sunshinysarcasm's friends

1:27PM - Those were the good years.

Mimayhad posted a note on Facebook, part of which had her reminiscingDecember of 2005. As our comments piled up, we started looking back at2005 and even as far as 2004, back when we had met.

My goodness, another walk down memory lane. And it all began with asimple quip, ahaha. Mimay had said na ang sama ko pa raw back in 2004.Not that I was rude to them. I was always acting ever so formal as theplay's stage manager and co-producer. I guess it was part of what I hadcalled "professional detachment." They even called me "conyo" and probably even "burgis" because I almost always spoke to them in English. But it cannot be helped. Hahaha, I even had a trademark "Heya!" at the beginning of every text message I sent to them.

Eventually I had forgotten all that crap about detachment as the playhad progressed. When the play closed, I realized that I had fallen inlove with each of the cast. I had looked forward to every eveningrehearsal and got so used to it that I had those withdrawal symptomsthat I had expected. I got daily missed calls and "San kayo?" messages from Nicco. I started feeling at home in Drei and Miko's condo. Mimay still made aneffort to visit us all the way from QC after disappearing for a while(typical Mims, hahaha). Nikki, Mish and I became inseparable (even nowwith Nix, and before Misch left for the US). Rain and I becamemore than just mere acquaintances, classmates and thesis mates. Are-staging was even produced and everyone was more than willing to help.

Hogi: shet, nakakamiss yung mga araw na yun ah
Mimay: yeah
Mimay: ccp made everything happen for me
Mimay: i mean, had i not met arvin nong workshop, hindi ako makakajoseph
Mimay: hindi rin ako magnonoli
Mimay: hindi rin ako magwoworkshop ng tatlong taon
Hogi: hahaha
Hogi: buti na lang ccp ang pinuntahan mo
Mimay: parang si TIN
Hogi: dahil diyan, dun din ako nakapunta
Mimay: yeah, kasi gusto kong maexperience ung ccp e
Mimay: sinearch ko lang online, tas nakita ko tanghalang pilipino
Mimay: kakatuwa
Hogi: naks
Mimay: kakatuwa
Mimay: noh?
Hogi: oo, sobra
Mimay: kasi kung di ako pumunta ccp, di ko kayo makikilala
Hogi: korek
Mimay: di rin namin kayo makukwentuhan kung gano kasaya sa ccp
Mimay: hahahaha
Hogi: di nabuo ang thesis ko ng mga kengkoy na tao
Mimay: yeah

Had I not met some of the people in this crowd, I wouldn't have foundout about Tanghalang Pilipino's workshops. That triggered anothermemory. In 2005, Mimay took another workshop in TP, and eventually got casted in Noli Me Tangere. (*insert stabbing guilt here because I never got to watch it*)

The following year, Nicco and I ended up taking TP's acting workshopwith Mimay, Betty, Tin, and the rest. Nicco got accepted as a scholarfor TP Actors Company. Betty and I had our crazy share of "Batman andRobin" stories. Sadly, it was the same year Tin lost her mom. Yet, moreadventures began. My love affair for acting resumed.

To quote Mimay, "the best years of my life." Couldn't have said it better myself. Grabe, Mimay, malayo ang post mo sa entry na ito, but napa-reminisce ako, hahaha. Senti mode.

I wonder how everyone else is. Ikaw, kamusta ka na?

12:24PM - Walking to the studio can be hazardous, haha.

I decided to walk all the way to the music studio from my house latethis afternoon. Haha, my mom had actually noticed that I was gainingweight, so it must be really bad that I really need more exercise. Soanyway. Of course, this means having to walk along 2 of our village'smain streets that have the worst traffic because of all the schoolsalong those streets. Wearing my new glasses, I realized that it waspretty dangerous walking along the side of the street where thevehicles go in the same direction. My glasses had pretty thick sidesthat blinded half my peripheral vision. So for 15 minutes, I had tododge kids running the opposite direction, plus several motorcyclestrying to overtake all the bigger vehicles. Wah. Note to self, wearcontacts or old pair of glasses the next time I walk to the studio.

Like I had talked about with Betty yesterday, it's always learning andunlearning. Dami pa rin talaga akong sakit. But one thing I didn'texpect was that I'd actually eat a piece of candy (chocolate, no less)while we did solfege. Hahaha. In fairness, it actually worked.

