100 Things About Me

Today I got to be a thief. Grace Vertulfo my friend in my friendster network posted a bulletin that lists the 100 things that describe her and I decided to repost this to my site so I’m stealing. So here are 100 useless facts about me:

1. My name in my birth certificate and my baptismal certificate are different.
But I followed what was indicated in my birth certificate.
2. I am the second oldest for a brood of four. 3 girls and 1 boy.
3. I was born and grew up in a small barrio in Bicol and graduated from high
school in my native town.
4. I come from a family with asthma history.
5. I have a big crush with my high school classmate.
6. I almost died of dog bite when I was 8. I was not able to walk for a couple
of days. My Auntie and my Mom would carry me in going to the doctor for
rabies shots.
7. I was the youngest SK councilor back then.
8. I graduated on top of class in high school.
9. I experienced being courted @ age 14 by a guy 10 years my senior. I was so
young and inexperienced that my cousin and I just accepted and ate
chocolates he sent.
10. I got to join declamation and oratorical contest in my elementary days.
11. I joined stage play in high school and my Mom had sewn my costume only to
found out that I will be just sleeping in the entire play as I was dreaming
that I went to the Fairy Land.
12. My favorite food is pasta.
13. I am a small town girl. I miss my hometown but I would have loved to live in
a country with winter as summer aggravates my skin allergies.
14. I love to write letters and send everyday greeting cards when I am in love.
15. I don’t like foods with strong odor.
16. I hate liver spread and peanut butter.
17. Peanuts give me allergies and stomach upset.
18. Beef makes me nauseated because of its strong odor.
19. I don’t like durian.
20. I have ulcer, although I wouldn’t consider it “suffering.”
21. I have sensitive skin. I got a lot of skin allergies.
22. I do not like horror movies.
23. I avoid eating seafood it makes me itchy.
24. I am easily annoyed by stupidity.
25. I have a good memory.
26. I am extremely impatient.
27. I don’t take life too seriously. I like to laugh a lot.
28. I like to read legal thriller stories.
29. My favorite color is blue. I also like red, plum, rose and black. My least
favorite colors are orange and bright yellow.
30. I am often lost in my thoughts. I am always thinking.
31. I have suffered from dysmenorrhea at different times in my life. Now is one
of those times.
32. The smell of gasoline makes me nauseous.
33. I can’t stand noise.
34. I am claustrophobic.
35. I am afraid of losing hair. As our family from my father side has history
of baldness. I can’t imagine myself being bald later.
36. My hair is wavy, and does have curls.
37. I can’t sleep when lights are open.
38. I hate to be tickled.
39. I got a big crush with my law professor that I enrolled in all the subjects he
handled even not for sophomore like me. I am tongue-tied with him that I always
forgot all the provisions I read the previous night.
40. I hate my hair.
41. I got my MBA degree in 1998.
42. I am nerd and weird and that I attended my ex wedding but I did not finish the
ceremony for I was hurting already.
43. I love sunset view.
44. I hate drawing attention to myself.
45. I am embarrassed by praise.
46. I can’t sing and I can’t dance either.
47. I love tender care soap, lotion and suman (made of glutinous rice with
coconut milk and sugar).
48. I like to watch foreign films.
49. I don’t like Danielle Steel ‘s books.
50. I like to watch fashion shows on TV.
51. I am fondly called Ning by my parents and younger siblings. But my eldest
sister and my other relatives calls me "Boy" not because I am a boy in a girl's
dress but it's my suitor's (when I was 14) nickname.
52. I have heavy menstrual period that my CBC falls after my period ends.
53. I am a night owl.
54. I am easily bored.
55. I like to read books in my free time.
56. I don’t eat breakfast.
57. I rarely go out to eat.
58. I am lazy I think.
59. I am a person who does not know how to show affection.
60. I hate circus and amusement rides.
61. I prefer to receive handwritten love letters. With the onset of everything
done electronically handwritten love letters makes me feel important.
62. I think I am good with creative solutions to problems.
63. I am free spirited and pleasure driven.
64. I am a John Grisham avid buff.
65. I hate flowery scents. I do not wear perfume.
66. I like math and history.
67. I handle my finances well.
68. I like yoga.
69. I love to cook.
70. I am always in blouse and skirt on weekdays.
71. I am petrified of snakes and cockroach.
72. I don’t have any rubber shoes.
73. I didn’t get to wear pants during my school days. It was in our company
Christmas party that I wore pants for the first time (1995 I guess).
74. I like to get dressed up.
75. I seldom wear pants except on weekends.
76. I love outdoors and adventures.
77. I am petite.
78. I wear size 5 shoes.
79. I love spa treatment.
80. People tell me I look like my mother.
81. I love Boracay beaches.
82. I only have small circle of friends.
83. I used to be an Auditor.
84. I tried attending other religious rites.
85. I love my Canon Powershot camera.
86. My favorite foreign actor is Brad Pitt.
87. I inherited mostly my Mom’s features.
88. I was stubborn as a child and to being rebellious at some point in my life. I
resisted my parent’s strictness.
89. I can’t relax in a messy house.
90. I love skyflakes. You’ll never see my box empty of skyflakes.
91. I love good grammar and sentence structure.
92. I wish I spoke better English.
93. I love Christmas holidays.
94. I love cold months and winter wind. It does not make me itchy.
95. I am easily irritable.
96. I hate it when people see me cry. I don’t do it that often.
97. My favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate.
98. I love cinnamon.
99. I hate politicking and blame shifting.
100. I have lived in Manila for 18 years already.

