RAINY DAYS THAT BLOW MY BLUES AWAY

It’s ironic to think that, while most people feel depressed when rainy days shatter their worlds, I, a unique me, feel the other way around. This week’s a lot about water and water and water. Water’s everywhere from the muddy little road I had to walk through each day before I reach the concrete road a few steps away from home, from the gushing dirty water of Libertad Market, to little, enormous pond-like patches of rain water in the concrete grounds of the hospital, to the sweet, sometimes-smooth-sometimes-jazzy-rocky sounds of musical drops of rain to the galvanized irons over my sleepy head, to the cool effect of water to my already wet hair because of heavy downpour. And oh, add up the aromatic signal smell of native coffee plus milk while it’s raining.

Surprisingly enough, people at work see more smiles in my often serious, and even expressionless face. More surprisingly, I eat a little and drink a lot. And most surprisingly of all, it’s almost everyday that I play under the flashes of lightning at the tone of thunders’ roar. In effect my throat seems to pay the price – I feel the intense urge to scratch it with my bare hands. My chest seems to erupt volcanic amounts of just sounds, seldom with clear thing. Yeah, I guess it’s viral and I think it’s just fine. No blaming to rain, though, with just Orofar L lozenges nearby (Thanks Doc Fernandez for a quick SMS response) – it seems, I suppose so, that the infection vanished.

And thanks to the rainy Negros weather that urged me to rather have a casual spirit go to work everyday, instead of the usual white scrubs I wear. I enjoy this addicting fashion of self-expression maybe because I am bored to death thinking that I have to be careful in every step I take until I reach the hospital or else pay the consequence of mom’s silent cries when she volunteers to wash my uniform herself instead of other people doing it. The weather results to less surgical patients’ admission too – one thing that make me sing songs while lightning strikes across the gray-colored horizon.

These are days I have long dreamed since summer brought out a demon in me. Some enjoy summer. Too little like rain. I love rain and what the hell. Rain on, rain on.

My Existence

When one exists in a world where the existence of others maybe inexistence for one, it is hard to imagine how life would be for one who feels like inexistent at all. Like it's as if existence may be one great deal between life and death. Like it's as if inexistence be like a silent poison waiting to be swallowed by an unsuspecting idiot. The days maybe absurdly vague and without trail - something that makes it more fiercely sad and boring – yet it is only by one’s humanity that brings color to life and self. When one's existence may be no lesser than a piece of mediocrity, then that becomes the worse nightmare of all. Yet, despite the redundancies of the rhythmic, though unnecessarily pleasing, music we call life, there is a distinct attraction to certain notes that do not sync. When one gets accustomed to the classic and smooth flow of existence, then one asks how monotonous, how dull, how uninteresting. It is by the topsy-turvy nature of existence that we enjoy and appreciate our being, because without this same ingredient, life would be nothing more than a shapeless rock, never been polished and broken to sparkle.

When busy days overtake

I am not really sure of when was the last time that I actually rested well. That I mean of a real good one. The months that were – it made me toxic and dizzy. I officially started my supposed professional life working with a customer care company – as you may or may not know - I worked for TeleTech for five long months. I decided so because I was so bored after the board exam on December that for a second I finally made my mind and furnished one typical resume (forgetting all that has been taught in college for an excellent and attention-grabbing document such as this), passed it on the company’s receptionist, and landed a job in a day. Whew, everything was just too fast – I came on 9:30 am to pass my resume, passed all the tests, been interviewed for 15 minutes, toured the area and signed the contract on exactly 6:30 pm and were on my way back home 7 pm. That was surreal! I landed the job for barely nine hours.
And here I am right now, after all the days I have been working with TeleTech, I decided for something I consider as paradigm shift for my so-called professional life.

I will be a nurse-trainee for another six months in Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH), commonly referred to as the regional hospital in Bacolod City. I started my orientation just this week and will be working for the General Surgery Ward of the institution. Do I like my post? Yes, I do. Working for pre-operative and post-operative patients is an exciting and challenging task. I know that it has been a terrorizing subject for a student nurse – the course known as Medical-Surgical Nursing. I loved it when I was in college. And I still do. That’s why I am so eager on working for the next six months in this area and I am just hoping that after six months I can consider myself as an expert nurse in this area.

