Friday, May 25, 2007

Been Had

I’ve been had.

In searching for a job the familiar, most used words by the screener/interviewer to the helpless reject is the promise of giving them a ring: Hintayin mo na lang ang tawag namin next week.

Now, to the uninitiated and tyro in the art of job hunting, this promise means a hopeful positive one. The job hunter, unscathed and never been beaten out there in the employment market, succumbs to the apple of temptation of waiting for the call thinking that the interviewer meant what he had said.

The week is long and before the job hunter knew it, he will discover that there will be no call. He has been given the words of appeasement and he bit on it. This is why those veterans in job hunting knew the moment they step out of the prospective employer’s office if they have been axed or if there is something to hope for. So they will ask the tyro: Anong sabi ‘yo?

Tyro: Tatawagan na lang daw ako.

The Veteran: Wag mo na asahan yan.

In the long time of experience in the hardship of job hunting, this ‘exit’ words by the interviewer is the most dreaded words I anticipate. It has been used for a very long time and it has been this way since I ever remember.

But in my recent experience, it seems this ‘exit’ words has been given a strain more potent than ever before that a veteran will surely bite on off guard, without knowing he is being had by the wily screener/interviewer.

Nevertheless, I take the responsibility of being rejected because of the things I yakked during the interview and by losing my nerves that kept me stuttering. Who in his right mind will say he has plans to publish a book someday. The logic is awry considering I’m already past the age of Christ and not connected with they academe and what more this plan is almost impossible in our country.

Going back to the subject of this post, the new strain of ‘exit’ words used to me by the screener/interviewer is definitely a deft one.

I was told to set a time the following week for an interview with the manager of the department which the vacancy falls under. I was even told to wear proper business attire when I show up. Just wait for the call in the middle of week (this drat! I failed to anticipate a negative aspect of the interview).

I waited patiently and with eagerness for a week only to realize that I have been had.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Underground Election Gift-giving

Several nights before the election, a neighbor known for her affiliation with the local candidates talked us over the prospect of being commissioned to be poll watchers. Together with another neighbor, who stood as one of the coordinators, counted every registered voter in our house. They say all of us would be fielded as poll watchers come election day. Good news considering that we needed money.

Beside us, several neighbors were also promised to be poll watchers.

The pay and the responsibilities were five hundred at the end of the day and all we had to do was stay at the polling place to watch over flying-voters. Come counting time, our responsibilities would be over and an easy cash of Ninoy would be ready for our wallets.

Actually, there is nothing new about this. Me being a poll watcher. I have been a PPCRV watcher before. But the only difference now is the lure of the pay and earning a quick cash which was mostly welcome.

Hour before the election proper I was asked to go to our coordinator. I was expecting a long day in the precinct and a lot of fun mingling with voters. I thought what would happen was the usual giving off of final instruction for our candidates. But instead I was handed two small envelopes and copies of sample ballots with the suggestive instruction that I knew what to do. Inside the small envelopes was two hundred peso bills. Small money but cash nevertheless.

I innocently assumed that the money was an installment pay for the work ahead of us.

I asked, “What precinct would we guard?”

“No,” the coordinator said. “There was a change of plan.”

“Oh,” I said to myself, smiling devilishly.

I have been a voter for a long time and have heard of vote buying. But this is the only time when I was confronted by the actual practice.

What am I to do? I asked myself. Give back the money and say a litany of election ethics that we should follow and get on to talk that this is the reason why nothing is happening in our poor country?

No. I kept the money.

When we were herded off to the polling place, I threw the sample ballots bearing the names of the candidates who obviously were behind this vote buying practice.

I chose the candidates that I felt worthy of my effort to drag myself at the polling place, which was like a trek to the mountain. I filled only the slots for the national election: the senatorial slots and the congressional. The local positions I just dashed off with long hypen to signify that I didn’t have any prospective candidates for the positions.

On the second thought, I might as well have had put coach Flip Saunders’ name for the mayoralty candidate and the rest of the line-up of the Detroit Pistons for the remaining positions.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

How the Game was Played

I mentioned in my previous post that I had not got the opportunity to catch live the Game 3 of the Pistons vs the Bulls. All I got was the incomplete information from my cousin telling me that the Pistons won the game therefore setting the series in a comfortable 3-0 lead of the series.

