PeNsIvE

Thanks to everyone who participated and came to the Baby Shower for Ate Anna last Saturday…it’s no longer Baby No. 2.  Her name is going to be Kathleen Alyssa. I’m sure Ate Kamille is as excited to see Kathleen when she comes.

Ate Anna, Cyn and I are so worried that you’d give birth before we were gonna be able to throw you a shower…ngayong tapos na ang shower, pede na hehehe joke lang po…

Thanks to everyone for helping out and for coming…I never realized that event organizing is really involved and I just found new respect for people who do this…but I still thought it was a lot of fun, especially doing it for the people you love and care about.

Connie, salamat sa help with the game and for coming

Cris, salamat sa mga research na ginawa mo about baby showers…ayos sana yung book na yon kumpleto kasi lalo pa tayo tinaranta…nakalagay kasi things to prepare 6 weeks before the party, aba e 3 days na lang ang party nung binabasa natin! Salamat sa tulong sa pag-prepare and plan.

Ayan Cyn makakapahinga ka na — Cyn, Nel and Kyle did a lot of work for the shower…Cyn didn’t sleep before the party, di na nga ata nakapagpalit ng contact lenses sa dami ng inasikaso…Kyle and Nel went with Cyn on ordering and shopping around the bay area for prizes and gift bags…yup, they went around the bay for 2 consecutive days…thanks sa inyong tatlo…congrats sa atin.

"A baby is God’s way of saying the world should go on." ~ Doris Smith

To dear Kathleen Alyssa, we’re all excited to see you…

Sa mga kasama ko nung weekend, yeah I know you know all about this — sorry kayo at uulitin ko talaga — besides the fact na ni-require ako ni Cris to blog about it (sa kanya din galing ang title). We went biking last Saturday morning and truly I was amazed sa nagawa namin…before, when I biked alone, I couldn’t get as far bukod sa boring e baka mapalayo masyado, nakakatakot baka di na makabalik hehehe…anyway, we started off from Catamaran in Foster City, went around to go to Beach Park but realized we went the opposite way. But we got there anyway, nakarating kami all the way to Oracle building’s back which is in Belmont — lampas ng 10 miles din na bike namin, oo kahit kumontra si Manny (Ate Anna’s cousin) hehehe …took us about 2 hours, the trail was great kasi may daan na din pabalik without going back the same route…

Sunday, the Biker’s Club also known as Tropang Bikers T.B. (ansagwa ata a) for short was officially formed. Yeah medyo "health conscious" ang theme ngayon, I guess I wasn’t alone with the sugar, cholesterol and blood pleasure issues. Alvin and Ann brought their bikes from Sacramento, gabi pa lang the night before mag-bike daw ng 7am…pero 4am na gising pa lahat at nag-iinuman…the whole day went walang nangyayari…biglang nagyaya sa Bob, magtingin daw sa Supergo ng bike rack aba biglang nagbangunan lahat…habang nag-ikot kami, Kyo found a bike he liked and decided to just get one than wait for the one he already ordered…ang sososy nga ng mga bike nilang lahat…siguraduhin niyong gagamitin niyo yan ha! Bob got his bike from Kiko who got it from Jun at yung sa kin naman e galing Kmart, (ika nga ni Rex Navarette, where the rich people shop)…siguro kapag ready na kami to go to more difficult trails we’ll get better bikes, so far nakakasabay pa naman kami.

We went to bike for about an hour to the Coyote trail near Dumbarton…Eric, Mitch sama kayo next time okay?

Calories Burned: 200
Calories from Sinigang na Baboy Post Biking: 2000

Well, I guess better pa rin than being lethargic and sedentary. I’m actually amazed at wala pang actual na sakit na lumalabas kahit sobrang tamad ko mag-exercise for the past 6 years.

I hope this is not just a phase…till the next bike session.

We went to LA last Friday afternoon to attend the baptism of Bobby’s cousin: Kyle Isaac on Saturday. Bobby allowed me to drive at I-5 woohooo! From Harris Ranch all the way to Lebec. Yeah I was still a little tense, but was able to do it…drove ~80mph for at least 120 miles, oo meron akong na-overtake-an and take note hindi lang mga truck hehe. Just when we were about to go up Angeles Hills, I panicked coz as lights started showing up…nauuubos na mga palayan, LA was getting nearer so I exited in Lebec and switched with Bobby. LA is a scary place to drive — next to Manila I guess. Yeah I know, it doesn’t matter to me, any place would be scary I guess, but that’s just what I heard. Going back we ate the chicken wings Tita Nene packed for us in a gas station, andami endless chicken. Bobby and I had fun at the road trip.

Our General Manager at Intuit for QuickBooks Online Edition, Paul Rosenfeld was interviewed last Thursday night about blogs on ABC7. He talked about how businesses have been using blogs to reach customers.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=business&id=3363529
(On the right side of page under Related Links, click “Watch this Report”…a new window should open…don’t use firefox.)

Paul is a huge advocate of Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. Based on the Yankelovich Study: "Word of mouth is trusted more than traditional marketing — ads are now #4 in rank and are considered more worrisome than nuclear safety"

I bet this is the whole business foundation of friendster as well.

Don’t mean to bring folks down on a Friday afternoon. My colleage just mentioned this today.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/19/BAbodies19.DTL

You’d think tragedies like these only happens in movies like House of Sand and Fog. Yes it is a scary world.

We went to sleep at around 3am, Bobby’s cousin Ann and her husband Alvin spent the night…woke up at 8:30am to get to work…I still feel a bit sleepy but somehow I feel happy, the week is about to end! Weekend at last!!!

