Is it fair that government employees right now are being paid full while only reporting for a couple of days a week?

 Okay.

It kinda feels unfair that most of us are going through difficulties right now when it comes to us losing our jobs, being paid less than usual and/or being put under forced leaves while these people are just reporting once or twice a week whilst still being paid full.

Working for the government for almost 2 years as a contractual, it feels more shitty because I know how these tenured people 'work'. I'm just not talking shit in here without knowing anything. I have colleagues who just report twice a week and be paid whole for their 'service' and they just, well, talk in the office or eat out. I am not saying that all government employees are like this, I've met some good ones along the way but I am not talking about them in here.

I just want to mention this too: I personally know someone who works for the city health department who's supposed to report every day after the new year. She complains a lot that she doesn't want to do that, that she only wants to report during MWTh. I asked her to take a leave then or something if she doesn't want to go but she told me that she doesn't have to, she'll just go there in the morning and sign up for her attendance and go back home again and just come back when it's around 5pm. She's basically at home all day, doing God knows what, and still get paid while staying at home. She also used multiple times the 'frontliner' excuse to get what she wants, to get ahead of the line and to basically be an entitled crappy human being. She's not even working with COVID patients because she works with TEETH, the fuck.

Anyway, missed a couple of days due to family matters so I just want to write in here today while I feel like it. Ugh, this really pisses me off a lot.

Geology Books for Free/Borrowing/Sale

 Okay.

I'm really not sure how to do this but I really want to get rid of my Geology books. I am giving some for free, allowing you to borrow it and selling them for real, for real.

Just email me at alesanpantaleon@gmail.com so we can discuss how to do this. You can also ask me for a reviewer and I'll try to look for it on my Drive.

Really enjoyed reading Fossen's when I was preparing for the board exam. I think he has a sense of humor. Lol. All of these books are actually helpful especially for the first day and third day.

NOT FOR SALE. You can just borrow!

I will never sell a William Nesse's book. His Intro to Mineralogy is the bomb for Day 2. If you learn it by heart, you will never get lost in there. 👌😜

Another famous Struct book

Prof back then asked us to memorized the glossary of this book for an exam. Talk about top notch education.

For Day 3!

You have calculations in Day 3, trust me. You need to get your hands on everything that you can.

SOLD FOR MINIMAL FEES 50-250

You can see the wear and tear of the ones in here. I usually use multiple books on a certain course subject (I do a lot of reading).

Free

Bought this one before for Geomorphology haha.

[Life Blog] Office Chronicles: The Psychotic Officemate

 Okay.

I just got home from the office and man, that's rough. It's raining cats and dogs here in Manila. Although not really a fan of the rain and I don't like to go outside during this season, somehow, I found comfort in it while I was walking home.

During the quarantine, there is only one person who keeps on reporting to the office from our department since June. She goes there every Wednesday. I started joining her last October when I got bored at home and when I started feeling like shit mentally. The reason I am mentioning her is because she's really a cool gal and a source of the most intriguing gossips in the office. Given that she's always there, she hears a lot of things. Let's call her 'cool girl' or CG for short.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this entry right now is because I've heard a juicy tidbit earlier. There's this one girl in the office that pissed me off so much since I joined the company. Sometimes, I try to evaluate myself if anything that's happening during our encounter is because of my general attitude towards her (which I find to be okay and mostly polite). I even ask officemates and they said that I haven't done to her anything that can be misconstrued as mean and/or arrogant in the slightest. The general opinion is that she's really the office bitch and a little bit of power tripper as well. So, let's just call her 'office bitch' or OB for short.

