The laptop calendar reads 12/29/2008. Almost everybody is on a holiday. Not me.
After Christmas, our next holiday is on Thursday, the first day of year 2009. I still have to work until the noon of December 31. I’ll be on leave the day after New Year’s. Thing is, instead of working on the introduction of my 30 page report due sometime in February, I gave in to scratching the itch of rambling again. (multitasking with reading references, checking mails, chatting with friends :-p [don’t tell on me ok?] hehe)
The problem with writing for a living is that you can never work on an 8-5 basis. The long weekends are not helping either. I hate to sound like the adults who are too occupied with “matters of consequences” and not simply content themselves to enjoying the holidays. (parang istorbo pa ang holidays para sa mga workaholic, at hindi ako isa sa kanila hehe). The problem with long weekends, not that I do not like long weekends, is the break in momentum. When you write on a deadline, momentum is crucial. Once you get it, you must find a good way to sustain it. I stopped forcing myself to write from the time I started working—from the very beginning, I know that I can only write at my own pace. The important thing is to make it to the deadline, deliver a good quality output on time, if not ahead of sched (naks!).
I hope I can arrange something with my supervisor to let me start work as late as after lunch. He earlier said he wasn’t particular about how I make use of time anyway. I think it will really help my productivity.
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Let me call this my tidbits entry. I will talk about the random things which clutter my thoughts. Christmas day passed and my friends and I were able to deal with spending Christmas away from our dear families. We managed getting hold of whatever Christmas spirit we could grasp. Cheer us on! We have more days (some have fewer) to count before going home.
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One thing I noticed this Christmas is how few people sent me their SMS greetings. I called my family of course and greeted them on Christmas eve. I had a long talk with Mama and ate, my lola and cousins. I also called Papa who is also spending Christmas away from everyone at home. I emailed some friends from overseas and greeted others via IM.
Before, people bombarded each other’s phones with forwarded Christmas greetings. I do not know if the significant decline in SMS greetings is due to:
a) economic crisis – people finally realized that a peso saved is a peso earned. Huh? Hehe
b) somehow related to (a) – maybe because I am here. (piso lang rin naman mag text sa globe number ko ah :-p hindi naman ako halatang naghihintay pa rin makatanggap ng SMS mula sa inyo hehehe, makinig naman yun mga kaibigan ko diyan)
c) the friends I know may be too busy – most of them are in med school, hurdling their internships, or preparing for the boards (whoa, matatanda na kami); others have started their own families.
d) May be people just stopped greeting – which is sad.
Whatever the reason for this simple observation, siyempre, we should not miss out on what really matters. Pasko yan eh, it’s not really about YOU. It’s about touching other people’s lives in the most selfless way you can. It is one way we can make Jesus happy, pa-birthday na rin sa Bida diba.
Merry Christmas ulit sa lahat!
At siyempre, happy eating hehe!
