One helluva week!

There have been a lot of events this week that I wanted to mention in my blog. Unfortunately I have been sleeping a lot lately which made me more sluggish to even take the time to check my friendster. Anyway, these events were so memorable that I just have to recall all of them and write about them eventually.


ON MY BROTHER

Abie and I have graduated from our sibling rivalry phase. We're not really close. But I have grown to respect him for his accomplishments. He's pretty quiet, and like my dad, he does not really show much affection to people. Last Sunday, my mom asked me to text Dad to buy bread for lunch (since she has been giving him the silent treatment... will be explained later). My phone does not have signal in my sister's room. So I borrowed by brother's phone to text my dad. After texting Dad, I started browsing through Abie's pictures (my version of invasion of privacy... hehe!). There's nothing much though... A bunch of pictures of him and his friends, some logos of the Ateneo Blue Eagles (btw, my brother is from CSB and I can't explain how come he's soooooo fixated to the Blue Eagles), and some pictures of Shinji, an anime character who is somewhat of his alter ego.

Then I saw a picture of me. Me, his sister. That picture was taken by me using my camera phone. The only place where he could have gotten that picture was my friendster account, which I never thought he cared to look at. I also find the idea of my brother taking the time to bluetooth my picture to his phone a bit of a surprising.

My mom always tells me that my brother looks up to me as a role model. I never believed her for some reason.

I'm touched. =D


ON MY MOM

"J..."

I came home Friday afternoon from work. My mom had that look in her face that told me it was another one of those "Dad" problems.

"Ano nanaman?"

I consider my mom my best friend and she looks at me the same way. She always reminds me how thankful she is that she has me... a family member who is mature enough to understand and relate to her love problems. After letting her bad feelings out, I told her something that I would tell any other friend:

"Ano ba yan! Ang lalaki niyo na. Pero para kayong high school!"


ON MY BATCHMATE

Andro buzzed me in YM the other day. We were talking about his new job and for some reason we ended up throwing mathematical questions to each other. For those who don't know, I love math (you can start throwing tomatoes now, ack!). What made it funny was that the combination of characters and parentheses were turning my solutions into emoticons!


ON MY EX

The most awkward moment (so far, I'm sure there's more to come) with my ex happened just a few days ago. I was buying Coke Light from the pantry at work. As I looked up after grabbing my soda, I saw him... and our theme song was playing in the background. Lots of thoughts suddenly came to my mind:

"Should I say hi?"

"Is HE gonna say hi?"

"He gained weight!"

"What's with the spiky hair?!"

I texted Ginger afterwards about what happened. She replied:

"It's a sign girl. Isa lang ibig sabihin niyan. Masyado masikip ang mundo niyo."

I smirked, giggled a bit, and realized... It's not my loss.



"Hay buhay... Parang life..."

World-Class Customer Service

It's my fifth day in training for AT&T All Distance. After handling Newport News for 10 months, I found the transition extremely difficult because of information overload. There's so much stuff to understand (at the very least). Since AT&T is the largest telephone service company in the United States (and the world), the company uses different kinds of systems such as RAMP (Residencial Account Maintenance Platform), CST (Customer Sales Tool) and BureauLink (a system that AT&T uses for credit checks... there's lots of Americans with bad credit, mind you). The Knowledge Resource (KR - considered as the AT&T Information "Bible") has about 11,000 documents. We don't need to memorize everything, but familiarizing myself with the non-user friendly DOS-based systems is becoming hazardous to my brain cells.

I'm being pessimistic about working in the AT&T project again. I have grown to believe that AT&T is possibly the worst telecommunications company despite them being the first and the largest (they take up 70% of the market share, I believe). Come on. When I was with inbound sales, I felt like a punching bag for all people's problems. About 95% of the people I talked to are irate. So you can't blame me for having a negative impression about the company.

As my knowledge of about AT&T progresses, my impresssion of the company is changing. Heck! They DO give world-class customer service. Come on. They pretty much have everything you need for phone service. They have also been there before everyone else and is one of the pioneers in innovative services such as VoIP (Voice-Over Internet Protocol). They also give special services to the legally blind such as having your bill in a larger font (size 24 to be exact, try it out in MS Word, you can just imagine how many pages the bill would be) and even in braille. I think their service is just underrated because of these nifty Americans who demand to much.

It's been fun. Emerson and Mike are not shy anymore (I've been teasing them about how they stand bashfully with their hands in front of them when we ride the elevator together). Sheila and I got closer as friends and colleagues. Charles is one of my gimik buddies and now I'm working with him side by side in the same project (I think I have been hanging out with him too much though coz I'm starting to look at girls now and make comments about how they look... mind you, I'm a full-fledged heterosexual). I have also discovered that Gerard is a little boy at heart who plays video games and collects action figures.

