Procrastination is my Favorite Sin

It used to be Vanity - at least the line used to be like that, "vanity is my favorite sin"... from the Devil's Advocate.

It's really notmy favorite sin per se... it's just that it's what I often commit. Procrastination in this sense:

I usually can spend about half my office day just checking emails and posts in twitter and plurk - because I couldn't find a better and more systematic way of doing it!

Another half I sometimes spend just thinking about what post I'm going to log here. I want something with the utmost bearing and impact, something that will draw a lot of readers and actually keep them reading. Something that will call the attention of even the newcomers and passers by. I wanted to write something that's solid enough to earn my place. But the result is, I just almost spent my whole day thinking and doing nothing at all. I do have plenty of reports to check and double-check, I have a team to supervise, have plenty of things to do, but I find myself trapped in this cycle almost everyday. Hmmm, I'm really looking forward to Problogger's 31 Day challenge - How to improve your blog in 31 days. Sounds good huh?

Why don't you join us too? I just signed up and maybe you'd like to participate? Sign up Here...

Searching for the Stinky Fish

I'm currently installing TweetDeck on my laptop while typing this because I wanted to be updated with the tweets as often as possible. The main reason?

Because I want to take a peek at the links posted by the tweeple (Twitter people). Actually, I've already spent about half an hour in the net today, visiting ODesk pages, trying to look for good money-making opportunities from other web-savvy people like me. Not just articles and paid-to-click gigs, but the real bucks.

Aside from looking busy staring at my screen and pounding on my keyboard, I also look quite like a ninja right now because I have my coat tied around my head just to securely cover my nose. Our God-forsaken office is just too... smelly. The vent, I think, is connected to the exhaust of our darling little cafeteria which now is cooking, or frying, fish for tonight's dinner (they serve dinner for the night shift guys), and fish, because they're observing Lent.

Darn. Really smells fishy.

In Support of Earth Hour

We (meaning I and my fiance) are so supporting Earth hour... We might be doing the following for the whole one-hour event:

1. turn off all lights around the house
2. turn off appliances and unplug everything
3. instead of using candles, which can emit smoke and additional heat, maybe we'll using tiny teeny flashlights or torches
4. we'll lock all doors around the house, except for the main door, to comfort ourselves from the thought of possible bad elements who might decide to take advantage of Earth Hour
5. go out to the lawn and look around under the moonlight
6. talk about amusing things and whatnots until we forget that one hour has passed
7. even if Earth Hour ends, we'll do our best to keep in mind the objectives and mission of Earth Hour and try to embody it everyday - not just for an hour

Hopefully, all of us decide to participate. I know our Office is participating, everything will be turned off, maybe except for the generators...  :)

Don't forget to visit their site for more info: http://www.earthhour.org/

Let's be conscious, let's turn off the lights! Ready?

Are You in Heat?

You read that right. I asked the question, "Are you in Heat?" No need to flag me or anything, 'coz that's not the "in heat" I was referring to.

This phrase had it's time in the airwaves of Philippines at one time, I think it was a softdrink commercial, just correct me if I'm wrong, I also can't find a video of it stashed anywhere, but it basically runs into something like a guy enters an elevator, a sexy girl already in it. And then, masculine impulse kicks in and he wanted to make an impression, so he bluntly asks, "Are you in heat?" instead of asking something like "Are you feeling hot?" or Are you hot enough to want what I'm holding?" or something to that effect. The idea was fascinating, funny, and leaves a long-lasting impression that you simply can't ignore ever watching it once in your life.

Anyway, got to go... They already turned off the airconditioning, which means, it's log off time. Cheers!

Oh, if anybody knows where to dig up that commercial video, can you leave me the link? Thanks!

Can't Upload Pictures to Blogger and Yahoo! Mail

I thought it was just my computer saying "I'm sick", but apparently, it has been a problem amongst bloggers since last year.

I read in another blog that there has been a resolution already... Well, I really don't think so.

