Overtime Work: The Need of Man

It's past midnight and i'm cramming an important presentation.
I'm working from home.
I’m experiencing the first symptoms of an advertising pitch that will surely progress into a tiring, sleepless and chaotic typhoon that will suck in everything in its path. Daunting? Yes, but also very, very exhilirating.

It’s been months since my last pitch, since I last feared for my job and thanked the gods that I have tenure. However, I think that to a certain degree, we all enjoy the work-life balance upheaval, albeit in a weird, masochistic kind of way.

In today’s hypoallergenic world of health insurance, hypermarts and organic free range poultry, our primal urges to hunt, and its accompanying perils of possible death or decapitations have been channeled to capitalistic pursuits that are of equally great consequence. And I guess we’re all hungry for our next catch—a mammoth of an account!

20 is the new 30

Before, people lied about their age when they hit 40, then 30, and now its not uncommon for 23 year olds claiming to be 18. Heck, i even dreaded the thought of being part of the "late 20s" club.

It seems like people's concept of antiquity is getting younger. Youth's shelf life is getting shorter. This really isnt surprising when you see 6 year olds learning about mathematical cardinals, teenagers getting boob jobs and tweens smoking and going to all night parties when they used to be having slumber parties and playing patintero.

Sure it's great. We are progressing as a race, because kids become smarter, stronger, more mature and more attractive earlier, thus becoming more productive members of society faster. But all this comes at the expense of stunted childhoods, just like Michael Jackson's. And we all know how he turned out. So do we really have more to gain?

Happy Ordinary Day

It was one of the most ordinary birthdays i can remember. I went to work, had meetings, ate at Max's (of all places!) for dinner yet i couldn;t be happier. Well, maybe that's an overstatement but the truth still remains that it was a very happy occasion. I delighted in the warm greetings, the jovial office banter, the good normal food and even the chance to get an early night's sleep.

Happiness is really a state of mind and i was glad i was in its territorial waters last Thursday. Ü

Smells like school spirit

It's been a very Blue day today. Firstly because I got a birthday letter (it wasn't a card) from Fr. Nebres/Ateneo alumni office and second, well, it was game day for Ateneo vs. DLSU part 3. Well as many people know, Ateneo did lose. By 1 measly point. It was disappointing at the very least, even for a relatively moderate fan like me. But after all the heartache and awwws, the jeers and taunts, i just can't help but feel proud of my school. And it's not because they played their hearts out or any of those empty self-comforting rationalizations. PLEASE.

I just realized that it's easy to love your alma mater after a win. Even the most disloyal subject adores a king returning from a triumphant campaign. But deeper school pride transcends momentary victories. It actually reveals itself more brightly when things are in the pits. When you can honestly say that you'd take on ridicule and defeat any day, when you're proud to represent even when you're still bludgeoned and licking your wounds, THAT is real pride. After 13 years of watching the game It took this particular defeat to realize i had this in me. I guess i'm not much of a 'moderate' Atenean after all. Ü

On friends

A friend of mine gave a great insight about me regarding friendship. It has something to do with our other friend whose presence in gimmicks i absolutely love and hate at the same time. I love it that she's so bubbly that she's opinionated, that she's witty and you need to constantly catch up with the banter. But these are the same things i hate about her at times--that her opinions are sometimes so disagreeable, or negative, that conversations are exhausting, its like a mental 100 meter dash but taken to marathon proportions.

But deny and complain as i may, I really do like her presence. She has the ability to bring out the best in me--i feel like i am at my wittiest, my bubbliest when i'm with her. I like the me that she brings out. She never crosses the line (for she values her privacy even more than i do) yet im less of everything that i hate about myself--less shy, tongue-tied or uneloquent. Though i believe that we shouldnt rely on others to complete us, friends really do help in revealing the great persons we already are.

On getting older...

When you were in college with limited allowances, you were happy with an order of 3 piece siomai and 2 cups of rice and McDonald's was a treat. Dencio's was regular gimmick fare and you'd go to a Greenbelt retaurant for extra special occasions like Christmas celebrations.

When you start working, you realize how hard it is to make money and though you can afford to eat in swankier places, you opt not to because your computations reveal that a dinner can cost you a day's wages.

But after several years of working and several wage hikes down the road, no resto is too expensive and no luxury is too great because you've been working so hard, you deserve to enjoy every peso you make. And sometimes, you end up with less money than you did when you started. When life was less complicated and your joys less sophisticated (or expensive!). Don't you miss the old days?

Seasons of Life

I just learned that one of the nicest and friendliest security guards in Burnett passed away due to a heart attack. He was just 40 something. The father-in-law of our officemate just passed also. So did my uncle. All in a span of a few weeks. I dunno if its just coincidence but it seems like we are in the middle of a season of death. It's weird how life events such as weddings or births, hook-ups (and break-ups!) can be totally be absent for most of the year then suddenly occur consecutively, almost as if a higher power is really orchestrating life.