O Fortuna

Since the year started, there have been a lot of significant changes within the office, people come and go, and we are left without a choice but to deal with the situation. And when situations get tough, sometimes, the only thing that gives me enthusiasm is the bond that i have with my friends at work.

Yesterday, before going home, Ivan, one of my starting-to-become-close friends at work told me that he'll be staying with the company only until the end of the month. We were not that close in the beginning, but since we became row mates, i saw him as a barkada. We joke around all day and the biggest highlight of our day is to compete with each other at MF.

When he told me the thing yesterday, i felt sad. But today, going to work, i felt very sad. I dont have a thing for him, if you're thinking that way. It's just that he's such a good guy to everyone. And since i can be-friend guys more easily than girls (eversince), it's seldom that i see someone who can meet the level of my boyishness and treat me just like a guy friend too (but at the same time still respects me as a woman), and he's one of 'em.

Sadly, we have to face these kinds of episodes in our lives, and just be thankful that we meet such people who can contribute something to our maturity and share some of what they got.

When i look to my left on Monday, i know that i will no longer see 'the man'.

Ivan "The Man" Aguilar of HR Pioneers

Goodbye TM! =D

Third quarter last year i had my lower right third molar removed. Around March this year, my upper left third molar started aching. The pain that I feel from the latter was incredible! 500 mg of Mefenamic won't even help. It wakes me up during sleep, tears automatically fall from my eyes because of too much pain.

Friday, I was awaken by an extreme pain. I was really crying! I promised myself that this will be the last time that i'm gonna be feeling this way - "i'm gonna get rid of you, teeth!". I wasn't able to sleep that day.

Yesterday, marked a very memorable experience. I went to the dentist in the afternoon with Winston. The dentist told me that pulling third molars (especially the upper ones) are extreme - very easy or very painful. I started praying.

She injected my gums with anesthesia. Did some shaking of the tooth, and i was wondering how i can still feel what she was doing. She told me that I shouldn't be feeling it anymore. She even used the thing that's used for dental amalgalm "pasta" (ung pang-butas).

To make the loooong story of the looong process short, it caused me FOUR (4) sets of injections of anesthesia because I can still feel the pain. (In my last tooth extraction with her, i was injected once and my entire gums and cheeks on the right felt numb in no time). And there was no choice but to continue the process and successfully remove my tooth.

Finally, it got removed. But i was REALLY crying the whole time (FACT: Since my first bunot in grade 3, I NEVER CRIED!) And so the dentist jokingly told me, "if you will continue to cry, i'll end my career now" ("kung yak ka pa, aayaw na ko") But told her that i was crying because it was unimaginably painful and i was just glad it was a success.

When we got home, Naneeh and i finished 70ml of Selecta Supreme Rocky Road!!! - this is the best part after a tooth extraction that i look forward to eversince!

Fusili Tuna Carbonara

Got a new recipe for pasta l♥vers! =)



Ingredients:
oil and butter (for sautéing)
about 4 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 bell pepper - any color of your choice
1 big can of tuna (spanish style is the best!)
1/2kg fusili noodles (twisted)
about 1/2 cup of grated cheese (or 1/4 of the rectangular cheese)
3-4 eggs - beaten
oregano/basil (or any herbs you love)
salt and pepper to taste

How to cook:
1. Cook pasta the usual way.
2. While cooking the pasta, in a big/deep pan saute garlic, bell pepper, and tuna in oil and butter .

Check the noodles from time to time, you are still going to cook it with the mixture so keep it al dente'.

3. When the noodles are ready, transfer it to the pan and fold it with the mixture.
4. Add the beaten eggs and grated cheese. Mix until everything's coated and cooked.

Serve with grated cheese on top and some toasted bread =D

I've cooked this 3 times in a row in one month - my first trial at home. Second, brought it to the office (and my colleagues ordered.. hehe) and the last was during Mother's Day.

Remembering my first ever cellphone =D

As I answer "Firsts.." survey-blog yesterday, the question What was your first cellphone reminded me of my first ever cellphone! It was a black Alcatel One Touch phone (the first text message-capable cellphone endorsed by TalkNText, specifically by Rico Yan). It was for P3,500. Happily, it was around May that they released it, and so I got a great reason to ask for it as a birthday gift (my birthday is in June and so there's enough time for them to save ;) ) and since the common phones available that time were Nokia 5110 and Bosch 509 and their price were a bit higher (magka cp lang talaga!). I was able to ask my eldest cousin to buy that phone for me as a gift (why him? because he's the first to have a steady job then, and i was his 'alaga' when i was little). He didn't say yes right away, just 'let's see'.

And so I waited patiently. June came and a few days before my birthday, I received my most awaited gift! I can remember how excited I was then. I bring it in school everyday and i think i have only 3 classmates who has cellphones within our section - so i gotta be proud too! Until the time came that 5110 became the favorite, and not too long, 3210 came out and became very famous. And so as the Alcatel phone became famous too... famously known as the "safeguard" phone. Haha!

That was sad at one point, but at least, I was fortunate enough to be one of the first few teenagers who had a cellphone then. :)

This is how Alcatel One Touch looks like, if you can't remember =D
It has an orange backlight, two-liner screen, and the model that i got did not have small caps option hehe..

Firsts.... (re-post from Carmi's site)

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
wala.. we didn't have JS prom, a military training instead ='(

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love
nope.. well, i'm not even sure who really was my first love!

3. What was your first alcoholic drink?
draft beer

4. What was your FIRST job?
Customer Service Associate - aka rep @ Clientlogic

5. What was your FIRST cellphone?
the super hightech and ever-famous "safeguard" Alcatel phone =D

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
Naneeh

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
no one.. coz i woke up later than usual and i was rushing..

