Camsdcute’s Lair

Archive for February, 2009

Nowadays, the problem is no longer the lack of manpower. As they say it, the faucets are working, but the well is dry.

I just read an article about HP’s plan to cut the base pay of employees by 2.5-20% instead of laying off people due to the crisis. An article related to this is in Yugatech.com, and a copy of HP’s CEO Mark Hurd letter to the employees is published in another blog – AllThingsD. I thought this letter is supposed to be confidential.

This broadcast was delivered just a few months after the HP’s ‘no annual salary increase’ announcement was released late last year. This is like having a rollback of your salary two years ago.

Marlon’s younger brother Ron is just a few months from entering the university.  He wants to pursue IT, same course as his big fat brother, but still has doubts because he’s not sure of what kind of work he wants to take in the future. I recalled we had the same dilemma when we were young. I must admit that I enjoyed taking aptitude tests which will let you discover what area you’re best at and what related courses are fitting for you. We also attended career talks mostly arranged by our school and every type of career seems very promising and at the same time interesting. It will still be difficult to choose. One of the speakers even suggested that if you can’t make up your mind, just take any course because you won’t even know what path you’ll end up after graduating.

In his talk, he mentioned that he knew some licensed engineers, but turned to be successful entrepreneurs instead.  They engaged in different businesses like real estate, retail & wholesale of everything from produces to apparels.  Others operate business like auto shops with car lifts and special equipments and accessories. You never really know, and maybe you’ll just end up as a housewife or a house-band or be a Hollywood star as celebrated as Paris Hilton.

Two weeks ago, we had a dinner at Il Pirata in Eastwood. It’s our fourth time to dine there and I really liked the food. I love Filleto Alla Griglia Gorgonzola (Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce served with baked potato or fries) but we decided to try something else. We ordered Penne Alla Matriciana, Pizze Morgan and Filleto De Pollo Gratinato (Baked Chicken Breast Fillet topped with vegetables & Mozarella Cheese).

This time was different because a group of musicians were serenading the customers in each table. I thought that wasn’t a good idea, but when they started to play, we were really impressed. At first I thought it was only a recording. They asked what songs we like. We don’t have anything in mind so we just chose from what they offered – ‘Til There Was You’ and ‘Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko’. Marlon even joked that he should have worn one of his silk ties to match the ambience.

I was browsing the net and came across an article about a road accident. The injured victims needed the assistance of legal representative, like a Lexington personal injury lawyer, to help them get justice and the right compensation. This is a common in practice in most countries.

Speaking of road accidents, last weekend, we were riding a cab home from Makati. We were a bit tired, that’s why we somewhat fell asleep along the way. When we reached the highway, Marlon noticed that our taxi was trying to change lane when in fact there’s no car in front of us. That’s strange because we could have accelerated straight ahead. Speeding vehicles on the other lanes are beeping their horns as if saying “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Marlon got my attention, and that point, I was looking at the driver through the mirror. I was surprised to see that the driver was hardly opening his eyes! We quickly woke him up because we still want to live. We could have been injured or worse, dead. Thank God, we reached home safely. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t mad at the driver since he’s an old man and I understand that he’s tired.

I need to backup my personal files and borrowed Marlon’s external hard drive.  I estimate that I’ll need around 20GB.  Unfortunately, there’s not enough space for me.  He’s pressuring me to buy my own, but I’m really not really into computers or gadgets.  And I consider it a waste of money. He said that there’s a place where people buy memory, flash disks, cd/dvd burners, hard drives and other computer parts – all at a cheaper price.  I really don’t have any intentions of buying.  We ended up writing his files in DVDs, just to provide space for my files.

Since the day we bought a DSLR camera, we have compiled a bunch of pictures. I want to display some of them in my room but I can’t imagine having more than 20 picture frames. The solution I found is to display them using a digital frame. The advantage of doing so is that you have the choice of displaying the pictures that you want in a single frame. Actually, more and more companies manufacture this. I just saw one from a Sony shop.

I’m currently fascinated about interior designing. I bought some magazines with topics on space savers. It gives me ideas on how to design your place even if you’re tight on space.

Shopwise just offered discounts on some of its furniture like office and computer tables, bookshelves, tv stands, and cabinets. We bought two small shelves. It’s just a simple 3-layered shelf in blue. Too bad we don’t have a selection of colors; otherwise I would have bought a yellow one (my favorite color). The promo is buy-one-take-one, so I would say that we had a good deal. There are other items on sale but we don’t have the space for that yet. Our next target is an office table and a flat screen TV.

Last weekend, my manager’s baby Kelsey Elise just turned one year old. I’m invited to the party at Fun Ranch in Tiendesitas, but unfortunately, I was not able to attend because I had something to do on that day. My officemate Dennis, with his wife and son Matthew came to the party. The party was fun and there were lots of visitors. I think the theme is ‘Barn Animals’.

I just promised to give Kelsey a gift when we meet in the office.

I really enjoy looking for a gift for someone. On that day, we went to Glorietta and SM Makati. We came across different gift items for all ages like dolls, stuffed toys, talking watches, pillows, action figures, clothes and a lot more. At one point, I was thinking of buying some items for my family, but was reminded of our purpose. So we went straight to the kid’s section. I just hope she’ll like it. I’m going to give this on Thursday. Happy birthday Kelsey :)

A lot of people are jumping into the make money online craze to generate extra income. There really are ways to do so as claimed by successful internet personalities. I’m not a guru in this field (and I don’t have any plans), but based on my readings, one way to do so is to get more traffic and convert them into sales. This process is what they call as conversion rate optimization. If you are interested in this topic, just download an excerpt of the book here. There are other sites that offer free tips, so you just have to look around.

The popular Board Game “Cashflow” by Robert Kiyosaki is being sponsored by PMT (Pinoy Money Talk) on February 21, 2009. This is open to all interested participants. Although this is free, you should register early because slots are limited. Go to this link if you want to register.

I remembered that I’ve looked for this board game in Hobbes and Landes shop but it is out of stock and it is P15,000.00 (way out of my budget). I’d rather buy a few Swatch watches with that. At least, the watch is something  I can use. If ever I want to play Cashflow, I’ll ask for assistance from somebody else who has.