The Family I've Learned to Love ♥

Yep, they are my family outside of home. It was here that I met the Campus Gels along with my other Campus Buddies and my Web Analytics family - together through chismisans, lunch outs, make-up sessions, laugh trips, birthday surpises, PBB & PDA talks, Kapuso Vs. Kapamilya Wars, kamalditahan ni Aysa (Aysa would like this, she's been asking me to write a post and give her a link for a long time now, haha!), iMac camwhoring moments, ka-emohan na pinangungunahan ni Mr. Kurpy (according to Aysa, lol), nose-bleed moments because of our statistics sessions with Jeremie, the stat goddess, bashing moments, "kilig" talks which Anna loves (hehe), what-if moments of Maje, Sarah's never-ending coke addiction (that isn't surprising for me anymore), Myrtle's crazy terms and antics and her famous Houdini disappearing act (haha), our keyword and blog addiction as copywriters, Carl's fear of the girls' hugs for which we always torture him with ahha, endless and seemingly impossible-to-do reports requested by my very handsome boyfriend Dan or H (I wish haahahahah), salary disputes and countless HR concerns, Mapet and Brim's love affair (eerrr), little Tabby's obsession with sweet stuff, my Boss Maia's encouraging spirit and cutie baby Hanns, Rhiz's obsession with pink stuff (note: pink Macbook, pink cellphone, pink digicam) Angge's surprisingly loud laugh (for such a seemingly meek girl, she sure packs a laugh, hehe), Rey and his Mr. Grumpy shirt (peace), Ico's girl-y puppy and his being a ladies' man, Zac's business talks and down-syndrome moments (which Sarah has apparently learned how to do now, hehe), Kuya Rico and his untimely sleeping obsession, Anna K and her match-making business (we'll miss you Anna!), Christmas Party presentation which made marketing bag a first-prize award, TJ and his Ruffa-Ylmaz chismis, Nan and his Nikon D40 snapshots, Zezoobic fun at the beach care of Alvin's Sunset Cove Resort, USAP's version of Amazing Race, our bossing Marc's generosity, booze and lasingan sessions of The USAP Marketing, and many other countless memories that we've all shared.

Man, that was a very looooong sentence, haha! I originally planned on just posting our picture but I can't help but state the reasons why I feel so at home in this company. :D

So, here we are, (drumrolls please) THE USAP MARKETING DEPARTMENT ...

Fashion is the Passion

I'm not really much of a fashionista (although I admit that I dress up once in a while to even look above-presentable, haha) but since I've quite a few friends who are so much into fashion and dressing up real nice, I've learned bit by bit on how to be a bit fashionable. =D (I hope, haha)

To prove I've really got fashionista friends, one of them takes time to blog about her fashionable finds and the new fashion trends of today's times. And the other friend of mine devotes her free time to check out online clothing stores in multiply and she'd quickly share it with us once she finds something that she knows would interest all of us into buying. And needless to say, we end up huddling over her work station (eep, don't tell our bosses, haha!) to browse and order the clothes we want. It's slowly becoming our tradition (to order online, that is). And fashion is quickly becoming our passion. Yey!

I wasn't so into hunting down multiply stores to find fashionable clothes as I rely on them to just send me the links. Haha! But I got curious if their talents on finding fashionable clothes have rubbed on me and I started hunting down online stores. So I guess I should say I ended up on an online store, but to my unfortunate luck, I ended up on a European online store selling women's clothing. It's so unfortunate because I won't be able to buy them due to shipping reasons and they even sell good stuff too! And the most painful part is that they have women's bags that would totally go well with the casual clothes that I usually wear. *sigh*

I guess there's no helping it. I'd just have to find online stores that are geographically possible (and affordable at that) to ship their items to me. Or maybe I'd just ask my business contacts in multiply to get items from this store so they'd be the one to pay for the shipping and not me! *evil laugh* I'm crazy. For clothes and bags, let me be clear on that, thank you. =D

Along the Green Mile

Monday proved to be a day of realization - it was because of one movie, The Green Mile. I never heard of it before although it's been around since 1999 and I was only given a chance to see it on Monday. I didn't even plan on watching it, my dad just happened to like the movie and told me it was good. I gave it a chance because I had nothing better to do.

Little did I know that as the movie unfolds, I'd be facing a situation that I'd later on label as a traumatic experience. I've only had one traumatic experience in my life and so this counts as the second one. Some of you may already be aware but for the sake of those who are not, I'd try to summarize it as best as I can.

