Hmmmm....

It's 5:30 PM by my PC clock.

Just received information that we will have a staff meeting tomorrow at 9:00 AM.

The agenda wasn't revealed. But definitely, it concerns the company's shutdown (i.e. does it close officially today or do we have an extension?)

Whatever it is, I have set my mind into looking at alternative careers. As if I have a choice.

Anyway, we'll find out tomorrow.

Aftermath

Still havent fully processed what just happened. Ive been texting former officemates asking for vacancies. Texted my brother too. He's understandably upset.

On my desk is a Smokey's Hotdog Sandwich. Something given to us after the meeting. A dole out, so it seems. I havent touched it. Afraid that if I eat it now, it would be the last Smokey's Hotdog Sandwich I'd eat for a while.

And I am supposed to do some revisions on a design proposal that we submitted two weeks ago. My mind's a blank. I have been looking at the spreadsheet since after the staff meeting. Nothing's coming out.

It's funny. Yesterday I was talking to someone who was offering me to do freelance design work for them. I told them that it would be difficult to do freelance work without the company I'm working for right now finding out. Well now, I guess, is the right time to send them a faxed copy of my freelance rates.

Funny also how I've been deleting emails sent by JobsDB and JobStreet without opening them so as not to be tempted to even consider applying. Well now, I guess, is the right time to visit the job search sites.

My mom once told us that our lolo used to tell how the new year would fare by observing the first animal sound he would hear during the parting of the year.

This year, as the old year bid farewell and the new year came with a bang, a cat in heat was meowing (I dont know how to call the sound made by a tabby in heat).

It was a good sign, I believe. A promise of productivity and fertility; as long as a tomcat would come and answer the call, that is.

So that is that. All I need to do now is heed the call of the tabby.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

P.S. I am about to take the first bite off the Hotdog Sandwich. Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub... and more to come!

Quo Vadis

Just came from a staff meeting just now. Our EVP told us a very interesting story.

It seems that the company can survive until the end of the month only.

Shocking, isnt it? Well, that was the first staff meeting we had where everyone was quiet.

Hmmm.... what to do? what to do?

Time to update my resume, perhaps...

A "Cleaner" Year

Finally, after weeks of planning, I have finished, over the weekend, my first batch of base material for my home-made detergent.

Well, actually I came up with three batches. The first one got over-cooked (red detergent, anyone?), the second one was under-cooked (how about some pasty detergent?), the last batch, however, was just perfect. For a first-time manufacturer, that is.

I have to wait for a week, though, to complete the required curing of the batch. By this weekend I'll be adding in the finishing touches. Haven't bought new supplies of oils yet, so I'll just be using whatever I'm using in my oil burner (hmmm, lavender or eucalyptus scented detergent, anyone? hehehe).

I'm excited and looking forward to going "full blast" with this project. After a lousy year (2004 having fallen right smack in the middle of my first saturn return), I am looking forward to a more productive, focused, and yes, cleaner year.

Remembering Concepcion "Ching" Dadufalza

I wanted my first post for the new year to be an evaluation of the past year and my expectations for the new one. However, I came across this post from psychicpants.net concerning one of my instructors in college and I can't help but remember her and honor her at the same time.

In freshman college, I knew "Concepcion Dadufalza" as the author of that reddish book "Reading Into Writing I". This was the first book I reluctantly bought in college. We were actually REQUIRED to buy it because of the exercises.

After freshman english, I totally forgot about "Concepcion Dadufalza". She was just one of those people who wrote a textbook. She wasn't a person to me. Just a shadow of the book.

A few years after that in the first day of my Hum 2 (or was it Comm 3) class, this frail looking old lady with huge tinted prescription glasses came wobbling into the room. She was wearing a dress usually worn by old ladies serving in church. To me, she was ancient!

The entire room was suddenly quiet as this old lady took her place "front and center". She went to the board and wrote down her name : "Professor Concepcion Dadufalza". I was shaken. This was the first time that I was going to meet a real-life author.

And then she faced the class and spoke. What she said escapes my memory but her stare (at that time I didn't know that she was nearly blind) was something else. Her voice, low and husky, also carried authority.

She lost no time in enumerating her expectations and drilled us on taking down notes of assigned readings. The semester was set. We were to read "Hope for the Flowers", "The Little Prince" and Dosteovsky's "Brothers Karamazov", aside from the standard required readings. She meant business. And her's was the only class where we had a sitting arrangement, which meant a seat in front for me.

As nerve-wracking as the daily oral recitations were, I always looked forward to her class (it being after a Math subject). No one dared come to class unprepared. She was merciless in her questioning. Ruthless in demanding insights to the topic at hand. But she was so full of wisdom. She gave justice to the word "guru". She emanated wisdom.

As close as I was to her in class, I never really felt her power as I did one time I met her on the hallway going to class.

She was her usual "frail-looking old lady"-self. It wasn't in my nature to approach an instructor outside class for trivialities but something told me to come to her that time.

I introduced my self as one of her students and helped her walk up the stairs. She held on to my arms, not as a weak old lady, but as a mentor giving the pupil some sense of power.

That was also the first time I found out that she was nearly blind. When I approached her, she looked up (she walked stooping low) and gazed at me. And then, smiling, said, "Hijo, I remember your voice but you see, I can't see you that clearly".

It was a short five-minute walk. On the way, we talked about, not the lessons in class, but lessons in life. She was sharing her thoughts on how different people were during her time. Much of what she told me that time left me questioning who and what I was. Pretty much like the balm of Gilead to the wounded soul.

I was with her for just one semester. That's three hours per week for just 4 months. A really short time to know a person well. Yet that was all that was necessary for Ching Dadufalza to influence my life.

Just for her sheer dedication to her work, Prof. Dadufalza shall always be remembered in her field.

But for her wisdom to know what to say at the appropriate time, she shall always be remembered in my heart.

May the powers that be (and God, whom she believed strongly and kept vigil with everyday) bless her with their eternal communion with her spirit.