Well, I was able to catch the reply of the game at Start Sports and see for myself how the Pistons dismantled the young, spunky Chicago Bulls.

The first half was a low-scoring game for the Pistons, perennially missing their shots and bungling their seemed perfect offensive plays.

The Pistons was having a taste of their own bitter medicine what with the aggressive defense of the Bulls. The Bulls looked like hungry pack of wolves ready to eat alive the Pistons. Bull’s Luol Deng, Ben Wallace and Ben Gordon leaded their team in overlording the boards and defense, and shooting above par compared with the Pistons who seemed could not get their acts together.

The first half finished off with the Bulls having a comfortable, almost a sure-win lead of 19 points against the Pistons. The Pistons looked beaten-up and a no-match in the United Arena of the Bulls; the statue of flying Michael Jordan stood outside the stadium as if to imply that the Bulls is on the rampage again and now on the rebound and ready to move toward the Eastern Finals, then the Finals proper to earn another ring.

The Pistons in my imagination were fidgeting in their locker room, panicking and being berated by coach Flip Saunders for their bad game. The fans of the Pistons in front of their tubes all over the world were pulling their hair in disbelief on how come their team feared badly at the court let the young, fast and seemed hungrier Bulls made a rampage in the court at their expense.

The second half started. I watched with doubts whether what my cousin said to me was true: that the Pistons won Game 3.

I could not see any trace of panic from the players of the Pistons yet could still see the lunging horns of the Bulls ready for the kill.

Several minutes after the start of the second half, the Pistons was able to chip out the lead of the Bulls by four, making the homecourt team’s lead down to 15.

That was when I saw the aura of the Pistons – the leading team in the NBA today and if you would agree with their players’ statements ought to be the NBA Champions for four seasons. The Pistons’ aura and gait on the basketball court told of mental toughness and sure composure. There was no tinge of an expected panic in their faces. They are the Pistons and they learned in their long years of battle in the court that a 19-point deficit is no reason to lose heart or panicky about.

Pistons captain ball Chauncey Billups orchestrated the well-maneuvered comeback of his team with toughness of spirit used of shutting down their opponents with surgical military precision. They started making shots, making stops and chipping eventually the lead of the Bulls.

On the other hand, the Bulls, as characteristics of a young ballteam, began to fumble, tremble because they realized that the Pistons was advancing through their defense and that they were in trouble with this veteran team.

At the end of Game 3, the Pistons marked their 3-0 lead in this second-round playoffs of the Eastern Conference.

The Game could have been a blow-out game against the Pistons. But resiliency, composure and mental toughness made them overturn the tide to win Game 3 and post a 3-0 lead which as mathematical statistics proves is a sure win scenario for them.

Now, I don’t know if there’s a game as I write this between these two teams, but even if my cable provider doesn’t air it, I anticipate the Pistons moving up to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

It's 3-0 in Favor of the Pistons

I haven't seen the Game 3 of the Pistons vs Bulls because I got to attend some business in Navotas. To find about the result, I have to rely on the story by my cousin Peng and learn about how the Pistons fared in the homecourt of the bulls.

Many predicted that the Bulls would bounce off from their two-streak losing games against the Pistons since the game would be held in their homecourt.

But no (yeah!) the Pistons, as I described them, is really a well-oiled machine that can beat any team by their choking defense and well-executed offensive plays.

It's seems it would be a sweep again for my Detroit team this time.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Walang Nagbago

It is always been my philosophy to look at the world with a half-full of glass of water rather looking at it as half-empty. This is the foundation of me being an inveterate optimist. Optimists they say see the opportunity in ever difficulties, while the pessimists are those who see the difficulties in ever opportunity – a well said adage.

I have written about this issue on my first – and hope not to be the last – column in the now defunct The Edge magazine.

I have seen individual’s faith to see the world in this positive light faltered and totally been destroyed. I see them as old grumpy old people always bemoaning the state of everything in this land in a total mess and the lack of good people to turn it around.

