like there's no tomorrow

8 undersecretaries
7 assistant secretaries
+ more to come daw
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foreign travels galore

meanwhile, the department is finalizing the rationalization plan that threatens to axe the humble casual employees by september this year. top that.

hindi ako maasim!

DISCLAIMER: sa mga kaopisina at kaibigan kong nakakakilala sa mga karakter na inookray ko dito, mangyaring manahimik na lamang at nang hindi na ako lalung mapasama. salamat.

the inter-color volleyball tournament in our office is finally over. after two round robins, one crossover and one final match, we placed third out of four teams. it's not so bad, really. i'm very proud of my how my team came through, considering the other teams' skill advantage over ours. we always play a good game, and we always play fair.

my beef with this tournament, however, is the way it was organized. i've participated in quite a few nasty debates with the organizers regarding some decisions that did not seem fair. i'd rather not be sour about it but this is my blog and i can't help it. so let me give you a list.

• meetings were not organized. it was unclear who should be there and what the agenda were. nobody took note of agreements. for instance, we decided to separate the better players (these are players who represented the office in more competitive matches outside the office) to ensure fairness and to add an element of fun to the competition. however, when the line-up of players were finalized, it turned out that one team had un unfair share of the better players, leaving one team looking like they didn't know what they're getting into. apparently, the organizer approved the line-up despite the previous agreement. i did feel a sense of betrayal, but it was just a game and i had faith in my team. so dedma na lang.

• i was asked to prepare ground rules (tournament formula) and a tentative schedule for the volleyball competition, a copy of which shall be provided (daw) to team captains prior to the start of the games. i made one based on the formula of some fivb tournaments. unfortunately, my team had to be on our toes and play it by ear because no sight of the so-called approved ground rules appeared.

• game schedules kept changing for reasons that could be argued as unnecessary or invalid. we worried that certain team/s were being given undue advantage but we had no proof so we kept mum about it. we played by their "rules", why not play by their "schedule"?

• the main organizer of the volleyball tournament was coaching a team at the same time. this is actually no biggie. we understand that not a lot of people would take this responsibility so we didn't mind.

• the last straw -- we were on the final stretch of the second round of games when i was informed that the first round has been deemed "no bearing" or "not counted." my blood pressure suddenly rose from hell... where's the logic in that?! why would you make us play one round of games and then suddenly tell us that these games had no bearing?! that's like telling me that my team (not to mention our fans and supporters!) wasted a great deal of time and effort.

never mind the first four in the list. i wouldn't have brought them up if not for the "no bearing" issue. i tried to get answers from the two organizers and what did i get? two incompetent women who kept referring me back at each other because they couldn't give me a good enough answer. i got so sick of it that i told them (through a common friend) that they better clean up their act or else. apparently, they didn't realize that i had it in me to be so feisty (perks of staying at HRDS for too long)! hah!

they ended up making some dumb excuse for the "mistake." i had to play dumb too, so that i won't look like i'm making a mountain out of it. but i swore to myself that if i could ever have anything to do with it, these two will no longer organize a volleyball tournament without someone with good sense guiding their decisions.



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and i thought it was over. we finally got our trophy and nothing could make us any more proud . . .



ganda ng trophy namin anoh?! (pardon my tendency to interchange wits and sarcasm.) and to put an icing on it, individual awards were creatively awarded. why creative, you ask? i'm not going to mock the others' awards but me getting a "best spiker" award?! yeah, i was successful in delivering a few killer spikes but the key word there is few! i was mostly tasked with setter/stopper duties, nakakapalo lang pag saktong nasa dos. i found out later that laila also got the same medal and i was almost put to shame. di hamak namang lamang ang killer spikes ni laila saken! i'm sure her award somewhat diminished in value considering that i got the same award.

i didn't bother asking the organizers who else got a "best spiker" award or why they would give out two (or more) "best spiker" awards. god forbid! i didn't even bother asking what other awards they gave or what their criteria were or who decided which players deserved these awards!

on a lighter note, let me tell you that i would not be humble about it had i gotten a "best blocker" award despite only three successful blocks and despite the fact that nobody else tried. ;)

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this post, although written ages ago, was posted only in july 4 due to my inability to upload photos (either something's wrong with me or something's wrong with blogger's photo uploading). i decided to use webshots to host the pics, and hopefully, they look just as nice as blogger itself would've showed them

crossed signals

"wake up and smell the smoke!"

"protect our roads! stop opression!"

is it just me or are these messages totally bewildering? the first one, i sorta get. but the second, hard as i try, i just couldn'tfigure out.

perhaps i should explain...

these messages are printed in big bold black letters in white tarpaulin. they're posted along the streets of the Loyola Grand Villas, the streets which are part of the short-cut from marikina to quezon city (usually referred simply as the tumana shortcut).

i did see one other tarpaulin but i can't remember the words (the message was too long) but i captured a sense of LGV residents fighting against the use of their streets as detour/shortcut/ alternative to motorists travelling from marikina to UP/balara/katipunan.

the first message must mean that residents should be more active in fighting against the public use of their streets due to the pollution from numerous vehicles of non-residents. i would guess that this same message is posted in other parts of LGV.

