Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh is known as "The City of Bridges" and I could not agree more. In just one afternoon of going around the city, I lost count of the number of bridges we crossed and did not cross. It is the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, and about 8 hours drive from Toronto.



In 2007, Forbes magazine named Pittsburgh the 10th cleanest city, and in 2008 Forbes listed Pittsburgh as the 13th best city for young professionals to live. The city is consistently ranked high in livability surveys. In 2007, Pittsburgh was named "America's Most Livable City" by Places Rated Almanac. Furthermore, in 2009, Pittsburgh was named most livable city in the United States and 29th-most-livable city worldwide by The Economist.

Just remembering Pittsburgh.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada is 142 years old tomorrow! Here are some Canadian trivia :

• Canada is the world's second largest country by total area (9,984,670 Km2), next only to Russia, or the size of the Philippines 33x!
  

• To travel from Newfoundland to the Yukon Territory would mean crossing six time zones. From east to west the time zones are Newfoundland Time Zone, Atlantic Time Zone, Eastern Time, Central Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone, and the Pacific Time Zone. Average time difference is 1 hour between zones, which means if it is still 12:30 pm in British Columbia, it is already 4:30 pm in the Atlantic or 5:00 pm in Newfoundland.
  

• The name "Canada" comes from the Huron and Iroquois word "Kanata" meaning "village".
  

• Canada is proud and protective of its parks and wildlife. There are over 40 national parks across the regions. These National Parks protect the habitats, wildlife and ecosystem diversity of the natural regions. Parks Canada is the the governing body whose function is to protect the ecological integrity of the park, and secondarily to allow the public to explore, learn about and enjoy Canada's natural spaces.The biggest one is almost 45,000 km2 (Wood Buffalo National Park of Canada).
  
  
• Canada is one of the largest mining nations in the world; the third largest diamond producing nation in the world; and world's leader in the production of potash and uranium.
  

• The Trans-Canada Highway stretching for 7699 km (4784 miles), is the world's longest National highway. The highway’s start/finish points are St. John’s, Newfoundland (North America's oldest city) and Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. From the fishing villages of Atlantic Canada it makes its way along the mighty St. Lawrence, zips by Ottawa, shoots through the forests of northern Ontario, crosses the wide open prairies, and weaves through the Rockies.
  
  

This one is no trivia : Canada is home to more than 400,000 Filipino Canadians. It is said, 1 of every 2 Filipinos are in the Greater Toronto Area. Metro Vancouver is the next choice for Filipinos, followed by Winnipeg, Metro Calgary and Montreal.

Six Degrees of Separation

Six degrees of separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") in simple terms refers to the idea that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. We are bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people. This theory was popularized in a play written by John Guare.

I had a recent six degrees of separation experience lately. My brother in law wrote to me about his friend who needs a little help in migrating to Canada. I wrote back asking for more details about the friend. Meanwhile, at the back at my mind I was wondering how to ask assistance from somebody on the other side of Canada for somebody I don't even know.

When the reply came, it turned out the migrating friend was a former NSC employee I used to work with! I still don't know how my brother in law in Saudi Arabia knew my former NSC colleague in Vietnam.

Maybe, there really are just six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. Or even less.

Try linking yourself to George Dubya or Barack Obama in just six degrees. Who knows?

Steel in the Desert Storm by RH Fookson

I recall it was in October 1999 when we had our last flag ceremony in Hot Mill (headed by our Sr. Manager Jun Flores), where we sang the NSC Hymn “O Glorious NSC”. That time we knew our plant will cease operations just for few months as announced but in our mind maybe it will be our last flag ceremony that I didn’t notice that my tears were coming out silently while singing the NSC Hymn.

After serving NSC for 21years, we didn’t expect that we will be jumping from the sinking “Titanic Steel” receiving our optional retirement benefits in March 2000; the decision was too fast to comprehend but its done! After a year of shooting practice in the firing range, we found ourselves in the “Operations Desert Storm” which we never expected since we were away from our families for the first time in our lives. With Pio Daigdigan and Rudy Mesina, we came together to Saudi Iron & Steel Company (HADEED) in 2001. We actually enjoyed our work and company since we found hundreds of ExNSC not only in HADEED but in Jubail City…. the rest of the story is history!

