When the meaning of “home” deforms in slow-mo

“I despised to spend my holiday at home; instead, I had it in the city…”

City of struggle, Makati City. The tallest building at the center, the PBCom Tower, where our main office is located.

(Credits: Imageshack.com.)

…AND YES, I AM a qualified fugitive who fittingly said goodbye before leaving the house. So who cares?

Impetuously, I dashed to stash my stuffs inside my bag last Sunday to go back to Makati City. I know there were no offices on the following day because August 30 is a holiday. However, my untimely decision to depart from our house was unfaltering. My mother was asking me why I am leaving earlier than expected. I answered, “I just changed my mind!” Then I ended with a firm judgment left furtively hanging on a faceless identikit like that in novels…

Dette, my sister, and my mother always quarrel against each other at home. My mother has made it a tradition to pickle my sister’s faults just like daily desserts served after each meal to add a little sweetness that ends with a spice—my mother, informatively speaking, has a ranting voice. When she speaks, eardrums crack. Then, when my sister gets enough of it, she retorts—and yes, her voice quality “inherited” that of my mother. Both of them weren’t as worse as what they are right now. They are just slowly getting to the point of a “worst case scenario.”

“Minor minor” photo shoots after a “major major” hostage-taking

JUST ALMOST 24 HOURS prior to the moment that Venus Raj, Miss Philippines-Universe who emerged as Miss Universe 4th runner-up, answered in front of the raucous crowd in Las Vegas last August 24 with the statement, “I can say that there's nothing major major problem that I've done in my life and so and so,” an ex-policeman armed with an M16 rifle boarded a public bus and held 25 people hostage in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, leading to a “major major” loss of lives.

Newspapers reported that Rolando Mendoza, 55, was among five officers who had been filed with theft, extortion and grave threats last year, causing his service termination. The dismissed policeman in a way demanded for his reinstatement by apprehending the busload of 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos; thus leading to a torment, which ended in bloodsheds seen on live television.

They bring out the animal in you

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The author of "Mais"

LAST NIGHT, I HAVE talked with a former colleague (or a friend as I actually reckon her) through facebook. I just inadvertently popped out my blog address on her screen through the chat-feature of the said social networking site. This, in a concealed agenda, means I am coercing her to read my blog! After few moments, she replied and said she was very amused with my entries; she thinks they’re hilarious...

Well actually, we have diminutively asked each other if how our lives have been going at first. Most questions posed were just very common questions being asked by two people who haven't seen each other for a while; yet our answers were not that ordinary. (Of course, we’re both living interesting lives.) The last time I saw her facebook profile, conversely, she posted a status from where I gathered she was feeling so blessed to have her fiancé and their baby.

Misguided first choices

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, THIS IS the 16th pay-slip I’ve ever received from the time I graduated; yet with peculiar contemplations, I reckon this as the first one…

I received it more than a couple of weeks ago. This means I already had the succeeding pay-slips after that—which, analytically, further means this article is too much delayed! Conversely, I should not feel excited in receiving and opening this pay-slip because I have been doing the same thing multiple months now. The rationale, perhaps, for my excitement is that this is the first pay-slip I received from the employer, which gives me the chance to practice want I wanted in life ever since I have been enlightened from my actual first-job experience.

That first job in the Telecommunications industry (in Customer service specifically), candidly, should have not been predestined as my first job. From the very moment I passed the exam and attended the interview, my human instinct just didn’t feel affirmative about it. I just ended up signing the employment contract because I was an ignorant fresh graduate who got tantalized by the first job served in front of me like a chicken on silver platters—something absolutely misguided by insidious, competitive salaries.

A promise is a glass filled with water...

A PROMISE, AS I delineate it from my delicate experiences, is like a glass filled with water—we get life from it just like the hope that a promise gives to us.

2046

JUST IMAGINE IF BY the year 2046, all firms would require their employees to become multi-tasked individuals... Where will my son go?

It’s is all about flexibility. “We emphasize the shift from a ‘Tayloristic’ organization of work (characterized by significant specialization by tasks) to a ‘Holistic’ organization (featuring job rotation, integration of tasks and learning across tasks),” stated in a study by Assar Linbeck and Dennis J. Snower. It was also mentioned by these two researchers that an increasing percentage of firms around the globe are adapting this kind of reorganization – multi-tasking.

Allergic reactions

I CAN’T HAVE THEM touch my things… Once in a while, I get in contact with allergens that the initial reaction of my sinus is to itch to the point that I want to sneeze! No, no, no. I’m not conversing about pollen grains scattered all over the atmosphere when the wind is blowing, or dust particles hurling from the ceiling when the maid in the house is cleaning—I’m conversing about people whose presence is simply annoying.

Blank, give me a good night-kiss

LOOKING AT NOWHERE, I see nothing; yet, I hear everything. My sleep has been disturbed!

The storm is ripping over the city, gushing torrents of wind that turn tree branches like frothy feathers. Few but stretched drops of rain strike the rooftops, producing canon roar of metals, slammed by artillery fire that spats to the ground—typhoon Basyang raised a storm signal in Metro Manila; it is certainly damaging the area.

Here in Makati, psychologically speaking, the sound of the wind is startling me. This is actually the very first instance in my life that I am experiencing such trepidation because, perhaps, I am away from my hometown and my biological relations.

Conversely, I would like to know if Neil, my roommate, is already home. However, I can't. It's very dark in the room, and even the dim light, which I and my roommate never turn off, is not lighted. From this, I gather now that the electric current is down. I wouldn't want to wake him by asking from nowhere, "Hey, are you there?" (Of course, I presume he is sleeping. Posing such a question might mean intrusion to his presumed sleep on his bed at the upper deck.)

The paparazzi and his pursuit for bad romance

(I wrote this article as my informal, pointless, ambitious, but realistically factual autobiography on facebook.com – the “about me-portion”.)

I WAS SHIRTLESS WALKING in a beach and then, abruptly, I realized most people were staring at me. Then, a Mr. Bikini-talent handler approached me and asked, "Would you like to join a bikini contest? I could be your manager!"

From his offer, I conjectured if it would be decent for a managing editor of a campus paper, a part-time associate editor of a local paper and a freelance columnist writing for several other publications to join a bikini contest. So the only feedback I gave was my boyish grin. Then, he just left his calling card...

Nah! Those days are gone. (Sigh!)

Peculiar job vacancies

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING UNUSUAL? There are job vacancies at EMCI. The Recruitment Team in our HR Department is currently looking for efficient Japanese speakers and writers who can also speak and write effectively in English. There are 17 positions to be filled with the most competent candidates who will get hired.

From Mitch…

REMINDER: THE FOLLOWING TEXT-MESSAGE was sent by Mitch Frazier when she had the most painful day of her life.