Sing For Stress

It was a hassle going to work today. There were no means of transportation in our place. Despite that, I'm still lucky that my dad brought the FX to school today. I didn't ride the van to Ortigas since there was a long line at the terminal. Instead, I tried to change my route. I was dropped off at Ligaya and rode a jeepney to Rosario. The way to Rosario has traffic as expected. When I was already at my destination, I tried to ride a jeepney to Crossing but only succeeded when I walked up to the church in Rosario. I was able to board a jeepney but made me feel uncomfortable. Too bad I wasn't able to watch How I Met Your Mother. Sighs.

The hours in the office seemed long since I need to program a lot of stuff. I haven't started a task from our sprint plan yesterday due to the other tasks I had for a different track. But fortunately, I managed to get hold of the new feature's backend. Thanks to music, I was in the right mood while doing work. It led to me inviting Ray to sing at a karaoke box in Timezone. He agreed and I am really happy that he is into it. Then there was an e-mail from our HR Manager that said he wanted to talk to me. What is it about? What did I do? Those were the questions that bugged me until the end of the day. This feeling of nervousness will continue since the manager had a long meeting and rescheduled me for tomorrow. I still have less than 20 hours to panic. Instead of thinking about what the meeting will be all about, Ray and I just sang our hearts out at the karaoke after work. It made me feel at ease and calm.

It is really a remarkable feeling when after a long day of stress at work, there is still someone who makes you feel comfortable and secure. So it was then, good vibes. Thank you Lord for this wonderful day.

PUP POSH wins in Showtime

Video courtesy of YouTube™
I would like to congratulate PUP POSH for winning in Showtime today. It is indeed an honor to be an alumni of the university that enriches talented and competitive students. Cheers to my alma mater, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. It is not the fame and money that counts but the quality education it shares to many. Kudos!

Hello 2012!

Two. Zero. One. Two. Oooohhhh~ AKEMASHITE OMEDETOU MINNA-SAN! :) In English, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

I was on the phone with Ray when the clock struck twelve. He was my first call this year. I was talking to him while jumping and shaking the coins in my pocket. Yes, I am still hoping to be taller. We talked for an hour listening to songs and making scenarios in it. We reminisced some of the good ole memories of 2011 and decided to make new milestones this year.

Right before he called, my family decided to pray the rosary to welcome the new year. After, we lit the seven candles which symbolizes the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. After 30 minutes, the candle which turned out to be the smallest will be what we will be given this year; it was knowledge and understanding (they have the same height). Fifteen minutes before twelve when we finished praying, I continued watching How I Met Your Mother until the phone rang.

2011 may not have started very well for me but at least it ended with happiness. Thank you for the new people in my life and those who I knew way before 2011 who stayed. May we all have a prosperous new year ahead and let us push to reach our goals. Cheers everyone! :)

A Helping Hand

Nowadays, I am not fond of updating myself with the local news. If not for the new television in our living room, I wouldn't be able to know about the Typhoon Sendong victims. I only knew about this last Monday, when I saw my sister watching the morning news. I didn't realize that it affected Cagayan de Oro like that. Somewhat like Ondoy... or maybe worse. It suddenly occurred to me that my teammate, Kuya Dexter is from the said province. I fervently prayed that his family were safe despite the massive damage. The number of deaths are counting.

Photos from Yahoo! News
When I arrived at the office last Monday, I immediately asked Kuya Dexter about his family's condition. Good news was that everyone are safe; bad news was his wife's house and belongings were completely washed out. He narrated the story during our daily scrum meeting and decided to extend our help to them.

Lately, Sir Aries, one of our HR personnel sent an e-mail regarding the company's concern on giving donations to Sendong's victims. I didn't hesitate to shell out my extra money to help the ill-fated ones. It was a similar move I did for the Ondoy victims two years ago. I look forward that what I contributed will relieve them from what they lost.

For those who want to extend a hand to our fellowmen in Northern Mindanao, click here.

Childhood Time Travel

After a long day of conflicts and discussions, I still managed to get home fine and safe. Ray insisted to accompany me home and along the way, thank God the tension was gone. Fortunately, we separated in good terms. I didn't change my clothes immediately since our dog, Cogie is playing with me. My sister told me that Cogie's previous owner sent a message to her saying that she will be getting Cogie back. Yes, that was a joke but I felt that everyone in our household would not want Cogie to go.

I finally managed to refresh my body before heading to the computer. The upcoming karaoke contest at Ozine Fest 2011 Anime Figure Special this December 28-29 still haunts me and I am having second thoughts on joining. I browsed through YouTube™ and played instrumental versions of the songs I'm planning to sing. I have already trimmed down my choices to three songs and I guess the next few days will be of decision-making. Then I came across Aya Hirano's live version of God Knows. I watched it a little then noticed on the sidebar that there was a video of her, voice acting Haruhi. I watched the video and on the same sidebar I clicked on her Pikachu voice acting. Because of that sidebar, I encountered the real Pikachu seiyuu then little did I realize I'm already watching the Pokemon opening theme. My sister joined me in watching as we reminisce our childhood; her liking Chansey and me liking the GameBoy™ Pokemon game. She asked the names of the other pokemons so I downloaded the whole image of the Pokemon list. We were naming these pokemons but upon reaching the 50th, I forgot the others.

Our reminiscing led to watching opening themes of other childhood shows like Digimon, Ragnarok the Animation, Cow and Chicken, Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory. Alongside with that, we recall on how we react upon watching these series. After cartoons, we watched the local opening themes of shows like Sineskwela, Math Tinik and Hiraya Manawari. Also, the tagalized cartoons like Cinderella, Cedie, Bananas in Pajamas and Remi. Then, there was this... the spanish telenovelas: Rosalinda, Marimar and Maria la del Barrio. I don't know what happened but that was really enjoyable for the both of us. It seems like we're close enough to know very well how we reacted back then.

Ray finally texted me to call him. When I called him, I was on this hype of naming pokemons. I asked him to name the pokemons and guess what; there were only five to which he can't name. He was so cool! I was teasing him that I already have a crush on him since he can name all the pokemons. We chatted a little while about Mirmo and buying pokemon figures before going to sleep.