New Commitments and (Hopefully) New Beginnings

I have decided to keep my writing a commitment. The problem is, as easily as I get riled up with inspiration, I also lose interest all too quickly. This, plus the fact that I’m the biggest procrastinator I know, makes keeping this journal a massive undertaking. During those brief moments I find myself passionately thinking about something (or in rare cases, someone), I can easily whip up a few sentences that would serve as outlets to let whatever stagnant creative juices in my brain flow freely. That is, I can write with almost zen-like focus. Then after a few minutes of being in the zone, I get sidetrack with the most trivial things that I lose my momentum. After losing drive, I just stop with whatever I’m currently writing until the urge passes and then I move on to my next obsession. It’s an ugly trait that leaves many unfinished things in my life, I know. And to be fair, it doesn’t happen to my writing alone. In Filipino, I’m one of the many people na madaling magsawa.

I’ve never posted anything this past month (July). Though I pretty much made a lot of writing drafts recounting the many things I find interesting recently, such as my gaming chronicles, a letter to my younger self, a few love snippets here and there, etc. but the problem is none of them got finished. Again, I blame my easily-sidetracked personality for this lack of accomplishment. But I am planning to finish all of them and tie up all loose ends as I hate keeping unfinished things, well unfinished. And since I am planning to venture out into the non-voice industry of the BPO world (which basically means email composing and chat sessions), I better brush up on my writing skills. Plus it will also help me improve my two-finger typing skills. So this August, I promise to write at least one article a day. Be it a random rant, a political commentary, some philosophical ramblings, I promise to write them. I’m also going to enforce a 500-word count as a way to challenge myself to finish things I’ve started. Hopefully, I will be able to keep this commitment.

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I can’t think of anything significant that transpired last month. I’ve been out of work for exactly half-a-year now and all my days and weeks are always spent bumming around. But on the plus side, bumming around made me read more about current events, philosophies and tech news and it also helped me reconnect with some of my friends again. But apart from those, I can’t think of anything significant or life-changing that happened in July. Days just go by so quickly without me noticing.

Well, I can say that I am officially in the job-hunting mode right now. Okay, I kinda said this last June but after a disappointing interview with another BPO company two months ago, I decided to put off the job-hunting at least after my birthday. Certainly, I didn’t want to spend my 25^th birthday at work as I have something special planned that day. But after that, I got sidetracked with playing PS3 that I forgot to look for a job. Silly, don’t you think? I was actually reminded by a friend that I’m jobless and I needed to find work. I guess I got used to having my older siblings take care of all the household and food expenses all these months I’m out of work that I’ve pretty much become complacent. I know it’s unbecoming and to some degree shameful. I’m just really lucky to be the youngest in my brood and to have older siblings to depend on (and extort money from).

How I read ebooks. Feeling Ipad?

Recently, I happened to finish a novel by Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood) which sparked my interest in reading books again. I've downloaded pdf copies of his essays and some of his books and have been reading them on my netbook. This sudden interest in reading ebooks made me want a decent reader so I won't have to tilt my netbook screen vertically when I'm reading. I know it's weird, but I realize that when I read like that, it's much more engaging since the book page I'm on is displayed beautifully in one piece with decent font size for me not to squint much. And I don't have to scroll down as much since it fits the whole page nicely on my screen. I thought of looking for decent ebook readers online and found that the Amazon Kindle is pretty nifty and pretty much cheap (less than ten thousand pesos). So I decided that I have enough bumming around and I need to look for work as soon as possible so I can buy a Kindle for myself. What a shallow motivation, haha.

Anyway, I answered an ad for an email-chat support for a company based in MOA. I know it’s so far from where I am and the company where I used to work for was only half-an-hour away from our house. But I figured that if I’m serious on landing a non-voice account, I have to suck up the fact that I have to find work somewhere far. And I figured that I can always stay at my brother’s apartment in Valenzuela which would significantly reduce the travel time. The job application process was smoother than most I’ve gone to in the past. For one, there were only a handful of applicants when I got there (less than 20 during the peak hours) and most of them were applying for the voice accounts. There were only four steps I have to go through - a technical writing exam, initial interview, another English exam and a final interview. The exams were easy, the only hard part I guess were the parts where they asked us to compose letters, but that too was an easy task for me. Not to sound arrogant, but I really find writing (when properly motivated) very easy and I had much practice writing reconsideration letters back in college.  Even the interview came easy, maybe because I left out my previous job from my resume. I haven’t processed my clearance from my previous company (nor do I have any intentions of processing it, for personal reasons) and that sort of became a problem with my last interview. Learning my lesson well from that ordeal, I opted to leave it out and list my first company as my only work experience the next time I look for a job. The only problem with it was coming up with a good excuse to tell people what I’ve been doing since July of 2009, as it lists as my last work date. But I’ve managed to come up with a plausible story and the interviewers sort of bought it. Even before taking the last set of exams, I was told by the proctor that  I would come back later that evening for my final interview. Then came the final exams for grammar and comprehension, which in hindsight, was sort of pointless for me to take seeing as I was told that I was already up for the final interview with the Operations Manager. But who was I to complain, right?

What my final interviewer looked like
(image courtesy of  wn.com)

I came back later that evening to be interviewed by a statuesque woman, about my height. She kind of reminded me of Venus Raj, the way she smiled and projected herself was somehow reminiscent of a contestant in a beauty pageant. The only thing missing was her sash and her jaded "world peace" smirk. Mind you, she was very pretty. While she was conducting the interview, I couldn't help but be reminded of  the said titleholder because of her accent and the way she spoke. I’m not saying I speak perfect American English and I am in no way saying that her English was bad. It’s just there is something in her accent and her enunciation, I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to put your finger in it.. Anyway, her questions were very easy to answer and she didn’t pry much on my previous work life, so that’s good. This woman, statuesque and curvy (she really looked like a pageant contestant) was wearing a flowy, burgundy red, floral V-neck dress which showcased her curves in a nice way. So after the interview ( and I made sure to do this after my interview as I didn’t want to compromise my chances) and being the type of guy I am, I said to her, “My that’s a very very lovely red!” She blushed and smiled and gave me a seemingly genuine thank you. To avoid the risk of sounding sleazy, I smilingly said my disclaimer “I should know, I’m gay” and she burst out laughing and thanked me for paying her a compliment.

The day after the interview, I received an SMS notification from one of their HR personnel that I passed the final interview with the operations manager, so now I’m just waiting for their job offer. It’s been a week since but I was given the timeframe to wait for their call this week as they are still screening other applicants. After I told my brother about my interview experience and the name of the company, he blurted out that it is where his girlfriend used to work so I asked her about her experience with the company. To my dismay, all I heard were disappointing feedback. Nevertheless, I promise to not lose hope until I see the actual contract. I really wish that the salary package and the benefits are OK. Seeing as it is a non-voice account, I’m anticipating it would be much lower than what I used to earn. I really need to save up since I’m also dead set on enrolling this coming second term and get my degree.

I can't wait for my new beginnings to start happening, but for now I guess all I can do is wait.