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Naproxen

Today, I am anticipating my meeting with Ms. Amie and The SAP Team. I have set the schedule @ 2:30 PM @ the 9th Floor Conference Room. We will discuss plans on how are we going conduct our asset inventory in line with the SAP Asset Accounting implementation by the second quarter of the year. As you all know in my previous post I have been working with this project for a couple of months already and I am done with the draft of the documentation last week. I got the approval to finalize the documentation yesterday and now am working out with this in time for my meeting this afternoon. I think about this project when I went home last night and made some plans in my mind @ home on how am going to make the presentation. I wrote some important scenario in my journal before going to bed to remind me of this during the meeting. However, when I wake up this morning I felt not interested of going to work. I just wanted to lie in my bedroom the whole day but because of the scheduled meeting I opted to get up and prepared to report to work. I am having menstrual cramp when I woke up and before I realized it I have my period. I don’t know if this has something to do with the stress and tension I got the past weeks in preparation for my departure here. I had my period earlier than expected and am uncomfortable of the pain I have right now. I felt my head is about to burst plus the fact that I am apprehensive about the outcome of our meeting this afternoon is something I can’t bear right now. I have had incidence of dysmenorrhea in my early teens but it stops when I was in my late twenties. However, lately I had experienced increase in menstrual pain again. The cramping will usually begin before the start of bleeding and continue for another 2 or 3 days. I took naproxen (Flanax) as I have been taking this drugs in my younger days and it prove to be effective in the treatment of my dysmenorrhea however, when I took the said medicine this morning I got stomach upset and I felt like nauseated. I went to seek medical advice last month and my attending physician told me that my dysmenorrhea was a result of me being nulliparity (having never given birth) since I am neither a smoker or obese. I was advised to take oral contraceptives to reduce menstrual flow and inhibit ovulation or get married the soonest :) :).

Is it just I, or there are other people who was given medication to take oral contraceptive to improve primary dysmenorrhea? I was hesitant of course to heed her advice knowing that I will be taking oral contraceptives for 3 months. I told my doctor to give me sometime to think about this. It’s not that I don’t want to address my dysmenorrhea it’s just that I thought of this as therapy for women seeking contraception. Besides I am single and it never enters my mind me going to Mercury Drug to buy pills :) :). My attending physician said that oral contraceptives are also used for therapy and are 90% effective in improving primary dysmenorrhea because pills works in reducing menstrual blood volume and suppresses ovulation. Since I still have to find my match, getting married was eliminated and my choices was left to oral contraceptive. But to date I am still undecided about the medication, besides, girls only have period once a month. And dysmenorrhea is not an everyday issue that I have to deal with. One thing for sure I will deal with the second option the soonest :) :). The next time you login to my site you will read my profile as "Marriage Contract Under Negotiation". :) :0)

Cheers....

