|a-choo_and_a_boo|
i have allergic rhinitis that's been acting up for the past few weeks. as i'm typing now, my nose is stuffed and itchy. and so as my eyes too. dang! it's a seasonal thing for me. it starts to get bad when it gets cooler around october until the warm months of march-april come in.
way back in college when my rhinitis worsened, i thought i just happened to have a filthy, dust-filled room that i haven't cleaned for ages. when i had myself checked by a doctor, i was given steroids for a month and a big bottle of nasal spray of flixotide (i think...). it got better for a while but i was told that it would just mellow-down things and not cure it. it's an allergy not a disease.
it's a wet halloween once again. but more than that, i'm so enjoying my long weekend--quality time with the family, friends and the chuck, our family dog. have a good and safe one to all!
|of_random_ramblings|
i didn�t get tagged by anyone for this. today, i just felt like rambling about things about me. i got this from neng's site, Rackyroad.
1. addicted to anything with caffeine in it-- cola, iced tea, chocolate and coffee.
2. anything about photography. aspires to become a pro someday.
3. anything about traveling. passionate about seeing places, doing cross-culture stuff.
4. wants to become a pastry chef someday though being in an IT firm doing software development isn't helping in reaching my dream as of this time.
5. favorite tv program of all time-- Sesame Street.
6. favorite toy of all time-- LEGO.
7. favorite time of the year-- christmas. i love it so much that i can smell it.
8. my comfort food-- large fries and large coke from mcdonald's.
9. 3 techno gadgets i can't live without-- iPod, digital camera, mobile.
10. never been confined in a hospital for anything.
11. being a chemist, i've tasted triple distilled deionized water out of curiosity.
12. fascinated by the turquoise blue color.
13. eager to ride a hot air balloon.
14. loves to sniff a wide array of scents-- petrol, leather, new books, and coffee.
15. favorite rainy day meal-- mom's mung bean stew. i don't know why but i crave for it every time.
16. despises roaches (especially when it flies toward you) like hell.
17. an animal person. loves the company of animals especially those who cannot fend themselves against human abuse.
18. doesn't know how to drive nor has attempted to acquire a learner's permit.
19. likes to blog and hop.
20. listens to mike francis, aimee mann, annie lennox.
this is fun. i like this, and it's a good thing. i'm tagging the following people to do the same:
even if you don't get tagged and wants to share your 20 things, do so! �
|eating_kimchi_with_korean_girls|
this is my yahoo messenger 'away' status when i leave the office everyday. i don't eat kimchi with koreans as soon as i step out of the office but it's close enough of what i do.
for almost three months now i've been tutoring korean girls after work for three hours everyday. initially it was tutorials for conversational english but since i know high school stuff well, they decided that i teach all subjects instead (and still got paid the same). i agreed on teaching all subjects, cover to cover except christian living education or CLE (later on they realized why).
teaching 14-year old koreans is difficult because it�s a struggle to gauge what's going on inside their heads. for one, you have to make philippine history lessons interesting even if it means memorizing dates, names and places in english, spanish and tagalog. to perk up their senses, there has to be games incorporated with the lessons as long as it's their own. for them, jeopardy is considered corny even if it involves a healthy competition for rewards. but a modified, wild, korean-version of paper, rock, and scissors with hand and leg movements to the point of me dancing isn't and is considered fun. talk about the confusion that i have to deal with everyday. =) second, we know that we were kids once and we are just as guilty of the same things as they are. for that, they love to cram, do last minute things and purposely forget about school work (books, notebooks, homeworks, etc). what can i say? they are ordinary chinky-eyed teenage girls with interesting fashion sense who are conscientious with school and aspire to have good grades. i can feel their struggle to do well in school and at the same time search for a coping mechanism being away with their loved ones.
i am enjoying what i do. i enjoy the challenge of cross-cultural differences and working together to ease their difficulty being in a foreign land. plus, i always have liked teaching kids not as a profession but something i would do on the side. i learn a lot from these girls more than what i see on korean movies and telenovelas that i watch. i hope they also can say the same.
before i left last night, my tutee asked me the same question that she�s been asking since monday.
tutee: teacher, when are you having dinner with me?
dan: hmm, i can't tonight.
tutee: when? (whining this time)
dan: i'll see next week.
tutee: why not tonight?
dan: because i'm shy. do you know what shy means?
tutee: (thinks for a bit then nods her head. still lost for words, she acts out the meaning of being shy, smiles and bid the tutor goodbye.)
dan: (waves at her goodbye.)
for several times now, my tutees and their guardians have been asking me to have dinner with them. but every time, i decline and give some lame reason. maybe next time i will sit down, eat kimchi with my korean girls and understand them more.
|cluttered_thoughts|
|1:peace_offering|
i got an sms last night from laundry shop no. 3 asking if i'm already home. i sent out a reply saying that i was still out and would be coming home late. little did i know that the three owners of the laundry shop came by and left a cake. is this cake as a sign of goodwill? maybe in this part of town this is how they say they are truly sorry or they are preventing burning ties with their customers. anyway, it's known for a fact that a dissatisfied customer will share such experience with ten others while a happy camper will share it with only one person. i didn't get to talk nor meet with them anymore but most importantly i think i know what this meant. i sent them another sms thanking them for the gesture.
being sorry seems to be the hardest thing to say, but there are definitely ways of showing it.
|2:fortune_in.a_cookie|
today i passed by the convenience store near my office and bought my fortune for the week. (note to self: i should routinely buy my fortune cookie on a weekly basis. anyway, it doesn't tell me my fortune but just something profoundly proverbial. and it's a good thing.) i liked what it said in it so i'm opted to share it here. after reading it, i got hungry and ate the fortune cookie shell.
