11/28/14

I bought some Christmas gifts today.

I bought one for my exchange gift in our company Christmas party and the other one for my exchange gift in our team kris kringle. I was able to spend barely less than P1K for the 2 gifts but it's alright. The gifts I bought were a part of their wishlist so I know they'll like it.

I went around the mall to look for potential gifts for the rest of my team at work and was able to see some good finds at reasonable prices. I have to give gifts to 19 people and I need to make it fit a small budget. I just saw my latest payslip and my salary is small. I do have some savings that I set aside for gifts so I'll just add a part of it. It's going to be a tough month financially. I'll have to keep my savings in check all the time.

11/27/14

I just want to take this opportunity to greet an important person in my life a happy birthday.

Happy birthday to my mom! It's been another year and I hope there will be more to come! I don't really show my affection so I want to say it out here.

I don't think we have plans for the day but I hope you'll enjoy your day!

11/24/14 - American Music Awards 2014

I watched the American Music Awards this morning. I was afraid it wasn't going to be televised on our cable but I was surprised to find out it was so I made sure to tune in.

The show had plenty of performances. Taylor Swift kicked off the show with her performance of Blank Space. She may not have been nominated for any award but she was later honored with the first ever Dick Clark Award for Excellence for the success she has achieved in her career.

I liked the performances of Imagine Dragons (I Bet My Life), Lorde (Yellow Flicker Beat), as well as 5 Seconds of Summer's rendition of What I Like About You. Other performers includes Magic!, Sam Smith, Fergie, JessieJ, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Skylar Grey, Jennifer Lopez, Charli XCX, Iggy Azalea, One Direction, Selena Gomez, and the show's host, Pitbull.

The show is supposedly fan-voted so it wasn't surprising that the big winner of the night was One Direction who won 3 awards including Artist of the Year.5 Seconds of Summer also showed how big their fanbase are when they won Best New Artist. Iggy Azalea was a big winner in the hiphop category while Imagine Dragons and Katy Perry were also some of the winners for the night.

The show is basically all about the performances rather than the awards but that'show they have always been. It was great to see plenty of live performances anyway.

11/22/14

It felt weird to be back at work. It's the effect of having too many restdays in a week, plus going to work o a weekend where the accounts are surprisingly quiet.

I like it though It felt that time was running slow but I had time to catch up with my Dawson's Creek marathon. I have work again tomorrow before having another rest day on Monday. I can't believe there's less than 10 days left this month!

11/21/14

I watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 today! I've been waiting to watch the movie for quite some time now so I made sure to watch it on the opening week.It was good.I felt the action scenes were lacking but it was still a very enjoyable movie. I haven't watched a movie since 2 months ago so I was just excited to be in a theater again after missing out on so many good movies.

I also dropped by at the Universal Records CD sale at the Universal Tower. It was quite disappointing and I didn't even get to buy anything. Though I don't really feel bad because I just saved some money.

I just picked my Kris Kringle at the office yesterday and I started looking for possible gifts today. We all had our wishlist and the person I picked has listed down items that are easy to find, but very expensive! I'm not against spending a lot for gifts but I don't have money to spend so much. But I already have some prospects.

I just hope that the person who picked me can give me a decent gift.

11/19/14

Stepped into the gym earlier today after more than a month and it feels good!

The renovation was still ongoing which almost killed my excitement but it feels good to be working out and stretching my muscles. It's nice to see some familiar faces and do some old routines.

I'm surprised I can still do some exercises at the weight I'm used to though it was difficult at first.

I just hope that the renovation speeds up. It is so inconvenient to move around the gym.

11/18/14

I went back to Cartimar Recto today to buy some new CDs. It's been a while since I've been to the place so I ended up buying more than a dozen CDs. I can't wait to listen to them all.

On my way out,I managed to look at the other stores which were selling shoes and I found the slippers that I want. I've been looking for a pair of black Birkenstock sandals. An original costs more than P4-5K so I'm hoping that the one I bought is durable enough. I got it for less than P500 which is a good deal.

