The Year In Review: 2009

2009 began on a sour note. I was told to go on an indefinite leave because our client pulled out and the bosses were not able to find me a new one. Instead of waiting it out, I had the right mind to resign and take a much needed vacation. The months that followed were no good, I had no job, my funds are running out and I will confess, it was the lowest point of my career.

So after taking two solid months of introspection, I went looking for work. I found one soon enough but it was the second worst job I had (the first one was ABS, hehehe). Eventually, I had to throw in the towel and move on. I spent months looking for work. Going through the whole process of job hunting is especially difficult. There were times when I was  made to wait for hours,  asked all sorts of retarded questions and made to put up with other shit. It was hell, a complete shitstorm. And I'm well-aware that most of it was my fault, hehehehe.

Left with no choice, I settled to do home-based work. And not just any home-based work,  I went back writing porn. It was a humbling experience on my part because I vowed never to go back but I did. It didn't last for long though. The client had problems with us in terms of meeting the impossibly high quota so me and a friend of mine got axed unceremoniously.

Following a friend's advice, I posted my resume on a job seeker site and found me another client. Although we had a few problems at first, everything went okay. After five months and counting, I'd say he is the best boss ever. He is just awesome to work with. A few months later, I felt that I'm ready for a raket. I got my wish but I felt that I bit off more than I could chew. The guy I'm working with is making everything complicated for me. I tried to quit but was made to un-quit.

In between these months, MJ died, Farrah Fawcett died, Corazon Aquino died, Patrick Swayze died, Brittany Murphy died, Joe Christ died, my social life died, many Filipinos died, saw amazing acts of selflessness, lived to see the worst election-related crime in the history of the Philippines, witnessed a hero, I bought two laptops, got my passport, saw two of my closest friends leave the Philippines for good, became an aunt to Dimitri and became a registered voter.

Currently, my professional life is okay. It could be better, but I'm okay with being "okay". Okay is better than shitstorm. I'm at the point of my life where I'm catching my breath and making bwelo for the new year. Who knows? Maybe 2010 is going to be my year. Yes, my optimism is unwavering, amazing, no? No, really, I expect big things next year.

As this year comes to a close, I will look back and remember it as the worst year of my life. My life was in shambles, bad news everywhere and I lost touch with friends. It was a year full of challenges, problems, death, unemployment and bitterness. But the important thing is that it's over.

I'm moving forward :)

2010 will come rolling in. Hopefully, this new year will be better for every person who had the same experience and heal people who lost a wife, a husband, a sister, a brother, a friend, or a job in 2009.

Cheers!

Cat Litter

I was never a cat person. Never a dog person and will never be a hamster/guinea pig/white mice person. I hate pets not because they suck, I just don't like the responsibility that comes with it. Plus, I hate touching dirty things which is why I'll never be a good heir to our family business. Ooops, I digress.

My sister left her cat, Dimitri, under my care for a week. So obviously it's been a busy week. Did I mention I get into violent fits of snizzies every time a cat gets near enough? So there, most of the time I'm either popping pills or sneezing my brains out. It's too bad I'm so allergic to cats because Dimitri is sooo cute and cuddlyriffic!

Lookat him! Lookat him! Looook!

Fattest Hottest Russian Blue, ever!

I literally spent most of my time giving baths to an unwilling subject or scooping cat shit. Cleaning the litter box is just godawful. Personally, this is what hell would be like for me, cleaning litter box full of cat shit. Being a naturally madidirihin person, I could not understand why cat piss smells godawful. Is it sulphur? Is it amonia? I fucking don't get what's in it that makes my eyes water every time I accidentally get a whiff. I cleaned Di's litter box which reeks so bad, it could sober up three tranquilized elephants. No wait, it reeks so bad, it would make Satan himself recoil in disgust. I'm pretty convinced the CIA could use cat piss as an interrogation tool.

Heck, I was scooping cat shit and piss for only a couple of minutes and I was like "God, just kill me. Right here. Do it, I won't mind. They can all go to hell."

But things are not so bad after that. He is such a doll. He just sits there, stares at you accusingly and play with glass marbles all day. By the way, his fur literally turns buttery soft after a good bath... which he hates. He licks his fur till it's back to its old sticky self.

Lumix

I'm shopping for a new camera. I don't want those ridiculously expensive DSLR hybrids that everyone kept raving/ about/buying. I just need a straightforward point-and shoot camera, preferably those from the Panasonic Lumix line. This camera right here, is something I want.

I like those with bigass lenses because I kinda think it makes them look a bit vintage-y. You know I love the classics. Though I initially wanted this looker, I did say I had a bad experience with Canon so my sister suggested that we buy something from the Lumix line instead. So there. Here's me making another round of non-stop ipon.

Sweet!

Best news, Ever!

Sopla!

I WANT!!!

