A Shattered Life

We were able to contact a high-ranking official in a bank yesterday. The prospect is very promising but details will be discussed on Monday. If that will materialize, it will ease some of the burdens. Not all, not even significant, but any pressure lifted will taste like heaven.

Another good sign is the news that there is another bank willing to rediscount our client cheques. As you know, the loan sharks around the metro cannot handle huge amounts. If you show them a cheque worth 1M, they’ll stay away. So it is the banks that can help us. But we don’t have the right connections as of yet. We beg from our clients to release their payments even in the from of post-dated cheques (PDCs). They themselves admitted that they don’t have the funds so they can’t release a dated check.  Some agreed to Jan and Feb dates so that what we have right now.

It’s a spark, not a beam. Nevertheless, it’s a light in this dark days. If that spark will cause fire (which I hope and pray it will), then we can start moving. In the dark, even a small source of light is a treasure.

At the height of a problem, we usually ask who is to blame and pin that person/s down to the bones. In my corporate life, especially in the current company I work in, this is not the case. As a production support resource, we have to solve it first and then do a “post-mortem” analysis later. We’ll have to identify the root cause and investigate what went wrong. If there’s somebody who made a mistake, we’ll have to know what lead him/her to commit the mistake. Simply put, there’s always a reason for every problem. There’s even a new requirement that we have to log every step we take to solve a Severity 1 issue. That’s logging every email, every query, every update and everything you do until the problem is solved. Once done, then we’ll have to devise a procedure or solution so that the recently solved problem will no longer happen again.

In the problem I current problem that I am into (not related to work), solving it is a tall order. Honestly, I don’t know what to do. If there’s any little thing that I can do, I already did. I’m almost resigned to the idea that it’s a losing battle. Or should I say, we already lost it and it’s high time to know what went wrong.

In my ealier post, I already presented what went wrong. It’s just part of the story. Another part is the fact that in the months of July and August, our small company managed to have a 55M worth of sales. Now, that’s mind boggling to me. I can’t believe my sister was able to pull that off. If we get the 30% downpayment by the first week of September, the company will be in good financial position for the rest of the year. But that downpayment never came. If it did, it was already too late. Instead, we have to repossess items equivalent to 30% of that sales due to non-payment. It’s a domino effect since then.

If you look at it, we should have not gotten to the big ticket contracts. We should have stayed low where the risk is low and although the profit is less, it is steadily coming. We bit more than we can chew! 

So who is to blame? Most of the people in the know would say it’s my sister who is to blame. But no, we are part of it. In every request to get funds, we always get one. Had we not give in, this would have not been the case. But it’s already there and we have to face the consequences. We are part of it and that’s the truth.

My God, your tests are just too heavy for me and my family. It is only you and you that can help us. Forgive us.

Ever since I started attending Christmas party of the companies I worked for, I always win something mostly minor prizes. That means in one way or another I get to bring home some bacon. It worked for almost a decade but in the just concluded (about half an hour ago) Christmas Party 2007, I did not win even a single penny. You see, there’s at least 60% chance that you’ll get something as long as you attend the party. In this particular party, there’s about 20% of the employees that did not attend and that alone boosted my chances of winning. To my horror, nothing happened. It’s not just me. On our table, three of us did not get anything.

Hmnn…I guess none of the prices are meant for me. I’m beginning to think that this second half of the year is really not going my way. I mean, with all the things happening with me and my family right now, I really welcome any kind of help that I can get. Prayers is of the most important from all of them.

If you read this post, please say a little prayer for me.

Feeling that my car isn’t in good shape after experiencing steering problems at 110kph upwards. My steering wheel starts to shake violenlty when I reach that speed. A couple of months back, I only feel that at 120kph and since I rarely reach that speed unless I’m at the superhighway, I just ignored it. But after my last visit to Goodyear Servitek in Otis early this year, the problem persisted and got even worse.  I didn’t dare go back to that servitek branch nor on the other service shop that sounds like ‘quick fix’. That other shop is the previous machine shop that looked into my problem and my money was rapidly drained without any improvement.

