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When Land is Rained on by Blood

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August Celebrants

Happy Birthday to my fellow ASEAN Scholars Batch 2007!

Freda Yuin Wei (Singapore)

Joe Phanouvong (Laos)

생일 축하합니다! 진짜 보고 싶어. 언제 다시 만날까?

Season Differential

The tides is to the seas as seasons is to humans.
I always thought that having a changing season is one significant factor of economic growth. Notice that countries that enjoy four seasons are relatively well off that countries having only summer and summer (North-South divide).



Four points of reference,
Four different activities,
Four different paces,
Each aiming for four different goals.

The Music of Spring

Shikajng Mountain -- It's March and Cherry Blossoms are all abloom. Professor Choi took us for some hiking in the crisp wind of Spring, something that my nostrils were very new to. Our History class didn't go to the top but just walked around the flat levels of the mountain till we reached the mountain's park. We saw there people dancing in a weird, unconventional rhythm. Prof Choi told us that it's called the Farmer's Dance and is one of Korea's traditional dances. The sole use of percussions made it difficult to appreciate it at first because of the loud, patternless sound...but then, when you try to merge the imagery of falling Cherry blossom petals, with the cold, fresh air, and brown twigs, the movement, chant, and drumming of the dancers, you'd find it quite relaxingly oriental...

Even Jumong Falls

Though I feel a bit of vicarious loss for the Koreans, I must say I'm in some way happy because Archery is not in the blood!
Zhang Juanjuan of China bagged the gold in the Women’s Individual. Park Sung-hyun of South Korea was beaten by just one point (110-109). Yun Ok-hee of South Korea got the bronze.

To Be But Cannot Be, So Archery

If there is an Olympic sports I wanted to participate in, it would be in all around gymnastics. I always admired those most able-bodied men balancing, swinging, rotating on the floor and on beams. But I think watching them is as far as my muscles could go; I'll just be an archer. What use is typing and clicking 12 hours a day if not putting these carpal muscles to Olympic use?

(And yeah, I am not discouraged at all though I'm neither an Elf nor from Jumong's bloodline.)

MBC Dae Jang Geum set, South Korea

First "Say Kimchee"

Like the Kimchi, wearing a jacket was very new to me. Growing up in a tropical country made me oblivious to fashion in countries of four seasons. So long as I don't feel cold--who gives a damn whether or not I'm in harmony with the color wheel--is my clothes-layering principle.

I never thought I was committing a fashion faux pas till I got my chance to redeem myself in autumn; 3 months of summer vindicated me in the eyes of Korean university students. Thank goodness for the sun.

Anyhow, here's what I'm talking about. Spot the most appalling.


Spring March
First group photo with ASEAN scholars

First Blunder

It was my first time to see Kimchi. I didn't have any idea what it is for and with what it is mixed with, so I took the liberty of pouring onto it the curry sauce.

Ajuma: 안돼요 ("Andu-weyo"; don't do that)
Me : *staring at her cluelessly* (ㅎㅎ)?

I glossed by at what she said and went on to take my spot in the cafeteria. Guess what my friends reaction was when they saw this incredible mixture:

I also wondered how the students in the queue reacted when they saw me dressing up their beloved kimchi with curry sauce. (미친다!)

맛있는 것 같죠? ^^;

Neat Inside-Out

My mom always believes that it is the interior of the house that matters more. We have owned a house for 7 years now and it was such a pleasure to invest energy and money beautifying it. My dad paints the gate with iron oxide every six months, my mom puts on glam curtains, and my sisters tend the plants. I cheer for them.

I wondered how our house would be like if my mom isn’t keen on having good pieces of furniture around. Perhaps it would be like a beauty queen of the most tangential answer ever plus an A-ttiude to match it with. Anyhow, we’re planning on changing our living room couches so I browsed the internet for local provides. I came across Bernhardt Furniture, which sells furniture with American and Victorian design. Beautiful. Bernhardt is also associated with a lot of furniture manufacturers so choices will definitely be diverse. Bernhardt gave my mom a good idea of what good furniture should look like. I can’t wait for our living room to finish its makeover.

