by alexis catherine pablico, 25 years old, of manila, and if heaven can wait, of the world's grandest and most fabulous places. also tramping at http://acpablico.wordpress.com/ :P
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You log in to your account, see what your friends are up to, annoy two of them, annoy some more friends, and then try to impress them by posting your best pictures. Perhaps at some point you get to say something useful or funny. Or maybe you get information on things you don’t know you want to buy, or places you don’t know you want to see.
Sounds familiar? Who do not have an account in social networking sites? My dog does. So stop me if you have heard about this. I have joined yet another social networking site called MySandbox. This time, I can check to annoy friends using just my cellphone. The service is lightweight enough to provide easy browsing. It is also connected to the download store of my cellphone’s service provider. It’s a really neat way of adding value to my cell phone usage.
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. (Read The Paradox of Our Time)
Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.
It's scary that one company after another is laying off some of their employees. I am scared that soon enough I have to lose my source of income. I have been taught early in life that the good things are really good. The world is a nice place to buy into. But without a job...
It got me to thinking about a 2nd career. Just in case. Here's something from Mark Rossdale. If you want to explore another career, he is worth hearing out:
1. Explore your likes and dislikes. Believe it or not, many people I know do not know what they like to do in say, two to three years. Years after they started a career they are still not sure what it is exactly that they are looking for in their work. You will have a better and easier transition to a freelance life if you know what you enjoy doing.
Maybe you already know that you want to open your own restaurant, or work from home doing some writing. Either way, you have to consider if your planned career outside the corporate world is something you are willing to do for years.
2. Research and identify career fields that present growth opportunities that you can take with your present skills level. Read as much as you can about the business. As you stack up on information, see if you can get in touch with industry people and build a network.
When I started my career as a freelance writer, I got a lot of help from career bloggers who specialize in online content management. Some of them I have maintained a healthy business relationship. A good network and knowledge about the business can light your way along this uncertain road to a freelance life.
3. Update your skills set. If the freelance career you want to have is something that is completely unrelated to the corporate job you have done for so many years, you may need to upgrade your skills. Of course, you enjoy writing and you are good at it. But it is different when you have to do it for money.
Freelance writing is a business. And good writing skills are not enough to be a successful freelance writer. Most freelance writing jobs are done online. Learn how to use the Web like a professional freelancer. Use Facebook, Twitter, etc. Learn where to get good projects online. Improve. Your freelance schedule can give you time to learn the business and remain competitive.
But being a freelance writer is not as easy as I have thought it would be. I spent most of my time on my previous job coordinating and talking with people. These skills have their uses now that I am a freelance writer. But there are other things that I had to develop along the way. In most cases they translated to putting off the purchase of one thing or another and delayed payments of household bills. One has to see it happen before doing it.
Below is an excerpt from a Manila Standard Today article written by Christine Herrera. I was about to say that it was good writing. But that is beside the point, I think, because something larger than me liking what she has just written is involved here. Read on. “THEY were savages,” 16-year-old Legend Rivera said.
“They were very young—about my age—but fearless. They looked like demons and seemed ready to kill Christians. I almost went crazy.”
Rivera was recounting her ordeal in Kolambugan town, Lanao del Norte, when fighters of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front laid siege to it and caused the death of 39 people. She told it between sobs by cellular phone in Ozamis City, where she had finally escaped after going through hell for 11 hours.
She lived in a dormitory near the campus of the Catholic-run Holy Cross High School, where she had been a junior student. Arround 5 a.m. Monday, she woke up to the sound of gunfire and screaming.
“I couldn’t move. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said.
“Houses, stores and offices surrounding the campus were on fire. Some people were looting the stores.
“I saw around 50 armed men aged between 16 and 19. They were indiscriminately shooting at people—children, young and old—who were trying to escape the fire. They were laughing and cursing them while firing at them.
“I threw up. My landlady and my dorm mates grabbed me and told me to get hold of myself and to hurry so we could escape. We ran. We saw them and they saw us. I knew they saw us because they started firing and running after us.”
Rivera said the men had long firearms and were dressed in black fatigue uniforms. They were warning people that all Christians would be killed, but their Muslim brothers and sisters were to be spared. They told the Muslim women to wear bandannas so they would know they were Muslims.
“We are Catholics, so we didn’t have bandannas. We ran for our lives,” Rivera said.
“I didn’t know what they wanted, but it seemed that they were blaming the government, and the government was to pay for its crime against them by killing us. I was confused.”
Rivera said she and a few others were separated from the group, but her landlady never released her grip on her hand and another classmate’s.
