Sad Day

It is quite a sad day for me. I just got home from a wake of a new friend I just met. I remember the time we drank a couple of rounds of beer. The time that he asked me for advice. The times when we laughed a couple of times because of stories from our common friends. I could have gained another friend but I was shock to hear he died 2 days ago. He was hit by a blunt object on his head while on a drinking spree outside their house in Valenzuela. I wonder what could have been if we talked more since then. Well he already passed on. I hope the perpetrators would be caught by police and suffer the consequences of their actions.

I pray that his soul rest in peace. I hope all our other friends and his family find comfort in the Lord. With all the things that happened to them and the sufferings he had encountered when he lived alone, I hope that would all go away and be replenished by everything good GOD has to offer. I am not much of a prayerful person but for him I would. He deserves it and I wish his siblings be safe. Blessed be.

Know Your Rights!

I am really not new to forums. I have actually administered 4 forums in my lifetime and they go about subjects for school, sports, general information and technology. I have actually toned down in the recent years. I got as high as 6 communities which on some instances already battled with my time with work. I had to prioritize that but I never got them removed from my system because I like the feeling of belonging to a community. I specifically like the consumer forum since I get to communicate with the users directly. It is the ability to help people who purchase their everyday stuff that gets me to visit their forum. One example of this is the Consumer Court Forum (India). Even if I am a starting member in this community I know how it already works. Have you ever bought stuff from businesses that you later find out to be defective?! How about properties that promise SHANGRILA but you end up in the middle of nowhere?! Those are the things we should avoid when buying products or services and I would not be surprised if one day we become victims of unscrupulous individuals.

What is this forum all about?! Why protect the consumers?! It is all about users helping other users on their dilemma. Protecting the consumers from large corporations and entities is one way of helping each other. If you are alone and battle it out with companies that are funded with millions of dollars you would never win any court case. If you voice out your opinions on these free boards from the Consumer Court Forum and if there are people around the world who have the same problem with the product and service that you got, then you are going to be able to communicate together your concern. It is a fact that there is unspoken power in numbers. This is new media and there are thousands of people who view these pages every day. I know how the metrics run in communities like them and it is very powerful to get your point across. Enjoining other users to report problems so the companies could act on it is one way of also helping yourself. Make sure you join this forum and protect your rights and your family.

A New Office Mate

A new office mate. Yeah it is one of those days where you welcome another stranger in town. But since he is in my team I am going to look for quality. I hope he works as good as what we expect him to do. There are really not that much choices out there so if you think about it I had to choose between undergraduates, people who had previous call center experience but have no idea what a forum is and what a moderator does. I also had interviewed people who answer the canny response "I don't know what to do but I am willing to learn" script. We exhausted efforts to get one for the post we have but it seems some of the applicants do not even appear for the interview. I tried to even call some of them but they either 1.) begged off or 2.) put up an attitude or 3.) didn't bother to answer. It looks like one of the things why some Filipinos are jobless nowadays. They are simply unwilling to work and also lack qualification for the position.

I don't know what to think anymore. It's either these people are poor and cannot get proper education or maybe the standard of education in the country is getting poorer. I hope the government steps up the educational system and do not pass anyone who could not understand and write English. It's too lame to have an excuse when it is literally already our second language. I probably should even laugh at the fact when one of the applicants was an English professor and her grammar was even worse as the kids I taught for free in the streets. What is happening to the quality of our workforce!

Shocking News

I just received a text message from my friend a few minutes ago. It was really shocking news. I finished my shift last Friday and I was dead tired. Stress kind of got the best of my and so I was a little off that day. I hurriedly ask one of my closest friends from college to accompany me to a local bar for a couple of rounds of beer. He brought along some of his friends too and I did not really mind at all even if I pay for them. I think I just got caught with the notion of knowing more friends outside of my circle and it was okay since I wanted a lot of people to talk to. It makes me want to know more friends because I have sometimes grown to get tired if I talk to the same old people from work. There was one guy whose name is AYA who was briefly introduced to me before we started to drink. He was one of those guys who rode on the backs of elephants and bragged about everything in this world even if he had nothing. I had nothing against that but all I needed last is someone to argue with when I am stressed. It is not conducive to the environment I want to have at that time. So I did not really talk to him that much until everyone else was drunk. I had a hunch he was not good but then he opened up a conversation that I got hooked to. It was about his family problems and I am a little off target when it comes to that. I am one of those guys who pretend to know it all. I give very sound, good advices but I do not usually follow them myself. I had a habit of doing that so I said my piece on his story. It was something very private and he was often going out of their home because of that. He went to different houses and stayed with strangers just to make ends meet because he did not want to see his abusive family either. The beer dried up and the people went home one by one. I already was there a couple of hours and saw the need for me to go home too but he asked me to stay so he could tell me more sob stories. I did not want to hear them anymore because it is making me more stressed too. Anyway we parted ways and I went home. I slept the whole day after wards. The text message I received this morning was shocking; because my friend just told me he died just a couple of hours ago. He told me that AYA stayed in one man's house in Manila. This is another stranger. He unfortunately got raped and killed. I was so appalled at what happened. They said that the man he stayed with had previous records of violence and jail time. I really pity AYA and of what happened to him. Nobody knew he was going through those things even his own family. I am planning to go with my friend on his funeral on Saturday. I wish there was a way the government would have made a state sex offender list so people would be safe from predators like that guy. This is really a serious and the last thing I want to know is someone close to me goes through the same agony that he did. Poor guy! I want to send my condolences to their family. I hope in some way they realize that they should never make their kids grow up in a very abusive environment. My thanks go to AYA and I hope he does rest in peace.