Words and Wit

I'm a sucker for words and wit.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I can't really say.

For me, words have power, whether it's written or said out loud. It can make you feel, think, realize, manipulate...it can create worlds, build and destroy relationships, boost or crush egos, seduce, incense and pacify. It's no wonder I hold people who can wield words and wit with ease in such high regard.

I'm a sucker for words and wit.

Why write about this now, you wonder? Well, I've been doing a lot of self-reflection lately, of what I'm doing with my life, what I want to be doing, who I want to be with, and it was just one of those things that I realized about myself.

I'm a sucker for words and wit.

Then I thought about my past encounters with words and wit... from my frustrations at becoming a writer, an ex who I fell for over games of Scrabble and conversations, to an unreciprocated infatuation I had because of smart and stoic tweets, to work opportunities I passed over because of poorly worded job descriptions, candidates I failed in interviews because of poor communication skills, and more recently, to the guy I went out with because I enjoyed our playful banter only to realize that he was just another douchebag.

*sigh* I'm a sucker for words and wit.

It may seem I only dwell in the negative aspects of my encounters, but tonight since I'm feeling melancholic it's what pops up in my head.

Yes, I'm a sucker for words and wit.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Finding Comfort in the Familiar

I've changed.

Sure, everyone changes over the years, and I know I have made some improvements to myself, made the most of opportunities, achieved goals...but in the process I might have lost pieces of myself that make me who I am. Nothing too serious, but enough to make me question what's the point in getting what you want, when you miss out on things that used to matter?

I'm trying to change that this year, trying to find comfort in the familiar, going back to my old ways, putting in time for things that I used to enjoy and seeing what happens - resurrecting this blog, is one such example. Others, I already know from experience, might lead me straight down a path of complications.

Old habits die hard, and now I'm falling back to old patterns, familiar but potentially detrimental patterns. I already asked my best friend to keep me in check, if it ever comes to that, but in the meantime, I'm determined to have fun and just enjoy. If I'm right, and I have this under control, then I might be worrying about nothing at all.

Geekyobserver goes on a diet!

You read right, I'm finally serious about dieting.

I was never thin, but I do know that I was in better shape in the past. I mean that literally as well as figuratively.  This isn't going to be a long post about me feeling the pressure to be thin or to lose weight, or that I felt insecure about myself  or that I got a health scare that is forcing me to rethink my lifestyle. I just simply want to make it public that I am on a diet - I read that this would increase my accountability to the goal.

It's simple, I gained weight in the past because I love to eat and I'm too lazy to exercise and now I want to do something about it.

Two years ago, my older sister lost over 75 pounds in 6 months following the Cohen Lifestyle diet. I was definitely inspired, but wasn't inspired enough to actually follow it. That, plus there was a significant financial investment involved, but I think it was really because I wasn't prepared to go though with it. So, I waited, until I finally decided to start last July 1, 2013.

I still didn't go on Cohen, but I did reapply some of their "rules", nothing that you really can't find out on your own, so I might not have the "prescribed" amount of food that Cohen has, but generally I follow the basic rules of no sugar, no dairy, lean meat and veggies, drinking lots of water, no preserved foods and eating 5 hours apart (to digest the previous meal effectively).

I even break the rules on the no dairy rule but this time I choose non fat or low fat milk. :) This is really because in the Bon Appetit diet, and even in the nutrition seminar I attended, milk is considered as part of a healthy diet.

So, I guess I'm really just following a lower calorie diet, and I'm finding it quite manageable so far.

To date, I've lost 20 pounds since July 1, 2013. I'm targeting to lose another 10 by end of September, but I'm a bit off track on that goal - especially since I do tend to cheat a bit (weekends and holidays). :P

But hey, 20 pounds in 1 1/2 months? I deserve to reward myself a bit for that. :)

Oh, and I found this really good article on lifehack -> 10 Unconventional Diet Tips: How to lose 50 pounds in three months and I do agree with the tips he shared. Granted, I doubt I'll be losing 50 pounds in 3 months, but it's effective nonetheless.

2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge

In an effort to get back into the habit of reading, I took on the Goodreads reading challenge. For the year, I'm challenging myself to read at leas 75 books.

I actually bought a Kindle Paperwhite to help me with this goal. :) I just need to wait for it to be shipped, so for now I'm using the Kindle app on Jarvis (my Asus Transformer pad) until I get Snow, which will be the name of my new Kindle.

I also discovered that Amazon has a Bestseller list that lists down the top 100 Paid and Free e-books. This is a n excellent (and legal) way to score free e-books, or make a note of titles worth purchasing. The list is updated every hour.

