Simple Pleasures

Breakfast: 2 parts chicken, one part fish, 1/2 cup of rice. One glass orange juice
Lunch: 6 parts steamed chicken with hainanese sauce, 1 cup rice
Merienda: 1 small bottle of C2 and one small choco doughnut
Dinner: 1 small bottle of C2 and a cup of rice with chili con carne on top

Sweets taken: 1 doughnut during merienda, one glass of black gulaman during lunch.
Dairies taken: cheese grating over the nice serving of chili con. Dear God!

Calories lost during taebo: I don't know........lost count after 5 minutes of warm-up

I went to the taebo sessions hosted by the companies in my attempt to find a cardiovascular exercise to achieve my objective. However, I was the only one (out of 600 employees in the company take note) who attended the class. Luckily the instructor was kind to introduce low impact aero without the punches and the kicks. But I'm sure the routines he taught and mixing them all together had me dizzy and confused on what to do next. On the second half of the session, He worked out on my upper body through modified push-ups but I ended up crashing on the floor. My upper body is not too strong enough to take my weight. So instead, he worked on my abs by having my arms and legs suspended in air for 8 seconds. Ang hirap! Mahirap humingi. Waaah! I'll be very happy doing crunches that doing that again. Sniff. He even had me do slow sit-ups but I couldn't even bring my upper body up without using my arms. It was fun though and I finally sweated it out. But I think I still need some more cardio tomorrow. Let's see if I'm up to a few rounds in Alfaro park tomorrow.

Dinner last night: 2 cups of baked lasagna drowned in meat sauce from Sbarro. <--- very bad sign
Inuman: 2 parts chicken.

Sweets resisted: 1
Alcohol taken: 1 bottle of San Mig Light. 3 shots of baileys.

Notes:
I met up with the gang for Dinner and late night inuman. I was supposed to drop them off and stay late again in the office but a fight has emerged between Neilsen and me which brought me out of the office teary eyed and met with my HS barkada one hour early. We met at Sbarro and much to my surprise, I ordered a huge plate of lasagna and a slice of Supreme Pizza for dinner. I was really upset that I decided to forget the diet and comfort myself through eating. However, I wasn't able to finish my meal and left the pizza untouched. I had it put in the doggy bag and stepped out of the restaurant when suddenly I felt this pang of pain inside my gut. This usually happens when I eat while I'm upset. We stayed for a while beside the new Snowstorm stand and the picture of ice cream is tempting enough to order one for myself. Luckily, my tummy wasn't feeling too good and decided not to give in despite of Mark and Jay teasing me to get one.

So we left the mall and went to Honey's house in Las Piñas where we brought half-case of beer, two lechon manoks and a bottle of Bailey's c/o Mark. Everyone is lively as usual with their own stories to tell whether scientific or wacky. Also, I was able to escape from drinking more than I can take as I excused myself from the group to watch the Pinoy Big Brother on TV. When I got back, I was so full I couldn't take another bite of the 99 pesos lechong manok and a bottle of beer. This leave the guys to their own devices on finishing the rest of the beer. I smoked a little and I know it is bad for my skin. For sure, I will have another pimple breakout for the next few days. Mental note: put on a facial mask on sunday to prevent it.

Breakfast: Four parts chicken. 2 are boiled, 2 are fried. 1 cup of rice with tinola soup all over the plate.
Lunch: Four part Grilled Porkloin (removed the fat), 1 cup of rice and one cup of chopsuey without the soup.
Merienda: one cup of Vitamax (like Nesvita but taste like Walnut and Wheat)

Sweets taken: none
Soda taken: none

Notes:
I've been contemplating on an eating strategy to prevent me from going into a binging spree and effectively lose weight. I remember there was an eating plan I had a few months before when I was still working out at slimmers. It's a no-salt/no-sugar diet scheme where I have to reduce intake of salt and sugar to prevent water rentention. Also, I have to reduce the intake of carbohydrates so I can burn it effectively without leaving anything behind to become fat. So far, I am kinda of successful with the choice of food I had. I restricted myself to, at least, a cup of rice and stayed away from fried and salty. But I still can't celebrate yet, I have a drinking session tonight and I don't know how I can escape from my barkada from drinking. Will I be able to pull it off? Till next time.

For the past few days, I was hooked in the internet and television to keep up with the intriguing life of the 12 housemates in the new reality TV show launched by ABS-CBN called Pinoy Big Brother.

I find the internet reliable to get the latest scoops than having Asia Agcaoili and Mariel Rodriguez hogging the air time instead of showing the 12 housemates. People in PEX and ABS-CBN forums are kind enough to post screencaps and keeping other posters up-to-date. On the tv, on the other hand, is showing the events that happened the day before during primetime. Medyo old news pero I wouldn't get tired oggling at the housemates particularly JB and Uma.