I hope someone knowledgeable can read this post because today, just to upload 3 pictures, I had to try all three known browsers. Only Internet Explorer succeeded in uploading the pictures, but still took too much time than it used to. What exactly is wrong? Is it something about Blogger or is it caused by me and my endless fiddling with my browsers?

Next, I have tried several times to attach images to my yahoo mail. They're not at all harmful because they're just images of scanned copies of airline tickets - but heck, it just can't be attached. So I stopped, and started hating yahoo mail quite a bit. If it just wasn't because of the chat thing, I'd change email providers.

Turquoise Bangle - Almost Bella-like

I was so excited this morning when a small package arrived courtesy of our HR... I was just about to wrap up my morning prayer when our HR person suddenly knocked on the door and handed the package over.

What greeted me when I opened it was the ever-fascinating and stress-relieving bubble wrap, the next layer of protection was a lavender pouch, and then a ziploc-like plastic pouch which contained the item.

My joy inched a notch higher when I saw the turquoise and silver bangle I stumbled upon on Beadazzling.co.uk when I was poring through the internet looking for a bangle or bracelet that looked like the one that Bella wore in the movie Twilight.

Dora the Explorer? Growing up?

Apparently, not just real humans grow up, even cartoon characters!

The reaction to this news by viewers, fans, and parents all over the world have been cut into two - one group says it's just about time a "role model" should be able to properly and appropriately guide the kids on the proper way to dress, interact with other tweens, and maybe to prepare for the more grown-up world, aside from Barbie, who just celebrated her 50th Birthday and seems to have inculcated a wrong notion of beauty for kids all over the world. Here's a silhouette of how this tween Dora might look like. (photo credits: http://abcnews.com)

The other group on the other hand, is not quite convinced that Dora should be made-over into a whole new tween character. They think she should stay as a child and be an icon to future generations.

Are you a fan of Dora the Explorer? Or do you know someone who is? What do you think about Dora growing up? Start the discussion by leaving your comments or forwarding this to your friends and family who would care.

Visible Chat Lines Here & There

If i remember correctly, I consciously and deliberately told my staff that I'd keep off the internet for our sakes longer than the time I would usually spend, but as evidenced by this post, I may have gone astray on that thing.

Same as with other offices and companies, and other humans, we also do a bit of chit chat every now and then to get the pressure from work off our backs, or just to remedy the routine-ness or "boredom" of office work. Although our "office work" isn't really routinary, well, most of the company employees think so.

In other words, we also spend some quality time chatting about our officemates, or our bosses, or our friends, our former classmates and/or teachers, or maybe if it's a bad hair day, then some other topic we'd like covered. Besides, nothing takes away the silence than a few minutes of healthy chat.

We Have a New Home!

Well, it's not actually a cozy homey home yet, but it will be.

We just received word the other day that our application for our house loan has just been approved. So this just means that at the age of 25, I already have my own house! Thank God! Such a blessing, don't you think? We're not planning on getting worried about where we'll get the funds for the finishing touches and the new appliances or whatnots, because I know - we both know - that everything will fall into place.

Aside from this good news, we now have some sort of a dilemma. The place where our new home is located is such a long mile away from where my fiance and I both work. Needless to say, we definitely need a ride of our own, but we don't have bundles of cash stashed around somewhere. Well, maybe not a brand new car, but something functional and presentable. I personally think it should have a sound system of some kind, but we don't think we need a whole entertainment package complete with DVDs and all. A GPS might be handy 'coz I'm not very good with directions, but it's not really a necessity.

Oh well, some options are to:

1. Bluntly ask from our sponsors.
2. Look for previously owned vehicles in Auto Shops.
3. Hunt bargain buys in the online markets/sites.

Whatever we choose to do, we just believe everything will go by smoothly - if it's The Will.

Issue Receipts or You're Closed!

