A Little Story

I was alone, I took a ride,
I didn’t know what I would find there;
Another road where maybe I
Could see another kind of mind there.
Ooh, then I suddenly see you.
- The Beatles (“Got To Get You Into My Life”)

As posted in a previous blog entry, I travel quite a bit in my current job. I work for a conglomerate with offices and manufacturing plants located throughout the continental US and Canada. By its very nature, my job requires that I be away from home about half the time, with each business trip (or “fieldwork”) normally lasting about a week or two.

Whenever I’m out on such fieldwork, days are normally spent focused on meeting my goals and objectives. Hours are spent on discussions, interviews, meetings, work product reviews, and staff mentoring. However, one good thing I love about the job is that once the workday ends, it truly ends. Rare are the calls, emergency or otherwise, that follow me back to my hotel. There’s no leash, so to speak, that ties me to the job after office hours.

So it is then that once I am back in my hotel room, I often find that there is still a good number of hours remaining before I turn in and call it a day. At first, I whiled away those hours by reading and watching television. However, after a few months, I soon tired of the television part because the number of TV channels in an average hotel was quite limited. I then decided to think of other “entertainment” options.

It was while thinking of other options that I remembered a Filipino-based online social networking forum a friend recommended to me a couple of years earlier. To appease my friend, I remembered signing up for membership. However, I never really did anything with my membership. Did not bother to post a single entry. Thus, my account in that forum remained inactive for about a couple of years.

Once memory of that online forum came back, I decided to give it a try. I saw it as an opportunity not just to keep my brain cells active but also to “meet” and interact with my countrymen online. It was an interesting forum, to say the least. It covered various topics like the political and economic issues of the day, various hobbies and interests, and online mental games. There were also threads where members with expertise, wisdom, and/or experience in certain areas of life, love, and career offered advice to other members.

And so I ended up logging onto this online forum in the evenings or whenever my schedule allowed it. I started participating in the discussions in various threads, became quite active, and eventually made friends with people who shared my interests and opinions. It was that way for months. Happily entertained I, Panaderos, was. Or so I thought.

And then it happened.

It was in reading the various posts in the different threads that I started noticing the posts from a particular lady member. At first, my reactions to the posts were quite casual like “She brought up a good point there,” or “Ok, what she said made a lot of sense.” I was impressed with the stuff she wrote but kind of left my reactions at that and thought nothing much of them.

However, modesty aside, Panaderos was a man born with quite a good memory. And the downside to having such gift is that once a name or any other bit of information gets planted in that memory, that name/information rarely goes away. Thus, whether I liked it or not, the lady’s nickname in that online forum stuck to my memory like glue.

In the days and weeks that followed, whenever I came across her posts, I made it a point to read them regardless of whether the topic interested me or not. I had to admit to myself then that the more I read them, the more impressed I was with her. I found her entries to be well written and the messages that were imparted well thought out. A lot more often than not, I also found myself agreeing with the advice she imparted or shared.

Slowly, I realized a change. From a casual and passive reader of her entries, one who only read them whenever I chanced upon them, I slowly started actively looking for her posts whenever I went online. With each post I read, my interest in the lady grew. My heart started stirring, telling me to make a move. “Got to get to know her, man,” he said. However, my brain was at the same time asking valid and logical questions like “Excuse me, Panaderos but let me remind you, she’s somewhere in Metro Manila, you’re in the US. How are you guys going to meet?” Or sometimes it’s “How can you be so sure that she doesn’t have a boyfriend?” and “What the hell are you thinking? The lady doesn’t even know you exist.”

The brain raised very good and logical points, especially with its questions about the distance between us and with her not knowing anything about me. The questions got me down and depressed for a while for they highlighted the reality of the situation. The brain was probably right. Given how smart, wise and articulate she was, it was highly unlikely that there wasn’t a man out there who wasn't attracted to a lady with those qualities.

Thus, I had to stop. Momentarily.

To be continued.

Sweet Victory for Pacquiao

Score another victory and a huge round of applause for the great Manny Pacquiao.

