Learn Something New: Fresh Online Seminars

Best Practices for Effective Call Center Quality Assessment

Great for: Call Center Managers, Supervisors and Quality Assurance Professionals
Speaker: Tom Vander Well (qaqna.com), partner and vice-president of c wenger group.

Date: February 17, 2009
Time: 9:00 PM - 1030 PM Philippine Time
Venue: Your Home or Office (Online Seminar / Webinar)

For more information on this webinar or to reserve a seat, visit Philippine Webinars.

Winning Strategies for Your Blog

Great for: Casual bloggers who want to maximize the social media potential of their blog.
Speaker: Easton Ellsworth, a blogging and new media strategy consultant, and contributor to The Blog Herald.

Date: February 25, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Philippine Time
Venue: Your Home or Office (Online Seminar / Webinar)

For more information on this webinar or to reserve a seat, visit Philippine Webinars.

Invest Your Way to Financial Freedom

Great for: Anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of investing and building wealth.
Speaker: Hoover Uy de Baron, a registered financial consultant who has been investing for the past 13 years and specializes in real estate and stock analysis. He is a regular contributor to the ProFora blog.

Venue: Your Home or Office (Online Seminar / Webinar)

For more information on this webinar, a schedule list, or to reserve a seat, visit Philippine Webinars.

The New Poster: Zaturnnah Musical 2009

Seeing Red

Want to know who the "new Dodong" is going to be? Check out this entry on Manila Gay Guy.

Tuts My Barreh

Once upon a time, there was the Philippines' Keys Me and Bulgaria's Ken Li. Now, there's Tuts My Barreh, another Mariah Carey original. This one's presumably from South Korea.

Irritations

Haven't blogged because my mind has gone sluggish, making it hard to work. Plus I've been feeling quite irritable. I attribute these to the nicotine withdrawal--already on my 22nd day--but I've been pushing to keep myself perky and positive.

Anyway, the last movie I saw was Ang Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat, a flick I expected to enjoy because I adored Ang Tanging Ina. The new Ai-Ai delas Alas starrer was entertaining enough, and its dramatic moments did well to avoid the histrionics. The overall film, however, didn't match the sincerity I felt with the first film. Still worth a watch, though.

I'm excited to see Thank You Girls. And has anyone seen Love Me Again?

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I went to a feng shui event last Saturday. The coming Chinese New Year is the year of the Earth Ox. Lucky number is nine. Lucky colors are purple and green. Keep the north part of the house quiet and the south part of the house active. Monkeys will have a fanastic year.

The publishing industry is half-and-half.

Oh, and if your house is of a "Period 7," attract luck by converting it to a "Period 8." One way to do this is to change 1/3 of your roof and 1/3 of your floor. Good luck.

I already bought my mystic knot.

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There's a new Dodong (in addition to Arnold Reyes and Lauren Novero) and a new Queen Femina in the Zaturnnah musical. Wilma Doesnt is back as Dina B., and Vince deJesus alternates once again with Tuxqs Rutaquio in the role of Ada.

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I'm sleepy, but I still have to finish layouts.

Up in Smoke

This is my 18th smoke/nicotine-free day. I attempted at a few puffs some nights ago and found the taste dreadful, making me wonder how I ever got started in the first place. I became a regular smoker in 1994, graduating to pack-a-day status soon after the start of the new millennium.

The first week after quitting was easier to get through since my attention was focused on the pain at my side. The second week was tough with the cravings becoming more persistent, though eating and sleeping seemed to be good substitutes. This week, the third, has been okay, save for the occasional wooziness I feel. The doctor says I can start a cardio routine, which I suppose can reverse this sluggishness. But the weight training won't happen until around March or April. I miss the gym.

Apart from the obvious health benefits, I look forward to saving an additional Php7,500+ a year. Those cigarette packs can add up.

