QuE SeRa SeRa

Peace of mind... What a nice feeling...

"Just because everything's changing
doesn't mean it's never been this way before."

Modern-day "bugaw" really sucks

I got a news from one of my QA friends deployed at ADB today and I cannot keep myself from expressing this particular feeling of anger and disappointment despite the fact that it is nearly Christmas...

Years of experience made me wise indeed plus the fact that I keep changing jobs once every two years at the least. I have ups and downs and more disappointments that I already lost count. I had three employers this year... There are things that I have learned that I want to share with my fellow IT friends...

Who said that "Bugaws" only exist in the street? When we say the term "Bugaw" the first thing that comes to our minds is "those who sell prostitutes to clients and in turn have a cut to the earnings"

Well folks, it seems that bugaw now exists in the IT world. Yes, I call them "MODERN-DAY BUGAW" in the form of Agencies, Consultancy Firms, Executive Search. They have a cut in the salaries. Say for example a client pays 100k-150k for a particular position, usually an agency gets 30-50 percent from this. So, the employee only gets 50k or less while the agency gets the most out of it... It really sucks right???

Well for those who receive calls from so-called "headhunters" here are some of the major tips I could keep to avoid getting fooled...

• Ask whether it is a direct hire or not. If its a direct hire than go for it. If not drop it
• If its for a contractual/project-based employment, ask the salary package. If its contractual, dude, ask big sum of money. If its project-based, ask how long wlll the project last.
• If you are choosing between regular and consultancy, go for the regular

IT recruitment is becoming as dirty as prostitution...

A REPOST: A Few Good Programmers

I am browsing through friendster blogs when I stumbled upon this specific "I am Nerd" blog. His/her post is quite cool so I thought I repost it here. I am not taking the credit, just reposting... =) (http://daqwolf.blog.friendster.com/2009/12/a-few-good-programmers/)

This is a portion of dialogue I got from A Few Good Men, this is the famous You Can’t Handle the Truth Rant by Jack Nicholson. Stressed as I am, I came up with a stressed users/programmers version of this:

User: Programmer, did you crash this server?!

Manager: You don’t have to answer that question!

Programmer: I’ll answer the question. You want answers?

User: I think I’m entitled.

Programmer: You want answers?

User: I want the truth!

Programmer:

You can’t handle the truth! We live in a world with faulty applications, and those apps have to be fixed by smart people who program. Who’s gonna do it? You, Mr. User? You, Mr. Manager? I have a greater responsibility than you can fathom. You weep for your little project and you curse our team. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that this project’s failure, while tragic, probably saves programmer’s lives. That my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, probably saves programmers’ lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that server! You need me on that server! We use words like Patch, Deploy, Test. We use these words as the backbone of a job spent programming something. You use them as a punchline! I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who surfs and transacts under the blanket of the very application that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said “Thank you” and gave me a day off. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a keyboard, and program a module. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

User: Did you crash this server?!

Programmer: I did my job…

User: DID YOU CRASH THIS SERVER?!

Programmer :YOU’RE GODDAMN RIGHT I DID!

Weekend @ Star City

It has been a long time since I went to Star City. Yesterday, I got the chance to return to that amusement park. The place has improved quite a lot! It is already very affordable for the cost of 450 per head, which is already a VIP pass and includes Ride-all-you-can, Snow World and Dino Island. The place is so crowded due to long weekend. Here are some of the photos:

Winter Wonderland in the Philippines

Its a long weekend and we had so much fun yesterday at Star City. The crowd is so huge due to extended weekend but nonetheless, it was so much fun. We saw happy people with their families spending their time togather on a holiday...

We went to Snow World and it is so SULIT! Its a good thing we brought our socks. Geezz but we do not have gloves (too bad, we could have spent more time inside the wonderland if we have those).

Even if it is just a simple replica of the real snow world in those countries with winter season, it is good enough for us. I mean, it is soooo cold inside, the ice sculptures are amazing! Just don't touch them because any small damage costs 5000! We slide on the ice. I think we only spent 15 minutes inside. Too bad, our gadgets cannot be used inside. But its a good thing there is someone there to take some photos just for souvenir. Its a nice thing that we have something like this in the Philippines! Nice to experience such "Cold" "weather" even for a couple of minutes :)

2012

We have seen 2012's premiere awhile ago at SM Megamall Cinema 6. Hmmmm.. what can I say???

Well, many people will probably hate me for this but I really prefer "The Day After Tomorrow".

Okay, given, the visual effects are much better in 2012. But I'd say that the acting is a bit exaggerating and there are dull moments (really, I was yawning several times especially during some personal moments among the characters). And I find it weird that despite all those drastic and whooaaahhh calamities (with land mass shifting positions), GPRS is still working??? There is still signal? That must be a state-of-the-art modern day NOAH's ARK in which only the mighty, rich and powerful are allowed??? If you don't have a what? Billion dollars, you won't get a pass to get inside it and be saved???

The movie also depicts how dirty governments are... I mean, what's with all the lying about everything is fine whereas the earth's crust is already at its edge??? And geez, that government official (I don't know what his name is) who is obviously a power tripper even at the very end... I was saying during the movie "Can somebody punch that stupid man?" Really, our world is surrounded by crocodiles... No wonder these events might happen.

Racism... It sucks!!! Really... I hate it!

The movie lacks certain emotions and humanity. And well, sorry to say, some are even overacting.

The climax is not well plotted. Okay, so if the engine won't start they will hit Mt. Everest and that would be the end of mankind...

But this movie made me look back at my Sibika at Kultura subject when I was in elementary. Seems true somehow. I remembered the history about plate tectonics and how land mass shifted. Before, there is only one continent and those earthquakes molded what our current Earth has now.

Hmmmm... We were just joking after the movie and trying to decipher where Philippines is in the new globe/earth shown at the end of the film...

