the boredom of ramfree17

I like freebies may it be useful or a one-time quirky curiosity thing. I admittedly have a weird standard on what counts as curious which sometimes explain the amount of trash in my storage spaces. My wife calls them junk, I call them as my collection of “probably usefuls”.

I also have this limit on what I would like to get. To the probable disbelief of those who know me, I can say no to a freebie especially if it fails to rouse my interest. One such thing is the freebie that the company hyped and gave its employees: a dog tag.

Not the actual dogtag freebie

Yes, a dog tag. And no ordinary dog tag like what is in the image above. The dog tag is engraved with a list of qualities that the company wants everybody to be governed with in their everyday life; to breathe and live so to speak. The thought is sweet but I wonder what kind of crack is being smoked by the person who conceived this “promotion.” This is for the same company who revamped the design of its electronic badges because it doesn’t want the badges to have a distinct link to the company as a form of security against lost and forged badges.

The day they sent out the invite, Mike and the others in the Bench project was asking if I was going to get my dog tag. I gave them a big “HELL NO!” for the simple reason that I don’t see any practical nor interesting use for it. I like war video games like the Medal of Honor series which revolves about war campaigns but I am not fanatical enough to consider dog tags as a cool accessory. I also don’t have any dog that I can attach the tag. I am also trying to minimize the weight of my electronic badge since its weight alone is already noticeable. I gave a tongue-in-cheek retort that maybe we can collect all the dog tags in the project team and sell them in the junkyard for twenty pesos and buy ourselves two sticks of banana-que. Nope, I am not going to go into long queues to redeem that.

Early last week a company memo was sent to the email system which made me drop my jaws with laughter. The memo was warning against selling the tags and giving them away to non-company employed persons (e.g., friends, family, etc.). Much as I find it funny that somebody had the cajones to actually sell the tags, it kills me to think that somebody actually bought the craptag. /lol

And then here is the final kicker: I was told that the tags, like the electronic badges, should not be displayed when outside the company premises as they provide a direct link to the company. They should be hidden when going outside.

Yeah right, like I would go through the hassle of queuing for the tags, weighing down my e-badge, and then remind myself to keep it hidden from plain sight. I wonder if the organizers of that promotion really believed that people would wear them in company premises willingly. I can’t figure out any reason though but there must be something out there even if they are beyond normal reasoning.

Maybe they should have given out board magnets. Or maybe paper weights. Or maybe something useful like a shirt, notebook or bookmarks.

[update] Curiously enough, another memo is sent out regarding this illustrious freebie. It seems the voice of the disgruntled is strong. The memo clarifies that the dogtag can be worn outside office premises but should be on a separate chain than the e-badge. The rationale is that the dogtag, which displays the company name, will link the e-badge back to the company if it gets lost. That makes sense, sort of. The wife makes a strong argument against that logic: but WE KNOW that badge is from your company. Apparently taking out the company name and colors from the badge will prevent outsiders from putting two and two together and arrive at the conclusion that persons wearing badges coming out of offices with big company logo is not affiliated with the company. Yeah, that makes absolute perfect sense. In the ideal world, everybody hides the badge every time they go out.

Oh, I got a deed here for the Guadalupe bridge for anybody willing to buy it. I am selling it cheap.

ciao!

Tags: Garbage, Work by Erin
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Nazistic proxy love that is.

For the first time in 5 years in the company I finally experienced being ‘benched’. That is the local term for any resources who are in-between projects. After going through several mind-benders, I figured this is a welcome opportunity to get some training done.

I have two options, either go for the trainings in the company online learning repository or pursue more job-directed tutorials that proliferate the net. In my perspective the second option means a wealth of information right in my fingertips as soon as I get clearance from my superiors that I can do so. First I have to make sure that I have completed all of those mandatory trainings. Ok, fair enough. I even tried taking some of the available CBTs to (in the words of my counselors) “round-up my non-technical skills.” Being a geek by nature, I can describe those trainings in two words: boring and under-estimated. Boring does not need further explanation and yes I already sent the proper feedback. Under-estimated means that the allocated time to complete each course is severely underestimated. My impression is that whoever timed these courses have used people gifted with super-human reading and compression skills. For the rest of us, good luck in finishing the courses in the allocated time. Think about what you can remember on the course on your way home.

