An everlasting gratitude

To my mother, Eliza, the most beautiful person inside and out, who knows every challenge & dream I have, who shares generously all the love and understanding that inspire me to keep reaching for my dreams. Thank you Ma for everything, all the assistance, advices & helping me searched & shipped from Davao City to Kobe all the reading materials I needed for my thesis.

To my father, Villamindo, who I greatly and silently admire for the unparalleled loyalty & dedication to his job as a police officer & responsible person that you have always shown us & the institution you work with, for indefatigably doing all your duties with unwavering fervor. Your dedication & hard work will remain unparalleled by us, a true legacy we will always look up to with pride. Pa, you will always be our guiding star.

To my ever active and well-respected academic adviser, Yutaka Katayama-sensei for the generous guidance, words of encouragement, for the belief you have on the Philippines and for taking it as one of your fields of expertise, where a distinguished few have endurably pursue.

To the JICE-JDS Program; GSISCS, Kobe University; and the whole Government of Japan for giving me this rare opportunity to immerse in an international community and experience the wonderful things and simple joys of being in a first-world, disciplined, safety and health-conscious Japan--the first foreign country I have come to admire and love so much--for giving me this great and life-transforming opportunity, I will forever remember and be grateful of.

To my dearest brothers Erwin & Kenneth, Don Marco Luis & siblings for the everyday inspirations, JICE-JDS batch-mates, co-fellows, co-scholars, precious friends, to Pearl, Claire, Jessa, Mary, Dels, Nueva, Lynn & Gene, Jonny & family, Maricor & family, Vic, Gay & kids, Akikosan, Hirokosan, my host families--Abe & Kazuko families, to you all I share my humble achievements & aspirations. Thank you for the generous & endless guidance you extend to me every step of the way & for giving me an equally comforting home in Japan. Same goes to my co-JDS fellow, Hestie for the ever warm friendship that I hope to last beyond forever & for the translations of Arabic words; my ‘sister Mayette’ & family for the generously kind, equally genuine friendship; Salen & family, honey, minna kazuko, to all the people & friends who have touched my life challengingly in myriad ways.

To the Philippine scholarship committee, the Philippine National Police, PRO XI & RIID XI, my superiors & office colleagues for the wonderful research exposure, for trusting in my ability to handle a challenging job. This is just the beginning of more wonderful things ahead for all of us…

To God, the greatest of all whom I dedicate my life to, all the glory are yours now and forever…

I sock... (to follow soon)

...promise to make a write up on the topic above when I have the spare time while in the middle of doing my thesis!

I am very delighted to show you soon one of the many colorful faces of Japan. I am hooked on it and really I just sock!

=)

Ohanami

Sakura in 2006

Spring is celebrated with the beautiful sakura, pink blooms everywhere in Japan.

Haru ka fuyu?

I thought winter is already over...

Sakura has fully bloomed in some places in Japan and most have been anticipating and heralding the arrival of spring, not only because of ohanami but to shun away from the biting winter cold to which most gaijin and nihonjin alike have detested, except me who gets thrilled and excited with snow and the freezing winter breeze; longing for snow to linger and winter to last longer. Most of the time braving the cold weather with ordinary clothing and getting used to surprised faces of friends and their remarks like "how did you survive winter?" or "kaya mo?"

March 30, 2006. Past 22:00 hour, I went out of the dorm to buy at a nearby Family Mart, just to satisfy a compulsive urge to eat, my favorite french bread stuffed with walnuts I have missed for days already.

Even inside my room, the heater is almost running 24 hours non-stop, is freezing cold aside from I am living in a reclaimed area surrounded by waters. Just yesterday, I shelled out more than ichiman issen en to pay my electric bill alone. By Japanese standard that is way expensive already for a single consumer. Winter this year in Japan has been extra cold just as summer in 2004 had been extraordinarily very hot.

Once outside, I was greeted by the terribly cold air despite donning a mask, winter jacket, three-piece inner clothes (upper garments), jeans over my pajama, boots and leather gloves. However, that did not still stop me from going, so off I went in my mountain bike. Less than ten minutes after, I already had bought a bagful of my favorite bread and decided to stop by at another nearby supa (short for supermarket in contemporary Japanese) to buy what they call "pudding" in Japan which actually is like "leche flan" in the Philippines, only minus the extremely sweet taste.

On my way, I noticed that I was shaking cold and thought that today is very cold indeed despite the bright sunrise that has greeted mornings in Kobe for a week already. This is no thing to be surprised about anyway,I told myself, since weather in Japan can be unpredictably freak. This hour you have a clear sky, the sun shining very bright then the next moment you are bringing out your umbrella to avoid getting soaked from rain. Or today it feels cold because it is winter, tomorrow you see the sun beaming its bright aloha smile on you like it is summer.

I hurriedly rode back to my dorm. Around five minutes of travel, I was already looking for a designated space to park my bike properly. It had been days also that I delinquently left my jitensya parked in the driveway. Within a couple of minutes only, my hands were feeling tingly and in no time they were hurting already as if suffering from a frost bite when the last time Kobe saw snow was in December, early or mid-January, but missed out most of the snowy days since I spent holidays in Tokyo where unfortunately I did not see snow during my entire stay there!

Hurriedly, I climbed up to the third floor and once inside my room, I washed my hands with warm water. I was feeling real pain, both my hands were hurting bad. Minutes later, I saw my hands turned real red and when moisture from the faucet water had all dried up, I saw tiny red sore lines in my left hand. The skin tissues were ruptured due to the ambivalent temperature I subject myself into without paying extra attention to my own physiological limits. As the sayings goes, "the spirit maybe strong but the body is weak."