The Bureau of Internal Revenue or BIR has just recently issued Revenue Memorandum
Order (RMO) 3-2009, or "Oplan Kandado", which targets the strengthening of BIR's imposition of the prescribed sanctions for non-compliance with the issuance of receipts, filing of returns, declaration of taxable transactions, taxpayer registration and paying the correct amount of taxes.

The said RMO provides the policies and procedural guidelines in the conduct of surveillance operations and implementation providing sanctions such as suspension and temporary closure of business.

Under the Tax Code of 1997, all persons subject to internal revenue tax are required to issue an invoice for each sale of goods and an official receipt for services rendered valued at P25 or more.

For VAT-registered taxpayers, invoices and official receipts are required for all transactions. Failure to issue invoices/receipts is a ground for suspension of business operations and temporary closure of the business establishment.

Also, failure to issue invoices/receipts could also be a basis for assessing undeclared revenues if the revenues declared in the income tax or VAT returns are less than the revenues estimated from the surveillance operations.

As a general rule, all surveillance activities shall be covered by mission
orders to be issued by the authorized revenue official. No surveillance
activities shall be conducted and no apprehension shall be effected unless
a mission order has been issued.

See the full text of the RMO here...

Defensiveness, Emails, and Office Fuzz

The office has been in a fuss since yesterday because of an audit report that we actually haven't released yet. Funny thing was, they thought that once an issue reaches our department, it can turn hell lose. Crazy, huh?

Fortunately enough, all our laptops are working quite nicely, albeit the occasional slowing down of the networking thing, all in all we can quite follow every email and communication being exchanged among and between the parties involved - considering that we get copies of the said communications (we actually don't hack into their emails - we rely on the copies furnished by the senders. hehe!)

The funny thing was this: one of the managers that we talked to - just to answer the question why she forgot to send copies of the report to another manager - went berserk and started getting all defensive on the issue. She even tried explaining to all possible people who might have a say about the issue at hand, saying she'll just try to put out the fire while it hasn't even started yet. And, she even said it was another manager's fault for not following it all up. Darn. Everybody's getting older and older and more prone to getting, well, cuckoo.

Francis Magalona Dies at 44

Francis Magalona died today at the age of 44 after battling acute leukemia and having chemotherapy for several months.

The full story can be seen here.

We are Always Put on a Spot

What an interesting email I just received! It contained the words that can incriminate an innocent person to stay in jail for the rest of his/her life!

No, I was just joking.

The email actually contained a few issues/audit findings and unfortunately for us, who really do not know the story behind this abrupt and semi-impulsive email sent to Mr. A (again, bear with me for the anonymity thing) a few minutes ago. Aside from the issues itself, it also has quite a few more words explaining the circumstances behind the exceptions, plus some recommendations.

Now the thing with this email I'm talking about is that Ms. B sent it to Mr. A complete with the colors from the original report and a few paragraphs of her own. She said she doesn't understand why the heck (excuse me, I'm using my own words) the exceptions were present when in fact the company pays big bucks for maintenance and all. Plus the manager we should have asked about (it) basically shoved us over to his assistant, who we actually think does not know a tad about what we were talking about. And so we put that in the darn report - Mr. c did not answer our queries and turned us over to Mr. D who said he'll ask the company who supplied the thing. Well, how about that?! Nobody seems to know what's happening! Or maybe they do know, but don't want to talk about it?

The conclusion is this: we might now be on the limelight for again causing fuss over something that some other person wouldn't fuss about. Good thing was that it was not done on impulse.

Slow... Could it be the Registry?

My network connection has been really painstakingly slow for the last three weeks and it has caused me more hours than I would usually like to spend in the net. Could it be a registry problem? Something wrong with the cables? Or is it our service provider? A virus? What?! Heeellpppp!!!

I just hope it's not a registry problem or else I would need to reformat my laptop, right? Which I can't afford right now, I haven't backed-up everything yet, and I don't have much space to back-up to. Darn. I just hope and pray that the usual speed of the network connections will go back to normal.

If you can suggest anything, please leave your comments below. Help would be greatly appreciated.
:)



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