Training in Ohio

After just 7 days of working under the EAI department of HP, I was transferred to the MDM (Master Data Management) team. This happened because fate wanted me to travel to Ohio for training. The duration of this training is about 12 weeks. And I left Manila on October 1. That day was the longest day of my life. It lasted for 36 hours since when I arrived in Detroit, it was still October 1 (PH time minus 12 hours). We experienced a lot of delays and were left by the flight from Detroit to Ohio (extra 4 hours delay). At least we managed to get to Cincinatti, Ohio in one piece.

The weather here is as they say: “Weird”. Each day, the temperature is different. One day it was below 10 degrees celsius, then the next day it became 20+ degrees celsius. So far, the weather here on my first week of stay is stable. It wasn’t too cold nor was it too hot. But they said that the weather tomorrow and Friday will reach 0 degrees celsius. Haha freezing point!

So far, some things I learned here in Ohio are:
[1] Game called “CornHole”
[2] American version of basketball (21 points)
[3] Eating salad (yuck!)
[4] Egg rolls = lumpia (yuck! I was fooled twice)
[5] How to do the laundry using washing machine and drier.

The game called “CornHole” is a unique game in Ohio. The rules can be found at this link.

Well, that’s about it so far. I’ll try to keep this site updated once a week. ~bye!

Lara – Come Near a Little Closer

Here is a song from the series “It Started With a Kiss”. I rate this song as 10/10.

靠近一点点
Come Near a Little Closer

默默在你的身後守候的我
I silently wait behind you
多想看你不经意的笑容
Really want to see your accidental smile
或许我的心你不懂
Maybe you do not understand my heart
我会努力让你感动
I will try to flatter you

在你眼中有多麼笨拙的我
I’m the clumsy one in your eyes
决不放弃追逐你的执著
I will not give up my will to follow you
只要你能再多些回应我
I just need you to give me some response
一个笑或点头全接受
I will accept a smile or a nod.

[Chorus]

能不能再靠近一点点
Can I come near a little closer
大声说出你所有感觉
Confess my feeling to you loudly
别再紧紧关在只有自己的世界
Don’t shut yourself in your own world anymore
温暖太阳为你迎接
The warm sun welcomes you

能不能再靠近一点点
Can I come near a little closer
能不能再勇敢一点点
Can I be braver a little bit
就算让我知道我永远只是单恋
Even if I knew it’s always a one way love
我也会藏著感谢
I will still keep my gratitude
笑著和你说再见
Smilling to you and say goodbye.

Ariel Lin – Lonely Northern Hemisphere

孤單北半球
Lonely Northern Hemisphere

用你的早安陪我吃晚餐
Your morning greetings accompany me on my dinner
记得把想念存进扑满
I need to remember to put my misses in the piggy bank
我望着满天星在闪
I stare at the myriad stars shining in the sky
听牛郎对织女说要勇敢
Listening to the Ox Boy telling the Tailor Fairy to stay strong

不怕我们在地球的两端
I am not afraid of us standing on the two opposite sides of Earth
看你的问候骑着魔毯
I watch your greetings fly on a magic carpet
飞用光速飞到我面前
As it flies to me at the speed of light
你让我能看到十字星有北极星作伴
You let me see the North Star become a companion of the Cross Star

[Chorus]

少了你的手臂当枕头 我還习不习惯
Not having your arm as a pillow, I have yet to get used to
你的望远镜望不到 我北半球的孤单
Your telescope cannot capture my loneliness at the Northern Hemisphere
太平洋的潮水跟着地球来回旋转
The Pacific Ocean’s tide whirl along with Earth’s rotation
我会耐心地等 等你有一天靠岸
I will wait patiently, waiting for that one day you finally approach the shore
少了你的怀抱当暖炉 我习不习惯
Not having your hugs as a stove, I still have not gotten used to
E 给你照片看不到我北半球的孤单
My loneliness in the northern hemisphere cannot be seen in the pictures I sent via e-mail
世界再大两颗真心就能互相取暖
No matter how big the world is, our sincerity will keep each other warm
想念不会偷懒 我的梦通通给你保管
I will not be lazy in missing you; all my dreams are for you to keep.

Work at HP

Alright, I finally got the job in HP. Starting Monday (Sept18), I will be working as an “ITO Support Specialist I”. Along with it came many many benefits. Some of which include: monthly free sacks of rice, employee discount, laptop, high speed DSL, and many more. Hehe I can’t wait to start working. ^^

Unfortunately, there is one setback. I still have lots of forms to fill up. Also, I have to get my SSS number which requires getting an authentic birth certificate. I had a problem there since they said that my birth certificate information is not yet in their computer database. Haay, hopefully they’ll be able to fix this soon.

