Brownie Points

I appreciate when products and services hears people out as part of their basic service.   My kid is an avid KFC diner so the brand is inevitable.  I visit at least 2x a week (we go takeout and sneak out her treats in the resto we the adults want to eat,  J however will be happily munching her funshots).  and i notice from the receipts that the are giving out treats for survey comments.  I checked it out and tried their system.  Yes this is just your usual survey now online, i appreciate that they just need and value your comment and not your database to spam or sell like other online surveys.  The interface is easy and you can finish the set in a minute or two.  I often have good experiences at their stores (that small thing that they do writing on your paper bags are sweet i may add.) so surely i'll share the good cheers.  

***

And here comes my broadband service provider who would not have in the sim menu their cs number i had to look for my bill for the way to vent my frustration.  It is my second for this month service interruption.   Backstory is we had a change of guards in the office who does the bill processing and stuff,  so we realize we missed 2cycles and eventually paid for it completely to avoid disconnection.  Paid on the 15th in 2 separate documents as 1 is a check and another,  cash.  So 21 they disconnected,  which i didn't realize was a disconnection after 6 days paid without interruption i thought maybe i was still within the cutoff,  i called 22 and they said that they acknowledge payment,  they ask me to reset and all is well.  Yesterday 25,  again no service and why would i again have the idea of it being a disconnection after 10 days of full payment?  But it was,  based on a scripted reply of the agent, so why wasnt i informed of a possible disconnection the first time i called?  And why would they get my first half of two payments in the same bank, same day, minutes apart.  Is that my problem?  They accredited the bank to process right,  should i follow paper trails until the bank gave it to network and then connect it to my account?  

Now i have to send my bank slips to another team and they still cannot assure me of my reconnection until i send the email (my control-done.)  they get my mail (a team with no contact procedure to follow up so i just wish theyd do their jobs and process their emails) they connect this mail to my account and process to reconnect my service,  meanwhile i will be sitting and waiting.. And hoping all will be well.  It didnt with my payments so just hope.

The irony that this country is a haven for BPO outsourcing but our local setups are just bad in giving service.  Bad data, bad scripting, and bad process.  It was all i am sorry but our procedure is this and that excuses festival,  Huh.. Frustration.  Sun cellular is the great example of bad service.  

Maybe i am just a little customer but they promised services to customers like me.  

Fix this please. 

Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  

Update : So after a day i called again.  You see the internet connection is important at home in the mornings when J wants her spotify dose of disney and nursery rhymes.  I spoke to agent Jules and his supervisor Charlie but still I am still getting the i did the follow up and just wait for the service to come line.  Oh,  consumer rights,  where art thou?

weekends are supposed to be restdays right?

Violator :  I love my life,  this is just me ranting.

For the rest of the universe,  weekend is rest.  For momwantopreneur like me,  it is a blob of time where you have to mix family and projects together because it is the only time you can.   

check out this weekend list :

laundry sort and defrost (this is not considered since its just pushing buttons and waiting.  Laundry btw, is c/o hubby)

refresh aquarium water

prepare for weekend day trip (which includes preparing my daughter’s stuff and all)

Day trip (malling as usual) merienda cena

grocery

clean A/C filters

finalize C*** contest entry backlog (check hdd for “past works”)

draft S**** contest entry and C*** contest entry requirements (personal deadline on the 28th sent via LBC)

Prepare proposals for A/P meeting (Biblio)

     - ppt update add spark!

     - rework budgets

     - letters

meet with B*** for art project (funding BSB)

Setup cables to connect tablet to screen

Prepare for Church

Church - day trip sunday brunch - arcades

laundry fold

refresh offline playlist in J’s tab, J’s phone 

prepare personal playlists and offline study references

Thank God for the likes of Spotify and YouTube that I do not need to refresh as often for music but still would need to do it for offline moments when we go out.  Again for the screen time debate,  I employ the help of technology for my sanity but would try to program the things she watches,  I prefer this than watching from cable because I can develop age and skill appropriate videos/ instructionals. 

Spark mail >> habol missed requirement/ request

J curriculum for the week

watch 1 movie for blog

Prepare for tomorrow’s ballet 

Prepare office backlog (this should be done at 12:01am Monday)

I usually do not want to work on weekends,  plus would not do a sunday work for money activity (sorry harsh description,)  house work ok.  i often try honor that commitment,  but the weekend saturday work-for-your-own-company load is becoming to be more frequent than i wish.  I am just glad i do not have work on saturdays and i can do the tasks close to my family or along with family life.  

and on a monday,  is the only time i will sort out the receipts,  the loose change that is all over my bag,  take out the ketchup and barbecue sauce packets from my personal bag (that i now mix use as J’s diaper bag because i mess up with forgetting my wallet, gadgets, house keys and other stuff i want to use out of home if i change bags so all my weekend life in a bag i remove on mondays.  Likewise reminds me i had a good and fun weekend with family.  

