The One with the Gray Flannel Life

You're working a 9 to 5 job and you're haplessly scouring crowds for the next available cab. The influx of people can be likened to a tsunami - the wave of gray, blue and brown tops all around you drown out your white shirt. Rush hour traffic is pouring in and you just can't, for the life of you, understand why the hell the city is populated with so many people. You now wonder where the hell these people are coming from and just irritatingly think - where the heck do you guys work - only cos you don't remember having that much colleagues or people in your building. 

This is New York and this is kind of like how a Manila traffic cam looks like as you cruise along EDSA.

I work in Makati, the most densely-populated business hub/industrial zone/BPO central/nightlife and lifestyle domicile/residential city in the entire Metro Manila. If you've ever been here, there is no heck way you would want to live here. Maybe because of the proximity to work, but other than that, the traffic is infernal, the queue to any type of food service is eternal and the heat (thanks to the thousands of people taking the train with you, or ribbing you to get the next available cab) has no interval (I had to rhyme there...). 

GT Tower in Makati. Just a few blocks away from virtually any other building. 

Forget finding some common ground with the rest of the business populace. Every day is a rat race - it's a long-enduring marathon to the office, followed by a bike ride uphill and downhill to your boss' heart (and if you're fortunate enough to have multiple bosses to please, your bosses' hearts and sometimes, even liver and lungs - think alcohol and ciggies) and a long brisk walk to the end of the day, to which the endurance marathon begins again as you do the diurnal exodus to your respective city. 

Some people prefer the fastest way out from the business hub every day. I'd rather ride a cab than get ribbed, suffer microfractures on my back and shoulder bones and maybe an occasional bruise here and there. Why there was this one time that my shirt lost a button amidst the chaos in the train. 

A few months ago, I had the choice of trading my offbeat, colorful, chunky clothes for a gray flannel suit. I won't say where or how or why, but I was given the opportunity to join a leading financial institution. I did my part - filling out forms, long interviews, having time snatched away from you in a long and winding waiting room/lounge for applicants as you listen to their company anthem over and over and over and over and over (and over and over and over again until you want to slash your wrists off using the blunt side of your phone or maybe using the twine used to sew your purse). They offered a wonderful remuneration package... a car loan, a good salary, bonuses, other packages that other companies (BPOs to be exact) can't provide. The catch is working from 9 to 5 and maybe even beyond that. 

Obviously, I'm not this hot. She's wearing the gray flannel suit much better than me. 

I wasn't ready to give up my freedom. Call it my last hurrah or my child-like impulses or the need to have fun in my job, but it dawned on me that I wasn't ready nor wanting the gray flannel life. It was an associate manager position and their employees have stayed with them for years, some even counting decades of sheer dedicated and disciplined work. I was going to handle a team, and report to a director of sorts and yet my heart was sinking. I felt it in the pit of my stomach. I politely asked to think about it and decided against all rational and logical thought that I should reconsider my current position. 

Not that ready to be chained to hardcore corporate just yet...

I want a team that's dynamic, that's fervent and teeming with energy. I want work that changes as times change. I want marketing and communication and learning and training and passion - yes, passion in my work. Passion in the written word, passion in letting someone learn from you and learning something from someone. Engaging someone. Involving someone. Firing-up their senses and stabilizing culture and intent. Training is my passion and to be confined or boxed in a boundary was just too much for me. I foresaw myself having to ask for approval per protocol I was going to implement. I saw myself barking against a wall of corporate suits that won't listen to a word I say because their company has simply existed long before my parents were even born and will probably exist long after I'm gone. I guess that is what I'm against, corporate red-tape that would otherwise kill my mojo. 

Am I regretting my decision, that's why I'm writing about this experience? Not really. I realized I'm not a purist. I am not someone direly in need of a grown-up, mature job. I sincerely appreciate the hustle and bustle of a corporate jungle in the guise of a playground. 

All pictures were taken from Stock Xchng. 

The One with the Disaster

Disclaimer: This is not a means to participate in a Twitter frenzy of praying for and asking for donations for Japan. It's my small way of making people aware of the disasters around them. This is a grossly serious post and it chronicles my thoughts and feelings about what happened in the midst of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in a country so powerful economically that it could stand to weather almost anything. 

It was an ordinary day in Japan. What could have been another day in an office, or the field was suddenly turned upside-down when the country was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, centered near the east coast of Japan. The epicenter was in the Miyagi Prefecture, which meant it affected the densely-populated business city of Tokyo. Fishermen were in their busiest deep in the big blue Pacific, trying to get their catch at around 2PM in the afternoon when the quake happened, which means most of them were swept away by huge tsunami that crashed into the inland, badgering the already shaken and stirred people of Japan. 

That's a picture of a man looking at the rubbish in his town, after the quake and the tsunami devastated the city. 