Still, its a must-see movie :) Sorry for the spoilers folks! I might forget about all these tomorrow so I have to post it now :)

random quotes

I had been playing around FB until I stumbled upon some love quotes from a friend's wall... I thought I'd post some here:

"Love is... giving someone the power to break your heart, but trusting her/him not to."

They asked, "how does it feel to love someone who loves someone else?" After a deep breath, I answered, "It's like hugging a cactus, the tighter you embrace, the more it hurts..."

"When you've found a reason to walk away, never look back... Just keep walking. It's better to get lost moving on than to get stuck and stranded broken."

I really like the third one :)

NextBase

I was in the mall yesterday, wondering what I could buy... I spent half an hour at Watson's roaming around the store, looking for a toothbrush and apricot scrub. I couldn't think of anything else to buy until I ended up breaking one of those lotion bottles... I just told the sales lady that I will pay for it at the counter. Then when I was at the counter I found out that I only have 400 in my wallet. Geez, my mom or my sister must have taken some money again from the wallet. I thought I have 4000...

But its okay, I just ended up withdrawing money from my account again. Then I walked endlessly and aimlessly in the mall, thinking fervently of something to buy... Until I came across the appliance center. Haha! So to cut the long story short, I ended up buying a new DVD player.. NextBase,, which can play AVIs from flash drive and with built-in karaoke function too...

I am so happy with my new acquisition hehehe... Because, I am not really fond of watching my movies from a computer. I want it in a larger screen hehehe... Now, I can watch those movies in AVI format in the television...

All I need now is to get some Karaoke disks and an additional microphone... Ha! Enough to occupy my bored mind in a short while :)

UAT at ADB

I am getting a little time from my weekend to write this entry coz I don't want to forget one extraordinary experience. Hmmm, maybe this will take ten minutes before I shut down my laptop and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

Our project is now undergoing User Acceptance Testing even if functional testing is not yet done.

I say that I had never been in a more chaotic UAT ever wherein there is no definite plan and "anything goes" is the name of the game. So what can you expect??? A UAT with no plan + QAs without team spirit = A TOTAL UAT FIASCO (I must say)...

Hahaha! I got so frustrated for the past week... I mean, I had always been a team player myself and seeing my fellow QAs who just want to stand on their own even if they are working on the same project, really frustrates me to the point of demotivation.

But then, I am also a self-starter and proactive. I try to help organize things. I experienced being a "referee" between two fellow QAs last week because they are having a "professional" cat fight via Lotus Notes "over" a simple subject of "Test Script Template", which I devised originally.

Hayss... And to think that these QAs are much experienced in terms of number of years in QA and much older than me... Anyway, at least someone in the team knows how to draw the line.

Then, during the actual UAT, since there are so many setbacks (being unplanned) and for the first time in my QA life, I heard users telling me that "we" are wasting "their" valuable time. It is a good thing that I know how to handle these situations and stay cool, calm and collected.

One good outcome is that our tech leader learned a lesson. So she called for a meeting after the UAT. Wow! Another fiasco! We discussed the template, the process or lack thereof, etc... People in the team don't know how to handle meetings...

Another thing that shocked me to a point of total disbelief is hearing from 2 of my fellow QAs that "EXPECTED RESULTS" is not needed in the testscript/test case. Three of us disagreed. I even told them that expected results are the basis of pass and fail. The tech leader just won't listen to the likes of us who just joined the team. The 2 QAs who joined the team a year or two ahead of us won. So, whether we like it or not, Expected Results was removed. I cannot accept it until now. I cannot believe hearing those things from fellow QAs who keep on insisting that they are experienced enough in our field. One of them even came from Accenture and she keeps pointing out that she came from a process-driven environment. Yeah right? Expected Results off a test script/test case? WOW!!! I am surrounded by incompetent people who just happen to have the biggest superiority complex ever. But I don't care. I know how to do things right. My friend (fellow QA) is so annoyed that she keeps having curt discussion with these QAs. I, however, choose to stay quiet. I am not stooping down to their level anyway and I won't waste my energy convincing people who don't want to be convinced. As long as I know my own skills and the things that I can do, I don't care what they do with theirs.

I won't comment from now on. I will just do what I think is right. Even if they removed the expected results from the template, who cares? I will still add it somewhere...

But one of the nice outcomes of the UAT is that I also met some nice people (users) like Miss Malou and the head of a department that I didn't get the chance to know his name. I get respect from some developers because I am catching bugs that other QAs can't find. Some developers also come to me for help. I feel happy somehow.

Fortunately, the food is good during UAT. So, that is one thing I am happy about too...

Small World

I am so amazed with my recent discoveries and I thought IT is such a small world indeed... hehehe

Yesterday, I found out that Mylene Ofalsa (ex-VC DBA) is a friend of one of my fellow QAs here. They attended the same highschool.

Then, another one, Michael Candelaria (ex-DbSoft) is also a friend of one of the developers here.

Then, today, I found out that Don Robert Mejia is also a friend of Geraldine (one of my friends from Antico/Verifone).

Not to mention all the other common friends I have from different organizations. LOL!

I don't know if IT is such a small world or it is only I who made it smaller for myself since I had been with different organizations already...

Hmmmm.. quite a thought :)

You have to PRETEND

We had our formal project presentation/kickoff to the external users yesterday. It was a first time experience for me as a QA. I had always been an internal user, doing only SAT (system acceptance testing) and with no formal interaction with users during UAT (user acceptance testing).

My work as a tester here is quite boring actually but I must say that the experience is worthwhile. Yesterday's experience is one of them I could say. The mini theater is awesome. My fellow QAs and I were wondering if its okay to watch a movie there (lol!) The mini theater (though, much simpler) is like one of those you see in a movie or in a prestigious school like Harvard. I think its really cool... Too bad, we were not able to get some free coffee hahaha!

