school and work

IM status: . <offline> .
lss: . love is the answer (by Raymond Hannisian) .

..
[the end of another school chapter &
 the start of a new work chapter]

So, I have been neglecting to blog for quite a while now.
And the first step to giving it more and better attention? Tsk tsk, new template! ;)) 
Finally, I decided to change my template, I think I had that template (including the modifications) since I first started this blog, which was a little over 6 years ago. I am still not fully convinced by my current template, I may or may not update and/or modify it still in the next few weeks (or months! ha!). Depends if I find the time.

Anyways, the last post was August 13, that was 39 days before the start of my compre exams (Sept 21). And now, it's already been 23 days since my last exam (Oct 09), well, technically, it's supposed to be 32 days already (Sept 30). The extra nine days, I'll explain in a while.

First off, my Cebu 'business trip' finally ended (thankfully, as promised) on Aug 31. I flew back to Manila on Sept 1, then reported back to Makati office on Sept 2. 
Upon return, I helped with the supervising of the OJT for the current batch of trainees.
And then I started my Vacation Leave (or should I say, Study Leave) on Sept 16, I originally applied for it to start on Sept 20, but thankfully, I was allowed the extra 2 working days earlier. :D With that, I was officially on leave for half a month or 11 working days. But whew!, was that barely or should I say, hardly enough. Needless to say, I spent those 15 days studying (read as cramming) really hard, including sleeping/napping on my make-shift 'study area' at the dining room so that I wouldn't oversleep. ... Long story short, Sept 21, 24, 27, and 29&30 came and my brains were fried till toasted and whatever is worse than toasted. :)) tsk tsk.

    The first exam was a 3-hour, definition/proving/explanation/essay exam. While the middle two was from the same professor and were both 2-hour essay exams, each worth around a hundred points within 6 to 7 questions. Then, the fourth/last one was a one-hour oral exam about a specific specialization topic (Xen). 

    The last exam was done on sept 29 instead of the original sept 30, because the Prof was not available on the 30th, and that was an oral exam, so it had to be re-scheduled... unlike the first three which were all written exams. But then again, after the oral exam, the Prof gave me take home questions, which I spent the whole day of sept30 answering. 

    Anyways, the details of how I went about each day during the exams,,, I have already mentioned on my facebook and twitter posts, just check it out, I won't repeat it here anymore.

 And so, back to work I went on Oct 1, yes that was a friday, and I know it's weird going back to work on a Friday, especially after a 2-week 'vacation' so to speak, but I actually do not have much VLs left anymore and I reasoned I wasn't really on vacation, so my mind wasn't really on 'rest' and besides, it's the least I can do after they allowed such a long time off (yeah, I'm such a good employee like that, tsk tsk). Moreover, there was this buzz going on, that I might get assigned some place else yet again, so I had to really go back and stand-up/answer for myself in case it's necessary.

And as predicted, I was informed that day that there was a possibility for me to be assigned to a partner/client office in The Fort. Tsk tsk, I haven't really spent that much time back in the Makati office and they're sending me off yet again, and now that I don't have school anymore, I don't really have any more reasons not to agree or pass on it like I did with the JP assignment/OB offers before. Not that I was planning or thinking of saying no to this anyway. I think my bosses are pretty clear on the fact that I only passed on the offers before because I had to prioritize school. :)  (dang! I sound so much like I dork!)

Another long story short, on Oct 5, I was interviewed at said office in Global City, then I started reporting there on Oct 7. The office is along Kalayaan Ave., so thankfully, the commute is so much easier as compared to if it had been actually inside Global City or even McKinley Hill, so it's an upside. The adjustments are just that, I get to be more picky of the morning shuttle unlike before when I didn't mind whether the shuttle uses the EDSA, the Kalayaan, or Global 'route'. And apparently, if I tend to get to the terminal late, there will be no more Kalayaan shuttles. :( As for going home, since the office is in Kalayaan Ave., I have to go back to Ayala Ave. since the only shuttle terminal (for Marikina) near enough that I know of is there, so that's an extra ride. Other than that, I don't really mind... The extra 30mins I save from the morning commute (Kalayaan to Ayala), is just added to my evening commute.

So, it's been 25 days since I started in said client/partner office, work-wise adjustments, well, even if it is also a Japanese company, I see that they are quite 'stricter' in a sense. 
    (1) Internet access is not a basic commodity (so in case you're wondering why I am not online everyday anymore, that's why). I think I might be beginning to suffer from discomgoogolation, but then again I eventually became too busy with work, I hardly notice it. I was recently given Internet access for research for my current project, but that's it, I don't use it for anything other than that, and besides a lot of sites are blocked (I think... I haven't really tried) anyways, sometimes, the programming related sites that I need to access itself are blocked.
    (2) Food is not allowed inside the 'work area', which is why they have a bigger pantry than us. [Tsk tsk, ibig sabihin kaya nito, papayat na ko? Wahahaha]
    (3) Bags are also not allowed in the work area, they also have lockers inside the pantry for keeping the bags. We can bring our wallets and cellphones (thank God) inside, but of course, if we have to use the cellphones, we have to step outside.
    (4) Break times are 'stricter' in a sense. Not that we abuse it in Makati, it will just take a little adjustment being 'on the clock' all the time.
    (5) ISMS/Security policies are so much stricter, almost anything and everything has to go through a 'form', but this is the way our ISMS policies are headed anyways. It just that our forms are basically 'electronic' and signatures are 'electronic' already, it's just that not everything is integrated to our company servers yet. So that one's a push and pull. This client office is stricter but we are more 'advanced', tsk tsk tsk.

    But then again, I don't really see anything very wrong with those I mentioned, especially 1-4. AND I would like to emphasize that I am not complaining, I am just stating that these are the differences that I noticed. It's not that difficult to get used to it anyways. I'm basically an amenable person, especially if I can clearly see reason with it. They're just stricter, that's all.


Oh, one last thing, the reason why the 'last exam day' was not Sept 30, is because I had to go back to school on Oct 09 for sort of a make-up exam. According to my Professor, my answers for the first exam, which I did on Sept 21, was not convincing enough, so he asked me to report back to school and make it into an oral exam, he said that maybe we could explain it better orally. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I'm already out of leaves, so I asked if it was OK to do it on a weekend. What actually happened on that fateful day is actually a longer story in itself, ending in me answering the previously unanswered questions written also since I couldn't articulate it enough orally still, but I'd rather not dwell on it. Hopefully what I did was enough though. I still haven't had feedback, so I do not really know the results yet.


Anyways, I'll end this post with that. 
Story of an academic chapter of my life ending..[Note: I really hope that it is already ending, technically, I don't know of the 'exam results' yet. SO my fingers are still crossed].
And the start of a new work/professional experience.
..