Mike’s Personal Blog

Today, March 18, 2006, is my 29th birthday and now that I am celebrating it - albeit simply - I thought of how I spent my 29 years. Did I spend it well? Or not?

Introduction:

I spent my first 4 years as a baby. I was born in Cebu City. My parents are Roque Lopez, Jr. and Carmen “Olive” Gonzalez. All I know is that we lived in Cebu City and eventually moved to Manila. Sad part is that my dad left us when I was still young.

So that’s about it for the introduction.

Schooling:

• 2 years in Pre-elementary in La Concordia College, Sta. Mesa Manila. Back then they still accepted males. My batch was the last before La Concordia became an all-girl school
• 6 years in elementary - Grade 1 in Kiddie School, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. Second Grade in Iloilo Central Elementary School. Grades 3 to 5 in SEC-SPED, Iloilo City and Grade 6 in Ilaya Barangka Elementary School in Mandaluyong. Before I continue, SEC-SPED stands for School for Exceptional Children-Special Education. I was in the FL section and FL stands for Fast Learners and in our class, the dumbest student would still be at least top 3 in regular schools. The funny side to this school is that it is a mix of Fast Learners (FL) and Mentally Retarded (MR) students. We were in fact schoolmates!
• First Year High School in Academe for Development Education, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.
• I moved to San Felipe Neri Parochial School in Mandaluying for Second Year High School until family problems prevented me from continuing my studies. Pride and financial problems hindered me.
• I enrolled at the University of Iloilo to give Second Year Highschool a second try. Again, I discontinued. Why? Mainly because of shame - I told the entire class that my teacher was my girlfriend and guess what happened when the teacher found out??? Duh! I was only 15 years old then
• A few years passed before I continued my studies again. I enrolled at LSGH-ANHS for another try on Second year high school. LSGH-ANHS stands for La Salle Greenhills - Adult Night High School. At the age of 18, I was among the youngest in our class. I have schoolmates who are 50 years old already! Yeah, that’s what ‘Adult’ in ANHS stands for. This was my third try as a Sophomore. This time I finished Second Year! Hurray!
• 3rd Year High school and 4th Year High school were spent in LSGH-ANHS as well. I was able to finish both years but that doesn’t make me a high school graduate yet because Night School in La Salle requires 5 years!
• Still in LSGH-ANHS, I enrolled as 5th year high school. This time, I just got bored of studies so after a couple of months, I left schooling never to return again.

Employment:

Hmmm, let me try to recall this…

• My first work was being a gasoline boy in a Petron Station in Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley. Work was hard and was not the type of work I wanted. If I remember correctly, I was only either 14 or 15 years old then. Not sure.
• Second work was as a dishwasher in Leng-Leng’s Chinese Restaurant (not sure if that’s the correct name but it’s definitely called Leng-Leng’s). This was also in Tuguegarao, Cagayan. I was employed here almost immediately after I left my work as a gasoline boy.
• Third work was a runner in Pasay Police Headquarters. Well, this ain’t an official work but it paid me enough money to survive for the few months I worked there.
• I then worked as a waiter in a certain not-so-popular restaurant in Boracay. It was a short stint. Short because my employer abruptly informed me that I have to leave my job without explaining why. The life in Boracay was good though!
• Then I became a good boy and worked as a volunteer for a Protestant church named ‘Jesus Life Center’ or JLC. Pay wasn’t high but my idealism at the time fits the work smoothly. This was in Cubao.
• Then, after a few more years, I worked as an encoder and desktop publisher at Jorel’s in Lagro, Quezon City. This was the turning point of my career. At this time, I knew that the Information Technology a.k.a. Computer Industry would take me farther than any possible career at the time. Though my original ambition was to be a pilot, that didn’t materialize. Why? Read my Schooling history again.
• I stopped for a moment to get married. Then I applied for work as a desktop publisher again at D’Plaza also in Lagro, Quezon City. Jorel’s and D’Plaza are owned by the same person - Mr. Rene Lamzon who is also my godfather.
• I then worked as an IT person at Simon Harrison Design Corporation. I worked there for months but didn’t reach a year if I remember correctly. It was here where I learned a lot of things about business and the IT industry. The business management side I learned from my employer - Mr. Simon Harrison. He is an Australian and his bravery in leaving Australia to start his business here in the Philippines just stuck in my mind. I thought, if he can do it, why can’t I? It was also during this time when I met Mr. Benj Arriola and Mr. Terence Teves - the original developers of the Simon Harrison website. It was them who gave me a good start in the IT industry. When I left Simon Harrison, Benj and Terence began handing over some web development jobs over to me. This ends my employment history.
• Year 2004, I got ESIL Philippines hired me as IT Department Head but I didn’t stay long. After a few months of being employed, I left the job simply because I didn’t like my boss.
• Lastly, I am currently working as Programmer and Head of the Philippine Programming Team for Distributed Website Corporation. The company is US based but almost all of its employees work at their own homes as programmers, customer reps, sysads, etc.

