Previously on Top 9 of 2009:

Top 9: Pixar’s Up

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It was my second time to quit my job.

Pinagsabihan na ako ng parents ko at ng kapatid ko na huwag akong mag-resign dahil nga wala naman akong problema sa management at mas malaki naman ang kinikita ko di hamak dito kaysa sa unang trabaho. Nalaman din nila na dahil ako’y babalik sa UP para mag-aral. Hindi dahil sa tutol sila sa pag-aaral (ngunit hindi pa rin nila alam kung paraan saan pa ang masters) ngunit hindi sila kumbinsido kung kakayanin ko ba at nila na hindi ako kumikita sa loob ng 18 buwan.

Ang pagbabalik sa UP ang sinabi kong dahilan sa aking manager at sa aming president. Mabait talaga sila. Natawa na lang din ako nung sinabi ng presidente ng kumpanya namin na hindi naman niya kinailangan yung masters degree para sa posisyon na meron siya ngayon. LOL. Mukhang alam niya kasi na gusto ko ang posisyon nya pero sa sariling kumpanya ko. Ang manager ko naman ayaw talaga ako paalisin. Gumagawa siya ng paraan para manatili ako pero buo na rin kasi ang loob ko.

Hindi ako masyadong nahirapan sa desisyon kumpara sa unang pagbitiw ko.

I haven’t been so attached to my officemates because I felt I was backstabbed every day. If there were few good persons in the office that I became friends with, it is because we have mutual respect to each other. But I haven’t opened up so much to them either. One can blame me for not adapting to the environment well but I’ll tell you, I tried all socializing skills that I know and it won’t simply work to some of them.

Nakita ko rin kasi kung paano nila apihin (totoo, apihin is an understatement) yung iba kaya alam kong ginagawa rin nila sa akin yun patalikod. Ayaw kong ipagsiksikan ang sarili ko lalo na sa kanila.

Tulad ng nasabi ko kanina, wala akong problem sa management. Hindi ko mareklamo kaya naappreciate ko kung ano yung mga ginagawa nila kahit yung ilan ay naghihimutok na. Hindi rin ako sipsip dahil hindi ko kailangan nun. Wala lang talagang perfect working place.

Malaki ang utang na loob ko sa kanila dahil nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataon para mag-part-time MS CS. Nakakapasok ako sa mga klase kung gusto ko. Hindi naging hadlang ang trabaho maliban na lamang ang layo ng opisina. Mall of Asia tapos Diliman. Stress.

Pero dahil na rin sa pagbabalik sa UP, kaya mas naisipan ko na lang na mag-full-time.

This resignation is the sweetest freedom ever. Iba talaga kapag malaya ka na.

===

At ang susunod sa aking listahan ay “Family Affairs”.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Newest Project
• 29 Faces of 2009
• New Year Projects
• Nazty’s Top 9 of 2009: Pixar’s Up
• The Jam-Packed PLDT MyDSL Watchpad
• Janno Dibs
• Watchpad, QTube and Rhian Ramos
• Exposed
• Why Did I Follow Lola Techie Again?
• Facebuko Fan Page Still Denied Of Service

Tradisyon na kasi ito!

Now on its third year, it’s the time once again for the annual recap! Top 9 of 2009 is my countdown of the bests and worsts of the year. Unlike the previous year-end countdowns, 27 for 2007 and 28 for 2008, I’ll be listing only few stuff. However, since these 9 are the biggest influences of 2009, they are worth one blog post each.

And for the first entry, flying high on the ninth spot is Pixar’s UP or the movie date that happened.

Laking gulat niya at lahat ng mga kaibigan namin na ako pala si Mister Yoso. Marahil inisip nila na hindi na ako makakapagpatuloy sa aking buhay pag-ibig. Subalit heto na nga kahit galing sa kasawian ay sinubukang mangharana muli.

I was sending C some ‘tokens of appreciation’ anonymously through the help of my bestfriend. One gift a week. And to finish this mystery files game, I found Pixar’s UP movie date to be the perfect time to reveal the identity of her secret admirer.

Eto na nga ang plano sa gabing iyon. Sinakyan ko ang trip ni Carl Fredicksen sa kanyang mga lobo. Naghanap naman ako ng sandamakmak na lobo, iba-iba ang kulay at hugis, kasama ng mga paborito nyang bagay tulad ng Eraserheads, Gossip Girl at ni Rihanna. Ang mga nakakasalubong at nakakatabi ay tinatanong ako para saan, para kanino. Kinikilig din sila. Kaya naniwala ako na may pag-asa ang gimik.