Next Chapter

College life is over. Everything went well eventually~

We managed to complete our thesis, defend it, and submit all the final deliverables. So now I can finally relax. Hahaha no more pressure! ^^ Wheeeee!!!

But then, now that college life is over… what is next?
The answer -> work.

Step #1: Find a company to apply into.
Well, it just so happened that when we were asking Ms. Ethel for advice regarding our thesis flash presentation, she had news about the company HP looking for people to hire. So I volunteered to be recommended for it. Hehe (lucky!!)

Step #2: Send Application Form then wait for interview.
In DLSU, we had a contact person (Ms. Cindy) who is also working in HP. Since she was the one looking for people to hire, I was recommended to her. So I gave her my application form, resume, and transcript of records. After that, I have to wait for a phonecall from HP.

Step #3: Phone rang… instant Interview meeting!
Hehe I don’t know when HP started calling my cellphone. It just so happened that my cellphone was dead for about 3 days since I was too lazy to charge it. One reason was because my charger was broken and I had to borrow my bro’s. Well, on the day I charged my cellphone was the same day I received the call from HP. I was then scheduled to have an interview the following day at 4pm. (September 6, 2006)

Step 4: Find HP then Interview
The HP company was located somewhere along Ayala Avenue in Robinsons Summit Center. At first we thought we will spend a long time looking for it since we didn’t know the exact location, but thankfully we managed to find the building easily except it was hard to look for a place to drop me. I managed to get to HP around 3:40pm (early) and so I was able to do the interview early also (3:50pm). There were 3 managers who interviewed me. And one of them looked a lot like my uncle Abi. Haha I’m sure he is not him. ^^

Step 5: Wait for HP to call me again
I won’t write the details of the interview anymore. But basically, I have to wait at most a week before they call me up. If ever I am accepted, most likely I will start working there on September 18. ^^ Cool!

This ends my “work” story. haha
So… what am I doing now while waiting?
Well, I spent most of my time downloading Taiwan series (“It Started With a Kiss” and “Love Contract”). Both of which stars “Ariel Lin” as the lead female artist (so cuute!!).

So far, I managed to watch the whole “Love Contract” series and overall I find the story good. More so, it has a unique ending which I might as well not spoil here. On the other hand, “It Started With a Kiss” is one of the BEST series I ever watched. Unfortunately, it is still incomplete and is currently being subbed in D-Addicts. But nonetheless, its really the best!

Other than those two, I was able to complete the “Return of the Condor Heroes 2006″ series which has 41 episodes. It features Crystal Liu a.k.a. “Liu Yi Fei” (an angel). Haha

Well, this ends my next chapter post. I’ll be updating this as soon as more news comes along. ^^

Thesis + Bowling Tournament

What a week it has been. I’ve experienced a mixture of ups and downs. Good news is that my midterm grade for LITERA1 is 2.56, which is quite higher than I expected. Bad news is that we still have a long way to go with our thesis and time is running short. Tomorrow will be the start of another Bowling Tournament, and this time it will be my hardest battle. The reason is because I seem to be over-rated thus I was picked as a second player. Where I should have been either a third or a fourth player. So what does this mean? It means that I have no chance in winning unless I average 160+. This is bad. Hehehe

Hmm.. so far, in my weekly practice of bowling… my average varies. It sometimes goes up to 145+, but can go down to as low as 115+. I’m really quite inconsistent, but at least I can get fired up and play a 160+ average. It all depends on the mood and some luck. ^^

It has been a while since I last blogged here. Mostly the reason is because I have been doing my documentation in thesis. Its been quite tiring since I really hate doing that. Its just that I have no choice. Hehe I guess these days, the only thing that keeps me going is my desire to watch the “Return of Condor Heroes 2006″. I have just finished watching episode 28 before I started blogging this. Hehe ^^ many thanks to “chiisana_tantei” and the d-addicts sub teams for this. ^^

Final Poster + Next Step

Finally, the term paper for our LITERA1 is over. As my movie ad, I have used this poster made using Adobe Photoshop and with the help of my sister Michelle. ^^ Though I can’t say that its one of the best as compared to my classmates’ work, but at least its something I never expected to be able to accomplish.