If I am gonna be honest, I don't like confrontations. It's too emotionally draining, you're gonna be vulnerable and seriously, if I don't really need to do it, why would I even bother? It's a waste of precious time to be pissed over something especially when it comes to work. ALTHOUGH this is the case, if a person is being bitchy towards me without me doing anything to this person, I would definitely say that I don't appreciate it and ask them if they have a problem with me. This is probably the reason why OB is acting out on me. I usually just don't acknowledge her existence (haha, this is a weird way to put it but I just don't. I don't notice her antics, I barely talk to her unless needed and I have little to no interaction towards her outside of work). To me, she's just there. Maybe this is also another thing why she's so annoyed with me. Haha. I don't take notice of her. I don't know exactly when it started but it's probably around November when she 'accidentally forgot' to reserve our team's shuttle ride. First of all, that's real shitty of her but even though that was the case, I did not fight with her about it. I just asked her if she reserved our ride and when she said that she didn't and that she forgot about it, my teammate and I just go to the office ourselves and commuted. We just moved on and go on with our lives.

WELL, apparently, OB was obsessing about it, thinking that I would probably snitch her out towards our Vice President (we're not that close but since I am in a supervisory position, I kinda have a direct interaction with him). This was probably made worse when I was asking her about an extension for the submission of our Christmas presentation (omg, like, wtf? Why would you need this 2 days before the party when you're just gonna collate it and put in a preso?). OB started saying that she doesn't care if we make it on time, that we would be disqualified and that we should have done it earlier. Like, bitch, how are we gonna do that when we're basically busy with our jobs? It's not like I'm just collating stuff, putting it in a power point and/or documentary report, doing minutes of a meeting and scheduling meetings (she's an admin associate, btw). I AM DOING A MORE DEMANDING TASKS (I'm not trying to demean an admin job but c'mon. In the first place, she shouldn't be pressuring us with this). We were so eager to join this competition btw because we want to win back the money that we contributed towards this FREAKING ONLINE CHRISTMAS PARTY WITH NO FOOD OR WHATSOEVER. It's just some raffle prices that came from our own pockets, wtf. She was the one who initiated this because she likes to collect money and keep the rest of it via spending only the minimum that she could.

Long story short, I asked her if she has a problem with me. OB immediately stop being snarky towards me because this is how I said it:

"Hey, do you have a problem with me? I haven't done anything with you so I don't really appreciate this attitude of yours."

OB must have been real surprised to hear that from someone because most people just go with her since she's also the secretary of the Vice President. She tried to have a pleasant conversation with me, sweet-talking me and shit, but I was just literally answering her casually because, hey, this bitch just showed me some real bad attitude. Was she really expecting me to be all warm and friendly towards her all of a sudden?

Well, what do you know? During the party, she did these things toward me:

1. She removed my name from the raffle roulette (which backfired towards her because I got so mad and reported her to the other organizers - I ended up having a consolation prize of some sort)
2. She butchered my award (spelling and presentation-wise; who would be dumb enough to not spell correctly Wonder Woman? Even my 5-year old nephew can do this)
3. She butchered my surname (well, I have a pretty unique 12-letter surname but you're an admin, we've been to a lot of meetings together where you wrote the minutes. You can narrow down the reasons for this mistake easily, (a) OB is really that dumb, (b) she had a stroke or, (c) she's really a bitch. I guess all of us knows why.)

I honestly thought that they were just minor mistakes and small inconveniences on my part. But CG told me today that it was planned, that she really DID do that out of spite. I was not mad when I've heard this. I was just regretful because when they were making comments about the wrong spellings and mistakes, I just casually said that maybe they were honest mistakes. I should have just said that maybe she had a stroke or something when she finished the preso.

This has been a long post but to tie this one in a nice bow, I promised myself earlier that I would need to be more smart with my comebacks and I will not let this bitch get away anymore with her bad attitude. I will go with a bang and she'll probably be the one who's gonna explode after everything. I always said to myself that I shouldn't be vengeful even when the going gets tough but this bitch is a real bitch. I CAN'T LET HER HAVE THIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHERS. This madness needs to stop. I swear to Duterte's nose.

Ciao.

[Life Blog] Murder Mysteries and Forensic Science

Okay.

Recently, I am getting hooked with watching a lot of Murder Mysteries and documentaries on YouTube. Sometimes, I watch it even before I go to bed or when I try to take a nap. I don't know if it's a weird thing but damn, some cases are really interesting and it kinda helps you to take care of yourself when you go out there in the world. 