After the non-technical traiing torture has ended, I set my sights on these cool Java frameworks and technologies that I kept promising myself that I would get an overview. I am talking hibernate, spring, struts, aspect oriented programming, design patters, eclipse framework, and what have you. The mere thought makes me salivate.

First in line is the spring framework as this is being touted as the emerging de facto standard for J2EE development. The spring home site has a nifty tutorial that is easy to follow. Since the tutorial uses Apache Tomcat for deployment and testing and I am using Eclipse as my IDE, it makes logical sense to install an Eclipse plug-in to manage the Tomcat start/stop process. That is the goal of IDEs in the first place: so you have a one-stop shop for all your development needs.

Ok, now to put the good idea in practice: Fire up google, search for “best eclipse tomcat plugin”. What do you know, the first few hits lists the eclipse plug-in central site. The cherry is that you can sort based on rating and the best one is the sysdeo plugin which I remember using eons ago. This is where the love entered the scene: clicking the plug-in homepage returns a proxy blocked page because it is classified under “Freeware and Software Download”. Very nice. /roll-eyes

And now in order to use this “should-have-been-a-great-idea” I need to secure a manager’s approval, hunt down whoever is managing the elusive Websense white-list, make the actual appeal, probably need to secure a local security exception for something that common sense should dictate as something useful, which in turn would probably result to securing a global exception, and then doing the whole red-tape-esque dance of e-paper processing. Assuming my request gets approved I guess my grandchildren who would be in the company by then be able to use an Eclipse Tomcat plug-in if I am careful enough to word it that the request is not version-constrained.

Or I can circumvent the process by downloading the plugin from outside the external network and then send it in.

Or revert to using one command terminal to start tomcat, and then my IDE for development.

Guess which one won? Yay for progress and efficieny. CLI rules.

ciao!

Tags: Garbage, Work by Erin
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The good thing about being part of a large company is that you usually get more than one Christmas party. There usually is a company-level party, sometimes there is another for the department level, then there is the project level party that is mandatory to hold. Sometimes members of the various teams conduct an unofficial celebration.

On December 12, the onsite TopD team had a project celebration as it’s monthly social event (aka team building). The party was held at a Thai restaurant named Kinkin. The celebration coincides with the Client’s own Christmas celebration so we were able to go home early (if you can say that 6PM is still early).

After arriving in the place, the seating arrangement was already decided by the social committee. They distributed the pinoys to 2-3 per table, I guess in line with the maximize the networking possibility. They know that Filipinos have a tendency to clump together.

I was seated in the farthermost table with Harold and Penpen. Harold had to leave for a while due to a prior church engagement but he was able to come back after 30 minutes. We barely finished the first course when arrived so he didn’t miss much. He started the ball rolling in heckling Nana though, which lasted through the night.

The food was very, uhhmm, presentable. Fine dining is intended for human interaction with food and wine as highlights. Unfortunately I have a very healthy appetite so I was skeptical on how my tummy will fare during the dinner. I think Girlie and Francis will skin me alive if I didn’t come so that also contributes a lot in the decision to go. One thing that is not lacking in the menu was the wine. Each course have its own accompanying wine but I can’t remember which ones were which since I know next to nothing when it comes to wines. All I know is that some of are really fancy sounding, and one even comes in an artistic vessel:

The menu we had was composed of the following (as I remember them):

For appetizers (aside from the assorted finger foods we found in the table that we had fun in christening weird names to Nana’s discomfort) we had fish balls, pork strips in skewers (barbecue?) and spring rolls dipped in spicy sauce.

Then came the soup which is clear soup stock with basil and other herbs that I didn’t catch. The servers gave us some chili oil to spice things up. Maybe it is because the stock, while aromatic, basically tastes like weakly flavored water?

Next came the first course which was served in a classic Danish-designed plate. The course was composed of chicken and seafood in green curry with fried beets on the side. The course was served with some scallops lightly seasoned with herbs, and some fried orchids.

I am so hungry that I was the first one to finish the plate. The orchid was alright although the small serving is not enough to allow me to really give a good judgment of how it tastes like. It helps in keeping my grumbling stomach at bay and that is enough for me. I think I am so hungry that I am seeing red when the meal comes with green curry. Checking the pictures restored some sanity as the curry is indeed red in color. Note to self, if I get hungry again I only need to pick some grass and put some herbs and vinaigrette on it.