1:04AM - Phenomenon

She graces the sky with her luminescence
Demands your attention as you gaze
Worship her beauty, her escort
And father, Zeus

His power seems to fade
Beside his daughter that sprung from the sea
Mindless of the wrath of Hera
That might be lurking in the dark

Heeding her father’s call
Mighty Diana, the huntress in the night
Watching over the secret affair
Until her brother Apollo takes over

Standing by each other
Shameless in sin
Ignoring karma

5:05PM - Not my cup of tea - A review of Twilight

Matagal ko na naririnig ang tungkol sa Twilight. Kesyo this is the hottest book since Harry Potter na katatapos lang last year. Di na witches and wizard ang characters but a hot cold-skinned vampire. Mabilis na nauubos ang copies from the shelves kaya sure-winner ito pag ina-adapt sa film. Di nga nagtagal at binili na ang rights and now it is a box office hit.

I haven’t read a word from the book but since palabas na sya last Wednesday so go and watch kami last Sunday. Gusto rin mapanood ng Monica, my sister, so sinama na namin siya ni Arlo. Di ko kasi siya napanood ng High School Musical kaya hinayaan ko na syang manood ng Twilight. Tapos sinabi pa niya na required daw sila to watch it on their English class. They have to compare it with Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire.

Twilight pales in comparison with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (no pun intended), but we cannot deny its popularity with the teens. It’s the first in a series of books so the author was still introducing and building the characters. Nabagalan lang talaga ako at naantok ako sa ilang parts. Di ko naman na experience yung lull na yun while watching the first parts na Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

Alam ko with vegetarian people, they need to take supplements kasi they miss some key nutrients from not eating meat. Ganun din ang naisip ko with the vampires pero it’s different with Twilight. I don’t understand how Edward and his clan easily killed a vampire who doesn’t deprive himself with human blood.

I know that vampires are beautiful pero di ko na realize na aside from having very fair skin eh may naka-implant palang mga swarovski crystals sa mga balat nila. Gawa kaya ito ng special diamond peel they undergo with a vampire Vicky Belo? Hehehe.

Di naman ako masyadong na-impress with the movie. Ibig sabihin ba nito ay matanda na ako kasi pang teenagers ang target market ng fim noir na ito? Di ko matanggap! Hindi!!!!

6:24PM - Twilight

Almost everybody has the idea that Twilight is an adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's four-series book.

Haven't read any of her books (as I never had the time to do that) so I couldn't really compare in full detail about the difference of the film from the novel.

Twilight has that interesting appeal for more female than male audiences. It's not your typical action-slash-violent vampire film (ala Van Helsing, Underworld) instead, it quietly unfolds the romance of regular high school introverted Bella Swan and the mysterious vampire Edward Collins.

Audience would have to sit for the next couple of minutes waiting for something climactic to happen as the movie would focus on the girl-meets-boy drama. Until Edward first demonstrates his supernatural abilities to save Bella from a vehicular accident.

From then on, Bella would realize the complications of knowing who Edward really is and the decision of accepting it all (cliche as this would sound) against all odds.

All main characters in the movie were made to interest the movie-goers, them with the fashionista wardrobe and the projected cool demeanor. In terms of acting, more is needed from Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Couldn't really feel her emotions and I am kind of hoping that Pattinson's going to be lethally-intimidating as Edward Collins ...if you know what I mean.

There were good picturesque scenes, clever modern cum witty dialogues.

Not that bad for the first movie ...they could do better with the second one.

10:40AM - Quotes. On acting.

Got this from the book that Betty's reading. Some quotable quotes from the book "Audition" by Michael Shurtleff.

- To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum.Anyone may apply, but only the certifiably insane are admitted.

- It’s filled with ironies, the profession of acting. Most people gointo acting to get out of themselves, to get away from their everydayhumdrum selves and become someone else who is glamorous, romantic,unusual, different. And what does acting turn out to be? Using your ownself. Working from what’s inside you. Not being someone else, but beingyou in different situations and contexts. Not escaping you, but usingyourself naked and exposed up there on the stage or the silver screen.

- There’s only one person like you in the entire world. Trust yourself to use that with truth and imagination.

