On Training...

Since Monday this week, I have been attending the 9th ITPM training at THE best graduate school of business and management in the country, AIM (Asian Institute of Management).

I was really looking forward to this training, but was still surprised to discover that I miss going to school or maybe more aprropriately... I miss doing interesting group discussions. And I immediately knew this after the first day. Of course, this was very different from College education... as most graduate programs are. Masteral levels usually focus on peer education and the professor merely works as a facilitator. I guess it also helps that one of our professors is actually the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Business program of AIM.

One of the main reasons I have been shunning away from possibly pursuing an MBA is that a lot of people have told me that the MBA programs at La Salle and Ateneo are pretty much shite. The only place that really is worth going for is AIM. And even there, since graduate level programs are more into peer education... the quality of discussions you get will of course really depend on the composition of your class. It's such a pity that Ateneo or La Salle actually allows fresh grads to join the MBA program. I mean come on, how the heck are they supposed to contribute? They will obvisouly learn from the experiences that you share... but the flow doesnt go the other way. Some foreign schools usually make the cut at 3-4 years work experience, at the very least. This I can take. But fresh out of college? And they're going to suggest on how best it is to manage people or business? I think not.

Of course, I know that one of the reasons why this class is different is because there are surprisingly 55 of us in the course. And although a small majority of us came from software houses, we had all sorts of industries represented in the group. But most important of all I beleive, is that a huge bulk of us have 11-20 years of experience in each of our industries. Some even have 20+ years, while only several have below 10. Now whenever you have a mix of that coupled with a very good facilitator, you're bound to have some interesting discussion going on. If nothing else, at least I've gained a new network of people I can go to. And in the small world of IT, that will always be a good thing.

Closure and Unpaid Day-Offs

Finally, I did my last presentation/defense for my big project bid. I cant beleive how long this has dragged on. It will be close to 1 year now since we first started pursuing this. So many delays, so many issues, so much politics. Christ... it feels so draining to try to sell and win these things.

Now there is nothing left but to submit the proposal. All that's left to do is write 50 page document complete with diagrams, charts, spreadhseets, and essays that will hopefully convince several old farts to part away with P50M. Heck, after what I've been through... this will be a piece of cake. Of course, we have to make sure that the bank approves the leasing agreement for 200 servers and then come up with a deployment plan for a nationwide upgrade, but what's really new with all these?

I'm beginning to feel a little jaded after that last round of Q&A at the conference room. I'm just glad that we're finally done with it. And now I just want to know if we will win or not, then move on. Finally get a closure. No more of that hanging shit when we thought this would be shelved indefinitely.

***************

Colleague from big blue invited me to a cocktail party at greenbelt for their clients. I happily went along knowing that we at least get to end this day right... with free flowing alcohol. Of course, I knew I had to punch in for my night shift later. But I guess priorities are priorities so I went ahead to the bar to unwind. Went home and slept for an hour or two. Powered up the PC to check what I missed on the first 3 or so hours at work. And then drove to work at around 1:00 AM.

I guess one of the drawbacks to earning a huge amount of money every month is that it corresponds also to a big daily/hourly rate. And so it becomes more and more difficult to take unpaid leaves, since the corresponding deduction is no longer that negligible. And when you really go on and think about it... taking a day off now suddenly doesnt seem to be worth the pay cut. Sucks to be on probation. But I only have 1 more month to go and the benefits start kicking in. And then I'm gonna milk this job for all it's worth...

A Stool Pigeon

Tangina! Someone just snitched on me. Some fucker sent an email to the President that a certain employee in Manila office is actually also concurrently working for another company.

