Now Playing at the Music Bar below:

Selfish (Chillout Version) - Sunset Daze

Don't Fear the Reaper (Cover) - The Beautiful South

Clarity (Neon Sky Remix) - Zedd ft. Foxes

Alive in Paradise - Tiesto & Dyro feat. Krewella

Thursday, April 21, 2016

When Rules Apply, We Don't Comply

I remember a scene in the movie Devil’s Advocate where Al Pacino’s character was explaining to Keanu Reeves’ character on something about rules and it goes; “Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow”.


And for some reason, we sometimes touch, we taste, and we swallow.

Or as the late WWE superstar Eddie Guerrero used to say...

I often think, here are Ten Commandments that are written in stone, and yet there are those who commit sin against it. Written in stone. By definition it means it is fixed, it cannot be changed, and you can’t have a workaround for it. If this can happen to something carved unto stone tablets, what more to rules, policies and procedures that are only set on paper.

I’m no saint and I had my small share of rebelliousness. One of them would be during my 1st year in the BPO industry, the IT team for the company I worked for kept raising a concern about me for always enabling the internet connection in my PC, which obviously was not allowed. It came to a point where they escalated me to the Senior Operations Manager already. So one day, he approached me and simply said, “JPP, you have greater things to do than just break rules. Do you think you can do greater things?” He was right. I am not a better or greater person by simply disobeying protocol and showing how cool I am that I can browse the internet during work while others can’t. 

So what drives us not to comply? How difficult is it to follow a simple set of rules?

Take for example this new “No Contact” apprehension policy of the Metro Manila Development Authority. Why should we fear this if we are confident that we are really following the prescribed traffic rules? There are roads signs, and we are pretty much familiar with driving etiquette. But we know that there is this habit within a person where we think that it’s OK to violate the rules because no one is watching, so we go ahead and do it. So it begs the question again, what drives us not to comply?

Is it because others are doing it anyway, so should you? Are we so forgetful that it slips our mind every now and then?

There is such a long list of things that we do that don’t conform to the norm. Whether we feel that following rules is so bureaucratic or much of a hassle, we are in a hurry or trying to cut corners, when we feel that we are the authority and we can do whatever we want so rules don’t apply. Rules, no matter how simple they may be, are there to guide us and remind us of the right thing to do. There are even rules that are not written and are simply part of the natural habitat or environment. People with common sense can easily comprehend to this.  

Other say that when you play by the rules, you get left behind, you lose. My take on it, if I play by the rules so damn well, I can actually bend them without breaking it. As the saying goes, “The pain of discipline is not as great as the pain of regret”.

But I guess there are some idiots who have a high threshold for pain, and can take huge amounts of regret. 

Well, it’s their rebellious life…I have greater things to do.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Kid's Garage: Ferrari 575 GTC - Red Variant

Boys with their toys. We love collecting stuff. And for me, one of them would be HotWheels / Matchbox cars. It came to a point that I sometimes buy the same car already. So my son gave the idea that I should take an inventory of them to avoid duplicates. The collection actually started with him when he was younger, but as he grew older, it seems that the kid grew and the dad didn't.

(Finally found the red variant.)

Ferrari 575 GTC (Red)

Team 575 GTC

Still searching for the other variants:


Actual Car:

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Kid's Garage: '71 Mustang Mach 1 - 007 Diamonds Are Forever

Boys with their toys. We love collecting stuff. And for me, one of them would be HotWheels / Matchbox cars. It came to a point that I sometimes buy the same car already. So my son gave the idea that I should take an inventory of them to avoid duplicates. The collection actually started with him when he was younger, but as he grew older, it seems that the kid grew and the dad didn't.



'71 Mustang Mach 1
Used by James Bond in the movie "Diamonds are Forever"

Actual Car:


It's Not All About Skills

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them…a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” – Muhammad Ali

When friends ask me what I do, it comes as a surprise to them that I am in Human Resources. How did that happen? Being a hot-headed, short tempered teen, an introvert and anti-social young adult; took up Computer studies and landed my first job in the airline industry. It’s just not HR material. And yet, here I am.

When someone questions your ability and skills in getting things done, my simple answer was; 13 years and counting. That’s how long I have been in this profession. It’s true, I may not have the degree in Psychology or Business Management, or whatever pre-HR course there is, and yet, here I am.

When circumstances presents itself and tests your capabilities, it begs the question, are you skilled for this? 

Every time this comes up, I remind myself of the story of Rudy Ruettiger, who played college football in the University of Notre Dame. (His story was made into a movie back in 1993, “Rudy”)





Rudy dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame, but he was never built for football. He didn’t have the size nor the skills for it. But he did have the heart. And in the movie, Coach Parseghian said, “I wish God would put your heart in some of my players’ bodies.” Rudy trained hard more than anyone else in the team, and eventually this earned him a shot at getting a chance to finally play. So on November 8, 1975 against Georgia Tech, Rudy played for the first time, on his senior year and his last game. Rudy only played for a couple of minutes, but in the end he was one of the only two players in Notre Dame history to ever be carried off the field.

Having a degree doesn’t guarantee that you will be 100% successful nor does it ensure that you are hiring the best talent. If the individual does not have the work ethics for it, that degree will be wasted. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs. What do they have in common? College drop outs. And where are they now? They are visionaries. They built a new age empire. They are PIMPED.

In one of the leadership summits that I attended, they shared with us how one should be PIMPED:

Passionate, Inspired, Motivated, Persevering, Energized, Dedicated.

Hiring someone who is PIMPED but not too skilled has a higher probability of making wonders for your company. Technical skills can always and easily be injected into someone. But getting them PIMPED is exhausting if their behavior is not even up to it. Try hiring someone who is highly skilled, but lacks the will…let me know how that works out.


On the other hand, no matter how daunting the task, no matter how tired I may be, no matter what other people say that I am not skilled for it…
I am PIMPED and I’m gonna RUDY it.

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