I have been busy then, and I kow it will be another toxic yet exciting six months ahead of me. Kaya ko ’to! This reminds me so of Seng-t’san’s poem On Trust in the Heart:

Pursue not the outer entanglements,
Dwell not in the inner void;
Be serene in the oneness of things,
And dualism vanishes by itself.

This poem means one thing for me: that despite life’s busyness, we should always make exceptional effort to find peace of mind and reflect on life’s most important things.

*Thanks co-trainees Gibbs, Ethel, Jepoy and Christine for a great start! I am excited on working with you guys.

Memoirs of a TeleTech-ian

Memoirs of TeleTech.

It is no lie to say that leaving the people we used to go along with, laugh with, and been comfortable sharing company with is hard. And so that’s the same with leaving my TeleTech colleagues. It has been five solid months that we have learned to understand each other – the good and the bad – yet despite the diversity of persons we still came up to be one great company. A beginner like me would be lost in a competitive and individualistic company such as TeleTech. It could have been hard without my “wave” (or batch) mates – namely, Erik 1, Mark, Simon, Faye, Zada, TinTin, Nap, Rolin, Monico, FG, Joseph, Faye, Junes, Candy, Dory, Erik 2, Alex, John, Lara, John, Ceryl, can make it to taking calls made by foreigners. Who will forget Mike and Dana’s tandem as dynamic and fun technical support trainers? That had been fun. And hey, imagine having to deal with computers and internet connection when what you got is a four-year degree in Nursing, but then the experience has been easy and smooth with my “wave” mates and high-caliber trainers.

After a month of taking calls from Americans, whose accents range from being like Martians to growling dogs, from heavy accent Texans to fast-pace Washington subscriber or something, we used to have tried so much for them to understand us and in the process have ourselves understood by them as well. You know, it’s not that easy. It’s not easy to be told that your English sucks, that the customer has to drop the call and call back later just to get another agent who does not speak German. On the other hand, it would be inappropriate to discredit some callers for their appreciative moves to gives us what we call in the production floor as “kudos” for a job well done. Having such compliments from your customers is satisfying. It has been one great job with your super-sensitive headset on your ears for almost eight hours, with the multitasking one has to do (a technical support agent most of the time has to speak as well as document the call at the same time and coordinate with various departments (in the US) and also make sure that the call hold time for the customer is short or else you will end up being reprimanded by an impatient customer or flagged by your supervisor for having a long call. One of the things I learned from this experience is to develop the ability to convince the customer that what you are doing is actually worth the entire wait---an excellent explanation would actually do.

And then after two months of intensive training for internet connectivity and computer whatevers, I have been assigned to a team under the leadership of Jenjen, a rather reserve, Korean-looking lady, who is just to kind for all of us – I don’t know with other people hehe. Her leadership is one in a million that all my four years in college I have never read of such leadership style. Well, that proves every one is unique Jen, you’re the woman!! Hehe. I happened to be- for some known or unknown reasons – came in a team of boring (of course, not) or rather highly aggressive people who are equally fond of laughing and laughing (me included, of course) and at the same competitive despite our being inexperienced in this field. We have been in number 5 slot from the bottom during our first month in production but look at it now, we are improving we’re in bottom 7 with our quality scores as one in top 6. I am damn proud of that. Yes, a long journey awaits the team and it is just sad that in that journey I have to cross in a different path – that is to pursue my nursing profession in a hospital setting. (I know, I know, that it is, economic-wise, a foul move to leave TeleTech with high salary to a job that you don’t have compensation at all, let alone volunteer in a government hospital) but then, I have to bear in mind that this is for my own good – to gain experience as a staff nurse and at the same time “serve humanity as my mission” hehe. Whatever, whatever Monico. J
Goodbyes are always sad and hard, yet this is an opportunity for one’s growth as a person. That’s why today I have to bid goodbye and with that bidding I would say I have been wiser and became better than I was before I met you guys. I wish to thank Erik, Monico, FG, Lara, Marchille, Ann, Antonio, Niña, Edudes, Aldwin, Airo, Darell – my team. And the next strong forces of TeleTech, our guiding Team Leads – TL Jen, Gretchen, Irene, Hags, and Alexander. And also my gratitude to all the people who made my stay in TeleTech great --- all the floor support who has been helping me when I don’t literally know what to do-Brandon, Mia, Honey, Mark, etc, and to Jess and Archie and also to Mike Tanner and Michael Sendall. Thank you so much. See you when I see you guys and I will never forget the time I spent with each of you – it has been a blast!