I am tempted to subscribe to their live feeds. I had a chance to snuck up some freebie live feed last night but was suddenly cut off and asking me for license. However, if Techops find out i'm hogging internet bandwidth the whole day, they will will block off PBB live feed through firewall. Kaya hindi na lang. Magtitiis na lang ako sa chika ng may mga live feed at screen caps.

I can't say yet who I want to stay. I'm still facinated with the dynamics between the housemates. Nakakatuwa. Pero di ko kaya ginagawa nila. Di ako mabubuhay ng walang PC, TV at music.

I've entered this contest in PinoyExchange called The New Me. I've always been thriving to become a better person for the past few months when I gained my independence. I've learned a lot of things and I felt that it is not enough. Being a better person has a huge premise for this purpose so I'm just going to focus at one goal: I need to achieve that ultimate make over in three months before my HS barkada wedding. Attainable? Maybe. My parameters for looking good are the following:

1. Drop my weight from 190 lbs to 160 lbs. I have to lose 30 pounds in 3-4 months. Shucks. Sounds like a lot.
2. Fix my dental problems
3. Fix my hair
4. Fix my wardrobe.

My challenges in achieving these goals are my bad eating habits and limited budget. Everyday, I will post my consumption of food and my physical activities (if there are any). Also, I will post my daily budget so I can have something to save for my trip to the salon and my wardrobe. Sana kayanin ko and I hope I bag a new pair of Nike shoes to replace my old worn-out cross-trainers.

A friend of mine has been confiding me about her being pirated to another company. Her former mentor, who has moved out of her current employer about 6-7 years ago to move to this company, was "courting" her to move to this company. She said they are still negotiating about the package but she is having hesitations of leaving.

"What's stopping you?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just afraid of the sudden change. I don't want to disappoint my boss and the president."

"Can you see yourself in 3-5 years time in that company?"

She didn't reply.

"Look, nobody can hold you back if you want to move. You have to widen your horizon and grow. Besides, its your own career your thinking of. Think about it. A colleague of mine was once offered a job in a software agency which he has no plans of moving. Someone from the agency called up and offered the opening. He gave a ridiculous amount. They gave in. He has to oblige. Otherwise, nobody would have benefit from the exchange. He has lost an opportunity to earn more money and they have to waste more time finding someone else to hire. So if you need a sign from God that you have to take this, just demand a package that would make you reconsider about leaving. If they obliged, you have to take it. There's no other way."

"If the negotiations went well, I guess I will have to take it. I'm tired working with my current employer. I'm the only one certified of doing the work I do and all they do is making me frontman in every deal or negotiation. In the end, I will not be in charge of the project and I will end up playing helpdesk taking calls. I'm so better than that."

"Then, what is stopping you?"

"I'm just afraid of regretting it if I do."

One point I failed to point out, people who live in regret never wins.

After staring at the project plan for almost two weeks, I was able to finish it finally. Billing and admin site doable in four months with 5 resources. Pwede! Paspasan ang admin site ng isang buwan sabay sabay billing for 3. Inclusive na ang QA niyan.

Problema na lang design. Crash course ako ng UML para may mas magandang paraan kung paano irepresent ang design na malinaw at di na kailangan basahin ang pagkahaba-habang spec. Yan naman ang sakit ng mga developers eh. Tamad magbasa ng spec. Kaya ayan, kung anu-ano na cocode. Kasi naman, duling na kami sa kakacode, iba na ang tingin namin sa letra pag binasa na ang functional spec. Baket walang if. Baket walang try-catch. Di ata gumagana compiler sa utak ko pag puro paragraph na lang nakikita.

Bibigyan ko ng two weeks para lang maka-draw na ng design. Sana maganda kalalabasan at sana maintindihan.

Syet. Mag-aaral pa pala ako ng Ruby for WATIR. Aaaaaaaaaargh.

This reminded me of my life I had back home but not really the same. Just a milder version of what I am about to show you:

http://www.santoalt.com/videos/225_Psycho_Mom.html

I found a paralyzed cockroach (its tail is still moving but its lying on its back nevertheless) beside my door this morning. Must have taken a dose of that cockroach chalk I placed near the door hinges. The chalk also do wonders with ants too to keep them from crawling into my food stash. I just love keeping my place "insect-free".

If here are punishment by incineration or exile, there is punishment by doing household chores.

After being in constant argument with "him" and realizing it was my mistake all along, I was so pissed with myself I had to clean the toilet, sort my laundry twice, do my laundry including two very dirty floormats, go to the laundromat to pick up my previous laundry and check-in my favorite blanket and jeans, clean the house and play with my neighbor's pet labrador named Kirby. In the end, my sense of defeat will be overcomed by my sense of accomplishment for doing the jobs I hate (except playing the dog). But my hands still hurt and very dry.

