A day in the life…

Ah. Spoke too soon.

The boss is back. With a Toblerone for each of us and an air cooler for the creatives department. And tons of books fresh from HK.

Not to mention loads of work.

So where’s my Mickey Mouse shirt?

Almost two weeks have gone since our boss left for HK.

And now our group is groping for strength and inspiration.

Not to mention going beyond the job description.

Yep, this week I am a copywriter-slash-artist and, in rare cases, slash-AE ’s company.

Now my job is not limited to doing copy for ads and collats or lyrics for jingles. I am now doing layouts for collats.

If ever my work is approved by the client, I might be asked to do the prepress and all. Jeez!

And it’s not because the artists aren’t doing anything. They’re too busy to do anything else.

Wow.

Got a deadline today… 3 collats to go. And this early, I’m so brain-dead.

Dang! My boss should give me an instant raise.

Isn’t there a perk for loyalty, too?

How about a car?

Or probably a two-week leave too?

Just saw this one on my friend Melizza’s Multiply page. Thought I’d do some backtracking and see how things have gone…

Had to edit this, too. It’s pretty long. Just goes to show how much memory’s stored in my brain.
——–

20 years ago: 1985
• Was in Kinder 1 at SPCPasig. First official schooling.  Ms Pajadan was my adviser, and my ID tag was a bear. A few months after, I would have passed the Acceleration Exam given to our batch that time — the only student who’d pass it the first time.
• Began to be recognized as "Karen’s sister."
• First school bus ride. Gave the driver and the conductor my baon if I don’t get to finish it. Later on, my mom would make more so I could give them some after school.
• Almost got ran over by a car (had this gut-feel I saw a doppelganger).
• Was already a big fan of Menudo and Madonna (tama ba yung timeline?). And Superbook and Flying House.
• Was hospitalized for a bronchial allergy a week before my birthday.
• Held a big birthday celebration at school, complete with doggie bags (gift bags, okay?).
• Still did those "talent portions" during Christmas eve with my mother-side relatives. Dancing in particular. Wehehe!

15 years ago: 1990
• Grade 4 going to grade 5, still at SPCP. Academics was pretty uneventful.
• The big earthquake. Funny, I thought then that the reason why our computer table was shaking was because my big younger brother was dancing the twist beside me…
• Had a big boost in height (oo na, big na yun sa ‘kin dati). I used to be the smallest in class years before that. Always the first in line.
• Became a fan of NKOTB (my sister and I had their first albums!) and McGyver (tama yung timeline, diba?).
• Around this time, Galaga was my fave FamiCom game.
• If I’m not mistaken, the time my sibs and I had the Gameboy.
• My lola left for Canada to stay there. After that, I kinda "inherited" the cabinet she used to occupy.

10 years ago: 1995
• 2nd year going to 3rd year.
• First time to climb 4 flights of stairs everyday to class.
• "Domps" became my official nickname. Soon, only a handful remembered my real first name.
• Known as "Kampi’s sister." She had a change in nickname, too.
• Our 2nd year class won at the English and Song Fest. Group got exempted in the Speech class long test for that.
• Dissected a frog with bare hands.
• Batch won the cheering competition in 2nd year. Nice birthday gift then.
• Occupied one of the biggest classrooms in HS in my 3rd year.
• Started drawing long dresses/gowns and/or a small island with a coconut tree and sunset backdrop on notebook pages whenever bored in class.
• Was first introduced to stress. Thanks to Trigo, Geom and Chem all taken during the 3rd year.

5 years ago: 2000
• 3rd year going to 4th year college. Began my Comm Arts major subjects. First time to belong to a "block section," too.
• Joined The Varsitarian, thanks to the non-stop prodding of then classmate A Perez.
• Got stranded one Friday in September (I think) because of the sudden rain and flooding. First time to see UST as an Atlantis, too. With matching free food courtesy of the Faculty of Civil Law (they had this free-for-all food at the lobby).
• First time to go to Punta Baluarte (tsk, closed na siya) and Palawan. Wow.
• Had frequent overnights outside the home, especially during the prelims and finals.
• Addicted to Easy Way choco pudding and became a fan of Almer’s sisig.
• Napster addict, too.
• Sometimes accompanied my friend A during her "stalker" days. Wehehe!
• Gets "stunned" every time I see my crush. Only my former classmate and good friend She knows about this.
• Talked, for the first time, with my crush. Wahehe!
• Had two crushes at the same time. That’s a first.
• Made good friends outside the classroom. Starting to widen my horizons, huh?

