WO 17052011

Today is public holiday ( yeaaaay!). So, instead of lazing around at the house, I spent my day being sort-of productive. Had family lunch outside and had a session with personal trainer @ the gym.

Today was weight training day. Basically doing few reps on weight machine. Reminded me the time at mueller center. I missed the time when i was able to run 5 miles on the treadmill without gasping for air and was able to do weight training without anybody's looking. The gym that I go now, basically the weight training area was fuuuull with guys after office hours. So, there's no way I'm going there except for weekends.

So, today I ended with sore body even though I'm doing kiddie weight (10lbs, whaaaattt??) .

I gotta catch up on my reading. But nowadays, I spent more time reading technical stuff at home. What a geek right? This is kinda the good thing and bad thing about working in technical world. The good thing is that u'll never be bored, cause the learning never stops and there's no way you can catch up on time (unless you're a genius), the bad thing is that the work doesn't stop at the office. It'll follow you everywhere...

training 101

I have to give out training tomorrow... I don't fancy public speaking, but I guess if I have to do it, then I HAVE to do it. How exactly do you make people sit on their seat and be interested? Trust me, I've been on that seat, and gosh and how many times the thought of "OMG! this guy/girl is sooo boring, pls be over sooon!!!!" been running through my mind. It's hard to be interesting and all technical at the same time (for me lah). How exactly do you make training clicking here and there interesting? Although I've been to training where the trainer seems to be natural speaker, they can make the worst training interesting by exciting presentation as well as making jokes here and there and interesting intermission (funny short video?)...

Hmmm, I might google some video to include in my training..

Wish me luck! Hope people won't be yawning tomorrow... blergk..

update

I'm still here!!!

Sorry for the long hiatus... I had been 'kinda' busy at work - does that 'kinda busy' means that I'm not delegating and prioritizing enough? The truth is I had been spending more and more time at work lately. More always means spending 11 to 12 hours at work and Saturday is spent at work. Not only I don't allow myself off-day on Sat, I also ask staff from the office to come on Saturday. Yes, I can practically admit that I basically don't have a life :/ (as well as depriving other people their lives!)

Despite my whining, there's one thing that I feel comfortable with work, it's so tangible and comprehendible. Although with the mountainous paperwork on my desk, I feel like they're beyond my control unlike other things in life.

Oh yeaa, I just realized that we have reached end of January. So what's the progress with your new year's resolutions? Erkkk, I've forgotten some of my resolutions. I remember one of them is spending less time at work and finally get a social life. That one is certainly not going well, but I'm not so worried, I'm a late bloomer anyway.. Hahahaha...

Talking about late bloomer, I feel like I'm so stuck in the middle of teenage-hood. I always imagine when I'm 25/going to-26, I'll be that calm lady who already figured things out, including an expert in juggling work, family, friends and relationship. Certainly not someone who's still struggling with hormonal changes before that time of the month and also fickling with decisions daily. I somehow think all of these are associated with the middle child syndrome! (It's always easy to blame on something else rather than yourself kan?)

Eh, enough drama-talk. I'll continue with more updates tomorrow. Tisha's 2nd birthday, new nephew (yg milkaholic) as well as upcoming off days!

oh end of the year....

After a long hiatus... I'm back to writing again...

Not so many things happened yet there are many things to be done...

I was away two times last week for work. Lucky me I got to be meet the RPIans on my very short trips. Of course one of them included a dine n bowl at Cineleisure. Oklah we weren't that great, but it's the company that counts right? Thanks Mel, Rozanna and Arep for a great time. Next time we rematch ? Lana and Sha, we meet another time yea?

I was at first excited the thought of jet-settings... But the truth is... It's quite exhausting. Not to mention time-consuming.. I mean the 5 hours spent at the airport (and in the airplane) could've meant crossing off 5 things in my to-do-list. Okay, that is if I were productive.

My flight going back to KK was quite a nightmarish. It was an airbus flight to Korea but with a transit to KK. Next to me was a guy who annnooooyed me to hell. Usually in the flight, I don't fancy chatting unless if that someone is somebody I know, exciting or extremelyyy cute (hahaha!). So, my trick is usually just plug in the earphone, shut my eyes, or read a book. Those are the absolute signs I gave to people to NOT DISTURB me. So, while I was gonna close my eyes, he started chatting. Chat about his work, his girlfriend, his problem with his girlfriend, and asked me to not sleep first before he goes to sleep. I mean, HELLLOOO? I have my own problem to think of!!! So, to make it clear, I gave the one-syllable answer to his questions-either hmmmm, yes or no... To avoid the conversations, I shut my eyes immediately after makan! Heheheheh...

