So What's the Big Idea?

It's not everyday that you meet a great visionary like Sir Dado Banatao.

Earlier this month, I saw this 3-Day IDEA Global Entrepreneurship Workshop Series invitation on PhilDev facebook page and immediately enlisted myself. Lo and behold, they emailed me the outline of the workshop, and found out that he will be gracing this event as well! I was so excited to meet my idol, who is, for me, is the modern-day Rizal who proved that Filipinos are capable of doing great things. To top it off, he is the simplest, most humble billionaire I've ever met. (..okay, not that I've ever met any, lol...)

The workshop held on July 25-27, 2014 at Asian Institute of Management was a continuation the two-day event held last March 14-15, 2014 on understanding global market, identifying major market needs, productization of innovative research, business incubation, searching and working with venture capital, and intellectual property practices in the Philippines. The topics discussed were in line with Sir Dado's earlier statement that "Innovation is more important that invention. Innovation implies industry." Indeed, there is nothing more satisfying for an engineer, more than the monetary gains, than to see his inventions being used.

I can't wait to start on an idea of my own someday! Hopefully I get to stick with an idea that I would actually work on! Hehe.

Exercise!

I joined a fitness gym near our place since March which includes aeroboxing, step, hi-lo, zumba, and yoga classes from 7-9am. Mostly I enjoy the Yoga sessions since dancing is not one of my better skills. I find it amazing that mere poses can make you sweat so hard! We've been doing this pose and I'm a bit afraid my spine will not support my body that one day it'll break:


Picture taken from http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories

LOL, wishing for the best! :)

Break the Loop!

I finally got to watch Looper, together with a "date" last Sunday. (Ayown eh!) We watched Skyfall and this movie. Ask me why I was so giddy to get out last weekend? Well, I just found out that my teammates at Sabre went to Dallas for training and will be in Krakow next year, barely two months after I resigned, so I wanted to chill and get my share of enjoyment for once! (Bitter mode! HAHA!)

Anyway, going back to Looper. The storyline was deserving of the positive response I've been hearing, definitely one-of-a-kind must-watch movie. I liked how the sequences of events tied up together, however still not up to par with the untouchable "Inception" on my list. The action sequences were mediocre and could have been better executed. I also thought something was lacking in the overall pacing of the movie, but still, it's really, really gooooood so nevermind my mumbling...

Sunday was a nice break from my routine \m/ and my date was nice, he told me that if I really couldn't stand staying in my old company, it's better to leave anyway, so who cares about Dallas? Anyhow, I am happy to be coding again since most of the work I had been doing at Sabre was checking log errors for the last months I was with them. I also am relieved to be working with my old pals at 77 :)

One Year Anniversary!

Time flies really fast, cliche but true. I can still remember how unprepared I was when I started working here at Sabre. After a rather unpleasant short 7-month stint with Safeway, then the unsuccessful attempt to work abroad, I landed on a 6-month contract job at Sabre, and now, I am a regular employee.

Personally for me, it was a blessing in disguise. Here, I had the pleasure of working with a lot of seniors who taught about Agile development, SVN, Maven, the proper way of developing with design patterns, and pair programming. It's not a perfect craft, but I must say, much better than other projects that I have worked with. I also had a chance to sing in the company events, i.e., Christmas party and office inauguration. So despite all the troubles in my personal life, there have been some progress in both my personal well-being and technical skills. I had been reprimanded several times for doing unsatisfactory work but hey, tao lang. The most important thing is that I am enjoying myself now. Less pressure, and better work habits.

I've said this before and yeah, I associate every good feeling I have right now with Sabre. I think God gave me this opportunity to get away from the old folks for a while, in order for me to find new friends, and experience new things. It's hard when you get used to the same people every day of your life, that they become a "benchmark" of how you should look, the way you act, what you should wear, what you should do with your life. This year had been such an emotional rollercoaster ride. In it, I found new friends, discovered who my true ones were, and who to trust and not to trust.

How real is the saying, time heals all wounds? and luckily, Sabre had been part of that healing process ;)

It's been 5 months now. BAD VIBES GONE.... FOR GOOD :D