Amazingly, despite the fact that I get headaches because of all the information I have to absorb, I find myself becoming some sort of technical masochist. Weird. I actually like the feeling of busting my brain cells. Maybe because I like the challenge. Or maybe because I know that if I do well, I'll be greatly compensated (I'm actually thinking of things to buy when commission comes in... Yeah!). =D

While on break...

It's my first day in training. It's me, Sheila, Charles, Gerard and two new recruits from outside the company named Emerson and Mike.

I'm bored...

Just want to put this entry in before I start paying attention again.

Some thoughts...

Today is my last day in Newport News. The sadness sank in when I wrote my last email to my co-TL regarding my former agent's AHT Analysis Report. I'll start training for AT&T on Tuesday morning.

NEWPORT NEWS AGENTS AND OPERATIONS AT THE VXI CHRISTMAS PARTY

I've worked in this project for 10 months... 1 month being an agent and 9 months as a team leader.

'D ORIGINAL TEAM 2

I will miss...

- my agents (all the members of the 3 teams I've worked with), my co-TLs, my GMs and my OM.
- walking to the ladies room while saying "Hi" to my former teammates in the NCAC side of the 26th floor.
- having bad dreams in the sleeping quarters (Buknoy, pinaglalaruan mo nanaman ako).
- the leather couches in the lounge (I swear, when you sit down, you'll never wanna stand up again).
- the powerpoint presentations Chesca and Karen always ask me to do ("Gusto ko bilog yung shapes ng prizes ha?" - Chesca).
- using my "pulis pangkalawakan" skills to catch agents releasing calls, doing multiple offers, and giving inaccurate information to customers.
- anticipating my team's weekly DPO, AHT, Conversion and Quality Scores.
- Roan ironing my hair before the shift ends when she's logged out.
- playing scrabble with my agents when there are no calls.

GINGY AND ME

But most of all... I will miss my yosi breaks with Ginger.

I will not miss... (Bwehehehe!)

- the coaching logs.
- the weekly performance evaluation reports (individual agents and team summary).
- the monthly progress reports.
- the Newport News commission scheme.
- having to listen to the longest calls in the world to find out why AHT is high.

Hay... I said I will not cry. I still haven't. As Reverend Mother said, "When the Lord closes the door, somewhere he opens a window."

Well... I will have new agents. I will have new co-TLs. I will have a new GM and OM. There will still be a ladies room that I would go to and former teammates that I will say "Hi" to in the 15th/16th floor. I may have bad dreams in the 15th/16th floor sleeping quarters (hmmm... I wonder if Buknoy can ride elevators). I will be using the 15th floor lounge (hopefully they have the same leather couches). I may not be assigned to do powerpoint presentations anymore. I will still have my "pulis pangkalawakan" skills. I will be still anticipating my next team's KPIs.

But I won't have anyone to iron my hair and play scrabble with. Ginger will also be staying in Newport.

Now I made myself sad.

OVERANALYZING THINGS AGAIN

Words, words, words...

I was on my way to work and for some weird reason I remembered a word that was discussed in one of my AIS classes back in college:

RHINOTILLEXOMANIAC

It is a term used for a person who has an obsession for nose-picking. Funny. I wasn't even picking my nose at the time.

Later that day (or should I say early in the morning, since I'm back in the graveyard shift), I recalled some of the words and phrases that I've picked up and have been using regularly. They're all gay terms. Try to check if you're actually using some of them. Heck! After reading this, you might end up using them too! Kindly tell me if I don't use them correctly. =D

1. "Lola" - a term used to address someone in the first, second and third person. (Pucha! A replacement for pronouns ito!?)

2. "Carry" - synonymous with "okay." (Ex. "Carry lang 'yan girl!")

3. "Charing!" - a generic reaction, usually used when a compliment was given.

4. "In fairview..." - synonymous with "in fairness."

5. "Chuva gargles!" - a generic term for anything.

6. "Alalalalala!" - a longer version of "Hoy!"

7. "Wag kang umarte-arte diyan!" - used to address someone who keeps on rejecting an invitation, offer, dare, etc.

8. "For the meantime..." - a phrase used before addressing someone's good work. (Ex. "For the meantime... Ang galing-galing ng Team 2!)"

9. "Bonggang-bongga!" - the superlative form of "Bongga!"

10. "Etits" - go figure! (wakeke!)

11. "Mahaba ang hair!" - used to compliment a female; usually given if the girl has many attractive suitors; can also be used to compliment a girl's good work.

and my personal favorite...

12. "Kembot" - synonymous with "Carry" ('Wag gamitin ng sobra-sobra, pag masyado ng kumekembot, "Sayaw!" na ang tawag dun!)

This is the result of hanging out with gay people EVERYDAY!