After that course came something more substantial: braised pork on top of some swirls of fresh pumpkin brulee. It was accompanied with what is described as “pad thai that is missing the main ingredient which is the noodles.” Hmmn, this itself warrants a comment that I learned was the same across all tables. If a dish is missing its main ingredient, does it still have enough credibility to be called as the original dish?

Nice dish but this is also a runner-up for the Nicolas Cage movie: Gone in 60 seconds. :

Next came the piece d’ resistance of the whole dinner: duck on duck. The main dish is a lightly prepared duck in red curry served with fresh broccoli and jasmine rice. The dish is complimented by a spring-roll composed of a filling of duck leg marinated and spiced then left to ferment for four days, then enclosed in a freshly made rice wrapper. Yummy although the serving size still leaves something to be desired. Nana didn’t even touch her plate but I was beaten to the punch in asking for her plate.

The dessert actually came in waves. The first wave was a mango sorbet accented with a peach/passion jelly. This came with a “dessert wine” which I find very sour but the rest of the gang said that the wine was too sweet. I think I may have picked up the wrong glass.

After finishing the mango sorbet we were given some mint breath freshener which I thought ended the dinner but then they served us some baked coconut meat with salted ice cream. The last time I tasted salted ice cream was when the salt in the ice surrounding the sorbetes (or dirty ice cream in street parlance) gets accidentally sprinkled inside the container. The taste was uhm, interesting unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to take a snapshot.

During meal intervals the party committee had some intermission numbers consisting mainly of each table doing an interpretative rendition of some Christmas songs. Our table did the Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer song and we expected to land at the last place since we had a terrible presentation. It came out that having one of the judges hatching the idea (and probably going in last which means the judges have the most alcohol during our presentation) is enough to make us win the contest. I think another factor was that we have Harold in the team, and Harold effortlessly brings cheers and happy thoughts just by being Harold. Amazing!

The best surprise of all was when we opened the give-away. Harold was quipping that it is an iPod and we were surprised when it was indeed an iPod, specifically an iPod shuffle for each of us. Coolness factor x 10.

The party ended at around 12am and we were at the apartment at around 1am. I was already bone-tired but I was hungry so I ended up munching some crackers while being half-asleep. Social dinners are fine but I don’t think I will really enjoy one unless the multi-course menu have super sized portions.

Pictures of the event can be viewed here, hosted by Picasa of course.

ciao!

Tags: Top of my head, Work by Erin
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All of the onshore assignees were invited to the Corporate Christmas party which was held in a museum. The theme of the party was “Classic Christmas” with instructions that the theme is open for interpretation. We asked around and the consensus is that the acceptable outfit for “Classic Christmas” is anything except jeans. The pinoy contingent decided that suit and tie is the safe bet for men. Only Brian and Alvin will come without a suit because Alvin was not able to bring one, and buying one here in Denmark is not practical. Brian had no plans of attending since he will be going on a long vacation to Italy but he was “encouraged” by Girlie to attend.

For Filipinos not belong to the ‘elite’ class and upper management, suits are seen as not natural. Why would it be when our climate is very humid? Suits are made for environments that would be naturally cooler. Try wearing it in the Philippines when you have to walk in the street. That is almost like a death wish by heat stroke. That is the reason why the Barong is the formal wear of choice for Filipinos.

Finding caucasians in suits seem normal, but seeing your Filipino co-team members in suits? Classic! (pun intended)

 

Ok, so I don’t look good in a suit. Or in anything at all. But fortunately we have model-hopefuls

     

I think we were the only ones snapping pictures in the place but the Europeans around us have already tolerated these “snapper-happy” asians. Some even joined the fun by crashing the clicker sessions:

This post is becoming a photoblog so I will just redirect those still interested into the Picasa album where the rest of the picture selection resides.

The party was pretty average in terms of European corporate events. This kind of parties are really venues for networking more than anything else since it allows people from different operating groups to mingle and talk shop as well as anything and everything under the sun. I went with the “early” group with Francis, Harold and Jordan. Even with the early group, we ended up being part of the last batch to arrive. Arrival is announced with blaring trumpeters, something like what would you expect medieval paging systems would work when somebody arrives in a castle gathering. Cute.

We saw a Danish colleague so we followed him to the second floor where all attendees were mingling around and networking. We saw a few more colleagues and we were informed that we should have picked an ornament at the door since that will determine where we would sit. Random seating. Networking. It figures.