Gonna continue later...

jobs oh jobs

Few weeks ago, I met with an old friend (ohh yes, I'm old, thus having the 'old' friends status)...

So, she just finished her study, and in the midst of starting new job... She asked me the question, how does it like starting a job... Then, I immediately said ooh it's okay, it's surely gonna be easy...

But, thinking back, it wasn't thaaat easy... I mean, I've changed 3 jobs, and they're all different in a way... They all have their own challenges, and I must say they're not that easy...

There are all sort of challenges... For one, it could be how to stay sane in the midst of crazy work schedule... How to balance your life in the middle of projects that require you to stayback past midnight. How to deal with (protective) parents who called (at 10pm) asking whether you already got home when you were still in the office. How to deal with annoying colleagues. How to stay professional and at the same time be approachable. Or it could be ...how to be productive when everyone else is slow. How to be push people to act fast. How to deal with indecisive people. How to deal with bureaucracy. How to delegate.. How to be firm yet nice at the same time...and the list goes on foreverrrr... For one, they all require some people skills... With that, I must say, people skills go a loooong way than that 4.0 gpa.

And all I want to do now.. is sleep in on my comfy bed at home and reading a good book....

books

Last friday, in the middle of work frenzy, I was glad to be out and went for some books therapy during loooong lunch break ;)

Decided to go to Times@Warisan Square to buy some new books. And lucky me, there was a section on three books for the price of two.... So, I grabbed two JodiPicoult books that I haven't got in my collection and the last lecture by Randy Pausch. I guess I can use a little inspiration and motivation right now...

As much as I'd like to think I'm quite professional at work, I guess I'm not. I think sometimes I can have that cold shoulder thing going on if certain things/people bug/irk me. Well, I guess that makes me one of those emotional girl at work. Hahahahha... Although, I must mention here, I never quite cry at work (except for one day, when I had a sudden outburst of tears mourning for my loss friend)... I hope I will never be that girl who yells hysterically. Hmmmm, I wonder if anybody would take me seriously if I do?

update

Finally it's done! phewww.... I can finally sleep soundly from now on... Shhhhhh, I've been sleeping with mr thinkpad for few days. Now we can be safely separated and detached physically and psychologically.

I had been topping up my caffeine. Just today, I had 3 cups of coffee (normal is 1 cup) and I am still overcharged with caffeine high that kept me making a list while driving (do report, write documentation, go to damai, pick up stuff from papar home, pick up running shoes, resume running, buy organic soap and the list go on and on)... So here I am writing stuff, so that I can go to sleep in peace...

As I was saying before, I had been working late for few nights already, and sometimes I was alone in the department until late. I JUST realized that I'm actually penakut! Well, not to brag or anything, but I'm not easily-scared-kind-of-person and I love horror movie (but I found that the new-kind horror movies are more gruesome than suspense/horror). In previous workplace, I had no problem driving home past midnight alone. But at that time, I wasn't the last person to leave the office. There was always somebody left in the office, and I knew the security was there as well. But now... in my office I'm the last to leave and I've heard stories about creepy sounds here and there (creepy sounds: knocking sounds but nobody was around). Yesterday, while taking the elevator going down, I was reminded by that korea movie, hmmm, is it the eye? You know that story about this person who can see dead people and stuff. There was a part in the movie where she took the elevator and saw reflection of old lady(ghost) whose feet didn't reach the ground! Trust me, the elevator at my office takes foreeeeverr to go from one floor to another. As I was waiting, I somehow terimagine that movie, and sudahlah the elevator dooor was supeeeer shiny, I just hoped I didn't see ANY sort of reflections other than myself! So today, I took the stairs which took me half the time I spent in the elevator. So, that's how I know I'm at least itsy bitsy penakut... That's too bad, now I can't make fun of people who close their eyes while watching horror movies!

Tonight, I was supposed to go back early for some kenduri. Unfortunately (my mistake), I had to stayback to redo my (I thought) finished work. I thought the alphabet 'O' is a zero! Then at 4.30pm, I had to redo ALL the stuff which took 1.5 days to finish and I was supposed to finish it by midnight. But at 6pm I found a quicker way to re-do the work which took only 1 Hour! It's soooo true, with adrenaline pumping, somehow brain works in mysterious way.

