After a while you learn the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child
And you learn to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns
if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and that you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
with every goodbye you learn...
©1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall
Whoever said that I'm bad at multitasking should be shot in the head. I'm replying to a member from Peru while learning sentence construction using past and present participles in Spanish while listening to Mogwai and blogging! Kick a//!
Decided to work from home today. As usual the weather is gloomy that's why I backed out on the supposed walk along the coast of Craster. Such a pity cos I haven't been there and it'd be nice to be somewhere else away from my room. And my Reebok exercise bike. S and I decided we'd spend the day tomorrow eating crisps, wine and curry.
Although June is still months away, colleagues persuaded me to watch Romeo and Juliet at Theatre Royal and Zakir Hussain and coughed up quid for these "cultural pursuits" I reckon that's more worthwhile than doing CSI Miami marathon.
Oh and one more thing, I've signed up for the Drop the Debt fast and been avoiding telly and alcohol (or did I say carbonated drinks), well whatever, I can live without Coke/vodka so that's easy. But I think I'm cheating on the no telly bit since I'm watching shows over the net? There's always some fine print somewhere you know.
Estamos riendo sobre la traducción de la Avenue Q's "For Now," pero solo por ahora, pero solo por ahora, por ahora tenemos pelo, por ahora tenemos George Bush.. may be entirely wrong
Eso es todo por ahora. Soy excitado para decir a mi familia estoy aprendiendo español. Hasta luego!
imdb.comBeautiful film, inspiring music. Not to miss.
Something to watch when you're alone on a Saturday night and the following days and nights to come.
Young people from around the world are invited to enter the 2008 International Essay Contest organized by UNESCO and the Goi Peace Foundation with the sponsorship of the Earthrise Society. The theme for this year's contest is "My project to create positive change in my environment. How can I foster sustainable development in my community." The deadline for entry is June 30, 2008. First prize winners will receive a cash award and a trip to Japan.
Please see the complete guidelines at the Goi Peace Foundation website: http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/programs/0801_00.htm
To read winning essays from last year's contest, go to http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/programs/0702.htm
Please disseminate this information to young people in your networks.
Have you pranked someone today? Keen in sending out a mass email to network members saying that the world has been made a better place by having men as rulers but that's gonna be suicide I guess. Or admitting this early that Mugabe won again as President of Zimbabwe? Though this is just foul and unthinkable.
Have you seen Google's? I thought there won't be any as the Google search page has been the same old white when I checked it this morning. But lo and behold, they came up with this: http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html
Want to be a Virgle Pioneer and join the colony in Mars? Do sign up!
Quick blog as always. Title is totally unrelated with the post, just want to post the link to my travel photos in webshot. Some shots of Hexham and Bath trip, more soon.
http://tinyurl.com/5gcx9m
Spring is coming but it's still cold. It's brighter and you can see lots of sun during the day but don't get fooled, it's 3C outside today :(
Ciao!
Just posted some photos in my long-forgotten webshots account. From our day trips to Hadrian's Wall and St. Nicholas cathedral just around the corner from where I work.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561693224bLoWtd?vhost=good-times
It's getting colder and colder here not to mention the frequent drizzles and howling wind. When I got home last night, I noticed that the cover of our electrical box had gone off and my housemate clearly have no intention of fixing it, bloody Gr. Ela malaka, if you're reading this :)
We're leaving early today (it's just 4pm but it looks like 6 already I barely see the sun). Have I mentioned there's a high rate of suicide in some European countries as the lack or deprivation from light causes depression? Although there's a study from the British Journal of Psychiatry that suicide rates tend to go up during hot weather, and by hot they mean 18C.
Ciao!
-I fell from the stairs last Monday and broke the heel of my boots.
-I got in the wrong train last Tuesday because my colleague and I were so angry over some unethical practices.
-I got my pc installed only yesterday after a month of persistent email exchange.
-Survived the 4 degrees temperature yesterday. I wonder if I'd survive winter, this is just autumn.
-Loving Sainsbury's cooked Indian meals: I've tried lamb rogan josh, chicken jafrezi, and chicken korma, and they're all great. Hail to ready to eat meals!
-I'm hoping to get a new laptop by end of November, a lovely Dell XPSM1330 :)
-Need to force myself to go to the gym and sign up!!
It's official, just now, Glasgow is hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games beating Abuja, Nigeria.
Just how exciting Glasgow is? You can check my previous posts :)
Cheers!
I opened my browser and saw this really cool ad from Firefox.
They're looking for 'agents' to put up 3.5-feet firefox stickers in prominent places, but you gotta have a plan, if chosen you get an Apple Macbook as grand prize. I might try putting it up at the Angel of the North statue but I'm afraid that would result in me being booted out of this wonderful, highly-developed and migrant-friendly nation who have done so much for the world.
The Angel of the North at Gateshead. Photo taken from http://www.ukswebsite.co.uk
Puma Complete Trailfox image from zappos.com
Longbenton Metro Station
Ikea Gateshead
Asa-chan
Photo from GCAP. School children in Soweto, South Africa
The view from the bridge was exhilarating and it was very cold and windy I thought it would tilt. It does tilt (so cool!) to make way for the passage of huge ships, it's an architectural feat. Being new to the city, I did lots of consultations with colleagues and checked out Google maps just to be sure I won't get lost, and I didn't.