Boots w00Ts

Just after our intensive Korean language summer class, Yang Min-ae sonsaengnim asked us if we want to go with her to Shikjang Mountain. She asked us to bring some foods, a bottle of water, and to come in comfortable attire. But I have never hiked a mountain before so I did not know what to expect. I thought that food and water would be just additional weight on my back and so I decided to just leave them behind. I also wore sandals because those were my most comfortable pair of footwear. Little did I know that this hike would be a hike of life and death; I starved and trembled. I thirst. Good thing that my sandals were as durable and comfy as I thought they would be. They brought me up the top and secured my climb down.

Moral lesson: What is food if you’re on bare foot?

My last hiking in Korea was in December last year. This time it was winter. I only had a pair of fabric rubber shoes. I know that the snow would seep into it and marinate my feet in water. And that would be nasty for any climber. So I decided to wear my boots. I know it’s crazy but my boots are the next best thing to having none at all. And I’ve learned my moral lesson from last summer (aside from not bringing food and water). Anyway, my savior boots look much like Justin Boots and I would not hesitate buying this brand if just for the sentimental value; my climbing boots have already chapped away.

Support Team Philippines

Let's show our support to the Philippine Team in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China!

1. Pink and Bubbly
2. Everything Kimchi
3. The Cake Chronicles
4. YOU

I'm tagging:
Mommy's Little Corner
Life in Korea
Pinoy Gaming World
Joy God's Grace
Mommy Passionista
Marvs18
Philippine Princes
Tentay Patis
Blogtactic

My Kimchi Mansion

A home is the spirit of being in a place...
And for 10 months, this building has been more than just a house for my body. It has been where my memories live and whereupon its corridors my mind continues to roam.

Welcome to Daejeon University Dormitory.

It was more than what I expected. I thought I
was looking at some sci-fi construction engineered for space. The exterior of Daejeon U (대전 대학교 기숙사) dormitory was really flabbergasting, especially for someone who grew up seeing the not-so-new dorms in UP (the glory of euphemisms). Equally desirable and suicide deterring is the interior, which looks like what you'd imagine belongs to a space research center--walls painted in unadulterated white (what vandalisms?), glass window slides protected by a thin, grey, molded layer of steel with holes punched symmetrically throughout, and cylindrical pillars equally distanced from each other lining the dormitory corridors. I guess I've given too much praise, or perhaps it was just natural for me to appreciate what is indeed appreciable.

Now let's go to our room 3rd floor Room 303 Building B. Here, I'd just like to express my sincerest thanks to Daejeon University and ASEAN University Network for providing us with this totally furnished room-- TV, aircon, ondol (온돌 Korean style heating system), desks, bed, fridge, phone, PC, and the ever useful microwave oven. I never had been in want, not even for a day. 대전 대학교과 아세안 우리를 돌봐서 정말 감사합니다. (pic on the left) You can see Joe from Laos (standing, lives in 302 with Randy from China) and my Malaysian roommate Ken. The room is quite big and it can easily accommodate two persons more. I just miss this room--my bed, the pink quilt and the comforter with pattern of falling autumn leaves...and oh yeah, the green post-its that you can see there are actually Korean letters I posted in random order during the 2nd week,so I could train myself to read Hangeul with just one glance. It served me so well that I learned to read Hangeul in just 2 weeks.

I think I'd be a poltergeist of this room should I die now. God forbid! hahaha.

Bed. My bed. I'm itching to write a poem for you. But now I really have to hit the sack. T__T

Forex Made Easy

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Welcome Kimchi Boy!

After El Hobre Tomato's prodding, I welcome him as a co-administrator for The Cake Chronicles, a three year old blogger account that I have failed to update for a loooonnnggg time.

Welcome Horeb! I'll give you free rein to do your wonders :)

So from this time forward, expect that this site will co-feature Horeb's travelogue and his many Korean obsessions.

Things to do when you're 22!

1. Have plenty of sex if you're obese. Sex is the most wonderful aerobic exercise. It helps cure asthma too. (Yeho: I'll just then be a desperate obese asthmatic till I'm 23, huhuhu)

2. Pretend you're not 22. When asked how old you are say, "Hey, I just finished college, am not that old!" (Yeho: Just dont slip that you've graduated 2 years ago from college. You just dropped the bomb then. Moron!)