A kind word is like a perfume. If we spray on others, a couple of drops will stay with us.
it's not exactly good english but you get the drift of what it means.
|3:not_another_award|
they've done it once more! etelecare global solutions won the Employer of the Year award from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP). i'm so happy, joy, joy. this is my company of choice in the service industry. they have truly earned their mark. read the article from this link.
|vulnerability|
it becomes frustrating and outright disappointing when there are people around you or events that transpire that pull you down or suck the life out of you. you wake up one day filled with optimism and hope that this will turn out to be the very best day of your life (or at least have an outlook that it will be) but untoward incidents just cause things not to go your way as you hoped it. you try to fight it, but you lose in the end. maybe because you simply get tired of fighting back all the time or you're not the fighting kind. maybe you�re just vulnerable and succumbed to defeat.
i know there will be better days. on different day than today, i will make a different choice. but for now, it's time for me to do some damage control and turn things around for the best.
|disaster_at_the_cleaners|
i've heard a lot of horrific stories such as disasters at the cleaners. now here's my two cents on a so-called start up laundry shop near my place. i know so little on clothes washing; i'm no guru that's why i leave it to the experts.
ever since i moved out to an apartment in makati last april, i never had a problem with the washers. the 'lavandera ko' along reposo took care of my laundry and i had no qualms with how they handled it. they charged a lot more but i got excellent service and they really took good care of my stuff. if you're a bit OC with your clothes like me, they'll follow your instructions to the dot. being a first time laundry shop patron, i thought paying that much was the usual rate but i didn't complain because i was happy.
i moved to another apartment least september and 'lavandera ko' was too far for me to bring my clothes for washing. i looked for laundry shops at the lower floors of citiland 8, 9 and citiland executive towers and learned that there were a lot of them and it's cheaper per kilo of wash load and they do laundry pick-ups and deliveries as well so i tried one thinking how different would it be with 'lavandera ko'. little did i know of things to come.
laundry shop no. 1
they failed to finish washing my clothes within the time they specified and gave tons of excuses. my week's worth of work clothes that i sent over on saturday for washing was delivered wednesday of the following week. it's just wash-dry-fold, nothing more. lavandera ko can do all these overnight.
laundry shop no. 2
after having my clothes delivered, i noticed black specks of stain on my long-sleeved shirts, undershirts, pants-- all over. i decided not to go back to them anymore.
laundry shop no. 3
i noticed bleach stains on the lower portion of my shirt. when i informed them (take note: informed not complained), they indiscriminately said that it was not their fault since they don't use bleach on machine washed colored clothes. i'm not questioning how they handle their washings but neither would i go through all the trouble of staining my clothes if they are trying to tell me that the damage was because of my own doing.
i still politely informed them that they even inspected my clothes and they listed down all my laundry so how could they not see the stain if i caused it? anyway for the trouble that it had caused, they offered 50% off on my next laundry bill. i stepped out of their shop before i could get hold of a torch to burn the place down. i went home and had a quiet dinner since it was getting late.
i'm whining like this not because i'm asking for them to pay for my shirt. that's the least of the things that i want from them, nor am i asking for concession for my troubles. it's a good expensive shirt, my favorite in fact. there are only a few stores here that sell shirts by collar, sleeve and chest size unlike the usual S, M, L and XL size options where none of which i can fit into. i just wanted them to acknowledge the fact that accidents such as these happen and that they are truly sorry for it. i would still have been a loyal customer had they been genuinely sorry for what happened. but no, they still insisted that it wasn't them that caused it. *sigh*
now, i'm contemplating of going back to 'lavandera ko' along reposo unless i find another laundry place nearby and save me from another disaster. i've learned that the extra you pay for laundry goes further to their impeccable service and for that, less headaches. for me, it's just one of those things in life. we live, we learn.
|planning_ahead|
the previous week was a good one, not so busy but it wasn't that dry either. i know ninner wouldn't agree with me since she had a crazy week but it's something she ought to share on her own blog space...hehehe.