One of my favorite channels in YouTube is Explore With Us . The cases they try to work on are usually not that famous and therefore not given the needed public attention in order to solve the case. 

Watching this usually gets me paranoid but it is better to be safe than sorry, am I right? Especially these days wherein you can not even trust police officers in this country. 😏😏😏

Also, it's great to know that due to the advances of Forensic Science, more and more cold cases are being solved and missing persons located or identified (based on their remains of course). Jane and John Does are being returned to their families and victims are finally getting the justice that this world owes to them. 

[Life Blog] Office Chronicles: Recent Encounter with the Bad

 Okay.

I remember how my mom used to always tell me back then that famous Filipino adage, "Ang latang walang laman ay maingay". I just witnessed this right now (actually, what happened today is just a follow up from yesterday's stupidity) before I got out from our daily ONE HOUR check-point meeting (it's totally useful, guys, I'm not even lying 😒😒).

So I have this colleague. Let's just say that he's so arrogant and too full of himself (I'm pretty sure that these two words are almost the same but one word isn't enough to describe this guy). Usually, people who graduated from the University that he attended act this way because they think they are the best in the Philippines. I can safely say though that he's all talk and he probably has no depth in him and there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more people who are smarter than him.

Even though we both came from the same industry and now working in a totally different one in referenced to our background, I feel 'meh' towards him. He's overbearing, he's ass-licking to the boss, he's rude to anyone who try to correct him; overall, he's a douchebag. I have lots of different stories about this dude but I would like to share the most recent one that happened just a couple of minutes ago. Haha.

So, yesterday, this dude said that, "You know? You should upload your submissions to the other Team in our Drive so that we can check if what you've submitted is correct." I was so blown away by this because, the fuck, what does he think we submit to the other team, documents that we created ourselves? (aside from the Feasibility Study, of course). At the back of my mind, that would lead to redundancy in our Drive. I don't like to go through the same documents over and over again so why would I do the same to others? I did not really say anything yesterday because I keep on dropping out of the Zoom call (thanks, PLDT). 

Today, during our checkpoint meeting, I asked him that why should I reupload our forwarded documents when it's the same documents uploaded in the Drive already, and wouldn't it be a redundancy of some sort that will just cause confusion?

This dude immediately said, "Well, that answered your question. Why would you even ask that?" He kept on repeating this, as if to make a point when clearly, he's in the wrong for suggesting something stupid.

People are commenting about this in our group chat and I must have laughed for a bit even while in the meeting. All I ever responded to this guy is an amused, "Uhm, okaay".

I don't know. I'm just writing this because it's so fucking funny and a little bit annoying.

Ciao.

[Life Blog] Additional Places on my Travel List

Earlier today, my boyfriend and I looked at German cities because of the video I've sent him last night [I'm studying German and people are saying that I can learn the language better if I watch shows in that language. It's difficult to understand it most of the time because they are talking so fast but I am proud of myself when I can understand sentences they are saying there]. I really want to add more places in here for example:

8. Baden-Baden

Funny story. Even though I don't really know much about German nobility and how their divided states worked back then, what really amuses me was their long 'House names' [nobilities don't really have surnames but they have the House Names; usually, it's where they come from, the state that they rule or the prior surname of the founder of their Houses]. Germans have a penchant for long-ass words. I remembered giving all my sims the House Name of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Baden, Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha, etc. 

As mentioned, Baden is one of those long-ass names that I usually give to my sims. Funny that I never knew how lovely this place is.

Source: https://www.civitatis.com/en/strasbourg/baden-baden-day-trip/

9. Munich

I don't really know why but when I was younger, every time Germany is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is Munich. Frankfurt comes second and neither of this Städte is not even the capital of Germany. I keep on researching it online, looking at places to visit there and I probably wanted to study there at one point.

My boyfriend said that the living cost there is insane. It's one of the expensive cities in Germany. OH. ALMOST FORGOT, OKTOBERFEST!

