On Awesomeness

As a result of the long break, I have come up with this realization: Awesomeness is a matter of choice. Have a nice week ahead!

Just Another Racist Remark to the Filipinos

Just a quick post guys, here is an article by some Bridget Saunders. Stumbled upon a Facebook account. After that Hong Kong Magazine article, here's another similar racist remark from supposedly educated people.

What? What? Can you repeat that PLEASE!!

I read with a sinking stomach that Telecom, in their infinite wisdom, are moving 250 call centre jobs to Manila which will bring their number of call centre people there to 700. 

Must be a money saver...why pay Kiwis a half decent wage when you can get the job done more cheaply elsewhere?

hisssssssssss..............

I've had a lot of problems with email, am on the phone to xtra at least once a week - and it drives me nuts.

It's bad enough that Telecom/xtra can fail in their service to us full stop, and it's even worse if that failure is not reflected in a reduced phone bill, but what's really infuriating is not being able to understand the person on the other end of the line who is supposed to be helping.

Filipinos learn American English and their accents are diabolically hard to understand. They are so heavy!

When I have to call them for help I am always stressed out (because my job is communication and I can't afford to be offline and incommunicado - that would mean blank pages in About Town!) so getting someone with a voice that a) is almost unintelligible and b) grates, really fires me up. It shouldn't I know. But it does. Their voices are not just impossible to understand, they are really annoying as well. You know how some accents can be totally charming? Well, these are anything but! They must be the least attractive accents in the world!

And because these people are as close as we get to the actual corporation I allow myself to fully vent my anger...

E.g. after getting someone to repeat something 6 times I will yell in frustration.

I am better with Indian call centres since I saw Slumdog Millionaire, and I can cope with Cairo, but Manila? I lose it!

Wouldn't it be nice if Kiwis could do these jobs instead of adding to the unemployment.

It's mental. It doesn't make sense and it makes me really really mad!!!!

You can find the link of the website here .

(Honest) Scammers

Have you ever received an email from a Nigerian banker claiming they have a business proposition with you involving a huge sum of money? The usual intro is any of the following:

• He or she is a member of a very, very rich family. The family died and left him a huge amount of money. But he can't claim it yet because the government is monitoring his financial activities, and that the government intends to sequester the whole amount. So, the solution is to transfer this overseas (this is where you come in), but he needs some financial information about you first. What happens afterwards is the scamming part.
• It could also be a lawyer, with a very wealthy client who died without appointing anyone as their heir, so, if you are willing, you can have the wealth, but before that happens, you have to give an advance fee or something.

I remembered when I was in college that I initiated contact with the "Nigerian lawyer." We had an exchange of emails twice or thrice I think. I was trying to figure out how they will actually do the fraud, so, I told them I was interested; gave them some false information (fake name, address, and other information).When they finally ask a bank account, I told them I am interested to know how they are going to execute the fraud. (And that I know from the very start that they are scammers.) As a proposition, I told them I am willing to split with them 50% of my potential fraud kickback if they are going to tell me how they are going to "hack" the bank account (I assume they will hack or make fake wire transfer requests.) Unfortunately, they didn't share it with me. Sayang. :-)

Anyway, I was surfing the net a while ago and saw a post about an honest scammer:

Happy weekend everyone!

Cycle of Life

Guys, I'm just curious -- What are the three or five things you do first as soon as you arrive in your respective offices? Or for freelancers, as soon as you wake up or are in the mood to start working? Or for everyone, before SOMETHING. :-)

Here's mine (before I start working):

1. Clean my PC and the surrounding vicinity. And by surrounding vicinity, I only mean half-a-meter radius form my PC's monitor.
2. Make a cup of coffee.
3. Check/answer mails, visit my blogs/blogger friends/news.
4. If in the mood, write a post or sub-post (hi, mordsith!). If not, then, #5.
5. Take a sip of my now-not-so-warm coffee, deep breath, and convince myself: X, you live to work, you are a slave, you are not paid to dream. Work, work, work.

Then, I start working. How about you guys? Care to share your routine?

The Web 2.0 Generation

Because it is a weekend and I have nothing else to do (but finish 350++ pages of book so I can have extra moolahs), I decided to write yet another scholarly article. (Yeah, right!)

I stumbled upon an article recounting the story of a college kid who was offered a job at CISCO. The kid made a tweet about it (Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.); the higher ups at CISCO saw it, and the job offer was, well, take a guess. The CISCO guy replied: Who is the hiring manager. I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web. There, the job offer was revoked.

