Work – Page 3 – Marcus Can Blog

Changes and Transitions

The problem with having a rather routine task every week is that time flies so fast that by the end of each week I’d wonder what kept me busy, why I was busy at all, and my frequently asked question during every weekend, “What have I accomplished so far?” Sad to say, my frequent answer is, “I actually don’t know”, and sometimes worse, “None.”

Having these questions and answers may therefore just lead to a conclusion that during most part of the week I had another dose of the SSDD syndrome or simply put, boring days.

Luckily, as I reflect on what has happened so far this week, my days haven’t been SSDD at all. In fact, some of the days have been interesting enough that I regret at the thought of not having the 25th hour for me to write about it.

Last Thursday, I attended what seems to be among the best Front Line Managers sessions—despite being the last one. Initially, I responded to this invitation as tentative because for some reason I got the feeling that this session could be like any commencement exercises that are as predictable as clockwork. With this thought in mind, I dragged myself just thinking to make the most out of it and at least end it with a perfect attendance. Little did I know that a couple of minutes after the session started I’d be as attentive as if I was at home watching the Mythbusters on TV.

Team FLM — Ooops, wrong forum. I thought I was attending a trick or treat event.

The invited speaker was a former employee of our company. Beth Arriola was once our HR Manager. Although her name was one of the most familiar during her tenure, it was my first time to listen to her talk. She discussed the difference between change and transition—topic I’ve written several times, without knowing that although being seen as synonymous, both are in fact far different from each other.

To explain the difference between the two, Beth referred to William Bridge’s definition of changes versus transition. Looking at the meanings of these words—with the global recession going on I’m sure that these two are as popular as Obama and McCain—one will see that each has its own essence, and by understanding both will help guide a person to which one he is currently dealing with. The explanation she had on Powerpoint was the simplest yet the clearest I’ve read so far (or I haven’t read that much lately).

Beth made strong points. She advised everyone to have the mindset that there’s life after work—whether one is leaving it after 4 PM or leaving it for good. She also reminded us to keep our external networks connected. And more importantly, encouraged all of us to never let our self-respect and pride (Filipino) down even during this time of uncertainty. Kayang-kaya nga ba kung sama-sama?

On my way home that afternoon, I did realized that I’m quite lucky that I changed my mind and attended this final session. Had I skipped this one, another opportunity to learn (both about the subject matter and the speaker) would have been lost. And did I mention already that I got a free book, The Toyota Way, for having attended all the FLM sessions? I can’t wait to claim and read it – I’ll have 365 days to read it next year.

***

Also related to this topic of change are the news that made it to the headlines this week. I’m sure that everyone by now knew that Barack Obama had a historic win over John McCain as the first black American president.

But I’m also sure that not everyone knew about the recent Formula One’s (F1) event, which despite being the last race for this season was nevertheless among the exciting. This race in Brazil had me and wifey sacrifice precious sleep by waking before 1 AM for the live feed on TV and just in time to see the race start after a brief downpour that added the element of excitement – as if the close match between Ferrari and McClaren isn’t enough.

Eventually, Lewis Hamilton grabbed the 2008 driver’s championship title by one point (thanks to Timo Glock or Toyota) over Felipe Massa. And this one is another historic race in F1 as Hamilton being the first black driver to attain the most coveted title in auto racing.

I now wonder, if Michael Jackson’s changing color? My bad, can’t help it. She said anyway that “It don’t [sic] matter if you’re black or white…” Ti abi.

***

Erratum: My editor-in-chief (that’s my wife) said I can’t have a mood rating of 10/10 Honks and be happy – although I argued that the more I honk at other drivers the more I’m pleased. Anyway, to avoid further discussion, I’m now changing it – 1/10 is the highest. 10/10 is the grouchiest. *LOL*

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

I, Sleeping Spider

Spider,Network

I attended a training last week about job search. Among our activities was writing how we got to know our company and how we applied eventually. Some of the choices were walk-in, wanted ads, and networking. I wrote networking on my index card and surprisingly I was among the majority who had the same answer.

When our instructor flipped the next page of the Powerpoint it displayed the statistics of job search methods. The figure showed that more than 60 percent of successful job search was due to referrals from friends, colleagues, classmates, schoolmates, neighbors and some relatives. The rest of the methods shared the remainder of the pie chart.

That session made me realize that no matter how busy we are, our network just had to be constantly visited or updated. From then on, I felt the need to open the communication lines whatever the medium may be. I need to act fast before I become a no-one among my network and become the weakest or at least visible among the links.

