Train Commuting Pet Peeves

I don't have a car. Well, we have a family car but I don't drive and we don't have a driver (if you don't count my brother hehe), so I have no choice but to commute.

Just recently I was assigned to a new project. New project = new client = new location. Fortunately for me, the client's office is pretty much near our house. However, this project entails me to know stuff, which results to me needing training. This training happens to be in Makati, which means that I had to ride the train.

So, after 3 days of the train experience once again, I've observed certain things that I hate about riding the train.

1. Getting in the train without much effort - because of all the shoving and pushing. A woman even made me leverage so that she would not be shoved as much, but then I wouldn't be much help because I WAS WAY SMALLER THAN HER. >.<

2. Ladies/Women who wear too little - sleeveless, backless, everything suffixed with -less. Super short shorts and skirts are also a no-no. Girls, you are upping your risk of contracting skin frakkin' diseases. Also, if you already have one of those diseases, we - the people who wear much more - are also at risk.  Plus the sweat, my gosh. I don't want your underarm sweat on my arm or cheek! Can you imagine? Eek. At least wear a cardigan over that tank top.

3. People who hug/put their face on the vertical handrails. Can I say, eew? I mean, hundreds, if not thousands, of people put their dirty hands on that tube of metal, and you have the courage to put your f-a-c-e on it. Come on. Plus I don't have something to hold on to, so move.

4. People who have something to hold on to - except their balance. Please, please, please don't rely on the handrails for your balance. The person at your back, who's not holding on to anything, hates you more than anything right now.

5. Tall people who use shorter people as their tables. Come on, we have our stuff to carry, we don't need the additional weight.

That's my list. Or at least what I remember. Anyway, tomorrow's the last day I ride the train (at least for now), so yay for me! :)

Cutex Nailcolor Review

I wanted to try the more expensive nail polishes, to see how they would fare with the cheaper alternatives, that's why last Monday, I decided to try Cutex. Since it's P109.75, it's still cheaper than the other imported nail polish brands, although they have small bottles. I guess that is enough for me since I don't know if I can use up a big bottle.

I first chose a plain purple color, but then I saw this one:

Indie Glow

It's not obvious in the photo but this nail polish is like a swirl of different colors.

Applying it was fairly easy, although the polish easily thickened once exposed to air. I had to shake the bottle a few times every one to two nails.

Two good things about this polish: no bubbles and streaks! Or have I just become better at applying nail polish?

A tip though: don't apply this too thin, else you'll end up with bald spots. After all, it dries quickly so no worries!

Compared to cheaper nail polish brands (those P35 and below), Cutex is much, much better. Applying it took me half the time I used to take when using other nail polishes. Looks like my nails  found a new best friend. Aww. :p

What it looks like when applied on the nails:

It looks grey-ish right? But it seems to change in color depending on the lighting and angle. Sometimes there are green specks, sometimes yellow, or purple. I wish I could show you but I just used the iPhone camera. Anyway, why don't you try it yourself? :)

Drugstore Asking for Prescription for OCPs

For the past few months, this certain leading drugstore has been asking ladies who buy oral contraceptive pills (1) if they have been using the OCP for some time already, and (2) to bring the prescription next time.

The first time I encountered this, was at a mall in Ermita, Manila. This female pharmacist asked the same things from me, but seemingly more judgmental than the next times I bought from the other branches. It felt like she was disapproving of women who use OCP because of the way she looked at us (there were two of us buying OCPs at that time), and the way she handled our orders.

I was thinking, what the heck does this person know about me to treat me like trash just because I was buying a box of OCPs? I mean it's not that I use it for its actual purpose. I use it because I have PCOS, and OCPs are used to somehow treat it, and she should know that because she is a freaking pharmacist.

Sorry for the rant. Anyway, I decided to never buy my pills from that branch ever again. After all, their service is so slow that you have to stand there for about 30 minutes just to get your order taken. But that's another story.

The following times I just bought OCPs in a mall at North EDSA. Both times a male pharmacist handled my order, asked the same things, but without the judgmental-slash-disapproving look in their faces.

It's still disturbing though, that they ask those things when the drug is supposed to be over-the-counter. My OB did not even give me a prescription because it is OTC. It bothers me that other people have to hear what I answer when the pharmacists ask, "Matagal na po bang ginagamit?" (Have you been using this for some time already?) and then they never ask for what purpose. Whenever I experience this, I get certain looks from people at the drugstore. Every time I buy my pills now, I get anxious. It's torture.

Does anybody know why this drugstore is doing this?

Causeway Seafood Restaurant Review

Last Monday night we ate dinner at Causeway Seafood Restaurant for my mom's birthday. It was my first time eating there even though our house was only a few blocks away from it (I know, right?). My boyfriend even often ate there with his family when he was a kid and he lives far, far away.

Anyway, I did *not* think that I would like the food here because I don't like Chinese food much. However, to my surprise, I did! Their food was so delicious that I only had 1/2 cup rice and proceeded to just eat the viands.

Here are some photos courtesy of my mom:

Patatim

The meat was tender, although there were a lot of skin and fat. The sauce was not too sweet or salty. 

I don't know what this is called, sorry.

This was like chop suey, only not that saucy.

Assorted Seafood with Beancurd Pot

I love seafood so everything with seafood is yummy for me. :)

Honey Roasted Asado

The meat was easy to chew, plus it was tasty that I did not need to put sauce on it.

For dessert, I got the mango sago. It wasn't too sweet and they obviously used fresh mangoes. I wish it had a thicker consistency though. :)

Ratings:

Food - 10. Surprisingly, I loved the food here.

Ambience - 7. Typical Chinese restaurant ambience. :)

Service - 5. Not too good. Servers did not know how to excuse themselves when getting used utensils. Plus they were hovering around our table when I was still eating my dessert and my mom was preparing the payment and tips.