The Millennium Bridge
I've been very busy these past few weeks. Sorting out visa, entry and exit clearances, getting pissed off by the sheer incompetence of some people, though everything seems to be sorted now. I've started to pack my luggage, put my new skywards tags, list down things I still need to buy, and squeeze in last minute meet ups with friends and relatives. We just got back from a one day visit to my lola in the province over the weekend, very hectic and tiresome but I just have to see them one last time before I leave for a whole year.
I'm quite excited, it's gonna be a new environment, new people, new work altogether. I'm expecting lots of challenges too. Right now I'm trying to get accommodation remotely, google map comes in handy in locating potential flats close to the University.
My thinking is that I've survived Johannesburg, I'll definitely survive Newcastle. But looking at the weather and the kind of assistance that I'm getting, I'm starting to doubt that. My stay in SA is soo organised: somebody had picked me up from the airport, I already have a place to stay before I got there, transpo going to work all sorted out. This trip looks like a journey to Mars coordinated by Philippine airspace travel (which is basically nonexistent). At the moment, I'm quite stumped deciding over which shoes to leave and which to bring.
Good thing about me is that I don't easily give up. I was able to communicate with a Filipino living there in Newcastle and he's really so nice to help me out. Too bad he's moving to Australia.
I've also been negotiating with a Brit for my accommodation, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll see reason over the Western Union money transfer thing which I'm not gonna budge in.
I have a hundred things to do and only two days left, I think I'll be needing some vodka.
***
This is gonna be tough for hny and I, but we have plans on meeting up probably next year and we're both praying that he'll get the scholarship so we can travel around Europe together :)
Now, compare that to my mind-numbing experience with our very own Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Embassy in London. I emailed the Phil. Embassy in UK about the provisions they want to see in my contract. I asked them if it's possible to waive one of the two provisions (or even both) since the contract is a generic one (given to everybody who works for the Uni, from the highest to the lowest rank I presume) and I am fully aware that the Uni would not shoulder the airfare going there. No response. After a day or two, I re-send the email to another address posted in their website. Still nothing. I'm a total newbie to this process of applying for a verification of contract, I don't know the back door stuff , I don't have an agency (I fall under the category of name hire based on the POEA website) so I rely on government agencies which should inform me what to do and what the process is, and this is supposed to be the main reason for their existence. I decided to call the DFA Action Center upon the recommendation of a friend working there. Here's how the conversation went:
K: Good morning. I'd like to know how I can communicate with our embassy in UK aside from calling them? I already sent them an email but they're not responding.
DFA: Tawagan nyo na lang.
K: May nakapagsabi po kasi sa akin na the DFA Action Center can call the embassy on my behalf to clarify my queries...
DFA: Ay walang ganon..
K: E ano po pala ang ginagawa ng Action Center?
DFA: Ganito lang sumasagot sa mga nagtatanong.
K: So, the only way to communicate with them is by calling them?
DFA: Oo.
K: Thank you po. Pwede ko po bang makuha ang pangalan nila?
DFA: Ay hindi kami nagbibigay ng pangalan dito.
K: Ha? Ganoon ba...(the other party hung up)
I was so stumped that it took me a second to put down the phone and the absurdity of the conversation dawned on me. So the only thing they do apparently is answer phone calls which that person did incompetently. The other thing is that the person would not want to give her name and actually said that it's the practice of the office. Accountability gone kaput.
I know I'm just expecting too much from our government agency, but every time I deal with one (even with business establishments), I always have this mindset that I'm going to get a good service and a decent exchange from the other party. I guess I just have too much faith in the level of intelligence and common sense of other people. I still believe though that this is the right thing to do. I've worked in the government (in the academe though, which maybe makes it a different environment altogether) and I never did answer a simple I don't know on the phone and never left emails unanswered. I would always acknowledge or give an alternative. I don't want to be a let down. I've always loved my work and I believe that I am efficient, competent and intelligent, that's why I'm in that post. I'm supposed to be the go-to person on things that fall under my remit and I'm supposed to even have an idea on things that are somehow related to what I do and in rarer cases, even beyond. Why can I give 100% on my job while others bask in their mediocrity? Surely there's something wrong with our view of standard and quality service.
I have lots of friends in the government and I know that they work hard and they're very good at what they do. But they're just 10% of the lot. Why should we accept incompetence and inefficiency as the norm and be forgiving and just shrug this off as "ok lang?"
That person at the DFA who answered my call was so unhelpful and a total waste of resources. The email addresses posted at the Phil embassy in the UK website are not working, one is over quota, the other one just fails to receive and the others are simply ignoring my email. I'm thinking of seriously raising hell, not only because of this experience but for the many times that I've put up with other people's shit.
***
Update
My diligent searching in the net paid off ( I hoped), I found another email address (not in the Philemb website!) and re-send my appeal for help. In a few minutes after receiving my email, the labor attache who turned out to be based in Washington DC replied to me and referred my email to her colleague based in London. Now, why can this good lady answer and acknowledge my email in a matter of minutes while others can't?
Infuriating.
"The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas though our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998."
A breakthrough investigative research or another manufactured information being fed to the public?
Got this from "jewyoutube" ;)
Can't wait for season 2!!!
