i.am.spartacus!!!!

it's been a while... i know.

working smart isn't working well for me these days.

i gotta grind through my teeth to get things done. literally.

definitely, the stress factor had been bumped up to the roof!

i hope i can finish up everything so i can quit after this year. i've accumulated enough know-how in the trade to start my own little "business".

yep, i hope to start next month... i don't care if that means i'll double the stress. i gotta go out and test the waters while i'm still a 'hotshot'. once i'm unserviceable, it's game over for me.

yeah, it's out now... better commit.. get rich now.. or die trying. hah!

my little angel is going to school.. finally!

can't believe how time flies. once upon a time, she was just a little baby that i didn't want. now, she's all grown up and eager to learn.

love her more everyday...

neil is a teenager too! today, we just went riding motorcycles together getting the bikes tuned and repaired.

he can really step up when the situation calls for it. well, he learned driving my bike by himself... when i accidentally left the key, that is.

me and him have this elaborate plan hatched together when we finally dive into this thing called entrepreneurship.

here's hoping it'll push through and work out as planned.

in times of hardship, there's definitely an opportunity on the horizon. sometimes, we just need to get to that point in order to look outside the box.

these ebooks and audiobooks that we've immersed ourselves into, they are awesome!

i wish i had the time to read 'em and listen when i was at neil's age.

but, it's never too late to start, right jim? brian? and everyone else?

anyhow, prepare! the day of the reckoning is at hand!

it's time to...

i wish.....

i could sing..



cos i wanna sing this song soooooo bad. ly.

Palawan

nice place.

luscious green trees all over. lotsa island to hop in to. WOW. just WOW!

the beaches? aaahhhhh....

crystal. clear.

oh, the cave.. hmmm.. kinda creepy especially if you're like me, claustrophobic.

there's plentiful crocodiles and saw a few monkeys.

then there's the people. we were there for three days and two nights. most people i've meet personally were nice.

i'm goin' on a limb here and declare that all people from Palawan are nice people!

take a bow, guys and gals..

what's really nice about having this domestic vacation is being able to get in touch with people from different part of the region and see the culture. considering we are all filipinos, it's nice to meet people from different parts of the the island, the Philippines, and boy, believe in humanity again.

when you're in the city like my city, where it's almost always rush hour and everyone competes with everything, where people are unwilling to yield even just a little space so you can squeeze yourself in and drive through on the road, it's a welcome respite to go somewhere like Palawan.. more laid back and the time seems to take awhile to be over.

anyway, if i have the dough to blow, i'd gladly go back there no matter if i have to ride a freakin' plane all over again and be scared shitless.. in fairness, i'm getting the hang of riding a plane.

next month, i would've ridden another one if only i had a passport. the company i work for suddenly had an awesome idea of giving me the trip along with some *cough* *cough* deserving fellows in the office.

next time, sir... next time.

anyway, this post is long overdue and there's been a lot that has happened. i wish i have the liberty to divulge 'em all.

back to reality.

adapt.

wow... days just blows us by, huh?

it's kinda crazy in the office these days.. so many new faces! boy, how we have so many new babe and greenhorn.. they're everywhere!

yeah, there are only four of us left from the original.. hhmmmm.. lemme think fifteen.. twenty? can't remember exactly.

i tried quitting a few times. i remember the two times but i'm almost certain i resigned three times.

i wonder if i quit now, will they finally let me go considering i'm *cough* *cough* old?

i'm really good at what i do these days but there's a bit of a snag.. i'm not as nimble and as quick as i used to.

now, we have all these new faces and i'm wondering when are they gonna put somebody who will be my heir apparent. most departments already have somebody to assist them while i'm still a one-man-show. not that i mind.

anyway, whatever. after many years of being here and doing what i do, i'm very adept at adapting.

i'm open-minded and i play my card with aces up my sleeve. i don't think i'm that smart but it's working out fine for me.

i dunno if it'll work out for everybody, but my single biggest trick is, to keep a low profile. ya know, stay in the shadows.. below the radar.. out of the map.. away from the magnifying glass.

and then, there is God of course, you atheist!!

wifey however is the opposite. she likes to being the center of attention. if she can get a selfie on top of the highest building or a mountain, she'd gladly oblige.

just a few days from now, we'll fly out to Palawan. exciting!



meanwhile, that's all there is today.

