2 Weeks with the Man

Last April 17, I closed a chapter in my life by starting work. I kissed the bum life goodbye, donned my worker bee costume and became part of the hive that is bitmicro. In this post, I’d like to share some of the stuff about my first two weeks of being a cubicle worker. Before I proceed, I beg you, please don’t expect a coherent train of thought (as if my previous posts had one… ha!), or any semblance of a main idea. Instead, brace yourself for a good helping of rants and ramblings.

-Question #1: Ano ba talaga work ko?
Some of my friends asked me this before I started working. The answer I always gave was that I’d be a programmer that programs solid state memory storage devices. But I didn’t even know what the f*ck a solid state memory device is. Now I do. Basically it’s a hard disk that has a series of flash memory devices instead of a rotating disk. I write programs for those things. So there (pero ngayon, di pa ko marunong… but knowing is half the battle ryt?).

-Question #2: San ung work ko?
The place I work in is located at the 11th floor of the Net 1 center in the fort. Saying that I’m a cubicle worker is not exactly true. That’s because I don’t have my own cubicle. I have a work station. The place looks more like a computer laboratory than an office. Para lang ako nasa Computer lab sa Ateneo. Depressing. Well, at least I have my own PC... (Pero lilipat daw sa Net 1 Plaza by September, sana may cubicles na)

-Rant #1: Intranet
Though I have my own PC, the damn thing doesn’t have an internet connection. Because of that I can’t waste company time on YM, fantasy NBA, or blogging like charles does. All I have is collabrix (para shang YM na LAN lng). Du’n kami nag gagaguhan nila JM and LaC (oh yeah, office mates ko cla, kya lng c LaC sa ibang floor na assign). Kahit two seats away lang c JM, nag co collabrix pa kami. Hahahaha!

-Rant #2: The Mystery of the Dying Cellphone
Another thing na nakaka asar is that cellphones aren’t allowed in your work station (para daw di I divulge ang company secrets), you have to leave it in a shelf near the guard. Every time you wanna use your phone, you have to get up and go to a designated area. Okay lang sana sa akin, but my damn phone is a piece of crap. For some reason, every time I leave it on the shelf, the damn thing powers off. It doesn’t matter if it’s fully charged or not, my phone just dies. But when I take it away from the shelf (during lunch breaks or when I go home), the blasted thing works fine. I think it doesn’t like being around lots of cell phones, why? I dunno. Radiation? EM fields maybe? Email ko kaya si sir Libatique to find out?

-Rant #3: I want Money, lots and lots of Money...
Today is April 28, 2006. Everybody got paid today. Except for the new guys (which includes me)!!! It seems that sa May 15 pa ang first pay check namin ‘cause alanganin pa daw ang number of work days namin. And I thought that I was going to be able to swim in a vault full of money like Mr. Scrooge from “Ducktales” tonight. Depressing!

-Nerdness lv up
********
mike lv 30
********
int +13
dex -11
AGI -10
*******
learned new skill: "C Programming!"

I had to relearn C programming ‘cause I forgot how (And the stuff I forgot was not much to begin with XD). I had to become one with the pointers, structures, linked lists etc. I was so into it that one day, while reading a book on C programming, the author made a joke that went something like:

#include

#define { begin:
#define } end:

main()
begin:
printf(“Hello World\n”);
end:

I caught myself laughing at the joke… Shit ang nerd ko na.

-Fun with Mike and Friends entry #11
Cast: JM and LaC

Like I said earlier, nag co collabrix kaming tatlo lagi. Now, collabrix has this feature that allows you to “broadcast a message” (think SMS using PCs). While working, I suddenly received a message from JM (which he broadcasted to me and LaC) that read:

“NATATAE AKO!!”

Like I said, nag gagaguhan kami lagi, so I paid no attention to it. After a while LaC changed her online status to “Do not Disturb”. Her status was like that for about half an hour (napaisip tuloy ako: “wow, seryoso sa work sobra c lac”). When her status went back to “available” I asked her why she didn’t want to be disturbed. Apparently, her boss was using her PC when out of the blue:

Broadcast Message from JM Lukban:

“NATATAE AKO!!!”

Hahahahaha!!! It gets better, her seatmates happened to read the message and it spread like wildfire that some guy from the 11th floor named JM Lukban broadcasted that he wanted to take a shit.

That’s it for now… dami ko pa gusto sabihin kaya lang bawal mag divulge ng company stuff eh. Baka makulong ako XD.

The Story that Just Won’t Die

I’m talking about my encounter with Epok Quimpo sa Manang’s during my 2nd year in the Ateneo. Now, if you know me, (you most probably do since you’re reading my uber cool blog) you’ve most definitely heard the story AT LEAST once. Because of this and because I already documented the unfortunate incident in a previous post (Check: Mike the Embarassing Man), I won’t go into the story anymore. Instead I’m writing about something related to it.

Like the title states, the story just won’t die. I had dinner with Charles, Tay, Kabo and Darn last Saturday. During the usual boisterous banter that goes on when we get together, Darn brings up the usual story. But this time he added something new to the mythos (mythos ampota, para ng legend to a).

Now Darn is somehow acquainted to another Ateneo Blue Eagle; Magnum Membrere. How close are they you ask? Well, I don’t know (pero di naman cguro sila Broke Backers). Anyways, habang nag uusap si Darn and si Magnum, the story came up (I forgot who brought up the story though). But yung nakakagulat is that alam ni Magnum ung story!!! Apparently kinuwento ni Quimpo sa teammates nya na may mga Atenistang gusto sha I-trade! When I think about Epok Quimpo telling his teammates about the incident, I can’t help but shudder a little. Pucha, isipin nyo naman kung sino teammates nya nung time na yun! Villanueva, Alvarez, Fonacier, Tenorio, Bugia, Membrere… sama mo pa si Chia. Sila yung 2002 UAAP champions boys and girls. According to Membrere, pinagtawanan daw nila sobra si Epok, pero akala nila narinig lang ni Epok un kung saan saan. Chismis kumbaga. Little did they know that two jerks said it to his face! Mwahahahaha!

It’s a good thing Darn set the record straight for Magnum that it was Darn and me who unintentionally hurt the poor guy’s feelings. Sigh… The story has to be accurate dammit! The story will be passed on from 1 generation to another! It is the Legacy I leave to the Ateneo. Valedictorians, Summas, Magnas or whatever, they come and go…

The Epok-for-Cortez Story will on live forever!!! Bwahahahahah!!! Okay… probably not forever. Okay na sakin mga a few more months.