For now, I say, goodbye.

P.S. Thanks Eric for your help for my dvd writer to work and for giving me tips on working on my PC. and guys, you can visit http://www.wmdiaz.multiply.com/ for our pictures!!!

One True Thing

ONE TRUE THING
Anna Quindlen
“Our parents are ….always character traits, Achilles’ heels, dim nightmares, vocal tics, bad noses, hot tears, all handed down and us stuck with them. Our dilemma is utter: turn and look at this woman, understand and pity her, like and talk with her, recognize that she has taken the cold cleanliness of the spartan rooms in which she grew up and turned them, within her considerable and perhaps wounded heart, into a life-long burst of cooking and cosseting and making her own little corner of the world pretty and welcoming, and the separation is complete --- but when that happens you will have to be an adult. There is only room in the lifeboat of your life for one, and you always choose yourself, and turn your parents into whatever it takes to keep you afloat.”
That is one part of her novel that Anna caught me unconsciously in awe, jaws dropped really. And the momentum seems at its peak when I read those lines that there seems to be a need for me to read and read and reread it again. When I grabbed the book from that store in Robinson’s together with other books by Michael Crichton, I was ambivalent because it appeared that a woman writer may be too emotional for me to read her works and I was afraid things would turn corny and I say, “I may not like that.” But it turned out that this one is distinct from the books I read this week. It is, in fact, a book from and to the heart.
My literature professor once told the class I was in that we should not measure the book by the morals and values that one may get, but by the artistic styles the writer has utilized to invoke these emotions. He may be right, but I cannot just ignore the idea that I bought this book not just to appreciate the artistic side of writing but also to know the meaning that the writer has effortlessly tried to bring out of her readers.
Well, the story revolves from facts of life – that you cannot just love without sacrifice, that life is too short - to think of how much time there is, it should rather be of how much is left for our loved ones to spare, that one of the most devastating things a person can do to oneself is caring much of other people’s opinions, that there is much more life in a small college town than New York, and that death is as imminent as sunset. These are all parts of plots and I love everything that the story’s all about. It’s surreal and for real – there is humanity in the world Anna created with One True Thing.
Mother’s love is the greatest, indeed.