Sa Starbucks kami nagkita. Parang eyeball lang. Awkward lang ng tagpo. Pero nandito na eh. Wala ng atrasan. Akala ko aatras siya dahil sa trabahong nakatambak sa opisina. Pero masaya ako at natuloy rin.

Maganda talaga ang UP kahit pangalawang beses ko na siyang napanood. Telesync downloaded version naman kasi yung una. Saka mas mahalaga ngayon, kasi kasama ko siya. Ayun eh. Nag-enjoy naman siya, kasi tumatawa siya sa parts na dapat siyang tumawa.

Natapos ang movie. Natapos din ang date. Kasi nga isingit lang naman itong surprised date. Meron talaga siyang affair with her friends and her family.

Natapos din ang pag-asa na umusbong ang isang love story after that night. Ramdam ko na nawala o hindi napantayan ang kilig na dala nung mystery effect compare after the revelation. O dahil hindi pa talaga siya handa magmahal ulit.

Ano ang impact nito sa 2009 sa akin? (1) Eh di single na naman! Not that I’m complaining, masaya naman kaya ang stage na ito! Alone but not lonely… (2) Ayoko na muna. May rupture point din ang puso.

Tapos. The End. Ah-Uhm.

On #8 is my resignation. Pero bukas na lang ulit.

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• New Year Projects
• Nazty’s Top 8 of 2009: Resignation
• The Jam-Packed PLDT MyDSL Watchpad
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• Watchpad, QTube and Rhian Ramos
• Exposed
• Why Did I Follow Lola Techie Again?
• Facebuko Fan Page Still Denied Of Service

I’m enjoying an online experience at its best with PLDT MyDSL as it launches another pioneer service for its subscribers, the Watchpad. PLDT MyDSL Watchpad is a one-stop portal that lets you watch TV channels, movies, play online games and connect with your favorite social networking sites all at the same time and absolutely for free.

Let me guide you to this entertainment portal and show you the features you are missing in case you haven’t tried it out. And for those who aren’t subscribed yet to PLDT MyDSL, this is the best time to get their plans. Find out what makes Watchpad my latest online tambayan.

Free and Simple Registration

The sign-up simply needs your email address, your account number, your PLDT landline number and a mobile number. While waiting for your account to be verified and be activated, you can download the free and easy-to-install Watchpad Player application. Don’t worry about the minimum requirements of the application because you can download these prerequisites from the website. Once installation is complete, you can login with your activated account and password and start enjoying the benefits of Watchpad.

5-in-1

With Watchpad myShows, you can watch and switch among hottest channels and TV shows without walking away from your keyboard. It’s better than most of our TV because it’s now possible to catch cable channels like Cartoon Network and Pinoy Box Office here.

As of this writing, there are 13 channels the whole family can enjoy – be it telenovelas from GMA 7, alternative rock music videos from MTV, all-time Pinoy favorite flicks from PBO, educational documentary from National Geographic or juiciest dose of entertainment from E! Surely, there’s something for every family member.

Watchpad turns your computer screen to a silverscreen as it brings you award-winning movies in myFlicks. You don’t have to wait and to line up for film festivals when you can watch country’s highly acclaimed indie movies in the comfort of your room whenever. No more last full-show.

Some independent movies currently on showing are listed on the image on the right.

Watchpad has its own exclusive channel, myView, where celebrities like Rhian Ramos, Isabel Oli and Jay Durias entertain you in their segments. The Watchpad Crew is also covering the hippest events and happenings in campuses and blogosphere so you might as well be seen.

Level Up! online games are also tied up in this bundle. You can play your favorite role playing and adventure games in myArcade.

And to top it all, you can immediately tweet or post an update to your Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites what you are watching without switching applications in your desktop. Watchpad lets you accomplish this in just one window in myLinks.

You can see a screenshot of myLinks showing a multitasking me, playing Mafia Wars on Facebook and watching Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network. I can drag the video in any position within the desktop. That’s possible with Watchpad!

More Fun

Since I’m subscribed to Plan 1995, I am already enjoy watching the shows and films on a higher quality resolution. High quality moving pictures are available starting with Plan 1299. PLDT also promises to offer more channels and more online games across all plans.

A screenshot of the HQ version of the channels being streamed to Watchpad. Better than Youtube resolution, eh?

A screenshot of Culdesac, one of the movies featured in Watchpad and topbilled by Sam Milby.

As of writing, here’s the list of sites that you can visit via Watchpad while watching movies and shows.

Don’t miss your favorite shows while playing your Level Up! game.

Performance

The CPU utilization and memory usage of Watchpad desktop application is very minimal. It takes smaller CPU utilization, less than compared to iTunes. It also occupies a little memory space similar to that of Yahoo Messenger.

