People care about people...

"Because people care about people who care about themselves..."

In Miss Congeniality 2, this line is Gracie Hart's stylist's mantra, which Gracie Hart herself soon takes as her own. She says it to a young, tomboyish girl during a book signing session, in addition to advise to tie her hair up and use bows.

I feel like I'm that little girl. We just had a happy moment at the office, trying on earrings and necklaces from India, gushing at how pretty they were, and giving our opinions how they looked on our colleagues. I joined in on the fun. And I guess that turned out to be an eye-opening thing for an officemate.

I was trying on a shoulder-brusher (I think that's what they're called, so named because of their length). I've worn dangling earrings to work on a few occassions-- never thought they were very appropriate in a professional atmosphere, even though my office has no regulation on accessories. Anyway, I tried it on and my officemate said it looked okay, that I would probably have to tie my hair so that I wouldn't pull on it when I tossed my hair.

And that was the moment of epiphany. She said, "It's about time...." And I had no idea where she was leading. Was it about time that I tied my hair? I asked. And she continued: "It's about time, maybe to open your blouse just a little bit more, wear something more form-fitting, tie your hair, wear contact lenses or at least change the rim of your glasses... fix your eyebrows..."

Wasn't this what I was just complaining about when I said I missed school-- that I felt so frumpy in my office attire?

I explained that not a lot of my clothes were things I had bought myself. Someone bought them for me and they had overestimated the sizes.

And she paused. "Do you want...?"

Do I want what? Do I want a makeover? Will I be the "victim" of those makeover shows like Ambush Makeover or Queer Eye? I actually wouldn't mind. I've been watching those shows a lot lately and I keep on saying that I wish I were victimized by one of those stylists from Ambush or (particularly) by Kyan and Carson from Queer Eye.

"I can do that for you. I can fix your eyebrows."

Well, that's a start. So I said yes.

My mom said she only learned about makeup when she started working. I guess these are my first steps of claiming my own space in this legacy.

Anchor Wam! frootmilk drink

Blech!

Anchor Wam! frootmilk drink tastes like-- hmm, I don't know. The two words vying for articulation are turpentine and pasty. Eew. Short of saying, it was absolutely terrible.

I mean, I was intrigued by the what the label said: frootmilk. I love Magnolia's melon milk, and now Anchor has flavored milk in four variants (apple, strawberry, orange, and something). The packaging was quite cute too. It was a mini-milk bottle, about as large as a shot bottle (am not sure what you call those single-serve containers of liquor)...

So I tried the apple flavored one... and I am sorry that I did! It tasted like paint! I couldn't even finish the bottle (and it was probably less than 100 mL)!

Blech!

Coffee Lover?

I don't like the taste of coffee. It is bitter.

So how come everytime I step into a Starbucks or a Coffee Bean or when I pass by a Seattle's or a San Francisco it makes me think that I do like it?!?!?!

Missing School

I miss school!

I miss wearing t-shirts and jeans and rubber shoes and mules and, occassionally, casual skirts. I want to wear my dangling earrings and put my hair up in a ponytail. I miss wearing my contact lenses.

My feet now hurt like anything because of the pumps I wear everyday. I've just invested in a Marks and Spencer that's supposed to have comfort technology built into it; been wearing them for half a day, but my toes are still feeling very raw. I don't know if it's a carryover from my previous pair of shoes.

And I feel really quite frumpy because all the blouses I wear are quite loose. I'm afraid to wear the one good one I have because it might wear down. Haha! Seriously, I have no more sense of my body shape. I know I'm flabbier now because my jeans are a bit tight, but I just don't get why that is when I exercise thrice a week for one and a half hours.

It must be the unnatural, sedentary lifestyle of staying in one place eight hours a day. Back in school, even if I jogged only twice a week (thrice if there wasn't too much stress) for only half an hour, the walking I did to get from one building to the next and to get from the dorm to the restaurant or the bookstore more than made up for it. I felt light and agile then, now I just feel heavy and sluggish.