Since this discovery, I already downloaded over 35 titles for free and bought around 15 titles from Amazon.com, and I'm expecting to get a lot more in the future.

So really, this 75 book target, should be easy for me. :) I actually wanted to go for a 100, but since I haven't been reading much lately, I decided on a more modest target.

Wish me luck! Happy reading!

In Retrospect

As part of my plan to revitalize this blog, I will try and post some items from my 366 days album to this site. I think I should try and maximize the use of my blog...I love writing, I love sharing information, but I always seem to have no time to do the things I love. So, as part of my plan to have work-life-balance, I'll be forcing myself to do more of the things I love. Sounds ironic but you get the point right? :)

It's not that I don't like my work, I do. It's actually the most satisfying job I've had, but there's just so much to do, and so many things to look out for that I need to have some time to do things outside of that world, and this blog is the perfect outlet.

I will definitely be finishing my SEA Odyssey series too. :)

Good luck to me.

Finding Ways to Be Thankful Every Day

I started a new project for 2012, it's not an original project and I've been seeing people do it for quite some time now, but I was inspired by my best friend, Jeng, to start my own 366 days of blessings. 366 because 2012 is a leap year, just in case it slipped your mind. :)

So, what is this project all about? Well, it's on Facebook, and it entails posting a picture of what you're thankful for everyday. So far I haven't missed a day, and I hope I can continue for the rest of the year. It's really a fun project when you think about it, and it encourages you to see things in a different light, looking for blessings in random day to day events and encounters.

Honestly, I think a lot of us need to be constantly reminded of how blessed we are.

Happy New Year everyone, be thankful every day.

:)

P.S. For those wondering why I'm not posting them here, aside from respecting other peoples' privacy, I simply don't have the time (or energy) to post into 2 different sites, it's as simple as that.

Geekyobserver Turns 29!

No, not the site silly, me! :)

Happy birthday to me!

I've been very blessed for the past 29 years. I have wonderful parents, crazy fun sisters, amazing friends, a good job...really, what more can a girl ask for?

Well, love maybe? Hahaha, but hey I'm not rushing.

I just feel really blessed and thankful. :)

...

August 20, 2007... holiday and I'm at the office. It's like Sun Life all over again, Only no OT pay... I get off-in-lieu though :)

And guess what? I brought the car! First time to this office. That brings my total to 2, hehe. I brought the car to SLF once, for a badminton game, and now today, coz I really didn't have a choice since I was the only one who had to work. I probably will bring the car to work a few more times in the next few months....So, I've now driven the car to over 5 different locations. Nanay's place, the Fort, SLF, SSA and of course, to my weekend getaway, Glorietta (which is the only place I used to go to).

I really have to start driving... and I mean, not the weekend driving I do... but really driving. Maitz is moving to Singapore by October 1, and that leaves me with no "driver". May free parking naman kami e, so it's really just about me overcoming my "phobia" or whatever the hell it was that stopped me from driving 5 years ago. Oh and yeah...my complete lack of "direction", which is probably a little harder to overcome :D.

Anyway... Egay has finally left. Although skies are still a bit dark outside. The supertyphoon cancelled classes upto college from Wed-Fri, which resulted in a 6-day weekend for Tere and Sweet. I can't say I'm jealous...coz last Sat, we stayed at home for the entire day, doing a 5-disc DVD marathon, and I'd have to say I really felt bored and lazy... can only imagine 6 days of doing nothing. :p Yeah, I am sourgraping, just a tiny bit.

Jeng stayed over last Sat and slept over at my house until Sunday. She should have been there Friday night, but because of heavy rains, our streets were flooded so she was only able to come on Sat. And like I said, we stayed home all day, but we did go to Glorie for some malling and shopping yesterday. Finally bought a webcam for skype... finally got on the skype bandwagon. We also canvassed for laptops yesterday (for Maitz, not me) but I think she'll just be buying in SG... Me, I'm planning to buy a Macbook after my first travel (counting on the per diem to allow me to save enough for this). But this really isn't a priority.

Hmmm...I wonder when I'm going to schedule my first visit to Maitz in Singapore :) Of course this will include a side trip to Malaysia so I can see Mich. Really excited about the prospect :) Kudos to Maitz for closing the SG deal, hehe.

Nothing more to ramble about, till next post. :)

7 days...