Palawan

who doesn't wanna go there?

man, i wouldn't if we're flying.

so, wifey made it possible for us to go there in style.... my favorite means of transportation to hate - flying.

yeah.

i made all excuses not to go there. wifey is adamant, however.

you know what, i hate flying but there's something inside of me that says "eff it, GO!"

there's that thirst for danger but at the same time if i really, really have a choice, i'd like to take that risk at my own terms.. like driving a car or a motorcycle so fast, or bungee jump or any other dangerous stunt that i have the control how to go about it.

i can only imagine how brave my sister, brother and my pal when they travelled for hours going abroad. i'd probably freaked out!

thus, given my pussy-ness to fly, it is something i wanna keep doing so i can conquer it and be able to overcome that fear of flying at some point.

yeah, being up there, be it a building or otherwise, it cracks the shit out of me.

now, the question really is, go sober or loaded?

DEAD.

that's how this blog has turn out to be lately...

who wants to yak when you're un-inspired, eh? YOU?

the irony exactly.

you bust your ass to get where you are and what you want, and sometimes, nice people just hands it over to you in a silver platter, but yet, when you have it or you have/can have everything you can think of, you'd still come up short and empty.

why's that? don't ask me. i'm looking for answers too!

anyway, it's been really busy lately i have to bring some work at home and yeah, i'm working on it now... then got bored and look around for sites on my bookmarks. then, bump into this blog, opened it. there.

now, back to work.

my little angel

howdy!

yeah, still alive here... just busy.

but it's in my thoughts.. ya know, to say my piece.

did have plenty of time. just spent it elsewhere.

guess that's how being "old" means. you go where you really want to.. not what pleases other people.

i have a lot on my mind.

2014 is like a breakout year for me.. for us in the family. we've leveled up!

yeah baby!

will tell you exactly why and how it came about.... like in a month or two if we're lucky. lol

and, did i tell you my head has been aching lately? it comes with the territory, i guess.

meanwhile, i hope everyone's feelin' good..

next time?

28 pounds

two in a row!

yep, that's the spoiler right there.

won again our li'l biggest loser challenge. it's not about the money, really. i've been meaning to lose weight and the contest just put things in perspective.

my office mates from the other branch did gave me a good fight... they were teaming up and boy, did they came close... 2nd and 3rd!

although i've said before that if i kept the pace i was going, i'm gonna be in the clear... however, there were a lot of snags along the way. went to Baguio City where we ate like we mean it. that was three days and two nights. then, sister came by for over a week. had a lot of goodies and sweets.. not to mention the many, many pigging out we did.

the last two days before the weigh-in, had an awful lot of boozing with the little reunion we have from our ISUZU family.. then my uncle invited us over for some dinner cos my cousin whose been a seaman for years just passed his last exam which puts him a stone throw away from being a skipper of the ship. nice, yeah?

third or fourth week of the contest, my left knee/calves started acting out and i couldn't run anymore. imagine how much running had contributed to my weight lost and now it's out of the menu.

it's probably for the best. i learn a lot of "tricks" working around the injury. more tools in my toolbox. oh, the diet... the diet was pretty intense i got a lot of days wherein i'm just so irritable.

i'm happy it's over now. i can sit back and eat what i want... hah!

not!

yeah... the plan is to keep going but not as intense as it was during the contest.

soldering on is part of the grand scheme of things...

anyway, had a lot of things going but i can't keep up with the details.. what, with all the happenings on full throttle... this guy right here is too old to catch up, deym!

human genome

i had this stolen this from Yahoo!