Have a nice day to everyone!!!

Brown Is A Color Too

Monday here in the Philippines is the start of the week for all office workers and employees’ alike. I left my house early this morning anticipating traffic on my way to the office though I am still in a weekend mode. Ever feel like you were still in a weekend mode on a Monday morning? Well, I feel like that today. I feel like I want to stay in bed the whole day. I may not be in the mood to work but I have no other option but to finish my pending turn over to our SAP Team. I suspect my laziness was due to my muscle pain. I feel my bones are not connected to each other maybe because I done my laundry almost the whole day yesterday. I started around 7:00 AM yesterday and finished after around 4 hours of continuous hand washing. My laundry filed up the whole week for I had no time to wash my laundry on weekdays this did not include bed sheet, linen, towel, and pants for I am worried these are heavy for me and maybe a laundry shop can do this for me. I am afraid hand washing heavy laundry may just add-up to my muscle pain later. I used to bring all my laundry to a laundry shop however, lately I took notice that my office suits were worn out easily maybe because laundry shop uses industrial washing machine in washing clothes. I took a rest for two hours after I am done with my laundry so I will be able to regain energy for my next chore, which was to clean my room and throw unnecessary stuff that accumulated the past months. I sold my old newspapers and empty PET bottles and throw my worn out shoes and slippers. I took a nap afterwards to rest my muscle and be ready for my next activity which was to take a bath so I will be able to go on malling in the afternoon. I went to SM Megamall and bought myself new shoes and under garments. I scourge footwear store for any shoes that would fit mine for my shoe size is quite extra-ordinary :). I really like the shoes I saw @ Nine West however, this did not fit my feet. It’s too big and besides I only wear size 5 for mules and 5.5 for rubber shoes. Wanting to buy one for me I went from one store to another and found one @ Otto outlet. It’s comfy with open toe and heels with two vertical straps. I bought brown though I was looking for color black @ first. I am wearing the shoes today paired with my beige blouse and skirt with slit on both sides and brown bag. My skirt is darker than that of my blouse.

I am always conservative in choosing colors from bags, to shoes and dress. You will always see me in black shoes with stockings everyday. I never experimented wearing any color ever since not because I don’t like other colors but because I felt it’s more practical to buy black shoes. Black shoes are not difficult to match with any attire in any occasion. The only time I wore different color was when I was the sponsor to my classmate wedding but I passed on my shoes to my cousin after the wedding. However when I arrived this morning my officemates were amazed to see me in brown. And immediately I asked them if I look nice in brown too :). And they said color is not the issue and that it depends on how I match this with my attire :).

Maybe the next time I’ll buy shoes I will now scout for other colors that will match on my dress and will no longer stick to black. I am so used to black shoes that I forgot that there are so many colors available to choose from. Back then the only color I know when I am looking for shoes was black.

Have a nice Monday to everyone!!!

Relax and Enjoy Your Weekend

It’s Saturday and instead of something serious it’s time for fun and relaxation. I am here in the office right now though :). Today is a working Saturday for us here at the office. We have an extended working hour to compensate for our every other Saturday work schedule. On a working Saturday our schedule was set @ 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM. My officemate Sofi and I will be going to SM Manila to scout for Accounting Books which, she can use as reference for her personal business Accounting. We had been planning to drop by SM early last week but because we were somewhat busy we haven’t have the chance to go there. She did not report to work today but we will meet after office to proceed with our long overdue plan. I don’t know yet about our program today but for sure we will be eating out again. We shared the same passion for travel that’s why we became close. Early on we were just a familiar faces that we bumped into each other during the meeting. We became close late last year when we transferred office to the same floor as theirs. We would have our lunch together at our pantry or lunch out at any fast food joints outside the office. We went to Subic together with her daughter Ella (such an adorable kid) in tow and two of our officemates. She was one of my few officemates I shared secrets be it personal or work related issues. I would usually dropped by her office when am frustrated about some issues here. She was the first one I shared about my application to the new company I will transfer to.