I just finished watching the much anticipated rematch between Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and Juan Manual Marquez of Mexico. The fight was held at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was their first fight since they last met in May 2004. That bout ended in a draw in spite of the three knockdowns that Marquez suffered in the first round.

This evening's rematch, like the first one, also went the distance. Once again, Marquez got floored by Pacquiao, this time towards the end of the third round. But except for that knockdown, this was a hotly-contested battle through all 12 rounds. In the end, Manny won by a split decision on the strength of that one knockdown he scored against Marquez. Thus, with this victory, Manny gained the WBC (World Boxing Championship) and Ring Magazine's Super Featherweight Championship belts.

Manny, once again, will receive a hero's welcome once he lands in Manila. A proud country will welcome him with open arms. Our politicians and people will find themselves united again, at least for one brief shining moment. Everyone will put on their best behavior, and rightly so, to honor and pay respect to a man who has always made his country proud.

In the international boxing scene, Manny has become known worldwide as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters today and maybe, even in history. Sylvester Stallone, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Mike Tyson now count among his fans. Mike Tyson even showed up to watch this evening's fight.

Manny's international fame is such that HBO ring announcer Jim Lampley remarked in this evening's fight that Manny is not just an icon in his native Philippines but has also become an icon in Mexico for beating two, and now with his victory over Marquez, make that three, of their best boxing champions. He is in a pedestal of boxing heroes now, along with the likes of Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, and contemporaries Eric Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, and his latest victim, Juan Manuel Marquez.

Pacquiao now holds the distinction of beating all three of Mexico's finest fighters. He's now a true legend and at 29, his legend may still grow in the years to come.

I wish Manny Pacquiao continued success in career and more importantly, in his life. The poor boy from General Santos City certainly deserves all the riches, accolades, and fame he has garnered. Simply put, they are the just rewards from years of hard work. I just hope that for his sake and that of his family's, that he will be wise and play his cards right in life. I hope that he would channel all that fame and wealth to productive and positive uses to make sure that future generations of Pacquiaos will no longer experience the poverty and hardship he experienced early in life.

Photo credit: MannyPacquiaofan.com

A Boss Unworthy of the Title

Joe T runs a small but successful insurance agency in a tony suburb of San Francisco in California. Prior to that, he had worked for a big insurance company where he honed his insurance knowledge and marketing skills. Joe T is a very smart guy who knows the insurance business very well. So well that in the few years of his agency's existence, he has managed to attract some very big and wealthy clients.

However, in spite of Joe T's successes, he is not the type of boss I would like to work for. He demands loyalty, hard work, intelligence, and dedication from his employees. Those I have no problem with for any boss is entitled to set a certain level or standard of performance for his employees.

But as a boss, Joe T is seriously flawed in one area. In exchange for the high level of performance he requires of his employees, he tends to promise them with vacation trips around the US and to sign them up for company-paid training courses that would help boost their professional skills. Those are all still fine. However, it was observed that whenever the time came for him to fulfill his end of the bargain, he always reneged. He reneged time and time again without fail. It is for that reason that no employee had lasted more than two years in his employ.

Whenever it came time for him to fulfill his end of the deal, Joe T always brought up issues or concerns such as the high cost of the plane fare, the high cost of hotel and lodging, and the cost of the training as reasons for his inability to follow through on his promises. If so, why make a promise then if there's really no intention to fulfill it?

Without a reasonable excuse, a broken promise amounts to nothing less than a betrayal, an act of bad faith. A person who constantly breaks his/her promises to another can never be considered as a person of integrity. A broken promise especially hurts when it imposes a condition that requires a significant amount of work/effort on the other party to fulfill.

This has happened to all of us at some point in our lives. As human beings, our memories tend to be long on people who had wronged us and had been unfair to us. In an employer-employee relationship such as the one above, I view the broken promise to an employee as tantamount to taking much needed food away from the employee's dining table. It is very demoralizing and heartbreaking to an employee who relied on the employer's word in good faith. It is an act that is worthy of all condemnation.

