“So, how was it?”

After holding the position for one year, all I can say it’s just great experience. Great experience in the sense that I learned a lot, both in good and bad aspects. But I do also have some dilemmas along this experience. I’m not going to narrate the whole thing as it will be kind of a difficult job to do so. Instead, I’ll just rant and rave in this post.

 

First of all, and to be honest, I never really like taking positions such as these. At that very moment when I was put into the assistant head position, I liked being an assessor more. But I realized all of us will be encountering similar events in life. So I guess I’ll just cope with it. Also, for one, I am an introvert and I am excessively paranoid about how people look at me, what they think about me all the time and so on. Which makes me worried all of the time that the assessors will not accept me in that position. More of that feeling came when I took the team head position and the team captain position. I was laughing at myself and joking over the people who voted for me that maybe I got the position because they can’t think of anyone excellent enough to fit into that position. You might think at this point that I may be looking down on myself too much but that’s how I really feel right now. No matter how much I feel that I am giving all the best, there’s still this nagging crap that people don’t really like it or it’s not enough. And I’m not the sort of person who’s good at reading and predicting the minds of people.

It makes me question myself, am I really holding this particular position because sometimes, there are people or majority of the people don’t really comply to what you say. When they do, they somewhat express or maybe I just feel that they are forced to do so. They do call you boss and the like but I really don’t feel it. But as a good friend said, “Just do good in your job, don’t mind what other people say.” Continued, “…if they are ranting stuff like that, they should take your position immediately”. At that point, those words made me calm a little bit. Not confident, just calm. Why? because I still cannot figure out the fact why there are people who still don’t follow and yet consider you as the one on top.

Take the dilemma of the previous team captain. She called a meeting one time and only I and two more just came, less than the number of people who can be considered as quorum for decisions. She got mad and ranted on the groups saying that she was totally disappointed for what happened. I did something similar but did not get mad in the same level as hers but of course, less terror, no one will believe. Little bit of excess and they will scamper away. It’s management on marvelous balance and I am stuggling.

Maybe that’s the key, my being lenient. I haven’t been that of a bossy person. In fact, I haven’t been as strict as the previous team captains. Before, the team captains, no matter who they elected on the core group, will enforce that they are in a position so important and they should do their job well. How did this went on? Well, all members of the core group are required to interview at least a bunch of applicants. The core members took their own team at their own discretion but never became lenient. For example, the team leaders recently are letting their members to use the internet at their own discretion. Before, no matter how long the idle time, they don’t allow internet usage unless permitted by the team captain.

So I guess, I’ll try to be strict? This is my final year anyway and the people are used to one-year old team captains rather than two-year old ones.

I have two more semesters to handle. Not that I want to get out of my misery in this job…I don’t want to let it go if I’m honest. I’m not giving up on this and if I’m going to give up, I would’ve done it a year before. I’ll just do whatever I have to do, and I’m done.

LuckyMe Pancit Canton, Gone-in-60-seconds Version

Yup, this is a tutorial on how to prepare your favorite LuckyMe Pancit Canton the fastest way possible. I don’t know if I’m the only one who got this or there are also other people who tried doing this. All I can say, I discovered this method by myself and if there are people who claims that they did this first, then I’ll let them eat it as I don’t care as long as I know how to do this. So, lezz do dizz

WHO CAN DO THIS: EVERYONE~! And also Dormers~! I think dormers will make their lives easier as I will explain later in the PROS & CONS section

SKILL LEVEL/SKILL REQUIRED: NONE, Totally for dummies. Interested? Maybe you should read the PROS and CONS section before you do this.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Microwave – very important

2. Pancit Canton – any flavor. 😀

3. potable water

4. Ceramic bowl/ container, preferable a big and high one.

STEPS:

1. I will say this now that this method requires quite a lot of experimenting to do. Well, not really, only a few. Fill your ceramic bowl with water nearly 3/4 of the bowl. See the image above. This is where the experimenting starts.*

2. Don’t open your pancit canton pack yet~! Crush the noodles. Crushing it will make it easy to fit in the bowl. You can crush it lightly. Crushing it all is better. Pulverizing it completely is not a good idea. 😀

3. Next, open the pack and drop the noodles in the ceramic container with water.

4. Microwave! Set it to your time. This is another stage of experimenting.* It all depends on the microwave you are using. There are microwave ovens that constantly emits the heat and there are ones that emits the heat every certain time. My microwave is the sort that has gaps in emitting heat and I set the time about 8-9 minutes. [Fastest I cooked was 5-6 minutes using a different microwave]

5. DiNG~! Take out the bowl. WARNING! SUPER HOT! USE MITTENS~! Make sure you drain out excess water, as usual. Try draining the water without using a strainer.* If there’s still a small amount of water that can’t be drained, try mixing the noodles. Since it’s sooooo hot, the small amount of water will evaporate as you mix the noodles.

