Dogbert’s Whip

It’s three solid days before Christmas Day, and yet, here I am, toiling like a dam-building beaver. Unlike the industrious beaver, however, my last-minute efforts are not bound to hold any water. As expected, I still have tons of work left to accomplish. I am not the type who gives up easily or cowardly raises the white flag, but somehow, the holiday mood is a Scrooge of a spoiler of work motivation.

Whenever work motivation is fast approaching nil, what do normal people like us tend to do? You’re right; we all surf the internet. You may not be interested to read this but there are only three websites that I check regularly, and these are www.yahoo.com, www.inq7.net, and (trumpets and fireworks are necessary) www.friendster.com. And yes, I browse those websites in that order.

I was browsing through the friendster page Ding, of a high school batchmate, and came across satellite pictures of Angeles City, our hometown. In those shots, he made captions about where he once jogged with his dad as a kid, where he used to live, some other famous landmarks in the city, etc. It was way too cool and neat that I decided to check out http://maps.google.com, the website where I assume he took the satellite images, and to make a blog entry in the process. Okay, stop; I know I’m such a copycat.

Looking for the places that matter most to me proved to be a challenging yet deeply satisfying effort. It made me miss home A LOT all of a sudden. I can’t wait until I’m seated for the Noche Buena with my family. (You may not agree with me but nothing beats Capampangan cooking.) And what better way to spend the holidays than to have it with the people who matter most to you? I know, I’m getting a tad too sentimental and nostalgic now, but while the moment is right, allow me to say this:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

Before I darted off to work this morning, I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. Although I’m probably as vain as a pedicab barker in the marketplace, what I saw did not please me at all. Prominent dark spots with the size of orange wedges have started to form beneath my eyes. I’ve been myopic half of my life, and yet, my darn eyeglasses do a lousy job in concealing my obvious lack of sleep. You’d think that these spectacles with all their multi-coated lens and insanely expensive and highly-corrosive metal frames would have other uses aside from making you look smart, serious, and geeky. But no – let the high heavens sob! – they don’t.

As expected, the bulk of my stress nowadays stems from having to complete my daunting office tasks before the year ends. This is how it works in the private sector: You’re given a set of tasks or goals to complete for the year. You’re expected to meet all those goals, taking three elements into serious consideration – time, quality and cost. If you finish everything up, then you’re fine. But bungle up your goals? Then expect your a-double-s to get whipped.

For most of my colleagues here in Makati, pending work is not the only thing that causes them heart palpitations and upset stomachs. Starting Monday next week, our company moves to another building. From the Citibank Tower in the heart of Salcedo Village, we’re going to pack our things up and move to the uber-posh building that is 6750 Ayala Ave. Not only do we now get to rub shoulders with the detergent-peddling executives of Procter & Gamble and lubricant-flashing employees of Caltex, but the swanky shops of Glorietta, Rustan’s, and Greenbelt are just a stone’s throw away from our new place.

Starting next week, I’m half expecting audible gushes that would include “I’m feeling rather sleepy today… I better get my Starbuck’s fix downstairs.” “Let’s skip lunch and watch King Kong in Greenbelt 3.” “Ohmilord! It’s (insert name here)’s birthday. Now I’ll have to endure a 50-meter walk from 6750 to the Powerbooks outlet from across the street to purchase a present.”  

Just yesterday, we had a tour of our new office space in 6750. They briefed us for everything from structure, safety practices, and space allocation. I finally saw my new cubicle, too. It’s sandwiched between the offices of the Resource Management Manager (our depatment’s big boss) and the Geoscience Manager (my immediate boss). Perhaps fate is playing devious trickery on me for placing me in such hot spot territory. On the bright side, now that I’m seated in a space adjacent to two big bosses, it might provide me with enough motivation to work doubly hard and get my act together. And before I forget to mention this, I also get a single window view of Ayala Avenue in my new cube (woohoo!). That and the building column strategically placed in one corner of my space, allowing me to have a “mini hiding place” for lunch time naps and what-nots.

As I write this, I realized that it’s been a month since I posted a blog entry and only eleven days to go before Christmas. Shucks, I never imagined that I would be this busy. As the one-hit wonder band Arkarna would proudly profess, it’s “so little time, so much to do” indeed. With tons of work left and negligible holiday shopping done (as if I have money for that in the first place), I’m bound to be more stressed in the coming days. But what the heck; bring it on!