For such dishonesty and unprofessionalism, a boss like Joe T clearly deserves no loyalty and respect. When such negative traits are present in a boss/employer, other factors that may exist such as good pay and good career opportunities no longer matter. A person would be better off moving on to another employer who would give his/her contributions the respect and appreciation they truly deserve.

The Face That Brought Down A Moral Crusader

The photo at left shows Ashley Dupree, the 22 year-old high class prostitute that brought down New York Governor Elliot Spitzer. Mr. Spitzer, who shot to fame in the early part of this decade as a moral crusader of sorts against corporate abuses and white collar crime, was brought down earlier this week as a result of a federal wire-tapping probe against an illegal prostitution ring. He announced his resignation to the media yesterday and his resignation will take effect on Monday, March 17.

Ashley went by the name of "Kristen" on the Emperor's Club VIP catalogue. As a high-class prostitute (quite an oxymoron), the "fantasy" that was sold to Mr. Spitzer by Emperors Club VIP was that Kristen was a successful swimsuit model who had travelled the world.

With the resignation of Mr. Spitzer, Ms. Dupree joins a rather infamous list of women such as Monica Lewinsky (Bill Clinton), Christine Keeler (Profumo scandal in the UK), Donna Rice (Sen. Gary Hart), Jessica Hahn (Rev. Jim Bakker), and Debra Murphree (Rev. Jimmy Swaggart). These were women who, through sex, had brought down men of wealth, influence and power. Except for Bill Clinton, the men they had affairs with had unsullied public reputations at the time.

Whether she likes it or not, the Spitzer episode changes Ms. Dupree's life forever. At 22, she still has many years ahead of her. It is pretty certain that a federal indictment will be levelled against Mr. Spitzer in the coming months. Should that happen, Ms. Dupree will most certainly be asked to testify before a federal grand jury.

In the foreseeable future, she will be finding her name in the headlines. Vultures, in the form of agents, will be circling her for opportunities to make a quick buck about the whole affair. She'll probably be offered book deals, a movie on her life, and maybe, even a recording contract. Exploitation is the name of the game, my friends.

It is up to her. She can use the lessons learned from this whole Spitzer affair to make right a lot of things that went wrong in her life. The other option would be to remain unwise and simply replace one form of exploitation with another.

Photo credit: New York Times and MySpace

Obesity Series #1

Obesity and diabetes are big problems in the United States. In fact, some doctors have said that these problems are reaching epidemic proportions. Whenever the opportunity arises, I will start sharing with you pictures that will give you an idea of how big the serving sizes are at various American fastfood and restaurant chains.

Let me start today with Carl's Jr., a popular burger chain. Earlier today, I had lunch with my co-workers at its branch in Santa Rosa, California. The following photo shows one of its soda cups next to a 12 ounce soda can:

The soda cup shown above is classified as a "Medium" serving. However, it is more than enough to satisfy the thirst of two normal or average size persons. Letting it stand next to a 12 ounce can would you give a clear idea of how big this serving is. It could qualify as either a Large or a Mega in fastfood chains in Asia and in Europe.

Next, of course, is McDonald's.

Recently, McDonald's launched a new line of burgers called "Angus Third Pounders", a supposedly more "gourmet" burger serving when compared to the average McDonald's burger. Given the product line's name and given that there are 16 ounces per pound, one would assume then that each burger pattie would weigh roughly around 5.33 ounces, bigger than the 4 ounces offered via the Quarter Pounder. The Angus Third Pounder product line offers three variants, namely: Angus Deluxe, Angus Mushroom and Swiss, and Angus Bacon and Cheese.

Unfortunately, such sizes are now the norm in fastfood restaurants across the US. The blame falls on both the fastfood chains and on the customers who patronize servings of such size. One can just imagine the amount of sugar and caffeine that's present in huge servings of soda/soft drinks and the amount of calories and fat present in huge servings of burgers. Any wonder then that a growing number of Americans are obese and/or diabetic? Not good.

Original photo by: Panaderos (Soda)
Photo credit: Slashfood (Angus Third Pounders)