I was a call girl.

I was invited to be a resource person for a class of graduating Industrial and Organizational Psychology students of PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philipppines), to talk about call centers and unemployment. To be exact,
"Call Centers: An aid to Unemployment in the Philippines".

Apparently, the original resource speaker, an Operations Manager from a big call center in Ortigas, Pasig sent his regrets at the last minute. Now, why me? I was asking Jen ( My aunt. She's 24 and a student at PUP) the same thing. Aside from me being the nearest relative to had worked in call centers, she has no other choice!

I was a 'call' girl. My uh, very umm, 'impressive' portfolio in this field extends to 3 call center gigs (for SmartPhone technical help, to BellSouth DSL, to JpMorgan) in just about 18 months! Yeah, I am a quote/unquote..authority in this subject all right! I'm not exactly THAT enthusiastic of talking about something not exactly my league. After confusing my bodyclock, ruining my eating habits, commiting 'social' suicide, and losing 15 pounds... (graveyard shift blues) I doubt if I'll ever wear another headset again. Why not have a talk on how to blog!, or do pressed flower art, or how to successfully bathe a cat? or stuff like that ?!?!? I only had about 6 hours to prepare, but thanks to google and my reliable PC, it was a breeze! Well, I won't go into details of my one hour talk. A lot has been written and said about this so called Sunshine Industry that is, Call Center phenomenon to hit Philippine shores. Whether good or bad, advantageous or not, I was glad to had been in it.

And based on the questions raised after the talk...I'd say I did swell. Even had a few students asking for tips and more information for their thesis. That was a great morning and now, just had my lunch... and I'm back.to.work.

I was a 'call girl', and at 37, I am, ehem, an authority(in my own terms hehe).

Mini me and thongs!

Mini skirts. That's what I have mostly. Mini skirts. It was a gruesome task of weeding out my closet and this are all I find. I've never really gotten used to wearing those long, flowing skirts. Well, if I DID, it would have a slit up to mid-thigh!!! Nothing really..just feel more comfortable wearing those minis, aside from my usual jeans and shirt. I always advice those who prefer minis to wear at least dark undies!! Yeah, unless you'd like the guy across you seeing something he shouldn't see (applies mostly to us who take the public jeepney to work!).

And speaking of which, I wore a new thong to work (har-har!)! I just hate it when I see a suspicious outline of an undie across your butt when you wear jeans. The only thing is, with the trend now of low-waist jeans, people do get an itsy-bitsy glimpse of what you're wearing when you sit or bend down a little. I had to ride a tricycle on my way to work but this time, sit at the back of the driver (I was running late, ok?) That gentleman of a guy already sitting inside the tricycle's cab didn't offer his seat! So, in short, I could feel the cool wind brush my lower back... and i just realized that I was in full (back)view of this guy giving him a little peak of what I was wearing.

Well, hmmm...lucky guy.

Feline Communities

When I checked my email this morning, I received a "Friends Request" invitation from Enrico, a handsome jet black copper-eyed Bombay. Huh?!? Oh, it was supposedly for Cotton, my tortoiseshell cat!!! LOL The invitation was from Catster, a feline counterpart of the likes of Friendster, or MySpace, or Yahoo360, etc. Catster is a community of felines seeking friend(cats)ship, part(cat)ners, or just looking around, well, you know the drill.


The community has the same features as any online communities, like personalized profile (yes, my cats have their pics and profiles there!), family list, friends list!, online journal, classifieds and even a very interesting forum where you'll find cats looking for dates (yes they are!!!! virtual dates, that is!), seeking advice 'which cat litter is better?' or just swooning over a new cat on the block!!

For all feline enthusiasts, this is a really cool feline community! My cats Tygra, Cotton, Jennifer and Zaturr are members already. Pity I don't have pictures of my other cats... they'll be joining the catwagon for sure!!!

Check it out. By the way, there's also a Dogster! (and Petster even!)

I tried..

I did a surprise move this afternoon. I invited Nikki to a movie. Though I lost hope already of any possibility that we can work this out AGAIN... with all my pride and self-respect already gone because of physical and emotional torture, I just got to try that perhaps I could make it work once again.

He accepted, but as expected, we never got to watch. Half-way to our destination, another arguement. He then blurted out that he just wasted his time and that he'll go home instead (he is paying rent somewhere..) I'm used to that. I'm used to being shouted at by him in public. He brought me home. I called the kids. Andee and Diego were oh so happy to see their dad. I left them alone in the terrace....

That was more than 3 hours ago. Right now as I am writing this, I am looking at 3 year old Diego, playing with the broken front wheel of his now dilapidated favorite toy truck. I can't help but smile at his handsomeness and innocence.. and how he would smile back at me. Then all at once, as if my world would again collapse, I can't breathe, I feel as if a very heavy brick got stuck in my chest, and tears start forming in my eyes, as Diego asked.." Mama, si Papa ko?" (Mama, where's my Papa?)

Which Filipino Food are you?

Lechon Baboy: Roasted to a crisp. The main act on
a Filipino buffet repertoire.


Which Filipino Food Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Yummy. Not EXACTLY of Filipino origin, but what the heck?!?! Still as delicious as it is loaded with cholesterol!
My friends insist I take this test...

This is "me". How about you?

Rainy days with ZsaZsa Zaturnnah

Finally finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at exactly 2:37 this morning amidst a really heavy downpour!. Yeah, the rain must had added a gloomy thing there because even when it was a beautiful sunny day during Dumbledore's last rites, it brought tears to my eyes. I was dissappointed it ended so abruptly. Hmm.. how long now do we had to wait for the 7th book?!?! I'm re-reading it again though (as i always do with all HP books).