Bobby and I have been doing a lot of biking recently. And yes, marunong na po ako mag-bike. Mabagal pa rin lalo na sa mga pataas, pero pede na May silbi pala yung mga knobs na nasa left and right at kelangan pala magpalit ng gear all the time, oo pathetic, di ko alam…malay ko ba sorry BMX lang nung kapit bahay namin sa San Pedro ang nalalaro ko nung bata pa ako…wala kasi kaming pambili ng bike e…alam ko sasabihin ni Kamille: "kawawa ka naman Tata" hehe…well, kelangan ko na talaga mag-exercise…I’ve gained so much weight these past few years that I really feel I’m no longer fit…bad trip nahihirapan na ako magtali ng sapatos, kainis! Kelangan pala talaga ang exercise…ok ok!! Eto na nga! Kelangan na din mag-diet…pero exercise muna ok…one thing at a time…

Yeah it worries me…ang mga blood sugar at ang mga blood pleasure (ika nga ni Kamille) kelangan i-check parati…we went out to Walgreens last night to get some glucose test strips kelangan ko daw i-monitor at i-chart ang sugar at BP ko sabi ng doctor…it made me more nervous when the Pinay saleslady said: "Na-amputate ang big toe and little toe ng husband ko"….nyah!!! What are the odds na siya pa makakausap ko sa botika…Ok ok…I’m taking my health seriously this time…and if I don’t, feel free to remind me about the toes.

Thanks to Kyo for forwarding this article. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050814-1.html

To Chef Cris Comerford, we are all so proud of you. Congratulations!

For today, I will break my rule of not mentioning work on my blogs. My annual review at work just turned out which got me depressed, these past couple of days…it read: Meets Expectations. On a scale of 1 to 5, (1 being the highest, how can that be the highest?! 5 is clearly higher…well anyway.) this year I was a 3.The sheet had more information on it but I couldn’t help look at those 2 words, and I kept repeating it to myself, over and over and over.

Every year in this company, my reviews have always been a 1…all my life I have always set my goals and for people who know me, this is nothing new. I never think of myself as special — I’ve tried to meet my goals through really hard work and lots and lots of prayers — and the combination seemed to have worked up until this review turned out…but what went wrong? After thinking for a long time about it, I finally gave up. I went and talked to my manager about it and asked why.

I guess I already knew the answer, I kept thinking it didn’t make sense to ask feeling stupid asking, especially what if he felt it was rhetoric? But I thought I would not be able to stop thinking about it, so okay maybe it wouldn’t hurt, so I did. He said it was usually common when people get promoted to a senior position, which happened last year — or maybe he was just trying to make me feel better. But it did. I don’t know why, somehow I just felt consoled.  I have never been more pleased with myself asking my manager about it, it wasn’t about his response to me but the fact that I was able to show that it mattered to me. I’m sure, for all of us, we want to feel that our outputs are valued.

We should always learn to speak up…especially on things we feel are important. Don’t let things important to us be diminished by the fact that it is not as important to other people. Loving yourself does not always relate to selfishness. We can never love others unless we start with ourselves.

Yes, it’s been a while since my last post. It has been a combination of factors really; other than the fact that I had nothing interesting to write about recently, it’s been really busy too…I’ve sprinted my way on finishing book 6, which finally I did last night, or this morning I guess. I just wanted to get it out of the way, but now I’m thinking what do I do now till book 7 is out!? I guess book 4’s movie is gonna be out soon, but I never really enjoyed the movie as I loved reading the book. Anyway, enough about that.

Ate Anna recommended the movie: House of Sand and Fog and the DVD has been sitting for about 2 weeks in the living room. We have not been able to do anything much at home recently, I guess all the adrenaline rush is gone with the house fixing - it has gotten quite costly.

So when Bobby and I had nothing to do last week, we finally decided to watch it…late Wednesday night. I don’t want to be a spoiler but just for those of you who haven’t watched it, don’t attempt to watch it on a weeknight — it is stupidly depressing.  Or if you do, make sure you have some other movie to pick you up afterwards and time to watch the second movie, even a nonsense comedy like Harold and Kumar: Go to White Castle will do (Ate Anna lent it to me after I made her feel bad about making us watch it).

I couldn’t believe, that after all the events these past couple of weeks that the headline of a newpaper will still read: GMA receives standing ovation on her State of the Nation address…I feel so sorry that I missed it not because I would have been moved nor agreed with her — but then I guess I would have the right to say that there was really something to applaud about or not, and just for the mere fact as a Filipino citizen it is my responsibility.

It is so sad to see what is happening in the Philippine economy today — the rich, becoming richer, poor poorer. This has been going on for ages…before, our reason was that we have foreigners oppressing the people. But they have been long gone…and we have only ourselves to blame now for what is happening.

I know it seems like an easy target for me to say all that is wrong as I am comfortably out of the country. I never felt bad before about the economy when I was at home coz I thought I wasn’t really affected. I had just enough to call myself well-off (which by the way is totally different from being rich) as a single person with no responsibilities to think about. I think I see the bigger picture better being far away.

If you see someone running for office who is so excited about doing it and is spending a ton of money on campaign and buying people off, that is a cue that the person does not have good intentions. Don’t ever think that this politician is good because he gave you money. Do you know how much government positions pay? Nothing! Even if they get re-elected 10 times, they won’t be able to get their money back, so why would they spend all that money to get the position?! Hmmm I don’t know.

There is a reason why it is called Civil Service, it is serving the public. But that has not been the case.

I am not generalizing and I’d like to believe that there are still people you can trust — I’d like to believe that Rousseau was right, that: Humans in the state of nature are naturally good, and bad habits are the product of a corrupting civilization.

The Philippines need a radical change — and it should start with the people. We should guard our rights coz if we don’t really care about our own rights, who will? People take advantage of the people who let them.

We only see what we want to see…and have reasons for things we don’t want to do. But if you believe in nothing, what will your life be for.