I was teaching a new batch of starters this week. I'm really tired and so, I think I have every right to miss out on blogging. Well, it's a weekend, I just got home from TriNoMa and I had a really great time. I thought I might as well tell everyone about the week that was.
Aug 18thMonday was pretty darned hectic. It was Aileen's turn to do the whole orientation and I let her take her time instead of hurriedly going through 49 slides of HR Policies. She's basically reading the entire handbook to the new starters. The new starters included one German-speaking, two Japanese-speaking and three English-speaking analysts. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm training the United Colors of Benetton. The German speaker is incredibly hard to deal with. Oh my gawd, he can be such a pain in the butt. Oh well, I'll be moving on to my next batch right after anyhow. Screw it.
I went home at around 1:30 AM and waited until 5 AM. I called Jeoff up. I reminded him that it was my birthday and I deserved some time with him. Haha! Talk about manipulation! He was pretty out of it when I called. He was taking a nap. I said something like "
Hun, aren't you going to greet me? It's my birthday!" He goes "
Is it? You're too excited about your birthday..." He was trailing off when I also realized that it was just the 18th in Canada.
Aug 19thTuesday was pretty okay. It was hectic and I was teaching them the Support Portal and Customer Service. I am a bit behind schedule. It was my birthday and Merlin Policy dictates that I should treat everyone. Thank goodness Roy's birthday was on the 15th. He was the one who ordered from Buddy's and I paid for half the bill. We had amazing
Pancit Lucban. We bought two
bilao's. It was pretty damned good, especially with the cassava cake. I had so much to eat. But still I was pretty damned tired after the day was over. I needed some R&R. I went home pretty early but waited for Jeoff to call. I missed his call and when I awoke, he was already playing WoW. He was so ready to get me off the phone. It was pretty darn bad, because it was my birthday technically, and he can't even spare me some time. Oh well... men!
Aug 20thWednesday was of course, a pretty darned hectic day as well. Jeoff wasn't feeling well so he stayed home. He had a pretty bad stomachache. My poor baby was at home and not feeling so great, and I can't even take care of him. I'm telling you, the LDR thing sucks sometimes. Apart from not being physically together, it sometimes feels like because you're physically apart, you're also not connected to that person anymore. Like something stops you from really understanding things from your perspective. Nonetheless, I still went to work, this time teaching the trainees the ticketing system Merlin uses. I also figured out, based on sheer luck I guess, how to create a Support Portal account from Infra. I was able to teach the newbies everything about creating a Support Portal account. Career-wise, that was a big step. It really made me feel like I could be somewhat techie too. I also felt like it is a great feeling to make the newbies create their own Portal accounts. It made them feel like they were doing something good. Got home and checked with my hunny how he's doing. Still pretty sick. Awwww... :(
Aug 21stI had to come to work early for a meeting with New Horizon's Learning Center. They provide Microsoft Certification training. They apparently specialize in CBT's, or computer-based learning. They did mention that they have live mentors who can assist participants. Now, we have about 5 analysts which we intend to certify in a few months' time. The level would be MC DST (Microsoft-Certified Desktop Support Technician) first, then MC SA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator). This is pretty exciting because I might want to learn how to be a DST. I don't know if I will ever get to be in the SA level. They had pretty great courses. However, I'm still pretty concerned about the budget. Training was pretty bad. German boy kept getting louder and louder and more annoying. What's more, I learned that he used to work for the same company I worked for. This kind of helped him become more "familiar" (read: feeling close) with me. It was pretty irritating when he kept insisting that the line on my slide that read "make sure that when laptop users want to back-up their files, they save it on their desktops" may confuse people because desktops are also called PCs. Hello! Oh gawd! I wish I never have to train someone who is this amazingly concerned about semantics. I was so pissed off, I asked Yong and Yogi to stay for an hour or so and get coffee. I pigged-out like hell! I ate a whole Hungarian Sausage, Egg and Cheese on Ciabatta breakfast sandwich and a Chocolate Lamington. Well, I think the highlight of the day was actually this...
Ewww, I know, I know... See, here's the thing. Yong, Yogi and I were walking to Starbucks from Ortigas Building which means we have to pass by Union Bank. Across Union Bank though, there was this immense cockroach! It was huge! As in if I put it in my palm, it would probably occupy my whole hand! It was almost as huge as a stick of cigarette. I've never seen anything like it! Ugh!
Aug 22nd The day started with me having to call Chari to let her know about my plans of subcontracting her services to train my "kids" for SDI. Then, Rachelle asked for a round of Maxima training for her entire team. It also escalated to me having to reset someone's Oracle password because my passwords don't work in my very own Citrix client. It sucked like crazy because I was training people o Noetix and it was bundled with Oracle. Tsk tsk... I guess I'll never get my mojo working with Oracle again. I hate myself because I get flustered. If I'm teaching something important, I get confused when one application doesn't function well and instead of talking, I end up trying to fix my account. That's what I did. I sort of projected my incredibly unsystematic way of dealing with resetting my JAVA plugin so Oracle would work. Oh heck... I still ended up getting some coffee after. But we went for a bottle of beer first. Charles and Derrick visited the office and the Business Support gang decided to go to Carlos for pizza and beer. I got Erick, my former trainee, to tag along and we just had a few drinks. It was a fun time, cos we were primarily just chatting about work, it was light and pretty comfy. We moved to Starbucks right after and had a cup of java. Oh that was a great Friday night.
I ended going home at around 4 AM and Jeoff called me up, as if on queue. We spoke for a good 45 minutes or so, about anything and everything under the sun. It was as if it was the first time we spoke on the phone for so long. He was listening and laughing and teasing me. He was joking and he seemed like he was having a great time just talking with me. It was Friday, and I'm in love. :) That was one of the best conversations I had with him. I already miss him.
