Me & Mr. Hokkien Mee

New Toy! August 3, 2010

I purchased a Nikon D3000 yesterday! Wooot!!

The exclamation points alone would tell you how excited I am of this new piece of gadgetry. Although I’m not one to adapt quickly to trends, may it be fashion or technology, but it would eventually come a time when I’m ready to give in after all the hype is lost and prices are way cheaper nyahaha.

Take for example my new dslr which I snagged at S$799 with almost exactly the same freebies (just missing the LCD protector costing S$15) as its regularly priced kit.

Pictures taken with this baby look amazing and yet I’m a beginner! =P

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Updates on my life:

Signed up on Facebook. Before joining, I had a mental note of all things people could do to embarrass me in public so I did not wait for that time to come, I quickly researched on how to avoid people tagging me on photos, notes or posting anything that I might find shameful on my wall mwehehe =D

I’m changing careers yet again! I’ll be moving to QA Automation this coming September and speaking of that month…

Our Sydney and Auckland trip is all set! I just need to finish up our itinerary schedules so we can maximize each day of our vacation and avoid the complaints from B (hint: Japan)! Can’t wait!

B changed residential address, this time, to his cousin’s own unit. Place smells like “new” because it is newly painted,  and there are new furniture! It’s near Buangkok MRT, a few bus stops away from his old house.

I want to memorize all words from our Mandarin class. I need will power to do that! Same as with everything else that I wanted to do! Gee, what’s wrong with me? Eyes on the ball! Always!

Inspiration August 3, 2010

Lately, I had been feeling skeptic about migrating to another country. I was fearful that I won’t be able to land a job in the IT industry which translates to not getting a high paying job.

It was because of this that I felt the need to reconnect to people from my past. You see, I have not joined any social networks that everyone seems to be in right now like Facebook, hence, I know nothing of my friends’ life except for those that I have in Yahoo! Messenger. Looking back, I must have been probably ashamed to have them know that I have not yet accomplished anything while I have this notion that they are somewhere out in the world with thriving careers and bountiful life. It’s not unlikely that I was feeling miserable with my life back then that I had hidden myself from the world.

Last night, I decided to chat up with a college batchmate whom I know had been living in the US since after we graduated. It was then that I learned that her immigration to the US was not at all an easy ride as what I imagined it to be. I had always thought that her entire family immigrated so she has full support of her parents in whatever she wants to pursue in the new country they are in. And besides, she was one of the smartest and always been a go-getter at school. So, I thought life has not been hard on her. Pero sabi nga nila, madalas mali ang mga akala.

It turned out that she went to the US by herself a few months after their family’s petition was granted. Her parents decided to forgo the opportunity saying they’re already too old to start all over again. You might think since they were petitioned, they have relatives that could assist in settling in. But in her case, her relatives did not want to have anything to do with her. Sad, right? But that didn’t sway her. She stayed with a friend and got a job as a cashier in a pizza parlor across their apartment. She tried to live through her savings from her short stint working  in Pinas. She then found a job as a customer sales rep in an insurance company and kept the cashier job as part time. Stayed there for 3 years then moved to a small IT company (who wouldn’t want to use what they have studied in college for n years, right?), then went back again to the insurance company and became a Project Manager/Business Analyst.

I never imagined I would be inspired by her story. Let alone make me think back and change my perspective. It takes a great deal of courage and broken pride to be able to get through what she faced in that part of her life. Although I know many of you may be saying that it’s nothing compared to the everyday life the poor in Manila are experiencing each day, yeah, I’ve thought of that too. I know I’m lucky in so many ways.

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I’ve written this roughly about a month ago and it amazes me how time quickly flies and washes away all my negativity! Now, I’m feeling more content than ever and determined to cherish every step to wherever life takes me.

Mastery July 9, 2010

A geeky friend once told me that before he can say that he is an expert on a certain programming language, he must be able to perform the following on top off his head:

file manipulation

xml manipulation

database

multithreading

reflection (if the language is equipped with one)

Gee, I think I need to go back to my lab and start mastering these!

What do I enjoy doing? July 9, 2010

This is embarrassing but here goes:

1. Reading
2. Chatting
3. Eating Out
4. Cooking

I’m feeling lucky! July 9, 2010

I’ve been starting to reconnect with friends back in my home country. Perhaps there’s this need in me to know what makes a person feel contented in life. I want to learn to channel my negative energies into positive and powerful force that would make me change my perspective and ultimately, make me a better person.