***

I am a spider that has been in hibernation. All of a sudden awakened from my comfortable spot in the middle of the web. The hunger and urge to check on what has happened around just kicked in. I need to see if the web needs repair, or if there are trapped insects for a meal.

Such fitting analogy. The spider and its web have elements that reflect a network. The webs are my connections and I’m pondering now if there was any damage done due to my inactivity. Have I been too busy that led me to forget to check in on friends? Have they eventually took me out of their “favorites” list? Hopefully, it isn’t too late.

The insects in the silky trap may be considered updates from friends, technological development in my field of study or even trends. It may even be job opportunities that my network has offered for me.

Isn’t it now a good time to spin the web.

***

Credit: Spiderweb photo by Jon Sullivan

Basic Photography Day 2: The Shooting Continues

I haven’t been so pumped up and so ready to go somewhere since almost a month ago. Today, after a short stretch coming from bed and a short prayer for a good weather, I was like an eager child waiting to be picked up at the bus stop for a whole day of an exciting field trip.

A quick peek outside from the bedroom’s window, the reddish dawn sky gave me an immediate confirmation that today we’ll have much sun to exploit with for our photography activity. My wish was answered as quickly as a shutter can sharply capture an zooming F1 car. Now isn’t that photography-speak already?

Topics for today’s session are exposure, shutter speed, exposure triangle and exposure meters just to name a few. And fortunately, despite the jargons and the technicality behind each topic, my tiny Canon IXUS 70 didn’t fail me. Every moment during the class, I discovered more capabilities of this small wonder. I began to suspect that it is an EOS in a small package. And as a matter of fact, I enjoyed using it during most of our activities, both indoor and outdoor.

So let’s get over with the chatter and more of the shutters. Here’s how my day went with the tiny Ixzy–my IXUS’ pet name.

Note: some of the images below were post-processed–cropped and/or enhanced to remove noise brought about by settings in the manual mode. Other than these, everything else is approximately 95% of its original form.

day 2 photo rivera — Mr. Benjie Rivera showing a student the point-and-shoot’s useful features.

day 2 slow down — Slow sunny crossing. Abet with his Beatles walk.

day perspective — Boulders by perspective.

day 2 rough lines — Three elements. An experiment with lines.

cliche gumamela — Is there future in floral arrangement?

wet leaves — Wet and green. Dew drops captured during the morning photo shoot.

Green long leaves. Another experiment with foliage and lines.

Framed macro. Experiment with macro and vertical lines.

umbrella hook — No wet umbrellas for today.

more cups — …and ended with three. All the coffee it takes to keep up.

pasta shot — The picture doesn’t not justify the taste. Wifey’s treat at home.

Fair-Weather Values

Today’s welcoming bright morning sun seems to have little or no help at all to keep the bleak news from coming out of The Philippine Star news- paper into our breakfast table. Today’s headline: US Recession Looms. And what follows in the next articles and pages are just as frustrating if not scary.

“Layoffs spreading across corporate America”,”RP flunks US think tank’s corruption indicator, loses new funds”.

Switching to CNN didn’t help fan out the negativity either. It just brought more stories about people expected to be jobless and horrible stories of starvation and hopelessness in Zimbabwe. These somehow gave me some guilt while we eat breakfast in front of the TV and with me silently counting off another Sunday of being employed. How self-centered can I get when other people faces far more serious problem than I currently have.

Several more minutes of scanning the paper and watching the news, I realized how still lucky I am — to have brewed coffee, fresh hot pan de sal and another perfect omelet courtesy of wifey. I can imagine, during that very same moment, someone in the USA is being evicted out of his hard-earned home for not being able to pay it; some people in Zimbabwe are thinking where they’re going to get potable water in the next few hours or worse, others might even just die trying to find one, literally.

Well that’s just how sad the reality is nowadays. Being jobless is the “IN” thing. Starvation is inevitable. Bankruptcy is as frequent as before. In short, let’s face it, the world is in crisis.

And being in such predicament, I can’t help but wonder if my personal values would remain as is. The dilemma roaming inside my head just can’t be ignored.

Would I still have the same morals?

Would I still continue with my advocacies such as anti-piracy and environmentalism?

Would I still strive to do my best to drive with courtesy in mind?

Would I still continue to use the pedestrian lane?

Would I still refuse to bribe cops and government employees?

These are few questions that have lately come into consideration. Someone said before that during the worse situations our true character comes out. And so with this I will commit that I’m standing by with what I value most. The answer therefore to some of the questions I have will be yes.

