Knowing Me By Numbers

I was doodling one boring early evening in the office (I don’t remember why I stayed late to begin with) when I started scribbling numbers out of my numerically incapable brain. It was refreshing to see myself play with numbers especially that numbers are my worst enemies. I loved them before and I thought I did well in math subjects (I once competed in statistics quiz bee in college), but somehow, I find computation unnecessarily toilsome (scientific calculator, hello?). I was best in math several times in elementary, but English and science had always been my babies (until Ma’am Notarte made me hate science so much; Ma’am Ladignon revived it though). Formulae and undecipherable symbols (to me, at least) amused me.

As a writer, it makes me wonder if I can do the same thing with numbers as I do to words and punctuations. That is, tell a story.

I’m starting with myself. May I present to you, the numbers in my life!

7 -- My contestant number when I won three district academic competitions in elementary and high school. It’s my lucky number!

5 -- My contestant number when I won the district level of news writing competition. It’s the same place I won in the provincial level. It’s my penultimate lucky number!

21 -- The date I got hired on my first job and the same date I resigned (after three and a half years).

68 -- My weight in sixth grade (Yah, yah, I was overweight).

34 -- My waist line at 13 years old. I slimmed down to 29 in college but I managed to climb the scale since then (I’m working on it again).

15 -- The journals I managed as Production Editor. Geo-Marine Letters was most special since it’s my first (and the EIC was so nice).

215 -- The issues I had to publish annually (thank God I’m through).

19,000 -- The annual page budget allotted to me (while most editors handled 12,000).

120,000 -- The highest amount (in Philippine peso) my bank account had. It’s closed now. Don’t ask why.

61 -- The days I lived in Baguio City for my media training. It was also the most expensive two months of my life.

151 -- The Pokemon I knew by heart – down to the attack capabilities, to their weaknesses, to the sounds they make! I couldn’t accept it when new characters were introduced though so I stopped being a fan.

2 -- The computers I bought using my hard-earned money. I’m a miser. And yes, aside from computers, I haven’t bought any device since (no smart phones, no tablets, no MI-like stuff; just cheap basic bar-type phones). I only buy what I need, and that doesn’t include expensive fads.

5 -- Manga stories I regularly read, including Naruto, Bleach, Hunter X Hunter (I love the crappy, nonsense drawing), Fairy Tail and One Piece! Don’t you agree that Full Metal Alchemist was better on the anime version than the manga?

4 -- The positions I held (hold?) at my current company – Corporate Communication Officer, Market Desk Strategist, Business Development Officer and Unit Head. I’m asking the same thing…how come?

2 -- The majors I enrolled in college. I only got to finish Mass Communication and left Economics for good (see, I really loved numbers!).

5,000 -- The highest amount (in Philippine peso) I saved when I was in elementary. My tatay would always give me spare money and since I was a miser even as a kid, I saved that much.

I didn’t know the value back then and had no idea what to do with it. I gave it all to my nanay to buy me food (of course, she didn’t).

5 -- The lamps I had in my room in high school – a touch lamp, two desk lamps, dimmer and some kiddie stuff. I was obsessed with lamps that I’d turn them on all at the same time in lieu of my main daylight bulb. I stashed them since.

6 -- The GoNegosyo books I have at home. I love the books. I love Joey Concepcion (okay, not him). I love the stories. They inspire me.

8 -- The books I bought yet still haven’t opened for over a year now! Price tags and covers are still intact. I’m genuinely interested with those books, but somehow, I get tired just by looking at the covers. At least that’s P3,000 sleeping on my shelf. Investment is investment.

14 -- The dictionaries I have at home – Filipino-English, English-Filipino, science dictionary, Webster’s, math dictionary, jargons, idioms, blah blah blah. I love words. I love etymology. I love prints.

            The number of Bibles we have at home? Almost double.

151 -- The Tagalog romance pocketbooks I own or my nanay passed down to me. Most of them are Precious Hearts Romances (PHR). I bought them for my nanay since she was addicted to them. I stopped adding to the collection since last year. You’ll know why, just read on.

40 -- The longest hours I stayed up with no snooze! I woke up early to file for my passport, then my SSS ID, then went to another government agency for some documents, strolled to the mall for dinner, went to work overnight, stayed at work to train someone, still stayed at work ‘till afternoon, went home to watch a movie, then died…kidding…slept. I won’t do that again, ever! I’m not taking multivitamins now so no can do.

60 -- The longest number of days I didn’t get out of our backyard. It was a self-imposed house arrest. I was weird (am?).

65, 000 -- The amount (in Philippine peso) I spent in four months just for liquid vitamin supplements for my mom. She had cancer and I dare say it saved her from almost sudden demise. She passed away last year but the supplement definitely extended her life by almost two years since she was practically dying before that (okay, it’s called Via Viente, but I won’t promote that here just yet). Plus, she got to do special things like walk my brother during graduation, celebrated her birthday the way she wanted, swam and posed, and did lots of window shopping.

I like to include my debts here but there are too many to mention so I’d rather not.

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James Henry Abrina is an editor, writer, SEO specialist and currently a Corporate Communication Professional, Market Desk Strategist, Business Development Officer and Unit Head for Business Profiles Incorporated.

He currently specializes in security management and business intelligence. Together with the company, he advocates Business Continuity Planning to change how the Philippine business sector sees the definition of crisis response and management.

For more useful information, read his articles at Invisible Squares and Masscom Tutor. Or his EzineArticles page.