Dreams for the Future

There are crazy moments when you feel the world is yours, when the surge of potential is just dying to burst through you and drown you in its idealism. And there are moments when you just lie there, not really thinking, not really doing anything. Just being.

Anyway, I think I'm getting a little bit crazy.

There are still a million things that I want to do. I could enumerate them, but it would just look like some to-do list. And they don't really concern married life, so there. Anyway, I don't have some witty post today. I just have ... mixed emotions. 27 days more to go till the biggest party I'll ever throw. Hmm, maybe it's weird to describe it as a party. I could of course describe it as the start of the end of my life, but to do that would make me a very likely candidate for runaway bridehood. And it's not really accurate either. My personal philosophy in life is, when in doubt, don't. Well, maybe that's not a really accurate description of my philosophy, but suffice it to say that I have forced myself to look at my true feelings, and I have discovered that at this time, no I am not really in doubt, but just more sad for all the things that will change and that won't ever be the same. But I'm much better today than I was last week, thank you very much.

It's gonna be the start of a lot of personal changes. To change is to let go...of a lot of things and situations that have more or less defined who I am. I am not afraid of change, but this has the sense of permanency that both scares (did I make the right decision? walang divorce sa pilipinas!) and secures (aha, di ka na makakatakas! wala ka nang choice kung hindi ipagluto ako!). In any case, I think that those who have made the decision to share their lives with someone else forever are truly brave and courageous souls. A toast then, to all the courageous people who have taken the plunge.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

Amen.

the life

biking with buddy jao in the crazy streets of hanoi.
extreme adventure! haha. yep, am still alive. :))

And This Is Us

A prenup shot from JB's blog.

We were, I think, the worst prenup subjects that ever walked the earth. Haha. Well for those unfamiliar with the term, "prenup" here refers to prenuptial pictures. Couples usually have their prenup photos taken before the wedding, maybe to immortalize how happy they looked like before they start killing each other. I'm kidding of course.

Well anyway, it's one of those standard things that couples who marry do, and it's kinda cute actually. It was our first prenup, my first trial makeup. My TODA-mates, JB and Manny, took our pictures. "Just do what you two normally do," they told us. Ahh...we didn't know how to act! Haha. That's why I say that we were probably the worst prenup subjects ever. And now, they're slaving away editing the photos in Photoshop. All of that, and we paid them only by way of a Shakey's dinner and two pitchers of draft beer.

But you know what, that pic sure does looks good. Thanks JB and Manny!

The photographers in action. Notice the shocking pink frisbee.

From Beijing to Europe, in style

The Trans-Siberian Route Map, from www.seat61.com

I first read about this in one of the spam mails I received. Travel by train from China to Europe! The ultimate backpacker lifestyle, who could resist this?

The Trans-Siberian Railway travels from Beijing to Moscow. There are actually three main lines:

• Moscow to Vladivostok (near Korea, North Korea that is, and just a ship ride away from Japan)
• Moscow to Beijing
• Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia

Travel from Beijing to Moscow can take 7 days (if you don't get off at the stops), and a one-way ticket could cost as little as $200. Well, it's still a relatively big amount, but definitely cheaper than boarding a plane! And there are several detours you can take along the way. From Beijing you can travel by land towards Hanoi, Cambodia, and the rest of the Asian mainland. And from Moscow, there are railways that connect to Poland, Germany, London, and the rest of Europe!

Exciting huh! Now if only I had lots of time, money, and willing friends who can share the adventure. ;-)

Know more about travelling from Beijing to Moscow...mosey on over to The Man in Seat Sixty-One.

Keep It Simple Stupid

It started out with a kiss
How did it end up like this
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss
--- Mr. Brightside, The Killers

Nakakatawa lang minsan ang buhay. Nagmumuni-muni nga ako kanina, sabi ko nga parang pelikula minsan ang buhay. At minsan, para syang isang black comedy.

Black comedy: black humor, in literature,ndrama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world.

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes there are very simple stupid answers to complex vexing questions that haunt and frustrate you.

I started the day frustrated because I couldn't take this required online training at home. I woke up a few minutes before 9AM, but got caught up (eating breakfast, hehe), and found myself with only 15 more minutes to spare before the 10AM call. Since I decided I could not possibly make it into the office in 15 minutes at 10AM on a workday, I tried to connect from home to the office network through VPN. And yes, I can surf through all the corporate intranet sites, but I couldn't surf outside the intranet. Which was fine, the virtual classroom training didn't really require non-intranet access since it is aimed at corporate employees.

RISING ACTION

Well, big surprise, I couldn't log in to the virtual training site. It took me almost 30 minutes to browse through the corporate online help site, which, let me tell you isn't really helpful (Another irony, help files are rarely helpful at all, especially when you need the answer, like, now). I even tried to call long distance to the helpdesks listed, but unfortunately, it was after office hours in the US where the call center is presumably based, so "please just leave a message and they will call me back during regular office hours." Arg.

Changing and editing proxy servers didn't help, restarting IE didn't help, restarting the PC didn't help. After 45 minutes I had to resign myself to my fate. Two thoughts crossed my mind. One, I should have gone to the office and not wasted almost an hour trying to log in to the blasted training site. And two, I had to register for another training, since this is a required one that our group had to take.

Well, lucky me, the last training left will be on...a Friday, at 10PM Manila time. Wow. Lucky Me.

So that was the start of my day. Wasted more than an hour on that incident. Parang nag-training din ako. Hindi lang nga na-register ang attendance ko, so kelangan ulitin ulit. Haha.

DENOUEMENT

And just like a good movie, everything has to have a resolution. 15 hours later, here I am checking my email, and what do I see but a reply to the email I sent to the helpdesk earlier. (Underlines and emphasis mine)

Hello Sim, --> Nakalagay na nga yung pangalan ko sa email. I-wrong spelling pa rin ba??? I am sorry you had trouble getting into your event. www.blastedtrainingsite.corporateURL.com is a public website. You should be able to access it through VPN or outside the corporate network. You may want to try accessing the site from a home PC or without the VPN. It could the VPN port you are logging into does not have updated routing tables to allow general internet access.

Ow, blasted xxxx! Ang dami kong ginawa, and the solution was just staring me in the face. Sabi ko nga, keep it simple. Stupid. :)