6 Guys Promoted and Counting!

6 members of my team (2 of team just got transferred to another team a few weeks ago) got promoted! 5 of them got promoted at the grade-level while the other one got a higher position.

I'm proud of these guys!

Eraserheads Reunion Concert

I'm not going to miss this one! To all the other EHeads fans out there..... LET'S ROCK AND ROLL!

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I'm Starting to Enjoy our New Cluster

Well, I have to admit that when I got transferred to my current boss, I really don't know what to expect. However, being a man who can always react positively to changes, I chose to remain positive. I'm starting to enjoy working with my new boss and co-TSMs now. If I like who I'm working with, I work a lot better.

To my Ino, Jay, Franz, Joyce, Lori, and Jack -- Knowing that you guys are the elite managers of SMB Tech, I will always look forward to learn a lot from you.

To Boss Leo - now I know why you were the one chosen to handle the strongest managers and the top technicians of our LOBs. You're handling us pretty well so far and I'm positive that you will continue to do so.

LET'S REACH NEW HEIGHTS TOGETHER!

Happy Father's Day

A father's day eCard created by my lovely wife Jo. Found it in my live.com email just now.

Rock Memories

Winning Moment - Muziklaban Dos (Year 2000)

I visited my old account in Friendster and jumped right away to my good friend's profile. This good friend of mine, Neall Mercado, also happens to be our rock band's lead guitar player. Then I saw this old picture in one of his albums....***sigh*** ...memories of our glory days started to pour into my imagination.

Believe it or not, our band once became a champion of this very prestigious rock band competition. In school, event coordinators reluctantly accepted us to join the last 2 battle of the band competitions we participated in. Reason? We always win. In Taytay, where all band members are based except me, we are known as crowd-pleasers.

I may sound like bragging here but this is the most humble way I can describe those memories. If I say it as it really was, you might not believe me at all.

The truth is, I'm not good at this anymore. By the way, I was the vocalist.

Evilness at the level of Hitler

I'm not the kind of person who would be affected by news like this. Well, that was before I had my own daughter.

Nowadays, whenever I hear or read news like this, my blood boils. I just want to get out there kill the man myself. Being a father, I can't imagine doing it to my own daughter. This man's evilness is at the Hitler level.

Pictured: Inside the cellar where father locked daughter for 24 years and repeatedly raped her.

I'm Getting Old

I'm 32. Knowing that the average life span of people nowadays is 60, I look back and ask myself if I lived half of my life wisely. The answer is NO. Why I feel that way is not important anymore. What I have to think about is how I'm going to spend the rest of the time given to me.

In the past few days, I feel a bit weird. There are moments when I feel that I'm going to die sooner than I think. It scares me not because I fear death, but because I'm not ready to leave my family yet.

I want to tell Jo, my wife, about these weird feelings but I'm afraid she'll freak out. So I did not.

Jo and Chantelle, I love them so much. They are my world entire. Whatever's out there waiting when I die must wait. Whatever is left of me, I'll spend it for my family's well being and happiness.

Death. Not yet.

I Observe

“Who we are dictates how we see things.”

I’ve read that in a book. For a person like me who manages a group of people, it means a lot. I’m an observant manager. I always try my best to read people based on their action. I do this not to judge them but to know them. All of my direct reports want to get promoted. Some of them are really smart, probably smarter than me. However, whenever I decide if I’m going to recommend them for promotion or not, I tend to focus more on their behavior and attitude. I believe that no matter how smart or skilled a person is, big results will not be produced if he doesn’t have a positive and winning attitude. I observe how people react to changes, how they support the initiatives of the organization, how willing they are to impart their knowledge, how aggressive they are in developing themselves, how much they want to do more than what’s expected of them, how they behave in difficult situations, how disciplined they are, and how they relate to others.

It is easy to know if a person is ready to go to the next level. Just observe how they see things and you will know who they are.

Friendster's Disastrous Story

Discovering that most of their users are Pinoy, they called the situation devastating because these members are worthless to the site's advertisers. Here's an excerpt from the article...

Net media darling Friendster should have become a billion-dollar company. What
happened? Founder Jonathan Abrams who invented social networking tells us all.
By: Max Chafkin, Inc.com, Published June 2007

"Meanwhile, scant attention was paid to Friendster's users. Lunt remembers marveling
sometime in early 2004 at how Friendster's traffic would mysteriously spike at 2 a.m.
Intrigued, he started looking at the site's log. Oh, my God, he thought, everyone is from
the Philippines . He worked backwards, looking for "patient zero"--the first American to
"Friendster" a Filipino. He found Carmen Leilani De Jesus, a 32-year-old marketing
consultant and part-time hypnotherapist from San Francisco , the 91st person to join
Friendster. She was directly connected to Abrams as well as to dozens of Filipinos, who'd
in turn connected to thousands more. In fact, more than half the site's traffic was coming
from Southeast Asia .

