The Persuader

I took a Personality Type test from www.mypersonality.info and here's the result:


It basically says that I'm more extroverted, more sensing, a thinker than a "feeler" and more perceiving than judging. My primary function is Extraverted Sensing, which means:

Sensing people process data with their five senses, so the Extraverted Sensing function allows a person to process life through their experiences. It is the ability to be keen to what is seen, smelled, touched, heard and tasted. It is energized by experience and it is able to live "in the moment."

I fall under the Creator temperament and people like me comprise 35.5% of the whole populace (pretty common, huh). Under the Creator temperament are Persuaders, Entertainers, Craftsmen and Artists. I'm a Persuader, also known as the ESTP personality type.

Being a Persuader (I'm among of the 8% of the population with the same personality) I'm described as:

"Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are "doers" who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing."

-The Personality Page

People with the same personality as mine are Jacob (Isaac's son), Ernest Hemingway (the American novelist), Donald Trump (The Apprentice), Bruce Willis, Michael J. Fox, Jack Nicholson, Madonna and fictional characters like Bart Simpson (I find this really funny), Sonny Corleone (a character from The Godfather; he was supposed to be the successor of Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, the most impulsive and violent of Vito's children who was brutally killed in a toll plaza) and James Bond (I'm telling you, I can be an incognito!).

I'm not sure if this test is accurate though I agree in most of the analysis. But I guess the most interesting here is the Bart Simpson, Sonny Corleone and James Bond part. LOL!

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Closing Spiel

I got this from my old old blog that I have made private. I wrote it before I left my work as a technical support representative in a call center. Good times...

MY CLOSING SPIEL

To graveyard shifts...
To bottomless ice tea, juice and coffee...
To queuing season...
To daily spams...
To "petix" modes...
To critical work weeks...
To ever-changing metrics...
To kickbacks and fines...
To out-of-this-world computer issues...
To Cable Car nights...
To the Geebras...
To my new friends, and I mean friends...
To my teammates...
To my CNB ("crush ng bayan") Team Leader...
To my headset...
To Indian and Chinese callers...
To irate customers...

This has been Man, have a great day!!

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Travel again!

I'm thrilled! I'm going back to Cagayan de Oro! We are in our initial supply chain mapping of 'Solo' papaya in Southern Mindanao and there are quite a number of large plantations there. It's been almost four months since my last Mindanao trip. The last time was in Davao City for the wrapping up of our mango supply chain project. We'll be there for four days tentatively .

I'm thrilled because of two things. First, because this is a new project (well, relatively) and I'll be interviewing new sets of people. Talking to farmers and traders can be difficult at times but I wanna have a fresh attitude about it. I think I have learned a lot from our mango supply chain project and I hope I'd be savvy this time. Hehe. Second, I'll try to meet with my high school friend and my inaanak. The last time we met in Cagayan de Oro was brief because I was there for just a day. Hopefully we could spend more time together. We'll sure be talking about our plans for our high school batch's grand reunion this coming December.

It's gonna be a busy February!


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Change is ought

Tomorrow is the first day of the second month of the year. January passed like a forgotten dream of an afternoon nap. I was right when I thought that 2009 will come like a postman. Quick and brief.

Yesterday was the deadline of submission of applications for graduate school. Yesterday I decided to get an application form for my Master's Degree. The deadline was extended til next week. Things are going to my favor.

I know I have to make a big decision before January ends. I did. I have been itching for a change to happen in my so-called career and I am making a defining move. When you grow old, choices and decisions are inevitable and they don't usually come in easy.

I'll be applying for a scholarship that's offered only to full-time students. That means I'll have to resign in my current job. I'm sort of prepared with that though. My 8:00 AM-5:00 PM routine is going to change and old habits must be undone.

What I'm looking forward the most though, is what's gonna happen to me in the next four years. I have to admit that the decisions I'm making from this year on has a lot to do with building a family and part of it is to establish myself as a man with a stable career. When one grows old, he has to grow up. I'm trying now.

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Tag Bug

I have been recently tagged by a fellow blogger, Scott (my first time, actually) so I'm giving it a shot. I'm supposed to reveal six things about me and I have to tag other six fellows to do the same. I'm not really fan of chain mails but I think this one's interesting. Besides, I haven't been posting for almost a week, so now I have something to write about.


Here are six random facts about ManÜ:

1. I was born with a tooth. Yup! And I myself am amazed and amused. According to my Mom, it was lower middle tooth. How did it happen? I don't know. Can somebody give me an explanation behind this rare phenomenon?
2. I am living away from my hometown for almost a decade now. From the time I went to college, my longest stay home was about two weeks. Now that I am working, the vacation becomes shorter and lesser. My hometown by the way is Aroroy, Masbate. Probably one of the remotest places in the face of the earth. But there's a gold mine there.
   
