LAST DAY RANTS AND RAVES

Tomorrow will be my last day with company A. As I am about to hand back my cellphone and laptop, I am drawn to contemplate on how the last two years had been.

RAVES:
1. I had so much fun travelling for the past two years. My work has brought me finally to East Coast USA. Boston and New York were exactly what I envisioned them to be. Also, I will never forget the time when I practically made Hong Kong and China my second home. Going back and forth to those places practically every other week was both fun and taxing. I still have my Hong Kong MTR card with about HK$500 credit left, so any takers, just send me a note.

2. I met some really interesting people. You know who you are. I am forever grateful.

RANTS:
1. I felt like an overpaid messenger. A lot of times I was just transmitting information back and forth between my subcontractors and my foreign counterparts. Not good. You guys pay me so much money and I wish you had given me the chance to use my brain once in a while.

2. Things went downhill when Mr. G was ceremoniously booted out of his job and was replaced by a data maniac. We were asked for lots of presentations, reports, and what-have-you's but we couldn't figure out how the data was being used and what was the resulting impact to the organization.

3. Ms. D continued to toe the line, so to speak. Not much help coming from her, as always.

4. I met some really interesting people. You know who you are. My message to you... I'm way past "I don't give a damn."

It was also interesting to know that, according to my Singapore mole, a lot of my Filipino colleagues based in Singapore are quite vocal about their sour graping at my move. Of course Zurich is expensive. That's the price you pay for the high quality of living. But please, before you say that I'm making such a bad move, go and do your research. Apparently, you didn't get to the part where Swiss employees are also among the highest paid in the world. And that Swiss taxes are among the lowest. But never mind. I just wish you'd be happy for me the same way that I've always been happy for you.

I also learned how excited Mr. D was to meet Ms. A, who like Ms. D is a toe the company line girl. Well Mr. D, I hope you have a great time with Ms. A. I'm pretty sure you'll have a fine time discussing how customer A's visit went. By the way, your problems with customer A are far from over. How you guys manage to tout your successes with customer A and reap lots of awards and yet, you still get a lot of field returns and lines down, is beyond me. Reality is, you and I are not aligned on the definition of success. Good luck. You all need it. And I don't really care if you don't want to meet me, or at least talk to me why I'm leaving the company, in spite of you being the head of our group. It just shows to me the kind of leadership you espouse. Thanks, but no thanks.

EMAIL SIGNATURES

Everybody here using Microsoft Outlook raise your hand!

Okay. I'm sure you all know that there's a feature in Outlook that allows you to customize your emails with signatures. You know, that little snippet of text at the end of your email where you can add something like a quote, or your email business card. I'm sure, at one point or another, you've dabbled around with that feature. Or you've probably seen one from your officemate. I have my share of officemates who use that signature feature in Outlook. As far as I know, all of their signature suck.

Here's an example of a signature from some know-it-all jerk who thinks he's a hotshot:
"Da Mihi Animas, Caetera tolle." Now what in the hell does that mean? No, I'm not going to waste my bandwidth on translate.google.com trying to figure out what this means.

Another guy has this: "He who stops being better, stops being good." Oh-kay...

I've been thinking of using my own signature too. I want it to express sincerely how I feel right now. And right now, I'm seriously pondering on putting this into all of my emails:

Really. I don't anymore.

NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT SHE'S GOING THROUGH

Have you ever bitched about something then, after a while, realize that your problems are nothing compared to what another person is going though? An hour ago, I was seething mad at the Land Transportation Office (LTO). As I'm now updating my documents, preparing for my move, I realized that you can actually exchange your valid driver's licence for a Swiss licence. All you have to do is to go to the local Swiss office and do the exchange. Sometimes, they will require you to do a driving test, but most often that not, they will just give you a Swiss driver's licence. Cool, huh?

So I paid a visit to the new LTO Satellite Office in Hypermart, C5. There they told me that I had to go to the main office in East Avenue to get it renewed. Now I don't want to do that. The office in East Avenue is just reeking of corruption. You haven't even told anyone what you're there for and they're already haggling with you that the best way to get it done is through someone from the inside, with a little (fuck me if it's really little!) grease money, of course. No amount of pleading will make them hear me out. Darn, if I had known it will be this tough, I should've just went there with my wife. She can get away with almost anything, when it comes to dealing with government morons. So seeing I have little choice but to either try another day at that office or go straight to LTO, I just went home.

Then I got an SMS from my sister in Beijing, asking me to call her ASAP. So I did and I learned that her husband had a terrible accident this morning on his way to work. He was riding his bike on the way to the Embassy when he got hit (by what, I still don't know. My sister wasn't in the right mental state for her to explain what happened.). She had to take him to the hospital and there they found that he had fractured his arm. He has the option to undergo a surgery where they will have to insert a titanium brace for his arm, or just have it in a cast, which is a cheap option but they couldn't guarantee that the break will heal properly. So now they're flying back to Manila tomorrow evening and going straight to St. Luke's.

All of a sudden, my problem with my driver's licence ain't worth shit. I just feel so sorry for my sister, having to go through that all alone in China. Makes me want to go there now and be by her side.

TURETE



Grabe, lumalala ata ang pagiging makakalimutin ko. Kagabi, bago ako umuwi, bumili ako ng tatlong bote ng Cerveza Negra. Ito kasi yung favorite beer ko. Sa mga hindi pa nakakasubok, Cerveza Negra yung dark lager beer ng San Miguel. Parang katulad ito nung Guiness, yung dark beer na gawa sa Ireland. Kakaiba ang lasa nito. Para sa akin, medyo mapait-pait na parang kape na may halong dark chocolate, na may halong beer. Masarap. Subukan nyo.

So ayun, bumili ako ng tatlong bote nito. Nilagay ko sa freezer lahat tapos nagsimula na akong magcheck ng email. Hala! Nakalimutan ko. Ngayong hapon ko lang nalaman na may nilagay pala akong beer sa freezer. Pagbukas ko ng freezer, okay naman pala sila. Feeling ko kasi baka pumutok tapos kelangan ko pang maglinis ng ref. Ang dami pa namang laman yung ref ngayon.

So eto, Cerveza Negra muna ko habang nagi-email tsaka naga-update ng blog.