22:30 until closing time

If an idle mind is a devil’s playground, how about a hyperactive mind with lots of idle time to burn?
Welcome to my peculiar life as an online teacher. We don’t have sales quota to beat, only a number of students to maintain and increase. We don’t have AHT but we have class schedules to keep. We don’t have irate customers we cannot see but we sometimes see rather indignant faces on the crisp video feed staring back at you if you missed a word. We never had culture training to prepare us, only grapevine lectures on what or what not to say.
I never thought I would ever be confined to a cubicle but here I am in a 4x3 cubbyhole painted in the shade of dark beige (I keep remembering a particular shade of a nail polish color). No flowers on the desk since the you have your LCD monitor, keyboard and your files. I opted for a mousepad with the Angel Sanctuary design instead of sticking with the company issued boring blues and beach sceneries. No USBs allowed, my webcam at home is way cooler than the one I have at work and I can practically hear everybody else with my single earpiece headset.
So what do we do with our free time? It really depends since Youtube and other streaming sites are banned. Online games were shut down months ago since they played havoc with the connections. We are allowed Facebook and other sites for surfing. I have my Multiply and Blogger to fiddle with. Of course, we have paperwork to deal with first like students’ performance records, attendance sheets (I’m really tempted to bring a class record here), class counts and the dreaded IR (see, we have them, too). After all is done, where do we turn to?
Almost everybody here is connected in Facebook and Friendster. But I ventured further, I’d like to say, by using going to sites that are rather bizarre and outlandish to the rest of my fellow teachers. Sites like www.peopleofwalmart.com and http://icanhascheezburger.com are good examples of websites they haven’t even heard of. But my favorite is www.darwinawards.com where anybody contemplating morosely of their lot in this world can get a laugh. But tonight, as of this writing, I found a site that just made my sleepiness go away. After typing a random line of words, for example, get revenge on your ex, and actual sites came up. Getrevengeonurex.com is one site and, well, no free galleries. The services offered are tempting but the dollar price tag was enough to stop me.
Idle time…idle hands…hyperactive minds…..
Let’s go home before Halloween starts early this year.
(to be continued)

little shop of delights....

There's a shop in Iloilo City I love to go back to. Its name is Passionate Designs and they are located inside the Amigo Plaza Mall. They carry the most adorable little (and BIG) collectibles. The shop's merchandise is primarily giveaways for corporate, school and private parties. But they also sell Hello Kitty and Papemelroti products.

What I love about this shop is that you can choose one-of-a-kind giveaways for your party needs. From topiaries to paper soap, key chains to paper weights. But for me, they are now getting popular because of their Sanrio products. Hello Kitty afficionados in Iloilo City now drop by at least once a week to check for new items (me included.)

Last week, the best item (gone so soon) was the Hello Kitty bubble umbrella. It was sold in less than 24 hours after I saw it. The shop ladies assured me that they ordered additional stock for everyone who kept asking about it. And the one who bought it even left a message: Wait for the next shipment. Looks like I'm not the only one who left my number there. ^^

Peculiarities with the Ps and the Cs....

A week ago or so, there was a power outage again that more or less placed the city at a standstill. It rolled in about noontime and humidity was hellish. It was unannounced and unexpected. I work for a company which is wholly dependent on electricity for its daily operations, I took it upon myself to call PECO. Having memorized the electric company's phone number by heart, I called them and, after a series of rings, a man took my call and kindly answered my questions pertaining the loss of power. He was very helpful and apologetic with the whole situation, claiming that PECO had nothing to do with the outage since it only relays the electricity produced by the PPC. He claimed that there was probably a power trip-off with PPC. He claimed that they are still awaiting a phone call from PPC. I asked if I can call the company directly and he said I'm not the only one who asked for the number. He even gave me the number that will connect me with PPC.

So there I was, feeling a bit settled that finally I can get the answer for myself. After a few rings, a lady to my call and she did identify the number as that of PPC's. I asked my question and the answer that I got surprised me. The lady started complaining why they are the ones getting phone calls and complaints when she is sure that nothing is wrong with their system. She also said that it is PECO's system that is at fault.

Tsk..tsk...tsk....power comes with great responsibilities....

I'd rather leave them at their tongue-wagging and finger pointing antics, hoping not to have jacked up electricity bills to compensate for restoring the system. With a mindblowing price of kilowatt per hour in our city, can't we have at least an announcement from any one of them? Maybe next time, I should insist in getting their names....then we can announce here who to call when the lights go out.....