Its story is about a man whose job is to supervise the electrocution of vicious criminals. His career led him to meet a man who was wrongly-accused of killing two girls as he tried to heal them with his miraculous God-given healing power. Unfortunately, he failed and that's when people saw him and so misunderstood the situation. He had no witnesses of his miracles at that time and so he was left with no choice but to accept the punishment. That situation alone is saddening as it is but what made the movie a traumatic experience for me was to witness the "failed" electrocution of someone - it was successful because the criminal died but "failed" in a sense that the other supervising police officer deliberately put a dry sponge on top of the man's head. Putting a dry sponge instead of a wet one will cause torture to the person when he is electrocuted and will literally ignite and leave him sparking and burning in flames. People just watched as he screamed in pain. That time when I was watching it, I felt I was there watching the whole scene unfold and I felt fear and shame as I could not do anything to stop the torture. I know it was just a movie but I guess that's what what trauma does to you - I forgot for a few seconds that I was watching something fictional. And that's also the moment when the realization came.

I realized that somehow, humans tend to be meaninglessly cruel to each other. I say meaningless because we want people who've wronged us to be punished by death when we have no right over that person's life. I'm not being a humanitarian here, all I'm saying is that if we really want to punish someone, then ending his/her life is not the appropriate solution. You just let him rest in peace, and that I think is doing someone a favor. If you really want to let him suffer as much as you have because of what he's done, then have him imprisoned for life. Having him locked up with no hope of ever experiencing the sun against his face is the greatest punishment there is - it's like living with no choice of having any other purpose in life - except to live for the sake of repentance.

How ironic it is that we have the capability of killing someone but no power to bring him back.

It just goes to show that we are tested everyday not to give in to that capability of ending someone's life no matter how much pain he's caused us.

The movie is right - this world is just so full of dirt - envy, lies, jealousy, power-hungry people, money, murders, and so much more. It is already a miracle that we are able to survive such a gruesome place. And our secret? We unconsciously drive these dirt away from us by looking only at the great things in life.

The secret lies in focusing ONLY on the good things in life that make us happy. Never mind these dirt and entertain the beautiful things life offers us and they'll surely decide to stay. That's what I do and they really stay to keep me even happier.

Google's Birthday Present

Google decided to suddenly update its algorithm and it was named Dewey Update (don't ask me why it's named such as I have no idea). Coincidentally, it updated a wekk before my birthday and so Google accidentally gave me a birthday present - a Page Rank of 3 for both this blog and my anime blog.

I know Page Rank seems to have lost its authority and credibility as believed so by many internet marketers and expert website administrators but for novices like myself, having a Page Rank still means a lot. A Page Rank of 3 may just be a piece of cake for expert bloggers but the fact that I did nothing to market or link build my blog, but I still received a PR 3 makes it very uplifting. I must be getting a number of link loves from people ( I know I have my websites linked in the blogs/websites of my USAP family), so many thanks to you guys! *Insert hug here*

My birthday this year's really full of wonderful surprises!

The Sweetest Birthday Surprises

I've never been surprised on my birthday in the 21 years that I've been in this world. I've been surprised with gifts that I didn't think I'd be getting, yes, but not been given a surprise birthday party, yet. Okay, let me cut the introduction and get to the bottom of this! My friends from the office decided to make my birthday extra special and they went out of their way to surprise me a day before my birthday (read: they planned the surprise together with my family and boyfriend)! There! Haha!

What really made it extra special was the fact that they surprised me at our house. I didn't expect them to go all the way to our home sweet home and I was expecting that they'd do it in our office and on my real birthday (Haha expecting! Feelingera! Cause it has already become our tradition to surprise our friends on their birthday). So imagine my surprise when Mike and I got back from running an errand for my Mum and they suddenly appeared singing Happy Birthday and holding a cake (read: frozen for a good 10 seconds and just staring at them like I've seen a ghost! LOL!). That time I was thinking, "They're here. What are they doing here? Sarah, Ico, Ronan, Maje, Anna, Zac," and it took a few seconds before I realized they surprised me. Hahaha! They also gave me a purple tumbler with a collage of my pictures with my friends as the design. Oh well, aren't they the sweetest friends? =D

But that's not yet the end of the surprise! On the day of my birthday, my Web Analytics Family (the sole Junior Business Analyst included) also gave me a surprise Happy Birthday! I was working at that time (I think. Haha!) when someone tapped me on my shoulder and when I looked up, there they were holding a Purple Cake (Ube flavor, yum!) and singing Happy Birthday! They also gave me a pillow which says "World's Sexiest Woman." Haha! =D How true! Haha! Kidding! =P

I need not go into details of the surprise and how I looked like, I'll just let these snapshots do the story-telling of how my 22nd birthday was celebrated. At the end, you'll see for yourself how sweet my friends are and how special I felt on my birthday. =D



Thanks to our official photographer, Ronan, who documented (took pictures. Hehe!) the event. More pics here, and here, and here. =D