The One with the Bumpy Cab Ride

A lot of people don't know this about me but I can actually drive. I just never bothered lining up for a license and never bothered hard enough to get a car. I get by with riding cabs - hey less hassle with the parking and less issues with the bad traffic I have to deal with to get to work or to get home.

Traffic nightly from my place to Makati looks like this.Yes, even at 11PM at night! 

There are days when I'm thankful that I don't drive. When it's raining, for example and the roads are muddied, slippery and jammed with a bumper-to-bumper entourage of cars. Amazingly, just when it's raining and when it's crowded, that's when the mouth of hell opens and spews all the motorists in the world, throw into the mix the maze manipulating, passenger-hoarding jeepneys and you've got yourself a man-made disaster - the Manila traffic.

Not Manila, but close. And if this was Manila, this would be snake-like and not as orderly. 

What is confusing about the traffic is amidst all of this, a normal passenger is still able to manage his/her life throughout. Behind the long queue in train stations across the metro, the hundreds of people trying to steal your cab, the filled jeepneys and let's not forget the FX, the trikes and the other forms of transportation I have yet to ride, there are still people in their offices. Only when you're travelling during rush hour do you see how immensely and densely populated the city is. Isn't it a wonder how we all fit into this tiny city?

Crowded, crowded, crowded. 

So, here I am, soaking wet from the onslaught of monsoon rains, standing in a puddle of what appears to be water, motor oil and some other thick slushy liquid, do I chance upon this cab. I was desperate. I had to get to work because I, just like everyone else, have deadlines to meet (and miles to go before I sleep). I was lucky enough to get his attention (thanks to my ravishing red umbrella).

Everyone needs one. I am telling you! 

I struck up a conversation with the dude driving the cab. Profile: 40 yrs old or so (do you really want to know how I can figure this out?!), kids, wife, driving a cab for some time, can strike up a convo, isn't afraid to ask for more cash if the streets are flooded, safety-minded - meaning he cared whether I locked my doors or not. For some reason, we got into the fact that most passengers tend to be absent-minded and leave their valuables behind. This is where the conversation started getting testy.

Don't leave your cab without it. 

Apparently, the driver has experienced something bad when it comes to returning things. His passenger left her mobile on the cab and after a couple of hours, the phone was ringing. He picked it up. Naturally, the passenger asked for her phone back and he said he's a city away. Quezon City to be exact. The passenger was dropped off in Taguig. The passenger said to return it and she'll take care of the bill. Naturally, the cab driver assumed he'd get at least the running meter for the cab. Lo and behold, when he got to her, all she gave was a 50PhP bill. She was even mad that it took so long. From here on forward, he said, he's never going to return anything to anyone anymore.

Where the *ff are you?! 

Obviously, trying to reason with someone that has that mindset won't work. I tried questions and other means of making this guy realize that karma does exist and it bites you back tenfold and yet, I guess that harrowing experience taught him that doing good isn't always going to reward you.

Maybe all the dude wanted was a thumbs-up? 

I was honestly alarmed. It's kind of sad that people have lost all sense of goodwill towards others? It's not just the cab driver, it's the lady passenger who handed the driver a 50 and basically said "get lost". Then there's the driver who in his intentions got lost, thinking he needed a reward for the things he did. Isn't the reward of a good deed the act itself? I'm not going to launch into a litany of anachronistic phrases from the Bible, some gentleman's code from the 1800's or some old English poet, but when you think about it, doesn't it alarm you that people out there won't even give you the time of the day even if it's a good deed anyhow?

All pictures were taken from Stock Xchng, my leading provider of stock photos.

The One with God and the Multi-level Manager

A couple of years back. I was a Training and Development Coordinator before, in Merlin. I used to handle several sites - Hungary, UK and the Philippines. Think that it's a Training and Development Manager post, except that the company calls it something else for purposes of taxation, semantics (cos they're Brit) and the whole thought of we're not a call centre hence we're not gonna call everyone a manager mindset. (Thanks to James for clearing that up!)