It's been a week since I started at Sungard System Access. So I'm at the point where I can't help but compare between my old and new jobs, list down the pros and cons of my new job and generally reminisce about things I used to do.
Let's start with the good. I left Sun Life to learn new things, get new challenges and I already learned something new. Four days into my stay, I attended an orientation on API development. And now, I'm working on some programming exercises to practice what I've learned. So far, I'm getting the hang of it, and that's good.
People here are generally friendly, especially my cube-mates. Others, I'm pretty sure I'll meet in the weeks/months to come. Of course, it's still the people of Sun Life whom I miss most. Most especially, VILLMA... guys, when are we going to all get together?!?!
I miss Red Box, I miss the proximity to Glorietta/Greenbelt. I miss the long lunches, the pay-day lunch outs, the afternoon meriendas, the morning coffees, the after work chikahan. I miss Starbucks, Quickly, Mini-Stop, Watsons...I miss the work. I miss waking up in the middle of the night to answer data center's call. I miss using Merant VM, Tracker and even RFS! I miss the online HR forms. I miss ProdSupp - hard to imagine because it was one of the reasons why I transferred in the first place, but I think the bottom line there is I miss talking to people, to different users and immediately getting a sense of achievement when you've successfully answered their query. I know, mababaw talaga ang kaligayahan ko. Here, you get your specs, work on it, and that's that. Hardly a life for an extrovert in an introvert's body (or is it the other way around) if you ask me.

But being far from all the conveniences of the Enterprise Center has it's advantages. I get to save more (yay!). And anything that brings temptation farther away is a good thing. I also miss TEC's facilities, but even if we use a common washroom here, it doesn't have long queues and faulty plumbing so, I guess it's a tie for that point. :) For water, there's a water dispenser (not a drinking fountain), so I don't need to buy 10L of water every week from Watson's anymore. For food, if Sun Life has Laling, we have Ate Febe. So far, I have yet to be disappointed with her menu for the week. :) I order in almost every other day, and she wins hands-down on presentation over Laling, with rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Today I had a beef pot roast with mashed potato. It includes rice and a banana. Yum. :) All for P62.
Also noticeable here is the quiet... only occassionally broken by a telephone ring, or a work discussion. But since speakers are not allowed, it's really quite peaceful...sometimes in an unsettling way. My Ipod is definitely maximized in this place. I'm leaning on this as an advantage because you can really focus on what you're doing.

Lastly, unrestricted Internet! I can finally use YM during the day and I've reconnected with some old friends who I haven't had the chance to chat with in years. :) Oh, and if you'll notice, this entry was posted during lunch break.
Bottom line, accepting change is all about knowing what you're willing to give up in exchange for something new - be it good or not so good. I've accepted this change and I think everything is still pretty much going well. Anyway, C'est La Vie! ;-)

My new job requires me to have an NBI clearance for travel abroad (which is a good sign that I will travel abroad) hehe. So, I made a trip to Carriedo to renew my existing NBI clearance and update the purpose of the clearance.

Anyway, I spent only an hour and a half in the place (which is a pretty good time I think, considering the number of people there), and let me share some tips that can help you if you do decide to get/renew your NBI clearance.

1. Prepare P20, this is for your "entrance" stub.
2. Follow the steps (1-7).
3. Step 1 - Payment : You can prepare 1 P100 bill and 3 P5 coins so that you can use the unmanned payment automated tellers. Advantage? No lines. But even if you do go to the manned counters, lines move fast so it's okay.
4. Steps 2-4 - Since all of these are in 1 floor, and there are a lot of people here, make sure you're lining up for the right step. Check out lines and pick the shortest one, it will save you a lot of time, rather than sticking yourself in the very first line you see.
5. Don't be afraid to ask people. Go and make friends with the person in front of you to make sure you're in the right line and in the right step.
6. Steps 5-7 - For renewals, you can skip Step 5 (fingerprinting). I saw a lot of renewals lining up here but I heard some people say you can skip this step, so I just asked the nearest "watcher" and verified that I can go straight to step 6. BTW, steps 6-7 took about 5 minutes total, while step 5 (judging on the lines here) would take you about another hour, so take note what steps you can skip.
7. Be alert. Listen and observe the people around you. Sometimes, new counters are opened so be on the lookout so you can change queues quickly.
8. Bring a fan... it's hot, and it only gets hotter when there are tons of people around, so it's really usefeul to have a fan to keep you cool.
9. Smile. People are more gracious when you're gracious.
10. Stay in line. And politely inform people where the end of the line is.
11. Stay away from fixers.
12. Bring a black pen.

:-)

Only 3 more days...

Unofficially, today is my last day in Sun Life.