3 years ago: 2002
• Began the year with a new job as a copywriter for my present company.
• In between healing and starting anew, in most aspects of my life.
• Learned to treat myself at least once a month by shopping for clothes. With my mom, of course.
• Learned the rudiments of Photoshop and Freehand. Started cropping and text layouting duties, too.
• Saw a lot of changes around, especially in the workplace.
• Discovered the food haven just across UA&P. Wonder where’s that Thai food in-a-box now?
• Adjusting to working and going home late at night (whether work-related or not).
• Met a co-worker’s friend, who will eventually work in our company and become my present SO.
• V Amihan reunion during a pretty rainy December.

Last year: 2004
• Celebrated our 1st year together.
• Celebrated the company’s 2nd year (only a few pioneers, myself included, remaining), and "celebrating" the beginning of sleepless nights (again).
• Discovered Friendster, Kazaa and deviantART.
• Went to gimmick places, particularly in Libis. Got tired of it afterwards.
• Started the Tea Party habit with the Bastards.
• If I remember correctly, started the Sunday ice skating gimmick.
• Opened our small school supplies and gen merchandise store at the back of our house.
• Began buying Gaiman works.
• Began attending toys, games and comic conventions.
• Began saving up 5 and 10 peso coins and eventually exchanging it for bills.

This year: 2005
• Still working as a copywriter.
• Getting lesser sleep.

• First time in Ilocos. Pagudpud and Vigan were so breathtaking.
• Shook hands with my literary idol, Neil Gaiman.

• Addicted to C2 Green Tea Lemon Flavor and Boy Bawang.
• Discovered Multiply and Ares Lite.
• Learning CounterStrike and Tong-its.
• Starting to create custom-made earrings and charm bracelets.

5 to 10 years from now: 2010-2015
• Settling down, perhaps?
• Winning the Lotto jackpot?
• Career and paradigm shift?
• One thing’s for sure, I’ll be 30++ by that time.

Arriving home from a pretty fulfilling trip to Divisoria last Saturday, I caught a glimpse of the UAAP Nestle Non-Stop Cheerdance Competition (o-ha! buo yung pangalan a). I got to watch the highlights with matching interviews of the students (they probably made it to entertain the public while the judges deliberate and compute the scores… kill time, ‘ika nga) and the announcement of the winners. FEU placed 3rd, UP 2nd and UST first.

Of course I was happy. I mean, I graduated a Thomasian. UST is still a big part of me.

The only thing that bothered me during that time was Boom Gonzales’ comment.

I dunno, call me weird or oversensitive. But when he announced FEU as 3rd place, he said something like "3rd place last year, and this year 3rd place again. Talk about consistency."

He also said the same thing about UP placing second again in this season.

Whoa. There’s only one thing I can say about that: Kupal move right there, dude.

Okay, so maybe he was so overwhelmed with his emotions, adrenalin rushing through his veins and all. But I wish he used a bit of discretion with the words that came out of his mouth. It’s like putting a dash of salt over a pretty deep laceration. Man, if you only saw the faces of the FEU and UP Pep Squads. They practiced long and hard to win 1st place. Not 2nd. Not 3rd. Placing runner-up is like a slash through the heart, especially for UP who lost by a 0.20 margin. But telling them that they were "consistent" on winning as runners-up? Now if that wasn’t sarcasm or lack of tact, I dunno what it is.

Believe me man, there is only one person I know who can get away with being tactless. And Boom Gonzales is no Kris Aquino.

Don’t get me wrong. I am happy with UST bagging the crown. But I also feel that what he said wasn’t nice. Or proper.

Maybe he needs another workshop in hosting ethics. If there is such a thing.

Words, whether spoken or written, are very powerful. They can create bonds between civilians, or cause enmity between allies.

Opinyon ko lang po ang nakalagay dito. Tsaka blog ko ito, ‘no? Kaya kung may angal, wala akong pake. Take it any way you want, peeps.

