That Day After (The Exam)

Whew, it feels like a weight was lifted off my shoulders somewhat.  I finally turned in the take-home segment of the comprehensive exam yesterday.  Now for the agonizing wait for the results.  I’ll be very happy if I pass, but I’m not really confident — especially when the first thing that greeted me when I submitted my work was “Are there any changes you want to do, like add references?” 

References.  Man, I knew  forgot about something when I was doing the short exegesic essay at the very end. 

Oh well, can’t worry about that now.  The die is cast so to speak.

Now to pray really REALLY hard that I pass.  Even a low pass is acceptable at this point.

Incidentally today’s the day I returned to work.  Thankfully not much has changed, except perhaps for the fact that we  now have a biometric scan using thumbprints.  Hmm, have to ask about that to my supervisor or team coach, as we didn’t have that one before I started my review two weeks ago.

As for tomorrow… Payday.  Not really expecting a lot (I have been gone two weeks), but something is better than nothing right?  Just hope that it isn’t delayed again past noon, or else it’d be annoying.

Not As Sanguine A Sunday

Today’s shift at work wasn’t really that bad.  Apart from the usual back-upped queue during the first two hours, it was actually a bit relaxing, but that’s what you get when a mostly-complete crew for the last shift.  We were missing a single person, but this time it’s unavoidable — she’s currently confined in Makati Medical, after God-knows how many days of not feeling well, yet still being forced to come to work (since for some reason she wasn’t allowed any sick leaves, as strange as that sounds).  I understand that our supervisor is a little sensitive to the attendance issue, but the fact that the woman was coming in with fever should be enough of a sign to stop being so bullheaded about it.

Anyway, odd spikes aside, the rest of the day was pretty slow.  I wish I could say that I used most of the downtime to browse the net using our office’s browser, but given our internet embargo (yet another strange decision, especially when you consider that half of the processes we use can only be done ON the internet.  Yet another example of the upper management not thinking things through, I suppose.  I admit, it’s hard not to give in to the temptation, and once both the team’s supervisor and coach went out, I did do some browsing, but the nagging fear that what we’re doing was being monitored forced me to just be happy reading the .Doc compilation that I had of To The Stars.  

Hmm maybe I’ll just upload a few more files that I can just download at work to read. I suppose that circumvents the problem somewhat.

That aside… Ugh, it’s kind of hard to live on a budget.  While the hundred pesos my father gave me was enough to get me through the shift, after was another matter entirely.  By the time it was lunch, I had zilch to my name, so I was pretty much forced to walk to Alphaland.  By the time I got there, my stomach was grumbling, but since I didn’t have any actual money with me (and I couldn’t withdraw anything from my savings anymore) I had very little options.  I was tempted to try Teriyaki Boy, but I wasn’t too sure if they accepted credit card payments…  However a floor up I was sure that Bon Chon did.

And since I was curious about the place, I figured, eh, two birds with one stone right?

Long story short, the meal was very filling, but I suspect it was less due to the bulgogi and owed more to the huge glass of root beer I had with the order.

I spent the rest of the afternoon, and much of the evening, on a nap.  I was glad for a change that my father let me just sleep straight instead of waking me up for dinner, but as a result of that I’m up and about this late at night… which is awkward, since my father is trying to catch some sleep on the floor of my room right now, since my sister and her husband are staying tonight in her room.  And since I only use my desktop with my lights on these days, yeah, it’s obviously going to be difficult to catch some shuteye.

Oh well, I’ll just have to see what I can do tonight before I turn in again. 

A Taste Of The Old Times

Today exceeded all of my worst predictions for a Sunday shift.  The fact that the queue was backed up when I got to the office was bad enough (seventeen calls waiting on one queue, about ten in the other), but I soon learned that I literally had no back-up pushed my stress meter up a notch before I had even sat down and logged in!

It was literally just like old times.  Although one of the usual last-shift team eventually came in an hour later, the fact remained that we were down two people.  And what was more annoying was that one of them was up to his usual excuses, apparently calling in to report that he was sick… which would have been more convincing if he hadn’t used the medical term for the common cold.  Which is no excuse at all.  Why he’s still in the company, I haven’t got a clue, but I’m sure it’s connected to the fact that there’re just so few of us first-wavers/cross-trained agents left.  Hmph.

