Sorry I've only been posting some computer stuff since last year. I have been veeeerrrrryyyy lazy in the good-time genre because I've already become such a despicable workaholic for the past year, well ever since my project started. And now that it's coming to an end, hopefully on Tuesday, I will be going back to the cheerful and laid-back me. Seriously, it seems a little bit too late...
Anyway, what have I been doing?
1) At the beginning of the project, I was really really lazy and didn't know what I should be doing. Apologies since that was my first time handling an agile project on my own -- actually, it's the very first fully-fledged agile project of the company. Seriously, what were they thinking when they assigned me there?
2) I was exiled to Japan for 2 terrible weeks for no reason at all. I was the original lead of a big project, and then in the middle of it all, they realized that "woah, it's too big, let's split it into two". And before they realized that, it was already decided that I be sent to the main office.
The 1st part was given to another Japanese tester and the 2nd part was left to me. Since I'm not leading the 1st part anymore, there was really no point for me to go there anymore. Unfortunately, my boss came up with me doing some presentations of other people's work in Japan. He should have just sent the one who did it though...
It was a complete waste of money for the company's part, but it was a very amazing experience for me. I came to love Japan when I started watching anime and exactly when I started dating Mark. It was a complete shame that I didn't get to see this lovely country with the person who made me love it.
The company's money worth : purikura with Manami, Naoko-san, Tetsuji-san and two pictures with lovely maids from @cafe in Akihabara. To me, Akihabara is a very magical place! For the first time in 6 years, I finally found a place where Mark actually belongs. :)
3) When I came back to Philippines, we spent overnight at Tagaytay. I had to lie to my family that I will be coming back 1 day late so I could spend just 1 night with the boyfriend I missed so much. He was all you're-an-OFW to me all that time, he even sent me a Babalik Ka Rin youtube video.. >_> He was so sweet though, he missed me a lot.. and it was a sad journey alone through the streets of Tokyo. I've been yearning to have him by my side so I could point a lot of kawaii things while I stroll in Akihabara. That is one hell of 2 weeks that I will never repeat without him. Simply put, I will never go back to Japan without him.
4) We went to Bohol in November for 4D/3N. But it wasn't very nice... We slept on the 1st day since we were both very tired and lazy. The beach was like 10 minutes away from our resort! >_<;; I learned the hard way, and next time I will always look for a beachfront hotel no matter what. 2nd day we went for a Countryside Tour. I think this was the best day of our trip, because on the 3rd day, I got sick. My body was aching, I was so frustrated. We went to the beach and it wasn't nice for swimming at all. It was dirty and we could see some chemicals that looked like gas on it. Anyway, we looked for something to take-out and we decided we'll just eat and drink at the resort. I was holding the plastic containing the take-out food and suddenly, a dog just bit the plastic and the food just spilled out. >_> I hated that dog so much... We came back to the resort empty-handed and very irritated. We were about to sleep when we decided to just order some food from the resort and eat at the room. When we slept that night, we just realized that I was having a fever and I was feeling really cold all night. 4th day, well we had to pack already since we'll be leaving back that day. We just ate a delicious breakfast at the resort's restaurant and then we left.
5) We didn't take any vacations during the Christmas holidays, which I so regret because now I'm on the edge and just couldn't wait for my next vacation. The reason why we didn't take any leaves is because we had to give opportunity to other teammates who didn't get to take any last year. The only fun thing about it was the Christmas Party part 2 which was held at the conference room. Both Mark and I took the 10-shot challenge! That was the first time I took 10 shots of 10 different liquors, it was a good experience! Well, we were already drunk after 30 minutes so we both sneaked out to go home while everybody is having fun at the conference room. :)
6) It was my grandmother's birthday (my dad's mom) and my aunts organized a swimming at Laguna on January 23. Me and my mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephew all went together and my dad was left at home in the care of my cousins and a nurse (he's been bedridden for 3 1/2 years now). When we came back that night, it was horrible that we just realized my dad has not been digesting food lately. Whenever he's given his usual food intake, he would just vomit it. So the next day (January 24), my mom and I did not go to work and just stayed with my dad. She called my dad's family that day and told them the situation and she feels that my dad will be leaving us soon. They came over to visit, my grandmother even stayed the night. Tuesday (January 25), it's still the same so we stopped giving him food. Some of my mom's friends came over to pray for my dad. More relatives and friends came over. The nurse didn't go home to rest. Mark also came over to visit. My dad's temperature became a bit cold... Wednesday (January 26), it was still the same, so my grandmother decided to go home to take a rest for a bit, get some new clothes and was supposed to come back that afternoon. However at 10 AM, my dad passed away... T__T I called my aunt to give them the terrible news and then they spread it to the others. At my dad's wake, there were a lot of visitors, both my mom and my dad's friends and relatives. My brother's friends from school and work also came to visit. Test team also came to visit. January 30 which was supposed to be my nephew's 1st birthday became my dad's funeral. After the ceremony at the memorial, we went to David's Tea House to celebrate my nephew's birthday. His party will just be moved to sometime in February.
7) For the past months, I've been very workaholic. I didn't take any more leaves, even the special non-working holidays. Of course, after a while I also became very lazy and unproductive because of the accumulating stress. I've also been working overtime 2 weekends in a row, there were some nights when I worked until it was time to go to the office. Deploy date was moved once already. Mark has been running performance tests about 2-3 times per day. Fortunately, we already deployed the back-end 2 weeks ago. There were a few issues but they should be fixed by the front-end deploy which will follow on Tuesday if all goes well. I can't wait to get this fuckin' project out already.
8) As a result of Mark's everyday chit-chats with Yogesh at the drinking station, we signed up at the Gold's Gym for a 1 month unlimited package. Since March 23 (2 hours right before the back-end deploy), we've been going to the gym every other day. It's fun and it feels really good that we're working hard to get fit. The package will end on April 25 but we are thinking to take a 1 year package after May or June. :)
9) For the past 2 months, I've become addicted to reading shoujo manga online. I think I managed to read about 20 already since I immediately jump to another after I finish one. I would even gladly exchange playing The Sims 3 to reading manga.
10) Mark bought a PS3, a bunch of games, a bunch of DVDs (to start our collection), and a bunch of anime. That's what keeping him busy lately. ;) Because of Chuck season 1 and 2, we've been late to work for the past 2 weeks. Season 3 will be ours within 2 days, I swear.
I think that's about the quick run-down of the past year. Sorry the post became so long. :) I'll try my best to avoid posts like this in the future (how many times have I said that already?)... Ja mata ne~!
