Working in a cold environment September 2, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Work.add a comment
Offices are normally cold especially offices in the business districts.
The first time I worked, I was teaching koreans english. In my small cubicle, there was no aircon and we had to use makeshift fans made out of cartons. When I started working in this call center I was amazed to see people wearing mini skirts and spaghetti straps when I was already freezing even though I was wearing a sweater plus wrapping a blanket over my body. I can’t fathom why their bodies can adjust to the coldness of the place.
It has been more than a year since i started working here and I still can’t get use to this air conditioned place. I can now wear spaghetti straps and mini-skirts / shorts but that is just because my shift starts at 2 pm where the airconditioners are not on at full blast. By the time the 8 pm shift starts, you can see me bundled up with teeth chattering in my station.
It’s a good think i have officemates with warm hands. When i start to feel cold, I touch my officemates’ hands just to feel warm then i go back to work and then when i feel cold again, i go and disturb my officemates again. Hahaha makes me sound like harrassing my officemates. I’m not doing that. How much harrassment can I give my officemates anyway?
ARGH! It’s actually frustrating because i can’t even use my electric fan at home now. If cold air touches my skin, I’d turn my fan off. Maybe because it’s already the “ber”-month. Nah. It’s just really cold.
There is no such thing as harmless flirting! August 29, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Musings, ~ Relationship.1 comment so far
“Yeah right! Cath ang flirting laging me masasaktan. Anong harmless harmless yang pinagsasabi mo?
Maybe as my officemate said there is really no such thing. But then again, what am i doing? :p
I flirt ‘coz i don’t want to commit to a person. I know my place when i flirt and I know there are no feelings involved between me and the guy. Sure i may feel some chemistry after all I wouldn’t take the time to get to know the guy if there was none. I’m a player and i play by my own rules.
There is flirting that can harm a relationship and then there is harmless flirting. In harmless flirting, both persons involve know that lust is one major factor, feelings should be approximately zero. Mind over heart and not heart over mind. Heart over mind means that if you have feelings for the person, you’re gonna use your mind and give subtle hints and work your charms so that he/she would commit to you. Mind over heart means that you control your feelings because you know your place and his/her commitment should not be yours. If you value your friendship and you don’t want to take the possibility of the next step, then this could be fun for the both of you.
Bad thing about flirting is when you flirt with someone who is otherwise committed to someone else. That will not be harmless! They say that anything you don’t know wont harm you so anything his/her partner doesn’t know wont hurt him/her. That might be true but can your conscience take it? After all, your flirt’s partner may not know it but you will.
Another important thing. Don’t start to flirt if the other person is not a player. You might end up hurting him/her. If you want to be a harmless player, do it with another player.
One important thing you should know about harmless flirting is when to stop. If you feel that you are falling and the wheels may turn between mind and heart, then it’s time to stop. If you feel that your flirt-partner is the one with the wheels turning, then it is also time to stop. If only one of you wants to move to the next step, that’s the time to stop.
Being a player can be fun. Being a harmless player is more fun. In playing the field, you should play by the rules and if you can’t handle the rules then just be a spectator. The pressure will not be on you.
The dreaded monthly visitor August 25, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Musings, ~ Online.add a comment
Guys have it easy. They only have to suffer once… during circumcision. Whereas girls have to suffer every month. For those who gets visited regularly anyway.
I started to have this monthly visitor when I was 9 years old. Quite young right? My cousin said that i will have a higher chance of getting breast cancer since I had my red visitor at such a young age. (Off topic: Since i’m also fat, that also increases my chance of getting breast cancer since fat tissue produces estrogen which can promote tumor growth.) Haha so much for being healthy.
Since i have my period regularly, it is easy to track when my next menstruation will be. Getting ready for that zits on my face, heaviness of breasts and kinda itchy at times, painful cramps more commonly known by its scientific name dysmenorrhea.. it is actually nice to be able to predict when i’m gonna expect them.
When I started tracking my monthly cycles, i made use of my trusty old notebook and pen. Eventually i lost them and there go my records too. My elder sister introduced me to http://mycycle.com and now not only do i track my predicted monthly visitor.. it also helps me predict when i’m gonna be fertile. Hey better safe than sorry.. :p Not that i’m using that knowledge anyway. I don’t need it yet.
