As early as now, I know you’ve been busy booking for your summer vacation. Now, here’s something I’m sure you’d wanna know: LONG WEEKENDS.

Regular Holidays
Maundy Thursday April 1
Good Friday April 2
Araw ng Kagitingan April 9 (Friday)
Labor Day May 1
Independence Day June 14 (Monday nearest June 12)
National Heroes Day August 30 (Last Monday of August)
Bonifacio Day November 29 (Monday nearest November 30)
Christmas Day December 25 (Saturday)
Rizal Day December 27 (Monday nearest December 30)

Special (Non-working) Days
Ninoy Aquino Day August 23 (Monday nearest August 21)
All Saints Day November 1 (Monday)
Additional special (non-working) day December 24 (Friday)
Last day of the year December 31 (Friday)

Nice!

We held our team planning at TGIF, Glorieta 3 today. We had set our goals, created a timeline for a particular goal, and in the end, we had to commit to doing something in front of everyone — with a shot of tequila!

I liked the food (keyword here was “like” haha), and I’m bringing home some pasta and sandwich for the husband tonight. The weird thing though is, we will hold the department’s Christmas party on the same venue, with the same menu! Ooops!

What I am excited about now is the two-week-long Christmas shutdown! Weeee! It’s not as exciting as those florida vacations I was checking last night, but just the thought of me NOT WORKING on those days, especially on my birthday, is enough reason to be optimistic.

This wasn’t for trick-or-treat.

Last week, our department held our only offsite for this fiscal year. Lucky for us, we were able to have one. Our team was assigned to organize everything. I was informed just when I arrived from a week-long vacation. So I had to cancel trying out the best colon cleanse that a friend recommended. Oops, too much information.

I was a member of the food committee but the venue was able to take care of that. Just when I thought I will have nothing to do, they asked me to host the morning program. We chose a tribal theme for this offsite. Hence, the costume.

I am so tempted to bring my camera to the office just to take pictures of the new floors. Our floor has no theme yet though. The walls are still blank. I actually love one floor in particular. I think their theme is arts and crafts. On one entrance is a photo of colorful beads and on the other side, a photo of colored pencils. Inside the pantry on that floor, one photo at the wall is scrapbook materials. It is quite inspiring to do something creative on that floor.

We have lazyboys for some conference rooms, a breastfeeding station and a clinic, just a few among the many new facilities. In my observation, the clinic in this office is more equipped than the other two offices we have, I even saw an AED in the shelf.

Speaking of conference rooms, the couches are color-matched with the printed carpets. They look like one of those we see in Interior Design magazines. I wonder who our interior decorators are.

We are officially on our adjustment period now as we transferred to the new office. We’ve been discussing about how hard it is to go to the office. It is just so far! And the prices of condominiums that are currently being constructed around are just sky high, at pre-selling! If only we could find an affordable lot around the area and just have one of those manufactured homes. It would make our lives so much easier. Sigh.

Anyway, the new office is surrounded by expensive strings of restaurants. Well, not really expensive but if you dine each day, you’ll definitely make a hole on your pocket. The only fastfood is McDonalds which is ok actually, but after 3 straight days of Twister Fries, your tongue would sort of get numb.

We discovered one that’s healthy, yummy and affordable : sandwich guy. I’ve tried the following:
1. HBLT – ham, bacon, lettuce and tomato and I swear it’s like a fistful of (cooked but not fried) bacon with two wheat bread on each side just to hold them together hehe.
2. creamy carbonara – quite smelly because of the cheese but it was oh-so-creamy and yummy!
3. fruit basket – banana, mango and apples with yogurt. I highly recommended you put it in the freezer for an hour first before eating.

Wait, just to be clear, I ordered them in different days ok? I don’t eat that much.

I say, yum-my!

July 2nd.

Just 6 days before we move in to the new office. And yet, I don’t even have the faintest idea on how to get there. I’ve been hearing complaints that it is so hard to get a cab from the new building going out of McKinley Hills.