Finally, I had the opportunity to visit Cruven to fix this problem. That shop is popular with their injectable suspension rebuilding system among others. Suspension is their expertise so I thought I might give them a try. Besides, I got good reviews of the company. Honestly, I was surprised by their service.

Immediately after arriving, three personnels attended to my car. Another surprise is that they don’t use computerized machines, just plain old school alignment and camber correction tools. But make no mistake as when they checked, it confirmed that my frontwheels are misaligned that it veers the car to left. There’s also some correction on the camber for the frontwheels. When they checked the rear wheels, they found out that it is inclined to the inside. That’s where they took sometime to finish as they have to manually file some holes due to lack of adjustment mechanism for my car. 

Alas after three hours, they are done. I tested it and lo and behold, the veering to the left or right is gone.  As for the shaking, I’ll see that when I use the highway again. I’m more than satisfied with the workmanship.

Camber correction and alignment onl cost me P900.00. I would say that it is well worth it. Simply, there’s no comparison to other known shops that I went to. Another thing I learned here is that not all computerized provides good results. Sometimes going manual is better.

Next week, I’ll accompany my brother for his car to Cruven. So if you have same problem or any suspension problem for that matter, try Cruven System.

It excites me when any of my projects delivers its supposed purpose and actually contributes to an entity’s growth. That’s what just happened when I was informed by my sister that C&G Medical Supplies‘ website has just found its first client. The website is not really intended to generate sales but more of a tool for our existing clients to browse the products we offer. So any other entity who come to visit the site would be a big plus. The website was found by a prospective client from Bukidnon through Google. A meeting has already been set and some people is already scheduled to fly to Bukidnon (via Davao where there’s another client as well as in CDO).

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At the townhall meeting yesterday for the employees, it was announced that I’m one of those that are promoted. Honestly, I did not expect that eventhough I am pre-informed of the unusual mid-term promotions. I am pleased to be recognized but I’m not at all excited. For me, it’s just a title and does not necessarily reflect what you do in the the organization. To say it blantly, I see it as additional work for me.

One of the things that comes with promotion is training people that will handle your previous work. Man, that is not easy task. Not all people are want to carry somebody else’s load. Some people want to stay put and definitely don’t want additional headache. They are happy in their current levels and it is their comfort zone.  They don’t want to challenge themselves and want to take things slowly…. way too slow. And it would be no easy task to convince people to step up.

So now, you would not blame me if I’m not at all excited with my promotion. Work has already started pouring the past two weeks and I had to do some management work already. I’m tired… but I can’t help but live up to the challenge. I always dare to go beyond my comfort zone but I’m eternally hesitant and most of the times reluctant in handling top jobs.  Apparently, those who rise up to the challenge are those who are always noticed. Whoever is not afraid to take responsibilities gets rewarded with more responsibilities.

How about you? How do you see promotions? Do you expect to be promoted this year?

Last weekend, the whole family went home to Mindoro for the wake and burial of my uncle, Antonio. We fondly called him ‘Tatay Tonying’ and he’s one of the older brothers of my father. It was due to cancer of the lungs, among other complications. He died last July 4. Coincidentally, that day is also the birthday of his older brother, Jovit. The sad news came while Tito Jovit is preparing for his birthday celebration.

But the family wasn’t all surprised. As a matter of fact, the family has already prepared for it. He was diagnosed early this year after he was brought in Manila for a more comprehensive test. During Mamang’s(my granny) birthday last January, family and friends noticed something is wrong with his skin and he was persuaded to take further medication here in Manila. Around early March when the bad news was announced. Additional tests showed that it’s only a matter of time before die.

It was a sad news indeed but in the end, we looked at it as a God’s blessing in disguise. The findings prompted all the people around him to show love while he is still living. And we were given ample time to do that. In the days before his death, people that matters to him were all around him. And at the time of his death, he is lying on his mother’s arms. What more can you ask?

He is also prepared of things to come. It may be mind boggling to think about it but we all know that everybody will go that direction. He, his son(Kuya Adel) and my father just went there ahead of us. More than anything, it is love and faith in God that prepared him. That’s also true for his family, relatives and friends and it made easy for everybody to accept it.