Debris of fallen buildings and other structures amidst sludge and water. 

Massive destruction along public highways, the bridge shown here almost uprooted from the ground. 

Tsunami waves spilling over the streets of Tokyo

And in case you've been desensitized by Hollywood movies about the end of the world, and you think that this is one rich country that need no help, think again.

A female survivor crying in the Iwake prefecture northeast Japan. 

A man cries as he sees a board with names of survivors at a shelter in a village ruined by the earthquake. 

Isolated people in Sendai. 

And in case it hasn't hit you yet, here's a video of the massive punishing power of water over one powerful country. 

Disasters come and tear people's lives apart everyday of their lives. Some have it worse than others. To point to the different disasters in Asia, in February of 2011, there was heavy flooding in Sri Lanka that killed at least 11 people. In the same month, New Zealand experienced a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that caused 166 fatalities. Disasters come at the most unexpected times, times when you just had a conference call or maybe a quick meal, maybe even in the most ungodly hour at night. How prepared are you to lose everything you have? And following that thought, how prepared are you to fight for what you have? 

I was in a cab, ready to head home when I heard the news. Earlier, I was under the impression that the day was just so long and I can't wait to hit the sack. I even thought of listening to my newly-downloaded songs on my iPod before sleeping. It was a normal day. Had it happened to this city - my city - would I have survived? Probably not. 

• While Manila might have been informed of an impending tsunami of massive proportions, poorly-designed streets would have damned me right then and there, in the cab, along with my poor driver, trapping me in water, debris and an abysmal combination of slurry and full-force waves. The locked windows and doors would automatically cave me in, crushing my face, arms and perhaps even my jugular, cutting off any circulation. 
• If the tsunami won't kill me, it would be the fire that would probably start from the massive onslaught of debris and collapsed structures into closely-wound gasoline stations in and around the metro, not to mention the poorly-maintained states of most cabs nowadays. 
• Edifices would have crumbled in minutes, thanks to a force so strong and huge that would crack the heaviest metals and concrete megastructures in the city. The street asphalt would crack and become brittle and might even cave from the enormous pressure of the water and the heavy cars, trucks and other vehicles. A structure could fall right atop my cab and would crush me in seconds, cutting off any type of function in my body. 
• Heavy electric wirings could actually fall right into the water or could be snapped by the massive water, making the water excessively charged. Mix that with metal cars and you have a fried (or baked) me.

I know, that is a morbidly disgusting thought, but I'm wired to think of the worst-case scenario and what would I do. I realized that the best thing to do in the event of an actual disaster is to actually scramble for the highest ground possible. In an earthquake, a tsunami and even a flash flood, my best bet for survival is actually, amazingly climbing the highest peak. Now, getting there could actually kill me too.

Life is a series of paths strewn with thorns and sometimes, an occasional bed of roses. If this happened to you today, would you be prepared to face the consequences of your actions? Would you have lived the life you wanted to live? Would you have fought for everything you've got? Would you be swept away and leave your fate to chance? 

Everyone has a fight in them, everything has a reason and looking at how fragile life is, find the why and endure almost any how. 

All pictures are obtained legally and with links to the original post from Yahoo News. Information obtained from CNN and The Huffington Post. 

Be familiar and be aware of the things happening around you. Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) has projects geared towards preparing for natural calamities and disasters in and around Asia. 

Help the survivors and the relief operations in Japan and Time was kind enough to summarize it. Check out their newsfeed on how you can help Japanese earthquake and tsunami survivors. 

The One with the New Year

I'm born and bred Filipino but my blood is still slightly of the Chinese descent. I would always tell people that I'm a non-practicing Chinese. But when the opportunity to visit Chinatown on Lunar New Year came to me, I grabbed it by its horns. 

No city trip is complete without sampling its church. I know for a fact that in art class, we were all asked to take a trip down old Manila and simply marvel at the architecture, the facade and the intricate art that the church has to offer. There's so much about a church that tells you about the community. 

San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Downtown Binondo

A church shows solidarity. It links tradition to community and sets the tone for the community. And entering the church, it was airy and light. There were sculptures of saints and intricate columns everywhere but what I loved were the paintings on the wall and the archs of the dome. 

Nice art piece on the wall. Nope, I didn't lie down to take this shot. 

After which, we walked from street to street, admiring the view, the people and the customs. 

Balloons being sold by the side street, covering the huge banner that says "Happy New Year" in Chinese. 

Colored chicks sold by the side street of Ongpin. 

History is rich in this part of town. There's almost too much history that we don't really know where to start. What's amazing about it is there are tons of people walking around, doing as we did - soaking up the heritage and the culture that is Binondo, while everyone eyes the dragon dances. 

Kid in a Cheong Sam

Charms and Chinese amulets

More charms and Buddha figurines. 

Part of that rich heritage is people dressing in red every Lunar New Year. Amazingly, we saw families and even random by-passers in red. 