- As soon as an actor puts such a limitation on his work, he’s beingless than himself, imprisoned in a straitjacket of don’ts. With solittle freedom to feel, how can an actor give a good audition? Putaside the limitations that instant characterizations inevitablyinstill; allow anything to be possible; make choices that give you themaximum possible involvement.

- There are two important physical aspects of readings that actors tend to forget: being seen and being heard.

- What do the auditors expect from a reading? An opening nightperformance. That’s all. Directors and producers will deny this, ofcourse.

- Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential.

- Until you expand your concept of what love is to include the variouspeculiar and perverse forms it can take in human relationships, you’regoing to have a hard time as an actor finding an emotional commitmentto the scenes you’re trying to act.

- The desire for love, to give it or receive it, and preferably bothand simultaneously, is the chief propellant in human beings. An actorhad best learn that love comes in all forms, and in many more formsthan only those he himself admires.

- An actor must make the most active choice possible for every scene.

- An actor is looking for conflict. Conflict is what creates drama.Plays are not written about our everyday lives or the moments of peaceand placidity but about the extraordinary, the unusual, the climaxes.

- Maximum conflict is what you should be looking for.

- That’s why there’s so little romance in our world now: everyonethinks romance is weak. Yet romance is everyone’s secret dream – it’swhy we’re alive. Never distrust romance; nothing could be stronger.

- We never knew for sure what you might do next. I think that makes acting most interesting.

- Humor is a relaxation to me. It means you stop for a minute to seehow ridiculous you are or she is, how absurd this situation we’ve gotourselves into.

- But refusing to use your imagination isn’t dealing with the problem.It’s being defeatist; it’s limiting you in ways you don’t need to belimited.

- Attractions to someone don’t get “used up” – not if they are love,not if they are needful, not if they are emotional rather than justsexual. Attractions that are emotional grow.

- There are opposites in every scene. The actor may have to dig forthem, for the playwright may well have implied them under the surfaceof the character and not have written them into the dialogue at all;but they are always there for the digging. They are well worth diggingfor; they result in the most interesting kind of acting: the complex.

- Actors need to work from real-life situations, not literary orcharacter concepts. Most often the discoveries aren’t written on thesurface of the script; the actor has to dig in the subtext to findthem. They come out of the actor’s own life questions.

- Acting is supremely a task of communication. It is not enough for theactor to feel, if that feeling is not being communicated.

- The most successful actors are those who are able to project whatthey are feeling to someone else. This sending of feeling to anotherperson becomes so strong that it is projected to an audience.

- Plays are not concerned with this everyday behavior of ours, but withthe unusual moments in a person’s life when his need to communicate isat its greatest. These are the needs the actor must furnish.

- Receiving the feelings of another is even harder than sending outfeelings of your own. It requires sensitivity, a heightened awarenessof another person. It requires the investment of real caring; otherwisewhy will you undertake thee formidable task of opening yourself up totrue communication?

- Receiving requires that we be open, willing. How can we receive it weare closed up? Being open is an act of both generosity and selfishness:generous in opening yourself up to receive another’s needs; selfish inthe greed of wanting to know another person, for there is power inknowing another.

- There are occasions when we need to know another person, where it is difficult for us to live unless we do know them.

- Unselfish motivations lead to passive, saintly, and very dull acting.

- Communication is the desire to change the person to whom you are communicating.

- No one wants to admit he is competitive in human relationships oflove and friendship. But without competition between the characters,drama is dull indeed, since it feeds on conflict and dies withagreement.

- I hammer away at it: an actor must compete, or die.

- Plays are written about the most important moments in people’s lives,not about their everyday humdrumness. If they featured the humdrum, whowould leave home to go see a play?

- People live for their dreams, not for the oppressiveness of truths.

- The truth is not enough for a play unless it is invested with sufficient emotion to make it important.

- Peacefulness and the avoidance of trouble won’t help him in his acting. It is just the opposite he must seek.

- The truth we seek in acting must be a highly selective truth, not an everyday, ordinary household variety.

- What an actor must look for in a play is something unusual. Something important.

- Important does not necessarily mean significant to others. It meansemotionally important to you at this moment. We make trivial thingsimportant to us at the moment, even if a day later we will haveforgotten them. Important things are made even more important to us.