There are probably some things that I wish I'd done better in college. I mean, who doesn't want to change some part of their history? Otherwise, the history would have gone to waste because it carried no valuable lesson we would use to change the way we live. But I guess on the whole, the Nietzschean concept of the eternal recurrence of the same, i.e. if the same had to recur again and again-- if I had to go through the entire four years of college once more, with the constraint that I had to live everything exactly the same way, I would gladly do so.

Help!

It was all good three months ago-- I wanted to quit. I was at a nowhere.

How can so much change after three months??? Why don't we just grab what's good for us when it comes along???

I don't know where to start. Okay, I've been put in a crossroads today. There is something I will probably be assigned to at work. It is a big something, and it merited the question from my boss, "Are you committed?"

Am I committed?! I haven't been committed for three months now, becauseI've been dangled by another company, waiting for them to finalize my employment. Saying yes to this commitment will tie me down here for, perhaps, a good six months. I can't say I am committed NOW and still wait for the other opportunity-- what if they call tomorrow and want me to start after the mandatory thirty days post-resignation?

It was all good three months ago. There wasn't anything much to stay for. I was miserable, crying at least twice a week. I was so ready to resign three months ago! Then I became involved with a client that was interesting, and I thought, "I'll stay until this thing is done." Then now, this big something comes along and it's going to change all of that. I cannot dangle anymore. I have to make a decision; my commitment has to be black and white.

But right now, I really don't know whether I'm black or white. And I don't know what's going to tip the scale in one direction or the other. It's really up to me... and that is so scary.

Cellphone Scare

I almost lost my cellphone last night.

By that, I don't mean that I accidentally left my cellphone somewhere but realized just in time that I did and found it right away.

My dad and I were at a secondhand bookshop (Book Sale) last night, digging through back issues of magazines and bin after bin piled with sundry books. I was holding two magazines, slipping against each other because of the plastic, and a plastic bag containing a DVD. My cellphone, in its blue pouch, shifted alternately between my hand and and my wrist, which I wore using the drawstring.

So, I was holding quite a lot of things, and my mind was on what I was browsing, so I wasn't really paying much attention anymore to what was in my hand. I thought, as long as I didn't leave anything or of I didn't feel something slip off my hand and land with a thud or whack (depending on which item would fall), then I'd be okay.

But as I got in the car and began to arrange what I'd thrown in ahead of me, I realized that I wasn't holding any cellphone to put in my handbag. I panicked and immediately cried out, "My cellphone!" We returned to Book Sale to retrace my steps. I was thinking hard about where I'd spent the most time browsing, where I would have put down anything I was holding to remove a book, all the while shaking remarkably. The worst of it all was that the gadget was still on silent mode, so any attempt to locate it by sound was futile.

I felt terrible. This was so irresponsible. This has never happened to me... ever. And I thought I had just proven myself responsible by taking care of all our finances while my parents were away on vacation. My mind was racing, thinking about the things I needed to do to set things right. I had to call the service provider. My god, did I need to buy a new phone? I didn't want to spend so much of my salary. Dad aggravated that wretched feeling by saying, "It's probably already been sold to one of the cellphone vendors here."

Dejected, I opened the car door... and as I glanced at my seat before getting on... there it was. My cellphone, all safe in its blue pouch. God, it was there all along!

On the way back home, my little sister texted me. I almost cried at the possibility that someone could have been reading that message. It wasn't anything confidential. But it was personal. And some thief shouldn't be allowed the privilege of seeing even a bit of what is mine, even if there were absolutely no way for him to contextualize it.

Why Aren't More CEOs Women?

I found this article about women in the corporate world.

I've been thinking a lot lately about sexual discrimination. I feel that many people are quick to point out when a woman is wrong, or if there is something wrong, it's usually a woman's fault. Just this weekend, we were driving in a narrow road when a car aggressively claimed precedence of passage. Our driver peered at the car as it passed by and said "Babae... (It's a woman...)"

Another example is the chauvinistic criticism made by someone I know on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's policy of holiday economics: "Why does she keep changing her mind, anyway? Is it because she's a woman?" I'll admit myself that the constant shifting of holidays to days other than the ones designated to them is confusing.