6. Open the seasonings….

7. Mix, then TaDa~! There goes your pancit canton!

*PROS AND CONS

PROS

-Why good for dormers? As you can see, I only used one container for cooking and eating. 😀 And I also chose a ceramic one not just because it’s a good microwave compliant container but also it’s an easy thing to clean

-Waste less water. 😀 You minimize the water wasted by providing the noodles nearly the amount of water it just needs.

-Less preparation time. Bolt-this-and-that and you can eat, compare to getting a big pan, wait for the water to boil and drain the water afterwards.

-Cook-eat-clean. Makes the lazy peeps as if they are not lazy. Unless you are still lazy to clean dishes.

-It’s microwave~! Once past the experimental stage, cook and go back to check updates in Facebook then go back after few minutes.

-Since you crushed the noodles before cooking, you just whirl your fork in round motion while mixing the seasonings. No need to flip-flop noodles so that the seasoning can be spread evenly. Look Ma, no eyes~! 😀

CONS

-The experimenting involves how long the microwave can cook noodles. You might end up overcooking the noodles or not cooking it at all. One of my experimental stages ended up making myself a sweet and spicy flavored cake. 😀 Yes, what you are doing is somewhat baking. :D:D:D

-Experimenting also involves the amount of water. Put too much and it will boil so high that you have to clean your microwave afterwards. Put less water and you won’t cook your noodles.

^I got it perfect one time that I put enough water for the noodles to absorb and had a very small excess, which was evaporated along the cooking process. 😀 So when I took the bowl out, all I did was put the seasonings, ate and clean straight. 😀

STORY BEHIND THE COOKING:

I was too lazy to cook breakfast every morning so I go straight to transpo and go to school. I always end up staying in my mom’s office when classes aren’t that early. Then one time, I felt really hungry and opened my mom’s lunch bag and saw several packs of noodles, including a pancit canton. With all the microwave stuff I did back in the house, like boiling water for coffee using microwave, I decided to cook the noodles using microwave and it worked. Before mom sees everything I did, I managed to clean the ceramic container of hers in her locker, dried it and put it back into place. Not only I get to eat breakfast that morning, it was soooo fast. 😀 Their microwave in the office is much more powerful so that 8-9 minutes became 5-6 minutes of cooking time. 😀 Of course, my lazy younger brother did the same when he saw how I did it. 😀

The Rain Chaser

For the past few days, I’ve been chasing the thunderstorms and heavy rains for data gathering. I am currently working for the Rain Monitoring Research group in my school and I’ve been having a good yet stressful time. For one, I’ve been drowning myself with anything that will make my body resistance to an optimum level so that I will not catch colds or if I catch one, I’ll be able to recover quickly.

Yes, I’m still holding these units and somehow they’re all good ones. Very reliable indeed and that’s why I want to own an Android phone as soon as possible. :D:D:D

 

I still don’t know if I will push through this research. It’s just interesting now that the country has just entered it’s rainy season. It’s funny because while everybody else hates rain, I chase them down so that I can do my job. 😀 Though waiting sometimes makes it boring. So you end up popping your computer with Counter-Strike or some other games and end up making the whole office like a computer shop, with all the shouting and trash-talking. :)) But still good fun. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OJT-LSAT-LIFE, Stress Edition

Yes, based from most of my activities, I seem to be just relaxing or enjoying stuff but I’m not, really. There’s a lot to do from different sides of this person. From his OJT, to the job he committed to do every registration and as well as the other things in life. Can I rant plez?

First of all, OJT. I’m entirely saying that this is totally unacceptable to do just because it is required. I do enjoy the OJT but the inevitable always happens: getting tired. I still have a lot to do, with all these diagrams, android phones and sensors to fiddle with. It’s fun to learn these things, I just need quite a lot more energy than what I have now to enjoy these things more.