I was making pottery one day because it gives me pleasure to create art from clay. To my amazement, one of my hand-made coffee mugs spoke to me and said "I don't want to be a coffee mug. I prefer to be a vase". 

I smiled and said "but I am the potter, and you are only the clay. I decided what you should be, and you are a perfect coffee mug. You have no ability to transform yourself into something else. That power rest with me alone". 

The coffee mug was angry with me, and rebelled. It tried and tried to transform itself into a vase, but it only managed to break off it's handle. It still didn't look much like a vase. It looked ugly & broken. 

Of course I forgave it, because it is only a silly mug and it doesn't know any better.

it's talking about some silly transgender woman wanting to compete in some female division competition.

really? how the freak is that even fair?

i. will. not. die. sober.

speed bumps

was on my way to victory... i mean, i could literally smell it already.

with the pace i'm going, there is no doubt it's gonna be a back-to-back victory. i'm unstoppable!

unfortunately (or more precisely, fortunately)  sister decided to come home earlier. it's supposed to be May, but today, she arrived.

and we ate. a lot.

lets start with the ribs... then the chocolates... and it's only day one for their (sister and friend) eight day furlough. it's not gonna be easy on the coming days. not to mention, the time to exercise won't be a breeze now.

i hit a snag when we went to Baguio City... no exercise and eat everything on site. that was only three days and two nights and my body felt like i'm back to square one.

after this loooong snag, i have six days to get back to the swing of things.

b-e-a-utiful!

on the bright side, i get to have a new shoes, some jeans and shirts.... and lotsa chocolates!

wish me luck!!

FU FUP!

looks like i've reached my maximum bandwidth for my internet connection. yeah, thanks to FUP or Fair Usage Policy, they can arbitrarily slow down your internet connection almost to a halt because you, my friend went bat shit crazy downloading movies, music, etc. and, watched too much YouTube.

nice, yeah?

i've got two words for these companies... FU!!

**

the last two weeks had been a major beating for my lower extremities. switching between cardio machines and really went at it at extended time... wow!

i never imagined getting back into that conditioning. in fact, i have all the excuses in the world not to push myself to the edge cos primarily, i'm like forty years old and it's a rarity for people my age to be fit... save for some few.

and, although i workout regularly, i was drinking and eating a lot at the same time. thus, it's no wonder my conditioning is off most of the time.

i'm just gonna go on push myself a tad bit every time and see how it goes and feel.

i don't brag and say "hey man, do i look trimmer to you now?" i'll just wait for the "compliments" to fall into the right places.... lol

this is the goal. the before and after.

yeah, some people are starting to notice now.

seems most of the participants aren't really in to win this contest. everyone's making an excuse. lets see how this plays out when we weigh in next month, March 20.

some are probably just playing mind games.... we'll soon find out.

**

i miss Baguio City already. i love it there. what's not to love about the city of pines? it's mostly cold. when you're inside the hotel or an establishment, it's a bit warm, but once you're outside, that's when it feels like there's an air conditioning being turned on and set to the max!

traffic in Manila though is unbearable. for a lowly person from the province like me, i could not imagine living there and work. it's too congested. they have all these projects that's about to begin construction.

the worst is yet to come.

and we wonder why Mindanao and the rest of the countryside is too far behind in terms of progress. Manila gets the lion's share of all the revenues collected from all over the country.

anyway, pictures are at wifey's phone... might be able to sneak a few snaps in here but since i'm always very, very well spent everyday, it's quite an ordeal to copy and paste them here..

good night World!

