happy week starts

the weekend had been kind to me. not only was i able to enjoy the company of my partner and family at my sister's place but there was also a piece of good news that made me jumped in joy! i was told that i am now a notch higher in the EPH food chain. so from the gray team, (drumroll please, hehe) i am now a proud member of the red team. funny thing was, i actually thought that i was kicked out since i could not see the new assignment page for gray members that welcomes me once already logged in. little did i know that i was already in a different 'office,' haha. i even had to call my superfriend-slash-editor to make sure that i was still part of the company..

so there, such a wonderful experience that i had during the weekend. i hope that this week would really turn out to be a better one despite the line of trainings that i'm supposed to conduct. i also hope that i'd get to write more despite my busy schedule here in the office. i really love this online writing gig, it gives me a natural and a temporary escape from the crazy world of teaching and monitoring! ;p

inspirational video

the week that was really is a sad one. a lot of things had happened that i don't want to recapitulate them. i just want to forget about them since i've been working so hard to be positive despite the worst of things. so when things start to get shaky, i try to look for inspirational/ motivational, self help articles or vid that would boost my morale. good thing though, our department meeting yesterday gave me just what i really need. so to cap off the week that was, let me share this video presented to us. if you happen to love quotes, here's more that you'd surely love and motivate you in the process. life is indeed beautiful despite its flaws.

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happy weekend to all! =)

so... sad.

i should be writing for an assignment that's due early tomorrow but i can't just get myself to write coherently because of the sad, sad thing that happened today. . .

this morning, we were tasked to have a stint on the screening of applicants by the HR department. i was excited as i knew i'd be taking on another challenge. they said it was just like monitoring except that it's done live and evaluation has to be made on the spot. i had never thought that it would be a sullen experience for me... listening to aspiring teachers and evaluating them were not easy--- i had to listen to every word that is uttered, pay attention to the right word stress, listen to critical sounds and discriminate every long and short vowel sounds that they produce. it was taxing! especially when you add the fact that you have to think of what spiel to give once you knew that they're not just fit to be part of the company and string words that are grammatically acceptable and not discouraging on their part at the same time...it was one heck of an experience especially when i turned down two applicants.these two are like your typical bright-eyed applicants who tried their best during the speaking test and who managed to keep their smiles when you gave the implied 'good riddance' .. seeing them leave the room really broke my heart, after all, what do i know about them? i just know that they had little background in teaching and that they do not have that language factor that we're looking for. that's it. they might have a family to support or studies to complete but because of the implied 'no,' they'd have to thnk of other alternatives to do so...

it's really saddening.. if i could only do something about it... we were told that there would be more screenings to be done in the future. despite a break in the monotony of monitoring, i don't feel excited anymore...

wake me up when november comes

it's just june, sixth month of the year. end of the second quarter. i still have to wait for five more months...

i just can't wait until november. not only because it's my birth month but also because the next installment of the twilight series is slated in the same month. hehe, see how shallow i can get sometimes... it was just last week when i watched the official trailer and last month when i saw the posters of the upcoming movie. forums, blogs and other movie sites just can't be stopped from bringing the updates on this much-anticipated movie.

i had the trailer downloaded in my pc and have watched it for so many times. until now, i still can't help but drool over the handsome features of rob pattinson, the muscled figure of taylor lautner and the incredible effects when jacob morphed into a werewolf. this is definitely a must-see. but while waiting for that fateful day, i guess i better finish reading the book, haha. yep, haven't finished reading it yet. i'm such a slowpoke when it comes to reading ;-)

incidentally, i have here the 'official' posters of the upcoming flick. i downloaded them some weeks back but i was just too lazy to upload them here.. i'm displaying them here for no special reasons. perhaps i just want to be reminded after ten or probably twenty years from now, or when i'm too old to remember everything, that some time or somewhere in my liftetime, i was once part of the twilight hype...

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...the bod that got everyone talking...

...beauty personified (that's just me anyway)..

...which side would you choose?...

monday blues

i shouldn't be working until after two hours but due to an important desion-making two or three weeks from now, our moniroting tasks have come into full circle. so armed with my headset and a cup of coffee, i'm trying to ready myself for the next 10 hours. yep, ten hours and that means 10 classes to monitor as well. i hope i could finish earlier though so that i could still have my dose of facebook and bloghopping. i've been itching to do them during the weekend but the bad, bad weather caused our internet line to go ballistic. so instead of writing or visiting my facebook or friendster account, i spent the weekend watching nip/tuck, heheh.. it's pretty good though.. hope i really could juggle watching the disturbing drama along with my study and work time...


oh well, better start monitoring... btw, got my first points for my first writing assisgnment! couldn't be H-A-P-P-I-E-R!


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Golden Rule, revised

I just want to share this food for the thought. Got it from one of the lectures I attended some months back...

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Get rid of the Golden Rule

•It is a nice rule but could be better. This could be improved by The Mancusi Platinum Rule:

•'Do unto others as they would like to have it done unto to them.' The Golden Rule gets us into trouble because what we like is not always what others want.

And,,,

The Mancusi Emerald Rule:

•'Do unto others as they would have never dared to imagine'
•Anybody can give you the Golden Rule, and you can give someone the Platinum Rule, if you find out what they need but the best rule of all is the Emerald Rule


How to apply?
•Understand people all the way
•Be creative in approaches to delivery

***

by Joseph L. Mancusi, PhD

month-end adrenaline rush

it's just 5:30. work won't start until 7am but guess where i am right now...


on my beloved depot here in the office!... and why am i here? ..well, i need an early start so that i could finish a lot of things today. there are just so many "frogs" to eat that i hope i won't have empatso, hehe. it's that time of the month again when almost everyone, especially the team heads from teacher management and dev-Q members including myself, are in a tizzy to meet month-end deadlines. good thing i'm on track in terms of monitoring, however, i seem to be neglecting the most important of all---my project. the draft of which was due two weeks ago but until now, i still can't decide on how the flow of the training would go. this is bad, bad, bad! i seem to be taking advantage of my team head's forgetfulness. *sigh*

and so as a motivation, i watched the video on procrastination for the nth time. this is so far my favorite among all the media files sent to us since procrastination has always been the bane of my existence. i really am thankful for all the self-help vids and readings that our team head's been sending us... so, here i am now taking the vid's advice and writing down the 'frogs' that i have yet to eat:

* finish TRAINING PROJECT DRAFT (list of all the activities and the timetable)
* research for my first writing assignment! hehe
* accomplish the QA survey form (which is a week late, i'm not the only one who's guilty though since it takes a while to really finish the survey)
* monitor the last 20 teachers in my list (pat on the back, please)

so there, i hope i didn't miss anything. and i also hope that i'd really have all the time and energy today to do atleast half of the first and the whole of the second and third tasks. i'm really keeping my fingers crossed. i also hope that there aren't so many interruptions today coz i'm giving up my facebook fix just to accomplish all these within the day. good luck to me! :)

what's your frog?

procrastination is really a hard habit to break. so for all those who just love to put things off, especially urgent and important ones, here's something for you. enjoy the frog! ^^