LSAT, another stressful thing because the problem that RegCom is experiencing for the past three years is now starting to sink in to LSAT’s territory. What is it? The member shortage. Yes, we can get as much people we can during recruitment but it’s not an easy task especially if the only time you have is inside the semester. Plus I’m experiencing another problem more than before. A friend of mine also experienced this, and he said, “kaunting pasensya pa”. I am not angry and in fact I’ve never been angry in this particular commitment because I always look forward to letting myself and me co-workers to learn a lot of stuff, a lot of experience here in this job. I don’t know, maybe I am just depressed or frustrated about things, hoping that it won’t lead to pessimism. There’s two more semesters to come before I drop this job to someone else. Some might interpret that after two semesters, I’m free from this misery. No, I look at it as two more semesters left to learn all the things I need to learn in this particular field. The people, the way they think, the way they move and the things they want in this particular job. Another colleague told me that it’s just life, some people are really like that, who would not comply to certain things you tell them, especially if you’re the one who’s assigned to direct things in this job. Argh, I hate such stuff but what can I do? I think all I can do is try to make things right and straight, as a friend told me to work things “within accepted values”.  Am I saying that my peeps are not complying to my leadership? Hell no. 😀 I’m the sort of person who always find solutions if things don’t work on the first plan. I love my peeps in this job and that’s all I can do for them and I don’t care if I get turned down, or the job itself. It’s life. :))

and Life~! *ssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*  I’m not enjoying at all. Give me an HTC Desire S and I will be your good friend. JOKE. Nah, I’m just stressed out, super tired. There are people that I consider as friends but, you’ll end up being used, I guess? Hahahah~! Oh well. I just hate it, super duper hate. I guess I’ll talk about this somewhere else. 😀

I’ll just eat a lot for now. (irrelevant)

Resuming Hobbies

The last hobby I had was those little cars, about two inches long, one inch wide. Called, Q-Steer, this was Takara-Tomy’s infrared controlled version of their “Choro-Q” collectibles. After this one, they released a new one called “Choro-Q Hybrid” which packs more fun. I stopped because, one, I have no more money and two, I don’t have time for it due to my acads. I left the cars with one of the body shells being modified, just to give a shot on designing body kits for these miniature office table racers but it’s so small that I only managed to mold spoilers and skirts using Tamiya epoxy. Paint is also expensive as I have to use plastic-specific paint which costs 200Php pero can and the can is small. xD I also have to buy gloss coating, just like in a real car. 😀 So the project really did not work or rather just not finished.

I want to resume this or do a new hobby if only I have moolah. I also want to get one of those amateur 1:10 scale R/C units but they cost at around 15K Php so I can’t buy it either. XD So expensive. 😀

So now? Since it my OJT, I’m working on Android programming but it doesn’t really catch my attention. I know I am a gadgeteer but it’s the programming  that I really don’t like. Although I don’t like programming, the fact that Android is so interesting, it made like it despite the difficulty of learning all of it. Right now I only make simple programs and still studying a lot about it. 😀

Solar-Powered LED Lighting System – Ateneo Innovation Center

The plan was to provide significant amount of lighting on an apartment’s walkway and parking lot. But there is a catch:use electricity without paying. The solution? Solar Power.

We first brainstormed on how things will go, kind of simulating the whole system in mind and theory. Eventually, we finalized everything and prepared to buy the materials needed. Next, we performed another simulation that includes the testing of all materials and equipment purchased.

Next day was the installation of the whole system. We were even worried because we checked the weather forecast and it was supposed to rain on the installation day. Nevertheless, we proceeded installing the equipment on the roof which are the two solar panels. Then we assembled all lights into their positions and concentrated all complicated circuitry on one area. Then for a twist, we managed to remove the conventional manual switch and used a photosensor to automatically turn on and off the whole system when the sun goes down and up.

It was a fulfilling experience. First time to be involved in such a project. It was very good and I hope I can do more service wherein all the skills I learned in the field I chose will be fully utilized.

Tough Days

Tough days recently but I think I’m learning a lot. Last week, we were able to inspect the place where our project lighting system will be placed and tomorrow will be the day that everything will be assembled, hoping that it won’t rain. I also finished the task in my Android adventure and I hope I will learn more about it.

Today, while prepping things, I got cut. :((( it hurts really, reminds me of my so-far-epic tragedy of year 2005 when fireworks finally chose to attack me. I got the most damage at that time. A cousin of mine got the heaviest damage, involving some stitching. Mine was a severe hit of cement projectile and since it was very hot, it scratched my palm and burned the whole of it, left it bleeding heavily. My body was also bombarded with hot cement pieces but since I was wearing clothes(I mean, obviously), it was not that of a big deal. My hand was bleeding until I got back in Manila from the province. Now I got cut again and just as thankful as before, it was on the left hand again. What I am worried now is the trouble the cut will bring to me. I am praying and I know that God will protect, just as before. 🙂