Anyway, it was pretty much almost nonstop calls until well past noon, and even then the calls didn’t quite let up.  I was worried that I’d actually lose my voice at one point, and you’re sure that I made the most of my lunch break resting!

Aside from that, the only worthwhile event to talk about was how our systems suddenly remotely rebooted around one in the afternoon… which caused the team coach on duty to panic a bit as it meant everyone was kicked out of the queue, meaning no one was answering the income calls for the good part of ten minutes.  Honestly, I wished it had happened sooner, as we’d have been given some relief, but alas it was too late to matter.

That’s pretty much it.  Needless to say, I was very happy to get home and, well, not talk for a few hours.

Worried Over Nothing

I have to say, this day could have started a bit better.  Although I got up on time, and got to the MRT station as usual, when I got there it was uncommonly packed inside the station; indeed, when as I passed through the turnstile, the station announcer called out to stop letting people inside for the time being.  Apparently there was some delay from the trains coming from Makati and beyond, which meant that passengers just kept on accumulating without any train arriving to alleviate the increase in passenger numbers.  

It took about ten minutes for a train to arrive, and while it was able to fit all of the people (myself included) waiting at the station platform somehow, the fact that it arrived after ten minutes pretty much guaranteed that I was late for work. Boo.

When I arrived at the workfloor, it was busy as usual, though I wasn’t able to join the fun immediately; for some reason, I had trouble getting into the remote client, which is to say that I couldn’t even connect to it at all.  My supervisor had me try other units, but still no luck, so I had to wait until IT figured out how to get to my remote profile again.  So I was left to my devices for about another half hour (which I used browsing via office proxy).  By the time they figured things out, and finally got me logged in, it was only a few minutes until my first break (eight-fifteen as scheduled), which I took advantage of immediately.

After the break though, it was pretty much the usual Tuesday shift though, which means there were instances of mad spikes in the queue up until around midmorning.  After weathering that though, it was more or less relaxed for the rest of the shift.  Okay, everyone did perk up when the security guard said that the people who were supposed to evaluate us suddenly showed up on the 9th floor (the inspection was scheduled for the evening), which led to everyone panicking by keeping all their stuff and moving their files to places where the inspectors hopefully wouldn’t look into in their systems.

I will admit to being pretty bushed by the end of the shift though.  I just wanted to go home and jump into bed… which is exactly what I did, after an hour of getting the urge to browse out of my system of course.

Tomorrow… well, it’s another day isn’t it?

Feeling The Routine Again

I’m not really sure what to talk about today.  For those who’re familiar with the ways of my work, it’s a Monday, meaning that it’s the slowest day of the week call-wise…

Except for some reason when I started this morning the queue was backed up, which was very rare for the day.  Otherwise it was just as expected, and at one point I was nodding off at my seat, though that was less due to boredom in between calls than the fact that I slept in late again (I blame XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2012 for that… darned Battleship clearance raids).   Kind of glad of the fact that I was able to use my lunch time for a nap again, though it still wasn’t enough,  so I begged off gym for the afternoon and just went to bed instead.

Tomorrow should be… Interesting.  I’ve been away from the phones long enough that I’m dreading the Tuesday shift again.  I hope that we’re not understaffed tomorrow, as that would make it an unadulterated hell once more, but that’s probably giving Workforce too much credit.  Might as well bring a few aspirin tablets in preparation…

P.S. News on the first of the Achiga-hen extra episodes followed in the same announcement of a second season of the main series make me happy, oh yes.

Dug Myself Deep

It’s payday today, but as I soon found out, it was far too early to celebrate.  Yeah.

Today’s shift at the office was more or less routine, except for the fact that, due to how the day offs were set up again, we were missing two people.  As is usually the case when we’re missing bodies on the floor, the call queue spiked beyond our ability to answer the calls in it for a while — around eight to well past nine-forty in fact.  We managed to ride it out though, and past that it wasn’t as stressful.

Instead of taking a nap during my lunch break, I opted instead to withdraw my pay at the BDO ATM located at the ground floor of our office building… Of course, by the time I got there, the darned thing for some reason wouldn’t take my card.  I had to walk at least ten minutes towards EDSA before I found another BDO ATM, after which it was straight to the closest Metrobank branch I could find (and indeed one was barely two minutes away).  My aim was two-fold, as usual: to deposit money into my savings (three thousand pesos), as well as pay off some of my credit card bill (about two thousand pesos ), the latter of which is looming pretty large in my thoughts as of late.