- Make the stakes in each scene as high as you can. Look for themaximum importance. Add importance. If you don’t, no one will belistening to you.

- Every play is about love. Sometimes it’s about hate, which is thereverse. Hate happens when a person is deprived of love. That’s why youhate your mother; you never had love from anyone. The more you aredeprived of love, the more you are in need of it.

- A play must move, it must progress, it cannot stand still. Eventsmake a play progress; character or behavior alone will not do that.Something has to happen to move the narrative forward.

- Clearly, actions are always more interesting than mere talk.

- The immediate reality of a bare stage is a real down; an actor would do well to lift himself up, with a place of his own.

- Since an actor is free to choose any place he wishes in which to dohis reading – for it is he who provides the place in his imagination –it would be wisest for him to choose a place he knows well.

- Install a lover, and when he leaves, you’ll hate the place you likedbefore. All the same place, but how you feel about it changes dependingon the emotional events that take place there.

- Once you have chosen the place, once you see it clearly in physicalterms, then you must look for how you feel about it. The feeling ismost important. That is what will elevate your use of place intoemotional value.

- You played your judgment of a nun. That isn’t going to help me givesome dimension to the role. A nun doesn’t feel she’s a disagreeabletaskmaster. You’ve got to show opposites, not just one side.

- Play to win. Play to get what you’re fighting for. No one in all this world plays to lose. Not even the self-destructs.

- Usually there’s an exception to any well-kept secret, which is one ofthe fascinating things about secrets: sooner or later you tell someone.Human beings can’t seem to bear keeping a secret totally to themselves,not forever.

- Consistency is the death of good acting.

- And remember, once more, that it is more important at an audition toshow the auditors the extent of your emotional equipment as an actorthan to illustrate your understanding of the script.

- The terms of loving. This is a highly important concept for an actor.Most scenes in plays (as in life) are negotiations of terms between twopeople, whether they are lovers or enemies. Attempts to come to someagreement whereby one can hold onto one’s own and so can the otherperson. This is conflict. Conflict is drama.

- A lot of actors roar their protest when I say friendship iscompetitive. They conceive of competition as not nice, as aggressiveand unattractive. One would not compete with one’s friends; that wouldbe a dreadful state of affairs.

- But we do compete with our friends. It’s one of the major reasons wehave friends: stimulation. You can’t stimulate each other unless youcompete.

- Competition is healthy, yet actors (as do most people) regard theword competition with horror, thinking it only connotes cutthroatbusiness or aggressive countries at war with each other. Of course,competition can be aggressive and warlike, but it can also be a healthystimulus, such as wanting to play tennis with a partner who is as goodor as better than we are.

- Friendship is perhaps the only relationship of equality we have in our lives.

- We don’t like to do things we don’t do well; we don’t like failure;we like success. It wouldn’t matter to us if we succeeded or failed ifwe didn’t compete.

- There is an acceptance in friendship that enables us to relax andenjoy competing. Friendships – good ones, true ones, basic ones – tendto last longer than most other relationships. It’s because there istrust, freedom to compete, freedom to criticize and to receivecriticism – freedom because we are accepted and therefore honesty ispossible. No other relationship in our lives is likely to be as honestas our close friendships. No other relationship is able to relax intocompetitiveness that is acceptable on both sides.

- Actors are very worried – rightfully so – about being truthful intheir acting. The tendency is to prize truth even when it’s tiny,mundane, everyday truth. But that’s not enough. What good is truth ifit’s dull and boring? Exciting truths can be truthful, too. Learn toprefer those.

- You should embrace melodrama, not run away from it.

- “I didn’t want to be melodramatic.” Why not? Who gave melodrama a bad name? People are melodramatic in life every day.

- It’s investing melodrama with belief that makes it work. It youdecide it’s melodramatic in order to withdraw from it, you can neverfulfill it. Withdrawal is just another inhibited actor beinguninteresting; the woods is full of ‘em. Plunge in. Give us actors whoare willing to take the risk.

- The purpose of a reading is to show who you are.

- You’re not at an audition to do the scene right, but to show theauditors who you are. Give yourself a chance. Worry less about thematerial and more about what you would do and feel if you were in thatsituation. The play gives you a situation; your job is to put yourselfin it.

