Thursday 27 November 2008

World Apart

3Willings
1) Little Big Planet
3) Fallout 3

A bit of hope doesn’t hurt anyone. But as much as we might like all men to be paragons of strength and honour and all women to be wise, patient and faithful; life is not a romance novel.
 
These lines from my daily read struck me quite hard.
 
Ok, maybe life isn't a romance novel, but surely people are striving to be the good right?
 
Am I in denial? Am I the only one working to make this statement untrue?
 
I go to bed thinking all the guys are doing their best to be paragons of strength and honour. Coz that's what I aim to be. 
And I hope the lasses out there are striving to be wise, patient and faithful.
 
But reality and the media are throwing my fairy tale world apart.  

I'm starting to think that it really is a lost cause. 

 

Monday 17 November 2008

Interviews


I just finished watching through the whole season of UK's The Apprentice and by gosh, what a ride.

Its just really fascinating watching people try and sell themselves to be Suralan's next apprentice.

They love flowering themselves and giving BS answers like 'I shouldn't be fired because I'm willing to give it my best shot, and that if you give me another chance, I will prove you blah blah blah.'

My favorite is Episode 11. The contestants get grilled by Sir Alan's team of interviewers. Two of the guys in the panel are super nasty. They pretty much tore everyone apart. Then there was a part where a contestant was asked to sell a plastic ball pen over a more expensive fountain pen. He did a shocking job I thought. And I can't believe Sir Alan let someone who lied about their resume continue in show.

Of course I'm no interview expert.

I've crashed and burned in so many job interviews. I even failed securing a job in Hungry Jacks / Burger King (endless Whoppers was a noble dream).

All the rejections get you into this horrible spiral of questioning yourself and your skills. Its like a dark purple cloud of negativity towards yourself and others.

Maybe my test score is not high enough, maybe they don't like Asians, maybe my accent is too American. Maybe its the cologne I'm wearing. Maybe maybe maybe.

Then I figured, maybe I'm just trying too hard.
Trying too hard to find the right answers and say the right buzzwords - even for jobs I knew nothing about.

Just be yourself. If you don't get it, then you know you've done all you can. And if you do get it, well..

Celebrate!

I remember being asked on my job interview about what someone would consider if they were buying shopping trolleys for a supermarket chain.

I remember going on about size and shape and ease of use of trolleys, materials, colours, weight capacity.

But the clincher, I think, was the little foot things on the trolley wheels that stopped it from rolling back on travellators.

I remember seeing the panel's faces light up, curious of the little foot thing I was going on about.

There and then I knew I was having my moment of brilliance.

Because that's what I'm about.
The shopping trolley foot thingies.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

The blob


After giving my girlfriend an earful last night for splurging on Sex and the City box set, I went ahead and bought games for myself.

I'm such a hypocrite.

I was going on about self control and instant gratifications (retail therapy). Good things are worth waiting for I said.

Then the first thing I do in the morning is go on an online shopping spree.

*warning - do not look up "Sex in the City" at work.. that's kinda like looking up porn. Its "Sex AND the City"


My self control is such a temperamental thing.

One day I'm like a samurai, able to withstand temptation and have utmost control of myself. Exercising, studying, working, saving up money.

Concentration is as sharp as a razor blade.


Then something happens and I turn in a blob.

A blob is kinda like an evil twin, only a lot more disgusting.
A blob who doesn't exercise. A blob who doesn't eat right or sleep right. I turn to someone who suddenly only care about whats happening in the next two hours.

Then after being a blob for a while, I cross a barrier.



A threshold for which I say "Damn Will! Look at yourself! What are you doing? This is not you!"

Then its back to samurai mode.

It's such an exhausting cycle.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Dear Santa

3Willings
1) Code Geass
2) Crysis
3) Sega Dreamchick

Dear Santa,

Its been a while since I last wrote to you. About 20 or so years? You only have my dad to blame for that. He told me that you didn't really exist and that you were a marketing icon made up by Coca-Cola.

But hey, if you were real, then I would have missed out on so many years of Christmas presents!

So that's the purpose of this letter. To give you an update on if I've been bad or good, so you can decide to grant my Christmas wishes or not.

If you ask me, I wouldn't really know if I've been bad or good this year.

I'd like to think I've been good. But I guess that depends entirely on which side of the fence you sit on.

There's a few times I know I've been bad.

Like during the Iron Chef Night I had with friends. We were all suppose to cook a mint dish, and then we all score each other's dish in the end.

It was suppose to be friendly competition. But I got a bit obsessed. I was hoping everyone's dish would suck. That kind of mentality got me in the end. 2nd last is pretty disappointing.

Next time rather than thinking "I wish all their dishes turn bad, so I'll win", I'll behave and think, "I wish all the dishes turn good so we can all have a great dinner".

My Iron Chef dish, Crumbed pork rolled in Udon and Mint leaf

There's a few groups out there who probably think I'm a bad person.

Like the teenagers who run up to my car on traffic intersections to clean my windscreen and demand money.

They always end screaming that I'm a greedy person. Its not so much the swearing or the fact that they're using what they earn to buy cigarettes, but the fact that they do such a bad job that I stop myself from helping them out. I mean, if I opened a can of baked beans and smeared it on my windscreen, it would still be more visible than the work they do.

Then there's this guy who probably thinks I'm the scum of the earth.

He's the man I sold a television to during swap mart.

He looked me in the eyes and asked "Is this really working?". He was staring right into my soul and I outright LIED to him!!

I said "YUP! I'm pretty sure it works completely", with a smile.

This knowing that that channel 8, 9 only appears in black and white. But my girlfriend insists that its still working (because the composite inputs all work fine). Still, I'm on a 2 year hiatus from swap marts just in case the guy comes back with a machete or wanting his $15 back.

There's also a few dudes in Guildwars that hate me.

I've joined random parties where the players were rude and demand so much. I purposely didn't heal them and they eventually died and got pissed off. Hehehe I think its funny. But I guess from their point of view I'm a bad apple.

I won't even mention the stuff I've downloaded on the net.

The girlfriends of the guys I'm going to Thailand with, probably think I'm the Minister of sinister. That I'd selfishly take their partners away to a remote exotic location for debauchery and partying.

I'm going for the 'distance makes the heart grow fonder approach here'. Hopefully when reunited with partners after the trips, they'd all recognise what I've done for them.

Or maybe not.

Thankfully there's a lot of good in me that you can count on.

I've done so many good things this year that I can't even recall one of them. I'm sure you know most of them.

Like...

Like..

Like stuff, you know. I'm sure you pick it up on your good behaviour radar all the time.
But yeah, I wouldn't want to bore you with that.

So now for my wish list!!

See the attacked booklet for the things that I want.
And you don't have to worry about delivering to me on Christmas. I'm quite happy to accept it express post.

Thanks Santa,
Will