13 on a motorbike

Maximize the use of your motorcycle and save on gas. Bring the whole family then ride together like flapping jet plane wings.

Safety note: they're all wearing helmets, except who seemed to be the leader, on top.

Image

Hello telephone?

Here's one probably getting more telemarketing calls than he can handle.

A guy burned both of his ears... so they were asking him at the hospital how it happened.

He said, ''I was ironing my clothing and the phone rang... So, instead of the phone I picked up the iron and burned my ear...''

''But how the heck did you burn the other ear?'' The doctor asked.

''They called back.''

Antalino 'di ba, in fairness.

It's Fête de la Musique today

This year's Fête de la Musique (World Music Day which originated in France June 21 1982 and has since spread to other countries) will be held simultaneously at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City (starts at 1PM) and Paseo in Cebu City (starts at 5PM).

This highly anticipated music festival showcases artists (amateurs and professionals) from various genre, for audiences from all walks of life, getting together just for the pure enjoyment of music.

Spectator event

The recent centennial celebration of the UP became more of a spectator event when 100 naked APO members did a special edition of their annual oblation run, the centennial run, amidst screams and snapshots. In this photo by pmt007, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, himself an APO member, looked as if overwhelmed by the brotherhood.

I work where: in contact or call center?

Confusing?

Most call centers now (at least in the Philippine sunshine industry) are being called contact centers to mean that aside from handling phone calls, with various advancements in computer network and telephony technologies, these centers can actually handle any type of customer contact: phone (direct landlines or mobile), instant messaging (via text or multimedia messages with photos, videos, and audio clips), emails, chats, realtime Web tours or online technical support, fax, video calls and data transmission signals.

However, the term contact center is not used extensively (contrary to its use in company names). Ask any agent you know where he or she works, the answer will definitely be "in a call center." Well, whatever contact management capabilities they may have, bulk of the business of these centers still are from voice calls. Even BPOs now are leveraging on their resources to get into the teleservices business.

When asked where I work, I say "in a local contact center--we just can't get enough from voice."

No troublemaker

How's this to start your day:

You are highly valued now as a team player, yet a nonconformist streak may shine through and get in your way of total cooperation. Even if you have good reason to go against the grain of the group, your actions may be misinterpreted as those of a troublemaker. If you aren't getting your way, don't push for a confrontation. Your impact will ultimately be greater if you just let the process continue on its own.

Well, I always thought of myself a team player but I wonder how it is to be a troublemaker at work? Not that I want to be (for a time, I thought I was), but in my experience as a manager, troublemakers are usually the best workers, that is, if you can influence (read: motivate) them and make them realize (and take advantage of) their hidden brilliance.

Anyways, no trouble for me today, I'm not exactly confrontational. c",)

Libra horoscope by Rick Levine.

Late

Woke up late, late at work.

Kids have no classes today (their teachers at Mater Carmeli School are on 2-day retreat) and so the wife took the opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep, and while I stood up at 4am to pee, the cool early morning temp was an invitation to go back to bed that's hard to pass. Marcus joined us in bed (weird that my youngest would wake up early only when there are no classes) and my cellphone was deadbat with its 15-minute interval alarms before I realized it's 7:30am already. My tummy's telling me to go my usual morning routine and so I went off to work after more than an hour. As usual, I was greeted with the terrible EDSA traffic. Thanks to my skilled driver, and the jumpy Chris Brown CD, I was drowsing halfway.

Now I'm on to work...

Boston Celtics win NBA Finals

Boston Celtics proved their might over L.A. Lakers in Game 6 winning 131-92, as I expected.

E.T. Trio at my Desk

These three rare but cute E.T. figures (one's naked, the other's in bathrobe and the third one's in a girly costume) I have found at the ToyCon '08 (SM Megamall Megatrade Hall) and now guards my desktop with their lifelike eyeballs.

Car Mania '08 at SM City Fairview

Happy Father's Day!

Thought counts a million times

Waking up to kisses, sweet greetings, and a happy Sunday--priceless

ToyCon '08 at SM Megatrade Hall

Wonder Woman lassoing a pose

Marcus (already tired and hungry), Kurt, their cousin Joshua, and wifey

With Star Wars cosplay dudes

With Gundam dudettes

Komiks, komiks, komiks

I'm a Powe fan

I'm betting Boston Celtics is clinching the 2008 NBA Finals championship, what with the likes of Leon Powe (in Game 2 he scored 21 points, including several picture-perfect dunks, in only 15 minutes worth of play) making shining, shimmering, splendid basketball moments. I've become a fan.

Getty Image/NBA.com

iPhone 3G is coming to the Philippines

Yes, it's coming soon (July 11 in the US), the much-awaited iPhone 3G will reach the Philippine shores via Globe Telecom, and will be available to both postpaid and prepaid subscribers. Too bad I'm a Smart subscriber. Got the link from Apple this afternoon, Globe has not disclosed when exactly though.

I'm actually looking forward to this announcement--will this finally open up the iTunes online store to Filipinos? Well, we'll soon find out...

What's up with...

Busy-ness is the order of the past days.

At the office, the (permanent) absence of a friend/colleague (add the difficult task of finding a matching, if not better, replacement) forced me to super-multi-task, which translates to more challenging day-to-day duties: recruitment, training, and liaison work. I wear assorted hats now--one day I'm at my desk doing reports and making calls, another day I'm at the board drawing up strategies with supervisors and then finding myself in front of new recruits explaining job specifications and employment terms. It's not easy, but the numbers (the increased productivity levels) are very encouraging.

Busy-ness is the order of the coming days.