- Always take into account what’s different. Use your imagination, your instincts. Rigidity is death in an actor’s life.

- Acting is seeing. We see our entire lives in images.

- We see everything that way: not an isolated close-up of a face, but a person in a specific environment.

- Acting is about what we do, not what we should do.

- Acting is predicated on the ways in which human beings behave, not the way they should behave.

- Acting is doing what people do. It is not a moral act.

- Actors rarely pick revenge as the goal they are fighting for, yetrevenge is one of the most important motivations in human nature. Whenwe are deeply hurt, we want to hurt back.

- If you’re going to be an actor, you’ll have to start exploring theintricate, hidden, and frequently unfair behavior that is caused by ourneed for revenge.

- Many a self-made important executive is the result of being overlooked as a child.

- Many creative people are “getting back” at being considered untalented or uninteresting.

- Some Hollywood beauties are proving to the world they can be wanted,after a childhood of neglect and rejection (the classic, and typical,example is Marilyn Monroe). These are all acts of revenge. Keep in mindthat revenge is not harmful or destructive; frequently it is highlycreative, an enormous life force driving people to prove their worth.

- Isn’t all our creative work the achievement of revenge against allthe doubting Thomases who said we couldn’t? There are always thedubious standing in the sidelines to say we can’t achieve ourambitions. If we show them we can, we get our revenge.

- After all, we do know about any human being can act like shit, butwhat we’re looking for in most actors is likability, warmth, andfeeling.

- For even the seducers are seeking love. They guise it from themselves(and more contemporary people do it than ever before) and insist theyjust want to get laid, but they do want to be wanted, and that iswanting love, even if you have no intention of giving it. The actor isalways better off making the choice, then, of seeking love rather thanseduction.

- A maxim for actors. Use what you know. Don’t worry about what you don’t know.

- The action of being shy is wanting not to be shy but to be confident,bold, aggressive. The shy person dreams of being the opposite of whathe is. His entire effort is to overcome his shyness.

- Listening is not merely hearing, it is receiving the message that isbeing sent to you. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affectedby what you hear. Listening is letting it land before you react.Listening is letting your reaction make a difference.

- Listening is talking while you are being talked to, not out loud butcreating silent dialogue that answers what is said to you. This isactive. Active listening is answering.

- The more specific your silent dialogue answers, the better your listening.

- When an actor hates the character, there is usually a profoundlypersonal reason. Sometimes because it’s revealing a trait the actordoesn’t like in himself; or it re-creates a real-life relationship thatis so uncomfortable the actor wants to run away rather than deal withit (hating is a way of running away). We rarely have such a strongreaction as hatred unless it involves us deeply.

- A curious fact, I find, is that actors get in trouble when they lovethe character, also. Their favorite role in their favorite play issometimes the one for which they give the most unsuccessful readings.

- All human beings love to suffer. The reason people love to suffer is that it makes them right.

- What’s the good of suffering if no one else knows?

- Fear is what we don’t know. The solution is to know what it is you are afraid of; then you can deal with it.

- But most of the time our fears are groundless: we don’t know why we are afraid.

- Through the years, I have found most actors are terrified of theaudition. They don’t know why. It is a nameless, unspecified terror.

- Learn to function, instead of being prey to your undefined fears.

- Actors should react on the line, not in between.

- Physicalizing is a strong way to express feeling. Physical expression is not a substitute for feeling but an extension of it.

- Learn to use all levels of awareness. Actors feel they are really ina scene when they are totally unaware of the audience or of anythingexcept what’s going on between them and their stage partners.

- Acting or writing or directing in theatre or television or screen isonly for the irrevocably diseased, those who are so smitten with theneed that there is no choice.

- If actors would use life as their source rather than stageconvention, they’d find the answers to everything that happens in aplay.

- One great missing ingredient in current acting is romance. Everyonesecretly wants romance, but in these harsh, “realistic” days, no onewill openly admit it.

- People are motivated by dreams, by visions of what might be, not by realities and harsh views of what is.

- The actor’s process is the distillation of complexities. The simplestchoices are the most telling. When you put it all together, findsimplicity.

- Most actors fail not because of lack of talent but because 1. Theydon’t work hard enough. 2. They aren’t disciplined. 3. They are literalrather than truly imaginative. 4. They are victimized by theirlimitations and prejudices. 5. They are ruled by their negative side.6. They are not persistent.