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Munich-Bavaria-Germany

10. Salzburg, Austria

AUSTRIAAAAAA! This is the country where Marie Antoinette was born! Anyway, the seat of the Holy Roman Empire back then was in Vienna but Salzburg has a really beautiful court too. 

BUT....that's not the main reason why I want to go to Salzburg. I want to go there because I am looking for a painting of Margaret Theresa of Spain. Sources sometimes say that this favorite painting of mine is in Vienna but I don't know YET. I just have to find out.

I just think that she's really uniquely beautiful and has a very tragic love story. I sometimes dream about her. I'm not weird though.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Theresa_of_Spain#/media/File:Margarita_Teresa_of_Spain.jpg

Source: https://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/top10

11. Abeerdeen, Scotland

Okay, don't judge me for this. HAHAHA. When I was younger, I pick up a book from my mom's collection which really intrigued me back then. This might sound mean but the book is of course in English. Since I was so stupidly ignorant (albeit young), I was so surprised because in my mind, my mom is not a strong reader and speaker of this language.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I read this book entitled, "A Gentle Feuding". Already enamored by the idea of a 'highland' and then finding out about the 'rugged and handsome highland lairds' this book really got me hooked up with the idea of Scotland. The main female protagonist, Sheena Fergusson, has thick, dark red hair. This is where I started loving that hair color (obsess with painting red-haired girls), need I say more.

Source: https://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/Attractions-g186487-Activities-Aberdeen_Aberdeenshire_Scotland.html

12. Queen Eleanor's Cross and the grave of Katherine of Aragon [England]

Perhaps, one of the greatest love story of all time that I've read is between the great King Edward I and his first wife, Queen Eleanor of Castille. You know, reading about royal marriages kinda disappoint you after the long run since most of them are dynastic marriages and because of this nature, they are often just cordial and/or unfaithful. There are only several marriages among royal couples that are actually described as 'loving' or 'close' and this is one of them.

Anyone who's a history buff would know who Edward I of England was. He was the king who annexed Wales to the English crown [he beaten up the Welsh!] and hammered the Scots in the North. Despite being a strong and courageous king (also lucky!), he's also known for his love to his wife. When she died, he ordered stone crosses to be erected at each stopping place on their journey back to London.

I want to see one. Periodt.

ALSO, Katherine of Aragon is perhaps my favorite princess of all time. I cannot tell you how many times I've read The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory and all other materials about her that I could find. For me, she's the real definition of a Renaissance Princess. Learned, well-breed and well-educated, she's not like any high-born princess during her time. Which is not really surprising since her father was the inspo of The Prince by Machiavelli. Her mother was the famous Isabella of Castille who was a queen in her own right which was highly unusual during those times.

This is getting too long. Haha. Well, I still believe that this woman was the real Queen of England until her death. I want to give respect to her.

13. Norway [the whole country is amazing but I won't add photos in here because it's full of mountains. I am a weird geologist because I'm scared to look at photos of mountains]

Northern lights and Lofoten. Periodt.

Will probably add some more in the future. It's really getting late.

Good night.

[Life Blog] Office Chronicles Introduction

Okay. 

Haha. It's kinda difficult for me to start writing about this but a Psych2Go video told me to just do it. So I am gonna do just that. No planning or whatsoever, no procrastination, just plainly doing it for the sake of doing something. I guess, that's really one of the 8 Things That Aren't Worth Your Time in Life. 

So here's a little something about me. I am actually really private when it comes to my online persona or the 'carbon footprint' that I left on the net, if I might say so. I obsessively search my name sometimes just to see what kind of information about me is out there and if there's something that I don't want to be associated with my name, even when I actually said it or did it [excuse my English, I'm just writing here 😝] I try to hide it or delete it as much as possible. You know, you don't want those kinds of things to go out there, especially with your employers and possible employers. BUT sometimes, there are things that you need to discuss for you to stay sane in this world.

