Marcus Can Blog

“At least you’re a happy bum” – from my Managerial Accounting professor

Exactly 1 week ago during our TSLEADER class, we had an interesting topic about Enneagrams. For those who don’t know about it yet, it is just among the many tools that identifies and classifies an individual’s behaviour. And while our professor was discussing about it and each of the nine personality traits it comprises, I began to remember my previous co-supervisors and scribbled names according to his/her dominant trait.

Each trait in the Enneagram is indicated by a corresponding number and each are grouped according to how and where the behaviour most likely originates from. (It also tells which personality one isn’t aware of and might be able to develop through self-awareness.) For example trait numbers 2,3 and 4 belongs to the heart; numbers 5, 6 and 7 belongs to the head; while 8, 9 and 1 personality traits coming from the “gut”. Here are the names that immediately came to mind for each trait numbers.

***

By some strange coincidence (well, I consider it that way) last Thursday, I was called by “The boss” informing me about a hotel dinner with the rest of my ex-colleagues. Other than the immediate appeal of the word hotel plus dinner, I soon felt excited at the thought of seeing once again the faces behind the personality traits. I said yes without further ado just before I hung up the phone.

***

Team 2 in Renaissance Hotel. Front (L-R) Edna, Rix, Rhia, Lie, me. Rear (L-R) Tammy, Alfred, James, Cocoy, Nedie, Amor, Lei.

And so as planned, yesterday night I find myself together with most of the Team 2 supervisors and our manager (with her hubby Mark). We started the reunion with a buffet dinner at the Renaissance Hotel’s M2M area wherein the group’s exuberant demeanor and excited exchange of stories and laughter dominating the warm and elegant place.

Merk with Monday night's performer Silk & Steel

Stuffed after almost tasting every variety of food from the buffet tables, the group decided to have some beers at the nearby Greenbelt 3 mall. We settled at the Merk’s Bar Bistro where we caught the acoustic band Silk & Steel playing. We also must have been lucky last night because we saw the actor-comedian-owner Richard Merk. According to him, it’s been almost five months since the last time he dropped by the place.

After a couple of hours getting entertained by the guitar trio, where Merk joined and rendered some great songs as well (I never knew that he’s a good singer until last night), we capped the night (or early morning) by having coffee at the Starbuck’s coffee shop along Macapagal Avenue where sobering up with a hot Americano before the trip back to Cavite became a regular routine for several night outs I have attended since then.

Now you know why his personality trait is 7.

***

Last night’s gathering was actually a farewell party for those leaving this time as part of my ex-company’s (funny, but I still haven’t got used to writing the prefix ex) third retrenchment phase. Despite always feeling and talking as-a-matter-of-factly about the whole retrenchment thing, frankly, I find it really sad to see more people going out thus leaving fewer employees behind until the next phase and until the (ex)company finally ends its Philippine operation this year. Well, that’s life, huh?!

Mood: 3/10 Honks! (TSLeader class cancelled today)

“A wedding anniversary is the celebration of LOVE, TRUST, PARTNERSHIP, TOLERANCE & TENACITY. The order varies for any given year.” – Paul Sweeney (as written by wifey in her card)

For reasons I can’t even explain and even didn’t mind researching why, June is the time of the year when most couples find it a perfect time to make their marriage vows in front of the altar. This month another lovely pair was added to that June groom and bride list – Rogel and Marivic, who were my co-workers from my previous company, Intel. 

What so special about their wedding is that other than just being invited, it was my first time to be among the principal sponsors of a wedding and that made me seated next to men twice my age (no pun intended) which Rogel and Mavic picked to testify as their witnesses as they declare their binding love and commitment to each other through the sacrament of marriage at the small yet baroque Nuestra Senora de Garcia church in Makati.

The whole wedding ceremony was simple but well celebrated, with almost everyone (especially current and ex-Intel folks) of the attendees knowing what they’ve been through prior to this day. There have been several break ups and make ups which during those times don’t seem to give any hint that they’ll eventually tie the knot. Thankfully, they finally did and I was among those who celebrated with sincerity when they marched out of the church as husband and wife.

***

For my wife and I, June is just as special – we got wed also during this month. Although I still can’t believe how time flies so fast which got us through three more years from the dreaded 7-year itch, being able to celebrate this year’s wedding anniversary together is just amazing…however simple our celebration may be.

