Hell's Gate

Love to sing? Of course you do! Many of us will say singing is one of our hobbies. Who doesn't like jamming out in karaoke bars?

It's all for fun... so have fun with people who love the same things you do.

Join Sekai no Melody (on sekainomelody.com). Audition information is on the website. You don't have to sound like a star to be a part of this organization. (Auditions are used for group placement.)

So join join join! You can check out some of the releases to see what we do.

Freakin' crazy ass video that Ricky kept talking about!

I haven't logged here in over a year! Last time, I was still working at Citibank, having high hopes in a lot of things. Now I'm tied down. Let's see what has happened:

June 2006 
* left Citibank 
* started working as pianist at World Bridal

July - November 2006
* time well-spent at a less-stress job as a musician
* preparing for the wedding

December  2006
* got married
* spent the honeymoon in cold cold Japan with 10 other friends ("Honeymoon for 12")
* started part-timing at Watabe as a singer and a pianist

January - June 2007
* the beginning of a very bad year

Hopefully after passing the halfway mark of 2007, the year will get better. I hate bad years. But I had a feeling 2007 would be a bad year the minute I started preparing for marriage.

You know, it's been hell for me not being able to go online since last week Thursday. Hell. Just when I needed to go online, I wasn't able to connect. Why? Well, I've been using Jeff's verizon connection since he left... and according to him, his mom probably didn't pay the bill. Well, so there I was ALL weekend with no internet.

But this afternoon, during my lunch break, I went over to IT&E and bought a prepaid card for dialup internet connection. That's right! I went to their site earlier today to see that whole WIFI hotspot stuff, but then stumbled across their ad for prepaid internet. All you do is buy a card for however many hours you want, and that's it. No contracts. No setup fees.

IT WAS GREAT! I bought the 40-hour card. Now I forgot how much it was. It was either $24 or $46. Damn. I wish I could remember. Well, it didn't matter to me cuz I needed to go online so bad. Now that I have another laptop that I bought from Doug, Milgrace and I are networking and we're going online at the same time to really milk those 40 hours for every cent.

I'm so tired. It was hard trying to get our networking together. We really didn't know what we were doing. Just click click here and there, hoping something will work.

Now I'm very sleepy. I'm not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. It's month end. Yikes! Wish me luck. Prrt! I have gas for some reason.

Well, that's what seems to be the talk of the town with both Citibankers and NON-Citibankers, surprisingly. HR and all of the senior management were discussing the judging and were, not upset really, just disappointed at the bias of it all. According to the Citibankers and Zaldy's co-workers too, the judging of the contest was unfair because employees were the ones who decided. Bankers don't know anything about the performing arts and would only base their votes on which countries they work with the most... the whole "vote for us and we'll vote for you" thing. I never really gave it that much thought until EVERYONE was complaining about it. "That's not fair," they all say.

A separate panel of judges who do NOT work for Citibank should have decided on the winner so it is completely fair and based on the performer's talent and not country alliance. I guess that DOES make sense, doesn't it? Well, I did think it was rather dumb that they hired these 2 (note it was 2, not an odd number) judges from outside of Citibank and yet they did not decide on who the winner was. In fact, they didn't vote at all. They even brought in the big boss of the region to make the judges an odd number... but in the end, that didn't matter at all since they didn't have any say in the final outcome. Hmmm.... Now that everyone's talking about it, it makes me disappointed in the system and disappointed in whoever coordinated and set up this whole nasty affair.

All I've been getting all day from everyone at work was, "Hey, I heard you did very well!" "I heard you had a great performance." "Can we see a video?" Then, at the end of the day, "that judging was stupid. It was biased." That was coming from the branch manager. So it was only at the end of the day that I really looked at it and saw just how unfair it was in fact.

But that's how banking works. It's not about your performance, it's about who you know. I mean, I've been working there for more than a year and I still haven't had a raise. In fact, the girl I replaced was so dumb. I am doing the job 100 times better than she could in 30 years and yet her starting pay was $2.79 per hour more than what I'm getting. What the...

So this year's Citi Idol is just a reflection on how the bank is run. You can be the best worker performance-wise, but that won't get you a raise. That won't get you a promotion. That won't get you in the winner's circle...

But I did get an offer from First Hawaiian Bank. Jose Garcia, who used to be the Collections manager at Citibank, really wants me to work with him. It's a very tempting offer. He knows how much Citibank pays, so of course I have no doubt that if I do go to him, he would give me a better salary. No doubt. Tempting, but... ha ha.. Now's not a good time to leave. I just came back from an all-expenses paid trip for 2 and a half weeks, I can't go now...