My diet is back to normal with no restrictions, though I'm being more careful about the sudden excesses. Yesterday, I downed two marshmallow-topped chocolate glazed doughnuts along with strawberry-coated biscuits--not a good move. But overall, I've been eating smaller and more frequent meals, and staving off the fastfood. The challenge has been finding places to eat.

Anyway, my birthday is fast approaching. I expect to be pleasantly surprised.

Zaturnnah Musical 2009: How to ReserveTickets

Wow. I got in touch with Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) and they said that almost all 15 shows have already been bought by show buyers who will be selling the tickets. This means that there's not one single dealer of tickets.

To make reserving your tickets a little easier for you, you can call Lorelei or Paolo at TP:

832-1125 loc. 1620 to 1621
Direct Line 832-3661

Or you can contact Lorelei through 09285518645.

Zaturnnah Musical 2009: The Schedule So Far

Ohhh-kay... here's the first round of info that has yet to be confirmed about the February 2009 run of the Zaturnnah musical. Again, I'm still awaiting the final confirmation, though these dates are almost good to go.

Feb 6, 13 (Fri) 8PM
Feb 7, 14 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM
Feb 8, 15 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM

Mar 6 (Fri) 8PM
Mar 7 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM
Mar 8 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM

That's a total of 15 shows. Ticket prices will be at P500, P600 and P700. (Still pretty reasonable, if you compare them with the ticket prices of other professional theater companies.) More to come as new info rolls in, particularly that important bit about getting tickets.

Looking for Zaturnnah Art

One of the things I should have done over the past few years was to collect the Zaturnnah fan art pieces that some nice and talented folks have lovingly created. Now that I'm planning a website of my own, I think a fan art page ought to be there.

If you have any Zaturnnah fan art, do send your creations to me through shocktherapy71 (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please make sure each graphic is less than 250KB in size. Include your full name, plus your official website address, blog address, portfolio account address (like Deviantart), or social networking account address (like Multiply) that you'd like to promote.

Thanks in advance! :-)

What Then, Operada?

Happy New Year! First off, thanks to everyone who wished me well because of my recent cholecystectomy (the gall bladder is apparently called the "cholecyst"). And thanks to those who spared precious time for me throughout the harrowing period. I'm scheduled for a check up this week at Medical City, and I'm wishing that the hospital's pathology department hadn't found anything malignant in the extracted specimen.

A week after the operation, I'm feeling better, though being totally out of the woods won't happen after another month or so. I can't exert myself physically, can't eat fatty or fried food, can't climb long flights of stairs, can't a-whole-lotta-things, also for at least a month. Yesterday, I was at SM City Marikina for the first time to get a few groceries and take a whiff of the fresh mall. Accompanied by my sis and niece, I was sluggishly walking around like I was seventy, particularly difficult since I'm one speed walker.

(In case you're wondering, I've been off the ciggies, too. With the transition from pack-a-day to zero, the cravings have been murder, but I'm fighting them off well. I'd like to kick the habit for good.)

I was able to take a bath this afternoon, my first in six days, but I had to have the wound covered up with plastic and tape--doctor says the spoils of war can't get wet. There's still a weird shifty feeling beneath the wound, as if innards had been moved around, and I still get paranoid over the wound suddenly bursting open. After my bath, I had the redress the wound, and saw that it consisted of two short incisions, each less than an inch long spaced a little over an inch apart. Not as bad as I had thought.

Because of this development, I wasn't able to make the most of the Yuletide break. I had planned to draw more Zaturnnah pages, finish more work at the office, haul all my stuff from the San Antonio house back to Marikina before the contract expires in a few days, and spend time with friends whom I haven't seen in ages. So much I could have done, but... none of that happened. It was all about me being still, immobile, in stasis, the ultimate slowdown... and poorer by tens of thousands of pesos.

I feel the Universe trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure what.

Is She telling me to take it easy and let go of some of my dreams? Is She telling me to push, to persevere, despite the occasional obstacle and the hovering threat of poverty? Or is she telling me to change direction, that the paths I've chosen to take would be better suited for someone else?

This is a great way to begin 2009.