The module assigned to me is the frontliner of the entire project. It is Dashboard. Hays, so basically I have to understand the entire process of the system end to end... So, I also have to understand the principles behind the other modules assigned to other testers. I was teased last Sunday by one of the developers that I am the QA of QAs... Weeehhh... Poor me :(

During the presentation, I feel like I am about to faint everytime dashboard is being accessed. I was so afraid that it might fail coz the test environment we are using is intermittent and there are so many changes in the code that are not yet tested...

Thankfully, no errors were encountered during the presentation. It is really quite an experience for QAs. Will make any QA sweat during a presentation coz when the module assigned to you failed, it will be quite embarrassing :(

Then during the wrap-up, the BA presiding the presentation made some comments about how the external users need to take External UAT seriously because they will be the one to support other users.

And one of his comments made us really laugh... He says that COSO users need to pretend to be admin, need to pretend to be an approver, etc... Then, when he seems to have lost for words already, he just said "Well, you have to pretend,"

Hahaha! He just mentioned one of the main qualities of a good QA!

QAs/testers really need to pretend to be someone else.

• Well, if you are testing an Accounting System, you need to be an accountant, that should be your POV.

• If you are testing a performance monitoring system, you need to be a network engineer.

• If you are testing a POS system, you need to be someone in sales.

• and the list goes on...

It was a nice presentation even if it means more work for us after :)

Ketsana and Parma: Lessons in Life

Philippines just experienced one of the most devastating flood in so many years. I cannot say that it is one of the worst since I only exist on the face of earth for 29 years...

These two storms/typhoons that just entered Philippine Area of Responsibility somehow taught us some important things in life...

Ketsana (locally known as Ondoy) is just categorized as a mere TROPICAL STORM, not to be feared (I, myself is guilty of this... I underestimated this storm. I even went to October Fest last September 25). A storm is weaker than a cyclone or a typhoon when categorized based on wind speed and gustiness.

But look what happened last weekend (September 26 in particular). It practically washed away Manila and nearby provinces with its nonstop raining. Nobody is prepared for that since it is, as I said earlier, just a "Tropical Storm"... So may people lost their properties, so many lives had been lost...

Then there is Parma (known as Pepeng), which was categorized as a SUPER TYPHOON... Everybody panicked and almost everyone prepared for its wrath this week. But thank God, it changed its course Saturday (Oct. 3) morning...

What are the lessons behind this? I can think of some and here they are:

• We can never be too prepared for anything that might happen...
• We should throw our garbage at the right places
• Nobody can really predict Nature...
• It is good to be prepared but it is always FAITH that will save us...
• The underestimated always ends up being the one that hit the most...
• Nature doesn't choose based on status, wealth, popularity, etc... It would hit and will hit hard in due time...
• Yes, industrialization cannot be stopped in parallel with Nature's destruction; but when its payback time, its payback time.
  

I am so thankful for today... I had been praying for this... Philippines has not yet recovered from Ondoy's wrath and it is very lucky indeed that Pepeng changed its course. I hope that the good weather continues :)

Test amidst Chaos

I had been wanting to write this post since Thursday, but I was so busy with work that I haven't got the time to do it and put justice to the essence of it at the same time. Now, I have to stay home due to heavy rains so I have enough time for blogging...

I am in my 8th employer now. Yes, you got it right, 8th! They say that I am a job-hopper. One of my friends told me that I am a corporate butterfly. One of them tagged me as a Corporate Playgirl. One of them said that I am so hard to please. The others said that my employers always wanted to keep me, it is just ME who got the problem. But, I never think of it that way. First, a job-hopper is someone who gets a job and doesn't manage to accomplish something in the organization before leaving. If there is something that I am proud of, this is it. I mean, yeah, I leave jobs every now and then but before I do so, I always make it a point that I have done something or accomplished something in the organization before leaving.

I remembered my SVP in REWSS, when I filed my resignation at REWSS to join VC, he tried to talk me out of it. He is a very good manager, I have learned so many things from him, peoplesoft stuff. I was a pioneer at REWSS, the very first girl and the only one to join a horde of men. I put the QA process in place and God knows the pain, the tears and the hardship I had been through before gaining the RESPECT of those men who are not used to QUALITY, RULES, and PROCESSES. But of all the accomplishments I got, my REWSS experience is the best so far. But when the challenge of putting everything to order wears off, I got really bored with the system I am testing. I am doing mostly admin stuffs because technically, I am QA lead there. So, came a time that I feel like its time to move on since I really like testing a lot and as I said to Rick (my SVP), I am not into management although he keeps on insisting that I have the potential. I told him that I like technical stuffs. He is very understanding. He told me something that I cannot forget for the rest of my life. He said that leaving an organization to join another one is something that he considers a need sometimes specially for those people with extraordinary skills. He said that it makes the person get out of the box, that is how a person will realize what he truly wants. He said that sometime, you have to leave to know what you really want. I even cried a lot when I said goodbye to Brian Wasylowich, my Canadian boss (the one who hired me). It broke my heart when he even flied back here in the Philippines when he heard about my resignation. I cried even more when he gave me a fatherly hug on my last day. I really respect those two men (Brian and Rick, REWSS's Batman and Robin). We get in touch until now. Before I left, REWSS is getting bigger and bigger and there are more girls there now unlike when I first started there. :)

Then I joined an organization (VC) that already have a process (though it is not CMMI, but close enough). The system is very challenging and Quality is a priority. I like it so much. Though they call it RUP, it is still iterative in the essence. It is where I feel like I am proud of what I am doing. Everytime that my project gets deployed, I feel so happy and proud. Too bad, I have to leave it without doing much thought, I admit now. I learned my lesson and I learned it well...