Jackpot

the city of pines... such a nice place.

other than riding on a plane and a few snags, everything was goin' great in that three days and two nights of grand vacation.

but before that, we won some twenty five grand on some contest my wife had me and the rest of the wrecking crew in the house joined in.

it was a kickoff party, raffle draws and an award's night rolled into one.

t'was Sunday and since we have this little contest called Biggest Loser in the office, i decided to hit the gym for some serious cardio.

after the gym, went to the venue famish.

i was feeling tired, hungry, bored, envious, and did i mentioned bored? yeah, it took a while to finish. a lot of awardees and winners were announced wifey included.

some pals i know of were winning... cash, appliances, cellphones, etc.

i was feeling dismayed cos everyone's seems to be winning but us.

to make the long story short, during the final draw, i kept telling myself i hope i didn't win cos i hate going up on stage and getting pictured at... i didn't wanna be seen at all.

to my surprise, i got called!

the irony.

my wife is twenty five G's richer... yeah, i gave it all to her. well, she did all the work.. from buying the tickets, to making sure everyone goes, all the way to filling 'em tickets down.

what did i do? make sure i get my ass into that convention center.

i wanna go on talkin' but shayt, did some freakin' serious workout earlier, thus, i am very well spent.

Bagiuo City story will have to wait.... *yawn*

Biggest Lozer 2

WOW!

it's been a helluva tiring week! yep, bump up the cardio and really lessen the food intake... results are obvious, i guess.

i'm just waiting for other people to notice. i don't go around and brag about how i've lost weight.

my fellow competitors are showing signs of giving up. they probably thought there was no way of beating me... i doubt it very much.

we still have over a month more to go... plenty of time to turn things around.

i wish i could swim again though. that would really put me in the forefront, hands down.

unlike college days wherein i swim for twenty to thirty laps but then eat loads of junks afterwards like burgers and all that oily food being sold outside CCSC (the swimming place), now i can just eat boiled chicken breast and be content with it.

if i continue in this course and keep doing the things i do now, i believe i can top that lost weight i had before.

me and wifey are going to Baguio this tuesday for a three day vacation. nice, yeah?

i'm still scared shitless riding a plane and, we're gonna be travelling and riding on a bus  for hours going to our destination. heard about that news early today about a bus falling off a 120 meter ravine? many died.

that's even more scary!

anyway, if it's your time, it's your time. only the good Lord above knows when it's your time to go.

the cardio section of the gym is now my favorite hangout. i sweat like a bucket every time i'm there.

time to kill the talk and embrace the sacks.... nighty!

check your pride

love this....



***

how's the weather in your part of the world?

it's been chillin' like a villain these days around here...

it's taking a toll in some members of the family.. me included.

work is, uhm, complicated... to borrow the word from what site was that?? hah!

yep. i've been getting a lot of heat lately. too much backlogs on practically everything. can you blame me?

when we began we sold around twenty units per month.. now, we're up to sixty. that's excluding the other branches. Tacloban was giving good numbers but we know what happened, they got wipeout.

and, i'm still doing these things all by myself!

i have no complains really... just as long as they don't rush me to produce everything all at once. my boss isn't too understanding.

one more shit from him and i'm goin' to a grand vacation.

we'll see what happens next.

i know about that "no one is indispensable" thing, so don't lecture me about it.

it's gonna be hard losing a job at this juncture. i mean, whose gonna hire a forty year old man other than call centers, eh?

but it doesn't matter. sometimes, you just have to go out there and throw yourself into the sea. i mean, i've been busting my ass for this company for almost fifteen years... two years before that, i was also working for them but with a different brand.

i'd like to try some freedom from them and do my own thing. i don't know if i still have anything left in the tank that can turn things around.

i can't be thankful enough to them. i've learned and grow a lot and at the same, it allowed me to put food on the table for my family.

anyway, i don't look forward to that day, but it's best to be prepared.

***

so, Biggest Loser is back in the office. i've ballooned a lot since the last time we did it. although i gain a lot of muscles, fat is all over the place as well.

i can't be thankful enough for my office mates who reboot this contest. it just puts me into that page again where i'm really focus and that determination to win, though the feeling is tiring.... but it's AWESOME!

especially if you start buckling your belt and there's that hole that inches forward as days go by.. until you're in the last punctured part of your belt.. WOW. it's good!

best part is, i can run again. been doin' a little sprint and walk (HIIT) cardio in the treadmill and boy, does it just fry your fats out.

wifey is also into running, her latest passion. i'm just waiting for the right time so i can run with her early in the morning. don't expect me to beat her anytime soon. she's been joining fun runs since last year and is a top three to five finisher.

i have this new gym gear called FatGripz. i got the extreme variant where the diameter really mimics or perhaps even thicker than fat bars. U.S.A. has a lot of 'em fat bars. here however, i haven't seen one yet. perhaps a rarity.

so far it's been good. my forearms are fried long before i could get into the top weight. it definitely offers variety and to a certain extent, challenge. you should try it sometimes to know exactly what i mean.

it's nice to yack s'more, however, bed is calling.

chi-chao!

