It's all about lunch

The easiest way to blend in an office environment is through food. As if by some ancient Filipino cultural magic, conversations over lunch are more socially binding than ones done, say, over cubicle walls.

For example, I can talk better to people when I have food with me. Food can cover all conversation stages. You won't even have to think :s

INTRO: Want some chips/biscuits/fries/et al?
BODY: That's my favorite too! But I prefer mayonnaise to my fish rather than vinegar,
OR
BODY: Food is so ruddy expensive nowadays, I know.
CONCLUSION: Here, some chocolates for dessert,
OR
CONCLUSION: You've got to try the shawarma at my place.

In this generation, food is quickly replacing the weather as the topic of choice for starting a conversation.

There is something comforting in lunch conversations, in sharing a meal and a talk. Maybe it's got something to do with the whole people-are-social-animals fact. Or because you won't feel too alone when you're eating with somebody. Or maybe it's because food is a great icebreaker; topic choice is limited only by your gut tolerance for dirt and gore. Or, food is a universal language.

Or maybe because a collective lunch with people is a piece of home in the workspace, and you don't feel so lost when you're starting out in a new job. Sharing a lunch is like getting married - what lunch time has joined together, let no man put asunder! No one's going to eat alone ever again!

I think all offices should practice eating lunch together. In my previous work, you got memo-ED when you fail to join eating time at the dining table. Within a week or two from starting out, I felt at home, comfortable enough to poke fun at the people with whom I share a bit of table space. They don't seem as intimidating as when they are behind their desk, wielding their awesome powers. You see, even great powerful bosses like food as much as you do.

All this talk has made me hungry. Ima go and raid the fridge.

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM :O

Indecisions

Why does everything have to happen at the most inopportune time? Eh? So eerily ironic.

Here's a look at the Philippines' version of unemployment hell:

"Once there was a girl, whose only dream was to finish college. Barring hail, snow, backfield floods, lackluster wardrobe choices and the general dislike she had for her subjects, she sailed through and finished pretty well. It was only upon her graduation that she realized how ill-fitted she was for human society. She took a job, despite the obvious mismatch in qualifications. She floundered, she fumbled, she LEARNED.

The day came when her contract ended. Now, she thought, with a job experience in tow, finding another job will be easier. How the country proved her wrong. No job wanted her. She took anything that came her way. She sent gazillions of application letters to prospective employers but no one called. Not even one.

Then, like a ray of light from the heavens, she had a job. After all her hard work, a company finally calls! Good pay, good people - good internet connection! Here was her true calling.

Alas, and the irony strikes! Not days had passed when another employer calls, imploring her to come. And another one. And another. The dilemma! The final call rips her tiny heart. It is call from her beloved, the one true employer she had longed for all this time! Yet what could she do? She was trapped, ensnared by the powers of the Mozilla Firefox link on her desktop...."

So, goodbye Zamboanga City Medical Center! Your call came in just a little too late :s Imagine, I'm choosing to sit this interview out instead of tearing out my closet for a business attire. Gotta admire my willpower. Thank joo FIREFOX!!

Text Post v1

Because my bloody blog won't work right. Grrrr.

PS
Yay! Won't have to nuke my blog! It's the office connection that's the problem. My blog is still alive and apparently, updating ~~; 22May2009

New work, new rants

Read this. I have a job.

Or rather, I have a new job. Last week, I tendered in my resignation to my old job for another position that could offer me greener, monetary advantages. The parting was not without the drama, though. Contrary to the usual concept of resignation, I liked my previous occupation and the people whom I worked with. My bosses were kind, my colleagues were nice, and my mentors were brainy, smart and great personalities. I'd never admit it out loud, but I figure that I would have been pretty good working in that field of research, better than most even. I was blending in quite nicely with that rough, motley crowd of researchers when I was called away.

So, here I am, sitting inside a cubicle, typing my heart away on a rickety keyboard, on a PC hooked to my long-denied addiction - the Internet. Can't say that I am not pleased. Despite the evident discomfort in starting again in a new environment, I am re-learning the pleasure of privacy, music and net connection.

Anyhow, I am still waiting for directions and guidance from my boss, whom I have yet to meet. It's a scary bit of waiting; my boss is a SHE, a highly-accomplished, well-traveled SHE at that. I've never worked for a woman before, and I've heard that women bosses can be more terrifying than men bosses. I dunno. My past bosses were all men who treated me like a daughter instead of a payed worker. I'm nervous, but I'm not complaining though; I think this would be a great learning experience and I'm hoping to profit from it - in all aspects, of course, including reviving a little ol' blog that has gone under the weather for a year :D

I'll be bringing a lot things in this new job, including a reputation. For some reason, they were really impressed during my interview. I didn't tell them that the reason I was so bloody confident during the panel interview was because I already had a job :D Bad idea, now they think I'm this superscribe with a capital S. Gotta live up to it somehow :p

But still, I miss my old job. It's Athletics Day today, and here I am listening to crappy love songs in an open-toed sandal with clingly beads.

The world is not right. Somebody fix it please :B