But I'll enjoy my life for now... after all, I'm still working on that deal with Stel Star... I did a follow up today, but no one was in the studio, so I'll call him next week.

Oh, by the way... Wedding update! I just reserved the Aqua Ballroom at the Onward for December 2nd. We lucked out since the max capacity of the room is 250 pax. That's good for us since we really have to cut the guest list down. No unnecessary invites... even the necessaries will be cut to only those we really want there. So people that we only talk to when we happen to be at the same party, or who we have to talk to because we see them at the store and can't avoid them, or just because they were our classmates in one class for one semester will not merit an invitation. What fun!!

Home sweet home!! I just got back yesterday morning. Flew Business Class! HELL YEAH! I used my Continental OnePass miles to upgrade my flight back home from economy to Business class. It costed 10,000 miles to upgrade. Surprisingly, I had more than enough... a little over 12,000 miles. Very little in comparison to Elite members, but a lot for me since all of those miles were earned through travel and not credit card stuff.

It was so great flying Business Class! The seats are pretty spacious and very comfortable. Faux leather if not genuine. Wide enough for me to sit Indian style, which I did. Our headsets are free, whereas economy had to buy them for $5 each. I didn't use them though. I preferred to sleep since I was stuck at the Philippine airport for 7 hours. I couldn't check in for 3 hours after I arrived since the Continental booths did not open until 3 hours before departure time. Crap. I was so bored you have no idea.

To be continued...

That's right. I'm so relieved that this Citi Idol thing is over and done with. I was so happy after I went on cuz it meant I was done! This whole project was over and I could go home and relax! Although, I didn't win. I didn't place. Surprisingly, Indonesia won and Philippines got second, and I don't even remember who got third. It was really a shock because Australia didn't place either, and he was DAMN good. What sucked about the judging was that the judges didn't decide who wins. They just gave feedback, like American Idol, except these people didn't know anything about music. One was an actress, one was a big boss of Citibank region, and the other was a runner-up for Malaysian Idol (which doesn't count for much considering she's not a professional musician, just a contestant herself).

But you know what? I had so much fun up there. I'm not at all disappointed that Guam didn't win because I gave my all... I gave my best! And I felt good about it. In fact, it was so funny because the actress judge was saying it looked like a big concert I was doing or some shit. Ha ha... it's quite interesting, and I'll quote a character named Judy Abbott from Daddy Long Legs: "I received plenty of compliments, and I'm sure I deserved them." Even after the contest was over, so many people from different countries were coming up to me, shaking my hand, and congratulating me on an amazing performance. It was so cool! It's a great feeling knowing that my performance was able to astound so many people. It was funny cuz the Malaysian Idol said (with what looked like a little jealousy in her eyes, haha) that she couldn't even reach those high notes. That was funny. But I felt pretty good about my performance.

I'm so glad it's over though. After I got off the stage, I was so relieved and I just wanted to go to my hotel room and sleep. We all got plaques though. There's a gold CD on it that says Citi Idol and our names, and "Finalist" on it. In fact, even the top 3 got plaques, only bigger. So there was no real prize... but you know what? Even though the outcome was that Guam didn't place, I still feel like I won. That's how proud I am about my performance. It wasn't half-assed and I know I made Citibank Guam proud.

So here I am in the Miascor lounge in the airport in Manila... you only get an invitation here when you fly BUSINESS CLASS! That's right. I got tired of these sickening rides in economy for the whole trip, I decided to use my frequent flyer miles and upgrade to first class. I'm so dizzy. I don't know if it's this dumb old computer screen that would give someone epileptic seizures, or if it's just that I'm tired and feeling jet lagged.

Oh well, I'll be home in a few hours. I can't wait!!! Yummy pancit, here I come!

Here I am at the Edsa Shangri-la... a beautiful place. I saw pics online of the Makati one and it's even more beautiful than this one. I get to go to the exclusive Long Staying Guest lounge since I'm staying here for more than 7 days. Very cool. Need to buy load for my phone. Yikes! I can text Milgrace, which is great fun.

Anyway, Mega Mall is right across the street, and the church is right across from that! Cool! The malls open at 10 so I have to wait.

My first lesson is today at 1:00pm for one hour. Then I'm free the rest of the day. The Music Academy is right across from the hotel... I take the STARBUCKS entrance! What fun!

Okay, goodbye.