We are LIVE!

So I had this project at work which I've been involved with since around June-July of last year. It consumed most of my thinking hours, drastically reducing my crafting time (notice the lack of posts from October to December?), contributed 90% to my stress level, and basically sucked all the happiness out of my office cube for a while (just kidding! Never happens... I am, by nature, a happy person).

And last Saturday... our project went LIVE! Go check it out.

The NEW Trend Micro Support Portal

Our project team redesigned the whole website! The new 'look' is more organized and easier to navigate.

The new landing page for Home & Home Office support.

I had nothing to do with how the website looks, by the way. That was the work of the members of our very talented Web Team. I designed the back-end features which you don't really 'see' but is needed to make website work (like that little drop down list on the image above).

I can breathe... at least for today. Tomorrow, I have my first meeting for Phase 2 of this project. We are not done yet (darn! I can't get our Web Team to help me redesign my blog yet! haha).

But for now... hmmm... I wonder if I can post this project in link parties??? ;)

Baby Shower

My team mates from work gave me a baby shower last Wednesday (September 16, 2009). I was really surprised because it came earlier than I expected (we usually give showers during a person's last week of work before they go on leave and I will still be here for another 2 weeks... I hope).

Thank you so much! I really like everything I got :D

Gifts... gifts...

... and more gifts! :)

Monday Morning Tidbits

My mind was wandering on my way to work this morning

1. New Year's resolution, broken during the first week: I used 3 plastic cups from the pantry last week... Aaargh! I'm going to have to try harder this week. Or better yet, I think I need to bring my own mug

2. Heard on the radio this morning:

Mr. De la Paz: I think we are given one year to file an appeal.
Korina: You are one year to appeal...

(I think she meant, "You have one year to appeal...")

3. Sa wakas! They finally re-opened the first U-Turn sa C5. The sign says it's open from 9AM - 4PM only.

4. I was being attacked my Monday sickness and I was fighting the urge to tell the cab driver to turn back. I swore to myself 2 years ago that I will refrain from not going to work on Mondays, even when I'm really sick, because it gives a bad impression. So here I am.

Have a great week!

How Could I Have Forgotten?

I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And I get those tendencies at the most unusual times.

I was working on something I had to complete for work earlier when I was hit with a strong compulsion to check one of my old email accounts. It was a feeling I couldn't shake and kept bothering me until I couldn't work anymore until I did.

I created that email account in 2005, before I left my first job. The primary purpose of that account was to back up the personal emails that I wanted to save that were sent to my work email account, before it was disabled.

(Lesson learned: never, ever use your work email for personal correspondence... but I was young then and I was proud of my first work-related email account so I used it a lot to email my friendly friends back then)

I haven't opened that email account in a long time and I have long forgotten the emails and most of the people behind those emails. I decided to close that account and forward the emails I wanted to keep to my now-with-unlimited-capacity primary web email. So I started reading through them...

How could I have forgotten you?

Most of you have heard my horror stories.... the reasons that pushed me to quit my first job. Due to the poignancy of those events, I guess it was easy to overlook the small things.

The small things that kept me there for a long time, and in spite of everything that happened, made it difficult for me to leave.

It was all there in the emails I kept.

How could I have forgotten?

The small jokes and how we managed to laugh after a meeting gone bad (...really bad, I think). Small discussions with my boss who had a big part in shaping my professional values (until now, I still have his words of wisdom in my head... and I like to think I'm living them). Stories, small talk, and angst bouncing back and forth between floors when we couldn't talk out loud because we had people breathing down our necks (literally for some of us, haha).

My last few months were the most tumultous, but your old emails reminded me that there were good times. There were friends and good things worth remembering.

I remember now. And I hope I never forget again.

Are you lonely?

Paulo posted this on my Funwall (in Facebook).

Meetings... the reason why I'm still here at the office at 9PM X(