The WISIWYG Blog

I have been reading my old blog posts in this site, starting from the very first one, and I really can't understand why I just can't write in a jiffy as I used to. It's probably the lack of inspiration, the perennial problem to which I put my blame on to. Or it’s probably that I no longer have the knack for writing, having been separated from my first job as a writer. Or probably, there is just nothing to write about, although I know this is much more an excuse than a truth.

I really want to write again. And I did try a lot of times to post something in this blog, but I can't seem to finish anything. There are times when I would be able to create a great introduction, but can't seem to write anything after that. I have also completed some articles, but when I read them, they feel a bit bland. In all those times, I often feel that I have the brilliant idea for a good article, but I just can't find the right combination of words to make it a satisfactory read.

I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe, I've already lost the touch for writing... although I hope not.

It's nearly three months since I last posted something on this site.  And why the lack of any new posts for all those time? Wala lang. Hehe. Hindi ko lang trip magsulat. Walang inspiration. Walang maisulat. Or tinatamad lang talaga ako.

Well, anyway, I really had no intention to post anything new on this site.  I tried writing something during the Holy Week break, start rebuilding this site. The plan was aborted. There really was no urge to write again. And if any idea happened to cross my mind, I simply wasn't able to find the right words to share those ideas in an interesting manner. Kaya eto. Walang laman for quite a long time.

So why write again after all those time? Please read the title. Nag-comment po kasi yung ginagalang naming ACTION batchmate, nagtatanong kung bakit wala nang laman yung blog ko. And since baka mapagalitan pa ako kung wala akong gagawin, eto, magsusulat na lang ako. Hehe. And since pangit rin naman na magsingit na lang ng kung ano ano pa dito sa post na ito, sa next post na lang yung mga naiisip ko pang ibang isusulat. ;)

"New Year's Day falls on a Saturday." That's according to my grandfather when we visited their home for the clan's annual reunion. He's old and most of the time, he doesn't know what he is talking about. But just now, I am inclined to believe in his "New Year's Day falls on a Saturday" claim. Why? Because it gives me an excuse for posting my New Year's Resolution in this site a bit late.

Now, forward to the list. This year, I'm aiming to hit 9 goals. I think I aimed for too many last year and as a result, I failed a lot in making them become realities. Well, nine goals/resolutions are still quite numerous; but what can I do if 9 is the only fitting number that I can think of as part of the title? ;)

Well, so much for the introduction. Listed below are the nine things I want to achieve for the year 2009.

1. 50K at my bank account by the end of 2009. Probably not too much compared to many of my friends’. Some of them can easily save double the amount at half the time. But for a person like me who doesn't even have a bank account, save the ATM account provided by our company for our monthly salary, it would already be an achievement. My first stop: find a bank that I can create a new account with.
2. Pass the PhilNITS SW Exam. I failed last year, so I would be trying again this year. I crammed for last year's exam. Having no real time for studying due to busy work schedules, I crammed studying the day before the exam. The results were not too bad, however. I passed two parts of the exam, but badly failed on one part. Had the circumstances been different, however, I think could have passed the examination. So for this year, I would start by working towards changing the circumstances I was in last year.
3. Pass the JLPT Level 2 Exam. Of the three exams I planned to pass last year, I was only able to take two and failed in both. One of those exams is the JLPT Level 2 exam. And as with the PhilNITS exam, I would also be trying to reverse my fortunes this year. I miserably failed in the exam last year due to laziness--I failed to follow the study plan that I created.  Well, I can also blame my study plan; it was a bit too ambitious. So for this year, I would be creating a more realistic study plan and try harder in following it.
4. Zero tardiness for 2009. 2008 would be the worst year for me when it comes to punctuality. I also aimed for zero tardiness last year and I had been doing fine until the last day of the first quarter. In the three quarters that followed, my office tardiness slowly swelled to its worst. I blame it on the snooze functionality of my cellphone. Hehe. And to solve this problem, I would be aiming for a new cellphone this year. Hmmm. Haha. Joke! But it's not a bad idea either. I think it's worth a consideration. :p
5. 4 blog entries per month. I nearly hit 1 entry per month last year, only failing to post one for December. But that was hardly my goal last year. I think I was aiming for two posts per week—one post for The WISIWYG Blog and another for Dinozilla. But then again, I was too busy procrastinating that I forgot I had a goal. And blame it also to the inspiration that never came when my hands were itching to write something. So for this year, I'll just forget about timing. Whenever the inspiration comes, I would grab a pen and write.
6. A comfortable body by the end of 2009. This is far from being a S.M.A.R.T. goal, but who cares! :D I just don't have a good definition of what a comfortable body is. And as of posting time, I still have no idea as to what actions I would take to make this a reality, or if this is even achievable. See, I was aiming to lose 10 pounds per month last year, only ending up registering 10 more pounds compared to my APE weight last 2007. So allow me to be vague for now, and let me plan and try out different things continuously until mid-year.
7. Watch more movies. I can't remember what the last movie I have watched in a cinema was. Spiderman 3? Pirates of the Caribbean 3? It's either of the two, and I can't tell if it was shown last year or way back in 2007. I haven't been watching a movie. I have missed even the great ones that I planned to watch. Blame it again on my busy work schedule. So this year, I must try hard to make my weekends MY WEEKENDS! I must finish all my work during the weekdays so that the Saturdays and the Sundays would be all mine to enjoy.
8. Read 1 book per month. When I was new in the company, right after my ACTION training, I used to spend weekends reading fiction novels. We had no TV then and I had no computer, so my weekend activities would just be limited to strolling at the mall and reading a book. And since going to the mall tended to be quite expensive, I often opted for the cheaper option: reading. Though I have no TV set for almost a year now, that old habit of mine never came back. Maybe because I have other forms of entertainment right now, thanks to my laptop computer. But I still want to read books. And my action plan for that: Just READ!
9. Become closer to God. I can't remember how many Sunday masses I was able to attend last year. And I also can’t remember how many times I have opened the Bible last year. For both, however, I am sure that if I can count every instance, it would be less than the number of fingers I have on my hands. So for this year, I would try to be closer to God by re-familiarizing myself with His Words. I used to feel close to Him when I was in high school, but my relationship with Him started to deteriorate during my college years. So for this New Year, I would try to regain that wonderful relationship I had with God. My life was really happy back then when I was still close to Him.