Ever time you talk to them, they are those who never cease to pick on the government’s shortcomings in making this nation a better one, making jobs for the unemployed. What’s more is that they fail to appreciate the talents of every individual making a name for himself because of hardwork and a little help from some people.

If you would talk to these kind of people and listen to their pessimistic view of the world, it is better if you just keep your distance from them since listening to them can only hypnotize you to think the way they do.

To think, they are the mediocre type of people and much worse they are those who are a failure to themselves. So what they are doing to the younger generation is passing their personal frustration through negative opinions and comments about everything. Misery loves company so they say, and basically these people are in misery and could not contain it so they pass it on every person they mingle with.

What do they people don’t know or fail to know is that the world, from the time they are born didn’t chance a little bit. Life is still hard. Making a living is still a struggle in a day to day basis. But this is not a reason to think that life is not beautiful.

They forget the times when they are young and everything was coming their way. They don’t remember their childhood years when the world is a happy place to live in because they are having fun playing and winning. The lost they suffered they endured like dust shaken off their shoulders and continue seeing the world as a happy place.

No, they no longer remember that.

In the years that would follow, their innate optimism is rocked and beaten with how hard life is to live in the adult world. Thus, they forget what they learned when they are young and what the world had taught them. They are eaten up by their own failures, which they should have, like children, shake like dust off their shoulders so they could walk through life with a happy face and composure.
Yes, they forget this valuable lesson.

They forget that life is really tough but not tough to beat with a positive outlook in life. Nothing has changed as I said. It is only how you look at the world that has changed.

"Walang nagbago," as the lyrics of one of the songs of Eraserheads say.

If you want to spare yourself from this subtle misery of being pessimistic, you better take a second look at the world and probably by then, you can see and choose to see the world in a half-full glass than half-empty.

The Pistons Pummeled Once Again the Bulls

It’s 2-0 in favor of the Pistons against the Bulls.

As coach/commentator Doug Collins says the Pistons is like a well-oiled machine functioning perfectly. The Pistons throughout their Game 2 game against the Bulls is a perfect team offensively and defensively speaking.

You cannot see any flaws in them and you wonder whether there is any other team out there that can match their composure and military precision plays. The Pistons’ players are perfectly skilled worker in the court.

Oh, can’t wait to see the series end up in 4-0 in favor of the Pistons being a fan of this team.

Monday, May 07, 2007

The Pistons Beating the Bulls in Game 1

I have been anticipating for days the confrontation of the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls in the second round of the playoffs in the NBA after their successful campaigns in the first round. The Pistons pummeled the Orlando Magic 4-0 while the Bulls made an amateur team, the 2006 Champions, Miami Heat by beating them also 4-0.

Chauncey Billups and the rest of his gang still showed how they can dismantle a hopeful team against their way to get another ring with military precision. And their fist victim to have a run for a ring was the Orlando Magic, an 8th seeded team in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Meanwhile, the young Chicago Bulls showed spunk and speed when they stopped the reigning Champion Heat and making Shaquile O’neal a has-been in the painted area. They swarmed with tight defense the plays of the Heat. Ever attempt by the group of O’neal in the painted area was faced with double team and even triple team; this making for the Heat a hell of a hard time penetrating.

What I have been anticipating when these two tough teams meet in the second round of the playoffs was a swing tight game. I even considered it the Finals already since there seems no team in the West that can match their intensity while playing in the court, both offensively and defensively.

But when the first game of their best-of-seven series was played I was proven wrong.

The Pistons beat up the the Bulls in a blow-out game that could have shamed Pistons’ former teammate Ben Wallace, who plays as the defensive man for the Bulls. Bulls’ guard Ben Gordon was a no-show also. He was ineffective offensively.

Pistons was just all over the place trapping the Bulls and intimidating their shots. To say, the Pistons broke the horns of the Bulls. Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace were just in their best form.

The Bulls just lost their composure and speed and spunk of a young team when confronted with the mastery defensive team play of the Pistons.

For now the Pistons lead the series 1-0. Will it be 4-0 for the Pistons against Bulls?

Well, we’ll see how far this will go as the series continues.