Now, setting this aside, the bigger problem is the thesis. Our deadline for submission of documents is on July 19, and honestly, we haven’t started doing anything regarding it. Well, this should explain my absence for the next few weeks, where I may not be able to blog for awhile. Till then. Ja-ne! (see you soon) ^^

Thesis Woes + Badminton Experience

Today, there has been 2 major events that happened in my life. First one is the realization of our thesis. We are quite behind schedule. How I wish _____ (one of my thesis mates) would start realizing that and start helping out his “thesis mates”. I guess right now, he’s quite distracted. Hehe sino kaya siya?

Too many ideas/recommendations were thrown to us a while back in our meeting with an English professor. And most of those would cause a major revision on what we have already made in our software. Nevertheless, they were quite helpful and hopefully, we will be able to satisfy 90% of them.

Enough about thesis, let me move on to the more exciting part of this entry. The Badminton Experience. Earlier, this afternoon, Bash, Dotagod Law, and me went near Manila City Hall and played Badminton there. There were supposed to be four of us but Allen wasn’t able to make it due to an “appointment”. Nevertheless, we had 3 round-robins in a span of 2 hours.

Bash had the most wins in the 3 round-robins, collecting 5 wins. I had 4 wins, and Dotagod unfortunately had none. Law said that badminton is so different from DotA. He can’t farm opponents, nor deny shuttlecock. I totally agreed with him.

Nonetheless, there were some highlights in our games. Like how I was taunting Dotagod and he returned a major smash to me saying: “You think!?”. It was totally horrifying… I hallucinated with the image of me being OWNED by him in DotA. Another highlight was my 2 consecutive trick on Law. On my two consecutive serves, I shouted “short!” and he quickly reacted by moving away from the shuttlecock and it entered the box, thus giving me two consecutive points. Hehe it was really funny how he realized he was tricked twice. Finally, my last highlight was during the game I won against Bash. It was a similar incident to my trick on Law as I shouted “short!” on my serve and Bash, without hesitation, moved away from the shuttle cock. Hehe too bad, on the next possession, he returned my serve with a smash, thus ending my “tricking spree”.
(Note: Bash won twice against me. Thus making him the best player among the three of us.)

Well, this ends my entry for today. Hope you enjoyed it. ^^

The Warning + My Poster

It is confirmed. I have indeed failed our first quiz in LITERA1. I got 10/20… perhaps the lowest in class. Thus giving me a 0.0 for the 10% of the total grade of the course. Just a while ago, right after our class in LITERA1, my professor wanted to talk to me. So I stayed and got “lectured”. Hehe just kidding.. actually what happened was he told me that he was shocked seeing my performance. He didn’t expect that since I was a magna cumlaude contender. Thus he told me I could retake the quiz, but I have to read another novel and the quiz will be twice as hard. Then again, he told me it was still too early for me to decide on this… so I should be careful from now on.

Anywayz, past is past. ^^ This failure will be my inspiration to do better and be more serious in this subject. Oh, by the way, today is the deadline for our project proposal for our movie poster. To give you a background on this, well, we were tasked to make our own movie poster featuring real actors/actresses based on the novel that we read. The rules are: [1] we cannot use the same title as the novel. [2] We have to provide justification for the poster (eg. title). Thus here is my movie poster proposal.

For my “movie”, I shall have Dingdong Dantes as Adrian Banyaga, the heir to seven major corporations. Young, handsome, but foolish, all he wishes for is a life to live. Anne Curtis will play as Anna Villaverde. After her role as the Kampanerang Kuba heroine, she is perfect as among the powerless of the powerless. Quiet and vivid, all she wants is to have a burial, an end to a story.

Before I end this entry, let me give credit for my friends who helped me in this. Mr. Rommel Mendoza and Mr. Bryan Hong for the beautification of my poster. Thank you very much. ^^

First Blood! LITERA1 and PLDT pwned me

June 15, 2006…. the day we had our LITERA1 novel quiz. The quiz was able to make me “drop dead”. Hehe so far, I managed to collect 3 points out of 10. The remaining 10 points are still unknown because it is an essay, however, 99% chance is that I will fail this quiz. The consequence? Well, I lost 10% of my final grade in LITERA1.

Later that day, I found out that indeed our DSL connection was broken. I lost my internet connection till just this morning. What tragedy! I missed downloading the 20th episode of the “Return of the Condor Heroes 2006″ by one or two days because of this. Hahaha well, at least now its working. ^^

Hmm… it looks like Miami Heat has the advantage now in the NBA Finals 2006. Since Dallas Mavericks lost Jerry Stackhouse for their 5th game. Hmm… the standing now is 2-2. And well, somehow my pride as an analyst is on the line here. I kept telling my friends that the Dallas Mavericks will be the champions even before the playoffs started. ^^ Well, time will tell.