So that's it for the 9 things I plan to achieve for the year 2009. Many of the goals were copied from the 2008 version of this post. Hopefully, I can finally realize them this year. And I hope the new one's would be realized just as well. I hope they would not start eating dust by the end of the year's first quarter, just as what happened last year. Either way, I promise that I would try very hard to make all of the 9 a reality.

So that's it for my 2009 goals. I hope all of you have a list too, and I hope I can read them as well.

And while this may be a bit late, I would like to wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

This is the speech I delivered at last Monday's morning meeting, with the exception of realization number 5, which was omitted to prevent any commotion inside the office. :p

In less than one year, I have been involved in three performances.  The first was on the AWS Christmas Party last December; the second was on the Company Outing last May; and the last was on the cheer dancing competition of the recently concluded AWS Sports Fest.  We won on two; we’ve lost in one.  And from those wins and loses, I have realized five things that I would want to share with you.

1. “Many” works better than “few”

A group of people swaying altogether rhythmically, no matter how simple the dance steps, looks far better than two or three people performing the best they can on stage.  On our two wins, the number of people who planned out the act equaled the number of people who performed the act.  And the result was far better than what we had on our only loss, where a lot of minds planned the act but only a few were willing to do the act itself.  There is magic in “many” that can never be achieved by a few.

2. Don’t complicate things too much

Stick with the simple and everybody understands.  Stick with the intricate and everybody gets bored, if not confused.  On both of our winning performances, we did nothing but the basic stuff.  Simple dance steps that everyone can perform, a plot that everybody can understand, and a shower of comic moves that everybody can laugh at.  It’s the simple things that matter. It’s the simple things that people appreciate.

3. The audiences’ satisfaction is your goal, not the prize

To win the grand prize—that was our goal during the planning stage of the company outing presentation.  And we never did get any closer to that goal.  On the contrary, we never planned to win on the cheer dance and Christmas party performances.  What was our goal during those two instances?  Our goal was that sometime during our performance, we would hear a few laughs, a few cheers, and a few claps.  On both cases, we achieved our goal.  The grand prize was just the bonus.

4. Prioritize enjoying over winning

We were too stressed out during our performance in Dos Palmas.  We were targeting the first place, and that in itself is enough to pressure us.  The pressure got even higher when after a minute of our performance, we could hear nothing but the deafening silence of the crowd.  No laughs, no claps, no nothing.  All of this is the exact opposite of the two other performances we did.  During both the Christmas party presentation and the cheer dance competition, all of us were enjoying.  All of us were pleased with what we were doing.

