A Tribute to My Closet

What's with Number 8?

I'm referring to the #8 in my previous post. At first I really didn't want to tell anyone about it. But what the heck, let's bring out the dirty laundry and wash it in the open.

I have learned that there are more creative ways to launder (laundry, heh) steal creatively acquire enjoy the money that is not rightfully yours. Meh!

Step 1. Bloat your budget
Step 2. Submit budget to international funding agencies together with nice presentation
Step 3. Justify outrageous budget. This is actually easier than it sounds.
Step 4. Implement project
Step 5. Encourage staff to cut expenses, "tighten the belt". Meh!
Step 6. Cutting expenses = under-spending = excess money
Step 7. Re-align under-spent money to Line Item: International Travel or International Training
Step 8. Sign up for a convention in Africa. Put the expenses in Line Item: International Training.
Step 9. Make up some lousy excuse why you need to be in Africa for 10 days for a 5-day conference. Don't forget to make a nice presentation.
Step 10. Mingle with the zebras.

Folks have a nice trip to Africa. Look out for hyenas. Bring me back a keychain, okeis. Oh yeah, don't forget to take some nice pictures. I'll make a photo montage when you come back and when my budget for training is running short, I'll send it out to the supposed training participants with a handwritten note: Wish you were there. XOXO.

What can I say, life's a biatch.

Lord, please get me out of this project. What the heck, if boss reads this she'd kick me out of the project anyway. Divine intervention.

I Told Myself I'd Blog More If Only I Have a Camera

I told myself I'd blog more if only I have a camera. Now, this maybe an excuse for my laziness to write... but I really need a darn simple point-and-shoot digi cam. I've been to all these pretty places but I don't have the pictures to show. I know digi cams are really affordable now but every time I manage to scrap some money together there's always more worthy things to buy like red patent shoes, shiny black external mini harddisk, mutual funds, altec lansing earphones, stocks, etc, etc and other shiny, pretty things.

If I have to continue blogging, I need a digi cam. Don't bother with the logic. I just do. So until I make myself stop buying shiny things I shall be an erratic blogger.

For now, here are some random stuff about what happened since I last blogged:

1) Papa gave me a MacBook. Oh yeah a shiny white Mac. Named it Marco. In honor of another pretty little thing. Marco is like a BF to me. A very high maintenance BF. The first week I had him I bought an external HD. A few days after, a USB port, a laptop lock. Next week I'm buying a rubber skin. Tsk. Tsk.

2) Same time the office gave (more like lent actually) me a Toshiba Protege M500 with fingerprint ID. The darn thing is twice as expensive as Marco but i still need to alt-ctrl-del on some occasions. Toshi could barely handle 20 applications at a time. Boo hoo. Toshi doesn't really elicit much love from me. He's just so slow and not as pretty as Marco.

3) For the first time I bought a shoe that isn't safe-colored. Bloody red with a big red bow in front. I blame Rosie. Some cool gal I met in Cebu. Right after a training we went Tiangge shopping near Magellan's Cross. She sweet talked some gay-guy to sell us a bunch of kikay stuff for almost half the price. Uber-cool shopping buddy. She then proceeded to convince me to buy a red shoe claiming that a red shoe would guarantee me a boylet in less than a month. Ok, Rosie by next week i'll be a month already.

4) I'm renting a room at the Araneta's. I have a writer for a roomie. And an American who speaks more grammatically correct Filipino than me lives on the other room.

4) My hair is chopped to scary length. As in Posh Spice length. First some gay stylist made a disaster out of my hair. So I went to another gay who promptly chopped it off. Now I look like... awww... Mama simply said I need some new loop earring to make me look girl.

5)I wear business attire now. Blech. The first week in my new job, boss sorta berated me for breaking the dress code. Uhmm... and almost every week since then I've been breaking the code once or twice a week. Boss stopped berating me.

6) Most of the time I only spend 1 or 2 weeks in the office. Most days I'm sent out to some city in Mindanao or Visayas. I have a new job but my life certainly did not change. I still live in the airports of the Philippines.

7) I'm thinking of transferring to another project. I've been honest to boss since the beginning that my heart is just not into Tuberculosis prevention and control. Hopefully by January I'd be working in child labor cases in the Philippines.

8) If boss won't allow me to transfer to another project, I think I'll just resign. Call center here I come!

That's about it. My life in numbers. Till I find the time again...

Life in the Airport

Goodness Kitties! It's been ages. Sowi I haven't been posting for so so soooooooo long. Okeis am gonna do this sofast and in bullet form. Coz I'm in Cebu Airport and it's 10 mins to boarding time. Cripes. Boarding already. Next time kitties. :)

The Call

Awww Kitties, I know I promised to crash all your apartments when I move to QC semi-permanently. I've been here two weeks and I haven't crashed any apartments. Sowi kids.

Two days after I moved to QC I was invited to attend a strategic planning so I was in Tagaytay for 3 days. By the end of the 3 days Ninskee showed us to this little secret pentagon cottage high above the ridge. The view was magnificent - it was raining across Taal lake and there was a rainbow right smack in the middle of the rain. Grabe Kitties so beautiful.

Then I went back to QC and I received a phone call that's about to change my life. Hehehehe... An Non-Profit Organization offered me a position as a Training Specialist. The job sounds exciting. Basically all I have to do is conduct Training Needs Assessment, design a training manual and conduct the training. I'd be training trainors who will be training certain under-privilege communities so that the people would be empowered to improve their lives. But the best part about the job is that I'd be shipped of all-over the Philippines because the project is nationwide. Awwww Kitties, I love the job already. Anyway, it was a series of interviews and then after that they congratulated me and said that I'd be receiving my first assignment through email. So naturally I thought I got the job already. But viola! I received the email and here's a part of it.

"We are pleased to invite you to the Pre-Selection Training on July 02-06, 2007 at Botolan, Zambales. We have attached the guidelines and instructions of the venue for your information and perusal. You are expected to arrive in the venue on or before 12:00 noon on Monday, July 02, 2007.

The PST is a critical part of *********** selection process in hiring applicants for various positions such as ADP Coordinator, Community Health Nurses, Field Accountant, etc. This training will enable you to personally reflect and evaluate if this is the kind of work and organization that you would like to commit yourself into. Likewise, this is also a process wherein we can further assess and validate your suitability for the job you’re applying for. Hence, mere attendance of this training does not guarantee employment; this is just a part of the selection process"

So now kids, I really fell in love with the job already but as the email says I still have to pass the pre-training. Please pray for me from July 2-6. Please pray that I'll be able to do my best, delivery all the output needed by the community and pass the standards and expectations of the organization. Oh I forgot to mention, it's a community of Aetas.

Kitties, thanks for the prayers (in advance). :)

PS: The Stephen Curtis Chapman Concert is on July 29 7PM at the COP Main Auditorium in front of PGH. I'll be getting the tickets by Thursday. Could you please text me to confirm if you're coming and if you're taking other friendships with you. Thankeeee! :)