One good thing about this dreaded monthly visitor is that i know that i’m not pregnant when i see its presence. ^_^ Condoms are good, pills ok, injectibles are also safe but all of them are not 100% sure in preventing fertilization. Just need to differentiate spotting with menstruation…
Filial relationship? How important is it? August 22, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Family, ~ Musings, ~ Relationship.3 comments
I am basically the blacksheep of my family. That doesn’t mean i don’t love them and they don’t love me. But for some reason I keep encountering family relationships and filial love going the opposite directions.
For the past relationships that i had, the guys that I was linked with have family problems. Most of them come from broken families… and it made me think. Is this one reason why I was attracted to them? Is this really a common denominator?
Both of the parents of the first guy I was with have different families now. He lived with his relatives and his immediate family was nowhere during his childhood. That made him protective of himself and his feelings to the point that the girl he’s with gets suffocated in the process. That girl was me.. before. Although I understood that he didn’t want to be hurt again… I guess i didn’t understand how much he desired stability and commitment. I just wasn’t ready enough. Last I heard of him, he got into a fight with his family and left his home. Now I’m not sure if he still feels some kind of filial love for them.
The next guy I was with have problems with his father. The way I understand his story.. His father left his mom when he was young and recently his father showed up and wanted to be friends with him. He refused. He said that why, when he’s already an adult, would his father make his presence known to them when he never did before? Forgive and forget? I don’t think this guy would be capable of doing that to his father. Not in the near future anyway. I don’t really know. Will the love go away among family members if one member leaves the pack? How long would a person need to wait before being forgiven?
The last person I was serious with also have major problems with his father. Unlike the previous guys, this guy have siblings and all of them are not exactly keen towards keeping a filial relationship with their father. If ever he forgives his father, it will still not be enough for the father to be accepted back by the whole family.
One of my present crushes is ok with his family except for the part when his girlfriend comes into the picture. His kuya doesn’t hide the fact that he reduced the status of the girlfriend as merely the girl. One of his younger sisters echoed the sentiments of the oldest brother, that her kuya’s (my crush) girlfriend is a snob. I’m not really acquainted with the girlfriend to know if she is or is not a snob but then again it’s not my place to judge her. In the defense of his girlfriend, he said that he hates his family for judging his girlfriend. How far can filial relationship go? Is there a boundary as to when the love ends and the hate begins?
Makes me wonder if the next guy i’m gonna be with will also have some kind of problem with his family. If the guy I will end up with is gonna be the same as the rest of the other guys.. i don’t think i’d like that. Next time i will be part of his family (whoever he is) and that will mean i should be included in that circle of love.
Massage therapy August 22, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Musings, ~ Work.3 comments
Sitting in front of a computer for approximately 8-10 hours per day can be a pain in the butt. Literally and figuratively speaking. A friend, Henie, once told me that if i feel stressed out i should treat myself to a massage. This would ease back pains and help with blood circulation.
So i followed his advice. I went to SM megamall and checked out the prices of half body massages, whole body massages, spas, and other offerings. My goodness! I didn’t know massages could be expensive. The lowest i found was 300/hour for a whole body massage and that was only because the Aromatherapy Massage at SM was having a sale during that time I visited. It was relaxing and it made me fall asleep but it tickled me so much that i think i unintentionally hurt myself coz i was forcing myself to be stiff so it wont be ticklish (bad move).
Then our maid, Reena, said that we have a neighbor who offered home service massages. So then i also tried ate Joy’s services. Actually I first asked ate Joy to massage my mom because she so wanted to try and pamper herself in a massage parlor. My mom raved about it so I also tried it the following day. It was very convenient coz I can relax on my own bed and I didn’t have to worry about going out. Her fee was P250.00 for 2 hours. Neat huh? Unfortunately it didn’t have the same twang as the aromatherapy massage i had in SM megamall.