I am not sure where I gave my best. I think I always give my best to all my previous employers except SunPower, which I felt like I owe an them an apology. It never worked out for me at SunPower maybe because, I got out of VC not because I wanted to but because I feel so bad during that time and I wanted an escape, which turned out to be a total disaster I must say. But I think SunPower is not a total waste of time. My resignation there had a good outcome btw. I heard from my friend there that my Pakistani boss had improved a lot after talking to me and after I left the group. He really got some problems with his management style. And unfortunately for him, I am so pissed off during that time, my emotions are always at edge and my patience ran out so I cannot help but be honest with him. I told him what his problems are but in a polite manner. I always make it a point to be professional even if I feel so bad. I think I only failed at VC, LOLz!!! I had always been honest anyway. I am not a good liar. I had been so honest even with Yoshia.

Then now, I am in another organization using Agile development process. I realized now why Agile development requires people with 5 years experience or more. It is self-organizing, and there is no room for training. Most of my QA colleagues (who joined the company much earlier than me) came from process-driven organizationa like Accenture, Intel, IBM, etc... They are always complaining about the chaotic development and they are having difficulty adjusting to changing requirements. At first, having been with VC for almost 2 years, I am no longer used to agile. But as days passed by, I am adjusting quite faster than others I guess maybe because, I had always been a part of an organization with chaotic and fast-paced development. There lies the challenge. You have to deliver quality software in a short span of time (imagine, testing and creating test cases for the system for only one week). We are doing testing in parallel to development. Coordination and self-organization is a must to keep up with the deadline.

I really don't know why I am in this organization. I was thinking that it is for my own good. My usual skills are getting back like a rush of wind, skills that I thought I had lost when I started to hate what I am doing due to some personal stuffs that happened to me in Alabang.

Then I have this realization. Other employers think that those QAs who came from process-driven environment are the GOOD ones. I contest this. They should realize that those who deserve much respect are those QAs who can test and deliver amidst a chaotic environment. That is how it should be.

I want to propose a toast for all those QAs who can test amidst chaos... I salute you!

October Fest turned September Fest

As usual, we are waiting for the next deploy with the fixes for all the blockers in test env.

Sheessshhh.. I told my colleagues here that there should be an additional severity in our bug maintenance tool called "SUPER DUPER MEGA OVER SA MAJOR NA BLOCKER!" with matching exclamation point...

I think I had wasted my entire day waiting for the fixes. I already managed to update all my test cases, created most of my test data, created a test data matrix for my own use, updated the test status report and yeah, I even tested Sametime (a chat-engine integrated with Lotus notes) and I managed to find a bug in it.. (Imagine? I can add myself in my own list and send myself messages!)

Anyways, I am just staring at my desktop's clock for almost 2 hours now and I am waiting for 5pm. I am very skeptical that the fixes will be deployed by that time.. Hehehe..

So, by 5pm, I will go straight to St. Francis Square to buy my dvds and bluray disks hahaha! I plan to have a movie marathon this weekend because I am guessing that it will be rainy este stormy over the weekend. So I prefer to stay home and just watch movies. I had always been out of the house every weekend! I think the house misses me already hahaha!

Then, need to drop off to Megamall to buy some stuff... Oh, I need a new pouch and an external hard disk. My files are multiplying by the minute.

And then by 6pm, we will go to San Miguel Avenue for the early October Fest! Hahaha! Its only September and there is October Fest already. The last time I had been in October fest was 2005... I hope that it won't rain... I heard that Kamikaze and Pupil will be there. It has been a long time since I last drink alcohol too hahaha! The last time was when Yoshia was here last May, I think and it was in Alabang.. Hahaha! Hmmmm... Come to think of it, I always go out but since most of my friends here don't usually drink, I only eat during get-togethers hehehe...

It is so funny. I have scheduled exam later this 6pm at Optimum Solutions (somewhere in Ortigas too). They called me up for a position in Singapore yesterday and asked if I am interested. I thought that I should try even if I really want to stay here in the Philippines for now. But then, when when my colleagues here invited me to the October fest, I cancelled my exam hahaha and I said that I will no longer pursue the application for some professional reasons. They said that I can pursue anytime if I wanted to and just give them a call or send them an email.

I really don't feel like applying to another job at this point anyway, since I already know what I wanted and I already have a plan...

I wish its 5pm already! Damn, it is still one hour and nine minutes to go... I am so bored... hahaha!

PATIENCE, ANNIE, PATIENCE!

thoughts on group names

Okay, I am starting this entry while waiting for the next deploy to test environment (and by that time, I could resume my usual testing)

I had been listening to the radio for the last couple of months ergo weeks while here at work. I enjoy on-air discussions about different topics in everyday life.

And then I developed a hobby of googling lyrics of those songs I find really nice. And my friends find it weird that I jot down the title in a tissue paper hahaha!

Then, I will download them from youtube when I get home.

I just noticed something from the singers of new songs nowadays. I find them very entertaining to the point that I am spending time blogging about it.

Okay, enough introduction, let me get straight to the point.

Girl/Boy groups emerged like mushrooms popping during a thunderstorm and I don't know if anyone notice this but the group names are quite interesting.

Take for instance, Wonder girls (the group that sang and danced the hit NOBODY). And I just learned from my VC friends last Saturday that there is a local version of Pussycat Dolls/Wonder Girls guesting in Subzero. They are called the Mocha Girls. Inspiration strikes me. I took all the names from the Nescafe vendo machine here and wondering if someday, such names will emerge as girl groups. Here they are:

1. Cappuccino Girls
2. Latte Girls
3. Milo Girls
4. Tea latte Girls

Now, I was wondering what if we use cakes?