Coworking@CoLab

Everytime I had a meeting back in the early 2000.  People always ask me where my office is,  I always tell them in jest that we have 256 branches nationwide.  It was a home-office setup for me for almost 3 years for ASUS Ph.  I being the sole local representative would have my official address in one of our showrooms but process meetups in coffeeshops near my home.  That was telecommuting in the era of the early millennium.  Yesterday,  i was invited to a gathering of like minds who want to change the world one idea at a time.   The Spark Project, a Philippine focused crowdfunding platform had its meeting in Co.Lab, a coworking space near the CBD Ortigas.  (3 Brixton St. Kapitolyo, Pasig -- paces after ACE Water Spa)  It was such a solution I needed then,  solutions for comfortable workspaces especially for me who wants to move and walk around while thinking (this is a new discovery about myself while doing my Jawbone steps moments.)  for fast wi-fi (well internet then since most laptops i lug around needed RJ 11 connections) conducive to work environments.   

Co.Lab gave us seating options in their communal area depending on your preference.  Bar stool, executive, or comfortable sofa.  Their tables are the conference room versions where you can easily plug in for juice without the need to bend or crawl.  The walls are glass surfaces encouraging you to write your venns and project your gantts.  They also have meeting cub holes for the intimate type of meetings.  

Free coffee.

Coworking spaces,  a concept for the work telecommuters, freelancers and “manylancers”, where golden handshakes  are sealed.  

I want to go back to this lifestyle,  i am too tied up on my desk. Unshackle me.

Special thanks to the Spark Project for introducing me to this find.  

  

Entering contests

What’s with contests that require major efforts to enter the competition?  How can a dreamer like me who do not have posse working for them,  like everyone just needs a researcher,  grant writer, logo and layout design maker,  video producers on their beck and call because these contest just would ask for a whole universe of things.

Like i am just a mom who even if I have friends and network that could help me with your requirement kits I can’t meet.  I have a day job and a “take-care-of-daughter” shift so can’t a "describe your idea” thing be enough?

You tell me to USE MY IMAGINATION.  Why can’t you use yours?

Ok, I am done with my rant back to section 57.. using alibata,  explain the process on how you will gain your market computed in the exponent of pi…nyeeh.

Deadlines, deadlines.

It feels like high school again.  Deadlines and assignment left and right.

At one point the adrenaline gets me going.  Personal deadlines along with office and passion project deadlines.   Who signed me up for this? 

My old screenwriting groupie encouraged me to try to send something to one of the yearly festivals.   I initially was not into doing anything creative as my work and my current passion projects are mostly strategic,  creativity just by means of interface, visuals and titles.  I thought i would not have the energy to muster a hundred pages of script for a full length.  Remembering some pre-worked ideas set aside to good timing and inspiration,  i got my something and processed an update and finally had an entry.  I even added a weekly serial entry that was initially an app project of mine and now became a tv concept.  Call that multi platform.  Call that convergence.

To my dismay,  the deadline was a pussyfoot,  it said initially April 30 with a balikbayan load full of requirements and then at the last minute it moved the deadline to June.  I can boldly rant about it in behalf of the people who beat deadline.  Nice.

Then last i found a deadline for proposals that my web app project fits deadline May 15,  but i got hooked by the idea that they will feedback on the 17th.  How about that?  It is a crowdfunding platform and this is my first for this platform and just the second funding proposal for this project (missed the cut the first time :().  I scrambled to put up the needed information to build my entry.  I still have a hard time in developing these kinds of proposals, a newbie of 1 online miss, 1 face to face greenlight that fell flat during negotiations.. Huh..Long story..). that is why i still haven't found my funding match.

Another cinema festival deadline is coming i will unabashedly resubmit my full length concept.  This is better than my works lying around my hard disks without an eyeball with anyone but me.  That is so wrong about me.  I write but I don't share,  not that I am sure that what I write is worth anybody's while but I think this is my resolve.  So now i go ahead at least for this season,  I will submit stuff from the baul.  

At the same day of this deadline,  will be a deadline set by festival number 1 for me to complete more, more, more requirements to my balikdbayan box of an entry.  Like what?  That ream thick of an entry still had lacking items!!!

Universe hear me roar. 

Update : May 17,  i just got a mail that my proposal for the web app is ok to proceed to phase 2.   Just need to meet with them on Wednesday and submit a bunch of stuff for May 22.