- It should be a cardinal rule of an actor’s life: Always audition.

- Half an actor’s life is auditioning, half is performing. Why stint on the auditioning half?

- The actor must always know more than the character does.

- Literary choices are not dramatic. Make your choices from emotional need rather than intellectual understanding.

- Silence is a form of communication that is an alternative to verbalcommunication. It is a way of saying something to someone else. Silenceis silent dialogue.

- Every moment, every move, every silence must speak.

- Conflict, not contemplation, is dramatic truth. Save contemplationfor philosophic essays or for sitting on the toilet all by yourself.

- Pursue the answers until they lead to more questions that requireturmoil and the deepest parts of your awareness to answer. Actinghurts.

- Your everyday life is not the criteria of what you are. Your fantasylife is who you are. Everybody’s fantasy life is richer than reality.

- An act of imagination is what makes being alive possible.

- Love is not always ideal. It takes peculiar forms sometimes. Don’t beso idealistic in your concepts. You overlook a lot of the strangeplaces where love occurs, a lot of the strange, bizarre images that canbe above love, too.

3:01AM - Learning and unlearning.

The title were the words that popped in my head when I was in the music studio yesterday.

So David had assigned himself as my new teacher. But when I arrivedearly at the studio, Patrick was the one there, so he was the one whovocalized me before Dave arrived. Ano ito, tag team ang mga teachersko, hahaha.

So anyway, because I haven't gone back in ages, I was so out of shape.Dave was a different teacher than Patrick, and his loud tenor voicefilled the room and most likely even the next unit. Parang mas sopranopa sila sakin right now, ahehe. So there we were, and during the entirehour (I think we even extended), I realized that I still had so manybad habits. I had shed them off for a while when I was taking lessonslast year, but now they had returned. Arg.

I guess it's still like acting. Like Miss Tess had said on the very first day of our workshop, you have to learn then unlearn before you become a good actor. Learn new techniques and unlearn allthose bad habits that you had picked up along the way. For some reason,I can open my mouth really wide when I'm acting, but when I'm singing,everything closes up. May hiya pa rin daw ako sa paglabas ng boses. Butinterestingly enough, even though Dave hated that I immediately went tofalsetto, he actually liked the sound of it. Or did he? Hahaha. Dave, Iknow you're stalking my blog.

Wahaha, after the evening's lesson, Dave showed me all those packagesthat were for the world competition next year. In July. Oh my. Should I? (Hey, that rhymes, hahaha.)

2:26AM - Visiting Atlantis.

Went to Atlantis last Wednesday at lunch to celebrate Ate Sally'sbirthday with the office staff. The whole gang was there, even AteJanine. Plus Karen, who had already dropped by earlier that day. Yay,there was the usual pancit and barbecue from Ineng's, and Lawyn andClaire got Ate Sal this yummy chocolate cake.

Hahaha, considering it was Claire's birthday the day before, and KuyaBoni's on Sunday, we made each of them blow the candle that was on thecake. After that, it was finally time to eat, yay.

Bobby had arrived at around 1pm, and it was so funny when people hadsaid that it was Claire's birthday the day before, as everyone wasalready teasing her to her current object of infatuation. When thephone rang, who else could it be? Speaking of the devil, it was hercrush, calling to greet her a happy birthday. We all burst outlaughing, loud enough for the chiquita to hear. Wheee! Happy birthdayto y'all!

I love celebrating birthdays in Atlantis. I have at least 2 memories ofbest birthdays with that company. First was Richelle's during our firstyear working. When her birthday was drawing near, she had said that shehad never celebrated her birthday ever. So Ate Sal and I gave her alittle surprise party during lunch on the day of her birthday, whichmade her cry. Aw.

Of course, the other best birthday was mine last year. The moment I found out that we also have an evening show of Avenue Q scheduled on the day of my birthday, I was pretty upset that I wasn'tgoing to have any time for myself on my birthday. Anyway, I boughtlunch for Lawyn and Kuya Boni, and by the time we arrived in RCBC, Igot a surprise phone call from Ate Sally in Dubai. And of course, thebest thing that night was Tad's surprise visit in the theater, completewith flowers, cake and birthday gift, hahahaha!