1. The Blackforest girls
2. The Chocolate Mocha girls
3. The Belgian chocolate Bliss girls
4. The Mango Passion girls

So what about the singer of the song "Issues" (which everytime I hear, I remember JIRA) called "The Saturdays"... So we can use the days of the week as group names

1. The Mondays
2. The Tuesdays
3. the Wednesdays
4. The Thursdays
5. The Fridays
6. The Sundays

And we should not forget the "Indigo Girls" who sang "Power of Two". So we can use colors now, can't we?

1. The Rusty Girls
2. The Fushia Girls
3. The Magenta Girls

Sheesssshhh... Now, this really scares me. What if someday, some group use weird names such as those from a tool shed?

1. The Screwed-up girls
2. The Hithereto girls

Look at Paradiso Girls! Hahaha, the one who sang Patron Tequilla. Hmmmm, now that is something, what if we use drinks?

1. The Tequilla Girls
2. The Bourbon girls
3. The Brandy Girls
4. The Gin girls
5. The Margarita Girls

Are we really running out of very good group names? What happened to creativity?

My brain cells are really not that used up hahaha that is why I am having these thoughts.

Anyways, that is all... have to get back to work... :)

sorry for any grammar mistakes... hehehe, I will just edit perhaps during the weekend...

Kimmy Dora ... So FUNNY to the nth level!!!

It has been a long time since I laughed so hard and I mean so hard (my tummy aches, I had tears in my eyes and keep stomping at the floor inside the movie house) in a movie.

We just watched Kimmy Dora awhile ago at Cinema 10 Mega A. Hahaha! I even went inside the theater with my ID on! We went running from the office to Megamall just to catch the 5:30pm airing of the movie and we were not disappointed!

The movie is soooooooo funnnnnyyyyyy and Eugene is soooooooo gooooooddddd, I believe she is much much better than Ai-ai. Eugene used to be Ai-ai's sidekick but now she had her break and her first movie is such a huge success!!!

I really cannot forget some of her quotable quotes... Here is one the I like best when the father asked Dora (who is pretending to be Kimmy) if SHE IS ON DRUGS:

Father: Are you on Drugs?
Kimmy/Dora: “I’ll look into it. I’ll get back to you on that. I’ll give you an update.”

Winner!!! I can apply this to any job, I believe hahaha!

ADB Friends

I already spent a month in my new work and I'd say that I am meeting awesome people and I am sure I will keep meeting more...

I had never been in a company with too many QAs before! I mean, 30 QAs and more are quite a lot right? Some I already met, those I am working on with Oracle ERP and there are more that I haven't met yet.

But among those QAs, I have 4 companions that I am already considering as my friends. I can be myself when I am with them. We laugh a lot, we talk a lot, we eat a lot (and that is the best part of it, lolz), we love the same music, we dance together in the hallway while walking, we go and hangout together, watch movies together and we just mingle with each other quite good.

Here they are from left to right wirh St. Francis in the background: DetDet(checkered), Me, Cates(red lady), Minet(Miss Purply), and Angie (the one in yellow)

Friendship

I am having a realization for the past couple of days and that realization hurts me more than I ever wanted to admit...

It is a realization about friendship. I know that people come and go but I was hoping that those I consider and love as true friends will somehow stay. Stay, meaning, they are just there, not burning bridges or showing me their backs. But again, I have learned the hard way. Maybe some are really not worth keeping, foolish me :) Or maybe I have done something wrong but I wish I knew what.

Anyway, I have read this article about friendship and I'd thought I post it here:

http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=57&id=21933

Insight: Some people come into your life for a reason and some come for a season...

Proud to be a Filipino

I am very proud to be a Filipino despite what other races say about us :)

Here are some of the videos during the first ever and most memorable EDSA revolution there is. The moment when Philippines got its freedom from dictatorship...





RIP President Cory!

TGIF!!!

I just found out today that there are lots of DVD stores at St. Francis Square. Wow, at least I do not need to go to MetroWalk for my dvds.

After office hours, my colleague and I went straight to St. Francis Square. I got the DVDs that I had been hoping to buy for a very long time. Now I won't have any problem looking for my favorite movies since St. Francis Square is just walking distance from the office :)

Then we watched the first mall show of Princess... She is so pretty and awesome!!! Her voice is very very nice... Too bad, I don't have my camera with me. I was not even able to take a video or a photo because my camera phone has dead batteries, LOL!!! Anyway, here is her version of "Single Ladies", which she also sang for the Finale of her show...

productive week

I have a very productive week indeed...

• I had my photo taken for the ID and I got it yesterday. I think the photo is quite good, got my hair really long right now.
• I managed to re-register at Comelec and I was amazed because registration is already automated. I just wished that the staff could type faster though :) Well, I really want to exercise my right on the upcoming election next year. I am already weighing who I will vote for president.
  
• I had a registered business name at DTI! Its A. Cabral IT Services! Since, I am a consultant now and is not under a regular payroll, I need a DTI registration to get the default 10% to 15% tax deduction. I find it so cool to have my own business name registered hehehe...
• After registering at DTI, I went straight to Robinson's Steps hehehe.. I inquire about the dance lessons. I watched the dance session last Tuesday and I think it is so cool. I decided to try at least one session this coming weekend. Its only 200 for 3 hours-session so it is not that bad. The session will include power dance, belly dancing and hip-hop. I really want to stay fit :)
• We had a project kick-off (lol!!!) My goodness! Apparently, the project lead had given me a very difficult project that none of the other QAs want to test. Haysss... I even felt my heart pounding during the demonstration of the BA. I find it interesting but I really prefer something simple for a change :( Though, of course, there is nothing I could do if that is already assigned to me. Anyway, we were given ample time to at least know the basics of Standard Oracle apps before going straight to the functional details of the actual project... I have until next Friday to get the knowledge-foundation of the basics. The database schema is so complicated as well as the backend stuff.. Gosh, I think my vacation is really over hehehe...
• And finally, I will receive my first paycheck tomorrow! That is the best part of it :)
  

Then, its Friday tomorrow!!! Yipee!!! I am going to meet some of my friends in Ortigas! Then I have the entire weekend to relax again! I think I will watch G-Force with my sister!