3. Avoid conversations with neighbors, parents of your former batchmates in school or any homo sapien sapien who happen to know how pompous your ass was when you were in grade school and high school. (Yeho: They'll just say that they never thought that such a brilliant mind works only in a call center. The next day after, you'll be surprised how the entire bloc knows the sad truth...)

4. Rant and whine about how stressful your job is. (Yeho: And rationalize that the only thing that keeps you holding on is the cash you withdraw from the ATM every 15th and 30th of the month.)

5. Smoke right after being nebulized. (Yeho: It's free anyway at the company's clinic! The nebu, not the stick, :)) )

6. Meet your high school friends for a drinking spree! (Yeho: This is the best! And then after a few shots, you'll all realize you're a bunch of 22 year olds whose future lies uncertain in the hands of Father Destiny... San ba kami pupulutin?!?! )

7. Check your phone contacts and delete those people who replied, "Hu u?" all of a sudden when you have been forwarding them quotes thru SMS for quite a long time. (Yeho: Hear! Hear! Hear!)

8. Think of Social Relevance. (Yeho: Being a sociology graduate, this should have been automatic. Sorry to dear old Dean Lamug, Prof. Augut & Ms. Asis. I promise I'll stay true to the tenets of Sociological Imagination.)

9. Imagine hitting the gym. (Yeho: Which I so often do. You see, I'm armchair here, armchair!)

10. And lastly, think how satisfying life will be if only you'll learn contentment. (Yeho: Happy 22nd year Yeho!)

* * * * *
Thank you to all who's memory banks are spared from dementia last July the 25th and took time to send their greetings thru SMS, friendster, multiply, IM etc. etc. etc.

To my bosom ka-SAMPU trio Elena, Bhalot & Sera; Ian & Nico and thanks to Billy Ray for the uber advanced birthday greetings;

To my SocioSoc alum sisses Meranz, Peachy and Jenny Anne, we'll all have coffee soon; Thanks to Ice Taboy for the greeting imported pa from Canada, :)) To other alums like Ate Sam and Ate Ella, thanks for remembering and to my former co-resident in SocioSoc namely Jabez, EJ, Rai, Odessa, Mhona and Mac, and to Horeb and Rose for the late birthday "pabati."

To my Socio '03 blocmates Erwin and bloc rep Shiela, thanks also to the unexpected birthday greetings coming from Vanessa, Erwin's girlfriend/UPLB schoolmate and Hannah of UP Ravens.

To my colleagues in the workplace: wavemates Demi, Ms. Jane & Ms. May; TL Cali, Ms. Floe, Ms. Lyka, evil siblings Ms. Annie & Ms. Sweet and Mommy Yhanie Certeza.

To Nica and Romma, my grade school classmates; To Novee '03, Kaziey '05 & Grace '02, high school schoolmates.

Thank you SOOOOOO much!

Cake and Kimchi: A Match Made in Heaven

Welcome to my Cake Chronicles' co-administrator: the voracious kimchi eater Elliot.

The Best Team (and Team Lead) There Is

(Photo credit: Ms. Mei's multiply site. Photo was taken at a beach in Iba, Zambales during our team's summer getaway. Thanks to TL MJ's digicam.)

Last Sunday, we were informed by TL Cali (our former but will be our forever-and-a-day Team Lead) no less that she was announced as the top ranking Team Lead for the combined December 2007, January 2008 and February 2008 scorecards during the site's townhall meeting last April 2nd. This means, among many other things, that we are the Best Team too since our Team Lead's monthly scorecard is the aggregate of our individual scorecards.

This is an unexpected feat. For one, we had an attrition last December of 2007 as Ms. Floe Fuentes got married and settled in Singapore. From what I know, a Team Lead's scorecard is considered failed already for any incidence of attriting agents. Two, our CSAT scores for the first two months of the year were barely passing. Lastly, our team's cumulative Quality scores is far from passing...

Thanks to AHT, Transfer rates and what else, attendance? LOL! TL's attendance policy saved us from the "kangkungan!"

Kudos and keep up the good work guys! 81M02/TeamCali is definitely excellence-personified! Here's to more VSAT metrics and all-green stats!