A little over a month ago I was looking for a pair of sandals at the guadalupe mall when I passed by this booth of blind masseurs. Sandals forgotten, I sat on one of the chairs there and asked for a half-body massage. What do you know? They exceeded my expectations. There was no tickling involved however ticklish i might be. The guy who massaged me hit the exact places I always rub whenever my back hurts. I felt gloriously alive after that half-hour. For P120 / half hour for the half body massage. I felt it was truly worth it. But I was still skeptic since that was just one masseur out of i dunno how many. So the following week I went there again and I got a different masseur and the service level didn’t change one bit. It still felt good and I still felt refreshed after the massage. Maybe because they are blind so they know their way by feeling the stress and nodes of the body and not just depending on sight to check if the person is showing relaxation. Since then I always drop by their booth every Tuesday night just before going home from school. Oh and for those who want to try their services too. You can contact them at 09184748549/09223798508, ABM therapeutic massage services – the blind experts.
Try it for yourself! These blind experts are in Philcoa, Cubao, Guadalupe, Taft.. and probably in other places i’ve never been to. After a good massage, it always feels good to go back to work in front of a computer.
Puzzling mystery August 19, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Puzzles.add a comment
I enjoyed mysteries and i enjoy mysterynet’s see and solve mysteries. Unfortunately they don’t post new mysteries anymore and they don’t even update their site.
What i like about these see and solve mysteries is that you act like the investigator in the actual crime scenes. Normally when we read mysteries, we base the solutions in the slip of the tongues of the criminals. But here it’s different. Not only do you interview the suspects, but you have to base your logical explanations by inspecting the scene and matching it with what the suspects said.
So i decided to create my own mysteries and i hope people can appreciate them as much as i do. Pardon the drawing since i don’t draw much. I normally just cut and paste some images together. Here is the 1st mystery i submitted in Pinoylag’s mysterycases.
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Once again, you have been summoned on another case, this time, a cold-blooded murder.
Madison Lange is among the richest women in England. She owned several publishing houses and printing presses and made a huge fortune acquiring potential bestsellers which she has a keen eye for. She is among England’s elitists, living in the highest end of luxury and glamour, a life which suddenly ended when her three housemates: her butler, her chambermaid, and her gardener, found her corpse lying on the mansion’s garden.
The Chief of Police, Major Gray Lawson, briefed you as soon as you arrived.
“We found Ms. Lange’s dead body in that area of the garden.” He referred to the fenced off area while briefing you. “We came here as soon as the gardener called us at the police station around six in the morning. He was very agitated and said that he found Ms. Lange dead in the garden.” The chief pointed at a scrawny man in a jumpsuit sitting on the mansion’s front steps and staring blankly into space.
“The butler”, this time, he pointed at a tall man in black with sleek hair and a stoic expression on his face, “said that Ms. Lange came from a charity ball last night and seemed pretty drunk that they had to carry her to her room. The chambermaid said the same thing,” This time, he pointed at a rotund woman in a French maid’s dress who was being interviewed by the police at that time. “They never saw anyone who came with Ms. Lange and besides being intoxicated, never saw anything suspicious with her actions.”
The chief continued, this time even more puzzled, “What’s remarkable is that nothing in the mansion is missing. All the locks are in place. Windows and doors were all sealed shut until the chambermaid lent us the master key to open all of the doors. It didn’t rain so there’s no footprints. There were no shards of glass or broken appendages of any sort. In other words……”
“Nobody broke in….” you’re words trailed off as you pondered. “It’s unbelievable that I’ve been getting these lately.”, you remembered that the perpetrator in your last case was also an insider and snickered at the thought that the culprit is right under everyone’s noses.
The first thing you thought of doing was to interview the three people who were supposedly at the crime scene: the butler, the maid, and the gardener, but was surprised when the policemen started gathering them and escorting them to the police cars. The chief had to stop you from running after them.
“Detective stopped! They will be taken directly to city hall to be questioned. I’m sorry, but it’s a direct order from the Mayor himself. Ms. Lange was a frequent supporter of the Mayor’s cause. The Mayor owes a lot to Ms. Lange’s donations for the city’s prosperity. This is still unconfirmed but the buzz is that Ms. Lange’s associates and board members agreed to donate a portion of her company’s shares to the local government if… the local police prove that this is all an accident.”.
It then became clear to you that someone is trying to cover this up. But your resolve just got stronger upon realizing the obstacle that you have face.
