Shop TV's Summer Shindig

Mocha heating up the show--all the real men were breathless

Skinny ladies and muscular men--it's the order of the day

My hardworking ASC girls--Love, Jessica, Beng, and Jean

We were at Hard Rock Cafe in Makati yesterday to help out on Shop TV's Summer Shindig. The party, attended by cable operators and participants of this year's PCTA convention (held in Crowne Plaza Ortigas), is courtesy of Home Shopping Network and featured Mocha and a fashion show of Mossimo and Nothing But Water apparel.

If you're watching Business & Leisure over at Shop TV, you might catch me in an ambush interview. Shop TV is at Destiny Cable CH9 and SkyCable CH13.

Hard path in front? WTF

My horoscope today by Rick Levine:

There is a hard path in front of you, yet you can do what's necessary and still live your life in your own special way, even if this looks easy to others. Now, more than ever, your discipline can combine with a solid work ethic to stage a significant payoff. Don't think about cashing in your chips just yet. Rewards will follow if you just keep plodding along.

Hmm, just when did I ever had the opportunity to cash-in any chips?

Hello Monday

Our alarm was halfway to ringing its loud bell when our driver knocked on our door. It's 4 o' clock in the morning, it's time to leave the soft bed, and greet the foggy morning with a warm smile.

It's another day, a Monday of tight schedule, piled-up paperwork, urgent phone calls, and the seemingly non-stop meetings. I used to have that not-going-to-the-office feeling every Monday, what with the scary workload ahead and this inner fear of making big mistakes--but I got over that already. You learn that, by loving your work and accepting that you have a responsibility to be of help to others, you have a purpose. And that you learn, big time, from the smallest to the biggest mistakes you commit (work and otherwise).

Monday, as the day that signals the start of a new busy week, is my morning sunshine--you can't help but smile it came.

Videoke day at the office

Last Saturday, we had our first chill out activity at the office--it's videoke day! Unlike our usual Fish! and Wacky Work days, this sing-your-heart-out-eat-a-lot-of-junk-food activity did not require so much preparation (and take much of agents' time) in fact, I did most of the work.

It's fun--seeing and hearing each agent interpret a song that somehow reflects the personality--and can't help but laugh out loud as we try to outperform each other by avoiding getting out of tune, doing hilarious dance moves and antics, and keeping the score at least 80.

It was a feat, hehehe.

Real Chefs: A Documentary

The special screening of Real Chefs: A Documentary by Shop TV and Gourdo's Inc. at the Cinema 2 of Greenbelt 1. Later that evening, Gourdo's World Market (at Greenbelt 2) had its ribbon-cutting ceremonies and opened its doors to guests (and walk-in customers).

All smiles--I, with Jessica and Love, enjoyed the film--it showcased our very own chefs as they work their way in bagging the gold team competition in last year's HOFEX (an international food and hospitality tradeshow in Hong Kong). Need not be a gourmand to appreciate the documentary, it was funny and entertaining (I could hear my stomach grumbling 'dinner, it's late').

At Gourdo's World Market

Got an invite on the special screening of Real Chefs: A Documentary at Cinema 2 of Greenbelt 1 today, which will be followed by the opening of Gourdo's World Market in Esperanza Street at Greenbelt 2.

I've a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) and it's a shame I don't cook (it's the wife's territory I'm not crossing) but I'm looking forward to this event. Food, drink, and music do mix (as indicated in the perfumed stationery) and is probably the bigger reason I'm coming.

2nd Annual Call Center Training Conference

I'll be at the 2nd Annual Call Center Training Conference by TeleDevelopment Services (the first one I missed last year) tomorrow until Wednesday at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati. Hoping to bump into former colleagues and learn new training and people development strategies.

C.C. Lozano in the news

The Philippine Daily Inquirer - The Consumer - Not the same.

Neck-breaking office cold

I thought it's only me and my paranoia of high blood pressure, but I (and most of my agents) have been getting daily dose of neck and back pains--airconditioning in the office is horrifyingly winter cold--reminds me of Uruguay's people-sweeping winter winds.

Makati's the place to be

Just as I started the day with the same old cold and wet, looks like I'll be trapped in Makati as it is again the center of everyone's attention thanks to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV--I think Makati's he's favorite hang-out, really.

ASCers - Voting is on for Kalabasa Awards

ASCers, today officially starts the nomination/voting for the Kalabasa Awards which ends on December 15, 2007. You can vote by clicking each category at the lower right corner of this blog.

You can vote as many times as you want, add more candidates, and then check on the results immediately. Practice your right to make and have fun (as we do everyday at work)! Everyone's excited to know who's winning this year.

SEMCON 2007

I'm attending the Search Engine Marketing Conference Philippines 2007 (SEMCON 2007) which starts tomorrow October 9 until October 10 at the Grand Ballroom of Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati City.

