Quiet Stream: work

Showing posts with label work. Show all posts

Monday, May 18, 2020

Going offline

By Karen Galarpe

Note: I wrote this back in September 2012 and only saw this recently in my inbox, still unpublished. Well, here it is, seeing the light of day. :)

It's 9 p.m. as I write this, my bedtime in fact, but I have yet to log off on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, my personal and work email addresses, and close the tabs on my browser.

Let's see. I've been off work since 4 p.m., but I was busy working on something, and subsequently clocked out at 5:20 p.m.

When I got home before 6 p.m., I checked our website and my emails just to see if there's nothing urgent in case of the latter, and nothing erroneous in the articles I edited and posted online during the day.

From there, it was a quick hop to Facebook and Twitter, and when I saw someone post a story pitch in our group on FB, I went back to check our website to see if we had covered it already. Indeed we had.

But what are the new stories posted on our site? I click the archives, read the headlines, read stories.

Soon I remembered something and wrote an email about work.

So now it's 9:20 p.m. and I am still up.

"But how do you go offline?" my friend asked me last summer after I answered his question about my work.

I stopped in my tracks. How indeed do I go offline?

The truth is, I hardly go offline.

Going online is just a way of life. In the morning, I check the news sites and social media to know what's happening. When I need to contact a friend, I check first if she's online, and if not, that's when I text her. At work, instead of hollering to someone across the room, I use the chat function on Gmail. Looking for a recipe? I turn to a food site. Need directions to get to a place? There's Google Maps. And if I feel like trying out something new for lunch, I look up food blogs.

The downside to this, though, is that going offline can be jarring, especially when it's involuntary.

Three weeks ago, when the habagat flood inundated Metro Manila, our Internet service at home got cut. And many other subscribers also experienced it, as reported by the recorded message played on the hotline of my ISP.

It took two weeks before service was fully restored, but our router is still not working, so that makes it 3 weeks now.

I had no choice but have no access to the Internet outside the office, unless I go to a Wi-Fi place or an Internet cafe.

At first it was unsettling, but later on I learned to enjoy my off-duty hours reading a book (print version), lying down, resting, and even cooking.

And I realized going offline can be relaxing.

When do you go offline? I heard one IT exec saying he turns off his Blackberry after work so he can enjoy time with his family, and he did realize that work can wait til the next day.

Sometimes we have made going online our default mode that we forget the joys of an offline life. Let's not miss out on those.

And I realized going offline can be relaxing.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: I'm still reading Anthony Bourdain’s “A Cook’s Tour” which I started before the ECQ. For 30 minutes, over lunch, I feel like I’m in Vietnam eating pho, in Spain having tapas, and in Portugal eyeing the cozido even if I’m just having Korean ramen or homemade egg sandwich in Manila.

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I’ve been reading Anthony Bourdain’s “A Cook’s Tour” while having lunch the past few days. For 30 minutes, I feel like I’m in Vietnam eating pho, in Spain having tapas, and in Portugal eyeing the cozido even if I’m just having Korean ramen or homemade egg sandwich in Manila. 🍴🥪🍜 🤓📚

A post shared by Karen Galarpe (@kgalarpe) on Jan 20, 2020 at 3:02am PST

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom (NLT). Psalm 90:12

Saturday, June 08, 2013

The fire victims

The way he boarded the jeep took us all by surprise: first he slid a plastic drawer, no doubt part of a cabinet, with a jersey shirt covering the contents. Then he hoisted a little girl without shoes, with feet covered in soot. His wife then entered the jeep, with a baby in her arms. Only then did he board, his wide dirty unshodden feet quite noticeable.

The little girl whined that they have no slippers, to which the man grimly said, "Bibili na lang tayo."

He set the girl on top of the pile of clothes on the drawer in the jeepney aisle.

The family was quiet, and everyone in the passenger jeep seemed to have the same question even as the vehicle continued to weave through traffic on E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue.

"Nasunugan kayo?" the man's seatmate, a woman, asked curiously.

Continue reading on GMA News Online

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Pursue your passion

Over lunch a month ago, one of my officemates confessed to me that he had just tendered his resignation as section editor of our online publication. I was dumbfounded. I didn't see that coming, so I asked, “But why?????”

He said he wants to rest and pursue higher studies, and look for a job more allied to his college degree in the sciences. Four years in media was fun but stressful, and he wants to do something else now. I nodded in reply. I know the feeling.

Rewind to 22 years ago. I was a certified public accountant who finally realized writing was what I really wanted to do. Life is short, I thought, why be miserable?

Yesterday, my mom and I went to her friend’s house to check out a cute female shih tzu puppy for sale. On our way out, my mom’s friend told me that her son, who has been breeding shih tzus and chihuahuas, is really a nurse who even passed the Board exams. “But he likes taking care of dogs. That’s his business,” she said.

I believe we have all been gifted by God with passion for something for a purpose. When I hear Lea Salonga sing, for instance, I see the passion burning in her heart, and I feel moved by her singing. Similarly, when I see Lisa Macuja Elizalde dancing ballet with such emotion, I feel moved as well, and awed by such a gift which could have only come from God. When I heard former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US Vice President Al Gore give talks in Manila, I immediately saw their passion for good governance and environment protection, respectively, and I was encouraged.