10 kilos and 10 years ago

I don’t know if it is just me, but the funny thing I notice is that as our marriage anniversaries progress, we tend to give cards that are rather wacky (in appearance) than romantic. Proof to that? On our 10^th exchange of wedding anniversary cards, each just reflects how we see our relationship in the past years – that despite the challenges and misunderstandings we never forget to take time to laugh our heart out together. Didn’t they say that laughter is the best medicine? I’d say I’m a believer.

Here are the “lovely” cards we gave each other that made it hard for me to suppress laughter just so as not to disturb our precious 10^th anniversary wedding gift – our 1-year old boy.

Mood: 3/10 Honks! 

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Inks

Originally uploaded by louiemiranda

This is from my first (yes, first since I’m not fond of adding nor getting Flickr contacts although it has been a plan since I started using CC pics) contact – Louie Miranda, but I find the colors in this picture almost perfect. It could have been better if the lower left part weren’t overexposed. Anyway, it still is worth posting.

I don’t know however, if he has some creative commons photos that I can freely use on my blog posts.

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

I’m sure this is the sweetest email I’ve ever received. A contact forwarded an email prior to this with the subject: Krispy Kreme and with an invitation to click on this link: http://www.chocolatekarnival.com/register.php . I don’t know but if there’s one good way for a virus to infect my PC, it probably would be through a link that I just can’t resist like this. It is during this time that my sweeth tooth takes over my discernment and rationale. *LOL*.

—

 
 

To GLAZE more friends, click HERE.
And you can view the rules HERE

.

Verification Details:
________, with registered email address _________, you are closest to SM Mall of Asia.

cris, hope to see you soon and remember to bring a valid I.D. and a printout of this e-mail.

 

 

Mood: 2/10 Honks!

 

From jaxti…

This is a test of sharing pictures coming from flickr through Yahoo! Mail’s application. Well, it’s a bit small and it has to be clicked for one to view it from where it was originally uploaded in flickr. Not bad for beta (?). Next test will be posting blog using the WordPress.com application directly from Yahoo! Mail.

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

My wife’s home in Batangas is finally wireless. After weeks of tinkering with the configurations of the TP-Link’s TL-WR340G, it is now working and the house is now a WiFi zone. And how did I do it? Simple, after several weekends of googling for answers (and finding some hope which actually didn’t work), today I find a no-nonsense tip from a local forum – TipidPC.com. Here’s the instruction by a forum member named borg_ph that solved my lingering problem and that made the connection possible: 

first, reset your TP-Link router to factory settings:
a.) turn off your tp-link and press RESET, keep it pressed.
b.) turn ON tp-link and wait for 6 to 8 seconds bago mo release ang reset
* reset natin router just to make sure there are no misconfiguration.

Next, connect your PC to the router’s LAN port (maski saan basta sa LAN port)
a.) logon to 192.168.1.1 (use admin/admin)
b.) click Network, change 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1
c.) click SAVE

Connect H9200 to TP-Link’s WAN port and check if your PC can surf the internet.

 ***

The problem I encountered here was a compatibility problem between Digitel’s BIDA package’s Prolink H9200AR when connected to the TP-Link WR340G wireless router – which I find ironic that two brands having LINK as the common word don’t actually link to each other.

One time I brought this wireless router back home in Cavite after I got frustrated and consequently surrendered figuring what the problem is all about. But after seconds of connecting it to ours (which is also Digitel but a modem of different brand) it worked plug and play. That confirmed my conclusion that it was indeed about compatibility or a conflict IP issue with that modem in Batangas.

And thanks to the internet, especially TipidPC.com, I can now surf the net when I’m on vacation, unwired.

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

Late last night, while just several kilometers away from home and while cautiously avoiding a number of potholes that seem to appear out of nowhere (every night), I noticed a black car with its hazard lights on coming from my right side view mirror.

The sleek car has a low and wide profile and as it overtook me, I saw that it has this appealing 4 overlapping ring emblem – it was an Audi. Other than being fascinated at the rare sight of one lovely car, I was as well shaking my head (just as much as the bob head on my dashboard did) in disbelief while this Audi attacked the potholes and the uneven asphalt patches.

The Audi’s low profile, and probably the stiff sports suspension, made it act just like a stylus in a phonograph does – it went up and down, left and right as dictated by the bumpy and rough road. I don’t know if its driver cared less, but I was thinking that luxury cars such as this just aren’t meant for the Philippine roads…well, unless, he’s among those who are getting their car maintenance fees from the bottomless taxpayers’ fund. Hmmm.

