Monday, June 20, 2011
A Pleasant Idleness
Good morning, love! :) (@Pinecrest village, Tagaytay Highlands)
Wake up,
See through the clouds.
Feel the coldness,
Feed on the warmth.
Kiss the sun goodbye.
Waking up to a foggy Sunday morning and to this beautiful view right outside our cabin's porch. A 2-day vacation without any plans- no wake up call, no scheduled activity. Nothing.
When your world usually spins round at double speed, it is, certainly, sweet to be doing nothing once in a while. And the Tagaytay weather sure did spoil us a little bit more.
I love weekends with family.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Love the game, not the player
I am a weird basketball fan. I do not have a favorite team in any league other than the UAAP only because it feels too weird to cheer for any color other than my school’s. But when it comes to other leagues, such as NBA and PBA, I am just never loyal to a single team. Most times I catch the game on TV and pick the team I’ll cheer for right there, celebrate/mourn for a few minutes depending on the result and move on to the next game afterwards.
In the recent NBA finals, I took the side of Dallas. I just hate James’ guts, I guess. Basketball is a team sport, so any player who doesn’t give importance to team loyalty can never be a great player in my eyes. He may possess all the skills, yes, but he’ll never have the heart of a genuine superstar. And in basketball, the toughest games are decided by that: the heart. So, I was cheering for Dallas the entire NBA Finals. I badly wanted a ring for Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. I’ve been watching them for years and I’m tired of seeing their names under “The greatest players who never won a championship”. God forbid they be another Karl Malone and John Stockton who were unbelievably good players born in the wrong Era. Michael Jordan’s Era, that is.
I could never count how many times I’ve clicked the ‘refresh’ button to see the latest score in the NBA website. Games were played in the morning so, as expected, I was stuck in the office and couldn’t watch it live. However, I never missed a replay- from start to finish. I knew beforehand who won but it wasn’t merely about winning. Knowing who won is different from seeing who played better. I witnessed how Dallas made the greatest comeback from a 15 point- deficit. I saw how scared Lebron looked in the last quarter of every game. Or was that his default game face? I was amazed by Barea’s skills and bet on his immense potential. Who said a small guy has no place in basketball? He stands at 5’9” but was able to get an offensive foul against a giant like Lebron James in Game 6! And what about Terry. He sure is happy he didn’t have to get that tattoo removed. They succeeded, after all. Dallas got their very first championship.
In the recent NBA finals, I took the side of Dallas. I just hate James’ guts, I guess. Basketball is a team sport, so any player who doesn’t give importance to team loyalty can never be a great player in my eyes. He may possess all the skills, yes, but he’ll never have the heart of a genuine superstar. And in basketball, the toughest games are decided by that: the heart. So, I was cheering for Dallas the entire NBA Finals. I badly wanted a ring for Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. I’ve been watching them for years and I’m tired of seeing their names under “The greatest players who never won a championship”. God forbid they be another Karl Malone and John Stockton who were unbelievably good players born in the wrong Era. Michael Jordan’s Era, that is.
I could never count how many times I’ve clicked the ‘refresh’ button to see the latest score in the NBA website. Games were played in the morning so, as expected, I was stuck in the office and couldn’t watch it live. However, I never missed a replay- from start to finish. I knew beforehand who won but it wasn’t merely about winning. Knowing who won is different from seeing who played better. I witnessed how Dallas made the greatest comeback from a 15 point- deficit. I saw how scared Lebron looked in the last quarter of every game. Or was that his default game face? I was amazed by Barea’s skills and bet on his immense potential. Who said a small guy has no place in basketball? He stands at 5’9” but was able to get an offensive foul against a giant like Lebron James in Game 6! And what about Terry. He sure is happy he didn’t have to get that tattoo removed. They succeeded, after all. Dallas got their very first championship.
"We had no champions on this team," Mavs center Tyson Chandler said. "And we walked away with a team full of champions."
So the season is now over. I’ll be waiting for the next one, pick a team to cheer for and do the drill all over again.
I am not like most basketball fans, you see. Because I am exactly, plainly that: a basketball fan. Not a Dallas fan or Celtics fan or any other team’s fan. I love the sport, itself. I don’t get satisfied knowing who won or who made the biggest numbers. I watch the game- from tip off up to the last seconds. I even almost missed an exam in grade school because of a Chicago- Utah finals game. Looking back, I can’t even remember who I wanted to win that time.
Anyway, if you think being a basketball fan without a basketball team is weird, then, by all means, feel free to call me weird.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Trust me, kid
It is hiring season once again, and even though the number of target hires is not as many compared to that during October, recruitment is still recruitment and I encounter the same stressful scenarios, such as:
1. Being mistakenly identified as an HR staff
2. Having to text so many faceless people and encourage them to join the firm
3. Overriding HR procedures just so we can hire the best people for TROG (tax department)
4. Begging for managers to allot a couple of their precious minutes to interview applicants
5. Relying on ‘first impressions’ and pure intuition when profiling applicants, which is totally not easy!
6. Having to answer personal questions, sometimes relevant, a few times totally not. But I have to answer them anyway because being KIND and APPROCHABLE is kind of in the job description.