Are such distinctions on a person's gender really necessary? I believe we could do just fine without them.
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http://www.fortune.com/fortune/careers/articles/0,15114,1124449,00.html
CAREERS
Why Aren't More CEOs Women?
Many companies still think women aren't serious about reaching the top. No wonder they don't retain talent. A conversation with management expert Sheila Wellington.
FORTUNE
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
By Anne Fisher

The world sure has changed since Sheila Wellington, a newly minted Radcliffe grad, got her first job 50 years ago. Before he would hire her, the interviewer insisted that she sign a note promising that she wouldn't get pregnant for at least two years. Now a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business, Wellington teaches a course, immensely popular with both male and female MBA students, called Women in Business Leadership. From 1993 to 2003, as president of Catalyst, a nonprofit research group, Wellington was an articulate advocate for women in high places. We recently sat down for a chat about how women are faring in corporate America now. Some excerpts from our conversation:

The phrase "powerful women" is no longer an oxymoron. But why are there still so few female CEOs of big companies or even women at the senior-officer level?
I think we are in the midst of a cycle right now where there is a widespread perception that women aren't fully committed to their careers. It tends to happen every time the spotlight is on a high-ranking woman who flames out, like [former Hewlett-Packard CEO] Carly Fiorina. You start hearing all kinds of people analyzing "what women are doing wrong." But in my opinion it's time to shift the focus of the discussion to what companies can do better. Here is this incredibly well-educated, talented population of women. Why is so much of that talent underutilized?

What do you think companies should be doing?
For one thing, turnover among women is quite startling in many companies, but if you press managers for an explanation, they lapse into platitudes like "Women are risk-averse" or "Women won't travel." Nonsense. Fond as corporations are of measuring everything they do, very few take the trouble to gather and scrutinize any data on where in their organizations talented women are quitting, why, and what it would have taken to keep them. What I hear from many female managers is that they leave because they're tired of being passed over for promotions they've earned, tired of being excluded from overseas assignments, and so on. Yet so many employers just don't seem
to see it.

What's your reaction, then, to Neil French, who resigned as WPP Group worldwide creative director last month after saying women in advertising "don't make it to the top because they don't
deserve to"?
He spoke aloud what all too many men in leadership positions believe but don't articulate. They think "with the family responsibilities she's got, maybe we shouldn't ask her to take on certain key opportunities, clients, and assignments." They act on those unspoken biases, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What advice do you have for young women who aspire to make our list of the Most Powerful Women in Business someday?
It's essential to learn how to negotiate. I teach a class in it. Lots of people aren't comfortable negotiating, so I have them practice, practice, practice. Then, my advice is to develop a career plan. Find a mentor, male or female, who is where you'd like to be in five or ten years, and learn from that person. Your plan should include all aspects of your career and life. How much time do you want to devote to family and friends? What motivates you? Are you a leader or more of a team player? You can throw out your plan and make a new one every six months. The point is to articulate your goals, so you have a point
of reference.

How do you think your female MBA students differ from yourself at the same age?
I've noticed many of them are athletes. That's interesting, since I've known so many [male] CEOs who are former football players. What you learn from sports is that you win some, you lose some, and there's always another game tomorrow or next week. That's a valuable mindset, because it gives you resilience. I wish I'd had it when I was young. I took every little setback too much to heart and wasted a lot of stomach acid.

Gloria Steinem once remarked that we'll know women have reached full equality when a mediocre woman can get as far as a mediocre man. Are we there yet?
We're still a long way from there. But women can avoid the trap of having to be better than their male colleagues in order to reach the same heights. I advise my students to think carefully before they join any organization—to avoid leaping at the first job offer they get. Figure out whether that company is likely to help you reach your goals, as well as vice versa. Of course, you can go to work in a male-dominated industry or at a company with few or no high-ranking women, but you must go in with your eyes open and be prepared to tough it out. Be aware that, even today, you may be a pioneer. And the way you can always tell a pioneer is, she's the one with the arrows sticking out of
her back.