So I thought even if I’d be brave enough to bring a car, I would badly need gps systems installed or I’d surely drive in circles.

My plan is to ride a cab from our house to MRT. Then my stop would be Ayala. Then take a cab from there to the office. Sheesh, tiring. Sigh.

I did the mistake of staying up late for work. Well, not that I have a choice. I should just have slept earlier to prepare for the sleepless night. Because of this, I had to cancel one appointment and had been so sluggish the whole day resulting to me being so unproductive.

It would be nice to just escape from all of these. It would help if I could sleep at 9pm, 8 hours for 5 straight days. I couldn’t help checking some vacation rentals in Outer Banks. A vacation would give me that boost, the energy back. Sigh. I’m going back to bed.

Template freebies are everywhere and I no longer have an excuse not to scrap. Well, that’s what you think! I have become so tensed that I could not function efficiently. Tensed with what, you might ask. I am currently swamped with plans of self-improvement (personal, and work) but things started to slip off my mind.

I think I badly need a long vacation, rent an rv and escape from the city chaos. Maybe when I go back, I’ll get my groove back.

You see, I started forgetting important things. Earlier today, I was in a hurry to go to the office to submit my schedule for the late night shuttle. Deadline was 4pm (they are strict), which I only remembered at 6pm!!!

How would I go home from the office at midnight?!?! I certainly have no plans of bringing a car. Grrrr!

This coming weekend will be our team building. We usually spend it over at Canyon Woods but for fun, somebody suggested camping this time. The first impression of people upon learning that we are going camping instead is that we are cost-cutting. Partly yes, but the real reason behind is we feel that camping will bring us closer. With camping, everyone can be together at the campground, ideal for large number of people.

I read that gettysburg camping can be so much fun, it is so close to the Gettysburg battlefield. You can go hiking, or swimming during the day if you want. Then gathering in front of a campfire (yes, they are allowed) at night. What’s more, the pa rv camping have internet access, perfect for teams like ours who have members working for 24/7 support. That’s also one of the criteria that we always check in choosing a campsite or resort. Tent camping is also offered at the resort. This rv camping Gettysburg sounds amazing! Hurry, check it out now!

I used to pride on my work as an Embedded Systems Engineer. I used to be able to program a driver for auxiliary components of a car stereo (head unit). I remember when the I-pod first came out. We had to make drivers for it to communicate with the head unit.

I know how important a driver is for any peripherals you have. I found this interesting site that offers drivers. One of the popular ones is the hp drivers mostly for printers. Of course, I just had to check if they have logitech drivers, and they do have one for all Logitech mouse! And, if you want to know if the driver you have is up-to-date, click on the latest drivers (located below) to run the check for you.

Before I submitted my laptop to the service center, I backed up my files into several DVDs. And I had to uninstall some applications that the network does not normally allow (but I’m sure wouldn’t be much trouble with what I do anyway). I was given a service laptop which I needed to reformat too.

When I copied my backup files, I was in panic when my presentation files with File Extension PPS couldn’t be read even if there’s Powerpoint installed. Good thing my officemate was able to repair it in no time using the software we got from the computerfileextensions.com.

According to their site, it is a registry conflict. The software is very helpful. They can help in various file extension problems such as File Extension DLL or even File Extension BIN. Try the software now.

Do you ever noticed that when people discover that you’re working in an IT company, they assume you know everything about computers and servers? Honestly sometimes I can get away with it especially since most languages have almost similar syntax. But when it comes to hardware, all I know is how to code firmware but as to how to fix the hardware, I have no idea. But sometimes, even software-related, I couldn’t be of any help.

Like when someone asked for my help on hosted team foundation server, I was clueless. All I know is that it is used to manage Visual Studio projects. The hosted tfs is very helpful in versioning and code lock among team members who might be modifying the codes simultaneously. You can always control the access to the codes. Good also to know that tfs hosting has no set-up fee and have free support. So you can be sure your business is always up and running. Now that’s value for your money.