What I've Done

by Linkin Park.

I just saw their new video of this title. It's good to see artists expressing the destruction that we're inflicting on the Earth... wars, famine, terrorism, human-inflicted environmental damage... these are not good images to be seeing but at least they're not ignoring it and pretending everything's hunky dory.

But it was quite sad to see the picture of an ocean bird completely covered in oil from an oil spill,unable to move, and looking totally helpless. Reminds me of another image from Michael Jackson's "Earth Song", which showed a seal being clubbed to death by a seal hunter and elephants getting shot and their tusks sawed off.

What have WE done???

:-(

Too busy "rescuing" others?

Ever notice how some men, when it comes to their partners or their families, seem ignorant or oblivious to their needs or troubles, but when it comes to their friends, they can just drop everything and go to their friends' rescue?

I've heard of and seen this happening. It doesn't have to be big, major events... but even small things. Say, for example, the wife or girlfriend likes to go to this particular restaurant but the guy doesn't and always refuses to go when she suggests it. But when his friends suggest it, he's all game and even eager to go. Or, when the couple is out clubbing, say... and after a few hours, the girl says she'd like to go coz she's tired or wants to get something to eat, he says to stay a while more. But if his friends were there and they were to say "Let's go mamak", he'd immediately agree. Or if she asks him to do something for her, he'd dilly-dally and put it off, but when his friends ask him to do something, man, like a road runner, he'd get it done in a jiffy.

If I were the girl, I would be quite annoyed and insulted, even. Occasionally, ok lar... can and should accomodate the guy. Give and take, right? But if it were to happen all the time, I'd probably tell him to go marry his friends or something, since he seems to cater to their requests more than he does mine.

Contra-ed off

Heard on Mix.fm's news on one of the mornings:

Indonesia is looking into banning the sale of new cars if current measures to curb urban pollution is not effective.

Malaysia's strategy to reduce its infamous traffic jams into and out of the city?
To implement restricted zones in the city and charge users to enter these restricted zones, while at the same time, STILL promote the sales of the national car.

A bit the stupid, isn't it? If you're still promoting car sales, there's no way you can reduce the traffic, no matter how many new (and useless, IMHO) highways you build. Here, you pay toll to get stuck in a traffic jam.

Holiday!!!

I am very excited, anticipating my trip next week :-D

I plan to do lots and lots of shopping as well as get my costume for the HE Anniversary Party.

:-D

Passion or Patience??

I don't know how long I can keep it up. The only thing that's stopping me from quitting is my drive to continue to learn as much as I can and also because I enjoy the intricacies of it and the challenge it gives me.

The politics, the favoritism/double standards, the diva attitudes... I guess that's all part of this "industry" but really, each time I think about it and see it happen in front of me, I get disgusted. It's all so fake and superficial and unnecessary.

I'm all for encouraging and promoting the promising ones, but is there a need to disregard those who are not the stars but who have been putting in more effort than others in the same league but at the end of the day, those that don't put in as much effort get the recognition instead? If there's one thing I really detest, it's not being given due recognition for my work. If I didn't do the work, then it's fine, you can sideline me. But when I put as much or more effort than my peer but s/he gets the recognition and more "benefits", so to speak, that is just plain unprofessional.

But of course, the world is never fair. I have the choice to either continue and accept everything (good and bad) that comes with it... or I can choose to just walk away.

Right now, I decide to stay. Just to see how long I can endure. I take this as a test of my patience, which may be good for me since I'm not a very patient person to begin with. Haha.

Something "good" finally happening???

YES! THIS is a good thing!! Some people need to be taught that they can't just go around talking shit about other people.

Can't wait to see/hear what happens next.

Haha... my country is turning into a circus and laughingstock... hahaha! *demented laughter*

I Am A Law-Abiding Citizen

I filed my taxes yesterday!!! A full SIX days before the due date!!!! Woooooooo!!!!!! *Now they can use my money (if they haven't already) to build more useless, tasteless things around the country*

And now the IRD owes me money!!!!!!!! Muahahahahaha!!!!!