Bought the tile cleaner and floor polisher to subject myself to further torment if I want to punish myself again.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/da_vinci_code/medium.html

Franny just tagged me to answer the questions below. Here's what I got:

What are the things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play?
- TV!!!!
- Reading other people's musing and rants through their blogs. I have a couple of people in my favorite lists to start with.
- Blogging.
- Web surfing. You can kill time surfing the net and be informed about many things.
- If I can afford it, go to the nearest Starbucks to buy my coffee and get cozy with a book in tow.
- Clean my apartment. There's nothing much there to begin with so there's nothing much to clean and I enjoy it. At the same time I get that sense of accomplishment I had for the day.
- Sort my laundry. I only do it once but I love doing clothes inventories in my head.

What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it in your journal
- DotA or Warcraft 3
- Getting out of town either on a bike or hiking.
- Taking a walk and go to the nearest coffee or pastry shop and eat!
- Playing at timezone but it can get very expensive
- SHOP with a credit card with high credit limit. But I'm trying to stop that.
- Smoking but not anymore.

The pressure is pressing on to you like a hot iron pushing you to whatever your doing. And you keep your focus on to the thing your doing whether its very difficult to do or the deadline is looming ahead. You try to keep your patience at bay despite your frustration reaching an all time high for that day.

In times like this, it doesn't hurt to turn away from your desktop and rest for a while. This is something I learned from the leadership training program I had from work. Incubate your thoughts away from the battlefield and let it cook for a while. When are you able to think about solutions to your problems? Some would say in the shower, while smoking or even while sleeping. It will help you to put things into perspective and get "illuminated" when you get back to your cube slugging out the task at hand.

To give you an example, I was trying to figure out the problem with a legacy application written in Perl. I had no idea how to code in Perl. So I had to walk through the code and take a crash course on basic Perl programming but it wasn't enough. It took me one and a half games of Warcraft (I promise I'm quitting. I copied over and then deleted again the Frozen throne folder again after playing after office hours to be sincere with my intention for rehab) to figure out what I really needed to do to make the bloody thing work again.

So boys and girls, always remember "incubate your thoughts and it will illuminate".

No more Warcraft and DotA for me. I get too absorbed with the game that I ignore work. The bull session is somehow a blessing in disguise. It could have been any worse than having reported to HR for cursing too much while playing. I've now deleted my whole Warcraft and Frozen Throne folder and I feel like a new person.

Thanks guys for the "reminder". You know who you are.

I had my stitched from my bike accident removed last Saturday afternoon at Makati Med and it looks like as if I didn't had any cuts. It's was like a huge pimple popped that got infected and left a large crater above my upper lip. Hahaha! So much for the hairlip jokes I passed around when I was still wearing the bandage.

I had my teeth checked for hairline fractures and luckily there weren't any. My incisors are safe for now. Also, I had my oral prophylaxis and deep scaling and finally talked to my dentist about hauling out the bad stuff. That means I had to undergo some dental operations to remove my right lateral incisor and have it changed to a fixed bridge instead so I can have my "nice smile" back.

Also, my dentist was so nice. I never seen anyone so prudent and precise and pretty at the same time. If I were a guy, I would have a crush with her right away. But anyway, at least I found the dentist I can stick with.

According to Willy Wonka, Chocolate is to be the best food to release endorphins to make people have the feeling of being in-love. So when I was starting to hate what I'm doing at work (like debugging an almost impossible bug) this morning, I bought a huge piece of chocolate eclair and a piece of choco walnut brownie and now I'm starting to love what I do.

My chocolate cheesecake was stolen from the refrigirator in the pantry this afternoon. Ang masaklap pa dun, inutang ko lang yung sa officemate kong nagbabake ng goodies. Letse siya! Ang kapal ng mukha niya. Utang na nga di ko pa napakinabangan kahit isang kagat. Nilagyan ko na nga ng pangalan with a pink post-it at di man niya inisip na may nagmamay-ari nun.

For two hours I was fuming mad. I swear I will find this person and probably bait him with some dessert with a strong laxative enough to purge his guts out. If I'm in a mood, I might put some insecticide in it and poison him to death. At least I know who the moment I hear someone was rushed in the hospital for food poisoning. Or maybe snuck a cockroach inside the food and surprise him or her with the "secret ingredient".

Curse him for being such a glutton. Grrrrrrr.

For the past 3 days, I've been having a streak of bad luck, here's what happened:

1. I had a bike accident last Sunday in Sta Rosa. Before I was able to reach the start of the bike trail. I had a major head on crash against the cemented road in Ayala West Grove. I was running 40 kph on a 40 degree downhill and bunked too late on the sharp turn. You wouldn't want to know how bad my crash is and I would prefer that explain it to you personally as I get the kick out of getting the pained disgust from your face.

2. Last Monday, I accidentally deleted two months worth of emails from my inbox. Techops was not able to retrieve it. Useless technology!

3. Today, different interpretation of instruction for a project we are working on was different from what I have relayed and understood. Maybe I got the instruction hazy while I'm high on painkillers.

As for tomorrow, di ko na alam if there's is anything worse that can happen after all these.