Red was the color of the day. 

Check it out, one whole family wearing red! Nice! 

So apart from this, we had dragons dancing everywhere! And if you don't believe me, check out the pictures! 

That's a golden dragon, dancing outside President Restaurant. 

Red dragon reaching for a firework atop the building ledge. 

Pink dragon walking along the Ongpin side streets.

A big yellow dragon follows the pink one. 

More of the golden dragon we saw from President. 

Yes, non-practicing Chinese but absolutely appreciating the heritage. Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! 

All pics were taken with a Sony DSC Cam. 
No dragons were harmed during the making of this post. 

The One with the Prodigal Friends

We tend to categorize friends. I think it's a fair assessment to say that we have really close friends who know every little dirty secret we've ever had (from the fact that you used to collect Peter Andre CDs as a 12-year old freckle-faced girl and dancing to the tune of "Mysterious Girl" in the wee hours of the morning to the most recent guilt trip your momma/poppa/significant other/sibling/boss gave you cos of <insert random reason here>). Then you have work friends who don't really have a choice but to take your crap every day of their lives cos you're there and they need to deal with you. Then there's your breakfast or common lunch buddies on weekends who prolly live the same lifestyle as you (which for me means work, head home, check FB and Twitter, perhaps read some Wikipedia entries, play some games online and on random weekends, have a friend over for lunch or head off to the mall and get cracking on some long overdue shopping). Depending on your lifestyle, you can have churchmates, drinking dudes, gimmick entourage, an arsenal of gym buddies, your team of sports fanatics, online fans who follow you on every social networking site but you've never actually met, your own league of warrior princesses and princes for MMORPGs and in some extreme cases, even an FB (friends with benefits, or FuBu).

I have amazing friends and I won't trade trade them for anything in the world. But I had the opportunity to reconnect with someone I have not seen for almost a decade.

Meet Ajeet, my crazy, sarcastic and amazing friend from 10 years ago...

Hawt right? Girls, this guy's available. We can talk about the price if you PM me. Lolz! 

And we had an adventure. I think it's amazing how when you don't really think about anything, you tend to have a lot of fun.

I actually spent 8 hours hopping from one bar to another on a Sunday night! Well, technically, it's just 2 bars, hahaha! 

I'm really glad that I spent that Sunday with Ajeet. We had coffee in Breton and then moved to the Blue Room (where Jazz and old 80's songs were playing) and then off to a place called Silya.

Silya... looks like a house but not quite... 

For those unaware and unknowing of the Malate scope, they have the high-end bars and then they have the bars that look like houses, and this is where you get the cheapest beers and the most affordable eats. You can also have people performing like crazy.

This is the first time I ever sang in front of other people holding a mic. Imagine my surprise when my once very shy and slightly angsty friend started belting out his rendition of a Filipino love song!

I had a wonderful night and I really wouldn't trade it for anything else! Cheers to reconnecting!

All pictures were taken with a Sony DSC series cam. 
Ajeet himself is a blog author. Check out his rants and raves at Read This and Die. 

The One with the January Bucket List

The Bucket List was such a moving story for me that I decided to review it years ago! I loved the concept, I credited Jack Nicholson for the beautiful, softer side he showed during the eulogy scene for the death of Morgan Freeman's character. It made me cry, laugh and finally sigh.

The bucket list is a collection of things that you want to do before you die. Every month, I promised to post little things that I wanted to do if I were to die this month. For some reason, I'd rather post about my bucket list towards the middle of the month. I really have the tendency not to tell people what I want to do until I'm sure I want to do it. So here it goes.

Yup, sometimes, you have to believe that you're dying to live. 

Meg's January Bucket List 
1. Get to reconnect with people I haven't seen for a long time.
Status: Done. But January's not over. 
2. Read a good book. Haven't done so for ages!
Status: Uhm, when I get a free weekend off. 
3. Establish a good habit (as opposed to quitting a bad one).
Status: I have posted pics of it. But well, we'll have a month-ender review of the bucket list. 
4. Find an activity partner and go to places you haven't gone to before.
Status: Several activity partners whom I love spending time with! 
5. Learn something new everyday.
Status: Trying to witness the world with wide-eyed wonder (alliterating much?) 

If I was to believe that I'd die tomorrow, I would probably find more things to do. Looking at my life in hindsight, though, I can easily say that I lived my life with no regrets. Adventure doesn't quite thrill me though I would love to know what it feels like to jump off a cliff barely hanging it via a piece of rope. I want to center my life with great and amazing people that can see the good in the world.

It's a fancy, amazing thought to finish everything at a glance. It's just 5 things but some of them, I haven't even started just yet. I am ready to face the world thinking living. Bring it on!

No photographers were harmed during the making of this post. 
All pictures were obtained legally from Stock Xchnge.