Apparently, I should have had a PDA. They just gave me a laptop and I had to lug it around for hours to get to the office! Hahaha! 

In Hungary, where there is an entire floor in a building dedicated to the company, there are so much more employees. Handling training for soft skills, communications and other specifics was simply harder to accomplish remotely and at the same time, it was just hard to follow-up.

In the UK, because it's corporate, it's easier. The personnel are great to get along with and they often just need some systems training, where one SME (subject matter expert) is already in the site and it's mere coordination that needs to be set in motion.

In the Philippines, it was a whole lot easier. Everyone can see you, everyone "respects" you to a certain extent and it's easier to reach out. People are commonly more agreeable cos they know you're working hard on something and your intention is to get everyone trained on a specific topic, even if it means taking an hour-long call from the NASA affiliate of the account you're handling (which means extending your shift until 5 in the morning even though it's agreed that you only work until 2AM).

Getting people to follow your training requires some weird talent - it involves food, some warm coffee and a lot of stand-up acts that you should have mastered by the time you're almost 30! 

Earlier today, I had dinner with a trusted friend. He sat down with me and told me how he abhors (notice how I skipped the use of the word hate cos it just doesn't give me the same intensity as "abhor") it when some "evangelists" tell you you're wrong and condemns you to turn you to their religion. He spoke of a time when he felt like he was being crucified for doing something wrong, as a former classmate of ours would come to his house and would try to get him to attend a church he belonged to. They stopped talking after my friend said "I'm not saying no to God, I'm saying no to you...". I guess the extremist church dude took the Bible verse "...do not yoke with unbelievers" seriously. 

Who could say no to that face? Maybe evangelists should utilize cherub-like  images before they "preach". They'd get better responses. 

I came to think about my own experiences in religion. I have had friends who would gently prod, others would guilt you into going to their churches, others would surprise you (as in you feel trapped, you're in someone's "party", and in the middle of the hip LL Cool J song, they whip out their Bibles and the pool is already prepped for your "baptism") and others would simply back-off when you say you're busy. Those whom I'm still friends with are those who showed genuine concern. Those who may have failed but still show their care, would pray for me, would accompany me on a bad day or simply go shopping and not quite talk about their faith. I've been approached by all types of religions - Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity. All types of faiths, leading me to believe sometimes that I can just wait until some cult comes up to me and say "The Sunshine State of Mind is the way to go..." and I'd just finally give up and say "Sure, why not?!". I figured there are really those that force and condemn and criticize, without taking someone's side on anything. They judge and cast stones. If you've ever been approached by people who tell you that your faith is wrong, you're wrong or the way you live your life is wrong, then you know what I mean. They congregate as a group and collectively point their fingers at you, choosing to say "You're wrong", instead of "This is what's right in my eyes, or in God's eyes...". 

Judge me. I'm a sinner. 

In most cases, eager and overzealous evangelists become the judge,jury and executioner. I'm familiar with the drill. Corner someone and say he or she is wrong. He/she is a sinner. He/she is a bad person. Guess what, everyone is a sinner. Supposedly, according to the Bible, "everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glory". There's no need to condemn anyone because "the wages of sin is death" and I will skip stating which part of the Bible it is. The main idea is God has always tried to reach out, to coordinate, to hold out His hands and try to get people to see His point of view. Preachers tend to point their fingers at you and say "You're the worst person on earth"... They follow up their church and what their doctrines are and it scares the heck out of you because you're not a judgmental person and you simply hope not to be judged by anyone. 

I read it once. Not enough to quote it like a lawyer but hey, enough to know God loves me. 

