In My Own World

Translation (in Filipino): may sariling mundo

I feel like I (and the rest of the IT community in P&G) have our own little world. Funny thing is that we are proud of having our own language and customized solutions and what not - even if it's not recognized industry-wide.

This is what a normal life cycle of a P&G solution looks like.

A lot of people have tried to know what it is exactly that I do in P&G - tried being the operative word.

Friend: "You work in P&G right after college, right? So what do you do?"

Me: "I'm in the IT Department."

Friend: "You mean you work on computers all day?"

Me: "Umm.... not exactly... err... I run the operations of some SAP applications. Sometimes I lead projects for financial systems. Other times I do governance roles for our outsourced partners like HP and IBM."

Friend (silence accompanied by a blank and/or confused look)

Me: "Well, it's kinda difficult to explain...let me try again... umm...."

Friend (still the same blank and/or confused look)

Me (throws hands up in despair): "Yes, you're right. I work with computers."

Friend (expression clears and brightens): "See, I knew you work with computers. Let's get lunch."

Sometimes I wonder if I myself know what I'm doing in P&G. Don't tell my boss.

I have this belief that one should always keep his resumes updated, regardless of how much he loves his current job. However, whenever I try to put this into practice, I encounter the same difficulty. It is almost impossible to translate what I have done for the past 8 years into something that another IT person outside P&G would be able to understand. I usually just give up and just tell myself I'll update it when "the right time comes."

Sometimes I feel that my parents suspect me of having an illicit relationship with somebody based in the US. They do not understand why I have so many late night calls. Whenever I try to explain how people from different countries dial in to a conference number to discuss something, I just get a blank look from them. Sigh.

Who else but only P&Gers use words like align, f-up and learnings? I'm guilty of this as well. More and more, I find myself getting "procterized." I invariably use P&G lingo in everyday conversation and end up earning a blank and/or confused look from the other person.

Most of the time thought, I just end up not mentioning anything specific to my work anymore to non-colleagues. I just concentrate on talking about other universally understood topics - you know, normal stuff like what city you last travelled in during your business trip, what food you tried, what airline you took or how long the waiting time like.

No wonder I keep seeing more and more P&G couples cropping up. Sometimes only fellow P&Gers can actually grasp what being in P&G actually means.

Sad but true.

I wonder: Is this just us or are other companies feeling the same thing?

An Extreme but Fun Weekend

Last weekend I would say I swung from two extremes. I watched "The Dark Knight" on Saturday and "High School Musical: The Ice Tour" the very next day.

One movie is so terrifyingly dark and eerie - it actually took me a week before I could recover and blog about it. I was being treated for shock the past week (kidding).

The other is so cheerfully perky - if the songs weren't that great, you would've love to slap them silly and tell them to grow up and join the rest of humanity.

I endured waiting in line for almost an hour to be able to get tickets for the last full show (5 hours waiting time in total)! But honestly, this is one of those movies that would be difficult to not watch. Not because of the controversy brought about by Heath's suicide, but because deep in our hearts, we know that this will be a very distinct and unique Batman movie compared to others. It would be a shame to miss and watch it.

I honestly didn't notice that the movie lasted 2.5 hours. I was so riveted by Heath's performance that I was surprised it was already 1:30am. My favorite scene was when Joker gave the two boats the choice to blow the other boat up. For me, that was a test of humanity. I was ready to believe in the worst about the people. I was pleasantly surprised at the scene's ending. I think I would need to watch it at least another time to be able to fully comprehend all of the themes that were used in the movie - greed, justice, survival, love, self-worth... the list seems endless. This is NOT the kind of movie I would normally want to watch, but I still have to say it's an excellent movie.

Fast forward 12 hours after. My family plus a bunch of family friends with their kids are all super excited to watch Troy and Gabriella sing and dance and ice skate.

Even though I'm nearly in my thirties, I find myself enjoying HSM immensely. I was clapping as hard and singing as loudly as the other kids seated beside me. I can't help it! They were singing my favorite songs from HSM1!!! Breaking Free, Start of Something New, What I've Been Looking For and a whole lot more. There will always be a little kid inside me, wanting to be peskily and eternally happy. Aside from the face that Troy had a receding hairline and one of his classmates had a huge bald patch, it was money well-spent.

All in all, a very extreme but fun weekend. Not bad.

Up, Up and Away

It was one of those lazy Sunday mornings. Ralph and I woke up together at around 8am.

We stretched. We yawned. We smiled sleepily and greeted each other good morning. I was too lazy to even think about what breakfast I needed to prepare for both of us.

Suddenly, I heard a very chirpy voice beside me exclaim, "Look, Mommy, it's pointing up."

Wide awake as well, I glanced down at what he was pointing at. And indeed, it is very much up, as up as any 7-year old thingies could be. Trying to be mature, I just nodded and wisely said nothing.

*pause*

Ralph followed it up with "Why is it up every morning, Mommy?"

Although generally I encourage Ralph to ask follow up questions for stuff that he doesn't understand, this is one of those moments wherein I regretting building that trait in him - just for a second at least.

I was struck speechless. My mind was filled with terror. Disaster, my brain screamed!

This is one of those few times I wished I weren't single and that I can just tell Ralph, "Go ask your dad." But alas, that's not how life is. (One of those other times was when I was teaching Ralph how to pee properly. Let me reassure you, it is now as instinctive as you would think it would be.)

I prayed for divine intervention. Maybe suddenly a tornado or hurricane would arrive for the first time in my hometown and swallow us alive. Maybe not.

I considered playing the old "distract-the-baby" game. I tried to think of what his favorite things are and how I can get his mind off this topic. All I came up with is blank.

I deliberated whether the old birds and bees stories include this part as well. *scratch that idea*

I thought of confusing him with too much scientific information, starting with "The male genitalia expands when the blood rushes into the..." and decided I couldn't pull it off.

All these thoughts happened within five seconds. (See how fast the mind works?)

I glanced over at Ralph, who was still waiting expectantly for my answer. I finally said, "I think it just means you need to pee first thing in the morning."

Ralph said, "OK," then went off to play.

Whew. Saved for at least a few more years.