I was seated in the same table as our Host Senior Executive, Bent Dalager. Alvin, Tina, Brian and Girlie joined us later since the table with the Pinoy assignees are what we called the “late” table. I was seated in front of Nina, a previous assignee to our project. As the hosts were speaking in Danish, Bent was trying to translate to us whenever possible. I was told that we would be served a classical Danish course complete with burned hay (if I understood Bent correctly). The food service was not that good and I was disappointed when the burnt hay did not make an appearance.

Most of the program was in Danish. There was a standup comedian but we were left clueless on what he was saying. Bent just said that the comedian had a slow start but the end was fairly funny. He also translated a joke about a man coming in with a pig. An old joke but we had to laugh because apparently it is not as old for the Danes.

Then there was a corporate game wherein each table has to guess a certain high executive based on clues. Again this was in Danish so to break the ice, I made Tina and Alvin play the finger number game (the one followed by two then by three and so on). I ended up extending the game with Nina and Bent. I was really tempted to skip pointing to them the answer even if I was already giving it to them in spades. That is the trick of the game, hiding the answer in plain sight. While Bent’s attention was captivated by the finger number pattern game, Girlie and the others were hatching a “Black Magic” mind reading trick that went off perfectly, twice.

After the program proper, the party shifted to disco and open bar mode. A partly drunk Dane joined us in our table initially to share our beer and then went on a discussion with me regarding outsourcing work and religion. The first one is a little bit cumbersome since he is particularly against outsourcing and I am part of the team at the receiving end of outsourcing deals. The second one was more tolerable since he is also partial to non-standard beliefs. This was the point wherein I noticed Girlie left me to fend off this crazy Dane.

After a few more drinks, I decided to lay low since dancing is really not my cup of tea as most of outdoor social events. I settled to doing what I do best in these situations: I observe and guard. The last one is unnecessary but you will never know when you need to bail a friend out of a potentially sticky situation. At around 1AM, I decided that the party was already tapering off and all of our team was in the dance floor so it is safe to rest. Since I still have a webcall at around 8AM, I took the keys from Francis and decided to sleep in the car. An hour later the group decided to go home. Francis and Harold functioned as a door-to-door service and that concluded the corporate christmas party.

ciao!

Tags: Top of my head, Work by Erin
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On one of the leadership seminars (just humor me. they want to make me a leader) I attended one of the speakers addressed the participants in this way “you are now in the cross roads of your careers. you are now in place to be the mediator of the management and the rank and file. you are no longer wholly part of the rank and file since you have to begin looking at the business side of the equation.”

Ok, so that is already a paraphrase of what the speaker said. Regardless, my understanding of the whole thing makes me feel giddy inside. Why should there even be a distinction? Is the rift between management and staff really that wide that they can never meet? This might be stereotypical but the staff generally views management as people who doesn’t care about the life of the ordinary employee while the common perception of management is that the staff is incapable of understanding the big picture thus incapable of making the correct decisions.

Why can’t a person be both? Why do we have to choose? Does getting promoted really means swimming with the sharks? Does achieving the next level really require a shift in ones belief and norm? Does one have to compromise one’s principle to cross the perceived rift?

Instead of a cross-road I am finding myself walking in a tightrope. I still want to view myself as one of the staff since technically I am still a staff member. I just happen to be in a place where I ideally viewed it as a place wherein I can effect more changes. These are the same changes that I have always been clamoring when I was still below a lead position.

I think my problem is that I am cursed with this desire to be neutral but at the same time have this streak of idealism burdened with a lot of pragmatism. I want to have my cake and eat it too. Why can’t I have it both ways with my decisions? Why should every decision be viewed and weighed if it was tainted by management or staff concerns rather than being weighed on its own merits?

It might just be a transition phase (or in staff parlance, my heart is still beating) but I am getting tired of being cut off for every non-trivial decision I make. This is where I abhor being a leader, rather being happy with being an adviser. The latter have the luxury of letting others with the ambition run the show but at the same time have enough inputs to steer the greater master plan.

Paraphrasing something I have heard from a friend;

Don’t walk in front of me for I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me for I may not lead.
Walk beside me so that we may learn from each other.

Why can’t the life of (middle) management be like that?

ciao!

Tags: Rubbish, Work by Erin
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