The Antisocial Life of a Workaholic

I am OT-ing in the office. Because. I don't feel like going home. And my net has been struck by lightning. I'm admittedly addicted to work because it provides me with this kind of security from the troubles of the outside world and every time I accomplish something, it gives me a kick. By the time I get home, I just wanna shower, eat and chill with a book or a movie. I LOVE a good yum cha session when I don't feel so tired though.

Can you believe I haven't really talked to my mum (other than Hi and Good Night) for weeks now? I've been putting off lunch appointments because I have a lot of things to follow up in the office. Granma's in out the hospital nearly every fortnight. I only get to visit her on the weekends when I really have spare time.

I wonder how everyone else is doing at TOA. There's stress at work but at least you don't need to bring it back home (homework! :P). I'm really enjoying this break from studying. Not much of regrets. I kinda thought that I might join a local art college (PIA maybe) and complete my diploma when everything else has settled. Apparently, there're emerging more art galleries in Ipoh. I feel pretty inspired. My Japanese sensei owns her own art gallery and we have our lessons there. Her kids are really cool too.

My Nikon is waiting to be admitted to the camera hospital. *sigh*

My sister went to Kampar with Xian. I shall send psychic waves to her wishing that she brings back egg tarts.

Clients

Today I learnt a very important rule about dealing with clients. We must always assume that they are stupid and never, as in NEVER let them handle anything. Aside barging into your office without being invited or prior notice and assuming that their case is the only case you're handling, we must prevent further damage by stopping them from playing God when things don't seem to go their way.

Despite their best efforts, they will only suceed in complicating things and leave you to clear up the mess of their irresponsible actions. The possible consequences of their inexperienced meddling may include:-

1) having to deal with bank officers who are nothing but talk, adding more confusion;
2) sending you on wild goose chases in clarifying what the hell they are talking about;
3) demanding that you go all the way to their office to let them sign the documents just because they are the only people in the world who think time is so scarce that even picking up their mobile is a waste of their precious seconds till the point they have to rely heavily on their handsfree plugged into their ear 24/7;
4) looking bad in front of your collegues;
5) your boss mentally promoting you to the first in the list should there be a need for retrenchment.

The Ipoh Daily

Now I understand why Jo finds it so entertaining to blog during work hours. I actually have work pending, but I just feel so distracted at the moment and I have submitted to feed my guilty pleasure. My phone line died, taking my internet connection with it when it got struck by lightning. Oh the boredom.

My days at work are as such; most days you'll lose yourself within stacks of work with incoming deadlines crashing into you at 140km/hr or else you'll be just sitting there hoping something interesting would happen (say marbles falling out of the sky). Sometimes, I would get lost in the excitement of work, it is in a way interesting .learning something new,

I hardly felt my weekend. It came and went and it was Monday again. Dropped dead Friday night after spending the entire night out in which we had 3 rounds of food (steamboat, ice cream and mamak). Entered the office on Saturday. 4 course dinner at Citrus (oh the madness). Hung out at Xian's place chatting and snacking till 3:30 in the morning. I said to my sister that I'd hope that Ai Ling wasn't baking anything, because I would definitely eat it (despite the heavy dinner). She was baking cookies...

It seems that when I am not doing anything else, I will be eating something. Life is such in Ipoh.

Miraculously dragged myself up for church on Sunday. Provided moral support to my sister as she made cream puffs. I fell asleep while waiting to meet up with Simo-san, my long lost nephew who will return to America the next day. He hasn't changed much after 2 years, which is cool.

Work. Play. Life.

My Kai-ma assigned me a box of FILES regarding loans as a belated Xmas present. She hopes that I will be esctatic with my new assignments for the rest of this week and may the new knowledge and experience passed to me will be of great value to my life. >n<

Mum asks me whether I was enjoying my work. 'Enjoyable' wouldn't be the accurate word. I would say however, that when you're put into something that challenges you out of your comfort zone furthermore it is something that you were convinced that you didn't have what it takes to perform it, AND you manage to overcome it, you feel absolutely amazing.

(There were a couple of moments during office time that I felt like I was really smart because I surpassed my own expectations.)

For example, GWD I still have a lingering paranoia of talking through the phone. As in, I have this impression once you place the receiver to your ear, some demon will come out and possess your body through your ear. In my position, phone calls are a norm, if not a necessity. And I was representing the firm. Sh*t. But then I did it and I felt that I could do it again.

There was also the fear of not being able to cope and understand all the legal terms and figuring out how to handle a case. The insecurity of being not smart enough and anxiety of what if I mess up big time/all the time? What if I let everyone down and spiral into depression and self depreciation because I become convinced that I'm so stupid and useless...

That aside, I was confident of my decision to work in this firm from the beginning. (That proves I can't be all that stupid.) Generally, I know that my superiors are generous with their knowledge and are willing to take the trouble of going over my questions and problems (however lame) unlike many other firms. There's drama nonetheless, but politics and cat-fights were mild to none. I believe I will be well guided and educated, not only in knowledge but also character-wise. I'm pretty careless but at least I know that my boss won't kill me (because he can) but will truly make me go through some tough times to learn out of my mistakes.