But, as usual, it'll take them the whole of the next tax year to return my money to me, if I'm lucky.

Hmph.....

Hello!!

Hey, Jus!!!!! So how's life Down Under??? ;-)

Blur-nya!!

So this was me last Saturday, when I went to Bangsar Village to meet up with Mich and ChienLi...

Yes folks, I managed to walk around Bangsar in mismatched slippers!! Ack!!

o_O

Missing Dog...Please Help

Got this via email from the animal network:

**********

URGENT! MISSING PINSCHER!

A 4-year old male crossed Miniature Pinscher is lost in Taman Kencana, Pandan Indah. He answers to either Alex or Prince. He has a dark brown shiny coat with a round face. We re-homed him with a Mr. Thomas in Taman Kencana. He is believed to have escaped from his house in the wee hours of 11 April 2007, Wednesday. He is on medication for his heart ailment.

Please contact Leigh 016-2571092 or Joanne 012-2297332 if anyone has any news of his whereabouts.

We are very fearful he might be harmed as Alex or Prince does not like to be patted on his head and will turn ferocious.

Animalfriendsatwork

Bunch of Nincompoops

So can someone explain to me why :

1. The problem of Lack of Ownership and "tai chi-ing" of tasks/ownership is so prevalent in large organizations

People just cannot seem to take ownership of their own tasks, even though it's so blatantly obvious that the task belongs to them. They keep going around in endless loops, trying to get someone else to own those tasks and the task ends up not getting done. What's wrong with these people?! I mean, the work needs to get done somehow and eventually, someone's got to do it so why waste all this time ding dong-ing emails to and fro???

And, to make it even more infuriating, some people are so bloody "efficient" when it comes to commenting on other people's areas, but when it comes to their area, suddenly everything doesn't belong to them! Person A says Person B is supposed to do it, Person B say Person C is supposed to do it, Person C says Person A is supposed to do it. Round and round and round... in an infinite loop. Just a small task could get blown into a big argument and finger-pointing.

Giving deadlines is of no use. It's not like these people even read their emails. Or, they read but they don't bother about it.

Case in point : We had a sign-off deadline on Wednesday. Less than half the people signed off on the due date. About 3/4 signed off the day after the due date. On the 2nd day after the due date, I called the remaining people up to remind them. Then I sent a status report to the PM and she escalated it to the CEO. The CEO sent an email to the people who hadn't signed and only THEN did they start trickling in one by one. And one of them even had the cheek to say "Oh, so like this also you all escalate to CEO lah? I'm so busy, you know. You all should call us and remind us." First of all, everyone else is also busy but they still came and did the sign-off. What makes you so special that your level of busy-ness is more important than the rest? And secondly, we DID call! And this particular person said over the phone "Ok Ok, I'll come" and then never showed up. How many times do you want to be reminded? We're not your bloody personal reminder service, ok?!

2. There is Endless Politic-ing and Stabbing Other People in the Back

Some people seem to be so engrossed with making others look bad to make themselves look good. To me, that's quite hard work. I mean, you have to keep thinking of ways to catch people off-guard and find opportunities to "advertise" their weak points. That's a lot of work, you know. So, if these people are so busy politic-ing, who the hell is doing the work?! No wonder things don't get done.

And some people are so vocal to us (my dept) about their displeasure of other people, and say that we don't have the guts to stand up to other people (we do, but only to certain things that we are in the position to respond to). But when we tell them to write an official email to respond to the other party's comment coz they've got the right to do so, they chicken out and send the email to us without addressing it to the other party, expecting US to do the dirty job for them!! WTF?! You say we got no guts but then you do the same! Geez!

Gawd, I feel like I'm dealing with a bunch of babies at work! And we haven't even started the major part of the project yet! Haish!