Even though I had a not-so-pleasant experince with Canon, I want this for Christmas. Except Christmas came in early for me. Freakin' thing is even more expensive than a netbook, huhuh! Why, God, Why?!

Hahaha!

Ambot sa EMO

Yun lang!

I Concur.

"Wouldn't it be much better to die?!"

-Conan O'Brien, after learning Bear Grylls had to squeeze water out of fresh elephant dung to survive the wild

HK-Bound

Was just done with my own Christmas shopping (BTW, I apologize for the outburst. Sometimes Christmas is hard on everyone). I think it's safe to say I've outdone myself this year and that's saying a lot since I almost depleted my savings last year, hahaha! I'm very excited not only because of the whole gift-giving thing, I will be HK-bound in February.

Peking ducks beware, my sister and I will be coming.

Prepare for annihilation!

Yes, I'm extremely excited as this is the first time that I will be traveling overseas. My sister's years of relentless nagging finally paid off. I finally hauled my ass back to the city to process my passport application. Obviously I just got it the other day and I'm pretty much stoked about going away for a break :)

So far my sister and I are sifting through various hostel and travel tour websites. Most are quite pricey but well... that's life.

2010 will be epic, woohoo!

What The Morning Mail Brought

The Christmas That Was

Every year, I get the worst gifts from my cousins. I'm not really the kind to be overly critical when it comes to the gifts that I receive but getting a domino pen holder bought from Divi or a box of second-hand books by authors I never even heard of from maarte yet cheapass cousins when you're already 25 is offending. I mean I'm fine with cheap gift as long as the item is freakin' meaningful, something that I can actually use.

A freakin' pen holder? Hands-me-down books?

Seriously?!

Of course, me and my sister could always return the favor but we can't bring ourselves to give them paperclips for Christmas. It just wouldn't be right.

Love letter in my inbox

Gross me out, why dontcha?

Chicken Breast In Sweet Chili Sauce

What’s in it:

Salt and pepper to taste

Butter and oil

1 clove of garlic chopped

1 clove of onion chopped

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

¼ cup sweet chili sauce

How to Cook:

1) Put on great music to set the mood. I listened to the Beatles when I cooked this.

2) Sauté garlic in oil and butter.

3) Add onion when garlic turns brown

4) Add chicken strips

5) Stir and stir; briskness depending on your hunger pangs

6) Lower the heat and cook for approximately 10 minutes

7) Season with salt and pepper

8) Serve with a generous helping of fried rice

Taste Test:

I was expecting this dish to taste godawful, the presentation didn’t help matters. Of course, the taste wasn’t that bad though it wasn’t life-changing either. It could use more salt and the dish turned more sweet than spicy, which I hate. I overcooked the chicken (cooked mine for about 15 minutes) so it was leaning towards the rubbery side.

Overall, it’s a definite must for people who are desperate enough to eat anything fairly edible.

How’d I do:

On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest I’d say 1.5. I get bonus points for cooking and actually eating this shit.

Un-quit

I had quite a day. I told raket guy that I will be quitting, something that I have been thinking about for the past few days. The final straw was when he was making me do a webmaster's job when clearly, I've no fricken' clue what to do.My latest project involves transferring an entire website to a new web host. To a webmaster, that's probably easy-peasy.

Well I ain't a webmaster. How the hell am I suppose to do this shit?

Now, as much as I appreciate the fact that he has high expectations from me and stuff, I draw the line when I'm messing with live websites. Who's to know what's going to happen if I pushed the wrong button? It would've helped if anyone from the team were giving me precise instructions on the how-to's but there's no one helping.My gosh, they expect someone totally not qualified to do this shit and they're not be afraid of what might happen?

It got to a point where in my desperation, I had to consult a friend about it (incidentally, he is the one who created this website and took care of the hosting thing: Hi Bry!) unfortunately, even after all the blah blah blah I still couldn't understand a thing he's saying. That made me angry. Not at him, at the realization that I have bitten off more than I could chew. I told myself all the days of contemplation will end tomorrow morning.

The minute I woke up, I talked to raket guy. I started off with a lengthy speech explaining, in detail, why I refuse to go through the project, well aware that all the while I sounded like I'm PMS-ing. Then I told him point blank that I'm quitting. 'Course he asked why and I took that opportunity to speak candidly about how vague his instructions were, how crippling the quota is and how I was made to do things that was not part of our initial agreement. Note that when this happened, I wasn't paid for the three weeks that I worked for him. I just didn't care, hahaha!

I thought the fact that he is hiring another writer meant I'll easily be let go but that's not what happened. He convinced me to stay with a pact that in the event that I do not like the project given to me, I could freely tell him to "shove the to-do list up to where the sun don't shine."Also, he promised that he will lay off the technical stuff, which I appreciate.

So to cut the long story short, I un-quit myself. Because I'm a worm. Well, that and I felt bad about my outburst. Let's see if he's going to hold his end of the bargain.