Gone with the old, in with the new

Today my friend finally let go of his Apple 3g IPhone in exchange of Samsung Galaxy while I let go of my old black Adidas bag for a new red Nike sports bag which I bought for Php2,045.

I thought the bag is too roomy but I figured the space is just enough for the stuffs I use to bring every now and then: laptop, a pair of rubber shoes, a pair of shorts, towel and t-shirt.

There are things we want to let go because we are either bored with the old, or simply because we have the resources to spend.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Fitness First Southmall

Fitness Frst Southmall is the first non workout-conducive fitness club I have visited so far. Why? Are you sure you want to hear my horrifying experience in this fitness club?

The ambiance:
Fitness First Southmall is just like a typical obnoxious-smelling junk shop where you can find various pieces and scraps of rusty barbells, worn out dumbells, loose benches and cranky treadmills and ellipticals. It is a place where gym goers can be mistaken as your manong village "mangbobote" whom would like to make "tambay" and scour for metal scraps. The air is humid and the smell is horrible. The ceiling is high while the lights are dim.

The workout experiece:
To my fitness first member readers (if there's any) don't dare step foot on that club or you would end up leaving the club injured. As mentioned above, all their benches are loose and you might slide sidewards when you do press or flyes. The safety locks of several machines are defective, thus you may not be able to perform heavy presses. And lastly the machines I've used are all gritty.

These are just few observations and experiences I had with Fitness First Southmall. I'll surely not consider coming back to that junk shop..

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Classic Accounting Textbook

The Classic Accounting Textbook

It has been almost over seven years when I last saw a practical accounting text book by Conrado T. Valix and Jose Peralta.  This textbook has been revised for the nth time for over a decade now. I am gald to have seen one again. I think this book is much of a compilation of review handouts rather than a real "textbook".  I still prefer Wiley IFRS: Practical Implementation Guide and Workbook or other Wiley textbooks for that matter. 

And what's new with the latest edition of this classic accounting textbook? Listen! There's one unfamiliar name on the face of the book and it reads "Christian Aries Valix".  He is the son of the famous Conrad T. Valix. Will Christian Aries continue the legacy of revising the Financial Accounting book? If so, lets expect that this textbook will circulate and fill the bookshelves for the next two or three more decades.

Goodbye Basyang

At exactly 10:00pm of 14 July 2010, Basyang has left the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Basyang's strong winds brought me quite a number of inconveniences today as enumerated below:

1. Disturbed sleep (due to very loud and strong winds)
2. Cold morning shower
3. Wrinkled office polo
4. Scorching heat inside the office
5. Humid temperature inside the mall during dinner
6. Lost cellular signal
7. Lost Internet connection
8. Long flight of staircase (escalators are dead)

I'm still thankful that Basyang did not brought heavy rains, floods and severe casualities like the one we experienced with Ondoy.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Today is a memory of tomorrow and forever..

This photo was taken at the noon of July 14, 2010 at the Charter House with friends Danbie, Anne, Kayem, Tin, Roy and Annie. This get together with batchmates with more than five people present will soon become very seldom.

To Danby, KM, and Anne, we will still have more SGV memories to share with each other. To Tin, Roy and Annie, good luck! Thanks for for the good and fun memories.  We shall miss you soon. We are the true AFJ babies!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

First Video Upload

I really had a good laugh watching this video that I captured while Reycres was dancing in one of the classes in Fitness First.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Referencing SL Agritech FS

This morning, I was tasked to "reference" the 2010 financial statements of SL Agritech Corporation. Referencing is an audit jargon which means the process of reading, proofreading, footing, cross footing, and commenting on the financial statements' overall presentation, completeness of disclosure etc. etc. For most of auditors however, referencing process is just one valid reason we often tell our clients why the release/printing of financial statements for distribution is delayed. In SGV, it normally takes an average of four (4) days to complete the referencing process. Here's the timeline of the referencing process.

Day 1: The referencer receives the financial statements for referencing and puts this clean pile of papers on top of his/her table. This pile of papers will sit on his/her desk for the next two or three days depending on his/her task priorities.

Day 2: The pile of papers accumulates dusts as it sits on the referencer's table untouched.

Day 3: The pile of papers accumulates more dusts as it sits on the referencer's table untouched.

Day 4: The referencee makes a follow up to the referencer. The referencer would ask for one day extension because he/she has not finished the referencing. The referencer will tell the referencee that the referencing is almost complete. So, the pile of papers accumulates more and more dusts as it sits on the referencer's table.