Philippine politics

Of heroes and losers
I do not understand if some people are born evil or perhaps for some unknown reasons chose to be just like that. Sore losers abound everywhere but natural heroes are seemingly nowhere to be found. In this land where poverty is pretty much obvious modern-day heroes are badly needed. Necessity is the mother of invention is an aged maxim, but with the scenes I see with my lenses, things appear otherwise. Take for example Philippine, a country that boasted itself as the oldest democracy in
Asiahas the highest rate of political killings and media oppression. Are we living in a post-Marcos era or are we still into it – ruled by a ferocious beast under the disguise of a harmless cat? Check out Malacanang – the haven of all evil and I guess a soon-to-be-grave of another sets of bitter politicians (this can be possible may be through another coup attempt or another over justified people power). I once thought that Gloria deserves one more chance, but I was wrong. Things are becoming worse – just look at the politically-maligned appointments of various departments, the political use of pork barrel as the hands of La Gloria, the con-as or the cha-cha, the parliamentary system. Hey, the economist is no simple economist at all; a terrible dictator in the making or should I say – a full-grown dragon ready to devour power and eternal control. The ever-apathetic House of Representatives are full of bunches of sore losers as well. Look at what they done: making every single move just to pursue the constitutional assembly they wanted at all means possible even despising the rules, ethics, morality and good taste. They wanted to abolish the Senate. I must say they should abolish the Congress instead. 200 of them get the big bite in the people treasury compare to the Senate. I am no political analyst, but a simple addition to a group of yet unemployed, but what makes the difference is that I do care. If we have leaders who in the first place choose to be losers at the start, then where will
Philippinesgo? History will again remain as it is that the
Philippinesare still in no progress at all. Sad stories of losers will unfold to the next generation. Truly, pathetic.
The wheel is round and so life says it’s not all about failures and stupidity but thankfully, some individuals turn out to be real heroes worth emulating. We have Judge Benjamin Pozon who made me feel that there is still justice in this world. His ruling regarding the “Nicole” case proved sovereignty in our country. His verdict on Smith guilty of rape favored the interest of the land. It was sure tough decision but then twas the right thing to do. I can only remember Nora Aunor’s famous line “My brother is not a pig” – gone indeed were the days that American soldiers’ abuses are never brought to court. We still have our heroes to celebrate and that is in Mr. Panganiban. Second but never lower than Pozon is the former Supreme Court chief justice Artemio Panganiban who despite being appointed by Gloria proved that the Supreme Court is still one big tooth that serves as the vanguard of democracy just like the decisions against the unconstitutional people’s initiative, the bogus “state of national emergency”, and the “calibrated preemptive response” of the Arroyo administration. It once proved that the Supreme Court is the country’s premiere balance in times when democracy is at stake and when decisions are very crucial for national survival. Just like Davide, Panganiban did not succumb into the traditional political “utang na loob”. And I commend him for that.
And yes, who can never notice Time Magazine’s declaration of Efren “Bata” Reyes as one of Asian Heroes. I took pride in Mr. Reyes’ achievement. He is a simple hero in his own right. Once asked about his comment by being one of
Asia’s greats (Aquino, Apostol, etc) he can only mutter words of pure humility - “I have not done anything that made any impact on Asian life. I am just a simple man making a living in what I do best: playing billiards.” He may be one ordinary man but his “magic” proved worth the credit. Not like most athletes, every time he misses a shot or did a foul play, he can only flash a toothless grin and make his trademark scratch on his head. In addition, Bata shows great sportsmanship in both the pool hall and the real life. He shows exceptional talent in billiards, but then never failed to extend that to life’s realities. Success, after all, is never measured in the winnings you get from the competition but the way life has been lived up.
Just as I am illusional you may say, but I wish the world would have more of Davide, Bata, Panganiban, Pozon and less of Gloria, of the big-bellied politicians that infest the House of Congress and Malacanang, of cheats and of oppressors.

Wala lang

S.I.L.E.N.C.E.
(William Diaz, Jr.) hehe
Even silence can whisper
the most audible voice
in a crowd so noisy.
And sometimes leave behindthe imprints of being heard,
of being valued, of being noticed.
Still continues the subtlebut sure tête-à-tête---
Hence, the justice behind the words:
"Actions speak louder than words."
And so, here I am.Doing nothing except smiling.

P.S. Thank you matt t. for the additions. hehe (",)

PRADA that is evil

"They like to be us." - Miranda Priestly
The movie gives me an impression that fashionistas are sores to the world - sores in society's overly blurred eyes in seeing the real score of humanity and integrity. It may sound literally rude to put up these two things altogether, but hey let me see if I can state my point. Andrea Sachs is an epitome of a lady who just wants to be into real life adventure (think about a fresh college graduate) no matter how risky it may seem. And Miranda Priestly is a modern day Cruella de Ville, who plays as Runway chief editor or something. The movie portrays her like a little devil walking fresh here in earth - she has got all the reasons and as if the freedom to give insults and nasty comments to her subordinates. Working with her would be like Depression-era-workplace taken back from the past. Yet despite this Andy still has her grip on it as if trying never to lose grip with what seems to be the real world. But for long, she realized it was NEVER the real world after she ignored and compromised her relationships with her family and friends. It came to a point that she has to decide whether to stand up with her work ethics and her integrity. Wow! The flick was equally comical and entertaining plus with a little moral for the heart.
Yet at the end of the movie we can realize that some worst things in this life are packed in beautiful packages. Though, no matter how much you make it appear beautiful it would still remain as worst as rubbish. Life, after all, is not all of how much you did for yourself. It IS about what you did for others and society as a whole - pure truism, indeed.
But as I was thinking, given the opportunity to work in such a situation I could may have given it a slot despite the working ambiance as long as I still have in me the slightest love for whom and to what I am doing. Maybe, just like Andy even if that job would be the greatest job in the world I wouldn’t have the least pleasure to work on that for long if the most precious things in my life are slowly taken away in exchange of the luring fame and fortune ahead.
"...That's all."