What a Monday!!!

Oh, I HAD the worst Monday in my ENTIRE working career yesterday, LOL! But it never dampen my high spirits...

Let me start. I didn't make it to my usual 8am time-in at work (I am always targetting it so that I have enough time to catch up with my old friends at Ortigas after office hours-5pm). Then I lost some money after lunchtime and I don't know exactly how and where but I have a hunch that it happened when I took out my cellphone just to take some pictures of the park inside the company premises, lols! (What a way to lose money!).

Its a good thing that I met up with my friend after office hours. We met at Mega A around 6pm. He just applied for a job somewhere in Ortigas Center too. Then, it started to rain when we were about to head home. At Ortigas Station, there was no bus going to South and we waited there for almost 30 minutes. It is very unusual because buses in Edsa usually come and go. So, we decided to go to Alabang instead. Luckily, there was one bus there going to Batangas but unfortunately, we were standing (fortunately, one good guy gave his seat to me hehehe!). We were informed that the traffic jam going South is terrible due to Iglesia Ni Cristo's grand anniversary celebration which was held somewhere in Calamba; that is why the driver will do a detour (exit to Cabuyao going to Los Banos then San Felix then Sto. Thomas) just to avoid the traffic jam.

My goodness! It is a good thing that I was with my friend so I didn't get too annoyed, he brought lots of food with him hahaha!

Then when we finally made an exit to Cabuyao to avoid the traffic, the bus broke down hahaha! So we have to wait for another one hour to transfer to a new bus. I got home 3am in the morning hahaha! Imagine that? the usual 1 and half hour ride became 9hours at most!

But looking at the bright side, I just considered it as a ROAD TRIP... Very unusual really... having that kind of detour just to get home. I am very thankful to the driver. If he didn't think of that detour, I guess I can get home not 3am but 5am! Goodness me...

So, I was not able to make it to work come Tuesday hehehe.. What a waste! But anyway, I got a picture of the park inside the company premises. Hehehe, I was just too shy to take pictures of the main fountain as well as those awesome galleries in the hallway... I wish to drink coffee in the park some other time :) and visit the library too... I love to get my hands on those books!!! I even had a chance to visit the West Core yesterday and it is totally awesome! I mean it is like having a mall inside a company. I can even pay my Citibank and Metrobank bills there without going out of the company premises.

keeping in touch

I was asked by someone to keep in touch. I really don't know if it is a good idea but I said yes just the same...

Anywayz, one of my best friends for 8 years just came from abroad 2 weeks ago... We were having a great time catching up. I hope he finds a job here in the Philippines very soon so that we could start to visit the places that we had planned for a very long time together with our other friends...

the half-blood prince

We watched Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince movie last weekend ( I was anticipating it since last year). I like the adaptation better than the previous one (Order of the Phoenix). Though others said that the movie is very dragging and some even fell asleep. But, I really like the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series. I even downloaded a copy of it from a torrent site and watched it again this week. I think they had captured the essence of the book as it is. All the essentials are there.

I cannot wait for the first part of the Deathly Hallows next year, hopefully!

midyear thoughts...

I am starting to enjoy my new life, my new environment. Maybe, as one of my colleagues said, I already past the hurt, grieve and anger stage; and that I already am in the acceptance stage.

Though it is just a temporary job, I can feel that after several months, I can smile and laugh again from the heart. I am surrounded with very nice people. Even if I just started with the new job last week, I feel at ease already with the people I am going to work with for the next six months. They are nice bunch of people, always looking after each other, sharing their food, their stories and always willing to lend a helping hand... There is always laughter in the air amidst those tasks and deadlines. Although I was told that some of the developers are bullies and annoying, I don't mind at all because I am kind of used to those kinds of developers already (after working with different organizations). I was even told that the politics in the company (since it is such a huge organization) is quite something too; but, I don't care hehehe... I am so used to these kinds of environment that I already learned how to be detached... There is no such thing as a perfect organization anyway. We can meet assholes or bitches in every organization. The challenge is to learn how to deal with them while doing your job very well...

Then in just a week, I can feel that I am ready to go back to testing... I am even excited with the project I am assigned with, which will start this Friday. I think it is very interesting, ERP systems-- the first ever system that I tested when I started my QA career... I know how challenging and engaging such system is :)

Though the process is not what I had expected it should be and the work is more manual than automated, I think it is fine for the next six months. I just need to feel that I love to test and I hope that ADB won't disappoint me...

I saw him at Facebook

I saw Enrico Dimatatac (aka Ricky) in Facebook yesterday and I tried to add him as a friend. I am a bit skeptical that he will accept the invite after those things that happened to us almost 8 years ago. But to my delight tonight, he added me as a friend :)

Come to think of it, I haven't changed my password since then. Most of my passwords if not all (both work-related or personal) has his name on it, actually, the password is a combination of our names.

He is happily married now. I am so happy for him. Now, I am free from one of the painful memories I had before... All I have now of him are those happy memories :)

Time heals and everything happens for a reason...

I wonder how long will it take for the latest one to heal.

MY first ever horseback all the way to a volcano's crater

I just came from Talisay, Batangas. I had my first horseback ride going to Taal volcano crater. My horse's name is Jackie and she is a very nice mare. I was told that most of the horses being used for that 45-minute ride are mares and not stallions for quite obvious reason.


At first, I was quite scared but since I am the adventurous type, I quite enjoyed the trot. The view of the Taal Lake and the infamous inactive Taal volcano (as mostly seen in the web) was magnificent! And I saw "uwak" for the first time. Hahaha! I was wondering if there are corpses in the steep mountains.

