office life starts

I started my first job just this Monday. I'm in a multinational financial services firm, in research. I love my teammates! I can't say that I'm loving my job right away, since it's only our orientation and training period. But I think I'll have a good time here. Come on, if it's in this list, then it has to give me a very good time!

anyone want to take a guess which famous office is this?
you get a treat! you can get a postcard from me haha!

Aside from being part of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For, at least in our office location, the company also has a good density of good looking guys per square office area. We occupy some 4 floors from the building, and every floor I'm in, I see a good selection of office eye candies. Props to the guys in the HR!

Well, even if I am already feeling better, when I got discharged from the hospital last week, the doctor still prescribed me to take paracetamol until this Friday. And because I'm still taking Zoloft, I've been sleepy most of the day and obviously it's not good especially when you're on your first days at work. But good thing there are things rather persons that inspire yours truly in the office to be more alert. It's also a good thing that today, November 30, is a national holiday, a good day to keep up with lost hours from sleep from being a bum to a whatever-colored collared guy that I am now.

Now that I have work, what about my love life? Although I'm not rushing, but like what Freud said, "Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness." Whatever. He's just out there. Somewhere. Maybe opposite my desk. lol

Something to thank for

Because I just got out of the hospital yesterday, and I can still feel the IV needle as if it's still inside my skin, I realize that most of the time we just take our health for granted.

Last Sunday, I was admitted to the hospital because of continuous high fever. It started Thursday night, like a thief in the night. I couldn't breathe well, and my body started to ache so bad I couldn't move comfortably. The culprit, Dengue. I could have died! A patient in a neighboring room in the hospital died because of complications from the virus.

It was really hell that I felt.

Never again. Unfortunately, survival from the virus doesn't mean immunity to next infections. What only I could do is to be cautious.

realizations, pt. 2

Today while riding the bus going home after a successful job interview (I'll be starting work on the 28th), I suddenly remembered my first one night stand experience. I was at Beijing that time for a conference, and it happened the night before my flight back to Manila. For my naive 19 year old self that time, it did create a lot of dramatic thoughts in my head, and uh, heart(?). I've never slept with someone that I've not been with a relationship before that, and it took me a month to get over the fact that it was all just sex. And the person was in a relationship, and he cheated with me.

Well who would have thought that after that happened, I'm still the same person. Sex is still sacred. But sometimes when you're just too horny to remember your principles, you don't know.

There's a thin line that separates animals and humans. Animals will do everything to survive. Humans are also animals, but have civilized manners, morals, values and principles. When you're horny and really decided to have sex, you won't really think about manners and principles. We all know that we don't have those in bed.

lusting for grad school

I'd really like to study again. It's been only almost 5 months since I got out of college, but I already miss studying. Honestly, I wasn't really the very hardworking and smart student. Maybe I was, in some degree, and in some of my specializations. However, generally speaking, I was just an average student who enjoyed occasional merits.

Yesterday, a friend and I went to this international graduate school tour that was held in a hotel somewhere in Makati. We were a bit late, because my friend, a girl, wanted to look at her best. Perhaps she thought she could be accepted on the spot. The registration started at 12.30 and we arrived after 13.00 when the first seminar already started. We only got to the part where it was question and answer. I'm a big question-thrower. I always believe that if you don't ask questions, you won't have answers. Also, I'm not a cat to get killed from curiosity. So I did ask a question, more of everyone can relate to: "We all know here that Filipino students' pockets aren't as deep and wide as the students from your localities. I would just like to ask if there are special mechanisms or programs your institutions have to provide support for students struggling to cope up with the higher costs of living in your countries? And also, please enlighten us the laws of your countries regarding students who want to work. Thank you and I hope you'll enjoy your stay here in our country."


I mean, that's the reality. A lot of us want to study abroad because of the better prospects we can foresee on the other end, and the better opportunities that await us when we return as employers in this country are big fans of foreign degrees.

The seminar panel members had a difficult time answering the question that it took 15 minutes for them to answer it. I mean like come on, did they expect someone to ask about their countries' policies? But even if it took time, they still managed to answer in line with few segues.

Soon, the questions just became tougher to answer. As if we were in 'Jeopardy' playing a game of giving the best questions as answers. This is what I hate in seminars, when people who try to appear intellectual ask questions to appear to the audience that they actually have minds in their brains.

Anyway, I did something naughty yesterday. I was having a wonderful time talking with one of the British university admissions advisers when he had to excuse himself as he had noticed that the queue behind me had snaked so long. He just asked me to sign this paper to keep contact with their admissions office and gave me two name cards. One from the school and the other was a personal one, which got me confused. So I told him he might have mistaken giving me two cards, which he immediately responded 'no' and winked. With overt reasons, the other one's for a different purpose. How bellend-like and how kinky. Well, fine he was .

Since it was Guy Fawkes last night, a 'weekend friend' of mine invited me to join this themed party at some British pub. Because I had nothing to do and also no one to come with, and because this 'weekend friend' isn't single and so are most of his crowd, I decided to give the Brit him a call on his hotel room.  And he was free. Guy Fawkes at the pub was cool and he actually had some attention and participated a lot, and drank a lot like his countrymen. Later that night, we didn't burn a 'Guy', but his bed felt like it was burning. 

I like smexy guys. Smart and sexy. Before I left him, we talked more about each other. He studied in LSE and played lacrosse and water polo for a team. Blah blah blah. But whatever it was, it was just one night. But he was a bona omi, and I'd do him again if he'd like to. I don't know it's just me, but I felt that we had some sort of connection, other than physically/sexually. He added me on Facebook. Nice. I hope I passed the first screening for my master's.

It's funny that I've been quite 'active in bed' since September. Just in time when the weather gets a little nippy. And also just when I started taking my psycho meds again. Who says psycho drugs can lessen your sexual drive? Whatever.

* a weekend friend is a friend you associate with only because he/she turns out to be efficient during weekends when you want to drink, party, for free
** a bona omi is a good looking lad in Polari

Undas 2011

Because it was a long weekend in the Philippines, due to November 1 and 2 being on a Monday and Tuesday, my parents decided to spend the weekend at our summer house 2 hours south from the city in Tagaytay. The weather was crisp and pleasant, but it was really cold at night. The sky was also low, that visibility was low as well. 

you can even still see the city from our lanai

We only decided to head back to the city on the last day of the Days of the Dead, which was awhile ago (I'm writing to you at midnight), as we knew the crowds in the cemeteries and traffic on the streets would swell down during this day, which proved to be true. My parents did their thing, ancestor worship, while I did my own version. 

this is my lolo's grave. in Filipino, we call our grandfathers 'lolo'
he's my dad's dad

Aside from giving him flowers and lighting him candles, since my lolo loved eating french fries from Jollibee, a Filipino fastfood chain, we decided to give him some.

And me, I just lay/sat on the grass feeling the earth move and enjoying the quiet of the cemetery.