Yes, I will continue…

…To respect my parents and elders. I will still be around to look after them. I will call them as often as I can even if that means that I have to stop sending nonsense SMS to friends to save on prepaid load.

…To respect and be courteous and rational in treating cashiers, janitors, saleslady, waiters, drivers and other blue-collared employees who offer their services to me. Who knows, I might be working with them soon.

…To say no to piracy no matter how hard the urge to buy these things in the name of saving (at the expense of other people).

…To be courteous on the road. And avoid, or at least try not to, honking my horn unnecessarily. (This is another topic deserving another blog entry. I can see wifey smiling.)

…To cross the road using the pedestrian lane even if I’m in a hurry for a job interview.

…To reject the temptation to deal with any form of fixers even if this means delaying the start-up of my small business.

Right now it may be easier said than done. But also right now, I’m saying it out loud as my commitment. As much as I hate fair-weather friends, I hate having fair-weather values.

How about you?

There’s a Word for it

Words don’t come easy

I’ve been one of the subscribers of wordsmith.org and its recent theme has been quite interesting. Last week is about words that surprisingly refer to something you thought never existed. The words are so new that even MS Word 2007 does not recognize it, hence the red crooked line underneath it when typed. Here’s a couple:

hypergelast – noun: (hy-PUHR-ji-last) One who laughs excessively (like me?)

skeuomorph – noun: (SKYOO-uh-morf) A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip.

serein – noun: (suh-RAN [the second syllable is nasal]) Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset.

This week’s theme is getting more interesting – Words about words, it’s like work about work, which reminds me…

Working for the unemployed

I learned some time last week that there are actually jobs that cater to the unemployed or soon-to-be unemployed. Now how cool is that job especially now that the U. S. economy is on a rapid decline. And out of my wild thoughts, I came up with some other jobs that may thrive during this economic slump:

Psychologists (or shrink) that help people recover from one career transition to
Lawyers who assist to employees’
Plastic products They range from cling wraps, bubble packs, and to other packing materials intended to safe keep machines in warehouses. I believe they also make hard hats.
Paper Do termination papers and envelopes sound familiar? Yes they make those.
Paracetamol These days to come will surely be headache days.
Bloggers. You know what I mean, right?
Hobby and Sports shops. With some severance pays coming in just like winning lotto, new unemployed persons will come in throngs to check what’s for them to kill time while on a job hunt. Hmm. I think I need new badminton rackets this time.

Last Smashing Tournament

Smashing! At least I’d like to believe so but it wasn’t the case. Last week, we joined what seems to be the last badminton tournament for our company. No wonder most were smashing their way to victory. It was pent up energies turned into whipping racket hits.

I had my own reserved energies supposedly to be unleashed during the game but my partner and I fell short of expectations and got smashed instead. We’ve been playing for quite some time but not as partners in men’s doubles game and to mention that we’re placed in level B (reasons, excuses). Additionally, I paid the price for my 3-week layoff from badminton. We just did not have the chemistry; we did not have the play; and we got in the zone too late to win a game. Don’t get me wrong though, as surprisingly we enjoyed the later part of the matches despite losing twice in a row. Next time we will do better. We promised to play under the bum team. Is 365 days of practice, enough?

The next day of the tournament was better. My partner played again, this time in mixed doubles game. They played well enough that they scored a couple of points higher than the other team by the middle of the first game. Unfortunately, game pressure took its toll and both committed more errors as the game progresses. Another loss.

The second game was another story. They soon find their coordination and won. Not bad. I was their self-proclaimed coach. Hahaha.

Stressed@Work

August is just around the corner and I still can’t believe that I still have work to do. And of course, I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible. Contrary to what I’ve imagined how the 2nd half of this year will look like–after the gloomy, yet anticipated April 2 announcement–the environment at work still appears challenging enough, at least for me.

Although activity in my area seems to have significantly slowed down in the past few weeks, the pressure to meet commitments and deliverables remains unwavering as before. This means that feeling down and out for the count is out of the question. At some point, I may slack off a bit but I there is still the need to get back on track.

The latest stress that had me feeling a total mixture of emotions–from passing gas to almost collapsing and vice-versa–was the presentation of our 2nd quarter indicators to the next level managers and other key players. Its preparation started about a month before and the extraction and crunching of data almost took much of my time. What made it even more stressful is seeing some of the indicators in a down trend even if the reasons behind it are perfectly justifiable.

