May 04, 2007
With just four weeks remaining in our "Biggest Loser" office-edition contest, I decided to try to get into our limited-slots, first-come-first-served fitness program (free one-month's access to Gold's Gym). As you can probably guess, a lot of people attempt to enroll in this program and very few make it, so I was very surprised when I found out that I made it in.
I marked off Friday morning (earlier today) as gym work out time. It was the first time I had ever worked out at a gym, and I was very confused at first with all the machinery and things that I could do. So I made an arrangement to have officemates/gym buddies with me on my first work out: GM and Ryann. I probably wouldn't have survived without them, and I would've been discouraged from working out in the future. They acted as my trainers and tour guides. I never knew there were so many ways to exercise and muscle groups to target. Thanks so much, guys!
I had a lot of fun even though I hadn't pushed my body to its limit in such a long time. I'm feeling fine, except that my legs are killing me after doing squats. Tomorrow I will probably have the worst time trying to get out of bed.
I marked off Friday morning (earlier today) as gym work out time. It was the first time I had ever worked out at a gym, and I was very confused at first with all the machinery and things that I could do. So I made an arrangement to have officemates/gym buddies with me on my first work out: GM and Ryann. I probably wouldn't have survived without them, and I would've been discouraged from working out in the future. They acted as my trainers and tour guides. I never knew there were so many ways to exercise and muscle groups to target. Thanks so much, guys!
I had a lot of fun even though I hadn't pushed my body to its limit in such a long time. I'm feeling fine, except that my legs are killing me after doing squats. Tomorrow I will probably have the worst time trying to get out of bed.
November 02, 2006
October 12, 2006
As I was going for my toothbrush break (more on this later), I passed by RJ Mendizabal sitting in the lobby. He was waiting for his interviewer, Eugene Teves, who was under Simon as well, like me. We chatted a bit, catching up on things. While we were talking, Simon passed us by and greeted us both; turns out that Simon was RJ's previous interviewer. Assuming all goes well with his interviews and he accepts HP's offer, it seems like we'll both end up in the same group (Supply Chain Management).
It was not too long ago that I was in the same situation: sitting in the HP lobby waiting for my interviewer. Good luck, RJ!
It was not too long ago that I was in the same situation: sitting in the HP lobby waiting for my interviewer. Good luck, RJ!
October 09, 2006
The RubeTube was offline these past few days because of this weekend's offsite (an "offsite" is defined as any event that happens outside the office and usually refers to a recreational outing). It was the first offsite of Simon's new organization, the Supply Chain Management group, which has three teams under it: Supplier Portal (my team), SAP XI, and STAR.The offsite was staged from my teammate GM's house in Tagaytay. Some people (including me) arrived on Thursday night but most arrived on Friday morning. The whole of Friday was dedicated to teambuilding, planning, and recreational activities (videoke, poker, Cranium, card tricks) in the evening. Interestingly enough, I won all three Texas Hold 'Em games we played by a huge margin, which never happened when I was playing with the DISCS faculty. I think the "bet 1700" technique totally messed up my opponents' minds. The food we had was absolutely terrific even though we had chicken for almost every meal, but cooked in different ways. Kudos to the cooking committee for a job well done!
On Saturday, around half of the group had to go home in the morning but the rest went for a trip to Punta Fuego. We had lunch there after which we went to the beach, played some frisbee, and then relaxed in the afternoon with a dip in the infinity pool. Now I am terribly afraid of the water but I reluctantly gave into the pressure, seeing that I was the only one staying away from the water. In the end, it wasn't so bad and I was somewhat pleased to note that I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to swim. We sure had a lot of fun taking underwater pictures; will post some of them when I get a copy.
We had dinner back in Tagaytay on Saturday night and went back to Manila afterwards. Got home at 1 AM on Sunday and promptly dropped off to sleep.
Too many things happened for me to describe the whole experience in detail, but I just want to say that after the offsite, I feel very much a part of the team and the HP organization. I'm happy that I'm not just "the new guy" anymore.
September 07, 2006
(This entry will explain why I wasn't able to blog yesterday.)
Today was my first ever "coffee talk" meeting as a member of HP's Applications Development and Solution Integration Team, or ADSI. The ADSI coffee talk is a monthly meeting (there is a quaterly coffee talk for all of HP Global Delivery Philippine Center, or GDPC) where announcements are made and issues are raised. Also, it's the time for new-hires to be formally introduced to the whole team.
Yesterday afternoon, the organizers informed us that all new-hires are required to show off their talents. Meaning, the coffee talk will be the venue of our first-ever presentation, with less than a day to prepare. They split us up into three groups. Paul, Andrew, and I (new-hires under Jason) were grouped together while the rest were divided into two groups of five each. We decided to make up for our shortage of manpower by exerting maximum effort. And we did. In fact, we probably overdid it.
One group decided to do a simple pun-ny guitar and song number ("HP-cially for You"), while the other did a comedic photo slideshow in Powerpoint with voice bubbles and background music. On the other hand, my group (the "Tres Amigos") would not settle for anything less than a full-fledged video complete with video transitions, full voice acting, sound effects, and music to match the mood. Since we didn't have time to shoot lots of footage, we just took still-photos and put them all together using Windows Movie Maker. (It was a good thing I chose to bring the IXUS i Zoom yesterday.)