I'm done with all my turnovers, posted all my documents, finished the PAM batch runs for IO and HK, completed my clearance save for IS and HR, and even did some production support to resolve some access issues for CCA, CAS Core and RRL.

Whew! What a day...

I still plan to give Eloie, Eric and Carla a guide on the PAM MTP for HK. And if I find time, I'm still going to post whatever documents I can to help them out. Why? Because there's no reason for me not to. Sun Life has been good to me, and I'll do all that I can to maintain the same level of support I provided while I was still there. And I'm sure they're all up to the task. Tine, my SL partner, along with our relatively new hires Eloie and Eric, and our youngest and newest hire, Rhea. And of course, Carla, who will be taking on CAS and FXA by her lonesome (for the time being), and she even finds time to be interim support for the PAM project.

And Manny... who's been my boss for 2 1/2 years. We've had a lot of disagreements over the years, but I will miss him. I have my complaints (who doesn't?), but he's been a good boss, and for me, an effective one. Maybe he's just misunderstood. :)

It still hasn't sunk in...I still can't believe I'm leaving. But I guess it's just time for new challenges and new experiences. New friends will be made, new skills will be learned, new programs will be developed, and I really can't wait to get started.

Leap of Faith

I resigned from Sun Life today.

I don't really know what I'm supposed to be feeling, I'm so excited about my new work, but I will be leaving a place I grew to love for the past three years. I guess we all must move on. At this point in time, I know that my move to Sungard System Access will benefit me in the long run.

It just happened so fast, they interviewed me, and gave me an offer three days later. I wasn't even prepared for it. But now that I know what work I'll be doing, I just can't wait!

So let's recap, Leslie - left to join Navitaire, Irene - left to go to the US, Mich - left to go to Malaysia and be with Jay-Ar, Van - will leave to join SSA and possibly be deployed to Slovakia... That leaves Louie and Apple. Actually, I think it just leaves Apple. But if you think about it, her move to RAC probably started the whole cycle.

I didn't leave because my friends left. But I did entertain the thought of other employment because of it, and thankfully, I found an opportunity that seems perfect for me. I really can't say it enough, I'm excited to go. It's not just the prospect of Slovakia, but it's development work, using Oracle 10g. And they develop their people to be consultants. At this point in time, they can give me all that I want (and need). I'm sad about leaving Sun Life, but I'm more than anticipating my first day of work at my new company. That's all I can say about that.

I'm leaving for Bora again in a few hours...I just can't wait!

I owe myself this vacation... consider it my gift to myself for passing my Oracle certification. :)

Yes, I passed... as Mich would call it, 'miraculously' passed... hehe. I'm not sad or anything, I studied well for that exam, and even though I had difficulty with it, I know that it wasn't because of luck that I passed, I know and I understand the concepts I took. I might have been unfamiliar with some, but considering that I don't have that much exposure to it, I think I did pretty well.

So now, I have a right to sign my name with an OCA at the end, hehehe.

I definitely need a vacation, and a 6 days, 5 nights stint at Boracay with my relatives is just what I need. I brought a book, my Ipod (loaded with gigabytes of songs and videos), playing cards, and was even tempted to bring a Scrabble board. I plan to just lounge around, listen to my Ipod, and just bask in the glory of doing (and thinking) about nothing.

Then, when I get back to Manila on Monday, I have to prepare myself for Irene's turnover of the PAM-HK project. Hopefully, I'll be out of vacation mode by then. :p

I'm turning twenty-four in thirty or so minutes...
Time sure does fly. :)

I passed! I passed! *jubilant*
Barely passed... but nevertheless, that's one down and one to go. :)

In case you're lost with what I'm talking about, I passed my first exam for the OCA track! I feel some tinge of regret that I didn't study as much as I should have (as in like, not 2 weeks before the exam). I think I really could have scored better if I had put more time into it, but I've never been the studious type I guess. But I am changing that starting today. I'm already preparing for my next exam, which I will take some time in December. I'll let you know how it goes.

In other matters... hmmm... work is... confusing at this point. That's all I can say about that.

Badminton... Red remained at last place for the PalakaSun tournament. Blue came out as the overall champions, but even though Red didn't place as well as we hoped, we still had fun. And we're the only team with the distinction of having the "killer smiles" no matter if we win or lose.

In the SmashSun sa CSA tourney (I was Red again!), Ayin and I won 2 out of our 3 games. And countless other side matches. :) We won against Manny and Charrisse in an on the side match, close fight, but satisfied my curiosity as to who will win if we played a match together. :) Boss Manny, if you're reading this, I don't mind a rematch, hehehe. :)

Overall, our team placed 2nd to the last, I consider that an improvement over the PalakaSun standings so, I didn't feel too bad about that.

