Overheard at the HR Office

Here's the scenario. Two women in the office whom I look up to -- Ms. G and Ms. M -- were having a conversation. They were talking about a candidate whom Ms. G just finished giving a Job Offer to, and the candidate's sister. The candidate was informed during her initial interview several days ago that we were interested in hiring her sister as well, and it would be great if she can tell her about our company and the openings that we have. She was kind enough to do so, and there was a point during the Job Offer where the conversation went along that vein. When the Offer was done and the candidate left, this is how the conversation between the two women went:

Ms. G: So apparently, Candidate's sister used to work in some company, the same place where that guy we hired last week used to work in as well. Candidate told her sister this, and the sister says, "We have a very small team. What's the name of the guy? Because if that's the guy I know, then I'm not working there. That guy's an idiot."

Ms. M: *blink blink* ... But all women think all men are idiots.

Amen, girlfriend.

The Past Few Weeks

Life had become pretty simple and straightforward the past few weeks. Work during weekdays, then recharge at the Makati house during weekends. I have become very grateful to the little moments of insanity which accentuate some of my days, enough to keep my nerves keen and sharp, reminding me not to get too dull-witted and absent-minded -- things that I am teetering on the edge to be. Despite that, however, at least three times a week I've been tempted to just up and leave -- leave the evil conspiracies familiar to corporations behind, leave the backstabbing and the cruel and the clueless and incompetent, leave everything I have always believed to be corrupted and free of morals -- and finally, finally rein in my errant dreams again and LIVE. But then I am reminded that things aren't that simple, and that I can't afford to stray from this precarious, ribbon-thin path I have recently begun to walk, not until I am sure of my footing, and my future more or less acquires some tangibility I can trust.

I have also learned to become grateful for the moments of lull in between -- moments which I greedily hoard because it is only during such times when I am able to tune out and read again. Such little moments I have found whenever I commute to and from work. Jeepney rides, bus rides, and train rides have become activities which I look forward to doing each day. Being in the middle of a crowd of commuters is, in its own way, more calming and peaceful than any air-conditioned office cubicle. As a matter of fact, the month past has given me enough time to finish three books which I am glad to have purchased -- specifically, the Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix.


Tomorrow, I start on a new series, The Watch Tetralogy by Sergei Lukyanenko. I am quite sure I will enjoy reading the books, and I can't wait until it introduces a new playground for my imagination to get lost in, much like how the Old Kingdom did when I was reading about it. If it does, and if its pull is strong enough (which I'm sure it is), I'll be sure to write down all about it.

Beautiful Music

Gacked this from steady_lang. One of the more interesting memes around. I'm tagging anyone and everyone who reads this!

1. Go here. The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.


2. Go here. The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
   
   If you want to do this again, you'll hit refresh to generate new quotes, because clicking the quotes link again will just give you the same quotes over and over again.


3. Go here. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.


4. Go here. The first ten links you end up in (minus the .coms) are your 10 song titles.

"When You Love Them," by Asturian Language

Our track list:

1. Reach the Sky


2. Offensief


3. Dave Swim


4. HSE Info


5. Union of Concerned Scientists


6. Fair Economy


7. Tao


8. Cherry Harbor


9. Voided Warranty


10. Healthy Skepticism

Progressive Weirdness

This week's theme seems to be "Things Getting Progressively Weirder." Both Hono'o-chan and my boss, Ms. Grace, noticed it. The week kicked off in a relatively normal fashion last Monday. Ms. Grace and I attended this Recruitment event thing at Shangri-La Makati in the afternoon, which was more of an excuse to leave the office early.

Tuesday and maybe three-quarters of Wednesday happened to pass by smoothly, but come Thursday morning, Ms. Grace told us that someone tried to break into their home in Cubao in the middle of the night. They heard a crash and dogs barking, and fortunately, somebody got up in time so no one was hurt. They didn't see who the culprit was, however, so they weren't able to do much.

Clearly I was mistaken, thinking that was the end of that. Friday early morning, around 4:00am at the Boni house, Hono'o-chan woke me up in a panic. Someone threw a rock into their room, shattering the glass windows. Good thing Hono'o-chan was napping downstairs when it happened. It could have been done for whatever reason -- I couldn't care less, to be honest -- but it was just plain moronic. Considering the kind of people residing behind the compound, how can anyone be surprised, really? You know... the kind of neighborhood where people are almost always drunk (or at least, people who sound like they are), where jologs hip-hop music is constantly blaring from speakers at most hours of the day -- and most hours of the night -- people who your mother make you stay away from.

Honestly, there are a lot of things I want to say, but I'm afraid I might sound more judgmental than I already am, and towards people whom I don't really know. Pero pucha naman kasi. Ibang level na 'to eh. Kung sabihin kong mag-isip naman sana sila, I hope no one takes it against me.

Sigh, anyway, about the only thing we can do that morning was take pictures, so take pictures we did:


The view of the room. That's the rock at the foot of the bed, the glass shard, and bits of glasses on the floor.


One evil-looking shard of glass.


A disturbing image. That's the side where Hono'o-chan usually sleeps! Also, what if it were a child!


The nasty-looking rock.