The rocky roads are mostly composed of hardened reddish lava from the active Taal volcano. I even saw one smoking!

Here is the infamous inactive Taal volcano as mostly seen in the photos. The first one I took from the boat ride going to the volcano while the second and the third I took while riding Jackie the mare :) going to the crater.


In these next photos, the background is that of the volcano's crater. Too bad it is already past 5pm when we arrived there. If we were able to make it earlier, we could go down the crater and experience the salty water (we were told that the water in the crater is salty).

Here are some partial photos of (active) Taal volcano's crater:



And since my camera cannot accommodate the entire crater of the currently active Taal volcano, I just captured ii in video...

We will definitely go back there but we will just trek our way to the crater next time :)

Dawn at Saud Beach

I am already considering buying an SLR, maybe Canon or Nikon. I love taking photos. Hmmmm... But for now, I am still using a point and shoot Canon Ixus camera.

I always wake up very early especially when I am at the beach. No matter how late I sleep the previous night, I always end up waking so early just to catch the break of dawn. I always take a walk by the beach, never failed to relax me.

Anyway, here are some of the photos I really like. They are not much since I am not a professional photographer but I really like these photos, I could convey a story for each of them :)

--The waves crashing and kissing the rocks at break of dawn, will soon reform those rocks in due time

--Mister Moon solitary in the morning sky, waiting for someone to notice him

--Three waves that didn't reach the sea shore

--The 20 windmills of change in the Philippines (taken from camera phone)

Trek to Kabigan Falls, Ilocos Norte

One of the best highlights in our Ilocos Trip is the 30-minute trek to Kabigan Falls. It is the third waterfalls that I had seen in the Philippines. We have to walk and cross 4 rivers to get to the waterfalls. The place is so serene and the mountain view is so majestic. The water is so cool and so clear. After the trek, we took a rest while drinking fresh buko juice. My legs are hurting until now but I don't mind at all. We had a wonderful time!

Here is one of the videos that I took before I charge the cool water... :)

rain

Hahaha! I just found out something today.. I felt so happy after realizing this just now... I felt so happy that I cannot help but laugh and laugh, lol!!!

Now, I know why it rained... why it rained so hard...

Slimming tea... eh???

I had been eating a lot these days. I am not too stressed with work, with transportation, with anything... My mind and heart are at ease. I just get frustrated at work every once in a while but I am learning to be super passive and insensitive. It seems that I am getting detached with my emotions. So, all in all, I am gaining too much weight and I feel so fat indeed.

Then I finally made up my mind this afternoon that I have to lose weight no matter what!!! I mean, an additional inch and a half on my waistline is NO JOKE!!! So, I bought the famous Biguerlai slimming tea from the drugstore and already drank a cup before dinner time... Hahahaha! I can feel the immediate effect already! I mean, I think I already lost half an inch off my waist after drinking a cup... Or maybe, I am just constipated?? Hmmmm.. who knows? I really want to lose the extra inches hehehe...

Hmmmm.. I think I can wear most of my clothes again hehehe.. Besides, I am preparing for my trip this June so I really have to lose those extra pounds so that I will look good in my summer wear!!!

I passed a CMMI Level 5 type of exam!!! Wow, I cannot believe it!

I just found out that the exam I took last Thursday is a CMMI Level 5 exam!!! I cannot believe I passed it!

Now, I feel better even if I fail other exams...

Review, review, and review

Sheesssshhhh... I cannot believe I am doing what I am doing right now. I am reviewing the things that I used to know :)))

So, I got my goals straight again. I had forgotten about it since I left Makati almost 2 years ago... Now, I remember what I want to achieve. I want the same level of knowledge that one of my very good friends have... Well, he was one of my mentors when I was still at REWSS... but of course, we remain friends until now...

He knows so much about software development... I mean I am always at awe whenever he discusses those things... And I am so grateful to those informal lecture hours because the things that I learned there were the ones I used last Thursday. Thanks to the knowledge that Chris shared with me, I was able to pass a test :) (And, here I am thinking that I forgot everything about SDLC and testing. Apparently, they are just hidden within my brain... All I need is an instance for them to come out)

So now, I think I know what I really want (for the time being, hehehe)... I am starting a review :) of the things that I used to know, the things that I want to know and the things that I should know :)

Thanks to google, really :)

DC's Mysterious Eyes by Garnet Crow

I am so hooked with DC right now, watching episodes and movies until wee hours of the morning... I love the deduction, the twist of every case. It proves also that details are really important. Of all the songs, this is the best for me:



And here is the english translation of the song.

Steps (one, two)

One of my very good friends gave me this thought:

One step backward, two steps forward

He is right. He has always been there to lift me up when I am down... :)

hahaha... what is wrong, huh?

I had been sitting here in front of my laptop and staring at the lcd screen. I just finished watching videos. I was trying to think what had happened this past week.

The training has just finished, I am supposed to be busy after that.

Monday, I still have that feeling of being lost, like I am in some kind of a foreign land and I do not know what to do next. It is so frustrating...

Tuesday, I snapped...

Wednesday, I snapped even worse...

Thursday, I got scolded for the first time since I worked at DbSoft. But what can I do? I cannot seem to find my old self again, like I left it somewhere... I filed 18 bugs but I know I could do better, but I don't want to. Its very frustrating really...

Friday, I got scolded again because I was too lazy running test cases (test cases that I am not the author)... I got scolded because I did adhoc... My! I found bugs from adhoc testing not in the test cases! What is wrong with these people??? I tried running test cases... Unfortunately, I prefer to edit them first. So I did adhoc again (I am so stubborn) but executed few test cases for the sake of daily status report...

Saturday morning, I checked emails... Hahaha, I got scolded again because I executed few test cases but filed too many bugs... I really don't know what to do... I am so frustrated...