***

Here’s another reason why an Audi, specifically the TT isn’t for the pinoy and more so to be talked about in Tagalog. Imagine hearing this conversation:

Pare ganda a, ang itim at ang kintab…pwede ba mahipo yan TT mo?
Sige pero wag masyadong diinan ha…bibigay ko yan sa girlfriend ko.

If you didn’t understand this conversation, good for you. If you did, fine. But if you did and you smiled…well, just call it an Audi next time.

Mood: 4/10 Honks!

Today must be a good a day. I started with a hearty breakfast of pancake (courtesy of wifey) paired with a hot instant coffee.

It's leaning, it's oily...it's delicious.

As if there’s one coffee god watching while we ate and who finds it pathetic that it could have been made better with a good brewed coffee, he sent over someone from the courier company, LBC. The delivery man handed on to me not 1 but 3 packs of Peets coffee from Vegas (via Bacolod). Wow, isn’t that great?

"Dad, the package looks familiar but the brand doesn't."

"Can I have this one tomorrow instead of my boring formula?"

Pure caffeine pleasure days are here again. Hahaha. Thanks again Keren.

***

The package was sent via my cousin’s friend (who also got some of this Peets) who is in Bacolod. I soon learned that he’s an elder brother of a schoolmate back in high school. Small world, huh.

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

“It takes two to tango” – Anonymous

The Monday morning and prime time news is filled with news about accidents, most of it tragic, involving motorized vehicles. While watching it on TV I can’t do anything but shake my head in disappointment that once again, lives have been wasted and worse, others are lost just because someone failed to drive safely – especially nowadays that rain has made our already bad roads more perilous to drive at. All these pictures of wreckage, twisted metals and bodies, blood and grief sent flashbacks of my own bad memories.

I personally had experienced a costly driving accident that hounded my wife and I for days, even weeks. Although obviously the fault was ours, it could have been avoided by the other driver. That split-second collision played over and over again in my mind like a bad sports replay. Even with the lack of surround cameras, I can almost imagine what took place from all angles. And as much as I’d like to forget it and move forward, I can’t help but still think about so many what ifs and only ifs: If only there were no blind spots; if only my wife didn’t cross the next lane; if only the involved tricycle driver drove cautiously knowing that he’ll pass by a busy village entrance. If only he had braked just in time. What if we weren’t used to wearing our seat belts? What if the tricycle driver went completely through his windshield. I could only ask these questions and more, and yet not even receive definite answers. And even if they won’t admit it, I’m quite sure that the other party had their own regrets as well.

Just like that personal story, so much similar incidents happened and sadly, still keeps on happening as if most of us don’t learn from the repetitive news. Let’s take a look at the recent accidents that we have either witnessed right in front of us or just saw on the news. More often than not, we’ll see that each driver will try to reason out and give their very best to point the immediate blame to the other. It is also very likely that each party will claim that they have the right of way and that one didn’t yield as expected. It is always a hopeless and frustrating battle of one’s word against the other but the real truth behind it all is that the accident won’t happen had ONLY one honestly practiced defensive driving.

It appears though that more of this will continue to occur if we don’t do something about it – like having the common sense. With the traffic volume almost increasing every year, despite the recession, it is expected that travel time will increase, people will rush, drivers will become impatient and in effect become more aggressive. It is when rush hour ironically becomes a time when traffic slows down and it is also when people’s heads get hot sometimes even hotter than their idling engines and it is these hot heads that will likely to blow off steam way ahead of their car’s overheating radiators.

So with such condition making a perfect brew for an accident, a fender bender at the very least, it is usually hard to pinpoint who actually was at fault. It is easy though to have our own prejudice take over. For example, an innocent looking female yuppie is likely to get the sympathy (normally from curious crowds AKA uzis) over a ragged looking jeepney driver during a traffic accident investigation. Likewise, it is also easy to direct anger to someone who has hit a pedestrian than to ask why the pedestrian crossed a non-ped xing zone in the first place.

For me, who has been into an accident, I fully understand that when accidents such as these happen, there are always two sides of the story to be heard – that is, if one is lucky enough to survive it and be able to share his. But whatever the reasons are, one thing will remain clear and certain; that whatever the results of the investigations (and media coverage) are, during these times there aren’t any winners but only losers coming from both sides. So let’s all help preserve life (ours and others) while on the road by driving safely, by driving responsibly.

Photo credit:

Brave Heart (from Flickr’s Creative Commons)

Mood: 3/10 Honks!