Life

Life is a blessing and it is also as fragile as a snowflake.

Watching the documentary about the Tsunami survivors allow me to look into my own life in retrospect. Here I am complaining of how life is being unfair to me. How I should be getting this and that not fully appreciating that my existence and my breath of life is only through the grace of God.

It humbles me and it makes me appreciate what I have. That now even after the passing of my beloved of seven years, life is still wonderful and I still have some pieces of my life to use as a foundation to create something better and to create a more meaningful life.

Yes life is never fair - it is never fair for those who lost everything and everyone in their lives to the great power of the sea. But they had to keep going despite the tragedy. The triumph of the human spirit awes me and makes me appreciate this life the more.

Live life, give more, hug more and love more.

You never know when it's too late to do any of those.

MY OFFICE IS A SOAP OPERA

My office is the set for one soap opera that would catch the interest of soap opera addicts. Set in the newest and posh business districts in Metro Manila, my office is the melting pot for all walks of employees. Because of the higher pay that is given by the company, the good, the bad and oh yes the ugly converge.

The good aim to do good and maintain their distance from all the brouhaha going on, but with a company of 500 employees, they end up getting dragged into the drama. Take for example this Manager - I do not know why she has earned the ire of one particular employee, actually it was so petty I have already have forgotten what it was. Anyway, the employee would call her names or bitch about her within her earshot. She also trashes her reputation at a social networking website and keeps at it until now. I cannot imagine where she is getting this energy to hate a person with this much venom.

The same manager also had a run in with another employee, a beautiful transvestite who is actually not bad at all work wise because he does his job -  comes to work early, does not go absent and gets commendations from customers. This manager wanted the employee to work on his rest day which I personally do not think is fair and I don't even think it is legal, but she asked him anyway giving the reason that the office was "understaffed". Apparently as the story goes, the employee became so enraged that he stormed out of the office complained straight to the  Human Resources Department. And the Manager of course gets mad too because she feels bypassed and disregarded. Damage Control people! This could have been avoided had they had the good sense to talk things over -  between them. Good thing they patched things up with matching hugs. 

Going back to the tranny employee -  this employee gets into everybody's business. Sometimes, he does want to help out, but more often than not, he just wants to be "in on the action". One time, he meddled in a fight (according to him, he interceded to let them know that they should talk about it) between two employees who were fighting over what another (third person) employee said about the other. In the end, he was the one who got into a fight, charging the other employee (with flaring nostrils, I might add and that is in the literal sense) and calling the other employee uncouth. Through out his tirades this employee was quietly doing her job and just replied with one statement: "Look who's talking". Tranny stomped away and I felt like if he had the chance, he would have waited for her at the building entrance and beat her up in a pulp. 

Another colorful character in this office has a "Me-against-the-world"complex and so full of angst that you feel yourself dragged into her negativity. She gets slighted over the most innocent and common remarks with matching name-calling and backbiting and saying stuff about the person with in an earshot. But it does not stop there. Because we are blessed with all this wonderful technology, it enables her to go on tirades about the people on her social networking account, dragging her minions to do the same. She had run-ins with everybody from an employee, to a supervisor and a Manager. I bet if she is within the circle of the site director, she would manage to find something she could complain about the director.

Another character that personally annoys me is an employee that has chosen the wrong shade of blue for his contact lenses and has an obnoxious personality. A Mr-know-it-all, he also get's into other people's business. But on the other hand, I do not think he realizes that he is that annoying because whatever he does for you is because his intentions are good. There is just something - which I cannot put my finger on - about him that is so annoying. One way to describe it is me being a dog and I am disturbed by his scent but I am unable to tell what it is. He does paint a colorful picture about his experiences, like how he managed his own business and how he was successful at it at an early age. I am just so itching to ask him, "so why are you here then?". He has a big problem with his absences with an unbelievable number of sickness that he had -  from laryngitis to toothaches to kidney problems. But other than that, he is a good guy so I make sure to take his friendship with a grain of salt.

The drama is unending. Fights resulting from petty issues like what happened to one employee who was prohibited by the other to sell a kind of pastry because she was selling it first. It's like Coca-cola telling Pepsi that it can't sell soda at this place because he was there first. Struggles with rules such as bringing food and drinks on the floor has also been a cause of employee upheaval. They stopped allowing us to bring food and drinks because of the sheer disregard for cleanliness. I mean come on! You eat something out of a bag with a spoon, make sure you dispose of your bag and spoon! And the reason some employees do not do this is do to the fact that there are no trash bins around?? I personally find that a lame excuse. That just shows how some people in my office are lazy and just plain litterbugs.

