on second thought

money isn't everything nga naman ano. when i started working, i always look forward to payday and the ice cream (or pizza) i'll take home for the family. when things are becoming stressful at work, i always look towards the coming 10th or 25th, whichever comes first, and imagine a full body massage i could pay with it. months back it seemed like money was such a big force driving me to work. a motivation and reward at the same time. it's not like i'm earning bigtime, but it sure is something that kept me going.

that was before.

now, i'm not too sure what's still keeping me at work.

if only they could reassure me better that everything will be all set, then i wouldn't have this regretful feeling that i may have said goodbye too early.

on another note, i'm watching The Heirs (starring lee min ho, kim woo bin and park shin hye) and i'm enjoying it so far, all those kilig moments and crap hahaha. but i found myself rooting for the 'other' guy more and it feels bad cos we all know how the 'other' guy is never meant for the leading girl. </3

Blogopolis 2013: Into the Wild!

hey fellow bloggers and net freaks! something awesome is happening on november 16 (aside from my birthday of course! *yes kelangan naka-bold*) and you shouldn't dare miss it! this year, nuffnang brings an entirely new and equally exciting theme for their 2nd Blogopolis... see title above haha!

truly, the internet has grown so much from being a mere web of inter-connected networks into a complex jungle of information. thanks to the onslaught of social media platforms and to the increasing accessibility of the internet, the world wiiiiild web has become an entirely new planet of its own, with its people still struggling to make sense of the new territory.

but fear not my dear friends, that's what this year's blogopolis is all about! it will help us learn more about social media and how it impacts our daily lives. it will take us into an informative hike deep into this seemingly intimidating online wilderness. it will introduce us to the many different types of "animals" (animals talaga?) lurking in this unique wild! but eventually, we'll leave solid trails and emerge fully enlightened and motivated (not to mention, SAFE! haha) to take the lead, take advantage, and make the most out of this overpopulated social networking realm. naks.

and well, how do you go about into the wild without expert trail blazers to lead the way? nuffnang has got you covered! their line-up of speakers will definitely get you packing off to the wild, i mean, off to intercon hotel muna, then out to the real wild (i'm trying to be punny here!) haha.

Abe Olandres (the man behind my favorite tech news site: www.yugatech.com!)

The Cycle of Ads: How to Make Social Media Advertising Effective

Aisa Ipac

Taking your Readers Offline: Successful Ways to Mount a Blog Event

Christine Dychiao

Blog Fund: 10 Ways to Guide Traffic Back to Your Blog Using Social Media

Googly Gooeys (Tippy & Pong Go)

The Media Kit: Creating a Compelling Blog and Social Media Proposal

Jeff Lo

Blog thy Neighbor

Jim Paredes (keynote speaker!)

The New Nation 2.0

Josh Villanueva

Youtube: The Next Frontier

Aris Olea (Creator of ConjuRain), Macky Lopez (Gwiyomi "Nasaan na si Mikay?")

Going Viral

odiba bongga! still not excited? osige, after the awesome sessions with our kickass trail blazers, The Nuffie Awards follows afterwards (naks rhyming), i would say this is the part where we get to discover people who took the lead in optimizing social media to their hearts' desires. they're the leaders of today's digital world and i'm sure it's going to be a night full of celebrities (este inspirationssss) for us! shempre we all want to become leaders in our own social niches diba, so why not take a look at some people whom we can draw inspiration from? malay nyo. wala lang. malay nyo lang. :P

anyway, here's a list of awards to be given out by nuffnang to chosen online influencers:

The Game Changers

1. The Webmeister (Best Blog Layout of the Year)

2. The Newsroom (Best Source of Information of the Year)

3. The Jokebox (Funniest Influencer of the Year)

4. The Following (Best Community Engagement)

5. Bloggers' Choice Award

The Movers and Shakers

1. The Social Engineer (Best Social Media Advocacy of the Year)

2. The Imagineer (Blogs with Best Photos)

3. The Rookie

4. The One for Zero (Twitter Influencer of the Year)
5. The N Factor (Blogger of the Year)

6. The Chosen One (Influencer of the Year)

if you wanna find out who's nominated for the followings categories, head on here na lang cos i'm tamad to copy paste: http://www.blogopolis.ph/nuffieawards/categories.php

awesome right? it's gonna be one amazing trek and you better be part of it! 

head on to the official blogopolis website for more deets! http://www.blogopolis.ph/

pano ba yan? everyone's invited so see you there!