Since its weekend today for sure we will scourge SM of any bargains and discounted sale. I will be going down @ exactly one o’clock to catch her at our meeting place. Probably we will scout for any new movie once we are @ the mall anyway tomorrow (Sunday) is a rest day for all working class. I brought with me my Canon Powershot A640 this morning so we can capture our great moments at the mall :). This would be another photo shoot again just like when we gone to Manila Hotel last weekend. We took pictures of everything in the hotel, which I posted in this site too. I really adored her daughter Ella that’s why I posted most of my photos with her. I got a lot of inquiries from my acquaintances before asking me if I got married already. They mistook Ella as my daughter. She such a smart and stunner to be my daughter but I would have love to if its’ true. I am close to her that every time we went out she will always be with us. I know Sofi’s entire friend adored her too.

So for all those people out there with dirty minds who tend to be always on the look out for fresh information of other peoples’ lives Ella is not my daughter. If indeed she is my daughter I assure you all I will acknowledge her. After all having a child is a blessing from God so why do I have to hide this?

I don’t owe anyone an explanation. I know myself more than they know.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!!

Catching Up

Where did my whole week go? The days has passed so fast that before I took notice its weekend again. February is almost over and I am excited and anxious at the same time about my entry to my new company. I am catching up with my projects here so I will be able to finish all of this before my departure. For the past two weeks I busied myself trying to finish my assignment from our Accounting Manager. When we had a meeting last week, we discussed issues on our Fixed Assets Internal Control. This was the project left when our point person resigned from the company last year. Since there was no other person left to handle the issues I was left with no other option but to handle the SAP FICO problems. Yesterday I had presented the Fixed Assets Blue Print and Internal Control Policy that I have been doing the past weeks to the team. I will be having a meeting with our Accounting Manager today to discuss other implementation concerns. I just hope and pray that there are no other issues I overlook when I was preparing the Blue Print and the Internal Control Policy. I am running out of time to edit and run through with the said issues as I am scheduled to leave by March 10. My new company is expecting me to join them supposed to be March 1, as I have to attend series of trainings and 2 days orientation prior to my deployment to our clients. However, my current employer will not allow me to leave the company end of this month I still have to wait for the feedback from our Consultant on the Blue Print and Internal Control Policy once we submitted this to them. I gone to my new company last Wednesday to pick-up my pre-employment requirements and I found out that their policy for new hires is to start only on the 1st and 16th of the month to synchronize this with the payroll cut-off. Having this known from the HR I have no other option but to choose to report on March 16. I have yet to inform my superior about the change of my start date. But I will still observe the thirty (30) days transition period and my last day will be definite on March 10. I still have a lot of issues to attend to prior to joining my new company. There’s got a lot of requirements that I have to process after my departure here. My new company will be expecting the documents to be submitted to them a week before my start date. I am a little bit edgy this time. I am thinking about my transfer while I still have to look for person whom I can turn over and leave my ongoing work for continuity. The Management has yet to find suitable replacement from the existing employees’ to handle FICO issues once I go out of the company. I made them aware that I love my job here but maybe I should like to think that I was here for the right reason but at the wrong time. Anyway I made them aware of my plans and my intention why I have to leave the company. Our COO and I have a good talk when I told him about my intention to leave the company. He knows the real reason for me wanting to transfer to my new company. I laid down my cards to him when I asked for an audience from him to discuss about my resignation. I know that I’ve been honest to him from the start and I can say that I was able to gain his trust and confidence. For this I am very grateful to them. The Management has been supportive of me. And I emphasized with them that am thankful too for the exposure and experience that I gained during my stay with them. I learned the SAP process with them too.

