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.