Probably on Saturday or Sunday, but not today, I will blog. I fell asleep at 4am this morning. I was actually monitoring two things. One work-related, and another, well, additional-income-generating. I was checking the best online college courses. I want to enrol for a second degree. And I had to wake up at 5:30am just to check if what I’ve ran at 4am finished successfully and I had to trigger another run.

I woke up at 11am feeling I didn’t sleep a wink. Weird. And then I saw an email informing me that the process that I last ran failed. Tsk, tsk.

Does throwing a laptop on the ground (then stomping on it) count as insanity? I just feel…. like a zombie.

Oh, before I pack up, let me share with you about … zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Late last year, just for kicks, three officemates submitted their profiles (with photos) to the Weather Tropa (in English: group of friends) of the Week portion of Inquirer Libre, a free newspaper distributed in the stations of Light Railway Transits 1 and 2, the Metro Railway Transit, and some select McDonalds branches.

After a week, they received a call for a photo shoot schedule. And today, it came out! Look!

Note: I’ve asked permission from them before posting this. What’s my blog compared to the 110,000 daily readership of Inquirer Libre? Hehe.

Wow, my first post for the year.

Anyway, remember the ranting that I did last week (uhm, last year)? About wanting to go back to embedded systems engineering. That same day, I met with friends for coffee. They were my former officemates from Fujitsu. Unlike me, after resigning, they continued on embedded systems specializing in automotives. (Note: we used to do firmware for car audio-visual systems)

Two of them are working in Japan while one in Singapore. They were telling me about the global recession and how it has affected the stability of their jobs. You probably heard about GM. It’s as simple as if no car is sold, who needs a car radio (doesn’t matter much if you can plug in your i-pod or your thumb drive on it)?

So yes, it got me thinking, I love and need my current job.

The other friend who came an hour late isn’t in this picture.

“There are only 10 kinds of people. Those who can read binary, and those who can not.”

Unlike most employees, I was quite satisfied with my work. The benefits are good enough, especially for married ones. And I can spend more time with my daughter rather than wasting time travelling to and from the office. But when it comes to “enjoy what you do” aspect, this could change my mind.

While I was tinkering with our DSLR and trying to figure out the lens we would purchase, I realized I MIGHT want another career change. I missed working with embedded systems. And wouldn’t it be nice to work with something that has to do with your hobby?

When I got married, I DECIDED I’m through with development work. But who am I kidding? There must be something in me that made me answer “Computer Engineer” to that slumbook question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” way back when I was just in 4th grade. Same reason I convinced my mother to enrol me to a technology institute instead of going to the national university just because I prefer the “engineering” over the “science” course. (No need to convince my father, he doesn’t want me to enrol to the national university. He believes anyone who graduates from there comes out as an activist.)

The reason I was so stubborn to take as my FIRST job a low-paying job in a Japanese company over high-paying one in an American company just so that I’d use the course that I finished on whatever work I’ll be doing. (Probably the same reason I prefer wash-and-wear hairstyle, clothes and shoes. But that’s another story.)

It’s like a little fire I thought I have long put out.

But like I said, I’ve decided I’m through with dev work. My current job in a multinational company meets the work-life (careerwoman-wife/mother) balance criteria.

It’s different now. Yeah, let me repeat those words till I can finally convince myself.

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Yes, this is yet another I-hate-the-service-laptop post.

My laptop needs to stay at the service center because its hinge was dismantled, and I’ve experienced 3 blue screens while I was creating the ticket for it (how timely huh?).

Anyway, I was given one service laptop. I find it nice ‘coz it has PS on it. Cool huh? The problem was there was no (client-related) application tools installed on it. So how could I possibly work? So I thought of installing the needed tools. Guess what? Nope, it doesn’t allow any installation from non-admin users.

Fortunately, one (newly-resigned) employee’s laptop was available. I grabbed the opportunity and told the Admin assistant I’ll be getting that instead.

Still I hate it because:
- It has no tool that I can use for queries. Useless. So I kept bugging the duty managers to do the queries for me. If it becomes complicated, I started bugging the DBAs.
- It has no communicator / chat that we officially use for work. Thank goodness for Yahoo Messenger.
- No flash player. Well, not that I need this for work. It’s just nice that when one officemate shows you a video, you can ACTUALLY watch it.
- No PS. Hmm, not work-related. Still, I hate it for that.
- IT DOESN’T ALLOW ANY INSTALLATION. Yes, no plugins!!! Ugh!
- SD drive does not work!!! Duh?!!

Service laptops are the pits!

Disclaimer: I’m using the desktop while blogging.

I didn’t know that a simple YM status could be very helpful. I am swamped with work today. So I have put on my status “busy validating”. Yes, nobody disturbed me today.

When I’m not that busy, I scan my list and check their status. I sometimes see funny and witty remarks. Some post links to funny videos.

And of course, some people post as a sarcastic answer to an equally sarcastic status. Who would have thought that a simple status can have a big impact on how people react.

This week is so hectic! Yesterday was our company Christmas party. Imagine I had to finish one document that usually takes up 2-3 hours before I leave for the party. We had to go there early as to avoid heavy traffic. Anyway, I was able to finish the document in an hour. Whew!

Sharing a photo of the desserts. I’d say yummmmmmmy!!!

At work, whenever someone has accomplished or done something in order for a certain issue to be resolved or a customer to be satisfied, other team mates sends an email to the team’s distribution list to say “Cheers!” or (Miley Cyrus’) “Bam!” to that person.

Since I am alone in the project, I rarely get one. The only time I did was when someone was assigned to do the pre-production while I do more of the technical stuff. She had BAM’ed me once. In the same way that I’ve BAM-ed her once (or twice) too.

But today, I’d like to give myself a BAM! Why? Because we’ve finally completed an issue which was 141 days past its deadline. Yeah too late but I still want to give myself a pat.

So Thea:

That’s all. I need to be going now to search for cheap auto insurance. I wasn’t able to research on it earlier because I was swamped with work. But obviously, happy with work today.

Yesterday, I was asked to do a simple task on EMEA shift. Since I’ve worked on ASIA shift for the day, I informed the client I will just go back online when I go back from a party we needed to attend to. So I decided to leave my YM on.

The help cleaned up the room while we were away. With her employment rate, she knows her duties even without us telling her. She called on the yaya to accompany her inside the room because she kept hearing someone calling her “Pst! Pst!” She was so sure that there’s a ghost in our room.

I laughed when they told me. I told them it’s the sound of my YM makes whenever someone is logging on or off.

Last Thursday, our team went to Canyon Woods, Tagaytay (again) for our annual team planning. We ate brunch at Josephine’s (again), dinner at Le Boutique (again) and breakfast at Bag of Beans (again). I kept saying again, because they were the same places we went to last year for our team planning. Not that I am complaining. It’s just worth mentioning. It seems that the team is showing some loyal traits. Or was it because everyone is afraid of change? Kidding.

This year, the November and December birthday celebrators were not “encouraged” to treat the team. This saved me much money intended for Victorinox swiss army watches, toys and cameras I want for Christmas. Who am I kidding? I am not buying those. I am just a cheapskate. That’s all.