What is wrong with me??? Today, I just finished the quality bug analysis that is due this week. I finally figured out how I could present the bugs in a professional manner, thanks to pivot table :) and some formula analysis... I only did it in a couple of minutes... I mean, I know that when I am focused, I have great output... But my focus is waning...

I hope that this too shall pass... :)

Drawing Panel

I am playing around the whole day, watching Boys over Flower from Youtube (I finished the entire series already) and now, I am having fun with my cellphone. I spent the last 30 minutes making silly drawings using the drawing panel, lol! More like a paintbrush really but I enjoy it better because I could use a stylus.

Here are some of the silly artwork I managed to do, hehehe...

@Gameworks with VC Friends

I had a karaoke gig last night with my VC Friends. Of all the videos that I had for the night, this one I like the most :)




Here is the compilation of all the videos:

iPod Touch: something I found amusing

We bought iPod Touch last Wednesday. We need this device for testing the application on iPod/iPhone. Yesterday, when we were doing the configuration and some other stuff, I noticed one teeny weeny detail.

I was playing with one of the apps. I tap the itouch to zoom in. Then, I was wondering how to zoom out so I checked the user's manual. It says in the manual that to zoom in, tap with one finger and to zoom out, tap with two fingers.

Hehehehe... My absurdity took the best of me, or rather my playfulness. I wondered if it will still zoom out if I use three, four, or five fingers so I tried using five fingers to tap the device (IYou could just imagine) and it zoomed out.

Ergo, the manual is somewhat wrong hehehe. I mean, if I am the one who will document it, I will write this:

"To zoom in, tap with one (1) finger. To zoom out, tap with more than one (1) finger."

Just a thought :D I am trying to amuse myself to fight my anxiety :)

Thought for the day

My friend had the following quote on his YM and Skype. I really like what it is trying to tell so I thought I post it here:

It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

Cool Lightning Pics

My boss took these pictures during his stay at Vivere Suites. I think they are very cool so I thought I post them here:

Heavenly Ensaymada and Brownies

Yesterday, we had an incident at Conti's. My boss wanted to try Chicken Ballotine (I am not sure if I spelled it right, though). He asked the crew if it has no pork in it and the crew confirmed. Then while we were eating (I tried the Russian potato salad, I think its quite good and it is reddish anyway hehehe) or rather In the middle of our hearty meal, the same crew approached my boss and he just took my boss's plate while he was eating (its rather rude, really) without any explanation whatsoever. Then another crew approached and explained that there is pork in his meal. They were stuttering and rather scared. My boss's expression really changed. I mean, you could see it in his face that he got really annoyed but he remained calm. They asked him to order something else but he lost his appetite so he ended up having no lunch at all. He didn't tell anything to the crew, he just commented that he asked the crew for it and how come that he was not sure. When we were about to leave, my boss talked to the manager. She was adamantly apologizing.


So as a form of apology, Conti's sent my boss some breads (ensaymada) and brownies that we are munching right now while having our training hehehe... They are so addictive (drool...) especially the ensaymada. I think I gained too much weight already... But I cannot help it, I mean, I love to eat!!! I think I could finish the contents of the 2 boxes all by myself!!! I wonder what we will have for lunch,,,

I am writing this blog while in training btw. I will be in big trouble if I get caught. Sorry if there are any mistakes heheheh. This is what we called multi-tasking ehehehe... Training, listening, working on the exercises, blogging, chatting, eating, typing, thinking about food...

New hairstyle

I got myself a new hairstyle yesterday hehehe... Hmmmm.. I just got left-sided bangs that's all and a trimmed layered hair. Something like this:


Candy Bar Dolls

Laguna: wonder no more :)

I kept wondering why they call Eton City as the Makati of the South. But after seeing the under construction Ayala Mall yesterday, I wonder no more... I mean, the place is so cool, will be much more beautiful (in my opinion) than all the Ayala Malls in Manila put together. It is still under construction but you can already see and visualize how it would look like when construction finishes. It has a man-made river with boats where you could have a boat ride for only 20 pesos I think. Some of the stores are already open and some are still under construction. We had the luck of having lunch at the newly-opened Contis. It is just beside the man-made river. I am sure that it would look very cozy at night, perfect for dates :)







The food at Contis is great! But what I love the most are their cakes!!! OMG! They are mouth-watering, really! There were 5 of us so we ordered 5 different cakes each. I only managed to take photos of the first 3 cakes. I was so busy eating after they served the desserts :) Too bad, I wasn't able to capture Mango Bravo, their bestseller cake :) Anyway, take my word for it. The cakes actually melt in your mouth (hahaha) I could hardly breathe after lunch :)





I am starting to appreciate Laguna again. Where else can you see the entire clear skyline, the green trees everywhere? The air is fresh...

All I need now is to find happiness in my work, which is proving to be more and more difficult as days pass by...

Happy Birthday to me :)

My sister created this video for me:



And I finally got myself a new phone! It is an LG Cookie. My boss said he will leave the iPod Touch here for our testing. And I find touchscreen really really cool (the iPod Touch is really really light) but I don't think I need an iPhone so I settled with an LG Cookie! The phone is amazing. It is also like using an iPod touch. I still haven't gotten enough sleep. We will go out with my family tomorrow... Hmmmm... I wonder where we should eat, perhaps the Banay-banay eatery. The food there is amazing :)

And then yesterday, my team mates and I went to MOA and CenterStage. Hahaha! The sound system at CenterStage is much much better than any of the videoke bars I had been at. I mean, I sounded different, like I could really really sing. I am the thorn among the roses :) Here are some of the photos:











Oh btw, there is a Jobapalooza yesterday at MOA. Grabe!!! There are soooooo many people looking for a job! I am so thankful I have one :) Thank God!

All in all, I have a wonderful day today and yesterday too :)