Just sitting in the office the other day made me miss working there. Ihave yet to write an entry about that. I'll do so another day when Ifind the time.

11:12AM - Sponge or Stone?

Yesterday, Mo Twister had a special guest from Mensa. They are inviting people on their event at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street on Sunday, November 30. They are looking for new members to join their organization which comprises the top 2% of the smartest people on earth.

You just need to pay 500 PhP to take their examination and if you pass you are privileged to join their prestigious organization. You could hang out with the smartest people in the planet. Imagine that!

Is it really important to be intelligent? Yes! It could get you many opportunities and even make you rich. But, we have to remember that aside from high IQ, you have to balance it out with EQ.

Now, our team has our hands full with new hire agents. We need to focus on these agents to identify who will be absorbed by Operations. Evaluating these new hires can be really stressful. They take too much time on their call and you could feel their nerves on the phone. Some calls even get escalated because the customers sense their inexperience.

Amazingly, the new hire agents assigned to me have been very receptive in coaching. They listen and show improvement in their performance. You just need to guide them so they would be consistent.

Some TSR are not sharp as the others, but you could sense their potential because of the effort they exert. I have one agent who needs communication skills training but I can see that he tries to follow the tips I have been giving him during our coaching sessions.

However, we also have agents who hate following guidelines, especially the tenured ones. They have developed their style and habits that are already hard to break. It is just up to their QAAs on the strategy to move them on the right directions.

While others show their dedication, some representatives treat their customers as crap. You could hear it in their voice, they sound monotonous and bored. They leave their customers on hold longer and they take their sweet time to provide resolutions.

I’m thinking of giving a sponge bob award on agents who can absorb what they have learned in their coaching session. On the other hand, I would give boring and lifeless stones on agents who don’t seem to learn.

I know it’s silly but I’m still in the process of developing this idea.

Well, sponge bob is a model employee. He surely gives his heart and soul in every patty he serves his customers. This nickelodeon cartoon character may not be the most brilliant one in TV but he surely shows that good attitude can be more admirable than being a Mensa member.

6:12PM - All Ears ... .

Website 611 Connect is still up and it's about to end come December 2009. So I am exerting extra eff' promoting, enticing people to dwop by ...just to take a peek or save a little comment or two (daily clicks on the site / visits will significantly help). Eeps.

Yep I accomplished three RAVE-iews:

1.) Nokia 6120

Phone which I really have hahaha. Nice phone to own. Given a chance to own any other touch screen babies, I'd still keep a classic such as this.

Seriously, given the moolah, I'd buy all old phones which I previously owned (Nokia 6101 *the fliptop*, N70, etc). I never really got tired of using them.


2.) HTC Touch

Special thanks to Abimelex TAMS Boy for letting me keep his phone for one full day. It was worth it. All the secrets in his Pandora's Box (hahahaha. jowk. he sent me an SMS the same night saying 'hmmm mukhang malaman ang inbox ko'. hahahaha. wasn't able to read it though. ahh heck.)



3.) Nokia E65

Nice sliding phone. I find small ones cute though but feature-wise, es excelente! =)

5:13PM

Officially over a certain you.

1:24PM

Live and love like there’s no tomorrow.
Each day can be the last.

No more regrets.

11:29AM - On singing again.

Hahaha, another entry today? I'm on a roll.

My cousin David just called. Mostly about rescheduling his meeting withKuya and Ate Maui to discuss the choir's repertoire. Then as usual,there was the invite to join the GAP choir, which is always inserted inour every conversation, haha. And as always, I decline, even though Ireally want to because it would help me learn.

Then David mentioned that he'd give me voice lessons. He'd be myteacher for free. Hahaha. So of course I said yes. Then again, with theoffer of joining the group, hahahaha! They're joining a worldcompetition in China, and enticed me with the all-expenses-paid trip.Oooh. Tempting.

I hope I can start the lessons this week. Time to bring out my Solfege book again, yay.

10:39AM - Bridesmaid duties.

Hahaha, feeling lang ako, as I'm the only bridemaid around the bride right now. Anyway.

"I have a whole list of stuff I want to write about," I had said.