Note: I also remember having short stints as a salesman - selling peanut butter, toys, books, etc but I can’t remember where to insert them in the abovelisted chronology.

Lovelife:

• My first crush was Susan, can’t remember her lastname - and I was only 5 years old then. All my memories of her are kind of blurry. C’mon, I was still young then. We were living in Coronado Subdivision in Mandaluyong during this time.
• When I was in first grade (Bulacan), my eyes turned over to Edal Cruz
• From Grades three to four, I liked both Deborah Hope Ascaño and Julie Sangrador. None of the girls / ladies mentioned here became my girlfriend.
• In Grade 5, I found my first official girlfriend. May Dureza. She wasn’t my classmate but she leaves just across our street in Delgado Street, Iloilo City. Our relationship lasted only a few months until my mom came over to Iloilo to bring me back to Manila.
• Grade 6, I remember having a crush named “Vhay” who was my classmate. Can’t remember her real name. Vhay was just her nickname. Not even sure if the name was Vhay. She didn’t become my girlfriend as she was too ‘harsh’ for me.
• First year high school, I fell in love with Evelyn Nolasco. She was in 3rd year high school already and was my schoolmate. However, I looked to geeky and stupid back then that she didn’t fall in love with me…. yet!
• I then had a short relationship with Mary Grace ‘Joy’ Maniago while I was in San Felipe Neri Parochial School.
• My second “Second year high school”, in Iloiloi, a teacher who’s name I can’t really remember. I’m poor with names, I admit that!
• Still in Iloilo, I got back with May Dureza but the relationship was pretty short - just about 2 months or less. Then no more, it’s bye bye to my first official girlfriend.
• Another short relationship with another girl named Mayette.
• In LSGH-ANHS, I had a short relationship with Rachel Libid. It was short - really short.
• Then, I met Evelyn Nolasco again. This time, I was more attractive than ever! Still looks stupid though. But somehow she fell in love with me this time. A couple more years and we got married. I was 21 years old and the exact date of our marriage is September 26, 1998.

Ok, don’t ask me about my extra-marital lovelife. Only me and my wife know the exact details about it. Hehehe.

Family:

I married Evelyn del Rosario Nolasco last September 28, 1998 at the IRM Paradise Church. Reverend Catalino Bautista gave the usual Christian blessings. We had a whole bunch of godfathers and godmothers to witness our wedding as well.

Our first baby girl was born last August 2, 1999. We named her Kei. We had our second baby girl a couple of years after. On the 30th of May 2001, Vhi was born. It is also worth noting that my wife had a miscarriage before she got pregnant with Vhi. After Vhi, she also gave birth to Gie. Sad to say though, Gie was born 3 months early and thus, being a premature baby, passed away 18 hours after she was born. So in all, we now have two daughters - Kei and Vhi - and no sons yet.

We are currently residing here in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan in the same compound where my mother-in-law lives.