They always say that God is a jealous, spiteful, avenging God. He is a God that punishes and whatever bad thing that happens to you is your punishment. Flu? You didn't read the Bible yesterday! Leprosy? That's cos you cheated off your 2nd-grade classmate back then. AIDS? Homosexual abomination! You deserve that! Famine and strife? Your country is heathen and hedonistic and you've displeased God! I sincerely don't doubt that there are people out there who tend to cast stones because of self-righteousness. Guess what, it makes sense to me. Scare someone sh*tless and you tend to make them want to seek out the one thing that would hold them together. But isn't this a cult tactic? Isn't this what the Manson Family (Charles, not Marilyn) did? Isn't this what the late great cultist Jim Jones did in Jonestown, Guyana? Fear - fear of failing, fear of humiliation, fear of rejection - aren't those their tools? These men - great minds, amazing followship (and I don't call it fellowship because it might offend some people) was because they were bullies. They coerce people to follow, coerce people to belong and thus, people tend to. They make a stand, and they force people into accepting their words as gospel truth because they have a congregation that says "amen" to what they say, because they have a group that can "excommunicate" you when you choose not to follow and they have the machinery of God's word - thousands of Bible verses to prove to you, to the congregation and the rest of the world that YOU ARE WRONG! 

Still a cute girl. Seriously,preachers, get a little girl to do this... 

Guess what, no one wants to hear they're wrong. 

I was asked by my trusted friend what I think God is like. He laughed when I said "God is like a really good omnipresent and omniscient multi-level manager in a corporation" (Sounds like something I'd say, right? Blasphemous and challenging.). He is an excellent manager of people and a manager of systems. When God needs something communicated, He tends to look into a person's psyche first. Figures out what works best then goes with it and runs with it. Different strokes for different folks. I think God figured out a long time ago that bullying doesn't work (Those Inquisitions never did Christianity any good, did it?) and tolerance, instead of condemnation, is key. God doesn't sit down and tell other people in the department to give sanctions to people for mere omissions or commissions (Christian term which means omitted acts - like reading the Bible, praying, paying your tithes, etc and committed acts - lying, cheating, coveting someone's wife, etc), rather He weighs his options. He has a Performance Appraisal for everyone and knows what each one did to merit an Exceeds Expectations rating, or Fully Successful or even Needs Improvement. He listens in on calls, knows your metrics, bases your performance on that rather than something subjective like how well you participate in meetings or how friendly you were to the staff. God works in mysterious ways too, He doesn't need a major breakthrough so He'd give you a kudos, He knows what you did and He will pat your back when you deserve it. God also sits you down and tells you you've been late for a couple of times, and what the hell is wrong with you or tells you your metrics have dipped, and works with you on how you can make it easier to target those metrics. God isn't a micro-manager. He tells you what He wants done and sets your expectations clearly and tries to get out of your way so you can work your mojo. Ultimately, God knows how to communicate to you. There's no need for flaming swords or the vision of Eden or tears of blood and gold to show you how much He cares. At the end of the day, God is an excellent multi-level manager. 

God has a freakishly large calendar to pencil in talking to his people!

Managing sites, getting people's buy in, finding common things to talk about, not bullying anyone... If I was as good as God (please don't consider this blasphemy, you can dream right?), I would have done that. I would have lessened the administrative tasks and I would have given my all to talk to people and make them want the training, make them want to learn, push them to make the best decisions of their careers and not coerce them into making decisions based on fear or bullying tactics.If you're going to minister to me, trust me. I'm going to need you to talk to me the way most managers do, with patience, tolerance and finally, with understanding. There's no need for an Inquisition when you're not ready for a war. 

No photographers were harmed intellectually during the making of this post. All pictures were taken from Stock Xchng.

The One with the Prowess

I had a quick talk with a younger family member of a good friend. She currently works for a BPO and has mentioned that as an agent, she does pretty well but her scorecards change so often that she gets so confused about what to follow and what to expect next. 

BPO personnel often think that they should always change it up. 

I figured I'd talk to her and find out more about what she wants. She opened up and told me that she wants to be a coach someday. I asked her what she's doing about it and she said, nonchalantly, that's fine. It's all politics. You can date an OM (Operations Manager) and next week become a supervisor. 

