Day 306, Feb 08, 2012

Early Birds:

I've seen these birds show up at times - and I can say that its a species that I've not seen when I was young. They're roughly 3 times bigger than your typical brown maya birds - yet as they seem to be appearing more frequently, I can't say I've got anything against them.

First time I saw such a species was in Johnson and Johnson, and I was obviously curious about them - and tried getting a picture. At best (as this was during my pre-telephoto lens days), I would capture a picture that had them at a distance... and I would be a bit frustrated that this was as good as it would get - until I got my zoom lens that is.

This particular picture was definitely unplanned. As I got out of the car, en route to the Accenture office in McKinley, I spotted these two perched at the makeshift fence that the car had backed up on. I grabbed my camera, carefully (so as not to startle the birds) changed lens, leaned on my car's roof for support - and shot a few pics of them. Apparently, they were grooming themselves  - probably just got up (notice how sleepy they still look in the picture?), and were preparing for the day ahead. Lucky me, I was in the right place, at the right time. It's situations or opportuniites like this that I bring my camera around.

Day 305, Feb 07, 2012

Fun!

Technical trainings that we (that is to say, my colleagues and I) conduct are serious matters - after all, when you discuss such things as Project planning, analysis, design, development and testing - one wonders how such topics can be presented in an interesting manner. It does take some imagination and a lot of analogies.

We really try doing this - and aside from the usual activities and lectures/discussions, I find it useful to pace our topics - to avoid too much information overload, and inject some fun activities. This particular picture captures such fun by way of a reverse charades game, where one person needs to guess the actions of the rest of the team - this activity is a prime example of needing to be assertive to communicate (no one can guess what the item/topic is if the team is passive), be imaginative (you need to know how best to communicate), and act in conjunction with others (if they act out in unison, it does make guessing easier).

As of now, this game is unique to our Application Testing School conducts, and the activity is courtesy of Tess. I wonder how it will look like if this conduct is not privy to such fun... I'll bet it will be less conducive. This is a prime example of facilitators going beyond what is asked. Tess does this - as do other colleagues of mine. I've done it in the past as well.

Day 304, Feb 06, 2012

Markers:

These items are quite indispensable to me and my colleagues whenever we conduct any training - after all, they are essential to our ability to write or draw our ideas while imparting knowledge, wisdom or just plain ideas to our participants. It can be a tool for writing (of course), pointing (to a limited extent), deciding (in a spin the bottle manner) or  - if the need arises, a projectile (not to worry, its an idea I hardly use).

They help when we ask our participants to likewise write or draw their thoughts, answers and collaborative conclusions to certain activities. There was even a time when these markers came with a wider variety of colors (and in some instances, smells even). When I conduct workshops - both in or outside of Accenture, I try to make sure I've a set of markers - just in case I need to write or draw ideas. Yup... such simple, mundane tools when you think about it - yet evidently useful in allowing us to be better communicators.

Day 303, Feb 05, 2012

New Jacket:

This jacket was something I purchased in my LSGH homecoming the night before - I was intending to get one for myself... unfortunately, due to some limited planning on the manufacturer's part, they did not consider the fact that a lot of the alumni wouldn't fit in the usual student sizes... hence nothing that I liked fit me, so... I just decided to get a jacket for Bryce instead.

I liked this particular design because it showed the basic La Salle design; complete with the stylized LS letters that; when combined with the traditional colors of Green and White, symbolizes the school I studied in - the same school that Bryce now attends for his college.

On the bright side, the makers of the jacket did give me their number, so I can order and have said jacket delivered to my place (with an additional delivery charge of Php100), and I just might order one jacket. But will I order one exactly like the design I got for Bryce? Why not? It is a cool design. Then again, if I can make some changes to the current design, I'd opt for a more predominant green (maybe make the white sleeves green as well) - after all, great looking as white can be, it can easily be dirtied. Hence the reason I'd go for an all green design.

Meanwhile, it really is nice seeing Bryce enjoy his new jacket.

Day 302, Feb 04, 2012

A Verde Homecoming!

Yup, its another LSGH homecoming, and once again, I get to mingle with people I normally see at least every February, July (or August) and December. I refer to our 'Bastardic' get togethers - and normally, we enjoy visiting our old Alma Mater during every first weekend of February.

As you can see with the picture I took, my batch mates (not all of them seen in this picture, mind you) are enjoying the night with each other's company. It was just too bad that I would up having my camera batteries dying out on me that evening (it was a very busy day, so I was unable to recharge the battery before going to the homecoming). Too bad, I would have wanted to get a whole lot more shots.

I like the shot's background - on the left side, you can see portions of the evening's stage, while on the right side, you can see a portion of the St. Benilde's lighted ceiling - so it really shows where this event was happening.

Day 301, Feb 03, 2012

Friday night!