“The greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money,” wrote Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life.

What’s your passion? Pursue it and have a meaningful life.

Click here to read this article on the Smart Super Women blog.

Monday, June 27, 2011

On parenting, career, and womanhood

Monday, April 11, 2011

S, the blog for smart women and super women

I just joined a blog network for moms and women called Smart Super Women.

Here are the first 3 entries I have posted there:

Multitasking a Must

For the nth time, I ate at my desk at work today. Some days are hectic, some aren’t, and today is just one of the hectic ones at the newsroom.

In between writing and editing news about OFWs arriving from Libya, Fil-Ams observing Lent in America, and a 5-star chef whipping up gourmet dishes in Baguio City, I would grab a bite of my rice meal picked up from the food court, and think about what to write in this blog.

Sometimes I feel I am doing so many things—multitasking—but I just cannot NOT multitask. I am a mother after all, and a daughter, and a sister, and a working journalist, and a friend too.

And so I try to do what I can on most days, armed with a little prayer to God up there, and with a smile to greet the people around me. Better to brighten up the world, right? There are just so many weird and bad things happening in the world around us.

If you’re a mom, you’d know what I’m talking about—multitasking—and probably can recall having to make a grocery shopping list while waiting for a meeting to start, or dropping by a bookstore on the way home from work to buy a cartolina or some oslo paper your child absolutely needs the next day.

Some days you field a call from the office while stirring that spaghetti sauce in the kitchen at home. At other times, you just drop everything and care for your child who is nursing a high-grade fever.

Motherhood—it’s tough, and more so if you’re a working mom at that. But no other calling is closest to my heart than being a mom to my son, now a teenager.

Along the way, I’ve learned many things about mothers, kids, teaching, learning, bonding, living life, celebrating each moment. I won’t pretend to know it all, but will share here what I know works. After all, we’re all in this—motherhood—together.

So smile, mom, no matter how busy you are.

[Click this to read this article on the blog.]

Where Were You?

Over lunch today, at the despedida for my uncle set to leave for the US for good, my aunt told me stories about her grandchildren. One is already in college, and will be in his junior year in his IT course this June.

“What? He’s in college already?!” I exclaimed. The last time I saw him, he was maybe in grade 1, having so much fun at a swimming party.

Well, what should I expect? My son was only 4 or 5 when we went to that same swimming party. And he will be 16 next month.

Time flies, you’ve heard that before, but I say time flies faster, it seems, when kids are involved. The little kid you used to bring to prep class may have just attended prom last month, or is excited now to embark on college life in June.

My brother used to tell me to enjoy every bit of my son’s growing up years because kids don’t remain kids long.

A few years ago, when I taught a writing course at a college nearby, I gave my students, mostly college seniors, a finals exam I deemed would be easy for them: Write an essay about the life lesssons you learned using the writing techniques you learned in class. “Write from the heart,” I told them.

Soon, someone was sniffling. Someone was crying. As they poured out their thoughts on paper, it was as if a wealth of emotions bottled up inside got freed.

Most of my students then were children of overseas Filipino workers, and many of them had one question it seems, for their parents: “Where were you… when someone made fun of me in grade school? … when the dentist pulled my tooth? … when I got sick of dengue and needed to be hospitalized? … when I had graduated with honors and needed you to pin a medal on me? … when I first became a teen? … when I had my circumcision? …when I needed a hug?” One asked, “Why didn’t you say goodbye when you left when I was 4? Why have you not come back at all?”

Tough questions.

Kids don’t stay kids long. Love them, enjoy them, hug them, be with them.

[Click this to read this article on the blog.]

The Saving Habit

The security guard peeked into my little red checkered tote bag before allowing me entry into the bank early Wednesday morning last week. He must have been amused because he said, “Thank you, ma’m” in a cheerful tone.

Inside my bag, you see, was a Zip Loc plastic bag full of P5 and P10 coins. Total weight: maybe 5 pounds. Total count: over P1,000.

It was my mom’s gift to my son. For quite some time, my mom would drop P5 and P10 in two piggybanks. They became full recently, and so she gave them to my son. It was my son who decided to deposit all of the coins in his account at the bank, which was what he did too when he got some cash as gift last Christmas.

I can’t remember how old he was when I first opened a bank account for him. Definitely it was before he started grade school, though. And so over the years, whenever he would receive cash from godparents and family members, these would go straight to the bank.

When my two friends got married more than a decade ago, I was floored when I learned they bought a house using their own money as downpayment. They were just in their 20s then. It turns out both of them grew up with their parents saving for them in the bank all the money gifts they received since they were small. So in some 20 years, compound interest has made their savings grow so much that these were enough to help them start on their own two feet when they got married.

The habit of saving can be instilled in a child early. Aside from opening a bank account for him, let him see you and the people around you practice saving as well. Start today and keep at it until it becomes second nature to your child.

[Click this to read this article on the blog.]