Return to Wonderland

I managed to clear a couple of stages in American McGee's Alice after this half a year status! (I haven't been playing it since moving to my new place, and I only started to play again after I moved home!) Not to mention that I suck at adventure games which involved timing, jumping and quick reactions. But with practice (and all my wicked weapons) I am pwning like nuts.

My gaming passion has seemed to regressed after uni. Can't believe that I bought so many PS2 games but am not fired up to play them. Time does not magically appear like it did in high school and somehow there seems to be much more important things to attend to, and when you do get time off, you're just dead tired.

It's not just gaming though; it includes drawing manga characters, cosplaying, watching anime and reading manga. I remember a few years back my cables would be scorching hot because I will leave my downloads running for days at a time. And I used to be proud of my library of downloads. I don't even feel that I NEED to have a PS3 for life support. I have grown. Shimata.

I believe that staying at home locked up for the rest of the evening after work facing my computer will probably aid my wallet especially at this time of economic downturn. Ipoh doesn't have so much shopping temptations nor entertainment options (which is sad). On a brighter perspective, it's easier for me to save up for better, bigger things in the future. ie. I so want my own house bought with my own hard labour in the next 5 years.

We're having a summer house built in the garden. Mum dreams of having this place where she can have tea and admires her plants instead of the original rundown, dusty storeroom. She had some people tore it down after moving out plenty of dad's junk (and probably some of ours but I don't really wanna go through them). I can't wait to see how it looks like.

2009

About the mystery of my sudden disappearance, speculate no more. In order to escape the year end disasters of 2008 in Malaysia I decided to seek refuge in Siberia under the care of my imaginary brother Fei. During my 3 month retreat, I have learnt the basic mating language of penguins, learnt how to catch fish from the polar bears and 3 ways how to not to wrestle a whale. I have returned wiser and more enlightened to the effects of global warming.

(Jo, look how much your crap blog influenced me. x)

Then again, how else do artsy-fartsy people like us who live with stacks of paper containing legal diarrhea, deadlines, insensitive clients and demeaning bosses survive this world without some crazy humour..

I have returned to work at ‘the Office’.

*My place of work will be referred to as… ‘the Office’. (for security reasons ahem)

Anyways, working here in 2009 is different from a few years back when I was a mere peon clerk because I have my personal FILES. FILES in which my head is at stake should I mess up in potentially 1 million different ways. I am officially initiated into the world of white collars (because Kai-ma thinks it’s unbecoming to wear Bohemian inspired attire while I’m conversing with clients).

Day 1

8:30am : I was in time for work (Fuahahahaha. Eat your heart out all of those who have doubted my ability to wake up before 9 am and be on time for work.)

8:32am : My office is brilliant. I am facing my boss (and sometimes his grumpy clients) directly, separated by a sheet of glass. No really, my office is brilliant. I’m sharing it with Abi but it is spacious enough to accommodate our two desks, 2 sofas, lotsa cupboards, our brand new typewriter and maybe an airbed. Thank you to Ryan for rearranging my new office till the point you got injured in the course of duty. I will think of you every time I look at my furniture… >3<

9:20am : I took 1 hour to admire my office organized my desk and computer while waiting for the boss to come in. When they did, I was immediately assigned a FILE. So a typical first day of work for me would be naturally start off with plenty of confusion and weird events like discovering a mistakenly assigned file in which we only found out it was mistakenly assigned AFTER I have prepared executable documents, bills and a cheque.

10:40am : Other than learning how to manage files, I had to learn how to endure the bitter cold. Kai-ma insists that we must have the air-conditioner at full blast ‘in the event’ where a client walks into out office (predictably, such person did not appear) and finds our office warm and stuffy.

11:20am : I was told that I should cease being friends with the photocopier because there were more urgent duties to see to than to hang around the copier dreaming about what I’m going to have for lunch while waiting for the 108 pages of my SPA to be copied. I was to bestow the manual labour of photocopying to others from now onwards… *gasp*

1:30pm : I was so hungry I finished a plate of rice during lunch. *shocked*

2:40pm : Works like crazy. Wished I could ‘kage bunshin’ because I had to be everywhere at the same time and listen to multiple people give instructions at the same time. I think I went up and down the stairs about 10 times today. In-out office 30 times +.

5:35pm : Today I managed to learn:- Maybank loans, Public Bank loans, RHB loans… Starts to get a migraine. I had so much information passed on to me, I didn’t even dare to breathe, in case some of the things get exhaled out of my memory along with the carbon dioxide. I was to come to the office again tomorrow. Saturday. To learn more about loans.

6:45pm : I was so hungry (again) I downed another plate of rice. I have never in the past 4 years of my life had 2 bowls of rice a day and still feel hungry enough to eat carrot cake after that. My brain has incinerated all my food for fuel today…

Thing is, I’m not going to complain about being sucked into doing Law. How much worst can life get? I’ve already received all the major blows within a span of 3 months and I somehow survived it all and am constantly working to make my life much more meaningful. I have managed to stabilize myself on a solid position of positive thinking and I must admit it has worked wonders. Life sucks but once you’ve learnt to take on the bull by its horns (naturally you’ll get mauled half to death in the beginning), persistence eventually prevails, but learn to back off sometimes to rethink your strategies and choose your battles wisely. Challenges, if they don’t kill you, will only make you stronger.

I quote from Mulan, “The flower which blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.” What a kick-ass quote.

I'm going to sleep with a bloated stomach...