Well, as per the title I've given this post, it is about my experiences working. As a geologist, more often than not, you'll definitely NOT gonna have a full-time desk job. You'll be sent off to the field to gather data, stay in the middle of an area without signal and covering some grounds to do some explo. You'll walk and walk for hours in a day, sometimes even riding one of those habal-habal just to get to your destination/s. I have a lot of fieldwork stories that maybe I can finally write about now because I've not been affiliated to my previous jobs anyway for quite some time. More of that later.

But this post though is not about the fieldworks; it's about the time I spent working and/or staying in the office, doing some crappy documentation or photocopying stuff that you'll need to have with you. As of the moment, I'm not really practicing my profession. I don't know, after a while, you're gonna get tired of it. Especially with me, all my life, I've been living in the city, born and raised in the metro. It came as a shock to me when I stayed in Quezon for almost 2 years of my adult life. The places starts to close at about 5pm, the local McDonald's' and Jollibees are located in the next town and you can't really walk outside at night, not because of bad people, but because it's literally pitch black outside. Living in the province have some benefits into it too but I got tired of that life. I'm not used to it. I miss the hustle and bustle of the city, the 3am pigging out and my late night walks at BGC. 

So I decided to look for a job in the city I was born. I love the place anyway. I am AT HOME in here. AND I found one, even though the pay sucks, I am gonna be living in the city again. Although not really in the same field that I am trained, my current job is in the field that I am truly passionate about; Renewables. I won't say more about this company because it is fairly easy to identify it but man, oh, man. I've met really interesting people in here. The good and the bad, the genius and the stupid, the popular and the loner, you name it all.

I sometimes think that I may be unfortunate to meet real dumb people out there but I probably also need to consider my tolerance and level of understanding when it comes to stupidity. I feel like I should also be fair when it comes to that and realize that not everyone is like me. I'm not saying that I am brilliant, don't get me wrong, but I am certain that I have a strong sense of decency and well, COMMON SENSE.

I would definitely tell you really stupid anecdotes and describe some primary characters in my work life right now. If I am even up for it, I might do some sketches of these people. I would love to share these stories and probably try to find out if anyone else is experiencing these things because, damn, there are really weird people out there. 

[Life Blog] Rumbling 1-N - What is Up?

 Okay.

I guess, since I couldn't really pick up a book right now and do reviewers, I might as well write about the things that has been going on in my life.

For the most part, NOTHING. Haha. Well, you know, Ms. Rona doing shit all over the world is the primary reason for that. I mean, I don't really consider work as 'something' to do because my current job right now is kinda menial in my own opinion. It only involves processing, documentation, reviews of contracts and laws, client/interdepartmental interface, more reviews of contracts and laws and a whole fucking ton of meetings (which is going to be one of the topics of my future life blog).

I also do talk to my bestfriend (yes, you are :P) and my boyfriend (every single day and loving the time zone difference by the way, NO COMPLAINTS AT ALL haha), and my family too from time to time [yep, we don't really miss each other that much].

Online shopping is also a thing with me but it shouldn't really be the case because, damn, I now have tons of bags (big and small) with nowhere to go too. My increasing supply of snacks from Europe too is filling my cupboard and my chocolates are getting stale because I don't really need that much to go by for at least three months. I also already sold most of my Barbie collections as I am really trying to downsize and now, I am trying to get rid of my books [gonna post Geology books being sold in here very soon]. I have lots by the way but mostly historical fictions, mostly about the Cousins' War.

I am really bored. I am trying everyday to get some inspiration around me to, you know? Do something productive, do something with my life. I am trying to find ways to explore what I really want to do with my life, trying to see if what I love is something I can also earn from. I know that looking at places I wanna visit once this whole thing is over is not one of those activities but I am trying to convince myself that THAT can be an inspiration. 

I have a corkboard in my room where I put all the crap that I need to do in my life or the reminders about very important appointments I have going on right now. I try to keep it clean though which is kinda stupid when you think about it. I think it should be cluttered, right? It also has three photos of my boyfriend wherein he looks really stupid. Haha. In one photo, he unsurprisingly looks like Charles II of Spain. I tease him mercilessly for it.