The other moms have great stories and lessons to share based on their own personal experiences as well. Check regularly for fresh practical content. :)

BOOK OF THE WEEK: I finally picked up my copy of The Fourth Estate by Jeffrey Archer, which, I realized was sitting in my bookshelf for something like 10 years. This fiction book is about the business of publishing, including the deal-making behind it. I'm still in the early pages, but it does seem interesting.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Commit to the LORD whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3

Monday, July 12, 2010

Seeing stars and the wanna-bes

It seemed straight out of a weird dream.

There I was walking along the corridor by the studios. Suddenly comedienne Pokwang, looking so glam in a black-and-white couture outfit and a pillbox hat with a half veil covering one eye, came running toward me. "Fun run tayo!" she egged on the two alalays following her as she made the dash to her dressing room. We made eye contact for a sec then I continued walking.

Nope, it wasn't a dream. This happened sometime last week or two weeks ago near the "Wowowee" studio at ABS-CBN.

That wasn't the end of it. A few paces later, I made way for Mariel Rodriguez who was calmly walking toward her dressing room telling someone, "Di ako puwede eh. May uber ako." I wonder what "uber" meant.

Since I started working for a TV network's news website a couple of months ago, star sightings have become a normal event of the day.

As I was making my way to the basement parking at ELJ Building last Wednesday, I did a double take when I saw Boy Abunda taping a show at the Loop studio. What made me stop and look through the glass windows was the realization that, hey, I just wrote about him. As in, just a couple of hours ago when Tourism Secretary Ace Durano gave a gracious answer when media pressed him for comment on the possibility of having Boy Abunda as Tourism Secretary if P. Noy could have his way.

Sometime this week, as part of my daily habit, I headed toward the cafeteria for a P10-cup of Nescafe with cream and sugar at the vendo machine. At the door, I overheard a director (he sounded like one as he mentioned something about "taping ko") talking to a smiling young man in slim jeans. Hey wasn't that... It was after I got my coffee that I realized it was Jovit Baldivino, the guy who just won the "Pilipinas Got Talent" grand finals.

But stars aren't all I see around. I got a jolt one time when I was walking toward the corner, and I saw red half-naked men headed toward me. They must have been done with their "Showtime" stint.

Then another time, I saw green. As in green half-naked men walking toward the cafeteria while I cradled my hot dog sandwich to go back to the newsroom. It did seem surreal seeing half-naked green men in line at the cafeteria, trays in hand.

I guess that's one of the perks of working at a TV network. I get celebrity sightings and glimpses of wanna-be stars at all hours of the day.

The biggest frustration I have, though, is missing Robin Padilla. Twice. Jing wrote about him before, in a blog entry entitled "Hotness!" On the two occasions I missed him, Robin went to the newsroom. The first time, there was a commotion somewhere in the newsroom, and deadma-to-the-world me couldn't care less as I was typing something away. Reyma came back with news that she squeezed herself beside Robin for a photo. And shucks, what do I find on Facebook the day after but a photo of my editor with Robin!

The second time he came around was on my day off, a Monday. After guesting on "Headstart with Karen Davila," Robin found himself cornered by Reyma into an interview right in our neck of the woods. As in, if I wanted, and I was there, I could have thrown a paper plane over and it would have landed right smack on Robin's lap. So there, I missed a photo op with one of the hottest guys in town.

Reyma consoled me with a photo op with another newsmaker. He may not be some hot and young guy from showbiz, but oh well, at least he's famous.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: I'm almost halfway through Sarena's Story, a tale about a life spent in the service of a royal family in Mindanao. Author Criselda Yabes weaves the story well that I wished my lunch breaks were longer so I can read more every day.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth--the LORD God Almighty is his name. Amos 4:13

Monday, May 24, 2010

Lovin' my Mondays

While my son is watching a motorcycle race on Star Sports, here I am typing away on the little Eee PC on a hot summer afternoon. Earlier this day, after dropping him off at the gym, I went window shopping at clothes and shoe stores, did a 30-minute grocery run, then sat down to read the day's paper.

After lunch of chicken teriyaki and shrimp katsu at Yoshinoya, we had coffee at Nero, and while he surfed the Net, I browsed the glossy mags. So many new magazines in the market now -- would they last?

Back at home by 2 p.m., we checked our Facebook and e-mail, and after I fired off 2 work-related e-mails, I stopped myself and logged out fast. It's Monday. And that just means one thing: it's my day off!

It takes some getting used to, but I know I should begin to equate Monday with relaxation. It's a time to chill, have coffee leisurely, watch the cats balance themselves on the neighbor's fence, curl up with a book, practice the art of doing nothing, and just hang out with my son.

Mondays. I'm lovin' my Mondays.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8

BOOK OF THE WEEK: I'm halfway through Jeffrey Steingarten's It Must've Been Something I Ate, a gift from my foodie friend Erli. The author is Vogue's food critic and sits as judge on Iron Chef America. This is one guy who would go to great lengths to find the best bluefin tuna, the best Parisian baguette, the best pizza bianca in Italy, while figuring out the difference between salt in America and salt in France, and so on. This collection of published essays is worth reading and if you're up to it, you can even follow the recipes and cook to impress family and friends.