Saturday, September 22, 2007

Racism

As long as it’s not about Philippine politics, I can endure watching news on local TV. Unfortunately, after the Erap saga, here comes the ZTE controversy which has made the Philippine government stink 1 million times more. Bad news on local TV makes me flip channels and I often end up turning off my TV set instead.

The JENA 6, has been a hot topic on CNN recently, and it’s about racism (allegedly), in the US.

Anyway, it made me recall about the racist me, years ago. Then young and uneducated, just like most Filipinos, I grew up with the notion that “black is NOT beautiful” and adored anything white. There was this young girl in our town that we used to tease because of her color. Her father (whom she had never known) is black. I remember she used to just shy away every time we call her names.

Today she’s a tall, sexy lady often mistaken as an African-American. I’ve always wanted to tell her she’s very beautiful, I feel like it’s the best way for me to “apologize”.


Asians are discriminated just like Africans, Middle Easterns and Latin Americans. Of course, white people are no exemptions. Racism exists anywhere in the world. In the Philippines, despite being called hospitable people, some tend to discriminate other races sometimes. But at least it doesn't go beyond calling someone ugly or "mabaho". I’m glad to say also that no one has died here because of racial discrimination. I hope that will never happen.


Friday, September 14, 2007

Supot



...it's su'-pot not supot'.

I’m just wondering why grocery store and shop owners are so kind in providing customers supot. When you buy groceries, everything, every item has its own supot. Yung pack ng tissue na may handle na, nilalagay pa rin sa supot. Kahit isang bote lang ng mineral water, may sarili ding supot.


Wala lang. Pansin ko lang. Pag naggo-grocery kasi ako, gusto ko kasya lang sa isang plastic kasi ayoko ng madaming bitbit, pero yung mga bagger sa mga groceries, lahat ng items sine-separate, so imbes na isang supot lang I often end up having 3!

Imbes na plastic, bakit kaya hindi na lang papel ang gamitin? It’s environment friendly! Yun naman ata ginagamit abroad di ba? Pero sa Pilipinas, mas pinipili ang plastic na mas mahal na, non-biodegradable pa.


Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Ain't got no cake


I never had a cake on my birthday. I never knew what a kiddie party is, in fact, I never had one. I never complained. Born and raised in a poor family where cakes and birthday parties were a luxury, I completely understand why...



Anyway...
My team leader, having the access to my files learned why 13 is my favorite number. She started blasting the news a few days back and before I knew it, everyone was asking for the treat. Umph!


My Outlook got instantly filled with "happy birthdays" and for the nth time, they spelled my nickname with an “i”. Overwhelmed, I didn't bother to correct them.



I just had the most number of birthday greetings received via email. My friend Joy just learned about it after she saw those messages. She was buzzing on my Instant Messenger nonstop in between calls, with this:



Today I'd start my day with a mass (as per mom’s order). Probably be dining with my friend Tine tonight. No parties, nothing special. Just another day…I will be spending my (birthday) leave with my family and just the thought of being away from work for four days is a breath of fresh air, probably the best birthday gift I could give myself this time. Gimme that much needed break, no work and all play makes me a very very happy boy!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

JonBenet, British version...


So, both Madeleine McCann's parent's are now suspects in her disappearance four months ago. Very sad. I understand why the Portuguese police are being ridiculed for pointing their fingers at the parents. They've already made a lot of mistakes and it looks like they just made their biggest's.

I've been trying to follow the story since May, the first time i heard about it, it automatically reminded me of JonBenet Ramsey. And now that the parents are called suspects by the police, i thought it's becoming a British version of the JonBenet tragedy...(sigh)

JonBenĂ©t Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 26, 1996)
May she rest in peace.


Eleven years later, JonBenet's death remains unsolved, I hope it wouldn't take more than a decade to find Madeleine...My prayer goes to these little girl’s families.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Anyong Ha Se Yo...

I’m glad to know that the Korean hostages held by the Taliban have finally been released last week. As a “former friend” to some Koreans, I felt happy that the ordeal is over although two of them were killed.

I’ve got the chance to make friends with some Korean nationals last year. The friendship seemed to have last only for a couple of months as after their short stay here in the Philippines , they went back home, travelled to another country and went on with their normal lives. I have good memories with them and some weird observations that I noticed about their culture…as follows:

1. They’re always in a hurry.

2. They eat a lot. Ung pagkain ng isang tao sa kanila, good for 3 na yun sa mga Pinoy, at kahit kumakain nagmamadali pa rin, girls are no exemption.

3. They’re very nationalistic. They love everything Korean. Karamihan sa kanila ayaw sa mga puti.

4. Males are required to do military service for 2 years (ROTC sa Pinas). Pero sa kanila papasok talaga sila sa military for 2 years (kumbaga sa Pilipinas, para ka na rin nag-PMA ng 2 years).