Anyway, after my shift was done, it was a brief detour to the house to pick up a few things (specifically the CAC as well as the actual application form for the exam) as well as a change of clothes, since the plan was to drop by the gym on the way home.

Sadly, things didn’t quite go as planned.  I pretty much spent a fruitless two-odd hours in queue at the Registrar’s front desk… Only to find out when it was my turn that I should have just gone straight to one of the windows and turned in the forms directly.  *face palms*  Anyway, once that was cleared up, it was straight to pay for things… which was where things sort of went south.  Apparently the total amount I needed to pay was about 3700-odd pesos (it would have been more, but I already had paid for my residency).  Since the money I had with me was supposed to pay for the renewal of my gym membership, I had to take out the money I had just deposited earlier, and even then it wasn’t enough, so I had to crib some more money from the gym renewal budget.

So, in the end I was able to pay off the Comprehensive Exam fee… but my savings had been gutted, and what’s worse I couldn’t even renew my gym membership as planned.  Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed once I got home.

I still want to continue going to the gym, so I do plan on trying to pay for the renewal fee somehow… But there doesn’t seem to be any other way to even do so, or indeed, live until my next payday, without asking my father for some help.  And he’s been pretty stingy lately, especially when he found out that I paid five hundred pesos for a visit to the salon.  Really?  Having your hair styled is different from a barber’s cut!

Ugh, I don’t know what to do right now.  Really.

Sunday Shuffling

It was the same usual Sunday shift, which was to say that it became very busy rather quickly.  It was wall-to-wall calls from the moment I logged in, until around eight-thirty or so.  As usual it started to become more reasonable once the rest of the last-shift people logged in, but things only really started to slow down around ten in the morning.  By then, we were free to once again do what we pleased in between calls, though I wasn’t able to join in the usual office chit-chat, since my seat was once again on the other side of the floor.  

Oh well, at least that meant I had a whole side of the work floor to myself.  Too bad I wasn’t able to take a nap and take advantage of all that space… Next time, perhaps.

I emailed our team coach and supervisor about my request for a not-so-brief LOA so I could prepare for my comprehensive exams this month.  Hopefully it gets approved, as I really can’t see myself getting ready just on the three paid vacation leaves I had accumulated over the year.  Frankly given my trouble absorbing academic information, I need all that time to prepare.

And maybe they can also allow me to get off work early, so I can dash to the department and submit the last of the requirements.

Though, I’m definitely going to take a big hit, salary-wise, at the end of the month for this.  Two weeks… is a big deal, especially since I’m just working part-time to begin with.  That massive credit card bill will be even more delayed at this rate, but if I manage to pass the compre on one try, it’d be worth it I guess.

Now, to hope and pray that my request gets accepted!

 

 

 

Comprehensive Exam Anxiety

Went to school as promised to attend the little orientation for those who’re interested in taking the comprehensive examinations for the term.  I arrived five minutes late (the start was supposedly one in the afternoon) at the Literature Department, and for several awkward moments I was worried I went to the wrong place, since the door to the room was locked.  There was another girl who arrived after me — taking up Literature rather than Creative Writing — and together we waited in the hall for someone to help us out (while hurriedly accessing the school’s Wi-Fi to check our mail to see if we were in the wrong place).

Barely ten minutes past one, the door opened, and out came another student.  Apparently the orientation had started already, but someone had locked the door for privacy.  Thankful, me and my companion quietly went to the small corner of the faculty room where the orientation was taking place.  We weren’t as late as we thought we were, as they hadn’t gone into the details and expectations about the exam itself.  There were about, hmm, six of us post-grad students, all told, but even then it sure felt crowded in that small corner of the room where everyone had been seated in.

I won’t bore anyone with the details of the actual orientation, but here are the important points: the exam itself was divided into three or four odd phases, with most of it scheduled on October 20th, though for those who were going get a take-home portion (which is to say, the Creative Writing students like myself) the deadline for submission was on the 27th at five in the afternoon.  As the name suggests, the exam will pretty much test just how much we’ve learned and could apply over our two-odd year stay in our respective programs.

