I was debating with myself whether I’d write something about my recent Singapore trip, if it’s relevant for this blog or not and the like.
Then I thought, ah screw it. Relevance, schmelevance.
existence, refactored
With kindness comes naïveté. Courage becomes foolhardiness. And dedication has no reward.Archive
Category: Between Heaven and EarthIt’s been over a year and a half since I left my previous full-time job and I still don’t have a new one.
It’s not that I don’t have the skills needed to be employed; it’s actually the opposite: even though I’m not actively looking for a job, people still come to me asking if I could work for them. My part time teaching and Rails “consultancy” gigs fall under this (i.e. I never “applied” for them formally), and I’m getting emails requesting for interviews from local companies once in a while.
The reason I’m not taking any full-time job offers is different:
It’s been over a year and a half since I left my previous full-time job and I still haven’t fully recovered from burnout. I’m not confident that I’d be able to do software development “grunt-work” at peak performance for more than a few weeks on end.
After a year’s hiatus, I guess it’s safe to say that I’ve suffered permanent damage from my burnout.
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Looking back, the main turning point of my career was on January 2006.
From Peter Drucker’s essay Focus on Contribution
Knowledge workers in an organization do not have good human relations because they have a “talent for people.” They have good human relations because they focus on contribution in their own work and in their relationships with others. As a result, their relationships are productive–and this is the only valid definition of “good human relations.” Warm feelings and pleasant words are meaningless, and indeed a false front for wretched attitudes, if there is no achievement in what is, after all, a work-focused and task-focused relationship. On the other hand, and occasional rough word will not disturb a relationship that produces results and accomplishments for all concerned.
Spent most of the day trying to overwrite the Telefonica firmware in the router I bought last Sunday. In the end, I bricked the device. D:
It’s cheap so it’s no big deal. Maybe later I’d build a USB to JTAG cable and try to unbrick it.
Anyway, I was supposed to write about the steps for overwriting the firmware (effectively turning an P880 router into a 3k modem/router) in this post but since I didn’t get to finish the whole thing, I’m going to have to cheat.
Ako Mismo rant below the cut.
PARA SA MGA TAMAD MAGBASA: HINDI AKO TAGA SSS!
Takte, nakasulat na nga sa unang linya na pumila ako para kunin SSS ID ko, tinatanong ninyo pa ako kung tiungkol sa SSS number ninyo.
Isa kayo sa mga rason kung bakit hindi umuunlad bansa natin.
Spent a good part of the day waiting in line for SSS ID processing. Realized later that I could make a short yet informative post about it.
I don’t want to insult my reader’s intelligence (which is what, averaging 140? 
) so I’ll minimize repeating stuff found in the official website.
Ever since my parents gave me my last allowance almost five years ago, I’ve always been a financially stable person.
The key word here is stable. I always say flat out that I am not a rich person because I know a lot of people are richer than me because my previous salary isn’t that high. But you will rarely see me complain about money problems. And you will never see me struggling with debt.
Just as losing weight can be simplified to four obvious words, my financial stability can be simplified to four similar obvious words:
Just came back from a product demo of a local distributor of computers in Eastwood, Libis. Will post my observations once I get the go signal for posting in Sugoi (which fyi, still has Philhosting problems 
).
I also have to leave for Greenbelt at 6pm so this daily entry will not be as “well researched” as the previous posts.
–
It was my first time to go to Eastwood City. Unlike your average twenty-something yuppie though, I did not take a cab to the place.
I’m not a fan of taxis. Unless the destination is not reachable by other means of public transportation (e.g. jeepneys and buses are prohibited to take the optimal route to the place) or I have a reason to arrive at my destination ASAP, I always prefer to take the latter over the former.
I don’t really know why I don’t prefer taxis. Maybe it’s because the fare’s a lot higher than taking a jeepney or a bus and this conflicts with the indoctrination about my family’s lower class status that I received when I was young. But that doesn’t hold up to the fact that I don’t mind spending the same amount on random purchases of food and drinks.
I know it has nothing to do with annoying drivers. I personally don’t mind them. I even take the front seat instead of the back seat to increase the chance of getting to chat with the driver. If it’s a decent driver, even a short conversation would give me good insights on how the common Filipino perceives the issues in our nation. If it’s not a good driver, I could probably steer the conversation to gutter humor for the lulz.
The most likely reason why I don’t prefer taxis is because it’s not cool. Which is a cooler answer to “How did you get here?”: “I took a taxi”, or “I took a bus from xxx, then took a jeepney to xxx, then walked the rest of the way here. 
” Seriously though, the “appeal” thing still sticks. I’m a pragmatist, and riding a taxi instead of taking a jeepney or a bus is just too hedonistic for my tastes.
–
Anyway, back to going to Eastwood.
Ok, taxi’s out of the question, so how do I get to Eastwood using public transportation without a guide? Simple: I’ll just activate the “Trailblazing” skill I learned when I was a Boy Scout.
Trailblazing isn’t really that fancy, it’s basically just map reading, knowing your orientation (e.g. where’s the north), and some other things that will help you reach your destination. Ideally, if I would “trailblaze” a path to Eastwood from Cubao, I’d walk all the way to Eastwood and take note of the public transportation available along the way. I’ll just take public transportation on my subsequent trips.
Walk from Cubao (Farmer’s) to Eastwood? Srsly?
I’m not kidding. I’ve done this a lot of times before. Just ask my friends.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints (I have to be there by 9am) and the fact that I’m going to carry a freaking 20lbs bag to the place, walking was also not an option. So I had to find out how to reach the place by jeepney.
Fortunately, the first Google search hit was relevant to my interests (taga FTI ako… well, not technically but you get the picture). The best advice was to either take a jeepney from Cubao to Libis or jeepney from Ortigas to Rosario then Rosario to Eastwood.
I confirmed with my parents that both routes are ok. My mom gave an alternate route: go to Market-Market then take an FX to Eastwood. Unfortunately, I still haven’t gone to Market-Market yet and two trailblazing “quests” in a day would be too much for me.
And so I took the most convenient route, the FTI – Cubao – Eastwood route. I got to the place with only two hitches: I was a little late (due to traffic), and I didn’t expect that the loading/unloading area for Rosario jeepneys was really behind Ali Mall. That was a 900 meter walk with a 20lbs backpack. D:
On the plus side, I still got to use my map reading skills to be familiar with the place. The orientation was also a bit useful – even after a couple of right and left turns, I was still sure that I took the right jeepney because the shadows confirm that we were really going east.
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That’s my post for today. Tomorrow’s Wii party day at Lex and Flori‘s so the next post will either be posted early afternoon or in the evening via laptop.
TODO: Change “between heaven and earth” tag to something less pretentious, but still conveys the ironies and contradictions happening in my life due to my nature as an unpredictable educated lower-class citizen.
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