Anyway, till next post.

Obivously, my Palm has done nothing to help me blog more... :)

Updates, updates... last July 7 marked the start of the PalakaSun Badminton Tournament, as one of the members of the Red team, we must congratulate the Blue team for almost totally defeating us in all levels, save for one. My partner Louie and I, lost to Arren and Jaime 21-23, 23-21, 11-6. Dang.

Oh well, it's just the first match of the tourney, this week it's Red vs. Green. Good luck to us. :)

I'm currently training at Oracle, taking up Data Modeling and Relational DB design. It's interesting...but somehow not as I expected. The fact that we're in the middle of a storm is not helping. And I spend most of the afternoons freezing in that cold, cold training room listening to the instructor talk about entities and relationships and attributes and denormalization...

My relatives from Hawaii and England are also in town. We're all going to Baguio next week for some family bonding. :) I'm just hoping the weather improves... Baguio was declared a state of calamity today because of landslides and floods... :( But we have faith, hopefully the weather would clear up by Monday.

Oh, and yes, Pirates! The heavy rains and heavy floods did not stop us from watching the Pirates Opening Night. I love Jack Sparrow! :) Although I felt the 2nd movie was somewhat longer and a bit "messy", I was still thoroughly entertained, and some parts got me laughing so hard my jaw hurt. :)

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Next week, hopefully I'll have much to say about our trip to Baguio.

Elizabeth Swann: There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.
Jack Sparrow: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

I've recently acquired a Palm Tungsten T3 from my sister (at a discount of course!), and now I'm finding things to do with it. Right now, I'm using to to draft my blog entries, which I hope can help me post more updates. :) I also uploaded my review materials for my OCA exam. Mobile studying anyone?

This brings the total of mobile devices I own to 3. My cellphone/camera K750i, which provides great small-sized pics with it's 2.0 Megapixel camera (perfect for blogging!). My music on the go, 30GB Ipod Video, and this keep your life organized, Palm.

I wonder what good all these gadgets will do me? :) Well, aside from the obvious advantages of mobility, new and/or old gadgets just make me happy. Hehe.

"Tall Creme Brulee Latte Decaf for Vanessa!"

As I hurried to pick up my drink, I realized that over the past week, I have become increasingly addicted to Starbucks. Every day, for the past 7 days, I have treated myself to not just one, but sometimes even two drinks a day. It started innocently enough, a latte to treat myself for doing well in my systems walkthrough, an Iced White Chocolate Mocha for dessert, a Caramel Latte to wake me up during a particularly slow Wednesday...and the list goes on.

Now, about 1000 bucks poorer and definitely a couple of pounds heavier, I am putting a Starbucks ban on my diet for the rest of January. Well, at least until the next coupon becomes valid which is on January 29, 2006. :-)

What better way to start the New Year than by creating a new blog? And in addition to that, as part of my New Years' resolutions, to regularly update this blog (at least 2x a month), which to me is a regular update considering the amount of time (or the lack of it) that I have to spare.

First things first, why the Geeky Observer? Over the years, I’ve wrestled with the idea of officially coming out of the geek closet, and proclaiming to the world that yes, I am a geek. But since I wasn’t sure, I had to take a professional opinion to find out whether I really was a geek. So, I took this geek test, and was surprised to find out that I was a…



Ooooh… A total geek. But I have a long way to go in the hierarchy of geekdom. I scored 33.72781% on a scale of 100%, almost a Major geek (>=35%) but far from being a Geek God (>= 65%), and will probably never become a Dysfunctional geek (>=75%).

Geek tests aside, I’ve always known I had a certain tendency to “geek out”. But I’m sure everyone has a certain degree of geekish-ness that sometimes get the better of them. Now, to end this post, here are few other tests I took to amuse myself.

Your Birth Month is October

You are a natural leader who is able to stand up when no one else can. Strong and powerful, you tend to overshadow those around you. Your soul reflects: Gratitude, comfort, and true love Your gemstone: Tourmaline Your flower: Cosmos Your colors: White and yellow

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

Your Heart Is Pink

In relationships, you like to play innocent - even though you aren't. Each time you fall in love, it's like falling for the first time. Your flirting style: Coy Your lucky first date: Picnic in the park Your dream lover: Is both caring and dominant What you bring to relationships: Romance

What Color Heart Do You Have?

You Are 40% Boyish and 60% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

You Are 0% Weird

You're totally, completely normal. And that's pretty darn weird!

How Weird Are You?