Che2x reminded me of her exam schedule. This means, time to pay for her tuition again. We’ve been paying her tuition fee every examination time and it’s twice a month! This has been my dilemma since last year. How I wish God will pour out money from the heaven and I just have to pick it up from the ground. Though I am planning not to withdraw my earnings from paypal, I was forced to as I don’t know when OHJ will release our earnings for the previous quencina. My OHJ earnings is lesser than the previous months because I didn’t spend so much time coding last month. Her exam sked is today and tomorrow so she need to pay today so she can take the exam. My paypal earnings will reflect in my EON account Wednesday night the latest so I need to find other means to secure money for Che2x’s tuition fee.

I was hopeful that OHJ will send earnings so I can pay for Che2x’s school fees. Truly, He answered my prayer because when I checked on my EON account yesterday, OHJ earnings was reflected. It was just enough for Che2x’s need but at least, I am saved from getting a headache of looking where I could get money. Hence, she can take her exams today and tomorrow without any hassle.

I am enjoying my rest! It’s been more than a week since I last worked in OHJ and I am feeling a little better as I am saved from constant back pains and hyperacidity. But then, I am taking so much time resting and never accomplished so much except from the laundry and updated blogs. Ace liked it better because he doesn’t hear me complain about my back pains since then though I wake up a little late these days. Next week, I hope to finish sorting our “to go” and “to keep” clothes and will be back working again…but this time, as on-call. I won’t force myself to sit for 8hrs and suffer from pertinent back pains after. My cash flow will suffer but I’d better choose to tighten belts a little bit so that we could make ends meet than earning bigger and suffer from hyperacidity and back pains.

I woke up earlier than usual today. Twas 5 minutes before 3AM and I barely have 3 hrs of sleep. It’s different today because I don’t feel going back to sleep so I stood up and turned on the PC. I’m quite scared to be in the living room alone in the wee hours of the morning so I turned on all lights. I read my email first ‘coz I wasn’t able to open it last night. At 5 minutes before 4AM, I signed in to Ace’ YM account and started working as soon as I was invited in the YM conference. A little later, one coder asked permission for a quick break just to urinate but she wasn’t allowed because qeue is too high. We were joking to her she must have used a disposable diaper so she can *weee* in her seat or if not, bring a chumber pot beside her. Should  disposable diapers be one of the things OHJ will require from us? It’s hard to stand up to go to the rest room when everybody’s busy. Most of the time, I forgot to discharge that urine hence I only urinate at most 4 times in a day which makes me a candidate for kidney trouble.

For days, I don’t feel like working because my back aches and I am not feeling well. In short, I am in rest mode. Imagine being seated for the whole duration of my shift and will only have time to stand up when on break. OHJ has a new policy, to use webcam while working so they can monitor if their coders are really typing. I have nothing against it because I’ve been doing my job ever since. OHJ just wanted to make sure that everybody is working during their shift because client have noticed that some coders are so lax that they let the captchas expire. This made me realize coding is never easy. It’s a routinary job but the continuous typing of caps is so tiring. Compared to office work where you have time to relax, time to chat, browse the internet and do extra activities not related to work, office work is lighter than coding. With office work, pressure is there but manageable because you can choose not to attend to it for a while and get back to it when you can.  

Since June, we are experiencing long qeue so we need to type as fast as we can to keep the qeue low. Sometimes, my fingers become stiff with painful finger joints not to mention the back ache I suffer from sitting long hours. Once I’m online, I cannot just log out because they need coders. Times when Ace would arrive home and I am still in front of the PC working. I cannot immediately log out so he has to eat alone while I am working.*sigh*. Haven’t heard him complain about that for months but lately, he mentioned about it. Hence, I decided to be on-call so I will only work if I wanted to and can ask to be out anytime as long as there’s no qeue. This way, I can attend to other things. If only we have a house help that can do other house chores while I am coding, guess I can manage to be on regular shift because I don’t worry about logging off so that I could rest and be able to prepare dinner. Or if I am too tired I can sleep as much as I want because I know that somebody will prepare breakfast. I am not preparing breakfast anymore, actually. Ace goes to the office early so that he could eat at their canteen. Che2x eats breakfast at school so I take my brunch (breakfast and lunch) during lunch or when I am on break then we eat dinner late because I have to wait for Che2x to come home so she can prepare or I have to rest my fingers first before I’d be able to cook. By the time dinner is cooked, we are all so hungry.   

It’s almost 6 months since I quit my job. Hence, all my insurances and benefits are discontinued unless I continue on paying for my health, social security and Pag-Ibig contributions. The other night, Ace was weighing things out. Literally, I earn more than his monthly take home pay and he was thinking if he will resign and go fulltime in OHJ, he will definitely earn more than he’s receiving now from his current job. But with home-based jobs, we don’t have both the government mandated (such as SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig and 13th month pay) and company initiated benefits (such as performance bonuses, leave credits/conversion, meal allowance, medical assistance, group life or term life insurance, etc.) unless we are employed in a big company but we work at home. The good thing about home-based jobs is the fact that earnings will not be deducted with taxes and all others. After thinking about those, he decided to stick to his job and enjoy all the benefits the company is offering to the employees while I work at home.

Note: Ace was joking ”no baby yet” until he will be eligible to avail of the medical assistance (aside from the PhilHealth benefits) to lighten the burden of paying the hospital bills especially if I’ll deliver thru CS. But if we’ll be given one soon, we’ll still be happy.