Business:

My fisrt business is still my business until now. I started accepting work as a freelance web developer. I had a few clients from here and there during my first days. The bulk of my work came from Action Online. I also had some international clients (Belgium and USA) as well as one project called “Make It Strong” who’s main goal was to promote Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as president. I have to admit, I’m no idealist myself. Just wanted the money. In fact, I didn’t even vote for Gloria Arroyo during the election period at the time. I also started accepting web hosting services and my web hosting business seems to start to pick up some momentum.

On Monday - March 21, 2006 - I will go to the Department of Trade and Industry office in Malolos, Bulacan to pick up my brand new business name. Watch out for this!

Here’s a quick list of my best clients! Listed in no particular order:

• Cuervo Far East, Inc. (Real Estate)
• Philippine CEFENET Foundation (Consulting)
• Lamzon and Associates (Consulting)
• Alay sa Bansa (Foundation)
• Global Harvesters Foundation
• Inteco Philippines (ISUZU Dealer)
• Meditrans Academy (Medical Transcription School)
• TransMed (Medical Transcription)
• AccuCode (Medical Transcription)
• InfoScript, Inc. (Medical Transcription)

I also developed a few web applications - the best of them being:

• Ring Service Call Management System
• Motion Pictures Association of America - MPAA Digital Technology Vendor Information System

As a Good Boy:

As a good boy, I washed the dishes, helped wash the clothes at times and did very well in school though I wasn’t able to finish. I was never the first honor but I’m pretty proud to say that the ‘first honors’ of our class ask me to help them out with our lessons. So I wasn’t an honor student but the honor students asked me to help them a lot. Irony? You tell me. I never became the first honor because despite my so-called intelligence, I am a pretty lazy student especially when it comes to copying notes from the blackboard. Who wants that anyway?

I also became a ‘good’ church member and served God and the church as youth president, bible study leader, music ministry head, worship leader, and eventually as mission head. This happened in different churches.

I also do my best to provide for the needs of my family in all aspects. I try to be a good father and husband though at times I fall behind the line. I also exert all effort possible to make my family happy.

As a Bad Boy:

I can’t really say that I grew up as a good son. I gave my good share of hurts and problems to my parents, aunts and grandparents. I left home at random times and experienced sleeping inside jeepnies, in waiting sheds and in friends’ houses. I spent a night in jail as well? Why? Because, I shoplifted at National Bookstore in Baclaran. Gladly though, National Bookstore back then didn’t have a policy to file criminal cases against shoplifters who were caught. When I was to be released, I begged the cops to ‘adopt’ me instead and so started my work as runner in the Pasay Police Headquarters.

I was also able to stay with a friend in the mountains and forests of Olongapo City and also spent a good amount of time with the native Aetas who were relocated there due to the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Then of course, Boracacy. My Lola Marit (deceased) gave me 2,000 pesos and asked me to pay the telephone bill. I didn’t pay the bill and went to Boracay instead - 2,000 pesos in hand. It was during this time that I worked as a waiter. I did enjoy my short stay in Boracay.

The Verdict:

Just in case you forgot, the whole reason why I’m telling you all this stuff is to find out whether or not I used all my 29 years well or not. I have to say that a large chunk of 29 years of life was spent in things that are not so good nor productive. However, it would also be wrong to say that all those years were wasted since it was during all those years that made me what I am today. Perhaps, I could be a better person if a better portion of the “wasted chunk” of my life was put into good use but then, there is nothing I can do with my past anymore except to make good use of it.

Now that I’ve honestly recalled my past and gave it a fair view, I think what I’ll do now is make sure that most of my years ahead would be put into good and more productive use.

You, my dear reader and friend, what do you say? I’m open to anything you want to tell me.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: This post should not be considered as the official autobiography of Michael John G. Lopez nor should the chronology be considered accurate. All dates, names, and places herein mentioned are mostly based only on the author’s recollection of his past.