5. Basta Dev1, iba!

And as for this last realization, you can’t pretty much do anything about it if you’re not one of us. :p

A day after the PhilNITS SW exam, here I am writing. And just like the first time (FE), I again failed. One thing different though is that this time, I was never really expecting to pass. Not before the exam, and not after it. I knew that I'll fail. And the exam is never really the reason why this post has such a title.

Well, maybe the exam is a part of it. A part so small. Probably analogous to a period in the end of a paragraph.

The title speaks about the first quarter of my year. Last January, I wrote my goals for the year in this blog, in the hope that if they're written for people to read, I'll be encouraged to do them. More than three months later, though, the goals I've written became what I didn't expect them to be... constant reminders that I am a failure. Well, at least for the first three months of the year.

In that post, I said I would be 10 pounds lighter by the end of March... I guess I'm 10 pounds (or more) heavier than I was in January. I also said that I'll save at least P3000 a month. I did, just to have it all gone by March-end.

Then, there were the goals regarding my job. 2 blog post per month for Dinozilla: I haven't written any. Zero lates for the whole year: I was doing fine until that 1 minute late at the end of March. Lastly, the customer rating thing of 6.5 up: my project is delayed BIG time, so I'm not in a position to expect anything higher than 5 (or maybe 4).

Then, there were the things that cannot be measured. Patience: I still hate long lines, jeepney drivers who wait for passengers who are still taking a bath, etc, etc. And as with my social life, I no longer spend all of my weekends at the apartment alone. Sometimes, I go to the office for overtime work! Great improvement, huh?!?

And to complete everything, there's the PhilNITS exam. With all the previous failures, the exam looked like an insignificant part. A small point, perhaps, to end a long paragraph.

Failures... somebody said they are inevitable. They are a part of life, so to speak. And in a statement that can allow you to let all the anger and frustration out, you can just shout "S**t happens!", then move on.

But that's the good thing about it. You can move on. I can move on. Or to restate it properly, I SHOULD move on. The PhilNITS exam may have ended the paragraph, but that was just the first. There are three quarters more left for my goals to find their end. Three more paragraphs to change the ambience set by the first. 9 more months to prove that the setbacks of the first three won't hinder the realization of my goals.

What's done has been done. There's nothing more that I can do about it. But there's a future ahead of me, and whether it would be bright or dull all depends on me. I know what I must do. I just hope that I have enough will and discipline to do it.

In the absence of anything new to post, and while waiting for all the materials I need for the February edition of my End of the Month Report (naghahanap pa po ng pics), I will be posting this Hurt Survey. Kung sa anime, this part would be a filler. Naisip ko lang i-post.

Anyway, I found this survey on maida's blog, which she copied from sally's blog, which she got from her bulletin... and the list goes on :p And since wala na akong maisip na pampahaba pa dito sa introduction ko, eto na yung result ng survey na sinagutan ko:

 The Hurt Survey

1. Would you kiss the last person you kissed, again?
-sadly, no person as such exists at the moment

2. Have you told anyone you'd marry them?
-no

3. Have you ever liked someone so much that it hurts?
-yes

4. Have you ever made a bf/gf cry?
-d ko talaga alam kung bakit ko kinopya ang survey na ito... never had a gf

5. Are you happier single or in a relationship?
-I've been single for 25 years, so I think I'll be happy to try the other thing

6. Have you ever told someone you loved them and didn't mean it?
-i don't think so

7. Have you ever had your heart broken?
-yup... surprising answer for a guy who has been single for all his life?

8. Have you ever broken someone else's heart?
-nope

9. Do you still talk to your exes?
-hindi pa nga ako nagkaka-gf

10. Last time you kissed someone?
-makulit ka rin, ano?

11. If you could go back in time and change things, would you?
-probably

12. Do you think you are a good bf/gf?
-i could be :D

13. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
-yes (kung pwede pa nga humirit ng third chance :D)

14. Have u ever liked anyone else's bf/gf?
-hmmmm... tabun... can't remember (teka, naalala ko na... oo pala :D)

15. Like anyone right now?
-yup

17. Does that person like you back?
-in my dreams... wahehe

18. What are you going to do tonight?
-sleep... that's how boring my life is

19. How do you feel right now?
-sad... discontented

21. Have you ever been kissed upside down?
-kung sino ka man na gumawa ng survey na ito, namumuro ka na talaga... :p

22. What would you like to say to one person on your mind?
-would you be my special someone? (p***k naman, bakit kasi hindi na lang sabihin ng harapan! sorry po, pinapagalitan ko lang ang sarili ko)