Presentation day came and I could feel that the 12-hour day is turning into a 24-hour vigil. Most of the time I get excited, jumpy and the butterflies inside my stomach kept on flapping their fragile wings. On that day, anxiety was all over the place. In fact, even those senior to me had the same uneasiness. If it is of any consolation, it appears that public speaking, regardless of the number of audience, remains to be a nightmare for most.

My turn to present came at last but despite knowing that the foils are self-supporting and show factual data, the fear of being questioned and not being able to answer was just overwhelming. If I remember it right, the last time I was into this predicament was when I asked for our wedding’s approval from my now father-in-law. I was focused yet awkward and the words were hard to come by.

Surprisingly, in the end, the horrible questions I was expecting from the start didn’t come. There were some inquiries, comments and advice that registered into my then half-conscious state but that was it. More surprising was getting a compliment from my direct manager who rarely recognizes a job well done. At least, I must have done something right. Whew!

I went home that night feeling proud and accomplished. I was even singing along with the FM songs in the car like I’ve just been accepted in a job interview. And there’s no better way to cap the day than to treat my wife and I with a couple of slices of my favorite comfort food–a Red Ribbon black forest cake.

With that event done, I now feel more ready to face another work-related stress. Whatever that is, I will surely know in the next days to come.

What Is Career Counseling?

Yesterday I attended another Leadership Enhancement Program and the recent training we had are tailor-made for us to cope up with the soon-to-be closure of our company. Yesterday’s topic was about career opportunities and career counseling.

I actually enjoyed the whole training and find it very interactive and informative until when it came to one of the foils wherein first line reads: Career counseling is NOT giving advice.

Hmm. That isn’t right. I know that deep in my vocabulary the word counsel is for sure synonymous to advice. So I raised my hand to clarify if I’m reading it right and our trainer without batting an eyelash emphasized, “Career counseling is not giving an advice.”

The training ended by noon time and my colleagues and I went on with our kill-time activities disguised as WLE (Work Life Effectiveness) activities. Some played basketball, while we did a good badminton until past 7 PM. But those positive stress activities didn’t shake off the counseling thing. In fact, while driving my wife to work this morning, I kept on thinking about it still.

Bothered, while preparing breakfast for myself, I juggled with the plates and our trusty Merriam-Webster dictionary and there it was printed in one of the pages: to counsel is to give advice. I was so excited that I eagerly finish my bread, egg, and meat loaf . I was in front of our PC after I gobbled the last piece of the processed meat.

In order to confirm if our Merriam-Webster hardcopy isn’t obsolete yet, I browsed through www.m-w.com . The following entries appeared:

Main Entry: counsel

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): counseled or counselled; counsel·ing or counsel·ling

\-s(

Date: 14th century

transitive verb : advise <counseled them to avoid rash actions — George Orwell> intransitive verb : consult <counseled with her husband>

Main Entry: counseling Variant(s): or counselling Function: noun

Date: 1927

: professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes

Main Entry: ad·vise Pronunciation: \ Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): ad·vised; ad·vis·ing

transitive verb 1 a: to give advice to : counsel <advise her to try a drier climate> b: caution, warn <advise them of the consequences> c: recommend <advise prudence>2: to give information or notice to

: inform <advise them of their rights>intransitive verb 1: to give advice <advise on legal matters> 2: to take counsel : consult <advise with friends>

Counsel equals advice or to advise. Boom. With those results and the fact that this top semiconductor company have some managers whom to my shock pronounce words such as freight like fright, sub- like sob and my favorite pet peeve, z like zay, I am no longer surprised that one foil in the training material may be erroneous.

Like a fighter aiming to finish off a sprawling and bloodied adversary, I typed career counseling in the browser’s search field expecting something that will back up my vocabulary. In a matter of seconds, several results appeared and I eagerly clicked each one of it and prepared to celebrate my victory over the foil item in question.

To my dismay, not one of the sites shows a bit of “Career Counseling IS about giving advice” to support my argument. Instead it listed common words such as assessment, aptitude tests, planning, decision making, development, and research. It was almost about everything but advice. I wave the white flag.

As much as I hate defeat, I came to realize that career counseling may not be just two words that can be discussed over a one-on-one meeting which in our case would only last 15-30 minutes every three months. If one staff gets lucky (or not) enough at all he’ll be in one at least three times every quarter. Career counseling after all is indeed a task to be handled only by a professional career counselor and if you’re not one of them, most likely, you can only advise. So is that first slide correct? Be my guest.