I Can..

WOW! it's been what, forever?

yep, got caught up with a lot of things. like a lot.

the work had been nothing but...

about two month ago(?), i've been holdin' office upstairs. we have this renovation going and it's taking eons!

so, what happened? about three or four departments had been fused all together. we are all shacked up in one big room. nice, huh? boy, it's been HELL.

most of these are ladies... and LOUD. my ears are bleeding!

thank God for earphones. but even then, it's still a pain in the ass. it's like listening to degenerates.. i feel dumber each day that passes.

and the renovation isn't gonna finish soon either... thus, i'm stuck with the loudmouths! it's soooo annoying, man.. i hope we can move back to where we've been..

**

my older brother whose been on rehab for almost a couple of years is back with us. good to see him making improvements.. big ones!

i hated him when i was younger for all the stupid things he pulled. but now, i have nothing but love for him. it's good to have a brother around the house. even my elder half sister is with us now. the house she's been staying since her childhood days had been sold. she's got nowhere to go, so she's here. like i have a choice, huh?!

anyway, we're one, big, quirky family now! what's really odd about this whole arrangement is, both of my siblings aren't married, my wife's brother is just as single.. even my older sister abroad is still single too!

here's hoping for the best!

**

speaking of sister, big sister is coming home this year. we're all excited. our nanny and her nephews (daughters of my dearly departed nanny) are also coming over. they've been residing in Manila for years now. they aren't exactly, ya know, well off there but they'd rather be there so sister's bringing them here for some RnR.

another thing to be excited of are the presents.. hehe.. little brother had been asking about our sizes. he always buys the good stuff.. sister's kinda cheapskate on stuff, but when it comes to goodies, she brings it.

**

workout had been so-so. i was gonna start running.. do some interval training but had an unfortunate mishap. i was at the mall to buy some compression shorts for my grand plan - run around IT Park after office hours. while walking to the parking lot, i stumbled on some hump.. all because i was looking at this dog the guard was walking around. i fell hard on my right knee.

boy, i couldn't care less about the embarrassment. the pain was almost unbearable!

iced it after arriving home. next day, deadlift some three hundred pounds. stupid! i thought it's nothing cos i can bend my knees. next thing i know, it just swelled like there's a small ball stuck inside my knee. i could not bend it anymore. fcuk me!

t'was a nightmare.

could hardly walk but managed to get inside the bathroom. good thing i got some guy to buy me some ice and iced the area for an hour.

for almost a month now, haven't done any leg exercise.

this week, i managed to walk in the treadmill and do some stationary bike. at least it's healing up.

**

Sinulog's comin' up. my pal who shares my namesake will have a party at his house a day before the festivities. he does it annually... what usually happens is, i get hammered the night before and i don't get to go out the next day.

it's gonna be more fun now cos we have this new pal who came out of nowhere and is a mighty made guy. if you're familiar with the Italian mob, you know what a made guy is.. otherwise, google is your friend!

if i have it my way, i don't really mind not going anywhere. i'm pretty set at home with all the fun stuff i managed to amass... that is, modesty aside.

but, it's also nice to go out , let your hair down, loosen up, get wasted with your pals. although you scorch a few brain cells, you get to stimulate it at the same time.

so, lets say, we'll just roll with the punches.

**

anyone seen that awesome movie, Lone Survivor movie yet? very nice!

i don't know about you but i'm sleepy, tired and bored... so, 'til next year?