The day is about to end but I am still trying to catch up with my other projects for our Tuesday meeting February 27, 2007. Our Accounting Manager will be discussing with the team on how we will go about with the implementation.

Blogging is my way out to a stressful day. :)

Happy weekend to everyone!!!

My Curiculum Vitae

I’ve been writing my own blog for almost a year now. But before this, I didn’t want to blog about me because I thought before that blogging is full of crap however, here I am writing about myself for the whole world to know more about me. So here goes my profile.

Before me getting into IT I was a Unit Controller for 8 years for a medium and large domestic company. I got my first job when I finished my second year college studies. I started as an Audit Staff cum Accounting Staff for a small group of Accounting people. The company I worked with was the exclusive distributor of a multinational consumer company with interest in real estate, trading, importation and supermarket too. I was assigned at the Supermarket Division at first before I was transferred to head the Distribution Division a year after my graduation. With the new assignment I was exposed to deal with the principal’s Executive Officer to the Vice President and Foreign Visitors. I was able to build a strong ties with the principal in whom I was more than identified with our company rather than that of our General Manager. I was given a free hand and the full authority to run the business, which made my fellow officemates envious of my position. To prove them my worth I decided to take up MBA to equip myself with enough knowledge on how am going to run through with my difficult and bit stressful position. Handling the said position has helped me develop my character and made me stronger to hurdle difficult issues that came my way later. I stayed with the company for 8 years prior to joining a much bigger diversified group of companies. I was then hired as Unit Controller to head the Retail Division. We have stores at major shopping malls at the Metropolis. With them I was exposed not just with the controllership side but operations as well. I dealt with a lot of control issues when I assumed office ranging from inventory variances, accounts receivables from banking institution not reconciled for a couple of years already to erring employees and low business volumes and margin issues too. I was assigned at a non-performing branch at first. I nearly gave-up for the problems I inherited was overwhelming. Thanks to my ever-supportive Director who guide me through. My counterpart at the operations side and I were given a target to make the non-performing branch afloat at the end of the year. I joined the company second quarter of the year. I spend a sleepless nights for a week drawing up plans to re-engineer the branches. True enough we were able to make the non-performing branch earned a little amount of profit at the end of the year, which made the Group Management decide to open more branches the following year. I left the company to search for better career opportunities outside and I joined a manufacturing firm later. With the new post I was assigned to handle the Audit Division. I was assigned to be the important point person in the implementation of our ERP software. I was new to this field but this did not hinder me to handle the job. I learned the ropes through hard work. To cope up with the demands of the new job I’ve made a lot of effort to study the process and read tons of Internet reading articles about Change Management and Systems Integration. I was reporting to our Executive Assistant to the President, he wanted me to fast track the implementation. I get along with him very well though. I left the company when I acquired a lot of skin allergies due to too much exposure to harsh toxic chemicals used in any electronics manufacturing. I suspected that my allergies were the result of my stay in our plant warehouse for four (4) months. When I joined the company they were having a problems of short materials and unplanned parts needed in the production area. To make the long story short I submitted Audit recommendation outlining the need to reconcile our inventory to address issues of unplanned parts. My controllership experiences from my previous employers helped me in handling the difficult issues of Change Management and employee resistance to new policies being implemented. After I ended my employment with them I joined my current employer (a retail company) where I will be leaving too to join a more structured and multinational company by next month. I was hired as Purchasing Auditor at first and was assigned to check on Purchasing Systems Process and System Integration with our SAP System. When I handle my stressful position I make use of my knowledge in systems integration from my implementation experience at my former employer. When I assumed the position the implementation has gone live for more than six (6) months. I found out when I made the Audit that the implementation was done in less than 2 months after the acquisition of the software without any integration analysis conducted. You could just imagine how my teammates reacted to my report that the implementation was done not based on the best practices. As a result of the series of reports that I submitted our COO decided that I be transferred to be part of the implementation team. My first assignment was to configure the Inventory Management and address the additional movement type with GL integration issues too. Though I was able to handle the configuration but since I didn’t have any formal SAP training I did what was right for me to do, to read tons of manuals again. Maybe God has been so good to me that he was always there for me to give guidance on how am going to handle the issues at hand. I know there are times I lost focus, which else did not. It sometimes got into my mind that sometimes add up to my frustrations but I am aware I accepted the job, so it’s but only proper from the Management to expect me to deliver results. Besides it’s what I am paid for.

