Growing up!

A few hours ago, I was looking for PC peripherals and hardware over the internet. Like I wasn't able to do my work. Truth is, the team has come to a part where the working has become boring. All we did since the day we came back from a 2-week fieldwork at the various areas in northeastern Mindanao is to check documents, prepare the database, hazard reports, and in the next two days, map interpretation. Boring.

So I came up with a good idea. How about if I stop working and just build a Gaming Rig, it's a gaming PC with all the hardware of a monster PC. Search all over the net, Google it, checked their prices and so on...

But now, five hours have passed. I'm damn tired from all the research of this gaming rig, as what gamers call it. Then, suddenly, reality settles in. I need to stop thinking about gaming, having a good time, games, games. I really need to grow up and start working for my future.

I need to grow up.

Sudden U-turn

"While I am good, some of the times. God is good. All the time."

My career as a geologist just took a sudden turn around. For a long time, even before I took the board exam, even before I graduated in college, I always wanted to work for the energy sector, in the petroleum industry exactly. Though this was not really possible, because I didn't graduate from an Ivy League School, I can see myself working in the petroleum industry in the near future. (Amen!) 

So when I got hired in the geothermal industry, with a company being the second largest geothermal steam producer in the world, I was happy, very happy. I can see myself going ahead, in a different path, in a different career, than any of my colleagues. I was the first geology graduate from our school to ever work in that company, the largest geothermal producer in the Philippines.

But I failed, I felt that I wasn't smart enough. I had issues with a few of them. They belittled me, and I let them. I thought I was being kind and patient, I should have fought back and argued heads on. I should have... But I knew it was not fair... for my part... I knew something was wrong... Some of them, they didn't really want me to be a part of their team... I tried my best... But I felt I can no longer move forward and excel with those people hanging around me... I resigned...

Someone told me that it is okay to be silent, and be kind, and forgive other people, and let minimal issues pass by. But when I did this, things didn't go well. When you try to let other people look down on you, and let them say things they shouldn't say in the first place, you lose your self-esteem. You lose your brilliance. You lose everything...

I just wanted to be a better person. Pretended I didn't hear anything insulting... I used to fight back... But I didn't, this time. None of the things I did brought me goodness... Life is unfair.

I learned that the world is wicked. And as long as we work with wicked people, and try to be kind, they will push us down. This is the norm of the corporate world.

The next time I get a chance to work with large companies. I know what to do.

Now, I have another job. The people here are very nice to work with. Moreover, I have received another job offering, hoping that this one will move on to a contract signing. This one really has a significant salary increase. I hope that HE will give this to me.

While I am good, some of the times.

God is good. All the time. 

I'm back in the Metro

It was a long, cold, full of anxiety two months of my life. Not that everything is bad or something awful happened. It's just that, a lot of difficulties occurred while the exploration project progressed. But anyway, I'll tackle about that in my next post.

For the meantime, let me share to you the wonderful things I saw in the Bicol Peninsula!

In Bicol, I had the chance to actually taste the true and original Bicol Express. Seven different Bicol Expresses I had a chance to savor with, delicately putting them inside my mouth while carefully critiquing how each of them differ from one another. A few restaurants serve it mostly out of Sili, literally, Sili (chili). But the secret ingredient is the coconut milk, the right amount of coco milk plus the right amount of chili and spices is equal to a yummy bicol express. Bye for now!

Necktie Show!

I think I'm getting used to this, I think that wearing a long sleeve polo, slacks, black shoes, and an extremely odd-to-wear necktie is getting better. I'm getting the hang of this. But the truth is, I don't wear necktie. That's just, in my own opinion, odd. I came across this poem in the internet about neckties. Here it goes:

Arms spread across the grass

Eyes closed, this moment, don’t pass

Warmth of sunlight gently lifts my face

with the absence of a black suitcase 

Finally my mind is able to breathe 

while buzzed after an evening-like mead

This day should last forever 

never to stress about a business endeavor

This day was hard to find

when weather is awfully unkind 

There are dreary grey skies in me

in the man, I used to be

Bad Day! Bad Trip!

What a wonderful morning, how delightful it is to know that after you take a bath at 6 o' clock you get to acknowledge the fact that you left the door closed and the key is inside your room. So that you cannot get inside and have to wait outside, hoping that your landlady arrives on time.

But NO! She didn't arrive. So you have to wait a lot more to figure out what you are going to do with your short petty life outside your newly-rented room.

You asked for help. Then help came, hammered the door-knob so hard that it now looks twisted and crumpled. You are late for work. You are late for work. So you hailed for a taxi and when you got inside, something tells you that you left your WALLET! in the room.

I mean, can this day become any 'more' worst?

Get Away! Lalala...

I have a new task today. And this task is something that I do very often in college - editing/proofreading. But no! This is no fun! There is no way in the world, even if it becomes stupidly insane, that a task like this would likely become adorable or wantable if you are proofreading a geologic/well geology log. Makamatay ang ka-boring! Makamatay! Aaahhh!

Sakita sa ulo!!! Aaaahhhhh!

But I have to endure this task of mine, though this one doesn't really require too much brains. No, really it doesn't. It only requires patience, and patience, and patience.

2.30PM. This is frustrating. I can hardly continue doing this.