Utter Rejection

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

Right now, am so dismayed when I heard from my colleagues no less that you do not want us. After hearing that, I would like to believe that you have good reasons for arriving at such a prejudiced statement. You might say that I believe too much on rumors and hearsays but I could vouch for my colleagues' integrity. I think they heard it right.

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

What led you to come up with such a statement? What are your underlying reasons? Isn't it premature to come up with that statement? It might just be a joke. Anyhow, I still think it is utterly wrong to make such a statement given the context from which we're moving around. We're both victims of circumstances here.

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

Empathic understanding goes both ways. I'll just wait for your rebuttals, till then.

Today I Write The Saddest Blogpost

(As I write this blogpost, I am in the middle of taking in calls. Im not so much in a good mood to play nice and sweet to irate callers. Thus, I'll not be very surprised if I'll have a failed QE or a very dissatisfactory POSE once I get back to work come Thursday. ***Photo credit: photo used for this blogpost was taken from teamcali.multiply.com, perhaps this was shot using TL's digicam***)

Starting today (March the 30th), I think Team 81M02 will never be the same again. It is with a heavy heart that we said our goodbyes to TL Cali San Diego on her last day with the team yesterday (March the 29th).

To speak about parting is an ordeal. Letting go is a Herculean task that could never be accomplished overnight. And yes, Iam sulking. I am disheartened. I am sad.

Please don't get me wrong. Sure, I am really happy for TL Cali that she was favorably chosen by the junior-level management of the company to head one of the three teams for Project Greenlight for we could all vouch for TL's superb leadership and management skills. The team itself is a living proof of what TL can accomplish. There's no denying that TL surely deserves to be given new and more challenging responsibilities.

What saddens the team, or myself for that matter, was the urgency and the immediate effectivity of TL Cali's pull-out from our team. We never thought that after spending our much-deserved early summer getaway trip at Iba, Zambales, we got back to work last Thursday only to find out that we have like a day left to spend with TL. Surprise, Surprise! I can't speak for the other older and more tenured agents in the team if they are sad as I am simply because basic psychology taught me its wrong to assume about how other people respond on a given stimulus. But here's an obervation on the first day without TL Cali: the shift started a bit gloomy, our once imprenta-like QuickComm was only being filled with purely work-related concerns (e.g. pa-add ng ganito, pa-add ng ganyan, pa-order ng ganito etc.), 2 colleagues are absent and miracle of miracles, 81M02's SILENCE IS SO DEAFENING...

I could write here for all I want how disgusted I am with the decision of those never mind... An orgmate in college told me how I should be accepting of this event since Sociology taught us how capitalists are devoid of any human emotion and that this rationalization is done all in the guise of profit maximization! Grrrrrr! Sigh, the pains of being a part of the working class...

Anyhow, back on reflective/sulking/sad mode:

In sociology (or psychology, that I no longer remember, forgive my utter ignorance...), a person's performance in a group or in an organization is sustained or improved by having a "significant other." And in the workplace, TL Cali was the "significant other" that allowed me to persevere and somehow do some "hardwork." TL was also instrumental in changing my views about this work that I do. From her I learned that there is indeed pride in being a call center agent. I was then able to put so much respect on this kind of work since TL helped me to dispel whatever negative notions I initially have.

Now that TL is no longer our "Boss", I'll surely miss the curls and how shy she was when we noticed her straight hair but still insisted to her press release, "shampoo lang yan."; the constant reminders to TLi, Kuya Jeps and Rain not to go on ACW for more than 2 minutes; the day she implemented the EOP on our QuickComm long before the managers thought of it and how bloody our noses and ears were afterwards; the great deal of patience that she and Ms. Annie exerted to teach Mai and myself how to properly issue and comment on a credit. I'll also miss the yosi sessions and those conversations ranging from what is deemed as personal, to professional and work-related issues (performance coaching). And above all, the discourses on socio-politico-economic issues confronting our third world graft-ridden society which only shows that we never turned our backs from what U.P. instilled in us.

It would definitely take time before we'll get use to not having TL around. We might have moved on but one thing is for sure, 81M02 will never be the same again without TL California San Diego.

TL Cali: She'll be the standard from which our next TL/s will be measured. No pressure!