i recently discussed with a life planner my death and such unfortunate events of the future. early on, about two years ago, i already have made preparations for such because this guy wouldn't want to be wrapped in a blankie and thrown to the river for bacteria to feast on his remains as it rots to oblivion. with that covered, my life planner opted to create something that will compliment the plans that i already have. the proposal wasn't that bad in an ideal setting for a happy turn out of things in this mad world. it said that i pay a certain amount every quarter for 15 years and wait for 5 or 10 more years before i'd start getting what i paid them plus a certain projected conservative amount that would serve as to how much my money would have supposedly earned within that span of time. in essence it's a pension plan-- i save and i get it back plus more. since the earnings would be dependent on dividends that in turn is dependent on the performance of the economy (yikes!), that was where i got nervous. but since this company is well established in the world, has an excellent track record providing life insurance plans, pension plans, retirement plans, etc. and is listed in the nyse, i decided to get it rather than save it in pesos in a bank and earn a measly interest. everything's a gamble when it comes to investing your earnings but that's what you live for and the most important thing is, whether it turns out good or bad, you learn from it. i'm happy that i'm thinking of things ahead so it's not something that i worry about later on.
|globe_still.making.great.things.possible|
yesterday i got a message via instant messaging that globe has a cash rebate program of some sort for loyal subscribers. according to the information that i got, all i had to do was to send an sms by typing 'CLAIM' on my mobile and then send it to 2279. the information supposedly came from a reliable source and being the gullible person that i am i went ahead and sent the message and forgot about the whole thing.
when i woke up this morning, this was the text message that i received.
07.10.05 01.54 am
From: 2279
1/2
Thank you for
making your journey
with Globe. Based on
your total
relationship with us,
we wish to reward
you with P5000.00 for
account no. xxxxxxxx.
By
07.10.05 01:54 am
From: 2279
2/2
claiming this, your
account will be locked
for 1 year/s. Reply
GO to confirm claim.
my mind was still wandering in la-la land so it was only when i got to work that i decided to call globe to check what this was all about. after i punched in the numbers, i was told via the ivr that i am qualified for the 'globe for call rewards program'. whoa! this turned out to be real good news anyway. no scam whatsoever.
sidenote: i've been a loyal subscriber since college, i should be well qualified!
while waiting on queue for about 5 minutes and verifying tons of info the csr politely explained to me my rebate options and so i opted to use it as credits for my billing. she said i can get it via g-cash or use it to upgrade my phone to a newer one. the g-cash thing i wasn't interested about but i asked about the phone upgrading scheme. she offered phones slightly above Php5000 but none of which appealed to me. i was hoping she can give me a real great deal on their high-end phones but they'll just slash Php5000 from the srp or offer paylite options. still happy with the good news, i just used it to add to my payments for the next 12 months.
even though this would be the case, in these hard and trying times, i'm glad globe can still offer these things to the people that matter the most- their customers. and for that, i'm one happy camper!
|drooling_over_the_ibook_g4|
i want this so bad that i can almost taste it. i want one, i want, i want.
i've been reading a lot about the iBook and there's nothing that says anything bad about this to-drool-over toy. this is too good to be true, i've got to have one, hehehe.
|bali_blasts_again|
Twelve dead as Bali hit by blasts
At least 12 people have been killed in a series of explosions on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Many others were reported to have been injured in the blasts at Kuta beach - the area most popular with Western tourists - and at Jimbaran beach.
There is no firm word yet on what caused the blasts which happened just before 2000 local time (1200 GMT).
Nearly three years ago, 202 people died in nightclub bomb attacks in Kuta that were blamed on Islamic extremists.
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told the BBC there had been two explosions at Jimbaran and another in Kuta, within about 10 minutes.
He said the Kuta blast "took place in a very crowded area, so obviously if it is confirmed as a bomb, then it is aimed at causing as many casualties and victims as possible, it would appear."
A British tourist who was in a building next door to a restaurant that was hit in Kuta said there was a "thunderous boom" that caused all the shop's windows to blow out.
"It was just chaos," Daniel Martin told the BBC.
He said there were people lying in the streets with serious injuries, with everyone pitching in to help.
A hospital official told Reuters news agency that at least 35 wounded foreigners had been taken to the island's main hospital. However he was unable to say whether foreigners were among the dead.
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has condemned the blasts, Reuters news agency reports.
His spokesman said he was heading to the island.
Warnings
The blasts come less than two weeks before the third anniversary of bomb attacks that killed 202 people - many of them foreigners holidaying in Bali.
The 12 October 2002 bombings have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah (JI), - a south-east Asian militant group which is said to have links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
JI is also suspected of being behind a suicide bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 11 people in 2003, and a suicide bombing at the Australian embassy last September in which eight people were killed.
The BBC's Tim Johnston in Jakarta says the authorities had warned that militants had been planning further attacks on Western targets in Indonesia, although there had been no particular alerts over the past few days.
for more details and updates, click on the link. breaking news and image taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk and http://www.cnn.com
*****
these are pictures taken from my recent trip to bali.
it was only last july when we were in bali for a so-called vacation. so sad that bali was bombed again, one in kuta, the same area of the 2002 bombings and also in jimbaran beach where beachfronts are frequented by tourists for evening seafood dinners.
once again, bali is victim to terrorist attacks by militant groups but nothing is confirmed as of this time. kuta, known for it's surfing beaches is densely populated by tourists with storefronts along kuta square. within the area are popular stores like hard rock cafe, starbucks, bubba gump and the matahari mall are located.