I'm postponing my lens purchase. Justification: it doesn't take a fancy lens to take great photographs. Camera and lens are just tools. It takes skills and hmmmm a good eye(?) to capture great shots. So, until somebody giving me lens for free, I'll be with my standard lens.

Me and a friend were talking about the perfect hantaran months ago... We were discussing the what and what-not hantaran ideas. Don't you think now we can forget about traditional hantaran, and replace it with the new high-tech hantaran? Hehehehhe... I think my perfect hantaran would consist of practical gifts (with many many gadgets!) like blackberry/iphone, laptop, camera accessories, skincare products(the one that I actually wear like clinique), makeup (mac) and I wouldn't mind handbag and shoes. Heheheh.... Yea, women can only dreaaaammm......

Still don't think she's learning to be a madam tai-tai? here is her dragging the bag (no, it wasn't me who teach her to be materialistic.hehehehhhe)

I'm off to bed, until next time!

** I can't wait for fall tv - the long awaited heroes!

work or another thing

Being good in your job doesn't only mean you're good at handling your tasks. It includes being able to have diplomacy in negotiating... Being able to accept(and at least listen to) other people's suggestions and opinions (non-defensive-in other word)... Being able to work with people and all sort of other people-qualities... I think every employee should attend "how to deal with difficult people" training... Somehow these people always turn up in our life one way or another...

Yes, I've become 25-boring-me... Shhhhhhhehhh...

I need vacation plz.... it's summer, where's my 3 months vacation time???

Random

I have few pet peeves... One, people who throw rubbish everywhere at public places, mind yea, rubbish including cigarette butts. I'm not a total-environmentalist- Yes, I still do tapao food using polystyrene container and I still take plastic bags for my groceries (even though I bought that Giant rm2.50 green bag), but throwing rubbish at public places is just something I can't stand.

Secondly, people who think their world revolves around them. Last minute decisions, last minute requests. What, they think other people don't have lives??? This includes some only-child/youngest children out there... What I can say is, I don't mind if someone asking me for a favor. I would be glad to do what I can. What I hate is... How can someone asks something/favor from ME and wants to follow his/her time or way ... So please be considerate, considering it's my time that you're asking for. Some people just don't have all time in the world.

I'd applied few jobs when I was still working at my previous workplace. Hypothetically speaking, if I'm being offered somewhere else, I wonder if I should take it. What needs to be considered here?

Why do people leave

Do you watch grey's anatomy? Well, if you do... you must know Christina Yang who looooooooves her job (of course this is fiction only-lah). She wished for ruptured aorta as emergency cases. ummmm. How to be like that? I wish that "I WISH " there's some problem with systems that needs fixing. Of course, everyday I wish for the opposite thing, please... please... let there be nothing wrong.... Especially not when the person-in-charge is not here. If you ask me, I'd be totally clueless, or worse I might give the wrong info.

My late friend used to have this passion and determination that I wish I have. Of course in high school, all of us had ambitions to be like this and that while some didn't have any idea (I used to want to be an accountant!). Some stick to their passion, some divert to something else. I've known some friends who were eager to be in the medical field, in the end they turned to engineering. If you're in M'sia, you know how it's like, with the stiff competitions in the local uni, it's hard. You requested for a certain course in your UPU, they gave you a totally different field. Does that explain why some students are flunking out of college, lack of interest?

Anyway, back to my friend, she wanted to be an architect, she was very smart and determined, I envied those very much. Not only that, she was outspoken and stood for what she believed in. Being in high school, you know how it's like with cliques, there are popular/pretty girls who kept comparing who got the most 'abang angkat'/'kakak angkat'. Supposedly if you have more 'abang/kakak angkat' than other people, that means you're pretty and popular (vomit...). I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm not in that group. Heheheh... But she wasn't trying to fit in, she was just being herself. The last time I chatted with her, I was in the middle of quarter-life crisis, I mentioned how unsure I was about my career-path. She said she was glad that she always knew what she wanted to be (in architecture) - at that time she was doing her viva in architecture. Bless her....

Here is an interesting article from the star: When good people leave

Of course with the current situation, scarce job opportunities, can we become picky?

And here's another discussion about ideal workplace. What is your ideal workplace?