With the free internet provided by our company, then later we have individual DSL connection in our flat (apartment), we were able to connect to our fellow ExNSC here in Jubail City and Iligan City. Then after few years, the ExNSC Yahoo eGroup was created, link at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/exnscme/ where many ExNSC mostly from the Middle East and Iligan City joined the email circulations.

Last year, the Global ExNSC Network at http://nationalsteel.ning.com/ was also created with the aim of connecting to our fellow ExNSC around the globe, now with 350 members…and still growing. I am inviting you to join us, and connect with our fellow ExNSC!

God bless us all!

RH Fookson

The Curious Case of NSC and One of Its Many Pinoy-Expats”

Tempus fugit (time flies) ! It seems that it was just like yesterday when we faced with the grim prospect of a floundering National Steel Corp (NSC) and mightily armed with a resolute conviction to preserve our family’s way of life, aspired to brave the next frontier and sought greener pastures elsewhere. For us it was a leap of faith bounding halfway around the world, from Lanao Norte’s steel city-Iligan, to Austin the capital city of Texas and the proverbial land of milk, honey and er… y’all cowboys. It surely was not smooth sailing at the beginning being confronted with diversified cultures, mindsets deeply rooted in an eastern psyche but somehow my one-score stint with NSC seasoned us and made us malleable enough to weather whatever trials and tribulations are hurled our way.

I was a tech ‘road warrior’ from the outset even though it was not easy as saying that I always hit the ground running on Day One as I hopped from one computer project to another as Sr Systems Analyst/Programmer. My tour of duty brought me to Boston, the nucleus of the New England states affording me to comb the urban sceneries of New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and upstate New York (Buffalo-Niagara Falls!) in my spare time. Also a stint at St. Louis, the gateway to the west-astride the grand Mississippi River, paved the path for scouring Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas. Throw in leisure trips to New York, Washington DC, Richmond Virginia, and Orlando (Disneyworld) rounded off nearly most of the US eastern seaboard (plus Vegas, San Francisco and LA on the western front). By no stretch of the imagination, or even in my wildest fantasies have I thought of stamping such a huge footprint of the American landscape or not even while dreamily making daily harried walks along the corridors of Admin Bldg’s 3rd floor.

After my ‘road warrior’ days I decided to settle down in Austin, located in central Texas where the clime is as tropical as you can get, not unlike Iligan’s (typically not as hot as depicted in John Wayne western movies and where snow, drifts only once in a blue moon). Austin as one reputable research group described it, is one of the Top Ten most livable cities in the US (tech or non-tech), the new Silicon Hills (a variant of San Jose’s Silicon Valley) where giant IT conglomerates Dell, IBM, Samsung, AMD, Apple, Motorola and Applied Materials to name just a few and a sprinkling of notable dot.com companies calls it home. Austin is also home to the biggest educational institution in the U.S., the prestigious University of Texas (even though not to be outdone, the University of California also claims the same tag ).

Austin is just ‘hours away’ as the hub that intertwines US super metropolis(es) Houston, San Antonio and Dallas (the fourth, eight and ninth biggest US cities). It is now our ‘away from home’ sweet home and where I worked full time, just one in an 11,000+ strong state office that espouses a noble battle cry… ‘protecting the unprotected’.

By : Gerry Cruzabra

Where NSC Led Me

My NSC days was some of the best years that I can remember. It was during this time that I got married and started a family with a fellow EMT who later turned out to become my ex-GF. This was a time of so many things learned and experienced at work. The EMT experience allowed me to learn things that were not taught in school and even after the two-year EMT program things like Kepner Tregoe, 7 Habits, IT training, etc. gave me most of the tools I need at work after I left in 1997.
The reason I am now working in Michigan was because of my IT training and experience at NSC. There were a few important things that got me from working as a mechanical engineer and into computers.

1. Being part of the User Analysts program of ISD where I got formal training in program logic formulation and COBOL (yes, that's how old I am). It was free training but held only after office hours by Computrade instructors. I had to spare a few hours each night going through the training and this was also when my first child was born. Who can forget the anxiety felt when your first child is born and I had to agonize over being home soonest or preparing for the future.
2. I had to cajole and beg and ask friends like the late Vince Guanzon, Bobby Gopo, Eli Lopez and the rest of the computer guys at the 5-S TCM project team to understand how computers worked as well as the parts involved. I mostly borrowed time on their PC which was considered high-tech then. I was a complete newbie but was so into learning it because I believed computers were the future.
3. My stint at CORPLAN and eventually the spin-off MACSD allowed me to get formal training and get experience developing manufacturing IT systems.