A Wedding Anniversary With Intel Friends

This week is our week as husband and wife. Initially planned to be celebrated as a road trip going farther north of the country but due to unforeseen factors from work and the weather, I welcomed the cancellation. So goodbye SCTEX drive-by. Goodbye Cagayan. Goodbye Ilocos. Goodbye Pagudpud.

The series of events at work added to the fact that majority of us are trying to make every bit of last celebration worthwhile made me finally give in to my wife’s request to allow her to have her production area’s summer outing fall on the exact date of our wedding anniversary. And so instead of driving hundreds of kilometers north I found myself driving just around ten kilometers from our home to the resort of their choice.

Around eight in the morning of June 26, we were already at Qubo Qabana resort. We scouted this place just a couple of days prior and it was a bit of surprise finding it better than expected. The area has good facilities. There’s a pool for both kids and adult. There’s an activity area readily available for large group of people and event. More importantly, the rate is affordable. It’s no wonder that it immediately got everyone’s approval just by looking at the pictures I took. Besides, it is just halfway along the way to work and settled strategically near Magdaragat (seafoods restaurants) and Quinta Court motel. It’s so easy to spot that one don’t need Google Earth to find it.

Most of the group arrived late but by then those who came earlier were already very busy preparing the food which overwhelmed those assigned in the grilling area. Being a bad cook, I helped in keeping the charcoal aglow that got me occupied for hours. There were enormous squids, tahong (sea shells), fishes, chickens and hot dogs on queue.

Thankfully by noon most of wifey’s team have arrived and all menus have been prepared. Other than the grilled meats, there were also a variety of potluck which made lunch time a feast. The table had chicken curry, shanghai rolls, salads and one of my favorites–bicol express. Too bad the alcoholic drinks came later in the afternoon.

The pool’s design is good though at first glance the flooring appears to be a disappointment because it is made only of white concrete. Surprisingly, upon closer inspection it is not mossy, it is not slippery, and it is clean. An improvement on safety may be needed though by posting a depth guide as it has a deep part at the center that could catch novice swimmers unguarded.

Obviously, we ended the day neither in a resort in Ilocos nor in a nice beach somewhere in Pagudgud yet we both enjoyed our ninth anniversary somewhere near together with friends and colleagues who seemed to have enjoyed our last outing together as employees of Intel.

***

Mood: 5/10 (Read this again on March 22, 2011.)

A Familiar Logo

This afternoon I was once again in the waves of ennui, surfing the internet trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my Sunday while feeling guilty of having to skip mass again and while also waiting for my wife to come home.

Emails checked. Multiply.com updates checked. Friendster.com scanned–not much friends here. Favorites list scanned back and forth. Lurked forums done. Emails rechecked again for the nth time in just a couple of hours. Thankfully I’m free from mouse to keyboard ratio recording or I could be sending red signals to the ergonomics guru of our company.

Not really knowing how to bail out of my PC’s chair which is getting butt-hot while I move the mouse aimlessly, I suddenly realized I was looking at Formula1.com’s interview with the recent winner of the Canadian grand prix, Robert Kubica. Having watched this race’s replay I must admit that it was one of the most exciting I’ve seen so far this year. It’s one for the books of fame and for the books of unfortunate events which by the way F1 races will always be I guess. Even Michael Schumacher has his own share of fame and shame.

In this race Lewis Hamilton rear-ended Kimi while on their way out of the pit lane that brings the conspiracy theorists like me raise an eyebrow out of suspicion. Hmm. Robert Kubica of course wasn’t one hypocrite not to accept the fact that he felt more hope when these two leading drivers crashed. It was not only his day to win but it was his day to lead the drivers’ championship with 42 points. His consistency during the past races eventually paid off and June 08, 2008 became the day for him to be in the middle of the two drivers in the podium for the first time. It was the day BMW claimed the most coveted win of every races. It’s the day their sponsors have been waiting for. Wait, something looks familiar in the picture. Ah, our company’s logo.

I’ve got used to seeing Mclarens, Ferraris, and Renault exchanging top positions for years that it took me until now to realize that right beside BMW’s logo is Intel’s. It may have something to do with the fact that Intel’s Philippine site is closing this year that I forgot to cheer my heart out when the whole BMW team was cheering and savoring the huge champagne during the awarding ceremony.

BMW and Intel’s win may have been late to be fully relished especially for us working for the latter but as they always say, “A win is a win.” Now I don’t know if I’d be celebrating next time if BMW takes the 1-2 position once again. Hopefully yes.

Go BMW. Go Intel. Greetings coming from a Ferrari fan.