Here I list the things that people taught me:

Everyone has a “Core” gift. The use of this core gift makes someone feel fulfilled and happy. If we enjoy what we do, we excel at them naturally. My friend gave me sites where I can do what I love for a fee, something that my current work is not able to provide for me, causing my misery and all. I was also reminded that work is not my life, it is just a part of it. Maybe it would help if I objectify my work instead of putting my heart into it as if I’m in a relationship with it ewww!

Invest in financial instruments that will help you augment your family’s finances and/or prepare for your retirement or future kids. My friend joined an organization where they educate people make informed decisions when investing their hard earned money. I was given some info, most of them I’m already familiar with cos I read a lot of articles on investing. But still I want to join as I’ve encountered  financial instruments that are new to me.

Feeling down is inevitable when faced with failure or rejection, but what’s important is that you don’t stay in it for long, pick yourself up, stronger than ever and ready to face another challenge that life hurls at you. If you dwell too much on every setback, you’re the one who’ll end up losing.

Keep a positive mind. You are great, only you don’t see it. Faith and confidence (when put in their proper places) in one’s ability is the key to success.

Keep the passion burning. When you are passionate about something, you tend to spend hours and hours of time perfecting it. Just need to focus. Establish what you want and go for it. Eye on the ball at all times.

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I’m trying my best to shake off the negativity in me. I know I would succeed! I know I will!

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Everyone’s getting married! I’m still undecided whether I want to get married or not. Do I want a child or not? Do I want to raise a family back in my home country or move to an English-speaking country where we can experience 4 seasons in a year?

Random Updates June 30, 2010

Still…

in the same company, arrrrgh! — shouldn’t be feeling this way cos I turned off my cv at all job search engines. LoL

with b – we’re turning 1 this Sept!

same set of friends – I think this one is for keeps!

Now…

on twitter — is this a sign of diminishing aversion to social networks?

helping a friend look for color themes for her wedding

waiting for NZ visa, up next AU!

enjoying Glee so much!

looking forward to weddings (March & April next year) and celebrations (baptism and Xmas this year back in my home country)!

On a serious note…

accepted that there are things in life that I can’t control — with this I found contentment and happiness

missing my friends and family back in my home country

losing weight fast — not good, should stop sleeping very late at night and waking up prematurely (translation: few hours of sleep)

losing motivation at work

Negotiate Like a Pro June 6, 2010

I’m guilty of this. I stumble at negotiations!

What I learned from this third video:-

Be a fanatic. Practice, practice, practice.

Create your own toolbox of questions – This I seriously got to do.

The TV Show That Made Me Go ‘Wow’ June 2, 2010

Saw the Victoria’s Secret Model Search on TV.

Gosh, I envy those  women!

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Ok, I googled it and was surprised to learn that the show was aired last year. Geez, I’m so behind.

I’m on Meower! June 1, 2010

Ok, just kidding hehe

I finally joined a social networking site, twitter! Enough hiding already, have to make my presence known in the blogosphere once again! BWAHAHAHA

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Sheesh, I wasn’t able to study at work! I was again too focused getting as much things done, AARRGH! Being an OC doesn’t help when you just want to slack around and do whatever – well in my case, I specifically want to study

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On a brighter note, we’ll be having my PEYBORIT kare-kare! woot!

Note to self: Have to remember to bring more rice for lunch tomorrow para mas masarap ang kainan. Uy, inggit!!

Programming Chronicles: WPF May 31, 2010

I’m trying to learn WPF on my own since I seriously gave my career a thought. I’m not one who loves to design, or to put it more aptly, I don’t trust my creative judgment when it comes to aesthetics. But when I heard a colleague, who is more like me in programming, raved that he finally enjoyed creating UI’s through WPF, I got curious. So here I am trying to see what the thing has to offer.

I’m not yet on the really interesting and meaty part but I found some cool articles that would come in handy in the future. Btw, I’m reading WPF Unleashed e-book to aid me on my quest to higher learning

Cool article on WPF – I’m on the look out for best practices in building UI (and this one has it for designers and developers! nice!) since I have low interest on it, might as well get ideas from the experts

WPF Tools

Debugging

Snoop

Tips

TextBox

Validation without Clicking a Button

Programmatically change validation rule

DataGrid (still uses the DataGridView to render the data)

Walkthrough of DataGrid

Useful Samples – a, b

ObjectDataProvider

Grid Refresh i & ii

Styling

Custom Styling In Depth i & ii

XAMLPad

5-min video tutorial