More than just sharing how it feels like heaven for you to look into the eyes of a goddess of beauty, you may utilize the power of Web 2.0 to connect to others, to network, to express yourself meaningfully, to promote a cause, etc. Social platforms have so much advantages that we should be taking advantage of right now. I know some people (gurus like John Chow, Carl Ocab, Yugatech, and Corics) are earning not just barya-barya from ads, reviews, etc. Some big companies use blogs as their newsletter. A number of people have blogs to show their portfolio for potential or prospective clients.

--
Did you know that Obama made his announcement for his running mate (VP) via Twitter first before calling a press conference?
--

What is my point? I guess nothing so awesome. Just sharing an observation... Web 2.0 presents us with risks and benefits. Let's try to focus on the good things it can offer, and avoid things that might hurt us professionally, psychologically, or in some other way.

Happy weekend people.

Soon-To-Be Senior Citizen X

I visited my beloved alma mater yesterday to talk to a professor. (Before I proceed with the "actual" post, let me just share some changes I noticed at school.)

• No ID, No Entry. Wasn't able to enter the building where I was supposed to meet my contact without presenting a valid ID and a valid explanation. Ang saya no?! And also, the "kids" are wearing their IDs, with lanyards and all.
• I saw not just a couple of kids with laptop superpokin' as if they usually do that during breaktime. (What we do during breaktime then was to squat in a friend's Tambayan and have yosi.)
• More organized AS 101; fewer cars in Faculty Center parking lot; less kids in Tambayans (in fact, less Tambayans!).
• Oh, and smoking is prohibited anywhere in the campus.
  

Now, to the main topic. Have you ever seen or felt these signs, or something similar?

1. After my meeting with the professor, I went to a friend's Tambayan. She wasn't there, so I asked the students where she is. "May klase ho siya," was their polite answer. Whoa! They just used HO (polite expression used to older people). I might have let it simply pass away if they used PO… but HO?! That was not polite! Hehehe.
2. During the last few months, I have been going to gimikans less and less. During my top-secret-BPO days, everyday is a Friday night. It's either Total Gas Station (yeah, they have booze there - for 24 hours pa!), BF, Makati, etc. But now, Friday night only happens almost once a month, and it has to meet some prerequisites: It has to be closed to a payday or there's no OT work the next day.
3. What I have been receiving more lately are invitations: baptism of their new born kid/s, wedding of former colleagues, and some more weddings and baptisms.
4. My high school and college friends are sending me pictures of their sons or daughters. And I am sending them… pictures of… me (but in different places here and abroad. Haha, yabang!)
5. Starbucks or Seattle's is the new Malate for many of my friends now.
6. When I meet up with college barkadas before, we talk about how we want to dominate the world, perform a Madoff, visit Trillanes and give him a lecture on Mutiny 101, climb to Sagada, etc. But now, whenever we meet, we talk about our college years, about former professors and crushes, about our struggles in life. We are now looking back, instead of forward! What the--
7. Oh, whenever I receive email from Lina (you know her right?), I get irritated whenever there is an age restriction in the job offer. Not that I am applying to those positions but hey, what if I want to and there is an age restriction?!
8. I was watching a show, and saw Jodi Santa Maria. During "my days," she's actually the youngest in the Tabing-Ilog barkadas. She's like the spoiled brat there. In an ABS-CBN show that I saw the other night, Jodi plays the role of a masungit na tita! She's now the Cherie Gil of my time!
   
9. O, and this is so effin' irritating: an online buddy was so happy when Eheads had this final set concert. She said that was the first time she saw them performed live! Because according to her, she never saw them before yet, but she liked the tapes of her tito. Deym! Eheads is like my generation. But some kids look at Eheads in the same way I look at Pepe Smith, or VST and Co., or The Hotdogs.
10. And here's a clean indicator/sign I know I'm getting older: I can even make a Top Ten out of it!!!

Wow, and I still don't have my first 5 million in the bank. (I told myself before that I'll have at least 5 million in the bank before I turn 25.) Hell, I don’t have my first million in the bank.

Feels Like Heaven

Jessica Alba, staring at me for two minutes... priceless. In case your firewall is blocking the video, sorry. Here's the link anyway: Jessica Alba The Stare Response on ibeatyou.



I know. Lazy post. :-)