***

bmw poster

When we had our pictures taken in front of the team’s mall display back on April 2007 in Suria KLCC I never thought the BMW guys behind have any chances of winning a 1-2. Now, I stand corrected.

What The F***

Be calm. No need to censor. But I’m trying not to say this dreaded F word, FATS. That’s because right now I’m facing a tough problem. Tougher than the impending unemployment and tougher than facing an unending oil price hike. It has something to do with my weight. And the horrifying number is seventy pounds. That’s how heavy I am right now. And that’s seven pounds more than my required weight.

In gym lingo, I’ve reached the hated plateau. No matter how much I do treadmills, weight training, and hopeless crunch and abs workout, my body just got bored with these routines. And like an employer running out of manpower, my body has posted a vacancy sign outside its doorstep. It’s accepting fats and calories like Vietnam is accepting all the multinational companies.

I know I can’t do anything about Vietnam but I’m sure I can do something about this weight. A battle must take place though to achieve once again my ideal weight as I don’t find it amusing anymore seeing our bathroom scale displaying a value higher than the last time I stepped on it. So instead of crying over spilled beer…I mean milk, I’d like to write about this new weight goal so I can get back to it soon and feel good about losing – weight, that is.

For me to be back on track, a re-assessment has to be done like anything that has gone awry or in this case what I’d call SNAFU – Situation Normal All Fat’s Up. Got to go back monitoring what I eat and when I eat. I have to say goodbye to Jollibee breakfast, goodbye to Burger King Whopper, goodbye to heavy dinner, goodbye to beer. The last could be the challenge.

As part of my reflection, I’m wondering what I have done recently that made me accumulate such weight. So let me focus at least on this past week’s activity.

Monday. As scheduled, I played badminton with a couple of colleagues. Although known as the fastest game and tagged by some as a good cardiovascular workout, I find this game as a false sense of exercise to complement a diet. Why? Normally, the heart-pounding and blood-pumping game for the whole day will bring us to a fast food restaurant to recover what we skipped during lunch. This last game, we found ourselves eating spaghetti and having a couple of beer in The Old Spaghetti House.

Fats – 1. Diet – 0.

Sunday. I was in Batangas with wifey to attend a birthday and a farewell party. The Red Ribbon chocolate cake and the predictable spaghetti were there and were looking mouth-watering as ever. I must have blacked out in front of the table but I found my stomach bulging and my lips colored brown and red.

Fats – 2. Diet – 0.

Saturday. Finally, I attended my first TUP-V summer outing after several postponed dates with my batchmates. So right after a hard day’s work (at least I believe so), I found myself worthy of good food and good company. Without wasting time, I drove my way from Cavite to Sta. Rosa Laguna; and a hundred wrong turns and a couple of hours later (thanks to the perfect map), I eventually located Dictado Resort where most of the attendees also got lost which is probably why the program started late. Despite the exhausting drive, it was fulfilling to meet long lost friends, schoolmates and other new alumni. It was also nice seeing some of the faces behind the aliases in the Tup-Vian’s yahoogroups. It was a ”tagalog-free” night and it felt like being home in Bacolod with everyone around speaking Ilonggo. The feeling of nostalgia is of course never complete without Beer. Lots of it. Ti abi.

Fats – 3. Diet 0.

Friday. Coming from work, I picked my wife at home and went back to SM to watch the most anticipated movie of this year – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don’t know if the peanuts we brought inside was responsible for my calorie pile up that night OR the film being the MOST boring (sorry, I can’t help but emphasize) Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg film I’ve ever seen. So boring, my metabolism almost stopped working. If I haven’t seen any of their previous works, I could have included them in my never-to-watch-films list. Watching Indiana Jones is like watching a chopsuey of films such as X-files, Tomb Raider, Alien vs. Predator, Armageddon all rolled into one. And that’s not a compliment either.

Fats – 4. Diet – 0.

Thursday. Failing to bring home something to eat after my shift ended, I asked my wife for a dinner at the nearby David’s Tea House. Meal was picked to have the least calorie content that we can think of. I ended consuming the dumplings that my wife did not eat. By the way, did I mention I had beer that night? Well, I did.

Fats – 5. Diet – 0.

As much as I’d like to add more days in this list, it’s becoming more obvious that Diet is losing the battle. I can imagine a fictional referee raising the Fats’ hands after winning the unanimous decision for the 5-rounder battle. But the fight is not yet over, Diet is calling for a rematch and I’m making sure we will win next time.