“Very well Detective, seems to me that you’re on you own.” The chief handed you a small black notebook and turned away.
“I told my men to let you search the crime scene. Good luck!” he shouted from across the garden as he walked towards the convoy of police cars and entered one. Afterwards the convoy sped off as you ducked under the police tape and surveyed the crime scene.
———
The contents of the notebook….
The butler said….
“The madam arrived rather late last night and it was obvious that she had too much to drink. You know that the madam is quite a huge lady and we had a rather difficult time carrying her to her chambers. The next morning I knocked at her door and called her out for breakfast, which she never misses since she always delegates me to wake her up every 5 in the morning. She said that she was feeling a little under the weather but she’ll be up after 15 minutes.”
The chambermaid said….
“The butler called me out from the garden and asked for help to get the mistress into her chamber. I helped him carry the mistress up along the stairs leading to her room and we had a very difficult time doing so. The butler asked for my help in opening the mistress’s chambers since I have the master key. Come morning I entered her chambers around 5:30 like I always do everyday to clean it up and by that time, the mistress is already gone from her bed.”
The gardener said….
“Being the rich woman that she is, she should have built an automatic sprinkler system but no, I have to turn on her very ancient and cumbersome sprinkler system every 6 in the morning, making my job even harder. I came out to the garden to do just that and that’s when I saw her body lying on the grass. I panicked OK! Real hard, so I ran to a phone and told the police that I found her dead, though I wasn’t sure of that. There was blood on her, so I did think she was dead.”
The area beneath the body
The only area in the entire garden which remains dry.
———
Story by Michael Recto
Idea by me
Images by me
JS by mysterynet
Actually this should be like see and solve, unfortunately i can’t make javascript work here.
How to play sudoku? August 19, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Puzzles.add a comment
Playing sudoku is easy. You just need a good logical head and the patience to finish the puzzle.
Your first question i suppose is, How is it played?
Sudoku is a 9×9 grid with 3×3 subgrids called regions.
The point of the game is fill all these blank grids with the numbers 1-9. There are three rules in doing so.
Rule 1: There should only be 1 number from 1-9 in each column.
Rule 2: There should only be 1 number from 1-9 in each row.
Rule 3: There should only be 1 number from 1-9 in each region.
Your next question would probably be, Is it hard?
Just like other puzzle games, there are some levels of difficulty in playing sudoku. Try the game with the easiest level first. I’m going to show you 2 basic tips.
Let’s use this image for the 1st tip.
• We want to find out where number 6 is located in the lower left region.
• Looking at the blue vertical arrow as guide, we see that since there is already a number 6 in the 1st column, the first column in the 3rd region shouldn’t have the number 6.
• Using another blue vertical arrow, we also see that since there is already a number 6 in the 2nd column, the second column in the 3rd region shouldn’t have the number 6 too.
• Now looking at the blue horizontal arrow, we see a number 6 in the last region meaning that 1st row in the lower left region shouldn’t have the number 6.
• This will give us only 1 blank space in the lower left region and this is gonna be where the number 6 is located.
So if we follow the same tip to find the location of another 6 this time in the right middle region, we now get the location of the number 6.
For the 2nd simple trick/tip. We now know the easiest level to find the location of a number. So what if we’re faced with 2 possible spaces for the location of the number? Look at this image.
In this image, we’re trying to find the location of number 7 in the right middle region. We have two possible place for it. In this instance, look at the other possible 7 in the vicinity.
• The gray squares represent the places where number 7 is not possible.
• If we look at the lower right region, the number 7 could only be located in the 2nd column.
• Since we can only have 1 number per column, that only means number 7 is not possible for the 2nd column in the right middle region.
• Which gives us the first block as the only place where number 7 is possible.
See! It is that easy to play. Now if you tire and you want to find the solution right away. Use this sudoku solver.
Mind you. Don’t use that all the time. You wont learn the tricks and trade of the game. ^_^
do u h8 me 4 dis? August 19, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Online.2 comments
y do ppl h8 8 wen i ryt dis way? u cn undrstnd me ryt? do i nid to rest8 wat i sed?