Causeway Seafood Restaurant is found at:

883 Banawe St. cor. Del Monte Ave.

Quezon City, Metro Manila

Philippines

(02) 410-8690

Beware of YM Hacker

A friend, J, told me about this yesterday. She has not opened her YM for weeks and yet *she* managed to chat up another friend of hers a few days ago. Her friend told her that it was about finding 5 people who have IQs higher that 110. I advised her to change her password.

Awhile ago I also experienced this. A college acquaintance suddenly said Hi through YM. Not wanting to be rude, I responded, and the following conversation ensued:

I did not click the link the hacker sent me. Instead, I deleted and blocked this contact of mine. I could not warn him because I did not have any other means of contacting him, sorry. I also changed my password immediately.

You have been warned. :)

Micromanagement

According to Wikipedia, "...micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of his or her subordinates or employees."

Image from Coxnewsweb.com

I hate being micromanaged. It's the worst feeling ever. I feel like a 5 year old who needs supervision. Heck, a 5 year old does not even need that close of a supervision.

It's not that I don't like being told what to do. I do. Because sometimes I have no idea what to do. What's not fine is being told a specific way to do it, when I have or want to create my own style of doing it. This is the artistic and creative me speaking.

I also don't like being told what to do several times. Like I need a reminder everytime. I'm not *that* young or old to not remember things. Doing this to me will only make me *not* do what you want me to do.

What's worse is when I'm micromanaged even when the "micromanager" is not within my environment. That really, really gets on my nerves. It's like the "micromanager" doesn't trust me enough to do what I have to do. Having trust issues much?

If anyone here is being a micromanager, quit being one, please, for the sake of your subordinates' self-esteems.

Chic Nail Polish Review

I was feeling adventurous one day and wanted to color my nails - I usually don't wear nail polish - so I went to the mall and decided to buy cheap nail polish. I was looking for another popular local brand but I couldn't find any, and then I saw Chic.


The bottles were actually hidden from view, because of course they were showcasing the imported and obviously more expensive brands.


Anyway, I took three bottles of Chic:

Love Orchid (Peach-pink), Purple Frost, Simply Red

Two weeks ago I decided to try the red one. It was fairly easy to apply and dried fast. The following days I reapplied again. I was OC about the way I applied it the first time. I noticed that the nail polish became thicker. I tried mixing it with nail polish remover but still the nail polish stayed thick. Looks like it seemed to be affected by the cold weather, because the next time I checked the bottle it was humid and somehow the polish thinned already.


Just today I got bored with the red color so I tried the purple one. Again, fairly easy to apply, and it quickly dried.

A few minutes later I noticed that the consistency of the liquid has thickened. I'm not sure if this also happens to other brands of nail polish - although the other local nail polish I've tried haven't thickened as fast as these ones did.


As soon as I really learn how to put nail polish on flawlessly, I'll try the more expensive brands. I hope they'll be better. :)

Christopher Lao, The Media, and Cyber-bullying

I admit that I laughed when I saw the video of him driving his car into the deep flood. It was pretty obvious that the flood was deep because there were no cars passing by the area, and yet he proceeded to still drive into it. I even re-posted the video, which I believe was taken down by the original person who posted it because I couldn't find it on my wall when I wanted to delete it; even clicked Like on the page created for Mr. Lao, which was wrong of me to do so, so I eventually clicked Unlike and decided not to be part of the cyber-bullying.

Mr. Lao's accident was an act of stupidity, but it was not entirely his fault that he is now "famous".

First of all, the network's reporter shouldn't have interviewed him. It was an unwise move because he risked humiliating the person on national TV - which is exactly what happened. Plus he appeared to have provoked Mr. Lao to continue talking which then turned into ranting. He should have just interviewed those who helped Mr. Lao push his car out of the flood.

Secondly, the network should not have approved the report. In my opinion, this network is slowly becoming notorious in broadcasting "high-risk" reports. I feel that they think that as long as they have something to show on TV, it's all fine.

Last on the list, well, is Mr. Lao. He had a choice not to be interviewed, not to publicly humiliate himself even more. He would have been anonymous. And yet, he proceeded and had himself shown on national TV and ranted about him not being informed, that it was the government's fault that there was no roadblock before the flood, even blamed the people on the street for not informing him. For me, that was him digging a deeper hole of humiliation.

I'm not including the government here, because it's very typical of Pinoys to blame the government for everything, and it's has become overrated. Honestly, the government can't take care of every single little problem we have because they have much bigger and more important situations to handle other than putting roadblocks to inform motorists that there is deep flood ahead. I mean even MMDA is depending upon the Filipino citizens for flood reports because they simply could not be everywhere.

I understand that Mr. Lao, even before the flood incident, has been stressed because he is currently reviewing for the bar on top of him being a family man (a friend re-tweeted something about this, that's why I know). And it's normal to have bouts of stupidity sometimes; we are, after all, human. But it's really partly his fault that he is receiving this kind of attention, which has now turned into cyber-bullying.

Bill Belsey of cyberbullying.org defined cyber-bullying as, "...the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others." According to the definition, a lot of Pinoys are doing just that. Some people also have resorted to racism.

I hope we stop this already. It's normal to laugh at such events, but it's already considered cyber-bullying to continue humiliating and posting hate-comments about Mr. Lao online. I implore to the creator of Mr. Lao's fanpage to take it down, as it promotes cyber-bullying; also I request my readers who are guilty of this crime, if you haven't already done so, to take down your hate-comments and re-posts of the video. Thank you.

**Due to the sensitivity of this issue, I edited out the names of the reporter and network involved, in the title, the entry itself, and labels/tags. I also re-published the entry as a new one since the url of the original reflected the network's name, hence the comments were also deleted.