My boss called me up and asked me directly. I told him Yes, and then explained the best way I could. Eventually, he told me that he was really OK with it as long as it didnt affect my productivity here, etc... and then instructed me this time to keep my mouth shut about it. We talked about it a bit more but it was obvious he wasn't that bothered about it. Then there was also the issue of me being idle and not really doing anything. What the fuck? Is it my problem that even while concurrently handling 18 projects, I still have time to slack a bit and get my daily porn fix? Would they rather have me running around and looking so stressed with my workload? I can handle it... that's the bottomline! Let's just look at the deliverables. Am I fucking messing them up? Hell NO! At least on this issue also, my boss wasn't affected. Why would he? I've been fucking delivering the goods! One of our account managers even swore to never work with another Project Manager again after I completed a project for his client ahead of schedule and in scope of the requirements... something that has been unheard of here in this company.

15 minutes after the call, the QC Manager popped a YM message to me. He wanted to talk outside. And then I knew it wasn't just me. Apparently, the snitch ratted out 3 names. His boss called him up and also ran the same issues with him.

Still trying to figure out who the implicated 3rd person is. But we have a pretty good idea who the fucking rat is. And the rat is a SHE. And she is also a Manager, albeit a lousy one I hear.

Motherfucker will have her day!

Slevin

Went to see the movie Lucky Number Slevin earlier this afternoon. There was really no other better option. It was either this, or some other shite movie. I hate it when I suddenly have a bit of free time to watch a movie and find nothing worth spending a buck on. Specially since I missed watching V for Vendetta.

I thought Slevin was gonna be something similar to Last Man Standing... which was cool because of the gun fights and the way Bruce Willis downed every shot of whisky in that damn movie... looked so good you would think whisky didnt taste like piss. Slevin also had an interesting cast, not that I'm a Josh Hartnet fan though. But Ben Kingsley and Old Man Morgan was there, so why not right?

I read a couple of average joe reviews from clickthecity.com saying that the story had a twist that you wouldn't expect. They also said that the story was kinda difficult to follow and only revealed itself half-way through. And I was like.. what the fuck? When the boy came out, didn't he look like a young Josh Hartnet? I mean is it really that difficult to figure that out? The kid's Dad and Mom got killed... wasn't it obvious from the beginning that it was gonna be one of those classic kill-em-all revenge flicks? I mean, didn't you even notice that the first scenes were shot neck down, so as not to reveal the identities of the people? Wasn't that obvious that the story was hiding the identities of these characters for now?

Overall, it wasn't such a hot movie. Wasn't such a waste of time either. If I knew I had a better choice and went with this one, then I'd have felt a lot worse about this movie. But since I know there was nothing else... I'm a bit more lenient. I thought I would see Lucy Liu be bitch-slapped again like she did in Mel Gibson's "Payback", but this too was a dissapointment. Lucy does have that x-factor thing that makes her so intriguing. Makes you wanna go on a spanking rampage.. but anyway.

Is it me or is Morgan Freeman starting to become boring these days? Don't get me wrong... he still did a good performance here. I mean if this was another actor, it would've been excellent, but he's done this before and he's starting to play the same role over and over. Same wise, old-man lines that is supposed to bequeath wisdom and experience. I wish he would play a nasty villain someday... not some mob boss that you get to only see talking, some real fucker that you get to hate... that'll be something to watch out for.

Sleeping room

We've recently made one of the empty office rooms into a sleeping room. Night shift's a killer. So it's not really a big deal when one of us goes there to catch a few Zs. Of course, back when everything was so "proper" around here, no one did it. But after the first wave of attrition... people started to be less uptight about office rules, so there ya go.

Well, someone is in there right now. Mr. Know-it-all. And he is fucking snoring so loud that we can hear him even when the door is closed. And my table is like 20 feet away from the door. I know I snore too (specially when I'm tired)... but this is UNBELIEVABLE!

******

Most of the times, I use this room just so I can have a bit of privacy when I make personal calls. But jut this week, the phone was removed... initially I thought it was because of the recent inventory that was done when a lot of the other "vacant" tables were cleared. But then I go to the conference room and find out that international calls have been disabled there too. Fuck!

That was close... too close

I just spent my whole afternoon at the US Embassy today to get a non-immigrant visa for my upcoming trip to the US. Had a 2:30 PM appointment and I arrived fashionably on time at 1:30 PM. Hey, the girl at the other end of the line did say to come 1 hour before... and although the wife was telling me to be earlier, it turned out I still arrived too early. I ended up having to wait on a long line for the pre-screening since the embassy seemed to be running a bit behind schedule.