For people who live in a country where text-style way of writing is becoming popular, these sentences can be easily understood. Why do people hate it when i write this way? You can understand me right? Do i need to restate what i said? This is due to the fact that every text message sent costs one peso and that can only hold 160 characters. To be able to say everything at one text, people adapted this kind of texting. Unfortunately there are also some bad effects.
Text-style is growing outside of cell phones and we also find it online. Forums, IRC, instant messages and even chatboxes are full of exchanges in text-style. People seem to forget that a post in a forum does not have that 160-character limit.
The Philippines still has the highest English language proficiency in Asia but it is declining due to many reasons including this text style of messaging. Some of our kids now adapt to text style since they are being exposed to cell phones earlier than books. Spelling english words are sometimes being confused with the text style equivalent of the words. If this continues, come 10 years from now we may not be the country in Asia with the highest English language proficiency anymore.
Editing images online August 17, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Online.add a comment
When you’re in a computer shop and there’s no photoshop installed, then what’s the recourse? Go online of course!
For those PCs with java-capable browsers, these are nice:
http://www.fauxto.com/
> can have layerings. as in wow!
http://www.imageeditor.net/
> your usual normal image editing tool
http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
> where you can draw your image
http://www.izhuk.com/painter/
>paint-like site
I discovered these neat tools when i reformatted my computer due to a virus and i still have no photoshop installed in my PC.
If you don’t have java installed, don’t fret. We can still use these:
http://www.myimager.com/
> to edit images
http://snipshot.com/
> no plugin required but not really as extensive as other online imaging tools
http://pxn8.com/
> quite nice but not really my type
Relationships.. August 17, 2007
Posted by alhana in ~ Online, ~ Relationship.add a comment
Is online relationship counted as the real deal? Are online crushes counted as real ones? Can you totally say that you are not affected in real life by what is happening with your online relationships? I know i can’t. It is hard being cynical about it. I am not a damn robot and i was wrong to think that i can separate my real life and my virtual life.
I never had a boyfriend in real life. “Boo hoo”, “yeah right”, “stop being a bitch”, “act like a girl for crying out loud” and all other comments. Give me a comment and most probably i’ve heard it before. I used to think, what’s wrong with being single nowadays? Or for that matter, why do we need relationships for? To be committed to just one person. My friends who have boyfriends tried to explain to me the difference of having flings, MUs and having the real deal. I like flings. Been there done that little things. What do i need boyfriends for? If i want a date, it is easy to call someone up. If i want to kiss someone, then what the heck! Who’s stopping me? I never go beyond petting so i guess if that is what relationships are for… they are not for me.
After some time i started to think.. who am i fighting? I realized i am only fighting myself. I have never tried a relationship so i decided to join in the “bliss” they call love life. I want to experiment but I dont want to be a user. Being a user will not benefit me too since it will provide me a biased point of view. I decided to try having an online relationship. It can’t be that far from the real life one, can it? Mind you, it wasn’t easy for me. My 1st relationship ended a little more than a month after it started. We were friends to begin with and we are still friends now. I’m happy that i had the time to get to know him better. My 2nd relationship ended last week. I was the one who ended it. Long story but i think i made the right decision. I can’t say i loved them. I guess i still don’t know how to say if I really am in love. I do know i cared for them and i do hope that they reciprocated too.
Now what do i learn after going through hell and back? That was the right word to use.. hell. After my 1st relationship, i thought i am prepared the 2nd time… Wooot! Poor me.. i never learn. I think i will go back to my old me. The girl who used to go in and out of flings. The carefree girl who never had a boyfriend. Singlehood comments here i come again and i welcome you with arms open wide. It’s a good thing reality is very different from virtuality. You could be an introvert in real life and a total extrovert online. Lesson for me: Experiments are good but adventures are better. The next time i’m going to have a boyfriend, it is going to be the real adventure. Both online and offline. But first, i need to cut some slack. Go out again and meet some guys. Pick-up-lines never worked to get me before and i do believe it will still not work now even though my dating skills have become rusty.
I’ll stop this blog for now. Relationship is not really a picnic and soul searching has never been my cup of tea.
1st appeared in my nth blog on August 23, 2004
`Nuff to say that heartbreaks still hurt in real life much as it did online… being single is what i do best. I think.
Catherine