but who's the advocate? the homeowners' association? then why not make it clear who the message is for and who the message is from? why would they post it in streets where non-residents can read it? is there some sort of a trick here that i don't get?

the second message got me really confused. what would road protection have to do with oppression? do the residents of this posh subdivision feel that the public use of their streets result to their oppression? the logic escapes me, i'm afraid.

i have nothing against exclusive subdivisions who restrict non-residents from entering their streets for security reasons. for over 7 years i lived in a subdivision that allowed non-residents to use their streets as shortcut for a minimal fee -- a win-win situation, if you ask me (although collecting fees is a great temptation to the corrupt and thats another issue altogether).

i just couldn't understand the point of these messages. would someone please enlighten me?

jessie, the most photographed mutt

meet JESSIE, the most photographed mutt this side of marikina. jessie's mother is a poodle mix; his father, a terrier mix. his vet thought he looked like a japanese spitz as a puppy. now he’s looking more like a husky. it doesn’t matter really. to me (and my mom, jessie’s “official owner”), jessie is the most lovable mutt in the world.


jessie obediently stays in his huge cell during the day when we have to leave the house for work. he can run around the house at night when we’re home. and run around the house he goes, covering every corner as if trying to make up for all the lying around the whole day in his cell. sometimes during weekends, when mama doesn’t mind cleaning up his heavy shedding, he’d be allowed inside the whole day.

just one call of jessie’s name and he would sprint towards you, hoping to get a good dose of petting under his ears or in his belly. just a hint of playfulness and he’ll match it with his moves. if you have the slightest feeling of boredom or depression, you can count on jessie to rub some bubbly energy on you.

we realized how much we deeply love this mutt when he got sick – so sick he almost died. it was new year’s eve and jessie was not in his usual naughty self. he wouldn’t eat all day and would even vomit what small amount of food we made him eat. the next day, the first of january 2006, he moved bowels of stinky blood. he was obviously in a lot of pain and couldn’t even stand up and walk. his eyes showed a pitiful sadness, filled with pain. we immediately brought him to the nearest veterinary hospital.

it was a bad case of parvo virus, an infection that recently killed several dogs according to the vet. jessie was so weak he didn’t even budge at the needles poking in his veins. none were the typical snarls at every stranger. my mother and i were all choked up as we tried to sweet talk jessie into getting well.

mama was loaded with guilt for initially teasing jessie that lying still and staying quiet was much better behavior to his usual mischief. and i was not any less guilty. i didn’t insist on getting that third shot of vaccine. if he died (a real possibility at the time) i would’ve cried a bucket of tears.

thankfully, jessie was back home after a week. he is as energetic now as he was when we first got him. and he’s finally had that last vaccine.

on the 4th of july, jessie will turn ONE, and I’m turning 28. guess who’ll have a bigger birthday bash?! a way advanced happy birthday to you jessie, and many many more photos to come!

paris bennett eliminated

yup, just found out from rickey.org.

my top idols

early in the competition, i've selected my top idol favorites: taylor, paris, chris and katherine (yes, in that order). and there they are -- in the top 5 with elliot on his way home (i think).

now, i'm switching sides. my votes are on katherine and chris. (unfortunately, my votes don't count.)



photos from rickey.org

a kkb-worthy jersey

finally! natuloy din ang sportsfest sa office namin.

finally! i get to design our jersey. yey!

for so long, i've had to wear manly jerseys,

what with our basketball players thinking that

a women's volleyball team deserves jerseys

as nba-ish as theirs. no thanks.

now, this is what i call a jersey worth every peso of our k-k-b!

credits to the Mizuno Hurricane Jersey and the Women's World Grand Prix Volleyball logo

bumabawi

i'm usually a very talkative person and i'm pretty confident with what i have to say. writing is not too difficult a task for me either.

but blogging?!

i've never had a journal before and no one ever really gave me much praise for my creative writing skills.

nope, i didn't get that supposedly normal dose of "writer's block" and yes, there has to be a better excuse for this nonsensical babble...

ang lagay eh, bumabawi lang ako para naman magkalaman 'tong blog na 'to.

if you think that a blogger must have a better excuse for a long absence, i'll have to refer you to kulotology.blogspot.com

The Lost Gospel

this i gotta see...


judas iscariot just might turn out to be a martyr, a hero -- an almost ridiculous abnegation to the long believed "fact" that judas betrayed jesus for a few silver coins. a definite must-see for all orthodox preachers, blind faithfuls, even agnostics and atheists.

The Gospel of Judas gives a different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, offering new insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Unlike the accounts in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in which Judas is portrayed as a reviled traitor, this newly discovered Gospel portrays Judas as acting at Jesus' request when he hands Jesus over to the authorities.

The Gospel of Judas is an exclusive, two-hour global television event that traces the incredible story of one of the most important finds in biblical archaeology.

Visit National Geographic's official Gospel of Judas site for detailed accounts of the discovery of the papyrus codex, information on the conservation of the document, and an illustrated, interactive history of early christianity.

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Watch it on Monday, April 10, 10PM (Manila) on NGC. Or click the photo to visit the NGC website dedicated on this global television event.

training photos

as promised, here are the photo layouts that i did using Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 (with a little help from MS Picture Manager). Click here to view the album.