I always shudder everytime someone is going to ask about my company. Well - disclaimer first - I love my company, the products we are offering are great! The people are great! The pay is great! - wow this feels like an advertisement - moving along, the only problem I have is that my company is not (yet) a household name. So everytime someone’s going to ask me, hey what is your company?, I would never say the name of the company, ok I only whisper it, then I always add, well it is based in Europe! And our clients are worldwide telecom firms! And they will reply, well ok… Sensing they are lost, I reiterate, you know Globe or Smart right? Well those are the type of clients we have. But then they will never back down and ask, so are they your clients? *sigh* Hopefully *sigh*.

This wasn’t the first time that this happened to me. When I was still employed back in Cebu, I always told back home that even though they didn’t know my company that it is a big Japanese firm and it’s famous in Japan. Ah just like Sony or Toyota? Well err no, more like like like oh I give up! People will always equate big, established and famous companies as ‘THE’ company to worked for. Everyone (especially the parents) wants you to work for a big conglomerate because then they can be proud of you and endlessly be boasted among their circle of friends. Usually the conversation will start this way, parents: Oh my son/daughter works for <insert big name firm>! Friends: Oh really? That’s great, what is his/her position? Parents: We don’t really care as long as he/she works there.

*Sigh* It feels so hard to justify where you work. *sigh* But hey it is in Makati! Oh, still in the Philippines… But hey! Google started as a small company and look at them now! Oh, we aren’t the Google… But! Our clients are abroad and they are really big firms! Yes, but did you happen to be deployed abroad already? Oh…………….

Last Thursday, the whole Perl team, as well as the QA and the Graphics team went to Elbow Room at Metrowalk, Ortigas for their team building. I was the only one that wasn’t part of either the three teams or with the HR, so in effect I was just a gate crasher, but never a party pooper.

That was the first time I went to Elbow Room and good thing they reserved a VIP room. The VIP room is quite big, with 2 tv sets dedicated for videoke, a long table for the foods, and a billiard table smacked in the center. If you have no plans on renting the VIP room, one can still play billiards on their public area however you lose the videoke and swap it for a live band instead - which is not a bad idea afterall.

The price, as I can recall, is PHP 4,000 for the VIP room from 8PM - 12MN (not bad ehh). However food is not yet part of the package. Compared that to Redbox’s PHP 399 (exclusive of tax) + PHP 99 for buffet per person which is good for 7PM - 12MN.

It was a fun night and we wrapped it up with a final drinking round at Jay-Js.

The entire Java team and a couple of guys from the management decided to have a team building. And we decided to do it at RedBox. RedBox is known as the videoke place in Greenbelt. It was a nice get-together. Nothing spectacular. Just simple fun. Some of the Java guys are quite serious and it’s really hard to crack a joke at them. But if you think about it that is the real reason for the teambuilding, to get to know your teammates and bash them hard! Wehehe.

Yesterday I had a meeting together with my Team Lead, VP for Software Development, Head of Research Dev and our Project Manager regarding some technical issues with our process. I quickly explained the current situation, how I approach the solution and the lingering problem that was unfortunately encountered by the program. After that, I asked the Head of Research if he understands and he just said "I’m sorry John I can’t understand you". It hits me. Big time. That is for the first time in my life I stuttered at explaining things in pure English. I blame the hot room that we conducted our meeting or even yet I blame it on my thyroid problem, but then again I couldn’t just pinpoint what caused me to stutter. I am good in delivering speeches (or so I think) and that time I felt ashamed. Good thing our project’s team lead came to my rescue and he explained what I couldn’t. That day definitely sucks.

I must be quite sick yesterday cause *gasp* I treated some of my officemates in Bistro 101. They forced me! Ahh no, they didn’t I was just hit by a light and boom I treated. I have the money (i’m filthy rich, bwahahahaha) and to stop them from bugging me everyday for the rest of my life to treat them, I treated them but not the whole 9 yards just the 1/2 of it.

It was a fun night. Really good night. 

So how do you start your day in the office?

1. Boot up workstation.

2. Stare at the monitor for 15 minutes to buy some time.

3. Open up Firefox.

4. While waiting for it to load, go to the pantry and drink water, err coffee.

5. Go to digg, slashdot, gmail, friendster and every fun website.

6. Then go to news websites.

7. Open up ym and skype.

8. Then open up Outlook.

9. Read some e-mails.

10. After 2-3 hours of extracurricular activies, argg, work. 

It’s a f**** hell I tell you. Friday night with no money is like going to a midnight sale just to window shop (this is just an analogy). It sucks! Oh well, good thing Eli volunteered to pay for all our drinks with his credit card. Hooray! Saved by the bell!

So we went to gwelos in Palanca street just a few blocks away from the office. It was a fun night. Just talking, laughing, sharing jokes and getting to know some of the guys (oh sh*t, I sound so gay).

Moral of the story:

Save MORE money for Friday. 

Sad day in the office. Annie, QA team lead, just filed her resignation. I was frankly caught off-guard by the situation, it happened so fast. I didn’t think she will be leaving soon. But it was a good experience for me to have worked with her, she has a full knowledge and grasp on her chosen field, she’s very professional (don’t want to elaborate on this one), and she is a good officemate and friend. God. We will miss her.

Gambatte Annie-san! Whatever your chosen path may be, I am sure happiness and satisfaction will be in your priority. Thanks for the memories.