Reassessment

Ok, in exactly a month, I'll be turning 2@HP. Imagine that! 2 years and I am unsure of where I am or if I am on track of where I want to be. Everything that's happening seems to be going against the plans I laid out. Not that I am disappointed that I am not moving as how I wanted, its just that I am dropping a lot of other priorities in order to cope up with the way things are going. I know, this entry is a bit vague but that's how I feel about my career right now.

------------------------------------

A close friend of mine is getting married on the 28th of April so me and the rest of my high school classmates travelled all the way to Los Banos last Saturday to send her off. Let's just say its suppose to be a bridal shower with boys scheduled for the 31st of March but instead was moved to the 24th since my good friend was leaving for Kalinga on the 25th. We did not know those were her plans until the 23rd during the afternoon. Imagine the stress of the person who communicated the whole thing. Guess who, as well. :p

Anyway, we had a good chat as well as a good few rounds of Starcraft. I'm improving! I'm just glad that she is happy with her decision and that she is convinced that this is the path she wants to proceed. Make's you think of where you want to be in coming years. Quarter life crisis mode again.

------------------------------------

Arrived from Los Banos early Sunday morning and I was not able to get a decent amount of sleep when my roommate needed to pack up the bed, the ref, the TV, and the other household appliances. He is moving out to join his sisters. Not that we were not told ahead of time, it's just that I have been in denial for the past month that I really urgently need to find a new place to stay. Tonight, I'll be sleeping on the coach, again.

What hurts the most though, I can watch my shows anymore!!!

WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD LIFE?

by Jim Rohn

The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck.
The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes.
The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home.

Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living a good life.

Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?"

And you have to keep going over and over the list.

A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation.

What would constitute a good life?
I've got a short list.

1) Productivity.
You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. We must rest, but only long enough
to gather strength to get back to productivity.
What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life?

It's to see what you can do with it. To try your hand, other people have tried their hand; here's what they did. You try your hand to see what you can do. So part of life is productivity.

2) Good friends.
Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world. Don't deny yourself the time to develop this support system. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you.

A few years ago I lost one of my dearest friends. He died at age 53 - heart attack. David is gone, but he was one of my very special friends. I used to say of David that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly and if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a friend. Somebody who would come and
get you. Now we've all got casual friends. And if you called them they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me we'll have a party." So you've got to have both, real friends and casual friends.

3) Your culture.
Your language, your music, the ceremonies, the traditions, the dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. In fact it is the uniqueness of all of us that when blended together brings vitality, energy, power, influence,
uniqueness and rightness to the world.

4) Spirituality.
It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach. Don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature; it's what makes us who we are, different from animal, dogs, cats, birds and mice. Spirituality.

5) Don't miss anything.
My parents taught me not to miss anything.
Don't miss the game.
Don't miss the performance,
don't miss the movie,
don't miss the show,
don't miss the dance.
Go to everything you possible can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can.
Go see everything and experience all you possibly can. This has served me so well to this day. Just before my father died at age 93 if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 at night, he wouldn't be home.
He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church, he was somewhere every night.

Live a vital life.
Here's one of the reasons why.
If you live well, you will earn well.
If you live well it will show in your face, it will show in the texture of your voice.
There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well.
It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality
nothing else can give.

6) Your family and the inner circle.
Invest in them and they'll invest in you. Inspire them and they'll inspire you. With your inner circle take care of the details. When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers. Little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho .

So Papa would go there and have breakfast and I'd call him just to give him a special day. Now if I
was in Israel I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but it only took five minutes, ten minutes.
So I'd call Papa and they'd bring him the phone. I'd say, "Papa I'm in Israel." He'd say, " Israel ! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear - my son's calling me from Israel. I'd say, "Papa last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean" Now everybody knows the story. It only took 5 - 10 minutes, but what a special day for my father, age 93.

If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a
powerful man.
If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body he's invincible all day.
It's the special stuff with the inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential.
So don't miss that opportunity.

Here's the greatest value.
The prophet said,
"There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest, one person caring for another."
There is no greater value than love.
Better to live in a tent on the beach with someone you love than to live in a mansion by yourself.
One person caring for another, that's one of life's greatest expressions.

So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do.

May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.

Sleepless Nights

Recently, my team leader announced his plans to resign in order to finally help out with their family business. It's a sad moment as we, though not unexpected, were caught off guard as we did not it to realize that he was really serious about it. He also owns a lot a big bulk the work that we do including being problem manager, continuous improvement owner for our team, and being an global application owner for one of our most heavily used applications (WebOSA), and the most problematic one. And guess who will be taking over that application owner role... ME!

I also am a global application owner of a web application. It is bigger than WebOSA because it is an end to end application from data input all the way the reporting part. My problems revolve around data quality and the amount of changes that come into production almost every week. However, it is a different case for WebOSA. It has a lot of issues in terms of capacity considering the amount of data as well as the number of users are huge! And the visibility and the focus there is in that area is very high. I am not yet sure if I am that ready for that kind of pressure. This, of course, aside from the pressure for additional roles that would be added into my plate.

I am having a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of thoughts creeping into my head that has keeping me so worried of what will happen in the coming months. Will I actually be able to survive? What do I have to do so that some of that pressure will come off? I have been up late a lot of times, just not getting to be able to sleep. I can smoke more than a pack in a week. I could not pass a weekend without getting to drink a lot. Good thing Embassy girls were pretty that I was able to enjoy the drinks.

Ahh! I need to learn to handle more of the pressure... Advice advice anyone?