Day 5: The referencer references the financial statements in two to three hours.

But I'm not a typical referencer, I will make sure that I complete this referencing task within the day.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

4th Year Anniversary

Today marks my fourth year anniversary as an employee of SGV.
During my first year with SGV, I thought the firm is just a breeding ground of people who'd like to be pirated by clients. On my second year, I realized that the firm doesn't really care about the welfare, safety, social life, morale and financial state of it's staffs. On my third year, I complained that the career growth within the firm is so slow and there's so much politicizing going on. On my fourth year, I realized that the firm would not just let you quit and leave after they have given you a little favor. Yes, the firm has given me a little favor and to return the favor,I am bound to face another year of slavery...err service beacuse of the service bond.

Four years have passed and I am still uncertain of which career path to take in the event that i will leave the firm. Shall I pursue my career with the firm? Shall I work for a local private company? Shall I venture overseas? Or shall I start my own business? There are just too many options and time is running so fast.

One thing is certain, there will be no "hello greener pasteur" or "resignation letters" for the next 365 days.

So help me God.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

IPhone Keyboard Symbols

I believe that many Iphone users have not yet discovered the keyboard's capability to key-in/incorporate the following symbols into their messages/emails:

₩‰#
&§»«„"
—¡¿…°
EÈÉÊËĘĖĒ
YŸ
UÛÜÙÚŪ
Īįíìïîi
OŌØŒÕÓÒÖÔ
AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ
SŚŠ
LŁ
ZŹŽŻ
CÇĆČ
NÑŃ

Although the above characters are not frequently used, its better if we know how to key in the symbols above. Here's how:

Step 1: Press and hold the "primary" letter in the keyboard. Upon pressing and holding the key for at least three seconds, the "secondary" symbols will become visible.
Step 2: Select the symbol by dragging your fingers across the screen towards the desired symbol.
Step 3: Tap the desired symbol.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

QuiQR - an IPhone App Review

Have you come across a two (2) dimensional barcode that resembles the photo above? Have you wondered what the above 2D barcode suppose to mean? Can you decode the message?

The above photo is an example of QR code. QR ("quicker") code was first developed and created by a Japanese Corporation and was originally used to track vehicle components during the manufacturing process. The QR code is now widely used to code URL links, alphanumeric characters/texts, map locations and contact details.

On March 2010, IPhone application developers have come up with a bright idea to develop a program that will decode these QR codes into human readable formats by utlizing the camera phone functionality of IPhone.

QuiQR app captures QR code using the built in camera and applies algorithms to convert it to readable forms. It has also the ability to convert alphanumeric messages into 2D barcode.

Here's some important features of this amazing app!

- decodes any 2D QR code at sight
- converts URL links, messages and contact info to 2D QR code (if connected to internet)
- ability to save created 2D QR codes in the photo library
- manages your 2D QR code
- size: 2.1MB
- price: $1.99

Here are the areas for improvement of QuiQR:

-This app can't automatically export the captured 2D code telephone contacts into your phonebook
-This app often crashes it encounters complex 2D codes
- This app can't convert URL links, alphanumeric characters/texts, map locations and contact details offline

Rating:

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Budget season

This morning I learned that our cluster has not yet met the June collection budget of Php 27 million and we are short of Php 2 million. We have until today to meet the collection budget. I learned that if our cluster did not meet the budget, the cluster's promotion, bonus and hiring of new staffs might be affected. What's worse is that Ms. Sarah, our secretary is absent today to help us follow up on client collections. Last night I was clueless about her post in the facebook saying.."bakit ako ang sinisisi sa mga bagay na di ko naman kasalanan..I'm starting to hate my job.." now the reason behind her post came into light. She was the one being blamed for not hitting the target budget...

So to prevent the shortfall in budget, we will beg from other clusters who have already exceeded their budget to transfer some of their collections to close the cluster's deficit like some sort of.."can we borrow Php 2million and we will pay you next month". Ridiculous isn't it?

.....@@@.....

A day before yesterday, Gary my gym trainor has requested me to renew my personal training sessions for another month even though we have not yet consumed the 40 sessions. He says he is short of his budget this month and asks if I could help him meet his target by paying the renewal session in advance. Ridiculous isn't it?