This little get together was an imprompo'tu thing. It started with Gina just mentioning that she wanted to drink Friday, and I readily said 'sure, let's do it.' or something similar.

Gina then started texting the usual suspects - in this case, Jingo and Brian, while also asking a few more friends/colleagues if they wanted to join us. When Brian and Jingo agreed - we know it was a 'go', and Gina started asking Batchie and/or her yaya to prepare some pulutan.

After the Application Analysis class, I, for one, was glad we'd be having this. And even if I had to fetch Bernice in Greenhills, do the groceries and get home, I was determined to be a part of this 'winding down' with friends - some of whom were not able to join our January Bacardi session (I, of course refer to Gina and Brian).  We loosened up with some beer, Jingo brought wine and I brought some Jagermeister. So yeah... we did enjoy each other's company, stories and discussions. It was a perfect end to a work week.

Jingo took the shot - I chose it because most of us (except Jingo) were in the picture. Again, this would have been better had I brought the tripod. Perhaps I should keep it in the car's trunk - but then again, I was using the black car during Fridays, so I might have forgotten it in the other car's trunk anyway. So... two tripods - one in each car?

Hnh, yeah... right.

Day 300, Feb 02, 2012

My bag... sometimes.

This is a Camelback, as the label proudly announces - and for military people, or weekend warriors (like I used to be), this means its not a large backpack at all - after all, these bags are designed to primarily carry a few liters of water - specially for dessert missions.

I don't use it for water though. Instead I find it useful when carrying 'light' - meaning not carrying too many stuff at all - so its for convenience. Its large enough to fit a book or two (though not the very large or thick ones) so I'm not sure if, say, a hardbound copy of Harry Potter 7 would fit into this... but it can definitely fit several comic books (with backing boards, of course). It can carry my cell phone chargers as well, and yes... I can squeeze in a few cans of drinks here too.

So yeah... this bag is what I use when I don't plan to carry too many stuff. As for the photo, I decided to go macro shot with the label... hopefully capturing some of the bag's texture as well. So yeah... sue me if it alsmost looks like a product shoot again. Guess I've got a hangover from the previous product shoot.

On a side note once again... post 300!!!

Now it really is a countdown with the remaining 65 (or 66, since its a leap year) days for year two of my project 365.

Day 299, Feb 01, 2012

Suddenly... Analysis:

Why such a title? Simple... this was not originally scheduled to be my training. In fact, as I said two days back, I was looking forward to having a week-long vacation. On one hand, I was glad for the rest - on the other, I was rather worried about the pay cut I'd be having due to this.

Lucky for me, a colleague (Fiel) felt sick, and had to request I take over from him starting with day 3 of his training. So suddenly, my 'vacation' was cut short after the two days, and unfortunately, I was unable to finish all the needed home chores I had planned... but, at least, I know I'd be paid for these three days. The training in particular was Analysis, and I get to partner with Gina.

Let me just say that prior to this sudden change of assignments, I was getting worried that February would match the dearth performance of January's conducts. I guess God (or kismet or fate) has other plans, after all.

Whichever the case, I'm grateful - I just hope my better luck is not always at a friend's (or worse, my family's) expense.

Day 298, Jan 31, 2012

Product shoot:

Yup, I'm doing this - not professionally (as I'm not getting paid to do it), so that Barbie's office mate can use the pictures (this is just one of several) for presentation purposes.

Normally, they'd tap some other professional photographer - and chances are they still would, had this been a more formal marketing thrust. But in this case, the sudden need (so lack of time to contact a pro) and possibly even budgetary constraints, made Barbie think of me. Personally, I welcomed the challenge - after all, I've not been in too many product shoots (though there was the food blog which I could count).

I definitely learned a few lessons while doing this - foremost being I may need a product shoot tent (a small one) for times like this... and another is that I should use a tripod, as I tend to move... specially should this shoot last longer than a few minutes. I have this... in fact, I've got two tripods, so this should not be a problem for me.

Another possible lesson learned? I need to invest in lighting. So yeah... more lighting and the product tent. I'll need to save up for the light - as for the tent, I think I can get them easily enough in Greenhills. I've seen them in the past - I just did not think I'd be needing them - not yet, at least. Apparently, I was wrong. Oh well...

Day 297, Jan 30, 2012

New batch!

Got these comics, and a trade of Daredevil yesterday, but its only just today that I can enjoy reading these titles. As it turns out, I've got a long vacation (unplanned) so I can just look at this as my catch up time with some of the things I need to do at home.

But before I do those home chores, I'm going to sit back and enjoy these titles. Of the comics shown here, I'm looking forward to reading Aquaman, Captain America and Bucky, X-force and Justice League. Naturally, I'm also looking forward to reading the first few issues of Mark Waid's Daredevil. I've seen reviews about this new direction of DD, and prior to my getting this compilation, I was really searching for back issues of DD; with little success.

Now, I need not search. I'm relatively updated with DD.