 I think it’s at this point that I started groaning in dismay, to the amusement of the others there.

So, we have until the 10th to finish all prerequisites (such as the Certificate of Completion), as well as submit the Comprehensive Exam application form, then prepare for the exam proper.  Not really a lot of time to do reviewing, which is why I’m going to probably request for a Leave of Absence again from work so I can properly prepare.  The pressure is very real, as you really can only fail at it once, as if you retake the exam twice you’ll have to be forced to take a refresher course on your program.  And if you fail after THAT, well, you’re drummed out of the program.  Yikes.

Speaking of the Certificate of Completion, I had a bit of trouble with that.  You see, I submitted mine last term, but remember I didn’t go through with the comprehensive that time (cold feet plus lack of review material can do that to a person).  So when I told the facilitator for this term’s exam (Dr. Baytan) that technically the department already had it… they couldn’t find it.  Which is ironic, since the previous term it was my academic records they couldn’t find.  Huh.

After the orientation was finished (I guess the good professor was satisfied in scaring all of us out of our wits), we relocated to a nearby pasta and pizzeria for a merienda paid for by the department.  While waiting for the food (I ordered a small beef pizza if anyone is curious), we talked some more about our expectations on the exam.  What worries we had were put aside when the food arrived though, of which we stuffed ourselves with gusto.

We adjourned for real after that, with all that pressure again hanging over our shoulders.  Ugh.

P.S. The department called my house a few minutes after I got home, informing me that they finally did find my Certificate of Academic Completion. This meant that all I needed to submit was an updated list of my grades, as well as the actual Compre application form.  I’ll do that on Monday, so I can spend the rest of the time from that point worrying, I mean, preparing for the exam itself.

 

 

 

Relaxed Fridays

It’s not too surprising how, despite setting my alarm for nine in the morning as usual for my day off, I woke up at around eleven.  The same thing that happened the other week happened again, where I got up to turn off the alarm on my cellphone, took a look at the time, then quickly jumped back into bed.  It’s just one of those things I do, I suppose.

Mind, it’s not like I wasn’t at fault for it.  I kind of stayed up late watching the last few episodes of Sengoku Collection (just the last three episodes of left to watch at this point), so obviously I’d be sleep-starved.  Still, that was a waste of the morning.  Eight hours is still eight hours I could have put to use for… other stuff.  Like, oh, reading.  Yeah.

Otherwise, it was the same usual weekend-come-day off for yours truly.  I alternated between sitting in front of the PC, and reading.  Wasn’t really able to squeeze any writing, but at this point I’m not really in the right frame of mind to even do an essay, much more a short story entry.  Boo.

In the latter half of the afternoon I dropped by the gym as usual, and did my routine.  Was only able to visit twice over the week, partly due to my left leg acting up last Wednesday.  Really have to make up for that somehow, as with my decrease in visits (do remember that at one point I was going there everyday), my father is seriously questioning the practicality of me continuing to pay for membership there.

Then again, my father complains that I’m not doing as much reading as  I should be doing, and for good reason. Hmm, speaking of which, really have to drop by school tomorrow to see about that…  The comprehensive examinations I mean.

Ah.  Well, not exactly a wasted day, but not quite as well-used as I’d liked.

 

 

 

Sort Of Okay Closer, Again

It was still raining a bit this morning, but unlike yesterday I didn’t have to take my umbrella with me.  I figured that my hat was all the protection I needed, and I was right; aside from the slight drizzle going on near the office, the only thing I had to worry about was the afternoon sun.

This isn’t to say that it didn’t rain hard eventually (it did).  However, since I was already logged in and seated at my station by that point, it didn’t really matter anymore.

Aside from a slight scare when one of the ATMs didn’t return my card for a few minutes (where in a panic I actually called the bank’s customer service), only for it to be eventually spat out as the machine shut down, today’s workday was pretty routine.  Add in the fact that we had a full complement again for the last shift, and it was very relaxed, the spike in calls around eight or so notwithstanding.

Unlike yesterday my left knee was feeling better, so I was able to go to the gym this time around.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go, given the rain, but thankfully the clouds had cleared by the time I headed out for my session.

Day off again tomorrow.  I really hope to make the most of it.