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Munsayac - she's my favorite teacher!

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
I haven't ride a plane yet =(

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
Joecil Ramos. We still communicate thru chat and fb.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
Kila Joecil, during elementary. We were neighbors =D

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
kuyang bert, he woke me up. thank goodness!

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
(aside from my pre-school abay experiences) kuyang win's.. i was one of the usherettes

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
fixed my bed and took a bath

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
parokya ni edgar with the teeth - during highschool, sa scul din

16. What was the FIRST record/tape/CD you bought?
Grin Department =D w/c was stolen by my classmate in grade 5.

17. FIRST hospitalization?
aside from my treatment of Kidney stones during kinder, none so far.

18. FIRST foreign country you've been to?
la pa.

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
TMNT The Movie

20. When was your FIRST detention?
wala

21. What did you do with your FIRST paycheck?
Gave the half to my mom.. cant remember buying anything.

22. Your FIRST social networking site?
Friendster

23. Who FIRST invited you to Facebook?
Soleil Santos

May 2010 Election: The PCOS Scandal

May 20,2010 - I partially heard a news this morning about a whistle-blower who claims that they've hacked the PCOS machines that were used during this month's election. In the interview, Mojo Jojo was speaking with the Smartmatic guy/rep (forgot his name) and Paul Farol, the award-winning blogger and author of Manila Review who answered some questions and shared informative data about this whole new election system.

I have yet to watch the in-demand video of the masked guy who claims to have shaved off millions of votes, a couple of months prior the election day. But according to the news, his statements are very incredible and he provides insufficient machine terminologies and details (which i believe he must be able at least mention since it's an automated thing that we are talking about).

From what i've heard, the man said that they have their own flash cards, with cheated data on it, installed into the machines. The Smartmatic guy said that it's very unlikely to happen. First, the assigned technicians held the machines from day 1 till the distribution nationwide. Take note that they have military forces with them everyday. Also, those FC's only contain precint numbers and the storage space for the submitted ballots. So it cannot contain any pre-added data without having a single ballot inserted and verified.

And so on..

I've also learned that PCOS machines were just leased from another country for more or less P1B and that it has saved Comelec P4B against the manual election. Purchasing it costs P2B (so why don't we just purchase it instead?!) but they said that the Comelec hasn't decided anything about it as of yet.

I just thought that the electronic system used is far better than the manual election - when we speak of defraud possibilities, transmission, retrieval and counting. It may have flaws, but for me, for a good 90% it was successful.

Critics will always be there, attention-seekers are inevitable, and losers who are not capable of accepting their loss... are and will always be LOSERS!

Mafia Wars.. iLike!

Once again, i'm addicted in playing Mafia Wars for the past few weeks. It's one of the games that really love playing since I re-opened my facebook account (not to mention Farmville). It doesn't have much of the gif animation/interactivity like what you see in FarmVille, CafeWorld, etc. It uses pretty-neat images though. Basically, it's a kind of RTS or Real-time strategy game where in you grow your character as time progresses continuously and according to the game clock.

You grow your mafia by recruiting members, level up by fighting other individuals, buying armors, completing jobs, winning "Boss Fights", and buying properties to increase your money. So far, i'm halfway to level 27, Mogul. I'm so eager to level up everyday because my seatmate and I are competing.. although we belong to the same Mafia =D

Happy 5-8!

Today, my fiance and I are celebrating our 68th monthsary. We always celebrate our monthsaries in a very casual way (except anniversaries). Sometimes we eat out (sa fastfood, masabi lang na lumabas.. ;P ), at times malling, can be a ride somewhere, and sometimes, almost nothing really special happens, aside from greeting each other "happy monthsary" a couple of times throughout the day. But this month (last night), he gave me flowers *kilig*.. a dozen of pink roses. my finace is the type of guy who's not so very romantic - just when feels like it. and when he does something like that, he knows how to make it good.

around 11:15pm last night, (i know that he's on his way to the office) he was calling but i did not answer because i know that he's just going to tell me that he has arrived, and i was so busy at that moment. he texted me..

him: "nasa greenhills ako, hinto muna ko kc inaantok ako. bili muna ko ng kape at donut"
me: "ok cge. parang pulis lang ah.. hehe"
him: "hehehe"
me: "love u. text mko pag and2 kn"

11:56, still got no text from him. i got a bit worried. he should be here already by this time.

me: "san kn ba? tagal mo naman!"
no reply.
i called him instead..

me: "san knb? tagal mo naman, may ka-date k p ata sa greenhills ah!"
him (with a soft-pa-cute-voice): "hon pwede ka ba bumaba? kahit 10 mins lang"
me: "bakit ba? alam mo namang di pwede, tapos break noh!"
him: "sige na po, sandali lang"
me (with a hint): "bakit nga kc? kaw na umakyat dito"
him: "may bibigay ako syo.. (with a smiling voice)"
me: "...... " =) "..akyat kn kasi" (over pa-cute tone. lol)
him: "o sige, akyat nako jan"

around 12:08, Tue May 18th

when i met him at the lobby... he was carrying this..

...and i'm one widely-smiling soul.

my husband-to-be is the sweetest!

thanks again! happy 5-8 and i love u always =D

Hay!Men! is back!

remember this blog???

now they're back! =D the Hay!Men! site is on again. With lots of, as usual, hilarious, offensive, sometimes disgusting, and only-for-open-minded-people entries. And they got my entry posted! =D

i know it's not very wholesome.. but as they say.. nakikibagay lang.. hehe..

enjoy!