From a business standpoint, the revelation was devastating. Friendster, it turned out, was
paying millions of dollars a year to attract eyeballs that were effectively worthless to its
advertisers. Says Abrams: "We needed to make a tough decision"--either spin off the
Asian business or become the No. 1 Filipino social network. But because the Filipino
users had come by way of their American friends, there was no easy answer. If Friendster
cut the cord to Asia --either by drastically cutting back on engineering resources or by
kicking the Asian users off the site altogether--it risked damaging its American user base.
The Carmens of the world might look for a less restrictive site."

Read the full story here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/80907/How-to-Kill-a-Great-Idea

Self-Control... Do you have it?

Can you control yourself?

Be honest and think about it then ask yourself again. Do you have self-control? How hard is it to control your self, your spirit? In our world, it seems that self-control has been forgotten.

GOD said that "...it is better to have self-control than to control an army." (Proverbs 16:32).

More often than not, we know how to tell the right from wrong but we still commit sin despite of it. Lack of self-control quenches and grieves the Holy Spirit.

Self-control... it's either you have it or you don't.

So what's wrong if you lack self-control? Is it enough to have faith in GOD to be saved? No. Faith is not enough. Actually, faith is not faith at all if you don't live the right way.

Ephesians 5:1-5 tells us...

"1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

Think about it. Do you have self-control?

Death is a Good Thing

This morning, chose to utilize public transportation to go to work.

Inside the van, one row of passengers is composed of old people. There's nothing important in the situation and I don't even notice who I'm travelling with inside of this shuttle service before. But this time, a weird thought suddenly came out of my mind. As I look into these four old people (2 men and 2 women), I surprisingly told myself that they are next in line. Their time on earth is almost done. A few more years (or maybe days or weeks) from now, they'll be leaving their loved ones behind.

Now please don't get me wrong because I don't mean it in a bad way. The thing is, I feel happy for them.

Death is not a bad thing. It is a good thing if you will really think what it is all about. It is the end of our temporary life on a chaotic world and the start of a new beginning. You can take it this way if you're living the right way. That is, if you love GOD and followed him until you die.

Come to think of it, we can't really be sure who's next in line. We can't tell it by age because young people die too. This is what I realized before I reached the office.

The only thing that I'm sure of is that everybody, no matter how old or young they are, must live the RIGHT way in order to enjoy a new beginning after they die. For these people, Death is a Good Thing.

My Life's Glory

Last night, as I drove to pick-up my wife from Shell Macapagal, my favorite radio station gave me something to think. My life's glory.

The word glory is defined as something that is a source of honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride.

The word life is defined as the general or universal condition of human existence.

So here I am thinking about it. I'm 30 years old right now and I know that I have already used half of my human existence.

After all these years, what is my source of honor, fame, or admiration. What is it that gives me pride?

People would give different answers to that question. As for me, nothing yet. I'm not pursuing money or worldly fame. What I want is almost impossible to get. I want to be approved by GOD. Yes, that'll be my life's glory. I want GOD to tell me that he's happy he created me. I want him to be proud of me. It'll be my greatest honor to see him smile at me.

You might think I'm crazy. Yes I am. I'm crazy about GOD.

Thanks to Rodney Chitwood

Rodney on my bike.

I first met Rodney when I joined a group ride to Real Quezon. We share the same passion for motorcycles. He's into cruisers, I'm into naked bikes. This guy has tatoos in his arms that might make everybody think that he's a bad guy. By the way, he's an American.

It took a while for me to discover that Rodney is a Christian missionary assigned in the Philippines. After a few more rides, he joined our biker's group called Bikers Brotherhood. This is where I got to know him better, along with Mark and Mickie, my closest friends in the club.

The club had some problems and were later got disbanded. Despite of this, the friendship between me, Rodney, Mark, and Mickie never faded. The 3 of them started a Christian fellowship and called it Faith Riders headed by Rodney. I was kind of hesitant to join them in their bible studies but because I like them so much as my friends and ride buddies, I entertained one of their invitations. Then it all started.

My faith to GOD was revived. I started to read the bible and got so interested in reading different spiritual books. One of these books is the famous Purpose Driven Life written by Rick Warren.