11/17/14

It's been a while since I've posted here. I feel like a lot of things happened.

I got my gym card today! I've missed working out after more than a month of not being able to go. I picked it up at the Ayala Land recruitment office at Tower One and it was my first time to enter the building. It was really great. I hope our office building was even as half as good.

I also attended my officemate's birthday party celebration last Saturday. It was a night full of fun. There were lots of drinking involved as well as some few illegal activities that I won't mention. It was held in a village in the North so it was an unfamiliar territory for me which was something I welcome. It was about time I stop playing safe and go out of my comfort zone to have fun. I got to meet some of her friends, mostly from my rival school. I was hoping to get to know more of them but maybe next time if the opportunity arrives. Hopefully soon cause I'd love to have some friends from that school. We got her a bag, which is a separate gift from the one our office team gave her which is a cap. But it's worth it since we're quite close and I'll probably end up giving everybody a gift on Christmas.

I have some plans for the week and I hope they'll push through.

11/12/14

I'm starting to feel a bit better. The fever is starting to cool down. I'm getting bothered though by rashes or pimples suddenly appearing on my face as if I had some outbreak. I'm not sure if it is connected to my sickness or just extreme bad luck. Either way, my face looks like a mess right now. 

11/9/14

I hate this feeling. I'm stuck in bed because of a sickness. I've been feeling dizzy and sleepy all day. I still have to report to work tomorrow.

11/8/14

My head is in such pain right now. I barely got enough sleep, I'm having headaches, my neck hurts, and I think I'm about to have a fever. I'm glad it's my rest day tomorrow. I don't want to risk my perfect attendance record.

11/7/14

I had quite an intense discussion with some of my officemates last night.

We were talking about the incoming changes in our team. Actually, it's more of an additional task rather than just a simple change.

That's basically an extra baggage for our workload that is currently heavy already. The new tasks that we're supposed to do are tasks that should be done by other teams, but our inconsiderate management decided to pass it on to our team for some reason.

It truly is unfair based on the amount of work we are currently handling. We also lack manpower and a new task that is not in our job description is not helping.

We can't really complain to our supervisor because she is also against it, but she has no say in the matter because it's the management's decision.

We have been told about this before, but we didn't expect it to come into fruition.

I really want to stay in the company for a longer period of time, but things might change. The big "R" word came into discussion and all of us might be planning to leave after the year ends.

I'd hate to be another reason for disappointment to my family, but this is also a big shot down to my personal career. I'm at a loss and another resignation to my credentials ain't gonna help. It's starting to be late for a career change at this point.

11/5/14

Today was quite a long day but it was the good kind.

I had lunch with some of my close friends from work including the 2 people who just left. One of them came to the office to claim documents and his final pay which was an opportunity to have lunch. It's a good thing that my shift starts late so I didn't have to worry about missing work. We ate at The Old Spaghetti House after failing to find any restaurants to eat in.

It was a good opportunity to talk about random stuff and also to help our officemate plan her birthday party next week.That's something to look forward to.

Though it's sad that it may be one of the last get-together we'll have for a long time. At least for this year. These last two months will be something that will be remembered for sure. But of course, I am still hoping that we'll get to see each other on a frequent basis for a long time. I just need to figure out what I really want in my life.

11/3/14 - 1989

The music industry is in a slump these past few years, at least in terms of sales. With many albums failing to sell, many wonder if anyone can still get a hit album. In fact,no album released this year have sold more than a million copies in the US.

But of course, Taylor Swift is here to the rescue. With the release of her latest album, 1989, many people including myself were excited for what she has to offer. She announced that she was going on a full-pop record this time around.This isn't new since her previous albums had a tinge of pop, but this time, she is doing it completely.

Some say this would alienate her country fanbase and damage her sales. Some were very supportive of her move and sees it as an opportunity widen her fanbase.