This know-how allowed me to ride the IT boom in the US and be hired by an agency and deployed in Detroit in one of the Big 3. In a curious twist of fate, I am now working as an engineer again but somehow the skills I have learned since my NSC days are still being put to good use. I can definitely say and many here will agree that NSC developed its people to have confidence and equipped us with skills that allowed us to be gainfully employed even after NSC was gone. In some ways NSC felt like home. Sadly it is a home that we can only reminisce and talk about the happy memories that were formed there.

Bong S.

Still in Management - JB Laraya

After 9 years as President and Director of NSC, I resigned in February 1989. Shortly after, I rejoined Dole/Castle & Cooke where I was named President & Managing Director of Dole Asia. Dole Asia was into business development in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. In 1992, I took early retirement from Dole Asia.
In October 1992, Mr. Senen C. Bacani, former Secretary of Agriculture under President Cory Aquino, and I ventured into our management and consultancy firm, ULTREX Management & Investments Corp.,where I have been Chairman until today. ULTREX established fruit companies in South Cotabato, Mindanao to grow and export bananas in partnership with foreign fruit marketing companies; to process and export dried mangoes, pineapples, papayas, and other local fruits; as a fruit buying company to procure pineapples, mangoes and papaya; and distributor of dried fruits in the local market.
From 1993 to present , I also held top level executive positions and directorships in companies involved in telecommunication, power supply, property development and diversified services.
I may have moved on from steel manufacturing to a variety of other industries, but the years I spent with all of you at NSC, I still hold dear.

Season's Greetings to one and all.

Jose Ben Laraya

Photo taken during JBL's visit to Toronto in September 2004.

Steel ISO

A lot of NSC folks may have left Iligan, but we are one of those who chose to stay.

After National Steel, I worked for 2 other companies and I can say, our NSC is still the best. Although it is just a memory now.
I am currently connected with a German company TUV SUD, a certifying body to ISO Management Systems standards. As one of their auditors, I cover the whole Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. I have traveled a lot for the last 3 years that I have been with TUV. With my background, I gained the confidence and authority to conduct my audit more effectively benchmarking some practices from our beloved NSC.
I still meet other former NSC employees here in Iligan and most of the time we reminisce the good old days. In the course of my job, I have the opportunity to audit a number of ex-NSC employees in some companies and it is always a pleasure to be seeing them again.
Comparing the companies and various industries I have audited, I can honestly say that NSC was never mediocre in terms of Standards and Systems. Knowing this before and confirming this now makes me proud I was once part of NSC.

ED

Steel in My Mind - JM Llanes

Hello PYCROs!!! That means “Partner You Can Rely On” an NSC program I still remember. I’m Jose M. Llanes, Jr., but people casually call me “Jun”.
I came across Life After Steel when I arrived in Toronto late October of 2008. I’m really happy to learn that there is still a place for NSC and its next generations. To know that there are people who initiated such and there are a lot of ‘YOUs’ out there who are part of it made me feel at home in this new place.
Although this is Life After Steel, what touches me more is Life During Steel. NSC played a great role in my life which was started by my late father Jose “Joe” Llanes of Bar Mill. I can still recall by heart the pride and excitement when he hauled our family of 10 to attend the Christmas Party at his work area. It was not just a mere party but an Open-House as well. In those parties, we witnessed how diligent he was with his NSC duties, and how proud he was of his contribution to that once great company.
The values of love for work and loyalty to NSC was instilled in me during those “early childhood industrial exposures”. Those same values brought me inestimable benefits when I was then hired by NSC after graduating college. I started at FYEP HSM2 Project as an Engineering Assistant with my long-lost-supervisor, Dodo Sawit. Up to these days, I can still dredge-up the slogan I used to say to myself as I crossed HSM2’s red-hot table rollers. That was “I will also make NSC proud of me, as how NSC was proud of my father.”
Today, NSC is just a thing of our past. But for those who were once part of it, it was not just a company, it was an identity. I relate NSC to several of my life’s milestones which I love to tell my children and others as well:

• My father was able to send all 10 of us to college thanks to NSC.
• Getting hired and working for the glorious National Steel Corporation was a dream come true.
• A difficult and sad time for me was leaving my beloved NSC.
• NSC was the standard I set when I worked for a company in Saudi Arabia.
• Being recalled and going back to work for Global Steel gave me hope.
• For the second time I have to leave NSC/Global Steel.
• I am now in Canada and applying for jobs. When I do get hired, I am sure I will still be comparing them to NSC.