While my work now does not involve Internet marketing at all, I'd like to see how the local industry (and its growing community of SEM professionals) is faring so far, and what's up in their sleeves. Aaron Wall is its keynote speaker, as well as Marc Macalua, founder of SEO Philippines (among others), whom I know personally from our stint and project collaborations with US-based contact center campaigns.

SEO used to be just a fancy term to convince companies with websites to get listed on popular Search Engines. From the looks of it, it's become more than that--it's the art and science of making websites easily accessible and highly productive. See you at the conference.

A Serious Attempt to...

...being serious.

Yes, been very busy lately couldn't afford to let go of few precious minutes to update this blog.

Makati was more terrible than I can imagine. Now it holds true of what I've been dreading all my career life--the long commutes on unreasonably sequenced EDSA traffic, the long queues of starved office workers on short lunch breaks, the unbelievably predictable north and southbound weather on early mornings and late evenings, and the growing number of arrogant 'Americanized' call center agents with faked "already" accents and the irritating "I do believe..." spiels (God, I miss the pioneering babies of this sunshine industry).

While this sounds horribly grinding for a daily routine, believe it or not, I keep my cool, and enjoy being my old, unpopular but notoriously smart (ha-ha) self. No, I'm just kidding.

Wake up sign...

Flagged every 4am...

Believe me, my eyes hurt from desperately trying to keep it open as early as 3:45am and will need the strongest toothpicks every night as I get home around 9pm and hit the bed around 11pm.

It's a terrible routine, but it's been over two years (while I thought it's been forever).

You call it sacrifice, I call it work.

Been busy...

We moved to Makati--place of work I avoided for the longest time ever until this month.

Philippines is top 47 in IT industry competitiveness index

At least we're on the list.

When I first saw the article I thought we're not in, considering the continuously growing IT and outsource businesses in the country, and the fact that we've become competitive (in the region at least) in information and communications technologies. We're not tagged as the texting capital (of the world?) for no reason at all--we Filipinos are fond of and are used to being surrounded by everything IT.

This index by The Economist-EIU, is a study that assessed the performance of 64 countries across seven regions, in building and growing their IT industry competitiveness. While we're not in the top 10, it's nice to see that Asia-Pacific countries are on the top five (Japan's no. 2) index performers.

I think this index can also be used to uncover the mystery of the increasing number of IT professionals leaving the country for say, South Korea and Singapore. (Obviously, these countries offer better IT workplace than ours). If your IT department's attrition rate is increasing, think again--ours is an environment pushing our experts to try their hands somewhere else. I know a lot of IT people (read: jack-of-all-trades) who left the country because: either (1) their salaries are too high no company can afford them anymore (believe me!) (2) salaries (or benefits) being offered locally are way behind standard. But that is not to say we're left with no-cream-of-the-crops. In fact, I know people who've done very well to raise awareness of Filipino IT ingenuity, without the bon-voyage. Macalua.com is one, the 'propeller' behind SEO Philippines.

Rank 47 is not bad at all. Really?

It's fun and it's... well, funny.

At the office, we thought of doing a before and after photo contest. Not really to make fun (read: laugh like silly) looking at our old pictures but to see how we have transformed (read: grown-old) to what we are right now.

It really is a revelation of sorts. I myself, looking at my own old pictures, kind of refreshed my memory--laughed, sighed, saddened, relieved, remembered.

'Change is what's only constant in this world' I told everyone, and 'it's something we can't really stop from happening' (whether it be for good or bad) but 'most of the time we change because we want to be better (or strive to be the best).'

You wouldn't know, look at these faces and you might actually see a totally different future. No matter how funny now, these faces (including mine) might be getting more serious than realized.

A very busy week ahead...

Tomorrow, Monday, will begin a very busy week for me.

I'll be welcoming back a good friend of mine from abroad, and hopefully continue work on an unfinished project. Will be talking to my boss about finance. And will cap the night with a follow-on meeting with a friend who's the local search marketing guru.

We're on recruitment blitz this week so Tuesday onwards will be busy with interviews.

Thursday and Friday I'll be at Shang to attend a call center seminar. Saturday is Fish Day at the office.

I'm glad I can always have Sunday with family. I've never been so busy, but I'm not into not liking it, if that statement is even meaningful.

The day my office desktop PC gave up on me...

What's worst than getting debilitated by your right-on-cue instantly-dysfunctional office desktop PC? Sure I got a new notebook, but I haven't even started backing up or transferring my files yet! I realized, I am a dude who's overly reliant on computers (and gadgets) that if any and all of them fail, I'll be helpless.

Lessons learned - back up (transfer your files NOW!) and use that handy Christmas gift paper organizer.

My new notebook!

Here's my new notebook, provided by the company.

It's an MSI Megabook S420 Intel Core 2 Duo with a 14" screen that's only 2K in weight - not that heavy to carry around everyday.

I still need to see if it can outperform my old 17" Toshiba Satellite, only catch is it has the Home version of Windows XP.

Too bad the MIS guys in the office gave up (after romancing with it the whole day) in attempting to have it connected to the network--suddenly telecommuting sounded foreign.