I could go on and on and on and on. But the everyday situations like these are what some of us look forward to. Because the management has fallen short of our expectations, some continue on because of the higher pay than most that they offer, some are still there because of the people and camaraderie, some because the job is really easy and some are like the paparazzi, closely watching people to see who makes the next stupid move. Some had been saying that they were leaving two or three months running but are still there, for whatever reason they may have.

My office is a soap opera, running 24 hours, now in it's second season. I am wondering what the season ender would be. Like many soap opera's it's could be a tear-jerker... or as hilarious as the day to day situations are, it may just end up in one big laugh.

MEGALOTTO

The current pot for the 6/55 Megalotto in the Philippines as of November 22,2010 is Php 584,829,925.20 or converted to US Dollars that is $ 13,306,710.00, In Euros that would be € 9,942,101.4340 and in British Pounds that would be £8,422,622.0365. Everybody is lining up at the lottery stations holding their tickets like the Holy Grail, mumbling a prayer to bless the card and everybody simply wishing to win the Jackpot prize.

It’s interesting to know what people would do when they actually have that amount of money on hand. The most predictable answer of the Filipinos would be –“ tutulungan ko po ang pamilya ko” –“ I’m going to use the money to help my family”. Which will be 90% true because if a person wins that amount of money in the Philippines and the extended family, friends, neighbors and strangers get wind of it, they will approach that person to ask for help - meaning money for medicines, tuition fees etc or ask for what we call “balato” which is money simply given away.

But what do you do if you actually have Half a Billion pesos in your hand? I will admit that my first thought was of Luxury – of all the places I want to go to, the cars I want to buy and the houses I want to build. Summing it all up, I realized that I probably would not use that all up even if I built two houses, bought four cars and travelled. Then I decided I would set up a trust fund for my child and two other children, some of it would go to my parents (actually, my parents-in-law), two brothers and a sister (actually my own brother, a brother and sister-in-law) and trickles of it would then go to the extended family.

However, some of the stories I’ve heard about Filipino lottery winners  are not too inspiring. One which is quoted from a local newspaper stated that an Php 80 Million winner “gave half (of the money he won) to his parents, who went door-to-door giving P500 each to total strangers…He placed P100,000 bets on cockfights. He now lives in a beautiful house, but can’t pay his electric bills, so the power was cut off.” The American lottery winners are no different and have similar sad stories to tell and most of them ended dead.

That actually takes out the excitement of winning that amount of money.

But, for now I am focusing all my energies at winning the 6/55 Jackpot prize, picturing myself actually handing that check over to the bank and having the bankbook read Php 700,000,000.00 (that would be the total pot when the draw comes) under my name. And then that’s when I’d start to think how I would spend all that money. 

But wait, I think I need to buy a ticket and have a set of six winning numbers first!

THE COVE

While the lazy-couch-potato-me was flipping through cable Television, I came across Oprah and saw the trailer for the documentary “The Cove”. The trailer was about Dolphin Hunting in Taiji a small fishing village in Japan. I thought it was one of those movies by overzealous Environment activists, but the trailer did not prepare me for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9igxRDU5aQ&feature=related

Hundreds of dolphins cordoned off and killed by a spear or by being hit on the head. The seawater on the cove turns bloody red as these dolphins are massacred. I am not an environmentalist but the way these Dolphins are being killed is horrible. In my mind Dolphins are lovable creatures, it’s unfathomable to hunt them like that. The only way I could describe it is like having your own pet dog for dinner.

“The Cove” has raised awareness on the slaughter of Dolphins but it has also sparked controversy and anger from the Japanese and other people too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeJUyzGZhEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN22mAI9r24&feature=related

According to them the slaughter of Dolphins which to them is just another sort of fish is no different from Westerners slaughtering Cows or Pigs for their meat. This actually stopped me for a moment. This is true – the Whale and Dolphin hunting is a part of Japanese culture and they are hunting the Dolphins in their own waters where the westerners do not have any jurisdiction on.