Those seven twists-and-turns of my life always had NSC as the central axis. I am sharing this with everyone and they are now part of this site.
More power and let the spirit and values of NSC be shared with others.

Jun Llanes

Steel Building

I was helping build a steel mill back then, I am still building a country now. Another country that is. Construction was my life in NSC, and construction brought me to this far flung place of Africa. I miss talking to someone here in my native dialect Bisaya, but then not really as my vocabulary now consists of sim-sim for the same, washi-washi for wash, chop-chop for eat and a lot more.

I am in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Sa kadugay nako diri wa jud ko kita ug elephant, mga lion ug uban pang wild animals. Naay daghan mga baluga nuon na way ligo. If you will be surrounded by 10 of them I think you'll die in 10 seconds. Grabe ka lethal ilang baho. You get used to it, but it does not mean na dili na pud ko maligo. LOL. Don't believe in the romance of Africa like what you see in the movies. It's all annoying flies and scorching heat and dust. That's all. Dealing with the natives here is a sad, funny, demanding, hypertensive experience. It covers all facets of human emotion. But then, if they are clever, I would not have been here. Corruption is a way of life here too ( talk about missing my native land ), and the word hurry does not exist. Everything waits in their own time. This is Africa.

If any NSC colleague ever comes this way, I'd be glad to show them around. We can have a welcome party with my native friends. (your choice: with or without the huge pot of boiling water).

JPM

The JBL Scrapbook

This is a copy of the scrapbook/binder created for JBL when he visited Toronto in 2004. Excuse the amateurish work, it was the thought that counts. Obviously this is no longer current and an update is in order. This is posted in line with the purpose of "parking" all things NSC in one place.

Steelrolling - R Palisbo

My Steel Life is in STEELROLLING.

I volunteered for the 2nd Batch of the Retrenchment, but Steve C. did not want me to go as he wanted to keep me as part of the skeleton crew. I had to ask the man (Big Boss, MQV) who hired me in 1977 to include me for the 2nd batch. After leaving my beloved NSC, I joined LPN PLATE MILL of Bangkok,Thailand for 5 yrs, then to PT GUNUNG GARUDA of Indonesia (a Plate Mill) for8 months. I was then sent to commission the 1st 2 stand Reversing Mill of the world (2-stand Steckel Mill) in Nova Hut Minimill of Ostrava, Czech Republic w/ Kaiser engineers as Start-up & Commissioning Superintendent, for 2 yrs then with Tippins Inc.

As Technical Support Rolling consultant for the commercial run at the same location, I went back to PT Gunung Garuda to commission their Steckel mill. After the Historic 911, Tippins is started melting like the twin tower of New York but later merged w/ SMS-DEMAG . A new Team is organized under the TFS Godfather. A new field service is coming come September 2009 in Sagunto, Valencia, Spain (Ros Casares Group). My Principal in Pittsburgh has already asked me if I can join them on this new project.

STEELLIFE is in my bloodline. Happy Thanksgiving to All...

REY PALISBO

My Steel Life - by E Delid

Standing L-R: Jim Toledo, Wilque Esteves, Boy Lee, Dennis Saniel,
Nono Delid, Boy Blanco, Jun Valdellon
Sitting L-R: Sammy Marohombsar (+), Alvin Gravador, Fred Galvan

Unfortunately or fortunately, steel is still my life.

I transferred to Manila, and got more immersed in it. While in NSC we were more production focused, this time it is the whole scope of the steel industry that I am involved. While I manage one of our Production lines, I'm active sa market, and sa DTI BPS. I circulate in this world, including policy formulations, product standards, DTI hearings, and foreign supplies, together with price and technology movements. Besides getting inside information from Global steel, we are updated because we also monitor this. Pirme kami gabanggaan sa mga $#@* nga mga Indian diri sa Manila. Wish I can tell you what is happening there at Global and what they're doing. It is a sad story.

I also have a blog I named steelconnect kay sa steel pa gihapon ko. 2 weeks ago, I was in Vietnam and visited some plants there, including a cold mill. Incidentally that plant is near Bluescope steel where other former NSC employees are working. I was not able to meet them though.