But Wait, There’s More!

The most exciting about Watchpad is that it keeps on surprising me. Two weeks from now, I’m going to witness Manny Pacquiao, taking his chance to create a world record in boxing history, first-hand as Watchpad offers World Welterweight Championship between Pacquiao and Cotto for free, live and without commercial gaps. When everyone else’s waiting at the delayed telecast, I’m ready to tweet blow-by-blow all in one window… all in Watchpad.

If these stuff excite you, then go grab your free username and password from PLDT Watchpad Site. All myDSL Plans come with PLDT myDSL Watchpad and best experienced with Plan 1299 and up.

There you go… See you at PLDT MyDSL Watchpad…

Possibly Related Posts:

• Newest Project
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• New Year Projects
• Nazty’s Top 8 of 2009: Resignation
• Nazty’s Top 9 of 2009: Pixar’s Up
• Janno Dibs
• Watchpad, QTube and Rhian Ramos
• Exposed
• Why Did I Follow Lola Techie Again?
• Facebuko Fan Page Still Denied Of Service

Twelve days ago, I went to a barbeque partey slash art exhibit slash culture fair slash donation drive billed as First Dibs! The event features the celebrity graphic artist Christian San Jose and his winning shirt design, Mechalabaw, for Design by Humans. The $10,000 richer kid is the first believer of the powers of Facebuko advertisement as he plugged his entry to the contest. As an instant fan, I posted some carabao-related statuses in Facebuko to campaign for his design.

I thought of inviting my best friend, May, to the event because she likes Team Manila and I’m sure that she’s going to like the entire culture fair and boom-boom-pow surrounds. But she’s busy on her wedding preparations.

I also knew Maki’s going and I wanted to greet her personally. We were some inches closer the last time we “met” but we did not talk.

I went there all by myself. I didn’t bring my camera thus this post without pics. I enjoyed the event. If I’m to buy something that day, it should be a striking red. I searched for red items, particularly red shoes but it wasn’t my lucky day. Yet, there’s really a wide range of interesting items out there. Commune MNL and WYD, Delivery One, Longboards MNL, WipCaps and Gnarly caught my attention. And of course, CSJ’s latest offering Of All Time! It made me LOL big time. Barbeque is delicious. I love the peppery taste!

I saw CSJ actually but I was kinda starstruck. Lolz. He’s being followed by CS9 crew. I did not see Maki though. She arrived few minutes after I exited. It was later at home when I read her tweet that she and CSJ were looking for me.

The rooftop event was a topping to something that happened to me before that night. It’s still related to Dibs though. Remember, the event’s also a donation drive. So I bought these stuff from Landmark Glorietta to have something for the Ondoy and Pepeng survivors.

I was familiar to the place since I have worked at Makati for two years so when the map to the event was given, I was confident and did not pay attention. Yet, I managed to keep the 6805 building number just in case. The image that registered to my mind was it is somewhere close to Enterprise Center (HSBC).

Since I’ve been walking from Enterprise Center to Glorietta before, I estimated that I can still carry my donations from Landmark to Building 6805. But it was only when I was at Enterprise Center that I’ve found out 6805 is farther that I thought and I have to pass a lot of underpasses and a overpass. Yeah, up and down, left and right, carrying my donations and looking for 6805. It was a weekend and escalators are not working.

And finally after some minutes of searching and walking, I’ve found the building. To end a kilometer quest, I took another stairs from the 23rd floor to the roofdeck.

I was thirsty and yet so relieved that I’ve finally reached the entrance. Guess what? My donation is a box of 24 bottles of 530 mL purified water. The irony. My biceps and triceps for the win.

I paid visit to Mechalabaw and thank him for the power he bestowed upon me. LOL.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Newest Project
• 29 Faces of 2009
• New Year Projects
• Nazty’s Top 8 of 2009: Resignation
• Nazty’s Top 9 of 2009: Pixar’s Up
• The Jam-Packed PLDT MyDSL Watchpad
• Watchpad, QTube and Rhian Ramos
• Exposed
• Why Did I Follow Lola Techie Again?
• Facebuko Fan Page Still Denied Of Service

If I’m going to draw a Venn diagram of what has just happened the other night, October 15, there would be a set called PLDT Watchpad, another set labelled QTube and Rhian Ramos is an element of the intersection of these sets. How gleek!

Earlier that night, I flew all the way to Mag:net Cafe at Bonifacio High Street to rockeoke my night as PLDT launches Watchpad, the country’s first broadband entertainment portal, to the bloggers. I had ideas about this new tambayan since I already signed up for the service few days before the bloggers event. And later I found out that there’s actually more from Watchpad that I haven’t discovered yet.