Another one that I've started to read again (for the nth time) is Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikisapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah by Carlo Vergara (wait..I'm trying to think of an ample english title for that..!). It is a graphic novel (so that's what they call 'comics' nowadays!) which won the Manila Critics' Circle National Book Award for Best Comic Book (was that in 2002 or 2003?!?!). ZsaZsa is a spoof and affectionate homage to Philippine superheroine and cultural icon, Darna. For rainy days like this I would really need a laugh (what I got was a tummy-ache! the book was soooo hilarious!) It's reeaally a great read! (hmmm....smells of nepotism here...LOL)

Btw, since it seems like it's taking forever for Regal Films to release the movie version, Tanghalang Pilipino will stage a musical of Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikisapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah next year, Feb-March 2006! Don't want to miss that!!!

Ang sarap pala ng feeling pag may nakayakap sa yo!

"What a wonderful feeling when you're being hugged!"

Period.

Tagline taken from the latest Modess Feminine Pads with Wings commercial.

Harry Potter and the Half-Awake Reia

I apologize for this long delayed post (almost a week!) I started to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (at last! after being stuck at Chaper 2 for the longest time!!!) Thanks, Vicky... I was 'inspired' to really find time to continue to read the book LOL... wasn't able to update this blog! I have a few more chapters and I'm done. I would start reading when I get home from work (after watching Pinoy Big Brother and dinner). Placed aside temporarily my Cafepress stores and read HP till it's almost 4am!! Then I'll be back to work, half asleep, half awake.

"Ok, ok... just one more chapter then I'm, off to bed!" Hmmm...I think
I've said that more than 5x per night!

After that, I'll be reading it again from the top! (I always read HP books at least thrice-- can't get enough of it!) Gosh, the main characters have really grown and the plot is really interesting! More questions were definitely answered!

I remembered my first encounter with Harry was when we would have a story-telling session for my staff at Warner Bros. Studio Store way back 1999 I think. They would always kid me for my own verbal and animated rendition of Harry Potter (books 1,2 and 3) Tagalog edition! Hey that wasn't easy LOL but it certainly was fun!

Pretty Ballerina

I was rummaging through my desk, hoping to get ideas for new designs for Cafepress, when my daughter came in and asked me to draw a ballerina for her. Gosh, it seemed liked ages since I last drew! What seemed like eternity, I gave her the pencil drawing. God bless little children! They always appreciated little things. Andee was VERY satisfied with the ballerina I drew...(well, I'm not lol). Would've included a picture of the drawing here, but she had her nanny make it into a paper boat! :-)

Anyway, it made me realize that I do have a ballerina piece of art back when I was still in college. Well I found it...under stacks and stacks of dusty files and folders-- the work is 14 years old now! (am I THAT old?) Hmmm.... good thing it fits well on our scanner. So, here it is! Oil pastel on a 9x12 drawing pad, drawn in 1988. Wish I could replicate that..!
Never too late! :-)

Duh?!?!

Received this forwarded email this morning. Figured I'd share it. Since it was written in Tagalog, I've translated it to English. LOL didn't know if it gave justice to the joke... :-)

Where'd the peso go?

There's this great shirt in a department store worth Php
97.00. You've no money so you borrwed Php 50.00 from your best
friends and another Php 50.00 from your sister. How much do you
have now? (ans: Php 100.00)

You bought the T-Shirt. How much is your change? (ans: Php
3.00)

You returned Php 1.00 to your best friend, how much do you still owe him?
(ans: Php 49.00)

The other peso, you returned to your sister, how much do you still owe your
sister? (ans: Php 49.00)

You have Php 1.00 left. Now think... 49 + 49 ? (ans: 98) + Php
1.00 that's left? (ans: 99) Where'd the other peso
go? Let's analyze this:

You owe your best friend Php 49.00 plus the Php 1.00 returned equals Php 50.00; You owe your sister Php 49.00 plus the Php 1.00 returned equals Php 50.00.

50 + 50 ? (ans: 100) plus the peso that's left with you (ans: 101)

Why do you have an extra peso?

Blog this. Blog that... then fix it.

Whew..!!! What a day. Imagine to my horror when I checked my blog out after lunch today. The entries were all located (or dis-located?!?) at the bottom of the page!!!! WHAT HAPPENED?!?! It wasn't this way last night. Think. Think.

I only remembered adding a slide show script for my online store at the sidebar (nice job..pat!pat! LOL for me actually). Anyway, after 4 hours -- thanks to dial-up (scape-goating here) I was able to fix it. I had to reset the template and add the links again..GEEEZZZ!

Thank you Gel for chatting the time away with me as I fixed this blog. Also to Abner and Art, who were 'popping-up' once in a while to say hi and keep me company!

Christmas in September

It is September! I could've sworn there was something fishy when, on my way to work this morning, the radio was blaring Jose Mari Chan's "Christmas in our Hearts" yeah, it's September all right... start of the "BER" months (SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, DecemBER) which also signals the (unofficial) start of the Christmas season for most Filipinos.

You'll hear Christmas carols this early on the radio. Next month, October, you'll get to see some houses or establishments putting up decorations. Then in November, after the first week (All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day), Christmas will be in full-blast, and last till the first Sunday of January (Feast of the Three Kings). Better start that Christmas list!

The first Christmas celebrated in the Philippines was in 1565, when Spanish colonizers brought the holiday to the islands.

LOL that was the info I got from my 6 year old daughter, Andee (thank God she loves books!).