And so on and so forth… The list can never get too long, really! But even so, I volunteer to do this- well, actually, I was handpicked to be trained to do this, but then I can back out anytime since I’m not formally a part of the HR team- and willingly subject myself to avoidable stress. And for what?
For the glimpse of my old, idealistic self that I get in practically every applicant I encounter…
For the opportunity of hearing shrieks of pure joy when I get to spill the big news that he/she made it and is now a CPA…
For the many different personalities I encounter, not just of applicants but also of managers, that, at times, tests my patience but gives me a sense of fulfillment every time I decide on being the bigger person and act more maturely…
For the semi-break I get from all the tax reports and queries from clients; it’s a breath of fresh air…
For that fraction of influence I am able to pass on to these kids that may help them in facing the very first decision they will make in the real world…
Sometimes it gets too tiring, what with all the pressure from the big bosses and the raised eyebrows from “real” HR staffs. But whenever I get a text message from an applicant asking for advice, for a personal opinion on picking his/her first job, it reminds me of why I took on this role in the first place. I was once a clueless fresh graduate who had a pretty long list of what I wanted to do in life. I didn’t know where to start; I had no idea how to get to where I wanted to be in 5 years. If not for the strangers (who are now friends and mentors) who patiently gave sincere points of view that helped me made a decision, I probably wouldn’t have made one and just went with the popular choice among my batchmates.
I’m not saying the opinions I got led me to my decision, in the same way I’m not assuming the opinions I gave could seal any applicant’s choice. The bottomline is, every person out there, as clueless as they can be, already has an idea or an inclination towards a career path. For the most part, what one needs is encouragement and a little assurance that it’s okay to make that choice; what they need is a sort of go signal from a person in the real world they can trust. So if, even in the smallest measure, I am able to provide that kind of unassertive guidance to a lone clueless soul, it would definitely make all these extra work worth it. :)
1. Being mistakenly identified as an HR staff
2. Having to text so many faceless people and encourage them to join the firm
3. Overriding HR procedures just so we can hire the best people for TROG (tax department)
4. Begging for managers to allot a couple of their precious minutes to interview applicants
5. Relying on ‘first impressions’ and pure intuition when profiling applicants, which is totally not easy!
6. Having to answer personal questions, sometimes relevant, a few times totally not. But I have to answer them anyway because being KIND and APPROCHABLE is kind of in the job description.
And so on and so forth… The list can never get too long, really! But even so, I volunteer to do this- well, actually, I was handpicked to be trained to do this, but then I can back out anytime since I’m not formally a part of the HR team- and willingly subject myself to avoidable stress. And for what?
For the glimpse of my old, idealistic self that I get in practically every applicant I encounter…
For the opportunity of hearing shrieks of pure joy when I get to spill the big news that he/she made it and is now a CPA…
For the many different personalities I encounter, not just of applicants but also of managers, that, at times, tests my patience but gives me a sense of fulfillment every time I decide on being the bigger person and act more maturely…
For the semi-break I get from all the tax reports and queries from clients; it’s a breath of fresh air…
For that fraction of influence I am able to pass on to these kids that may help them in facing the very first decision they will make in the real world…
Sometimes it gets too tiring, what with all the pressure from the big bosses and the raised eyebrows from “real” HR staffs. But whenever I get a text message from an applicant asking for advice, for a personal opinion on picking his/her first job, it reminds me of why I took on this role in the first place. I was once a clueless fresh graduate who had a pretty long list of what I wanted to do in life. I didn’t know where to start; I had no idea how to get to where I wanted to be in 5 years. If not for the strangers (who are now friends and mentors) who patiently gave sincere points of view that helped me made a decision, I probably wouldn’t have made one and just went with the popular choice among my batchmates.
I’m not saying the opinions I got led me to my decision, in the same way I’m not assuming the opinions I gave could seal any applicant’s choice. The bottomline is, every person out there, as clueless as they can be, already has an idea or an inclination towards a career path. For the most part, what one needs is encouragement and a little assurance that it’s okay to make that choice; what they need is a sort of go signal from a person in the real world they can trust. So if, even in the smallest measure, I am able to provide that kind of unassertive guidance to a lone clueless soul, it would definitely make all these extra work worth it. :)
Do something that scares you
People, meet the newest and sickest ride in Enchanted Kingdom called EKstreme Tower. There is a similar ride in Ocean Park (Hong Kong), The Abyss, that basically scared the hell out of me- just by watching other people who buckled up their crazy assess in it scream like crazy. So, while in line, at the last minute, I chickened out. Friends and boyfriend went for it while I stayed behind as the lame photographer. When I saw this ride in EK I just told myself, "Not again". I bought the ticket, went for it, buckled myself, stomached the effin' free fall and got off with a brave heart!
Really, some things in life you don't have to think over. You just have to do it. It sure felt awesome.
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