pinapatulog na ni Mommy nya saka naman umiyak ng umiyak ng pagka lakas lakas. Sumaklolo naman ako para patahanin kasi madalas nakikinig sakin kaso isang matinis na sigaw ang sinalubong nya. Ayun, sensitibo pa naman tenga ko, nakatikim ng palo galing sakin. Isa lang naman, hindi rin kalakasan pero halatang halata na ang sama ng loob nya sakin. Ako din masama loob ko sa sarili ko kasi napalo ko na naman cya. Hindi ko na naman napahaba pasencya ko para daanin lahat sa diplomasya. Haay.

If you’re a Grey’s anatomy fan, you wouldn’t want to miss episodes 16 and 17 of season 4. The show is good on inidividual episodes but this kind of season-ender’s makes it more special. My wife and I had such a good time watching it that we actually thought ‘Could this be the last episode of Grey’s?’ because it was so darn good and almost all the things you wanted to see in the show was revealed (except maybe for George’s actual retake of the intern exams.

Anyway, I wouldn’t spoil it for those of you who are getting eager to watch it as well.

So we’re officially UK-Irish Customer Service Reps. And we’re officially on petiks mode. Masayang hindi. Masaya kasi petiks, pero hindi rin kasi sobrang nakakabagot. Siguro kahapon lang kasi hindi ako nagdala ng kahit na anong babasahin at ang dala ko lang ay ang camera at psp, na parehong bawal ilabas sa operations area. Ngayon naman susubukan kong maghalungkat ng librong babasahin ko para magkaroon naman ng sense yung oras ko.

Sa makabilang bangir, ginanap na ang aming shift bid pagkatapos namin mag punch-out at nagpapasalamat ako sa Diyos na binigyan nya ako ng aking kauna-unahang Saturday-Sunday off para sa buong quarter. Saturday-Sunday rest days for 3 months. Saturday-Sunday rest days hanggang July! Hehe. Woohoo!

Pagkatapos ng shift bid, e di pauwi na ako.Bigla ko lang naisip na maglakad mula opisina hanggang bahay para maumpisahan na yung warm-up ko bago ako sumabak sa aktwal na work-out. Sabi kasi ni Kuya Neil, ang fit na fit kong kapit-bahay, na subukan ko daw munang maglakad lakad for about 2 weeks para maka adjust yung puso at katawan ko sa bagong physical activity. At yun na nga, inumpisahan ko na kanina. Naglakad ako ng humigit kumulang 3 kilometro at ang epekto? Nanigas ang left calf muscle ko. Halatang halata lang na wala na akong exercise. So mamya maglalakad ulit ako. Tawagin nyo lang ako kung makita nyo ako sa daan.

“A WAIST IS A TERRIBLE THING TO MIND”

As I was blog-hopping tonight, I stumbled over McAngeli’s blog and read this funny quote which was probably derived from the other famous quote “A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE”.

Besides the line being funny in itself, it struck me as some kind of reverse-psychology quote that should encourage obese people (like myself, gulp) to work out for better bodies and consequently, better health. It’s like it showed itself at a very nice time because I have just started doing some exercises again. Though the top result when I made a google search was regarding a book about women’s testimonials on the society’s obsession with “unnatural thinness and artificial beauty”, I guess this quote is open to everybody’s own interpretation so I’ll stick with mine, hehe.

Anyway, my workout resumes this morning as I took the day off yesterday to rest my soar legs and thighs. I just found my work-out book which I bought when I was way back in second year high school hoping that I can still accomplish the exercises and gain the same results. For the record, I only stand 5′6″, but I was able to jump high enough to almost dunk a basketball before. The best jump I had was having both my hands peek over a standard height (10 feet) basketball rim. Those were the good old days.