What I was trying to say anyway? Haha. The list [thank you, Instagram for the inspo]! Okay, as of the moment, there are only seven bullets in here:

1. [Sunrise in] Amsterdam

Source: https://www.martijnkort-photography.com/shop/amsterdam-canals-during-sunrise/

2. Rolling hills in Bologna [or should I just say it is in Tuscany?]

I imagine myself doing some planking in here then rolling downwards the hill. Ah! I feel like it would be a nice feeling. I don't even mind getting hurt.

Source: https://www.1zoom.me/en/wallpaper/450227/z1692/

3. Petite Trianon & Versailles, France

The Petite Trianon which Marie Antoinette built and 'developed' and the Palace of Versailles which she graced with her presence back then, of course I want to see them!

Marie Antoinette was the reason why I get into royalties. Picking up a book about Madame Tussaud's memoirs and life works almost a decade ago, I was entranced by the lives of monarchs and the glamorous [and also the sad] social life and practice of this high society.

Marie Antoinette in a muslin dress
My favorite and what really got me into painting

Versailles

Source: https://blog.parispass.com/know-before-you-go-palace-of-versailles/

Petite Trianon
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_q5NdsptMv8

4. Louvre (which is in France too)

I just want to see the museum and take an iconic photo in there. Who wouldn't?

source: https://www.louvre.fr/en/louvre-expertise

5. Luxembourg

Well, I want to go to Luxembourg to look for Prince Sebastien so that we can fall in love with each other and get married and I would be a princess too or something. Haha. I think he's still single and ready to mingle. Not gonna lie, there are not so many news from this Grand Duchy so I don't really know much tea about him.

Aside from that, according to my boyfriend (who hates whenever I joke about looking for the prince), it is possible to tour the country (or at least the landmarks you wanna see in there) in just a day. I don't know if he's lying or what but I'll definitely find out soon.

Source: https://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/i-love-luxembourg/

6. The Romantic Road [in Germany]

I mean, why wouldn't you want to take a trip on this road?

Map Source: https://en.schwangau.de/sightseeing/schwangaus-surroundings/the-romantic-road/

If I am being honest, I don't really know much about the German nobility. It's weird back then. The period that I enjoyed studying so much about is during the the reign of the Holy Roman Empire and well, during those times, Germany is not the Germany that we know now.

Of course, I've heard about the Principalities, Landgraves and the Electorates but...that's it. Also, German women at that time period doesn't really interest me that much. I think the most famous one that I know of is Madame Elizabeth Charlotte. She's from Palatine and the reason I know her is because she was married to the brother of Louis XIV of France and I've read one of her writings about being smart as a woman (probably would write about this some more because it was really interesting). I feel like they were not as glamorous as their French and/or English counterparts.

The reason I mentioned this is because the Romantic Road is full of castles. My heart would be so happy if I get to see all of them. Who would not enjoy seeing the famous Neuschwanstein Castle? Disney made this stupid-looking castle famous. Built under the rule of the 'crazed' king, Ludwig II of Bavaria, it's one of the landmarks of this Road. [I don't know if Ludwig is really crazy or he was just labelled that way because of his sexual orientation]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle

7. Ireland

How should I describe Ireland? I don't even know where to start. Obviously, I haven't been here but whenever I read something about it or see the famous places and landmarks of it on Instagram, it really takes my breath away.

I mean, the woods where Game of Thrones was shot is there, the Giant's Causeway is there, GALWAY is there, the beautiful DUBLIN is there and the Irish people are there! I think there is no reason to not like this country.

I am really looking forward to enjoy the bustling and loud nightlife of Dublin and taste that Guinness that they are famous for.

Source: https://www.evaneos.com/experiences/1598-experience-irelands-nightlife/

I know. This is so random but I plan to write more in here to have a space wherein I can share my thoughts and musings. I am cutting this short. I was planning to write more but my boyfriend called me and interrupted my train of thoughts [bittersweet].

Till next time! <3