This love and faith to GOD also led me into creating this blog site. My points of views in Life were changed and I'm trying to live the right way since the middle of last year.

I'm a happy person right now. Happier than ever.

Thanks to Rodney Chitwood.

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD

Whoever you are, Mr. Unknown, thank you very much for a very touching poem. You touched the heart of millions of people.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD

I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

“If you have the time” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered...
“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money...
and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”

"That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked...
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone
love them. All they can do
is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in those they love,
and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people
who love them dearly,
but simply have not yet learned
how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can
look at the same thing
and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.

"Is there anything else
you would like your children to know?"

God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here... always.”

-author unknown

World War 2 Documentary

Insane. People are really insane. This world war 2 documentary gave me another reason to believe that if we are going to rely on people's way of thinking, then there is no hope for this world. I'm about to become a daddy this year. Me and my wife are expecting to have a child this April of 2007. I'm very happy about it. However, I'm kinda worried about the world that my child will live in. Oh well... I think I just have to explain to my kid that this world is not our home. This world is just temporary and there's more to look forward to after spending our temporary lives here. GOD will give us a better world. A world beyond our imagination. We just have to TRUST HIM. We just have to have a strong FAITH in HIM. We just have to LOVE HIM.

CreationMoments.com

http://www.creationmoments.com

While I was driving to work this morning, I've learned of this great website. I was actually listening to this radio station that plays classical music. I and my wife choose to listen to it because some experts say that this kind of music positively helps the development of a child during the pregnancy period. Yes, my wife is pregnant right now and we are expecting her to deliver the child on the last week of April 2007 or early May. My first kid is almost 5 months now and I can't wait to see him (or her).

I love classical music. Unlike popular music, most of the pieces have no lyrics to describe what the composer would like to tell us. Despite of this, I feel different emotions when listening to them. The music talks to me. Words are not needed at all to enjoy them. Maybe this is the same reason why experts recommend pregnant women to listen to them. The baby feels what the mother feels. The music is stimulating. It makes somebody think and meditate. All these are helpful for my kid's development.

So there we were, listening. After playing a few pieces, the DJ talked about this website and read an excerpt from one of its articles, something about evolution. He immediately caught my attention. Then he said it... the address of a website. I kept on repeating the site's URL in my mind for me not to forget it.

I'm still on the process checking out the website as I write this but just by the look of the home page, I can already say that this site has a lot of sense. One of the few sites that I'm thankful I found.

I'm thankful of the radio station that informed me of this site. I am also thankful of the organization that created the website. Most of all, I thank GOD for making all these happen.

The Apprentice - What a Waste!

Last night, the season 5 of the famous reality show called The Apprentice aired its last episode.

Mr. Donald Trump is the judge and the boss. Everybody knows him because of his status in life. He is very rich and influential, that's why.

The winner was Sean, 33, born and raised in London now works as a director of business development for a recruitment consultancy registered on the London Stock Exchange, where he boasts the title of the top-ranking sales person globally at his firm. He graduated from the Southampton Solent University with first class honors. Quickly snapped up by an international recruitment consultancy, Sean spent nine years brokering multimillion dollar deals with Fortune 500 companies in over 20 global locations. He earned the EB1 Green Card for "persons of extraordinary ability" in 2005. Sean resides in Miami.

I agree with Mr. Trump's decision of choosing Sean as his new apprentice. He's smart, talented, intelligent, and can definitely bring in a lot of money into Donald Trump's empire. However, I don't like what they are fighting for.

What are they fighting for again? Ah yes... I remember. They're fighting to be famous, rich, and powerful.

I don't know Mr. Trump or Sean personally. Besides, I'm in no position to judge them whether I know them or not. I just don't like what they are fighting for.

I'm awake now. Years ago, I would die to be in Sean's position. I want to be rich. I want to be powerful. I want to be famous. That was long ago.

Now, I want to live the way GOD wants me to live. Before pleasing anybody else including myself, I want to please GOD first.

Why? Because he is the real Judge and the real Boss. I've realized that this world is not my world. There is more out there even after death. All I got to do to survive this temporary life is to make sure that I get GOD's approval in the end.

It's a pity that most people don't understand this. Just like Sean who idolizes Donald Trump as his Boss, Judge, and maybe his god, most people are wasting their lives for temporary things. A lot of people already heard that life on earth is just the start. Life on earth is temporary. Although it is a fact that a lot of people know this, they do not really understand.

Seek for eternity. Put GOD first. This is what everybody should be doing.