After finishing up two pieces of bread, I began browsing over the internet searching for a temperature counter but found only a weather forecast that says temperature in Japan has dropped to 36 degrees Farenheight, meaning it is around two degrees Celsius today. Though, average temperature has remained less than 10 degrees Celsius anyway since the height of the fuyu season. On a similar note, the last time I recalled being told the exact temperature came from a public announcement welcoming JAL's arrival at the newly-built Kobe Kokusai Kouko that it was "roku (means six) dou" in Kobe to think around mid-February of same time, in less than a two-hour flight away I had, is Okinawa taking pride with its 23 degrees Celsius temperature at the peak of winter season in mainland Nippon, or Nihon by some.

Which leads me to wish. Hope to wake up tomorrow gazing at snowflakes by the balcony. Or if not, hope in three straight days or so the temperature remains or drops even lower if snow is to come anew at this onset of spring... and I will be the only happiest gaijin in Port Island here in Kobe beaming from ear to ear.

Yuki ga daisuki desu yo! * _ ^

Ureshii na

Beyond
what
your
eyes
can
see







sighted at jo's.

"Why do talented employees leave companies?
Read on and find out why.

Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, a charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training.

"My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge technology." Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job. He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore. Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He's distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed because he can't figure out what happened. Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary?

Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All The Rules. It came up with this surprising finding: If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training - when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue." If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away? Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors.

You can leave one job to find - you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one. Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees.

Here are some all-too common tales from the battlefield: Dev, an engineer, still shudders as he recalls the almost daily firings his boss subjected him to, usually in front of his subordinates. His boss emasculated him with personal, insulting remarks. In the face of such rage, Dev completely lost the courage to speak up. But when he reached home depressed, he poured himself a few drinks, and magically, became as abusive ! as the boss himself. Only, it would come out on his wife and children. Not only was his work life in the doldrums, his marriage began cracking up too.

Another employee Rajat recalls the Chinese torture his boss put him through after a minor disagreement. He cut him off completely. He bypassed him in any decision that needed to be taken. "He stopped sending me any papers or files," says Rajat. "It was humiliating sitting at an empty table. I knew nothing and no one told me anything." Unable to bear this corporate Siberia, he finally quit. HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job. When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, too nit-picky. But they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit -often over seemingly trivial issue. It isn't the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that went before. And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons - for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Arun's boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee. There's the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others. Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation.

Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse. We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales. "Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company's value lies "between the ears of its employees". If it's! bleeding talent, it's bleeding value. Unfortunately, many senior executives busy travelling the world, signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away."


100% quoted sweet from my favorite comic relief marhgil.

Have a break, have a laugh

Condolezza Rice and George Bush at the oval office...

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China.Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?"

peeped from randy.

GO & Don't Look Back.

At some point or another in your life, there will be people who’ll walk away from you. And hear me when i say when people walk away from you, let them.
When people want to walk away from you, let them go. Your destiny is not tied to anybody who wants to leave. People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you cant make them stay.

Let them go.

It simply means that their part in your life’s story is over. And you must know when people’s part is over so that you dont keep trying to raise the dead. You’ve got to know when it’s over.
Let me tell you something - I believe in good-byes. It’s not that im hateful. I just know that whatever God means for me to have, He’ll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat, I dont need it. Stop begging people to stay. Let them go!

If you are holding on to something that doesnt belong to you and was never intended for your life… LET IT GO!
If you are holding on to past hurts and pains… LET IT GO!
If someone cant treat you right, love you back, and see your worth… LET IT GO!
If you’re stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a new level… LET IT GO!
If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship… LET IT GO!
If there is a situation that you are so used to handling, and God seems to be saying “Take your hands off it!”… LET IT GO!

Put the past behind you. Get rid of your excess baggage. There are happy circumstances waiting to happen in 2006, fun things to do, amazing possibilities in your life, and true love - if you only let go.

extracted from yen.

Hajimemashite.

"Ola ola." (kono kotoba wa dedicated to ai-san, liliam-san to ivan-san desu)

Warning: The above and following language you are about to read stems from the almost two (2) years of trying to juggle a mix of languages that unwittingly evolved into some weird if not cool (yeah, you heard me right there) "go" of its own.

This is the effect of trying to learn Japanese that come mixed with English and other languages I overheard from my gaijin friends and kurasume-to. For a gaijin like me still learning the basic, the following is the most over-used, most repeated lines of self-introduction (jikoshoukai) yet still commonly spoken, widely acccepted and widely applauded (tabun, to omoimasu) formal form of Japanese (日本語).

Ja, hajimemashou ka.

Konnichiwa. Watashi wa (name) desu. Watashi wa (age, tatueba...) nijuukyusai (i.e., 29) desu. otanjubi wa (month, tatueba...) gogatsu (day, e.g. 12) juuninichi desu. (year of birth)___nen umare desu. (name of country) kara kimashita. (In some cases it's heard like this---)[name of country] de umaremashita. Shumi wa (tatueba...) ungako o kitte hon o yomu koto desu.

In 日本語 it is written (well, almost accordingly, gomen ne) in the following:

私 は____です。____さいです。____年生です。誕生日は___月__日です。___年うまれです。___でうまれました。しゅみは____です。

For more real exciting (hmmm...rhen-san, do you agree?) 日本語 lessons, click this link .

Well, not too bad for a buena mano?

Ja mata ne.