Blogopolis 2013: Into the Wild
Weaving Information for Leaders of the Digital World

November 16, 2013 (Saturday)
Registration: 12:30pm
Hotel Intercontinental Manila
Makati City, Philippines

Admission rates:
Regular rate - Php 1,500
First 100 - Php 1,000
Student rate - Php 750

some xlife crisis (wanted: career advice?)

x being some prefix i don't recall. something very common to 20 somethings who are overly confused with what they want to do with their lives. hahaha midlife ba yun or quarterlife ewan.

anyway, i think it's not bad for me to explore. i mean, i'm almost 23 but i still don't have a definite career path for myself. not that it's too late ha but yes, i'm on that what-should-i-do-with-my-career phase. when i was in college, i've always thought IT was all programming and shiz. but right now i'm discovering an endless list of opportunities in the industry alone and i'm pretty stoked to see where else i would fit! 

so here are uhm, 5 career paths i've considered for myself... so far!

1. argh. i'm kindof done convincing myself that programming and software development is not for me, even though i haven't had 2 years of experience to say for sure. basta, i know. my heart's not in it. in any case, you know how they all say time's the best teacher? yeah. in the slight chance i see myself still stuck where i am today, we'll see. hmm.

2. some days i think about learning about web design and development, then working for start ups or freelancing. eventually i shrug at the thought of risk.

3. besides being an IT person, i also think i'm inclined to sales/marketing or something. online selling is something i want to try out, like seriously. i just have to find the perfect product line for me! this is something i don't find too risky cos i can always do it in the sidelines. anyway, besides selling prepaid load products and make up, i'm on/off at sulit/ebay naman so i think i can handle an actual e-store! this actually excites me! >XD

4. the riskiest path i probably see on my so called 'career map' is to go back to school to study the arts, nail it (lol) and become a full-fledged artist major in web and graphic designs. that's a lot of money and time to invest that's why i'm never fully decided on it. but i would really really love to. but 4 years and hundreds of thousands is not something i can commit to in a snap. not when you're 22 and counting.

5. the most practical path to cross if i were to really dismiss where i am right now is to just try something new in IT. whatever that is, some new technology, new function, new... oh wait you know where i'm going. you know, i'm also at this point where i just want to break free and discover what else this industry holds for me. lol

oh well. >XD

depressing!

if you look closely at what i do, you'd probably think i'm being overpaid for the level of work i'm delivering. heck you'd probably think i'm bored to the core and is looking for more challenging tasks. SO EFFING WRONG. i'm not looking for a challenge, right now i just want to finish what i'm tasked to do. and you know what, i feel like i'm doing the easiest task na nga eh, and yet i'm taking a lot of time. feeling ko tuloy i'm a freaking cause of delay. though technically we're not really delayed but the people around me are like all finished with their tasks and i'm the only one left with an unmarked to-do item. i mean, there's not even a timeline yet, these people just have nothing else to do so they do advance work which is super cool. then they deliver it even before the official timeline has started. in effect, i'm the only one left 'not doing her job'.

oh don't get me wrong. i'm very impressed with my teammates. they're all frigin' good, they learn fast and honestly they know better than i do. i can totally admit they're more technically competent than i am, considering that i'm a year older in the company. wish i could blame it on my learning curve, but now i'm thinking if i'm probably just a mismatch. AGAIN?!

seriously... 3 years of college, a colorful transcript, a shiny medal, 16 months (and counting) of experience... and here i am thinking MAYBE i'm not programmer material after all?

oh Lord. 

Million People March @ Ayala

rant ahead.

i understand the cause and i understand the honest sentiments of the people behind this yet another million people march. i agree that the pork barrel issue must remain on top of the headlines for as long as those bastarded senators, congressmen, etc. are punished accordingly. i believe that as tax paying citizens we are obliged to be vigilant of what happens to our money. i empathize with those who take all the time and effort to keep the people's anger alive. i agree that it's important that this issue never die, and i believe that only we can do that. as a democratic country, this kind of outrage is not to be ignored by the government. and that's what we want, for the government to not easily dismiss the issue, and for this issue to be strong enough to withstand any politically motivated distraction.

