[Blog Entry] Finding the Time to Write, Call Center Anthropology, Food Trip

Finding the Time to Write

I have several excuses not to write (it’s not like I get lots of readers anyway). For one thing, there’s my job, six days a week. And then there are the two RPG games of my friend (which I enjoy, BTW), which takes up two of my evening slots. Then there’s personal time, which is spent on either documenting the RPG games that I’m playing, making characters for the RPG, or reading for pleasure (and I must admit, there is a big temptation to just read rather than write).

But as I said, those are just excuses. Actually, the real reason I haven’t been updating much is that I’m hesitant to do some writing at the office because the computers with Internet access aren’t mine so there’s no guarantee that I’ll get to upload what I write. That and I don’t want to mess with the cookies and passwords that are already set up with my computer at home. I mean every time I log in to blogger at the office, I have to log it in again when I get back home. Not that I get any writing done there as well so might as well make the most out of my office time.

Call Center Anthropology

Honestly, the call center culture fascinates me. I mean sure, every country has employees that are call center agents. But aside from India, the Philippines churns them out by the thousands.

It reminds me of the fast food industry, where you have student-employees applying for various positions just to get a job or a source of income. A good number often leave or quit after a period of time. In a certain sense, the same goes for call centers. There’s lots of attrition, some of its agents perpetually wandering, jumping from one call center to a another.

But perhaps the starkest difference between the two is its audience. I mean most fast-food outlets are being run by the masses, those in the lower to middle-class range. Call centers, on the other hand, have the middle-class to some of the lower upper class as its employees. Ten years from now, I can imagine people of my generation having their own stories about their experience as a call center agent.

Food Trip

One guilty pleasure of mine are the fried quail eggs that’s being sold in Balut Express. They have a corny tagline, “eatlog everyday” (a pun since “itlog” is egg in Filipino) and I have serious doubts whether eating them every day is healthy. Of course while I do indulge in that, I’m still retaining my body size and weight.

One of my coworkers discovered soya milk that’s being sold at Fruit Magic. For P45, you get a 500 ml bottle and they come in five flavors. The only one I drink is almond, although their Belgian Chocolate soya milk looks tempting.

Another indulgence is probably Ice Monster, but since it’s expensive, it’s something I should sparingly eat.