Because I never really bothered to check all my documents thoroughly, I found out that I had several problems as I moved closer and closer to the front of the line. First, my application document wasn't printed very well. So much so that the middle part of the document from top to bottom wasn't actually readable. What can I say? Stupid printer from the office. I never bothered to reprint the damn thing since I figured they had a copy of this as well. Also, another colleague who was also flying to the US told me not to bother to reprint as long as the barcode and app ID was readable. Which it was, so there. Of course I was really planning on reprinting it just to be safe, but it was more than a month ago when I did this so I figured I had all the time in the world. Ass!

Second, I was sure that the pictures I brought didn't comply with what the app form required. How did I know besides the document itself describing the proper size? Well, everyone else in that line had bigger pictures attached to their forms. And all of them seemed to have the same size. What I had were extras from my passport renewal pics. Shit!

Third, the wife forgot to include my employment certificate in the envelope. Fuck! I dont have one shred of evidence that I am actually employed by the company that I am gonna claim to be sponsoring this stupid trip. And NO, I don't have an ID yet. Not even a business card. OK.. OK.. I forgot to bring the certificate, not the wife. But more on this later.

So I was essentially almost certain that I would get declined. What I was actually contemplating on doing was to try to reschedule the interview appointment maybe after a week or so, just so I dont have to reapply again and worse... have to pay the $100 fee all over again. Obviously this time from my wallet. Ouch!

I swear, if I had access to a PLDT phoneline while I was standing there... I would've tried to reschedule. I was in fact thinking of calling the office and and have one of my colleagues call to resched and pretend to be me. But then my cellphone was already safely locked at the embassy entrance. And then I look up front and find myslef looking eye to eye with the window guy. He motions me forward with his pen. Fuck!

Immediately, the app form gets noticed. He then asked me if I had another copy of it since it wasn't acceptable. I tried to justify it by saying that I was told it was OK by the call center girl I talked to when I scheduled the interview... but who was I kidding? He asks me if I remember the girl's name. I think of giving a fictitious name for a second but hesitate. She might actually exist so I tell him NO. Luckily, he gives me another form and simply asks me to redo the whole appform and just reattach the pic. I asked about the barcode on the printed form. He said it's fine. So I complete it and then submit it. I grab my yellow slip and sit on the bench to wait. I then just realize that he didn't mention anything about the size of my pic. Fuck yeah!

And so it's another line and another 40 minute wait. Finally, I do the finger printing and then to the actual interview. This is it. We do the usual Q&A. Pretty standard stuff. But I did detect a little bit of change when I told him what my job title was. I think I got a bit more credibility. If only I could prove it. So went the mandatory question:

"Do you have an employment certificate with you... an ID perhaps?"

"I dont have a company ID yet."

[In the background, I hear an old man just got declined]

"How long have you been with this commpany?"

"Three months."

[awkward pause]

Before it got too negative... I had to do something.

"Err... what I do have is an electronic ID that we use for biometric security in the office. It's what identifies the entries and exits to each section in our building and is complimented by finger print scanning in the IT room. So it's actually more important for us than those company IDs with pictures in them."

"OK. Can I see it?"

[Of course, our ELID isn't really that complicated. It's just what we use for the front door, and our rooms arent secured with more of those either. Heck, not even our server room had real biometric security like finger print or iris scan. Not even a passcode.]

He flips it over and tries to study it. He sees the only thing written on the front are the words "ELID: Electronic Identification" and nothing referencing my company name. He types something in his PC, and then hands it back. He asks a few more questions about my work and then types some more. Finally, he instructs me to go back to the embassy pavillion and pay for the passport delivery at Delbros. My VISA will be ready in a week's time. I retrieve the yellow slip from him, smile, and bid him a nice day.

Holy Crap! Did I just pull that stunt?