Aside from knowing more stuff about Watchpad, I was really excited to attend my first Nuffnang event and to personally meet the gang. I heard they are cool folks. Well, they are. Where in the world you can find a crew resolving my ticket and telling that he’s a big fan of Facebuko. Mr. Vader really knows how to do the trick. Hehe.

I also wanted to see more faces behind the prominent Pinoy blogs. And since the event’s a Rockeoke (rock + videoke) night, I was expecting gimikeros and gimikeras and more daring crowd of bloggers. Wordcamp 2009 is a serious kind of eyeball and I was really hiding at that event. And I gotta feeling that Rockeoke’s gonna be a good good night to introduce myself as the manong behind Facebuko.

After the success of my first mission, that is to connect to the Internet and to broadcast my first observations via tweets and plurks, Sir Eric Ramirez of Nuffnang approached me. Introductions followed. ‘So, ikaw pala ang Facebuko owner?’ Then, he waved and tried to get the attention of his fellow Nuffnangers. More introductions. ‘Ikaw pala yun!’. I felt the warmth from their smiles (and not like they’re expecting someone else to show up as Manong Magbubuko. Lolz.) Feeling VIP, amfufu.

Four paragraphs and there’s still no Rhian Ramos in this post, right? Of course, it’s because I was not expecting celebrities to come. I don’t usually eat much at an eyeball event but seeing her, the Rhian Ramos, I was already full. Burp. Play the Stairway to Heaven background music now. “Langit ka… Buko ako…” She’s pretteh.

I’m skipping here the technical details of PLDT Watchpad as the entertainment tambayan will be explained further at another post. This is just for you, Rhian. Well, she proved to the crowd that she can actually sing with the anthem-of-the-night “With or Without You”. The bloggers took their SLR’s (Damn, when can I get one for myself? After some x Nuffnang ads maybe…) and captured how the star of the night shines. It’s not being torpe but there’s something that controlled me and not to approach Rhian after her number.

Ibinihos ko na lang ang beer sa aking la-la-mu—-nan… and had just chosen to interact with other Nuffnang event first timers – Cris, who got my first pic of the night, and the couple (ooops, to be confirmed yet), Angelo and Christine, the partners behind Hit A Bargain to whom I shared the beginnings of Facebuko. I had also the chance to catch fellow ambigram artist, Jinoe of Takbo.ph. No, he’s not running that time. I also bumped with my fellow Parser alumnus, Jonel.

Meanwhile, it looks like you should have the singing skill before Nuffnang hires you as an employee. The uber-talented crew brought down the house (it’s an idiom). They actually put the bar higher that normal videoke singers may not be able to reach. The bloggers were then stage-frightened to perform right after these rakistas. Judd, one of the rockers, is a Facebook friend of my high school classmate. I wonder what their relationship is. Evilsmirk.

Maybe if they insist next time, I will sing and I’ll put my name to fame… but only after Makimodo performs. Or maybe we can do something like Blogger-Nuffnanger Celebrity Duets.

I wished I could stay at the Mag:net longer and gatecrashed for the next event but I had to catch up QTube’s episode because they’re airing their feature on Facebuko.com! It was my first exposure, er, public appearance on TV. I hopped across Krispy Kreme store and tuned in to Q Channel 11 via online streaming.

10:15 and QTube started. Facebuko’s segment is one of the last features of the show. My friends and fans are plurking, Facebook poking me to tell that they’re also hooked on QTube. But, at that very instance, when Facebuko was just about to be broadcasted, the WiFi at Krispy Kreme reset. WATDAEF. I just missed the whole segment.

I just ended up reading the plurks of my friends on what they have seen on the tube. I did not know that the show interviewed some Kapuso stars on what they can say about the viral site. Ogie Alcasid, who portrayed a spoiled bratinella named Angelina and one of the most-liked characters in Facebuko, recognized the site as a nice help in their movie promotion. Rufa Mae Quinto, once featured in the site, quite liked it and thought that I might be bored with Facebook and ended up with bringing this one up. And guess what — Rhian Ramos, who was not yet featured in the site, said something like “Hinay hinay lang sa jokes para iwas gulo…” Haha… And yeah that explains the something earlier that hinders me to approach her. Flash Forward, eh?

To be continued…

Possibly Related Posts:

• Newest Project
• 29 Faces of 2009
• New Year Projects
• Nazty’s Top 8 of 2009: Resignation
• Nazty’s Top 9 of 2009: Pixar’s Up
• The Jam-Packed PLDT MyDSL Watchpad
• Janno Dibs
• Exposed
• Why Did I Follow Lola Techie Again?
• Facebuko Fan Page Still Denied Of Service