3. My mother was supposed to name me Ceazar because I came into this world by caesarian birth. I'm the first child of three and all of us were born in that way. I'm also the third Manuel in the family. My grandfather, my father and me... That makes me Manuel III. According to my mother, I was named after my grandfather because at the time that she was about to give birth to me, my Lolo (that's how we call our grandfathers here in the Philippines) had a stroke and few weeks after that, he died. So I was kind of a replacement.
4. I love to cook! I had this thought after cooking a menu for some hundred hungry bellies, that maybe I'm born to feed people. Haha! Fortunately, most of the time, they appreciate my cooking. I'm famous for my barbecue. I have been giving out my recipe but people just can't make it taste like mine. Haha!
5. I used to work in a call center for about a year and a quarter. For two months, I spent my nights activating gift cards of people from the other side of the planet. After that, I was a technical support representative. I dealt with various computer (desktop and notebooks) issues -- from turning on a PC to formatting the hard drive. I spent two Christmases taking in calls. I enjoyed the job, though.
6. I did not take the licensure exam for the degree I finished. I'm an Agricultural Engineering graduate but I chose not to take the board exam because I couldn't see myself enjoying the profession and I couldn't see an agricultural engineer me for another 20 years, not even 10. My rationale is that, so what if I have a title attached to my name if I'm not really practicing it. There's no use. It would just be a title.
   

Now my turn to tag...

• Frosty Puppies
• Womenselfesteem
• Daily Light
• Carnation
• RandomWHAMThoughts
• Infinite Loop Republic
  

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8 Things That Made My '08

I was reading a feature from a broadsheet about several lists of things that happened in 2008 and I thought I'll have my own. These are not really listed in order of significance. It's just a random list.

1. Blogging
Finally, I took it seriously. I blogged before out of boredom but now I'm doing it like I need to take a bath. For years, I haven't been writing for the sheer joy of writing and this is a revival. One of the good things that happened was I became aware and involved again. I mean, because before, I have been keeping my opinions to myself (especially about current events) but now, I get to write about them.

2. Mango supply chain project research, done!
One of the relieving and rewarding parts of being a researcher to see his research project finally completed. Finishing our mango research is precious to me because it was my first professional research study and I worked my butt out for almost three years. Perks included during the study includes travels to different part of the country like Davao, Guimaras, Iloilo, Pangasinan and Abra... and of course, a trip to Hong Kong!

3. PowerPoint presentations
This year, I made my boss an awful lot of PowerPoint presentations for all her lectures overseas -- Pakistan, China, Thailand and Cambodia. My highest record is four in a day. In several instances, friends from our church who are assigned to speak for our Tuesday youth fellowship also asked help from me in presenting their messages, digitally. Each slide has been a piece of canvass and to say that I am fascinated by it is an understatement.

4. Chris Tomlin Concert
This one is a major event. The work this guy is doing is really a blessing. His music is heartfelt and true worship. I volunteered for the Passion Conference Manila last August and the experience was awesome. I have been an usher for a night and seeing the crowd of almost 7000 who came together to worship God is just wonderful.

5. Ate Madel and Daph
These two officemates has been a big support for me, professionally and financially. The shared meals and the money they lent me for those times that my job contract was being processed were a huge help. Imagine no pay for more than a month... these ladies has helped me get through. Not to mention how they helped me not to screw in the lab with my clumsy little hands.

6. Online Shopping
This one is a sweet find. So far, I shopped replica watches, shirts, shemaghs and a bag through multiply.com. Lately, I have been eyeing Pepe Tees. Who knows what else are there to find in the www.

7. Ate Weng and Kuya A's Wedding
It was a pool wedding and it was beautiful. They were my former training apartment housemates and I get to reprise my perennial wedding role -- emcee. It was also a chance to get together with Ate Ritchi's family (the bride's sister) who is one of my mothers in faith. I got to spend time with her kids (her eldest was my godson) and I enjoyed it so much and I got to be a child again.

8. YM chit-chats and chat-fights
Letters are sweet and cards are good but getting in touch everyday with good friends through online instant messaging is the best, and cheap. There's my ever interesting conversations with a good good friend who migrated in the US where, in not so frequent times, end up in "mature" fights (hehe... she's a bully... oops, i hope she's not reading this). But really, thanks to online chatting, I was able to get in touch again with high school and college friends whom I never heard of for years. YM Status are sometimes enough to start a really good conversation (many times I got in trouble because of these "YM Status")
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Promdi*

Internet? Are you kidding me?

It was only in my second year in college (I was 18 at that time) when I learned to surf the internet. I entered college with zero knowledge on how to use a computer. I mean ZERO knowledge. Yeah, I'm Tarzan who just had his taste of the city.