When I was 16 I worked as Counter Checker and eventually Cashier at a Department Store in my native hometown. It was a good learning experience for me, I learned to value hard earned money and be contented of what I have. My eldest sister and I worked there during summer while other children our age in our neighborhood were either vacationing in Manila or enrolled in other summer classes we were working six (6) days a week the whole summer. Early on I really wanted to work and help my parents both ends meet.

In 1986 my family survived Mayon Eruption the worst eruption I ever experienced in my lifetime. We nearly lost our house and had experience difficulties, which made me realize now that this made me more than willing to work hard. I got to work at an early age to survive. While our neighbors flee to the evacuation center my family, my grand father and my other relatives went to our grand father’s rice fields’ house to escape the fury of Mayon volcano. The eruption lasted for almost a month, which devastated all our relatives’ crops and agricultural produce. We experience hunger, as there was no open store within the vicinity. You could only see ashes and people fleeing with small children in tow. These were like nightmares to all of us. After eruption there’s no one to turn to only yourselves and your family to work through.

I paid my undergraduate tuition fees by working at my Auntie’s dress shop as seamstress. I worked at daytime and studied at night. I was a Dean’s Lister for two years that made me got some discounts for my tuition. During my college studies I never had the chance to visit my hometown for lack of money to support my journey home. I just went on to think that when the times come that I have enough money I would go home for a vacation. Looking back made me realize that hard work pays it may not be that much but this helped me went through to getting into my dreams. You just have to develop enough patience to reap the fruits of your labor later.

Have a nice day to all !!!

Philippine's Historical Landmark

Flowers

Dragon Dance

Perfect Timing

I’ve had such a hectic week this week that I missed Valentine’s Day celebration.
I’ am trying to finish my business affairs with my current employer before my departure next week. I am busy trying to finish our Fixed Assets Accounting Internal Control Policy. I encountered difficulty preparing the manuals since I didn’t have any reference policy where I can refer. I’ve prepared the policy patterned after the SAP system flow and not after our company’s internal control. I am finished with the business flowchart last week and I am currently transcribing this to a text policy. I still have to revise other policies after I presented the draft to our Accounting Manager and COO to fit these to our company’s structure and culture.

As some of you already know, I am going through some major changes in my career. Friday next week will be my last day working in the office with people I’ve been working with over a year now, I will be moving to a completely separate assignment in a completely different office.

Because the new position will be in business process review and system integration under the global services this will require a great amount of discipline and focus. Luckily I have more than 8 years background in Finance and Business Integration from my previous employers. I will be assigned doing SAP support for our global client. My would be superior said that I will be working with a team of SAP Consultants for the company’s global client in the manufacturing industry. This would be my first exposure in the global services. Prior to joining this company I was exposed to SAP configuration from my previous employer. Though I did not attend formal SAP certification training from SAP academy I was able to handle the configuration issues. I brought home all the SAP manuals available and register myself to all SAP online forums to get in touch with the industry expert. True enough I was able to configure Accounts Payable and Cash Management.

I know my first week will be tough and will require a great amount of my time especially in the beginning. For now my photography and my weekly gym regimen will be put on hold so I can figure out how to include them into my new schedule. Now that I am finished with my MBA studies and my commitments and obligations to others are at a minimum, both 100% focus and 100% dedication are possible. Again … perfect timing.

Maan's Farewell Party