We, the manila based are in touch still especialy pagme balikbayan mag abot. Nia diri si Bibi A., Gigi and Francis P., Fred M.,, Wing, Meong M.,, Doods C., etc. Sa Batangas, sina Vince E., Mike A., Andre E. Sa Steelcorp si Soriano, Hynson, Sanoy. Last August, Makati Mktg organized a 1st ever reunion of Makati, Pasig and Iligan NSC. Laraya, Narciso, Gomez, Robles, Dizon, Soriano, Manseras, Monsada, and a lot of others attended. Daghan nag attend especially Makati people. Bibo. Sana nga daw maulit uli.

Still Building A Country - from RS Narciso

We're Building a Country!
I hope you guys (and gals) remember that once-famous advertising tagline for NSC's perennially award-winning multi-media ads. I also hope that you all remember that said tagline became the unintended slogan that summed up NSC's lengthy mission statement.
That was many years ago. Those exciting times have now become a pleasant memory.
I have since moved downstream of the steel industry which, as you know, supplies mainly (up to 90% of its output) the domestic construction sector. Today, I'm working for New Kanlaon Construction Inc (NKCI), which is a second-tier company trying to do things a bit differently from all the other companies in the same business. Aside from doing the traditional/conventional construction contracts, NKCI is doing construction deals which include joint-ventures and BOT projects for the country's infrastructure requirements.
Thus, in many ways, I'm still building a country. As I do, the memories of the times we shared have been kept very much alive.
Best regards to all.

RS Narciso

We are in Ajax, Ontario

For those who prefer to be a bit "incognito" -- here is a sample of an entry where names are not mentioned. My apologies to this family, because once they read this, they may want to change the entry altogether.

****
My family and I have been in Canada since February 1998. Our first residence was in Biltmore Court, Scarborough. We then moved to Cass Avenue still in Scarborough after a few years. Now, we are happily settled at Gardiner Road, Ajax, Ontario.

Between my husband and I, our NSC assignments were Quality Assurance and MACSD. I now work for the Provincial government, while my husband is still in manufacturing, this time no longer steel but electronics.

Canada has been good to us and my busy, growing brood. With 2 young kids and the addition of 2 beautiful granddaughters courtesy of my eldest daughter, we still find time to connect with other former NSC families. In Canada, the NSC families have become our family.

We are in Michigan - the Sabolboros

I first came to Iligan in December of 1982. A young and feisty engineer hoping for that green pasture, I left the comforts of my home in Cebu to start life alone in a new and unfamiliar territory that would soon become my home away from home. Being part of the second batch of the Engineering Management Training program, I was hobnobbing with the other newcomers from other parts of the country. NSC became my new life.

Every now and then I would feel homesick... for my family and for my big city life. So every opportunity I had, I would brave the angry seas, trusting Don Benjamin or Dona Josefa, to get me though the night, and never in vain, at daylight, Cebu---home at last!Very soon, I made so many good friends, my overnight trips became less and less frequent and everyone called me by the nickname only my family called me by, Dang. Long nights, sweat, tears, and laughter, the two years in the EMT program was finally over and my final assignment was at the Quality Assurance Department as Process Control Engineer. More sweat, tears & laughter....

For me, the best part of NSC is meeting the person I would spend the rest of my life with. In May of 1985, I ceased to be Casilda Alcoseba. Married to Renato, a.k.a. Bong, I became Casilda Sabolboro, had three beautiful kids, Jenna (or Jas), Gem & Thaad, and built our first house in Del Carmen.Ten years in NSC, I applied for optional retirement. My last assignment was at the Information Systems Department as Programmer/Analyst. Bong continued to work another five years until he was hired to manage the Technical Support Department of Online Philippines in Makati. Then, the whole family moved to Manila.

Later, Bong found a job in Michigan, USA. We moved again... Since May of 1999, Michigan has been our home. Bong works at Ford Motor Company as a Systems Engineer in the Rawsonville Parts Plant. I work full time at home and part time in an imprinting shop doing embroidery. I also run a small home embroidery business which I have called Sew Perfect.

Jas is 22 and will soon be done with college. She is a Science major at the University of Michigan. Gem, 21, goes to the Michigan State University studying Kinesiology or Human Kinetics. Thaad, my big baby at 18, is graduating from high school. Bong is doing his masters in Engineering Management. Me? I study everyone’s movements at home and pick after them.

Every now and then I still meet with old NSC friends and have lots and lots of fun. NSC was not just a workplace, it was home and the friends we made became family. We were a big NSC family.