I grew up in one of the poorest (they actually say it's the poorest) provinces of the Philippines. My eyes grew in wonder like an awed caveman when I first saw the bright light of an electric bulb when I was 7 years old. I watched my first television show when I was 9. Life was so simple back then. We are way behind the latest technology but we are blessed with natural riches -- fresh clean air, beaches, seafood, and there's a gold mine in our little town

I passed the entrance exam of one of the universities (the BEST they say) in the country so I got to see a more civilized world. Then I have to confront myself of the reality that computer is going to be an important part of my college life. You could imagine the frustration! I didn't even know how to turn it on and off. I used to spend hours and hours of typing just a page of an essay because I didn't know about choosing and adjusting font, doing the margins... you know, those stuff a grade-schooler can chew like a bubble gum. In many instances, I lost my files and start all over again because I didn't know that you actually save them. Yeah, you can call me Tarzan now. Thanks to my kind friends from the small fellowship I was attending that time who taught me how to use Microsoft Office.

Then the internet. I used to just watch my friends do stuff with the computer. Internet is quite a popular word but I'm a complete dumb about it. Then one night, I was quite depressed and I got nothing to talk to. I mustered my strength, gathered all my courage and went off to a computer cafe near the university. Internet here I come... It was just the "e" I thought. That's what my friends usually click! Good thing I can read and I just followed what the screen told me after the clicking the "e". The rest was history.

So yeah, it's a long journey until I learned this blog thing. It's always good to take a pause and look back and see how far you've been. Makes you continue with the journey with a fresh wide eyed anticipation of life's next treats.

By the way, there is still no internet access in our little town. But since the last time I visited, network games (through LAN) like DOTA is becoming the kids' new addiction.



*Promdi is a Filipino slang for people "from the" province.
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So Far So Good

It's barely three weeks after I started my personal blog and I'm happy, thrilled and excited with my progress so far. My sincere appreciation to my visitors and readers. Thanks thanks!

So what's up with the bar graph? (I feel like I'm writing one of those technical reports in my research. Hehe) Alright, that's my Sitemeter statistics from November 28 (when I started this blog) up to December 9. In the recent summary sent to me by Sitemeter, it says that I have an average of 46 readers and an average of 105 page views per day from Nov. 8 up to today. Not bad for a newbie.

So that I'll get noticed, what I did was subscribe to social networks like Blog Catalog, My Bloglog, Twitter, Google Friend Connect and Rejaw (for which I just registered today). For those who wants to add me, my username in all these communities is mand3rd. I also (agressively) promote my blog to my friends in Multiply, Friendster and Facebook.

This blog is also earning pretty well. Just a few dollars (or cents) per day but it's ok. Better than nothing. Hopefully, by January I'll be able to reach Adsense's quota. This is actually my fund raising effort for our church's national conference this coming April.

Don't you think I deserve a pat on the back?
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They call me that

yuppie (yŭp'ē)

• A young city or suburban resident with a well-paid professional job and an affluent lifestyle
  
• Acronym for young urban professional
• The term was popularized during the 1980s to describe young career people having relatively high incomes and education, seeking instant success and gratification, often beyond their financial means

That's according to Mr. Answers.com (I used to look-up words like that in my thick Webster Dictionary). That's almost me minus the "well-paid" and "affluent lifestyle" (though the latter is debatable). And yes, the "seeking instant success and gratification, often beyond their financial means" is usually true.

I'm 26 and there's also a syndrome called "quarter life crisis" that is usually associated with my age. A lot of words they coin these days. Whatever, all these boil down to my generation's coping and trying to fit in this fast-paced and demanding 21st century.

I've used to work in the city with the "smart-casual" people and their gizmos, fashion, gimmicks, beers and Marlboro lights. It's a fun world yet the lifestyle is too shallow. The mantra is "live for the moment". Suit yourself with whatever will satisfy you. The 15th and 30th of the month is equal to party and shopping. I was in it for a while. And got tired. It's a world where happiness is temporary as it is superficial.

Why is happiness so popular? Is everybody lonely? Why does everyone want it yet never gets enough of it? The Bible says that God has set eternity in the heart of every man. Eternal beings can't find happiness in a world that is temporary. Man is searching for happiness at the wrong places and at the wrong relationships. Only three things in this world will last -- God, His Word and man's soul.

Man must turn to God who made him for a love relationship. He must turn away from sin that causes all his loneliness and frustrations. Sin ruined everything that was good. Unless he lets go and admit his helplessness, emptiness will creep through him. The main issue is sin and the simple yet most important question is, "Are you willing to let go of it?". Click Here to Read More..