“We ran and ran and ran. I was told not to look back. I tripped and dropped on my knees several times; I tripped on dead bodies. I saw children among the dead.
I cried and cried and thought I’d never leave that place alive. Some people were running against our direction, and they told us to go back because there were MILF men at the pier, and they would not allow the boat to leave the island. (Continue reading)
You don’t have to lose your job, or wait forever, to take a break from city life. With our guide to the cheap and chic retreats outside Metro Manila, any one can now have a holiday in between work weeks, recharge their batteries, and ably keep up with the city pace that can only come from a refreshing country break.
For the get-go, there's nothing between these two hotels in Boracay. I was just thinking out loud when I typed the above title. But, really, which is better this summer: the Iza Calzado-owned Tides Boracay or the Fairways-managed Mulligan Hotel? I think it depends on what one likes in a vacation.
The two hotels lie on extremes, really. Tides Boracay, I stayed there once, is this vibrant and fun place where the manila party scene will not be missed. If you have been to a cruise party, you know what Tides is. In addition, of course, to the Zen rooms and fine dining lounge of their hotel in Boracay.
As for the Mulligan Boracay Hotel, it is this out-of-the-way, exclusive beach, recently opened to the public golf resort in Boracay Island. Been there once on a business trip, with golfer bosses, and it was really nice. It is owned by the Fairways and Bluewater and all in all the hotel has that discreet luxury in its every corner.
Hmm.. Mulligan or Tides? Tides or Mulligan? (Lolz. Sorry for the second video. Can't find anything on YouTube about Mulligan Boracay. Just this amateurish crap . The hotel, it seems, lives up to its reputation of being that yet-to-be-explored and exclusive luxury golf hotel that it is.)
One feeling that I find really wonderful is that of having my feet off the ground. It feels like not human and extraordinary, which explains why I experience a certain high every time I swim in the beach of nearby Pearl Farm Resort. The turtles beside me were a plus.
Too bad work prevents me from often having my fix of that high. And the feeling of need crops up even in the way I do my work, which involves surfing (the net, that is) for lazy five hours, two hours for breaks, and one hour doing my actual work of corresponding.
Working, I StumbledUpon a newspaper item about the world's largest pool. Called the San Alfonso del Mar Resort, the world's largest pool recorded by the Guinness Book measures 1,013 meters long and covers 80 acres, with its deepest end reaching 115ft and holding a total of 66 million gallons of water. That's about enough to flood a first-class city in the Philippines like Cebu City. An Olympic-size pool measures some 50 yards by 25 yards.
The "monster pool" uses a computer- controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other, reported the Daily Mail.
In the Philippines, the same grand project has just been realized with the opening of the Manila Ocean Park. Located behind the Quirino Grandstand by the Manila Bay, the Ocean Park is a wonderful sight that gives a feeling of going underwater not only in Manila Bay but in the world's best snorkeling sites...Oh, but enough of this. This is all but masturbation
Office sucks, but for the beautiful men (or women) that make our every day in hell a heaven. This week in StumbleUpon (hahz) brings me to this site called DocStoc, enumerating 8 types of office crushes and how they, oh simply to kill away the time. :P Here it goes
A complete waste of taxpayer's money! Imagine this amateurish PTA seal on the cemented walkways of Boracay. Like the "concretization" of the tropical island is not bad enough. Then, to add insult to injury, there's this blatant opportunism of a government official called Robert Dean Barbers. Haynaku! (Going the other way from home)
(The following is what greeted me in my inbox this morning. Nothing much, not a nice read even. But it has made me think, so I think it's good. Enjoy!)
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for you, that is the source of your problems and stress.”
“The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each other's cups."
"Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life.
The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have."
"What would Bill Gates do? Even Bill Gates can't defy time and suddenly it's thinkable to have a Microsoft without Bill Gates. Featuring an all-star cast, Bill Gates go on job-hunting beyond Microsoft Corp."
cool... freelancer ka din pala.. :) just like me.. i read some of your stuff.. pretty good...:)
i'm no good at writing though.. hehe :) keep it up..
saw my brother working at a big company.. that time i realized.. i will not be a corporate slave... he got above minimum salaray... worked like a dog though..
compared to me... work 2-3 hours a day but still i get paid way more than him.. pang trabahong tamad talaga ang freelancing... :))
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. The hotel, it seems, lives up to its reputation of being that yet-to-be-explored and exclusive luxury golf hotel that it is.)
And the feeling of need crops up even in the way I do my work, which involves surfing (the net, that is) for lazy five hours, two hours for breaks, and one hour doing my actual work of corresponding.