Regardless of the move,the latest news reports claim that the latest album is confirmed to have sold a million copies already,and if she's lucky, she's on track to break a record for the highest selling album in the first week for a female.The current highest female album who has the album sold around 1.3 million. The latest news says 1989 is projected to sell around 1.25 million copies. It's going to be close for sure and it got the whole music industry excited. Her previous two albums have also sold more than a million in the first week so she already made history by selling three consecutive albums with a million first week sales.

I haven't got my physical copy of the album yet, but I already downloaded it and have been listening to it for the past week.

The album has 13 album tracks with 3 bonus tracks included in the deluxe edition plus 3 voice memos of her explaining her song writing process.

I'm not really supportive of Taylor going full-on pop despite being a huge fan, which explains my distaste for her previous album, Red.

The lead single, Shake It Off, was very generic but it was a success. Spent at least 2 at the top of the charts and it is still getting a lot of airplay. It was pretty much an in-your-face song dedicated to all those who are criticizing her every time. A little refreshing to have a lead single not about love or break-up.

I actually liked this pop effort from Taylor. Though not exactly what I wanted, it's still better than Red.

Style is supposedly about her ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles, and it is one of my current faves from the album.

Blank Space seems to be an early fan-fave based on the iTunes chart and I'm not surprised why. It has a fun beat and the song is directed at the media who always sensationalize her private life as well as her love life.

This Love and Wildest Dreams have this ethereal feel to it and can be soothing. Out Of The Woods is a song which she made together with Jack Antonoff. The production and verses are great but the lyrics are very repetitive. It also includes a track reportedly a diss at fellow singer,Katy Perry,called Bad Blood which was very hyped prior to its release. Katy is the last person I'd expect Taylor to have a feud with but the result is not that great. The song doesn't have direct attacks where you can identify who she is talking about. The song underwhelms but it's not necessarily a badly written song.

As a pop album, it has a lot of head bopping tracks including How You Get The Girl,I Wish You Would and the bonus tracks like New Romantics and Wonderland.

It also has its cheesy moments like Clean and Welcome To New York. But what I am definitely missing is the lack of a powerful ballad. There's really no track that can match with the epicness of All Too Well or Enchanted.

Overall, it's better than other pop albums from her peers and she deserves the success. This isn't really the Taylor that the world deserves but it's what it needs right now.

Top Tracks: Style, All You Had To Do Was Stay, and I Wish You Would

11/2/14

Just committed my first error this month yesterday. It's been a long time since I've made one but I somehow saw it coming. I'm just thankful that the error won't count for the past month since I was aiming for a high KPI.

11/1/14

Yesterday was supposed to be a day of fun for most of us. To celebrate Halloween, one of our teammates suggested that we come to the office wearing costumes of high school stereotypes. We also planned to have a buffet dinner after.

I decided to come as a rocker/punk with my leather jacket. Some of our plans changed when we decided to have videoke at Red Box instead but that was fine with me even if I already made reservations prior to arriving at the office. I hope they won't blacklist me for not showing up.

I'm glad that I didn't have work on that day so I could join in on the fun. Plus, the office was having problems with the electricity so it would have been such a terrible day to work.

There were 10 of us who were able to go. We bought a gift for our colleague who was celebrating her birthday then had dinner at Papa John's in Greenbelt 3 before getting wild at Red Box.It was actually my first time there even though I've wanted to try it for quite some time. The price per head is quite expensive but it's a good thing that it was a payday so I had money to spend.

After most of us left, some of us decided to go to the condo of another colleague which was near the area. We bought some drinks at a convenience store and spent the rest of the night drinking and bonding.

It was a bittersweet moment as it might be one of the rare or last times that we'll get to do it again.

Another one of my closest friends at work was told that he wouldn't get regularized. That quite sucks as we were all surprised by the sudden decision. We didn't have time to prepare and now there is a huge void to fill in at the office. We already have existing problems with manpower and it's about to get worse. 

But aside from that, I just can't explain why all of the people I'm close to at the office is leaving one by one. I can't help but think that there's a problem with me.