Today’s discovery: I was looking at my permanent file at work and chanced upon my Performance Appraisal from the previous year. According to my “Areas that need improvement” field as filled out by my immediate supervisor, I “need(s) writing communication skills.”

There’s even a part there where she said that I “tried to improve” my audit reports. Fortunately, it wasn’t followed by, “but she still failed”, although by leaving that sentence hanging it may easily be presumed that that was what she really wanted to say.

Ever since I was in grade school, I’ve always thought that if there’s one skill that I not only have but I know I’m good at, it’s writing skills. I even once had an entire classroom in Graduate School which howled in protest when the professor asked me pointblank if I was the who wrote my reaction papers because (direct quote, and I swear it’s true), “it’s so good.” Another professor, who gave me straight 1’s in all six subjects I took with him because I’ve always aced his essay final exams (not necessarily because I know the subject matter very well; it’s because I know how to write as if I know what I’m talking about ), even said I should file a written complaint about that professor who accused me of hiring a ghost writer. And now, this… person is telling me - and the higher ups in the organization - that I have zero writing skills and I need to acquire one. That certainly gave my life a whole new meaning now.

Aah, so that’s why I always get misunderstood and misquoted by some readers of this blog. It’s because I don’t have writing communication skills. Now I know.

Seriously now: so many insults have been hurled at me especially at this blog. It’s the first time in my life that I actually felt insulted.

PS: I’ve just realized that “writing” has been the first on the list of skills on my resume. What if the higher-ups compare that to my Performance Appraisal? Would they think that I’m lying on my resume?

Why is Korean entertainment full of dating news today?

First, the un-dating news: Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young have broken up. Bad timing for ABS CBN, they aired City Hunter at the time that the leads are not dating anymore. Not that the dating news is the drama’s publicity thrust in the first place. In fact, I think a certain fan group of a Lee Min Ho ship is celebrating right now… (I can totally relate; been there, done that)

For the dating news: Sexy comedienne Hyun Young has announced that she has a boyfriend. Good for her!

And the more exciting news: Wonder Girls’ Sohee and 2AM’s Seulong were caught dating by Dispatch. Unfortunately, JYPE eventually denied it and said they’re just friends (yup, in Korea, where it’s perfectly alright for men to be seen frolicking with fellow men, but it’s a totally different story if they’re having meals alone with a woman). Whatever, JYPE. I haven’t forgiven you yet. Not until my ship has gone up from waiting underwater.

And I sound so poetic today. WTH is this.

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Update: after the news this morning that she’s dating, Hyun Young’s agency has just announced that she’s getting married this March. Whoa!

It’s one of those fancams that you’d want to watch over and over and over….

And it’s also one of the reasons why fancamming is the best thing ever invented by fanaticism.

Upload credits: redrose39311 on YouTube -> this YT channel has quite a number of BiKyo goodies so you may want to check it out.

Or as Big Bang would sing it, “I’m so stuped.”

So there I was, randomly checking Cebu Pacific’s website for any miracle of a Piso seat suddenly opening up. You know, just in case someone who over-excitedly booked a trip without paying suddenly decided not to proceed with it, thus the airline would put it right back on sale again. All sale seats on the Manila to Incheon flight for October 12 were already taken; on the other hand, there were Piso fare seats available for Incheon to Manila on October 19. Since we have two people who wanted to join our trip but haven’t booked yet because they ran out of Piso seats, I decided to book the return flight for one friend (the one who’s not from Voltes). She can book her departure flight later on when there’s another sale.

Click, click, enter details, click… enter CC details… click… choose currency converter… oh no! Error! I’ve already entered my card number, I wonder if the booking got through?

However, I checked my “My Bookings” page and there was none. Still, it’s a cause for concern. I won’t be able to have peace of mind until I see my credit card statement. Howell…

Since the booking won’t proceed anymore because of the site error, I have to repeat the entire process. Luckily - or unluckily, whichever the case may be - the Piso seat is still available. (Actually, it’s not exactly Piso, but 천원 [1,000 won] or roughly 41 pesos.) Click, click, enter details, click… enter CC details… click… choose currency converter… done! Saved the itinerary for future reference.

For some reason, I decided to check our own itinerary to compare. Guess what… all this time, I thought that our trip was October 12-19, 2012. It turns out, it’s October 12-20, 2012. Which means my friend, who’s a first-timer in Korea, would have to go home by herself. The flight is in the early morning, too, so that means she would have to travel to the airport in the wee hours alone. Korea is generally a safe place, though, so no worries.

And then, I decided to check Voltes’ FB chat transcript to check on Precious’ flight details. You see, when I told them that I booked a flight to Korea in October, Pre’ decided to book one for herself. The thing is, what I posted there was the wrong flight details (October 12-19), so Pre’ booked a return flight on October 19.

Well, if it’s any consolation, at least Pre’ and my friend won’t have to go to the airport alone.

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But seriously, what’s with October 19? Why is it in my head???

…unless some event will require me to forego it again, but that won’t happen, given that Rain is in the military. Unless he does a Hyun Bin and goes to the Philippines in October 2012 to deliver some military equipment as part of the deal, which is probably the only time that I will like our President.

The price of a Piso seat-sale: You stay up until the wee hours of the morning - which is my normal bedtime, anyway, so it’s not a big deal - and get stressed over so many things like, your internet connection being too slow, other people’s internet connection being too fast, Cebu Pacific’s website being unable to handle the number of customers trying to book a flight, other people with fast internet connection being too selfish because they book so many flights for themselves without ‘giving chance to others’, Cebu Pacific’s clever way of making you click without thinking and purchasing add-ons or else slowing down your booking process, etc etc. In my case, it took me three different internet providers and three failed tries before I finally was able to score that booking. I felt like I aged ten years. Well, it’s either that or pay full price. The thing is, none of us are used to buying air tickets costing more than USD110 anymore.

Anyway, what’s done is done. Korea, here we come again!