Our 4-minute video was about a HP new-hire's first day of work. He falls asleep less than an hour into his new job while reading boring online learning material. He wakes up hours later finding himself all alone in an abandoned unfinished office (shot in the 7th floor yesterday, just before it opened today), with no Internet and phone connections. He explores around a bit and finds himself trapped... in the 13th floor (cue psycho-killer music from "Psycho"). After finding this out, he gets woken up, for real this time, and discovers that it was all a dream. He has learned his lesson: Never fall asleep on the job. Paul and Andrew were quick to "volunteer" me for the lead role, saying that they couldn't imagine anyone but me playing the part. Of course, I was quick to accept because I couldn't miss the chance to make myself known, even if I did have to do plenty of embarrassing scenes.
To make an already long story shorter, our presentation was a hit with the ADSI people. Only after all that embarrassment did I realize that we did an amazing job, especially with our limited time and resources. I was proud of the fact that we put in a tremendous amount of effort not because of a potential reward (there was none), but because we just wanted to do our best.
I'm really sorry but I can't share the film online; HP Confidential, you know. However, I can show you this shot (this is after I realize that the phone line is dead:
Today was my first ever "coffee talk" meeting as a member of HP's Applications Development and Solution Integration Team, or ADSI. The ADSI coffee talk is a monthly meeting (there is a quaterly coffee talk for all of HP Global Delivery Philippine Center, or GDPC) where announcements are made and issues are raised. Also, it's the time for new-hires to be formally introduced to the whole team.
Yesterday afternoon, the organizers informed us that all new-hires are required to show off their talents. Meaning, the coffee talk will be the venue of our first-ever presentation, with less than a day to prepare. They split us up into three groups. Paul, Andrew, and I (new-hires under Jason) were grouped together while the rest were divided into two groups of five each. We decided to make up for our shortage of manpower by exerting maximum effort. And we did. In fact, we probably overdid it.
One group decided to do a simple pun-ny guitar and song number ("HP-cially for You"), while the other did a comedic photo slideshow in Powerpoint with voice bubbles and background music. On the other hand, my group (the "Tres Amigos") would not settle for anything less than a full-fledged video complete with video transitions, full voice acting, sound effects, and music to match the mood. Since we didn't have time to shoot lots of footage, we just took still-photos and put them all together using Windows Movie Maker. (It was a good thing I chose to bring the IXUS i Zoom yesterday.)
Our 4-minute video was about a HP new-hire's first day of work. He falls asleep less than an hour into his new job while reading boring online learning material. He wakes up hours later finding himself all alone in an abandoned unfinished office (shot in the 7th floor yesterday, just before it opened today), with no Internet and phone connections. He explores around a bit and finds himself trapped... in the 13th floor (cue psycho-killer music from "Psycho"). After finding this out, he gets woken up, for real this time, and discovers that it was all a dream. He has learned his lesson: Never fall asleep on the job. Paul and Andrew were quick to "volunteer" me for the lead role, saying that they couldn't imagine anyone but me playing the part. Of course, I was quick to accept because I couldn't miss the chance to make myself known, even if I did have to do plenty of embarrassing scenes.
To make an already long story shorter, our presentation was a hit with the ADSI people. Only after all that embarrassment did I realize that we did an amazing job, especially with our limited time and resources. I was proud of the fact that we put in a tremendous amount of effort not because of a potential reward (there was none), but because we just wanted to do our best.
I'm really sorry but I can't share the film online; HP Confidential, you know. However, I can show you this shot (this is after I realize that the phone line is dead:
Labels: embarrassment, friends, HP, videos, work
September 05, 2006
For my own reference, SMPC only. It sucks to forget names. I've already lost a few of them. Pardon the spelling errors.
Also under Simon: Jessie (my "buddy"), Cip, Sym, GM, Marvin, Elbert, Eugene (Teves, former DISCS lecturer), Rhea, Lei, Cha, Mads (ECE '06), Francis, Cheng, Choy, Eva, Sheila, Iris, Ryann (MIS '05), Jac, Carmela
New-hires/batchmates: Pierre, Rinah, Reymon, Jay (ME '05), Lailani, Oliver, Sheila, Donna, Paul (ComTech '06), Andrew
Managers: Simon (manager de jure), Jason (Simon's boss), Vince, Jill (ADSI big boss)
People I already know: Shé (taking MS CS at Ateneo), Ian, Debby (Student Ambassador like Ian), Jino (from ACM, CS'05), Bev (MIS '06), Nicole, Cheson (MIS '06), Paul (CS '05)
Others: OJ, Alvin, Karla, Gen, Cherry (14th floor AA), Rochelle (14th floor lobby), Marc, Jena, Sally (7th floor AA), Rich
Also under Simon: Jessie (my "buddy"), Cip, Sym, GM, Marvin, Elbert, Eugene (Teves, former DISCS lecturer), Rhea, Lei, Cha, Mads (ECE '06), Francis, Cheng, Choy, Eva, Sheila, Iris, Ryann (MIS '05), Jac, Carmela
New-hires/batchmates: Pierre, Rinah, Reymon, Jay (ME '05), Lailani, Oliver, Sheila, Donna, Paul (ComTech '06), Andrew
Managers: Simon (manager de jure), Jason (Simon's boss), Vince, Jill (ADSI big boss)
People I already know: Shé (taking MS CS at Ateneo), Ian, Debby (Student Ambassador like Ian), Jino (from ACM, CS'05), Bev (MIS '06), Nicole, Cheson (MIS '06), Paul (CS '05)
Others: OJ, Alvin, Karla, Gen, Cherry (14th floor AA), Rochelle (14th floor lobby), Marc, Jena, Sally (7th floor AA), Rich