Also that day, I tagged along Reycres, my perky roomate to the gym, to join in. However, unfortunately, he does not have a credit card so he decided to postpone his membership. Because Dez, the marketing consulatnt of Fitness first, is desperate to hit her "new members" budget, Dez won't allow Reycres to postpone his memebership and instead, Dez called up my friend Tin, also a member of the fitness club, to borrow Tin's credit card so that Reycres can use it for him to be able to join. Ridiculous isn't it?

I conclude that people can really do ridiculous things to meet their budgets.

Welcome to the corporate world.

Northpark G5

One rainy friday night, John Ray Lucas, a very generous and philantrophic friend treated us (me, Paul and Ken) at Northpark Glorietta 5. Johnny is also a foodie and likes to try popular restos in the city. Although Northpark is just another neighborhood fastfood chain for Johnny, he decided to treat us there because the prices are relatively cheap.

Johnny went ahead to Northpark to order the meals that's why meals were already served when we arrived at the resto. As I sat on the table I suddenly felt problematic on how to consume all the food Johnny has ordered for us. It was like mini fieta! There were two big bowls of shanghai rice, lechon cebu, broccoli beef mushroom, lemon chicken and a big bowl of pancit canton.

We talked about plenty of subjects and stayed longer than usual at this resto. We hoped we can consume everything even if it's little by little. However, the four of us were not able to consume everything so Johnny took home the leftovers.

It was another day of food indulgence. burp! I thank God for all the blessings he has showered upon me and my friends.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Photo credits: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/

Niche Topic - Iphone Apps Review

For the past month, i have been thinking of a niche topic to blog about. I think, i can attract more followers if i focus on reviewing Iphone Apps.

Niche topic means more google hits, which means  more blog visits which translates to more $$$. So starting this month, I will post my reviews about popular Iphone Apps.

Occassionaly however, I will also post topics, issues, persons, events, etc. related to my journey called life. So, my blogsite will be a mix of informational and non-informational topics.

I'm starting to like blogging!!

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonbomb/322266009/

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Slack Season

This is a typical one day schedule of a slacker:

7:15 a.m. Wakes up to shut the alarm clock and take a snooze.

8:15 a.m. Finally woke up after two or three snoozes

9:30 a.m. Reached the office and boot up my laptop

9:45 a.m. Opened sametime application and look for online friends to ask whether they're be having their breakfast.

10:00 a.m. Head to PSE to have breafast/brunch with friends

10:30 a.m. Read some e-mails and online business news

11:30 a.m. Follow up the status of audit work with staffs. Discussion of issues and pending items.

11:55 a.m. Prepare and clean my area for an afternoon siesta

12:00 n.n. Siesta time

1:30 p.m. Siesta time is over, look for friends who have yet to eat their lunch

1:45 p.m. Head to nearest resto with busy friends to have lunch.

3:00 p.m. Blogging

5:00 p.m. Prep for the gym. Eat. Pack up my things and wait the clock to hit 5:30

5:30 p.m. Head to the gym

6:30 p.m. The hell workout with personal trainor is over

7:00 p.m. Dinner with super friend.

8:00 p.m. Home

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Seatmates

Anne Lizbeth Joson, Anecita Andaya, Ma Christina Santilla, Marilyn Santos, Dempsey Cabrera, Rose Anne Gonzales, Alex Pineda, Roy Hipolito

These are the names of the people whom i personally know who are soon leaving (or recently left) SGV. Four of them are my batchmates whom I have established friendship with and two of them are my seatmates to my left and to my right. I wish everyone a greener pasteur outside the firm! I'll surely miss my batchmates tin, annie, roy and liz. See you at the crossroads!

Hmm.. sino kaya ang magiging bagong seatmates ko?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Sakae Sushi Experience

My back is in pain and I feel lazy.

I did not visit the gym, did not play tennis, did not swim, did not report to work, no exhausting physical activities at all.

So we rushed to Mang Inasal's past 11 am for lunch. After the meal, I took a long nap and gee, I woke up at 5:30 pm with a heavy head! My back is still in pain, i feel lazy and now I'm a little dizzy. Yes, I am an absolute bummer today.

So, to have at least one physical activity for the day, Me and my friend went to MOA for a walk and tried a Japanese resto named Sakae Sushi for dinner.

Me and Ken were able to indulge to yet another day of cheating our diets for Php399 (inclusive of VAT an service charge). The cost includes bottomless cold tea, miso soup and free flowing maki, sushi, and other weird maki-looking and sushi-looking stuffs. We finished approximately 14 plates and we guessed di na kami talo dun. Sulit!!