5. They love spicy foods. They could turn vegetables from green to bloody red with lots of chili sauce.

6. They can’t survive a day without Kimchi. Their weekends are not complete without beer and Soju. Most of them love our San Mig light and Red Horse.

7. They call ALL gays “transsexuals” (or at least that’s how their electronic dictionary translates it). One time this college guy told me, “I saw a transsexual yesterday." I was like WTF? How did you know he’s transsexual?!?”. Ang sagot; “He looks like a woman, with long hair, make up, wearing high heels”.

8. Two people have to be of the same age to call each other “friend”. Even if they’ve known each other for years, share the same interests or see each other everyday, but if they’re not of the same age, they don’t call each other friend. In short they’re not friends.

9. They count their money in millions. Pano kasi 1 Million Won (Korean currency) equals 50,000 pesos lang. So pagpunta nila sa Pilipinas at baon nila 1 Million Won for 2 months, they already feel richer than most Filipinos (sabagay malaki nga naman ung 50,000 pesos pocket money for 2 months).

10. One of their questions na hindi ko nasagot: “What’s the difference of NO and NOT?” (sige nga, sagutin mo nga!)

11. Line that made me really laughed “It’s catting and dogging outside!” (translated: It’s raining cats and dogs outside)

12. Pag nagpapapicture sila, mga daliri nila laging nakaganito:




I don't mean to make fun of them because generally they're nice just like Filipinos. Almost all of them are coming here to study English so if you happen to meet one, galingan mag-English para ma-impress sila. hehehe... Mataas kasi ang tingin nila sa mga Pinoy as "English-speakers".


Monday, September 3, 2007

Boy Suplado

After almost six months of taking calls, I'm starting to easily get impatient at work. I'd curse nonstop, unlike before when I always try to smile regardless on how bad my calls could get.

My teammate, Patrick can't help but notice and he just started calling me boy suplado...



Here's why:

Me: ...and please download the software from this website, www dot (company name) dot com, forward slash go...
Customer: forward slash whaaat?!?
Me: Go, ma'am, that's G for George O for Oscar.
Customer:
What?!?
Me: The word GO! uh.. like go away, go home�!?
Customer:
uh ok.

Customer: How can I transfer videos to VHS?
Me: (surprised)
VHS?!? Did you say V-H-S?

Me: Thank you for calling. How may I help you?
Customer: Yes, hi, how can I print videos?
Me: (on mute, talked to my seatmate)LOL! Hoy, pano daw magprint ng video...?!

Customer: And how much is the repair cost?
Me: That would be $125�
Customer: (talked to her sister) $125 daw ate, mahal! Ipadala na lang natin sa Pilipinas! (Pinay pala!)

Customer: I took close-up photos of some flowers, they're so beautiful, unfortunately the photos came out blurry, is there a way I could edit those?
Me:
I'm sorry sir but we cannot edit those blurry pictures anymore, maybe we could adjust the settings of your camera and take pictures of those flowers again.
Customer: I can't do that.
Me:
uh...May I ask why?
Customer: The flowers are already dead!

Eto matindi:

Me: Now right click on My Computer and select properties.

Customer: Ok, I'm there.
Me.
Now, click on the Hardware tab.
Customer: Left or right?
Me: Left.
Customer:
ok...
Me:
Now click on Device Manager
Customer:
Left or right?
Me: Left!
Customer: Ok...now I see (went on reading everything I had to stop her).
Me: Ok, do you see imaging device? Do you see your camera model under imaging device?
Customer: uh, yes!
Me: Good! Now double click on it, on your camera model.
Customer:
Left or right?
Me:
Left! Double click!
While in the middle of troubleshooting...

Me:
Double click on the icon on your desktop.
Customer:
Left or right?
Me: Left!
Customer: Ok, now what?
Me:
Now click on "help", that's on the upper left hand corner of that window.
Customer:
Double click?

Me: No!
Customer:
Left or right?
Me: (WTF!)
No! Don't double click; don't right click, unless I told you to do so! Ok?! I will tell you when to right click or double click! And no, we cannot double right click! Never! There's no such thing as double right click!
Customer: (Napahiya) Ok, sorry...Well, I always learn something new from you guys.

Nagsorry po siya ulit sa huli, siyempre nagsorry din ako. Hehehe...


Jeez...truly a bad customer service from me recently...well, I'm not a customer service rep anyway...that's one thing that aggravates me with the account I'm working for. There's no customer service department, so as a tech support, we have to do the job...and when I can't handle it anymore I'd want to say "This is not customer service, this is technical support and I cannot troubleshoot your problem!"

I just hate apologizing to customers all the time. It's hard to pretend you care when in fact you don't. LOL.