Waiting in the office...

It's past 5 o'clock and I'm still at the office.

Alice and I normally go home at 4 o'clock. This is partly because the official working hours ends at 3pm, and extending another hour won't give us any harm and will build a "reputation" in the organization. :) Another thing is, since we don't have our own car, and we're using the transport service, we have to wait until 4 o'clock for the bus to arrive and for us to get back to the flat. Anyways, that's our normal routine and that's not what's happening today.

I'm still in the office because I'm still waiting for Alice to arrive. Just before lunch, she was called by her boss and asked to attend a meeting in the Ministry regarding a technical competition that I think is supposed to be held two weeks from now. It so happened Alice is one of the trainors on the technical skills required in said competition, and thus, she and another fellow trainor attended the activity. When they arrived there, Alice sent me a text message that said the meeting is not just a "meeting" but instead, they are called there to finalize the questions/tasks to be used in the competition. She said they might be there for much longer than she initially thought. I thought so too, that would happen.

And so, I'm still here, and the clock says it is already 5:24 pm. Alice had just sent another message that they might be back after 6pm. That means I still have another hour to spend blogging or surfing the Web. :)

By the way, if you would ask: at times like these (which happen every once in a while), we just take the taxi going home. We even drop by Pizza Hut before going back to the flat sometimes, which is quite good, if you'll ask me.

The waiting continues...

on blogging... again

I really planned on writing more blogs at the start of the year... well, I thought I could write an average of three articles a week, the kind of which summarizes what's happening in different aspects of my life as the week progresses. I really thought I could do it then... yet now, it is already the second week of February and I haven't added to the excerpt I posted during the New Year!

What can I say? I didn't expect the office work to be this overwhelming in the new year... I even thought I could make writing blogs a regular activity for me this year. I was totally wrong... when January came, I was deluged with so many tasks and functions that I wasn't able to keep up with my other routines, blgging included. When before I could rest and write a short blog after coming from work in most days of the week, right now all I could do is rest and recharge for another day of physically- and mentally-exhausting work ahead. (The work is really that big, you know.)

Anyways, as of this writing, I think most of the brunt of work I've been ranting about in the first two sections of this blog had been accomplished already, and I just need to polish them and continue working on them little by little from here onwards, and thus I'm back (I hope) to writing regularly again... I guess the real fun starts today :)

some excerpts...

i have many things to write, but really haven't found the time nowadays... too many deadlines to beat and too many works to be done... this one's related to the ongoing Lozada saga that is gripping the country right now...

(from Manuel L. Quezon III column in the Inquirer)

To illustrate. The whole country knows he said, “Thomas Aquinas said the worst form of corruption is the corruption of the best.” But he also shared this story: “Rizal asked his brother Paciano, ‘Did God make us poor and silent, or we were so misgoverned we ended up that way?’ Paciano couldn’t answer. Two years later, Rizal wrote to Paciano, and said, ‘In my travels abroad I have the answer: We didn’t get the right kind of government from our leaders.’”

And he said, with a voice beginning to tremble once more, “We must make it too expensive for someone to screw up the country. Only then will the next person will have second, third, fourth thoughts about trying to mess the country up.”

And to me and a nun fascinated by the conversation, he said, “If you want to understand my moral compass, there’s this book I read [‘Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness, A Philosophy for Leaders,’ by Peter Koestenbaum], in which this question was tackled: ‘Why is it that billions have walked the earth while only a few have stood the test of time? And yet those few lived at a time when there were many who were more powerful or famous than them?’ When a group of thinkers examined these people, they identified four polarities. First, they had a Transformative Vision, for example, Christ’s concept of love. Second, they had Courage, even if it meant going against the trend, like Mohammed. Third, they had a Firm Grasp of Reality. Fourth, they had Unbending Ethics. The four things form a kind of diamond and with all sides present, you have a formidable leader. But if any side is lacking it’s enough to doom any leader.”