Goodbye TeleTech

Memoirs of TeleTech.
It is no lie to say that leaving the people we used to go along with, laugh with, and been comfortable sharing company with is hard. And so that’s the same with leaving my TeleTech colleagues. It has been five solid months that we have learned to understand each other – the good and the bad – yet despite the diversity of persons we still came up to be one great company. A beginner like me would be lost in a competitive and individualistic company such as TeleTech. It could have been hard without my “wave” (or batch) mates – namely, Erik 1, Mark, Simon, Faye, Zada, TinTin, Nap, Rolin, Monico, FG, Joseph, Faye, Junes, Candy, Dory, Erik 2, Alex, John, Lara, John, Ceryl, can make it to taking calls made by foreigners. Who will forget Mike and Dana’s tandem as dynamic and fun technical support trainers? That had been fun. And hey, imagine having to deal with computers and internet connection when what you got is a four-year degree in Nursing, but then the experience has been easy and smooth with my “wave” mates and high-caliber trainers.
After a month of taking calls from Americans, whose accents range from being like Martians to growling dogs, from heavy accent Texans to fast-pace Washington subscriber or something, we used to have tried so much for them to understand us and in the process have ourselves understood by them as well. You know, it’s not that easy. It’s not easy to be told that your English sucks, that the customer has to drop the call and call back later just to get another agent who does not speak German. On the other hand, it would be inappropriate to discredit some callers for their appreciative moves to gives us what we call in the production floor as “kudos” for a job well done. Having such compliments from your customers is satisfying. It has been one great job with your super-sensitive headset on your ears for almost eight hours, with the multitasking one has to do (a technical support agent most of the time has to speak as well as document the call at the same time and coordinate with various departments (in the US) and also make sure that the call hold time for the customer is short or else you will end up being reprimanded by an impatient customer or flagged by your supervisor for having a long call. One of the things I learned from this experience is to develop the ability to convince the customer that what you are doing is actually worth the entire wait---an excellent explanation would actually do.
And then after two months of intensive training for internet connectivity and computer whatevers, I have been assigned to a team under the leadership of Jenjen, a rather reserve, Korean-looking lady, who is just to kind for all of us – I don’t know with other people hehe. Her leadership is one in a million that all my four years in college I have never read of such leadership style. Well, that proves every one is unique Jen, you’re the woman!! Hehe. I happened to be- for some known or unknown reasons – came in a team of boring (of course, not) or rather highly aggressive people who are equally fond of laughing and laughing (me included, of course) and at the same competitive despite our being inexperienced in this field. We have been in number 5 slot from the bottom during our first month in production but look at it now, we are improving we’re in bottom 7 with our quality scores as one in top 6. I am damn proud of that. Yes, a long journey awaits the team and it is just sad that in that journey I have to cross in a different path – that is to pursue my nursing profession in a hospital setting. (I know, I know, that it is, economic-wise, a foul move to leave TeleTech with high salary to a job that you don’t have compensation at all, let alone volunteer in a government hospital) but then, I have to bear in mind that this is for my own good – to gain experience as a staff nurse and at the same time “serve humanity as my mission” hehe. Whatever, whatever Monico. J
Goodbyes are always sad and hard, yet this is an opportunity for one’s growth as a person. That’s why today I have to bid goodbye and with that bidding I would say I have been wiser and became better than I was before I met you guys. I wish to thank Erik, Monico, FG, Lara, Marchille, Ann, Antonio, Niña, Edudes, Aldwin, Airo, Darell – my team. And the next strong forces of TeleTech, our guiding Team Leads – TL Jen, Gretchen, Irene, Hags, and Alexander. And also my gratitude to all the people who made my stay in TeleTech great --- all the floor support who has been helping me when I don’t literally know what to do-Brandon, Mia, Honey, Mark, etc, and to Jess and Archie and also to Mike Tanner and Michael Sendall. Thank you so much. See you when I see you guys and I will never forget the time I spent with each of you – it has been a blast!
For now, I say, goodbye.
P.S. Thanks Eric for your help for my dvd writer to work and for giving me tips on working on my PC. and guys, you can visit www.wmdiaz.multiply.com for our pictures!!!