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Welcome to my blog. The most wonderful thing that you can do in life is to widen your horizon. Learn from the experiences of others.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Losing my phone again and again!

On May 18, the thief struck again. This time, in a holy place like a church. Yes, the thief spared no place at all. Even the house of God is a place for thievery. Well, it's not surprising at all since even the church's artifacts are often best targets by bastards.

This is now the second time that my phone (this time a Nokia N93i) was stolen straight from my jeans' pocket. Am I just silly or just too trusting? I never learn. The last time it happened to me was inside the MRT train (Damn this number coding that I had to commute!). Same methodology, same pants. Damn, I really have to get rid of that pants! Grrr.

I have already informed my employer about this. In due time, I will have my same number back since my subscription is postpaid. It will come of course with a new phone (again!), but this doesn't come cheap. I have to shell out money (again!) payable in three gives through salary deduction. Arggh!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Mother's Day

Together with my wife, my mother, my two siblings, my two 'pamangkins', and other 'sabits', we went to Tagaytay particularly Leslie's. We arrived there at around 1:30PM and was able only to eat our lunch at 3:00PM. The said restaurant was jam packed. We were numbered 22 on queue. I just can't imagine if there's really the so-called crisis in the Philippines. We had no choice but to wait for our seat. We didn't consider moving to other restaurant because it was just the same thing -- restaurants in Tagaytay were simply jam packed.

After Tagaytay, we paid a visit to Sisters of Mary School (SMS) Adlas, Silang, Cavite, but it was just a very short visit. Then, we went to Baclaran church for a mass. Afterwards, we went to Mall of Asia's seaside.

It was a tiring day but it was one of the happiest days for my mom. She just can't express her happiness especially with all the care, hugs and kisses she got from us.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

P a p u a N e w G u i n e a ' s (P N G) blunder

Just before the Holy Week, our agency said that our employment contract for P N G (P a p u a N e w G u i n e a) had arrived, only to be returned back due to some discrepancies. The contract stipulated a wrong number of years of employment and the salary was not the agreed one. Now, it's another waiting time. It's been a month since the wrong contract was sent, but still we are in this dilemma. We are a total of 9 IT specialists waiting for the contract. Five are Oracle developers, two are network administrators, and two are Oracle database administrators (including me with a senior position).

I have read that P N G government has a notorious bureaucracy. One forum site said that even those Chinese workers already in the mining field in P N G had to wait six months for the work permits to be issued. Another site mentioned that even missionaries waited more than six months for their visas to be issued. Is this the kind of government that I will be dealing with in the next chapter of my life? Am I ready to deal with this kind of bureaucracy? I will be working with P N G's Department of Finance, and being a future government employee, I will be part of this bureaucracy. Tsk, tsk. But I hate this kind of slow-paced processing of papers. Grrr. If not for the juicy offer, I would not have waited this long. Luckily, all of my future colleagues are still willing to wait. According to them, the fortunes that we'll be receiving are worth the wait. Probably, that's the reason why P N G is hiring a lot of IT specialists to improve its processes.

Lord, please give me more patience.