That really troubled the heck out of me. I was never the type to rub elbows intentionally. If I see them, I'll say hello, offer them a smoke or a cup of coffee (if we have some handy) and if I encounter them in a resto, I'd of course walk over and say hello. 

Losers wear a frown and smilers wear a crown! Booyah! 

I do a lot of sideline work, and special marketing and consulting projects tend to make you seem more popular than you are, especially if they're Chinese businessmen and they just want some marketing or campaign letters, newsletters or magazine ads. I bump into them in the doctor's office, near my old school, inside a mall boutique and yep, sometimes, while walking home from the nearby drugstore. So, yes, I do walk over, say hello, speak in their vernacular and tell them that I hope they contact me soon for more pictures or web templates or marketing pieces. But I figured, it's only because I'm selling myself (not myself literally!). And let's face it, in the project-contractual world, we don't have scorecards. We only have face value, a hard copy and a soft copy that can be replicated by 10,000 other Six Sigma, SDI and Industrial Manufacturing certified personnel in the field. 

Talking to her, this is when I remembered what I had written in my journal when I was younger. I was so pissed off. One of the high school classmates I had was "voted" an editor. Yes, the high school paper's editorial board was actually voted. They were not judged based on writing skills or knowledge of lay-outs or who's been in the group long, it was an election, which obviously turned out to be a major popularity contest. I had a diary then that would lock in front and I had the key with me at all times. Thanks to Ondoy (International Name: Ketsana), I was able to unearth the diary and I jammed the lock out, allowing me to review and read what I had written so long ago. 

I remember sitting by a tree in the school and writing about it while trying so hard not to cry.

It's never who you know, it's always who you are... Never mistake perception for personality, never assume power for prowess and never take pertinence for passion. 

I was 15, I was miffed and I can't understand why on earth would people choose someone popular and not someone who can do the job? Why does it matter who your clique is? Why can't you get a job or a position based on how efficiently you did? 

I looked at my younger friend across the table. I told her fine, rub elbows, but be sure you're competent enough cos people who can't simply won't. 

All photos are taken official from Stock Xchng. 

The One with the Break from Work

Have you ever had a work-day that was so productive that all you ever want to do when you head home is actually pig out? Well, sometimes, work can be overwhelming, and you deserve some comfort food. So here's our version of comfort food.

Teriyaki Boy at Jupiter 

Now with Low-Salt Alternatives! 

Jessie wanted some yogurt and I wanted some comfort food so badly. I wanted some ramen and some good nori-wrapped Tamago Sushi. I was hooked on that stuff.

Jessie had some Agedashi Tofu and that is some crispy-fried tofu bathed in some light soy sauce broth, topped with some benito flakes and daikon and of course, freshly-sliced Maguro sashimi, which is freshly caught yellowfin tuna. No Japanese meal is complete without raw fish!

Jessie's meal - Agedashi Tofu and some Maguro Sashimi

While Jessie went for the classics, I went for the stereotypical... I wanted some comfort food, cos I was feeling down and out from the long, long day. I had some seafood ramen. It could have been any seafood ramen, but they kind of make this one special. White noodles, dory fish, shrimp, squid balls and some hard-boiled eggs fill the bowl along with carrots and baby bok choy.

I went with some piping-hot ramen. It's noodle-licious! It's filled with veggies, some dory fish, squid balls and shrimp. You got to love some seafood ramen. 

I won't forget my Teriyaki Boy favorite of course, and it's this little concoction. It's some sweet omelette and some vinegared rice, covered in nori.

Some delicious Tamago sushi - definitely something to love. 

I realize that it's not my first time to post about Japan this week. Still praying for recovery for Japan and if it means anything to you all, no Japanese food would ever taste the same until you know that they people who's supposed to be enjoying it should be enjoying it in good health and safely, too.

Teriyaki Boy is all around the metro. Go ahead and click on their site and find a store near you.
Japan still needs help. CBS News was kind enough to sum up what needs to be done.

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.