But why does it break my heart to watch them being killed like that? Well for one, I watched Flipper. I grew up with the National Geographic and Discovery Channel’s documentary on Dolphins. And they all say the same thing: Dolphins are the Earth’s most intelligent mammals. Studies have shown that they have strong social bonds and that they have feelings much like a human being does. The permanent smile that they have is very endearing and their playful manner makes them more adorable. And let us not disregard the fact that from time to time we hear news about a Dolphin saving a human life.

I respect the feelings of the Japanese regarding the matter, more specifically the fishermen of Taiji. But I cannot deny the fact that I am heartbroken to see the slaughter of the Dolphins. I wish and I pray that a solution could be reached to address this though it may not be a problem to some, but it is still disturbing to many.

WEEDING OUT

After one day and an arm sore from clicking my mouse, I realized that Facebook has become a phenomenon. During it’s early stages, it was ignored because we had Friendster , Multiply and Hi5 then. These are all social networking sites which had their own share of advantages and disadvantages. For one you can post your pictures abroad to let them know that YES, you’ve been there, or to post a picture of you and the person you are currently with to discourage anybody who would like to take him away from you, or to show them how great you look in a bikini. To some degree, some people have taken this way out of control – online fights have been started because of a post someone didn’t like, or really lewd pictures have been posted too. Sites such as Multiply has now become a “Marketing” site with almost everything being sold online.

I enjoy catching up with people, looking at where they’ve been, who they’re with or what state they are currently in. But today I spent the whole day removing “friends” from my account because I barely know them, I just don’t want to friends with them anymore or I am just so sick of their daily dose of negativity on their status.

I am a very private person and really picky with whom my friends are. Some of my friends say that it actually defeats the purpose of joining a Social Networking site because you don’t join one just to have a handful of friends, after all it’s a networking site. True but I would rather keep the people on my page who know me, who can be a good influence to me and last but not the least, people who I can have intelligent conversations with.

I admit at times, I would “spy” on a particular person’s profile and find out what they are up to or what the pictures they’ve posted can tell me, after all who does'nt? I know some people may also be doing the same thing to me – (that’s what Privacy options are for). But that is really not a good thing to do isn’t it? Why fuel my negative emotions by going back to a person’s profile who I do not like anyway? Why waste energy browsing their pictures when I could be catching up with a close friend in high school or a relative abroad who just got married?

Sometimes there is a need to weed out your online “friends”. This allows you to find out if you value them enough, to know the friends you can count on and the ones worth keeping. By removing them from your network, it removes the need for you to check them out, it also removes the stimuli to the negative emotions that you might feel every time you visit their profile. And removing that profile with the unending negative status removes the unneeded negative baggage that you might be unconsciously carrying for them.

So now, although my arm is a bit sore - because Facebook does not have a multiple delete option, I feel better because I know that the people left on my page are the ones I truly care about and whom I call my true friends.

THE FAVORITE CHILD

Why do parents favor a child over the other? Some would feel indignant and say, “of course not!” Or some may stay silent but in their minds, they think that they are not one of those parents

I do not know how it feels to favor another child over the other because only have one, but I have felt that my mother and other relatives favored my brother over me. I think this is the most disastrous thing that could happen to a family. Children are affected in such a way that they always seem to fall short of their parents expectations and are always compared to the favored child. This usually ends in low self esteem and sibling rivalry. Sometimes this lasts until the children become adults that it is so petty and silly really.

I think this is not a question of how much one is loved more than the other, because I don’t think any parent would love a child a little less than the other. I think this “favoring” thing is circumstantial, or subjective depending on the situation.

Some parents may be seen favoring a child when he is performing well at school and he is being praised and probably gets more rewards for being one. Or a specific child probably always goes with mommy to the store because he behaves better than the other.

When we were children we felt that way – that our parents favored a child over the other. Now that it’s our turn to be parents we say that we love all of them equally. I am not sure how this issue can be resolved because this has been on going for the longest time with the same complaints and still a lot of children feel that way. And still a lot of parents will not admit that they actually do favor one child over the other.

Thank God I’ve only got one. :)

THE ANSWER TO MY DILEMMA

(G) March 27, 2009
Your hopes and wishes are your own -- do not go changing them around in order to fit in with the desires of those who are in power right now. It's important to be resolute in your goals, because otherwise you will never ever attain them. Peer pressure can be tough to counter, but if something the group wants you to do directly conflicts with something that you need to do, then you've got to refuse to do it. You're just trying to be happy, and your friends should understand and support you.