4 PM. This is nuts! I'm so sleepy I wanna grab my bag and sleep over it.

4.20 PM. I need to wait until 5 PM. Go home time!

Amma Sorry!

Yesterday was Sunday. And I feel really bad until now about not being able to go to church. I went there actually, to the church, but only to find out that there was no service! or maybe they rented another venue on that specific Sunday because it was holy week.

I feel really really bad right now. Apart from the primary reason that it was holy week, I also wanted to hear a good word from the pastor because I failed to be on time the other Sunday.

So now, I'm carrying the burden of failing to attend church!

Destiny Church in UP Dilliman

I went to the church this afternoon. I mean, I didn't really entirely attended the whole thing because I was late. I'm always late, at all things, most of the time. And being late is something that has become a trademark, a part of my system.

The church is called Destiny. It is a church in UP (They are renting the entire UP theater every Sunday!). I have been there last year when I was still reviewing for the board exam. Then later on, when I started working, I didn't come back anymore since I was assigned to different places.

Not until now that I got a second job and got me an office here in Metro Manila. The place, if I could remember it clearly a year ago, was always fully-packed. Youth were storming in.

They have this pastor, his name is Karlo, what an awesome preacher. Wow! The first time I heard him preaching, I believed in him. All the things he said. He was marvelous. He had this gift that when he spoke, everyone listened. He would do frequent actions and leisurely make walks around the theater stage. He is one of the great pastors I've heard. :)

The 41st Floor!

Yesterday was my second first day here in the Head Office. I just got off from a  month-long field work in southern Negros island. I got dark and have gotten used to not taking a bath for like, four to five days, (and my tolerance to not taking a bath has grown particularly longer than when I was still in college.)

Since Kuya Farell and Madeline were not around, (they haven't gotten off from their base-off yet) I had to figure out my way to the head office all by myself. From where I am renting a room right now, that is Krus Na Ligas, I would take a tricycle to PHILCOA. Then take a jeepney to TRINOMA/SM North Edsa. Then take a free ride from the company shuttle service that drives you to the office here at Ortigas Center.

I am using the issued laptop and the internet, of which I am sure being monitored by some IT personnel against anyone who use the internet for personal amusement (like me!), here in my cubicle. Crossing my fingers I don't get caught! Hahaha!

By the way, I'm at the 41st floor of that building!

Geologist at Work!

People in the city go to mountains to get in touch with NATURE. Us, who are working most of the time in the mountains, forests, and rivers, go to the city to get in touch with CIVILIZATION.

Now, what are we doing here? We select samples from rocks that are exposed to the surface. Then we send them out for petrological/chemical/mineralogical analysis to better understand their composition, texture, and origin. Some samples are analyzed for dating (radiometric dating).

We also map structures such as faults/fractures, and other lineaments. Some of my teammates do the geophysics and geochemistry thingy; seismic and magnetic surveys to better understand the subsurface characteristics of a particular area, and chemical sampling, both liquid and gas, for further analysis of the mechanisms that took place in a geothermal system.

If all is well, we drill, more or less, 3,000 meters sub-vertically into the earth to produce geothermal steam which is converted to electricity so that you guys can watch your favorite TV shows at home! See? Us geologists make your lives easier without you knowing! 

Things Will Be Fine

It came to me as a surprise too, that bad news. I thought what was in that film was nothing, but it was something. It is something that I never thought would occur in my body. I for one know that the human flesh is vulnerable to diseases and sickness but, at my young age, I just couldn't think it was possible.

For a moment, I realized how fragile our bodies are, how easy it is for bacteria to pass through our immune system and start populating themselves in our vital organs. I thought I was healthy, exempt the gastrointestinal problem which has been a real pain in the ass ever since.

I'm glad that the company I'm applying for is willing to wait for me until the 3rd of March. To work for them as a Geologist is a dream, to be a part of them is already an achievement.

If this is really for me, then HE will give this to me. I'm gonna undergo a treatment. And if all things get well enough, the doctor is gonna give me a clearance for work. HE will give this to me. HE will. I know. HE loves me that much.

But the question is, am I doing anything that pleases HIM? Maybe I did, and eventually forget about it when everything goes smooth. But life is rough right now. I'm just being human.

How's that for a human?

I hunt a Sign of you

I have a lot of things to say right now. But I think I need to keep these thoughts for a while (I mean the things that concern this irregular shape vital organ located inside the left portion of my chest). I've got so much thoughts in my head, so many things to write. I for one cannot decide which one of these rumbling thoughts should I put into writing. I've been keeping this "thing" for a while now and have written several posts regarding this one in the past. But no one knows who. I'm such a hopeless romantic. Gaaass. Here's a poem from Pablo Neruda, the greatest poet of the 20th Century.

I hunt for a sign of you in all the others,

In the rapid undulant river of women,

Braids, shyly sinking eyes,

Light step that slices, sailing through the foam.

Suddenly I think I can make out your nails,

Oblong, quick, nieces of a cherry:

Then it's your hair that passes by, and I think

I see your image, a bonfire, burning in the water.

I searched, but no one else had your rhythms,

Your light, the shady day you brought from the forest;

Nobody had your tiny ears.

You are whole, exact, and everything you are is one,

And so I go along, with you I float along, loving

A wide Mississippi toward a feminine sea.