So to my Tatay Tonying, may you rest in peace and bring our love wherever you are today. God bless us all.

p.s.

As I always say, it does not matter how long you lived here on earth but how you lived your life. Life is short and we must make the most of it. With faith in God, happiness is in easy reach. Jesus has thought us well through the Bible and all we need to follow his footsteps.

In search for politically correct term for Christmas, a lot of tradition is starting to fade away. The Christmas season as we all know is called Holiday Season in the United States to appease non-Christians or should I say Non-Catholics.

I’m glad that I’m here in the Philippines where the Christmas spirit is still very much alive. Even Non-Catholics (I know some Muslims) joins the festivity here. If you set aside the technicalities, everybody will be happy. It’s a season of joy and merry making, anyways. But some people just have nothing to do with their lives and always try to spoil other lives. I consider them self-righteous losers that always want to have the attention of the world.

Here’s one of the news stories that came out to tackle the annual debate on the issue.

One school has banned Christmas cards in class, a court has restricted the number of lights one homeowner can have on his property and a school is offering halal turkey and chicken for its Christmas meal following pressure from many Muslim parents.

One involved the removal of 14 plastic Christmas trees at Seattle-Tacoma airport, in the western state of Washington, following a complaint from a local rabbi who said the decorations should include a menorah to mark Hanukkah.

EndChristmas.com if offering free copies of the documentary film “The God Who Wasn’t There”, which questions Christian doctrine, and said its aim this year is to save children affected by the myths surrounding Christmas.

Satellite radio owners for their part can tune in to a special Christmas Channel that unabashedly delivers unsentimental holiday songs.

Their pickings include “Santa Is a Psycho”, “Santa’s in a Wheelchair,” and “Elvis Won’t Be Here for Christmas.”

Read the whole story by Agence France-Presse in Inq7.net

If they don’t want to celebrate Christmas, then fine! It’s just the same when we let our Muslims brothers to observe Ramadhan. Just leave the people who love the season alone! People don’t need to make an alliance to end Christmas!

My 6-year old niece is due for operation this coming Tuesday at the UST Hospital. For this, she needs blood for the operation so I was asked to donate. But for the third time in three tries, I wasn’t able to donate blood due to some reasons. I was told that my blood pressure is too low they can’t allow me to donate.

That’s when I realized that I’m not that really fit last night. I slept very late last Saturday night and got up late Sunday morning. As a result, I wasn’t able to have breakfast. And then I was too lazy that afternoon, I hadn’t had another meal after lunch. As a result, a very low blood pressure. The medical technologists then advised me to take a rest first and eat dinner before they test me again. I didn’t come back because I felt that my blood pressure will not go up that quick. Also, I still had to drive my mother home so I can’t stay longer in the hospital. It would have been my first time to donate blood but I think it has to wait yet again for some other time.

It’s a lost opportunity for me to help my niece in her operation. Hopefully, my sister would be able to find a donor tomorrow(they’ll try my brothers and two more friends). And with that, it is the prayer that I can offer. So please join me in praying for Fia. She’s such beautiful little angel she deserves to be healthy. She’s been in and out of the hospital(she had her tonsil removed earlier this year) since she was born and we are hoping that this would finally be her last major operation. Let’s pray that this operation be successful and for her speedy recovery.

It’s our first wedding anniversary today. Its surprising how time passed so fast. It has been a very good year for me and my lovely wife.

As a treat to ourselves, we went to Bohol for a much needed rest and recreation. It was a blast as expected and you may expect several posts that will tackle our adventures in that lovely and historical province of Bohol. The trip was much needed since for the past year, it has been work, work and work that we

Oh no, we don’t have a baby yet but we are working on it. Yeah, we always get teased about it but we’re not pressuring ourselves. For one, it was really our plan not to have a baby immediately after the wedding. We simply want to enjoy each other and completely adjust with our new status. And of course, we wanted to prepare for it. So sit back and enjoy and before you know it, we’ll be sending out news about that little angel coming