Guess what? I almost got run over by an AUV. It happened as my SO and I was crossing the road to get a ride to the office. At the opposite side of the road was a small hospital. Fine. Road was clear, we set off to cross the wet road (’twas raining and all). We made it to the other side, by the hospital’s small parking lot. We started walking towards the jeepney stop. And then all of a sudden this white AUV (Adventure, I think) started moving backwards! And we were like, what, less than a feet away! Damn reckless driver! I started to yell. So did my SO. And because I was so incensed and all, I slapped the back part of the vehicle.

My SO wanted to pick a fight afterwards, but I just pulled him away. Besides, the driver probably knew that in whatever angle you looked at it, he was wrong. He didn’t check whether there were people behind his car or not before he backed up. And he didn’t even attempt to get down from the AUV to confront us. Hell, he just try…

I didn’t get to list down his plate number, but I’ll recognize it when I see it.

So if you people drive, always be responsible. Commuters are people, too. You wouldn’t want others to run over you, right?

Drivers should learn some ethics. Heck, shouldn’t we all?

Part of my work entails doing press releases and advertorials for our clients. Sometimes I get lucky when I have to do a writeup for our client’s product… and they’d allow me to use it.

Yesterday I had to do a rush PR for ASUS’s new phone (time: about 1 hr 30 min, including editing and layouting in Freehand). It was just given to me yesterday, with a material deadline of 6PM. It’s their new phone, a light, clam-shell phone with dual colored LCDs, 1.3 MP camera with flash, mini SD card slot, MP3 player and stereo speaker. What on earth have they been doing to phones lately…?

Anyway, I get to test this phone for a while (maybe for a week? hehehe!!!). Tell you the truth, it’s got really nice features, especially the camera and MP3 player, though it also has its downsides (which of course I didn’t write in the PR, coz I’m paid to promote it, right?) like the SMS feature. If you had the old Ericsson phones then (not the Sony Ericsson, but the old ones that were big and had casings like that of the old Motorola… you get it right?), you’ll probably have to remember how to type your messages with them when you use the ASUS phone. Texting is not as user-friendly as with your trusty Nokia, but when you get to practice with the ASUS phone, you’ll get the hang of it.

Another thing about this phone is it has this particular setting that when you type a phone number, a voice will say what number you are dialing (which is not a very good idea, especially when you’re trying to call someone in public). In this case, the default setting was that of a child’s voice. So imagine dialing 687— while a child’s voice echoes the numbers you are pressing. Damn creepy.

And one more thing, I think if you buy this straight from the manufacturer, it would be a very good idea to have a Chinese friend with you… because the manual is in Chinese, with absolutely no English translation. So just think how I had to write about this one… well, thanks to the Internet, I found a website containing its specifications. Whew!

Anyway, if ever you encounter the ASUS M303 in stores, just ponder about these few things. It has its plus points too, especially if you’re the type of person who wants a lot of features packed in a single phone unit. I dunno how much this one costs, but it’d probably cost the same as its competitors (10K above?) Well, we’ll see if this hits the market…

Yep, rendering OT again. So while cooling down, here’s a rundown of what’s happening in the office:

1. FHM Girls Next Door. So I haven’t seen the new issue with Bianca King on the cover (it’s somewhere here, I guess), but we’ve seen the little booklet containing the 50 candidates for GND. Oh man, my officemates and I had a fun time just looking at them… No, I won’t tell exactly what happened, but to give you a summary, I have chosen four candidates that seem "deserving" of the award (only because there are only four of them who deserve to be GND, no offense). Can’t vote though. Too lazy to register.

2. "Bastardizing" songs. Or if there’s such a term. Thanks to our former officemate and great buddy Almanz (who’s supposed to be here tomorrow), the Maverick Restless Bastards have found a way to make MP3 listening and rendering OT more fun (ayokong maghagdan, 31st floor pa naman… gusto kong mag e-le-va-tor!!!) — riiight.

3. Deciding on kids’ names. The only difference is we’re looking for names from fonts. Fluxx will name his kid Haettenschweiler, or if it were twins, Arial Narrow and Arial Bold. Pol wants Amphion. Me? I’d probably go for FuturaXBlkCnIt BT. Now that’s original. But really, I’m not serious. The most unique, I guess, would be Zeth’s; she will name her kids after one of our clients…

Ah well, that’s that. Now I guess I gotta get back to work…

Here come the -Ber months now. Some may feel happy, some depressed.

Well, whatever you’re feeling, let me be one of the first few people to greet you "Merry Christmas!"