After looking at a couple of articles that I had submitted to a coupleof 'zines, I realized that I had missed writing like that. I rememberedhow easy it was to write, as if I was merely blogging about what hadhappened during a particular day. In my notepad just now, I had listeddown all those I want to write about, but haven't had much time to doso.

Hopefully I'll find the time to write soon.

So what have I been up to lately? Mostly I've been tagging along withKuya and Ate Maui as they go about their wedding preparations. I'vebeen helping Ate Maui add a few touches on their wedding invitations,and even after last night, we haven't finished yet, hahaha. Then lastFriday, our family went out to lunch at this Korean place we used toeat at before (now it's under new management and has a new name).Hahaha, the manager watched in awe as my brother ate all those chilipeppers as if it were candy. Then we went to Fernbrook to check out thevenue of the wedding. Well, there wasn't really much to see, as therewere a lot of workers in every place that we went to, doing repairs,watering the plants, all that stuff. Oh well, I hope everything willturn out pretty good on the big day itself.

Yesterday, Ate Maui, my mom and I went to the dressmaker for our firstgown fitting. When Michelle had whipped out both my mom's dress andmine, the three of us knew that something was way off. All the colorswere wrong! My mom's dress was supposed to be silver, and what was infront of us was cream-colored gown which made her look older. The dressMichelle had made for me was in blue-green, when she was specificallytold that the color was supposed to be navy or midnight blue. And shehad claimed that I gained weight. Kamusta naman. If I had gainedweight, then I wouldn't have even zipped it up. The zipper managed togo up past my ribs, and stopped at the chest area. So ano yun, pumuntalahat ng taba sa chest area ko? And there was this ugly bulge in thefront, as if it was made in a hurry.

I was already making side comments that only my mom could hear, just incase Ate Maui was fine with the color. But as it turned out, she didn'tlike everything at all because Michelle didn't follow what she hadsaid. By the time we had left Michelle's and arrived at Kuya Roger's(for the barongs), Ate Maui had made phone calls both to Kuya and Jack(their wedding coordinator) about what had happened, then decided tobuy the fabric in the color she had preferred. Kasi naman, one of thethings Michelle had insisted was that she couldn't find taffetta in theshade of blue Ate Maui had wanted. Uhm, it was BLUE. Just look for DARKBLUE, diba? It's an easier color to find that BLUE-GREEN.

Last night, Kuya, Ate Maui and I put our heads together as we tried tofigure out how they would do their AVP. We each had bits of suggestionsthat would work, but I hope we can put them together. Then theymentioned a magic word, "ballroom dancing." Hahaha, well, not really.They just wanted someone to teach them how to dance ballroom for theirfirst dance. Ate Maui had also suggested adding a bit of crazy to theirdance, and I really really really want to be part of it. I hope they'lllet me, just so I can dance ballroom, hahaha.

8:57AM - Merry, Merry Un- UnBirthday

Belated happy birthday to me last November 20 (Thursday).

I celebrated my birthday more steps happier this year ...with friends than family. I have to admit that a few years back, all I have to do on my big day was work, eat a little with a friend or two and then arrive home later than usual.

This year I woke up with smiles greeting my face. Then Jim and Brad prepared me a bowl of hot, tasty champorado.

I don't believe in good signs but there was a rainbow in sight as I head the whole SSH to work. It wasn't a partial fading rainbow (which we often get to see every now and then), the whole arch is visible ...and extremely subliminal!

Friends and colleagues greeted me at work. My boss is celebrating her birthday too. I was supposed to file for a leave of absence but we were having this major school event so I had to postpone it the day after.

Met with a dear friend for lunch at Shakey's.

Upon dismissal, we shopped for more grocery items (plus I bought myself a whole Red Ribbon chocolate mousse cake -- my most favorite sweet treat).

~*~*~*~*~*~

Night ended with a birthday greeting from long time blog friend Carlo / Br0wn_c0w who excerpted this from an Alice in Wonderland lit (FYI, I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and has even studied most parts of the actual literature):



"But then." thought Alice. "shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort - one way - never to be an old woman - but then - always to have lessons to learn!"

::Alice in Wonderland::

You may not be like Alice by age but you are surely like her by heart. Belated happy birthday, ganda. Ü

~*~*~*~*~*~

Yes, I couldn't ask for anything more