BUT *here we go* this ayala MTM brought a lot of hassle to many of us commuters who just want to go home and rest on a friday night. thankfully i wasn't affected by the traffic since i arrived at the office before 10. i noticed the bus was also pretty fast this morning, considering maybe that it was trying to beat the scheduled road blocks at ayala. hehe. anyway, here are some of the inconveniences i faced tonight because of this million people march

// road blocks = traffic
on the way home, i usually walk to MRT so i didn't care if no buses or jeepneys passed by ayala. but that's just me! how about those who take the bus everyday? hm. well they could walk where the buses take a detour right? they could also just take the MRT or walk all the way to edsa and hail a bus there. yes they could. no problem. but haaaaay.

// concert
i only heard of this rally today so i thought ayala will be closed only for the duration of the rally. i didn't know there was a concert. fine, a concert is fun. but to hold it in the MIDDLE OF THE STREET? as in at the intersection of paseo and ayala ON A FRIDAY?! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! i wonder if the concert was planned too late that they weren't able to reserve ayala triangle anymore, cos i think that's a way better venue than holding it in the streets, prolonging the road blocks, causing more traffic, and encouraging more people to join cos they're gonna be caught in it any way. argh.

you'd think some companies dismissed their employees early so they could join in the cause? NO. that's a choice of course but it's more out of concern that they'd be caught in so much traffic and hassle if they left later. buti pa sila sensitive!

// super heavy rain
i'm not gonna blame this on the MPM but this made my night worse. i arrived at zuellig to fetch jeckie super wet and tired and all. hay

if this is their way of reaching out to the tax payers of makati central business district, you know, by inconveniencing them on a friday of all days, WELL DONE.

anyway. i'm sorry. i may be overreacting. i just can't get over that concert blocking the way!

giving up on mortal instruments (for a while) and re-reading dan brown!

dan brown is now officially one of my favorite authors! on par with paulo coelho, and above sidney sheldon and judith mcnaught. brown has this level of technicality na ang sarap basahin. yung minsan nakakabobo pero compelling parin. haha! or maybe because it's the book itself, Digital Fortress, that i'm reading right now. you know, being an IT person, i have like an idea of the stuff he's talking about kaya sobrang interesting parin, even on my second read. haha

by the way! i added an image widget to update you on what i'm currently reading. AS IF! hahaha e bat ba, cute kaya may picture man lang sa gilid hehe 

i don't know if it's bad but even if i was taught how to read fast before, di ko sya ma-master! the technique was to read in segments to let your mind process words as a phrase, not word per word. it also says not to read aloud mentally pero kasiiii i find it better to read that way, the slow way, the word per word way, cos that way i get to bask in a plethora of words and engulf myself completely in that alternate universe the book offers. i hardly get that by reading fast. i hardly read fast anyway. haha. 

what i'm saying is, take time with your book. who cares if you're a slow reader? there's no pop quiz after.

on the other hand, reason why i'm temporarily giving up on City of Bones: ANG LANDI KASI! well sorry na, maybe i'm not so all-over this young adult genre. pero honestly ah, i was caught with the world building. i was interested on how their "underworld" will unfold slowly as the story progresses pero naman kasi i'm so over teenagers being so teenybopper with each other. pwede naman unimplied na lang yung romance which is waaaay waaaay better than affirming your unsuspecting hormones about a romance bound to interrupt the book's "world engine" (in reference to man of steel! haha). argh. 

all right, back to work. woot! it's 5% friday! LOL

defeat, regrets, relief

during the past few days i was so expectant that last night would bring me the freedom i needed to escape from all of this stress. despite the process being in itself stressful, i thought it was a necessary trade if i were to be deemed deserving to walk out in this dark tunnel, you know, with a promising light to follow. 

chos.


nalulungkot ako. last night was more depressing than relieving for me. i only felt relieved because that 'necessary stress' was finally over, but then it was really over. like there's nothing more for me from there. i felt defeated because i know i wasn't going to get in. i'm not the person they're looking for. i'm a mismatch. and it sucks that i made quite an impression that i'm not open to something new. which is dang wrong. i was made to choose, and i chose that which i have been familiar for years. i forgot that the very reason i was there was to explore other options, take risks, and ultimately leave this place.

now i'm regretful. it feels like i'm stuck in a rut, unwilling to face any challenges, and forever mentally stressed to the core.

when will this ever end.